Book review

Leisure Counseling: Selected Lifestyle Processes. By Chester F. McDowell, Jr., Ph.D. Center for Leisure Studies, University of Oregon, 1976.     

An expectations-driven interpretation of the “Great Recession”

The boom-years preceding the “great recession” were a time of rapid innovation in the financial industry. We explore the idea that both the boom and eventual bust emerged from overoptimistic expectations of efficiency-gains in the financial sector. We treat the bankruptcy costs facing intermediaries in a costly state verification problem as a stochastic process, and model the boom-bust in terms of an unfulfilled news-shock where the expected fall in costs are eventually not realized. In response to a change in expectations only, the model generates a boom-bust cycle in aggregate activity, asset prices and leverage, and a countercyclical credit spread.     

Profiling people’s perceptions of retail management careers

Abstract

Educators are challenged to generate awareness of retail education programs and related career options. A corresponding issue for retailers is the recruitment and retention of career-oriented managers. The issue is complicated by negative attitudes in the general population about retail careers and a lack of awareness about retail career options. This study examines these attitudes through a questionnaire administered to a nation-wide sample of 310. A cluster analysis reveals four groups based on differences in their demographic/psychosocial characteristics and career preferences. The findings provide foci and key messages targeted to the distinct groups upon which retail managers and educators can base discrete career awareness and recruiting strategies.     

The affinity credit card as a fundraising tool for charities

Over the past decade or so, many examples of the charity affinity credit card have been launched in the UK. This paper reports the results of a survey of charities that collected quantitative data on the characteristics and progress of more than 20 such cards. The survey also found that several other charities were contemplating following their example, and the paper goes on to identify and discuss some of the issues that should be addressed by any charity thinking of launching its own affinity card. Copyright © 2000 Henry Stewart Publications     

On Intertemporal Subsidy-Free Prices and Economic Depreciation: Constrained Market Pricing Revisited

The constrained market pricing approach to regulating monopolies maintains that prices should be subsidy-free, lying between the often expansive bounds of stand alone and incremental costs. For a simple two-good/two-period model of a monopolist subject to a zero profit constraint, it is shown that subsidy-free prices are those which rise to the amortized opportunity cost of the currently optimal asset configuration required to meet both current and future demand, providing—in some circumstances—justification for accelerated depreciation. Such intertemporal subsidy-free prices recognize that the stand alone cost of existing assets to current consumers depends on the value of those assets to future consumers. Hence, if a feasible resale price for the fixed costs of capacity exists within or between periods, then intertemporal stand alone costs and intertemporal incremental costs are driven to equality.     

Competruism

Competruism is an emerging ideology which has been produced by the synthesis of capitalistic and socialistic tenets in the American economy. The hybrid nature of this ideology can best be described through Hegel's dialectic: One fact (thesis) works against another fact (antithesis) to produce a wholly new fact (synthesis). That is, democratic capitalism (thesis) arose and was confronted by another powerful force, democratic socialism (antithesis). The result of this encounter is an entirely new ideology, competruism (synthesis). The underlying premise for this ideology states that: “Competruism will provide for a zenith in productivity by offering each entity of society (individual, organization) an equal opportunity to compete for the socio-economic rewards of the macro marketing system.” This doctrine provides mankind with a philosopher's stone to amalgamate capitalistic, democratic, socialistic and moral ideals into a common framework which can be used to optimize the survival chances of society in a peaceful environment. There are indications that a new ideology is emerging in America which is capable of guiding society, through public policy, to a zenith in productivity.