Singapore Changes Guard: Social, Political and Economic Directions in the 1990s (Studies on Contemporary Asia)

Book Description

This book is part of a larger effort undertaken by the World Bank to understand the development experience of the 1990s, an extraordinary eventful decade. Each of the project¡¦s three volumes serves a different purpose. Development Challenges in the 1990s: Leading Policymakers Speak from Experience offers insights on the practical concerns faced by policymakers, while At the Frontlines of Development: Reflections from the World Bank considers the operational implications of the decade for the World Bank as an institution. This volume, Economic Growth in the 1990s: Learning from a Decade of Reform, provides comprehensive analysis of the decade¡¦s development experience and examines the impact of key policy and institutional reforms of growth.

Economic Growth in the 1990s confirms and builds on the conclusions of an earlier World Bank book, The East Asian Miracle (1993), which reviewed experiences of highly successful East Asian economies. It confirms the importance of growth of fundamental principles: macro stability, market forces governing the allocation of resources, openness, and the sharing of the benefits of growth. At the same time, it echoes the finding that these principles translate into diverse policy and institutional paths, implying the economic policies and policy advice must be country-specific and institutional-sensitive if they are to be effective.

The authors examine the impact of growth of key policy and institutional reforms: macroeconomic stabilization, trade liberalization, deregulation of finance, privatization, deregulation of utilities, modernization of the public sector with a view to increasing its effectiveness and accountability, and the spread of democracy and decentralization. They draw lessons both from a policy and institutional perspective and from the perspective of country experiences about how reforms in each policy and institutional area have affected growth.

Download Description

"This book is part of a larger effort undertaken by the World Bank to understand the development experience of the 1990s, an extraordinary eventful decade. Each of the project's three volumes serves a different purpose. Development Challenges in the 1990s: Leading Policymakers Speak from Experience offers insights on the practical concerns faced by policymakers, while At the Frontlines of Development: Reflections from the World Bank considers the operational implications of the decade for the World Bank as an institution. This volume, Economic Growth in the 1990s: Learning from a Decade of Reform, provides comprehensive analysis of the decade's development experience and examines the impact of key policy and institutional reforms of growth. Economic Growth in the 1990s confirms and builds on the conclusions of an earlier World Bank book, The East Asian Miracle (1993), which reviewed experiences of highly successful East Asian economies. It confirms the importance of growth of fundamental principles: macro stability, market forces governing the allocation of resources, openness, and the sharing of the benefits of growth. At the same time, it echoes the finding that these principles translate into diverse policy and institutional paths, implying the economic policies and policy advice must be country-specific and institutional-sensitive if they are to be effective. The authors examine the impact of growth of key policy and institutional reforms: macroeconomic stabilization, trade liberalization, deregulation of finance, privatization, deregulation of utilities, modernization of the public sector with a view to increasing its effectiveness and accountability, and the spread of democracy and decentralization. They draw lessons both from a policy and institutional perspective and from the perspective of country experiences about how reforms in each policy and institutional area have affected growth."

A New Birth of Freedom: A Vision for America

Average customer rating:

Steve Forbes accentuates the beauty of conservatism
We Need Steve Forbes' America
Read Forbes' 200-page platform?
Excellent Insight on American Politics
A valuable read, beats the 2000 presidential debates.

A New Birth of Freedom: A Vision for America
Steve Forbes
Manufacturer: Regnery Publishing, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

U.S. | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Flat Tax Revolution: Using a Postcard to Abolish the IRS
The America We Deserve
The Dollar Crisis: Causes, Consequences, Cures , Revised and Updated
The Coming Economic Collapse: How You Can Thrive When Oil Costs $200 a Barrel
Buffettology: The Previously Unexplained Techniques That Have Made Warren Buffett The Worlds

ASIN: 0895263203

Amazon.com

Two-time presidential candidate Steve Forbes lays out his political vision in A New Birth of Freedom. Readers won't become very familiar with Forbes the man, but they will definitely get to know what Forbes thinks about the issues of the day. "Less government and more freedom" is the principle underlying most of his ideas, whether they involve the flat tax, health care, or Social Security. The book is detailed, but not overly so, and avoids becoming a mere laundry list of policy choices. Libertarians will be drawn to his economic ideas, and social conservatives will appreciate his chapter on "the moral basis of a free society." Forbes puts many of his best applause lines from speeches on these pages, but they will sound fresh and bold to those who haven't heard them before: "We can't tinker with this tax code monstrosity or try to reform it around the edges. The only thing we can do with this hideous beast is kill it, drive a stake through its heart, bury it, and hope that it never rises again to terrorize the American people." Forbes also takes a subtle swipe at Texas governor George W. Bush, his main competition for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000: "I come from a family of entrepreneurs and risk-takers--of tax-payers, not tax-raisers," he writes, hoping Republican primary voters will remember that his father, George Bush, broke his "no new taxes" pledge when he was president. If they do and pick Forbes, this book provides a good look at what to expect from the Forbes administration. --John J. Miller

Book Description

America today has the potential for the greatest economic boom and spiritual renewal in our history. Presidential candidate and publishing magnate Steve Forbes shows how we can once again brighten economic prospects for everyone, reform our corrupt political institutions, and restore the severely weakened moral foundations of our country.

Customer Reviews:

Steve Forbes accentuates the beauty of conservatism.......2004-02-02

The title of my review ought to paraprhase all the nice things I have to say about this book. Mr. Forbes is an eloquent writer, who glibly conveys his thoughts. Often, when people refer to the adjectives "conservative" and "liberal", they, quite understandably so, misconstrue their meanings to be "dogmatic" and "progressive". Not so. Steve Forbes believes in the inherent goodness of people, and is certain that when they're given more control of their own assets, they will direct it to good cause.

We Need Steve Forbes' America.......2002-05-11

Ronald Reagan restored to this nation a pride and integrity that has been failing at a catastrophic pace, with a lot of the credit going to the do little Clinton Administration. Our tax system must go, or Social Security system is on the brink of collapse and our Medicare and Medicaid policies are a joke.

Mr. Forbes nails almost everything in this book. From foreign policy to the morals of our youth, we are in need of total reform. We are on the wrong course and this book can act like the compass we need to guide us back.

The book does read a little like a political rally speech but Mr. Forbes speaks the truth. Read it as a handbook to a new America, the old America that we once new.

Read Forbes' 200-page platform?.......2002-03-14

Steve Forbes claims at the start of his book that the goal is to show how "we" can launch a new birth of freedom that will help all Americans achieve their dreams. He should have just come right out and say it: the goal of this book was to publicize Forbes' presidential platform!

I agree with most of Forbes' platform. In fact, initially I was dead set against a flat tax but Forbes' presentation actually got me thinking about the possibility. He is very good at explaining the simplicity of the tax, and it is quite compelling in that regard. Of course, multi-millionaires like Forbes would be the ones getting the biggest cuts.

In any event, this book is totally unnecessary. Forbes should have typed up a little brochure and spent his money on publicizing that instead of the book. The format of each chapter is quite consistent -- Forbes presents pages upon pages of background information to an issue, and then outlines his opinion/ideas. This makes for a slow (and often dull) read, as the introductory material is generic and most readers are probably aware of what Forbes outlines. This 200-page platform could definitely be edited down to a 20-page brochure.

I only recommend this book to the biggest Forbes' enthusiasts. My favorite part of the book did not even come from Steve Forbes, rather in a quote on success from his grandfather B.C. Forbes.

"Business was originated to produce happiness, not to pile up millions. Are we in danger of forgetting this? Too often in talking with so-called "successful" men I cannot but feel that they are making business an end and an aim in itself, that they regard the multiplying of their millions and the extension of their works as the be-all and end-all of life, life itself. ...They are so obsessed with the material that they cannot enjoy the immaterial, the intangible, the ideal, the spiritual -- quiet thought, self-communion, reflection, poise, inward happiness, domestic felicity..."

Excellent Insight on American Politics.......2001-08-25

I'm not a sharer of Steve Forbes political views. I didn't know much about his plan for the flat tax. But after reading this book that include letters that people wrote to him, I'm not sure that the flat tax is such a bad idea. Forbes also talks about the excellent health care system in Delaware and how all states in America should have a systems' like Delaware.The only problem with that is that Delaware is one of the smallest states in the nation and so its health care system is fairly easy to manage. You then take a state like California that is huge, it becomes much more difficult to model a system like Delaware's. Overall this is one of the top three presidential candidate books of the campaign season.

A valuable read, beats the 2000 presidential debates........2000-10-21

Steve Forbes lays out his political views in clear, persuasive prose. After reading this book, you cannot help but wish all the presidential candidates were required to write out their views on such wide ranging issues as taxes, government spending, education, the environment, etc., in such an accessible and readily available format. In his heart, Steve Forbes is an optimist and this trait is apparent throughout his book. This especially appeals to me, because I also portray an optimistic viewpoint in my own writings and lectures. In spite of his great wealth, he takes great pains to espouse an inclusive political stance, in the fervent belief that all Americans are entitled to health, happiness and prosperity. And you have to admire a guy who donates all the profits from his book to The Family Academy of Harlem, NY! Please read this book for at least two reasons. 1) I just watched all the presidential and VP debates, and I get more substance on actual policies from this ONE book. 2) If you read this book, you will understand that here is a person who wants to live up to the noble American ideal of performing public service, even at great cost to himself.

Average customer rating:

Good book!!
A synthesis and distellation of bill clinton's thought
This [...] used copy will be a collector's item!
inspiring
Good summary of Clinton goals and speeches

Between Hope and History
William Jefferson Clinton
Manufacturer: RANDOM HOUSE
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

U.S. | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Managing in a Time of Great Change (New Millennium Business Classics)
Strategic Marketing for NonProfit Organizations (6th Edition)
Changing Human Service Organizations
Harvard Business Review On Change (Harvard Business Review Paperback Series)
The Communist Manifesto (Penguin Classics)

ASIN: 0812929136
Release Date: 1996-09-01

Amazon.com

President Clinton offers his vision for the country as we enter the twenty-first century. The president sees the nation poised on the edge of what he calls "the age of possibility." With eloquence and clarity, he details the broad values of opportunity, responsibility, and community that he regards as critical to helping America meet its challenges in the years ahead. He also discusses the experience of his presidency - mistakes made, lessons learned, and unprecedented successes - and his plan to lead America into the next millennium.

Book Description

Between Hope and History is the President's articulation of his political philosophy - a philosophy that underpins all his policies and programs as America enters the twenty-first century.

The book is also a concise statement of the fundamental principles and values that have guided his administration since its inception in 1993. It continues, as he writes, "the conversation I have had with the American people about our destiny as a nation."

In Between Hope and History, President Clinton sees America poised on the edge of "the age of possibility." He declares that "the era of big government is over," and asserts his belief that the global economy will place a premium on education. The President also discusses the roles that individuals, families, businesses, and government must play as America prepares for the twenty-first century.

Customer Reviews:

Good book!!.......2004-06-25

The world's busiest man took enough time out of his schedule to give us this excellent book. It's well worth a read. Imagine if W could write and be President at the same time. Hell, he can't even read speeches prepared by others. Bush's arrival showed us just how great President Clinton was, and is.

A synthesis and distellation of bill clinton's thought.......2002-02-20

this book sums up bill lcintons thought and views on many issues that are important. He has some interesting observations about how we have the power to impove ourselves with our power.

it is written in his smooth style and is an easy read. I don't think he used any speech writers with this book. I really felt his passion of his convictions here. I hope he can keep busy now he is out of office.

he uses some form of the word "is" 104 times in the book, soIguess he now kwos what the word means.

This [...] used copy will be a collector's item!.......2001-08-08

[ The clever Mr. Clinton knew he could not get the big bucks for simply spouting a lot of earnest policy palaver, as he did in his 1996 "Between Hope and History," reviewing lessons learned in his presidency and offering his vision of opportunity, responsibility and community. The book tanked, and is out of print. [....]]

[....]

inspiring.......2001-07-21

In former-President Clinton's "Between Hope and History" he discusses topics ranging from crime to globalization to education reform to the pride of being an American and living in the best democratic model of governance in the world. The book is very inspirational. My favorite quote is on page 175; "I believe that America today stands between hope and history---at the edge of a moment when these two powerful forces are as one, when we can embrace the dawn of the new century, drawing strength and guidance from our past, filled with confidence that in this new age of possibility, our best is yet to come."

Good summary of Clinton goals and speeches.......2000-07-22

Clinton will not go down in history as a great politcal writer, but this book is a reasonably good summary of his political philosophy, ideas, and goals. My favorite quote: "Even in a free society, real choices exist only if people have the capacity to take advantage of them." The right-wing Clinton-haters can write all the bad reviews of this book they want, but if they actually read it, they might not find it to be so horrible.

Average customer rating:

Security loss
Required reading
A worthless political diatribe
EYE OPENER
Outstanding, Still Highly Relevant, Accurate Predictor

America: What Went Wrong?
Donald L. Barlett , and James B. Steele
Manufacturer: Andrews McMeel Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Policy & Current Events | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Development & Growth | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Economic Policy & Development | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Production & Operations | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

U.S. | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

America: Who Stole The Dream?
America: Who Really Pays the Taxes?
The Great American Tax Dodge: How Spiraling Fraud and Avoidance Are Killing Fairness, Destroying the Income Tax, and Costing You
Critical Condition: How Health Care in America Became Big Business--and Bad Medicine
Contemporary Social Problems (6th Edition)

ASIN: 0836270010

Customer Reviews:

Security loss.......2007-02-24

The basis of this book was a PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER series in 1991. Reader response was overwhelming. The 1980's and our economic circumstances bear resemblance, and so the work remains current.

At one time interest rates, gross national product, gross domestic product, and savings rates meant something. The growth of the middle class has been one of the underpinnings of democracy. A large transfer of wealth is taking place and the middle class is being dismantled. In the 1920's and the 1980's large tax cuts were enacted for the wealthy. There are middle class casualties of the government rule book. Conditions are structural, built into the economy.

In 1976 rules for tax-sheltered manufacturing in United States possessions were created. A great number of pharmaceutical companies moved their plants to Puerto Rico to take advantage of the scheme. Deregulation of the trucking industry, savings and loan industry, the airline industry, and the banking industry has been costly to consumers and workers. The year 1990, (at least until 2001), was the worst year in aviation history. In that year Braniff, Eastern, TWA, Midway and Continental were all in bankruptcy or on the verge of bankruptcy and liquidation. In trucking, cutthroat discounting, price wars, destroyed many companies.

In the mid 1970's there was deregulation fever. The trucking and airline industries were deregulated in the Carter years. Corporate bankruptcies result in the loss of health insurance for employees. The Simplicity Pattern Comapany was hit by corporate raiders. It was bought and sold four times after 1971. So much debt was incurred in the serial acquisitions, (using the concern's own money), that it had to default on its bonds and bank loans. There was weakness because during the 1970's Simplicity was making more money from investments than from pattern sales. It was a stagnating company and a take-over target.

Pension chaos exists in private sector employment. The demise of Studebaker highlighted the lack of a coherent pension system. ERISA was enacted in 1974. Unfortunately in the 1980's over two thousand companies dipped into their pension funds. Also many pension plans were terminated and replaced by uninsured annuities. Underfunding a pension plan may signal a company's distress. Similarly, pension raids may carry the same message.

The authors' recounting of events overtaking actual people illustrates strongly the economic forces at play in this modern regulation-free era.

Required reading.......2006-10-08

Any one really reading this book can't help but be angry at the way a small segment of the ultra wealthy control our government and our tax situation for their benefit. Thais has nothing to do with socialism, Marxism, or anything else. The progressive income tax system brought us out of the terrible conditions of the 1930's Carnegie and Mellon era of extreme wealth surrounded by masses of poor Americans. We are now returning to those conditions, the middle class prosperity of the 50's, when most families could buy a house, send their kids to college and take vacations is now replaced with two wage earners in the family, who can just make ends meet while the ultra wealthy have more money then they know what to do with. If you believe in conditions that the feudal kings lived in, this is not the book for you. If you care about others and want to know why things are so messed up in this country, this book will explain it in simple, straight forward, factual manner and you will want to do something about it before the next generation can do nothing.
This should be required reading in every high school and college.

A worthless political diatribe.......2004-10-16

This book is a worthless diatribe written from a Maoist/Leninist/Marxist perspective. No one would argue that there are excesses in American business, but these guys are so biased in their writing that the end result looks like it was published in the old Soviet Union. Save your money and your time by avoiding this book.

EYE OPENER.......2004-01-23

This book was bought as one of the text books I needed for my college civics class. Of all the text books I have bought, this is the only one that I read from cover to cover. This book will make you angry with what is allowed to happen to the average American. Most of the incidents that are talked about are not general public knowledge. I don't feel that it is a fatalistic book as other reviewers have indicated. It does bring out some disturbing issues that should not have happened or allowed to happen.

Outstanding, Still Highly Relevant, Accurate Predictor.......2002-11-09

Tis a usually natural reaction to want to lash out at the bearer of bad news, this book defines the limitations and restrictions that various pressure groups have inflicted on that dysfunctional corporation known as the United States.

Customer Reviews:

Review of "An American Trade Strategy".......2000-11-13

This book came about as a result of the public debate about the direction of United States trade policy. In September of 1989, the Brookings Institution put together a conference entitled An American Trade Strategy: Options for the 1990s. The three main papers presented at the conference each defended an alternative policy approach, namely multilateral free trade, aggresive bilateralism and managed trade. This tome contains revised versions of these three documents, along with the remarks of the official discussants of each paper and the comments of a panel of three experts. As a bonus, the volume also includes two introductory chapters in which the editors, Robert Lawrence and Charles Schultze, both affiliated with the Brookings Economic Studies Program, sum up and evaluate the strategies at hand, which, by the way, are spoused by Anne Krueger (free trade), Rudiger Dornbusch (bilateral trade) and Laura Tyson (managed trade).

Lawrence and Schultze, in assessing the different arguments and proposals put forth in regards to the aforementioned central issue of the book, first evaluate the two chief objectives -- improvement in the terms of trade and strategic industrial policy -- and then turn their attention to the various means suggested for their attainment.

Traditional economic analysis suggests that free trade is the best approach to raise global welfare. Given the importance of the US in the global economy, this country's actions are likely to have systemic repercussions. Protectionist policies by the US might prompt other nations into taking defensive and retaliatory actions.

As long as other countries help companies that produce goods America imports, the US gains. But if countries subsidize their exports to third markets or protect domestic firms against US exports, they can lower US living standards.

On the other hand, Dornbusch believes that the informal, mainly nongovernmental, barriers to imports into Japan have biased the terms of trade against the US. He claims that the negotiation of free trade areas with other US trading partners might put pressure on Japan to agree to trade concessions in the form of increasing its imports of US goods. Dornbusch is not explicitly concerned about the specific composition of US exports. Therefore, when he proposes the negotiation of numerical goals for the expansion of imports into Japan, he envisages an aggregate target for manufactured goods.

Tyson contends that some industries are more important than others. She voices two concerns: that market forces left to their own devices will not channel enough resources into the critical high-technology industries, and that the trade and industrial policies of other countries will drive US producers out of these key sectors and thus lower US living standards.

According to Tyson, there are three principal kinds of departures from the scenario of efficiently functioning markets that make some industries ''more equal than others'' and that warrant interventionist policies. One, because of the nature of their products and production processes, some markets are necessarily imperfectly competitive and can generate, for a limited number of firms in the world market, surplus profits (rents) -- profits higher than the necessary to induce investment in the sector. If a country can somehow secure a place for its firms in such markets, it can earn rents -- its capital investments would make more than could be earned in other uses. Two, some industries pay workers surplus (premium) wages, more than their experience and skills could earn elsewhere in the economy. Expansion of those industries will increase real wages and living standards. Three, the production of certain goods creates ripple benefits for the rest of the economy, that is, the benefits to the economy from the production of the goods in question are greater than the revenues earned by the producers.

In recent years the analysis of trade has moved to take into account the widespread reality of imperfect competition. The new trade theories suggest that in imperfectly competitive situations a country may be able to use government intervention to enrich itself at the expense of other nations.

However, the circumstances under which these monopoly-promoting policies might pay off are difficult to detect in practice. They depend on the behavioral features in the market, the degree to which other countries retaliate and the supply response of other firms to the government intervention. Moreover, the government must know the full consequences in the industries from which the resources are drawn. Redirecting scarce resources into a particular sector could produce losses elsewhere in the economy that outweigh the gains in the sector being promoted.

Since the ability of economists to estimate demand and costs' curves with precision is very low, to predict the response of other firms to the market changes induced by government intervention is lower still and to calculate the general equilibrium effects from the drawdown of resources elsewhere in the economy is virtually nil, there is slim chance that the government could know in advance whether any particular policy of subsidy or protection will add to or substract from national income.

Some have advocated using trade policies to enhance employment in sectors with premium wages. If what appear to be rents are in fact payments for skills, abilities or other characteristics of jobs, a governmental policy that subsidized the expansion of these industries could have damaging consequences, for instance, a regresive distributional impact.

The view that some industries provide productivity-enhancing spillover effects to the rest of the US economy lies at the heart of the arguments of many proponents of policies for managed trade. One unresolved problem is how are these industries going to be identified and favored.

Book Description

Industrial restructuring in the Asian newly industrialized economies (NIEs) has become very important. Existing strategies may no longer deliver employment or income growth in many of the Asian NIE's labor-intensive industries. The complex process of restructuring will involve economic adjustment and political realignment among industrial sectors and between industry managers and state policy makers. Asian NIEs and the Global Economy explains how the Asian NIEs have responded to the costs of success, including escalating real wages and prices, slowing growth rates of productivity, and increasing competition in markets they once dominated.

This integrated collection of ten essays -- based on a long-term porject sponsored by the East-West Center -- introduces the reader to this timely issue by examining industrial restructuring in the most industrialized economies of East Asia: Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, and Taiwan. The contributors begin by describing the global context, theory, and practice of restructuring. Five case studies then examine important labor intensive industries, including apparel, footwear, and electronics, all of which have had strong export markets. The final section draws out the broad implications of these studies and assesses the near-term future of the Asian NIEs as China undergoes rapid industrialization and enters the global marketplace. Contributors to the volume are Gordon L. Clark, Won Bae Kim, Michael Webber, Stephen Chiu, Tai-lok Lui, K. C. Ho, Sam Ock Park, Jung Duk Lim, and Ching-lung Tsay.

"Asian NIEs and the Global Economy provides a fine comparative analysis of restructuring in the Asian NIEs, focusing on firm-level strategies based on surveys of shared questions -- an important but understudied topic. The book will be of interest to specialists and students in international business, political economy, economics, international relations, and political science." -- Eun Mee Kim, University of Southern California

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books