Fear of Sudden Stops: Lessons from Australia and Chile

Latin American economies are exposed to substantial external vulnerability. Domestic imbalances and terms of trade shocks are often exacerbated by sudden stops of capital inflow. In this paper we explore ways of overcoming external vulnerability, drawing lessons from a detailed comparison of the response of Chile and Australia to recent external shocks and from Australia's historical experience. We argue that in order to understand sudden stops and the mechanisms to smooth them, it is useful to identify and then distinguish between two inter-related dimensions of investors' confidence: country-trust and currency-trust. Lack of country-trust is a more fundamental and serious problem behind sudden stops. But lack of currency-trust may both be a source of country-trust problems and weaken a country's ability to deal with sudden stops. We discuss steps to improve along these two dimensions of investors' confidence in the medium run, and policies to reduce the impact of country-trust and currency-trust weaknesses in the short run.

Fear of Sudden Stops: lessons from Australia and Chile

Latin American economies are exposed to ubstantial external vulnerability. Domestic imbalances and terms of trade shocks are often exacerbated by sudden financial distress. In this paper we explore ways of overcoming external vulnerability drawing lessons from a detailed comparison of the response of Chile and Australia to recent external shocks and from Australia’s historical experience. We argue that in order to understand sudden stops and the mechanisms to smooth them, it is useful to highlight and then draw a distinction between two dimensions of investors confidence: country-trust and currency-trust. While these two dimensions are interrelated, there are important distinctions. Lack of country-trust is a more fundamental and serious problem behind sudden stops. But lack of currency-trust may both be a source of country-trust problems as well as weaken a country’s ability to deal with sudden stops. We discuss steps to improve along these two dimensions of investors’ confidence in the medium run, and policies to reduce the impact of country-trust and currency-trust weaknesses in the short runsudden stops

Fear of Sudden Stops: Lessons from Australia and Chile

Latin American economies are exposed to substantial external vulnerability. Domestic imbalances and terms of trade shocks are often exacerbated by sudden financial distress. This paper explores ways of overcoming external vulnerability, drawing lessons from a detailed comparison of the response of Chile and Australia to recent external shocks and from Australia`s historical experience. It is argued that, in order to understand sudden stops and the mechanisms to smooth them, it is useful to highlight and then draw a distinction between two dimensions of investor confidence: country-trust and currency-trust. While these two dimensions are interrelated, there are important distinctions. Lack of country-trust is a more fundamental and serious problem behind sudden stops. But lack of currency-trust may be a source of country-trust problems as well as weaken a country`s ability to deal with sudden stops. The paper further discusses steps to improve investor confidence in the medium run along these two dimensions, as well as policies to reduce the impact of country-trust and currency-trust weaknesses in the short run.

Fear of Sudden Stops: Lessons from Australia and Chile

Latin American economies are exposed to substantial external vulnerability. Domestic imbalances and terms of trade shocks are often exacerbated by sudden stops of capital inflow. In this paper we explore ways of overcoming external vulnerability, drawing lessons from a detailed comparison of the response of Chile and Australia to recent external shocks and from Australia’s historical experience. We argue that in order to understand sudden stops and the mechanisms to smooth them, it is useful to identify and then distinguish between two inter-related dimensions of investors’ confidence: country-trust and currency-trust . Lack of country-trust is a more fundamental and serious problem behind sudden stops. But lack of currency-trust may both be a source of country-trust problems and weaken a country’s ability to deal with sudden stops. We discuss steps to improve along these two dimensions of investors’ confidence in the medium run, and policies to reduce the impact of country-trust and currency-trust weaknesses in the short run.sudden stops; Australia; Chile

Building the Faith: Strategies for Building the Capacity of Faith-Based Organizations and Congregations Serving Allegheny County, Pennsylvania

For as long as anyone can remember, congregations have played a vital role in nurturing the spirit of the community. Aside from being a source for spiritual grounding, congregations also provide social ministries to address the needs of the community. Over time, these social ministries have developed into more formal and professional faith-based programs and organizations, which often function independently from those offered by their founding congregations. Such national organizations as Catholic Charities, Young Men's Christian Association and the United Jewish Federation, and such local organizations as Holy Family Institute, Pittsburgh Project, the Jewish Community Center and East End Cooperative Ministries, have emerged from congregations as ways to respond to the social needs of the community. While faith-based organizations (FBOs) have played important roles in their communities for many years, the issue of public funding for their efforts has become the subject of extensive public debate relatively recently. The current national dialogue can be traced back to 1996 and the Clinton administration's support for changes to what has been called "charitable choice" legislation: making federal contracts more readily available to support the work of congregations and FBOs. Subsequently, in 2001, the Bush administration established the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives as a way to further address the needs of FBOs. Despite the great variety of beliefs represented by FBOs, they share some important characteristics: a broad commitment to community; support for spiritual growth and social justice; and a willingness to serve in areas of great need. These characteristics were confirmed by a recent survey of incorporated 501(c)(3) faith-based organizations carried out by a team of researchers led by Dr. Kevin Kearns, Associate Professor at the University of Pittsburgh. For example, the team found that when compared to their secular counterparts, FBOs benefit from much higher levels of commitment from volunteers, and this commitment does not abate as the organizations grow larger and gain more professional staff. In recent years, government at all levels has come to rely on FBOs to deliver services to populations in need. Annually, FBOs in the United States provide more than $15 billion in social and human services, serving approximately 70 million persons. In some communities, government contracts with FBOs have increased more than 500$125 million. (Nine states were studied in the year 2000 and an additional six in 2002.)This study also found that government contracting with FBOs in eight of nine originally surveyed states increased substantially, from over $7.5 million in 2000 to over$88 million in 2002

Training Metaphor Interpretation in RHD Patients: Preliminary Results

Five stroke patients with right hemisphere brain damage (RHD) participated in a single subject experimental design intervention study to train metaphor comprehension. The theory motivating the program posits roles for coarse-grained semantic knowledge and working memory. Four patients showed clear improvement in metaphor interpretation associated with the start of training. Results indicate the potential of an evidence-based approach for treating deficits associated with RHD. The paper will describe the training program and discuss individual performances on metaphor, line orientation, working memory and other background measures

Response Elaboration Training for Patient Initiated Utterances

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Functional Outcome: Methodological Considerations

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