The key analytical question is when such a self-fulfilling panic can occur. In our view, the
main condition is a high level of short-term foreign liabilities relative to short-term foreign assets.
It is exactly in that situation that each creditor knows that it must flee a country ahead of other
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creditors in the event of a withdrawal of foreign capital. Since the available short-term assets
can=t cover all of the short-term liabilities, each creditor knows that the last short-term creditors
to withdraw their funds will actually not be repaid on time (since the economy simply lacks the
liquid assets to pay off all creditors on short notice).