Attention

• The work of photographer Alfredo Cunha features prominently in many – he authored a book compiling the most emblematic images of this period.
• Many of those who organised the revolution are still alive today and have been present at events to mark the anniversary.

The roots of the revolution

• This led a section of the country’s army to rise up.
• Carlos de Almada Contreiras, a captain in the Portuguese navy, played a prominent role in the revolution.

International support

• María José Tiscar, for example, argues that Franco repaid Salazar’s help during the Spanish civil war with political, military and diplomatic support during the Portuguese colonial war (1961-1974), sometimes covertly.
• From 1965 onward, Cuba provided support in training guerrilla forces from the colonial liberation movements fighting the Estado Novo, first in Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde, and then in Angola and Mozambique.
• A year after the final departure of Portuguese troops from Africa in 1976, the Portuguese far-right, with the support of the CIA, bombed the Cuban embassy in Lisbon, claiming the lives of two diplomats.

Celebrating peace

• Images abound of young soldiers with carnations in their rifles, and of the joyous faces of those celebrating the fall of the Estado Novo.
• The city’s streets and boulevards are also adorned with many murals paying tribute to the events of 25 April 1974.
• No other country in the region has so recently experienced a revolution that gave way to its current democratic government.

Democratic revolution

• Five decades after the revolution erupted, Portugal has followed a unique path to democracy.
• Once the Estado Novo and its apparatus of oppression had been dismantled, power was swiftly handed over to civilians, and military officials ceased to hold political positions.

Fernando Camacho Padilla no recibe salario, ni ejerce labores de consultoría, ni posee acciones, ni recibe financiación de ninguna compañía u organización que pueda obtener beneficio de este artículo, y ha declarado carecer de vínculos relevantes más allá del cargo académico citado.

• Recommendations from the disability royal commission and the NDIS review were released late last year.
• In this series, experts examine what new proposals could mean for people with disability.
• Recent media coverage about the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) frames the choices of people with disability as threats to their safety or the safety of others.

Choosing services and who provides them

• Research indicates people with disability are more likely to be safe and free from abuse when they have choice over what services they receive and who provides them.
• Previous research by one of us (Sophie) also found some people feel safe as a result of having more choice.
• They may be dependent upon one provider for essential services.
• Read more:
  Unregistered NDIS providers are in the firing line – but lots of participants have good reasons for using them

There is more than one way to support safety

• It did make other quality and safety recommendations that have not received the same degree of attention as the controversial recommendation on mandatory provider registration.
• There are also recommendations to help all people with disability to navigate NDIS, foundational and other services and increase decision-making support.
• The recommendations to diversify housing and living supports are critical for expanding both choice and safety.

What about worker safety?

• These workers experience different pay and working conditions depending on the provider they work for and industrial award they are employed under.
• NDIS participants can use online platforms to employ sole-trader support workers rather than going through agencies.
• That said, workers employed by disability service organisations also report low levels of confidence in organisational safety and reporting systems.

What could support safety for everyone?

Rather than assuming choice and safety are in opposition to each other and further restricting choice, our research suggests the following priorities:

• Safety is about being connected and embedded within the community, where many people are looking out for you, checking in on you and noticing if you don’t show up to your usual activities.
• Ultimately, a scheme where people with disability are empowered to make meaningful decisions between quality services, and workers are valued and supported in their roles, will promote safety for everyone.
• Read more:
  States agreed to share foundational support costs.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• As dentistry scholars, we believe Koop also deserves credit for something else.
• Americans who rely on the traditional Medicare program for their health insurance get no help from that program with paying their dental bills aside from some narrow exceptions.
• This group includes some 24 million people over 65 – about half of all the people who rely on Medicare for their health insurance.

‘Medically necessary’ exceptions

• The list of circumstances that would lead patients to be eligible is short.
• Some examples include patients scheduled for organ transplants or who have cancer treatment requiring radiation of their jaws.
• But we believe that dental care is necessary for everyone, especially for older people.

Chew, speak, breathe

• While many working Americans get limited dental coverage through their employers, those benefits are usually limited to as little as $1,000 per year.
• And once they retire, Americans almost always lose even that basic coverage.
• Rich Americans with Medicare coverage are almost three times more likely to receive dental care compared to those with low incomes.

Connected to many serious conditions

• Having diabetes makes you three times as likely to develop gum disease because diabetes compromises the body’s response to inflammation and infection.
• At the same time, treating diabetes patients for gum disease can help control their blood sugar levels.

Chemo can damage your teeth

Many cancer treatments can damage teeth, especially for older adults. As a result, Medicare has started to reimburse for dental bills tied to tooth decay or other oral conditions after they get chemotherapy or radiation treatment.

More than nice to have

• Doctors and dentists are educated separately, and doctors learn very little about dental conditions and treatments when they’re in medical school.
• Most dental electronic health records aren’t linked to medical systems, hindering comprehensive care and delivery of dental care to those in need.
• Medical insurance was designed specifically to cover large, unpredictable expenses, while dental insurance was intended to mainly fund predictable and lower-cost preventive care.

Medicare Advantage plans

• Until Medicare expands coverage to include preventive dental services for everyone, alternative plans such as Medicare Advantage, through which the federal government contracts with private insurers to provide Medicare benefits, serve as a stopgap.
• In 2016, only 21% of beneficiaries in traditional Medicare had purchased a stand-alone dental plan, whereas roughly two-thirds of Medicare Advantage enrollees had at least some dental benefits through their coverage.

Frank Scannapieco is affiliated with The Task Force on Design and Analysis in Oral Health Research, and consults for the Colgate-Palmolive Company. Ira Lamster is a member of the Santa Fe Group. He currently receives consulting fees from Colgate, and research support from the CareQuest Institute.

• Working Paper Series
  Federico Maria Ferrara

  Central bank asset purchases
  and auction cycles revisited:
  new evidence from the euro area

  No 2927

  Disclaimer: This paper should not be reported as representing the views of the European Central Bank
  (ECB).

• Abstract
  This study provides new evidence on the relationship between unconventional monetary
  policy and auction cycles in the euro area.
• The findings indicate that Eurosystem?s asset purchase flows mitigate
  yield cycles during auction periods and counteract the amplification impact of market volatility.
• The dampening effect of central bank asset purchases on auction cycles is more sizeable and
  precisely estimated for purchases of securities with medium-term maturities and in jurisdictions
  with relatively lower credit ratings.
• On the other hand, central banks may influence price dynamics in these markets, most notably
  through their asset purchase programmes.
• If so, do central bank asset purchases
  affect bond yield movements around auction dates?
• Auction cycles are present when secondary market yields rise in
  anticipation of a debt auction and fall thereafter, generating an inverted V-shaped pattern around auction
  dates.
• ECB Working Paper Series No 2927

  3

  1

  Introduction

  The impact of central bank asset purchases on government bond markets is a focal point of economic and
  financial research.

• If so,
  do central bank asset purchases shape yield sensitivity around auction dates?
• The paper provides new evidence on the effects of Eurosystem?s asset purchases on secondary market
  yields around public debt auction dates.
• The analysis builds on previous research based on aggregate data
  on central bank asset purchases and a shorter analysis period (van Spronsen and Beetsma 2022).
• Using
  granular data on Eurosystem?s asset purchases offers an opportunity to shed light on the mechanisms linking
  unconventional monetary policy and auction cycles.
• Given this legal constraint, the study
  hypothesises that the effect of asset purchases on 10-year auction cycles is mostly indirect, and goes via price
  spillovers generated by purchases of securities outside the 10-year maturity space.
• Taken together, these results provide new evidence about auction cycles in Europe and contribute to a
  larger literature on the flow effects of central bank asset purchases on bond markets.
• Section 4 offers descriptive evidence about auction cycles in the euro area.
• Auction cycles are defined by the presence of an inverted V-shaped pattern in secondary market yields
  around primary auctions.
• That is, government bond yields rise in the run-up to the date of the auction and
  fall back to their original level after the auction.
• Their limited risk-bearing capacities and inventory management operations are
  seen as key mechanisms driving auction cycles (Beetsma et al.
• ECB Working Paper Series No 2927

  7

  Second, central bank asset purchases can alleviate the cycle by (partly) absorbing the additional supply
  of substitutable instruments in the secondary market (van Spronsen and Beetsma 2022).

• This expectation is
  supported by several analyses on the price effects of central bank bond purchases (D?Amico and King 2013;
  Arrata and Nguyen 2017; De Santis and Holm-Hadulla 2020).
• Empirically, previous research has provided evidence of auction cycles taking place across different jurisdictions.
• (2016) detect auction cycles for government debt in Italy, but not in Germany, during the European
  sovereign debt crisis.
• Research on the impact of central bank asset purchases on yield cycles around auctions is still limited.
• Their paper provides evidence
  that Eurosystem?s asset purchases reduce the presence of auction cycles for euro area government debt.
• Nonetheless, several questions remain open about auction cycles and unconventional monetary policy
  in the euro area.
• Therefore, they
  provide only a partial picture of auction cycles and central bank asset purchases in Europe.
• The use of granular data on central bank asset purchases is especially important in light of the modalities
  of monetary policy implementation of the Eurosystem.
• Altogether, these elements motivate further investigation of the relationship between central bank asset
  purchases and auction cycles in the euro area.
• Taken together, these results confirm that Eurosystem?s asset purchases mitigate yield cycles during auction periods and counteract the amplification impact of market volatility.
• The findings confirm that the flow
  effects of central bank purchases on yield movements around auction dates are driven by lower-rated countries.
• Additional analyses provide evidence for an indirect effect of purchases on auction cycles and highlight
  the presence of substantial heterogeneity across jurisdictions and purchase programmes.
• Flow Effects of Central Bank Asset Purchases on Sovereign Bond
  Prices: Evidence from a Natural Experiment.
• Federico Maria Ferrara
  European Central Bank, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; email: [email protected]

  ? European Central Bank, 2024
  Postal address 60640 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
  Telephone
  +49 69 1344 0
  Website
  www.ecb.europa.eu
  All rights reserved.