Suchergebnisse

America is mired in debt--more than $30,000 for every man, woman, and child. Bitter fighting over deficits, taxes, and spending bedevils Washington, D.C., even as partisan gridlock has brought the government to the brink of default. Yet the more politicians on both sides of the aisle rant and the citizenry fumes, the more things seem to remain the same. In White House Burning, Simon Johnson and James Kwak--authors of the national best seller 13 Bankers and cofounders of The Baseline Scenario, a widely cited blog on economics and public policy--demystify the national debt, explaining whence it came and, even more important, what it means to you and to future generations. They tell the story of the Founding Fathers' divisive struggles over taxes and spending. They chart the rise of the almighty dollar, which makes it easy for the United States to borrow money. They account for the debasement of our political system in the 1980s and 1990s, which produced today's dysfunctional and impotent Congress. And they show how, if we persist on our current course, the national debt will harm ordinary Americans by reducing the number of jobs, lowering living standards, increasing inequality, and forcing a sudden and drastic reduction in the government services we now take for granted. But Johnson and Kwak also provide a clear and compelling vision for how our debt crisis can be solved while strengthening our economy and preserving the essential functions of government. They debunk the myth that such crucial programs as Social Security and Medicare must be slashed to the bone. White House Burning looks squarely at the burgeoning national debt and proposes to defuse its threat to our wellbeing without forcing struggling middle-class families and the elderly into poverty. Carefully researched and informed by the same compelling storytelling and lucid analysis as 13 Bankers, White House Burning is an invaluable guide to the central political and economic issue of our time. It is certain to provoke vigorous debate.

A dozen countries had weak institutions in 1960 and yet sustained high rates of growth subsequently. We use data on their characteristics early in the growth process to create benchmarks with which to evaluate potential constraints on sustained growth for sub-Saharan Africa. This analysis suggests that what are usually regarded as first-order problems -- broad institutions, macroeconomic stability, trade openness, education, and inequality -- may not nowbe binding constraints in Africa, although the extent of ill-health, internal conflict, and societal fractionalization do stand out as problems in contemporary Africa. A key question is to what extent Africa can rely on manufactured exports as a mode of "escape from underdevelopment," a strategy successfully deployed by almost all the benchmark countries. The benchmarking comparison specifically raises two key concerns as far as a development strategy based on expanding exports of manufactures is concerned: micro-level institutions that affect the costs of exporting, and the level of the real exchange rate -- especially the need to avoid overvaluation.

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Introduction. Celebrating Triumphs, Overcoming Challenges, and Charting a Course for Institutional Transformation -- 1. James Lowell Gibbs Jr.: A Life of Educational Achievement and Service -- 2. Charles Preston Warren II: Military Forensic Anthropologist, Scholar, and Applied Scientist -- 3. William Alfred Shack: An Unacknowledged Giant -- 4. Diane K. Lewis and the Transformation of Anthropology: An Ideology of Radical Change -- 5. Delmos Jones and the End of Neutrality -- 6. Niara Sudarkasa: Inspiring Black Women's Leadership -- 7. Johnnetta Betsch Cole: Eradicating Multiple Systems of Oppression -- 8. John Langston Gwaltney: The Development of a Core Black Ethnography and Museology -- 9. Ira E. Harrison: Activist, Scholar, and Visionary Pioneer -- 10. Audrey Smedley: A Pioneers' Pioneer Anthropologist -- 11. George Clement Bond: Anthropologist, Africanist, Educator, and Visionary -- 12. Oliver Osborne: African American Nurse-Anthropologist Pioneer -- 13. Anselme Remy and the Anthropology of Liberation -- 14. Vera Mae Green: Quaker Roots and Applied Anthropology -- 15. Claudia Mitchell-Kernan: Sociolinguistic Anthropologist, Administrator, and Innovator -- Notes on Contributors -- Index