Digital Commons Network^™

Clarifying The Meaning Of Noninteger N Values In Annuity Calculations

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

Time value of money problems are integral to finance. We focus attention on the issues raised when a noninteger solution results from solving for the variable N (number of periods) in a time value of money annuity problem. We show that such a numerical solution, while mathematically correct, can deviate from the narrative of the problem. This deviation from the narrative could cause misunderstandings between instructors and their students and practitioners and their clients. We demonstrate how instructors and practitioners can explain the deviation from the narrative in such cases, and how cash flows can be adjusted to avoid missing …

Teaching Collective Action Problems Without Contextual Bias: The Red/Green Simulation

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

Collective action problems are at the heart of many economic issues. Often, students have trouble comprehending how society ends up with a less than optimal outcome, and may incorrectly assume that someone must want the outcome that occurs. Correcting this error is made difficult by the biases that students bring to these issues. The Red/Green simulation demonstrates the tension between self-interest and the social good in a context-free manner allowing students to see that these sub-optimal outcomes may not be desired by anyone, but instead can result from unhealthy systems of incentives.

Yield-To-Maturity And The Reinvestment Of Coupon Payments: Reply

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

Our original note addressed a common misconception that to earn the yield-to-maturity (YTM) on a coupon bond an investor must reinvest the coupon payments. Shirvani and Wilbratte (2009) take issue with our presentation and results. We will demonstrate that their arguments entirety rest on the proposition that the YTM must equal the realized compounded yield (RCY). This is a construct that explicitly assumes coupon reinvestment. We made no claim in our original presentation with regard to their proposition, because it is not required to calculate the YTM. Furthermore, we will discuss their claims with regard to the “economic significance” of …

Yield To Maturity Is Always Received As Promised: A Reply

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

This note attempts to further spell out why it is a myth that YTM is viewed as only a promised but not really earned interest rate. It addresses some misconceptions in Shirnani and Wilbratte (2009, this issue) on what, between YTM and RCY, is a true rate of return of a coupon bond, why YTM is NOT just a “fictitious mathematical construct”, and why YTM has nothing to do with yield curve.

Attraction And Retention Of Faculty In A Non-Tenure Granting Environment

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

This paper examines the task of attracting and retaining faculty in a non-tenure granting environment. Our goal is to provide a framework for the future discussion of this issue and to develop a set of utility functions for the primary parties involved, namely, institutions of higher education and individual faculty members. Various strategies for attracting and retaining faculty members in a non-tenure-granting environment are evaluated in terms of their long-run implications.

Technology, Leadership, And Sustainability In The Post-Crisis Economy: Evidence From Lebanese Organizations, Dania Abbass, Habib Badawi

Arab Economic and Business Journal

This study examines how artificial intelligence integration, transformational leadership, and sustainability practices collectively influence organizational resilience and performance in crisis-affected Arab economies, with a focus on Lebanese organizations navigating compound disruptions. Using a convergent mixed-methods design, quantitative data were collected from 487 managers and employees across Lebanese organizations and comparative international samples in the education, finance, NGO, and tourism sectors, complemented by 32 semi-structured interviews. Results demonstrate that AI integration, transformational leadership, and sustainability practices significantly enhance organizational resilience and performance, with emotional intelligence and affective commitment serving as critical mediators. Organizations combining high implementation across all three dimensions achieved …

The Trek With Telos: A Rememberance Ofpaul Piccone (January 19, 1940—July 12,2004), Timothy W. Luke

Fast Capitalism

No abstract provided.

Salvaging Democracy After Election 2004, Douglas Kellner

Fast Capitalism

No abstract provided.

Why Were There So Many Jews In Sds? Or, The Ordeal Of Civility, Mark Rudd

Fast Capitalism

No abstract provided.

Killing The Field Of Dreams: George W. Bush, Empire And Politics Of Misrecognition, Jeremy Varon

Fast Capitalism

No abstract provided.

The Antinomies Of Brexit, Paul Smith

Fast Capitalism

Author Biography

Paul Smith, George Mason University

Paul Smith was educated at Cambridge and at the University of Kent in the UK and has a PhD in American Studies. Most of his working life has been spent in the US, including posts at Miami University OH, and Carnegie Mellon before his appointment to George Mason University in 1996. Between 1999 and 2002 he was chaired Professor and department head of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Sussex in the UK. At Mason he has been director of the Center for the Study of the Americas and currently teaches …

Neoliberal Fascism As The Endpoint Of Casino Capitalism, Henry Giroux

Fast Capitalism

This article explores neoliberal fascism as a distinctive political formation within the current historical moment. In doing so, it first analyzes neoliberalism as a project that has since the 1970s destroyed all the commanding institutions of democracy while consolidating power in the hands of a financial elite. In addition, it analyzes neoliberalism as a movement, that produces and legitimates massive economic inequality and suffering, privatizes public goods, dismantles essential government agencies, and individualizes all social problems. Under such circumstances, neoliberalism creates the conditions for right wing extremists to mobilize the anger of white disenfranchised working class populations by both appealing …

Minding Machines: A Note On Alienation, Sascha Engel

Fast Capitalism

This paper discusses an underrepresented dimension of contemporary alienation: that of machines, and particularly of computing machines. The term 'machine' is understood here in the broadest sense, spanning anything from agricultural harvesters to cars and planes. Likewise, 'computing machine' is understood broadly, from homeostatic machines, such as thermostats, to algorithmic universal machines, such as smartphones. I suggest that a form of alienation manifests in the functionalist use and description of machines in general; that is, in descriptions of machines as mere tools or testaments to human ingenuity. Such descriptions ignore the real and often capricious existence of machines as everyday …

Max Weber's Odyssey: The Wild West, The Frontier, And The Capitalist Spirit, David Norman Smith

Fast Capitalism

This article examines one aspect of Weber's thinking with respect to the United States: his view of frontier regions as new horizons for capitalism. This was not an incidental or side issue for Weber, whose famed analysis of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism was only half-finished when he traveled through the United States in 1904. Nor is Weber's outlook on this topic immaterial for contemporary historians, many of whom now affirm quasi-Weberian views under such rubrics as "the New Western" history. A full account of Weber's notion of the frontier would exceed the limits of a journal …

Divining Domination: Steve Bannon As A Political Mystagogue, Tony Allen Feldmann

Fast Capitalism

Right-wing commentators (on tv, radio, newspapers, documentaries, or the internet) are often considered a source of misinformation and radicalization in American politics. Understanding the role of such commentators in the political sphere has taken on new significance since the election of Trump, who regularly takes talking points as well as political advice from prominent figures in right-wing media. The purpose of these political "shock jocks" also extends beyond mere political commentary: They offer their audience a framework for understanding the world. This framework contains certain reified perceptions of society and history. Durkheim and those working in his tradition have long …

Shakespeare's Plays Of Deranged Authority: The King's Three Bodies, Daniel Krier

Fast Capitalism

Shakespeare's plays are situated upon the threshold of two worlds: a declining traditional order torn apart by political rivalry and ascendant early-modern capitalism. The history plays dramatize infighting among warring factions of privileged aristocrats as well as revolutionary forces propelled by the rising commons and the politics of commodity. Legitimate authority is rarely secure among the kings perched upon Shakespearean thrones. In Shakespeare's Henriad and King John, crowns are contested from the moment they are placed upon royal heads, inspiring Kantorwicz's political theology: the corporeal body of short-lived kings is distinct from the sovereign's sublime body that reigns without cease. …

The Sorrows Of Modern Subjectivity: Capital, Infinity Disease, And Werther's Hysterical Neurois, Christopher Altamura

Fast Capitalism

In this article I analyze Werther, the protagonist of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther. I argue that Werther and his sorrows must be understood within the context of the unique configuration of alienation(s) present in modern societies, characterized by the sui generis combination of capital, egoism and anomie, and asceticism. Further, I argue the sociologically alienating conditions of modern societies create neurotic subjects of repression who lack compensatory symbols of moral worth, which drives them to pursue equivalent signification via fantasy. Finally, I argue that Werther represents an extreme case of hysterical neurosis emanating from …

The Master's Race: Phallic Whiteness In "The Young Savages", Graham Cassano

Fast Capitalism

This essay examines two parallel, historically contemporaneous, depictions of the Freudian master-slave dialectic. John Frankenheimer's first film, The Young Savages (1961), reconstructs Hank Bell's (Burt Lancaster) repressed transformation from Italian racial other into a white ethnic. In doing so, the film approaches the possibility that race itself may be a kind of social construction. To get at this notion, the film explores the meaning of race in an overtly psychoanalytic language. In fact, The Young Savages echoes the argument of Jacques Lacan's nearly contemporaneous essay, "The subversion of the subject and the dialectic of desire in the Freudian unconscious." Lacan's …

Ignoring Goethe's Faust: A Critical-Theoretical Perspective On American Ideology, Harry F. Dahms

Fast Capitalism

The neglect of Goethe, his work in general, and Faust in particular, in English-speaking countries, is notorious. While Shakespeare's plays have been prominent and widely performed in German-speaking countries, the same is not true for Goethe in the English-speaking world. Focusing non-exclusively on Faust, and cutting a link to Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus, I will endeavor to delineate problematic aspects of American ideology, and what it would take, within U.S. sociology, to be cognizant of the latter.   Georg Lukacs wrote about Goethe and Faust, and so did Theodor W. Adorno and Leo Loewenthal, highlighting its importance to critical theory. The …

The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves, Mark P. Worrell

Fast Capitalism

Introduction to the Symposium: "Cultural Reflections of Capital."

Author Biography

Mark P. Worrell, SUNY Cortland Professor, Retired

Daily Clicker Questions Combat Procrastination

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

The use of classroom response systems to promote active learning is growing, but the evidence on whether clicker questions actually help students to learn is mixed. This paper uses formative assessments of individuals to predict their overall achievement instead of comparing the performance of clicker and control groups. It finds that students who answer more daily clicker questions correctly have higher summative assessments, after considering the effects of other important variables. Individuals who understand course content earlier also perform better in the end.

Using Microsoft Corporation To Demonstrate The Optimal Capital Structure Trade-Off Theory

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

In this paper, we apply the trade-off theory of capital structure to Microsoft. We use data for bond ratings, bond risk premiums, and levered CAPM betas to compute the cost of equity and the weighted average cost of capital for Microsoft at different debt levels. This study shows the impact of increasing financial leverage on WACC. As financial leverage increases, the WACC decreases until the optimal debt ratio is reached, after which, the WACC begins to rise. At this debt ratio, the value of Microsoft will be maximized. Our results indicate the optimal debt ratio for Microsoft is 37.5 percent.

Brain-Type, Gender, And Student Success In The Principles Of Economics

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

Studies of the impact of gender on student performance in the principles of economics yield ambiguous conclusions. Some studies find that women are less successful than men in the principles of economics, while others conclude that gender is inconsequential. Few, if any, scientific works find women’s performance better than men’s performance. These ambiguities arise because past studies have not considered the distribution of brain-types by gender. This paper addresses the question of which brain-types are more successful in the principles of economics and whether these brain-types can be associated with a particular gender.

Improving Student Performance In Business Statistics Courses With Online Assessments

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

We study the impact of online assessments on student performance in business statistics courses. We quantify the degree to which students take advantage of various online opportunities to improve their quiz grades and estimate its effect on in-class exam scores. We also study the perceptions of students regarding online assessments using anonymous surveys. We find that students believe that multiple attempts at online quizzes help them learn the material, and for the most part take advantage of these opportunities to improve their quiz grades. Furthermore, the effect on exam performance is positive and significant.

Recent Trends And New Evidence In Economics And Finance Education

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

The teaching of pre-college economics has been widely researched for over 45 years with studies focused upon teacher training and improving students’ understanding. This paper reviews that research base, and reports the results of a new national survey, as well as a summary of several recent developments in the field of economic education. Young people can learn economics best when taught by knowledgeable teachers using well developed curriculum materials. But, to accommodate expanding state requirements, pertinacious state bureaucracies must increase teacher training and curriculum standards.

Testing Equity Portfolios For Alpha Bias: An Exercise For Student Investment Funds

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

We present an exercise that that guides students through the rationale and techniques for identifying and correcting for alpha bias in the reported performance of equity portfolios. The exercise is particularly relevant for Student Investment Fund programs that invest actual money, as the historical performance of the class portfolio can be used in the activity, which creates an additional level of engagement for students. Students learn why portfolios that emphasize smallcapitalization and/or value stocks tend to display a positive alpha bias (overstating performance), and why portfolios that emphasize largecapitalization and/or growth stocks tend to display a negative alpha bias (understating …

Yield-To-Maturity And The Reinvestment Of Coupon Payments

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

This note addresses a common misconception, found in investment texts and popular investment education literature, that in order to earn the yield to maturity on a coupon bond an investor must reinvest the coupon payments. We identify a sample of text and professional sources making this claim, demonstrate that yield to maturity entails no assumption of coupon reinvestment, discuss a cause for this confusion and offer a possible remedy.

The Influence Of University Investment Education On Asset Allocation

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

Using survey data from students at three universities, we examine the influence of an Investments Analysis course on student perception of the ideal asset allocation for a retirement portfolio. Consistent with previous studies that examine financial education in the workplace, a critical outcome of university investment education is the apparent alleviation of a conservative bias that is typically prevalent among uninformed investors. This change results in an increasing willingness to take larger stock positions, which produces higher expected returns and larger portfolio betas. Most importantly, however, the net effect is more efficient portfolios, particularly for those students who begin with …

Panic Learning Off (And On) The Covid Campus, Tara Brabazon, Jamie Quinton, Narelle Hunter

Fast Capitalism

Online learning has been flooded with platitudes, promises and possibilities for twenty years. Oversold and undertheorized, online learning reached its "moment' through the Covid lockdown. Underprepared staff and underfunded universities implemented online learning in a crisis. This was a zombie apocalypse of a context in which to summon innovation. This article activates Paul Virilio's University of Disaster to explore the COVID campus and classroom, entering panic learning.

Author Biographies

Tara Brabazon, Dean of Graduate Research / Professor of Cultural Studies Flinders University

Tara Brabazon is the dean of graduate research and professor of cultural studies at Flinders University, Australia, fellow …

The Pandemic Preferred User, Katie Ellis, Kai-Ti Kao, Tim Pitman

Fast Capitalism

As COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, universities acted quickly to move their core business of teaching and research online. Classes shifted to platforms such as Zoom, Webex, Collaborate and Microsoft Teams and teachers and students alike were expected to adapt. And they did. While there has been much discussion of the unpaid labour involved in making this shift and the difficulties inherent in merging work, study and domestic life, there has been little acknowledgement or analysis of inherent notions of the preferred user in this rapid shift to technology.

This paper draws on critical disability studies to offer a conceptual …