"A sweeping work of history and analysis, Changing Fortunes chronicles the worlds economic upheavals since 1945 and the challenges to American prosperity and hegemony--from the perspective of two distinguished statesman, an American and a Japanese." "Paul Volcker, the legendary former chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, and Toyoo Gyohten, one of Japan's leading economic policy makers, have been major figures on the world scene for more than two decades. In Changing Fortunes, they explain the huge changes in the international monetary order both helped to shape. With candor and insight, Volcker and Gyohten explore the decisions and personalities that have influenced the world's economy over the last fifty years." "Changing Fortunes begins with the stability and wealth of the Bretton Woods era and stretches through the financial turmoils of the Vietnam War; the devaluation, floating, and ensuing decline of the dollar; the oil shocks of the 1970s and the Federal Reserves battle against inflation; the Latin American debt crisis; and, finally, the Reagan administration's attempt to manage the international economy after first ignoring the consequences of its policies for the rest of the world." "Volcker and Gyohten recount each episode from an American and a Japanese position, offering a uniquely broad view of critical issues. Through keen portraits of the people and the politics of international economics, the authors bring a complex subject to life and address fundamental questions for the world's economic order after the Cold War--a world in which the United States must share the burdens of leadership." "As Paul Volcker writes in the introduction: "How much of the relative decline of the United States was natural, how much of it was desirable, and how much of it came from self-inflicted wounds? Should we, with the help of the Japanese, have worked harder to maintain the Bretton Woods system and the stability its exchange rates provided? Has the breakdown of that system been partly responsible for the slower world growth and greater instability in the past two decades? Where do we go from here without so dominant and enlightened a leader as the United States was at the end of World War II?"" "Lucid, accessible, and full of challenging insights, Changing Fortunes is essential reading for anyone interested in the world's money--past, present, and future."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Two of the world's most pressing needs—biodiversity conservation and agricultural development in the Third World—are addressed in Karl S. Zimmerer's multidisciplinary investigation in geography. Zimmerer challenges current opinion by showing that the world-renowned diversity of crops grown in the Andes may not be as hopelessly endangered as is widely believed. He uses the lengthy history of small-scale farming by Indians in Peru, including contemporary practices and attitudes, to shed light on prospects for the future. During prolonged fieldwork among Peru's Quechua peasants and villagers in the mountains near Cuzco, Zimmerer found convincing evidence that much of the region's biodiversity is being skillfully conserved on a de facto basis, as has been true during centuries of tumultuous agrarian transitions. Diversity occurs unevenly, however, because of the inability of poorer Quechua farmers to plant the same variety as their well-off neighbors and because land use pressures differ in different locations. Social, political, and economic upheavals have accentuated the unevenness, and Zimmerer's geographical findings are all the more important as a result. Diversity is indeed at serious risk, but not necessarily for the same reasons that have been cited by others. The originality of this study is in its correlation of ecological conservation, ethnic expression, and economic development. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1997. Two of the world's most pressing needs—biodiversity conservation and agricultural development in the Third World—are addressed in Karl S. Zimmerer's multidisciplinary investigation in geography. Zimmerer challenges current opinion by showing that the worl

Their drastically different fates, however, were the results of the choices made in the face of these changes." "Based on a statistical profile of the one hundred largest industrial companies - the Fortune 100 - and complemented by detailed historical case studies of individual corporations, Changing Fortunes examines the struggles of the giant industrial enterprises that once dominated the economy to adapt to a new reality.".

Treasury has been at the centre of every major economic policy issue the Australian Government has faced, its role evolving from the government's bookkeeper at Federation in 1901 to the economic policy advising agency it is today. Throughout its history Treasury has been a robust and stable institution with a consistent market-oriented economic framework - but its policy influence has waxed and waned. It has supported reformist Treasurers such as Keating and Costello, and been a voice of caution when political imperatives have pushed governments down economically damaging paths. At times, though, Treasury advice has been ignored and it has been pushed out into the cold. Amidst the political chaos of recent times, Treasury has been dragged closer to government and become a less effective policy adviser. The consequent lack of a consistent government economic reform narrative over the last decade is plain for all to see. Changing Fortunes tracks Treasury's history since Federation, with a focus on the modern era since its 1976 split with Finance.

This report is based on research commissioned by the Social Exclusion Unit from a team of researchers from Oxford University and the London School of Economics. Income deprivation was evaluated based on DSS local area-based claimant estimates for England 1995-1998, for Income Support (IS) and income-based Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA-IB). The overall number of claimants for IS and JSA-IB fell from 4.9 million (1995) to 4.1 million (1998), and at the same time the overall claim rate fell from 12.7% to 10.5%. The greatest fall in claimant numbers was among the unemployed, but falls were more modest for people aged 60 and above and for lone parents, and there was a small rise in claimant numbers among the disabled/other group. The fall in claimant numbers and rates occurred across all regions of England, but some high-cliaming areas remain. London had the highest rate of benefit claiming in 1995 but, along with the South East, experienced the greatest decline by 1998. The lowest rates of decline in claimant rates was found in the North West, North East, and Yorkshire and Humberside.

Meet Andy. He's a nice enough guy. But for the last two weeks, he's been knee-high to a roughneck by the name of Luke. Then there's Doc Watson, the redhead who rarely smiles but seems friendly. Most of the time. And what about Teddy Ram, the reclusive billionaire who's looking for Andy high and low? Welcome to the SHRINK Universe, a world where a street drug lets you reduce down to an inch or two and then back up. All in 30 minutes! What a rush! And it's perfectly safe. Right? Wrong. It's safe until something goes very, very wrong... Some people are shrinking and not growing back... Not all the way back. And no one knows exactly why. Andy's resigned to his fate to be knee-high to a roughneck, but, as he already knows, fortunes can change in an instant! Includes: friends-to-lovers, insta-love (sorta), middle-aged characters, graphic sex scenes, computer nerds, pronounced size differences, dental floss used as a restraint, mild harm and danger, violations of the laws of physics, obvious sci-fi elements, and... a happily-ever-after ending

Packed with fascinating data that paints a provocative picture of the new rich In Fortunes of Change, David Callahan contends that something big is happening among the rich in America: they’re drifting to the left. When Callahan set out to write a book on the new upper class, he expected to profile a greedy and reactionary elite—the robber barons of a second Gilded Age. Instead, he discovered something else. While many of the rich still back a GOP that stands against taxes and regulation, liberalism is spreading fast among the wealthy. In Fortunes of Change, we meet an upper class increasingly filled with super-educated professionals and entrepreneurs who work in “knowledge” industries and live in the bluest parts of America. This cosmopolitan elite takes for granted such key liberal ideas as multiculturalism and active government, and have ever less in common with an extremist GOP based in small-town America and dominated by Tea Party activists and the likes of Sarah Palin. Fortunes of Change explores: Why some of America’s wealthiest people backed Barack Obama’s presidential bid and are pouring record sums into the Democratic Party and liberal organizations, even though they stand to see their taxes go up. How a few big donors have spent millions to create the modern gay rights movement and how environmental activists have tapped a river of new liberal cash. Why Hollywood, rolling in new profits thanks to globalization, has more money than ever to back Democratic candidates and push politics to the left. Why Silicon Valley is turning more liberal and how tech money—including Bill Gates’s vast fortune—is funding a growing array of liberal groups and politicians. How the upper class is likely to get more liberal as young heirs are inculcated with liberal ideas in America’s most elite prep schools and universities. David Callahan is a co-founder of the think tank Demos, where he is now a senior fellow. He is author of the Cheating Culture, among other books, and his articles have appeared in such places as USA Today, the New York Times, the Nation, and the Washington Monthly. Packed with surprising facts and behind-the-scene stories, Fortunes of Change is a must-read book if want to understand how America's politics and culture are changing—and what the future may hold.