America’s Hidden Economic Engines


Book Description

Five in-depth case studies reveal the innovative practices that position U.S. community colleges as pathways to quality employment. In America’s Hidden Economic Engines, editors Robert B. Schwartz and Rachel Lipson spotlight community and technical colleges as institutions uniquely equipped to foster more equitable economic growth across America’s regions. As Schwartz and Lipson show, these colleges are the best-placed institutions to reverse the decades-long rise in US economic inequality by race, class, and geography. In the book, Harvard Project on Workforce researchers introduce detailed case studies of five institutions—Lorain County Community College in Ohio, Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, Northern Virginia Community College, Pima Community College in Arizona, and San Jacinto Community College in Texas—that show what is possible when governments, employers, and communities invest in their community colleges’ economic and workforce development mission. These case studies reveal key institutional policies and practices, leadership behaviors, and organizational structures of successful collaborations between colleges and their regional partners in the public and private sector. Each case underscores how, although community colleges face distinct challenges based on local context, successful schools demonstrate a consistent focus on economic mobility and good jobs across all their programs and activities. In a concluding chapter, the editors champion community colleges as the most critical institutions for the future of US workforce development policy.




America's Hidden Economic Engines


Book Description

Five in-depth case studies reveal the innovative practices that position U.S. community colleges as pathways to quality employment. In America's Hidden Economic Engines, editors Robert B. Schwartz and Rachel Lipson spotlight community and technical colleges as institutions uniquely equipped to foster more equitable economic growth across America's regions. As Schwartz and Lipson show, these colleges are the best-placed institutions to reverse the decades-long rise in US economic inequality by race, class, and geography. In the book, Harvard Project on Workforce researchers introduce detailed case studies of five institutions--Lorain County Community College in Ohio, Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, Northern Virginia Community College, Pima Community College in Arizona, and San Jacinto Community College in Texas--that show what is possible when governments, employers, and communities invest in their community colleges' economic and workforce development mission. These case studies reveal key institutional policies and practices, leadership behaviors, and organizational structures of successful collaborations between colleges and their regional partners in the public and private sector. Each case underscores how, although community colleges face distinct challenges based on local context, successful schools demonstrate a consistent focus on economic mobility and good jobs across all their programs and activities. In a concluding chapter, the editors champion community colleges as the most critical institutions for the future of US workforce development policy.




The Informal Economy in Developing Nations


Book Description

This pioneering study offers a conceptual model and rich empirical evidence to help researchers and policy-makers understand informal innovation in developing countries.




The Hidden Rules of Race


Book Description

This book explores the racial rules that are often hidden but perpetuate vast racial inequities in the United States.




The Mahabharata Secret


Book Description

244 BC Asoka the Great discovers an ancient and terrible secret—a secret buried deep in the Mahabharata; a secret that could destroy the world; a secret hidden away for over 2300 years… Present Day A retired nuclear scientist is murdered. He leaves only e-mails with clues for his nephew. He and his friends follow a trail through ciphers and 2000-year-old ruins. Pursued by powerful dark forces, caught between the secrets of the past and the intrigues of the present, can they unravel the mystery before an unspeakable horror is unleashed on the world… CHRISTOPHER C DOYLE graduated from St. Stephens College, Delhi, with a degree in Economics and studied Business Management at IIM Calcutta. Since childhood, his literary mentors have been Jules Verne, HG Wells, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, JRR Tolkein, Robert Jordan and Terry Brooks. Christopher has written articles on management and business for several publications, and is regularly invited to speak at conferences. He worked with leading multinationals before setting up a strategic consultancy in India in partnership with a US-based firm. He is also a certified Executive Coach and works with senior executives to help them achieve better results in the workplace. Work aside, Christopher is a musician and lives his passion for music through his band called Mid Life Crisis which plays classic rock. He lives in Gurgaon with his wife, daughter and two dogs. The Mahabharata Secret is his debut novel. USP An IIM graduate-turned-author, Christopher C Doyle is in the same league as Chetan Bhagat and Amish Tripathi Mahabharata Secret blends mythology and history with modern science and cutting edge technology A page turner with hi-octane suspense and intrigue Readership All fiction lovers, thriller junkies, history buffs, corporate yuppies, educational institutes, libraries and general trade readers.




Green Consumerism


Book Description

Colorful bracelets, funky brooches, and beautiful handmade beads: young crafters learn to make all these and much more with this fantastic step-by-step guide. In 12 exciting projects with simple steps and detailed instructions, budding fashionistas create their own stylish accessories to give as gifts or add a touch of personal flair to any ensemble. Following the successful "Art Smart" series, "Craft Smart" presents a fresh, fun approach to four creative skills: knitting, jewelry-making, papercrafting, and crafting with recycled objects. Each book contains 12 original projects to make, using a range of readily available materials. There are projects for boys and girls, carefully chosen to appeal to readers of all abilities. A special "techniques and materials" section encourages young crafters to try out their own ideas while learning valuable practical skills.




Engine of Inequality


Book Description

The first book to reveal how the Federal Reserve holds the key to making us more economically equal, written by an author with unparalleled expertise in the real world of financial policy Following the 2008 financial crisis, the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy placed much greater focus on stabilizing the market than on helping struggling Americans. As a result, the richest Americans got a lot richer while the middle class shrank and economic and wealth inequality skyrocketed. In Engine of Inequality, Karen Petrou offers pragmatic solutions for creating more inclusive monetary policy and equality-enhancing financial regulation as quickly and painlessly as possible. Karen Petrou is a leading financial-policy analyst and consultant with unrivaled knowledge of what drives the decisions of federal officials and how big banks respond to financial policy in the real world. Instead of proposing legislation that would never pass Congress, the author provides an insider's look at politically plausible, high-impact financial policy fixes that will radically shift the equality balance. Offering an innovative, powerful, and highly practical solution for immediately turning around the enormous nationwide problem of economic inequality, this groundbreaking book: Presents practical ways America can and should tackle economic inequality with fast-acting results Provides revealing examples of exactly how bad economic inequality in America has become no matter how hard we all work Demonstrates that increasing inequality is disastrous for long-term economic growth, political action, and even personal happiness Explains why your bank's interest rates are still only a fraction of what they were even though the rich are getting richer than ever, faster than ever Reveals the dangers of FinTech and BigTech companies taking over banking Shows how Facebook wants to control even the dollars in your wallet Discusses who shares the blame for our economic inequality, including the Fed, regulators, Congress, and even economists Engine of Inequality: The Fed and the Future of Wealth in America should be required reading for leaders, policymakers, regulators, media professionals, and all Americans wanting to ensure that the nation’s financial policy will be a force for promoting economic equality.




Thomas Pynchon in Context


Book Description

Thomas Pynchon in Context guides students, scholars and other readers through the global scope and prolific imagination of Pynchon's challenging, canonical work, providing the most up-to-date and authoritative scholarly analyses of his writing. This book is divided into three parts. The first, 'Times and Places', sets out the history and geographical contexts both for the setting of Pynchon's novels and his own life. The second, 'Culture, Politics and Society', examines twenty important and recurring themes which most clearly define Pynchon's writing - ranging from ideas in philosophy and the sciences to humor and pop culture. The final part, 'Approaches and Readings', outlines and assesses ways to read and understand Pynchon. Consisting of Forty-four essays written by some of the world's leading scholars, this volume outlines the most important contexts for understanding Pynchon's writing and helps readers interpret and reference his literary work.




Congressional Record


Book Description




The State of the American Mind: Stupor and Pathetic Docility Volume Ii


Book Description

This book, The State of the American Mind: Stupor and Pathetic Docility Volume One begins to unravel some of the most obvious, perplexing, embarrassing and enduring problems and contradictions of American history and sociology, viz., how could the American revolution that started with the most ringing and most inspiring Declarations of human equality in world history end up establishing the most vicious, exploitative society the world ever knew Black chattel slavery and only ten percent white enfranchisement, etc. Further, how could men of such great wisdom and intellect like George Washington, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and others who were Enlightenment scholars and clearly knew that slavery was despicable and evil, because they had variously experienced white servitude and slavery themselves, collude to establish and institutionalize the horrible system of Negro chattel slavery in America; and also disenfranchised over 90 percent of people of their own race actions that racism could not explain. The structural/institutional slavery system they established, and the resultant consequent racism hobbles America today as it did in the past, and forced Eric Holder, the Attorney General to declare that, America is a nation of cowards, when it comes to race discussions. Thus, this book starts with serious critical discussions of race in America and reveals what no textbook has ever done, viz., that most early American whites and Blacks were slaves an uncomfortable fact that would shock most Americans because it contradicts the orthodoxy or the dominant narrative that only Blacks were brought here in chains. Further, the book also shows the year Black slavery started something almost, all textbooks got wrong. It also shows who, was the fi rst Black slave in America something no textbook ever mentions. It also shows when and how racism started in America and many other very sensitive and embarrassing but necessary issues that America avoids but must be frankly discussed for America to move forward. This book therefore shatters the two dominant themes of Americas history and sociology that Blacks were brought into America in chains as slaves while whites came to America in search of freedom, as Harvard educated President Obama famously told us in his race speech. Thus, the crowning lesson of this book, in addition to discussing some critical policy issues like education, health care, etc., is that it discovers the centripetal force of the American society that eluded contemporary Americans because American bosses have laboriously concealed the facts from the public the scary but clearly healthy uniting fact that most Americans are united by their common ancestry, their universal history and experience of servitude, bond-indentures and slavery. Nothing is more universal, more common and more shared in American history and sociology than the fact that most of our ancestors, black and white, were servants, bond-indentures and slaves who were dominated and super-exploited by few overlords. Colonial America was the preferred dumping ground for British, outcasts, rejects, criminals, masterless class, vagabonds, bond-indentures, slaves, etc., until 1776 when Australia replaced America as the British dump for its rejects and surplus citizens. Thus, that America was a nation founded by British rejects and losers is inherently more rational than the prevailing orthodoxy or the Obama theory of Americas founders that they were great honorable men who journeyed across the ocean for freedom because of the obvious reason that good, powerful achieving citizens do not normally emigrate to new uncharted lands.