The Role Of Latin American Banks In The Region’s Currency Crises

The frequency of currency crises in Latin America has not abated in the last few years, as the Mexican Peso crises of 1982 and 1995, the Brazilian Real Crisis of 1998 and the Argentine Peso crisis of 2001 attest. Although many factors are involved in these crises, Latin American banks have played an important, yet previously unstudied role in the frequency and severity of the region’s financial crises. This paper examines four of the most recent currency crises in the region to determine if there are any commonalities or root causes to be found in the region’s banking system. It is found that, indeed, the region’s banks have had a profound role.Currency crises, Latin America, Banking

The external impacts of Central Bank independence

The term "central bank independence" (or abbreviated, CBI) can be broadly defined as the degree of freedom of the central bank to pursue monetary policy without interference from political considerations. The idea of central bank independence has been widely accepted over the last several decades by many countries around the world, both developed and developing. Since being first written about academically in the late 1980s, many countries have come to adopt this policy and many governments have come to recognize this as standard procedure. As such, many countries around the world granted autonomy to their central banks during the 1980s and 1990s. The majority of past studies have examined primarily the impact of central bank independence on inflation. however, the additional theoretical benefits are much more far reaching, the result of a more stable and prosperous macroeconomic environment. Additionally, there is only now sufficient data to empirically determine whether many of these claims are true. This study examines central bank independence in developing countries of Latin America and Asia as well as selected developed countries to determine what actual impact an autonomous central bank has had. It also examines such phenomena as financial crises (including the current global crisis of 2008-2009), inflation targeting, legal systems, country development and fiscal policy to determine the effects of these items on not only inflation, but the broad spectrum of macroeconomic outcomes. Although there is some empirical evidence to support the benefits of central bank independence, it is limited in scope to certain areas.O termo "independência do banco central" (ou IBC) pode ser amplamente definido como o grau de liberdade que o banco central possui para seguir sua política monetária sem a interferência de considerações políticas. A ideia da independência do banco central foi aceita nas últimas décadas por muitos países ao redor do mundo, tanto desenvolvidos como em desenvolvimento. Desde a primeira literatura acadêmica a respeito no final dos anos 80, muitos países começaram a adotar essa política e muitos governos a reconheceram como padrão. Assim, muitos países ao redor do mundo concederam autonomia a seus bancos centrais nos anos 80 e 90. A maior parte dos estudos existentes investigou principalmente o impacto da independência do banco central na inflação. Porém, os benefícios teóricos adicionais vão muito além, resultado de um ambiente macroeconômico mais estável e próspero. Ademais, somente agora há dados suficientes para a determinação empírica da veracidade de muitas dessas alegações. Este estudo investiga a independência dos bancos centrais em países em desenvolvimento na América Latina e na Ásia, além de determinados países desenvolvidos, para determinar o real impacto de um banco central autônomo. Também examina fenômenos como crises financeiras (inclusive a crise global em curso no período 2008-2009), estabelecimento de metas de inflação, sistemas legais, desenvolvimento dos países e política fiscal para determinar os efeitos destes itens não somente na inflação, mas no espectro amplo de resultados macroeconômicos. Apesar de haver evidências empíricas para apoiar os benefícios da independência do banco central, seu escopo é limitado a determinadas áreas

Preaching the Absolute Claims of Scripture in a Postmodern Context for Spiritual Transformation

This dissertation argues that to help transform a postmodern heart and mind in the United States today, sermons should be biblically faithful, insightful, relevant, conversational, short, and serve as a humble invitation to participate in various spiritual disciplines for further personal exploration. Through an initial overview of postmodernity and current trends in communication, the case will be made that in today’s sound-byte culture sermons should be shorter. In postmodernity, a dialogue format is preferred to a long monologue, so sermons should be inductive not deductive in style, and should serve as a conversation starter not an exhaustive claim to truth. Recent church studies have also revealed that spiritual transformation most often happens when one faithfully practices various spiritual disciplines. It is argued that in a postmodern context, where truth is ultimately based on experience, the sermon should invite its listeners to practice some type of spiritual discipline as a part of its application if it wants to help transform the listener. It will be shown that Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount followed this basic format. Finally, an exegetical process will be outlined that moves from Scripture text to current cultural context. In this process of preparation a conversation begins in the pastor’s study where one reads and ask questions of the text. This conversation continues with commentaries, then with the culture, and finally with one’s congregants. This dissertation will then provide different inductive sermon outlines that are often used by some of the most effective preachers today. Finally, a unique process that seeks to bring the best of several approaches into one outline will be provided as well as tips on writing for the ear and eye. Content Reader: Keith Matthews, Ph

Lunar Architecture Team - Phase 2 Habitat Volume Estimation: "Caution When Using Analogs"

The lunar surface habitat will serve as the astronauts' home on the moon, providing a pressurized facility for all crew living functions and serving as the primary location for a number of crew work functions. Adequate volume is required for each of these functions in addition to that devoted to housing the habitat systems and crew consumables. The time constraints of the LAT-2 schedule precluded the Habitation Team from conducting a complete "bottoms-up" design of a lunar surface habitation system from which to derive true volumetric requirements. The objective of this analysis was to quickly derive an estimated total pressurized volume and pressurized net habitable volume per crewmember for a lunar surface habitat, using a principled, methodical approach in the absence of a detailed design. Five "heuristic methods" were used: historical spacecraft volumes, human/spacecraft integration standards and design guidance, Earth-based analogs, parametric "sizing" tools, and conceptual point designs. Estimates for total pressurized volume, total habitable volume, and volume per crewmember were derived using these methods. All method were found to provide some basis for volume estimates, but values were highly variable across a wide range, with no obvious convergence of values. Best current assumptions for required crew volume were provided as a range. Results of these analyses and future work are discussed

Law, Business Strategy, And Social Change In The Global Environment

In this article, we examine the dynamic relationship between law, economics, and sustainability. Increased legal regulation is not a sufficient condition for the mitigation of economic and social crises. Corporations are not legally required to respect global social and human rights under international law. In addition, select legal regulations increase social harm through the preservation of corporate financial interests. Laws that attempt to protect social rights at the expense of corporate interests can provoke hostile reactions from the business community. However, recent trends and examples from within the pharmaceutical and information industries suggest a new era of global corporate citizenship where socially responsible organizations achieve profit through pursuing ethical goals

Gradual Translocation of Spatial Correlates of Neuronal Firing in the Hippocampus toward Prospective Reward Locations

SummaryIn a continuous T-maze alternation task, CA1 complex-spike neurons in the hippocampus differentially fire as the rat traverses overlapping segments of the maze (i.e., the stem) repeatedly via alternate routes. The temporal dynamics of this phenomenon were further investigated in the current study. Rats learned the alternation task from the first day of acquisition and the differential firing pattern in the stem was observed accordingly. More importantly, we report a phenomenon in which spatial correlates of CA1 neuronal ensembles gradually changed from their original firing locations, shifting toward prospective goal locations in the continuous T-maze alternation task. The relative locations of simultaneously recorded firing fields, however, were preserved within the ensemble spatial representation during this shifting. The within-session shifts in preferred firing locations in the absence of any changes in the environment suggest that certain cognitive factors can significantly alter the location-bound coding scheme of hippocampal neurons

Current and Nascent SETI Instruments

Here we describe our ongoing efforts to develop high-performance and sensitive instrumentation for use in the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence (SETI). These efforts include our recently deployed Search for Extraterrestrial Emissions from Nearby Developed Intelligent Populations Spectrometer (SERENDIP V.v) and two instruments currently under development; the Heterogeneous Radio SETI Spectrometer (HRSS) for SETI observations in the radio spectrum and the Optical SETI Fast Photometer (OSFP) for SETI observations in the optical band. We will discuss the basic SERENDIP V.v instrument design and initial analysis methodology, along with instrument architectures and observation strategies for OSFP and HRSS. In addition, we will demonstrate how these instruments may be built using low-cost, modular components and programmed and operated by students using common languages, e.g. ANSI C.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, Original version appears as Chapter 2 in "The Proceedings of SETI Sessions at the 2010 Astrobiology Science Conference: Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CETI)," Douglas A. Vakoch, Edito

A PPMAP analysis of the filamentary structures in Ophiuchus L1688 and L1689

We use the PPMAP (Point Process MAPping) algorithm to re-analyse the \textit{Herschel} and SCUBA-2 observations of the L1688 and L1689 sub-regions of the Ophiuchus molecular cloud. PPMAP delivers maps with high resolution (here $14''$, corresponding to $\sim 0.01\,{\rm pc}$ at $\sim 140\,{\rm pc}$), by using the observations at their native resolutions. PPMAP also delivers more accurate dust optical depths, by distinguishing dust of different types and at different temperatures. The filaments and prestellar cores almost all lie in regions with $N_{\rm H_2}\gtrsim 7\times 10^{21}\,{\rm cm}^{-2}$ (corresponding to $A_{_{\rm V}}\gtrsim 7$). The dust temperature, $T$, tends to be correlated with the dust opacity index, $\beta$, with low $T$ and low $\beta$ tend concentrated in the interiors of filaments. The one exception to this tendency is a section of filament in L1688 that falls -- in projection -- between the two B stars, S1 and HD147889; here $T$ and $\beta$ are relatively high, and there is compelling evidence that feedback from these two stars has heated and compressed the filament. Filament {\sc fwhm}s are typically in the range $0.10\,{\rm pc}$ to $0.15\,{\rm pc}$. Most filaments have line densities in the range $25\,{\rm M_{_\odot}\,pc^{-1}}$ to $65\,{\rm M_{_\odot}\,pc^{-1}}$. If their only support is thermal gas pressure, and the gas is at the canonical temperature of $10\,{\rm K}$, the filaments are highly supercritical. However, there is some evidence from ammonia observations that the gas is significantly warmer than this, and we cannot rule out the possibility of additional support from turbulence and/or magnetic fields. On the basis of their spatial distribution, we argue that most of the starless cores are likely to disperse (rather than evolving to become prestellar).Comment: 22 pages, 18 figures, Accepted for publication by MNRAS March 202