An Account Of The Several Public Funds

We have spent the last three decades engaged in a pointless and irrelevant debate about the relative merits of privatization or nationalization. We have been arguing about the wrong thing while sitting on a goldmine of assets. Don’t worry about who owns those assets, worry about whether they are managed effectively. Why does this matter? Because despite the Thatcher/ Reagan economic revolution, the largest pool of wealth in the world – a global total that is much larger than the world’s total pensions savings, and ten times the total of all the sovereign wealth funds on the planet – is still comprised of commercial assets that are held in public ownership. If professionally managed, they could generate an annual yield of 2.7 trillion dollars, more than current global spending on infrastructure: transport, power, water, and communications. Based on both economic research and hands-on experience from many countries, the authors argue that publicly owned commercial assets need to be taken out of the direct and distorting control of politicians and placed under professional management in a ‘National Wealth Fund’ or its local government equivalent. Such a move would trigger much-needed structural reforms in national economies, thus resurrect strained government finances, bolster ailing economic growth, and improve the fabric of democratic institutions. This radical, reforming book was named one of the "Books of the Year".by both the FT and The Economist.

A unique, clearly written, and logically organized volume, Public Finance Administration, Second Edition provides a comprehensive focus on the management of public funds. Ideal for the nonexpert with a public administration background, this easy-to-read new edition is updated in content and examples. Authors B. J. Reed and John W. Swain begin with a broad introduction to public finance administration, including its relationship to public budgeting, the practice of public sector accounting, and the economic concepts of money and value. Next, they cover revenues and expenditures, including how they are administered and the importance of forecasting and cost analysis. Later chapters deal with such technical areas as managing cash flow, investment, debts, risk, purchasing, capital budgets, and the financial components of human resource management. The volume includes a look at the evaluative side of public finance such as auditing, assessing financial conditions, and the emerging use of development finance. In addition, the authors point to relevant web sites on the Internet for more information on public finance administration. Filling a need for courses in public finance administration, this volume provides a public administration based approach to the subject with a highly practical orientation.

Broken down into five sections explaining how public budgets are developed, Canadian Public Finance presents a comprehensive account of the budget process of the federal, provincial, and territorial governments. With a specific focus on the public policy process, Geneviève Tellier walks readers through the five steps involved in the budget process including agenda-setting, formulation, adoption, implementation, and evaluation. Taking a close look at how much influence key decision-makers actually have over the budget process, Tellier highlights recent events that reveal the political, social, and economic constraints that impact budgetary decisions. Tellier uses key words and textboxes at the end of each chapter to reflect on current issues and new developments in the world of public finance, such as gender-sensitive budgets, performance-based budgeting, and fiscal transparency.