Financial Woes Research Articles

Harmony and Discord: Music and the Transformation of Russian Cultural Life (review)

Reviewed by: Harmony and Discord: Music and the Transformation of Russian Cultural Life Albrecht Gaub Harmony and Discord: Music and the Transformation of Russian Cultural Life. By Lynn M. Sargeant. (New Cultural History of Music Series.) New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. [ix, 354 p. ISBN 9780199735266. $45.] Illustrations, bibliography, index. Lynn Sargeant, a professor of history at California State University, Fullerton, has written a landmark study, yet she does not, and does not want to, offer the all-encompassing [End Page 88] narrative its title would suggest. She focuses almost exclusively on the Russian Musical Society (1859-1917, hereafter RMS), its relationship with the Russian state, the nationwide system of music schools created by the society, and the social status of professional musicians (women and orchestral musicians in particular). There is virtually no information on other branches of what is now called the music industry: printing and publishing of music, production and maintenance of musical instruments, sound recording, or marketing and dissemination of all of these. Neither is it a book about composers and virtuosos, nor is it about musical works and iconic performances. If, for once, the St. Petersburg premiere of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's The Immortal Kashchei (1905) is dealt with at length, then that is because Rimsky-Korsakov had been fired from the St. Petersburg Conservatory (the RMS's flagship institution) and his supporters turned the performance into a protest rally (pp. 237-43). Within these self-imposed limitations, however, Sargeant's book is successful, a convincing and highly readable account of how the RMS developed and professionalized the musical life of the Russian empire. The society's semi-official status—a private nonprofit, but with an imperial title and presided by members of the tsar's family throughout its existence—caused continual struggles and financial woes. The forthright nationalization of the RMS's schools, long advocated by the faculties in the hope of generous public funding, was brought about only by the Bolshevik revolution. While the RMS did not survive 1917, its legacy of institutions would fit Soviet notions of music education perfectly; in a way, it continues to thrive. Anton Rubinstein and the founders of the RMS envisioned a conservatory as a "temple" for the chosen few, an attitude shared by most later professional musicians, while others advanced the notion of a musical "factory" turning out orchestral musicians, choral singers, and music teachers by the dozen to satisfy the needs of the entire nation and to replace the foreigners dominating these areas (pp. 115-20). Looking at the result, both sides got the graduates they wanted—an internationally recognized Russian art music and professional orchestras of Russian musicians across the empire—but only thanks to the financial support of a third party disliked both by the "temple" and "factory" factions: as piano skills became an indispensable part of a bourgeois woman's dowry, parents enrolled their daughters in the conservatories in droves regardless of tuition fees. Most of them never graduated, but they subsidized the students of the (almost exclusively male) orchestral department, whose tuition fees had been mostly waived in order to attract as many candidates as possible. Sargeant reminds the reader that it was thus in most conservatories across Europe (somewhat less in Germany); in Russia, however, the social status of orchestral musicians was even lower than elsewhere, since once upon a time, orchestras had been made up of serfs. Another contentious issue was the status of the conservatory as a secondary or tertiary school. If it accepted students without secondary education, it had to provide one by offering general education classes (p. 102). Sargeant devotes much space to the role of Jewish students, whose presence grew ever stronger and, consequently, became a matter of contention. Since the schools were the property of the RMS, anti-Semitic quotas for public schools could not be implemented except, with the help of local politicians, at the Moscow conservatory (pp. 136-41, 154-61). Sargeant presents a wealth of unpublished information on the conservatories in St. Petersburg and Moscow, but her well-researched, groundbreaking account of imperial Russia's musical life outside the capitals, especially in Ukraine, deserves even more praise. She has unearthed a...

Multiparty Government, Fiscal Institutions, and Public Spending

In the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, the size of the public sector has been a central, and often controversial, item on the political agenda, as governments from Europe to the United States have embarked on new campaigns to reduce public spending. Previous research on the political factors underlying public spending has naturally focused on the characteristics of the governments that make budgetary decisions. Most recently, scholars have argued, and shown empirically, that spending tends to be larger when cabinets are composed of multiple political parties, and larger still when those coalitions include more members. The key theoretical insight is that spending constitutes a pool problem, which is more difficult to solve for multiparty governments than for single-party administrations because doing so requires the cooperation of actors who are electorally accountable to separate constituencies. In this study, drawing on recent research on the impact of institutions on coalition policymaking, we challenge the prevailing wisdom in this area. Specifically, we argue that rules that reduce the influence of individual government parties in budget formulation, and increase their incentives to oppose the spending demands of their partners, significantly mitigate the common pool resource problem and thus reduce the expansionary effect of coalition governance on spending. Our empirical analysis of public spending in fifteen European democracies over a thirty-five year period supports our argument. Our findings demonstrate that in certain institutional environments, multiparty governments will spend no more than their single-party counterparts. Our conclusions also offer hope that appropriate institutional reforms may be part of a political solution to the financial woes currently confronting multiparty governments across Europe.

Implementing Promising Practices To Prepare Quality Teacher Educators

The United States does more than just talk; it invests a lot of money in public education. While students are the major focus of concern, teachers are a mainstay in the enterprise. In 2002, the U.S. invested $192 billion in teacher pay and benefits. More than 50% of all dollars allocated by the government for education is paid in salaries for teachers, yet there is little research to guide decisions as whom to hire, retain, and promote (Rice, 2003). However, the general consensus is that under good teachers, students get a good education, and under poor teachers, students get a poor education. The difference between the two makes a world of difference. The U. S. cannot afford to trust its most valuable asset students - to the tutelage of poor teachers. Doing so would be to run the risk of needlessly suffering from medical conditions, financial woes, and a quality of life not befitting a highly advanced nation. This manuscript provides a functional framework for the student and faculty, a review of related literature, and a detailed description of an individual effort at implementing promising practices to prepare quality teacher educators. The expectation is that information and preliminary findings that are provided will, in some way, further thinking and effort at producing effective teachers to staff our schools.

The Return of John Moffat

The Return of John Moffat

Activist Scholarship in Action: The Prevention of a Latino School Closure

Primarily because of underutilized schools (caused by declining enrollments) and the need to address budgetary deficits brought on by dramatic reductions in average daily attendance, many public school districts, in decades past and the present, have been forced to close numerous schools across the nation. The school boards of these economically troubled districts have resorted to consolidation to help alleviate their financial woes. In highly segregated biethnic or triethnic districts, school boards continue to struggle in deciding which schools to close. The closures of schools with high enrollments of Mexican American or other Latino students who are of low socioeconomic status and who are English language learners are particularly problematic, given their vulnerability for school failure. This article involves a case study of 1 such school proposed for closure, Park Oaks Elementary School in the Conejo Valley Unified School District (Southern California). Via activist scholarship, I relate how my efforts in documenting a goodness of fit at Park Oaks Elementary School proved successful in preventing the school from being closed. A major implication stemming from this study is that educational equality for Latino students and their parents can be achieved without having to resort to litigation. Unfortunately, months after this article was accepted for publication I received some very bad news that the school board reneged on its decision not to close Park Oaks. I explain these events in the Epilogue.

Graffiti Moon (review)

Reviewed by: Graffiti Moon Claire Gross Crowley, Cath . Graffiti Moon. Knopf, 2012. [272p]. Library ed. ISBN 978-0-375-96953-9 $19.99 Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-375-86953-2 $16.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-375-98365-8 $10.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 9-12. Lucy and Ed went on a disastrous date two years ago, and they've avoided each other ever since. When Lucy's friend Jazz takes a fancy to Ed's friend Leo, though, Lucy and Ed are thrown together for a night. Believing that Ed knows Shadow, a [End Page 344] graffiti artist whose paintings have inspired her romantic fantasies, Lucy follows Ed on a tour of Shadow's work around the town. The reader is in on the secret from the start: Ed is Shadow. A self-doubting dropout who finds reading severely challenging, Ed is also an immensely talented and thoughtful artist who can see no viable outlet for his ability, and he's at a crossroads: later this night, he and Leo are planning to rob the high school, Ed for rent, Leo to pay back a dangerous thug. This sophomore release from Crowley (A Little Wanting Song, BCCB 9/10) has all the earnest emotion and elaborate architecture of a Cohn/Levithan collaboration (Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, BCCB 6/06), and it is similarly structured, with the narrative alternating between Lucy's and Ed's voices (occasionally interspersed with poems by Leo). Lucy and Ed are a wonderfully matched and misunderstood pair, and their journey from mutual dislike and disappointment to interest and affection is well constructed and moving. The problems they struggle with—particularly Ed's financial woes and uncertain future—give the narrative a grittiness that makes its sweetness all the more powerful. From the magic of late-night escapades, to the skilled use of the tried-and-true secret-identity love triangle that's not actually a triangle, to the host of engaging secondary characters, this is a love story with something for everyone. Copyright © 2012 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

The New Middle East Will Test Europe

The Arab Spring will sorely test the ability of Europe, mired in financial woes and institutional confusion, to help shape events in its near abroad.

Real Sector Imbalances and the Great Recession

While much attention has been focused on the financial woes of the US economy in the wake of the Great Recession, this chapter focuses on an important real sector imbalance: the failure of real wages to keep pace with productivity growth over the past three decades. This imbalance is shown to create a structural flaw in the aggregate demand generating process that threatens to undermine future macroeconomic performance. The chapter reflects on the policy responses necessary to remedy this situation, and the likelihood that the US will succeed in avoiding a future of secular stagnation.

Taxing Amazon: The Problems with the State 'Amazon' Taxes and the Need for Federal Intervention

In recent years, amid the most severe budget crisis since the Great Depression for states across the nation, many states have passed or are considering legislation aimed at requiring online entities, most notably Amazon, to collect sales tax. These states seek to ease their financial woes, but the legislation has resulted in fierce legal conflicts, merchants breaking ties with in-state affiliates in an attempt to avoid the new requirements, and confusion and uncertainty for taxpayers. Of course, in many states, all purchases made by its domiciled citizens are taxable; the issue then becomes whether the merchants should be required to collect the sales tax or whether it should be left to the taxpayer to report the purchases on their tax return. On its face, this does not appear to be an issue at all; after all in either scenario the State would receive the same amount of tax revenue. Part of the problem with that assertion is the time value of money, but the real issue is one of enforcement. As a matter of practice, few taxpayers actually report their online purchases, resulting in huge tax gaps for the states. Accepting the states interest in requiring online entities like Amazon to collect sales tax as legitimate, the question then becomes how to implement such a requirement in a way that avoids, or at least mitigates, the problems that have arisen as a result of states attempts at forming such a requirement. This article will discuss the various state 'Amazon' taxes, highlight the problems with the current statutes, and advocate that federal intervention is needed. Specifically, this article will argue that the recently re-introduced Main Street Fairness Act is the answer, and will discuss the benefits and primary criticisms of that Act.

Five costly mistakes that cause smaller enterprises to fail: Solutions for success

AbstractSmall and medium‐sized enterprises play an important role in the US economy, yet they're often beset by financial woes. Financial professionals can help their executives and managers convert the vision, mission, and strategic goals of their enterprises to provide timely information; assist with pricing and cost analysis for bids or orders; and assist these enterprises with meeting regulatory requirements. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Investing in innovation to enable global competitiveness: The case of Portugal

The concept of leveraged innovation to create wealth within regions, countries and economies is not a new concept. Competitiveness of regions in the increasingly global economy now requires not only that innovation be present within a regional economy, but also that mechanisms exist to effectively transfer those developed innovations from the research laboratory to the marketplace. It is surmised that increased innovation, and the transfer of this innovation, can lead to increased prosperity of regions (Porter). As such, many developing countries around the world are looking at investments in innovation as a means to spur regional economic development and wealth creation while preserving national competitiveness. That said, innovation investment is by no means an exact science. Historically, typical “innovation investments” have been focused on “tangible” capital infrastructure projects such as the establishment of incubators and science parks. While many regions point to the existence of such tangible innovation assets as proof of investment in innovation, it has been discovered that in some cases, an investment in the capacity building of human networks to engage in technology transfer and commercialization related activities can act as a stronger facilitator for the transformation of economies and produce a larger return on investment in innovation for the country. Given not only Portugal's, but other regions throughout the EU-Zone, recent financial and economic woes, it bears examination on whether investing in the innovation and technology transfer knowledge and “know how” of key human networks within a struggling economy is a worthwhile investment for financially struggling countries during the current times of fiscal crisis.

Financial Woes Top Concerns Among Ca Patients

Financial Woes Top Concerns Among Ca Patients

A tragic life

She’s Come Undone Wally Lamb First Published 1992; Washington Square Press; 416 pp; £5.79; ISBN 0 684 86009 0 Dolores Price, the misunderstood, self loathing, and eager to please fictitious heroine in Wally Lamb’s She’s Come Undone , illustrates how a child can go from fun loving and flamboyant to grossly disturbed. The book is narrated by 40 year old Dolores, who begins her story in 1956. We are introduced to a lovely little girl who is similar to many girls her age. Her parents struggle with infidelity, financial woes, and a stillborn baby boy. Dolores’s mother was not given the chance to mourn her son’s death and has …

A Gentlewoman in Upper Canada: The Journals, Letters and Art of Anne Langton (review)

Reviewed by: A Gentlewoman in Upper Canada: The Journals, Letters and Art of Anne Langton Katherine M.J. McKenna (bio) Barbara Williams , editor. A Gentlewoman in Upper Canada: The Journals, Letters and Art of Anne Langton. University of Toronto Press. xxxvi, 436. $55.00 Anne Langton belongs to that small but noteworthy group of gentlewomen settlers of early Canada who recorded their literary reflections on backwoods life. Unlike her better-known counterparts such as Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Trail, she did not write for the public, and her letters and journals were only privately printed for the family. It was not until 1950, almost sixty years after her death, that her nephew Hugh Hornby Langton published the first version of A Gentlewoman in Upper Canada, now out of print. Since that time, Anne's original writings have disappeared. Barbara Williams has rescued Anne Langton from obscurity with this new volume. She has improved upon Hugh Langton's efforts by assiduously uncovering what few documents remain and restoring many edited passages. Most of these deal with domestic and personal details that Hugh deemed too trivial but that are of interest for the social history of pioneer life in Upper Canada. Williams has also prefaced this new edition with a substantial essay introducing the story of the Langton family, the times they lived in, and Anne's life and works as an artist. This is clearly not only a scholarly work, but also a labour of love for Williams, who has written poetry in the voice of Anne Langton and gives public lectures on her life and art. Anne Langton was born in 1804 into an upper-crust English family who had made their fortune in the hemp and flax trade. The Langtons spent almost six years touring the cultural centres of Europe to educate their children during Anne's teen years. The collapse of the family business in 1821 ended this charmed life, forcing them to live in seclusion in genteel poverty through Anne's marriageable years. She thus became the stereotypical Victorian middle-class spinster, condemned by convention to remain a dependent upon her family. Anne, however, was exceptionally talented - not only as a writer but most especially as an artist. With her father's reluctant approval she was able, primarily through painting portraits, to finance her own needs and save a little money for her future. Williams is committed to staking Langton's claim as an artist in her own right and has curated an online exhibit of Anne's work for the Archives of Ontario (http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/english/on-line-exhibits/langton/index.aspx). [End Page 570] It is regrettable that none of the samples of her art in this volume are reproduced in colour. Anne's journals and letters focus on the years 1836-46 following her migration with her aged parents and aunt to join her brother, John, in the Kawartha Lakes region. This was the 'Canada Project,' intended to be the final solution to their financial woes. Anne's journal was written for the family who remained in England and contains much fascinating detail. Given her deep familiarity with the sources, I was surprised that Williams comments so little on Anne's life as revealed through the journals. Helen Smith and Lisa Sullivan have persuasively argued in their 1995 Ontario History article that the pioneer experience was an empowering one for Anne and that her valued labour as mistress of the household and her community roles as nurse and teacher gave her a sense of self-worth and purpose not usually experienced by women of her class and marital status. After Anne's parents and aunt died, she returned to England and accepted a position as a teacher in a girls school. This plan was changed when her newly married brother John asked her to come back to Canada to help raise his growing family. Williams suggests in the absence of direct evidence that this life of domestic servitude was welcomed by Anne, but one wonders if that was truly the case. What is clear, however, is that she was a much-valued member of John's household until her...

Towards a Culturally-Relevant Pedagogy: Importance of Culturally-Sensitive Teaching Materials and Methodology

The Iraya Mangyans are the indigenous peoples in the uplands of Northern Mindoro, Southern Luzon, Philippines. They have a distinct culture – language, farming practices, spiritual beliefs, customary laws and a social organization different from the lowland political organization and hierarchy. Over the years, they have subsisted on slash-and-burn farming and other economic activities such as producing abaca, weaving baskets, selling of their farm products to the lowland market, and working in the farms of the Tagalogs. Their communities experience discrimination, exploitation and oppression from the majority lowland populace, leaving them impoverished and marginalized. With the very little cash they have, they are forced to sacrifice much, and one of this is in the formal education of their children. Most of them only finish until Grade 2 in the government primary school in their village. Yet many of them desire to finish at least high school. Aside from the financial woes, the Irayas are faced with a situation wherein lowland teachers and students discriminate against them. This paper will share the lessons learned from the experience of the use of culturally-sensitive teaching materials such as video documentaries which helped teachers understand better the situation of the Mangyans and discover ways of being more culturally–relevant in their teaching. Moreover, the use of reflection papers as a culturally-sensitive teaching method will be highlighted.

Perpetuating U.S. Preeminence: The 1990 Deals to “Bribe the Soviets Out” and Move NATO In

Washington and Bonn pursued a shared strategy of perpetuating U.S. preeminence in European security after the end of the Cold War. As multilingual evidence shows, they did so primarily by shielding the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) from potential competitors during an era of dramatic change in Europe. In particular, the United States and West Germany made skillful use in 1990 of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's political weakness and his willingness to prioritize his country's financial woes over security concerns. Washington and Bonn decided “to bribe the Soviets out,” as then Deputy National Security Adviser Robert Gates phrased it, and to move NATO eastward. The goal was to establish NATO as the main post–Cold War security institution before alternative structures could arise and potentially diminish U.S. influence. Admirers of a muscular U.S. foreign policy and of NATO will view this strategy as sound; critics will note that it alienated Russia and made NATO's later expansion possible. Either way, this finding challenges the scholarly view that the United States sought to integrate its former superpower enemy into postconflict structures after the end of the Cold War.

Thoughts for the New Year

As I think back over the past year, it is unfortunate that the negative aspects of the year are what first come to mind. I think of the financial crisis of the past year, the wars that continue to press and lives that are impacted by those wars, greed and avarice of some in the financial world, a celebrity fall from grace, and more attempted terrorism. Even with the positive strides we have made, such as progress toward health care reform, I think about voices raised in anger with shouting, rage, and no real conversation. But then I consider the positive aspects of the year: human ingenuity that can move us past financial woes, thoughtful discussions about the numbers of service men and women involved in Iraq and other countries, the new face of the presidency, an airplane landing intact and safe in a river, and the movement toward some type of health care reform even amid the angry mobs. Jan Odom-Forren, PhD, RN, CPAN, FAAN, is a Perianesthesia Nursing Consultant in Louisville, KY, and is an Assistant Professor at the University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY.

Navigating the Topography of Inequality Post-Disaster: A Proposal for Remedying Past Geographic Segregation during Rebuilding

In this chapter, I argue that New Orleans’ history of geographic segregation mandates that the burden of restoring the city be shared by all United States citizens. One useful method for implementing this nationwide burden sharing would be to levy a uniform one to two percent tax based on individuals’ income. This uniform tax would be minimal and would be consistent with other taxes raised for the public good, such as the security taxes levied on air travel post September 11, 2001. The funds accumulated from levying the taxes can be used to address some of the financial needs of individuals in disaster stricken areas. This proposal is consistent with the theory of burden-sharing based on ability to pay, which is sometimes used to allocate proportional responsibility among diverse and differently situated individuals. In the international realm, this principle has sometimes been applied in the face of a need “for nations to share in joint and sometimes costly projects for the common good.” (See Daniel A. Farber, Disaster Law and Inequality, 25 Law & Ineq. 297, 320 (2007) (stating: “Social disadvantage can kill in very obvious ways during a disaster” and noting President Bush’s statement that “the poverty of so many in the region ‘has roots in a history of racial discrimination’”).Consistent with this practice, the burden-sharing based on ability to pay “rests on equal sacrifice notions and implies either proportional or progressive tax schedules.” (Id. at 313–314 n.14). Comprehensive disaster insurance is one of the solutions that have been advanced to alleviate financial needs in times of disaster. This solution, however, because it shifts the burden of remedying the financial woes caused by disaster onto the disaster stricken individuals, does not fully achieve equity. In shifting the burden of providing remedies to the would-be-harmed individuals, the comprehensive disaster insurance proposal does not account for the role that residential and occupational segregation have had on individuals’ choice of geographic residence. This burden should be shared as a way of holding the other cities and states accountable for their silent ratification of these types of geographic segregation. Furthermore, this model of burden-sharing should not be limited to the restoration of New Orleans. It should be implemented in all instances where we can demonstrate that certain groups have historically been pushed out of geographically safe and desirable regions of the United States, being forced to live in precarious and dangerous areas. This chapter is divided into three parts. In the first, I investigate the ways in which cities have been geographically segregated and continue to be so today through various land-use related municipal decisions. In the second, I consider how geographical segregation has caused disproportionate harm in New Orleans. In the third, I argue that remedying New Orleans’ geographical segregation should be one of the primordial goals of the rebuilding efforts and I enunciate a standard that can be used to determine whether rectifying geographical segregation should play a role in disaster prevention as well as in post-disaster rebuilding plans.

Pausing, Pondering, And Partnering: Communicating in Financially Challenging Times

In times of financial distress, the communication strategies of leaders of institutions of higher education are often flawed. This is because the best approaches to helping a campus deal with financial woes are counter-intuitive and require an understanding of money as a language. But bankruptcy law, financial counseling, psychology, and behavioral economics have lessons to teach that are transportable to an educational setting. Leaders who reevaluate how to think, talk and write about financial issues can improve how a campus responds to necessary but unpleasant fiscal decisions, as well as avoid mistakes that make matters worse. This article identifies several strategies that college and university presidents can deploy that will make these trying times easier to navigate. The provided “pointers” focus on the value of pausing, pondering, and partnering and describe the steps leaders can take to improve their capacity to speak money's complex language.

Poison control centers suffer state budget cuts

States’ financial woes have hit regional poison control centers hard. One center has already closed this year, and a statewide system may not survive past November. Many states, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC), have reduced the amount of money they allocate