Benefits of Books

As a former U.S. Marine (Semper Fi), I was curious if I had any Veterans' benefits left after 31 years since my discharge. I was surprised to learn from this book that I did. Mr. Webber and Ms. Webber have done current and recently discharged Veterans a great service with their research and authorship of this book.

I highly recommend this book as a guide and assistant in understanding Veterans' benefits and to help get through the bureaucracy surrounding them.

Many thanks to all U.S. Servicemen and Servicewomen everywhere.

This book will also be useful to people going through a divorce, or whose divorce is several years old but they have never had a QDRO done. Getting a QDRO prepared and accepted by the plan is ESSENTIAL; your divorce decree or separation agreement alone is not enough to obtain your share of your former spouse's pension benefits. Further information is available from the author at QDRO Solutions, Inc. in Augusta, Georgia (706) 650-7028.

For John Schlimm II, that cliche couldn't hold a more personal meaning. The avid autograph seeker, having amassed a collection of more than 1,000 signatures tried in vain...to find a "good book" on his hobby. So, in the summer of 1994 he began writing one. The book was written in such a manner...that readers are able to learn how to write to specific people...the school projects are written for every subject, every grade level.

This superb little book concludes that Britain's membership of the European Union is bad for us and that regaining our sovereignty would be good for us.

The current cost of our membership is probably £40 billion a year, money we should spend on building railway stock or trucks, or reopening mines, or in retaining nurses. This total does not include the costs of the Common Fisheries Policy and of our chronic goods trade deficit with the EU (£20 billion in 2002).

It costs us £20 billion a year to enforce the EU's regulations and directives (101,811 of them since 1973); the Common Agricultural Policy costs us £15 billion a year; and we pay £5 billion a year net into the EU Budget.

These costs will most likely increase as the EU grows, adding to the costs of the CAP and the regional development funds. The new Constitution, by centralising more functions in Brussels, will also increase the EU's costs.

The government claims that EU membership is good for us because it encourages new foreign investment. However, most foreign investment in Britain is not building new factories but overwhelmingly in the form of acquisitions and mergers. All research proves that most acquisitions reduce firms' value.

If we were to accept the new Constitution, we would be forced into the euro, without ever voting for it. The euro would also be bad for us. The Bank of England says that joining the euro would cost us £10 billion a year in lost output, because we would lose all control over our monetary policy. The Treasury agrees that the costs of joining would outweigh the benefits. Changing from sterling to euro would cost £30-40 billion.

Independence from the EU would be particularly good for British industry. As the US International Trade Commission notes, leaving the EU would stimulate Britain's output and bring new jobs in mining, iron and steel, other manufacturing and services.

Labour's talk of lost jobs is just its usual scaremongering. Britain would flourish outside the EU.

This is the single best introduction to cost-benefit analysis available. I teach a master's level-upper division course in cost-benefit analysis at the University of California, San Diego, and have looked at many books. I always come back to this one. Because it is unfortunately out of print, I have to place it on reserves rather than having the students purchase it. The book contains a surprising amount of information and very mature insights into the philosophical and ethical basis of applied welfare economcis and cost-benefit analysis. Yet the book does not bog down in unneccessary detail or technicalities. The book is unfortunately too limited in its scope and could be updated and expanded. It should also spend a chapter or two on project evaluation in less developed countries. I have to use Kohli's book, Economic Analysis of Investment Projects, for this purpose. There are other books which contain more detail but these require a more sophisticated knowledge of microeconomics and especially applied welfare economics. An expanded version of the book could also profit from more practical information on "how to do" cost-benefit analysis, such as along the lines of Sassone and Schaefer, Cost-Benefit Analysis. The book is well written.

very good coverage of cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis. step-by-step process and just a wealth of information. good buy.

An excellent collection of helpful and challenging discussions of cost-benefit analysis, covering both strengths and weaknesses from a variety of perspectives. Some major names in the fields (such as Amartya Sen, Martha Nussbaum, Richard Posner, and Cass Sunstein) are included.

The authors provided an easy to read text that gives the reader a basic understanding of Social Security - Old Age Insurance. They provided information of all the current initiatives as well as devoting an entire chapter to a critical review of the privatization plan. Excellent suggestions for reforming the current plan are given that make good sense to the reader. A must read for anyone who wants to be informed for the ongoing debate on Social Security.

Death Benefit is one of the best accounts of a suspicious death, its investigation, and the trial of the perpetrators that I have had occasion to read.

Death Benefit unfolds like a well thought out work of fiction rather than a dry narrative of "just the facts Ma'am." Heilbroner's book captures your attention and refuses to let it go until you have read the last page.

One of the more interesting aspects of this case is that the person who first uncovers the crime is an attorney (Steve Keeney) not a member of law enforcement as one would expect. Keeney, who besides working for a law firm that could have sprung from the pages of a John Grisham novel, is a corporate attorney. Keeney agrees to help (pro bono) a fellow church parishoner. The woman's daughter was accidentally killed falling from the cliffs at Big Sur in California. The Monterey coroner's office has not listed a cause of death and the insurance company will not pay the mother's claim until they receive the death certificate.

Keeney expects fully that at most he needs only clear up a bureacratic oversight instead he unravels a previously undiscovered diabolical trail of arson, fraud and murder, that will make your hair stand on end, dating back to the 1950's. And all perpetrated by the rarest of killers - the female serial killer.

The murderess, Virginia McGinnis(superficially a seemingly normal wife and mother) and her brood of children are perhaps some of the most evil people you will ever run across in print. I would recommend this book highly to anyone interested in reading non-fiction crime. I would also recommend it to my friend Rhonda whose nagging contributed to the brevity of this review. (LOL)

Rachel Gold Mysteries is an excellent example of the female detective/attorney genre. Not to be compared with Kinsey Millhone (which is the best) but the Rachel Gold series gives a different perspective from a female attorney's point of view. (Rachel Gold has a law degree and Kinsey Millhone has a high school diploma with police academy training. The differences in perspective are informative to say the least. Death Benefits shows an inside look at a senior partner's life that you won't get to see anywhere else. This was an intriguing and fast paced book. Also it takes place in St. Louis so you get the feel of a large city in the Midwest compared to the East or West coast.