Jan. 3 (Bloomberg) -- In 2007 America's 68,000 philanthropic foundations are expected to give away $35 billion. Yet they are among the least accountable institutions at work in the economy and little is known about the decision-making of the trustees responsible for so much cash.
In ``The Foundation: A Great American Secret'' (PublicAffairs, $27.95), subtitled ``How Private Wealth Is Changing the World,'' Duke University professor Joel L. Fleishman penetrates this opaque culture. His central question is: Considering the tremendous tax breaks afforded charitable donations to foundations, amounting to nearly $20 billion in lost tax revenue per year, is the public getting its money's worth?
Fleishman surveys nearly 100 different foundation-funded projects and offers a dozen detailed case studies. He comes away believing foundations represent the best opportunity for creating an ``independent, multi-power-center society.''
Fleishman finds that foundations generally spend their money responsibly, though all too often they lack an adequate strategy to achieve their lofty goals. They also come up short on accountability and don't communicate well and, as a consequence, are viewed as arrogant and aloof.
Other highlights this month include:
``Boeing Versus Airbus: The Inside Story of the Greatest International Competition in Business'' by John Newhouse (Knopf, $26.95). A blow-by-blow account of the evolution of the two giants of the modern airliner industry and their seesawing fortunes in the international market after years of mismanagement.
``Milton Friedman: A Biography'' by Lanny Ebenstein (Palgrave Macmillan, $27.95). The first full-length biography of the Nobel Prize winner who died in November is a surprisingly readable, succinct portrait of the combative economist. It tracks his development, from his early years as a Keynes-influenced theorist to his transformation into a champion of laissez-faire capitalism.
``On the Wealth of Nations'' by P.J. O'Rourke (Atlantic Monthly, $21.95). The satirist rereads Adam Smith's thumb sucker on economic theory ``so you don't have to'' and concludes he's still relevant in the age of outsourcing and the service economy. Long stretches, however, read like ``Modern Maturity in Urdu.''
``The Real Pepsi Challenge: The Inspirational Story of Breaking the Color Barrier in American Business'' by Stephanie Capparell (Free Press, $25). A chronicle of how in the late 1940s and 50s Pepsi became one of the first major American corporations to hire black executives. The company started recruiting African- American salesmen to push their cola to the African-American market in an effort to outmaneuver Coke, the dominant company with ties to Georgia's racist political machine.
``Fighting for Air: The Battle to Control America's Media'' by Eric Klinenberg (Metropolitan Books, $26). As conglomerates subsume the majority of local radio and television stations, stockholders may cheer but the general public suffers, says Klinenberg, in this argumentative examination of the aftermath of media deregulation and the subsequent consolidation.
``Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die'' by Chip Heath and Dan Heath (Random House, $24.95). Fans of counterintuitive business books, such as ``Freakonomics'' and ``The Tipping Point,'' will enjoy this entertaining new volume that uses urban legends and bogus public health scares to explain why some stories and ideas are more memorable than others, especially when used in advertising, sales and employee development.
``A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder; How Crammed Closets, Cluttered Offices, and On-the-Fly Planning Make the World a Better Place'' by Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman. (Little, Brown, $25.99). Another counterintuitive tome in which a Columbia University B-school professor and a journalist argue against the organization gurus who assert that tight governance makes for best practice. Instead, they encourage a freewheeling approach they assert will result in more creativity and serendipitous innovation.
``The Supreme Court: The Personalities and Rivalries That Defined America'' by Jeffrey Rosen (Times Books, $25.95). The legal affairs editor at the New Republic examines how four pairs of men -- sometimes working at cross-purposes -- transformed the law of the land: John Marshall and Thomas Jefferson; Oliver Wendell Holmes and John Marshall Harlan; Hugo Black and William O. Douglas; and Antonin Scalia and William Rehnquist.
``Halsey's Typhoon: The True Story of a Fighting Admiral, an Epic Storm, and an Untold Rescue'' by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin (Atlantic Monthly, $35). This harrowing disaster tale describes how Admiral ``Bull'' Halsey and the U.S. Pacific fleet lost three destroyers and nearly 800 men in 1944, not to Japanese dive bombers but to Typhoon Cobra, a storm that produced 90-foot waves and 150-mph winds.
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