Loons

I have heard the chorus of loons trilling across wild Quebec nights,
Winding into the furls of wind like sleek ribbons of moonlight,
Banking against the neck of the mountains, casting their songs

Into my sleep. The tongues of autumn lace into dawn, golden
Stalks of sun fray the dusk, thread and sew their eerie voice
Into the quilt of day. If I were a lake, I would lie in wait.

This poem first appeared in ForPoetry.com in 2000. For old publications, please see the original ForPoetry.com archives.

All Articles, Poems & Commentaries Copyright © 1971-2021 Alyssa A. Lappen
All Rights Reserved.
Printing is allowed for personal use only | Commercial usage (For Profit) is a copyright violation and written permission must be granted first.

Behavioral Finance: Old Wine in a New Bottle

by Alyssa A. Lappen and Heidi L. Schneider
The Journal of Wealth Management | Fall 2000 | Vol. 3, No. 2

https://jwm.pm-research.com/content/3/2

https://jwm.pm-research.com/content/3/2/9

Old Wine in a New Bottle_fall.2000

Noting that, in recent years, dozens of academic articles have been written on the subject of behavioral finance, the authors first propose a brief review of the literature and argue that its main message is that behavioral factors affect virtually every aspect of finance—from prices of individual stocks to absolute returns and from individual retirement planning to investor confidence. Yet, they identify a void with respect to discussions as to how active portfolio managers have long applied behavioral finance to the investment process. They go on to explain some market anomalies created as a result of human error and detail a few ways in which portfolio managers can use behavioral observations to manage client’ funds.

How it Happened

The crematorium’s ashes turned by tears to mud
oozed into my veins. First, Masha told me of long-
past joyful Vilna days, how her boyfriend’s twin
fooled her once in a dark movie house and stole
a kiss. The twins both died. She never explained–
only her distant cousins in Johannesburg remained.
There was no need of it. Even a child of seven
absorbed that something unspeakable occurred.

Twenty years later, thinking myself lucky
to have been born later, and in America,
I learned the hollow solace of this lie. No.
My forebears had died, by dozens, in Ukraine–
my great great grandfather Schmezell, tied
by his beard to a horse’s tail and dragged
until dead. In 1941, in Dobrinka–the little
town, they called it, though only the number
who escaped was small–murders were vast,
open as the sky, felling even those who had
avoided Stalin. Days before, my few cousins
rode on a strand of track east to Omsk the last
train bound for life and returned, via Gorky, in ’44,
to precious Dobra of ash. Their Ukranian neighbors
said how like Pogroms it was. Except in 1941,
the year of Dad’s Bar Mitzvah,
Hitler’s men shot all, saving the horse only
for the Zitser patriarch, for whom Dad was
named Saul. I don’t think he ever knew.

The poet gives grateful acknowledgment to Ruah for first publishing “How it Happened” in The People Bear Witness, which won Ruah’s 2000 chapbook award. The poem also appeared online in Summer 2000, at Kota Press, Issue 4, Journal 7.

Brooklyn’s First Tunnel, 1844-1860

The day the last brick was laid over my mouth,
My rails and ties pulled like old teeth, the furrows
In my floor left like hollowed gums, I was safe

Inside this vaulted peace. The steam trains long
Gone, took with them my guttural roar, crowds
Of parasoled ladies, top hatted gawkers and dull

Comments on my short length or arched roof —
My youth and all the chance I had for greatness.
What stole my voice was the newer breed, who

Did not like the ferry from Manhattan. The rails
Were nice to ride — six hours over wild moraine
Glaciers had deposited, where foxes stalked

Pheasants, egrets flew. But then came a day-long
Sail to Boston from Long Island over open sea,
Bit by foggy breath of seasons. Besides, Robber

Barons, with titles to Connecticut’s shore, thought
Better to line their silk pouches with more Gold: No
Mercury yet lived asleep in stone, stars had not yet

Shown indoors. Stations grew across East River in another
Wild of woods and farms beyond that town. I was quieted
before my voice was young, bankrupted. I am hidden, safe.

This poem was first published in Big City Lit.

Buy American: the Untold Story of Economic Nationalism

By Dana Frank
Beacon Press, Apr. 7, 2000

Notes for pp. 192-195, p. 188:
23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 30:
Alyssa A. Lappen, “Can Roger Milliken Emulate William Randolph Hearst,” Forbes, May 29, 1989.

Banking Regulation: Its History and Future

By Jerry W. Markham +
North Carolina Banking Institute | April 2000

+ Professor of Law, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

LENGTH: 25926 words

SUMMARY: … The current regulatory structure for banking services in the United States is not the result of any grand design or reasoned blueprint. … Another regulatory issue affecting banking was restrictions on branch banking. … Charles G. Dawes, Comptroller of the Currency, was among those who had come to oppose branch banking. … Between 1900 and 1902, several branch banking bills were introduced in Congress. … Opposition to branch banking was at first scattered but was growing after the twentieth century began. The American Bankers Association was a firm opponent of branch banking. … Even then, the trend was to prohibit or tightly restrict branch banking. … He declared a national bank holiday on March 6, 1933, and new legislation was enacted to strengthen the banking system. … Credit “crunches” were occurring in which loan demand was out stripping the amount of funds banks had available to lend. … Another aspect of this regulation would involve protection of customer funds that are on deposit with a retail financial services firm. … The growth of financial service offerings on the Internet will only accentuate the diffusion of those services. …

Citation:
n233. See Penny Lunt, How Are Mutual Funds Changing Banks?, A.B.A. Banking J., June 1, 1993, available in 1993 WL 3004317. In 1993, Concord Holding Corp, which had been created in 1987, was administering and distributing mutual funds for banks. At that time, it was handling over $ 36 billion in assets. There were some 16 similar firms that were operating mutual funds for banks in order to avoid Glass-Steagall prohibitions on banks underwriting activities. See Alyssa A. Lappen, Fund Follies, Institutional Investor, Oct. 1, 1993, available in 1993 WL 12229261. Mellon Bank acquired Dreyfus and became the largest bank manager of mutual funds. It was also the second largest asset manager in the United States. See Spiegel, Gart & Gart, supra note 177, at 300. For descriptions of other bank mutual fund arrangements, see Marcia Parker, Crains New York Business, 1993 WL 2989529 (Apr. 19, 1993); Stan Hinden, Banks Picking Mutual Funds Face Questions on Disclosure of Risks, Washington Post, Mar. 24, 1993, at F3.

First Union bought Lieber & Co. in 1993. It was the manager of $ 2.2 billion dollars of Evergreen Mutual Funds. See Jane Bennett, Banks Using Mutual Funds to Keep Customers, The Jacksonville Business Journal, Dec. 31, 1993, available in 1993 WL 3026956. First Union announced in 1996 that it was seeking to have $ 100 billion in mutual fund asset sales by the year 2000. See Introduction, 1 N.C. Banking Inst. xiii, xix (1997). First Union had earlier announced that it was training 2,600 employees to sell mutual funds including 12 of its own funds by the end of 1994. In the following year, NationsBank added 11 mutual funds to its 28 mutual funds that were already under its management. See Rick Brooks, Banks Rush to Offer Blitz of Mutual Funds, Charlotte Business Journal, July 12, 1993, available in 1993 WL 2988430. Citibank was selling a family of mutual funds, after regulatory changes allowed the banks to use their names in selling such securities. See Julie Creswell, Citibank Fund Group to Get a Change of Name, But Will It Help Returns?, Wall St. J., Feb. 17, 1998, at 8B.