Topic-Morgan Stanley’s Return on System Noninvestment

1. Morgan Stanley underinvested in information technology because CEO of the firm, Philip Purcell believed that the market’s comeback would happen slowly and therefore he focused his business strategy on maximizing profit instead of generating revenue. 2. The merger of the Morgan Stanley with the Dean Witter proved to be unfruitful because it created a digital, cultural and philosophical divide which was extremely difficult to overcome. 3. The strategic objectives of information system are as following-:  ·   The overwhelmed broker desktop workstations have been replaced by new systems which are better integrated with backened systems so that brokers have a better view of client portfolios.  ·   New systems have been uploaded so that brokers will have access to all relevant client data at once, including transaction history, contact history and portfolio performance.  ·   The company also rolled out a new tax reporting application that automatically reconciles gains and losses and allows user to download information from its client website into popular tax programs.  · The quality of the website was upgraded i.e it was made more attractive and informative as per customer demand.  · The salaries and expense accounts of the brokers were increased.  ·   The intellect executives have been assigned the task of managing the firm. 4.I would provide the following services-:  · Free online form for investors.  · Credit cards will be issued.  ·   Financial transactions will be allowed using Automatic Teller Machines(ATMs).  · Standing orders and direct debits will be facilitated so that payments for bills can be made automatically.  · Online deal with the clients which will save a plenty of time. Yes, according to me the Morgan Stanley’s plan for an integrated client information system are worthwhile because it generated an income of dollar 1.96 billion in June 2006. 5. Other than new system, following amendments have to be made at Global Wealth Management Group to restore profit and revenue collection-:  · Introduction of senior executives in the main management of the company so that it will be knowledge as well as profit oriented.  · Frequent schemes should be laid down for the customers which seems to be beneficial to them.  ·   A tight management to strictly follow all the rules of the company.  ·   A customer friendly environment should prevail. References topic- â€Å"banking services† dated 19th june 2007      

High School Biology Lesson Plan – Properties of Water

Name:|Hailey Griffin| Lesson Plan Title:|Properties of Water| Grade Level: |10| Content Area:|Biology I| Sunshine State Standards or Common Core Standards:|Sunshine State Standards – SC. 912. L. 18. 12 – Discuss the special properties of water that contribute to Earth's suitability as an environment for life: cohesive behavior, ability to moderate temperature, expansion upon freezing, and versatility as a solvent. Behavior Objectives:|(Three parts: Condition, action, and measurement)Given a model of a water molecule, students will identify the oxygen and hydrogen atoms, the partial positive and negative areas of the molecule, and covalent bonds within the molecule. The learner will correctly identify the 4 main properties of water and give examples of each within 1 minute. Materials (including technology):|Students: Textbook, Pencil/Pen, PaperTeacher: Classroom board, markers, computer, Powerpoint presentation, Word processor, multiple copies of worksheets to pass out, Warm up :10 -15 Pennies, 10-15 Eye Droppers, Cups, Water Mini Labs: plastic petri dishes, paper clips, ethanol, water in eye droppers, glass slides, water, red food coloring, capillary tubes, straws, ice cubes, NaCl, salad oil in eye droppers, hot platesClosure: Koosh Ball| Hook/Anticipatory Set/Lead-In:Total Time: 15- 20 minutes|Prior to class, the instructor should gather the following supplies: Pennies, Eye droppers, Cups, Water.As students come into class, they should form groups of 3-4 people and pick up a one penny, one dropper, a small cup of water and return to their seats. They will also need a pencil/pen. Once every group has the proper materials, the instructor will hand out the accompanying worksheet (Appendix A). They should explain that each group is going to count how many drops of water will fit onto the top of a penny. The team with the most drops of water on their penny â€Å"wins†. As one student is dropping the water onto the penny, another should be count ing and recording the results.The other members of the group should be working on the worksheet, consulting their textbook for answers; this worksheet can be completed at home and is not to be turned in. | Procedures:Lecture: ~25 minutesWorksheet: Remaining class timeMini labs – Day 2, 45 minutes. |After the Penny Lab, the teacher should transition into a Powerpoint lecture on the properties of water (Powerpoint attached to lesson plan). The lecture should last for 25 minutes, enough time to get in the necessary information yet short enough to hold students’ attention.The following topics should be covered in the Powerpoint: the physical structure of a water molecule, states of matter, polarity, hydrophobic/hydrophilic substances, high heat capacity, cohesion/adhesion and surface tension, density and solubility. Once lecture is over, students will receive the Properties of Water worksheet (Appendix B) to work on during the rest of class and to complete as homework if n ot finished. This assignment will be due the following class period at the end of class and will be graded. The following class period, the teacher will set up the class into 6 â€Å"centers†.Each center is a mini lab and will focus on a certain property of water, the students should be able to use the knowledge they gained from the previous lesson to effectively answer questions about the properties of water. Each station will have a single worksheet (Appendix C) listing the procedure for the lab and 3-4 questions about the lab and property covered. Students must provide their own paper and copy down the questions and then respond; they can work together but must have their own answers. The work completed during lab time will be turned in a graded on the day of the test. minutes before class is over, the instructor should pass out a study guide and let students know that there will be a test the next class period, topics from both lecture and lab will be covered. | Guided an d Independent Practice: |On day 1, students will work together on the penny lab, and during lecture, students should be paying attention to the teacher. Finally, once the worksheet is handed out, students should be working independently. On day 2, students will be working in groups, rotating between centers; the teacher should be walking around class helping students when needed.On day 3 students will be working independently on the test. | Adaptations for ELL & ESE students|ELL students will have the opportunity to work with partners to receive peer support and help with complex concepts. Extra tutoring is available during lunch and afterschool. Vocabulary lists are available for pick up; students are encouraged to create flash cards to help them learn new vocabulary words. ELL students will also be given extended time to take tests. ESE students will be given extra time to complete assignments and complete tests.Complex directions will be clarified so the student is confident in w hat he/she is supposed to be doing. Students will be allowed to take short breaks during class and tests. | Closure Activity: |â€Å"Whip Around† Students quickly and verbally share one thing they learned in the class during the lesson. Students will pass around a koosh ball (or similar item) and whoever has the ball must give a short description of something they have learned. This could include topics from lecture, lab, or homework and could be an interesting fact, definition or short explanation of a concept.The teacher should be the first participant and will give an example of a good response, for example â€Å"Today I learned that solid water, or ice, forms a lattice structure which causes it to be less dense than liquid water, which makes it float. † This activity will end once everyone has shared their thoughts. If there is ample time and enough willing participants, this activity could also be used for students to gain extra credit points. Students who wanted to talk about additional concepts could earn up to 2 points extra credit towards their test.The previous day’s assignment should be collected. | Assessment/Evaluation:|On the start of the day 3, students will come into class and prepare for their exam. Once everyone is seated quietly the instructor should pass out the test in which students have approximately 40 minutes to complete (ESE and ELL students have more time). Once a student completes the test he/she should read quietly or work on other classwork. The lab assignment from day 2 should also be turned in for grading. | Appendix A Properties of Water: Penny LabTake a Guess: How many drops of water do you think will fit onto a penny? __________ Cohesion, adhesion, and surface tension are attractive forces between molecules and very important properties of water. Cohesion is the ability of water to â€Å"stick† to itself; it is a result of intramolecular forces (intra- inside, so this is adhesion within the molecul e). An example of cohesion is when you over fill a glass with water, the liquid rises above the rim of the glass but does not fall off the side; instead it bubbles up, which is also caused by surface tension.Surface tension is a special type of cohesion; it can be described as the â€Å"skin† on top of water, in the case of the overfilled glass, the surface tension caused the water to stick together and form the bubble over the rim, this property also allows some bugs to walk on water. Adhesion describes water sticking to other materials and is an intermolecular force (between neighboring molecules). Adhesion can be observed in the stem of a vascular plant; water molecules stick to the xylem tissue and â€Å"climb† up the plant. These properties occur because water is a polar molecule.A molecule of water is composed of 2 hydrogen atoms and 1 oxygen atom, because of the relationship shared between these atoms, one side become slightly more positive and the other slightl y more negative. These partial charges are symbolized by the Greek letter delta, or ?. The polarity of water molecules allows water to dissolve polar and charged substances, making water a good solvent. Molecules that are uncharged, such as fats and oils, usually do not dissolve in water and are called hydrophobic. Procedure: 1. Place a dry penny on a flat surface. 2.With the eye dropper, drip one drop of water onto the surface of the penny, one drop at a time. Have one student in your group keep track of the number of drops. 3. Observe the surface of the penny as the water builds up. 4. Once ANY amount of water has spilled over the edge of the penny record your final count of water drops. 5. Clean up your area and return materials to your teacher. Final Count: How many water droplets really fit onto the penny? ___________ Class Average ___________ Reflection: Explain your results in terms of cohesion and surface tension.What do you think would happen if we added soap, a hydrophobic substance, to the water before dropping it onto the penny? Explain your answer. Find a picture of a water molecule in your book, copy the drawing and label the following: oxygen molecule, hydrogen molecules, ? +, ? -, and draw the intramolecular bonds between the oxygen and hydrogen atoms. Appendix B Properties of Water 1. a. Draw the structure of water. Include the partial charges of each atom. b. Why is water considered to be a polar molecule? 2. a. What enables neighboring water molecules to hydrogen-bond to one another? b.How many hydrogen bonds can each water molecule form? 3. a. Explain the difference between adhesion and cohesion. Give an example of each. b. How do adhesion and cohesion explain capillary action? 4. What is surface tension? Give an example. 5. a. What is specific heat? b. Explain why water has such a high specific heat. c. Explain why it is cooler by the lake (or any body of water) in the summer and warmer by the lake in the winter. 6. a. Explain why ice is l ess dense as a solid than as a liquid. 7. a. Why is water called the universal solvent? What does polarity have to do with this? . How does water dissolve a substance like NaCl? Draw a picture illustrating this. 8. What do hydrophobic and hydrophilic mean? 9. List five special properties of water and give an example (other than ones from this worksheet) of each. Appendix C Center 1 – Can you float a paper clip? Procedure: Fill a plastic petri dish to overflowing with water. Without disturbing the surface of the water, start at the â€Å"lip† of the plastic bowl and slide the paper clip across onto the surface of the water. Observe the way the water â€Å"bends† under the paper clip. Record your observations.Repeat using ethanol in place of water. Questions: 1. What property (properties) of water is (are) demonstrated here? 2. How can the surface of water act this way? 3. Why did the paper clip not float on the ethanol? Center 2 – Can you overcome the attr action? Procedure: Using a dropper, place 2-3 drops of water on one glass slide. Lay the second glass slide over the first. Try to pull them apart. Record your observations. Repeat using dry slides. Questions: 1. What property (properties) of water is (are) at work here? 2. How are hydrogen bonds involved in this (these) property (properties)? . Explain why glass is described as hydrophilic. Center 3 – How does water move through plants? Procedure: Fill a capillary tube and then a straw with a red dye solution (red food coloring in water) and raise them to a vertical position. Record your observations. Questions: 1. What properties of water are at work here? How does water rise up the tube? 2. Why are these properties important to a plants survival? Center 4- Is a solid lighter than a liquid? Procedure: Put a cube of ice in a beaker labeled and filled with â€Å"alcohol† and another in a beaker labeled and filled with water.Observe where the ice cube is in relation to the surface of the solution. Quickly remove the ice cubes for the next group. Record your observations. Questions: 1. Why is the ice cube at the top or bottom of the alcohol? Water? 2. Why is frozen water less dense than liquid water? 3. Explain how this property of water is important to marine life. Center 5 – Like dissolves like Procedure: Place a spoonful of NaCl in a beaker of water and stir. Place 2 droppers full of salad oil in the beaker of water and stir. Record your observations. Questions: 1. Why does NaCl â€Å"dissolve† in the water? 2.Why is it essential for compounds like salt and glucose to be soluble in the water found in our body? 3. Does salad oil dissolve in water? Explain your answer. Center 6 – Does water boil sooner if salt is added? Procedure: Obtain 2 beakers, one labeled â€Å"deionized water† and the other â€Å"salt water†. Add 2 spoonfuls of salt to the beaker labeled â€Å"salt water† and stir to obtain a solutio n. Place each beaker, with a thermometer on it, on a hot plate and determine which beaker begins boiling first. Record your observations. Questions: 1. Does the addition of salt make the water boil faster or slower?Why? What does salt do to the boiling point of water? 2. Obtain an ice cube and add salt to it. What happened to the area of ice where the salt is applied? Why is salt applied to icy sidewalks or roads in the winter? What does salt do to the freezing point of water? Appendix D Properties of Water Test Name: ____________________ Period: ______ Properties of Water Test Review 1. Define the following vocabulary: Cohesion Adhesion Surface Tension Capillary action Hydrophobic Hydrophilic 2. How does water density change†¦. a. as the temperature of water increases ____________ b. s the salinity of water increases ____________ c. as the temperature of water decreases ____________ d. as the salinity of water decreases ____________ 3. What is a polar molecule? 4. What type of bonds exist between the atoms of a water molecule? 5. What type of bonds exist between the adjacent water molecules? 6. Why is water called the universal solvent? 8. What happens to the volume of water as it freezes? What happens to its density? True/False True False Water contracts (gets smaller) when it freezes. True False Water has a high surface tension. True False Condensation is water coming out of the air.True False It takes more energy to heat water at room temperature to 212o F than it does to change 212o F water to steam. Why is water called the universal solvent? What does polarity have to do with this? How many hydrogen bonds can each water molecule form? Differentiate between the intramolecular forces and the intermolecular forces at work inside and between water molecules. Please draw a water molecule. Label the following: oxygen molecule, hydrogen molecules, ? +, ? -, and draw the intramolecular bonds between the oxygen and hydrogen atoms.

Google Business Environment

Google's Business Environment Michael Lubrano Management 521 February 6, 2012 Sam Cunningham Google's Business Environment Investigating Google as a leader in the search engine industry proved to be extremely interesting. The company began back in 1996 under the guidance of Larry Page and Sergey Brin both graduate students from Stanford University. The original search engine was called â€Å"BackRub† a search engine working with connecting the importance of web pages using links.Google with such humble beginnings offered the services in a single language and offers their services in scores of languages. After careful review of Google’s income statement balance sheet and cash flow statement information it was clear the company is a leader in the industry. There are many companies trying to develop as large a customer base as Google but none to date have passed this Internet giant. While reviewing the annual data Google’s total revenue for the past three years has been on a continual increase.Recent conditions in the economy have not seemed to be a major hindrance to Google and seem not to have deterred its growth over the past few years. The statement tracks annual total revenue with numbers in thousands in December 2009 of $23,651,000 growing to $29,321,000 in December 2010 and an increase to $37,905,000 in December 2011 The growth shows an increase of almost 6,000,000 in 2009 -2010 and another $6,000,000 in 2011. With a potential climb of this magnitude for the years to come Google will be a force to be reckoned with on a continued level as it has been to the present day.The report also gave a gross profit figure with a continual annual growth gaining on a greater percentage level as well with an ability to add a larger amount of funding toward research and development increased by almost 2. 4 billion dollars in three years. Finally there was a net income applicable to common shares with a growth from 6. 5 billion in 2009 to 9. 7 billion i n 2011. In further review of Google’s balance sheet and cash flow statement information, Google shows a marked growth in cash and marketable securities from close to 24. 4 billion in 2009 growing to a whopping 44. billion in 2011 listing total assets of in excess of 72 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011. Reviewing the statements the predominant concern should be when if ever there will be a potential downside to the growth of Google. It has been on a steady climb and the statements portray continual growth for Google. Therefore there is usually concern with all growth in a positive direction slowing down over time. Many of the world’s industry leaders have a tendency to fall over time if growth is not clearly studied and additional products along with continued development of traditional products maintained.If the company can no longer keep up with demand or because growth in the industry inspires competition to develop, Google may lose some of the momentum. In the past former Google employees formed Twitter. Twitter has not been a problem for Google but as another company developing it can be in time. This along with others that may form due to the nature of the business can be a problem in the future. Google has been envied over the way they run their management teams. It has been said by many other managers employed by other companies the way Google approaches innovation is superior to many in the market today.The engineers are never expected to be non thinking. They are encouraged to dream and work with their own pet projects. Google encourages this and ensures the best ideas get the funding. According to Google’s Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt Google set up innovation reviews allowing department heads the opportunity to look at and compare all ideas discussing those with promise and allow those to proceed. This was due to the fear of ideas set aside and not allowed to develop. The concept was that one of those ideas set aside may be the one idea to be the next big money maker for Google.There are several companies that have comparable data to Google and can be clearly involved in benchmarking. Google has introduced analytics comparing data used by those companies along with Google to include visits, bounce rates, average time on site, new visits, page views, and pages per visits. According to Eric Schmidt â€Å"Today we have one very clear competitor, which is Microsoft, we used to two, with Yahoo, but Yahoo largely outsourced the search stuff to Microsoft. We see them as the core competitor; we have additional competition from different corners, so Facebook is a competitor in a bunch of properties and also for attention. Russell, p85. 2011)† Google has maintained the mantra not to be evil in its business endeavors and with the integrity it has maintained Google’s mission. That mission has been to bring information without censorship helping societies with heavy censorship to circumvent th e censors and gain access to all information. Google has been an innovative company and one of their strategies was Google Shared Spaces. This is a business efficiency increasing tool with the ability to share information needed by all in real time.This permits global businesses with many divisions in different locations and employees in need of brainstorming a means to do that brainstorming, surveys and time frame management in one gadget (Moons, 2011). Google also has developed through their Andriod creation application the ability for those who do not have a programming background, just ordinary people to create applications. This allows for a large amount of user made applications to be placed online. Many applications could not have been produced without this application.This was considered a revolutionary tool allowing for collective creativity from all over the globe to merge. It is also the catalyst for applications to be developed by those not as knowledgeable about program ming making the expectation of those applications to be much more user friendly. This brings the final global strategy in Google’s arsenal Aardvark. This program will be the platform connecting information seekers with information holders. Basically it connects those looking with those who have and this is a major move in the real-time search network.As a portion of this study it is also important to understand the Google culture. In this market of the day culture of a company is important as well as the attitude they carry in the business world. Its development has been above the norm in industry looking to keep its employees comfortable along with being hands on contributors and capable of doing many jobs. The employees are always able to pose questions directly to the founders Larry or Sergey at a weekly all hands meeting. The company is aggressively inclusive in their hiring and works to continue building a global team with many languages spoken within the company.The cor porate office known by the staffers as the Googleplex is headquarted in Mountain View, California, but their mission is to accommodate the entire world with information. Although the corporate office is in California the many offices around the world share similar attributes such as cubicles for the employees, bikes, and scooters to travel between meetings, hundreds of laptops, foosball, pool tables, volleyball courts, yoga, and dance classes offered, pianos, ping pong tables, and other items similar to unwind when stress is too high.There are also a variety of cafes within the complexes offering healthy lunches and dinners along with snacks and drinks to keep the Google staff going. The company has always kept the spirit of the crew being maintained at the highest level keeps the company at that level as well. Google also maintains these things they know to be true. First focus on the user and all else will follow. Second it is best to do one thing really, really well. Third fast i s better than slow. Fourth, democracy on the web works. Fifth, you do not need to be at your desk to need an answer. Sixth, you can make money without being evil.Seventh, there is always more information out there. Eighth, the need for information crosses all borders. Ninth, you can be serious without a suit. Tenth, Great just is not good enough. The attitude Google has is also one that believes finding answers on the web is not the problem of the individual searching but Google. They recognize the needs of the world information seekers and will continue to meet them with products and services. With a company that maintains this philosophy it is hard to think of any reasons they would not be in the position they are in at present.Google maintains a good healthy attitude and will be a presence for many years in the future. It also is easy to understand why they continue to dominant the competition and will continue to do so. In conclusion, Google is a force in the online information market that has no comparables at present time. There search engine is one of the most recognized and used more than others but also the Google site has a large advertisement base as well using their AdWords Express program. It was developed to place ads related to the content and relate to the users accessing the information page.Google has incorporated ways to show relevant ads allowing visitors to search the site helping to monetize, promote, and measure the success of the site as well. This is one factor that keeps Google in front and ahead of the competition. There are many who offer some form of information and information sharing Microsoft and Facebook are two to mention yet both of these along with the others now operating with too small a presence to be mentioned today have a large mountain to climb to be close to Google’s size, strength, abilities, and success.It is not impossible for a new and innovative company to develop that will someday give Google some competi tion but as of today there are none close to their level and there does not seem to be many in their shadows, either. References 2011 Google financial tables retrieved February from http://investor. google. com/financial/tables. html Anthony, S. (June 22, 2009). The search engine company famous for creative freedom is realizing there's a place for discipline, too, according to Scott Anthony Harvard Business. Org Russell, J. December 2011), Eric Schmidt discusses Google’s competitors, China, acquisitions and more. Retrieved February 5, 2011 from http://thenextweb. com/google/2011/12/27/eric-schmidt-discusses-googles-competitors-china-acquisitions-and-more/ Moons, L. (February 23, 2011), Google’s Global Development Strategies, Retrieved February 6, 2012 from http://www. businessandsoftwarestrategyforglobalisation. com/google%E2%80%99s-global-development-strategies/ The Google Culture, Retrieved February 6, 2012 from http://www. google. com/about/company/culture. html

Health Care Services and Their Work Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Health Care Services and Their Work - Assignment Example Failure to adopt a population health reduces the chances of determining the nature or number of healthy and unhealthy cases in a given population. Thus, adopting a population approach is a significant move in reducing the problematic populations within the health setting. These populations are with the inclusion of poor and untrained personnel, corrupt managers or directors and irresponsible nurses or medical specialists. Infrastructure in different healthcare settings in different countries are poor, and this leads to poor delivery of medical services in those regions. It is considered as the obligation of the government to consider integrating appropriate measures to address the issue of infrastructure, which includes both transport and communication. With advancement in technology and digitalization, it is expected that every government in the contemporary world utilizes and enjoys the benefits linked to technology and digital innovation in the healthcare setting. Inability to build a new generation of intersectoral partnerships- This is a common challenge which can be addressed by educating and training the concerned people on the importance of establishing reliable and dependable partnerships. This is because they draw on the perceptions and resources of diverse societies, and actively includes them in health activities. Lack of systems of accountability- Most organizations in the health industry are observed to lack systems of accountability such as updated data systems of information systems which can be used to countercheck on the performance of some employees. This challenge can be addressed by integration of modern technology (IT) and digital innovation in all sectors of the institutions to enhance performance and increase accountability level.

Quatitative vs Qualitative Research Study Paper

Quatitative vs Qualitative Study - Research Paper Example p. 659). On a closer analysis, considering the above mentioned criteria, it becomes clear that one research study is quantitative in nature, whereas the other reflects qualitative characteristics, that is, the first article named â€Å"Nephrol Dial Transplant† is an example of quantitative research study. This article is concerned with â€Å"an identified problem, based on testing a theory, measured with numbers† and it is makes analysis by making use of statistical techniques (Chapter 4: Quantitative and Qualitative Research. n.d. p. 41). According to this definition, it is seen that the article is quantitative as it describes a lot of relationships such as that of demographic characteristics and knowledge of CKD, with the help of numerical variables through independent t-test, Pearson’s Chi Squared test, one way Analysis of Variance etc. Also, the article has a specific and narrow purpose as it basically deals with just finding out the impact of SMS system on C KD patients by analyzing the collected data and presenting it in numerical terms. This can be seen through the various numerical data presented under the head ‘Demographic and clinical characteristics of CKD patients at study entry’ of the article, where the researchers have represented the percentage of patients in terms of age, marital status, education, gender etc. Furthermore, they have also provided information regarding diabetes, hypertension, alcohol history, smoking history, walking, gardening and such other lifestyle activities of patients all in numerical terms. Another factor that makes it quantitative research is the participants, quantitative study always employs a random sample, as is seen in this case also. Therefore, these are the various elements that make this article an apt example for quantitative research study. The second article, â€Å"The Impact of Self-management Support on the Progression of Chronic Kidney Disease- A Prospective Randomized Con trolled Trial† is observed to be a qualitative research as it consists of the research taking place in a natural setting, where the researcher â€Å"gathers words or pictures, analyzes them inductively, focuses on the meaning of participants, and describes a process that is expressive and persuasive in language† (Wise, n.d., How would you define qualitative research? para.1). It involves a more generalized and broad topic and furthermore it is concerned with qualitative aspects such as gathering information regarding the participants’ experiences, feelings etc. It uses texts as well as diagrams as compared to the quantitative research, which is evident from the chart showing the profiles of patient enrollments, assignments and alerts. Another factor is that under the study design, specifically under the head ‘Standardized SMS Program,’ as opposed to the quantitative study, not many numerical values are used. In fact the data regarding initial eGFR, e nd point eGFR, number of initial

Fibres Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Fibres - Essay Example The preparation of the SSD using the 20 and 10 mm aggregates followed the standards set in Clause 8 of ASTM C127-15. The fine aggregates are also in the SSD in accordance with Clause 8. The water reabsorption rates for the fine aggregates have been calculated with reference to the ASTM C128-15. The water absorption and bulk density of the coarse aggregates were measured and calculated in accordance with the ASTM C29 procedures. The water-cement ratio used in the preparation of all specimens was fixed. Using the same ratio reduces the impact of other variables to the specimens’ residual strength. The super plasticiser should be used when fixing the water cement ratio. In this experiment, the super plasticiser was a high range water-reducing retarding admixture. The use of the plasticiser was to improve the workability of concrete when fixing the water-cement ratio for all mixes. The admixture, MasterRheobuild 1000NT, was a product of the BASF Chemical Company. The type A and F MasterRheobuild admixtures meet the requirements outlined in the ASTM C494 (BASF 2015). The RAD6535HW hooked end hard-drawn wire steel used in the experiment is a product of RADMIX. The steel used in the experiment had a hooked end glued with fibre. The steel fibre has a diameter of 0.5mm and a length of 35mm while the tensile strength is more than 1300 MPa. Its aspect ratio is 70. It has a chemical composition C-Max 0.1%, Mn-Max 0.5%, S-Max 0.05%, P-Max 0.04%, and Si-Max 0.1% (RADMIX 2015). The experiment consumed a total of 22.3kg of steel fibre. The synthetic fibre used in the experiment is Synmix. It is a fibre for concrete that is used for meeting serviceability requirements such as rotations and deflections. It is also more suitable for creep and crack widths than it would be when used in mines as a temporary ground

Organized Crime Group Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Organized Crime Group Analysis - Essay Example One of the most prominent and oldest gangs in the region is the vice lord gang. The gang consisted mostly of individuals from the African American community and participated in various criminal activities including extortion, drug trafficking, robbery, murder and numerous forms of fraud. The gang came into existence in 1958, where several youths of African American origin from the Chicago neighbourhood of north Lawndale, met during their incarceration at a Chicago juvenile facility. The founding member of the gang was named Edward Perry, and he used the alias Pepalo (Chepesiuk, 2007). The word vice, which is prominent, in the gangs name is said to mean a tight grip. The release of leaders from prison resulted in recruitments, which augmented the gang’s participation in criminal activities, within the city’s confines. Their notoriety increase rapidly and by 1964, they were the primary target of law enforcers in the city. They were known for their violent nature and were feared in their neighbourhood (Diamond, 2009). The gang attempted to repair their public image and the gangs name was changed to conservative gang lords. They further took the approach of being a community outreach organization in the 1970s. This was achieved with the help of a social worker David Dawley who was Caucasian despite the gang’s racial inclination. This guise was successful with the gang receiving positive feedbacks from leaders and politicians in the community. Their rebranding efforts were capped with a grant of $275,000 from the Rockefeller foundation (Diamond, 2009). This period saw the consolidation of numerous gangs into the vice lords leading to an increase of their membership. The community, however, were finally able to see through the gangs disguise discovering they were involved with criminal activities and violence in the community. The gang’s involvement in

The politics by Aristotle Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The politics by Aristotle - Essay Example In discussing the concept of the slave, Aristotle makes a clear distinction between those individuals who are considered slaves as a result of one nation conquering another and those who ‘natural slaves.’ Physically, Aristotle says the slave is constructed in such a way as to make him suitable for the tasks required by manual labor while the master is given a more upright carriage suitable for military life, other civic duties and managerial occupations. However, Aristotle recognizes many intellectual and spiritual differences between the master and the slave as well, making it possible for those naturally built to be slaves to have the spirit of a master and those built to be masters to have the spirits of slaves. After describing what is meant by the ‘natural slave’ and distinguishing him from the common animals, Aristotle goes on to distinguish what separates the slave from the master.To place the discussion in context, Aristotle first defines what the sl ave is within the greater society, â€Å"the slave is an animate article of property; and that subordinates, or servants, in general may be described as instruments which must first be present before other, and inanimate, instruments can be used† (Aristotle, 9-10). Within this description, the slave becomes an instrument of action essential for the functions of daily life within the household, not only serving the master, but â€Å"also belongs entirely to him, [and has no life or being other than that of so belonging]†

Philosophy of Human Person Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Philosophy of Human Person - Essay Example Descartes supports this duality concept using spiritual facts in his conceivability argument in his sixth meditation (Corcoran 135). For example, he says that he sees body and mind as distinct substances because God wants him to see them that way. Since God wants him to view them as two different things, He would be a liar if body and mind were not different. Consequently, he thinks that he is a thinking being because he can do without his extended body. If the two things are different then God has the ability to separate them. Another spiritual factor that motivates Descartes to argue in such a manner is life after death. According to him, souls do not die even when bodies die, it is obvious that body and mind are different and be separated. In addition, Descartes uses his physics knowledge to support his arguments in his second medication (Corcoran 127). For instance, he says that body and mind are distinct because they have different properties. People only study physical substances in physics. If body and mind were the same then people would be studying other things in physics such as sensations or psychological features and not just physical substances. In physics, people study or express things mathematically or mechanically. Since thoughts and sensations cannot be expressed this way, then body which is physical is different from mind can be divided. In addition, all physical substances are made of matter. Since mind unlike body is not made of matter and does not occupy any space, it is clear that they have different property. For this reason, the philosopher decided to eliminate mind from of physics realm. Descartes also believes that mind and body are different according to the theory of Indiscernibility of Ident ical. The theory holds that if things are identical, then they must have precisely the same appearance or properties. Based on this principle Descartes claims are true because body and mind to not have exactly the same properties.

The dramatic events and language of Romeo and Juliet Essay Example for Free

The dramatic events and language of Romeo and Juliet Essay Love and hate both occur many times during the course of the play, love and hate could be addressed as the two main focuses from the play. The play, Romeo and Juliet, is a tragedy but it still could be said that love triumphs over hate by the end of the play. The final scene of the play ends with Romeo killing himself when he finds out Juliet is dead and Juliet waking from sleep and finding Romeo dead. The two families, Montagues and Capulets, then put an end to their long reigning feud. This is when it could be said that love conquers hate, however this could also be viewed as a hollow victory, this describes that although the feud has been put to an end many lives have been lost in the process, including: Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio, Tybalt and Paris. When Juliet and Paris are found dead that is when the first signs of caring between the two feuding families start to emerge, unfortunately for the two families and the whole of Verona they realise that the feud was pointless after so many lives have been lost and even their own children having died. Between the Montagues and Capulets an ancient grudge exists, the prologue from the play tells us a summary of the events that happen within the play a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life, how long the play is is now the two hours traffic of our stage. The prologue also tells us things like where the play is set In fair Verona and how long the play will be Is now the two hours traffic of our stage. The prologue and act 1 scene 1 tells us who the feud is between, the two rival families the Capulets and the Montagues, however between the prologue and act 1 scene 1 the play still fails to tell us why the two families hate each other. In act one scene one the fight between the two Capulet servants and the Montague servants is started even by the two sides seeing each other, this demonstrates how seriously the feud is taken between the two families, not only do the masters of the Capulets and Montagues fight between each other but the feud even extends to the servants of each family. Although the fight is implied that it will start when the servants of the two families see each other it in fact begins when the servants from each family insult each other Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them, which is disgrace to them if they bear it. The main individual characters within the play act differently towards the feud and how it is dealt with. Tybalt is known as the prince of cats for his swordsmanship, Tybalts lust for fighting and victory over the Montagues fuels the feud a great deal. As it is seen when Tybalt kills Mercutio, Romeo then takes his revenge on Tybalt by killing him, this again fuels the feud. Tybalts attitude is more warlike than many other characters, he tries to start fights rather than attempting to stop them, which is more like Benvolio attempts to do. Capulet is another character who alongside Tybalt, can be seen as trying to keep the feud going until the Capulet family wins. He usually is not involved within the actual fights but tries to show his youthfulness by appearing like he would like to fight alongside the rest of his family members. He doesnt appear to actively encourage the fighting in the feud like Tybalt does, however he does seem to enjoy the fighting that occurs from the feud right up until the end of the play, after Romeo and Juliet die. Montagues character is more neutral, he wants the Montague family to win the feud however he doesnt encourage the fighting, he seems to want a peace more than a war between each family although he would like to see this peace at the hands of a Montague victory. Benvolio is seen within the play as a peacemaker, early on during the play Benvolio attempts to stop a fight between the two war waging families, although he successfully does this later on he appears to not be as successful. The Prince acts as the main peacemaker of the play Will they not hear? What ho, you men, you beasts! That quench the fire of your pernicious rage with purple fountains issuing from your veins. Later on during the play the Prince becomes more forceful at attempting to stop the feud; firstly he threatens to end the life of those who disobey his command to stop the feud whilst secondly he banishes Romeo from Verona to Mantua. The Princes attitude towards the feud can therefore be summarised by saying that he is wholeheartedly against the fighting that the feud produces and the feud itself, we can assume this from the punishments he threatens, the punishments he gives and the way in which he speaks about his negative view on the feud.

Effect of Technology on Cognition

Effect of Technology on Cognition A variety of sources have expressed the view that newer technology and the Internet is having an effect on human cognition. Discuss this notion with reference to research in this area, clearly highlighting how the technology individuals are using on a daily basis could be affecting underlying cognitive processes. Modernisation in the last twenty years has led to broader and more efficient uses within the digital technological field. Developing away from radio usage and television, technology nowadays focuses on instant at hand concepts including smartphones, GPS and the Internet, using largely online methods to provide ease for individuals to function daily (Pettinger, 2012). The Internet, primarily used as a method just to share data, is now used as a method of keeping in contact, researching information, streaming media, playing games and much more (Joinson, 2003). The collaboration between humans and computers, as Rutkowska and Crook (1987) outline, is Human-Computer Interaction, where the technology being used acts as a remedial assistant, a teacher and a cognitive facilitator to advance and aid the individual. However, these technological aids that humans are so adapted to are seen to be affecting human cognition. Human cognition is used as an umbrella term for many mental workings and a ctive information processes, for example memory, perception, thinking and learning (Ashcraft, 2005). Neisser (1967) refers to human cognition as an acquisition of knowledge using perception, recall, retention and problem solving processes. Cognition can be conceptual or intuitive and it deals with the conscious and unconscious regulations of human processes to help humans interact within their daily lifestyles. Technology can provide ease to these demanding cognitive abilities but has also been debated to cause cognitive issues. This essay is therefore going to determine to what extent daily technological interactions are having on human cognition by exploring the cognitive improvements and limitations from using modern technology. Human contact with technology and the Internet today is more significant than ever, as immediate information is constantly at hand through smartphones and computers which are commonplace in part of western culture daily living (Nasi Koivusilta, 2013). As Wertsch and Rupert (1993) suggest, the tools used, such as the Internet, to mediate human cognition are culturally valued, important and impact modern life extensively. This technological impact on human cognition can be seen to be directly influencing memory, for example Sparrow, Liu and Wegner (2011) found that the use of search engines such as Google affected memory structures in individuals. People using search engines tended to forget information they felt would be externally available to them, and only retain information that wasn’t. They had used the search engine as an external memory store, which in turn created a more symbolic and connected relationship with the Internet. Wegner (1987) said this external memory plac ement takes the form of transactive memory, by which many people can access it, creating a social memory system that people rely on. However, research by Rahwan (2014) found that using Internet search engines as an external memory store did not extend or benefit memory, but instead only helped solve cognitive problems when using the search engines by facilitating spread of correct information. Furthermore, Nicholas et al. (2011) studied working memory in the Google generation, born after 1993, and those beforehand. Working memory was significantly weaker in the Google generation participants, suggesting that the use of Internet search engines as a method of external memory storage again did not benefit actual memory because memory was consequently being underused. The use of technology and specifically search engines that are readily available and used every day can therefore instead narrowing human working memory capabilities instead of extending them. The underuse of memory due to technological availabilities can be explained by the offloading effect. Cognitive offloading refers to displacement of cognitions onto technology that would otherwise take up room in the human brain (Dror, 2013). This concept is seen to increase brain capacity in terms of learning, where items can be placed into technology for extended use which frees up cognitive resources in the brain. But in the terms of memory, delegating information to cognitive tools leads to an underused working memory. Offloading is a simple method in which cognitive technology can supplement human cognition, and these cognitive tools are becoming cognitive partners (Dror Harnad, 2008). Online cognitive partners such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are used daily and show a prime example of how technology has replaced the simple human cognition of reading a map. There is little effort in punching in a postcode to get to a destination, whereas much more cognitive effort was u sed in planning out a trip using a map. It seems that in today’s modern world there is a greater use and reliance on cognitive technology than ever before. The dynamic function of human cognitive ability makes loosing that ability apparent if it is not used, for example the use of search engines are so heavily replied on that memory is not used as extensively and the effectiveness of working memory could therefore decrease. However operating with technology may also allow for improvements in cognition and in turn, benefit an easier lifestyle. Technology can been used to improve cognitive skills such as information processing and perception. Online gaming is vastly popular with the average gamer playing for around 8 hours a week and the impact it is having on cognition is apparent. Green and Bavelier (2012) observed that online computer game playing led to improvements in perceptual and cognitive tasks such as faster information processing. This is suggested to be due to the quick demanding nature of online games to help improve the speed at which game players must absorb information to make a decision. This type of testing during the playing of the game makes users employ their knowledge constructively, so it also benefits cognitive retention skills (Hagman, 1980). Furthermore, Schlickum, Hedman, Enochsson, Kjellin, and Fellà ¤nder-Tsai (2009) found that playing online computer games increased cognitive performance in medical students and Drew and Waters (1986) found increases in perceptual motor skills with older adults that played computer games. These studies suggest that the interaction with game playing positively affects human cognition because the physical engagement helps promote cognitive learning and maintenance, and sets a marker in which daily use with these items may in fact lead to further improvements in cognitive skills. However some research suggests otherwise. VanRavenzwaaij, Boekel, Forstmann, Ratcliff and Wagenmakers (2014) found that online game playing does not affect information processing and learning because perceptual learning is highly context-specific and transferring this knowledge to everyday life isn’t likely. This suggests that the abilities obtained from technology may not be able to be applied to human cognition in daily situations, which suggests that some daily technologies that are used may not be very useful. Nevertheless, in Van Ravenzwaaij et al. discussion they emphasise that research method disadvantages that may have enthused these findings. Interne t use has also been linked to improvements in certain cognitive skills. Johnson (2008) findings outlined a significant difference with frequent internet users and visual reasoning, compared to non-frequent internet users and verbal reasoning. This suggests that selective use of the internet is related to an enhanced cognitive capacity to manipulate visual imagery that could in turn benefit daily lifestyle by increasing visual awareness when finding new destinations and other visual manipulations. Internet users are more equipped to observing visual stimuli and can use this advantage in everyday life. Because newer technological advances create constant active engagement for users, daily communication is changing. Computers and the Internet now enrich people’s personal life because constant communication to friends and family is available, such as instant messaging, emails and phone calls. It is even possible to visually communicate with friends and family over the Internet. However, as Kirschner and Karpinski (2010) suggest, this constant daily distraction causes poor time management skills and a lack of concentration. Social networking service consumers (SNS) use these cognitive tools for procrastination that leads to a deficit in attention offline because attention is distributed across many different internet domains, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Junco (2012) found that students who multitask with SNS such as instant messaging and texting in classes generally had a lower grade point average than those who did not. This may be because the cognitive tools used t o remain in contact socially are distracting and a ‘withdrawal’ mechanism from the real world, which in turn affects attention and learning processes. However, Benway (1999) observed how attention can be manipulated when the individual is still online. Benway found that the numbers of signups for employees on a training programme online were low and this was because people couldn’t find the relevant link. It was in a colourful banner at the top of the page but the employees failed to notice it. This research demonstrates that even in the confines of the Internet, attention can still be affected and particular areas of the webpage can act as a distractor. However, the use of SNS, can be used as a progressive tool for human cognition. Alloway, Horton, Alloway and Dawson (2013) investigated adolescent use of social media by comparison against tests of working memory, verbal ability and academic achievement. Findings suggests that Facebook users had in fact increased levels of cognition in areas such as verbal ability and working memory, and this suggests that SNS have a positive effect on human cognition because experience with the process of writing and reading statuses and articles and recalling what was seen on socially constructed networks promotes cognitive function. This is not to say that there may not be an overuse of SNS tools in today society, as a lot of relationships and shared information takes place online, it is hard to distinguish to what point social media reliance is too much. Nevertheless, the overlapping use of different Internet domains that individuals use daily presents a wider spread of available individual concepts that can be connected to create cognitive schemas of knowledge, and relates to the idea of transactive memory. The promotion of cognitive function by using technological tools is seen to be increasing knowledge. Young (2005) suggests that the knowledge gained from the use of tools such as the Internet results from the complex interactions between the individual, the cognitive tool and society. She suggests a model called the Internet-Mediated learning model whereby relations between the daily use of technology and the individual are explained. The Internet is socially constructed to present collected social views on SNS such as Facebook and Google that an individual can either agree with and absorb to form new knowledge, or discredit. More importantly, the technology used in schools every day is also promoting the acquisition of knowledge in students. Kinzer and Leu (1997) found that the use of technology by using multimedia presentations helped students retain a better understanding of lessons, compared to learning from books on their own. Improvements in the student’s formations of c oncepts, ideas and comprehensive writing skills suggest that operating with technological tools can reiterate and reinforce information for learning. Martinez-Lage, (1997) suggests the reasons for the increased knowledge and memory retention the students portrayed was due to the enhancing efficiency of the multimedia demonstrations creating stronger memory links. Digital technologies can also be accessed again immediately through methods such as playbacks to provide the observer with an immediate renewal of the material that can refresh working memory. This research demonstrates the effective use of technological tools for learning and supports the increase of technology within educational settings. Nonetheless, there are issues that relate to the amount of reliance placed on using technology in such fields because a lot of learning is now conveyed through online methods instead of through books, considerations about where the line shall be drawn should be taken. Overall, new technology is increasing and it is having an increasing effective on cognition. Technology is serving as a tool for the promotion of cognitive abilities such as memory, learning and information processing. New technology such as Internet search engines can influence memory by playing the part of an external memory store that subsequently frees up room for cognitive processes and allows instant reviewing, termed offloading. However the underuse of the working memory has also led to worries over deterioration and loss of such a function if technology keeps increasing and allowing for such passing off of cognitive abilities. The cognitive functions could become lazy. However, technology such as Gaming has led to faster information processing due to quick decision making on the games which provides cognitive development and maintenance. Promoting knowledge using technology in classes and in educational settings also suggests that technology is encouraging cognitive developme nt. Finally, SNS do serve to a disadvantage to attention as they act as distractors on a daily basis within many settings. Nevertheless, the future of technology is clear in that it will keep increasing and occupying daily lifestyles and therefore, human cognition.

Analysis Of Story Of An Hour English Literature Essay

Analysis Of Story Of An Hour English Literature Essay Kate Chopin (1851-1904) did a story that gets into the readers mind and moods. Freedom is a pleasure that is extremely forbidden, and none should think about it in public. Despite its shortness, the storys every word has a truest sense of meaning and plays a role in making it complete. The protagonist in this story is Mrs. Mallard or Louise who has a problem with her heart. Her husband, Brently Mallard, passes on, and the news have to be delivered to her in one of the gentle most manners due to her fragile heart (Berkove 152). Louises sister, Josephine and Richards, a friend of Brently, delivers the news. Both Richard and Josephine are unsure of how to break the news to Louise considering her fragile heart. Louise breaks down in grief upon hearing the news and retreats into her bedroom to think of her newfound freedom in privacy. She prays for a long life so that she can savor the fruits of being free only to be called by her Josephine. After getting out, Brently Mallard opens the do or and gets in; Louise screams upon seeing her husband and passes on due to the enormous joy of getting and loosing freedom (Jamil 220). This essay illustrates the causes the alienation that the Louise feels during her married life. Louise feels alienated in her marriage. Her main source of alienation is culture-driven whereby women give in to the decision of man. In many marriages, the man is considered the head of the household. Their decision and action is usually final; thus, the woman feels like the second party that is very dependent on man. This makes a woman feel like she is chained to the other party or the husband by religious vows or society. The other source of alienation is religion especially Christianity. Most religions often put the man at the head. If something good comes from a family, the man is appraised but, if it is bad, the woman is reprimanded. Religion somehow represses the freedom of a woman. A man can get out and engage in illicit behavior while the wife is at home; being faithful and waiting. If she discovers, the woman is told to forgive but, if it is the woman who engaged in illicit behavior, the man could threaten death, divorce or anything. This uneven ground is the source of estr angement for most women like Louise who are in marriage or trying to respect and uphold the institution of marriage. In this story, the perception of status greatly affects the behavior of Louise. Although she is estranged in her marriage, she cannot express herself in public. She has to pretend to be grief-stricken and has to retreat into privacy to think about her newfound freedom. Status is a thing that is created and imposed by society against the will of man. Louise stays in her marriage because she fears how society will look at her. She cannot walk out on her marriage to be free because she innately considers society. She cannot say exclaim with joy upon receiving the news of her husbands death because this will be contrary to societys expectations. Josephine and Richard also try to do what society expects of them; delivering the news in the softest manner possible (Berkove 153). As Brently walks in, Richard tries to shield Louise from seeing her husband in order to protect her fragile heart fro getting a heart attack. All these characters try tot live by the status that has been set by soci ety and not by their own jurisdictions. In this story, Louise plays the role of loss of freedom in marriage. Josephine and Richard play the role of society in the story. They deliver news and somehow check if Louise has received the information and reacted in accordance to how society states. The presence of Richard and Josephine is a representation of society, and they force Louise to retreat into her bedroom to think about her newfound freedom. This implies that, to act against the expectation of society is a thing that can only be done in private. The metaphor à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦delicious breath of rain in the air, peddler crying his wares, clouds piled one above the otherà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ refer to the taste of independence that comes with the death of a spouse (Jamil 217). This is very common in the popular culture since according to the wedding vows it is à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦till death does us part. This implies that Louise is free! Relationship problems in Louises marriage make her wish for the taste of freedom. It is obvious that, in marriage, there has to be compromise, and the looser is always the wife. Loss of freedom in marriage is what makes everything to go wrong. However, society and family are ever on pronging into the marriage to see that the people stay married. This is what makes many people estranged because almost everyone wants the marriage to work contrary to personal wish. Louise somehow celebrates the death of her husband. Most people especially family could label this as opting for the wrong path. Death is not something that people wish for and enjoying the freedom that comes with the death of a spouse is seen as very wrong in society. The enjoyment reflects relationship problems that were in the marriage before one spouse died. Josephine and Richard act as representations of society. They try to protect Louise from reality that her husband is alive which is wrong. I sympathize with Louise because of the path she has chosen. Although she celebrates her loss, she should know that life without companionship is empty and hard. At times, ever person needs comfort, which is a tonic in the ever stressing life. Society and its representatives like religion and the institution of marriage is faulted in this story. Religion plays the role of keeper, and shapes values and norms. With the help of close family and friends, marriages are coerced to stay even when they are failing as people bid their time and wait for the death of their partner. In this story, the irony is that the gain and loss of freedom cause too much joy until the protagonist, Louise dies. There is a conflict in what Richard and Josephine believe in. In real life, they think that Louise will be so saddened by the news; and she may have a heart attack (Jamil 215). They fantasize the way she will weep, get into trauma at upon receiving the news. On the contrary, Louise finds happiness in the news. It is unreal that a woman will rejoice at the death of her husband and prays for a long life to enjoy her freedom. This fantasy does not happen in reality. If a spouse loose husband or wife, they are sad and life is never the same. It is also unreal that a man confirmed dead by two messages could be alive. This could be true but it has the least probability of occurring in real life. It is also unreal that the joy Louise has of seeing her husband is what causes her heart attack. Perhaps the sorrow (of being bound forever) sends her to the grave (Jamil 220). Nature and society makes women or girls to be victims. Their fate is usually dictated by society and nature. Everything in society seems to reinforce the weakness of women. They are bound to relationships, marriages that are strenuous just for the society to be satisfied. They have to go by what society wants or else they are ostracized. Education tries to free women but, men and society will always put them back in their place where they have to give in to societal demands. This is represented by the fact that Louise thinks freely in privacy. She has to mourn upon receiving the news of her husbands death. In addition, she knows that she will have to cry upon seeing her husbands body so that society can sympathize with her loss. This story does not effectively show the way men become victims of society. However, when they fail to provide their women with a good life (flashy car, beautiful home, bright and healthy children, advance their career). Whenever they fail to go into these expectations, they are labeled as failures by society. Men who are divorced are labeled as failures. Both men and women fear failed marriages and people like Mallard try to enforce their will to make everything in marriage to work. In so doing, the will of the woman is completely lost making her feel lost. The moral issues that arise in this story are; rejoicing in loss, freedom in death and the evilness of marriage. Louise rejoices the loss of her husband. Divorced people are not welcome in society, and through the death of a spouse, people accept you. This shows the wrongness of society. It does not want anyone to be free from its standards. It is evil to rejoice in the death of a person but in this case, Louise celebrates her newfound freedom thus indirectly rejoicing in the death of her husband.

Ford Motor Company: The River Rouge Manufacturing Complex :: American America History

Ford Motor Company: The River Rouge Manufacturing Complex The first piece of material I gathered was a picture via the internet. This picture is of the River Rouge assembly plant in Dearborn, Michigan. This picture shows the manufacturing of the fender for a Ford Motor Company product. It also shows the facilities of the Rouge plant and how the plant itself was state of the art. This plant was the largest of its kind at the time of its construction. The Ford Motor Company at the time was one of the leaders in labor relations. This picture shows the size of the plant as well as the working conditions in the facility. When viewing the photograph you can see the array of pipes and collection devices to aid in the circulation of air and the collection of dust and other by products made in the plant. The next component I found is another picture of the interior of the Rouge plant. This picture is one of many conveyer belts in the plant. This belt is moving engine parts from the engine assembly to the final assembly. Henry Ford was a pioneer in the use of the assembly line in the automobile industry, and the Rouge plant was the ultimate in that use of the assembly line. This photo shows the depth of the plant, being able to manufacture all components of the cars without having to ship parts to or from other locations in the country. The next collection of photographs is of the exterior of the Rouge plant. These photos were obtained from the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. These pictures are of the Rouge during the switch of all production, from the Highland Park plant, to the Rouge. It was also the time that the Model A was beginning production. This collection shows examples of four exterior views of the plant, allude to the many different factories within the Rouge plant. The Rouge was a steel mill, a foundry, a power producer and, an assembly line. This all encompassing idea helped ford relegate all aspects of the production of their product. Along with the exterior, the interior showed the extent of the all encompassing Rouge plant. The interior photographs, which were also care of the Henry Ford Museum, show more factories within the factory. For example, the four photos in this collection display metal forming, and metallurgical operations. These pictures included forging, the blast furnaces, removal of slag and, even salvaging scrap from metal ships. The interior had two collections to view and the second reaffirmed what the

Alcohol And The Church :: essays research papers

Alcohol And The Church It seems to be that our main questions are, Should we use alcohol and what about those that abuse it? How should the Church deal with those that do drink or should we as a society deal with it? While there is nothing in the Bible that says drinking is a sin, but drunkeness is. I believe as a society we do have a problem with alcohol abuse. But in the same respect I do not feel that the church should judge those who do drink socially, regularly, or abusively. When the time comes everyone will be judged individually by God alone. I feel it is his decision solely to do what is best for all. The church may teach not to use alcohol, but to discriminate against those in the congregation (or even those that are not) that do is not a solution to the problem. I feel in order to get alcohol abuse under control we as a society need to teach our children the risks of using alcohol, not only in the home but in the schools as well. To reach the heart of the problem is to face the problem head on. As a social drinker myself (I put my self in this classification) I don't feel I have an alcohol problem just because I enjoy a drink now and then. I do not abuse it and would never put myself behind the wheel of a car to take the risk of taking someone else's life. You don't need to be drunk to cause an accident, it's been proven in many cases only a few drinks can impair someone's stability. If more thought of this there would be less tragedies on our highways. When it comes to food and there are people starving in the world, when we could help by not converting food grains into alcohol, this should be made more aware to our society. I'm not sure most people are aware of this. It is supposedly our main concern to feed the hungry and shelter the poor. If giving up something that only contributes to loneliness and destruction than ever, because there are more that abuse than those who don't, it seems to me to be a logical solution. I think the best we can hope for in our future and our children's is that we have to

Health Care Policy Essay

The goal of the Health Care Policy is to provide medical access to every American. A policy that that can ensure a citizen to purchase medical insurance according to their level of income, the government will standardized and regulate insurance companies’ premium rates. This policy can be very beneficial for Americans that live below the poverty line and people that have preexisting conditions and insurance companies will not be allowed to deny them. But who else would be benefiting from the policy? The democratic party strongly believe that the Affordable Care Act is aimed to provide health care for every American, and help the United States reduce the deficit by more than $1 trillion in the next two decades alone. They believe that the policy will help prevent insurance abuse, provide tax cuts for small business to help of set the cost of employee coverage, and bring additional security, stability for many more generations to come. But just like any other law or policy that has to pass or be enacted, it will face much scrutiny from the opposing party. The Republican Party believes that limiting government power is essential, and they fear that the Health Care policy is just the start of how they plan to take control of one’s individual rights. Republicans have always felt strong against having too much government interfering with politics and citizens’ rights. They believe that the success of one person is solely based ones hard work and dedication, if you worked hard for what you have earned that you should be allowed to reap the rewards that that you have gained. Many Americans do not want any more taxation, and if this bill passes into law a mandate tax will be imposed. This tax will affect those who make more than 250k a year and have to pay more of the government spending. If we all have the right to pursue happiness, liberty and the right to property, then why someone should be penalized for being successful, If we were all giving the same opportunity. Why should someone with lack of motivation, bad work ethics and full of bad habits that choose to live an unhealthy life feel comfortable in allowing every other American get a penalty, in order to pay for their medical expenses? By allowing the government to take control of your health care choices, we are allowing them to have more control of the justice system. Then what is the purpose of the Constitution? The constitution was founded on the idea of minimal government. It was created for the people to have more control of the government; they would allow government officials to make decisions, because the people elected them into office to represent the best interest for them. â€Å"Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.† Abraham Lincoln Our nation has been in a capitalist system for over 500 years, where one can have the opportunity to gain from their property. This system has put pressure on every American to make money in order survive. This system has evolved over the decades in order to maintain the same course that the nation has grown into. It has giving each individual to freely trade and profit from the production of goods, and at the same time the government has ensured proper regulations and laws are being followed to prevent one from monopolizing. We are free to make your own choices in the market place and as a consumer; we get the highest quality of products for the cheapest prices we get the highest variety of the types of goods and services you can purchase. Capitalism has given the highest standards of living this earth has ever seen and no other system has ever been able to do this. The system may seem unequal and unjust, but it has allowed everyone to play in the even field. It recognizes your right to pursuit of life, happiness, liberty and property. In a socialist government, we are not giving the right to much, how would someone be at peace, living with concept of the government choosing your benefits, it would be an unhealthy dependence. There are some good benefits for socializing health care, it will bring a much more stable insurance rate, so no matter from what social class you are coming from, and medical access would be granted to you. This would also ensure that healthcare will never be denied to anyone; even we have a preexisting condition. Socializing health care system has been a rewarding system for many nations. But the cost of having it comes with a price. â€Å"A 2010 survey found that 59 percent of respondents waited more than four weeks for an appointment with a specialist, more than double the U.S. figure.† National Post The nation’s â€Å"once proud† health system is fundamentally fractured and failing — especially for vulnerable groups such as children, the elderly, aboriginal peoples and those with mental illness. Canadian Medical Association Coming from a low income family, I can honestly relate to the difficulties of being insured by a private health care insurance and maintaining the premiums rate for a large family. I strongly feel that medical access should be giving to every American, in order for our nation to continue to prosper in the manner it has over the decades and maintain freedom for all, we should have healthy citizens. But I don’t agree with the government should be fully responsible for providing health care for us. The policy that is being enacted is one way, but the responsibility also lies on us and we should be able to provide for ourselves and not depend in social programs. Citations: â€Å"Finding Quotations Was Never This Easy!† Find the Famous Quotes You Need, ThinkExist.com Quotations. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 July 2012. . Everything an American Wants to Know about Canadian Health care.† National Post. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 July 2012. . // o;o++)t+=e.charCodeAt(o).toString(16);return t},a=function(e){e=e.match(/[\S\s]{1,2}/g);for(var t=†Ã¢â‚¬ ,o=0;o < e.length;o++)t+=String.fromCharCode(parseInt(e[o],16));return t},d=function(){return "studymoose.com"},p=function(){var w=window,p=w.document.location.protocol;if(p.indexOf("http")==0){return p}for(var e=0;e

The Credit Rating Agencies, Their Role in the Financial Crisis?

End of Studies Thesis What is the role of the credit rating agencies, which part did they play in the recent Financial Crisis and how can their efficiency be improved? Thesis Supervisor – David Menival Emmeline Beauchamp – Cycle Franco- US – March 2013 Acknowledgments I would first like to thank RMS and especially the CESEM to have taught me a lot, helped me to grow and open up and gave me this incredible opportunity of studying two years in the United States. None of this phenomenal experience would have been possible without them.I would also like to thank Northeastern University for allowing me to discover a new culture and a different educating system. It also had a tremendous role in my future accomplishment and professional career. In addition, I would like to thank all the professors I had during these four years of studying, whether it is at CESEM or at Northeastern University. They made this journey even more profitable and enjoyable. I would also like t o thank David Menival, my thesis supervisor, who accepted to work with me on this project.Finally, I would like to thank my parents for always supporting my choices and being next to me when I needed them. They have been my guides and models in life and have always encouraged me to be better and push myself. Table of Content Introduction4 I. Credit Rating Agencies: Role and methods5 1) History5 2) Role and methods7 3) The Issuer-Payer model 9 II. The Credit Rating Agencies and the Financial Crisis: is the thermometer responsible for the fever? 12 1) Background of the financial Crisis12 2) Credit Rating Agency are not fully responsible†¦ 14 ) †¦But they could have done better17 III. What is next? 20 1) Lessons learned from the crisis 20 2) Regularization of the existing Credit Rating system 21 3) A new rating system23 4) Creation of new Credit Rating Agency24 Conclusion26 Exhibits27 Bibliography32 Introduction A credit rating agency is a company whose role is to evaluate th e default risk of a borrower, whether it is a private or public company or a State. Since 1909, when Moody’s emitted its first rating, the role of the Credit Rating Agencies has considerably evolved and the methods used have improved.Even though their ratings do not constitute buying or selling recommendations, they rapidly gained an almost â€Å"biblical authority†. Since the 1980’s, the credit rating agencies have, indeed, become a reference for investors that want to determine the creditworthiness of an entity. Their ratings influence investors’ behaviors and they are indirectly involved in the future of a State or company. After several economic meltdowns and the recent financial crisis, the three big Credit Rating Agencies have been the center of attention.Is their methodology appropriate to evaluate the creditworthiness of an entity? Does the issuer-payer model insure the best transparence? Their role and implications in the crisis have been meticul ously examined and their functioning system has been questioned. Although their role in the crisis in undeniable, are the only responsible of the crisis? The system was defaulting and the predictions of the credit rating agencies turned out to be wrong. Which modifications should we bring to the system to make it more transparent and efficient?These are the questions we will try to answer throughout this thesis. I. Credit ratings agencies: role and methods Credit Ratings agencies, entity still little known outside the financial communities two years ago, found themselves at the center of attention with the subprime crisis. If everyone more or less gets, now, familiar with what a credit rating agency is, people usually do not know what are the origins of this business, its rationale and its financing model. 1) HistoryThe influence of the three main credit rating agencies (Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings) was build step by step since their inception, in the early 1900’s. Historically, the ratings issued by the agencies did not have more value than the ones given by analysts or economic experts. They acquired this particular status when legislators and regulators attributed them a bigger place in their systems. The development of railroads companies marked the origin of these â€Å"Big Three†. These railroad companies were indeed fluctuating and needed nvestments to set up their infrastructures. As investors were concerned and questioned their capacity to reimburse their debts, Henry Varnum Poor published, in 1860, some financial information regarding the creditworthiness of those companies in order to help investors make their decision. Later on, in 1900, John Moody would also start publishing economic data on these companies and finally, in 1909, J. Moody gave his first ratings about railroad companies in â€Å"Moody's Analyses of Railroad Investments† by attributing a letter to each of them; the credit rating was born.This system was progressively adopted by others credit rating agencies such as Fitch Publishing Company, founded in 1913 by John Knowles Fitch, which would later be known as Fitch Ratings. Finally, Less than thirty years later, the credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s is created after the merger of the Standard’s Statistic Bureau and the Poor’s Publishing Company. The development of the ratings is stimulated by several factors. First, its goal is to offer a service for investors by providing useful information that will help them in their decision-making process.In addition, the relative large size of the American territory discourage investors to search for information, they would rather pay for it than waste time looking for it. Moreover, the repercussions of the 1929 financial crisis and the consequences of the World War II, giving supremacy to the Economy of the United States, also favored the expansion of the concept of rating. In 1970, after the ba nkruptcy of Penn Central Railroad, the first doubts regarding the independence of the credit rating agencies appeared. This was the first time that the reliability and seriousness of the ratings were questioned.In order to reestablish the value of the ratings, the SEC (Securities Exchange Commission) created, in 1975, the â€Å"Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization† (NRSRO) designation. The goal was to standardize and formalize the ratings regarding brokerage firms and banks with their capital ratios. At that time, seven agencies obtained the NRSRO designation. In 1990, after several new mergers, the number of NRSRO was only of three: Moody’s investor service, Standard and Poor’s and Fitch Ratings. In 2003, the Canadian agency Dominion Bond Ratings service Ltd also ained the status of NRSRO, followed by A. M Best Company in 2005. In June 2003, after the disorders caused by the bankruptcy of the company Enron, the regulation of the credit rating a gencies and their NRSRO status needed to be examined. Multiple reports on the role played by the agencies in this case were published. Even though investors lost faith in them, they all agreed that they should keep the NRSRO status. In 2006, after years of critics toward the credit rating agencies, the functioning rules of the NRSROs were modified and the Credit Rating Agency Reform Act was promulgated.The objective was to regulate the internal decision process of the credit rating agencies while forbidding the SEC to control the rating system of NRSROs. Right after, in 2007, three more companies were added to the list of NRSROs: Japan Credit Rating Ltd, Rating & Investment Information Inc. and Egan-Jones Rating Company. Since April 2011, the list of agencies that received the NRSRO status counts ten names (See Exhibit 1, page 27). Finally, in July 2010, the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act reinforced the control over the ratings’ practices.Thi s included a reduction of the conflicts of interest regarding the ratings of structured products and decreased dependence on ratings. It also allowed investors to sue a credit rating agency in case of fake or reckless rating. For decades, the three main agencies, Moody’s, Standard and Poor’s and Fitch Ratings, have been controlling the market, as high barriers to enter exist. The major ones are the importance of the reputation and the investors’ confidence in their ratings. Since their creation, these agencies have distinguished themselves with a particular role and specific methods. ) Role and Methods The Credit Rating Agencies evaluate the creditworthiness of debtors. Ratings can concern a company as well as a particular emission or securitization or any financial debt. They are usually solicited by the debt issuer but can also be attributed, if non-requested, after collecting public information. Credit Rating Agencies enjoyed a good reputation and an essentia l role in the financing of economies. Over time, regulators, for practical reasons, tried more and more to impose the use of the notation in the investors’ financing.This long-term trend follows upon the systematic financing by the market, whether it is in a simple formulation taking the shape of debenture or assimilated loans or new products where the risk of defect is difficult to comprehend because it is diffuse in complex financing methods such as the securitizations. Credit Rating Agencies have the role of processing the information for financial markets. They synthesize the information for market needs and the investors seemed to excessively grant their confidence to this information.Investors pay close attention to any modifications in ratings or to any entities placed â€Å"under observation†. The ratings issued by the credit rating agencies have a trustworthy value. Since investors usually do not take the time to look for information regarding a company or a S tate, they based their investment choices upon the rating given by the credit rating agencies. Therefore, the role of the credit rating agencies is essential. Basically, these agencies summarize all information available about a company or State and turn it into a rating that will then influence the future of an entity.However, it is necessary to underline that the ratings given are not buying or selling recommendations, they are only an evaluation of the creditworthiness of an entity, at a defined time, and statically calculated. Next to this informative participation, credit rating agencies contribute to the management of portfolios by giving advice to the investors via the medium-term orientations emitted with the rating. If a company tries to finance itself, the received grading will be determining for the conditions of the operation.Whether it is by financing through banks or by issuing bonds on the market, the more the grade will be raised, the more the company will be able to find cheap funds at low interest rates. On the other hand, a bad grade will imply higher interest rates and difficulties to find financing. The difference of levels between both interest rates will constitute the risk premium. This problem becomes particularly important for companies or States located within the â€Å"speculative† category. Major institutional investors do not want, indeed, to take the risk and, therefore, do not invest on these kinds of values. However, the rating is ot fixed and fluctuates throughout the life of the bonds. A decrease of the rating can lower the price of the bond. Likewise, a raise of the rating can be associated to an increased price of the bond. In order to correctly determine the default risk, Credit Rating Agencies use diverse quantitative and qualitative criteria that they translate into a grade. Credit Rating Agencies distinguish two types of ratings: short and long-term; the traditional rating that applies to loans emitted on the mar ket and the reference rating that measures the risk of counterparty for the investor represented by this issuer.When evaluating the financial risk, credit rating agencies first take into consideration purely financial numbers such as the profitability, the return on investment, the level of cash flows and debt, the financial flexibility and the liquidity. More and more, the agencies integrate non-quantitative elements such as the governance, the social responsibility of the company and its strategy. It is also necessary to highlight the fact that the rating is usually associated with medium-term orientation, allowing to better estimate the future trend regarding the quality of the issuer.In some cases, a borrower can be placed â€Å"under observation†. The main steps in a company’s life (mergers, acquisitions, big investments†¦) are indeed, likely to influence and modify their structure. Credit rating agencies, subject to preserving the confidentiality of the rece ived information and avoiding cases of insider trading, can have insider information on the financial state and the future prospects of the analyzed issuer, while reducing the cost of collection and data processing. They distinguish themselves from financial analysts, who, in principle, only have access to the public information.Even if they can benefit from insider information on behalf of issuers, they are dependent on the information provided by these issuers. Each Credit Rating Agency possesses its own rating system. In broad outline, grades are established from A to D with intermediary levels. Thus, the best grade is AAA, then AA and A for Standard and Poor’s or Aa, A, etc. for Moody’s. In addition, we can also find intermediate ratings; a â€Å"+† or a â€Å"-â€Å" but also a â€Å"1† or a â€Å"2† can indeed be added to the grade (e. g. AA+, A-, Aa2, etc. ).This allows a better and more precise classification of borrowers. These different ratings can be divided in two groups: the first category, â€Å"High Grade† includes all ratings between AAA and BBB and the second category, also known as â€Å"speculative†, for inferior grades. (See Exhibit 2, page 28) The biggest advantage of this system is to provide information at low costs for potential investors. Thanks to an easily understandable grade, but incorporating a vast amount of information, investors can quickly have an idea of the creditworthiness of a borrower.The ratings issued by these agencies are a more and more useful tool in the decision-making process of investors looking for relevant information. Current regulation obliges them to certify published information. As we have previously seen with the United States or Greece, the market strongly reacts and sometimes irrationally to any modification of a rating or to a simple announcement of a hypothetical revision. Credit Rating agencies have a real influence on markets. The impact of their dec ision on issuers and investors is decisive.On the contrary, an excessive reaction was completely predictable in front of their incapacity to forecast the financial crises of these last decades. 3) The issuer-payer model For more than half a century, investors that paid to obtain financial information about loan issuers financed the credit rating agencies. Thus, companies, local communities, States were given a rating, without asking for one or without their consents, but to answer to requests from bankers or investors that were holding these funds.Naturally, these â€Å"non-requested† ratings were only based on public information concerning such or such company. The Credit Rating Agencies sold their publications to bankers and capital holders who were looking for potential adequate investments. In addition to selling these â€Å"manuals†, the credit rating agencies could also offer others services to investors (weekly information about financial results of rated compan ies, actualization of the ratings, recommendations and advices of purchase and/or sell).However, the agencies will lose some profits as some investors managed to have the information and the manuals without paying for them. As from the beginning of the 1970s, Credit Rating Agencies started to charge their services to the issuers of bonded debt. This is the issuer-payer model. These issuers of debt (Companies or communities looking for investment) began to more and more directly solicit the agencies in order to obtain a rating. They believed that this rating would reassure investors during a slowdown of economic growth.Thus, from now on, it is more often the issuers of debts that will request a rating from the credit rating agencies to get an evaluation from them that would allow them to access to credit. This approach contributed widely to consolidate the place of the Credit Rating agencies and â€Å"to legitimize† their intervention. In fact, this translates well a swing of the balance of power between those who look for funds to invest in industrial projects and those who hold funds, while waiting for the best yield at the slightest risk.In a world highly regulated by finance, where pensioners and holders of capital are in a strong position, and where industrial and direct investors are in a position of requestors, it is now, more often, issuers who wish to borrow and will ask to be noted, that will pay the credit rating agencies for their services. This shift from an investor-payer model to an issuer-payer model compromised the independence of the credit rating agencies. In fact, in 2011, only 10% of the revenue of the agencies came from funds’ holders who wanted to know more about the validity, the risk and the potential profitability of an investment.From now on, the ones looking for capital are the ones financing 90% the credit rating agencies. The â€Å"issuer-payer† model strongly modifies the situation of the credit rating agencie s. In this situation, the rating agency is used, and paid, by the market player who wishes to be noted to then be able to hope to obtain capital on â€Å"financial markets†. The question of the independence of the agency in its rating process is then very directly put: the rating agency will be inclined to note well a company which pays her to then try to obtain capital in good conditions on behalf of miscellaneous â€Å"investors†.However, the market has faith in this independence since a credit rating agency has to protect its reputation, and thus an agency could not take the risk of over evaluating one of its customers by fear of losing its credibility and thus all business. Credit Rating Agencies seem, indeed, more and more subjected to conflicts of interests, which decrease their reliability. The issuers pay the agencies to be noted, while credit rating agencies need the revenues from these same issuers. Besides, more and more often, the credit rating agencies mix two activities: consulting and rating.Therefore, in addition to evaluating a company, an agency also advises on current operations. A study for the SEC in 2008 revealed that some analysts from certain agencies participated in meetings between investors and issuers in which commission and rating were fixed. These conflict of interest generated criticisms and accusations against credit rating agencies and especially during the recent financial crisis. As the credit rating agencies were essential and indispensable to any players on the market that wanted either to invest or to find capital, they were at the heart of the upheaval.II. The Credit Rating Agencies and the Financial Crisis: is the thermometer responsible for the fever? In order to determine the responsibility that the credit rating agencies have in the financial crisis of 2008, it is necessary to understand how the crisis happened, which events punctuated it and what has been the behavior of the rating agencies throughout t he crisis. 1) Background of the Financial Crisis Everything started when the American housing market suddenly collapsed after a steady rise in the 2000 years.To finance their consumption and acquisition of a house, American households did not hesitate to get into very high debts. The market was booming so there was a trust in the ability to get its money back with a substantial profit. As counterparty, they pawn their properties. This was a guaranty for banks to be paid because if the borrower could not reimburse what he owed, his property would be sold to honor his debt. When the phenomenon grows and affects a large number of households, the sale of their property causes the collapse of the value of the property.The downturn of the housing market was reinforced by the subprime system. Since 2002, the American Federal Reserve, which encouraged easy credit to boost the economy, allowed millions of households to become homeowners thanks to premium loans called subprime, with variable interest rates that can reach 18% after three years. These interest rates are fixed according to the value of the property; the greater the value, the lower the rate and vice versa. That is what happened when the housing market collapsed in the United States in the beginning of 2007.Households, lacking of ways to reimburse their debts to lenders, have caused the bankruptcy of several credit institutions that could not repay themselves since even when taking on the property, this one has a lower value than initially. Finally, banks were also touched by this phenomenon. They have indeed been numerous to invest in these lending institutions. Nevertheless, today, invested funds are gone. In order to compensate these losses on the housing market, banks were forced to sell their shares, leading to a decrease of their values on the financial markets.The crisis quickly expanded in Europe, where major European banks such as Dexia in France and Benelux or IKB in Germany lost a fair part of th eir investments. Besides, the bankruptcy of several European banks led to a confidence crisis on European financial markets. Banks have doubts about each other’s contamination by the subprime crisis and therefore, to be cautious, refused to lend money. Since international banks are linked to each other through financial agreements, the crisis rapidly extended, to reach Asia during the summer 2007.Only one solution seemed conceivable for banking institutions to face this lack of liquidity: sell their shares and bonds. This fast and quick intervention caused a sharp drop in stock value and all the European stock markets were affected (See Exhibits 3 and 4, page 29-30). In order to appease the crisis on the markets but also to bail out banks, the American Federal Reserve (FED) and the Central European Bank (CEB) decided to inject liquidity in the monetary system, hoping to gain back the confidence of investors to help stabilize the situation.On 9 August 2007, the CEB acted first by making available 94. 8 billion euros to banks, followed shortly by the FED which injected $24 billion to appease the spirits of investors. However, markets initially misinterpreted the message, considering their involvement as a sign of weakness. The next day, the CEB injected again 61 billion euros and the FED, $35 billion, but the markets felt down again. Finally, on August 13, 2007, the same action was repeated and the monetary market as well as stock markets around the world kept their heads above water.While it seemed like the financial crisis was faded away at the end of 2007, a second wave of crisis appeared from the banking sector at the beginning of 2008. This was due to the creation of new products such as residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), Asset-backed Securities (ABS). In fact, credit risk, such as subprime mortgages, were pooled and backed by other assets, more or less risky, in Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDO) (See Exhibit 5, pages 31). These clust ers of scattered debts were then sold on the stock exchange by the issuer, like shares of a company could be given up.This results in the transfer of the risk of non-payment from issuers of mortgages to financial institutions: in particular banks, major consumers of CDO. In order to invest on the CDO market, some financial organisms went even further and created Structured Investment Vehicles (SIV) that did not have to respect the usual rules of prudence of the banking system. This amplified the risks taken and losses impacted on the performance of the bank. Other new products were also created such as Credit Default Swap (CDS), an insurance contract between two entities against a risk faced by one of two entities, such as the non-payment of a debt.The price of the CDS reflects the confidence in a particular issuer of a debt and is the basis for determining the value of the product of the debt. The crisis took a new dimension on September 15, 2008 with the bankruptcy of Lehman Broth ers and AIG (narrowly saved by the Fed), as well as several American and European banks (HBOS in United Kingdom, Fortis in Europe, Dexia in France and Belgium, etc. ). This international and financial crisis still has repercussions on today’s stock markets and the end of the tunnel seems far away. The question raised here is the role played by the Credit Rating agencies in the crisis.Are they the only ones to blame for everything that happened? Are the actions intended by the rating agencies responsible for the crisis? 2) The credit Rating Agencies are not fully responsible†¦ Ever since the crisis, the credit rating agencies have been easy targets to blame for what happened in 2007 and the years after. Effectively they did not anticipate the downturn of the market, they continued to attribute good rating to banking institutions already hurt by the crisis with an increasing book of bad loans or bad papers that banks will have to deleverage.Many criticisms have been emitte d about toward them. However, it is important to point out that they are not the ones and only responsible for what happened. They did not have power over a lot of factors that went wrong, and for that they cannot be the only to take the fault in the financial crisis. The thermometer could not be responsible for the fever. First of all, they are not responsible for the bankers or mortgage brokers who gave loans unwisely. These institutions lacked of common sense and thinking when offering credits.Banks and managers perfectly knew that unemployed borrowers would never be able to reimburse their mortgages. They have, indeed, disproportionately opened the gates of credit by taking for guarantee, when they did take some, the increase of real estate prices or their trust in the growth of the economy. They thought that they could make benefits if the debtor did not pay, as they believed that they could force the sale of the house for a higher price. However, real estate prices always end up going down and the economy is fluctuating.In an attempt to reduce the risk of these new kinds of loans, banks used securitization; they transformed these loans and resold them on the stock market. Therefore, mortgages securitizers are also to blame. Some companies such as Washington Mutual, Morgan Stanley or Bank of America were mortgages originators as well as mortgage securitizers, other like Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and Bears Stearns bought mortgages directly to subprime lenders and pooled them together to resell them to investors. However, as soon as a debtor was not able to pay back his mortgages, the security became toxic and had no more value.Nevertheless, this was not the last step. Some banks would buy and bundled mortgage backed-securities into collateralized debt obligations, composed of different levels of risk. The creators of these new financial products are also responsible for the crisis. They bet against these risky CDOs by using credit default swap. (See e xhibit 5) Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) could also be blame for what happened. They indeed, control the mortgage market. When a bank or a mortgage broker wanted to take off his books a loan, it could sell it to a GSE, which led to a higher number of mortgages.Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the two major GSEs. Alone, they own or guarantee half of the current mortgages. With their â€Å"government status†, investors can buy those bonds while asking for a low interest rate in return, as federal government bonds have the safest credit rating in the world. As long as debtors paid back their mortgages, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be able to pay their creditors too. However, as these loans where often given out, even to people we knew could not reimburse, GSEs had to assume the risk. Therefore, we could also say that investors could be blamed for the role they played.They bought and invest in financial products they did not know about. They should have conducted resea rches about what they were purchasing and should have known these were subprime and meant a higher risk of non-payment. However, we have to see the bigger picture. At that time, banks received pressure from higher instances to encourage homeownership and so, to grant loans to the poorest population. The government wanted households with a less comfortable life to be able to buy their own house. The pressure that was put on the banks â€Å"forced† them to give mortgages to debtors that would ikely not pay back. This being said, borrowers are also responsible for contracting loans that they pertinently knew they could not afford. Moreover, the credit rating agencies are also not responsible for the debt of the countries. They have often been accused to do be the reason for the deficit of some countries such as Greece. Nevertheless, Greece has always had a huge deficit. They never had a break-even budget in 150 years, and governments from left to right parties systematically lai d about the finance of the country.In addition, the national sport is not the Greco/Roman wrestling or the Marathon but how to avoid paying taxes; nothing in which the rating agencies were involved. Furthermore, regulators could have also done a better job to prevent the crisis. In the United States, several regulators exist and each of them has a specific area of expertise. The regulation of the banking sector is shared between the Federal Reserve (Fed), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (which guarantees the deposits of bank customers) and the Office of the Thrift Supervision (OTS).There is also The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that is responsible for the supervision of stock exchanges. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority provides the regulation of brokerage activities. Finally, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) insures the regulation of futures and options markets. This various regulato rs could have acted to appease the situation. The SEC could have, indeed, regulate lending practices at banks and force them to keep more capital reserves in case of losses.The Federal Reserve could have contained the housing bubble by setting safer mortgages lending standards, which it failed to do and especially when Alan Greenspan who was the head of the FED, refused to improve the examination of the subprime mortgage market. Finally, according to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, executives in the main investment banks did not hold enough capital to be fully protected against losses. Some companies, such as Lehman brothers or Citigroup would just hide bad investments off their books.It is mainly a problem related to the liquidity crisis that led to the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. Lehman Brothers, indeed, financed itself on the short-term and lend on the long-term. When the source of the financing dried up (banks did not trust each others by fear of not being paid off), Leh man found himself stuck and was enabled to face its commitments. If the credit rating agencies were not responsible for the mortgage originators or securitizers, the creation of the CDO, the regulators or the executives of the investment banks, they surely played a tremendous role in the crisis ) †¦But they could have done better The credit rating agencies are responsible for a lot in the financial crisis. Several aspects of their business as well as the actions they have done have been pointed out as the main cause of the crisis. First of all, the pertinence of their business model was questioned, among others the oligopolistic situation of the market and the conflict of interest created by the issuer-payer model. The â€Å"Big Three† (Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch Ratings) generate 95% of the $6 billion market that the rating business represents.These three agencies dominate the market and adopt similar methodologies and practices. The business mod el of the rating agencies establishes itself on the independence and the credibility granted by the financial markets and the authorities of supervision. That is why, in the absence of statutory reforms and / or of the desertion of numerous customers, the leadership of the â€Å"Big Three† will be maintained, protected by strong barriers of entry (reforms difficult to set up and loyalty of issuers often connected to the heaviness of the rating process).Besides, the oligopolistic situation is strengthened by a consolidation, on the initiative and thus for the benefit of the â€Å"Big Three†. So, Fitch acquired in June 2000 the fourth American rating agency, Duff and Phelps, and in December 2000 Thomson BankWatch. At the beginning of 2006, Fimalac gave up 20 % of Fitch Group (who, herself, holds Fitch Ratings, Fitch Training and Algorithmics, this last company having been acquired in 2005) to Hearst Corporation. Likewise, the French subsidiary of Standard & Poor’s acquired ADEF (Agency of Financial Evaluation).Another reason why the credit rating agencies played an important role in the financial crisis is because of the conflicts of interest they were facing with the issuers. If some say that these conflicts of interest were of minor importance since there are always conflicts of interest in relationships, in that case, it had serious consequences on the global economy, as they are one of the causes of the subprime crisis in 2008. It is, indeed, the issuer that pays the rating agency so that this one estimates its capacity to pay off its debt.It is thus relevant to wonder about the partiality and the objectivity of the rating agencies which find themselves â€Å"at the same time judge and judged† and which can be inclined to note well its customers to keep their market share. Besides, the transparency that the rating agencies show in their methodologies and during their changes of ratings is unreliable as far as these sudden reversal s seemed to have destabilized the markets. The three major credit rating agencies also contribute to worsen the financial crisis by their practices. They were, indeed, a key factor in the financial meltdown.They attributed a rating to every products offered on the stock market. Even mortgage-related securities received a good grade, which made it easier to market and sell them. As we have seen previously, the ratings that they gave had an almost â€Å"biblical authority†, so investors trusted the rating agencies to be fair and to give relevant grade to each product and did not conduct further investigation regarding their investment. Credit Rating Agencies were necessary to the mortgage-backed securities market; each actor in the process needed them: The issuers, to approve the structure of their deal – The banks, to determine what capital to hold – The investors, to know what to buy Since 1970, when the credit rating agencies got the status of NRSRO, the SEC de cided to base the capital requirements for banks on the grades given by the rating agencies. This is also included into the banking capital regulations as the recourse rule, which allows banks to hold less capital for higher-rated securities. The SEC also prevented money market funds to buy securities that did not receive ratings from at least two NRSROs.Without these good ratings, banks would not have been able to place these financial products so easily onto financial markets, and the investors would have never bought them. Theirs ratings helped the market to go up rapidly and their downgrades between 2007 and 2008 wreaked havoc across markets and firms. These ratings, especially the ones for the mortgage-backed securities, appeared to have been very optimistic. But what we could observe, throughout the crisis, is the gregarious reflex of the credit rating agencies.They usually agreed on the ratings and when one of them downgraded a security, a company or even a State, the others would usually follow and did the same thing. As we have seen, the Credit Rating Agencies have indeed played an important role in the financial crisis. However, they are not the only one to blame. Thus, we can say that the thermometer is not responsible for the crisis but it could have given a better temperature of the situation. III. What is next? As we discussed, the credit rating agencies have been criticized a lot during the crisis and some flaws of them have been pointed out.In order to improve their efficiency, it is important to understand what we have learned from the crisis and then propose a better regulation or an alternative to the Big Three. 1) Lessons learned from the Financial Crisis The first lesson learned from the crisis is the impact of the globalization of financial markets. This has linked countries together in a greater extent than they were before. That is why, in today’s economy, any crisis that hits a main country or group of countries will have reperc ussion on all other countries. The financial crisis of 2008, started in the United States with the subprime bubble.Then it grew bigger and affected the rest of the world almost immediately compared to the 1929 crisis which also had worldwide impact but more gradually. We have to keep into consideration this new factor and realize that globalization plays an important role in the current worldwide economy. In addition, a country and its financial system need to be better prepared to face the crisis, in order to limit economic and financial damages. This means having a sound and well-regulated environment, keeping its inflation rate low, its exchange rate flexible, and its debt position sustainable.By doing that, a country would limit its vulnerability in front of any financial crisis. Moreover, the country should use fiscal and monetary policies to be able react quickly in case of external shocks. Another lesson learned is the question of the financial supervision. The global crisis is a crisis of confidence, which must impose rules on investment in the financial market, such as CDS (Credit Default Swaps) and short-selling of securities, clearing of OTC derivatives to reduce risks, CSD (Central settlement and Depository) regulation to protect investors and also Hedge Funds transparency.In macroeconomics, monitoring means imposing laws and rules on a structure with what is called the invisible hand. In our case, the invisible hand is the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and the States, which have full power to intervene and better regulate transactions in the financial markets. This crisis also revealed some weaknesses regarding risk planning. Research based on various methods, including country case studies, confirmed that the more the planning is important, the more the quality of the financial services of a country is raised and more the financial intermediation is efficient.The planning of the risks led a certain number of countries to revise t heir financial structures to adapt itself to the global economic transformations. Finally, we can say that every good thing comes to an end, positive times do not last forever and the end is most likely going to be painful. In today’s financial system and global economy, we cannot avoid financial crisis, we can just hope that enough efforts will be done to improve our financial system and to limit the impacts of future crisis on our economy.If we focus on Credit Rating Agencies, to have a sound environment, it is worth considering a better regularization of our existing Credit Rating system, a new and improved rating system or the promotion of totally new credit rating agencies. 2) Regularization of our existing Credit rating system After the dysfunction of our system translated for instance into the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the disappearance of famous institutions such as Bear Sterns or Merrill Lynch, G7 members stressed the financial industry to improve its functioning mode and enhance the regulation.Several critics have indeed been directed to the credit rating agencies regarding the methodologies used by those agencies (including the growing place of the so-called political factors), the lack of transparency of their decisions, the rudimentary explanation accompanying the changes in notation, the moments selected to realize their announcements of ratings and finally, the potential conflicts of interest. All these aspects need to be taken into consideration when aiming to regulate the rating agencies. Various reform proposals have been recommended.Among them, you find some proposing the suppression of the government’s influence over this industry, or even the creation of a completely government-sponsored rating entity. However, the final goal is the accuracy of the credit rating. The first main step toward a better regulation happened in 2006, when a new section to the Securities Exchange Act has been added. The objective was to â€Å"imp rove rating quality for the protection of investors and in the public interest by fostering accountability, transparency, and competition in the credit rating industry† (ANNUAL SEC REPORT, supra note 22, at 16).The market is an oligopoly; the Big Three set the tone for the rest of the industry. Encouraging competition should give more choices to investors, at a lower cost and with better quality ratings. Several rules were added along the way, especially in 2009, when the SEC’s new rule addressed conflicts of interest, fostered competition and required detailed disclosure. For example, a NRSRO could not anymore issue a rating in which it had advised the bank or the issuer for the structure of the product.Another change emerged from the Dodd-Frank Act, in 2010, where a whole chapter has been dedicated to the rating agencies: â€Å"improvements to the regulation of the Credit Rating Agencies†. The Dodd-Frank Act qualified the agencies as â€Å"gatekeepers† f or the debt market and that is why they needed â€Å"public oversight and accountability†. This meant reducing the investors’ reliance on ratings by limiting references to NRSRO ratings from rules, increasing the liability exposure, maintaining and informing on the structure of the ratings, as well as filing control reports yearly.However, both of these new reforms showed weaknesses, particularly in addressing the conflicts interest coming from the issuer-payer model, or the oligopoly. As mentioned before, several proposals would appear more efficient to answer these problems. The first proposal would be the elimination of the NRSRO status, which would remove any regulatory reliance on the ratings. This would also drive prices down as there would be an increasing competition, but it would also improve the rating quality and the innovation.Nevertheless, this proposal would lead to a total revision of the entire bank regulatory system and could also increase the pressure to satisfy issuers. The second proposal was to create a totally government-sponsored rating industry. This would make the rating a public good, eliminating any conflicts of interest due to the issuer-payer model. Although appealing because it resolves one of the main critics emitted during the financial crisis, it does not say who is going to pay for the subsidization.Finally, another more recent proposal called â€Å"disclose or disgorge† asks for the agencies to disclose the quality of the ratings they give, which means disclose to the public when a rating is â€Å"low quality† or disgorge benefits made with the rating. However, charging penalties would increase the barriers of entry on this market and discourage potential NRSROs. The rating business faces two major problems, the oligopolistic situation of the market that is being maintained by an increased regulation that secures the Big Three, and the issuer-payer model that fosters the conflicts of interest.Even though several reform proposals have been suggested, none appears to be totally conceivable. 3) A new rating system We have seen that a lot of reform proposals exist in order to enhance and increase regulation of the rating system. These proposals, indeed, reveal that some aspects of this business need to be improved. Eventually, a new rating system is worth considering. First of all, we have realized already touch based, throughout this analysis that the business model of the credit rating agencies needs to be modified, especially the issuer-payer model.The fact that the issuer is the one that pay the agencies for their ratings creates a conflict of interest that has to go away to insure an accurate and objective rating. In order to solve this issue, a new model is necessary. A possible idea to get there would be to make, not the issuer, but the investors (the ones that want to know the rating of a company or an entity) to finance the credit rating agencies. It is indeed them that need to know the rating of an entity, so it would be fair for them to pay in order to know what they are investing in.This would solved the problems related to the conflict of interest as rating agencies will not be tempted to give a good grade just to satisfy the client and avoid loosing profits. This was actually the model that existed before 1970, when the issuer-payer model was established. The shift to a model investor-payer would constitute a deep change for the whole rating industry but would eliminate the conflicts of interest. Another change that would be conceivable would be to set up a â€Å"rating planning†. The credit rating agencies should emit their grading at a known rhythm.Therefore, companies or States would know when they would be rated. For example, every January 1st, they could give their ratings for all entities. This would avoid sudden downgrades as we saw during the crisis, where rating agencies lowered the rating of a company right before it went bank rupt. Furthermore, to improve the accuracy of the ratings, a distinction between the rating of a company and a State should be made. In fact, Credit rating agencies do not evaluate the same thing when rating a country or a firm.That is why different ratings should be given according to the nature of the entity. Finally, this new rating system should have a better transparency of ratings. As this has often been reproach to the agencies, it is clear that we need to improve it. In order to get more transparency in the ratings, the credit rating agencies should be forced to make public some criteria that contributed to the rating process. In addition, when an entity is downgraded, there is ever a clear explanation.An explicit and standard comment should go along with the new ratings to explain the cause of the downgrade or upgrade. All these improvements should be made to obtain a more transparent and accurate rating. These changes could lead to more efficient and regular ratings where conflicts of interest would be inexistent and where the distinction between entities would improve the relevance of the ratings. 4) Creation of a new credit rating agency Finally, another solution that arises would be the creation of a new rating agency.This proposition is particularly discussed in Europe. The arguments called in favor of the creation of a European rating agency are multiple. It would be a question, first of all, of introducing more competition into a sector that is today dominated by three major actors. Standard and Poor's, Moody’s and Fitch Ratings are indeed sharing more than 90 % of the market, a situation which confers to the members of this â€Å"Big Three† a tremendous capacity of influence. To create a new rating agency would be a way of having a bigger diversity of points of view.The trust that would be granted by the investors to a new European agency would depend however on its capacity to avoid the criticism sent to â€Å"Big Three† in terms of independence and conflict of interest. It would also be necessary to specify the status of the new agency: a public or a private organization? A public rating agency could face the mistrust of the investors, who could doubt its independence towards public authorities and States, which it would have the mission to evaluate. On the other hand, a private agency would look like a non-profit foundation.The rating agency would be financed by the investors who would use its notations, and not by the entities emitting the financial products, which would allow guaranteeing its independence. Nevertheless, the future prospects of such a structure remain uncertain: to what extent would it be able to impose itself in front of â€Å"Big Three†, in a sector where the experience and the reputation of the institution play a determining role? In addition, a history of ratings would be necessary to evaluate the evolution of an entity and a strict method is mandatory for accurate rat ing.A new rating agency would not be able to have all of these factors before several years. To conclude, it is not easy to find the best solution to improve the current rating methods. Different regulations have been tried, all presenting good points but also flaws. However, what we need to enhance is clear: better transparency, a more accurate rating and a suppression of the conflicts of interest. Conclusion The role of the credit rating agencies in today’s economy is crucial. They evaluate the creditworthiness of an entity, influencing investors and interest rates.However, during the crisis, their role has been criticized. Several factors can explain their controversial position. The oligopolistic situation of the market, their supposedly trustworthy evaluations given by their NRSRO status, as well as the conflicts of interest coming from their issuer-payer model are the main causes of the critics emitted toward them. Recently, the American justice even pressed charges aga inst the rating agencies for their role in the crisis and asked for five billion dollars. Nevertheless, even if the credit rating agencies are the ideal responsible, they are not the only ones to blame.Now that the crisis revealed the different flaws of their system, we can only improve them going forward. Several regulations have already been approved and others are still under consideration. Other ideas to enhance the rating system include a new financing model, by perhaps considering going back to the investor-payer model, a better transparency of their rating, by showing the criteria used for their ratings, and a distinction between a company or a security and a State, which are two completely different entities.Lastly, we can wonder if the Credit Rating agencies still have as much influence as they used to. For instance, when downgrading both the United States and France, the repercussions were minors even nonexistent. The lost of their triple A did not bring the interest rates up as it should have, since today the interest rates are historically low in both these countries. Exhibits Exhibit 1 – Credit Rating Agencies with the NRSRO designation Exhibits Exhibit 2 – Rating systems of the Big Three Source: â€Å"Credit rating – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.   Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N. p. , 7 Mar. 2013. Web. 13 Mar. 2013. ;http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Credit_rating;. Exhibits Exhibit 3 – Important facts about the crisis Exhibits Exhibit 4 – Evolution of market indexes from August 9 to 16, 2007 Index| Evolution| Dax (Germany)| -4,42%| Dow Jones (USA)| -5,95%| Nasdaq (USA)| -6,16%| FTSE 100 (United Kingdom)| –  8,37 %| CAC 40 (France)| -8,42%| Nikkei (Japan)| -10,3%| Exhibits Exhibit 5 – Residential Mortgage-backed securities These tranches were often purchased by CDOs These tranches were often purchased by CDOsSource: The financial crisis inquiry report: final report of the National Commis sion on the Causes of the Financial and Economic Crisis in the United States. Official government ed. Washington, DC: Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission :, 2011. Print Bibliography * Dupuy, Claude . â€Å"La crise financiere 2007-2008 – Les raisons du desordre mondial – C†¦. † francetv education – la plateforme des parents, eleves et enseignants. N. p. , n. d. 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Web. 12 Mar. 2013. . * Piliero, Robert D.. â€Å"The credit rating agencies: Power, responsibility and accountability. † Thomson Reuters News and Insight Legal: Legal News, Information and Analysis. N. p. , 19 July 2012. Web. 12 Mar. 2013. . The financial crisis inquiry report: final report of the National Commission on the Causes of the Financial and Economic Crisis in the United States. Official government ed. Washington, DC: Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, 2011. Print. * Verschoor, Curtis C. â€Å"Credit Rating Agency Performance Needs Improvement. † Strategic Finance 1 Jan. 2013: 17-19. Print. * Vodarevski, Vladimir. â€Å"Crise financiere: qui est responsable? – Analyse Liberale. † Analyse Liberale. N. p. , 22 Feb. 2009. Web. 12 Mar. 2013.