Regulation and competition in German banking: an assessment

In Germany a public discussion on the "power of banks" has been going on for decades now with power having at least two meanings. On the one hand it is the power of banks to control public corporations through direct shareholdings or the exercise of proxy votes - this is the power of banks in corporate control. On the other hand it is market power - due to imperfect competition in markets for financial services - that banks exercise vis-à-vis their loan and deposit customers. In the past, bank regulation has often been blamed to undermine competition and the working of market forces in the financial industry for the sake of soundness and stability of financial services firms. This chapter tries to shed some light on the historical development and current state of bank regulation in Germany. In so doing it tries to embed the analysis of bank regulation into a more general industrial organisation framework. For every regulated industry, competition and regulation are deeply interrelated as most regulatory institutions - even if they do not explicitly address the competitiveness of the market - either affect market structure or conduct. This paper tries to uncover some of the specific relationships between monetary policy, government interference and bank regulation on the one hand and bank market structure and economic performance on the other. In so doing we hope to point to several areas for fruitful research in the future. While our focus is on Germany, some of the questions that we raise and some of our insights might also be applicable to banking systems elsewhere. Revised version forthcoming in "The German Financial System", edited by Jan P. Krahnen and Reinhard H. Schmidt, Oxford University Press

Windows Upon Planning History - Canberra

The conference theme ‘Looking at the world history of planning’ is echoed in a statement by U.S. urban designer Edmund Bacon on the 1911 Plan for Canberra, which he eulogized as ‘a Statement of World Culture’.1 Bacon was referring to the way in which the Griffins’ plan incorporated elements of space design derived from cultural realms as wide-ranging as those of Europe, the Americas, and Asia. However, the plan and its transformation in modern and post-modern times have also been objects of fundamental cultural controversies.2 Enthusiasts and opponents have dug in their heels and fought battles of uncertain outcomes. The core research question here is how to deal with the complex and controversial nature of these perspectives. In this situation, the paper applies the famous ‘Windows’ metaphor from the preface of Henry James’ novel ‘Portrait of a Lady’ as a narrative device to the context of planning history.3 It concludes that the windows opened upon ideas and realities, myths and models surrounding the Canberra Plan and its transformations may help negotiate between opposing views, different paradigms and conflicting cultural positions as potentially complementary and at least enlightening

The Role of Inflammatory Monocytes in Post-Influenza Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Pneumonia

Secondary bacterial infections following influenza can lead to poor clinical outcomes and mortality. It is widely accepted that susceptibility to secondary bacterial infections is attributable to a suppressed innate antibacterial immunity. In contrast, a dysregulated host inflammatory response may also contribute to disease severity. Inflammation induced by viral infection alone significantly affects lung pathology, potentially exacerbating the destruction of the respiratory tract. Interestingly, the role of inflammatory mediators such as inflammatory monocytes have been extensively studied during influenza infection alone; however, their role during secondary bacterial infection are still not fully established. The objective of this study was to analyze the contribution of inflammatory monocytes during secondary S. aureus infection and their effect on lung pathology. Based on the negative impact of inflammatory monocytes during influenza infection alone, and their little recruitment during S. aureus infection alone, we hypothesized that inflammatory monocytes contribute to increased mortality and lung pathology during secondary MRSA pneumonia. In order to study the possible effects of inflammatory monocytes, we developed post-influenza MRSA pneumonia murine models, with and without antibiotic treatment, using mice deficient in the chemokine receptor, C-C chemokine receptor type 2 (CCR2). Interestingly, we found that CCR2-deficient (CCR2-/-) mice, which are unable to sufficiently recruit inflammatory monocytes to the airways, survive significantly better compared to WT mice after post-influenza MRSA infection. Furthermore, we show, mechanistically, that inflammatory monocytes may impair the phagocytic bacterial killing function of alveolar macrophages, leading to decreased bacterial clearance and increased mortality. Future studies will evaluate the effect of inflammatory monocytes on lung damage during post-influenza MRSA pneumonia

Non-Parametric Dynamical Analysis of Globular Clusters: M15, 47~Tuc, NGC~362, and NGC~3201

We use radial velocities of member stars and cluster surface brightness profiles to non-parametrically determine the mass density profiles and isotropic phase-space distribution functions $f(E)$ for the globular clusters M15 (NGC7078), 47~Tuc (NGC104), NGC~362, and NGC~3201. Assuming isotropy and using the velocity dispersion and surface brightness profiles, the Jeans equation uniquely determines the mass density profile. In the two centrally-concentrated clusters, M15 and 47~Tuc, we find that the mass-to-light ratios (M/L's) reach minima around 1\arcmin, and increase by more than a factor of four towards the cluster centers. For the two less centrally concentrated clusters, the M/L decreases monotonically all the way into the center. All four clusters exhibit an increase in the M/L's in their outer parts. If the variations in the M/L's are due to equipartition of energy between different mass stars, then we attribute the central increases to massive remnants and the outer increases to low-mass stars (m$<0.3$M$_\odot$). By applying the crude approximation of local thermodynamic equilibrium, we derive the present-day mass function for each cluster. In the central 2--3 parsecs, 0.7--1.5 M$_\odot$ objects provide the bulk of the cluster mass. The paper is in a uuencoded compressed tar file (260kb)

Autonomous Systems Validation (SysVal) Environment for Advancing Mission Operations

In order to maintain the health and productivity of satellites, it is crucial to develop a system that can swiftly, accurately, and effectively reproduce the on-orbit workflow and behavior a spacecraft experiences. To achieve this, Planet created the Systems Validation (SysVal) ecosystem; originally developed to validate individual spacecraft subsystem design requirements, and has evolved to encompass satellite concept of operation workflows, innovating test processes while mitigating risks through the ability to rapidly mimic on-orbit activities in a lab environment. SysVal is a fully integrated hardware and software system composed of a ground station network and a mission operations center with multiple integrated satellites, developed in-house by Planet, to assist with operating its Dove constellation of Earth-imaging satellites. Planet’s implementation of agile aerospace has exposed the value of SysVal, which facilitates seamless transitions of operational improvements from development and experimentation to rapid productionalization by incorporating “Test-Like-You-Fly” principles. SysVal utilizes cloned instances of Planet’s operational mission control interfaces and data storage platforms along with fully integrated flight capable satellite hardware, the same build that is flown in space, to test software upgrades before they are deployed on-orbit, reproduce on-orbit issues on the ground, replicate continuous “Day in the Life\u27\u27 satellite operations, examine changes with potential operational impacts, while being easily managed remotely by a distributed team. System autonomy is a principal component of SysVal to alleviate human-in-the-loop decision making, maintenance and resources, and is utilized for quick snapshots of the testbed states, software deploys to match the lab environment to the production environment, automated flashing of lab satellite onboard software images to match on-orbit satellites, as well as autonomous analysis of system-level metrics and daily testbed testing with operator notification. This paper describes the SysVal system utilized by Planet and the latest automations integrated into the ecosystem that assist with the testing and development of operating the world’s largest Earth Observation satellite constellation