Summer Olympic Games in China Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

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Record accommodation ought to be done at the earliest opportunity in the wake of submitting on the web application on the grounds that: ? This will give you sufficient opportunity to guarantee that your supporting reports are finished. On the off chance that you have missing archives, the counter staff will exhort you on the extra reports required and demand you to submit once more. Fragmented entries won't be prepared. ? You can maintain a strategic distance from long holding up time to get your archives checked. When and how to check application status? You may check the result of your application from 1 June ‘12 by means of: ? yNYP entrance, go to â€Å"Financial Assistance Application† ? the bursary hotline at 6550 0056 For those qualified for CDC/CCC-Polytechnic Bursary Your public venue/club will advise you when the check is prepared for assortment. To check your applicable public venue/club, go to the site of People’s Association (http://www. dad. gov. sg/) and key in your postal code under â€Å"Connect to my Community†. It is significant that your own points of interest are refreshed with the Polytechnic. We will compose a custom article test on Arbitrary or on the other hand any comparative subject explicitly for you Don't WasteYour Time Recruit WRITER Just 13.90/page It would be ideal if you continue by signing in with Admission No. nd PIN at myNYP Portal =gt; Personal Information =gt; Update Particulars. For those qualified for MOE Bursary If understudies have a GIRO account with the Polytechnic, the sum will be stored into that account. Something else, a check will be sent to you. It would be ideal if you note that the bursary will be utilized to counterbalance any extraordinary course expense before paying the parity to the understudies. Early accommodation will guarantee a smoother preparing of your application. a. Distinguishing proof Documents Family Copy of (NRIC should show same location as understudy) *to supplant with birth authentication if the relative has not arrived at the age to enroll for a character card Immediate Members b. Pay Documents of relatives in a similar family unit Salary slip/letter from boss (gave from Mar ‘12 onwards) expressing current GROSS compensation Latest duplicate of Income Tax Notice of Assessment PLUS *Self-Declaration Letter Utilized Parents/Siblings Self-utilized Parents/Siblings Employed Parents who can't CPF Statement for commitment history(for the previous 3 months I. e. to give any previously mentioned Jan †Mar ‘12) PLUS *Self-Declaration Letter salary reports Unemployed or conserved Parents/Siblings (counting housewife and retiree) Student CPF Statement for commitment history (for as far back as 3 months I. e. Jan †Mar ‘12) PLUS Retrenchment Letter where appropriate Student Pass *Self-Declaration Letter must be dated and incorporate name, signature, NRIC no.

Understanding the Psychology of Positive Thinking

Understanding the Psychology of Positive Thinking Happiness Print Understanding the Psychology of Positive Thinking By Kendra Cherry facebook twitter Kendra Cherry, MS, is an author, educational consultant, and speaker focused on helping students learn about psychology. Learn about our editorial policy Kendra Cherry Medically reviewed by Medically reviewed by Carly Snyder, MD on November 12, 2019 facebook twitter linkedin Carly Snyder, MD is a reproductive and perinatal psychiatrist who combines traditional psychiatry with integrative medicine-based treatments.   Learn about our Medical Review Board Carly Snyder, MD Updated on November 26, 2019 Dougal Waters/Digital Vision/Getty Images More in Self-Improvement Happiness Meditation Stress Management Spirituality Holistic Health Inspiration Brain Health Technology Relationships View All Do you tend to see the glass as half empty or half full? You have probably heard that question plenty of times. Your answer relates directly to the concept of positive thinking and whether you have a positive or negative outlook on life. Positive thinking plays an important role in positive psychology, a subfield devoted to the study of what makes people happy and fulfilled. Research has found that positive thinking can aid in stress management and even plays an important role in your overall health and well-being.?? What Is Positive Thinking? Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. - Abraham Lincoln What exactly is positive thinking? You might be tempted to assume that it implies seeing the world through rose-colored lenses by ignoring or glossing over the negative aspects of life. However, positive thinking actually means approaching lifes challenges with a positive outlook.?? Positive thinking does not necessarily mean avoiding or ignoring the bad things; instead, it involves making the most of the potentially bad situations, trying to see the best in other people, and viewing yourself and your abilities in a positive light. Some researchers, including positive psychologist Martin Seligman, often frame positive thinking in terms of explanatory style.?? Your explanatory style is how you explain why events happened. People with an optimistic explanatory style tend to give themselves credit when good things happen, but typically blame outside forces for bad outcomes. They also tend to see negative events as temporary and atypical. On the other hand, individuals with a pessimistic explanatory style often blame themselves when bad things happen, but fail to give themselves adequate credit for successful outcomes.?? They also have a tendency to view negative events as expected and lasting. As you can imagine, blaming yourself for events outside of your control or viewing these unfortunate events as a persistent part of your life can have a detrimental impact on your state of mind. Positive thinkers are more apt to use an optimistic explanatory style, but the way in which people attribute events can also vary depending upon the exact situation. For example, a person who is generally a positive thinker might use a more pessimistic explanatory style in particularly challenging situations, such as at work or at school. Health Benefits In recent years, the so-called power of positive thinking has gained a great deal of attention thanks to self-help books such as The Secret. While these pop-psychology books often tout positive thinking as a sort of psychological panacea, empirical research has found that there are many very real health benefits linked to positive thinking and optimistic attitudes.?? According to the Johns Hopkins Medicine, positive thinking is linked to a wide range of health benefits including:Longer life spanLess stressLower rates of depressionIncreased resistance to the common coldBetter stress management and coping skillsLower risk of cardiovascular disease-related deathIncreased physical well-beingBetter psychological health One study of 1,558 older adults found that positive thinking could also reduce frailty during old age.?? Clearly, there are many benefits of positive thinking, but why exactly does positive thinking have such a strong impact on physical and mental health. One theory is that people who think positively tend to be less affected by stress. Another possibility is that people who think positively tend to live healthier lives in general; they may exercise more, follow a more nutritious diet and avoid unhealthy behaviors. Difference From Positive Psychology While the terms positive thinking and positive psychology are sometimes used interchangeably, it is important to understand that they are not the same thing. First, positive thinking is about looking at things from a positive point of view. Positive psychology certainly tends to focus on optimism, but it also notes that while there are many benefits to thinking positively, there are actually times when more realistic thinking is more advantageous.?? For example, in some situations, negative thinking can actually lead to more accurate decisions and outcomes.?? Researchers have also found that in some cases, optimistic thinking can improve physical health.?? A Word From Verywell Even if you are not a natural-born optimist, there are things you can do to learn how to think positive and become a positive thinker. One of the first steps is to focus on your own inner monologue and to pay attention to your self-talk.

The Capital Of A Great European Empire - 1876 Words

Haley Sung 1900 Vienna 5 December 2015 1900 Vienna At the turn of the century Vienna was the capital of a great European empire, which had for centuries profited from cultural exchange with countries as diverse as the Netherlands, Spain and American colonies. Utilizing a complex network of marriages motivated by country’s advantage, the Hapsburg Empire was connected with all dynasties that surrounded Vienna. In the city of Austria, cultural productivity essentially came from the multi-ethnic complexion of the city itself, of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The empire stood as the center of commerce and the seat of government and drew in people from throughout Central Europe like a magnet. Especially from all the Austria provinces, immigrants†¦show more content†¦In the realm of creative literature, turn-of-the-century Vienna also generated bodies of text by Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Edward Mà ¶rike, who helped define advanced, modern literature style of German-speaking Europe and reflect on the characteristi cs of life in Vienna during the Habsburg Empire. An Austrian painter named Egon Schiele redefines beauty during the expressionism movement. Born in June 12th, 1890 in Tuln an de Donau near Vienna, Schiele spends most of his life in Vienna and dies on October 31st, 1918. After recognition from one of his primary art schoolteachers, Schiele decided to take a formal training at Vienna’s Academy of Fine Arts where Gustav Klimpt had attended. He admired Klimpt’s work out of all artists and found a mentor-mentee relationship that had a great impact on Schiele’s development as a young artist. He underwent through a phase of work inspired by Klimpt then later found his own ways of creating art that forever changed how they viewed beauty throughout 1900 Vienna. At age of twenty, Schiele studied his own naked body in a series of self-portraits and discovered his own definition of body figures in painting. In his painting Self-Seer I, a nude double portrait of Schiele represents autoeroticism, which was not the norm in Vi enna society. The background carries no decorations as it carriesShow MoreRelatedThe Fall of Constantinople1008 Words   |  4 Pageshistory and marked the end of the Byzantine Empire. The main effect of the fall of Constantinople in 1453 was the downfall of the Byzantine Empire and the rise of the Ottoman Empire. The city was mainly populated by Christians and now has become an Islamic city. The capture of Constantinople stated the end of the Roman Empire, which lasted for about one thousand five hundred years. The invasion of the city of Constantinople and the end of the Byzantine Empire marked the end of the Middle Ages. The downfallRead Moreworld around 16001690 Words   |  7 Pageslink 2 (gr10) The world around 1600 History Essay The World around 1600 Essay The 1600 was a time of great changes in the world. Trade and expansion dominated almost all societies. Ming China, the Songhai and Mughal Empires can be in contrast to European societies as they were ‘advanced societies’ technologically and scientifically. However these three empires collapsed due to invasions and revolts, whereas Europe, in the Middle Ages was secular, dominated by the church and the landRead MoreWhat attracted European imperialism to Africa to Asia in the late nineteenth century.1585 Words   |  7 Pagesas a European state s intervention in and continuing domination over a non-European territory. During the Scramble for Africa in the late nineteenth century, the most powerful European nations desired to conquer, dominate and exploit African colonies with the hope of building an empire. According to Derrick Murphy, in 1875 only ten percent of Africa was occupied by European states. Twenty years later only ten percent remained unoccupied. There were several factors which attracted European imperialistsRead MoreThe World War II And The Middle East1332 Words   |  6 PagesEurope to explore and colonize Central Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. In the period of European imperialism, imperialism served as conveyer of status and power in world affairs; the more imperialist territory, a more powerful nation state. Arbitrary boundaries and imperialist expansion into the unknown earth continued until the end of World War II. This disintegration of imperial empires came to be because of the mission of World War II and the weakness of the imperial power post-war.Read MoreThe Ottoman Empire1355 Words   |  6 Pagesthere were many topics that sparked my interest and choosing one to elaborate on the Ottoman Empire stood out most. This analysis will show its development and reasons for its nick name as the Sick man of Europe. Ottoman Turks were established in Turkey. This area was rich and famous. The land at that time was called Anatolia that meant sunrise, or the East. After the death of the ruler, Alexander the Great, Anatolia was split between many Greek generals. The early Turks came from Central Asia afterRead MoreThe Age of Gunpowder Empires, 1450–1800 Essay941 Words   |  4 Pageschanged the balance of power in warfare, transforming global history by leading to a period of dominance by Western European powers. I will be comparing European, Russian, Islamic, Chinese, and Japanese uses of gunpowder weapons and explore how these powers fit guns into their political, military, and cultural systems. One of the recurring things in history is the nature of nations and empires. Civilizations are born, reach their potential under extraordinary leaders, and over time lose their vitalityRead MoreThe History of the Byzantine Empire Essay897 Words   |  4 Pages As the Roman Empire expanded to help govern it better it brought out the Western (old) Romans in Western Europe and the Eastern (new) Romans in Eastern Europe. Many in the west saw the east as Greeks, but the Eastern Romans saw themselves as the Roman Empire with its capital in Constantinople. Early on Emperor Constantine sought to keep the two united but as the fifth and sixth centuries rolled around they each had gone their separate ways. With chaos in the west, the east thrived after the westRead MoreTaking a Look at the Ottoman Empire892 Words   |  4 PagesAfter the end of World War I in 1918, a huge sea change in the geopolitical landscape happened. With what seemed like one fell swoop, the â€Å"Age of Empire† was swept away as the German Empire, Tsarist Russia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire disintegrated. For some it seems that the decline of the Ottoman Empire was the most expected of all of them, having been characterized as â€Å"The Sick Man of Europe† for centuries after its near-domination of the Middle East and large parts of EuropeRead MoreThe Spread of Christianity Throughout Europe Essay1184 Words   |  5 PagesThe single most important aspect of European empires, beginning just prior to the fall of Rome, is the spread of Christianity to all areas of the continent in as little as a few hundred years. Many theologians state that Christianities spread is the indirect influence of God and the adoration of people to one true faith. Though it is true that Christianity has brought about people that even atheists could call saints, it is unquestionable that Christianity was so monumental because it united largerRead MoreThe Formation of Achaemenid Essay1469 Words   |  6 PagesThe Formation of Achaemenid Persia has always been known to its own people as Iran ( the land of Aryans ), although for centuries it was referred to as Persia (Pars or Fars ) by Europeans. In 1935 the government specified that it should be called Iran; however, in 1949 they allowed both names to be used. Most people today, know Persia through its carpet , its caviar, or through its importance as one of the worlds major oil producer countries. Yet,Persia has one of the

Nature Vs Society Society Vs. Society - 728 Words

In life we are all confronted with the idea of nature along with society. Although both have their pros and cons they work together to give us freedom and order among individuals. Society provides a person with comfort and clarification, however it is nature that allows a person to escape the boundaries created and truly be theirself in a free experience, which causes a person to live a life with their own will. Within the poems of Walt Whitman he discusses the significance between society vs nature. In the poem When I heard the Learnd Astronomer the poem approaches the idea of nature vs society in a specific manner. In the poem when the poet says â€Å"I wandered off by myself,† the poet is relating again to the idea of nature. In this he is†¦show more content†¦To end with, it is human nature that can lead to events that in societys eyes are dreadfully wrong, but on the other hand it is nature that fills us with a particular feeling we seem to enjoy. On the mountain, I am fearless, at times I feel as if it is just me and snow. The only person that can stop me from doing what I want is myself, because when I am out in nature there are no rules to be broken. When I pull up to Burke mountain, I am exposed to the beauty that is nature in its truest form. As I climb up on the chair lift and the higher the elevation the more I become exposed to myself. And as I go down the hill I am free to do as I please. Unlike being in 5 line traffic, which is very constricting, nature allows me to be free. In a sense society is like a box that I am contained in, however when I go up to the mountain to shred this box opens up and allows me to be free. To bring it all in Nathaniel Hawthorne and Walt Whitman both provide examples of society vs nature. Examples of how society is constructing us from being free and examples of society being a place of reason and logic, but they also showed us how nature at its greatest can set us free without limits. However nature can be devastating like in the case with Chillingworth and how human nature overcame him to obtain revenge. As well as my own self experience with nature and riding the mountain being free to myself. The experiences that societyShow MoreRelatedThe Nature vs. the Society in The Scarlett Letter728 Words   |  3 PagesThe Nature vs. the Society On The Scarlet Letter† theme, different scholars have a very different understanding of the conflict inside. Among the many comments, the most intriguing was undoubtedly the American critic professor Nina Baym’s view that â€Å"The Scarlet Letter† is a natural and social person depicted bifurcation novel. Nina Baym noted: â€Å"â€Å"The market â€Å"appears in this scene between the individual and society of individuals originally appeared consistent with an imagined differences, a fissureRead MoreNature Vs. 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In the most dangerous game Rainsford and General Zaroff are in a hunt. Ransford is the game and the general is the hunter. This is a man vs. man conflict because two people are against each other. â€Å"‘My dearRead MoreRendition Of A Single Day1318 Words   |  6 PagesZeks against each other. Distrust runs high, making gulag life more difficult. The men also commonly conflict with themselves and make quick decisions they know can mean life or death. Finally, the prisoners deal with the concept of them against society. Within historical context, Stalin exiled people to labor camps if they committed a crime or an act in which he believed went against his government, but many of the Zeks were wrongfully accused. 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Criticisms of IMF Free Essays

string(23) " program with the IMF\." â€Å"The fund believes it is fulfilling the tasks assigned to it: promoting global stability, helping developing countries in transition achieve not only stability but also growth. † â€Å"I believe, however, that it has failed in its mission, that the failures are not just accidental but the consequences of how it has understood its mission. † This is what Stiglitz states in his book, and is also his platform on how he feels about the International Monetary Fund. We will write a custom essay sample on Criticisms of IMF or any similar topic only for you Order Now He believes that the IMF has a narrow view stating that â€Å"what the financial community views as good for the global economy is good for the global economy and should be done†. Stiglitz criticizes that the IMF has done great damage to the countries wherein they prescribe economic policies that must be followed in order to qualify for an IMF loan, or for loans from banks and other private-sector lenders that look to the IMF to indicate whether a borrower is creditworthy. Stiglitz argues that the International Monetary Fund and its officials have ignored the ramifications of having incomplete information, inadequate markets, and unworkable situations, all of which are particularly present characteristics of newly developing countries. Stiglitz states that the International Monetary Fund called for policies that conform to logical textbook economics, however, they do not make sense to the country that the policies are going towards to provide relief. â€Å"Stiglitz seeks to show that the consequences of these misguided policies have been disastrous, not just according to abstract statistical measures but in real human suffering, in the countries that have followed the. † (Stiglitz, 2003). The most traditional and perhaps best-known IMF policy recommendation is for a country to cut government spending or raise taxes. Either one of these actions, or both would be used to balance a country’s budget and eliminate the need for government borrowing. Most people believe that a lot of government spending is wasteful anyway. Stiglitz accuses the IMF for reverting to Herbert Hoover’s economics in imposing these policies on countries during deep recessions. The deficit, at this time, is mostly the result of a stimulated decline in revenues. Stiglitz argues that cuts in spending or tax hikes only make the downturn worse. He also emphasizes the social cost of cutting back on various kinds of government programs, such as eliminating food subsidies for the poor, which Indonesia did at the IMF’s request in 1998, only to be engulfed by food riots. Another standard IMF recommendation is high interest rates, which make deposits and other assets denominated in the currency more attractive to hold. Most countries go to the IMF because they find themselves having trouble maintaining the exchange value of their currencies. Stiglitz argues that the high interest rates imposed on many countries by the IMF have made their economic downward spirals even worse. Countries are intended to battle inflation that was not a serious problem to begin with. â€Å"Stiglitz repeatedly claims that the IMF’s policies stem not from economic analysis and observation but from ideology—specifically, an ideological commitment to free markets and a concomitant antipathy to government. † In part, Stiglitz complaint is that the International Monetary Fund did not understand or even try to understand, his and other economists’ theoretical work depicting that markets that are pretty much unregulated do not necessarily deliver positive results when information or market structures are incomplete (Stiglitz, 2003). A country that currently has loans from the International Monetary Fund is the country of Venezuela. Venezuela first negotiated an economic program with the International Monetary Fund in the year of 1989. In the mid 1970s, oil prices soared and seemed unstoppable. Venezuela is a country very rich in oil, so at this time, they accumulated a lot of money from oil revenues, but also from loans from international banks. The government then used this money to expand state-owned industries, however, the government ended up supporting the least efficient enterprises, which came to rely on government credits and direct subsidies. Government investments were fruitless from 1974 – 1989. As government expenses continued to increase, the gross domestic product grew very little as a ratio of the government expenditures. The excess amount of money supply, created by government spending, raised the price index by a factor of 15, interest rates 3. 7 times and the devaluation of the national currency by a factor of 10, all happening during the same period. In addition to all of this, Venezuela’s foreign debt increased to a record level of $33 billion and their payments could not be honored. Venezuela undertook negotiations with the IMF when they were under all of this pressure from the decreasing oil prices and the rapidly rising interest rates on their immense foreign debt. They had tried to borrow money to finance some of their debt; however, the international markets had been apprehensive for Venezuela had refused to work with the IMF. Venezuela had first turned to American banks for proposed financing because it did not want to agree with an economic program with the International Monetary Fund. The International Monetary Fund cleared a loan of about $453 million to the country of Venezuela. Officials declared the loan as a first installment of what is expected to be a credit package that may total as much as $4. 6 billion from the international agency to support Venezuela’s economic reform program over the next three years. They believe that Venezuela’s economic adjustment program should â€Å"encourage a substantial reflow of private capital† to the South American country. The planned economic reforms were aimed at freeing and unifying Venezuela’s foreign exchange rates, deregulating interest rates and opening the country’s economy to foreign trade by removing quotas and tariffs. The austerity program is the price that Venezuela had to pay for the aid in financing from the IMF. Domestic interest rates were allowed to rise substantially and the government had cut several important subsidies as part of a proposed economic program with the IMF. You read "Criticisms of IMF" in category "Papers" Since Venezuela agreed on an economic program with the IMF, commercial bankers seem a lot more ready to compromise with them. The IMF reform program included many policies. As a result â€Å"The per capita gross domestic product fell almost 8% from 1989 to 1993; the inflation index rose almost 10 fold; the outstanding foreign debt increased by $5 billion and the banking crisis that burst out in 1994 erased 10% of the GNP and $6 billion of the country’s international reserves. † What the Venezuelan government basically did was sign an agreement that led to a transfer of money from private sectors to the â€Å"pockets of the wasteful government†. The government attempted to balance its accounts through its citizens, by increasing the taxes and increasing the interest rates. Little attention was given to increasing the productive capacity of the nation, but was all focused on the fiscal demands of the state. In recent years, Venezuela’s economy has gone from bad to worse. Its deterioration corresponded with the implementation of policies recommended by the International Monetary Fund. Venezuela has gone through two IMF aid packages beginning in 1989. Since the implementation of the most recent package in 1996, Venezuela’s interest rates have more than doubled to 68 percent annually. The national currency, the Bolivar, has been devalued by 94 percent, accumulated inflation has reached 218 percent and production output has stalled. Capital flight has exhausted more than $2 billion from Venezuela’s international reserves, which are much lower now, than they were before the International Monetary Fund package was signed. The fiscal deficit has been declared unmanageable and Venezuela’s stock market is down more than 50 percent. This downward spiral was the result of the tax increases, devaluation, few privatizations and public service rate hikes in the 1996 IMF package. The repeated devaluations have increased costs to the private sector and ignited inflation. The IMF also allowed the government to delay reforms of ineffectual state hospitals and public schools. In the case of the country of Venezuela, Stiglitz’s criticisms of the IMF do apply. The IMF’s policies do not take into account the economic and social circumstances that currently exist in the country where it is applied to. As per usual, the International Monetary Fund used its traditional methods on Venezuela. Increase taxes, and have higher interest rates. The positive effects of any loan obtained from the IMF or other financial institutes are useless because of the collection of interest and the rising interest rates. For developing countries such as Venezuela, the benefits from an agreement with the IMF cannot be seen for the large burden of clearing away their large foreign debt blocks their view. The IMF did not take into consideration the social implications that would be caused when such harsh adjustment measures are put into operation. The poor are always the most affected. Their frustration was seen in Venezuela, as outbreaks of violence. The Venezuelan currency kept being devalued constantly therefore workers had to pay more for their essential needs, as their wages began to decline. The unemployment rate would then rise and that is why it is no surprise to why the people of Venezuela turned to violence. When bitterness and despair take hold, sometimes violence may be the only way to be heard. It becomes imperative in times like this to have concrete negotiations on a debt plan to achieve a substantial reduction in debt and in interest payments. While losing many of its systemic functions, the Fund’s operations during the 1980s became dominated by dealing with the debt difficulties faced by a relatively small group of highly indebted developing countries. All the Fund’s lending was to developing countries, and the majority of it was to the highly indebted countries, even though the majority of programmes remained with low-income countries. The Fund frequently became depicted as a development agency offering concessional assistance to developing countries. Even some of its staff bemoaned what they saw as the loss of its monetary characteristics and consequently much of its financial reputation (Finch, 1988). The least subtle criticisms of this type tended to use the phrase ‘development agency’ almost as a term of abuse. What the Fund was doing was perceived as being bad in and of itself. The more subtle criticism was that the Fund had largely been pushed by political pressure into lowering its own financial standards. The criticism here was not so much that development assistance is inappropriate, but rather that the IMF is an inappropriate institution through which to give it. This argument sees it as important to retain the revolving character of Fund resources, as well as the Fund’s short-term monetary perspective—features, so it is claimed, that will be lost if the Fund is forced to lend over the long term on the basis of unviable programmes and unachievable targets. The plea has been strongly articulated to ‘let the IMF be the IMF’ (Finch, 1988). An extension of this argument is that unsuccessful programmes will damage the reputation and credibility of the Fund and adversely affect its catalytic role. The claim that financial standards have been sacrificed is intimately related to the debt crisis. In essence, it is that the governments of countries where the private banks are located, and in particular the United States, encouraged the Fund to lend to the highly indebted countries in order to reduce the probability of default. In the early years of the debt crisis, the argument could be made that such action was sustaining the stability of the international banking system. But as the banks themselves adjusted to the crisis by reducing their exposure, strengthening their capital adequacy, provisioning, and expanding other lines of business, this systemic argument for lending by the IMF disappeared. Even critics who approach the issue from a rather different angle, having more in common with the ‘traditional’ criticisms of Fund conditionality, have concluded that the main beneficiaries of Fund lending to highly indebted developing countries during the 1980s were the international banks. Simply put, the claim is that it was positive net transfers from the Fund that financed negative net transfers with the banks. This is a claim that is at least superficially consistent with the evidence at aggregate level, but it is not an interpretation that finds ready acceptance—publicly at least—inside the Fund, where the accusation that it had bailed out the banks has been, often staunchly, rejected. Yet the criticism that the Fund failed in its dealings with the highly indebted countries during the 1980s has more dimensions to it than this. First, there is the argument that, along with others, the Fund misinterpreted the very nature of the debt crisis by treating it either as a liquidity crisis or as one of short-term internal adjustment rather than as a more deep-seated problem of structural adjustment which required important supply-side responses as well as the appropriate management of demand. This meant that the Fund opted to support new financing which assisted countries in meeting their outstanding debt-servicing obligations but which did little to restore medium-term viability to their balance of payments. The nature of the programmes supported by the Fund has, in relation to this, been criticized for an overemphasis on devaluation resulting from a desire to strengthen the tradable sector of the economy and thereby to facilitate debt servicing, and an over-ambitious attempt to achieve stabilization and liberalization simultaneously. A long-standing worry associated with the use of devaluation is that a shift in the nominal exchange rate will fail to alter the real exchange rate because of the inflation it generates. Devaluation is seen as destroying the ‘nominal anchor’, or to use the older jargon ‘reserve discipline’, that a fixed exchange rate provides. Is this not a particular worry in highly indebted countries where the inflation record is frequently very poor and where the reputation of governments as inflation fighters is often weak? Just as the counter-inflationary merits of fixed exchange rates were being acknowledged and accentuated in the context of the European Monetary System, were they not being neglected by the IMF? Critics of the Fund’s approach to conditionality within the highly indebted countries have argued that, whereas devaluation may certainly be appropriate in some circumstances it may be inappropriate where the fiscal deficit is under control and where the income redistributive effects, particularly in terms of lowering the urban real wage, spark off political unrest and measures to restore real wages. In these circumstances, the price of non-tradeables may also rise, with the result that the relative price effect of devaluation on the internal terms of trade is lost. The dangers of a vicious circle, whereby inflation leads to devaluation which then leads to further inflation, have long been acknowledged in Latin American economies where there is a legacy of rapid inflation and a low degree of money illusion. Indeed, in the context of forward-looking models of economic policy which emphasise the importance of the government’s reputation, the vicious circle can take on an additional twist. Here the use of devaluation damages a government’s anti-inflation credentials; private agents anticipate devaluation and mark up prices ahead of it; the inflation thereby caused itself forces the government to devalue. Expectations become self-fulfilling and generate their own internal dynamics. The Fund has also been seen as being over-ambitious. Its stabilisation and liberalisation objectives have been interpreted as paying inadequate regard to the potential inconsistencies that may exist between them. Within developing countries, in particular, revenue from tariffs may be an important element in total government income. Tariff reduction can therefore exert a significant adverse impact on the fiscal balance unless this source of revenue is replenished by other tax changes. Evidence suggesting a falling rate of success in achieving programme targets is cited as supporting the claim that Fund-supported programmes in highly indebted countries have been unrealistic. In the case of intermediate targets, relating, for example, to aspects of credit creation, such a record reflects an increasing problem of non-compliance. Countries have often simply not complied with strategic elements in Fund-supported programmes. Some authors have again sought to explain this phenomenon in terms of the specifics of the debt problems with which highly indebted countries have been faced, the argument being that Fund-supported programmes have offered little domestic rate of return. The principal beneficiaries have instead been private foreign creditors. The distribution of the costs and benefits of the programmes has established a set of incentives that is antagonistic towards a high degree of compliance. The debt overhang has had the effect of weakening Fund conditionality through acting as a tax on necessary reforms, with one implication being that it has become increasingly difficult to muster the necessary domestic political support for such reforms (Sachs, 1989; Krugman, 1988). In this context it is claimed that debt relief is needed to create the necessary incentive structure to adjust. The Fund has been criticised for failing to recognise this. Indeed, its policy of ‘assured financing’, whereby IMF support was predicated on countries continuing to meet their outstanding obligations to the banks, has been interpreted as systemically discouraging the provision of debt relief by the banks and thereby impeding the resolution of the debt crisis. At the beginning of the crisis the Fund had some success in encouraging new commercial money inflows by making these a precondition of its support, but this insistence faltered as the banks’ reluctance to lend became more pronounced. Moreover, it is argued that the Fund’s inappropriate approach to the debt problem was reflected by its apparent neglect of the distinction between new financing and debt reduction—a distinction which was being accentuated in the academic literature as the 1980s progressed (Krugman, 1988). Critics suggested that this neglect again showed the Fund as being primarily concerned with cash flow rather than medium and longer-term problems. Yet, even in a short-run context, the different expectational responses to new money and debt reduction can cause different effects, with new money leading to further indebtedness and therefore the prospects of additional domestic fiscal and monetary problems. Statements emanating from the Fund about its own perception of its role in the debt crisis tended to side-step these analytical issues and stick with broader organizational ones, which emphasized its strategic importance as an ‘honest broker’ or catalyst (Nowzad, 1999). The Fund described its objective as that of normalising creditor-debtor relations and restoring country access to sustainable flows and spontaneous lending. The means to this end were to be vigorous and sustained adjustment efforts by the debtors, and a co-operative concerted approach involving creditors, the Paris Club, commercial banks and the export credit agencies. While recognising that progress had been uneven and vulnerable, by the mid-1980s the Fund was interpreting its overall record on the debt problem as ‘encouraging’ (Nowzad, 1999). At the same time, however, critics were assessing that, ‘the IMF’s recent record in the debtor countries is one of failure’ (Sachs, 1989a). Such disagreement persists because there is no universally accepted set of criteria by which the Fund may be judged. Apart from anything else, there is always the basic problem of the counterfactual: what would have happened if the Fund had done things differently? Accepting this difficulty, a superficial review of the empirical evidence suggests that the Fund’s record in terms of dealing with the debt problem of the 1980s was, at best, mixed. Certainly it managed to help avoid a major systemic international financial failure and this was no small achievement. But, by other criteria, no substantial or sustained degree of success can be claimed. By the end of the decade, creditor-debtor relations had not been normalised, and access to spontaneous lending had not been restored. Indeed, the creditworthiness of the highly indebted countries, as represented by the secondary market price of their debt, had continued to fall; net transfers to highly indebted countries were still significantly negative; a concerted and co-operative approach to the debt problem had not emerged; most debt indicators failed to show any notable or sustained improvement; and macroeconomic performance in the highly indebted countries was poor and often deteriorating, with forward-looking indicators such as the investment ratio and import volume suggesting bleak prospects for the 1990s. Even IMF-specific indicators were discouraging, with declining programme compliance, rising arrears and the increasing use of waivers. Episodic successes existed but the overall picture was not reassuring. During a decade in which open economy macroeconomics became more sophisticated, the accusation was increasingly made that the model underpinning the Fund’s operations had failed to be modified and that it was out of date and inappropriate. Research of an excellent academic standard conducted within the Fund’s own Research Department was, according to this view, no longer having a significant operational impact. Indeed, and again at a superficial level, the empirical evidence seemed to suggest that the conventional caricature of a Fund-supported programme involving a combination of exchange rate devaluation and the deflation of aggregate demand through credit control was more accurate during the 1980s than it had been before (Edwards, 1989). At the same time as Fund-supported programmes were being criticised for lacking intellectual sophistication, evidence as to their adverse social and human implications was also being more systematically collected and coherently presented (Cornia et al., 1997; Demery and Addison, 1997). Increasing infant mortality and morbidity, malnutrition and falling life expectancy were now being attributed, at least in part, to IMF-backed programmes. And the design of programmes which emphasised reduced government expenditure rather than increased tax revenue was being seen not only as endangering important welfare schemes in developing countries, but also as reflecting the dominant current politico-economic paradigm within the developed countries, where the role of the state was under stark review. This in turn highlighted another area—the sequencing of reform—in which the Fund came in for criticism. Merely designing an appropriate programme of policies was now seen as inadequate; more consideration needed to be given to the order and inter-temporal distribution of elements of an adjustment programme, particularly as even research conducted within the Fund itself was beginning to suggest that Fund-supported programmes could have a negative effect on output, at least in the short run (Khan et al., 1996; Vines, 1990). Earlier models, which formed the basis for financial programming within the Fund, most notoriously the Polak model, had basically assumed away such an effect by making output exogenous. Yet even the more outspoken critics of the Fund’s handling of the debt crisis suggest that its approach changed towards the end of the 1980s, particularly after Michel Camdessus took over as Managing Director in 1987. This change of approach found expression in terms of a softening attitude towards debt relief, a change in the treatment of arrears, with the Fund becoming prepared to make loans while countries were in arrears with the banks, and an increasing concern for the effects of Fund-supported programmes on income distribution and the related recognition that income distributive effects might be important in determining the political, and therefore practical, feasibility of programmes. Although criticisms still remained, for example that the Fund placed too much reliance on voluntary forms of debt reduction which, given the associated free rider problems, should instead be treated as a public good, they became slightly more muted. If the Fund was still not coming up with right answers, at least, according to some critics, it seemed to be asking more relevant questions. Moreover, some of the broader criticisms relating to the input of the Research Department were suspended awaiting the impact of the appointment of a new Managing Director. On top of this there appeared to be a growing acceptance that macroeconomic stability was a necessary precondition for sustained economic development, and this took some of the sting out of the old debate about IMF conditionality. At the beginning of the 1990s private capital began to return to some of the lightly indebted countries, to the extent that some commentators claimed that the Latin American debt crisis was over. This was not the case in Africa, and it is unclear as to how significant the Fund’s input was in generating capital inflows. References Cornia, G. A. , Jolly, R. and Stewart, F. (eds) (1997) Adjustment with a Human Face: Protecting the Vulnerable and Promoting Growth, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Demery, Lionel and Addison, Tony. 1997. The Alleviation of Poverty Under Structural Adjustment, Washington, DC: World Bank. Edwards, S. 1989. ‘The International Monetary Fund and the Developing Countries: A Critical Evaluation’, Carnegie Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy 31. Finch, David C. 1988. ‘Let the IMF be the IMF’, International Economy, January/February. Krugman, Paul. 1988. ‘Financing versus Forgiving a Debt Overhang’. Journal of Development Economics 29. Khan, Mohsin, Montiel, Peter and Ul Haque, Nadeem (1996) ‘Adjustment with Growth: Relating the Analytical Approaches of the World Bank and the IMF’, World Bank Discussion Paper, Washington, DC: World Bank. Nowzad, B. (1999) ‘The Debt Problem and the IMF’s Perspective’, in Graham Bird (ed. ), Third World Debt: The Search for a Solution, London: Edward Elgar. Sachs, Jeffrey D. 1989a. ‘Strengthening IMF Programmes in Highly Indebted Countries’, in C. Gwin and R. Feinberg (eds). The International Monetary Fund in a Multipolar World: Pulling Together, US-Third World Policy Perspectives No. 13, Washington, DC: Overseas Development Council. Sachs, Jeffrey D. 1989b. ‘Conditionality, Debt Relief, and the Developing Country Debt Crisis’, in Jeffrey D. Sachs (ed. ), Developing Country Debt and Economic Performance, Vol. 1. International Financial System, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Stiglitz, Joseph E. 2003. Globalization and its Discontents. New York: Norton. Vines, David. 1990. ‘Growth Oriented Adjustment Programmes; A Reconsideration’, London: Centre for Economic Policy Research Discussion Paper No. 406, March. How to cite Criticisms of IMF, Papers

Technology Essays (709 words) - Database, Pointer,

Technology Background The Technology Needs Survey (TNS) software program developed at HSC/XRE was originally intended to provide a convenient vehicle by which the office's engineers and scientists could enter and edit environmental, safety and occupational health (ESOH) needs data into a database. The program provided an interface that allowed the user to answer, or revise answers, to questions regarding the nature of the ESOH technology needs of the customer. The database was originally installed on a local area network (LAN) shared by the technical members of the HSC/XRE office. The data in the database was used, in part, to rank the severity, impact and importance of technology needs throughout the Air Force. HSC/XRE performed substantial analysis on the data prior to its presentation to the ESOH TPIPT, Air Staff and others. Consequently, the database itself became a dumping ground for temporary tables, queries and reports that were generated "on the fly" over time. The structure of the underlying database is simple, as shown in Figure 1. The numerous queries, reports and tables that are antidotal artifacts in the database are distractions to the underlying structure, and should be removed. Creation of the Tri-Service TNS Database for FY97 The source data for the FY97 Tri-Service TNS database came from four sources: ? US Navy, by way of four MS WORD documents (segmented by pillar) ? US Army, by way of a TNS database that had been exported from a version of the software modified by the US Army and/or their contractors ? USAF FY96 TNS database ? last year's USAF database, with needs updated as required ? USAF FY97 TNS database ? current year's new USAF technology, policy and training needs The tasking from the HSC/XRE office was to consolidate the four data sources into a single database and provide it to representatives of the Joint Engineering Management Panel (JEMP) on or before 31 Dec, 1996. Such a database would be known as the Tri-Service TNS Database for FY97. Technical Issues The USAF FY97 database was considered the target into which the other three data sets were to be consolidated. At this point in time (Dec, 1996), the FY97 database still contained "T-numbers", rather than Tag integers. It appeared that there were printing difficulties with T-numbers in the Tag field, so they were removed, and added as a prefix to the need Title. In their place, sequential integers, beginning with 3000, were placed in the Tag field. Next, the Navy needs, which consisted of 807 needs in four word documents, were manually added to the FY97 database using the TNS software. This was a two man-day effort by a program support individual. All attempts to successfully print all US Army needs failed. Most needs contained a data value that exceeded TNS's a single print page. A bug in TNS causes the first page to be printed OK; then, subsequent lines are printed, one per page. It was decided that the US Army database would be provided to the government as-is, with a suggestion that the government obtain the US Army's TNS version to see if the bug had been fixed by the Army. The final step was to export the USAF FY96 TNS database, and import it into the FY97 database. This presented something called the "Match Table Problem." The Match table in TNS contains three columns ? the need number, a category, and a pointer. Depending upon the category, the category would represent a unique primary POC, technical POC, potential user, regulation or contaminant. These pointers are not uniquely generated; therefore, a primary POC with a pointer of 4254 might point to Smith in the FY96 database, while a primary POC with a pointer of 4254 might point to Jones in the FY97 database. The same corruption was possible for regulations and contaminants, as well. To resolve this problem, it was determined that the set of pointers in the FY97 database did not exceed 5000 for POC, regulations and contaminants. Consequently, the pointers in the Match table of the FY96 database were incremented by 5000, as were their corresponding targets in the POC, Regulation and Contamination tables. This assured that there would be no overlap between the two databases. The FY96 database was imported successfully into the FY97 database.