samchain/econo-pairs-v1 huggingface dataset:
The intestinal tract is one of the body’s most energy-intensive parts. As its energy-usage fell, large amounts of energy were released to support growth elsewhere in the body. And where in the body did this unleashed energy go? It headed north to what would in time become human’s most energy-intensive organ of all – the brain. This energy surge caused the brain to grow and its neural connections to multiply. The result was an organ which, despite being only 2-3% of our body mass, today accounts for 25% of its energy consumption. This may have been one of the key evolutionary steps in human history. It is the brain, above all other organs, that distinguishes humans from other animals. Our closest biological cousin, the primates, have physiologies which are 99%-identical to ours. Where they differ most significantly is the brain. In primates, the brain uses only 8% of the body’s energies – a third of humans. It is our energy-intensive brains that put humans of an entirely different evolutionary trajectory to all other animals. To see why, note that the pace of evolutionary progress in all animals, other than humans, is determined by biology. It occurs through a sequence of slow-moving, biological mutations. This can take millions of years to bring about recognisable change. That is why almost-all animals live in an almost-identical environment for an almost-identical lifespan doing near-identical tasks to their ancient ancestors. Human biologies are no different. The appendix is a biological artefact.

Ravi Menon: Seeking decent returns in an era of sub-par growth Speech by Mr Ravi Menon, Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, at the Sovereign Investor Institute Government Funds Roundtable, Singapore, 6 November 2014. *  *  *  Mr Scott Kalb, Executive Director, Sovereign Investor Institute Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, good morning. The global conjuncture The major economies of the world are at an inflection point. In the US, the era of quantitative easing has come to an end. Next year, for the first time in eight years, we are likely to see a hike in the Fed funds rate. •  The good news is that monetary policy normalisation will occur in the context of a strengthening US economy. •  The bad news is that for financial markets conditioned by persistently easy monetary conditions over the last six years, there is considerable uncertainty over the pace and extent of interest rate normalisation. •  The Federal Reserve has done as best as it can in communicating its approach through forward guidance. But there is many a slip between cup and lip that could to lead to disorderly market adjustments. In the Eurozone, there is tension between restoring public debt to a sustainable trajectory and supporting a faltering economy. •  The ECB has committed to expand the size of its balance sheet by increasing asset purchases, while an active debate rages in Brussels on the appropriate balance between reducing fiscal deficits and supporting growth.
  If the shape of the yield curve is evolving regardless of monetary policy decisions, if risk premia are uncorrelated with fundamentals, if market liquidity dries up, then the interest rate channel ceases to function.   When this affects banks’ funding, in particular via a freezing of the interbank market, the bank lending channel seizes up. In such circumstances, central banks must turn to non-standard measures such as direct aggressive interventions to ensure that their monetary policy decisions are effectively transmitted and that markets keep ticking over. Needless to say, the recent period has seen many such incidents as well as the implementation of many non-standard measures. Among the measures currently in place, some are based on “quantitative easing”, which involves the purchasing of securities primarily with a view to generating excess liquidity that in turn moves into all market segments and fosters a better refinancing of the economy; others are based on “credit easing” and aim to restore the functioning of certain particularly disrupted market segments. Seen from another angle, certain policies aim to restore the smooth functioning of the interest rate channel by directly impacting the yield curve, others aim to restore the bank lending channel by ensuring that banks can obtain funding beyond the very short-term maturities to which central banks usually confine themselves. In all events, central banks stand in for failing market participants or markets.

The CMU action plan should cater for initiatives promoting private sector solutions, such as a broader use of existing rating tools. Investors need also to access clear, comparable and comprehensive accounting reporting which are currently lacking for most SMEs in Europe. Because accounting rules are the basis of financial information, a Capital Markets Union cannot be effective with 28 different accounting systems. This is all the more relevant in the Banking Union, where banks supervised by the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) are still subject to different accounting systems. In this area, progress is highly desirable and as a first step, I would support an initiative aiming to assess the quality and degree of comparability of national accounting standards and to promote further convergence. (iii) Third, it remains necessary to ensure financial stability in the long run. The shift towards more market-based financing would entail several implications from a financial stability perspective. The development of alternative sources of funding, outside the banking system, brings a necessary diversification. Yet the risks associated with disintermediation are clear, notably a limited assessment 3 of risks by investors or less ability to address difficult situations and gaps in supervision. In parallel, re-intermediation by non-banks raises level-playing field questions linked with uneven regulation and supervision across sectors and countries. The objectives of the Capital Markets Union should serve as a backbone to the regulatory efforts made at the European level. Before adopting new pieces of legislation, it is of utmost importance to thoroughly examine their impact.
We are already seeing some progress. Singapore’s Networked Trade Platform, which is a trade and logistics ecosystem, and China’s National Single Window, are now linked. This has enabled direct exchanges of digital customs documents between Singapore and China. Customs declarations can now be paperless and easier. But there is more to do by way of digitalisation to make trade flows and its financing smoother, cheaper and faster. Here are some suggestions. Chongqing and Singapore can jointly explore digitising Bills of Lading for trade along the ILSTC. Bills of Lading are one of the key documents that underpin international trade. But despite its cost and inefficiency, paper Bills of Lading remain the default. There are already electronic equivalents. Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) is piloting TradeTrust, which allows firms to generate and transmit verifiable electronic Bills of Lading. We can also explore connecting our trade platforms digitally to seamlessly exchange trade documents. We can create a sandbox to conduct trade along the ILSTC using electronic Bills of Lading and other negotiable trade instruments. FinTechs from China and ASEAN can develop innovative solutions for an end-to-end digitalised trade platform. Let us make trade between China and ASEAN safer, faster, and more efficient. In March this year, 25 tonnes of citrus from Zhongxian County were shipped from Chongqing to Singapore in 13 days via the ILSTC, this is half the usual time taken. Perhaps the next import of citrus to Singapore can be even faster through an end-to-end digitalised trade process along the ILSTC.

The argument would be that the apparent change in ability of markets to digest news is a mirage: the statistical analysis would prove to have captured a transient trend, and that intermediaries were never prepared to stand in the way of large market moves, during good times or bad. On this view, the reduction in balance sheet and the move towards electronic structures have been correlated with, but are not a cause of, the events we have seen. And the fact that the spikes in volatility have been visible in equity as well as bond markets, where market structure has not undergone as profound change as FICC markets, would be taken as supporting evidence. This view would caution against over-interpreting a few isolated case studies, where excessive market conviction – that the next move in US rates would  BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  definitely be up; and the Swiss peg was immutable – led to highly crowded trades accentuating the price moves and the impact on volatility. But this is not the interpretation I lean towards. Not least because we hear from market participants that, far from biting in extreme circumstances, these are issues that FICC businesses are grappling with on a daily basis. An eight standard deviation move in US Treasuries, on weaker-than expected US retail data, lies outside the bounds of what could be considered a transient trend. Consolidation and electronification have plausibly combined to accentuate the sharp moves seen last autumn and this January.
There is some doubt about this, not least because the official series for construction output has been highly volatile over the past year and looks surprisingly weak in the light of the commentary of the trade associations. But even if we leave out the volatile construction and extraction sectors by focussing just on manufacturing and services, we are still left with a picture of flattish underlying activity through the end of last year and only modest quarterly growth of just ½% at the beginning of 2011. It may be that later editions of the data may clarify some of this uncertainty, but some1 other indicators, such as measures of consumer and business confidence and the reports from our Agents around the country, also point to a slackening in the underlying rate of expansion around the turn of the year. The crucial question is whether this just represents a temporary “soft patch” of the sort often seen during the early stages of economic recoveries, or whether it is instead the harbinger of a prolonged period of slow growth. To answer this, we need to look at the forces driving the various elements of demand. For some while even before the financial crisis broke in August 2007, the MPC had drawn attention to the need for the composition of demand in the economy to rebalance away from private and public consumption towards investment and net exports.

The traditional sources of funding have proven to be very stable, including at a time of heightened tensions in the international financial markets. While taking on the changes that are needed to remain competitive and improve efficiency, the domestic banking sector must also continue to build upon the strengths of the traditional model. Among the many lessons that may be drawn from the experience of the international financial crisis, one that stands out is the importance for each banking institution to keep a prudent mix of dependable sources of funding, to limit the level of financial leverage and to maintain a sound balance sheet. Source: Central Bank of Malta; International Monetary Fund  Conclusion In summary I would like to conclude by stressing the need for further efforts to maintain international competitiveness and continued vigilance in the banking sector, in the context of  BIS central bankers’ speeches  9  recurring uncertainty in international financial markets and in the world economy. With this in mind, one has to acknowledge that although the relative performance of the Maltese economy has been encouraging, the challenges ahead are to be treated seriously and with caution. A further lesson from recent experience is that fiscal prudence has to be a continuous endeavour, especially in the light of the recent upward revisions in the public debt projections for 2012 and 2013. Further fiscal consolidation becomes more challenging in an environment of weak external demand.
Tarisa Watanagase: Setting a balanced regulatory reform agenda – the global challenge and an emerging market perspective Keynote address by Dr Tarisa Watanagase, Governor of the Bank of Thailand, at the Symposium of SEANZA Forum of Banking Supervisors 2009 "Global Crisis: Challenges for Risk Management and Regulatory Framework”, Phuket, 31 October 2009. *  *  *  Distinguished Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is a great pleasure to join all of you here at the Symposium of SEANZA Forum of Banking Supervisors 2009. I am honoured to have the opportunity to share with you my thoughts on the global crisis, and challenges it poses for risk management and regulatory framework, particularly from emerging market perspectives. Despite the recent indication of increasing stabilisation of the global financial markets, the extent of the impact of this crisis and prospect of sustainable recovery still face many uncertainties. This financial crisis has been the most severe in modern time. Not only in terms of width and depth of its impact globally, but more importantly, it has brought into question the very tenet of modern capitalism, the trust in market mechanism, and the rationale for regulation. In short, it ushers in a new paradigm in global financial landscape and regulation. The forces unleashed by the crisis are very powerful, and will continue to drive fundamental changes going forward. We witnessed a widespread collapse of financial institutions worldwide, the apparent demise of certain business models, such as the investment bank, and retrenchment of critical markets such as mortgage securitisation market.

The framework seeks to reduce poverty through three core areas of sustainable economic growth, inclusive social development and good governance. The strategy is a sound one as it does not focus solely on physical infrastructure, i.e. the building of roads, bridges and other “hardware”, but also on the “software” of policy and institutional reform in the public and the private sectors. The Strategic Framework also attaches importance to private sector development, particularly in the fields of finance, banking and corporate governance. The quality of the “software” of a developing economy is precisely what international investors are looking for as they return to Asia. At a time when Asian economies are showing incipient signs of recovery against an improved external environment, international capital flows are triggering back to the region but in a more cautious and discriminate manner than before. Investors are now a lot more selective about who may lend to and where they put their money. International capital flows from OECD markets to Asia, in the form of bank credits, foreign direct investment and portfolio flows, have dropped significantly in the last few years. In the case of bank credits, total flows declined by about $ billion during the 1997-1998 period, although the decline has been at a more moderate pace in the last two years. In the light of this, it is important that the Bank plays a catalytic role in mobilising resources within and outside of the region.
It is true when the companies say that here the effects are felt with a time lag of one to two quarters. So, if in the European economy the second quarter is positive, here it is to give effect in the third and fourth quarters. Some industrial sectors in the country registered growth in the first half of the year, and those are mainly related to the new foreign facilities, while many sectors still have no growth. We expect these facilities to experience the benefits of the recovery in the European economy in the second half of the year. 2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  Mr. Bogov, there are ongoing opinions that as long as we stand “glued” to the fixed exchange rate, the economy cannot get a meaningful flywheel. Have you been thinking about this issue, or you stay firmly at your position – the exchange rate will not be changed? First, economic theory and practice have shown that economic growth does not depend on whether the exchange rate is fixed or floating. Economic growth depends on economic policies and factors of production. So, completely different factors, other than the exchange rate, affect economic growth. It is irrelevant whether the exchange rate will be fixed or floating, it is important that it is realistically determined. In Macedonia, the exchange rate is on an adequate level, all our analyses show that. Not just our analyses, but the IMF analyses show that, too.

But I must say that NLB Tutunska Banka registered a reduction in the credit growth last year, and this year it continues. I had serious discussions with the Supervisory Board from Ljubljana, where we claimed that such behavior is inappropriate and could adversely affect the reputation of the bank. They promised to reconsider their policy, particularly as there is no reason for NLB Tutunska Banka not to grant loans in Macedonia. The bank does not rely on funding from the parent bank, it is fully financed from its own resources here in the country, it has one of the best credit portfolios, it is profitable, it has excellent liquidity, outstanding quality systems of credit risk management, probably one of the best in the country. Then why don’t they grant loans? This is the strategy of the parent bank, which must reduce its credit exposure for the entire group, and they impose those targets for all banks in the group proportionally, regardless of the situation in individual banks. Can our monetary authority tell a foreign bank that it has to increase lending? The bank should make rational decisions, and the decision they made is irrational because in that way they lose the profits they would make here. It would be more rational for the banks that have problems, to reduce their loan portfolio, while those that have no problems should expand it. And of course, NBRM is a regulator that constantly evaluates the shareholders, i.e. their eligibility to be shareholders in our banks.
Zeti Akhtar Aziz: The financial well-being journey – building on the momentum and identifying new paths Opening address by Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia (Bank Negara Malaysia), at the Malaysia-OECD High-Level Global Symposium on Financial Well-Being, Kuala Lumpur, 30 September 2015. *  *  *  It is my great pleasure to be here at this Global Symposium on Financial Well-Being, an important area of priority in the current world economic environment. Bank Negara Malaysia is most pleased to host this important event in collaboration with the OECD. Let me extend a very warm welcome to all delegates to Kuala Lumpur and to our facilities here at Sasana Kijang. The advancements in the provision of financial services in these recent few decades have had a transformational impact on financial well-being. Key features of this transformation have been the greater diversification of financial systems and the increased leverage on the advancements in technology. Today, a growing share of financial intermediation is supported by a wider range of financial products and services that are not only being offered by banks but also by capital markets and non-bank financial intermediaries that are now assuming a larger role in the financial system and the economy. This has contributed to greater flexibility in managing financial risks and it has expanded the avenues for businesses and households to meet their financial needs and goals. Advancements in technology have also improved access to financial services to be undertaken more effectively.

Additionally, we will also help build more resilient and inclusive financial systems and thus contribute towards achieving more balanced growth and development. Thank you and I wish you productive discussions at the Symposium. 4  BIS central bankers’ speeches
Another practical example on how to reduce the regulatory burden would be for countries to agree on a common and centralised reporting standard for large cross-border groups. The home-host relationship… The home-host relationship is the underlying theme running through a number of issues in the regulatory debate. Broadly speaking, the home-host relationship is about how we should divide tasks, powers and responsibility between different countries when it comes to supervising, monitoring and, in the worst case, sorting out financial institutions in distress. Formally, the home-host relationship only refers to the division of responsibility between supervisors, which currently is based on the principle of home country control. The home country is the country where the bank is licensed. For a bank, this means that the home country is responsible for supervising the bank and its foreign branches. The home country’s deposit insurance also covers its banks’ foreign branches. In the case of a group, it means that the home country is also responsible for supervising the entire group on a consolidated basis, while the host countries are responsible for their respective subsidiary banks and deposits. At this very moment, the CEBS is drafting the so-called home-host paper giving guidance on how the home-host supervisory relationship should be arranged given existing EU legislation. Even if there are no legally binding rules regarding the relationship between countries in crisis management or crisis resolution, these aspects of regulatory involvement have borrowed the terminology of the supervisory home-host concept.

Last but not least, if Switzerland were to give up its monetary independence by pegging the franc to the euro or by joining the euro area, it would lose its privileged status and, consequently, Swiss interest rates would increase to European levels. Since higher interest rates mean lower asset prices and lower levels of investment, and also higher mortgage rates, the Swiss are understandably not keen on giving up their national currency. Since any major decision in Switzerland has to be approved in a public referendum, the prospect of EU and euro membership in the near future is thus highly unlikely. Given our exposure to global economic and financial shocks, and their arguably smaller importance for the euro area, pegging the Swiss franc to the euro is not a realistic option. Flexible exchange rates give us the room for manoeuvre we need. •  What has our experience been of coexistence with the euro so far? Very positive. Rather than crowding out independent currencies, the euro has stabilised the monetary scene in Europe. In fact, the franc is less volatile today than it was before European monetary integration. The price of the euro in Swiss francs these days is about 3% lower than it was in 1999, in other words, almost unchanged. We did have periods, however, when the franc was under pressure, especially after September 11 and before the outbreak of the war in Iraq. The safe-haven function of the franc then triggered a 10% appreciation in our currency against the euro.