Business Divisions from the Perspective of the U.S. Banking System

The Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 ( Act ),\u27 as amended, most recently in 1999 by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act ( GLB ) divides all economic activity into five groups. These groups are: 1) banking, 2) activities closely related to and a proper incident to banking; 3) activities of a financial nature; 4) activities complimentary to those of a financial nature; and 5) activities not of a financial nature. This article will explore these five groups of activities separately. The policies behind the divisions will be analyzed and questioned whether they serve the policies behind the Act. This article will also question whether the divisions make good economic sense and whether they are drawn in a logical manner. Finally, this article examines the effects that the divisions have had on the banking industry, in both the United States and abroad, and looks to what they portend for the future

Business Divisions from the Perspective of the U.S. Banking System

The Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 ( Act ),\u27 as amended, most recently in 1999 by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act ( GLB ) divides all economic activity into five groups. These groups are: 1) banking, 2) activities closely related to and a proper incident to banking; 3) activities of a financial nature; 4) activities complimentary to those of a financial nature; and 5) activities not of a financial nature. This article will explore these five groups of activities separately. The policies behind the divisions will be analyzed and questioned whether they serve the policies behind the Act. This article will also question whether the divisions make good economic sense and whether they are drawn in a logical manner. Finally, this article examines the effects that the divisions have had on the banking industry, in both the United States and abroad, and looks to what they portend for the future

Role of the Bank for International Settlements in Shaping the World Financial System, The

The Bank for International Settlements ( BIS ) was set up in Basel, Switzerland in 1923 to handle remaining financial issues from World War II largely having to do with German reparation payments. It was the first of the semi-public international banks. Over the years its functions have changed and, largely since the late 1970\u27s, it has served as the situs for the world\u27s central banks and financial regulators to pool ideas and deal with international financial issues. A group of committees, com- posed largely of representatives of central bankers, now meets at BIS and has been issuing memoranda and drafts of regulations on a number of subjects affecting international banking. Among these are the regulation of capital, the management of international conglomerates, and problems resulting from electronic banking. Problems in world banking have sensitized observers to the absence of coordinated regulation and to the need for some form of unified control. That there is a need for one international bank regulators increasingly acknowledged. BIS comes closer than any other organization to fulfilling this function. The International Monetary Fund ( IMF ) comes close but is too politicized and has been too involved in attempting to meet a continuing series of crises to do any long range thinking. Only BIS has attracted the intellectual resources to analyze and resolve international problems in a thoughtful and deliberate manner. Only BIS output is being adopted in the world\u27s banking centers. BIS has been proposed as a world senior financial regulator. This article acknowledges the rationale for such a decision but argues that now is not the time for such an attempt. Banking is, of course, conducted locally even though its reach is international. To anoint any body as a senior regulator with the power to impose rules would require massive compromises among national regulators to achieve one central set of rules. It would also involve an abdication of measures of sovereignty by the constituent states. An effort of this kind would risk destroying the whole concept. Rather than start such a bold stroke at such an inopportune time, this Article argues that the international banking world would fare far better assisting BIS to proceed down the current track. As it continues to mature, and as its edicts are increasingly accepted throughout the world it will continue to approach its rightful place as the world\u27s bank regulator

The Poetic Mission of Arben Dedja

This article aims to explore the creativity of an Albanian poet, prose writer and translator living in Italy, Arben Dedja. It seeks to provide an overview of the Albanian contemporary poetry in emigration, an artistic production of the other language of Albanian literature. Typology of the poetry of the poet Arben Dedja is seen in three levels within the three parts of “ The maintenance of masks” La manutenzione delle maschere (Mirëmbajtja e maskave). The first part of the poems can be labeled as "Self-portrait" where everything is permeated at the beginning of the memory where the howling of pain is felt;the continuity of poetry may be considered as a disclosure of cultural diversity; while the last piece is distinguished by the poetic prose as an experimentation of another type of literature where is characterized interliterarity phenomenon.Keywords: poetry, literature, typology, cultural diversity, imagology, interliterarity

Is There a Dual Banking System?

There is a fierce controversy being waged today about the status of the historic dual banking system in American law. National banks (banks chartered by the national government) derive their powers from federal law. States, on the other hand, assert that they should be able to control certain aspects of national bank operations such as consumer protection written as state law. While the national banks acknowledge that states do have certain areas where they may control national bank activities--much contract law, for example, which is essentially state law--the national banks also assert a high level of authority--preemption--over the states where both national and state law have application. States assert that the degree of preemption claimed by the national banks is excessive. Our paper makes the point that this conflict is almost inevitable, given the existence of national and state banks operating in the same areas. The point of the paper is that the controversy has nothing to do with the so-called dual banking system and calling upon the name of the system to support either national or state bank authority is misleading and adds nothing to the argument. The paper goes on, however, and asserts that, given recent changes in both national and state law, the dual banking system does not exist at all in any meaningful way and resort to it clouds rather than illuminates the underlying conflict. The authors believe that national and state banks are really no more different from one another than are two national (or two state) banks. Statutes like the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act of 1991 and the state “blue sky” laws are discussed in this context

Climate change and agriculture in Burkina Faso

The impacts of climate change (CC) are expected to be higher in developing countries (e.g. Sub-Saharan Africa). However, these impacts will depend on agriculture development and resilience. Therefore, this paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the multifaceted relationships between CC and agriculture in Burkina Faso (BF). A search performed in March 2020 on the Web of Science yielded 1,820 documents and 217 of them were included in the systematic review. The paper provides an overview on both bibliometrics (e.g. journals, authors, institutions) and topics addressed in the literature viz. agriculture subsectors, climate trends in BF, agriculture and CC mitigation (e.g. agriculture-related emissions, soil carbon sequestration), impacts of CC on agriculture (e.g. natural resources, crop suitability, yields, food security) as well as adaptation strategies. BF is experiencing CC as evidenced by warming and an increase in the occurrence of climate extremes. The literature focuses on crops, while animal husbandry and, especially, fisheries are often overlooked. Moreover, most of the documents deal with CC adaptation by the Burkinabe farmers, pastoralists and rural populations. Analysed adaptation options include conservation agriculture and climate-smart agriculture, irrigation, crop diversification, intensification, livelihoods diversification and migration. However, the focus is mainly on agricultural and individual responses, while livelihoods strategies such as diversification and migration are less frequently addressed. Further research is needed on the dual relation between agriculture and CC to contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Research results are crucial to inform policies aimed at CC mitigation and/or adaptation in rural BF

Exploring the Serbian consumer attitude towards agro-food products with ethical values: organic, fair-trade and typical/traditional products

The new Millennium has seen a renewed and intensified interest in issues of business ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR). This has been partly driven by a wave of concern about conduct and governance of business and partly reflects a growing interest amongst consumers, policy makers and businesses, in forms of production and consumption that are more sustainable and more ethically oriented. This is typified by growth in demand of products encompassing ethical values such as organic and Fair Trade products. However, research knowledge base about consumers and their behaviour and attitude from an ethical perspective is relatively weak. Consumer attitude to foods is mainly influenced by concerns (e.g. food safety, human health, environmental impact) and commodity attributes (e.g. quality, taste, freshness and packaging). The objective of this paper is to get an insight on Serbian consumer attitude towards agro-food products with ethical values (AFPEV) namely organic, Fair Trade and typical/traditional products. This paper is based on the literature and an online self-administered questionnaire, carried out from December 2010 through June 2011 with 104 Serbian adult consumers, dealing with understanding of and knowledge about AFP and relationships with ethical values; AFPEV buying frequency; main criteria and reasons for buying AFPEV; opinion about AFPEV price and consumer willingness to pay; potential impacts on animal health and welfare as well environmental, economic social and civic impacts of buying AFPEV; purchasing channels; and main sources of information about AFPEV. Serbian consumers have a good knowledge about AFPEV that are bought by 98% of the sample. Most of the respondents relate ethical values to the respect of environment (73.5%) and organic production (49.0%). The main reasons for buying AFPEV are quality (35%), organic certification (17%), and taste (15%). Price seems less important. The main sources of information about AFPEV are mass media, newspapers and magazines (summing up 46%). However, the majority of Serbian consumers prefer to get information directly from the supply chain actors mainly sellers and/or producers. AFPEV are bought mainly from the specialized shops (34%) and supermarkets (26%) to achieve personal satisfaction, for health, safety, natural resources conservation, and environment protection. Consumers do not always buy sustainable products as consequences of environmental concern or to benefit the community or due to personal beliefs but mainly to give priority to health. Ethical factors are important in some cases, but they may be overstated. Results indicated that most Serbian consumers perceived that AFPEV as healthier and portray a positive attitude towards AFPEV thus showing a high willingness to pay higher prices. Serbian consumers seem to have a positive attitude towards organic, fair trade and typical products due to the sustainable benefits that they can bring about. Therefore, institutional and domestic market conditions should be improved for insuring long-term market development and information campaigns should be organised to increase Serbian consumers’ awareness and consciousness and to strengthen their positive attitude towards AFPEV

APPROACH OF ALBANIAN NON-PUBLIC EDUCATION WITH THE EUROPEAN ONE

The education system faces the challenges of a new philosophy of life, free market economy and European integration of our country, where the European standards achievement faces the delicate problems that require solutions. In present and future developments, reforms in preuniversity education, carry with them the trend of internal development, with the aim to integrate the Albanian society in regional and European developments. An important achievement in the field of democratization of institutions of education is the expansion of non-public education. Democratic development of our country opened up new prospects for private education, education that is most associated with the country's economic prospects, which means young people are prepared according to the needs of the market. The challenge that we have to face in the transition period is to adopt the functioning of economic and social life on the basis of the mechanism of market institutions and western democracy requires that public and nonpublic education to be developed, consolidated and follow the trend of western countries education

PRESSURE DROP AND CUTTINGS CONCENTRATION ESTIMATION IN HORIZONTAL SECTION OF WELLBORE DURING UBD OPERATION USING ANSYS-CFX CFD

Pressure drop and cuttings concentration are considered as sensitive issues in underbalanced drilling, especially when dealing with three phase (cuttings-gas-liquid)flow in horizontal, deep and extended reached wells. Improper estimation of the two mentioned may lead to drilling complications such as reduction in rate of penetration, pipe sticking, increase in torque and drag force and cutting bed development. In order to address this issue, there is a need of understanding the fundamental behavior of the three phase flow in the annulus and identify the most influencing parameters. In this project, effect of rate of penetration (ROP) and fluid velocity at the annulus is analyzed by simulating the three phase flow in a horizontal section of the wellbore by using a commercial package of computational fluid dynamic (CFD) software known as ANSYS CFX 14. The length of the horizontal section is 2ft of diameter 2.91inch and the inner eccentric drillpipe diameter is 1.85inch. The simulations were conducted at steady state flow and as a result flow patterns were identified as well as volumetric concentration of cuttings and pressure drop were inferred. Initially, cutting bed was observed at the entry section of the annulus due to rate of penetration and low annular velocity. But as the annular velocity increases due to increase in gas superficial velocity, the bed decreases and pressure drop decreases as well. After that when cutting bed disappeared completely, the pressure drop increase again due to increase in the mixture fluid density. However, as the ROP increases, the cuttings concentration increases, but not much change is observed in the trend of pressure drop due to the presence of the gas causing turbulence at the annulus. The result generated by the simulation is verified with the experimental data taken from Ettehadi Osgouei et al (2010) paper and it shows a good agreement with an error difference of less than 20%. So this implies that drilling Engineers can apply v ANSYS-CFX14 to estimate pressure drop and cuttings concentration for underbalanced drilling program