Zimbabwe: From Hyperinflation to Growth

The hallmark of Zimbabwe's economic collapse is hyperinflation. The most recent official inflation figure is for February 2008: a whopping 165,000 percent year-over-year. At present (early June 2008), inflation is unofficially about 2.5 million percent a year. Not surprisingly, the Zimbabwe dollar has lost more than 99.9 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar during the past year.Zimbabwe's hyperinflation is destroying the economy, pushing more of its inhabitants into poverty, and forcing millions of Zimbabweans to emigrate. Between 1997 and 2007, cumulative inflation was nearly 3.8 billion percent, while living standards fell by 38 percent. The source of Zimbabwe's hyperinflation is the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's money machine. The government spends, and the RBZ finances the spending by printing money. The RBZ has no ability in practice to resist the government's demands for cash. Accordingly, the RBZ cannot hope to regain credibility anytime soon. To stop hyperinflation, Zimbabwe needs to immediately adopt a different monetary system. Any one of three options can rapidly slash the inflation rate and restore stability and growth to the Zimbabwean economy. First is "dollarization." This option would replace the discredited Zimbabwe dollar with a foreign currency, such as the U.S. dollar or the South African rand. Second is a currency board. Under that system, the Zimbabwe dollar would be credible because it would be fully backed by a foreign reserve currency and would be freely convertible into the reserve currency at a fixed rate on demand. Third is free banking. This option would allow commercial banks to issue their own private notes and other liabilities with minimum government regulation. Central banking is the only monetary system that has ever created hyperinflation and instability in Zimbabwe. Prior to central banking, Zimbabwe had a rich monetary experience in which a free banking system and a currency board system performed well. It is time for Zimbabwe to adopt one of these proven monetary systems and discard its failed experiment with central banking

An Assessment of Gypsy Moth Eradication Attempts in Michigan (Lepidoptera: Lymantriidae)

Michigan\u27s infestation of gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar, extends over 600,000 acres, First discovered in Michigan in the 19505, gypsy moth was reportedly eradicated through the use of DDT then reintroduced in the 1970s, Substantial circumstantial biological evidence, however, points to the probability that gypsy moth has resided continuously in Michigan for over 30 years, Environmental factors may be largely responsible for containing Michigan\u27s gypsy moth popUlations

Comparing the Economic Competitive Advantages of Indian Run Casinos Located on Sovereign Lands in Western New York Over Other Hospitality Operations

The Seneca Gaming Corporation has constantly attempted to convince the citizens of WNY that their casinos will provide long-term economic benefits to the area. The local “mainstream” media has, with few exceptions, repeatedly quoted the statistics that the SGC’s public relations people have provided them. The mainstream media has rarely if ever done an independent analysis of the numbers or sought answers to some of the more disturbing statistics

Site-saturation studies of β-lactamase: Production and characterization of mutant β-lactamases with all possible amino acid substitutions at residue 71

A mutagenic technique that "saturates" a particular site in a protein with all possible amino acid substitutions was used to study the role of residue 71 in β-lactamase (EC 3.5.2.6). Threonine is conserved at residue 71 in all class A β-lactamases and is adjacent to the active site Ser-70. All 19 mutants of the enzyme were characterized by the penam and cephem antibiotic resistance they provided to Escherichia coli LS1 cells. Surprisingly, cells producing any of 14 of the mutant β-lactamases displayed appreciable resistance to ampicillin; only cells with mutants having Tyr, Trp, Asp, Lys, or Arg at residue 71 had no observable resistance to ampicillin. However, the mutants are less stable to cellular proteases than wild-type enzyme is. These results suggest that Thr-71 is not essential for binding or catalysis but is important for stability of the β-lactamase protein. An apparent change in specificity indicates that residue 71 influences the region of the protein that accommodates the side chain attached to the β-lactam ring of the substrate

Solvability and regularity for an elliptic system prescribing the curl, divergence, and partial trace of a vector field on Sobolev-class domains

We provide a self-contained proof of the solvability and regularity of a Hodge-type elliptic system, wherein the divergence and curl of a vector field are prescribed in an open, bounded, Sobolev-class domain, and either the normal component or the tangential components of the vector field are prescribed on the boundary. The proof is based on a regularity theory for vector elliptic equations set on Sobolev-class domains and with Sobolev-class coefficients.Comment: 49 Pages, improved exposition and corrected typo

An electronic pan/tilt/zoom camera system

A camera system for omnidirectional image viewing applications that provides pan, tilt, zoom, and rotational orientation within a hemispherical field of view (FOV) using no moving parts was developed. The imaging device is based on the effect that from a fisheye lens, which produces a circular image of an entire hemispherical FOV, can be mathematically corrected using high speed electronic circuitry. An incoming fisheye image from any image acquisition source is captured in memory of the device, a transformation is performed for the viewing region of interest and viewing direction, and a corrected image is output as a video image signal for viewing, recording, or analysis. As a result, this device can accomplish the functions of pan, tilt, rotation, and zoom throughout a hemispherical FOV without the need for any mechanical mechanisms. A programmable transformation processor provides flexible control over viewing situations. Multiple images, each with different image magnifications and pan tilt rotation parameters, can be obtained from a single camera. The image transformation device can provide corrected images at frame rates compatible with RS-170 standard video equipment

On the Motion of Vortex Sheets with Surface Tension in the 3D Euler Equations with Vorticity

We prove well-posedness of vortex sheets with surface tension in the 3D incompressible Euler equations with vorticity.Comment: 28 page