Minsky, Monetary Policy and Mint Street: Challenges for the Art of Monetary Policymaking in Emerging Economies

This paper examines the emerging challenges to the art of monetary policymaking using the case study of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in light of developments in the Indian economy during the last decade (2003-04 to 2013-14). The paper uses Hyman P. Minsky's financial instability hypothesis as the conceptual framework for evaluating the endogenous nature of financial instability and its potential impact on monetary policymaking, and addresses the need to pursue regulatory policy as a tool that is complementary to monetary policy in light of the agenda of reforms put forward by Minsky. It further reviews the extensions to the Minskyan hypothesis in the areas of setting fiscal policy, managing cross-border capital flows, and developing financial institutional infrastructure. The lessons learned from the interplay of policy choices in these areas and their impact on monetary policymaking at the RBI are presented

Minimal and inducible regulation of tissue factor pathway inhibitor-2 in human gliomas

Tissue factor pathway inhibitor-2 (TFPI-2), a serine protease inhibitor abundant in the extra cellular matrix, is highly expressed in non-invasive cells but undetectable levels in highly invasive human glioma cells. The mechanisms responsible for its transcriptional regulation are not well elucidated. In this study, we made several deletion constructs from a 3.6 kb genomic fragment from Hs683 cells containing the 5’-flanking region of the TFPI-2 gene, transiently transfected with these constructs into non-invasive (Hs683) and highly invasive (SNB19) human glioma cells, and assessed their expression by using a luciferase reporter gene. Three constructs showed high promoter activity (pTF5, -670 to +1; pTF6, -312 to +1; pTF2, -1511 to +1). Another construct, pTF8 (-81 to +1), showed no activity. PTF9, a variant of pTF5 in which a further 231 bp fragment (-312 to -81) was deleted, from the [-670 to +1] pTF5 region, also showed no promoter activity. Hence, (-312 to -81) this region is essential for the transcription of TFPI-2 in glioma cells. Sequencing of this promoter region revealed that it has a high G+C content, contains potential SP1 and AP1 binding motifs, and lacks canonical TATA and CAAT boxes immediately upstream of the major transcriptional initiation site, although CAAT boxes were found about -3000 bp upstream of the transcription start site. We also found a strong repressor in the region between -927 to -1181, upstream of the major transcriptional initiation site, followed by positive elements or enhancers between -1511 to -1181. These positive elements masked the silencer effect. Finally TFPI-2 was induced in Hs683 cells transfected with the pTF6 construct (-312 to + 1) and stimulated with phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA). We conclude that the -312 to +1 region is critical for the minimal and inducible regulation of TFPI-2 in non-invasive (Hs683) and highly invasive (SNB19) human glioma cell lines