The commercial paper market, the Fed, and the 2007-2009 financial crisis

Since its inception in the early nineteenth century, the U.S. commercial paper market has grown to become a key source of short-term funding for major businesses, with issuance averaging over $100 billion per day. In the fall of 2008, the commercial paper market achieved national prominence when increasing market stress caused some to fear that, given its size and importance, the market's failure would sharply worsen the recession. The Department of the Treasury and Federal Reserve enacted programs targeted at providing credit and liquidity to restore investor confidence. The authors review the history of the commercial paper market, describe its structure and key relationships to money market mutual funds, and present a detailed discussion of the crisis in the market, including the resulting Federal Reserve programs.Commercial paper issues ; Financial crises

A closer look: assistance programs in the wake of the crisis

An unprecedented amount of aid was extended by the Treasury, Fed and FDIC to companies, agencies and individuals. This aid was necessary and, in many cases, will return a profit to taxpayers.Financial crises ; Intermediation (Finance) ; Business failures

Offshoring, economic insecurity, and the demand for social insurance

The fear of offshoring, particularly in services since 2000, has raised workers economic insecurity and heightened concerns over future economic globalization. Many have argued that globalization has exacerbated labor market turbulence increasing the demand for social insurance programs. The authors present a simple theoretical model establishing a connection between the threat of offshoring, economic insecurity, and the demand for social insurance. Data from the 1972-2006 General Social Survey to provides supporting empirical evidence.Globalization ; International economic integration

Estimating U.S. output growth with vintage data in a state-space framework

This study uses a state-space model to estimate the "true" unobserved measure of total output in the U.S. economy. The analysis uses the entire history (i.e., all vintages) of selected real-time data series to compute revisions and corresponding statistics for those series. The revision statistics, along with the most recent data vintage, are used in a state-space model to extract filtered estimates of the "true" series. Under certain assumptions, Monte Carlo simulations suggest this framework can improve published estimates by as much as 30 percent, lasting an average of 11 periods. Real-time experiments using a measure of real gross domestic product show improvement closer to 10 percent, lasting for 1 to 2 quarters.Economic development ; Economic conditions - United States

The perils of globalization: offshoring and economic insecurity of the American worker

According to polls from the 2006 congressional elections, globalization and economic insecurity were the primary concerns of many voters. These Americans apparently believe that they have fallen victim to liberal trade polices and that inexorable trends in globalization are destroying the American Dream. In this analysis, we use time series cross-section data from the General Social Survey (GSS) to examine the links among offshoring, labor market volatility, and the demand for social insurance. Unique among the GSS literature, our analysis includes a pseudo-panel model which permits including auxiliary state and regional macroeconomic information.Globalization ; International economic integration

Fueling expected inflation

Gasoline - Prices ; Inflation (Finance)

Doubling your monetary base and surviving: some international experience

The authors examine the experience of selected central banks that have used large-scale balance-sheet expansion, frequently referred to as “quantitative easing,” as a monetary policy instrument. The case studies focus on central banks responding to the recent financial crisis and Nordic central banks during the banking crises of the 1990s; others are provided for comparison purposes. The authors conclude that large-scale balance-sheet increases are a viable monetary policy tool provided the public believes the increase will be appropriately reversed.Monetary policy - United States ; Money supply ; Financial crises

Influence of Incentive Design and Organizational Characteristics on Wellness Participation and Health Outcomes

Objective: To explore how changing incentive designs influence wellness participation and health outcomes. Methods: Aggregated retrospective data were evaluated using cluster analysis to group 174 companies into incentive design types. Numerous statistical models assessed between-group differences in wellness participation, earning incentives, and over-time differences in health outcomes. Results: Four incentive design groups based on requirements for earning incentives were identified. The groups varied in support for and participation in wellness initiatives within each company. All four design types were associated with improved low density lipoprotein (LDL)(P \u3c 0.01), three with improved blood pressure (P \u3c 0.001), and two with improved fasting glucose (P \u3c 0.03). No incentive plan types were associated with improved body mass index (BMI), but designs predominantly focused on health outcomes (eg, Outcomes-Focused) exhibited a significant increase over time in BMI risk. Conclusion: Incentive design and organizational characteristics impact population-level participation and health outcomes

Functional domains of yeast hexokinase 2

Hkx2 (hexokinase 2) from Saccharomyces cerevisiae was one of the first metabolic enzymes described as a multifunctional protein. Hxk2 has a double subcellular localization: it functions as a glycolytic enzyme in the cytoplasm and as a regulator of gene transcription of several Mig1-regulated genes in the nucleus. To get more insights into the structure–function relationships of the Hxk2 protein, we followed two different approaches. In the first, we deleted the last eight amino acids of Hxk2 and replaced Ser304 with phenylalanine to generate Hxk2wca. Analysis of this mutant demonstrated that these domains play an essential role in the catalytic activity of yeast Hxk2, but has no effect on the regulatory function of this protein. In the second, we analysed whether amino acids from Lys6 to Met15 of Hxk2 (Hxk2wrf) are essential for the regulatory role of Hxk2 and whether there is an effect on the hexose kinase activity of this protein. In the present paper, we report that the Hxk2wca mutant protein interacts with the Mig1 transcriptional repressor and the Snf1 protein kinase in the nucleus at the level of the SUC2–Mig1 repressor complex. We have demonstrated that Hxk2wca maintained full regulatory function because the glucose-repression signalling of the wild-type machinery is maintained. We also report that the Hxk2wrf mutant allele is incapable of glucose repression signalling because it does not interact with Mig1 at the level of the SUC2–Mig1 repressor complex. The two mutants, Hxk2wca and Hxk2wrf retain single functions, as a transcriptional factor or as an enzyme with hexose-phosphorylating activity, but have lost the original bifunctionality of Hxk2