It must be something in the water. Every indie filmmaker on earth is totally convinced that the key to success is the use of the social media. Countless blogs have been posted hammering away at this point. Numerous self-appointed experts have emerged to guide people...

Joint Obligation Ratings in Consumer ABS Thomas Adams, Ann Rutledge and Sylvain Raynes Current rating agency practices do not appear to factor into the ratings of insured consumer asset-backed securities (ABS) the effects of correlation between an insurer default and a transaction default.  As a result, the...

Like Napoleon playing with a map of Europe, Hollywood is toying with the globe. At least that is the gist of a recent New York Times story. In a report on the upcoming ScreenSingapore 2011 festival, the Times finds that the foreign market is becoming...

Success has a thousand fathers, but failure is exclusively caused by vindictive movie critics who write back-stabbing and mean-spirited reviews in pursuit of their hidden liberal agenda. Well, that is pretty much the explanation given by the producer of Atlas Shrugged concerning the film's rapid flat-lining...

Dear Prof.Rutledge, dear Prof. Raynes, ..., you distinguish value creation and optimization.This distinction is important indeed, I may ask you to let me know, where this critical distinction is expanded and profounded ( literature, artcles etc). Yours sincerely, Hubert Gantz WP.u.StB. /CPA

Dear Mr. Gantz, First, let me thank you very much for your question and apologize for taking so long to respond. I will first quote from the book so that the context of your query is clear to other readers: "Optimization increases average wealth by redistributing the margins of risk and return locally; value creation  increases total wealth," Raynes & Rutledge, The Analysis of Structured Securities, OUP 2003, p. 92. Optimization is a financial rearrangement that produces more bang for the buck.

When last we checked the current box office is down. Meanwhile, the production costs for this summer's big special effects movies are suddenly skyrocketing through the roof while rumors swirl that some of these flicks may not be ready in time for their release dates....

Hey kids, let's put on a show! At least that's the gist of the recent New York Times story on the surge in internet-based indie productions. Though the Gray Lady doesn't quite utter the infamous Mickey Rooney line, she comes close. It also means that the...