We consider 1927 borrowers from 54 countries who had a credit rating by both Moody's and S&P as of the end of 1998, and their subsequent default history up to the end of 2002. Viewing bond ratings as predicted probabilities of default, we show that it is unlikely that both agencies are well...

„... an den Küsten – liest man – steigt die Flut / Der Sturm ist da, die wilden Meere hupfen / An Land, um dicke Dämme zu zerdrücken“ – dieses „Weltende“, das Jakob von Hoddis 1911, in der Endzeitstimmung vor Beginn des ersten Weltkrieges, erfühlte, findet knapp neunzig Jahre...

Environmental problems have always been part of our history, of life, and work. Yet the way in which environmental problems are perceived and politicized has changed: If it was at first chiefly local and regional environmental problems that were recognized, in recent years global environmental...

In December 1997, after days and nights of bargaining that culminated two years of hard negotiations, representatives of 160 governments wearily agreed in Kyoto, Japan, on a protocol to supplement the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It was hoped that this “Kyoto...

The interest in global environmental problems has - in particular in the wake of the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio in 1992 - increased substantially, in both the theoretical and the practical sense. This may be bound up with the growing pressure stemming from still unsolved...

Die Klimakonferenz von Kyoto war bereits die dritte Vertragsstaatenkonferenz der Klimarahmenkonvention der Vereinten Nationen. Daß die Klimakonferenz in Kyoto ein Schritt auf allerhöchster Weltebene war, so schrieb Joachim Wille in der Frankfurter Rundschau, diese Erkenntnis in verbindliches...