Book Description
City, county and school district elected officials annually deal with multi-million, sometime billion dollar budgets. But many have little, if any, knowledge about local government financial matters when first elected. Written in an easy to understand style, this book provides beginning and seasoned elected officials and public administrators with the fiscal awareness to confidently make good budget and financial decisions. Local government is more complex today and there are more opportunities for poor judgement, conflicts of interest, embezzlement and fraud. The best antidote is an informed constituency that insists on good government and accountability. Community members, homeowners groups, business people, unions, service organizations, public watchdogs and newspaper reporters who want to assess their local elected officials' performance will find this book invaluable. Each chapter begins with a real life story such as the city manager who used the city's credit card to go on an lavish shopping spree, the city that used debt to mask it's huge deficit or the school superintendent who sacrificed the district's solvency to create an award winning curriculum. Vignettes from over 77 different local governments across the country are used to buttress the suggested tips and techniques.
Customer Reviews:
An excellent budget, financial and treasury primer........1999-03-18
As an elected Treasurer and local government finance director for the past several years, I found this book to be an excellent primer for all elected and appointed officials. The practical advice offered by Mr. Wood is based on his experience and input from his peers and is extremely valuable. The book is written in a very informal and concise way and should be required reading for all elected officials. In fact, I gave this book to each City Council member and they have all indicated that this book provided excellent financial advice.
Excellent reading for the Government Watchdog.......1998-09-30
Len Wood presents Dollars and Sense in a practical manner enabling readers to absorb its content. A must read book for those that "watch" their local governments, school districts and elected officials. Written for fast reading,yet covers the subject matter extensively. If you want to be certain your local government is working at its fullest potential, Dollars & Sense can be a great help to you.
Great book for people interested in local government........1998-06-14
What a delightful book. The author has presented his subject in an understandable and capitivating manner. He does this by using lots of real life vignettes to make his points. People who want to know what their local officials should and should not be doing will want to read this book.
A Guide for Achieving Job Longevity in the Public Sector.......1998-05-06
Here is a "no holds barred" approach to describing "real life" shortcomings in handling public finances, and then providing tips to local government policy makers and managers on how to avoid a similiar circumstance.
Len Wood writes from first hand knowledge and experience. He describes the situation; outlines the facts; details the results; and provides the reader with suggestions to lessen financial risk and/or failure in the expenditure of public funds.
While the author's primary target is the newly elected official, the importance of this work to experienced elected and appointed public officals cannot be overstated. No one who has worked in the public sector can peruse this book without saying, "There, but for the grace of God, go I!"
Book Description
In this significant Marxist critique of contemporary American imperialism, the cultural theorist Randy Martin argues that a finance-based logic of risk control has come to dominate Americans’ everyday lives as well as U.S. foreign and domestic policy. Risk management—the ability to adjust for risk and to leverage it for financial gain—is the key to personal finance as well as the defining element of the massive global market in financial derivatives. The United States wages its amorphous war on terror by leveraging particular interventions (such as Iraq) to much larger ends (winning the war on terror) and by deploying small numbers of troops and targeted weaponry to achieve broad effects. Both in global financial markets and on far-flung battlegrounds, the multiplier effects are difficult to foresee or control.
Drawing on theorists including Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, Michael Hardt, Antonio Negri, and Achille Mbembe, Martin illuminates a frightening financial logic that must be understood in order to be countered. Martin maintains that finance divides the world between those able to avail themselves of wealth opportunities through risk taking (investors) and those who cannot do so, who are considered “at risk.” He contends that modern-day American imperialism differs from previous models of imperialism, in which the occupiers engaged with the occupied to “civilize” them, siphon off wealth, or both. American imperialism, by contrast, is an empire of indifference: a massive flight from engagement. The United States urges an embrace of risk and self-management on the occupied and then ignores or dispossesses those who cannot make the grade.
Average customer rating:
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European States and the Euro: Europeanization, Variation, and Convergence
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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ASIN: 0199250251 |
Book Description
With Economic and Monetary Union, the European Union has embarked on one of the biggest projects in its history. Previous literature has focused on how EMU came into being and on the policy issues that it raises. European States and the Euro seeks to move the discussion forwards by offering the first systematic evaluation of how it is affecting EU states, both members and non-members of the Euro-Zone. It is the first book to explicitly situate EMU in the growing literature on Europeanization. It examines the effects on public policies, political structures, discourses, and identities. The book seeks to identify the scope of EMU's effects, the direction that it imparts to political and policy changes, the mechanisms by which it produces its effects, and the role of domestic institutions, political leadership and specific forms of discourse in shaping responses. In addition, the book assesses how, and with what effects, EMU is affecting key policy sectors labour markets and wages, welfare states, and financial market governance. What conditions the degree of convergence discernible in these sectors? Finally, the book seeks to 'contextualize' EMU by assessing its effects both in comparison with other variables like globalization and in a historical perspective of the European Monetary System as a 'training ground'. The book combines sectoral and country case studies with a thematic treatment by recognized experts in their fields. It moves from globalization, through EU-level changes, to member states and finally to specific sectors. The main conclusions are that EMU is most important in affecting the timing, tempo and rhythm of domestic change that these changes are experienced pre-eminently at the level of policy; that it strengthens pressures for convergence; but that different domestic institutional arrangements and discourses lead to variations in policy processes and effects and in the way change is 'framed'. In particular, whilst EMU contains a neo-liberalizing tendency exhibited most clearly in financial market effects, it is not to be characterized as a neo-liberal project by means of which the EU is becoming an economic and social space simply converging around Anglo-American market capitalism.
Book Description
Social Security is facing the most serious, well-financed, and determined threat to its existence since its inception in 1935. For Americans to make sense of the barrage of conflicting messages on the subject, it's necessary to understand who is behind the campaign to "reform" Social Security, what the campaign aims to achieve, and how it misrepresents its goals. Best-selling author Joe Conason exposes why and how this is happening. "The Raw Deal explores the Right's privatization goals, Bush's hard-fought privatization campaign (built on a stacked "study"), the corporate interests behind the plan, the media campaign to undermine confidence in Social Security, and how the swindle can be stopped. Conason's no-apologies, no-nonsense approach clears up the myriad misperceptions surrounding this important, confusing issue and gets to the truth about the big Social Security bluff.
Customer Reviews:
The Planned Destruction of Social Security.......2007-02-12
The `Preface' by James Roosevelt Jr. says Social Security racks up surpluses as it had done for decades and will continue to do so. The special interests who want to "reform" Social Security really want to weaken or abolish it. So it is up to the American people to protect it in order "to promote the general welfare". Al Franken's `Foreword' wastes its pages on comic comments. The `Introduction' says Bush's scam would be both risky and costly, they use scary stories to fool people into believing their lies. Most Americans don't trust Bush (p.4). Conason warns about the "United Seniors Association" created to scare people into sending them money (p.5)! Powerful financiers want to destroy Social Security (p.6). They use phony fronts to fool people (p.8). Complaints and lies about Social Security go back to 1936; they have been proven false repeatedly (p.10). They can't learn and can't forget.
Here's how this fraud would work. They promised a lucrative return on "personal" accounts but didn't tell that management fees and substantial risks would drain these accounts. They promised the owner of the account would control their money but didn't tell that choice would be limited. They promised these accounts would be inherited but didn't tell you this would need an annuity that would leave little to heirs. They promised that Social Security would go bankrupt but didn't tell you this contradicted their prediction of increased growth in the economy. Heads they win, tails you lose. In the real world, people making these promises on investments would go to jail.
Chapter 1 explains when Bush says he wants to "strengthen" Social Security he really wants to reduce benefits (p.22). Conason neglects to tell that in 1952 Eisenhower promised to extend Social Security to the middle-class by including small business owners and farmers. He did this in 1953. There is no crisis in Social Security, and won't be if economic growth continues. If growth is slow private investments will suffer (p.29). Chapter 2 tells about the various publicity groups formed to attack Social Security with lies and half-truths. Conason names the corporations who pay for these advertising attacks. They simply lied about privatization (p.49)! Billions were squandered by Bush on tax cuts for the super-rich (p.50). Conason explains the frauds of the privatizers (p.56). Privatization was renamed "Choice" (p.57).
Chapter 3 tells about the phony groups who either mislead people to try to defraud them. They make up "facts" to try to prove their case (pp.67-68). This chapter tells of their techniques to divide and conquer (p.74). The AARP opposed Bush's failed proposal, and described the essential elements for a retirement plan (p.77). AARP won't tear down the house because of a clogged drain (p.78). Does the description of "United Seniors Association" on pages 79-83 expose their hidden agenda? Chapter 4 tells about the plans of Wall Street to swindle private accounts (p.86). Private accounts are losers compared to Social Security (p.89). Bush's plan to privatize Social Security because of a lack of popularity (pp.104-105). "You can't fool all of the people all of the time." Social Security was the best-working government program.
The `Conclusion' points out that Bush has not provided an actuarially sound plan to deal with an alleged future crisis in Social Security (pp.109-110). The proposed change could not work. The projected outlook for Social Security over the next 75 years is reasonably good (p.114). [The real problem is falling real wages and too high taxes.] There are other real solutions (p.117-121).
Outdated by events, but still worth reading.......2006-05-06
Given the current state of affairs in Washington, it's highly unlikely that Bush is going to be able to get very far with his plan to abolish..... (or "reform", as he puts it) Social Security. The Republicans aren't suicidal enough to bring this up before the midterm elections, and let us hope that the results of the elections will put the kibosh on this at least for a while. So the alarm that the book sounds is a bit outdated, since the public woke up to what was going on (at least partly thanks to books like this). But it's still worth reading as an expose of some of the tricks the Republican noise machine has been up to. My favorite episode involved the attempt to paint the stodgy AARP as pushing gay marriage (remember that one?). Let's hope people don't forget it!
Primer on Bush Administration Operating Procedures.......2006-01-10
If the Ku Klux Klan were to suddenly announce a plan to help black people it would be advisable for blacks to stay as far away from it as possible and when Conservatives announce their intention to save Social Security you can bet that saving it is the last thing on their minds. For 70 years Conservatives have seethed over the existence of Social Security as the de facto centerpiece of the New Deal and St. George W was to be the last best hope to slay the dragon once and for all.
In a sense `The Raw Deal' seemed dated even before it hit the bookshelves since personal accounts were already dead in the water. The disastrous sales pitch may have had a lot to do with timing since it came on the heels of the second largest stock market collapse in history as well a series of corporate scandals. A few sustained years of stock market success and the public might quickly find itself blinded by dollar signs. In another sense this book couldn't be any more timely as it's a template for the operating methods of the Bush administration and the Republican party. The fight for privatization is a classic attempt by wealth to usurp debate. This is boilerplate Bush with attempts to stack the deck, ignore impartial advisement, bully businesses and politicians, use industry sponsored Think Tanks to unleash mountains of biased information and as Bush himself said `catapault the propoganda'. In one of the most cynical moves of late, Conservatives used what are called Astroturf organizations. These are groups that give off the illusion of being grassroots movement for a specific demographic (blacks, elderly etc.) when in fact they are corporate funded with little to no actual members. Meanwhile, in perhaps the lowest move of the battle Conservative funded USA Next, fresh from Swiftboating John Kerry unleashed its fury on AARP claiming them to be anti-military and pro gay marriage.
Social Security `reform' is dead for now but the methods used to push it are so routine at this point that it would be well worth people's time to analyze what was done. In all the back and forth people tend to forget or perhaps never realized that the Bush administration never once drafted specific proposals. Sure they would drop hints and ideas but nothing substantive for critics to actually analyze. The intention was to win the war first and figure out if a solution was feasible later. Since the Bush administration didn't give a damn about arguably the most successful government program ever it didn't matter whether or not any eventual solution worked.
"The Raw Deal" is a small book at 136 pages that can be read in a few short sittings but it's packed with information. The ideas within are much broader than Social Security. They are about leadership, honesty (mostly a lack thereof), cynical politics and manipulation of the public. It's about a president whose ideas are so vacuous that he can only give speeches before pre-selected audiences of converts and sycophants. "The Raw Deal" is a relatively small investment in time that informs far beyond its short length.
Soc Sec Expert Says Conason is On the Mark!.......2005-12-29
I worked as an expert on US Social Security policy for 7 years in Washington, DC: 4 years at the Social Security Administration (Office of Policy) and 3 years as assistant director of Social Security policy research for a non-partisan Washington, DC non-profit organization. (Type "Kelly Olsen and Social Security" into any search engine if you're unconvinced that I know what I'm talking about here.)
Two years after leaving public service in Washington, DC in 2003, I wrote an op-ed in the Asheville Citizen-Times (March 20, 2005, available online at http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050320/OPINION03/503200308/1058/OPINION01) in which I basically say in 900 words what Mr. Conason says in this book. The main difference between what I said in my op-ed and what's in this book is that Mr. Conason has the space to fill in the main details.
Mr. Conason is onto the Republican elite's game of deception to undermine Social Security altogether. Andrew Biggs, who now heads up the Social Security Office of Retirement Policy under George W. Bush, actually wrote in 1999 (when he was not yet a political appointee) that "private accounts would sever the ties of middle-class and wealthy Americans to government assistance programs and diminish political support for social welfare programs." Mr. Biggs argued that "market investment of payroll taxes sets the stage for ... a new political culture that rejects government intervention in favor of individual and market freedom. In that way, Social Security reform featuring Personal Retirement Accounts doesn't send just one liberal sacred cow to the slaughterhouse. It sends the whole herd." Clear enough? It is important to note that the Republican elite's Social Security goals are far to the right of the desires of most Americans who identify themselves as Republicans.
Alas, Conason's claim that the Republican elite are out to destroy Social Security is NOT liberal alarmist hype. Mr. Conason is right on the mark in his summary of the issue, and he has written an accessible and interesting book for citizens who want to educate themselves about how the current Republican party wants to undermine the most popular and administratively efficient social program in U.S. history, dish out money to their Wall Street friends in the process, and stick taxpayers with the tremendous transition costs of doing so. Mr. Conason's book is important because Social Security is a complex issue, and it's become more difficult for intelligent concerned citizens to gather the needed facts ever since the Social Security Administration started putting out its own pro-accounts political propaganda under George W. Bush. (Hey, your tax dollars at work, folks!)
I've left public service, and I don't plan to ever go back to working on Social Security policy. I'm on no one's payroll, and I have no incentive to write this review (or to have read this book, for that matter) other than my continued concern that people will let the Republicans destroy this critical program that keeps millions of working and retired families (aged, disabled, and young and old survivors) out of poverty. I am writing this only as a concerned private citizen (and a fiscally conservative moderate one at that). Whatever your political orientation, unless you're super-rich or on Wall Street, it's in your rational self-interest to oppose Social Security privatization. As I said earlier, the Republican elite are far to the right of their own citizen constituencies on this issue.
Most observers are saying the fight over Social Security privatization is over, but I don't put anything past this current group of Republicans. Sowing the seeds of Social Security's destruction is a long-standing fantasy of the Republican elite. So long as they control the Congress, the Senate, and the White House -- and there are Big Moneyed interests to appease -- millions of working families are at risk of losing their future Social Security benefits in the form of "personal accounts." Read Mr. Conason's book, inform yourself, spread the word, and make your voice heard.
Good Summary.......2005-12-19
Conason begins the book with a minor blooper referencing the three characteristics of a high-pressure sale. The first two were: 1)Create a sense of urgency (eg. "limited time only," and 2)Conjure a keen sense of opportunity - eg. "new and improved." I never could find #3. Nonetheless, he goes on to provide excellent material on how Bush et al are truly trying to destroy Social Security, switching from privatization to partial privatization to personal accounts to progressive indexing as opposition mounted.
Conason reports that Social Security has been a priority Republican target since FDR, referencing Eisenhower (he thought opponents were idiots), Goldwater, Reagan (he talked both pro and con; ended up establishing the credible Greenspan-led commission that laid the foundation for continuing its stability), to Bush #2.
GWB, rather than establish a credible commission aka his hero Reagan, stacked the deck entirely with privatization supporters. (Originally as a candidate he called Social Security "the single most successful government program in history," and promised to "lock away more than $2 trillion of the federal surplus for the program's future benefits.) Then, rather than pursue the issue his first term (and damage re-election prospects) nothing happened until immediately after 1/05.
Claiming a crisis, and a means to save the system Bush hit the trail, aided by the support of AIG (American Independent Group - world's largest insurer), the CATO Institute (Coors funded pro-business "think-tank"), and phony groups hiding behind innocuous and misleading-sounding fronts (eg. "Pro 21" - supposedly a black group in support consisted of a black director and a white executive director; "United Seniors claimed over 1 million members - yet only $2 million of its '03 revenues came from members, and most of the rest from the pharmaceutical industry), tried to sell a litany of lies across the country. Example: Social Security discrimates against minorities because they don't live as long. (The claim ignores the higher benefits they receive from disability and survivors' insurance, and has been refuted by the GAO and the Social Security Admin's Office of the Chief Actuary.) Nonetheless, this point raises an interesting question - Why doesn't Bush have interest in improving minority life expectancy and incomes if he want to help them?
Another ploy was to raise the hope of easy money - the new plan would offer much better returns, as much as 10%/year over the long run. Countering, Professor Schiller (author of "Irrational Exhuberance" and its alarm about overvalued stocks) suggests less than half that amount would be more accurate - and that doesn't even take into account the fees that would be charged - now averaging 1.09% for mutual funds. (0.65% would generate an estimated $940 billion in fees over 75 years.
Meanwhile, while Bush et al bewail Social Security's demise, they also omit the fact that their new Medicare drug benefit will cost an estimated double the Social Security shortage!
Alternatives to Bush's "salvation" include eliminating the upper limit on taxable Social Security earnings (now $95,000+), and increasing the employee share by 0.9% over 50 years.
Possibly the only "good" out of the President's effort is that it takes attention away from declining private pension and health insurance coverage, stock frauds, Iraq, and outsourcing.
Average customer rating:
- Full of information, light on fluff
- Review of David Nice's Public Budgeting
- Public Budgeting made easy
- Book Review, Public Budgeting
- A good source of information
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Public Budgeting
David C. Nice
Manufacturer: Wadsworth Publishing
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ASIN: 0830415157 |
Book Description
The author's primary emphasis is on the national budgeting process, with additional coverage of state and local processes. His goal is to bridge the gap between public budgeting and public finance/financial administration.
Customer Reviews:
Full of information, light on fluff.......2006-03-14
This has to be the most efficient text book that I have ever read. Most books assigned to college courses are padded with useless pages to text. As a graduate student who also works, I don't have the time to shuffle through these pages looking for the information I need. In "Public Budgeting" David Nice is able to make every page count. Looks can be deceiving as this book looks to be a short and quick read, though that is not the case. Everything included within these pages is relevant information. Immediately getting to the point, this makes the learning experience much less tedious. "Public Budgeting" is a book I would recommend to any public administration student.
Review of David Nice's Public Budgeting.......2006-03-14
This book was very concise and coherent. It was right to the point with no long excessive unnecessary information. The theme of the book stuck directly to the main point which is budgeting in the public sector.
I enjoyed the book, because I did not have to use other aid to assist me in understanding the subject matter of the book which was budgeting. For any professor teaching public budgeting, I would recommend that if they would like their students to understand the subject matter should use this book.
Each chapter provides a clear and concise guide for how the chapter will be presented to the reader. There is no confusion and or difficulty when beginning to read each chapter of the book. I enjoyed that the book was created in the form of an outline format which provides ease for the reader in providing direction as to where the chapter is going.
Further, I found the reference section of the book to be very beneficial if searching for research information and sources. Additionally, the Index provide a precise way by which to look for information that you may be looking for throughout the book, if you had some sort of difficulty with understanding the information provided in the book.
The book was a very good read, and can be used as a very effective resource if doing research on public budgeting and or to obtain a better understanding of the Budgetary Process.
Public Budgeting made easy.......2006-03-14
The textbook titled "Public Budgeting" was written by the author David Nice and published by Wadsworth Group Publishing. The purpose of the book is to combine the focus of budget literature and public administration in a simplistic format for a wide range audience. One does not have to have a career in budgeting or finance to understand the concepts of the book. It is presented in a clear and concise format. The text is divided into 11 chapters. The topics of the text range from a brief introduction, overview of the various phases in the budget process, anayltical techniques, the adoption and implementation phases, and the complex relationships between the economy and public budgeting. "Public Budgeting" is an appropirate text for all levels especially for those being introduced to budgeting concepts.
I have read several budgeting and accounting texts and this is one of the few books that I have read in which I did not get overwhelmed or bored. The only 2 recommendations I would make is to include a glossary at the end of the book and to have a chapter summary and review questions at the end of each chapter. Including a glossary will be beneficial to those new to the budgeting field so they can have a quick reference point rather than flipping through the text. A chapter summary and review questions will reinforce the information discussed in the chpater and aid the student in studying. Despite the areas of improvement, I would still highly recommend this text for students.
Book Review, Public Budgeting.......2005-12-08
Any student who hopes to have or any employee who has responsibilities in budgeting would want to read this book. The author provides invaluable information regarding important theories, various uses and phases of the budget process, explores complex relationships between the economy and public budgeting, fiscal federalism which looks at the types of financial aid from one level of government to another, competition for revenue among governments, and the methods of influences one government may use to sway the budgetary decisions of other governments. David Nice incorporates the importance of budgetary literature from the political/policy side with literature detailing the emphases of budgetary literature from the public administration or the public finance perspective. Both the political/policy and public administration components of budgeting address common concerns. The author has taken these two perspectives and meshed them in such a way as to afford the student or employee a single reference source for assimilating and understanding the dynamics of these two separate entities and demonstrates how they play against and in support of each other in public budgeting.
Public Budgeting contents are well organized, easy to follow and understand.
A good source of information.......2005-12-07
David Nice's book Public Budgeting provides an overview of the Public Budgeting Process. His perspective is from the National, State and Local level.
As a Federal Government worker I have always been interested in the budgeting process. The book helped me to understand the process. I also found it to be an easy read for someone with no other experience in the Public Budgeting area.
The examples used in the book, where relative to events which occur in the federal agency where I am employed. It gave me a clearer understanding of the budget process and the decisions made by upper management.
I would definitely refer this book to other graduate students with little or no previous budgeting experience.
Book Description
With all of the competing information in the news these days about the best way to reform Social Security, how is a concerned citizen to know which is the right path? This book is the answer. Arthur Benavie gives readers the tools neces-sary to make decisions on this subject that they and their children will not regret. The U.S. public has been offered false information on this issue, told that Social Security is going bankrupt unless it is reformed immediately. Benavie refutes these arguments and separates economic facts from personal value judgments. Social Security Under the Gun is an inval-uable guide to understanding and making informed decisions about one of our most important social welfare systems.
Customer Reviews:
The Book Does not Provide Adequate Answers to the SS Issue.......2003-11-02
Although the notion of an objective, unbiased source for Social Security information is welcome and even encouraged, Arthur Benavie's "Social Security Under the Gun" does not meet that test. It is clear from the beginning, despite Mr. Benavie's contention that he does not want to steer the debate in a particular direction, that he has something against the notion of allowing younger workers to devote a portion of their Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts.
There are a lot of frivolous objections that Mr. Benavie makes. One of the most eggregious objections is the notion that privatizing Social Security would abridge our collective social contract to establish this particular social program. This is complete nonsense. No one in their right mind would even know what he is talking about. Although Social Security has been around for 68 years, people do not have this notion of their being involved in a "social contract" with their other fellow citizens. I fail to see how privitizing Social Security would result in people feeling more disconnected from one another.
In fact, I see just the opposite. I notice, for instance, that in my own investing, I often think of myself as an integral member of our system, part of the corporate network with fluctuating stock and bond prices. When working, I really do not see how I am connected to others when I see my wages deducted to pay for Social Security, for instance. I see a greater connection with stocks and bonds, however.
Mr. Benavie appears to believe that Americans ought to be forced to do particular things because, according to his elitist, intellectual view, Americans are either too incompetent or too stupid to save enough for their own retirement. Such a view is quite condescending and is an insult to the remarkable intelligence of the American public.
Mr. Benavie also has a hard time arguing against allowing individual investors to invest in private accounts. He argues that stock investing is risky. So? This does not serve as a good reason to ban citizens from partaking in so-called "risky" behavior, especially if doing so is a way of decreasing the burden on the Social Security system in the years to come. He fails to mention, of course, that over the long run, for an extended period of time, stocks and bonds will yield much higher growth yields than Social Security. A younger worker putting money away now, in a mutual fund, for instance, will have a substantial amount of wealth by the time they retire.
What is Benavie's answer to Social Security? More taxes and fewer benefits. Well, that's a typical liberal elitist -- Democratic answer. And I'm not going to tolerate it. Neither should any reader. This is book is not worth reading because it does not advance any new discussions or ideas on Social Security than those already discussed. It also does not go into much depth into the history or the workings of Social Security today.
And that's the way it is.
- Michael Gordon
Los Angeles
Social Security Under the Gun:.......2003-07-06
The amazing thing about this little book is that it's such a quick, easy read, and yet I feel I've absorbed so much crucial information about "reforming" Social Security. I started out thinking privatization might be a good idea. By the end I was convinced it would be a disaster. Yet Benavie's tone is calm and non-hysterical, If all economists could write as clearly as he does, it would be a lot easier to keep informed on vital issues like this one.
Clear, concise, objective analysis.......2003-06-20
If you want to understand how social security works, what its problems are, and the major proposals for fixing it, read this book. It is rare to find such a clear and concise analysis of an important public policy issue.
The author explains objectively the alternative proposals for social security reform and their consequences, so readers can decide for themselves. He clarifies issues often muddied by political rhetoric and superficial media converage.
The main text is only 102 pages, with 40 pages of notes, references and index for those who wish to explore further.
No Balanced Approach In This Book.......2003-05-31
In the Introduction, Arthur Benavie tries very hard to make the case that this book offers a fair and balanced analysis of Social Security reform. It does not.
Chapters 1 and 2 are designed to present the cases for and against privatization of Social Security. In Chapter 1 (Fixing Social Security) he presents the case for saving the system through a long list of tax increases and benefit reductions. The opposing side of the argument is not presented at all.
In Chapter 2 (Should We Privatize Social Security?), he starts out by presenting as many cons as he does pros for the privatization point of view. For every item he describes what the supporters of privatization espouse, he provides a rapid response in attempt to discredit the idea. By dedicating one chapter each to the "higher taxes/lower benefits" and the "privatization" viewpoints, he must think he is being "balanced".
Bottom line...this book is advertised as a balanced analysis of Social Security reform. But it comes down clearly on the side of being against any reform designed to privatize a portion of Social Security.
This may be a good book for you if you want to read an author make the case against privatization of Social Security. If you want to truely understand the trade-offs associated with privatization, this book will be a big letdown.
Average customer rating:
- An ambitious work explaining corporate power.
|
The Modern Corporation and American Political Thought: Law, Power, and Ideology
Scott R. Bowman
Manufacturer: Pennsylvania State University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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A Preface to American Political Theory
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Dilemma of American Political Thought, The
ASIN: 0271014733 |
Customer Reviews:
An ambitious work explaining corporate power........1996-12-10
This is an ambitious work which investigates how ideas which justify particular
interests are adopted into law and influence intellectual presumptions. Bowman wants
to know how we got to the point where "increasingly, transnational corporate power,
not state power, constitutes the formative agent of change in world development."
He begins by reviewing how the republican tradition, which emphasized the
responsibilities of citizen and statesman in maintaining social balance, was
gradually replaced by the rise of classic liberalism, which affirmed the rights of
the individual and justified the rise of capitalism by conceiving of economics as a
matter of contracts between individuals. Economic activity came to represent the
realm of freedom and the pursuit of self-interest. The coercive powers of the state
were limited to preserving the realm of freedom and social efficiency. The
ideological precept of corporate autonomy grew out of legal doctrines which reified
the corporation as a citizen, thus, serving both to legitimize and to disguise
corporate power as an inviolable part of the natural order. Corporate liberalism rose
as an alternative to laissez-faire liberalism and statist socialism.
Jurists moved from thinking of the corporation as an artificial construct of the
sovereign to a regulated citizen. The rights of due process aided corporate power by
providing constitutional rights that could be invoked against state attempts to
regulate. With the rights of legal persons, came an expectation of corporate social
responsibility, consistent with the ideological concept of citizenship. The western
frontier and the "invisible hand" gave way to faith in technological advance and a
pragmatic role for government support and regulation.
Bowman's historical journey leads through exponents of the Progressive Movement such
as Herbert Croly, Walter Weyl, and Thorstan Veblin who argued that corporate hegemony
constituted the central problem of modern society. In place of the automatic balance
of the marketplace, a conscious social balance would have to be imposed. The rights
of property would be reduced but freedom would be retained through the separation of
political and economic realms. Our concept of democracy shifted from the belief that
sovereignty resides in the people to a more instrumental approach, dependent on rule
by experts and faith in technology.
At the beginning of the Progressive Movement most large corporations were controlled
by the majority stockholder. With the publication of Berle and Means' The Modern
Corporation and Private Property in 1932 that assumption changed and the
economic/political dichotomy fell. Peter F. Drucker, Adolph A. Berle and John Kenneth
Galbraith "viewed the corporation as an autonomous or self-sufficient entity capable
of generating its own capital and therefore no longer dependent on the capital
markets." The objective of managerial theory shifted from preserving democratic
institutions by regulating enterprise, to limiting the regulatory powers of
government in deference to the value of corporate autonomy.
Each wave of populism was marked by pushing regulation of corporations to a more
abstract level. Bowman speculates on the future of the adoption of an international
companies act or a supranational corporate charter. Behind the political decisions of
corporations, Bowman sees the work of a dominant class. His is not the simple class
warfare of Marx; the owners of the means of production pitted against the masses.
Instead, for Bowman, control lies with the corporate executives and board members of
the top 200 industrial and 50 financial corporations. Power based on relationships of
control over the corporate bureaucracy superseded power based on property ownership,
as the corporation developed into a political institution.
So where does Bowman look for salvation from a world dominated by a few hundred
corporate executives? Clearly, he believes that large corporations must be held
accountable for policies that affect society and that increasingly, corporate
accountability will be defined in global terms. He rejects any movement to destroy
the corporate form or rewrite their charters after the fashion of the 19th century.
Instead, he seems to turn to public interest groups organized around environmental,
health and consumer issues. According to Bowman, America's tradition of civic
activism has "found its most potent voice when it has arrayed itself against
corporate power or class privilege." Yet, even here Bowman appears pessimistic since
he believes corporate social responsibility is unlikely to become a salient political
issue except in cases of gross negligence or blatant disregard for the public
welfare. In addition, through the media and political influence, corporations have
taken the lead in redefining the parameters of corporate social responsibility.
However, the reforms public interest groups seek are dependent on government
regulation. If, as Bowman argues, corporations are so dominant they control
government, it seems that little would change. Perhaps Bowman is too quick to dismiss
those who seek to reform the corporations themselves. He sees the dominant struggles
for control in merger battles not in a resurgence of stockholder democracy. "Tender
offers, an essential strategy of the merger movement, have supplanted proxy fights as
the favored means of seizing control of large corporations."
While tender offers and diversified mergers have played a significant role in
increasing asset concentration, there has also been a significant resurgence of
shareholder democracy. As more money moves to the indexes and to institutional
investors with large holdings, shareholder democracy becomes increasingly important;
shareholders who cannot sell must become active in corporate governance if they wish
to increase the value of their holdings. In 1992 the Securities and Exchange
Commission changed the rules regarding shareholder communication. After this limited
deregulation, the United Shareholders Association estimated the cost of a target
mailing to a corporation's 1,000 largest shareholders was reduced from $1M to between
$5,000 and $10,000.
Bowman does an excellent job of drawing from concepts in law, political thought and
the social sciences in making a case for a revised form of class analysis to explain
the character and evolution of corporate power. He is clearly right that civic
activism reaches its peak when it focuses on "corporate power or class privilege."
Each wave of reform in the past has been immediately preceded by public outrage.
Upton Sinclair's portrait of the meatpacking industry, Ida Tarbell's condemnation of
Standard Oil, Rachel Carson's cry for the environment and Ralph Nader's research into
unsafe cars each stirred the middle class to action. Each crisis is answered with a
new set of regulations for business.
Perhaps if shareholder democracy can take root, corporations will build democratic
mechanisms into their own structures. Power would then shift from the dominant class
of Bowman's concern to a more broadly based group of shareholders and employees.
Arguably, such a shift would be consistent with both republican and liberal
democratic traditions. Social balance would be restored, while preserving the realm
of freedom and social efficiency, by relying less on the coercive powers of the
state.
http://www.corpgov.net
Average customer rating:
|
The Political Economy of International Trade: U.S. Trade Laws, Policy, and Social Cost
Jae Wan Chung
Manufacturer: Lexington Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Economic Conditions
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ASIN: 0739112910 |
Book Description
As both trade deficits and fiscal deficits steadily increased during the 1980s in the U.S., free trade has not stood without its share of suffering. Chung investigates American trade policy from the perspectives of U.S. trade laws and international trade agreements by outlining the primary trade laws of the past; considering the trade laws of the present; and delving into various trade agreements, disputes, and reforms.
Book Description
As the Army has implemented initiatives to improve its basic logistics processes, it has found that these processes are hampered by a financial management system that is slow and inaccurate and that creates errors and delays. This report documents analys
Book Description
Strategic Budgeting offers a new way to understand how federal budget deficits developed. Rejecting the incrementalist theory of budgetary strategy, this study focuses on the micro level--the competitive process of budgeting for individual programs--to advance a theory based on the changing structural characteristics of the budgetary process itself. The book illustrates how advocates for spending have creatively taken advantage of flawed accounting practices to make costs less visible and documents how they designed programs to avoid budgetary controls. Strategic Budgeting also shows how controllers reacted to these tactics by improving accounting rules and budget procedures. The book concludes with practical recommendations for improving the process of budgeting for individual programs.
"[Meyers] spent much of the 1980s as an analyst for the Congressional Budget Office, and so he knows just about every budgeting gimmick there is to know. He traces how flaws in the government's budget data can lead to wildly incorrect assumptions, which in turn can be exploited by clever players with a stake in the budget." --National Journal
Roy T. Meyers is Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Maryland, Baltimore.
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