The Field Guide to the Global Economy, Revised Edition

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Dinner party chatter, term paper template, no help otherwise

Interesting Yet Incomplete Presentation

The latest facts key to helping students and general audiences understand the elements of the changing international economy

Cranky Anticapitalists

Lot of information and easily written

The Field Guide to the Global Economy, Revised Edition
Sarah Anderson , John Cavanagh , and Thea Lee
Manufacturer: New Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1565849566

Book Description

An eye-opening, twenty-first century guide to the myths and realities of the international economy.

This fully updated and expanded second edition of The Field Guide to the Global Economy presents the latest facts to help make sense of the rapidly changing international economy. Illustrated throughout with charts, graphs, and cartoons, the book documents new trends, including the foreign "outsourcing" of US service jobs, as well as the increasing influence of mega-firms like Wal-Mart and labor union-free China on workers around the globe.

Published in conjunction with the Institute for Policy Studies, an independent research institute based in Washington, DC, this accessible guide explains how global institutions such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization, and North American Free Trade Agreement affect communities, workers, the poor, and the environment. The book dispels the widely disseminated propaganda about current globalization policies and provides an update on the burgeoning movement that is challenging them, from Bolivian water warriors to US student anti-sweatshop activists.

Customer Reviews:

Dinner party chatter, term paper template, no help otherwise.......2005-12-19

The reviews by BookwormJDC and P.Murray are on target. They give some excellent examples from the book.

Let me help answer the question that I always want to get out of these reviews: "Should I read this book?"

If you are going to a dinner party hosted by Al Franken or Michael Moore, or need to win favor, respect or envy from anyone on the far left, get this book. Everything that is wrong with America, Capitalism and Free Trade is explained in charts, cartoons and talking points. You will look like a genius as you expound on the ills of the world over a glass of California wine.

It reads like a college term paper (Doesn't rise anywhere near the level of thesis.). There are a plethora of facts, all of which support the theme. It's easy to read and the authors do a good job of staying on point. If you have a term paper due, get this book. Don't plagiarize it, just look at the technique and style.

Here's where I think the term papers get separated from the theses. In a well-written term paper you can get away with presenting a problem and gloss over the solution. I like the term reviewer BookWormJDC used to describe the treatment of solutions offered to address the litany of injustices described in the book, "ill-considered". Simply put, their solutions would not stand up to the same level of scrutiny expended on the problems.

Most of the issues raised are nothing new, but they are well documented and presented. What I found more excruciatingly tedious with each successive chapter was the lack of anything positive in the book. Ok, I get it. There is greed, oppression and injustice in the world, now what? Anytime they felt compelled to site anything positive, it was snuffed out by starting the sentence with "Although" and finishing up with what's wrong with it!

If you want to participate in the global economy, either for the evil corporations, or the oppressed peoples of the world, there is really nothing to help you in this book.

Interesting Yet Incomplete Presentation.......2005-11-28

Quite an interesting read, containing lots of facts that could affect your life (which job categories are most at risk for outsourcing overseas, how Wal-Mart treats its employees badly and taxpayers suffer the consequences, disgustingly excessive pay for CEOs, the invasion of unregulated genetically modified food, ...). Many of the facts are eye-opening and I certainly moderated my personal pro-business views.

Unfotrunately, the book is introductory (almost to a fault) as you can guess from the fact that the jacket brags about the book's cartoons. It is extremely one-sided, and its blatant pro-union propaganda can be annoying. Facts and statistics are presented but I got the feeling that many of the book's arguments could be undermined if the "whole story" were revealed (simply throwing in a citation should not take the place of complete presentation within the text). Finally, there are many completely unsupported statements of opinion inappropriately stuck into otherwise fact-based paragraphs, giving these opinions apparent legitimacy.

Despite its shortcomings, this is an interesting book, and presents an easy way to learn about the World Bank and the IMF as (probably) seen by Third World people. After reading, I agree that the corporate-driven globalization we are now experiencing is flawed, but some of the alternatives promoted by this book (blanket amnesty to illegal aliens, total cancellation of poor-country debt, weakened protection of intellectual property rights, ...) appear equally ill-considered.

The latest facts key to helping students and general audiences understand the elements of the changing international economy.......2005-11-06

The updated, expanded new edition of the Field Guide To The Global Economy presents the latest facts key to helping students and general audiences understand the elements of the changing international economy, and is a 'must' for any who would keep up with change. Charts, graphs and cartoons aid in understanding the latest trends, from the outsourcing of US jobs to the influence of big chains around the world. To add authority, this is published in conjunction with the Institute for policy Studies based in Washington DC and explains how global institutions affect not just monetary policies, but social and economic situations around the world.

Cranky Anticapitalists.......2001-10-19

The title is catchy enough. I expected lots of facts and figures in tables and graphs that would illustrate international trade and finance. Was I surprised. There are facts and figures there, even pictures and cartoons. But the authors see the world differently. "The problem..." we are told, "...is not so much that the world is so tightly linked now...but that the links converge in such a small number of hands." The hands they're refering to belong to corporate executives and billionaires. An ongoing theme throughout the book is the old cliche' that the rich get richer while the poor get poorer.
One thing different about the current process of globalization, the authors claim, "is that a number of poorer countries, led by China and Mexico, now have the infrastructure to house practically any industrial or service operation...." What's wrong with that? They object that "...Ford, Boeing, and other global corporations are now setting up state-of-the-art manufacturing plants in countries where wages and other costs are kept extremely low through repression." We can all agree that repression is a bad thing. We may differ on where it's happening. For instance, according to the index of economic freedom constructed by the Heritage Foundation (what the authors call a "corporate think tank") and the Wall Street Journal, China is "mostly unfree" (but not "repressed") and Mexico is "mostly free." "Repressed" countries include Zimbabwe, Iran, Cuba, Iraq, and North Korea. Corporate capitalism does not appear to be causing problems in those countries by any stretch of the imagination. Vietnam is among the repressed, but it's difficult to see how workers who produce sneakers for the Nike company would be better off if Nike weren't there.
Much of the book is devoted to criticizing "globalization claims." Although some free traders will justifiably dismiss this criticism, in my view the authors' attacks will work to strenghthen the case for free trade. Put differently, any economist who wants practice defending free trade can find it reading this book. Warning: the bile may rise in you.
To their credit the authors provide an abundance of endnotes to support their case. They offer some criticism a free trader would appreciate. For example they object to export subsidies and IMF bailouts of banks with troubled loans to developing countries. They even profess to reject protectionism. However the alternative they recommend, "fair trade," is better described as "managed trade."
The authors minimize the role of consumers in the process of globalization. Corporations would not achieve their goals if consumers weren't buying their products. The authors also fail to recognize the importance of property rights in economic development. If the governments of poor countries established and protected property rights, the people would get wealthier. Given that these authors reject international trade and investment as a cause of our prosperity and cannot tolerate disparities of wealth, they'll always remain idealists with axes to grind.

Lot of information and easily written.......2001-06-04

That is the first book on economics I read that does not necessarily employ a lot of incomprehensible terminology. Moreover, it is written for the average reader who wants to get a "first introduction" into the topic. It is definitely not written for people who search any detailed infomation. This book explains perfectly the basic correlations in today's global economy.

Sarah Anderson, John Cavanagh and Thea Lee: The Field Guide to the Global Economy (revised edition).(Book review): An article from: Capital & Class

Average customer rating:

Sarah Anderson, John Cavanagh and Thea Lee: The Field Guide to the Global Economy (revised edition).(Book review): An article from: Capital & Class
David Layfield
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000U1QEZY
Release Date: 2007-07-21

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Capital & Class, published by Thomson Gale on June 22, 2007. The length of the article is 1494 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Sarah Anderson, John Cavanagh and Thea Lee: The Field Guide to the Global Economy (revised edition).(Book review)
Author: David Layfield
Publication: Capital & Class (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 22, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Issue: 92 Page: 205(4)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

It has been ten years since the publication of the third edition of this seminal text on plant virology, during which there has been an explosion of conceptual and factual advances. The fourth edition updates and revises many details of the previous editon, while retaining the important older results that constitute the field's conceptual foundation.

Key features of the fourth edition include:
* Thumbnail sketches of each genera and family groups
* Genome maps of all genera for which they are known
* Genetic engineered resistance strategies for virus disease control
* Latest understanding of virus interactions with plants, including gene silencing
* Interactions between viruses and insect, fungal, and nematode vectors
* New plate section containing over 50 full-color illustrations

Customer Reviews:

Excellent.......2006-01-10

That the study of plant viruses is of very important does not even need to be said, given the destruction that they cause to food plants every year. This sizable book, having appreciable gravitational pull, is written for experts and students who intend to specialize in plant virology. However, anyone who is curious about the subject will find the book packed full of information, even though at times it reads more like a literature survey. In addition, many of the techniques in genetic engineering were first applied to food crops and other plants. Therefore anyone who is interested in transgenic technologies or functional genomics will find the book very informative. This reviewer was mostly interested in the effects of plant viruses on photosynthesis and the role of gene silencing, if any, in plant viruses. These topics are discussed at various places in the book.

Some of the questions that arise when reading the book include the following (not all of which are answered in the book):

1. To what extent are humans responsible for spreading viruses to plants by moving them from one place to another?
2. How is viral infection dependent on the manner of crop rotation? On the sowing time of seed?
3. How does the ecology and epidemiology of viruses with nematode vectors differ from that of viruses with air-borne vectors?
4. What role do weeds play in the incidence of virus diseases?
5. Why does viral transmission by grafting result in a different disease than from transmission by mechanical inoculation?
6. How do nepoviruses and cryptic viruses infect the gametes?
7. How many viral particles are actually needed for a successful infection?
8. Are there plant viruses that specifically target the chloroplasts?
9. How do plant viruses affect the photosynthetic processes?
10. How does the susceptibility to infection depend on light intensity?
11. How are viruses transmitted to plants by beetles?
12. What role does gene silencing play in cross-protection?
13. How are viruses used to induce sequence-specific suppression of gene expression?
14. How does post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS) affect virus infection? How is PTGS related to transgenic resistance?
15. What factors are responsible for the differences in symptoms caused by different strains of a plant virus?
16. Do plant viruses inhibit programmed cell death?
17. Is there any evidence for the existence of `viral genes' whose role is only in the induction of disease?
18. What are the nature of the mosaic patterns and symptoms?
19. How does viral infection affect ethylene production?
20. What are the mechanisms by which virus infection stunts growth?
21. Do plant viruses suppress the expression of genes that compete with it and enhance the expression of those that help it?
22. How do viruses move from the external phloem to the internal phloem?
23. What are the effects of viruses on plant metabolism and can the metabolism be engineered by the use of viruses?
24. What is the nature of asymmetric infection?
25. What is the connection between the triple gene block and viral movement from cell to cell?
26. What experimental methods are used to study virus movement?
27. What is the nature of subliminal infection?
28. What are the three types of viral replication?
29. In terms of field release of transgenic plants, what risks are there in the recombination between episomal and transgenic viral sequences?
30. What are the mechanisms for RNA recombination?
31 What is the difference between mutation frequency and mutation rate?
32. What proteins are involved in the replication of viral RNA?
33. How many different species of plant viruses are there?
34. What is the oldest recorded virus?
35. What species of plants have never been susceptible to viral infection?
36. Does viral infection always cause disease in the infected plant?
37. Can two viruses, each of which is deleterious to the plant, be combined to form a virus that is not?
38. Can viral infection ever induce growth in the infected plant?
39. For plants having nectar guides and infected by a virus, does this infection have an effect on the behavior of the honeybees that access the plant?
40. Why does on species of virus infect one plant species but not another?
41. How can a virus be blocked from infecting the plant?
42. How long can a virus remain in pollen or seed before it loses its power to infect?
43. Can two different viruses infecting the same plant result in an easier infection for both than each one acting alone?
44. Why do plant viruses have the shapes that they do?
45. How many genes do plant viruses have?
46. Why are cell recognition proteins not necessary for plant viruses?
47. What strategies do viruses use to overcome eukaryotic translation constraints?
48. What is ribosome shunting?
49. What is cap-snatching?
50. Where does the virus get its energy to carry out its functions?
51. What advantages are there for viruses to replicate in their insect vectors?
52. What mechanisms do plant viruses use for RNA recombination?

Testing Methods for Seed-Transmitted Viruses: Principles and Protocols

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Testing Methods for Seed-Transmitted Viruses: Principles and Protocols
S. E. Albrechtsen
Manufacturer: CABI
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Spiral-bound

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ASIN: 0851990169

Book Description

Yield losses and reduced crop quality, caused by plant viruses are an increasing problem. Several important plant viruses are, in addition to their sap and vector transmission, also transmitted through seed. Seed transmission of plant pathogens plays an important role for the early outbreak of
disease in a crop, for the survival of inoculum from one crop season to the next, and for its international dispersal. Freedom from seedborne viral infection can be revealed by certain seed health testing methods. This book provides a practical guide to the commonly used detection methods for
seed-transmitted viruses and viroids affecting both tropical and non-tropical crops.

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Nematode Vectors of Plant Viruses
C. E. Taylor , and D. J. F. Brown
Manufacturer: CABI
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0851991599

Book Description

Viruses transmitted by nematodes are responsible for many economically important diseases of crops. Thus, when in the late 1950s, this mode of disease propagation was demonstrated by proof of the transmission of grapevine fanleaf disease by Xiphinema index, it marked the start of a significant and fruitful period of research. Since that time, however, numerous reviews have been published on different aspects of nematode transmission of plant viruses and the nematode transmitted viruses themselves. However, until now there has been a lack of any source which draws all of this research together. This book fills this need by providing a valuable overview of the last forty years of research into the transmission of viruses by nematodes, as well as setting the agenda for future investigations. This book is an important resource for all crop protectionists, nematologists, and plant virologists.

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Plant Virology
R. E. F. Matthews
Manufacturer: Academic Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0124805531

Book Description