Financial frauds and pseudo-states in the Pacific Islands

Since 1990 financial frauds have been associated with pseudo-states in thePacific Islands, particularly the Dominion of Melchizedek. The relative success of these schemes can be understood in terms of (i) the general atmosphere of overconfidence about financial dealings that prevailed during the decade to early 2000, (ii) Melchizedek's creation of opportunities for a growing mutually supportive network of fraudsters, (iii) this pseudo-state's identification with a rising global tide of secession and indigenous self-determination through its increasing involvement in a variety ofethnic nationalist movements in Oceania that have been connected with questionable financial dealings, and (iv) the attractiveness of its developing postmodern personality as a libertarian cyber-state. The article concludes by seeing Melchizedek's facilitation of financialfrauds as a challenge to recent libertarian thinking about the law of cyberspace and the anticipated neo-medieval world-system.     

Does foreign investment enhance domestic manufacturing firms’ labour productivity? Evidence from a quantile regression approach

Economic Change and Restructuring - We provide new insights into the relationship between foreign investment and the labour productivity of domestic firms in the Vietnamese manufacturing industry....     

Face recognition as a function of distance and illumination: A practical tool for use in the courtroom

Abstract

This paper describes a practical courtroom tool that provides insight in face recognition accuracy as a function of distance and illumination. Subjects were shown 3/4 target portraits with an exposition time of 12 seconds, immediately followed by a target-absent or target-present lineup of six full-face portraits. Subjects were asked to identify the target. Seven distances (3 to 40 meter) and nine illumination levels (0.3 to 3000 lux) were used which resulted in a 7?9 matrix, with in the cells a hit score and a false alarm score. From these rough data several other measures were derived, like d-prime, diagnostic value and some idealised scores. The scores represent the upper margins of recognition accuracy with the memory component reduced to a minimum. The results clearly indicate a systematic increase of recognition performance with decreasing distance and increasing illumination. The end result is a practical rule of thumb, the Rule of Fifteen: Even in ideal conditions the desired diagnostic value of 15 is reached at not more than 15 meters, not less than 15 lux.     

Walls of secrecy and silence

Research Summary Most analysts of the causes of the contemporary credit crunch have concluded that the supervising agencies failed in their duties. The same is true for studies of several major fraud scandals, including the Madoff affair and the Dutch construction fraud. The remedy seems immediately obvious: more and better regulation and supervision. However, this line of reasoning seems somewhat simplistic by ignoring the question of how illegal activities can remain hidden for many years from supervising agencies, victims, and bystanders. This research article argues that the problem also lies in the successful concealment of illegal activities by the perpetrators and in the presence of silence in their social environment. Policy Implications The cases analyzed in this article suggest that financial misconduct also could be controlled by breaking the conspiracies of silence. The strengthening of supervision is unlikely to be effective without simultaneous efforts to encourage people to speak out and to give them incentives to want to know and to tell the truth.