Central Time

In Central Time, Ranjit Hoskote becomes the storyteller of a turbulent epoch. We meet Ovid and Ghalib, poets in exile or eclipse, in these poems, which are by turns elliptical, conversational and narrative. We meet painters who betray their art, and sculptors who are betrayed by theirs. Fascinated by the enigmas of time, memory and evanescence that art invokes, Hoskote addresses a range of artists including Bihzad, Magritte, Masaki Fujihata and Ranbir Kaleka. At the same time, he retains his affection for the natural world, celebrating the textures and intensities of sensuous experience: the roughness of stone, the dance of light, the flowering of touch and the taste of salt and cinnamon. A testament to a present shimmering like a mirage between contested pasts and vexed futures, this book pivots around moments of encounter: a defiant squirrel in Anuradhapura, an enigmatic collection of objects in a Berlin museum or a man discovering a mass grave near Kabul. Written between 2006 and 2014, the hundred poems that form Central Time resonate with the crises of war, genocide, terror, forced migration and the precariousness of belonging.

Guy Spiro's Original Astro-Weather is a big step up from Sun sign astrology. It represents a new level of astrological information with which to make more informed decisions in daily life. As the Moon and the planets move along their orbits, they form continually shifting patterns, or aspects, that signal the background energy in which we all function, regardless of one's sun sign. Astro-Weather charts this astrological weather for the coming twelve months. When you see the general mood of the mass of people swing one way, then the other, and then sometimes back again, all seemingly without rhyme or reason, this is Astro-Weather. Available in separate versions for all four continental U.S. time zones, Astro-Weather includes precise timing for Moon void of course and planetary retrograde periods, and is an indispensable tool for tens of thousands of readers across the country.

A rare insider's account of the inner workings of the Japanese economy, and the Bank of Japan's monetary policy, by a career central banker The Japanese economy, once the envy of the world for its dynamism and growth, lost its shine after a financial bubble burst in early 1990s and slumped further during the Global Financial Crisis in 2008. It suffered even more damage in 2011, when a severe earthquake set off the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. However, the Bank of Japan soldiered on to combat low inflation, low growth, and low interest rates, and in many ways it served as a laboratory for actions taken by central banks in other parts of the world. Masaaki Shirakawa, who led the bank as governor from 2008 to 2013, provides a rare insider's account of the workings of Japanese economic and monetary policy during this period and how it challenged mainstream economic thinking.

An examination of the post-recession responsibilities of central banks, this book proposes adaptations to the central banking model that preserve the advantages in terms of inflation control brought by their independence, while taking into account the long-term consequences of the Great Recession.

Central banks came out of the Great Recession with increased power and responsibilities. Indeed, central banks are often now seen as 'the only game in town', and a place to put innumerable problems vastly exceeding their traditional remit. These new powers do not fit well, however, with the independence of central banks, remote from the democratic control of government. Central Banking in Turbulent Times examines fundamental questions about the central banking system, asking whether the model of an independent central bank devoted to price stability is the final resting point of a complex development that started centuries ago. It dissects the hypothesis that the Great Recession has prompted a reassessment of that model; a renewed emphasis on financial stability has emerged, possibly vying for first rank in the hierarchy of objectives of central banks. This raises the risk of dilemmas, since the Great Recession brought into question implicit assumptions that the pursuit of price stability would also lead to financial stability. In addition, the border between monetary and fiscal policy was blurred both in the US and in Europe. Central Banking in Turbulent Times asks whether the model prevailing before the Great Recession has been irrevocably altered. Are we entering, as Charles Goodhart has hypothesized, into the 'fourth epoch' of central banking? Are changes to central banks part of a move away from the global liberal order that seemed to have prevailed at the turn of the century? Central Banking in Turbulent Times seeks to answer these questions as it examines how changes can allow for the maintenance of price stability, while adapting to the long-term consequences of the Great Recession.

Keenly attuned to the play of symbols, this anthropological study explores one of the major manifestations of Chinese popular tradition: the celebration of lunar the New Year. It analyzes a multitude of folk practices within a holistic perspective on Chinese traditional society, crafting a new picture of a world in which the social rhetoric of gender, lineage continuity, and ancestry were challenged by ritual manifestations of iconic symbolism. Viewed through the lens of Chinese imagery, the traditional calendar reveals new stories about the social organization of time as an expression of existential concerns in late imperial Chinese social life.

CHAPTER SIX: "KVN Is an Honest Game": Game Shows and the Problem of Authority -- CHAPTER SEVEN: A Dress Rehearsal for Life: Artloto and What? Where? When? -- Epilogue: The Origins of Central Television's Perestroika -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z