Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit and the
Era of Predatory Lenders
An independent feature-length documentary film that chronicles
abusive practices in the credit card industry. Uses interviews
with creditors, debtors, academics, and others to illustrate its
story.
The purpose for the film and book was to raise awareness of how
credit and lending issues are affecting society; that banks and
other creditors deliberately market to people who are more
likely to have problems paying.
The creditors benefit from connections to government, the debt
collection industry, and from lawmaker apathy.
|
The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong
to Get Ahead by David Callahan
The current state of American society, characterized by rampant
inequality and a winner-take-all philosophy, produces the
cheating that has been observed in business, law, academia,
journalism, entertainment and medicine.
Cheating, of both illegal and legal forms, is pervasive in an
American society where incentive-driven structures (e.g. stock
options, production-based pay, fast-track career options) have
gone haywire: Instead of promoting productivity and "fair play",
they reward deception and chicanery.
When Sears instituted a production quota for its auto repair
staff, mechanics began performing unnecessary and costly
maintenance.
Overbilling is highly common within the legal profession.
Pressed to bill as much time as possible, ambitious young
lawyers overcharge clients.
In the medical profession, physicians feel forced to exaggerate
symptoms of managed-care patients otherwise their insurers would
deny coverage.
|
Our Endangered Values by Jimmy Carter
Blurring the line between church and state threatens
civil liberties and privacy, says former President Jimmy Carter.
That's the case he makes in his new book, Our Endangered Values:
America's Moral Crisis, which draws on Carter's experiences as a
president and a Christian.
The Washington scene with almost every issue decided on a
strictly partisan basis ...debate on key legislative decisions
is almost a thing of the past. Basic agreements are made between
lobbyists and legislative leaders, often within closed party
caucuses where rigid discipline is paramount.
Even personal courtesies, which had been especially cherished in
the U.S. Senate, are no longer considered to be sacrosanct. This
deterioration in harmony, cooperation, and collegiality in the
Congress is, at least in part, a result of the rise of
fundamentalist tendencies and their religious and political
impact.
|
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly
Improbable
by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Nassim argues that most of the really big events in our world
are rare and unpredictable, and thus trying to extract
generalizable stories to explain them may be emotionally
satisfying, but it's practically useless.
September 11th is one such example, and stock market crashes are
another. Or, as he puts it, "History does not crawl, it jumps."
Our assumptions grow out of the bell-curve predictability while
our world is really shaped by the wild powerlaw swings of "Extremistan."
|
Modern Scholar Series: Waking Dragon by Peter Navarro
[This is available only as an audio book in the Modern Scholar
series. My library let me download it for free]
China has emerged as the "factory floor" for global
production, providing cheap goods at the astonishingly low
"China price". But there is a very steep price to pay - a price
that very well may have dire consequences for the health and
security of the planet.
Peter Navarro dissects the coming China wars and their
implications for all mankind. China's predatory economic
policies are not just about inexpensive goods pricing out the
competition - rapid economic growth has serious implications
ranging from oil prices and energy security to global warming
and environmental pollution - and from U.S. political
independence and financial market stability to hot-war military
conflict.
The rapid and often chaotic industrialization of the most
populous country on the planet has put China on a collision
course with the rest of the world - an overview of the risks
facing the world because of China's unsustainable rate of
development.
|
