Debate about trade and culture has a long history, but the application of WTO rules to cultural products such as films, radio, and books remains one of the most divisive issues in the organization. After assessing the economic and social arguments for treating cultural products differently from things like steel or wheat, this 2007 book explains how the vastly different views of WTO members in earlier negotiations led to an outcome that is disappointing for all. It goes on to provide a comprehensive evaluation of possible solutions, including evolution of the law through WTO dispute settlement, an agreement outside the WTO, and reforms to improve the balance between trade liberalization and cultural policy objectives.

This 1986 book examines some of the main issues that have characterized macroeconomics: the debate between 'monetarists' and 'Keynesians'; the response to demand shocks and supply shocks, by which the monetary authorities control aggregrate nominal income and the use and relevance of the money supply as a target; and the consumption function and the determinants of wealth. It shows that Keynesian stabilization policies succeeded in reducing instability due to demand shocks dramatically, but that no aggregrate demand policy can stabilize both price and employment simultaneously after a supply shock. However, by assigning an overall 'social cost' to (excess) unemployment and (initially) unexpected inflation, an optimism path can be derived. In looking at the consumption function and determinants of wealth the empirical evidence is shown to be most consistent with the life-cycle hypothesis. A concluding section is devoted to the impact on private and national society of the 'social security revolution'.

In this 1988 book, Iliana Zloch-Christy analyzes the causes and consequences of the massive Eastern European debt to the West accumulated in the 1970s. In assessing the region's convertible-currency debt problem, the author addresses five main issues: the origins of the debt; the possibility that such a debt was essential to Eastern Europe's economic development; the effects of the countries' own adjustments to the problem; Western policies toward resolving the Eastern European debt difficulties; and the outlook for the debt during the rest of the 1980s. This book evaluates the flaws of the centrally planned economies that led to the crisis, as well as the countries' lack of effective structural adjustment. The author also covers the roles of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and looks at the potential debt consequences of resurging East-West trade.

Originally published in 1929, this volume was intended to draw attention to the relatively neglected area of early Anglo-Irish literature. Covering the period between the Anglo-Norman settlement of Ireland and the printing of Richard Stanihurst's translation of Virgil, the text illustrates the richness of this literature through abundant quotation from a variety of sources, both religious and secular. The style is accessible and in keeping with Seymour's aim of making the ordinary reader aware of a literary tradition they might otherwise remain ignorant of. This is an important book that will be of value to anyone with an interest in early Irish literature, and the history of literary criticism.

Value-added tax (VAT) now dominates tax systems around the world. But should every country have a VAT? Is the current VAT always as good as it could be in economic, equity, and administrative terms? In developing and transitional countries the answers to such questions are critical to stability, growth, and development. But can VAT be better designed and better administered? These are the key questions that must be answered in designing and implementing VAT. But different tax designs may better suit different countries facing different circumstances. This book reviews experiences with VATs around the world and assesses how the choice of particular design features may affect outcomes in particular contexts.

First published in 1940, E. E. Reynold's Unknown Ways is a collection of tales, intended for young readers, focusing on explorers, pioneers and travellers. Similar to Mr Reynold's book Behind the Ranges, this volume presents episodes from the lives of ten different historical figures, including Sir Martin Frobisher, Sven Hedin, Mary Kingsley, and Alexander Selkirk. Although the writing reflects some of the cultural and ethnocentric biases of its time, this book remains an interesting example of popular educational texts for children from the first half of the twentieth century.

The enlargement that encompassed the accession of greece in 1981 and of Spain and Portugal in 1986 significantly altered the balance of the European Community, while the double shock of EC membership and 1992 could drive the economies of the new members into depression or, equally, accelerate their modernization. This important new book from the Centre for Economic Policy Research examines theoretical issues in the integration of a diverse economic region and the combined impact of EC membership, financial integration and the single market programme on the joining countries. Christopher Bliss examines theoretical and practical obstacles facing ED-wide mechanisms to encourage investment and growth in poorer regions. Paul Krugman and Anthony Venables analyse the ambiguous effects of EC membership and of trade liberalization on output and employment in peripheral regions. Alasdair Smith studies enlargement, the single market and external trade policy in the EC's largest manufacturing sector, the car industry. William Branson examines the constraints placed on national macroeconomic policies by rapid monetary and financial integration and implications for EC-wide fiscal institutions. Paul Krugman presents a general framework for analysing the macroeconomic policy dilemmas faced by the joining countries. Louka Katseli, Jose Vinals and Jorge Braga de Macedo assess the opportunities and challenges facing the Greek, Spanish and Portuguese economics. They draw on an extensive body of work produced by three teams of researchers under their leadership. There is also an introduction by the editors and a foreword by Michael Emerson and Richard Portes.

Originally published in 1935, this volume marks the centenary of the University Pitt Club at Cambridge. It provides a concise history of the Pitt Club, beginning with its foundation as a Tory dining club to honour William Pitt and then moving through the key events of the next hundred years. Illustrative figures are also provided, including a floor plan of the Club Rooms on Jesus Lane, together with a list of Officers and Committees. This is a fascinating book that will be of value to anyone with an interest in the development of the Pitt Club and the history of Cambridge University.

Continued economic prosperity in China and its international competitive advantage have been due in large part to the labor of workers in China, who for many years toiled in under-regulated workplaces. Now, there are labor law reforms raising the rights and standards of workers throughout China. These laws have been praised for their progressive measures and at the same time blamed for placing too many economic burdens on companies, especially those operating on the margins and those that have caused business failures. This, combined with the recent global downturn and the millions of displaced and unemployed Chinese migrant laborers, has created ongoing debate about the new labor laws. This book provides a clear overview of labor and employment law environment in China and its legal requirements, as well as practices under these laws used to deal with growing labor issues. Never has there been a time when understanding China's labor and employment laws is more important.

Do you have a fear of transcription? Are you daunted by the prospect of learning and handling unfamiliar symbols? This workbook is for students who are new to linguistics and phonetics, and offers a didactic approach to the study and transcription of the words, rhythm and intonation of English. It can be used independently or in class and covers all the pronunciation details of words, phrases, rhythm and intonation. Progress is deliberately gentle with plenty of explanations, examples and 'can't go wrong' exercises. In addition, there is an associated website with audio recordings of authentic speech, which provide back-up throughout. The audio clips also introduce students to variations in accents, with eleven different speakers. Going beyond the transcription of words, the book also ventures into real discourse with the simplification systems of colloquial English speech, rhythm and intonation.

This book examines how national law is treated in WTO law, both in the WTO treaty and dispute settlement cases. The WTO treaty contains a set of far-reaching obligations establishing a systemic and constitutional framework of interaction between WTO law and national law. WTO dispute settlement operates as an international layer of judicial review of national laws and administrative, judicial or quasi-judicial measures. Consequently, much of the WTO dispute settlement decisions and rulings relate in different ways to Members' national laws. Yet, up until the publication of this book, there was no systematic analysis of this vastly important subject. This book provides a thorough map of an increasingly complex field. In doing so, it extends the enquiry beyond well-known formulas and combines practical analysis with principled discussion of how the treatment of national law in international law can and should ensure effectiveness of international rules and promote good governance within nation-states.

The Anglican clergyman and founding member of the Society of the Holy Cross, Charles Maurice Davies (1828-1910), published Mystic London in 1875. The work is a collection of Davies' observations and researches into urban spiritualism. It includes descriptions of London mesmerists, mediums and seances, and discussions of Darwinism, secularism and the non-religious. Davies, who discovered spiritualism in Paris in the mid-1850s, and became a committed spiritualist after the death of his son in 1865, argued in this work that the principles and practices of spiritualism did not pose any threat to Christianity and that the two movements had much in common and could peacefully coexist. The work is an indispensable source on the presence of alternative religion in London and for the beliefs and practices of nineteenth-century spiritualists. It offers a fascinating insight into Victorian experiences and attitudes towards the occult and the supernatural.

This book provides a clear and helpful overview of the thought of Emmanuel Levinas, one of the most significant and interesting philosophers of the late twentieth century. Michael L. Morgan presents an overall interpretation of Levinas's central principle that human existence is fundamentally ethical and that its ethical character is grounded in our face-to-face relationships with other people. He explores the religious, cultural, and political implications of this insight for modern Western culture and how it relates to our conception of selfhood and what it is to be a person, our understanding of the ground of moral values, our experience of time and the meaning of history, and our experience of religious concepts and discourse. The book includes an annotated list of recommended readings and a selected bibliography of books by and about Levinas. It will be an excellent introduction to Levinas for readers unfamiliar with his work, and even for those without a background in philosophy.

Modernist poems are some of the twentieth-century's major cultural achievements, but they are also hard work to read. This wide-ranging introduction takes readers through modernism's most famous poems and some of its forgotten highlights to show why modernists thought difficulty and disorientation essential for poetry in the modern world. In-depth chapters on Pound, Eliot, Yeats and the American modernists outline how formal experiments take on the new world of mass media, democracies, total war and changing religious belief. Chapters on the avant-gardes and later modernism examine how their styles shift as they try to re-make the community of readers. Howarth explains in a clear and enjoyable way how to approach the forms, politics and cultural strategies of modernist poetry in English.

The basic unit of nature — the ecosystem — is a special form of wealth, which we can think of as a stock of natural capital. However, perhaps because this capital is free, we have tended to view it as limitless, abundant and always available for our use, exploitation and conversion. Capitalizing on Nature shows how modeling ecosystems as natural capital can help us to analyze the economic behavior that has led to the overuse of so much ecological wealth. It explains how this concept of ecosystem as natural capital sheds light on a number of important issues, including landscape conversion, ecological restoration, ecosystem resilience and collapse, spatial benefits and payments for ecosystem services. The book concludes by focusing on major policy challenges that need to be overcome in order to avert the worsening problem of ecological scarcity and how we can fund novel financing mechanisms for global conservation.

Originally published during the early part of the twentieth century, the Cambridge Manuals of Science and Literature were designed to provide concise introductions to a broad range of topics. They were written by experts for the general reader and combined a comprehensive approach to knowledge with an emphasis on accessibility. Cash and Credit by D. A. Barker was first published in 1910. It was intended to give the reader a firm grasp of the principles of finance and to provide a basis for the further study of monetary theory.

A fashionable and well-informed interest in Italy was a feature of English intellectual life in the first half of the 19th century. Most cultured people could read Italian and knew something of Italian literature. Young ladies learned to sing in Italian, whilst young gentlemen completed their education with a tour in Italy. Painters went there to make copies from Raphael; architects to sketch the Graeco-Roman ruins. Men of letters in particular found themselves drawn to Italy and much Romantic literature reflects this interest; many works owe their origin to Italian literature. In this book, which was originally published in 1957, Dr Brand traces the growth and decline of the social fashion which made Italy the goal of so many cultured Englishmen. He examines in particular the extent and significance of Italy's fascination for the English romantic writers, and traces the effects of the fashion in music, painting, architecture and political affairs.

Given jurisdiction over race and national origin but not religion, federal agents have had to determine whether Jewish Americans constitute a race or national origin group. They have been unable to do so. This has led to enforcement paralysis, as well as explosive internal confrontations and recriminations within the federal government. This book examines the legal and policy issues behind the ambiguity involved with civil rights protections for Jewish students. Written by a former senior government official, this book reveals the extent of this problem and presents a workable legal solution.

As the world's population continues to grow, there is an ever increasing need for huge investment in basic infrastructure: water and sewage, energy production and distribution, transportation and telecommunication. At the same time, infrastructure systems in developed countries are deteriorating and in need of renewal. Today, many of the engineering and economic problems surrounding infrastructure construction projects have been solved, but the threat of social misalignments and political conflicts renders the development and management of such projects more challenging than ever before. This book presents a new theoretical framework that allows us to analyze the institutional and social movement processes, both negative and positive, that surround global infrastructure projects as they confront cross-national and cross-sectoral (such as private-public partnerships) institutional differences. The value of this framework is illustrated through a series of studies on a wide range of infrastructure projects, including roads, railroads, ports, airports, water supply and energy pipelines.

This book examines a decade-long period of instability, violence and state decay in Central Africa from 1996, when the war started, to 2006, when elections formally ended the political transition in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A unique combination of circumstances explain the unravelling of the conflicts: the collapsed Zairian/Congolese state; the continuation of the Rwandan civil war across borders; the shifting alliances in the region; the politics of identity in Rwanda, Burundi and eastern DRC; the ineptitude of the international community; and the emergence of privatized and criminalized public spaces and economies, linked to the global economy, but largely disconnected from the state — on whose territory the 'entrepreneurs of insecurity' function. As a complement to the existing literature, this book seeks to provide an in-depth analysis of concurrent developments in Zaire/DRC, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda in African and international contexts. By adopting a non-chronological approach, it attempts to show the dynamics of the interrelationships between these realms and offers a toolkit for understanding the past and future of Central Africa.