Abstract
This paper explains that, because gift giving and bartering can interfere with the power relationship between the counselor and client, professional organizations and licensing authorities place strict guidelines on the acceptance of gifts in these practices. The author points out that gift giving in the therapeutic environment may represent issues, such as a perceived imbalance in the professional relationship or as a tip, homage or sacrifice for professional services. The paper discusses a model for assessing a gift-giving situation and determining an appropriate response based on the interaction of therapeutic meaning and significance and ethical concerns. The paper also explains that, although bartering can be appropriate in the cases of economically deprived clients and may be used as a therapeutic tool, it can present significant therapeutic and ethical concerns due to its inherent nature to produce dual relationships.

Table of Contents:
Gifts
Bartering

From the Paper
"Most therapists do not view client's gifts of small value as an ethical problem; however, expensive and inappropriate gifts are universally viewed as an ethical problem. Despite the gift, therapists need to evaluate all gifts on a case by case basis to establish the client's potential motivations and clinical implications. The client's personality, culture, economic status, and history need to be evaluated. A client may simply offer a gift as a ritualistic gesture during a holiday or as a means to express gratitude. Such gifts usually enhance the therapeutic alliance."

Tags:power, boundary crossings, dual relationships, paranoid consultation

Abstract
This paper examines why Beyond Barter, the Los Angeles Skills Pool, is a good example of a functioning gift economy. The paper points out that the organization is an example of a group offering and receiving services without using money to facilitate the transaction. The "value" of each received service is not compared to the services one contributes to the group. The paper explains that members of the pool are geographically concentrated, mainly by the constraints of service exchange, and form a community gift economy that fits the general model put forth in the theory on the subject. The paper maintains that the organization survives because it is useful and provides services to its members at a lower cost than the market. The paper concludes with an analysis of threats to the future of Beyond Barter and other gift economies.

Outline:
Introduction
What is a Gift Economy?
Why Are gift Economies such as Beyond Barter Viable?
Beyond Barter
Conclusion

From the Paper
"In The Global Idea of the Commons, Nononi defines the social commons as "access by users to social resources created by specific kinds of human labor." This includes such activities as caring of the young and elderly, household upkeep, and activities undertaken by the state, such as infrastructure and policing. Looking forward to our example, Beyond Barter allows members to trade these social services without attaching a price to each act. The end result is a community that realizes higher utility as a whole than individually, because the lack of capitalist allocation did not exclude some members from service. The positive externalities of the structure also improve welfare in the community as shown in the clean drinking water example. The trickle down of positive effects from the skills pool improves the lives of its members both financially and personally. "Besides saving a great deal of money, members enjoy meeting a lot of terrific people.... The L.A. Bargain Book's editor is in her second year as a Beyond Barter member and speaks highly of the group (Hunter)." This enthusiasm highlights a key attribute of the skills pool- member involvement and satisfaction. The pool allows members to interact with others in a more personal manner than traditional capitalism. The absence of monetary exchange personalizes the transaction."

Tags:non-profit, non-capitalist

Abstract
By underscoring the propensity to truck, barter and exchange, Adam Smith intends to establish laws of the market and the principles of governing individual interests. Individuals acting in their self-interest can guide society toward common goals, but their self-interests are driven by their comparative advantage.

Abstract
For many years, science fiction writers and futurists have predicted the end of the cash-based society. Advances in the technology which supports financial transactions has already greatly reduced the amount of cash necessary for many everyday events, and most individuals conduct at least some cashless transactions on a regular basis

From the Paper
"Introduction
For many years, science fiction writers and futurists have predicted the end of the cash-based society. Advances in the technology which supports financial transactions has already greatly reduced the amount of cash necessary for many everyday events, and most individuals conduct at least some cashless transactions on a regular basis. The move toward a cashless society has occurred over centuries, but the technology of the twentieth century has propelled it faster than ever before. Yet despite the rapid technological advances of recent years, a cashless society remains well in the future. This research examines the factors which have moved society away from an entirely cash-based system as well as those factors which prevent society from being entirely cashless today."

Abstract
This paper reviews various peer-reviewed academic and professional literature relating to chocolate in Mayan and Aztec society. It looks at how chocolate or 'cacao' was used by both the Mayan and Aztec cultures for various purposes including as a base of drink mixtures for consumption generally by the elite in society and as well was consumed on special occasions such as engagement and wedding ceremonies. It also examines how at one time chocolate was a form of currency in trade and bartering among peoples and nations.

Outline:
Introduction
The Origin of Chocolate
The Uses of Chocolate
Chocolate and Societal Status
The Science of Chocolate
Chocolate: Trade
Summary and Conclusion

From the Paper
"Chocolate was additionally a food consumed during ceremonies celebrating engagements and marriages. Visiting dignitaries were given gifts of chocolate as well. Chocolate is stated by Norton to have been "associated with a lifesource, originating from or strengthened by its blood red coloring achieved by adding achiote." (2004; 3) Norton states that chocolate not only played a central role in Mayan and Aztec cultures as the basis for a drink of status but also was additionally "embedded in a range of social, diplomatic, and religious rituals." (2004; 3) Norton relates that the Europeans first encountered chocolate during the voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1502."

Tags:cacao, status, trade

Abstract
This paper discusses the history of the Arabian and Islamic business culture. It explains the history of bartering and trading that was common in the Middle East and examines how this culture expanded to modern day business practices.

From the Paper
"Visit New York and walk Wall Street, fly to London and stroll down Oxford Street. In every great city, in every great culture there is a marketplace. From centuries ago to modern day, people have always converged on a common locale to do business and to exchange goods and services. The Middle East, in fact, helped define the future of economics by pioneering new business tactics and concepts that vastly improved the primitive trade and bartering of the medieval period. The Islamic economy was founded on the trade of goods and relied heavily on foreign suppliers to bring in foods, spices, cloths, precious metals, exotics, and even livestock. This continental trade created a need for a new innovative way of commerce and the Islamic nation rose to that task creating a trading hub that linked Asia with Europe and Africa."

Tags:arab, arabian, business, east, economic, government, loans, middle, nights, taxes, west

Abstract
Doctors and patients alike are faced with ethical dilemmas with regard to several aspects of the cosmetic surgery industry. This paper explores several of these ethical issues, namely, factors in the decision to have elective surgery, deceptive marketing strategies, and bartering professional services for publicity. The analysis for each topic includes research from the professional societies, the general public, and the author's own subjective opinion.

From the Paper
"Plastic surgery has a very long history. As early as 1000 B.C.E., the first plastic surgery was reported in India, where a person's nose might be cut off as a form of punishment or, in the case of an adulterous Hindu wife, bitten off by the wronged husband. Procedures, which displayed remarkable similarity to present rhinoplasties, were developed to reconstruct the noses of such errant individuals (Davis 14). Plastic surgery appeared much later on the European continent. In the early fifteenth century, physicians began doing nose surgeries, by using skin flaps taken from the arm. Other forms of plastic surgery began to appear around the early sixteenth century. With the invention of ether and antisepsis, plastic surgery was able to emerge as a full-fledged medical specialty (Davis 15). In the first part of the century, nearly all plastic surgeries were done to alleviate deformities due to disease, birth or mishap; however, in the second half of the century this was no longer the case."

Tags:medical, doctor, elective

Abstract
The paper describes how many American colleges have had to close because their endowment funds were wiped out, community banks have failed, wiping out people's life savings, and even those with assets have stopped spending any money except for absolute necessities, since inflation is so high. The paper then relates that inflation and corporate insolvency has virtually eliminated any type of financial credit and a barter system has evolved whereby people trade goods and services. The paper also reveals how businesses have folded, police departments have stopped using patrol cars and have laid off the majority of their officers, and the fire department is made up of mainly volunteers. The writer thinks this depression may reverse the dominant patterns of consumerism when many goods and services fulfilled little genuine need, but appealed instead to the impulse to display one's wealth or status.

From the Paper
"In our family, life has changed dramatically. I should be finishing up my freshman year of college right about now, but in the year since the Dow Jones plummeted below 4000 points, many American colleges had to close because their endowment funds were entirely wiped out. The few that remained open at all now have a very high acceptance rate of nearly one-hundred percent, simply because there are so few students whose families can afford approximately $1,000,000 annual tuition.
"Many community banks have failed, wiping out people's life savings because they were not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Larger banks have also failed wiping even many of the wealthiest people's life savings if they had them all in any one institution, since the FDIC guaranteed only their first $250,000 on deposit. Therefore, of the (already) few people who were wealthy enough to have a net worth in the millions, only those who spread their savings into many smaller accounts at FDIC-insured banking institutions still have any substantial financial assets. Generally, even they stopped spending any money except for absolute necessities, since inflation is so high that one could easily spend millions on nothing besides ordinary consumer and household goods."

Tags:inflation, insolvency, savings, bartering

Abstract
This paper analyzes policies for doing business in alternate cultural settings. Identifies some of the major impediments that may limit the ability to "truck, barter and exchange across international borders. Discusses impact of culture and national ideologies.

From the Paper
"The president of General Motors once remarked that the business of America is business. Although there are political and ideological motivations behind that statement that can be criticized the essential idea behind the statement is true. In fact the statement could be more broadly applied beyond the United States. Adam Smith, the father of modern capitalism, believed that it was natural for all humans regardless of nationality to truck, barter and exchange. Although this may be a natural human inclination as in all things human there are some..."

Tags:culture, business, boundaries, bartering

Abstract
The paper begins with an introduction from "Wealth of Nations", explaining Smith's view that human nature is to trade and barter between resources. The paper continues with a number of subjects in the economics field, showing how Adam Smith's theories relate to them. These topics include protectionism, political uncertainty and infrastructure.

From the Paper
"In Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith recognized that human beings have a natural propensity "to truck, barter, and exchange one thing for another." Smith saw the free trade of goods across borders as an extension of this human instinct. People exchange products and services as "free agents" in pursuit of their own individual interests. In the process, people become part of an international economy, connected across national borders, as if guided by an "invisible hand.""

Tags:economics, protectionist, infrastructure, barter, invisible, hand