104,672 research outputs found
Is the Gold Standard Still the Gold Standard among Monetary Systems?
Critics have raised a number of theoretical and historical objections to the gold standard. Some have called the gold standard a "crazy" idea. The gold standard is not a flawless monetary system. Neither is the fiat money alternative. In light of historical evidence about the comparative magnitude of these flaws, however, the gold standard is a policy option that deserves serious consideration. In a study covering many decades in a large sample of countries, Federal Reserve Bank economists found that "money growth and inflation are higher" under fiat standards than under gold and silver standards. Nor is the gold standard a source of harmful deflation. Alan Greenspan has testified before Congress that "a central bank properly functioning will endeavor to, in many cases, replicate what a gold standard would itself generate." This study addresses the leading criticisms of the gold standard, relating to the costs of gold, the costs of transition, the dangers of speculation, and the need for a lender of last resort. One criticism is found to have some merit. The United States would not enjoy the benefits of being on an international gold standard if it were the first and only country whose currency was linked to gold.A gold standard does not guarantee perfect steadiness in the growth of the money supply, but historical comparison shows that it has provided more moderate and steadier money growth in practice than the present-day alternative, politically empowering a central banking committee to determine growth in the stock of fiat money. From the perspective of limiting money growth appropriately, the gold standard is far from a crazy idea
How Did We Get into This Financial Mess?
As policymakers confront the ongoing U.S. financial crisis, it is important to take a step back and understand its origins. Those who fault "deregulation," "unfettered capitalism," or "greed" would do well to look instead at flawed institutions and misguided policies. The expansion in risky mortgages to underqualified borrowers was encouraged by the federal government. The growth of "creative" nonprime lending followed Congress's strengthening of the Community Reinvestment Act, the Federal Housing Administration's loosening of down-payment standards, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development's pressuring lenders to extend mortgages to borrowers who previously would not have qualified. Meanwhile, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae grew to own or guarantee about half of the United States' $12 trillion mortgage market. Congressional leaders pointedly refused to moderate the moral hazard problem of implicit guarantees or otherwise rein in their hyperexpansion, instead pushing them to promote "affordable housing" through expanded purchases of nonprime loans to low income applicants. The credit that fueled these risky mortgages was provided by the cheap money policy of the Federal Reserve. Following the 2001 recession, Fed chairman Alan Greenspan slashed the federal funds rate from 6.25 to 1.75 percent. It was reduced further in 2002 and 2003, reaching a record low of 1 percent in mid-2003 - where it stayed for a year. This set off what economist Steve Hanke called "the mother of all liquidity cycles and yet another massive demand bubble." The actual causes of our financial troubles were unusual monetary policy moves and novel federal regulatory interventions. These poorly chosen policies distorted interest rates and asset prices, diverted loanable funds into the wrong investments, and twisted normally robust financial institutions into unsustainable positions
Enteral feeding pumps: efficacy, safety, and patient acceptability.
Enteral feeding is a long established practice across pediatric and adult populations, to enhance nutritional intake and prevent malnutrition. Despite recognition of the importance of nutrition within the modern health agenda, evaluation of the efficacy of how such feeds are delivered is more limited. The accuracy, safety, and consistency with which enteral feed pump systems dispense nutritional formulae are important determinants of their use and acceptability. Enteral feed pump safety has received increased interest in recent years as enteral pumps are used across hospital and home settings. Four areas of enteral feed pump safety have emerged: the consistent and accurate delivery of formula; the minimization of errors associated with tube misconnection; the impact of continuous feed delivery itself (via an enteral feed pump); and the chemical composition of the casing used in enteral feed pump manufacture. The daily use of pumps in delivery of enteral feeds in a home setting predominantly falls to the hands of parents and caregivers. Their understanding of the use and function of their pump is necessary to ensure appropriate, safe, and accurate delivery of enteral nutrition; their experience with this is important in informing clinicians and manufacturers of the emerging needs and requirements of this diverse patient population. The review highlights current practice and areas of concern and establishes our current knowledge in this field
RELEVANT RESEARCH AREAS AND ORGANIZATIONAL QUESTIONS RELATIVE TO FEDERAL-STATE RESEARCH PROGRAMS IN THE ECONOMICS OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION
Production Economics,
Tensor Anisotropies in an Open Universe
We calculate the anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background induced by
long-wavelength primordial gravitational waves in a universe with negative
spatial curvature, such as are produced in the ``open inflation'' scenario. The
impact of these results on the COBE normalization of open models is discussed.Comment: 5pgs, 2 figs.; also avalable at http://www.sns.ias.edu/~whu, revision
reflects ApJL published version, model dependence clarifie
Time delay and integration detectors using charge transfer devices
An imaging system comprises a multi-channel matrix array of CCD devices wherein a number of sensor cells (pixels) in each channel are subdivided and operated in discrete intercoupled groups of subarrays with a readout CCD shift register terminating each end of the channels. Clock voltages, applied to the subarrays, selectively cause charge signal flow in each subarray in either direction independent of the other subarrays. By selective application of four phase clock voltages, either one, two or all three of the sections subarray sections cause charge signal flow in one direction, while the remainder cause charge signal flow in the opposite direction. This creates a form of selective electronic exposure control which provides an effective variable time delay and integration of three, six or nine sensor cells or integration stages. The device is constructed on a semiconductor sustrate with a buried channel and is adapted for front surface imaging through transparent doped tin oxide gates
Octave-tunable miniature RF resonators
The development and testing of a miniaturized, high-Q, broadly tunable resonator is described. An exemplary device, with a center frequency that is continuously tunable from 1.2 to 2.6 GHz, was tested in detail. Experimental results demonstrated a resonator Q of up to 380, and typical insertion loss of -1.9 dB for a 25 MHz 3-dB bandwidth. These resonators have been used to stabilize a broadly-tunable oscillator with phase noise of -132 dBc/Hz at 100-kHz offset, with a center frequency tunable from 1.2-2.6 GHz, and a tuning speed of 1 GHz/ms
Conditions implying the uniqueness of the weak*-topology on certain group algebras
We investigate possible preduals of the measure algebra M(G) of a locally compact group and the Fourier algebra A(G) of a separable compact group. Both of these algebras are canonically dual spaces and the canonical preduals make the multiplication separately weak*-continuous so that these algebras are dual Banach algebras. In this paper we find additional conditions under which the preduals
C0(G) of M(G) and C*(G) of A(G) are uniquely determined. In both cases we consider a natural comultiplication and show that the canonical predual gives rise to the unique weak*-topology making both the multiplication separately weak*-continuous and the comultiplication weak*-continuous. In particular, dual cohomological properties of these algebras are well defined with this additional structure
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