Businesspersons and investors have been conditioned to anticipate that after a period of turbulence following the "Great Recession," conditions will return to "normal." For the preceding generation (from 1982 to 2007), "normal" was the economic "Great Moderation": a period of low inflation and low unemployment that brought on high growth in asset values. Those days are gone. This book reviews the major, and largely inescapable, trends that will make the next generation a more challenging investment environment in all developed economies: an aging population and an overextended government. California today captures the challenges that will be faced by the American economy over the next decades. After summarizing these trends, the book outlines investing strategies for individuals and companies can use this new environment. It provides an extended case study in how greater economic literacy can offer readers an advantage for understanding the opportunities, and threats, presented by long- term trends.

"Children growing up today are confronted by four difficult and intersecting challenges: dangerous environmental change, weakening democracies, growing social inequality, and a global economy marked by unprecedented youth unemployment and unsustainable resource extraction. Yet on streets everywhere, there is also a strong, youthful energy for change.This book sets out an inspiring new agenda for citizenship and environmental education which reflects the responsibility and opportunities facing educators, researchers, parents and community groups to support young citizens as they learn to 'make a difference' on the issues that concern them. Controversial yet ultimately hopeful, political scientist Bronwyn Hayward rethinks assumptions about youth citizenship in neoliberal democracies. Her comparative discussion with the US and UK draws on lessons from New Zealand, a country where young citizens often express a strong sense of personal responsibility for their planet but where many children also face shocking social conditions. Hayward develops a 'SEEDS' model of ecological citizenship education (Social agency, Environmental Education, Embedded justice, Decentred deliberative democracy and Self transcendence). The discussion considers how the SEEDs model can support young citizens' democratic imagination and develop their 'handprint' for social justice.From eco-worriers and citizen-scientists to streetwise sceptics, "Children, Citizenship and Environment" identifies a variety of forms of citizenship and discusses why many approaches make it more difficult, not easier, for young citizens to effect change. This book will be of interest to a wide audience, in particular teachers of children aged 8-12 and professionals who work in Environmental Citizenship Education as well as students and researchers with an interest in environmental change, democracy and intergenerational justice.Introduced by international sustainability expert Tim Jackson, the book includes forewords by leading European and USA academics, Andrew Dobson and Roger Hart.Half the author's royalties will be donated to child poverty projects following the earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand.Follow Bronwyn Hayward's blog at: http://growing-greens.blogspot.co.nz/<BR>"-- "Today's millennial generation inherit a world confronted by four difficult and intersecting challenges: dangerous environmental change, weakening democracies, growing social inequality, and a paradigm of economic growth that has contributed to unprecedented youth unemployment and resource extraction beyond our planet's limits. But the future is not inevitable and today on the streets everywhere; there is a strong, youthful energy for change. 'Children, Citizenship and Environment' sets out a new agenda for citizenship education which reflects both the responsibility and opportunities we are confronted with to support young citizens. In a myth busting discussion of issues facing young citizens growing up in neoliberal democracies, political scientist Bronwyn Hayward draws on the experience of New Zealanders, a nation where young citizens often express a strong sense of personal responsibility for their planet but where many face shocking social conditions. Theoretically informed and written with engaging practical insight, Hayward argues that young citizens today will need fewer lessons in how to recycle or when to switch off the lights and more intergenerational support to reclaim their democratic imagination and discover the 'seeds' of ecological citizenship and their own SMART ' handprint' for social justice. This book will be of interest to a wide audience including teachers in the Education sector, students and researchers, as well as policy makers and N.G.Os who work in the area of Youth Citizenship"--

"This report, prepared by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, brings together leading analysts in the scientific assessment of climate change, relevant social and economic policy and those who directly participate in international climate negotiations. The report provides a comprehensive understanding of the latest developments in the global response to climate change since the Copenhagen and Cancun climate conferences and Chinese actions in response, the results of these actions, the challenges that are still being faced, as well as China's long-term strategy in response to climate change. Part one focuses on the Chinese domestic policy response to climate change, including an analysis of the fulfilment of the energy conservation targets in the 11th Five Year Plan, pathways and policies to meet the 40%-45% target by 2020, China's adaptation strategy and policies, low carbon buildings, carbon sinks of forestry, public participation, and the low carbon city idea that the Shanghai World Expo has promoted. Part two includes thematic studies on some interesting hot topics, such as carbon tariff, indicators for assessment of low carbon cities, methodology for assessment of adaptation to climate change and cumulative carbon emissions. Finally, the annex includes key data on population, the economy, energy consumption and emissions by sector, as well as progress to meet 11th Five Year Plan energy conservation targets in each Chinese region. "-- "At the end of 2010 in the coast city, Cancun, Mexico, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) convened its 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16), which received another round of great attention from the whole world. This book calls together experienced experts with in-depth understanding on scientific assessment of climate change and relevant social and economic policies and senior experts who directly participate in the international climate negotiations. This will help the readers to better understand the upcoming Durban conference, as well as China's long-term strategy in response to climate change. This book includes researches on China's 12th Five year plan; pilot low carbon city actions; policies and pathways for China's national appropriate mitigation actions; China's forestry management; China's NGOs and climate change; low carbon expo in Shanghai China 2010; Carbon budget proposal; China's green economy and green jobs; China's reaction to carbon tariff; China's actions in adaptation approaches; China's accumulative carbon emissions, etc. This gives the readers a comprehensive understanding of the latest developments of China's actions in response to climate change, the results of these actions, and the challenges that are still being faced. China is becoming a raising star in global economical and political affairs. Both international society and China itself have great expectation to its future role. This book clarifies China's leading position in many aspects. However, limited to its development stage, natural resource endowment, and other unbalanced developing issues, China is still a developing country. This book reveals a real China to the audience, which can provide a more comprehensive solution to future global climate regime"--

"As the linguistic, cognitive and social elements of our lives are transformed by new and emerging technologies, educational settings are also challenged to respond to the issues that have arisen as a consequence. This book focuses on that challenge: using psychological theory as a lens to highlight the positive uses of new technologies in relationships and educational settings, and to advocate technological learning opportunities and social support where the misuse and abuse of ICT occurs. The Impact of Technology on Relationships in Educational Settings sets out to explore the role of ICTs in relationship forming, social networking and social relationships within our schools and has grown out of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST); Action on cyberbullying, involving 28 participating countries, and two non-COST countries, of which Australia is one. This cutting edge international text offers cross-cultural, psychological perspectives on the positive uses of new and emerging technologies to improve social relationships and examples of best practice to prevent virtual bullying. This comes at a time when much of the focus in current writings has been on the more negative aspects which have emerged as new technologies evolved: cyberbullying, cyber-aggression and cybersafety concerns. This text is ideally suited to researchers and practiitioners in the fields of Educational and developmental psychology, as well as those specialising in educational technology and the sociology of education"-- Provided by publisher.

"They were the Beatles of basketball, the Mercury Seven in sneakers. In Dream Team, acclaimed sports journalist Jack McCallum delivers the untold story of the greatest team ever assembled: the 1992 U.S. Olympic Men's Basketball Team that captivated the world, kindled the hoop dreams of countless children around the planet, and remade the NBA into a global sensation. As a senior staff writer for Sports Illustrated, McCallum enjoyed a courtside seat for the most exciting basketball spectacle on earth, covering the Dream Team from its inception to the gold medal ceremony in Barcelona. For the duration of the Olympics, he lived with, golfed with, and--most important--drank with some of the greatest players of the NBA's Golden Age: Magic Johnson, the ebullient showman who shrugged off his recent diagnosis of HIV to become the team's unquestioned captain and leader; Michael Jordan, the transcendent talent at the height of his powers as a player--and a marketing juggernaut; and Charles Barkley, the outspoken iconoclast whose utterances on and off the court threatened to ignite an international incident. Presiding over the entire traveling circus was the Dream Team's beloved coach, Chuck Daly, whose laissez-faire approach proved instrumental in getting the most out of such disparate personalities and superstars such as Larry Bird, Patrick Ewing, and Scottie Pippen. Drawing on fresh interviews with the players, McCallum provides the definitive account of the Dream Team phenomenon. He offers a behind-the-scenes look at the controversial selection process. He takes us inside the team's Olympic suites for late-night card games and bull sessions where the players debate both the finer points of basketball and their respective places in the NBA pantheon. And he narrates a riveting possession-by-possession account of the legendary July 1992 intrasquad scrimmage that pitted the Dream Teamers against one another in what may have been the greatest pickup game--and the greatest exhibition of trash talk--in history. In the twenty years since the Dream Team first captivated the world's attention, its mystique has only grown--and so has its influence. The NBA is now flush with international stars, many of them inspired by the exuberant spirit of '92. Dream Team vividly re-creates the moment when a once-in-a-millennium group of athletes came together, outperformed the hype, and changed the future of sports--one perfectly executed fast break at a time. The Dream Team was. Michael Jordan, Guard, Chicago Bulls Magic Johnson, Guard, Los Angeles Lakers Larry Bird, Forward, Boston Celtics Charles Barkley, Forward, Phoenix Suns Chris Mullin, Forward, Golden State Warriors Scottie Pippen, Forward, Chicago Bulls John Stockton, Guard, Utah Jazz Karl Malone, Forward, Utah Jazz David Robinson, Center, San Antonio Spurs Patrick Ewing, Center, New York Knicks Christian Laettner, Forward, Duke University Clyde Drexler, Guard, Portland Trailblazers"--Provided by publisher.

"A unique and revealing portrait of Saddam Hussein's Iraq which was every bit as authoritarian and brutal as Stalin's Russia or Mao's China"-- "The Ba'th Party came to power in 1968 and remained for thirty-five years, until the 2003 U.S. invasion. Under the leadership of Saddam Hussein, who became president of Iraq in 1979, a powerful authoritarian regime was created based on a system of violence and an extraordinary surveillance network, as well as reward schemes and incentives for supporters of the party. The true horrors of this regime have been exposed for the first time through a massive archive of government documents captured by the United States after the fall of Saddam Hussein. It is these documents that form the basis of this extraordinarily revealing book and that have been translated and analyzed by Joseph Sassoon, an Iraqi-born scholar and seasoned commentator on the Middle East. They uncover the secrets of the innermost workings of Hussein's Revolutionary Command Council, how the party was structured, how it operated via its network of informers, and how the system of rewards functioned. Saddam Hussein's authority was dominant. His decision was final, whether arbitrating the promotion of a junior official or the death of a rival or a member of his family. As this gripping portrayal of Saddam Hussein's Iraq demonstrates, the regime was every bit as authoritarian and brutal as Stalin's Soviet Union or Mao's China and some of the regimes in the Arab world who are witnessing upheavals, are not not dissimilar from the Ba'th regime"--