Biography.

Dimitrov was born in Sofia. He graduated from the First English High School, Sofia, in 1973 and later he graduated with a law degree from Sofia University in 1977, and then undertook further study in the field of individual and group psychotherapy and worked with outpatients using the psycho-dynamic approach. He worked as an attorney in Sofia between 1979 and 1990, serving as Secretary of the Bulgarian Attorneys' Union from 1989 onwards. Bulgarian media had alleged that his office served as a Communist-era secret police hideout. He reacted immediately by giving the first order, in spite of reluctance from his allies, to reveal information on any citizen’s request about whether there was any data of his/her links with the secret police, thus making the first break through the inaccessibility of the secret police files. The first act of the next Government was abolishing this order. Similarly in the context of the time false rumors were spread about alleged homosexualism, alleged use of Communist privileges for entering high school and/or university and alleged family connections with the Communistr party.

Career.

Dimitrov was active in the Union of Democratic Forces, a broad coalition against the rule of the Bulgarian Communist Party. He was elected vice-president of the Green Party. He became a member of its 'National Coordination Council' in 1990, and was its President from December that year until December 1994. He has been a member of the Executive Council of the UDF since February 1997..  Dimitrov led the UDF to victory in the 1991 election, becoming the first elected Prime Minister in 47 years who was not either a Communist or a fellow traveller. He remained in office till losing a vote of confidence that he called in the late fall of 1992. During its term of office (until the end of 1992), his government managed to make the new democratic institutions work and started an ambitious set of democratic political and economic reforms. Under his administration, observance of human rights became an irrevocable legal and ethical norm and previous ethnic tensions and abuses were eliminated. Foreign policy focused on integration into Europe and the West. Bulgaria was the first country to recognize Macedonia (now Republic of Northern Macedonia) unconditionally as a sovereign state. His government abolished the restrictions to private initiative and started establishing a free market system, which literally changed most Bulgarian cities within half a year. He insisted on the large-scale restitution of nationalized properties, although he himself had none, and his government made the first practical steps allowing citizens to re-claim property that had been confiscated by the state.  According to his opponents"Dimitrov is responsible for the collapse of the Bulgarian agriculture after 1991 by restoring the land of the state-owned cooperative farms to its legitimate owners immediately instead of allowing a gradual transition from state-owned to private-owned agriculture. The problem was that all of these owners were old people, who received small pieces of land, and they had no machinery and physical strength to cultivate these lands. The infrastructure of the cooperative farms (water systems, machines, buildings etc.) was left without any supervision, and it was quickly destroyed and stolen. This had a devastating effect for the Bulgarian agriculture. The production of agricultural goods collapsed, many people in the agriculture sector became unemployed, and the population in the Bulgarian villages dropped."  His government made possible the swift restitution of citizenship and property rights for all Jewish Bulgarian emigrants (see also Jews in Bulgaria).  He served in the 36th, 37th, and 40th legislatures of the National Assembly, having been elected in Sofia for the UDF on each occasion. In 2005, he was elected Deputy Speaker of the 40th National Assembly. He authored or introduced among other bills the Bill for Abolition of Mandatory Military Service and (several times) bills on preventing and sanctioning Conflict of Interest. He was a member of the Bulgarian Parliament Delegation for Relations with the European Parliament. In January through June 2007 he was a member of the European Parliament and Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs.  In April 1997 he was appointed Ambassador of Bulgaria at the UN, New York and from August 1998 to January 2002 he was Ambassador of Bulgaria to the US.  His inability to compromise led to vetoing his candidacy both for President (fall of 2006) and Leader of the list of candidates for the European parliament (spring of 2007). In spite of his quiet withdrawal, the UDF lost both elections heavily. Fall of 2007, he was rejected by the government as a candidate for the position of Judge at the European Court of Human Rights (Strasbourg). In July 2008, he declared that he is voluntarily leaving politics for good.  In 2004 he was a Special Envoy of the President of the CSCE (Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe) for Armenia and Azerbaijan. He was a visiting scholar in the Woodrow Wilson Center in 2003. Philip Dimitrov has taught political sciences in the American University in Bulgaria between 2002 and 2008, led post graduate programme at the University of Toronto (2007) and was visiting professor at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia (2008 - 2009). He holds PhD in Political Science and is Distinguished professor (Reader) at the New Bulgarian University  Since 2004 Dimitrov is a Member of the Club of Madrid, an independent non-profit organization composed of 88 democratic former Presidents and Prime Ministers from 58 different countries. The Club de Madrid’s objective is to promote “Democracy that Delivers”.  In 2004 he was Senior member of the NED-CLS team for democratic experience exchange with Georgia. He was member of the Board of the New Bulgarian University, Honorary Chairman of the board of the George Marshal Association – Bulgaria and Program Director at the 'Bulgarian Institute for Legal Development'.  He was appointed Head of Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Georgia and served there between 2010 and 2014.  Since 2015 he is member of the Constitutional Court of Bulgaria  In September 1999, Mr. Dimitrov was granted the Truman-Reagan Freedom Award for his contribution to overcoming Communism.

Family.

He is married to Elena Gueorguieva, MD.

Philip Dimitrov Dimitrov () (born 31 March 1955) is a Bulgarian politician, Prime Minister of Bulgaria 1991 – 1992, MP in the 36th (1991 – 1994), 37th (1994 – 1997) and the 40th (2005 – 2007) National Assembly, and MEP from January 2007 to May 2007.

菲利普·季米特洛夫·季米特洛夫(Philip Dimitrov Dimitrov) () (1955年-3月31日) 保加利亚政治家,1991 - 1992年期间短暂担任保加利亚总理,第36届(1991 - 1994)、37届(1994 - 1997)和40届(2005 - 2007)国民议会议员和欧洲议会议员(2007年1月至2007年5月)。


Definition.

Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke also defined the term in 2010: "A too-big-to-fail firm is one whose size, complexity, interconnectedness, and critical functions are such that, should the firm go unexpectedly into liquidation, the rest of the financial system and the economy would face severe adverse consequences." He continued that: "Governments provide support to too-big-to-fail firms in a crisis not out of favoritism or particular concern for the management, owners, or creditors of the firm, but because they recognize that the consequences for the broader economy of allowing a disorderly failure greatly outweigh the costs of avoiding the failure in some way. Common means of avoiding failure include facilitating a merger, providing credit, or injecting government capital, all of which protect at least some creditors who otherwise would have suffered losses.... If the crisis has a single lesson, it is that the too-big-to-fail problem must be solved."  Bernanke cited several risks with too-big-to-fail institutions:

Background on banking regulation.

Depository banks.

Prior to the Great Depression, U.S. consumer bank deposits were not guaranteed by the government, increasing the risk of a bank run, in which a large number of depositors withdraw their deposits at the same time. Since banks lend most of the deposits and only retain a fraction in the proverbial vault, a bank run can render the bank insolvent. During the Depression, hundreds of banks became insolvent and depositors lost their money. As a result, the U.S. enacted the 1933 Banking Act, sometimes called the Glass–Steagall Act, which created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to insure deposits up to a limit of $2,500, with successive increases to the current $250,000. In exchange for the deposit insurance provided by the federal government, depository banks are highly regulated and expected to invest excess customer deposits in lower-risk assets.

Investment banks and the shadow banking system.

In contrast to depository banks, investment banks generally obtain funds from sophisticated investors and often make complex, risky investments with the funds, speculating either for their own account or on behalf of their investors. They also are "market makers" in that they serve as intermediaries between two investors that wish to take opposite sides of a financial transaction. The Glass-Steagall Act separated investment and depository banking until its repeal in 1999. Prior to 2008, the government did not explicitly guarantee the investor funds, so investment banks were not subject to the same regulations as depository banks and were allowed to take considerably more risk.  Investment banks, along with other innovations in banking and finance referred to as the shadow banking system, grew to rival the depository system by 2007. They became subject to the equivalent of a bank run in 2007 and 2008, in which investors (rather than depositors) withdrew sources of financing from the shadow system. This run became known as the subprime mortgage crisis. During 2008, the five largest U.S. investment banks either failed (Lehman Brothers), were bought out by other banks at fire-sale prices (Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch) or were at risk of failure and obtained depository banking charters to obtain additional Federal Reserve support (Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley). In addition, the government provided bailout funds via the Troubled Asset Relief Program in 2008.  Fed Chair Ben Bernanke described in November 2013 how the Panic of 1907 was essentially a run on the non-depository financial system, with many parallels to the crisis of 2008. One of the results of the Panic of 1907 was the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913.

Resolution authority.

Before 1950, U.S. federal bank regulators had essentially two options for resolving an insolvent institution: 1) closure, with liquidation of assets and payouts for insured depositors; or 2) purchase and assumption, encouraging the acquisition of assets and assumption of liabilities by another firm. A third option was made available by the Federal Deposit Insurance Act of 1950: providing assistance, the power to support an institution through loans or direct federal acquisition of assets, until it could recover from its distress.  The statute limited the "assistance" option to cases where "continued operation of the bank is essential to provide adequate banking service". Regulators shunned this third option for many years, fearing that if regionally or nationally important banks were thought generally immune to liquidation, markets in their shares would be distorted. Thus, the assistance option was never employed during the period 1950–1969, and very seldom thereafter. Research into historical banking trends suggests that the consumption loss associated with National Banking Era bank runs was far more costly than the consumption loss from stock market crashes.  The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act was passed in 1991, giving the FDIC the responsibility to rescue an insolvent bank by the least costly method. The Act had the implicit goal of eliminating the widespread belief among depositors that a loss of depositors and bondholders will be prevented for large banks. However, the Act included an exception in cases of systemic risk, subject to the approval of two-thirds of the FDIC Board of Directors, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, and the Treasury Secretary.

Analysis.

Bank size and concentration.

Bank size, complexity, and interconnectedness with other banks may inhibit the ability of the government to resolve (wind-down) the bank without significant disruption to the financial system or economy, as occurred with the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy in September 2008. This risk of "too big to fail" entities increases the likelihood of a government bailout using taxpayer dollars.  The largest U.S. banks continue to grow larger while the concentration of bank assets increases. The largest six U.S. banks had assets of $9,576 billion as of year-end 2012, per their 2012 annual reports (SEC Form 10K). For scale, this was 59% of the U.S. GDP for 2012 of $16,245 billion. The top 5 U.S. banks had approximately 30% of the U.S. banking assets in 1998; this rose to 45% by 2008 and to 48% by 2010, before falling to 47% in 2011.  This concentration continued despite the subprime mortgage crisis and its aftermath. During March 2008, JP Morgan Chase acquired investment bank Bear Stearns. Bank of America acquired investment bank Merrill Lynch in September 2008. Wells Fargo acquired Wachovia in January 2009. Investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley obtained depository bank holding company charters, which gave them access to additional Federal Reserve credit lines.  Bank deposits for all U.S. banks ranged between approximately 60–70% of GDP from 1960 to 2006, then jumped during the crisis to a peak of nearly 84% in 2009 before falling to 77% by 2011.  The number of U.S. commercial and savings bank institutions reached a peak of 14,495 in 1984; this fell to 6,532 by the end of 2010. The ten largest U.S. banks held nearly 50% of U.S. deposits as of 2011.

Implicit guarantee subsidy.

Since the full amount of the deposits and debts of "too big to fail" banks are effectively guaranteed by the government, large depositors and investors view investments with these banks as a safer investment than deposits with smaller banks. Therefore, large banks are able to pay lower interest rates to depositors and investors than small banks are obliged to pay.  In October 2009, Sheila Bair, at that time the Chairperson of the FDIC, commented: A study conducted by the Center for Economic and Policy Research found that the difference between the cost of funds for banks with more than $100 billion in assets and the cost of funds for smaller banks widened dramatically after the formalization of the "too big to fail" policy in the U.S. in the fourth quarter of 2008. This shift in the large banks' cost of funds was in effect equivalent to an indirect "too big to fail" subsidy of $34 billion per year to the 18 U.S. banks with more than $100 billion in assets.  The editors of Bloomberg View estimated there was an $83 billion annual subsidy to the 10 largest United States banks, reflecting a funding advantage of 0.8 percentage points due to implicit government support, meaning the profits of such banks are largely a taxpayer-backed illusion.  Another study by Frederic Schweikhard and Zoe Tsesmelidakis estimated the amount saved by America's biggest banks from having a perceived safety net of a government bailout was $120 billion from 2007 to 2010. For America's biggest banks the estimated savings was $53 billion for Citigroup, $32 billion for Bank of America, $10 billion for JPMorgan, $8 billion for Wells Fargo, and $4 billion for AIG. The study noted that passage of the Dodd–Frank Act—which promised an end to bailouts—did nothing to raise the price of credit (i.e., lower the implicit subsidy) for the "too-big-too-fail" institutions.  One 2013 study (Acharya, Anginer, and Warburton) measured the funding cost advantage provided by implicit government support to large financial institutions. Credit spreads were lower by approximately 28 basis points (0.28%) on average over the 1990–2010 period, with a peak of more than 120 basis points in 2009. In 2010, the implicit subsidy was worth nearly $100 billion to the largest banks. The authors concluded: "Passage of Dodd–Frank did not eliminate expectations of government support."  Economist Randall S. Kroszner summarized several approaches to evaluating the funding cost differential between large and small banks. The paper discusses methodology and does not specifically answer the question of whether larger institutions have an advantage.  During November 2013, the Moody's credit rating agency reported that it would no longer assume the eight largest U.S. banks would receive government support in the event they faced bankruptcy. However, the GAO reported that politicians and regulators would still face significant pressure to bail out large banks and their creditors in the event of a financial crisis.

Moral hazard.

Some critics have argued that "The way things are now banks reap profits if their trades pan out, but taxpayers can be stuck picking up the tab if their big bets sink the company." Additionally, as discussed by Senator Bernie Sanders, if taxpayers are contributing to rescue these companies from bankruptcy, they "should be rewarded for assuming the risk by sharing in the gains that result from this government bailout".  In this sense, Alan Greenspan affirms that, "Failure is an integral part, a necessary part of a market system." Thereby, although the financial institutions that were bailed out were indeed important to the financial system, the fact that they took risk beyond what they would otherwise, should be enough for the Government to let them face the consequences of their actions. It would have been a lesson to motivate institutions to proceed differently next time.

Inability to prosecute.

The political power of large banks and risks of economic impact from major prosecutions has led to use of the term "too big to jail" regarding the leaders of large financial institutions.  On March 6, 2013, United States Attorney General Eric Holder testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that the size of large financial institutions has made it difficult for the Justice Department to bring criminal charges when they are suspected of crimes, because such charges can threaten the existence of a bank and therefore their interconnectedness may endanger the national or global economy. "Some of these institutions have become too large," Holder told the Committee. "It has an inhibiting impact on our ability to bring resolutions that I think would be more appropriate." In this he contradicted earlier written testimony from a deputy assistant attorney general, who defended the Justice Department's "vigorous enforcement against wrongdoing". Holder has financial ties to at least one law firm benefiting from "de facto" immunity to prosecution, and prosecution rates against crimes by large financial institutions are at 20-year lows.  Four days later, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard W. Fisher and Vice-President Harvey Rosenblum co-authored a "Wall Street Journal" op-ed about the failure of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act to provide for adequate regulation of large financial institutions. In advance of his March 8 speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, Fisher proposed requiring breaking up large banks into smaller banks so that they are "too small to save", advocating the withholding from mega-banks access to both Federal Deposit Insurance and Federal Reserve discount window, and requiring disclosure of this lack of federal insurance and financial solvency support to their customers. This was the first time such a proposal had been made by a high-ranking U.S. banking official or a prominent conservative. Other conservatives including Thomas Hoenig, Ed Prescott, Glenn Hubbard, and David Vitter also advocated breaking up the largest banks, but liberal commentator Matthew Yglesias questioned their motives and the existence of a true bipartisan consensus.  In a January 29, 2013 letter to Holder, Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) had criticized this Justice Department policy citing "important questions about the Justice Department's prosecutorial philosophy". After receipt of a DoJ response letter, Brown and Grassley issued a statement saying, "The Justice Department's response is aggressively evasive. It does not answer our questions. We want to know how and why the Justice Department has determined that certain financial institutions are 'too big to jail' and that prosecuting those institutions would damage the financial system."  Kareem Serageldin pleaded guilty on November 22, 2013 for his role in inflating the value of mortgage bonds as the housing market collapsed, and was sentenced to two and a half years in prison. As of April 30, 2014, Serageldin remains the "only Wall Street executive prosecuted as a result of the financial crisis" that triggered the Great Recession.

Solutions.

The proposed solutions to the "too big to fail" issue are controversial. Some options include breaking up the banks, introducing regulations to reduce risk, adding higher bank taxes for larger institutions, and increasing monitoring through oversight committees.

Breaking up the largest banks.

More than fifty economists, financial experts, bankers, finance industry groups, and banks themselves have called for breaking up large banks into smaller institutions. This is advocated both to limit risk to the financial system posed by the largest banks as well as to limit their political influence.  For example, economist Joseph Stiglitz wrote in 2009 that: "In the United States, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere, large banks have been responsible for the bulk of the [bailout] cost to taxpayers. America has let 106 smaller banks go bankrupt this year alone. It's the mega-banks that present the mega-costs... banks that are too big to fail are too big to exist. If they continue to exist, they must exist in what is sometimes called a "utility" model, meaning that they are heavily regulated." He also wrote about several causes of the crisis related to the size, incentives, and interconnection of the mega-banks.

Reducing risk-taking through regulation.

The United States passed the Dodd–Frank Act in July 2010 to help strengthen regulation of the financial system in the wake of the subprime mortgage crisis that began in 2007. Dodd–Frank requires banks to reduce their risk taking, by requiring greater financial cushions (i.e., lower leverage ratios or higher capital ratios), among other steps.  Banks are required to maintain a ratio of high-quality, easily sold assets, in the event of financial difficulty either at the bank or in the financial system. These are capital requirements. Further, since the 2008 crisis, regulators have worked with banks to reduce leverage ratios. For example, the leverage ratio for investment bank Goldman Sachs declined from a peak of 25.2 during 2007 to 11.4 in 2012, indicating a much-reduced risk profile.  The Dodd–Frank Act includes a form of the Volcker Rule, a proposal to ban proprietary trading by commercial banks. Proprietary trading refers to using customer deposits to speculate in risky assets for the benefit of the bank rather than customers. The Dodd–Frank Act as enacted into law includes several loopholes to the ban, allowing proprietary trading in certain circumstances. However, the regulations required to enforce these elements of the law were not implemented during 2013 and were under attack by bank lobbying efforts.  Another major banking regulation, the Glass–Steagall Act from 1933, was effectively repealed in 1999. The repeal allowed depository banks to enter into additional lines of business. Senators John McCain and Elizabeth Warren proposed bringing back Glass-Steagall during 2013.

Too big to fail tax.

Economist Willem Buiter proposes a tax to internalize the massive costs inflicted by "too big to fail" institution. "When size creates externalities, do what you would do with any negative externality: tax it. The other way to limit size is to tax size. This can be done through capital requirements that are progressive in the size of the business (as measured by value added, the size of the balance sheet or some other metric). Such measures for preventing the New Darwinism of the survival of the fittest and the politically best connected should be distinguished from regulatory interventions based on the narrow leverage ratio aimed at regulating risk (regardless of size, except for a de minimis lower limit)."

Monitoring.

On November 16, 2018, a policy research and development entity, called the Financial Stability Board, released a list of 29 banks worldwide that they considered "systemically important financial institutions"—financial organisations whose size "and role" meant that any failure could cause serious systemic problems.

Notable views on the issue.

Economists.

More than fifty notable economists, financial experts, bankers, finance industry groups, and banks themselves have called for breaking up large banks into smaller institutions. (See also Divestment.)  Some economists such as Paul Krugman hold that economies of scale in banks and in other businesses are worth preserving, so long as they are well regulated in proportion to their economic clout, and therefore that "too big to fail" status can be acceptable. The global economic system must also deal with sovereign states being too big to fail. Krugman wrote in January 2010 that it was more important to reduce bank risk taking (leverage) than to break them up.  Economist Simon Johnson has advocated both increased regulation as well as breaking up the larger banks, not only to protect the financial system but to reduce the political power of the largest banks.

Politicians.

One of the most vocal opponents in the United States government of the "too big to fail" status of large American financial institutions in recent years has been Elizabeth Warren. At her first U.S. Senate Banking Committee hearing on February 14, 2013, Senator Warren pressed several banking regulators to answer when they had last taken a Wall Street bank to trial and stated, "I'm really concerned that 'too big to fail' has become 'too big for trial'." Videos of Warren's questioning, centering on "too big to fail", became popular on the internet, amassing more than 1 million views in a matter of days.  On March 6, 2013, United States Attorney General Eric Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the Justice Department faces difficulty charging large banks with crimes because of the risk to the economy. Four days later, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard W. Fisher wrote in advance of a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference that large banks should be broken up into smaller banks, and both Federal Deposit Insurance and Federal Reserve discount window access should end for large banks. Other conservatives including Thomas Hoenig, Ed Prescott, Glenn Hubbard, and David Vitter also advocated breaking up the largest banks.

International organizations.

On April 10, 2013, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde told the Economic Club of New York "too big to fail" banks had become "more dangerous than ever" and had to be controlled with "comprehensive and clear regulation [and] more intensive and intrusive supervision".

Other commentators.

Ron Suskind claimed in his book "Confidence Men" that the administration of Barack Obama considered breaking up Citibank and other large banks that had been involved in the financial crisis of 2008. He said that Obama's staff, such as Timothy Geithner, refused to do so. The administration and Geithner have denied this version of events.  Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England during 2003–2013, called for cutting "too big to fail" banks down to size, as a solution to the problem of banks having taxpayer-funded guarantees for their speculative investment banking activities. "If some banks are thought to be too big to fail, then, in the words of a distinguished American economist, they are too big. It is not sensible to allow large banks to combine high street retail banking with risky investment banking or funding strategies, and then provide an implicit state guarantee against failure."  Former Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling disagreed: "Many people talk about how to deal with the big banks – banks so important to the financial system that they cannot be allowed to fail, but the solution is not as simple, as some have suggested, as restricting the size of the banks". Additionally, Alan Greenspan said that "If they're too big to fail, they're too big", suggesting U.S. regulators to consider breaking up large financial institutions considered "too big to fail". He added, "I don't think merely raising the fees or capital on large institutions or taxing them is enough... they'll absorb that, they'll work with that, and it's totally inefficient and they'll still be using the savings."

Public opinion polls.

Gallup reported in June 2013 that: "Americans' confidence in U.S. banks increased to 26% in June, up from the record low of 21% the previous year. The percentage of Americans saying they have 'a great deal' or 'quite a lot' of confidence in U.S. banks is now at its highest point since June 2008, but remains well below its pre-recession level of 41%, measured in June 2007. Between 2007 and 2012, confidence in banks fell by half—20 percentage points." Gallup also reported that: "When Gallup first measured confidence in banks in 1979, 60% of Americans had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in them—second only to the church. This high level of confidence, which hasn't been matched since, was likely the result of the strong U.S. banking system established after the 1930s Great Depression and the related efforts of banks and regulators to build Americans' confidence in that system."

Lobbying by banking industry.

In the US, the banking industry spent over $100 million lobbying politicians and regulators between January 1 and June 30, 2011. Lobbying in the finance, insurance and real estate industries has risen annually since 1998 and was approximately $500 million in 2012.

Historical examples.

Prior to the 2008 failure and bailout of multiple firms, there were "too big to fail" examples from 1763 when Leendert Pieter de Neufville in Amsterdam and Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky in Berlin failed, and from the 1980s and 1990s. These included Continental Illinois and Long-Term Capital Management.

Continental Illinois case.

An early example of a bank rescued because it was "too big to fail" was the Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company during the 1980s.

Distress.

The Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company experienced a fall in its overall asset quality during the early 1980s. Tight money, Mexico's default (1982) and plunging oil prices followed a period when the bank had aggressively pursued commercial lending business, Latin American syndicated loan business, and loan participation in the energy sector. Complicating matters further, the bank's funding mix was heavily dependent on large certificates of deposit and foreign money markets, which meant its depositors were more risk-averse than average retail depositors in the US.

Payments crisis.

The bank held significant participation in highly speculative oil and gas loans of Oklahoma's Penn Square Bank. When Penn Square failed in July 1982, the Continental's distress became acute, culminating with press rumors of failure and an investor-and-depositor run in early May 1984. In the first week of the run, the Fed permitted the Continental Illinois discount window credits on the order of $3.6 billion. Still in significant distress, the management obtained a further $4.5 billion in credits from a syndicate of money center banks the following week. These measures failed to stop the run, and regulators were confronted with a crisis.

Regulatory crisis.

The seventh-largest bank in the nation by deposits would very shortly be unable to meet its obligations. Regulators faced a tough decision about how to resolve the matter. Of the three options available, only two were seriously considered. Even banks much smaller than the Continental were deemed unsuitable for resolution by liquidation, owing to the disruptions this would have inevitably caused. The normal course would be to seek a purchaser (and indeed press accounts that such a search was underway contributed to Continental depositors' fears in 1984). However, in the tight-money financial climate of the early 1980s, no purchaser was forthcoming.  Besides generic concerns of size, contagion of depositor panic and bank distress, regulators feared the significant disruption of national payment and settlement systems. Of special concern was the wide network of correspondent banks with high percentages of their capital invested in the Continental Illinois. Essentially, the bank was deemed "too big to fail", and the "provide assistance" option was reluctantly taken. The dilemma then became how to provide assistance without significantly unbalancing the nation's banking system.

Stopping the run.

To prevent immediate failure, the Federal Reserve announced categorically that it would meet any liquidity needs the Continental might have, while the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) gave depositors and general creditors a full guarantee (not subject to the $100,000 FDIC deposit-insurance limit) and provided direct assistance of $2 billion (including participations). Money center banks assembled an additional $5.3 billion unsecured facility pending a resolution and resumption of more-normal business. These measures slowed, but did not stop, the outflow of deposits.

Controversy.

In a United States Senate hearing afterwards, the then Comptroller of the Currency C. T. Conover defended his position by admitting the regulators will not let the largest 11 banks fail.

Long-Term Capital Management.

Long-Term Capital Management L.P. (LTCM) was a hedge fund management firm based in Greenwich, Connecticut that utilized absolute-return trading strategies combined with high financial leverage. The firm's master hedge fund, Long-Term Capital Portfolio L.P., collapsed in the late 1990s, leading to an agreement on September 23, 1998 among 14 financial institutions for a $3.6 billion recapitalization (bailout) under the supervision of the Federal Reserve.  LTCM was founded in 1994 by John W. Meriwether, the former vice-chairman and head of bond trading at Salomon Brothers. Members of LTCM's board of directors included Myron S. Scholes and Robert C. Merton, who shared the 1997 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for a "new method to determine the value of derivatives". Initially successful with annualized returns of over 40% (after fees) in its first years, in 1998 it lost $4.6 billion in less than four months following the Russian financial crisis requiring financial intervention by the Federal Reserve, with the fund liquidating and dissolving in early 2000.

International.

Canada.

In March 2013, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions announced that Canada's six largest banks, the Bank of Montreal, the Bank of Nova Scotia, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, National Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Canada and Toronto-Dominion Bank, were too big to fail. Those six banks accounted for 90% of banking assets in Canada at that time. It noted that "the differences among the largest banks are smaller if only domestic assets are considered, and relative importance declines rapidly after the top five banks and after the sixth bank (National)."

New Zealand.

Despite the government's assurances, opposition parties and some media commentators in New Zealand say that the largest banks are too big to fail and have an implicit government guarantee.

United Kingdom.

George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer under David Cameron (2010–2016), threatened to break up banks which are too big to fail.  The too-big-to-fail idea has led to legislators and governments facing the challenge of limiting the scope of these hugely important organisations, and regulating activities perceived as risky or speculative—to achieve this regulation in the UK, banks are advised to follow the UK's Independent Commission on Banking Report.

See also.

Banking collapse:  General:  Works:

The "too big to (let) fail" theory asserts that certain corporations, particularly financial institutions, are so large and so interconnected that their failure would be disastrous to the greater economic system, and that they therefore must be supported by government when they face potential failure. The colloquial term "too big to fail" was popularized by U.S. Congressman Stewart McKinney in a 1984 Congressional hearing, discussing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's intervention with Continental Illinois. The term had previously been used occasionally in the press.

彼得·乔舒亚·斯克尔索普,AO,OBE(英语:Peter Joshua Sculthorpe,1929年-4月29日-2014年-8月8日),澳大利亚作曲家。生于塔斯马尼亚岛的朗塞斯顿,7岁起写作音乐。早年曾在澳大利亚本土学习音乐经营商店,后在牛津大学师从作曲家埃贡·韦勒斯和埃德蒙·鲁布拉,回国后在悉尼大学任教。后又任耶鲁大学驻校作曲家。斯克尔索普的音乐以广泛吸收澳大利亚原住民、日本、东南亚的传统音乐风格为显著特征,也有关注环保的题材。被誉为自珀西·格兰杰后澳大利亚最具代表性的重要作曲家。


Overview.

The mission would have consisted of two spacecraft that would execute a series of maneuvers around a small, 500-metre (1,600-foot) asteroid.  Don Quijote was one of six Near Earth Object precursor studies funded by ESA's General Studies Programme, other missions being: EUNEOS (European NEO Survey), Earthguard-I, NERO (NEO Remote Observations), SIMONE (Smallsat Intercept Missions to Objects Near Earth) and ISHTAR (Internal Structure High-resolution Tomography by Asteroid Rendezvous).

Propulsion.

The craft would have been launched by a Vega launcher and a Star 48 upper stage. The ESA considered two design options: the "Cheap Option" using a chemical propulsion system, and the "Flexible Option" using an electric propulsion system. The former would have been targeted to the Amor asteroid 2003 SM84, the latter to the asteroid 99942 Apophis.

Instrumentation.

Sancho (orbiter).

The instruments on the orbiter were classified into those essential to the success of the mission and those for the completion of extended mission objectives. The primary instruments were the Radio Science Experiment, Orbiter Camera, Imaging Laser Altimeter, and a LIDAR instrument. For the extended mission objectives, the orbiter would have carried an IR Spectrometer, a Thermal IR Imager, an X-Ray Spectrometer, a Radiation Monitor and the Autonomous Surface Package (ASP).

Hidalgo (impactor).

Unlike many other spacecraft, the goal of the Hidalgo impactor was to be as massive as possible upon reaching the target asteroid; because of this goal, the propulsion module would not have been jettisoned after use. The impactor was to carry few subsystems to make it as low-cost and maneuverable as possible. It would have had no moving appendages (solar panels, etc.) to complicate orientation, using only its RCS thrusters for course corrections, and it was to have a high-resolution targeting camera for ~50 m targeting accuracy on impact. The LISA Pathfinder design was considered an initial design reference.

Target.

Originally, the ESA identified two near-Earth asteroids as possible targets: and (10302) 1989 ML. Neither asteroid represents a threat to Earth. In a subsequent study, two different possibilities were selected: the Amor asteroid 2003 SM84 and 99942 Apophis; the latter is of particular significance to Earth as it will make a close approach in 2029 and 2036.  In 2005, the proposed mission was combined with AIDA, with the target selected as a binary asteroid, so that the effect of the deflection would be seen even from Earth by observing the period of the binary. The targets were 2002 AT4 and (10302) 1989 ML.  The current target for AIDA is the binary asteroid 65803 Didymos.

Names.

The mission was named after the fictional Spanish knight from Miguel de Cervantes' renowned novel, Don Quixote, who charged against a windmill, thinking it to be a giant. Like Quixote, the Hidalgo spacecraft was to 'attack' an object much larger than itself, hopefully making impressive results. 'Sancho' was named after Sancho Panza, the Quixote's squire, who preferred to stay back and watch from a safe distance, which was the role assigned to that probe. Finally, the name Hidalgo was a minor Spanish title (roughly equivalent to a Baronet), now obsolete. In the novel, it was the title Alonso Quijano had even before becoming Don Quijote.

Don Quijote is a past space probe concept that has been studied by the European Space Agency, and which would investigate the effects of crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid to test whether a spacecraft could successfully deflect an asteroid on a collision course with Earth. The orbiter was designed to last for seven years. The mission did not proceed beyond initial studies, currently ESA is working on Asteroid Impact & Deflection Assessment mission as a part of its NEO space mission studies.

唐吉诃德小行星防卫任务是一项将来由ESA领导的一项无人太空任务。这项任务的目标在于测试太空飞行器是否能够成功阻击小行星撞击地球。该任务仍旧处于计划阶段并暂定于2013或2015年实施。


Nomenclature.

The naming of the ship was a radical departure from the general practice of the time, which was to name aircraft carriers after battles or previous US Navy ships. After the Doolittle Raid, launched from the aircraft carrier, President Roosevelt answered a reporter's question by saying that the raid had been launched from "Shangri-La", the fictional faraway land of the James Hilton novel "Lost Horizon".

Construction and commissioning.

"Shangri-La" was one of the "long-hull" "Essex"-class ships. She was laid down by the Norfolk Navy Yard, at Portsmouth, Virginia, on 15 January 1943, and was launched on 24 February 1944, sponsored by Josephine Doolittle (wife of Jimmy Doolittle). "Shangri-La" was commissioned on 15 September 1944, with Captain James D. Barner in command.

Service history.

World War II.

"Shangri-La" completed fitting out at Norfolk and took her shakedown cruise to Trinidad, between 15 September and 21 December 1944, at which time she returned to Norfolk. On 17 January 1945, she stood out of Hampton Roads, formed up with large cruiser and destroyer, and sailed for Panama. The three ships arrived at Cristobal, Panama Canal Zone on 23 January and transited the canal the next day. "Shangri-La" departed from Balboa on 25 January and arrived at San Diego, California on 4 February. There she loaded passengers, stores, and extra planes for transit to Hawaii and got underway on 7 February. Upon her arrival at Pearl Harbor on 15 February, she commenced two months of duty, qualifying land-based Navy pilots in carrier landings.  On 10 April, she weighed anchor for Ulithi Atoll where she arrived 10 days later. After an overnight stay in the lagoon, "Shangri-La" departed Ulithi in company with destroyers and to report for duty with Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher's Task Force 58 (TF 58). On 24 April, she joined Task Group 58.4 (TG 58.4) while it was conducting a fueling rendezvous with TG 50.8. The next day, "Shangri-La" and her air group, CVG-85, launched their first strike against the Japanese. The target was Okino Daito Jima, a group of islands several hundred miles to the southeast of Okinawa. Her planes successfully destroyed radar and radio installations there and, upon their recovery, the task group sailed for Okinawa. "Shangri-La" supplied combat air patrols for the task group and close air support for the 10th Army on Okinawa before returning to Ulithi on 14 May.  While at Ulithi, "Shangri-La" became the flagship of Carrier Task Force 2. Vice Admiral John S. McCain, Sr. hoisted his flag on "Shangri-La" on 18 May. Six days later, TG 58.4, with "Shangri-La" in company, sortied from the lagoon. On 28 May, TG 58.4 became TG 38.4 and McCain relieved Mitscher as Commander, TF 38, retaining "Shangri-La" as his flagship. On 2–3 June, the task force launched air strikes on the Japanese home islands – aimed particularly at Kyūshū, the southernmost of the major islands. Facing the stiffest airborne resistance to date, "Shangri-La"s airmen suffered their heaviest casualties.  On 4–5 June, she moved off to the northwest to avoid a typhoon; then, on 6 June, her planes returned to close air support duty over Okinawa. On 8 June, her air group hit Kyūshū again, and, on the following day, they came back to Okinawa. On 10 June, the task force cleared Okinawa for Leyte, conducting drills en route. "Shangri-La" entered Leyte Gulf and anchored in San Pedro Bay on 13 June. She remained at anchor there for the rest of June, engaged in upkeep and recreation.  On 1 July, "Shangri-La" got underway from Leyte to return to the combat zone. On the 2nd, the oath of office of Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Air was administered to John L. Sullivan on board "Shangri-La", the first ceremony of its type ever undertaken in a combat zone. Eight days later, her air group commenced a series of air strikes against Japan which lasted until the capitulation on 15 August.  "Shangri-La"s planes ranged the length of the island chain during these raids. On the 10th, they attacked Tokyo, the first raid there since the strikes of the previous February. On 14–15 July, they pounded Honshū and Hokkaidō and, on 18 July, returned to Tokyo, also bombing battleship, moored close to shore at Yokosuka. From 20–22 July, "Shangri-La" joined the logistics group for fuel, replacement aircraft, and mail. By 24 July, her pilots were attacking shipping in the vicinity of Kure. They returned the next day for a repeat performance, before departing for a two-day replenishment period on 26-27 July. On the following day, "Shangri-La"s aircraft damaged light cruiser and battleship, the latter so badly that she beached and flooded. She later had to be abandoned. They pummeled Tokyo again on 30 July, then cleared the area to replenish on 31 July and 1 August.  "Shangri-La" spent the next four days in the retirement area waiting for a typhoon to pass. On 9 August, after heavy fog had caused the cancellation of the previous day's missions, the carrier sent her planes aloft to bomb Honshū and Hokkaido once again. The next day, they raided Tokyo and central Honshū, then retired from the area for logistics. She evaded another typhoon on 11–12 August, then hit Tokyo again on 13 August. After replenishing on 14 August, she sent planes to strike the airfields around Tokyo on the morning of 15 August 1945. Soon thereafter, Japan's capitulation was announced; and the fleet was ordered to cease hostilities. "Shangri-La" steamed around in the strike area from 15–23 August, patrolling the Honshū area on the latter date. From 23 August – 16 September, her planes sortied on missions of mercy, air-dropping supplies to Allied prisoners of war in Japan.  "Shangri-La" entered Tokyo Bay on 16 September, almost two weeks after the surrender ceremony onboard battleship, and remained there until 1 October. Departing Japan, she arrived at Okinawa on 4 October staying until 6 October, and then headed for the United States in company with Task Unit 38.1.1. She sailed into San Pedro Bay, on 21 October and stayed at Long Beach for three weeks. On 5 November, she shifted to San Diego, departing that port a month later for Bremerton, Washington. She entered Puget Sound on 9 December, underwent availability until 30 December, and then returned to San Diego.

Post-war.

Upon her return, "Shangri-La" began normal operations out of San Diego, primarily engaged in pilot carrier landing qualifications. In May 1946, she sailed for the Central Pacific to participate in Operation Crossroads, the atomic bomb tests conducted at Bikini Atoll. Following this, she made a brief training cruise to Pearl Harbor, then wintered at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. In March 1947, she deployed again, calling at Pearl Harbor and Sydney, Australia. When she returned to the United States, "Shangri-La" was decommissioned and placed in the Reserve Fleet at San Francisco on 7 November 1947. "Shangri-La" recommissioned on 10 May 1951, Captain Francis L. Busey in command. For the next year, she conducted training and readiness operations out of Boston, Massachusetts. Reclassified as an attack carrier ("CVA-38") in 1952, she returned to Puget Sound that fall and decommissioned again on 14 November, this time for modernization at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. During the next two years, she received an angled flight deck and twin steam catapults, and her aircraft elevators and arresting gear were overhauled. At a cost of approximately $7 million, she was virtually a new ship when she commissioned for the third time on 10 January 1955, Captain Roscoe L. Newman commanding; she was the second (after CVA-36 Antietam) operational U.S. carrier with an angled flight deck. She conducted intensive fleet training for the remainder of 1955, then deployed to the Far East on 5 January 1956. Until 1960, she alternated western Pacific cruises with operations out of San Diego. On 16 March 1960, she put to sea from San Diego en route to her new home port, Mayport, Florida. She entered Mayport after visits to Callao, Peru; Valparaíso, Chile; Port of Spain, Trinidad; Bayonne, New Jersey; and Norfolk, Virginia.  After six weeks of underway training in the local operating area around Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, she embarked upon her first Atlantic deployment, a NATO exercise followed by liberty in Southampton, England. Almost immediately after her return to Mayport, "Shangri-La" was ordered back to sea—this time to the Caribbean in response to trouble in Guatemala and Nicaragua. She returned to Mayport on 25 November and remained in port for more than two months. Between 1961 and 1970, "Shangri-La" alternated between deployments to the Mediterranean and operations in the western Atlantic, out of Mayport. She sailed east for her first tour of duty with the 6th Fleet on 2 February 1961. She returned to the United States that fall and entered the New York Naval Shipyard. Back in Mayport by the beginning of 1962, "Shangri-La" stood out again for the Mediterranean on 7 February. After about six months of cruising with the 6th Fleet, she departed the Mediterranean in mid-August and arrived in Mayport on 28 August. Following a month's stay at her home port, the aircraft carrier headed for New York and a major overhaul. "Shangri-La" was modified extensively during her stay in the yard. Four of her 5 in (127 mm) mounts were removed, but she received a new air search and height finding radar and a new arrester system. In addition, much of her electrical and engineering equipment was renovated. After sea trials and visits to Bayonne and Norfolk, "Shangri-La" returned to Mayport for a week in late March 1963; then put to sea for operations in the Caribbean. Eight months of similar duty followed before "Shangri-La" weighed anchor for another deployment. On 1 October 1963, she headed back to the 6th Fleet for a seven-month tour.

Vietnam.

"Shangri-La" continued her United States Second Fleet and Sixth Fleet assignments for the next six years. From 15 February 1965 to 20 September 1965, she made a Mediterranean deployment with Carrier Air Wing 10 embarked.  In the fall of 1965, "Shangri-La" was accidentally rammed by the destroyer during war games. "Shangri-La" was struck below the waterline, breaching the hull. On the destroyer, one man was killed and another injured. The ship itself suffered a bent hull. There were no casualties on the carrier and the hole was quickly patched. As a result of this incident, she underwent an extensive overhaul during the winter of 1965 and the spring of 1966, this time at Philadelphia, then resumed operations as before. On 30 June 1969, she was redesignated an antisubmarine warfare carrier ("CVS-38").  In 1970, "Shangri-La" returned to the western Pacific after an absence of 10 years. She got underway from Mayport on 5 March, stopped at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 13–16 March, and headed east through the Atlantic and Indian oceans. She arrived in Subic Bay, Philippines on 4 April, and during the next seven months launched combat sorties from Yankee Station. Her tours of duty on Yankee Station were punctuated by frequent logistics trips to Subic Bay, by visits to Manila and Hong Kong, in October, and by 12 days in drydock at Yokosuka, Japan, in July.  On 9 November, "Shangri-La" stood out of Subic Bay to return home. En route to Mayport, she visited Sydney, Australia; Wellington, New Zealand; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She arrived in Mayport on 16 December and began preparations for inactivation. After inactivation overhaul at the Boston Naval Shipyard, South Annex, "Shangri-La" decommissioned on 30 July 1971. She was placed in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet and berthed at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.

Fate.

"Shangri-La" remained in the reserve fleet for the next 11 years, and was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 15 July 1982. She was retained by MARAD for several years to provide spare parts for the training carrier. On 9 August 1988, she was sold for scrap and later towed to Taiwan for demolition.  One of "Shangri-La"s four propellers is on display outside Meding's Seafood in Milford, Delaware.  In 6 September 2017, USS "Shangri-La"s bell was placed on display at Jacksonville University NROTC Building as a permanent loan. The bell was found by a farmer in his field at Hudson, Florida on June 2017. He notified the USS Shangri La Reunion Group, who repaired and restored the bell before loaning it to the NROTC unit.

Awards.

"Shangri-La" earned two battle stars for World War II service and three battle stars for service in the Vietnam War.

USS "Shangri-La" (CV/CVA/CVS-38) was one of 24 s completed during or shortly after World War II for the United States Navy.

香格里拉号航空母舰(USS Shangri-La CV-38)是一艘隶属于美国海军的航空母舰,为艾塞克斯级航空母舰的二十号舰,在非官方上亦是长舰体艾塞克斯级的十号舰。她是美军第一艘以香格里拉为名的军舰;舰名虽取自小说《消失的地平线》中的理想国度,但实出于纪念杜立德空袭东京一事。事缘美国总统罗斯福在空袭后被问及B-25轰炸机从何起飞时,仅以「香格里拉」一词作答,避过谈及轰炸机由大黄蜂号起飞的军事机密。


Biography.

Cheng was born in into a rich landowning family in Beijing. She studied at Yenching University, and later went to London to obtain a master's degree at the London School of Economics. She returned to China after the graduation.  During her time in London, Cheng also met her husband, Kang-chi Cheng, and converted to Christianity. Upon their return to China, Kang-chi Cheng joined the Foreign Affairs ministry of the Nationalist government. The couple lived in Australia briefly, setting up an embassy there, and eventually moved to Shanghai. After the Communist Party of China came to power in 1949, Kang-chi Cheng served at Shell's office in Shanghai until his death from cancer in 1957. Nien Cheng then joined the company as an adviser.  In 1966, Cheng was targeted by Red Guards and claimed as a British spy, as she was both Western-educated, and the widow of the former manager of a foreign firm in Shanghai.  Cheng's book documents her account of her following confinement that lasted for more than six years. According to the book, she managed to get through the tortures and abuses inflicted by the interrogators and had never made any false confessions or perjuries. Cheng used Mao's teachings successfully against her interrogators, frequently turning the tide of the struggle sessions against the interrogators. Although the living conditions at the detention house was inhumanly squalid, she still tried to maintain her dignity and keep her appearance decent as much as possible. In 1973, when offered to be paroled on the basis that her attitude had shown improvement, Cheng resisted leaving the detention house without receiving official acknowledgment from her captors that she had been unjustly detained.  Upon her release, Cheng was relocated from her spacious home to two bedrooms on the second floor of a two-story building. Cheng continued her life under constant surveillance, including spying by the family on the first floor. When released from jail, Cheng was told that her daughter, Meiping Cheng (), had committed suicide. After Cheng conducted a discreet investigation, she found that this scenario was impossible, and came to believe that Meiping had been murdered by Maoists after she refused to denounce her mother. The alleged killer of Meiping, a rebel worker named Hu Yongnian, was arrested and given a suspended death sentence by Shanghai authorities in 1980, but subsequently paroled in 1995.  Cheng lived in China until 1980. Using funds that her husband had placed in overseas bank accounts, she first emigrated to Canada, and later to Washington, D.C., where she wrote the autobiography. She never returned to China. She stated that the main reason she kept herself away from China was that she couldn't bear being constantly reminded of her dead daughter at the sight of other young Chinese girls. Meanwhile, she also suspected that she was still a constant target of surveillance by the Chinese government. At an interview conducted in 1998, she said she would never return to China until the Mao portrait was removed at the gate of Tiananmen Square.  Cheng was a longtime friend of Nelson T. Johnson, the U.S. Ambassador to China and his wife Jane Augusta Washington Thornton Beck Johnson. After moving to Washington, D.C., Cheng traveled extensively and was a frequent speaker on the lecture circuit. She was also a close friend of Baroness Van Aerssen (Suzanne Hiltermann-Souloumiac), wife of the Dutch Consul General in Hong Kong. Nien and Suzanne exchanged several letters on Life and Death in Shanghai. Canadian singer Corey Hart recorded an instrumental song based on her memoir in his 1990 album "Bang!"  Cheng died of renal failure in Washington, D.C. on November 2, 2009.

Nien Cheng or Zheng Nian (January 28, 1915 – November 2, 2009) is the pen name of Yao Nien-Yuan (). She was a Chinese author who recounted her harrowing experiences during the Cultural Revolution in her memoir "Life and Death in Shanghai".

郑念(1915年-1月28日-2009年-11月2日),原名姚念媛,是一位因撰写《上海生死劫》(英语:Life and Death in Shanghai)一书而著名的女作家。


Early life.

Vaz Tê was born in Lisbon, but moved a year later to live with his father in Guinea-Bissau, where he remained until he was 11 years old. He returned to Portugal and received professional coaching at SC Farense. Vaz Tê played youth football with his local club Real Massamá, a team which also included Manchester United winger Nani. Nani went to play for Sporting CP while Vaz Tê left for England to play for Bolton Wanderers. They also represented the Portugal Under-21s.

Club career.

Bolton Wanderers.

Vaz Tê went on trial with Bolton Wanderers in 2003 and he was signed on a three-year youth academy contract. He made such an impression at youth level that Vaz Tê quickly found himself part of the Bolton first-team squad. He made his debut in their FA Cup tie with Tranmere Rovers in January 2004. Just over two months later, he made his Premier League debut in a 2–0 defeat at Middlesbrough. He made his first full start in the game with Manchester United at Old Trafford in December 2004.  In 2005–06, Vaz Tê was again involved in first-team action, starting 7 games and coming on as a substitute in another 22. He scored 6 goals in all competitions, one of which a late equaliser shortly after coming on as a substitute on 24 November 2005, at Vitória de Guimarães. In March 2007, Vaz Tê joined Hull City on a month's loan from Bolton.  He had an unlucky beginning to the 2007–08 season, damaging his ligaments on the opening day. He only appeared in one more game throughout that season, a 0–1 defeat to Sporting Lisbon in the UEFA Cup in which Bolton Manager Gary Megson played mostly a reserve team. In August 2008, there was confusion regarding the player, when it was widely reported that he had signed for Racing de Santander on loan as part of a swap deal that would see fellow striker Euzebiusz Smolarek go the other way. However, although Smolarek did join Bolton, the Portuguese striker also remained at the club. He made only two appearances in the 2008–09 season and none in the 2009–10 season, as he required four operations on his right knee and one on his left knee. On 11 May 2010, Vaz Tê was released by Bolton Wanderers.

Panionios.

On 30 June 2010 it was reported that Vaz Tê had signed a three-year deal with Greek Super League club Panionios. In December 2010, after less than six months in Greece, it was announced that Vaz Tê and Panionios had come to an agreement to mutually terminate his contract. Panionios had suffered financial problems, which meant that Vaz Tê went four months without receiving any pay.

Hibernian.

Vaz Tê went on trial with Scottish Premier League club Hibernian in February 2011 and manager Colin Calderwood stated that both parties were in discussions about a contract. The signing was confirmed on 28 February. Vaz Tê made his debut for the club in a 1–1 draw against St Johnstone on 5 March as a substitute. He scored one goal for Hibs, in an Edinburgh derby against Hearts. His contract was not renewed at the end of the season. Vaz Tê later said that he had played for Hibs for "no money", but had chosen to go there due to the "visibility" of Scottish football in neighbouring England.

Barnsley.

Vaz Tê went on trial with Football League Championship club Barnsley in July 2011, every other Championship club having rejected that opportunity. He impressed the club management and scored a goal in a friendly against Grimsby Town. On 3 August 2011 he agreed a contract with Barnsley until the end of the 2011–12 season. He scored his first goal for Barnsley in a 2–0 win against Burnley on 18 October 2011. Vaz Tê scored his fifth Barnsley goal on 6 December 2011 against Crystal Palace after only 8.5 seconds, the fastest goal in Barnsley history. He scored again later in the game to give Barnsley a 2–1 win. On 31 December, Vaz Tê scored a hat-trick in a 4–1 win against Leeds United, after coming on as a substitute. "Sky Sports" reported on 1 January 2012 that Vaz Tê had rejected Barnsley's offer of a new contract. He scored both of the Barnsley goals in a 4–2 defeat against Swansea City in an FA Cup third round tie.

West Ham United.

Vaz Tê signed for then Championship club West Ham United on 31 January 2012, for an undisclosed fee on a -year deal with an option for a third year. Vaz Tê made his debut for the club, coming on as an 89th-minute substitute for Carlton Cole in the London derby against Millwall on 4 February. The game finished 2–1 to West Ham United. On 21 February 2012, Vaz Tê scored his first goal for the Hammers, in a 4–1 victory at Blackpool. Nicky Maynard and Gary O'Neil also scored their first professional goals for the club. Vaz Tê scored his first hat-trick for West Ham on 14 April 2012, in West Ham United's 6–0 home victory against Brighton & Hove Albion. West Ham finished 3rd behind Southampton entering the play-offs against Cardiff City. They won the first leg at the Cardiff City Stadium 2–0 and the second leg 3–0 at the Upton Park, with Vaz Tê scoring the second goal of the second game. West Ham progressed to the play-off final with a 5–0 aggregate victory. In the play-off final at Wembley on 19 May 2012, Vaz Tê scored the winning goal in the 87th minute. It was the 24th goal Vaz Tê had scored in the 2011–12 season.  He was in the starting line-up from the beginning of the 2012–13 season scoring his first Premier League goal for West Ham in their 2–1 away win at QPR on 1 October 2012. In the very next game, on 6 October 2012 at home to Arsenal, Vaz Tê dislocated his shoulder, an injury which kept him out of the team for nearly 3 months. Vaz Tê returned to the side on 29 December in an away game at Reading, he was brought on with 23 minutes remaining and his side down 1–0 and went on to miss a glaring opportunity to draw the match, as West Ham lost. Sam Allardyce said it was one of the greatest ever chances to score in the Premier League and the Portuguese striker agreed, and apologised to the Hammers fans.  He started the 2013–14 season as a 90th-minute substitute, replacing Joe Cole, in a 2–0 home win against Cardiff City. He scored his first goal of the season in a League Cup second round fixture against Cheltenham Town on 27 August 2013, when he scored the opening goal from a free-kick in 42nd minute of the match, which ended a 2–1 win for West Ham. He later received a "Goal of the Month" club award for that goal. After the Cheltenham win, on 28 August 2013, Vaz Tê handed in a transfer request. His statement regarding this said, "The statistics are evident to all but, despite this, it has been made obvious to myself and my representatives that I am not in the manager's plans. Therefore, it is with a heavy heart that I submit a transfer request and look to join a club where my approach to the game will be appreciated." He has remained at West Ham for at least until the winter transfer period and has committed himself to the club. Following his transfer request Vaz Te played four games in September 2013, scoring once and three games in October scoring twice, in games against Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City. These proved to be his last goals for the club. In his next game, on 27 October 2013, he dislocated his shoulder against Swansea City. He did not return to the first team until 15 April 2014 when he played 12 minutes against Arsenal in a 1–3 defeat.  In the 2014–15 season he was rarely picked by manager Sam Allardyce making only four league appearances and one in the League Cup. His last game came on 22 November 2014 in a 2–1 away defeat to Everton and on 17 January 2015, his contract was terminated by the club.

Akhisar Belediyespor.

On 18 January 2015, Vaz Tê joined Turkish Süper Lig side Akhisar Belediyespor on a six-month contract. He played just 14 games; scoring on five occasions.

Charlton Athletic.

On 13 November 2015, Vaz Tê signed for Charlton Athletic on a free transfer until the end of the season. However, he was released from his contract in February 2016.

China.

On 14 July 2017, Vaz Tê transferred to Chinese Super League side Henan Jianye. Vaz Tê transferred to China League One side Qingdao Huanghai in February 2019.

Portimonense.

After his stint in China, Vaz Tê moved back to Portugal, signing for Primeira Liga club Portimonense.

International career.

In the summer of 2005, Vaz Tê took part in the annual Toulon tournament scoring a hat-trick for Portugal U-20s, in their game with South Korea. He then played regularly for the Portugal under-21 team. Vaz Tê could still play for Guinea-Bissau, as he has not yet been selected by Portugal.

Honours.

West Ham United  Qingdao Huanghai

Ricardo Jorge Vaz Tê (born 1 October 1986) is a Portuguese footballer who plays as a forward for Primeira Liga club Portimonense.

列卡度·华斯迪(,1986年-10月1日),葡萄牙足球运动员,司职前锋,现时效力中甲球会青岛黄海。


Principle of operation.

The gyrotron is a type of free-electron maser which generates high-frequency electromagnetic radiation by stimulated cyclotron resonance of electrons moving through a strong magnetic field. It can produce high power at millimeter wavelengths because as a "fast-wave" device its dimensions can be much larger than the wavelength of the radiation. This is unlike conventional microwave vacuum tubes such as klystrons and magnetrons, in which the wavelength is determined by a single-mode resonant cavity, a "slow-wave" structure, and thus as operating frequencies increase, the resonant cavity structures must decrease in size, which limits their power-handling capability.  In the gyrotron a hot filament in an electron gun at one end of the tube emits an annular-shaped (hollow tubular) beam of electrons, which is accelerated by a high-voltage anode and then travels through a large tubular resonant cavity structure in a strong axial magnetic field, usually created by a superconducting magnet around the tube. The field causes the electrons to move helically in tight circles around the magnetic field lines as they travel lengthwise through the tube. At the position in the tube where the magnetic field reaches its maximum the electrons radiate electromagnetic waves in a transverse direction (perpendicular to the axis of the tube) at their cyclotron resonance frequency. The millimeter radiation forms standing waves in the tube, which acts as an open-ended resonant cavity, and is formed into a beam, which radiates through a window in the side of the tube into a waveguide. The spent electron beam is absorbed by a collector electrode at the end of the tube.  As in other linear-beam microwave tubes, the energy of the output electromagnetic waves comes from the kinetic energy of the electron beam, which is due to the accelerating anode voltage. In the region before the resonant cavity where the magnetic field strength is increasing, it compresses the electron beam, converting the longitudinal drift velocity to transverse orbital velocity, in a process similar to that occurring in a magnetic mirror used in plasma confinement. The orbital velocity of the electrons is 1.5 to 2 times their axial beam velocity. Due to the standing waves in the resonant cavity, the electrons become "bunched"; that is, their phase becomes coherent (synchronized) so they are all at the same point in their orbit at the same time. Therefore, they emit coherent radiation.  The electron speed in a gyrotron is slightly relativistic (on the order of but not close to the speed of light). This contrasts to the free-electron laser (and xaser) that work on different principles and whose electrons are highly relativistic.

Applications.

Gyrotrons are used for many industrial and high-technology heating applications. For example, gyrotrons are used in nuclear fusion research experiments to heat plasmas and also in manufacturing industry as a rapid heating tool in processing glass, composites, and ceramics, as well as for annealing (solar and semiconductors). Military applications include the Active Denial System.

Types.

The output window of the tube from which the microwave beam emerges can be in two locations. In the transverse-output gyrotron, the beam exits through a window in the side of the tube. This requires a 45° mirror at the end of the cavity to reflect the microwave beam, positioned at one side so the electron beam misses it. In the axial-output gyrotron, the beam exits through a window in the end of the tube at the far end of the cylindrical collector electrode which collects the electrons.  The original gyrotron developed in 1964 was an oscillator, but since that time gyrotron amplifiers have been developed. The helical gyrotron electron beam can amplify an applied microwave signal similarly to the way a straight electron beam amplifies in classical microwave tubes such as the klystron, so there are a series of gyrotrons which function analogously to these tubes. Their advantage is that they can operate at much higher frequencies. The gyro-monotron (gyro-oscillator) is a single-cavity gyrotron that functions as an oscillator. A gyro-klystron is an amplifier that functions analogously to a klystron tube. Has two microwave cavities along the electron beam, an input cavity upstream to which the signal to be amplified is applied and an output cavity downstream from which the output is taken. A gyro-TWT is an amplifier that functions analogously to a travelling wave tube (TWT). It has a slow wave structure similar to a TWT paralleling the beam, with the input microwave signal applied to the upstream end and the amplified output signal taken from the downstream end. A gyro-BWO is an oscillator that functions analogously to a backward wave oscillator (BWO). It generates oscillations traveling in an opposite direction to the electron beam, which are output at the upstream end of the tube. A gyro-twystron is an amplifier that functions analogouly to a twystron, a tube that combines a klystron and a TWT. Like a klystron it has an input cavity at the upstream end followed by buncher cavities to bunch the electrons, which are followed by a TWT type slow-wave structure which develops the amplified output signal. Like a TWT it has a wide bandwidth.

Manufacturers.

The gyrotron was invented in the Soviet Union. Present makers include Communications & Power Industries (USA), Gycom (Russia), Thales Group (EU), Toshiba (Japan), and Bridge12 Technologies. System developers include Gyrotron Technology.

A gyrotron is a class of high-power linear-beam vacuum tubes which generates millimeter-wave electromagnetic waves by the cyclotron resonance of electrons in a strong magnetic field. Output frequencies range from about 20 to 527 GHz, covering wavelengths from microwave to the edge of the terahertz gap. Typical output powers range from tens of kilowatts to 1–2 megawatts. Gyrotrons can be designed for pulsed or continuous operation. The gyrotron was invented by soviet scientists at NIRFI, based in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.

回旋管是一种能产生高功率微波的真空管,借由加速电子在强大的磁场中做回旋运动,同步、群聚进而产生的毫米电磁波。输出的频率范围约20至250 GHz,波长涵盖的范围从微波至太赫兹波段的边缘。典型的回旋管输出功率范围从几十千瓦至兆瓦都有。回旋管可被设计成脉冲或是连续操作的功率输出。


History.

Irwindale was part of the Mexican land grants by Alta California Governor Juan Alvarado of Rancho La Puente, Rancho Azusa de Dalton, Rancho Azusa de Duarte, and Rancho San Francisquito. The families of Gregorio Fraijo and Fecundo Ayon settled here in the 1850s. Significant economic growth did not arrive until the advent of the automobile, which drove up demand for the area's rocks and sand for the paving of roads. The city was incorporated on August 6, 1957.  Irwindale took advantage of urban redevelopment laws starting in 1976, and prospered in the following decade; it attracted a Miller Brewing Company plant, the corporate headquarters of Home Savings of America, and other companies.

Huy Fong Sriracha controversy.

The City of Irwindale offered a low interest loan to Huy Fong Foods in 2010 to locate its sriracha factory in Irwindale. Huy Fong took the loan and contributed $250,000 a year to the city as part of the deal. Huy Fong built a $40-million factory planned to generate about $300 million a year in sales. Shortly after Huy Fong paid off the loan early and stopped contributing to the city, Huy Fong became involved in lawsuits brought by its neighbors and the city of Irwindale, who complain of the odors of jalapeño pepper and garlic generated by the plant. The city's suit led to a court order for the plant to cease most operations.

Sand and gravel mining.

Irwindale is dominated by 17 gravel pits, which it was obligated to fill. Irwindale Chamber of Commerce views the sand and gravel mining industry as a significant part of the city's strength. In the summer of 1987, city councilman Joe Breceda approached Al Davis, owner of the National Football League's Los Angeles Raiders, about building a new stadium on the site of one of the disused pits.  Davis, long and vocally displeased with the Raiders' home at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, agreed to a $115 million deal. He would take ownership of the new stadium provided the Raiders would play there for 19 years. Controversially, the deal included a $10 million nonrefundable signing bonus paid directly to Davis regardless of whether the plan would be executed. In the event, both parties were served multiple lawsuits, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers demanded strict environmental impact assessments, and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors demurred, and the project was canceled. Davis pocketed the $10 million, and eventually moved the Raiders back to Oakland.  In September 2002, the State Mining and Geology Board (SMGB) asked the Office of Mine Reclamation (OMR) to review depth and mine slope conditions of the sand and gravel pits in Irwindale.

Environmental concerns.

Irwindale, along with many surrounding cities in the San Gabriel Valley, is identified as a Superfund site by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Groundwater contamination was first found through well sampling in 1979. Contaminants include high levels of volatile organic compounds such as perchloroethylene (PCE) and trichloroethene (TCE), perchlorate, 1,4-dioxane, and N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA). More than 100 facilities are identified as contributors to this contamination in Irwindale, mainly through improper disposal and handling of chemicals over the years.

CleanTech Environmental Inc. Controversy.

On March 25, 2015, advocacy groups and concerned residents stood outside city hall and protested the opening of a new hazardous waste site, owned by CleanTech Environmental Inc. The protesting groups were most concerned with the facility's placement adjacent to an ecological reserve and landmark, the Santa Fe Dam Recreational Area. Protesting groups included the California League of Conservation Voters, California Latino Environmental Advocacy Network, Communities for a Better Environment, and East Yard Communities.  In an interview, CleanTech owner Bob Brown affirms that the facility will not pose an environmental concern. The building of the facility was planned to prevent storm runoff, and all waste management occurs inside the facility, not outside. He also cites the fact that recycling oil reduces California's carbon footprint and allows the waste to be turned into other products.  CleanTech's corporate offices have resided in Irwindale for over 15 years, and the new facility is expected to recycle 1.5 million gallons of used oil a year.

Geography.

Irwindale is located at (34.112, -117.964). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of. of it is land and of it (8.19%) is water.

Climate.

This region experiences warm (but not hot) and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above 71.6 °F. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Irwindale has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, abbreviated "Csb" on climate maps.

Demographics.

2000.

As of the census of 2000, there were 1,446 people, 365 households, and 293 families residing in Irwindale. The population density was 155.7 inhabitants per square mile (60.1/km). There were 378 housing units at an average density of 40.7 per square mile (15.7/km). The racial makeup of the city was 47.0% White, 0.4% Black or African American, 1.9% Native American, 1.7% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 44.5% from other races, and 4.4% from two or more races. 88.3% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.  There were 365 households, out of which 46.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.2% were married couples living together, 19.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 19.7% were non-families. 15.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 5.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.96 and the average family size was 4.35.  In Irwindale the population was spread out, with 33.4% under the age of 18, 10.0% from 18 to 24, 32.0% from 25 to 44, 16.5% from 45 to 64, and 8.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 28 years. For every 100 females, there were 91.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.4 males.  The median income for a household in the city was $45,000, and the median income for a family was $46,827. Males had a median income of $34,375 versus $32,016 for females. The per capita income for the city was $13,144. About 17.7% of families and 16.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 20.8% of those under age 18 and 21.8% of those age 65 or over.

2010.

The 2010 United States Census reported that Irwindale had a population of 1,422. The population density was 147.9 people per square mile (57.1/km). The racial makeup of Irwindale was 833 (58.6%) White (6.1% Non-Hispanic White), 12 (0.8%) African American, 29 (2.0%) Native American, 34 (2.4%) Asian, 8 (0.6%) Pacific Islander, 448 (31.5%) from other races, and 58 (4.1%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1,288 persons (90.6%).  The Census reported that 1,372 people (96.5% of the population) lived in households, 50 (3.5%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 0 (0%) were institutionalized.  There were 374 households, out of which 194 (51.9%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 189 (50.5%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 88 (23.5%) had a female householder with no husband present, 32 (8.6%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 32 (8.6%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 1 (0.3%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 48 households (12.8%) were made up of individuals, and 22 (5.9%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.67. There were 309 families (82.6% of all households); the average family size was 3.93.  The population was spread out, with 373 people (26.2%) under the age of 18, 154 people (10.8%) aged 18 to 24, 397 people (27.9%) aged 25 to 44, 347 people (24.4%) aged 45 to 64, and 151 people (10.6%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34.0 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.0 males.  There were 390 housing units at an average density of 40.6 per square mile (15.7/km), of which 261 (69.8%) were owner-occupied, and 113 (30.2%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 0.8%; the rental vacancy rate was 2.6%. 992 people (69.8% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 380 people (26.7%) lived in rental housing units.  According to the 2010 United States Census, Irwindale had a median household income of $63,250, with 10.4% of the population living below the federal poverty line.

Government and infrastructure.

Irwindale's City Council is composed of five members, elected at-large and to a four-year term. Elections were held in November of odd-numbered years until the 2015 election. Effective with the 2018 California General Election, it will be held on a Tuesday after the first Monday in November.  In the state legislature Irwindale is located in the:  In the United States House of Representatives, Irwindale is in.  The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services operates the Monrovia Health Center in Monrovia, serving Irwindale.  Public transit in Irwindale is served by Foothill Transit; FT: Maps and Schedules.

Public safety.

Irwindale has its own police department (Anthony Miranda is the police chief, as of 2014), while contracting with the Los Angeles County Fire Department for their services (Fire Station #48 is on Arrow Highway 1/2 mile west of Irwindale Avenue), but for basic paramedic services, Fire Station #29 on Los Angeles Street in neighboring Baldwin Park can be summoned, as well as Station #32 in nearby Azusa.  Irwindale was contemplating disbanding the police department and contracting with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (either from the San Dimas or Temple City regional stations); the decision was to keep the police department intact.

Economy.

Top employers.

According to the City's 2014 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city are: Molson Coors has announced it will cease production at its Irwindale brewery by September 2020, cutting all 470 jobs.

Irwindale is a city in the San Gabriel Valley, in Los Angeles County, California. The population was 1,422 at the 2010 census, down from 1,446 at the 2000 census. The ZIP Codes serving the area are 91010, which is shared with Duarte, 91702, which is shared with Azusa, and 91706, which is shared with Baldwin Park.

欧文代尔(Irwindale)是美国加利福尼亚州洛杉矶县的一座城市,位于圣盖博谷。2010年美国人口普查显示,欧文代尔共有1,422人,低于2000年人口普查时的1,446人。


History.

It was founded on April 3, 2000 and is headquartered in Shanghai. It was incorporated in the Cayman Islands as a limited liability company. Harvard Business School did a case study on the school in the October 2012 edition by Willy Shih. In 2013, SMIC established a joint venture in Beijing to fabricate using 40 nm and below technologies.  On December 22, 2014, SilTech Shanghai, one of SMIC's indirectly wholly owned subsidiaries; JCET; and China IC Fund entered into a co-investment agreement to form an investment consortium in connection with the proposed acquisition of STATS ChipPAC, a provider of advanced semiconductor packaging and test services and a company incorporated in the Republic of Singapore, shares of which were listed on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited before the acquisition. On June 18, 2015, according to the co-investment agreement, SilTech Shanghai invested US $102 million as a capital contribution for 19.6% ownership interest in Changjiang Xinke, a company incorporated in Jiangsu province, China, which is accounted as an associate of the Group.  On June 23, 2015, Huawei, Qualcomm Global Trading Pte. Ltd., IMEC International, and SMIC announced the formation of the SMIC Advanced Technology Research & Development (Shanghai) Corporation, an equity joint venture company. The joint venture company's focus was to be the R&D for the next generation CMOS logic technology and was designed to build China’s most advanced integrated circuit (IC) development R&D platform. SMIC Advanced Technology R&D (Shanghai) Corporation is majority owned by SMIC, while Huawei, IMEC, and Qualcomm are minority shareholders. The focus of the joint venture company is on developing 14 nm logic technology.  On June 24, 2016, SMIC. LFoundry Europe and Marsica entered into a sale and purchase agreement pursuant to which LFoundry Europe and Marsica agreed to sell and SMIC agreed to purchase 70% of the corporate capital of LFoundry S.r.l. for an aggregate cash consideration of EUR49 million subject to adjustment. The acquisition was completed as of July 29, 2016.  On October 14, 2016, Ningbo Semiconductor International Corporation was jointly established by China IC Capital (the wholly owned investment fund of SMIC), Ningbo Senson Electronics Technology Co., Ltd, and Beijing Integrated Circuit Design and Testing Fund with a registered capital of RMB355 million, equal to US$52.8 million. SMIC holds 66.76% of the ownership interest. NSI will develop analog and specialty semiconductor process technology platforms in the areas of high-voltage analog, radio frequency, and optoelectronics. These developments will support customers in IC design and product development for applications in smart home, industrial, and automotive electronics, new generations of radio communications, augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality, and other specialty systems.  In 2018, SMIC had gross profits of $747 million and net profits of $149, with $3.6 billion in revenues. It apparently spend around $550 million on research and development, or about 16 percent of sales. On May 18, 2018, ground was broken on the manufacturing base for SMIC in Shaoxing. SMIC was building a plant that would be the first in China to use 14-nanometer production technology. The company said it would increase its investment capacity by 20% in February of 2019.  Current co-CEOs are Zhao Haijun and Mong Song Liang. Zixue Zhou serves as chairman of the board. In May 2019, it was said that SMIC's co-chiefs, Zhao Haijun and Liang Mong-song were at odds over how to focus the company.  On May 24, 2019, SMIC announced it would voluntarily delist from the Nasdaq, citing low trade volumes. Along with low US trading volumes, the company named the high administrative cost of maintaining the NYSE listing.; it joined the exchange 14 years before. On May 25, 2019, it announced it would also delist from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) following Huawei blacklisting by the United States government amid the China–United States Trade War.  As of June 2019, SMIC instead became available for over-the-counter trading by American investors via the OTC Markets Group OTCQX Best Market under the stock symbol "SMICY".  In 2019, Qualcomm, Huawei, and imec were still minority shareholders in SMIC's R&D arm.

Processes.

14 nm.

On 14 November 2019, SMIC announced that volume production of 14 nm FinFET had begun.

N+1.

N+1 is the follow-on to SMIC's 14 nm process, and is targeted for inexpensive chips. The modest improvements put N+1 capabilities between 14 nm and 7 nm. Risk production is planned to begin in the fourth quarter of 2020.  SMIC acquired an EUV step-and-scan system from ASML Holding for $120 million in 2018 but it was not used for either 14 nm or N+1.

Litigation with TSMC.

The company was the target of a lawsuit brought by TSMC, accusing SMIC of misappropriating TSMC intellectual property. The first round of litigation ended in 2005 with a $175 million settlement. A second round was opened in 2006. The liability phase of the lawsuit began on September 9, 2009 in Oakland, California, and the jury found SMIC liable on 61 out of 65 claims.  SMIC entered into a settlement agreement with TSMC to resolve all pending lawsuits between the parties, including the legal action filed by TSMC in California for which a verdict was returned by the jury against SMIC on November 4, 2009 and the legal action filed by SMIC in Beijing. SMIC and TSMC have entered into a settlement agreement on November 9, 2009 to settle and dismiss the California case, including all claims and defenses of SMIC yet to be decided in that case and SMIC's appeal in the Beijing case, thus concluding all pending court litigation between the parties.  Key provisions of the settlement include a mutual release of all claims that were or could have been brought in the pending lawsuits; termination of SMIC's obligation to make remaining payments under the prior settlement agreement between the parties (approximately US$40 million); payment to TSMC of an aggregate of US$200 million; and a grant to TSMC of approximately 8% of SMIC's issued share capital and a warrant which would allow TSMC to obtain total ownership of approximately 10% of SMIC's issued share capital.

Locations.

SMIC has customer service and marketing offices in the U.S., Europe, Japan and Taiwan, and a representative office in Hong Kong. It has manufacturing facilities at the following locations:

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) is a publicly held semiconductor foundry company, and the largest in China.

中芯国际集成电路制造有限公司(简称中芯国际,)于2000年4月在开曼群岛注册成立,总部位于中国上海。中芯国际是世界领先的集成电路晶圆代工企业之一,也是中国大陆规模最大、技术最先进的集成电路芯片制造企业。截止2020年6月1日,中芯国际向全球客户提供0.35微米到14纳米多种技术节点、不同工艺平台的集成电路晶圆代工及配套服务,具备逻辑电路、电源/模拟、高压驱动、嵌入式非挥发性存储、非易失性存储、混合信号/射频、图像传感器等多个技术平台的量产能力。


Career.

The son of a Baptist minister, Lowe grew up on a farm in Shady Grove, Mississippi, near Laurel. He started playing guitar when he was eight years old, with his father and sister acting as his first teachers. When he was thirteen, he began running away from home to play in bands. Occasionally his father would find him, bring him home, and warn him about the dangers of whiskey. At sixteen, Lowe worked in Nashville on the "Grand Ole Opry" radio program. He was a member of the Jan Savitt orchestra before serving in the military during World War II.  At basic training, he became friends with John Hammond, who organized weekend jam sessions. He performed in an Army dance band while in Guadalcanal. After his discharge, he called Hammond, looking for work, and Hammond sent him to Ray McKinley. He spent two years with McKinley's big band in New York City. He joined the Benny Goodman orchestra, then worked intermittently for the next few years at Café Society and other clubs in New York.  In 1950, he was hired by NBC as a staff musician. He and Ed Shaughnessy were members of the "Today Show" band for over ten years. Lowe acted in an episode of the "Armstrong Circle Theatre" television show that included Walter Matthau and live music by Doc Severinsen.  On the weekends he played jazz, sometimes getting permission from NBC to leave for six-month periods. In the jazz world he played with Jimmy Dorsey and Tommy Dorsey, Bill Evans, Billie Holiday, Red Norvo, Charles Mingus, Charlie Parker, Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, and Lester Young. He composed and arranged for NBC. He was responsible for introducing pianist Bill Evans to record producer Orrin Keepnews, resulting in Evans's first recordings as a leader.  In 1965 he moved to Los Angeles and worked for NBC as a staff guitarist, composer, and arranger. He wrote music for the TV shows "Hawaii Five-O", "Starsky & Hutch", and "The Wild Wild West", and the movies "Billy Jack" and "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, But Were Afraid to Ask". He recorded with Carmen McRae and Sarah Vaughan. During the 1980s, he worked with André Previn, Tete Montoliu, and the Great Guitars. He was a teacher at the Guitar Institute of Technology and the Grove School of Music. For several years, he was music director of the Monterey Jazz Festival.  During his career, he worked with Benny Carter, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Johnny Hodges, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Lee Konitz, Peggy Lee, Fats Navarro, Shirley Scott, Dinah Washington, and Ben Webster. In the later decades of his life he collaborated often with flautist Holly Hoffman. At the age of 93, he released the album "Poor Butterfly".  Lowe was married to singer Betty Bennett, his third wife, for 42 years. In his last years, the couple lived in San Diego. He died on December 2, 2017, at the age of 95.

Discography.

As sideman.

With Tony Bennett With Gene Bianco With Ruth Brown With Benny Carter With Rosemary Clooney With Al Cohn With Sammy Davis Jr. With Blossom Dearie With Don Elliott and Rusty Dedrick With Jimmy Forrest With Ella Fitzgerald With Johnny Hodges With Billie Holiday With J. J. Johnson With Quincy Jones With Richie Kamuca With Barry Manilow With Herbie Mann With Carmen McRae With Joe Mooney With Charlie Parker With André Previn With Johnnie Ray With Lalo Schifrin With Shirley Scott With Sarah Vaughan With Ben Webster

James Mundell Lowe (April 21, 1922 – December 2, 2017) was an American jazz guitarist who worked often in radio, television, and film, and as a session musician.

詹姆斯·芒德尔·罗威(英语:James Mundell Lowe,1922年-4月21日-2017年-12月2日),也称芒德尔·罗威(Mundell Lowe),是一名美国爵士乐吉他手,出生于密西西比州树荫镇。