Watchdogs of Democracy? - The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public

In his eye-opening diagnosis that makes the urgency of the threats vividly clear, Stern shows that Americans are contending with the most disruptive economic upheaval in the world economy since the Industrial Revolution. Yet, in the face of this daunting challenge, the American system simply isn't working well enough for most of us. Stern powerfully portrays how with the pace of globalization relentlessly quickening, the competitive pressures on our jobs and quality of life are heating up even more, especially as housing, health care, and oil prices skyrocket. While CEO salaries soar and business and the wealthy are handed plentiful tax shelters, the incomes of both white-collar and blue-collar workers stagnate, leaving most Americans struggling to pay off ever-escalating debt, instead of saving for retirement. The plain fact is that our system is out of whack, serving the interests of the top sliver of the most wealthy while putting the squeeze on the rest of us.

Meanwhile, our politicians irresponsibly sidestep the crucial solutions that we so desperately need in order to make sure Americans can move into the twenty-first century with their futures secure. As Stern so persuasively shows, it is time for bold thinking and creative solutions to overhaul a health care system in crisis; correct a tax system rigged in favor of business and the wealthy; revamp our inadequate retirement system; and make truly innovative improvements in education. He presents a set of course-correction reforms so compelling, simple, and achievable that readers will find themselves enraged that they haven't yet been enacted. Americans have a right to expect our government to work for us. Andy Stern shows how we can get things back on track to make sure it does.

From the creators of SPIN Selling®--a groundbreaking strategy for selling at a premium price every time.

Do you frequently discount to win business? Do your customers ignore the differentiators you believe you bring to the marketplace? Does your brand seem to matter less to customers today?

Great products, stellar service, and a strong brand are just prerequisites today. They no longer differentiate. If you don’t do something radically different soon, you will become unnecessary to customers.

Integrating the most comprehensive research in the selling profession with years of realworld application by leading sales organizations, Huthwaite, Inc., creator of SPIN Selling®, brings you Escaping the Price-Driven Sale. This book builds on Huthwaite’s history of providing groundbreaking concepts with straightforward guidance for execution.

Sellers who master requisite new skills can dominate their market and virtually eliminate their competition. Those who fail to make the adjustment are doomed to irrelevance.

Escaping the Price-Driven Sale reveals how sellers can become differentiators themselves by providing insight that customers cannot find elsewhere.

In this book you will discover:

• leave decisions about schools to educators, not politicians or businessmen
• devise a truly national curriculum that sets out what children in every grade should be learning
• expect charter schools to educate the kids who need help the most, not to compete with public schools
• pay teachers a fair wage for their work, not “merit pay” based on deeply flawed and unreliable test scores
• encourage family involvement in education from an early age