Budget Books

Let's Go London gets right to the point- all the basic information you need about food, lodging, and -most importantly- attractions without extra bells and whistles. There is a color underground map in the front, along with several color area maps. There are no scenic photographs, but there are a few advertisements in the book- I guess that keeps the price down. Lots of good tips for those who want to travel and see the sights without blowing a wad of money everywhere you go.

This was an awesome value that I couldn't pass up. There are a ton of well-known songs in this package that would be an asset to anyone who plays for pleasure or for events such as weddings. The only thing I'd caution potential buyers on is the delicate paper used in publication. I'd strongly suggest photocopying individual songs as page-turning while playing can easily result in tears. The backside of the page being copied may show through a little due to the thinness of the paper, but it doesn't interfere with playablity, in my opinion.

This is not the easiest book to read, and it desperately needs a one-page executive summary that a normal person can understand. However, having said that, I have to praise this book as a dated but still valuable primer on budget policy.

The bottom line in this book is clear: America can find $500 billion more in revenue if we return corporations to paying 25% of the total revenue (down to 6% now from a high of 32% in the past), eliminate subsidies and import-export pricing fraud; if we eliminate the tax code and all of its special interest provisions, and rely instead of the marketplace to choose winners and losers; and if we shift to a flat fair tax with no deductions except the mortgage and savings not counted as income. I am over-simplifying, but this book desperate needs distillation.

The author is quite clear on the growing threat to America of the double deficit (both debt and trade),

On balance I am very impressed by the author's grasp of the nuances of budget policy, and while I do not understand all that he writes about, his book has certainly persuaded me that Bill Bradley and he have a grip on this important subject.

It would be quite exciting to see Barack Obama and Ron Paul agree to collaborate on a new coalition government that offers all Americans two things: the restoration of informed engaged democracy where every citizen has access to the information they need, and where every citizen's vote counts; and the elimination of the twin deficits as a national security and competitiveness priority.

EDIT of 20 Dec 07: Adding a few links.
The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism: How the Financial System Underminded Social Ideals, Damaged Trust in the Markets, Robbed Investors of Trillions - and What to Do About It
Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It
The Global Class War: How America's Bipartisan Elite Lost Our Future - and What It Will Take to Win It Back
War on the Middle Class: How the Government, Big Business, and Special Interest Groups Are Waging War onthe American Dream and How to Fight Back

The United States has emphasized growth management, but managing decline is a different paradigm in this culture. Pammer's book offers the first detailed look at how municipal governments cope with declining resources and revenues. His analysis finds it very difficult to explain in a systematic way how local governments actually do that. While some may criticize him for his approach to looking at the problem, his examination reveals the true nature of how cities response to decline--it is random, sometimes haphazard, and unpredictable given circumstances surrounding the jurisdictions.

Having working in government, I can relate to what Dr. Pammer is showing. Although we are facing economic boom in the late 1990s and 2000, his his argument that managing decline is random is relevant for the future as well since economic booms can go bust. Therefore, the key issues for public and non-profit management is the following; Is there a concise way to cope with decline? Although Pammer does not mention the following points in a concise manner, his final observations elude to the fact that organizations need to be focusing on performance management and monitor stakeholder perceptions and concerns. These issue are particularly true of non-profit organizations.

This book is somewhat mistitled -- it is more about software project estimation and management than about quality or metrics. But as the estimation practice lead for our software development group I found it insightful and valuable.

The heart of the book is an empirical function relating effort (cost), schedule, and system size, based on thousands of actual software projects. The projects cover a huge range of sizes and come from a variety of problem domains. This equation, together with a Rayleigh-distribution model of staff build-up during the construction phase of a software project, allows prediction of schedule and effort for a given system size, normalized productivity, and staffing pattern.

The value of this model is that it is shown by the authors to be applicable over a very broad range of problem domains and system sizes. It at least has a chance of modeling nonlinear effects such as the "mythical man-month" (total effort goes up fast as you increase the size of the team). And with only two free parameters (process productivity and staff-up rate) it is simple enough to be fitted to your own historical project data without a lot of re-analysis.

A lot of the book is devoted to graphical and pencil-and-paper application of the model, which is not really necessary since an implementation of the model ("Construx Estimate").

The only reason that I did not give the book five stars is that it is a bit dated -- it describes a waterfall lifecycle model, as was probably used by most of the projects in the calibration set. But I think it is still valuable as a source of quantitative guidance for software project estimation.

Members of Trout Unlimited (TU) have had the pleasure of reading Ann McIntosh's "Budget Angler" in "Trout" magazine for a number of years. Her long awaited book won't disappoint TU members and, likely, a whole new group of fans.

"Mid-Atlantic Budget Angler" offers something often hard to find in flyfishing literature: useful information. Ms. McIntosh describes some of the region's best flyfishing spots, some well-known, others not so well known. She describes stream conditions, gives understandable directions and offers tips on fishing conditions, stream idiosyncracies, places to stay and much more.

For flyfishers seeking practical information on flyfishing in the Mid-Atlantic region, this book may well become the bible.

Practical low cost ideas for floors, ceilings, stairways and everything in between. Childrens rooms too. How to dress up what furniture you already have. Uses for fabric on walls, windows and more.

Awesome tool for soon to be High School and College Graduates!! This book is built on very basic and fundamental truths - almost elementary. However, this would have been a more effective guide for me when I was first starting out on my own at the age of 16; to that point and at this point in life its a bunch of could'a, would'a, should'a. For the average adult who has already experienced a deficit in their networth one must dig their way out of debt before taking full advantage of the authors very wise and sound advise. I will emphasize, I highly recommend this book for all teens, young adults, and graduates! That should have been the authors targeted reader.

While this book may be a little outdated (some businesses have closed since the book was published), it served as an essential reference source for my husband and me during our budget road trip through Oregon last summer. Our main priority was to have fun and not overspend, and this book guided us to some amazing roadside attractions, natural wonders and eateries that didn't empty our wallets and allowed us to take full advantage of the inexpensive resources and businesses available to us.

I bought this book in 1997 and have used it quite thoroughly. It actually introduced me to hostels and other things I didn't know were out there. Great suggestions and secret ways to stay in some expensive areas for reasonable prices. Thanks to this book I could afford to take 4 teenage girls to the beach to celebrate their Spring break vacation. Without it I would never have discovered hotels & restaurants that would accommodate us within our budget.