Endowments with a minimum guaranteed rate of return appear in insurance policies, pension plans and social security plans. In several cases, especially in the insurance industry, such endowments also participate in the business and receive bonuses from the firm's asset portfolio. In this paper...

The Cyprus crisis is one of the most complex in the Eurozone -although in absolute terms it is a minor crisis. An analysis of the ongoing developments from different perspectives leads to the conclusion that we are witnessing a perfect storm of a financial crisis at the confluence of sovereign...

The preoccupation with economic growth has not led to increase in happiness in the developed world. More than that, the world experienced the worst financial crisis of 2008 since the Great Depression. We draw on Sen's work Development as Freedom and research on economics of happiness to explore...

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Tails are of paramount importance in shaping the risk profile of portfolios with credit risk sensitive securities. In this context risk management tools require simulations that accurately capture the tails, and optimization models that limit tail effects. Ignoring the tails in the simulation or...