"The Economic Consequences of Weintraub's Consumption Coefficient"

In this paper we show that Weintraub:s consumption coefficient (the ratio of total consumption to wages) can elucidate trends in the sectoral and functional distributions of income We also show that, in a Kaleckian model, it simplifies and add precision to Kaleckian macroeconomics. Using a Kaleckian definition of profits, empirical estimates of the coefficient are presented for the UK 1972-1990. From a level of around 1.1 in the 1970’s, the coefficient rose to around 1.3 in the mid-1980s from which it has started to fall back to its 1970's levels. During the 1980s, the coefficient indicated a marked redistribution of income in favour of profits along with a rise in capitalists' propensity to consume. This confirms the evidence that the economic boom of the 1980s was driven principally by an expansion of demand for luxury goods rather than fixed capital investment. This will have been a factor in the slump after 1990.

Growth of international finance and emerging economies: Elements for alternative approach

This paper examines the increasing cross-border flows of capital involving developing and emerging economies in the past few decades. The discussion challenges the traditional economic theories based on net capital flows and deficits in current accounts to explain international borrowing by developing countries, and on the current account imbalances approach to explain financial crises. We argue that the increasing involvement of the private sector in developing countries’ external debt and the fact that the public sector, previously reliant almost entirely on official credit, has become able to access private debt markets, reflect the increasing integration of developing countries into the global financial system, and this process has particular features. A closer look at data on gross capital flows reveals that net capital flows neither explain nor capture this global financial integration

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

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

Hydrolysis of tannic acid catalyzed by immobilized-stabilized derivatives of tannase from Lactobacillus plantarum

A recombinant tannase from Lactobacillus plantarum, overexpressed in Escherichia coli, was purified in a single step by metal chelate affinity chromatography on poorly activated nickel supports. It was possible to obtain 0.9 g of a pure enzyme by using only 20 mL of chromatographic support. The pure enzyme was immobilized and stabilized by multipoint covalent immobilization on highly activated glyoxyl agarose. Derivatives obtained by multipoint and multisubunit immobilization were 500- and 1000-fold more stable than both the soluble enzyme and the one-point-immobilized enzyme in experiments of thermal and cosolvent inactivation, respectively. In addition, up to 70 mg of pure enzyme was immobilized on 1 g of wet support. The hydrolysis of tannic acid was optimized by using the new immobilized tannase derivative. The optimal reaction conditions were 30% diglyme at pH 5.0 and 4 C. Under these conditions, it was possible to obtain 47.5 mM gallic acid from 5 mM tannic acid as substrate. The product was pure as proved by HPLC. On the other hand, the immobilized biocatalyst preserved >95% of its initial activity after 1 month of incubation under the optimal reaction conditionsThis work was supported by Grants AGL2008-01052, AGL-2009-07625, Consolider INGENIO 2010 CSD2007-00063 FUN-C-FOOD(CICYT),RM2008-00002 (INIA), and S-0505/AGR/000153 (CAM). J.A.C. is the recipient of a predoctoral fellowship from the I3P-CSIC Program and FPI-MEC, and G.F.-L. and L.B. are recipients of Ramon y Cajal postdoctoral contracts.Peer reviewe

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

Financialization and the monetary circuit : a macro-accounting approach

This paper aims to cross-breed the standard monetary circuit accounting model with elements from the Post-Keynesian literature. The goals are: (i) to analyse the implications of credit-based household consumption fed by capital asset inflation for the soundness of a pure credit-money economy of production; and (ii) to provide a more sophisticated description of the working of modern financial systems than the one grounded in the usual 'bank-based vs. market based' distinction