Current Global Imbalances and the Keynes Plan

This paper proposes an interpretation of current global imbalances based upon the nature of the international currency, its main objective being to present a “logical experiment”, illustrating how alternative models of international financial organization may produce opposite results in the global economy. In the current organization, "key currencies" work as international money. Keynes, by contrast, proposed that this role should be assigned to a supra-national, "credit" money. While the world currently lives in what has been defined as a “balance of financial terror”, Keynes tried to achieve a more peaceful type of “international balance”. I argue that some of the technical provisions of the “Keynes Plan” may still – at least in principle- provide useful remedies for international disequilibria, by remedying the asymmetries of the current international monetary system and curbing both inflationary and deflationary pressures on the world economy.Global imbalances, valuation effects, key currencies, Keynes Plan

The International Circuit of Key Currencies and the Global Crisis: Is there Scope for Reform?

In this Working Paper, PERI Research Associate Lilia Costabile explores the potential causal links running from our international monetary system to global imbalances, and from these to the crisis. She asks whether the global imbalances contribute to the current crisis, whether these imbalances are, in turn, favored by, or rooted in, the current organization of the international monetary system, and whether a Keynesian monetary system reformed might cut some of the causes of global crises at their roots. Answering these with three qualified ‘yeses,’ Costabile considers possible remedies and considers some alternative interpretations of the global crisis.Key currencies, Keynes Plan, Global imbalances, Global crisis, International monetary system

Social Models, Growth and the International Monetary System: Implications for Europe and the United States

This paper explores the relationship between economic growth and the welfare state. We argue that: (i) the institutional constraints set by the international monetary system may be at least as effective determinants of growth differentials between countries as the different dimensions of their welfare states. We show how this international system may impose an asymmetric discipline/flexibility mix on the macreoconomic policies of different countries, thereby influencing their growth performance.; (ii) the European currency reshapes some of the pre-existing constraints and also open up new opportunities; (iii) in the new international setting, Europe is facing a choice between alternative models. In one alternative, the “welfare system” needs to be reduced to a minimum; in the second, its role should be enhanced and made more active, through an appropriate mix of welfare policies oriented towards the promotion of social well-being and policies oriented towards the promotion of productive capacities.international monetary system; macroeconomic policies; welfare state; welfare policies

Current global imbalances and the Keynes Plan. A Keynesian approach for reforming the international monetary system

This paper proposes a "logical experiment", illustrating how alternative international monetary systems may produce opposite results in the global economy. In the current organisation, "key currencies" work as international money. Keynes, by contrast, proposed that this role should be assigned to a supranational, "credit" money. While the world currently lives in an asymmetric regime, which lead to what has been defined as a "balance of financial terror", Keynes tried to achieve a more peaceful type of "international balance". I argue that the structural reform and the technical provisions proposed by the "Keynes Plan" may still - at least in principle - provide useful remedies for international disequilibria, by remedying the asymmetries of the current international payments architecture and helping to curb both inflationary and deflationary pressures on the world economy. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Using recommendations to help novices to reuse design knowledge

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21530-8_35. Copyright @ Springer 2011.The use of pattern languages is not so straightforward since its users have to identify the patterns they need, browsing the language and understanding both the benefits and trade-offs of each pattern as well as the relations and interactions it has with other patterns. Novice designers might benefit from tools that assist them in this learning task. In this paper we describe a recommendation tool embedded in a visual environment for pattern-based design which aims at suggesting patterns to help novice designers to produce better designs and understand the language.Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovatio

The Philosophy and Theology of Fairy-Stories: Fantasy, Escape, Recovery, and Consolation

In his seminal 1939 Andrew Lang lecture “On Fairy-Stories,” Tolkien proposed what we might term his most extensive pronouncement on his own fiction and underlying poetics, as well as an analysis of Fairy-Stories constituting a referential and authoritative statement on the matter. The importance of the subsequently published text, chiefly cited from Christopher Tolkien\u27s posthumous edited version in The Monsters and the Critics, or, more recently, in Douglas A. Anderson\u27s and Verlyn Flieger\u27s critical edition, simply cannot be overstated. In the light of such awareness, I would like to examine Tolkien\u27s antecedents as far as his chief arguments are concerned, beginning with fellow Pembroke College Professor Robert George Collingwood\u27s philosophy as published in 2004 from the manuscript of his 1936 Folk Lore Society lectures, by the title The Philosophy of Enchantment, which was paraphrased in titling the present account. In fact, Collingwood therein touched on many of the subjects treated in Tolkien\u27s lecture, also agreeing with him in many respects, therefore an evaluation should be given as to how the two thinkers\u27 minds stand in comparison to each other, especially regarding, for example, their common references concerning the study of the origins of Fairy-Stories, their shared critique of the exclusive association of aforesaid tales with children, as well as their concepts of Magic and Enchantment, and their negative views on modern technology. Subsequently, I would like to focus on the key terms of Tolkien\u27s theory of Subcreation by pointing out how all four—Fantasy, Escape, Recovery, and Consolation—powerfully resound with theological significance, and even more strikingly so in the case of the latter couple. Fantasy in its technical theological meaning was compared to God\u27s light bestowing understanding to human minds in Reginald Pecock\u27s 15th century theological treatise titled The Book of Faith. Pecock\u27s The Rule of Christian Religion is also an example of the conception of Christian Salvation as Escape from damnation. In another work, titled Patience, of the anonymous 14th century of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, which Tolkien edited, line 394 reads: “Alle cryed for care to þe Kyng of heven, Recoverer of þe Creator þay cryed uch one”. Finally, the Consolator par excellence, according to the New Testament, is the Holy Spirit, whom is sent by God to the Apostles after Christ\u27s ascension to Heaven. It is interesting to point this out, also in the light of another known fact hardly pointed out in this respect, although probably relevant: despite the awareness that Tolkien may have been influenced by 6th century thinker Boethius, especially in his Old English translation, seemingly it has always escaped the critic\u27s eye the fact that his referential work so translated is titled: The Consolation of Philosophy. Tech Mod: Jessica Dickinson Goodman

Bistability in sine-Gordon: the ideal switch

The sine-Gordon equation, used as the representative nonlinear wave equation, presents a bistable behavior resulting from nonlinearity and generating hysteresis properties. We show that the process can be understood in a comprehensive analytical formulation and that it is a generic property of nonlinear systems possessing a natural band gap. The approach allows to discover that sine-Gordon can work as an it ideal switch by reaching a transmissive regime with vanishing driving amplitude.Comment: Phys. Rev. E, (to be published, May 2005