... “precision era”, a threshold of every science. Some of the first - and essential in order to promote it to the rank of science - ... it to tell us something about itself... rather than the elegant Universe, I would call it the reluctant one. The work I have been ...
Story - antoq - 11/09/2010 - 06:51 - 0 comments - 0 attachments
The growth of emerging equity markets (EEM) in recent years has been phenomenal. These markets comprise a growing segment of the international equity market; in terms of size (capitalization value) some markets rank among the largest in the world; in terms of performance emerging market equities have been designated an asset class for international investors. The extent to which these markets continue to provide international investors with profitable risk/return opportunities and domestic firms with a local source of equity capital depends on, inter alia, their volatility and liquidity.
Following a period of sustained economic growth at the end of the last century and the beginning of this century, Latin America still faces high inequality and lower well-being indicators among certain sectors of the population. Afro-descendants, indigenous peoples and women are often at the lowest economic percentiles of income distributions, facing barriers in access to sustainable income-generating opportunities (Paes de Barros et al., 2009).
Gender and ethnic gaps in wealth and income are only some of the outcomes of a series of other disparities that occur in different markets and within households. The most salient of these can be found in education, where not only attainment matters, but also quality. While there have been important advances towards gender parity on the former (Duryea et al., 2007), on the latter there is some evidence that differences have been increasing for recent cohorts (Calónico and Ñopo, 2007).
Credit card issuers are currently going through the most turbulent times since the introduction of credit cards. U.S. Congress is looking to reshape (and possibly eliminate) their fee income and prevent them from increasing interest rates on existing balances, while merchants are lobbying to cap interchange rates.
To make matters worse, the current economic situation is causing a sharp reduction in credit card transaction growth, limiting issuers’ interchange income. It’s also keeping credit card issuers from extending credit to risky consumers,which further curtails interest rates and interchange revenue.
