Interest and Prices: Foundations of a Theory of Monetary Policy
Author: Michael Woodford
With the collapse of the Bretton Woods system, any pretense of a connection of the world's currencies to any real commodity has been abandoned. Yet since the 1980s, most central banks have abandoned money-growth targets as practical guidelines for monetary policy as well. How then can pure "fiat" currencies be managed so as to create confidence in the stability of national units of account?
Interest and Prices seeks to provide theoretical foundations for a rule-based approach to monetary policy suitable for a world of instant communications and ever more efficient financial markets. In such a world, effective monetary policy requires that central banks construct a conscious and articulate account of what they are doing. Michael Woodford reexamines the foundations of monetary economics, and shows how interest-rate policy can be used to achieve an inflation target in the absence of either commodity backing or control of a monetary aggregate.
The book further shows how the tools of modern macroeconomic theory can be used to design an optimal inflation-targeting regime--one that balances stabilization goals with the pursuit of price stability in a way that is grounded in an explicit welfare analysis, and that takes account of the "New Classical" critique of traditional policy evaluation exercises. It thus argues that rule-based policymaking need not mean adherence to a rigid framework unrelated to stabilization objectives for the sake of credibility, while at the same time showing the advantages of rule-based over purely discretionary policymaking.
New interesting textbook: Designing Creative Resumes or Second Front
The Entrepreneurial Engineer: Personal, Interpersonal, and Organizational Skills for Engineers in a World of Opportunity
Author: David E Goldberg
"Informative, provocative, and practical...developing the skills outlined in The Entrepreneurial Engineer is a necessity for a productive engineering career."
—Raymond L. Price, William H. Severns Professor of Human Behavior Director, Illinois Leadership(r) Center, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
"I believe that The Entrepreneurial Engineer has the potential to change the landscape of what engineers learn and do."
—John R. Koza, former CEO and chairman, Scientific Games Inc. and Consulting Professor, Stanford University
"Dr. Goldberg provides the road map for engineers of the future to stay at the front of the wave by learning to think more like entrepreneurs. . . Consider this book your survival handbook for the rest of your life."
—From the Foreword by Tim Schigel, Director Blue Chip Venture Company
Entrepreneurial times call for The Entrepreneurial Engineer
In an age when technology and business are merging as never before, today's engineers need skills matched with the times. Today, career success as an engineer is determined as much by an ability to communicate with coworkers, sell ideas, and manage time as by talent at manipulating a Laplace transform, coding a Java(r) object, or analyzing a statically indeterminate structure.
This book covers those nontechnical skills needed by today's entrepreneurial engineers who mix strong technical know-how, business and organizational prowess, and an alert eye for opportunity. Author David Goldberg unlocks the keys to ten core competencies at the heart of what entrepreneurial engineers need to master to be effective in afast-moving world of deals, teams, startups, and innovating corporations. You'll discover how to:
• Feel the essence-and the joys-of engineering
• Examine personal motivation and set goals
• Master time management and organization
• Write fast and well under pressure
• Prepare and deliver effective presentations
• Understand and practice good human relations
• Act ethically in matters large, small, and engineering
• Assess technology opportunities
• Understand teams, leadership, culture, and the organization of organizations
Table of Contents:
1. The Entrepreneurial Engineer: Ready for the 21st Century.1.1 21ST Century Engineers Moving at Internet Time.
1.2 Engineering Education, Common Sense & the Real World.
1.3 Ten Competencies for the Entrepreneurial Engineer.
1.4 Three Principles.
1.5 Three Cautions.
Exercises.
2. The Joy of Engineering.
2.1 A Joyous Confession.
2.2 Engineering as Liberal Education, Launch Pad & Lifelong Love.
2.2.1 Who is Getting a “Liberal Arts” Education Today?.
2.2.2 Engineering as Launch Pad.
2.2.3 10 ways to Love Engineering.
2.3 The Fundamental Tug-of-War.
2.4 Science and its Little Secret.
2.5 Engineers: First Masters of Modern Enterprise.
2.6 Economy of Intellection: Separating Science from Engineering.
2.6.1 The Modeling Plane.
2.6.2 Spectrum of Models.
2.7 Four Tensions Facing the Entrepreneurial Engineer.
Summary.
Exercises.
3. Money, Work, and You.
3.1 Money, Moola, the Big Bucks.
3.2 The Roads to Wealth: 4 Dinner Table Platitudes.
3.3 Hidden Lesson #1: Engagement.
3.3.1 Why Engagement Matters.
3.3.2 Matching Your Vocational Impedance.
3.4 Hidden Lesson #2: Courage.
3.4.1 Locus of Control: Internal versus External .
3.4.2 Exploring Courage.
3.5 Tactical Lessons of Handling Money.
3.5.1 Spending and Earning Styles.
3.5.2 Spending-Earning Impedance.
3.5.3 Investing, Saving, and Thrift.
3.6 Get a Life .
3.7 Plotting Your Course: Values, Mission, and Goals.
3.7.1 Creating a Personal Values Statement .
3.7.2 Writing a Personal Mission Statement.
3.7.3 Setting Goals .
Summary.
Exercises.
4. Getting Organized and Finding Time.
4.1 Time and Its Lack.
4.2 Effective Ways to Waste Time.
4.3 Seven Keys to Time Management .
4.3.1 A Place for Everything.
4.3.2 Work for Mr. To Do.
4.3.3 Sam Knows: Just Do It.
4.3.4 A Trash Can Is a Person’s Best Friend.
4.3.5 Tuning Your Reading.
4.3.6 Managing Interruptions.
4.3.7 Getting Help.
Summary.
Exercises.
5. Write for Your Life.
5.1 Engineers, Root Canal, and Writing.
5.2 Why Many Engineers Don’t Like to Write.
5.3 The Prime Directive of Writing: Just Write.
5.3.1 Freewriting.
5.3.2 Directed Writing for the Real World.
5.4 Getting the Content and Organization Right.
5.4.1 The Primary Structure of Business Writing: B-P-R.
5.4.2 Lists and Amplification: A Technical Writer’s Best Friend.
5.4.3 Sectioning, Titles, and Headings .
5.4.4 Summaries, Conclusions, and Distinguishing the Difference.
5.5 Edifying Editing .
5.6 Improving Your Writing.
Summary.
Exercises.
6. Present, Don’t Speak.
6.1 Speeches versus Presentations.
6.2 Why Present?.
6.3 Preparation Makes the Presentation.
6.3.1 Audience Analysis.
6.3.2 Subject Selection.
6.3.3 Elements of a Presentation.
6.3.4 Preparation Process.
6.3.5 Transparency Design and Preparation.
6.4 Delivery .
Summary.
Exercises.
7. The Human Side of Engineering.
7.1 The Human Challenges of Engineering.
7.2 Through the Eyes of Others.
7.3 Anatomy of a Disagreement.
7.4 We Are All Salesmen on this Bus.
7.5 The Role of Questions .
7.5.1 Questions in Conversation.
7.5.2 Questions in Conflict Resolution and Negotiation.
7.5.3 Questions in Sales and Persuasion.
7.6 Praise .
7.7 Criticism.
7.8 Engineering is Sometimes Having to Say You’re Sorry.
7.9 Wear a Little Passion.
Summary.
Exercises .
8. Ethics in Matters Small, Large, and Engineering.
8.1 Is Engineering Ethics Necessarily a Dreadful Bore?.
8.2 Ethics: The Systematic Study of Right and Wrong.
8.2.1 Golden Rules: Positive and Negative .
8.2.2 Whence Right and Wrong?.
8.2.3 An Engineer’s Synthesis of Ethical Theory.
8.3 From Ethical Theory to Practice.
8.3.1 Self-Interest.
8.3.2 Obedience to Authority.
8.3.3 Conformity to the Group.
8.3.4 Practice Makes Perfect.
8.4 From Personal to Engineering Ethics.
8.4.1 What is a Profession?.
8.4.2 A Tale of Two Codes .
8.4.3 Conflicts of Interest.
8.4.4 Whistleblowing is Not a First Resort.
Summary.
Exercises.
9. Pervasive Teamwork.
9.1 Our Love-Hate Relationship with Teams.
9.2 Working Together in Groups to Teams.
9.2.1 Groups and Teams: What’s the Difference?.
9.2.2 Team Basics.
9.2.3 Team Ground Rules ant Their Enforcement.
9.3 Understanding the Difficulties of Teamwork.
9.3.1 A Little Model of Teamwise Deciding and Doing.
9.3.2 A Little Model of Teamwise Conflict (and Creativity).
9.4 Why Cooperation Isn’t Easy.
9.5 Meetings, Meetings, and More Meetings.
9.5.1 Three Little Keys to Meeting Happiness.
9.5.2 A Day in the Life of a Typical Problem-Solving Meeting.
9.5.3 What’s Wrong?.
9.5.4 Structured Brainstorming .
9.5.5 Putting Structured Brainstorming to Work.
Summary.
Exercise.
10. Organizations and Leadership.
10.1 Organizations and Leadership Matter.
10.2 Understanding Human Behavior and Motivation.
10.2.1 Bounds on Human Nature.
10.2.2 A Unifying Model: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
10.2.3 Theory X and Theory Y.
10.2.4 Case of the Sluggish Secretary.
10.3 Human Organizations and their Leaders.
10.3.1 From Good to Great.
10.3.2 The Leadership Challenge.
10.4 Organizational Culture: The Gods of Management.
10.5 Why Form or Join Organizations?.
10.5.1 Optimizing Transactions: A Quantitative Model.
10.5.2 An Aside on Free Agency.
Summary.
Exercises.
11. Assessing Technology Opportunities.
11.1 Entrepreneurial Engineers Seek Opportunity.
11.2 What is an Opportunity?
11.3 Sustainable Competitive Advantage: The Making of a Good Opportunity.
11.3.1 The Four Ps of Competitive Advantage.
11.3.2 The Five Forces of Sustainability.
11.4 What is Your Niche?.
11.5 Three Financial Mysteries of Opportunity Assessment.
11.5.1 Overcoming the Fear of Financials.
11.5.2 Prices, Margins, and Breaking Even.
11.5.3 The Time Value of Money.
11.6 Writing the Technology Opportunity Assessment.
11.6.1 Executive Summary.
11.6.2 Technology Description.
11.6.3 Market Analysis.
11.6.4 Preliminary Financial Analysis.
11.6.5 Action Plan.
Summary.
Exercises.
References.
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