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Existing economic indicators and indexes assess economic activity but no single indicator measures the general macro-economic performance of a nation, state, or region in a methodologically simple and intuitive way. This paper proposes a simple, yet informative metric called the Economic Performance Index (EPI). The EPI represents a step toward clarity, by combining data on inflation, unemployment, government deficit, and GDP growth into a single indicator. In contrast to other indexes, the EPI does not use complicated mathematical procedures but was designed for simplicity, making it easier f

We relate Schumpeter's notion of creative destruction to asset pricing, thereby offering a novel explanation of size and value premia. We argue that small-value firms are more likely to be destroyed by serendipitous invention activity, and investors demand higher expected returns for bearing that risk. Large-growth stocks provide protection against creative destruction, so they receive expected return discounts. An ICAPM that accounts for creative destruction risk explains a considerable part of the cross-sectional return variation of size- and book-to-market-sorted portfolios. The estimated risk compensations associated with creative destruction are economically and statistically significant.

Oliver Ziegler raises the question of what role economic interests of the United States play in the regulatory decision making process of the European Union. Critics often assume that U.S. dominance in the world economy, fueled by a powerful business elite, has significantly affected EU regulations at the expense of environmental and consumer protection standards. The author falsifies this proposition. He shows, first, that the EU often adopts regulations against the explicit opposition of the U.S. thereby ignoring the principles of transatlantic regulatory cooperation. Second, he demonstrates that business interests in the EU are usually not homogenous and often come second to environmental and consumer concerns. In addition, the author shows the increasing role of the European Parliament in EU regulatory decison making

This text takes a global approach to the study of world history by exploring the inter-regional connections and global themes that connect our world today. Just as a filmmaker uses multiple lenses to tell a story, this program invites students to begin with a wide-angle view to examine eras in world history and then zoom in to understand the development of events and interactions among the world's people and cultures today.

"Up and down the Eastern seaboard during the 1850s, American shipyards constructed wooden merchant sailing vessels forming the backbone of the commercial shipping industry. This comprehensive volume appraises in minute detail the construction of these ships, outlining basic design criteria and enumerating and examining every plank and piece of timber involved in the process. More than 150 illustrations"--Provided by publisher

Before smartphones, before the Internet and before the personal computer, a misfit group of technophiles, blind teenagers, hippies, and outlaws figured out how to hack the world's largest machine: the telephone system. Starting with Alexander Graham Bell's revolutionary "harmonic telegraph," by the middle of the twentieth century the phone system had grown into something extraordinary, a web of cutting-edge switching machines and human operators that linked together millions of people like never before. Unfortunately for the telephone company, the network has a billion-dollar flaw. And once people discovered it, things would never the be the same. Phil Lapsley's Exploding the Phone tells this story in full for the first time. It traces the birth of long distance communication and the telephone, the rise of AT&T's monopoly, the creation of the sophisticated machines that made it all work, and the discovery of Ma Bell's Achilles' heel. Lapsley expertly weaves together the clandestine underground of "phone phreaks" who turned the network into the electronic playground, the mobsters who exploited its flaws to avoid the feds, and the counterculture movement that argued you should rip off the phone company to fight against the war in Vietnam...AT&T responded with "Greenstar"...The FBI fought back, too...Phone phreaking exploded into the popular culture, with famous actors, musicians, and investors caught with "blue boxes," many of them built by two young phone phreaks named Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak...The product of extensive original research, including exclusive interviews and declassified government documents, Exploding the Phone is a captivating, ground-breaking work about an important part of our cultural and technological history -- Publisher's description

Transportation for hire : from human burden to taxis -- Down that long & dusty road : stagecoach travel in America -- The omnibus : travel for all citizens -- Streetcars : that most democratic conveyance -- Ferryboats : crossing the rivers and bays -- Canals : the low and slow way to go -- River steamers : white swans on the inland rivers -- Lake steamers : on the inland sea -- Coastal & sound steamers : close to shore -- Ocean sail : at the mercy of the wind -- Ocean steam : the triumph of technology -- Emigrant travel : a nation of nations -- Passenger trains : coach class -- Passenger trains : first class -- Appendix : Travel words and tales