Liquidity and Asset Prices: How Strong Are the Linkages?

The appropriate design of monetary policy in integrated financial markets is one of the most challenging areas for central banks. One hot topic is whether the rise in liquidity in recent years has contributed to the formation of price bubbles in asset markets. If strong linkages exist, the inclusion of asset prices in the monetary policy rule can eventually limit speculative runs and negative effects on the real economy in the future. We explore the impacts of liquidity shocks on real share and house prices and the influence of wealth prices on liquidity. VAR models are specified for the US and the euro area. To control for international spillovers, global VARs are also considered. Differences in the results can provide a measure on the impact of financial market integration. The specifications point to some impact of liquidity shocks on house prices, while asset prices are not affected

Liquidity and asset prices: how strong are the linkages?

The appropriate design of monetary policy in integrated financial markets is one of the most challenging areas for central banks. One hot topic is whether the rise in liquidity in recent years has contributed to the formation of price bubbles in asset markets. If strong linkages exist, the inclusion of asset prices in the monetary policy rule can eventually limit speculative runs and negative effects on the real economy in the future. We explore the impacts of liquidity shocks on real share and house prices and the influence of wealth prices on liquidity. VAR models are specified for the US and the euro area. To control for international spillovers, global VARs are also considered. Differences in the results can provide a measure on the impact of financial market integration. The specifications point to some impact of liquidity shocks on house prices, while asset prices are not affected

M3 Money Demand and Excess Liquidity in the Euro Area

Money growth in the euro area has exceeded its target since 2001. Likewise, recent empirical studies did not find evidence in favour of a stable long run money demand function. The equation appears to be increasingly unstable if more recent data are used. If the link between money balances and the macroeconomy is fragile, the rationale of monetary aggregates in the ECB strategy has to be doubted. In contrast to the bulk of the literature, we are able to identify a stable long run money demand relationship for M3 with reasonable long run behaviour. This finding is robust for different (ML and S2S) estimation methods. To obtain the result, the short run homogeneity restriction between money and prices is relaxed. In addition, a rise in the income elasticity after 2001 is taken into account. The break might be linked to the introduction of euro coins and banknotes. The monetary overhang and the real money gap do not indicate significant inflation pressures. The corresponding error correction model survives a battery of specification tests

M3 money demand and excess liquidity in the euro area

Money growth in the euro area has exceeded its target since 2001. Likewise, recent empirical studies did not find evidence in favour of a stable long run money demand function. The equation appears to be increasingly unstable if more recent data are used. If the link between money balances and the macroeconomy is fragile, the rationale of monetary aggregates in the ECB strategy has to be doubted. In contrast to the bulk of the literature, we are able to identify a stable long run money demand relationship for M3 with reasonable long run behaviour. This finding is robust for different (ML and S2S) estimation methods. To obtain the result, the short run homogeneity restriction between money and prices is relaxed. In addition, a rise in the income elasticity after 2001 is taken into account. The break might be linked to the introduction of euro coins and banknotes. The monetary overhang and the real money gap do not indicate significant inflation pressures. The corresponding error correction model survives a battery of specification tests

Liquidity and Asset Prices: How Strong Are the Linkages?

The appropriate design of monetary policy in integrated financial markets is one of the most challenging areas for central banks. One hot topic is whether the increase in liquidity has contributed to the formation of price bubbles in asset markets in the years preceding the financial crisis. If linkages are strong, the inclusion of asset prices in the monetary policy rule may limit speculative runs and negative spillovers to the real economy in the future. To examine the impacts of liquidity shocks on real share and house prices, VAR models are specified for the US and the euro area, as well as global VARs to control for international feedback. The analysis points to some impact of liquidity shocks on house prices, but the effect is restricted to the US. Stock market prices are not affected. Thus, the results suggest that the link between liquidity and asset prices is fragile and far from being obvious.This publication was produced as part of the FINESS project, funded by the European Commission through the 7th Framework Programme under contract no. 217266 (http://www.finess-web.eu/)

Improvement of Capture Compound Mass Spectrometry Technology (CCMS) for the Profiling of Human Kinases by Combination with 2D LC-MS/MS

An increasingly popular and promising field in functional proteomics is the isolation of proteome subsets based on small molecule-protein interactions. One platform approach in this field are Capture Compounds that contain a small molecule of interest to bind target proteins, a photo-activatable reactivity function to covalently trap bound proteins, and a sorting function to isolate captured protein conjugates from complex biological samples for direct protein identification by liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (nLC-MS/MS). In this study we used staurosporine as a selectivity group for analysis in HepG2 cells derived from human liver. In the present study, we combined the functional isolation of kinases with different separation workflows of automated split-free nanoflow liquid chromatography prior to mass spectrometric analysis. Two different CCMS setups, CCMS technology combined with 1D LC-MS and 2D LC-MS, were compared regarding the total number of kinase identifications. By extending the chromatographic separation of the tryptic digested captured proteins from 1D LC linear gradients to 2D LC we were able to identify 97 kinases. This result is similar to the 1D LC setup we previously reported but this time 4 times less input material was needed. This makes CCMS of kinases an even more powerful tool for the proteomic profiling of this important protein family

Variational Perturbation Theory for Fokker-Planck Equation with Nonlinear Drift

We develop a recursive method for perturbative solutions of the Fokker-Planck equation with nonlinear drift. The series expansion of the time-dependent probability density in terms of powers of the coupling constant is obtained by solving a set of first-order linear ordinary differential equations. Resumming the series in the spirit of variational perturbation theory we are able to determine the probability density for all values of the coupling constant. Comparison with numerical results shows exponential convergence with increasing order.Comment: Author Information under http://www.theo-phys.uni-essen.de/tp/ags/pelster_dir

zeek-osquery: Host-Network Correlation for Advanced Monitoring and Intrusion Detection

Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) can analyze network traffic for signs of attacks and intrusions. However, encrypted communication limits their visibility and sophisticated attackers additionally try to evade their detection. To overcome these limitations, we extend the scope of Network IDSs (NIDSs) with additional data from the hosts. For that, we propose the integrated open-source zeek-osquery platform that combines the Zeek IDS with the osquery host monitor. Our platform can collect, process, and correlate host and network data at large scale, e.g., to attribute network flows to processes and users. The platform can be flexibly extended with own detection scripts using already correlated, but also additional and dynamically retrieved host data. A distributed deployment enables it to scale with an arbitrary number of osquery hosts. Our evaluation results indicate that a single Zeek instance can manage more than 870 osquery hosts and can attribute more than 96% of TCP connections to host-side applications and users in real-time.Comment: Accepted for publication at ICT Systems Security and Privacy Protection (IFIP) SEC 202

Stochastic ϕ4−\phi^4-Theory in the Strong Coupling Limit

The stochastic $\phi^4$-theory in $d-$dimensions dynamically develops domain wall structures within which the order parameter is not continuous. We develop a statistical theory for the $\phi^4$-theory driven with a random forcing which is white in time and Gaussian-correlated in space. A master equation is derived for the probability density function (PDF) of the order parameter, when the forcing correlation length is much smaller than the system size, but much larger than the typical width of the domain walls. Moreover, exact expressions for the one-point PDF and all the moments $$ are given. We then investigate the intermittency issue in the strong coupling limit, and derive the tail of the PDF of the increments $\phi(x_2) - \phi(x_1)$. The scaling laws for the structure functions of the increments are obtained through numerical simulations. It is shown that the moments of field increments defined by, $C_b=$, behave as $|x_1-x_2|^{\xi_b}$, where $\xi_b=b$ for $b\leq 1$, and $\xi_b=1$ for $b\geq1$Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures. to appear in Nuclear. Phys.

Successful reduction of intraventricular asynchrony is associated with superior response to cardiac resynchronization therapy

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is generally associated with a low to moderate increase of the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). In some patients, however, LVEF improves remarkably and reaches near-normal values. The aim of the present study was to further characterize these so called 'super-responders' with a special focus on the extent of intra- and interventricular asynchrony before and after device implantation compared to average responders.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>37 consecutive patients who underwent CRT device implantation according to current guidelines were included in the study. Patients were examined by echocardiography before, one day after and six months after device implantation. Pre-defined criterion for superior response to CRT was an LVEF increase > 15% after six months.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>At follow-up, eight patients (21.6%) were identified as super-responders. There were no significant differences regarding age, gender, prevalence of ischemic heart disease and LVEF between average and super-responders at baseline. After six months, LVEF had significantly increased from 26.7% ± 5.7% to 33.1% ± 7.9% (<it>p </it>< 0.001) in average and from 24.0% ± 6.7% to 50.3% ± 7.4% (<it>p </it>< 0.001) in super-responders. Both groups showed a significant reduction of QRS duration as well as LV end-diastolic and -systolic volumes under CRT. At baseline, the interventricular mechanical delay (IVMD) was 53.7 ± 20.9 ms in average and 56.9 ± 22.4 ms in super-responders - representing a similar extent of interventricular asynchrony in both groups (<it>p </it>= 0.713). CRT significantly reduced the IVMD to 20.3 ± 15.7 (<it>p </it>< 0.001) in average and to 19.8 ± 15.9 ms (<it>p </it>= 0.013) in super-responders with no difference between both groups (<it>p </it>= 0.858). As a marker for intraventricular asynchrony, we assessed the longest intraventricular delay between six basal LV segments. At baseline, there was no difference between average (86.2 ± 30.5 ms) and super-responders (78.8 ± 23.6 ms, <it>p </it>= 0.528). CRT significantly reduced the longest intraventricular delay in both groups - with a significant difference between average (66.2 ± 36.2 ms) and super-responders (32.5 ± 18.3 ms, <it>p </it>= 0.022). Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified the longest intraventricular delay one day after device implantation as an independent predictor of superior response to CRT (<it>p </it>= 0.038).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>A significant reduction of the longest intraventricular delay correlates with superior response to CRT.</p