Noise Trading, Central Bank Interventions, and the Informational Content of Foreign Currency Options (Kieler Studien

Book Description

A flexible instrument to insure against adverse exchange rate movements are options on foreign currency. Often a relatively simple foreign currency option valuation model is used to address issues related to the pricing and hedging of such options. The results of many empirical studies document that real-world foreign currency option premia deviate from those predicted by the baseline model. In the first part of the book, it is shown that a noise trader model can help to explain the observed mispricing of the baseline foreign currency option pricing model. In the second part of the book, it is studied how policymakers can exploit the pricing errors of the baseline model. In particular, it is examined how option pricing theory can be applied to assess the effectiveness of central bank interventions in the foreign exchange market. To this end, a model is constructed to analyze the effectiveness of the interventions conducted by the Deutsche Bundesbank during the Louvre period.

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This book is a chilling account of the successful $176 million class-action racial discrimination suit brought against the Texaco corporation by Bari-Ellen Roberts and her 1,400 fellow African American colleagues. Roberts served as a senior financial analyst at Texaco from 1990 to 1997. With help from Time correspondent Jack E. White, she takes us from her Cincinnati origins to the fateful day she went to work for Texaco where she endured Neanderthal-like discrimination from her white colleagues, such as a vice president of human resources labeling her diversity-building proposals as "militant," coworkers using racial slurs such as "little colored girl," and seeing her boss in a Sambo costume at a Halloween party. Roberts tells of the stress, anger, fear, and ultimately the will it took for her to become the lead plaintiff in the case. She ultimately secured in- and out-of-court settlements with the help of a justice-oriented white executive, Richard Lundvall, who went public with taped racist comments made by his white colleagues. Like Rosa Parks, Bari-Ellen Roberts shows a courage that has benefited all Americans. --Eugene Holley Jr.

Book Description

Texaco recruited banking executive Bari-Ellen Roberts with promises of a professional challenge and advancement. But she and 1400 other African Americans faced a persistant pattern of racial discrimination so onerous that it wound up in a lawsuit-and ultimately in the largest discrimination settlement in U.S. History. This is the true story of how a giant corporation was challenged against all odds by one brave woman who was determined to stand her ground.

Here, in Bari-Ellen Roberts' own words, is the fascinating, infuriating, and ultimately triumphant account of how she acheived an electrifying result that could change the face of corporate America, including the inside story of the notorious "Texaco Tapes," which recorded senior executives making racially-charged comments while they allegedly plotted the destruction of evidence. Here is a fresh and inspiring vantage point on what is unquestionably the major civil rights battleground of the twenty-first century: the workplace. Spellbinding and eloquent, intensely personal and dramatically riveting, this is the most persuasive yet damning account of corporate racial discrimination ever written.

Customer Reviews:

One Admirable Woman's Story; One Company's Shame.......2002-11-11

I regret that this story is written "with Jack E. White" and not told by Roberts herself. The value of this book is primarily as a personal memoir. As told by White, it is a rather superficial, though intimate, personal outline of Roberts' life--the difficult time she had growing up, her ill-fated marriage, her strength and ambition in the face of adversity. I came away from the book admiring Roberts for her courage and determination, and appalled at Texaco's corporate culture, its hierarchy and unforgiveable prejudice. Were it not for anti-discrimination law, Texaco's sins would have remained hidden and unrectified. Until further notice, I'll certainly be buying my gasoline anywhere else!

Wonderful account of race and corporate America.......2002-06-27

I enjoyed this book tremendously. It was a little slow toward the end, but overall it was very well-written. It's a shame that this type of blatant racism still exists today, not that I'm surprised, but it's truly a shame. It took a lot of courage and stamina on Roberts' part to force Texaco to acknowlegde their archaeic and ignorant business practices relative to race. I applaud Bari Ellen Roberts even when there are those who still believe in Texaco's innocence...much like the reviewer who chooses to perpetuate one of America's largest problems...the belief that other races are inferior and should bow down to this almighty, superior race. "Forgive him, for he knows not what he does." I enjoyed reading about her life and what she went through that made her into what she is today. This is definitely a book worth reading for all.

An Eye-Opening View of Overcoming Corporate Racism.......2002-05-09

Roberts vs. Texaco,a true story of race and corporate America, started a little slow, depicting Bari-Ellen Roberts' life since childhood. At first, I didn't know why it went into such detail, but as I read along, I understood how all of the pieces in her life connected to the storyline.
Throughout her life, Bari-Ellen was faced with overt, institutional, and implicit racism. As she entered Texaco's workforce, the racist philosophies were the worst she had ever seen. The book depicts the monumental challenges she faced in such a hostile environment. (The glass ceiling and the "good-old-boy" network.) The effects of this, along with hitting the glass ceiling/"brick wall" was enough for her and a core group of others to spark a class action lawsuit which cost the company the largest discrimination settlement in U.S. history. One hundred and seventy-six million dollars!
This book did an excellent job by not focusing solely the lawsuit aspects. Bari-Ellen put a lot of herself into writing this book. I enjoyed reading about her family issues and personal opinions as the case was pending. The outcome was emotionally touching and inspiring.

What an eye opening!.......2001-08-27

First of all, I would like to apoligize for Mr. Alan Wain.....he sounds very bitter. And another thing, Roberts did not get rich. Saying she was at the right place at the right time is by far the biggest BS ever, because she did not go into that position knowingly. But Texaco did hire her knowing that she would not get the promotions due her because of her race. For shame on what Texaco stood for! They had it coming to them big time. And I hope no one forgets about this case and the many horrific details that helped the plaintiffs victor!

Ignorance is Still Bliss when it comes to corporate America.......2000-11-02

I read this book and I am MORE encouraged in my own fight against a large corporation that I felt discriminated against me. Needless to say Ms. Roberts felt she had to tell her story and IN HER OWN WORDS she did so. That included recalling the trials and tribulations of her own life growing up to the present (as all these mentally damaging things were going on.) For other reviewers to say "too much about Roberts and too little about Texaco" just shows the ignorance that still exists. Her personal account reveals that racial discrimination is still happening today in THIS DAY AND AGE. If one wants to hear more about Texaco then let them read Texaco's account of what happened. Oh that's right, acccording to Texaco, they still believe that they did nothing wrong... I rather hear from the personal accounts of those involved- to see the REAL toll of what racism does to people rather than hear a bunch of corporate and legal BS.

Roberts vs Texaco A True Story of Race and Corporate America

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Roberts vs Texaco A True Story of Race and Corporate America
Bari-Ellen with Jack E. White Roberts
Manufacturer: Avon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000J0PINU

Amazon.com

Born in 1915, the mountaineer and outdoorsman David Brower has arguably been the single most influential American environmentalist in the last half of the 20th century; even his erstwhile foes at the Department of the Interior grudgingly credit him with having nearly single-handedly halted the construction of a dam in the heart of the Grand Canyon, and he has converted thousands, even millions, of his compatriots to the preservationist cause through his work with the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, and other organizations.

Brower was in the thick of battle when John McPhee profiled him for the New Yorker in a piece that would evolve into Encounters with the Archdruid. McPhee follows Brower into unusually close combat as Brower faces down a geologist who is, it seems, convinced that there is no sight quite so elevating as that of a fully operational mine; a developer who (successfully, it turned out) sought to convert an isolated stretch of the Carolina coast into a resort for the moneyed few--and who provided the title for McPhee's book, wryly opining that conservationists are at heart druids who "sacrifice people and worship trees"; and, most formidable of all, former Interior Secretary Floyd Dominy, who oversaw the construction of a structure that for Brower stands as one of the most hated creations of our time, Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River. McPhee offers up an engaging portrait of Brower, a man unafraid of a good fight in the service of the earth, making Encounters an important contribution to the history of the modern environmental movement. --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

The narratives in this book are of journeys made in three wildernesses - on a coastal island, in a Western mountain range, and on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. The four men portrayed here have different relationships to their environment, and they encounter each other on mountain trails, in forests and rapids, sometimes with reserve, sometimes with friendliness, sometimes fighting hard across a philosophical divide.

Customer Reviews:

McPhee's Best Work - Still Relevant Today.......2007-08-15

I read this book for the first time 36 years after it was written, yet it seems like it was written today. The battles now have different names but the perspectives are still the same. My conclusion after reading it is that as a species human's have the capacity to view the same scenery and information and come to radically different conclusions; lets build on it or lets preserve it. The fundamental difference seems to be how an individual views the world around us; our surroundings exist to serve us or we an integral part of the world. This dichotomy in thinking may explain why some of us become engineers and real estate developers and others become artists and conservationists.

McPhee's genius in this book was to get the archetypes of those two positions to spend time together in a proposed open pit copper mine in the Cascades, a potential resort in Cumberland Island off the coast of Georgia, and in and around dams along the Colorado River; recording the dialog while describing the landscape. This book is a paean to conservation and one of McPhee's best.

Encounters with the Archdruid.......2007-01-03

David Brower is a major conservationist who leads many environmental groups. In Encounters with the Archdruid, Brower travels to a mountain, an island, and a river, and has battles with various developers in each of the aareas. In the mountains, he encounters Charles Park, a geologist who is pick-happy. ON the island, he meets Charles Fraser, a developer who wants to build a resort on the island. He also goes fafting with Floyd Dominy, who is bent on building a dam to make a lake out of the end of the river. Brower winds some, and loses some, but for the sake of the enfironment, he never gives up.

Encounters with a bad book.......2007-01-02

This book is not very interesting. It is very jumpy and hard to understand. There are many enviormental issues that are barely if at all touched on by the author. Characters are over developed and there is to much background information on unimportant characters. Brower is just on big whinner. Overall it is not that good of a book.

identity and idealism.......2006-09-15

This is not a hagiography, and readers who think McPhee is portraying David Brower as a hero are not reading deeply enough. McPhee presents Brower as a human with faults. But this too is not his purpose. All ideals need champions, and Brower was the environmental champion of the 1970s. That he was a hypocrite to his own cause bears little relevance to his symbolic importance. McPhee carefully establishes Brower's identity such that the reflective reader can draw parallels to their own self-conception and ideas of perfection. Oh, and it's readable too.

hello.......2006-02-28

Part one is very informative. It talks alot about the characters, their personalities, and their backgrounds. We didn't like the fact taht
copper" and "mine" was in just about every other sentence. IN part, we believe the author was trying to emphasize about the characters' obsession and how strongly each man felt for his argument, however it made the section extreemly boring, long, and hard to read. In the second sectoin, the story line picked upi. We enjoyed how throught the novel, the author would continuely add depth and different demensions to the characters with more background information about each characer. Part three was definatly the most enteretaining out of the three with it's fast paced storyline and action scenes. The beginning of the book was slow but then it picked up and ended well.

Encounters With The Archdruid (Narratives about a conservationist and three of his natural enemies)

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Encounters With The Archdruid (Narratives about a conservationist and three of his natural enemies)
John McPhee
Manufacturer: Farar, Strauss & Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KIIB94

Product Description

A militant conservationist confronts a resort developer, a mining engineer and a dam builder.

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Encounters With The Archdruid
John Mcphee
Manufacturer: Noonday:farrar/Straus/Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000K0DG2O

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Encounters With The Archdruid
JOHN. MCPHEE
Manufacturer: Farrar,Straus and Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000KFT9IY

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Encounters With the Archdruid
John McPhee
Manufacturer: Noonday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000JL393A

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Encounters with the Archdruid
John McPhee
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000PRVW0K

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ENCOUNTERS WITH THE ARCHDRUID
JOHN MCPHEE
Manufacturer: Farrar Straus
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000O3E8VU

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Encounters with the horrible book

Encounters with Archdruid
John McPhee
Manufacturer: Books On Tape
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

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Sustainable Development | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 5557082093

Customer Reviews:

Encounters with the horrible book.......2004-02-09

We did not like the book overall. There was too much factual information which interrupted the flow of the story. It was hard to understand who the narrator was and the ending was not very clear. However, we learned a lot about the views of the conservationists' of the world. Also, the negative effects of developing undisturbed land, building dams, and mining mountainous regions was also learned.

Average customer rating:

ENCOUNTERS WITH THE ARCHDRUID
JOHN A. MCPHEE
Manufacturer: FARRAR, STRAUS & GIROUX, INC.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KUMMQU

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Encounters with the Archdruid
john mcphee
Manufacturer: farrar, strous, giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Conservation | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000J1D1OM

Book Description

Self-assembly monolayer (SAM) structures of lipids and macromolecules have been found to play an important role in many industrial and biological phenomena. This book describes two procedures, namely the STM and AFM, that are used to study SAMs at solid surfaces. K.S. Birdi examines the SAMs at both liquid and solid surfaces by using the Langmuir monolayer method. This book is intended for researchers, academics and professionals.

Self-Assembly Monolayer Structures of Lipids and Macromolecules at Interfaces

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Self-Assembly Monolayer Structures of Lipids and Macromolecules at Interfaces
K. S. Birdi
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OSIEE2

Book Description

This book deals with the mathematical properties of dimensioned quantities, such as length, mass, voltage, and viscosity.
Beginning with a careful examination of how one expresses the numerical results of a measurement and uses these results in subsequent manipulations, the author rigorously constructs the notion of dimensioned numbers and discusses their algebraic structure. The result is a unification of linear algebra and traditional dimensional analysis that can be extended from the scalars to which the traditional analysis is perforce restricted to multidimensional vectors of the sort frequently encountered in engineering, systems theory, economics, and other applications.

Book Description

This biography pays tribute to one of the most extraordinary commanders in American history, whose exploits garnered the praise of General Dwight D. Eisenhower and many others.

Customer Reviews:

Investigative History at its Finest.......2005-11-23

It is, by definition, impossible to determine the "Greatest Forgotten Commander" of any war, but if the authors have not managed the feat indisputably, the life of General Rose has set the barrier so high that one is hard put to think of a "remembered" commander who is so great.

The life of Maurice Rose is truly inspirational, but what few personal effects remained of his life were almost completely destroyed in a flood. Messrs. Ossad and Marsh have performed a spectacular feat of bringing this important personage alive. There is much of the inner man we can never know, of course, and much of the book is pure military history as it should be, but you get enough of a glimpse of the man to get a sense of what he was like. The authors do not hesitate to criticize his flaws, but that honesty just makes the man that much more impressive.

The authors "bookend" the story with a detailed description of the General's last day (although at least two U.S. generals more senior to Rose and two other division commanders were killed, to my knowledge, Rose is unique at that rank to have been killed by small arms fire rather than bombs or artillery, a tribute to the General's habit of "leading from the front"). I would have liked a little more information about the fate of the division after the General was killed, but that is available elsewhere.

The general's conversion from Judaism to Christianity is speculated upon in some detail, but the willingness to redefine oneself is uniquely American and it is one of the things which make General Rose a uniquely American hero.

Outstanding Book About a Forgotten Leader.......2005-07-05

If you're a World War II history enthusiast this book is an outstanding selection. The authors, Steven L. Ossad, and Don R. Marsh, did a tremendous job researching Major General Rose's life. They have conducted thorough research that explains everything about him from his faith to his tragic death in March of 1945. I particularly like the footnotes. They provide an easy way for the reader to get background on an event or person the authors have written about. I'd highly recommend the book.

Great book about a little-remembered General.......2003-09-10

Maurice Rose, a tall, handsome soldier was a stand-offish person with those around him. No one in the 3rd Armored Division really got to know much about his personal life. Married twice, he kept his life so secret that his two sons, by different wives, did not know the other existed until many years after some digging by one of the authors.
Rose was a brave man, single-minded, whose only mission was to defeat the Nazis as quickly and as throughly as possible. Whether that was due to his Jewish background (which he seemed to shun) or not is problematical. He demanded absolute loyalty from his men. He would not accept any excuse from any of his subordinate commanders -- accomplish your mission or move on!
This book sheds a lot of light on the man whom General J. Lawton Collins regarded "as the top notch division commander in the business at the time of his death." I heartily recommend it especially to those who are interested in the fighting in North-west Europe during WWII.

Book Description

In June, 1979, William H. Jenks delivered the keynote address for the Class of 1954 to the 1,200 alumni and spouses of the multiple reunion classes of the College of the Holy Cross. What was traditional was that the twenty-fifth year class selected the speaker; what was unique was that Jenks had only one year of college before becoming a polio quadriplegic in 1951, never to resume the required curriculum for a baccalaureate degree.

His message was to become a legendary lesson at Holy Cross; wheelchair bound and the pages of his speech being turned by Rev. John E. Brooks, S.J., President of the College, Jenks said: "I think it's likely I am not the most seriously wounded among us, only the most conspicuously bandaged. Sooner or later every one of us will be made to feel flawed, inadequate, powerless…. [W]hat I continue to learn daily is that there is only one way to put Humpty-Dumpty together again: Let yourself be loved."

Will's message carries a wisdom which is universally applicable to adults of all faiths. His prescription is clearly rewarding for those afflicted with physically and psychologically crippling illnesses (cancer, arthritis, HIV, depression) as well as for those principally responsible for the care of such disabled individuals (a child with Down syndrome, a spouse with Alzheimer's disease).

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