The Other Side of Convertibility

A system for ensuring the convertibility of a currency into specified commodities is also, ipso facto, a system for stabilizing the prices of those commodities in terms of the currency in question. This connection is widely ignored in discussions of these two subjects, but it links the two specialised fields of monetary economics and commodity price stabilization tightly together. Unfortunately, despite much work on the topic spanning many decades, almost all such work is made within a single paradigm – that of establishing an international institution to stabilize commodity prices. However, for a number of reasons, no international agreement can achieve more than a very partial solution to this problem: most importantly it cannot directly stabilize more than a single currency, thereby losing the most fundamental benefit of a true solution for all but one of the participating countries. A different approach is therefore needed.

Past Response to Grondona System

The Grondona system was sufficiently well-known during the 1950s to be the subject of debate in the British Parliament in 1958, when it was vigorously praised by supporters, as well as in the press. Examples of this support are given in this chapter, which show how those who took the time to study the Grondona system recognized its unique strengths and strongly recommended its adoption by government. Unfortunately, when the British government finally set up a committee in 1976 to consider the problem of commodity price instability, it was chaired by a long-term advocate of the international buffer-stock system advocated by UNCTAD. As Grondona predicted, the result was that the committee's report contained no substantive criticism of his system but merely reiterated the government's existing policy of continuing participation in UNCTAD negotiations – to no effect nearly half a century later.

Commodity Price Recognition and Simulation of Image Recognition Technology Based on the Nonlinear Dimensionality Reduction Method

Dimensionality reduction of images with high-dimensional nonlinear structure is the key to improving the recognition rate. Although some traditional algorithms have achieved some results in the process of dimensionality reduction, they also expose their respective defects. In order to achieve the ideal effect of high-dimensional nonlinear image recognition, based on the analysis of the traditional dimensionality reduction algorithm and refining its advantages, an image recognition technology based on the nonlinear dimensionality reduction method is proposed. As an effective nonlinear feature extraction method, the nonlinear dimensionality reduction method can find the nonlinear structure of datasets and maintain the intrinsic structure of data. Applying the nonlinear dimensionality reduction method to image recognition is to divide the input image into blocks, take it as a dataset in high-dimensional space, reduce the dimension of its structure, and obtain the low-dimensional expression vector of its eigenstructure so that the problem of image recognition can be carried out in a lower dimension. Thus, the computational complexity can be reduced, the recognition accuracy can be improved, and it is convenient for further processing such as image recognition and search. The defects of traditional algorithms are solved, and the commodity price recognition and simulation experiments are carried out, which verifies the feasibility of image recognition technology based on the nonlinear dimensionality reduction method in commodity price recognition.

Constraints to Economic Growth in South Africa

This chapter analyses the drivers and constraints on the rate of economic growth in South Africa from the 1950’s apartheid-era through to the democratic period post-1994. Key structural factors identified as impacting on the rate and composition of economic growth include the country’s history of racial injustice and exclusion, its industrial structure and linkages to the global commodity price cycle, the evolution of macroeconomic imbalances and related infrastructure investment failures, and the impact of weak state capacity and corruption. Thereafter, the chapter outlines a number of strategic policy interventions for overcoming constraints to inclusive economic growth in South Africa.

The Origins of Statutory Producer Control Legislation in New Zealand Agriculture 1914-1925

<p>This thesis investigates the origins of statutory producer control that emerged out of the Board of Trade (Wool Industry) Regulations 1921, The Meat Export Control Act, 1921-22 and The Dairy Produce Export Control Act, 1923. Most histories have traced the formation of statutory producer organisations to the economic conditions that prevailed during the British Government's 1915-1921 bulk purchase agreement with New Zealand known as the 'Imperial Commandeer' and the commodity price slump that marked the Commandeer's conclusion. Analysis of agricultural income series and output data suggest that the popular view of a 'boom' and 'slump' cycle is overplayed. This thesis argues that net real farm incomes remained relatively static during the Commandeer while output contracted. The slump cycle beginning in 1920/21 was particularly severe given the interaction of key demand and supply variables. The contemporary argument for statutory intervention may have been based on misconceptions in some cases, yet when the economic arguments are evaluated a strong case emerges. The central role played by W.F. Massey and his Reform Party Government is also important to an understanding of how this legislation came about.</p>