Crash and Carry: Financial Intermediaries, the Intertemporal-Carry Trade, and Austrian Business Cycles

Barnett and Block (2008) establish that not only are fractional reserve demand deposits fraudulent and create an Austrian Business Cycle (ABC), but that a certain type of mismatching between time deposits and the period for which the depository institution relends the deposited funds (banks or other financial intermediaries “borrowing short and lending long”) are also contrary to libertarian law. The question we address in the present paper is whether or not this type of disconnect between the period for which the ultimate lender committed funds and the ultimate borrower gained possession thereof also necessarily start an Austrian Business Cycle. Even though this does not constitute an increase in the stock of money, we answer in the affirmative

EVALUATING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF INSTRUCTION IN ORAL HYGIENE FOR MENTALLY RETARDED BOYS

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66133/1/j.1752-7325.1974.tb00668.x.pd

Freedom on the Move: A Crowdsourced, Comprehensive Database of North American Runaway Slave Advertisements

'Freedom on the Move' (FOTM) creates a digital resource from an estimated 100,000 runaway slave advertisements from pre-1865 U.S. newspapers. Placed by enslavers when enslaved people attempted to escape, these ads included extensive information about fugitives. They comprise the richest source of information about enslaved individuals in the United States, yet no comprehensive collection of them exists. FOTM will collect these ads and use crowdsourcing to parse their data into a database, enabling sophisticated new analyses of the history of U.S. slavery. A crowdsourcing interface will provide a site for public engagement with an enduring national trauma, supporting lessons for K-12, university, and museum education. The database will be freely available for browsing and exportable for research. NEH start-up funding will enable us to build tools for incorporating large-scale data from contributors, creating a prototype for future expansions of this and similar digital resources

Austrian Government Cycle Theory

When government accounted for a small proportion of the economy, the Austrian Business Cycle Theory (ABCT) was apropos because private enterprises comprised the lion’s share of commercial interactions. But, of late, in more and more countries, the share of the economy accounted for by the state has increased, and that by business firms, less and less. Thus, it is time, it is past time, to introduce a new concept, Austrian Government Cycle Theory (AGCT). The present paper is an attempt to move us in that direction.Kiedy rząd odpowiadał za małą część gospodarki, autriacka teoria cykli gospodarczych (ABCT) była odpowiednia dla prywatnych przedsiębiorstw, które zawierały lwią część relacji biznesowych. Później w coraz większej ilości państw, udział gospodarki związanej z państwem wzrastał, a udział przedsiębiorstw prywatnych malał. Stąd nastał czas, aby zaprezentować nową koncepcję, czyli teorię cykli rządu Austrii (AGCT). Ten artykuł jest próbą ukazania tego właśnie fenomenu

Dust in Spiral Galaxies: Comparing Emission and Absorption to Constrain Small-Scale and Very Cold Structures

The detailed distribution of dust in the disks of spiral galaxies is important to understanding the radiative transfer within disks, and to measuring overall dust masses if significant quantities of dust are either very opaque or very cold. We address this issue by comparing measures of dust absorption, using the galaxy-overlap technique in the optical, with measures of the dust grains' thermal emission from 50-2000 micron using ISOPHOT on board ISO and SCUBA at the JCMT. We examine three spiral galaxies projected partially in front of E/S0 galaxies --- AM1316-241, NGC 5545, and NGC 5091 (for NGC 5091 we have only optical and ISO data). Adopting an empirical exponential model for the dust distribution, we compare column densities and dust masses derived from the absorption and emission techniques. This comparison is sensitive to the amount of dust mass in small, opaque structures, which would not contribute strongly to area-weighted absorption measures, and to very cold dust, which would contribute to optical absorption but provide only a small fraction of the sub-mm emission. In AM1316-241, we find global dust masses of 2-5 x 10^7 M_solar, both techniques agreeing at the 50% level. NGC 5545 has about half this dust mass. The concordance of dust masses is well within the errors expected from our knowledge of the radial distribution of dust, and argues against any dominant part of the dust mass being so cold or opaque. The 50-2000 micron data are well fitted by modified Planck functions with an emissivity law beta=-2, at 21 +/- 2 K. We also present 12 micron ISOCAM observations of these pairs.Comparison of H-alpha and 12 micron images of NGC 5545 indicate that ISOCAM images are reliable tracers of star formation.Comment: 16 pages, 4 tables, 8 figures, in press for October Astronomical Journa

Onset of Surface-Tension-Driven Benard Convection

Experiments with shadowgraph visualization reveal a subcritical transition to a hexagonal convection pattern in thin liquid layers that have a free upper surface and are heated from below. The measured critical Marangoni number (84) and observation of hysteresis (3%) agree with theory. In some experiments, imperfect bifurcation is observed and is attributed to deterministic forcing caused in part by the lateral boundaries in the experiment.Comment: 4 pages. The RevTeX file has a macro allowing various styles. The appropriate style is "mypprint" which is the defaul

A contemporary overview of percutaneous coronary interventions The American College of Cardiology–National Cardiovascular Data Registry (ACC–NCDR)

AbstractObjectivesThe American College of Cardiology (ACC) established the National Cardiovascular Data Registry (ACC–NCDR) to provide a uniform and comprehensive database for analysis of cardiovascular procedures across the country. The initial focus has been the high-volume, high-profile procedures of diagnostic cardiac catheterization and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).BackgroundSeveral large-scale multicenter efforts have evaluated diagnostic catheterization and PCI, but these have been limited by lack of standard definitions and relatively nonuniform data collection and reporting methods.MethodsBoth clinical and procedural data, and adverse events occurring up to hospital discharge, were collected and reported according to uniform guidelines using a standard set of 143 data elements. Datasets were transmitted quarterly to a central facility for quality-control screening, storage and analysis. This report is based on PCI data collected from January 1, 1998, through September 30, 2000.ResultsA total of 139 hospitals submitted data on 146,907 PCI procedures. Of these, 32% (46,615 procedures) were excluded because data did not pass quality-control screening. The remaining 100,292 procedures (68%) were included in the analysis set. Average age was 64 ± 12 years; 34% were women, 26% had diabetes mellitus, 29% had histories of prior myocardial infarction (MI), 32% had prior PCI and 19% had prior coronary bypass surgery. In 10% the indication for PCI was acute MI ≤6 h from onset, while in 52% it was class II to IV or unstable angina. Only 5% of procedures did not have a class I indication by ACC criteria, but this varied by hospital from a low of 0 to a high of 38%. A coronary stent was placed in 77% of procedures, but this varied by hospital from a low of 0 to a high of 97%. The frequencies of in-hospital Q-wave MI, coronary artery bypass graft surgery and death were 0.4%, 1.9% and 1.4%, respectively. Mortality varied by hospital from a low of 0 to a high of 4.2%.ConclusionsThis report presents the first data collected and analyzed by the ACC–NCDR. It portrays a contemporary overview of coronary interventional practices and outcomes, using uniform data collection and reporting standards. These data reconfirm overall acceptable results that are consistent with other reported data, but also confirm large variations between individual institutions

Development of a risk adjustment mortality model using the American College of Cardiology–National Cardiovascular Data Registry (ACC–NCDR) experience: 1998–2000

AbstractObjectivesWe sought to develop and evaluate a risk adjustment model for in-hospital mortality following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) procedures using data from a large, multi-center registry.BackgroundThe 1998–2000 American College of Cardiology–National Cardiovascular Data Registry (ACC–NCDR) dataset was used to overcome limitations of prior risk-adjustment analyses.MethodsData on 100,253 PCI procedures collected at the ACC–NCDR between January 1, 1998, and September 30, 2000, were analyzed. A training set/test set approach was used. Separate models were developed for presentation with and without acute myocardial infarction (MI) within 24 h.ResultsFactors associated with increased risk of PCI mortality (with odds ratios in parentheses) included cardiogenic shock (8.49), increasing age (2.61 to 11.25), salvage (13.38) urgent (1.78) or emergent PCI (5.75), pre-procedure intra-aortic balloon pump insertion (1.68), decreasing left ventricular ejection fraction (0.87 to 3.93), presentation with acute MI (1.31), diabetes (1.41), renal failure (3.04), chronic lung disease (1.33); treatment approaches including thrombolytic therapy (1.39) and non-stent devices (1.64); and lesion characteristics including left main (2.04), proximal left anterior descending disease (1.97) and Society for Cardiac Angiography and Interventions lesion classification (1.64 to 2.11). Overall, excellent discrimination was achieved (C-index = 0.89) and application of the model to high-risk patient groups demonstrated C-indexes exceeding 0.80. Patient factors were more predictive in the MI model, while lesion and procedural factors were more predictive in the analysis of non-MI patients.ConclusionsA risk adjustment model for in-hospital mortality after PCI was successfully developed using a contemporary multi-center registry. This model is an important tool for valid comparison of in-hospital mortality after PCI

Vitamin D pathway gene polymorphisms, diet, and risk of postmenopausal breast cancer: a nested case-control study

INTRODUCTION: Vitamin D receptor (VDR) polymorphisms have been inconsistently associated with breast cancer risk. Whether risk is influenced by polymorphisms in other vitamin D metabolism genes and whether calcium or vitamin D intake modifies risk by genotype have not been evaluated. METHODS: We conducted a nested case-control study within the Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort of associations between breast cancer and four VDR single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), Bsm1,Apa1,Taq1, and Fok1, a poly(A) microsatellite, and associated haplotypes (baTL and BAtS). We also examined one SNP in the 24-hydroxylase gene (CYP24A1) and two in the vitamin D-binding protein (group-specific component [GC]) gene. Participants completed a questionnaire on diet and medical history at baseline in 1992. This study includes 500 postmenopausal breast cancer cases and 500 controls matched by age, race/ethnicity, and date of blood collection. RESULTS: Incident breast cancer was not associated with any genotype examined. However, women with the Bsm1 bb SNP who consumed greater than the median intake of total calcium (≥902 mg/day) had lower odds of breast cancer compared to women with the Bb or BB genotype and less than the median calcium intake (odds ratio 0.61, 95% confidence interval 0.38 to 0.96; p(interaction )= 0.01). Similar interactions were observed for Taq1 (T allele) and the poly(A) (LL) repeat. CONCLUSION: We found no overall association between selected vitamin D pathway genes and postmenopausal breast cancer risk. However, certain VDR gene polymorphisms were associated with lower risk in women consuming high levels of calcium, suggesting that dietary factors may modify associations by VDR genotype