At Home in the Free-Market World: The Neoliberal Cosmopolitan Man in Salman Rushdie\u27s Fury

This article offers an exploration of the concept of cosmopolitanism in Salman Rushdie\u27s novel, Fury. Through both Rushdie\u27s and his protagonist\u27s cosmopolitanism, the ambivalence of the position is revealed in particular through the latter\u27s (un)easy access to global commodities and problematic exploitation of women. The economic and gender exploitations oddly converge in Solanka\u27s latest creative project, the success of which glosses over the problematics of class and gender privilege. Ultimately, the protagonist’s cosmopolitanism truly impedes any critique cosmopolitanism might afford: he is readily swept up in the rising tide of the 90s financial boom and the frequently misogynist sexuality of American pop culture that passes as cosmopolitan culture

Computation of the frequency response of a nonlinearly loaded antenna within a cavity

We analyze a nonlinearly loaded dipole antenna which is located within a rectangular cavity and excited by an electromagnetic signal. The signal is composed from two different frequencies. In order to calculate the spectrum of the resulting electromagnetic field within the resonator we transform the antenna problem into a network problem. This requires to precisely determine the antenna impedance within the cavity. The resulting nonlinear equivalent network is solved by means of the harmonic balance technique. As a result the occurrence of low intermodulation frequencies within the spectrum is verified

Matching the termination of radiating non-uniform transmission-lines

In this contribution a concept of matching the termination of radiating non-uniform transmission-lines is proposed. Using Transmission-Line Super Theory, position and frequency dependent line parameters can be obtained. Therefore, a characteristic impedance can be determined which is also position and frequency dependent. For a single wire transmission-line it could be shown that the maximum value of that characteristic impedance is an optimal termination in the sense of minimizing the variation of the current on the line. This indicates that matching is not a local effect at the position of the concentrated load but a cooperative process including the whole non-uniform transmission-line. In addition this choice of termination minimizes the variation of the radiated power over frequency

On network representations of antennas inside resonating environments

We discuss network representations of dipole antennas within electromagnetic cavities. It is pointed out that for a given configuration these representations are not unique. For an efficient evaluation a network representation should be chosen such that it involves as few network elements as possible. The field theoretical analogue of this circumstance is the possibility to express electromagnetic cavities' Green's functions by representations which exhibit different convergence properties. An explicit example of a dipole antenna within a rectangular cavity clarifies the corresponding interrelation between network theory and electromagnetic field theory. As an application, current spectra are calculated for the case that the antenna is nonlinearly loaded and subject to a two-tone excitation

Zareena Grewal, Islam is a Foreign Country: American Muslims and the Global Crisis of Authority

Zareena Grewal, Islam is a Foreign Country: American Muslims and the Global Crisis of Authority. New York and London: New York University Press, 2014. 409pp. ISBN: 9781479800568. Adrianos Khalil National and Kapodistrian University of Athens In order to comprehend the importance of Zareena Grewal’s project, as it is analyzed in her work Islam is a Foreign Country: American Muslims and the Global Crisis of Authority, it is detrimental to explore the political, social and religious tensions en..

Zur Diskussion gestellt: Ungleichgewichte im Außenhandel: Wie können Handelsbilanzsalden abgebaut werden?

Im Rahmen der Diskussion, wie die wirtschaftlichen Schwierigkeiten Europas, insbesondere der Eurozone, zu bewältigen sind, wurde die Forderung nach einem Abbau von Leistungsbilanzüberschüssen laut. Nach Ansicht von Rolf J. Langhammer, Institut für Weltwirtschaft, Kiel, spricht vieles dafür, dass sich Ungleichgewichte in den nächsten Jahren trendmäßig zurückbilden werden. Es bedürfe also keiner interventionistischen Maßnahme im Handel oder Kapitalverkehr gegen Ungleichgewichte. Strafzölle gegen chinesische Exporte, wie sie Krugman für die USA fordert, wären absolut fehl am Platz. Es sei aber wichtig, die Bilanzen richtig zu stellen, indem der Handel auf Wertschöpfungsbasis erfasst und die Bedeutung der grenzüberschreitenden Wertschöpfungsketten für Produktivitätsfortschritte in den Partnerländern sichtbar werde. Felix Mihram und Nikolaus Wolf, Humboldt- Universität zu Berlin, gehen davon aus, dass sich die extremen Leistungsbilanzungleichgewichte durch Preissteigerungen in Deutschland und deflationäre Tendenzen in den Defizitstaaten auch ohne weitere politische Intervention etwas abschwächen werden. Allerdings könnte im Hinblick auf die aktuelle Schuldenkrise in einigen Eurostaaten eine befristete Intervention der Überschussländer, etwa Deutschland gemeinsam mit den Niederlanden, zur Stabilisierung des Euro sinnvoll sein, die zugleich auch zum Abbau von Leistungsbilanzüberschüssen beitragen würde. Volker Nitsch, Technische Universität Darmstadt, verweist darauf, dass die unwiderrufliche Fixierung der nominalen Wechselkurse im Euroraum mit größeren und länger andauernden Handelsbilanzungleichgewichten verbunden ist. Gleichzeitig tragen in einer Währungsunion strukturelle Reformen, die Märkte flexibler gestalten, die Volatilität der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung dämpfen oder das Haushaltdefizit reduzieren, zu einer Vermeidung von Ungleichgewichten im Außenhandel bei.

Retained earnings and foreign portfolio ownership: implications for the current account debate

In some countries, a sizable fraction of savings is derived from corporate savings. Although larger, traded corporations are often co-owned by foreign portfolio investors, current international accounting standards allocate all corporate savings to the host country. This paper suggests a framework to correct for this misleading attribution and applies this concept to Germany. For the years 2012 to 2020, our corrections retrospectively reduce German savings and consequently the German current account surplus by, on average, €11.5bn annually. This amounts to approximately five percent of Germany’s average official current account surplus (€226.6bn) across these years