Assessment of “stress tests” conducted on the French banking system.

During the first quarter of 2004, the General Secretariat of the Commission bancaire (SGCB) and the Directorate General Economics and International Relations (DGEI) of the Banque de France conducted an assessment of the stability of the French banking system and its capacity to withstand a set of macroeconomic and financial shocks, as part of a broader evaluation of the French financial system carried out under the auspices of the IMF’s Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP). The assessment employed a macro-prudential approach which seeks to quantify the effects of shocks to the banking system using “stress tests”. The tests measured the impact of severe shocks, deemed plausible but infrequent: e.g., a recession, a large movement in interest rates, an oil price shock, a sharp drop in stock prices. This report discusses in detail the principal characteristics of the “stress tests” and the innovations introduced during the French FSAP, including in particular the design of coherent scenarios, which were developed using the DGEI’s macroeconomic model and the SGCB’s financial models for measuring risk. The results of the assessment indicate that, given the high average solvency ratio, the French banking system is currently in a position to withstand a major macroeconomic shock, such as a prolonged recession lasting two years. This type of shock would, however, erode the quality of bank assets and reduce bank profits by 38.5% in the second year, compared with the baseline, resulting in a decline in the international solvency ratio of one percentage point (using the Basel I methodology) or two percentage points (using the new methodology proposed in the Basel II Accord). Other scenarios, such as a 32% depreciation of the dollar against the euro for two years or an increase of nearly 50% in the price of oil also for two years, would have more limited effects on net income and solvency ratios.

Determinants of Academic Success of Cambodian American Students

Cambodian Americans\u27 (CAs) children still exhibit the second lowest rate of academic achievement in the United States, despite the tenets of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 that promote equality in American education. Furthermore, there is a gap in the literature on the relationship between the academic success of Cambodian American students (CASs) and the parents\u27 and the children\u27s factors. Using a structural strain theory of deviance of functionalism theory, this correlational study (a) explored whether education, income, birthplace, and gender of parents and age at immigration and gender of children the determinants of academic success of CASs and (b) examined the dimension of gender practices in CAs\u27 households that might affect CASs\u27 academic success. Survey data were collected from a purposive sample of 153 CASs\u27 parents in Long Beach, CA, using a researcher-developed survey. Multiple linear regression was run for the correlation questions and frequency descriptive statistics were run for the gender practices. Findings indicated a significant relationship (p \u3c .05) between academic success of CASs and the parents\u27 education in Cambodia and the children\u27s age at immigration to America. The descriptive statistics determined gender disparity in the participant households that might affect the academic achievement of female CASs. The positive social change implications stemming from this study include recommendations to school administrators, nonprofits, local government, and federal government to collect segregate data on CASs\u27 academic outcomes, develop social policies and programs, and allocate appropriate fund to support programs and cultural humility and competency training enhancing CASs\u27 success and parents\u27 involvement in their children\u27s education

L’évolution des crédits à l’habitat en France : une grille d’analyse en termes de cycles

This article puts forward a framework based primarily on probabilistic tools to analyse the nature of housing loan cycles in France. The continued high growth rate of housing loans may indeed raise concerns as to the duration and determinants of the cycle which currently prevails. The results obtained suggest that the current cycle is actually exceptional in many respects. One the one hand, it is the longest housing loans cycle observed over the last thirty years, while its occurrence appears to be structurally decoupled with several indicators of the real economy. On the other hand, this cycle may also be related to the existence of an excess supply regime, which could prove an important explanatory factor of a decoupling with the real economy.Credit cycle ; Band-pass filters ; Markov Switching, Disequilibrium.

L’influence des non-résidents sur la création monétaire dans la zone euro.

Les entrées de capitaux liées aux investissements de portefeuille des non-résidents en titres de la zone euro ont contribué pour près de la moitié à l’accélération de l’agrégat M3 entre septembre 2006 et septembre 2007.M3, agrégats monétaires, contreparties de la masse monétaire, créances extérieures nettes, balance de paiements, investissements de portefeuille, institutions financières monétaires.

Les incidences de la réforme de l’usure sur les modalités de financement des PME.

Bilan des effets de l’allègement de la réglementation de l’usure sur l’accès au crédit des petites et moyennes entreprises (résumé du Rapport de la Banque de France au Parlement).taux d’intérêt, usure, PME, entrepreneurs individuels, rationnement, péréquation, risque de défaut, distribution du crédit, conditions de financement.

Sm-Nd and Initial 87Sr/86Sr Isotopic Systematics of Asuka 881394 and Cumulate Eucrites Yamato 980318/433 Compared.

第2回極域科学シンポジウム/第34回南極隕石シンポジウム 11月18日（金） 国立国語研究所 2階講

Study On Water-Soluble Polymers For Biomedical Applications

Polymeric products have many remarkable properties which make them to be widely used in daily life. However, the downside of polymers is the accumulation of plastic waste globally. In this research, water-soluble polymers were investigated for a hollow plastic tube for the PI collector; which is used to collect urine in healthcare segment. The structural, chemical, mechanical, thermal properties and rate of solubility of the tubes are investigated. Apart from that, the PI collector tank is also subjected to microbes’ growth, urine odor and calcium precipitation which may potentially damage the PI collector. Thus, we intend to fabricate a soluble polymer film that is antiseptic in nature to suppress the microbes’ growth, contains a deodorant to reduce the smell and hasa decalcifier to chelate and trap the calcium salt. Several characterization techniques, including FTIR, tensile testing, DSC, swelling and dissolution studies for phase one whereas AAS, physical smelling and ATP test for phase two were performed. In phase one, the optimized extrusion temperatures at the feed zone/melting zone/die zone of the extruder for PVOH tubes were 185/201/203/182°C respectively with a screw speed of 7 rpm. The average tensile stress and elongation at break of the polymeric tube is 11.38 MPa and 1884.33% respectively. The PVOH tube recorded a melting point of 283.19°C. When immersing in tap water, the tubes swelled up at room temperature and 40°C before dissolving after 6 and 4 hours respectively. Whereas, the tubes dissolved completely after 3 and 2 hours of immersion at 50°C and 60°C. At 60°C, the PVOH tube showed the highest dissolution rate of 0.03903 mol/L h. In phase two, 4 ml of AA to decalcify the artificial urine whereas 5 ml of BKC is effective to reduce the contaminants count as well as deodorize the artificial urine

The Idea of an Iraqi Threat: A Constructivist Analysis of George W. Bushs Securitizing Move After 9/11

Existing literature explaining the origin of the Iraq War is often either not sufficiently compatible with securitization theorys assumptions or overlooks the importance of the dynamics preceding the securitization attempt. This article thus seeks to explain why George W. Bush decided to securitize Saddam Husseins Iraq by focusing on an individual level analysis of the U.S. president. The article utilizes Roxanna Sjöstedts framework that includes the analysis of the idea diffusion process, identities as potential facilitators of idea acceptance and beliefs that affect the individual internalization of the said idea. The results show that all three factors were decisive for the securitization of Iraq to occur. Furthermore, they suggest the implication that individual-level factors also have significant and independent explanatory value in addition to more conventional system-level analyses of international security