The Age of the Economist (9th Edition)

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Neat Little Introduction.......2000-03-28

The history of economic thought has its fair share of textbooks that cater for introductory studies. Fusfeld's "The Age of the Economist" is one of these texts. Certainly, it is a close substitute for Robert Heilbroner's world-conquering "The Worldly Philosophers". Though not quite as good as Heilbroner in the story-telling department, Fusfeld is better in the area of breadth. "The Age of the Economist" covers a wider range of thinkers right up to the present. Also following Heilbroner, it makes an admirable attempt at fusing together the intellectual, sociological and economic influences shaping the thought of various individuals, schools and movements through time. This is a difficult, but essential task to perform in an introductory text, not least because it impresses upon the uninitiated the importance of taking account of the many and various influences upon the history of economic thought. This is something that is, sadly and, in my opinion, inexcusably neglected in more advanced texts. (Such texts should be properly entitled "Histories of Economic THEORY" rather than "Histories of Economic THOUGHT".) Anyway, Fusfeld does a good job in crafting an introductory history of economic thought text and includes a valuable bibliographical essay, thus enabling the curious reader to delve into the subject in greater depth.

The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World

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A Broad Clear Vision
Must Read!!!
Dr. Greed-span, I presume
Throws everyone under the bus
He had his chance

The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World
Alan Greenspan
Manufacturer: Penguin Press HC, The
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1594201315
Release Date: 2007-09-17

Book Description

In the immediate aftermath of September 11, 2001, in his fourteenth year as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, Alan Greenspan took part in a very quiet collective effort to ensure that America didn't experience an economic meltdown, taking the rest of the world with it. There was good reason to fear the worst: the stock market crash of October 1987, his first major crisis as Federal Reserve Chairman, coming just weeks after he assumed control, had come much closer than is even today generally known to freezing the financial system and triggering a genuine financial panic. But the most remarkable thing that happened to the economy after 9/11 was...nothing. What in an earlier day would have meant a crippling shock to the system was absorbed astonishingly quickly.

After 9/11 Alan Greenspan knew, if he needed any further reinforcement, that we're living in a new world - the world of a global capitalist economy that is vastly more flexible, resilient, open, self-directing, and fast-changing than it was even 20 years ago. It's a world that presents us with enormous new possibilities but also enormous new challenges. The Age of Turbulence is Alan Greenspan's incomparable reckoning with the nature of this new world - how we got here, what we're living through, and what lies over the horizon, for good and for ill-channeled through his own experiences working in the command room of the global economy for longer and with greater effect than any other single living figure. He begins his account on that September 11th morning, but then leaps back to his childhood, and follows the arc of his remarkable life's journey through to his more than 18-year tenure as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, from 1987 to 2006, during a time of transforming change.

Alan Greenspan shares the story of his life first simply with an eye toward doing justice to the extraordinary amount of history he has experienced and shaped. But his other goal is to draw readers along the same learning curve he followed, so they accrue a grasp of his own understanding of the underlying dynamics that drive world events. In the second half of the book, having brought us to the present and armed us with the conceptual tools to follow him forward, Dr. Greenspan embarks on a magnificent tour de horizon of the global economy. He reveals the universals of economic growth, delves into the specific facts on the ground in each of the major countries and regions of the world, and explains what the trend-lines of globalization are from here. The distillation of a life's worth of wisdom and insight into an elegant expression of a coherent worldview, The Age of Turbulence will stand as Alan Greenspan's personal and intellectual legacy.

A Timeline of a Remarkable Career

Mar. 6, 1926 Born in New York City

1936 At 10 sees Roosevelt campaigning; becomes expert on the 1936 Yankees

1938 Takes up clarinet at 12

1943-44 Studies clarinet at Julliard

Mid 1944 Joins Henry Jerome Band

1948 Graduates (summa cum laude) from New York University. (He later earns a master's in 1950 and a Ph.D. in 1977, also from NYU.) Hired as economic analyst at the Conference Board.

1954-74 Co-founds Townsend-Greenspan & Co. Inc., an economic consulting firm in New York City. (He returns in 1977.)

1974 Nominated by President Ford as chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisors.

1983 Chair of bipartisan National Commission on Social Security Reform.

June 1, 1987 Nominated by President Reagan for Fed Chair. Confirmed by Senate August 3.

Oct. 19, 1987 Only 69 days into Greenspan's term, the Dow drops 508 points and 22%.

July 10, 1991 Nominated by President George H.W. Bush to a second term as Fed Chairman. Later nominated to a third (February 22, 1996) and fourth term (January 4, 2000) by President Clinton.

Apr. 6, 1997 Marries Andrea Mitchell

May 18, 2004 Nominated by President George W. Bush for a fifth term as Fed chairman

Jan. 31, 2006 Completes 18 ½ years at the Fed

Feb. 1, 2006 Forms Greenspan Associates LLC, an economic consulting firm

Alan Greenspan's Top 10 Classical and Jazz Favorites

Before Alan Greenspan embarked on his legendary financial career, he studied the clarinet at Julliard and played as a professional jazz musician (while doing tax returns for his bandmates). He chose 10 favorites for us from a lifetime of listening, including:

Mozart, Piano Concerto No. 23

Vivaldi, Complete Cello Concertos

Coleman Hawkins, "Body and Soul"

Customer Reviews:

A Broad Clear Vision.......2007-10-08

Forget about whether Greenspan slipped up here and there on not moving the interest rate one half point at this or that particular time. Instead look at his record, his outlook, his overall philosophy, and most important, the overall good that he achieved during his long and distinguished career.

How refreshing to read such a consistent and logical defense of the capitalist and free market system, supported by facts and research. This man is no narrow minded economist or 'figures man'; he was an enlightened philosopher whom American, and the rest of the world, were fortunate to have in such a position of influence over these important decades.

Thank you, Dr Greenspan! Your book is fantastic!

Must Read!!!.......2007-10-08

Beautiful compendium about the forces that currently rule the planet and a very respectful vision about its future in 2030.

A great book and a delicious reading!

Mauricio Beltran

Dr. Greed-span, I presume.......2007-10-07

Greenspan's anecdotes are interesting - he was in high places and behind the scenes during a somewhat turbulent time we all lived through (it isn't difficult to think of far more turbulent times humanity has endured). His determination to present himself as just a simple, hard-working number-cruncher who hesitates to use the vertical pronoun comes off a bit disingenuous, but the writing on the whole is excellent.
About half-way along, he shows his true philosophical colors and there he loses me. The only system worth living under, according to him, is laissez-faire capitalism and anything whatsoever that constrains it is the "welfare state." The one is held up on a pedestal and worshipped, every extra nickel it squeezes out of the ether is applauded; the other is booed and hissed and every incremental nickel foregone in the name of smoothing out the iniquities of capitalism is lamented. He misleads shamelessly with statistics, e.g. using average per capita income as a yardstick for measuring the success of an economy without making much of the fact that ten guys with ten thousand dollars each will yield the same APCI as one guy with a hundred thousand dollars and nine guys with nothing. He talks about a system that rewards "risk taking" without acknowledging that any risk taker needs a modicum of luck to achieve success, otherwise it would not be called "risk." Yet those risk-takers who succeed in the casino of life are deemed to deserve every nickel and be in no way beholden to those who took the same risks, as carefully and with as much bravery and forethought but with, ultimately, less favorable winds at their back -- or those fellow beings who for whatever reason never got into the race in the first place. (And yet, when unfettered and unregulated risk takers threaten, by their unfettered risk-taking, to bring down the entire world economy, then it's okay for government agencies to step and save the day even if it allows those financial buccaneers to walk away with a whole lot of money in their pockets that they should have lost; is it really just coincidence that during his tenure at the Fed, income disparity in America grew by leaps and bounds? I think not.) This guy is Ayn Rand in a business suit.
Once I grasped the lens through which Greenspan sees everything, it was possible to add the correct amount of salt to his pronouncements and the rest of the book became quite interesting. His take on the world-economic status quo and his prognostications and warnings about the future in a changing global economy are worth reading as long as one doesn't swallow them whole, in my opinion. In all, a book not to be missed.

Throws everyone under the bus.......2007-10-07

Shameless attempt to bring some credibility to his lackluster life by pointing out flaws and character defects of others. He literally drives the bus over every one he mentions. It is more of a "it's all about me, and ain't I great" mentality.
I still could not put the thing down. I did enjoy some of the obstacles and inside information about the challenges that we as a nation faced
Timothy Kendrick
author
PTSD: Pathways Through the Secret Door

He had his chance.......2007-10-06

Mr. Greenspan is trying to settle some scores, but again he's so obfuscating that I don't find the book very useful. It makes me sick to hear him now reversing himself and contradicting stuff he has been saying for last 10 years -- mortgages, CDOs, subprime... He said that there is no future for CDOs because they can't be priced! Well, maybe Alan can't price them, and very few peopel can, but to say something like that is dumb.

I wish he just shuts up now when he has nothing useful or meaningful to say. He had his chance and he blew it by being a lackey of the american corporate totalitarianism. We pay, of course.

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Martha Stewart (Biography (a & E))
Ann Kerns
Manufacturer: Twenty-First Century Books (CT)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

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ASIN: 0822566133

The Age of Economists: From Adam Smith to Milton Friedman (Chapion of Freedom Series)

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The Age of Economists: From Adam Smith to Milton Friedman (Chapion of Freedom Series)

Manufacturer: Hillsdale College Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0916308618

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Economic Life in the Modern Age
Werner Sombart
Manufacturer: Transaction Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0765800306

The Age of Economists, from Adam Smith to Milton Friedman (Champions of Freedom, Volume 26)

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The Age of Economists, from Adam Smith to Milton Friedman (Champions of Freedom, Volume 26)
Richard M. (Editor) Ebeling
Manufacturer: Hillsdale, Michigan: Hillsdale College Press, 1999
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000LVJ7E8

The Age of Keynes The life, times, thought and triumph of the greatest economist of our age

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The Age of Keynes The life, times, thought and triumph of the greatest economist of our age
Robert Lekachman
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000J0F8MQ

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Age of Keynes: The Life, Times, Thought and Triumph of the Greatest Economist of Our Age
Robert Lekachman
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KE6R08

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The Age of the Economist
Daniel R. Fusefeld
Manufacturer: Scott, Foresman and Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000S81QL6

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Age of the Economist
Daniel R. Fusfeld
Manufacturer: Addison Wesley Longman
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OU5CAY

Book Description

This new collection of instruments provides team building practitioners with tools designed to assist in the development of individuals, teams, and organizations. The instruments range from very simple, self-scored tools, to more complex assessments that provide in-depth information on teams. All of the instruments are fully reproducible which makes them a very cost-effective alternative to in-house development or off-the-shelf instruments. Provides survey tools for three areas of team development

Effective team players-these instruments help team members, team leaders, and team coaches identify their strengths and weaknesses and use the survey data to build a self-improvement plan.
Effective teams-includes tools to increase the effectiveness of the way a team accomplishes its tasks. Covers team meetings, high performance, customer focus and other team issues.
Organizational effectiveness-These survey tools address the specific issue of team-based organizations. They measure the extent to which the organizations culture, structure, and systems support a teamwork strategy.
Team Player Competency Profile
Team Leader Assessment
Self-Directed Team Coach
Being Accountable
Team Member Listening Profile
Team Sponsor Assessment
Ten-Minute Team Member Check-up
Cross-Functional Team Conflict Survey
High Performance Profile: A Mature Team Assessment
Customer Focus Survey: A Mature Team Assessment
Customer Perceptions Survey: A Team Feedback Instrument
Management Team Decision Profile: Teaming at the Top
Team Humor Quotient
Virtual Team Assessment
Self-Management Success Factors
Quick Team Check
Team Trouble Ticket
Team Meeting Assessment
Team Success Survey
Survey of Cross-Functional Teamwork
Organizational Alignment Assessment
Team Culture Survey
Organizational Structure Assessment
Organizational Culture Survey
Self-Directed Team Readiness Survey

Customer Reviews:

Very Helpful.......2002-03-03

A very helpful book with exelent instructions and large detailed photographs. A must for anyone making an insturment wheather for an assignment or just for fun. Well worth the money

Book Description

Forest Products and Wood Science: An Introduction, Fifth Edition is a revised and updated edition of this classic introductory textbook. The fifth edition discusses key areas in wood science including characteristics and structure of wood, applications and performance capabilities of forest products, and the environmental implications of the use of wood-based materials. In addition, the authors explain basic production processes and explore the use of wood as a source of energy and industrial chemicals.Expanding and updating key data, the new edition of Forest Products and Wood Science provides students, wood scientists, and forest product professionals with a comprehensive overview of the anatomical and physical nature of wood and the relationship of these characteristics to its use as an industrial raw material. The fifth edition also contains a valuable new webliography providing an extensive list of valuable web resources available in the areas of forest products and wood science. With updated research findings and expanded discussions of key areas in wood science that reflect the changing face of the forest products industry, Forest Products and Wood Science: An Introduction, Fifth Edition will continue to be an indispensable text for students and professionals in the field.

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Open door on psychoanalysis.......2007-07-26

If you, like me, are curious and fascinated about psychology and psychoanalysis, have confusedly heard some bits & pieces about Freud and his weird but intriguing ideas, and think that it has finally come the time when you want to find out what it's all about, this book will serve you as a gentle and effective introduction. You will gain an historical perspective of the main theories and school of thoughts, with enough material to get you started and further stimulate your curiosity, avoiding overwhelming details. Of course to really appreciate psychology and psychoanalysis you eventually have to read the main authors directly... as this discipline is not clear cut like mathematics or computer science, and the interpretation and relative weights given to the original ideas can play a major role. But you have to start somewhere, you need to have a bird's view of the discipline so that you find your orientation and decide where to go digging for more. This book serves exactly this purpose, with a synthesis of Freud's views, and an exposition of the derivation of his theories . the psychology of the ego, the Psychology of the Self, and Freudian revisionism. Alongside this historical development some case studies are presented, a nice addition to help keep the discussion on practical and realistic terms. As a minor criticism to this book, I wish there cases had been discussed in more depth. Also, you cannot help getting the impression that , like in philosophy, psychology is a field where bs is standard practice, there are no experiments like in physics and biology that can disprove the impostors. As a general rule, avoid the most convoluted and obscure authors. Freud might be weird, he might be wrong, but at least he was very clear about his ideas. Almost invariably, here and elsewhere, complexity is just a cover for emptiness.

Historical foundation.......2006-01-30

I would strongly recommend this book to anyone wanting a historical perspective of the development of psychoanalytic theory. This book takes you through different offsprings of psychoanalysis beginning with Freud's contribution. It also offers a comparison of each new theory with classic Freudian psychoanalytic thought so you have an idea of which aspects were further developed and which ones were "trashed." It's a good foundational book for anyone beginning an interest in psychoanalysis.

"and Beyond" could have been a good read...........2005-12-15

This could have been a valuable reference. The front cover lists 39 names, some well known, others so obscure as to invite interests to learn more. Try to find these 39 when opening the book. Only in the Index. At least two pages, as chapters, should have provided insight into the thoughts of these 39 names who appeared under the caption, "A History of Modern Psychoanalytic Throught." However, Chapter headings only cover Freud, Sullivan, Klein, Fairbairn/Winnicott, Erikson/Kohut, and Kernberg/Schafer/Loewald/Lacan--and that's it. Eleven theorists.

Toward the end of the book, the last two chapters appear to be the mission of the book--Controversies. Two pages are devoted to why the authors think homosexuality is normal. Uh-huh! They emotionally vent against the psychoanalytic view that includes binding mothers and detached fathers. They grouse over psychoanalytic notions of homosexuality as a "pathological defensive, phobic retreat from castration fears" and renounce employing a "directive/suggestive" approach to treatment. The authors cite at least one well-known activist by only calling him a "contemporary author."

While Chapter 8, Controversies in theory notes that "Freud regarded sexual orientation as largely constitutional" (p223), the reader must flip to the "Notes" section (p263) to read, "Freud termed homosexuality a perversion, because he considered only heterosexual genital intercourse to be the 'normal' sexual organization. In the Freudian lexicon, perversions are pregenital fixations caused either by constitution (an overabundance of one or another component drive) or conflict."

The authors have an agenda to discredit theory and call it "expansion" and "transformation" hoping to convert readers to their own way of thinking. In perusing earlier reviews of this book, they appear somewhat successful. You might ask, are the authors simply preaching to the choir, or have these reviewers not thought through the material in order to provide credible opinion? As far as this book being required reading for a doctoral class in Psychodynamic Theory, as one reviewer states, I would hope that expectations of a critical read would accompany such a requirement. Some of the reviewers appear to be thirsting for knowledge...any knowledge concerning psychoanalytic theory and will drink from the first cup available, without question.

The book's authors, by using vague phases such as "In many cases" to denote Freudian thought to which they disagree, offer no examples to support their attack and leave the reader guessing. Basic Books is a reputable publisher. The reader deserves better. I bought this book but returned it after a selective skimming through its contents. Finding that the mission of transformation is a failure, the reader will only note that it accedes to political motivation of coveted views.

Pschoanalysis in Layman's terms.......2005-08-28

Very good book for someone who is just learning about pschoanalysis. Good examples of clinical application and a very common sense approach to psychology. A much easier read than other texts such as The Freud Reader. Good stuff.

Excellent introduction.......2004-09-16

This book is very well written. An excellent introduction to the topic, if you are a guy like me, who had been thru psychoanalisys but really didn't understand what the foundations of the process were. The author explains that there are many different theories and kinds of psychoanalisys, not only one (freud), like most of us think. Even though the subject is hard and complex, the author makes it easy to understand with his fluent prose.

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