TEXTBOOK-Brinkley, American History, Connecting with the Past, Volume Essay - 1

TEXTBOOK-Brinkley, American History, Connecting with the Past, Volume II, McGraw Hill chapters23-24 - Essay Example Despite the fact that the stock market began regaining some of its losses towards the end of 1930, it was not sufficient to avert the onset of the economic depression. Another main cause was bank failures. The 1930s experienced over 9,000 bank failures. There was no insurance for bank deposits, hence with the failure of the banks, individuals simply ended up losing their savings. Because the surviving banks were not certain about the economic condition and had concerns about their own survival, they were not willing to issue new loans. This aggravated the existent situation and led to lesser expenditure. In addition to that was a drop in purchasing across the board. As the stock market had crashed and the advancement of further economic conundrums heightened, people across all classes stopped buying items. The result was a drop in the number of produced items, hence a reduced workforce. Individuals who had been laid off from their jobs were not in a position to deposit payments for i tems they had purchased via installment plans, leading to repossession of these items. The rate of accumulation of inventory began to increase. There was a rise of over 25% in unemployment which of course meant reduced spending that could abate the existent economic condition. The American policy with Europe also contributed in a great way to the Great Depression. With businesses starting to fall, the Smoot Hawley Tariff of 1930 was forged by the government in a bid to protect American governments. The tariff imposed high tariffs on imports resulting in reduced trade between foreign countries and America, coupled with retaliation in the economy (Brinkley, 604) President Hoover and the Republican Response to the Crisis In a similar fashion to the economic crisis of 2008, president Hoover assumed office immediately following the stock market crash in 1929. His response to the economic downturn was remarkably similar to the current response by the Federal Reserve and SEC. He did not wa nt to meddle with the markets and looked to offer support to the banking system by making an offer to fund business in return for collateral. As such, he started programs of public works. The lengths taken by Hoover were obscured by the great lengths that the Franklin Roosevelt administration took. Public works programs during this period had a sizeable impact upon a generation reliant on soup lines to survive. Attempts by president Hover to resolve the economic crisis were in most instances unsuccessful. His loss to Franklin Roosevelt in the 1932 presidential therefore was not a surprise. Hoover thereafter devoted a lot of time over the next dozen years to the fight by the Republicans against the New Deal, and believed that President Roosevelt would function to compromise the political system of the United States with his extensive government programs. Six weeks following the death of Roosevelt, Hoover held a meeting with President Harry Truman in May 1945. Together, they planned t o recover post-war Europe. Upon a request by Truman, Hoover travelled across the globe to afford the president a personal statement on food needs of the world. More significantly, Hoover rallied his fellow Republicans to offer support to President Truman’s food relief programs. Hoover worked as chairman of the newly-formed Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch which later came to be known as the Hoover commission, and worked in

Congressional debates over budgets Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Congressional debates over budgets - Essay Example Many Americans are beginning to get weary with the inability of Democratic and Republican parties to agree upon anything. It has gotten to a point where it is becoming astoundingly obvious that the two sides are determined to disagree with each other on purpose. This, of course, results in nothing getting done and little being accomplished. Unfortunately it can be rather difficult to really get a straight answer from political circles. The Republicans blame the Democrats who are intentionally â€Å"shooting down† their attempts at passing a budget. In fact, the Republican-Controlled House in 2011-2012 did submit a potential budget; however, because both houses must submit versions and the work to compromise to reach a final product. The Democratic-controlled Senate did not follow through with their part of the process, which meant another spring without a proper budget for the American government (Bremmer). There are many voices in Washington saying that a budget is not necessary, regardless of the fact that the Senate is legally obligated to produce one; however, failure to comply with that law, apparently, carries no legal consequences (Weiner 1). In the end, without a working budget the government keeps granting itself reprieves and extensions that do nothing to solve the problems in this country. It is treme ndously irresponsible and short-sighted to believe that the country can continue to spend when it sees fit when no budgeting has been put in place. It is a very bad idea and will no doubt continue to contribute to further problems in this country. Corker, Bob. "Bob Corker says Senate has not passed a budget in more than three years." PolitoFact. News Sentinel, 22 Dec 2012. Web. 23 Sep 2013. . Weiner , Rachel. "Why Senate Democrats haven’t passed a budge."

Egypt vs Saudi Arabia Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words - 1

Egypt vs Saudi Arabia - Term Paper Example b. Egypt, it has a better history in political parties’ formation and practice, than Saudi Arabia. The existence of Liberation Rally, Nation Union, Arab Socialist Union and National Democratic Parties provided a better platform for the political leadership to introduce change in Egypt. a. Earlier networks of political groups and social formations that had carried traditions of resistance through the period of repression became mobilized beneath the surface of dictatorial order (Paulsen n.d.). 3. With the leadership of the country limited to one Royal family, there may lack instabilities in the governance, but active and talented leadership skills within the communities will always be left out. a. Most of the Middle East countries have large deposits of petroleum oil, and gases which attracts powerful nations, if not forcefully getting involved in the commotions of these Arab countries, in the name of providing a solution, but rather their intentions are to keep them closer for future reasons. a. The army leaders in Egypt realized that that their establishments could present a valuable role under new administration, and thus were willing to dare throwing out the old guard as they were not personal instruments of the ruler (Gause III 2011). A. The System and rule of governance between Egypt and Saudi Arabia’s leadership, international relations, countries’ security structure and role, and the law reform give the explanation for Saudi Arabia and Egypt divergence in outcomes. B. Egypt uprising was strongly supported by protestors in conjunction with political parties presence.

John Locke Short Introduction Essay Example for Free

John Locke Short Introduction Essay John Locke, who is widely known as the Father of Liberalism, is a great writer, philosopher and physician of the 17th century. He was born on 29 August 1632 and died on 28 October 1704 when he was 72. He was baptized on the same day as he was born. He was a gifted man and David Hume once described him as â€Å"wrote like a water-drinking local councilor, his style ungainly, his idioms commercial, his imagination puritanical, his humor labored, his purposes wholly practical. † As he is a talented thinker and uses different perspectives to see and think on certain things, he revolutionized the Theory of Mind to the world in his masterpiece, â€Å"An Essay Concerning Human Understanding†. On the other hand, he also developed the idea of liberty among people in society. His contributions to the world are incredible as his ideas of social contract and state of nature laid the theoretical foundation of the Constitutions of the United States of America. In Locke’s life, he came from a very intelligent and faithful Baptist family that gave him a good education and took him to a good school Christ Church, Oxford. Though he studied medicine but not philosophy or other critical thinking courses, he met prominent people (e. g. Robert Boyle, Thomas Wills) who inspired him immensely in every perspective. One eminent scholar was Thomas Sydenham, who imposed a huge impact on the idea of how man accumulates knowledge. Thanks to Sydenham, Locke wrote one of his famous works – â€Å"An Essay Concerning Human Understanding†. Thomas Sydenham gave advice to Locke in treating Shaftesbury’s liver cancer. Locke realized in the file of Shaftesbury that knowledge in a book could be different from the circumstances Locke was facing. Hence, he raised the pivotal question in his essay: â€Å"Is the foundation of knowledge based on theory or experience? † This essay stimulated several fresh ideas to philosophers in the 17th century. One of the famous philosophers who were greatly influenced by Locke was David Hume, who described John Locke as a magnificent man. After Shaftesbury survived from the liver cancer, he became Lord Chancellor and led Locke to be involved in the field of politics. In the political struggle of Shaftesbury, Locke assisted him by writing another famous work – â€Å"Two Treatises of Government. It is believed that the ideas mentioned in the essay were influenced by Hobbes’ thinking, but Locke never referred or mentioned the name of Hobbes. Locke countered the statements raised by Hobbes in the book of Leviathan that â€Å"everyone is living in terror† and â€Å"war of every man against every man†. Locke raised a counter statement that everyone is created equally and everyone in society has rights to fight for their life, freedom and property. To accomplish it, we shall hold together and grant greater power to protect ourselves. This also explains how civilization works. The original purpose of this piece is an argument to attack Shaftesbury’s opponents (supporters of Absolute Monarchy). However, the ideas of natural rights and a new reformation of government mentioned inside the essay are recognized as the most influential ideas on the political system in the 17th century. The basis of liberty was widely used by the founding fathers of the United States of America to write the American Declaration of Independence and the Constitutions. The influences of John Locke did not just stop in the 17th century. They still last today. Every time we hear about liberty and freedom, the basis of these concepts had been defined by Locke clearly. Besides, the issue of free religion which is still discussed nowadays was also originated by Locke. The theory of religious tolerance was one of the most controversial ideas during Locke’s lifetime. In this perspective, some historians even regarded the European War as the war between religions. In some statements made by Locke, he argued human knowledge was possibly false unless there was definite proof. By the same token, he considered that religion, which did not have clear proof, was possibly false. Because of this, religious tolerance was necessary. Religious tolerance is still being debated nowadays and it has greatly changed the outlook of modern society after this idea was promulgated. Locke’s life was a legend. He was born in a Baptist family and his writings are full of elements related to Christianity. From the statement of â€Å"All men are created equally†, it clearly shows Locke’s belief in the perspective of equality. Besides, he was also greatly influenced by the idea of knowledge. He questioned the fundamental of knowledge and questioned whether knowledge is true as always. I believe he wrote such ideas because of his experience in the treatment of Shaftesbury’s cancer that led him to start questioning that the things he had learned from the medical books were not really practical. Instead, to him, they were much more proper to be described as imaginary notions. From this perspective, he was inspired to write the essay concerning human understanding. Besides, Locke also influenced the world and created waves of revolutionary ideas in many fields. The great philosophers Voltaire and Rousseau were deeply inspired by Locke’s theories. Ultimately, Locke – Father of Liberalism – was not simply a gifted person born to be the father of liberalism, but also because of circumstances, situations which he encountered in his life to make him the father of liberalism.

Dead Poet’s Society :: Film Movies

Dead Poet’s Society The film, Dead Poet’s Society, is a story of a English professor who instructs a group of eager boys in a highly accredited and traditional boys academy. Professor Keatings, played by Robin Williams, introduces his students into the world of poetry. Throughout the school year, the professor inspires the students to â€Å"seize the day† and make their lives extraordinary. A group of students gets swept away by their teacher’s enthusiastic spirit, and they decide to reorganize â€Å"The Dead Poet’s Society†, a select club which used to meet in a cave when the professor attended school, to experience inspiration through poetry. The inspirational impact he has on his students backfires when the school’s board of trustees finds out about the unorthodox teaching methods that go on in the classroom. One of his students commits suicide after the boy’s father, a very controlling man, rejects his son and his enthusiasm for acting and the stag e. Professor Keatings doesn’t follow textbooks or the curriculum, but teaches from his heart. Unlike his conservative colleagues, Keating employs decidedly unorthodox teaching methods and strives to teach more than just his subject matter, which is poetry. His goal is to inspire his students to suck the bone of life to the marrow, to seize the day and to make their lives extraordinary. In Keating's class, you learn passion, courage, romanticism, and, of course poetry. You pass if you avoid conformity and find your own voice, and you fail if you neglect to live life to the fullest. The impact that professor Keatings has on his students is eternal. His spirit will probably always live in his students’ hearts. Any teacher who is like Keatings is priceless. He wasn’t just teacher of academics but a teacher of life. I have had some teachers similar to Professor Keatings, whom I will always remember.

Behavioural Finance Essay

Hypothesis and the extent to which they can be explained by behavioural finance theories Finance that is based on rational and logical theories, such as the  capital asset pricing model  (CAPM) and the efficient market hypothesis (EMH). These theories assume that people, for the most part, behave rationally and predictably. The Efficient market hypothesis assumes that financial markets incorporate all public information and assets that share prices reflect all relevant to the firm information (Fama, 1970). Relevant information includes past information, publicly available information and private information. Efficient market is divided into three categories. Weak form efficiency is when stock prices reflect only the past information, semi-strong form is when past information and all publicly available information is reflected and strong form is when all the past, publicly available and information only available to company insiders is reflected on the stock prices. However, there are some anomalies and behaviors that couldn’t be explained by EMH. Market participants often behaved very unpredictably. However there is a new study called behavioral finance that is trying to explain all these anomalies. Behavioral finance studies the irrational behavior of the investors. Weber (1999) makes the following observation: ‘Behavioral Finance closely combines individual behavior and market phenomena and uses the knowledge taken from both the psychological field and financial theory’. Behavioral finance attempts to identify the behavioral biases commonly exhibited by investors and also provides strategies to overcome them. Some of the main problems with EMH may be cause by heuristic responses to new information, psychological anchors, overconfidence, social fads, framing and regret avoidance and herd behavior. Overconfidence: According to Nevins (2004), overconfidence suggests that investors overestimate their ability to predict market events, and because of their overconfidence they often take risks without receiving commensurate returns. Odean (1998) finds that investors tend to overestimate their ability, unrealistically optimistic about future events, too positive on self-evaluations, over-weight attention getting information that is consistent with their existing beliefs, and over-estimate the precision of their own private information. Overconfidence about private signals causes overreaction and hence phenomena like the book/market effect and long-run reversals whereas self-attribution maintains overconfidence and allows prices to continue to overreact, creating momentum. In the longer-run there is reversal as prices revert to fundamentals. Psychological Anchors, Overreaction: Good news should raise a business’ share price accordingly, and that gain in share price should not decline if no new information has been released since. Reality, however, tends to contradict this theory. Oftentimes, participants in the stock market predictably overreact to new information, creating a larger-than-appropriate effect on a security’s price. Furthermore, it also appears that this price surge is not a permanent trend – although the price change is usually sudden and sizable, the surge erodes over time. Heuristic responses to new information: Availability heuristic is used to evaluate the frequency or likelihood of an event on the basis of how quickly instances or associations come to mind. When examples or associations are easily brought to mind, this fact leads to an overestimation of the frequency or likelihood of this event. Example: People are overestimating the divorce rate if they can quickly find examples of divorced friends. People tend to be biased by information that is easier to recall. They are swayed by information that is vivid, well-publicized, or recent. People also tend to be biased by examples that they can easily retrieve. ( Tversky and Kahneman, 1974) Confirmation bias  is a cognitive bias whereby one tends to notice and look for information that confirms one’s existing beliefs, whilst ignoring anything that contradicts those beliefs. It is a type of selective thinking. The reason for overconfidence may also have to do with hindsight bias, a tendency to think that one would have known actual events were coming before they happened, had one been present then or had reason to pay attention. Hindsight bias encourages a view of the world as more predictable than it really is (Shiller, 2000). This is the characteristic of investors, when looking back, seeing events that took place in the past as having been more predictable than they seemed before they happened. Likewise, things that didn’t happen seem, with hindsight, much less likely to have happened than they did beforehand. Self-attribution bias occurs when people attribute successful outcomes to their own skill but blame unsuccessful outcomes on bad luck (Shefrin, 1999). Availability bias is the availability deviation is a general rule or a mental shortcut which lets people guess the probability of a result and to what percent it may appear in their daily life. Those who commit such a deviation consider the easily recalled events more probable than those they can hardly imagine or perceive. Availability bias declares the person’s tendency toward deciding and judging based on available and easily accessible data (Tversky and Kahneman, 1982). Herd behavior which is the tendency for individuals to mimic the actions (rational or irrational) of a larger group. Blackmore (1991) states ‘Within an hour of birth , humans engage in imitation’. There are a couple of reasons why herd behavior happens. It’s unlikely that a large group could be wrong. After all, even if you are convinced that a particular idea or course or action is irrational or incorrect, you might still follow the herd, believing they know something that you don’t. Recency bias is the tendency for people to place greater importance on more recent data or experience. This is the problem of putting too much weight on current events or data and not enough weight on past, historic trends. Many investors expect the market to continue rising in a current bull market; likewise, these same investors often expect a current bear market to get worse. Recency is shown in momentum investing when investors buy â€Å"hot† stocks simply on the basis of their recent strong performance. Kahneman and Tversky (1973) find that people usually forecast future uncertain events by focusing on recent history and pay less attention to the possibility that such short history could be generated by chance. It is believed the net effect of the gains and losses involved with each choice are combined to present an overall evaluation of whether a choice is desirable. However, research has found that we don’t actually process information in such a rational way. In 1979, Kahneman and Tversky presented an idea called  prospect theory, which contends that people value gains and losses differently, and, as such, will base decisions on perceived gains rather than perceived losses. Thus, if a person were given two equal choices, one expressed in terms of possible gains and the other in possible losses, people would choose the former – even when they achieve the same economic end result. Regret avoidance is the tendency to avoid actions that could create discomfort over prior decisions, even though those actions may be in the individual’s best interest. Researchers have argued that one of the reasons that investors are reluctant to sell losing positions is because to do so is to admit a bad decision. This reluctance can be linked to both regret avoidance and belief perseverance. To avoid the stress associated with admitting a mistake, the investor holds onto the losing position and hopes for a recovery. According to prospect theory, losses have more emotional impact than an equivalent amount of gains. Prospect theory also explains the occurrence of the disposition effect, which is the tendency for investors to hold on to losing stocks for too long and sell winning stocks too soon. The most logical course of action would be to hold on to winning stocks in order to further gains and to sell losing stocks in order to prevent escalating losses. The flip side of the coin is investors that hold on to losing stocks for too long. Investors are willing to assume a higher level of risk in order to avoid the negative utility of a prospective loss. Unfortunately, many of the losing stocks never recover, and the losses incurred continued to mount, with often disastrous results. The January-Effect is where the average monthly return for small firms is consistently higher in January than any other month of the year; in the UK this is observed in April. This contradicts with EMH, as EMH predicts that stocks should move at a random walk. January returns are greatest due to yearend tax loss selling of shares disproportionally (Branch 1977). Another anomaly of this type is the Weekend-Effect, where Fama (1980) found that returns on Mondays tend to be negative if compared to any other week day, but this has disappeared in the UK by the 1990s. Some theories that explain the effect attribute the tendency for companies to release bad news on Friday after the markets close to depressed stock prices on Monday. Others state that the  weekend effect might be linked to short selling, which would affect stocks with high short interest positions. Alternatively, the effect could simply be a result of traders’ fading optimism between Friday and Monday. Index effect is a phenomenon where the addition to, or deletion from, a stock index causes a change in the price, trading volume, volatility or operating performance of the stock concerned. A stock entering an index will automatically receive increased demand from institutional investors – principally index tracker funds and exchange trade funds (ETFs) – while a deleted stock will experience reduced demand. The fact that a stock jumps in value upon inclusion is once again clear evidence of mispricing: the price of the share changes even though its fundamental value does not. Another anomaly is P/E effect from CAPM model; portfolios with low P/E ratios outperform those with high. The low price-earnings ratio effect occurs because stocks with low price-earnings ratios are often  undervalued and their prices eventually rise because investors become pessimistic about their returns after a bad series of earning or bad news. A company with high price to earning tends to overvalued (De Bondt and Thaler, 1985). Winner-Loser anomaly De Bondt and Thaler (1985) found that shares which initially earn extreme positive return (winners) or extreme negative returns (losers) experience extended reversals in their performance over long horizons. De Bondt and Thaler (1985) suggested the overreaction hypothesis as an explanation of their result. This hypothesis claims that the market overreacts to information. That is, the market overweights the most recent information and underweights earlier information. However, this phenomenon is reversed when it is recognized that the market’s expectations were indeed an overreaction to the information released. This hypothesis also offers an explanation of the P/E effect. Fama and French (1992) showed that a powerful predictor of returns across securities is the ratio of the book value of the firm’s equity to the market value of equity. After controlling for the size and book-to-market effects, beta seemed to have no power to explain average security returns. One explanation is that investors overreact to growth aspects for growth stocks, and value stocks are therefore undervalued. According to some academics, the ratio of market value to book value itself is a risk measure, and therefore the larger returns generated by low MV/BV stocks are simply a compensation for risk. Low MV/BV stocks are often those in some financial distress. All of these anomalies may be explained by behavioral finance. Behavioural finance is the study of the influence of psychology on the behavior of financial practitioners and the subsequent effect on markets. Behavioural finance is of interest because it helps explain why and how markets might be inefficient. There are series of  behavioural biases  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ strange twists in human nature that cause us to act irrationally and against our own interests. On the other hand all of these anomalies may instead be an artifact of data mining. After all, if one reruns the computer database of past returns over and over and examines stock returns along enough dimensions, simple chance will cause some criteria to appear to predict returns. May be this is why some anomalies appear to be lost at some point of time e. g. the weekend effect during the 90s.

Global Corporate Citizenship Essay

1. Do you think that apple has demonstrated global corporate citizenship, as defined in this chapter ? Why or Why not ? Global corporate citizenship means that companies must not only be engaged with stakeholders but stakeholders themselves alongside government and civil society. Since companies depend on global development, which in turn relies on stability and increased prosperity, it is in their direct interest to help improve the state of the world. When Apple investigated and found some violations of its supplier code of conduct, which it had introduced in 2005. The following year, the company published its first annual supplier responsibility progress report, I think Apple demonstrated global corporate citizenship. Apple admitted its violations and did everything in its power to correct them. By 2011, Apple had inspected nearly 400 suppliers and had terminated 11 for serious violations. 2. In its response to problems in its contract factories, do you think Apple moved through the stages of corporate citizenship presented in this chapter ? Why or Why not ? _ Corporate citizenship is a term used to describe a company’s role in, or responsibilities towards society. So in Apple’s situation, it has moved through the elementary stage because at first it seemed they were not concerned the citizenship. During peak production periods, all three factories had exceeded the mandated limit of 60 hours of work per day, and many employees had been required to work more than 7 days in a row not receiving fair pay for overtime, unsafe conditions. Then Apple went through engaged stage, it turned to Social Accountability International and announced it had joined the Fair Labor Association. This is because Apple became aware that they needed to change public expectations. To make sure all contractors abiding the code; at Apple’s request and with the company’ s financial support, the FLA immediately undertook the most extensive audit ever conducted of conditions in China’s electronics supply chain. 35,000 workers filled out anonymous questionnaires about their experiences. This process means that Apple is in the innovative stage and they continue in the process of auditing and tracking improvements. 3. What are the advantages and disadvantages to Apple of using its own company-specific supplier code of conduct, rather than a global code, such  as those discussed in this chapter? Apple’s Supplier Code of conduct was already one of the toughest in the electronic industry, but it have made it even stronger. And its ensure compliance by conducting hundreds of audits per year worldwide. Its efforts span the entire range of its supply chain – from the manufacturers of tiny components to the facilities that assemble its final products. 4. What are the advantages and disadvantages to Apple of using and independent third-party auditor, rather than rely on its own internal audits? The advantages of bringing in a third-party firm are numerous. Investigative auditing firms employ accountants who do this work on a regular basis. As such, they know what to look for. Another advantage is impartiality. An outside investigative auditor – who has no personal or professional relationship with your employees – is likely to conduct the audit in an impartial manner. This is important, as these investigations can lead to criminal prosecution. Thus, relying on an internal accountant to find fraud or theft might place him in an uncomfortable situation, which can affect morale. The FLA can certainly claim to be more independent. It conducts its own audits and requires members to disclose the results. And it also has a third-party auditor re-audit some of its own inspections to make sure progress is being made on fixing violations. If indeed you have an accountant trained in investigative auditing on staff, it makes sense to use your own forensic accountant in the investigative auditing process. The positive side of this is that it gives you more control over the dissemination of information. It is typically harder to control dissemination of information when an outside firm is involved. Another disadvantage is cost-related. Hiring an investigative auditing firm is typically far more expensive than using your own investigative accountant.