Forensic Finance: Enron and Others

In finance, as in pathology, we can learn more from failure than from success. This lecture examines three famous financial failures, Metallgesellschaft’s oil futures business, LTCM and related hedge fund failures, and the current travails of ENRON, and performs a post mortem on each to see what can be learned. Not surprisingly, the cause of death was similar in each case, or, to put it more familiarly, history always repeats itself.

Rebels, Conformists, Contrarians and Momentum Traders

We develop a model of optimal investment with two types of agents with different beliefs about the market dynamics. Market conformists agree with the true log-normal price distribution and rebels believe in price predictability. Depending on their exact beliefs, the rebels may follow either a momentum or a contrarian strategy. It is difficult to detect rebels' beliefs that are not far-fetched from the market perspective. The long-run investment portfolios of both conformist and rebels need not be biased towards equities.

Costs, payments and incentives in family planning programs

A variety of monetary policies regarding contraception exists around the world. These range from high user charges in some countries, to free contraceptives in many, to incentives and disincentives in others. This paper examines these policies, focuses on charges and payments as they existed in early 1988, looks at the consistency of monetary policies within countries, and considers the ethical issues raised by each kind of incentive.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Adolescent Health,Reproductive Health,Economic Theory&Research,Pharmaceuticals&Pharmacoeconomics

Discrimination in Metropolitan Housing Markets Phase II: Asians and Pacific Islanders

This report documents the results of a an 11-city paired testing study by the Department of Housing and Urban Development of housing discrimination against Asian- Americans and Pacific Islanders. The study shows that one out of every five Asians and Pacific Islanders attempting to buy or rent a home are discriminated against, a rate similar to that of African Americans and Hispanics.

Unravelling an Extra Neutral Gauge Boson at the LHC using Third Generation Fermions

We study the potential to use measurements of extra neutral gauge bosons (Z') properties in pp collisions at the Large Hadron Collider to unravel the underlying physics. We focus on the usefulness of third generation final states (tau, b, t) in distinguishing between models with non-universal Z'-fermion couplings. We present an update of discovery limits of Z's including the 2010-2011 LHC run and include models with non-universal couplings. We show how ratios of sigma(pp -> Z' -> ttbar), sigma(pp -> Z' -> bbbar), and sigma(pp -> Z' -> tau^+tau^-) to sigma(pp -> Z' -> mu^+mu^-) can be used to distinguish between models and measure parameters of the models. Of specific interest are models with preferential couplings, such as models with generation dependent couplings. We also find that forward-backward asymmetry measurements with third generation fermions in the final state could provide important input to understanding the nature of the Z'. Understanding detector resolution and efficiencies will be crucial for extracting results

Using Final State Pseudorapidities to Improve s-channel Resonance Observables at the LHC

We study the use of final state particle pseudorapidity for measurements of s-channel resonances at the LHC. Distinguishing the spin of an s-channel resonance can, in principle, be accomplished using angular distributions in the centre-of-mass frame, possibly using a centre-edge asymmetry measurement, A_CE. In addition, forward-backward asymmetry measurements, A_FB, can be used to distinguish between models of extra neutral gauge bosons. In this note we show how these measurements can be improved by using simple methods based on the pseudorapidity of the final state particles and present the expected results for A_FB and A_CE for several representative models.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, 1 table; typos fixed, improved visibility of figures for greyscale printin

Storming Little Round Top: The 15th Alabama and Their Fight for the High Ground, July 2, 1863

Vicious Fight Book follows regiment\u27s struggle at Gettysburg At approximately 4 a.m. on July 2, 1863, Colonel William C. Oates prepared his regiment, the 15th Alabama, for a 25 mile march to Gettysburg, a small Pennsylvania crossroads town where General Robert E. Lee\u27s Confedera...

Circuit Synthesis of Electrochemical Supercapacitor Models

This paper is concerned with the synthesis of RC electrical circuits from physics-based supercapacitor models describing conservation and diffusion relationships. The proposed synthesis procedure uses model discretisation, linearisation, balanced model order reduction and passive network synthesis to form the circuits. Circuits with different topologies are synthesized from several physical models. This work will give greater understanding to the physical interpretation of electrical circuits and will enable the development of more generalised circuits, since the synthesized impedance functions are generated by considering the physics, not from experimental fitting which may ignore certain dynamics