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David Card and Alan B. Krueger have already made national news with their pathbreaking research on the minimum wage. Here they present a powerful new challenge to the conventional view that higher minimum wages reduce jobs for low-wage workers. In a work that has important implications for public policy as well as for the direction of economic research, the authors put standard economic theory to the test, using data from a series of recent episodes, including the 1992 increase in New Jersey's minimum wage, the 1988 rise in California's minimum wage, and the 1990-91 increases in the federal minimum wage. In each case they present a battery of evidence showing that increases in the minimum wage lead to increases in pay, but no loss in jobs. A distinctive feature of Card and Krueger's research is the use of empirical methods borrowed from the natural sciences, including comparisons between the "treatment" and "control" groups formed when the minimum wage rises for some workers but not for others. In addition, the authors critically reexamine the previous literature on the minimum wage and find that it, too, lacks support for the claim that a higher minimum wage cuts jobs. Finally, the effects of the minimum wage on family earnings, poverty outcomes, and the stock market valuation of low-wage employers are documented. Overall, this book calls into question the standard model of the labor market that has dominated economists' thinking on the minimum wage. In addition, it will shift the terms of the debate on the minimum wage in Washington and in state legislatures throughout the country. With a new preface discussing new data, Myth and Measurement continues to shift the terms of the debate on the minimum wage.

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An insider's view of the investment banking world from someone who is actually shaping it Powerful, controversial and determined, Thomas Weisel is known for his unwavering focus on winning the race, whether he is competing in a national cycling championship, sponsoring Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong or negotiating with business competitors. For twenty-seven years he ran one of the major investment banks on the West Coast, bringing public companies such as Applied Materials, Siebel Systems and Yahoo! and was instrumental in establishing San Francisco as an alternative financial center to Wall Street. In 1997 he sold his company to NationsBank, which later merged with Bank of America. Unhappy with his treatment after the merger, Weisel trumped Bank of America by negotiating a separation package that included $500 million in stock options and the ability to hire away crucial Bank of America management. Within two years, the investment bank he started, Thomas Weisel Partners, reached half a billion dollars in revenues and negotiated high-profile deals such as Yahoo!'s merger with Geocities. Power Investor weaves Weisel's approach to success, his competitive nature and love of cycling into a fascinating inside account of the cutthroat world of investment banking. Thomas Weisel (San Francisco, CA) is the founder, CEO and Chairman of the Executive Committee of Thomas Weisel Partners, a research-driven merchant bank exclusively focused on the growth sectors of the U.S. economy. He is founder and president of Tailwind Sports, which manages the U.S. Postal Service cycling team, and was an Olympic-class speed skater and the former chairman of the U.S. Ski Foundation. Richard Brandt (San Francisco, CA) has twenty years' experience as a leading business journalist. He was a senior reporter for BusinessWeek for fourteen years and editor in chief of the technology business magazine Upside for four years.

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The Fisher Investments On series is designed to provide individual investors, students, and aspiring investment professionals the tools necessary to understand and analyze investment opportunities—primarily for investing in global stocks. Each guide is an easily accessible primer to economic sectors, regions, or other components of the global stock market. While this guide is specifically on Health Care, the basic investment methodology is applicable for analyzing any global sector, regardless of the current macroeconomic environment. Following a top-down approach to investing, Fisher Investments on Heath Care can help you make more informed decisions within the Health Care sector. It skillfully addresses how to determine optimal times to invest in Health Care stocks and which Health Care industries have the potential to perform well in various environments. Explains some of the sector’s key macro drivers—like its defensive characteristics, economic cycles, and investor sentiment Shows how to capitalize on a wide array of macro conditions and industry-specific features to help you form an opinion on each of the industries within the sector Takes you through the major components of the industries within the global Health Care sector and reveals how they operate Offers investment strategies to help you determine when and how to overweight specific industries within the sector Outlines a five-step process to help differentiate firms in this field—designed to help you identify ones with the greatest probability of outperforming Filled with in-depth insights, Fisher Investments on Health Care provides a framework for understanding this sector and its industries to help you make better investment decisions—now and in the future. With this book as your guide, you can gain a global perspective of the Health Care sector and discover strategies to help achieve your investing goals.

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An updated and passionate second edition of a foundational book. How did environmental law first emerge in the United States? Why has it evolved in the ways that it has? And what are the unique challenges inherent to environmental lawmaking in general and in the United States in particular? Since its first edition, The Making of Environmental Law has been foundational to our understanding of these questions. For the second edition, Richard J. Lazarus returns to his landmark book and takes stock of developments over the last two decades. Drawing on many years of experience on the frontlines of legal and policy battles, Lazarus provides a theoretical overview of the challenges that environmental protection poses for lawmaking, related to both the distinctive features of US lawmaking institutions and the spatial and temporal dimensions of ecological change. The book explains why environmental law emerged in the manner and form that it did in the 1970s and traces how it developed over sequent decades through key laws and controversies. New chapters, composing more than half of the second edition, examine a host of recent developments. These include how Congress dropped out of environmental lawmaking in the early twenty-first century; the shifting role of the judiciary; long-overdue efforts to provide environmental justice to disadvantaged communities; and the destabilization of environmental law that has resulted from the election of Presidents with dramatically clashing environmental policies. As the nation’s partisan divide has grown deeper and the challenge of climate change has dramatically raised the perceived stakes for opposing interests, environmental law is facing its greatest challenges yet. This book is essential reading for understanding where we have been and what challenges and opportunities lie ahead. 

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Conundrums, puzzles, and perversities: these are Leo Katz's stock-in-trade, and in "Why the Law Is So Perverse", he focuses on four fundamental features of our legal system, all of which seem to not make sense on some level and to demand explanation. First, legal decisions are essentially made in an either/or fashion - guilty or not guilty, liable or not liable, either it's a contract or it's not - but reality is rarely that clear-cut. Why aren't there any in-between verdicts? Second, the law is full of loopholes. No one seems to like them, but somehow they cannot be made to disappear. Why? Third, legal systems are loath to punish certain kinds of highly immoral conduct while prosecuting other far less pernicious behaviors. What makes a villainy a felony? Finally, why does the law often prohibit what are sometimes called win-win transactions, such as organ sales or surrogacy contracts? Katz asserts that these perversions arise out of a cluster of logical difficulties related to multicriterial decision making. The discovery of these difficulties dates back to Condorcet's eighteenth-century exploration of voting rules, which marked the beginning of what we know today as social choice theory. Condorcet's voting cycles, Arrow's Theorem, Sen's Libertarian Paradox - every seeming perversity of the law turns out to be the counterpart of one of the many voting paradoxes that lie at the heart of social choice. Katz's lucid explanations and apt examples show why they resist any easy resolutions. "The New York Times Book Review" called Katz's first book "a fascinating romp through the philosophical side of the law". "Why the Law Is So Perverse" is sure to provide its readers a similar experience.

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From John Muir to the Endangered Species Act, environmentalism in America has always had close to its core a preservationist ideal. Generations have been inspired by its ethos - to protect nature from the march of human development. But we have to face the facts. Accelerating climate change, rapid urbanization, agricultural and industrial devastation, metastasizing fire regimes, and other quickening anthropogenic forces all attest to the same truth: the earth is now spinning through the age of humans. After Preservation takes stock of the ways we have tried to both preserve and exploit nature to ask a direct but profound question: what is the role of preservationism in an era of seemingly unstoppable human development, in what some have called the Anthropocene? Ben A. Minteer and Stephen J. Pyne bring together a stunning consortium of voices comprised of renowned scientists, historians, philosophers, environmental writers, activists, policy makers, and land managers to negotiate the incredible challenges that environmentalism faces. Some call for a new, post-preservationist model, one that is far more pragmatic and human-centered. Others push back, arguing for a more chastened vision of human action on the earth. Some try to establish a middle ground, while others ruminate more deeply on the meaning and value of wilderness. Some write on species lost, others on species saved, and yet others discuss the enduring practical challenges of managing our land, water, and air. From spirited optimism to careful prudence to critical skepticism, the resulting range of approaches offers an inspiring contribution to the landscape of modern environmentalism, one driven by serious, sustained engagements with the critical problems we must solve if the planet is going to survive the era we have ushered in.

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Oxford Classical Texts, also known as Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis, provide authoritative, clear, and reliable editions of ancient texts, with apparatus criticus on each page. This five volume work is a new critical text edition of the only surviving ancient commentary on Plato's Timaeus, in which Proclus encompasses seven centuries of philosophical reflection on Plato's cosmology. For many authors belonging to the Platonic tradition, Proclus' commentary is the only extant source. For late Neoplatonic authors such as Proclus, writing commentaries on works by Plato and others was in fact a way to present their own highly original philosophical doctrines. Apart from being an important source text for the historiography of philosophy, this commentary on the Timaeus thus also provides a unique access way to Proclus' own Neoplatonic views on cosmology, theology, physics, and metaphysics. This new edition is based on a thorough re-examination of the entire manuscript tradition, which has led to a complete understanding of the relation between all extant manuscripts, including the Paris palimpsest BNF Supplément grec 921, belonging to the so-called 'collection philosophique' (9th century). On the basis of digitally enhanced UV photos, the scriptio inferior of this palimpsest (containing parts of books IV and V) was made nearly fully accessible. The study of the manuscript tradition and the apparatus fontium take stock of more than 100 years of study of this circumstantial text. The edition of the text is preceded by a substantial introduction, and followed, for each book, by the edition of the scholia to the text. The final volume also comprises an edition of the remaining fragments of the lost part of the text, including an Arabic fragment, edited by Rüdiger Arnzen.

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Housing matters a great deal. The present housing market has worked well for many of us (who have enjoyed the steeply rising values of our homes) which is why change, especially new building, is resisted. But for increasing numbers it now works less well as home ownership is out of reach, and for many years it has been commonly felt that there is a 'housing crisis' in Britain. Reforms are urgently needed to avoid a growing human cost. With so many conflicting views in evidence and a balance to be struck between growth and conservation, what housing market outcomes might be regarded as a success for policymakers? This short book attempts to give at least some answers, concluding with a list of criteria by which success might be judged along with a list of policy recommendations. Along the way a number of 'myths' are identified - either ideas about the UK housing market or possible solutions to the housing issue - that the author argues are mistaken. She argues that we need to be realistic, and not simplistic, about what mix of outcomes can be achieved.There are many national policy aims, including decent homes for all, protection of the green belt, better design of buildings and places, the avoidance of house price volatility, and intergenerational fairness. At the local level, planning provokes conflict and strong feelings. We also have an existing housing stock that is arguably, at least in part, wrongly located, and some of the housing we do have is of poor quality. For anyone with an interest in housing, this is an authoritative, accessible and constructive contribution to a debate that is likely to rumble on until the cows come home.

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This book is unique as it goes beyond the classical academic approach and opts for an approach whereby the theoretical insights are systematically illustrated by concrete cases and exercises. This explains its title: Financial Management in Practice. This approach makes this book very suitable both for financial managers and for university and high school students.Beginning with a description of the current banking and entrepreneurial landscape, the book proceeds to examine the basic concept of financial management. The business plan and financing plan become the working tools in the author's search for optimal financing and in determining the value of the enterprise. This is followed by an analysis of all forms of debt financing such as overdraft, investment credits, straight loans, leasing and factoring.Subsequently, the book examines mezzanine financing, formal and informal venture capital, including business angels and crowdfunding, as well as stock quotations and initial public offerings. The book concludes with a review on the Basel Accords, from the viewpoint of the entrepreneur. This way, the author provides ammunition for managers confronted with banks or venture capitalists who claim that some actions are not possible "because of Basel".The glossary at the end of the book lists the major financial terms to ensure smooth reading. The included tables with annuity factors should facilitate the investment analysis. And last but not least, solutions to the exercises have been included at the back of this book, so that the active reader can evaluate his own solutions."In contrast to the rather academic approach taken by other authors, Professor Aernoudt opts for an approach based on practice, with cases and exercises to enhance understanding of various theoretical approaches. This book therefore fills an important gap".

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Today, there is a tremendous mismatch between the available housing stock in the US and the housing options that people want and need. The post-WWII, auto-centric, single-family-development model no longer meets the needs of residents. Urban areas in the US are experiencing dramatically shifting household and cultural demographics and a growing demand for walkable urban living. Missing Middle Housing, a term coined by Daniel Parolek, describes the walkable, desirable, yet attainable housing that many people across the country are struggling to find. Missing Middle Housing types, such as duplexes, fourplexes, and bungalow courts, can provide options along a spectrum of affordability. In Missing Middle Housing, Parolek, an architect and urban designer, illustrates the power of these housing types to meet today’s diverse housing needs. With the benefit of beautiful full-colour graphics, Parolek goes into depth about the benefits and qualities of Missing Middle Housing. The book demonstrates why more developers should be building Missing Middle Housing and defines the barriers cities need to remove to enable it to be built. Case studies of built projects show what is possible, from the Prairie Queen Neighborhood in Omaha, Nebraska to the Sonoma Wildfire Cottages, in California. A chapter from urban scholar Arthur C. Nelson uses data analysis to highlight the urgency to deliver Missing Middle Housing. Parolek proves that density is too blunt of an instrument to effectively regulate for twenty-first-century housing needs. Complete industries and systems will have to be rethought to help deliver the broad range of Missing Middle Housing needed to meet the demand, as this book shows. Whether you are a planner, architect, builder, or city leader, Missing Middle Housing will help you think differently about how to address housing needs for today’s communities.

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Why shouldn't people who deplete our natural assets have to pay and those who protect them reap profits? Conservation-minded entrepreneurs and others around the world are beginning to ask just such a question, as the increasing scarcity of natural resources becomes a tangible threat to our own lives and our hopes for our children. This text brings together Gretchen Daily, an ecologist, with Katherine Ellison, a journalist, to offer an engaging and informative look at a new "new economy" - a system which recognizes the economic value of natural systems and the potential profist in protecting them. Through engaging stories from around the world, the authors introduce readers to a diverse group of people who are pioneering new approaches to conservation. We meet Adam Davis, an American business executive who dreams of establishing a market for buying and selling "ecosystem service units"; John Walmsley, a former maths professor in Australia who has found a way to play the stock market and protest native species at the same time; and Dan Janzen, a biologist working in Cost Rica who devised a controversial plan to sell a conservation area's natural waste-disposal services to a local orange juice producer. Readers also visit the Catskill Mountains, where the city of New York purchased undeveloped land instead of building an expensive new water treatment facility; and King Couny, Washington, where county executive Ron Sims has dedicated himself to finding ways of "making the market move" to protect the county's remaining open space. Daily and Ellison describe the dynamic interplay of science, economics, business and politics that is involved in establishing these new approaches and examine what will be needed to create successful models and lasting institutions for conservation.

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Nominated for the FT/McKinsey Business Book of the YearNominated for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in NonfictionAmazon Top 5 Business Books of 2017'A prodigious feat of reporting' - Malcolm Gladwell‘Black Edge has the grip of a thriller … Everyone should read this book’ - David Grann, New York Times bestselling author of THE LOST CITY OF Z How do super-rich bankers get away with it?There is a powerful new class of billionaire financiers in the world, who use their phenomenal wealth to write their own rules and laws. Chief among them is Steven Cohen, a Wall Street legend, and the basis for Damian Lewis's character in BILLIONS, who built his hedge fund into a $15 billion empire on the basis of wizard-like stock trading, and who flies to work by helicopter and owns one of the largest private art collections in the world. But his iconic status was shattered when his fund became the target of a sprawling FBI investigation into insider trading, charged with using illegal inside information – or ‘black edge’ – to beat the market. His firm, SAC Capital, was ultimately indicted and pled guilty to charges of securities and wire fraud, and paid record criminal and civil fines of nearly $2 billion. But even as the company bearing his name pled guilty, Cohen himself was never charged, and is free to start trading publicly again from January 2018.Black Edge offers a revelatory look at the grey zone in which so much of Wall Street functions, and a window into the transformation of the worldwide economy. With meticulous reporting and powerful storytelling, this is a riveting, true-life legal thriller that takes readers inside the US government’s pursuit of Cohen and his employees, and raises urgent questions about the power and wealth of those who sit at the pinnacle of the financial world.

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Your midlife doesn't have to be a crisis. In fact, the second half of your life can be better than the first. Let bestselling author Bob Buford show you how.What do you want to do with the rest of your life?In Halftime, Buford provides encouragement and insight to propel your life on a new course to true significance--and the best years of your life. Buford focuses on this important time of transition to the second half of your life, giving you the tools you need to: Take stock of your successes and accomplishments thus far Redefine significance and what it means to you Identify your personal goals Develop a mission for serving God in the second half of your life This updated and expanded 20th anniversary edition of Halftime also includes questions for reflection at the end of each chapter, brand new stories of men and women enjoying a second half of significance, and specific halftime assignments to guide you into your second-half mission.Praise for Halftime:"According to Bob Buford, the first half of life is a quest for success; the second is a quest for significance. Bob should know; he has achieved the first and is showing us the latter. You'll find this book to be unique, inspiring, and practical. Read it and finish strong!"--Max Lucado, pastor and bestselling author"This book is for successful people who want more fulfillment in their lives and realize it won't come from the next victory, the next sale, the next conquest, or significant increase in their bottom line. Let Bob Buford be your guide to make sure your best years are ahead of you."--Ken Blanchard, bestselling coauthor of The One-Minute Manager

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Wiped out three Nazis in a shallow trench. But only got out by a miracle. The Germans apparently guessed where my lair was and unleashed a hurricane of mortar fire the company had as good as buried me. Somebody saw a direct mortar hit on my lair.' - Fyodor Dyachenko The German snipers on the other side also engaged in stalking, especially stalking us women. They had no female snipers, just men' - Antonina Kotlyarova Dreadful death cries could be heard from the German trenches, where the enemy were bayonetting those of our wounded who had remained behind there' - Klavdia Kalugina Before firing I managed to get a good look at him through my sights. He was a young officer. He seemed to be looking straight at me and I shot him. But it was a human being! Then my feelings dulled and I went on killing the way we were supposed to' - Antonina Kotlyarova I lay down on the ground, pressed my cheek close to the stock, took aim at the target and remembered the lieutenant's words: Make sure your heart is behind every bullet Believe in your shot - Pyotr Belyakov When we learnt on May 9th that the war was over, our joy knew no bounds [...] I felt enormous relief when I heard the news of victory - now I wouldn't need to kill anymore' - Maria Bondarenko With a wealth of first-hand testimonies, collected by Artem Drabkin, this is a unique collection of eyewitness accounts from the Second World War. The reminiscences of the Red Army snipers reveal fascinating details of life in Russia before the war, as well as the surprising commonality of the privation and unforgiving experience of frontline combat and the day-to-day starkness of sharpshooting. The book includes testimony from celebrated snipers such as Fyodor Dyachenko, Alexander Romanyenko, Klavdia Kalugina, Antonina Kotlyarova and Maria Bondarenko.

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The year 1919 has often been ignored in historians’ dizzy haste to enter the world of the Roaring Twenties but it was a year of enormous challenges and change. After a brief period of celebration after the Armistice, reality began to sink in. Returning servicemen were resentful at the prospect of unemployment and lack of available housing. Many of the troops had lost their jobs to women on lower rates of pay. Soon there were strikes, with soldiers and tanks on the streets of Britain. This is also the year in which The Troubles began in earnest. The Spanish Flu epidemic continued to take its toll. Even the gilded few were unhappy with rising taxation and a scarcity of servants. Worse, men who had made fortunes from the war had invaded their exclusive clubs. The bars and smoking rooms were full of regional accents and loud suits. Remarkably, something like 40 per cent of all the tax revenue the government raised in the twenties was swallowed up by the war bonds debt. The emerging ‘bright young things’ embraced sex, drugs and Dixieland jazz. Motor transport was replacing horses, whilst the first crossing of the Atlantic by air showed the way forward. There was entertainment to be had, with sport providing a popular outlet. Long queues formed outside cinemas to see the latest silent films. Theatres and music halls played to packed houses. It was a year of creativity and invention within the arts but also one of nostalgia for old Edwardian certainties. The nation rediscovered a love of shopping in the expanding number of department stores. The year was also a pause for breath after the horrors of war; a time to take stock before rushing into an uncertain future that was rapidly announcing itself.

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What is a market? To most people it is a shopping center or an abstract space in which stock prices vary minutely. In reality, a market is something much more fundamental to being human, and it affects not just the price of tomatoes but the boundaries of everything we value.Reading the newspapers these days, you could be forgiven for thinking that markets are getting ever more efficient - and better. But as Tim Sullivan and Ray Fisman argue in this insightful book, that view is far from complete. For one thing, efficiency isn't always a good thing - illegal markets are very often more efficient than legal ones, because they are free of concern for laws and human rights. But even more importantly, the chatter about efficiency has obscured a much broader conversation about what kind of economic exchange we actually want. Every regulation, every sticker price, and every sale is part of an ever-changing ecosystem - one that affects us as much as we affect it.By tracing 50 years of economic thought on this subject, Fisman and Sullivan show how markets have evolved - and how we can keep making them better. This leads to fascinating and surprising insights, such as:- Why your £10,000 used car is likely to sell for £2,000 or less;- Why you should think twice before buying batteries on Amazon; and- Why it's essential that healthy people buy medical insurance.In the end, The Inner Lives of Markets argues for a new way of thinking about how you spend your money - it shows that every transaction you make is part of a grand social experiment. We are all guinea pigs running through a lab maze, and the sooner we realize it, the more effectively we can navigate the path we want.

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‘Gripping and authentic’ NEW YORK TIMES ‘Heartrending . . . An engrossing read’ FINANCIAL TIMESSEVENTEEN YEARS AFTER THE FALL OF THE THIRD REICH Max Weill has never forgotten the face of Otto Schramm, a doctor who worked with Mengele on appalling experiments and who sent Max’s family to the gas chambers.A NAZI WAR CRIMINAL WHO IS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD When Schramm escaped to South America after the war, Max swore to one day bring him back to Germany to stand trial. With his life now nearing its end, he asks his nephew Aaron Wiley – a CIA desk analyst – to capture the doctor.AND THE ROGUE CIA AGENT ON HIS TRAIL In Buenos Aires, and unable to distinguish allies from enemies, Aaron must test the boundaries of his own personal morality and ultimately decide: how far is he prepared to go to render justice?PRAISE FOR JOSEPH KANON: ​ 'Joseph Kanon owns this corner of the literary landscape and it’s a joy to see him reassert his title with such emphatic authority' Lee Child 'Clever, devious and morally complex' Sunday Times 'Sensational! No one writes period fiction with the same style and suspense – not to mention substance – as Joseph Kanon' Scott Turow 'Kanon is fast approaching the complexity and relevance not just of le Carré and Greene but even of Orwell' New York Times 'The perfect combination of intrigue and accurate history brought to life' Alan Furst 'Joseph Kanon continues to demonstrate that he is up there with the very best . . . of spy thriller writers . . . Kanon writes beautifully, superbly . . . he is the master of the shadows of the era' The Times 'The critical stock of Joseph Kanon is high, and Defectors will add further lustre to his reputation . . . There are pleasing echoes here of the “entertainments” of Graham Greene' Guardian

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Everyday meals made easy: 330 fuss-free recipes using just four ingredients or less, all shown in over 350 colour photographs. With just a few basic items from the storecupboard and four or less ingredients for each recipe, you can make more than 330 delicious dishes, from firm family favourites to more exotic temptations. This title includes breakfasts, appetizers, soups, pasta, rice, main courses, salads, vegetable and side dishes, preserves and pickles. It features a host of cuisines from around the world including African, American, Chinese, Indian, Italian, Portuguese and Mexican. Choose from Cinnamon Toast, Eggs Benedict, Dressed Crab with Asparagus, Tandoori Chicken, Rosemary-Scented Lamb, Warm Chocolate Zabaglione and Orange and Pecan Scones. At-a-glance nutritional notes provide a clear breakdown of calorific values as well as fat, fibre and cholesterol content of each recipe. From a relaxed weekend brunch or speedy supper to a more elaborate dinner for entertaining friends, there's a tasty recipe to suit all occasions. The recipes may be simple, but they don't compromise on quality, and this instructive cookbook shows you how to get the maximum flavour out of the few ingredients that you need to buy. It also advises you on how to benefit from the many excellent ready-made products available on the market, such as pastry, stock or curry paste. With these handy time-saving ingredients, you can create lavish home-cooked meals with a minimum fuss. With today's hectic lifestyles, few of us have time to spend hours in the supermarket or kitchen, but with this versatile family cookbook you will amaze yourself and friends at how quickly and easily you are able to prepare fresh, tasty food.

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London, 2007. It's summer in the City: the economy is booming, profits are up and the stock market sits near record highs. But journalist Gil Peck is a lone voice worrying it can't last. Deep in the plumbing of the financial system, he has noticed strange things happening which could threaten the whole economy. But nobody wants to hear it: not the politicians taking credit for an end to boom and bust, not the bankers pocketing vast bonuses, not even Gil's bosses at the BBC, who think it's irrelevant.When Gil gets a tip-off that a small northern bank has run out of money, everything changes. His report sparks the first run on a UK bank in 140 years. The next day, Marilyn Krol, a director of the Bank of England dies in an apparent suicide. For Gil, it's personal. Marilyn was his lover: was his scoop connected to her suicide? Or is there something more sinister in her death? Gil is determined to find out.The more he investigates, the more he is drawn into the rotten heart of the financial system, where old school ties and secret Oxbridge societies lubricate vast and illegal conflicts of interest. The whole economy has been built on a house of cards, and Gil is threatening to bring it down. When simply reporting the facts can make or break fortunes, Gil has to ask himself: is he crossing the line between journalist and participant? Are his own conflicts of interest making him reckless? And in a world ruled by greed where nothing and no-one is too big to fail, what price will he pay for uncovering the truth?

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A fun, visual guide for kids about the tricky topic of money: how it works and how to look after itKnowing the ins and outs of money is important for kids, whether they’re trying to work out what to do with pocket money, or if they dream of making millions on the stock market. Children can begin to understand how money works with this jam-packed guide, filled with personal finance tips such as how to save money, how to keep it safe, and how to grow it! Get to know: Money will teach children aged 7+ about bigger topics, too – like what the bank does with your savings, how taxes are spent, and how billions are made and moved around the globe. Learning about money doesn’t have to be tricky either – this guide features fun activities and quizzes, bright pages and breaks the information into bite-size chunks so that it’s easy to digest. Inside the pages of this money book for kids, you’ll find:- A wide-ranging and accessible introduction to money, with bright, informative illustrations alongside engaging text, making important information easy to digest- A topic-by-topic structure, giving an in-depth introduction to the world of money- Current and up-to-date themes, including online safety, microtransactions and money wellbeing- Lively and colorful diagrams that present information in an engaging wayThis money guide features useful diagrams, colorful illustrations, interactive activities, and plenty of facts, making it perfect for budding money experts, and every child who wants – or needs – to know how it “makes the world go round”.

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Dealer banks--that is, large banks that deal in securities and derivatives, such as J. P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs--are of a size and complexity that sharply distinguish them from typical commercial banks. When they fail, as we saw in the global financial crisis, they pose significant risks to our financial system and the world economy. How Big Banks Fail and What to Do about It examines how these banks collapse and how we can prevent the need to bail them out. In sharp, clinical detail, Darrell Duffie walks readers step-by-step through the mechanics of large-bank failures. He identifies where the cracks first appear when a dealer bank is weakened by severe trading losses, and demonstrates how the bank's relationships with its customers and business partners abruptly change when its solvency is threatened. As others seek to reduce their exposure to the dealer bank, the bank is forced to signal its strength by using up its slim stock of remaining liquid capital. Duffie shows how the key mechanisms in a dealer bank's collapse--such as Lehman Brothers' failure in 2008--derive from special institutional frameworks and regulations that influence the flight of short-term secured creditors, hedge-fund clients, derivatives counterparties, and most devastatingly, the loss of clearing and settlement services. How Big Banks Fail and What to Do about It reveals why today's regulatory and institutional frameworks for mitigating large-bank failures don't address the special risks to our financial system that are posed by dealer banks, and outlines the improvements in regulations and market institutions that are needed to address these systemic risks.

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SOMEONE WILL MAKE MONEY ON YOUR FUNDS-WHY NOT YOU? "This book is a treasure trove of practical research and pithy thoughts based on Gastineau's decades of experience; a valuable guide for the thoughtful investor." —Harold Evensky, Chairman, Evensky, Brown & Katz "Someone Will Make Money On Your Funds - Why Not You? will jar armchair mutual fund investors out of their PJ's. If you think checking out your funds in Morningstar and Lipper has you covered, you best read this book." —Maureen Nevin Duffy, Editor/Publisher, The Turnaround Tactician "This book is a must-read for fund investors. Gastineau carefully discusses many important factors such as taxes, capital gains overhang, trading costs, turnover, benchmark selection, active management, expense ratio, and aggressive trading by market timers. These factors significantly affect fund performance but may be ignored by investors. Gastineau goes on to build a strong case for choosing ETFs over mutual funds, especially for long-term investors. I strongly recommend this book for investors." —Vijay Singal, J. Gray Ferguson Professor of Finance and Chairperson of the Finance Department, Pamplin College of Business of Virginia Tech, and author of Beyond the Random Walk: A Guide to Stock Market Anomalies and Low-Risk Investing "Gastineau's message is very powerful. He not only challenges some conventional wisdom on investing, but truly emphasizes how to add value to a portfolio. What is unique is his ability to move quickly from the big picture to implementation strategies offering investment solutions to both investment advisors and individual investors. Portfolio adjustments discussed can potentially have significant impact on a long-term investor's standard of living." —Dan Dolan, Director, Wealth Management Strategies, Select Sector SPDRs

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Saudi Arabia has never commanded more attention and yet it remains one of the world's least understood countries. In The Normalization of Saudi Law, Chibli Mallat dives into the heart of Saudi society, politics, and business by exploring the workings of its courts. Legal practitioners and scholars will find a comprehensive analysis of the law's operation in the kingdom. The practitioner will access full thematic coverage of all important fields: judicial organization, contracts and torts, crime, family, property, administration, commerce, companies, banking, insolvency, the stock market, the constitution, succession, and human rights, with major statutes and a large number of court decisions distilled in 16 chapters. The scholar is presented with an assessment of a dynamic legal process, a 'normalization' of Saudi law where developing norms are both 'normal' (usual) and 'normative' (carrying moral force). This includes judges reshaping Islamic law by applying it in everyday transactions and disputes as they interpret classical treatises and modern statutes. In whole, The Normalization of Saudi Law paints a compelling picture of a fast-changing country. The book is a systematic study of Saudi law over nearly a decade, and its analysis draws from Mallat's involvement as a legal expert in landmark decisions around the world and as a law professor in leading universities in the Middle East, Europe, and America. The book reflects his work with Saudi law students and practicing colleagues, from cases in commercial law to those involving government and human rights. The Normalization of Saudi Law will interest both readers following the fast-changing world of comparative law and those intrigued by Saudi Arabia.

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The essays here, united by their appreciation of the centrality of translation to the interpretation of the medieval past, add to our understanding of how the old is continually made anew The first decades of the twenty-first century have seen an unprecedented level of creative engagement with early medieval literature, ranging from the long-awaited publication of Tolkien's version of Beowulf and the reworking of medieval lyrics by Ireland's foremost poets to the adaptation of Eddic and Skaldic poetry for the screen. This collection brings together scholars and accomplished translators working with Old English, Old Norse and MedievalIrish poetry, to take stock of this extraordinary proliferation of translation activity and to suggest new ways in which to approach these three dynamic literary traditions. The essays in this collection include critical surveysof texts and traditions to the present day, assessments of the practice and impact of individual translators from Jorge Luis Borges to Seamus Heaney, and reflections on the particular challenges of translating poetic forms and vocabulary into different languages and media. Together they present a series of informed and at times provocative perspectives on what it means to "carry across" early medieval poetry in our contemporary cultural climate. Dr Tom Birkett is lecturer in Old English at University College Cork; Dr Kirsty March-Lyons is a scholar of Old English and Latin poetry and co-organiser of the Irish Research Council funded conference and translation project "Eald to New". Contributors: Tom Birkett, Elizabeth Boyle, Hannah Burrows, Gareth Lloyd Evans, Chris Jones, Carolyne Larrington, Hugh Magennis, Kirsty March-Lyons, Lahney Preston-Matto, Inna Matyushina, Rory McTurk, Bernard O'Donoghue, Heather O'Donoghue, Tadhg Ó Síocháin, Bertha Rogers, M.J. Toswell.

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Across the globe, family policy is becoming ever more important in tackling key issues such as poverty, child welfare and the state of the economy in general. The Handbook of Family Policy examines how state and workplace policies support parents and their children in developing, earning and caring.With original contributions from 45 leading scholars, this Handbook provides readers with up-to-date knowledge on family policies and family policy research, taking stock of current literature as well as providing analyses of present-day policies, and where they should head in the future. The Handbook is divided into five main sections: history, concepts, theory and methods of family policy research; family policies; family policy models; outcomes of family policies; and future challenges for family policy making and research.Beneficial for both scholars already familiar with the field as well as newcomers, this Handbook provides important insights into the architecture and mechanisms of different family policy models. Family policy makers would also greatly benefit from the detailed advice on how family policies may adapt and progress in the future.Contributors include: S.-h. Baek, U. Björnberg, M. Blofield, J. Bradshaw, C. Collins, M. Daly, L. den Dulk, L. Dominelli, D. Engster, G.B. Eydal, R. Frankenberger, J.M. Franzoni, A.H. Gauthier, J. Glass, J.C. Gornick, T.J. Guerrero, H. Hiilamo, T. Knijn, J.C. Koops, S.S.-y. Lee, H. Lohmann, C. Martin, M. Meyers, J. Milllar, P. Moss, M. Naldini, N. Neetha, E. Nell, I. Ostner, R. Palriwala, L. Patel, B. Peper, B. Pfau-Effinger, C. Rat, T. Rostgaard, H. Stensöta, D. Szikra, O. Thévenon, D.R. Woods, M.A. Yerkes, J. Young Kang, H. Zagel

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In this important book, Kathy Pain and Gilles Van Hamme bring together a prestigious group of contributors to provide a systematic assessment of the dynamic, multi-scale network restructuring and spaces of flows associated with globalization that have shaped Europe's contemporary position in the world during the past decade.The book examines the changing relations of cities and regions in Europe in a global perspective both through its position in the international division of labour and in different types of networks and flows: trade of goods; advanced services and finance - stock exchange and office real estate investments; human; knowledge; and maritime - and considers how European territories are being unequally impacted by these trends. A distinctive feature of the research results presented is their specific empirical focus on the functional and economic relations of cities and regions in globalization and how these relate to territorial structures in a spatial context.Providing in-depth reflection on territorial policies in Europe in a global context and pointing to a basic contradiction between EU economic and spatial strategies to promote sustainable growth alongside socio-territorial equity, this volume will appeal to scholars, students and researchers with interests in urban and regional planning, spatial and economic development and globalization. It also has strong relevance for government policy makers at the state, regional and local levels, as well as professional practitioners in a wide variety of disciplines.Contributors: B. Derudder, C. Ducruet, M. Hoyler, O. Joly, V. Jurie, M. Le Cam, C. Lizieri, P. Medina Lockhart, A. Montanari, K. Pain, D. Pelckmans, Y. Richard, P. Roukova, M. Sainteville, B. Staniscia, P. Taylor, G. Van Hamme, S. Vinciguerra, P. Warda, I. Wertz

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The best professional advice Henry Horenstein ever received was to “shoot what you love.” He’s been doing that for more than four decades, capturing photographs that often richly evoke older cultures and places, especially ones that are disappearing: country musicians in Branson, horse racing at Saratoga Springs, nightlife in Buenos Aires, fais do-dos in Cajun Louisiana, old highways everywhere. Horenstein brings these images together in this rich visual memoir, along with behind-the-scenes stories, insights, and tips and suggestions for being a better photographer. His photographs and engaging, often humorous stories chronicle a career that begins in the 1960s, when photography was a trade and even the greatest photographers were not considered to be artists. He amusingly recounts his early assignments. Using his family and friends as subjects for a book on drug abuse was not too much of a stretch, he says, and while shooting Dolly Parton for what would become the Boston Phoenix, the star told him, “Honey, people don’t come out to see me looking like them.” He engagingly recalls his shoots with stars like the Lennon Sisters and Emmylou Harris, as well as his encounters with Ansel Adams, Minor White, Aaron Siskind, Harry Callahan, Nan Goldin, and many other photo legends. Commanding these pages, though, are the subjects with whom Horenstein has chosen to spend most of his professional career, shooting what he loves. His images of honky-tonk stars, stock car drivers, exotic sea creatures, mixed-race residents of rural Maryland, and Venezuelan baseball players tell what he calls “a good story . . . with humor and a punch line, if possible.”

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Go beyond technique to master the difficult judgement calls of forecasting A variety of software can be used effectively to achieve accurate forecasting, but no software can replace the essential human component. You may be new to forecasting, or you may have mastered the statistical theory behind the software’s predictions, and even more advanced “power user” techniques for the software itself—but your forecasts will never reach peak accuracy unless you master the complex judgement calls that the software cannot make. Profit From Your Forecasting Software addresses the issues that arise regularly, and shows you how to make the correct decisions to get the most out of your software. Taking a non-mathematical approach to the various forecasting models, the discussion covers common everyday decisions such as model choice, forecast adjustment, product hierarchies, safety stock levels, model fit, testing, and much more. Clear explanations help you better understand seasonal indices, smoothing coefficients, mean absolute percentage error, and r-squared, and an exploration of psychological biases provides insight into the decision to override the software’s forecast. With a focus on choice, interpretation, and judgement, this book goes beyond the technical manuals to help you truly grasp the more intangible skills that lead to better accuracy. Explore the advantages and disadvantages of alternative forecasting methods in different situations Master the interpretation and evaluation of your software’s output Learn the subconscious biases that could affect your judgement toward intervention Find expert guidance on testing, planning, and configuration to help you get the most out of your software Relevant to sales forecasters, demand planners, and analysts across industries, Profit From Your Forecasting Software is the much sought-after “missing piece” in forecasting reference.

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Achieve annual returns of 25% or more with a well-designed angel portfolio Written by David S. Rose, the founder of Gust—the global platform that powers the world of organized professional angel investing—Angel Investing is a comprehensive, entertaining guide that walks readers through every step of the way to becoming a successful angel investor. It is illustrated with stories from among the 90+ companies in which David has invested during a 25 year career as one of the world’s most active business angels and includes instructions on how to get started, how to find and evaluate opportunities, and how to pursue and structure investments to maximize your returns. From building your reputation as a smart investor, to negotiating fair deals, adding value to your portfolio companies and helping them implement smart exit strategies, David provides both the fundamental strategies and the specific tools you need to take full advantage of this rapidly growing asset class. He details the advantages of joining an angel group, explains how seed and venture funds can help leverage an investor’s resources, and reveals how recent regulatory changes and new online platforms are making startup investing accessible to millions of Americans. Making money is no longer about sitting back and reading stock listings, David says. It is now about being part owner of an exciting startup that can be fun and financially rewarding. Angel Investing teaches investors how to carefully select and manage investments, establish a long term view, and approach angel investing as a serious part of an alternative asset portfolio while also enjoying being an integral part of an exciting new venture.

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The 2009 quadricentennial celebrations commemorating the discovery of the Hudson River by Henry Hudson will also spotlight one of our deepest and most enduring national legacies—the Dutch presence that has shaped not just the Hudson Valley but four centuries of American life. This lavishly illustrated book, a companion to the exhibition opening in June 2009 at the Hudson River Museum, takes needed stock of the remarkable past created by the settlers of New Netherlands. Although the Dutch controlled the Hudson Valley only until ceding it to the British in 1664, the Dutch established the towns and cities that today define the region—from New Amsterdam upriver to Fort Orange, today’s Albany. The Dutch heritage lives on, not only in historic estates or Dutch-named places like the Bronx or Yonkers but also in commerce, law, politics, religion, art, and culture. In thirteen original essays, this book traverses those four centuries to enrich and expand our understanding of America’s origins. The essays, written by a superb team of distinguished scholars, are grouped into five chronological frames—1609, 1709, 1809, 1909, and 2009—each marking a key point in the history of the Dutch in the valley. The topics range widely, from patterns of settlement and the Dutch encounter with slavery and Native America to Dutch influences in everything from architecture and religion to material culture, language, and literature. Based on fresh research, this book is at once a fascinating introduction to a remarkable past and a much-needed new look at the Dutch role in the region, in the story of America’s origins, and in creating the habits, styles, and practices identified as quintessentially New York’s.

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Though debates over immigration have waxed and waned in the course of American history, the importance of immigrants to the nation's identity is imparted in civics classes, political discourse, and television and film. We are told that the United States is a "nation of immigrants," built by people who came from many lands to make an even better nation. But this belief was relatively new in the twentieth century, a period that saw the establishment of immigrant quotas that endured until the Immigrant and Nationality Act of 1965. What changed over the course of the century, according to historian Robert L. Fleegler, is the rise of "contributionism," the belief that the newcomers from eastern and southern Europe contributed important cultural and economic benefits to American society. Early twentieth-century immigrants from southern and eastern Europe often found themselves criticized for language and customs at odds with their new culture, but initially found greater acceptance through an emphasis on their similarities to "native stock" Americans. Drawing on sources as diverse as World War II films, records of Senate subcommittee hearings, and anti-Communist propaganda, Ellis Island Nation describes how contributionism eventually shifted the focus of the immigration debate from assimilation to a Cold War celebration of ethnic diversity and its benefits—helping to ease the passage of 1960s immigration laws that expanded the pool of legal immigrants and setting the stage for the identity politics of the 1970s and 1980s. Ellis Island Nation provides a historical perspective on recent discussions of multiculturalism and the exclusion of groups that have arrived since the liberalization of immigrant laws.

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Ajax, the popular term for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is one of the most important combinations of technologies for web developers to know these days. With its rich grouping of technologies, Ajax developers can create interactive web applications with XML-based web services, using JavaScript in the browser to process the web server response. Taking complete advantage of Ajax, however, requires something more than your typical "how-to" book. What it calls for is "Ajax Hacks" from O'Reilly. This valuable guide provides direct, hands-on solutions that take the mystery out of Ajax's many capabilities. Each hack represents a clever way to accomplish a specific task, saving you countless hours of searching for the right answer. A smart collection of 100 insider tips and tricks, "Ajax Hacks" covers all of the technology's finer points. Want to build next-generation web applications today? This book can show you how. Among the multitude of topics addressed, it shows you techniques for: using Ajax with Google Maps and Yahoo Maps; displaying Weather.com data; scraping stock quotes; fetching postal codes; and building web forms with auto-complete functionality. "Ajax Hacks" also features a number of advanced hacks for accelerated web developers. Discover how to create huge, maintainable bookmarklets, how to use client-side storage for Ajax applications, and how to call a built-in Java object from JavaScript using Ajax. The book even addresses best practices for testing Ajax applications and improving maintenance, performance, and reliability for JavaScript code. The latest in O"Reilly's celebrated "Hacks" series, "Ajax Hacks" smartly complements other O'Reilly titles such as "Head Rush Ajax and JavaScript: The Definitive Guide".

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Is The Marriage of Figaro just about Figaro? Is Don Giovanni’s story the only one—or even the most interesting one—in the opera that bears his name? For generations of critics, historians, and directors, it’s Mozart’s men who have mattered most. Too often, the female characters have been understood from the male protagonist’s point of view or simply reduced on stage (and in print) to paper cutouts from the age of the powdered wig and the tightly cinched corset. It’s time to give Mozart’s women—and Mozart’s multi-dimensional portrayals of feminine character—their due. In this lively book, Kristi Brown-Montesano offers a detailed exploration of the female roles in Mozart’s four most frequently performed operas, Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, and Die Zauberflöte. Each chapter takes a close look at the music, libretto text, literary sources, and historical factors that give shape to a character, re-evaluating common assumptions and proposing fresh interpretations.Brown-Montesano views each character as the subject of a story, not merely the object of a hero’s narrative or the stock figure of convention. From amiable Zerlina, to the awesome Queen of the Night, to calculating Despina, all of Mozart’s women have something unique to say. These readings also tackle provocative social, political, and cultural issues, which are used in the operas to define positive and negative images of femininity: revenge, power, seduction, resistance, autonomy, sacrifice, faithfulness, class, maternity, and sisterhood. Keenly aware of the historical gap between the origins of these works and contemporary culture, Brown-Montesano discusses how attitudes about such concepts—past and current—influence our appreciation of these fascinating representations of women.

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In 1909 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, on his way back to South Africa from London, wrote his now celebrated tract Hind Swaraj, laying out his vision for the future of India and famously rejecting the technological innovations of Western civilization. Despite his protestations, Western technology endured and helped to make India one of the leading economies in our globalized world. Few would question the dominant role that technology plays in modern life, but to fully understand how India first advanced into technological modernity, argues David Arnold, we must consider the technology of the everyday. "Everyday Technology" is a pioneering account of how small machines and consumer goods that originated in Europe and North America became objects of everyday use in India in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Rather than investigate "big" technologies such as railways and irrigation projects, Arnold examines the assimilation and appropriation of bicycles, rice mills, sewing machines, and typewriters in India, and follows their impact on the ways in which people worked and traveled, the clothes they wore, and the kinds of food they ate. But the effects of these machines were not limited to the daily rituals of Indian society, and Arnold demonstrates how such small-scale technologies became integral to new ways of thinking about class, race, and gender, as well as about the politics of colonial rule and Indian nationhood. Arnold's fascinating book offers new perspectives on the globalization of modern technologies and shows us that to truly understand what modernity became, we need to look at the everyday experiences of people in all walks of life, taking stock of how they repurposed small technologies to reinvent their world and themselves.

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Explosive autobiography of Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver bass guitarist Duff McKaganDuff McKagan was a co-founder of Guns N' Roses, with a 13-year tenure on bass in what was at the time the biggest band on earth. As well as pulling together the classic line-up (Slash on guitar, Steven Adler on drums, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin and vocalist Axl Rose), Duff was the unofficial musical director of the band and the most experienced musician, and played bass, drums and guitar, as well as co-writing many of the songs. Over the years, Guns N' Roses have broken many records in rock history - APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION is the most successful debut album in the history of recorded music; the band's 1991 records, USE YOUR ILLUSION parts 1 and 2, debuted at one and two on the album charts, a feat never achieve before or since; and their 28-month ILLUSION world tour is still the longest running concert tour in history.Duff charts the rise of the group, and his own fall, as with success came heavy drinking and drug use, culminating in his hospitalisation for acute pancreatitis in 1994. Forced to sober up, Duff started taking an interest in business, eventually completing a degree in economics and making a killing on the stock market. He has since worked with Slash in another band, Velvet Revolver, and has continued to play with various artists over the last 15 years.IT'S SO EASY (AND OTHER LIES) is the explosive memoir of a great rock musician who, against the odds, has lived to tell the tale.

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Winner of the American Horse Publication's Best Equine Book Award of the Year (2004) Finalist for the 2005 Ben Franklin AwardSpanning time and technique, THE ART OF THE WESTERN SADDLE is a celebration and visual feast of the graceful artistry of the western saddler and his craft. Filled with detailed photographs and illustrations, this book celebrates the saddle as a decorative hallmark of subtle beauty while fulfilling the utility of its principal purpose. The ability for early man to domesticate and ride the horse created the rapid advancement of man's capability to travel and explore. The saddle-the epitome of form following function-evolved to meet the utilitarian needs of the rider and his tasks, be they work or pleasure. Illustrated with historic and contemporary examples of saddle style and decoration, THE ART OF THE WESTERN SADDLE highlights the work of makers such as Visalia Stock Saddle Company, Meana, Miles City Saddlery, Porter, Hamley, Edward H. Bohlin, McCabes, and Keyston Bros., along with contemporary makers such as Chas Weldon, Dale Harwood, Chuck Stormes, Don Butler, Chuck Treon, Jeremiah Watt, and many others. Many saddles of the stars are featured from the golden age of the Hollywood Western; these include outfits belonging to the Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Barbara Stanwyck, Ken Maynard, and Buck Jones. THE ART OF THE WESTERN SADDLE also provides a look at the many exquisite and unpublished examples of the finest in silver and gold overlay and filigree saddle silver created by the West's preeminent metalsmiths. Featuring 300 photographs, this volume is an absolute must for all equestrians, as well as for collectors and admirers of this unique and totally American craft.

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'Omnesia' is Bill Herbert's melding of omniscience and amnesia, the modern condition of thinking we can know everything about our world but, in actuality, retaining dangerously little. This doubly impressive new collection - published in twin editions, the alternative text and the remix - approaches and evades such flawed totality. Neither the alternative text nor the remix is the primary text. They are two variations, doppelgangers haunted by the idea of a whole neither can embody or know. Readers can read either or both versions. Booksellers can stock either or both. Only the literary prize judges will have to read both in order to shortlist either or both as one. For the past seven years Herbert has wandered from the Turkic west of China to the barrios of Venezuela; from Tomsk, the 'Athens of Siberia', to the heat of Hargeisa, capital of Somaliland, an unacknowledged country. These are travels to translate and, in more than one sense, to be translated; brief encounters with poets and poetics outside the Eurocentric norm; looking-glass meetings, omnesiac pilgrimage. Along the fracture lines between east and west in the Balkans, Greece, and in Jerusalem, across the cultural gaps that mark the north and south of the British Isles, Herbert teases out, through tensions between lyric and satire, English and Scots, formalism and experiment, what it is we hope to mean by home, integrity, or authenticity. Herbert's Omnesia is riven by the anxiety of incompletion: it is two variations desiring to be one theme; doppelgangers haunted by the idea of a whole neither can embody or know. Which one are you reading?

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The simplest way to make money in the stock market is to buy shares when they are cheap and make profits when their prices increase. This technique is known as value investing and is the creed of the world's most successful investor, Warren Buffett. But how do you know when a share price is cheap? This book explains in simple terms how you can develop your own UK share and FTSE100 valuation spreadsheets to calculate share and market valuations. Comparing the valuations to current market prices reveals when shares are underpriced and produces calibrated buy and sell signals. The FTSE100 system, for example, indicates the periods when you should be invested in the FTSE100 and the periods when you should not be. Since 1984 the in-periods have produced 94 times more capital growth than the out-periods. The new valuation system is the heart of this complete practical guide for managing your own investments. It shows how you should be able to double the value of your long-term investments purely through avoiding high commercial fund management fees.Using the new valuation system should help you do a lot better than this and, for example, secure a pension up to eight times larger than that provided by commercial managers. As well as providing comprehensive information about the practical and profitable ways in which you can use the new valuation system, this book is a complete toolkit for creating personal wealth through UK equity investment. It includes risk controls, tax breaks, free information sources and recommendations on the best service providers. In short this book is your first step along the road to financial security.

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The reputation of the financial industry could hardly be worse than it is today in the painful aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. "New York Times" best-selling economist Robert Shiller is no apologist for the sins of finance - he is probably the only person to have predicted both the stock market bubble of 2000 and the real estate bubble that led up to the subprime mortgage meltdown. But in this important and timely book, Shiller argues that, rather than condemning finance, we need to reclaim it for the common good. He makes a powerful case for recognizing that finance, far from being a parasite on society, is one of the most powerful tools we have for solving our common problems and increasing the general well-being. We need more financial innovation - not less - and finance should play a larger role in helping society achieve its goals. Challenging the public and its leaders to rethink finance and its role in society, Shiller argues that finance should be defined not merely as the manipulation of money or the management of risk but as the stewardship of society's assets. He explains how people in financial careers - from CEO, investment manager, and banker to insurer, lawyer, and regulator - can and do manage, protect, and increase these assets. He describes how finance has historically contributed to the good of society through inventions such as insurance, mortgages, savings accounts, and pensions, and argues that we need to envision new ways to rechannel financial creativity to benefit society as a whole. Ultimately, Shiller shows how society can once again harness the power of finance for the greater good.

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This book is an attempt to provide critical and up-to-date review and synthesis of various facets of soil borne plant diseases taking stock of present state of art in soil borne plant pathogens. The contributors from various national laboratories, centers of excellence in research institutes and university with mastery over the subjects illustrate and review the progress, application of knowledge on soil borne plant diseases besides updating the readers with recent paradigm shift in soil borne plant diseases taking in to account the art and science of ecology and epidemiology, disease resistance, physico-chemical and biological aspects of solarization, bio-control processes, molecular detection, genomics of bio-control, PGPR activity and the art of managing soil borne diseases in a sustainable way. The book also comprises special s on typical major soil borne fungal genera such as Rhizoctonia, Fusarium, Verticillium, Phytophthora and Sclerotium besides endoparasitic nematodes, Heterodera, Meloidogyne their biology, perpetuation and population dynamics and the topics on soil borne diseases of important crops like wheat, cotton and temperate fruits add to the importance and utility of the volume. The recent development in bio-control, mass production, registration, quality control, the principles of solar heating, use of mycorrhiza, utilization of on-farm wastes combined with sub-lethal heating and its utility in hot arid region are some of the special features of the volume. The philosophy of IDM with due consideration to ecology and economic parameters have been covered. The book caters the need of knowledge hungry students, teachers, researchers, policy makers, extension workers of general plant pathology, microbiology, microbial ecology, biological control, molecular biology, general biology and all well wishers of farmers.

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This textbook, aimed at undergraduate and postgraduate real estate programmes, provides an overview of real estate investment and pricing in a global context with special attention to the diversification of asset types in three parts. Designed as a successor to Will Fraser’s successful student-led investment book, Principles of Property Investment and Pricing, it encompasses the microeconomics of real estate markets and context alongside pricing failures of real estate highlighted by the impact of the global financial crisis, especially with regard to irrationality and risk.Part 1 focuses on the microeconomics of the real estate sector, covering the complex nature of real estate and the consequences for economic analysis and the operation of the market, the underlying essential processes and principles of real estate investment decision making, including a pricing model, and the significance of real estate cycles and why they occur. Part 2 begins with the characteristics of real estate as an investment, differentiated between direct and indirect investment, and making comparisons with alternative stock market assets, then examines real estate investors and their objectives, including financial institutions, REITs and other indirect vehicles. Additionally, it sets out the frameworks within which real estate investment decisions are made in relation to other investments and focuses on decision-making processes and the practicalities of performance measurement. Emerging real estate debates are discussed in Part 3. These chapters are primarily forward-looking to the implications and challenges for real estate investment, including the consequences of recent aspects of regulation, changes to occupier demand, partly driven by technology but also sustainability pressures, the logic and difficulties of international investment, with a particular focus on emerging markets.

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To score a job in data science, machine learning, computer graphics, and cryptography, you need to bring strong math skills to the party. Math for Programmers teaches the math you need for these hot careers, concentrating on what you need to know as a developer. Filled with lots of helpful graphics and more than 200 exercises and mini-projects, this book unlocks the door to interesting–and lucrative!–careers in some of today’s hottest programming fields. Key Features · 2D and 3D vector math · Matrices and linear transformations · Core concepts from linear algebra · Calculus with one or more variables · Algorithms for regression, classification, and clustering · Interesting real-world examples Written for programmers with solid algebra skills (even if they need some dusting off). No formal coursework in linear algebra or calculus is required. About the technology Most businesses realize they need to apply data science and effective machine learning to gain and maintain a competitive edge. To build these applications, they need developers comfortable writing code and using tools steeped in statistics, linear algebra, and calculus. Math also plays an integral role in other modern applications like game development, computer graphics and animation, image and signal processing, pricing engines, and stock market analysis. Paul Orland is CEO of Tachyus, a Silicon Valley startup building predictive analytics software to optimize energy production in the oil and gas industry. As founding CTO, he led the engineering team to productize hybrid machine learning and physics models, distributed optimization algorithms, and custom web-based data visualizations. He has a B.S. in mathematics from Yale University and a M.S. in physics from the University of Washington.

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A sexy and soul-stirring novel about love, family, and rediscovering what matters most by Melissa Foster, the New York Times bestselling author of Maybe We Will. When workaholic Boston attorney Deirdra de Messiéres is passed over for a well-deserved promotion, she takes a two-month hiatus to show her boss just how much he needs her and heads home to Silver Island. But beyond seeing her sisters happy, home is not where Deirdra’s heart is. She has no interest in their family restaurant, the Bistro, or reliving hurtful childhood memories, and absolutely no interest in spending a single second with Josiah “Jagger” Jones, the Bistro’s too-laid-back musician and chef. Sure, the hippie is hot, but he drives her nuts. The guy lives in a van with his dog, and he can’t even commit to a solid work schedule. To make matters worse, he’s always around. She needs to get off the island, stat. Jagger has overcome his own personal trials to place stock in life’s pleasures: family, friends, peace…and if he has his way, one positively beautiful, absolutely uptight attorney. Jagger knows he’s the perfect person to help Deirdra deal with her hurtful past and find her way back to being happy. A chance encounter leads to deep conversation, and night after liberating night, Deirdra lets down her guard. But neither has plans to stay on Silver Island. Free-spirited Jagger has wanderlust, and Deirdra has a career to return to. They’re on different paths, and plans for a future together don’t stand a chance. But when has anything gone according to plan?

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The reputation of the financial industry could hardly be worse than it is today in the painful aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. New York Times best-selling economist Robert Shiller is no apologist for the sins of finance--he is probably the only person to have predicted both the stock market bubble of 2000 and the real estate bubble that led up to the subprime mortgage meltdown. But in this important and timely book, Shiller argues that, rather than condemning finance, we need to reclaim it for the common good. He makes a powerful case for recognizing that finance, far from being a parasite on society, is one of the most powerful tools we have for solving our common problems and increasing the general well-being. We need more financial innovation--not less--and finance should play a larger role in helping society achieve its goals. Challenging the public and its leaders to rethink finance and its role in society, Shiller argues that finance should be defined not merely as the manipulation of money or the management of risk but as the stewardship of society's assets. He explains how people in financial careers--from CEO, investment manager, and banker to insurer, lawyer, and regulator--can and do manage, protect, and increase these assets. He describes how finance has historically contributed to the good of society through inventions such as insurance, mortgages, savings accounts, and pensions, and argues that we need to envision new ways to rechannel financial creativity to benefit society as a whole. Ultimately, Shiller shows how society can once again harness the power of finance for the greater good.

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The economics profession has become a favourite punching bag in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Economists are widely reviled and their influence derided by the general public. Yet their services have never been in greater demand. To unravel the paradox, we need to understand both the strengths and weaknesses of economics. Dani Rodrik argues that the multiplicity of theoretical frameworks - what economists call 'models' that exist side by side is economics' great strength. Economists are trained to hold diverse, possibly contradictory models of the world in their minds. This is what allows them, when they do their job right, to comprehend the world, make useful suggestions for improving it, and to advance their stock of knowledge over time. In short, it is what makes economics a 'science' a different kind of science from physics or some other natural sciences, but a science nonetheless. But syncretism is not a comfortable state of mind, and economists often jettison it for misplaced confidence and arrogance, especially when they confront questions of public policy. Economists are prone to fads and fashions, and behave too often as if their discipline is about the search for the model that works always and everywhere, rather than a portfolio of models. Their training lets them down when it comes to navigating among diverse models and figuring out which one applies where. Ideology and political preferences frequently substitute for analysis in choosing among models. So the book offers both a defence and critique of economics. Economists' way of thinking about social phenomena has great advantages. But the flexible, contextual nature of economics is also its Achilles' heel in the hands of clumsy practitioners.

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A shortage of affordable new housing, builders choosing to build larger, more profitable houses, and a diminishing stock of cheap houses for rent. All this sounds very familiar today, but at the end of the Great War, scarcely any houses had been built for four years and there was political pressure to build ‘Homes for Heroes’, impelled to a degree by fear of revolution. Council housing, supported by central government funding, was the chosen solution in 1919, and this study by Malcolm Graham, a leading Oxford local historian for many years, examines the consequences in Oxford, then a university city on the cusp of change. Behind the city’s Dreaming Spires image, housing for the working population was already in short supply, but an economy-minded and largely non-political City Council had always been reluctant to intervene in the housing market. In 1919, there was no hint of the city’s industrial future, and the City Council saw the replacement of substandard houses as its main challenge. The meteoric rise of the local motor industry in the early 1920s led to rapid population growth and created a massive new demand for cheap housing. Dr Graham examines the uneasy partnership between the City Council and Whitehall which led to the building of over 3,000 council houses in Oxford between the Wars. The provision of these ‘wholesome dwellings’ was a substantial, and lasting, achievement, but private builders were in fact catering for most housing need in and around the city by the 1930s. The notorious Cutteslowe Walls, built to exclude council tenants from an adjoining private estate, reflected the way in which the growing city was being socially segregated. Dr Graham provides a fascinating insight into how modern Oxford evolved away from the university buildings and college quadrangles for which the city is internationally renowned.

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Taking stock of our fragmented political landscape, Michael Patrick Lynch delivers a trenchant philosophical take on digital culture and its tendency to make us into dogmatic know-it-alls. The internet—where most shared news stories are not even read by the person posting them—has contributed to the rampant spread of “intellectual arrogance.” In this culture, we have come to think that we have nothing to learn from one another; we are rewarded for emotional outrage over reflective thought; and we glorify a defensive rejection of those different from us. Interweaving the works of classic philosophers such as Hannah Arendt and Bertrand Russell and imposing them on a cybernetic future they could not have possibly even imagined, Lynch delves deeply into three core ideas that explain how we’ve gotten to the way we are: • our natural tendency to be overconfident in our knowledge; • the tribal politics that feed off our tendency; • and the way the outrage factory of social media spreads those politics of arrogance and blind conviction. In addition to identifying an ascendant “know-it-all-ism” in our culture, Lynch offers practical solutions for how we might start reversing this dangerous trend—from rejecting the banality of emoticons that rarely reveal insight to embracing the tenets of Socrates, who exemplified the humility of admitting how little we often know about the world, to the importance of dialogue if we want to know more. With bracing and deeply original analysis, Lynch holds a mirror up to American culture to reveal that the sources of our fragmentation start with our attitudes toward truth. Ultimately, Know-It-All Society makes a powerful new argument for the indispensable value of truth and humility in democracy.

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This book is the first comprehensive chronological study of the works of a significant but little-known figure in early American history. A confidant of Thomas Jefferson, John Taylor of Caroline County, Virginia (1735-1824) represented the anti-Federalist position during the Constitutional debates and wrote extensively on government, economics, slavery, and liberty in each republic. Taylor's ideology blends Lockean liberal and Classical Republican ideas. This study fills an important gap in our understanding of early American political thought. This results in a surprising discovery that redefines the current scholarly debate on early American political thought. It finds that John Taylor reconciles Lockean liberalism and Classical Republicanism in ways that challenge the belief that liberalism's basis in natural rights, individualism, limited, impartial government, and laissez fair economics is incompatible with republican concern for civic virtue, corruption, patronage, public credit, stock companies, centralized government, and standing armies. Taylor's writings provide a revealing perspective on American government that clears away much of the confusion of recent scholarship and offers a view of the Constitution that will be startling to many twentieth-century minds. Ironically, the Classical Republican paradigm which resurrects John Taylor, is seriously challenged by his theories, and yet is responsible for rescuing him from the opprobrium of being the premier "states' rights" philosopher. Taylor's conception of government is based on the Lockean view that people are free, equal, and independent individuals who possess natural rights and should have the moral liberty to choose any form of government that suits them, without obligation to hereditary rulers or established social classes. Taylor acknowledges distinctions based only on individual merit: talents, education, and industry. Progress would occur as human reason improved and, therefore, government should be kept in close touch with its consti

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