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Study Center Gerzensee: Open Course Ware. The Study Center publishes the teaching material of selected Central Bankers Courses and Doctoral Courses online.

Study Center Gerzensee: Open Course Ware

By providing access to all interested parties, free of charge, the Center aims at disseminating knowledge and supporting those who do not have the opportunity to attend courses in Gerzensee. The Open Course Ware initiative does not provide certification or access to faculty. Publication of teaching material requires the author(s) consent. All rights remain with the author(s). Advanced Topics in Empirical Finance.

Once students went to university for education. Now it’s an ‘experience’ Thanks to Michael Ashcroft’s biography of David Cameron, we know more than we want to about the goings on in the Piers Gaveston Society at Oxford in the 80s.

Once students went to university for education. Now it’s an ‘experience’

At the other end of the political spectrum there would, of course, have been activist student clubs. Students have always made their own experiences. These days, though, things are different. While students once went to university to get a higher education, now they go to be given an “experience” by that university. Why idealism isn't just for dreamers – video. Hysterical consumerism ruins food. And holidays. And books. Halloween is still a month away, but everything on the shelves has been removed and replaced with a nightmare version of itself.

Hysterical consumerism ruins food. And holidays. And books

Why does the approach of a fixed point in the liturgical calendar mean my salad dressing turns to pumpkin syrup? In one of her more accessible locutions, Gertrude Stein asked: “Must things have something to do with everything?” I couldn’t help but think about that this week while shopping at Trader Joe’s. The answer is that Halloween is a big thing, and salad is a big thing, and people love pumpkin and people love salad, so by the current laws of marketing, all those things needs must combine (along with pumpkin and bread, cookies, vodka, coffee and scores of other groceries). Brand extension, the capitalist form of mission creep, has been around for a long time and, although it’s hit or miss – Richard Branson’s Virgin Brides springs to mind – it makes a certain amount of commercial sense.

But retailers know us too well. Why aren’t cats loyal? You asked Google – here’s the answer. It must be tough, being a cat and not a dog.

Why aren’t cats loyal? You asked Google – here’s the answer

Thousands of years before there was any such animal as a domestic cat, dogs had already run off with all the prizes for faithfulness, loyalty, and just being “man’s best friend”. Or rather, they would have run a short way and then turned right around and headed back again, because dogs’ place is, of course, by his master’s (or mistress’s) side. Ever since the first cat tiptoed out of the wild and into a mouse-infested Neolithic village, cats have been struggling to catch up. Cats’ somewhat inexpressive faces don’t do them any favours. Whether he’s growling or “grinning” (actually a sign – inevitably – that he wants you to like him), it’s not difficult to get a rough idea of what a dog is thinking just from looking at his face, let alone all the other clues that come from his body language.

It’s true that cats have different priorities to dogs. Le nombre d'hôpitaux en déficit a spectaculairement diminué. Le nombre d'hôpitaux généraux avec un résultat d'exploitation négatif a fortement baissé en 2014.

Le nombre d'hôpitaux en déficit a spectaculairement diminué

Sur les 92 établissements publics et privés, ils n'étaient plus « que » 26 à évoluer dans le rouge, comparativement aux 40 signalés un an auparavant, ressort-il de la nouvelle étude Maha dont le contenu ne devait être dévoilé que lundi mais dont un confrère révèle le contenu prématurément. Le nombre d'hôpitaux en déficit a spectaculairement diminué. La santé financière des hôpitaux généraux semble s'être améliorée l'année dernière, selon la dernière étude Maha (Model for automatic hospital analyses) de la banque Belfius à paraître ce lundi. En 2014, 14 établissements ont vu leur résultat d'exploitation renouer avec le positif, ce qui représente 35% d'hôpitaux déficitaires en moins sur un an.

Il s'agit là d'un changement de tendance inattendu, principalement porté par des gains d'efficacité dans le secteur. Helicopter parenting is increasingly correlated with college-age depression and anxiety. Photo by Wavebreakmedia Ltd/Thinkstock Academically overbearing parents are doing great harm.

Helicopter parenting is increasingly correlated with college-age depression and anxiety.

So says Bill Deresiewicz in his groundbreaking 2014 manifesto Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life. What makes Hannah Arendt a cosmopolitan? – James McAuley. Hannah Arendt died 40 years ago.

What makes Hannah Arendt a cosmopolitan? – James McAuley

Can Winston Churchill’s grandson save Serco? And is it worth saving? Why Greece never got a fair chance. Following Greece’s failure to make a scheduled debt repayment to the IMF on 30 June the country now stands on the brink of exiting the euro.

Why Greece never got a fair chance

Sony Kapoor writes that while the Greek government could be accused of naivety in the manner it has conducted negotiations, the root cause of the crisis has been the unwillingness of Greece’s creditors to rectify previous mistakes by providing further debt relief to the country. He argues that unless creditors alter their approach over the next few days, the consequences could be severe for both Greece and the Eurozone. Despite having experienced an angry German government almost push Greece out of the Eurozone in 2012 at first hand, I never thought we would be standing at this crossroads again. It took many of us – advisers, EU technocrats, American politicians and some academics – several weeks to convince the key-decision makers in Berlin not to pull the trigger, and it was far from obvious we would be successful.

Why an agreement on Greece is so difficult. By Mark Hallerberg July 1 People line up at an ATM outside a branch of the National Bank on Friday in central Athens.

Why an agreement on Greece is so difficult

(Petros Giannakouris/AP) On Tuesday, Greece failed to make a payment to the International Monetary Fund. On the same day, the second joint European Union-IMF package for the country expired. For many, the fact that either event happened seems almost incompressible. To understand the situation, it is helpful to review the last positions of the two sides and to consider why one issue in particular remains outstanding.

Greek residents are exasperated with their government, after Athens missed its $1.8 billion payment to the International Monetary Fund. Inside Hosoo, the 327-Year-Old Textiles Mill Supplying Chanel and Dior. The end of interest rates. The end of interest rates Why the return on capital will gradually converge to zero Entrepreneurs and tech people love to fantasise about the future.

The end of interest rates

How self driving cars will change transportation. A New Mission for the World Bank by Nancy Birdsall. WASHINGTON, DC – The Green Revolution is considered one of the great successes in the history of economic development. The Diaspora Goldmine by Ricardo Hausmann. CAMBRIDGE – Many countries have substantial diasporas, but not many are proud of it. After all, people tend not to leave a country when it is doing well, so the diaspora is often a reminder of a country’s darker moments. The IMF's big Greek mistake. Shutterstock Tweet This. Book Review: Good times, bad times: The welfare myth of them and us.

South Sudan’s Agony. South Sudan must rank among the most astounding failures in Africa, if only because the country is not even four years old. Ed Lake on Why are so many people so co... LEQSPaper76.pdf. Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now by Ayaan Hirsi Ali – review. The Somali-born author and human rights campaigner Ayaan Hirsi Ali is an unequivocal figure. Data Is the New Middle Manager. Matthew Crawford: 'distraction is a kind of obesity of the mind' Before I met Matthew Crawford I loved air travel. Why is Isis a wake-up call to Muslim women? Turkey’s Gallipoli centenary events are set to become the latest focal point in the Armenian genocide dispute. On 24 April, events will be held in Turkey to commemorate the First World War campaign in Gallipoli, which took place in 1915.

Soil: Why are we still destroying it? The Political Roots of Widening Inequality. This article appears in the Spring 2015 issue of The American Prospect magazine. Celebrate our 25th Anniversary with us by clicking here for a free download of this special issue. For the past quarter-century—at least since Bob Kuttner, Paul Starr, and I founded The American Prospect—I’ve offered in articles, books, and lectures an explanation for why average working people in advanced nations like the United States have failed to gain ground and are under increasing economic stress: Put simply, globalization and technological change have made most of us less competitive. The tasks we used to do can now be done more cheaply by lower-paid workers abroad or by computer-driven machines. Case 116 Trust No One. Case 116 Trust No One.