Over at RGE Monitor, they are hosting a Davos Debate.  Ramkishen S. Rajan and Kenneth A. Reinert, co-editors of The Princeton Encyclopedia of the World Economy, have posted a Memo for Davos in which they write, “While globalization may be a means of promoting economic development, it has clearly increased economic insecurity and contributed to rising social discontent in many countries. Under the Washington Consensus, a simple formula guided economic policy: globalization was good for growth, and growth is good for the poor. With globalization now unraveling, it is time to revisit this mantra.”

They call on the participants at Davos to consider five things–

• The world is highly interdependent. Consequently, recovery is a collective good.

• We must reconsider the balance between financial liberalization and regulation, and reduce the incentives to take outsized risks.

• Despite the distraction of the financial crisis, the real economy—the actual production of goods and services–still matters.

• We must revisit the issue of regional and global financial coordination and what, if any, role the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in particular should play in future crises.

• The poorest among us will need to be protected.

Jennifer Howard at the Chronicle for Higher Education interviewed university presses large and small, including Princeton University Press, to probe what these uncertain financial times mean for our unique publishing programs. Surprisingly, it’s not all doom and gloom–though she reports that sales are down an average of 10% for the period between July and December 2008, she notes that some presses actually saw increased sales while others are making strategic changes to their business practices. And perhaps even more promising, Howard notes that none of the presses she spoke to mentioned trimming the number of books they are publishing.

But, in spite of this scattered good news, the future is still uncertain. As Howard writes, “For publishers, as for much of the world, the scariest thing about the downturn may be how hard it is to get a handle on.”

She goes on to quote Princeton University Press’s director Peter Dougherty: “The general feeling of uncertainty, I think, is as troublesome as anything. In a normal year, you can make some predictions with some confidence based on how things have gone. This year it’s a very, very difficult game to play.”

Two questions dominate our consideration of the fate of the world’s ancient heritage.  The more vexing and urgent one — how can we prevent the looting of archaeological sites and the illicit trade in antiquities -– is not the topic of this article.  The second one is.

“Where do the great treasures of ancient art belong? In Western museums or in countries where the civilizations that created them once flourished?”

This question turns on two presumptions:

From Open Democracy:

On the eve of the election of a new Patriarch, Iannis Carras reviews a new book about the role of the Russian Orthodox Church during the transition from communism. John and Carol Garrard cast fresh light on the late Patriach Aleksii’s diplomatic skills, which his successor sorely needs to match.

Read the complete review here.

John and Carol wrote an article for the PUP blog after news of the Patriarch’s passing.

Math editor Vickie Kearn reports on the goings on at the Joint Mathematics Meetings held in Washington, DC, January 5-8.

The Joint Mathematics Meetings, held in Washington DC this January, had its largest attendance ever—over 6,000 professors, practitioners, and students from high school on up. This was an increase of more than 500 over the last meeting in San Diego in January 2008. And there’s even more good news for math. During the meeting, JobsRated.com announced that the most satisfying job is that of mathematician.  This top ranking was based on stress, work environment, physical demands, income and outlook. The meeting had something for everyone. There were plenty of talks on quantum computation, differential geometry, and operator theory. There also were sessions that connected math to biology, finance, and medicine.

As we mentioned earlier, Jonathan Macey is guest-blogging at The Icahn Report this week. In his earlier post on director capture, Macey promised to consider shareholder voting rights next and here he argues for lifting restrictions on shareholder voting and expanding the issues shareholders vote on to include generic corporate governance issues which he defines as issues “concerning broad policy that is likely to affect the value of all of the companies in a particular portfolio.”"

A brief excerpt:

The basic infrastructure of the law of corporate voting is in need of repair. For example, the ability of management to control the timing of elections and the federal rules governing proxy solicitations do not serve the interests of shareholders and should be reformed.

Read on at The Icahn Report

Our friends at GalleyCat posted a fantastic graphic guide modeled after a subway map and originally created by the Spanish lit blog, Soybits.

Between January and October 2008, 63 pirate attacks were reported in the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia. Somali pirates hijacked 26 ships; fired on 21; and took nearly 540 sailors hostage. By contemporary standards, at least, these “pirate statistics” are remarkable.

But an equally impressive “pirate statistic” has gone virtually unnoticed: the number of seamen who survived their harrowing captivities by Somali sea dogs and lived to tell the tale. For example, all of the Sirius Star’s sailors were “in good health” when their pirate captors released them. And they’re not alone. According to data from the International Maritime Bureau, in stark contrast to the impressive number of assaults, only one sailor has lost his life at Somali pirate hands.

…

Even a single death is a tragedy. But the number of confirmed, Somali pirate killings is surprisingly small—especially for a band of Kalashnikov-toting criminals. This hardly comports with our image of pirates as fiendish, blood-lusting curs. What gives? Are Somali pirates pacifists?

Hardly. But they are profit seekers. And just like their 18th-century predecessors, Somali sea dogs have discovered that it’s good business to treat their hostages decently—or at least to avoid killing them.
Read on …

Jonathan Macey tackles the issue of Director Capture in an insightful piece at the Icahn Report. A brief excerpt:

In my recent Princeton University Press book Corporate Governance: Promises Made: Promises Broken I apply capture theory, which is usually used to describe and model the behavior of bureaucrats in the public sector, to the directors of publicly traded companies who come to their positions through the board nominating committee.

In my view, such directors are highly susceptible to capture… even more susceptible than bureaucrats and politicians. Capture is inevitable because management controls the machinery of the corporate election process. Management’s narrow interest in having passive and supportive boards manifests itself in the appointment of docile directors who are likely to support management’s initiatives and unlikely to challenge management or to demand that managers earn their compensation by maximizing value for shareholders.

He promises to tackle the problem of shareholder democracy in an upcoming post, too.

Andrei Codrescu, Romanian poet, NPR commentator, and author of the forthcoming Princeton volume The Posthuman Dada Guide, has written about dada in the classroom over at InsideHigherEd.com. Specifically, an intriguing assignment in which he asked his students to write a poem on fruit… literally on fruit. In the photo to the right, you’ll note Andrei is holding a grapefruit upon which a student has inscribed a poem.

Andrei also visited Princeton University Press in November and sat down with Editor in Chief Brigitta van Rheinberg to discuss dada and the posthuman life.

Photo: Andrei Codrescu holding a poetic grapefuit. Photo courtesy of Melanie Jones

In case you missed this yesterday because of football fever (go Eagles!), here’s a link to a roundtable discussion with Andrew Gelman held at FireDogLake Salon yesterday. Host Matt Yglesias was joined by several participants to discuss what Yglesias calls “the best book on American electoral politics of the past year” – Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State.

Al and Marilyn*

Tony Rothman

Film lovers over forty may remember the scene in Nicholas Roeg’s 1985 Insignificance where “The actress,” who bears an uncanny resemblance to Marilyn Monroe, explains the theory of relativity to “The Professor,” whose wild hair leaves no doubt as to his identity.  One wonders whether Roeg could make his film today with impunity, because Albert and Marilyn have more in common than relativity; they have in common celebrity.

Several years ago I had a book in press, Everything’s Relative and Other Fables From Science and Technology.  Given the title, the publisher’s house artist not unreasonably designed a cover that included a photographic image of Albert Einstein.  The publisher (Wiley) had properly licensed the photo from Bill Gates’ firm Corbis.  One would have thought that would end the matter.