'Midas, transmuting all, into paper': the Bank of England and the Banque de France during the Napoleonic Wars

This paper assesses Revolutionary and Napoleonic wartime economic policy. Suspension of gold convertibility in 1797 allowed the Bank of England to nurture British monetary orthodoxy. The Order of the Privy Council suspended gold payments on Bank of England notes and afforded simultaneous protection to the government and the Bank in pursuit of the conflicting goals of price stability and war finance. The government, the Bank of England and the commercial banks formed a loose alliance drawing on due political and legal processes and also paid close attention to public opinion. We suggest that the on-going solvency of the Bank of England was facilitated by suspension and allowed the Bank to continue to make substantial profits throughout the Wars. It became acceptable for merchants to continue to trade with non-convertible Bank of England notes and for the government to finance the war effort, even with significant recourse to unfunded debt. These aspects combined to create a suspension of convertibility that did not undermine the currency. By contrast, the Assignats debacle had cost the French monetary system its reputation in the last decade of the 18th century and so Napoleonic finance had to evolve within a more rigid and limiting framework

A Note on Money and the Conduct of Monetary Policy

Prior to the financial crisis mainstream monetary policy practice had become disconnected from money. We outline the basic rationale for this development using a simple model of money and credit in which we explore the conditions under which money matters directly for the conduct of policy. Then, drawing on Goodfriend and McCallum's (2007) DSGE model, we examine the circumstances under which money becomes more closely linked to inflation. We find that money matters when the variance of the supply of lending dominates productivity and the velocity of money demand. This is because amplifying the role of loans supply leads to an expansion in aggregate demand, via a compression of the external finance premium, which is inflationary. We consider a number of alternative monetary policy rules, and find that a rule which exploits the joint information from money and the external finance premium performs best

Measurement of the B Semileptonic Branching Fraction with Lepton Tags

We have used the CLEO II detector and 2.06fb^(-1) of ϒ(4S) data to measure the B-meson semileptonic branching fraction. The B→Xeν momentum spectrum was obtained over nearly the full momentum range by using charge and kinematic correlations in events with a high-momentum lepton tag and an additional electron. We find B(B→Xeν) = (10.49±0.17±0.43)%, with overall systematic uncertainties less than those of untagged single-lepton measurements. We use this result to calculate the magnitude of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element V_(cb) and to set an upper limit on the fraction of ϒ(4S) decays to final states other than BB̅

Measurement of B(D^0 → K^-π^+) Using Partial Reconstruction of B̅ → D^(*+)Xℓ^-ν̅

We present a measurement of the absolute branching fraction for D^0→K^-π^+ using the reconstruction of the decay chain B̅ →D^(*+)Xℓ^-ν̅ , D^(*+)→D^0π^+ where only the lepton and the low-momentum pion from the D^(*+) are detected. With data collected by the CLEO II detector at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring, we have determined B(D^0→K^-π^+) = [3.81±0.15(stat)±0.16(syst)]%

Search for Inclusive b → sl^+l^-

We have searched for the effective flavor changing neutral-current decays b→sl^+l^- using an inclusive method. We set upper limits on the branching ratios B(b→se^+e^-)<5.7×10^(-5), B(b→sμ^+μ^-)<5.8×10^(-5), and B(b→se^±μ^∓)<2.2×10^(-5) [at 90% confidence level (C.L.)]. Combing the dielectron and dimuon decay modes we find B(b→sl^+l^-)<4.2×10^(-5) (at 90% C.L.)

Observation of the Radiative Decay D^(*+) → D^+y

We have observed a signal for the decay D^(*+)→D^+γ at a significance of 4 standard deviations. From the measured branching ratio B(D^(*+)→D^+γ)/B(D^(*+)→D^+π^0) = 0.055±0.014±0.010 we find B(D^(*+)→D^+γ) = 0.017±0.004±0.003, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. We also report the highest precision determination of the remaining D^(*+) branching fractions

Two-Body B Meson Decays to η and η': Observation of B → η'K

In a sample of 6.6×10^6 produced B mesons we have observed decays B→η′K, with branching fractions B(B^+→η′K^+) = (6.5_(-1.4)^(+1.5)±0.9)×10^(-5) and B(B^0→η′K^0) = (4.7_(-2.0)^(+2.7)±0.9)×10^(-5). We have searched with comparable sensitivity for 17 related decays to final states containing an η or η′ meson accompanied by a single particle or low-lying resonance. Our upper limits for these constrain theoretical interpretations of the B→η′K signal

Observation of the Cabibbo-suppressed charmed baryon decay Λ_c^+→pφ

We report the observation of the Cabibbo-suppressed decays Λ_c^+→pK^-K^+ and Λ_c^+→pφ using data collected with the CLEO II detector at CESR. The latter mode, observed for the first time with significant statistics, is of interest as a test of color suppression in charm decays. We have determined the branching ratios for these modes relative to Λ_c^+→pK^-π^+ and compared our results with theory

Search for the decay B→D_(s1)^+ (2536)X

We have searched for the decay B⃗D_(s1)^+(2536)X and measured an upper limit for the inclusive branching fraction of B(B⃗D_(s1)^+X)<0.96% at the 90% confidence level. This limit is small compared with the total expected B⃗D^((*))D^((*))KX rate. Assuming factorization, the D_(s1)^+ decay constant is constrained to be fD_(s1)^+<114 MeV at the 90% confidence level, at least 2.5 times smaller than that of D_s^+