A Short and Personal History of the Spitzer Space Telescope

The Spitzer Space Telescope, born as the Shuttle Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) and later the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (still SIRTF), was under discussion and development within NASA and the scientific community for more than 30 years prior to its launch in 2003. This brief history chronicles a few of the highlights and the lowlights of those 30 years from the authors personal perspective. A much more comprehensive history of SIRTF/Spitzer has been written by George Rieke (2006).Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures; to appear in proceedings of "The Spitzer Space Telescope: New Views of the Cosmos

The Reciprocity Requirement of the Second Banking Directive of the European Economic Community

This article discusses the revised Article 7(4) of the European Communities\u27 Proposal for a Second Council Directive on the Coordination of Laws, Regulations and Administrative Provisions Relating to the Taking-up and Pursuit of the Business of Credit Institutions. The article argues that the revision of the proposal for the Second Directive by the Commission of the European Communities will mainly have two effects. First, the Commission\u27s review procedure will no longer be on a case-by-case basis, but on a country-by-country basis; the Commission will no longer interfere with an individual authorization procedure before the competent authorities of a Member State. Second, the suspension of future authorizations depends on a finding by the Commission that a specific country does not grant national treatment to EEC institutions; lack of reciprocity is no longer a basis for a denial of an application. This new approach will allow the Commission to defend against discriminations against EEC institutions abroad, while respecting different banking policies in third countries

Can a central bank influence its currency's real value? The Swiss case

Banks and banking, Central ; Switzerland ; Monetary policy - Switzerland