In the debate over Social Security reform, most of the work on individual accounts has focused on how individuals would save and manage those accounts during their working lives. Uncharted Waters goes further and addresses the often neglected questions about how and under what circumstances funds could be withdrawn from these accounts. In Uncharted Waters, a panel of recognized experts created a framework for determining how benefits might be paid if private accounts become a new part of the Social Security system or are created separate from Social Security. This important volume analyzes the potential implications of different policy choices. It considers the ramifications of payout rules for families at different stages of life, particularly for economically disadvantaged groups. The contributors also address how any new individual account program would fit with traditional Social Security, employer-based pensions, and tax-advantaged individual retirement savings (401(k)s and IRAs). As the debate over individual savings accounts rages, Uncharted Waters offers a sound framework for informing public policy on both sides of the argument.

The #1 New York Times bestseller by Senator Al Franken, author of Giant of the Senate Senator Al Franken’s landmark bestseller, Lies (And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them): A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, was praised as a “bitterly funny assault” (The New York Times) that rang “with the moral clarity of an angel’s trumpet” (The Associated Press). Now, this master of political humor strikes again with a powerful and provocative message for all of us. In these pages, Senator Franken reveals the alarming story of how: • Bush (barely) beat Kerry with his campaign of “fear, smear, and queers,” and then claimed a nonexistent mandate. • “Casino Jack” Abramoff, the Republicans’ nearest and dearest friend, made millions of dollars off of the unspeakable misery of the poor and the powerless. And, also, Native Americans. • The administration successfully implemented its strategy to destroy America’s credibility and goodwill around the world. Complete with new material for this paperback edition, The Truth (with jokes) is more than just entertaining, intelligent, and insightful. It is at once prescient in its analysis of right-wing mendacity and incompetence, and inspiring in its vision of a better tomorrow for all Americans (except Jack Abramoff).

This book provides a “Wake-up Call” regarding what the international and domestic situation could look like for America in 2040 absent a change in course. It includes an overview of the significant adverse implications of COVID-19 related activities, lessons learned from past great powers, and key concepts from our nation’s founding and past history. It summarizes a broad range of economic, national security and domestic tranquility threats facing America, including the new and dangerous Modern Monetary Theory. It also includes a number of sensible and publicly tested solutions spanning a broad range of policy areas that, if implemented, will create a better future in America and ensure that the U.S. is the first republic and great power to stand the test of time. It concludes with steps that individuals should take to create a better future for themselves, their family and our country.

Identifies and describes specific government assistance opportunities such as loans, grants, counseling, and procurement contracts available under many agencies and programs.

The two-volume Oxford Companion to Comparative Politics fills a gap in scholarship on an increasingly important field within Political Science. Comparative Politics, the discipline devoted to the politics of other countries or peoples, has been steadily gaining prominence as a field of study, allowing politics to be viewed from a wider foundation than a concentration on domestic affairs would permit. Comparativists apply various theories and concepts to analyze the similarities and differences between political units, using the results of their research to develop causalities and generalizations. Each of these theories and outcomes are thoroughly defined in the Companion, as are major resultant conclusions, those comparativists who have influenced the field in significant ways, and politicians whose administrations have shaped the evaluation of contrasting governments. Approximately 200 revised and updated articles from the Oxford Companion to Politics of the World would serve as a foundation for the set, while over 100 new entries would thoroughly examine the field in a lasting, more theoretical than current-event-based, way. New entries cover such topics as failed states, Grand Strategies, and Soft Power; important updates include such countries as China and Afghanistan and issues like Capital Punishment, Gender and Politics, and Totalitarianism. Country entries include the most significant nations to permit a focus on non time-sensitive analysis. In addition, 25 1,000-word interpretive essays by notable figures analyze the discipline, its issues and accomplishments. Collectively, entries promote deeper understanding of a field that is often elusive to non-specialists.

Agriculture, mining and related rural industries have been central to the development of Australia’s economy. This book details the role that the Australian Government has played in the making of rural and regional Australia, particularly since World War II. The book reviews these policies and evaluates them with regards the commitments undertaken by the Government to contribute towards vibrant, rural communities. Policy areas addressed include agriculture, water, education, welfare and population, natural resource management, resource extraction, Indigenous and affairs, localism, rural research and regional innovation, Youth Affairs and the devolution of regional governance. Overall two distinct policy strategies can be observed: one wherein the government saw its role as part of the entrepreneurial state and a sector wherein government has increasingly taken itself out of industry development, leaving this role to the market. Having considered these strategies and their impacts, the book concludes that policy over the past 40 years has not in fact contributed to a more vibrant, prosperous rural and regional Australia. Rural and Regional Futures concludes with several chapters looking to the future. One chapter explores what the role of the state can be within a social market economy while the final chapter gives consideration to the initial steps rural communities will need to take to begin the process of revitalisation. While these materials present as a case study of developments in Australia, the policy shift from the Government as entrepreneur to a focus on markets is an international one and as such, the insights offered by this book will have wide appeal.

Consumption Patterns in Eastern and Western Europe discusses the consumption tendencies in Czechoslovakia, France, the German Democratic Republic, Hungary, Italy, Poland, the Soviet Union, and Switzerland. The topics discussed include the nomenclature of goods and services; accounting framework and analytical tables; enlarged consumption and national income; and structure of social consumption funds according to the form of allocation to beneficiaries. The market and non-market forms of enlarged consumption; financing of collective funds by households; structure of enlarged consumption; and forms of financing enlarged consumption are also described in this text. This book is beneficial to students and individuals interested in the resource allocation practices of countries in Eastern and Western Europe.