An important question faced by every voter on the Election Day is which of the parties is best equipped to foster the development of economy and capital markets. In the pursuit of their own political agenda, the winning party or coalition can fine-tune the fiscal policy and significantly impact on the future economic outcomes. Depending on their political orientation, the objectives of different camps can be quite disparate. As suggested by the partisan theory of Hibbs (1977), left-wing governments tend to cater for the well-being of their working class electorate by targeting unemployment. Right-wing governments, on the other hand, prioritize reduction in inflation so feared by the higher income and occupational status groups.
Several earlier papers focused specifically on the relationship between political orientation of the executive branch of the government and stock market performance. Johnson et al. (1999) and Santa-Clara and Valkanov (2003) report that U.S. stock market returns were higher under Democratic than Republican presidencies, with the difference being particularly large for small stock portfolios. This anomaly can not be explained away by variations in business cycle proxies. Huang (1985) and Hensel and Ziemba (1995) look at whether presidential trading strategies are able to improve investors’ risk-return trade-off.
The intention of this project is to take a closer look at the use of contemporary styles for new additions to historic buildings. The use of a new and different style for additions on historic buildings, also known as contrasting styles, is one of the most typical approaches in the field, yet observing the variation in the results obtained when architects use contrasting additions in historic buildings, causes one to question this approach. What is it that makes projects like this succeed or fail? This research, will explore the key elements that allow historic buildings and contemporary additions to work cohesively, respecting and promoting each other’s architectural significance. Using the results, I will consider the feasibility of establishing design guidelines to promote the use of specific design elements for the expansion of historic buildings.
New architectural styles can actually reinforce the significance and architectural value of historic buildings. By labeling architecture as an old or new style, we are recognizing a timeframe for the use of unique and symbolic details that have value and meaning for a specific group. These symbolic details are the language that helps to illustrate or convey the evolution of our society. The styles expressed on historic buildings represent the language of the past and the new styles will represent our present in the future. For this reason, it is important to create an environment where both can coexist and correlate with each other, building additions to historic buildings using contemporary architecture styles with an honest representation of current social situations, while protecting the historic structure which represents the social situations of our past.
From 1980 to 2004, the number of personal bankruptcy filings in the United States increased more than five-fold, from 288,000 to 1.5 million per year.By 2004, more Americans were filing for bankruptcy each year than were graduating from college, getting divorced, or being diagnosed with cancer. A number of rich and famous people also filed for bankruptcy, which generated enormous publicity, raised public awareness of bankruptcy as a way to avoid repaying one’s debts, and suggested that bankruptcy was no longer subject to social disapproval. Famous bankrupts include former Governor of Texas John Connally, corporate raider Paul Bilzerian, actor Burt Reynolds, actresses Debbie Reynolds and Kim Basinger, rapper MC Hammer, singer Merle Haggard, U.S. baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn, and boxer Mike Tyson (according to http://www. angelfire.com/stars4/lists/bankruptcies.html , 2007).
Lenders responded with a major lobbying campaign for bankruptcy reform that lasted nearly a decade and cost more than $100 million. Their efforts were unsuccessful during the 1990s, but in 2005, the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA) became law. It made bankruptcy law much less debtor-friendly. Personal bankruptcy filings surged to two million in 2005 as debtors rushed to file under the old law and then fell sharply to 600,000 in 2006.
