Horkheimer, Religion, and the Normative Grounds of Critical Theory

Peer reviewedPostprin

On the Demonization and Fetishization of Choice in Christian Sexual Ethics

Peer reviewedPreprin

Cell-Like Equivalences and Boundaries of CAT(0) Groups

In 2000, Croke and Kleiner showed that a CAT(0) group G can admit more than one boundary. This contrasted with the situation for word hyperbolic groups, where it was well-known that each such group admitted a unique boundary---in a very stong sense. Prior to Croke and Kleiner's discovery, it had been observed by Geoghegan and Bestvina that a weaker sort of uniquness does hold for boundaries of torsion free CAT(0) groups; in particular, any two such boundaries always have the same shape. Hence, the boundary really does carry significant information about the group itself. In an attempt to strengthen the correspondence between group and boundary, Bestvina asked whether boundaries of CAT(0) groups are unique up to cell-like equivalence. For the types of space that arise as boundaries of CAT(0) groups, this is a notion that is weaker than topological equivalence and stronger than shape equivalence. In this paper we explore the Bestvina Cell-like Equivalence Question. We describe a straightforward strategy with the potential for providing a fully general positive answer. We apply that strategy to a number of test cases and show that it succeeds---often in unexpectedly interesting ways.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figure

Homosexuality and the Construction of “Anglican Orthodoxy” : The Symbolic Politics of the Anglican Communion

Peer reviewedPostprin

The reduced form as an empirical tool: a cautionary tale from the financial veil

An analysis of the limitations of the reduced-form empirical strategy as a method of testing the Modigliani-Miller model of corporate financial structure, demonstrating that an empirical strategy that is not closely tied to an underlying economic theory of behavior will usually yield estimates that are too imprecise or too unreliable to form a basis for policy.Corporations - Finance ; Investments

Dual-currency economies as multiple-payment systems

Monetary search models are valuable for studying how a second currency's acceptability arises endogenously in an economy that lacks a stable domestic currency and other more sophisticated payment systems. Search models' basic assumptions (absence of credit, lack of smoothly functioning banking systems, reliance on currency as the sole medium of exchange, and primitive trading environments) are not necessarily consistent with modern financial systems. They do, however, provide good descriptions of transitional and developing economies, particularly in the countries of the former Soviet Union, and may yield helpful policy prescriptions.Money ; Monetary theory

Currency Portfolios and Currency Exchange in a Search Economy

We develop a dual currency search model to study equilibrium currency exchange and the determination of nominal exchange rates. Agents hold portfolios consisting of two distinct currencies. We study equilibria in which the two currencies are identical and equilibria in which the two currencies differ according to their relative purchasing power risk. We use numerical methods to solve for the steady-state distributions of currency portfolios, nominal exchange rates and value functions. When one of the currencies is 'risky', equilibria exist in which the safe currency trades for multiple units of the risky currency with the observed ratio being the nominal exchange rate. However, due to the decentralized trading environment, we obtain a steady state distribution of nominal exchange rates. The mean and variance of the nominal exchange rate distribution are based on the fundamentals of the model and change in predictable ways when the fundamentals change. -- Wir entwickeln ein Modell mit zwei Währungen, um das Gleichgewicht beim Austausch der Währungen und die nominalen Wechselkurse zu bestimmen. Die Wirtschaftssubjekte halten Portfolios, die aus den zwei verschiedenen Währungen bestehen. Wir untersuchen Gleichgewichte, in denen die zwei Währungen identische Eigenschaften haben und Gleichgewichte, in denen sich die zwei Währungen hinsichtlich ihres Kaufkraftrisikos unterscheiden. Es werden numerische Methoden verwendet, um die Verteilungen der Währungsportfolios, der nominalen Wechselkurse und der Wertfunktionen im langfristigen Gleichgewicht zu bestimmen. Wenn eine der Währungen risikobehaftet ist, dann existieren Gleichgewichte, in denen die sichere Währung gegen mehrere Einheiten der risikobehafteten Währung gehandelt wird. Das Austauschverhältnis ist der nominale Wechselkurs. Da der Handel dezentral erfolgt, ergibt sich eine Gleichgewichtsverteilung der Wechselkurse. Der Mittelwert und die Varianz dieser Verteilung hängt von den Fundamentalfaktoren des Modells ab. Wenn sich die Fundamentalfaktoren ändern, dann ändert sich diese Verteilung in vorhersehbarer Weise.

Falklands Operations 2- Fighting by the Rules

HMS Alacrity, a type 21 general-purpose frigate, sailed from the United Kingdom on 5 April 1982 and accompanied the two carriers, HMS Hermes and HMS lnvincible, throughout their passage south. We were subject to the first Argentine Mirage attack on 1 May, partook in the Total Exclusion Zone (TEZ) operations, were involved in a variety of naval gunfire support missions and clandestine operations, ran a number of night transport convoys into San Carlos water after the amphibious landing on 21 May, and had the dubious privilege of being present in the carrier battle group during each of the Exocet attacks