An Analysis of the Systemic Risks Posed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and an Evaluation of the Policy Options for Reducing those Risks

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are government-sponsored enterprises that are central players in U.S. secondary mortgage markets. Over the past decade, these institutions have amassed enormous mortgage- and non-mortgage-oriented investment portfolios that pose significant interest-rate risks to the companies and a systemic risk to the financial system. This paper describes the nature of these risks and systemic concerns and then evaluates several policy options for reducing the institutions’ investment portfolios. We conclude that limits on portfolio size (assets or liabilities) would be the most desirable approach to mitigating the systemic risk posed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

Comparative economic analysis of full scale MABR configurations

2008 IWA North American Membrane Research Conference, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA, August 10-13, 2008The membrane-aerated biofilm reactor (MABR) is a technology that can deliver oxygen at high rates and transfer efficiencies. This paper provides a comparative cost analysis of the MABR compared to the activated sludge process. Membrane cost and electricity cost were found to be the critical parameters determining the relative feasibility of the conventional process to the membrane based process. The general downward trend in the market price of membranes and the steady increase in energy costs in recent years may prove to be a strong driver for the further development of this technology.Author has checked copyrightConference website http://www.ecs.umass.edu/membrane/ - OR 02/04/2013SB. 17/4/201

Regional Income Fluctuations: Common Trends And Common Cycles

This paper investigates trend and cycle dynamics in per capita income for the major U.S. regions during the 1956-1995 period. Cointegration and serial correlation common features information are used in jointly decomposing the series into trend and cycle components. We find considerable differences in the volatility of regional cycles. Controlling for differences in volatility, we find a great deal of comovement in the cyclical response for all regions but the Far West. Possible sources underlying differences in regional cycles are explored, such as the share of a region's income accounted for by manufacturing, defense spending as a proportion of a region's income, oil price shocks, and the stance of monetary policy. Somewhat surprisingly, we find that the share of manufacturing in a region seems to account for little of the variation in regional cycles relative to national cycles, but manufacturing share differentially affects trend growth for four of the seven regions studied. © 2001 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology