The Subprime Solution: How Today's Global Financial Crisis Happened, and What to Do about It

Review
The subprime crisis has visited ruin on thousands of Americans, and it threatens the health of the global economy. In this timely and fascinating book, Robert Shiller, an expert on irrational behavior in financial markets, conducts a postmortem. How could so many smart people have been so wrong? Shiller concludes that unchecked financial innovation works poorly in asset markets, and he describes the institutions needed to prevent future bubbles.
(Gregory Clark, author of "A Farewell to Alms" )

Product Description

The subprime mortgage crisis has already wreaked havoc on the lives of millions of people and now it threatens to derail the U.S. economy and economies around the world. In this trenchant book, best-selling economist Robert Shiller reveals the origins of this crisis and puts forward bold measures to solve it. He calls for an aggressive response--a restructuring of the institutional foundations of the financial system that will not only allow people once again to buy and sell homes with confidence, but will create the conditions for greater prosperity in America and throughout the deeply interconnected world economy.

Shiller blames the subprime crisis on the irrational exuberance that drove the economy's two most recent bubbles--in stocks in the 1990s and in housing between 2000 and 2007. He shows how these bubbles led to the dangerous overextension of credit now resulting in foreclosures, bankruptcies, and write-offs, as well as a global credit crunch. To restore confidence in the markets, Shiller argues, bailouts are needed in the short run. But he insists that these bailouts must be targeted at low-income victims of subprime deals. In the longer term, the subprime solution will require leaders to revamp the financial framework by deploying an ambitious package of initiatives to inhibit the formation of bubbles and limit risks, including better financial information; simplified legal contracts and regulations; expanded markets for managing risks; home equity insurance policies; income-linked home loans; and new measures to protect consumers against hidden inflationary effects.

This powerful book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how we got into the subprime mess--and how we can get out.


From the Inside Flap

"The subprime crisis has visited ruin on thousands of Americans, and it threatens the health of the global economy. In this timely and fascinating book, Robert Shiller, an expert on irrational behavior in financial markets, conducts a postmortem. How could so many smart people have been so wrong? Shiller concludes that unchecked financial innovation works poorly in asset markets, and he describes the institutions needed to prevent future bubbles."--Gregory Clark, author of A Farewell to Alms

"Reading this exciting book is like watching a skilled surgeon at work. The diagnosis of the subprime mortgage mess is biting in its intensity--the best I have seen--and encompasses the human tragedy as well as the economic and financial crisis. The recommended therapy develops logically from Shiller's analysis and is unique in concept as well as powerful in application. The crystal-clear writing style makes his manifesto a pleasure to read."--Peter L. Bernstein, author of Capital Ideas: The Improbable Origins of Modern Wall Street and Capital Ideas Evolving

"Robert Shiller is a visionary."--Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

"Rigorous, innovative, and accessible, The Subprime Solution is a wonderful book that will appeal to a wide audience. Robert Shiller is uniquely qualified to analyze the recent unprecedented problems in the mortgage and housing markets, and the way they have spilled over into the wider credit markets. He has again proven his ability to communicate complex ideas and evidence about financial markets."--Diane Coyle, author of The Soulful Science


About the Author
Robert J. Shiller is the best-selling author of "Irrational Exuberance" and "The New Financial Order" (both Princeton), among other books. He is the Arthur M. Okun Professor of Economics at Yale University.

Greenspan's Bubbles: The Age of Ignorance at the Federal Reserve

Product Description

No matter who you are-investor, trader, homeowner, 401(k) holder, or CEO-you are bound to feel the impact of Alan Greenspan's “Age of Ignorance” for years to come.

According to MSN Money columnist William A. Fleckenstein, Greenspan's nearly 19-year career as Federal Reserve Chairman is even worse than anyone imagined. Labeled “Mr. Bubble” by the New York Times, Greenspan was nothing less than a serial bubble blower with a long history of bad decision-making. His famous “Greenspan Put” fueled the perception of a Goldilocks economy-but, as this explosive exposé reveals, the bear has finally caught up with Goldilocks.

Using transcripts of Greenspan's FOMC meetings as well as testimony before Congress, this eye-opening book delivers a timeline of his most devastating mistakes and weaves together the connection between every economic calamity of the past 19 years:

* The stock market crash of 1987
* The Savings & Loan crisis
* The collapse of Long Term Capital Management
* The tech bubble of 2000
* The feared Y2K disaster
* The credit bubble and real estate crisis of 2007

Fleckenstein explains just how far-reaching Greenspan's mess has been flung, and presents damning evidence that contradicts the former Fed chief's public naiveté concerning shifts in the market and economy. He also points to a disturbing fact, that throughout his career, Greenspan not only made costly mistakes, but made the same ones-over and over again. And not only was he never able to recognize or admit to those mistakes, he constantly rewrote his own history to justify them.

Greenspan's Bubbles offers a lock-stock-and-barrel portrait of a flawed but fascinating man whose words and actions have led a whole generation astray, and whose legacy will continue to challenge us in the years ahead.


From the Back Cover

PRAISE FOR

GREENSPAN'S BUBBLES

“After reading Greenspan's Bubbles you will have no respect for the Fed! It's a must-read…in it, the authors demystify the belief that the Fed 'solves' problems when, in fact, it is directly responsible for a colossal destruction of wealth of the median household and of the U.S. currency through its irresponsible monetary policies.”-Marc Faber, editor of the Gloom, Boom & Doom Report

“Greenspan for Mt. Rushmore? Not if Bill Fleckenstein has anything to say about it.”-James Grant, editor of Grant's Interest Rate Observer

“In his typically engaging style, Bill Fleckenstein pops the Greenspan bubble…presenting compelling and convincing evidence that the former Fed chief got us into this mess...”-Herb Greenberg, Senior Columnist, MarketWatch.com

Financial Shock: A 360º Look at the Subprime Mortgage Implosion, and How to Avoid the Next Financial Crisis

From the Back Cover

“If you wonder how it could be possible for a subprime mortgage loan to bring the global financial system and the U.S. economy to its knees, you should read this book. No one is better qualified to provide this insight and advice than Mark Zandi.”

—Larry Kudlow, Host, CNBC's Kudlow & Company



“Every once in a while a book comes along that’s so important, it commands recognition. This is one of them. Zandi provides a brilliant blow-by-blow account of how greed, stupidity, and recklessness brought the first major economic crises of the 21st century and the most serious since the Great Depression.”

–Bernard Baumohl, Managing Director, The Economic Outlook Group and
best-selling author, The Secrets of Economic Indicators



“Throughout the financial crisis Mark Zandi has played two important roles. He has insightfully analyzed its causes and thoughtfully recommended steps to alleviate it. This book continues those tasks and adds a third–providing a comprehensive and comprehensible explanation of the issues that is accessible to the general public and extremely useful to those who specialize in the area.”

—Barney Frank, Chairman, House Financial Services Committee



The subprime crisis created a gigantic financial catastrophe. What happened? How did it happen? How can we prevent similar crises from happening again? Mark Zandi answers all these critical questions–systematically, carefully, and in plain English.



Zandi begins with a fast-paced overview and then illuminates the deepest causes, from the psychology of homeownership to Alan Greenspan’s missteps. You’ll see the home “flippers” at work and the real estate agents who cheered them on. You’ll learn how Internet technology and access to global capital transformed the mortgage industry, helping irresponsible lenders drive out good ones.



Zandi demystifies the complex financial engineering that enabled lenders to hide deepening risks, shows how global investors eagerly bought in, and explains
how flummoxed regulators failed to prevent disaster, despite crucial warning signs.



Most important, Zandi offers indispensable advice for investors who must recognize emerging bubbles, policymakers who must improve oversight, and citizens who must survive whatever comes next.



Liar’s loans, flippers, predatory lenders, delusional homebuilders

How the housing market came unhinged, and the whirlwind came together



Alan Greenspan’s trillion-dollar bet

Betting on the boom, ignoring the bubble



The subprime market goes global

Worldwide investors get a piece of the action–and reap the results



Wall Street’s alchemists: conjuring up Frankenstein

New financial instruments and their hidden contents



Back to the future: risk management for the 21st century

Respecting the “animal spirits” that drive even the most sophisticated markets


About the Author

Mark Zandi is Chief Economist and co-founder of Moody’s Economy.com, Inc., where he directs the firm’s research and consulting activities. Moody’s Economy.com is an independent subsidiary of the Moody’s Corporation and provides economic research and consulting services to global businesses, governments and other institutions. His research interests include macroeconomic and financial economics, and his recent areas of research include an assessment of the economic impacts of various tax and government spending policies, the incorporation of economic information into credit risk analysis, and an assessment of the appropriate policy response to real estate and stock market bubbles. He received his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, where he did his PhD research with Gerard Adams and Nobel Laureate Lawrence Klein, and his BS degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Real Estate Investing for Dummies

Product Description
"This is simply the best book on the topic.”
—Randall Bell, Author, Home Owner's Manual

"Tyson and Griswold have truly opened the world of real estate investing to all by tackling often complex issues in this easy to understand and use book. I can't think of a better way to get smart about building wealth through rental properties than to read their excellent Real Estate Investing For Dummies!"
—Vern Hoven, CPA

Non-prime time TV is cluttered with infomercials about how you can buy non-prime real estate for next to nothing and get rich quick. Common sense should tell you that’s an exaggeration. (If common sense doesn’t tell you, bankers will.) Nevertheless, it is possible to get rich gradually by investing in real estate. Long term, you can expect to realize an annual return of 8 to 10% a year.

Real Estate Investing for Dummies gives you the keys to successful real estate investment, whether it’s in single family homes and condos, apartments, vacation homes, commercial properties (office, industrial, and retail), raw land, or REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts). With guidance from authors Eric Tyson, MBA, a financial counselor, and Robert S. Griswold, a veteran real estate investor, you’ll discover how to:

* Find and buy the best properties at a fair price
* Capitalize on opportunities such as foreclosures, no money down deals, auctions, tax sales, and more
* Secure financing and good mortgage terms
* Value, evaluate, and negotiate everything to do with real estate
* Work with agents and other professionals
* Project income potential and cash flow
* Handle contracts, inspections, and closings

Whether you’re interested in a fixer supper for rental, premier office space you can lease, or a vacation home you can enjoy and rent, when you become a buyer, you also become a landlord. That means you can hear from tenants any time, night or day. It means you may not hear from them when the rent is due. Real Estate Investing for Dummies also helps you:

* Find and keep good tenants
* Negotiate lease agreements
* Insure and maintain your property
* Keep good records for tax and accounting purposes

Remember, with any deal, you have to know when to hold them and know when to fold them. So Real Estate Investing for Dummies gives you guidelines on when and how to sell and how to reinvest to build wealth. It also lists 10 real estate investments you shouldn’t touch with a 10-foot pole. Especially if you’re tempted by those late-night infomercials, that warning could save you a fortune!

From the Back Cover
Packed with tips on buying, financing, and improving properties

With up-to-date information on all your mortgage options.
From homes and apartment buildings to commercial and industrial properties, this friendly guide covers a wealth of real estate investments and financing options. With practical tools and expert advice, top real estate authors Eric Tyson and Robert Griswold help you maximize your investments - and watch your profits grow.

Praise for Real Estate Investing For Dummies.
"This is simply the best book on the topic."
--Randall Bell, Author, Home Owner's Manual

"Tyson and Griswold have truly opened the world of real estate investing to all by tackling often complex issues in this easy to understand and use book. I can't think of a better way to get smart about building wealth through rental properties than to read their excellent Real Estate Investing For Dummies!"
--Vern Hoven, CPA.

Discover how to:

*
Make real estate a part of you long-term investment plan
*
Pick the best properties for profit and your situation
*
Get the best deals on financing
*
Master the art of property valuation
*
Manage your risk and insure your properties

Get Smart! @www.dummies.com

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Find listings of all our books
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Home Buying For Dummies, 3rd edition

Amazon.com
This may be the best comprehensive guide for home buyers. Home Buying for Dummies is coauthored by Eric Tyson, author of several other books in the For Dummies series, and Ray Brown, a long-time real estate professional. Like other books in the series, this one is an easy and even entertaining read. But it does not gloss over details in pursuit of simplicity. Home Buying for Dummies covers all the bases, providing clear explanations and reasonable judgments on how to select a mortgage, hire a real estate agent, find the right house, and negotiate a good deal. The book goes further than most in providing helpful, specific information. For example, in discussing ways to save money for a future down payment, Home Buying for Dummies even includes the phone numbers for various mutual funds appropriate to different investment time frames. --Barry Mitzman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
Though fun and exciting, buying a home can also be complicated and confusing—and most people learn the hard way that a wrong move can cost dearly. In order to find the perfect home at the best price, you must have skill, foresight, and a little guidance from experienced professionals.

Home Buying for Dummies, Third Edition provides just that! Packed with invaluable advice in an objective, down-to-earth style that will have you sitting in your dream home in no time, this friendly guide contains everything you need to know to play the home buying game. It has the tools you need to:

* Improve your credit score and select a mortgage
* Choose a time and place to buy
* Determine the price you want to pay
* Assemble an all-star real estate team
* Make use of the wonderful world of the Internet
* Negotiate your best deal
* Inspect and protect your home
* Handle and become responsible for the title
* Cope with buyer’s remorse

Featured in this guide are tips and tricks on things you should do after you seal the deal, as well as things you ought to know about real estate investing. Also included is advice on how to sell your house, as well as a sample real estate purchase contract and a good inspection report. Don’t get chewed up by the real estate market—Home Buying for Dummies, Third Edition will lead you to the home you want!

From the Back Cover

"If you are considering buying a home, don't fail to read this excellent new book."
—Robert Bruss, real estate columnist, about Home Buying For Dummies, 1st Edition

In the market for a home, but don't know where to start? Not to worry! From financing, mortgages, and credit scores to closing the deal, bestselling real estate authors Eric Tyson and Ray Brown walk you step by step through the entire home-buying process.

Discover how to

* Harness the Internet to help in your search
* Determine how much home you can afford
* Select the right type of mortgage
* Work with agents, brokers, lenders, and lawyers
* Research neighborhoods and home values



About the Author
Ray Brown, a real estate professional for more than 30 years, hosts a real estate radio show in San Francisco.

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

Amazon.com's Best of 2001
Essayist and cultural critic Barbara Ehrenreich has always specialized in turning received wisdom on its head with intelligence, clarity, and verve. With some 12 million women being pushed into the labor market by welfare reform, she decided to do some good old-fashioned journalism and find out just how they were going to survive on the wages of the unskilled--at $6 to $7 an hour, only half of what is considered a living wage. So she did what millions of Americans do, she looked for a job and a place to live, worked that job, and tried to make ends meet.

As a waitress in Florida, where her name is suddenly transposed to "girl," trailer trash becomes a demographic category to aspire to with rent at $675 per month. In Maine, where she ends up working as both a cleaning woman and a nursing home assistant, she must first fill out endless pre-employment tests with trick questions such as "Some people work better when they're a little bit high." In Minnesota, she works at Wal-Mart under the repressive surveillance of men and women whose job it is to monitor her behavior for signs of sloth, theft, drug abuse, or worse. She even gets to experience the humiliation of the urine test.

So, do the poor have survival strategies unknown to the middle class? And did Ehrenreich feel the "bracing psychological effects of getting out of the house, as promised by the wonks who brought us welfare reform?" Nah. Even in her best-case scenario, with all the advantages of education, health, a car, and money for first month's rent, she has to work two jobs, seven days a week, and still almost winds up in a shelter. As Ehrenreich points out with her potent combination of humor and outrage, the laws of supply and demand have been reversed. Rental prices skyrocket, but wages never rise. Rather, jobs are so cheap as measured by the pay that workers are encouraged to take as many as they can. Behind those trademark Wal-Mart vests, it turns out, are the borderline homeless. With her characteristic wry wit and her unabashedly liberal bent, Ehrenreich brings the invisible poor out of hiding and, in the process, the world they inhabit--where civil liberties are often ignored and hard work fails to live up to its reputation as the ticket out of poverty. --Lesley Reed --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
In contrast to recent books by Michael Lewis and Dinesh D'Souza that explore the lives and psyches of the New Economy's millionares, Ehrenreich (Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle Class, etc.) turns her gimlet eye on the view from the workforce's bottom rung. Determined to find out how anyone could make ends meet on $7 an hour, she left behind her middle class life as a journalist except for $1000 in start-up funds, a car and her laptop computer to try to sustain herself as a low-skilled worker for a month at a time. In 1999 and 2000, Ehrenreich worked as a waitress in Key West, Fla., as a cleaning woman and a nursing home aide in Portland, Maine, and in a Wal-Mart in Minneapolis, Minn. During the application process, she faced routine drug tests and spurious "personality tests"; once on the job, she endured constant surveillance and numbing harangues over infractions like serving a second roll and butter. Beset by transportation costs and high rents, she learned the tricks of the trade from her co-workers, some of whom sleep in their cars, and many of whom work when they're vexed by arthritis, back pain or worse, yet still manage small gestures of kindness. Despite the advantages of her race, education, good health and lack of children, Ehrenreich's income barely covered her month's expenses in only one instance, when she worked seven days a week at two jobs (one of which provided free meals) during the off-season in a vacation town. Delivering a fast read that's both sobering and sassy, she gives readers pause about those caught in the economy's undertow, even in good times.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-Between 1998 and 2000, Ehrenreich spent about three months in three cities throughout the nation, attempting to "get by" on the salary available to low-paid and unskilled workers. Beginning with advantages not enjoyed by many such individuals-she is white, English-speaking, educated, healthy, and unburdened with transportation or child-care worries-she tried to support herself by working as a waitress, a cleaning woman, a nursing-home aide, and a Wal-Mart employee. She discovered that her average salary of $7 per hour couldn't even provide the necessities of life (rent, transportation, and food), let alone the luxury of health coverage. Her account is at once enraging and sobering. In straightforward language, she describes how labor-intensive, demeaning, and controlling such jobs can be: she scrubbed floors on her hands and knees, and found out that talking to coworkers while on the job was considered "time theft." She describes full-time workers who sleep in their cars because they cannot afford housing and employees who yearn for the ability to "take a day off now and then-and still be able to buy groceries the next day." In a concluding chapter, Ehrenreich takes on issues and questions posed before and during the experiment, including why these wages are so low, why workers are so accepting of them, and what Washington's refusal to increase the minimum wage to a realistic "living wage" says about both our economy and our culture. Mandatory reading for any workforce entrant.

Dori DeSpain, Fairfax County Public Library, VA

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
A close observer and astute analyzer of American life (The Worst Years of Our Life and The Fear of Falling), Ehrenreich turns her attention to what it is like trying to subsist while working in low-paying jobs. Inspired to see what boom times looked like from the bottom, she hides her real identity and attempts to make a life on a salary of just over $300 per week after taxes. She is often forced to work at two jobs, leaving her time and energy for little else than sleeping and working. Ehrenreich vividly describes her experiences living in isolated trailers and dilapidated motels while working as a nursing-home aide, a Wal-Mart "sales associate," a cleaning woman, a waitress, and a hotel maid in three states Florida, Maine, and Minnesota. Her narrative is candid, often moving, and very revealing. Looking back on her experiences, Ehrenreich claims that the hardest thing for her to accept is the "invisibility of the poor"; one sees them daily in restaurants, hotels, discount stores, and fast-food chains but one doesn't recognize them as "poor" because, after all, they have jobs. No real answers to the problem but a compelling sketch of its reality and pervasiveness.
- Jack Forman, San Diego Mesa Coll. Lib.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From The New Yorker
This exposé puts human flesh on the bones of such abstractions as "living wage" and "affordable housing." Ehrenreich worked, for a month at a time, at "unskilled" jobs—as a waitress and chambermaid in Florida, a housecleaner and nursing-home aide in Maine, a Wal-Mart clerk in Minnesota—to report on how people survive on wages of six or seven dollars an hour. In an easy, conversational style, she brings us the daily life of the working poor and shows that their diligence and good nature cannot earn them a place to live—a social worker advised Ehrenreich to move to a shelter—or medical or dental care or, in some cases, enough to eat. In her last chapter, Ehrenreich suggests that the working poor are "the major philanthropists of our society," sacrificing their families, their health, their privacy, and their leisure so that the rest of us can live more cheaply and conveniently.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

The New York Times
"One of today's most original writers." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The Boston Globe
"Ehrenreich's scorn withers, her humor stings, and her radical light shines on." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist
This is social critic Ehrenreich's twelfth book, an on-the-job study of how a single mother (or anyone else) leaving welfare could survive without government assistance in the form of food stamps, Medicaid, and housing and child-care subsidies. To find the answers, Ehrenreich left her home in Key West and traveled from Florida to Maine and then to Minnesota, working in low-paying Jobs. Ehrenreich, who holds a Ph.D. in biology, resolved not to fall back on any skills derived from her education or usual work and to take the cheapest accommodations in motels and trailer parks as long as there was "an acceptable level of safety and privacy." The "working poor," Ehrenreich concludes, "are in fact the major philanthropists of our society. They neglect their own children so that the children of others will be cared for; they live in substandard housing so that other homes will be shiny and perfect; they endure privation so that inflation will be low and stock prices high." George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Molly Ivins
"Reading Ehrenreich is good for the soul." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
". . . you will read this explosive little book cover to cover and pass it on to all your friends and relatives."--Diana Henriques, The New York Times [Business Section]"Jarring, full of riveting grit . . . This book is already unforgettable."--Susannah Meadows, Newsweek"Angry, amusing . . . An in-your-face expose."--Anne Colamosca, Business Week"With grace and wit, Ehrenreich discovers . . . the irony of being nickel and dimed during unprecedented prosperity."--Eileen Boris, The Boston Globe"Ehrenreich is a superb and relaxed stylist [with] a tremendous sense of rueful humor."--Stephen Metcalf, Los Angeles Times Book Review"Barbara Ehrenreich . . . is our premier reporter of the underside of capitalism."--Dorothy Gallagher, The New York Times Book


Diane Sawyer
"Barbara Ehrenreich is smart, provocative, funny, and sane in a world that needs more of all four." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Studs Terkel
"Nickel and Dimed is a stiff punch in the nose to those righteous apostles of 'welfare reform.' . . . Bravo!" --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Juliet Schor
"Vintage Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed will surely take its place among the classics of underground reportage." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Frances Fox Piven
"Ehrenreich's courage and empathy bring us face-to-face with the fate of millions of American workers today." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Naomi Klein
". . . expertly peels away the layers of self-denial, self-interest, and self-protection that separate the rich from the poor." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Mike Davis
"No one since H.L. Mencken has assailed the smug rhetoric of prosperity with such scalpel-like precision and ferocious wit." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Lynn Woolsey, member of congress
"Barbara Ehrenreich's book forces people to acknowledge the average worker's struggle, and promises to be extremely influential." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
". . . you will read this explosive little book cover to cover and pass it on to all your friends and relatives."
--Diana Henriques, The New York Times [Business Section]

"Jarring, full of riveting grit . . . This book is already unforgettable."
--Susannah Meadows, Newsweek

"Angry, amusing . . . An in-your-face expose."
--Anne Colamosca, Business Week

"With grace and wit, Ehrenreich discovers . . . the irony of being nickel and dimed during unprecedented prosperity."
--Eileen Boris, The Boston Globe

"Ehrenreich is a superb and relaxed stylist [with] a tremendous sense of rueful humor."
--Stephen Metcalf, Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Barbara Ehrenreich . . . is our premier reporter of the underside of capitalism."
--Dorothy Gallagher, The New York Times Book


Product Description
The New York Times bestseller, and one of the most talked about books of the year, Nickel and Dimed has already become a classic of undercover reportage.Millions of Americans work for poverty-level wages, and one day Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that any job equals a better life. But how can anyone survive, let alone prosper, on $6 to $7 an hour? To find out, Ehrenreich moved from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, taking the cheapest lodgings available and accepting work as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing-home aide, and Wal-Mart salesperson. She soon discovered that even the "lowliest" occupations require exhausting mental and physical efforts. And one job is not enough; you need at least two if you intend to live indoors.Nickel and Dimed reveals low-wage America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and surprising generosity -- a land of Big Boxes, fast food, and a thousand desperate strategies for survival. Instantly acclaimed for its insight, humor, and passion, this book is changing the way America perceives its working poor.


About the Author
Barbara Ehrenreich is the author of twelve books, including the New York Times bestseller The Worst Years of Our Lives, as well as Fear of Falling and Blood Rites. She lives near Key West, Florida.


Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
It is hotter inside than out, but I do all right until I encounter the banks of glass doors. Each one has to be Windexed, wiped, and buffed—inside and out, top to bottom, left to right—until it's as streakless and invisible as a material substance can be. Outside, I can see construction guys knocking back Gatorade, but the rule is that no fluid or food item can touch a maid's lips when she's inside a house. I sweat without replacement or pause, not in individual drops but in continuous sheets of fluid, soaking through my polo shirt, pouring down the backs of my legs. Working my way through the living room(s), I wonder if Mrs. W. will ever have occasion to realize that every single doodad and object through which she expresses her unique, individual self is, from the vantage point of a maid, only an obstacle on the road to a glass of water.


Excerpted from Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. Copyright © 2002. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
It is hotter inside than out, but I do all right until I encounter the banks of glass doors. Each one has to be Windexed, wiped, and buffed-inside and out, top to bottom, left to right, until it's as streakless and invisible as a material substance can be. Outside, I can see construction guys knocking back Gatorade, but the rule is that no fluid or food item can touch a maid's lips when she's inside a house. I sweat without replacement or pause, not in individual drops but in continuous sheets of fluid, soaking through my polo shirt, pouring down the backs of my legs. Working my way through the living room(s), I wonder if Mrs. W. will ever have occasion to realize that every single doodad and object through which she expresses her unique, individual self is, from the vantage point of a maid, only an obstacle on the road to a glass of water.

How to Go to College Almost for Free

From Publishers Weekly
While still in high school, Ben Kaplan won more than two dozen merit-based scholarships amounting to more than $90,000 in funds for use at any school. After graduating from Harvard magna cum laude in 2001, he self-published How to Go to College Almost for Free: The Secrets of Winning Scholarship Money, selling more than 65,000 copies out of a custom tour bus dedicated to raising awareness about scholarships. Now reissued, his book offers advice on how to find and win money for college, delivered in an energetic and inspiring voice with broad appeal.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Kaplan parlayed intelligence, hard work, and creativity into $90,000 of scholarship money, then graduated from Harvard to write a book designed to help others negotiate their way to unencumbered college cash. His guide, self-published in 2000 by Waggle Dancer Press, is now available, totally revised and updated, in this trade paperback edition. Although loosely organized and sometimes repetitive, the book is filled with useful information, beginning with the happy news that merit awards aren't the sole province of gifted athletes and top students. There's also plenty on how scholarships affect college-aid packages, locating and applying for coveted cash, and even handling telephone interviews. Scattered throughout are references to awards and Web sites, including Kaplan's own. Stephanie Zvirin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Mark Victor Hansen, co-author of the bestselling Chicken Soup for the Soul series
"College offers the keys to the kingdom, and Ben's brilliant book offers the keys to winning college scholarships--and even going to college for free! This is a must-read book." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Rocco Marano, Director of Student Activities National Association of Secondary School Principals
"Ben's book speaks directly to students in their language, with practical tips and interesting insights into the winning attitude."

Stedman Graham Author, You Can Make It Happen
"Ben made it happen and he shows how anyone in pursuit of college cash can make it happen too."

U.S. Senator John F. Kerry
"Ben's advice really does get results... not just to attend college, but to attend almost any college practically for free."

Product Description
Make your educational dreams come true!

Worried about how to pay for college? Afraid of drowning in a sea of student debt? Sure, Ben Kaplan once felt that way too. But that was before he discovered that there are billions of scholarship dollars out there for students with all types of interests, skills, and backgrounds. After winning enough college cash to cover virtually the entire cost of his dream school, he's written an indispensable guide that shows you how to stake your own scholarship claim.

Now in this fully revised and updated edition, Ben distills his proven step-by-step game plan that positions you to win big money for college -- regardless of your age, GPA, financial situation, or family background. With humor and insight, he reveals insider secrets for successfully finding, applying for, and winning lucrative scholarship awards -- empowering you with the information, inspiration, and know-how to afford the college of your choice and realize your educational dreams.

Special Note: As a valued reader of this book, you also receive access to the Coach's Locker Room at Ben Kaplan's ScholarshipCoach.com website. The Coach's Locker Room provides a wealth of bonus material, updates to information contained in How to Go to College Almost for Free, question and answer postings, and other helpful resources.


From the Publisher
How To Go To College Almost For Free is the ultimate scholarship toolbox--the "bible" for scholarship seekers of all ages. Inside this one-of-a-kind book, you'll find four essential scholarship resources:

-- An aggressive "how-to" guide that teaches you the techniques and tactics of top scholarship winners.

-- A valuable directory of scholarship prizes that you can use at any college, plus insider tips on winning each award.

-- An extensive library of winning essays, applications, support letters, forms, and other sample materials.

-- Access to a companion Reader's Resource Room (located at WinScholarships.com) that alerts you to the latest contest news, and provides helpful interactive coaching.

For more information about the book, please see the Waggle Dancer Books Website (www.waggledancer.com). --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Author
Greetings from Oregon! My name is Benjamin Kaplan, and I'm the author of How To Go To College Almost For Free. In writing the book, I've tried to make it the comprehensive guidebook that I wish I'd had when I embarked on my own scholarship quest. The book details the proven strategies, powerful principles, and guerrilla tactics that all scholarship seekers need to know. I've also included plenty of examples, anecdotes, and sample materials to make the book especially useful. And for you parents out there, I've developed special sections that show you how to best help your children win college scholarships (including some insights from my parents, too).

So best of luck on your scholarship quest! Remember, a college education is far too important to settle for the cheapest path. Rebel against those who say that financial constraints make it impossible for you or your child to attend this or that school. Fight back against college budget offices that habitually increase tuition bills, while their financial aid allocations fail to keep up. Steer clear of that dreaded student debt. Winning scholarships changed my life. And it can for you too!

Best wishes,

Benjamin Kaplan --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Ben Kaplan won more than two dozen scholarships -- amassing nearly $90,000 in unrestricted college cash for use at any school. In 1999, he graduated from Harvard debt-free, with virtually the entire cost of his education covered by his scholarship winnings.

In addition to writing The Scholarship Scouting Report, Kaplan is the author of How to Go to College Almost for Free and Scholarship Seeker’s Toolbox -- the three books forming an essential paying-for-college trilogy for students of all ages. Kaplan has also written numerous articles on winning scholarships, including columns for The New York Times and U.S. News & World Report, that have been syndicated in publications nationwide. He has been featured on hundreds of television and radio programs, including appearances on Oprah, NBC, CBS, and National Public Radio.

Known internationally as "The Scholarship Coach," Kaplan has served as the resident scholarship adviser at some of the Internet’s most popular scholarship search websites, and is the founder of ScholarshipCoach.com, the leading online scholarship advice portal.

Kaplan currently resides in Portland, Oregon, and can be contacted at Ben@ScholarshipCoach.com via e-mail.

Excerpted from How to Go to College Almost for Free by Ben Kaplan. Copyright © 2001. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Several features of this book are designed to make the material especially useful. Because I believe in being as specific as possible, the book is chock-full of examples. I've reprinted many examples from my own scholarship applications -- including a lot of winning material from the same scholarship applications that many of you are likely to fill out yourselves.

Throughout this new edition you'll also find 28 "Ask the Coach" boxes, where I answer the most frequently asked and thought-provoking questions posed to me during my Scholarship Coach National Tour workshops and on my ScholarshipCoach.com website. (You'll be able to recognize these special sections by looking for the graphic shown left.) You'll undoubtedly find that many of these questions are the very ones you've been asking. A list of the "Ask the Coach" boxes and the pages on which they appear is given in the table of contents and in the index.

I've also taken great pains, in this new edition, to make the sections on searching for scholarships the most up-to-date and comprehensive information on the planet (or any other planet!). After logging hundreds of hours on the Web searching for scholarships, I have substantially expanded or entirely revamped sections on Internet scholarship sleuthing. I've profiled the leading scholarship databases and rated each one on key criteria so you'll know what to expect and be able to spend your time where it counts.

To avoid the one-size-fits-all approach found in most how-to books, I have included sections outlining custom-tailored resources and strategies for particular groups of applicants. To help you find the material especially relevant to you, I've included icons in the left margins (like the ones shown here) that identify sections of special importance to specific types of scholarship seekers. I've included icons for parents, graduate students, adult returning students, younger students (age 15 or younger), international students, minority students, homeschoolers, student-athletes, and students who wish to study abroad. A depiction of all nine icons can be found in the table of contents.

Sixteen "Guerrilla Tactics" also appear throughout the book. Guerrilla Tactics are unconventional, yet extremely effective, techniques that will give you a competitive edge over other scholarship seekers. You'll find these Guerrilla Tactics alongside one of the many gorilla (pun totally intended!) graphics found in the book. A list of the Guerrilla Tactics and the pages on which they appear is given in the table of contents and index.

Each chapter concludes with a Chapter Summary that distills its main points. The summaries reinforce, in a compact way, the book's most important concepts and provide a Jiminy Cricket-like reminder checklist that you can repeatedly refer back to.

Outrage: How Illegal Immigration, the United Nations, Congressional Ripoffs, Student Loan Overcharges, Tobacco Companies, Trade Protection, and Drug C

Product Description

Dick Morris and Eileen McGann are outrage—and you should be, too!

* Half of all illegal immigrants came into this country legally—and we have no way of knowing they're still here!
* Congressmen are putting their wives on their campaign payrolls!
* The UN is a cover for massive corruption!
* Drug companies pay off doctors to write scrips—whether we need them or not!
* Teachers unions block the firing of bad teachers—and battle against higher education standards!
* Katrina victims are being stiffed by their insurance companies!
* Special interests cost our consumers $45 billion through trade quotas that save only a handful of jobs!

Unaware of these abuses? It's not surprising since the mainstream media don't talk about them. Too many powerful people are working very hard to cover them up. But in Outrage, New York Times bestselling authors Dick Morris and Eileen McGann give you the cold, hard facts you won't read about anywhere else—and offer tough, common-sense proposals on how to fight the special interests of the left and right . . . so we can start making these outrageous inequities things of the past!


About the Author

Dick Morris served as Bill Clinton's political consultant for twenty years. A regular political commentator on Fox News and other networks, he is the author of six New York Times bestsellers (all with Eileen McGann), including Outrage, and one Washington Post bestseller.

Confessions of a Subprime Lender: An Insider's Tale of Greed, Fraud, and Ignorance

Product Description
Former subprime lender Richard Bitner once worked in an industry that started out helping disadvantaged customers but collapsed due to greed, lack of financial control and willful ignorance. In Confessions of a Subprime Lender: An Insider's Tale of Greed, Fraud, and Ignorance, he reveals the truth about how the subprime lending business spiraled out of control, pushed home prices to unsustainable levels, and turned unqualified applicants into qualified borrowers through creative financing. Learn about the ways the mortgage industry can be fixed with his twenty suggestions for critical change.

From the Back Cover
Real Estate

One insider's rollercoaster account of the subprime implosion

Richard Bitner founded his own subprime mortgage company just as the industry took off. In five years, he watched his company grow from a tiny operation to a booming business. But something wasn't right...

As housing prices skyrocketed, Bitner watched greed and fraud overtake the industry. Eventually, he became disenchanted after foreclosing on a subprime borrower who was given a legitimate, industry-standard mortgage—a loan Bitner realized never should have been made. Seeing the ugly writing on the wall, he sold his stake in the business before the industry imploded under a mountain of bad debt.

Confessions of a Subprime Lender pulls back the curtain on the players who created the subprime disaster, including brokers, lenders, Wall Street investment firms, and rating agencies who worked the system to their advantage. From his unique perspective as a subprime lender, Bitner reveals:

*

Why nearly three out of every four mortgages were misleading or fraudulent
*

How unscrupulous brokers tricked lenders and gullible borrowers
*

How brokers and lenders turned unqualified applicants into "qualified borrowers"
*

Why Wall Street and the rating agencies are largely to blame for the collapse

Interwoven with dramatic personal anecdotes, Confessions of a Subprime Lender explains how the subprime industry blew up and concludes with a comprehensive solution for rebuilding it by forcing changes on all the key players.

"Bitner's thorough review of the subprime lending industry provides a behind-the-scenes look at the mortgage mess. From the broker on Main Street to the investor on Wall Street, it's an unabridged version of what went wrong and how it needs to be fixed."
—Bill Dallas, founder, First Franklin Mortgage, one of America's largest subprime lenders, before it collapsed

"This is an in-depth, eye-opening examination of the problems impacting the housing and mortgage markets."
—Matthew McIntyre, CEO, Puritan Financial Group, Inc.

About the Author

Richard Bitner was president and cofounder of Kellner Mortgage Investments, a subprime mortgage company that peaked at sixty-five employees and $225 million in annual loan volume. He is Managing Director for Housing Wire, a leading mortgage industry online publication.

Visit Richard's blog at www.lendingsanity.com.