Futures Shock: Are Greedy Brokers Ruining The Economy?

[Excerpt] In a recent public relations document, the New York Stock Exchange defines its mission statement as to: “Support the capital-raising and asset management process by providing the highest quality and most cost-effective, self-regulated marketplace for the trading of financial instruments.” The common thread that runs through this and similar statements made by organized financial markets from Frankfurt to Tokyo is that they hold as their primary goals to help companies raise capital and to provide a liquid and efficient aftermarket for those securities.

Positive narratives: the stories young people with Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties (SEBD) tell about their futures

This research drew on positive psychology in order to offer an optimistic way of conceptualising the lives of young people who are often described as having ‘SEBD’ (Social, emotional, behaviour difficulties), now SEMH (Social, emotional, mental health) in the new SEND Code of Practice (2014). Positive psychology places emphasis on: the future, strengths, resources and potential, and suggests that negative experiences can build positive qualities. A life path tool was used in order to hear the stories that eight young people tell about themselves in the future. Narrative Oriented Inquiry (NOI) was used to analyse the themes of potential and growth in their stories. The young people in this research identified a range of strengths and resources in their lives that they had built as a result of earlier negative experiences. Their stories reveal their hopes and aspirations for the future. By giving these young people the opportunity to tell their stories this research permitted them to focus on where they were going, rather than where they had been.

Addressing surprise and uncertain futures in marine science, marine governance, and society

On an increasingly populated planet, with decreasing biodiversity and limited new opportunities to tap unexploited natural resources, there is a clear need to adjust aspects of marine management and governance. Although sectarian management has succeeded in addressing and managing some important threats to marine ecosystems, unintended consequences are often associated with overlooking nonlinear interactions and cumulative impacts that increase the risk of surprises in social-ecological systems. In this paper, we begin to untangle science-governance-society (SGS) interdependencies in marine systems by considering how to recognize the risk of surprise in social and ecological dynamics. Equally important is drawing attention to our state of preparedness, adaptation, and timeliness of response in ecosystem governance and society, which involve fostering transformations away from rigid and nonintegrated structures of governance. More inclusive decision-making processes, deeper understanding of complexity, and colearning across SGS can help to build constructive solutions that are likely to benefit multiple stakeholders and build capacity to understand and respond to change.

Construction Innovation Futures - Industry and Environmental Opportunities.

During the next two decades global construction investment will top $100 trillion (US). New directions in construction innovation will be driven by industry to address challenges in skills, environmental regulations and maximise the benefits of low carbon building systems. Growth productivity catalysts such as offsite construction, higher BIM levels and multi-skill operatives will be instrumental contributors in achieving some of these aims. The increasing use of timber architecture across domestic, public and commercial buildings also opens new pathways. This event will discuss some of the key changes taking place in the UK and parallels with Hong Kong’s ambitions towards delivering a sustainable legacy in this sector.

Availability, Data Privacy and Copyrights – Opening Knowledge via Contracts and Pilots

Availability, Data Privacy and Copyrights – Opening Knowledge via Contracts and Pilots, discusses how in Aviisi-project of National Library of Finland, the digital contents, and their availability topics dealt together with pilot organizations

Status of coal supply contracts for new electric generating units, 1976-1985 : staff report /

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Three Essays on Market Depth in Futures Markets

Liquidity is an important market characteristic for participants in every financial market. One of the three components of liquidity is market depth. Prior literature lacks a comprehensive analysis of depth in U.S. futures markets due to past limitations on the availability of data. However, recent innovations in data collection and dissemination provide new opportunities to investigate the depth dimension of liquidity. In this dissertation, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group proprietary database on depth is employed to study the dynamics of depth in the U.S. futures markets. This database allows for the analysis of depth along the entire limit order book rather than just at the first level. The first essay examines the characteristics of depth within the context of the five-deep limit order book. Results show that a large amount of depth is present in the book beyond the best level. Furthermore, the findings show that the characteristics of five-deep depth between day and night trading vary and that depth is unequal across levels within the limit order book. The second essay examines the link between the five-deep market depth and the bid-ask spread. The results suggest an inverse relation between the spread and the depth after adjusting for control factors. The third essay explores transitory volatility in relation to depth in the limit order book. Evidence supports the relation between an increase in volatility and a subsequent decrease in market depth. Overall, the results of this dissertation are consistent with limit order traders actively managing depth along the limit order book in electronic U.S. futures markets.

Evaluating Methods of Calculating the Fixed Fee on Professional Service Contracts

The South Carolina Department of Transportation routinely retains Professional Consulting Engineering firms to provide engineering design and related professional services for the preparation of construction plans or design-build Request for Proposal bid packages for a wide variety of Federal-aid Highway Program roadway and bridge construction projects throughout South Carolina.The purpose of this project is to examine the current process of determining a "Fair and Reasonable" fixed fee for professional service contracts and to evaluate possible alternative methods including practices in other states that may improve the process, particularly in light of the considerable variation in audited overhead rates among consulting firms. In reviewing such alternative methods particular attention will be given to evaluating the potential impact of the method as an incentive to consulting firms to effectively manage their overhead costs.

Implications of Blockchain-Based Smart Contracts on Contract Law

Smart contracts are the most advanced blockchain applications. They can also be used in the contractual domain for the encoding and automatic execution of contract terms. Smart contracts already existed before the blockchain, but they take advantage of the characteristics of that technology. Namely, the decentralised and immutable characters of the blockchain determine that no single contracting party can control, modify, or interrupt the execution of smart contracts. As every new phenomenon, blockchain-based smart contracts have attracted the attention of institutions. For example, in its Resolution of 3 October 2018 on distributed ledger technologies and blockchain, the European Parliament has stressed the need to undertake an in-depth assessment of the legal implications,starting from the analysis of existing legal frameworks. Indeed, the present research thesis aims to verify how blockchain-based smart contracts fit into contract law. To this end, the analysis starts from the most discussed and relevant aspects and develops further considerations. Before that, it provides a detailed description and clarifications about the characteristics, the functioning, and the development of the technology, which is an essential starting point for a high-level quality legal analysis. It takes into considerations already existing rules concerning the use of technology in the life cycle of contracts, from vending machines to computable contracts, and verifies its applicability to blockchain-based smart contracts. The work does not limit to consider the mere technology, but some concrete scenarios of adoption of blockchain-based smart contracts in the contractual domain. Starting from the latter, it focuses on the implications of blockchain-based smart contracts on contract formation, contract performance, and applicable law and jurisdiction.

Ex ante contracts to arbitrate tort claims - A law and economics perspective

This research addresses the use of ex ante contracts to arbitrate tort claims in domestic settings using law and economics research methodologies. Potential economic benefits from using arbitration, particularly between informed and knowledgeable parties and in international business transactions, are not guaranteed in domestic disputes. Arbitration can potentially be used to manipulate the adjudication process. This research has several findings. There is a lack of information available concerning the use of arbitration to adjudicate tort claims. Proxy measurements concerning the demand for third party adjudication and other legal indicators are a poor substitute for the information hidden behind the veil of arbitration. There is the potential for the strategic use of ex ante contracts to arbitrate tort claims by repeat player tortfeasors to domestic tort claims, both individually and in concert with other repeat player firms. These strategic efforts aim to: manipulate enforcement errors for tort claims, avoid procedural rules which have the effect of lowering enforcement errors, enable a unique type of domestic forum arbitrage, shirk from taking due care, capture the economic benefit of using arbitration, manipulate the stock of precedents and production of public goods from courts, collude in these underlying efforts, restrain competition, indirectly fix prices, and other aims which increase the repeat player tortfeasor’s or their industries economic gains related to their underlying contracts and tort disputes. This research also demonstrates how this subject is appropriate for further academic research and why states should be cautious of giving carte blanche to arbitrate all domestic tort claims.

Smart contracts per acquisto e gestione di assicurazioni sanitarie

In questo elaborato vengono introdotte le caratteristiche fondamentali della blockchain ed in particolare dello sviluppo di smart contract tramite Solidity nella Blockchain Ethereum. Successivamente, sono illustrate le applicazioni di questa tecnologia in ambito sanitario e viene presentato il progetto sviluppato. In seguito, viene spiegata nel dettaglio l’implementazione del già menzionato progetto e si mostrano i test svolti; viene, inoltre, mostrata una semplice analisi sul costo computazionale, in termini di gas, del codice scritto. Questa tecnologia si presta efficacemente a sviluppi di applicazioni in ambito sanitario per le sue proprietà, come l’immutabilità e la privacy; nel sistema sviluppato la profonda sicurezza delle transazioni (data dalla blockchain) rende possibile l’acquisto e la gestione di un’assicurazione sanitaria senza la necessità di appoggiarsi a terze parti. In conclusione, vengono discusse possibili modifiche e miglioramenti al sistema proposto.

Risk optimization of a steel frame communications tower subject to tornado winds

The structural engineering community in Brazil faces new challenges with the recent occurrence of high intensity tornados. Satellite surveillance data shows that the area covering the south-east of Brazil, Uruguay and some of Argentina is one of the world most tornado-prone areas, second only to the infamous tornado alley in central United States. The design of structures subject to tornado winds is a typical example of decision making in the presence of uncertainty. Structural design involves finding a good balance between the competing goals of safety and economy. This paper presents a methodology to find the optimum balance between these goals in the presence of uncertainty. In this paper, reliability-based risk optimization is used to find the optimal safety coefficient that minimizes the total expected cost of a steel frame communications tower, subject to extreme storm and tornado wind loads. The technique is not new, but it is applied to a practical problem of increasing interest to Brazilian structural engineers. The problem is formulated in the partial safety factor format used in current design codes, with all additional partial factor introduced to serve as optimization variable. The expected cost of failure (or risk) is defined as the product of a. limit state exceedance probability by a limit state exceedance cost. These costs include costs of repairing, rebuilding, and paying compensation for injury and loss of life. The total expected failure cost is the sum of individual expected costs over all failure modes. The steel frame communications, tower subject of this study has become very common in Brazil due to increasing mobile phone coverage. The study shows that optimum reliability is strongly dependent on the cost (or consequences) of failure. Since failure consequences depend oil actual tower location, it turn,,; out that different optimum designs should be used in different locations. Failure consequences are also different for the different parties involved in the design, construction and operation of the tower. Hence, it is important that risk is well understood by the parties involved, so that proper contracts call be made. The investigation shows that when non-structural terms dominate design costs (e.g, in residential or office buildings) it is not too costly to over-design; this observation is in agreement with the observed practice for non-optimized structural systems. In this situation, is much easier to loose money by under-design. When by under-design. When structural material cost is a significant part of design cost (e.g. concrete dam or bridge), one is likely to lose significantmoney by over-design. In this situation, a cost-risk-benefit optimization analysis is highly recommended. Finally, the study also shows that under time-varying loads like tornados, the optimum reliability is strongly dependent on the selected design life.

Contribution margin model applied to the marketing planning of a container liner carrier

The implementation of confidential contracts between a container liner carrier and its customers, because of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act (OSRA) 1998, demands a revision in the methodology applied in the carrier's planning of marketing and sales. The marketing and sales planning process should be more scientific and with a better use of operational research tools considering the selection of the customers under contracts, the duration of the contracts, the freight, and the container imbalances of these contracts are basic factors for the carrier's yield. This work aims to develop a decision support system based on a linear programming model to generate the business plan for a container liner carrier, maximizing the contribution margin of its freight.