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OTC derivatives statistics at end-December 2019

Notional amounts of OTC derivatives rose from $544 trillion at end-December 2018 to $559 trillion at end-December 2019. This, however, corresponds to a significant fall over the last six months, which could be at least partly attributed to seasonal factors. The seasonal pattern in the data, whereby end-June values tend typically to be larger than end-of-year values, appears strongest in positions vis-à-vis central counterparties. Such end-of-year contractions can occur if dealer banks and/or their clients shrink their outstanding notional derivative positions for regulatory and financial reporting purposes. Contracts denominated in non-G4 currencies (ie excluding USD, EUR, JPY and GBP) have grown in size for both interest rate and foreign exchange derivatives, even though those denominated in US dollars remain the largest segment.




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OTC derivatives outstanding

The semiannual OTC derivatives statistics provide data on notional amounts outstanding and gross market values for all types of over-the-counter derivatives contracts. They are reported by large dealers in 12 countries on a worldwide consolidated basis.




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Effective exchange rate indices

Daily data on effective exchange rate in nominal terms have been updated. Broad indices cover 60 economies, with data from 1996. Narrow indices cover 26 economies with data from 1983.




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Pension contributions and tax-based incentives: evidence from the TCJA

We document that corporate pension contributions respond to tax-based incentives using the 2017 Tax Cut & Jobs Act (TCJA) as a natural experiment. The TCJA cut the U.S. federal corporate tax rate, temporarily increasing contribution incentives for sponsors of defined-benefit retirement plans. We exploit cross-sectional variation in ex-ante exposure to these incentives.




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Conflicting Narratives

At a time of conflicting narratives, a range of markets from equities to energy to gold may persist in volatility until one narrative gains the upper hand.




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Equities: A Clash of Narratives

Equities are likely to keep trading in volatile ranges until the many conflicting narratives in the market give way to a singular message for investors.




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Understanding US export dynamics: does modelling the extensive margin of exports help?

Bank of England Working Papers by Aydan Dogan and Ida Hjortsoe




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Central Bank Digital Currency - Objectives, preconditions and design choices

Netherlands Bank DNB Occasional Studies by Peter Wierts and Harro Boven




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Quantitative easing and the price-liquidity trade-off

European Central Bank Working Papers by Marien Ferdinandusse, Maximilian Freier and Annukka Ristiniemi




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Here’s How You Can Change Lives in the Pandemic

These causes will make great use of your money or your time.




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DC Universe

While DC Universe should satisfy aspiring Super Friends, HBO Max is the more promising Warner streaming service still waiting over the horizon.




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Optional alternative grading scale implemented for spring 2020 semester

Penn State is implementing a new opt-in grading system for the spring 2020 semester that will give students flexibility, help preserve GPAs and minimize impacts to students’ transcripts during the academic challenges presented by the novel coronavirus public health crisis.




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Five Nittany Lions selected in 2020 NFL Draft

Five members of the Penn State football team were selected in this past weekend's NFL Draft, marking the third straight year that the Nittany Lions have had at least five draft picks.




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Samsung to launch 'innovative' physical debit card this summer



Following in the footsteps of Apple Card, and in the shadow of a rumored debit card solution from Google, Samsung on Thursday announced plans to field a physical debit card product in partnership with finance company SoFi.




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Apple diversifying AirPods supply chain, potentially pushing refresh back



Apple is shifting a substantial portion of its current AirPods production from China to Vietnam, and appears to be considering a release schedule later than previously predicted for an AirPods refresh.




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Shared lives

Local people notice the unity in Christ of OM Montenegro as the team work and relax together.




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Creative blessings

Even if things don't go quite to plan, the kids' craft sessions at OM Montenegro's Lighthouse centre result in wonderful presents for families.




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Bishops: Our Lady of America not 'objective private revelation'

CNA Staff, May 7, 2020 / 11:50 am (CNA).- Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend said Thursday that the alleged visions and revelations known as “Our Lady of America” cannot be said to be of supernatural origin, and that public devotion to “Our Lady of America” is not permitted for Catholics.

Sister Mary Ephrem Neuzil of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus began having what seemed like mystical experiences, including inner locutions and visions of the spirit, around 1938. She revealed these to her confessor in 1948, and they became a devotion to Mary as “Our Lady of America” in 1954.

Sr. Neuzil said the Blessed Virgin began appearing to her in 1956 in Rome City, Ind., about 40 miles northwest of Fort Wayne.

The alleged visions and messages from Mary and from St. Joseph continued through 1959, in a number of locations. After 1959, she said Our Lady communicated with her primarily by locutions, until her death in 2000.

Bishop Rhoades agreed in 2017 to conduct an investigation into the alleged apparitions. The bishop issued to other U.S. bishops a statement May 7 on the investigation, which was obtained by CNA, along with a July 2019 decree on the matter.

In the statement, Rhoades said that Sr. Neuzil “was honest, morally upright, psychologically balanced, devoted to religious life and without guile.” He added that she had “signs of imperfection, but no evidence that she was the perpetrator of a hoax or the victim of delusion.”

“What she communicated about her alleged experiences, she believed to be true, and her communication of those experiences are filled with humility and forthrightness,” he added.

The bishop noted there are numerous reports of conversions, spiritual refreshments and consolations, and even some physical healings related to the alleged apparition. He added, though, that “we cannot conclude that any of these events are conclusive enough to warrant certification as miracles. It seems likely that in such personal contexts of faith and prayer, God's graces were received.”

While “much of what is expressed” in the alleged revelations “does not contain any doctrinal error,” Bishop Rhoades wrote that there is a claim of St. Joseph as “'co-redeemer' with Christ for the salvation of the world … which has never been expressed as Catholic doctrine and must be seen as an error.”

He reported that Sr. Neuzil's spiritual director, Archbishop Paul Leibold, wrote in 1970 that he was unable to make a judgement on the supernatural nature of her visions, and that while he had helped her in promoting them as a “private devotion,” he had never acted “to promote her devotion publicly.”

“Looking at the nature and quality of the experiences themselves, we find that they are more to be described as subjective inner religious experiences rather than objective external visions and revelations,” Bishop Rhoades wrote.

“Thus, while it may be said that there is possibly an authenticity to Sister Neuzil's subjective religious experience, we do not find evidence pointing to her experience as being in the category of objective private revelation.”

The bishop and his investigatory commission found that “her experiences were of a type where her own imagination and intellect were involved in the formation of the events. It seems that these were authentically graced moments, even perhaps of a spiritual quality beyond what most people experience, but subjective ones in which her own imagination and intellect were constitutively engaged, putting form to inner spiritual movements. However, we do not find evidence that these were objective visions and revelations of the type seen at Guadalupe, Fatima and Lourdes.”

Bishop Rhoades' judgement was issued in the July 29, 2019 decree, which was signed also by Fr. Mark Gurtner, then-chancellor of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend.

The five other bishops where the purported visions were said to have occurred – Archbishop Dennis Schnurr of Cincinnati, Archbishop Allen Vigneron of Detroit, Bishop Timothy Doherty of Lafayette in Indiana, Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix, and Bishop Daneil Thomas of Toledo in Ohio – each concur with Bishop Rhoades' findings and conclusions.

The six bishops had in 2017 asked the US bishops' conference to investigate the alleged apparitions, considering that inquiries were being received about the alleged apparition and its purported request for a procession of the nation's bishops and that a statue of Our Lady of America be placed in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith advised that it be conducted by one of the bishops, and Bishop Rhoades agreed to do so.

He received documentation of Sr. Neuzil's correspondence the following year, and he conducted the evaluation with a commission of theological and canonical experts. They also gathered personal interviews with witnesses who knew Sr. Neuzil.

The procedure for the investigation was carried out in accordance with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's 1978 "Norms regarding the manner of proceeding in the discernment of presumed apparitions or revelations."

Some bishops have permitted the public display of statues of Our Lady of America, and then-Msgr. Liebold had given an imprimatur to a prayer attached to the devotion in 1963.

The six bishops wrote May 7 that “given this history of prayers and religious articles being given approval by competent ecclesiastical authority, the use of such prayers religious articles may continue as a matter of private devotion, but not as a public devotion of the Church.”

“Indeed, such private devotion would be consistent with the history of the United States of America being dedicated to Our Lady,” they added.

However, “such private devotion should in no way imply approval or acceptance of purported revelations, visions, or locutions attributed to Sister Mary Ephrem (Mildred) Neuzil other than as her own subjective inner religious experiences.”

A spokesperson for the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend told CNA that “the conclusion of Bishop Rhoades and the other five bishops pertains to the entire Church. The same would have been true if the decision were in the affirmative.”

 




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Productive Tips and Tricks – SOLIDWORKS Drawings

Documentation is always an asset for any of the company or industry. Documenting the right data always ensures the task or job, whatever assigned by the superiors in an industry. Whatever the design we do, at the end of the

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E G S Computers India Private Limited, since 1993, has been in the forefront of delivering solutions
to customers in the areas of Product Design and Development with SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD,Remaining Life Calculations,
Validation using Finite Element Analysis, Customization of Engineering activities and Training in advanced engineering functions
relating to design and development.

EGS India - Authorized Reseller for SOLIDWORKS Solutions in India - Chennai, Coimbatore, Trichy, Madurai - Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry.
For any queries on SOLIDWORKS Solutions contact @ 9445424704 | mktg@egs.co.in
| Website - www.egsindia.com

The post Productive Tips and Tricks – SOLIDWORKS Drawings appeared first on SOLIDWORKS Tech Blog.




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Five Favorable Features of SOLIDWORKS

In every new version of SOLIDWORKS there is always some new features that steal all of the attention. In this post i will highlight five favorable features in SOLIDWORKS that may not be as known, but still can help you

Author information

User success at PLM group

I started working with CAD systems in 2003, and have since 2012 worked solely with SOLIDWORKS. I am a certified Technical support specialist as well as a SOLIDWORKS Certified Professional and is currently in the process to become a SOLIDWORKS Certified Expert. Since 2016 I have helped PLM Group customers to work smarter, not harder.
The inspiration for most of my posts comes from the support cases i work on.
When writing blogpost I try to focus on the everyday use of SOLIDWORKS.

The post Five Favorable Features of SOLIDWORKS appeared first on SOLIDWORKS Tech Blog.




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Performance Bond Requirements: Agriculture, Energy, Equity and FX Margins - Effective April 22, 2020

As per the normal review of market volatility to ensure adequate collateral coverage, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc., Clearing House Risk Management staff approved the performance bond requirements for the following products listed in the advisory at the link below.

The rates will be effective after the close of business on April 22, 2020.

For the full text of this advisory, please click here.




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Performance Bond Requirements: Energy Margins - Effective April 22, 2020


As per the normal review of market volatility to ensure adequate collateral coverage, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc., Clearing House Risk Management staff approved the performance bond requirements for the following products listed in the advisory at the link below.

The rates will be effective after the close of business on 04/22/2020.

Click here for the full text of the advisory

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Switch to Bachelier Options Pricing Model - Effective April 22, 2020

Pursuant to Clearing Advisory 20-152 that was published on April 8th, the clearing house will switch the options pricing and valuation model to Bachelier to accommodate negative prices in the underlying futures and allow for listing of option contracts with negative strikes for the set of products specified in the link below. The switch will be effective for the margin cycle run at the end of trading tomorrow April 22, 2020 and will remain in place until further notice.

Click here for the full text of the advisory

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Performance Bond Requirements: Energy and Agriculture - Effective April 23, 2020

As per the normal review of market volatility to ensure adequate collateral coverage, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc., Clearing House Risk Management staff approved the performance bond requirements for the following products listed in the advisory at the link below.

The rates will be effective after the close of business on 4/23/2020.

For the full text of this advisory, please click here.




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Performance Bond Requirements: Energy Margins - Effective April 22, 2020

As per the normal review of market volatility to ensure adequate collateral coverage, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc., Clearing House Risk Management staff approved the performance bond requirements for the following products listed in the advisory at the link below.

The rates will be effective after the close of business on 4/23/2020.

Click here for the full text of the advisory

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Performance Bond Requirements: Energy, Agriculture, Metals - Effective April 24, 2020

As per the normal review of market volatility to ensure adequate collateral coverage, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc., Clearing House Risk Management staff approved the performance bond requirements for the following products listed in the advisory at the link below.

The rates will be effective after the close of business on 4/24/2020.

Click here for the full text of the advisory

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Performance Bond Requirements: Agriculture, Energy, Equity, FX, & Metal Margins - Effective April 24, 2020

As per the normal review of market volatility to ensure adequate collateral coverage, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc., Clearing House Risk Management staff approved the performance bond requirements for the following products listed in the advisory in the link below. Please email any questions to Clearing.RiskManagement@cmegroup.com

The rates will be effective after the close of business on Friday, April 24, 2020.

For the full text of this advisory, please click here.




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Performance Bond Requirements: Energy, Agriculture and Interest Rates - Effective April 28, 2020

As per the normal review of market volatility to ensure adequate collateral coverage, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc., Clearing House Risk Management staff approved the performance bond requirements for the following products listed in the advisory at the link below.

The rates will be effective after the close of business on 4/28/2020.

Click here for the full text of the advisory

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Performance Bond Requirements: Energy Margins - Effective April 28, 2020

As per the normal review of market volatility to ensure adequate collateral coverage, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc., Clearing House Risk Management staff approved the performance bond requirements for the following products listed in the advisory at the link below.

The rates will be effective after the close of business on 04/28/2020.

For the full text of this advisory, please click here.




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Additional Column Added to the CST610 CSV Report - Effective April 28, 2020

An additional column will be added to the CST610 CSV report, "Discr_Full_Value_Margin". The new field will include the total of discretionary and full-value margin, including designated delivery margin.

For the full text of this advisory, please click here.




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OTC IRS BRL and MXN Liquidity Parameter Changes - Effective April 29, 2020

CME will be updating liquidity parameters for Interest Rate Swap contracts denominated in BRL and MXN. These changes only impact portfolios with larger BRL or MXN exposures. For MXN, the impact to liquidity add-on is approx. 5-10% for portfolios with aggregated DV01 above 100M+ DV01 in local currency. For BRL, the impact to liquidity add-on is 30%+ for portfolios with aggregated DV01 above 10M+ in local currency. Based on current exposures, CME Clearing expects that there will be no impact to existing portfolios at this time. These changes will be available for testing in our New Release environment April 29, 2020, with a production date of May 4, 2020.

Click here for the full text of the advisory

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Performance Bond Requirements: Interest Rate Margins - Effective April 30, 2020

As per the normal review of market volatility to ensure adequate collateral coverage, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc., Clearing House Risk Management staff approved the performance bond requirements for the following products listed in the advisory at the link below.

The rates will be effective after the close of business on 04/30/2020.

Click here for the full text of the advisory

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Performance Bond Requirements: Energy, Interest Rates and Metal Margins - Effective May 01, 2020

As per the normal review of market volatility to ensure adequate collateral coverage, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc., Clearing House Risk Management staff approved the performance bond requirements for the following products listed in the advisory at the link below.

The rates will be effective after the close of business on 05/01/2020.

Click here for the full text of the advisory

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Performance Bond Requirements: Agriculture, Energy, Interest Rate & Metal Margins - Effective May 1, 2020

As per the normal review of market volatility to ensure adequate collateral coverage, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc., Clearing House Risk Management staff approved the performance bond requirements for the following products listed in the advisory at the link below. Please email any questions to Clearing.RiskManagement@cmegroup.com

The rates will be effective after the close of business on Friday, May 1, 2020.

For the full text of this advisory, please click here.




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May 2020 Stock, ETF, and Corporate Bond Advisory- Effective May 4, 2020

The May 2020 Stock, ETF, and Corporate Bond update can be found at www.cmegroup.com/clearing/financial-and-collateral-management.html

Click here for the full text of the advisory

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Performance Bond Requirements: Energy - Effective May 6, 2020

As per the normal review of market volatility to ensure adequate collateral coverage, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc., Clearing House Risk Management staff approved the performance bond requirements for the following products listed in the advisory at the link below.

The rates will be effective after the close of business on 5/6/2020.

For the full text of this advisory, please click here.




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Performance Bond Requirements: Energy Margins - Effective May 6, 2020

As per the normal review of market volatility to ensure adequate collateral coverage, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc., Clearing House Risk Management staff approved the performance bond requirements for the following products listed in the advisory at the link below.

The rates will be effective after the close of business on May 06, 2020.

Click here for the full text of the advisory

20-187

 




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Performance Bond Requirements: Energy Margins - Effective May 8, 2020

As per the normal review of market volatility to ensure adequate collateral coverage, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc., Clearing House Risk Management staff approved the performance bond requirements for the following products listed in the advisory at the link below.

The rates will be effective after the close of business on 05/08/2020.

For the full text of this advisory, please click here.




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Performance Bond Requirements: Agriculture, Energy, Equity, Interest Rate & Metal Margins - Effective May 8, 2020

As per the normal review of market volatility to ensure adequate collateral coverage, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc., Clearing House Risk Management staff approved the performance bond requirements for the following products listed in the advisory at the link below. Please email any questions to Clearing.RiskManagement@cmegroup.com

The rates will be effective after the close of business on Friday, May 8, 2020.

For the full text of this advisory, please click here.




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Can E-Cigarettes Save Lives?

Of course they can. So why won’t anti-tobacco advocates get behind them?




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Sports ministry changes lives in Antananarivo

OM Madagascar uses sport as tool for reaching youth with the gospel and relationship building.




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Märkte divergieren stärker, zeigt die Analyse des aktuellen BIZ-Quartalsberichts

German translation of the BIS press release about the BIS Quarterly Review, September 2018




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Baseball transforms lives and communities

The impact of baseball as an outreach tool is growing far beyond the first teams that began nine years ago in Érd.




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‘Live with the opportunities’

Participants from a day of outreach to refugee families in Budapest share their experiences.




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Fin24.com | Lockdown | African governments must balance saving lives and preserving economies

The African Union Development Agency says countries should think about how they choose the lesser of the two evils because strict lockdowns have severe consequences.




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Master and Expand Your SOLIDWORKS Skills with LIVE Design series

Don't miss tuning in for our LIVE Design web series to see our own SOLIDWORKS experts as they model a variety of products and provide design Tips, training, and more ways to increase your design knowledge.

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Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp. offers complete 3D software tools that let you create, simulate, publish, and manage your data. SolidWorks products are easy to learn and use, and work together to help you design products better, faster, and more cost-effectively. The SolidWorks focus on ease-of-use allows more engineers, designers and other technology professionals than ever before to take advantage of 3D in bringing their designs to life.

The post Master and Expand Your SOLIDWORKS Skills with LIVE Design series appeared first on The SOLIDWORKS Blog.




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Quelles perspectives après la présidentielle?




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Zimbabwe: Engaging the Inclusive Government




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Zim’s elusive reconstruction agenda

The Sadc mediation process in Zimbabwe can be logically prescribed into three phases: the pre-2008 election phase; immediate post-2008 election; and the Global Political Agreement (GPA) phase.




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Queda mucho por hacer para detener el declive de Zimbabue

Un año después de la victoria en las elecciones de la Unión Nacional Africana de Zimbabue- Frente Patriótico (ZANU-PF, en sus siglas en inglés) y de la formación de un nuevo gobierno, la política y la economía de Zimbabue son cada vez más precarias. Las perspectivas inmediatas de una recuperación sostenida siguen siendo malas, empeoradas por el alarmante declive económico, los fracasos endémicos en materia de gobernanza y la tensión generada por la sucesión en el partido en el poder.