Connector internal force gauge Patent

Connector internal force gage for measuring strength of electrical connectio

Enhancing the Security Behind Municipal Obligations: Flushing and U.S. Trust Lead the Way

When bond counsel\u27 render their legal opinion approving the issuance and delivery of a municipal obligation, one of the opinions traditionally expressed is that the obligation is valid and legally binding according to its terms. Significant, here, are the words valid and binding. The validity of a municipal obligation can usually be determined by straightforward observation. Bond counsel must be satisfied that (1) the issuer has statutory and sometimes constitutional authority to borrow and incur indebtedness (2) the funds borrowed are to be used for a public purpose and (3) the issuer has complied with the preconditions to issuing debt obligations and incurring indebtedness. Two recent cases, Flushing National Bank v. Municipal Assistance Corp. and United States Trust Co. of New York v. New Jersey, suggest that the pledge of security to the holders of municipal obligations is something more than a mere promise to pay principal and interest assuming tax or enterprise revenues are presently available or could be raised. The holdings of these cases clearly point to a new judicial direction favoring strict construction of the terms binding the issuer to the obligation holders. The general result of these cases is to enhance substantially an obligation holder\u27s creditor interest in municipal obligations against competing claims for public funds

Toward Equal Delivery of Municipal Services in the Central Cities

Urban living has become inevitable for most Americans in central cities and government assistance has risen steadily to help the masses crowded in the urban complex. Legislation has been aimed at equalizing the opportunity for employment, decent housing, voting, education, basic social welfare, and a host of other concerns considered elemental for the fulfillment of the “American dream.” Until recently, the courts have been slow to act affirmatively to remedy the inequities related to the enforcement of such legislation. Recent cases suggest an attitude of benign complacency in the Supreme Court, allowing it to ignore critical socio-economic problems in the central cities even though lower federal courts are clearly focusing on these problems and the legal issues they raise. In the area of equalizing municipal service delivery in the central cities, there is a developing scenario which now calls for judicial intervention under the equal protection clause

Municipal Bankruptcy Under the 1976 Amendments to Chapter IX of the Bankruptcy Act

This articles examines the new Chapter IX of the Bankruptcy Act, particularly its effectiveness in providing insolvent or financially distressed municipalities with a simpler and more efficient method of obtaining financial relief. The articles discusses the differences under the new Chapter IX as compared to the old Chapter IX and argues that the new Chapter IX, although not designed to accomplish more than its predecessor, is a better tool for financially distressed municipalities because it simplifies the bankruptcy process while increasing the changes of a successful reorganization of debt

Toward Equal Delivery of Municipal Services in the Central Cities

Urban living has become inevitable for most Americans in central cities and government assistance has risen steadily to help the masses crowded in the urban complex. Legislation has been aimed at equalizing the opportunity for employment, decent housing, voting, education, basic social welfare, and a host of other concerns considered elemental for the fulfillment of the “American dream.” Until recently, the courts have been slow to act affirmatively to remedy the inequities related to the enforcement of such legislation. Recent cases suggest an attitude of benign complacency in the Supreme Court, allowing it to ignore critical socio-economic problems in the central cities even though lower federal courts are clearly focusing on these problems and the legal issues they raise. In the area of equalizing municipal service delivery in the central cities, there is a developing scenario which now calls for judicial intervention under the equal protection clause

Spray-on technique simplifies fabrication of complex thermal insulation blanket

Spray-on process constructs molds used in forming sections of thermal insulation blankets. The process simplifies the fabrication of blankets by eliminating much of the equipment formerly required and decreasing the time involved

UV observations of blue stragglers and population 2 K dwarfs

Blue stragglers are stars, found usually in either open or globular clusters, that appear to lie on the main sequence, but are brighter and bluer than the cluster turn-off. Currently, two rival models are invoked to explain this apparently pathological behavior: internal mixing (so that fresh fuel is brought into the stellar core); and mass transfer (by which a normal main sequence star acquires mass from an evolving nearby companion and so moves up the main sequence). The latter model predicts that in the absence of complete mass transfer (i.e., coalescence), blue stragglers should be binary systems with the fainter star in a post-main sequence evolutionary state. It is important to ascertain the cause of this phenomenon since stellar evolution models of main sequence stars play such a vital role in astronomy. If mass transfer is involved, one may easily exclude binaries from age determinations of clusters, but if mixing is the cause, our age determinations will be much less accurate unless we can determine whether all stars or only some mix, and what causes the mixing to occur at all

Efficient Delegation by an Informed Principal

Consider the case of a firm with private valuation information bargaining with a supplier over the price and quantity of a good. If the firm and the supplier bargain directly, the bargaining outcome may not yield a first-best outcome due to the presence of information rents. The question we examine in this paper is whether these direct bargaining inefficiencies can be eliminated if the firm delegates the authority to negotiate with the supplier to an agent. We model the agent as an independent profit center that contracts with the parent firm as well as the supplier. The delegation of decision-making to the agent can influence the interaction between the firm and the supplier by altering the information rents the agent can claim from the supplier. To identify the role of delegation, we focus instead on two games. Both games have a continuum of equilibria, which we compare to the set of incentive efficient equilibria of the initial no-delegation bargaining game. The first game involves partial delegation as the firm controls the release of its private information through a public transfer price charged to the agent. Because the relationship between the agent and the uninformed supplier is one of full information, the unique equilibrium quantity is first-best yet we show that the informed firm still earns an information rent. The second game involves full delegation as the agent controls both the quantity choice and the release of the firm's private information. We show that the full delegation game has a large set of equilibria that includes all of the incentive efficient equilibria of the bargaining game as well as inefficient equilibria. We believe our notion of partial delegation can be reflected in firms organized as profit centers and the management practice of category managementDelegation, common agency