economics-schools

As a parent of two teenagers, I came to realize that I had nurtured every aspect of their development, except in the area of employability. YOUR KIDS-THEIR FUTURE guides parents in working with their children to pursue the best matched career for their financial future. Easy-to-follow steps and humour add to the enjoyment of this valuable book. I am sure that you will find going through this process with your teenager a very rewarding experience indeed!

YOUR KIDS - THEIR FUTURE should be at the top of the "Required Reading List" for parents. Written in a down-to-earth, easy-to-understand language, this witty little treasure covers everything from financial aid for college, hot careers, military training, apprenticeships, salaries, and job requirements to vital questions for the college tour, employer, or military recruiter. The book provides an outline and employment data which make the overwhelming task of choosing a career as easy and simple as 1, 2, 3. If you have a teenager or if you work with young people, this book is a MUST!

This book is a practical and easy to use resource for parents of students beginning in grade nine. Parents wishing to became acively involved in helping their children make wise decisions regarding career choices will be able to positively affect this process. I plan to use this book when dealing with parents and students in career planning.

I purchased this book as I enjoy simulations. This volume contains ten simulations that cover history, politics, and geography. They are easy to understand, come with detailed instructions, and the students enjoy them. One aspect I enjoyed about this book was that the instructions break down how to utilize the simulation with different level students-from basic to advanced. This is helpful for teachers who have a diverse student population. I ran the Alliance simulation dealing with World War I this semester and my students really enjoyed it. I found that the simulation did indeed work for all levels of students. I plan on using the U.S. geography simulation and the Peace in the Middle East simulation when I next reach those eras in my class. A+++

This useful and easy-to-read book promises to make life far more interesting for social studies and intro college instructors. I found the volume to be fun, accessible, and quite interesting. It provides a variety of well-designed and thoughful lessons in a friendly and conversational tone. There is no pretension and no effort to talk down to the reader-- it was very much like picking the brain of a more experienced colleague. The ten simulations are self-contained and manageable. I have not yet used them in my class, but I am looking forward to doing so. On the whole, I strongly recommend this volume to my teaching colleagues, at a variety of levels, across the nation.

The book povides suggestions and solutions for today's classrooms. It is also a good book to use as a quick reference for those disciplinary topics you may need. Very good!

Curwin and Mendler do an exceptional job breaking down classroom management in an easy to read and codified form. The book provides valuable insight into problems and solutions in today's classrooms and also functions well as a quick reference for those topics you may need "on the fly"

In "Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth", the late Ludwig Von Mises, one of the leading economists of the Austrian School, takes aim at the foundations of Socialism. Von Mises argues that under Socialism, that is the abolition of private property and state control over production, economic calculation is impossible. This short 51 page essay and summary by Professor Joseph T. Salerno of Pace University demonstrates that a socialist economy cannot be rational and thus provides no way to assign resources to their most productive uses. It is too bad this 1920 piece was not read by more intellectuals. We could have avoided 70 years of ruin under communism. His argument is not a moral attack but one of practicality. Even assuming that central planners are honest, selfless, motivated and intelligent individuals, how do they allocate resources and plan production without market signals and a common exchange medium (money) that quantifies these signals? In simplest terms how can central planners make decisions without a feedback loop that conveys scarcity, needs and desires?

Von Mises makes several key points:
1)Monetary calculation is an indispensable tool for choosing the optimum among a vast array of production plans.
2)The "intellectual division of labor" (i.e. demand signals) which emerges when individuals (i.e. property owners) are at liberty to exchange goods and services creates subjective value judgements which are then totaled to derive an objective monetary exchange rate. Prices are just the objective reflection of the sum of millions of individual subjective valuations. Such a process does not exist in a socialist economy where the thought process resides the heads of a few bureaucrats.
3)In a static environment, determining value in the absence of market signals would be difficult enough but in a dynamic environment it would be impossible. Social price structure is continually being destroyed and recreated by a competitive appraisement process.
4)True socialist economies can never exist. The former Soviet Union had a quasi-socialist economy. Although its central planners determined most production, they utilized the appraisement process from market economies (United States, Germany, UK, Japan etc.) to help determine capital structure and production priorities. Therefore, the former Soviet Union and other quasi-socialist countries could only eke out an existence by copying technology, production processes and priorities developed in the advanced capitalist economies. Without these signals, the central planners would have no compass to direct them in an ocean of possible economic decisions. This decision-making problem is especially pronounced when it comes higher-order production goods and services such machinery, research and development and implementation of new technologies.

With these very simple points, he devastates the economic foundation of Socialism. That is why in the former Soviet Union, there were many tractors rusting in fields where thousands of tons of grain rotted away. Why? - Because the central planners could not possibly derive the optimum production of tractors, warehouses, fertilizers, distribution networks, fuel and labor without some way of calculating value. For a moment forget about other problems inherent in Socialism (lack of incentives, corruption, abuse of power, bureaucratic inertia etc.) and just focus on the lack of a rational decision-making process. Decisions in a socialist economy would have to be arbitrary.

Just imagine a little thought experiment. You want to build a railroad. First of all, how do you decide if the railroad should be built at all? Secondly, if you want to build it, where should you build it? How many lines should you run? What type of trains? How do you answer these questions without some type of cost-benefit analysis? How do you calculate cost-benefit without market signals that convey supply and demand? Given the multitude of factors involved with such an endeavor - steel and wood to build the rails, fuel to power the trains, the design and quantity of carriages and the variety of employees needed to operate and maintain the system (all of this in a ever changing environment) - how does one make decisions without converting to the common exchange medium of money? In the absence of a market, what objective value does money have?

In summary, with no free market, there is no pricing mechanism and therefore no economic calculation.

It is unfortunate that one evening of reading could expose the underlying structural flaws inherent in Socialism and yet millions decided not to pay attention.

This essay is a classic in political economy. The author identifies a critical problem in socialist economics- the lack of a means for allocating capital goods. Once the state owns the means of production markets for capital goods disappear. Market prices for capital goods emerge through competitive biding as entrepreneurs estimate the values of different capital goods. If we abandon markets, central planners must still choose between alternative capital goods, but they will not have market prices to guide them. Since all value is in use and is subjective, central planners face an impossible task when they try to ascertain relative values for capital goods. Mises proves that in a dynamic, changing world of subjective value and complex productive processes, markets are an indispensable means of organizing production. If socialists had listened to Mises in 1920, Russia would have been spared 70 years of misery and economic failure. Every socialist should read this, along with Buchanan's "Cost and Choice".

The book is useful for homeschooling parents who want to plan and help their child keep a portfolio of the high school years. It is also a COURSE for the child to take in time management.
Beyond the wonderful, helpful ideas, the child is taught steps to complete his/her own personal notebook organizer (with plans, calendars, personal goals, etc sheets inside). The book also teaches the child to plan his education and develop life goals.
The last part of the book contains forms for the notebook, project and essay checklists, course planning sheets (a child can plan his own course and have evidence of completion of that course), and many other helpful organizers.
THEN there is a CD free with it. It contains all those sheets in PDF form PLUS a scope and sequence and goals for just about any typical high school course you could think of (no environmental science but yes, even calculus).
I can't say enough good things about the book. I wish I had my oldest going through it last year (he's doing that now) and I plan to have my middle son go through it this summer before he starts 9th grade. My biggest problem is organization. The lack of it causes me to waste so much time. With this book, I'm hoping my children (and I) will learn skills so they (and I) will do better.
Better yet, the book enables the child to take charge and make decisions about his/her education. COOL!

Please send a copy of your book for review. I would like my graduate students to be using this book in their classroom.

Dr. Romulo Macias c/o Mercy College Gruduate Program of Education Second Floor. Office of Dr. Palomini and Sr. Sancher Bronx, New York 10462

A very thorough guide to applying to business school. It provides excellent information about the internal workings of the admissions process as well as thought-provoking guidance to help you through the essay writing process. It also provides good insight on the types of things to consider when choosing the business schools you want to apply to.

The best part, I think, is the essay chapters. It tells you what do the admission officers really want to know in each type of essay questions. For example, the ethic question is different than legal issues. Anything illegal is clearly not a good topic to write in ethic essays.

Dr. Alvy was indeed the best Principal I ever had. If anyone is qualified to write a book on this topic he is. May others be inspired to be as great a Principal as he is.

This book is packed with information pertaining to the principalship. There are scenarios and information throughout the book that gives readers a glimpse of their future expectations in the Educational Leadership profession.

I found this book to be helpful as it provided much new information in areas that have not been fully explored in recent works. Buchanan showed that Deaf adults actively defended American Sign Language during the very decades (1900-1950) when "Oralism" was the official policy in most schools. He also shows that this tradition of self-activity extended into employment where Deaf adults worked individually and collectively to challenge discriminatory employers many decades before the Americans with Disabilities Act. Finally, Illusions is helpful as it provides an honest and empathic portrait of the Deaf Community that considers frailties and divisions as well as its extraordinary history of determined self-activity.

Robert Buchanan's book 'Illusions of Equality' fills a gap long overlooked in activist literature. Meticulously researched and well written, Buchanan's book details the plight of deaf Americans in trying to find equal opportunity in employment during the heyday of American industrialization. With this book, Buchanan becomes one of the premier voices amongst activist/historians.

I just graduated from college in a small town and was lucky enough to be heading to New York City for a new job. This book let me know a whole bunch of things to look out for when finding a place in NYC. I have my first day next week, and I'm planning on bringing this book to reference as I fill out my tax forms.

I got this book as an early graduation gift for my son, and he actually read the whole thing - said it made him laugh alot. I liked the taxes chapter.

A brilliant book written by experts around the world. Highly recommended

To claim that this book makes a launchpad for any MBA - as does the cover's blurb - is to undersell the unique value of this book which culls the best executive teachings from London Business School, Wharton and IMD. Senior managers who keep this book as closely on-hand as their favourite dictionary will find that it provides an excellent conversation opener with almost every expert function/department they encounter organisation-wide and beyond that with networks of partners in their industry's globalising relationships. Trust and loyalty leadership need to be earned and communicated, both globally and locally, and all across the stakeholder spectrum from fussy end-consumers to purposeful organisational investors. The book starts with a rousing call - by Ross Webber - to learn to be personally capable of interacting in interdisciplinary processes if you want to have a leadership future in the post-industrial knowledge-creation revolution which is also tomorrow's gateway to doing business. When you try out - or review - this book you can derive profitable fun in two ways : 1) cheering some of the brilliant summary contributions (usually a maximum of 5 pages) in areas you have expert knowhow in; 2) observing some of the most personally valuable door-openers to learning organisation which you may not have previously known you needed. You could then swap your need-to-know priorities with others you dialogue with either physically in the next office or virtually around the world via Internet or intranet .............................................................................................................................................. Five articles I loudly cheer coming from my own knowledge base are: 1) Tim Ambler's relationship of paradigm of branding offers a vital counterforce to marketing misunderstandings that short-term leaders make. In pursuit of growing the world's most valuable property rights, the marketer needs to measure progress by measuring the (loyalty) state of relationships between the brand and its customers and significant "influence agents". A company cannot competently learn to organise this integrated marketing purpose unless its leaders recognise why financial valuation of brands is invalid. 2) George Day clarifies how effective learning processes in market-driven firms depend on : open-minded inquiry; widespread information distribution; mutually informed mental models; accessible organisational memory. His Wharton colleague Jerry Wind provides a 12-question checklist for working out how successful 21st century marketing will be practised organisation-wide. 3)Rob Goffee details cultural requirements for internal marketing teamwork in glocally sensitive companies. For example, my experience echos these critical success enablers for high performance international teamwork : start slowly, end faster; use help to facilitate group skills; constantly encourage total participation; surface and address differences; build in time to discuss and review team processes. 4) Donald Marchand explains why marketing companies' attempts to leverage change in our coming informational era will be still born unless architects of a company's learning capabilities evolve a suitable mix of four common information cultures in companies today : functional, sharing, inquiry and discovery. 5) Howard Perlmutter confirms that the new corporate ideal of global civilisation is not an option, but the responsibility falls on today's generation of business people to shape it. His research dramatises cross-cultural and networking incompetences such as : unwillingness to update, vacillating commitment, sending the wrong people, picking the wrong partners, and failure to manage conflicting expectations of stakeholders............................. Five articles I cheer next in growing the interpersonal skills/language I need to be more fluent in as a coach/charterer of marketing learning organisation: 1) Chris Higson questions standard accounting measurements of performance (eg ROCE), and shows where they fail to serve directors responsible for investing in a company's future 2) Jack Wood discusses why we - who wish to be better managers or wiser individuals - need to understand organisational behaviour at an interdisciplinary level. The alternative is to keep on making decisions which ignore the deeper social and psychological patterns within human behaviour, and whose final result is the opposite of what we intend. 3) With Thomas Colosi, Jack Wood charter why negotiation should be regarded as a subtle art, or process with many iterations. The rules in any negotiation must themselves be negotiated from the outset. As a process, negotiation is an exchange of promises and commitments. This is framed by the degree of trust between the parties; building that trust (especially in non-Western cultures) lessens the inherent risk in human relationships. The negotiator's job is to create doubts in the minds of others as to the viability of their positions. Managing expectation is also critical to this art. 4) Stephane Garelli explains how countries increasingly have two kinds of economy : 'proximity' (being close to the end-user) and 'globality' (exploiting different comparative advantages of nations) . Bringing them into balance is the secret to a truly competitive society. Nine other rules support this including: developing aggressiveness on international markets (exports etc) as well as attractiveness to foreign value-added industries; focusing on quality and speed in the conduct of administration and reforms; maintaining a relationship between wage levels, productivity and taxation; investing in education. 5) Johan Roos and George von Krogh introduce key tenets of epistemology, the field of science that deals with the creation of knowledge. Three powerful concepts in the domain of corporate epistemology are: a) self-reference - each of us carries our own unique frame of references which is the source of both group creativity and group confusion ; b) languaging - the process through which we both create new meaning and share meaning and frames of reference in language; c) when the same basic patterns of interaction re-occur at different scales within the company - individual, group, strategic business unit and so on. This is one of the key features of the most powerful knowledge-development processes and management systems ...... If you'd like to discuss particular articles in this book - either the ones you cheer as an expert or those you'd like to prioritise next for your own accelerated learning - contact me. I will aim to match you with others who have expressed a similar interest....................................... ................ Chris Macrae, editor Brand Chartering Handbook and MELNET www.brad.ac.uk/branding/ E-mail me at : wcbn007@easynet.co.uk