Greed is a much-maligned quality these days. With everyone running off to Haiti or Africa to volunteer, and renouncing their corporate lifestyles, people have forgotten that greed is what drives this country. If it weren’t for our nation’s top corporate executives, we wouldn’t have gotten to where we are today. Someone has to speak out about the overlooked qualities of greed. There’s been too much whining the widening gap between the haves and have nots. It should be bigger! Ladies, do you want to go out with a guy who has no job and lives with his mother? Of course not! He may be good for a romp in the hay, but let’s face it, there’s no future there. Don’t you ever get tired of hearing about Mother Theresa or Bill Gates, and all the wonderful things they’re doing for nothing? What a bunch of idiots. And if I have to hear about another Hollywood moron who has jetted off to Haiti to “help out” for nothing… I’m going to barf. Who cares about people from Haiti? They don’t contribute anything to the global economy, anyway. So if you’re like us, you’re tired of the snivelers and the whiners. You’ll want to learn more about how you can promote the healthy qualities of greed. Embrace your greedy inner child. This book will transform your life and make you feel great about yourself!

Following her popular Breaking the Threefold Demonic Cord, Sandie Freed offers groundbreaking insight on the spiritual aspect of money, exposing the demonic strongholds behind it.

This book tries to portray the link between economic inequality and long-run growth via human capital and the major take of the book is to analyze the growth panorama through the lens of the ‘idea’ or ‘knowledge’ generation’ which is eventually considered as the ‘engine of growth’ being fueled by productivity enhancement through the innovations of new technologies. But this is not the end of the story as it involves enormous controversies. Simply the controversy started with the basic question --- why are some countries richer than other countries? To put it in another way, why growth is a miracle, why it is not driven homogeneously for economies, or whether the economies would converge or not? Another issue is predominantly crucial, that is, economic inequality in the process of economic expansion. In this context, the present book has given emphasis in explaining the selective growth theories starting from classical foundation to new growth theories including their inner implications in the passage of history of economic growth. In consequence, the vast landscape of theoretical contours about political philosophies and model analyses of economic growth including diverse generic versions of the said link between economic expansion and distribution are explained, and, the most important feature of the textbook is that the link is explored by focusing on a single factor, human capital. The prime emphasis of the present textbook is to look at the link between growth, inequality and human capital accumulation and their resultant outcomes in a new way as New Look by substantiating the issue through empirical analyses relating to the Indian States. The whole journey of the book consists of the political philosophy, models and empirics, the trio, without which the all-around venture of economic theories would become incomplete. For this reason, the whole perspective of empirical analysis is done to keep in mind the necessities of the learners such that they should not feel awkward with a set of data. It is, in that context, the empirical and structural issues are taken up to make the issues distinctively clearer with the presumption that the whole perspective would become, then, more delightful and easy to digest.

For all of the technical explanations for meltdown in the financial markets during the banking crisis, the most readily accepted and almost universal explanation is the single word 'greed'. This is a subject which can at once be seen as the disease at the heart of society and the motivating force behind the progress of mankind.

This book, first published in 1972, describes a Kuwait normally hidden to the eyes of visitors. The author draws upon a vast experience of the country, from both before and after the discovery of oil, and analyses the changes to the physical appearance of the city as well as the changes to the customs and outlook of its people.

Following the detection of the first HIV infections in the early 1980s, by the 1990s Thailand was routinely depicted as having the world’s fastest moving HIV/AIDS epidemic. However, by the early 2000’s the bulk of scholarly and medical AIDS literature portrayed the epidemic as being largely under control, and claimed that Thai AIDS prevention efforts during the 1990s had been successful. Based on long-term ethnographic research conducted in Northern Thailand this book makes an in-depth study of the social construction of Thailand’s HIV/AIDS epidemic over this period. In addition to his own field research the author draws on an extensive corpus of English and Thai language social science and medical HIV/AIDS literature to examine the modeling of Thailand’s AIDS epidemic, and addresses concepts and issues such as risk groups, risk behaviour, alcohol use, gender and class, masculinity, the scapegoating of female prostitutes and men in the underclass, the reporting of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Thailand’s indigenous Thai language media, and sexual activity amongst Thai youth. The analysis demonstrates the contribution of anthropology as an interpretative social science, and the use of anthropological theory and research methods, to finding alternative ways of framing the problems of Thai AIDS and of posing new questions that will lead to more effective points of intervention. It emphasises the necessity for critically reflexive approaches that question the ‘taken for granted’ and demonstrates how qualitative research techniques guided by social theory have the potential to take account of local meanings in complex social contexts where traditional values and cultural practices are rapidly transforming due to economic and social change. The book offers a sustained and powerful criticism of the limitations of the normative model of the Thai AIDS epidemic and, in its aim of promoting critically reflexive AIDS research techniques in order to produce a better understanding of issues ‘on the ground’ and hence better health policy and more effective AIDS interventions, speaks not only to the Thai AIDS epidemic but to AIDS epidemics throughout Southeast Asia and elsewhere. This is the only English language study of Thailand’s HIV/AIDS epidemic to draw on long-term qualitative research in Northern Thailand as well as on a broad range of Thai (and some Khmer language) materials. Its contextualised and subtly nuanced analysis of the AIDS epidemic and of the impact of AIDS control initiatives, in concert with the theoretical and methodological contributions it makes to AIDS research and policy and behavioural interventions, makes it a timely publication of vital interest to scholars in the social sciences, as well as to the members of non-governmental organisations and international organisations working in the HIV/AIDS, health and development fields.

Doing well with money isn’t necessarily about what you know. It’s about how you behave. And behavior is hard to teach, even to really smart people. Money—investing, personal finance, and business decisions—is typically taught as a math-based field, where data and formulas tell us exactly what to do. But in the real world people don’t make financial decisions on a spreadsheet. They make them at the dinner table, or in a meeting room, where personal history, your own unique view of the world, ego, pride, marketing, and odd incentives are scrambled together. In The Psychology of Money, award-winning author Morgan Housel shares 19 short stories exploring the strange ways people think about money and teaches you how to make better sense of one of life’s most important topics.

There is a virtual epidemic of addiction in the United States, both traditional addictions to drugs and alcohol but also newer addictions, like sex, gambling, rage, work, and food/eating. Some authorities have labeled addictions the number one mental health problem in America. We are spending millions of dollars annually trying to prevent, understand, and treat this epidemic--and yet by any measure of success we are losing this "war." In this cultural context Dr. Sullender invites us to look again at the spiritually based scheme of the Seven Deadly Sins, which originated at the dawn of Western civilization. He suggests that what our spiritual forebears meant by "deadly" is best captured in the modern concept of "addiction." Based on this thesis, this book explores what is addictive about the sins of pride, envy, anger, greed, gluttony, sloth, and lust, and suggests that these sins are all obsessive, and as such become the mental component in the addictive cycle. Each chapter concludes by offering some spiritual resources, practices, and insights that can help us win the battle against addiction, which is ultimately won or lost on a mental or spiritual plane.

"'The Dao that can be a road is not the eternal Dao.' The word Dao can be a method to talk about or can be a road to walk on, yet neither meaning can convey the full significance of Dao, the Primal Wisdom." New Daoism analyzes the old Daoist classic Laozi (also called Daodejing) through the prism of the modern anthroposophic teaching of Rudolf Steiner. The author, Kwan-Yuk Claire Sit, has spent more than twenty years diligently studying these two subjects. Such resolute research has enabled her to bring refreshingly new perspectives to both Daoism and Anthroposophy. She cogently explains why Daoism can now be regarded as esoteric Christianity and how the practice of Daoism can lead to the mystical union with the Christ spirit within. Claire Sit provides practical advice on matters such as how to manifest one's wishes. She presents a so-called persist-resist principle--what one persists in wanting will resist appearing--illustrating how calmness and quietude of the mind are conducive to the fulfillment of one's goals. The author's simple and plain language explores deep and subtle aspects of Dao, incorporating numerous anecdotes to illustrate this path of self-realization. Whether a seasoned or new student of Laozi and Anthroposophy, readers will find this book inspiring and informative.