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The transportation and mobility landscape has changed at exponential rates in recent years. This is particularly evident in the spread and use of micromobility, primarily via e-scooters, in the United States. It is widely agreed that municipalities need to regulate the deployment of this new form of mobility to capture some of the benefits that these devices provide but also mitigate the impact and risks associated with their use. This paper evaluates commercial scooter deployment within municipalities in the United States, and seeks to identify policy trends for regulating e-scooters. As many communities do not have policies in place, the study seeks to benchmark and develop a policy dialogue addressing e-scooter use and deployment. The study focuses on three specific policy strategies cities are implementing: the use of pilot programs; vendor limits or caps; and the inclusion of equity policy. The study finds that tension between these policies has the potential to constrain or accelerate the market adoption of scooters and that very few communities are designing and adopting environment strategies to regulate scooter use. These policy dialogues are worth exploration as cities accelerate trends toward micromobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Luego del choque inicial por la covid-19, los mercados financieros de deuda (empresas e inversionistas) no solo recuperaron la confianza sino que, incitados por los bancos centrales del mundo, protagonizan un auge crediticio que sorprende por su intensidad y su tolerancia al riesgo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the global financial crisis of 2008 on the aspects of financial industry such as on the interest rate swaps in the U.S. Topics discussed include impact on the LIBOR and corporate bond rate, causes of action affected by the swaps, and effectiveness of the doctrine of frustration of commercial purpose as the financial recovery for the losers in interest rate swaps during the financial crisis.

This study uses a two-stage approach to explore the relationship between the operational performance of U.S. telecommunications companies and their implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSR). In the first stage, this study adopts the dynamic data envelopment analysis model to measure the efficiency of the telecommunications industry in the U.S. from 2004 to 2008. The empirical results show that the corporate efficiency of those companies that implemented CSR was higher than that of those companies that did not. In the second stage, the study adopts OLS and 2SLS to explore the influence of the execution level of CSR on performance. The results show that the Kinder, Lyndenberg, and Domini & Co (KLD) social ratings indexes are significantly and positively related to corporate performance. Finally, this study suggests ways in which corporate policy makers can enhance CSR in order to improve corporate performance in the U.S. telecommunications industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial prediction provokes intense affect. For bond traders, hedge fund managers, and economic planners, both statistical reasoning and affective discomfort surround professional judgments about the future. This article argues that contemporary financial knowledge is organized around the interplay of reason and affect. The history and contemporary use of the U.S. Treasury yield curve-a key economic indicator-point to this intractable problem of modern knowledge more generally. The devices that should create grounds for calculating future profits also open avenues of affect. Specifically, the reflexive character of financial devices provides fertile ground. As a forecasting tool, the yield curve's effectiveness is bound to its particular social content. Financial tools aggregate and objectify professionals' assessments about the economic future. Readers of the curve's shape must evaluate the rationality of the economic participants whose activities compose this reflexive device. Reading the financial future places affect at the center of calculation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the effectiveness of the credit channel as a transmission mechanism of monetary policy in 20th century economic history by applying a Markov-switching model on the default premium of U.S. corporate bond portfolios. Beside the stance of monetary policy and the state of the business cycle, we identify a latent factor accounting for the strength of the credit channel. In particular, the credit channel appears to be active only in periods of financial distress, most notably during the Great Depression and the 1980s Savings and Loan debacle. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Public authorities have become the modus operandi in the United States for public projects, particularly large-scale infrastructure projects or projects that are politically unpopular. Their ability to operate as state capitalist enterprises exploiting surplus, the ability to use this flow of surplus to float bond issues, and the ability to operate “under the radar” or immune from public scrutiny have made them wildly popular. As such, state capitalist enterprises—the anathema of current political and economic discourse in the United States—have taken on a large and rather important role. In doing so, public authorities have brought a (not so) little of the former USSR into the American heartland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]