776 research outputs found
Future of the Euro
No full textFuture of the Euro a Great Decisions lecture given by Marc Schaffer, assistant professor of Economics at St. Norbert Colleg
Replication Data for: The Impact of U.S. Monetary Policy and U.S. Demand Shocks on Economic Activity in Japan During U.S. Quantitative Easing
No full textThis dataset was used for an analysis of the transmission of US monetary policy and demand shocks on the Japan’s economy. All of this data was collected from the Federal Reserve’s FRED database and is publicly available
Replication Data for: The Impact of U.S. Monetary Policy and U.S. Demand Shocks on Economic Activity in Japan During U.S. Quantitative Easing
No full textThis dataset was used for an analysis of the transmission of US monetary policy and demand shocks on the Japan’s economy. All of this data was collected from the Federal Reserve’s FRED database and is publicly available
[Handwritten note concerning Jack Ruby and Nolan Ray Schaffer]
No full textHandwritten note by an unknown author concerning Jack Ruby and Nolan Ray Schaffer
The enterprise sector and emergence of the Polish fiscal crisis, 1990-91
No full textThe author analyzes the causes of the collapse of profitability in 1991 of the Polish enterprise sector. He explores how it affected the government budget and assesses the forecasts of enterprise sector performance used to prepare the government's 1990 and 1991 budgets. About half of the drop in profitability he attributes to the decrease in the inflation rate and the consequent decrease in the inflation bias in profits that results from historical cost accounting. He attributes most of the rest of the collapse in profitability to higher labor costs and higher amortization allowances. When wages are endogenized in a simple model, nearly the entire collapse of profitability is explained by the changes in inflation bias and amortization allowances. The decrease in the inflation bias and the increase in amortization allowances caused profits, and thus profit taxes, to fall, freeing up cash that could be spent on wages, causing profits and profit taxes to fall even further. This loss in government revenues was offset by increased revenues from wage taxes, which were in turn offset by an increase in wage indexed government spending, notably on pensions. As a result of all these changes, the government deficit increased about 4 to 5 percent of GDP - about half of the fiscal swing between 1990 and 1991. Policy options recommended for increasing tax revenues include: increasing the turnover tax rate and introducing the value added tax that will replace it at rates that maintain the increased level of revenue; increasing the social security tax rate; and maintaining, but not raising, the historical cost based profit tax, an automatic stabilizer. An obvious alternative to the profit tax based on historical cost accounting is to redress 1991 mistake, the indexing of amortization deductions. The author recommends drastically reducing or even abolishing amortization deductions for state owned enterprises for fixed capital acquired before 1990 (before the start of the transition from socialism). It is odd that these firms are given a tax break on top of the free use of state owned capital. If anything, they should be paying for the use of the capital.Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Banks&Banking Reform,Municipal Financial Management
RNA processing in Bacillus subtilis: identification of targets of the essential RNase Y
No full textRNA processing and degradation is initiated by endonucleolytic cleavage of the target RNAs. In many bacteria, this activity is performed by RNase E which is not present in Bacillus subtilis and other Gram-positive bacteria. Recently, the essential endoribonuclease RNase Y has been discovered in B. subtilis. This RNase is involved in the degradation of bulk mRNA suggesting a major role in RNA metabolism. However, only a few targets of RNase Y have been identified so far. In order to assess the global impact of RNase Y, we compared the transcriptomes in response to the expression level of RNase Y. Our results demonstrate that processing by RNase Y results in accumulation of about 550 mRNAs. Some of these targets were substantially stabilized by RNase Y depletion, resulting in half-lives in the range of an hour. Moreover, about 350 mRNAs were less abundant when RNase Y was depleted among them the mRNAs of the operons required for biofilm formation. Interestingly, overexpression of RNase Y was sufficient to induce biofilm formation. The results presented in this work emphasize the importance of RNase Y as the global acting endoribonuclease for B. subtilis
Mitochondrial remodeling in mice with cardiomyocyte-specific lipid overload
No full textAbstract not availableAly Elezaby, Aaron L. Sverdlov, Vivian H. Tua Kanupriya Sonia Ivan Luptak, Fuzhong Qina Marc Liesa, Orian S. Shirihai, Jamie Rimerc, Jean E. Schaffer, Wilson S. Colucci, Edward J. Mille
Stemming the Tide of Foreclosure: Evaluating the Use of Eminent Domain to Relieve Underwater Homeowners
No full textMore than six years since the housing bubble burst in 2007, over twelve million homes nationwide remain underwater––one out of every five homes with a mortgage. These homeowners are more likely to default on their mortgage payments because the overall principal value of their mortgages is greater than the value of their home. Being underwater limits an individual homeowner’s ability to recover from financial shocks, such as job loss or reduction in income, and at an aggregate level, it threatens another wave of foreclosures. Further, securitization of residential mortgages has inhibited refinancing, even when advantageous to all stakeholders.
This Note evaluates a proposal that aims to overcome a collective action problem between borrowers, lenders, mortgage servicers, and government actors by recalibrating the value of underwater mortgages. Using the power of eminent domain, local municipalities would seize underwater mortgages from private-label securitization trusts, compensating the trusts with the true fair market value of the mortgage (which, by definition, would be less than the current home value). The municipalities, in conjunction with a venture capitalist fund, would refinance the mortgage with a government-approved vendor at a value closer to the true market price. This proposal would likely survive a constitutional challenge and should be piloted in communities burdened by trillions of dollars of household debt.
The author would like to thank Professor Michael Heller for his guidance and comments. The author would also like to thank Jonathan and Toby Schaffer, Zachary Schaffer, and Daniel Sartori for their unwavering support and patience during this process, and always. Many thanks to the Columbia Business Law Review editorial staff for their dedication in preparing this Note for publication
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Stemming the Tide of Foreclosure
No full textMore than six years since the housing bubble burst in 2007, over twelve million homes nationwide remain underwater––one out of every five homes with a mortgage. These homeowners are more likely to default on their mortgage payments because the overall principal value of their mortgages is greater than the value of their home. Being underwater limits an individual homeowner’s ability to recover from financial shocks, such as job loss or reduction in income, and at an aggregate level, it threatens another wave of foreclosures. Further, securitization of residential mortgages has inhibited refinancing, even when advantageous to all stakeholders.
This Note evaluates a proposal that aims to overcome a collective action problem between borrowers, lenders, mortgage servicers, and government actors by recalibrating the value of underwater mortgages. Using the power of eminent domain, local municipalities would seize underwater mortgages from private-label securitization trusts, compensating the trusts with the true fair market value of the mortgage (which, by definition, would be less than the current home value). The municipalities, in conjunction with a venture capitalist fund, would refinance the mortgage with a government-approved vendor at a value closer to the true market price. This proposal would likely survive a constitutional challenge and should be piloted in communities burdened by trillions of dollars of household debt.
The author would like to thank Professor Michael Heller for his guidance and comments. The author would also like to thank Jonathan and Toby Schaffer, Zachary Schaffer, and Daniel Sartori for their unwavering support and patience during this process, and always. Many thanks to the Columbia Business Law Review editorial staff for their dedication in preparing this Note for publication
Appropriate policy measures to attract private capital in consideration of regional efficiency in using infrastructure and human capital
No full textRegional economic policy disposes of two principal options to attract private capital, which in turn helps to safeguard employment and to foster regional growth. On the one hand, regional policy could seek to enhance a region's level of public capital (e.g. transport infrastructure), which as a consequence makes the region more attractive to private investors in general. On the other hand, private capital could be attracted in a more direct way by proposing specific innovation, SME or cluster programs. The success of both options is partly driven by the regions already existing level of region specific production factors and the ability to use these factors efficiently. Indirect approaches to attract private capital seem to be particularly promising for efficient regions (no matter of the absolute level of public capital). In contrast, inefficient regions shall benefit more from specific programs. However, for Germany the factual pattern seems to be the other way around, which could widening rather than closing the income gap among regions. --
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