Encyclopedia of municipal bonds

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Walter Adams and James W. Brock

"The Bigness Complex confronts head-on the myth that organizational giantism leads to economic efficiency and well-being in the modern age. On the contrary, it demonstrates how bigness undermines our economic productivity and progress, endangers our democratic freedoms, and exacerbates our economic problems and challenges." "This new edition has a thoroughly updated variety of issues, examples, and new development, including government bailouts of the airline industry; regulation of biotechnology; the fiasco of recent electricity deregulation; and mergers and consolidations in oil, radio, and grocery retailing. The analysis is framed in the timeless context of American distrust of concentrations of power. The authors show how both the left and right fail to address the central problem of power in formulating their diagnoses and recommendations. The book concludes with an alternative public philosophy as a viable guidepost for public policy toward business in a free-enterprise democracy."--BOOK JACKET.

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Jake Halpern

"A trip to the underworld of debt collection, where bankers team up with ex-burglars and few rules apply Bad Paper is a riveting expose;, a moving story of an unlikely friendship, and a gritty narrative of how scrappy entrepreneurs profit from our debts. Jake Halpern introduces us to a former banking executive and a former armed robber who become partners and go in quest of "paper"--the uncollected debts that are sold off by banks for pennies on the dollar. As Halpern shows, the world of consumer debt collection is a wild and unregulated shadowland, where operators may misrepresent a debtor's situation, make illegal threats, and even lay claim to debts that are not theirs to collect in the first place. It is a realm of indelible individuals who possess a swagger and vocabulary that even David Mamet could not invent. Halpern follows his collectors as they intimidate competitors with weapons, manage high-pressure call centers, and scheme new ways to benefit from American's debt-industrial complex. He also explores the history of collection agencies and reveals the human cost of a system that leaves hardworking Americans with little opportunity to retire their debts in a reasonable way. The result is a bravura work of storytelling that is also an important consciousness-raiser"-- "Frequent New Yorker contributor Jake Halpern investigates the shadowy, unregulated world of consumer debt collection, focusing on an unlikely friendship between a former banking executive and former armed robber who go in search of "paper," spreadsheets of uncollected debt sold off by banks for pennies on the dollar"--

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Stephen Flynn

Americans are in denial, maintains security expert Flynn, about how vulnerable our nation is to disaster, be it terrorist attack or act of God. But what's truly shocking, he argues, is how little we have learned from September 11 and Hurricane Katrina. America is living on borrowed time--and squandering it. Flynn describes how we have become increasingly vulnerable to disaster by grossly neglecting the complex, crumbling infrastructure that provides our water, food, health care, electricity, and transportation. Through a series of realistic scenarios, he dramatizes the prime areas of documented risk, where terrrorist attacks could kill thousands and bring regions to their economic knees--but the wrath of Mother Nature may be our gravest threat. But Flynn also explores what we can do about it, as individuals and as a society, outlining a detailed, pragmatic preparedness program we can embrace right now.--From publisher description. Includes information on agriculture, airlines, al-Qaeda, Boston, George W. Bush, California, chemical faculities, Coast Guard, infectious diseases, earthquakes, economy, electricity, emergency care system, emergency response, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), federal government, fire, floods, flu, gasoline, hospitals, Hurricane Katrina, hurricanes, infrastructure, insurance, Iraq, levees, Los Angeles, military, Mississippi, national security, natural disasters, New Jersey, New Orleans, New York,, oil refineries, oil tankers, police, ports, power system, disaster preparedness, private sector, public health system, rail systems, San Francisco, Seattle, September 11 terrorist atacks, state and local governments, transportation system, water systems, etc.

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Tom Clancy

No. 1 New York Times bestselling phenomenon Tom Clancy delivers an all-new, original novel, Op Center: Divide and Conquer. Shadowy elements within the State Department secretly cause tensions to flare between Iran and the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan. They hope to start a shooting war to increase their own power and profit. At the same time, the conspirators decide to up the ante - by deposing the president of the United States. In a treacherous scheme, they convince the president that he is mentally unstable, and a silent coup d'etat is within their reach. Now, Paul Hood and the members of Op-Center must race against the clock to prevent the outbreak of war, save the honor of the president - and expose the traitors.