钻石令人目眩神迷

近年来,内地市场对于昂贵消费品的需求一直大幅度增加,加上早前内地对钻石宝石的进口政策更趋严谨,钻石及有色宝石的价格也在直线上升。     

Consumer protection in betting

Bettors have been virtually ignored by consumer protection bodies and interest groups. Since wagering contracts are unenforceable in British courts consumer law offers an unsatisfactory basis for bettor protection. The Gaming Board for Great Britain and its regulations offer the necessary protection to gaming consumers and betting needs to be brought under a similar regulatory authority. Draft regulations for this are proposed. They accord bookmakers the rights to engage or not engage in betting on any event from moment to moment and to offer any odds which they wish against the runners in the event. But these rights are subject to their being required, when they are betting, to display their odds, and take bets to a self-chosen amount to lose, on all runners in the event from any customer. They would also be required to display the price of a bet on the event with them in directly informative terms.

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Verbraucherschutz bei Wetten

Zusammenfassung In England sind Personen, die Wetten eingehen, von den Institutionen des Verbraucherschutzes im Grunde genommen völlig übersehen worden. Weil Wett-Verträge nach britischem Recht nicht einklagbar sind, gibt es kaum eine Basis für diese spezielle Form von Verbraucherschutz. Wohl aber bietet die englische Aufsichtsbehörde für das Spielwesen mit ihren Regelungen einen notwendigen Schutz für Personen, die spielen. Der Beitrag plädiert nun dafür, das Wett-Wesen in ähnlicher Weise einer Aufsichtsbehörde zu unterstellen wie das Spielwesen. Regelungen dafür werden vorgeschlagen.Danach sollen Buchmacher als Anbieter von Wett-Verträgen zwar eine weitgehend ungehinderte Möglichkeit haben, Wetten anzubieten. Diese Möglichkeit soll aber geknüpft sein an die Verpflichtung dazu, die Wettverhältnisse offen darzulegen, und an das Recht des Konsumenten, seinen Wetteinsatz selbst zu wählen oder zu bestimmen; außerdem soll kein Teilnehmer der Veranstalter, auf die sich die Wette bezieht, ausgeschlossen werden können. Schließlich müssen die Wett-Bedingungen in einer für jedermann verständlichen Weise offengelegt werden.

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Jack Dowie is Senior Lecturer in Social Sciences at The Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, U.K. Mark Coton is a freelance writer on betting. His address is 4 Roymount Court, Lovelace Road, Surbiton, KT6 6NW, U.K. David Miers is Senior Lecturer in Law at Cardiff Law School, P.O. Box 427 Museum Avenue, Cardiff CF1 1XD, U.K.     

Hooker Corporation: A Case For Cashflow Reporting?

This study was prepared from public information as a basis for classroom discussion, rather than to illustrate effective handling or otherwise of an administrative situation. It was suggested by an earlier case analysis of the W.T. Grant bankruptcy in the US by James A. Largay HI and Clyde P. Stickney, which appeared in the Financial Analysts Journal (July/August 1980).
In the 1988 annual report of Hooker Corporation, the chief financial officer's review of performance contained the following: "The confidence of major banks with regard to Hooker's strategy is reflected in the large increase in banking lines negotiated during the year, with a number of United States and Canadian banks joining the group as lenders."     

Husband-wife influence in selecting a family professional

This research addresses two research questions: (1) Are there differences in patterns of husband-wife roles in the selection of family professionals across different professional groups? (2) Do husbands and wives differ in their perceptions of their roles in the selection of family professionals? Over 300 respondents were asked to specify the degree of relative influence that the husband and the wife had in the selection of six family professionals: physican, dentist, eye-care specialist, lawyer, insurance agent and pharmacist. The findings indicated that: (1) Quite diverse patterns of family decision making occur across the six professional groups. (2) The aggregate perceptions of wives and husbands differ considerably with respect to two professionals: eye-care specialists and dentists.     

The Effect of Alternative Return Measures on Restricted Mixed-Asset Portfolios

A restricted portfolio is constructed which includes NYSE common stocks, corporate bonds, government bonds, small capitalization common stocks, residential real estate and farmland and returns for each of four different tax brackets (0%, 15%, 30%, 45%). Next, three alternative measures of rates of return for residential real estate and farmland are used. Finally, since some researchers believe that standard risk measures (variance and standard deviation) do not capture the total risk in real estate, the risk for the real estate returns is increased five times while the returns are held constant. The twenty–four optimal portfolios (four tax brackets with two measures of risk and three measure of return for residential real estate and farmland) are then derived. These results are then compared and contrasted to each other to ascertain the change in sensitivity of the optimal portfolios due to different tax rates, different rates–of–return estimates and different risk estimates.