Around the Bloc: U.S. Press Probes Biden Family Ukraine Links
Hunter Biden sits on board of a gas firm owned by an ‘example of Yanukovych-era excess.’
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Hunter Biden sits on board of a gas firm owned by an ‘example of Yanukovych-era excess.’
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The war in eastern Ukraine has taken its toll on the economy. This should help.
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The search for new export markets is the underlying reason for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s trip to Serbia and Poland.
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Around the Bloc: Baku Scores Glitz Points for Inaugural F1 Race
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EU sanctions and Russia’s dismal economy are making life difficult for all parties entangled in complex bilateral agreements.
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Talk of easing the measures in some European capitals still not enough to force a rollback.
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Design is a form of expression, while products and even blueprints are the currency for exchange. Quality products very much like currency generate returns. Perception of design within business has evolved to become a passport to the corporate sector now when companies find out that investment in design does pay and the company or the designer could achieve a new status through their carefully designed and sold products. Now a leading third party, i.e. the design manager, who has the opportunity to find the most direct common tangents between distant viewpoints and interests, maintains the communication between the main subjects. A typical trend in this process is related to the incredible growth in design and the rapid involvement of state-of-the-art information technologies in the process in all its stages. The living space of design in contemporary industry radically differs from that of just a decade ago. Traditionally, the majority of professional designers have deemed their trade as isolated from the big business associated with over-particular accounts; currencies and annual financial reports. Unfortunately, it is this difficulty to think in that way that now prevents designers from becoming the innovative leverage that could make them highly demanded consultants on changes and innovation. The major factors influencing the process of introduction of new design models are the economic basis (new materials and technologies), the influence of market relations and the social and cultural relations within the society as well as some paradigms beyond human control such as the potential depletion of non-renewable resources.
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Media music is hybrid, which is especially true of the musical remix culture of digital media. The paper, part of a more extensive study on folk and folklorised music in Bulgarian media, seeks the discourses of hybridism and authenticity in TV commercials, containing Bulgarian and Balkan ethno music (folk, ethno pop, world music). Imbued with substantial symbolic values, the audiovisual images of the local tradition join in the construction of an imagined group identity, where music components play an important role. This study could shed light on the processes of stereotyping and autostereotyping of the Bulgarian and the Balkan as part of an enabled marketing of ethnicities and identities. It is argued that the nationalisms and Balkanisms in/via music are not results just of a sought for ideological constructing and political influencing, in terms of their content, but are preset by the nature of the media culture as a medium. The new media with their inherent to their technological, media industrial and marketing nature traits of synthesis, eclectics, hybridism, commodification and subliminal influence are able to change both their consumers and their own products. The music of the commercials is much more than just a soundtrack and a building element of the TV, entertaining and advertising industries. Media music provides a substantial link between the product, the producers (of the product and of the media as a product and communicator) and the consumers through the psychological, cultural, and social resources it has.
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The aim of the paper is to discusses the role, functioning and rationale behind General Anti Avoidance Rule (GAAR), i.e. a specific legal instrument which is often employed by authorities to combat unacceptable tax avoidance practices. The author argues that although there are still some doubts concerning the way such rules are designed (usage of broad definitions which give the tax authorities a large margin of discretion when making decisions), it appears that the implementation of GAAR in national tax systems creates more legal certainty and serves as a proper tool against tax avoidance.
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This article aims to prove that the institutional order in a broad sense is essential for the success of transformation processes of post-socialist economies, especially for achieving positive social outcomes which contribute to the development of human capital. The analysis was conducted on the basis of an original model of the transformation process established by the author, using some examples of indica-tors illustrating the changes. The theoretical model assumptions were verified through a comparative study carried out for the group of countries of Central and Eastern Europe, which transformed their economic systems from central planning to market economy. Within the indicator analysis there have been included statistical data and indicators developed by several international institutions. It has been proved that there is no correlation between the technical, economic and social effects of transformation. The process of technical and infrastructure modernization often precedes positive effects in the econom-ic and social spheres. This is mainly due to the high level of investment in infrastructure, often financed from external resources (e.g. the European Union). In addition, societies of the post-socialist countries evaluate the processes occurring in the economy in a specific way (sometimes surprising). The percep-tion of “happiness” is not directly dependent on “hard” indicators reflecting the current condition of the economy. However, the transformation model presented in this article assumes that social factors have a significant influence on the dynamics of institutional changes therefore it can be expected that in countries where people positively assess the prosperity of the country, the dynamics of further develop-ment can exceed the countries with low levels of social satisfaction.
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Vlad Filat says he’s being made a scapegoat for the “theft of the century” bank fraud scandal.
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The author of this paper was a team leader final result of the Cross sectoral Megaprojects working group under a COST Programme action in the period of 2012-2014. The group transformed into a risk management group and he (Milen Baltov) was the one to identify the issues of “incorporating risks” and “dealing with conflicts” in the formal project management of the investments. The author together with the team leader of the Transport working group disintegrated their groups of researchers into a new group. They all assumed the risk management challenges with megaprojects – as uncertainties are not obligatory to avoid. The researchers considered that identifying the performance “gap” between the major projects and the mega projects might have also possible implications on the EU terminology. A focus was supposed to be the evaluation tools application to mega projects and especially the specifics of the Cost Benefit Analysis. Proposed aims of the Risk management Working Group were: 1) To through light and make a review on the literature about risks in megaprojects; 2) To identify the main issues in common experience in the MEGAPROJECT portfolio of risks in megaprojects; 3) To clarify the different between risk identification at the front end of the megaprojects and the risk at the front end of the projects as a whole?; 4) To demonstrate the possible ways of dealing with risk in the evaluation of megaprojects in the front-end. Proposed Deliverables from the Working Group were: Literature review paper; Papers about MEGAPROJECT portfolio and being 'mega'; Internal report; Practitioner usable guidelines; EU regional investments policy recommendations, concerning the risk management in the implementation of the cost benefit analysis (CBA). In a great part all these deliverables were finalized and the author accumulated on his own previous work and the new inputs in drafting this article.
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In this purely critical and analytical manuscript, the author will discuss on "adequacy" of financial reporting in the country of "good" corporate practices. As a criterion for this analysis he formulated the leading role of dependence "quality-utility" of the resulting information for making investment decisions based on data from financial reporting. Test according to this criterion as the author subjected the development of financial reporting in more than a quarter century of state transition of Bulgaria to the ... (intentional sentence is left incomplete because, as has long been clear or purpose of the transition is not clear, or the objective may be no transition).
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The object of the author's study are problems - еssence and main elements of the international monetary system (IMS), Paris IMS or classical gold standard, Genoese monetary system - a modified form of gold standard, Bretton Woods system as the first result of the postwar monetary doctrine, Jamaican currency reform - a complete denial of the golden model, European monetary system based on the euro and European Exchange Rate Mechanism II.
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In the proposed study is made an attempt to integrate the risk of unfavorable increase of government debt of the Republic of Bulgaria in the period 2017 - 2019 with Monte Carlo simulation. Conducted simulation is based on the specifications of regression model of debt with tax revenues as an independent variable. For this purpose was used data for the period 1998 - 2016. The relation between the government debt and the tax revenues was statistically significant (R = 0,789). The availability of significant estimates of regression coefficients was also found using a second order polynomial functional form. Monte Carlo simulation is conducted based on randomly generated expected growth rate of tax revenues for the estimated period 2017-2019. On this base was specified the amount of expected annual tax receipts and using the regression equation - the forecast government debt values. The resulting simulation annual average debt (in 1000 attempts) and interval of central 68.3 % (based on normal distribution) of cases are close to a significant extent to the estimates of the government's medium-term budget forecast. The conclusions are that the method 'Monte Carlo' can be successfully used to assess the variability of government debt using the tax revenues as independent risk variable.
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Measurement of latent variables is a common task in various marketing research. Adequate measurement requires precise definition of the model of the hidden variable or construct. This article summarizes recommendations for distinguishing between formative and reflective models. These models are used in research on marketing issues such as loyalty, attitudes and beliefs, brand image, emotions, perceived risk.
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This article attempts to present the significance of entrepreneurship in the professional life of actors. The results of a pilot research have been presented in the context of relationships between the arts and business. As described by the respondents entrepreneurship can be regarded as a a particular personality trait or a set of skills, or finally a certain attitude towards their personal and professional life. It has been linked to responsibility for one’s professional activities and to value creation, not only in the economic dimension. The article concludes with general remarks on some factors contributing to possible misunderstandings of the concept of entrepreneurship in the artistis professions.
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Hip hop, both in Poland and in the U.S.A., has broken with the image of an artist guided by the principle of ‘art for art’s sake’, which was very popular in the 20th century. For rappers, the commercial success is one of the proofs of their artistic success. Such a statement contradicts the value system of artists involved in the so called „high art”. In this article we reconstruct the worldview of American and Polish rappers, we describe how it was formed in the historical process and explain its relationship with the practices of rap music production. We also interpret the positive attitude towards money within the wider context of the development of creative industries. We illustrate our theoretical arguments with several empirical examples from Poland and the U.S.A. The article provides a detailed description of the process of the production and distribution of rap music which is based on the professional experience of one of the authors.
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In their article "Electronic Journals, Prestige, and the Economics of Academic Journal Publishing" Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek and Joshua Jia discuss the current state of the academic journal publishing industry. The current state of the industry is an oligopoly based on a double appropriation model where academics produce work for at no cost only to have publishers earn significant profit margins by selling the work back to academics. Publishers are able to do this given the price inelasticity and weak bargaining power of its main consumer, university libraries. Publishers' ability to increase prices is also supported by what the authors term as the "prestige multiplier effect" and the "prestige crowd-out effect" which means the tendency for libraries to cut small publishers as large publishers raise prices because large publishers are more prestigious. To date, the usage of electronic journals has not changed this general model. Tötösy de Zepetnek and Jia argue that in order to progress towards a more equitable model of knowledge management allowing for the dissemination of knowledge globally and against the "colonialism of knowledge" a change in attitude and practices is required not only by publishers, but also by academics. Once perception changes and electronic journals obtain prestige, the publishing of scholarship electronically will replace or will be at least parallel to the prestige of print journals.
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Purpose: To analyse the issue of public debt in Poland and examine its effect on other areas of socio-economic life as well as government policy. Approach: The question of public debt is placed in its historical context by looking at how it grew during the Communist system and influenced the transition period. The article draws on a range of secondary economic statistics and considers in detail a number of public policy issues, such as the reform of the pension system. Findings: One result of the large debt incurred by the end of the 1970s was that Poland became indebted to creditors in the West. This dependency helped to shape its economic policy at the end of the 1980s. The transition to a market economy placed new burdens on the country’s public services, primarily due to the resulting large deactivation of labour. Furthermore, the creation of a compulsory private pension system at the end of the 1990s diverted significant funds out of the government’s budget and swelled the country’s public debt. Since the outbreak of the economic crisis, Poland has avoided a recession by increasing public investment by utilising available European Union funds. However, due to internal and external limits on the size of its public debt, the government is being pressured to reduce this spending. In order to create more fiscal room, the government has partly dismantled the compulsory private pension system as a short-term solution to the growing debt crisis. Value: In the wake of the global financial crisis and economic turmoil in the European Union, the matter of public debt has taken on increased importance. This paper considers this question from a long-term perspective in a country that has been relatively successful during the international economic downturn. By examining public debt from this broad perspective, we can better understand the economic situation in Poland and the European Union, whilst also shedding light on some of the surrounding academic perspectives and public policy debates.
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