But recently inflation has been tamed, the economy is opening up, and under President Fernando Henrique Cardoso the country has begun to address its institutional difficulties.

ECONOMIST: A hard nut to crack

The rule, Regulation Fair Disclosure, was adopted in 2000 to address a leg-up some institutional investors were getting via information about public companies that was not available to all investors.

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At Ceres, we work with major corporations, large institutional investors, and others to leverage their power to address climate change, water scarcity and other environmental threats.

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While there's no question that we've seen some institutional barriers to wealth creation for women of color, I think we also have to address some cultural factors by which women may be shooting themselves in the foot, so to speak.

NPR: Women Of Color Lag Behind In Wealth

The good news is that the NAS outlines a number of solutions to address and mitigate these vulnerabilities, including stockpiling of strategic inventories, development of meaningful policies, building institutional capabilities, and critical research.

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