Recycling petrodollars

In recent years, oil-exporting countries have experienced windfall gains with the rise in the price of oil. A look at how oil exporters "recycle" their revenues reveals that roughly half of the petrodollar windfall has gone to purchase foreign goods, especially from Europe and China, while the remainder has been invested in foreign assets. Although it is difficult to determine where the funds are first invested, the evidence suggests that the bulk are ending up, directly or indirectly, in the United States.Petroleum industry and trade ; Investments, Foreign

New idea in time recording and its advantages in cost accounting

The past decade has witnessed important advances in many lines but possibly none has shown more rapid evolution than the science of Cost Accounting. Proprietors and managers have long wanted exact knowledge of the cost of their output and realized the advantage of such information, but even to-day a large majority will admit that they do not know their costs. Many self-styled expert cost accountants have played on this condition of affairs, reaped a harvest for themselves and their employers, and left their clients in a worse state of confusion, than they were before, on the subject of cost, therefore, in order to appreciate a decided advance in the method of locating direct labor, a knowledge of why the cost accountant wants this information so accurately and what he can do with it, is desirable. Cost is divided into the three classes, material, labor and expense. Thanks to the storekeeper system, with card indexes and loose leaf books, the problem of taking care of the cost of material is well advanced and easily understood. Material is tangible and stays put while labor cost is of a more elusive nature

Successful Incident Management on a Major Reconstruction Project

Reconstruction of high traffic roads presents considerable challenges to minimizing delays due to traffic incidents. The Pacific Motorway Project was a fast-track reconstruction of 43 km of one of the most heavily trafficked inter-urban routes in Australia, carrying up to 90,000 vehicles per day between Brisbane and the Gold Coast in South East Queensland. Reconstruction by the State Department of Main Roads involved upgrading from four to eight lanes, under traffic and along an existing corridor. Keeping traffic flowing route was a priority, and key objectives during the construction and operation phases (with sections progressively opened to traffic) were to ensure smooth traffic flow, minimizing impact on road users; to ensure the Motorway operated safely; and, to limit project cost, balancing design and construction with the operation of the existing roadway, to reduce costs, traffic delays and safety risks to acceptable levels. While these objectives are at times in tension, they were able to be satisfactorily achieved through a range of incident management initiatives, including setting clear objectives and performance standards, building good working partnerships, application of appropriate cost-effective technology and well thought out communication strategies. Successful incident management during the project meant that delays were minimized and response times to traffic incidents substantially reduced. This paper focuses on institutional issues and outlines the experience in keeping traffic flowing during a major road reconstruction project, in particular the incident management techniques implemented and the results and lessons learned in managing the impact on traffic

Summer Cocktail Forage Research in the Panhandle of Nebraska

Four annual forage mixtures containing brown mid- rib sorghum sudangrass or German foxtail millet, cowpeas or soybeans, and forage collards were compared to the sorghum sudangrass or millet as monocultures in the Nebraska High Plains on dryland acres to determine the tonnage, crude protein, and digestibility available for beef cattle. Th e forage mixtures and the millet resulted in greater crude protein than the sorghum sudangrass. Total digestible nutrients of the mixers were similar. Sorghum sudangrass resulted in the most tonnage. These forage options could have been hayed or windrow grazed in the fall and would have likely resulted in 1.5– 2.0 lb/d gain for 500 lb calves. Grazing these forages in the summer would have likely resulted in better quality but would require rotational grazing management. Agronomic impacts of these mixtures on the subsequent crop were not measured. Foxtail millet was the most economical crop to produce

The Information Content of the 1999 Announcement of Funds from Operations (FFO) Changes for Real Estate Investment Trusts

This study examines the market response to the 1999 announcement of a change in accounting for Funds from Operations (FFO) for Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). This change provides an increase in transparency in the accounting statements of REITs regarding the calculation of FFO. An analysis of this announcement finds that shareholder wealth increases but the significance of that increase is questionable. Additionally, an analysis of the adverse selection component of the bid-ask spread finds weak evidence to support the conjecture that the amount of information asymmetry in REIT prices declines after the announcement of the FFO accounting change.

What do indigenous communities think of the CSR practices of mining companies?

This paper examines how one indigenous community in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea (PNG) views the social responsibility initiatives of OK Tedi Mining Ltd (OTML). This mining operation has been controversial since its inception, and various operators of the mine have sought to engage the community and to undertake a number of CSR-related projects. Insights gained from four focus groups amongst the Ok Tedi River indigenous communities show that while some members of the community are satisfied with the company’s efforts at the macro level, many have reservations about the effectiveness of the programs at the micro level on the village and family unit. The implementation of CSR activities are slow and in many instances do not effectively address stakeholder concerns