Politics Audiobooks | LoveReading

Barack Obama: Conservative, Pragmatist, Progressive

Following his election, President Obama's supporters and detractors anticipated radical reform. As the first African American to serve as president, he reached the White House on a campaign promise of change. But, as Burton Kaufman explores in this insightful biography, Obama showed clear patterns of classical conservativism of an ideological sort and basic policy-making pragmatism. His commitment to usher in a multiracial, multiethnic, and multicultural society was fundamentally connected to opening up, but not radically altering, the existing free enterprise system. The Affordable Care Act was a distillation of President Obama's complex motivations for policy. More conservative than radical, the ACA fitted the expansion of health insurance into the existing system. Similarly, in foreign policy, Obama eschewed the use of force to affect regime change. Yet he kept boots on the ground in the Middle East and supported ballot-box revolts geared toward achieving in foreign countries the same principles of liberalism, free enterprise, and competition that existed in the United States. In estimating the course and impact of Obama's full political life, Kaufman makes clear that both the desire for and fear of change in the American polity affected the popular perception but not the course of action of the forty-fourth US president.

Burton I. Kaufman (Author), James Fouhey (Narrator)

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A Knock at the Door: The Story of My Secret Work with Israeli MIAs and POWs

The inside story of Israel's secret negotiations to bring home their soldiers taken hostage by terrorist groups. Suppose one day, your son or husband, while serving in the military or working as a journalist, is taken hostage by a terrorist group-and you have no idea whether your loved one is dead or alive or how to even make contact with the insurgents holding him. It's a nightmare scenario that has sadly taken place dozens of times in the past twenty years in the Middle East. Here in the U.S., the government does not always get involved. Instead, it will engage the services of a neutral country to negotiate with the terrorists. Unfortunately, many times the terrorists insist on never-ending demands in order to torment the family of the hostage. Unlike Israel, we've never had a central address for these types of scenarios. But maybe after reading this book, it's an idea we could, and should, consider. Ory Slonim, the international "door knocker," was an invention of necessity by the Israeli government. There were many good and brave human beings involved in this matter. Here for the first time is the story of the one man in Israel who, for more than two decades, was known as the "door knocker." He had been a private Israeli lawyer when he was asked to undertake, on behalf of the Israeli government, secret negotiations to find out the whereabouts of Israeli soldiers who were taken alive. In his capacity as negotiator, his story will take you into the worlds of the furtive Mossad, the twisted minds of terrorists, the forever traumatized lives of the parents whose children never came home from battle, and into Ory's own resilient, compassionate, and amazingly resolute negotiations when ordinary people would have easily broken down.hostage by terrorist groups. His ultimate mission was to bring them home, dead oralive. In his capacity as negotiator, his story will take you into the worlds of the furtive Mossad, the twisted minds of terrorists, the forever traumatized lives of the parents whose children never came home from battle, and into Ory's own resilient, compassionate, and amazingly resolute negotiations when ordinary people would have easily broken down.

Ory Slonim (Author), Donald Corren (Narrator)

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Garvey and Garveyism

Like all great dreamers and planners, Marcus Garvey dreamed and planned ahead of his time and his peoples' ability to understand the significance of his life's work. A set of circumstances, mostly created by the world colonial powers, crushed this dreamer, but not his dreams. Due to persistence and years of sacrifice of Mrs. Amy Jacques Garvey, widow of Marcus Garvey, a large body of work by and about this great nationalist leader has been preserved and can be made available to a new generation of Black people who have the power to turn his dreams into realities. Written as a participant and confidant, Amy Jacques Garvey's perspective continues to provide an intimate and first-person narrative of the Garvey movement and this important nascent period of Black Nationalism.

Amy Jacques Garvey (Author), Beresford Bennett, Karen Chilton (Narrator)

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Jacinda Ardern. Un nuevo módelo de liderazgo

Es progresista, socialdemócrata y feminista. Una líder milenial. La segunda mujer electa en dar a luz durante su mandato. Pero ¿quién es realmente Jacinda Ardern? ¿Y por qué inspira tanta admiración en todo el mundo? La primera ministra de Nueva Zelanda ha sido considerada la gran líder de una nueva generación. Su elegancia y compasión durante el tiroteo en la mezquita de Christchurch captó la atención del mundo entero. Incluso la mismísima Oprah Winfrey invitó a sus seguidores a «canalizar la Jacinda que llevamos dentro». Ardern acaparó los titulares y las redes sociales de todo el mundo. La dirigente de un país lejano que incluso llegó a ser portada de la revista Time y volvió a ser ejemplo tras su brillante gestión a la pandemia de la covid-19. En esta reveladora biografía, la periodista Madeleine Chapman nos descubre a la mujer tras los titulares. Siempre políticamente comprometida y apasionada, Ardern es carismática y cercana. Ha sido capaz de lidiar contra el sexismo, sin dejar que eso la endurezca, abogando por estar por encima de sus detractores. En su primera conferencia de prensa, anunció una campaña electoral llena de una positividad implacable. Esa táctica resultó todo un éxito: las donaciones llegaron a raudales y su partido repuntó en las encuestas. Recientemente ha sido reelegida para un segundo mandato, ganando por una aplastante mayoría absoluta. Pero ¿ha estado Ardern a la altura de sus promesas? ¿Qué concesiones políticas ha tenido que hacer? Y más allá de los focos, ¿cómo es en la práctica su nuevo estilo de liderazgo? Este audiolibro está narrado en castellano - Madeleine Chapman es coautora de la biografía de Steven Adams. Escribe habitualmente en The Spinoff. Fue nombrada en 2018 como la periodista de política y negocios del año.

Madeleine Chapman (Author), Txe Arana (Narrator)

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Trillion Dollar Triage: How Jay Powell and the Fed Battled a President and a Pandemic---and Prevent

The inside story, told with "insight, perspective, and stellar reporting," of how an unassuming civil servant created trillions of dollars from thin air, combatted a public health crisis, and saved the American economy from a second Great Depression (Alan S. Blinder, former Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve). By February 2020, the U.S. economic expansion had become the longest on record. Unemployment was plumbing half-century lows. Stock markets soared to new highs. One month later, the public health battle against a deadly virus had pushed the economy into the equivalent of a medically induced coma. America's workplaces-offices, shops, malls, and factories-shuttered. Many of the nation's largest employers and tens of thousands of small businesses faced ruin. Over 22 million American jobs were lost. The extreme uncertainty led to some of the largest daily drops ever in the stock market. Nick Timiraos, the Wall Street Journal's chief economics correspondent, draws on extensive interviews to detail the tense meetings, late night phone calls, and crucial video conferences behind the largest, swiftest U.S. economic policy response since World War II. Trillion Dollar Triage goes inside the Federal Reserve, one of the country's most important and least understood institutions, to chronicle how its plainspoken chairman, Jay Powell, unleashed an unprecedented monetary barrage to keep the economy on life support. With the bleeding stemmed, the Fed faced a new challenge: How to nurture a recovery without unleashing an inflation-fueling, bubble-blowing money bomb? Trillion Dollar Triage is the definitive, gripping history of a creative and unprecedented battle to shield the American economy from the twin threats of a public health disaster and economic crisis. Economic theory and policy will never be the same.

Nick Timiraos (Author), Nick Timiraos, Peter Ganim (Narrator)

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The Money Revolution: How to Finance the Next American Century

In The Money Revolution: How to Finance the Next American Century, economist and bestselling author Richard Duncan lays out a farsighted strategy to maximize the United States' unmatched financial and technological potential. In compelling fashion, the author shows that the United States can and should invest in the industries and technologies of the future on an unprecedented scale in order to ignite a new technological revolution that would cement the country's geopolitical preeminence, greatly enhance human well-being, and create unimaginable wealth. In this book, you will find: an important new history of the Federal Reserve that details the transformation of the country's central bank from the passive lender of last resort created by its founders in 1913 into the world's most powerful economic institution today; a fascinating discussion of the evolution of money and monetary policy in the United States over the past century; an examination of the role that credit has played in generating economic growth; a detailed description of the country's capital structure and its dangerous deficiencies; and an urgent call-to-action for the United States to begin a multi-trillion-dollar investment program targeting industries of the future. The Money Revolution is an engaging listen that is ideal for anyone interested in the future of the United States.

Richard Duncan (Author), Chris Reilly (Narrator)

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Restarting the Future: How to Fix the Intangible Economy

Radical ideas for restoring prosperity in today's intangible economy The past two decades have witnessed sluggish economic growth, mounting inequality, dysfunctional competition, and a host of other ills that have left people wondering what has happened to the future they were promised. Restarting the Future reveals how these problems arise from a failure to develop the institutions demanded by an economy now reliant on intangible capital such as ideas, relationships, brands, and knowledge. In this groundbreaking and provocative book, Jonathan Haskel and Stian Westlake argue that the great economic disappointment of the century is the result of an incomplete transition from an economy based on physical capital, and show how the vital institutions that underpin our economy remain geared to an outmoded way of doing business. The growth of intangible investment has slowed significantly in recent years, making the world poorer, less fair, and more vulnerable to existential threats. Haskel and Westlake present exciting new ideas to help us catch up with the intangible revolution, offering a road map for how to finance businesses, improve our cities, fund more science and research, reform monetary policy, and reshape intellectual property rules for the better. Drawing on Haskel and Westlake's experience at the forefront of finance and economic policymaking, Restarting the Future sets out a host of radical but practical solutions that can lead us into the future.

Jonathan Haskel, Stian Westlake (Author), Derek Perkins (Narrator)

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The Wall and the Bridge: Fear and Opportunity in Disruption's Wake

An informed argument for an economic policy based on bridges of preparation and adaptation rather than walls of protection and exclusion Free-market economists often have noted that there are winners and losers in a competitive capitalist world. The question of how to deal with the difficult real-life consequences faced by the losers, however, has largely been ignored. Populist politicians have tried repeatedly to address the issue by creating walls-of both the physical and economic kinds-to insulate communities and keep competition at bay. While recognizing the broad emotional appeal of walls, economist Glenn Hubbard argues that because they delay needed adaptations to the ever-changing world, walls are essentially backward-looking and ultimately destined to fail. Taking Adam Smith's logic to Youngstown, Ohio, as a case study in economic disruption, Hubbard promotes the benefits of an open economy and creating bridges to support people in turbulent times so that they remain engaged and prepared to participate in, and reap the rewards of, a new economic landscape.

Glenn Hubbard (Author), Stephen R. Thorne (Narrator)

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The Avoidable War: The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict between the US and Xi Jinping's China

A war between China and the US would be catastrophic, deadly, and destructive. Unfortunately, it is no longer unthinkable. The relationship between the US and China, the world's two superpowers, is peculiarly volatile. It rests on a seismic fault-of cultural misunderstanding, historical grievance, and ideological incompatibility. No other nations are so quick to offend and be offended. Their militaries play a dangerous game of chicken, corporations steal intellectual property, intelligence satellites peer, and AI technicians plot. The capacity for either country to cross a fatal line grows daily. Kevin Rudd, a former Australian prime minister who has studied, lived in, and worked with China for more than forty years, is one of the very few people who can offer real insight into the mindsets of the leadership whose judgment will determine if a war will be fought. The Avoidable War demystifies the actions of both sides, explaining and translating them for the benefit of the other. Geopolitical disaster is still avoidable, but only if these two giants can find a way to coexist without betraying their core interests through what Rudd calls "managed strategic competition." Should they fail, down that path lies the possibility of a war that could rewrite the future of both countries, and the world.

Kevin Rudd (Author), Kevin Rudd, Rafe Beckley (Narrator)

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A Duty of Care: Britain Before and After Covid

Brought to you by Penguin. The 'duty of care' which the state owes to its citizens is a phrase much used, but what has it actually meant in Britain historically? And what should it mean in the future, once the immediate Covid crisis has passed? In A Duty of Care, Peter Hennessy divides post-war British history into BC (before corona) and AC (after corona). He looks back to beginnings when, during wartime, Sir William Beveridge identified the 'five giants' on the road to recovery: want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness and laid the foundations for the modern welfare state. Hennessy examines the attack on the giants after the war and asks what the giants are now, and calls for 'a new Beveridge' to build a consensus for post-corona Britain with the ambition and on the scale that was achieved in the decades after the Second World War. © Peter Hennessy 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022 THIS AUDIOBOOK MAY INCLUDE INFORMATION REGARDING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC. INFORMATION RELATED TO COVID-19 CONTINUES TO EVOLVE. AUDIOBOOKS.COM ENCOURAGES YOU TO SEEK UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION AND GUIDANCE FROM YOUR LOCAL PUBLIC HEALTH UNIT.

Peter Hennessy (Author), Matthew Spencer (Narrator)

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Burning Questions: Essays and Occasional Pieces 2004–2021

Brought to you by Penguin. From cultural icon Margaret Atwood comes a brilliant collection of essays -- funny, erudite, endlessly curious, uncannily prescient -- which seek answers to Burning Questions such as: Why do people everywhere, in all cultures, tell stories? How much of yourself can you give away without evaporating? How can we live on our planet? Is it true? And is it fair? What do zombies have to do with authoritarianism? In over fifty pieces Atwood aims her prodigious intellect and impish humour at the world, and reports back to us on what she finds. This roller-coaster period brought the end of history, a financial crash, the rise of Trump and a pandemic. From debt to tech, the climate crisis to freedom; from when to dispense advice to the young (answer: only when asked) to how to define granola, we have no better guide to the many and varied mysteries of our universe. Read by: Amanda Cordner, Amelia Sargisson, Ann Dowd, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Becky Hardie, Ciarán Hinds, Claudia Dey, Damian Rogers, Dr. Asha de Vos, Dr. Vincent Lam, Esi Edugya, Georgia Toews, Heather O'Neill, Ian Davidson, Kaniehtiio Horn, Katie Ryerson, Kelly McCormack, Lee Boudreaux, Lorna Crozier, Margaret Atwood, Marie Henein, Megan Follows, Naomi Alderman, Omar El-Akkad, Patricia Zurita, R.H. Thomson, Rebecca Liddiard, Robyn Doolittle, Stephanie Belding, Stephen Ouimette, Tess Degenstein, Tiffany Ayalik, Tomson Highway, Tori Dunlap, Yasmeen Hassan, Yvonne Boyer © Margaret Atwood 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Margaret Atwood (Author), Amanda Cordner, Amelia Sargisson, Ann Dowd, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Ann-Marie Macdonald, Ciarán Hinds, Esi Edugyan, Kaniehtiio Horn, Lorna Crozier, Margaret Atwood, Naomi Alderman, Omar El Akkad, Stephanie Belding, Tess Degenstein, Tori Dunlap (Narrator)

Audiobook

Americans in China: Encounters with the People's Republic

In Americans in China, Terry Lautz provides a series of biographical portraits of Americans who have lived and worked in China from before the Communist era to the present. The pathbreaking experiences of these men and women provide unique insights and deeply human perspectives on issues that have shaped US engagement with the People's Republic: politics, diplomacy, education, business, art, law, journalism, and human rights. For each of these Americans, China was more than just another place: it was an idea, a cause, a revolution, a civilization. Some of them grew up in China while others were motivated by curiosity and adventure. Some believed Red China was an existential threat while others looked to the People's Republic as a socialist utopia. Still others-including a number of Chinese Americans-worked to improve US-China relations for personal or professional reasons. Looming over their narratives is the quandry of whether divergent Chinese and Western worldviews could find common ground. Would China move in the direction of Western-style liberal democracy? Or was the Communist Party destined to follow an authoritarian path? The figures in this book had distinctive answers to such questions. Their stories hold up a mirror to our two societies, helping to explain how we have arrived at the present moment.

Terry Lautz (Author), Paul Heitsch (Narrator)

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