303 research outputs found
Bela Tarr and his Werckmeister's Harmonies
No full textIn this thesis, I try to interpret the movie made by one of the most influental and important contemporary film director - Bela Tarr and his Werckmeister's Harmonies. The author works with very original and unique poetics, which is very hard to read and decipher. In fact, he himself refuses to explain his movies. I analyze each scene seperately and step-by-step I try to piece together the message of this unique and transcendetal artwork
When does rent-seeking augment the benefits of price and trade reform on rationed commodities? : estimates for automobiles and color televisions in Poland
Get PDFTo assess the impact of price and trade reform on the Polish market for autos and color televisions, the author has developed a differentiated product model in which consumers maximize utility and firms maximize profits subject to rationing constraints and price controls. This paper focuses on that model. First it discusses the institutional details of the auto and color TV markets in Poland. It then lays out the stylized facts that are incorporated in the model, and discusses the methods of allocating autos and color TVs in the context of the rent-seeking and rent dissipation literature. The final section summarizes the results which find that, all things being equal, the elimination of price controls for both autos and televisions had the effect of decreasing imports, as more domestic autos were produced and sold. The implication is that -- contrary to the Polish government's intention -- price controls were a trade distortion that increased imports: that is, they implicitly subsidized imports. The author also shows that import liberalization produces greater benefits when there are domestic price controls with rent dissipation, because import liberalization reduces the rent. The appendices include a description of the model, a discussion of the data sources, and a review of the literature on rent-seeking activities as it relates to rent dissipation under price controls.Economic Theory&Research,Markets and Market Access,Access to Markets,Environmental Economics&Policies,Fiscal&Monetary Policy
On the Frontiers of an Inner Life: Thomas Merton's 1968 Journey to Alaska
No full textAuthor Kathleen W. Tarr discusses her newly released book, We Are All Poets Here (VP&D House, 2018). Part memoir, part biography, with Thomas Merton as the spiritual guide, the quest to seek an interior life amidst a chaotic, confused, fragmented world is explored. Trappist Thomas Merton (1915-1968) lived as a sequestered monastic for 27 years. However he wrote over fifty books and hundreds of poems and articles on topics ranging from monastic spirituality to civil rights, nonviolence, and the nuclear arms race. Today, his 1948 autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, continues to influence millions of people all over the world. After his surprise sojourn to Alaska in 1968, Thomas Merton traveled to Thailand where he met his accidental and death by electrocution. Author Kathleen W. Tarr was born and raised in Pittsburgh. She came to Alaska in 1978 and lived in Yakutat, Sitka, and the Kenai Peninsula, and was Program Coordinator for UAA's MFA Creative Writing Program. She earned a MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Pittsburgh and has writings published in several anthologies and in Creative Nonfiction, the Sewanee Review, Alaska Airlines Magazine, the Anchorage Daily News, TriQuarterly, Sick Pilgrim, and Cirque. In 2016, she was named a William Shannon Fellow by the International Thomas Merton Society. Currently she sits on the board of the Alaska Humanities Forum
The fisc and the frontier: Approaches to cross-border charity in Australia and the UK
No full textThe late twentieth century witnessed the transformation of the global economy beyond the fixed geographic boundaries of the nation-state system to one dominated by financial centers, global markets, and transnational firms. In the two decades to 2011, cross-border philanthropy from OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) donor countries to the developing world grew from approximately USD 5 billion to USD 32 billion (OECD, n.d.),[1] with some estimates for 2011 as high as USD 59 billion (Center for Global Prosperity, 2013). This is only part of cross-border philanthropy, which also includes remittances from migrant communities, social-media-enabled global fundraising, and medical research collaborations
Spontaneous and episodic volunteers: The legislative, insurance and risk management framework
No full textBaby Boomers are a generation of life long association joiners, but following generations prefer spontaneous and episodic volunteering. This trend is apparent not only during natural disasters, but in most other spheres of volunteering. Legal liability for such volunteers is a growing concern, which unresolved, may dampen civic participation. We critically examine the current treatment of these liabilities through legislation, insurance and risk management
Editor and Author: Review of \u3ci\u3eMax and Marjorie: The Correspondence between Maxwell E. Perkim & Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings\u3c/i\u3e. Rodger L. Tarr, ed.
Get PDFMax & Marjorie, the complete correspondence between America\u27s best-known book editor and one of his best-known authors, will please several groups of readers. For literary scholars, it is a useful addition to the earlier editions of Maxwell Perkins\u27s correspondence. Historians of publishing will appreciate insights into book promotion, magazine publication, and other business issues that are extensively discussed. The many readers who have enjoyed The Yearling will have the opportunity to get to know its author. Eminently readable, the edition should reach a large audience beyond academe. Its broad appeal presented the editor, Rodger Tarr, with an enormous challenge, a challenge most evident in the annotation.
NEH Announces Award
The Language of Justice: when the colonial past is invited into the courtroom
Get PDFIn courts throughout Burkina Faso only French is admitted for all communication, a heritage left over from colonial times. Since the vast majority of defendants cannot use French fluently, they need an interpreter. Interpretation has a long history in Africa, but the interpreter's role has never been as vaguely defined as it is today. The use of French, which has "invited" itself into the courtrooms of Burkina Faso, will be analyzed here as a continuation of a colonial past and the astounding return of a well-known literary figure
Payments and finance problems in the Commonwealth of Independent States
Get PDFPayments problems constrained interstate trade among the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries in 1992-95, especially during the prolonged demise of the ruble zone. Two kinds of solutions should be sought: 1) more effective stabilization measures to improve the prospects of currency convertibility among CIS countries; and 2) strengthening of institutional arrangements to permit payments and settlements through correspondent bank accounts. Strengthening institutions will require not only strengthening commercial banks but liberalizing foreign exchange markets and promoting the use of letters of credit and other mechanisms to increase the security of trade transactions. A multilateral clearing arrangement operated among central banks would have been a useful alternative to the chaotic payments prevailing earlier, but such arrangements are no longer needed as considerable progress has been made toward convertibility. Nor is a payments union desirable. Trade deficits are likely to persist in such countries as Belarus and Ukraine. Surplus countries such as Russia and Turkmenistan must develop transparent means of trade financing that take into account the recipient countries'ability to pay. External financing will remain important for practically all CIS countries. The best way to mobilize private financing will be to establish macroeconomic stability and stable, transparent rules on private capital inflows. Improving the flow of public resources requires improving countries'capacity to quickly absorb the large amounts already committed. Donors need to expedite procurement and other procedures and recipient countries must address governance problems and institutional weaknesses that delay disbursements. Certain smaller CIS countries face significant debt servicing problems and often the creditors are other CIS countries that themselves need additional financing. The smaller countries need debt relief on concessional terms, which is possible only if external assistance allows local creditors to offer such relief.Environmental Economics&Policies,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Economic Theory&Research,Trade Policy,Financial Intermediation,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Trade Policy,Financial Intermediation
Delineating the fiscal borders of Australia's non-profit tax concessions
No full textSince the inception of tax exemption and tax deductibility for non-profit entities, Australian governments have made policy choices about where to draw the fiscal border for such concessions. The legislation states that entities entitled to these tax concessions must be ‘in Australia’, however the meaning of ‘in Australia’ has been subject to different interpretations over time. Judicial decisions have disrupted the Australian Tax Office’s (ATO) longstanding interpretation, resulting in measures to realign these decisions with government policy. Following a lapsed ‘in Australia’ Bill under one government and a languishing exposure draft by another, the ATO recently announced it would issue a public ruling. We examine the various interpretations of ‘in Australia’ to understand how the current misalignment between tax law and government policy came to be. Our findings uncover the precarious legal foundations underlying reform
Should tax incentives for charitable giving stop at Australia's borders?
No full textAround the world, philanthropic gifts are increasingly crossing borders, driven by globalisation and facilitated by liberalised cross-border tax incentives.\ud
Australia is considered to have one of the strictest regimes for the tax treatment of cross-border donations. With bipartisan political support for a significant\ud
reduction in the amount and scope of Australian foreign aid, the nation’s international presence through the ‘soft power’ of aid will fall increasingly upon private philanthropy. Are the current tax incentives for Australian cross-border philanthropy and the supervision of those incentives appropriate to both facilitate and regulate international giving? To address this question, this article analyses the amount of Australian cross-border philanthropy and explains the current legislative architecture affecting the tax deductibility of\ud
cross-border gifts. It then examines the Australian Government’s proposed ‘in Australia’ reform agenda against the underlying fiscal and regulatory policy\ud
imperatives, and makes recommendations for the future tax treatment of Australian cross-border philanthropy
- …
