Economics: Making Sense of the Modern Economy
Author: Simon Cox
With typical Economist style and clarity, Economist Economics provides accessible and expert analysis that shows how to make sense of the modern economy. Substantially revised from the successful first edition, the book offers an in-depth examination of different aspects of the modern economy. Aimed at those in business, it is organized in four parts:
- The Global Economy, which looks at global balances, China, U.S. influence, and central banks.
- Globalization, which examines the whole issue of globalization and global capital.
- After the New Economy, which analyzes what impact e-economics has had and will have.
- Economic Facts and Fallacies, which spells out basic economic truths and exposes some economic canards.
New interesting textbook: Financial Modelling with Jump Processes or Wireless Communications and Networking
Into the Devil's Den
Author: Dave Hall
In 1996, the Aryan Nations was considered to be the most dangerous white supremacist group in the United States. This brutally violent neo-Nazi organization dreamed of carving an isolated homeland out of the American northwest–a dream they would finance by robbery, intimidation, and murder. For years, the FBI had sought to infiltrate the Aryan Nations, only to be thwarted by the group’s extreme paranoia of new members.
Enter Dave Hall, a tattooed, 350-pound, six-foot-four former biker. A black belt in martial arts, he could fight, drink, and ride with the best–which is to say, the worst–of them. But Hall was no stereotypical biker. A thoughtful, articulate man blessed with a photographic memory and an unshakeable core of decency, Hall was looking for a new direction in life. After Hall was arrested for his minor involvement in a drug deal, FBI special agent Tym Burkey gave him a choice: go to jail or become an informant. Hall didn’t go to jail.
So began a most unlikely partnership, between a hell-raising former biker and a by-the-book FBI man. The oddest of odd couples, they would slowly forge a unique friendship based on trust and support–a friendship that Hall especially would come to value in the months and years ahead.
For what was supposed to be a short-term assignment grew to something much longer, and bigger in scope, as Hall became the Ohio Aryan Nations leader’s right hand man. And more and more, Hall suspected that a significant terrorist action was being planned, something on the order of the Oklahoma City bombing.
Yet with the clock ticking, Hall found his hold onreality crumbling as he was forced into behaviors and beliefs that repelled him. With the ever-present threat of discovery and death hanging over his head, he felt his psyche start to fragment, leading to estrangement from his family and friends, and vicious bouts of insomnia, night terrors, and panic attacks. But it was too late to back out. Together, Hall and Burkey would have to finish their dance with the Devil.
Harrowing and intense, this true-life thriller is a testament to bravery, dedication, and friendship–and a timely reminder that America’s homegrown terrorists can be just as deadly as those from overseas.
Publishers Weekly
In 1996, Dave Hall, an unemployed ex-biker, found himself facing a prison sentence for a minor marijuana charge. With biker friends who associated with the Ohio branch of the Aryan Nations-then considered the FBI's most dangerous domestic terrorist group-and its charismatic, bloodthirsty pastor, Harold "Ray" Redfeairn, Hall agreed to help the FBI infiltrate the AN. Hall encounters this quasi-Christian cult that interprets the Bible as a bizarre racist, anti-Semitic tract and advocates violent revolution to destroy non-Aryan races. Swallowing his disgust, he patiently wins Redfeairn's confidence, eventually becoming his right-hand man and designated successor. As presented here, the world of gun-obsessed, antigovernment fringe groups, whose weapon-worship becomes their ultimate undoing, horrifies and entertains. Hall's work led to several arrests and eventually crippled the AN, which has not recovered. Neither has Hall, who claims, "When you dance with the devil, the devil doesn't change, the devil changes you." The book shifts between Hall's and FBI agent Burkey's perspectives, but the main voice belongs to crime writer Ramsland who knits these stories into a seamless drama filled with suspense, vivid characters and colorful events. (Apr. 15)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business InformationKirkus Reviews
Ex-biker ends up a top FBI informant inside a white supremacist group. In 1996, Hall was living on disability checks in Dayton, Ohio, fixing the occasional motorcycle for friends and taking it easy. That changed after he provided a marijuana connection to a distant relative, who turned out to be working with the feds. Special Agent Burkey persuaded Hall to use his biker-club connections to infiltrate the local chapter of the Aryan Nation. The story of Hall's smooth climb up the AN's chain of command is related in straightforward fashion; his words alternate with Burkey's terse accounts in a dual memoir stitched together by prolific crime scribe Ramsland (Inside the Minds of Healthcare Serial Killers, 2007, etc.). At 6'4" and 350 lbs., sporting abundant tattoos, Hall looked like many other AN members, but he was hardly comfortable in his hatemongering surroundings. He had biracial nieces and nephews, and he viewed his new "friends" as psychopathic losers who couldn't hack real life. But he acted his part well and was soon being groomed for a pastoral position in the AN's pseudo-Christian hierarchy. A paranoid, trigger-happy bunch of KKK rednecks, militia types and Nazi skinheads made highly dangerous companions, but Burkey kept Hall burrowing deeper. A year after the Oklahoma City bombing, the FBI was fiercely focused on preventing another attack by white supremacists like Timothy McVeigh. Pretending to be a bile-filed racist took its toll on the easygoing Hall. By the time he was made privy to plans for truck bombings and the assassination of white-supremacist scourge Morris Dees, he was having panic attacks, knocking back Xanax and drinking himself to sleep. While the knocked-togetherprose shows signs of Ramsland's overly busy schedule, she does a good job of keeping the focus on Hall's problematic double life, relegating the FBI's role to the background. This view of the domestic terrorist underground benefits hugely from an impressively charismatic informant's ringside seat. Informative, plainly recounted trip into a nexus of homegrown evil.
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