Negative Interest Rates Nominal interest rates are normally positive, but not always. Given the alternative of holding cash, and thus earning 0%, rather than lending it out, profit-seeking lenders will not lend below 0%, as that will guarantee a loss, and a bank offering a negative deposit rate will find few takers, as savers will instead hold cash. During the European sovereign-debt crisis, government bonds of some countries (Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, Finland, the Netherlands and Austria) have been sold at negative yields. Suggested explanations include desire for safety and protection against the Eurozone breaking up. More often, real interest rates can be negative, when nominal interest rates are below inflation. When this is done via government policy (for example, via reserve requirements), this is deemed financial repression, and was practiced by countries such as the United States and United Kingdom following World War II (1945) until the late 1970s or early 1980s (during and following the Post–World War II economic expansion). In the late 1970s, United States Treasury securities with negative real interest rates were deemed certificates of confiscation.
Negative interest rates have been proposed in the past, notably in the late 19th century by Silvio Gesell. To prevent people from holding cash (and thus earning 0%), Gesell suggested issuing money for a limited duration, after which it must be exchanged for new bills; attempts to hold money thus result in it expiring and becoming worthless. More recently, a carry tax on currency was proposed by a Federal Reserve employee (Marvin Goodfriend) in 1999, to be implemented via magnetic strips on bills, deducting the carry tax upon deposit, the tax being based on how long the bill had been held.
In July 2009, Sweden's central bank, the Riksbank, set its policy repo rate, the interest rate on its one week deposit facility, at 0.25%, at the same time as setting its overnight deposit rate at -0.25%. The existence of the negative overnight deposit rate was a technical consequence of the fact that overnight deposit rates are generally set at 0.5% below or 0.75% below the policy rate. This is not technically an example of "negative interest on excess reserves," because Sweden does not have a reserve requirement, but imposing a reserve interest rate without reserve requirements imposes an implied reserve requirement of zero. The Riksbank studied the impact of these changes and stated in a commentary report that they led to no disruptions in Swedish financial markets.

Convertible Currency
A currency can be freely exchanged into another currency for any purpose, without regulatory restrictions. Convertible currencies are generally associated with open and stable economies, and their prices are typically determined through supply and demand forces in the FOREIGN EXCHANGE market. It’s also known as HARD CURRENCY.
A currency that is freely exchangeable (i.e. without government restrictions) into other currencies or gold. Some currencies only have limited convertibility, which means they are exchangeable in certain circumstances but not all the time. A currency is fully convertible (or has full convertibility) when there are no restrictions at all on when it can be used.

GE, Siemens and Alstom analysis
At the end of April 2014, Alstom's board accepted GE's €12.35 billion bid for its power generation and transmission units. Then GE's rival Siemens signalled it was likely to counter bid. Whatever the outcome, it is beyond being a simple wind power deal, yet the effect on the sector could be significant. * French government steps in
GE's largest-ever purchase is complicated by the French government trying to keep domestic jobs, prevent outsourcing and improve the price. The government wanted state-controlled Areva to buy Alstom's offshore wind unit were GE's bid successful while Areva has also indicated it could be interested. The government has requested GE to extend its bid deadline to 23 June. The comments could have been designed to force GE into concessions. GE is not expected to divest Alstom's offshore wind unit. * Offshore expertise
As buyer, GE would benefit from Alstom's 6MW Haliade, the first prototype operating onshore since 2012, and another Haliade off Belgium since 2013. Alongside Siemens and ABB, Alstom
is also one of three leaders in offshore wind turnkey solutions using AC or DC converters. GE must diversify its wind markets globally. Most of Alstom's 1.5GW Haliade pipeline is in French waters, and 42MW is off America. In Brazil's hot onshore market, GE leads with more than 1GW in orders, while Alstom's Ecotècnia subsidiary has 400MW-plus. Buying Alstom would consolidate GE's supremacy. Asked whether GE might close any of Alstom's Brazilian assembly plants.
Alstom has been more active in emerging wind markets than GE, which is worried by its reliance on America. Alstom has delved into the former Soviet Union, Morocco, Ethiopia, Kenya and South Africa, noted Zhao. As a global leader in hydro, the French firm also has much experience in China. GE could close Alstom's Spanish wind research and development center.
Another possible compromise is GE retaining the Alstom brand. That could mollify the French government. For France, it would be a coup. Morningstar's Holland said GE usually puts its name on a purchased firm's products. GE's technology overlaps with Alstom/Ecotecnia's — a three-stage gearbox and doubly fed induction generator. Alstom developed its offshore generator and converter with Converteam, which GE purchased for $3.2 billion in 2011, but Alstom's technology and IP are complementary to GE's and would serve to bolster GE in critical areas such as condition monitoring and speed control, as well as load mitigation.

What is the “Tipping Point” concept?
Tipping points occur because momentum builds up, often slowly and quietly, until a point when it is impossible to go back to a previous state. The concept of the tipping point has been discussed in numerous disciplines, including sociology, economics, and epidemiology, and a number of theories have been posited about tipping points and how they work.
The "tipping point" in the sense of social trends became a topic of intense interest after the publication of a book by Malcolm Gladwell, a journalist who borrowed the concept from epidemiology to illustrate his theories. Gladwell looks at a tipping point as a moment of "critical mass," when a trend, idea, or concept becomes a juggernaut, and he has some very specific theories about how a tipping point is created.
According to Gladwell, a small event can create a ripple effect, assuming that the event influences the right person. His tipping point theory suggests that certain people are decidedly more influential in society, and that when these individuals adopt a new style or trend, they can quickly trigger a tipping point event. For example, if a few trendsetters in Paris start wearing a particular brand of coat, the style will be picked up by astute followers of fashion, and eventually by the general public, leading to an explosion in sales for that product.
Tipping points aren't just about fashion. They can involve economic trends, sociological events, or even the environment. Learning to identify tipping points is critical in the marketing world, where people want to stay on top of emerging trends and ideas so that they can target the right market at the right time with particular products. It can also be important to governments, as the ability to identify the point of no return would allow a government to stop a serious situation before it becomes irreversible.
Radical social movements are often driven by a tipping point which unites the majority of the populace in an effort to create change, as for instance in numerous revolutionary struggles throughout history. Devastating environmental trends also involve tipping points, which may revolve around environmental policy, standard practices in particular industries, and public perception of the environment. Humans tend to move and think collectively when enough humans have embraced a concept, making the achievement of a tipping point critical for everything from addressing racism to preventing an economic collapse.

What is “Self-Organized Criticality”?
It is a concept coined by the Danish physicist Per Bak (1948-2002). It is the most physical form of self-organization, which can occur even in inanimate matter. The term is closely related to the concept of the edge of chaos and means that a system evolves towards a critical state, where the state of the systems can change suddenly. It is characterized by high complexity, which means unity in diversity: stability in instability, simplicity in intricacy, and predictability in unpredictability. The price for this complexity is usually low uniformity. It is a point of permanent change, continuous fluctuations and constant variation.
The critical point is point of high complexity, because it combines stability and instability: the system evolves automatically to a certain state (which increases stability, certainty, and predictability), but at these state chain reactions can lead to avalanches and cascades of any size (which increases instability, uncertainty and unpredictability). Thus the critical point in self-organized criticality is a "metastable" and complex state characterized by instability in stability, uncertainty in certainty, or unpredictability in predictability.
The edge of chaos can be found at a critical point with strong fluctuations and scale-free correlations. Systems can cross this point more or less rapidly, but usually they evolve to this point, i.e. they are evolving to the edge of chaos. A sand pile for example evolves naturally towards a certain shape if we add grains to it, until it has a certain critical slope.
The critical point is point of high complexity, because it combines stability and instability: the system evolves automatically to a certain state (which increases stability, certainty, and predictability), but at these state chain reactions can lead to avalanches and cascades of any size (which increases instability, uncertainty and unpredictability). Thus the critical point in self-organized criticality is a "metastable" and complex state characterized by instability in stability, uncertainty in certainty, or unpredictability in predictability.