The purpose of this volume is to reopen the discussion of how to develop the economic theory of investment to better model the facts of experience and to provide policy makers with a better understanding of how capital markets work. In this final decade of the twentieth century, almost everyone agrees that human progress will be closely related to the decisions regarding the investments made to promote economic growth of output. Despite the Nobel prize work done in recent decades, economic performance in this area seems to have worsened. Clearly, a reopening of public discussion on what is required is necessary. Until we get our theory right, it is impossible to get our public policy right. This book does not promise to provide “the” correct theory. Instead, it hopes to stimulate the reader into an understanding of where we may have gone wrong, and how we might rectify our mistakes.

This book is about an intellectual fraud, one that has become part of legal doctrine that has greatly influenced decisions all the way up to the United States Supreme Court. The 'efficient market hypothesis' (EMH), born from the Random Walk theory, started out as an honest attempt to improve insights into how financial markets work, but eventually became almost a religion that every financial economist had to buy into, or risk professional crucifixion. The EMH began over a half century ago. It posits that share prices reflect all available market information, and that it is impossible to consistently outperform the market. This theory dominated research in the academic financial community from the outset, and has continued to do so for decades. Meanwhile, the evidence for above-average profit-making opportunities in the markets has been unfairly suppressed.Written for practitioners in the business, finance and legal industries, this book outlines the major issues that gave rise to the fraud, focusing on the role of statistics in the rise of what the authors call the 'New Finance.' It details the developments and results of the exclusion of other theories from efficient markets research and highlights the problems arising from a dogmatic adherence to EMH.

A balanced examination of global energy issues. Energy sustainability and climate change are two of the greatest challenges facing humankind. Unraveling these complex and interconnected issues demands careful and objective assessment. Fact and Fiction in Global Energy Policy aims to change the prevailing discourse by examining fifteen core energy questions from a variety of perspectives, demonstrating how, for each of them, no clear-cut answer exists. Is industry the chief energy villain? Can we sustainably feed and fuel the planet at the same time? Is nuclear energy worth the risk? Should geoengineering be outlawed? Touching on pollution, climate mitigation and adaptation, energy efficiency, government intervention, and energy security, the authors explore interrelated concepts of law, philosophy, ethics, technology, economics, psychology, sociology, and public policy. This book offers a much-needed critical appraisal of the central energy technology and policy dilemmas of our time and the impact of these on multiple stakeholders.

This book maps the process and political economy of policy making in Africa. It's focus on trade and industrial policy makes it unique and it will appeal to students and academics in economics, political economy, political science and African studies. Detailed case studies help the reader to understand how the process and motivation behind policy decisions can vary from country to country depending on the form of government, ethnicity and nationality and other social factors.

Dialectical Democracy through Christian Thought offers an accessible yet theologically groundbreaking intervention into the battle over the role of government in the market. This book shows that the fight over policy involves a fundamental disagreement about who we are as human beings: independent individuals, or essentially social creatures.

Path to Capacity Innovation: An Africa-MNC Strategic Alliance, a policy framework is advanced proposing a strategic alliance between African countries -represented by NEPAD- and the multinational corporation with input from the NGO and couched upon an NEPAD-MNC-NGO cross-fertilizing integrative structure. Capacity innovation is the key to Africa's transformation: with the appropriate catalysts, innovation and transformation are but a matter of time in gestation. The first of two major catalysts necessary to prompting this change so long sought by Africans came at the adoption of the New Partnership for Africa's Development. It is one of the most profound collaborations of African Heads of State. The second catalyst is proposed in this work in the form of the multinational corporation as change agent for the innovation process working in alliance with NEPAD as Africa's spokesperson for innovation. The policy framework for African capacity innovation is the material product along with discourse for redress of corruption and security policy narrative for protecting the assets of multinational corporations.Bringing Forth Prosperity: Capacity Innovation in Africa questions capital theory as a development construct and an appropriate platform upon which sustained capacity innovation in Africa may emerge; explores Africa's road to modernity in the context of selected development constructs and assesses capacity innovation from a top down-bottom up perspective purposely to serve as backdrop to the Africa-MNC strategic alliance framework; constructs country capacity ID to identify internal resources available to African countries to support capacity innovation; conceptualizes the Africa-MNC strategic alliance to convey a capacity innovation philosophy; articulates an African capacity innovation policy framework to guide the Alliance through a series of actions designed to prompt innovation activity and set the continent on a course to sustained transformation; and articulates a scheme to protect assets -human and physical- derived through the Africa-MNC strategic alliance.

Draws on historical events, budgetary documents, and public opinion data to reveal that voters are more willing to take action to reduce federal spending, explaining how voter-supported proposals could solve the nation's financial problems.

This book analyzes US-Japan relations amidst the changing nature of power and international relations. Chapters explore the relative successes and shortcomings of American liberalism and Japanese Neomercantilism, the bilateral trade duels over finance, high technology, agriculture, and other industries, and the costs and benefits of foreign investment and military spending. The book concludes with suggestions for a systemic and radical overhaul of American policies toward itself, the global economy, and Japan.