Realizing hope

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Kent Olson

"Farm managers will appreciate this book as they learn the principles of farm management; from the basics of management and economics; to the details of strategy and operations. It presents economic concepts, such as the discussion of markets, competitive forces, and macroeconomics, which is new to farm management texts. Material is included on strategy, marketing, budgeting, production and operations, quality, finance, investment, risk, contracts, staffing, business organisation, farm succession, and the future. Strategic management and quality management as well as new techniques and tools in production and operations management are also examined. This approach will help farm managers improve the efficiency, effectiveness, objectivity, and, ultimately, success of their decisions"--

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Charles S. Tapiero

Risk models are models of uncertainty, engineered for some purposes. They are “educated guesses and hypotheses” assessed and valued in terms of well-defined future states and their consequences. They are engineered to predict, to manage countable and accountable futures and to provide a frame of reference within which we may believe that “uncertainty is tamed.” Quantitative-statistical tools are used to reconcile our information, experience and other knowledge with hypotheses that both serve as the foundation of risk models and also value and price risk.^ Risk models are therefore common to most professions, each with its own methods and techniques based on their needs, experience and a wisdom accrued over long periods of time.This book provides a broad and interdisciplinary foundation to engineering risks and to their financial valuation and pricing. Risk models applied in industry and business, heath care, safety, the environment and regulation are used to highlight their variety while financial valuation techniques are used to assess their financial consequences.This book is technically accessible to all readers and students with a basic background in probability and statistics (with 3 chapters devoted to introduce their elements). Principles of risk measurement, valuation and financial pricing as well as the economics of uncertainty are outlined in 5 chapters with numerous examples and applications. New results,^ extending classical models such as the CCAPM are presented providing insights to assess the risks and their price in an interconnected, dependent and strategic economic environment. In an environment departing from the fundamental assumptions we make regarding financial markets, the book provides a strategic/game-like approach to assess the risk and the opportunities that such an environment implies. To control these risks, a strategic-control approach is developed that recognizes that many risks result by “what we do” as well as “what others do”. In particular we address the strategic and statistical control of compliance in large financial institutions confronted increasingly with a complex and far more extensive regulation.

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Robert Eisner

Everybody talks about the economy; everybody has complaints or recommendations. Few know what they're talking about. So asserts Robert Eisner - one of our nation's most distinguished economists - in this authoritative analysis of the real and imagined ills of the U.S. economy. In clear, accessible language, The Misunderstood Economy confronts an array of myths surrounding economic issues. Eisner begins by challenging many of the standards traditionally used to measure economic well-being. He argues that economic prosperity should not be evaluated by miscounted federal deficits and debt, nor by the level of prices. What counts is the production of goods and services to enjoy now and add to our enjoyment in the future - and the jobs necessary for that production. Eisner posits that the federal government's accounting systems are fundamentally flawed because - violating accepted practice in the private sector and in governments around the world - U.S. federal accounts make no distinction between current outlays and investment. We also fail to relate the growing federal debt either to government or national assets, or to our growing national income. The result is a failure to understand the real impact of deficits on our current and future economic welfare. Deficits can be too small, Eisner argues, as well as too large, and one can't tell which until they are measured right. Deficits can be too small in a sluggish economy with high unemployment, when the nation lacks essential purchasing power for the products of American business. Deficit reduction then destroys jobs and discourages investment; it offers current pain for no future gain. From this perspective, Eisner addresses common misconceptions on the role of taxes (he wouldn't raise them to reduce the deficit), social security, inflation, trade, and foreign investment. He sharply challenges the ideas of many economists, bankers, and politicians that a significant level of unemployment is "natural" and necessary. He rejects the ideas of those who poor-mouth the U.S. economy - by far the strongest in the world - but notes the failings that threaten our prospects for continued leadership in our rapidly changing, technologically advancing world. Throughout his lucid analysis, Eisner takes time to provide straightforward definitions of the terms so often used and misused in the course of national discussions . He concludes that we can enjoy greater prosperity today and build a foundation for greater long-term growth by focusing on the real issues and escaping the flawed thinking that has too often in the past been allowed to distort analysis of the economy.

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Jack Uldrich with Deb Newberry

Offers an informative prediction concerning how the emerging field of nanotechnology will transform business, exploring a range of nanotech innovations and how they will strategically influence every industry.