Corporate sponsored image films

The vast number of high quality corporate image and advocacy films, combined with the many other instruments of persuasion and control by corporations, powerfully direct the attitudes of the populace. In the absence of equal access, the best protection against deception from any powerful institution is skepticism — minds trained in critical thinking. But technically proficient, expensive films (costing from $50,00 to $600,000) encourage credulity instead of thought. The schools should train young people, therefore, how to resist corporate film propaganda by teaching them the kinds of questions to ask. An analysis of Chesebrough-Pond Corporation's Family offers an effective method through combining traditional rhetorical awareness of the speaker in a communication, knowledge of informal fallacies, the National Council of Teachers of English Committee on Public Doublespeak's ‘intensify/downplay’ approach, and Richard Ohmann's method in ‘Doublespeak and Ideology in Ads’.     

The implications of interstate banking for consumers

The purpose of this article is to discuss the implications of interstate banking for consumers. The article describes the current structure of the banking industry, the history of legislation affecting interstate banking, and the expected effects of interstate banking on bank operating costs, availability of local funds, and concentration and competition within local banking markets as well as the anticipated effects on consumers of banking services. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The product life cycle trap

Many of America's most successful companies have gone through a life cycle similar to the product life cycle. They began as innovators, and then grew to be giants in their markets. But, as their products mature, they need new products to continue company growth. However, the organizational structure of an established company is no longer suited for innovation. The authors provide some insight into this cycle, and offer some solutions for big companies which need new products.     

Price level determinacy with an interest rate policy rule and rational expectations

This paper reconsiders a result obtained by Sargent and Wallace namely, that price level indeterminacy obtains in their model if the monetary authorities adopt a feedback rule for the interest rate rather than the money stock. It is shown that the indeterminacy vanishes if the interest rate rule is chosen so as to have a desired effect on the expected quantity of money demanded. This holds even if considerable weight is given, in the choice of a rule, to the aim of smoothing interest rate fluctuations.     

Monetary and Fiscal Theories of the Price Level: The Irreconcilable Differences

The fiscal theory of the price level (FTPL) has attracted muchattention but disagreement remains concerning its defining characteristics.Some writers have emphasized implications regarding interest-ratepegging and determinacy of rational expectations solutions,whereas others have stressed its capacity to generate equilibriain which price-level trajectories mimic those of bonds and differdrastically from those of money supplies. We argue that theFTPL attained prominence precisely because it appeared to providea theory whose implications differ greatly from conventionalmonetary analysis; accordingly we review monetarist writingsto identify the primary distinctions. In addition, we reviewrecent findings concerning learnability—and thereforeplausibility—of competing rational expectations equilibria.These indicate that when FTPL and monetarist equilibria differ,the latter are more plausible in the vast majority of cases.Under Ricardian assumptions, necessary for clear distinctions,theoretical analysis indicates that fiscal and monetary coordinationis not necessary for macroeconomic stability. Footnotes ¹ E-mail addresses: bmccallum{at}cmu.edu; edward.nelson{at}stls.frb.org