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- Has history been tampered with?
- Calculations are only as good as your numbers
- Pants on fire?
- Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed.
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History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Anatoly Fomenko
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ASIN: 2913621058 |
Book Description
Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.
Customer Reviews:
Has history been tampered with?.......2007-10-23
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RAZQNMXM4M9CL Has history been tampered with? Yes, it has! Did events and eras such as the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the Roman Empire , the Dark Ages, and the Renaissance, actually occur within a very different chronology from what we've been told? Yes, they certainly did!
The history of humankind is both drastically shorter and dramatically different than generally presumed.
Why is it so? On one hand, it was usual custom to justify the claims to title and land by age and ancestry, and on the other the court historians knew only too well how to please their masters. The so called universal classic world history is a pack of intricate lies for all events prior to the 16th century. World history as we learn it today was entirely fabricated in the 16th-18th centuries. It's likely that nobody told you before, but
there is not a single piece of firm written evidence or artefact that is reliably and independently dated prior to the 11th century.
Naturally, after what you've learned in school and university, you will not easily believe that the classical history of ancient Rome, Greece, Asia, Egypt, China, Japan, India, etc., is manifestly false.
You will point accusing finger to the pyramids in Egypt, to the Coliseum in Rome and Great Wall of China etc., and claim, aren't they really ancient, thousands of years ancient? Well, there is no valid scientific proof that they are older than 1000 years!
The oldest original written document that can be reliably dated belongs to the 11th century!
New research asserts that Homo sapiens invented writing (including hieroglyphics) only 1000 years ago. Once invented, writing skills were immediately and irreversibly put to the use of ruling powers and science.
The consensual chronology we live with was essentially crafted in the 16th century by the Jesuits.
The world history was compiled from contradictory mix of innumerable copies of ancient Latin and Greek manuscripts and other irrefutable proofs delivered by late mediaeval astronomers that were cemented by the authority of writings of the Church Fathers.
Early in life, we learn about ancient history. Children love the magical lessons of history - they are like fairy tales. Teachers recite breathtaking stories; very soon We learn by heart the names and deeds of brave warriors, wise philosophers, fabulous pharaohs, cunning high priests and greedy scribes.
We learn of gigantic pyramids and sinister castles, kings and queens, dukes and barons, powerful heroes and beautiful ladies, emaciated saints and low-life traitors.
Ancient history is based documents, manuscripts, printed books, paintings, monuments and artefacts - called primary sources.
The problem is that neither these ancient documents, nor events described therein can be irrefutably dated, moreover they contradict each other for the most part.
When a school textbook tells us that Genghis Khan in year X or Alexander in year Y, have each conquered half of the world, it means only that it is so said in some of the written sources.
There are no answers to simple questions:
When were these primary sources written?
Where and by whom were these sources found?
It is wrongly presumed that ancient and medieval chronicles, written by Genghis Khan's or Alexander the Great contemporaries and eyewitnesses, are readily available. Actually, only sources written hundreds or even thousands of years after the events are there, compiled mostly in the 16th 18th centuries, or even later.
As a rule, these sources suffered considerable multiple manipulations, falsifications and distortions by editing. At the same time,
innumerable originals of ancient documents under various pretexts were destroyed in Europe under various pretexts.
The names of persons and geographical sites often changed meaning and location during the course of the centuries.
Geographical locations became clearly defined on maps only with the advent of printing.
This made possible the circulation of identical copies of the same map for purposes of the military, navigation, education and governance tasks.
Historians from Oxford say: "hey, everybody knows that Julius Caesar lived in the first century B.C.
`Julius Caesar' statement is only a point of view as
there is simply no irrefutable documentary proof that Julius Caesar or any other great name of antiquity ever existed.
Better than that - extremely rare sources that can be reliably dated back to the 10th-14th centuries A D, do not show the polished picture of classical history.
They show a picture both contradictory and confusing.
All methods of dating of ancient sources and artefacts are erroneous:
Radio-carbon C14 method produces dating with exactitude of plus minus 1500 years, therefore it is too crude for dating of events in historical timeframe!
The Almagest tractate, which lies as corner stone contemporary chronology, compiled in the 2nd century A D by Ptolemy, the founding father of astronomy, contains astronomical data of 9th to 16th century!
The Bronze Age,that has supposedly began 5000 years ago. Bronze is made of 90% copper and 10% tin, but the technology for tin extraction dates back to 14th century A D!.
All eclipses contained in manuscripts, like Thucydides one, relating 'ancient' events have exclusively medieval dating. All horoscopes cut in stone or painted in Egyptian temples, like Dendera have exclusively early medieval dating solutions.
Not quite what you have learned in school? Open your eyes, and, you will find sufficient proof to reach step by step the inevitable conclusion that the classical chronology is false and therefore, that the history of ancient and medieval world universally accepted today, is also false. Have a fresh outlook on everything said or printed about "ancient" and "enigmatic" Roman, Greek and Egyptian, medieval as well as all other "lost and found" civilizations.
Antiquity and Dark Ages are phantoms invented in the 16th 18th and polished in 19th 20thcenturies. Human civilization is in fact barely 1000 years old!
This book will change your perception of History forever!
What if Ancient Rome, Greece and Egypt were invented during Renaissance?
What if The Old Testament was a rendition of events of the Middle Ages?
What if Jesus Christ was born in 1053 and crucified in 1086 AD?
Sounds Unbelievable?
Not after you've read "History: Fiction or Science?" by Anatoly Fomenko, the genius mathematician.
Armed with astronomy and computers Anatoly Fomenko turns History into a rocket science.
Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03
Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.
Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19
Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.
Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09
There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.
For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.
Very Interesting.......2007-03-07
It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.
Book Description
Allan H. Meltzer's monumental history of the Federal Reserve System tells the story of one of America's most influential but least understood public institutions. This first volume covers the period from the Federal Reserve's founding in 1913 through the Treasury-Federal Reserve Accord of 1951, which marked the beginning of a larger and greatly changed institution.
To understand why the Federal Reserve acted as it did at key points in its history, Meltzer draws on meeting minutes, correspondence, and other internal documents (many made public only during the 1970s) to trace the reasoning behind its policy decisions. He explains, for instance, why the Federal Reserve remained passive throughout most of the economic decline that led to the Great Depression, and how the Board's actions helped to produce the deep recession of 1937 and 1938. He also highlights the impact on the institution of individuals such as Benjamin Strong, governor of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in the 1920s, who played a key role in the adoption of a more active monetary policy by the Federal Reserve. Meltzer also examines the influence the Federal Reserve has had on international affairs, from attempts to build a new international financial system in the 1920s to the Bretton Woods Agreement of 1944 that established the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and the failure of the London Economic Conference of 1933.
Written by one of the world's leading economists, this magisterial biography of the Federal Reserve and the people who helped shape it will interest economists, central bankers, historians, political scientists, policymakers, and anyone seeking a deep understanding of the institution that controls America's purse strings.
"It was 'an unprecedented orgy of extravagance, a mania for speculation, overextended business in nearly all lines and in every section of the country.' An Alan Greenspan rumination about the irrational exuberance of the late 1990s? Try the 1920 annual report of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve. . . . To understand why the Fed acted as it did—at these critical moments and many others—would require years of study, poring over letters, the minutes of meetings and internal Fed documents. Such a task would naturally deter most scholars of economic history but not, thank goodness, Allan Meltzer."—Wall Street Journal
"A seminal work that anyone interested in the inner workings of the U. S. central bank should read. A work that scholars will mine for years to come."—John M. Berry, Washington Post
"An exceptionally clear story about why, as the ideas that actually informed policy evolved, things sometimes went well and sometimes went badly. . . . One can only hope that we do not have to wait too long for the second installment."—David Laidler, Journal of Economic Literature
"A thorough narrative history of a high order. Meltzer's analysis is persuasive and acute. His work will stand for a generation as the benchmark history of the world's most powerful economic institution. It is an impressive, even awe-inspiring achievement."—Sir Howard Davies, Times Higher Education Supplement
Customer Reviews:
Not for the layman.......2003-12-12
This much heralded account of the Federal Reserve is justly lauded in academic circles because Meltzer brings forth many Fed documents which have long been buried away and unavailable to scholars. He is able to pursue step-by-step Fed actions and relate what happened in all those many meetings behind closed doors. Through the mass of information he has uncovered and his own in-depth knowledge of monetary policy and the Fed, he is able to bring new facts to light and correct previous interpretations that are more often than not those of Friedman and Schwartz's A Monetary History of the United States.
The weaknesses of Meltzer's book stem from his massive archive of information and the strength of his predecessors. The sheer volume of information he is trying to convey prompts the narrative to drift and the reader sometimes loses the point. And, as a good academic historian, he is engaged in a dialogue with other historians of the Fed and monetary policy that can push the layman to the sidelines. Meltzer's history assumes the reader has a rather advanced knowledge of economics and finance such as an understanding of the real bills doctrine and the operation of an international gold standard. Also, the charts and tables are often not very helpful in understanding the text or at least could have been presented in a better manner.
Overall, Meltzer does not produce any stunning revelations but a great many correctives to previous accounts and much added detail. The novice to the history of US monetary policy would do better to read Richard Timberlake's book (though taken with a grain of salt because of its conservative leanings) or the classic work by Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz.
Book Description
"The IMF and the World Bank have integrated a large number of countries into the world economy by requiring governments to open up to global trade, investment, and capital. They have not done this out of pure economic zeal. Politics and their own rules and habits explain much of why they have presented globalization as a solution to challenges they have faced in the world economy."--from the Introduction
The greatest success of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank has been as globalizers. But at whose cost? Would borrowing countries be better off without the IMF and World Bank? This book takes readers inside these institutions and the governments they work with. Ngaire Woods brilliantly decodes what they do and why they do it, using original research, extensive interviews carried out across many countries and institutions, and scholarship from the fields of economics, law, and politics.
The Globalizers focuses on both the political context of IMF and World Bank actions and their impact on the countries in which they intervene. After describing the important debates between U.S. planners and the Allies in the 1944 foundation at Bretton Woods, she analyzes understandings of their missions over the last quarter century. She traces the impact of the Bank and the Fund in the recent economic history of Mexico, of post-Soviet Russia, and in the independent states of Africa. Woods concludes by proposing a range of reforms that would make the World Bank and the IMF more effective, equitable, and just.
Customer Reviews:
Hard to read but incisive, 200 pages of tightly packed information.......2007-02-21
This book is definitely not in any way pop-nonfiction -- it is written more like a scientifical publification -- so it is tough to comprehend it at times (especially for a non-native with only average English skills). The book is highly rewarding nontheless -- the most balanced and insighting introduction of these two institutions I have read.
It studies the IMF/World Bank effect in Mexico, Russia and Africa, gives a bit of a background of the globalizers and finally comes up with actual ways in how they could be reformed.
If you don't want to be radically pro- or anti-globalization -- only know about it -- this might be the book you should get. It helps if you have some kind of a previous idea about IMF and World Bank.
Book Description
Daniel Verdier's analysis of how politics influences financial systems focuses mainly on the history of banking since 1850. Verdier shows that contrasting national political institutions have led to discrete regulatory policies, and thus, different financial structures. He asserts that national political systems can counter the convergence that the market dynamic would otherwise impose. Illustratively, countries with decentralized institutions tend to have higher levels of financial regulation and less mobile capital.
Download Description
Moving Money analyses the influence of politics on financial systems. Daniel Verdier examines how information asymmetry and economies of scale over time have created a redistributional conflict between large and small banks, financial centres and their peripheries, and he discusses how governments have attempted to arbitrate this conflict. He argues that centralized states have tended to create concentrated, internationalized, market-based and specialized financial systems, whereas decentralized states have favoured dispersed, national, bank-based and, with a few exceptions, universal systems. Verdier then sets out to uncover the sources, political and economic, of cross-country variation in financial market organization, examining 15 to 20 OECD countries from 1850 onwards.
Amazon.com
Science, in the abstract, is supposed to be nonpolitical, even to transcend politics entirely. In truth, though, science is always conditioned by political reality--and by money.
So writes journalist Daniel Greenberg in this wide-ranging indictment of the way in which science is conducted in the United States. Although funding for scientific research has been readily available since the end of World War II, he maintains, research bureaucrats have transformed the enterprise into "a clever, well-financed claimant for money" and the successful quest for that funding into a condition of employment and advancement. Given that climate, Greenberg suggests, basic research has suffered, so that many diseases go unconquered, while more politically glamorous investigations are rewarded. Increasingly corporatized--industry, he writes, accounts for two-thirds of all research and development dollars spent, and its "profit-seeking values" are radiating throughout the culture--scientific research is insufficiently policed and criticized, watched over only by the inmates. In the rush for funding, Greenberg argues, science becomes increasingly subject to ethical lapses, with scientists too easily endorsing dubious causes such as the so-called Star Wars missile-defense system and too readily putting human subjects in danger.
Greenberg's arguments are broad but well supported, and his book is sure to excite controversy within the scientific community. Lay readers, however, will also find it of much interest. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
Each year, Congress appropriates billions of dollars for scientific research. In this book, veteran science reporter Daniel S. Greenberg takes us behind closed doors to show us who gets it, and why. What he reveals is startling: an overlooked world of false claims, pork, and cronyism, where science, money, and politics all manipulate one another.
Customer Reviews:
tons of converstions but..........2006-01-10
Daniel Greenberg, a Washington-based journalist, analogizes the American scientific activities after WWII as a metropolis dominated with academic cultures in its core. In contrast to the general conception that the budget for the basic research has been cut since the "golden age," or 1960s, the financial support to science enterprises actually has increased. He argues that the problems in the American science have not come from a deficiency of money but from a self-ghettoized, apolitical scientific enterprise of science itself which only competes for the public money but is ignorant of social consequences of what it does. He suggested more political involvement and enlightenment in the scientific communities as a prescription.
Recent study shows that there is a room for even the "self-ghettoized," "apolitical" enterprises of science, as called by the author, to be admitted to be raised as "the fifth branch" (Jasanoff, 1990) which bridges science and policy through the scientific advisory board. Although tons of conversational examples were presented in the book, many questions remain still ambiguous: for example, how political ignorance was gauged; to what other enterprises it can be compared (if possible); how the political ignorance negatively affected public welfare.
I admire the author's effort to incorporate all the transient newspaper articles and volatile dialogues among the congressmen and the heads of various scientific institutions into a 500 paged book. To read Introduction and Epilogue seems enough for this book, unless you have a plenty of time or historian-like interests in the episodes occurred in the Washington regarding the research policy and budgeting.
Best of Four Books That Blend Together Nicely.......2005-10-19
This is the best of the four books I chose to look into this topic, easily the most comprehensive and balanced, with a strong ethical component; it shows how the competition for money, rather than scientific progress, is diverting scarce resources and frustrating needed advances.
It does not, however, provide a complete picture. Three other books are helpful:
The Republican War on Science by Chris Mooney is the book that is the most compelling on the perversions of the extremist Republicans (I am a moderate Republican). Read this first or last, depending on your disposition.
Frontier of Illusion: Science, Technology, and the Politics of Progress by Daniel Sarewitz, is an excellent counterpart to Greenberg as well as the other two books If science is corrupt on the one hand, it is also over-sold on the other, a point that Sarewitz addresses very methodically.
Finally, Investing in Innovation, edited by Lewis Bramscomb and James Keller, brings together a range of views crossing the environment within which scientific research takes place, evaluationg specific programs and policy tools, and making recommendations (all of which have been ignored by the current Bush Administration).
I take three bottom lines from these four books together:
1) We are spending too much on military science & research.
2) Neither Congress nor the Executive have a serious strategy for prioritizing problems, finding private sector partners, and providing seed money for innovative solutions.
3) Both Congress and the Executive, as well as the public and the media, are incredibly ignorant about what science can and cannot do, and where all the money is going to generally poor effect.
4) This is all so important that Science, like Intelligence, needs its own Supreme Court. I am persuaded we need a new form of hybid public agency that is fully independent of the Executive, receiving a percentage of the total disposable budget (say 3%) and hence not subject to Congression pressures.
If you buy only one book, buy this one--but you will be missing important alternative thoughts from the other three.
A Polemical Triumph.......2005-06-04
With a career's worth of insider observations, Greenberg reports on the modern reality of academic research and its bloated addiction to federal funding. As historically interesting as it is practically and morally discouraging, it should be required reading for all prospective graduate researchers. References are dissertation quality.
Keeping a rein on science.......2005-02-05
Washington investigative journalist Daniel Greenberg fills the 500 pages of this book with stories of how science puts material concerns ahead of ethical concerns, resulting in that which is not always in the best interests of society. Indeed, ethical erosion in science, with a corresponding abdication of social responsibility, seems to be inversely related to the chase for money. For many scientists, the pursuit of money has become the primary motivation, with concern for the moral and social good largely ignored.
Science can be funded from governments, from industry, and from universities. Of course those who supply the cash flow can determine the type of research and in many respects the outcome of the research. One just has to think of the enormous budget given over to AIDS research, while other less glamorous (and less politically correct) diseases go begging for funding.
The life sciences (medicine, biotechnology, pharmacology, etc.) is a good case in point. For example, pharmaceutical firms often misrepresent and inflate scientific data for regulatory approval, and to influence physicians to prescribe their products to an unwitting public. One way to achieve this end is to duplicate publication of experimental data to give the impression of widespread scientific backing.
Greenberg offers other examples of bad ethics in human experimentation, and notes how the biomedical research community was aware of gross inadequacies in monitoring scientific experimentation and quite content to let the situation remain that way. The examples demonstrate that what is done in the name of science often seems to be above regulation, accountability and ethical review.
And it is not just science that gets tainted with money and corporate influence, but knowledge as a whole. Thus corporate greed and the limitless pursuit of profit seem to negatively effect everyone within reach, and it is not scientific objectivity alone that suffers, but learning as well. No wonder why certain bioethical debates seems to be so one-sided. The recent stem cell debate is just one example where Big Biotech is buying its way into science and the media, regardless of the outcome for the rest of society.
And Greenberg notes how the popular press acts mainly as a puppet of science, especially biomedical research. It routinely pumps out what is told to, without asking the hard questions it does of politicians and others. This is indeed the case with reports of scientific-medical progress. Greenberg calls this "may" journalism. Stem cells may do this. Cloning may do that. Gene therapy may deliver the goods. We are wowed by reports of potential medical breakthroughs, but they are just that: potential. However, the way the media presents them, it seems like a cure for Parkinson's disease will arrive next week. Thus we find a collusion between certain scientists, various industries (eg., the Biotech industry), and a gullible and/or subservient media.
And of course this collusion acts as a giant feed-back loop. Journalists need good news stories, and scientists and the corporations need people to think they are just on the verge of a major medical breakthrough, if only a bit more funding were forthcoming. The one feeds of the other, and a disease-weary public, believing that immortality is just around the corner, will go along with it. And governments also get into the act, claiming that if we over-regulate things like cloning or stem cell research, all the research will move interstate or overseas, leaving them behind. So there is a grand mingling of state, corporate and public interests taking place, making it even harder for science to claim any sort of neutrality and objectivity.
If religious leaders and politicians today are subject to intense scrutiny and ethical appraisal (and rightly so), then perhaps it is time to extend the same treatment to scientists. And one place to begin is by reading this important and timely book.
Mix three volatile reactive elements and you get a mess.......2002-04-20
There are a couple of things about this work by Greenberg that struck me as significant, and added to the fact that the book is very well written, it makes for a very compelling read. Even after many years of scientific journalism and working within the industry Greenberg says that the scientific enterprise makes him "feel like a stranger in a strange land." This is no idle boast by someone trying to tout his credentials as an objective observer and skeptic. This is in fact precisely the perspective that Greenberg uses throughout; this arms-length approach allows him to come up with some rather perceptive insights and useful recommendations. The second point of interest, and something for which the scientific community should be commended, is that generally this book has been quite favorably received. Many times when an "outsider" reports on some subject, the first, and oftentimes the only point, aggrieved professionals focus on is that he's not an "expert", or he's a "non-specialist". That doesn't seem to be the case with most of the commentary on this book from the scientific community. And make no mistake, there's enough damning evidence here about the volatile mix of SCIENCE, MONEY, AND POLITICS and the resulting mess of "Political Triumph and Ethical Erosion", that it would be normal to expect self-defensive counter criticisms.
Greenberg traces the changing role of science and its relationship with politics, roughly since the period following WWII. Long gone is the era of the prominent presidential science advisors. Today it is money that dominates the scientific agenda. The chapter on the National Science Foundation (NSF) and its claim a few years ago that the country faced a shortage of tens of thousands of scientists is illustrative. Greenberg shows this lobbying effort for increased funds as a knowingly false issue pushed by a merger of institutional and academic interests. Greenberg quotes a US Office of Management & Budget Report which had this to say about scientists: "They are the quintessential special interest group..."
He has much to say on the inflated claims of many projects. Although he specifically mentions the aborted Superconducting Super Collider (SSC), it is clear he views more recent projects such as the Human Genome Project, and cloning, in the same light. Greenberg doesn't allow the book to end as a mere polemic though. He makes an interesting recommendation for the conversion of the NSF into a National Science, Engineering & Humanities Foundation. This is more in recognition of the need for a new "ethic" rather than as the desirability of conflating all knowledge to scientific methods as some scientists (E.O Wilson in CONSILIENCE) have recently called for.
Regardless of where you are in the sciences this book is sure to affect you. Many of the excesses and cases of influence and false claims are known about, and more importantly have already been condemned by well thinking professionals. Nevertheless by presenting it in such a readable format Greenberg will enjoy significant readership among the skeptical public. This at a time when science is engaged in the most far reaching issues for humanity, only means that scientists can expect more questions from an interested, and much better informed public.
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- Review for the Sound Practice in Governement Debt Management
- really good book
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Sound Practice in Government Debt Management
Graeme Wheeler , and
Frederick Jensen
Manufacturer: World Bank Publications
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0821350730 |
Book Description
Government debt management has a long tradition, dating back more than two centuries in some European countries. Since the late 1980's, however, many OECD governments have invested heavily in improving the quality of their debt management practices. In recent years, the topic has received additional attention for its potential role in reducing the vulnerability of emerging economies to financial and economic shocks.
Risk is a relative concept and is measured relative to a set of objectives. The authors argue that a government asset and liability management framework offers valuable conceptual insights for managing the risks associated with government debt portfolios and for considering their interface with a wide range of public policy issues. They also argue that prudent risk management requires clear objectives for debt managers, sound institutional and legal framework, appropriate quality assurance procedures and checks and balances, and efficient management information systems.
Sound Practice in Government Debt Management draws from the experiences of a group of countries that are leaders in the area of government debt management and on the knowledge that the authors have accumulated in advising many governments on their debt management policies and operations. It offers valuable insights to assist government policy-makers in understanding what is involved in implementing sound practice in government debt management.
Download Description
Government debt management has a long tradition, dating back more than two centuries in some European countries. Since the late 1980's, however, many OECD governments have invested heavily in improving the quality of their debt management practices. In recent years, the topic has received additional attention for its potential role in reducing the vulnerability of emerging economies to financial and economic shocks. Risk is a relative concept and is measured relative to a set of objectives. The authors argue that a government asset and liability management framework offers valuable conceptual insights for managing the risks associated with government debt portfolios and for considering their interface with a wide range of public policy issues. They also argue that prudent risk management requires clear objectives for debt managers, sound institutional and legal framework, appropriate quality assurance procedures and checks and balances, and efficient management information systems. Sound Practice in Government Debt Management draws from the experiences of a group of countries that are leaders in the area of government debt management and on the knowledge that the authors have accumulated in advising many governments on their debt management policies and operations. It offers valuable insights to assist government policy-makers in understanding what is involved in implementing sound practice in government debt management.
Customer Reviews:
Review for the Sound Practice in Governement Debt Management.......2006-05-08
Truly an excellent book, deserving in anyones library
really good book.......2004-07-26
This is a great book that is very insightful!! I recemend it to everyone who wants to become an expert in economics to read this. Mr. Wheeler has a lot of experience and taught be a lot about dept managment.
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International Monetary Power (Cornell Studies in Money)
David M., Ed Andrews
Manufacturer: Cornell University Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 080144456X |
Book Description
Most economists and political scientists assume that efficiency, the invisible hand, is the preeminent factor in monetary decisions; questions of power and the role it plays in monetary policy are largely neglected. This pathbreaking book redirects attention to monetary power and provides an original framework for assessing its role in relations between sovereign states.
At present, states are the critical players in monetary relations; they control the production and distribution of the money supply, including the provision of international liquidity and the availability of payments financing. David M. Andrews and the contributors to this volume understand "power" as the capacity to alter the behavior of other actors, including the policies of other states. International Monetary Power provides a thorough overview of how money is used as a tool to achieve international political aims.
Book Description
With the end of the Cold War, the International Monetary Fund emerged as the most powerful international institution in history. But how much influence can the IMF exert over fiercely contested issues in domestic politics that affect the lives of millions? In Lending Credibility, Randall Stone develops the first systematic approach to answering this question. Deploying an arsenal of methods from a range of social sciences rarely combined, he mounts a forceful challenge to conventional wisdom. Focusing on the former Soviet bloc, Stone finds that the IMF is neither as powerful as some critics fear, nor as weak as others believe, but that the answer hinges on the complex factor of how much credibility it can muster from country to country.
Stone begins by building a formal, game-theoretic model of lending credibility, which he then subjects to sophisticated quantitative testing on original data from twenty-six countries over the 1990s. Next come detailed, interview-based case studies on negotiations between the IMF and Russia, Ukraine, Poland, and Bulgaria. Stone asserts that the IMF has exerted startling influence over economic policy in smaller countries, such as Poland and Bulgaria. However, where U.S. foreign policy interests come more heavily into play, as in Russia, the IMF cannot credibly commit to enforcing the loans-for-policy contract. This erodes its ability to facilitate enduring market reforms. Stone's context is the postcommunist transition in Europe and Asia, but his findings carry implications for IMF activities the world over.
Customer Reviews:
Book Prize Winner.......2004-11-20
Lending Credibility is the winner of the 2003 Ed A. Hewett book prize awarded annually by the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies for the most outstanding publication on the political economy of the former Soviet Union, East Central Europe, and/or their successor states.
The book prize committee wrote the following citation about this volume:
One of the central debates of the transition from socialism over the past decade has been the role of the International Monetary Fund. It is vilified by some as the satanic agent of globalization, and ignored by others who treated democratization as a self-contained process divorced from the messy processes under way in the region's economies.
These debates about the role of the IMF have generated a lot of heat, but not that much light. Just how much influence did the IMF really have over the economies in transition? And was that influence a help or a hindrance the process of economic transition?
Randall Stone's book, Lending Credibility, is the first systematic effort to address these questions. It is a major achievement, the result of both careful reflection on how to conceptualize and investigate the problem, and a prodigious amount of effort gathering data.
A political scientist, Stone addresses one of the standard problems in that discipline: what influence can an international organization (in this case, IMF) have on the domestic policies of member countries (in this case, transition economies). To solve this problem, he deploys a variety of analytical tools. He uses a game-theoretic model of interaction between the IMF, borrower countries, and private investors to derive their equilibrium strategies. The predictions of the model are then tested statistically using a set of monthly data for the 1990s for 26 post-Communist countries, including over 20 variables. In an unprecedented feat of thoroughness, the author complements statistical testing with detailed interviews with dozens of former officials to reconstruct the decision-making process in four of the countries under study and test his theoretical results.
Stone develops the notion of credibility as the key factor linking IMF leverage to domestic decision making. He comes to a balanced conclusion, neither demonizing nor whitewashing the IMF, but arguing that the IMF can play a pivotal and positive role by using its lending to signal support and encouragement for the adoption of effective policies by national leaders.
An astonishing read.......2003-11-29
Quite the read: fluid, sober, well written and systematic in its approach. Pioneering the approach to this question, Randall Stone utilizes many different tools to present his argument and send his message. Not only is it sound in its argument, but also an enjoyable read. Anyone interested in real research about the impact of the IMF should consult this book.
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Marxian Reproduction Schema (Routledge Frontiers of Political Economy)
Andrew Trigg
Manufacturer: Routledge
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0415336694 |
Book Description
Karl Marx is still comfortably the most famous economist ever and the schema of reproduction outlined in Volume II of Das Kapital remains of enduring interest and intellectual significance as a model of the capitalist economy. It has achieved attention from the likes of Meghnad Desai and Michio Morishima but can still be considered to be understudied.
Andrew Trigg redresses this by relating Marx's schema to Keynes's multiplier, Leontieff's input-output analysis, Domar's growth model and Kalecki's principle - in the process offering intriguing and innovative clarifications.
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- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- How To Make Money In Stocks: A Winning System in Good Times or Bad, 3rd Edition
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- Leading From the Front: No-Excuse Leadership Tactics for Women
- Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life
- Maestro : Greenspan's Fed and the American Boom
- Maestro: Greenspan's Fed And The American Boom
- Make Money Teaching Online: How to Land Your First Academic Job, Build Credibility, and Earn a Six-Figure Salary
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