referencebooks

Tiller's Guide to Indian Country: Economic Profiles of American Indian Reservations

Edited and compiled by Veronica E. Velarde Tiller

Published by BowArrow Publishing Company, 1996 (newer editions are available)

This is an 8.5" by 11" hardcover book running to 698 pages including the bibliography and index, plus a brief preferatory section.

Note: This book is updated regularly. Ours is a pretty old edition. The most recent is a 2006 edition, just published.

What the book does is provide an economic profile for each indian Reservation in the United States, of which there are about 300. Most profiles give some simple stats (including address, area in acres, labor force, education levels, per capita income, unemployment rate, and population of the reservation and tribal enrollment); the location and land status of the reservation; the culture and history of the Tribe; description of the Tribe's government; description of the reservation's economic activity; and a description of the reservation's infrastructure and facilities. Many profiles give a little less information.

The Fond du Lac Reservation is near where I live, so I looked it up to see what I could learn. This entry is about a page and a quarter in length and is very informative. The section on location and land status describes the geography and the history of the reservation. The section on culture and history talks about the history of the tribe and a bit about their contemporary culture and situation. The section on the reservation's economy is the longest part, and has separate sections for types of economic activity (construction, agriculture, forestry, gaming, tourism, etc.). The prose is clear and very informative.

This is an essential reference work for those interested in getting quick information about reservations and the tribes that live on them. It is important to keep in mind that the basic unit of description is the reservation and not the tribe, because there are more than 200 recognized tribes in the United States that do not have reservations, and this resource does not provide information on them.

The New Nonprofit Almanac and Desk Reference: The Essential Facts and Figures for Managers, Researchers, and Volunteers

By Murray S. Weitzman and Nadine T. Jalandoni of Independent Sector and Linda M. Lampkin and Thomas H. Pollak of Urban Institute.

Published by Jossey-Bass, 2002.

This is an 8.5" by 11" paperback running to 247 pages including the appendices and index, plus a list of tables, list of figures, a foreword, an introductions, acknowledgements, and an overview and executive summary.

This book is a compilation of data, from a variety of sources, about the nonprofit or independent sector of the economy. ("Nonprofit sector" and "independent sector" are roughly synonymous terms, but one difference seems to be that "independent sector" clearly includes religious organizations.)

The book is divided into five chapters. Chapter One talks about the size and scope of the independent sector in the US economy, including things like employment figures, economic value of volunteer work, and number of organizations. Chapter Two talks about paid employment, including information on the number of employees by subsector, what they earn, demographic information and employment trends. Chapter Three talks about private philanthropy, including on overview of how much is given by individuals, foundations, and corporations; and giving trends in relation to changes in tax law. Chapter Four estimates revenue from private giving, government payments, private payments (dues, fees, etc.), and investment income, and also estimates how these funds are used. Chapter five presents tables having to do with tax filings by 501(c)(3) organizations, broken down by state and region. Additionally there are four appendices: the National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities classification system (simplified); notes on methodologies used in arriving at the estimates included in the book; a web directory for organizations with information on the nonprofit sector; and a glossary.

This is a useful book for people studying economics and policies that relate to nonprofits, as well as some people in nonprofit management.

World Monetary Units: An Historical Dictionary, Country by Country

By Howard M. Berlin

Published by McFarland, 2005

This is a 7" by 10" hardbound book running to 229 pages including a series of appendices, a bibliography and an index, plus a brief preface and a "how to use this book" section.

The book has entries of a half a page to just over a page covering the monetary units of each country in the world. Each entry gives a brief history of the country's monetary units, finishing with tables laying out the chronology of their development and the orthography of the country's currency (the formation of words, abbreviations and symbols representing the monetary denominations). Economic facts about a country's money system and its history are not covered; the book is limited to information about monetary units.

The detail is quite impressive given the brevity of the entries. For example, the entry on Uzbekistan's currency provides a note showing the difference between the Uzbek/Uigur spellings of the denominational units "som" and "tiyin" and the Kyrgyz spellings, in the Cyrillic alphabet.

This book provides a thorough coverage of this limited topic into a efficient, relatively small package. A well done, useful reference book.

The Value of a Dollar: Prices and Incomes in the United States

By Scott Derks

Grey House Publishing, 2004

This is a chunky 8.5" by 11" hardcover book running to 664 pages including the two-page bibliography and fourteen-page index, plus a brief introduction, contents pages, and a one-page Composite Consumer Price Index that summarizes the value of an 1860 dollar for each year up to 2003.

What this book does is fascinating. It paints a rich picture of personal economics through U.S. history by providing the following types of information, in a usefully-organized way:

• Historical snapshots of the country by year, focusing on economic news;
  
• Income for selected jobs by half-decade, with a brief description of what the job was like at that time;
  
• Typical totals for per-capita consumer expenses by category of expenditure (including things like Auto Parts, Dentists, Religion/Welfare Activities, Furniture, and Tobacco) and by year;
  
• Typical investments by year and their returns;
  
• Income by job type and year;
  
• Prices for different foods in different cities, by half-decade;
  
• Prices for different goods and services, by half-decade, with descriptions taken directly from the advertisements of the time;
  
• Miscellaneous brief articles, advertisements, and letters to the editor, illustrating economic conditions, by half-decade;
  
• Graphs showing trends in price over time for seventy goods and services, and income for twenty occupations, in both original dollars and 2002 dollars.
  

The author compiled this information from a large number of sources - so this is much more than processed census data (though there's nothing wrong with that). Among the sources he used are publications from a variety of governmenet agencies, surveys conducted by private research firms, historical works, Sears Roebuck Catalogues, books for collectors, and newspapers and popular magazines.

Thinking about pricing trends immediately raises interesting questions. One factor in changing prices is inflation, which can be tracked by watching the consumer price index. Another is changes in technology and manufacturing processes. The car a person might buy today is not the same car that was manufactured in 1930, though in a way it is comparable because one would buy it for the same reason. None of these factors are lost in the way the data is presented in this book; consumer price index numbers are there, 2002 dollars are there, original dollars are there, advertising descriptions of products are there. Also interesting is the ability to compare pricing trends to changes in income in 2002 dollars, and see how people choose different kinds of goods and services according to how much they have to spend.

There is relatively little offered in the way of interpretations of these numbers, or essays relating to the data. The author leaves that to the users of the book.

A fascinating and useful resource.

Webster's New World Finance and Investment Dictionary: Your guide to the terms, phrases, and jargon of the financial world

By Barbara J. Etzel.

Published by John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2003.

This is a 6" by 9" paperback running to 369 pages, including a section of chart (graph) shapes commonly found in financial communication.

This is simply a dictionary of terminology used in the world of finance and investment. The introduction makes the case for having a new one such as this, based on the fact that the last few years have seen new terminology entering the financial world as a result of growing complexity of financial instruments, new developments in accounting, legislation (such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act) and other changes.

Most definitions in the book are two or three sentences in length, though some go on for several paragraphs. They are written clearly, mostly in layman's language, and are sufficient to communicate a general idea of what the term means, sometimes without getting into the real nitty-gritty details. As an example, here is the definition of "oversubscribed":

oversubscribed   A term used in underwriting to describe a new stock or bond that has more buyers than available shares. If an offering is oversubscribed, its price will often shoot up once it begins trading on the market. By using a green shoe provision, which allows the underwriter to sell more shares, the underwriter can modestly increase the number of shares offered.

For an idea of what's in the book, here are the first fifteen entries in the "F" sequence:

• fabless
  
• face value
  
• face-amount certificate
  
• factoring
  
• factory orders report
  
• fair value
  
• fairness opinion
  
• fallen angel
  
• family of funds
  
• Fannie Mae
  
• FASB (See Financial Accounting Standards Board)
  
• fast market
  
• Fastow, Andrew S.
  
• fast-track trading authority
  
• FCF (See free cash flow)
  

Not showing up in this list are the many foreign financial terms which have become important in the global financial industry. A strength of the book is its inclusion of many Islamic, Japanese and other foreign terms, as well as the names for the currencies of most countries.

This is a useful book for business people, business and finance students, and anyone getting a bit deeper in to the world of finance in their own lives.

World Bank Atlas

Produced and published by The World Bank, 2004.

This is a colorfully-illustrated, thin paperback book, 11" wide and 8.5" tall, running just 65 pages. The User's Guide at the beginning directs readers to the statistical publication on which the Atlas is based, World Development Indicators, 2004, for further information. So this book is more for browsing for one's own education than for supporting research with more than very basic statistics.

As a book for browsing and learning from it's got some wonderful strengths to it. The most obvious of these is the graphical presentation of information in beautifully-done, color-coded maps, charts and graphs. Another strength is that it is well-written, succinct, and clear.

The book's sections are titled:

• The world by region
  
• Rich countries - and poor
  
• How have demographics changed?
  
• Urban demands on the world's environment
  
• Many people are still poor
  
• Education opens doors
  
• Children under five -- struggling to survive
  
• Improving the health of mothers
  
• Communicable diseases -- too little progress
  
• Gender and development
  
• Limited land and more demand for food
  
• A thirsty planet gets thirstier
  
• Forests
  
• Energy use and a warmer world
  
• Growth and opportunity
  
• The rise of the service economy
  
• Investment for growth
  
• Improving the investment climate
  
• Government performance
  
• Infrastructure
  
• The integrating world
  
• Reducing barriers to trade
  
• External debt and debt management
  
• Aid for development
  
• Key indicators of development
  
• Notes
  
• Millenium Development Goals, targets and indicators
  
• Ranking of economies by GNI per capita
  

Astute readers will see evidence of the World Bank's own priorities and ideology right in that list of sections. "Investment for growth," "Improving the investment climate," "Government performance," and "Reducing barriers to trade" are certainly sections where the World Bank's ideology is in evidence. An awareness of the World Bank's ideology is important in using this book, and not just for people who are opposed to that institution. This is because it affects their picture of what development is and isn't, and affects what is measured and how they measure it. Foreign ownership of a country's economy and infrastructure is indirectly presented in a positive light, with no attention to its side-effects, and development is measured primarily in money terms, with no recognition of the value of cultural features and strengths that are simply lost in the process of development as the World Bank defines it.

Verdict: use this attractive book with caution.

The Illustrated Book of World Rankings, 5th Edition

Edited by George Thomas Kurian

Published by M. E. Sharpe, Inc., 2001.

This is a hardbound book of 8.5" by 10" running to 471 pages plus some preferatory material.

The book is a compilation of comparative international statistics. The book is divided into topic areas with specific measures under each in the table of contents. The topic areas are as follows:

1. Geography and Climate
   
2. Population
   
3. Vital Statistics and Family
   
4. Race and Religion
   
5. Politics and International Relations
   
6. Military Power
   
7. Economy
   
8. Business and Investment
   
9. Finance
   
10. Trade
    
11. Agriculture
    
12. Industry
    
13. Energy
    
14. Labor
    
15. Transportation and Communication
    
16. Environment
    
17. Consumption and Housing
    
18. Health and Social Services
    
19. Food
    
20. Education
    
21. New Technologies
    
22. Crime and Law Wnforcement
    
23. Media
    
24. Cities
    
25. Culture
    
26. Women
    
27. Global Indexes
    

For an example of the depth of coverage, the section titled "Women," which is smaller than most of the sections, has the following data:

• Gender-Related Development Index
  
• Gender Empowerment Measure
  
• Women's Share of Earned Income
  
• Seats Held by Women in National Legislatures
  
• Female College and University Students
  
• Female College and University Science Enrollment
  
• Female Administrators and Managers
  
• Female Professional and Technical Workers
  
• Women in Government
  

Data tables rank the countries of the world in order of what is being measured. Most of these tables are introduced with a paragraph-long explanation of the statistic being reported and what it measures, with caveats sometimes noted.

The information is usually depressingly unsurprising, in that most of the tables look like a ranking of countries by general economic development. There are many exceptions, however, and these are what make the book interesting. For example, the United States ranks 70th in literacy, behind countries as diverse as Samoa, Armenia, Barbados, Romania, Cuba, and most of the former Soviet countries. It's also a surprise that the United States ranks fourth in film production, behind India, China and the Philippines, and that the country with the most libraries is Russia, followed by Germany and then Poland. Also, the United States is rather heavily policed compared to other countries, with many more police officers per capita than North Korea as well as the European countries. (Middle Eastern countries and dictatorships in Asia, Africa and South America have the most.)

Many of the statistics, as acknowledged in the introduction, suffer from the difficulty of comparing numbers that were collected differently. For example, the high reported crime rates of Scandinavian countries versus African countries likely has to do with what is defined as a crime and handled (and recorded for statistical purposes) by the legal system.

The ten-page appendix consists of an impressively long list of the international statistical sources used in compiling the book, however, these statistical sources are not cited directly from the tables, which is a real shortcoming. The index is well-done and pretty thorough.

The book has a lot in it but doesn't have every statistic that you might be of interest to you. For example, I have often heard about the ranking of the United States in prison population as a percentage of total population. (I have heard that it ranks first at times and at other times that it ranks second behind Russia.) This statistic doesn't seem to be reported in the book.

Generally speaking, a very nice and useful compilation.

The Economist Guide to Economic Indicators: Making Sense of Economics.
5th Edition.

This is a small hardbound book, running 243 pages including the index, published by Bloomberg Press. It's part of a series of guides to aspects of business and economics somehow connected to the news magazine The Economist. A few other titles in the series include Business Ethics, Brands and Branding, China's Stockmarket, and Guide to Analyzing Companies.

The book is divided into ten chapters. The first three cover general issues, and the remaining seven cover more or less measurable aspects of the economy, with specific indicators and topics discussed under each for a few pages.

The ten chapters are:
Interpreting economic indicators
Essential mechanics
Measuring economic activity
Growth:trends and cycles
Population, employment and unemployment
Fiscal indicators
Consumers
Investments and savings
Industry and commerce
The balance of payments
Exchange rates
Money and financial markets
Prices and wages

Among the indicators listed in the "prices and wages" chapter,
for example, are "price indicators," "gold price," "oil prices,"
"commodity price indices," "export and import prices; unit values," etc.

This is a handy, concise guide to mainstream economic indicators
explained in fairly easy-to-understand language for an economics book.
It leaves out discussion of cutting edge, reformist or critical ideas
in economics; you won't find Thorsten Veblen mentioned.