RAFfigurazioni. Il terrorismo di sinistra degli anni '70 nelle opere di Heinrich Böll, Peter Schneider, Friedrich Christian Delius, Ulrike Edschmid, Dea Loher e John von Düffel. Traduzione dell’opera "Leviathan" di Dea Loher

Il presente lavoro consiste nell’analisi di una selezione di opere di letteratura tedesca contemporanea che hanno elaborato il tema del terrorismo di sinistra (in particolar modo della Rote Armee Fraktion) degli anni ’70: "Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum" di Heinrich Böll (1974), "...schon bist du ein Verfassungsfeind" di Peter Schneider (1975), "Ein Held der inneren Sicherheit" (1981), "Mogadischu Fensterplatz" (1987), "Himmelfahrt eines Staatsfeindes" (1992) di Friedrich Christian Delius, "Leviathan" di Dea Loher (1993), "Frau mit Waffe" di Ulrike Edschmid (1996), "Rinderwahnsinn" e "Born in the R.A.F." di John von Düffel (entrambe 1999), "Das Verschwinden des Philip S." di Ulrike Edschmid (2013). Oltre a uno studio delle opere elencate, nell'elaborato viene proposta una traduzione integrale di "Leviathan" di Dea Loher e viene presentato un commento alla traduzione del dramma

Atrial signal extraction in atrial fibrillation ECGs exploiting spatial constraints

International audienceThe accuracy in the extraction of the atrial activity (AA) from electrocardiogram (ECG) signals recorded during atrial fibrillation (AF) episodes plays an important role in the analysis and characterization of atrial arrhhythmias. The present contribution puts forward a new method for AA signal automatic extraction based on a blind source separation (BSS) formulation that exploits spatial information about the AA during the T-Q segments. This prior knowledge is used to optimize the spectral content of the AA signal estimated by BSS on the full ECG recording. The comparative performance of the method is evaluated on real data recorded from AF sufferers. The AA extraction quality of the proposed technique is comparable to that of previous algorithms, but is achieved at a reduced cost and without manual selection of parameters

Critical macro-finance, Post Keynesian monetary theory and emerging economies

© The Author(s) 2020. This an open access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).In our contribution to this forum, we suggest that critical macro-finance (CMF) scholars and Post Keynesian monetary theorists would profit from a more explicit engagement with each other. Post Keynesian scholars would benefit from the detailed empirical insights that CMF provides, particularly through its analysis of non-bank financial institutions and the conceptual focus on liquidity and liabilities. Meanwhile, the CMF literature would benefit from more explicit grounding in earlier Post Keynesian concepts. In particular, the theory of liquidity preference, the concept of the liquidity premium, and the theory of endogenous money highlight macroeconomic issues missing from CMF scholarship.Peer reviewe

Commonality without convergence: An analytical framework Accounting for variegated financialisation in emerging economies

© 2023 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/Financialisation is not a homogenous but a variegated process. However, the question along which categories this variegation happens is currently unanswered. We identify four variegation categories: financial sector structure, productive structures, the role of the state, and the growth model. We apply these categories to two seemingly similar emerging-economy contexts which have produced different financialisation experiences: Colombia and South Africa. Financialisation in South Africa is much more market-based, meaning it is led by the financial sector unfolding through financial markets and banks’ activities visible in their much larger size, activity, and international interconnectedness, than in Colombia. Hence, South African credit extension, bond markets, domestic pension funds, and stock market capitalisation are substantially larger than Colombia’s, while the Rand has experienced strong internationalisation since 2000. Nevertheless, there is evidence financialisation processes have been unfolding dynamically in both countries over the past two decades, reinforcing the view of variegated financialisation as a common tendency with significant heterogeneities across countries.Peer reviewe

UK pension funds’ patience and liquidity in the age of market-based finance

© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Pension funds have often failed to meet expectations in terms of providing ‘patient capital’. Explanations for this lapse have ranged over regulatory and ideational factors. We argue that a new ‘impatient’ phenomenon is emerging that requires further explanation: pension funds are becoming more mindful of their liquidity and collateral management, and engage in pro-cyclical investment behaviour. We show how UK pension funds have adapted their investment strategies, investing significantly in collective funds, including in foreign and in “alternative assets”, and setting aside protection assets as collateral for their derivatives and repo transactions. This behaviour has increased pension funds' exposure to and participation in liquidity spirals, forcing them to dispose of assets during crises and contributing to the overall pro-cyclicality of the contemporary market-based financial system. This was most recently highlighted by the instability of UK government bond markets in September 2022. Drawing from Minsky and the emerging literature on Critical Macro-Finance, we argue that this new pension fund behaviour is in response to structural changes in the financial markets in which they operate.Peer reviewe

Undefined Benefit: Fixing the UK Pensions System

© Common Wealth 2022

Institutional investors and emerging markets with intermediate exchange rate regimes: A stock-flow consistent model

Abstract This paper develops a two-country stock-flow consistent model to analyse the relationship between advanced and emerging countries. The relationship between the two countries is asymmetric: advanced countries are characterised by an institutional investors’ sector which invests in both domestic and emerging markets assets, whereas emerging markets own advanced countries assets as a result of foreign exchange reserves accumulation by their central bank. The paper aims to show how the portfolio choice of institutional investors, which have return requirements to meet, is the key driver of financial stability in emerging markets, particularly by determining the dynamics of the exchange rates of emerging markets economies. Their role, compared to a standard open-economy model may be stabilising or de-stabilising, depending on the nature of the shock that induces changes in portfolio choices. The paper also shows how “intermediate” exchange rate regimes, as commonly found nowadays in the practice of emerging markets central banks, may be succesful at containing such instabilities