Government Money

Each day brings shocking new revelations of the depth and breadth of the corruption of the Biden family. From China to Ukraine to Moscow to Iraq to Kazakhstan to Costa Rica to Florida to Romania and stops in between the Biden family has been in enriching itself by trading off the public offices and power accumulated by its mastermind: Joe Biden. The corruption of our own, elected leaders is the crux of America’s difficulties.

In this classic account, historian Philip Foner traces the radical history of black workers’ contribution to the American labor movement.

People v Money gives an unprecedented, first-hand account of widespread corruption at the highest levels of Florida government. From America’s best foreclosure defense attorney to investigative journalist to author, Mark’s narrative takes you on an epic journey through that corruption. Just when you think the corruption can’t go any deeper, it does - from trial courts to the Florida Supreme Court, the attorney general’s office, and the governor’s mansion!

In recent years, the world has been rocked by major economic crises, most notably the devastating collapse of Lehman Brothers, the largest bankruptcy in American history, which triggered the breathtakingly destructive sub-prime disaster. What sparks these vast economic calamities? Why do our economic policy makers fail to protect us from such upheavals? In Wrong, economist Richard Grossman addresses such questions, shining a light on the poor thinking behind nine of the worst economic policy mistakes of the past 200 years, missteps whose outcomes ranged from appalling to tragic.

En temps de crise, l'économie est souvent accusée de tous les maux. Mais si au lieu de la diaboliser, nous revisitons son rôle dans la société ? On pense en général qu'elle ne crée que des biens. C'est oublier sa vocation première : créer du lien, comme le montrent les réseaux d'économie solidaire. On pense aussi qu'elle épuise autant les ressources naturelles que les individus et les sociétés. C'est négliger les nouvelles pistes qui sont à notre portée, sources d'une croissance centrée sur le vivre-ensemble.

Behind every financial crisis lurks a "political bubble" - policy biases that foster market behaviors leading to financial instability. Rather than tilting against risky behavior, political bubbles - arising from a potent combination of beliefs, institutions, and interests - aid, abet, and amplify risk.

In his new book, economist Dean Baker debunks the myth that conservatives favor the market over government intervention. In fact, conservatives rely on a range of "nanny state" policies that ensure the rich get richer while leaving most Americans worse off. It's time for the rules to change. Sound economic policy should harness the market in ways that produce desirable social outcomes: decent wages, good jobs, and affordable health care.

A generation of Americans came of age boycotting grapes, swept up in a movement that vanquished California's most powerful industry and accomplished the unthinkable: dignity and contracts for farm workers. Four decades later, Cesar Chavez's likeness graces postage stamps, and dozens of schools and streets have been renamed in his honor. But the real story of Chavez's farm workers' movement - both its historic triumphs and its tragic disintegration - has remained buried beneath the hagiography.

En Un pequeño empujón, considerado ya un clásico y uno de los mejores libros sobre economía y política de las últimas décadas, Cass R. Sunstein y Richard H. Thaler, premio Nobel de Economía, observan cómo nuestras percepciones y decisiones dependen del modo en que se organizan ante nosotros las diferentes opciones. Gobiernos y empresas, pero también padres, profesores y médicos, se convierten así en una especie de «arquitectos de la elección».

A series of developments capped by the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision have effectively crowned a bunch of billionaires and their operatives the new kings of politics. Big Money is a rollicking tour of a new political world dramatically reordered by ever-larger flows of cash. Ken Vogel has breezed into secret gatherings of big-spending Republicans and Democrats alike, from California poolsides to DC hotel bars, to brilliantly expose the way the mega-money men (and rather fewer women) are dominating the new political landscape.

The 2012 presidential campaign will, above all else, be a referendum on the Obama administration’s handling of the financial crisis, recalling the period when Obama’s “audacity of hope” met the austerity of reality. Central to this is the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 - the largest economic recovery plan in American history. Senator Mitch McConnell gave a taste of the enormity of the money committed: if you had spent $1 million a day since Jesus was born, it still would not add up to the price tag of the stimulus package.

This book is a demonstration both of the economic planning and order that prevail under capitalism and of the chaos and tyranny that prevail under socialism. Originally published in 1979, and later incorporated into the author’s magnum opus, Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics as Chapters 6-8, this is a powerful and convincing book which explains the essential principles of free-market price theory along with leading applications of those principles.

In BOOM, prize-winning reporter Tony Horwitz takes a spirited road trip through the wild new frontier of energy in North America. His journey begins in subarctic Alberta, where thousands of miners labor in an industrial moonscape to extract the region's oil-rich tar sands. Horwitz then follows the route of the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline that may carry tar-sands oil from Canada across Montana, the Dakotas, and Nebraska en route to Gulf Coast refineries.

Follow the Money is a harrowing, behind-the-scenes account of how a cabal of powerful, tightly connected Texas Republicans have quietly hijacked American politics for their own personal gain. It tells the story of how the Texas political system came to be hijacked by a sophisticated, well-funded group of conservative Republicans who, once they were able to elevate George W. Bush to the presidency, then went about applying their hardball, high-dollar politicking to Washington, D.C.

"Le Front populaire a changé concrètement la vie des gens. Pas de grands théâtres comme sous la Révolution française, pas de grands moments susceptibles de grandes fresques sous le pinceau d'un David, mais des petites choses. Des petites choses qui permettent à Jean Renoir ou à Fernand Léger de mettre en scène ou montrer les congés payés. C'est-à-dire des gens qui partent à bicyclette, en tandem et qui pour la première fois de leur vie découvrent la mer". Michel Onfray.

The Anchor Hocking Glass Company, once the world's largest maker of glass tableware, was the base on which Lancaster's society was built. As Glass House unfolds, bankruptcy looms. With access to the company and its leaders, and Lancaster's citizens, Alexander shows how financial engineering took hold in the 1980s, accelerated in the 21st century, and wrecked the company.

The plot to assassinate President John F. Kennedy has been shrouded in secrecy and deceit, leading most Americans to doubt the veracity of the Warren Commission's findings. Now, after forty years, Barr McClellan exposes the secret, high-level conspiracy in Texas that led to Kennedy's death and L.B.J.'s succession as President.

When it comes to the afflictions of the global economy, almost everyone - and especially Donald Trump - is quick to point the finger of blame at the state of international trade. But what about unconstrained capital flows? Unfettered capital has resulted in a string of financial and economic crises that have left our political systems strained and dialogue corroded. The once perceived benefits of openness have been cast to the wayside and the cracks in the global order can no longer be ignored.

As scientific and observational evidence on global warming piles up every day, questions of economic policy in this central environmental topic have taken center stage. But as author and prominent Yale economist William Nordhaus observes, the issues involved in understanding global warming and slowing its harmful effects are complex and cross disciplinary boundaries. For example, ecologists see global warming as a threat to ecosystems, utilities as a debit to their balance sheets, and farmers as a hazard to their livelihoods.

Through economics, our politicians have the power to transform people's lives for better or worse. Think Deng Xiaoping who lifted millions out of poverty by opening up China; Franklin D Roosevelt whose 'New Deal' helped the USA break free of the Great Depression; or Peron and his successors in Argentina who brought the country to the brink of ruin. In this magisterial history, economist and politician Vince Cable examines the legacy of 16 world leaders who transformed their countries' economic fortunes and who also challenged economic convention.