MoneyScience News

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• Published / Preprint: The Martin Integral Representation of Markovian Pricing Kernels. (arXiv:1504.00276v1 [q-fin.MF])
• Published / Preprint: Optimal Investment with Unbounded Random Endowments and Transaction Costs: Duality Theory and Connections to the Shadow Price Process. (arXiv:1504.00310v1 [q-fin.MF])
• Published / Preprint: Simulation of Implied Volatility Surfaces via Tangent Levy Models. (arXiv:1504.00334v1 [q-fin.PR])
• Massive denial-of-service attack on Github tied to Chinese government
• Blog Post: iMFdirect: Can Abenomics Succeed? Overcoming the Legacy of the Lost Decades
• Phys.Org Mobile: Scientists ask, peer review on fast track at what price?
• How a trader just made $2.4 million in half an hour
• Who to trust - business leaders or economists?
• World's Greatest Economist
• What is a "coherent" risk measure?
• http://www.dmrra.com/publications/Risk%20Magazine/Its%20Seismology%20Not%20Roulette.pdf
• Blog Post: TheFinancialServicesClub: The Finanser Interviews: Roberto Ferrari, General Manager of CheBanca! and Board Member of Mediobanca
• Published / Preprint: Dynamic Games with Almost Perfect Information. (arXiv:1503.08900v1 [q-fin.EC])
• Published / Preprint: Dynkin Game of Convertible Bonds and Their Optimal Strategy. (arXiv:1503.08961v1 [q-fin.MF])
• Published / Preprint: Dependence structure of market states. (arXiv:1503.09004v1 [q-fin.ST])
• Published / Preprint: IMEX schemes for a Parabolic-ODE system of European Options with Liquidity Shocks. (arXiv:1503.09008v1 [q-fin.CP])
• Towers of Babel
• Quant Who Shook the Financial World Tries More Humble Approach
• Vendor News: ACM and Infosys Foundation honor pioneer in cryptography
• Published / Preprint: East africa in the Malthusian trap? A statistical analysis of financial, economic, and demographic indicators. (arXiv:1503.08441v1 [q-fin.GN])
• Published / Preprint: Anomalous volatility scaling in high frequency financial data. (arXiv:1503.08465v1 [q-fin.CP])
• Published / Preprint: Local risk-minimization for Barndorff-Nielsen and Shephard models. (arXiv:1503.08589v1 [q-fin.MF])
• Published / Preprint: Dynamic indifference pricing via the G-expectation. (arXiv:1503.08628v1 [q-fin.MF])
• Published / Preprint: Prices of Options as Opinion Dynamics of the Market Players with Limited Social Influence. (arXiv:1503.08785v1 [q-fin.ST])

Published / Preprint: The Martin Integral Representation of Markovian Pricing Kernels. (arXiv:1504.00276v1 [q-fin.MF]) Posted: 01 Apr 2015 05:36 PM PDT The purpose of this article is to describe all possible beliefs of market participants on objective measures under Markovian environments when a risk-neutral measure is given. To achieve this, we employ the Martin integral representation of Markovian pricing kernels. Then, we offer economic and financial implications of this representation. This representation is useful to analyze the long-term... Visit MoneyScience for the Complete Article.

Published / Preprint: Optimal Investment with Unbounded Random Endowments and Transaction Costs: Duality Theory and Connections to the Shadow Price Process. (arXiv:1504.00310v1 [q-fin.MF]) Posted: 01 Apr 2015 05:36 PM PDT This paper studies the utility maximization problem on the terminal wealth with both random endowments and proportional transaction costs. To deal with unbounded random payoffs from some illiquid claims, we propose to work with the acceptable portfolios defined via the consistent price system (CPS) such that the liquidation value processes stay above some stochastic thresholds. In the market... Visit MoneyScience for the Complete Article.

Published / Preprint: Simulation of Implied Volatility Surfaces via Tangent Levy Models. (arXiv:1504.00334v1 [q-fin.PR]) Posted: 01 Apr 2015 05:36 PM PDT In this paper, we implement and test two types of market-based models for European-type options, based on the tangent Levy models proposed recently by R. Carmona and S. Nadtochiy. As a result, we obtain a method for generating Monte Carlo samples of future paths of implied volatility surfaces. These paths and the surfaces themselves are free of arbitrage, and are constructed in a way that is... Visit MoneyScience for the Complete Article.

Massive denial-of-service attack on Github tied to Chinese government Posted: 01 Apr 2015 10:03 AM PDT Massive Denial-of-service attack on GitHub tied to the work of hackers with control over China's Internet backbone http://t.co/wqNYQ5kJhJ — moneyscience… Visit MoneyScience for the Complete Article.

Blog Post: iMFdirect: Can Abenomics Succeed? Overcoming the Legacy of the Lost Decades Posted: 01 Apr 2015 09:18 AM PDT By Changyong Rheeread more... Visit MoneyScience for the Complete Article.

Phys.Org Mobile: Scientists ask, peer review on fast track at what price? Posted: 01 Apr 2015 04:32 AM PDT Scientists ask, peer review on fast track at what price? http://t.co/0VinnOcb9j — moneyscience (@moneyscience) April 1, 2015 Visit MoneyScience for the Complete Article.

How a trader just made $2.4 million in half an hour Posted: 01 Apr 2015 01:52 AM PDT And just when you were wondering if you could make $2M trading off a single Tweet https://t.co/oPVbOUA4rG — Ted Bailey (@TedBailey) March 31, 2015 Visit MoneyScience for the Complete Article.

Who to trust - business leaders or economists? Posted: 01 Apr 2015 01:36 AM PDT Who to trust - business leaders or economists? @Peston http://t.co/8MxDuAbMJQ — moneyscience (@moneyscience) April 1, 2015 Visit MoneyScience for the Complete Article.

World's Greatest Economist Posted: 01 Apr 2015 01:36 AM PDT The daily Dilbert: Comic for April 01, 2015 http://t.co/gZhw7MpMat #comic — Dilbert (@DailyDilbert) April 1, 2015 Visit MoneyScience for the Complete Article.

What is a "coherent" risk measure? Posted: 01 Apr 2015 01:36 AM PDT What is a "coherent" risk measure? http://t.co/2jTAAmOQ6H #risk via @StackQuant — D. Geromichalos ScD (@dg_risk) April 1, 2015 Visit MoneyScience for the Complete Article.

http://www.dmrra.com/publications/Risk%20Magazine/Its%20Seismology%20Not%20Roulette.pdf Posted: 01 Apr 2015 01:36 AM PDT Structural shifts, not roulette. David Rowe on models http://t.co/HxmZtAXJI3 — Emanuel Derman (@EmanuelDerman) March 31, 2015 Visit MoneyScience for the Complete Article.

Blog Post: TheFinancialServicesClub: The Finanser Interviews: Roberto Ferrari, General Manager of CheBanca! and Board Member of Mediobanca Posted: 01 Apr 2015 01:26 AM PDT Following our regular series of interviews, we turn this week to talk with Roberto Ferrari, the General Manager of CheBanca! and Board Member of Mediobanca.read more... Visit MoneyScience for the Complete Article.

Published / Preprint: Dynamic Games with Almost Perfect Information. (arXiv:1503.08900v1 [q-fin.EC]) Posted: 31 Mar 2015 05:40 PM PDT This paper aims to solve two fundamental problems on finite or infinite horizon dynamic games with perfect or almost perfect information. Under some mild conditions, we prove (1) the existence of subgame-perfect equilibria in general dynamic games with almost perfect information, and (2) the existence of pure-strategy subgame-perfect equilibria in perfect-information dynamic games with... Visit MoneyScience for the Complete Article.

Published / Preprint: Dynkin Game of Convertible Bonds and Their Optimal Strategy. (arXiv:1503.08961v1 [q-fin.MF]) Posted: 31 Mar 2015 05:40 PM PDT This paper studies the valuation and optimal strategy of convertible bonds as a Dynkin game by using the reflected backward stochastic differential equation method and the variational inequality method. We first reduce such a Dynkin game to an optimal stopping time problem with state constraint, and then in a Markovian setting, we investigate the optimal strategy by analyzing the properties of... Visit MoneyScience for the Complete Article.

Published / Preprint: Dependence structure of market states. (arXiv:1503.09004v1 [q-fin.ST]) Posted: 31 Mar 2015 05:40 PM PDT We study the dependence structure of market states by calculating empirical pairwise copulas of daily stock returns. We consider both original returns, which exhibit time-varying trends and volatilities, as well as locally normalized ones, where the non-stationarity has been removed. The empirical pairwise copula for each state is compared with a bivariate K-copula. This copula arises from a... Visit MoneyScience for the Complete Article.

Published / Preprint: IMEX schemes for a Parabolic-ODE system of European Options with Liquidity Shocks. (arXiv:1503.09008v1 [q-fin.CP]) Posted: 31 Mar 2015 05:40 PM PDT The coupled system, where one is a degenerate parabolic equation and the other has not a diffusion term arises in the modeling of European options with liquidity shocks. Two implicit-explicit (IMEX) schemes that preserve the positivity of the differential problem solution are constructed and analyzed. Numerical experiments confirm the theoretical results and illustrate the high accuracy and... Visit MoneyScience for the Complete Article.

Towers of Babel Posted: 31 Mar 2015 04:12 AM PDT "..developers may be building record-breaking towers even though they know they are economically inefficient..." http://t.co/5jBE8WU6cm — moneyscience… Visit MoneyScience for the Complete Article.

Quant Who Shook the Financial World Tries More Humble Approach Posted: 31 Mar 2015 04:12 AM PDT Quant Who Shook the Financial World Tries More Humble Approach http://t.co/lkZZXjU6M8 via @younix #LTCM #quant #HedgeFund — D. Geromichalos ScD (@dg_risk)… Visit MoneyScience for the Complete Article.

Vendor News: ACM and Infosys Foundation honor pioneer in cryptography Posted: 30 Mar 2015 09:55 PM PDT ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, (www.acm.org) and the Infosys Foundation announced today that Dan Boneh is the recipient of the 2014 ACM-Infosys Foundation Award in the Computing Sciences for his contributions to the ground-breaking development of pairing-based cryptography and its application in identity-based encryption. Visit MoneyScience for the Complete Article.

Published / Preprint: East africa in the Malthusian trap? A statistical analysis of financial, economic, and demographic indicators. (arXiv:1503.08441v1 [q-fin.GN]) Posted: 30 Mar 2015 05:46 PM PDT A statistical analysis of financial, economic, and demographic indicators performed by the authors demonstrates (1) that the main countries of East Africa (Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania) have not escaped the Malthusian Trap yet; (2) that this countries are not likely to follow the "North African path" and to achieve this escape before they achieve serious successes in their fertility transition;... Visit MoneyScience for the Complete Article.

Published / Preprint: Anomalous volatility scaling in high frequency financial data. (arXiv:1503.08465v1 [q-fin.CP]) Posted: 30 Mar 2015 05:46 PM PDT Volatility of intra-day stock market indices computed at various time horizons exhibits a scaling behaviour that differs from what would be expected from fractional Brownian motion (fBm). We investigate this anomalous scaling by using Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD), a method which separates time series into a set of cyclical components at different time-scales. By applying EMD to fBm, we... Visit MoneyScience for the Complete Article.

Published / Preprint: Local risk-minimization for Barndorff-Nielsen and Shephard models. (arXiv:1503.08589v1 [q-fin.MF]) Posted: 30 Mar 2015 05:46 PM PDT We aim to obtain explicit representations of locally risk-minimizing of call and put options for the Barndorff-Nielsen and Shephard models, which are Ornstein-Uhlenbeck type stochastic volatility models. Arai and Suzuki (2015) obtained a formula of locally risk-minimizing for L\'evy markets under many additional conditions by using Malliavin calculus for L\'evy processes. In this paper,... Visit MoneyScience for the Complete Article.

Published / Preprint: Dynamic indifference pricing via the G-expectation. (arXiv:1503.08628v1 [q-fin.MF]) Posted: 30 Mar 2015 05:46 PM PDT We study the dynamic indifference pricing with ambiguity preferences. For this, we introduce the dynamic expected utility with ambiguity via the nonlinear expectation--G-expectation, introduced by Peng (2007). We also study the risk aversion and certainty equivalent for the agents with ambiguity. We obtain the dynamic consistency of indifference pricing with ambiguity preferences. Finally, we... Visit MoneyScience for the Complete Article.

Published / Preprint: Prices of Options as Opinion Dynamics of the Market Players with Limited Social Influence. (arXiv:1503.08785v1 [q-fin.ST]) Posted: 30 Mar 2015 05:46 PM PDT The dynamics of market prices is described as the evolution of opinions in the trading community regarding future market behavior. The price then is a function of the voting process of the market players in favor to raise or reduce the value of a stock. The model presented in this paper is suited for pricing of options and was verified against real market data. The model allows deriving the... Visit MoneyScience for the Complete Article.

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Women's Views on News

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Questioning benefit sanctions – again Posted: 01 Apr 2015 10:07 AM PDT MPs repeat their call for a full independent review of benefit sanctions. A full independent review should be established in the new Parliament, to investigate whether benefit sanctions are being applied appropriately, fairly and proportionately, across the Jobcentre Plus (JCP) network, the Work and Pensions Committee said in a report published recently. The Committee reiterates this recommendation, which was originally made in January 2014 but rejected by the Government, in the light of new evidence which raises concerns about the approach being adopted in a number of individual Jobcentres, and more broadly, including concerns about whether targets for sanctions exist. The report calls for the independent review to also examine the legislative framework for benefit sanctions policy, to ensure that the basis for sanctioning is well-defined, and that safeguards to protect the vulnerable are clearly set out. Dame Anne Begg MP, chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, said: "Benefit sanctions are controversial because they withhold subsistence-level benefits from people who may have little or no other income. "We agree that benefit conditionality is necessary but it is essential that policy is based on clear evidence of what works in terms of encouraging people to take up the support which is available to help them get back into work. "The policy must then be applied fairly and proportionately. "The system must also be capable of identifying and protecting vulnerable people, including those with mental health problems and learning disabilities. "And it should avoid causing severe financial hardship. "The system as currently applied does not always achieve this." A system of discretionary hardship payments exists to mitigate the risk of sanctions causing severe financial hardship. However, the report concludes that changes are required to the system, to ensure that it is more effective in achieving this. In particular, the report emphasises widespread concern that standard JSA (Jobseeker’s Allowance) hardship payments are not available until the 15th day of a sanction period. "Recent research suggests that benefit sanctions are contributing to food poverty," Dame Anne Begg said. "No claimant should have their benefit payment reduced to zero where they are at risk of severe financial hardship, to the extent of not being able to feed themselves or their families, or pay their rent. "DWP's (Department for Work and Pensions) discretionary hardship payment system is intended to prevent this happening, but it does not always do so. "This is often because JSA hardship payments are not available until the 15th day of a sanction period. "It is not reasonable to expect people to live without any source of income for 2 weeks. DWP should make all hardship payments available from day one of a sanction period," she continued. "Problems also arise because the claimant is not aware of the application process for a hardship payment or because they are put off applying because of the difficulty in understanding and navigating the system. "This needs to change. DWP should not wait for the claimant to apply for a hardship payment. "It should initiate the process itself, and then coordinate the decision on hardship payments with decision-making on the sanction itself, particularly where the claimant has dependent children or is vulnerable." The report notes that DWP currently investigates all deaths of benefit claimants “where suicide is associated with DWP activity”, and in other cases where the death of a vulnerable benefit claimant is brought to its attention, through a system of internal “peer reviews”. Since February 2012, DWP has carried out 49 peer reviews following the death of a benefit claimant. DWP has stated that 33 of the 49 cases have resulted in recommendations for change at either local or national level. However, it was unable to confirm in how many cases the claimant was subject to a benefit sanction, or provide any details about how its policies or procedures had been altered in response to the death of a claimant. "We have asked DWP to confirm the number of internal peer reviews in which the claimant was subject to a benefit sanction at the time of death, and the result of these reviews in terms of changes to DWP policy," Dame Anne Begg said. "It is important that all agencies involved in the provision of public services are scrutinised, to ensure that lessons are learned after members of the public are let down by the system, particularly where the failures of a public body may have contributed to a death. "We believe that a new independent body should be established to fulfil this role." The Committee finds that more “active” regimes, in which unemployed claimants are required to do more to find work, have been shown to be relatively effective; however, evidence on the specific part by played by financial sanctions within successful active regimes is limited and far from clear-cut. The report calls for a series of evaluations to increase the evidence base, particularly around the efficacy and impacts of the new sanctions regime introduced by the Welfare Reform Act 2012. Dame Anne Begg said: "The Government introduced longer minimum sanction periods without first testing their likely impacts on claimants. "The minimum sanction period is now four weeks, rather than one week. It is important that the impacts of the new sanctions regime are properly evaluated. "There is currently no evidence on whether the application, or deterrent threat, of a four-week sanction makes it more, or less, likely that a claimant will engage with employment support or gain work. "This is an area of policy which must be based on robust evidence. "The Department needs to demonstrate that the application of the new sanctions regime is not intended to be purely punitive." The Oakley Review of Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) sanctions in relation to Back to Work Schemes, published in July 2014, made a number of recommendations aimed at improving some aspects of the sanctions system. This has already led to welcome changes, including improvements to DWP's information to claimants about the sanctioning process, and the clarity of its claimant letters. However, a number of the Oakley recommendations are yet to be fully implemented, in part due to the requirement for legislative change and/or contractual negotiations with Work Programme providers. The Committee believes that DWP should take more urgent steps to fully implement the outstanding recommendations. Dame Anne Begg said the DWP must take a more common-sense approach to mandatory Work Programme activity and sanction referrals. "For example, it makes no sense, and is a considerable waste of administrative resources, for Work Programme providers to have to refer a claimant back to DWP for a sanction decision, even where they know that the claimant had a perfectly good reason for not meeting a particular requirement," she continued. "In the negotiations to re-let the Work Programme contracts in 2017, DWP should prioritise the development of a more flexible approach to the setting of mandatory conditions. "There is also widespread support for pre-sanction written warnings and non-financial sanctions. The Department should get on with piloting this approach. "If it requires legislation, the Department should bring it forward as soon as possible in the new Parliament." The report makes a number of further recommendations, including that DWP should: Not proceed with in-work sanctions beyond the existing pilot areas until robust evidence is available from the pilots to demonstrate that in-work conditionality can be effectively applied. [paragraph 56]; Establish a small-scale pilot to test the efficacy of a more targeted approach to sanctions based on segmentation of claimants by their attitudes and motivations; Develop new and more effective systems to monitor the destinations of claimants leaving benefit in general and, in particular, those leaving benefit following a sanction; Expedite the evaluation of the Claimant Commitment, including a review of the appropriate use of Jobseeker Directions; Develop guidance which is specifically intended to assist JCP staff to identify vulnerable claimants and tailor conditionality according to the claimant's individual circumstances; Improve JCP staff training on the statutory single parent flexibilities designed to protect single parent JSA claimants from inappropriate benefit conditionality; and produce a simple, plain English guide to the flexibilities for all single parent claimants; and Review Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) sanctioning within the Work Programme, and continue to develop alternative approaches to employment support for this group, including voluntary models, such as Individual Placement with Support, for some groups. The MPs' call that an "independent review of benefit sanctions is urgently needed" seems almost polite for what is going on here, Frances Ryan wrote in the Guardian in response to this report. People are literally starving and their crime is that they dare to be poor and unemployed, she continued. Stopping the money people need in order to eat is not the purpose of government. The benefit sanctions regime should be scrapped, and the culture that created them needs shredding to pieces.

Marxist critique and socialist feminism Posted: 01 Apr 2015 09:39 AM PDT Labour, life and love: Marxist feminists join the dots. By Cynthia Cockburn. Since the 1970s, a sizeable fraction of the feminist movement has striven to bring together in one coherent body of thought the Marxist critique of capitalist exploitation and our home-grown feminist critique of male power ‘Socialist feminism’. Propelling this analysis into activism, has seen ups and downs in the ensuing forty years, a wavy graph line that parallels the fluctuating fortunes of trade unionism, left parties and anti-capitalist movements. An international three-day conference on Marxist-Feminism took place in Berlin last weekend, designed to boost the upward slant of that hesitant graph line. Enabled by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, which hosted the event in its spacious premises in formerly Communist east Berlin, the event drew together contributors from across Europe but also from far afield – India, Australia, Turkey, Latin America, the USA, Canada and elsewhere. The invited speakers, many of whom knew each other as hardy survivors from an earlier phase of the women’s movement, were astonished to find themselves now in a crowd of five hundred participants, mainly young and mainly resident in Germany, seemingly attracted by a potential renewal of left feminism. What’s more, as the conference progressed, many of this audience joined energetically in the debate and seemed hungry for a productive outcome, for ideas that could energize and guide a movement of deep social change. The conference saw the launch of two new books. One was Der im Gehen erkundete Weg: Marxismus-Feminismus (Making the Road as We Walk It: Marxism-Feminism) by Frigga Haug, who has also devoted many years to editing a multi-volume dictionary of Marxist-Feminist concepts, the Historisch-Kritisches Wörterbuch des Feminismus, similarly published by the Institute for Critical Theory, Berlin. The second publication launched at the conference was a collection of essays on Marxist ‘key words’ as reworked and used today by feminists. Titled simply Marxism and Feminism and published by Zed Books, London, it was edited by Shahrzad Mojab of the University of Toronto, Frigga Haug’s principal partner in conceptualizing the conference. Many of the presentations at the conference, like the chapters in these books, dwelt on production, on work and labour power. Frigga Haug, in opening the conference, foreshadowed this economic focus. ‘For theoretical consistency’, she said, Marxism-feminism ‘must think of gender relations as relations of production’. This follows necessarily, she believes, from the perception that a dominant class (be it the owners of the means of production, or men in relation to women) has ‘the ability to dispose of others’ labour power’. In this spirit some of the conference papers dealt with the experience of female workers – for instance in Spain in present conditions of austerity, and in Latin America and India under the contemporary onslaught of neo-liberal global capitalism. Two speakers stressed the self-interest with which bureaucracies and businesses today welcome into prominent jobs a certain category of aspiring women, products of liberal feminism. Hester Eisenstein, whose recent book Feminism Seduced explores the way global elites use women’s liberation to their own advantage, was one of them. The difference between foundational Marxism and feminist Marxism however is that the latter, as Frigga went on to say, understands the relations of production as including not only the production of the means of life (in farms, fisheries, factories) but also the production of life itself (in human pregnancy, birthing, caring, and in nature). In this vein, many of the conference presentations dealt with health services and the ‘care sector’. The natural world was discussed, in relation to women and to the labour movement, and its manipulation and devastation by corporate interests. Sadly, Lena Gunnarsson had to cancel her attendance at the conference. I imagine that she would have treated us to some of the electrifying uses of Marxist concepts she and Anna Jonasdottir have proposed, extending what is understood as ‘the production of life itself’ beyond conception, pregnancy and parturition, to include emotional life, feelings. They urge us to understand ‘love’ – bonding, desire, ecstasy – as a material practice occupying the position in feminist theory that ‘work’ occupies in Marxist theory. Just as the capitalist grows rich on the surplus value generated by the worker’s alienated labour, men grow strong by appropriating more of women’s loving and caring than they give back to women. Not everyone in the hall was happy with the scope of the thinking presented from the platform. There were complaints from some that, notwithstanding a contribution by Tucker Farley on lesbian movements, the tone of the conference was overwhelmingly heteronormative, with LGBTQ issues sidelined. And one or two participants, I’m told, walked out of the hall, angered that racialization, racism and racial domination were neglected by the speakers. This was a little unfair, however, for the issue of identity politics versus intersectionality featured in several presentations and was hotly debated. Had they stayed around for the closing lecture they would have heard a compelling tale of subaltern groups from Gyatri Chakravorty Spivak, drawing on her intense engagement with deeply subordinated village communities in caste-ridden, class-divided and post-colonial India. It’s often remarked that, when feminists try to bring Marxist and feminist theory into a single frame, patriarchy tends to shrink into a mere adjective glossing the principal system: ‘patriarchal capitalism’. Perhaps because we feminists have contributed a wealth of analysis of women’s work, mainstream Marxist economics has deepened its understanding of the mode of production by paying more attention to the way capitalists benefit from the sexual division of labour in society and employment. But the left has been less ready to hear us when we say that men as men, too, have always had an interest in the sexual division of labour, strenuously resisting employers’ attempts to substitute cheap females for skilled craftsmen, while profiting from women’s unpaid work in the home. Perhaps it’s because men are disinclined to acknowledge that they share an interest with the ruling class in this. Engaging with men in Marxist and socialist milieux we have sometimes been less than assertive in stating (and they have been disinclined to grasp) that there’s more than one kind of ruling, one kind of ruling group and one kind of ruled. There is more than one axis of power. Patriarchal power, exerted in myriad ways that cannot be reduced to the economic, is still somehow elusive in the Marxist context, alluded to but seldom brought to view and challenged. The under-stressing of male supremacy was evident, I felt, even during these intense three days in Berlin. The word ‘capitalism’ was mentioned perhaps twenty times for every mention of ‘patriarchy’, and the word ‘women’, at a guess, fifty times for any voicing of the word ‘men’. This could have been due in part to the fact that militarism, war and violence barely surfaced in our discussions. Gender power as we know and suffer it – call it patriarchy, fratriarchy, phallocracy, male supremacy or what you will – is more easily perceived, and its workings understood, if we bring to view what Charles Tilly called ‘the means and forces of coercion’, the wealth that states or aspirant rulers exact by tribute or taxation to pay for external war and internal repression, and the men and weapons those resources buy. Marxist theory now has the conceptual tools, thanks to Tilly, to address the relationship between the means and forces of production and those of coercion. Our task as Marxist feminists is to clarify the part that gender plays in ‘the continuum of violence’, the relationship of socially-constituted masculinity to the structural violence of capitalism and the physical violence of militarism, to say nothing of the overwhelming preponderance of men in the incidence of violent crime. Male-on-male violence tells us much about the masculine (racialized and class) hierarchies of patriarchy; male-on-female violence, especially sexualized violence, tells us yet more about the systemic subordination of women. I touched on this in my own paper, and Erica Burman made mention of the gross incidence of sexual abuse and violence that has been coming to light in British society, in which even the left is not innocent. Quite a few men were present in the audience at the Berlin conference, and it would have been productive, I feel, had they shared thoughts with us from their own positionality, about the persistence of patriarchy into the modern era, its renewal in religious structures and dogma, its empowerment in ever more costly weapons systems, and the way class power, racializing power and gender power are enlaced in the institutions of our everyday lives – in factories, banks, science labs, schools, churches, families. Marxist men engaging constructively with Marxist feminism in facing up to and refusing male dominance ‘in the institutions’ (including trade unions and left parties) would help put gender transformation – the profound re-shaping of masculinities and femininities from an early age by conscious policy and deliberate practice – onto the anti-capitalist revolutionary agenda. It would greatly strengthen the likelihood of a forward moving, mixed-gender, socialist feminist activism. For this is what last week’s Marxist feminist revival in Berlin is ultimately about. Watch out for the sequel, promised by Swedish feminists, for 2016. A version of this article appeared in openDemocracy on 27 March 2015. Cynthia Cockburn, feminist researcher and writer, is associated as honorary professor with the Department of Sociology, City University London, and the Centre for the Study of Women and Gender, Warwick University.

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Sargodha heavy rain turns roads into ponds Posted: 01 Apr 2015 12:46 AM PDT Pakistan News, Sargodha News : Heavy Rain hits the Punjab on Wednesday leaving various city areas inundated causing serious problems for the commuters. The rain started at 10:30 am and continued... For More Visit http://EPakistanNews.com

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W I L L Y O U B E A T T H E B I G G E S T E V E N T S O F 2 0 1 5 ?

The best seats in the house... If this email isn't displaying correctly, please view it here. W I L L   Y O U   B E   A T   T H E   B I G G E S T   E V E N T S   O F   2 0 1 5 ? Following a thrilling Capital One Cup Final, our attention now turns to The FA Cup Semi Finals and Final.  With only a few teams competing for a coveted final place, you can secure your place at the heart of the action as a Club Wembley member. Club Wembley memberships guarantees you will witness: • All England Men's Senior Home Internationals • The FA Cup Final and Semi Finals • The Capital One Cup Final  • The FA Community Shield • The Ladbrokes Challenge Cup Final • Plus priority access to other events such as the three NFL games and show stopping concerts Whether you want to entertain your clients or incentivise your team, there is no better time to join the ultimate stadium members' club. With flexible and cost effective packages, find out more about Club Wembley membership today by calling 0800 783 1440 or email sales@wembleystadium.com

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Women's Views on News

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How to register to vote anonymously Posted: 31 Mar 2015 07:47 AM PDT It is possible to register anonymously and from a confidential location such as a refuge. The next General Election will take place on May 2015 and will involve all parts of the United Kingdom. In order to vote in the General Election 2015 you must be over 18 and on the electoral register. It is possible to register to be on the electoral register anonymously and from a confidential location such as a refuge. Here are some frequently asked questions about registering to vote anonymously, put together by Women’s Aid, that should be helpful. 1. When is the deadline for registering to vote in the General Election 2015? The deadline to register to vote is 20 April 2015. 2. What is anonymous voter registration? Anonymous voter registration is available to people whose safety would be at risk, for example some survivors of domestic violence, if their name or address were listed on the electoral register. 3. What is the process for registering anonymously? Applications for anonymous registration must be made in writing. A person must complete an application to register to vote as well as an application for anonymous registration. Applicants must also satisfy their local Electoral Registration Officer that their safety or that of any other person in the same household would be at risk if their details were made public. This is called the 'safety test'. The safety test is as follows: 'the safety of the applicant for an anonymous entry or that of any person of the same household would be at risk if the (electoral) register contains the name of the applicant or their qualifying address. A domestic violence survivor applying for an anonymous registration would need to provide a reason why they think their safety would be at risk if their details were listed on the electoral register and evidence of domestic violence. Evidence the electoral commission will consider is either a court order that is in force to protect them from a perpetrator of domestic violence or a qualified person supporting their application. 4. How do I apply for anonymous voter registration? Contact your local elections office. Their contact details can be found here. Or print and fill in this form. 5. Can I register to vote anonymously online? It is not possible to register to vote anonymously online. 6. Who will see details such as National Insurance Numbers during the application process? The Electoral Registration Officers will see the content of the application when it is processed. However, the content of anonymous applications are not available for public inspection at any time. 7. Will someone be able to find my name and address from the electoral register? People registered anonymously are included at the end of the relevant part of the register without a name and address. Anonymous entries are shown only as an 'N' and a number. Only Electoral Registration Officers, the jury service (upon written request), the security services, and police forces will be granted access to the anonymous voters' information held by the Electoral Registration Office. 8. When voting from a refuge or anywhere with a confidential location, will an address be required to send a polling card/postal vote to? Poll cards and postal votes are personalised and need to be sent to you in an official envelope. You can request that poll cards and postal votes are sent to a different address from the address you are registered at. For example, you can request that your polling card is sent to a refuge you are currently resident at. 9. Can I register to vote when living at a refuge or other confidential address? You can register to vote anonymously at any address where you are resident. 10. Can an individual register to vote when living in temporary accommodation? You can still register to vote even if you do not have a fixed address. You need to fill in a form called a 'Declaration of local connection'. Contact your local elections office for more information. For more information about registering to vote and to find the local elections office for the council area you live in click here. This advice providing advice on anonymous registration has been provided by the Electoral Commission.

Women’s Manifesto for Northern Ireland launched Posted: 31 Mar 2015 04:25 AM PDT Paid work, for example, is not an equal experience for women and men. Welfare reforms will hit families in Northern Ireland harder than in the rest of the UK. Northern Ireland has the highest claimant count and inactivity rate in the UK and 28 per cent of children in Northern Ireland live in poverty. Household incomes, poverty rates and the labour market have all worsened in Northern Ireland in the last five years and more so than in Great Britain. Paid work is not an equal experience for women and men. Women are concentrated in low-paid and part-time jobs – 75 per cent of female employees work part-time, many on zero hour contracts with neither job security nor decent conditions of employment, unable to access tax credits most needed by the poorest families. Two thirds of those earning minimum wage or below are women and women's annual earnings are on average 33 per cent below that of men. Almost 80 per cent of lone female parents aged between 16-34 live in poverty, 60 per cent of whom are in debt. The poverty rate for pensioners is higher in NI than in other parts of the United Kingdom with nearly half a million female pensioners in NI living below the poverty line including fuel poverty. Many of the 'working poor' households pay interest only mortgages, and worry about the future repossession of their homes. Migrant women workers struggle to have their qualifications recognised and are often exploited in much lower paid jobs or without access to public services or assistance. Both the 'Empty Purse Campaign‘ and the ongoing lobbying being carried out by the women's sector in Northern Ireland are crucial in maintaining pressure on the Northern Ireland Assembly to recognise the impact of the pending Welfare Reform Act, cuts and zero hour contracts. One part of this is the new website for the Women’s Regional Consortium which has gone live, featuring many resources for local women, including an extensive e-library and a directory containing hundreds of useful contacts. The site will provide regular updates on the Consortium’s activities. The Women's Resource and Development Agency (WRDA) is one of the seven partners in this Consortium, working to provide a voice for women in disadvantaged and rural areas alongside FWIN, NIRWN, WOMEN’STEC, TWN, WSN and The Women’s Centre Derry. And this week sees the official launch of the WRDA’s Women's Manifesto. The Manifesto calls on politicians to: Introduce a dedicated women's employment strategy to address the dominance of women in low paid work. Guarantee that budget decisions made in Northern Ireland will not affect women disproportionately. Make every effort to ensure that in paid work there is a level playing field for women and men. Require mandatory pay audits and a government strategy with concrete measures and timetable to eliminate the gender pay gap and promote flexible working arrangements for men and women. It urges the Northern Ireland Executive to: Follow the example used by Nordic countries by linking early years and childcare policy and provision; Recognise childcare as both a social and economic issue; Acknowledge that lack of childcare is a barrier to women entering/re-entering the labour market; as well as Commit to the full implementation of the new childcare strategy (with a due date of spring 2015) and assign responsibility to a lead department. It calls on politicians to: Introduce a standardised programme of relationships and sexuality education in the school curriculum; [Ensure] unrestricted access to contraception and non-directive information; Extend sexual and reproductive health services across Northern Ireland; Use evidence based policy-making on reproductive health issues; and De-criminalise abortion in line with international human rights standards so that health professionals can provide such care without the threat of prosecution. The Women’s Manifesto also calls on the Northern Ireland Executive to: Review and strengthen sex equality legislation in respect of equal pay provisions and positive action measures, and work for legislative harmonisation in single equality legislation; Introduce robust measures to collect gender disaggregated data and use the analysis to deliver gender responsive budgeting across public spending; Match the situation of women in Northern Ireland against the European Union Women's Charter and meet the challenge of the EU Strategy for equality between women and men through effective delivery of the Northern Ireland Gender Equality Strategy; Work with the UK Government to make a full report to the UN CEDAW Committee on progress and remaining work to be done in Northern Ireland to meet the Committee's expectations as set out in its concluding observations in 2008; and to Fully implement UN Security Council Resolution 1325 'Women, Peace and Security' in Northern Ireland and base the reform of local government on the principles of UNSCR 1325. The Assembly and Local Councils need to take decisive steps to advance women's equality. And WRDA calls on all parties and candidates to commit to the demands in this Manifesto, and to incorporate these demands into their policy decisions.

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