Explains how the US tax system works, how it affects people and businesses, and how it may be improved. Uses a Q&A format to address questions as: How to recognize Fool’s Gold tax reform plans? How much more tax would the IRS collect with better enforcement? How do tax burdens vary around the world? Why do corporations pay so little tax? What kind of tax system is most conducive to economic growth.

(TAXES IN U.S. * GOVERNMENT * TAX REFORM )

Assesses the impact of the two conflicts on US foreign policy, military planning, and capacities for counterinsurgency and state building and offers guidance for avoiding the pitfalls and increasing the prospects for success in US interventions. Topics include US strategy toward “rogue states,” learning from our mistakes, reassessing priorities, winning the wars we’re in, unanticipated challenges, and the predicament in Afghanistan.

(US FOREIGN POLICY * IRAQ * AFGHANISTAN)

Over the course of US history, the Constitution has been turned upside-down. The Constitution’s vision of a federalism in which local, state, and federal government compete to satisfy the preferences of individuals has given way to a cooperative, cartelized federalism that enables interest groups to leverage power at every level for their own benefit. Thus the trend to toward more government and fiscal profligacy. Taking aim at both the progressive heirs of the New Deal and the vocal originalists of our own time, Greve explains why the current fiscal crisis will soon compel a fundamental renegotiation of a new federalism grounded in constitutional principles. (also as e-book)

(GOVERNMENT * CONSTITUTION: :INVERTED INTENT)

Many communities and regions are still vulnerable to extreme events and natural hazards. Climate-related changes such as rising sea levels will seriously affect livelihoods in many areas. More than 20% of the population in developing countries could face the risks of various hazards such as toxic buildups of salt in the soil, flooding, and coastal storm surges. Combines practical examples from Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Europe with theoretical and conceptual frameworks for anticipating, preparing for, and responding to disasters.

(NATURAL HAZARDS * DISASTER RESILIENT SOCIETIES * VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT)

Author of Life Without Lawyers and The Death of Common Sense argues that laws have piled up over the past decades like sediment in the harbor, bogging down America in dense regulation, unaffordable health care, and higher taxes and public debt. Ten well-intentioned laws – that regulate civil service, special education, environmental review, subsidies from the New Deal, safety, due process in schools, labor union benefits, and corporate subsidies – have ossified over time into special interest entitlements and become deadweights on society. Describes a new approach to refreshing old programs and restoring the authority of sitting leaders to make the choices needed today.

(GOVERNMENT * LAWS AS SOCIAL DEADWEIGHTS * REGULATION QUESTIONED)

A conservative political theorist who believes in the bankruptcy of the modern welfare state challenges rigid concepts of both left and right. He calls for an end to the monopolization of society by the state, the culture of welfare dependency, and the economics of dispossession, and presents a plan for redistributing the tax burden and restorating the family as the source of social stability.

(GOVERNMENT * WELFARE STATE QUESTIONED)

Treating socialism as an ethic and reclaiming its early intellectual foundations while acknowledging and correcting its inherent flaws, Bronner advances a more robust theory of working class politics for the 21st century as “a genuinely progressive politics.” The new introduction examines the revival of socialist theory and the evolution of labor politics over the past three decades.

(SOCIALISM FOR THE 21ST CENTURY)

On the substance of this political movement and the constitutional principles on which it is founded. Foley, a “recovering liberal,” distills the raison d’etre of the Tea Party movement down to three principles: limited government, unapologetic US sovereignty, and constitutional originalism. She explains that the principles have legitimate constitutional grounding and argues that the Tea Party is neither conservative nor liberal, but uniquely American.

(GOVERNMENT * TEA PARTY)

Racism was an important factor in 2008; if not for racism, Barack Obama would have won in a landslide. Analyzes the nomination battle between Obama and Clinton to show that racial identity matters more in electoral politics than gender identity. Racial resentment – a modern form of racism that has superseded the old-fashioned biological variety – is a potent political force.

(ELECTIONS AND RACE * RACE AND ELECTIONS * “RACIAL RESENTMENT”)

The US Constitution contains some potentially fatal weaknesses surrounding presidential selection, replacement, or punishment that could lead to constitutional controversies. Envisions six such controversies – such as the criminal prosecution of a sitting president or the ousting of an allegedly disabled president – to show that constitutional interpretation would carries enormous consequences, which requires clear neutral rules rather than a might-makes-right process of resolving the situation. (also as e-book)

(CONSTITUTION: U.S. WEAKNESSES * GOVERNMENT)