Inflation, slack, and Fed credibility

It is generally agreed that slack has some impact on inflation. There is much less agreement on what form the relationship takes and whether it is stable enough to reliably help predict inflation. This analysis focuses on the Great Moderation period. We find that slack (as measured by the unemployment rate) and changes in slack are negatively correlated with changes in inflation and also deviations of inflation from long-forward inflation expectations.> ; These relationships could have been exploited to produce forecasts of trimmed mean PCE inflation more accurate than rule-of-thumb forecasts. Forecasts of trimmed mean PCE inflation also serve well as predictions of GDP inflation and headline PCE inflation. Our analysis suggests that currently high levels of slack should hold inflation below two percent over 2012.Price levels ; Forecasting

Optimal Property Management Strategies

This paper examines the optimal operation strategies for income properties. Specifically, the rental rate and the operating expense should be set at levels to maximize the return on investment. The results suggest that for a given demand curve of a specific rental property, there exist optimal levels of the income ratio, the operating expense ratio, and the vacancy rate. With a Cobb-Douglas demand curve, we derived closed form solutions of these optimal ratios for a given income property. The relevant local comparative statics of these ratios also are derived. These comparative statics also provide insight into the optimal building size and optimal rehabilitation decisions. An empirical case study was conducted to demonstrate how the model can be applied in real life situations.Rental Property, Vacancy Rate; Operating Strategy, Profit Optimization

Understanding Regenerative Medicine and Its Position in Healthcare

Abstract: Regenerative medicine is an emerging field of the healthcare industry that has the potential to treat a myriad of health conditions. Induced pluripotent stem cells, human embryonic stem cells, and tissue engineering are a few of the treatment methods that may be delivered by healthcare professionals in personalized medicine. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval is necessary within the United States before any of these treatment options are available. Specific cellular therapies are currently undergoing clinical trials and it may be years before approval is acquired. The National Institute of Health is proactively working to ensure that healthcare policies, costs, regulations, protocols, and provisions are implemented to ensure that risks are minimized in the case of FDA approval. Regenerative rehabilitation will improve traditional healthcare delivery, increasing health, function, and quality of life for patients with a variety of conditions

[H]earing beyond what we are able to hear: Reframing Grievable Lives in Thomas Pynchon?s V. and Stephen Wright?s Meditations in Green

This thesis examines how Thomas Pynchon and Stephen Wright challenge Western imperialism in V. and Meditations in Green, respectively. Both works, whose initial publication dates bookend the Vietnam war, are critical of the West’s efforts to whitewash colonial violence: V. in Southwest Africa, and Meditations in Green in Vietnam. These criticisms call into question how historical events are (mis)remembered in the West, whose agencies have historically been recognized within Western discourses, and whose lives the West has traditionally considered grievable. Both novels work to undo these ‘misrememberings’ of history. Ultimately, in this undoing, both works can be read as rejecting American exceptionalism—defined by William V. Spanos as “an ontological interpretation of the American national identity” which feels a transcendental right to the domination of space. V. and Meditations in Green look to disrupt that identity

A Microeconomic Study of Commercial Real Estate Brokerage Firms

While residential brokerage has been widely studied, the operating characteristics on income property brokerage firms have received little attention in the literature. In this paper, we analyze results from a survey of income property brokers to measure profitability scale effects, and expenditures at the firm level. We find that while scale economies exist for expenses, net income per producer falls as firms grow; the optimally sized firm is comparatively small. Although inconsistencies with results from recent residential brokerage studies may relate to the survey period, they may also support a view that residential and income brokerage firms are structurally different.