ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: The World Bank / World Bank, Policy / World Bank Group, PUBLISHER: Oxford University Press, Firms and entrepreneurs of all types--from microenterprises to multinationals--play a central role in growth and poverty reduction. Their investment decisions drive job creation, the availability and affordability of goods and services for consumers, and the tax revenues governments can draw on to fund health, education, and other services. The contribution they make to society depends largely on the way governments shape the investment climate in each location-through the protection of property rights, regulation and taxation, strategies for providing infrastructure, interventions in finance and labor markets, and broader governance features such as corruption. New sources of data from the World Bank highlight how investment climates vary dramatically across as well as within countries-and hence the potential for improvement. The World Development Report : A Better Investment Climate for Everyone argues that improving the investment climates of their societies should be a top priority for governments. Drawing on surveys of nearly firms in 53 developing countries, country case studies, and other new research, the Report explores questions such as: What are the key features of a good investment climate, and how do they influence growth and poverty? What can governments do to improve their investment climates, and how can they go about tackling such a broad agenda? What has been learned about good practice in each of the main areas of the investment climate? What role might selective interventions and international arrangements play in improving the investment climate? What can the international community do to help developing countries improve the investment climates of their societies? In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Bank's new program of Investment Climate Surveys, the Bank's Doing Business Project, and World Development Indicators --an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. Now in its twenty-seventh edition, the World Development Report offers practical insights for policymakers, business developers, economic advisers, researchers, and professionals in the media and in non-governmental organizations. It is also an essential supplement to economic and development courses in both academic and professional settings.
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Lustig, Irma S., PUBLISHER: University Press of Kentucky, " These eleven original essays by well-known eighteenth-century scholars, five of them editors of James Boswell's journal or letters, commemorate the bicentenary of Boswell's death on May . The volume illuminates both the life and the work of one of the most important literary figures of the age and contributes significantly to the scholarship on this rich period. In the introduction, Irma S. Lustig sets the tone for the volume. She reveals that the essays examining Boswell as "Citizen of the World" are deliberately paired with those that analyze his artistic skills, to emphasize that "Boswell's sophistication as a writer is inseparable from his cosmopolitanism." The essays in Part I focus on the relationship of the Enlightenment, at home and abroad, to Boswell's personal development. Marlies K. Danziger restores to significant life the continental philosophers and theologians Boswell consulted in his search for religious certainty. Peter Perreten examines Boswell's enraptured study of Italian antiquity and his responses to the European landscape. Richard B. Sher and Perreten document the personal and aesthetic influence of Henry Home, Lord Kames, Scottish jurist and leading Enlightenment figure, on Boswell. Michael Fry discusses Boswell's relationship with Henry Dundas, political manager for Scotland, and Thomas Crawford examines Boswell's long-standing interest in the volatile political issues of the period, including the French Revolution, through his correspondence with William Johnson Temple. In evaluation Boswell's performance as Laird of Auchinleck, John Strawhorn documents his efforts to improve the estate by use of new agricultural methods. The essays in Part II study aspects of Boswell's artistry in Life of Johnson, the magnum opus that set a standard for biography. Carey McIntosh examines Boswell's use of rhetoric, and William P. Yarrow offers a close scrutiny of metaphor. Isobel Grundy invokes Virginia Woolf in demonstrating Boswell's acceptance of uncertainty as a biographer. John B. Radner reveals Boswell's self-assertive strategies in his visit with Johnson at Ashbourne in September , and, finally, Lustig examines as a "subplot" of the biography Johnson's patient efforts to win the friendship of Margaret Montgomerie Boswell. An appendix by Hitoshi Suwabe serves scholars by providing the most exact account to date of Boswell's meetings with Johnson. Acquista Ora
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Schogt, Henry G., PUBLISHER: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Henry Schogt met his wife, Corrie, in in Amsterdam. Each knew the other had grown up in the Netherlands during World War II, but for years they barely spoke of their experiences. This was true for many people -- the memories were just too painful. Years later, Henry and Corrie began to piece their memories together, to untangle reality from dreams. Their intent was to help others understand what had happened then, and how it influenced and affected not only their lives but those of all who survived. The seven stories in "The Curtain" reveal how two families -- one Jewish, one non-Jewish -- fared in the Netherlands during the German occupation in World War II. Each vignette highlights a specific aspect of life; all show how life changed for everyone, and forever. Four stories are based on the author's memories of his own non-Jewish family: Henry's friendship with a Jewish teenager; the conflict of personal antipathy with the realization that help must be provided; the Schogt parents' determination to do the right thing; the difficulties of coping with an aunt with Nazi sympathies. These are stories about the randomness of survival and the elusive nature of memory. For the Jewish family, three stories drawn from the memories of the author's wife and family demonstrate the bewildering situation of trying to make impossible life-determining decisions when faced with confusing and deceitful decrees. The family must struggle with the luck -- or absence thereof -- of finding refuge when forced from their homes, and with the perplexing inconsistencies of the collaboration of Dutch authorities and police with the Nazis. "The Curtain" emphasizes the difference between the options that were open to non-Jews and Jews in the Netherlands. Non-Jews could freely choose whether to actively resist the Germans, collaborate with the Nazis, or just to do nothing, and try to live a normal life in spite of wartime restrictions. Dutch Jews, on the other hand, did not have a choice -- whatever they did, whatever decisions they made, they were doomed, and it often seemed, when someone survived, just simple luck. A short introduction about the war years and an appendix with a chronology of decrees, events, and statistics, provide background information for this haunting memoir of those disturbing years during the German Occupation in the Netherlands.
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Delaney, Patrick R. / Epstein, Barry J. / Nach, Ralph, PUBLISHER: John Wiley & Sons, The most practical, authoritative guide to GAAP midst a national parade of corporate scandals, accounting professionals require a timely, rock-solid resource in order to instill clients and investors with the confidence they have come to expect.Wiley GAAP delivers the most recent developments and analysis of all generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), restating the original, highly technical pronouncements in easy-to-understand terms and providing battle-tested implementation guidance. Unlike other guides, Wiley GAAP offers complete coverage of Levels A, B, and C GAAP in a single volume, including EITF issues that have not yet been reduced to consensus as well as EITF Appendix D discussion matters. Wiley GAAP contains a host of completely updated features, such as: A streamlined format that helps readers find what they need to know quickly Complete, real-world implementation guidance on the latest FASB standards and interpretations, including those addressing guarantees (FASB Interpretation 45), variable interest entities (FASB Interpretation 46), and distinguishing liabilities from equity instruments (SFAS 150) Comparison of U.S. GAAP to international financial reporting standards Detailed coverage of important, current FASB and AcSEC projects, such as liabilities versus equity and property, plant, and equipment Expanded discussion of hot topics, such as special purpose entities, pro forma earnings, and revenue recognition issues Real-world examples and comprehensive analysis of complex areas like hedging, consolidated reporting, derivatives, income taxes, leases, and segment reporting A chapter onspecial revenue recognition areas An authoritative financial statement disclosure checklist Featuring numerous real-world examples, illustrations, and helpful practice hints that are extremely user-friendly, Wiley GAAP is designed with the needs of the reader in mind. Covering the entire GAAP hierarchy, Wiley GAAP addresses all effective pronouncements, including: FASB Interpretations FASB Technical Bulletins FASB Statements of Financial Accounting Concepts FASB Statements of Financial Accounting Standards (SFASs) Consensus Opinions of the Emerging Issues Task Force of the FASB AICPA Statements of Position Accounting Research Bulletins Accounting Principles Board Opinions AICPA Audit and Accounting Guides As clients demand accounting procedures they can trust, so accountants require up-to-date reference materials they know they can depend on. More than any other resource, Wiley GAAP provides the indispensable tools for the accounting professional.
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Alexander, John T., PUBLISHER: Oxford University Press, USA, Catherine II of Russia is one of the most colorful characters in modern history. Born a minor German princess, she was betrothed to the Grand Duke Peter of Russia at 15, through the designs of the childless Empress Elizabeth and her own scheming mother. By 33, she had overthrown her husband in a bloodless coup and established herself as Empress of the multinational Russian Empire, the largest territorial political unit in modern history. Portrayed variously as a political genius who restored to Russia the glory it had known in the days of Peter the Great and a despotic foreign adventuress who usurped the Russian throne, murdered her rivals, and tyrannized her subjects, she was, by all accounts, an extraordinary woman. Catherine the Great, the first popular biography of the mpress based on modern scholarship, provides a vivid portrait of Catherine as a mother, a lover, and, above all, an extremely savvy ruler. Concentrating on her long reign (), John Alexander examines all aspects of Catherine's life and career: the brilliant political strategies by which she won the acceptance of a nationalistic elite; her expansive foreign policy; the domestic reforms with which she revamped the Russian military, political structure, and economy; and, of course, her infamous love life. Alexander begins with an account of the dramatic "palace revolt" by which Catherine unseated her husband and a background chapter describing the circumstances of her early childhood and marriage, then proceeds chronologically through the 34 years of reign. In compelling narrative fashion, he describes such events as the incursion of bubonic plague on Moscow, the uprising of the Ural peasants, and the six political murders the empress sanctioned. Catherine is presented here in more human terms than in previous biographies, with numerous quotations included from her reminiscences and notes. We learn, for instance, not only the names and number of her lovers, but her understanding of what many considered a shocking licentiousness. "The trouble is," she wrote, "that my heart would not willingly remain one hour without love." The result of 20 years' research by one of the leading narrative historians of modern Russia in the U.S., this is truly an impressive work. Alexander delved into little-known sources (including a collection of Catherine's love notes which is included here as an appendix) as well as popular and specialized accounts to arrive at this much-needed, balanced appraisal of one of history's most scandal-ridden figures.
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Roth, John K. / Rittner, Carol A. / Rittner, Carol, PUBLISHER: Praeger Publishers, On August , a group of Polish Carmelite nuns, with the approval of both church and government authorities, but apparently without any dialogue with members of the Polish or international Jewish community, moved into a building at the site of Auschwitz I. This establishment of a Roman Catholic convent in what was once a storehouse for the poisonous Zyklon B used in the gas chambers of the Nazi extermination center has sparked intense controversy between Jews and Christians. Memory Offended is as definitive a survey of the Auschwitz convent controversy as could be hoped for. But even more important than its thorough chronological record of events pertinent to the dispute, is the book's use of this particular controversy as a departure for reflection on fundamental issues for Jews and Christians and their relationships with each other. Essays by fourteen distinguished international scholars who represent diverse viewpoints within their Jewish and Christian traditions identify, analyze, and comment on the long-range issues, questions, and implications at the heart of the controversy. A recent interview with the internationally renowned Holocaust authority and survivor, Elie Wiesel, makes an important contribution to the ongoing discussion. The volume merits careful reading by all who seek to learn the lessons this controversy can teach both Christians and Jews. In their introduction, editors Carol Rittner and John K. Roth define the meaning of the word covenant in both the Jewish and Christian religious traditions. They develop a compelling argument for the notion that the Christian concept of a "new" covenant between God and humanity, which supposedly superseded Judaism's "old"covenant, formed the basis for the centuries-old anti-Jewish contempt that led to Auschwitz--the Nazi death camp where 1.6 million human beings, mostly Jews, were exterminated. The editors contend that the existence of a convent at this site offended memory. The vital issue of what constitutes a fitting Auschwitz memorial is addressed throughout the volume's three major divisions in which important thinkers, including Robert McAfee Brown and Richard L. Rubenstein, among others, investigate "The History and Politics of Memory," "The Psychology of Memory," and "The Theology of Memory." Important tools for researchers are a chronology of events pertinent to the Auschwitz convent controversy, and an appendix that contains many key documents relating to the controversy. Memory Offended will be an important resource in university and public libraries as well as in Holocaust courses, classes on Jewish Studies, twentieth-century history, and those that focus on interreligious issues.