"The Empire Strikes a Match in a World Full of Oil is a book about justice and about history. The history is a history of American expansionism which has evolved into a plan for world domination, seemingly a plan to make the world safe for American democracy. The plan isn't new. Nearly fifty years ago our text book on American history, taught at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown U. by a close Kennedy advisor, was entitled Empire for Liberty. Before we proceed further however we, as Americans, need to ask 'at what price?' The price is too high, because unlike successful empires that dominate and exploit their backward neighbors, America shares world power with other nations. Even though we tower over any one of them, we cannot dominate them all. This book concludes by defining the choice America faces at this moment -- the choice between endless war against large and growing powers on the one hand and a world that has submitted to the rule of law on the other. But it is not an appeal to world government either; not a call for another layer of administration and invasive rules. It is an appeal for a world legal system in which free nations freely interact."

This timely analysis of today's economic realities relates the headlines to the long term causes from which they spring. Why did we have a worldwide financial crisis in 2008? Is stimulus the answer, and what are its risks and potential returns? Why are our investments so unprofitable? Why are our citizens struggling to find work? Why do we repeatedly confuse effort with results? The author finds the answers to these questions in the dysfunctions of the welfare state.Economics is the science of the creation and exchange of value, but Gross Domestic Product (GDP) confuses value with the creation and exchange of "goods and services." Along the way, GDP has become a measure not of value created, but of effort expended and of costs incurred. This confusion has become the cornerstone of policy manipulation of "the economy," because it is very easy to incur costs, though not so easy to create value. Policymakers are not eager to correct this discrepancy because it is easier to manufacture costs through brute force than to produce results that have real value.This book pins down the major contributors to these distortions in a number of specific areas, including education, science and engineering, hospitals and other medical facilities, the public utility transmission grids, and in the trade deficit. It also pursues the distortions caused by short-sighted public policy in the capital markets. The book concludes with a discussion of market efficiency and inefficiency leading to the conclusion that policy intervention into the capital markets reduces their capacity to allocate capital productively. The author addresses this broad topic from the unique perspective of someone who has contributed both to the theoretical analysis and to the actual practice of markets.

This book presents a novel approach to characterizing markets in quantitative terms. The examples cut across the world of interest rates, price of gold, stock market and corporate worlds that the stock market rests on, and the pricing of options on financial instruments. The emphasis is on methods of inquiry, methods that can just as easily be applied to other markets and other economic phenomena as well. The goal is to make the methods available to the widest possible audience of quantitative analysts and to the trading desks and investment plans they feed.Quantitative research and modeling in finance and economics have a long history going back to Frank Ramsey, mathematician, logician, and economist, who pioneered the application of dynamic models in economics in the 1920s, and to his theory of the Ramsey Tax, which is a rule for apportioning tax rates in a way that raises the maximum tax revenues while impacting the decisions of taxpayers as little as possible. The opposite would be a tax so inefficient that it causes people to avoid doing whatever it is that subjects them to the tax.These experiments yield valuable insight into economic affairs, but they are only a stepping-stone for others—a starting point for discovery. Foremost among them is locating usable statistical findings to the investment world. Gibbons' intention is not to provide investment advice, it is to provide education. These data are subject to changing results, but that should not diminish their educational value. This is a proactive fusion of business economics and sound social science methods.

Acclaimed, New York Times best-selling author Adam Gidwitz delivers a captivating retelling of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back like you've never experienced before, infusing the iconic, classic tale of good versus evil with a unique perspective and narrative style that will speak directly to today's young readers while enhancing the Star Wars experience for core fans of the saga.

"In Philosopher Fish Carey immerses himself in the world of sturgeon, the fish that lays these golden eggs. Ancient, shrouded in mystery, inexplicable in several of its behaviors, the sturgeon has a fascinating biologic past-and a very uncertain future. This new edition brings the story up to date"--

By the end of the 21st century, our oil and natural gas supplies will be virtually nonexistent, and limited coal supplies will be restricted to only a handful of countries. The authors - an environmental scientist and veteran journalist - make abundantly clear that we must plan for a future without reliance on oil. They make a compelling case that the key determinant of our global economy is not so much the invisible hand of the marketplace but the inexorable laws of ecology. Although the coming decades will be a time of much disruption and change of lifestyle, in the end we may learn a wiser, more sustainable stewardship of our natural resources. This timely, sobering, yet constructive discussion of energy and ecology offers a realistic vision of the near future and many important lessons about the limits of our resources.

A masterpiece of historical fiction and "a journey of extraordinary riches" (New York Times Book Review), War and Remembrance stands as perhaps the great novel of America's "Greatest Generation." These two classic works capture the tide of world events even as they unfold the compelling tale of a single American family drawn into the very center of the war's maelstrom. The multimillion-copy bestsellers that capture all the drama, romance, heroism, and tragedy of the Second World War -- and that constitute Wouk's crowning achievement -- are available for the first time in trade paperback.