The growing role of the euro in emerging market finance

More than eight years after the introduction of the euro, impacts on developing countries have been relatively modest. Overall, the euro has become much more important in debt issuance than in official foreign exchange reserve holdings. The former has benefited from the creation of a large set of investors for which the euro is the home currency, while demand for euro reserves has been held back by the dominance of the dollar as a vehicle and intervention currency, and the greater liquidity of the market for US treasury securities. Fears of further dollar decline may fuel some shifts out of dollars into euros, however, with the potential for a period of financial instability.Debt Markets,Emerging Markets,Fiscal&Monetary Policy,Currencies and Exchange Rates,

Exchange Rates and Portfolio Balance

An open economy portfolio balance model, describing allocation among money, a domestic bond, and a traded foreign currency bond is developed for a world of many countries. A special role is attributed to the dollar, namely that all internationally traded bonds are denominated in that currency. It is shown that in the short run with real variables exogenous and expectations static, stability requires that all countries except the U.S. be net creditors in dollar-denominated bonds. What data are available on inter-country claims suggest that some countries may well be net debtors abroad in foreign currency. In particular, if one excludes direct investment claims, private claims on the rest of the world by Japan and Canada have been negative over the period of floating rates since 1973. However, some preliminary reduced-form regression equations for the dollar exchange rates of these two countries do not support the implications of the portfolio balance model in the debtor case. On the other hand, an equation for a composite of Western European currencies (by our calculations, this group of countries is a net creditor) gives more promising results.

Noncommutative generalization of SU(n)-principal fiber bundles: a review

This is an extended version of a communication made at the international conference ``Noncommutative Geometry and Physics'' held at Orsay in april 2007. In this proceeding, we make a review of some noncommutative constructions connected to the ordinary fiber bundle theory. The noncommutative algebra is the endomorphism algebra of a SU(n)-vector bundle, and its differential calculus is based on its Lie algebra of derivations. It is shown that this noncommutative geometry contains some of the most important constructions introduced and used in the theory of connections on vector bundles, in particular, what is needed to introduce gauge models in physics, and it also contains naturally the essential aspects of the Higgs fields and its associated mechanics of mass generation. It permits one also to extend some previous constructions, as for instance symmetric reduction of (here noncommutative) connections. From a mathematical point of view, these geometrico-algebraic considerations highlight some new point on view, in particular we introduce a new construction of the Chern characteristic classes

Transient upsets in microprocessor controllers

The modeling and analysis of transient faults in microprocessor based controllers are discussed. Such controllers typically consist of a microprocessor, read only memory storing and application program, random access memory for data storage, and input/output devices for external communications. The effects of transient faults on the performance of the controller are reviewed. An instruction level perspective of performance is taken which is the basis of a useful high level program state description of the microprocessor controller. A transition matrix is defined which determines the controller's response to transient fault arrivals

Intermittent/transient faults in digital systems

Containment set techniques are applied to 8085 microprocessor controllers so as to transform a typical control system into a slightly modified version, shown to be crashproof: after the departure of the intermittent/transient fault, return to one proper control algorithm is assured, assuming no permanent faults occur

Gradient discretization of Hybrid Dimensional Darcy Flows in Fractured Porous Media with discontinuous pressures at the matrix fracture interfaces

We investigate the discretization of Darcy flow through fractured porous media on general meshes. We consider a hybrid dimensional model, invoking a complex network of planar fractures. The model accounts for matrix-fracture interactions and fractures acting either as drains or as barriers, i.e. we have to deal with pressure discontinuities at matrix-fracture interfaces. The numerical analysis is performed in the general framework of gradient discretizations which is extended to the model under consideration. Two families of schemes namely the Vertex Approximate Gradient scheme (VAG) and the Hybrid Finite Volume scheme (HFV) are detailed and shown to satisfy the gradient scheme framework, which yields, in particular, convergence. Numerical tests confirm the theoretical results. Gradient Discretization; Darcy Flow, Discrete Fracture Networks, Finite Volum

Surface figure measurements of radio telescopes with a shearing interferometer

A new technique for determining the surface figure of large submillimeter wavelength telescopes is presented, which is based on measuring the telescope’s focal plane diffraction pattern with a shearing interferometer. In addition to the instrumental theory, results obtained using such an interferometer on the 10.4-m diam telescope of the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory are discussed. Using wavelengths near 1 mm, a measurement accuracy of 9 µm, or λ/115, has been achieved, and the rms surface accuracy has been determined to be just under 30 µm. The distortions of the primary reflector with changing elevation angle have also been measured and agree well with theoretical predictions of the dish deformation