Is it fundamentally greedy and immoral, enabling the rich to get richer? Are free markets Darwinian places where the most ruthless crush smaller competitors, where vital products and services are priced beyond the ability of many people to afford them?
Capitalism is the world's greatest economic success story. It is the most effective way to provide for the needs of people and foster the democratic and moral values of a free society. Yet the worst recession in decades has widelyâand understandablyâshaken people's faith in our system. Even before the current crisis, capitalism received a "bad rap" from a culture ambivalent about free markets and wealth creation. This crisis of confidence is preventing a full recognition of how we got into the mess we're in todayâand why capitalism continues to be the best route to prosperity.
How Capitalism Will Save Us transcends labels such as "conservative" and "liberal" by showing how the economy really works. When free people in free markets have energy to solve problems and meet the needs and wants of others, they turn scarcity into abundance and develop the innovations that are the foremost drivers of economic growth. The freedom of democratic capitalism is, for example, what enabled Henry Ford to take a plaything of the richâthe carâand transform it into something affordable to working people.
In the capitalist system, economic growth doesn't mean more of the sameâgrinding out a few more widgets every year. It's about change to increase overall wealth and give more people the chance for a better life.
About this product: You are having a baby! Congratulations! Now the reality hits you: what the heck am I doing? What if you could bottle the wisdom of all those parents who've come before you and mix it with the solid medical advice from an nationally-renowned pediatrician? Baby 411 is the answer! Think of it as the ultimate FAQ for new parents.
Baby 411 hits today's hot-button issues head-on. Inside the revised and updated 3rd edition, you'll find info on: picking a pediatrician, with savvy questions to ask and insider tips; finding the best way to get your baby to sleep through the night; deciding what to do when baby gets sick, including when to worry and when not to; discovering secrets to soothing a fussy baby; breastfeeding your baby and introducing new, improved formulas and solid food, with detailed nutritional information and step-by-step guide.
About this product: Jeannette Walls's father always called her "Mountain Goat" and there's perhaps no more apt nickname for a girl who navigated a sheer and towering cliff of childhood both daily and stoically. In The Glass Castle, Walls chronicles her upbringing at the hands of eccentric, nomadic parents--Rose Mary, her frustrated-artist mother, and Rex, her brilliant, alcoholic father. To call the elder Walls's childrearing style laissez faire would be putting it mildly. As Rose Mary and Rex, motivated by whims and paranoia, uprooted their kids time and again, the youngsters (Walls, her brother and two sisters) were left largely to their own devices. But while Rex and Rose Mary firmly believed children learned best from their own mistakes, they themselves never seemed to do so, repeating the same disastrous patterns that eventually landed them on the streets. Walls describes in fascinating detail what it was to be a child in this family, from the embarrassing (wearing shoes held together with safety pins; using markers to color her skin in an effort to camouflage holes in her pants) to the horrific (being told, after a creepy uncle pleasured himself in close proximity, that sexual assault is a crime of perception; and being pimped by her father at a bar). Though Walls has well earned the right to complain, at no point does she play the victim. In fact, Walls' removed, nonjudgmental stance is initially startling, since many of the circumstances she describes could be categorized as abusive (and unquestioningly neglectful). But on the contrary, Walls respects her parents' knack for making hardships feel like adventures, and her love for them--despite their overwhelming self-absorption--resonates from cover to cover. --Brangien Davis
About this product: Unhappiness in marriage often has a simple root cause: we speak different love languages, believes Dr. Gary Chapman. While working as a marriage counselor for more than 30 years, he identified five love languages: Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Receiving Gifts, Acts of Service, and Physical Touch. In a friendly, often humorous style, he unpacks each one. Some husbands or wives may crave focused attention; another needs regular praise. Gifts are highly important to one spouse, while another sees fixing a leaky faucet, ironing a shirt, or cooking a meal as filling their "love tank." Some partners might find physical touch makes them feel valued: holding hands, giving back rubs, and sexual contact. Chapman illustrates each love language with real-life examples from his counseling practice.
How do you discover your spouses and your own love language? Chapmans short questionnaires are one of several ways to find out. Throughout the book, he also includes application questions that can be answered more extensively in the beautifully detailed companion leather journal (an exclusive Amazon.com set). Each section of the journal corresponds with a chapter from the book, offering opportunities for deeper reflection on your marriage.
Although some readers may find choosing to love a spouse that they no longer even like hoping the feelings of affection will follow later a difficult concept to swallow, Chapman promises that the results will be worth the effort. "Love is a choice," says Chapman. "And either partner can start the process today." --Cindy Crosby. This text refers to the Amazon.com Exclusive Journal & Paperback Book Set.
This is a plain-English explanation of how we got into the current economic disaster that developed out of the economics and politics of the housing boom and bust. The âcreativeâ financing of home mortgages and the even more âcreativeâ marketing of financial securities based on American mortgages to countries around the world, are part of the story of how a financial house of cards was built upâand then suddenly collapsed.
The politics behind all this is another story full of strange twists. No punches are pulled when discussing politicians of either party, the financial dangers they created, or the distractions they created later to escape their own responsibility for what happened when the financial house of cards in the financial markets collapsed.
What to do, now that we are in the midst of an economic disaster, is yet another storyâone whose ending we do not yet know, but one whose outlines and implications are explored to reveal some surprising and sobering lessons.
About this product: The book is an analysis of the controversial Emergency Economic Stabilization Act and explains in easy to understand language what the bailout bill means for individuals. $700 Billion Bailout answers questions such as:
What does the bill say, exactly?
Who is making decisions about how the $700 billion will be spent, and what does it mean now that the government is investing directly in our banks?
Whoâs footing the bill?
What is the impact on homeowners, businesses, retirement, and taxes?
Where do I put my money in the meantime?
Veteran reporter Paul Muolo shows both the challenges and opportunities of the credit crisis and proposed bailout, including its impact on:
Mortgages: While rates may be lower, there will be more fees imposed on mortgages. Lenders will be far more cautious in lending, and people who cannot meet their mortgages are likely to lose these homes. This may create a âcontrarianâ plays in foreclosures and vacation homes..
Stocks and Other Investments: Is now the time to get into the stock market or is it safer to stick with CDs, bonds, and gold?
Taxes: With the tax breaks, there will be less tax revenue leading to a huge shortfall to the government over the next few years.
He will offer insight into these areas and many others, including how the structure of the bailout bill allows for unprecedented authority that has altered the financial landscape, perhaps permanently. Â Will the plan work, and how we can prevent this from happening again remains to be seen, but with $700 Billion Bailout Paul Muolo gives us a critical tool for deciphering perhaps the most sweeping piece of legislation since the Patriot Act.
About this product: Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.
Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.
Minny, Aibileenâs best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobodyâs business, but she canât mind her tongue, so sheâs lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.
Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.
In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way womenâmothers, daughters, caregivers, friendsâview one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we donât.
Itâs summer vacation, the weatherâs great, and all the kids are having fun outside. So whereâs Greg Heffley? Inside his house, playing video games with the shades drawn.
Greg, a self-confessed âindoor person,â is living out his ultimate summer fantasy: no responsibilities and no rules. But Gregâs mom has a different vision for an ideal summer . . . one packed with outdoor activities and âfamily togetherness.â
Whose vision will win out? Or will a new addition to the Heffley family change everything?
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