A closer look: assistance programs in the wake of the crisis

An unprecedented amount of aid was extended by the Treasury, Fed and FDIC to companies, agencies and individuals. This aid was necessary and, in many cases, will return a profit to taxpayers.Financial crises ; Intermediation (Finance) ; Business failures

The commercial paper market, the Fed, and the 2007-2009 financial crisis

Since its inception in the early nineteenth century, the U.S. commercial paper market has grown to become a key source of short-term funding for major businesses, with issuance averaging over $100 billion per day. In the fall of 2008, the commercial paper market achieved national prominence when increasing market stress caused some to fear that, given its size and importance, the market's failure would sharply worsen the recession. The Department of the Treasury and Federal Reserve enacted programs targeted at providing credit and liquidity to restore investor confidence. The authors review the history of the commercial paper market, describe its structure and key relationships to money market mutual funds, and present a detailed discussion of the crisis in the market, including the resulting Federal Reserve programs.Commercial paper issues ; Financial crises

Offshoring, economic insecurity, and the demand for social insurance

The fear of offshoring, particularly in services since 2000, has raised workers economic insecurity and heightened concerns over future economic globalization. Many have argued that globalization has exacerbated labor market turbulence increasing the demand for social insurance programs. The authors present a simple theoretical model establishing a connection between the threat of offshoring, economic insecurity, and the demand for social insurance. Data from the 1972-2006 General Social Survey to provides supporting empirical evidence.Globalization ; International economic integration

Estimating U.S. output growth with vintage data in a state-space framework

This study uses a state-space model to estimate the "true" unobserved measure of total output in the U.S. economy. The analysis uses the entire history (i.e., all vintages) of selected real-time data series to compute revisions and corresponding statistics for those series. The revision statistics, along with the most recent data vintage, are used in a state-space model to extract filtered estimates of the "true" series. Under certain assumptions, Monte Carlo simulations suggest this framework can improve published estimates by as much as 30 percent, lasting an average of 11 periods. Real-time experiments using a measure of real gross domestic product show improvement closer to 10 percent, lasting for 1 to 2 quarters.Economic development ; Economic conditions - United States

The perils of globalization: offshoring and economic insecurity of the American worker

According to polls from the 2006 congressional elections, globalization and economic insecurity were the primary concerns of many voters. These Americans apparently believe that they have fallen victim to liberal trade polices and that inexorable trends in globalization are destroying the American Dream. In this analysis, we use time series cross-section data from the General Social Survey (GSS) to examine the links among offshoring, labor market volatility, and the demand for social insurance. Unique among the GSS literature, our analysis includes a pseudo-panel model which permits including auxiliary state and regional macroeconomic information.Globalization ; International economic integration

Fueling expected inflation

Gasoline - Prices ; Inflation (Finance)

Doubling your monetary base and surviving: some international experience

The authors examine the experience of selected central banks that have used large-scale balance-sheet expansion, frequently referred to as “quantitative easing,” as a monetary policy instrument. The case studies focus on central banks responding to the recent financial crisis and Nordic central banks during the banking crises of the 1990s; others are provided for comparison purposes. The authors conclude that large-scale balance-sheet increases are a viable monetary policy tool provided the public believes the increase will be appropriately reversed.Monetary policy - United States ; Money supply ; Financial crises

Ultrathin composite polymeric membranes for CO2/N2 separation with minimum thickness and high CO2 permeance

The use of ultrathin films as selective layers in composite membranes offers significant advantages in gas separation for increasing productivity while reducing the membrane size and energy costs. In this contribution, composite membranes have been obtained by the successive deposition of approximately 1 nm thick monolayers of a polymer of intrinsic microporosity (PIM) on top of dense membranes of the ultra-permeable poly[1-(trimethylsilyl)-1-propyne] (PTMSP). The ultrathin PIM films (30 nm in thickness) demonstrate CO2 permeance up to seven times higher than dense PIM membranes using only 0.04 % of the mass of PIM without a significant decrease in CO2 /N2 selectivity.The research leading to these results has received funding from the EU FP7 Programme (FP7/2007–2013), under grant agreement number 608490, project M4CO2, Spanish MINECO and FEDER (MAT2016-77290-R) and the Aragon Government (T05 and E54). J. S.-L. thanks the Spanish Education Ministry Program FPU2014 for a Ph.D. grant.Peer reviewe

A large geometric distortion in the first photointermediate of rhodopsin, determined by double-quantum solid-state NMR

Double-quantum magic-angle-spinning NMR experiments were performed on 11,12-C-13(2)-retinylidene-rhodopsin under illumination at low temperature, in order to characterize torsional angle changes at the C11-C12 photoisomerization site. The sample was illuminated in the NMR rotor at low temperature (similar to 120 K) in order to trap the primary photointermediate, bathorhodopsin. The NMR data are consistent with a strong torsional twist of the HCCH moiety at the isomerization site. Although the HCCH torsional twist was determined to be at least 40A degrees, it was not possible to quantify it more closely. The presence of a strong twist is in agreement with previous Raman observations. The energetic implications of this geometric distortion are discussed