Focusing on the developing economic challenges confronting Korea and the US in response to the aging of their populations, this timely book examines how public policies are evolving in light of demographic changes, the impact of aging on governmental expenditures, and transitions in the labor force associated with aging. International contributors comparatively analyze government approaches to population aging, illustrating the similar challenges faced across nations. Chapters draw attention to those particular issues that public policy plans must surmount, including funding pressures on retirement plans and the effects of an aging labor force on economic growth and productivity. They offer evidence on the scale of these challenges in Korea and the US and empirically evaluate how governments, employers, and individuals may respond to these issues in the years to come. Addressing fiscal sustainability and key social security programs, including the implications of the 2015 Korean pension reform and the economic difficulties entailed by the future of Medicare, this book investigates the implications of managing and sustaining welfare for an aging population. This cutting-edge book will be ideal reading for economists focusing on public policy and welfare programs, benefiting from the comparative approach to fiscal accountability and sustainability. It will also appeal to practitioners and policymakers seeking insights into the consequences of an aging population and hoping to develop innovative methods and approaches to welfare.

Attracting and retaining highly qualified faculty is essential to maintaining productivity at institutions of higher education. Colleges and universities are at a critical juncture in their history as they attempt to achieve their teaching and research goals. This volume examines some of the most pressing employment and compensation issues confronting academic administrators. Contributors discuss topics such as: ageing of faculty, changing economic conditions and shifts in faculty employment patterns, rapid increases in health care costs and trends in retiree health insurance, and adoption of phased and early retirement programs. The volume also includes a series of case studies on how individual universities are confronting these challenges. Institutions in these case studies include: Syracuse University, the University of North Carolina, the University of California, institutions in the Association of New American Colleges, and other colleges and universities included in several surveys and research projects. This timely volume will appeal to academic administrators at colleges and universities in the US and internationally as they face the common challenges of rising employment costs, faculty aging and global competition. Researchers interested in the future of higher education, economics, and the academic labor market in general will find this a valuable addition to their library.

State and Local Retirement Plans in the United States explains how economic and political events have shaped the development of pension plans in the last century, and it argues that changes in the structure and generosity of these plans will continue to shape policy and funding in the future. It also brings to bear a new rationale to the policies behind public sector pension plans. The authors use the history of how early public pension plans were established, how they matured and how they have grown in generosity to analyse what changes may be expected in years to come. Unique in its scope, this comprehensive history of the development of public sector pension plans in the United States during the twentieth century expands upon current ideas relating to the changing economic environment, the passage and evolution of social security and the expansion of the public sector. With the exception of military pension plans, which date from the eighteenth century, the first public sector plans, dating from the late nineteenth century, were established to cover teachers, police officers and firefighters in large cities. Over time, these retirement plans were extended to other public sector workers and the local plans were often merged with plans for state workers; all of these date from the twentieth century. Here, the authors show just how pension coverage for public sector workers expanded steadily, through the first half of the twentieth century, so that by the 1960s the vast majority of public sector workers were covered by a plan. This analysis demonstrates how economic events and shifts in public policy at the federal, state and local levels helped to shape public sector retirement plans. The authors also compare public plans with private sector plans, and the final chapter focuses on recent changes in public pensions in response to the `Great Recession', concurrent sharp declines in equity markets and the aging of the public workforce. Scholars and students of economics, history and public policy, public administrators, policymakers and all those with an interest in policy development will find the analyses discussed and conclusions drawn here of significance.

Population aging is a global phenomenon that influences not only the industrialized countries of Asia and the West, but also many middle- and low- income countries that have experienced rapid fertility decline and achieved long life expectancies. This book explores how workers and consumers are responding to population aging and examines how economic growth, generational equity, trade and international capital flows are influenced by population aging. The contributors draw on the experience of the developing and industrialized worlds and on countries in Asia, North America, and Europe. They offer new evidence about micro-level responses of labor force participation, earnings, and savings to actual and/or perceived demographic change. Their broad perspective on population aging spans the entire demographic transition and demonstrates the importance of effective policy response in the early stages of population aging. Also included are policy analyses that explore the use of tax policy, financial reform, and policies targeting immigration and procreation. This insightful study will prove invaluable to students and scholars of population economics, public sector economics, welfare economics, social economics, and public finance. Pension analysts and government policymakers will find the material of great practical use.

This volume, part of the TIAA-CREF Institute Series on Higher Education, is based on a national conference, The New Balancing Act in the Business of Higher Education, which was convened by the TIAA-CREF Institute in November 2005. Managing institutions of higher education has always been a balancing act as campus leaders address business issues while staying true to their institutions' academic missions. What makes it increasingly challenging are emerging internal and external factors - including changes in federal and state funding levels, rapidly evolving demographics on campuses and in the workforce, and higher expectations and changing demands from a wide and diverse group of stakeholders. In this volume, higher education leaders explore the challenges facing colleges and universities operating in today's environment with constrained budgets and discuss a variety of strategies and solutions being employed to help ensure the ongoing vitality of America's colleges and universities.

This study aims to identify and describe the principle economic issues associated with individual and population ageing. In addition, the study surveys and assess the existing knowledge - including research by scholars of many countries and different fields in the social sciences - of the economic and social problems associated with ageing. Although the study covers a wide range of issues, it focuses primarily on the economic complexities of individual ageing and the macro-economic problems that arise from age-structure changes in the population. The authors, giving examples from many countries, trace the development of concern for population ageing and examine theoretical concepts and changing demographic conditions. Cross-national econometric studies are cited along with time series and cross-sectional research on individual countries. In assessing the state of the literature on the economic problems of ageing, the authors have attempted to indicate fruitful avenues for further research.

While retiree health plans are a dying benefit in the private sector, all US states and many local governments extend health insurance coverage to their retired employees. This book is the first to thoroughly examine public sector health insurance plans. Retiree Health Plans in the Public Sector provides a detailed description of the current plans offered and compares how they vary across states. Health insurance is an important component of compensation in the public sector as it helps governments attract and retain quality workers and encourages timely retirement for career employees. Rapidly rising medical costs, an aging labor force, and an increasing number of retirees have dramatically increased the cost of providing this benefit. A central theme of this analysis is a presentation of the actuarial accrued liabilities, the unfunded liabilities and the annual required contribution of the employers based on the actuarial statements for retiree health plans. The authors also investigate why some states face major funding problems while the costs of other states' plans are much more manageable. Extensively researched and well-suited for classroom and professional use alike, academics in the fields of economics and public policy will find this an unmatched resource. So too will policymakers, economists, legislators, public sector union leaders and those invested in public sector healthcare.

There are many sources of information on the stock market. The problem is that there is too much information, and that it does not come in the right form. This book teaches how to process information and decide when to buy and sell common stock.

This monograph addresses how combined arms organizations should be formed in our Army today. Specifically, it focuses on the question, "what arms, if any, should be combined organically at battalion level?" This issue is important because our AirLand Battle doctrine considers combined arms to be essential to winning on the modern battlefield. Therefore, we should investigate the best means by which to maximize the potential of the organizations. The monograph first examines the theoretical foundation for combined arms. Next, both historical and contemporary evidence are examined to derive a set of criteria that can be used to analyze the four selected arms: infantry, armor, artillery, and engineer in terms of the AirLand battlefield environment. The five selected criteria are frequency of interaction, competence of commander to synchronize the effects of weapon systems, scarcity of resources, cope of tactical missions, and similarity in range and mobility. These criteria are key factors that should be used whenever determining how an organization should be structured organically. Conclusions concerning the structure of a combined arms battalion are drawn from an analysis of these dominant criteria. This monograph concludes that infantry and armor are the only two arms that should be combined organically at battalion level. By combining these two arms permanently, it is almost certain that the combat potential of the organizations will increase.

"My Bittersweet Charlie" is shocking. It was intended to be. It is also funny, frightening, poignant, and tender. Above all, it is tragic as only real life can be.
The novel begins with Dr. Doug Larson, a university professor, writing and delivering to Miss Charlie Johnston, an elementary school teacher, an angry and hurtful letter telling her to pick up her furniture from his house and get out of his life. Doug and Charlie met almost three years earlier when she took a graduate class which he was teaching, and the two have lived with each other--off and on--for the past two and one-half years.
Charlie is 25 years of age, beautiful, bright, charming, athletic, competitive, manipulative, sexual, and impulsive. Charlie is also manic-depressive, perhaps with schizophrenic tendencies, and drinks excessively when she is depressed. During her drinking binges, Charlie is quite promiscuous.
In telling Charlie's story, the author delves deeply into Charlie's mental health disorders as they manifest themselves throughout the entire book. Charlie has frequent discussions with Doug about her visits to her different psychiatrists. One of Charlie's psychiatrists from whom Charlie sought treatment and another psychiatrist agreed that "man-woman" relationships with Charlie were like tennis matches. . . his advantage. . . deuce. . . her advantage. . . and win. . . match . . . game over. . . and once Charlie had eliminated all the obstacles, she was then ready to move on to the next relationship. There were two obstacles in Charlie's relationship with Doug: Carole, Doug's estranged wife, and Sheri, his present girlfriend. The conclusion to the story is both dramatic and shocking.
Of equal importance is the beautiful, tender and heart-wrenching love story that is depicted in the book. In addition, the novel is sprinkled with an abundance of humor.
The moon, the rose in the wine bottle, and the lyrics to Kris Kristofferson's song, "For the Good Times" are key elements to this story.
"My Bittersweet Charlie" should be read by those who have known love and given their all in an attempt to help the one they love.
Author's Note: Hopefully this novel will provide readers with a better understanding of two of the most devastating mental health disorders: manic-depression (bipolar) and schizophrenia.

Line by Line comparison of all of the words that have been subtracted and added from the original King James Version of the Holy Bible.

Building an astronomical telescope offers the amateur astronomer an exciting challenge, with the possibility of ending up with a far bigger and better telescope than could have been afforded otherwise. In the past, the starting point has always been the grinding and polishing of at least the primary mirror, a difficult and immensely time-consuming process. But now that the Internet has brought us together in a global village, purchasing off-the-shelf goods such as parabolic mirrors, eyepieces, lenses, and telescope tubes, is possible. There are also a vast number of used mirrors and lenses out there, and it is now possible to track them down almost anywhere in the world. Online stores and auction houses have facilitated commerce regarding all sorts of useful optical components at a reasonable price. This is a book about making telescopes from available parts. It provides guidance on where to look and what to look for in selecting items useful for telescope making and explains how to assemble these components to produce an excellent instrument on a tight budget. At one time, many amateurs made their own telescopes from home-made parts. In today's rushed world, that has almost become a lost art. The Internet offers a wonderful alternative to either buying a pricey scope fully assembled or making your own from scratch.

Retirement risk management must be dramatically overhauled if workers and retirees are to better prepare themselves to meet future retirement challenges. Recent economic events including the global financial crisis have upended expectations about what pension and endowment fund managers can do. Employers and employees have found it difficult to make pension contributions, despite drops in retirement plan funding. In many countries, government social security systems are also facing insolvency. These factors, coupled with an aging population and rising longevity, are giving rise to serious questions about the future of retirement in America and around the world. This volume explores how workers and firms can reassess the risks associated with retirement saving and dissaving, to identify creative adjustments to adapt to these new risks and realities. One area explored is the key role for financial literacy and education programs. In addition, those acting as plan sponsors and fiduciaries must reconsider pension design to help them better address the new realities. Also novel financial products are described that can help with the design of retirement plans. Experts provide new research and offer policy recommendations, illustrating how retirement plans can be amended to better meet the retirement needs of workers and firms. This volume is an important addition to the Pensions Research Council / Oxford Univeristy Press series and to the current debate on retirement security.

Understanding the historical development of pensions is critical to the future of retirement systems around the world. "A History of Public Sector Pensions in the United States" offers a comprehensive assessment of the political and financial dimensions of public sector pensions from the colonial period until the emergence of modern retirement plans in the twentieth century. The authors emphasize how retirement plans can help achieve human resource objectives, how public sector pension policy has sometimes been influenced by other government objectives, and how early pension plans were funded.After discussing the economics of retirement plans, A History of "Public Sector Pensions in the United States" reviews the history of European retirement plans, beginning with their use in the Roman Empire, and then moves on to early American pension systems. The authors explore the development and management of U.S. army and navy pension plans during the nineteenth century, drawing on original records of participants, retirees, and plan finances. They document the struggle to establish a federal civil service retirement system and trace the growth of state and local retirement plans. This history is inextricably linked to broader developments in U.S. financial markets, offering rich insights into political debates, including current debates surrounding plan design and plan funding."A History of Public Sector Pensions in the United States" will be of significant interest to financial market and pension experts, labor and corporate pension sponsors, policymakers, public sector plan participants, and others who want to know how and why pensions emerged.

Colleges and universities across the country face huge challenges as their faculties age, their budgets stagnate, and mandatory retirement becomes a thing of the past. In "To Retire or Not?" the nation's foremost authorities on retirement policy and practice provide a critical assessment of academic labor markets and retirement patterns, explaining how to adjust pension and other incentive programs to ensure proper replenishment of intellectual and human capital. Case studies vividly illustrate how to predict the need for special retirement programs, how to structure voluntary early-out benefit plans, and how age-based retirement incentives work in practice. Recent legal decisions are assessed and critiqued.A recent amendment to the U.S. Age Discrimination in Employment Act ended mandatory retirement for tenured faculty at colleges and universities across the country. This law let individual faculty members enjoy an economic benefit enjoyed by almost all other American workers: they could choose to continue working past age 70 or "sell" the benefit back to their universities in exchange for earlier retirement. At the same time, however, educational administrators were faced with a faculty bulge created by the expansion of the professorate in the 1960s and early '70s, and the so-called "surplus army" of Ph.D.s of the 1980s. Colleges and universities everywhere are now faced with the higher costs of retaining senior professors instead of hiring entry-level replacements at lower salaries.