This examination of the fiscal health of local governments offers a "how-to" approach to identifying and solving financial problems. It will serve as a primer for readers interested in understanding financial processes and alternatives, and as a practical guide for those who need access to fiscal measurement tools. Its principal selling point lies in its assumptions: instead of using the vocabulary and research agendas of economists (such as Musgrave, Fisher), finance scholars (Ladd/Yinger) and political scientists (Peterson/Strachota), it will appeal to readers who lack sophisticated knowledge in these areas and nevertheless need practical advice.
The book stems from the "Fiscal Health Education Program," an applied economics program at the University of Minnesota. It uses three measures of fiscal health-financial condition, trend analysis, and financial trend monitoring system-as the basis for advocating particular fiscal strategies. The book examines the tools that can be used to assess the condition of a local government's fiscal health and some of the policy causes or remedies for certain situations, as well as some of the strategies governments can pursue to maintain and improve health.
*How-to approach will appeal to readers who lack sophisticated knowledge
* Contains discussion questions and anonymous case studies of actual cities and municipalities
* Presents practical methods for identifying and solving common fiscal problems

Ulrich F. Zwygart offers an essential insight to the financial crisis that provides ample food for thought. He criticizes homo oeconomicus, the model of individual rationality, and contrasts it with the ideal of critical reflective rationality. This is about reason-based thinking, that involves a limitation of one's own activities and the evaluation of the subsequent cost of decisions. The author introduces twelve famous managers from the financial services, such as Richard Fuld, Fred Goodwin, Jon Corzine and Marcel Ospel, analyzes their actions based on neurological findings, social- and cultural-science, psychological and economic insights and describes conflicting challenges such as egomania, eroticism, experiences, emotions, one-dimensionality, successes, agents and rapture. Subsequently he raises the question of responsibility: Who is accountable for the development of top managers and how can ethical conduct be implemented in the field of management?

Whether you're up or down at the moment, one fact remains: the stock market is actually 75% psychological and only 25% financial. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE STOCK MARKET: Human Impulses Lead To Speculative Disasters is a brief, but fascinating guide about what really influences the way the financial markets behave. Author G.C. Selden examines how to stay emotionally neutral in making investment decisions whether you're buying or selling - and how financial markets are driven by deep-rooted emotions such as fear, greed, and panic. Paying particular attention to the role that investor psychology plays in the movement of the market and individual stocks, THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE STOCK MARKET is full of investment advice and unaffected wisdom, which remain relevant in today's marketplace.

The new Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics: Cities and Geography reviews, synthesizes and extends the key developments in urban and regional economics and their strong connection to other recent developments in modern economics. Of particular interest is the development of the new economic geography and its incorporation along with innovations in industrial organization, endogenous growth, network theory and applied econometrics into urban and regional economics.

The chapters cover theoretical developments concerning the forces of agglomeration, the nature of neighborhoods and human capital externalities, the foundations of systems of cities, the development of local political institutions, regional agglomerations and regional growth. Such massive progress in understanding the theory behind urban and regional phenomenon is consistent with on-going progress in the field since the late 1960's. What is unprecedented are the developments on the empirical side: the development of a wide body of knowledge concerning the nature of urban externalities, city size distributions, urban sprawl, urban and regional trade, and regional convergence, as well as a body of knowledge on specific regions of the world-Europe, Asia and North America, both current and historical.

The Handbook is a key reference piece for anyone wishing to understand the developments in the field.

"Profit from Design," clearly teaches how to integrate design criteria up front into business plans and portfolio management. The cutting edge scientific methods shown here establish and translate strategic opportunities into inspirational design briefs and new superior concepts. The methods used in the book were developed together with Stanford University and top tier corporations over a seven-year period and have now been successfully implemented on multiple projects from consumer products to automotive products. They have also been published in eighteen scientific papers and articles for international conferences and journals. The methodology taught in the book predicts a concept's trendsetting and financial performance in the marketplace and helps leaders to quickly select the most promising and financially viable concepts for final development, allowing profit margins to rise from seven to ten per cent.

The creation, success and long-term survival of enterprises are fundamentally linked to the effectiveness of decision-making processes and negotiation capabilities. This book provides an overview of research into how decisions permeate entrepreneurial ventures throughout their lifecycle. A multidisciplinary approach combining psychology, sociology and political science is used to investigate how entrepreneurs address and deal with decision-making. The respective contributions highlight the latest empirical, theoretical and meta-research, and bridge the gap between literature on entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial and innovative behaviours with that on decision-making and negotiation. This book is one of the first to combine these streams of research, thereby offering a new and insightful addition to the field of entrepreneurship.

This book is written for the average citizen, and it has three purposes:

First, promoting a familiarity with the fundamental issues aff ecting the growth of the U.S. economy;

Second, exploring the policies of the 2012 presidential candidates, President Obama and Governor Romney, on these economic growth issues; and

Third, helping the reader appreciate how economic growth can impact personal investment returns.

To facilitate an understanding of the complex issues aff ecting U.S. economic growth, the book is written in question and answer format. By reading this book, you will become a more informed citizen, voter, and investor.

Here, in this 1850 classic, a powerful refutation of Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto, published two years earlier, Bastiat discusses: what is law? why socialism constitutes legal plunder the proper function of the law the law and morality "the vicious circle of socialism" the basis for stable government and more.French political libertarian and economist CLAUDE FREDERIC BASTIAT (1801-1850) was one of the most eloquent champions of the concept that property rights and individual freedoms flowed from natural law.

Volume 1B covers the economics of financial markets: the saving and investment decisions; the valuation of equities, derivatives, and fixed income securities; and market microstructure.

When Michael Bloomberg handed over the city to Bill de Blasio, New York and the country were experiencing record levels of income inequality. De Blasio was the first progressive elected to City Hall in twenty years. Invoking Fiorello La Guardia's name, he pledged to improve the lives of those marginalized by poverty and prejudice. Unlike La Guardia, de Blasio did not have allies in Washington like President Franklin D. Roosevelt who could effectively support his progressive agenda. As de Blasio approached the end of his first term, the situation worsened, with Donald Trump in the White House and a Republican-controlled Congress determined to further reduce social programs that help the needy. As a result, de Blasio's mayoralty is an illuminating case study of what mayors can and cannot do on their own to address economic and social inequality. As the Democratic Party attempts to reassemble a viable political coalition that cuts across boundaries of race, class and gender, de Blasio's efforts to redefine priorities in America's largest city is instructive. Joseph P. Viteritti's The Pragmatist is the first in-depth look at de Blasioboth the man himself and his policies in crucial areas such as housing, homelessness, education, and criminal justice. It is a test case for the viability of progressivism itself. Along the way, Viteritti introduces the reader to every NYC mayor since La Guardia. He covers progressives who breathed life into the "soul of the city" before the devastating fiscal crisis of 1975 put it on the brink of bankruptcy, and those post-fiscal crisis chief executives who served during times of limiting austerity. This engaging story of the rise, fall, and rebirth of progressivism in America's major urban center demonstrates that the road to progress has been a longand continuingjourney.

Why are some teams, businesses, countries and cultures successful and enduring, and some not? The book describes practical applications of collective intelligence, and unlocks the secrets of highly successful teams at all levels in corporations and governments. Well-known companies are analysed, and the reasons for their success or decline explained. The Mystery of Collective Intelligence proposes a new theory of organizational intelligence, explaining how organizational intelligence lies behind AI, robotics and the accelerating automation that is revolutionizing industry around the world. The book explains how organizations themselves can improve their decision-making cultures. The Mystery of Collective Intelligence describes the scientific basis for collective decision-making, and discusses how ethical and socially responsible corporate objectives lead to increased innovation and information sharing, which ultimately leads to improved economic success.

This handbook contains chapters covering a broad range of supply chain management issues written by leading experts in the field. It is aimed at researchers, students, engineers, economists and managers involved in supply chain management.