Reviews for Rhodes History, Monuments and Arts

The average rating for Rhodes History, Monuments and Arts based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-07-25 00:00:00 David Smith This collection of articles is really quite an impressive perspective on various topics on the difference between the North-South divide in political development. There are a few topics that are mysteriously missing, but overall, not a bad collection of essays. Article1 - Ashcroft has several interesting points. Specifically, I find that the ideas argument he makes about dollars spent in primary vs. post-secondary education are differentiating vs. the commonly held belief to invest in the brightest. Article 2 - Fertility as a strategic advantage in adaptability of a nation. Odd, but interesting. Article 3 - A number of interesting reasons for the difference in development between Lat Am and Asia are offered that do not have to do with culture (very appreciated). For example, population waves, land ownership rights, ease of credit, over-reliance on commodities. I would have liked to see the education argument in here. I also would have liked the author to have put forth more with respect to the differences in pre-existing infrastructure. However, the article is pretty good none-the-less. Article 5- Differences in European and African development. Potential causals listed include: 1) More natural resources (europe?) 2) Better weather (europe) 3) Africa - collective land ownership vs. legal system of Europe 4) instituational failures in Africa/lack of pre-existing strong institutions 5) poor use of technology Within all of these areas, lack of leadership and poor management frustrated the divide between these two regions. Chapter 7 : Trade/Exchange rate liberalization 1) Export trade policy increases physical human capital 2) Export increases both export and non-export GDP 3) Imports also good, but it should be durable goods you are importing in, not consumer. Ch 8: The Role of Technology I love that he seems to suggest that technology is great, but it polarizes even further the difference between the skilled and unskilled. He uses the example of sugar vs. tobacco. Sugar has increasing technology, but only serves to make sugar farmers a lot poorer relative to the plantation owner. Chapter 9: Global Economics p. 199: "Financial innovation is often seen as a by-product of regulation" p. 202 Financial innovation has serious consequences for the soundness and stability of the financial system since it collectively encourages the absorbtion of a higher proportion of risky assets into portfolios thus harming the financial fragility center (1989) His conclusions are that policy should create conditions of macro economic stability int eh form of low inflation and prospects for stable growth. I agree with the latter. I think some of the tinkering with the former has caused a few issues, but in the context of non-reserve currency nations, this is probably true as well.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-04-15 00:00:00 Petr Handl There's a ton of information here, but this is like a college text book - zero pictures & dense text. I prefer having at least some pictures/maps in my guide books. I'd recommend this if you are planning a trip a year from now, are prepared to look up things on your phone/computer while you're reading, and are going to buy another "easier" guide book to take on your actual trip (lugging this thing around in Italy seems like a non-starter).