In a general way it is obvious that the developmental cycles of libraries reflect those of their parent institutions, the universities. Thus, libraries, like universities, have…
Abstract
In a general way it is obvious that the developmental cycles of libraries reflect those of their parent institutions, the universities. Thus, libraries, like universities, have experienced a period of intense growth and diversification in the past four or five decades. This has been followed by a period of increasingly severe resource constraint relative to need while high expectations have continued almost unabated. It is now widely acknowledged that basic changes in the way information services are provided are inevitable, even though there is not yet complete consensus about what the nature of those changes can or should be. Clearly there is a powerful connection between the new Fiscal realities of universities and our capacity to resolve the information management requirements of this new era.
The Bureau of Economics in the Federal Trade Commission has a three-part role in the Agency and the strength of its functions changed over time depending on the preferences and…
Abstract
The Bureau of Economics in the Federal Trade Commission has a three-part role in the Agency and the strength of its functions changed over time depending on the preferences and ideology of the FTC’s leaders, developments in the field of economics, and the tenor of the times. The over-riding current role is to provide well considered, unbiased economic advice regarding antitrust and consumer protection law enforcement cases to the legal staff and the Commission. The second role, which long ago was primary, is to provide reports on investigations of various industries to the public and public officials. This role was more recently called research or “policy R&D”. A third role is to advocate for competition and markets both domestically and internationally. As a practical matter, the provision of economic advice to the FTC and to the legal staff has required that the economists wear “two hats,” helping the legal staff investigate cases and provide evidence to support law enforcement cases while also providing advice to the legal bureaus and to the Commission on which cases to pursue (thus providing “a second set of eyes” to evaluate cases). There is sometimes a tension in those functions because building a case is not the same as evaluating a case. Economists and the Bureau of Economics have provided such services to the FTC for over 100 years proving that a sub-organization can survive while playing roles that sometimes conflict. Such a life is not, however, always easy or fun.
Details
Keywords
Allison Lurton, William Massey and Robert S. Fleishman
The purpose of this paper is to provide a summary of recent Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) final rules prohibiting manipulation of commodity markets. The paper…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a summary of recent Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) final rules prohibiting manipulation of commodity markets. The paper provides the specific prohibitions contained in new rules prompted by new authorities granted to the CFTC by the Dodd‐Frank Act.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper includes a discussion of relevant Dodd‐Frank Act provisions, the two new final CFTC rules and the scope of the new rules as explained by the CFTC in its rulemaking release. Included in these discussions are some specific applications of the new rules.
Findings
The final CFTC rules are similar to the rules proposed last fall. How the final rules and the release respond to public comments received in response to the proposed rulemaking are described in the paper.
Practical implications
The new final CFTC rules became effective August 15, 2011. The rules have wide application, so all commodity market participants should be made aware of the new rules and their prohibitions.
Originality/value
The paper provides expert advice from experienced energy and commodity regulatory attorneys.
Details
Keywords
Allison Lurton, Bruce Bennett, William Massey, Robert Fleishman, Mark Herman, Michael Sorrell and Ronald Hewitt
The aim of the paper is to explain the joint final rules adopted on April 18, 2012 by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of the paper is to explain the joint final rules adopted on April 18, 2012 by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) further defining the major categories of swap and security‐based swap market participants, “swap dealer“, “security‐based swap dealer”, “major swap participant”, “major security‐based swap participant” and “eligible contract participant” and to explain the process of evaluating a party's status under the rules.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper provides the statutory definition of a dealer, and explains the CFTC's and the SEC's interpretive guidance, including four tests and a discussion of the CFTC and SEC dealer trader distinctions, swaps not considered in determining dealer status, and a de minimis exception. It provides the statutory definition of a major participant, along with the four major categories of swaps and an explanation of the “substantial position”, “substantial counterparty exposure” and “highly leveraged” criteria, along with the exclusion of positions held for hedging or mitigating commercial risk from the substantial position analysis. A Dodd‐Frank amended definition of an eligible contract participant (ECP) along with the final ECP rules is provided.
Findings
All swap market participants will need to know whether they qualify as one of these entities because each type of entity figures prominently in the new swap market requirements imposed by the Dodd‐Frank Act.
Originality/value
The paper provides practical guidance from experienced financial services lawyers.
Details
Keywords
Robert Gregory and Daniel Zirker
The purpose of this paper is to reconsider, from a historical perspective, New Zealand’s reputation as a country largely without corruption, with particular reference to the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to reconsider, from a historical perspective, New Zealand’s reputation as a country largely without corruption, with particular reference to the colonial government’s confiscation of Māori land in the 19th century and beyond.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is based on published historical commentary.
Findings
The findings are that much of the Māori land confiscation was rendered legal for illegitimate purposes, and that the colonial and successive New Zealand governments abrogated the country’s foundational document, the Treaty of Waitangi, signed between the colonial government and many Māori chiefs in 1840. Adverse consequences for Māori have been felt to this day, despite the Treaty settlements process that began with the Māori renaissance in the mid-1970s.
Originality/value
The academic analysis of corruption in New Zealand has seldom if ever adopted this historical perspective.
Details
Keywords
John R. Edwards and Malcolm Anderson
The purpose of this paper is to address the lack of knowledge of the accounting occupational group in England prior to the formation of professional accounting bodies. It aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to address the lack of knowledge of the accounting occupational group in England prior to the formation of professional accounting bodies. It aims to do so by focusing on attempts made by writing masters and accountants to establish a recognisable persona in the public domain, in England, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and to enhance that identity by behaving in a manner designed to persuade the public of the professionalism associated with themselves and their work.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based principally on the contents of early accounting treatises and secondary sources drawn from beyond the accounting literature. Notions of identity, credentialism and jurisdiction are employed to help understand and evaluate the occupational history of the writing master and accountant occupational group.
Findings
Writing masters and accountants emerged as specialist pedagogues providing the expert business knowledge required in the counting houses of entities that flourished as the result of rapid commercial expansion during the early modern period. Their demise as an occupational group may be attributed to a range of factors, amongst which an emphasis on personal identity, the neglect of group identity and derogation of the writing craft were most important.
Research limitations/implications
The paper highlights Early English Books Online (available at: http://eebo.chadwyck.com/home), Eighteenth Century Collections Online (available at: www.gale.cengage.com/DigitalCollections/products/ecco/index.htm) and the seventeenth and eighteenth century Burney Collection Newspapers as first class electronic resources now available for studying accounting history from the sixteenth century through to the eighteenth century.
Originality/value
The paper advances knowledge of accounting history by: profiling commercial educators active in England in the early modern period; studying the devices they employed to achieve upward social and economic trajectory; explaining the failure of an embryonic professionalisation initiative; and demonstrating the contingent nature of the professionalisation process.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is as follows: this is a short excursion into the changing world of post‐secondary education through a review of two books: Reinventing Higher Education…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is as follows: this is a short excursion into the changing world of post‐secondary education through a review of two books: Reinventing Higher Education: The Promise of Innovation, by Ben Wildavsky, Andrew P Kelly and Kevin Carey; and DIY U, by Aya Kamenetz.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents reviews of two recently published books.
Findings
The economics and functions of post secondary education at the baccalaureate and post‐baccalaureate (research) levels are changing in a world where knowledge flows freely across geo‐political boundaries. The Ivory Tower no longer commands from a fixed location or as the center of knowledge, both the historic and the new.
Originality/value
Individuals as well as public and private sector entities have multiple sources for knowledge and new abilities of sharing and obtaining knowledge. “The Academy” as created in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as an independent home for scholarly endeavors has changed as new demands are placed upon the institutions and the faculty.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to examine the process of innovation management in the eighteenth century in the context of the search for precision time keeping in the watch making…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the process of innovation management in the eighteenth century in the context of the search for precision time keeping in the watch making industry. In particular it looks at how knowledge was managed and transferred among interested stakeholders in the process.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reviews the published horological literature on the subject and considers it within modern theories relating to the management of innovation.
Findings
This paper illustrates that personal contact and collaboration is important to the development of innovation. The paper highlights the importance of networking in the process of innovation and collaboration as a means to share and develop ideas. Collaboration with organisations working in adjacent technologies was found to be present and competition promoted by the incentive of financial reward was found to be a motivator factor for moving innovation forward.
Originality/value
This paper will be helpful to academics who study innovation history as well as current innovation management practices.