"Old Wine in a New Bottle: Subprime Mortgage Crisis—Causes and Consequences"

This paper seeks to explain the causes and consequences of the United States subprime mortgage crisis, and how this crisis has led to a generalized credit crunch in other financial sectors that ultimately affects the real economy. It postulates that, despite the recent financial innovations, the financial strategies—leveraging and financial risk mismatching—that led to the present crisis are similar to those found in the United States savings-and-loan debacle of the late 1980s and in the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s. However, these strategies are based on market innovations that have heightened, not reduced, systemic risks and financial instability. They are as the title implies: old wine in a new bottle. Going beyond these financial practices, the underlying structural causes of the crisis are located in the loose monetary policies of central banks, deregulation, and excess liquidity in financial markets that is a consequence of the kind of economic growth that produces various imbalances—trade imbalances, financial sector imbalances, and wealth and income inequality. The consequences of excessive risk, moral hazards, and rolling bubbles are discussed.

The policy responses and implications of the global financial crisis on Asia : a case study for Malaysia

This paper examines the impact of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) on Malaysia’s economy as well as challenges and responses of the government in countering this crisis. It argues that the impact of the GFC is different from the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis (AFC). The AFC impacted the financial industry with the resultant collapse of Malaysia’s currency, while the GFC impacted the export sector with direct repercussions on Malaysia’s real economy. This paper explores the structural weaknesses of Malaysia’s economy exposed by the GFC. Given that Malaysia’s economic growth had become more trade-dependent after the AFC, domestic investments, including foreign direct investments, could only grow anemically. This had jeopardized long-term economic growth and productivity, which were crucial in offsetting the impact of the GFC. This paper shows that the expansionary policies implemented by the government to counter the GFC were lacking in meaningful structural changes and could not yield the desirable results. Lastly, it assesses the extent to which the New Economic Model proposed by the present government could spur economic growth in dealing with the GFC.peer-reviewe

Financial stability and the Trans-Pacific Partnership: lessons from Chile and Malaysia

This repository item contains a working paper from the Boston University Global Economic Governance Initiative. The Global Economic Governance Initiative (GEGI) is a research program of the Center for Finance, Law & Policy, the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, and the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies. It was founded in 2008 to advance policy-relevant knowledge about governance for financial stability, human development, and the environment.There is growing recognition that nations may need to deploy cross-border financial regulations to prevent and mitigate financial crises. Indeed, in December of 2012 the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed on a new ‘institutional view’ that notes how the IMF will begin to recommend that nations deploy cross-border financial regulations going forward. However, many nations have become party to global, regional, and bi-lateral trade and investment treaties that may restrict their ability to effectively deploy such regulations. This paper examines the cases of two countries currently in negotiations for a Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP): Chile and Malaysia. The paper examines the extent to which each nation has deployed cross-border financial regulations in the past, and the extent to which they have negotiated the policy space for such regulations in its previous trade and investment treaties. Finally, it analyzes the extent to which such measures would be permitted if the TPP’s investment provisions looked like the model bi-lateral investment treaty of the United States. We find that, with some important exceptions, both countries have successfully deployed crossborder financial regulations and have carved out the ability to do so under a sample of representative trading commitments. However, such policy space would be jeopardized if the TPP conformed to the US model rather than arrangements that each country has been able to broker in other arenas

Cytotoxicity and structure-activity relationships of xanthone derivatives from Mesua beccariana, Mesua ferrea and Mesua congestiflora towards nine human cancer cell lines.

The cytotoxic structure-activity relationships among a series of xanthone derivatives from Mesua beccariana, Mesua ferrea and Mesua congestiflora were studied. Eleven xanthone derivatives identified as mesuarianone (1), mesuasinone (2), mesuaferrin A (3), mesuaferrin B (4), mesuaferrin C (5), 6-deoxyjacareubin (6), caloxanthone C (7), macluraxanthone (8), 1,5-dihydroxyxanthone (9), tovopyrifolin C (10) and α-mangostin (11) were isolated from the three Mesua species. The human cancer cell lines tested were Raji, SNU-1, K562, LS-174T, SK-MEL-28, IMR-32, HeLa, Hep G2 and NCI-H23. Mesuaferrin A (3), macluraxanthone (8) and α-mangostin (11) showed strong cytotoxicities as they possess significant inhibitory effects against all the cell lines. The structure-activity relationship (SAR) study revealed that the diprenyl, dipyrano and prenylated pyrano substituent groups of the xanthone derivatives contributed towards the cytotoxicities

Chemical composition of essential oil of exudates of Dryobalanops aromatica

Purpose: To identify the chemical composition of essential oil from the exudates of Dryobalanops aromatica from Malaysia.Methods: Exudate was collected from D. aromatica and subjected to fractional  distillation to obtain essential oil. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry  (GC-MS) was used to characterize the composition of the isolated essential oil.Results: The yield of essential oil was 7.58 %, with the highest yield (3.24 %) within the first 2 h of fractional distillation. Thirty compounds which accounted for 97.56 % of essential oil composition were identified. These include sesquiterpenes (46.87 %), monoterpenes (31.05 %), oxygenated monoterpenes (16.76 %) and oxygenated  sesquiterpenes (2.13 %). Borneol accounted for 0.74 % of the essential oil.Conclusion: Essential oil from the exudates of D. aromatica contains terpenoid  compounds and borneol.Keywords: Dryobalanops aromatica, exudate, fractional distillation, essential oil, GS-MS, borneo

Determination of borneol and other chemical compounds of essential oil of Dryobalanops aromatica exudate from Malaysia

Purpose: To determine borneol and other chemical compounds of essential oil derived from the exudate of Dryobalanops aromatica in Malaysia.Methods: Exudate was collected from D. aromatica and subjected to fractional distillation to obtain essential oil. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was performed to characterize the composition of the isolated essential oil.Results: Essential oil (7.58 %) was obtained with the highest yield (3.24 %) in the first 2 h of fractional distillation. Thirty compounds which accounted for 97.56 % of total essential oil composition were identified by GC-MS, and they include sesquiterpenes (46.87 %), monoterpenes (31.05 %), oxygenated monoterpenes (16.76 %) and oxygenated sesquiterpenes (2.13 %). Borneol (0.74 %) was also detected in the essential oil.Conclusion: Borneol and other terpenoid compounds are present in the essential oil of the exudate of D. aromatica.Keywords: Exudate, Dryobalanops Aromatica, Fractional distillation, Essential oil, Gaschromatography-mass spectrometry, Borneo

A new coumarin from stem bark of Mesua hexapetala

A new alkylated coumarin derivative, hexapetarin (1) along with three other xanthones, trapezifolixanthone (2), cudraxanthone G (3) and 1,3,7-trihydroxy-2,4-di (3-methyl-2-butenyl)xanthone (4), and four common triterpenoids, friedelin (5), stigmasterol (6), beta-sitosterol (7) and gamma-sitosterol (8) were isolated from the stem bark of Mesua hexapetala (Clusiaceae), a plant, native to Malaysia. The structures of these compounds were elucidated and determined using spectroscopic techniques such as NMR and MS. Anti-inflammatory activity assay indicated hexapetarin (1) to possess moderate anti-inflammatory activity, while 1,3,7-trihydroxy-2,4-di (3-methyl-2-butenyl)xanthone (4) gave very good activity