Sabotage in the financial system: Lessons from Veblen

The global financial crisis that started in the summer of 2007 has generated a wide-ranging discussion about the causes of the meltdown and the role of banking and bankers in today's economy. However, the ongoing debate rarely addresses questions of business tactics in the financial industry. Indeed, while 'incentives,' 'vested interests,' power, and-increasingly-social utility are often factored into analyses of financial regulation, the strategies and tactics of financial institutions are rarely discussed in a systematic way in academic and policy debate. Nonetheless, we believe that these two elements are key to understanding the financial system, not as a mere sector of the wider economy but as a business enterprise driven by its own logic and shaped by a variety of business tactics of its key agents. In our vision of finance as business, we draw on the concept of industrial sabotage as a business tactic (originally developed by Thorstein Veblen) to explore the roots of the financial sector's contemporary architecture. Our key premise is that the central motive driving the process often described as 'financialization' or financial innovation is the sabotage instinct of finance operating as business. Whereas Veblen originally understood sabotage as "conscientious withdrawal of efficiency," today, we argue, the workings of the banking and financial sector augment the very notion of efficiency by relying on concepts, techniques, and institutions of financial innovation that are shrouded in complexity. In this article, we explore conceptual, institutional, and selected policy dimensions of this phenomenon

Introduzione all'ingegneria della usabilità

Il Parco scientifico ha ospitato dal 15 al 19 settembre 2008 una serie di incontri sul tema dell'interazione uomo macchina. L'evento è stato realizzato nell'ambito di Sardegna DistrICT, in collaborazione con il Laboratorio Open media center, il Laboratorio Visualizzazione 3D e CRS4.2008-09-15Sardegna Ricerche, Edificio 2, Località Piscinamanna 09010 Pula (CA) - ItaliaHCIM '08 - Human Computer Interaction Meeting

Bureaucratic Corruption and the Dynamic Interaction between Monetary and Fiscal Policy

Se trata de un artículo publicado en una revista de economía muy respetada (Q2) que aborda la cuestión teórica y empírica de la independencia del banco central, al tiempo que aborda las limitaciones que los desafíos que la política fiscal puede imponerle, en particular la corrupción institucional que limita los ingresos tributarios. Este trabajo cuenta con un gran número de referencias.This paper analyses the dynamic interaction between monetary and fiscal policies in the presence of bureaucratic corruption. Corruption constrains the fiscal capacity to tax and increases the reliance on inflation (seigniorage). Given the restrictions that corruption imposes, a monetary reform strengthening central bank independence induces strategic debt accumulation; the government has the incentive to use debt and indirectly ‘force’ the central bank to pursue expansionary monetary policy. This result is augmented by the size of bureaucratic corruption, posing difficulties on the achievement of both a balanced debt process and price stability. The adverse implication of corruption on debt accumulation, given central bank independence, is supported in a large cross-sectional event study for developed and developing countries. Complementing the analysis with a measure for the level of independence each central bank reform enacted, the impact of corruption is greater, the higher the degree of independence granted. The results are also confirmed when accounting for countries that did not forego meaningful reforms and our findings are robust to different sub-samples, control variables and unobserved heterogeneity

Determinação da capacidade portante de pilares de concreto armado pelo Método da Coluna-Modelo

This thesis presents a computer program for the determination of the load-bearing capacity of reinforced concrete columns according to the CEB-FIP's model column method. This program employs two incremental-iterative procedures: a load controlled procedure and a curvature controlled one. The second procedure is used when the convergence of the first one becomes slow and also in the determination of the descending branch of the load-displacement curve. Both the influence of the displacements on the equilibrium of the column and the non-linear stress-strain relations for the materials are considered in the analysis. The reduced modulus method is used to account for the creep effects. The computer program is directly applicable to an isostatic column subjected to a constant axial force along its length, whose cross-section (concrete and reinforcement) is constant and symmetrical with respect to the plane of the loads and whose deflection curve doesn't have an inflection point and is tangent to the vertical line in the most heavily stressed section. This program can be used to determine the loadbearing capacity for a given column under the action of either short, long or long-short-time loading. It gives the values of the load-bearing capacity according to both the model column method and the improved model column method. Some illustrative examples and some tables giving the first order moment capacities are presented.Este trabalho apresenta um programa de computador para a determinação da capacidade portante de pilares de concreto armado de acordo com o método da coluna-modelo do CEB-FIP. Este programa emprega dois procedimentos incrementais-iterativos: um com controle de carga e outro com controle de curvatura. O segundo procedimento é utilizado quando a convergência do primeiro se torna muito lenta e também para a obtenção do ramo descendente da curva carga-flecha. Tanto a influência das flechas no equilíbrio do pilar como as relações não-lineares tensão-deformação dos materiais são consideradas na análise. O método do ''reduced modulus'' é empregado para levar em conta os efeitos da fluência. O programa de computador é diretamente aplicável a pilar isostático sujeito a esforço normal constante ao longo de seu comprimento, cuja seção transversal (concreto e armadura) é constante e simétrica em relação ao plano das cargas e cuja deformada não apresenta ponto de inflexão e é tangente à vertical na seção mais solicitada. Este programa pode ser utilizado para determinar, para um dado pilar, a capacidade portante em curta, em longa ou em longa e curta duração. Ele fornece os valores da capacidade portante de acordo com o método da coluna-modelo e com o método da coluna-modelo melhorado. São apresentados alguns exemplos ilustrativos e algumas tabelas que fornecem o momento último de primeira ordem

The modes of performativity:A meta-theoretical review

Over the past 25 years, performativity has emerged as a salient focus in social sciences, yet its meta-theoretical analysis remains limited. What is performativity? How is it located empirically and treated theoretically across disciplines? Analyzing 6,741 published articles and books deploying the term performativity, this paper proposes a framework to explore performativity and reviews the transdisciplinary literature that employs the term in academic practice. Drawing on an updated version of Actor-Network Theory and studying performativity in terms of its impact on the constituents of an agencement, i.e., devices (D), actors (A), representations (R), and networks (N), we outline the term’s theoretical landscape and summarize the general threads of performativity research. The paper defines performativity as a representational intervention involving a material act of describing devices, actors, representations, or networks that affects one or more of them. The literature demonstrates that such interventions can manifest as discourses, embodied engagements, speech acts, or scientific models, among other forms

International Coercion, Emulation and Policy Diffusion: Market-Oriented Infrastructure Reforms, 1977-1999

Why do some countries adopt market-oriented reforms such as deregulation, privatization and liberalization of competition in their infrastructure industries while others do not? Why did the pace of adoption accelerate in the 1990s? Building on neo-institutional theory in sociology, we argue that the domestic adoption of market-oriented reforms is strongly influenced by international pressures of coercion and emulation. We find robust support for these arguments with an event-history analysis of the determinants of reform in the telecommunications and electricity sectors of as many as 205 countries and territories between 1977 and 1999. Our results also suggest that the coercive effect of multilateral lending from the IMF, the World Bank or Regional Development Banks is increasing over time, a finding that is consistent with anecdotal evidence that multilateral organizations have broadened the scope of the “conditionality” terms specifying market-oriented reforms imposed on borrowing countries. We discuss the possibility that, by pressuring countries into policy reform, cross-national coercion and emulation may not produce ideal outcomes.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/40099/3/wp713.pd

Elevação insuficiente de TSH antes da terapia com I131 em paciente com carcinoma diferenciado de tireoide metastático

Guidelines suggest a thyrotropin (TSH) stimulation level ≥30 mIU/l for the administration of 131-iodine (I131) in patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC). We present a patient with follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC), with spinal metastasis as the initial manifestation, who after 6 weeks without levothyroxine did not present an elevation of ≥30 mIU/l of TSH. This situation was interpreted as secondary to the presence of functioning metastases and it was decided, regardless of the TSH level, to administer a therapeutic dose of I131, with iodine-uptake lesions in the liver and spine being confirmed.Las guías sugieren un nivel de estimulación de tirotrofina (TSH) ≥30 mUI/l para la administración de yodo 131 (I131) en pacientes con carcinoma diferenciado de tiroides (CDT). Presentamos una paciente con carcinoma folicular de tiroides (CFT), con metástasis vertebral como manifestación inicial, que tras 6 semanas sin levotiroxina no presentó una elevación ≥30 mUI/l de TSH. Esta situación fue interpretada como secundaria a la presencia de metástasis funcionantes y se decidió, independientemente del valor de TSH, la administración de una dosis terapéutica de I131 constatándose lesiones captantes de I131 en hígado y columna vertebral.As diretrizes sugerem um nível de estimulação de tireotropina (TSH) ≥30 mUI/l para a administração de iodo 131 (I131) em pacientes com carcinoma diferenciado de tireoide (CDT). Apresentamos um paciente com carcinoma folicular da tireoide (CFT), com metástase vertebral como manifestação inicial, que após 6 semanas sem levotiroxina não apresentou elevação ≥30 mUI/l de TSH. Esta situação foi interpretada como secundária à presença de metástases funcionantes e decidiu-se, independentemente do valor de TSH, administrar uma dose terapêutica de 131I, confirmando as lesões de captação de 131I no fígado e na coluna