EMU, The Euro and The European Policy Mix

Abstract

One year ago most economic observers predicted that "fundamentals" were such that the euro was set to appreciate. In the event, the opposite has occurred. This has rekindled a debate on how well foreign exchange markets reflect fundamental determinants and led to calls for greater exchange rate stability, possibly through the introduction of formal exchange rate target zones. The first part of the paper focuses on these issues. It also looks at the euro’s prospects as an international currency. To give a better sense of perspective, the paper compares recent exchange rate movements and measures of volatility with longerterm trends. The article argues that the difference in cyclical conditions in the United States and the euro area seems to have been a dominant factor driving the sizeable euro depreciation since early 1999, although when evaluated against longer term trends it appears much less dramatic; the euro is presently at about its past 5-year average level expressed in nominal effective terms ... Il y a un an, la plupart des observateurs économiques prévoyaient qu'au vu des "fondamentaux" l'euro allait s'apprécier. En l’occurrence le contraire a eu lieu. Ceci a ravivé le débat sur la capacité des marchés de changes à refléter les déterminants fondamentaux des économies et a donné lieu à des appels pour une plus grande stabilité des taux de change, passant par exemple par l'introduction formelle de zones cibles. La première partie de ce document porte sur ces questions. Elle considère également les perspectives pour l'euro à devenir une monnaie internationale. Afin de mieux appréhender les évolutions récentes de taux de change et leur volatilité, ces dernières sont comparées à leurs tendances de long terme. Le document montre que la divergence de position conjoncturelle entre les États-Unis et la zone euro semble avoir été un facteur déterminant dans la dépréciation importante de l'euro depuis le début de 1999, même si, sur plus longue période, cette dépréciation apparaît ...EMU, exchange rate regimes, exchange rates, policy mix, UME, taux de change, régime de taux de change, dosage de la politique économique

Semiflexible Rod in a Nematic Environment with Applications to Biological Polymers

“…We have studied theoretically a rodlike polymer immersed in a nematic environment and described the effect of a nematic solvent on small fluctuations of the tangent vector perpendicular to the rod axis. We were thus able to calculate the physically interesting properties associated with our combined polymer and nematic system, including tangent−tangent correlation functions, and the scattering structure factor, which reproduces qualitatively known experimental results well. − …”

“…Shown in Figures −4 are plots of S ( Q z , Q ⊥ ) (where Q z = q z L and Q ⊥ = q ⊥ L ) for three different values of the Frank elasticity constant, with all other constant parameters held fixed. We can see from Figures −4 the characteristic “bow-tie” scattering pattern as typically found for nematic rods. − We can also see from Figures −4 that as the Frank constant increases (i.e., the solvent/environment becomes more nematic), the associated polymer rod scattering becomes less intense along the Q z axis. This is consistent with the physical picture that as the nematic order increases, the polymer rod becomes more and more aligned along the nematic director. −

2 Isointensity contour plot of S ( Q z , Q ⊥ ) vs ( Q ⊥ , Q z ) with κ t / L = 10 -1 , L / r = 10 2 , Γ L = 10 4 , and a value of the Frank elasticity constant given by κ n L = 3 × 10 -3 .

3 Isointensity contour plot of S ( Q z , Q ⊥ ) vs ( Q ⊥ , Q z ) with κ t / L = 10 -1 , L / r = 10 2 , Γ L = 10 4 , and a value of the Frank elasticity constant given by κ n L = 3 × 10 -1 .

4 Isointensity contour plot of S ( Q z , Q ⊥ ) vs ( Q ⊥ , Q z ) with κ t / L = 10 -1 , L / r = 10 2 , Γ L = 10 4 , and a value of the Frank elasticity constant given by κ n L = 3 × 10 1 .

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“…To physically elucidate fully the calculated effect of nematic order on our polymer rod, in section 3 we derive expressions for the tangent−tangent correlation functions of our polymer rod as well as the average end-to-end distance expected. In section 4 we present the theoretically expected structure factor for a polymer rod in a nematic solvent and reproduce the experimentally observed characteristic “bow-tie” scattering patterns. − In section 5, and as one application of our model, we examine the mechanical properties of hemoglobin fibers. − Under the physically reasonable assumption of the presence of a fairly weak nematic solvent, we are able to plausibly account for previously observed discrepancies 24,25 in the expected persistence lengths of hemoglobin fibers of differing lengths. As another biological application, we model the effects of a strong nematic environment of fd virus on the elastic and conformational properties of wormlike micelles …”

Magnetically Alignable Phase of Phospholipid “Bicelle” Mixtures Is a Chiral Nematic Made Up of Wormlike Micelles

“…The scattered intensity I ( q ) ∝ P ( q ) S ( q ), where P ( q ) is the aggregate form factor and S ( q ) is the structure factor of the solution. The organization of the aggregates in a plane normal to the nematic director can be described, to a good approximation, by the structure factor S 2D ( q ) of a two-dimensional liquid, , which to first order is described by a two-dimensional hard disk fluid as follows: G = 1/(1 − η) 3/2 , χ = (1 + η)/(1 − η) 3 , A = [1 + (2η − 1)χ + 2η G ]/η, B = [(1 − η)χ − 1 − 3η G ]/η. η is the packing fraction of the disks, R is the disk radius, and J 0 and J 1 are the zeroth and first-order Bessel functions, respectively.…”

Detailed Study of Diluted V2O5Suspensions

“…They are 1 nm thick, about 25 nm wide, and several microns long. Previous light scattering measurements have shown that the largest measured dimension in solution, most likely the persistence length, is about 300−500 nm. − In fact, some bending of the ribbons, apparently more difficult in the plane of the ribbons than out of it, is visible by transmission electron microscopy . While concentrated samples, between 8.6 and 0.4 mol/L vanadium concentration (i.e., between 10 and 250 H 2 O moles per V 2 O 5 mole), are gels, a sol is obtained by adding more water.…”