Who Really Drove the Economy Into the Ditch?


Book Description

Joseph N. Fried examines the factors leading to the financial crisis of 2007/8 and the mess it's put us in today. Although he analyzes the transgressions of Wall Street, the author also presents a wide variety of factors — including some that originated in the governmental sector and others that originated in the private sector. The book includes several rarely mentioned contributing factors such as the detrimental impact of automated underwriting systems that were heavily promoted by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This is an opinionated book with an attitude. However, the author, a CPA and MBA, presents economic information in a conversational tone and meticulously backs up his views with references, charts, and quotes. Joseph N. Fried has published several books with Algora, explaining financial controversies and challenges for the general reader. Here, he highlights eye-popping aspects of the recent financial circus including: Drive-by house appraisals; the impact of hundreds of local housing programs funded by HUD; state governments, and housing advocacy groups; false delinquency statistics put forth by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; 'silent second' and 'piggyback loans'.




Global Financial Analysis and Economic Sustainability


Book Description

The global financial system is the worldwide framework of legal agreements, institutions, and both formal and informal economic actors that together facilitate international flows of financial capital for purposes of investment and trade financing. Since emerging in the late 19th century during the first modern wave of economic globalization, its evolution is marked by the establishment of central banks, multilateral treaties, and intergovernmental organizations aimed at improving the transparency, regulation, and effectiveness of international markets. In the late 1800s, world migration and communication technology facilitated unprecedented growth in international trade and investment. At the onset of World War, I, trade contracted as foreign exchange markets became paralyzed by money market illiquidity. Countries sought to defend against external shocks with protectionist policies and trade virtually halted by 1933, worsening the effects of the global Great Depression until a series of reciprocal trade agreements slowly reduced tariffs worldwide. Efforts to revamp the international monetary system after World War II improved exchange rate stability, fostering record growth in global finance.




Who Really Drove the Economy Into the Ditch?


Book Description

Joseph N. Fried examines the factors leading to the financial crisis of 2007/8 and the mess it's put us in today. Although he analyzes the transgressions of Wall Street, the author also presents a wide variety of factors — including some that originated in the governmental sector and others that originated in the private sector. The book includes several rarely mentioned contributing factors such as the detrimental impact of automated underwriting systems that were heavily promoted by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This is an opinionated book with an attitude. However, the author, a CPA and MBA, presents economic information in a conversational tone and meticulously backs up his views with references, charts, and quotes. Joseph N. Fried has published several books with Algora, explaining financial controversies and challenges for the general reader. Here, he highlights eye-popping aspects of the recent financial circus including: Drive-by house appraisals; the impact of hundreds of local housing programs funded by HUD; state governments, and housing advocacy groups; false delinquency statistics put forth by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; 'silent second' and 'piggyback loans'.




Reification and Representation


Book Description

The relationship between politics and the public relations industry is controversial and, at times, polemic. However, one component of this relationship that has yet to be investigated is the role of architecture. Arguing for a fundamental reconfiguration of our understanding of ‘political architecture’, this book suggests it is not only a question of constructed buildings, but equally a case of mediated imagery. Considered through examples of architecture as a backdrop for photo shoots by politicians in the democracies of the United States and the United Kingdom, this book suggests these images give us both a better understanding of recent developments in the Western political economy and the architectural and urban developments of the late 20th and early 21st Centuries. Using case studies of Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, David Cameron, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Donald Trump, this book represents a ground-breaking triangular analysis that will be essential reading for scholars in architecture, politics, media and communication studies.




How Systems Form and How Systems Break


Book Description

Our world is composed of systems within systems—the machines we build, the information we share, the organizations we form, and elements of nature that surround us. Therefore, nearly every field of study and practice embodies behaviors stemming from system dynamics. Yet the study of systems has remained somewhat fragmented based on philosophies, methodologies, and intentions. Many methodologies for analyzing complex systems extend far beyond the traditional framework of deduction evaluation and may, thus, appear mysterious to the uninitiated. This book seeks to dispel the mysteries of systems analysis by holistically explaining the philosophies, methodologies, and intentions in the context of understanding how all types of systems in our world form and how these systems break. This presentation is made at the level of conceptual understanding, with plenty of figures but no mathematical formulas, for the beginning student and interested readers new to studying systems. Through the conceptual understanding provided, students are given a powerful capability to see the hidden behaviors and unexplained consequences in the world around us.




The State of Creativity


Book Description

Creativity has been of central importance to the development of the modern State, and yet creativity is something that has become increasingly side-lined. This has been particularly apparent with the development of new machinic technologies, such as 3D printing. This monograph argues that inner creativity, combined with the zone of discourse, has been endangered by the rise of administrative regulation. Griffin investigates how the failure to incorporate creativity into that administrative regulation is adversely impacting the regulation of technologies such as 3D printing. The State of Creativity, proposes reforms to ensure that the regulation does take creativity into account.




Followership


Book Description

What is followership, and why do people follow? This book, which offers a collection of chapters written by thought leaders on the topic of followership, provides answers to these fundamental questions and elucidates how they can inform management theory, practice, and education.




Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States


Book Description

"Containing the public messages, speeches, and statements of the President", 1956-1992.




Congressional Record


Book Description




The Big Ditch


Book Description

An incisive economic and political history of the Panama Canal On August 15, 1914, the Panama Canal officially opened for business, forever changing the face of global trade and military power, as well as the role of the United States on the world stage. The Canal's creation is often seen as an example of U.S. triumphalism, but Noel Maurer and Carlos Yu reveal a more complex story. Examining the Canal's influence on Panama, the United States, and the world, The Big Ditch deftly chronicles the economic and political history of the Canal, from Spain's earliest proposals in 1529 through the final handover of the Canal to Panama on December 31, 1999, to the present day. The authors show that the Canal produced great economic dividends for the first quarter-century following its opening, despite massive cost overruns and delays. Relying on geographical advantage and military might, the United States captured most of these benefits. By the 1970s, however, when the Carter administration negotiated the eventual turnover of the Canal back to Panama, the strategic and economic value of the Canal had disappeared. And yet, contrary to skeptics who believed it was impossible for a fledgling nation plagued by corruption to manage the Canal, when the Panamanians finally had control, they switched the Canal from a public utility to a for-profit corporation, ultimately running it better than their northern patrons. A remarkable tale, The Big Ditch offers vital lessons about the impact of large-scale infrastructure projects, American overseas interventions on institutional development, and the ability of governments to run companies effectively.




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