Singing grammar : teaching grammar through songs.

Recurso para enseñar gramática por medio de canciones, y adecuado para estudiantes de primaria en los niveles elemental e intermedio. Contiene dieciocho canciones, cada una con un enfoque específico de gramática. Cada unidad incluye notas para el profesor con sugerencias para utilizar el material, gramática y juego, y partitura de las canciones. El material también puede ser utilizado con adultos. Las canciones del cd-audio tienen variedad de estilos musicales: glosario de música pop; karaoke alternativo o versión lenta para cada canción; cancionero con letras y acordes. Incluye hojas fotocopiables e instrucciones y consejos para los profesores.

Building the Directorate General for Urban Affairs in European Union. A proposal for the European Commission

The present documents get together reflection elements that allow sustaining the irreversibility of the process that leads to the creation of a Directorate General for Urban AffairsThe irreversibility of this process results of the assumed necessity to implement the cooperation between Member-States in respect to the urban and territorial development policy. It is time, with vision, to assume the urgency to create, as well, in this area an European joint policy and which are the necessary structures for its definition and implementation within the EU framework. O Directorate General for Urban Affairs deverá articular-se em particular com o Comité Económico e Social e com o Comité das RegiõesThe present text is based essentially on political documents on urban and territorial affairs elaborated in the extent of the EU and in the general guideline documents produced by the EU, which favor social, economic and territorial integration.

Estudio de la gestión de riesgo de crédito para empresas no financieras y propuesta de aplicación de una metodología de análisis de riesgo de crédito para los agentes de Western Union, para la empresa DHL Express Ecuador S.A. de la ciudad de Quito

El análisis del riesgo de crédito debe considerarse como un importante punto desencadenador de nuevas oportunidades de negocio para cualquier tipo de industria. Las características peculiares de cada tipo de emprendimiento despiertan varias incertidumbres en la administración, de este modo el reconocimiento profundo de los riesgos que se aceptan para impulsar las actividades comerciales es de interés relevante. El sector financiero a lo largo de la historia ha perfeccionado significativamente la administración de este riesgo, dado que es la razón de ser de su negocio, y para ellos han existido varios precedentes que le ha permitido tomar decisiones focalizadas al mejoramiento continuo de sus productos en pos de maximizar el valor de sus compañías. Para el sector comercial existe una desventaja comparativamente, que radica en el hecho de que no exista un marco normativo que regule el crédito que se concede a través la venta de sus productos o servicios, es decir que no existe un organismo que dicte normas claras de regulación y control. Se entiende como desventaja este hecho puesto que cada empresa deberá sentirse responsable de crear un modelo propio que se ajuste a sus necesidades de administración. A lo largo del presente estudio se analizan las similitudes y diferencias más significativas del manejo de este tipo de riesgo en dos sectores diferentes, el financiero y el comercial y se propone una metodología de administración de riesgo de crédito para una empresa comercial adoptando como mejores prácticas algunos de los lineamientos obligatorios para el sector financiero.

What kind of European Banking Union? Bruegel Policy Contribution [2012/12?]June 25, 2012

This paper discusses the creation of a European Banking Union. First, we discuss questions of design. We highlight seven fundamental choices that decision makers will need to make: Which EU countries should participate in the banking union? To which categories of banks should it apply? Which institution should be tasked with supervision? Which one should deal with resolution? How centralised should the deposit insurance system be? What kind of fiscal backing would be required? What governance framework and political institutions would be needed? In terms of geographical scope, we see the coverage of the banking union of the euro area as necessary and of additional countries as desirable, even though this would entail important additional economic difficulties. The system should ideally cover all banks within the countries included, in order to prevent major competitive and distributional distortions. Supervisory authority should be granted either to both the ECB and a new agency, or to a new agency alone. National supervisors, acting under the authority of the European supervisor, would be tasked with the supervision of smaller banks in accordance with the subsidiarity principle. A European resolution authority should be established, with the possibility of drawing on ESM resources. A fully centralized deposit insurance system would eventually be desirable, but a system of partial reinsurance may also be envisaged at least in a first phase. A banking union would require at least implicit European fiscal backing, with significant political authority and legitimacy. Thus, banking union cannot be considered entirely separately from fiscal union and political union. The most difficult challenge of creating a European banking union lies with the short-term steps towards its eventual implementation. Many banks in the euro area, and especially in the crisis countries, are currently under stress and the move towards banking union almost certainly has significant distributional implications. Yet it is precisely because banks are under such stress that early and concrete action is needed. An overarching principle for such action is to minimize the cost to the tax payers. The first step should be to create a European supervisor that will anchor the development of the future banking union. In parallel, a capability to quickly assess the true capital position of the system’s most important banks should be created, for which we suggest establishing a temporary European Banking Sector Task Force working together with the European supervisor and other authorities. Ideally, problems identified by this process should be resolved by national authorities; in case fiscal capacities would prove insufficient, the European level would take over in the country concerned with some national financial participation, or in an even less likely adverse scenario, in all participating countries at once. This approach would require the passing of emergency legislation in the concerned countries that would give the Task Force the required access to information and, if necessary, further intervention rights. Thus, the principle of fiscal responsibility of respective member states for legacy costs would be preserved to the maximum extent possible, and at the same time, market participants and the public would be reassured that adequate tools are in place to address any eventuality.

Banking Union in the Eurozone and the European Union. CEPS Commentary, 12 June 2012

In this new CEPS Commentary, Jacopo Carmassi, Carmine Di Noia and Stefano Micossi present a rationale and detailed outline for the creation of a banking union in Europe. They argue that it is essential to clearly distinguish between what is needed to address a ‘systemic’ confidence crisis hitting the banking system – which is mainly or solely a eurozone problem – and ‘fair weather’ arrangements to prevent individual bank crises and, when they occur, to manage them in an orderly fashion so as to minimise systemic spillovers and the cost to taxpayers, which is of concern for the entire European Union.

Banking Union in three steps. CEPS Commentary, 12 June 2012

As the banking crisis in the eurozone becomes even more acute, CEPS Chief Executive Karel Lannoo exhorts the EU to not lose further precious time in creating a fully functional bank union, which would entail three main steps: creating a single supervisory authority, a common deposit protection and a harmonised bank resolution and liquidation system.

An incomplete step toward a banking union. CEPS Commentary, 5 July 2012

In this Commentary, Daniel Gros applauds the decision taken by Europe’s leaders at the eurozone summit at the end of June to transfer responsibility for banking supervision in the eurozone to the European Central Bank. It represents explicit recognition of the important fact that problems might originate at the national level, but, owing to monetary union, they can quickly threaten the stability of the entire eurozone banking system. In his view, the next small, incremental step, although one not yet officially acknowledged, will necessarily be the creation of a common bank rescue fund.