In Gold We Trust

In Gold We Trust is a historical and sociological account of how, by the late 1960s, three small Italian towns had come to lead the world in the production of gold jewelry--even though they had virtually no jewelry industry less than a century before, and even though Italy had western Europe's most restrictive gold laws. It is a distinctive but paradigmatic story of how northern Italy performed its post-World War II economic miracle by creating localized but globally connected informal economies, in which smuggling, tax evasion, and the violation of labor standards coexisted with ongoing deliberation over institutional change and the benefits of political participation. The Italian gold jewelry industry thrived, Dario Gaggio argues, because the citizens of these towns--Valenza Po in Piedmont, Vicenza in the Veneto, and Arezzo in Tuscany--uneasily mixed familial affection, political loyalties, and the instrumental calculation of the market, blurring the distinction between private interests and public good. But through a comparison with the jewelry district of Providence, Rhode Island, Gaggio also shows that these Italian towns weren't unique in the ways they navigated the challenges posed by the embeddedness of economic action in the fabric of social life. By drawing from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, ranging from economic sociology to political theory, Gaggio recasts the meanings of trust, embeddedness, and social capital, and challenges simple dichotomies between northern and southern Italy.

The True Story of the Papalia Twins and Their Battle for Truth and Justice This is the story of two brothers - identical twins, who went in search of a gold mine, found one and then were forced to defend themselves against attacks on many fronts as they battled to bring it into fulfillment. This is also a story about success and failure and the ability of the human spirit to rise up from the ashes and continue to strive for excellence. In 1957, Robert and Tony Papalia came to Canada as youngsters with their family. They grew up in a working-class suburb of Montreal and became involved in music promotion activities while still in high school. From these humble beginnings they eventually became owners of what may be today one of Canada's largest gold deposits. The story surrounding the acquisition, proving, and defending of this property is full of the intrigue and suspense of a spy novel yet everything you read is true. www.ingoldwetrust.info

In any field—whether scientific, business, or social—ethics plays a critical role in determining what is acceptable in a particular community and what is considered taboo. The source of these preconditions is often a complex interweaving of tradition and rational thought. Socio-Cybernetic Study of God and the World-System investigates morality in a socio-scientific worldview, examining the epistemology of existence in conjunction with Islamic monotheistic law to generate a world-system that governs action and reaction in the context of a variety of cognitive and social environments. Readers with backgrounds in finance and economics can utilize this book to construct a more thorough theoretical understanding of their societal and professional associations.