This engaging and intelligent book provides an accessible, down to earth assessment of the role of formalism and rigour in economics.Professor Mayer argues that there is room in economics for both highly formalised theory and for the less formal theory that predominates in the natural sciences. But economists generally fail to distinguish between these two types of theory. As a result, they often act as if the strength of an argument depends on the strength of its strongest link. They misallocate effort, polishing those parts of the argument that tend to be formalised, while paying insufficient attention to the others. Drawing on public choice theory, Mayer shows how this emphasis on the strongest link has distorted research particularly in new classical theory. He advocates stricter econometric testing, showing that many procedures currently used are only soft tests.

This unique book deals with the most serious macroeconomic failure experienced in the US in the post-war period and the great inflation of the late 1960s and 1970s. It is the first detailed analysis, using Federal Reserve documents, of the thinking behind the inflationary monetary policy during this period. The book examines documentary evidence, including minutes, memos and reports and interviews with people who were closely involved in making policy decisions, to explain the monetary policy that led to this inflation. Thomas Mayer considers forecasting errors and wage and price controls in his attempt to explain why the inflation occurred and places some of the blame on ineffective operating procedures, institutional inefficiencies, and political pressures on the Federal Reserve. The author concludes that much of the responsibility for the mistaken policies lies with academic economists who underestimated the dangers of inflation and encouraged the Federal Reserve to focus on an unattainable employment goal. Monetary Policy and the Great Inflation in the United States will be welcomed by economists, political scientists and economic historians interested in monetary policy.

The financial crisis has exposed severe shortcomings in mainstream monetary economics and modern finance. It is surprising that these shortcomings have not led to a wider debate about the need to overhaul these theories. Instead, mainstream economists have closed ranks to defend existing theories and public authorities have expanded their interference in markets. This book investigates the problems associated with mainstream monetary economics and finance, and proposes alternatives based on the Austrian school of economics. This school emanated from the work of the nineteenth-century Austrian economist Carl Menger and was developed further by Eugen von Boehm-Bawerk, Ludwig von Mises, and Friedrich August von Hayek. In monetary economics, the Austrian school regards the creation of money by banks through credit extension as a key source of economic instability. From this follows the need for a comprehensive reform of our present monetary system. In a new monetary order, money could be issued by both public and private institutions, and there would be no need for fractional reserve banking. Instead of creating money, banks would intermediate it. In finance, the Austrian school rejects the notion of rational expectations and measurable risk. Individuals use their subjective knowledge to gather and evaluate information, and they act in a world of radical uncertainty. Hence, markets are not "efficient" nor can portfolios be built on the basis of known probability distributions of asset prices as described in the modern finance literature. This book explores the need for a new theoretical foundation for asset pricing and investment management that will give practitioners more useful orientation.

Doing Economic Research brings together a series of authoritative and illuminating essays by Thomas Mayer which bridge the gap between the abstract work of methodology and the practical research problems that concern the professional economist. Arguing that methodologists should pay more attention to the day-to-day problems that face practising economists, Professor Mayer illustrates how simple methodological considerations can clarify a series of issues in applied economics. In particular, he offers a defence of positivism in economics and counters the argument that economics is not an empirical science. Specific essays reassess debates about microfoundations and Ricardian equivalence, consider whether assumptions should be realistic, question whether recent improvements in techniques have helped to resolve the monetarist debate, discuss the role of consumer theory and deal with some key issues in econometric practice. Doing Economic Research differs from other work on economic methodology by focusing on specific issues of concern to applied economists, such as whether the failure of consumer choice theory on experimental tests matters. Applied economists and methodologists will welcome the book's direct, down-to-earth manner and the way in which Professor Mayer's ideas are applied to contemporary economic research.

Vaccination is a topic that has long divided opinion. Today, in view of Covid-19, that debate has become ever more polarized. Illustrated throughout with full-colour images, Covid Vaccines from a Spiritual Perspective deals with scientific facts, but also with research that requires spiritual-scientific methods. Led by main author and activist Thomas Mayer, the volume features reports, experiences and commentary from more than fifty contributors with clairvoyant and psychic abilities. From their observations, it is argued that Covid vaccines are not 'harmless jabs', but potentially violent interventions in the subtle structures of the human body, soul and spirit. The vaccines even have implications for an individual's life beyond death. Instead of the soul evolving in the afterlife, it could remain bound to the earth, suffering deeply. --- Although this book's conclusions may appear alarming, it is not the author's intention to create fear. He seeks only to provide useful information and enlightenment, demonstrating how vaccinated and unvaccinated people can deal with this subject consciously, courageously and with hope for the future.

This two volume set reprints 28 papers on fiscal and monetary policy interpreted broadly enough to include such issues as the effects of government debt and intergenerational accounting. It emphasizes problems that are not specific to a particular country but are relevant for all developed market economies. Fiscal and Monetary Policy is divided into three parts; the first deals with the problems that are common to both fiscal and monetary policies; the second deals with fiscal policy and the third with monetary policy.Fiscal and Monetary Policy includes important articles on the effects of lags on the feasibility of stabilization policy, time inconsistency, the motivation of monetary and fiscal authorities, the Lucas critique, Ricardian equivalence, the choice of monetary targets, feedback rules, international aspects of monetary policy and the appropriate role of government in the monetary system.

Let's work together to develop inner light and counteract the darkness! --- Illustrated throughout in full colour, this booklet features 28 meditations and soul exercises to help develop courage and internal strength, supporting our inner being and spiritual self. The meditations can aid in clearing our emotional space and illuminating our thinking - strengthening health, bringing healing to dark impulses and assisting us in integrating death as an important part of life. The exercises are also a contribution to easing the tensions felt in the collective consciousness during this time of multiple global crises. --- In the concluding chapter, based on concepts from the research of Rudolf Steiner, the author puts into perspective the spiritual struggle underlying the coronavirus crisis.

The Jewish community of Egypt in modem times-now practically non-existent-consisted in part of autochthonous Jews who traced their origins to the periods of Maimonides, Philo, and even the prophet Jeremiah, thus making it the oldest community in the Jewish Diaspora. It also contained Jews who were part of the waves of immigration into Egypt that began in the second half of the nineteenth century. Coming mostly from Mediterranean countries, this predominantly Sephardic community maintained a network of commercial, social, and religious ties throughout the entire region, as well as a distinctively Mediterranean culture and life-style. In this volume, international scholars examine the Ottoman background of this community, the political status and participation of the Jews in Egyptian society, their role in economic life, their contributions to Egyptian-Arabic culture, and the images of the community in their own eyes, as well as in the eyes of Egyptians and Palestinian Jews. The book includes an extensive set of appendixes that illustrate the wide range of primary sources used by the contributors.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203167708

Shining new light onto an historically pivotal time, this book re-examines the Tudor commonwealth from a socio-political perspective and looks at its links to its own past. Each essay in this collection addresses a different aspect of the intellectual and cultural climate of the time, going beyond the politics of state into the underlying thought and tradition that shaped Tudor policy. Placing security and economics at the centre of debate, the key issues are considered in the context of medieval precedence and the wider European picture.

The financial crisis has exposed severe shortcomings in mainstream monetary economics and modern finance. It is surprising that these shortcomings have not led to a wider debate about the need to overhaul these theories. Instead, mainstream economists have closed ranks to defend existing theories and public authorities have expanded their interference in markets. This book investigates the problems associated with mainstream monetary economics and finance, and proposes alternatives based on the Austrian school of economics. This school emanated from the work of the nineteenth-century Austrian economist Carl Menger and was developed further by Eugen von Boehm-Bawerk, Ludwig von Mises, and Friedrich August von Hayek. In monetary economics, the Austrian school regards the creation of money by banks through credit extension as a key source of economic instability. From this follows the need for a comprehensive reform of our present monetary system. In a new monetary order, money could be issued by both public and private institutions, and there would be no need for fractional reserve banking. Instead of creating money, banks would intermediate it. In finance, the Austrian school rejects the notion of rational expectations and measurable risk. Individuals use their subjective knowledge to gather and evaluate information, and they act in a world of radical uncertainty. Hence, markets are not "efficient" nor can portfolios be built on the basis of known probability distributions of asset prices as described in the modern finance literature. This book explores the need for a new theoretical foundation for asset pricing and investment management that will give practitioners more useful orientation.

Thomas Starkey (c. 1495–1538) was the most Italianate Englishman of his generation. This book places Starkey into new and more appropriate contexts, both biographical and intellectual, taking him out of others in which he does not belong, from displaced Roundhead to follower of Marsilio of Padua. Beginning with his native Cheshire, it traces his career through Oxford, Padua, Paris, Avignon, Padua again, and finally England, where he spent the last four years of his life trying to fulfil his ambition to serve the commonweal. Most of Starkey’s career revolved around his patron Reginald Pole, scion of the highest nobility, but Starkey (and many other Englishmen) managed to balance loyalty to Pole with allegiance to Henry VIII. Out of favour with the king’s secretary after the middle of 1536, Starkey turned increasingly to religion, continuing to cling to his conciliarist and Italian Evangelical opinions until his death.

A glimpse into the unseen magical world of the elementals and how they are connected with humankind • Explores the hierarchy of elemental beings as well as Christ elemental beings, social elementals, and machine elementals • Explains how elementals inhabit the etheric space that houses our emotions, feelings, and thoughts and how they carry the emotional level of the world • Shows how the author learned to make personal contact with the elementals and shares his experiences as well as the elemental world’s urgent call for help We all live in the realm of elemental beings. They permeate our souls, our thoughts, our feelings, and they co-create the world around us, yet we are often completely unaware of them. They, however, are eager to be perceived and acknowledged by us because their future and ours are fundamentally connected. Elementals act as carriers of the emotional level of the world, and Thomas Mayer reveals how he learned to develop and fine-tune his sense of perception to make direct personal contact with them. Providing insight into the elemental hierarchy, from the low workers to the masters and the elemental kings, he portrays Christ elemental beings, social elementals, and machine elementals as well. He also explores the adversarial forces like Lucifer and Ahriman that access the elemental world through the subconscious of humans and seek to destroy our elemental friends. Through sharing his encounters with fairies, dwarves, giants, and others, the author reveals their urgent call for help, an entreaty to anchor the elemental beings again in the awareness of humankind through recognition, acknowledgment, and conscious connection. Let us support the elementals in their crucial, life-giving work, through which they in turn support us in preserving the Earth we live on.

Concepts of Christian martyrdom changed greatly in England from the late middle ages through the early modern era. The variety of paradigms of Christian martyrdom (with, for example, virginity or asceticism perceived as alternate forms of martyrdom) that existed in the late medieval period, came to be replaced during the English Reformation with a single dominant idea of martyrdom: that of violent death endured for orthodox religion. Yet during the seventeenth century another transformation in conceptions of martyrdom took place, as those who died on behalf of overtly political causes came to be regarded as martyrs, indistinguishable from those who died for Christ. The articles in this book explore these seminal changes across the period from 1400-1700, analyzing the political, social and religious backgrounds to these developments. While much that has been written on martyrs, martyrdom and martyrologies has tended to focus on those who died for a particular confession or cause, this book shows how the concepts of martyrdom were shaped, altered and re-shaped through the interactions between these groups. THOMAS S. FREEMAN is Research Officer at the British Academy John Foxe Project, which is affiliated with the University of Sheffield. THOMAS F. MAYER is Professor of History at Augustana College. Contributors: JOHN COFFEY, BRAD S. GREGORY, VICTOR HOULISTON, ANDREW LACEY, DANNA PIROYANSKY, RICHARD REX, ALEC RYRIE, WILLIAM WIZEMAN

This collection of essays examines the institutional framework in which monetary policy is made. The essays consider two questions: how free is the Fed to set monetary policy and to what extent do organisational problems affect the choice of that monetary policy? Topics covered include the Fed's response to movements on its goals, Congressional and presidential pressures on the Fed, the existence of political business cycles operating through monetary policy, and the extent to which monetary policy may be explained by the Fed's own interests. A final section examines the claim that the Federal Reserve follows counter-cyclical policy and evaluates its performance as a lender to banks both in normal times and as a lender of last resort.

This book is an authoritative and accessible guide to the pluralist movement threatening to revolutionize mainstream economics. Leading figures in the field explain why pluralism is a required virtue in economics, how it came to be blocked and what it means for the way we think about, research and teach economics. The first part of the book looks at how neoclassical economics gained its stranglehold, particularly in the United States, and how the social and intellectual underpinnings of economics have enabled it to maintain this in the face of inconsistent evidence from the real world. This is then contrasted with different approaches to pluralism. "Pluralist Economics" then goes on to address the array of arguments for establishing pluralism, showing how economics came to function as a concealed ideology and not as a science, and how value-free economics is an illusion. Finally, it addresses the practical problems presented by this different way of doing economics.

Scent of the Trace is an expose of an Architect's inner dialogues during the design process. The book contains a detailed and extensive documentation of the internal struggle to conceptually ground and position three different works of architecture; Sancaklar Mosque, Bergama Cultural Center and Yalikavak Palmarina. Emre Arolat investigates how architecture can exceed its boundaries by envisioning the interaction between the work of architecture and the community, the unique interpretation of the context and the relation to its physical surroundings. Arolat's writing shows that works of architecture are palimpsests and as such are devoid of any single message. Accompanied by sketches, drawings and photographs that give insight into the design process, the book presents the search for an architecture construct that nurtures culture, social interaction and diversity, fostering relationships where the key to a design is not to be found in its "origin" but in its "destination," where architecture transforms the destiny of a place. Emre Arolat is the Founding Partner and Lead Designer of EAA-Emre Arolat Architecture, an international design studio with offices in New York, London and Istanbul. Since 2004, EAA has cultivated a design approach, reconciling issues of identity that is rooted in historical and geographic traditions, yet recognizes the inescapable demands of the contemporary world.

Poison gas was one of the most fearful weapons of its day and added a terrifying new dimension to modern warfare. In 1915, the only item a soldier had to protect himself from the harmful effects of gas was a shell dressing, soaked in his own urine and then tied around his face. By 1918, the British Army had developed a range of innovative protection methods that heralded the birth of the modern day military respirator. Throughout both World Wars, Great Britain led the way in developing anti-gas technologies. Today, items such as respirators and anti-gas equipment are highly sought after by the enthusiast. What the collector lacks is information and reference photographs of such items, and he also has little information available to him on topics such as preservation, manufacturer details and safety aspects of handling these items. This book aims to provide a useful, full-colour reference guide for the discerning collector and for all students of militaria, as well as providing a brief history of the development of gas warfare and equipment.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1972.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1972.