Trends in the Australian Banking System: Implications for Financial System Stability and Monetary Policy

Financial system stability is defined in terms of the expected macroeconomic losses that arise from financial system disturbances. This captures both the probability of various financial disturbances and the size of the macroeconomic costs arising from such disturbances. Because of the links between the real sector of the economy and the financial sector, monetary policy needs to be cognisant of the potential for financial system stability. We develop a general framework for policy analysis which highlights the trade-off between financial system stability and efficiency. We use this framework to analyse the potential impact on stability and efficiency of three current pressures in the Australian financial system. Namely, consolidation among the largest banks, the formation of large financial conglomerates, and greater opportunities for smaller niche institutions provided by technological developments. We develop a simple model to show that consolidation might reduce system stability through a loss of diversification – which is important in the case of idiosyncratic shocks to individual financial institutions. Offsetting this effect, consolidation might increase system stability if contagion is an important source of failure of financial institutions. Conglomeration has two offsetting effects in terms of system stability: diversification across different financial services can reduce the probability of failure of an individual institution; and contamination, which can lead to contagion flowing from failure of an unhealthy arm of the conglomerate.financial system stability and efficiency; consolidation; conglomeration

AI and the Opportunity for Shared Prosperity: Lessons from the History of Technology and the Economy

Recent progress in artificial intelligence (AI) marks a pivotal moment in human history. It presents the opportunity for machines to learn, adapt, and perform tasks that have the potential to assist people, from everyday activities to their most creative and ambitious projects. It also has the potential to help businesses and organizations harness knowledge, increase productivity, innovate, transform, and power shared prosperity. This tremendous potential raises two fundamental questions: (1) Will AI actually advance national and global economic transformation to benefit society at large? and (2) What issues must we get right to fully realize AI's economic value, expand prosperity and improve lives everywhere? We explore these questions by considering the recent history of technology and innovation as a guide for the likely impact of AI and what we must do to realize its economic potential to benefit society. While we do not presume the future will be entirely like that past, for reasons we will discuss, we do believe prior experience with technological change offers many useful lessons. We conclude that while progress in AI presents a historic opportunity to advance our economic prosperity and future wellbeing, its economic benefits will not come automatically and that AI risks exacerbating existing economic challenges unless we collectively and purposefully act to enable its potential and address its challenges. We suggest a collective policy agenda - involving developers, deployers and users of AI, infrastructure providers, policymakers, and those involved in workforce training - that may help both realize and harness AI's economic potential and address its risks to our shared prosperity.Comment: 37 page

Prequtaneous transluminal angioplasty in patients with multivessel coronary disease: How important is complete revascularization for cardiac event-free survival?

AbstractThe relative influences of revascularizationstaus and baseline characteristics on long-term outcome were examined in 867 patients with multivessel coronarydisease who had undergone successful coronary angioplasty. These patients represented 83% of a total of 1,039 patients in whom angioplasty had been attempted with an in-hospltal mortality and infarction rate of 2.5% and 48%, respectively. Emergency coronary bypass surgery was needed in 4.9%. Of the 867 patients, 41% (group 1) were considered to have complete revascularization and 59% (group 2) to have incomplete revascularization. Univariate analysis revealed major differences between these two groups with patients in group 2 characterized by advanced age, more severe angina, a greater likelihood of previous coronary surgery and infarction, more extensive disease and poorer left ventricular function.Over a mean follow-up period of 26 months, the probability of event-free survival was significantly lower for group 2 only with respect to the need for coronary artery surgery (p = 0.004) and occurrence of severe angina (p = 0.04). The difference in modality was of borderline significance (p = 0.051) and there were no signiicant difference between 1 and 2 in either the incidence of myocardial infarction or the need for repeat angioplasty.Muitivariate analysis identified independent baseline predictors of late cardiac events that were then used to adjust the probabilities of event-free survival. This adjustment effectively removed any significant influence of completeness of revascuiarization on event-free survival for any of the above end points including the combination of death, myocardial infarction and need for coronary artery surgery. Therefore, late outcome in these patients is not significantly influenced by revascularization status but depends more on baseline patient characteristics

Structure of the Helicase Domain of DNA Polymerase Theta Reveals a Possible Role in the Microhomology-Mediated End-Joining Pathway

DNA polymerase theta (Polθ) has been identified as a crucial alternative non-homologous end-joining factor in mammalian cells. Polθ is upregulated in a range of cancer cell types defective in homologous recombination, and knockdown has been shown to inhibit cell survival in a subset of these, making it an attractive target for cancer treatment. We present crystal structures of the helicase domain of human Polθ in the presence and absence of bound nucleotides, and a characterization of its DNA-binding and DNA-stimulated ATPase activities. Comparisons with related helicases from the Hel308 family identify several unique features. Polθ exists as a tetramer both in the crystals and in solution. We propose a model for DNA binding to the Polθ helicase domain in the context of the Polθ tetramer, which suggests a role for the helicase domain in strand annealing of DNA templates for subsequent processing by the polymerase domain

Le FORUM, Vol. 38 No. 1

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/francoamericain_forum/1040/thumbnail.jp

Effects of cultivar and nitrogen application rate on lint, seed, oil, and protein yields of field-grown cotton

Article describes how the objective of this study was to evaluate the lint, seed, oil, and protein yield responses of cultivars with different seed mass and composition to N application rates (0–168 kg N ha−1) for field-grown cotton. The authors conclude that variability in the distribution of photosynthates to fiber and seed as well as seed oil and protein composition can significantly alter trends in fiber, seed, and seed component yields in response to cultivar or N application rates for field-grown cotton

Le FORUM, Vol. 36 No. 3

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/francoamericain_forum/1034/thumbnail.jp

Le FORUM, Vol. 38 No. 2

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/francoamericain_forum/1041/thumbnail.jp