Business Economics articles from July 2003

Business Economics archives from July 2003

From the editor.(Editorial)
July 1, 2003... Much of this issue is concerned with what the government is doing to and for the economy, including business. Most of the articles are from NABE's Washington Policy Conference last March. Fed-watching continues to be a major preoccupation...

A perspective on inflation targeting: why it seems to work.
July 1, 2003... Inflation targeting--whose major feature is announcement of a quantitative goal for inflation--is becoming more widely used as a principal policy instrument of central banks. Moreover, none of the dozens of banks that have adopted it have...

Corporate governance: what has happened and where we need to go.(Transcript)
July 1, 2003... Corporate scandals have contributed to the $7 trillion dollar loss in the aggregate market value of American corporations as of March 2003. Many of the scandals were the consequence of shifting power in favor of chief executive officers and...

Erratum.(Correction Notice)
July 1, 2003... In "the Federa Reserve Board and the Stock Market Bubble" by Spencer F. England (April 2003 Business Economics, Figure 1 was incorrect. Below is the correct Figure 1. [FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

Restoring trust after the bubble: lawmakers are addressing only one side of the problem.
July 1, 2003... The American model of capitalism went through a subtle metamorphosis during the stock market bubble of the 1990s. The growth of the stock option culture in the boardroom led to a shift in the balance of power in favour of managers at the...

Is big government back? The political economy of activist government policy.
July 1, 2003... For most of the past twenty years there has been a trend toward smaller government, but now it appears that the trend has reversed. Such trends and their reversals appear to have more to do with society's perceived needs than with electoral...

Churchill's dictum and the next new thing in American health care. Winston Churchill.
July 1, 2003... "IN THE END, AMERICANS WILL ALWAYS DO THE RIGHT THING--AFTER EXPLORING ALL OTHER ALTERNATIVES." Although modern health care contributes very directly and noticeably to the welfare of human beings, the health care sector the world over is a...

The fiscal crisis in the States: how the states went from boom to bust.
July 1, 2003... State budget deficits are larger than they have been in at least a generation. For the most part, this was due to the revenue crash of 2001-2002, which was more severe than that of recent recessions and out of proportion to the severity of the...

Interpreting movements in the Composite Index of Leading Indicators: use them with caution.
July 1, 2003... Evaluations of the forecasting performance of the Composite Index of Leading Indicators (CLI) at cyclical turning points have generally been made well after the event, using historical data. This note questions whether all historical versions...

Congress faces critical decision about consumer credit legislation (the Fair Credit Reporting Act of 1970 and 1996).(Forum On Emerging Issues)
July 1, 2003... Consumers have been the one bright spot in an otherwise sluggish American economy. Much of their ability to drive economic growth stems from relatively broad access to affordable credit. Growth in the availability of credit is a result of...

Sandia National Laboratories.(Economics At Work)
July 1, 2003... Sandia National Laboratories is a U.S. Department of Energy multi-program laboratory managed by Lockheed Martin Corporation. Our vision is "Helping our nation secure a peaceful and free world through technology." ********** We were...

The Passionate Economist.(Book Review)
July 1, 2003... By Diane Swonk. 2003. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Pp 270. $24.95, hardcover. The economist and rhetorician D. N. McCloskey said that one of the tests of economic history is whether it generates better economists, not just better...

The New Financial Order: Risk in the 21st Century.(Book Review)
July 1, 2003... By Robert J. Shiller. 2003. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Pp. 382. $29.95 cloth. The heart of The New Financial Order by Robert Shiller, Professor of Economics at Yale University, is a conviction that: "... worsening...