The Future of Capitalism: How Today's Economic Forces Shape Tomorrow's World

Average customer rating:

Amazing and Fascinating Book !!

Provocative insights into the past and future of capitalism

Good, but has some absurds and is a little outdated

Be wary of an author scorned.

Packed With Knowledge!

The Future of Capitalism: How Today's Economic Forces Shape Tomorrow's World
Lester C. Thurow
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Policy & Current Events | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Free Enterprise | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Macroeconomics | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Theory | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Fortune Favors the Bold: What We Must Do to Build a New and Lasting Global Prosperity

Is That a Politician in Your Pocket: Washington on $2 Million a Day

To Kill The King: Post-traditional Governance And Bureaucracy

The Economist's View of the World

The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times And Ideas Of The Great Economic Thinkers

ASIN: 0140263284

Amazon.com

Professor Thurow once again demonstrates his insights into the global economy and a genius for pithy explanation in this masterful analysis of how the falling of Communism is leading, as inexorably as Continental Drift, to a new form of Capitalism. He identifies the challenges -- and opportunities -- in the shape-shifting of the world economy. His analyses of the rise of the capital of brainpower over traditional physical capital will be of especial interest to Internet users such as yourself. But the entire book is essential reading to anyone interested in our socioeconomic future. Highly recommended!

Book Description

Recognized around the world for his views and analysis of the global economy, Lester Thurow presents a provocative look at the future of capitalism. In this New York Times Bestseller, he identifies the many factors responsible for the enormous changes occurring around the globe: the rise of man-made brain-power industries, changing demographics, the impact of a global economy, the lack of a dominant world leader, and the conversion of the communist world to capitalism. With this knowledge, and asserting that the future holds great opportunity for those equipped to weather the storm of change, Thurow helps to chart a course for survival and success in the 21st century.

Customer Reviews:

Amazing and Fascinating Book !!.......2007-07-22

read capter 11 " economic Instability " , you would have escaped from being hit badly by 1997 " Asian Financial Crisis ".....

Provocative insights into the past and future of capitalism.......2007-05-08

Lester C. Thurow in his book The Future of Capitalism provides a number of provocative insights into the past and future of capitalism. Thurow offers explanations about many factors that are causing global political and economic change. These include the shift to knowledge-based industries, large shifts in demographics resulting from immigration, the end of communism, the global economy, and the lack of a dominant economic, political or military power. Global change is occurring at a rapid pace. Thurow's insights help provide a viewpoint of the potential course for capitalism during the next century.

Thurow recognizes that an emerging world economy is being driven by a shift to knowledge workers or "man-made brainpower industries", decreasing transportation costs, and a rapidly improving communications network. This enables work to flow wherever it can be done at the lowest cost. Second and third world workers perform low-skilled tasks at a fraction of the cost of low-skilled workers in developed parts of the world. Knowledge workers readily travel and communicate to manage work regardless of where it is done. Geographic boundaries are breaking down and David Ricardo's theories about comparative advantage are taking on added meaning. National governments struggle to control what are now global enterprises that can readily set up shop wherever the political and regulatory climate is most favorable to their business. What is less clear is Thurow's analysis of the trade deficit in relation to his view on the global economy. He thinks that the U.S. trade deficit is a problem and that we cannot continue to run a trade deficit, which seems true. Thurow proposes, as a solution, some form of ration coupon with Japan, which appears to be protectionism for the U.S. economy. Thurow's view of a global economy seems conflicted by his concern over maintaining national economies through protectionism.

Thurow also provides an intriguing view of the future where no dominant economic, political, or military power is able to regulate economic actions. Who will be able to regulate corporate activities and provide for fair competition in the future? Who will be able to deal with externalities? Will we end up with mammoth international monopolies and oligopolies? These are just some of the questions that arise when considering Thurow's view of the future. Thurow provides few answers to these questions. Instead, he paints bleak pictures of a depressing return to the Dark Ages.

Thurow offers several other interesting and controversial insights. He declares that inflation is a "distinct volcano" and that Greenspan (note that Thurow's book was published in 1996) should not be overly preoccupied with controlling it. He claims that capitalism has no mechanism to ensure research and investment for the long-term, which could lead to stagnation without government involvement. He offers interesting views on the aging demographic and our ability to absorb the associated social costs by what amounts to a transfer of wealth to an elderly population. Thurow foreshadows a rise in religious fundamentalism driven by uncertainty in economic and social systems.

The Future of Capitalism is more relevant today than when it was published in 1996. Globalization has increased driven by political changes and technological advances. Many of the issues and insights raised by Thurow around demographics, immigration, falling wages, and the trade deficit are a more disruptive and destabilizing force in the current world economy. A big question remains. Will capitalism prevail because there is no other "ism" out there as an alternate social construct; or, will capitalism ultimately be replaced by another social construct as the invisible hand of capitalism fails on a global scale?

Good, but has some absurds and is a little outdated.......2006-06-28

I read this book here in Brazil.This book has many good facts and is good to read.About Cingapore's pension sistem, the author is 100% agree.About old times Bismark's sistem(used in Brazil, USA,etc.) the author tells us that, these sistems are doomed to be a failure in the future.
This book also has some absurds.On chapter 7, the author claims that, any other country in world's history was so powerfull as USA, in 1990 decade.Nonsense.Between 1945 and 1949, USA had atomic monopoly and his GDP was bigger than all rest of the world together.Again, also on chapter 7, this book claims that after the end of USSR, the oil from the gulf now isn't essential.Nonsense.Persian Gulf has about 65% of oil in the world.And we must know that there's a link between oil price in the world.If the oil's price exported by Brazil rises, than the oil's price from Algeria, Angola and Iran will, also rises too.
Another reviewer of this book claims that this book is USSR's friend.Nonsense.Even forgeting the genocide of about 70,000,000 people made by eugenicists/communists such as Lenin, Trotsky, Lazar Kaganovich,etc. ,this book never claims that socialism is a way to help any country, in his development.Also I must tell you, that this book, also is a little outdated today.

Be wary of an author scorned........2004-06-08

It is so sad how wrong someone can be proven over and over again and still, he/she is rewarded, called a genius and is allowed to teach our youth. Here is a quote from the author: "Can economic command significantly... accelerate the growth process? The remarkable performance of the Soviet Union suggests that it can... Today the Soviet Union is a country whose economic achievements bear comparison with those of the United States." This was in 1989, just shortly before the Societ Union collapsed. Unfortunately, being this wrong in economics gives one awards and allows you to teach college students while being described a genius. Sad. Mr. Thurow may be a 'genius', but geniuses can be wrong too.

Packed With Knowledge!.......2004-05-06

This is a particularly important book for two types of people to read: those who believe economic instability and inequality will lead capitalism to implode (they're wrong); and those who believe the economic engine of capitalism is running just fine, especially in the United States, and simply needs to be left alone by meddling do-gooders, thank you (they are wrong too). Neither view is realistic. Lester C. Thurow is quite well suited to explain why. He is practically a brand name on national television, known for making more sense of the economy than anyone could possibly expect from a dean at MIT. Although Thurow wrote this book in 1996, the trade deficit, the skewed distribution of revenue and the disparity between rich and poor continue to demonstrate the validity of his conclusion that fewer and fewer can get more and more for only so long. We highly recommend his insightful analysis, wishing only that Thurow proposed deeper solutions for the problems he so ably diagnosed.

The Future of Capitalism : How Today's Economic Forces Shape Tomorrow's World

Average customer rating:

The Future of Capitalism : How Today's Economic Forces Shape Tomorrow's World
Lester C. Thurow
Manufacturer: Amazon Remainders Account
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Bargain Books | Stores | Books

Economics | Business & Investing | Bargain Books | Stores | Books
ASIN: B000GG4IEC

Average customer rating:

The Future of Capitalism How Today's Economic Forces Shape Tomorrow's World
Lester C. Thurlow
Manufacturer: William Morrow & Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000J0L9UG

Book Description

Protecting nonprofits from both internal and external fraud
This book addresses the most common fraud and abuse schemes committed against nonprofit organizations and explains how those schemes can be prevented and detected. It includes checklists covering each area of fraud and abuse as well as sample policies. The author, an expert in fraud prevention, focuses on the creation of a comprehensive fraud awareness and deterrence system that goes well beyond traditional internal financial controls.
Gerard M. Zack, CPA, CFE, MBA is a Director (Partner) with Williams Young, LLC. He founded the Nonprofit Resource Center, a training, publishing, and resource center serving nonprofit CFOs and external auditors. He is a frequent speaker on the topic of nonprofit fraud.

Average customer rating:

User-Friendly and With Eyes on Rome

100 Answers to Your Questions on Annulments (A Basilica Press "Modern Apologetics" Book)
Edward N. Peters
Manufacturer: Basilica Press / Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Divorce & Separation | Family & Health Law | Law | Subjects | Books
General | Law | Subjects | Books
General | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books
Apologetics | Theology | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
General | Law | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Annulments And The Catholic Church: Straight Answers To Tough Questions

Annulment: Do You Have a Case?

Annulment: A Step by Step Guide for Divorced Catholics (Divorce & Remarriage)

Annulment: Your Chance to Remarry Within the Catholic Church: A Step-by-Step Guide Using the New Code of Canon Law

Annulment: The Wedding That Was : How the Church Can Declare a Marriage Null

ASIN: 0536001723

Book Description

An excellent and highly-readable "question & answer" format book on the subject of divorce, remarriage, and annulments in the Catholic Church. Written in a clear, easy to follow style, this book is an important resource for Catholics and non-Catholics, clergy and laity.

Customer Reviews:

User-Friendly and With Eyes on Rome.......2004-05-20

As someone going through the annulment process, this book has been my guide, reference and map. It gives the facts in a compassionate, pastoral manner and is never judgemental - that is refreshing and priceless. My only complaint is that after talking to a canon lawyer in my diocese, I discovered that there are numerous ways to "plea" one's case and that wasn't touched on in the book and would have alleviated some headaches. All in all a must read for anyone going through, is a witness in or knows somebody getting an annulment. Way to go Dr. Peters!

100 ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS ON ANNULMENTS. A Basilica Press Modern Apologetics Book

Average customer rating:

100 ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS ON ANNULMENTS. A Basilica Press Modern Apologetics Book
Edward N. Peters
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster,
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Product Description

"Wagon-Making in the United States . . ." is perhaps the best available description of the tools, materials, technology, and process of wagon-making in the US during the late pre-automotive period. The featured centerpiece of this book is a masters thesis completed in 1968 at Millersville College (now University), Millersville, Pennsylvania, by Paul A. Kube. Titled A Study of the Gruber Wagon Works at Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania, this thesis describes the content, structure, and functioning of the Gruber Wagon Works as that business existed in the middle part of the 20th century a rare late-surviving representative of an industry that had, at one time, been essential to the transportation needs of the agrarian and early industrial national economy. Contributions by Clayton E. Ray and Cathy L. Wegener provide an introduction to the significance of the Kube thesis, a brief history of wagon-making in the United States, a review of the relocation and management of the Gruber Wagon Works as an interpretive center during and after the mid-1970s, a compilation of surviving production records of the Gruber Works, and a biographical sketch of Paul Kube.

Book Description

Over the last few years remarkable progress has been accomplished with respect to our understanding of nuclear structure and trafficking. This volume concentrates on aspects that involve or are of relevance to RNA and RNPs. Topics include fundamental advances and current problems in the structural organization of different subnuclear compartments: chromatin, nucleolus and perinucleolar compartment, Cajal bodies and gems, speckles containing splicing factors, as well as the PML bodies characteristic of ProMyelocytic Leukemia. It also describes recent progress in the dynamic aspects of RNA trafficking and in the latest technologies for live cell imaging of mRNA. The major general message of this volume is that nuclear structure is much more dynamic than previously anticipated.

Nuclear Envelope Structure and Rna Maturation (Ucla Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology New Series Vol 26)

Average customer rating:

Nuclear Envelope Structure and Rna Maturation (Ucla Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology New Series Vol 26)
Edward A. Smuckler
Manufacturer: Wiley-Liss
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Natural History | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

Nuclear Organization, Chromatin Structure, and Gene Expression

Average customer rating:

Nuclear Organization, Chromatin Structure, and Gene Expression

Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Biochemistry | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Biotechnology | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Genetics | Evolution | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

Natural History | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

Genetics | Basic Science | Medicine | Subjects | Books

Biotechnology | Special Topics | Medicine | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This is one of the first books that focuses on emerging concepts about the role of the structure of chromatin, the organization of the genome, and the structure of the interphase nucleus in the control of gene expression in eukaryotes. The first section analyses the relationship between the dynamic chromatin structure at the nucleosome level and gene expression. Section two looks into higher order chromatin structure in relation to transcription. In section three the molecular basis of epigenetic phenomena, like X-chromosome inactivation is discussed, starting from our understanding of chromatin structure. Together, these topics form the molecular basis for our understanding of cell differentiation, knowledge that is essential for the design of transgenic animals and plants and for gene therapy in humans. The book is of direct interest to students that are new in the field and to investigators in the area of biomolecular sciences, like developmental biology, biochemistry, cell biology, microbiology and genetics. Also, those working in applied fields of research, i.e biotechnology and biomedicine, will strongly benefit from this book. It will help them to understand fundamental problems in transgenics and gene therapy. Importantly, a variety of human disorders may turn out to be caused by genetic or somatic errors related to this level of gene control.

Nuclear Structure and Gene Expression (Cell Biology)

Average customer rating:

Nuclear Structure and Gene Expression (Cell Biology)

Manufacturer: Academic Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Genetics | Evolution | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

Natural History | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

Biotechnology | Special Topics | Medicine | Subjects | Books

General | Medicine | Subjects | Books

Average customer rating:

Nuclear Organization, Chromatin Structure, and Gene Expression
Editor-Roel Van Driel; Editor-Arie P. Otte
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OKRVI0

Average customer rating:

Nuclear Structure and Gene Expression (Cell Biology)
R. Curtis; Stein, Gary S.; Lian, Jane B.; Stein, Janet L. Bird
Manufacturer: Academic Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OHIJN4

Book Description

This volume contains the papers presented at the 26th Jerusalem Symposium. The topic of this meeting was reaction dynamics in clusters and condensed phases, which is of central interest in areas of chemical dynamics, kinetics, photochemistry and condensed matter chemical physics. The main theme of the conference was the interrelationship between the dynamics in large finite clusters and in infinite bulk systems. Issues addressed include microscopic and macroscopic solvation phenomena, cluster and bulk spectroscopy, photodissociation and vibrational predissociation, cage effects, interphase dynamics, reaction and energy transfer in clusters, dense fluids, liquids, solids and biophysical systems.

Book Description

Liquid crystal science underlies the technology of about half the current display technology by value, an industry now worth some $10 billion per annum worldwide. The fundamental science straddles the disciplines of chemistry, physics, engineering, mathematics and computer science. Among liquid crystal scientists today there is much interest in the historical process that has brought the subject to its present level. The historical roots lie in the years following 1888, again in the interwar years, and finally in the late 60s and 70s. This book has collected important papers in the development of liquid crystal science into one reference volume. The collection is divided into sections, each of which is prefaced by a brief commentary, referring to the historic-scientific context of the time. Some of these papers are available for the first time in English. More modern papers carry a short commentary from the original author, offering recollections of the context in which the work was carried out and what its impact has been. Crystals that Flow is aimed at liquid crystal scientists- from whatever background- physics, mathematics, chemistry, engineering or computer science. Historians of science will also find this a useful reference.

Customer Reviews:

Crystals that enthrall.......2005-12-07

Liquid crystals (LCs) are remarkable materials whose properties lie between those of solids and those of liquids. They are not only fascinating in their own right - as examples of systems exhibiting a variety of what physicists call `broken symmetries' - but also lend themselves to many practical applications. Paramount amongst these is display devices - everyday items such as the computer screen on which I am typing this review.

However, the true nature of LCs was not immediately apparent. It took many false starts over a period of about 100 years till their full potential was duly appreciated. And it was indeed a case of one knowing more about what goes on on the moon than six inches before our noses, for at least one type of LC had been around all along - in the form of wet soap. These are the so-called lyotropic LC phases, whose liquid crystallinity is awakened by the addition of a solvent (most often water). In the type that occurs most commonly in applications, called thermotropic LCs, it is temperature that does the trick - so much so that LC-based devices are restricted to certain operating temperature ranges (thanks to the ingenuity of synthetic chemists these now bracket most temperatures at which one would want to use such devices).

The history of LC research has now been brilliantly chronicled by Sluckin, Dunmur and Stegemeyer. Rather than just tell it, they let the characters of the play speak for themselves - mostly through their printed work, since many of them are now dead. `Crystals that Flow' is a collection of 46 `classic papers from the history of liquid crystals'. These are grouped into five sections: the first three cover the early period, the period
between the two World Wars, and the modern period. Then there is a section on the development of LC technology, and one final section on an entirely different group of LCs, the lyotropics I have already mentioned above, as well as more complicated LC molecular architectures such as polymer LCs and LC elastomers. These latter are very much at the forefront of current research and so the account is of necessity much less complete. In a scholarly tour de force, many of the papers have been translated afresh from their original languages (French or German) by the editors. Not all papers are reproduced in their entirety, due to their length or to the otherwise lesser relevance of some of their contents; when this happens it is clearly noted, both in the table of contents and in the papers themselves. It is a pleasure to be able to read what the fathers (regrettably no mothers) of the field actually wrote, and to see how many of the ideas we regards as modern are in fact not at all new, having sometimes languished in obscurity for decades only to be rediscovered much later: I for one was awestruck to learn that Maier and Saupe's 1958 theory of the nematic state was already contained in a 1917 paper by Grandjean that no-one appears to have taken notice of!

Each section is preceded by an essay some 20 pages long, which sets the research in a wider scientific and societal context and introduces the leading characters, whose short biographies appear after the papers. And what a pleasure these are to read: the story that is told is not the sanitised tale of an inexorable progression towards sure knowledge, but that of all the twists and wrong turns by its human actors that we practicing scientists often do our best to conceal because that's how we think it ought to be, but maybe isn't. This time it wasn't, and a good thing too.

The only minus point I see (besides a - very - few typos) is the rather hefty price tag: at over 100 dollars a copy, the book is unaffordable to many potential readers. Let's hope a cheaper edition can be produced for their benefit, the sooner the better.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books