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The purpose of this paper is to examine widespread assumptions about things that are deemed inevitable, but which might not happen, or which might have far less impact than previously thought.

Essay.

Some events that are thought to be inevitable actually never take place; and business executives should be prepared for these non‐events as least as much as for those that do take place.

Examines these issues in what is hoped to be a unique way.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze and understand the Rubinomics hypothesis or the argument that “fiscal discipline” will bring private investment to a growth path as a result of a decrease in real interest rates, during the 1990s in the USA.

The paper relies on a range of previously published works and macroeconomic data to test the Rubinomics hypothesis.

The paper concludes based on data from the experience of the US economy during the 1990s that the evidence does not validate the arguments of Rubinomics.

The “crowding‐out” debate is an important controversy in macroeconomics. By shedding light over this controversial issue, this paper shows that the US experience during the so‐called roaring 1990s, a period of extraordinary “fiscal discipline,” did not follow the classical crowding‐out hypothesis.

A tax based on land value is in many ways ideal, but many economists dismiss it by assuming it could not raise enough revenue. Standard sources of data omit much of the potential tax base, and undervalue what they do measure. The purpose of this paper is to present more comprehensive and accurate measures of land rents and values, and several modes of raising revenues from them besides the conventional property tax.

The paper identifies 16 elements of land's taxable capacity that received authorities either trivialize or omit. These 16 elements come in four groups.

In Group A, Elements 1‐4 correct for the downward bias in standard sources. In Group B, Elements 5‐10 broaden the concepts of land and rent beyond the conventional narrow perception, while Elements 11‐12 estimate rents to be gained by abating other kinds of taxes. In Group C, Elements 13‐14 explain how using the land tax, since it has no excess burden, uncaps feasible tax rates. In Group D, Elements 15‐16 define some moot possibilities that may warrant further exploration.

This paper shows how previous estimates of rent and land values have been narrowly limited to a fraction of the whole, thus giving a false impression that the tax capacity is low. The paper adds 14 elements to the traditional narrow “single tax” base, plus two moot elements advanced for future consideration. Any one of these 16 elements indicates a much higher land tax base than economists commonly recognize today. Taken together they are overwhelming, and cast an entirely new light on this subject.

If cultural evolution is purposive cities should have improved the quality of human life. City life is examined first in relation to the satisfaction of human needs. The inner areas of giant cities are perceived by their inhabitants as undesirable places to live. But the special problems of giant cities when subject to closer analysis are seen to be rooted in the larger pathology of the thrust for growth and power in modern civilisation.

The American Dream functions as a myth within our political discourse by providing hope to citizens and reinforcing beliefs in the protestant work ethic and meritocracy. This article examines the myth through categories of mobility, marginalization, and hope. Elite theory and institutional isomorphism are used to explore business privilege within Public Administration. The ability to reframe the American Dream is considered through an examination of select speeches at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Despite evidence of declining mobility and structural inequality, citizens cling to the myth. One explanation is that marginalization perpetuates the American Dream by crowding out issues of social class through various methods of institutional isomorphism. Another explanation is that the dream endures because it can be re-conceptualized.

Political campaigns are a form of bloodless but serious marketing warfare, and the various state and national races offer a unique opportunity to study the effectiveness of the winning candidates' marketing strategies and tactics. Trial‐and‐error adjustments to marketing strategy are made at an accelerated pace in political campaigns. The results can be seen in days or weeks, rather than the months or years of most industry programs. Toward the end of a major campaign, polls are taken weekly or even continuously.

Music elicits emotions and acts as a cultural definer of class values, political beliefs, and economic life. Students are intrinsically drawn to and possess an innate ability for interpreting music. Music, moreover, activates learning in ways other content sources cannot; yet, it is utilized infrequently in social studies classrooms as a historical inquiry tool. Harnessing its emotive and seductive power, music as a primary source naturally scaffolds understanding of the zeitgeist through sensory engagement and lyrical analyses. Focusing on Born in the U.S.A. (Springsteen, 1984), authors demonstrate how examining music can impart views often absent from mass media portrayal of historical events and eras. A music listening and analysis tool is employed as a heuristic for critically interpreting music to explore the past. The historical thinking processes presented offer an inquiry-oriented curricular model for integrating music and social studies.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the reasons, especially the assertions about the future, given by the US administration under President Reagan, to justify the decision to attack and invade the Caribbean island of Grenada.

The methodology is analysis of existing records and reports on the assertions, events, and decisions leading to the invasion.

The Reagan administration gave three main reasons for the invasion. They claimed that Americans on Grenada, particularly the students attending the St George's University Medical School, would be harmed from continuing social disruption on Grenada; that the militarization of Grenada was intended as a means for the future export of terrorism or revolution to its Caribbean neighbors; and that the planned international airport at Point Salines was intended to be a future Soviet‐Cuban military base. Each was false.

Decision making includes assumptions about the future and invites the use of foresight. Such foresight, of course, can be presumptively true and, thus, useful. But also it can be wrong, sometimes deliberately manipulated, leading to wrongheaded actions and devastating consequences.

An analysis of the 1983 American invasion of Grenada illustrates the power of authority to distort the truth and corrupt morality, processes that re‐occurred 20 years later with much greater consequences in the case of the 2003 American‐led invasion of Iraq.

The case study of the American invasion of Grenada can be used by decision makers and others to improve future decision‐making situations. Before doing violence to other people, we need to ask what violence we are doing to truth.

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on a widely used yet scarcely investigated form of incentive, awards. The paper seeks to explore, first, whether awards can be used to motivate higher performance in academia and volunteering, and second, how often and in what forms awards are in actual fact being used in the voluntary sector.

The paper combines a theoretical analysis with various analytical methods, including a new matching technique, randomization in the field, and the survey approach.

Awards have the potential to substantially increase performance, yet they are less frequently used in the Swiss voluntary sector than theory suggests.

The focus lies on awards in academia and the voluntary sector. Future research should investigate awards in other fields, e.g. the for-profit or the cultural sector. It should also assess their use in other countries to facilitate cross-country comparisons. The effects on non-recipients and the public at large are another area worth investigating.

Practitioners are encouraged to consider awards as an important motivational instrument, which could be integrated more explicitly and more widely in the volunteer management systems of Swiss non-profit organizations.

This contribution analyzes a widely used yet scarcely investigated form of incentive, awards. originality/value derives naturally from this observation.