San Antonio College Library

"Lester Thurow argues now is the time to shape globalization into what we want it to be - before it's too late. Today, he explains, we are at a critical crossroads in the development of the global economy. We can sit back and let it grow as it will, or we can seize the moment and build economic systems that will minimize instability, allow second and third world countries to thrive, and protect and enhance our own American interests. In short, a win/win...

This fast-paced animated case study examines the International Monetary Fund's role in assisting countries under economic distress. Spotlighted is a fictional country called Ruritania, whose litany of monetary problems includes government's role in the economy surpassing that of the private sector; wasteful government spending to employ relatives of politicians; subsidies to civilians who do not need social benefits; low tax revenues, prompting heavy...

Although members of the E.U. value its practicality and the African National Congress calls it indispensable, not everyone agrees that English should dominate the global dialogue. In this program, Thomas Patterson, of the Kennedy School of Government; Nicholas Ostler, of the Foundation for Endangered Languages; the president of CNN International; advocates and opponents of the English-only movement in America; and others debate the value of English...

The export of Western culture has made English a star performer on the world stage. This program discusses the ubiquity of Shakespeare and the King James Bible, explaining their roles in propelling English into preeminence as a language for cross-cultural expression. The success of TV as a medium for disseminating English is also explored, as is the appeal of English in movies and music to audiences in India and Japan. Ebonics as a dialect of American...

Antitrust laws, trade regulations, and property ownership work together to preserve the balance of rights among consumers, retailers, and employees. Module one of this program explains how citizens of Zurich voted to extend shopping hours, overturning an obsolete market intervention; module two examines fair competition in the case of Volkswagen/Audi v. The European Commission; and module three examines how Venice, in an absence of private property...

As the tiger economies of East Asia turned from boom to bust in the 1990s, the general public was amazed, yet many economists nodded their heads knowingly. This program focuses on the plights of Indonesia, Hong Kong, and Malaysia, where nepotism, cronyism, corruption, suppression, and the exploitation of cheap foreign labor brought about a financial crisis of enormous proportions. These regions grew too quickly without proper controls and economic...

The investment/growth cycle relies on synergy between government and industry. Module one of this program features the UN's International Fund for Agricultural Development, which assists in the progress of low-developed countries around the world. Using Singapore's economic success as a model, modules two and three highlight two prerequisites for economic growth: political credibility derived from sound economic policy and investment in human capital....

By the end of the 1980s, Argentina was caught in a perilous vortex of hyperinflation. In this program, the former Minister of the Economy, the former Secretary of the Treasury, bank president Eduardo Escasany, economist Martin Redrado, and others discuss the measures taken at that time to stabilize the economy, including establishing a currency board, deregulating and privatizing key industries, reforming the labor market, and asking the IMF for a...

In this program, Niall Ferguson asks how China manages to live under a Communist government but with a thriving capitalist economy. He travels to the new supercity of Chongqing and to the rural backwaters of Anhui to talk with survivors of Mao's regime, new billionaires, and Maoist nationalists, and finds the way China is governed now is eerily similar to the way it was under the First Emperor.