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We weigh every significant decision based on how it will affect our future. But when it comes to figuring that out, we mostly make the process up as we go along. While financial professional Peter Neuwirth can't help you actually predict the future, he can offer a simple, systematic way to make much better guesses about it - and so make better decisions. Neuwirth offers an accessible, step - by - step guide to using the powerful concept of Present Value - which allows you to determine the value today of something that might happen in the future - to evaluate all of the outcomes that might arise from choosing one path as opposed to another. Using examples that anyone can relate to, Neuwirth walks you through the process. Your old refrigerator doesn't work as well as it used to - should you buy a new one right away or muddle through for a while? You're offered a great discount on a service you don't need at the moment but eventually will - buy the service now or wait? With just a little math and some common sense, you can compare future costs and benefits with present costs and benefits and make ''apples to apples'' comparisons. This book will be indispensable for anyone who has ever had to figure out whether to stick with an awful job or follow his or her bliss, fix that old car or buy a new one, increase 401(k) contributions or keep the same take - home pay, and a thousand other decisions.

Since the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling that the rights of thingsmoney and corporationsmatter more than the rights of people, America has faced a crisis of democracy. In this timely and thoroughly updated second edition, Jeff Clements describes the strange history of this bizarre ruling, its ongoing destructive effects, and the growing movement to reverse it. He includes a new chapter, ';Do Something!,' showing howstate by state and community by communityAmericans are using creative strategies and tools to renew democracy and curb unbalanced corporate power. Since the first edition, 16 states, 160 members of Congress, and 500 cities and towns have called for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United, and the list is growing. This is a fight we can win!

Take Charge of the Relationship That Matters Most to Your Career Your most important work relationship is with your boss. You need it to go well. But even the best bosses can be hard to read, and some seem downright inscrutable. Your boss isn't going to change for you - don't waste your time trying. The solution lies in figuring out what makes your boss tick and adapting your own work style to make the relationship better. But how do you do that? In this pragmatic and accessible guide, top executive coach Steve Arneson shows how to find the answers to fifteen essential questions that will help you understand your boss's leadership style, goals, motivations, work relationships, and how he or she sees you. Vivid real - world examples demonstrate Arneson's advice in action and show clearly how this process can be used to gain a more meaningful, productive, and enjoyable work life.

For astronaut Ron Garan, living on the International Space Station was a powerful, transformative experience - one that he believes holds the key to solving our problems here on Earth. On space walks and through windows, Garan was struck by the stunning beauty of the Earth from space but sobered by knowing how much needed to be done to help this troubled planet. And yet on the International Space Station, Garan, a former fighter pilot, was working work side by side with Russians, who only a few years before were ''the enemy.'' If fifteen nationalities could collaborate on one of the most ambitious, technologically complicated undertakings in history, surely we can apply that kind of cooperation and innovation toward creating a better world. That spirit is what Garan calls the ''orbital perspective. Garan vividly conveys what it was like learning to work with a diverse group of people in an environment only a handful of human beings have ever known. But more importantly, he describes how he and others are working to apply the orbital perspective here at home, embracing new partnerships and processes to promote peace and combat hunger, thirst, poverty, and environmental destruction. This book is a call to action for each of us to care for the most important space station of all: planet Earth. You don't need to be an astronaut to have the orbital perspective. Garan's message of elevated empathy is an inspiration to all who seek a better world.

Stop Holding Yourself Back-It's Time to Go Ask! The strongest relationships, top sales groups, and most successful organizations have one thing in common: people who have the courage to ask outrageously. This doesn't mean being obnoxious or taking advantage of people. It means not compromising, taking a risk to get what you know you need, not what you think you can get. Based on Linda Swindling's original research and her experience helping people make high-stakes requests in everything from business negotiations to marriage proposals, this book offers proven approaches to improve your asking and boost your chances of success. Whether you are a professional looking for a bigger opportunity, an entrepreneur striving to build a company, a nonprofit seeking funding, or simply a parent or friend wanting a more fulfilling relationship, it's time to make that big ask! Get ready. Your results will surpass your greatest expectations!

If you're like most people, the phrase ''You'll be giving a presentation'' is on a par with ''It looks like that molar will have to come out.'' Well, let's be honest: you'd prefer the surgery, wouldn't you? One reason most people regard public speaking as a nightmare is that they have to be ''perfect.'' They drive themselves crazy trying to conform to all sorts of handed - down rules that tie them up in knots and put their audiences to sleep. But Karen Hough knows that by throwing out those rules, relaxing, being yourself, and even making ''mistakes,'' you'll connect with your audience much more effectively than the guy with the impeccable PowerPoint presentation. Hough has used her unique approach to take the anxiety out of one of the greatest fears in business. It's authenticity and passion that win people over, she says, not polish. It's why people trust vlogs more than commercials and user reviews more than ads. But you can't be authentic if you're following constraining rules that drain the life and personality out of your presentation. Hough debunks over a dozen myths about presenting to make it more fun and natural for everybody. She explains why mirrors are evil, why you should never end with questions, what the real purpose of any presentation should be, and much more. You'll discover how to embrace and develop your own style and communicate your message in a way that's all ''wrong'' according to the experts and that your audiences will find compellingly right. If presentations really didn't matter, we'd all just send memos. There are a million ways to share information out there, but the more we digitize, the more we long for human connection. By following Karen Hough's wise and witty advice, you'll avoid being forced to become one more robot behind a podium and be freed to be a living, breathing, occasionally clumsy real person whose passion is powerful and infectious.

Leaders today - whether in corporations or associations, nonprofits or nations - face massive, messy, multidimensional problems. No one person or group can possibly solve them - they require the broadest possible cooperation. But, says Harvard scholar Dean Williams, our leadership models are still essentially tribal: individuals with formal authority leading in the interest of their own group. In this deeply needed new book, he outlines an approach that enables leaders to transcend internal and external boundaries and help people to collaborate, even people over whom they technically have no power. Drawing on what he's learned from years of working in countries and organizations around the world, Williams shows leaders how to approach the delicate and creative work of boundary spanning, whether those boundaries are cultural, organizational, political, geographic, religious, or structural. Sometimes leaders themselves have to be the ones who cross the boundaries between groups. Other times, a leader's job is to build relational bridges between divided groups or even to completely break down the boundaries that block collaborative problem solving. By thinking about power and authority in a different way, leaders will become genuine change agents, able to heal wounds, resolve conflicts, and bring a fractured world together.

The widely accepted story of the founding of America is that The Mayflower delivered the first settlers from Plymouth to the New World in 1620. Yet thirteen years earlier, in 1607, the Jamestown settlers became the first English - speaking outpost to survive. And it is from this date that the USA is celebrating its 400th anniversary. The Secret Founding of America introduces these two groups of founders - the Planting Fathers, who established the earliest settlements along essentially Christian lines, and the Founding Fathers, who unified the colonies with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution - and it argues that the new nation, conceived in liberty, was the Freemasons' first step towards a new world order. Drawing on original findings and an in - depth understanding of the political and philosophical realities of the time, historian Nicholas Hagger charts the connections between Gosnold and Smith, Templars and Jacobites, and secret societies and libertarian ideals. He also explains how the influence of German Illuminati worked on the constructors of the new republic, and shows the hand of Freemasonry at work at every turning point in America's history, from Civil War to today's global struggles for democracy.

Discover the Real Revolution Unfolding across America. America faces huge challenges-climate change, social injustice, racist violence, economic insecurity. Journalist Sarah van Gelder suspected that there were solutions, and she went looking for them, not in the centers of power, where people are richly rewarded for their allegiance to the status quo, but off the beaten track, in rural communities, small towns, and neglected urban neighborhoods. She bought a used pickup truck and camper and set off on a 12,000-mile journey through eighteen states, dozens of cities and towns, and five Indian reservations. From the ranches of Montana to the coalfields of Kentucky to the urban cores of Chicago and Detroit, van Gelder discovered people and communities who are remaking America from the ground up. Join her as she meets the quirky and the committed, the local heroes and the healers who, under the mass media's radar, are getting stuff done. The common thread running through their work was best summed up by a phrase she saw on a mural in Newark. We the People LOVE This Place. That connection we each have to our physical and ecological place, and to our human community, is where we find our power and our best hopes for a new America.

Two and a half billion people worldwide, most of them desperately poor villagers, need a better way to save and to borrow. Even the most innovative banking institutions can't reach them; savings groups can. In savings groups, members save what they can in a communal pot and loan their growing fund to each other for their short - term needs. Jeffrey Ashe and Kyla Neilan illustrate how these savings groups form and function and how little ''outside'' support is actually required for their success. Drawing on decades of Ashe's personal experience, this book describes how he developed Saving for Change, which leveraged the wisdom and strength of group members to train and establish new groups. This model has impacted the lives of 680,000 people across five countries. Savings groups are a ''catalytic innovation'' that bypasses subsidies, dependency, and high costs while effectively reducing chronic hunger, building assets, and empowering the community. Today, saving groups have 9 million members around the globe - with minimal support, membership could grow to ten times this number.

Betsy Polk and Maggie Chotas have learned something powerful: when women work together they discover a level of support, flexibility, confidence, accountability, and freedom to be themselves that they rarely find in other work relationships. Drawing on their own twelve - year partnership and from interviews with 125 women business partners, Polk and Chotas demolish the myths that keep women from collaborating and offer advice for handling a host of potential challenges. This groundbreaking book shows that when women team up - combining complementary skills, channeling their egos into the partnership, and encouraging each other - they can work as full equals to achieve something that's exponentially greater than each woman alone.

What does teaching look like at its very best? How are great teachers able to ignite a love of learning and change students' lives? In this book you'll learn from seven remarkable teachers who stretch beyond the conventional foundations of good teaching to transform their classrooms into exciting, dynamic places where teachers and students cocreate the learning experience. Based on six years of extensive work, the book outlines a framework that identifies four dimensions of effective teaching and learning that are integrated in these highly effective teachers' classrooms - and that all teachers can use to recognize and release the potential in themselves and their students.

This is a different kind of corporate governance book. With its vivid stories and conversational tone, Boards That Excel is like sitting down with an astute and experienced friend - one who's passionate about what corporate and nonprofit boards can contribute to their organizations' success when they set high aspirations, are clear on purpose, and do the right things in the right way. B. Joseph White, an experienced corporate and nonprofit director and a distinguished academic, argues that boards can enable organizations to do great things, but only when directors go well beyond their duty to oversee and monitor management. White offers a road map for governance success based on his experience with two of America's most successful companies, one public and one private. He knows governance research and distills it to a handful of truly useful insights for boards and directors. He provides clear guidance on the essential work boards must do, and, drawing on behavioral research, he describes how they can ensure the boardroom is a place of good information, thoughtful evaluation, and wise decision making. The book reports on interviews with more than a dozen high - performance board chairs, CEOs, and directors, including Siebel Systems founder Tom Siebel, legendary real estate investor Sam Zell, former Harlem Globetrotters owner Mannie Jackson, GM board chairman and former Cummins chairman and CEO Tim Solso, and volunteer (University of Illinois, University of Michigan) and corporate (Hershey, Bob Evans) director Mary Kay Haben. All speak with unusual candor on what it takes for boards and directors to excel.

What's holding you back? Seth Allen Smith says look in the mirror. It's who, not what. All of us feel trapped, stuck, or unable to move forward in life at some point. But ultimately, the greatest obstacle to achieving your full potential is you. But the good news is you can find the solution in the mirror too. This book combats a destructive mindset that we all sometimes fall into : I can't change. I am the victim of my circumstances and confined by my personal limitations. This philosophy, intangible though it is, destroys more dreams and limits more lives than any actual, physical obstacle. It is a philosophy of stagnation and damnation. Drawing on literature, history, and his personal experiences with chronic depression, as well as on encounters with remarkable ''ordinary'' people who've beaten the odds, Smith inspires us to see that no matter how dire our circumstances there is always some positive step you can take, however small it might be. He doesn't sugarcoat the difficulties or offer promises of overnight success. But he does promise that if you continue to see yourself as a victim you'll remain frozen and fearful. Nobody wants that. We may not be able to control what happens to us, but we can always control how we react. We all have the power to lift ourselves out of the abyss and into the light.

In the latest fruit of a brilliant career, Michael Nagler argues that nonviolence-not just as a tactic but as a way of being-is the only way to unite deeply divided people and enable progressive movements and leaders of all stripes to fulfil their promise and potential.

We humans live by stories, says David Korten, and the stories that now govern our society set us on a path to certain self - destruction. In this profound new book, Korten shares the results of his search for a story that reflects the fullness of human knowledge and understanding and provides a guide to action adequate to the needs of our time. Korten calls our current story Sacred Money and Markets. Money, it tells us, is the measure of all worth and the source of all happiness. Earth is simply a source of raw materials. Inequality and environmental destruction are unfortunate but unavoidable. Although many recognize that this story promotes bad ethics, bad science, and bad economics, it will remain our guiding story until replaced by one that aligns with our deepest understanding of the universe and our relationship to it. To guide our path to a viable human future, Korten offers a Sacred Life and Living Earth story grounded in a cosmology that affirms we are living beings born of a living Earth itself born of a living universe. Our health and well - being depend on an economy that works in partnership with the processes by which Earth's community of life maintains the conditions of its own existence - and ours. Offering a hopeful vision, Korten lays out the transformative impact adopting this story will have on every aspect of human life and society.

While most of the business world worships size and constant growth, Big Vision, Small Business celebrates the art - and power - of small. Based on interviews with more than seventy small - business owners and on her own experiences as a successful small - business entrepreneur, Jamie Walters shows how a business can stay small and remain vital, healthy, and rewarding. If you long to run a successful, socially conscious enterprise as one element of a fulfilling personal life, Big Vision, Small Business shows you how. Covering growth options and small - enterprise advantages, inspired visioning, communication, and right - relationship, mindset issues and expectation management, and wisdom and mastery practices, Big Vision, Small Business is a must - read for every entrepreneur and futurist. Walters defines for keys essential to creating a small business with a big vision: â¿¢ Creating alternatives to the dominant definition of ''''growth â¿¢ Learning the art of visioning big â¿¢ Creating ''''right relationships'''' with employees, customers, and others â¿¢ Overcoming the common stumbling blocks, such as money, risk, competition, and success.

We're bombarded by messages telling us that more, bigger, and better things are the keys to happiness - but after we pile up the stuff and pile on the hours, we end up exhausted and broke on a planet full of trash. Sarah van Gelder and her colleagues at YES! Magazine have been exploring the meaning of real happiness for eighteen years. In this much - needed volume, they marshal fascinating research, in - depth essays, and compelling personal stories that lead to a life - altering conclusion: what makes us truly happy are the depth of our relationships, the quality of our communities, the contribution we make through the work we do, and the renewal we receive from a thriving natural world. The authors offer creative ways to cultivate a happiness that is sustainable in every sense: one that is nurturing, enduring, just, and life affirming for individuals, society, and the earth.

This deeply lyrical book offers perspective for those struggling to hear the quiet voice of the soul over the din of the contemporary workplace. Alan Briskin shows how the modern organization has gradually increased its demands on us - beginning with our bodies, then our minds, and now our souls. But through the moving personal stories of people fighting to reclaim their souls, he also sends a message that encourages individuals to keep their spiritual integrity and values alive. In The Stirring of Soul In the Workplace, Briskin weaves together lessons from history, psychology, and management theory, with numerous real - life examples, to tell the story of how the modern workplace has evolved to value technology and productivity over soulfulness and relationship. From the Industrial Revolution's marriage of mechanization and efficiency to the management theories of the early 20th century, Briskin traces the emergence of the quest for efficiency and control in the workplace. He questions the corporate concept of ''''''''individual personality'''''''' that asks us to check our emotions, fantasies, imaginations, and souls at the door. He describes the history of the soul as a dynamic force that continues to influence our behavior, and shows how excluding it from our work life actually flattens our potential and dampens our creativity. Rather than solve the conventional question organizations have been asking for years - how can we change people? - Alan Briskin examines how organizations can better reflect personal and human values in the workplace. For organizations that too often have sacrificed the well - being of the individual for the goals of the organization, the author suggests a more active way of taking up our work roles that can bring more of our experience and imagination into play. He points out that meaning cannot come from corporate mission statements or reengineering programs. Instead, it needs to be nurtured through dialogue and reflection, the courage to ask troubling questions, and a willingness to face the consequences of our collective and individual actions. When we learn to honor the contradictions, uncertainties, and interconnections inherent in the workplace, the energies of the soul will begin to stir with revitalizing results.

Retaining top talent and making sure they feel engaged and appreciated is a perennial concern for every business. This is the fifth edition of the bestselling book on employee retention with over 600,000 copies sold globally.

They Just Don't Get It! explores an all - too - common dilemma: when people around us just don't ''''''''get'''''''' our ideas. Through a charming illustrated fable, it tells the story of Julie Buffet, a hard - charging advertising executive with what she thinks is a fantastic idea for a new campaign. But nobody gets it - not the client, not her boss, and not her coworkers. And Julie can't understand why. We have all found ourselves in this situation at one time or another, and we typically see this problem as a failing on the part of the other party. They Just Don't Get It! shows that when they don't get it, the problem is really with ourselves. And it shows how we can finally really get it. If you've ever wondered why your ideas haven't been received or acted on in the way you expected, this book will reveal your own personal responsibility in helping others understand your intentions. Examining the root source of the problem, it details five keys to ''''''''getting it'''''''' - Take Responsibility; Practice Humility; Begin with Questions; Remain Open; and Believe They Can. These five simple steps will enable you to overcome the problem, and prevent it from happening in the future. They Just Don't Get It! will teach you how to communicate your ideas better, and how to motivate others to pull together and achieve your highest goals in any situation.

The Future of Investing If you want to build a better life and a better world - and really be prepared for any possible future in these turbulent times - you need to become a resilient investor! This trailblazing guide will expand your ideas of investing way beyond Wall Street. Your time, your energy, and the things you own are investments too, and you'll learn to diversify them in ways that move you toward your life goals. The Resilient Investment Map lays out all your assets - personal and physical as well as financial - and then provides three essential, timely strategies (Close to Home, Sustainable Global Economy, and Evolutionary Investing) that will help you grow each of them. The goal is to become more resilient: able to anticipate disturbance, rebuild as necessary, and improve when possible. You'll discover that the choices making you more resilient also enhance our communities, our economy, and the planet - building real wealth for all.

Updated paperback edition includes a new chapter and a Reader's Guide â¿¢ Explores the real causes of the Enron fiasco and other recent corporate scandals â¿¢ Explodes the myth that the stock market is ''''''''democratizing'''''''' wealth â¿¢ Gives practical guidance to help employees and communities change corporate governance and unfetter the genius of the free market. Wealth inequality, corporate welfare, and industrial pollution are symptoms - the fevers and chills of the economy. The underlying illness, says Business Ethics magazine founder Marjorie Kelly, is shareholder primacy: the corporate drive to make profits for shareholders, no matter who pays the cost. In The Divine Right of Capital, Kelly argues that focusing on the interests of stockholders to the exclusion of everyone else's interests is a form of discrimination based on property or wealth. She shows how this bias is held by our institutional structures, much as they once held biases against blacks and women. The Divine Right of Capital exposes six aristocratic principles that corporations are built on, principles that we would never accept in our modern democratic society but which we accept unquestioningly in our economy. Wealth bias is a holdover from our pre - democratic past. It has enabled shareholders to become a kind of economic aristocracy. Kelly shows how to design more equitable alternatives - new property rights, new forms of corporate governance, new ways of looking at corporate performance - that build on both free - market and democratic principles. We think of shareholder primacy as the natural law of the free market, much as our forebears thought of monarchy as the most natural form of government. But in The Divine Right of Capital, Kelly brilliantly demonstrates that it is no more ''''''''natural'''''''' than any other human creation. People designed this system and people can change it. We need a change of mind as profound as that of the American Revolution. We must question the legitimacy of a system that gives the wealthy few - the ten percent of Americans who own ninety percent of all stock - a disproportionate power over the many. In so doing, we can fulfill the democratic principles of our nation not only in the political sphere, but in the economic sphere as well.

Work through your fears by getting fierce! Fiercely You is a creative, playful approach to the serious problems that women face regarding confidence and risk taking. At a particularly low point in her life, bestselling author Jackie Huba serendipitously stumbled upon the wonderful world of drag queens and was inspired. They were supremely self-assured, utterly fearless, strong, powerful, and unabashedly and completely themselves. Jackie even became a drag queen herself: Lady Trinity. Drawing on her own experiences and interviews with the world's top drag queens, Huba and coauthor Shelly Kronbergs offers five Keys to Fierce that will help readers find the courage to ignore criticism and live the life they truly to live every day-no wigs or stilettos required.

Grassroots organizing is our best hope. If you're serious about making change from the bottom up, read Stand Up! and pass it on. Congressman Keith Ellison Each of us faces a moment of truth at a time of crisis, do we stand up and speak out or retreat into our private lives? This book is for those frustrated by what they see happening in the world but not sure what they can do about it. Veteran organizer Gordon Whitman shows that we have the power we need to create a racially and economically just society. But it won't happen if we stay on the sidelines sharing social media posts and signing online petitions. We win only if we're willing to join other people in the kind of face-to-face organizing that has powered every successful social movement in history. Whitman describes five types of conversations that enable people to build organizations that can solve local problems and confront the greatest challenges facing our country from gun violence to climate change. The book is a road map for standing up to the bullies who've hijacked our democracy and divided us against each other. Find your voice, make it heard, create lasting change, and live your purpose in the world!

For the past fifty years, leaders in the business world have believed that their sole responsibility is to maximize profit for shareholders. But this obsessive focus was a major cause of the abuses that nearly sunk the global economy in 2008. In this analytically rigorous and eminently practical book, Bruno Roche and Jay Jakub offer a more complete form of capitalism, one that delivers superior financial performance precisely because it mobilizes and generates human, social, and natural capital along with financial capital. They describe how the model has been implemented in live business pilots in Africa, Asia, and elsewhere. Recent high-profile books like Capital in the Twenty-First Century have exposed financial capitalism's shortcomings, but this book goes far beyond by describing a well-developed, field-tested alternative.

We all ask ourselves the question, ''''Has my life made a difference?'''' We want our lives to have meaning. We want to live balanced, productive lives in which we contribute through our work, our relationships, and our example to others. And we search for inner peace to deal with all of the chaos that exists in the world today. In this new book, Franklin Covey cofounder Hyrum Smith shows that the key to achieving a meaningful, fulfilling, and peaceful life is closing three gaps that we all struggle with. The first is the BELIEF GAP: the gap between what we believe to be true and what is actually true. The second is the TIME GAP: the gap between what we plan to do - our goals and dreams - and what we actually get done. The third is the VALUES GAP: the gap between what we value - what matters most to us - and what we actually do. Using inspiring true stories of people who have overcome difficult challenges, the author tells how to close each of these three gaps in our personal and work lives. Smith provides new understanding and tools to move from the life we currently have to the life we really want.

The health of business is inextricably linked with the health of humanity and nature. But our current approaches to leadership treat business as entirely separate - and the result has been recurring economic, environmental, and human crises. In this extraordinary book, Ram Nidumolu uses evocative parables and stories from the ancient Indian wisdom texts, the Upanishads, to introduce Being - centered leadership. This new kind of leadership is anchored in the concept of Being, the fundamental reality that underlies all phenomena. Being - centered leaders are guided by an innate sense of interconnection - the good of the whole becomes an integral part of their decisions and actions. Using the experiences of over twenty trailblazing CEOs, as well as those from his own life, Nidumolu describes a four - stage road map every aspiring leader can use to reconnect business to the wider world - to the benefit of all.

Combat the Deadly Sins of Project Management! Project management is a tough business. Not only must project managers contend with schedules, budgets, and a host of stakeholder demands, but they must also deal with sometimes vexing human behaviors, such as whining, indecision, opposition, inflexibility, complacency, and tunnel vision, to name a few. Projects can be negatively impacted by common 'sins' that hinder, stall, or throw the project off track. In The 77 Deadly Sins of Project Management , the contributors focus on each 'deadly sin' and probe its manifestations and consequences for projects. By sharing their personal experiences, as well as some historical events, the contributors spotlight the effects and costs - both financial and human - of failing to get a handle on these sins and reign them in. Through anecdotes and case studies, The 77 Deadly Sins of Project Management will help you better understand how to execute the myriad aspects of today's projects. - Identify danger signs and solutions for each 'sin' - Learn proven methods for tackling project mishaps - Gain practical and hands-on information from seasoned professionals - Keep a variety of 'sins' from derailing your project BONUS! Each book comes with a '77 Deadly Sins of Project Management' poster!

As the new century unfolds, we face a host of economic and social challenges - - jobs lost to ''''''''off shoring,'''''''' a huge and growing number of Americans without health insurance coverage, an expanding gap between rich and poor, stagnant wages, decaying public schools, and many others. These are difficult and complex problems, but our government's strategy for dealing with them has been essentially not to deal with them at all. Over and over, in subtle and not - so - subtle ways, we're told that we're on our own - - ''''''''Here's a tax cut and a private account; now go fend for yourself.'''''''' As Jared Bernstein points out, this approach doesn't make any sense as a strategy for solving the enormous systemic problems we face. It's just a way of shifting economic risk from those most able to bear it - - the government and the nation's corporations - - to those least able: individuals and families. The result has been greater wealth for the top 1% of Americans and stagnant living standards and increasing insecurity for the vast majority. In All Together Now, Bernstein outlines a new strategy, one that applauds individual initiative but recognizes that the problems we face as a nation can be solved only if we take a more collaborative approach. The message is simple: we're all in this together. Bernstein draws on recent and historic events to explore how the proponents of what he dubs the YOYO (you're - on - your - own) approach have sold the idea, exposing the fallacies and ulterior motives in their arguments as well as the disasterous consequences of their policies. More importantly, he details practical WITT (we're - in - this - together) initiatives in specific areas like globalization, health care, and employment that could improve the lives of millions of Americans without increasing overall national spending. And he offers advice on how to overcome objections to the WITT agenda and bring the country together so that both risks and benefits are shared more fairly. While the prevailing philosophy insists that all we can do is cope with massive social forces, each of us on our own, Bernstein argues that we can unite and shape these forces to meet our needs. The optimistic message of All Together Now is that the economic challenges we face are not insoluble; we can wield the tools of government to meet them in such a way as to build a more just and equitable society.