Tailoring the flow of soft glasses by soft additives

We examine the vitrification and melting of asymmetric star polymers mixtures by combining rheological measurements with mode coupling theory. We identify two types of glassy states, a {\it single} glass, in which the small component is fluid in the glassy matrix of the big one and a {\it double} glass, in which both components are vitrified. Addition of small star polymers leads to melting of {\it both} glasses and the melting curve has a non-monotonic dependence on the star-star size ratio. The phenomenon opens new ways for externally steering the rheological behavior of soft matter systems.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, accepted in Phys. Rev. Let

U.S. Federal Reserve Monetary Policy and the Fisrt Crisis of Securitization: Mexico and Latin America, 1994-1995

The decisions of the Federal Reserve of United States (Fed)determinig interest rates have played a critical role in capital inflows/outflows toward Mexico and Latin America. The causal relationship that exists between the Fed and emergin markets is quite close; a clear example of this is the first crisis of securitization on the global level, which originated in Mexico in 1994. The monetary policy of the Fed supported the expansion of U.S. investment banks and some institutional investors, thus creating not only an enormous bubble in Mexico and other local financial markets in Latin America through the expansion of portfolio investment, but also succesive financial crises during the 1990s when those financial capital flows reversed themseleves

The time of the Roma in times of crisis: Where has European neoliberal capitalism failed?

This paper argues that the economic and financial crisis that has ensnared Europe from the late 2000s has been instrumental in reshaping employment and social relations in a detrimental way for the majority of the European people. It argues that the crisis has exacerbated the socio-economic position of most Roma people, immigrants as well as of other vulnerable groups. This development is approached here as an outcome of the widening structural inequalities that underpin the crisis within an increasingly neoliberalised Europe. Through recent policy developments and public discourses from a number of European countries I show how rising inequalities nurture racialised social tensions. My account draws on classic and contemporary theoretical propositions that have been propounded about the nature of capitalism, its contemporary re-articulation as well as its ramification for the future of Europe

Financial–Real-Side Interactions in an Extended Monetary Circuit with Shadow Banking: Loving or Dangerous Hugs?

Monetary circuit (MC) theory is one of the most interesting attempts to formally describe the functioning of a monetary production economy as centered on the concept of the flux–reflux of money. Endogenous money creation by commercial banks allows the circuit to open and firms to implement production processes. Financial markets “passively” close the circuit by intermediating savings via bond and equity issuance. Despite its natural focus on financial-real side links, the monetary circuit literature has paid relatively little attention to “financialization” and the way it has modified real-financial dynamics. In this article, we analyze whether the flux–reflux perspective of the circuit may be fruitfully applied to the description of the linkages between the real economy and finance in a financialized economy. We propose two interconnected circuits, one for the real economy and one for the financial one. In this context, finance can still ensure a consistent closure of the whole system, thus directly allowing the functioning of the real economy. Newly developed inside-finance interactions, however, may indirectly influence real world dynamics, by easing/restricting access to credit/financial markets, and give rise to boom-and-bust cycles. Our aim is twofold: modeling modern financial worlds within an MC framework and understanding how financialization could have changed real-financial interactions