Cosimo Reports has released a new version of the recent Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, the final report from the national Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission on the causes of the financial and economic crisis in the U.S. This version, complete with dissenting views, also includes an illuminating Foreword from News Dissector Danny Schechter about the report and why it ultimately fails to do its job.

Very little of the discourse about the FCIC report referenced the victims—the millions of families now without breadwinners and homes. Most of the commentary still looks up at CEOs, not down at the people whom they robbed by design, as folk singer Woody Guthrie put it, not with a six-gun but “with a fountain pen.”

When most of us think of crime, we think of gangsters with guns, not banksters with elaborate schemes designed to transfer other people’s wealth to their accounts. Graydon Carter, the editor of Vanity Fair, a publication more at home with Groucho Marx than Karl Marx, said of the meltdown: “[This] may well turn out to be the greatest nonviolent crime against humanity in history … never before have so few done so much to so many.”

Interestingly, though perhaps not surprising, similar opinions have been cropping up all over the web. Rolling Stone recently published an article called The People vs. Goldman Sachs in which they essentially say the same thing: it wasn’t everyone’s fault (the government, the banks, the people) that our economy collapsed, and therefore no one’s fault. It was the big banks and financiers who couldn’t manage to keep their paws off their own customers’ money!

They weren’t murderers or anything; they had merely stolen more money than most people can rationally conceive of, from their own customers, in a few blinks of an eye. But then they went one step further. They came to Washington, took an oath before Congress, and lied about it.

Thankfully, even though the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission couldn’t lay the blame, a separate Senate subcommittee investigated the Wall Street dealings to discover the truth. Their findings (which do place blame at the feet of Wall Street patriarchs), can be read in the 650-page Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: Anatomy of a Financial Collapse, also forthcoming from Cosimo. Check out the whole Rolling Stone article to find out more about the report.

To read more about Danny Schechter and his opinions, visit his website. To find more Cosimo Reports about the financial state in America, visit our bookstore.

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On July 10, author Hazel Henderson, will be participating in an online seminar titled How to Live a Life of Change: Shaping Our Future from a Female Perspective. During this five-session seminar, host Lynn Franks invites a new guest each week to speak about important challenges for our futures. Guests Hazel Henderson, Denise Linn, Gabrielle Roth, and Jayanti Kirpalani will address issues such as:

• How do we create a new society based on co-operation and unity, and what does it look like?
• How can you weave together in your own life the wisdom of the body, an enlightened relationship to finance, a compassionate spirituality, and a direct connection to your inner wisdom, to come to balance in your own power?
• How can you embody these qualities of change at your very core and become a model of change for others through example?

Specifically, Hazel Henderson, co-author of The Power of Yin, will speak about:

• Learn about the “Love Economy” and how to implement it in your own life.
• Discover people and organizations around the world with socially responsible endeavors, and the lessons they have for how you define your personal mission.
• Discover innovative pathways toward a future that could be profoundly different from the world of contradictions we have built in the last several hundred years.
• Learn how to align yourself with the values, information, and know-how that can counter threats to peace, community security, and a healthy environment.
• Redefine wealth and progress with new ways to measure economic, social, and environmental progress, both for yourself and the society in which you live.
• Learn how to build a win-win world.

The Seminar starts Sunday, June 19 at 2:00PM EST and 7:00 PM London time. The seminar will run for four Sundays and one Saturday, with four guest sessions and one summary session from Lynn Franks. You can find out more about each guest and sign up to attend on their website.

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Earth Fever, Living Consciously With Climate Change, by Canadian Judy McAllister and Dutchmen Erik van Praag and Jan Paul van Soest, has been awarded the 2011 Nautilus Silver Award in the “environment and green values” category.

Nautilus Book Awards, founded by publishing innovator Marilyn McGuire, selects books each year that “promote spiritual growth, conscious living & positive social change, while stimulating the imagination and offering the reader new possibilities for a better life and a better world.” Previous winners include Deepak Chopra, Jean Houston, Andrew Weill and His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Cosimo Books Publisher Alexander Dake said: “We are proud that Earth Fever and its authors are awarded this prize. When we released this book, we felt strongly about its importance for the ongoing dialogue on climate change. It is an honor for our authors to join the ranks of previous winners of this award.”

Earth Fever uniquely combines the current state of climate science with social, personal and spiritual aspects of dealing with climate change. The authors use their vast experience with sustainability, holistic education and transformational leadership to describe the change of consciousness and the community environment that is needed to tackle the global problem of climate change and its effects. This book is a call to action for all global citizens, and includes an appeal to the governments and leaders of the world to take personal responsibility to address climate change. Earth Fever will be presented at the upcoming Book Expo America, the premier North American publishing event, May 24 –May 26 in the Javits Center in New York (visit the Nautilus booth 2037).

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Sometimes simpler is better. When things are simple, uncomplicated, easy to figure out, your brain can remain relaxed and at ease. There is nothing wrong with a challenge that forces your brain into overdrive, but when shopping for a book series, that’s not usually the goal.

Shopping for book series, when they’re not already compiled, can be disastrously complicated. Imagine, for instance, that you’re searching the web to find a series, but you can only find books three and seven of a ten-volume set. Or maybe, you actually find the whole series, but all the books are from different publishers, with different covers, different sizes, and different editions. It can be stupendously frustrating. But it doesn’t have to be.

Cosimo Books is currently offering a special on book series. We’ve made it simple to find dozens of popular classic series at discounted prices with FREE SHIPPING! Just go to Cosimo Books Collections and Series, and you’ll see the work is already done. The series have been compiled, with uniform covers, for your shopping ease. You can find everything from Arabian Nights, Curiosities of Natural History, The Ante-Nicene Fathers, and The Works of Thomas Jefferson. So, save the arduous thinking for something that actually merits it and keep your book shopping simple.

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It’s hard not to notice the rise in oil prices every time we drive past a gas station. We compare and contrast, looking for the least expensive option, before settling on a price that still makes us extremely uncomfortable. Danny Schechter, author of Plunder: The Crime Of Our Time, published by Cosimo Books, recently wrote an article about the rise of oil and food prices, which addresses the current problem as well as the ones that will very likely develop.

“The Scam Behind the Rise in Oil, Food Prices” notes the sudden rise in oil and food prices, emphasizing that though these prices are rising, incomes are not. This puts many peoples’ standard of living at risk, making it even more difficult for some to earn a paycheck, since they can’t afford to drive themselves to work.

There are two arguments developing around the cause of the sudden rise in oil and food prices, but more specifically oil prices. This article addresses both. The first school of thought is the basic supply and demand theory. The supply is low, while the demand is high, therefore the prices have to go up. It’s the way economics works.

The other school of thought holds suspicions of “unchecked speculation.” This is the belief in speculative movements in commodity drive markets. In other words, investors are buying/investing in barrels of oil and selling them to make a profit. Those who believe this agree that the media and politicians aren’t digging deep enough to uproot the problem and that they’re just accepting what they’re being told.

This article is a thought provoking and informative piece that ties directly into Danny Schecter’s expertise on the current financial crisis, illustrated in his introduction for the Financial Crisis Inquiry Report and his speculative viewpoint of popular media. Read “The Scam Behind the Rise in Oil, Food Prices” to find out Mr. Schechter’s conclusion. For further reading about the history of oil and its prices check out The History of the Standard Oil Company, also from Cosimo.

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The roles that women play in this world have been gradually changing for many years. Now, with more resources than ever, women are becoming leaders in this world. A shift is taking place as the more masculine qualities fall to the wayside and the feminine, typically less desirable ones, take their place.

The Inspiring Women Summit, presented by The Shift Network, is a free virtual tele-summit, which began on May 7th and ends May 13th, that highlights these roles and how to become leaders within them. Two of Cosimo’s authors, Barbara Marx Hubbard and Jean Houston, co-authors of The Power of Yin: Celebrating Female Consciousness will be speaking together on the topic “Awakening The Feminine Co- Creator for Self and Social Evolution” with Hubbard’s sister. This event will teach women how to be the best versions of themselves, as this world continues to shift and women become even more empowered.

Additionally, Barbara Marx Hubbard has two other speaking events coming up. The first is A Celebration of Spirit at the Wainwright House in Rye, New York, on May 14, 2011 at 2:00 pm. The second, another Shift Network event, The Shift Retreat, is a six-day event in California about becoming a leader in the shifting roles between men and women. Both promise to be educational, interesting, and awakening events.

For more on the teachings of Barbara Marx Hubbard and Jean Houston, be sure to check out their book The Power of Yin: Celebrating Female Consciousness.

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Over the years, Cosimo has been active in supporting book charities and organizations that aim to provide the less fortunate with reading material, learning opportunities, clean food and water, and shelter. We, along with our authors, work with organizations such as The Hunger Project, Aid for Traumatized Children, and International House by donating a portion or all of the proceeds from some of our books, namely: The Power of Purpose Awards, A Dream Come True by David Kahn, and We’re Global Citizens, by Steffi Schutze.

Cosimo has also been active in donating extra books and support to various libraries and organizations in need. These include Housing Works in New York, an organization that runs a bookstore and thrift shop whose proceeds go toward helping people with HIV/AIDS. Cosimo has also donated books from our Serbian Heritage Collection to the Library at the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Belgrade. In addition, we’ve supported ProLiteracy Worldwide, and organization that works in the United States and 62 developing countries to sponsor educational programs and services designed to improve literacy.

All this means is that we are dedicated to supporting organizations which help the less fortunate and get books to those in need. We would encourage you to do the same by helping in any way you can, whether that means volunteering your time, making a monetary donation, dropping some extra books off at goodwill, supporting your local library, participating in a book drive, or letting us know of other organizations that could be in need of books or support. In addition we want to thank you for your support of our books, which enables us to do what we can to help the less fortunate.

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The month has changed and it is now May. For many, this means delight in warmer weather, time for a new seasonal wardrobe, beautiful flowers as nature reemerges, and switching to iced coffee. For Cosimo, that means a new book of the month! And this month’s exciting choice is Stanley Lane-Poole’s The Story of the Moors in Spain. This book is a part of Cosimo’s new Middle Eastern Classics collection, which is meant to bring Middle Eastern history, religion, and literature to a whole new generation of readers, whether recently interested in the Middle East or more experienced academics.

This book is a rare non-Christian history from the nineteenth century, telling the history of the Moorish Empire in Andalusia from 711 to 1492. Many different aspects of this empire are discussed, including the architecture, art, religion, industry, and science established during the Muslim regime in Spain. The book’s illustrations only add to its interesting and historical story.

The Islamic State, as described in this book, was a shining example of an empire whose strength in war was only matched by its excellence in the arts and sciences. Learn how at the best of times the empire flourished, and how, after it’s downfall, Spain lost its luster and prestige for a period. The Story of the Moors in Spain is the story of a superior empire.

Born in 1854 in London, England, Stanley Lane-Poole was a British historian, Orientalist, and archaeologist. Lane-Poole worked in the British Museum from 1874 to 1892, thereafter researching Egyptian archeology in Egypt. From 1897 to 1904 he was a professor of Arabic studies at Dublin University. Before his death in 1931, Lane-Poole authored dozens of books, including the first book of the Arabic-English Lexicon started by his uncle, E.W. Lane coming soon from Cosimo Classics.

Also by E.W. Lane from Cosimo Classics: HISTORY OF INDIA, Vol. III & Vol. IV–Mediaeval India Mohammedan Conquest to the Reign of Akbar the Great and his translation of his uncle E.W. Lane’s Stories from the Thousand and One Nights, Vol. XVI in the 51-volume series The Five Foot Shelf of Classics.

Be sure to stay tuned for more information on this exciting new series in the coming months!

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No one will ever forget where they were on September 11, 2001. The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, orchestrated by Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, were the worst terrorist attacks on American soil. And now, almost ten years after the fact, that most infamous terrorist has been brought to justice. He was killed by U.S. troops on a compound where he was hiding early Monday morning.

While this event is momentous and certainly celebratory for many Americans, it is reminiscent of a time shortly after 9/11, when Bin Laden was almost brought to justice. It quickly became known, after September 11th, that Bin Laden was hiding out in the Tora Bora mountains. Even as the military was closing in on him, inexplicably, he escaped.

In November 2009, a report was issued by the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, chaired by John Kerry. The report describes the military and intelligence mission to capture Bin Laden, possibly one of the greatest mission failures in recent American history. The report, Tora Bora Revisited: How We Failed To Get Bin Laden and Why It Matters Today, in light of recent events, is an exposing read that examines why this day took so long to arrive.

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