ASEAN leaders proclaimed to create an ASEAN Economic Community by 2015. But achieving the target requires cooperation and coordination both within and among the ten ASEAN economies. Currently, with countries having varying considerations towards complete liberalization, protectionism still persists in certain sectors of the economies. A lot of work needs to be done in addressing the domestic reforms, the gaps in infrastructure, the lack of human resources and adequate institutions. Moreover, it is the businesses whose decisions and actions will help the region to achieve an effective integration. The policymakers have vital roles to play in raising the engagement of the private businesses in ASEAN matters. As time is limited, one way for ASEAN is to focus on "core" elements of integration and implement them earnestly in the shortest possible time. The rest of the process, as envisaged in the AEC blueprint, can follow beyond 2015. This book examines the state of readiness of the member countries for regional integration and discusses the challenges to ASEAN businesses. It gives policy recommendations to address some of the issues faced by the key stakeholders.

Advertising & Society Review is the first scholarly journal devoted entirely to advertising and its relationship to society, culture, history, and the economy. It is published quarterly in electronic form and distributed through Project MUSE of The Johns Hopkins University Press.

As the global economy continues to weather the effects of the recession brought on by the financial crisis of 2007–08, perhaps no sector has been more affected and more under pressure to change than the industry that was the locus of that crisis: fi nancial services. But as policymakers, fi nancial experts, lobbyists, and others seek to rebuild this industry, certain questions loom large. For example, should the pay of fi nancial institution executives be regulated to control risk taking? That possibility certainly has been raised in offi cial circles, with spirited reactions from all corners. How will stepped-up regulation affect key parts of the fi nancial services industry? And what lies ahead for some of the key actors in both the United States and Japan?

In After the Crash, noted economists Yasuyuki Fuchita, Richard Herring, and Robert Litan bring together a distinguished group of experts from academia and the private sector to take a hard look at how the fi nancial industry and some of its practices are likely to change in the years ahead. Whether or not you agree with their conclusions, the authors of this volume —the most recent collaboration between Brookings, the Wharton School, and the Nomura Institute of Capital Markets Research —provide well-grounded insights that will be helpful to fi nancial practitioners, analysts, and policymakers.

Southeast and East Asian countries are undergoing varying stages of population ageing. The social, economic and political implications of population ageing will be enormous, and because of the fast speed of ageing in the region, the countries cannot afford the luxury of time for the gradual evolution of social and structural support systems and networks for the older population. The essays in this volume critically examine national ageing policies and programmes, the sustainability of existing pension systems, housing and living arrangements, inter-generational transfer, and aspects of quality of life of the elderly population. While the findings show that most Southeast Asian countries have started to formulate and implement national ageing policies, they also indicate that the existing policies are by and large inadequate and underdeveloped in serving the needs of the older population and indeed much more must be done to prepare for the future. 

Successful home ownership requires the availability of appropriate mortgage products. In the years leading up to the collapse of the housing market, home buyers frequently accepted mortgages that were not only wrong for them but catastrophic for the economy as a whole. When the housing market bubble burst, so did a cornerstone of the American dream for many families. Restoring the promise of this dream requires an unflinching inspection of lending institutions and the right tools to repair the structures that support solid home purchases. The American Mortgage System: Crisis and Reform focuses on the causes of the housing market collapse and proposes solutions to prevent another rash of foreclosures.

Edited by two leaders in the field of real estate and finance, Susan M. Wachter and Marvin M. Smith, The American Mortgage System examines key elements of the mortgage meltdown. The volume's contributors address the influence of the Community Reinvestment Act, which is often blamed for the crisis. They uncover how the government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac invested outside the housing market with disastrous results. They present surprising information about low-income borrowers and the strengths of local banks. This collection of thoughtful studies includes extensive analysis of loan practices and the creation of unstable mortgage securities, presenting data largely unavailable until now. More than a critique, The American Mortgage System offers solutions to the problems facing the future of American home ownership, including identifying asset price bubbles, calculating risk, and preventing discrimination in lending.

Measured yet timely and by turns provocative, The American Mortgage System provides a careful assessment of a troubled but indispensable part of the economic and social structure of the United States. This book is a sound investment for economists, urban planners, and all who shape public policy.

After World War II, banks and other mortgage lenders began requiring insurance to protect them against flawed or defective real estate titles. Over the past sixty years, the title insurance industry has grown steadily in size, power, and secrecy: policies are available for both lenders and property owners and many title insurers offer an array of other real estate services, such as escrow and appraisal. Yet details about the industry's operational procedures remain closely guarded from public exposure.

In The American Title Insurance Industry, Joseph and David Eaton present evidence that improvements in recordkeeping over the last sixty years—particularly the advent of computers—have reduced the likelihood of a defective title going unnoticed in a property transaction. But the industry's flaws run deeper than mere obsolescence: in most states, title insurers are allowed to engage in anticompetitive business practices, including price-fixing. Among the findings in this meticulously researched study are instances of insurers charging premiums well above the amount necessary to compensate them for assuming the risk of defect and identical policies with identical risk that vary in price by hundreds of percentage points for different geographic locations.

The authors also examine the widely ignored role that the federal and most state governments play in perpetuating the title insurance industry's unfair practices. Whereas most private industries prefer as little government intervention as possible, title insurers welcome it. Federal statue exempts title insurers from anti-trust liability, opening the door for price-fixing and destroying any semblance of free-market competition or market power for consumers.

A landmark study for elected officials, and all those involved in the insurance, real estate, and brokerage industries, The American Title Insurance Industry brings to light a long-neglected problem—and offers suggestions for how it might be remedied.

The past decade has witnessed rapid development in ASEAN-China relations. Both sides now have more in common than before, though differences still exist. ASEAN and China have established a promising strategic partnership ensuring peace, stability, co-operation as well as prosperity for the region. New challenges will, however, continue to emerge to test the resolve of the partnership. This book examines some of the areas of convergence and divergence and the possible trajectories of the development of ASEAN-China relations.

In 2012, Russia assumes the Chairmanship of APEC, and is keen to build on its memberships of both the East Asia Summit (EAS) and the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM). Russia is geographically and historically part of Asia and the Asia Pacific, and has been a dialogue partner of ASEAN since 1996. Still, the obstacles of distance and languages have led ASEAN member states and Russia to know and interact little between both sides. As growth poles in the world economy, there is much benefit in greater interaction between their rich economies. To commemorate the 15th Anniversary of the Russia-ASEAN dialogue partnership in 2011, the ASEAN Studies Centre at ISEAS and its counterpart from MGIMO-University, Moscow co-organized a two-day conference that year, in which papers were presented offering perspectives from Russia and the ten ASEAN member states. Representatives from academia, and the public and private sectors offered insights on topics including geopolitics, bilateral relations, business and economics, and culture and education. This is a timely book that affords the reader insights into where ASEAN-Russia relations currently stand and suggests how they can improve and move forward.

The book presents a unique combination of the study of contemporary and historical practices between Asia and Europe and brings forth some of the latest thinking on the subject. Recent debates have centered primarily on contemporary aspects of the Europe-Asia partnership in terms of international relations and economic linkages. The present volume complements this political and economic interest in Europe-Asia relationship by focusing on the academic, social and cultural connections between the two regions. The contributions in this volume have a contemporary focus but contextualize the themes within a historical perspective. They deal with academic discourses on the region, on modernity and entrepreneurship; they discuss the long-term exchange of knowledge in specific scientific fields; and they focus on the cultural interconnections in the area of film, literature and migration. The originality of this book lies in its interdisciplinary approach to the question of Asia-Europe and in its emphasis on the multifaceted complexity of the relationship between these two regions. It brings together the diversity of local histories, ideas, and agencies in both Europe and Asia into a universal project of knowledge formation in order to reveal their contribution to the making of the world we are in. Contributors: Syed Farid Alatas, Gregory Clancey, John Kleinen, Van Nguyen-Marshall, Henk Schulte Nordholt, Paravin J. Patel, Maurizio Peleggi, Satish Saberwal, Vineeta Sinha

As ASEAN Vision 2020 proclaims, the members of ASEAN have achieved remarkable success in economic growth, stability and poverty reduction, over the past decades. There are, however, still diverse debates as to the factors which contributed to the success, with no conclusive assessment.This volume reviews the domestic reforms effectively introduced by ASEAN members after the 1997 financial crisis and what could be done to accelerate such reforms. With the entry of the 4 new members into ASEAN, possible measures to strengthen both intra- and extra-ASEAN regional cooperation frameworks are sought so that the 10 ASEAN members can make a smooth economic and social transformation to tackle globalization and accommodate the two highly competitive giant economies, China and India.The study also seeks to identify what could be the role of Japan in promoting its economic relations with the ASEAN-10 under the ongoing framework of the WTO and the ASEAN-Plus-Three in the light of the current trend towards greater regionalism in Europe and the Americas.