What Went Wrong: The Big Picture provides an overview of the in-depth analysis of the full book What Went Wrong. Something has gone seriously wrong: The American economy has experienced considerable growth in the last 30 years, but virtually none of this growth has trickled down to the average American. Incomes have been flat since 1985. Inequality has grown, and social mobility has dropped dramatically. Equally troubling, these policies have been devastating to both American productivity and our long-term competitiveness. Many reasons for these failures have been proposed. Globalization. Union greed. Outsourcing. But none of these explanations can address the harsh truth that many countries around the world are dramatically outperforming the U.S. in delivering broad middle-class prosperity. And this is despite the fact that these countries are more exposed than America to outsourcing and globalization and have much higher levels of union membership. In What Went Wrong: The Big Picture, George R. Tyler, a veteran of the World Bank and the Treasury Department, takes the reader through an objective and data-rich examination of the American experience over the last 30 years. He provides a fascinating comparison between the America and the experience of the "family capitalism" countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Over the last 30 years, they have outperformed the U.S. economy by the only metric that really matters—delivering better lives for their citizens. The policies adopted by the family capitalist countries aren't socialist or foreign. They are the same policies that made the U.S. economy of the 1950s and 1960s the strongest in the world. What Went Wrong: The Big Picture describes exactly what went wrong with the American economy, how countries around the world have avoided these problems, and what we need to do to get back on the right track.

A chronicle of the massive transformation in Hollywood since the turn of the century and the huge changes yet to come, drawing on interviews with key players, as well as documents from the 2014 Sony hack

In 2095, while Pops and his college-aged great-grandson are cleaning the attic of a family farm, they find a variety of magazines and papers stowed away near 2018 by Pops’s father. Based on their few hours of examination, they disagree on whether the apparent changes suggested in the papers they observed were all good. Pops agrees to study and summarize what he learns from the documents about the era. Andrew is to return his frank comments. Pops then begins a systematic study to compare this past period against the current existing conditions. A series of letters to Andrew (chapters in this book) follow, summarizing US conditions in earlier periods, noting the dramatic changes since then in technology, culture, and economics. Pops is surprised to find just how bad the US situation was during his own childhood. In the investigating process, Pops also finds that his father had served on a lead section of a national-level committee whose job it was to suggest remedies for a then-sadly ailing US government and economy. Pops’s study reveals that the startling economic changes from the mid-2010s were not entirely driven by the rapidly advancing technology. The shift back to US prosperity and world economic leadership was accomplished by major changes in the way the economy was structured and the way it ran. In a step requiring a national vote, the relationship between government and business was dramatically altered, and the US economy became extremely efficient. The government, after receiving approval in a national election, made major changes to the way the economy was structured. As a result, well-paying jobs became available for anyone wanting them or needing to work. Government handouts became limited only to the severely handicapped. Work hours were lessened, and individuals were able to easily find their way toward a personally suited ideal career. Recreation time and retirement were secure. Good universal health care became the standard, although it was needed substantially less as the nation’s health improved due to medical breakthroughs, healthier lifestyles, more tightly controlled foodstuff, and tailored standard medications. Personal safety ceased to be a significant concern. Although not advocating this volume’s predicted solution to America’s problems, in the author’s opinion, this approach may be the only one actually feasible.

Our civilization runs on software. Yet the art of creating it continues to be a dark mystery, even to the experts. To find out why it’s so hard to bend computers to our will, Scott Rosenberg spent three years following a team of maverick software developers—led by Lotus 1-2-3 creator Mitch Kapor—designing a novel personal information manager meant to challenge market leader Microsoft Outlook. Their story takes us through a maze of abrupt dead ends and exhilarating breakthroughs as they wrestle not only with the abstraction of code, but with the unpredictability of human behavior— especially their own.

In his latest book, leading educator and author Kevin Kumashiro takes aim at the current debate on educational reform, paying particular attention to the ways that scapegoating public school teachers, teacher unions, and teacher educators masks the real, systemic problems. He convincingly demonstrates how current trends, like market-based reforms and fast-track teacher certification programs are creating overwhelming obstacles to achieving an equitable education for all children. Bad Teacher! highlights the common ways that both the public and influential leaders think about the problems and solutions for public education, and suggests ways to help us see the bigger picture and reframe the debate. Compelling, accessible, and grounded in current initiatives and debates, this book is important reading for a diverse audience of policymakers, school leaders, parents, and everyone who cares about education. Kevin K. Kumashiro is director of the Center for Anti-Oppressive Education and president-elect (2010–2012) of the National Association for Multicultural Education. He is a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the author of The Seduction of Common Sense: How the Right Has Framed the Debate on America's Schools. Praise for Bad Teacher! “This book could be a springboard for teachers . . . to become more actively involved in advocating for a paradigm shift in our concept of education.” —Grace Lee Boggs, The Boggs Center “Kumashiro is a remarkable sleuth who … shows us how the deck is stacked, how the game is played, who gains, and who loses. Join him in a clarion call to build a Movement to reclaim public education.” —Robert P. Moses, The Algebra Project “Courageous, blunt, and hopeful, Bad Teacher! offers a democratic vision for true educational change.” —Sonia Nieto, University of Massachusetts at Amherst “Anyone seeking to understand why so many of the reforms we have pursued have failed will benefit from reading this book.” —Pedro A. Noguera, New York University “Kumashiro explains why we should think differently about the prescriptions that are now taken for granted—and wrong.” —Diane Ravitch, New York University, author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education “Kumashiro expertly examines the many forces working against public education, and how and why these forces are at play.” —Dennis Van Roekel, President, National Education Association “Bad Teacher! is oh-so-smart and timely. . . . This book attacks head-on the ragged patchwork of ‘school reform’ that has left us without even the vocabulary to frame what’s gone wrong.” —Patricia J. Williams, Columbia Law School 2012 Must-read book about K–12 education in the U.S., Christian Science Monitor

"A multifaceted look at the faith and vision that can see us all through hardship and failure, and stir us to bold exploits on behalf of somehting greater than ourselves."--Jacket.

Something has gone seriously wrong with the American economy. The American economy has experienced considerable growth in the last 30 years. But virtually none of this growth has trickled down to the average American. Incomes have been flat since 1985. Inequality has grown, and social mobility has dropped dramatically. Equally troubling, these policies have been devastating to both American productivity and our long-term competitiveness. Many reasons for these failures have been proposed. Globalization. Union greed. Outsourcing. But none of these explanations can address the harsh truth that many countries around the world are dramatically outperforming the U.S. in delivering broad middle-class prosperity. And this is despite the fact that these countries are more exposed than America to outsourcing and globalization and have much higher levels of union membership. In What Went Wrong, George R. Tyler, a veteran of the World Bank and the Treasury Department, takes the reader through an objective and data-rich examination of the American experience over the last 30 years. He provides a fascinating comparison between the America and the experience of the “family capitalism" countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Over the last 30 years, they have outperformed the U.S. economy by the only metric that really matters—delivering better lives for their citizens. The policies adopted by the family capitalist countries aren't socialist or foreign. They are the same policies that made the U.S. economy of the 1950s and 1960s the strongest in the world. What Went Wrong describes exactly what went wrong with the American economy, how countries around the world have avoided these problems, and what we need to do to get back on the right track.