Social Democracy, Globalization and Governance: Why is there no European Left Program in the EU? CES Germany & Europe Working Papers, no.00.6, September

This paper addresses globalization and governance in the EU by attempting to generate some plausible hypotheses that might explain the policy choices of the 12 out of 15 European democratic left governments. With all of the discussion in recent years of a democratic deficit, and then need to maintain a "social Europe," why have these governments not produced more explicit left-wing policies? It suggests three possible hypotheses to account for this apparently mysterious outcome. Hypothesis #1: They want to but they can't. Hypothesis #2: They don't want to because they aren't really left anymore. Hypothesis #3: They could, but they all are suffering from a fundamental failure of imagination. The paper explores each of these hypotheses in two ways. First it examines the initial years of the Schröder government in Germany apparently, pursuing each of these three hypotheses and different times during this period. Then it looks more systematically and comparatively and each of the three hypotheses by including analysis both of Germany and several other EU member states. The larger goal of this work is to provoke discussion and research on what role left political movements can actually play. Is it even reasonable to expect such a group of nation states to develop innovative forms of cross-national governance? Or are new and/or revised forms of representation and governance beyond traditional nation-state models

Quantum Superpositions Cannot be Epistemic

Quantum superposition states are behind many of the curious phenomena exhibited by quantum systems, including Bell non-locality, quantum interference, quantum computational speed-up, and the measurement problem. At the same time, many qualitative properties of quantum superpositions can also be observed in classical probability distributions leading to a suspicion that superpositions may be explicable as probability distributions over less problematic states, that is, a suspicion that superpositions are \emph{epistemic}. Here, it is proved that, for any quantum system of dimension $d>3$, this cannot be the case for almost all superpositions. Equivalently, any underlying ontology must contain ontic superposition states. A related question concerns the more general possibility that some pairs of non-orthogonal quantum states $|\psi\rangle,|\phi\rangle$ could be ontologically indistinct (there are ontological states which fail to distinguish between these quantum states). A similar method proves that if $|\langle\phi|\psi\rangle|^{2}\in(0,\frac{1}{4})$ then $|\psi\rangle,|\phi\rangle$ must approach ontological distinctness as $d\rightarrow\infty$. The robustness of these results to small experimental error is also discussed.Comment: Updated to published version with slgihtly extended discussion and corrected mistakes. 6 + 7 pages, Quantum Studies: Mathematics and Foundations. Online First. (2015

Treating Time Travel Quantum Mechanically

The fact that closed timelike curves (CTCs) are permitted by general relativity raises the question as to how quantum systems behave when time travel to the past occurs. Research into answering this question by utilising the quantum circuit formalism has given rise to two theories: Deutschian-CTCs (D-CTCs) and "postselected" CTCs (P-CTCs). In this paper the quantum circuit approach is thoroughly reviewed, and the strengths and shortcomings of D-CTCs and P-CTCs are presented in view of their non-linearity and time travel paradoxes. In particular, the "equivalent circuit model"---which aims to make equivalent predictions to D-CTCs, while avoiding some of the difficulties of the original theory---is shown to contain errors. The discussion of D-CTCs and P-CTCs is used to motivate an analysis of the features one might require of a theory of quantum time travel, following which two overlapping classes of new theories are identified. One such theory, the theory of "transition probability" CTCs (T-CTCs), is fully developed. The theory of T-CTCs is shown not to have certain undesirable features---such as time travel paradoxes, the ability to distinguish non-orthogonal states with certainty, and the ability to clone or delete arbitrary pure states---that are present with D-CTCs and P-CTCs. The problems with non-linear extensions to quantum mechanics are discussed in relation to the interpretation of these theories, and the physical motivations of all three theories are discussed and compared.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures. Edited in response to peer revie

The Weyl tensor two-point function in de Sitter spacetime

We present an expression for the Weyl-Weyl two-point function in de Sitter spacetime, based on a recently calculated covariant graviton two-point function with one gauge parameter. We find that the Weyl-Weyl two-point function falls off with distance like r^{-4}, where r is spacelike coordinate separation between the two points.Comment: 9 pages, no figure

Inflation Targeting: The British Experience

This lecture describes the United Kingdom's experience with inflation targeting. It provides a historical perspective to the introduction of inflation targeting, discusses the concept of inflation targets, and compares an inflation targeting regime with money supply and exchange rate targeting regimes. It is noteworthy that inflation targeting is based on the assumption that low inflation is the proper objective of monetary policy. A significant portion of the lecture covers the issue of the measurement of inflation. It discusses whether asset prices should be taken into account in the inflation measure and looks in particular at the experience of Japan in the late 1980s. It also considers sources of imperfection in traditional measures. It concludes that monetary policy will have to be conducted by reference to estimated price indexes that fall short of the conceptual ideal but does not regard this as seriously undermining an inflation targeting regime. The lecture goes on to discuss the issues of (1) having a target band for inflation or not, (2) the difficulty in forecasting inflation, and (3) the time horizon over which monetary policy should aim. The lecture highlights the important role that openness and transparency play in achieving credibility in monetary policy. It highlights the five devices that are now in use in the United Kingdom, and notes some of the benefits emerging from the open and transparent nature of the United Kingdom approach. It concludes by warning that inflation targeting does not promise to make monetary policy easy but does have the positive virtue of directing attention to many technical issues that need to be resolved in conducting monetary policy.Inflation, Targeting, British

Inflation measurement and inflation targets: the UK experience

Inflation (Finance) ; Monetary policy - Great Britain ; Great Britain