Average customer rating:
- Witty, whimsical, good-natured -- buy it!!
- The humor comes first
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Interlibrary Loan Sharks and Seedy Roms: Cartoons from Libraryland
Benita L. Epstein
Manufacturer: McFarland & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0786404655 |
Book Description
Cartoonist Benita Epstein sees libraryland as a place full of offbeat characters, such as the patrons who need references-for their rsums, of course. Or as a technological jungle where signs read "Beware of the DOS." In short, she sees a place where we can always enjoy a chuckle and sometimes a good laugh.
Customer Reviews:
Witty, whimsical, good-natured -- buy it!!.......1998-08-14
Attention librarians and library lovers: Benita Epstein's cartoons exhibit true wit with a whimsical, good-natured tone. If you are turned off by the many cartoonists who are preoccupied with trite or gross subjects, check out this book!
The humor comes first.......1998-08-08
There are many fine cartoons in this collection, but one sticks in my mind like an arrow in a bull's eye. It shows a librarian at an information counter, with two patrons waiting for service -- a chicken and an egg. The librarian asks, "Who's first?" A second later, the subtle, implied punchline strikes; a wonderful, somehow profound cartoon.
That same style of riddle might apply to the rest of the book -- which came first, the humor or the library themes? -- but the riddle is a simple one. I know the answer. With everything Epstein draws, the wit always comes first.
This is how good the book is: when I read my copy, I did so by flashlight, shivering in a house without heat (thanks to the ice storm that snapped New England into powerless pieces), and I laughed.
Along with the rest of your emergency provisions, that's a book to keep at hand.
Book Description
During the early eighties New York's Lower East Side was a hotbed of creative activity. Unknown artists were synthesizing the fertile ground at the legendary New York nightclubs Studio 54, the Mudd Club, Club 57, Palladium, and Danceteria while on their way to international fame and acclaim. Among those emerging were Madonna, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Grace Jones, Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf, Vincent Gallo, Anna Sui, Exene Cervenka, Kid Creole, and Diego Cortez, among many others. Maripol was part of a collective of artists, graffiti writers, street dancers, and performers who all thrived together in the explosive downtown eccentricity. As an image maker and stylist for Madonna during her "Like a Virgin" days, jewelry designer, art director, and producer Maripol relentlessly documented the movers and shakers of the early eighties scene through the lens of her instant Polaroid SX-70. Collected for the first time in Maripolarama, Maripol's photographs vividly depict the extraordinary personalities that inhabited the "forever" hip, arty Manhattan clubland during the post-punk era when hip hop was in its earliest stages and graffiti covered the landscape. Whether it's Andy Warhol, Debbie Harry, Basquiat, or Madonna modeling a bright pink wig, Maripolarama provides lively and inspiring insight into a time long gone.
Customer Reviews:
Early 80s fashion fans utopia..........2007-01-04
This book is an amazing insight into the New York fashion scene in the early eighties. With so many stars looking fabulous either before they were famous or just as their celebrity careers were about to take off.
Madonna, Debbie Mazar, the B52s, Blondie and Grace Jones are just a few of the familiar faces in the hundreds of personal and candid Polaroid shots that innovative stylist, Maripol took at that magical time and place in fashion history.
I have always said that if i could go back in time to any one time or place in history i would have gone to NY in the late 70s early 80s... this book has only increased my desire.
I would highly recommned this book to fans of 80s pop culture, lovers of 70s/80s fashion and styling, Madonna fans (for the rare Madonna pics) and anyone who ever fell in love with New York.
how cool .......2006-05-23
this is an amazing book that captures
the true spirit of the 80's downtown new york scene.
great pictures a must have coffe table book!
Book Description
• Colorful, fun spreads with easy-to-follow text and solid drawing techniques
Manga and fantasy—is there a combination that's got more appeal for kids? The twelfth book in the super-popular Kids Draw series. Kids draw Manga Fantasy, is ready to whisk young artists away to a world of wonder and adventure. They'll start by learning to draw the manga face and body, then how to tweak characters to make them part of the fantasy genre. After that, they're ready to draw a huge range of exciting manga fantasy characters, from beautiful faeries and angel-guardians, to heroic knights and warriors magical villains and mermaids, medieval sorcerers, futuristic princesses, Kids draw Manga Fantasy is a fantasy come true for all young manga fans!
Customer Reviews:
Excellent.......2007-01-03
I teach art and have had many requests to teach anime. I don't draw in the anime/manga style and struggled to do so. Christopher Hart's book is a great tie-in or introduction to Fantasy Manga. His style is similiar to mine in that it is a bit more cartoony than traditional anime/manga style. While some people might criticize the book for that, I think it's an awesome book with lots of color pictures. It even had some tips and tricks I didn't know. It would be useful for a beginner or a resource for someone more experienced. If you are looking to draw like someone else or in the more traditional style of anime/manga then this book is not for you. But if you are looking to develop your own style or like the more Americanized look to your anime/manga drawing then I would highly recommend it!
fantasy rocks.......2006-04-23
Motivating for the young beginner cartoonist. My kids loved this easy to follow instructive book. Fantasy goes wild with just a few tips and direction. Beginning with the basic figures, adding hair styles, eye shapes & general body posture brings the magna life & character. Many examples to follow or just be inspired by makes this book a fantastic entertaining guide to manga drawing
Book Description
This collection of quotes about the South-by Southerners and non-Southerners alike-includes more than 700 quips that range from thought-provoking to hilarious, from absurd to moving. Featured are quotes by Martin Luther King, Jr., Oprah Winfrey, Hank Williams, Jimmy Carter, Truman Capote, Bear Bryant, Ted Turner, Flannery O'Connor, Alice Walker, and many others.
Customer Reviews:
A great browser book.......2006-06-15
As a book of quotations, this is a great one. It covers all of the usual topics from the South. I would have given it 5 stars, but it lacked a table of contents and an index, which really comes in handy in a book with over 700 quotations.
Full of fun surpises.......2002-03-22
What a fun book, full of surprises. I have never seen a book of Southern quotes and, had I, I would have expected it to be full of hackneyed, predictible quotes about the traditional South. But this is all over the map, all in all a lot of fun
From Lyrical to Libelous--Diverging Views of the South.......2002-01-12
"My sister says Southerners are like other people, only more so."--Blanche McCrary Boyd
"Southerners speak music."--Mark Twain
"For all its size and wealth and all the 'progress' it babbles of, [the South] is almost as sterile, artistically, intellectually, culturally, as the Sahara Desert."--H.L. Mencken
Quotations by and about Southerners. Some are good, some bad, and some ugly. Some are even accurate. I wouldn't have bought this book myself, but having received it as a gift, I enjoyed it.
Book Description
This digital document is a journal article from Journal of Pragmatics, published by Elsevier in . The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Description:
Using video-recordings of spontaneous conversations among Black urban South Africans, the use of three quotable gestures/emblems is analyzed. Characteristics of their use in relation to speech are established showing that quotable gestures are multifunctional, and fulfill substantive, interactive, and discourse functions simultaneously. Implications for theories on the relationship between gesture and speech and processes of speech-gesture production are discussed. Data presented suggest that the Growth Point model of speech-gesture production has the most explanatory power, but it needs to extend the central notion of context to fully explain the nature of gestural behavior. Questions related to the emergence of quotable gestures in terms of origin, conventionalization, and detachability from speech, the relationship of quotable gestures to other forms of gesture, and the categorization of gestures into gestural typologies are also addressed.
Customer Reviews:
An intimate portrait of the fimmaker by his grandson.......2000-06-21
John Ford is THE greatest film director of American Cinema, and perhaps one of the greatest artist of the 20th century. Yet his figure remains enigmatic, part of the reason is because this man never wanted to talk about himslef. This biography is a well-researched piece written by Ford's own grand son, who is also a film producer. As the director's relatibe, he had access to most of his personal papers, as well as interviews with Ford's many collaborators, which includes John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Maureen O'Hara and many others. It is a very good introduction about the man. I do not share the author's view about Ford's later works, and I have found some contradicting facts about the making of Cheyenne Autumn when I researched the atchive papers of Waraner Brothers, but these are details. This book is a bit sentimental, but so are many of the movies directed by the author's grandfather, so I think that's okay.
Book Description
WoodSongs is the second volume of short stories, poems, music, photos and recipes from folksinger/songwriter Michael Johnathon. Included is Michaels full length, song Homestead CD featuring bluegrass greats Sam Bush, Ronnie McCoury, J. D. Crowe, Rob
Customer Reviews:
Very Valuable If Used With Caution.......2006-04-07
I found this book so compelling that I read it through in practically one sitting. Why, then, three stars instead of more?
Because the *chess* advice is very general, and in fact at times so general as to be suspect ("always capture an enemy piece if it is safe to do so"); and as a *chess* book it is at a rather elementary level, spending a lot of time on the rules and basics of movement.
Comparing chess to martial arts is not new, but here it is done in a more comprehensive, appealing, and gripping manner. In terms of *chess* advice this translates to a handful of general principles, such as "seize the initiative," which the book does not illustrate very well with practical examples or "how-to" advice. This has disappointed many previous reviewers and will likely disappoint many readers.
Instead, to get the most from this book, you need to think in terms of changing your philosophy of play, and turn to other books to help you do that. If you are a passive player, as I was for a long time, take the "seize the initiative" principle for what it's worth and then go out and study other books on tactics and the art of attacking. In other words, use this book as a guideline for how you think about your approach to chess, and seek detailed knowledge elsewhere.
Especially useful is the wholistic approach this book espouses. Information on diet, physical conditioning, meditation, pre-game physical exercises (they recommend stretching before play, something I had never before considered) can all be found elsewhere but nowhere in a *chess* book; and though you might initialy be skeptical, it makes a great deal of sense.
Should you buy this book? I think so. It is relatively inexpensive on the used market, and if approached correctly, will teach you many things which apply to chess, even if it won't teach you a lot about chess itself.
Martial art of the mind.......2005-10-12
This is a fascinating book for the beginner in chess, and one that the more proficient in chess may find interesting, too. It not only covers the basics in chess, but also deals with some of the philosophical ideas that one might apply to chess playing. This is a creative synthesis by authors Michael Gelb and Raymond Keene of the teachings of Samurai warriors and the basic layout of chess - an intriguing idea, given the martial nature of chess playing.
Chess can be many things to different people. One legal scholar described chess as an exercise in petty larcency (taking or stealing pieces!); many military strategists have seen chess as a system whereby one sharpens skills for thinking ahead, well past the next move tactically. This would be more in the spirit of what Gelb and Keene are doing here.
As the authors state, 'We are not likely to wield a Samurai sword in a life-or-death situation. Samurai swordsmanship will always remain beyond our personal experience.' So, how does one get this kind of experience, if one wants it? For Gelb and Keene, this can come from chess. 'Chess offers the experience of real victory, without killing, and the parallel experience of real defeat, without having to die.' Thought and skill are key in both Samurai and chess practice.
Gelb and Keene develop the idea of martial arts mindset and the seven Samurai principles to be applied to chess, but this is in many ways designed for the beginning chess player (the more experienced player will be able to gloss over the second section, 'White Belt Chess', which develops basic movements and elementary middle-game and end-game ideas). The authors give a good brief synopsis of the history of the game of chess, from earliest history through to the tempestuous twentieth century, showing the transformation from a slow-moving game inspired by Indian and Islamic cultures to the rapid-fire pace of many master games today.
It is perhaps in the application of the Samurai principles that this book reaches its height. The Seven Samurai principles are really an extended analogy to the game, but one can see immediately, even as a chess novice, how the seven principles might be applied:
1) Take the Initiative: Attack
2) Follow Through: Go for the Knockout
3) Impenetrable Defense: No Openings
4) Timing: Control the Tempo
5) Distance: Control the Position
6) Master Surprise and Deception
7) Yield to Win: The Art of Sacrifice
There are many good insights, and this book is a fun one to read. If one is expecting a systematic tome on how to play better chess, this is not the book. However, if one loves the game of chess and is interested in a new perspective, this book is one that is fitting.
More than just a game.......2005-09-11
I've been dabbling at chess for nearly forty years, and this is the chess book I've been waiting for all my life. To me, chess is more than just a game; it can be a metaphor for life, and its principles apply indirectly to most everything else in life. This book focuses on seven Samurai principles, which are also seven chess principles, which are also seven principles of living life effectively.
If you don't care about life but just want to get good at chess, this may not be the book for you. If you do care about life but insist that chess has nothing to do with it, skip this title. But if you see--or want to see--a strong connection between chess and life, give this wonderful book a good read.
All levels can get something from this book.......2005-08-11
I have read a few of the reviews, and all seem to think this is a beginner book. Actually, there are better beginner books out there that will rapidly improve one's game (if you are among the beginners)- such as Seirawan's Microsoft Press series. The underlying idea of Eastern Philosophy's place in chess is quite revolutionary and has been accepted by Josh Waitzkin (the real "Searching for Bobby Fisher" kid) as taking his game to the next level. If one really uses the lessons from this book I think they will be pleased - I know I was. The system really challenges the player to throw away some tradition rules and gain new insight (especially in the middle game). The book does have its place in an overcrowded genre and is not too heavy for the beginner. I feel the fault of this book is that it does not delve quite deep enough - does not force the reader to apply the principles in practice.
An Interesting Book.......2003-01-16
Truly an interesting book to a person how does both Martial Arts and chess (As a side note a have been studying both now for a number of years). The theme was interesting because one of my Teachers actually talks like a chess person when going about how to get in an attack in sparring although he does not play chess, so I have seen this connection before.
As a straight chess book it would be on a beginner to an intermediate level. If you take into consideration the philosophies of the book though it becomes more profound. I have read most of the books they use as exerpts and found it to really help blend these two worlds together.
It has been said that If you read The Book of Five Rings once you will get something out of it. Twice, you will get something different again. Etc. These books (The Art of War, The Book of Five Rings) are also business books and found in this section if you go to Indigo. So not only is this book talking about chess, it discusses Martial Arts, Business and Life as a Whole (ie. "The Way").
If you can look at this book in this light then it becomes much more than "just a chess book", it becomes something of a reminder of how to live life.
Perhaps I lost a couple people there but it boils down to is there are some people who all they do is chess, this book could be an introduction to a new way of looking at things, and new philosophies. So Enjoy!
Product Description
A guide for chess players at all levels.
Amazon.com
In Hollywood, William Goldman's famous dictum that nobody knows anything is accepted as gospel. Nobody can tell you how much a movie will gross before it's released, no matter how big the stars or advertising budget. Compare the box-office receipts of two summer-of-'99 horror movies, if you have any doubt about this law: The Blair Witch Project, with no stars and a small budget, earned far more money than the very expensive, star-driven The Haunting. Yet, in economics, it's assumed that everything boils down to an engineering calculation: Maintain girders A, B, and C, and the roof will never cave in.
Paul Ormerod, author of The Death of Economics (1994), offers a different idea: "In the current state of scientific knowledge, it is simply not possible to carry out forecasts which are systematically accurate over a period of time." The title Butterfly Economics comes from the idea in chaos theory that a butterfly flapping its wings here could cause a hurricane on the other side of the world. It's not that chaos is guaranteed in economics; it's just that we never know when it'll occur, or what will cause it. "Small changes can have big consequences, and vice versa," Ormerod notes. His arguments range far afield. He talks about crime and family structure, biology, fashion, and many other topics seemingly unrelated to economics. But it comes down to this: No matter how you analyze it, human behavior is surprisingly random. And no economic model can account for all of it at any given time.
Butterfly Economics will, of course, be of most use to those with professional interest in the titular topic (economics, that is, not butterflies). But anyone seeking a good read on the vagaries of life might want to give this one a shot. Any author who can analyze the behavior of ants and Hollywood studio executives in successive breaths deserves a wide audience. --Lou Schuler
Book Description
A beautifully written and engaging look at the cutting edge where economics meets complexity theory In this cogently and elegantly argued analysis of why human beings persist in engaging in behavior that defies time-honored economic theory, Ormerod also explains why governments and industries throughout the world must completely reconfigure their traditional methods of economic forecasting if they are to succeed and prosper in an increasingly complicated global marketplace.
"It is accessible and even entertaining. . . Mr. Ormerod not only writes about capital, but also points to a way it may at last be understood." -New York Times
Customer Reviews:
Takes on big questions with small examples.......2007-03-05
Butterfly Economics starts off a seemingly obscure academic study of ants finding food, and from this simple beginning, Omerod ends up taking on big questions such as "What are the limits of economic theory?" and even bigger, "What role should government play in the economy?". It's a pretty impressive journey and for the most part, Ormerod keeps it lively and interesting.
Omerod cites a study, which found that a colony of ants searching for food from two identical, replenished piles does not settle on one pile, despite the fact that ants leave chemical scents to help other ants find the food they have just located. One would think that it would be only a matter of time before all the ants would chose a single pile to get food, but in fact, the probability of a single ant choosing either pile oscillates unpredictably. This unpredictable beahvior is actually reproduced by a simple mathematical model. The important thing about this mathematical model is that it sets up rules for individual ant behavior, but simply cannot be summed up to explain the entire colony. Omerod goes on to show that this approach often provides better explanation of the economy.
Omerod goes on to elaborate his ideas through diverse subjects crime statistics, the unpredictable nature of Hollywood hit movies, divorce rates, economic forecasts, and the distribution of the size of businesses over time. For the most part, Omerod's writing make this an interesting rather than tedious read, and most of his explanations are pretty lucid. There were a few times I had to read things a second or third time to understand, and a couple times, Omerod's simplifications resulted in confusing leaps in his explanations. However, one should realize Omerod took on a task with a high degree of difficulty and just about nailed it.
Omerod argues for a more biological approach to understanding economies, rather than a more mechanical approach. In addition, Omerod shows that short term prediction of economies is fraught with difficulties and demonstrate spectacular failures, while long term economic behavior is rather well understood. Omerod argues, convincingly in my opinion, that the role of government in formulating policy, should be aimed at changing long term goals, rather than taking short term corrective actions.
Food for thought but not a full meal.......2005-12-26
Ormerod's basic point here, that economics is chaotic and tends to generate unpredictable changes even in the absence of external shocks, is well taken. I really liked the discussion of the ant experiment. I agree with Ormerod that there is entirely too much dependence on complex equations and theory in economics, without showing enough connection to real world data. Ormerod makes the excellent point that governments should do less intervention in trying to manage business cycles and pay more attention to the structural framework for the economy. There is no single best economic policy, since the effects of a policy depend enormously upon the context in which the policies are enacted. The book is worth reading for this analysis alone.
The book has some significant problems. The most important of these is that Ormerod believes that economic statistics such as GDP reflect economic reality. This is far from being the case. Our present economic system is engaged in a wholesale looting of presently available resources at the expense of the future. This is not sustainable on a time span of decades, never mind centuries. GDP and most other conventional economic statistics fail to take this into account. More realistic measures such as the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare or the Genuine Progress Indicator tend to show that there has been little or no real economic growth since the 1970s. Ormerod says that trying to correct for such things as the cost of pollution and depletion of resources simply introduces a new set of arbitrary assumptions. However, in my opinion our inability to be exact hardly means that we should take zero as our best estimate of these costs. Negative externalities can be usefully ignored only when they are small compared to the total size of the economy; that is not the case today.
Ormerod dismisses those who are skeptical of the benefits of economic growth, stating that such benefits are readily apparent. It is true, of course, that when starting from very low levels increase in material standards of living can benefit people greatly. It is far less clear that in rich societies more wealth brings such great benefits. In the U.S. our material wealth per capita has increased since the 1960s. But how much better off are we, really? In the 1960s U.S. a man of modest education could afford a house in the suburbs, a non-working wife, and several children. That's the lifestyle my parents had then. Today it takes two people working to achieve that sort of lifestyle, and being able to afford several children is out of the question. I've seen research that shows families in the 1950s actually had more disposable income than typical families today. A lot of the apparent material wealth of today is fueled by mountains of debt. Certainly people are no happier today than they were then. My personal experience is at variance with what Ormerod believes is obvious to anyone.
In places Ormerod contradicts himself. For example, in the last chapter he argues that when a deep recession is apparent, measures should be brought in by government to reduce the possibility of massive job loss. I thought Ormerod's earlier point had been that this sort of tinkering by government is self-defeating. I don't understand why he thinks it would work better here.
I would suggest reading Ormerod for his good points, but pairing this work with others to address the questions he dismisses. I recommend Daly's "Beyond Growth," Kunstler's "The Long Emergency," and Diamond's "Collapse."
All that is solid melts into air..........2005-11-09
When I left Albion's shores some ten years ago, examination entrants for economics were in decline as A-level students switched to Business Studies in their droves. Economics departments in universities across the British Isles have closed and indeed, in my alma mater (or at least one of them) there are a mere two economists remaining but, as the joke goes, with three opinions between them.
I came across Ormerod's book in a reference in a publication by the Institute of Economic Affairs and since receiving it I have scarecly put it down.
My first degree is in Economics and prior to completing that degree I had several qualifications in the subject. My specialisma were in the History of Economic Thought and Development Economics but my extra-curriculla activities brought me into contact with the Austrian School mainly through the tremendous work of Ralph Harris and Arthur Seldon at the IEA. The abstraction in modern economics and the tools with which it operates mean that there is often a chasm between the work of the theorists and the realities of life. Too often the forecasts have gone and been forgotten but in hindsight they are often wildly inaccurate. In the United States there has been a lengthy debate throught the intermediary of newspapers such as the Financial Times and others over the discrepancy which exists between the short and long term interest rate in that country which has no explanation according to the current state of theory.
Prof. Ormerod does us all a great service in exposing the tottering edifice that is modern economics to criticisms which go back at least one hundred years. There are many voices in the wilderness from Austrians and Institutionalists among others who have shown the inadequacies of the formalist approach but who have been ignored by the vested interests of the economics profession who, like priests of an empty religion, maintain that only the true believer can enter the gates of paradise.
Ormerod does great service in opening up some of the basics to this critique in a form which a reasonably educated person may understand. Those working in the field of "Complexity" will know of the difficulties of the mathematical tools in use but which nevertheless have a tremendous applicability in today's world. I resent the description of the text as repetitive. To a degree it has to be if the general public are to keep up with the argument but the same material is not gone over and over again.
I suspect that many who are unhappy with this little book have somewhat of a vested interest in maintaining economics as a so-called science, although to me economics resembles light in that whereas light may be viewed as particle or wave, economics may be viewed as science or art. Many who owe economics for their daily bread migght be at risk if Ormerod's work has the validity he claims. What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but suffers the loss of his own soul? Ormerod's work is a threat to the structure which has assumed for itself the mantle of the keeper of the sacred flame of policy prescription.
For that reason alone everyone interested in any aspects of economics or business or politics or public policy-making may want to read this book with care. In a way it is as revolutionary as the work of the neo-classical economists of the 19th century, in another it is one of the most radical threats to economics ever.
Flimsy math and limited scope of theory.......2005-08-23
Let us start as Omerod does, with the ants experiment: given 2 equal sources of food, an ant making a "subsequent" trip has 3 choices: do what it did before, do the opposite based on its own volition, do the opposite based on input from others. I felt it was distinctly odd why 3 and not 4 (break "do what it did before" into two categories like "do the opposite") or 2 (combine "do the opposite" into one category). However, since the writer never claims that the 3 choices are equiprobable (they're not), we can call it a whim and leave it that. So far so good.
Omerod then talks about big budget movies flopping and unheard-of movies succeeding. Accepted, but what has this got to do with the ants experiment? The same people are not watching the same movie many times ("subsequent" trips for the ants) and all movies are not equally good (equal sources of food). Isn't this comparing apples and oranges? If not, I'd have liked to know why, and this book does not explain the leap.
He uses the experiment to show how VHS beat Betamax. Here apart from "apples and oranges", he states his opinions (Betamax was superior) as fact, and completely ignores marketing and cost as factors. He uses this same trick of not quoting sources that oppose his viewpoint to "explain" why farmers uses pesticides instead of safer alternatives. He makes a curious statement about restaurants in the same block: apparently sometimes there are crowds in some while others are empty, and sometimes it is the other way around. He of course does not provide any references or proof that this actually happens -- I certainly haven't seen it. Also, once again he compares this to the ants experiment.
Incidentally, Omerod also talks about a mathematical theory (the one by Brian Arthur) and says that this theory has come to be called the "theory of QWERTY". It seems no one apart from the author actually calls this theory that, a google search on that phrase got me no hits.
I felt the subject matter of this book was about enough to fill a journal paper or so, but to make a book out of it was a tall order, and it shows. After the first few chapters, Omerod has nothing left to say, so the rest of the book is repetitive and soporific.
In short I'd recommend serious students to find a journal paper that discusses chaos etc. as applied to economics and take it from there, and all others to skip this book.
Ormerod's new general theory is inferior to Keynes's GT.......2005-05-15
Ormerod(O)has written a sequel to his earlier The Death of Economics in 1994.Ormerod's claim, that a general overview of chaos theory combined with non linear dynamics provides,as applied and interpreted by himself in this book ,a new general theory of social and economic behavior,is simply false. The first deficiency ,in this book as well as in the earlier book,is that the work of Benoit Mandelbrot is totally and completely ignored.The annual and quarterly gnp growth figures that appear throughout this book cry out for an explicit Mandelbrotian analysis(scaling and L-stable probability distribution approach).The second major deficiency is Ormerod's own mathematical innumeracy,illiteracy,and ineptness concerning the mathematical modeling used by Keynes in the General Theory(1936;GT)to prove mathematically that capitalist economies have multiple equilibria,only one of which would be a full employment equilibrium.All of the other possible equilibriums would involve unemployment equilibriums with a corresponding amount of involuntary unemployment that would be impossible for labor,in the aggregate,to reduce by cutting their money wage.Keynes explicitly defines this necessary and sufficient optimality condition two times on pages 261-262 of the GT.In both chapters 20 and 21,Keynes derives the following condition derived from the microeconomic foundations of firms/industries operating under conditions of pure competition:w/p=mpl/(mpc+mpi).Unless the marginal propensity to spend(the sum of the marginal propensity to spend on consumption goods,mpc plus the marginal propensity to spend on investment goods,mpi)equals 1,involuntary unemployment exists in the macroeconomy.Ormerod,on the contrary,states that"Keynes's Theory seems very realistic and appealing,and it is one to which we return in the next chapter.But Keynes himself never articulated it in a formal way,as he himself recognized".(Ormerod,p.107).Another false claim is that Keynes never supplied any microfoundations for his theory.(See Ormerod,p.109,124).Ormerod lacks the knowledge of what it is that makes up Keynes's general theory.A reading of chapters 19,20,and 21 of the GT demonstrates that Keynes's general theory is still the economic theory with the most generality.If Ormerod wishes to supplement that theory he needs to read Keynes's work more carefully.No new general theory is needed at the present time in order to explain what is going on in capitalist economies.Ormerod does handle the question of forecasting correctly,although he ignores the crucial Keynes-Tinbergen exchange of 1939-1940 as well as Mandelbrot.
Books:
- Jackson Pollock: Psychoanalytic Drawings
- Jewish Bestiary
- Judith Leyster : A Dutch Master and Her World
- Creative Women of Korea: The Fifteenth Through the Twentieth Centuries (East Gate Book)
- Land, Spirit, Power: First Nations at the National Gallery of Canada
- Lawrence Weiner: The Society Architect
- Light from the Darkness / Licht aus dem Dunkel: The Paintings of Peter Birkhäuser / Die Malerei von Peter Birkhäuser (Germanistische Lehrbuchsammlung)
- Little Pink Book: Flower Faries (Flower Fairies)
- Look Out World...Here I Come!
- Man & His Images a Way of Seeing
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't
- The Power of Focus: How to Hit Your Business, Personal and Financial Targets with Absolute Certainty
- This Is Not Civilization
- The Persistence of Memory: A Biography of Dali
- The Book Thief
- The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems
- The Maginot Line 1928-45
- Taking Darwin Seriously: A Naturalistic Approach to Philosophy
- The Silver Queen: Her Royal Highness Suzanne Bransford Emery Holmes Delitch Engalitcheff 1859-19
- The Key to the Vascular Flora of the Northeastern United States and Southeastern Canada
![What gestures do: Some communicative functions of quotable gestures in conversations among Black urban South Africans [An article from: Journal of Pragmatics]](http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/21S91GWE43L.jpg)
