Product Description
Puerto Rico is at an important crossroad.After emerging as one of the world's fastest-growing economies following World War II, the island’s growth has slowed over the past quarter century.Although they are American citizens, nearly half of Puerto Rico's residents lived below the U.S. poverty line at the close of the millennium--and the income gap relative to the mainland was widening.Restoring Growth in Puerto Rico examines the island's economy and presents policy options for sustainable growth.A number of overlapping issues are at the heart of Puerto Rico's economic difficulties:labor supply and demand, entrepreneurship, the fiscal situation, financial markets, and trade.Here, economists from Puerto Rico and the United States propose a set of policy recommendations to increase employment, encourage private sector development, improve education, upgrade infrastructure, and fix governmental finances.The chapters in this book summarize original analyses appearing in The Economy of Puerto Rico:Restoring Growth, a much larger book also copublished by the Brookings Institution and the Center for the New Economy.The final chapter appears here in its entirety, presenting policy recommendations and setting out a growth strategy for Puerto Rico.Contributors: James Alm (Georgia State University), Barry P. Bosworth and Gary Burtless (Brookings Institution), Susan M. Collins (Brookings Institution and Georgetown University), Steven J. Davis (University of Chicago), María E. Enchautegui, Juan Lara, Luis A. Rivera- Batiz, and Orlando Sotomayor (University of Puerto Rico), Richard B. Freeman and Robert Z. Lawrence (Harvard University), Helen F. Ladd (Duke University), Rita Maldonado-Bear and Ingo Walter (New York University), Francisco L. Rivera-Batiz (Columbia University), and Miguel A. Soto-Class (Center for the New Economy). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Scholarly prestige of Brookings, but lacks diversity of economic thought
"Restoring Growth" is intelligently written, citing particular policy problems and solutions to the problems. However, the challenge with some American policymakers is the assumption that American economic development occurred through a vacuum of laissez faire policies, while history pointedly challenges this notion.
While I do respect the perspective of competition and small enterprise innovation as the book eloquently elaborates on, the book also ignores the historical development of colonial-style institutions on the island and the inability to connect politics with economics.
While it is important to understand and dissect economic theory apart from other social sciences, it is necessary to combine social science disciplines, politics and economics, in order to understand a complex world.
I think "Restoring Growth" is a must read for people interested in Puerto Rico and Development. A challenge for this book (and any other book for that matter) is when states and state interventionist policy is perceived as being generally all the same is grossly misleading.
The book is a good argument to include in the mix on Puerto Rico Development, but more scholarly literature that challenges the book's assumptions should create interactive dialogue. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (12)

Book
Although it is a used book, received like new.Good price, fast shipment, It was a good deal.

Excellent expose of Puerto Rico!
I am from Puerto Rico and had the opportunity to meet Mr.Odishelidze way before the publication of the book. We did not talked about the book but he impreesed me. With the book I learned a lot that I did not know about the Island.

Amazing Facts!
This book provides a point of view from an outsider who has more interest in solving our case than our own people do. This book is a must read for all puertoricans and for the US taxpayer. It is not perfect, but it's an eye opener. Myself being a former statehood supporter that now favors independence, recommend this book to anyone interested in how the last colony in the world is still surviving.

Follow the facts
Taxpayer subsidies to Puerto Rico are costing every American taxpayer $400 per person, per year. The United States is not subsidizing the government of Puerto Rico or its population, but rather it is providing tax breaks for many of the USA's leading corporations-including drug companies-that have established operations in the Territory. Despite the subsidies, the percentage of the Puerto Rican population below the poverty level is a shade under 50%, a figure in sharp contrast to the poorest of mainland USA, and Puerto Ricans remain subjects, not full participants in the American democratic process.
Alexander Odishelidze's and Arthur Laffer's book, Pay to the Order of Puerto Rico, is a cry for freedom for the Territory of Puerto Rico and its people. The authors, well-known in their fields, offer a viewpoint that does not require a degree in economics to understand it.
Whether one agrees with Laffer's conservative politics or Odeshelidze's prescription does not challenge the facts of the situation. The book is clearly written, wastes no time on trivia and its length belies the quick read that it is.
Pay to the Order of Puerto Rico is valuable for putting the facts in front of the American public. While the USA is messing around in the Middle East, the theme of this book is a plea to right the wrongs far closer to home.
Review written by
Florence Hackman, CFA
Frank Cullen

More foreign amateurs meddling with the enchanted island
Dear prospective reader, do not waste your time and money with this book. Notwithstanding the disrespect to Puerto Ricans and the lack of professionalism this book exerts, its main arguments stumble on their own feet.

The principal author is an individual bought entirely into the idea that the exact opposite of the socialism that he lived under the Soviets should be the solution to all the world's problems is trying to scare North Americans by telling them that they are losing money with Puerto Rico not paying federal taxes. The money he is talking about is the money that would have arrived to the federal coffers, which is the same money that Reganonmics are saying the government does not need. Pay attention to one of the many contradictions: if Laffer has made a career arguing that the federal government does not need that much taxes (he has argued for the relieving of the tax burden for the rich), why would this book complain that Puerto Rico is not paying federal taxes? Would not this be the ideal state? Yet, sarcasm aside, the book dwells excessively on the fact that PR is not contributing to the federal coffers without explaining the reasons why this is so. The fact that the Odishelidze neither knows the history nor he understands the economic, politics and social conditions of the Estado Libre Asociado (the title in Spanish captures the reality better than the English name), and Laffer chooses to ignore it, preordained the complete failure of this book's logic.

This book, in brief, is a product of the right wing machinery that has assaulted the world so effectively (with numerous Think-Tanks, Blogs, and preposterous publishing houses funded with the inexhaustible source of Republican money) with blatant distortions of the truth. Yes, the pharmaceuticals are making tons of money on the island-money that otherwise would have ended up as taxes for the federal government. Yet, the main argument of the book (that it is better for the US to incorporate the island, and that Puerto Ricans would get out of their slumber only with a rude statehood awakening) neglects to consider that the main purpose of the federal government with its current neoliberal ideology is simply to protect the profit of big business and not to debilitate them. So, with the usual stupidity of books written by people who do not know what (carajo) they are writing about, this book is just a soft (plasta) statement in the middle of the way. Please, ignore it unless you want to be part of the large mass of people blindly marching at the rhythm of this current imperial regime. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
This is the first book in English to analyze the controversial language policies passed by the Puerto Rican government in the 1990s. It is also the first to explore the connections between language and cultural identity and politics on the Caribbean island. This book shows that officials in both San Juan and Washington, along with English-first groups, used the language laws as weapons in the battle over U.S.-Puerto Rican relations and the volatile debate over statehood. ... Read more

Product Description
history, politics, cultural studies ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

THE TRUTH
By far one of the most quintessential books to the true and unpolluted understanding of the relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico. The book's strength is the extremely well documented and cited references.Buy this book and everything that say Ronald Fernandez on it.

The reality of the Puertorican History
Ronald Fernandez does it again! He have the magic to say the truth without no chains; and at the same time he opens the mind of the reader to make him really understand the facts that sometimes occurs long before, but are theones that moves today's actions. This book is a complentary of "LOSMACHETEROS", another fine book from this great writer.***** ... Read more

Product Description
"Against a historical backdrop whose origins go back to the US's acquisition of Puerto Rico in the Spanish-American War, the author examines in close detail the evolution of the statehood movement in that territory. . . . This volume will interest mostly professional scholars, graduate students, and general readers attuned to the Puerto Rican statehood issue and to such matters as ethnicity and constitutional development in societies still governed from a distant metropole- in this case, from Washington DC. The book is generally well written and readable. It contains a useful bibliography on the Puerto Rican statehood movement and a servicable index." Choice ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Rich in data, poor in analysis
This book is an empirical critique of Puerto Rico's development program called Operation Bootstrap.The authors use abundant census data to depict the contradictory socioeconomic trends induced by the island's industrialdevelopment. Analytically, the authors straddle between a view of PuertoRico as a developing economy and as a regional economy of the UnitedStates.This ambiguity leaves the reader wondering whether the paradox isthe product of methodological inconsistencies or of the reality of PuertoRico as an unicorporated territory of the United States.

the best
Carlos Santiago is magnificent. Professor at SUNY Albany one of ther best research institutions in this country. ... Read more

Product Description
Challenging the assumption that nationalism is caused by cultural traits or a region's subservient economic role, this analysis looks at the growing nationalism debate in Puerto Rico and Quebec. Barreto contends that Puerto Rican and Quebecois elites turned to nationalism in reaction to a linguistically based hegemonic order that socially and economically marginalized them. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Good scholarship work
Language excerpts a special role in culture as well as in people's identity.Those of us who have been obligated to learn another language have also experience the importance that language plays on culture by theway that we were accepted in society during the learning stages. Also bythe continuing way that we are treated no matter how highly educated we canbe. This book examines the relation of language, nationalism and state,using the examples of Quebec and Puerto Rico.This is an excellent workthat I really recommend. This book is not only for those interested in theQuebec or Puerto Rico situation but those who are in general interested inthe relation within language, elite's and state.I personally congratulateMr. Barreto for condensing so much information in a small book. This issomething that not all book writers have the skill to do.

Compelling and Engrossing
Professor Barreto takes a decidedly different turn in regards to his analyzation of nationalism in Quebec and Puerto Rico.His novel perspective provides extremely enlightening insight to the role that'elites' and 'intelligentia' play in the development of nationalistictendencies. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
The analysis of the constitutional development of Puerto Rico has been dominated by two major perspectives: political gradualism and classical colonialism. Gradualist analysis suggests that the constitutional development of Puerto Rico followed a pattern of gradual progression toward the goal of increasing self-government. A variant of this approach views the creation of particular constitutional laws for Puerto Rico as the result of United States experimentation in colonial policy-making. The classical colonialism approach presents the Puerto Rican constitutional laws as instruments of economic and military exploitation of Puerto Rico. Both approaches oversimplify the social complexity of those involved in the creation of constitutional laws. This book provides an alternative view which recognizes the role of social conflicts and social contradictions in the development of the constitutional laws of Puerto Rico. ... Read more

Product Description
El libro recoge los estudios, conversaciones y experiencias con funcionarios líderes de los poderes Ejecutivo y Legislativo; incluye aportaciones buscando la convergencia, para resolver la crisis fiscal llega al clímax en el 2006.Necesitamos tu ayuda: Alfredo Salazar, Presidente del Banco Gubernamental (2005-2008)Usted puede aportar mucho: Ileana Fas, Directora de Gerencia y Presupuesto (2005-2006)Deseamos conocer tu opinión: Hon. Ángel Pérez, Presidente, Comisión de Presupuesto (2005-2008) ... Read more

Product Description
Provides a history of Puerto Rico and focuses on current concerns, such as the possibility of statehood and the problems faced by those who come to the United States. ... Read more

Product Description
Every year the federal government of the United States spends huge amounts of taxpayers' dollars on research and development. Until now, the specific information on R&D money was so fragmented that where the money went was anybody's guess. This report details the full range of federal R&D activities in terms of the individual laboratories, universities, and companies performing the research, doing the studies, and conducting the analyses. Through the use of this one-volume report, changes in the scope and activities of our national R&D enterprise can now be evaluated for their local, as well as national effect. Now the true scope of the federal R&D enterprise can be examined in painstaking detail. ... Read more

Product Description
A biography of the man responsible for transforming Puerto Rico from an island of poverty, disease, and squalor into "the Showplace of the Caribbean." ... Read more

Product Description
The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico has a unique history as a part of the United States. United States suzerainty over Puerto Rico originated with the acquisition of the islands in 1898 after the conclusion of the Spanish-American War. For decades, the federal government administered government operations in Puerto Rico through military liaisons or civilian officials appointed by the President. Legislation enacted by Congress in 1950 (P.L. 81-600) and in 1952 (P.L. 82-447) granted Puerto Rico authority to establish a republican form of local government through a constitution approved by the citizens of Puerto Rico and the Congress in 1952. Puerto Rico remains subject to congressional jurisdiction under the Territorial Clause of the US Constitution. Under this authority, Congress has passed legislation that governs elements of Puerto Rico's relationship to the United States. For example, residents of Puerto Rico hold U.S. citizenship, serve in the military, are represented in the House of Representatives by a Resident Commissioner elected to a four-year term who does not have privileges to vote on the floor of the House, are subject to federal laws and are beneficiaries of federal aid as approved by Congress, do not vote in national elections, and pay no federal income tax.While these and other aspects of the relationship of Puerto Rico to the United States are matters of record, other elements of the relationship have been and continue to be subject to debate by some officials and analysts. Some contend that the Commonwealth has a special status outside the Territorial Clause that derives from 1950 legislation 'in the nature of a compact' agreed to by the people of Puerto Rico and Congress, as well as from declarations made to the United Nations in the 1950s. Also, certain federal court rulings and statements by past presidents buttress claims to special status. Such advocates contend that the current political status of the Commonwealth, perhaps with enhancements, remains a viable option for the future. Others argue that the commonwealth status is (or should be) only a temporary fix to a problem to be resolved in favour of other permanent non-colonial and non-territorial solutions - either statehood or independence as a foreign nation, the latter possibly negotiated with formal ties in certain policy areas.For many years, some Members of Congress, elected representatives of Puerto Rico, federal administration officials, and interested members of the public have discussed options for reconsidering the political status of Puerto Rico. Legislation recently passed by the Puerto Rican legislature may be one factor that initiates renewed congressional attention on the political status issue. A White House task force is expected to release a report in 2005 that may serve as another catalyst for change. This book provides background information on the political status of the commonwealth and congressional actions taken over the past two decades. ... Read more