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THE MAJOR PURPOSE OF THIS PAPER WAS TO EVALUATE THE PORTFOLIO INTERPRETATION OF FUTURES MARKET INVESTMENT RISK. THE GENERALIZATION OF THE KEYNESIAN NOTION OF A RISK PREMIUM, PROVIDED BY THE CAPM, WAS THE FOCUS OF OUR ANALYSIS. PROCEEDING ALONG SIMILAR LINES, AN EARLIER INVESTIGATION BY DUSAK CONCLUDED THAT WHEAT, CORN, AND SOYBEANS FUTURES CONTRACTS ARE NOT RISKY ASSETS. FOR MOST COMMODITY SPECULATORS, THIS CONCLUSION INDEED COMES AS A HUGE SURPRISE. THE CAPM, AS FORMULATED BY DUSAK, HAS BEEN RESTRUCTURED IN OUR ANALYSIS TO CORRECT FOR TWO MAJOR SPECIFICATION ERRORS. FIRST, SPECULATORS CAN BE EITHER NET SHORT OR NET LONG; AND, SECOND, A WELLDIVERSIFIED PORTFOLIO OF SPECULATORS CONTAINS NOT ONLY COMMON STOCKS BUT FUTURES MARKET POSITIONS AS WELL. RESPECIFIED EMPIRICAL MODELS FOR THE THREE COMMODITIES EXAMINED BY DUSAK-WHEAT, CORN, AND SOYBEANSREVEAL SIGNIFICANT AND POSITIVE SYSTEMATIC RISK FOR A NUMBER OF FUTURES CONTRACTS. IN ADDITION, THE "NONMARKET" RATE OF RETURN MEASURE PROVED TO BE GENERALLY SIGNIFICANT. FOR COMMODITIES MORE CLOSELY LINKED TO THE GENERAL LEVEL OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITY (COTTON AND LIVE CATTLE), SIMILAR RESULTS WERE OBTAINED. THE RESULTS FOR COTTON ARE PARTICULARLY STRIKING. NOT ONLY DO NET LONG (SHORT) SPECULATORS EARN EXCESS RETURNS BUT THE DEGREE OF SYSTEMATIC RISK IS CONDITIONED ON WHETHER SPECULATORS ARE NET SHORT OR NET LONG. FOR AN EFFICIENT PORTFOLIO AND AN APPLICATION OF THE CAPM TO FUTURES CONTRACTS THAT ALLOWS FOR CHANGING SPECULATIVE POSITION, PY: 1983

Shahab Ahmed shows that the magnitude of contradiction in Islam is far greater than modern analysts realize. Yet there is, he says, something in this contradiction that makes it coherent—something for which whoever seeks to understand Islam in its multifaceted entirety should look at. I propose that the insights of the book should be utilized to study the unity of conflicting traditions even in non-Muslim societies of Africa before colonialism downsized custom.

AbstractThe contradiction in conception test (CC test) is one of two tests posed by Kant's Formula of the Law of Nature. This article proposes a new interpretation of this test: a causal-teleological version of the Logical Contradiction Interpretation (LCI). Its distinctive feature is that it identifies causal and teleological implications in the thought of a universal law of nature. A causal-teleological version of LCI has two advantages. While the established view of the Groundwork's applications of the CC test is a hybrid view that treats the Groundwork's arguments as different in kind, a causal-teleological version of LCI unifies the Groundwork's applications of the CC test. Relatedly, a causal-teleological version of LCI provides a solution to the problem of how the CC test can confirm the impermissibility of a self-directed maxim.

Abstract
Neoliberalism is the default position of capitalism in the absence of countervailing pressure on capital from popular forces pressing for greater social justice. The contradictions of unbridled neoliberalism are the contradictions of unrestrained capitalism. It is a system that tends toward self-destruction. To survive, it needs the restraining hand of the state, frequently brought into play by demands of the popular classes. With the globalization of capital in its corporate form, it is escaping the regulatory reach of nation-states.
With the assistance of globalized states, transnational capital is building its own governance structure through the World Trade Organization and multilateral trade agreements like the TransPacific Partnership. What is emerging is an unbridled neoliberal regime in which states are only the administrative agents that protect capital against the popular classes. Being constructed secretly, bit by bit, is a global regime in which corporations are the citizens and globalized states are the local administrative units that enforce corporate dictates and maintain order. This is a world without popular sovereignty and without democracy. It is a world ruled by an insulated technocratic elite serving the interests of global capital. Without countervailing force from the popular classes, will it be able to arrest its self-destructive tendencies?

Examines how the temporal dimension of capitalism reveals its contradictions, focusing on the differences between an instrumental, purely quantitative external, & abstract time concept ("mechanical time") & a qualitative, internal, & process-related concept ("systemic time"). Capitalism's dependence on mechanical time at the expense of systemic time is discussed. It is argued that the means, eg, spatial expansion, of capital is subordinated to the temporal logic of its ends, eg, the accumulation of capital itself. The radical shift in social conceptions of time & time practices from uncontrollable "kairological" time to controllable mechanical time that enabled the emergence of the capitalist system is described. The resulting hegemony of mechanical time & economic value & their environmental & social impacts are assessed. It is shown how mechanical time, expressed in capitalism as prices, fails as an accurate time index that cannot balance the different time dialectics of society or account for systemic time. Resulting contradictions & problems related to biodiversity are explored. It is concluded that the qualities of future societies & the environment will depend on our ability to recover systemic time & make use of the options it offers. T. Arnold

We construct an economy composed of modern/formal sector and the government and situate it within an exogenously given traditional economy consisting of farm and non-farm activities. The particularities of interactions between formal sector, government and agriculture on one hand and between farm and non-farm sectors on the other are discussed and the departures from the literature are identified. Next, we propose, for accumulation and growth in formal sector a large part of agriculture is modernized and thus there is drain of resources from the traditional economy. This expropriates a sizeable section of non-farm population from the means of consumption and reproduction. Consequently, a vast "surplus population" is created endogenously, which remains outside the domain of capital. This phenomenon points at a fundamental conflict between the modern/formal sector and the traditional nonfarm activities in presence of agricultural-supply-constraint, which was missed out in the orthodox "dual economy" literature proposing only a frictionless transition. Next, following the dictum of "development management" we assume that this "surplus population" is rehabilitated in the newly "discovered" and valorized informal sector. But, contrary to the mainstream position which asserts a symbiotic relation between this informal sector and other sectors of a less-developed-economy we propose that, this promotion of informal activities either generates formal – informal contradiction or engenders a conflict within the non-modern economy in the form of contradiction between the valorized informal sector and the residual petty non-farm activities. Hence, the projection of informal sector as a cushion mitigating unemployment is nothing but a myth.