Distribution Books

This is a must read for anyone interested in economic inequality. Excellent social science and readable.

No feature of American political life astonishes me more than the almost complete silence of politicians and journalists and the media concerning the most pressing problem is contemporary American life: the dramatically increasing inequality between the haves and have nots in the United States. According to Federal Reserve figures the share of the national wealth held by the top 1% of the population has risen from 20$ in 1979 to 37% by 1997. I have not seen figures since that date, but after Clinton continued the deregulation started by Reagan and continued by Bush 41 and then Bush 43 engaged on an inconceivably lavish give-back program in the nation's history, it would be impossible to imagine that the figures have improved since then. What is the figure now? 40%? 45%? 48%? Here is what frightens me: Edward Wolff published the revised version of his novel in 2002, submitting the manuscript to the publishers before Bush's incredible largesse to the rich took place in 2002. The problem was, in Wolff's view (and in the view of most responsible economists), pressing and dire in 2001. How much worse has it gotten since a string of tax cuts and policy changes that have unquestionably have made a serious problem vastly worse?

Wolff's concern in this well-documented work are twofold: first, he wants to delineate the nature of the economic inequality that currently pervades the United States to a degree found in no other developed country; second, he wants to suggest one way partially to rectify the problem: for the United States to adopt a wealth tax similar to one that exists in several other nations.

Most people, when they think of economic inequality, think in terms of income inequality. Such inequality does indeed exist, but Wolff shows that the most damaging inequality is wealth inequality. The point, once stated, is obvious. Two families with the same income could nonetheless have very significant differences in economic well-being if one has far more wealth than the other, i.e., property and durable goods and other holdings. The problem in the United States, as demonstrated by the Fed statistics I noted above, is that virtually all the wealth is held by the top 20% of the populace, with the top 1% holding a disproportionate amount of that.

Wolff proposes one way to close the growing and vast gap between the wealthy and the mass of Americans: taxing wealth. Even the most conservative of taxes on aggregate wealth would, based on 1998 figures, generate approximately $52 billion dollars in tax revenue. The goal in Wolff's conception is to shift the tax burden more fairly toward the ones who possess the greatest wealth. He notes that in 2001 the United States had only two forms of wealth tax in place, both of which Bush has assaulted with impassioned intensity: estate taxes and capital gains taxes. Eliminating both of these are regressive taxes in that they ease the tax burden on the wealth while doing nothing to aid the poor or middle class. In other words, instead of the Bush administration doing something about economic inequality, they have intensified it.

I found Wolff's proposals to be highly persuasive. Unfortunately, we are still nationally in the throes of all kinds of mythology about taxes. We imagine that taxes are harmful to the economy, that it is unfair to expect the wealthy to pay a significantly higher tax rate, and that cutting taxes somehow stimulates the economy. In fact, as Wolff points out, a wealth tax would actually be highly stimulative by forcing the very wealthy to shift their wealth into more productive forms of investment.

But quite apart from whatever is economically productive, there are a host of moral and political questions. Is a society that allows wealth to accumulate among those who already have an inordinate amount conducive to the greater good? Is a society that persistently fails to aide those who have the least just? I will confess that my heart never bleeds for the very wealthy when they are asked to pay a bit more. Nor do I buy the rather absurdist arguments that tax cuts for the wealthy promotes economic growth. Historically, shifting wealth to the middle class has always been vastly more stimulative to the economy than shifting it to the rich. And shifting wealth to the rich has never generated any benefits to the middle class or the poor. As Will Rogers pointed out in the 1920s, another era where people thought giving more to the rich would benefit all, some people think that gold is like water: put it at the top and it runs down and nourishes everyone down below. But, Rogers pointed, out, gold isn't like water at all. You put it at the top and it just stays there. Until we as a nation start addressing the problem of our nation's severe economic inequality, the gold is just going to stay there.

Ed Wolff's book--a review of his earlier work on wealth, with some new additional material added--documents that the United States today is a more unequal society than at any time since the Great Depression.

According to his numbers--which are lousy, but are nevertheless the best we have or are likely to acquire-- in 1929 the richest one percent of households had about 41 percent of the economy's total wealth. But the leveling associated with the Depression and World War II had reduced the richest one percent's share to about 22 percent by 1945. Thereafter, the leveling trend continued. By the mid-1970s, the richest one percent's share--including the implicit value of rights and claims on the Social Security system. of total wealth was down to 13-16 percent of the economy's total wealth. But by the late 1980s, the richest one percent's' wealth was back up to 21 percent of the economy's total wealth. And scattered pieces of information suggest that the trend toward increasing inequality has continued into the 1990s.

Increasing inequality is not due to a surge in entrepreneurial activity: economic growth was unusually low in the 1980s (in substantial part because of the drain on investment resulting from the Reagan deficits). The fortunes made were, for the most part, not to any unusual extent the by-product of especially rapid economic growth.

Rising inequality is cause for alarm for two reasons: First, in a time of high inequality politics becomes nasty and democracy becomes less secure and stable. Second, an unequal economy--an economy in which the chances of striking it rich are larger and the chances of failing to maintain middle-class incomes are larger--fails to provide adequate social insurance. Risk-averse people would, if given a choice when young, overwhelmingly prefer to live in an equally rich overall but more equally distributed society.

This study of the distribution of wealth in America is disheartening indeed. Though it only surveys the economic scene until 1989 (a postscript brings it up to 1992), it is not hard to believe that things haven't changed much since then. Basically, it concludes that the gap between the rich and the poor has increased to a greater extent than at any time since before the Great Depression, and that the gap between the rich and the poor is greater than in most European countries.

Not only does this book outline the problem in detail, but it proposes a restructured tax system similar to that existing in many European countries, a tax system which would ease the burden on the poor, while placing little extra tax burdens on the rich-- and still raise billions more in tax revenue. Though this book is filled with statistical analyses, it is slim (fewer than a hundred pages), and those not mathematically inclined can skip to the conclusions here and there, which are written in clear, understandable prose. Well worth reading, and certain to be a wake-up call to anyone who has suspected that the middle class has been disappearing in this country.

V. Kasturi Rangan (Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing, Harvard Business School) presents Transforming Your Go-To-Market Strategy: The Three Disciplines of Channel Management, a guide to improving the distribution systems of one's company. Focusing on three core techniques - mapping industry channels, building and reshaping channels for optimum customer service, and aligning one's channel value chain - Transforming Your Go-To-Market Strategy presents the tools to turn around poor distribution and increase both sales and profits. A "must-read" for professional distributors and owners of businesses large and small.

V. Kasturi Rangan presents a precise and exact step by step process to not only create a channel sales strategy, but to enhance and fix one that is already in place. Many companies and managers today feel all the have to do is sign up as many "channels" as possible to be successful. Unfortunately they overlook the overlook the critical principles of a success channel strategy and fail measurably, taking down the company, its people and alienating their customers. This is a must read and keep for any level of management involved in a go-to-market strategy.

The downside of this book is no color inside and that the Channel Stewardship concept in the book reveals so many opportunities for you in your business, you ask yourself - where do I begin to apply this & take advantage?

Also, the opportunity can be so big - that some readers may be intimidated. It can take years to move a company to implement Channel Stewardship fully - possibly a major change in mind-set.

Great use of multiple industry examples & action orientation / sequence of the chapters ! Your favorite chapter depends on where you & your company are now. For example, favorite chapter for me was #3 'Building & Editing the Value Chain'.

This book is a must read for business managers of products or services or retail. After reading the first 3 chapters, I ordered 10 more copies to give to key associates and started to organize workshops to implement some of the concepts as Global Head of Distribution in my company [Fortune 100].

I really enjoyed this book by Harvard Business School professor Kash Rangan. The authors advocate a disciplined approach to channel strategy that could generate superior returns in almost any industry. In my experience, most manufacturers neither develop careful channel maps nor do they assign executives senior enough to make significant channel resource commitments. As a result, the returns to channel stewardship should be available for any company willing to invest the time and effort.

A major strength of this book is the detailed examples provided in each chapter. Most business books simply provide very short case studies that always leave me wondering what really happened. Here, Rangan and Bell combine company stories with market data. Some of the examples are a bit dated, but that has the advantage of allowing the authors to describe the actual outcomes. The examples include both retail (B2C) and business-to-business channels, showing the strength of channels thinking. They even provide fresh insights into overdone examples such as Dell and Wal-Mart.

The only shortcoming is an over reliance on box-and-arrow diagrams. These are helpful when showing product and information flows within a channel system, but much less interesting when simply summarizing points made in the text.

I highly recommend this book to anyone with channel management responsibilities. This dense and challenging book will reward careful study.

Vivaldi's Ring of Mystery CD A young orphan, Katarina, meets the great Vivaldi who is music director at the orphanage where she has been sent. In searching for all she has lost fills the void as Vivaldi teaches her to play the violin. This is a wonderful story based on Vivaldi's life and his music is played throughout. A terrific CD for your family library to enjoy often

For parents who want to educate their Chidren about the beauty of music, this is a wonderful buy. It is a story of a young violinist living in beautiful Italy. This story not only is enjoying to children, but adults get into the story as much as the children. Buy this book. Its wonderful. Make sure you also order the tape for the wonderful music.

This cassette is a delight: it combines a strong storyline to hold your child's interest; the wonderful atmosphere of the Carnival at Venice hundreds of years ago; and the beautiful music of Vivaldi. If you're taking children to Venice, this cassette is a must. Otherwise, it's a lovely introduction to Vivaldi, and just plain enjoyable

What color was Vivaldi's hair? Why do Venetians fill egg shells with perfume? The only Christmas gift from a parent to a child that would be more valuable than Vivaldi's The Ring of Mystery would be the parent who listens to the story with the child. Parents will reward their children and themselves with this entertaining and informative mystery about Katarina, a young girl sent off to an all-girl orphanage in Venice, where Vivaldi is musical director. With the help of Giovanni, the gondolier, she searches all Venice during the festival for clues about her own mysterious past. Katarina tells her own story and interweaves it with more than 25 excerpts of the greatest music of her teacher, Vivaldi. The story and music are best enjoyed by parent and child on a cold Winter's evening in front of a warm fire! Or perhaps on a bright Spring morning in a field of flowers! Or on a warm Summer's night under a sky full of stars! Or on a blustery Fall afternoon overlooking an angry sea! Whatever the season, children will forever remember the first time they listened to The Four Seasons and heard the story of Vivaldi's Ring of Mystery.

Unbelievable quality

This book is the benchmark for reference books on WWII. Edited by David McCullough, this comprehensive book begins with pictures from before, during and after the war. Barbed wire still on Normandy beach decades after the war, a rusted tank in the water off an island somewhere in the South Pacific, and Japanese children playing near the bombed out ground zero of Hiroshima. There are over 600 pages of pictures, maps and enjoyable insight of the war. Mixed in are letters from important figures as well as ordinary men and women from all sides of the conflict balanced by the incredible talents of important historians such as McCullough.

Although first published in 1966 and out of print for ages, this well-written book stands the test of time. It belongs in every library, public and private, as an important resource for learning about World War II.

pictures tell the story best and this book has many. Blitzkrieg to Hiroshima. Never let these times be forgotten.

If you are serious about studying and watching birds in Michigan this is an important book to have. It is dated (1991) but I would recommend having this and anticipate the new updated version to come out in 2009 or 2010 from the currently active atlas project.

This is an atlas, not a field guide or illustrated book. Most of the book is made up of accounts of all the species of birds that nest in Michigan with a summary of their habits, abundance, history and breeding biology with the facing page a map of Michigan townships with indications of breeding evidence for the species. For example the nearly ubiquitous American Robin has nearly every section in every Michigan Township shaded in (other than some underbirded areas)and birds that are rare or geographically limited are shown in their only areas (eg. Black Tern in coastal and large interior marshes). This helps the beginning birder to know where to search for species and illustrates graphically the need for conservation.

Two other books that are important adjuncts for this are "Birds of Michigan" by James Granlund, an illustrated natural history of birds of the state and "A Birder's Guide to Michigan" by Allen Chartier and Jerry Ziarno. "A Birder's Guide to Michigan includes 200 sites across the state for birding and additional information on bird migration through the state that complements the Michigan Breeding Bird Atlas.

In the 1980s, a thousand volunteers surveyed our entire state in an effort to record and map an atlas of the birds which breed in Michigan. This information is summarized and contained in "The Atlas of Breeding Birds in Michigan, which was published in 1991.

Starting in 2002, the Kalamazoo Nature Center began to coordinate the creation of a second Michigan Breeding Bird Atlas. The data collection portion of this process is scheduled to be completed in 2008, and I was fortunate enough to be one of the bird-watching volunteers involved in this second multi-year survey.

The 1991 edition of the atlas is a large hardcover book with a handsome dust jacket. The 594 pages are illustrated throughout with black-and-white drawings, and detailed maps of individual species locations. Each bird is described (in rather small print), along with its habitat, seasonal occurrence, and current status. There is also a conservation section included for rare, threatened, or endangered species.

This atlas begins with a detailed discussion of Michigan ecology, plus a chapter on "The Original Avifauna and Postsettlement Changes." It ends with a huge bibliography, appendices, a list of contributors, and an index of common and Latin bird names. It is absolutely the most detailed reference atlas of Michigan birds on the market. The only thing it lacks is color photographs of each bird species, so it needs to be supplemented by a good field guide.

For more information on this atlas, go to www.michiganbirds.org/bba/

This is an excellent bird book. It itemizes observed breeding evidence of birds by township. It is very detailed and very well done. Excellent descriptions of each species. I also liked the intro. It provides bird habitat information such forest, wet lands, fields. Good history of the changes in bird species over time. Only weakness- it was written in 1991. In the past decade, several birds have expanded their territory (i.e. turkeys and bald eagles). If you live in Michigan and watch birds, this is the book to buy.

This is a coffee table size book. It is a little large to take in the field. Book uses drawings not photographics. The drawings are well done be do not replace color photos.

I have been searching for a description of manufacturing collaboration to understand the concepts. This book has given me a very definitive understanding of a range of possibilities and shows how various industries are applying collaboration ideas. The book is well researched and provides excellent reference information for anyone desiring to understand the underpinnings of collaboration in its various forms.

The author has done a marvelous job in defining the Collaborative Manufacturing environment, describing the best practices of what companies are doing today, and "painting the picture" of what Collaborative Manufacturing may be in the future. This is a must read book for those who are looking for practical methods to improve the overall customer order fulfillment process.

Collaborative Manufacturing is a solid over view of the important issues facing today's manufactures. The book covers the entire manufacturing spectrum, batch, continuous, discrete, as well as real world examples in the automotive, life sciences, electronics and process industry. It also provides definitions and context for the various acronyms used in the different industry segments. This book should be required reading for anyone wishing to work for or sell to manufacturing companies.

We are in the process of starting a small tools company. We believe a collaborative demand activated manufacturing strategy is the best path to success. We believe the book will be of great assistance in helping build a company that takes advantage of technology and collaborative strategies.

This is by far the best book I have seen on reliability planning, evaluation and engineering of electric power delivery systems. The book is well organized and very linear in its progression through its topics, so its makes for a very good textbook or self-study guide, as was the case for me. It has an extremely comprehensive index, which means its should serve as a good, quick reference in the future.

The book is pretty rigorous, and has a good bit of equations and theory, but what I appreciated is that there is a lot of common sense and good recommendations throughout, plus good data and tables on reliability, equipment, expectations, etc. I learned just a lot about distribution systems and reliability, and what to expect and how to make improvements in the real world, from this book.

But what I think is unique about this book and its greatest value was its combination of rigorous analysis of system configuration and indidivual equipment focus. You find a lot of stuff written that focuses on one or the other. There are books and technical papers on methods to analyze systems based on layout, load, switching capabilities, etc. (configuration), but they are often theoretical and neglect issues of equipment. There are also books on equipment lifetime versus loading analysis, condition evaluation and assessment, and maintainability. But rarely are the two combined well, and in one whole analytical method.

This is one of the best engineering books I have.

This is by far the best book I have seen on reliability planning, evaluation and engineering of electric power delivery systems. The book is well organized and very linear in its progression through its topics, so its makes for a very good textbook or self-study guide, as was the case for me. It has an extremely comprehensive index, which means its should serve as a good, quick reference in the future.

The book is pretty rigorous, and has a good bit of equations and theory, but what I appreciated is that there is a lot of common sense and good recommendations throughout, plus good data and tables on reliability, equipment, expectations, etc. I learned just a lot about distribution systems and reliability, and what to expect and how to make improvements in the real world, from this book.

But what I think is unique about this book and its greatest value was its combination of rigorous analysis of system configuration and indidivual equipment focus. You find a lot of stuff written that focuses on one or the other. There are books and technical papers on methods to analyze systems based on layout, load, switching capabilities, etc. (configuration), but they are often theoretical and neglect issues of equipment. There are also books on equipment lifetime versus loading analysis, condition evaluation and assessment, and maintainability. But rarely are the two combined well, and in one whole analytical method.

This is one of the best engineering books I have.

This book covers it all: causes of reliability, measures of reliability, component modeling, system modeling, system analysis, and system optimization. It even has a great primer on distribution systems from a reliability perspective.

The great thing about this book is its ability to bridge the gap between theoretical treatment and practical applications. Although it is full of algorithms and equations, all are presented in the context of real applications and real results. It has truly broadened my understanding of of the subject.

Erich Lehmann is well known for his advanced statistical texts on hypothesis testing and estimation. he has also written a nice intermediate level text on nonparametric methods based on ranks. This book is another advanced text providing a thorough treatment of asymptotic (large sample theory) methods. It is very modern and includes such popular current topics as bootstrap and density estimation.

A very good textbook which I needed to get hold of for a uni unit I am studying. It's a bit abstract in places but worth it, very interesting reading from an experienced statistician. It came a lot quicker than I expected too, in just over 1 week, compared to 4-6 weeks which various bookshops told me I'd have to wait. Great effort Amazon!

Erich Lehmann is well known for his advanced statistical texts on hypothesis testing and estimation. he has also written a nice intermediate level text on nonparametric methods based on ranks. This book is another advanced text providing a thorough treatment of asymptotic (large sample theory) methods. It is very modern and includes such popular current topics as bootstrap and density estimation.

When I was a graduate student at Stanford in the late 1970s Sid Resnick was an assistant professor there. I took a course in stochastic processes from him. His presentation was engaging and humorous as is his writing style. This is more readily appreciated in one of his other books "A Probability Path".
This is one of several good texts on the theory of extremes that came out in the 1980s. The book is rigorous and formal and deals primarily with the iid case (the exception is extremes of moving averages). It differs from the others in that it treats the relationship between extremes and record values.

Resnick also deals with a characterization of tail behavior called regular variation that is a very useful tool in developing some of the theory. Like Leadbetter et al. he uses the point process approach but he does not exploit its application to stationary processes the way they do.

In the 1980s Resnick went on to Colorado State University where he had a very fruitful collaboration with Richard Davis. That is where he was at teh time of this text and the results of their joint research is reflected in the text. It also includes material on multivariate extremes and extremal processes.

Currently Resnick is a professor of statistics and operations research at Cornell University. This was one of Resnick's early works and is now available in a less expensive paperback editon.

superbly written, lucid , clear text communicating fundamental concepts of basic stochastic processes, probability theory in a fashion, books designed for those subjects fall woefully short relative to resnick's exposition. extreme value theory is clearly presented in a fashion which makes it look easy!

When I was a graduate student at Stanford in the late 1970s Sid Resnick was an assistant professor there. I took a course in stochastic processes from him. His presentation was engaging and humorous as is his writing style. This is more readily appreciated in one of his other books "A Probability Path".

This is one of several good texts on the theory of extremes that came out in the 1980s. The book is rigorous and formal and deals primarily with the iid case (the exception is extremes of moving averages). It differs from the others in that it treats the relationship between extremes and record values.

Resnick also deals with a characterization of tail behavior called regular variation that is a very useful tool in developing some of the theory. Like Leadbetter et al. he uses the point process approach but he does not exploit its application to stationary processes the way they do.

In the 1980s Resnick went on to Colorado State University where he had a very fruitful collaboration with Richard Davis. That is where he was at teh time of this text and the results of their joint research is reflected in the text. It also includes material on multivariate extremes and extremal processes.

Currently Resnick is a professor at Cornell University.

Kathleen Miller, a practical financial planner, has compiled one of the best and most comprehensive financial resource for women facing divorce. She likens divorce to riding an escalator "once you're on you are going to get off--whether under your own power or by being thrown off by the unrelenting process of the legal system (p. 2)."

Miller takes a tough, no-nonsense, eyes-open approach while holding your hand every step of the way. She divides the process into 5 predictable stages 1) Pre-divorce, 2) Decision, 3) Acceptance, 4) Mourning, 5) Re-Equilibrium. She addresses the various kinds of wives for example the starter wife, the corporate wife, and the alpha earner wife and how each one differs and faces different problems in divorce.

She helps you decide what to do first, shows you how to make an organized plan, what to anticipate and how to navigate through various obtacles. She aims to empower you to take control (to the degree possible) of what can be an overwhelming and unwieldy process. She shows you how to stay focused on moving forward, how to assemble a team to help you through the grueling process, how to choose the type of divorce vehicle that is best for your circumstances, how to cope with change, and most of all--how to avoid poverty. A glossary and appendixes are provided help you understand the not only the basics of finances but also some of its obscurities.

It's a pretty great book for a pretty awful time.

This book provides detailed information on helping women to understand their financial state. It prompts you to think about all of the essential areas that comprise the development of a financial plan for now and later. It addresses budgets, insurance, QDRO's, retirement planning and so much more. Information is power in divorce and this book helps you to think through and document financial information which will be difficult for someone less prepared to dispute!

This is the 4th book I've read on divorce. It is very well-written and highly accessible. The author approaches the process in a logical, humane fashion that left me feeling empowered, rather than burdened with list of to-dos.

The author's superb table delineating the phases of a divorce with a timeline makes it relatively easy to form the big picture of what divorce constitutes. She then deconstructs each phase with clear explanations.

After reading the entire book in 2 days, I feel confident in my understanding of what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, and the emotional and legal pitfalls that I need to be aware of.

The flow from chapter to chapter makes for pleasurable reading, an comforting experience when undertaking dissolution of a marriage. Throughout the book, I felt both supported and validated by what I read.