To argue against the widely proclaimed idea of American decline might seem a lonely task. After all, the problems are real and serious. Yet if we take a longer view, much of the discourse about ...decline appears exaggerated, hyperbolic and ahistorical. Why? First, because of the deep underlying strengths of the United States. These include not only size, population, demography and resources, but also the scale and importance of its economy and financial markets, its scientific research and technology, its competitiveness, its military power and its attractiveness to talented immigrants. Second, there is the weight of history and of American exceptionalism. Throughout its history, the United States has repeatedly faced and eventually overcome daunting challenges and crises. Contrary to a prevailing pessimism, there is nothing inevitable about American decline. Ultimately, the ability to avoid serious decline is less a question of material factors than of policy, leadership and political will.
Great Recession, The Grusky, David B; Western, Bruce; Wimer, Christopher
10/2011
eBook
Officially over in 2009, the Great Recession is now generally acknowledged to be the most devastating global economic crisis since the Great Depression. As a result of the crisis, the United States ...lost more than 7.5 million jobs, and the unemployment rate doubled—peaking at more than 10 percent. The collapse of the housing market and subsequent equity market fluctuations delivered a one-two punch that destroyed trillions of dollars in personal wealth and made many Americans far less financially secure. Still reeling from these early shocks, the U.S. economy will undoubtedly take years to recover. Less clear, however, are the social effects of such economic hardship on a U.S. population accustomed to long periods of prosperity. How are Americans responding to these hard times? The Great Recession is the first authoritative assessment of how the aftershocks of the recession are affecting individuals and families, jobs, earnings and poverty, political and social attitudes, lifestyle and consumption practices, and charitable giving. Focused on individual-level effects rather than institutional causes, The Great Recession turns to leading experts to examine whether the economic aftermath caused by the recession is transforming how Americans live their lives, what they believe in, and the institutions they rely on. Contributors Michael Hout, Asaf Levanon, and Erin Cumberworth show how job loss during the recession—the worst since the 1980s—hit less-educated workers, men, immigrants, and factory and construction workers the hardest. Millions of lost industrial jobs are likely never to be recovered and where new jobs are appearing, they tend to be either high-skill positions or low-wage employment—offering few opportunities for the middle-class. Edward Wolff, Lindsay Owens, and Esra Burak examine the effects of the recession on housing and wealth for the very poor and the very rich. They find that while the richest Americans experienced the greatest absolute wealth loss, their resources enabled them to weather the crisis better than the young families, African Americans, and the middle class, who experienced the most disproportionate loss—including mortgage delinquencies, home foreclosures, and personal bankruptcies. Lane Kenworthy and Lindsay Owens ask whether this recession is producing enduring shifts in public opinion akin to those that followed the Great Depression. Surprisingly, they find no evidence of recession-induced attitude changes toward corporations, the government, perceptions of social justice, or policies aimed at aiding the poor. Similarly, Philip Morgan, Erin Cumberworth, and Christopher Wimer find no major recession effects on marriage, divorce, or cohabitation rates. They do find a decline in fertility rates, as well as increasing numbers of adult children returning home to the family nest—evidence that suggests deep pessimism about recovery. This protracted slump—marked by steep unemployment, profound destruction of wealth, and sluggish consumer activity—will likely continue for years to come, and more pronounced effects may surface down the road. The contributors note that, to date, this crisis has not yet generated broad shifts in lifestyle and attitudes. But by clarifying how the recession’s early impacts have—and have not—influenced our current economic and social landscape, The Great Recession establishes an important benchmark against which to measure future change.
Regulating Wall Street Acharya, Viral V; Cooley, Thomas F; Richardson, Matthew P ...
2010, 2010-10-28, c2011, Volume:
608
eBook
'Regulating Wall Street' assesses the strengths and weaknesses of new regulations in response to the recent global financial crisis. It summarises key issues that regulatory reform should address, ...evaluates the key components of regulatory reform and provides analysis of how the reforms will affect financial firms and markets.
Findings from prior studies regarding the relationship between government corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives and firm CSR performance have been mixed. To address this research gap, we ...developed a dual-agency model incorporating both public agents (government officials) and private agents (corporate CEOs) to investigate when firms respond to government initiatives by increasing their CSR. We tested our model in a sample of 746 Chinese listed firms during the period 2009–2014 when a national CSR initiative, the Twelfth Five-Year Plan, took place. Our results show that firms responded positively to the plan by increasing their CSR performance, but their response varied according to the incentives of both public and private CSR agents. Firms were more likely to increase CSR when public agents were more motivated to seek promotion to the central government or when private agents had greater concerns for legitimacy. Our examination of the role of two different types of CSR agents within institutions contributes to the institutional view of CSR by highlighting the interplay of institutions and human agents in promoting firm CSR. It also advances public policy and managerial practices regarding the development and selection of CSR agents inside and outside firms in a given institutional environment.
Renowned political scientist Alan I. Abramowitz presents a groundbreaking argument that the most important divide in American politics is not between left and right but rather between citizens who ...are politically engaged and those who are not. It is the engaged members of the public, he argues, who most closely reflect the ideals of democratic citizenship-but this is also the group that is most polarized. Polarization at the highest levels of government, therefore, is not a sign of elites' disconnection from the public but rather of their responsiveness to the more politically engaged parts of it. Though polarization is often assumed to be detrimental to democracy, Abramowitz concludes that by presenting voters with clear choices, polarization can serve to increase the public's interest and participation in politics and strengthen electoral accountability.
A complete guide to sustainability policy at the federal, state, and local levels Sustainability Policy: Hastening the Transition to a Cleaner Economy is a fundamental guide for public sector ...professionals new to sustainability policy development, implementation, strategy, and practice. Featuring detailed cases highlighting innovative sustainability initiatives, this book explores the elements that constitute effective policy, and the factors that can help or hinder implementation and adoption. Readers gain insight into policies in effect at the federal, state, and local levels, in the areas of water, energy, material use, and waste management, and the reasons why local policies are often the most innovative and successful. Discussion surrounding monitoring and measurement addresses the lack of standardization, as well as the government's critical role in leading the field toward generally accepted sustainability metrics, while outlining the reasons why certain policies are more feasible than others. This book is an introductory resource, written in non-technical language, and organized in a coherent manner that establishes foundational knowledge before introducing more complex issues. Even readers with little background in sustainability will gain insight into the current state of the field and the issues at hand. * Understand sustainability in public and private enterprises, including the role of government and public policy * Learn the current standing federal, state, and local policies surrounding sustainability * Discover what makes an effective sustainability policy, including measurement and evaluation metrics * Explore the politics and future of sustainability, and the barriers to change Sustainability is a hot topic in both the public and private sector, with vocal advocates on both sides of every issue, so developing effective policy is crucial. For public sector professionals entering the sustainability field, Introduction to Sustainability Policy & Management is a valuable resource.
Still a house divided King, Desmond S; Smith, Rogers M
2011., 20110822, 2011, 2011-08-22, Volume:
125
eBook
Why have American policies failed to reduce the racial inequalities still pervasive throughout the nation? Has President Barack Obama defined new political approaches to race that might spur unity ...and progress? Still a House Divided examines the enduring divisions of American racial politics and how these conflicts have been shaped by distinct political alliances and their competing race policies. Combining deep historical knowledge with a detailed exploration of such issues as housing, employment, criminal justice, multiracial census categories, immigration, voting in majority-minority districts, and school vouchers, Desmond King and Rogers Smith assess the significance of President Obama's election to the White House and the prospects for achieving constructive racial policies for America's future.
•The complicated signatures of great earthquakes on the pole path are explored.•Earthquakes can excite or de-excite the Chandler wobble.•A very long baseline interferometric (VLBI) polar motion ...sequence is used.•The maximum entropy method (MEM) is used to extend the pole path in both directions.•Chandler and annual components are separated in the discrete Fourier transform (DFT).
Earthquakes have long been postulated as the source of excitation of the Chandler wobble (Mansinha and Smylie, 1967). More recently, the classical astronometric observations of the polar motion have been replaced by very long baseline interferometric (VLBI) observations with an improvement in accuracy by a factor of several thousand. We analyze the record of nearly 29 years of VLBI polar motion observations from the Goddard Space Flight Center.
In addition to the Chandler wobble, the polar motion has annual components making the analysis more difficult. The present study extends the polar motion sequence in both directions by the maximum entropy method (MEM). This allows the annual components, both the prograde motion and a weaker retrograde motion, to be identified and removed, leaving a pure Chandler wobble and secular polar shift. In the absence of excitation, the free Chandler wobble is closely a prograde circular motion. Circular arcs are fitted to the pole path, free of the annual components, to determine breaks corresponding to sudden excitations. The event times of earthquakes of magnitude greater than or equal to 7.5 are shown on the plotted pole paths. Often, the effects on the pole path precede the earthquake by many days, confirming the establishment of the far-field displacements in advance of the earthquake. The precursory rise in P-wave attenuation before the 2004 Parkfield earthquake, as discovered by Chun et al. (2010), may indicate a similar effect from local deformations.
Getting it Wrong Barnett, William A
12/2011, Volume:
1
eBook, Book
Blame for the recent financial crisis and subsequent recession has commonly been assigned to everyone from Wall Street firms to individual homeowners. It has been widely argued that the crisis and ...recession were caused by "greed" and the failure of mainstream economics. In Getting It Wrong, leading economist William Barnett argues instead that there was too little use of the relevant economics, especially from the literature on economic measurement. Barnett contends that as financial instruments became more complex, the simple-sum monetary aggregation formulas used by central banks, including the U.S. Federal Reserve, became obsolete. Instead, a major increase in public availability of best-practice data was needed. Households, firms, and governments, lacking the requisite information, incorrectly assessed systemic risk and significantly increased their leverage and risk-taking activities. Better financial data, Barnett argues, could have signaled the misperceptions and prevented the erroneous systemic-risk assessments. When extensive, best-practice information is not available from the central bank, increased regulation can constrain the adverse consequences of ill-informed decisions. Instead, there was deregulation. The result, Barnett argues, was a worst-case toxic mix: increasing complexity of financial instruments, inadequate and poor-quality data, and declining regulation. Following his accessible narrative of the deep causes of the crisis and the long history of private and public errors, Barnett provides technical appendixes, containing the mathematical analysis supporting his arguments.
