This paper examines the effects of average inflation targeting (AIT) on social welfare and fiscal multipliers under varying averaging windows using a nonlinear New Keynesian model. While the existing literature highlights AIT’s advantages over Inflation Targeting(IT) and longer-window AIT over shorter-window AIT in terms of social welfare, these conclusions often rely on linearized models that fail to capture expectation effects arising from window lengths. By solving the model nonlinearly, we find that social welfare increases with AIT windows up to six years but declines for longer windows. The key driver is the differing expectation effects, where longer windows reduce the likelihood of the zero lower bound (ZLB) binding but may overshoot inflation targets, leading to lower output and welfare. Our results reveal that the optimal averaging window for AIT depends critically on the ZLB probability: higher ZLB risks favor longer windows, while lower risks make shorter windows sufficient. Moreover, we investigate the fiscal multiplier under AIT and show that it differs significantly from IT. In addition, the welfare-maximizing AIT window does not align with the window that maximizes fiscal multipliers, highlighting trade-offs between welfare and fiscal policy effectiveness. This study underscores the importance of nonlinear methods in evaluating AIT and provides practical insights into its calibration for modern monetary policy frameworks.

Thérèse Humbert was a lowly French peasant until she saved the life of an American millionaire who left her a vast inheritance, but after twenty years of litigation over said inheritance, a massive web of deception unraveled. The millionaire had never existed, his “nephews” were actually Humbert’s brothers, and Humbert herself had swindled Europe’s moneyed men and working-class laborers out of millions of francs. Overnight, Humbert became a celebrity in the American press, even after she was convicted and imprisoned for fraud. The French swindler’s onslaught of coverage in American newspapers shaped Gilded Age anxieties about money, credit, and the place of women in an ever-changing world. Gender ideologies concerning women’s place in the economy and turn-of-the-century financial instability made the Humbert swindle irresistible to the American press, who saw the story as an opportunity to moralize about women and finance. The sheer scale of Humbert’s fraud and its American coverage make the story remarkable today as an astonishing episode in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, especially among cultural historians and those interested in the New History of Capitalism.

On December 24, 2024, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) voted unanimously in support of resolution 79/23, adopting the “United Nations Convention against Cybercrime; Strengthening International Cooperation for Combating Certain Crimes Committed by Means of Information and Communications Technology Systems and for the Sharing of Evidence in Electronic Form of Serious Crimes” (UNCC).1 This Christmas Eve consensus marked the end of a multilateral journey that formally began in 2019, and signaled the beginning of a new chapter in the much longer history of international cooperation on cybercrime.

This study examines how Egyptian law recognizes and deals with land that is stipulated as state property, but has been informally used and/or acquired by individuals as private property. A case in point is Warraq Island in Egypt, whose land became the target of the government’s initiative to remove illegal occupations on the so-called state-owned land. In July 2017, government forces arrived on the island to enforce the order, but they encountered fierce resistance from the residents. Since then, both parties have been involved in negotiations to agree on a viable solution. It is important to note that in Egypt, the state often exerts control over the legal system, based on its own interests. However, such actions tend to fail in light of legal challenges by various actors or widespread demonstrations that may not be legally sanctioned.

Sit-to-stand (STS) motion is an essential daily activity. However, this motion becomes increasingly difficult for older adults as their muscle strength declines with age. To assist individuals in standing up while maximizing their muscle strength based on the assist-as-needed (AAN) strategy, assistive devices must detect early STS intent, specifically before the buttocks leave the chair, to ensure timely assistance. This study proposes a novel method for detecting STS intent by applying external mechanical stimuli to the toes and analyzing the resulting changes in heel and toe-reaction forces. Moreover, a structured detection framework was developed by utilizing predefined thresholds for the change rate and magnitude of the heel and toe-reaction forces to detect STS intent. Offline tests for threshold setting of STS-intent detection were established in the offline tests: change rate and magnitude of the reaction forces on the heel and toes. The thresholds for each criterion were determined using the Pareto optimization method. Using the determined thresholds, these criteria were then applied in online tests to evaluate the performance of the proposed intent detection method. The results demonstrated that mechanical stimuli improved the performance of STS-intent detection, providing accurate and stable detection. This method can be applied to STS-assistive devices to effectively implement AAN functionality for standing assistance.