This award-winning book "skillfully blends economic and political analysis" to assess the challenges of urban governments (Emmett H. Buell, Jr., American Political Science Review).Winner of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award for the best book published in the United States on government, politics, or international affairsMany simply presume that a city's politics are like a nation's politics, just on a smaller scale. But the nature of the...

Commodity Derivatives: A Guide for Future Practitioners describes the origins and uses of these important markets. Commodities are often used as inputs in the production of other products, and commodity prices are notoriously volatile. Derivatives include forwards, futures, options, and swaps; all are types of contracts that allow buyers and sellers to establish the price at one time and exchange the commodity at another.This straightforward book provides the necessary the...

Saving Schools traces the story of the rise, decline, and potential resurrection of American public schools through the lives and ideas of six mission-driven reformers: Horace Mann, John Dewey, Martin Luther King Jr., Albert Shanker, William Bennett, and James Coleman. Yet schools did not become the efficient, egalitarian, and high-quality educational institutions these reformers envisioned. Indeed, the unintended consequences of their legacies shaped today’s flawed educational sy...

Offers a clear understanding of what Social Security has accomplished in the past, challenges it now faces, and possibilities for the future. Outlines the full spectrum of current issues, policies, benefits, and proposed reforms.

A comprehensive exploration of 21st Century school politics, Teachers versus the Public offers the first comparison of the education policy views of both teachers and the public as a whole, and reveals a deep, broad divide between the opinions held by citizens and those who teach in the public schools. Among the findings: Divisions between teachers and the public are wider and deeper than differences between other groups often thought to contest school policy, such as Repu...

Twenty years ago cooperative federalism, in the form of federal grant-in-aid programs administered by state and local governments, was applauded almost without reservation as the best means of helping the handicapped, the educationally disadvantaged, the poor, and other groups with special needs. More recently these same programs have been criticized for excessive regulations and red tape, bureaucratic ineptitude, and high cost. The criticisms have been used to justify efforts to curb fede...

""The best way of handling the question of how much to give the poor, politicians have discovered, is to avoid doing anything about it at all,"" note Paul Peterson and Mark Rom. The issue of the minimum people need in order to live decently is so difficult that Congress has left this crucial question to the states-even though the federal government foots three-fourths of the bill for about 15 million Americans who receive cash and food stamp benefits.The states differ widely in thei...

The relative deficiencies of U.S. public schools are a serious concern to parents and policymakers. But they should be of concern to all Americans, as a globalizing world introduces new competition for talent, markets, capital, and opportunity. In Endangering Prosperity, a trio of experts on international education policy compares the performance of American schools against that of other nations. The net result is a mixed but largely disappointing picture that clearly shows where ...

The many recent high profile corporate scandals highlight the need for companies to do a better job of integrating ethics and responsibility into business decisions - and for business schools to integrate ethics awareness and training into their curricula. This volume sets the agenda for business ethics and corporate responsibility in the future. It brings together ideas, challenges, and proposed solutions for thinking about - and implementing - effective ethics programs in business school...

Invaluable insights on trading today's futures marketThe CME Risk Management Handbook provides an accessible overview of the futures market in today's electronic world of trading. Page by page, it outlines the various CME products currently available and explains how those products can be used to manage risk. Financial professionals around the world will find this book to be a comprehensive reference to the most widely used risk management, trading, and he...

A clear, accessible analysis of the worsening distribution of income and wealth in America.

As federal funding for public broadcasting wanes and support from corporations and an elite group of viewers and listeners rises, public broadcasting's role as vox populi has come under threat. With contributions from key scholars from a wide variety of disciplines, this volume examines the crisis facing public broadcasting today by analyzing the institution's development, its presentday operations, and its prospects for the future. Covering everything from globalization and the rise of th...