Dividing The Loot
by Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.. It is when the going gets better, that the going gets tough. This enigmatic sentence bears explanation: when a firm is in dire straits, in the throes of a crisis, or is a loss maker – conflicts ...
Similar Editorials : Dividing Multifunctional Rooms | Tags : Central Europe

Public Sector Economies in Transition
by Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.. In the previous article, we described the various methods developed in the West to cope with the ever-burgeoning public sector. Yet, economies in transition everywhere in the world have learned a l...
Similar Editorials : Lessons in Transition | Tags : East Europe

The Criminality of Transition
by Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.. Lecture given at the Netherlands Economic Institute (NEI) on 18/4/2001 Human vice is the most certain thing after death and taxes, to paraphrase Benjamin Franklin. The only variety of economic activi...
Similar Editorials : Basketball Transition Defense Tips | Tags : Real Estate

Market Impeders and Market Inefficiencies
by Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.. Even the most devout proponents of free marketry and hidden hand theories acknowledge the existence of market failures, market imperfections and inefficiencies in the allocation of economic resources...
Similar Editorials : Flea Market | Tags : Research Finance

Immortality and Mortality in the Economic Sciences
by Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.. Roberto Calvo Macias, a young author and thinker from Spain, once wrote to me that it is impossible to design a coherent philosophy of Economy without accounting for the (sad?) fact that we are morta...
Similar Editorials : Social Sciences Research | Tags : Life Insurance

The Distributive Justice of the Market
by Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.. "(1) Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive total system of equal basic liberties compatible with a similar system of liberty for all. (2) Social and economic inequalities are ...
Similar Editorials : Justice Delayed | Tags : Business And Money

The Fabric of Economic Trust
by Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.. Economy is called the dismal science because it pretends to be one, disguising its uncertainties and shifting fashions with mathematical formulae. Economy describes the aggregate behaviour of humans ...
Similar Editorials : The Fabric of Life | Tags : Make That Money

The Revolt of the Poor: The Demise of Intellectual Property?
by Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.. Three years ago I published a book of short stories in Israel. The publishing house belongs to Israel's leading (and exceedingly wealthy) newspaper. I signed a contract which stated that I am entitle...
Similar Editorials : Revolt of the Scholars | Tags : Hong Kong

The Inferno of the Finance Director
by Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.. Sometimes, I harbour a suspicion that Dante was a Financial Director. His famous work, "The Inferno", is such an accurate description of the job that it cannot be otherwise. He is fervently hated by ...
Similar Editorials : Director of Business Development | Tags : Old Europe

The Blessings of the Black Economy
by Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.. Some call it the "unofficial" or "informal" economy, others call it the "grey economy" but the old name fits it best: the "black economy". In the USA "black" means "profitable, healthy" and this is w...
Similar Editorials : Turning Obstacles Into Blessings | Tags : Finance Analysis

To Grow Out Of Unemployment
by Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.. There is a connection between economic growth and unemployment. There is a connection between growth and inflation. Therefore, commonsense (and financial theory) goes, there must be a connection betw...
Similar Editorials : What is Unemployment | Tags : Eastern Europe

Liquidity or Liquidation
by Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.. Large parts of the world today suffer from a severe liquidity crisis. The famed globalization of the capital markets seems to confine itself, ever more, to the richer parts, the more liquid exchanges...
Similar Editorials : Developers Feel Liquidity Crunch | Tags : The Euro

The Value of Stocks of a Company
by Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.. The debate rages all over Eastern and Central Europe, in countries in transition as well as in Western Europe. It raged in Britain during the 80s: Is privatization really the robbery in disguise of s...
Similar Editorials : Penny Stocks | Tags : Western Europe

Making Your Workers Your Partners
by Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.. There is an inherent conflict between owners and managers of companies. The former want, for instance, to minimize costs - the latter to draw huge salaries as long as they are in power (who knows wha...
Similar Editorials : Business Partners | Tags : Free Money Making

Workaholism, Leisure and Pleasure
by Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.. The official working week is being reduced to 35 hours a week. In most countries in the world, it is limited to 45 hours a week. The trend during the last century seems to be unequivocal: less work, ...
Similar Editorials : Entrepreneurship and Workaholism | Tags : Money And Finance

Competition Laws
by Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.. A. THE PHILOSOPHY OF COMPETITION The aims of competition (anti-trust) laws are to ensure that consumers pay the lowest possible price (=the most efficient price) coupled with the highest quality of...
Similar Editorials : DWI Laws and You | Tags : Europe And

History of Previous European Currency Unions
by Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.. The Euro feels like a novelty - but it is not. It was preceded by quite a few Monetary Unions in Europe and outside it. To start with, countries such as the USA and the USSR are (or were in the lat...
Similar Editorials : No Previous Experience Required | Tags : European Central Bank

The Delicate Art of Balancing the Budget
by Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.. Government budgets represent between 25% and 50% of he Gross Domestic Product (GDP), depending on the country. The members of the European Union (Germany, France) and the Scandinavian countries repre...
Similar Editorials : A Balancing Act | Tags : Slimming Down

Hedging Foreign Exchange Risks
by Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.. The exchange rate of the Macedonian Denar against the major hard currencies of the world has remained stable in the last few years. Because of the IMF restrictions, the local Narodna (Central) Bank d...
Similar Editorials : Foreign Exchange | Tags : Financing For Business

The Professions of the Future
by Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.. Predicting the future is a tricky business. There have been countless ridiculous failures at identifying the trends and products which will determine the future shape of our life and our environment....
Similar Editorials : The Future | Tags : Business Advertising

The Demise of the Dinosaur PTTs
by Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.. Telecommunications is the most important physical infrastructure in the modern world. It is more important than roads because it can replace them. It is more important than office buildings because i...
Similar Editorials : The Demise of Buy | Tags : European Countries

How Do Other Countries Devalue Their Currencies?
by Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.. Countries devalue their currencies only when they have no other way to correct past economic mistakes - whether their own or mistakes committed by their predecessors. The ills of a devaluation are ...
Similar Editorials : Trend Following Currencies | Tags : Business Capital

An Evaluation of the Devaluation
by Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.. A Minister of Finance is morally right to lie about a forthcoming devaluation and a woman has the right to lie about her age. This is the common wisdom. Rumours about a devaluation of the Macedonia...
Similar Editorials : Educational Evaluation Quality | Tags : Buy Cars

Going Bankrupt in the World
by Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.. It all starts by defaulting on an obligation: Money owed to creditors or to suppliers is not paid on time, interest payments due on bank loans or on corporate bonds issued to the public are withheld....
Similar Editorials : Is America Bankrupt | Tags : E Business

Phenomenon of Uninterrupted Economic Growth
by Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.. The first reaction of economies in transition is a sharp decline in their production, mainly in industrial production. In the countries which attained independence with the demise of the British Empi...
Similar Editorials : Monitoring Macedonia | Tags : Marketing And Advertising