Imperfect solution to an imperfect world.
347666
Five stars for the innovative concept.  The fact is I really should have bought a bigger safe.  These rods do work, but are not ideal for most of my collection which consists mainly of shotguns and large bore rifles.  The rods are 22cal diameter and in a 45cal rifle or 12 gauge shotgun there is a lot of play.  The larger bore firearms sort of all slump in whatever direction the butt plate is cut, it works but I believe if the rods were thicker I could stand the guns more upright and allow for even more storage room.  This product does certainly allow for more room in the safe and I believe it would work really well for those with a lot of smaller caliber rifles.  It will also allow me to get by until I can afford a larger safe.
2518313
Jeffrey Sachs has for long been a celebrated economist, a leader in the field of development economics.  In this book, he focuses on global poverty and tries to draw conclusions from the world's experiences in teh 20th century.

The book is divided into three parts: (1) country analyses, (2) on-the-ground microeconomic problem identification and solutions and (3) ways to scale up the identified solutions on a global scale.

The country sections focus on individual countries, trying to disect a bit of economic and political history to explain why some countries have succeeded instead of others -- the countries analyzed include China, India, Bolivia, Russia, and Poland.  In brief chapters, Sachs gives the reader a good understanding of recent history and perspectives of each country.

The microeconomic solution sections are the most interesting I believe.  Sachs is on the ground trying to identify why hard working people do not get out of poverty.  A few areas are emphasizes, such as agricultural productivity through fertilizers, basic health investments such as bed nets to prevent malaria, education, infrastructure such as roads, communication and power, and safe drinking water.

Last is the section of scaling up such solutions across the poor world.  This section is not as interesting as the previous two and fails to recognize the usual agency problem in which donor's money may not reach the poor due to lack of proper incentives along the way.

The End of Poverty is a nice book, a good effort to address certain issues that economists often underestimate.  The usual policy prescription of economics are shown to fall far short of realities and necessities on the ground.  Growth cannot be sparked by macroeconomic stability, but by a combination of factor which include stability.  The other factors are what Jeff Sachs tries to address, quite successfully in this volume.
4778050
This is a great read. It deals with a real problem that the world is facing, which makes it a little alarming.
587250
Not very detailed. Most people can come up with simpler solutions, it doesn't really touch on so many other things that are important.
3798884
Many books are available about strategic managment. Authors such as Michael Porter and Peter F. Drucker, etc. provide the reader with an insight of many business problems. However, their solutions to solve  complex problems in the business world seem to be simplistic, therefore,  not sufficient.
Ansoff's approach is different. Complex business  problems occurring in a global and especially volatile environment require  specified or customized solutions. A business consultant or a graduate  student will find a detailed roadmap to solve strategic management problems  while reading the book.
1950165
The authors of this book warn us that nature will not continue to provide " a constant and stable foundation for economic activity."  The earth is finite, yet economists continue to act as if constant growth is not only possible but essential to our economic health. They compare the recent world economic meltdown to the bankruptcy facing nature if we do not stop the overexploitation of  important ecosystems.

The book's  chapters are divided up in the manner of short essays of around 10 pages.  The writing style is concise and engaging  and is supported by compelling graphs which support their arguments.

One of the strengths of the authors is their  fluency in the treatment of environmental economics. They directly confront the arguments of neoliberal economists, who assert that the world cannot afford the radical measures required to prevent climate change. However, the world can't afford NOT to reduce climate change. A combination of energy efficiency, renewable energy and systems change could reduce emissions by more than 80% if the economic will existed. Chapter 7, on energy, demonstrates the achievability of a viable world economy with minimal carbon emissions by 2050. However the modernisation of undeveloped countries presents us with a major challenge. If these countries were to repeat the mistakes made by developed sector, disaster would result.

Wijkman and Rostrom conclude by urging the need for a planetary solution: a globalised phase of environmental change. Although many promising new technologies are being created, a new regime of governance is needed. At present there is there is only a patchwork of international agreements for which compliance is more a goal than strict practice. Unless a strong, globalised regime is reached, the welfare of future generations is at dire risk.
4026147
Zingales puts forward an important idea: markets should not trust capitalists. If markets are to flourish and benefit the people, much care must be taken to keep them from curbing. But a lot is needed beyond this book if progress will be made (in America or anywhere) towards freer markets. Implementation is the book's greatest weakness: politically and technically, Zingales will be far from the last word.
1648809
Engagingly written, Drugs, Politics, and Innovation: An Emerging Markets Cocktail, by Ajay Gautam is a timely book on how the global economy is primed for disruption in the pharmaceutical sector. A co-founder of various start-ups, Ajay outlines his global experience in various emerging markets spanning multiple continents.  Using a simple VITAL framework, he presents his analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the various markets he has had exposure to in his trailblazing career path. It appears that governments can, by drawing on the learnings of the various global experiments (most notably that of Isreals) recreate the right ecosystem that enables important synergies that lead to innovation.  His analysis shows the solutions already exist. And, if executed by governments with the right political will and leadership, will lead to breakthrough innovations in health that in the end benefit all of humanity. It is, in many ways, a wake-up call to the governments of the many countries he has called his home over the course of his career, to make full use of their latent potential.
1804215
Paradise Now explores five 19th-century American Utopian communities (the Shakers, New Harmony, the Fourierist Phalanxes, Icaria, and Oneida) and places them in their historical context. Their essentially socialist ideals (class and gender [though not racial] equality in terms of both treatment and labor) sprang from the optimism of the Enlightenment (humankind living by reason), industrialization (prosperity for all), and the frontier (boundless opportunities, including that of remaking society). Although there are a number of methods of trying to improve society, including legislation and revolution, these communities believed in leading by the example of their lifestyles. Although I can laugh at some of their beliefs (the Utopian sea would taste like lemonade), I found myself deploring the fact that these communities failed, for both economic and human-nature reasons. It would be nice to live in a world where opportunities seemed boundless and society perfectible, instead of an economically and environmentally deteriorating one plagued by endless warfare, where the best I can hope for is a series of Band-Aids to partially fix massive problems. Author Chris Jennings has done his research well, and his remarks are often entertaining. Five stars.
3377938
If the government thought like this, most of society's problems would be solved.  Read it to see the larger picture.
4486646
A wonderful look at how some people can overcome the way they are in the world and the way the world treats them.
1242129
This book is a bit dated but it has some good material concerning the proper use of power for the purpose of really alleviating poverty and tyranny in the world. The author has a good review comparing where in the world outside military force has been used and superimposing that over a map of where the poorest nations are. The maps are very close. He also outlines that keeping people poor and ignorant is a technique of bad actors for enhancing their own wealth and power. He makes a good case that if the prosperous in the world really want to make a difference, then in some places taking out bad actors is an important first step. There are many ways to do that, not just military force. But the next step is introducing law and order, ending corruption, increasing transparency and removing barriers to free enterprise. Other steps of enhancing education and freedom are important, but need these things to flourish. That requires a long term commitment to security and peace-keeping.
3214039
The authors look unflinchingly at the realities of human-induced climate change and consider the choices it presents us with as a species. They consider what strategies might have the best chance of working, as well as what has to change, politically and otherwise, for those strategies to be implemented. Besides mitigation (reducing greenhouse gases) and adaptation (dealing with it), they consider geoengineering  acknowledging that its almost certainly a very bad idea, while explaining why it may happen anyway, and thus has to be thought about. They are economists, and argue as such, but communicate in nontechnical, eminently readable prose. They also  consciously and deliberately - avoid some of the common assumptions that often cause their field to chronically undervalue the environment.

Most importantly, Wagner and Weitzman systematically destroy the notion that the scientific uncertainties in climate change projections are an excuse for inaction. They consider climate as a risk assessment problem, and demonstrate that the uncertainties should lead us to see the situation as more dire, not less, because extremely bad outcomes (far worse than the most likely ones), though unlikely, are possible enough that we have to consider them. At the same time, the authors offer hope, making it clear that if we can manage to change course and take serious action on climate sooner rather than later, we can greatly improve our chances of avoiding the worst.

The climate problem can seem too large to grasp, too overwhelming to think about in practical terms. But we need to think about it that way, and Climate Shock explains, clearly and effectively, how to do it.

Adam Sobel, Columbia University
adamsobel.org
2573467
Matt ridley's new book captures and explicates an idea whose time has Finally arrived: People and events may shape history but they are, themselves, shaped by the unfolding, inexorable tide of evolutionary forces that provide structure and impetus to unconscious, relentless, progress. When the time is ripe, circumstances will conspire to bring about changes unbidden by a demiurge or "skyhook" orchestrating a top-down imposition on the natural order. Far from doom and gloom, the emerging world foreseen by Ridley is one where, finally, the naturally embedded forces of evolutionary change will usher in a decentralized world where individuals and society will be given the chance to reach their true potential. Required  reading for enlightened minds.
108805
The market, like fire, makes a good servant but a poor master.  When put to socially useful work by the forces of democracy in an open society, it can be wonderfully creative.  When allowed to run wild, especially in settings of historically polarized asset distributions, it can be immensely destructive.  This book surveys the burned-over landscape left behind when the ideologues of the free market turn loose the fire under conditions where the forces of democracy are much too weak to keep it under effective social control.
  The discussion focuses largely on one country, Ecuador, and pays special attention to the ways in which the economic and social fabric of its rural areas has been ever more heavily damaged in recent years.  Yet the book's message is far more general.  It develops a theoretical framework that is broadly applicable to most of the Third World and offers specific case studies that illustrate conditions rampant there.  The book also spells out the huge political task of building an effective democracy that can tame the market and bring to the fore its creative side.  The most important, and most difficult, political challenges pertain to development in the countryside, especially the creation of rural purchasing power.  Progress is today jeopardized by the pyromaniacs of the free market ensconced in the international economic institutions and their academic infrastructures.  Meanwhile, the flames are rising over the world's poorest rural areas.
419988
This book is an interesting review of the ways different sectors of society  business, governments, NGOs and communities  are coming together in new models to solve on-going and often systemic problems. The book is predicated on a belief  and one I subscribe to  that the traditional model of big government as the solutions provider is slowly being supplanted by new forces.

Why this is happening is fascinating and has important implications for all of us. There is a growing lack of trust in governments to provide the solutions; there are new geopolitical players that play by different economic models than pure capitalism; and the is a growing recognition that information-sharing and the applications of big data are transforming the way we get and use new solutions. Im a firm believer that this is already happening and you can see that in the first six chapters of this book (though there is less on why this is happening as there is on the results of this transformation).

The early chapters are a collection of anecdotes and analysis on those various partners and how they operate in the new environment, taking over the role of governments to provide solutions to challenges such as water and food security. The final chapter  seven  is where I suspect most people will be inspired. It covers what YOU can do to help contribute to the solution revolution.

In some ways, I wish the authors had started with this chapter and wove the other material into it. I believe it would bring the material more alive for the reader. However, I think most people who are interested in this topic will read it from beginning to end and see for themselves how they and their organizations fit into this new model.
512462
A short and sometimes sweet book about the real path to prosperity, should we find it. Machines are better than humans at more and more and many are ill prepared for this competitor.

We've been here before, but not at so many levels. The authors do a nice job of explaining the fundamental underpinnings of what is happening to many, many jobs and laying out the case for machines to race with, not against.

A good list of potential things to do about it to help us find the road to paradise where machines do so much to allow humans to do more than anyone could conceive of.

I would add one to the list. Come at people as the are and incent them to improve, extend and leverage all the new tools and opportunities that they have now in their reach. People are creature of things like habit and dopamine. Approached right, most people will work very hard to the betterment of themselves and those around them. Same strategies as Madison Avenue with a very different goal and outcome.