Market liquidity and banking liquidity: linkages, vulnerabilities and the role of disclosure.

During the course of 2007, global financial markets went through noticeable periods of turbulence. In particular, complex credit markets suffered a marked set-back. Oddly, turmoil in these fairly new markets contributed to severe liquidity shortages in short-term money and interbank markets, triggering repeated large-scale monetary interventions by central banks worldwide. Recent events have thus demonstrated that banks are considerably intertwined in fi nancial markets; dependent on and exposed to them as regards liquidity. The aim of this article is to better understand this complex relationship and to frame relevant aspects of the latest fi nancial market turmoil accordingly. In particular, we explore the mechanics of a market liquidity crisis and its impact on individual banks’ liquidity, as well as possible spillovers to other banks. These dynamics of course raise a number of policy issues. Here, we focus on the role that greater disclosure to markets on banks’ liquidity situation itself could play as a market-stabilising device. In summary, global banks have increasingly integrated into capital markets and in terms of both funding and asset liquidity rely considerably on functioning, liquid financial markets. This is particularly visible in the shift towards secured lending transactions; growth of the securitisation market; the broadening of collateral to encompass complex products with shifting levels of market liquidity; and the rise in committed credit or liquidity lines to sponsored special purpose vehicles (SPVs) and corporates. While some of the recent developments in fi nancial market liquidity can be attributed to technological progress, importantly, more temporary factors resulting from an environment of low interest rates have accelerated market liquidity beyond sustainable levels. While, per se, banks’ ability to “liquify” assets represents a positive development which should help mitigate the fundamental liquidity risk that banks face, increased sensitivity with respect to market liquidity risk has also created new vulnerabilities with respect to sudden reversals of market liquidity. Importantly, adverse circumstances could trigger a combined increase in demands on liquid assets via margin requirements and activation of credit lines and reduced liquidity of assets and related market funding sources. The severe loss of liquidity in asset-backed securities markets and its repercussions on global interbank markets during 2007 provide a vivid illustration of the channels that link market liquidity to banks’ funding and asset liquidity and of the wider externalities of idiosyncratic liquidity shocks. How can these risks be addressed? Together with active liquidity management, disclosure may represent one tool through which such vulnerability may be reduced. A large literature exists on the merits of transparency in banking. Greater transparency should alleviate refi nancing frictions related to asymmetric information. When information problems are however deeper and concern aggregate uncertainty, improved disclosure on credit fundamentals may be less effective to restore confidence. Instead, better information on liquidity itself may be necessary. We explore the current availability of information on banks’ liquidity and funding risks. Overall, information appears to be limited –failing to disclose in a comprehensive and comparable way the underlying dynamics of liquidity demands and funding sources. But liquidity is volatile and banks are subject to inherent liquidity mismatches. Can greater disclosure in this area ever be a useful tool to reinforce market discipline in a systemically stabilising fashion? While this question merits serious reflection, the 2007 market events have shown that current information gaps are large and need addressing.

Extracting the Weinberg angle at intermediate energies

A recent experiment by the NuTeV collaboration resulted in a surprisingly high value for the weak mixing angle $\sin^2 \theta_W$. The Paschos-Wolfenstein relation, relating neutrino cross sections to the Weinberg angle, is of pivotal importance in the NuTeV analysis. In this work, we investigate the sensitivity of the Paschos-Wolfenstein relation to nuclear structure aspects at neutrino energies in the few GeV range. Neutrino-nucleus cross sections are calculated for $^{16}$O and $^{56}$Fe target nuclei within a relativistic quasi-elastic nucleon-knockout model.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of International School of Nuclear Physics: 27th Course: "Neutrinos in Cosmology, in Astro, Particle and Nuclear Physics", Erice, Sicily, Italy, 16-24 Sep 200

Strangeness content of the nucleon in quasielastic neutrino-nucleus reactions

We present a systematic study of the sensitivity of quasielastic neutrino-nucleus cross sections at intermediate energies to the strange quark sea of the nucleon. To this end, we investigate the impact of the weak strangeness form factors on the ratio of proton-to-neutron knockout, the ratio of neutral-to-charged current cross sections, on the Paschos-Wolfenstein relation, and on the longitudinal helicity asymmetry. The influence of axial as well as vector strangeness effects is discussed. For the latter, we introduce strangeness parameters from various hadron models and from a recent fit to data from parity violating electron scattering. In our model, the nuclear target is described in terms of a relativistic mean-field approach. The effects of final-state interactions on the outgoing nucleon are quantified within a relativistic multiple-scattering Glauber approach. Our results are illustrated with cross sections for the scattering of 1 GeV neutrinos and antineutrinos off a $^{12}$C target. Folding with a proposed FINeSSE (anti)neutrino energy-distribution has no qualitative influence on the overall sensitivity of the cross-section ratios to strangeness mechanisms. We show that vector strangeness effects are large and strongly $Q^2$ dependent.Comment: 25 pages, 12 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

A relativistic model for neutrino pion production from nuclei in the resonance region

We present a relativistic model for electroweak pion production from nuclei, focusing on the $\Delta$ and the second resonance region. Bound states are derived in the Hartree approximation to the $\sigma-\omega$ Walecka model. Final-state interactions of the outgoing pion and nucleon are described in a factorized way by means of a relativistic extension of the Glauber model. Our formalism allows a detailed study of neutrino pion production through $Q^2$, $W$, energy, angle and out-of-plane distributions.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure, poster presented at the NuInt07 conference on few-GeV neutrino physic

Functional Outcome After Successful Internal Fixation Versus Salvage Arthroplasty of Patients With a Femoral Neck Fracture

Objectives: To determine patient independency, health-related and disease-specific quality of life (QOL), gait pattern, and muscle strength in patients after salvage arthroplasty for failed internal fixation of a femoral neck fracture. Design: Secondary cohort study to a randomized controlled trial. Setting: Multicenter trial in the Netherlands, including 14 academic and nonacademic hospitals. Patients: Patients after salvage arthroplasty for failed internal fixation of a femoral neck fracture were studied. A comparison was made with patients who healed uneventfully after internal fixation. Intervention: None (observatory study). Main Outcome Measurements: Patient characteristics, SF-12, and Western Ontario McMaster osteoarthritis index scores were collected. Gait parameters were measured using plantar pressure measurement. Maximum isometric forces of the hip muscles were measured using a handheld dynamome

The evolving impact of global, region-specific and country-specific uncertainty

 This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in Journal of Business & Economic Statistics on 30 Oct 2019, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/07350015.2019.166879

Continuous low- to moderate-intensity exercise training is as effective as moderate- to high-intensity exercise training at lowering blood HbA1c in obese type 2 diabetes patients

Aims/hypothesis: Exercise represents an effective interventional strategy to improve glycaemic control in type 2 diabetes patients. However, the impact of exercise intensity on the benefits of exercise training remains to be established. In the present study, we compared the clinical benefits of 6 months of continuous low- to moderate-intensity exercise training with those of continuous moderate- to high-intensity exercise training, matched for energy expenditure, in obese type 2 diabetes patients. Methods: Fifty male obese type 2 diabetes patients (age 59∈±∈8 years, BMI 32∈± ∈4 kg/m2) participated in a 6 month continuous endurance-type exercise training programme. All participants performed three supervised exercise sessions per week, either 55 min at 50% of whole body peak oxygen uptake left(VO2peak) (low to moderate intensity) or 40 min at 75% of VO2peak (moderate to high intensity). Oral glucose tolerance, blood glycated haemoglobin, lipid profile, body composition, maximal workload capacity, whole body and skeletal muscle oxidative capacity and skeletal muscle fibre type composition were assessed before and after 2 and 6 months of intervention. Results: The entire 6 month intervention programme was completed by 37 participants. Continuous endurance-type exercise training reduced blood glycated haemoglobin levels, LDL-cholesterol concentrations, body weight and leg fat mass, and increased VO2peak, lean muscle mass and skeletal muscle cytochrome c oxidase and citrate synthase activity (p∈<∈0. 05). No differences were observed between the groups training at low to moderate or moderate to high intensity. Conclusions/interpretation: When matched for energy cost, prolonged continuous low- to moderate-intensity endurance-type exercise training is equally effective as continuous moderate- to high-intensity training in lowering blood glycated haemoglobin and increasing whole body and skeletal muscle oxidative capacity in obese type 2 diabetes patients. © 2009 Springer-Verlag