Panel discussion: inflation targeting

Monetary policy ; Banks and banking, Central ; European Central Bank

On the new economic philosophy of crisis management in the European Union

This essay attempts to go beyond presenting the bits and pieces of still ongoing crisis management in the EU. Instead it attempts at finding the ‘red thread’ behind a series of politically improvised decisions. Our fundamental research question asks whether basic economic lessons learned in the 1970s are still valid. Namely, that a crises emanating from either structural or regulatory weaknesses cannot and should not be remedied by demand management. Our second research question is the following: Can lacking internal commitment and conviction in any member state be replaced or substituted by external pressure or formalized procedures and sanctions? Under those angles we analyze the project on establishing a fiscal and banking union in the EU, as approved by the Council in December 2012

Long-range transfer of electron-phonon coupling in oxide superlattices

The electron-phonon interaction is of central importance for the electrical and thermal properties of solids, and its influence on superconductivity, colossal magnetoresistance, and other many-body phenomena in correlated-electron materials is currently the subject of intense research. However, the non-local nature of the interactions between valence electrons and lattice ions, often compounded by a plethora of vibrational modes, present formidable challenges for attempts to experimentally control and theoretically describe the physical properties of complex materials. Here we report a Raman scattering study of the lattice dynamics in superlattices of the high-temperature superconductor $\bf YBa_2 Cu_3 O_7$ and the colossal-magnetoresistance compound $\bf La_{2/3}Ca_{1/3}MnO_{3}$ that suggests a new approach to this problem. We find that a rotational mode of the MnO$_6$ octahedra in $\bf La_{2/3}Ca_{1/3}MnO_{3}$ experiences pronounced superconductivity-induced lineshape anomalies, which scale linearly with the thickness of the $\bf YBa_2 Cu_3 O_7$ layers over a remarkably long range of several tens of nanometers. The transfer of the electron-phonon coupling between superlattice layers can be understood as a consequence of long-range Coulomb forces in conjunction with an orbital reconstruction at the interface. The superlattice geometry thus provides new opportunities for controlled modification of the electron-phonon interaction in complex materials.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures. Revised version to be published in Nature Material

Developmental perspectives on Europe

The crisis of 2008–2009 has ended, stockmarkets skyrocketed in 2012–2013, while growth of the real sector remained sluggish in Europe. This article attempts to explain the latter puzzle. Analyzing long term factors, the costs of short-termism in crisis management become obvious. The limitations of EU as a growth engine are highlighted

Expression of nuclear retinoid receptors in normal, premalignant and malignant gastric tissues determined by in situ hybridization

[[abstract]]Retinoids exhibit multiple functions through interaction with nuclear retinoid receptors and have growth-suppressive activity on gastric cancer cells. To better understand the roles of nuclear retinoid receptors during gastric carcinogenesis, we have used in situ hybridization to investigate expression of retinoic acid receptors (RARs) and retinoid x receptors (RXRs) in premalignant and malignant formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded gastric tissues. Histological sections of eight normal, 17 distal normal and nine gastric cancer tissues were hybridized with non-radioactive RNA probes for subtypes of RAR and RXR. Expression of RARα, RARβ, RARγ, RXRα and RXRβ was found in most cell types in gastric mucosa tissues from normal individuals as well as in distal normal tissues from cancer patients. Expression of RARα and RARβ were found in three and seven cancer tissues, respectively, and levels of RXRα mRNA were significantly decreased in poorly differentiated cancer tissues. Among the five investigated nuclear retinoid receptors, only expression of RARα mRNA was significantly decreased in intestinal metaplasia, dysplasia and cancer tissues when compared to adjacent normal tissues. In conclusion, normal gastric mucosa expressed both RARs and RXRs, which supports the physiological role of retinoic acid on normal gastric mucosa. The decrease in RARα expression in premalignant and malignant gastric tissues suggests a significant role of RARα during gastric carcinogenesis.[[notice]]補正完畢[[incitationindex]]SC

Genomic profiling identifies common HPV-associated chromosomal alterations in squamous cell carcinomas of cervix and head and neck

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>It is well known that a persistent infection with high-risk human papillomavirus (hrHPV) is causally involved in the development of squamous cell carcinomas of the uterine cervix (CxSCCs) and a subset of SCCs of the head and neck (HNSCCs). The latter differ from hrHPV-negative HNSCCs at the clinical and molecular level.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>To determine whether hrHPV-associated SCCs arising from different organs have specific chromosomal alterations in common, we compared genome-wide chromosomal profiles of 10 CxSCCs (all hrHPV-positive) with 12 hrHPV-positive HNSCCs and 30 hrHPV-negative HNSCCs. Potential organ-specific alterations and alterations shared by SCCs in general were investigated as well.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Unsupervised hierarchical clustering resulted in one mainly hrHPV-positive and one mainly hrHPV-negative cluster. Interestingly, loss at 13q and gain at 20q were frequent in HPV-positive carcinomas of both origins, but uncommon in hrHPV-negative HNSCCs, indicating that these alterations are associated with hrHPV-mediated carcinogenesis. Within the group of hrHPV-positive carcinomas, HNSCCs more frequently showed gains of multiple regions at 8q whereas CxSCCs more often showed loss at 17p. Finally, gains at 3q24-29 and losses at 11q22.3-25 were frequent (>50%) in all sample groups.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In this study hrHPV-specific, organ-specific, and pan-SCC chromosomal alterations were identified. The existence of hrHPV-specific alterations in SCCs of different anatomical origin, suggests that these alterations are crucial for hrHPV-mediated carcinogenesis.</p

The Quantity Theory of Money in Historical Perspective

The paper reconstructs the origins of the quantity theory of money and its applications. Against the background of the history of money, it is shown that the theory was flexible enough to adapt to institutional change and thus succeeded in maintaining its relevance. To this day, it is useful as an analytical framework. Although, due to Goodhart's Law, it now has only limited potential to guide monetary policy and was consequently abandoned by most central banks, an empirical analysis drawing on a panel data set covering more than hundred countries from 1991 to the present confirms that the theory still holds: a positive correlation between the excess growth rate of the stock of money and the rate of inflation cannot be rejected. Yet, while the correlation holds for the whole sample, proportionality is driven by a small number of influential observations with very high inflation

Speaking to the people? Money, trust, and central bank legitimacy in the age of quantitative easing

Financial upheaval and unconventional monetary policies have made money a salient political issue. This provides a rare opportunity to study the under-appreciated role of monetary trust in the politics of central bank legitimacy which, for the first time in decades, appears fragile. While research on central bank communication with "the markets" abounds, little is known about if and how central bankers speak to "the people." A closer look at the issue immediately reveals a paradox: while a central bank's legitimacy hinges on it being perceived as acting in line with the dominant folk theory of money, this theory accords poorly with how money actually works. How central banks cope with this ambiguity depends on the monetary situation. Using the Bundesbank and the European Central Bank as examples, this paper shows that under inflationary macro-economic conditions, central bankers willingly nourished the folk-theoretical notion of money as a quantity under the direct control of the central bank. By contrast, the Bank of England’s recent refutation of the folk theory of money suggests that deflationary pressures and rapid monetary expansion have fundamentally altered the politics of monetary trust and central bank legitimacy.Die durch die Finanzkrise und die unkonventionellen Maßnahmen der Zentralbanken bewirkte Politisierung des Geldes erlaubt einen seltenen Einblick in den Zusammenhang zwischen Geldvertrauen und Zentralbanklegitimität. Die Kommunikation von Zentralbanken mit der breiten Öffentlichkeit – im Gegensatz zur gut erforschten Kommunikation mit Finanzmärkten bisher weitgehend vernachlässigt – sieht sich mit einem Dilemma konfrontiert. Einerseits hängt die Legitimität der Zentralbank davon ab, ob ihr Handeln den Maximen entspricht, die sich aus der in der Öffentlichkeit vorherrschenden Theorie des Geldes ableiten. Andererseits weicht diese Theorie in wichtigen Punkten von der tatsächlichen Funktionsweise des Geldsystems ab. Wie Zentralbanken mit diesem Dilemma umgehen, hängt von der allgemeinen geldpolitischen Situation ab. Anhand der Beispiele der Deutschen Bundesbank und der Europäischen Zentralbank wird argumentiert, dass Zentralbanker unter inflationären Bedingungen die Öffentlichkeit gerne in dem Glauben lassen, die Geldmenge sei vollständig von der Zentralbank kontrolliert. Die außergewöhnliche Initiative der Bank of England, die Öffentlichkeit von der Irrtümlichkeit dieser Vorstellung zu überzeugen, zeigt hingegen, dass deflationärer Druck und rapide geldpolitische Expansion das diskursive Verhältnis zwischen Geldvertrauen und Zentralbanklegitimität grundlegend verändert haben.1 Introduction 2 Money, trust and people Money: The political economy of money and (central) banking Trust: What does it mean to say that people have trust in money? People: Beyond methodological elitism 3 The folk theory of capitalist credit money The myth that all money is created equal (and thus non-hierarchical) The myth of banks as intermediaries and the myth of exogenous money 4 The politics of trust and legitimacy: From monetary restraint to monetary expansion Fighting inflation: The Bundesbank/ECB pretense of control over M3 Fighting deflation: The Bank of England’s insistence on non-control over M3 5 Conclusion Reference

ICAR: endoscopic skull‐base surgery

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Finance as ‘bizarre bazaar’: using documents as a source of ethnographic knowledge

Markets and finance have long attracted ethnographic interest but the nature of their activity - opaque, secretive, and increasingly placeless – precludes traditional ethnographic fieldwork. In this paper we propose documents as an alternative access point to these organisations as an ethnographic object of enquiry. Documents do not only present a written record, they also enact relationships and encode tacit understandings. We develop Geertz’s work on the bazaar by taking an indire ct route to access the field site – Collateral Debt Obligations – through documents. In reading these documents, we assume the position of investors who, in the absence of alternative publicly available information, are dependent on the documentary accounts made available to them by the sellers. These media act in ways that are similar to tourist guidebooks, a comparison we use to reframe the exchange as one that builds upon sociocultural relations rather than the abstract market relationships described by m ainstream economists. We propose that these documents are not merely representational artefacts of the organisation, but serve to establish and maintain social relationships between buyers and sellers through the management, standardisation and ritualisati on of information disclosed to the investor