Case Study: West Point Terminal/Southern Railway

This real world case study investigates how priority of claim interacts with the rules of bankruptcy to preserve the values of securities issued by corporations in the context of one of the most famous reorganizations of all times. (However, many facts have been changed to facilitate classroom use.) The case does not presume prior knowledge of the rules of bankruptcy. It is recommended for a senior-level undergraduate or MBA course in financial management

Rating Bonds Before Moody’s: 1886-1893

This paper is the first in a series examining the credit quality of an evolving sample of seasoned, medium to high-grade, long-term railroad bonds during the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. The paper develops a simple model capable of pricing these bonds and assembles the requisite financial statement and market data needed to calibrate the model. The exercise demonstrates that these bonds were priced according to the financial strength of their issuer and their priority of claim (and modified by other factors, many of which are interesting in themselves). These findings suggest that these bonds can be rated from information available in real-time before Moody’s innovation of bond ratings in 1909

Literacy Versus Ethnicity as a Proxy for National IQ

This study converts literacy rates into IQ scores based on their relationship in countries for which both measures are available; and, validates the same for countries for which direct measurements of National IQ are not available. Two tests are performed: the first for the period 2009-2012 (using Lynn and Meisenberg’s IQ data), and the second for the period 2013-2016 (using Altinok, Angrist and Patrinos’ Scholastic Achievement data). In both tests, the literacy rate-based IQ scores outperform Lynn and Vanhanen’s ethnicity-based interpolations of National IQ in explaining GDP per capita. Indeed, the literacy-based IQ scores reduce the explanatory power of the ethnicity-based IQ scores to marginal significance. These results question the continued use of ethnicity-based IQ data in transnational studies

Texas Treasury Warrants, 1861-1865: A Test Of The Tax-Backing Of Money

vThe Confederacy relied heavily on inflationary finance. Of the states of the Confederacy, only Texas was able throughout the war to enforce mandatory tax payments. In November 1864, Texas enacted fiscal measures designed to support the value of its state-issued currency, while it was increasing the amount in circulation. These measures were effective in doubling the value of the Texas warrants. As a result, Texas was able to continue to operate even after the defeat of the Confederacy elsewhere, until the state was overrun by Union forces. These results strongly support the tax-backing theory of money.

The Performance of Faith-based Mutual Funds: A Matched-Pair Approach

Using a matched-pair approach, this study investigates the performance of faith-based mutual funds in the United States from 2007 to 2015. It finds that faith-based funds do not systematically underperform similar secular SRI or conventional funds. Faith-based funds tend to be small and share with similarlysized conventional funds the challenge of attaining sufficient size to fully exploit economies of scale in investing. Given the high growth potential for faith-based investing on a global level, it is possible that this handicap might disappear

Diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease Based on Disease-Specific Autoantibody Profiles in Human Sera

After decades of Alzheimer's disease (AD) research, the development of a definitive diagnostic test for this disease has remained elusive. The discovery of blood-borne biomarkers yielding an accurate and relatively non-invasive test has been a primary goal. Using human protein microarrays to characterize the differential expression of serum autoantibodies in AD and non-demented control (NDC) groups, we identified potential diagnostic biomarkers for AD. The differential significance of each biomarker was evaluated, resulting in the selection of only 10 autoantibody biomarkers that can effectively differentiate AD sera from NDC sera with a sensitivity of 96.0% and specificity of 92.5%. AD sera were also distinguishable from sera obtained from patients with Parkinson's disease and breast cancer with accuracies of 86% and 92%, respectively. Results demonstrate that serum autoantibodies can be used effectively as highly-specific and accurate biomarkers to diagnose AD throughout the course of the disease

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Adjustable Rate Preferred Stock

The introduction and continuing innovation of adjustable rate preferred stock is discussed in light of institutional, regulatory and tax considerations.  The observe volatility in the market prices of these securities is explained by the caps on their dividend re-set formulas and by the changing credit-worthiness of their issuers.  An econometric model is developed which explains 76 percent of the variation in the market prices of seasoned issues and which is reasonably stable across time and across issuers

Expectations of a Post-Wwii Depression

The forecast of a Post-WWII depression is contrasted against the vigorous growth that actually happened. Economists called for continued control over the economy to prevent the feared depression. But, in spite of the warning, returning soldiers were rapidly demobilized and the economy decontrolled. While economists dismissed indications toward the end of the war of pent-up demand as unsustainable, pent-up demand played an important role in the smooth transition from a wartime to a peacetime economy. Indicators of pent-up demand included buying plans and the accumulation of liquid assets. This study tracks expectations of a post-war depression of the general public, business and economists during this period. It shows that, in 1947, all three groups expected a recession, if not a depression. Yet, no such thing occurred. In the case of the general public, a time series of expectations is extracted from heterogeneous survey data