ALBERT

Description / Table of Contents: Adair Turner became chairman of Britain's Financial Services Authority just as the global financial crisis struck in 2008, and he played a leading role in redesigning global financial regulation. In this eye-opening book, he sets the record straight about what really caused the crisis. It didn't happen because banks are too big to fail--our addiction to private debt is to blame. Between Debt and the Devil challenges the belief that we need credit growth to fuel economic growth, and that rising debt is okay as long as inflation remains low. In fact, most credit is not needed for economic growth--but it drives real estate booms and busts and leads to financial crisis and depression. Turner explains why public policy needs to manage the growth and allocation of credit creation, and why debt needs to be taxed as a form of economic pollution. Banks need far more capital, real estate lending must be restricted, and we need to tackle inequality and mitigate the relentless rise of real estate prices. Turner also debunks the big myth about fiat money--the erroneous notion that printing money will lead to harmful inflation. To escape the mess created by past policy errors, we sometimes need to monetize government debt and finance fiscal deficits with central-bank money. Between Debt and the Devil shows why we need to reject the assumption that private credit is essential to growth and fiat money is inevitably dangerous. Each has its advantages, and each creates risks that public policy must consciously balance.

Description / Table of Contents: "One of the world's leading economists of inequality, Branko Milanovic presents a bold new account of the dynamics that drive inequality on a global scale. Drawing on vast data sets and cutting-edge research, he explains the benign and malign forces that make inequality rise and fall within and among nations. He also reveals who has been helped the most by globalization, who has been held back, and what policies might tilt the balance toward economic justice. Global Inequality takes us back hundreds of years, and as far around the world as data allow, to show that inequality moves in cycles, fueled by war and disease, technological disruption, access to education, and redistribution. The recent surge of inequality in the West has been driven by the revolution in technology, just as the Industrial Revolution drove inequality 150 years ago. But even as inequality has soared within nations, it has fallen dramatically among nations, as middle-class incomes in China and India have drawn closer to the stagnating incomes of the middle classes in the developed world. A more open migration policy would reduce global inequality even further. Both American and Chinese inequality seem well entrenched and self-reproducing, though it is difficult to predict if current trends will be derailed by emerging plutocracy, populism, or war. For those who want to understand how we got where we are, where we may be heading, and what policies might help reverse that course, Milanovic's compelling explanation is the ideal place to start."--Provided by publisher

Description / Table of Contents: Recent climate model simulations indicated that sulfate (SO4) formed from ship emissions may be one of the major contributors to the negative anthropogenic aerosol radiative forcing. Due to increasingly stringent regulations on the maximum sulfur content of ship fuels this contribution is expected to decrease strongly in the future. Possibly, nitrate (NO3) formation will compensate for part of the reduction, but measurements indicate that it may be crucial to include coarse mode particle interactions with condensable trace gases in order to quantify this effect. However, none of the aerosol (sub)models previously used for such assessments accounted for the coarse mode particle effects. This provided the motivation to extend one of those submodels, namely MADE, in the present work. The new submodel, MADE3, is based on the second generation of MADE, called MADE-in. It includes nine lognormal modes to represent three size ranges with three types of aerosol particles each. The associated increase in complexity w.r.t. to MADE and MADE-in required a complete revision of the code and careful reexamination of the underlying physical assumptions, as only the fine modes had been considered in the gas–particle interactions in the predecessor submodels. The main new features of MADE3 are the ability of coarse mode particles to take up condensing vapors and to coagulate with fine mode particles, and the gas–particle partitioning of chlorine, which is mainly contained in sea spray (SS) particles. In order to test the algorithms used in the new submodel it was run in a box model setup and the results were compared to those obtained in an analogous setup with the much more detailed, particle-resolved aerosol model PartMC-MOSAIC. The comparison was performed for an idealized marine boundary layer test case and showed improved performance of MADE3 over MADE in the representation of coarse mode particles and total aerosol composition. Subsequently, MADE3 was implemented into the atmospheric chemistry general circulation model EMAC. Due to the new mode structure this required extensive adaptations to other submodels, specifically to the one used for cloud and precipitation processing of aerosol particles. EMAC does not track interstitial aerosol particles separately from those immersed in cloud droplets, ice crystals, or precipitation. Hence, a sophisticated scheme was devised and implemented for the assignment of the in-cloud or in-precipitation aerosol to one of four possible modes, instead of just one possible mode in the MADE case. The coupled model, EMAC with MADE3, was thoroughly evaluated by comparison of simulation output to station network measurements of near-surface aerosol component mass concentrations, to airborne measurements of vertical aerosol mass mixing ratio and number concentration profiles, to ground-based and airborne measurements of particle size distributions, and to station network and satellite measurements of aerosol optical depth. Satisfactory agreement with the observations was obtained and it was thus shown that MADE3 is ready for application within EMAC. The results from an identically designed simulation with the predecessor submodel MADE led to the conclusion that a fraction of the secondary aerosol species partitions to the coarse modes in MADE3 and is thus removed more quickly from the atmosphere. Furthermore, a new evaluation method was developed, which allows for comparison of model output to size-resolved electron microscopy measurements of particle composition. Both submodels, MADE3 and MADE, were finally used in EMAC simulations of the effect of ship emissions on the atmospheric aerosol. As in previous studies for year 2000 conditions, SO4 was found to be the dominant species in the fine modes in this context. In contrast to SO4, the major fraction of ship emissions-induced near-surface NO3 was found to partition to the coarse modes in the MADE3 simulations. A similar amount of fine mode NO3 as in the present and former MADE simulations was also formed. Hence, fine mode particle growth due to ship emissions was also similar, and was reduced in idealized simulations of a future low-sulfur fuel scenario. Particle volume concentration decreased by about 1 % due to ship emissions in the MADE3 simulations, but not in the MADE simulations. This finding was independent of the fuel sulfur content. In summary, the inclusion of coarse mode particle interactions and the gas–particle partitioning of chlorine could alter prior conclusions on the climate effect of ship emissions-induced aerosol perturbations, mainly due to the differences in NO3 formation. This climate effect will be re-quantified in a follow-up study by coupling the MADE3 aerosol to a two-moment cloud microphysics scheme. Further planned applications of the new submodel include the quantification of climate effects of aerosol perturbations via their influence on ice clouds as well as simulations with boundary conditions specific to measurement campaigns. Results from the latter may lead to further model improvements and can also provide guidance for the interpretation of measurement results.