Includes descriptive metadata provided by producer in QuickTime movie file: "Politics, Economics and Social Issues - Video - Paul Volcker talks about the economic crisis." By Vanderbilt University. Paul A. Volcker, senior economic advisor to President Obama and former chairman of the Federal...

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This research studies the relationship between economic growth and commodity-market volatility in South Africa. The mining industry, largely supported by gold, diamonds, coal, iron ore and platinum-group metals, has played a central role in South Africa's economic development....

We model EU countries? bank ratings using financial variables and allowing for intercept and slope heterogeneity. We find that country-specific factors (in the form of heterogeneous intercepts) are a crucial determinant of ratings. Whilst ?new? EU countries typically have lower ratings than...