The WTO: A Train Wreck in Progress?

This article argues that the WTO entrenches an asymmetrical, non-reciprocal trading system that benefits multi-national corporations especially, at the expense of industrial workers, farmers, and a wide range of business enterprises. It argues that the WTO doesn\u27t deserve to survive in its present, unbalanced, and unsustainable form, and that it is doubtful that its voting regime, accumulated asymmetries, and overall rigidity can be overhauled. The author posits that bilateral and regional trade bargaining will become increasingly important and that world market forces are likely to bypass, and perhaps overwhelm, the WTO

Designing an Integrated Financial Supervision Agency: Selected Lessons and Challenges for Indonesia

Having initiated reforms in its financial sector in late 1997, the government of Indonesia introduced a new central bank independence act in early 1999. The next task for the government of Indonesia is to devise a safety net system for the financial sector. This study draws essential lessons from the experiences of other countries to highlight a number of key challenges facing Indonesia, especially at early stages of designing its unified financial sector supervisory agency.Unified Financial Sector Supervisory Agency, Bancassurance Central Bank, Indonesia.

Forty Years of the BLS Export and Import Price Indexes: Trends and Competition

[Excerpt] U.S. competitiveness is measured in many different ways. However, two sets of measures that historically have been of interest in helping to assess the strength of the economy are the price trends of U.S. exports and of U.S. imports. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS, the Bureau) first began publication of a limited set of export price indexes in 1971, followed 2 years later by a set of import price indexes. The Bureau developed these series in response to two key concerns, one statistical and the other economic. The statistical issue was over the validity of the import and export unit value indexes published by the Census Bureau. The economic question had to do with the nation’s ability to compete in the increasingly global economy. The publication of detailed export and import price indexes helped address these concerns because those indexes were true price indexes and because they provided a greater level of detail than the analogous indexes previously published by the Census Bureau. The number of published series increased until the Bureau was able to publish the first all-import price index in 1983, followed a year later by the first all-export price index. Although the publication of these series alleviated the need to rely upon the unit value data—indeed, the Census Bureau discontinued publication of its unit value indexes in 1989—concerns over U.S. competitiveness have only grown over time

Monetary theory and electronic money : reflections on the Kenyan experience

This article uses a class of models of money and the payments system to inform an analysis of "mobile banking" in the context of the rapid expansion of M-PESA, a new technology in Kenya that allows payments via mobile phones (even without any access to a bank account), and currently reaches close to 38 percent of Kenyan adults. The separation of households and firms in space and time suggests, in theory, from various separate models, a number of implications. These include (i) the potential gain, under some circumstances, from allowing net e-money credit creation, (ii) the impact that the associated enhancement of credit markets can have on monetary policy and on the real economy, (iii) the roles that e-money could play not only in credit but also in insurance, unrelated to its payment function, (iv) the potential role for an activist monetary policy and e-money management, (v) the role of e-money as a circulating private debt and as a store of value though with potential coordination problems associated with achieving balanced security transformation, (vi) the potential welfare losses from insisting on continuous net clearing of cash and e-money and the difficulty, in any event, of achieving this in practice, and (vii) the management of shortages in the context of fixed rates of exchange of e-money for cash. We provide some summary statistics from data collected on M-PESA agents and users that are reminiscent of the environments of the models and that support some of these implications. Other implications of the models suggest reforms to enhance the system's efficiency.Monetary policy ; Inflation (Finance) ; Financial institutions ; Payment systems

The History of Our School Building

History of Brockport Normal in Brockport NY, its buildings and physical plant

Zombie Banks and Forbearance Lending: Causes, Effects, and Policy Measures: Zombie Banks and Forbearance Lending:Causes, Effects, and Policy Measures

Zombie banks are banks that are practically insolvent but continue to exist through hiding bad loans on their balance sheet. This can be achieved by rolling over bad loans instead of writing them off, a process known as forbearance lending, zombie lending or evergreening. Zombie banks have received increased attention of late, not least because of the sovereign debt and banking crisis in Europe. This follows other banking crises in the US and Japan which have equally seen an increased number of bank failures, and where insolvent companies have been kept alive by banks. This study aims to give a theoretical assessment of the phenomenon around zombie banks and forbearance lending. Although zombie banks are the focus of a wide public debate, the existing research has not been able to fully explain many aspects around them, such as the several motives for forbearance lending, the impact of forbearance lending on the overall portfolio of zombie banks, or the right policy response in dealing with them. In light of this, the study presents three models that simulate the behavior of banks when rolling over bad loans. These models offer insights into the causes and effects of zombie banking, and also allow us to analyze the context of policy measures by the government and the central bank. To put the models into the right context, the study also provides a detailed overview of the theoretical and empirical literature as well as the practical experience with zombie banks and forbearance lending in Japan and Europe

Tidal Response of Preliminary Jupiter Model

In anticipation of improved observational data for Jupiter's gravitational field from the Juno spacecraft, we predict the static tidal response for a variety of Jupiter interior models based on ab initio computer simulations of hydrogen-helium mixtures. We calculate hydrostatic-equilibrium gravity terms using the non-perturbative concentric Maclaurin Spheroid (CMS) method that eliminates lengthy expansions used in the theory of figures. Our method captures terms arising from the coupled tidal and rotational perturbations, which we find to be important for a rapidly-rotating planet like Jupiter. Our predicted static tidal Love number $k_2 = 0.5900$ is $\sim$10\% larger than previous estimates. The value is, as expected, highly correlated with the zonal harmonic coefficient $J_2$, and is thus nearly constant when plausible changes are made to interior structure while holding $J_2$ fixed at the observed value. We note that the predicted static $k_2$ might change due to Jupiter's dynamical response to the Galilean moons, and find reasons to argue that the change may be detectable, although we do not present here a theory of dynamical tides for highly oblate Jovian planets. An accurate model of Jupiter's tidal response will be essential for interpreting Juno observations and identifying tidal signals from effects of other interior dynamics in Jupiter's gravitational field.Comment: 10 Pages, 6 figures, 4 table

Letter from Senator Langer to Reinhard Kaufman Regarding the Possible Establishment of a Post Office in the Western Part of the Fort Berthold Reservation, June 2, 1954

This letter, dated June 2, 1954, from United States (US) Senator William Langer to the Reverend Reinhard Kaufman of St. Anthony\u27s Church in Mandaree and New Town, North Dakota on the Forth Berthold Reservation, makes reference to attached material Langer has recently received from the United States Post Office Department in reply to his inquiry concerning the establishment of a post office in the western segment of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. Langer writes that if Kaufman has need for any more assistance after he has filled out the attached forms and sent them to the US Post Office Department, he should not hesitate to let Langer know.https://commons.und.edu/langer-papers/1991/thumbnail.jp