Rahim AlHaj (, born c. 1968) is an Iraqi American oud musician and composer.

Early life
AlHaj was born in Baghdad, Iraq and began playing the oud (an Arabic lute) at age nine.  Early on, it was evident that he had a remarkable talent for playing the oud.

Education
AlHaj studied under the renowned Munir Bashir, considered by many to be the greatest oud player ever, and Salim Abdul Kareem, at the Institute of Music in Baghdad, Iraq. AlHaj won various awards at the conservatory and graduated in 1990 with a diploma in composition.  He also holds a degree in Arabic literature from Mustansiriya University in Baghdad.

Emigration
In 1991, after the first Gulf War, AlHaj was forced to leave Iraq due to his political activism against the Saddam Hussein regime and began his life in Jordan and Syria. He moved to the U.S. in 2000 as a political refugee and has resided in Albuquerque, New Mexico, ever since. He became a U.S. citizen on August 16, 2008.

Career
AlHaj has performed all over the world, on tour with Munir Bashir, his teacher, as well as solo and with his string quartet project, including numerous concerts in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Egypt, and France and hundreds of concerts in the United States.

AlHaj has released several recordings. The Second Baghdad, released in 2002, and Iraqi Music in a Time of War, released in 2003, were both produced by VoxLox record label.  His East meets West CD entitled Friendship (Rahim AlHaj, Oud & Sadaqa Quartet) was released in December 2005 by Fast Horse Recordings. His When the Soul is Settled: Music of Iraq, produced by Smithsonian Folkways, was released in June 2006, and nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award.  An oud and sarod CD with Amjad Ali Khan will be released later in the year.

AlHaj's music delicately combines traditional Iraqi maqams with contemporary styling and influence. His compositions are about the experience of exile from his homeland and of new beginnings in his adopted country. He is one of the true oud masters from Iraq. AlHaj says that "my music invites the listener to discover the true spirit of the musician." His compositions are about loss, hope, freedom, and longing. His songs establish new concepts without altering the foundation of the traditional Iraqi School of oud based in Baghdad.

AlHaj wrote and performed the music for the award-winning short documentary, The Rest of My Life: Stories of Trauma Survivors.

Awards

2015: Recipient of a National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts
2010: Grammy nomination for Best Traditional World Music Album
2009: United States Artists Fellow Award in Music
2008: Grammy nomination for Best Traditional World Music Album
2003: Winner of the Bravo Award for Excellence in Music
2001: Award from Veterans for Peace for work towards peace
1988: Music Institute Award for Composition

See also
Music of Iraq

References

External links

Kennedy Center performance on June 6, 2006
Rahim Alhaj "featured artist profile" on Smithsonian Folkways

Interviews
Rahim AlHaj interview from Weekend America radio program, May 15, 2008

1968 births
Living people
American male composers
American oud players
Iraqi composers
Iraqi emigrants to the United States
Iraqi oud players
Musicians from Baghdad
Musicians from Albuquerque, New Mexico
Al-Mustansiriya University alumni
National Heritage Fellowship winners

Rahim AlHaj


The suspensory ligament of the clitoris is a fibrous band at the deep fascial level that extends from the pubic symphysis to the deep fascia of the clitoris, anchoring the clitoris to the pubic symphysis.  By virtue of this connection, the pubic symphysis supports the clitoris.

The suspensory ligament of the clitoris consistently displays two components: a superficial fibro-fatty structure extending from a broad base within the mons pubis to converge on the body of the clitoris and extending into the labia majora, and a deep component with a narrow origin on the symphysis pubis extending to the body and the bulbs of the clitoris.

Its form and position differ from those of the suspensory ligament of the penis.
During sexual arousal, the ligament shortens and swells. This pulls the clitoral shaft in such a way that the clitoral glans appears to retract beneath the clitoral hood.

See also
 Suspensory ligament of penis

References

Ligaments of the torso
Clitoris

Suspensory ligament of clitoris


Lateef Kayode Jakande, an haife shi ne a ranar 23 ga watan Yuni, a shekara ta 1929. Ya mutu a ranar 11 ga watan Fabrairu, shekara ta 2021. Ɗan jaridar Najeriya ne wanda ya zama gwamnan Jihar Legas a Najeriya daga shekara ta 1979 zuwa shekara ta 1983 sannan daga baya ya zama Ministan Ayyuka a zamanin mulkin soja na Sani Abacha shekarar 1993 zuwa 1998, Ya mutu a ranar 11 ga watan Fabrairu a shekara ta 2021. Ya rayu tsawon shekaru 91.

Tasowa
An haifi Lateef Kayode Jakande a yankin Epetedo na tsibirin Lagos, jihar Legas a ranar 29, ga watan Yunin shekara ta 1929 duka iyayensa sun fito ne daga Omu-Aran, jihar Kwara . Yayi karatu a makarantar gwamnati ta Legas a Enu-Owa a Lagos Island, sannan yayi karatu a Makarantar Bunham Memorial Methodist School, a patakol daga shekarar 1934 zuwa 1943, bayan nan ya tafi makarantar King's College, a Legas a shekara ta 1943, sannan ya shiga makarantar Ilesha Grammar School a shekara ta 1945, inda ya shirya wata takarda ta adabi mai suna The Quarterly Mirror.

A shekara ta 1949, Jakande ya fara aikin jarida da farko tare da Daily Service sannan a shekara ta 1953,  ya shiga jaridar Nigerian Tribune . A shekara ta 1956, Cif Obafemi Awolowo ya naɗa shi a matsayin babban editan jaridar Tribune .

Bayan barin Tribune a shekara ta alif 1975, Jakande ya kafa John West Publications kuma ya fara buga Labaran Legas. Ya yi aiki a matsayin Shugaba na farko na ƙungiyar waɗanda suka mallaka Jaridu a Nijeriya (Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) ).

Gwamnan jihar Legas
Encouraged by Awolowo, he ran for election as executive governor of Lagos State in( 1979), on the Unity Party of Nigeria platform. He defeated his opponents, Adeniran Ogunsanya of Nigerian People's Party (NPP) and Sultan Ladega Adeniji Adele of National Party of Nigeria with a total of( 559,070 ), votes and was subsequently sworn in as governor. His administration was effective and open and implemented the cardinal policies of his party. He introduced housing and educational programs targeting the poor, building new neighbourhood primary and secondary schools and providing free primary and secondary education. He gave poor people's children education and many of them are now very prominent in the society today. He established the Lagos State University and the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Lagos' house is named after the former governor. Jakande's government constructed over( 30,000) housing units. The schools and housing units were built. Some of the housing units include low cost estates at Amuwo-Odofin, Ijaiye, Dolphin, Oke-Afa, Ije, Abesan, Iponri, Ipaja, Abule Nla, Epe, Anikantamo, Surulere, Iba, Ikorodu, Badagry. To fund some of the projects, Jakande increased the tenement rates and price of plots of land in affluent areas of Victoria Island and Lekki Peninsula and the processing fees for lottery, pools and gaming licenses. He also completed the construction of the General Hospital in Gbagada and Ikorodu and built about (20),  health centres within the state. As a governor, he established( 23),  local government councils which were later disbanded by the military.
He also started a metroline project to facilitate mass transit. The project was halted and his tenure as Governor ended when the military seized power on (31) December (1983).

Aiki
Bayan mamayar sojoji a shekara ta 1983, an tuhumi Jakande, an gurfanar dashi kuma an yanke masa hukuncin cin amana, koda yake daga baya an yi masa afuwa.  Bayan an sake shi, ya karɓi mukamin ministan ayyuka a ƙarƙashin mulkin soja na Sani Abacha, wanda hakan ya sanya wasu sukarsa. Ya yi ikirarin cewa ya karɓi mukamin ne daga matsin lamba daga MKO Abiola da sauran shugabannin ci gaba.  A wata hira da aka yi dashi daga baya, ya ce bai yi nadama ba game da shawarar da ya yanke na yin hidimar.  Duk da haka, tarayyarsa da Abacha ya nakasa aikinsa a siyasa bayan dawo da mulkin dimokiradiyya a shekara ta 1999.

Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande ya zama babban mamba a jam'iyyar All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) lokacin da UNPP da All People Party (APP) suka dunƙule.  A watan Yuni a shekara ta 2002, wani ɓangare na jam'iyyar ANPP mai biyayya ga Cif [[Lanre Razaq] ya "dakatar da shi".  Jakande shi ne shugaban farko na jam'iyyar Action Party of Nigeria (APN) lokacin da aka kafa ta a watan Nuwamba a shekara ta  2006, A watan Mayun a shekara ta 2009 an bada rahoton yana gwagwarmaya don mallakar jam'iyyar tare da tsohon abokinsa, Dr. Adegbola Dominic.

Manyan mutane da dama sun halarci bikin cikarsa shekaru 75 da haihuwa. A wajen wannan taron, tsohon Gwamnan Jihar Legas Bola Ahmed Tinubu ya ce Jakande ya cancanci a yaba masa bisa irin sadaukarwar da ya yi wajen yi wa gwamnati hidima. Haka shima Tsohon Jihar Imo Gwamna Achike Udenwa ya ce rayuwar Jakande da zamaninsa sun haɗa da  juriya, jajircewa, jarumtaka, da kuma gwaninta gamida yin fice.

Rayuwa da mutuwa
Jakande ya mutu a Legas a ranar 11,  ga watan Fabrairu, shekara ta 2021. An tsinci gawar sa a maƙabartar Vaults and Gardens Cemetery'', Ikoyi, jihar Legas a ranar Juma'a karfe goma sha biyu (12), a shekara ta (2021) a ƙarƙashin bin ka'idojin COVID-19.

Duba kuma

 Tsarin lokaci na Legas,( 1980s)
 Lateef Raji

Manazarta

Hanyoyin haɗin waje

Haifaffun 1929
Matattun 2021
Ƴansiyasan Yarbawa
Gwamnonin Jihar Lagos
Ministocin Tarayyar Najeriya
Ƴansiyasan Jihar Lagos
Editocin Najeriya
Tsaffin ɗaliban King College, Lagos
Ƴanjaridun Yarbawa
Ƴanjaridun Najeriya
Ma'assasan Kwaleji da makarantu a Najeriya

Lateef Jakande


Count Nikita Petrovich Panin (Russian: Граф Ники́та Петро́вич Па́нин; 1770–1837) was an Imperial Russian diplomat, vice-chancellor, and (acting) State Chancellor and Foreign Minister of Russia.  He was a nephew of Count Nikita Ivanovich Panin, son of Petr Ivanovich Panin, son-in-law of Count .  Nikita P. Panin plotted the assassination of Paul I of Russia together with Count Peter Ludwig von der Pahlen and the Russo-Neapolitan Admiral José de Ribas.  Ribas died before the assassination, which was actually carried out on 23 March [O.S. 11 March] 1801 by a band of dismissed officers headed by General Bennigsen, a Hanoverian in the Russian service, and General Yashvil, a Georgian.  The assassination brought Alexander I of Russia to the throne.

Further reading
 Materials for the biography of Count Nikita Petrovich Panin. (1892) (Материалы для жизнеописания графа Никиты Петровича Панина) at Runivers.ru in DjVu and PDF formats

1770 births
1837 deaths
Panin, Petrovich
Panin, Petrovich
Russian Empire regicides
Paul I of Russia

Nikita Petrovich Panin


Aquilegia eximia is a species of columbine known by the common names serpentine columbine or  Van Houtte's columbine. It is endemic to California, where it grows in the moist forests of the Coast Ranges, usually on serpentine soils.

Description
This is a perennial herb growing from a thick caudex and varying in height, reaching a maximum height near 1.5 meters. The lower leaves are divided into large, leaflike segments up to 4 or 5 centimeters long and a lobed oval in shape. Leaves farther up the stem are not segmented but may be deeply lobed. The inflorescence bears a large, nodding columbine flower. Each flower has five bright red to orange-red flat sepals up to nearly 3 centimeters long, and five petals which are hollow spurs up to 4 centimeters long, bright orange-red on the outer surface and lighter orange to yellow inside. The mouth of each hollow petal tube is up to a centimeter wide. The sepals and petals are generally reflexed back toward the stem and the five pistils and many thin stamens extend forward from the center of the flower.

Landscape use
An excellent landscape plant for some regions of California.

References

External links
UC Davis Arboretum All-Stars
Jepson Manual Treatment
Photo gallery

eximia
Flora of California
Plants described in 1857
Flora without expected TNC conservation status

Aquilegia eximia


The Public Transportation Authority in Jämtland County () is the public transport authority of Jämtland County, Sweden. It is owned 50% by the county administration and 50% by the municipalities. In addition to buses and coaches, the authority is jointly responsible for regional train service Mittnabotåget that operates between Trondheim Central Station in Norway, via Östersund Central Station to Sundsvall Central Station.

External links
Official site

Public transport authorities of Sweden
Transport in Jämtland County


Brian Elias (born 30 August 1948) is a British composer.

Biography
Brian Elias was born in Bombay, India, and has lived in the U.K. since he was thirteen years old. After studying at the Royal College of Music he undertook private studies with Elisabeth Lutyens. His first major orchestral work L'Eylah was premiered at the BBC Proms in 1984. He has since had his works performed and recorded extensively by leading orchestras and soloists including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Britten Sinfonia, Jane Manning, Roderick Williams, Natalie Clein, and the Jerusalem Quartet. Elias collaborated with Kenneth MacMillan on his final ballet The Judas Tree, premiered in 1992 at the Royal Opera House. He has won two British Composer Awards - the first for his 2010 work Doubles, and the second for his 2013 work Electra Mourns. Elias was featured in a Wigmore Hall retrospective in April 2021.

He has taught composition at the Royal Academy of Music and the Purcell School, and his students have included Joby Talbot and Darren Bloom. His works are published by Chester Music.

Compositions

Orchestral
 L'Eylah:  commissioned by the BBC for the 1984 Proms. The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Edward Downes gave the first performance at the Royal Albert Hall on 30 August 1984.
 The House That Jack Built: Commissioned by the BBC for performance by the BBC Symphony Orchestra during the 2001/2002 winter season.
 Doubles: commissioned by BBC Radio 3 for performance by the BBC Symphony Orchestra. It was completed in February 2009, and lasts approximately 26 minutes.
 "Brian Elias' Doubles was one of the most impressive pieces of orchestral music I have heard in a long time..." Martin Anderson, Tempo

Orchestra with soloist
 Five Songs to Poems by Irina Ratushinskaya (1989): for mezzo soprano soloist and orchestra. Commissioned by the BBC for their 1988/89 season. The texts for the songs were written by Irina Ratushinskaya, a Russian dissident poet. Many of these poems were published while she was still imprisoned.
"Brian Elias is not a composer to play for safety. His latest work...takes just about every possible risk, facing technical hazards in setting Russian words and putting them into the most rarely successful of musical forms, the orchestral song cycle and also going for moral danger in taking its texts from Prison poetry....Elias handles her verse with tact and care..there is such abundant inventiveness in this half-hour score. Amply gifted as an orchestral composer....the music responds directly to the mood and image, but finds a great deal else to do as well.....purified intensity, immediacy and unrestrained lyricism". Paul Griffiths, The Sunday Times
 Laments (1998): for mezzo soprano soloist and orchestra. The text is written in Grico, and based on folk tunes from Salento. Laments was commissioned by BBC Radio 3 and was completed in June 1998.
 Talisman (2004): for bass-baritone and orchestra. The text is in Hebrew and Aramaic based on the writings found on a rare amulet passed down in the composer's family. A Talisman was completed in February 2004.
 Electra Mourns: Winner of the British Composer Award 2013 Vocal Category. The work, a scena set in the original ancient Greek, was completed in January 2011. It is scored for Mezzo Soprano, solo Cor Anglais and String Orchestra, and lasts approximately 17 minutes.
Cello Concerto: Premiered at the 2017 BBC Proms by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth, with Leonard Elschenbroich as the soloist. The work is dedicated to Natalie Clein.

Solo and chamber works
 Geranos (1984): for chamber ensemble.
 Pythikos Nomos (1987-8): for saxophone and piano. Commissioned by John-Edward Kelly.
 But When I Sleep... (1987): for solo viola.
 Birds Practise Songs in Dreams (2002): for solo clarinet. Premiered by Mark van de Wiel.
 String Quartet (2012): premiered by the Jerusalem Quartet.
 Oboe Quintet (2016): written for Nicholas Daniel and members of the Britten Sinfonia.
 Three Duets (2017): for violin and violoncello.
 L' innominata (2018): for violoncello and piano. Commissioned by the Purbeck International Chamber Music Festival and premiered by Natalie Clein (cello) and Vadym Kholodenko (piano).

Career highlights
1965 - commenced informal composition studies with Elisabeth Lutyens
1984 - L'Eylah premiered at the BBC Proms
1989 - premiere of Five Songs to Poems by Irina Ratushinskaya
1993 - Olivier Award for Best New Dance Work for The Judas Tree
1999 - NVC video of The Judas Tree wins International Emmy Award for Performing Arts
2001 - The House that Jack Built premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra
2010 - Awarded a British Composer Award for Doubles
2013 - Awarded a British Composer Award for Electra Mourns

Discography
 Laments; Five Songs to Poems by Irina Ratushinskaya - NMC D064
 Pythikos Nomos - Col Legno AU31817
 Fantasia - NMC D09
Meet Me in the Green Glen - NMC DL3032 (featuring Roderick Williams & Susan Bickley).
Electra Mourns -  NMC D235 (featuring Roderick Williams, Psappha Ensemble, and the Britten Sinfonia,)
The House That Jack Built - NMC D173 (featuring the BBC Symphony Orchestra)

References

External links
 Brian Elias' homepage at Chester Music

1948 births
Living people
Alumni of the Royal College of Music
British classical composers
British male classical composers
20th-century classical composers
21st-century classical composers
British ballet composers
Musicians from Mumbai
20th-century British composers
20th-century British male musicians
21st-century British male musicians
Indian emigrants to the United Kingdom
British people of Indian-Jewish descent
Baghdadi Jews

Brian Elias


Marie Aubry (1656–1704) was a French operatic soprano of the baroque period.

She was the daughter of Léonard Aubry and Geneviève Béjart, sister of French actress Madeleine Béjart. While in the service of the Philippe I, Duke of Orléans's private music troupe, she was recruited by Pierre Perrin and Robert Cambert of the Académie Royale de Musique and became first soprano in the troupe of Jean-Baptiste Lully, creating for him roles in the following operas: Oriane in Amadis de Gaule, Sangaride in Atys, Philonoé in Bellérophon, Io in Isis, Andromède in Persée, and the title role in Proserpine, Aeglé in Thésée.

She and her brother Sébastien were supposedly implicated in the so-called assassination attempt of Lully by her lover Henri Guichard in 1675.

Described as small, with white skin and black hair, she retired from the stage in 1684, because of obesity such that she could no longer walk.

Sources
 L'opéra baroque, les chanteurs de Lully, Jean-Claude Brenac.

1656 births
1704 deaths
French operatic sopranos
Place of birth missing
17th-century French women opera singers

Marie Aubry


"Sexy Robótica" is the official second single from iDon, it was released on June 5, 2009, it was originally selected as the first single, back later the producers decided that "Virtual Diva" were the first single and "Sexy Robótica" the second single from iDon.

Music video
The music video was filmed in Miami and was directed by Carlos R. Pérez who also made Virtual Diva music video. The music video reached #1 of the most downloaded on iTunes in the first week of being released.

Concept
On the video, Vera building downtown Miami was transformed into a mysterious underground complex. Through the video, attractive dancers are a mix of energy and sensual activities represented in several scenes in which Don Omar performs "Sexy Robótica", the music video was released on Don Omar official Universal Music website on July 10.

Track listing
US Digital download
"Sexy Robótica" (Album Version) – 3:54

Charts

References

External links
 iDon.com
 "Sexy Robótica" (music video) iDon.com

2009 singles
Don Omar songs
2009 songs
Machete Music singles
Songs written by James Brown
Songs written by Don Omar

Sexy Robótica


Navy Mutual, originally established as Navy Mutual Aid Association (NMAA), is a nonprofit, federally tax-exempt, mutual-benefit Veterans Service Organization (VSO) It was established in 1879 by naval officers for the purpose of providing life insurance and annuities to members of the sea services (United States Navy, United States Marine Corps, United States Coast Guard, U.S. Public Health Service, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), and their families. Membership for the past decade has averaged 105,000 members. In 2016, Navy Mutual had over 141,000 military members (active, reserve, and retired) and families insured under various plans; by 2019, the number of insurance plans increased to over 145,000 with a member retention rate of 98.4%. For seventeen consecutive years through 2020, Navy Mutual has earned a Fitch Insurer Financial Strength (IFS) rating of A+, with a Stable Rating Outlook.

History

Navy Mutual was established on July 28, 1879, during a meeting of U.S. Navy officers at the Navy Department in Washington, D.C.

Until 1920, only those officers of the Navy and Marine Corps on the active list were eligible for membership. Temporary and reserve officers under 45 years of age – both active and inactive – became eligible in 1920. Membership was extended to officers of the U.S. Coast Guard in 1925. Female officers of the United States Navy became eligible in 1947. Eligibility was later expanded to include commissioned officers of the U.S. Public Health Service (1963) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (1972); enlisted personnel of the United States Navy, United States Marine Corps, and United States Coast Guard (1980); and retired personnel of the sea services (1993). In 2020, Navy Mutual expanded their bylaws to extend membership eligibility to active duty, retired, reserve, and honorably discharged personnel of the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force as well as their families. Only twice in Navy Mutual history – in 1942 and 1950 – membership was temporarily halted. This was due to the entrance of the United States into both World War II and the Korean War, respectively. Membership restrictions were removed shortly after both wars ended. Navy Mutual is headquartered at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Arlington, Virginia.

Membership Eligibility

To qualify to become a member of Navy Mutual Aid Association the person must on active duty, in the Reserve Component, or retired from the following U.S. military branches,

 U.S. Navy (USN)
 U.S. Marine Corps (USMC)
 U.S. Coast Guard (USCG)
 U.S. Air Force (USAF)
 U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (USPHSCC)
 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

or be an honorably discharged veteran of the Navy, Marine Corps, Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, NOAA, or USPHSCC who resides in Virginia, Hawaiʻi, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Texas, Oregon, & Rhode Island.

Services

Navy Mutual Aid Association offers Life insurance and Annuities services to its members.

Life Insurance

Navy Mutual Aid Association offers these types of life insurance:

 Flagship Whole Life (Whole Life Insurance)
 Level II 'Plus' (Level Term Life Insurance for individuals aged 40+)
 Flex Term (Group priced Term Life Insurance for individuals under age 40)

Annuities

Navy Mutual Aid Association offers these types of annuities:

 Single Premium Deferred Annuities
 Flexible Premium Retirement Annuity
 Single Premium Immediate Annuity

Staff

The current President and CEO of Navy Mutual is retired Rear Admiral Brian E. Luther, USN, who has served in that role since October 2020. He was preceded by retired Rear Admiral Bruce Engelhardt, USN. The current Chair of the Board is retired Vice Admiral Stanley R. Szemborski, USN, who assumed the position in April 2020.

References

Mutual insurance companies of the United States
American companies established in 1879
Financial services companies established in 1879
Organizations established in 1879
Life insurance companies of the United States
Companies based in Virginia

Navy Mutual


Murray Silverstein (born September 19, 1943) co-authored the books A Pattern Language and The Oregon Experiment. At that time, he taught architecture courses at the University of California, and subsequently taught at the University of Washington. He had also written several articles on pattern languages. As a young designer, he worked for noted California architect Richard Neutra.

In 2006, a collection of his poetry entitled "Any Old Wolf" was published by Sixteen Rivers Press.

Published works
Silverstein's published works include:

 Alexander, C., Silverstein, M., Angel, S., Ishikawa, S., Abrams, D. (1975). The Oregon Experiment (Center for Environmental Structure Series, Vol. 3). Oxford University Press.
 Alexander, C., Ishikawa, S., Silverstein, M. (1977). A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction. Oxford University Press, USA.
 Jacobson, M., Silverstein, M., & Winslow, B. (2002). Patterns of home: The ten essentials of enduring design. Taunton Press.

References

American male poets
Living people
University of California faculty
University of Washington faculty
1943 births
20th-century American poets
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American non-fiction writers
American male non-fiction writers

Murray Silverstein


Lost City could mean:
 Lost City (hydrothermal field), a field of hydrothermal vents in the Atlantic Ocean
 "Lost City" (Stargate SG-1), a two-part episode of the television series Stargate SG-1
 Lost City (novel), a 2004 novel written by Clive Cussler and Paul Kemprecos

Lost Cities could also mean:
 Lost Cities, a card game published by both Kosmos and Rio Grande Games
 Lost Cities (video game) an Xbox 360 game planned for release in 2008 and based on the card game

The Lost City could mean:
The Lost City (2005 movie), a movie about the owner of a Havana nightclub set in 1958, Andy Garcia co-wrote and starred in the movie.
The Lost City (1935 serial), two science fiction movies directed by Harry Revier and starring Kane Richmond
The Lost City (1920 serial), a Warner Bros. serial directed by E.A. Martin
The Lost City (module)] - an adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game

In places:
 Lost City, Oklahoma, the landing site of the Lost City Meteorite
 Atlantis, a famous Lost city
 Ciudad Perdida, a Lost City on the Caribbean coast of Colombia
 Pueblo Grande de Nevada, Nevada's "Lost City",  a complex of villages, located near Overton, Nevada

Related pages
 Lost city (fiction) for a list of fictional lost cities

Lost City


The 2014 Eketāhuna earthquake struck at 3:52 pm on 20 January, centred 15 km east of Eketāhuna in the south-east of New Zealand's North Island. It had a maximum perceived intensity of VII (Very strong) on the Mercalli intensity scale. Originally reported as magnitude 6.6 on the Richter Scale, the earthquake was later downgraded to a magnitude of 6.2. A total of 1112 aftershocks were recorded, ranging between magnitudes 2.0 and 4.9 on the Richter Scale.

Tectonic setting
New Zealand lies along the boundary between the Indo-Australian Plate and Pacific Plates. In the South Island most of the relative displacement between these plates is taken up along a single dextral (right lateral) strike-slip fault with a major reverse component, the Alpine Fault. In the North Island the displacement is mainly taken up along the Hikurangi Subduction Zone, although the remaining dextral strike-slip component of the relative plate motion is accommodated by the North Island Fault System (NIFS).

The focal mechanism of the earthquake, its depth and the distribution of aftershocks show that it was a result of oblique normal faulting within the upper part of the subducting Pacific Plate, with the rupture terminating upwards at the plate interface.

Damage
It was felt strongly down the country, from Auckland in the north to Dunedin in the south, and more than 9,000 reports were submitted by the public to GeoNet, the geological hazards monitoring network. The New Zealand Herald newspaper reported damage to walls and chimneys and road closures in the lower North Island.

The Earthquake Commission, (EQC) received 5,013 claims, 1,514 of them from Palmerston North. Minor to moderate damage was also reported in Eketāhuna, Wellington, Masterton, Carterton, Kāpiti Coast, Pahiatua, Levin and Otaki. Three 1920s-style buildings in Masterton were evacuated  after cracks appeared. One building needed to be demolished. According to The New Zealand Herald, two people were injured as a result of falls.

Hokowhitu Lagoon in Palmerston North is thought to have suffered water-bed damage leading to water leaking. Currently no fix is in place to solve this.

See also
List of earthquakes in 2014
List of earthquakes in New Zealand

References

External links
Computer Simulations of Earthquake Waves – GNS Science

Eketāhuna earthquake
2014 earthquakes
Earthquakes in New Zealand
Tararua District
Eketāhuna
2014 disasters in New Zealand

2014 Eketāhuna earthquake


Monetary policy is the policy adopted by the monetary authority of a nation to affect monetary and other financial conditions to accomplish broader objectives like high employment and price stability (normally interpreted as a low and stable rate of inflation). Further purposes of a monetary policy may be to contribute to economic stability or to maintain predictable exchange rates with other currencies. Today most central banks in developed countries conduct their monetary policy within an inflation targeting framework, whereas the monetary policies of most developing countries' central banks target some kind of a fixed exchange rate system. A third monetary policy strategy, targeting the money supply, was widely followed during the 1980s, but has diminished in popularity since that, though it is still the official strategy in a number of emerging economies.

The tools of monetary policy vary from central bank to central bank, depending on the country's stage of development, institutional structure, tradition and political system. Interest rate targeting is generally the primary tool, being obtained either directly via administratively changing the central bank's own interest rates or indirectly via open market operations. Interest rates affect general economic activity and consequently employment and inflation via a number of different channels, known collectively as the monetary transmission mechanism, and are also an important determinant of the exchange rate. Other policy tools include communication strategies like forward guidance and in some countries the setting of reserve requirements. Monetary policy is often referred to as being either expansionary (stimulating economic activity and consequently employment and inflation) or contractionary (dampening economic activity, hence decreasing employment and inflation).

Monetary policy affects the economy through financial channels like interest rates, exchange rates and prices of financial assets. This is in contrast to fiscal policy, which relies on changes in taxation and government spending as methods for a government to manage business cycle phenomena such as recessions. In developed countries, monetary policy is generally formed separately from fiscal policy, modern central banks in developed economies being independent of direct government control and directives.

How best to conduct monetary policy is an active and debated research area, drawing on fields like monetary economics as well as other subfields within macroeconomics.

History

Issuing coins and paper money
Monetary policy has evolved over the centuries, along with the development of a money economy. Historians, economists, anthropologists and numismatics do not agree on the origins of money. In the West the common point of view is that coins were first used in ancient Lydia in the 8th century BCE, whereas some date the origins to ancient China. The earliest predecessors to monetary policy seem to be those of debasement, where the government would melt coins down and mix them with cheaper metals. The practice was widespread in the late Roman Empire, but reached its perfection in western Europe in the late Middle Ages.

For many centuries there were only two forms of monetary policy: altering coinage or the printing of paper money. Interest rates, while now thought of as part of monetary authority, were not generally coordinated with the other forms of monetary policy during this time. Monetary policy was considered as an executive decision, and was generally implemented by the authority with seigniorage (the power to coin). With the advent of larger trading networks came the ability to define the currency value in terms of gold or silver, and the price of the local currency in terms of foreign currencies. This official price could be enforced by law, even if it varied from the market price.

Paper money originated from promissory notes termed "jiaozi" in 7th century China. Jiaozi did not replace metallic currency, and were used alongside the copper coins. The succeeding Yuan Dynasty was the first government to use paper currency as the predominant circulating medium. In the later course of the dynasty, facing massive shortages of specie to fund war and maintain their rule, they began printing paper money without restrictions, resulting in hyperinflation.

Central banks and the gold standard

With the creation of the Bank of England in 1694, which was granted the authority to print notes backed by gold, the idea of monetary policy as independent of executive action began to be established. The purpose of monetary policy was to maintain the value of the coinage, print notes which would trade at par to specie, and prevent coins from leaving circulation. During the period 1870–1920, the industrialized nations established central banking systems, with one of the last being the Federal Reserve in 1913. By this time the role of the central bank as the "lender of last resort" was established. It was also increasingly understood that interest rates had an effect on the entire economy, in no small part because of appreciation for the marginal revolution in economics, which demonstrated that people would change their decisions based on changes in their opportunity costs.

The establishment of national banks by industrializing nations was associated then with the desire to maintain the currency's relationship to the gold standard, and to trade in a narrow currency band with other gold-backed currencies. To accomplish this end, central banks as part of the gold standard began setting the interest rates that they charged both their own borrowers and other banks which required money for liquidity. The maintenance of a gold standard required almost monthly adjustments of interest rates.

The gold standard is a system by which the price of the national currency is fixed vis-a-vis the value of gold, and is kept constant by the government's promise to buy or sell gold at a fixed price in terms of the base currency. The gold standard might be regarded as a special case of "fixed exchange rate" policy, or as a special type of commodity price level targeting. However, the policies required to maintain the gold standard might be harmful to employment and general economic activity and probably exacerbated the Great Depression in the 1930s in many countries, leading eventually to the demise of the gold standards and efforts to create a more adequate monetary framework internationally after World War II. Nowadays the gold standard is no longer used by any country.

Fixed exchange rates prevailing

In 1944, the Bretton Woods system was established, which created the International Monetary Fund and introduced a fixed exchange rate system linking the currencies of most industrialized nations to the US dollar, which as the only currency in the system would be directly convertible to gold. During the following decades the system secured stable exchange rates internationally, but the system broke down during the 1970s when the dollar increasingly came to be viewed as overvalued. In 1971, the dollar's convertibility into gold was suspended. Attempts to revive the fixed exchange rates failed, and by 1973 the major currencies began to float against each other. In Europe, various attempts were made to establish a regional fixed exchange rate system via the European Monetary System, leading eventually to the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union and the introduction of the currency euro.

Money supply targets

Monetarist economists long contended that the money-supply growth could affect the macroeconomy. These included Milton Friedman who early in his career advocated that government budget deficits during recessions be financed in equal amount by money creation to help to stimulate aggregate demand for production. Later he advocated simply increasing the monetary supply at a low, constant rate, as the best way of maintaining low inflation and stable production growth. During the 1970s inflation rose in many countries caused by the 1970s energy crisis, and several central banks turned to a money supply target in an attempt to reduce inflation. However, when U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker tried this policy, starting in October 1979, it was found to be impractical, because of the unstable relationship between monetary aggregates and other macroeconomic variables, and similar results prevailed in other countries. Even Milton Friedman later acknowledged that direct money supplying was less successful than he had hoped.

Inflation targeting

In 1990, New Zealand as the first country ever adopted an official inflation target as the basis of its monetary policy. The idea is that the central bank tries to adjust interest rates in order to steer the country's inflation rate towards the official target instead of following indirect objectives like exchange rate stability or money supply growth, the purpose of which is normally also ultimately to obtain low and stable inflation. The strategy was generally considered to work well, and central banks in most developed countries have over the years adapted a similar strategy.

The Global Financial Crisis of 2008 sparked controversy over the use and flexibility of the inflation targeting employed. Many economists argued that the actual inflation targets decided upon were set too low by many monetary regimes. During the crisis, many inflation-anchoring countries reached the lower bound of zero rates, resulting in inflation rates decreasing to almost zero or even deflation.

As of 2023, the central banks of all G7 member countries can be said to follow an inflation target, including the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve, who have adopted the main elements of inflation targeting without officially calling themselves inflation targeters. In emerging countries fixed exchange rate regimes are still the most common monetary policy.

Monetary policy instruments

The instruments available to central banks for conducting monetary policy vary from country to country, depending on the country's stage of development, institutional structure and political system. The main monetary policy instruments available to central banks are interest rate policy, i.e. setting (administered) interest rates directly, open market operations, forward guidance and other communication activities, bank reserve requirements, and re-lending and re-discount (including using the term repurchase market. While capital adequacy is important, it is defined and regulated by the Bank for International Settlements, and central banks in practice generally do not apply stricter rules.

Expansionary policy occurs when a monetary authority uses its instruments to stimulate the economy. An expansionary policy decreases short-term interest rates, affecting broader financial conditions to encourage spending on goods and services, in turn leading to increased employment. By affecting the exchange rate, it may also stimulate net export. Contractionary policy works in the opposite direction: Increasing interest rates will depress borrowing and spending by consumers and businesses, dampening inflationary pressure in the economy together with employment.

Key interest rates

For most central banks in advanced economies, their main monetary policy instrument is a short-term interest rate. For monetary policy frameworks operating under an exchange rate anchor, adjusting interest rates are, together with direct intervention in the foreign exchange market (i.e. open market operations), important tools to maintain the desired exchange rate. For central banks targeting inflation directly, adjusting interest rates are crucial for the monetary transmission mechanism which ultimately affects inflation. Changes in the central banks' policy rates normally affect the interest rates that banks and other lenders charge on loans to firms and households, which will in turn impact private investment and consumption. Interest rate changes also affect asset prices like stock prices and house prices, which again influence households' consumption decisions through a wealth effect. Additionally, international interest rate differentials affect exchange rates and consequently US exports and imports. Consumption, investment and net exports are all important components of aggegate demand. Stimulating or suppressing the overall demand for goods and services in the economy will tend to increase respectively diminish  inflation.

The concrete implementation mechanism used to adjust short-term interest rates differs from central bank to central bank. The "policy rate" itself, i.e. the main interest rate which the central bank uses to communicate its policy, may be either an administered rate (i.e. set directly by the central bank) or a market interest rate which the central bank influences only indirectly. By setting administered rates that commercial banks and possibly other financial institutions will receive for their deposits in the central bank, respectively pay for loans from the central bank, the central monetary authority can create a band (or "corridor") within which market interbank short-term interest rates will typically move. Depending on the specific details, the resulting specific market interest rate may either be created by open market operations by the central bank (a so-called "corridor system") or in practice equal the administered rate (a "floor system", practised by the Federal Reserve among others).

As an example of how this functions, the Bank of Canada sets a target overnight rate, and a band of plus or minus 0.25%. Qualified banks borrow from each other within this band, but never above or below, because the central bank will always lend to them at the top of the band, and take deposits at the bottom of the band; in principle, the capacity to borrow and lend at the extremes of the band are unlimited.
The target rates are generally short-term rates. The actual rate that borrowers and lenders receive on the market will depend on (perceived) credit risk, maturity and other factors. For example, a central bank might set a target rate for overnight lending of 4.5%, but rates for (equivalent risk) five-year bonds might be 5%, 4.75%, or, in cases of inverted yield curves, even below the short-term rate.

Many central banks have one primary "headline" rate that is quoted as the "central bank rate". In practice, they will have other tools and rates that are used, but only one that is rigorously targeted and enforced. A typical central bank consequently has several interest rates or monetary policy tools it can use to influence markets.

 Marginal lending rate – a fixed rate for institutions to borrow money from the central bank. (In the USA this is called the discount rate).
 Main refinancing rate – the publicly visible interest rate the central bank announces. It is also known as minimum bid rate and serves as a bidding floor for refinancing loans. (In the USA this is called the federal funds rate).
 Deposit rate, generally consisting of interest on reserves – the rates parties receive for deposits at the central bank.

Open market operations

Through open market operations, a central bank may influence the level of interest rates, the exchange rate and/or the money supply in an economy. Open market operations can influence interest rates by expanding or contracting the monetary base, which consists of currency in circulation and banks' reserves on deposit at the central bank. Each time a central bank buys securities (such as a government bond or treasury bill), it in effect creates money. The central bank exchanges money for the security, increasing the monetary base while lowering the supply of the specific security. Conversely, selling of securities by the central bank reduces the monetary base. Open market operations usually take the form of:

 Buying or selling securities ("direct operations").
 Temporary lending of money for collateral securities ("Reverse Operations" or "repurchase operations", otherwise known as the "repo" market). These operations are carried out on a regular basis, where fixed maturity loans (of one week and one month for the ECB) are auctioned off.
 Foreign exchange operations such as foreign exchange swaps.

Forward guidance

Forward guidance is a communication practice whereby the central bank announces its forecasts and future intentions to influence market expectations of future levels of interest rates. As expectations formation are an important ingredient in actual inflation changes, credible communication is important for modern central banks.

Reserve requirements

Historically, bank reserves have formed only a small fraction of deposits, a system called fractional-reserve banking. Banks would hold only a small percentage of their assets in the form of cash reserves as insurance against bank runs. Over time this process has been regulated and insured by central banks. Such legal reserve requirements were introduced in the 19th century as an attempt to reduce the risk of banks overextending themselves and suffering from bank runs, as this could lead to knock-on effects on other overextended banks.

A number of central banks have since abolished their reserve requirements over the last few decades, beginning with the Reserve Bank of New Zealand in 1985 and continuing with the Federal Reserve in 2020. For the respective banking systems, bank capital requirements provide a check on the growth of the money supply.

The People's Bank of China retains (and uses) more powers over reserves because the yuan that it manages is a non-convertible currency.

Loan activity by banks plays a fundamental role in determining the money supply. The central-bank money after aggregate settlement – "final money" – can take only one of two forms:

 physical cash, which is rarely used in wholesale financial markets,
 central-bank money which is rarely used by the people

The currency component of the money supply is far smaller than the deposit component. Currency, bank reserves and institutional loan agreements together make up the monetary base, called M1, M2 and M3. The Federal Reserve Bank stopped publishing M3 and counting it as part of the money supply in 2006.

Credit guidance

Central banks can directly or indirectly influence the allocation of bank lending in certain sectors of the economy by applying quotas, limits or differentiated interest rates. This allows the central bank to control both the quantity of lending and its allocation towards certain strategic sectors of the economy, for example to support the national industrial policy, or to environmental investment such as housing renovation.

The Bank of Japan used to apply such policy ("window guidance") between 1962 and 1991. The Banque de France also widely used credit guidance during the post-war period of 1948 until 1973 .

The European Central Bank's ongoing TLTROs operations can also be described as form of credit guidance insofar as the level of interest rate ultimately paid by banks is differentiated according to the volume of lending made by commercial banks at the end of the maintenance period. If commercial banks achieve a certain lending performance threshold, they get a discount interest rate, that is lower than the standard key interest rate. For this reason, some economists have described the TLTROs as a "dual interest rates" policy.

China is also applying a form of dual rate policy.

Exchange requirements
To influence the money supply, some central banks may require that some or all foreign exchange receipts (generally from exports) be exchanged for the local currency. The rate that is used to purchase local currency may be market-based or arbitrarily set by the bank. This tool is generally used in countries with non-convertible currencies or partially convertible currencies. The recipient of the local currency may be allowed to freely dispose of the funds, required to hold the funds with the central bank for some period of time, or allowed to use the funds subject to certain restrictions. In other cases, the ability to hold or use the foreign exchange may be otherwise limited.

In this method, money supply is increased by the central bank when it purchases the foreign currency by issuing (selling) the local currency. The central bank may subsequently reduce the money supply by various means, including selling bonds or foreign exchange interventions.

Collateral policy
In some countries, central banks may have other tools that work indirectly to limit lending practices and otherwise restrict or regulate capital markets. For example, a central bank may regulate margin lending, whereby individuals or companies may borrow against pledged securities. The margin requirement establishes a minimum ratio of the value of the securities to the amount borrowed.

Central banks often have requirements for the quality of assets that may be held by financial institutions; these requirements may act as a limit on the amount of risk and leverage created by the financial system. These requirements may be direct, such as requiring certain assets to bear certain minimum credit ratings, or indirect, by the central bank lending to counter-parties only when security of a certain quality is pledged as collateral.

Unconventional monetary policy at the zero bound
Other forms of monetary policy, particularly used when interest rates are at or near 0% and there are concerns about deflation or deflation is occurring, are referred to as unconventional monetary policy. These include credit easing, quantitative easing, forward guidance, and signalling. In credit easing, a central bank purchases private sector assets to improve liquidity and improve access to credit. Signaling can be used to lower market expectations for lower interest rates in the future. For example, during the credit crisis of 2008, the US Federal Reserve indicated rates would be low for an "extended period", and the Bank of Canada made a "conditional commitment" to keep rates at the lower bound of 25 basis points (0.25%) until the end of the second quarter of 2010.

Helicopter money

Further similar monetary policy proposals include the idea of helicopter money whereby central banks would create money without assets as counterpart in their balance sheet. The money created could be distributed directly to the population as a citizen's dividend. Virtues of such money shocks include the decrease of household risk aversion and the increase in demand, boosting both inflation and the output gap. This option has been increasingly discussed since March 2016 after the ECB's president Mario Draghi said he found the concept "very interesting". The idea was also promoted by prominent former central bankers Stanley Fischer and Philipp Hildebrand  in a paper published by BlackRock, and in France by economists Philippe Martin and Xavier Ragot from the French Council for Economic Analysis, a think tank attached to the Prime minister's office.

Some have envisaged the use of what Milton Friedman once called "helicopter money" whereby the central bank would make direct transfers to citizens in order to lift inflation up to the central bank's intended target. Such policy option could be particularly effective at the zero lower bound.

Nominal anchors

Central banks typically use a nominal anchor to pin down expectations of private agents about the nominal price level or its path or about what the central bank might do with respect to achieving that path. A nominal anchor is a variable that is thought to bear a stable relationship to the price level or the rate of inflation over some period of time. The adoption of a nominal anchor is intended to stabilize inflation expectations, which may, in turn, help stabilize actual inflation. Nominal variables historically used as anchors include the gold standard, exchange rate targets, money supply targets, and since the 1990s direct official inflation targets. In addition, economic researchers have proposed variants or alternatives like price level targeting (some times described as an inflation target with a memory) or  nominal income targeting.

Empirically, some researchers suggest that central banks' policies can be described by a simple method called the Taylor rule, according to which central banks adjust their policy interest rate in response to changes in the inflation rate and the output gap. The rule was proposed by John B. Taylor of Stanford University.

Inflation targeting
Under this policy approach, the official target is to keep inflation, under a particular definition such as the Consumer Price Index, within a desired range. Thus, while other monetary regimes usually also have as their ultimate goal to control inflation, they go about it in an indirect way, whereas the inflation targeting employs a more direct approach.

The inflation target is achieved through periodic adjustments to the central bank interest rate target. In addition, clear communication to the public about the central bank's actions and future expectations are an essential part of the strategy, in itself influencing inflation expectations which are considered crucial for actual inflation developments.

Typically the duration that the interest rate target is kept constant will vary between months and years. This interest rate target is usually reviewed on a monthly or quarterly basis by a policy committee. Changes to the interest rate target are made in response to various market indicators in an attempt to forecast economic trends and in so doing keep the market on track towards achieving the defined inflation target.

The inflation targeting approach to monetary policy approach was pioneered in New Zealand. Since 1990, an increasing number of countries have switched to inflation targeting as its monetary policy framework. It is used in, among other countries, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Iceland, India, Philippines, Poland, Sweden, South Africa, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. In 2022, the International Monetary Fund registered that 45 economies used inflation targeting as their monetary policy framework. In addition, the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank are generally considered to follow a strategy very close to inflation targeting, even though they do not officially label themselves as inflation targeters. Inflation targeting thus has become the world's dominant monetary policy framework. However, critics contend that there are unintended consequences to this approach such as fueling the increase in housing prices and contributing to wealth inequalities by supporting higher equity values.

Fixed exchange rate targeting
This policy is based on maintaining a fixed exchange rate with a foreign currency. There are varying degrees of fixed exchange rates, which can be ranked in relation to how rigid the fixed exchange rate is with the anchor nation.

Under a system of fiat fixed rates, the local government or monetary authority declares a fixed exchange rate but does not actively buy or sell currency to maintain the rate. Instead, the rate is enforced by non-convertibility measures (e.g. capital controls, import/export licenses, etc.). In this case there is a black market exchange rate where the currency trades at its market/unofficial rate.

Under a system of fixed-convertibility, currency is bought and sold by the central bank or monetary authority on a daily basis to achieve the target exchange rate. This target rate may be a fixed level or a fixed band within which the exchange rate may fluctuate until the monetary authority intervenes to buy or sell as necessary to maintain the exchange rate within the band. (In this case, the fixed exchange rate with a fixed level can be seen as a special case of the fixed exchange rate with bands where the bands are set to zero.)

Under a system of fixed exchange rates maintained by a currency board every unit of local currency must be backed by a unit of foreign currency (correcting for the exchange rate). This ensures that the local monetary base does not inflate without being backed by hard currency and eliminates any worries about a run on the local currency by those wishing to convert the local currency to the hard (anchor) currency.

Under dollarization, foreign currency (usually the US dollar, hence the term "dollarization") is used freely as the medium of exchange either exclusively or in parallel with local currency. This outcome can come about because the local population has lost all faith in the local currency, or it may also be a policy of the government (usually to rein in inflation and import credible monetary policy).

Theoretically, using relative purchasing power parity (PPP), the rate of depreciation of the home country's currency must equal the inflation differential:

rate of depreciation = home inflation rate – foreign inflation rate,

which implies that

home inflation rate = foreign inflation rate + rate of depreciation.

The anchor variable is the rate of depreciation. Therefore, the rate of inflation at home must equal the rate of inflation in the foreign country plus the rate of depreciation of the exchange rate of the home country currency, relative to the other.

With a strict fixed exchange rate or a peg, the rate of depreciation of the exchange rate is set equal to zero. In the case of a crawling peg, the rate of depreciation is set equal to a constant. With a limited flexible band, the rate of depreciation is allowed to fluctuate within a given range.

By fixing the rate of depreciation, PPP theory concludes that the home country's inflation rate must depend on the foreign country's.

Countries may decide to use a fixed exchange rate monetary regime in order to take advantage of price stability and control inflation. In practice, more than half of nations' monetary regimes use fixed exchange rate anchoring. The great majority of these are emerging economies, Denmark being the only OECD member in 2022 maintaining an exchange rate anchor according to the IMF.

These policies often abdicate monetary policy to the foreign monetary authority or government as monetary policy in the pegging nation must align with monetary policy in the anchor nation to maintain the exchange rate. The degree to which local monetary policy becomes dependent on the anchor nation depends on factors such as capital mobility, openness, credit channels and other economic factors.

Money supply targeting
In the 1980s, several countries used an approach based on a constant growth in the money supply. This approach was refined to include different classes of money and credit (M0, M1 etc.) The approach was influenced by the theoretical school of thought called monetarism. In the US this approach to monetary policy was discontinued with the selection of Alan Greenspan as Fed Chairman.

Central banks might choose to set a money supply growth target as a nominal anchor to keep prices stable in the long term. The quantity theory is a long run model, which links price levels to money supply and demand. Using this equation, we can rearrange to see the following:

π = μ − g,

where π is the inflation rate, μ is the money supply growth rate and g is the real output growth rate. This equation suggests that controlling the money supply's growth rate can ultimately lead to price stability in the long run. To use this nominal anchor, a central bank would need to set μ equal to a constant and commit to maintaining this target. While monetary policy typically focuses on a price signal of one form or another, this approach is focused on monetary quantities.

However, targeting the money supply growth rate was not a success in practice because the relationship between inflation, economic activity, and measures of money growth turned out to be unstable. Consequently, the importance of the money supply as a guide for the conduct of monetary policy has diminished over time, and after the 1980s central banks have shifted away from policies that focus on money supply targeting. Today, it is widely considered a weak policy, because it is not stably related to the growth of real output. As a result, a higher output growth rate will result in a too low level of inflation. A low output growth rate will result in inflation that would be higher than the desired level.

In 2022, the International Monetary Fund registered that 25 economies, all of them emerging economies, used some monetary aggregate target as their monetary policy framework.

Nominal income/NGDP targeting

Related to money targeting, nominal income targeting (also called Nominal GDP or NGDP targeting), originally proposed by James Meade (1978) and James Tobin (1980), was advocated by Scott Sumner and reinforced by the market monetarist school of thought.

So far, no central banks have implemented this monetary policy. However, various academic studies indicate that such a monetary policy targeting would better match central bank losses and welfare optimizing monetary policy compared to more standard monetary policy targeting.

Price level targeting
Price level targeting is a monetary policy that is similar to inflation targeting except that CPI growth in one year over or under the long term price level target is offset in subsequent years such that a targeted price-level trend is reached over time, e.g. five years, giving more certainty about future price increases to consumers. Under inflation targeting what happened in the immediate past years is not taken into account or adjusted for in the current and future years.

Nominal anchors and exchange rate regimes

The different types of policy are also called monetary regimes, in parallel to exchange-rate regimes. A fixed exchange rate is also an exchange-rate regime. The gold standard results in a relatively fixed regime towards the currency of other countries following a gold standard and a floating regime towards those that are not. Targeting inflation, the price level or other monetary aggregates implies floating the exchange rate.

Credibility

The short-term effects of monetary policy can be influenced by the degree to which announcements of new policy are deemed credible. In particular, when an anti-inflation policy is announced by a central bank, in the absence of credibility in the eyes of the public inflationary expectations will not drop, and the short-run effect of the announcement and a subsequent sustained anti-inflation policy is likely to be a combination of somewhat lower inflation and higher unemployment (see Phillips curve § NAIRU and rational expectations). But if the policy announcement is deemed credible, inflationary expectations will drop commensurately with the announced policy intent, and inflation is likely to come down more quickly and without so much of a cost in terms of unemployment.

Thus there can be an advantage to having the central bank be independent of the political authority, to shield it from the prospect of political pressure to reverse the direction of the policy. But even with a seemingly independent central bank, a central bank whose hands are not tied to the anti-inflation policy might be deemed as not fully credible; in this case there is an advantage to be had by the central bank being in some way bound to follow through on its policy pronouncements, lending it credibility.

There is very strong consensus among economists that an independent central bank can run a more credible monetary policy, making market expectations more responsive to signals from the central bank.

Contexts

In international economics
Optimal monetary policy in international economics is concerned with the question of how monetary policy should be conducted in interdependent open economies. The classical view holds that international macroeconomic interdependence is only relevant if it affects domestic output gaps and inflation, and monetary policy prescriptions can abstract from openness without harm. This view rests on two implicit assumptions: a high responsiveness of import prices to the exchange rate, i.e. producer currency pricing (PCP), and frictionless international financial markets supporting the efficiency of flexible price allocation. The violation or distortion of these assumptions found in empirical research is the subject of a substantial part of the international optimal monetary policy literature. The policy trade-offs specific to this international perspective are threefold:

First, research suggests only a weak reflection of exchange rate movements in import prices, lending credibility to the opposed theory of local currency pricing (LCP). The consequence is a departure from the classical view in the form of a trade-off between output gaps and misalignments in international relative prices, shifting monetary policy to CPI inflation control and real exchange rate stabilization.

Second, another specificity of international optimal monetary policy is the issue of strategic interactions and competitive devaluations, which is due to cross-border spillovers in quantities and prices. Therein, the national authorities of different countries face incentives to manipulate the terms of trade to increase national welfare in the absence of international policy coordination. Even though the gains of international policy coordination might be small, such gains may become very relevant if balanced against incentives for international noncooperation.

Third, open economies face policy trade-offs if asset market distortions prevent global efficient allocation. Even though the real exchange rate absorbs shocks in current and expected fundamentals, its adjustment does not necessarily result in a desirable allocation and may even exacerbate the misallocation of consumption and employment at both the domestic and global level. This is because, relative to the case of complete markets, both the Phillips curve and the loss function include a welfare-relevant measure of cross-country imbalances. Consequently, this results in domestic goals, e.g. output gaps or inflation, being traded-off against the stabilization of external variables such as the terms of trade or the demand gap. Hence, the optimal monetary policy in this case consists of redressing demand imbalances and/or correcting international relative prices at the cost of some inflation.

Corsetti, Dedola and Leduc (2011) summarize the status quo of research on international monetary policy prescriptions: "Optimal monetary policy thus should target a combination of inward-looking variables such as output gap and inflation, with currency misalignment and cross-country demand misallocation, by leaning against the wind of misaligned exchange rates and international imbalances." This is main factor in country money status.

In developing countries
Developing countries may have problems establishing an effective operating monetary policy. The primary difficulty is that few developing countries have deep markets in government debt. The matter is further complicated by the difficulties in forecasting money demand and fiscal pressure to levy the inflation tax by expanding the base rapidly. In general, the central banks in many developing countries have poor records in managing monetary policy. This is often because the monetary authorities in developing countries are mostly not independent of the government, so good monetary policy takes a backseat to the political desires of the government or is used to pursue other non-monetary goals. For this and other reasons, developing countries that want to establish credible monetary policy may institute a currency board or adopt dollarization. This can avoid interference from the government and may lead to the adoption of monetary policy as carried out in the anchor nation. Recent attempts at liberalizing and reform of financial markets (particularly the recapitalization of banks and other financial institutions in Nigeria and elsewhere) are gradually providing the latitude required to implement monetary policy frameworks by the relevant central banks.

Trends

Transparency
Beginning with New Zealand in 1990, central banks began adopting formal, public inflation targets with the goal of making the outcomes, if not the process, of monetary policy more transparent. In other words, a central bank may have an inflation target of 2% for a given year, and if inflation turns out to be 5%, then the central bank will typically have to submit an explanation. The Bank of England exemplifies both these trends. It became independent of government through the Bank of England Act 1998 and adopted an inflation target of 2.5% RPI, revised to 2% of CPI in 2003. The success of inflation targeting in the United Kingdom has been attributed to the Bank of England's focus on transparency. The Bank of England has been a leader in producing innovative ways of communicating information to the public, especially through its Inflation Report, which have been emulated by many other central banks.

The European Central Bank adopted, in 1998, a definition of price stability within the Eurozone as inflation of under 2% HICP. In 2003, this was revised to inflation below, but close to, 2% over the medium term. Since then, the target of 2% has become common for other major central banks, including the Federal Reserve (since January 2012) and Bank of Japan (since January 2013).

Effect on business cycles
There continues to be some debate about whether monetary policy can (or should) smooth business cycles. A central conjecture of Keynesian economics is that the central bank can stimulate aggregate demand in the short run, because a significant number of prices in the economy are fixed in the short run and firms will produce as many goods and services as are demanded (in the long run, however, money is neutral, as in the neoclassical model). However, some economists from the new classical school contend that central banks cannot affect business cycles.

Behavioral monetary policy
Conventional macroeconomic models assume that all agents in an economy are fully rational. A rational agent has clear preferences, models uncertainty via expected values of variables or functions of variables, and always chooses to perform the action with the optimal expected outcome for itself among all feasible actions – they maximize their utility. Monetary policy analysis and decisions hence traditionally rely on this New Classical approach.

However, as studied by the field of behavioral economics that takes into account the concept of bounded rationality, people often deviate from the way that these neoclassical theories assume. Humans are generally not able to react in a completely rational manner to the world around them – they do not make decisions in the rational way commonly envisioned in standard macroeconomic models. People have time limitations, cognitive biases, care about issues like fairness and equity and follow rules of thumb (heuristics).

This has implications for the conduct of monetary policy. Monetary policy is the final outcome of a complex interaction between monetary institutions, central banker preferences and policy rules, and hence human decision-making plays an important role. It is more and more recognized that the standard rational approach does not provide an optimal foundation for monetary policy actions. These models fail to address important human anomalies and behavioral drivers that explain monetary policy decisions.

An example of a behavioral bias that characterizes the behavior of central bankers is loss aversion: for every monetary policy choice, losses loom larger than gains, and both are evaluated with respect to the status quo. One result of loss aversion is that when gains and losses are symmetric or nearly so, risk aversion may set in. Loss aversion can be found in multiple contexts in monetary policy. The "hard fought" battle against the Great Inflation, for instance, might cause a bias against policies that risk greater inflation.
Another common finding in behavioral studies is that individuals regularly offer estimates of their own ability, competence, or judgments that far exceed an objective assessment: they are overconfident. Central bank policymakers may fall victim to overconfidence in managing the macroeconomy in terms of timing, magnitude, and even the qualitative impact of interventions. Overconfidence can result in actions of the central bank that are either "too little" or "too much". When policymakers believe their actions will have larger effects than objective analysis would indicate, this results in too little intervention. Overconfidence can, for instance, cause problems when relying on interest rates to gauge the stance of monetary policy: low rates might mean that policy is easy, but they could also signal a weak economy.

These are examples of how behavioral phenomena may have a substantial influence on monetary policy. Monetary policy analyses should thus account for the fact that policymakers (or central bankers) are individuals and prone to biases and temptations that can sensibly influence their ultimate choices in the setting of macroeconomic and/or interest rate targets.

See also

 Economic policy
 Fiscal policy
 Interest on excess reserves
 Macroeconomic model
 Monetary conditions index
 Monetary system
 Monetary reform
 Monetary transmission mechanism
 Negative interest on excess reserves

US specific:
 Monetary policy of the United States
 Greenspan put
 Free silver

References

External links

Mankiw, N. Gregory, and Ricardo Reis. 2018. "Friedman's Presidential Address in the Evolution of Macroeconomic Thought." Journal of Economic Perspectives 32(1): 81–96.
 Bank for International Settlements

Macroeconomic policy
Public finance

Monetary policy