Topic Review
Democracy and the Common Wealth
Democracy and the Common Wealth: Breaking the Stranglehold of the Special Interests is a 2010 book by urban designer, policy analyst and artist Michael E. Arth. Arth attempts to expose what he calls the "dirty secrets" of America's electoral system, and provides a list of solutions that he believes will result in a "truly representative democracy." This democracy would be led by effective, trustworthy leaders, who would be elected by a majority, and who would not have to spend their time raising campaign funds, or catering to paid lobbyists. It also tells the story of the first year of Florida's 2010 gubernatorial race, from his point of view as an outsider, lacking in personal wealth or party backing. In the main text, and in the postscript, Arth writes about how he became an independent candidate for governor after being "frozen out" of the "undemocratic" Florida Democratic Party for not having millions of dollars, and for suggesting that campaigns be about issues instead of money. The first edition of the book has 480 pages including 72 illustrations and charts and was first published in both e-book and print in May 2010. The e-book version also includes a postscript about the BP Oil Spill and energy policy, and a section on Arth’s switch to No Party Affiliation.
  • 261
  • 22 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Accountability in the Social Economy
The great demands of stakeholders and the high importance of private social solidarity institutions (IPSS) (acronym in Portuguese, standing for Instituições Particulares de Solidariedade Social) in the Portuguese socio-economic panorama make the transparency and increased accountability (social, financial and economic) of these institutions imperative. In the same sense, Tomé, Bandeira, Azevedo and Costa reinforced that it is necessary to promote the evaluation of results and their disclosure to help to increase their accountability. Decree-Law no.172-A/2014 established a financial supervision model, applicable to IPSS, based on demanding imperative rules, with the view to increasing the accountability of the management of these entities, placing strong pressure for greater accountability (social and corporate responsibility of IPSS’ managers) for their members, funders, users and citizens in general.
  • 766
  • 24 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Agorism
Agorism is a libertarian social philosophy that advocates creating a society in which all relations between people are voluntary exchanges by means of counter-economics, thus engaging with aspects of peaceful revolution. It was first proposed by libertarian philosopher Samuel Edward Konkin III at two conferences, CounterCon I in October 1974 and CounterCon II in May 1975, both conferences organized by J. Neil Schulman.
  • 4.9K
  • 23 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Agri-Food Supply Channels in Supply Chains
Improving the efficiency in the links in the supply chains of agri-food products is relevant in terms of the assessment methodology and practical aspects for ensuring and supporting sustainable supply chains of products not only in individual channels of product movement but also in the end-to-end supply chain of products, i.e., from the field to the end consumer.
  • 293
  • 09 Sep 2023
Topic Review
Analysis of Business Efficiency
Measuring efficiency and identifying the sources of potential inefficiency in particular are very important steps in improving the competitive position of the enterprises in their continuous development, sustainability, overall behavior in the current corporate environment and security aspects. 
  • 4.1K
  • 28 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Anchoring
Anchoring or focalism is a cognitive bias where an individual depends too heavily on an initial piece of information offered (considered to be the "anchor") when making decisions. Anchoring occurs when, during decision making, an individual depends on an initial piece of information to make subsequent judgments. Those objects near the anchor tend to be assimilated toward it and those further away tend to be displaced in the other direction. Once the value of this anchor is set, all future negotiations, arguments, estimates, etc. are discussed in relation to the anchor. This bias occurs when interpreting future information using this anchor. For example, the initial price offered for a used car, set either before or at the start of negotiations, sets an arbitrary focal point for all following discussions. Prices discussed in negotiations that are lower than the anchor may seem reasonable, perhaps even cheap to the buyer, even if said prices are still relatively higher than the actual market value of the car. The original description of the anchoring effect came from psychophysics. When judging stimuli along a continuum, it was noticed that the first and last stimuli were used to compare the other stimuli (this is also referred to as "end anchoring". This was applied to attitudes by Sherif et al. in 1958 in their article "Assimilation and contrast effects of anchoring stimuli on judgments".
  • 768
  • 18 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Antifragile
Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder is a book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb published on November 27, 2012, by Random House in the United States and Penguin in the United Kingdom. This book builds upon ideas from his previous works including Fooled by Randomness (2001), The Black Swan (2007–2010), and The Bed of Procrustes (2010–2016) and is the fourth book in the five-volume philosophical treatise on uncertainty titled Incerto. Some of the ideas are expanded in Taleb’s fifth book Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life (2018).
  • 453
  • 30 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Asset Management, Complex System Governance
Asset management (AsM) has emerged from engineering as a structured approach to organizing complex organizations to realize the value of assets while balancing performance, risks, costs, and opportunities. Complex system governance (CSG) is an emerging field encompassing a framework for system performance improvement through the purposeful design, execution, and evolution of essential metasystem functions.
  • 732
  • 04 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Assets with Historical—Architectural Significance and Historic Designation
The historic designation of individual properties and entire neighborhoods has experienced an evolution in its meaning in recent decades. The original passive approach to managing historical buildings, which primarily regarded them as “values” to be defended and preserved for future generations, has been supplemented by strategies aimed at their valorization, derived from an awareness of the potential of such resources for the community, as a means of promoting the economic and social conditions of local populations.
  • 211
  • 05 Jul 2023
Topic Review
Banking Union
The Banking Union in the European Union is the transfer of responsibility for banking policy from the national to the EU level in several countries of the European Union, initiated in 2012 as a response to the Eurozone crisis. The motivation for banking union was the fragility of numerous banks in the Eurozone, and the identification of vicious circle between credit conditions for these banks and the sovereign credit of their respective home countries ("bank-sovereign vicious circle"). In several countries, private debts arising from a property bubble were transferred to sovereign debt as a result of banking system bailouts and government responses to slowing economies post-bubble. Conversely, weakness in sovereign credit resulted in deterioration of the balance sheet position of the banking sector, not least because of high domestic sovereign exposures of the banks. As of mid-2020, the Banking Union mainly consists of two main initiatives, the Single Supervisory Mechanism and Single Resolution Mechanism, which are based upon the EU's "single rulebook" or common financial regulatory framework. The SSM took up its authority on 4 November 2014, and the SRM entered into full force on 1 January 2015. Most accounts of banking union view it as incomplete in the absence of a European deposit insurance. The European Commission made a legislative proposal for a European Deposit Insurance Scheme in November 2015, but it has not been adopted by the EU co-legislators. Also as of mid-2020, the geographical scope of the Banking Union is identical to that of the euro area. In future, other non-euro member states of the EU may join the Banking Union under a procedure known as close cooperation. Bulgaria and Croatia have initiated requests for close cooperation, respectively in July 2018 and May 2019.
  • 312
  • 28 Nov 2022
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