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Book Description

`Stable holdings of each other's shares have been a significant, distinctive feature of Japanese major industrial companies and financial institutions and an integral component of its economic system of bank-based finance and permanent employment. Recent accelerating decline in stable shareholding thus has important implications for Japan's transition to a market-based system. Mitsuaki Okabe provides useful data and insightful analysis of the rather complex patterns of changing costs and benefits of cross-shareholdings in this important new study, the first of its kind available in English.'

- Hugh T. Patrick, Columbia University

`Cross shareholding among major firms and the bank in Japan has long been a central feature of Japanese industrial organisation. As Okabe argues it is not an isolated element in the way in which the Japanese economic system works: it is at the core of the whole system - the structure of the labour market, the way in which the capital market has worked to protect Japanese business against external competition, and the innovation system. Okabe provides a fresh look at the dissolution of corporate and main bank links in Japan leaving open the question of when the changes under way will reach a critical point. This is a valuable up-to-date primer on these important changes in corporate Japan and the Japanese economic system more generally.'

- Peter Drysdale, Australian National University, Australia

This book focuses on one of the most important features of the contemporary Japanese economy; cross shareholding - or mutual shareholding - between corporations. The book analyzes recent trends and the reasons behind these, and discusses the implications for the entire Japanese economic system and highlights relevant public policy.

Mitsuaki Okabe proposes that the dissolution of cross shareholdings has weakened the importance of long-term transactional relationships as seen in the Keiretsu (the `main bank') practice and employment, and that as a result the character of the economy is now closer to that of the Anglo-American system.

Cross Shareholdings in Japan is a timely book and will be of special interest to academics and researchers of economics, Asian studies and finance, as well as policymakers and those involved either directly or indirectly in the Japanese financial system.

Customer Reviews:

Confused and jargon-ridden.......2004-04-17

This book is like a stale Pizza with "The lot" - Gough Whitlam, Ayn Rand, Adam Smith, Tony Blair, a mishmash of left-wing, right-wing and loopy ideas, all thrown in together without logic or discrimination. One chapter contradicts another. Is the welfare state to be abolished or strengthened, for example? Different chapters say both. There is an invocation of "community" takiung over some of the tasks of government and capitalism without the slightest indication of how this is to be achieved. The work of a man who cannot think critically or rigourously or organise his thoughts. Heaven help Australia if he should gain political power!

Mark Latham and social capital.......2003-05-14

Latham graduated in Economics from Sydney University in 1982 and became a political adviser for Gough Whitlam, then the New South Wales branch of the Australian Labor Party and NSW Premier Bob Carr. He was a councillor on the Liverpool Council between 1987 and 1994 and mayor from 1991 to 1994. Elected to Federal Parliament for Werriwa in January 1994, he has served in Parliament ever since.

As the work of a member of what Hegel called the political class, born and raised to serve in the state machine, altruistically looking after the affairs of the rest of society, this book appears to express the writers discovery of a world outside the bureaucracy.

Social democracy needs to give closer consideration to the relations between citizens rather than simply working from an assumption that all social issues can be resolved in the state-to-citizen relationship. [p. xl-xli] Other strands of political thought [as well as social democracy] have taken a strong interest in the social relations between citizens. [p. 263]

As such, it should be welcomed. Latham has read widely and has plenty of ideas for the political class to reflect upon and we should wish him well. But there are some profound misunderstandings in his work which need to be addressed.

Latham believes that the creation of the Welfare State in the wake of the Wall Street Crash, the Great Depression, Fascism and World War Two was based on a series of old assumptions about stability, security and conformity. [see p. 199] In passing, it should be noted that Lathams principal method of argument is to append adjectives like old, crude, binary, simple, raw, traditional, mechanistic, dogmatic, linear, rigid, narrow or conventional to the view he opposes and new, complex, profound, radical, fresh to the view he advocates. But it remains to be seen whether he is able to distinguish in the new and in the old what should be supported and what should be opposed.

His principal thesis is that the Welfare State was a product of a culture in which Fordist methods of production predominated in the economy, and the Welfare State and the associated methods of macroeconomic economic management, essentially emulated the methods of Fordist hierarchically organised, one-size-fits-all mass production.

Observing the decline of Fordist methods of production in the economy, it is hardly surprising that Fordist methods of government administration are called into question.

Some commentators have suggested ... that the organisation of government will increasingly reflect these methods of post-Fordist production and service delivery. [p. 211]

The economy of mass production and its workforce have been replaced by the globalised, information-age economy and its very different workforce. Latham is fully cognisant to the malaise affecting the modern world, its shallowness and individualism, the anomie, widespread insecurity, loss of community, the spread of downwards envy, the widening of the gap between rich and poor, the growth of an under-class, etc., etc.

Also to be observed everywhere is the decline in what Latham calls vertical patron/client relations, alongside the growth of symmetrical, horizontal relations. Under these modern conditions, Fordist organisations, such as the Welfare State, are altogether dysfunctional.

organisations tending towards the vertical have declined most notably in their participation and relevance in recent decades. ... Conversely, some organisations displaying horizontal social capital and the virtues of mutual trust seem to have moved against the tide of social capital depletion. [p. 278]

Let us agree with Latham the welfarism and Keynesianism were indeed part and parcel of the period of Fordist production and that with the decline of mass production manufacture, these methods of governance must also decline. No rational person could wish to restore them.

But when trying to account for the malaise of modern society, is it rational to ascribe the rampant and burgeoning social problems of our times to the inadequacy of the system of government and welfare distribution? Can a member of the political class be so deceived as to their own importance to believe that the vast social changes witnessed over the past several decades are the result of a failure of government to move with the times?

To put it another way, if modernism has had the effect of replacing vertical (hierarchical patron/client) relationships with mutual, horizontal relations, why is there a crisis at all? What reason do we have to believe that if the public sector emulates the private sector, the problem will not get far worse, rather than better?

To make sense of this confusion we have to look a little critically at what we could call, to borrow some of Lathams own adjectives, the old, rigid, binary categorisation of relationships as vertical or horizontal.

What has been the transformation of person-to-person relations wrought by modernism which has transformed work and society? It has been the replacement of all forms of hierarchical relations (bureaucratic, managerial or traditional) by the commodity relation.

Now the commodity relation, the relation of buyer and seller, of customer to service provider, is a mutual, symmetrical relation based on fair exchange. It is a relation in which each party enters as a free agent with equal rights. This relation is nevertheless the very relation upon which the modern form of exploitation is based, for if two parties enter a fair exchange under conditions where there is a gross imbalance in social power, the outcome though fair is also exploitative. Furthermore, it is a relation in which, rather than collaborating, each manipulates the other for their own ends; it is a relation which isolates people and reduces them to appendages of an object.

This is a horizontal relation to be sure. But not of the same kind as that which, for example, binds together the participants in a neighbourhood project, a football team, a cooperative, a volunteer firefighting group, and so on. I call these relations collaboration. There is a third party in all these relationships, which I could call we. In the exchange of commodities there is no third, there is no we, only them and us.

So when Latham proposes to abolish the old patron/client relation in favour of the modern, mutual relation of customer/service provider, he sounds the death knell on the last surviving points of support against capital, and must thereby place enormous pressure on those relations of collaboration which are struggling to develop in opposition to both bureaucratic patronage and commercial anomie.

Latham's view is captivating and highly persuasive.......1999-12-01

Mark Latham is one a few Australians who today are actually proposing substantial policy prescriptions instead of being locked into an ideologically based debate which time has now passed over. Latham's prescriptions are both analytical but highly readable in a concise manner. His major proposals are based on 'third way' politics, most successfuly articulated by Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. Latham's proposals advocate a whole new way for governments in Australia in approaching Industry Policy, Welfare Reform, Income Inequality, Economic exclusion, Employment creation, and Government financing. Latham believes that the politics of the left-right divide are no longer relevant in the 'new economy'. The cornerstone of Latham's view is the vital importance of life-long learning and the need to overcome Australia's third deficit, that is, the under-investment in the skills and inventiveness of citizens. It is argued that the future prospertity of Australians is contingent upon the growth of knowledge based resources, namely the development of human capital. In Latham's own words: "Globalisation has left parties and politicians struggling for solutions. The political Right has not been able to show, once the active role of government is withdrawn, how individual liberty alone can answer the insecurity and remorseless inequity of an open economy. The choice between market freedom, with its army of working poor, and the failings and unsustainable costs of the welfare state, is barely a choice at all. It simply points to the need for a third way". Latham's book is a captivating and highly persuasive read. Moreover it proposes solutions rather than mere ideological dogma. I recommend this book to anyone with a particular interest in the future of Australian society.

Political THINKING.......1999-07-07

I have only just purchased this book today after hearing Mark Latham speak. He started by telling the audience that his mentor advised him on entering politics that "modern politicians these days rarely have time to think, listen, or research" ... luckily for Australia Mark Latham does THINK and his political ideas straddle the Left-Right spectrum (although he describes himself as Centre Left and belongs to a Left-leaning party). Something of an outcast in his own party, he pushes an agenda that ignores sectional interests and instead looks to the best national and international long term outcomes.

Civilising Global Capital: New Thinking for Australian Labor.(Review) (book review): An article from: Journal of Australian Studies

Average customer rating:

Civilising Global Capital: New Thinking for Australian Labor.(Review) (book review): An article from: Journal of Australian Studies
Bill Harley
Manufacturer: University of Queensland Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0008J7YCA
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Journal of Australian Studies, published by University of Queensland Press on June 1, 2000. The length of the article is 691 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Civilising Global Capital: New Thinking for Australian Labor.(Review) (book review)
Author: Bill Harley
Publication: Journal of Australian Studies (Refereed)
Date: June 1, 2000
Publisher: University of Queensland Press
Page: 212

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

CIVILISING GLOBAL CAPITAL. New thinking for Australian Labor.

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CIVILISING GLOBAL CAPITAL. New thinking for Australian Labor.
Mark: Latham
Manufacturer: Pan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000W35DIY

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I love this book!

Honey, Hold My Purse While I Kick Your Ass
Miss Deborah
Manufacturer: PublishAmerica
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1413782213

Book Description

Miss Deborah's candid in-your-face approach in Honey, Hold My Purse... will give you the tools and tricks you need to get what you want: a mutually satisfying, honest and fun-filled relationship. With easy-to-follow chapter summations and amusing “repeat after me” phrases you'll find yourself laughing your way to a better understanding of your partner.

Customer Reviews:

I love this book!.......2005-09-23

It is very funny, extremely insightful and genuinely informative. For any book to accomplish all three qualities is extremely rare. Miss Deborah describes situations everyone can relate to and smile knowingly as she helps both women and men understand the different perspectives. Improved understanding would be enough but she also gives dozens of tips and suggestions about how to improve communication as well as strengthen relationships. The book is written for women but it is equally beneficial for men. One word of warning though, don't lend this book out, you'll never get it back. I've also discovered that it makes an unusual and very much appreciated gift.

Book Description

In this detailed biography, Martin Clark traces Pearl Jam's meteoric rise, the band's reaction to popular acclaim, its triumphs at the MTV and Grammy awards, the notorious rift with Nirvana, and its creative rebirth following the release of the critically acclaimed album No Code. Giving particular emphasis on the band's enigmatic leader, Eddie Vedder, the book brings to life a tumultuous career, chronicling Pearl Jam through success, scandal, band tensions, personnel changes, and substance abuse. This revised and updated edition features many intriguing — and hitherto untold — facts and anecdotes, in addition to a comprehensive discography.

Customer Reviews:

This book's best feature is its subject matter..........2003-10-06

I was excited to get this and start reading - hopefully find some insight into some things that I didn't previously know about one of favorite bands. Unfortunately, however, this book was little more than regurgitated facts easily found on the internet and quotes from other articles. I picked up a few unknown tidbits here and there, but nothing extraordinary. The author took a rather detached stance and didn't really ever allow the reader to know whether or not he actually LIKED Pearl Jam. The drummer history and early band history were both fairly interesting, but you can find out everything in those sections over at lukin.com. The most fun part of reading the book was coming across references to specific shows, then running to my bootleg folder to listen to the show. It's always cool to have some background to put the thing you're listening to in perspective. Except that, even this, is easily available on the web at Five Horizons. It's a decent "refresher-course", but I was looking for something that, when I was done, would make me want other people to read it. When I finished this, I was, instead, just rather ho-hum about the whole thing.

but... PEARL JAM ROCKS

Looks good but not accurate........2001-07-16

I'm a huge Pearl Jam fan so I read this book a while ago hoping for some insight into the band. I was sadly dissappointed. While the book has lots of nice photographs, it's hardly worth reading. This book is full of misquotes and distorted facts. If you really like Pearl Jam I suggest you read the book "Five Against One" instead. It's a lot longer but well worth your time.

Chronicles the Rise of an Underdog.......2000-10-01

A slim 160-page volume packed with black and white photos chronicling the rise of an underdog staying power of a band Kurt Cobain once criticized (and later reversed his sentiments) for creating corporate grunge. Through public disagreements with Nirvana, boycotts of Ticketmaster, and changing band members, Clarke covers all the bases.

Fantastic!.......2000-05-03

Best Pearl Jam book ever written! This book covers a wide base of what the members did before PJ, and shows how the band has evolved over the years.

Eddie really is fragile.......1999-08-04

I have read this and find it very good. I am a pearl jam fan and recommend this book to any and all who are interested in Vedder and crew. He's the last true anti-hero.

Book Description

The Ultimate TV Game Show Book is a virtual cornucopia of fun, frivolity and fabulous facts from more than fifty years of games shows.

Customer Reviews:

Do not buy if you want game show details........2005-10-16

If you are looking for a fun, trivia-type book, then this is the book to buy. I was looking for a book that would provide more detail than what this book does. It is laid out like a high school scrapbook....lots of pictures, many trivial pieces of information, etc. Many of the captions on the photos were ok, but the authors didn't elaborate on some of the most interesting ones. I guess I was expecting more than what was delivered.

Good Book - Only One Flaw.......2005-09-08

This is a good compilation of information about TV game shows, including lists, fun facts and tons of pictures. The only flaw is that some of the pictures cut off the very top, meaning that some people's heads are not showing. I suspect that is a publishing error. Still, a very good book.

This Book Is Game Show Heaven.......2005-06-22

I'm a game show junkie and have been for years My earliest game show memory is lkistening to "Quuen for a Day" on radio. When I first saw "Password" on TV I was hooked and have obsessed on game shows ever since. Ryan and Wostbrock have produced a book that has delighted me more than anything in years. It is informative and sheer fun at the same time. The book consists of a series of lists and some of the best game show photos that I've ever seen in print. Check out those cute, really young photos of Gene Rayburn and Regis Philbin. The authors' other book "The Encyclopedia of TV Game Shows" is the main course, substantial and a great resource for any game show fan. I've used it to settle more than one argument. On the other hand this book is dessert-delicious delightful and begging to be dipped into over and over. How many catchy game show phrases can you quote? What To Tell the Truth imposters later became celebrities in their own right? What popular game show host changed his name from Colin Emm? I could go on and on, but you're just going to have to read the book for yourself to find these answers and so many more. Steve Ryan and Fred Wostbrock have spent many years working in the game show industry. Their knowledge of and love for the format is readily apparent.

This book is Volume 1 and that encourages me to look forward to a volume 2.

Great job guys!

Average customer rating:

The Ultimate TV Game Show Book Volume 1
Steve Ryan & Fred Wostbrock
Manufacturer: Volt Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000MMO4UI

Book Description

Well written and comprehensive, this book explains complicated topics such as signals and concurrency in a simple, easy-to-understand manner. The book offers an abundance of practical examples and exercises. This book is comparable to other best-selling UNIX books, such as UNIX Network Programming, by Richard Stevens. Covers fundamentals, asynchronous events, concurrency, and communication. For programmers in need of a better understanding of UNIX systems programming.

Customer Reviews:

Comprehensive.......2007-07-03

This book contains the answers to almost any question concerning communication, concurrency and threads. All of the included code works fine, but is often ugly. At least the ugly code is available online if you are too lazy to write your own, or type it yourself.
3 stars because this book follows the typical computer book pattern. It's too big. Huge examples and discussion for rarely used features, when a table enumerating specifics would be better. There is alot of fluff, but at least the material is there.

Worth my yearly salary!.......2006-09-30

I read it in one of the book store in three hours. I bought it a month later. It saved me several times. One of the best books I have ever had.

practical it is.......2006-06-12

This is the type of book that doesn't leave you with more questions than it answers. It doesn't just discuss the concepts and then you're on your own for coding. It gives you enough code and explanation so that you can implement mutex locks, semaphores, threads, etc. It doesn't force you to go search online for code samples. I refer to this book often, and not just when writing code for Unix.

How is it different from his older version ?.......2005-11-16

Well he fixed all his bugs. He thinks he is in spiral model of life cycle publishing, Good Grief!

Added few more projects which are poorly written, especially project www redirection - chapter 19. When I am paying 60 bucks, I expect some quality content. Oho, well maybe my expectations are more because he is targettng the student community. They are not paying you to read your book but they will download of some p2p file sharing network. We pay so I think I have every right to demand. The difference is obvious when a book is written by academic professor versus a professional software developer with tons of experience.

I would suggest, stick to Richard Stevens, unless you are in that Texas school where he teaches.

Good textbook style reference.......2005-08-26

True, this is a text book. So it has longer examples, and it likes to put "Exercise" for all of its sections. However the book also makes an excellent reference. It was well written, and has nice diagrams to explain things like IO redirection, forking, semaphores and other basic concepts of Unix development. Its dated, and does not talk about some newer IPC capabilities such as in Linux and Solaris 10, but it makes a good introductory book...

Unix Systems Programming: Communication, Concurrency and Threads, Second Edition

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Unix Systems Programming: Communication, Concurrency and Threads, Second Edition
Steve Robbins Kay Robbins
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall PTR
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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