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Abstract Biochar production from woody biomass generated during forest management (slash) offers significant benefits for soil health and carbon emissions, yet its adoption remains limited in the western United States (U.S.). To address this challenge, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (U.S.D.A.) Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station organized two workshops focused on forest management-centric biochar production. These workshops convened a diverse group of stakeholders, including investors, land management practitioners, industry professionals, and research scientists, each with unique roles in slash-based biochar production. This article presents a synthesis of the insights and perspectives gathered from these workshops, aiming to identify barriers and propose viable pathways for overcoming them. The barriers encompass governance issues such as policy and permitting, economic challenges related to costs, funding, and market stability, technological hurdles concerning methods and equipment, and a need for further research and improved science dissemination. In response to these challenges, workshop attendees collaboratively outlined specific strategies to reduce these barriers. These strategies emphasize the expansion of operational initiatives, the development of proactive policies, the stabilization of biochar markets, and the generation of additional case studies showcasing the effects of biochar amendments across various soils and environments. Collectively, the insights gleaned from this workshop series provide a comprehensive roadmap outlining both the struggles and the necessary actions and investments required to enhance the scale of slash-based biochar production and application in the western U.S. Graphical Abstract

Market economics can overreach and reduce all human activities to market-governed activities. More than a market-inspired explanation for human activities, it offers a normative account of how all goods and services should be distributed by private parties negotiating mutually agreeable terms. This paper argues that market values and practices are constrained by other fundamental values and practices. Liberal values are generally consistent with, though they are not reducible to, market values. Democratic and egalitarian values often contrast with market values. The distribution of market benefits should accommodate those democratic and egalitarian values which constitute a polity's core commitments (and those core commitments need to be reasserted regularly). Indeed, market stability depends upon a general distribution of its benefits. Incentives to productive activity entail inequalities, but the terms of those inequalities are subject to review. Internal refinements to specific markets can reduce inequalities by promoting the fairness of market operations and by increasing the number of effective participants. KEY WORDS: democratic and egalitarian values, market economics, market values and practices

Byline: Chonawee Supatgiat (1), Rachel Q. Zhang (1), John R. Birge (1) Keywords: bidding; Nash equilibrium; electric power Abstract: We consider an open electricity market with demand uncertainty.In this market, the generators each decide on a bidding price tomaximize profit. Units are dispatched in order of the bid from lowestto highest until demand is satisfied. The market clearing price isthe highest bid among the dispatched units.All dispatched units are then sold at this market clearing price.Under a market stability assumption, we derive Nashequilibrium solutions, i.e., bidders' optimal bidding strategiesand the resulting market clearing price. Author Affiliation: (1) Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, U.S.A. Article History: Registration Date: 09/10/2004

The market stability of a product can be threatened by stockouts. However, the level of danger may be easy to interpret. Manufacturers and retailers do not have to be very concerned about the extended negative effects caused by temporary retail stockouts. An analysis of potato chip brands' availability verifies these observations.

Abstract Commercial real estate investors prefer coastal, gateway, markets for liquidity, demand density, and durable returns. Yet, these areas are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change from more [...]

To help clients understand the Federal Reserve (hereafter, Fed), I have often said that if you had a chance encounter with a 'typical' Fed employee on the street in DC [...]

In his fascinating and thought-provoking book, The End of Alchemy, Mervyn King recounts a post-dinner conversation with a Chinese central banker during a visit to Beijing in 2011. The central [...]

As managers and academics increasingly raise issues about the real value of CRM, the authors question its direct and unconditional performance effect. The study advances research on CRM by investigating the role of critical mechanisms underlying the CRM-performance link. Drawing from the sources--positions--performance framework, the authors build a research model in which two strategic postures of firms--differentiation and cost leadership--mediate the effect of CRM on firm performance. This investigation also contributes to the literature by drawing attention to the differential impact of CRM in diverse industry environments. The study analyzes data from in-depth field interviews and a large-scale, cross-industry survey, and results reveal that CRM does not affect firm performance directly. Rather, the CRM-performance link is fully mediated by differentiation and cost leadership. In addition, CRM's impact on differentiation is greater when industry commoditization is high. Keywords CRM * Customer relationship management * Business strategy * Structural equation modeling * Mediation * Industry commoditization, Introduction Understanding how firms can profit from their customer relationships is highly important for both marketing practitioners and academics (Boulding et al. 2005; Payne and Frow 2005). Prior research has [...]

Good afternoon. I am pleased to have once again the opportunity to address the National Association for Business Economics. My remarks today will focus on recent developments in the financial [...]

The U.S. economic recovery is now one of the longest on record, entering its eighth year, and the unemployment rate has moved down to a level many would associate with [...]

By Stephen S. Roach, 2009. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Inc. Pp. 414, $39.95 hardcover Business Economics (2010) 45, 296-297. doi:10.1057/be.2010.27 For Stephen Roach, Asia Chairman for Morgan Stanley [...]