The 'folded flan' coinage of eastern Arabia: Some preliminary comments

In recent years a small number of peculiar coins has emerged from the southern shores of the Persian/Arabian Gulf imitating Athenian tetradrachms of the old style and sharing the oddity of being struck on a flan that had been folded before striking. This paper contains an overview of the pieces known so far and attempts to present some preliminary conclusions, while still awaiting a comprehensive study of this and related ancient coinages of the Arabian peninsula.     

张元幹词风格浅论

张元斡是两宋之交重要的词人,南渡后他一方面因个性和时代的关系,在词作中承袭了苏轼词对主体情性的突出和高扬,将个人的情感抒发拓宽到对国家民族、时政的感慨,给词坛带来了新的气象;另一方面受传统词学观念的影响,尤其是受到北宋末期周邦彦等人富丽精工、沉郁顿挫的词风的熏染,在词中大量用典,引用或化用前人诗句、诗意,精于练字遣词,结构回环曲折,更多地呈现出婉约的风格。主要原因是他以真性情贯注其中,加上高洁的人品、丰富的学识、曲折的经历,自然形成了磊落之气,以气驭词,使词的风格随着具体情性的变化,在不同的题材里呈现出不同的面貌。从以上角度评价他上承东坡,下启稼轩应该更为合理,而不仅仅局限于词风的豪放和词境的开拓。     

《时贤本事曲子集》新考订

北宋杨绘的《时贤本事曲子集》(以下简称《本事》)①,是中国词学史上第一部词话专著.作为开山之作,其重要性不言而喻.然而,遗憾的是,这部词话早已亡佚,后人只能从他书转引中窥知一二.     

The economic consequences of economists

During 1991, disquiet with the policy recommendations and ultimate economic effects of economists began to feature in debates over economic policy in Australia. One example was the emergence of a conservative critique of economic liberalism; another was the publication of Michael Pusey's research showing that ‘econocrats’, notably those in the federal bureaucracy, have distinctive, politically significant attitudes to the role of government. This paper considers the influence of economic orthodoxy as part of a broader phenomenon—the peculiarity and underdevelopment of our public institutional framework. In Australia, forms of intervention required for full employment simply do not exist. This partially explains both our comparatively poor macroeconomic performance since the 1970s and the propensity of government to embrace policies that abrogate social democratic commitments while economic conditions worsen.     

The Brazilian devaluation: national responses and international consequences

The Asian financial crisis in 1997 reached Latin America the following year. The Brazilian devaluation in January 1999 demonstrated the vulnerability of Latin America's largest economy to external shocks, but it was also a consequence of fiscal imbalance. This article explores the background to the devaluation and explains the circumstances under which it might lead to an improvement in economic performance. The article then examines the impact of the devaluation on Brazil's neighbours in MERCOSUL, particularly Argentina. It also considers the lessons of the Brazilian devaluation in the context of attempts to reform the global financial architecture and in the light of the volatility of capital flows to emerging markets. The main conclusion is that the impact of the devaluation will be felt most strongly in Brazil and that a successful outcome will require economic and political reforms over and above those already adopted by the Cardoso administration.     

Lions and birds as literature. Some notes on Isaiah 31 and Hosea 11

Abstract

A certain combination of animal metaphors found in two different texts, Isaiah 31 and Hosea 11, has caused considerable scholarly confusion. Additional similarities as well as dissimilarities between the texts are presented, but the intertextual question is left open. Instead an attempt is made to analyze the metaphors in their context. The analysis is based on modern metaphor theory and the concept of genre allusion (in relation to the theophany Gattung). It is suggested that the metaphors in Isaiah 31 are related to the symbol of the cherubs, while Hosea 11,10–11 contains deliberate reversals of other Hosean passages.