This forum contribution addresses two major themes in de Goede’s original essay on ‘Financial security’: (1) the relationship between stable markets and the proverbial ‘security dilemma’; and (2) the development of new decision-technologies to address risk in the post-World War II period. Its argument is that the confluence of these two themes through rational choice theory represents a fundamental re-evaluation of the security dilemma and its relationship to the rule of law governing market relations, ushering in (...) an era of perpetual physical and financial insecurity. (shrink)

This Article discusses the impact of the international financial crisis on Brazilian capital markets. While the banking industry was not severely affected, leading nonfinancial corporations experienced severe financial turmoil. Two Brazilian corporations cross-listed in the United States - Sadia S.A. and Aracruz Celulose S.A. - suffered billion-dollar losses when the Brazilian real unexpectedly plummeted in relation to the dollar. Despite earlier disclosure that these companies had engaged only in pure hedging activity, these great losses were found to be (...) the result of their highly speculative trading in currencyderivatives. Consequently, several private lawsuits were filed both in the United States and in Brazil. This Article takes a novel approach to the transnational securities litigation debate by examining the particular consequences of private litigation in a developed and in an emerging country. It compares the types of lawsuits filed and their final outcomes. Despite substantially similar alleged wrongdoing, the outcomes for securities holders in each jurisdiction contrast strikingly. Only U.S. investors of both companies were able to obtain substantial financial recoveries; Brazilian investors obtained none. This Article examines the reasons behind these discrepant results and the consequent economic distributional effects on global securities markets after the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Morrison. The Article argues that Morrison aggravates such shareholder cross-border non pro rata compensation and transfers of company value from foreign to U.S. investors. It identifies a set of costs borne by foreign investors, and so far neglected by scholars, as a consequence of the current status of U.S. and international securities law regimes. These costs are the result not only of the typical “circularity problem” in securities litigation, but also of a “double circularity problem” as they fall on foreign shareholders who also suffered equivalent damages to those experienced by the U.S. class being compensated. The Article then discusses potential policy reforms for fixing transnational securities litigation. (shrink)

This study aims to better promote the innovation and entrepreneurship of teachers and students in finance and economics colleges and universities in terms of food security. Based on the relevant theories such as food security, innovation and entrepreneurship, the questionnaire was used to investigate the issues related to food security of teachers and students in colleges and universities. Next, the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution analysis method was introduced to evaluate the safety (...) metrics of the response subsystem. Finally, Internet of Things monitoring technology was applied to grain growth and sales. The research results show that college teachers and students have a disjointed cognition of food security as important talents in innovation and entrepreneurship. After the TOPSIS analysis method is used to study, when college teachers and students choose to start a business in food security, they must pay attention to the changes in economic factors. The IoT monitoring technology is applied to grain growth and sales, and the monitoring technology of the IoT could reduce the mortality rate of corn seedlings to 3.59%. The mortality rate of seedlings is much higher than that of farmers relying on their own experience to grow corn. Therefore, this has great reference significance for the innovation and entrepreneurship development of college teachers and students in food security at this stage. (shrink)

The adoption of the Collateral Directive 2002/47/EC represents an important progress towards the implementation of a truly harmonized single financial market. The Lithuanian Financial Collateral Arrangements Act (the Law) has implemented the Directive 2002/47/EC in time. The Law establishes special regulation for financial securities given in transactions between „professional market participants“, between market participants and other companies, inclusive small and medium-sized enterprises. The Law applies to certain transactions on the financial markets and aims at stabilizing the (...) financial markets. Essentially, the Directive and the national implementing law ensure the enforceability of financial collateral arrangements and provide for rapid and non-formalistic enforcement of financial collateral procedures in insolvency cases. The realization of financial collaterals is made easier and cheaper. (shrink)

The paper proposes a financial model suitable for ensuring the economic, financial and social sustainability of this basic protection. We have calculated the estimated cost for the Spanish population in 2010 and have estimated the cost for the following 12 years (three legislatures) under a range of demographic and economic assumptions. The results are then analysed to draw conclusions about the viability and sustainability of this basic social protection floor. A remarkable finding is that it is feasible to (...) obtain greater coverage, but by requiring contributions of the State or other financial resources. (shrink)

The rising tide of corporate scandals and audit failures has shocked the public, and the integrity of auditors is being increasingly questioned. It is crucial for auditors and regulators to understand the main causes of audit failure and devise preventive measures accordingly. This study analyzes enforcement actions issued by the China Securities Regulatory Commission against auditors in respect of fraudulent financial reporting committed by listed companies in China. We find that auditors are more likely to be sanctioned by the (...) regulators for failing to detect and report material misstatement frauds rather than disclosure frauds. Further analysis of the material misstatements indicates that auditors are more likely to be sanctioned for failing to detect and report revenue-related frauds rather than assets-related frauds. In sum, our results suggest that regulators believe auditors have the responsibility to detect and report frauds that are egregious, transaction-based, and related to accounting earnings. The results contribute to our knowledge of auditors’ responsibilities for detecting frauds as perceived by regulators. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThis work explores financial edgework by professional speculative traders as an explanation for the persistence of rogue trading in financial markets. The article joins in the scholarly application of “edgework,” the social psychological study of voluntary risk, to speculative trading. The discussion focuses on the origins and persistence of that subset of behavior wherein the trader knowingly creates the condition in which he or she endangers the brokerage house that employs them and even, at times, threatens the public's (...) perception of the integrity of the securities industry. Going over the edge between risk taking and unauthorized rogue trading is explained by looking at five inducements to escalate risk taking provided in the securities industry. This examination of financial edgework demonstrates how and, to a lesser degree, why rogue trading is a result of the security industry's pursuit of and desire to capitalize upon yet not publicize an occupational culture stressing a “risk‐and‐win” ethos. (shrink)

Herding behavior occurs when security analysts ignore their private opinions and issue public forecasts that mimic the earnings forecasts of others. Joining the consensus provides cover for analysts' reputations. We question the ethics of this practice when the motive to protect one's reputation takes precedence over the forecase accuracy motive. While seemingly predictable behavior from a self interested perspective, herding behavior has subtle but long term ramifications for the efficient pricing of securities and the preservation of the public trust (...) in the financial services profession. We call upon each individual analyst as well as the profession to exercise the moral courage necessary to cultivate a climate of personal and public integrity. Personal resistance and pro-active policies are prescribed as actions to assist analysts to become more cognizant of their motivations, as well as to promote a more ethical professional context. (shrink)

In cloud security, intrusion detection system (IDS) is one of the challenging research areas. In a cloud environment, security incidents such as denial of service, scanning, malware code injection, virus, worm, and password cracking are getting usual. These attacks surely affect the company and may develop a financial loss if not distinguished in time. Therefore, securing the cloud from these types of attack is very much needed. To discover the problem, this paper suggests a novel IDS established (...) on a combination of a leader-based k-means clustering (LKM), optimal fuzzy logic system. Here, at first, the input dataset is grouped into clusters with the use of LKM. Then, cluster data are afforded to the fuzzy logic system (FLS). Here, normal and abnormal data are inquired by the FLS, while FLS training is done by the grey wolf optimization algorithm through maximizing the rules. The clouds simulator and NSL-Knowledge Discovery and DataBase (KDD) Cup 99 dataset are applied to inquire about the suggested method. Precision, recall, and F-measure are conceived as evaluation criteria. The obtained results have denoted the superiority of the suggested method in comparison with other methods. (shrink)

Knowing who benefits financially from a securities trade is necessary for the detection, prosecution and deterrence of illegal securities trading. Foreign jurisdictions with banking or securities secrecy laws are frequently used as a platform for illegal activity to frustrate law enforcement. This paper considers the extent to which Canadian law gives effect to so-called foreign blocking legislation. We conclude that while Canadian law does not generally give effect to foreign blocking legislation, it imposes only limited requirements on market intermediaries to (...) collect beneficial ownership information. Regulators are therefore left with the option of obtaining assistance from their foreign counterparts. (shrink)

Financial accountants falsify financial statements by means of financial techniques such as financial practices and financial standards, and when compared with conventional financial data, it is found that the falsified financial data often lack correlation or even contradict each other in terms of financial data indicators. At the same time, there are also inherent differences in reporting patterns from conventional financial data, but these differences are difficult to test manually. In this (...) paper, the fuzzy C-means clustering method is used to amplify these differences and thus identify false financial statements. In the proposed algorithm, firstly, the normalization constraint of the FCM clustering algorithm on the sum of affiliation of individual samples is relaxed to the constraint on the sum of affiliation of all samples, thus reducing the sensitivity of the algorithm to noise and isolated points; secondly, a new affiliation correction method is proposed to address the problem that the difference in affiliation is too large after the relaxation of the constraint. In the discussion of this paper, most of the information comes from the annual reports of companies, administrative penalty decisions of the Securities Regulatory Commission, and some information comes from research reports made by securities institutions, which are limited sources of information. The proposed method can correct the affiliation to a reasonable range, effectively avoiding the problem that some samples have too much affiliation and become a class of their own and also avoiding the problem that it is difficult to choose the termination threshold of the algorithm iteration due to too little affiliation, and can ensure that the constraint on the sum of affiliation of all samples is always satisfied during the iteration of the algorithm. The method has the characteristics of high recognition accuracy and has the significance of theoretical method innovation. (shrink)

The inherent complexity of modern financial systems, and their basis in human behavior, make it hard to establish unequivocally the “who, what, where, when, and why” of the global financial crisis. However, after almost a decade, we know enough to discard much of what has, in the meantime, become folk wisdom about the causes of the debacle, including Wall Street bonus culture, bankers’ greed, the moral hazard of “too big to fail,” government intervention (“too much government”) and deregulation (...) (“not enough government”). While each of these factors may have played some role, the crisis can be much more accurately described as one of ignorance than malevolence. The common thread tying the emergence of the bubble to the disastrous consequences of its bursting is the misunderstanding of correlation and causation links in three key domains: economic policy, financial modeling, and the regulatory framework. These misunderstandings helped fuel the housing bubble and introduced fragility into the system, making it vulnerable to the bubble’s subsequent, unavoidable burst. (shrink)

This article analyses the current state of empirical legal research in the law and the regulation of financial markets. It aims to provide a brief survey of the main work done either by lawyers or by others but which is pertinent to the operation of law and regulation. It focuses on six main areas of research and debates. These are the debates on the efficient markets hypothesis and mandatory disclosure rules in securities regulation; studies on behavioralism and their impact (...) on disclosure as a tool for protecting investors; studies on the impact of rules relating to market misconduct on market development; research into the relationship between legal rules and securities market development; evidence of the unintended impacts of regulation; and research into the dynamics of financial market regulatory regimes. Finally, this article mentions that understanding the general context in which law and regulation operates deepens our understanding of the nature, potential, and limits of law and regulation themselves. (shrink)

Financial misconduct has come into the spotlight in recent years, causing market regulators to increase the reach and severity of interventions. We show that at times the economic benefits of illicit financial activity outweigh the costs of litigation. We illustrate our argument with data from the US Securities and Exchanges Commission and a case of investment misconduct. From the neoclassical economic paradigm, which follows utilitarian thinking, it is rational to engage in misconduct. Still, the majority of professionals refrain (...) from misconduct, foregoing economic rewards. We suggest financial activity could be reimagined taking into account intrinsic and prosocial motivations. A virtue ethics framework could also be applied, linking financial behavior to the quest for moral excellence and shared flourishing. By going beyond utilitarian thinking and considering alternative models, we offer a fuller account of financial behavior and a better perspective from which to design deterrence methods. (shrink)

Widespread concerns about the long-term fiscal gap in Social Security have prompted various proposals for structural reform, with individual accounts as the centerpiece. Carving out individual accounts from the existing system would shift significant risks and responsibilities to individual workers. A parallel development has already occurred in the area of private pensions. Experience with 401 plans indicates that many workers will have difficulty making prudent decisions concerning investment and withdrawal of funds. Moreover, in implementing any system of voluntary individual (...) accounts, it will be important to design default settings that provide appropriate guidance for workers with heterogeneous levels of financial sophistication and risk tolerance. The central goal of Social Security reform should be to close the fiscal gap in a way that preserves rather than undermines the existing system of mandatory defined benefits for all workers. (shrink)

This article examines the future of social security in emerging economies, exploring the key challenges facing these countries and proposing potential solutions. Financial sustainability, universal coverage and equity are some of the main obstacles that must be overcome to ensure a robust and fair social security system. Through a literature review and case analysis, proposals are presented to improve the effectiveness and sustainability of these systems in the context of emerging economies.

Under present accounting rules, lessees frequently structure contracts for leased assets, in situations where they enjoy benefits similar to outright ownership, in a way that keeps both the leased assets and related liabilities off their books. This method of accounting creates off-balance sheet financing and is called operating lease accounting. The paper debates the ethicality of intentionally structuring lease contracts to avoid disclosing leased asset and liability amounts and describes the “slippery slope” of rule-based accounting for synthetic leases and special (...) purpose entities, that, in the author’s opinion, led to the accounting debacles at Enron and other companies. The ethical intent that is implicit in the Securities and Exchange Commission and Financial Accounting Standards Board regulations is discussed and suggestions for improving the ethicality of financial reporting are provided. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Why did the popping of the housing bubble bring the financial system—rather than just the housing sector of the economy—to its knees? The answer lies in two methods by which banks had evaded regulatory capital requirements. First, they had temporarily placed assets—such as securitized mortgages—in off‐balance‐sheet entities, so that they did not have to hold significant capital buffers against them. Second, the capital regulations also allowed banks to reduce the amount of capital they held against assets that remained (...) on their balance sheets—if those assets took the form of AAA‐rated tranches of securitized mortgages. Thus, by repackaging mortgages into mortgage‐backed securities, whether held on or off their balance sheets, banks reduced the amount of capital required against their loans, increasing their ability to make loans many‐fold. The principal effect of this regulatory arbitrage, however, was to concentrate the risk of mortgage defaults in the banks and render them insolvent when the housing bubble popped. (shrink)

In a recent study by Cai et al. about water shortages in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban areas, virtual water has become the central concept of the groundwater security strategy by suggesting increasing imports of water-intensive agricultural products instead of utilizing the depleted groundwater resources for production. However, despite reviewing the content, we could not see how the authors discussed the households’ economic and financial issues from both production and consumption perspectives.

Using the emerging technology of large-scale textual analysis, this study examines the use of the term ‘customer satisfaction’ and its variants in the annual reports issued by publicly traded U.S. corporations and filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission as Form 10-K. We document the frequency of the term’s occurrence in 10-Ks over the 1995–2013 period and the differences in usage across industries. We then relate the term’s usage in 10-Ks to subsequent scores from the American Customer Satisfaction Index to (...) determine whether management’s discussion of customer satisfaction in financial disclosures is credible. The commitment of management to shareholders versus, more broadly, stakeholders is a central question in business ethics, and the integrity of management communication is a fundamental construct in the American Marketing Association’s Statement of Ethics. We document a complex relation between management’s discussion of customer satisfaction and subsequently reported satisfaction. We find that the general use of customer satisfaction in 10-K documents is negatively correlated with subsequent ACSI scores. However, for retail firms, when the phrase is located near words indicating measurement or monitoring of the phenomenon, the empirical relation is reversed and becomes positive. (shrink)

Richard A. Posner's two books on the financial crisis focus on possible macroeconomic (Keynesian) causes of it, neglecting legal causes that would have had only microeconomic effects, yet could have been responsible for the crisis. Specifically, Posner accepts too readily the conventional wisdom that banks? leverage levels, hence their capital cushions, were deregulated; this ignores Basel I, Basel II, and the Recourse rule, which internationally and (in the last case) in the United States minutely regulated not only leverage levels (...) but the composition of banks? assets. These regulations penalized banks for making business loans in comparison to mortgage loans, and it further penalized them for keeping mortgage loans rather than selling them for securitization and then buying back the ?senior? tranches of the resulting mortgage-backed securities. These regulations may explain the overconcentration of mortgage risk in the banks, and thus the financial crisis. (shrink)

The Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 requires company executives to certify financial statements and internal controls as a means of reducing fraud. Many companies have operationalized this by instituting a sub-certification process and requiring lower-level managers to sign certification statements. These lower-level organizational members are often the individuals who are aware of fraud and are in the best position to provide information on the fraudulent act. However, the sub-certification process may have the effect of reducing employees’ intentions to report wrongdoing. (...) We suggest that subordinates with knowledge of a superior who committed a fraudulent act and certified that there is no fraud will feel less personal responsibility to report the act, thus, decreasing reporting intentions. Additionally, we suggest that if the fraud is discovered subsequent to the reports being filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, employees will perceive lower management responsiveness to investigate the fraud, which will reduce intentions to report. Using an experimental approach, we manipulate two between-participant variables: the presence or absence of sub-certification by the transgressor and the timing of fraud discovery, either before or after the reports have been filed with the SEC. We find that when sub-certification is present, perceived personal responsibility and intentions to report were diminished compared to when sub-certification is absent. Timing of the discovery of the fraudulent act did not influence perceived management responsiveness or reporting intentions. Supplemental analysis shows that personal responsibility partially mediates the relationship between sub-certification and reporting intentions. Our findings suggest that audit committees and senior executives may want to carefully consider the costs and benefits of the sub-certification process. (shrink)

ABSTRACT The financial crisis was in large part caused, prolonged, and worsened by a series of government actions and interventions. The housing boom and bust that precipitated the crisis were enabled by extraordinarily loose monetary policy. After the housing boom came to an end, the Federal Reserve misdiagnosed financial markets' uncertainty about the location and value of risky subprime mortgage‐backed securities as being, instead, a liquidity problem, and it took inappropriate compensatory actions that had side effects that included (...) raising the price of oil. Finally, in mid‐September 2008, the government's ad‐hoc bailouts, and the unpredictable terms of the proposed tarp legislation, appear to have caused a sharp spike in uncertainty in the financial markets. (shrink)

Food-for-work programs distribute food aid to recipients in exchange for labor, and are an important mode of aid delivery for both public and private aid providers. While debate continues as to whether food-for-work programs are socially just and economically sensible, governments, international institutions, and NGOs continue to tout them as a flexible and cost-effective way to deliver targeted aid and promote community development. This paper critiques the underlying logic of food-for-work, focusing on how this approach to food aid and food (...) security promote labor force participation by leveraging hunger against poverty, and how the ideological and practical assumptions of food-for-work become enmeshed within discourses of geopolitical security. I rely on a case study examination of US-funded food-for-work programs implemented in Jakarta, Indonesia following the 1997 financial crisis. The crisis produced acute food insecurity and poverty in Indonesia, provoking fears of mob violence by the hungry poor and the spread of radical Islamism in the post-crisis political vacuum. Food-for-work programs were, in this context, meant to resolve the problems of both food insecurity and geopolitical insecurity by providing food to targeted populations, employment to those otherwise thrown out of work, and resituating the hungry poor in relation to broader scales of local, national, and global power. (shrink)

The essence of the security complex is revealed. Approaches to understanding the essence of information security are determined, in particular, as a state of security, as a type of public information legal relations, the direction of information relations within the limits of information legislation, the state of information (information environment of society, information development). The informational component of national security is considered. The institutional landscape of information security is described, which includes supranational international bodies and (...) institutions and transnational corporations, states and their governments, business entities and financial and industrial groups, political parties and civil society organizations, religious organizations, fundamentalist and terrorist groups, individual politicians and public figures, journalists and publicists, bloggers and other persons who collect, process, perceive, store, transform and distribute information through any of the available communication channels. The directions of ensuring information security in modern Ukraine are characterized. The role of information security in ensuring the integrity of the national information space of Ukraine is revealed. It has been proven that with the help of modern information security technologies, it becomes possible to minimize the impact of various threats and risks on the functioning of the information space at the global / regional, national / local levels. (shrink)

This article investigates the nexus between bank-specific risks and the financial stability of the banks for a panel data set of 15 scheduled banks in Pakistan over a 12-year period from 2009 to 2020. Using the fixed-effect model, the study result shows that bank-specific risks, i.e., credit risk and liquidity risk are detrimental to bank stability, whereas funding risk has no significant impact on bank stability. Besides these, bank size has also a negative impact on bank stability, whereas the (...) return on assets revealed a positive influence. To ensure stability, bank management should establish policies that confirm secure loan granting and timely reimbursement from customers to minimize the credit risk. Besides this, management should keenly observe the liquidity position and should also effectively mobilize the customer deposits to attain financial stability. (shrink)

Many of the reasons offered for outsourcing security involve costs and benefits – a consequentialist way of reasoning. Thus, I will explore a consequentialist argument against the use of private security contractors (PSCs) in counterinsurgencies. Discussing the benefits and costs of employing PSCs in these kinds of operations will demonstrate that the hiring of PSCs in many cases (perhaps in most) is consequentially unsound. More precisely, the overall negative consequences of hiring PSCs during counterinsurgencies should preclude their use (...) unless in extreme emergencies. Defenders of the use of PSCs readily point to their financial benefits and expected increase in efficiency as the starting point for their argumentation. On my account, if the benefits really do outweigh the foreseeable and expected costs, then hiring PSCs may, in that case, be a morally viable option. However, I contend that, unless we institute broad contractual control and oversight reform, unless we truly understand the costs and benefits, we should have a standing, prima facie prohibition against employing PSCs in counterinsurgencies. (shrink)

This article analyses the current state of empirical legal research in the law and the regulation of financial markets. It aims to provide a brief survey of the main work done either by lawyers or by others but which is pertinent to the operation of law and regulation. It focuses on six main areas of research and debates. These are the debates on the efficient markets hypothesis and mandatory disclosure rules in securities regulation; studies on behavioralism and their impact (...) on disclosure as a tool for protecting investors; studies on the impact of rules relating to market misconduct on market development; research into the relationship between legal rules and securities market development; evidence of the unintended impacts of regulation; and research into the dynamics of financial market regulatory regimes. Finally, this article mentions that understanding the general context in which law and regulation operates deepens our understanding of the nature, potential, and limits of law and regulation themselves. (shrink)

Dans la lignée de Kenneth Arrow, les théoriciens du bien-être présentent la mise en oeuvre des programmes publics de Sécurité sociale comme le moyen de pallier les défaillances du marché. Or, cette approche n’est pas confortée par une analyse du développement des premières protections sociales. D’une part, les offres privées, loin d’avoir été défaillantes, se sont développées selon un processus d’essais et d’erreurs leur ayant permis d’acquérir un avantage comparatif dans la gestion de l’asymétrie de l’information.D’autre part, l’intervention publique a (...) entravé le développement de ces protections privées en favorisant la constitution de rentes politiques et financières dès le XIXème siècle. La disparition ultérieure du marché français, loin d’être une conséquence de ses propres “défaillances”, apparaît comme la résultante d’un phénomène d’éviction.Following of Kenneth Arrow, Welfare Economics see social security as the only way to solve market failures. This approach is not supported by a careful analysis of the development of the former kinds of private social protections.On the one hand, private institutions, far from being deficient, developed according to a trial and error process, which provided them with a competitive advantage in the management of informational asymmetry.On the other hand, public regulation hampered the development of those first private institutions. Governments favored, as far back as the 19th century, the supply of political and financial rents. The subsequent disappearance of the market, far from being the consequence of its own “failures”, seems to be the result of a crowding out phenomenon. (shrink)

The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is not new. Many entrepreneurs created and developed companies along the time, with a strong sense of ethical and social responsibility. This article presents an example of how CSR was conceived and put into practice when Caja de Pensiones para la Vejez y de Ahorros was created in Barcelona in 1905, following the life and ideas of its founder, Francesc Moragas, a lawyer with a deep commitment for social action and a successful conception (...) of the technical and economic dimensions of a financial and social institution. (shrink)

This book offers a unified treatment of selected topics in the theory of financial markets. Starting with discrete time models, Dothan introduces discrete time stochastic calculus and discrete martingale methods of intuitive simplicity to characterize attainability, completeness, pricing, and the relationship between risk and return in financial markets. Subsequently, he uses the intuition developed in conjunction with the discrete time theory to introduce continuous time calculus for continuous, jump, and mixed continuous-jump processes, and to deal with attainability, completeness, (...) pricing, and the relationship between risk and return in general continuous time models. Throughout, the exposition of the continuous time theory emphasizes the analogies between discrete time and continuous time methods and results. The book includes many examples, applications to the pricing of options and other derivative securities, and an extensive discussion of the Black-Scholes model and its most general theoretical extension. (shrink)

In the wake of revelations about the American Psychological Association's complicity in the military's enhanced interrogation program, some psychologists have called upon the association to sever its ties to national security agencies. But psychology's relationship to the military is no short-term fling born of the War on Terror. This article demonstrates that psychology's close relationship to national security agencies and interests has long been a visible and consequential feature of the discipline. Drawing on social scientific debates about the (...) relationship between national security agencies and the social sciences in the late 1960s and early 1970s, this article also provides cautionary lessons for psychologists confronting the torture controversy. It concludes that an ethically robust response to this controversy requires that psychologists engage in a sustained reckoning with the powerful institutional, epistemological, and financial incentives that have bound the discipline to the military and intelligence communities since World War I. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to show how the critically acclaimed and award winning film Margin Call may be used in business ethics teaching. Set in a fictional investment bank at the dawn of the financial crisis, the film zooms in on the motivations and decision-making of people who had much to lose from the crash of the hitherto very profitable mortgage-backed securities market. The film offers rich material for analysis of behaviours that contributed to the crisis. The (...) article will set out topics for classroom discussion, including the impact of incentives and power structures, contextual factors that distance people from the consequences of their actions, and considerations of how the banking industry may be transformed. (shrink)

Grounded in a will to adapt to dangers, and espouse both responsibility and resilience, voluntary measures have largely replaced one of the oldest public health strategies, quarantine. The Covid-19 pandemic, however, elicited a broad sweep of tactics from the archive of public health armoury. On a general level, this review essay addresses the common measures rolled out by various authorities against the pandemic - the lock-downs, reopening process, financial support and vaccination. By relating these measures to 1) the “plague-stricken (...) town”, deployed during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Europe by the Polizeistaat; 2) the “self-regulation strategy” that emerged with liberal ideas at the end of the eighteenth century; and 3) the “minimum security” programmed by neoliberal governmentality in the second half of the twentieth century, it is suggested that tensions between freedom and security during, and after, the pandemic can be better understood. To end, the essay noticed that the pandemic has enforced tensions in the administration and calibration of individual wishes and collective wellbeing, creating a fragile “freedom-security relationship” and new problem space for self-regulation. (shrink)

The planet’s swiftly growing population coupled with the lack of food security and the degradation of natural resources has caused many demographers to worry about the ramifications of unchecked population growth while many philosophers worry about the ethical issues surrounding the methods of population control. Therefore, I intend to argue a system of encouraging a decrease in personal fertility rate via financial incentives offers a solution that is both viable and not morally reprehensible.

Invasive measures, as special investigative measures are defined, are ante delictum measures. They are applied only in situations in which the evidence cannot be obtained by conventional methods, and are needed for the smooth conduct of criminal proceedings. The financial means for the application of these invasive measures for the needs of defence and security are allocated with a budget by the legislative authority. The main hypothesis of this paper states that: supervision over the application and financing of (...) the implementation of special investigative measures has a positive impact / or is in direct correlation with the effective construction/development and functioning of the security-defence system, especially from the aspect of the principles of: good governance, transparency, accountability, proportionality, and efficient application of financial resources. Starting from the indicated hypothesis, the research in the paper is based on two variables: independent variable, i.e., the supervision over the application and financing of the implementation of the special investigative measures, and a dependent variable, i.e., the effective development and proper and efficient functioning of the security-defence system. From a methodological point of view, the paper uses a combined approach of qualitative and quantitative analysis, through research, measurement, and comparison of: adopted international standards regarding the application of special investigative measures, the regulations in the Macedonian normative framework, the content of the instructions and the implementation manuals of the special investigative measures by the relevant institutions in the Macedonian society. (shrink)

Our study considers the governance, ethics and operational challenges associated with the acquisition, manipulation and commodification of ‘big data’ in the financial services sector. To the best of our knowledge, there are no published studies describing empirical research undertaken within companies in this sector to understand how they are responding to such challenges: our field-based research is a significant initial contribution in this respect. We describe the results of a micro-ethnographic study undertaken in a small-to-medium-sized company developing disruptive, technology-related (...) platforms and services in the banking and retail sectors based on big data and associated analytics: these are used to derive commercially valuable insights from personal customer data in exchange for cash back and targeted rewards. The company was found to employ a multi-level innovation governance approach, underpinned by an ethical strategy based on a principle of mutual benefit. Opt-in and informed consent for using data for specific purposes was supported by principles of data minimisation and anonymisation, with unrestricted use of secondary, anonymised and aggregated data to develop insights. Governance, which included contextual data protection legislation, payment-card industry data usage standards and internal corporate controls, presented as bespoke organisational practices relating to data security and privacy. These in total set the governance and ethics frame for big data innovation at the company within which it has had to be both adaptive and responsive under conditions of normative and regulatory uncertainty. (shrink)

The European System of Financial Supervision (ESFS) was established by the EU at the beginning of 2011. Participating in its operation are national authorities and EU bodies (or agencies), which are known as European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs). Under the ESFS, day-to-day supervision remains overwhelmingly a matter for national authorities, but the ESAs are vested with certain intervention powers over national authorities and, exceptionally, over market actors. The aim of this article is to ask questions about the division of labour (...) between the ESAs and the national authorities. Thereby, it seeks to participate in the debate on what ought to be the future direction of the ESFS. Specifically, it seeks to open the debate on whether intervention-based supervision or EU day-to-day supervision should be preferred. Focusing mainly on the European Securities and Markets Authority (as one of the ESAs), the article concludes that intervention-based supervision has prima facie more to offer. (shrink)

This paper takes up recent challenges to consequentialist forms of ethically evaluating risks and explores how a non-consequentialist form of deliberation, Kantian ethics, can address questions about risk. I examine two cases concerning ethically- questionable financial risks: investing in abstruse financial instruments and investing while relying on a bailout. After challenging consequentialist evaluations of these cases, I use Kant’s distinction between morals and prudence to evaluate when the investments are immoral and when they are merely imprudent. I argue (...) that the investment practices are imprudent when they do not take adequate precautions to secure the firm’s long- term flourishing. They are immoral in a Kantian sense when they risk the destruction of the financial system upon which the firms depend. The upshot of my analysis is that moral actions require more risk aversion than prudent actions and prudent actions require more risk aversion than expected-value-maximizing actions. (shrink)

Depositors have perceived banks as acting unethically during the most recent recession. One area of consternation is the ambiguity of the legal obligations entailed by the deposit contract when it is backed with only fractional reserves. In this article, we apply an existing analysis of the legitimacy and ethicality of banking practices to a wider range of financial transactions, including insurance policies, securities lending, perpetual bonds, and callable loans. Securities lending in particular creates rights violations analogous to those in (...) fractional-reserve banking. Both callable loans and perpetual bonds have clear legal obligations which are not inherently problematic, though we herein clarify what these obligations are. Finally, we apply our ethical framework to demonstrate that insurance products are distinct from banking deposit contracts, and that perceived parallels between the two products underestimate these differences. (shrink)

ABSTRACT The underlying cause of the financial meltdown was much more mundane than a “crisis of capitalism”: The real origins lay in mostly obscure housing, tax, and regulatory policies of the U.S. government. The Community Reinvestment Act, the affordable‐housing “mission” of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, penalty‐free refinancing of home loans, penalty‐free defaults on home loans, tax preferences for home‐equity borrowing, and reduced capital requirements for banks that held mortgages and mortgage‐backed securities combined with each other to create the (...) incentives for both subprime lending and the housing bubble that eventually led to the financial collapse. (shrink)

This essay reviews recent debates over the allocation of regulatory authority in three separate fields of financial regulation: corporate governance, securities regulation, and the regulation of financial institutions. In each field, the essay argues, reform proposals can be organized into three basic groups: those that advocate centralization of regulatory authority; those that favor competition among governmental bodies; and those that recommend the privatization of regulatory standards. While this debate is most familiar in the field of corporate governance, highly (...) analogous policy discussions are currently taking place in securities regulation and the regulation of financial institutions. This essay traces the development of arguments over the proper allocation of regulatory authority in various sectors of the financial services industry, noting differences both in the contexts in which the issue has arisen in various sectors of the industry and also in the ways regulatory authority is currently allocated in each sector. The essay concludes with several tentative thoughts about normative grounds on which debates over the proper allocation of regulatory authority might ultimately be resolved. (shrink)

When Washington Shut Down Wall Street unfolds like a mystery story. It traces Treasury Secretary William Gibbs McAdoo's triumph over a monetary crisis at the outbreak of World War I that threatened the United States with financial disaster. The biggest gold outflow in a generation imperiled America's ability to repay its debts abroad. Fear that the United States would abandon the gold standard sent the dollar plummeting on world markets. Without a central bank in the summer of 1914, the (...) United States resembled a headless financial giant. William McAdoo stepped in with courageous action, we read in Silber's gripping account. He shut the New York Stock Exchange for more than four months to prevent Europeans from selling their American securities and demanding gold in return. He smothered the country with emergency currency to prevent a replay of the bank runs that swept America in 1907. And he launched the United States as a world monetary power by honoring America's commitment to the gold standard. His actions provide a blueprint for crisis control that merits attention today. McAdoo's recipe emphasizes an exit strategy that allows policymakers to throttle a crisis while minimizing collateral damage. When Washington Shut Down Wall Street recreates the drama of America's battle for financial credibility. McAdoo's accomplishments place him alongside Paul Volcker and Alan Greenspan as great American financial leaders. McAdoo, in fact, nursed the Federal Reserve into existence as the 1914 crisis waned and served as the first chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. (shrink)

Due to the pandemic and the suspension of in-person school classes, there was an interruption in the meals served to approximately 40 million students who benefited from the Brazilian National School Feeding Program (PNAE). This article describes two case studies, comparing the strategies adopted by two municipalities for maintaining school feeding during the Covid-19 pandemic in the northern region of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and discuss possible impacts of these strategies on food and nutrition security. These (...) municipalities together cover about 81% of the population in the region. In July 2020, we conducted interviews with PNAE municipal managers, following a qualitative approach. We discuss the results in relation to existing Brazilian guidance on food and nutrition security. The municipalities have developed distinct strategies to overcome operational obstacles and maintain PNAE goals, such as distributing food kits and making cash transfers to students’ families. The main determinants of these strategies are financial availability, the relationship between municipal teams and school communities, and the pre-pandemic PNAE logistics and management. Depending on the strategy and duration of the pandemic, the impacts on food and nutrition security can be wide-ranging, affecting food quality and local farmers who sell products to PNAE. It is necessary to acknowledge that this is not a short-term pandemic and find ways to perform school feeding in accordance with PNAE criteria. (shrink)

Purpose: India primarily had remained a major cash-based economy until early 2000s. The economy was rapidly growing, complemented with advanced technology, services, and manufacturing sector growth. Methodology: The research methodology adopted is secondary research with descriptive analysis. As technology progressed, people gained access to mobiles and started getting connected to the world. As everything got involved, so did the banking sector, which integrated itself with digital transactions. Findings: The introduction of digital transactions made transferring money easy, reliable, and secure amongst (...) people. The present study delves into the penetration of digital transactions in rural India and its role in fostering financial inclusion. Practical Implications: This research sheds light on the spread of digital transactions and their intensity in rural India, recognizing the need for concerted advocacy and policy building to ensure proper integration of the digital network to achieve greater financial inclusivity. Further, this study explores the availability, intensity, and problems related to digital transactions and financial inclusion in the country. Originality/Value: The findings of the research indicate that despite numerous government initiatives on digitalization of payments, enhanced transparency, increased security, reliable trustworthiness, and an “integrated digital payment system” would go a long way toward enhancing long-term economic growth and achieving greater financial inclusion in India. (shrink)

This book examines links between post-conflict security, peace and development in Africa, Latin America, Europe and New Zealand. Young peace researchers from the Global South as well as from Italy and New Zealand address in case studies traumas in Northern Uganda, demobilisation and reintegration of ex-combatants in the Ivory Coast, economic and financial management of terrorism in Kenya, organised crime in Brazil, mental health issues in Colombia, macro realism in Europe and global defence reforms within the military apparatus (...) since 1990. The book reviews linkages between regional stability, development and peace in post-conflict societies while adding on to the post 2015 international agenda and discusses linkages between peace, security and development. (shrink)

This study was an attempt to examine the using intelligent systems to manage risks and reduce financial risks using artificial intelligence in large companies. The data collected from the data is collected from the stock organization and the stock Securities of Iran. Moreover, the data is collected from 17 companies for ten years and the data was collected through the variance formula and then the results were examined using the SSPS method. Variance formula is σ µ 2= xi- 2 (...) /n ( ( )) ∧ ∧ ∑. The data is completely obtained from a reliable and correct source, which is related to the Department of Statistics of Iran’s Stocks and Securities. After categorizing and classifying the collected information and data, it is processed and analyzed, and the results and findings of this study are stated. In order to examine the research questions, appropriate tests (Shefe tests) were used to analyze the data. The analysis of data revealed that the findings of this study reveal that Shatran, Arya, Shebandar, Famili are profitable among other stocks. Other stocks are loss because of high cost of raw materials and sanction of Iran. Moreover, companies could not export their products. Plus, the purchase power of the people in the country decreases because of the inflation of the country, so the companies could not buy anything. On the one hand, liquidity power of people, on the other hand, less export lead to the decrease of cash flow, liquidity power of companies and firms and could not sell their products. It can be concluded that those stocks are loss and have high risk. (shrink)