Books about Stagnation from Amazon.com

Americans have been conditioned to appreciate, cheer, and serve economic growth. Brian Czech argues that, while economic growth was a good thing for much of American history, somewhere along the way it turned bad, depleting resources, polluting the environment, and threatening posterity. Yet growth remains a top priority of the public and polity. In this revolutionary manifesto, Czech knocks economic growth off the pedestal of American ideology. Seeking nothing less than a fundamental change in public opinion, Czech makes a bold plea for castigating society's biggest spenders and sets the stage for the "steady state revolution."
Czech offers a sophisticated yet accessible critique of the principles of economic growth theory and the fallacious extension of these principles into the "pop economics" of Julian Simon and others. He points with hope to the new discipline of ecological economics, which prescribes the steady state economy as a sustainable alternative to economic growth.
Czech explores the psychological underpinnings of our consumer culture by synthesizing theories of Charles Darwin, Thorstein Veblen, and Abraham Maslow. Speaking to ordinary American citizens, he urges us to recognize conspicuous consumers for who they are--bad citizens who are liquidating our grandkids' future. Combining insights from economics, psychology, and ecology with a large dose of common sense, Czech drafts a blueprint for a more satisfying and sustainable society. His ideas reach deeply into our everyday lives as he asks us to re-examine our perspectives on everything from our shopping habits to romance.
From his perspective as a wildlife ecologist, Czech draws revealing parallels between the economy of nature and the human economy. His style is lively, easy to read, humorous, and bound to be controversial. Czech will provoke all of us to ask when we will stop the runaway train of economic growth. His book answers the question, "How do we do it?".
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The contemporary debate on economic policy is dominated by the issue of 'which model of capitalism works best'..
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Since 1993, thousands of readers have turned to Michel Robert's book Strategy Pure and Simple. Now he returns with a proven strategy to create and launch new products--the lifeblood of any business. Drawing on ten years of research into successful product development, the author goes beyond tips and techniques to provide a unique process of product innovation that encompasses four key steps: search, assessment, development, and pursuit. Filled with anecdotes, case histories, and a rich assortment of real-life lessons from innovators like 3M and Honda, this guide puts a revitalized future within the reach of every organization..
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In this book, Nicolas Van de Walle identifies 26 countries that are extremely poor and grew little if at all in the 1990s. His sample excludes North Korea and countries where civil war explains some of their failure to grow (Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tajikistan and others). The 26 countries have limited infrastructure and human capital and the small size of their markets deter private savings and investment. Aid was meant to help overcome these problems, and these countries received a lot. Yet they have failed to grow. What is wrong? Is foreign aid a solution or part of the problem? What changes might make aid more effective? Given these countries require the financial and technical resources of the West, why haven’t aid programs made a difference?

Van de Walle blames their economic failure mostly on the venality and incompetence of their political leadership. He analyzes the contradictions and tensions faced by the aid community in poorly run countries, providing a sobering analysis of the perverse effects of aid where the politics is all wrong. Too often, resources provided by foreign aid keep the wrong government in office, and undermine adoption of economic as well as political reforms. Bad government combined with aid, in short, hurts poor countries – and particularly the poorest people in those countries. Despite good intentions, little progress has been made in implementing announced "reforms" of the aid business itself. A constituency for reform is lacking, in the donor countries and in the recipient countries, where those in power benefit from the status quo..
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After decades of seemingly unsurpassable growth and prosperity, Japan's economy declined in the 1990s. The reversal stunned observers: How could the economy have reversed itself so abruptly? Bai Gao's illuminating analysis of Japan's economic story demonstrates how the same economic institutions could produce both remarkable successes and a prolonged slump. In Japan's Economic Dilemma, Gao describes tensions within the Japanese economic system that created a bubble in the 1980s, yet became unsustainable and led to a stagnant domestic economy in the 1990s. Those who have been following the lively debate over "What became of the Japanese Miracle?" will appreciate Gao's historical perspective and multilayered analysis. Bai Gao is an associate professor in the department of sociology at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. He was a visiting scholar at Tokyo University and taught at Hitotsubashi University and Yokohama National University. He is the author of Economic Ideology and Japanese Industrial Policy (Cambridge, 1997), which received the 1998 Hiromi Arisawa Memorial Award in Best Books in Japanese Studies from the Association of American University Presses..
Price: $8.20 [Notify me when price goes down.]

After experiencing spectacular economic growth and industrial development for much of the postwar era, Japan plunged abruptly into recession in the early 1990s and since then has suffered a prolonged period of economic stagnation, from which it is only now emerging. Japan's malaise, marked by recession or weak economic activity, commodity and asset price deflation, banking failures, increased bankruptcies, and rising unemployment, has been the most sustained economic downturn seen in the industrial world since the 1930s. In Japan's Great Stagnation, experts on the Japanese economy consider key questions about the causes and effects of Japan's prolonged period of economic underperformance and what other advanced economies might learn from Japan's experience. They focus on aspects of the financial and banking system that have contributed to economic stagnation, the role of monetary policy, and the importance of international financial factors—in particular, the exchange rate and the balance of payments.

Among the topics discussed are bank fragility and the inaccuracy of measuring it by the "Japan premium," the consequences of weak banking regulation, the controversial policy of "quantitative easing," and the effectiveness of currency devaluation for fighting deflation. Taken together, the contributions demonstrate the importance of a sound financial sector in fostering robust growth and healthy economies—and the enormous economic costs of a dysfunctional financial system.

Contributors:
Yoichi Arai, Robert Dekle, Zekeriya Eser, Eiji Fujii, Kimie Harada, Takeo Hoshi, Michael M. Hutchison, Takatoshi Ito, Ken Kletzer, Nikolas Müller-Plantenberg, Kunio Okina, Joe Peek, Eric S. Rosengren, Shigenori Shiratsuka, Mark M. Spiegel, Frank Westermann, Nobuyoshi Yamori.
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