Public Policy Books

Everyone who is interested in environmental issues, whether it be for a class or for pleasure, should definitely purchase this book! It layers current day topics over the theory of other textbooks. This book is incredibly informative and worth 10 times its cost!!

Theodore D. Goldfarb has once again accumulated a terrific collection of Issues! A must read for anyone interested in a better planet...which should be everyone.

This book examines the development of tax legislation from a comparative law perspective, an area in which very little of a general nature has previously been written. Based on the experience of the IMF Legal Department in assisting many developing and transition countries to draft tax legislation, it comprises contributions by tax experts from around the world.

This useful guide aims to identify the legal issues that arise in the drafting of tax laws and to examine the various solutions which have been devised in national legislation. A comparative tax law bibliography and a bibliography of the national tax laws of IMF member countries are included in appendix.

Its practical nature and the general scope of its discussion will make it a valuable tool not only for officials in developing and transition countries and their advisors, but also for students, academics and practitioners with an interest in comparative tax law.

Table of Contents

Preface. Acknowledgements. Table of Tax Laws Cited. Introduction.Part 1. 1. Tax Legislative Process, Richard K. Gordon and Victor Thuronyi. 2. Legal Framework for Taxation, Frans Vanistendael. 3. Drafting Tax Legislation, Victor Thuronyi. 4. Law of Tax Administration and Procedure, Richard K. Gordon. 5. Regulation of Tax Professionals, Victor Thuronyi and Frans Vanistendael. 6. Value-Added Tax, David Williams. 7. VAT Treatment of Immovable Property, Sijbren Cnossen. 8. Excises, Ben J.M. Terra. 9. Tax on Land and Buildings, Joan M. Youngman. 10. Taxation of Wealth, Rebecca S. Rudnick and Richard K. Gordon. 11. Social Security Taxation, David Williams. 12. Presumptive Taxation, Victor Thuronyi. 13. Adjusting Taxes for Inflation, Victor Thuronyi. Part 2. Introduction to the Income Tax. 14. Individual Income Tax, Lee Burns and Richard Krever. 15. The Pay-As-You-Earn Tax on Wages, Koenraad van der Heeden. 16. Taxation of Income from Business and Investment, Lee Burns and Richard Krever. 17. Depreciation, Amortization, and Depletion, Richard K. Gordon. 18. International Aspects of Income Tax, Richard J. Vann. 19. Taxation of Enterprises and Their Owners, Graeme S. Cooper and Richard K. Gordon. 20. Taxation of Corporate Reorganizations, Frans Vanistendael. 21. Fiscal Transparency, Alexander Easson and Victor Thuronyi. 22. Taxation of Investment Funds, Eric M. Zolt. 23. Income Tax Incentives for Investment, David Holland and Richard J. Vann. Comparative Tax Law Bibliography. Bibliography of National Tax Laws of IMF Member Countries. Index. About the Authors

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A fascinating read. I never knew how taxes played such a large affect on marriages and on working women. After reading this book, I suddenly understood that some of the root causes of the economic dilemmas for working mothers are actually caused by our tax system.

McCaffery is right--we need change, and this book explains why.

Taxing Women is a must-read for working women across America. Any woman who works while raising a family knows how hard it is to balance all of life's responsibilities. However, few women know how the tax system makes it even harder.

Taxing Women explains how the system operating today was created by males with a 50's mentality (think Pleasantville or Ozzie and Harriet). His well researched discussion elaborates on this philosophy and how the system it engendered is ill-equipped to deal with the two-earner family reality of today. By the way, don't let the word "tax" scare you. McCaffery provides easy to understand examples of situations where women are penalized for working.

I highly recommend this compelling book.

Each summer wildfires destroy American communities and wreck havoc - yet there are 'good' fires, too: those which restore habitats and strike habitats which rely on them for ecological balance. How to cope? Stephen Pyne is an expert on fire, having spent fifteen seasons fighting fires in the Grand Canyon: he outlines in Tending Fire: Coping With America's Wildland Fires, a new paradigm for viewing American wildland fires, discussing the history of fires and human habitats around the world, and contrasting the pros and cons of current fire politics in the last decade.

"Tending Fire" by Steve Pyne is a landmark work. Modern society has lost its connection to the natural world, a connection that our ancestors depended upon and nurtured with fire. Pyne reveals the price of our foolish Faustian bargain to ignore our fire roots, and how our self-proclaimed "sophisticated" culture is continually staggered by natural forces we have forgotten how to deal with. Pyne's point is that man is a fire creature, unique among animals in our ability to create fire and to manipulate our world with fire. Our disconnect from our fire roots has had unfortunate consequences, including the catastrophic destruction of our forests and the wholesale alteration of other ecosystems. If we do not relearn how to tend fire, to produce it where and when we need to, then we will not be able to prevent or control the most destructive fires, the firestorm holocausts that threaten rural and urban America alike.

Plus, Pyne is a poet, a master wordsmith, and tons of fun to read.

While living in Thailand for most of the 1990's, I was determined to understand the history of that wondrous country. Unfortunately, at the time there was little written that provided more than the chronologies and "accomplishments" of the Thai monarchy. That was, until "Thailand: Economy and Politics" was published.

This wife and husband team - she (Pasuk Phongpaichit), an economics professor at Thailand's top university, and he (Chris Baker), a history major from Britain - has written the most enlightening history book I've ever read. Beginning with the peasants and the impact that the aristocracy had on their lives, this book looks at history from an economic rather than a time-line perspective. It may be academic in nature, with plenty of tables and references, but it is immensely readable. Rather than fixating on the "who, what and when" of traditional history books, the authors explain why and how events happened as they did.

More than just explaining the past, this book (stealthily) explains a lot about what made the Thai people the way they are. Why are Thais so deferential to authority? Why is petty corruption so endemic in the bureaucracy? How has the large Chinese minority so easily integrated with Thai culture, unlike in many of its neighbors? How was Thailand impacted by the war in Vietnam? How does the monarchy cohabitate with the military and political leadership?

For those unfamiliar with Thailand, this book provides a beautiful portrait of the making of a country. For those who have spent a bit of time in Thailand, it will provide many "Ahh, now I understand" moments. How can a history book be any better?

In the past, Thai history was written by noblemen and created an idyll of a virtuous past, filled with happy peasants living a simple life under the watchful eye of benevolent despots. Unfortunately, many Westerners followed in this tradition, although they (and Thai nobles) criticized more recent, military regimes. This book breaks out of that box and makes it clear that life has never been easy for Thai peasants and that upper classes have rarely been all that virtuous. The authors also show a much more diverse Thailand than the "homogeneity" that is popularly ascribed. In addition, they detail the corruption of recent decades that should make Americans (as well as Japanes and others) who abetted it ashamed of the role they've played in in supporting horrible regimes. An excellent volume that is revisionist in the most positive sense of the word.

As one who straddles the two worlds of practice and scholarship with great ease and comfort, I am struck by that rare work of craft which is at once profoundly thoughtful as well as clearly directed. Most serious scholars bend over backwards to embrace the myth of "objectivity", while most practitioners salivate over superficial "best practices". Kevin Lynch's masterpiece, Good City Form, avoids both traps while offering a template for judging the effectiveness of different types of urban form and providing a guide for successful urban design projects. His starting points, a masterful overview of models of urban form throughout history and a sensitive ode to humanist values, help establish a foundation for performance dimensions to measure "good city form": Vitality, Sense, Fit, Access, Control, Efficiency and Justice. I would highly recommend this book to reflective practitioners, scholars interested in the practice of urban design, and others simply interested in shaping the future of our cities. In addition, the book works well with two others as an excellent advanced introduction to the field of urban design: "The City Shaped: Urban Patterns and Meanings Through History" by Spiro Kostof, and "Urban Design Downtown: Poetics and Politics of Form" by Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris and Tridib Banerjee.

In the world of urban design, obsessed with spectacular novelty and superficial aesthetics, this ambitious and profound work of Kevin Lynch is refreshing, yet enduring. He suggests a theory of urban design based on fundamental human values and examines how such values lead to the notion of a "good city form". His performance dimensions (e.g. access, fit, vitality) are broad enough to be interpreted and re-interpreted for specific contexts and sites. And the appendix, which briefly summarizes other theories of city form, is a tour-de-force by itself. A masterpiece which deserves greater attention and consideration, especially by those under the illusion that urban design is more or less architecture writ large!

There Goes the Hood provides a historical look at both Harlem and Clinton Hill and then moves into their current day status with all of the attendent challenges and benefits. Though Freeman notes that he is a quantitative researcher his ability to conduct a qualitative study that speaks to academics, policy makers, and the general public is no small feat. His illumination of the voices of the community could only be enhanced by adding in more perspective from the gentry themselves(particularly the white gentry). Overall I thnk the book is a must read for those who are interested in gentrification and communities of color.

When a young brother paints a picture about the past, will anyone one see it? Dr. Freeman is a young brother and he has the attention on many. Not only are people seeing it, but they hear him loud and clear. For years people were afaid of the "hood." Now they want the "hood."

Lance does an excellent job telling the story of how others want what African America's have failed to take care of. The hood is now for sale! Thanks Lance for writing such an insightful book.

If you study any complex issue being debated in the U.S. Congress or state legislatures, you are likely to find a torrent of reports from independent think tanks. Who are these groups and where did they come from? Good question - and one that political scientist Andrew Rich answers quite thoroughly. This often fascinating study shines its bright light on think tanks, largely overlooked players in the political process. At times, though, Rich's study tantalizes with generalizations, and then it tends toward scholarly restraint at exactly the moment when the reader wants some juicy details. We suggest this book to anyone who wants to shape - or really understand - the public debate on complex policy issues.

Political scientist Rich spent 7 years writing this book - and it shows. The chapters cover evolution, political demography, credibility, policy influence, and the role of experts in think tanks. Rich homes in on just about every hard question I could think of and some I didn't think an academic author would dare touch. Rich provides ratings for ideology, influence, credibility, and visibility of individual think tanks. He compiled these indices by using polls from congressional staff and journalists and interviews with some 135 experts from key organizations of every political flavor. These include the President of the Heritage Foundation (Edwin Feulner), rated as the most conservative and also most influential think tank. Rich concludes, as did most earlier writers like Smith, Abelson, Ricci, and McGann and Weaver (2003), that think tanks have far more influence on policymaking in the U.S. than do universities and academic institutions. If you want to know who's who among the think tanks, or how they influence legislation and public policy, this is your book. I mentioned in the title that the study is objective. Rich surely has opinions, but the only place I really discerned where his heart lay was early in the book, when he almost wistfully reports that earlier thinks tended to focus on giving disinterested research results and information - whereas the recent trend has been toward avowed advocacy among the most influential organizations.

Try reading this book. It incites the desire in me to shrink it down to something else, like any psychiatrist would approach a case of psychotic multiplicity. There are a number of individuals with credible positions presented in this book, and the summaries of those positions express matters that are highly important. The problem with the story is that, instead of hinging on the things that are important, the whole picture is in danger of becoming unhinged whenever a decision approaches the bottom line. This is like great art which has no conception that the whole world might see this picture and consider it absolutely nukers. As crazy as all the other nukers in the world might seem to us, it takes a lot of effort to keep from applying the same judgment to the system which inflicts the costs mainly on ourselves. There are things in this book, like William Greider's comment about "payoffs for layoffs" on page 200, which make it too obvious which bottom line matters. His personal suggestion to "turn out the lights rather than waste all this money waiting for world war three" (p. 201) is coupled with his knowledge of officers who "question this choice of toys over boys" (p. 202) because of what's happening: "they're being rolled by the industry." (p. 202) Even Wilson has to report that "There are too many fiefdoms." (p. 202) That might be the main conclusion here, except that it is followed by some comment about a president who would rather "chat by the side of the road until a compromise route is agreed upon." (p. 203) The index doesn't have an entry for "depleted uranium" weapons, but we are still planning for some part of the world to become a dumping ground for our bombs, and it is highly unlikely that there will be much of a chat by the side of the road before the choice of mistakes on where we can hurt our enemies the most is made. The story of how "the American military's fighting edge was being lost for lack of money" (p. 90) hardly makes sense in a world that keeps complaining when we do destroy things.

George C. Wilson is simply the best reporter alive writing about the American military. THIS WAR REALLY MATTERS brings into the cold light of day the federal budgetary process and its effect on national defense issues. The book is relatively short--just twelve chapters--and is written in the clear, easy-to-understand style of the professional reporter Wilson certainly is. He tackles the tough questions: Why is the military orgainzed the way it is? Does it have the weapons it needs to fight now and in the future? Why and how are new weapons systems procured? As you might suspect, Wilson confirms, It's the money, Stupid! THIS WAR REALLY MATTERS is a literate, lucid masterpiece that should be read by every military officer and candidate for federal office. It should also be read and re-read by every student interested in the way decisions are made in a major democracy.

More than the contents of the book itself, this work is a testament to the human spirit. Mr. Jones was able to change his life in a number of ways, and brought his lessons out to share with others. I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Jones, and he is truly a phenomenal man. I applaud him...and the book is great too! :)

This book was designed in a unique fashion, written from prison. I, Richard O.Jones, the author, was a convict in two California State Prisons from 1988 thru 1990. My conviction was 'major welfare fraud.' The life I led prior to being sent to prison had been one of a career criminal. At 41-years-old, I had been a criminal for over twenty-five years. LIVED WELL AND NEVER HAD A LEGITIMATE JOB! All my friends and associates were hustlers, thieves, robbers, raptists, and other 'Boys from the Hood'. This was my fifth felony conviction, but first prison sentence. Actually the sentence brought relief. I had grown tired and ashame of my life of crime. Especially in the light of my single parenthood. In prison, I decided change my life. I accepted Jesus Christ was my Lord and Savior. I also asked the Lord to tell me how I could change my career after a quarter of a century. The Holy Spirit led me to The Holy Bible - scripture Eph. 4:28, which reads: 'Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth." At this point, it became clear to me that I should write a book on crime prevention. Crime was the only work I had experience. I was in the perfect place! As the weeks & months passed, I solicited crime tips from my fellow convicts. They shared the secrets of their evils. None were much bumbling crooks that they got arrested everytime they violated the law. Ninty-five percent of their crimes were never solved. This book tells the readers how scams, con games, and rip-offs are planned and executed. Robbery, a crime that is often done at random by amature crooks. These crimes are unavoidable, however, rather or not the victims walks away with their life is often in the hands of the victim. You can actually control the situation, in some cases. This book improves your chances. Also tips are given how you can greatly reduce the likelihood of becoming a victim in the first place. The book informs the reader of over three dozen types scams, con games, and violent crimes, and how you can reduce your risk of them. Many readers have contacted me and told of stories of the real life benefits my book as provided. In some cases, the book have saved lives, and great financial loss.