Banken unter Druck: Gibt es Auswege aus der neuen Bankenkrise?

Durch die globale Finanz- und Wirtschaftskrise geraten Europas Banken immer mehr unter Druck. So hat die desolate Verfassung der Staatsfinanzen der südeuropäischen Länder nach Ansicht von Stephan Paul und Christian Farruggio, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, die Krise in den Bankensektor »zurückgebracht«, denn diese halten immer noch in großem Umfang öffentliche Schuldtitel. Die von der Politik favorisierten Vorschläge zur Beseitigung der Bankenkrise lösen aber leider nicht die derzeitigen Probleme, da sie sich vor allem auf die Höhe des regulatorischen Eigenkapitals von Banken beziehen. Stattdessen müsse im Rahmen einer proaktiven Kontrolle der Aufsicht intensiver geprüft werden, welche Risiken Banken eingehen. Gerhard Schick und Jan Weder, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, sehen es als wichtig an, die Banken- und Schuldenkrisen separat zu lösen, wobei die Stabilisierung der Banken hierfür ein elementarer Baustein sei. Leider habe es die Politik versäumt, sich neue Optionen zwischen den beiden Extremen »Retten« und »Nicht-Retten« zu verschaffen. Jochen Zimmermann, Universität Bremen, möchte an den Anreizstrukturen und dem Geschäftsmodell der großen Privatbanken ansetzen, und zwar in mehrfacher Hinsicht: durch die Trennung von Staat und Kreditwirtschaft, durch weiträumige Verbote derivativer Geschäfte und die Stärkung des Zusammenhangs von Handlung und Haftung. Harald Hau, Universität Genf und Swiss Finance Institute, und Bernd Lucke, Indiana University, Bloomington, und Universität Hamburg, sehen Europa vor der Wahl zwischen hoher Infla­tion oder dem möglichen Staatsbankrott einzelner Staaten der Eurozone.Bankenkrise, Finanzmarkt, Eigenkapital, Bankrisiko, Konjunkturpolitik, Inflation, Staatsbankrott, Europa

catena-Poly[[bis­[2-(2,3-dimethyl­anilino)benzoato-κO]cadmium(II)]-di-μ-3-pyridylmethanol-κ2 N:O;κ2 O:N]

In the crystal structure of the title compound, [Cd(C15H14NO2)2(C6H7NO)2]n, the Cd atom displays a distorted octa­hedral geometry, including two pyridine N atoms and two hydroxyl O from four symmetry-related 3-pyridylmethanol (3-pyme) ligands and two carboxylate O atoms from mefenamate [2-(2,3-dimethyl­anilino)benzoate] anions. The Cd atoms are connected via the bridging 3-pyme ligands into chains, that extend in the a-axis direction. The Cd atom is located on a center of inversion, whereas the 3-pyme ligands and the mefenamate anions occupy general positions

Warum aus gesamtwirtschaftlicher Sicht weitgehende gesundheitspolitische Massnahmen in der aktuellen Lage sinnvoll sind

Der Bundesrat hat an seiner Sitzung vom 18. Dezember 2020 folgendes Anliegen formuliert: «Das EDI wird beauftragt, dem Bundesrat bis am 13. Januar 2021 eine volkswirtschaftliche Analyse der Taskforce über die Notwendigkeit und die Konsequenzen der bisher beschlossenen Massnahmen vorzulegen.» Die Task Force hat dem Bundesrat seine Einschätzung am 7. Januar 2021 vorgelegt; dieser Policy Brief ist eine überarbeitete Version, welche insbesondere die Hintergründe der Kalkulationen genauer erläutert; an den verwendeten Daten und Annahmen wurde gegenüber der ursprünglichen Version nichts verändert

Epithelial GPR35 protects from Citrobacter rodentium infection by preserving goblet cells and mucosal barrier integrity.

Goblet cells secrete mucin to create a protective mucus layer against invasive bacterial infection and are therefore essential for maintaining intestinal health. However, the molecular pathways that regulate goblet cell function remain largely unknown. Although GPR35 is highly expressed in colonic epithelial cells, its importance in promoting the epithelial barrier is unclear. In this study, we show that epithelial Gpr35 plays a critical role in goblet cell function. In mice, cell-type-specific deletion of Gpr35 in epithelial cells but not in macrophages results in goblet cell depletion and dysbiosis, rendering these animals more susceptible to Citrobacter rodentium infection. Mechanistically, scRNA-seq analysis indicates that signaling of epithelial Gpr35 is essential to maintain normal pyroptosis levels in goblet cells. Our work shows that the epithelial presence of Gpr35 is a critical element for the function of goblet cell-mediated symbiosis between host and microbiota

Tumours of the thymus: a cohort study of prognostic factors from the European Society of Thoracic Surgeons database

OBJECTIVES A retrospective database was developed by the European Society of Thoracic Surgeons, collecting patients submitted to surgery for thymic tumours to analyse clinico-pathological prognostic predictors. METHODS A total of 2151 incident cases from 35 institutions were collected from 1990 to 2010. Clinical-pathological characteristics were analysed, including age, gender, associated myasthenia gravis stage (Masaoka), World Health Organization histology, type of thymic tumour [thymoma, thymic carcinoma (TC), neuroendocrine thymic tumour (NETT)], type of resection (complete/incomplete), tumour size, adjuvant therapy and recurrence. Primary outcome was overall survival (OS); secondary outcomes were the proportion of incomplete resections, disease-free survival and the cumulative incidence of recurrence (CIR). RESULTS A total of 2030 patients were analysed for OS (1798 thymomas, 191 TCs and 41 NETTs). Ten-year OS was 0.73 (95% confidence interval 0.69-0.75). Complete resection (R0) was achieved in 88% of the patients. Ten-year CIR was 0.12 (0.10-0.15). Predictors of shorter OS were increased age (P < 0-001), stage [III vs I HR 2.66, 1.80-3.92; IV vs I hazard ratio (HR) 4.41, 2.67-7.26], TC (HR 2.39, 1.68-3.40) and NETT (HR 2.59, 1.35-4.99) vs thymomas and incomplete resection (HR 1.74, 1.18-2.57). Risk of recurrence increased with tumour size (P = 0.003), stage (III vs I HR 5.67, 2.80-11.45; IV vs I HR 13.08, 5.70-30.03) and NETT (HR 7.18, 3.48-14.82). Analysis using a propensity score indicates that the administration of adjuvant therapy was beneficial in increasing OS (HR 0.69, 0.49-0.97) in R0 resections. CONCLUSIONS Masaoka stages III-IV, incomplete resection and non-thymoma histology showed a significant impact in increasing recurrence and in worsening survival. The administration of adjuvant therapy after complete resection is associated with improved surviva

Association of genetic variation with systolic and diastolic blood pressure among African Americans: the Candidate Gene Association Resource study

The prevalence of hypertension in African Americans (AAs) is higher than in other US groups; yet, few have performed genome-wide association studies (GWASs) in AA. Among people of European descent, GWASs have identified genetic variants at 13 loci that are associated with blood pressure. It is unknown if these variants confer susceptibility in people of African ancestry. Here, we examined genome-wide and candidate gene associations with systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) using the Candidate Gene Association Resource (CARe) consortium consisting of 8591 AAs. Genotypes included genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data utilizing the Affymetrix 6.0 array with imputation to 2.5 million HapMap SNPs and candidate gene SNP data utilizing a 50K cardiovascular gene-centric array (ITMAT-Broad-CARe [IBC] array). For Affymetrix data, the strongest signal for DBP was rs10474346 (P= 3.6 × 10−8) located near GPR98 and ARRDC3. For SBP, the strongest signal was rs2258119 in C21orf91 (P= 4.7 × 10−8). The top IBC association for SBP was rs2012318 (P= 6.4 × 10−6) near SLC25A42 and for DBP was rs2523586 (P= 1.3 × 10−6) near HLA-B. None of the top variants replicated in additional AA (n = 11 882) or European-American (n = 69 899) cohorts. We replicated previously reported European-American blood pressure SNPs in our AA samples (SH2B3, P= 0.009; TBX3-TBX5, P= 0.03; and CSK-ULK3, P= 0.0004). These genetic loci represent the best evidence of genetic influences on SBP and DBP in AAs to date. More broadly, this work supports that notion that blood pressure among AAs is a trait with genetic underpinnings but also with significant complexit

Genetic variants in novel pathways influence blood pressure and cardiovascular disease risk.

Blood pressure is a heritable trait influenced by several biological pathways and responsive to environmental stimuli. Over one billion people worldwide have hypertension (≥140 mm Hg systolic blood pressure or  ≥90 mm Hg diastolic blood pressure). Even small increments in blood pressure are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events. This genome-wide association study of systolic and diastolic blood pressure, which used a multi-stage design in 200,000 individuals of European descent, identified sixteen novel loci: six of these loci contain genes previously known or suspected to regulate blood pressure (GUCY1A3-GUCY1B3, NPR3-C5orf23, ADM, FURIN-FES, GOSR2, GNAS-EDN3); the other ten provide new clues to blood pressure physiology. A genetic risk score based on 29 genome-wide significant variants was associated with hypertension, left ventricular wall thickness, stroke and coronary artery disease, but not kidney disease or kidney function. We also observed associations with blood pressure in East Asian, South Asian and African ancestry individuals. Our findings provide new insights into the genetics and biology of blood pressure, and suggest potential novel therapeutic pathways for cardiovascular disease prevention