Investing in Crisis: The Methods,Strategies, and Expectations of Investors in Single-Family Foreclosed Homes in Distressed Neighborhoods

In the wake of the U.S. foreclosure crisis, the magnitude of homes flowing into investor ownership since 2007 has been unprecedented. Based on interviews with investors and other key informants active on the south and southwest sides of Atlanta, we describe the key aspects of the business models of such investors, including their methods of identifying properties, determining acquisition prices and renovation costs, and managing properties for rent. We also examine their expectations for financial return, including the sensitivity of returns to market and property uncertainties. We conclude with key findings and some recommendations for policymakers.     

Hungry for Information: Public Attitudes Toward Food Nanotechnology and Labeling

What people think about food nanotechnology (nanofood) is under‐explored in the United States, especially outside of quantitative surveys. As such, we set out to examine public attitudes toward food nanotechnology in conversational, focus group settings in order to identify policy options for nanofood governance, and in particular, options for labeling. Through analysis of focus groups in six U.S. locations, we found that the vast majority of the participants wanted nanotechnology labels for all types of food products, and most were willing to pay a premium for labeling. Participants cited abilities to choose and avoid potential risk as the main purposes of nanofood labels. However, they recognized that labels alone do not provide much meaning and that information concerning food nanotechnology products needs to be sought and supplied beyond the label to enable informed choices. Additionally, willingness‐to‐use and risk–benefit perceptions varied according to the position and intended functions of the nanomaterials in food products.     

OBITUARIES

The Indian Federation. An Exposition and Critical Review. By Sir Shafa'at Ahmad Khan, Litt.D. Pp. xii + 450. 6?” × 9”. Macmillan and Co. 1937. 15s.

The Spirit of Zen. By Alan W. Watts. Wisdom of the East Series. Edited by L. Cranmer‐Byng and Dr. S. A. Katadia. 73/4” × 5”. Pp. 136. John Murray, 1936. 3s. 6d.

When Japan Goes to War.* By O. Tanin and E. Yohan. 8/1/4>” × 5/1/2>”. Pp. 271. Lawrence and Wishart. 5s.

Japan at the Cross Roads. By Walter Smith. Published by Lawrence and Wishart, London. 1936. 3s. 6d.

The Far East Comes Nearer. By H. Hcsscll Tiltman. Pp. 314. Illustrated. London: Jarrolds. 1936. 12s. 6d.

The China Year Book, 1936

Problems of Chinese Education. By Victor Purcell, Ph.D. 8 /3/4>” ×5/3/4>. Pp. viii+261. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co., Ltd. 1936. 10s. 6d.

Attack on Everest. By Neil Macintyre. Pp. 172. Methuen. 5s.

Tibetan Journey. By Madame Alexandra David‐Neel. 9” × 5 ?”. Pp. 276. Maps and illustrations. London: John Lane, The Bodley Head. 12s. 6d.

Social Organization and Customary Law of the Nepalese Tribes. By Dr. Leonhard Adam, American Anthropologist. No. 4. 3$

Khyber Caravan: Through Kashmir, Waziristan, Baluchistan and Northern India. By Gordon Sinclair. 8 3/4” × 6”. Pp. xvi+287. Maps. Hurst and Blackett. 12s. 6d.

The Clear Mirror: A Pattern of Life in Goa and in Indian Tibet. By G. E. Hutchinson. 9” × 5 ⁷/_8". Pp. xii+171. Cambridge University Press. 8s. 6d.

Ganésa: A Monograph on the Elephant‐Faced God. By Alice Getty. With an Introduction by Alfred Foucher. Oxford : Clarendon Press. 1936.

Afghanistan. A Brief Survey. By J. D. Ahmada and M. A. Aziz. With a Foreword by Dr. Sir Muhammad Iqbal. 10” × 7/1/2>". Pp. xx + 159. First published by Dar‐ut‐Talif, Kabul, September, 1934. New impression, Longmans, Green and Co., printers in India, April, 1936. Three maps and seventy illustrations. 12s. 6d. Library edition, 15s. 6d.

The Harēm. By N. M. Penzer. Pp. 260. Index. Map. Forty‐two plates. Harrap and Co. 1936. 21s.

Moslem Women Enter a New World. By Ruth Frances Woodsmall. Publications of the American University of Beirut, Social Science Series, No. 14. London: George Allen and Unwin, Ltd. 12s. 6d.

The Effects of Centralization on Education in Modern Egypt. By Russell Gait, Ph.D. 9?"× 6”. Pp. vi + 134. Cairo: Department of Education, American University. 1936.

The Nile : From the Source to Egypt. The Life‐Story of a River. By Emil Ludwig. Translated by Mary Lindsay. London: Allen and Unwin. 1936. Price 16s.

Sea Adventures. By Henry de Monfried. Translated by Helen Buchanan Bell. Thirteen illustrations and endpaper map. Methuen and Co., Ltd. 10s. 6d.

The Dangerous Sea: The Mediterranean. By George Slocombc. 8/3/4> × 5/3/4>”. Pp. xxx+286. Hutchinson. 1936. 10s. 6d.

Aden Protectorate: A Report on the Social, Economic and Politica Condition of the Hadhramaut. By W. H. Ingrams, O.B.E. Colonial No. 123. Pp. 1–127. With map. H.M. Stationery Office. 3s.

The Arabian Knight: Sir Richard Burton. By Seton Dearden. Pp.334. Arthur Barker. 12s. 6d.

The Gates of Jerusalem. By Jacqueline Cockburn. With an appreciation by Sir Ronald Storrs, K.C.M.G., C.B.E. Pp. x + 300. John Murray. 7s. 6d.

Who is Prosperous in Palestine ? Labour Pamphlet No. 7.

The Palestine Mandate : Invalid and Impracticable. By W. F. Boustany. Palestine Information Centre. 1936. IS. 6d.     

Book reviews

Iron Oxen: A Documentary of Revolution in Chinese Farming. By William Hinton. New York and London: Monthly Review Press, 1970. Pp. x + 225. $6.95 and £2.15.

Hundred Day War: The Cultural Revolution at Tsinghua University. By William Hinton. New York and London: Monthly Review Press, 1972. Pp. 288. $7.95 and £3.15.

The Development of China's Steel Industry and Soviet Technical Aid. By M. Gardner Clark. Ithaca, NY: New York State School of Industrial and Labour Relations, Cornell University, 1973. Pp. vii + 104, appendices. $7.00.

Urban Unemployment in Developing Countries. By Paul Bairoch. Geneva: International Labour Office, 1973. Pp. v + 99. 12 Swiss F.

Fiscal Federalism. By Wallace E. Oates. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1972. Pp. xvi + 256, diagrams.

Foreign Resources and Economic Development: A Symposium on the Report of the Pearson Commission. Edited by T. J. Byres. Portland, Oregon and London: Frank Cass and Company Limited, 1971. Pp. xi + 199, index. £2.75.

The Inter‐American Development Bank: A Study in Development Financing. By Sidney Dell. New York, Washington and London: Praeger Publishers, 1972. Pp. xv + 255. £6.25.

Money and Economic Development: The Horowitz Lectures of 1972. By Milton Friedman. New York: Praeger, 1973. Pp. x + 67, diagrams. £3.50.

Modern Revolutions: An Introduction to the Analysis of a Political Phenomenon. By John Dunn. London: Cambridge University Press, 1972. Pp. 294, index, bibliography. £1 .40 (Paper).

Socialist Economic Development and Reforms. By J. Wilczynski. London: Mac‐Millan, 1972. Pp. xvii + 350. £5.

Reforms in the Soviet and East European Economies. Edited by L. A. D. Dellin and Hermann Gross. Lexington: D. C. Heath and Co, 1972, Pp. viii + 175. £4.

Politics and Society in Post‐War Naples. By P. A. Allum. London: Cambridge University Press, 1973. Pp. xvi + 410, appendices, maps, bibliography and index. £11.00.

Latin America Review of Books. Edited by Colin Harding and Christopher Roper. London and Leeds: Latin America Review of Books Ltd, No. 1 Spring 1973. Pp. 220. £3.00 (cloth), £1.25 (paper).

Rural Guerrillas in Latin America. By Richard Gott. London: Penguin Books, 1973. Pp. 637. £1.00.

Latin America: Underdevelopment or Revolution. By André Gunder Frank, New York and London: Monthly Review Press, 1969. Pp. xviii + 409. £3.90.

Politics and Social Structure in Latin America. By James Petras. New York and London: Monthly Review Press, 1970. Pp. 382. £4.25.

The Politics of Land Reform in Chile, 1950–1970. By Robert R. Kaufman. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1972. Pp. 321. £6.00.

Political Mobilization of the Venezuelan Peasant. By John Duncan Powell. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1971. Pp. 229.

Urban Challenge in East Africa. Edited by John Hutton. Nairobi: East African Publishing House, 1972. Pp. viii + 285, map, tables and photos. Shs. 42 in East Africa.

Employment, Incomes and Equality: A Strategy for Increasing Productive Employment in Kenya. Geneva: International Labour Office, 1972. Pp. xx + 600. 305 wf.

Arms and African Development. Proceedings of the First Pan‐African Citizens Conference. Edited by Frederick S. Arkhurst. New York and London: Praeger, 1972. Pp. xvi + 158. £7.75.

Man, State, and Society in the Contemporary Maghrib. Edited by I. William Zartman. New York: Praeger and London: Pall Mall, 1973. Pp. vii + 531, appendices with tables, maps, bibliographical essay. $13.50 and £5.67.

Histoire Economique du Québec 1851–1896. By Jean Hamelin and Yves Roby. Editions Fides: Montreal, 1971. Pp. 436, index. $10.00.

Indochina in Conflict: A Political Assessment. Edited by Joseph J. Zasloff and Alan E. Goodman. Lexington, Mass., Toronto and London: D. C. Heath and Co, 1972. Pp. xv + 227. £5.00.

The Dynamics of Indian Political Factions. By Mary C. Carras. London: Cambridge University Press, 1972. £6.50.     

The Common Security and Defence Policy as an act of American hegemony

Abstract

The financial crisis endangers the security of NATO's members and partners. As such, NATO has a formal obligation to mobilize its resources to aid members in overcoming current economic challenges. NATO can play a valuable role on three levels. First, NATO can aid members in rationalizing their military procurement and manpower systems, thus reducing the fiscal burden of maintaining adequate defenses. Second, NATO can press the ECB and the EU to modify arrangements governing the Euro so as to minimize the risk that EMU will collapse. Finally, NATO has a “soft power” role in vigorously defending the liberal economic order and democratic political institutions of the Western Alliance from the ideological attacks that inevitably follow financial crises.     

The Transatlantic Origins of the Business Trust

The trust form may have afforded transaction planners all the incidents of so-called ‘corporateness' prior to the enactment of general incorporation statutes, but in England the Companies Acts hindered the development of the business trust, and in the United States, the inability of the common law to distinguish adequately between partnerships and trusts made its use uncertain. Whereas the common law in England charted a complicated path to circumvent prohibitions in the Companies Acts, undoing confusion in American common law, which relied on English precedent, required legislative intervention. This narrative complicates interpretations of the state's role in the development of organizational law. The state could help to break down intellectual barriers impeding the progress of the common law as much as the common law could seek out ways in which to circumvent the strictures of state-imposed regulation.     

Institutions and coalition formation: The German election of 2005

The German election of 2005 creates three puzzles for the literature on coalition formation. First, the election led to a rare event in German politics and in parliamentary systems more generally, a ‘grand coalition’ between the two largest parties. Second, a minority government, something which has never occurred in postwar Germany (except briefly as the result of the breakdown of a government coalition), was in fact one of the two most likely governments to form. Third, the parties of the left retained a comfortable majority in the Bundestag; however they did not form a coalition. The election of 2005 appears unique in German politics, but we argue that its outcome is easily understood using existing institutional theories of coalition formation. We examine party positions in two dimensions (economic and social) using computer-based word scoring of party manifestos. We demonstrate that the conditions for a SPD minority government were present in Germany due to its central location in the policy space. While the configuration of policy positions would thus have allowed the SPD to form a minority government, the role of the Federal President as a veto player could have prevented it from forming, and the presence of an opposition-controlled upper house would have decreased its effectiveness. The mere possibility of forming a minority government gave the SPD a bargaining advantage in the coalition negotiations with the CDU/CSU. We show that in the final portfolio allocation, the SPD received ministries which control approximately two-thirds of the federal budget.