Providing much needed context for current events like the sub-prime mortgage crisis, this timely book presents a vision of an economy evolved to greater dependence on consumer credit and analyzes the trade-offs and risks associated with it. While synthesizing the Keynesian theory of consumption with the Institutional theory of habit selection (brought up to date with new knowledge from evolutionary biology and neuroscience), this book represents an in-depth treatment of the macroeconomic dimensions of consumer credit and implications of recent financial innovations from a non-traditional economic approach.

Some of the effects of consumer credit dependence include the potential for illiquidity in markets for debt-collateralized securities, sub-prime contagion, or the possibility of a Minsky-type debt deflation episode. The author also argues that a sharp increase in borrowing by US households over the past 20 years, aided by financial innovations such as the securitization of consumer loans and sub-prime lending, have lessened the harmful consequences of income inequality, and that the collapse of personal saving after 1993 is actually a gradual trend of consumer habits conforming to the imperatives of corporatism.

The book's primary audience will be academic economists in sympathy with heterodox and pluralist approaches. It sets forth an institutional or "top-down" theory of household spending behavior that should be of interest to readers in fields such as sociology, consumer or family studies, psychology, or anthropology. Much of the book is technically accessible for non-economists and students....

Learning sign language can lead to greater communication skills. This guide is an excellent follow-up to The Art of Sign Language and focuses on building common and useful phrases and sentences in sign. In 17 separate sections, exercises range from conversations at home, at work, at school, and in leisure activities. Over 800 phrases, more than 900 images, as well as explaining how syntax structure is formed in signing with the use of sign markers makes The Art of Sign Language Phrases a useful and comprehensive resource for learning sign....

All parents know the frustrations of trying to work out a child’s needs when they are too young to communicate with words. This easy-to-use guide helps parents teach their children basic signs, allowing the child to express themselves from as early as seven months.

An introduction explains how baby signing developed and its uses for the reader and their child. This leads into the main body of the book which is divided into themed categories, and then each entry is alphabetized within for easy use.

Sign Language for Babies and Toddlers is a reader-friendly practical guide will help to develop a child’s learning abilities at the earliest possible stage, and helps create an invaluable bond between parent and child....