The Divine Right of Capital: Dethroning the Corporate Aristocracy (BK Currents)

Book Description

Wealth inequity, corporate welfare, and industrial pollution are the symptoms of our sickened economy, Marjorie Kelly suggests. The underlying illness is shareholder primacy. In The Divine Right of Capital, she shows that the corporate drive to maximize shareholder profits at any cost is not only out of step with democratic and free-market principles, but is detrimental to the long-term health of individual companies and the economy as a whole. Kelly offers a far-reaching solution to rebuild corporations in a way that serves all.

Customer Reviews:

Thought Provoking and a Great Read.......2005-06-15

I highly recommend this book.

Personally I have stored my older books by Mises, Hayek, Friedman, etc...away in my basement. Although still on the shelf, even Adam Smith and Ricardo are a bit outdated. Others may still believe in their theories, but I do not. I am looking for someone who can put forth a plan for economic reform. Ideas that again value work and economic stability from which strong families and engaged citizens can emerge. The author does this.

Personally I have grown weary of the right wing, free market utopian dogma of the day. Besides being old and tired, it is largely a sham. As the author points out the defenders of the status quo would have us believe the current economic system is natural law, when in fact it is subject to change and reform.

Beyond the rhetoric, the truth is in your pay check. For many Americans each day is filled with hard work and economic insecurity. It is also a matter of liberty. If all one knows is work, sleep, and worry, you can know nothing of freedom.

In particular the author's suggestion that beyond the IPO, subsequent stock holders are little more than anonymous economic parasites is very intriguing.

Along with "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" and the Alexander Hamilton bio, I found it to be one of the best non-fiction books I've read this year.

Essential reading.......2004-01-19

As much information as I absorb about our state of government, there are still some very broad assumptions which pass under my radar. This book shines a brilliant light on issues that are critically important for ANYONE who wishes to consider themselves 'informed'.

The most basic mythology exposed: that those who speculate have superior & perpetual rights over those who earn by labor. The bias in our mass media & legal institutions is so outrageous that at first it's difficult to accept just how deeply we are being bluffed.

I am now on my second reading. If you only read one nonfiction book this year (instead of the Wall Street fiction & PR positioned as fact) do yourself a huge favor & buy this book.

Necessary New Perspective.......2003-07-08

For anyone who's ever felt a disconnect between what they're hearing about the economy and what they're experiencing personally, Marjorie Kelly's book is very enlightening. She challenges some of the fundamental assumptions we hold about the stock market's role in the overall economy. Particularly in the context of current debates about corporate responsibility legislation and the privatization of Social Security, this book is very important. "The Divine Right of Capital" is a must-read for social justice activists and market conservatives alike as we all try to figure out what to do with this broken system in post-Enron America. Love them or hate them, the ideas Kelly offers up are innovative and groundbreaking.

Note: I've talked to a couple of more radical/anarchist/extreme whatever types who found this a little on the tame side because it's so darn grounded in reality. If you're really about tearing down the whole system (not my approach, but best of luck), there might be more satisfying extremist rants out there. For everyone else, read this now!

Unclear; Very Confused; Muddled Thinking.......2003-06-24

Wonderful example of how undisciplined, muddled thinking can create unsound arguments, based on invalid premises, that yield conclusions that will confirm one's biases. Perhaps in a follow-up book, the author will "prove" that the world is flat. An early mistake: She declares that it is (mostly) false that stockholders fund major public corporations, noting that shares trade in secondary markets. Accordingly, she draws the conclusion that there is no reason that corporations should maximize the interests of stockholders and minimize the interests of shareholders, and that it would be just as appropriate to put the interests of employees first. In fact, clear economic thinking reveals that successful corporations do make the interests of employees a high priority, because a corporation with unhappy employees has difficulty retaining employees, which makes for an unsuccessful company. Further, when a corporation raises capital, it often does so by means of a public offering of securities, which is really an agreement between the corporation and the stockholders where the stockholders give the corporation money in exchange for the right to an ownership interest in the corporation. Whether the shares stay in the hands of the original purchaser or whether the purchaser sells them in secondary markets is not germain; whoever holds the shares holds the right to the ownership interest, which may yield value through appreciation, sale or dividends. If you think her argument that it would be equally appropriate for a corporation to maximize payments to employees and minimize the interests of stockholders, just try this little exercise: Form a coproration and attempt to raise capital to run the corporation (including to pay employees). Then tell the potential investors of your plan to minimize value to stockholders. Then count how many of these potential investors actually invest their money in your corporation. (Hint: if you guessed more than zero, you're too high.)

For years I've been wondering.......2003-03-20

One of the many reasons why I loved this book was because it answered a question I have had for years: Long after the initial public offering, how does the money used to buy a share of stock become available to the company that issued the stock?

I read many books in the public press that aimed to explain stocks and bonds to the unknowing, but I could never find the answer to this question and decided that it was a dumb question.

The Divine Right of Capital begins with the answer to my question: A public company only gets capital from a share of stock once: when it initially issues the stock. Any further increase in the stock price goes only to speculators also known as stockholders.

These speculators provide needed liquidity but law stipulates that in return they get compensated inordinately to the detriment of the corporation and its employees.

I think that the author's arguments might win the day (despite the readiness of some reviewers here to dismiss them as the rantings of yet another leftist) if emerging companies choose to raise capital by means other than issuing public stock.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Journal of the Community Development Society, published by Community Development Society on July 1, 2004. The length of the article is 1035 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: The Divine Right of Capital: Dethroning the Corporate Aristocracy.(Book Review)
Author: Douglas Clayton Smith
Publication: Journal of the Community Development Society (Refereed)
Date: July 1, 2004
Publisher: Community Development Society
Volume: 34 Issue: 2 Page: 131(3)

Article Type: Book Review

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Divine Right of Capital, The : Dethroning the Corporate Aristocracy

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Divine Right of Capital, The : Dethroning the Corporate Aristocracy
Marjorie Kelly
Manufacturer: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Incorporated
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000KXR6C2

Your Health Today: Choices in a Changing Society with Online Learning Center Bind-in Card
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Your Health Today: Choices in a Changing Society with Online Learning Center Bind-in Card
Michael L. Teague , Sara L.C. Mackenzie , and David M Rosenthal
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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A comprehensive guide to online training in business, Online Learning Today explains what kinds of skills and information should be taught online and who can benefit most. Addressing professionals who want to introduce online learning into their own organization, the authors teach key strategies including catering to the learner, getting a grip on new technology, and ensuring adoption of online learning throughout the organization.

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Practical and Useful
A Practical Guide to CMC

How to Teach and Train Online: Teaching the Learning Organization With Tomorrow's Tools Today
John Denigris , and Arnie Witchel
Manufacturer: Pearson Custom Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0536602921

Customer Reviews:

Practical and Useful.......2001-05-15

A very useful and practical book that helps clear up questions both beginner and advanced online teachers and trainers often come across.

A Practical Guide to CMC.......2001-03-09

There has been much research into computer-mediated-communication. However, most of the published work has been the results of studies or topical exploration into the experience of one or another organization that has implemented a learning program. DeNigris approaches the topic as a 'pracademician' who has obviously applied computer-mediated-communication methods to a number of varied teaching and learning situations. The result is a small primer, a succinct, but immensely practical guide to implementing CMC in a learning environment. The primer includes experiences and case-based examples .

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Community College Week, published by Cox, Matthews & Associates on January 5, 2004. The length of the article is 1188 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: Distance-learning enrollment up at Wisconsin college.(technology today)
Publication: Community College Week (Newspaper)
Date: January 5, 2004
Publisher: Cox, Matthews & Associates
Volume: 16 Issue: 11 Page: 18(1)

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Your Health Today: Choices in a Changing Society with Online Learning Center Bind-in Card

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Your Health Today: Choices in a Changing Society with Online Learning Center Bind-in Card
Sara L.C. Mackenzie, David M Rosenthal Michael L. Teague
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OGQZTU

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In this major work Lloyd Evans provides an integrated view of the domestication, adaptation, and improvement of crop plants, bringing together genetic diversity, plant breeding, physiology, and aspects of agronomy. Considerations of yield and maximum yield provide continuity throughout the book. Evans discusses food, feed, fiber, fuel, and pharmaceutical crops as well as using as examples cereals, grain, legumes, and root crops, both temperate and tropical. He also considers pasture plants, oilseeds, leafy crops, fruit trees, and others. The crucial roles of input innovation and synergism are illustrated along with examples of how diminishing returns to input energy are avoided. The final chapter hazards some guesses about the way in which agriculture may be transformed over the next fifty years.

THE BATS OF EAST TEXAS.
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San Antonio at Bat: Professional Baseball in the Alamo City

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Baseball in the Lone Star State: The Texas League's Greatest Hits

ASIN: 158544376X

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From the first "Play ball!" of each spring through the hot days of summer, minor-league teams across the nation give local fans a chance to relax and enjoy the national pastime, to preview tomorrow's stars, and to "root, root, root for the home team."

In this story of professional baseball in the Alamo City from 1888 to the present, San Antonio Express-News sportswriter David King hits the highlights-athletic and human-that have filled the city's diamonds for 115 years. He tells about the team that left Austin on a road trip and never returned-deciding to make San Antonio its home base instead; about San Antonio's first two black Texas League players, whose story was less dramatic but no less difficult than Jackie Robinson's; about Harry Ables, the "freak of nature" who holds the league's oldest single-season record, 310 strikeouts in 1910; and about the longest scoreless game in professional baseball history, the 25-inning duel against the Jackson Mets at V. J. Keefe Field in 1988.

Book Description

Texas has thirty-two bat species, more than any other state. Bats rank among the state's most beneficial and fascinating allies. The majority eat insects, with just one colony consuming billions in a single night. Others are essential pollinators of desert plants. No other group of Texas mammals is more diverse or important to the balance of nature. This guide, produced by Bat Conservation International and the Texas Parks and Wildlife department, includes descriptions of Texas's bats, photographs, and range maps. It will convince readers that the bats' fearsome reputation is greatly undeserved.

Product Description

The games in this new book are designed to maximize fun and challenge while minimizing the risk of emotional and physical harm. Most appropriate for grades K-4, all the games are easy for teachers to teach and children to learn. Many of the games can be played either indoors or outdoors. Each game description includes clear, straightforward instructions and "helpful hints" for making the game run smoothly.

Customer Reviews:

36 Games Kids Love to Play.......2007-10-01

This is a great resource for teachers who use Responsive Classroom. There are a wide variety of activities that are easy to do with your class.

A great elementary teacher resource!.......2004-07-03

A great resource to get recess under control. Packed with simple yet fun games that kids LOVE. The games don't need many materials and they don't take a lot of preparation. Fantastic ways for kids to let off energy and build cooperation in your classroom community at the same time.

Book Description

For anyone challenged by the changes and controversies in the world's most widely used language: Standard American English.

Right, Wrong, and Risky provides simple, direct answers to questions about word choice, spelling, grammar, and punctuation—in straightforward alphabetical order. The answers are supported by thousands of up-to-date published usage examples. And the reader is told not just that particular usages are right or wrong, but why.

In addition, Right, Wrong, and Risky warns the reader about risky words like cleave and suspicious, and the many risky situations in which usage authorities disagree about what is and is not acceptable in Standard American English. For every such quandary, this book provides a risk-free solution.Browsers will learn why we tell stage performers to break a leg, why it's not really an insult to call someone a philistine or even a Neanderthal, and why it's wise never to use the word fortuitous or say the word forte aloud.

Customer Reviews:

Who Can Do Without?.......2007-01-27

I can't think of anyone who uses the spoken or written word who wouldn't be intrigued by this book. Oh, how we misuse our English language with word useage that we are unsure of or mangle. Although not meant as such, I bought this book as a reference gift for my Crossword Puzzle obsessed son. It is amazing the amount of research and scholarship that is invested in this book. Look up the definition of the word "peruse." My guess is you haven't been using it correctly. Welcome to the club.

A must for anyone who writes...anything!.......2006-12-08

If you write letters, books, emails or just quick notes to the kids, you need this book. I have been honing my writing skills for years and found a plethora of information that I can use everyday. This book showed me how far I still have to go.

I'm buying four copies for Christmas gifts, I'm sure they'll be well received.

Brillant Yet Flawed.......2005-12-04

I just bought this book today and was absolutley delighted to see such an up-to-date reference book on American usage. I have been waiting for a comphrensive yet readable book on this subject, and Mr. Davidson's book fills the bill fairly well. The entries are alphabetically arranged, with very entertaining and informative prescriptions on what's right and incorrect. On the more controversial entries he even suggests a "risk-free" alternative to keep the prospective writer/editor out of possible hot water. A nice touch! Most aspects of usage and style are covered. From the usual collection of confusing and misspelled words, to excellent discussions about fused gerunds, redundant phrases, and other matters likely to trip up people who want to write clearly and correctly for their readers. The excellent bibliography is exhasutive and lists all the books that have been published on this topic since the early 90s (and earlier!).

On the negative side, I was very disapppointed that there was no index for the individual entries. This proved to be especially troubling, since not all entries are listed where they should be. For example, in looking up the word "yet", I found it not under the y's, but under the b's with the entry "but, however, nevertheless, nonetheless, still, still and all, or yet?" An index would have been helpful to point me directly to the page on which this item was discussed.

Lastly, I was surprised there was no reference to the recent Cambridge Guide to English Usage (2004) by Pam Peters who is also at Macquarie University. The two books together should answer any usage question for years to come.

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