This is a lighthearted tale about one mans adventure of moving from secure work in the Western Australian construction industry to a remote area of Sulawesi (Indonesia). He could not speak a word of Indonesian, and the local people spoke just a handful of English words.

YOU CAN'T PUSH A STRING UP A HILL (a synopsis)* STRUNG UP: Why helping your cousins can only lead to ruin - no good deed goes unpunished!* A STRING ALONG: The mis-adventures of a screenwriter in Hollywood at a Pitch Fest, trying to get his screenplay accepted.* BLAME IT ON RENO: a romantic comedy screenplay treatment about two couples, lifelong friends, who go to Reno to get married, but get so drunk on the wedding night, they marry the wrong partner and live happily.* THE HAPPINESS ALCHEMIST: The adventures of Aloysius Williams and how they tested his belief in the need for happiness.* JAKE, THE SNAKE: A complaint about a friend who was a bully, coward and successfully business man.* CANE & ABE: The story of two friends whose lives go in opposite directions yet somehow teach the same life lessons.* PUSHING ON A STRING: An American and an Anglo-Caribbean discuss culture shock while traveling across the Sahara desert.* THE HELPER: A poem.* THE POET: Working with poets is like pushing a string up a hill; only those with limitless patience need apply.* PULLING ON A STRING: What is the meaning of life? Perhaps you find it going for a swim?* LIGHT-FINGURED LOUIE: The adventure of a thief and his conversion to Christianity.* TIE ME UP, TIE ME DOWN: It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was a twentieth century marriage - the perfect imperfection.* ANOTHER COUNTRY: An African-American man and an Anglo-Caribbean man meet in Israel and discover that it's culture that connects and divides people, not color!* MONEY: PUSHING ON A STRING: If all economists were laid end to end, they would still not reach a conclusion. A study of the origins of the term "pushing on a string" and a look at how economists screw up the economy.* CULTIVATING BLINDNESS: A poem.* SEASONS ON A ROPE: The trials and tribulations of an immigrant who does everything to fit into American society but runs afoul of a twist of fate.* HAWAIIAN HANG-UP: A son returns to his family in Hawaii for his father's funeral and finds himself caught up in the family's gangster past and present - "Do the meek inherit the earth?"* ROLL OF THE DICE: The ills of gambling clash with the sensitivities of a man who only wants to help.* THE PRODIGAL FATHER: No matter what you he's done (or hasn't done), you can't give up on your father!* ONLY IN AMERICA: A young boy from Ghana comes to America on a visit and is confounded by the use of a ubiquitous and uniquely American word.* THE VANITIES OF DESIRE: A poem.* THE END OF MY ROPE: After eleven years enduring petty racism, obdurate spitefulness, pointless bickering and cowardly and deceitful behavior, I had had enoughThe characters in this book come alive and seem to be telling us to focus on which end of the string the influence lies. In other words, in any given situation, who needs to change, me or the other guy? You are in for a treat.Sue Stoney,

A major work of financial theory and practice with immediate relevance to the rebuilding of the economy, and restoring the promise of equality When the government decides to spend money, it simply creates the necessary funds for itself--as if out of thin air. That's how we pay for interstate highways, post offices, wars, social services, and economic stimulus packages. If it's that easy to make money . . . can't we all get more of it? Absolutely. And we should. So argue financial regulation expert Robert Hockett and bestselling philosopher Aaron James in this eye-opening, irreverent, and inspiring exploration of what the dollar really is. And better still, they show how we can build an economy that works for everybody without unwanted taxes and added regulations. In the process, we learn how disingenuous the political rhetoric surrounding inflation can be, how the demonized concept of the deficit is really just another way of tallying our collective national wealth, and how a strong central bank could free us from the abuses of private banking. With broad historical background and ambitious yet practical institutional proposals, Hockett and James offer a new vision of public finance--people's banking for a people's economy. Armed with this new outlook, we can even stop worrying debt and learn to love a strong, accountable, and transparent Federal Reserve as a cornerstone of our democracy.

The “witty and accessible” bestseller by the Atlantic Monthly editor who rules on linguistic disputes (San Francisco Chronicle). Atlantic Monthly senior editor Barbara Wallraff first began answering grammar questions on AOL in the 1990s, and the site’s success soon morphed into a regular magazine feature. In Word Court, Wallraff moves beyond her column to preside over common and uncommon cases, establishing rules for such issues as turns of phrase, slang, name usage, punctuation, and newly coined vocabulary. With true wit, she deliberates and decides on the right path for lovers of language, ranging from classic questions (is “a historical” or “an historical” correct?) to awkward issues (How long does someone have to be dead before we should all stop calling her “the late”?). The result is a warmly humorous, reassuring, and brilliantly perceptive tour of how and why we speak the way we do. “A logophile’s delight.” —San Diego Union-Tribune “Her approach to language is a beguiling mix of charm and research” —USA Today

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Mike Mullen, on May 10, 2012, stated that the national debt is the single biggest threat to national security. The deficit spending and accumulated debt of many nations, including the United States, is a topic of wide discussion and concern. Offering provocative and compelling solutions for remedying the country’s banking system, The Next Money Crash—and How to Avoid It presents a transcription of the conference, “Fixing the Banking System for Good,” organized by the Global Interdependence Center. This conference offered a variety of speakers presenting differing views of key issues, all with a common goal—to moderate the financial disruptions the current system allows; to provide a sound, stable currency; to compel, through market forces, more transparency in the activities of financial institutions; and to take taxpayers off the hook. In all of the plans, more capital and more transparency are key elements, along with the end to government guarantees, which provide advantages to large, opaque financial institutions. The Next Money Crash—and How to Avoid It compiles the latest thinking of many leading minds in finance and economics and provides a clear prescription for fixing the banking system as well as the global monetary system.

This book offers a series of statistical tests to determine if the “crowd out” problem, known to hinder the effectiveness of Keynesian economic stimulus programs, can be overcome by monetary programs. It concludes there are programs that can do this, specifically “accommodative monetary policy.” They were not used to any great extent prior to the Quantitative Easing program in 2008, causing the failure of many fiscal stimulus programs through no fault of their own. The book includes exhaustive statistical tests to prove this point. There is also a policy analysis section of the book. It examines how effectively the Federal Reserve’s anti-crowd out programs have actually worked, to the extent they were undertaken at all. It finds statistical evidence that using commercial and savings banks instead of investment banks when implementing accommodating monetary policy would have markedly improved their effectiveness. This volume, with its companion volume Why Fiscal Stimulus Programs Fail, Volume 2: Statistical Tests Comparing Monetary Policy to Growth, provides 1000 separate statistical tests on the US economy to prove these assertions.