The Rating Agencies and Their Credit Ratings

Credit rating agencies play a critical role in capital markets, guiding the asset allocation of institutional investors as private capital moves freely around the world in search of the best trade-off between risk and return. However, they have also been strongly criticised for failing to spot the Asian crisis in the early 1990s, the Enron, WorldCom and Parmalat collapses in the early 2000s and finally for their ratings of subprime-related structured finance instruments and their role in the current financial crisis.

Grunt, our favorite prehistoric caveman, has risen to become chief of the tribe, with an expectation that he will be a great leader of his people. However, like most people, Grunt hates the idea of public speaking. But with the guidance of his colleague, Tork, he quickly becomes a competent and convincing speaker and presenter. In this practical book, spiced with humor of the pre and post-historic kind, Grunt learns that you win with arrows, not bullets. You win by pointing the audience clearly in the right direction, not by hitting them with random and confusing 'bullet point' statements.

If you thought negotiating deals and agreements is tough in today's business environment, then you should try doing so in prehistoric times! This book follows our two cavemen characters, Tork and Grunt, in their quest to ensure the survival of their tribe. Through the experiences of our two cavemen, you will learn everything you need to conduct a successful negotiation and reaching a win-win outcome. They show how conventional bargaining from opposing positions generally fails to reach a satisfactory conclusion and how it is important to identify all the issues affecting both parties.

Skill 1.1 Identify the characteristics of cognitive development of middle grades students as they relate to the teaching of integrated language arts ...

Robber Bride (by Margaret Atwood)

Margaret Atwood's The Robber Bride is inspired by "The Robber Bridegroom," a wonderfully grisly tale from the Brothers Grimm in which an evil groom lures three maidens into his lair and devours them, one by one. But in her version, Atwood brilliantly recasts the monster as Zenia, a villainess of demonic proportions, and sets her loose in the lives of three friends, Tony,  Charis, and Roz.