Passing judgement: credit rating processes as regulatory mechanisms of governance in the emerging world order

This article argues that certain knowledge-producing institutions located in the American financial industry- debt security or bond rating agencies -are significant forces in the creation and extension of the new, open global political economy and therefore deserve the attention of international political economists as mechanisms of 'governance without government'. Rating agencies are hypothesized to possess leverage, based on their unique gate-keeping role with regard to investment funds sought by corporations and governments. The article examines trends in capital markets, the processes leading to bond rating judgements, assesses the form and extent of the agencies' governance powers, and contemplates the implications of these judgements for further extension of the global political economy and the form of the emerging world order

Robert W. Cox's method of historical structures redux

This article argues that Cox's Method of Historical Structures (MHS), although a highly useful tool for understanding the world, should be adapted to make it more effective as a framework for understanding world order in the twenty-first century. The advent of the method helped rejuvenate critical scholarship in international relations and international political economy during the 1980s. It offered a way out of the excessively structural approaches that had dominated critical thinking in the 1960s and 1970s. Cox's method enabled the unpacking of a structure, so that the components that made up any particular configuration could be considered analytically. Providing guidance on how to look at an historical order, and how to consider the component features of that structure, proved to be a revelation for many critical scholars of international relations. Surprisingly, given Cox's highlighting of the distinction between critical and problem-solving theory introduced in the same Millennium article, what really distinguishes Cox's approach, and why it has had the impact it has, is the pragmatism of the method. The MHS offers the possibility of a more closely reasoned analysis of world order than was previously available. It was the practical and somewhat systematic quality of the MHS that made it influential because it offered to facilitate empirical research by critical scholars. Thirty-five years on, the Method looks less satisfactory and this article offers some suggestions for its development

A hard nut to crack : regulatory failure shows how rating really works

Credit rating agencies such as Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s are key players in the governance of global financial markets. Given the very strong criticism the rating agencies faced in the wake of the global financial crisis 2008, how can we explain the puzzle of their survival? Market and regulatory reliance on ratings continues, despite the shift from a light-touch to a mandatory system of agency regulation and supervision. Drawing on the analysis of rating agency regulation in the US and the EU before and after the financial crisis, we argue that a pervasive, persistent and, in our view, erroneous understanding of rating has supported the never-ending story of rating agency authority. We show how treating ratings as metrics, private goods, and independent and neutral third-party opinions contributes to the ineffectiveness of rating agency regulation and supports the continuing authoritative standing of the credit rating agencies in market and regulatory practices

Grasping at straws: a ratings downgrade for the emerging international financial architecture

Following the Asia crisis of 1997-98, policymakers invested a great deal of energy in designing a new international financial architecture. However many of the policy proposals which have emerged from think tanks and the multilateral agencies have proven unworkable or politically unpalatable. The debate focuses on state-led initiatives. But the assumption that public policy is by definition an output of public institutions is difficult to sustain in an era of global change. This paper considers specialized forms of intelligence-gathering and judgment-determination which seem increasingly important as sources of governance in this era of financial market volatility. These agents - embedded knowledge networks (EKNs) - include the major bond rating agencies, Moody’s Investors Service and Standard and Poor’s, the focus of this paper. The Basel Committee has put forward a serious proposal to reform the existing capital adequacy framework which uses banks' own internal ratings and external bond ratings to calculate bank risk-weighted capital requirements. The paper shows that there are potentially unexpected consequences from using private rating agencies as a substitute for state-based regulation, due to the organizational incentives that shape the ratings industry. Cementing these organizational incentives into the emerging financial architecture will give rise to negative social and economic consequences

Relative autonomy : an empirical critique

This work analyses the relative autonomy framework within Marxist state theory. Relative autonomy stresses the independence of the state from the economic interests of the capitalist mode of production (CMP) and emphasises the role of the state in ensuring the overall reproduction of the capitalist mode. However, the validity of relative autonomy theory has been called into question in the 1980s by the withdrawal of Western capitalist states from most direct interventions in the CMP. Three disparate theorists (Ralph Miliband, Claus Offe and Nicos Poulantzas) were examined in the light of state intervention in the New Zealand CMP. The test was whether or not relative autonomy hypotheses could be constructed from Miliband, Offe or Poulantzas' accounts that explained the transformation in the form of the state evident during the 1980s. This study found that none of the theories explained the forms of the state in terms of relative autonomy. Furthermore, it was concluded that relative autonomy is a descriptive and not an analytic category. Accordingly, it is recommended that relative autonomy be reintegrated within Marxist analysis as an observation tool. In this new framework relative autonomy would mediate the relationship between mechanisms (such as the CMP) and observable empirical forms (such as the state). It is also noted that relative autonomy has been an obstacle to progressive social change. The empiricism inherent in relative autonomy has distorted the political focus of socialists by reifying the state. Reification implies the analysis of the state in empirical terms, that is, in isolation from the Marxist understanding of an integrated social formation. Consequently, relative autonomy has established an agenda for progressive social change within a state-centric focus. It is argued this has been a factor in the maintenance of the reformist political strategy. The study ends by suggesting that the empirical character of relative autonomy should be elaborated in further research. The aim of this future work should be the development of an accepted operational understanding of relative autonomy amongst Marxist theorists. If this can be achieved it is considered that there is hope that Marxist analysis might again assume a leading position within progressive political criticism

Treatment demand for problem alcohol use in the South Eastern and Southern Health Board areas: 2000 to 2002 / Jean Long, Timothy Jackson, Martina Kidd, Tracey Kelleher, Hamish Sinclair

HRB / 200

Distributing Data and Analysis Software Containers For Better Data Sharing in Clinical Research

Introduction: Data sharing in clinical research is critical for increasing knowledge discovery. Data and software tools should be FAIR: Findable, Accessible, Inter-operable and Re-usable. Many bottlenecks exist in the process of a clinical investigator using shared data including data acquisition and statistical analysis. The objective of this project is to develop a structure for sharing data and providing rapid automated statistical analysis through creation of a pre-packaged, open-source software container. Methods: We use the open source software container technologies VirtualBox and Vagrant to create a template for sharing clinical data and analysis scripts as a single container. We use a timer to record the time necessary to setup and initialize the software container and view the results. Results: We have created a template for sharing data and analysis scripts together using open source software container technologies VirtualBox and Vagrant. We found the time needed to initialize the container to be 5 minutes and 36 seconds for a macOS-based machine and 7 minutes and 2 seconds for a Windows-based machine. Containers can be downloaded and executed from any Mac or Windows computer allowing both the reuse of and interaction with the data. This greatly reduces the time and effort needed to obtain and analyze clinical data. Conclusion: Reducing the time and effort needed to obtain and analyze clinical data increases the time available for data exploration and the discovery of new knowledge. This can be effectively achieved using software containers and virtualization

A hard nut to crack : regulatory failure shows how rating really works

Credit rating agencies such as Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s are key players in the governance of global financial markets. Given the very strong criticism the rating agencies faced in the wake of the global financial crisis 2008, how can we explain the puzzle of their survival? Market and regulatory reliance on ratings continues, despite the shift from a light-touch to a mandatory system of agency regulation and supervision. Drawing on the analysis of rating agency regulation in the US and the EU before and after the financial crisis, we argue that a pervasive, persistent and, in our view, erroneous understanding of rating has supported the never-ending story of rating agency authority. We show how treating ratings as metrics, private goods, and independent and neutral third-party opinions contributes to the ineffectiveness of rating agency regulation and supports the continuing authoritative standing of the credit rating agencies in market and regulatory practices

An analysis of groundwater use to aquifer potential yield in Illinois

"December 24, 2003."Printed from URL.Includes bibliographical references (p. 12-13).LimitedDuplicate of http://hdl.handle.net/2142/8947. Having two copies visible in search and browse is confusing to users

Plant exudates may stabilize or weaken soil depending on species, origin and time

We hypothesized that plant exudates could either gel or disperse soil depending on their chemical characteristics. Barley (Hordeum vulgare L. cv. Optic) and maize (Zea mays L.cv. Freya) root exudates were collected using an aerated hydroponic method and compared to chia (Salvia hispanica L.) seed exudate, a commonly used root exudate analogue. Sandy loam soil passed through a 500-μm mesh was treated with each exudate at a concentrationof 4.6 mg exudate g-1 dry soil. Two sets of soil samples were prepared, One set of treated soil samples was maintained at 4oC to suppress microbial processes. To characterize the effect of decomposition, the second set of samples was incubated at 16C for 2 weeks at – 30 kPa matric potential. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) analysis of the exudates found that barley had the largest organic acid content and chia the largest content of sugars (polysaccharide-derived or free), and maize was in between barley and chia. Yield stress of amended soil samples was measured by an oscillatory strain sweep test with a cone plate rheometer. When microbial decomposition was suppressed at 4oC, yield stress increased 20-fold for chia seed exudate and two-fold for maize root exudate compared to the control, whereas for barley root exudate it decreased to half. The yield stress after 2 weeks of incubation compared to soil with suppressed microbial decomposition increased by 85% for barley root exudate, but for chia and maize it decreased to by 87% and 54%, respectively. Barley root exudation might therefore disperse soil and this could facilitate nutrient release. The maize root and chia seed exudates gelled soil, which could create a more stable soil structure around roots or seeds