RETHINKING PENSION REFORM - SIMPLE APPLICATION TO THE JAPANESE SITUATION

As with all countries around the world, the ageing of Japanese society is putting severe pressure on the public pension system. The Japanese system is complex with a basic pension for all citizens, but different forms of additional support for self employed, private sector and public sector employees. The basic pension is covered through contributions and a subsidy by the government. This government contribution is derived from general taxation and is increasing over time as a percentage of the overall wage bill, but is a fundamental pillar of the concept of social solidarity. The public Social Security pension system for private sector workers has the highest coverage of the 3 working groups (30 million out of a total of 70 million) and has recently been converted to a ?fixed premium? system, whereby contributions of employers and employees is being raised gradually but fixed thereafter. In other words, it appears that the system is being converted to ensure that additional taxes are not forced on the working population or companies as the population pyramid deteriorates, and to pass on some risk to pensioners by potentially lowering benefits and ensuring a ?limited balanced system?. Some attempt has been made to prevent a major decline of benefits through certain options making the system largely defined benefit. Japan has a unique set of favorable circumstances. The surplus of contributions over pensions in the past has been accumulated in a Trust Fund. These monies were previously loaned to the government but a recent reform led to a transition of this fund to a market-based global portfolio with appropriate governance and oversight. We apply some insights from Modigliani and Muralidhar (2003) to the Japanese system and demonstrate that given the unique and far-thinking measures already undertaken by the Japanese, that the financing of pensions is robust. However, rather than gradually depleting the fund over the next 95 years, if a small improvement can be made to the target return of the fund, potentially contributions could be reduced, while also lowering the volatility of contributions. Modigliani and Muralidhar (2003) showed that keeping a system partially funded was beneficial relative to a pure pay-as-you-go system as it could lower the volatility of contributions and make countries more competitive (as contributions are a tax on companies and could lead to higher wages). Japan has a unique opportunity to manage the most dramatic ageing of a population globally through some innovative, minor modifications, especially since they area at a very advantageous situation currently relative to countries such as the United States.

HEDGING CURRENCY RISK IN INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT AND TRADE

International investing and trade has one unintended consequence; namely, the creation of currency risk which causes the local currency value of the foreign receivables or investments to fluctuate dramatically because of pure currency movements. The academic literature on currencies has typically misunderstood currency risk and suggested that currencies have no long term return, are difficult to predict, and difficult to take advantage of as the markets are extremely liquid. Hence, typical recommendations include either that companies and investors should remove this uncompensated volatility by naively hedging back into the base currency or leaving the risk unhedged (which is often misinterpreted and, as a result, left unmanaged). The effective financial management of such cash flows or investments provides a completely different perspective as na�ve hedging (unhedging) of currency risk implies a strong view that the base currency will appreciate (depreciate) against the foreign currency. Moreover, the currency market has many non-profit participants and while exact currency levels cannot be predicted, the future direction of currencies can be anticipated through relatively simple models and non-profit participants can be exploited. We demonstrate how Japanese corporations and investors can develop a much more robust and SMART (Systematic Management of Assets Using a Rules Based Technique) approach to manage currency risk, thereby adding value from currency fluctuations while managing currency risk. In short, they can easily improve performance, risk management and governance. Such transactions are easy to implement with currency forwards and while the current paper focuses on USD exposures, a more general multi-currency approach can be developed for a more comprehensive analysis.

Control of a Circular Jet

The present study report direct numerical simulation (DNS) of a circular jet and the effect of a large scale perturbation at the jet inlet. The perturbation is used to control the jet for increased spreading. Dual-mode perturbation is obtained by combining an axisymmetric excitation with the helical. In the fluid dynamics videos, an active control of the circular jet at a Reynolds number of 2000 for various frequency ratios (both integer and non-integer) has been demonstrated. When the frequency ratio is fixed to 2, bifurcation of the jet on a plane is evident. However, for a non-integer frequency ratio, the axisymmetric jet is seen to bloom in all directions.Comment: 2 page

Selfies Can Help Brazil Create a Super Supplementary Pension

Brazilian policy makers and researchers have discussed the introduction of a complementary pension system to complement the Regime Geral de Previdência Social (RGPS), specially for those that want a retirement income above the RGPS ceiling. This article first recommends that the complementary system must be SUPER (Simple, Universal, Portable, Efficient with low cost and Robust Regulatation). It then proposes the adoption of a financial innovation called SeLFIES (Standard-of-Living, Forward-starting, Income-only Securities), as the default investment option for a modern capitalization regime. Brazil presents an interesting opportunity to be the first country to adopt and implement SeLFIES given the initial conditions, especially the innovations introduced in the market for government bonds. This financial innovation would help the Brazilian government address two challenges simultaneously: improve retirement security (by including even the most financially illiterate people and those in the informal sector in retirement plans) and boost infrastructure financing.Brazilian policy makers and researchers have discussed the introduction of a complementary pension system to complement the Regime Geral de Previdência Social (RGPS), specially for those that want a retirement income above the RGPS ceiling. This article first recommends that the complementary system must be SUPER (Simple, Universal, Portable, Efficient with low cost and Robust Regulatation). It then proposes the adoption of a financial innovation called SeLFIES (Standard-of-Living, Forward-starting, Income-only Securities), as the default investment option for a modern capitalization regime. Brazil presents an interesting opportunity to be the first country to adopt and implement SeLFIES given the initial conditions, especially the innovations introduced in the market for government bonds. This financial innovation would help the Brazilian government address two challenges simultaneously: improve retirement security (by including even the most financially illiterate people and those in the informal sector in retirement plans) and boost infrastructure financing

Detection and pathogenicity of Vibrio parahaemolyticus strains in Penaeus vannamei

Background and purpose: The Vibrio spp. are indigenous bacteria in the marine environment and usually constitute the majority in normal microflora of farmed and wild penaeid shrimp; and are one of the most diverse and vital shrimp pathogens that cause heavy mortalities in aquaculture facilities worldwide. The present study aimed to isolate and characterize the causative agent concerned with mass mortality in Peneaus vannamei collected from the shrimp farms of Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, India.Materials and methods: To isolate and characterize the pathogenic bacteria from the hepatic pancreatic tissue of moribund, P. vannamei performed conventional culture tests, physical and biochemical tests, and molecular analysis. In addition to that virulence gene study, bacterial pathogenicity with different salinity and antibacterial activity of the stem extract of Tinospora cordifolia against Vibrio parahaemolyticus were tested.Results: The phenotypic traits, 16s rRNA gene, and phylogenetic tree analysis showed that the isolated pathogen was V. parahaemolyticus strain KKD 02. A study on bacterial pathogenicity with different salinity 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 ppt showed that 5 ppt to 10 ppt was connected to the maximum resistance against bacterial infection in P. vannamei with higher CFU/shrimp value. Two genes encoding thermostable direct hemolysin (tdh) and the thermostable direct hemolysin-related hemolysin (trh) were present in the isolate. The antibacterial activity of the stem extract of T. cordifolia, tested against V. parahaemolyticus, revealed that both the ethanol extracts and the crude stem juice exhibited antibacterial activity against V. parahaemolyticus.Conclusion: The cause for the mass mortality of juvenile shrimp P. vannamei in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, India, was V. parahaemolyticus strain KKD 02. Further work is necessary to isolate and purify the active constituents in T. cordifolia stem extracts and examine the absorption pattern of the active ingredients of these plants, which will allow the scientific community to recommend their utilization as an accessible alternative to synthetic antibiotics

CRISPR/Cas9 screen in human iPSC‐derived cortical neurons identifies NEK6 as a novel disease modifier of C9orf72 poly(PR) toxicity

Introduction The most common genetic cause of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are hexanucleotide repeats in chromosome 9 open reading frame 72 (C9orf72). These repeats produce dipeptide repeat proteins with poly(PR) being the most toxic one. Methods We performed a kinome-wide CRISPR/Cas9 knock-out screen in human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) -derived cortical neurons to identify modifiers of poly(PR) toxicity, and validated the role of candidate modifiers using in vitro, in vivo, and ex-vivo studies. Results Knock-down of NIMA-related kinase 6 (NEK6) prevented neuronal toxicity caused by poly(PR). Knock-down of nek6 also ameliorated the poly(PR)-induced axonopathy in zebrafish and NEK6 was aberrantly expressed in C9orf72 patients. Suppression of NEK6 expression and NEK6 activity inhibition rescued axonal transport defects in cortical neurons from C9orf72 patient iPSCs, at least partially by reversing p53-related DNA damage. Discussion We identified NEK6, which regulates poly(PR)-mediated p53-related DNA damage, as a novel therapeutic target for C9orf72 FTD/ALS