SINCE BECOMING a side-line observer of Alcoholics Anonymous in 1939, my approach to alcoholism has undergone an almost total reorientation. For the first time I saw what peace of mind means in the achievement of sobriety and I began to consider the emotional factors involved from a very different viewpoint. In A.A. meetings, the role of resentments was a recurrent theme. This seemed significant...

New international accounting standards requires insurers to reflect the value of embedded options and guarantees in their products. Pricing techniques based on the Black & Scholes paradigm are often used, however, the hypotheses underneath this model are rarely met. We propose a framework that encompasses the most known sources of incompleteness. We show that the surrender option, joined with a...

Warrick Smith The global trend of utility privatization has pushed regulatory issues to the fore, among them the role of regulatory agencies. These agencies have a long history in the United States, and creating or strengthening them has become a central goal of reforms around the world. But many issues remain contentious, particularly the notion of agency independence. Some governments are rel...