Book Description
Wal-Mart isnÂ't just the worldÂ's biggest company, it is probably the worldÂ's most written-about. But no book until this one has managed to penetrate its wall of silence or go beyond the usual polemics to analyze its actual effects on its customers, workers, and suppliers. Drawing on unprecedented interviews with former Wal-Mart executives and a wealth of staggering data (e.g., Americans spend $36 million an hour at Wal-Mart stores, and in 2004 its growth alone was bigger than the total revenue of 469 of the Fortune 500), The Wal-Mart Effect is an intimate look at a business that is dramatically reshaping our lives.
Customer Reviews:
Walmart at it's best and worse!!.......2007-10-11
Amazing writting! Very informative as well as entertaining!
The author covers all the ends. I recommend this book 100%.
You won't see this book selling in Wal-mart any time soon!
Good cover of the topic.......2007-10-06
Provides a good coverage of a subject which is not obvious to the naked eye. May attenuate your shopping habits and the way you define a good deal. A must read for americans
Impact beyond price.......2007-09-24
Having spent the past 18 months researching and writing on the negative impact on the economy of poor customer service, go to ACSI research at University of Michigan School of Business, I have found that Wal-Mart's fanitical focus on price, and consumers that focus only on price are having a very negative impact on our country and society. Of all of the books I have read on Wal-Mart, Fishman presents the most detailed factual and insightful information on which to base an opinion on the impact Wal-Mart has made on our communities.
Balanced & Comprehenisve .......2007-09-17
Like many, I begrudgingly shop at Wal-Mart familiar with the arguments of it's negative impact on locally owned business's, and it's poor wages and benefits--------trying in vain to strike a balance between social responsibility and self-interest. It's always struck me as large version of the beloved "five and dime" where I bought my baseball cards growing up. I marvel at the low prices, and the sheer variety of merchandise. Fishman has permanently purged me of the that nostalgia. His backstory on Wal-Mart is utterly convincing in it's pernicious effect on our economy. He ably tells the story of Wal-Mart's rise with it's hyperfocus on pricing. But he's after something bigger here, and that's corporate secrecy. Like many large corporations, Wal-Mart is a closed and secret society. Consumers are robbed of the information that would assist them in identifying the true cost of consumption. Fishman is saying that the rise of the mega-corporation, with their ability to dominate a whole sector of the economy, is both anti-free market and anti-consumer. Though vague, he argues that we must consider stronger governance and regulation. This is where his book left me wanting. I wanted to know what exactly that would look like. That said, this is a well-researched, balanced and important book for our times.
Costs of everyday low prices.......2007-09-16
Wal-Mart's obsessive focus on a single core value - delivering low prices - created the largest and most powerful company in history. Employing over 1.6 million people, Wal-Mart is so large that it can often defy the laws of supply, demand and competition. However, the same core values are also responsible for low wages, enormous pressure on suppliers, cheap quality and continuous off-shoring. Charles Fishman provides an insightful look at the growth and the careful balancing act that Wal-Mart has engaged in most recently: trying to find profit while moving beyond the simple slogan of `everyday low prices'. Given the scarce resources available on the company, `Wal-Mart Effect' offers a great overview of the largest corporation to date.
Book Description
This extensively indexed book succinctly summarizes the findings of a dozen or so of the most important works of the 20th century - from both sides of the conflict - which expose how and why a cabal of international plutocrats is planning to destroy America and any other country preventing the ultimate hegemony of their New World Order.
Customer Reviews:
I should have read the chapter titled "Let's Fix America" first.......2007-07-17
Most of us know there's something wrong with the way the "world" works. And we figure that folks with money and power will use their positions to do whatever it takes to accumulate more money and power at the expense of anyone or anything that get's in their way. Unfortunately, this book doesn't help clarify or give us tools to win the class war. If you're looking for clarity, start with Noam Chomsky's 2 CD audio "Propaganda and Control of the Public Mind." Chomsky offers a much more insightful and easier to grasp view of how the world really works.
For someone who hasn't cracked open this book yet, I would suggest that you read Chapter 12 first--"Let's Fix America". Jones has a few good ideas there, but for the most part his "tough love" ideology meshes perfectly with that of the "elites" he supposedly opposes. So it's difficult for me to assess if his work is designed to assist the working class, confuse it, or destroy it. Because destroying it is exactly what his taxation and social program ideas would do. If you examine these notions closely you can't help but notice that they sound like ideas that would be sponsored by far right-wing Think Tanks--typically funded by corporations and elite old-money families.
There is certainly a lot of info in the book. And some of it is likely correct--(Professor McCoy "Politics of Heroin" is considered a first class researcher)--with this kind of shotgun approach, it couldn't help but hit something. Unfortunately for Jones, "Report from Iron Mountain" was outed by the author, Leonard Lewin, as fictional satire--dead on satire, but fiction none the less. This leaves me with questions about the author's ability or desire to separate fact from fiction.
HOW THE WORLD REALLY WORKS.......2007-05-10
This book is a must read for those who operate "in the spirit of trust." Before reading this book, I wrote a book published in late 2001 called "Blacks In The Spider's Web" which substantially views the world as the subject book, but from a black American perspective. Although I have not read all of the books reviewed in "How The World Really Works" (I'm sure most are out of print now), my analysis of the world situation corresponds materially with Alan B. Jones' book. Much of what we see of the world is a false facade that must be pierced in order to come to the reality of the truth. "How The World Really Works" helps to pierce the veil of secrecy covering the "military industrial complex," the "Kennedy assassinations" and the "dumbing down of America," among other "unsolved mysteries."
Fixing America Means Understanding the Problems.......2007-03-18
My own review would closely mirror Robert D Steele's excellent and comprehensive analysis below. I also agree with the excellence of the additional works he recommends. I've read them all and have nothing but praise.
I might add to Robert's list a couple more titles:
1. "When Corporations Rule the World" by David C Korten ... also visit his website (Google it).
2. "The Road to Serfdom" by FA Hayak.
3. "The Money Masters" website, book and DVD... (Google it).
There are no more important subjects on earth than these. Nearly all wars, poverty, media manipulations, societal and educational problems such as drug dealing, smuggling, flesh peddling, high taxation, and... well, you name it... are rooted in the problems revealed in these works.
I strongly disagree with those who think such works are either fear-based or impractical. Nothing can be more practical than the knowledge of the secret and occult powers that are now the motivating forces shaping our modern world.
We can only remain asleep (in denial) at our grave peril, and more importantly, the peril of our children and grandchildren.
No problem can be fixed without a thorough understanding of it's root causes. Sooner or later these international money and banking problems must be fixed, and to do it properly we must fix... or rebuild... these institutions in the right ways.
The issuance of money must be taken out of the hands of private bankers and returned to the government's of "We the People" where it belongs. Only then can we stop paying exorbitant interest rates on the money that is put into circulation. Only then can we begin to use our taxes for purposes other than paying needless interest to private bankers.
Unchecked, unbalanced and unlimited power always leads to tyranny and despotism, some form of totalitarianism. Today that power is quickly becoming the materialistic "Golden Rule" - "He who has the gold, rules."
Will we let it happen here? Is it already too late to stop it?
Gaps, A Little Loose, but First-Rate Never-the-Less.......2007-01-30
I am going to put my reputation on the line, and the 850+ non-fiction books I have read that make me the #1 Amazon reviewer for non-fiction (and to my great surprise, today #49 over all fiction, movies, music, and software as well as non-fiction) for the simple reason that too many people discuss books such as this by labeling it "conspiracy theory."
It's not a conspiracy theory if it is true. I will try to be brief as well as illuminative.
First off, the author has culled a handful of books that support his case against a global financial elite, and these tend, with the exception of the Quigley book, to be left of left of center. I am however happy to add a number of books that support his essential theses that a handful of banking families control the central banks which are NOT government banks, and through loans, control governments, impoverish the middle class, and harvest profit without conscience from the "working poor."
Try these on for size:
1) Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins. 85% rock solid, 15% flakey, but in my view, a perfectly reasonable slam on the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund as instruments for impoverishing lesser developed countries, not empowering them.
2) The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs, another slam on the WTO/IMF, which he relegates to third rate out-dated economist ranks, not at all focused or able to achieve what he calls "developmental economics."
3) The Global Class War by Jeff Faux, a fine discussion of how our elites bribe the elites in other countries, and the both screw the public by looting the commonwealths of gold, oil, etcetera, without returns to the people whose families have lived on top of these resources for centuries.
4) Running on Empty, by Paul Peterson of the Council of Foreign Relations (which the author hates, in my view it has two types of members--one manipulative like Henry Kissinger, another honest, like Paul Peterson), in which both the Republican and the Democratic parties are lambasted for being the ignorant slaves of the ultra-rich elites, and hopeless out of touch with reality and unable to represent We the People.
5) War is a Racket by General Smedley Butler, the highest decorated Marine of his time, who complained about being an enforcer for banks and businesses that lent money to the Third World then sent the Marines to get it back for them.
There are many other books that support this author's book reviews in great detail and from many varied perspectives. I refer you to my various lists, including the list on "Screwing the 90% that do the work."
The author has some pretensions and some slop, his arguments are not always consistent, but then neither are mine. On balance I regard this book as a first rate personal effort that should be read by every middle class person wondering, as Lou Dobbs on CNN has wondered, why we are exporting middle class jobs and importing poverty in the form of illegal aliens.
The author wraps up his varied reviews with a focus on the relationship between organized crime and the super-elite as well as their political elite (e.g. the Bush family, the best of the servant class), and on the relationship between drugs, covert operations, and Wall Street. Here again the author draws on a very tiny sub-set of books while not listing many others that support his thesis so I will mention a few here.
Having been through both Viet-Nam as a youth and the Central American Wars as an adult, I am quite certain that there are at least four different slices of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) where I served for ten years as a clandestine case officer:
A small slice does what the White House wants, including black bag jobs.
A small but more important slice does what Wall Street wants, and helps Wall Street with access to financially relevant information that the public which pays for the CIA does not get. Buzzy Krongard, until recently Executive Director of the CIA, comes to mind as the most recent leader of this section.
A larger slice, that does covert action off the books with funding from Saudi Arabia and others, sometimes called the Safari Club, sometimes having off-shoots like Ted Shackley's Southern Air Transport, and so on. This slice can provide the intersection between criminal activities, white collar crime profits, illegal White House activities, and plain profiteering.
Finally, 90% of the CIA, folks like me that did not realize they were simply going through the motions and giving the local counterintelligence service a full-time rabbit to follow while the commercial clandestine boys and girls looted the bank in bright daylight.
I have two intelligence lists that can be helpful here, but I have not focused on creating crime lists. I'll just say that between the books on the "working poor" and on being "nickeled and dimed" and books on immoral predatory capitalism and unilateral militarism of the Dick Cheney variety (I have compiled a list of 25 specific impeachable actions by Dick Cheney based on three books: One Percent Doctrine, VICE, and Crossing the Rubicon). There is a very clear-cut and direct relationship between dictators, transnational organized crime and terrorism, and Wall Street as well as the Republican and Democratic National Committees.
That reminds me: there is an entire literature on petroleum, peak oil, petrodollars, and so on. Americans have been betrayed by their government since at least 1975, and more likely, back to the 1950's when naiveté about international affairs was replaced by active complicity.
Good news. 1) Internet leveled playing field. 2) Not enough guns to kill us all. 3) A few of the really rich have realized they need to help us create infinite wealth for ourselves, or lose all they have to locusts. Read, be vocal, be active, we're going to get a grip on our commonwealth soon.
Tip of the Hat to Jere for the following added links:
When Corporations Rule the World
The Road to Serfdom: Text and Documents--The Definitive Edition (The Collected Works of F. a. Hayek)
Money Masters of Our Time
See also my longer reviews of:
Rule by Secrecy: The Hidden History That Connects the Trilateral Commission, the Freemasons, and the Great Pyramids
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil
Cliff Notes for the NWO.......2006-11-18
A must read for everyone who wants to cut the strings of the puppet meisters. Stands on its own, and is a valuable reference. This book is a great launching pad for anyone becoming interested in why things are the way they are right now.
Book Description
During the Soviet era, blat-the use of personal networks for obtaining goods and services in short supply and for circumventing formal procedures-was necessary to compensate for the inefficiencies of socialism. The collapse of the Soviet Union produced a new generation of informal practices.
In How Russia Really Works, Alena V. Ledeneva explores practices in politics, business, media, and the legal sphere in Russia in the 1990s-from the hiring of firms to create negative publicity about one's competitors, to inventing novel schemes of tax evasion and engaging in "alternative" techniques of contract and law enforcement. She discovers ingenuity, wit, and vigor in these activities and argues that they simultaneously support and subvert formal institutions. They enable corporations, the media, politicians, and businessmen to operate in the post-Soviet labyrinth of legal and practical constraints but consistently undermine the spirit, if not the letter, of the law. The "know-how" Ledeneva describes in this book continues to operate today and is crucial to understanding contemporary Russia.
Customer Reviews:
He's a urologist.......2006-01-06
A urologist by training, Dr. Silber is not trained as a reproductive endocrinologist, making his techniques very technology oriented as he is not trained in reproduction, only reproduction technologies. He would do better to stop promoting technology as the answer to reproduction (quite a money-maker for the doctors involved) and stick to doing reversing vasectomies as he was trained to do. While he offers alot of good technical info the book is utterly lacking in medical and surgical treatment options, something he apparently doesn't believe in. The medical evidence points to better results and better health for mother and babies when medical/surgical intervention is used--lower reimbursement but much better for everyone involved except centers that promote IVF and tech based medicine.
A perfect place to start your IVF research.......2004-01-22
I picked this book up as one of the first reference books when my husband and I began to investigate IVF. The book is not about ethics debates and does not begin to address the emotional issues surrounding infertility and assisted reproduction, but it does tell you the technological facts of the various procedures. The author discusses testing, diagnosis and treatments as well as giving sample calendars and timelines you can expect if you undergo the emotional and physical journey towards conception. I felt very prepared after reading (actually studying) this book, so much so that my own reproductive endocrinologist was amazed at the questions I asked when undergoing treatment.
This is not a hand holding book, it's straight forward factual information to let the reader know the options and facts about the treatment of infertility. While the author is himself a reproductive endocrinologist, there are very few references to himself or his clinic.
Informative but incomplete.......2002-10-09
I liked the optimism of this book and Dr. Silber's advocacy of an aggressive approach to treatment, but I wouldn't say this is a comprehensive book because it doesn't really address the emotional/psychological aspects of infertility and its treatment. Plus, Dr. Silber's self-aggrandizing tone was suprising and distracting in a book that is supposed to be about helping others, not self-promotion.
well written and every word true!.......2001-11-30
i read several other books on infertility and this one was my favorite. i read it front to back and totally understood it.In fact i liked it so much i decided to see him and i did and he's a wonderful doctor and he is why i'm 5 months pregnant with twins. A must have for anyone going through infertility and is considering invitro. lets you know what to expect.
Excellent........1999-07-02
This is a comprehensive reference book on the entire topic of infertility, written in an understandable and optimistic tone. The best of the doctor books available.
Fern Reiss, author of "The Infertility Diet: Get Pregnant and Prevent Miscarriage"
Book Description
This book, a collection of reminiscences with fifty-five fine art dealers, works to correct misconceptions and shed light on the dealer's intricate, fascinating, and difficult profession.
Customer Reviews:
The Art Dealers: The Powers Behind the Scene Tell How the Ar.......2002-11-28
This book sheds real light into how New York based art dealers from the 1940s to the 1980s lived, worked and thought about art. There are many interesting anecdotes, opinions and brief biographies inside this book filled with short essays about some 25 dealers who hepled shape the world of art as it is still known today.
Formulaic Padding.......2002-10-31
This is a mere formulaic padding of the prior edition of this book. There are a few new chapters. In some cases, these chapters address dealers who have come into prominence since the 1985 edition. Other dealers given equal attention were added for reasons that shall remain mysterious, as they address players never known or soon to be forgotten. The original chapters related to figures such as Sydney Janis and Leo Castelli have some historical interest. The new chapters tend to be shorter and tend to suffer from a narrow focus on the personal background of the dealer and the editors' apparent effort to prompt the dealers to speak to art world issues that may have been new or compelling in 1985 (e.g., the "new" role of auction houses) but which are certainly capillary today. The upshot is that I learned quite literally nothing about the contemporary art market.
Average customer rating:
- Short Informative and Funny
- Can't put it down!
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How the real world really works: graduating into the rest of your life
Michael Goldstein
Manufacturer: Berkley Trade
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Job Hunting
| Job Hunting & Careers
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
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Financial Planning
| Personal Finance
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
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General
| Self-Help
| Health, Mind & Body
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Marriage & Family
| Sociology
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General
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ASIN: 0425153053 |
Customer Reviews:
Short Informative and Funny.......2002-04-16
Most college grads fumble around after college, looking for jobs, trying to make a social life, date, save and buy car insurance. A few years later they learn some important lessons, i.e. Socializing is just as important as climbing the corporate ladder, How much should one invest and save?
Save some time and headaches. It's spelled out clearly with common sense and funny anecdotes.
I highly recommend engineers and computer people to read this. There's more to life than buy cool toys and buying stock. It's the kind of advise your older sibling would give if you just graduated. Learn from others wisdom.
Can't put it down!.......2002-01-13
What an excellent read! This is an entertaining book for 20 through 40-somethings! It's entertaining and fun and full of ideas. Reminds you to strive to add that spice to life.
Average customer rating:
- A thorough analysis of the PAIGC's revolutionary agenda.
- Excellent Analysis.
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Warriors at Work: How Guinea Was Really Set Free
Mustafah Dhada
Manufacturer: University Press of Colorado
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Africa
| History
| Subjects
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Guinea Bissau
| Africa
| History
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West Africa
| Africa
| History
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Revolutionary
| Historical Study
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General
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| History
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All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
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ASIN: 0870812874 |
Book Description
Warriors at Work is Mustafah Dhada's compelling account of Guinea's struggle for independence from Portuguese rule. It is a balanced and extensive assessment of this struggle, giving a comprehensive and nonromantic reconstruction of Amilar Lopes Cabral, instigator of the revolutionary movement to set Guinea free. A Cape Verdian agronomist fully committed to nationalist unity in Luso-Africa and to the independence of Guinea, Cabral helped form the African Independence Party of Guinea Verde (PAIGC) (Partido Africano da Guine e Cabo). Through PAIGC's efforts, a nationalist army was established, a guerilla war was launched, and a protracted drive for a nation-state mounted.
Warriors at Work addresses for the first time key questions regarding the fight to free Guinea: Was the PAIGC the only nationalist movement to emerge in Guinea? Was the mobilization drive and nationalist war a straightforward march to victory with the PAIGC calling the shots? Was the campaign for statehood instigated solely to forge a new social order?
Dhada cuts through revolutionary rhetoric to reveal a remarkable human drama fought at the front lines and beyond. He has woven a thorough, exciting, and precise analysis of a military and a political contest.
Customer Reviews:
A thorough analysis of the PAIGC's revolutionary agenda........1998-12-15
"Warriors at Work" examines the complete functioning of the Guinean people's struggle against Portuguese imperialism. Brilliantly noting the contribution and leadership of Amilcar Cabral, Dhada, as Cabral would have approved, focuses on the mass popular contribution and national role in the process of liberation. Dhada clearly reveals the brilliance of the PAIGC effort. The fighters of Guinea while battling Portuguese aggression simultaneously created a functioning relevant and indigenously produced nation state that would replace the Portuguese colonial machine. Dhada's focus on the mechanics of this process give us the most insightful view of what made the Guinean revolution effective, unique and a theoretical model for all revolutionaries to consider.
Excellent Analysis........1998-11-26
Amilcar Cabral one of the greatest minds of the twenteth century. A complete revolutionary. His works need to be studied by every African. He is a guide for the future for the success of Cabo Verde and Guinea Bissau if they would follow his example to overcome the colonialist mentality and to change the minds and to become liberated for a new freedom of thought,for a democracy and economic development of Guinea Bissau and Cabo Verde only in their unity in the struggle for success. One can not make it without the other. The youth of both countries must come together in the movement of JAAC. The future of Africa depends on it.
Books:
- The War of Ideas: Jihadism against Democracy
- The World Is Flat [Updated and Expanded]: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
- The Wretched of the Earth
- They Just Don't Get It: How Washington Is Still Compromising Your Safety--and What You Can Do About It
- This Moment on Earth: Today's New Environmentalists and Their Vision for the Future
- Trading Up: Why Consumers Want New Luxury Goods... And How Companies Create Them (Revised and Updated)
- Understanding Health Policy
- Urban Injustice: How Ghettos Happen
- Whatever It Takes: How Professional Learning Communities Respond When Kids Don't Learn
- Who Rules America? Power, Politics, and Social Change
Books Index
Books Home
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