The Construction of Community Under the Subprime Crisis in Sunset Park

In Sunset Park,the contemporary American writer Paul Auster reveals the political,economic and social problems that have surfaced in America in the wake of the 9/11 incident.Focusing on the image of people on the edge of the city,the author describes how they rebuild their lives after illegally living in an abandoned apartment in Sunset Park,using the art and the community as a spiritual refuge to seek comfort and heal wounds,reconstruct self-identity,and fight against the unfair society.This article analyzes the characteristics of the community in the novel Sunset Park,to interpret its functions,and to show the healing power of a caring community.

Cross-correlation matrix analysis of Chinese and American bank stocks in subprime crisis

In order to study the universality of the interactions among different markets, we analyze the cross-correlation matrix of the price of the Chinese and American bank stocks. We then find that the stock prices of the emerging market are more correlated than that of the developed market. Considering that the values of the components for the eigenvector may be positive or negative, we analyze the differences between two markets in combination with the endogenous and exogenous events which influence the financial markets. We find that the sparse pattern of components of eigenvectors out of the threshold value has no change in American bank stocks before and after the subprime crisis. However, it changes from sparse to dense for Chinese bank stocks. By using the threshold value to exclude the external factors, we simulate the interactions in financial markets.

Interest Rate, Unemployment Rate, and Housing Market in U.S.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships among the variables, and how interest rate, unemployment, stock market, and consumer confidence affect housing market index （HM1） in the U.S.. We construct vector autoregression （VAR） model with variables such as unemployment rate （UMR）, consumer confidence index （CCI）, the Dow Jones industrial index （DJI）, and interest rate, etc., to forecast the HMI. Our model and analysis show that U.S. HMI very sensitive to unemployment and interest rates. Every 1% moves in unemployment and interest rates will result in HMI to move in the opposite direction by 11.7% and 11.4% respectively. However, changes in CCI and stock mark index have only minor impacts on HMI--0.49% and 0.3%, changes for 1% fluctuation in CCI and DJI. Our research also shows that relationships among these variables associated with housing market are very stable in the long run.

SPECIAL ISSUE： ANTI-CORRUPTION STRATEGIES IN TRANSITIONAL CHINA --Implications of the Financial Crisis for China＇s Information Supervision and Curbing of Financial Corruption

The US subprime crisis （financial crisis） highlights the failure of existing mechanisms of financial regulation to prevent systemic risk. Reflection shows that the fundamental causes of the subprime crisis are largely attributable to financial corruption arising from grave violations of financial information disclosure. Information supervision is an important check on financial corruption in that it serves as a means of regulating financial information disclosure and through transparency, reducing the demand for and supply of corruption. Drawing upon the recent reform of the US financial regulatory system and grounding ourselves on Chinese practice, we believe the reconstruction of the financial regulatory system should center on information supervision, with a focus on improving the system of information disclosure for financial bodies, building a unified financial information platform and an effective information-sharing mechanism, and integrating all supervisory resources into a unified and powerful force against financial corruption.

Dealing with the Contagion: China and India in the Aftermath of the Subprime Meltdown

What began as a downturn in the US housing sector in the summer of 2007 had mushroomed into a global financial crisis by September 2008： the most severe since the 1930s. Developing countries, including China and India, at first seemingly sheltered from the worst of the turmoil, have not been immune to the contagion＇s spillover effects. What are China and India＇s precise vulnerabilities, and what can each do to better insulate their economies from the vagaries of global financial marker turmoil？ Equally important, what long-term strategies must each country adopt to make their economies more resilient to global market downturns？

Why China Should Invest Its Foreign Exchange Reserves in the Major US Banks

The subprime mortgage crisis and the resultant inflationary monetary policy in the USA have left the Chinese economy subject to four risks in particular. First, China＇s exports to the USA might continue to decline. Second in the medium term, the higher US inflation rate will lead to a weak dollar, which will negatively affect China＇s exports. Third in the long term, when the US Federal Reserve decreases money supply to control inflation, the US economy might enter another recession, hurting China ＂s exports further. Fourth, China＇s foreign exchange reserve assets might suffer heavy losses when the US inflation rate rises. Conventional foreign exchange investment strategies are insufficient for dealing with these four risks. Investment by China in the major US banks is suggested in the present paper. This strategy would mitigate if not eliminate all four risks. China could gain considerable financial returns on investments with only moderate risk.