Asymmetric Information and the Foreign-Exchange Trades of Global Custody Banks

This paper provides the first rigorous empirical analysis of markups on custodial foreign exchange trades. It finds that they substantially exceed relevant benchmarks such as interbank half-spreads. We trace this to an information asymmetry -- custodial bank dealers know more about their prices and bid-ask spreads than their client funds. We also examine the asset managersÂ’ continued heavy reliance on this high-cost approach to trading when alternatives are available with lower markups. We provide evidence that this choice does not reflect ignorance of the cost differential. Analysis relies on the complete foreign exchange trading record of a mid-sized global custody bank during calendar year 2006.

On the typography of flight-deck documentation

Many types of paper documentation are employed on the flight-deck. They range from a simple checklist card to a bulky Aircraft Flight Manual (AFM). Some of these documentations have typographical and graphical deficiencies; yet, many cockpit tasks such as conducting checklists, way-point entry, limitations and performance calculations, and many more, require the use of these documents. Moreover, during emergency and abnormal situations, the flight crews' effectiveness in combating the situation is highly dependent on such documentation; accessing and reading procedures has a significant impact on flight safety. Although flight-deck documentation are an important (and sometimes critical) form of display in the modern cockpit, there is a dearth of information on how to effectively design these displays. The object of this report is to provide a summary of the available literature regarding the design and typographical aspects of printed matter. The report attempts 'to bridge' the gap between basic research about typography, and the kind of information needed by designers of flight-deck documentation. The report focuses on typographical factors such as type-faces, character height, use of lower- and upper-case characters, line length, and spacing. Some graphical aspects such as layout, color coding, fonts, and character contrast are also discussed. In addition, several aspects of cockpit reading conditions such as glare, angular alignment, and paper quality are addressed. Finally, a list of recommendations for the graphical design of flight-deck documentation is provided

Democratic Dissolution: Radical Experimentation in State Takeovers of Local Governments

While state interventions to stabilize the finances of struggling municipalities date back to the Great Depression, the current fiscal crisis has brought a startling escalation in the powers granted to state intervention authorities. Aptly observed by Abby Goodnough in The New York Times, cities and states have tried “myriad ways of righting their fiscal ships as the recession plods on,” but until very recently, “locking the mayor out of City Hall [was] generally not one of them.” In 2010 and 2011, Michigan and Rhode Island, which have been watched closely by other states, dramatically reformed their laws governing state receiverships for local governments in fiscal crisis. The new legislation provided for suspension and displacement of local government in faltering cities during the period of intervention, replacing all elected local officials with a single state appointee. Such interventions leave the legal corporation of the city and its budget intact: the city’s borders do not change, regardless of the revenue potential and service costs of that land base, and the city must pay its own bills. Yet the city’s power to govern that territory and budget is drawn up to the state’s executive branch. The city’s elected officials and its governing charter are set aside for an unspecified period of years. This Article analyzes the new state receivership legislation in Michigan and Rhode Island and offers the concept of democratic dissolution to help interpret this new development. While the new laws are premised on a genuinely urgent and difficult public policy problem—local governments overwhelmed by debt they cannot service and bills they cannot pay—this Article argues that the reforms do both too little and too much. To cure the underlying structural causes of fiscal crisis, the laws do next to nothing; to improve local management, the laws enact a punishing cancelation of local democracy. For Michigan, Rhode Island, and the other states watching them, I propose legal reforms that more moderately balance the seriousness of the challenges of local fiscal stabilization with the importance of local democracy

Role of Horizons in Semiclassical Gravity: Entropy and the Area Spectrum

In any space-time, it is possible to have a family of observers who have access to only part of the space-time manifold, because of the existence of a horizon. We demand that \emph{physical theories in a given coordinate system must be formulated entirely in terms of variables that an observer using that coordinate system can access}. In the coordinate frame in which these observers are at rest, the horizon manifests itself as a (coordinate) singularity in the metric tensor. Regularization of this singularity removes the inaccessible region, and leads to the following consequences: (a) The non-trivial topological structure for the effective manifold allows one to obtain the standard results of quantum field theory in curved space-time. (b) In case of gravity, this principle requires that the effect of the unobserved degrees of freedom should reduce to a boundary contribution $A_{\rm boundary}$ to the gravitational action. When the boundary is a horizon, $A_{\rm boundary}$ reduces to a single, well-defined term proportional to the area of the horizon. Using the form of this boundary term, it is possible to obtain the full gravitational action in the semiclassical limit. (c) This boundary term must have a quantized spectrum with uniform spacing, $\Delta A_{boundary}=2\pi\hbar$, in the semiclassical limit. This, in turn, yields the following results for semiclassical gravity: (i) The area of any one-way membrane is quantized. (ii) The information hidden by a one-way membrane amounts to an entropy, which is always one-fourth of the area of the membrane in the leading order. (iii) In static space-times, the action for gravity can be given a purely thermodynamic interpretation and the Einstein equations have a formal similarity to laws of thermodynamics.Comment: Extends and presents the results of hep-th/0305165 in a broader context; clarifies some conceptual issues; 24 pages; revte

Preliminary Candidate Advanced Avionics System (PCAAS)

Specifications which define the system functional requirements, the subsystem and interface needs, and other requirements such as maintainability, modularity, and reliability are summarized. A design definition of all required avionics functions and a system risk analysis are presented

College Readiness Initiative: AVID and Navigation 101

The purpose of this report is to provide summative feedback to personnel at the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and at the College Spark Washington regarding evidence of implementation and impact of the Advancement via Individual Determination (AVID) and Navigation 101 programs in schools funded by the College Readiness Initiative (CRI) in Washington State. The report, while addressing the effects of both programs, is also designed to provide formative feedback to assist in ongoing program development

Refugees in the Norwegian welfare state : marginalized when unfit for labour market participation?

The aim of this thesis is to shed light on some challenges facing the Norwegian welfare state associated with accommodating for refugees with poor health. It might also provide knowledge to policy makers on local and national level when deciding on refugee and welfare services. Many refugees with health problems end up as long-term social assistance recipients, and it seems that they get less usage of support through the National Insurance Scheme. This study investigates how the Norwegian universal welfare state accommodates for refugees when health problems hinder their participation in the introduction programme, and thus make them dependent on social welfare support. The study also examines the types of measures offered to refugees above 55 years old, who are excluded from the right to participate in the introduction programme. Finally the study investigates whether the increased share with refugee status versus humanitarian grounds has had any effect on the access to rights within the National Insurance Scheme. The study is based on a literature review. In addition it is reviewing selected cases processed in the National Insurance Court, and looks into the factors affecting the decisions on health related benefits. Furthermore, it assesses the findings from these endeavours against the tenets of the Discrimination Act and discusses possible effects on marginalization and social citizenship for those affected. The main observation is that case processing resources are wasted due to weaknesses in the case preparations. It also reveals examples of insufficient use of interpreters in the health services. These factors substantiates that social assistance will be the main source of income for long periods before the majority are recognized with rights within the frames of the National Insurance Scheme. The thesis concludes with four suggestions for policy and service improvements.Master in International Social Welfare and Health Polic

Monetary Policy, Regulation and Volatile Markets

Turmoil in financial markets causes reflection. Is monetary policy conducted in the most efficient way? Are regulatory and supervisory arrangements adequate when market volatility increases and financial institutions come under stress? In the present SUERF Study, we have collected the reflections by an outstanding group of top officials, researchers and observers. The editors are proud to be able to present their joint insights to SUERF readers. The papers were presented at the 27th SUERF Colloquium in Munich in June 2008: New trends in asset management: Exploring the implications.Financial markets, volatility, regulatory and supervisory arrangements, LATW, bubbles, monetary policy, asset prices, interest rate policy, LTCM, Basel II, MiFID, subprime, CDOs