Collapse of a desert bird community over the past century driven by climate change

Climate change has caused deserts, already defined by climatic extremes, to warm and dry more rapidly than other ecoregions in the contiguous United States over the last 50 years. Desert birds persist near the edge of their physiological limits, and climate change could cause lethal dehydration and hyperthermia, leading to decline or extirpation of some species. We evaluated how desert birds have responded to climate and habitat change by resurveying historic sites throughout the Mojave Desert that were originally surveyed for avian diversity during the early 20th century by Joseph Grinnell and colleagues. We found strong evidence of an avian community in collapse. Sites lost on average 43% of their species, and occupancy probability declined significantly for 39 of 135 breeding birds. The common raven was the only native species to substantially increase across survey sites. Climate change, particularly decline in precipitation, was the most important driver of site-level persistence, while habitat change had a secondary influence. Habitat preference and diet were the two most important species traits associated with occupancy change. The presence of surface water reduced the loss of site-level richness, creating refugia. The collapse of the avian community over the past century may indicate a larger imbalance in the Mojave and provide an early warning of future ecosystem disintegration, given climate models unanimously predict an increasingly dry and hot future

What Makes Retirees Happier: A Gradual or 'Cold Turkey' Retirement?

This study explores the factors that affect an individual’s happiness while transitioning into retirement. Recent studies highlight gradual retirement as an attractive option to older workers as they approach full retirement. However, it is not clear whether phasing or cold turkey makes for a happier retirement. Using longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study, this study explores what shapes the change in happiness between the last wave of full employment and the first wave of full retirement. Results suggest that what really matters is not the type of transition (gradual retirement or cold turkey), but whether people perceive the transition as chosen or forced.happiness; retirement; gradual; phased; control; work; transition; psychological well-being; policy

Ireland 2009 Recapitalization Program for Financial Institutions

At the November 2008 height of the Global Financial Crisis, Ireland’s Department of Finance announced a willingness to inject capital into the six largest banks. This announcement followed the issuance of a blanket guarantee of those banks’ liabilities in September 2008. After broadly designing the potential investments in 2008, the Irish government came to agreements with Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks in February 2009 to inject €3.5 billion ($4.5 billion) in each bank in exchange for preferred equity stakes. The government funded the investments from the funds of the National Pensions Reserve Fund, something it would secure the authority to do only in March, after the initial announcements of the recapitalization plan. This set of injections would prove to be only the first step in a multiyear recapitalization and restructuring process, eventually pushing the sovereign to a financial rescue from the International Monetary Fund and European Union

United States: Municipal Liquidity Facility

In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused severe financial stress for state and local municipalities. Municipalities\u27 public health responses led to material increases in expenditures. At the same time, many municipalities faced revenue delays and declines due to extended tax deadlines and disruptions in taxable economic activity. Institutional investors also put heavy selling pressure on municipal bonds. In response to stresses in the municipal financing market, the Federal Reserve invoked its Section 13(3) emergency lending authority and created the Municipal Liquidity Facility (MLF). The Fed created the facility to backstop municipal entities\u27 access to capital markets to help them manage cash flow disruptions and higher borrowing needs. The MLF was available to purchase up to $500 billion of notes directly from large municipal issuers. These Fed credit extensions came with maturities up to three years and at fixed, rating-dependent spreads above the comparable overnight indexed swap rates. The Treasury secretary committed$35 billion allocated by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act as an equity layer for the MLF; this provided the Fed with first-loss protection. The Fed received extensive feedback from legislators and municipalities, and it eased the MLF\u27s eligibility criteria, maturity, and interest rates between April and August 2020. The facility ultimately had low utilization compared to its capacity, purchasing just $6.6 billion of bonds across four issues. However, the Fed argues that the announcement of the facility as a market backstop improved market conditions. Liquidity and credit conditions in the municipal market staged a rapid recovery after the announcement of the MLF; in 2020 as a whole, municipal issuance volume reached a record$474 billion. However, municipal spreads remained elevated throughout 2020 relative to pre-pandemic spreads, especially among lower-rated issues

Lessons Learned: Scott G. Alvarez, Esq., Part 2

Scott G. Alvarez was general counsel of the Federal Reserve Board during the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). He met with the Yale Program on Financial Stability (YPFS) to discuss a litany of legal aspects related to the Fed’s interventions under its emergency liquidity provision authority under Section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act. We summarize some highlights from our interview with Mr. Alvarez. The transcript of this interview, conducted in April 2022, and one from an earlier Lessons Learned interview, in December 201

United States: FIMA Repo Facility, 2020

On March 31, 2020, amidst historically severe strains in the US Treasury market and global dollar funding markets, the Federal Reserve announced the Foreign and International Monetary Authorities (FIMA) Repo Facility. The FIMA Repo Facility was designed to discourage foreign official Treasury sales and broadly improve foreign dollar funding markets—and ultimately the flow of credit in the United States. The facility provided renewable, overnight repurchase agreements (repos) to central banks and other international monetary authorities against Treasury collateral. This allowed approved central banks to access dollars for precautionary reasons or to pass to their domestic financial systems without engaging in further outright Treasury sales. The Fed priced the facility to serve as a backstop to private repo rates in a normally functioning market. The Fed created the facility to complement its dollar swap lines, which it had made available to 14 central banks. Unlike the swap lines, virtually every central bank in the world was eligible for the FIMA Repo Facility. At the facility’s outset, approximately 30 central banks signed up. However, usage was minimal; volume peaked at just $1.404 billion in May 2020. Despite low uptake, Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) staff report the facility was welcomed by market participants and argue that the FIMA Repo Facility eased selling pressure in the Treasury market. Two FRBNY researchers also find evidence it eased foreign exchange stresses and helped restore Treasury holdings of foreign central banks that were outside the Fed’s dollar swaps network. After two extensions, the Fed announced in July 2021 that the FIMA Repo Facility would become permanent

United States: Paycheck Protection Program Liquidity Facility

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the US Congress passed and funded the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to help small businesses facing business disruptions keep workers on their payrolls and meet other expenses. The PPP, signed into law on March 27, 2020, provided a mechanism for authorized lenders to extend concessionary, forgivable loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration (SBA). Lenders ultimately extended approximately $800 billion in PPP loans. The SBA distributed the funds when the loan either defaulted or met the law\u27s terms for SBA forgiveness. To buttress lenders\u27 ability to fund PPP loans, the Federal Reserve created the Paycheck Protection Program Liquidity Facility (PPPLF) under its emergency lending authority provided by Section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act. This emergency facility provided liquidity against PPP loan collateral at 100$90.6 billion in outstanding credit on June 30, 2021. The PPPLF was the longest-running Federal Reserve 13(3) facility of the COVID-19 pandemic, opening on April 16, 2020, and closing on July 30, 2021

Lessons Learned: Daleep Singh

Daleep Singh served as head of the Markets Group at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) from February 2020 to February 2021. In this leading role, he helped to formulate and effect the Fed’s response to the COVID-19 crisis. He met with the Yale Program on Financial Stability (YPFS) to share insights related to the Fed’s crisis responses during the pandemic. This Lessons Learned is based on an interview held with Singh on November 19, 2022

The sterol C-24 methyltransferase encoding gene, erg6, is essential for viability of Aspergillus species

Triazoles, the most widely used class of antifungal drugs, inhibit the biosynthesis of ergosterol, a crucial component of the fungal plasma membrane. Inhibition of a separate ergosterol biosynthetic step, catalyzed by the sterol C-24 methyltransferase Erg6, reduces the virulence of pathogenic yeasts, but its effects on filamentous fungal pathogens like Aspergillus fumigatus remain unexplored. Here, we show that the lipid droplet-associated enzyme Erg6 is essential for the viability of A. fumigatus and other Aspergillus species, including A. lentulus, A. terreus, and A. nidulans. Downregulation of erg6 causes loss of sterol-rich membrane domains required for apical extension of hyphae, as well as altered sterol profiles consistent with the Erg6 enzyme functioning upstream of the triazole drug target, Cyp51A/Cyp51B. Unexpectedly, erg6-repressed strains display wild-type susceptibility against the ergosterol-active triazole and polyene antifungals. Finally, we show that erg6 repression results in significant reduction in mortality in a murine model of invasive aspergillosis. Taken together with recent studies, our work supports Erg6 as a potentially pan-fungal drug target

United States: Main Street Lending Program

In March 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic caused slowdowns and disruptions to economic activity, businesses faced disruptions to their revenues and experienced increased demand for credit. Yet, as the pandemic worsened the economic outlook, banks tightened credit. Starting on March 17, the Federal Reserve rolled out several emergency programs aimed at capital markets. Most of these programs tended to benefit relatively large companies. On March 23, the Fed said it would introduce a program targeting small and mid-sized companies. On April 9, 2020, the Federal Reserve announced its first design iteration of the novel Main Street Lending Program (MSLP). The MSLP targeted businesses that were too small to have access to public markets but too large to be assisted (or sufficiently assisted) by the Paycheck Protection Program, Congress\u27s forgivable-loan program for small businesses. The Fed later expanded the MSLP to also include mid-sized nonprofit firms. The MSLP purchased a 95% participation share in MSLP-compliant loans made by private lenders. The MSLP was available to hold up to an aggregate $600 billion of loans purchased from participating lenders, supported by a$75 billion equity injection from the Treasury. Designed to help ultimately viable businesses weather a period of disrupted cash flows, MSLP loans matured in five years and deferred interest payments for one year and principal payments for two. All MSLP-eligible loans carried an interest rate of LIBOR plus 300 basis points. In December 2020, Congress mandated the closure of the MSLP on January 8, 2021. In total, the MSLP made $16.6 billion of purchases, its 95$17.5 billion of MSLP lending