Devil's Advocate Economics: The Other Side of the Stories
Devil's Advocate Economics: The Other Side of the Stories

Author: Katherine Davis Butler

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2019-01-29

Total Pages: 84

ISBN-13: 0359209262

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With economic and social issues, we all have ideas of what is correct. A closer inspection reveals that things may not be as we thought, and invites questions. The answers may be contrary to prior opinion. Should we strive for fairness and equality, or will doing so create some unintended consequences? Is it possible that people that are viewed negatively ?illegal immigrants, big-game hunters, price gougers, and ticket scalpers ?create more economic benefits than costs? Is discrimination an oversimplified and over-blamed boogeyman of convenience? Do the rich actually pay MORE than their fair share of taxes? What happens if we tax the rich too much? Devil's Advocate Economics examines these questions and more, inviting readers to think about the other side of the story. The other side may not be the popular or well-publicized result, but the conclusion reached by examining incentives, consequences of policy, data about behavior, and the general well-being of individuals.

Voucher Privatization with Investment Funds
Voucher Privatization with Investment Funds

Author: David P. Ellerman

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 18

ISBN-13:

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May 1998 The most likely outcome of the strategy of voucher privatization with investment funds may be a two-sided grab fest by fund managers and enterprise managers-along with drift, stagnation, and decapitalization of the privatized industrial sector. Common wisdom among post-socialist reformers has been to use voucher investment funds to provide the corporate governance needed to restructure newly privatized enterprises after mass privatization efforts. The idea has been that mass privatization would spread the ownership too wide and make corporate governance difficult. Ellerman examines the likely institutional behavior of voucher funds and the possible effects of their development on a transition economy. Since most policy advice has been in favor of voucher privatization with investment finds, Ellerman can be seen as playing the devil's advocate, but his argument is institutional, not statistical. Policymaking requires insight and foresight into how institutions will tend to function. He concludes that voucher funds will introduce a bias in the economy away from the real industrial sector toward an ersatz financial sector that will have little if any positive financial role but will be well-protected by friendly regulators. One long-term consequence of voucher privatization with investment funds, according to this view, is a de facto industrial policy of real sector decapitalization in favor of short-term rent-seeking by fund managers through board sinecures and lucrative side deals with portfolio companies and through financial market manipulation and paper entrepreneurship in the financial sector. Without strong corporate governance from the funds and without stable ownership of their own, many enterprise managers will exploit the post-socialist version of the separation of ownership and control to grab what they can in the form of salaries, bonuses, perquisites, and side deals. The most likely results of the strategy of voucher privatization with investment funds may be a two-sided grab fest by fund managers and enterprise managers-together with the accompanying drift, stagnation, and decapitalization of the privatized industrial sector. This paper-a product of the Office of the Senior Vice President, Development Economics-is part of a larger effort in the Bank to define policymaking using institutional analysis. The author may be contacted at [email protected].

Roots of War
Roots of War

Author: David G. Winter

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017-09-01

Total Pages: 441

ISBN-13: 0199355770

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Ever since Thucydides pondered reasons for the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, writers, philosophers, and social scientists have tried to identify factors that promote conflict escalation: for example, history (tomorrow's wars are often rooted in yesterday's conflicts), changing balance of power among nations, or domestic political forces. In the end, however, these "causes" are constructed by human beings and involve the memories, emotions, and motives of both the leaders and the led. In July 1914, the long-standing peace of Europe was shattered when the Sarajevo assassinations quickly escalated to World War I. In contrast, at the height of the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis could have easily plunged the world into a thermonuclear world war, but was ultimately peacefully resolved. Why the different outcomes? In Roots of War: Wanting Power, Seeing Threat, Justifying Force, David G. Winter identifies three psychological factors that contributed to the differences in these historical outcomes: the desire for power, exaggerated perception of the opponent's threat, and justification for using military force. Several lines of research establish how these factors lead to escalation and war: comparative archival studies of "war" and "peace" crises, laboratory experiments on threat perception, and surveys of factors leading people to believe that a particular war is "just." The research findings in Roots of War also demonstrate the importance of power in preserving peace through diplomatic interventions, past and present.

The Devil's Advocate
The Devil's Advocate

Author: Taylor Caldwell

Publisher: Open Road Media

Published: 2017-01-31

Total Pages: 359

ISBN-13: 1504042921

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A revolution is waged against a totalitarian regime in this “courageous” novel of a dystopian near-future America by a #1 New York Times–bestselling author (Chicago Tribune). In the heart of Philadelphia, insurgent Andrew Durant has been nursing a festering rage. And he’s not alone. Through underground networks, he’s found himself among a secret thousands, building an army called the Minute Men. They’re readying themselves for war to reclaim what was once America. In the nation now known as the Democracy, independent thought is a thing of the past. The Constitution is waste paper. A conscienceless president has been appointed by the military—for life. The government has co-opted farmland crops. Citizens are divided between two classes: wealthy corporations and the destitute. Areas of the country devastated by war or natural disaster remain unchecked. On behalf of national security, neighbors are instructed to spy on one another. Exposing those who are undemocratic is law. And all dissenters are eliminated. Durant, the chosen agent for the poverty-stricken rural Democracy, finds himself increasingly isolated and afraid. Mobilizing revolutionaries has become a dangerous tactic; the Minute Men have their own traitors, infiltrators assigned to undo everything Durant and his men are fighting to conquer. Now, the rebels have only their beliefs left to trust. A stunning dystopian vision in the tradition of George Orwell’s 1984 and Ayn Rand’s Anthem, The Devil’s Advocate is author Taylor Caldwell’s “tour de force” (Kirkus Reviews). More than a half-century after its original publication, it is timelier than ever. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Taylor Caldwell including rare images from the author’s estate.

Facilitating the Integration of Learning
Facilitating the Integration of Learning

Author: James P. Barber

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-07-03

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 1000977609

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Students’ ability to integrate learning across contexts is a critical outcome for higher education. Often the most powerful learning experiences that students report from their college years are those that prompt integration of learning, yet it remains an outcome that few educators explicitly work towards or specify as a course objective. Given that students will be more successful in college (and in life) if they can integrate their learning, James Barber offers a guide for college educators on how to promote students’ integration of learning, and help them connect knowledge and insights across contexts, whether in-class or out-of-class, in co-curricular activities, or across courses and disciplinary boundaries. The opening chapters lay the foundation for the book, defining what integration of learning is, how to promote it and students’ capacities for reflection; and introduce the author’s research-based Integration of Learning (IOL) model.The second section of the book provides practical, real-world strategies for facilitating integration of learning that college educators can use right away in multiple learning contexts. James Barber describes practices that readers can integrate as appropriate in their classes or activities, under chapters respectively devoted to Mentoring, Writing as Praxis, Juxtaposition, Hands-On Experiences, and Diversity and Identity. The author concludes by outlining how to apply IOL to a multiplicity of settings, such as a major, a single course, programming for a student organization, or other co-curricular experience; as well as offering guidance on assessing and documenting students’ mastery of this outcome.This book is addressed to a wide range of educators engaged with college student learning, from faculty to student affairs administrators, athletic coaches, internship supervisors, or anyone concerned with student development.

Cannibal Holocaust
Cannibal Holocaust

Author: Calum Waddell

Publisher: Devils Advocates

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781911325116

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Cannibal Holocaust is one of the most controversial horror films ever made. Despite not achieving huge success when it was first released, the Italian production found an audience on home video in the 1980s and became a 'must-see' for connoisseurs of extreme cinema. Indeed, Cannibal Holocaust's foremost legacy is in the United Kingdom, where it obtained its reputation as one of the most harrowing and offensive 'video nasties' - a term used to refer to a group of films deemed to be 'obscene' by the Department of Public Prosecutions. However, as the years have progressed, Cannibal Holocaust has been re-evaluated, mainly as the forefather of the 'found footage' film, and recent home video re-releases have added some valuable perspective to the onscreen violence with extensive cast and crew interviews. What is missing from this contemporary activity is contextualization of Cannibal Holocaust's style, affirmation and discussion of its locations and any extensive discourse about its representation of third world inhabitants (i.e. as 'primitives'). In addition, and also amiss from previous dialogue on the production, is that Cannibal Holocaust can be seen as one of the key post-Vietnam films. It is the spectre of war - and an explicit warning about Western involvement in civil conflict - which progresses Deodato's story of jungle adventurers in peril. By approaching the film from a more formalist position, this Devil's Advocate provides an insightful discussion of this groundbreaking film.

Survival
Survival

Author: Jonathan Lipow

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2016-07-29

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 1498512992

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How should national security concerns alter our perception of what constitutes good economic policy? Survival: The Economic Underpinnings of American National Security introduces principles of national security thinking relevant to public policy, then illustrates application of these principles in a number of policy areas including fiscal policy, healthcare, education, immigration, welfare and poverty abatement, energy, and the environment.

Building a Moral Economy
Building a Moral Economy

Author: Cynthia D. Moe-Lobeda

Publisher: Fortress Press

Published: 2024-11-12

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 1506485200

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This introductory volume in the Building a Moral Economy series invites readers into a new vision for the future of economic life together. Ethicist Cynthia Moe-Lobeda crafts a compelling case for a new moral economy: its vital importance, the pivotal role religious networks can play, and the varied forms of action needed. Building a Moral Economy: Pathways for People of Courage is grounded in the stories of real people, with real struggles, triumphs, and creative energy. Moe-Lobeda invites readers to imagine an equitable, ecological, and democratic economy for themselves and their descendants and provides wise guidance for living into that vision. Readers will re-see economies as webs of relationship and will root economic life in the great love story--the story of God's astounding love for all creation, and God's call to align our lives with that love. Readers will encounter the work of economic transformation as a sacred journey--a journey of healing diseased relationships with Earth, with self, with neighbors far and near, and with the Sacred Source whom many call God. Moe-Lobeda conveys this as a journey of freedom to live as beings in community--human community, planetary community, and community with God. Moe-Lobeda's accessible prose explicitly faces the paradox of enormous moral challenges such as climate change held together with infinite hope. Welcoming readers into the vibrant global movement to build life-giving forms of economic life, she seeks to develop a sense of empowered agency. Are we the disinterested individuals motivated by material self-interest that neoclassical economics declared us to be, or are humans called to "think with" others, past, present, and future, seeking communion with all creation? Moe-Lobeda argues that our lives and Earth's well-being depend on choosing the latter path. The work is urgent; the time to embark on these pathways of restorative justice is now.

Making Development Work
Making Development Work

Author: Robert Selman

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-01-16

Total Pages: 333

ISBN-13: 1351324748

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Worldwide, the number of poor people increased during the past decade, despite technological improvements, more open trade, and improved policy frameworks in developing countries. Regional conflicts, adverse shifts in terms of trade, and marginalization of poor countries in the new global economy explain this outcome. This highlights the need to reform development assistance and improve its effectiveness. Making Development Work examines the four key principles of the Comprehensive-Development Framework, a World Bank initiative currently being piloted in twelve developing counties. The initiative promotes a holistic long-term vision of development, domestic ownership of development programs, and focus on results; and stronger partnership between government, the private sector, and the civil society. The first section of the volume describes the evolution in development thinking that culminated in this new consensus. The second focuses on country ownership of development policies and programs. Based on empirical evidence, it proposes a new view of the aid relationship as a mutual-learning process. The third section focuses on results and on the ways aid agencies might enhance development impact of their operations. It concludes with a preliminary assessment of strategies for scaling up from specific projects to sector and programmatic approaches, and suggests ways to adapt them to counter conditions. The experience of a bilateral aid agency, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is examined in this context. The fourth section focuses on partnership, emphasizing that aid agencies must be explicit about the kinds of partnerships they seek with countries and the kinds of strategic selectivity they will exercise. The final chapter pulls together the lessons of development experience at various levels of operation. It outlines key tensions between comprehensiveness and selectivity, ownership and conditionality, speed and broad-based ownership, focus on results and poor local evaluation capacity, and enhanced country focus and globalization. Promising approaches to manage these tensions are put forward to replace one-size-fits-all prescriptions with client empowerment and social learning. Making Development Work offers rich lessons on improving the effectiveness of aid. It will be of particular interest to development practitioners, students and professors of development economics studies. Nagy Hanna is a lead corporate strategist and evaluation officer at the World Bank. He has published extensively on development, management, and knowledge. Robert Picciotto is director-general of Operations Evaluation at the World Bank.

Devil's Advocate
Devil's Advocate

Author: Karan Thapar

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2018-07-30

Total Pages: 206

ISBN-13: 9352779851

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Sometime in the late summer of 1976, Sanjay Gandhi asked if I wanted to go flying with him... After first attempting to teach Karan Thapar to fly (not very successfully) Sanjay Gandhi took the controls and performed a series of aerobatics, not particularly dangerous but nonetheless thrilling. Once they were further away from Delhi, he became even more daring. Suddenly, he decided to scare the farmers working in the fields below by aiming the aircraft straight at them. As he dived down, they scattered and ran, fearing for their lives. At the last moment, Sanjay pulled up dramatically and waved at the bewildered farmers, clearly chuffed with the whole performance. The manoeuvre required nerves of steel and tremendous self-confidence, both of which Sanjay possessed in plenty.In Devil's Advocate, Karan dives deep into his life to come up with many such moments. Included here are stories of warm and lasting friendships, such as with Benazir Bhutto, whom he met while he was an undergraduate. He also talks about his long association with Aung San Suu Kyi and Rajiv Gandhi. However, not all friendships lasted--for example, with L.K. Advani, with whom he shared a close bond until an unfortunate disagreement over an interview caused a falling-out.The tension generated during an interview has spilled over off-screen multiple times, and Karan discusses these incidents in detail. For instance, when Amitabh Bachchan lost his cool during a post-interview lunch or when Kapil Dev cried like a baby. And there's the untold story of two of his most controversial interviews--with Jayalalithaa and Narendra Modi. While Jayalalithaa laughed it off later, the after-effects of Modi's infamous walkout have grown worse with time. Riveting and fast-paced, Devil's Advocate is as no-holds-barred as any of Karan Thapar's interviews.