Влияние внутренних противоречий в экономике США на глобальную финансиализацию и экспансию фиктивного капитала

The financialization genesis of the global economy centered in the United States is on the bifurcation point now— a fictive capital’ expansion is damaging with the social capital regeneration mechanism disaster. The method of identifying and estimating the fictive capital’ extension is absent for now. The fictive capital exists as a metaphor on the science papers but not as an institutional basis of the capital flows directions. The paper aims to update the configuration of the global financial system, its dependence on the performance of US corporations and banks; to identify the sources of vulnerability of world finance and global liquidity from the fictitious capital of American financial markets. The methodology is theoretical pattern’ of financial capital movements and its real statistical market indicators comparison. The empirical base is statistical data about the financial flows and financial results especially about the US as a global financial center. Based on the results the authors have revealed an origin of fictive capital on the US bank sector by the justification for the conclusion of liquidity above the profitable as the purpose of financial operations. This conclusion is confirmed with the scale of off-balance sheet transactions of banks. Besides the regression between the prices of derivative’ basis assets and stock indexes has been shown. Also, the market capitalization of American companies is not sensitive to change in market liquidity indicators. The authors concluded that global financialization is supported by significant internal contradictions in the US economy. The source of contradictions is the financial mechanism for withdrawing liquidity from the sphere of production and circulation into the sphere of financial markets. Capital investment using instruments of the US financial market entails the threat of losing their liquidity. Forecasting the dynamics of the global economy without taking into account the role of fictitious capital, which is emerging in the American financial markets, leads to global vulnerability and may cause the next financial crisis.Эволюция процесса финансиализации глобальной экономики с центром в США подошла к точке бифуркации — экспансия фиктивного капитала угрожает нарушением механизмов общественного воспроизводства капитала. Однако сегодня отсутствует четкий метод идентификации масштабов распространения фиктивного капитала, он используется в научных исследованиях как метафора, а не в качестве новой институциональной основы движения финансовых потоков. Цель исследования— актуализация конфигурации мировой финансовой системы, ее зависимости от результатов деятельности корпораций и банков США, выявление источников уязвимости мировых финансов и глобальной ликвидности от фиктивного капитала американских финансовых рынков. Методологической основой исследования стало сопоставление теоретически установленных закономерностей поведения финансового капитала с фактическими данными о результатах совершения операций рыночными агентами. База исследования — статистические данные о движении финансовых потоков и результатах финансовых операций в глобальной экономике с упором на данные статистики США как центра мировой финансовой системы. В результате обоснования вывода о преобладании цели максимизации ликвидности над максимизацией прибыльности банковских операций авторы выявили источники фиктивного капитала в деятельности банковского сектора США. Масштабы забалансовых операций банков подтверждают данный вывод. Показана зависимость цен базисных активов товарных деривативов от биржевых индексов, а также устойчивость рыночной капитализации американских компаний к изменениям уровня ликвидности их акций. Сделан вывод, что глобальная финансиализация поддерживается существенными внутренними противоречиями в экономике США. Источником противоречий является финансовый механизм вывода ликвидности из сферы производства и обращения в сферу финансовых рынков. Размещение капиталов с использованием инструментов финансового рынка США влечет угрозу потери их ликвидности, а прогнозирование динамики глобальной экономики без учета роли фиктивного капитала, зарождающегося на американских финансовых рынках, приводит к глобальной уязвимости и может стать причиной очередного финансового кризиса

Photography-based taxonomy is inadequate, unnecessary, and potentially harmful for biological sciences

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009; Cianferoni & Bartolozzi 2016; Amorim et al. 2016). This question was again raised in a letter supported by 35 signatories published in the journal Nature (Pape et al. 2016) on 15 September 2016. On 25 September 2016, the following rebuttal (strictly limited to 300 words as per the editorial rules of Nature) was submitted to Nature, which on 18 October 2016 refused to publish it. As we think this problem is a very important one for zoological taxonomy, this text is published here exactly as submitted to Nature, followed by the list of the 493 taxonomists and collection-based researchers who signed it in the short time span from 20 September to 6 October 2016

Application of the corridor management principle to the organization of the trans-Siberian railway

The article is focused on assessing the possibility of adapting the world experience of managing the transport corridor, including international ones, to the process of organizing and managing the Eastern railway polygon. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the possibilities of implementing the corridor management principle on the basis of the Trans-Siberian railway in terms of competitive interactability with the railways of Europe, East and Central Asia in the framework of international transport construction projects. Conditions and prerequisites for achieving commercial return of transport construction projects and integration in terms of priority areas, types of cargo, types of rolling stock and the role of international transport integration in achieving the goals of socio-economic development of the regions have been revealed. It has been determined that the orientation to long-distance transport of bulk cargo hinders the implementation of the principle of corridor management on the Trans-Siberian Railway. It has also been proven that a vertically integrated structure with a network of unequal functional and territorial branches with fundamentally different goals hinders the possibility of ensuring non-discriminatory access to the railway transport infrastructure and specifically for intermodal transport operators. As a summary, the paper presents the key directions of improving the Trans-Siberian railway management and organization system to ensure competitiveness, obtain positive effects from the implementation of projects for organizing railway polygons, as well as effective integration into projects for the development of international transport corridors

The paradoxes of Russian railways’ loan policy

Russian Railways is gradually increasing its loan debt, which reflects the general trend of the economy. But, taking into account the objective economic state of railway transport and its low profitability, the increase in the share of borrowed funds reduces the company efficiency. This contradicts the purpose of using the loan, the purpose of which is to increase the return on equity. While analysing the results of the transport industry, we regarded it as an infrastructure industry, whose goal is primarily to provide macroeconomic indicators, and the problems of making profit recede into the background. An important factor in the development of the Russian economy in consideration of its geographical location is the development of transport networks, in which the predominant (at present and in the future) one is railway transport. However, its technical state requires significant modernization, investments far exceeding its own resources. The state, as a sole shareholder of Russian Railways OAO, does not have the necessary financial resources to handle the modernization, so Russian Railways is turning to the capital market, even reducing profitability. Private capital is willing to invest its capital only in separate modernization projects that can provide an acceptable rate of return for them. This explains the borrowing of capital for modernization at a price far exceeding the return on equity. At present, economic losses are expected to be set off by future revenues and mainly by the multiplicative effect of the economic growth of the national economy and the resolution of geopolitical problems. The purpose of the article is to try to explain the loan policy of Russian Railways

Pulmonary artery embolism by a metal fragment after a booby trap explosion in a combat patient injured in the armed conflict in East Ukraine: a case report and review of the literature

Background: Pulmonary artery embolization due to projectile embolus is a rare complication in combat patients. Such embolization is rare for combat patients in the ongoing armed conflict, in East Ukraine since 2014. Case presentation: We report a clinical case of a 34-year-old Caucasian combat patient who was injured after an explosion of a booby trap hand grenade. This soldier was diagnosed with severe abdominal and skeletal trauma: damage of the duodenum and transverse colon, internal bleeding due to inferior vena cava damage and fractures of both lower extremities. The patient was treated at a highly specialized surgical center within the “golden hour” time. Whole-body computed tomography scan was performed as a routine screening method for hemodynamically stable patients, at which we identified a projectile embolus due to the explosion of a booby trap hand grenade in the right midlobar pulmonary artery. Our patient had no clinical manifestation of pulmonary artery embolism. At follow-up, our patient was diagnosed with the following complications: multiple necrosis and perforations of the transverse colon leading to a fecal peritonitis; duodenum suture line leakage caused the formation of a duodenal fistula; postoperative wound infection. These complications required multiple secondary operations, and in accordance to the principles of damage-control tactics, the extraction of projectile-embolus was postponed. Open surgery retrieval of the metal fragment was successfully performed on the 80th day after injury. Our patient was discharged from the hospital on day 168th after injury. Conclusions: Literature analysis shows a significant difference of clinical management for patient with projectile embolism in hybrid war settings as compared to previously described cases of combat and civil gunshot injuries. Damage control tactics and the concept of the “golden hour” are highly effective for those injured in a hybrid war. A whole-body computed tomography scan is an effective screening method for asymptomatic patients with projectile-embolism of the great vessels. The investigation of a greater cohort of combat patients with severe injuries and projectile-embolism should be performed in order to develop a better guideline for these patients and to save more lives

State support of JSC “Russian railways”

The main sources of funds for railway investment projects in Russia are still state and regional budgets, funds from the National Welfare Fund, the net profit of Russian Railways, and pension savings from the Pension Fund of Russia. The reform of the system of the Ministry of Railways and the creation of JSC “Russian Railways”, which began in 2016, has not yet released the state budget from financing its needs, and there has been no active use of private investment. Moreover, the monopoly began to seek to shift the financing of not only the modernization and construction of tracks, but even the maintenance of existing infra-structure on the shoulders of the state and shippers. From year to year, there is an increase in the total amount of state support for Russian Railways. Part of the received state support funds in the period under review is spent inefficiently by JSC “Russian Railways”. The remaining budget funds that are not used by JSC “Russian Railways” additionally burden the economy, increasing inflation by various surcharges to tariffs, but the available budget funds are not selected in full, and billions of fines are paid for this. There are low rates of implementation of individual investment projects, overestimation of expenses for the purchase of equipment, an increase in the cost of construction, the cost of contracts for a number of objects exceeds the cost determined by state expertise, etc