Search Results (5)

This study examines links between global financial stress and cryptocurrency returns from 1 January 2017 to 31 January 2025, while explicitly accounting for commodity markets. We use an econometric toolkit: unit-root and cointegration testing, ARDL bounds, Toda–Yamamoto causality, and a two-state Markov Switching model to trace long-run equilibrium and transmission mechanisms across cryptocurrencies (BGCI), systemic stress (OFR-FSI), volatility measures (VIX, VVIX, VSTOXX, VVSTOXX, MOVE), major equities and bonds, and three commodities (gold, oil, copper). Results show robust long-run cointegration between BGCI and several financial variables, including S&P/ASX 200 and the Bloomberg Barclays Bond Index; models that include commodities continue to support these long-term links. Toda–Yamamoto tests reveal that stress and volatility indices unidirectionally transmit shocks to cryptocurrencies and commodities, while gold displays a bidirectional relationship with BGCI, indicating a conditional safe haven interaction. Markov Switching estimates show amplified co-movement among BGCI, gold and bonds in stress regimes, with the model predominantly remaining in a normal state. Overall, cryptocurrencies are embedded within the broader financial system; commodities, especially gold, are used to moderate the stress crypto transmission and offer conditional diversification value during turmoil. Full article

Ninety-five-year-old Doris Held, a great niece of Sigmund Freud, has been convening the Shakespeare Reading Group in Northampton, Massachusetts, my hometown, since she moved here in 2016. In the following essay, which is a personal response to my experience of this group of Shakespearean readers, to Doris Held, and to the work of Shakespeare in general, I attempt to chart the full impact of the Bard’s work on my life and on the world around me. I am neither a scholar nor a historian. In a true sense, I am a bystander Shakespearean, who has received deep reward and benefit from the experience, but it is Doris Held and her group who opened my eyes to the precise nature of this unexamined reward. Doris brought the spirit of the group from Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she had been a dues-paying member for decades of something called the Old Cambridge Shakespeare Association, which itself dates to 1880. My wife Debra and I attended the first meeting in Northampton more than a decade ago, and we have been receiving emails from Doris four times a year ever since. While these communications often induce guilt, they invariably lead to pleasures that I would never want to relinquish. That is a complicated dynamic in my routine, and I try to grapple with its ebb and flow in the pages that follow. Each time I get one, I have a version of the same conversation in my head. Is Doris still doing this? Haven’t they done all the plays by now? All things considered, wouldn’t they—and I—rather be home watching a true crime documentary about Gaby Petito on Netflix? What the hell is William Shakespeare to me anyway? At this point, if I’m honest, Shakespeare is Doris. The experience with this group led me in two directions. One took me back to my now long-ago history with Shakespeare’s work as an actor in college. The other took me via historical research into the prehistory of Doris Held’s previous Shakespeare group in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The two paths gave me a deeper grasp of the influence of his work across the world and on my own life. Full article

New areas for the production of fossil-free renewable offshore energy production are planned in Arctic waters in the Bay of Bothnia, in the very north of the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland. These are waters normally covered with 30–60 cm of ice every winter and shipping is carried out with icebreaker assistance. This article suggests the need for research on the wind turbine’s effect on ice behavior and ice navigation. Some concepts from previous research are suggested as a solution. Full article

The return and volatility spillover effects on Asian Dragons were investigated in this study. Yahoo Finance provided the monthly statistics (from August 1997 to December 2020). This study used a generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity–autoregressive moving average (GARCH–ARMA) model. The results showed that return spillover effects were observed in unidirectional relationships, but volatility spillover effects were shown in both unidirectional and bidirectional connections. The TSEC Weighted Index (TWII) and the Hang Seng Index (HSI) were net stock market return transmitters to other markets, whereas the Straits Times Index (STI) and the Korean Composite Stock Price Indices (KOSPI) were net receivers. Simultaneously, the STI was a significant net transmitter of stock market volatility to other markets, according to research. As a result, the KOSPI has become a safe haven for portfolio investors. Portfolio managers and overseas investors who are reviewing investment and asset allocation decisions should be aware of these facts. Full article

Global Warming, Energy Independence and Healthier Air are the driving forces behind the search for alternative-to-gasoline fueled transportation. Though not as widely publicized, congestion worsens these problems by wasting fuel and generating more emissions while waiting for traffic to move. Myers Motors believes that the easiest and fastest way to zero emissions and energy independence at the least total cost for personal transportation will come through pure electric vehicles. Electric vehicles already run on zero total emissions for those getting their power from hydro, solar, nuclear and wind; this will expand to include clean coal, waves and other technologies we haven't heard of yet. Battery technology exists today to power the range requirements on over half the vehicles in America, yet electric vehicles are more talked about than made. Myers Motors' unique method for introducing electric vehicles to the American public focuses on making highway-speed electrics vehicles available at a reasonable price to promote real world ownership.. Full article