24 results for "Small Business"

Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump

Cohen, Michael
A #1 New York Times Bestseller! "I read it cover-to-cover. I did not intend to, but I started at the beginning and didn’t put it down until it was over."—Rachel Maddow, MSNBC This book almost didn’t see the light of day as government officials tried to bar its publication. The Inside Story of the Real President Trump, by His Former Attorney and Personal Advisor—The Man Who Helped Get Him Into the Oval Office Once Donald Trump’s fiercest surrogate, closest confidant, and staunchest defender, Michael Cohen knows where the skeletons are buried. This is the most devastating business and political horror story of the century. As Trump’s lawyer and “fixer,” Cohen not only witnessed firsthand but was also an active participant in the inner workings of Trump’s business empire, political campaign, and presidential administration. This is a story that you have not read in newspapers, or on social media, or watched on television. These are accounts that only someone who worked for Trump around the clock for over a decade—not a few months or even a couple of years—could know. Cohen describes Trump’s racist rants against President Barack Obama, Nelson Mandela, and Black and Hispanic people in general, as well as the cruelty, humiliation, and abuse he leveled at family and staff. Whether he’s exposing the fact that Trump engaged in tax fraud by inflating his wealth or electronic fraud by rigging an online survey, or outing Trump’s Neanderthal views towards women or his hush-money payments to clandestine lovers, Cohen pulls no punches. He shows Trump’s relentless willingness to lie, exaggerate, mislead, or manipulate. Trump emerges as a man without a soul—a man who courts evangelicals and then trashes them, panders to the common man, but then rips off small business owners, a con man who will do or say absolutely anything to win, regardless of the cost to his family, his associates, or his country. At the heart of Disloyal, we see how Cohen came under the spell of his charismatic "Boss" and, as a result, lost all sense of his moral compass. The real "real" Donald Trump who permeates these pages—the racist, sexist, homophobic, lying, cheating President—will be discussed, written about, and analyzed for years to come.
Skyhorse Publishing 2022-10-18 432 pages

Microtrends: the small forces behind today's big changes

Penn, Mark J.
Mark Penn argues that the biggest trends in America are the Microtrends, the smaller trends that go unnoticed or ignored. One million people can create new market for a business, spark a social movement, or effect political change. In 1996, a microtrend identified by Penn ("soccer moms") was crucial in re-electing President Clinton. With years of experience as one of world's most highly regarded pollsters, Penn identifies the new microtrends sweeping the world: SINGLE WOMEN BY CHOICE: Women aren't waiting for Mr. Right. They are raising children by themselves and buying their own homes. SPLITTERS: A growing number of middle-class residents are shuttling between two homes, creating new communities and dynamics in the real estate market. SUN HATERS: Environmentalists, skin cancer survivors, and parents concerned about the sun's impact on our health. PHILO-SEMITES: A growing number of people want to date Jewish men and women. CLASSICAL MUSIC DADS: Older men who are fathers in their 40's and 50's and taking on a larger role in the nurturing of their children and becoming an important factor in consumer culture for kids. MICROTRENDS highlights everything from religion to politics, from leisure pursuits to relationships and will take the listener into the worlds of polling, targeting, and psychographic analysis, reaching tantalizing conclusions through engaging analysis.
Allen Lane 2007 425 pages

The education of a value investor: my transformative quest for wealth, wisdom, and enlightenment

Spier, Guy
"What happens when a young Wall Street investment banker spends a small fortune to have lunch with Warren Buffett? He becomes a real value investor. In this fascinating inside story, Guy Spier details his career from Harvard MBA to hedge fund manager. But the path was not so straightforward. Spier reveals his transformation from a Gordon Gekko wannabe, driven by greed, to a sophisticated investor who enjoys success without selling his soul to the highest bidder. Spier's journey is similar to the thousands that flock to Wall Street every year with their shiny new diplomas, aiming to be King of Wall Street. Yet what Guy realized just in the nick of time was that the King really lived 1,500 miles away in Omaha, Nebraska. Spier determinedly set out to create a new career in his own way. Along the way he learned some powerful lessons which include: why the right mentors and partners are critical to long term success on Wall Street; why a topnotch education can sometimes get in the way of your success; that real learning doesn't begin until you are on your own; and how the best lessons from Warren Buffett have less to do with investing and more to do with being true to yourself. Spier also reveals some of his own winning investment strategies, detailing deals that were winners but also what he learned from deals that went south. Part memoir, part Wall Street advice, and part how-to, Guy Spier takes readers on a ride through Wall Street but more importantly provides those that want to take a different path with the insight, guidance, and inspiration they need to carve out their own definition of success"--
Palgrave Macmillan 2014-09-09 214 pages

Capitalism in America A History

Alan Greenspan,Adrian Wooldridge
From the legendary former Fed Chairman and the acclaimed Economist writer and historian, the full, epic story of America's evolution from a small patchwork of threadbare colonies to the most powerful engine of wealth and innovation the world has ever seen. Shortlisted for the 2018 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award From even the start of his fabled career, Alan Greenspan was duly famous for his deep understanding of even the most arcane corners of the American economy, and his restless curiosity to know even more. To the extent possible, he has made a science of understanding how the US economy works almost as a living organism--how it grows and changes, surges and stalls. He has made a particular study of the question of productivity growth, at the heart of which is the riddle of innovation. Where does innovation come from, and how does it spread through a society? And why do some eras see the fruits of innovation spread more democratically, and others, including our own, see the opposite? In Capitalism in America , Greenspan distills a lifetime of grappling with these questions into a thrilling and profound master reckoning with the decisive drivers of the US economy over the course of its history. In partnership with the celebrated Economist journalist and historian Adrian Wooldridge, he unfolds a tale involving vast landscapes, titanic figures, triumphant breakthroughs, enlightenment ideals as well as terrible moral failings. Every crucial debate is here--from the role of slavery in the antebellum Southern economy to the real impact of FDR's New Deal to America's violent mood swings in its openness to global trade and its impact. But to read Capitalism in America is above all to be stirred deeply by the extraordinary productive energies unleashed by millions of ordinary Americans that have driven this country to unprecedented heights of power and prosperity. At heart, the authors argue, America's genius has been its unique tolerance for the effects of creative destruction, the ceaseless churn of the old giving way to the new, driven by new people and new ideas. Often messy and painful, creative destruction has also lifted almost all Americans to standards of living unimaginable to even the wealthiest citizens of the world a few generations past. A sense of justice and human decency demands that those who bear the brunt of the pain of change be protected, but America has always accepted more pain for more gain, and its vaunted rise cannot otherwise be understood, or its challenges faced, without recognizing this legacy. For now, in our time, productivity growth has stalled again, stirring up the populist furies. There's no better moment to apply the lessons of history to the most pressing question we face, that of whether the United States will preserve its preeminence, or see its leadership pass to other, inevitably less democratic powers.
National Geographic Books 2018-10-16 768 pages

Pound foolish: exposing the dark side of the personal finance industry

Olen, Helaine
If you’ve ever bought a personal finance book, watched a TV show about stock picking, listened to a radio show about getting out of debt, or attended a seminar to help you plan for your retirement, you’ve probably heard some version of these quotes: “What’s keeping you from being rich? In most cases, it is simply a lack of belief.” —SUZE ORMAN, The Courage to Be Rich “Are you latte-ing away your financial future?” —DAVID BACH, Smart Women Finish Rich “I know you’re capable of picking winning stocks and holding on to them.” —JIM CRAMER, Mad Money They’re common refrains among personal finance gurus. There’s just one problem: those and many simi­lar statements are false. For the past few decades, Americans have spent billions of dollars on personal finance products. As salaries have stagnated and companies have cut back on benefits, we’ve taken matters into our own hands, embracing the can-do attitude that if we’re smart enough, we can overcome even daunting financial obstacles. But that’s not true. In this meticulously reported and shocking book, journalist and former financial columnist Helaine Olen goes behind the curtain of the personal finance industry to expose the myths, contradictions, and outright lies it has perpetuated. She shows how an industry that started as a response to the Great Depression morphed into a behemoth that thrives by selling us products and services that offer little if any help. Olen calls out some of the biggest names in the business, revealing how even the most respected gurus have engaged in dubious, even deceitful, prac­tices—from accepting payments from banks and corporations in exchange for promoting certain prod­ucts to blaming the victims of economic catastrophe for their own financial misfortune. Pound Foolish also disproves many myths about spending and saving, including: Small pleasures can bankrupt you: Gurus popular­ized the idea that cutting out lattes and other small expenditures could make us millionaires. But reduc­ing our caffeine consumption will not offset our biggest expenses: housing, education, health care, and retirement. Disciplined investing will make you rich: Gurus also love to show how steady investing can turn modest savings into a huge nest egg at retirement. But these calculations assume a healthy market and a lifetime without any setbacks—two conditions that have no connection to the real world. Women need extra help managing money: Product pushers often target women, whose alleged financial ignorance supposedly leaves them especially at risk. In reality, women and men are both terrible at han­dling finances. Financial literacy classes will prevent future eco­nomic crises: Experts like to claim mandatory sessions on personal finance in school will cure many of our money ills. Not only is there little evidence this is true, the entire movement is largely funded and promoted by the financial services sector. Weaving together original reporting, interviews with experts, and studies from disciplines ranging from behavioral economics to retirement planning, Pound Foolish is a compassionate and compelling book that will change the way we think and talk about our money.
Portfolio/Penguin 2013-12-31 298 pages

Microtrends: the small forces behind tomorrow's big changes

Penn, Mark J.
Pollster Mark Penn argues that the biggest trends in America are microtrends, the smaller trends that go unnoticed or ignored. One million people can create new market for a business, spark a social movement, or effect political change. In 1996, a microtrend identified by Penn ("soccer moms") helped re-elect Clinton. Now, Penn identifies the new microtrends sweeping the world, from Extreme Commuters and Working Retired to Old New Dads, from Bourgeois And Bankrupt to Uptown Tattooed. Highlighting everything from religion to politics, from leisure pursuits to relationships, this book will take the reader deep into the worlds of polling, targeting, and psychographic analysis.--From publisher description.
Twelve 2009 454 pages

Football for a Buck The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL

Jeff Pearlman
From Jeff Pearlman--the New York Times best-selling author of Three Ring Circus--comes the rollicking, outrageous story of the USFL, full of larger-than-life characters and you-can't-make-this-up stories featuring some of the biggest celebrities and buffoons in the game. The United States Football League--known fondly to millions of sports fans as the USFL--did not merely challenge the NFL, but cause its owners and executives to collectively shudder. In its three seasons from 1983-85, it secured multiple television deals, drew millions of fans and launched the careers of legends such as Steve Young, Jim Kelly, Herschel Walker, and Reggie White. But then it died beneath the weight of a particularly egotistical and bombastic team owner--a New York businessman named Donald J. Trump. In Football for a Buck, Jeff Pearlman draws on more than four hundred interviews to unearth all the salty, untold stories of one of the craziest sports entities to have ever captivated America. From 1980s drug excess to airplane brawls and player-coach punch outs, to backroom business deals and some of the most enthralling and revolutionary football ever seen, Pearlman transports readers back in time to this crazy, boozy, audacious, unforgettable era of the game. He shows how fortunes were made and lost on the backs of professional athletes and how, forty years ago, Trump was already a scoundrel and a spoiler. For fans of Terry Pluto's Loose Balls or Jim Bouton's Ball Four and of course Pearlman's own stranger-than-fiction narratives, Football for a Buck is sports as high entertainment--and a cautionary tale of the dangers of ego and excess.
HarperCollins Publishers 2019-09-10 400 pages

Big is beautiful: debunking the myth of small business

Atkinson, Robert,Lind, Michael
"In public discourse in the United States, small businesses are lauded as drivers of the economy and keys to economic growth, while "big business" is often vilified. Even in the face of evidence that larger firms are proven to be more likely to stimulate economic growth, American public policy favors small businesses through measures such as lowering taxes or regulatory requirements for firms under a certain number of employees. The authors trace the anti-big business sentiment back to its roots in the early founding of our nation. While the Jeffersonian ideal of every citizen being self-employed made sense for a pre-industrial agrarian society, changes in technology have led to significant economies of scale for big businesses. Now, we see that countries with more self-employed workers are also more likely to be in poverty (think of emerging economies where everyone is an entrepreneur, and compare it to the compensation and benefits packages available to employees of large firms in more advanced economies). Rather than simply taking the opposite view that "bigger is better," the authors argue that a modern capitalist society has room for businesses of all sizes and that we should not be privileging one type of business over another due to size alone, especially when our perception of who creates jobs and grows the economy does not track with reality"--
MIT Press 2018-03-30 352 pages

The cost-benefit revolution

Sunstein, Cass R.
Why policies should be based on careful consideration of their costs and benefits rather than on intuition, popular opinion, interest groups, and anecdotes. Opinions on government policies vary widely. Some people feel passionately about the child obesity epidemic and support government regulation of sugary drinks. Others argue that people should be able to eat and drink whatever they like. Some people are alarmed about climate change and favor aggressive government intervention. Others don't feel the need for any sort of climate regulation. In The Cost-Benefit Revolution, Cass Sunstein argues our major disagreements really involve facts, not values. It follows that government policy should not be based on public opinion, intuitions, or pressure from interest groups, but on numbers--meaning careful consideration of costs and benefits. Will a policy save one life, or one thousand lives? Will it impose costs on consumers, and if so, will the costs be high or negligible? Will it hurt workers and small businesses, and, if so, precisely how much? As the Obama administration's "regulatory czar," Sunstein knows his subject in both theory and practice. Drawing on behavioral economics and his well-known emphasis on "nudging," he celebrates the cost-benefit revolution in policy making, tracing its defining moments in the Reagan, Clinton, and Obama administrations (and pondering its uncertain future in the Trump administration). He acknowledges that public officials often lack information about costs and benefits, and outlines state-of-the-art techniques for acquiring that information. Policies should make people's lives better. Quantitative cost-benefit analysis, Sunstein argues, is the best available method for making this happen--even if, in the future, new measures of human well-being, also explored in this book, may be better still.
The MIT Press 2019 266 pages

The business of books: how international conglomerates took over publishing and changed the way we read

Schiffrin, André
Post-war American publishing has been ruthlessly transformed since André Schiffrin joined its ranks in 1956. Gone is a plethora of small but prestigious houses that often put ideas before profit in their publishing decisions, sometimes even deliberately. Now six behemoths share 80% of the market and profit margin is all. André Schiffrin can write about these changes with authority because he witnessed them from inside a conglomerate, as head of Pantheon, co-founded by his father, bought (and sold) by Random House. And he can write about them with candor because he is no longer on the inside, having quit corporate publishing in disgust to set up a flourishing independent house, The New Press. Schiffrin’s evident affection for his authors sparkles throughout a story woven around publishing the work of those such as Studs Terkel, Noam Chomsky, Gunnar Myrdal, George Kennan, Juliet Mitchell, R. D. Laing, Eric Hobsbawm and E.P.Thompson. Part-memoir, part-history, here is an account of the collapsing standards of contemporary publishing that is irascible, acute and passionate. An engaging counterpoint to recent, celebratory memoirs of the industry written by those with more stock options and fewer scruples than Schiffrin, The Business of Books warns of the danger to adventurous, intelligent publishing in the bullring of today’s marketplace.
Verso 2000 178 pages

I'm not really a waitress: how one woman revamped the beauty industry one color at a time

Weiss-Fischmann, Suzi
Inspiring women to pursue their own colorful dreams, I'm Not Really a Waitress tells the story of how Suzi Weiss-Fischmann transformed a small dental supply company into a #1 beauty brand around the world Today, OPI is known as a global beauty brand, famous for its trend-setting colors, unforgettable shade names, and celebrity collaborations with the biggest stars from film, television, music, and sports. But behind all the glamour is the little-known tale of OPI's unlikely origins-an intimate and inspiring story of a timid schoolgirl who arrives in this country with little money and no English and becomes the business leader and industry game-changer known worldwide as "Suzi, the First Lady of Nails." In I'm Not Really a Waitress --titled after OPI's top-selling nail color--Suzi reveals the events that led her family to flee Communist Hungary and eventually come to New York City in pursuit of the American dream. She shares how those early experiences gave rise to OPI's revolutionary vision of freedom and empowerment, and how Suzi transformed an industry by celebrating the power of color-and of women themselves.
Seal Press 2019-03-12 225 pages

The big picture: money and power in Hollywood

Epstein, Edward Jay
In this unprecedented, all-encompassing, and thoroughly entertaining account of the movie business, acclaimed writer Edward Jay Epstein reveals the real magic behind moviemaking: how the studios make their money. Epstein shows that in Hollywood, the only art that matters is the art of the deal: Major films turn huge profits not from the movies themselves but through myriad other enterprises, from video-game spin-offs and soundtracks to fast-food tie-ins, and even theme-park rides. The studios may compete for stars and Oscars, but their corporate parents view wth one another in less glamorous markets such as cable, home video, and pay-TV. Money, though, is only a small part of the Hollywood story; the social and political milieus–power, prestige, and status–tell the rest. Alongside its remarkable financial revelations and incisive profiles of the pioneers who helped build Hollywood, The Big Picture is filled with eye-opening insider stories. If you are interested in Hollywood today and the complex and fascinating way it has evolved in order to survive, you haven’ t seen the big picture until you’ve read The Big Picture .
Random House 2006-01-10 402 pages

The new health insurance solution: how to get cheaper, better coverage

Pilzer, Paul Zane
You no longer need a traditional employer plan to get good, affordable health insurance. The New Health Insurance Solution can help you cut your health insurance costs in half if: You're self-employed, an independent contractor, or your employer doesn't provide health insurance (you can probably get coverage on your own for about $94/month—a fraction of what an employer would have to pay for the same coverage) You are employed and pay extra to cover your spouse or children under your employer-sponsored plan—you may save 50% by taking them off your employer plan You own a small business and are getting killed by double-digit premium increases—you can now give employees tax-free money to buy their own plans and get your company out of the health insurance business The book also explains in detail the best solutions for you if: You can't find affordable health insurance because you or a child have an expensive preexisting medical problem (your state has a program to provide you with guaranteed coverage ) You're currently putting money into an IRA or a 401(k)—because you don't realize that an HSA is always a better option You're unsure how you or your parents will be able to afford health insurance during retirement, or how to maximize benefits from Medicare—including the new Part D prescription drug plan The New Health Insurance Solution is the definitive guide to the new ways every American can now get affordable health care—without an employer. PAUL ZANE PILZER is a world-renowned economist, a former advisor in two White House administrations, an entrepreneur/employer, an award-winning adjunct professor at NYU, and a New York Times bestselling author.
Wiley 2007-01-02 336 pages

Fooling some of the people all of the time: a long short story

Einhorn, David
In 2002, Einhorn spoke publicly about Allied Capital--a leader in the private finance industry--presenting it as an excellent short opportunity. Einhorn describes the incredible events that followed his speech and how Allied and the investment community attacked him to protect the company--and its stock price. Informative and intriguing, "Fooling Some of the People All of the Time" details how the current environment on Wall Street--and the world of hedge funds in particular-- not only allows for such behavior, but how it protects the companies and attacks those who attempt to uncover them.--From publisher's description.
J. Wiley 2008-05-02 379 pages

The gilded rage: a wild ride through Donald Trump's America

Zaitchik, Alexander
"2016 continues to be the most surreal and unpredictable election year in recent memory and this is due in large part to one Donald J. Trump and the millions of Americans who made him this year's Republican nominee for president. As Trump continues to succeed despite behavior that would cripple any other politician, whether it is questioning the patriotism of the Gold Star Khan family or banishing a baby from one of his press conferences, it is imperative to understand why so many continue to support him. And this is what makes The Gilded Rage so important; it provides insight into the forgotten Americans that continue to befuddle pundits and "experts" on CNN and FOX alike. This grippingly intimate and heart-breaking book provides a portrait of the walking wounded who make up the base of the Trump movement. Desperate and angry, these are the Americans of the vanishing industrial heartland, depressed Appalachian coal country, and the no-man's land along the Southwestern border. These are coal miners, out of work construction workers, and small business owners, who have watched their fortunes dwindle with each passing year. They have no illusions about the grandstanding billionaire and his glaring flaws. But these men and women feel forgotten and screwed over by political, corporate and media elites...and they feel that Donald Trump, despite his flamboyant demagoguery, might well be their last chance for salvation. Reminiscent of Studs Terkel's Working, with a dash of Hunter S. Thompson, Alexander Zaitchik in this important book takes us deeper into the ravaged soul of America than any other chronicler of our times. Selected as one of Publishers Weekly's Top Ten picks for Politics & Current Events of Fall 2016 Praise for Alexander Zaitchik's Common Sense: Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance: "A sharp and informative smackdown. For Zaitchik, [Glenn] Beck is just one more American con artist in the P.T. Barnum tradition, a shameless pseudoconservative bottom-feeder who will say anything to keep the spotlight on himself while the money rolls in." -Mark Lilla, The New York Review of Books "A sensational book; This is a beautifully written and insightful biography-thoughtful, considered, and very intentional about the need to understand Beck both as a symbol of something larger going on in America and as a person." -Susan Gardner, Daily Kos "A scathing profile that follows the powerful pundit from a single-parent home in rural Washington state to conservative superstardom." -The Boston Globe "A great political book. Zaitchik tells [Beck's story] well and nobody has told it more soberly." -Slate "An informative study." -Sean Wilentz, The New Yorker "A gripping and thoroughly researched biography." -Joe Conason, Salon"--
Hot Books 2016 127 pages

The audacity of Inez Burns

Bloom, Stephen G.
THE VIVID, SCANDAL-FILLED STORY OF A SHREWD, RAGS-TO-RICHES MILLIONAIRESS AND THE RUTHLESS POLITICIAN WHO PURSUED HER, TOLD AGAINST THE EFFERVESCENT BACKDROP OF AMERICA’S GOLDEN CITY—SAN FRANCISCO. San Francisco, until the mid-1940s, was a city that lived by its own rules, fast and loose. Formed by the gold rush and destroyed by the 1906 earthquake, it served as a pleasure palace for the legions of men who sought their fortunes in the California foothills. For the women who followed, their only choice was to support, serve, or submit. Inez Burns was different. She put everyone to shame with her dazzling, calculated, stone-cold ambition. Born in the slums of San Francisco to a cigar-rolling alcoholic, Inez transformed herself into one of California’s richest women, becoming a notorious powerbroker, grand dame, and iconoclast. A stunning beauty with perfumed charm, she rose from manicurist to murderess to millionaire, seducing one man after another, bearing children out of wedlock, and bribing politicians and cops along the way to secure her place in the San Francisco firmament. Inez ruled with incandescent flair. She owned five hundred hats and a closet full of furs, had two small toes surgically removed to fit into stylish high heels, and had two ribs excised to accentuate her hourglass figure. Her presence was defined by couture dresses from Paris, red-carpet strutting at the San Francisco Opera, and a black Pierce-Arrow that delivered her everywhere. She threw outrageous parties on her sprawling, eight-hundred-acre horse ranch, a compound with servants, cooks, horse groomers, and trainers, where politicians, judges, attorneys, Hollywood moguls, and entertainers gamboled over silver fizzes. Inez was adored by the desperate women who sought her out—and loathed by the power-hungry men who plotted to destroy her. During a time when women risked their lives with predatory practitioners lurking in back alleys, Inez and her team of women, clad in crisp, white nurse’s uniforms, worked night and day in her elegantly appointed clinic, performing fifty thousand of the safest, most hygienic abortions available during a time when even the richest wives, Hollywood stars, and mistresses had few options when they found themselves with an unwanted pregnancy. Inez’s illegal business bestowed upon her power and influence—until a determined politician by the name of Edmund G. (Pat) Brown—the father of current California Governor Jerry Brown—used Inez to catapult his nascent career to national prominence. In The Audacity of Inez Burns , Stephen G. Bloom, the author of the bestselling Postville, reveals a jagged slice of lost American history. From Inez’s riveting tale of glamour and tragedy, he has created a brilliant, compulsively readable portrait of an unforgettable woman during a moment when America’s pendulum swung from compassion to criminality by punishing those who permitted women to control their own destinies.
Regan Arts 2018-02-06 428 pages

The pill, pygmy chimps, and Degas' horse: the autobiography of Carl Djerassi

Djerassi, Carl
Father of the birth control pill, developer of antihistamines, founder of biomedical companies, teacher of world-class chemists, best-selling novelist.... As The Scientist notes, "Few can match Carl Djerassi's juggling act for success and longevity". Here is Djerassi's remarkable autobiography. Blending vivid descriptions of the lucrative world of drug development with controversial chapters on the politics of contraception and poignant disclosures about his personal life, this book tells the story of one of the most productive and socially conscious chemists working today. The Pill, Pygmy Chimps, and Degas' Horse tells how Djerassi, while still in his twenties and leading a small team in an obscure laboratory in Mexico City, used a locally grown yam first to synthesize cortisone and then, within twelve months, to create the first steroid effective as a birth control pill. Dubbed for this latter work "the father of the pill", a title he often shares with Gregory Pincus and John Rock, who performed the biological and clinical studies to confirm the pill's efficacy in humans, Djerassi has spent a lifetime thinking and rethinking, discussing and debating, the social, economic, and biological consequences of the changed attitudes toward contraception engendered by the pill. In two riveting chapters entitled "The Pill at Twenty" and "The Pill at Forty: What Now?" Djerassi recounts the fascinating history of the pill's journey from its first days in the laboratory to widespread public use--from being hailed as an agent of the sexual revolution to condemnation as an agent of the new promiscuity, to being accused of being an expression of the scientific community's sexism (Why was there no malebirth control pill?). And then, in a powerful consideration of where the politics of contraception have taken us, he discusses why so few innovations in contraception are being investigated today, and why even fewer are making their way to the public. The Pill, Pygmy Chimps, and Degas' Horse chronicles Djerassi's many successful careers in science, business, the academy, and the arts (he is a published poet and novelist, as well as the founder of an artists' colony). His growing appreciation for the soft side of science--its human and humane aspects--have long been reflected in the courses he teaches at Stanford, in the plot of his novel, Cantor's Dilemma, and in his decision to found one of the first environmentally aware pesticide companies. In this intellectually challenging book, the reader is let into the fertile mind and psyche of one of the few Renaissance men of twentieth-century science.
Basic Books 1992-04-26 319 pages

My life at Liz Claiborne: how we broke the rules and built the largest fashion company in the world : a business memoir

Chazen, Jerome A.
Mr. Chazen is known as an innovator and even a revolutionary, whose ideas changed the face of the apparel industry and retailing forever. The book will provide lessons for everyone in business, as it shows how he and his executives at Liz broke the rules time after time in their pursuit of success -- Pioneering overseas production by American corporations Making consumer choice easier by creating coordinated clothing collections Offering women alternatives to traditional, male-oriented business styles Popularizing designer branding and quality on affordable merchandise Focusing on the end consumer rather than the middleman (in this case the department stores) Growing without advertising Many of his innovations are reflected today in the shopping experience of millions of people around the world: specialized boutiques within larger stores, upscale outlet malls, designer branding on everything, and more. Mr. Chazen's penchant for rule breaking is not limited to business practices but rather extends to career and retirement ideas. For example, he shows how careers are often better nurtured and built up in the hinterlands and away from the New York spotlight. His ideas on a satisfying retirement reflect a "never stop working" approach, and on estate planning a "die broke" philosophy. The book will captivate fashion industry insiders, intrigue general business readers, and enlighten anyone interested in devoting themselves to the entrepreneurial life. In this business memoir, Jerome A. Chazen, tells an extraordinary success story - how, together with designer Liz Claiborne, he took a small startup business and grew it into the largest apparel company in the world. Chazen is one of the most celebrated fashion executives of all time. Through his inventive management of Liz Claiborne, Inc., he created a company beloved by generations of women who enthusiastically dressed themselves for both the workplace and leisure time in Liz Claiborne clothing and accessories. In this book, for the first time, Chazen tells the inside story of the founding of the company, the management tactics and strategies he utilized to propel it into the Fortune 500, the internal struggles and tensions that marked the business' phenomenal growth, an inside look at the processes that made Liz a "rock star" in her time, and revealing insights into what it takes to navigate successfully in one of the most competitive industries in the world. Mr. Chazen shows readers how design and creativity is never enough to ensure success. Only by joining the creative processes to savvy marketing and sales strategies can any company achieve great success. He illustrates how he did it at Liz and shows by example how other companies can do the same and flourish as well.
AuthorHouse 2011 208 pages

Republic of denial: press, politics, and public life

Janeway, Michael
This thought-provoking book offers the most insightful critique of the relationship among the press, politics, and public life in decades. Disdain for politics today in the United States is almost universal. Condemnation of the press is rampant as well. Until we understand the modern condition of politics and journalism--and the cultural context in which they interact--says Michael Janeway, there's small hope of either recovering its standing. Drawing on years of experience at the top levels of the news business and in politics and government, Janeway provides an integrated, insider's critique of the profound changes in each of these professional worlds, showing how trends in each have contributed to deepening public alienation. From its confident post-World War Two era of world leadership, the United States entered a difficult period of turbulence and reversals in the 1960s and 1970s. With wit, clarity, and an eye for offbeat cultural indicators, Janeway examines the full complex of forces that have corroded our press, politics, and public life since then. The result, he argues, is a loss of substance and structure in public life as well as citizen connection to it, a vacuum all too easily filled by political entertainers, shallow coverage of "character," and--engulfing the nation in convulsive crisis for a year of its history--the politics of scandal. None of today's proposed remedies for the failings of our press or politcal system is adequate, Janeway argues, for none take full account of the integral relationship between the two spheres. In the absence of recognition of its buried democratic crisis, Janeway concludes, the United States has become a "republic of denial."
Yale University Press 2001 192 pages