Digital Commons Network^™

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 …

Sociopoetics In The Works Of Shakespeare, Thomas Bechtold

Fast Capitalism

This study is meant to develop an immanent critique following the dialogism of socio-poetics in the literary criticism of Mikhail Bakhtin. Socio-poetics in the reception and composition of Shakespeare's works reflect the first intimations of social and political transformation to a modern nationalized society from a premodern feudal society. This study explores Shakespeare's use of metaphor through his dramatizations and characterizations at the dawn of modernity and the decline of feudalism: identifying contradictions and tensions that intimate this transformation in English society and language, and, providing an approach to this globalizing language that partakes in simultaneous modes of confabulation and …

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

Teaching Horizontal Mergers To Undergraduates: The Case Of American Airlines And Us Airways

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

This paper proposes a novel approach to teaching about horizontal mergers. We use the case of the recent airline merger between American Airlines and US Airways to analyze its potential economic impacts. We describe the merger, discuss the institutional details of the US government’s decision-making process of approving or rejecting mergers, and explain the merger’s trade-offs using the Williamson model of market power and economic efficiency. The paper provides lecture materials, including an Excel simulation, presentation and sample assignments that can be used by instructors teaching undergraduate courses in intermediate microeconomics, managerial economics, industrial organization, and law and economics.

Biases And Student Portfolio Management Behavior Profiles: An Empirical Taxonomy

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

Many investment portfolios are managed by individuals. In order to better understand their portfolio decisions, we must understand how cognitive biases might affect behavior in making these decisions. While a simplistic view might only consider an individual’s management effort, a feature-based approach allows us a more developed understanding of portfolio management. To achieve this objective, this paper develops an empirical taxonomy of portfolio management behavior profiles through surveys of 48 undergraduates participating in the Stock-Trak® project. The four management profiles we define in this paper – Resolute, Insecure, Fastidious, and Passive are distinct in terms of behaviors, effort, and perceived …

It's Just Like Magic: The Economics Of Harry Potter

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

Do the laws of economics apply in the magical world of Harry Potter? Even though J.K Rowling placed her characters in a world of magic, wizards remain subject to the implications of scarcity. As a result, the series is abundant with examples of basic economic principles. Given the popularity of the series, its use in the classroom is likely to inspire students to adopt the economic way of thinking for life. We demonstrate the pedagogical potential of the series by providing illustrations of trade-offs and opportunity costs, marginal thinking, the power of incentives, and the benefits of trade and commerce.

Productive Complements: Too Often Neglected In The Principles Course?

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

Many great economic thinkers, including Alfred Marshall and William Stanley Jevons discussed the importance of joint production, or productive complements, and there are important applications. Yet many students today could complete an economics major and never be introduced to this important concept.

Negative Externalities Of Student Debt: The Impact On Human Capital Development

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

No abstract provided.

Demystifying Free Cash Flow Valuation

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

In this paper we provide a straightforward framework for valuing firms. Students and even practitioners often struggle with the details of the valuation process as commonly presented in finance textbooks. Using a numerical case example, we highlight some of the fundamental but often misunderstood valuation concepts. First, we discuss the connection among major cash flow identities. Next, we demonstrate the use of the adjusted present value approach to perform firm valuation. When the capital structure is non-constant, the adjusted present value method yields more accurate results than the traditional valuation model that uses the weighted average cost of capital.

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.

Clickers: Performance And Attitudes In Principles Of Microeconomics

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

Clickers are one tool available to classroom instructors seeking new ways to engage students. There has been extensive research in the sciences studying the effectiveness of using clickers in the classroom but very little within the economic discipline. This study analyzes the relationship between using clickers for participation only and using clickers for graded daily quizzes in Microeconomics. Student attitudes concerning clickers are also investigated. While no significant difference is found in final course grade, results show that students perform best on daily quizzes taken with paper and pencil. Additionally, students overwhelmingly enjoy clickers in the classroom regardless of usage.

Dispelling The Pessimistic Bias

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

This paper provides resources and methods for confronting and refuting “the pessimistic bias.” This bias was identified by Bryan Caplan in The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies (2007.) Caplan defines the pessimistic bias as “a tendency to overestimate the severity of economic problems and underestimate the (recent) past, present, and future performance of the economy.” It originates in the gap between public perceptions and historical reality. Professors and students of economics should: (1) be aware of the problem, and (2) have tools and methods to address this commonly-held bias.

The Theory Of The Firm, Transaction Costs, And Financial Statements

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

The paper links the economic theory of the firm with the firm’s balance sheet and income statement by including transaction costs, disequilibrium, and comparative statics in a model of a firm in a perfectly competitive industry. The analysis builds in particular on contributions by Ronald Coase.

Gains From Specialization And Trade Revisited: “How” Is Done And “Why” Must Be Explained

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

Most textbooks have shown mutual gains from trade without explaining the source of the gains. Formally deriving the combined PPF from two individual PPFs, this paper demonstrates that the economy of two producers reaches their combined PPF if and only if at least one of them fully specializes according to her comparative advantage. Such specialization causes the total production to rise, as it is maximized on the combined PPF. It also shows how such specialization is endogenously determined under the perfect competition. It also explains who (and how to) benefit more from specialization in international trade and in labor market.

Using Bloomberg Real-Time Data And Analytics To Teach Economics And Finance

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

This paper shows the benefits of incorporating the Bloomberg terminal in teaching economics and finance classes. The Bloomberg terminal differs from traditional teaching methods by bringing students into the laboratory of the real world through the use of real-time data and news to reinforce and to apply his/her knowledge of theory and institutions. A methodical way of using this technology in teaching economics and finance electives is discussed. Results suggest that using the Bloomberg terminal makes student comprehension of theoretical and applied material deeper. Moreover, their performance in other classes, internships and jobs suggests that this approach improves retention.

Teaching The Law Of Supply Using Karaoke

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

This paper describes an active-learning strategy for teaching the law of supply using karaoke. Unlike the law of demand, which is second nature by the time students reach college, the law of supply is less familiar. If you are unsure about this claim, poll your class to see how many students have tangible experience running a business. Due to this lack of familiarity, we deploy karaoke to illustrate the fundamental nature of the supply curve, along with the difference between movements along the supply curve and supply shifters. We also provide extensions and a number of variations of this method …

Swansonomics: Using “Parks And Recreation” To Teach Economics

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

Based on a first-year multidisciplinary course, Swansonomics is a class where students examine the libertarian beliefs espoused by the character Ron Swanson from the television series Parks and Recreation. The show provides great examples of rent seeking, fiscal policy issues, social policy issues, and bureaucratic incentive structures. These Parks and Recreation video clips can be used in any class to cover a variety of issues. Examples of topics include the expected economic consequences of specific political or economic philosophies, unintended consequences of policies, various systems of taxation, public and private incentive structures, and varying degrees of capitalism and government intervention.

Market-Dependent Domestic Production Set

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

A remarkable feature of the 21st century is extremely rapid international capital mobility compared to considerably sluggish annual FDI flows in the last quarter of the 20th century. If this empirically significant assumption of internationally footloose capital is adopted, an economy’s production set, and its boundary, the production possibility frontier, are, under this assumption, rendered market dependent insofar as domestic commodity price variation causes a swift relocation of the production frontier, contrasted with the market-invariant frontier in standard theory. Other conclusions of economic analysis are, in general, also modified, rendering this change in assumption materially relevant to economic theory.

Portfolio Performance Evaluation Benchmark: A Note

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

Jones and Swaleheen (2014, this journal) examine the performance of an equity portfolio in a student managed investment fund and document the outperformance of the portfolio relative to the S&P 500 index on an absolute basis. We show that the apparent outperformance of the portfolio is due to using the index without its dividend component. Once we use the S&P 500 total return as the benchmark, the outperformance of the equity portfolio disappears. We explain why the S&P 500 total return should be used in this case, and propose and justify two alternative proxies for the S&P 500 total return.

The Classroom As Policy Laboratory: Using A Classroom Simulation To Experience Macroeconomic Policy

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

This paper describes a classroom economic simulation. The simulation is similar to classroom experiments but is repeated, which allows for a less deterministic structure and gives students time to experience multiple roles. Students run the economy, from hiring their classmates to producing goods and buying them. Students also elect a class congress, which allows them to choose policies and experience the effects. As the simulation progresses, additional economic concepts and measurements are incorporated, including but not limited to GDP (real and nominal) unemployment, poverty, inequality, economic growth, investment, money supply, inflation and macroeconomic shocks.

Student Managed Investment Fund Performance: A Look At Equity Portfolio Data

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

Research on the performance of student managed investment funds (SMIFs) is needed in the literature. Using data from a SMIF at a university in Florida, this paper provides some evidence of this performance while noting the importance of active portfolio management within the SMIF. The results underscore two points: 1.) University officials can rely on students to manage actual investment monies, with proper oversight. 2.) Active management of the SMIF can add value. The goal of this paper is to encourage schools to begin SMIFs and help convince university officials that active portfolio management by students is a good idea.

Help Your Students Realize Their Retirement Dreams By Quantifying The Cost Of Procrastination

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

In this paper we discuss the details of a dollar-a-day investment plan that professors can use when teaching a course in finance or economics. The goal is to explain the power of compounding and to illustrate the opportunity cost of procrastination. Our hope is that the narrative and examples will not only help students to understand these concepts but also motivate them to begin a modest investment regimen while in college. We also use the Shiller dataset to find an optimal look-back period that can be applied to making projections for the size of future retirement nest eggs.

The Influence Of Aggregate Demand Elasticity On The Federal Budget Deficit

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

This paper examines the implications of aggregate demand elasticity for the federal budget deficit when macroeconomic shocks occur. We obtain two results with the graphical analysis. First, and for an adverse change to short-run aggregate supply, the decrease in real gross domestic product and the resulting increase in the budget deficit is larger the more elastic is aggregate demand with respect to the general price level. Second, and when a negative shock to aggregate demand occurs, the decrease in real gross domestic product and the consequent increase in the budget deficit is larger the smaller is the price level elasticity …

Repeat After Me: An Experiment In Learning

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

Generations of students have stumbled over the distinction between moving along and shifting a demand curve. Simple verbal repetition seems to help cement this difference. In classroom experiments, students who stood and recited the concept aloud performed better on a subsequent exam question than other students. Moreover, the difference persisted onto the final exam even after controlling for differences in student ability and exam preparation. While other active-learning methods might produce similar results, verbalization requires almost no time or instructor effort. It takes only a few seconds and there is nothing to read or grade.

Perfectly Competitive Model And Finance: Changes In The Value Of The Firm During Competitive Adjustment To A Shift Of Demand

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

This paper explores the adjustment process of the perfectly competitive model from the perspective of finance theory and argues that finance theory (in unsophisticated form) is implicitly woven into the model’s adjustment process. Making this explicit allows students of elementary economics and finance to bring the two disciplines together.

Using Videoconferencing To Solve A Business Finance Problem: Challenges And Lessons Learned From A Transatlantic Experience

Journal of Economics and Finance Education

This study presents a transatlantic project that requires business students to use videoconferencing to solve a real world business finance problem. We discuss the project’s design and delivery, the usefulness of videoconferencing in this context, and the challenges and lessons learned in the cross-cultural setting by instructors and students on each side of the Atlantic. A post-project survey reveals both German and U.S. students regard the transatlantic project to be a valuable experience, though the U.S. students view the project more favorably than did their German counterparts. The project also reveals some interesting transatlantic differences in higher education pedagogies.