Towards measurement of political pressure on central banks in the emerging market economies: the case of the central bank of Egypt

This paper assesses whether the legal independence granted to the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) under the latest legislation is factual. I followed Fry’s methodology, which assumes that the level of independence of the central bank is determined by fiscal attributes. In an attempt to develop Fry’s method, I used a simple criterion to assess the central bank’s independence, namely, that the central bank is actually independent if it can fulfill its money supply target. Applying this criterion to the CBE and some other CBs in the developed countries and emerging market economies, we find that: (i) the legal independence granted to the CBE under the latest legislation is not factual; although the final objective of monetary policy is to achieve price stability, the CBE failed to fulfill its money supply target and achieve price stability, because it was responsive to political pressure and did not react to fulfill its money supply target; (ii) such political pressure on the CBE is due to fiscal attributes, as measured by domestic credit to the government; (iii) CBs whose independence is factual, according to our criterion, showed a negative relationship between the legal indices, as measured by the GMT index, and the fiscal attributes measured by DCGY. However, the relationship was anomalous when measured by the rate of inflationmonetary policy; central bank independence; fiscal dominance; political pressure

DD-dimensional charged Anti-de-Sitter black holes in f(T)f(T) gravity

We present a $D$-dimensional charged Anti-de-Sitter black hole solutions in $f(T)$ gravity, where $f(T)=T+\beta T^2$ and $D \geq 4$. These solutions are characterized by flat or cylindrical horizons. The interesting feature of these solutions is the existence of inseparable electric monopole and quadrupole terms in the potential which share related momenta, in contrast with most of the known charged black hole solutions in General Relativity and its extensions. Furthermore, these solutions have curvature singularities which are milder than those of the known charged black hole solutions in General Relativity and Teleparallel Gravity. This feature can be shown by calculating some invariants of curvature and torsion tensors. Furthermore, we calculate the total energy of these black holes using the energy-momentum tensor. Finally, we show that these charged black hole solutions violate the first law of thermodynamics in agreement with previous results.Comment: 11 Pages, will appear in JHE

Rotating charged AdS solutions in quadratic f(T)f(T) gravity

We present a class of asymptotically anti-de Sitter charged rotating black hole solutions in $f(T)$ gravity in $N$-dimensions, where $f(T)=T+\alpha T^{2}$. These solutions are nontrivial extensions of the solutions presented in \cite{Lemos:1994xp} and \cite{Awad:2002cz} in the context of general relativity. They are characterized by cylindrical, toroidal or flat horizons, depending on global identifications. The static charged black hole configurations obtained in \cite{Awad:2017tyz} are recovered as special cases when the rotation parameters vanish. Similar to \cite{Awad:2017tyz} the static black holes solutions have two different electric multipole terms in the potential with related moments. Furthermore, these solutions have milder singularities compared to their general relativity counterparts. Using the conserved charges expressions obtained in \cite{Ulhoa:2013gca} and \cite{Maluf:2008ug} we calculate the total mass/energy and the angular momentum of these solutions.Comment: 11 pages, Version accepted in EPJ

Women against Dictatorship and Repression: A comparative study of the women’s organizations formed in Chile and Argentina respectively between 1973-1990 and 1976-1983

This project is a comparative case study between the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina who formed during the dictatorship of the military junta from 1976 to 1983 and the groups of women that formed organizations in Chile under Pinochet beginning in 1973. The thesis looks at the roles of specific institutions, such as their respective governments, the United States and the Catholic Church and how they differed in each country. The thesis not only examines the institutional influences on the movements but also how both of their coalitions’ outcomes were influenced by historical factors. At first glance, the obvious answer as to why the Mothers of Argentina are better known than the women of the disappeared in Chile is the statistical fact that more people were disappeared in Argentina over a shorter period of time. Estimates state that as many as 30,000 people disappeared over 7 years in Argentina while an estimated 3,000 disappeared over 17 years in Chile. Also, the Catholic Church in Argentina supported the military junta so the Mothers were forced to look elsewhere, including making a famous trip to Italy to meet with the Pope; while the Catholic Church helped the women in Chile, which meant that they did not take the same measures the Mothers did to gain international attention. The role of the United States in both coups and dictatorships was similar because it began as an obstacle working against both movements of women. In Argentina, however, it began to play a more proactive role with the presidency of Jimmy Carter. Other factors addressed in this study include Argentina hosting the World Cup in 1978, benefit concerts led by Amnesty International, an analysis of the targeted individuals who were disappeared, the changes in the constitutions, and many other factors such as feminism and the role of motherhood. All of these factors come together to determine how certain institutions effected each movement and explain why the Mothers in Argentina have had greater recognition in their cause than the women in Chile

Phase Portraits of general f(T) Cosmology

We use dynamical system methods to explore the general behaviour of $f(T)$ cosmology. In contrast to the standard applications of dynamical analysis, we present a way to transform the equations into a one-dimensional autonomous system, taking advantage of the crucial property that the torsion scalar in flat FRW geometry is just a function of the Hubble function, thus the field equations include only up to first derivatives of it, and therefore in a general $f(T)$ cosmological scenario every quantity is expressed only in terms of the Hubble function. The great advantage is that for one-dimensional systems it is easy to construct the phase space portraits, and thus extract information and explore in detail the features and possible behaviours of $f(T)$ cosmology. We utilize the phase space portraits and we show that $f(T)$ cosmology can describe the universe evolution in agreement with observations, namely starting from a Big Bang singularity, evolving into the subsequent thermal history and the matter domination, entering into a late-time accelerated expansion, and resulting to the de Sitter phase in the far future. Nevertheless, $f(T)$ cosmology can present a rich class of more exotic behaviours, such as the cosmological bounce and turnaround, the phantom-divide crossing, the Big Brake and the Big Crunch, and it may exhibit various singularities, including the non-harmful ones of type II and type IV. We study the phase space of three specific viable $f(T)$ models offering a complete picture. Moreover, we present a new model of $f(T)$ gravity that can lead to a universe in agreement with observations, free of perturbative instabilities, and applying the Om(z) diagnostic test we confirm that it is in agreement with the combination of SNIa, BAO and CMB data at 1$\sigma$ confidence level.Comment: 39 pages, 12 figures, version published in JCA

Switching to the Inflation Targeting Regime: Does it necessary for the case of Egypt?

The purpose of this paper is to answer the question of whether the switching to the Inflation Targeting (IT) regime is necessary for the Egyptian case or not? Our judgment of applying IT regime in the Egyptian economy is established on doubled criterion. That is, the practical experience of the inflation targeters, and the efficiency of Monetary Targeting Regime (MTR) in the case of Egypt. Defining the efficiency of a monetary policy regime by the efficiency of the embedded nominal anchor to send the right message to all practitioners about the potential behavior of the price level, I assessed the efficiency of MTR in Egypt by measuring; whether there is a relationship between money and prices, the stability of the velocity of circulation, and the stability of the demand for money function. The study concluded that MTR is not efficient to tie down individuals expectations about the future path of inflation in Egypt. Taking into account that IT regime is a way to reform monetary policy and it does not worsen economic performance it becomes necessary for Egypt to switch to the IT regime once the prerequisites for IT regime have been met.inflation targeting; demand for money function; monetary policy in Egypt.

MORTALITY IN THE PEDIATRIC INTENSIVE CARE UNITS, EXPERIENCE FROM SAUDI ARABIA

This study was conducted to deternine the pediatric intensive care mortality in the Southwestern region of Saudi Arabia. The mortality rate was found to be 9.3% of all admitted cases. The mean age was 36.9 months. Children below 2 years of age constituted 64.3% of the total. The study showed multi system involvement accounted for 31.0% of the cases as the immediate cause leading to mortality. In this category sepsis was the commonest leading individual cause accounting for 26.2% of the cases. The underlying primary condition showed CNS involvement in 23.8% of the cases, followed by CVS & GIT (11.9% each.) In conclusion: children dying in the PICD are likely to have multi system failure as the immediate cause of death, while their primary underlying disease is likely to be in the CNS, GIT or CVS