Budget Books

I am glad Susan got out of politics when she did. She never surrendered her values and stood firm on things she belived in.

This book is an interesting look into how my former U.S. Representive spent her time. Susan talks about all the obstacles she had to overcome. But what other job in the world would allow its members to bring children to work and allow one to dress like a bag lady? It's too bad that Susan had to wait until she was re-elected to decide that her dream job would be a T.V. anchor. Representive Mom and her climb to the top was a real let down.

Representative mom is a look at the amazing life so far of one of americas former brightest political stars. Susan Molinari tells us her well wishers how and why she gave up a very promising career and future as an american politcian, and maybe even the first female president. She tells about growing up in politics, being the only Republican on the New York City council. Ms. Molinari lets the american people in on the magic that happens when you are a member of the House of Representatives.

To study Japan as I do without studying its economic side would be like studying Europe but neglecting England, France, Germany, and Italy. This book gave me a great introduction to the nature of the exchange rate's importance and what factors cause its fluctuation. It largely fills one key component (economics) of one's overall study of Japan. As with most outstanding books, reading this one has led me to many other books. You don't need a Phd. in Economics to read this one!

This is a good example of that.

Mr. Murphy (an investment banker, BTW) sounds like Eamonn Fingleton when he talks about the loss of the "good manufacturing jobs."

Some things that were not mentioned in the book:

1. A nation is a "debtor nation" when foreigners purchase a lot of its assets. But this debt is more similar to what happens when you put money IN the bank. For every deposit, the bank goes deeper into debt because people feel safe parking their assets there. This is similar to the USA, where foreigners feel comfortable putting their assets here, necessarily resulting in a trade deficit. Until very recently, over 90% of the US trade deficit was driven by capital investment.

2. Trade deficits are ONLY contingent on the level of domestic savings and investment. In the case that the latter is greater than the former, a trade deficit will result. Note that in the last several years of Japan's economic crisis, the trade surplus has actually *increased.* People in Japan are finding anyplace else to put their money but Japan, and the trade surplus is the result of that and not the cause.

3. Many authors have pointed out that capital and labor productivity in the USA are a LOT higher than they are in Japan. The system of keiretsu has actually resulted in Japan's having a significantly *lower* domestic productivity than in the US. And as we all know, the ultimate determiner of standards of living is productivity-- NOT exchange rates. When looked at in terms of productivity, the US standard of living is about 50% higher than what it is in Japan.

4. Some have made the case that Japan's exporting industries, which really WERE subject to market discipline developed in spite of (and not because of) the keiretsu system. ("Can Japan Compete?" Sakakibara/Takeuchi/ Porter). Another worthwhile read may be "Japan, the System that Soured," by Alex Katz.

5. Fiscal policy: In just the short space of ten years, the miraculous system has gone from being set to take over the world to having a credit rating about the same level as South Africa. Now *that* took some doing. And this is at the same time that the Congress that coincided with the Clinton administration put the budget back into surplus. Trends, whatever they are, are quite reversible.

Time has not proven his fears founded in reality. The biggest lesson from this has been to NOT pay attention to people who shouldn't know what they are talking about.

This book is a must read for anyone interested in knowing how the Japanese financial world works, but is so well written that it should be on the bookshelf of anyone who cares about the US-Japan bilateral relationship. Especially if you want to know the truth about how the Japanese economy and financial market has been manipulated by the powerful beaurocracy, this is your book. For those mystified by Japan's "Lost Decade" and why it persists, this book will provide some surprising answers.

Just as interesting is the author's analysis of the financial straight jacket that the US and Japan locked themselves into without truly understanding the consequences. Fans of the Reagan Administration will think twice about their hero when they realize the legacy that Supply Side Economics has left in both the US and Japan.

At the risk of sounding pretentious, this book really is a true tour-de-force.

The tips listed in this book are fairly common sense ones. The recipies are organized poorly--all lumped together in an A to Z fashion. I don't feel any closer to being able to feed my family a MEAL for $5 after reading this book. Some of the recipies do look intersting though.

I am using this cookbook to teach my god-daughter how to help out more in the kitchen. She has always been a picky eater, but we noticed when she is involved in the cooking she is a much more adventurous eater. The glossary, herb charts, and tips are good teaching aids. The recipes are easy, but interesting enough to please the whole family without breaking the budget. (She loves the lettuce wraps.)

This book has a nice collection of creative dates, although I would categorize many of them as "good" dates, nothing extra special about them.

I'd also recommend 300 Creative Dates at 300creativedates. com

It also has a pretty meaty chapter of dating tips before it goes into the dates themselves.

This book really is the ultimate survival cookbook!wonderful variety of great tasting recipes[some very ingenious]that anyone can do.Recommended for beginners or anyone cooking on a budget

This book has a lot of ramen recipes. Some are exotic and interesting, but there are a few problems. There are foods that college students wouldnt touch, like goat cheese. The foods are not priced properly. Avacados for 50 cents? I live in california and they're not even that cheap. Also the recipes calls for a few ingredients that are not really used often like oyster sauce and curry.

The other review suggests that this is the tape to buy for people who don't want the extra sound effects.
I bought ten of these Bibles, (for benevalence)
in part because I didn't want extra sound effects.
When my order came,
I popped in the Acts tape,
and when it got to the part where the Holy Spirit
gives instructions to separate Paul and Barnabas
for the work whereunto they are sent,
Alexander Scourby's voice is cut off,
and they splice in some guy in an echo/reverb room

to "do" the voice of the Holy Spirit.
INCREDIBLY TACKY, not to mention,
this seems to me to be
a totally inappropriate means of representing the Holy Spirit.

The King James version rings with poetic and classic style befitting a narrator like Alexander Scourby. His voice is a perfect match. If you wish to hear the beauty and majesty of the Bible read clearly and dramatically without artificial sound effects added, this is the one for you.

I find this book to be well organized and easy to read. There is a great deal of useful material that does not go over anyone's head.

I think there are some math errors - I looked mostly in the CAPITAL BUDGETING chapter. On page 328, the present value of 3.3073 should be 3.0373 with disasterous results.

On page 348, the formulae for Standard Deviation appear to be totally wrong. Frankly I am amazed by these errors and they put most of the of math the book into serious question. I didn't continue into this chapter after this as I no longer trust the math - so beware and check for yourself.

This is unfortunate - except for some simple yet devastating errors, I like the book a great deal. Just too bad.

This book was not only helpful with creating our companies budget, but it went into complete detail of every day functions our company should be performing. It outlined who should be responsible for what aspects of not only the budget but for daily, weekly, and monthly reports. The book was complete with diagrams and easy to follow samples. It was an easy read besides. The book has become part of our reference library.

"Choose Costa Rica" is a description of that Central American country, aimed at gringos who intend to visit, move, invest, buy real estate, or retire there. The emphasis is more on "how to do it" rather than "where to go," although there is plenty of information to enable the vacationer to determine where to go and how to get there-even how to drive there, and how to cross the borders on the way.

One nice feature of this book is the explanation of many Spanish terms and idioms. There is excellent advice about starting a business or buying property.

Hi, My name is Leonie and I am working at ILISA Language Institute in Costa Rica, San Jose and I just want to say that this book helps our older, retired, students a lot by giving them helpful tips and to let them know their way around in Costa Rica. Thanks!

This book is quite comprehensive, and appears to be one of the better ones in its genre. It covers a lot of directors and explains the contexts in which they worked quite adequately. The index/timeline features in the back are a nice touch for people doing research.

The only thing I really disliked about this book was the author's tendency to go on and on about a director's particular film--just when you think he's said enough about the movie, a few more paragraphs follow, which after a while one ends up wanting to skip over. I can see where this might be a useful feature, but for me it tended to break up the continuity of the text.

"CINEMA OF OUTSIDERS: The Rise of American Independent Film"

A BOOK REVIEW by Harvey Karten, film_critic@compuserve.com

Emanuel Levy, "Cinema of Outsiders: The Rise of American Independent Film," New York: New York University Press, cl999, 601pp.

Emanuel Levy among those who prefer the challenging, edgy, sometimes outrageous movies that are released outside of the Hollywood studios' network. The author of six books with yet another, a biography of critic Andrew Sarris, in the works, Levy is a senior editor with "Variety" magazine. He does not at any time come right out and declare his partiality to the indies, but his passion for the concept of non-mainstream cinema (or at least for the good ones) surfaces on every page. Ironically, "Variety," the slick trade publication for the entertainment industry which regularly promotes and writes about the biggies, should be the last place Levy wouldembrace as a home. Yet the critic--who

habitually knocks out prescient reviews of the latest pictures using that publication's popular jargon such as "pix," "thesps," and "helmers"--has an overall contempt for the safe, for the movies made strictly to appeal to the lowest common denominator and therefore bring in the big bucks for the studios. This is not to say that he glorifies the entire independent ouevre. Discussing three hundred films albeit not in great depth, Levy gradually unfolds to the reader what he likes and what he does not among indies released from 1977 to the present and has the same disdain for poor quality individualistic films as he has for the blockbusters. He derides the studied, the predictable, the simplistic, the not credible, the subjects which are inadequate for full-length treatment, the charmless, the absent-of-wit--all the deadly sins for which blockbusters are often culpable.

The bulk of the 601-page text is taken up with an encyclopedic survey of indie films released during the past thirty-two years, the sort of scan you can find in most of the popular annuals which capsule-review cinematic output in alphabetical order. Neither alphabetical nor chronological, Levy's book treats the films thematically. Chapters have such titles as "Fathers and Sons," "The New York School of Indies," "The Resurrection of Noir," "Challenging Stereotypes," "The New Gay and Lesbian Cinema," "Female/Feminist Sensibility," and "The New African American Cinema." This body of commentary makes the book a must for public libraries and for the home bookshelves of all who have a passion for thoughtful, cutting-edge movies. While much of what Levy says is duplicated by Leonard Maltin, Roger Ebert, and David Thomson in annuals and studies that review and comment upon the pictures and their makers, Levy's commentary provides a distinctive voice, one which extols the independent movies to a greater degree than

do the other popular critics. I would have preferred that he downplay the laundry list of films in favor of presenting even more detail about trends in current cinema and the effect of these films on the audience and on the previously-ignored segments of the population regularly dealt with by these movies.

Copyright Harvey S. Karten

Very good approximations on did book advertisement for DOD pedals. It up to you to tweak and pin things down as exact as your actual gear and talent allow.

I imagined the authorhas a sexy voice. That makes the book more enjoyable.

This book is taken from columns which ran in a periodical called "Guitar for the Practicing Musician" and a column called Sound FX. Different star guitarist effect combinations are shown with the result being a close approximation of the guitarist's sound and tone. I say close because your sound is in both your hands and your equipment and pedals provide a close approximation for sound experimentaion which should be used as a starting point to finding your own sound. The only thing that I didn't like about the book is that is seems to be more of an advertisement for DOD pedals than for getting your favorite guitarists sounds.