The Elephant and the Dragon: The Rise of India and China and What It Means for All of Us
by Robyn Meredith
from W. W. Norton
"A comprehensive primer on the development of these Asian tigers."—Noam Lupu, San Francisco Chronicle
The Elephant and the Dragon is the essential guide to understanding how India and China are reshaping our world. With labor now unbound from geographic borders, we're seeing startling shifts in how—and where—nearly everything we buy is made. In a compelling mix of history and on-the-ground reporting, veteran journalist Robyn Meredith untangles the complex web of business and politics, as well as environmental and cultural issues that entwine India, China, and the West. She also outlines how Americans—business leaders, workers, politicians, even parents—can understand the vast changes coming and thrive in this new age.
The Home-Based Bookstore: Start Your Own Business Selling Used Books on Amazon, eBay or Your Own Web Site
by Steve Weber
from Weber Books
Want to discover the most profitable, lowest-risk idea for your home business? It's selling used books online, which is growing 33 percent annually, according to a new study by U.S. publishers. Learn how to start your business part-time, then expand at your own pace. This step-by-step guide, written by one of the most successful and highly rated sellers on Amazon and eBay, includes everything you need to know:
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media
by Edward S. Herman
from Pantheon
An absolutely brilliant analysis of the ways in which individuals and organizations of the media are influenced to shape the social agendas of knowledge and, therefore, belief. Contrary to the popular conception of members of the press as hard-bitten realists doggedly pursuing unpopular truths, Herman and Chomsky prove conclusively that the free-market economics model of media leads inevitably to normative and narrow reporting. Whether or not you've seen the eye-opening movie, buy this book, and you will be a far more knowledgeable person and much less prone to having your beliefs manipulated as easily as the press.
In this pathbreaking work, now with a new introduction, Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky show that, contrary to the usual image of the news media as cantankerous, obstinate, and ubiquitous in their search for truth and defense of justice, in their actual practice they defend the economic, social, and political agendas of the privileged groups that dominate domestic society, the state, and the global order.
Based on a series of case studies—including the media’s dichotomous treatment of “worthy” versus “unworthy” victims, “legitimizing” and “meaningless” Third World elections, and devastating critiques of media coverage of the U.S. wars against Indochina—Herman and Chomsky draw on decades of criticism and research to propose a Propaganda Model to explain the media’s behavior and performance. Their new introduction updates the Propaganda Model and the earlier case studies, and it discusses several other applications. These include the manner in which the media covered the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement and subsequent Mexican financial meltdown of 1994-1995, the media’s handling of the protests against the World Trade Organization, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund in 1999 and 2000, and the media’s treatment of the chemical industry and its regulation. What emerges from this work is a powerful assessment of how propagandistic the U.S. mass media are, how they systematically fail to live up to their self-image as providers of the kind of information that people need to make sense of the world, and how we can understand their function in a radically new way.
How to Buy, Sell, and Profit on eBay: Kick-Start Your Home-Based Business in Just Thirty Days
by Adam Ginsberg
from Collins Living
A lively insider's guide to starting a successful small business selling items old and new on eBay, written with personal anecdotes, well–kept secrets, and insider tips by Adam Ginsberg, eBay's most successful private salesperson.
This is the insider's guide to making money on eBay. Adam Ginsberg is the most successful seller on eBay, moving around a million dollars' worth of merchandise every month. Not only will he impart his personal secrets on how to sell on eBay –learned through years of experience – and his tips on expanding your small business using eBay as a global market, but he'll also give fun side–notes and anecdotes, keeping the book lively and making it a fun and interesting read.
This book will be a must–have for all current and aspiring eBay sellers, all small–business owners, and anyone who wants to learn how to start a million–dollar company.
eBay PowerSeller Secrets: Insider Tips from eBay's Most Successful Sellers (2nd Edition)
by Debra Schepp
from McGraw-Hill
Join the ranks of top eBay sellers with even more insider tips!
Are you ready to take your eBay selling to the next level? This beyond-the-basics guide reveals the trade secrets that have propelled the savviest entrepreneurs into eBay PowerSellers. Now it's your turn to start earning up to $150,000 per month through your eBay business!
The Second Edition of eBay PowerSeller Secrets is packed with up-to-date guidance in effectively running a eBay store, selling and shipping internationally, finding little-known sources for products, advertising your wares, managing inventory, collecting payments, keeping records, and much more.
[Sidebar] NEW! Covers eBay Express, eBay's Marketplace Research reports, ProStores, Skype, eMail Marketing, and even selling through Amazon and your own website. Plus, checklists to help you stay on track!
Learn from hundreds of PowerSellers just what it takes to succeed on eBay:
- Determine what sells best on eBay, when it sells, and why
- Develop listings that create high traffic and product demand
- Handle end-of-sale payments and protect yourself from fraud and loss
- Manage listings, inventories, and communications
- Track incidentals, deductions, expenses, and other tax-related items
- Automate to ease processes such as creating and posting listings, managing feedback, e-mail, and shipping
- Use Blogs and eBay Guides and Reviews to drive traffic to your listings
- Make big money through eBay's Affiliates program
Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World
by Mark Pendergrast
from Basic Books
Since its discovery in an Ethiopian rainforest centuries ago, coffee has brewed up a rich and troubled history, according to Uncommon Grounds, a sweeping book by business writer Mark Pendergrast. Over the years, the beverage has fomented revolution, spurred deforestation, enriched a few while impoverishing the many, and addicted millions with its psychoactive caffeine. Coffee is now the world's second most valuable legal commodity, behind oil, according to Pendergrast, who is also author of For God, Country, and Coca-Cola.
"A good cup of coffee can turn the worst day tolerable, can provide an all-important moment of contemplation, can rekindle a romance," he writes. "And yet, poetic as its taste may be, coffee's history is rife with controversy and politics." For example, coffee bankrolled Idi Amin's genocidal regime in Uganda and the Sandinistas' revolution in Nicaragua. Uncommon Grounds provides some fascinating tidbits. Did you know that coffeehouses helped spawn the French and American revolutions? Or that coffee supplanted alcohol as a favorite breakfast drink in Britain in the late 1600s, and later became a patriotic American beverage after the Boston Tea Party? Pendergrast also details the rise and fall of regional coffee brands in the United States, the role of advertising in the industry, the global economic impact of coffee prices, and the recent emergence of specialty-coffee retailers--Starbucks, for example. Finally, he explores the social and environmental ramifications of coffee and highlights recent attempts to encourage a livable wage and environmental protection in coffee-producing nations such as Brazil. Pendergrast also includes an appendix on "how to brew the perfect cup." This wide-ranging book is a good read for those curious about the history and context behind that morning cup of coffee, as well as for those strictly interested in the business side of the industry. --Dan Ring
Team Rodent : How Disney Devours the World
by Carl Hiaasen
from Ballantine Books
Let's get one thing straight: Carl Hiaasen doesn't like the Walt Disney Company. Whenever the giant entertainment conglomerate stumbles, as it did with its proposed Civil War theme park in Virginia, Hiaasen cheers. When a rhinoceros mysteriously dies at Disney's new theme park, Animal Kingdom, Hiaasen secretly hopes for the worst, because, as he writes, "no scandal is so delectable as a Disney scandal."
A native of Florida, author of such thrillers as Lucky You and Strip Tease, and a journalist for the Miami Herald, Hiaasen comes by his dislike for Disney honestly. He has witnessed the relentless success of the Disney machine firsthand with the development of Disney World and other properties around Orlando. In Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World, Hiaasen paints a witty and sarcastic portrait in this nonfiction account of a company who can control the press, manipulate local governments, and because it's Disney, get away with it. Team Rodent is a quick, entertaining read that even the most loyal Disney shareholder (except maybe Michael Eisner) will find enlightening and amusing. --Harry C. Edwards
"Disney is so good at being good that it manifests an evil; so uniformly efficient and courteous, so dependably clean and conscientious, so unfailingly entertaining that it's unreal, and therefore is an agent of pure wickedness. . . . Disney isn't in the business of exploiting Nature so much as striving to improve upon it, constantly fine-tuning God's work."
--from TEAM RODENT
TEAM RODENT
How Disney Devours America
"Revulsion is good. Revulsion is healthy. Each of us has limits, unarticulated boundaries of taste and tolerance, and sometimes we forget where they are. Peep Land is here to remind us; a fixed compass point by which we can govern our private behavior. Because being grossed out is essential to the human experience; without a perceived depravity, we'd have nothing against which to gauge the advance or decline of culture; our art, our music, our cinema, our books. Without sleaze, the yardstick shrinks at both ends. Team Rodent doesn't believe in sleaze, however, nor in old-fashioned revulsion. Square in the middle is where it wants us all to be, dependable consumers with predictable attitudes. The message, never stated but avuncularly implied, is that America's values ought to reflect those of the Walt Disney Company, and not the other way around."
The Future of Music: Manifesto for the Digital Music Revolution
by Dave Kusek
from Berklee Press
For the next generation of players and downloaders, a provocative scenario from a music industry think tank. From the Music Research Institute at Berklee College of Music comes a manifesto for the ongoing music revolution. Today, the record companies may be hurting but the music-making business is booming, using non-traditional digital methods and distribution models. This book explains why we got where we are and where we are heading. For the iPod, downloading market, this book will explain new ways of discovering music, new ways of acquiring it and how technology trends will make music "flow like water," benefiting the people who love music and make music.
Dubai & Co.: Global Strategies for Doing Business in the Gulf States
by Aamir A. Rehman
from McGraw-Hill
Why Dubai?
It's been called the fastest-growing city on earth-a hub for the Gulf region experiencing unprecedented growth in energy, financial services, consumer goods, hospitality, retail, real estate, technology, shipping, and countless other industries. According to global strategist and advisor to Fortune 500 companies Aamir A. Rehman, no truly global firm can afford to ignore the booming Gulf region. The key, however, is to approach the region with savvy strategies for managing risks and drawbacks, while crafting business models designed for this unique market. Welcome to Dubai & Co.
This up-close, in-depth guide will help you to:
- Deepen your understanding of a region of critical importance to global business
- Change your perceptions about the Gulf states and the broader Middle East
- Create corporate strategies that fit your firm and the region
- Expand your international business to make it faster, bigger, and better
- Access Gulf capital more effectively, enabling expansion and generating both local and global profits
This essential hands-on book will show you how to successfully navigate the region's most attractive markets: the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Oman. You'll learn the key characteristics of each country-historical, demographic, political, economic, and regulatory-in order to adapt your business to each unique environment. You'll hear stories of major companies that paved the way for your success. Whether you're already doing business in the Middle East or just thinking about expanding your company into new markets, Dubai & Co. is the perfect guide to one of the greatest growth opportunities in the world.
Paris Chic & Trendy: Designers' Studios, Hip Boutiques, Vintage Shops
by Adrienne Ribes-Tiphaine
from Little Bookroom
How do those French women manage to look sophisticated, casual, and unique? It may be in the water, it may be in the gene pool . . . or they may have a copy of Paris Chic & Trendy, a savvy guide that describes fifty-four of the best boutiques, designers’ studios, and vintage stores in the French capital. Some are small studio-shops run by up-and-coming designers, featuring only their own work (and maybe that of a few creative friends). Other stores showcase a sophisticated edit of pieces from seasoned designers who supply French fashionistas with must-have items every season (think Jasmin Puech handbags, Agnes B. striped T-shirts, Repetto ballet flats). The pages of this pocket-size guide are overflowing with colorful photos of each shop and their merchandise: jewelry, lingerie, shoes, handbags, separates, dresses, sweater sets, stilettos and boots, trench coats, and LBDs: It’s all in Paris Chic & Trendy, the go-to guide to find the most stylish shops in the most stylish city.
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