Download or read book Is the German Middle Class Crumbling Risks and Opportunities written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2021-12-21 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thriving middle classes are the backbone of democratic societies and strong economies, but in many countries, they face mounting pressure as their economic strength is eroding relative to higher-income households. Real wages and incomes for most middle-class households have grown only very slowly, and rising expenditures have been putting further pressure on living standards.
Download or read book OECD Employment Outlook 2022 Building Back More Inclusive Labour Markets written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2022-09-09 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two years into the pandemic, economic activity has recovered faster than expected. However, the labour market recovery is still uneven across sectors and is threatened by the economic fallout from Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, which has generated the fastest growing humanitarian crisis in Europe since World War II, sending shockwaves throughout the world economy. The 2022 edition of the OECD Employment Outlook reviews the key labour market and social challenges for a more inclusive post-COVID‐19 recovery.
Download or read book OECD Economic Surveys United States 2022 written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2022-10-12 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States economy rebounded strongly from the depths of the pandemic recession, aided by a large and enduring government policy response. However, Russia’s war against Ukraine and strong inflationary pressures have dampened the economic outlook. The administration is reinforcing public welfare through packages that invest in infrastructure and the climate transition, but an ageing population means fiscal pressures are on the horizon.
Download or read book The demolition written by Helmuth Wolters and published by novum pro Verlag. This book was released on 2023-10-05 with total page 1152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After "Corona" comes the war! Suddenly it becomes clear that Europe has been fooling itself for years with the hope of "change through trade". And while there is intense debate about arms deliveries - yes or no, or maybe just 5000 helmets - the war reveals another problem: the collapse of the supply chain cycle! The supply of grain and vegetable oils is decreasing dramatically. Ukraine exported over 16 million tons of grain annually, mostly to North Africa and the Middle East. And while heated debates continue over the approval of Nord Stream 2, Russian gas continues to flow to Europe via Nord Stream 1, indirectly financing Putin's war. And while possible arms deliveries continue to be debated, we lurch into the next crisis.
Download or read book Global Trends 2040 written by National Intelligence Council and published by Cosimo Reports. This book was released on 2021-03 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic marks the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come." -Global Trends 2040 (2021) Global Trends 2040-A More Contested World (2021), released by the US National Intelligence Council, is the latest report in its series of reports starting in 1997 about megatrends and the world's future. This report, strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, paints a bleak picture of the future and describes a contested, fragmented and turbulent world. It specifically discusses the four main trends that will shape tomorrow's world: - Demographics-by 2040, 1.4 billion people will be added mostly in Africa and South Asia. - Economics-increased government debt and concentrated economic power will escalate problems for the poor and middleclass. - Climate-a hotter world will increase water, food, and health insecurity. - Technology-the emergence of new technologies could both solve and cause problems for human life. Students of trends, policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades, will find this report, with colored graphs, essential reading.
Download or read book German Americans on the Middle Border written by Zachary Stuart Garrison and published by SIU Press. This book was released on 2019-12-23 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Before the Civil War, Northern, Southern, and Western political cultures crashed together on the middle border, where the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri Rivers meet. German Americans who settled in the region took an antislavery stance, asserting a liberal nationalist philosophy rooted in their revolutionary experience in Europe that emphasized individual rights and freedoms. By contextualizing German Americans in their European past and exploring their ideological formation in failed nationalist revolutions, Zachary Stuart Garrison adds nuance and complexity to their story. Liberal German immigrants, having escaped the European aristocracy who undermined their revolution and the formation of a free nation, viewed slaveholders as a specter of European feudalism. During the antebellum years, many liberal German Americans feared slavery would inhibit westward progress, and so they embraced the Free Soil and Free Labor movements and the new Republican Party. Most joined the Union ranks during the Civil War. After the war, in a region largely opposed to black citizenship and Radical Republican rule, German Americans were seen as dangerous outsiders. Facing a conservative resurgence, liberal German Republicans employed the same line of reasoning they had once used to justify emancipation: A united nation required the end of both federal occupation in the South and special protections for African Americans. Having played a role in securing the Union, Germans largely abandoned the freedmen and freedwomen. They adopted reconciliation in order to secure their place in the reunified nation. Garrison’s unique transnational perspective to the sectional crisis, the Civil War, and the postwar era complicates our understanding of German Americans on the middle border.
Download or read book Herbert Hoover and the Commodification of Middle Class America written by Edward Gale Agran and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2016-08-15 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Herbert Hoover rose from a rudimentary background to establish himself as a self-made millionaire and leading progressive reformer. Until the disaster that hit the nation in 1929, Hoover was known globally as the “Great Humanitarian” who had saved the lives of scores of millions of Europeans and Asians during and following WWI. As Secretary of Commerce through the twenties, the “Great Engineer” constructed, tooled, and fine-tuned the most powerful economy in the world. Hoover was celebrated as a representative product of America’s rise to global domination and a formidable voice for progressivism who could finish the job in the White House. The Depression was Hoover’s undoing, but historians recognize they must take account of his considerable contributions to the creation of “twentieth-century America.” As we learn more of that America, Hoover makes “more sense.” With due consideration of Hoover’s accomplishments, one can further understand the construction of the American industrial and corporate economy, progressivism and the New Deal, and political posturing throughout the century. Equally significant, one can comprehend twentieth-century “cash-box” culture and Hoover’s formidable contributions as a public servant to the commodification of American life. He endeavored to establish that all could fulfill a secure, middle-class life—in essence, achieve the “American Dream.” This concept in part was created by Hoover, who also was considered one of the nation’s public-relations geniuses. The political establishment continues to build upon the social and cultural foundation he laid. That foundation, while under stress, remains fundamentally sound as the nation enters the twenty-first century. The criticisms rained down upon American materialism echo dangers Hoover warned against. He subscribed to the maxim that a genuinely good society is not one premised upon material values; it is established upon a widely distributed sense of well-being grounded in service and compassion. Hoover never lost sight of the imperative of selflessness for the good of others, the nation, and oneself within an individualistically driven society rich in comforts and security. He sedulously worked to create a middle-class identity which spoke to material well-being and fundamental decency. A true believer, Herbert Clark Hoover energetically embraced the “American Promise.”
Download or read book Reducing Inequalities written by Rémi Genevey and published by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). This book was released on 2013-01-01 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The reduction of inequalities within and between countries stands as a policy goal, and deserves to take centre stage in the design of the Sustainable Development Goals agreed during the Rio+20 Summit in 2012.The 2013 edition of A Planet for Life represents a unique international initiative grounded on conceptual and strategic thinking, and – most importantly – empirical experiments, conducted on five continents and touching on multiple realities. This unprecedented collection of works proposes a solid empirical approach, rather than an ideological one, to inform future debate.The case studies collected in this volume demonstrate the complexity of the new systems required to accommodate each country's specific economic, political and cultural realities. These systems combine technical, financial, legal, fiscal and organizational elements with a great deal of applied expertise, and are articulated within a clear, well-understood, growth- and job-generating development strategy.Inequality reduction does not occur by decree; neither does it automatically arise through economic growth, nor through policies that equalize incomes downward via ill conceived fiscal policies. Inequality reduction involves a collaborative effort that must motivate all concerned parties, one that constitutes a genuine political and social innovation, and one that often runs counter to prevailing political and economic forces.
Download or read book At the origin of middle class rationality written by Ruggero D’Alessandro and published by Mimesis. This book was released on 2019-01-18T00:00:00+01:00 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Odyssey is rightly celebrated as a story that goes far beyond the scope of epic poetry. It is an open window to an entire era and its social systems as well as its theological, cultural, economic and political structures, while running simultaneously in the register of the earthly and of the divine. Within The Odyssey, the episode of the Sirens stands out as an exceptionally evocative example of this kind of achievement. This volume is dedicated to exploring the myriad levels of analysis that are allowed by this famous episode, following in the footsteps of celebrated readers of The Odyssey such as Adorno, Horkheimer, Lukàcs, Auerbach, Kerény, Bloch, Auden, Pound, Tolstoj, Elster and Steiner. By looking at the brief encounter between Ulysses and the Sirens, the reader of this volume will discover the roots of our modern concept of middle class rationality and its profound ramifications stretching between economy, politics, and the divine.
Download or read book How Democracies Die written by Steven Levitsky and published by Crown. This book was released on 2019-01-08 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Comprehensive, enlightening, and terrifyingly timely.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice) WINNER OF THE GOLDSMITH BOOK PRIZE • SHORTLISTED FOR THE LIONEL GELBER PRIZE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post • Time • Foreign Affairs • WBUR • Paste Donald Trump’s presidency has raised a question that many of us never thought we’d be asking: Is our democracy in danger? Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt have spent more than twenty years studying the breakdown of democracies in Europe and Latin America, and they believe the answer is yes. Democracy no longer ends with a bang—in a revolution or military coup—but with a whimper: the slow, steady weakening of critical institutions, such as the judiciary and the press, and the gradual erosion of long-standing political norms. The good news is that there are several exit ramps on the road to authoritarianism. The bad news is that, by electing Trump, we have already passed the first one. Drawing on decades of research and a wide range of historical and global examples, from 1930s Europe to contemporary Hungary, Turkey, and Venezuela, to the American South during Jim Crow, Levitsky and Ziblatt show how democracies die—and how ours can be saved. Praise for How Democracies Die “What we desperately need is a sober, dispassionate look at the current state of affairs. Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, two of the most respected scholars in the field of democracy studies, offer just that.”—The Washington Post “Where Levitsky and Ziblatt make their mark is in weaving together political science and historical analysis of both domestic and international democratic crises; in doing so, they expand the conversation beyond Trump and before him, to other countries and to the deep structure of American democracy and politics.”—Ezra Klein, Vox “If you only read one book for the rest of the year, read How Democracies Die. . . .This is not a book for just Democrats or Republicans. It is a book for all Americans. It is nonpartisan. It is fact based. It is deeply rooted in history. . . . The best commentary on our politics, no contest.”—Michael Morrell, former Acting Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (via Twitter) “A smart and deeply informed book about the ways in which democracy is being undermined in dozens of countries around the world, and in ways that are perfectly legal.”—Fareed Zakaria, CNN
Download or read book Critical Infrastructures Key Resources Key Assets written by Adrian V. Gheorghe and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-11-12 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the face of increasing failures, comments attributed to Albert Einstein loom large: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” There is a pervasive feeling that any attempt to make sense of the current terrain of complex systems must involve thinking outside the box and originating unconventional approaches that integrate organizational, managerial, social, political, cultural, and human aspects and their interactions. This textbook offers research-based models and tools for diagnosing and predicting the behavior of complex techno-socio-economic systems in the domain of critical infrastructures, key resources, key assets and the open bazaar of space, undersea, and below-ground systems. These models exemplify emblematic models in physics, within which the critical infrastructures, as well as society itself and its paraphernalia, share the profile of many-body systems featuring cooperative phenomena and phase transitions – the latter usually felt as disruptive occurrences. The book and its models focus on the analytics of real-life-business actors, including policy-makers, financiers and insurers, industry managers, and emergency responders.
Download or read book Dress Vanity Fair written by and published by . This book was released on 1923 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report written by Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission and published by Cosimo, Inc.. This book was released on 2011-05-01 with total page 692 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, published by the U.S. Government and the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in early 2011, is the official government report on the United States financial collapse and the review of major financial institutions that bankrupted and failed, or would have without help from the government. The commission and the report were implemented after Congress passed an act in 2009 to review and prevent fraudulent activity. The report details, among other things, the periods before, during, and after the crisis, what led up to it, and analyses of subprime mortgage lending, credit expansion and banking policies, the collapse of companies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the federal bailouts of Lehman and AIG. It also discusses the aftermath of the fallout and our current state. This report should be of interest to anyone concerned about the financial situation in the U.S. and around the world.THE FINANCIAL CRISIS INQUIRY COMMISSION is an independent, bi-partisan, government-appointed panel of 10 people that was created to "examine the causes, domestic and global, of the current financial and economic crisis in the United States." It was established as part of the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009. The commission consisted of private citizens with expertise in economics and finance, banking, housing, market regulation, and consumer protection. They examined and reported on "the collapse of major financial institutions that failed or would have failed if not for exceptional assistance from the government."News Dissector DANNY SCHECHTER is a journalist, blogger and filmmaker. He has been reporting on economic crises since the 1980's when he was with ABC News. His film In Debt We Trust warned of the economic meltdown in 2006. He has since written three books on the subject including Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity (Cosimo Books, 2008), and The Crime Of Our Time: Why Wall Street Is Not Too Big to Jail (Disinfo Books, 2011), a companion to his latest film Plunder The Crime Of Our Time. He can be reached online at www.newsdissector.com.
Download or read book Economic Security Neglected Dimension of National Security written by National Defense University (U S ) and published by Government Printing Office. This book was released on 2011-12-27 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On August 24-25, 2010, the National Defense University held a conference titled “Economic Security: Neglected Dimension of National Security?” to explore the economic element of national power. This special collection of selected papers from the conference represents the view of several keynote speakers and participants in six panel discussions. It explores the complexity surrounding this subject and examines the major elements that, interacting as a system, define the economic component of national security.
Download or read book Love at Last Sight written by Tyler Carrington and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2019-01-16 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Love at Last Sight opens with the seemingly simple question, "How did single people meet and fall in love in new big cities like Berlin at the turn of the century?," but what emerges from this investigation of daily newspapers, diaries, serial novels, advice literature, police records, and court cases is a world of dating and relationships that was anything but simple. The murder of Frieda Kliem, a young, enterprising seamstress who was using newspaper personal ads to find a husband reveals the tremendous risk associated with modern approaches to love and dating in a big city filled with strangers, swindlers, and a pervasive set of middle-class normativities that parents, peers, and authorities used to discredit men and women looking for love and intimacy. The risk of fraud, censure, or worse was ever-present, especially for gay Berliners, single women, and the many petit-bourgeois who strove for the stability of middle-class life but were outsiders to the social power structures of society. Indeed, though the technologies and opportunities of the big city offered the best shot at finding love or intimate connection among the urban sea of strangers, availing oneself of them--making an acquaintance on the street, pursuing a missed connection from the streetcar, or using a matchmaking service or newspaper personal ad--meant putting one's livelihood, respectability, and life on the line. This was the romantic dilemma facing the vast majority of city dwellers at the turn of the century, and a great many chose to risk everything for some measure of connection and intimacy. This book explores the history of dating as a way of illuminating a core tension of modern, metropolitan life that emerged at the turn of the century and persists through the present day"--
Download or read book Retopia Creating New Spaces of Possibility written by Dirk Hoyer and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-05-22 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Retopia tells the story of social innovation in times of crisis, and through its cross-disciplinary narrative it goes beyond existing forms of future anticipation and maps out a practice-based approach to the creation of new realities. It explores how new imaginaries, social experiments, and laboratories of societies can create spaces of possibilities, revalidate the peripheries, and create new forms of social coherence. The peripheral regions in Europe are facing a crisis triangle: depopulation, the rise of the ‘useless’ class, and outdated social welfare systems. It is a crisis of political imaginaries and a lack of inspiring political stories. In response to this, the book specifically focuses on the concept of ‘retopia’, the idea of creating inclusive spaces of social innovation that encourage active participation. Through the creation of relocalized societies with a high degree of autonomy in ‘leftover’ spaces, such as Sicily, Western Latvia, or Northern Bulgaria, retopian redevelopment schemes offer new perspectives on ‘ruined spaces’. Retopia uncovers the common links and limitations of utopian studies, future studies, degrowth, narratology, the commons, and political geography. Retopia: Creating New Spaces of Possibility is an articulation of the potentialities of social innovation, political imaginaries, and future images, provoking a stimulating discussion among scholars and students in the fields of Politics and Future and Anticipation Studies.
Download or read book The Precariat written by Guy Standing and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-07-15 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents the new Precariat – the rapidly growing number of people facing lives of insecurity, on zero hours contracts, moving in and out of jobs that give little meaning to their lives. The delivery driver who brings your packages, the uber driver who gets you to work, the security guard at the mall, the carer looking after our elderly...these are The Precariat. Guy Standing investigates this new and growing group, finding a frustrated and angry new underclass who are often ignored by politicians and economists. The rise of zero hours contracts, encouraged by fat cat corporations as risk-free employment, and by silicon valley as a way of outsourcing costs and responsibility, has been exacerbated by the COVID pandemic. At the same time, in its experience of lockdown, the western world is realizing the true value of these nurses, carers and key workers. The answer? The return of income security and meaningful work - the principles 20th century capitalism was built on. By making the fears and desires of the Precariat central to economic thinking, Standing shows how concepts like Basic Income are not just desirable but inevitable, and plots the way to a better future.
