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The purpose of this paper is to propose a casting process for the production of double-chamber soft fingers, which avoids the problems of air leakage and fracture caused by multistep casting. This proposed method facilitates the simultaneous casting of the inflation chamber and the jamming chamber.

An integrated molding technology based on the lost wax casting method is proposed for the manufacture of double-chamber soft fingers. The solid wax core is assembled with the mold, and then liquid silicone rubber is injected into it. After cooling and solidification, the mold is stripped off and heated in boiling water, so that the solid wax core melts and precipitates, and the integrated soft finger is obtained.

The performance and fatigue tests of the soft fingers produced by the proposed method have been carried out. The results show that the manufacturing method can significantly improve the fatigue resistance and stability of the soft fingers, while also avoiding the problems such as air leakage and cracking.

The improvement of the previous multistep casting method of soft fingers is proposed, and the integrated molding manufacturing method is proposed to avoid the problems caused by secondary bonding.

In this paper, the authors examine the causes of 2021–2023 inflation and evaluate whether raising interest rates is the right solution.

The authors evaluate both the macroeconomic (too much demand) and microeconomic (monopoly pricing and supply chains) explanations for the causes of inflation.

The authors argue that the spike in inflation is due to disrupted supply chains and corporations taking advantage of the situation to raise their prices. The aggregate demand stimulus from fiscal policy had all but played out by the time inflation arose, making it an unlikely cause of said inflation.

The authors' paper demonstrates that raising interest rates is the wrong solution to tackling the problem of inflation, especially since it's coming from the supply side.

Inflation and federal monetary efforts to control it with interest rate hikes have very real and overwhelmingly negative consequences on US local governments following the onset of COVID-19. This study explores the post-pandemic inflationary environment of US local governments; examines the impacts of inflation and high interest rates on local government revenue, operating costs, capital costs, and debt service; reviews local government inflation management strategies, including the use of intergovernmental revenue; and assesses ongoing threats to local government financial health and financial resilience.

This study uses trend and literature analysis to comment on current issues local governments face.

The study finds that the growth of property values and resulting stability of property tax revenue has been important to local government revenues; that local governments bear very real burdens as operating and capital costs increase; and that the combination of high inflation and interest rates affects local government debt issuance by negatively affecting credit quality and interest costs, leading to municipal market contraction. Local governments have benefitted tremendously from intergovernmental revenue, but would be ill-advised to rely on it.

Vulnerabilities owing from revenue mismatch with the economy; inadequate affordable housing, inequality, and social issues; a changing workforce and tight labor market; climate change; and federal fiscal contraction—all of which are exacerbated by high inflation and interest rates—require local governments to act strategically, boldly and collaboratively to achieve fiscal health and financial resilience, and to realize positive returns of investments in people and capital.

This work is unique in addressing the post-pandemic impact of inflation and interest rates on local governments.

This paper aims to examine the impact of COVID-19 on inflation in Indonesia. There are two questions in this study: (1) Is there an impact of COVID-19 on inflation in Indonesia? and (2) whether there are differences in the impact of COVID-19 on regional inflation in Indonesia, considering the different intensities associated with COVID-19.

The estimation technique showing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on inflation uses the difference-in-differences (DID) method described by Pischke (2008). The core idea of the estimation above is continuous DID using panel data. No province was affected by COVID-19 before 2020:Q1. Once COVID-19 hits the economy, the effects vary from one district to the other.

The authors find that the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic negatively affects inflation – the more severe the pandemic, the lower the inflation. This finding conforms with several studies suggesting higher demand pressures than supply during the pandemic. Compared with supply-side indicators such as production index, demand-side indicators – such as consumer confidence index and real sales index – fell more sharply.

In the Introduction section, the authors have added a discussion that indeed the COVID-19 pandemic affects inflation through both the demand- and supply-side shocks. While factors driving regional differences in inflation rate are important research and policy questions, the analysis of these factors is outside the scope of this study. The study focuses on the COVID-19 impact on inflation and whether the pandemic disproportionately affects some regions than the others.

This research is important to provide an understanding of the nature of the pandemic on inflation in the context of the Indonesian economy, which is essential to policy formulation, especially for the Central Bank in carrying out the mandate to maintain rupiah stability. This issue is due to the implications of different policy responses between demand- and supply-side shocks.

As a novelty in this study and research gap, the authors use a continuous DID method to account for the varying intensity of COVID-19 across the provinces. In particular, the authors use the number of positive cases of COVID-19 per 1,000 population as opposed to just a binary indicator of before-and-during COVID-19 across provinces.

Serious concerns about the stability of the international financial systems have arisen recently, resulting from the mounting inflation rates and the accompanying procedures to control them. Consequently, this study aims at examining empirically the impact of inflationary pressures/shocks on the stability of banking sectors.

The study adopts a dynamic GMM models and exploits a sample of 188 banks operating in 14 MENA economies, over the period 1999–2021.

This research finds that high inflation does indeed harm bank financial stability and deteriorates banks credit risk. Furthermore, the examination of the impact of interaction terms between inflation and bank-specific and institutional quality variables shows that better capitalisation levels, higher liquidity buffers, larger asset size, greater market power, foreign ownership and overall political stability, all can counterbalance the impact of inflationary pressures on MENA banks financial stability.

In addition to empirically revealing how inflationary shocks can deteriorate financial stability, the main novelty of this research is examining how the interactions between inflation on one hand, and bank-specific and institutional quality on the other, affect bank stability.

Alexandre Tombini, the governor of the Central Bank of Brazil, faced a difficult situation in July 2015. Inflation was in the double digits, well above the target rate of 4.5%, and unemployment had increased from around 4.5% a year prior to nearly 8%. Any actions Tombini took to control inflation would most likely exacerbate unemployment, at least in the short run. To further complicate matters, Tombini's office was not independent of the executive branch of Brazil's government, and Tombini faced the possibility that any of his actions that were not aligned with the priorities of the current administration could cost him his job.

This case follows classes on fiscal and monetary policy in normal times and is the first class in a sequence on macroeconomic challenges–in this case, stagflation–high inflation and high unemployment. Students are pushed to consider why macroeconomic stabilization involves such acute and unpleasant tradeoffs during episodes of high inflation and unemployment. Students use the IS/LM AD/AS model as a reference.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of several structural shocks in oil prices on the Vietnamese economy and answer three key research questions: Is there a relationship between oil price shocks and macroeconomic indicators in Vietnam? How do different types of oil price impulses affect Vietnamese inflation and economic performance? To what extent do structural shocks in oil prices explain variations in Vietnam’s macroeconomic indicators?

Lower triangular Cholesky decomposition is performed on a short-term impact matrix in a two-block structural vector autoregressive model. The data set is defined monthly, from January 2000 to December 2021. The contributions of structural shocks in oil prices to the domestic variances are analysed using variance decomposition methods. In this study, both forecast error variance decomposition and historical decomposition are used.

The consequences of oil price fluctuations on Vietnamese output and inflation depend on different sources of oil price shocks. In comparison, oil supply shocks have an insignificant effect on both domestic industrial output and consumer price index inflation; however, positive shocks in aggregate and precautionary oil demands increase these domestic indicators substantially and sustainably. An analysis of variance decompositions reveals that supply-side oil shocks have very limited explanatory power for variations in domestic variables. Nevertheless, the contributions of unanticipated demand-side booms to domestic variations in the past and projected forecasts are considerable.

The findings from this research uncover potential risks for Vietnam’s economic prospects if the consequences of oil price shocks are not managed effectively.

Given the lack of economic sensitivity to supply-side oil shocks and the strong response to shifts in oil demands, greater pressure on the domestic economy is likely when Vietnam increases its dependence on oil imports.

Inflation expectations are an important part of the transmission mechanism of the inflation targeting regime. As such, central bankers must study the inflation expectations of economic agents to anchor them close to the level of the inflation target. However, economic agents are affected by the past and current macroeconomic situation when they form their expectations concerning future inflation. Using survey data on inflation expectations in Czechia, we investigate the macroeconomic determinants of Czech analysts' and managers' inflation expectations. We find that both actual and past inflation have a substantial impact on inflation expectations of the agents surveyed. We also identify backward-looking behaviour among these agents: persistence in inflation expectations of up to two quarters was detected. Moreover, financial analysts formed inflation expectations more in line with economic theory, while company managers evinced expectations similar to those of consumers.