A biography of Mantello, born in 1901 to the Orthodox Jewish family of Mandl in Transylvania. As a businessman, he became honorary consul of El Salvador for several East European countries; in 1942-45 he served as first secretary of the El Salvador consulate in Geneva. With the approval of the consul general, Mantello provided thousands of Jews in Hungary and Transylvania with protective papers. In addition, during 1941-44 he gathered information on the Nazi Final Solution, including operations at Auschwitz. In 1944, using this data, he initiated two press campaigns in Switzerland which alerted that country and the entire world to the Nazi genocide of Jews. The first press campaign forced Horthy to stop the deportations. Dwells, also, on the activities of Florin Manoliu, a Romanian businessman who helped Mantello. During the war, Mantello was arrested several times by Swiss authorities on superficial pretexts. After an inquiry into his wartime activities in the 1950s, Mantello was forgotten and recalled only shortly before his death in 1992.

"In a spirited reappraisal of Western views of the East and Eastern views of the West, Bernard Lewis gives us an overview of two thousand years of commerce, diplomacy, war and exploration." "Western businessmen - from the arms dealers who supplied Saladin with weapons to fight the Crusaders to the first oil prospectors - have seen great possibilities in the markets of the Middle East. And throughout the centuries, East and West have met in battle. We witness the outbreak of the Crimean War with Karl Marx and enter Egypt with Napoleon. We visit Baghdad and Cairo with George F. Kennan during World War II."

LARGE PRINT EDITION! More at LargePrintLiberty.com. This book is a masterpiece of argumentation, and shockingly radical in its conclusions. Rothbard says that the very existence of the state--the entity with a monopoly privilege to invade private property--is contrary to the ethics of liberty. A society without a state is not only viable; it is the only one consistent with natural rights. In this volume, Rothbard first familiarizes the reader with Natural Law theory. After this ethical introduction, he goes on to address numerous ethical issues, showing how liberty is in the right in every case. In the final two sections, Rothbard enumerates the state's role in society as inherently anti-liberty, and details the structure of alternate theories of liberty.

'Buy British!' we often hear, and many foreign companies have done just that. US food giant Kraft bought Cadbury in 2010, Dutch group AkzoNobel acquired ICI in 2007, Deutsche Bahn now own Arriva, and that's just the beginning. The truth is that hundreds of billions of pounds' worth of British businesses have been sold off abroad in recent years. But what does this takeover bonanza mean for our future economic health? In Britain for Sale , award-winning financial journalist Alex Brummer investigates this question, explaining why British companies are so irresistible to overseas buyers and weighing up the true cost of these transactions.

Sex goddess, Hollywood star, transgressive playwright, author, blues singer, and vaudeville brat---Mae West remains the twentieth century's greatest comedienne. She made an everlasting mark in trailblazing Broadway plays such as Sex and The Constant Sinner and in films such as She Done Him Wrong, Klondike Annie, and I'm No Angel. Simon Louvish, biographer of W. C. Fields, the Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, and Keystone's Mack Sennett, brings Mae to vibrant life in this unparalleled new biography. He charts her amazing seven decades in show business, from early years in teenage summer stock to her last reincarnation as 1960s gay icon and grande dame of Hollywood survivors. Mae West: It Ain't No Sin is the first biography to make use of Mae's recently uncovered personal papers, offering an unprecedented view into the endless creative drive and daring wit of this legendary star.

Two “haunting and luminous” (Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times ) plays from the author of Take Me Out and Three Days of Rain In The Dazzle , Richard Greenberg takes on the story of the Collyer brothers, legendary New York eccentrics who, following their deaths in 1947, were found to have collected more than 136 tons of trash within their grand but crumbling Harlem manse. As depicted by Richard Greenberg, Langley and Homer Collyer are consumed by their obsessions—Homer reveling in telling tall tales, Langley captured by the “dazzle” of images contained within objects—in this “beautiful, disturbing, shockingly funny and profoundly humane play by a masterful dramatist” (Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times ). Everett Beekin explores the tensions between the safety of family and the yearning for a larger life through the relationships of two sets of Jewish sisters. Set in the 1940s, Act One opens with Anna and Sophie dining in their mother’s Lower East Side tenement, bickering over the presence of their sister Miri’s Gentile suitor, Jimmy. In Act Two, fifty years later, Anna’s daughters Nell and Celia meet on a California beach before the wedding of Nell’s daughter Laurel. Linking the generations is the name Everett Beekin—Jimmy’s business partner and, later, Laurel’s prospective bridegroom Everett Beekin VIII. As the play unfolds, Everett Beekin becomes “a haunted, restless meditation on American rootlessness” (Ben Brantley, The New York Times ). Two “haunting and luminous” (Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times ) plays from the author of Take Me Out and Three Days of Rain In The Dazzle , Richard Greenberg takes on the story of the Collyer brothers, legendary New York eccentrics who, following their deaths in 1947, were found to have collected more than 136 tons of trash within their grand but crumbling Harlem manse. As depicted by Richard Greenberg, Langley and Homer Collyer are consumed by their obsessions—Homer reveling in telling tall tales, Langley captured by the “dazzle” of images contained within objects—in this “beautiful, disturbing, shockingly funny and profoundly humane play by a masterful dramatist” (Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times ). Everett Beekin explores the tensions between the safety of family and the yearning for a larger life through the relationships of two sets of Jewish sisters. Set in the 1940s, Act One opens with Anna and Sophie dining in their mother’s Lower East Side tenement, bickering over the presence of their sister Miri’s Gentile suitor, Jimmy. In Act Two, fifty years later, Anna’s daughters Nell and Celia meet on a California beach before the wedding of Nell’s daughter Laurel. Linking the generations is the name Everett Beekin—Jimmy’s business partner and, later, Laurel’s prospective bridegroom Everett Beekin VIII. As the play unfolds, Everett Beekin becomes “a haunted, restless meditation on American rootlessness” (Ben Brantley, The New York Times ).

hen gutsy Irish redhead Millie McClancey defies her humble beginnings to pursue a life on the stage, she becomes the first of four generations of unforgettable women to taste success in the exciting yet precarious world of show business. Taking readers on a breathtaking journey from the music halls of World War I London to the glitz of Broadway and from Hollywood in its heyday right up to the present, Star Quality is a gripping tale of ambition, betrayal, sex, and survival. Joan Collins is a legendary woman with stardom in her genes, and with Star Quality she'll enchant readers nationwide with this engrossing and thrilling page-turner.

Beloved private eye Benny Cooperman is ready to hang up his gumshoes after an attack leaves him with lingering memory problems. But then an old chum goes missing Hot on the trail of Jake Grange, a schoolfriend who ran a scuba diving business, Benny heads to Murinam, an exotic place with the feel and look of a former French colony. There, Benny encounters a bon-vivant priest, a pretty marine biologist, and an eccentric Englishman in search of kosher food. Of course any of these charming locals could be responsible for Jake's disappearance. But when dead bodies start to appear under the sunny tropical skies, Benny knows he must be getting somewhere. With its sure-footed plot and trademark wry humour, "East of Suez" proves to be one of Benny Cooperman's most memorable cases."

Nick Cutter--starting with nothing--crosses oceans and continents as he conquers the world's gambling and liquor markets, only to risk everything for the love of a woman. Luz had nightheat, the sensuous quality in a woman that makes men ache with desire. Nick loved and lusted for her the first time he saw her. But what he didn't know was that Luz had secrets--that beneath the glamour and sex appeal was a woman determined to turn her back on wealth and challenge a corrupt political system. Even if it meant her life. Nick started out dirt poor--as a child, he survived the war-torn frozen hell of the Siege of Leningrad and saw his mother starve to death as fat cat bureaucrats ate well. He learned early that there were the haves and have-nots in this world. He was going to get everything rich people had--and more. From a brutal Soviet orphanage to a plantation in the steamy jungles of the Caribbean, from sultry, violent Havana to the dangerous streets of Santo Domingo, Nick battled men who controlled and exploited the wealth of nations. With bootleg vodka and exotic rum, he built a business empire that would one day bring him into conflict with the most brutal dictator in the Caribbean--and a struggle for the love and life of the only woman he ever truly loved.

Marlon Brando was the brightest, boldest, and most iconoclastic acting talent of our time. But while his courage and imagination as an artist brought applause and attention from around the world, Brando shunned nearly everything that goes with celebrity status. He was one of the most reclusive personalities in modern times and a legend beyond compare. He was also an equal opportunity provocateur -- a dazzling baffler -- be it on stage, on screen, or in his private life. Always true to his nature, he never failed to surprise. He did things his way -- The Way It's Never Been Done Before. No one shared as much of Brando's private fields as his lifelong friend and business confidant, George Englund. For more than five decades, Brando and Englund were each other's most trusted ally and closest compadre. Even at their first meeting, at a Hollywood party in 1956 -- the kind of occasion where Brando was most on guard against any who would attempt to get close to him -- he and Englund forged close ties. From that initial meeting right up to the eve of the superstar's death in the summer of 2004, Brando and Englund were in nearly constant contact. They traveled together, worked together, and played together. They consoled and cajoled each other through their marriages and divorces, the births and tragic deaths of their children, good and bad business deals, and the onset of aging, concluding with Brando's death at the age of eighty. "I remembered what Mark Twain wrote," Englund says, "'that everybody is a moon with a dark side he doesn't show anyone else.' I felt this was an appropriate hour for a book that looked at the other side of Marlon, that told of the man and friend and father he was. There has not been such a book in Marlon's lifetime, even including his autobiography, and I felt that after our long years of friendship, perhaps I should attempt to write it. I knew the difficulty I would encounter; to write about Marlon is to work with delicate glass, for he was, without question, the most complicated personality I ever met or knew about. "I once thought what a grand time he and I would have writing the book about our friendship together. That possibility has passed away, for Marlon is gone now -- I must make the attempt to write of us alone. I summon to the task the sacredness, which, when we were at our best, Marlon and I laid upon our friendship."

"Bruce Vilanch, a storyteller without peer, has written a tell-all . . . on himself! And it's hilarious! He's finally coming clean and owning up to his part in creating some of the worst television of the twentieth century, and that's saying a lot. There's no one like him. As they've been saying since I discovered him as a cub reporter at the Chicago Tribune , when you're in a pinch . . . Get Bruce!" --BETTE MIDLER Bruce Vilanch is known as a go-to comedy writer for award shows, sitcoms, and over-the-top variety specials, but he has also been responsible for quite a few of the most legendary disasters ever made. Some of his work lives in infamy-- The Star Wars Holiday Special , The Paul Lynde Halloween Special , Rob Lowe dancing with Snow White at the Oscars, and The Brady Bunch Variety Hour . How did these ever seem like a good idea? Well, everyone has screwed up a few times, or had their work screwed up by others. It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time is a lifetime reflection of what Vilanch has experienced, learned, and forgotten in decades of working in show business, specifically the south forty acres known as comedy. It involves very famous people and people who were not very famous but should have been. It explains to the people in the audience who say to themselves, once they have gotten their jaw off the floor, "'How did this ever get made?" Don't we all want to know?

Continues the life story, as told in Incredible! of young Joe (Yossi) Wallis, member of a tough Bronx gang with ties to the Mafia, who became a wealthy businessman in California, and eventually a religious Jew and rabbi in Israel. Incredible 2 is filled with more stories, adventures, and personalities from Rabbi Wallis's dynamic life.

This book provides a framework for thinking about economic institutions such as firms. The basic idea is that institutions arise in situations where people write incomplete contracts and where the allocation of power or control is therefore important. Power and control are not standard concepts in economic theory. The book begins by pointing out that traditional approaches cannot explain on the one hand why all transactions do not take place in one huge firm and on the other hand why firms matter at all. An incomplete contracting or property rights approach is then developed. It is argued that this approach can throw light on the boundaries of firms and on the meaning of asset ownership. In the remainder of the book, incomplete contracting ideas are applied to understand firms' financial decisions, in particular, the nature of debt and equity (why equity has votes and creditors have foreclosure rights); the capital structure decisions of public companies; bankruptcy procedure; and the allocation of voting rights across a company's shares. The book is written in a fairly non-technical style and includes many examples. It is aimed at advanced undergraduate and graduate students, academic and business economists, and lawyers, as well as those with an interest in corporate finance, privatization and regulation, and the transition from socialism to capitalism. Little background knowledge is required, since the concepts are developed as the book progresses and the existing literature is fully reviewed.

For this definitive biography, acclaimed journalist and bestselling author Tom Bower was granted unprecedented access to Simon Cowell and those around him--and the result is a fascinating multilayered portrait of one of the world's most intriguing television personalities ever to dominate the music industry. Simon Cowell has made an international name for himself as the no-holds-barred judge on the television phenomenon American Idol . He's been called mean, arrogant, brash, and unapologetic, but his stinging barbs and smug personality have also earned him cheers from fans, as well as millions of dollars, a string of exotic beauties, and industry clout to develop his own projects. But Cowell's true reward is revenge . Sweet Revenge is the ultimate insider's account of Simon Cowell's rise to fame--even as others plotted his downfall--from his cheeky exploits as a British school lad to his failures as a frustrated young music exec in London to his explosive rivalry with Simon Fuller over the genesis of the Idol franchise to the PR disaster that nearly sunk his wildly successful show The X Factor . Conducting more than 150 interviews with industry power players, Cowell's inner circle, and Cowell himself on a private jet, chartered yacht, at his L.A. home, and on the studio lot, Tom Bower pulls back the curtain on a man who is at once insecure, ambitious, easily bored, vain, needy, and driven, a man who will go to any limit to secure his success. Cowell is also revealed as a loyal friend and loving son. His father, to whom Cowell was particularly close, became his most trusted adviser and mentor. Packed with juicy details, exclusive interviews, and never-before-revealed facts, Sweet Revenge presents a complete picture of Simon Cowell that few have ever seen.

"An entire industry preys on parental anxiety . . . Paul tries to lead us out of the catastrophization of childhood."— The New York Times Book Review Parenting coaches, ergonomic strollers, music classes, sleep consultants, luxury diaper creams, a never-ending rotation of DVDs that will make a baby smarter, socially adept, and bilingual before age three. Time-strapped, anxious parents hoping to provide the best for their baby are the perfect mark for the "parenting" industry. In Parenting, Inc. , Pamela Paul investigates the whirligig of marketing hype, peer pressure, and easy consumerism that spins parents into purchasing overpriced products and raising overprotected, overstimulated, and over-provided-for children. Paul shows how the parenting industry has persuaded parents that they cannot trust their children's health, happiness, and success to themselves. She offers a behind-the-scenes look at the baby business so that any parent can decode the claims—and discover shockingly unuseful products and surprisingly effective services. Paul's book leads the way for every parent who wants to escape the spiral of fear, guilt, competition, and consumption that characterizes modern American parenthood.

Suggests profitable mail-order products, discusses advertising, legal considerations, and direct-mail lists, and tells how to avoid common business errors

This book is the businessperson's guide to influencing government decisions without incurring the cost of a professional lobbyist, at a time when those decisions are, increasingly, a key to survival. When big corporations want to influence the government, they hire pricey lobbyists. But little guys have been on their own—until now. Equally useful to entrepreneurs and established owner/managers, Be Your Own Lobbyist: How to Give Your Small Business Big Clout with State and Local Government is a businessperson's guide to getting heard by government decision-makers by using the same tactics professionals employ. Readers will learn how to lobby in a compelling, sophisticated way through a comprehensive approach that will work at any level, but the book is especially suited to state and local government where routine decisions can mean life or death for small- and medium-sized businesses. The book not only explains the building blocks of advocacy—targeting, tools, and tactics—but also applies them to specific, common challenges like seeking a variance or fighting an ordinance. Packed with examples and easily adaptable models, Be Your Own Lobbyist shows how even a small business can get a fair shake in the halls of government.

This reference looks at the economic and legal developments since the first edition was published in 1992. These developments include the international tax implications of the Internet and e-commerce, the increasing powers of transnational corporations and transfer pricing.