Classification

Elon Musk is mad he’s been ordered to remove Sydney church stabbing videos from X. He’d be more furious if he saw our other laws

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Australia’s eSafety Commissioner has ordered social media platform “X” (formerly known as Twitter) to remove graphic videos of the stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel in Sydney last week from the site.

Key Points: 
  • Australia’s eSafety Commissioner has ordered social media platform “X” (formerly known as Twitter) to remove graphic videos of the stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel in Sydney last week from the site.
  • In response to this order, X’s owner, Elon Musk, has branded the commissioner the “Australian censorship commissar”.
  • Read more:
    Why is the Sydney church stabbing an act of terrorism, but the Bondi tragedy isn't?

Prompt political fallout

  • Labor minister Tanya Plibersek referred to Musk as an “egotistical billionaire”.
  • Of course such damning remarks directed towards a much-maligned website and its equally controversial owner are to be expected.

What do federal laws say?

  • The power she exercised under part nine of that act was to issue a “removal notice”.
  • The removal notice requires a social media platform to take down material that would be refused classification under the Classification Act.
  • While it’s these laws being applied in the case against X, there are other laws that can come into play.
  • It is a variation of this bill, reflecting the substantial range of views on the draft, that now has bipartisan support.

What else could be done?


Perhaps the gruesome images in the Wakeley videos might remind some of the Christchurch massacre. In that attack, Telstra, Optus, and Vodafone (now part of TPG), cut access to sites such as 4Chan, which were disseminating video of the attack. This was without any prompting from either the eSafety Commissioner or from law enforcement agencies.

  • She would need to be satisfied the material depicts abhorrent violent conduct and be satisfied the availability of the material online is likely to cause significant harm to the Australian community.
  • This means the commissioner could give a blocking notice to telcos which would have to block X for as long as the abhorrent material is available on the X platform.
  • This would be a breach of the terrorism prohibitions under the federal Criminal Code.


Rob Nicholls receives funding from the Australian Research Council for the International Digital Policy Observatory.

Transporting hazardous materials across the country isn’t easy − that’s why there’s a host of regulations in place

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, April 23, 2024

They’re just one visible part of a web of regulations that aim to keep workers and the environment safe while shipping hazardous waste.

Key Points: 
  • They’re just one visible part of a web of regulations that aim to keep workers and the environment safe while shipping hazardous waste.
  • Transporting hazardous materials such as dangerous gases, poisons, harmful chemicals, corrosives and radioactive material across the country is risky.
  • But because approximately 3 billion pounds of hazardous material needs to go from place to place in the U.S. each year, it’s unavoidable.
  • With all the material that needs to cross the country, hazardous material spills from both truck and rail transportation are relatively unavoidable.

Who regulates hazardous material?

  • The Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulates the proper handling of hazardous materials where they’re either manufactured or used.
  • The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration regulates the transportation of hazardous materials by truck, rail, pipeline and ship.
  • In the air, the Federal Aviation Administration regulates hazardous materials.

Key regulations

  • Two essential regulations govern the handling and transportation of hazardous materials.
  • In 1975, the EPA published the Hazardous Material Transportation Act, which protects people and property from hazardous material transportation risks.
  • The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration oversees hazardous materials regulations that apply to everything from packaging and labeling to loading and unloading procedures.
  • Trucking companies transporting hazardous materials need to use specific vehicles and qualified drivers to comply with Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regulations.
  • The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s and the Federal Railroad Administration’s regulations for rail shipments require that rail cars fit physical and structural specifications.
  • Both truck and rail companies must follow regulations that require the proper classification, packaging and labeling of hazardous materials.
  • The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s security regulations prevent theft or sabotage of hazardous materials.


Michael F. Gorman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Decomposing systemic risk: the roles of contagion and common exposures

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Tao, CIBC, Tax, RWA, Risk, European Systemic Risk Board, Research Papers in Economics, Contagion, RT, The Big Six, NBC, International, Shock, Observation, Bank of Canada, HTC, European Economic Association, The Washington Post, Great, JPMorgan Chase, Paper, GM, Environment, Political economy, Journal of Financial Economics, COVID-19, Perception, BNS, Website, Silicon, IAT, Cifuentes, Probability, Balance sheet, RAN, Medical classification, Algorithm, Information technology, Quarterly Journal of Economics, LN, Nature, European Journal, Royal Bank of Canada, Technical report, Journal of Political Economy, Equitable Bank, Bankruptcy, RAI, PDF, Private, ECB, Policy, CHS, Supercapacitor, Social science, Journal of Financial Stability, Intelligence (journal), Elsevier, Home, Cambridge University Press, Journal, Springer Science+Business Media, Research, Classification, Regulation, News, EQB, Credit, Literature, AIK, European Central Bank, COVID, SVAR, Section 5, Management science, DRA, M4, VL, National bank, Government, ISSN, BMO, Panel, International Financial Reporting Standards, BIS, FIS, Basel III, Commerce, Scotiabank, C32, Econometric Society, Interbank, Fraud, Section 4, Bank, Schedule, VAR, Section 3, The Journal of Finance, RBC, Volcanic explosivity index, Fire, Wassily Leontief, Financial economics, Metric, Section 2, L14, Central bank, Superintendent, Bank of Montreal, Kronecker, BOC, Lithium, BCBS, Sale, Macroeconomic Dynamics, Christophe, CWB, LBC, NHA, Imperial Bank, Private equity, Quarterly Journal, National Bank of Canada, C51, Canadian Western Bank, Currency crisis, JEL classification codes, Victor Drai, L.1, MFC, Silicon Valley Bank, EB, Laurentian Bank of Canada, Federal, RA1, Series, W0, FEVD, Journal of Econometrics, Aggregate, University, FRB, MB, Financial institution, Element, Health, Book, Angels & Airwaves, Common, OSFI, GFC, Reproduction, K L, Systematic, Housing, G21, Home Capital Group, Communications satellite

Abstract

Key Points: 
    • Abstract
      We evaluate the effects of contagion and common exposure on banks? capital through
      a regression design inspired by the structural VAR literature and derived from the balance
      sheet identity.
    • Contagion can occur through direct exposures, fire sales, and market-based
      sentiment, while common exposures result from portfolio overlaps.
    • First, we document that contagion varies in time, with the highest levels
      around the Great Financial Crisis and lowest levels during the pandemic.
    • Our new framework complements
      traditional stress-tests focused on single institutions by providing a holistic view of systemic risk.
    • While existing literature presents various contagion narratives, empirical findings on
      distress propagation - a precursor to defaults - remain scarce.
    • We decompose systemic risk into three elements: contagion, common exposures, and idiosyncratic risk, all derived from banks? balance sheet identities.
    • The contagion factor encompasses both sentiment- and contractual-based elements, common exposures consider systemic
      aspects, while idiosyncratic risk encapsulates unique bank-specific risk sources.
    • Our empirical analysis of the Canadian banking system reveals the dynamic nature of contagion, with elevated levels observed during the Global Financial Crisis.
    • In conclusion, our model offers a comprehensive lens for policy intervention analysis and
      scenario evaluations on contagion and systemic risk in banking.
    • This
      notion of systemic risk implies two key components: first, systematic risks (e.g., risks related
      to common exposures) and second, contagion (i.e., an initially idiosyncratic problem becoming
      more widespread throughout the financial system) (see Caruana, 2010).
    • In this paper, we decompose systemic risk into three components: contagion, common exposures, and idiosyncratic risk.
    • First, we include contagion in three forms: sentiment-based contagion, contractual-based
      contagion, and price-mediated contagion.
    • In this context,
      portfolio overlaps create common exposures, implying that bigger overlaps make systematic
      shocks more systemic.
    • With the COVID-19 pandemic starting
      in 2020, contagion drops to all time lows, potentially related to strong fiscal and monetary
      supports.
    • That is, our
      structural model provides a framework for analyzing the impact of policy interventions and
      scenarios on different levels of contagion and systemic risk in the banking system.
    • This provides a complementary approach to
      seminal papers that took a structural approach to contagion, such as DebtRank Battiston et al.
    • More generally, the literature on networks and systemic risk started with Allen and Gale
      (2001) and Eisenberg and Noe (2001).
    • The matrix is structured as follows:
      1

      In our model, we do not distinguish between interbank liabilities and other types of liabilities.

    • In other words, we can and aim to estimate different degrees
      of contagion per asset class, i.e., potentially distinct parameters ?Ga .
    • For that, we build three major
      metrics to check: average contagion, average common exposure, and average idiosyncratic risk.
    • N i j

      et ,
      Further, we define the (N ?K) common exposure matrix as Commt = [A

      (20)

      et ]diag (?C
      ?L

      such that average common exposure reads,
      average common exposure =

      1 XX
      Commik,t .

    • N i j

      (22)

      20

      ? c ),

      The three metrics?average contagion, average common exposure, and average idiosyncratic risk?provide a comprehensive framework for understanding banking dynamics.

    • Figure 4 depicts the average level of risks per systemic risk channel: contagion risk, common exposure, and idiosyncratic risk.
    • Figure 4: Average levels of contagion (Equation (20)), common exposure (Equation (21)), and idiosyncratic risk
      (Equation (22)).
    • The market-based contagion is the contagion due to
      investors? sentiment, and the network is an estimate FEVD on volatility data.
    • For most of
      the sample, we find that contagion had a bigger impact on the variance than common exposures.

Nowcasting consumer price inflation using high-frequency scanner data: evidence from Germany

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Consensus, Online, Cream, Honey, Tax, Glass, MAPI, Consensus Economics, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Milk, Shower, Low-alcohol beer, Autoregressive–moving-average model, Infant, C3, Islam, Wine, Core inflation, Research Papers in Economics, National accounts, Kálmán, Barcode, Journal of International Economics, Communication, Royal Statistical Society, COVID19, Kohl (cosmetics), Natural disaster, Business, Observation, Paper, VAT, European Economic Review, Diebold Nixdorf, Blancmange, Calendar, Sunflower oil, Annual Review of Economics, Hand, C4, DESTATIS, NBER, Tinning, Razor, Forecasting, Gasoline, Coffee, European Economic Association, Cat, Journal of Monetary Economics, Journal of Applied Econometrics, Medeiros, Architecture, Oxford University Press, Producer, GfK, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Margarine, NCBS, Starch, Political economy, Consistency, COVID-19, Consensus decision-making, Website, MIDAS, Behavior, Deutsche Bundesbank, PPI, World Bank, Collection, Medical classification, Orange, Eurozone, Butter, FMCG, Noise, Travel, Clothing, History, Inflation, Liver, International economics, Journal of Political Economy, BSI, OLS, Statistics, Consumer, PDF, University of Chicago, Classification, ECB, Fats, Policy, Multi, WOB, Outline, C6, Mincing, Canadian International Council, Social science, Perfume, University of California, Berkeley, Journal of Forecasting, Federal Reserve Bank, JEL, L1, Journal, Research, Candle, Food, TPD, Credit, Spice, LPG, Janssen, Marmalade, Superior, Literature, Chocolate, Beef, Kiel University, European Central Bank, Natural gas, HICP, Monetary economics, Yogurt, Section 5, ILO, Bermingham, Price, GTIN, Cheese, Macroeconomics, Growth, Beck, XJ, Government, De Beer, Supermarket, Ice cream, Naturally, C53, Corn flakes, BIS, Biscuit, LASSO, Petroleum, A.2, Poultry, Accuracy and precision, Application, White, Lettuce, Risk, ESCB, University of Siegen, OECD, Chapter One, Lipstick, Sack, XT, BIC, Garlic, Consumption, Sokol, Meat, VAR, Database, Section 3, Rusk, American Economic Journal, Royal, Curd, Overalls, Lamb, Great Lockdown, Fruit, Economy, COICOP, International Journal of Forecasting, Aftershave, Section 2, Nonparametric statistics, Attention, Conference, CPI, Heat, Public economics, Common sunflower, Nowcasting, American Economic Review, Computational Statistics (journal), GFK, COVID-19 pandemic, Exercise, Shock, Running, UNECE, Edible, Gambling, Banco, Rigid transformation, European Commission, Frozen, C.2, PRISMA, Official statistics, Concept, Drink, Transaction data, Somatosensory system, Punctuality, Altbier, Food prices, Response, GDP, Index, E31, Cabinet of Germany, Holiday, Machine learning, Series, Green, Whisky, Vegetable, Cola, Journal of Econometrics, Sadik Harchaoui, University, Aggregate, World Bank Group, B.1, Use, Book, Economic statistics, Civil service commission, 1L, Apple, Bread, Filter, Central bank, Brandeis University, Economic Modelling, Bank, Barkan, Roulade, Dairy product, Neural network, Reproduction, IMF, Section, ID, Data, D4L, Cryptocurrency

Key Points: 

    Central bank asset purchases and auction cycles revisited: new evidence from the euro area

    Retrieved on: 
    Friday, April 19, 2024

    Working Paper Series

    Key Points: 
      • Working Paper Series
        Federico Maria Ferrara

        Central bank asset purchases
        and auction cycles revisited:
        new evidence from the euro area

        No 2927

        Disclaimer: This paper should not be reported as representing the views of the European Central Bank
        (ECB).

      • Abstract
        This study provides new evidence on the relationship between unconventional monetary
        policy and auction cycles in the euro area.
      • The findings indicate that Eurosystem?s asset purchase flows mitigate
        yield cycles during auction periods and counteract the amplification impact of market volatility.
      • The dampening effect of central bank asset purchases on auction cycles is more sizeable and
        precisely estimated for purchases of securities with medium-term maturities and in jurisdictions
        with relatively lower credit ratings.
      • On the other hand, central banks may influence price dynamics in these markets, most notably
        through their asset purchase programmes.
      • If so, do central bank asset purchases
        affect bond yield movements around auction dates?
      • Auction cycles are present when secondary market yields rise in
        anticipation of a debt auction and fall thereafter, generating an inverted V-shaped pattern around auction
        dates.
      • ECB Working Paper Series No 2927

        3

        1

        Introduction

        The impact of central bank asset purchases on government bond markets is a focal point of economic and
        financial research.

      • If so,
        do central bank asset purchases shape yield sensitivity around auction dates?
      • The paper provides new evidence on the effects of Eurosystem?s asset purchases on secondary market
        yields around public debt auction dates.
      • The analysis builds on previous research based on aggregate data
        on central bank asset purchases and a shorter analysis period (van Spronsen and Beetsma 2022).
      • Using
        granular data on Eurosystem?s asset purchases offers an opportunity to shed light on the mechanisms linking
        unconventional monetary policy and auction cycles.
      • Given this legal constraint, the study
        hypothesises that the effect of asset purchases on 10-year auction cycles is mostly indirect, and goes via price
        spillovers generated by purchases of securities outside the 10-year maturity space.
      • Taken together, these results provide new evidence about auction cycles in Europe and contribute to a
        larger literature on the flow effects of central bank asset purchases on bond markets.
      • Section 4 offers descriptive evidence about auction cycles in the euro area.
      • Auction cycles are defined by the presence of an inverted V-shaped pattern in secondary market yields
        around primary auctions.
      • That is, government bond yields rise in the run-up to the date of the auction and
        fall back to their original level after the auction.
      • Their limited risk-bearing capacities and inventory management operations are
        seen as key mechanisms driving auction cycles (Beetsma et al.
      • ECB Working Paper Series No 2927

        7

        Second, central bank asset purchases can alleviate the cycle by (partly) absorbing the additional supply
        of substitutable instruments in the secondary market (van Spronsen and Beetsma 2022).

      • This expectation is
        supported by several analyses on the price effects of central bank bond purchases (D?Amico and King 2013;
        Arrata and Nguyen 2017; De Santis and Holm-Hadulla 2020).
      • Empirically, previous research has provided evidence of auction cycles taking place across different jurisdictions.
      • (2016) detect auction cycles for government debt in Italy, but not in Germany, during the European
        sovereign debt crisis.
      • Research on the impact of central bank asset purchases on yield cycles around auctions is still limited.
      • Their paper provides evidence
        that Eurosystem?s asset purchases reduce the presence of auction cycles for euro area government debt.
      • Nonetheless, several questions remain open about auction cycles and unconventional monetary policy
        in the euro area.
      • Therefore, they
        provide only a partial picture of auction cycles and central bank asset purchases in Europe.
      • The use of granular data on central bank asset purchases is especially important in light of the modalities
        of monetary policy implementation of the Eurosystem.
      • Altogether, these elements motivate further investigation of the relationship between central bank asset
        purchases and auction cycles in the euro area.
      • Taken together, these results confirm that Eurosystem?s asset purchases mitigate yield cycles during auction periods and counteract the amplification impact of market volatility.
      • The findings confirm that the flow
        effects of central bank purchases on yield movements around auction dates are driven by lower-rated countries.
      • Additional analyses provide evidence for an indirect effect of purchases on auction cycles and highlight
        the presence of substantial heterogeneity across jurisdictions and purchase programmes.
      • Flow Effects of Central Bank Asset Purchases on Sovereign Bond
        Prices: Evidence from a Natural Experiment.
      • Federico Maria Ferrara
        European Central Bank, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; email: [email protected]

        ? European Central Bank, 2024
        Postal address 60640 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
        Telephone
        +49 69 1344 0
        Website
        www.ecb.europa.eu
        All rights reserved.

    Press release - Soil health: Parliament sets out measures to achieve healthy soils by 2050

    Retrieved on: 
    Thursday, April 18, 2024

    The new law will oblige EU countries to first monitor and then assess the health of all soils on their territory.

    Key Points: 
    • The new law will oblige EU countries to first monitor and then assess the health of all soils on their territory.
    • National authorities may apply the soil descriptors that best illustrate the soil characteristics of each soil type at national level.
    • MEPs propose a five-level classification to assess soil health (high, good, moderate ecological status, degraded, and critically degraded soils).
    • That is why it is our responsibility to adopt the first piece of EU-wide legislation to monitor and improve soil health."

    Is home bias biased? New evidence from the investment fund sector

    Retrieved on: 
    Thursday, April 18, 2024
    Rule of law, Journal of Accounting Research, Capital control, Domestic, CEPII, Research Papers in Economics, M. B, Regression analysis, Journal of International Economics, Foreign, Economic growth, Methodology, Row, International, Intuition, Risk, Heritage, Economic development, Goethe University Frankfurt, Overweight, Journal of Monetary Economics, Accounting research, International business, Paper, Political economy, Journal of Financial Economics, Environment, Website, United, Category, World Bank, Probability, Medical classification, Sun, Appendix, Handbook, G11, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Frankfurt, Institution, Investment, International economics, Journal of Political Economy, Corporation, G15, Logic, Dow Jones, PDF, Classification, ECB, CEIC, Károlyi, Policy, Outline, Household, Social science, JEL, Real, Bias, FDI, Journal, Research, Journal of Economic Literature, Credit, The Journal of Finance, Literature, Nationalization, European Central Bank, AA, Culture, Growth, Monetary economics, Section 5, Kho, Rule, Rogoff, Developed country, AAA, Finance, SHS, Control, Variable, Section 4, Language, Section 3, Role, Economy, Financial economics, Section 2, Freedom, Central bank, Incidence, Law, The Heritage Foundation, American Economic Review, Obstfeld, SSRN, Foreign direct investment, G23, Corruption, Quarterly Journal, Financial statement analysis, GDP, IMF Economic Review, Schumacher, University, MVI, Demirci, Dependent and independent variables, Lane, Common, Magazine, Bank, Reproduction, Security (finance)

    Key Points: 

      Transactional demand for central bank digital currency

      Retrieved on: 
      Thursday, April 18, 2024

      Key Points: 

        SoftwareOne Founding Shareholders reaffirm their proposal for a reset at Board level and announce their support of Till Streichert as a new independent member

        Retrieved on: 
        Wednesday, April 10, 2024

        In this context, the founding shareholders today announced that they will support the election of Till Streichert, who has been nominated by the current board as a new independent member.

        Key Points: 
        • In this context, the founding shareholders today announced that they will support the election of Till Streichert, who has been nominated by the current board as a new independent member.
        • The founding shareholders will also nominate Till Spillmann as a member of the Nomination & Compensation Committee.
        • The founding shareholders disagree with the current board’s and ISS’s classification of the independent board candidates as non-independent.
        • The founding shareholders are convinced that SoftwareOne can best develop with a comprehensive reset at board level.

        EQS-News: DEUTZ achieves record earnings and looks ahead to the new year with confidence

        Retrieved on: 
        Wednesday, April 10, 2024

        Cologne, March 19, 2024 – Within a persistently challenging macroeconomic environment, DEUTZ stayed on course in the 2023 financial year and achieved record results for revenue EBIT1.

        Key Points: 
        • Cologne, March 19, 2024 – Within a persistently challenging macroeconomic environment, DEUTZ stayed on course in the 2023 financial year and achieved record results for revenue EBIT1.
        • The results for the past financial year prove that this approach is working,” notes DEUTZ CEO Dr. Sebastian C. Schulte.
        • The company is continuing to advance market consolidation in the area of classic combustion engines through targeted acquisitions and partnerships.
        • The repositioning and refocusing of the Green segment which has been initiated establishes the preconditions required to meet this objective.