The purpose of this thesis is to identify key factors underlying exchange rate developments during the European sovereign debt crisis by examining the impact of credit rating news, published by the three leading credit rating agencies, on conditional returns and volatility of EUR/USD (direct quotation) exchange rate. Empirical results highlight the importance of interest rate differential and volatility index of options exchange in explaining EUR/USD exchange rate volatilities. Downgrade announcements by Standard & Poor’s as well as watch revisions by Fitch Ratings had a detrimental impact on the value of Euro, leading to a subsequent Euro depreciation over the period under consideration (January 2009 – April 2012).

controversial since the ratification of the Constitution in 1789. In 1793, the Supreme Court ruled that the states had no sovereign immunity. The Eleventh Amendment reversed this ruling about the Constitution. The Eleventh Amendment itself has also been very controversial. We study the history and development of sovereign immunity jurisprudence from the founding of the United States until the present time.

There is an apparent disagreement between recent commentators who find in Nietzsche both a constructive philosophy and a compatibilist account of freedom, and Brian Leiter’s reading that rejects both. The reason for this disagreement, I argue, is that Leiter’s “illiberal” view is limited in scope to Nietzsche’s critical philosophy, while Nietzsche also has a constructive philosophy aimed at select readers. I read Nietzsche’s critical philosophy as targeting the metaphysical entities that underpin asceticism and herd values, not the mental states and processes with which these entities are associated. The “no such entity” reading preserves the resources needed to read Nietzsche as offering a replacement for the ascetic ideal—and an alternative source for life’s meaning. Although few of his readers will have been born with the drives needed to throw off herd values and enjoy compatibilist freedom, these readers are the intended audience for Nietzsche’s constructive philosophy.

This paper looks at the determinants of bond yields for a select group of Eurozone countries, during the European sovereign debt crisis. In addition to traditional determinants of spreads, which include credit risk, liquidity risk and international risk aversion, this paper looks at the role of credit rating agencies. The movements of countries’ yields during the debt crisis played an integral role in the resulting bailouts by the European Union. Using expected data published by the European Commission, the results of the model were in line with current literature, with the exception of the effect of budget deficits. One interpretation of the conflicting results is that during a debt crisis what market participants care about is growth, not austerity. Including the effect of credit ratings showed that credit ratings have high predictive power.

This thesis consists of a series of encounters with textual figures, or conceptual personae, which are strongly associated with freedom in Nietzsche???s oeuvre. The conceptual persona, drawn from the work of Deleuze and Guattari, is an integral part of the process of developing and articulating philosophical concepts. Nietzsche???s texts abound with figures, both anthropomorphic and otherwise. I suggest that regarding these figures as conceptual personae in the Deleuzo-Guattarian sense offers a way into some of Nietzsche???s most complex ideas. Freedom surely ranks among Nietzsche???s most multifaceted and teasingly elusive ideations. It has not, however, benefited from the intensive scholarship devoted to signature Nietzschean themes such as will to power, nihilism, or eternal return. This thesis seeks to raise the profile of Nietzsche???s innovations on the subject of freedom by means of close readings of texts featuring three conceptual personae of Nietzschean freedom. These are the free spirit, the sovereign individual, and Zarathustra. These three personae embody freedom as plural and processual. They animate a conception of freedom as something to be striven for, and, indeed, striven for differently by different individuals. Highlighting the infinite variability of embodied freedom, each persona problematises freedom in a distinctly different manner. The free spirit, understood as representing the intersection between freedom and truth, is a primarily epistemological figure. The sovereign individual, who transvaluates bad conscience into good by means of a masterly praxis of promising, instantiates a novel reconstruction of Kantian autonomy as is thus an ethico-political figure. Zarathustra bodies forth an ontology of freedom based on creative willing. A detailed study of the complex interaction of the three conceptual personae of freedom is beyond the scope of this project. I outline the contours of such a study in the concluding chapter, arguing that the reverberations between the three figures offer a further demonstration, if that were still needed, of the rich originality of Nietzsche???s thought of freedom.

In this thesis I study the investment climate in the four rapidly growing emerging economies Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC). The first study, Chapter 2, uses a bivariate EGARCH methodology with time varying conditional correlation to study the global and regional integration of the BRICs and to identify the existence of diversification opportunities for international investors. The second study, Chapter 3, employs a restricted version of the model to explore the relationship between equity market returns and volatility of equity returns in the BRIC countries and global oil prices. Chapter 4 is an extension of Chapter 3, and focuses on the sustainability of Russia???s economic growth in view of its large dependence on oil income. A qualitative analysis of the oil industry in Russia, including an overview of the operations of the largest oil producing companies, government regulations, oil production and proven oil reserves, is conducted for the purpose of this study. The last study, Chapter 5, uses a panel data methodology to explore the determinants of changes in sovereign bond spreads for the BRICs as an asset class and for each of the BRIC countries individually. I conclude that the regional and global level of integration of the BRICs is relatively low, and portfolio investors can enjoy sound diversification benefits particularly by taking investment positions in the Indian and Chinese equity markets. Despite the aggressive economic growth of the BRICs and their increased oil consumption, the volatility of stock returns from the BRICs does not have a significant impact on global oil prices; however, oil prices do impact the volatility of equity returns in India and China, and particularly the level of returns and volatility of equity returns in Russia. Based on this and the qualitative analysis in Chapter 4, it is concluded that in the short to medium term Russia???s continued economic growth will depend on increased reinvestment in the oil industry and in the longer term the government should diversify its revenue sources and focus on development of other sectors within the economy. Lastly, it is concluded that sovereign risk in the BRICs is driven by different global and country-specific factors, hence risk should be observed on an individual country basis and not for the BRICs as an asset class.

This dissertation examines the operation of Hohenzollern government in the distant but crucial territory of East Prussia during the reign of Frederick William I, 1713-40 to determine what impact the establishment of the General Directory in late 1722 and early 1723 had upon day-to-day administration within the Kingdom of East Prussia. Particular attention is given to the role and operation of provincial and local government in East Prussia during the decades before and after the setting up of the General Directory (General-Ober-Finanz-Kriegs-und Domänen-Direktorium). This study is part of a broader historiographical tendency which questions both the extent and success of Hohenzollern state building and calls into question the validity of the traditional view which gives most attention to the positive role of central state structures and considers the establishment of the General Directory as the apex of the much-admired and widely-emulated Prussian administrative system. This study demonstrates that further governmental modifications were needed in the Kingdom before and after the General Directory's successful operation in the Kingdom in the 1720s and 1730s. The territorial and local levels were where the Hohenzollern rulers would find it crucial to establish their absolutist power. One difficulty Frederick William I faced was that a large corps of loyal officials was lacking in the Kingdom which was only partially remedied by the end of his reign. In addition, critical administrative disputes continued and new ones arose between the King's administrative agencies. Moreover, the powerful native elites who lived in the Kingdom retained significant authority at the provincial and local levels and resisted many reform attempts by a king who they saw as foreign. Their enduring importance helps to explain the distinctive manner in which absolutism developed over these decades. As a result, authority in the Kingdom still was less than securely established by the final decade of Frederick William I's reign.

[pt] A hipótese de que existe um problema grave de moral hazard no mercado de dívida soberana induzido pelo FMI é uma parte essencial do diagnóstico corrente das deficiências do sistema financeiro internacional. O mesmo pode ser dito em relação ao papel central que essa hipótese ocupa nas propostas de reformulação do sistema. A literatura empírica que avalia essa hipótese, contudo, apresenta suporte ambíguo à tese e os resultados não são definitivos. Aplicamos a metodologia de teste desenvolvida em Dell´Ariccia et al. (2002) à crise da Argentina de 2001 e realizamos dois outros testes da hipótese. Analisamos suas implicações teóricas, realizando, adicionalmente, uma extensão do modelo de Spiegel (2000) para interpretar o problema de moral hazard no mercado dívida soberana. Nossos resultados acrescentam evidência contrária à hipótese de moral hazard, mas estão sujeitos, assim como o restante da literatura, a um problema de interpretação. / [en] The hypothesis that there exists a significant problem of moral hazard induced by the IMF in the international loan market is an essential ingredient of the diagnosis of the deficiencies of the international financial system. The same applies to the current proposals to restructure the system. The literature presents ambiguous support to this thesis and the results are, in our view, not definitive. We apply the methodology developed by Dell Ariccia et al. (2002) to the Argentinean crisis in 2001 and carry out two other tests of the referred hypothesis. We also investigate its theoretical implications, extending Spiegel s (2000) model to interpret the problem of moral hazard in the international loan market. The results of this study provide additional evidence against the moral hazard hypothesis. There is, although, a caveat that we share with the rest of the literature that regards an identification hypothesis. We argue that it is not so important for the results presented in this study.

Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) have enjoyed a great deal of public debate among scholars and policy makers alike in recent times. This increased attention can be associated with the swelling size and number of SWFs. In the last decade, there has been a sharp increase in the number of SWFs and they have become notable players in the world financial markets due to the soaring commodity prices and global imbalances. Currently, SWFs have more assets under management (in USD) than hedge funds. Buoyed on by the recent discoveries of natural resources in Africa and relatively high commodity prices, Africa has joined the international trend of SWF establishment and is home to nine SWFs, three of which were established between 2011 and 2012 alone. There is limited evidence and theory around the impact of SWFs on the economy of the host nation, mainly due to lack of transparency associated with SWFs. Supporters of SWFs claim that they have a positive effect on their host nation’s economies. Employing selected macroeconomic variables, this study looks at the impact of the introduction of a SWF on the host nation’s economy. Evidence shows a positive impact. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / pagibs2014 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

En France, au XVIIème siècle, la tragédie s’épanouit dans un contexte politique intéressant qui lui offre la possibilité de maintes interrogations sur le droit de gouvernement. La fin du règne de Louis XIII laisse place à la Régence d’Anne d’Autriche en 1643, puis à la construction par Louis XIV d’un pouvoir absolu, surtout après la mort de Mazarin en 1661, alors même que le jeune souverain est confronté à une fronde parlementaire d’envergure et à une fronde des princes menaçant son autorité. On se demande alors par quels biais cette tragédie classique instaure une complémentarité entre des problématiques esthétiques et des problématiques politiques et juridiques : comment les questions de droit dont elle s’empare lorsqu’elle envisage les différents problèmes juridiques auxquels le pouvoir peut être confronté servent-elles de fondement aux conflits entre les personnages, permettant au dramaturge de susciter les émotions propres au tragique tout en donnant à penser ? Les tensions propres au genre peuvent d’abord provenir des conflits entre les critères justifiant la présence au pouvoir du prince : critères de droit (naissance, mariage) et critères de fait (mérite, soutien populaire, capacité à renoncer au pouvoir). Ensuite, nos dramaturges peuvent fonder les crises tragiques sur l’exercice même de la justice par le souverain, lequel délibère, juge, fait la loi, gère la force, décide de la paix et de la guerre. Enfin, la crainte et la pitié préconisées par Aristote peuvent provenir de l’omniprésence de l’injustice dans les hautes sphères du pouvoir : mélange de sujétions publiques à des sujétions privées, trahison, utilisation impropre de la raison d’État. / In the 17th century, the French tragedy flourished in a particular political context opening a path for much questioning regarding the right to govern. Louis XIII's reign was followed by Anne of Austria's Regency in 1643, and Louis XIV’s construction of an absolute monarchy, accelerated by the death of Mazarin in 1661. Moreover, the young sovereign struggled with the strong hostility of the parliament and the nobles who threatened his authority. It is to be wondered then, how the French tragedy sets a complementarity between aesthetic stakes and political and legal ones, how the questions of law it raises when it considers the different legal problems, which the power can face, lead to the confrontation between characters, letting the dramatist give birth to emotions specific to the tragedy genre while giving (the reader) much to think about? Dramatic tensions can first come from conflicts between criteria justifying the prince’s empowerment - legal criteria (birth, marriage) and factual criteria (merit, popular support, ability to withdraw from authority). Then, dramatists can root the tragic crisis in the judicial exercise of the sovereign, who deliberates, judges, makes laws, rules, decides upon peace or war. Finally, the feelings of fear and mercy prescribed by Aristotle can come from the omnipresence of injustice in the upper reaches of power – a medley of public and private subjection, betrayal, and the unsuitable use of the reason of State.