Twin deficits phenomenon: empirical evidence from the ARDL bound test approach for Turkey.
ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to examine the general validity of twin deficits hypothesis for Turkey during the period 1987:1 to 2005:4. In this study, the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model and the bounds test for cointegration were used to assess the short-run and long-run...

Borrowing short- or long-term: does the government really face a trade-off? A stochastic macro framework for public debt management.
Abstract This paper considers public debt management as a component of a more general problem involving fiscal planning under uncertainty. This approach has the potential to result in a new optimal debt maturity structure. Using a stochastic simulation macro-econometric model, we show that a shorter debt maturity...

Symposium on public debt management editor's introduction.
Abstract While the OECD's (2001) Guidelines for Public Debt Management argue that the main concern of public debt management is managing the costs and risks of the public debt, they also argue that debt managers should be aware of the interdependencies between debt management and other areas...

Dangers of an underreported CPI: changes over the past 40 years to the Consumer Price Index have not only provided a poorer reflection of true consumer costs but have actually harmed our economy.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) measures the average price of consumer goods and services purchased by households. The government uses the CPI to "calculate inflation." Changes over the past 40 years to the CPI "to better reflect the actual costs" of goods and services in this country have not...

Pakistan: Islam, radicalism and the army.
This paper looks at Pakistan's sources of insecurity by examining the role played by the army, and the difficulties Pakistani leaders find to establish a participatory, pluralist and decentralized political framework incorporating linguistic, ethnic and regional diversities and economic disparities. Years of confrontation with India have contributed to rising...

The kingdom's challenges: preserving recent gains for future generations.
THE KINGDOM'S Long-term Objective is to Create an economy Dominated by a Saudi workforce, that would take the country into new realms of economic efficiency Saudi Arabia, the world's No.1 oil-exporter, remains in a healthy shape, with the exchequer's coffers swelling and output growth well above its...

LEBANON - May 4 - Siniora Calls On All Lebanese To Rally Behind State.
PM Fouad Siniora urges all Lebanese political groups to rally behind the state, saying it is the only entity capable of achieving security, stability and economic growth. "There is no work and hope amid disturbances, crisis and fragmentation and the only way to achieve growth is through the state",...

Bush's pro-war, anti-kid stance.
DETROIT -- What's a trillion dollars when you're making our nation more secure and the world safe for democracy? It's easy spending that kind of money when you're undertaking a bold experiment in nation-building while building permanent military bases with cozy proximity to Iraq's oil reserves. The...

Sovereignty's new story.
That any human will whatsoever possessed an unlimited right to command the actions of subjects and change the relationships between them--that, for a whole thousand years, was something which was not only not believed but was not even imagined. --Bertrand de Jouvenel (1) I. ...

The failure of debt-based development: lessons from Argentina.
In this article I discuss the lessons one can learn from Argentina's recent debt restructuring and the possible rules and practices of future restructurings. But I will also briefly describe the long and extremely problematic Argentine debt history, which started in 1824, to show the failure of the debt-based...