La Debacle is the penultimate novel in Zola's great Rougon-Macquart cycle. A stirring account of profound friendship between two soldiers from opposite ends of the class divide during the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune of 1870-1.
Conservative and working-class, Jean Macquart is an experienced, middle-aged soldier in the French army, who has endured deep personal loss. When he first meets the wealthy and mercurial Maurice Levasseur, who never seems to have suffered, his hatred is immediate. But after they are thrown together during the disastrous Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71, the pair are compelled to understand one other. Forging a profound friendship, they must struggle together to endure a disorganised and brutal war, the savage destruction of France's Second Empire and the fall of Napoleon III. One of the greatest of all war novels, The Debacle is the nineteenth novel in Zola's great Rougon-Macquart cycle. A forceful and deeply moving tale of close friendship, it is also a fascinating chronicle of the events that were to lead, in the words of Zola himself, to 'the murder of a nation'.
JUST WHO DO YOU HAVE TO KILL TO GET HEALTH CARE AROUND HERE? In this book, you, the reader, get to be the main character in an exciting tale of blackmail and corporate espionage. You're an alcoholic temp with a dream of one day being a celebrated novelist. Unfortunately, you drink too much. When you wake up from a blackout, you discover you've been framed for murder. Someone wants you to take a permanent job, and he's ready to blackmail you into doing it. What will you do? Will you turn yourself over to the cops and write a memoir about being wrongly imprisoned? Will you go perm and enjoy the benefits of health care? Or will you escape into the sewers and live with the Mole People? The choice is yours! If you want to just surrender and go to jail, turn to page 6. If you want to hide by blending in with a group of 9/11 conspiracy theorists, turn to page 160. If you'd like to let Haviland Payne, CEO of SkoolKidz Uniformz, have her way with you, turn to page 73. If you want to see how the whole situation gets resolved on page 181, turn to page 181.
A provocative critique of the Obama administration's economic policies and an examination of America's difficult economic future During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama promised "a net spending cut" to make government smaller in order to reduce the deficit. But this huge increase in government spending and debt, and the resulting prospect of higher taxes, will make America a poorer country. Are Americans happier because the government has determined where this money should be spent? According to John Lott and Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist, the answer is no, and in Debacle: Obama's War on Jobs and Growth and What We Can Do Now to Regain Our Future they explain why. Obama's economic policies have raised unemployment, slowed economic growth, dramatically raised the national debt, squandered taxpayer money through poor investments, and damaged the housing market. The book explains why Obama's policies on spending, taxes, and regulation have all worked to harm the recovery, increase unemployment, and depress housing prices. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the deficits that President Obama proposes for the years from 2011 through 2020 come to a staggering $126,000 per family of four, and John Lott and Grover Norquist make clear why the costs outweigh the benefits Explains why Keynesian economics is more a way of transferring wealth to political constituencies than a legitimate economic theory for understanding how the economy operates Posits that Obama's economic policies were more an opportunity "to do big things" than to solve the country's economic problems Arguing that the policies of the Obama administration have created widespread economic chaos, Debacle is a bleak look at American finance from Grover Norquist.
Why America's public-private mortgage giants threaten the world economy—and what to do about it The financial collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2008 led to one of the most sweeping government interventions in private financial markets in history. The bailout has already cost American taxpayers close to $150 billion, and substantially more will be needed. The U.S. economy--and by extension, the global financial system--has a lot riding on Fannie and Freddie. They cannot fail, yet that is precisely what these mortgage giants are guaranteed to do. How can we limit the damage to our economy, and avoid making the same mistakes in the future? Guaranteed to Fail explains how poorly designed government guarantees for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac led to the debacle of mortgage finance in the United States, weighs different reform proposals, and provides sensible, practical recommendations. Despite repeated calls for tougher action, Washington has expanded the scope of its guarantees to Fannie and Freddie, fueling more and more housing and mortgages all across the economy--and putting all of us at risk. This book unravels the dizzyingly immense, highly interconnected businesses of Fannie and Freddie. It proposes a unique model of reform that emphasizes public-private partnership, one that can serve as a blueprint for better organizing and managing government-sponsored enterprises like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In doing so, Guaranteed to Fail strikes a cautionary note about excessive government intervention in markets.
For more than a century, oil has been the engine of growth for a society that delivers an unprecedented standard of living to many. We now take for granted that economic growth is good, necessary, and even inevitable, but also feel a sense of unease about the simultaneous growth of complexity in the processes and institutions that generate and manage that growth. As societies grow more complex through the bounty of cheap energy, they also confront problems that seem to increase in number and severity. In this era of fossil fuels, cheap energy and increasing complexity have been in a mutually-reinforcing spiral. The more energy we have and the more problems our societies confront, the more we grow complex and require still more energy. How did our demand for energy, our technological prowess, the resulting need for complex problem solving, and the end of easy oil conspire to make the Deepwater Horizon oil spill increasingly likely, if not inevitable? This book explains the real causal factors leading up to the worst environmental catastrophe in U.S. history, a disaster from which it will take decades to recover.
Lowy avoids the easy answers, like blaming it on fraud and greed, and explains how something of this magnitude could occur under the noses of those who should have protected the taxpayer. Paul M. Horvitz, University of Houston Market forces, not scoundrels, destroyed the savings and loan business. So says Martin Lowy in what is truly an inside look at the savings and loan crisis. Drawing upon his experience as a practicing attorney, bank officer, and savings and loan director, Lowy provides an expert account of the problems that have overwhelmed the nation's savings institutions and their government regulators. High Rollers is the first book on the S&L crisis that provides an analytical groundwork for technical and nontechnical readers--so that both can comprehend what happened. Lowy's clear, readable style allows him to quickly describe the origins of the problems in new market forces and new technologies, and how the problems grew out of control as a result of regulatory mistakes and congressional inaction. Even his discussions of real estate lending practices and accounting issues are, in the words of Professor Horvitz, both clear to the novice and instructive to the professional.
When the rubber duckies for River Heights’s duck derby go missing, Nancy and her friends are ready to quack the case in the sixteenth book in the interactive Nancy Drew Clue Book mystery series. River Heights is hosting a duck derby to raise funds to install new benches by the pond in the park. Nancy, Bess, and George want to help, so they ask Mayor Strong if they can number the rubber duckies that will be used in the race. It’s a big responsibility, but they know they can do it. Then the box holding the duckies goes missing from Nancy’s doorstep! The girls need to find the duck-napper fast, but there’s a flock of suspects. Where do they even start without even a squeak of a clue? Will the Clue Crew figure out who flew off with their rubber duckies before the Mayor finds out they’re gone?
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1989.
Interweaving Personal Memories, Chronicling Historical Events, R.D. Pradhan S Book Is An Affectionate And Insightful Recollection Of His Experiences Of Working As Private Secretary To The Defence Minister Y B Chavan From 1962 To 1965. The Events In This Book Happened Over Three Decades Ago. More Than Thirty-Five Years Later, This Book Lifts The Veil On A Critical Period In The Nation S History And Also Sheds Light On The Many Inside Events Which Have Remained Unknown To Date.