Knowledge that Transforms

I want to begin by stating that I am doing research at one of the institutions that was formed in an attempt to cope with the a rapid changes occurring in information technology about which Dean Kozmetsky was talking in the paper he wrote with Professors Charnes and Ruefli. The Urban Institute is a problem oriented, multi-disciplinary research organization investigating urban problems. Many of the staff, including myself, have had experience in the “systems approach” which was used so extensively by defense research agencies.

Information technology, as emphasized by Charnes, Kozmetsky and Ruefli, will undoubtedly influence the formulation of urban goals significantly. The more that is known and disseminated about the condition of man, his hopes, aspirations and fears in an increasingly urban world, the more broadly based will be the goals he sets for himself. And yet, will this “explosion” of information technology lead to more effective choices of end objectives? One can only hope so, but the Charnes, Kozmetsky and Ruefli paper does not provide any clear evidence that this will be the case.

The optimal coupon schedule for municipal bonds with limits on the number of distinct coupons is formulated in terms of two different dynamic programming models which, in contrast to the companion paper, do guarantee an optimal solution, although at the cost of additional computational difficulty.