Reddit mentions: The best commercial policy books

>And I think that North Korea would be a lot better off if they had a few Wal-Marts and McDonald's and Costcos.

The Mexicans should consider themselves lucky to be catered US products by US corporations, right? They should be thanking us that we give them the opportunity to beg for a living in our great superstores, yes? ...Disgusting. That is the height of arrogance. "External influences" also can (and, often by design, do) reinforce a dictatorship and dis-empower the greater population. Wal-Mart, McDonald's & Costco may marginally improve the quality of life from one shade of bare-survival to another, but at what cost? Corporate influence simultaneously engenders dependence, which is the source of hierarchy, which in turn is the foundation of authoritarianism. Thus, their long-term influence is as helpful as US aid to Africa: negligible at best, destructive at worst.

I'm certainly not arguing that we should isolate ourselves from these countries; but we should not be invading them with our unilateral exportation of products and dependency. Again, guns and information are the only things capable of devolving power to the people and giving them a chance to enjoy real gains in livelihood for themselves and for their grand-children.

Like so many things, American foreign policy is framed on solid ideology; take "free trade" as an example. Unfortunately, the execution of policy is often diverted to nefarious ends. Whatever eloquent justifications and rationale invoked by the politicians and businessmen, the consequences of US "external influence" speak for themselves. Joseph Stiglitz' Globalization and its Discontents does an expert job of characterizing the effects of Western influence (and particularly Western financial influence) across the globe. Suffice it to say, Stiglitz writes that the countries that disregard solicitations and "guidance" from the US or the IMF or the World Bank, and forge their own path (e.g., China, Japan, and others) fare much better than those supplicant countries which simply obey orders (e.g., Russia, Ethiopia, and others). All of these financial "influences" are out in the open, clear as day in the public record. We need dig only a little deeper to find military "influences" with similar high-minded goals (e.g., exportation of "democracy") that ended up doing far more harm than good (e.g., in Ecuador, Guatemala, Argentina, Vietnam, Iraq, etc. etc.).

So to answer your question: do I think Cubans are better off without the US corporate influence? Fuck yes. I'm no apologetic for Castro's regime; there are more flaws than virtues, for sure. But corporations dicking around in Cuba would not improve matters a whit, unless your conception of improvement means "making that autocracy look more like my own".

I really feel weird commenting on people and events like this. 'Alleged whistleblower blowing the whistle on dirty, dastardly deeds! Now at the top of the best seller list!' I remember hearing about it when it first came out, but I never really buy books from/about these types of people, so all my knowledge comes from the brief summaries I read and whatever little videos I watch. I feel that if anything he did and say was true, he probably would've been assassinated long before he wrote and published his book.

I also know that a lot of the alleged 'hits' he might have made were done at a time when the advanced countries truly believed that all developing countries had to do (to become advanced as well) was privatize their institutions and throw open their borders to free trade and foreign investment. This idea was backed in most all academic and research circles, and I can see how it would make sense at the time. Worked pretty decently when they were advancing, right?

But that became a disastrous road for a lot of countries, and we now know a whole lot better about how developing countries have to structure and run their economies to further their growth. A lot of major advances in modern economics happened over that same time frame, but I think development economics really took quite a few huge leaps forward out of its classical, traditional stance from just a few decades ago.

If you want to read a really good book on these organizations (and globalization and development in general) I highly recommend Globalization and Its Discontents, written by Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate and former Chief Economist at the World Bank. He goes into full detail of the field, its history, the major players, his work in it, and delivers both the good and bad sides of it all. I felt like most of the book was largely critical actually, both surprising from a man of his office and stature and with how unhesitatingly he pointed out all the failures he saw around him in his time. I highly recommend it, as I think it's one of the premier books for anyone wanting to know more about these organizations and what they do.

So I guess you haven't noticed the music, television, and film industries? You know that those exist correct? All of those things exist because they monetize culture.

Here is a book The Age of Access. It is by an economist (edit: not an economist Jeremy Rifkin. To call him "an economist" is a bit of a misnomer as he is one of the most influential of our time), not a "media theorist". It does not propose solutions to issues, and it is a bit dated albeit in terms of the present it seems a bit prophetic.

He deals extensively with the monetization of culture and theorizes some potential effects thereof.

The point was that money and organization built for the sole purpose of profit tend to foster corruption, and the vast overwhelming majority of our culture is created and sold to us by those very organizations. Hopefully this was a bit more clear.

I know you want to be flippant and play devil's advocate, but I'm not equating some guy in a coffeeshop with his guitar doing free verse spoken word about how great trees are with the music industry as a whole (it's agenda in terms of profit and production) and it's affect on not only how music is produced but WHY music is produced... that is so stupid it is almost insulting.

EDIT: and my first comment was actually downvoted, guess that was some of the people that the new "culture" has "made smarter". Hilarious fun to be had here today it seems.

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You wrote all that stuff but you missed the point.

Taxes get applied to profits, not revenues. As long as the tax rate is not 100%, it has no effect on whether a business is profitable or not.

Given that, businesses should always seek to arrange their business to generate the maximum profit, because no matter the tax rate, they will get more money if they have higher profits. If the tax rate is lowered, and they make somewhat higher profits, is there additional incentive to rearrange their business and hire more workers? No, a change in corporate profit tax rates does not change the revenue-cost curve, so the optimal point would not change.

>Science, bitches.

Science is based on evidence. There is no evidence that lowering tax rates increases employment.

If you're interested in reading things based on evidence I recommend this, this, and this.

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I think we've reached the point where we've each laid out what we have to say and gotten whatever clarification we can from one another. Thanks for the discussion and maybe we'll talk again.

Probably the one outstanding issue is you asked for a source to explain how the Oil Embargo (that extended to 1974, I just learned) was a major influence on US policy in the Middle East. My belief was formed by two books, Planet of Slums and Confessions of an Economic Hitman.

They're great books, and I totally recommend them, but they don't make for great proof (if that's what you're asking for) in an internet discussion. Let me know if you read either, because I'd really like to hear what you think!

Thanks again.

I've got to be honest, though I agree entirely with the theory presented in my previous post, I wasn't actually stating my own speculative opinion, I was (accurately) parroting the empirically based works of Chang. I think that if you read his book [Kicking Away The Ladder] (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kicking-Away-Ladder-Institutions-Globalization/dp/1843310279), or for a more accessible work [Bad Samaritans] (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bad-Samaritans-Secrets-Nations-Prosperity/dp/1905211376) you would be hard pressed to disagree with his account of economic history.

Indeed, almost all predominant advocates of free trade begrudgingly accept Chang's view, but counter that such policies are no longer possible nowadays, given how globalized and intertwined the various national economies are. For an example of this kind of argument see Martin Wolf's [Why Globalization Works] (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Globalization-Works-Yale-Nota-Bene/dp/0300107773).

I didn't really want to challenge your various retorts of my previous comment, because as I stated it's not my argument. But I would like to say that I think it is fair to describe your depiction of South Korea as inaccurate. Whilst true that Korea produce goods that are exported to other developed countries, this is no bad thing - all developed countries trade between each other, as it has been shown to be the most efficient way to produce things. Also, you imply that Korea has a particularly unequal society, but a cursory look at the national [gini-coefficient rankings] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality), which ranks countries by income equality, shows that Korea has a more equal society than Canada, France, Belgium, the UK, Ireland, Spain, Italy, New Zealand, and a significantly greater level of equality than the United States.

Here is the post for archival purposes:

Author: _William_BSkates

Content:

>Hi i'm William B. Skates author of The Art Of Cryptocurrency this is my first book and it's solely focused on beginners who want to dive into the world of cryptocurrencies and help understand what it is, how to invest/mine/wallets and more! The book just entered its free promotion from 02/02 to 06/02 and my goal is to reach as many people as possible.
Link to my book in USA

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.co.uk

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Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
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http://www.amazon.com/Conservative-Case-Against-Free-Trade/dp/1468184784/ref=sr_1_sc_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1462277747&sr=8-2-spell&keywords=freetrade+doesn%27t+work

There is a strong conservative case against free trade.

For an assessment of what did cause this situation and where it's heading, you can turn to the UN's Global Report on Human Settlements, 2003, available there as PDF or for ordering a hardcopy. You might also look for writing by Mike Davis who did a good analysis of the UN report for NLR (pay curtained now) that he later turned into a very good book, Planet of Slums. Inspired, in turn, by his book Mute magazine did a special issue on growing urbanization and poverty.

In large part humans are streaming from the countryside to the city, in numbers never before seen, because of economic policies imposed by the IMF/World Bank. Policies that have concentrated land that traditionally sustained countless villages and communities throughout the third world into the hands of a few owners.

The Chinese are BRILLIANT. Read "Globalization and Its Discontents". There's a lot in there about how economic development policies can improve a country, but cause a lot of short term pain.

They managed to sidestep most of this. Managed to prevent companies from more developed countries from owning much of their economy. They also made sure that any development of their markets also made them more competitive globally. I don't know a single mistake they've made in how they've handled building their economy, when it comes to dealing with other countries.

The Chinese are totally unethical (by our standards) about intellectual property, but taken in context of their drive to build their economy it's understandable. Practically one of the only things I like about Trump is that he picked a fight in part about how they commit industrial espionage. However I doubt he'll actually negotiate any kind of solution to this issue.

Pretty sure they're going to dominate the world at some point.

For a basic overview, I really like Personal Finance for Dummies. It looks like there's a Spanish edition.

For some context, read the excellent and very readable Planet Of Slums.

https://www.amazon.com/Planet-Slums-Mike-Davis/dp/1844671607

This should be on the reading list of everyone who wants to understand the world coming into existence.

The Conservative Case Against Free Trade https://www.amazon.com/dp/1468184784/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_ZOe-BbEV3JQT6

The way I'd frame the question is mercantilist/nationalist trade vs corporatist/globalist trade.

I learned quite a bit about the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Energy from reading The Fifth Risk. Highly recommended.

Michael Lewis has the fabulous skill of taking an important issue and arranging it as an amazing story. A portion of his book The Fifth Risk, was separated out by Audible as part of its "audible originals" series, and can be listened to separately as The Coming Storm.

It bugged me that so much of The Fifth Risk was this excerpt since I'd listened to The Coming Storm first, so there's a packaging problem there to be aware of, but that excerpt is solid and important. For people who have audible subscriptions, I definitely recommend The Coming Storm, even though it robs enough of The Fifth Risk that I don't then recommend the other book.

Ignoring that, though, it tells the story (better than I will summarize here) of how the national weather service is publicly funded, but commercial forces have fought to keep it from being made easily and freely available to the public so they can build private services that both compete with the public service and rely on it. I'm not doing the stunning and frankly scary nature of it justice here. The article here is consistent with what's in that story, but no one tells it like Michael Lewis. Even knowing what you're expecting to find in that story, I'm betting you'll still be shocked.

curious to know if this is the same guy:
https://www.amazon.com/Art-Cryptocurrency-Beginners-understanding-Litecoin-ebook/dp/B079HDJWQF/ref=la_B079KJ7CZG_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1520282797&sr=1-1

Amazing list! But I noticed that you did not include George Reisman's magnum opus: Capitalism

http://www.amazon.com/Capitalism-Treatise-Economics-George-Reisman/dp/0915463733

That makes me totally sad.

While likely not true in this particular case, its definitely true in others. The Fifth Risk (The Fifth Risk https://www.amazon.com/dp/1324002646/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_.WEXDbWE6MD4E) calls out quite clearly he had almost nothing to do with, and explicitly was angered by, transition team planning.

Precisely. Ha-Joon Chang discussed this at length in his Bad Samaritans, providing a detailed account of his native South Korea.

http://www.amazon.com/Planet-Slums-Mike-Davis/dp/1844671607

Start reading here

The fifth risk

Here's one
book that uses
the unhypenated version (page 1).

"Less is known about the effects that sweeteners have on consumption. For decades, some researchers have argued that because humans evolved in an environment almost totally lacking in sugar and other simple sweeteners, these foods overwhelm our natural abilities to monitor intake. Scrutiny has been especially high for high-fructose corn syrup, or HFCS, which entered the food system in a big way in the late 1970s just as obesity was picking up steam, and which possess several unusual nutritional features that have been linked to obesity. First, where glucose moves easily form the blood to the brain, fructose lacks the biochemical passwords to get through the blood-brain barrier. As a result, the brain, which senses blood levels of glucose (and alters appetite accordingly), is essentially unaware of the amount of fructose circulating in the blood, and thus doesn't trigger a satiety reflex, no matter how much fructose is consumed. Second, unlike glucose, the fructose doesn't stimulate release of insulin, without which there is no leptin, which the brain needs to hear the I'm-full satiety signals from the stomach. [Third, fructose isn't fully digested until it reaches the liver. Here's fructose's unique molecular structure - particularly, the way its carbon atoms are arranged - acts as a kind of backbone for the construction of long-chain fatty acids; fructose, in other words, converts to fat more easily than other sugars do]."

Interesting read.

Edit: grammar and spelling.

No. Or at least I'm not aware of it.

Here's an amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Fifth-Risk-Michael-Lewis/dp/1324002646

That quote is from The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis. It's a book specifically about the Trump transition team and the people he put in charge, or didn't bother putting in charge of different government agencies.

> The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis

https://smile.amazon.com/Fifth-Risk-Michael-Lewis/dp/1324002646/

https://www.amazon.com/Fifth-Risk-Michael-Lewis/dp/1324002646

This is a really good book by the author of Moneyball, The Big Short, Liar's Poker and others. It details just how different the incoming Trump Administration was from the prior Obama and Bush Administrations, and how dangerous that level of incompetence continues to be.

The Fifth Risk has really opened my eyes to how government organizations are run and what they actually do. Only partway through, but it's been extremely informative...and scary

I think the poorest have always had it pretty shit. Doesn't seem that constructive to say shit from 100,000 ago is worse than shit from 2,000 years ago is worse than shit from 500 years ago is worse than shit from 60 years ago is worse than shit from today.

A great many people live in terrible conditions today and our global economy is only making it worse for them. This is well documented. Perhaps you'd get a kick out of Mike Davis' "Planet of Slums" for a more nuanced description of how terrible our economic system is to the poorest people on the planet.

I did not advocate for feudalism. I advocated for a system that was developed by the first middle class as an alternate to the feudal system that become capitalism. Nor did I say this was the only solution.

Edit: words