Synagogue paintings as indicating a!developing conception of national redemption

Abstract. Orgad Zvi, Synagogue paintings as indicating a developing conception of national redemption. “Images” vol. XXV, no. 34. Poznań 2019. Adam Mickiewicz University Press. Pp. 15–27. ISSN 1731-450X. DOI 10.14746/i.2019.34.01. This article compares the interior paintings in the ‘Ades and Ohel Moshe synagogues, both of which are non-Ashkenazi, in the Naḥlaot neighborhood in Jerusalem. Although the synagogues were decorated 50 years apart, there are similarities in the painted motifs and drawing schemes, but also some differences. I suggest that these differences reflect the development of a Jewish concept of national redemption during the 50 years that elapsed between the adornment of the two synagogues.Abstract. Orgad Zvi, Synagogue paintings as indicating a developing conception of national redemption. “Images” vol. XXV, no. 34. Poznań 2019. Adam Mickiewicz University Press. Pp. 15–27. ISSN 1731-450X. DOI 10.14746/i.2019.34.01. This article compares the interior paintings in the ‘Ades and Ohel Moshe synagogues, both of which are non-Ashkenazi, in the Naḥlaot neighborhood in Jerusalem. Although the synagogues were decorated 50 years apart, there are similarities in the painted motifs and drawing schemes, but also some differences. I suggest that these differences reflect the development of a Jewish concept of national redemption during the 50 years that elapsed between the adornment of the two synagogues

Computing Algebraic Matroids

An affine variety induces the structure of an algebraic matroid on the set of coordinates of the ambient space. The matroid has two natural decorations: a circuit polynomial attached to each circuit, and the degree of the projection map to each base, called the base degree. Decorated algebraic matroids can be computed via symbolic computation using Groebner bases, or through linear algebra in the space of differentials (with decorations calculated using numerical algebraic geometry). Both algorithms are developed here. Failure of the second algorithm occurs on a subvariety called the non-matroidal or NM- locus. Decorated algebraic matroids have widespread relevance anywhere that coordinates have combinatorial significance. Examples are computed from applied algebra, in algebraic statistics and chemical reaction network theory, as well as more theoretical examples from algebraic geometry and matroid theory.Comment: 15 pages; added link to references, note on page 1, and small formatting fixe

On asset-liability matching and federal deposit and pension insurance

Asset-liability mismatch was a principal cause of the Savings and Loan Crisis of the 1980s. The federal government's failure to recognize the mismatch risk early on and manage it properly led to huge losses by the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation, which had to be covered by taxpayers. In dealing with the problems now facing the defined-benefit pension system and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), the government seems to be making some of the same mistakes it made then. Among the causes is the fallacious belief that because pension funds have a long time horizon the risk of investing in equities is negligible. In fact, the opposite is true. Moreover, for the PBGC, the mismatch risk is magnified by moral hazard and adverse selection. Distressed companies facing the prospect of bankruptcy have an incentive to underfund their pension plans and adopt risky investment strategies; healthy companies have an incentive to terminate their plans and exit the system. The paper explores some ways to limit the costs of a potential PBGC bailout.Asset-liability management ; Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation

Money and the Dispersion of Relative Prices

A price dispersion equation is tested with data from the German hyper-inflation. The equation is derived from a version of Lucas' (1973) and Barro's (1976) partial information-localized market models. In this extension, different excess demand elasticities across commodities imply a testable dispersion equation, in which the explanatory variable is the magnitude of the unperceived money growth. The testing of this hypothesis requires two preliminary steps. First, a price dispersion series is computed using an interesting set of data. It consists of monthly average wholesale prices of 68 commodities ranging from foods to metals, for the period of January, 1921 to July, 1923. The next step is the delicate one of measuring unperceived money growth. This estimation implies the postulation of an available information set and also a function relating the variables in this set to money creation. The function used was based on considerations related to government demand for revenue. The model receives support from the empirical analysis although it is evident that unincluded variables have important effects on price dispersion.

Inflation Risk and Capital Market Equilibrium

This paper investigates the effect of inflation uncertainty on the portfolio behavior of households and the equilibrium structure of capitol market rates. The principal findings regarding portfolio behavior are: (1.) In the presence of inflation uncertainty, households will have an inflation-hedging demand for assets other than riskless nominal bonds, which will be directly proportional to the covariance between the rate of inflation and the nominal rates of return on these other assets. (2.) An asset is a perfect inflation hedge if and only if its nominal return is perfectly correlated with the rate of inflation. The principal findings regarding capital market rates are: (1.) The equilibrium real yield spread between any risky security and riskless nominal bonds is directly proportional to the difference between the covariance of the security's nominal rate of return with the market portfolio and its covariance with the rate of inflation. (2.) As long as the net supply of monetary assets in the economy is greater than zero, an increase in inflation uncertainty will lower the risk premia on all real assets. (3.) A preliminary empirical test of the theory using rates of return on common stocks, long-term bonds, real estate and commodity futures contracts yields mixed results. The risk premia on long-term bonds and futures have the "wrong" signs.

Pension Fund Investment Policy

The purpose of this paper is to survey what is known about the investment policy of pension funds. Pension fund investment policy depends critically on the type of plan: defined contribution versus defined benefit. For defined contribution plans investment policy is not much different than it is for an individual deciding how to invest the money in an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). The guiding principle is efficient diversification, that is, achieving the maximum expected return for any given level of risk exposure. The special feature is the fact that investment earnings are not taxed as long as the money is held in the pension fund. This consideration should cause the investor to tilt the asset mix of the pension fund towards the least tax-advantaged securities such as corporate bonds. For defined benefit plans the practitioner literature seems to advocate immunization strategies to hedge benefits owed to retired employees and portfolio insurance strategies to hedge benefits accruing to active employees. Academic research into the theory of optimal funding and asset allocation rules for corporate defined benefit plans concludes that if their objective is shareholder wealth maximization then these plans should pursue extreme policies. For healthy plans, the optimum is full funding and investment exclusively in taxable fixed-income securities. For very underfunded plans, the optimum is minimum funding and investment in the riskiest assets. Empirical research so far has failed to decisively confirm or reject the predictions of this theory of corporate pension policy. Recent rule changes adopted by the Financial Accounting Standards Board regarding corporate reporting of defined benefit plan assets and liabilities may lead to a significant shift into fixed-income securities. The recent introduction of price-level indexed securities in u.s. financial markets may lead to significant changes in pension fund asset allocation. By giving plan sponsors a simple way to hedge inflation risk, these securities make it possible to offer plan participants inflation protection both before and after retirement.