Business Economics articles from April 1997

Business Economics archives from April 1997

Will fair trade diminish free trade?
April 1, 1997... The successful completion of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) that created of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in January 1995 has generated much optimism about the future of world trade, and with good...

Are trade deficits that bad?
April 1, 1997... This paper is neither a defense of free trade nor a condemnation of "adversarial" trade, so we will dispense with these concepts immediately as they pertain to trade deficits that are 'bad.' First, models exemplifying free trade, in the...

The East Asian miracle: growth because of government intervention and protectionism or in spite of it?
April 1, 1997... East Asia has been the fastest growing area in the world for the past three decades. The economies of Japan and the Newly Industrializing Economies (NIEs) of Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, and Taiwan have been hailed as models of achievement for...

The future of free trade.
April 1, 1997... The period since World War II has vindicated those who sought to pursue free trade by opening markets to international trade. In spite of a world economy shattered from the devastating effects of the war and crippled by government economic...

Long-term rates, short-term rates and future economic activity.
April 1, 1997... A view widely held by political leaders, market analysts, economic policymakers, and business and academic economists is that the effects of interest rates on future economic activity are transmitted primarily through long-term interest rates and...

Comment. (response to Robert D. Laurent's in this issue, p.32)
April 1, 1997... This article has some interesting observations but sows confusion where none should exist in at least two important areas. First, the author maintains erroneously that many or most economists believe that the main influence of interest rates...

Rejoinder. (response to by Frances H. Schott in this issue, p.38)
April 1, 1997... Francis Schott's comment on my paper makes two points in opening a discussion of the influence of interest rates on future economic activity. The first point is that I err in asserting that many or most economists believe that the main influence...

Debt and "the" consumer.
April 1, 1997... The often-repeated statement that the U.S. consumer is overburdened with debt conveys the notion that the average household's financial condition differs only in degree from that of those well-publicized few who are unable to meet their debt...

Royalty methods for intellectual property.
April 1, 1997... In the week ending July 25, 1996, the market value of Microsoft Corporation reached $70.9 billion. The company's latest available balance sheet, however, indicated that shareholder equity amounted to a mere $5.7 billion, i.e., the stock market...

The business economist at work: Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.
April 1, 1997... As corporate economist at Air Products and Chemicals, a $4 billion industrial gas and chemical company, I take traditional economic tools and use them to become a story teller, an instructor, or sometimes even a court jester. The stories describe...

Industry corner: a world view of industrial valves.
April 1, 1997... Industrial valves are mechanical devices designed to start, stop, or otherwise regulate the flow of gases, liquids, semisolids and bulk solids (e.g., slurries, grains, minerals) through a pipe or other passageway. Valves serve a wide range of...

The CPI Commission. (Consumer Price Index Commission)
April 1, 1997... The CPI Commission is the first official systematic external expert evaluation of the nation's price statistics in thirty-five years. The Stigler Commission report, issued in 1961, raised some of the same issues and was an important input to the...

Comments on the report of the Advisory Commission to Study the Consumer Price Index.
April 1, 1997... The final report of the Advisory Commission to Study the Consumer Price Index clearly has made a contribution to the ongoing discussion of measurement issues bearing on the accuracy of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). I intend to discuss some of...

The statistics producers' corner: international statistical studies. (Internal Revenue Service program)
April 1, 1997... The statistical programs of the Statistics of Income (SOI) Division of the Internal Revenue Service, their legislative origins, customers, operations, and studies were described in two 1992 articles of this journal.(1) For most of the eighty-year...

The PC corner. (use of the Windows 95 operating system)
April 1, 1997... This quarter's column relates to some of my experiences, both good and bad, with my conversion to Windows 95 at the office. I'll also discuss the pros and cons of Windows 95 vs. the new Windows NT 4.0 and the soon-to-be-released Windows 97....

Global Corporations and National Governments.
April 1, 1997... This is a slender volume with broad ambitions. In slightly over 100 pages, its aims are both to provide a broad survey of the data covering the postwar history, including major issues, relating to foreign direct investment (FDI) and to offer a...

A Random Walk Down Wall Street.
April 1, 1997... What causes wisdom to become conventional? In the case of security analysis the answer is A Random Walk Down Wall Street. When the book first appeared in 1973, its insights were neither conventional nor considered to be wise. We now know that two...

Will America Grow Up Before it Grows Old? How the Coming Social Security Crisis Threatens You, Your Family, and Your Country.
April 1, 1997... Is Pete Peterson "Spooking the Boomers," as John Cassidy recently charged in The New Yorker? You be the judge. Consider the following quotation: "Financing the growth in entitlements through ever-increasing deficits is not a viable option....