...government decided to pursue economic policies that changed the Brazilian economy into a dynamic market based system. Some of the key policy changes made were the privatization, of state owned enterprises, deregulation that allowed for greater domestic and foreign competition, perusing regional and multinational free trade agreements and the removal of red tape associated with foreign investment. The mainstay of all these reforms was the Plano Real (Real Plan). This real plan involved the scrapping of the old currency, the cruzeiro and replacing it with a brand new currency the real. The plan was to drive out inflation by adhering to strict monetary policies. The government decided to peg the real to the United States (U.S.) dollar and not allow it to depreciate more than 7.5 % against the US dollar per year. The government also increased the interest rates repeatedly to maintain the value of the real against the dollar. The economic reforms in Brazil were fairly successful, the country saw the inflation rate drop to 2% by 1998 and the economy grew by 3 to 4% annually as well as foreign investment soaring to $ 22 billion in 1998, but not all was well. Brazil was facing a huge trade deficit due to an overvalued real. There were also huge budget deficits which were structural in nature. These structural problems required that the Brazilian constitution be amended which was proving to be problematic for the government. The real also faced challenges from the Asian financial crisis which...
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...not effective when it comes to defending yourself in the real world. Spinning and high flying kicks may look cool in Hollywood movies and in the dojo, but try using any of these in the street and you will find yourself on your back in a pool of your own blood before you figure out what hit you. When it comes to real life self-defense, MMA style striking combining Muay Thai and western style boxing has proven the best for stand up, while Gracie Jiu-Jitsu (also know as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu) has proven to be the best overall and when on the ground. With over 90% of real life fights ending on the ground, it is clear that the opponent who is the best at ground fighting will ultimately have the upper hand. During your life there may definitely be some situations where you may prefer to try and stay on your feet and rely on your MMA striking skills, such as facing multiple opponents in a bar. However, experienced Gracie Jiu-Jitsu practitioners like Jean Jacques Machado and Chad LeBrun of The Lab Mixed Martial Arts Academy in Fredericksburg, VA, have proven that Gracie Jiu-Jitsu is the most effective fighting style against multiple attackers and even armed assailants....
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...- like style. (“Capoeira”, Dictionary.com, 2009) Originally comes from Tupi, referring to areas of low vegetation in the Brazilian spirit. Primarily based around kicking, many movements are carried out while in a handstand position, often resembling to modern break-dance moves. Highly acrobatic, energetic and difficult to master. Afro Brazilian martial arts elements, originated in Brazil by African slaves as a system of physical discipline and movements. This creative martial art shows the apprentice more about strength, creativity, and courage. Capoeirista is another term for Capoeira that has three main styles that are clearly different. Angola is characterized by slow, low play with a particular attention to the rituals and capoeira tradition. Regional is also known for its fluid acrobatic play, where the techniques and strategy are the main key points. Usually more accelerated pace, than Angola. Contemporaneous is generally faster – paced but further apart in a short period. All three different styles are marked by defensive action towards the point under assault, and to escape, using groundwork, as well as sweeps, kicks, and head butts. Play fight with each other, inside a circle formed by spectators while others of the group play instruments and sing, which dedicates to speed or tempo of the movements. The main history about Brazilian Dance - Art Form happened during the 1500’s; Portugal shipped slaves into South America from Western Africa. The slaves were...
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...Import Substitution and Industrialization in Latin Amercia: Experiences and Interpretations Author(s): Werner Baer Source: Latin American Research Review, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Spring, 1972), pp. 95-122 Published by: The Latin American Studies Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2502457 Accessed: 26/08/2009 09:21 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=lamer. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. The Latin American Studies Association...
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...Economy and Society Volume 37 Number 2 May 2008: 193Á223 Regional trade agreements and the pursuit of state interests: institutional perspectives from NAFTA and Mercosur Francesco Duina and Jason Buxbaum Abstract Are regional trade agreements (RTAs) carefully crafted projects that systematically advance their member states’ interests or do they instead generate outcomes that frustrate those interests? Works on the most prominent RTA Á the European Union Á have traditionally been split over this question. New research on international organizations parallels that literature. Combining rational choice and historical institutionalism, this article makes a middle-ground case: the limited rationality of national representatives and the complexity of RTAs ensure both the advancement and frustration of national interests. The focus is on shifting national preferences, the unpredictable implications of decisions over time and the pursuit of short-term gains to the benefit of some constituents but not others. Evidence from NAFTA and Mercosur supports these claims while highlighting, in line with recent scholarship, the need to include politics in institutionalist accounts of integration. The conclusion reflects on the findings and explores whether alternative, more flexible designs for RTAs might satisfy more fully the interests of the member states. Keywords: regional trade agreements; rational choice institutionalism; historical institutionalism; NAFTA; Mercosur; international...
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...Monetary Fund) report indicates that Brazil leads all other South American countries in terms of infrastructure and technological development. Combine these facts with the stabilising economic and political landscape — (the twin nightmares of corruption and hyper-inflation ravaged the country for decades) — and it is easy to see why Brazil attracts a higher percentage of total global foreign direct investment year on year. However, anybody wishing to do business with Brazil and the Brazilians should be aware of the various cultural and structural barriers which might confront them. Probably the most pervasive barrier encountered by the unwary traveller would be the 'Custo Basil' or the 'Brazil Cost'. This term refers to the very real extra costs of doing business in Brazil — corruption, governmental inefficiency, legal and bureaucratic complications, excessive taxation, poor infrastructure, inflation etc. Although this 'costa' is difficult to define and has lessened in recent years, it remains real and the cause of great frustration for international business people. Due to this 'Custo Brasil', it is important to work closely with local lawyers and accountants. Many people have found the services of local middlemen (despachante) extremely useful in overcoming many of the...
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...American Business Law Journal Volume 45, Issue 2, 283–330, Summer 2008 The Impact of Compulsory Licensing on Foreign Direct Investment: A Collective Bargaining Approach Robert Birdn and Daniel R. Cahoynn I. INTRODUCTION The need to facilitate access to essential medicines for those with lifethreatening or fatal diseases like HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria has generated significant interest. Yet, an inevitable tension exists between the need for pharmaceutical companies to profit from their patented inventions and the desire to provide access for impoverished persons. Developing nations have attempted to resolve this tension through the issuance of patent compulsory licensesFauthorizations for government-approved generic copies1Fso that those in need of the n Assistant Professor of Business Law, School of Business, University of Connecticut. This article received the Holmes-Cardozo Award for Outstanding Submitted Conference Paper as well as the Ralph J. Bunche Best Paper Award at the Academy of Legal Studies in Business Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, IN, August 2007. Our thanks for comments and support go to Jayashree Watal, Peter Yu, Douglas Lippoldt, and the other participants at the University of Connecticut’s Center for International Business Education and Research Conference, ‘‘The Impact of Intellectual Property Rights on Innovation, Knowledge Diffusion, and Foreign Direct Investment in the Global Economy,’’ Storrs, CT, May 2007. Additional thanks to Anthony Kwasnica and...
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...The Art of War In everything that we do in our life, first thing that we should do is to make plans on how we’re going to do a thing, when will do it, where we will do it, why we’re doing it and what’s the purpose of doing it. Sun Tzu emphasized the importance of positioning in military strategy. The decision to position an army must be based on both objective conditions in the physical environment and the subjective beliefs of other, competitive actors in that environment. He thought that strategy was not planning in the sense of working through an established list, but rather that it requires quick and appropriate responses to changing conditions. Planning works in a controlled environment; but in a changing environment, competing plans collide, creating unexpected situations. In the first chapter of the Art of War talks about laying plans or the calculations. Planning explores the five fundamental factors (the way, seasons, terrain, leadership and management) and seven elements that determine the outcomes of military engagement. By thinking, assessing and comparing these points, a commander can calculate his chances of victory. Habitual deviation from these calculations will ensure failure via improper action. The text stresses that war is a very grave matter for the state and must not be commenced without due consideration. In waging war or the challenge explains how to understand the economy of warfare and how success requires winning decisive engagements quickly. It...
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...http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/bank/hba57160.000/hba57160_0f.htm EXCHANGE RATE STABILITY IN INTERNATIONAL FINANCE FRIDAY, MAY 21, 1999 U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Banking and Financial Services, Washington, DC. The committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:00 a.m., in room 2128, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. James A. Leach, [chairman of the committee], presiding. Present: Chairman Leach; Representatives Bachus, Ryan, Toomey, Frank, Sherman, Mascara and Inslee. Chairman LEACH. The hearing will come to order. On behalf of the committee, I would like to welcome our distinguished panel of expert witnesses to the second in the committee's series of hearings on international economic issues. Yesterday the committee addressed a wide spectrum of issues associated with debate over proposals for a new international financial architecture. Today we will home in on a critical element of that ongoing discussion, the question of which exchange rate systems best promote global economic growth and stability. Page 2 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC Until very recently, the issue of appropriate currency arrangements was missing in action from the official agenda for global reform. The existence of this gap presumably reflected the substantial divisions on this issue among economists and policymakers. In any regard, these divisions became manifest in the remarkable inconsistency of policy advice provided on exchange rates...
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...even during this extremely busy work time for the company. In the recent years the management team has determined that the actual fabrication of the products could be off-shored at tremendous cost savings to the organization. This reduction in U.K. factory workers has caused some strife within the home office. With the recent reductions in U.K. workforce we have seen overall retirements increase and the loss of critical employees. This loss of long term employees within the office staff has created some distinct communication issues. Through this lack of communication power and politics has become the norm for daily working within the home office. With the missing communication model we have seen the directors take the position of defending their groups and creating a power struggle for the overall leadership role among the directors. This situation is exacerbated by the long term illness that has kept our managing director to a very small part time role within the company. This has left the three directors trying to manage themselves and the overall organization. This jealousy has reduced communication within the combating groups to a minimum. Through the use of the organized culture index we can gain new perspective on the situation...
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...Barbara Jeanne Fields Slavery, Race and Ideology in the United States of America Two years ago, a sports announcer in the United States lost his job because he enlarged indiscreetly—that is, before a television audience—upon his views about ‘racial’ differences. Asked why there are so few black coaches in basketball, Jimmy ‘the Greek’ Snyder remarked that black athletes already hold an advantage as basketball players because they have longer thighs than white athletes, their ancestors having been deliberately bred that way during slavery. ‘This goes all the way to the Civil War,’ Jimmy the Greek explained, ‘when during the slave trading . . . the owner, the slave owner would breed his big black to his big woman so he could have a big black kid, you see.’ Astonishing though it may seem, Snyder intended his remark as a compliment to black athletes. If black men became coaches, he said, there would be nothing left for white men to do in basketball at all. Embarrassed by such rank and open expression of racism in the most ignorant form, the network fired Jimmy the Greek from his job. Any fool, the network must have decided, should know that such things may be spoken in the privacy of the 95 locker-room in an all-white club, but not into a microphone and before a camera. Of course, Jimmy the Greek lays no claim to being educated or well informed. Before he was hired to keep audiences entertained during the slack moments of televised sports events, he was...
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... South Korea and Indonesia were the best responses or not. After analyzing the IMF responses in this crisis, I found that the IMF policies need to be reformed in order to monitor and prevent future financial crises spill-over effects at the global and regional levels. I will analyzed 5 scholarly journals on the financial crisis in East Asia, 3 scholarly articles on the role of IMF in the East Asia financial crisis, and 1 novel called POLITICS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA DEMOCRACY OR LESS by William Case. INTRODUCTION Several financial crises have occurred in the world economy through the last decades. Some examples include the East Asian financial Crisis of 1997, the Latin American debt crisis of 1994-95, the Russian crisis of 1998, and the Brazilian crisis of 1998-99 which spread out to other areas also known as the “contagion effect”. During these crises, the International Monetary Funds (IMF) has been involved and known as a crisis manager. The IMF was created in 1945 after World War 2. The IMF is charged with overseeing the system of exchange rates and international payments that enables countries of the...
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...La Ultima Cena In an ideal world, mankind would live in peace with all others. One could look to another person and judge them etiquette, moral or even social value. However, humans have gone through many dark times, usually involves the intolerance that mankind has for one another. Whether it is an disagreement on religion, a power struggle for land or the development of society, if there is one thing humans are consistent in is that we do not play nice. However, for people to judge each other on a superficial and meaningless factor such as color is truly bewildering, considering all the many things that makes us different. Because of this type of judgmental mentality, superiority complexes were soon followed, putting specific groups at the top of the food chain. Sadly, those of African descendance would bare the burden of being slaves, in every meaning of the words, to a vast majority of the world due the ignorance of the human race. The movie, The Last Supper, by Tomas Gutierrez Alea depicts the interaction and relationships of the denizens of a sugar plantation in Cuba during the eighteen hundreds. All from the Count to the overseer and slaves had ways of interacting with one another, which was mostly decided on their race and social status. The movie deals with various topics that defined that era in time and there are many reoccurring themes in the movie that can be seen in other periods of time and places. In this paper, many aspects of black culture will be discussed...
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...Case Study Firm: Credit Lyonnais Industry: Banking Countries: France, World-wide International HRM Issue: The internationalization of a bank & the cultural conflicts involved 1) Introduction This study of Credit Lyonnais, one of the world's largest banks with offices in over 60 countries, examines the organisation and human resource management strategies thought necessary to survive the rapid market changes in international banking. Credit Lyonnais provides a particularly good example of a large bank which is determined to succeed through growth in services offered in existing markets and through extending into new markets. Credit Lyonnais has offices on all continents, and in the countries where it has operations, it applies one of two growth strategies: i) organic growth (increasing the activity of its branches and subsidiaries, or opening new branches) ii) acquisitions / mergers (involving either take-overs or purchase of minority interests in local banks). Credit Lyonnais now has 610 offices outside Europe and these are either subsidiaries (where the HRM has a majority shareholding) or associated companies (where the HRM has a minority shareholding). The Credit Lyonnais Group has grown very rapidly over the past few years and will continue to grow with planned expansions on all Continents and in all areas of business. Realizing at an early stage of its expansion that its service and market strategies required an equally strong human resource strategy Credit Lyonnais...
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...Index * Introduction * Definition * Purpose * Benefits and costs of reserve accumulation * Theories of reserve accumulation * History of Foreign Exchange Reserves * Adequacy and Excess reserves * List of countries by Foreign Exchange Reserves * New Realities of Forex Reserves and Management * Conclusion * Reference SIGNIFICANCE OF FOREIGN EXCHANGE RESERVES Introduction Foreign-exchange reserves (also called forex reserves or FX reserves) are assets held by central banks and monetary authorities, usually in different reserve currencies, mostly the United States dollar, and to a lesser extent the euro, the United Kingdom pound sterling, and the Japanese yen, and used to back its liabilities, e.g., the local currency issued, and the various bank reserves deposited with the central bank, by the government or financial institutions. Deposits of a foreign currency held by a central bank. Holding the currencies of other countries as assets allow governments to keep their currencies stable and reduce the effect of economic shocks. The use of foreign exchange reserves became popular after the decline of the gold standard. Definition In a strict sense, foreign-exchange reserves should only include foreign currency deposits and bonds. However, the term in popular usage commonly also adds gold reserves, special drawing rights (SDRs), and International Monetary Fund (IMF) reserve positions. This broader figure is more readily available...
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