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A 'crisis situation' occurs when the mechanisms (rationalization, etc) serving to support belief systems become ineffective, & the individual is left with an 'invalidated or inoperative ideology.' Typical circumstances in which this takes place are (1) deprivation & frustration combined with inactivity, isolation, & long periods of self-communion; (2) the presentation of evidence which sharply invalidates the system of beliefs; & (3) traumatic experiences which bear no necessary relationship to the belief system. Examples of such situations & the mechanisms & process which they set in motion are discussed including: soldiers in wartime, Nazi leaders in the Nuremberg Trials, Communist Party members & sympathizers, etc. K. Geiger.

While the financial crisis of 2008 caused deep recession in most of the world's developed economies, many of the largest emerging markets weathered the financial storm comparatively well. China remains a vital source of global demand, while India is also gaining an increasing weight in the global economy. China has differed from India and Brazil in that this growth has been associated with a significant current account surplus, and this has been a major issue, particularly in discussion with the US. The Russian current account surplus has been associated with its role as an oil producer. In this section we first compare economic performance prior to and during the financial turmoil among the so-called BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) which constitute the world's largest emerging markets. We then discuss the Chinese current account surplus and policies that might be adopted to reduce it. These involve the expansion of demand in China, along with an appreciation of the exchange rate. However, there is no real long-term improvement of global imbalances if China just repegs the exchange rate at a higher level.

This is a review of three books: a collection of essays edited by Diane Watt on medieval women in their communities, and two monographs, by Jeffrey F. Hamburger and Marilyn Oliva, on nunneries in late medieval Germany and England. All three suggest in different ways that women's activities are regularly undervalued by the assumption that women try to do the same things as men, and fail. Hamburger argues that the artistic production of late fifteenth‐century nuns has been dismissed because it does not satisfy the criteria of (male) 'high' art. He shows that 'nuns' work' is in fact the product of a complex symbolic visual and textual culture. Oliva argues that the study of nunneries has been neglected because it is assumed that, since they were not rich and powerful like the monasteries, there is no evidence about them. She shows that it is possible to undertake a detailed prosopographical study of a group of nunneries from a single diocese. I argue that when in this context we talk about 'women', we are often in fact talking about the domestic sphere, with which women were so strongly associated. A revaluation of women's activities entails a revaluation of domesticity and the home.