For all but the most credit-worthy companies, it is more efficient to finance large pools of assets that have predictable behavioral characteristics through non-standard arrangements. These off-balance sheet structures allow credit exposures to be tailored to investor risk, asset class, and an ever-increasing diversity of idiosyncratic needs on the part of issuers and investors. The discipline that addresses these structures, which is called structured finance or securitization, is almost twenty years old, and has become a ubiquitous element of modern financial management. Yet, it has not been systematically covered in a textbook designed for both the school and workplace contexts. Elements of Structured Finance, the text version of a program of instruction in structured finance that the authors have offered at universities, private training programs, and consultancies, fills this void spectacularly. Raynes and Rutledge, two very highly regarded teachers and consultants in the field, bring clarity and logic to an inherently complex and frightening area of finance, using their extensive experience working with many of the top Wall Street securities houses. The book will start with the relatively simple concepts of static valuation models and the benchmark pool, and take the reader through the more esoteric features of dynamic risk analysis, thus serving as both an excellent introduction for the beginner and an essential reference for the professional. In addition to participants in structured finance programs, this book will appeal to structured finance analysts and managers at banks, asset management companies, insurance companies, and a wide variety of other corporations.
The Analysis of Structured Securities presents the first intellectually defensible framework for systematic assessment of the credit quality of structured securities. It begins with a detailed description and critique of methods used to rate asset-backed securities, collateralized debt obligations and asset-backed commercial paper. The book then proposes a single replacement paradigm capable of granular, dynamic results. It offers extensive guidance on using numerical methods in cash flow modeling, as well as a groundbreaking section on trigger optimization. Casework on applying the method to automobile ABS, CDOs-of-ABS and aircraft-lease securitizations is also presented. This book is essential reading for practitioners who seek higher precision, efficiency and control in managing their structured exposures.
Arielle Gardiner is desperate to find her fiancé, Caleb, who has disappeared in Nicaragua, where men rushing to get their share of California gold cross the isthmus. She asks Stephen Lightenfield, a captain who sails there from Boston, for passage. When he refuses, because he believes the jungle is no place for a lady, she sneaks aboard his ship. He is furious, but fascinated by a woman who would leave everything behind to look for the man she loves. He can’t guess that Arielle feels obligation rather than love for Caleb. When she slips off his ship in Nicaragua, he gives chase. Knowing she will not give up until she finds her fiancé and with her providing exactly the excuse he needs to travel inland, he volunteers to go with her across the isthmus and into a world of ancient pyramids, new enemies, and tangled jungles where nothing is as it seems. Trust doesn’t come cheaply. Loyalty can demand the greatest sacrifice any person can make. Earning both is hard, but having both betrayed can destroy a heart determined to remain true to long-held promises, even when the sweetest love might be lost forever beneath the tropical stars.
To Place Our Deeds traces the development of the African American community in Richmond, California, a city on the San Francisco Bay. This readable, extremely well-researched social history, based on numerous oral histories, newspapers, and archival collections, is the first to examine the historical development of one black working-class community over a fifty-year period. Offering a gritty and engaging view of daily life in Richmond, Shirley Ann Wilson Moore examines the process and effect of migration, the rise of a black urban industrial workforce, and the dynamics of community development. She describes the culture that migrants brought with them—including music, food, religion, and sports—and shows how these traditions were adapted to new circumstances. Working-class African Americans in Richmond used their cultural venues—especially the city's legendary blues clubs—as staging grounds from which to challenge the racial status quo, with a steadfast determination not to be "Jim Crowed" in the Golden State. As this important work shows, working-class African Americans often stood at the forefront of the struggle for equality and were linked to larger political, social, and cultural currents that transformed the nation in the postwar period.
Link Williams is a handsome and brilliant Dartmouth graduate who tends bar due to the lack of better opportunities for an African American man in a staid mid-century Connecticut town. The routine of Link’s life is interrupted when he intervenes to save a woman from a late-night attack. Drinking in a bar together after the incident, “Camilo” discovers that her rescuer is African American and he learns that she is white. Unbeknownst to him, “Camilo” (actually Camilla Treadway Sheffield) is a wealthy married woman who has crossed the town’s racial divide to relieve the tedium of her life. Thus brought together by chance, Link and Camilla draw each other into furtive encounters that violate the rigid and uncompromising social codes of their own town and times. As The Narrows sweeps ahead to its shattering denouement, Petry shines a harsh yet richly truthful light on the deforming harm that race and class wreak on human lives. In a fascinating introduction to this new edition, Keith Clark discusses the prescience with which Petry chronicled the ways tabloid journalism, smug elitism, and mob mentality distort and demonize African American men.
Creativity Explored celebrates its 40th anniversary with a collection of powerful artwork and perspectives from its talented studio artists. This vibrant book uplifts the voices of the artists of Creativity Explored, a nonprofit that gives people with developmental disabilities the opportunity to express themselves through art and share their work with audiences from their local community and in the contemporary art world. This curated collection features more than one hundred original paintings, drawings, illustrations, and sculptures—as well as quotes and stories from the artists—inviting readers to examine and challenge their perceptions about disability. Some artworks are humorous and blunt, while others are affecting and abstract, speaking to the artistic community's diversity and creativity. This book offers an engaging introduction to person-centered thinking for art lovers or anyone interested in learning about disability justice in a visual way. DEMYSTIFYING DISABILITY: This significant new anthology showcases an array of developmentally disabled artists and organizes their works into thematic chapters, such as "Self Medication," "On the Spectrum," "Yes I Do Think About Sex," and "Our Fears." These chapters provide interesting stylistic juxtapositions and personal reflections that highlight both individual and shared experiences as diverse disabled artists. BEAUTIFUL AND CONTENT RICH: This gorgeous hardcover art book features more than one hundred original artworks in full color, from lively portraits and detailed drawings to abstract paintings and captivating illustrations. Quotes, interviews, personal stories, and artist statements also give readers deeper insight into the artists' creative practices, processes, and rituals. This book is a rich visual trove and source of inspiration for any contemporary art lover. SUPPORT A GREAT CAUSE: Creativity Explored was founded in 1983 with the belief that art is essential to life. This book celebrates the organization's mission and its talented artists after forty years of creating impactful arts and career programs with developmentally disabled artists. This collection is a meaningful way to learn more about Creativity Explored and the diverse community it continues to support today. Perfect for: Art lovers and activists People who admire the mission and work of Creativity Explored The disabled community, allies, and educators Gift seekers for family and friends interested in learning more about disability justice Fans of self-taught artists, folk arts, and "outsider art" Contemporary art anthology and art book collectors #OwnVoices readers and anyone interested in diversifying their contemporary art knowledge
The Great Smoky Mountains, at the border of eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina, are among the highest peaks of the southern Appalachian chain. Although this area shares much with the cultural traditions of all southern Appalachia, the folklife here has been uniquely shaped by historical events, including the Cherokee Removal of the 1830s and the creation of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park a century later. This book surveying the rich folklife of this special place in the American South offers a view of the culture as it has been defined and changed by scholars, missionaries, the federal government, tourists, and people of the region themselves. Here is an overview of the history of a beautiful landscape, one that examines the character typified by its early settlers, by the displacement of the people, and by the manner in which the folklife was discovered and defined during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Here also is an examination of various folk traditions and a study of how they have changed and evolved.
This is a special issue—our 50th, as you may have noticed from our cover. To celebrate, all past and present editors were to contribute a story. (It helps that they are also amazingly talented writers.) So we have stories from Michael Bracken, Barb Goffman, Paul Di Filippo, Darrell Schweitzer, and Cynthia Ward in addition to our other fare. But wait! There’s more! This issue features four original tales—Elizabeth Zelvin has a fantasy/mystery stories, Phyllis Ann Karr has a weird western, and Cynthia Ward has a gonzo science fiction crowd-funding story. And I have completed a story by the late H.B. Fyfe, who was best known for his science fiction stories, though this one is a revenge tale that most closely fits the mystery genre. And the good stuff doesn’t stop there. We also have a superhero story from Darrell Schweitzer. Space Opera from Algis Budrys and E.E. “Doc” Smith. A historical mystery novel by western author B.M. Bower. A historical investigation from Charles Todd. A Mallworld story from Somtow Sucharitkul (who also writes as S.P. Somtow). And no issue is complete without a solve-it-yourself mystery by Hal Charles. All in all, this is an probably our best Black Cat Weekly yet. Here’s the complete lineup: Mysteries / Suspense / Adventure: “The Ladies of Wednesday Tea” by Michael Bracken [short story] “Hidden in Plain Sight” by Hal Charles [Solve-It-Yourself Mystery] “Ice Ice Baby” by Barb Goffman [short story] “Flayed” by H.B. Fyfe and John Gregory Betancourt [short story] “Blood Money” by Charles Todd [Barb Goffman Presents short story] “The House of Marble” by Elizabeth Zelvin [Michael Bracken Presents short story] The Eagle’s Wing, by B.M. Bower [novel] Science Fiction & Fantasy: “The House of Marble” by Elizabeth Zelvin [Michael Bracken Presents short story] “The Rise and Fall of Whistle-Pig City” by Paul Di Filippo [short story] “Rabid in Mallworld” by Somtow Sucharitkul [short story] “Fighting the Zeppelin Gang” by Darrell Schweitzer [short story] “Winona of Bleeding Kansas” by Phyllis Ann Karr [short story] “The Campaign Is Now Officially Complete” by Cynthia Ward [short story] “Blood on my Jets” by Algis Budrys [short story] The Skylark of Valeron, by Edward E. Smith, Ph.D. [novel]
In one volume, two landmark novels about the terrible power of race in America from one of the foremost African American writers of the past century. Ann Petry is increasingly recognized as one of the essential American novelists of the twentieth century. Now, she joins the Library of America series with this deluxe hardcover volume gathering her two greatest works. Published in 1946 to widespread critical and popular acclaim--it was the first novel by an African-American woman to sell over a million copies--The Street follows Lutie Johnson, a young, newly single mother, as she struggles to make a better life for her son, Bub. An intimate account of the aspirations and challenges of black, female, working-class life, much of it set on a single block in Harlem, the novel exposes structural inequalities in American society while telling a complex human story, as overpriced housing, lack of opportunity, sexual harassment, and racism conspire to limit Lutie's potential and to break her buoyant spirit. Less widely read than her blockbuster debut and still underappreciated, The Narrows (1953) is Petry's most ambitious and accomplished novel--a multi-layered, stylistically innovative exploration of themes of race, class, sexuality, gender, and power in postwar America. Centered around an adulterous interracial affair in a small Connecticut town between the young black scholar-athlete Link Williams and white, privileged munitions heiress Camilo Sheffield, it is also a fond, incisive community portrait, full of unforgettable minor characters, unexpected humor, and a rich sense of history. Also included in the volume are three of Petry's previously uncollected essays related to the novels and a newly researched chronology of the author's life, prepared with the assistance of her daughter Elisabeth Petry. LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.
These 14 essays by scholars who have worked with David Jasper in both church and academy develop original discussions of themes emerging from his writings on literature, theology and hermeneutics. The arts, institutions, literature and liturgy are among the subject areas they cover.
American millionaire Skip Brighton takes a tour of Europe in hopes of unraveling some suspicious business dealings and matching his independent daughter, Ann, with a noble British man. But Ann is determined to cling to her freedom--until a handsome stranger crosses her path. "Never Before" is the first book in Power's new "American Beauties" trilogy.
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