America is at a crossroads in healthcare policy. We cannot afford the status quo any longer. Our healthcare system is too expensive, unjustifiably complex, lacking in transparency, and short on viable options. It offers consumers almost no voice in their own purchasing decisions. The resulting frustration often turns to outrage misdirected at the providers, which prompts cries for more government regulation. The irony is that regulation, excessive, irrational, and ineffectual, is at the root of our discontent. Few Americans understand this because few understand the dysfunctional system that Congress has put in place over the last 50 years. If we are to take charge of our healthcare destiny, we need first to understand the state of the industry, how we have gotten to this unsustainable and intolerable point, and learn from our past mistakes. 50 Years of Failure offers a unique approach to gaining a fresh perspective on American healthcare. Using Congressional reports, audits, and other publicly available information the public almost never sees let alone uses, this book reveals how Congress has failed in its mission to deliver healthcare at a reasonable cost via Medicare, Medicaid, and other government programs while simultaneously succeeding in preventing a free marketplace from delivering efficient and effective solutions for everyone. 50 Years of Failure delineates and details the inadequacies of bureaucratic fiat to effectively design and beneficially control 20% of our economy. It demonstrates the urgent imperative for Congress to change course and permit competitive market forces that drive other industries to determine how care is delivered, and at what price. Without our immediate action, we may forever lose the ability to achieve the goal of quality, efficiency, and consumer choice in American healthcare.

As the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) celebrate fifty years of economic dominion over the Third World, this reader brings the best progressive authors together to critique these two main proponents of neo-liberalism. 50 Years is Enough covers such topics as failed development projects, the feminization of poverty, the detruction of the environment, the internal workings of the World Bank and the IMF, and the struggle to build alternatives to neo-liberal policies.It also includes a guide to the many organizations involved in the struggle to reform the World Bank and the IMF.

" Salmonella in eggs. Listeria in deli meats. Melamine in milk. Cyclospora in lettuce. In a world where irrigation water is contaminated by run-off from cattle feedlots and where food processors cut corners, the food preparation skills we learned from our parents and grandparents are no longer good enough to keep us safe. Using a variety of foodborne disease outbreaks, often illustrated with the stories of individual victims, Tainted explores the ways in which food becomes contaminated. Some of the stories - such as the deadly 1993 Jack in the Box outbreak - will be very familiar. Others will not. In this update to her 2007 book, “Food Safety: Old Habits, New Perspectives,” Phyllis Entis draws on nearly five decades of experience to explain how our regulatory systems have failed us, and to talk about what can be done to protect consumers from unsafe food. "

This group of papers looks back on fifty years of transport policy and was produced in celebration of ECMT's 50th Anniversary.

A wide-ranging, interdisciplinary look at global changes that may occur over the next fifty years—whether sudden and cataclysmic world-changing events or gradually unfolding trends. Fundamental change occurs most often in one of two ways: as a “fatal discontinuity,” a sudden catastrophic event that is potentially world changing, or as a persistent, gradual trend. Global catastrophes include volcanic eruptions, viral pandemics, wars, and large-scale terrorist attacks; trends are demographic, environmental, economic, and political shifts that unfold over time. In this provocative book, scientist Vaclav Smil takes a wide-ranging, interdisciplinary look at the catastrophes and trends the next fifty years may bring. Smil first looks at rare but cataclysmic events, both natural and human-produced, then at trends of global importance, including the transition from fossil fuels to other energy sources and growing economic and social inequality. He also considers environmental change—in some ways an amalgam of sudden discontinuities and gradual change—and assesses the often misunderstood complexities of global warming. Global Catastrophes and Trends does not come down on the side of either doom-and-gloom scenarios or techno-euphoria. Instead, Smil argues that understanding change will help us reverse negative trends and minimize the risk of catastrophe.

Argues that racial segregation is still prevalent in American society and a transformation is necessary to build democracy and eradicate racial barriers.