Parton-Parton Elastic Scattering and Rapidity Gaps at SSC and LHC Energies

The theory of the perturbative pomeron, due to Lipatov and collaborators, is used to compute the probability of observing parton-parton elastic scattering and rapidity gaps between jets in hadron collisions at SSC and LHC energies.Comment: 7 page

Can mortgage applications help predict home sales?

In this article, John Duca finds that the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) index of home mortgage applications can help forecast home sales. Alone, the index is a good, albeit imperfect, predictor of total home sales. But when included along with housing affordability and real, after-tax mortgage rate data, the index does not add extra information if one disregards differences in data release lags. ; The index is available roughly three to four weeks ahead of the two alternative indicators. Taking into account its greater timeliness, it provides some extra information on home sales beyond that in the two other indicators considered. Given this qualification, the MBA index can help predict overall home sales. In addition, the long-run equilibrium relationships suggest that its usefulness may increase in the future. Nevertheless, the index should be used cautiously. It is still relatively new, and evidence suggests it may be misleading under some circumstances.Housing ; Mortgages

Has long-run profitability risen in the 1990s

This article analyzes the recent rebound in nonfinancial corporate profitability, as measured by after-tax profits as a share of output. Virtually all the resurgence in corporate profitability during the 1990s reflects a cyclical increase in profits and a decline in net interest expense associated with deleveraging and lower interest rates. In this sense, it is not clear that a long lasting upward shift in the economic returns to capital has occurred, after accounting for short-run cyclical-related movements and for how deleveraging and lower interest rates have shifted capital payments away from debtholders toward equityholders.Corporate profits

Regulatory changes and housing coefficients

Regulation Q: Prohibition Against Payment of Interest on Demand Deposits

NLL BFKL and NNLO

The BFKL resummation at LL and NLL accuracy is briefly reviewed, with particular emphasis on the connection between the NLL corrections to the BFKL equation and exact NNLO calculations.Comment: LaTeX, 4 pages, with npb.sty. To appear in the Proceedings of DIS99, Zeuthen, Germany, in Nucl. Phys. B (Proc. Suppl.