"A collection of the first five years of 'Piled Higher and Deeper,' a comic strip about life (or lack thereof) in graduate school, as it originally appeared in Stanford University's 'The Stanford Daily Newspaper' and online at phd.stanford.edu."--Amazon.com.

The 2012 presidential campaign will, above all else, be a referendum on the Obama administration's handling of the financial crisis, recalling the period when Obama's "audacity of hope" met the austerity of reality. Central to this is the ''American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009'' -- the largest economic recovery plan in American history. Senator Mitch McConnell gave a taste of the enormity of the money committed: if you had spent 1 million a day since Jesus was born, it still would not add up to the price tag of the stimulus package. A nearly entirely partisan piece of legislation -- Democrats voted for it, Republicans against -- the story of how the bill was passed and, more importantly, how the money was spent and to what effect, is known barely at all. Stepping outside the political fray, ProPublica's Michael Grabell offers a perceptive, balanced, and dramatic story of what happened to the tax payers' money, pursuing the big question through behind-the-scenes interviews and on-the-ground reporting in more than a dozen states across the country.

"Compound interest is the greatest mathematical discovery of all time. Those who understand compound interest are destined to collect it. Those who don't are doomed to pay it." Attrib. Albert Einstein. "Every day while people try to save 50 cents clipping coupons, drive around the block to save $0.03 on a gallon of gas, or just plain shop for bargains, they are literally throwing away tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars to interest. It is sickening. It is a financial crisis. But if you understand interest, you are destined to earn it, not pay it." Jeremy Washburn

In a riveting account based on new documents and interviews with more than 400 sources on both sides of the aisle, award-winning reporter Michael Grunwald reveals the vivid story behind President Obama’s $800 billion stimulus bill, one of the most important and least understood pieces of legislation in the history of the country. Grunwald’s meticulous reporting shows how the stimulus, though reviled on the right and the left, helped prevent a depression while jump-starting the president’s agenda for lasting change. As ambitious and far-reaching as FDR’s New Deal, the Recovery Act is a down payment on the nation’s economic and environmental future, the purest distillation of change in the Obama era. The stimulus has launched a transition to a clean-energy economy, doubled our renewable power, and financed unprecedented investments in energy efficiency, a smarter grid, electric cars, advanced biofuels, and green manufacturing. It is computerizing America’s pen-and-paper medical system. Its Race to the Top is the boldest education reform in U.S. history. It has put in place the biggest middle-class tax cuts in a generation, the largest research investments ever, and the most extensive infrastructure investments since Eisenhower’s interstate highway system. It includes the largest expansion of antipoverty programs since the Great Society, lifting millions of Americans above the poverty line, reducing homelessness, and modernizing unemployment insurance. Like the first New Deal, Obama’s stimulus has created legacies that last: the world’s largest wind and solar projects, a new battery industry, a fledgling high-speed rail network, and the world’s highest-speed Internet network. Michael Grunwald goes behind the scenes—sitting in on cabinet meetings, as well as recounting the secret strategy sessions where Republicans devised their resistance to Obama—to show how the stimulus was born, how it fueled a resurgence on the right, and how it is changing America. The New New Deal shatters the conventional Washington narrative and it will redefine the way Obama’s first term is perceived.

"Compound interest is the greatest mathematical discovery of all time. Those who understand compound interest are destined to collect it. Those who don't are doomed to pay it." Attrib. Albert Einstein. "Every day while people try to save 50 cents clipping coupons, drive around the block to save $0.03 on a gallon of gas, or just plain shop for bargains, they are literally throwing away tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars to interest. It is sickening. It is a financial crisis. But if you understand interest, you are destined to earn it, not pay it." Jeremy Washburn

This book profiles preliminary findings on the impact of COVID-19 on the travel, tourism and hospitality sector. Starting with a narrative relating COVID-19 to the global development agendas, the book proceeds with a focus on global tourism value chains and linkages between COVID-19 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Other perspectives addressed in separate chapters include impacts of COVID-19 on various industries within the global tourism value chain including aviation, airports, cruise ships, car rentals as well as ride and share car services, hotels, restaurants, sporting, pilgrimage and religious tourism, gaming and entertainment, and the stock market. The book also includes chapters on corporate, philanthropic and public donations, as well as tourism economic stimulus packages. It then concludes with a chapter focusing on building back a better tourism sector post-COVID-19 that strongly draws from the Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030) and the disaster cycle. To this end, this book is suitable as a read for several professionals in disciplines such as tourism and hospitality studies, economics, sustainable development, development studies, environmental sciences, geography, politics, planning and public health.

Taxpayer champion and enrolled agent Bonnie Lee puts the IRS under the microscope and uncovers proven methods, and surprisingly simple strategies to minimize your taxable income, maximize deductions, and, ultimately—add thousands back to your business’ bottom line! Do you owe an insurmountable sum to the IRS? Pay pennies on the dollar. Secret formula the IRS uses to determine an acceptable offer is revealed—Page 246 Save tax dollars simply by reorganizing your workspace—Page 17 Stuff tax dollars back into your pocket by fixing errors on your balance sheet—Page 50 Eat tax-free! Some meal expenses are 100 % deductible. Find out what qualifies—Page 56 Got a great hobby you’re turning into a bona fide business? Deduct the losses by following these guidelines—Page 99 Is your home office a red flag?—Page 107 You inherited Grandma’s house. Do you have to pay taxes on it?—Page 121 Can you write off your clothing?—Page 133 Under IRS audit? Learn “audit speak” to deal effectively with the IRS—Page 215

A vivid character-driven narrative, fused with important new economic and political reporting and research, that busts the myths about middle class decline and points the way to its revival. For over a decade, Jim Tankersley has been on a journey to understand what the hell happened to the world's greatest middle-class success story -- the post-World-War-II boom that faded into decades of stagnation and frustration for American workers. In The Riches of This Land, Tankersley fuses the story of forgotten Americans-- struggling women and men who he met on his journey into the travails of the middle class-- with important new economic and political research, providing fresh understanding how to create a more widespread prosperity. He begins by unraveling the real mystery of the American economy since the 1970s - not where did the jobs go, but why haven't new and better ones been created to replace them. His analysis begins with the revelation that women and minorities played a far more crucial role in building the post-war middle class than today's politicians typically acknowledge, and policies that have done nothing to address the structural shifts of the American economy have enabled a privileged few to capture nearly all the benefits of America's growing prosperity. Meanwhile, the "angry white men of Ohio" have been sold by Trump and his ilk a theory of the economy that is dangerously backward, one that pits them against immigrants, minorities, and women who should be their allies. At the culmination of his journey, Tankersley lays out specific policy prescriptions and social undertakings that can begin moving the needle in the effort to make new and better jobs appear. By fostering an economy that opens new pathways for all workers to reach their full potential -- men and women, immigrant or native-born, regardless of race -- America can once again restore the upward flow of talent that can power growth and prosperity.

There's an 80 percent chance you're poor. Time poor, that is. Four out of five adults report feeling that they have too much to do and not enough time to do it. These time-poor people experience less joy each day. They laugh less. They are less healthy, less productive, and more likely to divorce. In one study, time stress produced a stronger negative effect on happiness than unemployment. How can we escape the time traps that make us feel this way and keep us from living our best lives? Time Smart is your playbook for taking back the time you lose to mindless tasks and unfulfilling chores. Author and Harvard Business School professor Ashley Whillans will give you proven strategies for improving your "time affluence." The techniques Whillans provides will free up seconds, minutes, and hours that, over the long term, become weeks and months that you can reinvest in positive, healthy activities. Time Smart doesn't stop at telling you what to do. It also shows you how to do it, helping you achieve the mindset shift that will make these activities part of your everyday regimen through assessments, checklists, and activities you can use right away. The strategies Whillans presents will help you make the shift to time-smart living and, in the process, build a happier, more fulfilling life.