4. Can Historical Responsibility Strengthen Contemporary Political Culture?

This paper deals with the question of historical responsibility. It can be subdivided into whether historical responsibility exists, consequently what it is about , and then how it can be put into practice. I am raising these questions as a third-generation German against the background of the Holocaust. In this paper I unfold various views and thus dimensions of historical responsibility, which I finally complement in the form of six models of historical responsibility. These models provide a multilayered perspective on and approach to the philosophical and practical dimensions of historical responsibility and, as a consequence, are of relevance to contemporary political culture.     

A Review of: “THE THEORY OF FINANCE” by Eugene F. Fama and Merton H. Miller Holt Rinehart and Winston 1972 346pp. $12.50

This paper analyzes the effects of the loss carryback, and carryforward on the investment and financing decision of the firm. The optimal strategies to eliminate, most if not all, potential Corporate tax liabilities are demonstrated. It is also shown that the carryforward and carryback, provisions provide more incentive for existing firms than for new firms to invest. At the macro level, these tax provisions encourage greater risk taking by the more profitable firms.     

Made in China

In early November 2007, Bohai Industrial Investment Fund Management Co., controlled by Bank of China Ltd., signed a deal to acquire a less than 20%equity interest in Tianjin Pipe （Group） Corporation for a consideration of approximately $200 million. This deal ranks among the biggest in mainland China.     

Public Choice as an Academic Enterprise

Abstract . This paper treats the development of public choice as an academic enterprise that originated at the University of Virginia and that grew to maturity at VPI. It seeks to distinguish between the particularistic and personal sources of programmatic success on the one hand, and institutional and organizational sources on the other. Only to the extent the success is institutional or organizational is there something that potentially can be duplicated through the adoption of an appropriate institutional framework. Otherwise the success is idiosyncratic, and must be attributed to the particular qualities of James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock, independently of the institutional and organizational framework.     

Indian railroading: floating railway companies in the late nineteenth century

This article provides a case study of four late nineteenth-century share flotations of Indian railway companies. It highlights an important gap in the historiography of Indian railway finance, which has focused on the period up to 1875. The role of N. M. Rothschild as lead underwriter and its relationship with the India Office, managing agents, and investors is analysed. This gives an evolving picture of mutual dependence between the City and Whitehall in the financing of the British Empire's largest investment programme. Gentlemanly capitalists are shown to combine the self-reinforcing roles of arranger, investor, and informal government advisor.     

Constant Rebalanced Portfolio Optimization Under Nonlinear Transaction Costs

We study the constant rebalancing strategy for multi-period portfolio optimization via conditional value-at-risk (CVaR) when there are nonlinear transaction costs. This problem is difficult to solve because of its nonconvexity. The nonlinear transaction costs and CVaR constraints make things worse; state-of-the-art nonlinear programming (NLP) solvers have trouble in reaching even locally optimal solutions. As a practical solution, we develop a local search algorithm in which linear approximation problems and nonlinear equations are iteratively solved. Computational results are presented, showing that the algorithm attains a good solution in a practical time. It is better than the revised version of an existing global optimization. We also assess the performance of the constant rebalancing strategy in comparison with the buy-and-hold strategy.     

Irving Fisher and the Contribution of Improved Longevity to Living Standards

A bstract    It is not widely recognized that conventional measures of national income and output exclude the value of improvements in the health status of the population. The present study discusses the theory of the measurement of national income, proposes a new concept called "health income" that can be used to incorporate improvements in health status, and applies the theory to data for the United States over the 20^th century. It concludes that accounting for improvements in the health status would, over the twentieth century in the United States, make a substantial difference to our measures of economic welfare.