Review of The Mighty Niagara: One River-Two Frontiers (Hardcover)

The Mighty Niagara is an excellent book for anyone interested in the geography, history, economics, sociology and development of Canada's Niagara Region and New York's Niagara Frontier.
The two sides of the Niagara River share a common history from the fur trade through the War of 1812, the building of the Erie and Welland canals, the creation of hydro power and the boom in manufacturing in the 20th century. However Buffalo, the two Niagara Falls, St. Catharines and Welland handled these changes in radically different ways.
In his book, John N. Jackson along with his two contributors presents more than 200 years of layers of development. With a well-written text backed up by photos, charts and maps, he takes the reader on journey through time and geography.
The Mighty Niagara is a "must read" for anyone trying to understand one of the busiest border points between Canada and the United States. The communities are similar but every different.



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Review of Encyclopedia of New Jersey (Hardcover)

First, the good points:this work is huge, well illustrated, and priced at about one third of what a commercial publisher would have to charge for something comparable.Probably no resource has treated the Garden State so thoroughly since the WPA guide was published about 65 years ago.

The downside, unfortunately, is that the contents are disappointing.Since the book has no index, or even a classified list of "essay" entries, there's no way to locate a topic unless you're able to hit upon the precise title under which it's discussed (assuming it's in there somewhere).The scope of coverage is quirky: it seems that every hamlet in the state has its own entry, yet there is no general treatment of, for example, industry or commerce or dairying or corporations (all things that are or have been highly important to New Jersey).Several of the general entries I have read so far are not exactly packed with information; the entries on industrial architecture and law, for instance, are as much about trends that apply to the whole nation as about anything specific to New Jersey.

Still, this work is certainly worth having, and Rutgers should be praised for making it possible.At present, no other reference work comes close.



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Review of Around Washington Square: An Illustrated History of Greenwich Village (Hardcover)

Created by the rich and merchant class as an escape from the recurring ravages of yellow fever and cholera, Greenwich Village was, essentially, never really mapped out; never really settled in accordance to any public plan. Perhaps this haphazard beginning is what gave the area its combined refined yet anarchic flavor that exists until this day.

Luther Harris' book, "Around Washington Square: An Illustrated History of Greenwich Village" is an excellent introduction to the history, myths, lies, and unknown truths about this magnet for the students, the homeless, the artists, and the real estate agents who each value Greenwich Village for their own reasons. The text is very informative, and the illustrations are lush and generous. Broken down into easy-to-handle sections, Harris nonetheless is comprehensive. (He apologies to his readers if any particular individual, group, or building was omitted but he needn't have: just about all the bases were covered.) This is an exhaustive and wonderful book.



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Review of The Man Who Sold the World: Ronald Reagan and the Betrayal of Main Street America (Hardcover)

Kleinknecht opens by telling us that the Reagan legacy has been devastating for America - especially ordinary Americans.Boom-and-bust cycles, obscene CEO salaries, emergence of "Lockdown America", drug-company scandals, collapsing bridges, huge government deficits, ethical absences, plummeting/stagnating wages for working people, the flight of U.S. manufacturing abroad are all products of Reagan's free-market zealotry and gutting the public sector.Reagan also pioneered the use of wedge issues like race ("welfare queens," "war on drugs").

Kleinknecht also says the book was borne of bewilderment over the myth that continues to surround the presidency of Ronald Reagan, who he characterizes as an empty suit who believed in flying saucers and allowed an astrologer to guide his presidential scheduling.We just finished a presidential campaign season marked by unseeming competition among Republican aspirants to wrap themselves in the Reagan mantle.

Some portions of "The Man Who Sold the World" are missing credible documentation; others blame Reagan for actions that only began during his leadership and were extended by Bush I and II, and Clinton.His 1987 appointment of Alan Greenspan (Mr. Bubbles) to head the Federal Reserve may have been Reagan's worst, given Greenspan's key role in the dot.com and housing bubbles, but we cannot forget he was reappointed again and again by other presidents until 2006.Deregulation of airlines and trucking are also attacked, though undertaken by Carter.And finally, Kleinknecht misses some important additional Reagan actions - eg. undermining Carter's fuel economy and alternative energy initiatives, and the whole Iran-Contra fiasco.Nonetheless, the book still is an important contribution.

Reagan was well known for stories not quite rooted in fact, and his statistics were similarly also sometimes loose.This included his war on regulation and Murray Weidenbaum's (became Reagan's Chairman of Economic Advisers) conclusion that federal regulations cost the economy $103 billion/year in 1978, including $666/car.The Bureau of Labor Statistics later repudiated some of Weidenbaum's methodology and a subsequent year-long Wall St. Journal sponsored study of the 48 largest firms vs. the six most active regulatory agencies found the regulatory impact only 1.1% ($2.6 billion).Worse yet, Weidenbaum's analysis omitted any benefits from these regulations, and Japanese firms spent more for compliance and still cost less.Unfortunately, Weidenbaum's study came first, got all the press, and inspired the administration's weakening of regulations through reducing enforcement funds and installing leaders who didn't believe in regulation.

The finance industry particularly benefited.By the beginning of the 1980s, an estimated two-thirds of the nation's thrifts were losing money, and thousands virtually insolvent.Regulatory relief including increasing FDIC coverage from $40,000 to $100,000, allowing developers to own thrifts and borrow from them, loosening accounting practices to boost net worth, and freeing them from investment restrictions.The result - the 1989 S&L debacle that required $150 billion in taxpayer bailouts.

Kleinknecht believes the rapid rise of M&A activity under Reagan's relaxed anti-trust enforcement became a prime cause of our manufacturing decline.CEOs lived in fear of 90%-leveraged LBOs using the firm's own assets as collateral, instead of focusing on customers and the Japanese.The M&A/LBO debts incurred ($33+ billion in 1981, plus at least another $70 billion tied up in merger-related loan commitments) hampered firms from investing in new equipment and made them more vulnerable to downturns.Between 1980-86, M&A went from 1,565 ($33 billion) to $4,323 ($204 billion).

Business tax cuts, instead of spurring new investment in equipment, were largely used for M&A as well. Kleinknecht cites the example of G.E. - paid no income tax the first three years of Reagan, received $283 million in rebates (despite pretax profits exceeding $6.5 billion), while shedding 50,000 jobs through layoffs, attrition, and selling subsidiaries.Meanwhile, it acquired RCA and NBC, among others.

A number of credible studies document long-term stock losses by the majority of merged companies.A Wall St. Journal study in 2002 found the stocks of the 50 biggest corporate acquirers fell 3X the DJIA.

Kleinknecht's data on "Lockdown America" is quite limited, consisting of data from New Jersey.In 1980 it had 76 prison inmates per 100,000 population, and 331 in 2002; meanwhile, violent crime increased.

Overall, "The Man Who Sold the World" is important reading.



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