Contours of Descent: U.S. Economic Fractures and the Landscape of Global Austerity

Book Description

The highly respected text, now updated with a substantial postscript reflecting on recent conditions in the US and global economy.

The US economy faced the prospect of a serious recession even prior to the September 11 terrorist attacks. The afflictions that had deepened under both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush—wage stagnation, rising inequality, wildly inflated stock markets—sharpened further. The highly unstable conditions that Clinton handed Bush were hardly noticed amid the near-universal praise for the economic stewardship of Clinton and his supposed policy maestro, Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan.

Contours of Descent reveals how these variants of neo-liberal economics, which lavish favors on multinationals and capitalists while allowing living standards for ordinary people to fall, operate in the US and less developed countries, and explores policies for economic growth with increased equality.

Customer Reviews:

Settling Accounts.......2006-12-23

Clinton boosters have not been shy about touting the Arkansas playboy's economic record while in office. After all, didn't he balance the budget after years of stunning deficits. And didn't unemployment stats fall to near record lows, with negligible inflation, no less. Wasn't capital also included, with equity prices rising to record highs. Yeah, good times for everyone, courtesy our 42nd president. Maybe his zipper had occasional problems, but the economy didn't.

Anyone looking to get beyond the hype with a real take on those years should pick up Pollin's nifty little scorecard. Sure, it's filled with graphs and stats, but how else can the hype be debunked without them. They put the record in historical perspective, and what comes out is not nearly so impressive as what went in. If you feel that somehow you were no better off in 2000 than you were in 1993, don't feel alone. In fact, the Clinton yacht left most of us behind, as the big picture shows. One thing for sure, Pollin will not be on the DLC's list of 2007 must-read's.

Not much new information or analysis.......2006-05-13

Most leftists will be familiar with almost all of the information in Robert Pollin's book. From the rightist nature of Clinton's policies, to the fact that most people's standard of living didn't improve much in the 1990s, to the failure of neoliberalism in India, Argentina, and other nations.

Some bits are interesting. He refutes various circular explanations of why a large bubble developed in the 1990s and provides a good interpretation. The information on the farmer suicides in India will be new to most readers.

At the outset he outlines the "Marx Problem" the "Keynes Problem" and the "Polanyi Problem" but these concepts are hardly used throughout the book.

This book is only recommended for young leftists (or foreigners, since most of the book is on the U.S.) who have not yet learned much about the U.S. economy and international neoliberalism. To all others it will be redundant.

Forest and trees problem.......2006-05-03

Good book, well written, highly literate, worth the effort to wade through, just a few problems. The first is he ignores a series of fairly astute +170 year-old observations by Alexis de Tocqueville. Next, he misses the lessons of classical history.

When Tocqueville looks at the future of America he is troubled not by the macro-economic policies of the Clintons, but with the fundamental materialism of American life. The seeds of the current problems have always been there, since at least 1831. Tocqueville thinks greed is mostly good, he just thinks you have to have the sense (his control mechanism is religion) not to take it too far. This is actually what Pollin is writing about.

Next, the lessons of classical history would suggest that there is a perpetual tension in republics between democrats and oligarchs. Sadly, this will be dismissed by some as neo-Marxist. It isn't; Marx reported a phenomenon, he didn't create it.

What Tocqueville feared, and Marx observed, is best summed by Napoleon's observation that if you abolished the aristocracy of the nobility, you ended up recreating it in the houses of the upper-class. It would seem that we are there, except that somehow it is now unacceptable to talk in terms of class warfare (a prohibition that does not seem to be of much benefit to the non-aristocrats).

What Pollin is reporting is how the oligarchy has gone about extending its power in the modern era. Sadly, it usually takes a pretty severe crisis to reverse that trend. Some analysis of history (classical Athens, the Roman Republic) suggests that if you go far enough over the edge you can never make it back.

An economics book extraordinary in its clarity; fascinating.......2006-04-24

Pollin shows that the Clinton economic "boom" was a [...] The average price to earnings ratio was at an all time high from 1996-99. CEO salaries became increasingly based on stock performance as corporate profits became increasingly based on speculation in their own firm's stock. That the economy was increasingly based on shaky foundations, according to Pollin, was recognized privately in September 1996 by Alan Greenspan, who privately noted that he could slow down the speculative bonanza by raising the margin requirement-but he did not. The margin requirement is where investors are supposed to give their broker a certain amount of cash on reserve, relative to the riskiness of their investment.

In July 1997 in Congressional testimony, Greenspan explained that outstanding economic performance was due to "heightened sense of job insecurity and as a consequence, subdued wages." Subdued wage increases were holding down inflation even in a period of high unemployment. In 2001 dollars, Pollin observes the average, real hourly wage declined from $15.70 in 1973 to $13.27 in 1993. The average hourly wage shot back up to only $14.16 by 2000 (for the whole of the 1993-201 Clinton presidency the average hourly wage was $13.60 exactly as it was under Kennedy and Johnson, lower than the $13.91 of the Reagan-Bush 1 presidency, the $15.11 of Nixon-Ford, and the $15.03 of the Carter presidency). The official poverty rate in 2000 was 11.3. The poverty average for the Reagan-Bush I years was 14.0. Clinton, by 2000, under the Stock market casino induced prosperity, had gotten the poverty level back down to the level (11.3) where it was in 1974. This poverty reduction was very meager considering that from 1974-2000, America's GDP had grown by 70 percent, productivity grew by 61 percent and the stock market went up 603 percent. The richest one percent of income earners in the U.S. got the predominant share of this economic success. The CEO to worker pay ratio went from 113 to 1 in 1991 but was 449 to 1 by the time Clinton left office. Even the small poverty reduction under Clinton is probably undermined by the fact of the skyrocketing child care costs, caused by Clinton's elimination of subsidies to single mothers.

And of course the meager increases in wages and poverty decrease were funded by the stock market casino induced business expansion. When that expansion collapsed in late 2000, business were left with greatly underutilized plant and machinery, and a great deal of debt, something that all of Greenspan's interest rate lowering during the current president's first term could not resolve.
In the several years after NAFTA, Pollin notes companies held down worker pressure for wage increases by threatening to move production overseas. Some firms have even been forcing their workers to work overtime without pay. In an early 2002 article in Business Week which surveyed white collar employees, most complained that they were getting little of the increased gains in productivity, that they were having to take over the functions of their downsized colleagues and were desperate to get more secure jobs. Indeed, in Bush's first term, productivity growth took off. This seems to have been because fewer workers were spending more hours at work. In his afterward to the paperback edition, he quotes a May 10 2005 London Financial Times article which stated that while productivity growth had been at an average of 4.1 per year since 2001, wage and salary growth grew by only 1.5 percent....Pollin notes that the largely male percentage of the population which has stopped looking for work altogether is not counted in official unemployment figures. Thus the real unemployment rate currently might be about 7 percent.....

Neoliberalism is the cause of the increasing inequality in the Third World. In the latter, since 1980, economic growth has been reduced significantly in contrast to previous decades. Under IMF programs, countries increasingly were forced to eliminate subsidies to farmers and to the poor, to remove tariffs against foreign competition, to remove all restrictions on capital flows in and out of their country. This elimination of protection for small farmers has led to them increasingly trying to survive in sweatshop work. Pollin gives the case study of India where in the free market showcase of the province of Andreh Pradesh, there has been a mass suicide of poor farmers. These farmers have ruined their crop because there are no longer government agencies around to supervise their use of pesticides and fertilizers and the elimination of government subsides has necessitated that they turn to loan sharks who take all their money

In Argentina he notes, from 1950 to 1971, under the "import substitution" model where the government channels subsidies to stimulate domestic industries and imposes tariffs to protect domestic industries, the GDP on average grew 3.0. While from 1971 to 2001, Argentina subjecting itself to increasingly severe neoliberal imposition after the late 70's, the GDP grew by only 2.0. Argentina's poverty rate rose from 8 to 40 percent from 1978 to 1989. From 1981 to 1989, after expanding for decades, the country's supply of machinery and equipment fell by 35 percent. The elimination of controls on the inflow and outflow of capital caused major inflationary spikes and financial instability. Argentina has gotten out of its severe 2001 economic collapse by ignoring the key prescriptions of the IMF. Indeed, Pollin observes, the most successful economies in modern history have completely avoided the extreme free market policies pushed by the IMF. Asian economies like Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea, quoted by Reagan as free market success stories in his 1985 inaugural , had massive government subsidized import substitution policies and restrictions on capital flows in and out of the country.

The increasing level of inequality in the world, Pollin writes, is greatly understated, by including Chinese economic statistics. In fact, China still has significant government involvement in its economy.

Pollin discusses sweatshops and whether they are actually cost-effective for firms.........

It would have been nice if the author devoted a section to the economic policies of the Reagan years.

Are we all neoliberals now? No!.......2005-02-08

Robert Pollin's 'Contours of Descent' has been a welcomed addition to the debate over the nature and course of recent American economic history and the policies that contributed in to the making of that history. Pollin provides a well-researched and -argued look at the economic policies of the Clinton and Bush administrations. 'Contours' treats both presidential administrations as instances of Reaganomics in action - that is, as political regimes beholden to the neoliberal consensus that began to form in Washington during Jimmy Carter's term and which the Reagan administration turned into programmatic focus of American economic policy. The New Deal Order might have ended with the Reagan administration, but there has not been a return to a 'golden age' defined by full employment and an equitably distributed abundance. Consequently, Reaganomics or neoliberalism has proven to be an austerity program for the majority in the United States and elsewhere. Clinton and Bush the Younger merely follow their master in this regard.

What is most useful in Pollin's analysis is the debunking work it performs. More specifically, Pollin makes it clear that Clintonomics differs from Bush the Younger's 'New Rapacity' mostly in degree but not in kind. The stock market bubble economy of the late 1990s merely obscured the class biases inherent in the administration's policies, biases which Clinton expressed by claiming that he would be an Eisenhower Republican.

Pollin's critical work won't prove to be overly useful to those implementing the neoliberal consensus at home and abroad. They will likely ignore it and will continue to greatly exploit whomever they can, whenever they can, notwithstanding the consequences produced by their policies and actions. On the other hand, his analysis should be very useful to those on the left who believe the Clinton wing of the Democratic Party has something to offer in economic matters. It does, of course: It offers a recipe for making the rich richer and the poor poorer! What it fails to offer is a strategic path leading to a full employment and high growth economy in the United States and elsewhere. Pollin sheds a much-needed light on the methods and consequences of neoliberalism. We can only hope that it aids sensible Americans as they make their way out of the Democratic Party.

Contours of Descent: U.S. Economic Fractures and the Landscape of Global Austerity.(Book Review): An article from: Journal of Economic Issues

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Contours of Descent: U.S. Economic Fractures and the Landscape of Global Austerity.(Book Review): An article from: Journal of Economic Issues
Christopher J. Niggle
Manufacturer: Association for Evolutionary Economics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000976ULW
Release Date: 2006-07-14

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Journal of Economic Issues, published by Association for Evolutionary Economics on March 1, 2005. The length of the article is 1979 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: Contours of Descent: U.S. Economic Fractures and the Landscape of Global Austerity.(Book Review)
Author: Christopher J. Niggle
Publication: Journal of Economic Issues (Refereed)
Date: March 1, 2005
Publisher: Association for Evolutionary Economics
Volume: 39 Issue: 1 Page: 267(5)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Contours of Descent: U.S. Economic Fractures and the Landscape of Global Austerity

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Contours of Descent: U.S. Economic Fractures and the Landscape of Global Austerity
Robert Pollin
Manufacturer: Verso
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000N75TME

Book Description

This classic volume presents a comprehensive collection of farm-and-country wisdom and know-how from the turn of the century, a time when most farmers were still virtually self-sufficient and had to know how to do everything on their own. Divided into five parts that correspond to the five basic divisions of farm work and organization, Traditional Country Skills provides a fascinating glimpse of farming at the dawn of the twentieth century as well as handy advice for the modern homesteader on dozens of key tasks. Introductions to each section, written by editor Sheila Buff, provide background on the material and offer a useful historical perspective that allows the reader to understand more clearly the transformations that have taken place and what time-honored practices have been regretfully lost over more than a century of farming in America. (8 1/2 x 11, 240 pages, b&w photos, illustrations)

Customer Reviews:

A classic volume of farming equipment and management.......2002-02-05

Readers with a particular interest in farm management and country living will find Traditional Country Skills to be a classic volume of farming equipment and management at the turn of the 20th century, filled with advice for farmers of the time and modern homesteaders alike. A wealth of black and white drawings throughout makes this a pleasure to read.

Book Description

Theory of Orbits treats celestial mechanics as well as stellar dynamics from the common point of view of orbit theory, making use of concepts and techniques from modern geometric mechanics. It starts with elementary Newtonian mechanics and ends with the dynamics of chaotic motion. The two volumes are meant for students in astronomy and physics alike. Prerequisite is a physicist's knowledge of calculus and differential geometry.

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City Game a slam dunk

Almost great

The Best In-Detail Summary ofthe NYCLegends & the Knicks 1st

The City Game: Basketball from the Garden to the Playgrounds
Pete Axthelm
Manufacturer: Bison Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Basketball | Sports | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0803259344

Book Description

Pete Axthelm follows the 1969–70 season of the New York Knicks and provides a parallel focus on basketball as it was then played in the black neighborhoods of New York City. Throughout, he writes clearly, intelligently, and passionately about the game, bringing alive the players’ efforts, accomplishments, and failures.

Customer Reviews:

City Game a slam dunk.......2007-08-28

If you've ever played basketball you have to read this book and you'll love it. From Madison Square Garden and, especially. to the playgrounds. From Clyde and Willis to the "Goat" and the "Helicopter."

Almost great.......2001-08-22

Pete Axthelm has a handle on what makes basketball a wonderful sport, and why many of us are in love with it. He doesn't seem to know exactly what he wants to do with this book. Is he reporting on inner-city basketball heroes? On their gravity-defying dunks, or their lightning-quick handles? Or is he reporting on 1970, the year the Knicks won the NBA Championship. The two stories don't intertwin seemlessly as he would have them, and you are left feeling like you haven't been fulfilled on either of the stories in this book. I gave this book 4 stars based more on his obvious joy in writting it (which makes it very fun to read) than his actual skill in writting it. I would have been much happier buying two books as long as this one, one on inner-city basketball in New York City, and one on the Knicks Championship of 1970.

The Best In-Detail Summary ofthe NYCLegends & the Knicks 1st.......1999-10-28

This has the greatest combination of the Knicks first Championship season and the best of the playground Legends and Players. It shows the good and the bad of basketball in New York. It describes some legendary games by some of New York's finest athletes like the "Hawk","Goat","Destroyer","Helicopter",etc. If you love the true game you should get this book. Much love to Earl "The Goat" Manigualt who past away last year.

The City Game: Basketball from the Garden to the Playgrounds

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The City Game: Basketball from the Garden to the Playgrounds
Pete Axthelm
Manufacturer: Harper's Magazine Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000M0R54C

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Good guide to the Tower

Great for those fans that are completely lost but...

Must Have For Dark Tower Fans

Worth reading, but frustrating at times

Helpful, but...

The Road to the Dark Tower: Exploring Stephen King's Magnum Opus
Bev Vincent
Manufacturer: NAL Trade
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Authors | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
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Song of Susannah (The Dark Tower, Book 6)

ASIN: 0451213041
Release Date: 2004-09-28

Book Description

In 1970, Stephen King embarked on what would become the crowning achievement in his literary career-the Dark Tower. The seven-volume series, written and published over a period of 30 years, was inspired by Robert Browning's poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came," as well as J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, and the spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone.

With the full cooperation of Stephen King himself, The Road to the Dark Tower examines the epic journey of the author to complete a story that threatened to overwhelm him. In this indispensable companion, Bev Vincent presents a book-by-book analysis of each volume in the series, tracing the Dark Tower's connections to King's other novels including The Stand, Insomnia, and Hearts in Atlantis, and offering insights from the author about the creative process involved in crafting his lifelong work-a work that has consumed not only Stephen King, but his legion of devoted readers. This is essential reading for any Dark Tower-or Stephen King-fan.

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"In 1970, Stephen King embarked on what would become the crowning achievement in his literary career-the Dark Tower. The seven-volume series, written and published over a period of 30 years, was inspired by Robert Browning's poem ""Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came,"" as well as J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, and the spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone. With the full cooperation of Stephen King himself, The Road to the Dark Tower examines the epic journey of the author to complete a story that threatened to overwhelm him. In this indispensable companion, Bev Vincent presents a book-by-book analysis of each volume in the series, tracing the Dark Tower's connections to King's other novels including The Stand, Insomnia, and Hearts in Atlantis, and offering insights from the author about the creative process involved in crafting his lifelong work-a work that has consumed not only Stephen King, but his legion of devoted readers. This is essential reading for any Dark Tower-or Stephen King-fan. "

Customer Reviews:

Good guide to the Tower.......2007-05-03

I think that this book was interesting. You had everything at your fingertips if you wanted to look something up. I understand why a few people would be dissapointed because it doesnt dive too deep into the story. An interview with King would have been pretty cool, I will admit. Oh well...I still found the book pretty interesting.

Great for those fans that are completely lost but..........2006-07-07

... for those with any intelligence what so ever a pointless read. Vincent points out all of the obvious connections to Kings other works. There was no interview with the author to speak of... There was no new insight into the characters or about the worlds. Disappointing through and through.

Must Have For Dark Tower Fans.......2006-04-28

It's taken years and seven books but we have finally finished our quest for the Dark Tower. Now, we have this book to help us make sense of the journey. There is a love for the story that Bev brings to this book that many of us can empathize with. Bev's information, especially when discussing influences, is a very helpful adjunct to the series. There are bios of the characters, also a big help in keeping things straight. The poem which inspired it all (Childe Roland To The Dark Tower Came) is wonderful to have.

Bev knows his topic very well and brings this knowledge to all of us. Another trip to the Tower will be in order once you have this guide at your side.

Worth reading, but frustrating at times.......2006-01-25

Being a huge fan of The Dark Tower books, I bought this book with high expectations, hoping to gain more prespective on Roland's quest and what it all might actually mean. What I actually got was a book that was very heavy on summary and rather short of actual literary analysis.

This book reads like something I would have written in high school as a thesis paper for AP English. It's very obvious that Vincent is trying to prove a point, but he offers the same evidence over and over to illustrate said theory (I don't want to include details, just in case someone reading this hasn't actually read the Dark Tower series). A great deal of the footnotes offer pointless observaions and connections that have little, if anything at all, to do with the story. On the other hand, Vincent glosses over other connections, or fails to emphasize their importance. There's very little mention of the poem that inspired King to write the series, Robert Browning's "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came." He mentions it only when the books themselves make reference to it. The section of the book devoted to character analysis was thorough, although it does not offer anything readers cannnot discern for themselves while reading the series.

For all of the books faults, though, it was still an entertaining read. I enjoyed travelling back to Gilead, the Tower, and everywhere inbetween from a more scholarly point of view. For some reason, King's work transcends what I felt to be the amateur analysis of Vincent, and still makes this book worth delving into.

As a side note, perhaps if I hadn't been so excited to read it, it would not have been such of a let-down for me. It's definitley more of a companion read - a way to answer any unanswered questions you may have about the series, rather than an attempt to analyze what it actually means.

Helpful, but..........2005-05-23

First off, I haven't finished reading this book, but there are a few errors that I feel the need to point out.

First--I sat with my copy of Drawing of the Three and could not find the man in black disappearing into any doorway--perhaps this happens in one of the later books. If so, a footnote to that fact would have been nice.

Secondly--The author of this work neglects to mention obvious connections between the Dark Tower books and other works of literature. A discussion of Eliot's The Waste Land would have been interesting and possibly invaluable, especially considering both King and Eliot use Tarot cards and play fast and loose with Aurthurian legend. At least a mention of the fact that Rhea of Coos is the witch of coos as a nod to the Robert Frost poem of the same name should have been in order.

All this being said, I have appreciated the author's attempt to bring all of King's writings regarding the Dark Tower together... an inspired work.

Overall, A few quibbles that only an English professor would complain about...

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic,Brilliant,Deserved its' reward.......2002-10-28

I read this book some years back but i thought it was fantastic.A little boy makes friends with a teenage girl who has a terrible secret.

Came back to show you I could fly by Robin Klein.......2002-04-12

The novel is about a boy named Seymour, who stays with a fussy old guardian who wont let him out, worried his father might take him away. By chance one day he left the house and met a young girl called Angie, who lives in a messy little flat, renting from an old women. Angie keeps Seymour company by taking him to different places around the suburbs, going shopping and catching trams from here to there. With her little 'so called brother' nagging her to do the right things. But what Seymour dosent know is that Angie is taking drugs.

Great book with hard hitting reality.......1999-09-04

Came Back To Show You I Could Fly is about an eleven year old boy named Seymour who meets Angie an older avdenturous drug addict, but Seymour does not know this. She is in a great deal of debt to drug dealers and have been dissowned by her family. Seymour too, is having family problems. This is a great book for readers 12 years and onwards.

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Came Back to Show You I Could Fly
Klein Robin
Manufacturer: Puffin Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OJ7GEA

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