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Topic Review
Hypothecation
Hypothecation is the practice where a debtor pledges collateral to secure a debt or as a condition precedent to the debt, or a third party pledges collateral for the debtor. A letter of hypothecation is the usual instrument for carrying out the pledge. A common example occurs when a debtor enters into a mortgage agreement, in which the debtor's house becomes collateral until the mortgage loan is paid off. The debtor retains ownership of the collateral, but the creditor has the right to seize ownership if the debtor defaults. The main purpose of hypothecation is to mitigate the creditor's credit risk. If the debtor cannot pay, the creditor possesses the collateral and therefore can claim its ownership, sell it and thus compensate the lacking cash inflows. In a default of the obligor without previous hypothecation, the creditor cannot be sure that it can seize sufficient assets of the debtor. Because hypothecation makes it easier to get the debt and potentially decreases its price; the debtor wants to hypothecate as much debt as possible – but the isolation of 'good assets' for the collateral reduces the quality of the rest of the debtor's balance sheet and thus its credit worthiness. The detailed practice and rules regulating hypothecation vary depending on context and on the jurisdiction where it takes place. In the US, the legal right for the creditor to take ownership of the collateral if the debtor defaults is classified as a lien. Rehypothecation occurs mainly in the financial markets, where financial firms re-use the collateral to secure their own borrowing. For the creditor the collateral not only mitigates the credit risk but also allows refinancing more easily or at lower rates; in an initial hypothecation contract however, the debtor can restrict such re-use of the collateral.
  • 521
  • 17 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Economic Effects of Renewable Energy Consumption
Environmental deterioration has resulted from an over-reliance on fossil-fuel usage to develop economies. Therefore, renewable energy consumption has become the goal of all governments. Of course, the economic effect of renewable energy consumption has piqued the curiosity of many academics. They have not come to a cohesive conclusion, despite studying the issue in numerous countries, using different approaches, and throughout different time periods. 
  • 520
  • 24 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Innovation Research in Tourism
Innovation, seen as a means to cope with such change and uncertainty, is perceived as the main source of competitive advantage and performance in the ever-changing tourism domain. Such significance of innovation for the tourism sector has attracted the attention of many researchers over time, and innovation studies in tourism have increased, especially after 2002.
  • 515
  • 15 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Linking Housing Conditions and Energy Poverty
Affordable and warm housing is a basic household living need, which is closely related to human health and well-being. Households are more likely to be exposed to energy poverty if they live in larger, older, poorly insulated houses, without basic energy service equipment, and in rental housing. The area of residence and energy installations are the main characteristics that distinguish energy poverty from non-energy poverty. The link between housing conditions and energy poverty is reinforced by the psychology and behavior of households, with those living in poor conditions tending to restrain their energy consumption, thus worsening their energy poverty situation.
  • 509
  • 27 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Withholding Tax
A withholding tax, or a retention tax, is an income tax to be paid to the government by the payer of the income rather than by the recipient of the income. The tax is thus withheld or deducted from the income due to the recipient. In most jurisdictions, withholding tax applies to employment income. Many jurisdictions also require withholding tax on payments of interest or dividends. In most jurisdictions, there are additional withholding tax obligations if the recipient of the income is resident in a different jurisdiction, and in those circumstances withholding tax sometimes applies to royalties, rent or even the sale of real estate. Governments use withholding tax as a means to combat tax evasion, and sometimes impose additional withholding tax requirements if the recipient has been delinquent in filing tax returns, or in industries where tax evasion is perceived to be common. Typically the withholding tax is treated as a payment on account of the recipient's final tax liability, when the withholding is made in advance. It may be refunded if it is determined, when a tax return is filed, that the recipient's tax liability to the government which received the withholding tax is less than the tax withheld, or additional tax may be due if it is determined that the recipient's tax liability is more than the withholding tax. In some cases the withholding tax is treated as discharging the recipient's tax liability, and no tax return or additional tax is required. Such withholding is known as final withholding. The amount of withholding tax on income payments other than employment income is usually a fixed percentage. In the case of employment income the amount of withholding tax is often based on an estimate of the employee's final tax liability, determined either by the employee or by the government.
  • 509
  • 26 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Negative Environmental Impact of Consumerization of Information Technology
The internet plays a pivotal role in Industry 4.0, where it provides the underlying infrastructure to support the substantial growth of digital platforms and systems to deliver a wealth of benefits. However, with the unprecedented growth of internet-based applications in recent history, the internet itself is harming the environment. The most effective strategy to reduce internet usage is to incorporate extrinsic strategies and allow individuals to pay a premium for green internet services.
  • 508
  • 13 Sep 2023
Topic Review
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Disinvestment from Israel Controversy
The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) adopted a policy of "phased, selective divestment" from certain American corporations operating in Israel beginning in 2004, as a means of influencing the government of Israel. This policy has been controversial both within and outside of the denomination, even resulting in charges of antisemitism. The policy was changed in 2006 by another vote of the General Assembly.
  • 503
  • 08 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Tools for Estimating the Cost of Carbon
Concepts and models of climate economics developed by researchers and modelers in recent decades have been suitable primarily for large scales of analysis and often in a top-down manner. The local dimension of climate policy is increasingly testing the adequacy of these concepts and models, as local governments begin to explore how to estimate the cost of carbon locally and thereby a local carbon price to formulate progressive climate policy. The question is what existing concepts, models, and methods can do for local climate governance and for incorporating local GHG emissions reduction into national targets. The cost of carbon is the value attributed to one unit of carbon (per ton) and the price of carbon is the explicit price for that unit of carbon for the market. In climate policy, the cost of carbon should inform the price of carbon. Carbon pricing embraces these concepts as the “polluter pays” principle and in practice, carbon tax and the carbon market (e.g., emissions trading, carbon credits) are the most well-known carbon pricing mechanisms that reflect this principle. The cost-benefit considerations and impact assessment of climate policies need to include carbon cost concepts such as the SCC or MAC, which also can influence the structure of a given IAM that analyzes the impacts and associated costs. SCC and MAC as concepts are different and complementary, while IAMs as tools operationalize these concepts inclusively. IAMs have been developed to expand and integrate additional components as scientific knowledge on the climate system and climate economics advances. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that IAMs will include more features that take into account the increasing nuances required in carbon cost calculation and become more complex. The progresses of IAMs are expected to focus on microscales.
  • 500
  • 07 Mar 2022
Topic Review
VocaLink
Vocalink is a payment systems company headquartered in the United Kingdom , created in 2007 from the merger between Voca and LINK. It designs, builds and operates the UK payments infrastructure, which underpins the provision of the Bacs payment system, the Direct Debit system, the UK ATM LINK switching platform covering 65,000 ATMs and the UK Faster Payments systems. Vocalink processes over 90% of UK salaries, more than 70% of household bills and 98% of state benefits. In 2013 the company processed over 10.5 billion UK payments with a value of over £5 trillion. In July 2016 MasterCard purchased a 92% stake in the company, with the remainder to be held by UK banks for a period of three years.
  • 485
  • 20 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Country-of-Origin Labeling
Now repealed, Country of origin labeling (COOL) (or mCOOL [m for mandatory]) was a requirement signed into American law under Title X of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (also known as the 2002 Farm Bill), codified at 7 U.S.C. § 1638a as Notice of country of origin. This law had required retailers to provide country-of-origin labeling for fresh beef, pork, and lamb. The program exempted processed meats. The United States Congress passed an expansion of the COOL requirements on September 29, 2008, to include more food items such as fresh fruits, nuts and vegetables. Regulations were implemented on August 1, 2008 (73 FR 45106), August 31, 2008 (73 FR 50701), and May 24, 2013 (78 FR 31367). On December 18, 2015 Congress repealed the COOL law, as a part of the omnibus budget bill because of a series of WTO rulings that prohibited labels based on country of origin.
  • 475
  • 29 Nov 2022
Topic Review
August 2013 NASDAQ Flash Freeze
For three hours on August 22, 2013, trading was halted on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Trading on the exchange stopped at 12:14pm and resumed at 3:25pm, with 35 minutes left of trading for the day. One week after the trading halt NASDAQ OMX credited the freeze to an overloading of the Securities Information Processor (SIP) caused by reconnection issues with the New York Stock Exchange Arca. The freeze received substantial media coverage and generated discussions on the security of increasingly technologically advanced stock exchanges. The event coined the term "flash freeze" following the earlier "flash crash" on May 6, 2010. Throughout the freeze the Nasdaq composite remained at 3631.17. Following the reopening of the market it rose, closing at 3,638.71, 1.1% higher. Shares of the Nasdaq exchange closed 3.42% down following the freeze.
  • 474
  • 18 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Deal of the Day
Deal-of-the-day (also called daily deal or flash sales or one deal a day) is an ecommerce business model in which a website offers a single product for sale for a period of 24 to 36 hours. Potential customers register as members of the deal-a-day websites and receive online offers and invitations by email or social networks. (As of 2011), deal-of-the-day sites have continued to grow in popularity, although new concerns have arisen over the longevity of the concept and the financial viability of one-day deals for small businesses.
  • 473
  • 16 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Trustworthiness Facets
Trustworthiness facets are considered essential characteristics for assessing the trustworthiness of parties with whom one interacts, such as other people, technologies, or organizations. It is assumed that the better a social media application supports its users in their trustworthiness assessment, the safer and more promising user interactions will be.
  • 472
  • 24 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Surety Bond
A surety bond or surety is a promise by a surety or guarantor to pay one party (the obligee) a certain amount if a second party (the principal) fails to meet some obligation, such as fulfilling the terms of a contract. The surety bond protects the obligee against losses resulting from the principal's failure to meet the obligation.
  • 472
  • 03 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Conference Tourism in the Post-COVID-19 Era
As is widely known, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected tourism and related activities globally. Due to the restrictive measures implemented for gatherings and movements in order to limit the spread of the virus, conferences and conference tourism received a strong shock since the majority of them were canceled or postponed. 
  • 471
  • 14 Dec 2023
Topic Review
Insurance Solvency
Solvency must be understood as the guarantee of adequate capital to meet liabilities to policyholders and beneficiaries. Regulation can be adjusted to incorporate one or more elements of the above dimensions in order to make solvency more sustainable. There has been a change in the main regulations governing the solvency of the world’s main insurance markets. Sustainability is an issue that is becoming increasingly important among to the various stakeholders in the insurance industry. It is a complex concept that has many different dimensions that can be included in these regulations, allowing for a more sustainable solvency.
  • 464
  • 17 Jun 2022
Topic Review
LICRA V. Yahoo!
Ligue contre le racisme et l'antisémitisme et Union des étudiants juifs de France c. Yahoo! Inc. et Société Yahoo! France (LICRA c. Yahoo!) is a France court case decided by the Tribunal de grande instance of Paris in 2000. The case concerned the sale of memorabilia from the Nazi period by Internet auction and the application of national laws to the Internet. Some observers have claimed that the judgement creates a universal competence for French courts to decide Internet cases. A related case before the United States courts concerning the enforcement of the French judgement reached the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, where a majority of the judges ruled to dismiss Yahoo!'s appeal. Criminal proceedings were also brought in the French courts against Yahoo!, Inc. and its then president Timothy Koogle; the defendants were acquitted on all charges, a verdict that was upheld on appeal.
  • 459
  • 18 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Clearing
In banking and finance, clearing denotes all activities from the time a commitment is made for a transaction until it is settled. This process turns the promise of payment (for example, in the form of a cheque or electronic payment request) into the actual movement of money from one account to another. Clearing houses were formed to facilitate such transactions among banks.
  • 459
  • 24 Oct 2022
Topic Review
China Labor Watch
China Labor Watch (CLW) is a New York City , New York-based non-government organization founded by labor activist Li Qiang in October 2000. Its mission is the defense of workers' rights in China . Through research, advocacy and legal assistance, CLW seeks to help China's workers become more informed of their rights and more empowered to realize those rights within their communities.
  • 447
  • 04 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Scaling Local Bottom-Up Innovations
Bottom-up initiatives of active citizens are increasingly demonstrating sustainable practices within local ecosystems. Local urban farming, sustainable agri-food systems, circular supply chains, and community fablabs are exemplary ways of tackling global challenges on a local level. Although promising in accelerating towards future-proof systems, these hyper-localized, bottom-up initiatives often struggle to take root in new contexts due to embedded socio-cultural challenges.
  • 439
  • 17 Oct 2022
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