Provocative, personal, and inspirational, The Green Collar Economy is not a dire warning but rather a substantive and viable plan for solving the biggest issues facing the country—the failing economy and our devastated environment. From a distance, it appears that these two problems are separate, but when we look closer, the connection becomes unmistakable.
In The Green Collar Economy, acclaimed activist and political advisor Van Jones delivers a real solution that both rescues our economy and saves the environment. The economy is built on and powered almost exclusively by oil, natural gas, and coal—all fast-diminishing nonrenewable resources. As supplies disappear, the price of energy climbs and nearly everything becomes more expensive. With costs and unemployment soaring, the economy stalls. Not only that, when we burn these fuels, the greenhouse gases they create overheat the atmosphere. As the headlines make clear, total climate chaos looms over us. The bottom line: we cannot continue with business as usual. We cannot drill and burn our way out of these dual dilemmas.
Instead, Van Jones illustrates how we can invent and invest our way out of the pollution-based grey economy and into the healthy new green economy. Built by a broad coalition deeply rooted in the lives and struggles of ordinary people, this path has the practical benefit of both cutting energy prices and generating enough work to pull the U.S. economy out of its present death spiral.
Rachel Carson's 1963 landmark book Silent Spring was the pivotal ecological examination of the last century. Now, rising above the impenetrable debate over the environment and the economy, Van Jones's The Green Collar Economy delivers a timely and essential call to action for this new century.
“Masterfully crafted, deeply thoughtful and mind-expanding.”—Los Angeles Times In this powerful and provocative manifesto, Bill McKibben offers the biggest challenge in a generation to the prevailing view of our economy. Deep Economy makes the compelling case for moving beyond “growth” as the paramount economic ideal and pursuing prosperity in a more local direction, with regions producing more of their own food, generating more of their own energy, and even creating more of their own culture and entertainment. Our purchases need not be at odds with the things we truly value, McKibben argues, and the more we nurture the essential humanity of our economy, the more we will recapture our own.
About this product: Praise for THE TRAVELS OF A T-SHIRT IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
"Engrossing . . . (Rivoli) goes wherever the T-shirt goes, and there are surprises around every corner . . . full of memorable characters and vivid scenes." —Time
"An engaging and illuminating saga. . . . Rivoli follows her T-shirt along its route, but that is like saying that Melville follows his whale. . . . Her nuanced and fair-minded approach is all the more powerful for eschewing the pretense of ideological absolutism, and her telescopic look through a single industry has all the makings of an economics classic." —The New York Times
"Rarely is a business book so well written that one would gladly stay up all night to finish it. Pietra Rivoli's The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy is just such a page-turner." —CIO magazine
"Succeeds admirably . . . T-shirts may not have changed the world, but their story is a useful account of how free trade and protectionism certainly have." —Financial Times
"[A] fascinating exploration of the history, economics, and politics of world trade . . . The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy is a thought-provoking yarn that exhibits the ugly, the bad, and the good of globalization, and points to the unintended positive consequences of the clash between proponents and opponents of free trade." —Star-Telegram (Fort Worth)
"Part travelogue, part history, and part economics, The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy is ALL storytelling, and in the grand style. A must-read." —Peter J. Dougherty, Senior Economics Editor, Princeton University Press author of Who's Afraid of Adam Smith?
"A readable and evenhanded treatment of the complexities of free trade . . . As Rivoli repeatedly makes clear, there is absolutely nothing free about free trade except the slogan." —San Francisco Chronicle
Many warn that the next stage of globalization--the offshoring of research and development to China and India--threatens the foundations of Western prosperity. But in The Venturesome Economy, acclaimed business and economics scholar Amar Bhidé shows how wrong the doomsayers are.
Using extensive field studies on venture-capital-backed businesses to examine how technology really advances in modern economies, Bhidé explains why know-how developed abroad enhances--not diminishes--prosperity at home, and why trying to maintain the U.S. lead by subsidizing more research or training more scientists will do more harm than good.
When breakthrough ideas have no borders, a nation's capacity to exploit cutting-edge research regardless of where it originates is crucial: "venturesome consumption"--the willingness and ability of businesses and consumers to effectively use products and technologies derived from scientific research--is far more important than having a share of such research. In fact, a venturesome economy benefits from an increase in research produced abroad: the success of Apple's iPod, for instance, owes much to technologies developed in Asia and Europe.
Many players--entrepreneurs, managers, financiers, salespersons, consumers, and not just a few brilliant scientists and engineers--have kept the United States at the forefront of the innovation game. As long as their venturesome spirit remains alive and well, advances abroad need not be feared. Read The Venturesome Economy and learn why--and see how we can keep it that way.
This classic introductory text offers a balanced survey of ecology. It is best known for its vivid examples from natural history, comprehensive coverage of evolution and quantitative approach.
The Sixth Edition builds on the book’s hallmark features: its strong evolutionary focus, its breadth and diverse set of examples from key studies, its extensive coverage of behavioral ecology, and its thorough presentation of population ecology.
About this product: David Smick keeps a low profile, but experts consider him one of the most insightful financial market strategists in the world. For more than two decades, he has conferred with central bankers (such as Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke) and advised top Wall Street executives and investors, from George Soros to Michael Steinhardt to Stan Druckenmiller. Political leaders (from Bill Bradley to Jack Kemp) have regularly sought his policy advice.
The World Is Curved picks up where Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat left off, taking readers on an insider’s tour through the private offices of central bankers, finance ministers, even prime ministers. Smick reveals how today’s risky environment came to be—and why the mortgage mess is a symptom of potentially far more devastating trouble. He wrestles with the two questions on everyone’s mind: How bad could things really get in today’s volatile economy? And what can we do about it?
Drawing on riveting anecdotes in language anyone can understand, Smick explains:
• Why the churning cauldron we call China (the next great bubble to burst) represents a powerful threat to everyone’s pocketbook • How Japanese housewives have taken control of their nation’s savings, and why it matters to us • How greed-driven bankers and investment bankers have put everyone’s pensions and 401(k)s at risk • Why today’s “incredible shrinking central banks” may not be able to save us when the next crisis hits • Why the big-money Russian, Chinese, Saudi, and Dubai sovereign wealth funds represent a tectonic shift in global financial power, away from the United States, Europe, and Japan • Why the world desperately needs a “big think” financial doctrine to guide today’s dangerous ocean of money
The World Is Curved is the rare book that speaks simultaneously to the Wall Street, Washington, and London elite, yet its apt storytelling shows Main Street readers how to survive in these turbulent times.
About this product: Brad Schiller's text, The Micro Economy Today, 11e, is noted for three great strengths: readability, policy orientation, and pedagogy. His accessible writing style engages students and brings some of the excitement of domestic and global economic news into the classroom. Schiller emphasizes how policymakers must choose between government intervention and market reliance to resolve the core issues of what, how, and for whom to produce. This strategic choice is highlighted throughout the full range of micro, macro, and international issues. Every chapter ends with a policy issue that emphasizes the markets vs. government dilemma. And Schiller packs his chapters with the facts of economic life�real stories and applications. This is a book that teaches economics in a relevant context with careful pedagogy. It is also the only principles text that presents all macro theory in the single consistent context of the AS/AD framework. . . Schiller 11e is for students motivated by real-world policy issues who want to become economically literate. This is a book students actually READ. Schiller is also known for its cutting-edge and current coverage of today�s issues. .
About this product: Sometime during the last 30 years, the service economy emerged as the dominant engine of economic activity. At first, critics who were uncomfortable with the intangible nature of services bemoaned the decline of the goods-based economy, which, thanks to many factors, had increasingly become commoditized. Successful companies, such as Nordstrom, Starbucks, Saturn, and IBM, discovered that the best way to differentiate one product from another--clothes, food, cars, computers--was to add service.
But, according to Joseph Pine and James Gilmore, the bar of economic offerings is being raised again. In The Experience Economy, the authors argue that the service economy is about to be superseded with something that critics will find even more ephemeral (and controversial) than services ever were: experiences. In part because of technology and the increasing expectations of consumers, services today are starting to look like commodities. The authors write that "Those businesses that relegate themselves to the diminishing world of goods and services will be rendered irrelevant. To avoid this fate, you must learn to stage a rich, compelling experience."
Many will find the idea of staging experiences as a requirement for business survival far-fetched. However, the authors make a compelling case, and consider successful companies that are already packaging their offerings as experiences, from Disney to AOL. Far-reaching and thought-provoking, The Experience Economy is for marketing professionals and anyone looking to gain a fresh perspective on what business landscape might look like in the years to come. Recommended. --Harry C. Edwards
Business leaders searching for a green strategy encounter few roadmaps and established rules and plenty of hidden twists and turns. Strategies for the New Green Economy describes how companies can succeed in the green marketplace, keeping pace with customer and societal demands to reduce their environmental impact.
In this book, Joel Makower provides clear guidance for this challenge. He offers insights and inspiration gleaned from his 20 years' experience helping Fortune 500 companies and start-ups alike formulate strategies that align environmental and business goals.
Providing a comprehensive and realistic look at both the opportunities and challenges, Strategies for the Green Economy systematically tackles the central issues of greening your business:
What does it take to be seen as an environmental leader?
What are the standards, implicit or explicit, that you must meet to be green?
How do you communicate what your business is doing right--and what it's doing wrong?
How can you overcome consumer, media, and activist distrust?
How can your company be heard amid the “green noise” in the marketplace?
What are the new opportunities emerging for companies in the green economy?
Emphasizing both domestic and international politics as well as fundamental economic principles, International Political Economy is the most accessible and holistic overview of the global economy. This text offers students a uniquely engaging introduction to IPE by viewing global economic exchange as a political competition. While surveying key IPE theories, economic principles, institutions, and processes, the text explains how this competition raises social welfare but also creates winners and losers who influence the policies of governments and international institutions and ultimately the global economy.