Financial Instability - a Result of Excess Liquidity or Credit Cycles?

This paper compares the financial destabilizing effects of excess liquidity versus credit growth, in relation to house price bubbles and real economic booms. The analysis uses a cointegrated VAR model based on US data from 1987 to 2010, with a particulary focus on the period preceding the global financial crisis. Consistent with monetarist theory, the results suggest a stable money supply-demand relation in the period in question. However, the implied excess liquidity only resulted in financial destabilizing effect after year 2000. Meanwhile, the results also point to persistent cycles of real house prices and leverage, which appear to have been driven by real credit shocks, in accordance with post-Keynesian theories on financial instability. Importantly, however, these mechanisms of credit growth and excess liquidity are found to be closely related. In regards to the global financial crisis, a prolonged credit cycle starting in the mid-1990s - and possibly initiated subprime mortgage innovations - appears to have created a long-run housing bubble. Further fuelled by expansionary monetary policy and excess liquidity, the bubble accelerated in period following the dot-com crash, until it finally burst in 2007.financial instability; housing bubbles; credit view; money view; cointegrated VAR model; impulse response analysis

Ports, Piracy and Maritime War

In Ports, Piracy, and Maritime War Thomas K. Heebøll-Holm presents a study of maritime predation in English and French waters around the year 1300. Following Cicero, pirates have traditionally been cast as especially depraved robbers and the enemy of all, but Heebøll-Holm shows that piracy was often part of private wars between English, French, and Gascon ports and mariners, occupying a liminal space between crime and warfare. Furthermore he shows how piracy was an integral part of maritime commerce and how the adjudication of piracy followed the legal procedure of the march. Heebøll-Holm convincingly demonstrates how piracy influenced the policies of the English and the French kings and he contributes to our understanding of Anglo-French relations on the eve of the Hundred Years’ War

Ports, Piracy and Maritime War

In Ports, Piracy, and Maritime War Thomas K. Heebøll-Holm presents a study of maritime predation in English and French waters around the year 1300. Following Cicero, pirates have traditionally been cast as especially depraved robbers and the enemy of all, but Heebøll-Holm shows that piracy was often part of private wars between English, French, and Gascon ports and mariners, occupying a liminal space between crime and warfare. Furthermore he shows how piracy was an integral part of maritime commerce and how the adjudication of piracy followed the legal procedure of the march. Heebøll-Holm convincingly demonstrates how piracy influenced the policies of the English and the French kings and he contributes to our understanding of Anglo-French relations on the eve of the Hundred Years’ War

Priscorum quippe curialum, qui et nunc militari censentur nomine. Riddere i Danmark i 1100-tallet

Priscorum quippe curialium, qui et nunc militari censentur nomine: Knights in Denmark in the 12th centuryReceived wisdom based on diplomatic sources has it that knighthood was introduced into Denmark between 1250 and 1300. The concept was interpreted as being inherently aristocratic and placed within the context of a culturally isolated Scandinavia. Previous studies have thus focused on knighthood as a symbol and source of wealth and power.The present study argues that already in the 12th century knights and knighthood were constituent elements of a more broadly conceived elite community within the Danish realm. This reassessment is based on the representation of military and ideological aspects of knighthood in contemporary iconographical and narrative Danish sources, and on comparison with the development of knighthood in primarily 11th and 12th century France.Scholarly literature on knighthood in France defines knights as elite soldiers, increasingly associated with nobility, but not necessarily restricted to, let alone recruited amongst noblemen. Among defining characteristics were a particular combat style and military honour code. Knights were highly skilled in a specialised form of mounted warfare in which the use of the lance plays a central role. Knightly virtues, expressed through an elaborate ideology, included prowess, loyalty, solidarity, largesse and Christian mercy. These stylized facts are used as a guideline in the search for knights in 12th century Denmark.Iconographical sources, notably murals in the Danish churches, indicate the presence of a mounted military elite of native origin, wielding the lance in the same manner as French knights depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry and the Maciejowski Bible. These images may or may not have an actual connection with 12th century military reality in Denmark. However, the analysis of the last books of Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus supports the notion that the pictorial representations did indeed reflect real military capabilities of the Danes. From Book 13 onwards, knights play a significant part in Danish warfare. Esbern Snare and Waldemar I and other famous noblemen as well as less well-known figures are praised for their expertise in mounted combat and for displaying knightly virtues.Evidence in both Gesta Danorum and the annals suggests that the knightly form of combat was introduced into Denmark by German knights and Danes trained in Germany. At German courts they acquired the ideology to match. Elements of a chivalrous mindset may also, perhaps at the same time, have been introduced and cultivated by English and French monks, clerics and trouvères.A Danish version of knightly ideology is found in Sven Aggesen’s Lex Castrensis, describing a society of knights in the service of Canute the Great with allusions to the court of King Arthur. However, on several points the Lex Castrensis diverges from standard knightly ideology; it is a hybrid form, in all likelihood a conscientious combination of features from on the one hand an older Norse warrior code and on the other hand the more recently introduced Anglo-French ideology.The article thus asserts that knights as a mounted warrior elite – foreign as well as native born – were present in Denmark in the 12th century and played a significant role in Danish warfare. Apparently, it was a period of transition, witnessing the conflation of local and Western European military virtues and arrangements

Priscorum quippe curialum, qui et nunc militari censentur nomine. Riddere i Danmark i 1100-tallet

Priscorum quippe curialium, qui et nunc militari censentur nomine: Knights in Denmark in the 12th centuryReceived wisdom based on diplomatic sources has it that knighthood was introduced into Denmark between 1250 and 1300. The concept was interpreted as being inherently aristocratic and placed within the context of a culturally isolated Scandinavia. Previous studies have thus focused on knighthood as a symbol and source of wealth and power.The present study argues that already in the 12th century knights and knighthood were constituent elements of a more broadly conceived elite community within the Danish realm. This reassessment is based on the representation of military and ideological aspects of knighthood in contemporary iconographical and narrative Danish sources, and on comparison with the development of knighthood in primarily 11th and 12th century France.Scholarly literature on knighthood in France defines knights as elite soldiers, increasingly associated with nobility, but not necessarily restricted to, let alone recruited amongst noblemen. Among defining characteristics were a particular combat style and military honour code. Knights were highly skilled in a specialised form of mounted warfare in which the use of the lance plays a central role. Knightly virtues, expressed through an elaborate ideology, included prowess, loyalty, solidarity, largesse and Christian mercy. These stylized facts are used as a guideline in the search for knights in 12th century Denmark.Iconographical sources, notably murals in the Danish churches, indicate the presence of a mounted military elite of native origin, wielding the lance in the same manner as French knights depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry and the Maciejowski Bible. These images may or may not have an actual connection with 12th century military reality in Denmark. However, the analysis of the last books of Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus supports the notion that the pictorial representations did indeed reflect real military capabilities of the Danes. From Book 13 onwards, knights play a significant part in Danish warfare. Esbern Snare and Waldemar I and other famous noblemen as well as less well-known figures are praised for their expertise in mounted combat and for displaying knightly virtues.Evidence in both Gesta Danorum and the annals suggests that the knightly form of combat was introduced into Denmark by German knights and Danes trained in Germany. At German courts they acquired the ideology to match. Elements of a chivalrous mindset may also, perhaps at the same time, have been introduced and cultivated by English and French monks, clerics and trouvères.A Danish version of knightly ideology is found in Sven Aggesen’s Lex Castrensis, describing a society of knights in the service of Canute the Great with allusions to the court of King Arthur. However, on several points the Lex Castrensis diverges from standard knightly ideology; it is a hybrid form, in all likelihood a conscientious combination of features from on the one hand an older Norse warrior code and on the other hand the more recently introduced Anglo-French ideology.The article thus asserts that knights as a mounted warrior elite – foreign as well as native born – were present in Denmark in the 12th century and played a significant role in Danish warfare. Apparently, it was a period of transition, witnessing the conflation of local and Western European military virtues and arrangements

Magnetic hydrophobic-charge induction adsorbents for the recovery of immunoglobulins from antiserum feedstocks by high-gradient magnetic fishing

BACKGROUND The extraction of biopharmaceuticals from plasma and serum often employs overly complicated antiquated procedures, that can inflict serious damage on especially prone protein targets and which afford low purification power and overall yields. Here we describe systematic development of a high-gradient magnetic fishing process for recovery of immunoglobulins from unclarified antiserum.RESULTSNon-porous superparamagnetic particles were transformed into hydrophobic-charge induction adsorbents and then used to recover immunoglobulins from rabbit antiserum feedstocks. Comprehensive characterisation tests conducted with variously diluted clarified antiserum on a magnetic rack revealed that immunoglobulin binding was rapid (equilibrium reached in 72% of the immunoglobulin present in an unclarified antiserum feed was recovered in 0.5 h in >3-fold purified form.CONCLUSIONSFast magnetic particle based capture of antibodies from an unclarified high-titre feed has been demonstrated. Efficient product recovery from ultra-high titre bioprocess liquors by high-gradient magnetic fishing requires that improved magnetic adsorbents displaying high selectivity, ultra-high capacity and operational robustness are used with 'state-of-the-art’ rotor-stator magnetic separators