Full of sharp portraits and humorous, telling descriptions of the many statesmen and financiers Peterson has known over the years, "The Education of an American Dreamer" is a richly satisfying journey through a fascinating man's life--beginning in Kearney, Nebraska, as an eight-year-old manning the cash register, to Secretary of Commerce in Nixon's paranoid White House, to the tumultuous days of Lehman Brothers, and on to the creation of The Blackstone Group, one of the great financial enterprises in recent times.
The facts are plain: Social Security is headed for massive, unsustainable deficits in the next century. Politicians talk of a Social security "trust fund" but there are no hard assets in it--only government bonds. The reality is that Social Security is really a "pay as you go" system, with benefits to current retirees paid not out any saved trust funds but out of taxes on the payroll of today; s workforce. But what will happen when these employees retire; when, in less than fifteen years, the 76 million members of the baby boom generation -- the largest in our history -- stop paying in and start taking money out? And what can we as individuals and as citizens do now to prevent these catastrophic deficits. The crises towards which we are careening (by 2025, 1 American in 5 will be 65 or older and it will take an already overloaded 1.6 working Americans to support each retired person) will not only be felt personally by the many millions stranded with no savings and without benefits, but will shiver the country's economy as a whole as well as the world financial system. With courage, clarity and incontrovertible evidence, Peterson spells out this huge -- if politically unmentionable -- problem more clearly than ever before and tells us what we must do now for our personal survival and that of our children. According to recent polls, more young Americans believe in UFOs than think they will ever receive a Social Security check. Yet most Baby Boomers, as they approach retirement age, believe they will continue to live their present lifestyle in retirement -- without a fraction of the personal savings or pensions necessary to pay for the future they expect. This agingpopulation -- double today's load -- will depend on as few as 1.6 working Americans to support each retired person. Who will support this nation of Floridas? In this short, powerful book, Peter G. Peterson, one of American's top investment bankers and a leading critic of our entitlement policy, spells out in the clearest possible language, with unmistakable numbers and easy-to-read charts, the disaster that lies ahead if we continue to ignore our low saving rate, our ballooning federal deficits, and our enormous unfunded and unsustainable commitments to retirees. Peterson reveals what politicians are afraid to admit: trillions of dollars of promised benefits for which no funds have been provided. Shattering the myths surrounding this subject with hard facts and eye-opening views of the future, Peterson gives the most comprehensive and candid plan for a gradual, humane, fair, and realistic answer to the greatest challenge of the next century: transforming our political, economic, cultural, and social assumptions to adapt to the realities of the graying of America.
As George Bush Plans to Borrow Trillions in Order to "Save" Social Security and as Congress ponders endlessly rising deficit projections, Peter Peterson offers a crucial warning and a manifesto. Acclaimed by all sides of the political spectrum, and required reading for everyone concerned with America's long-term economic survival, Running on Empty outlines what we must do to ensure our children's economic future and calls on the Bush administration to confront a deep and disturbing problem that politicians of all parties have insisted on ignoring for too long. Book jacket.
There's an iceerg dead ahead. It's called global aging, an it threatens to bankrupt the great powers. As the populations of the world's leading economies age and shrink, we will face unprecedented political, economic, and moral challenges. But we are woefully unprepared. Now is the time to ring the alarm bell ...
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER What does everyone in the modern world need to know? Renowned psychologist Jordan B. Peterson's answer to this most difficult of questions uniquely combines the hard-won truths of ancient tradition with the stunning revelations of cutting-edge scientific research. Humorous, surprising and informative, Dr. Peterson tells us why skateboarding boys and girls must be left alone, what terrible fate awaits those who criticize too easily, and why you should always pet a cat when you meet one on the street. What does the nervous system of the lowly lobster have to tell us about standing up straight (with our shoulders back) and about success in life? Why did ancient Egyptians worship the capacity to pay careful attention as the highest of gods? What dreadful paths do people tread when they become resentful, arrogant and vengeful? Dr. Peterson journeys broadly, discussing discipline, freedom, adventure and responsibility, distilling the world's wisdom into 12 practical and profound rules for life. 12 Rules for Life shatters the modern commonplaces of science, faith and human nature, while transforming and ennobling the mind and spirit of its readers.
This textbook on linear algebra includes the key topics of the subject that most advanced undergraduates need to learn before entering graduate school. All the usual topics, such as complex vector spaces, complex inner products, the Spectral theorem for normal operators, dual spaces, the minimal polynomial, the Jordan canonical form, and the rational canonical form, are covered, along with a chapter on determinants at the end of the book. In addition, there is material throughout the text on linear differential equations and how it integrates with all of the important concepts in linear algebra. This book has several distinguishing features that set it apart from other linear algebra texts. For example: Gaussian elimination is used as the key tool in getting at eigenvalues; it takes an essentially determinant-free approach to linear algebra; and systems of linear differential equations are used as frequent motivation for the reader. Another motivating aspect of the book is the excellent and engaging exercises that abound in this text. This textbook is written for an upper-division undergraduate course on Linear Algebra. The prerequisites for this book are a familiarity with basic matrix algebra and elementary calculus, although any student who is willing to think abstractly should not have too much difficulty in understanding this text.
Intended for a one year course, this volume serves as a single source, introducing students to the important techniques and theorems, while also containing enough background on advanced topics to appeal to those students wishing to specialise in Riemannian geometry. Instead of variational techniques, the author uses a unique approach, emphasising distance functions and special co-ordinate systems. He also uses standard calculus with some techniques from differential equations to provide a more elementary route. Many chapters contain material typically found in specialised texts, never before published in a single source. This is one of the few works to combine both the geometric parts of Riemannian geometry and the analytic aspects of the theory, while also presenting the most up-to-date research - including sections on convergence and compactness of families of manifolds. Thus, this book will appeal to readers with a knowledge of standard manifold theory, including such topics as tensors and Stokes theorem. Various exercises are scattered throughout the text, helping motivate readers to deepen their understanding of the subject.
The inside account of a financial meltdown that reshaped Wall Street In 1983, Lew Glucksman, then co-CEO of the heralded investment bank Lehman Brothers, demanded the resignation of chairman Pete Peterson, with whom he had long argued over how to manage the company. Shockingly, Peterson, who had taken charge a decade earlier and led Lehman from near collapse to record profits, agreed to step down. In this meticulously researched volume, Ken Auletta details the turmoil, infighting, and power struggles that brought about Peterson’s departure and the eventual sale of one of Wall Street’s oldest and most prestigious firms. Set against the backdrop of the 1980s stock exchange, where hotshot young traders made and lost millions in a single afternoon, the story of Lehman’s fall is a suspenseful battle of wills between bankers, traders, and executives motivated by greed, envy, and ego. Auletta, who conducted hundreds of hours of interviews and was granted access to private company records, has crafted a thorough, enduring, and engaging account of pivotal events that continued to influence this storied financial institution until its ultimate demise in 2008.
"Eugene Peterson maintains that how we read the Bible is as important as that we read it. The second volume of Peterson's momentous five-part work on spiritual theology, Eat This Book challenges us to read the Scriptures on their own terms, as God's revelation, and to live them as we read them. Countering the widespread practice of using the Bible for self-serving purposes, Peterson here serves readers with a nourishing entrée into the formative, life-changing art of spiritual reading." - from the back of the book.
