Blueprint

In Previous existing systems, actually there are several major problems are occurred. In that mainly concentrate on buddy-list search problem. This problem Is take place when huge numbers of messages are occurred continuously. By cause of this search problem, time for passing of messages Is very slow I. E. , time Is delayed to reach particular message to the destination. The reason for occurring this type of problem is ‘overloaded messages'. I. E. , by cause of overloaded messages this buddy-list search problem is occurred. It is sometimes called as ‘scalability problem'.Search cost is also called as ‘communication cost'. When a user arrives, the total number of messages produced by the presence server is nothing but search cost. Search satisfaction is nothing but, time it takes to search the user's arriving buddy list. When the buddy-list search problem is occurred, at that situation there is a chance to delay the message passing. By this cause time is delayed. At the same time, there is need to store that message temporarily up to reach to destination. By this cause, here require extra space to store that message In temporary memory. I. E. , Like cache memory.This Is also one of the problem In already existing systems. The expected number of search messages generated by this AS (presence server) node per unit Is â€Å"(n-l If ‘n' AS nodes present, S = n*(n-l)*(l-n)*u = no*WWW = n*p/4 (I. E. , u= p In) 6. COST EVOLUTIONS The previous existing systems are facing different types of problems. Those are like, buddy-list search problem, which is occurred by cause of overloaded messages. Searching actions are very slow. And then there is a chance to occur the network traffic. And also high constant search latency is appeared. Here, Maintenance cost is also named as search cost.When user arrives, the total number of messages produced by the presence server is nothing but search cost. When user arrives, time it spends to find the user's online buddy list Is nothing but search satisfaction. User is satisfied with mobile presence services when those services are worked properly & at the same time, when the cost for maintenance Is less or cheap. I. E. , when communication cost Is less, then users are attracted to utilize the mobile presence services. Formula for, reducing the communication cost when any data can be where, ‘n' is distance between any 2 AS nodes. Figure 8. 1: Presence Cloud server overlayIn Figure 8. 1, For example, we consider ‘9' AS nodes are present in Presence Cloud for distributing the messages or data. If node'8†² is want to send the data to node'3†². I. E. , 803 (consider node ‘2' is intermediate node). Here, two possibility paths are there. First, node ‘8' is directly go to node ‘3' (Consider the distance between node ‘8' & node ‘3' is 3 SMS I. E. , 803 = sums). Second, AS ‘8' is send data to AS ‘2' first and then AS ‘2' send that d ata to AS ‘3'. (Consider distance between 802 = 2. 5 SMS & 203 = 0. 5 km). Now, calculate the communication cost by using the above formula.In this testing, tester tests an application on outside knowledge of an application. Test engineers are involved in this testing. Gray Box Testing & black box testing. I. E. , it is conducted based on both white box & black box testing. Regression Testing Regression testing is defines as, tester should perform the test on system which is already tested before; When conducted test before, at that time outcomes results to made any changes are necessary, at that situation this regression testing perform once again to that system in order to rectify or modify according to user requirements.Acceptance Testing Acceptance testing is performed based on producing any types of inputs at that time t accepts those inputs & produces the exact and correct outcomes. I. E. , it can accept developer's inputs in order to produce best correct results. Stress Testing Stress testing is conducted based on producing the wrong inputs to the system at that time, the system is I. E. , here, developer is given fault inputs to his proposed system at that situation also output is produced exact & successive outcomes. In this project, we are performing the two testing. Those are ‘acceptance testing & stress testing.These testing are used to test this presence cloud project in order to provide best outcomes. . E. , provide best presence services through mobiles. 10. 2 -rest cases Test cases are constructed based on the inputs giving in order to get correct outputs. These practical outputs are comparing with the expected values or results. At that time, those two outputs are either matched or reach at least nearing to expected outputs. Test cases are dividing into two categories. Those are, Positive test cases Negative test cases These test cases are explained by using tables. In that each column specifies one some approaches.In first column we mention the test case description. In column 2, mention actual value which is produced by the system.For avoiding various existing problems in previous existing systems, here, we introduced or reposed the ‘Presence cloud' system. In order to avoid the almost all problems in existing systems. For providing best mobile presence services, here, using some effective modules. These modules are given full of support to avoid existing problems in order to provide best presence services. In future work, we have a chance to extend our proposed system more effectively. For achieving this, we are performed several operations. In proposed system (I. E. , presence cloud) should not address the presence server authentication problem.At that situation, there is a chance to hack he user's accounts by unauthorized peoples. I. E. , hackers or attackers, or malicious attackers. So, here, there is no privacy for the user accounts. And also another problem is occurred in presence cloud overlay module which is presented in presence cloud. That is, in that overlay, the direction between the each node to another node is unilateral. In future work, we are providing the security for authentication for the users. In order to protect the user accounts from the attackers or hackers. In future work, we provide bi-directions between each node for exchanging data between users.

Globalization in the 1970s Essay

Globalization is not a new concept as there have been numerous cycles of globalization stretching as far back as the ancient civilizations. The wave of globalization prior to the oil embargo was after the Second World War. Although this period was marked with rapid economic growth, it came to an end in 1973 after the Arab oil embargo that resulted in a rise in oil prices. Financial globalization particularly can be termed as the integration of country’s local financial system with international financial institutions and markets. The main agents of financial globalization are the governments and hence they need to liberalize any restrictions on their domestic financial sector and capital account of the balance of payments if any form of integration is to take place (Schmulker, 2004:5). Dammasch (2010: 4) asserts that the economic environment in times of globalization changes rapidly with capital movements becoming larger and less controllable. Therefore there is usually a need to create a stabilizing system. The situation after the Second World War which was marked by falling credit institutions, mass unemployment, hyperinflation and bankruptcy of enterprises brought about such a necessity. The Bretton Wood system thereby came into creation. Bretton Woods’s agreement of 1944 was part of the decision by the industrialized countries to restructure themselves after the Second World War and the difficulties encountered especially after the First World War for the purpose of financial globalization. There was a great need for these nations to come up with workable rules and regulations which would direct them in the formulation of national policies that would facilitate the pursuit of common economic objectives (Kenen, 1994:11). The necessity and urgency of this legal structure was collectively agreed upon and accepted as it was viewed as a way of avoiding the negative effects that had marred the inter-war period (King, 2003:30). The Bretton woods years that spanned from 1946-1971 are seen in retrospect as a golden age of capitalism with exchange rate stability and rapid economic growth (King, 2003:30). This is because the system ensured that value of price increases was just and that the exchange rates remained fixed for unlimited periods in all key industrialized countries. Moreover, the national income in the G7 countries rose more rapidly than in any other comparable period. The system ensured long-run price stability for the whole world because the fixed price of gold provided an ostensible anchor to the world’s money supply. Therefore by pegging their currencies to gold, individual nations fixed their prices levels to that of the world (Bordor et al, 1993:1). King, 2003:30 emphasizes that the Bretton Woods system had two main characteristics which were: the existence of a set of rules that consisted of fixed rates of exchange, capital controls and independent policies of domestic macroeconomics on one hand and US domination on the other hand. Capital control as was stipulated in the Bretton Woods system was officially authorized and every government was highly encouraged and had the right and obligation to control its movement of capital. Capital control is the ability of the government to control the in and out flow of capital to and from their country. This meant that bank discount rates were not necessary when the central bank wanted to attract capital inflows or avoid flight of capital. As a consequence, the bank rate is maintained as low as possible (King, 2003:31). However, a country’s domestic economy can be adversely affected through inflation by in and out rapid flow of capital together with fixed rates of exchange. Capital controls essentially prevent rapid outflow of capital and can equip governments with the ‘tools’ to prevent economic crisis in the future. In this system capital control played a significant role whereby it effectively regulated the fixed exchange rate system that had been agreed upon by members during the Bretton Woods agreement. Whenever exchange rates required adjustments capital control was an integral component of the adjustment mechanism. These controls were fundamental to the reconstruction and growth of the international trading system that had been devastated by global depression, the two world wars and hyperinflation. This meant that capital flow was highly restricted with countries prohibiting convertibility. In capital control, currency non-convertibility was the most restrictive form of control. The government was the only one permitted to have the exclusive authority to hold foreign currency and to also to give it out to importers that had been approved by the government. Countries that fixed their exchange rates at levels that were unacceptable could therefore be monitored through this system (Eicher et al, 2009:470). Kitschel (1999, p. 38) further expounds that the capital controls were viewed as instruments of exchange rate stabilization and also as means of securing full employment and other national economic priorities. Additionally the system condoned the controls not only for short term management of balance-of –payment crises but also for the purpose of domestic economic management. The limited capital-account convertibility was the most common form of restriction. It enabled the system to place limits and know who had the right and accessibility to foreign exchange rates. Moreover, qualitative restrictions were also put in place which urged for the limitations on the external asset and liability position of domestic financial institutions. The controls were also placed on foreign banks domestic operations as well as on resident firms’ and on individuals’ direct savings, collection of foreign possessions and real estate property. Dual or multiple exchange rate system was another form of capital control that involved discrete rates for either commercial or financial transactions (Kitschel, 1999:39). Therefore the system allowed members to regulate international capital movements as long as they did not restrict payment for current external transactions. Although currencies would be freely convertible into one another after a transaction period, members were allowed to place capital controls on currency transactions if such capital flows threatened to overwhelm the nation’s balance on payment or exchange rate stability (McNamara, 2003:75). Forces challenging the system Although the Bretton Woods system was important to the economic prosperity after the Second World War, it nevertheless failed to support the equally rapid growth in the advanced countries over the next 25 years. One of the reasons according to Kenen (1994, p. 7) is the fact that the permanence and malleability of the system was slowly being destabilized by the postwar system. There were two vital roles of the Bretton Woods system. The first goal was geared towards producing exchange rates that were stable through the use of capital control and the second goal was meant to shield member nations from the shifting demands brought about by the flow of gold. Nonetheless, these goals highly contradicted each other because the system could not guarantee that global prices would remain stable as it lacked an effective technique. Additionally, the founders of the Bretton Woods system explicitly designed the system in an effort to disentangle international monetary relations from power politics. Nonetheless postwar monetary relations were highly politicized and required constant political interventions to keep the system functioning smoothly. Another flaw of the Bretton Woods design was that it lacked an effective, automatic mechanism to adjust and settle payment imbalances that inevitably arose between surplus and deficit countries. Under this system, a country that had a payment deficit most probably lost its gold which decreased the domestic monetary base and resulted in a decline in the currency’s purchasing power. Inevitably, the country’s imports would fall, exports would rise and the payment would eventually balance. However, the loss of gold and the decrease in money supply also meant that there would be a fall in the cumulative domestic demand, which meant deflation or even the possibility of depression. These structural problems assured that chronic balance of payments would mushroom into full-scale political problems, both domestically and between nations (Gavin,:6). Originally, the Bretton Woods system was designed to produce stable exchange rates while at the same time shielding national economies from demand shifts produced by the flow of gold (Gavin,:6). The founders wanted to set monetary arrangements that could combine the advantage of classic gold standard i. e. the exchange rate stability with the advantage of floating rates i. e. the independence to pursue national full employment policies. They mainly sought to avoid the defects of floating rates (destabilizing speculation and competitive beggar-than-thou-neighour policies). The disadvantage of fixed rates is that individual nations were exposed to both monetary and real shocks transmitted from the rest of the world via the balance of payment and other channels of transmission. The common world price level under the gold standard exhibited secular periods of deflation and inflation which reflected shocks to the demand for and supply of gold (Bordo et al, 1993:1). Countries like Germany and Japan were reluctant to import foreign inflation and this could have attributed to the eventual collapse of the system. In the long run this broke the credibility of the fixed exchange rate commitment among countries and the willingness of the central bank of several countries to cooperate in order to maintain the fixed parities. In other words the system failed because the commitment by the US of fixed equality was not reliable due to the inflation that was accelerating (King, 2003:33). The collapse of the Bretton Woods system is also related to the increasing speculative capital flows. With time as the dollar continued to decline, the US economy was unable to assure other countries that the dollar could be converted to gold at the fixed parity. In this view, the collapse of the system was related to the escalating in and out movements of capital and the lack of capacity of the dominant country, the US to control them (King, 2003:32). In conclusion the end of the Bretton Woods period can be said to have come when President Richard Nixon finally suspended the official conversion of the dollar into gold at $35 an ounce, shut down the gold window and cut the exchange rate system loose. Importance of the Euromarkets The growth of the Euromarkets has been directly linked to the expansion of the US multinational firms, and the consequent expansion of US banking abroad. This growth of the market and its development coincided with the increasing pressure of the US economy and the recoveries witnessed in the capitalist economy. The Eurodollar market therefore took over aspects of a developed domestic credit system since it was operating globally and independently from the central banks. Therefore, Britain which was a low-productivity and low-wage country became the center of global finance due to the contribution of the Eurodollar market. London developed as a center of global circulation of capital and hence became the world’s leading Eurodollar market. The regulation of the currency which allowed the partial and finally the full convertibility of the pound for those who were neither residents of the dollar or the sterling are some of the factors that brought about the growth and development of the Eurodollar market (Patel, 2007:1). This market was deemed important as it helped in redistributing surplus liquidity, in facilitating adjustments of internal liquidity in countries whose monetary systems rely on the import and export of short term funds through banks as a major monetary regulator. The Eurodollar market also helped to maintain world business activity at a high level by the availability of short term working funds. The Nixon Shock The Nixon Shock is termed as a series of economic measures that were taken by the then US president Richard Nixon in 1971. This decision was reached upon by various events which included: the Vietnam War that had become too costly and had drained the gold reserves of US, the increased domestic spending that accelerated inflation, the balance of payment deficit by US and trade deficit (Engdahl, 2003:1). Additionally, the US dollar foreign arbitrage had also caused the governments gold coverage of the paper dollar to decline by 33 points from 55% to 22%. Therefore in 1971, President Nixon imposed tariffs on all imports of 10 per cent to help reduce the trade deficit though it was removed in December the same year. At the same time, a freeze was put on wages and prices for a period of 90 days in a bid to lower inflation with the Federal Reserve Swap ending its support for other central banks. The convertibility of the dollar into gold was also ended and a limitation on gold transactions was put implying a decrease in the value of the dollar. This announced detached the US from the Bretton Woods system which collapsed from operation. After the gold convertibility of the dollar was suspended and flexible exchange rates emerged (James, 2010:1). After the Nixon shock, the US realized that it could exert more global influence through US treasury debt than from trade surpluses. In the 1970s oil was the only key commodity traded in dollars. This was due to the fact that the dollar was the only currency with the highest purchasing power and the only one that was backed by gold (Dammasch, 2010:6). As a result the US realized that the other nations would continue to demand for dollars for them to buy oil which was by now inflated in price. Thereafter, US trade partners had so many dollars in their reserves that they feared to create a dollar crisis. Instead they inflated and eventually weakened their own economies to support the dollar system as they feared a global collapse. Therefore when the price of oil increased in 1973 the dollar surprisingly continued to gain despite countries like Japan, Germany and the rest of the world suffering from severe economic destruction (Engdahl, 2003:1). Nonetheless, these measures did not help to restore or even quicken the economic growth rates of US or even correct the surplus reserves of dollars in Japan and Germany. From there henceforth, all the currencies of the Western nations began to ‘float’. There were no longer set exchange rates in the international market since the common link that was there before i. e. the Bretton Woods System, no longer existed. Ultimately, by the end of 1974, the price of gold had risen to $195 from $35 per troy ounce. As a result, due to unrestrained inflation there was a155% increase in the price of gold in a period of three years (James, 2010:1). Yom Kippur War The Yom Kippur War named after the Jewish holiest holiday, Yom Kippur began on October 1973 when Syrian and Egyptian forces backed by Soviet Forces launched attacks on Israel forces in the Golan Heights and Sinai in an attempt to recapture the land occupied by Israelites. However, despite the surprise attack on Israel, they emerged victorious due to the immense backing from US who provided them with weapons and intelligence. Therefore in a bid to punish the Western world for their aid to Israel, the Arab nations placed the oil embargo. This was initially political tactic meant to pressure the US into requesting Israel to withdraw from the Arab territories. However, with time the Arabs used it as an economic tactic when they realized the amount of power they had over the world through oil. The prices of oil thereafter quadrupled and continued to be a threat not only to America’s economy but also to the whole world. After the Yom Kippur war the OPEC member states struck back against the West for their support of Israel by imposing an oil embargo which increased oil prices by 70%. Lending by Private Banks to Developing Nations The origin of the debt crisis in the Third World countries has been attributed to the expansion of banking society in the US at an international level together with the rapid economic growth in the world. Before the oil price crisis of 1973-74 began, the real domestic product growth rate of developing countries averaged 6% annually. However, though the rate of growth had slowed down for the reminder of the 1970s it averaged 4-5%. This growth nonetheless generated new interests by the US corporate investment and similarly by other international banks. This multinationalism in providing financial services contributed to the emergence of the Eurodollar market which gave the US banks access to funds that they could undertake Third World Loans on a large scale. Additionally, the sharp rise in crude oil accelerated the expansion in lending (LCD debt crisis, 2010:192). The oil-exporting countries in the Arab world deposited their profits made during the oil crisis in banks in the European and US banks. This further fueled the lending boom. Since the banks had now been provided with more funds they became eager to make profits and hence invested it in developing nations by financing new development projects. The abrupt increase in oil prices brought about instant inflation into the prices of all other commodities. Moreover, the developing countries which had been crippled by these high oil prices saw this as an opportunity to borrow cheap money from the international banks so that they could offset the huge deficits ((LCD debt crisis, 2010:192; Schmulker, 2004:2). These funds that were known as petrodollars and had been recycled back to developing nations therefore generated inflationary pressures around the industrial world and created the debt crisis in developing nations (Cypher and Dietz, 2008:204). US High Interest Rates The developing nations during the 1970s were given loans at very low interest rates. However, this situation changed when the US in the early 1980s pushed up the interest rates of loans in an endeavor to stop inflation. This meant that the loans that had been lent out to Third World nations by US or other lending banks in Europe had to paid back with huge interests rates. Hence, by the 1980s the economy of Third World nations had began to stagnate and many nations were on the verge of bankruptcy due to the combination of mounting debts and low economic growth rates. The total debt had amounted to $567 billion and the high interest rates forced them to take out new loans which increased the burden (Jauch, 2009:1). This dismal situation was further compounded by the oil shock of 1973 and 1979. This decision by OPEC crippled the economies of many Third World nations with the cost of imported energy rising. Therefore, the culminative result of this crisis saw many developing nations especially those in Latin America unable to pay their debts during this period. IMF Structural Adjustment Programmes When it became evident that these nations would be unable to service their loans, the IMF came up with conditions which were dubbed Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP) to solve the debt crisis among developing countries (Shimko, 2009:168). The SAP was proposed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund which were formed during the Bretton Woods period. These programmes imposed various conditions for countries especially developing ones that intended to borrow more loans (Jauch, 2009:1). IMF claimed that these reforms were necessary for promoting the economic growth needed to pay back the loans. The IMF required reforms to be carried out in the respective countries before aid could be provided. For example, Mexico whose debt burden grew faster than its own economy was loaned money by IMF to prevent a default. However, Mexico had to certain economic reforms before the loan could be dispatched. Although the conditions imposed on the developing nations differed, the same basic conditions were expected of all the nations (Shimko, 2009:168). The various key reforms according to Shimko 2009:169 included: †¢ Balancing of government budgets: this entailed either increasing the revenue for the government (providing new fees for government services) or drastically reducing the government spending. †¢ Reducing quotas, tariffs and other import barriers: this was aimed at subjecting the domestic industries to international competition. †¢ Liberalization of the capital market: this basically meant reducing the restrictions on foreign investment. †¢ Reducing government subsidies to domestic industries: these subsidies are those that had been part of import substitution strategies. †¢ Privatizing or selling the government-owned industries to the private sector. Nonetheless, these conditions did not alleviate the dire economic nor bring any economic development but rather the conditions intensified the existing situation. Although IMF studies claimed that the growth rates in countries under this programme increased from -15% in the 1980s to only 0. 3% in the early 1990s and 1% by mid-1990s, the World bank declared that there was no evidence whatsoever to account for any economic growth (Shimko, 2009:178). Additionally, lack of government subsidies or protection from foreign competition forced domestic industries to reduce their costs by lowering wages or by laying off workers. Therefore the liberalization of trade and the opening up of economies to unrestricted foreign investment had a deleterious impact on the poor nations and people (Shimko, 2009:177). Effects of the High Oil Prices in the 1970s As a result of the Bretton Woods system and the oil shock, a new wave of globalization began. Recession was prevalent with unemployment peaking at 9. 1% industrial production went down by 15% and high inflation in all areas. Additionally, when the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates collapsed, countries were now opened up to greater capital mobility and they also retained the autonomy of their monetary policies. The Brandy Bonds came into existence when Mexico’s Minister of Finance announced that the country would be forced to default on its debt. The default on loans worsened as more banks in developing nations informed the IMF and Chairman of the Federal Reserve of their inability to service their debts in time (LDC debt crisis, 2010:191). The Brandy Bonds in a bid to resolve the debt crisis of the 1980 not only led to the subsequent development of the bonds market but also brought about a new phenomenon especially for emerging economies. Moreover, technological advancement, privatization and deregulation (which resulted in the corporate culture with national interests of decreasing consideration in business decisions) made foreign direct investment and equity investment in the emerging markets even more attractive for households and firms in the developed nations (Schmulker, 2004:2). Overall, there was a severe recession which hit the hardest the Western world. In Wall Street, oil stocks performed well due to the price increase as the profits soared as the rest of the market buckled under the low prices. Before the oil embargo was imposed by OPEC members, the price of crude oil was mainly determined by major oil companies in the West which retained 65% of the revenue of the oil. This type of arrangement was referred to as oligopolistic market arrangement. This meant that oil prices that had been posted in the market were established with the taxes and royalties paid to the exporting governments on the basis of this price. However following the embargo, property rights were transferred to the host countries from the major companies that had operated the industry and hence the cartel was able to take over the functions of the companies and retain more of the revenue generated Thereafter, the determination of crude oil price was passed into the hands of OPEC which set an official selling price for the best known among its crude. At the same time individual members were given the opportunity to adjust their selling prices in relation to this market according to the quality of the oil being produced (Trumbore, 2010:1). The continued high oil prices encouraged the exploration and subsequently the production of oil in high-cost oil regions such as Canada, Mexico, and North Sea. During the 1970, the increased demand of fossil fuels and increased prices for the product greatly reduced globalization. As the nations became more advanced, the rate of globalization declined. Although globalization grew for a while after the embargo, the rate of growth began to decline as the oil prices decreased (Okogu, 2003:1). The oil embargo impacted severely on the economy of Japan resulting in energy price inflation since by this time it was the only developed nation that relied heavily on oil with very few hydrocarbon reserves or any other alternatives. Japan was therefore forced to reconsider its industrial model. The oil shocks catalyzed the rapid turnaround which enabled Japan to become the leading energy efficiency country. The petroleum Supply and Demand Optimization Law was aimed at setting oil targets and restricting oil use. Japan’s vision after the oil embargo was to reduce its dependence of oil from the Middle East, therefore it started to charge import taxes on all petroleum products especially those that were used to generate power. Japan therefore became a pioneer in liquefied natural gas which today accounts for half of the worlds market. During this period, Japanese car brands like Toyota and Honda which had previously sold poorly enjoyed enormous success in the US market. Americans who had traditionally been fond of big cars were now confronted with a new challenge that included higher oil prices accompanied by long queues at the gas stations and rationing of gasoline. They therefore began to demand more of the Japanese brands for their small size and fuel-efficiency (Stewart and Wilczewski, 2009:1). Conclusion Even today, the Dollar System is still the real source of global inflation since t is the only global reserve currency as it has been witnessed worldwide since the 1971. Other countries in the world have to ensure that the reserves of their central banks are in dollars if they are to trade in the international market. This helps to guarantee against currency crisis, to back their export trade and to finance the importation of oil. Today, 67% of all central bank reserves are dollars (Engdahl, 2003:1). The debt crisis in the 1970s created by various variables including the oil embargo, the unprecedented borrowing and poor economic planning crippled the economy of many developing nations in Africa and Latin America. Despite efforts by the World Bank and IMF to offset these payment balances, the situation remained virtually unchanged. Ironically, other countries like Japan and US though they were affected by the rise in oil prices, were able to rise above the situation through oil exploration in their own countries which reduced their reliance on the imported oil from Middle East. Therefore, though the oil embargo did touch the economies of all the different nations, the degree and intensity was not the same. While other countries were completely devastated e. g. Third World nations others in the West found ways of reviving and even propelling their economies to greater heights. References Bordo, M, Eichengreen, B and National Bureau of Economic Research (1993). Bretton Woods System: A Retrospect. London. University of Chicago Press. Dammasch, S. (2010). The Bretton Woods System. [Online:] Available from http://www. ww. uni-magdeburg. de/fwwdeka/student/arbeiten/006. pdf Dietz, J and Cypher, J. (2008). Economic Development Process. New York. Taylor & Francis. Eicher, T, Mutti, J and Turnovsky, M. (2009). International Economics. Taylor & Francis. Engdahl, W. (2003). The Dollar System & US Economic Reality. [Online:] Available from http://www. engdahl. oilgeopolitics. net/1973_Oil_Shock/Dollar_System/dollar_system. html Garber, P, Dooley, M and Folkerts-Landau, D. (2005). International Financial Stability. [Online:] Available from http://people. ucsc. edu/~mpd/InternationalFinancialStability_update. pdf Gavin, F. The Cold War & Gold Battles. American Monetary Policy & the Defense of Europe, 1960-1963. [Online:] Available from http://www. utexas. edu/lbj/faculty/gavin/articles/gold_battles. pdf Jauch, H. (2009). How Africa was destroyed by the World Bank, IMF-& Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP). [Online]: Available from http://www. newsrescue. com/2009/05/how-the-imf-world-bank-and-structural-adjustment-programsap-destroyed-africa/ Kenen, P. (1994). Managing World Economy. Washington. Institute for international Economics. King, E, J. (2003). The Elgar Companion Economics. Cheltenham. Edward Elgar Publishing Limited. Kitschelt, H. (1999). Continuing & Change in Contemporary Capitalism. Cambridge. Cambridge University. Okogu, B. (2003). Changing Oil Market in North Africa & Middle East. [online:] Available from http://www. imf. org/external/pubs/ft/med/2003/eng/okogu/okogu. htm Patel, H. (2007). The Eurodollar Market Contribution to the Modern Financial World. Online: Available from. http://www. pharmasuppliers. com/index. php? option=com_content&view=article&id=14&catid=13&Itemid=20

Analysis of The Bet by Anton Chekhov

The Bet is a short story that explores a moral theme regarding the value of human life. However, the story is constructed with an important ironic twist that brings the reader back to the original context of the bet (if the lawyer could endure solitary confinement for fifteen years), and presents an unexpected result. One can ultimately see that Anton Chekhov presents the readers with two different paths in the story. One of them is the banker, who refuses to face his own morality and the other is the lawyer (prisoner) who actually faces his own morality, but falls into despair because he is so disconnected from the outside world, even after gaining so much knowledge. These two characters may thrive on change, but they both alter their own human values in great ways.The banker, a spoiled and pampered man, is very nervous and gets himself carried away by excitement at the time he makes a bet with the lawyer. This is shown when he says, Fifteen! DoneGentlemen, I stake two millions. Chekhov shows the reader that this not the impulsiveness of youth since he describes it as excitability, which he could not get over even in advancing years. Later in the story, Chekhov paints the portrait of a cowardly man who lacks the courage to endure reality. One day before the lawyer is to be granted his freedom, the banker becomes irritated and anxious, The only escape from bankruptcy and disgraceis that the man should die. At this point, the reader can trace the bankers path from boastfully making a foolish bet to being the one to give up all that he had staked, and conclude that his self-values have reached their all time low.On the other hand, the lawyer, an older and wiser man, shows his dynamic characteristics as he changes dramatically in the course of the 15 year bet. The lawyers character completely transforms from being an arrogant, young man, in to a feeble, cynical, yet more intelligent man.

Critical reading response Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Critical reading response - Essay Example He offers three possible solutions for these issues. He states that mandatory attendance should be abolished and replaced with policies allowing kids to attend classes only when they want to. He also suggests removing children from schools, declaring them to be prisons where learning is limited. Additionally, he views that abolishing the curriculum is also a possible solution because people merely remember what they believe is interesting and useful to them. In order to assess the veracity or, at least, appropriateness of Holt’s claims, the major points of his article will be analyzed. First, Holt states that learning is inherent in every human, and that babies learn the basics of living and survival from the day they are born. Without any formal instruction, kids learn to communicate and interact with people around them. They learn through discovery, association, application, and mistakes (Holt, â€Å"School is Bad for Children†). This is a very strong point. Yes we sh ould acknowledge that school provides specialized information of some subject matters, but it does not mean that learning the same is impossible outside school. To prove this, one can simply look at the greatest minds in man’s history like Albert Einstein, Blaise Pascal, Pierre Curie, the Wright brothers, Thomas Alva Edison, and Alexander Graham Bell. These great minds did not acquire their knowledge from traditional schools because they were all home-schooled (McKee 16). Therefore, with the undeniable inherent ability of man to learn coupled with proven achievements of those that never went to school, it is easy to agree with Holt on this matter. Another statement made by Holt is that school environment encourages passive learning, thereby decreasing the utilization of man’s inherent ability to learn through active discovery, association, application, and mistakes. It also encourages the thinking that to be wrong is a crime, and to be right is the only acceptable thin g. In school, students are dictated by the experts on what is important, what they need, and what they should do. Technically, everything is spoon-fed (Holt, â€Å"School is Bad for Children†). Holt is not exaggerating when he states school teaches kids to do something only if they are forced, bribed, or deceived, since school rewards excellence and correctness. Despite the idea that teachers encourage children to analyze and ask, at the end of the day, they still follow a pre-set standard of what is correct and incorrect. Knowing the correct and universally accepted answer is the only way to pass, and passing is the only way to move forward. These standards place children in categories --- stupid, average, or brilliant (McKee 21). Moreover, it gives a false idea that learning and living are separate things that cannot merge together. The live outside the school, and learn inside with the experts. It reinforces the belief that children cannot be trusted to learn on their own --- they need experts to tell them what they should know to be considered knowledgeable and learned (Holt, â€Å"School is Bad for Children†). Holt again presents unquestionably strong arguments on this matter. Everyone who experienced school can relate to a great chunk of Holt’s standpoints. Another controversial statement is Holt’s declaration that schools shut kids’ brains and lead them to vices, particularly drugs. Several people may react negatively

Why men's basketball is better than women's basketball Essay - 3

Why men's basketball is better than women's basketball - Essay Example nt popularity because it was invented before women’s basketball, and this attributed to gaining of numerous fans by the latter compared to the former. In addition, numerous fans watching these games are interested in cheering the best players of the basketball, and it happens that men a good in playing basketball compared to women. Therefore, men’s basketball end up attracting a larger number of fans compared to women’s basketball (Kramer, 1). On the other hand, the notion indicating that men are good at applying various tactics through their talents while playing that the game has made their game is more attractive than women’s are. In this case, this essay will sets out to explore reasons that makes men’s basketball be considered better than women’s basketball. Men’s basketball game has been regarded to be more entertaining than women’s basketball, whereby men tend to be highly talented compared to women. Moreover, numerous people enjoy watching the contemptible dunks and struggles that these men endure to win a game. In fact, men have been identified to play in the upper professional raking perimeter that facilitates employment of various tactics and talents in a way that earns them victory. Furthermore, men’s teams have acquired attention from numerous fans that have a high preference of watching a game played by teams with professional skills (Kramer, 1). Therefore, given that men apply these tactics and their professional skills more than women do, this makes this brings excitement to their game. The mechanics and unique styles applied by men in playing their game have increasingly become attractive to the fans. In this case, men cultivate through the diversity of the athletes and these professional skills more than women do. In fact, men tend to evaluate their immediate situation prior to offering a response (Silverman, 1). There is differentiation between men and women’s styles of learning, which leads to a disparity in the process of

WACC Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

WACC - Essay Example On the other hand, understating the WACC will result in overstatement of future cash flows and net present value, causing a negative net present value project to be accepted. If the project is a financing project, meaning that the cash flow at time 0 is positive and the cash flows in future periods are negative, overstating the WACC will result in understatement of future cash flows and overstatement of net present value, causing a negative net present value project to be accepted. On the other hand, understating the WACC will result in overstatement of future cash flows and understatement of net present value, causing a positive net present value project to be rejected. In the discounted payback period approach, WACC is used as the discount rate for deriving the present value of future cash flows if the investment is financed by both debt and equity. The investment is accepted if payback period of the investment is less than the cutoff time. Overstating the WACC will result in understatement of future cash flows and overstatement of payback period, causing a project that pay backs within the target payback period to be rejected. On the other hand, understating the WACC will result in overstatement of future cash flows and understatement of payback period, causing a project that pays back after the target payback period to be accepted. In the internal rate of return approach, WACC is used as the hurdle rate for deciding whether to accept the project. If the project is an investment project, the project is accepted if the internal rate of return exceeds WACC. If the project is a financing project, the project is accepted if the internal rate of return is smaller than WACC. If the project is an investment project, overstating the WACC will result in the internal rate of return smaller than the WACC and an acceptable project to be rejected. On the other hand, understating the WACC will result in the internal rate of return greater than the WACC and an unacceptable project to be accepted. If the project is a financing project, overstating the WACC will result in the internal rate of return smaller than the WACC and an unacceptable project to be accepted. On the other hand, understating the WACC will result in the internal rate of return greater than the WACC and an acceptable project to be rejected. In the profitability index approach, WACC is used as the discount rate for deriving the present value of future cash flows if the investment is financed by both debt and equity. The investment is accepted if ratio of the present value of the future cash flows divided by the amount of investment is greater than 1. Overstating profitability index, causing an acceptable investment to be rejected.

Conventional Cost Allocation Systems versus Activity Based Cost Essay - 2

Conventional Cost Allocation Systems versus Activity Based Cost Systems - Essay Example Quite a number prefer the ABC systems over the traditional cost allocation systems. One issue that has been pointed out when comparing the cost systems is the accuracy. Martin (59) argues that the ABC systems are more accurate than the conventional system. The information that is delivered through this system is more precise and can help the management in decision-making. This means for effective use of this system there should a combination of the internal decision making with the external reporting system (Kaplan 58). The fact that there are no details that are assumed by the ABC system according to her proposition. In support of the conventional systems, the issue of efficiency and effectiveness arises. While the ABC system is efficient it provides so many details that are not necessary for the day-to-day running of the business (Cooper and Robert 1). These details accumulate to make a huge workload that is unnecessary. On the other hand, the conventional systems provide only the required details. The facts that stockholders, as well as creditors, have no interest in knowing the product that generates more profit neither the customers. However, the ABC system can be advantageous over the conventional system because it does not assume any detail hence there are high chances of increasing profitability due to the well-kept inventory (Cugini and Oilonato 127). Another issue raised is the ability of ABC systems to increase the company’s competitiveness. Some of the opponents of ABC systems have argued that ABC systems are not the only solution that faces the business world. The argument has been, there is the need for the systems to be complementary instead of having to compete (Martin 70). He proceeds on to argue that despite the accuracy in costs that comes with the system, the issue that should be addressed to increase the company’s profitability is a change in processes.  Ã‚  

The Decline of the Ottoman Empire Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Decline of the Ottoman Empire - Essay Example This was as a result of internal issues as well as the external elements. The external elements came about in form of other civilizations, movements and powers that came along and posed challenges to the Ottoman Empire. The Western Imperialist expansions were one of those that contributed towards the decline of Ottoman Empire in a direct and indirect manner. The impact of Decline of Ottoman Empire: The result of Ottoman Empire’s decline was creation of vacuum in terms of authority, capacity and power possessed by a single Empire. For centuries Ottoman Empire held the reign firm and controlled the native regions under its grip effectively. With the gradual downfall, the question of stability, political replacement, and social substitution left much to be desired and a question to be addressed. This vacuum creation brought about unhealthy competition and race for the occupying of power seat in the region in order to maintain the say and influence in the region. The Empire was at peak during the days when it conquered the Constantinople and this marked the pinnacle of their achievements (Melton and Baumann, 2903). Root causes of decline of the Empire: The root causes were in form of political instability, internal intrigues, social disparity, nationalistic movements, alienation of the rulers from the people, external elements influence, awakening amongst the masses, Porte’s ambitious governors (Couto and Loureiro, 39) and various other factors that led to the disintegration and decay in a gradual manner. 1682 can be termed as a significant period in the history of Ottoman Empire when they suffered their first defeat. Economic aspect is also attributed as a factor that led to the downfall of the Empire. With no social equality, too much being spent in the wars and other military pursuits led to starvation and inflation in the social and economic ranks, ultimately leading to disparity and discontent amongst the masses and subjects spread far and wide. The negative impact of economy directly told upon the military expansions, investments and developments. With the other empires and ruling regimes building on the military might, the Ottoman Empire stayed behind with regard to military advancements. The advancements in technology over period of time and most notably the Europe region, made the cause and case further worse for the Ottoman Empire. The demise of one Sultan led to a battle for supremacy and attainment of the throne between the successors, this would result in the division of loyalties and eating up of the financial resources within. The role of Ambitious Governors: Mehmat Ali and Ibrahim Pasha were two of the governors appointed by the Porte to administer and govern over Egypt. They were highly ambitious in their motives and intentions. They would demand new terms and territories from the Porte time to Time. Syria, Pashalik and other regions were under their interest. This internal strife gave an opportunity to the fore ign elements to intrude and make inroads in terms of their vested interests. France went in support of the war, Turkey in return had to fight a war with Russia in 1877 (Drury, 3)which further exposed and weakened the Empire’s say and influence in the region. Parts of continent Africa that were under the direct or indirect influence of the Porte also served as point and region of interest for the European Imperialistic and engaged them in rivalry with one another. Western

Separation Strategies for Isoprenoids from Aqueous Solutions Term Paper

Separation Strategies for Isoprenoids from Aqueous Solutions - Term Paper Example The simplicity, cost and energy efficiencies as well as the separation capability of solvent extraction, make it the best among these techniques. Introduction Found in all classes of living organisms, isoprenoids are the largest and a diverse group of biomolecules. Also known as terpenoid, isoprenoids are derived from five-carbon isoprene units (2-methyl-1,3-butadiene) assembled and modified in thousands of ways (Encyclop?dia Britannica). In isoprenoids, two to thousands of the isoprene units, through one or neither of its double bonds, are linked into larger molecules to form linear or ring structures. As biomolecules, isoprenoids play a wide variety of roles in plant and animal physiological processes and as intermediates in the biological synthesis of other important biomolecules. The flavors, fragrances of essential oils and other plant-derived substances are due to these molecules. Geraniol, an isoprenoid, is a contributor to the fragrance of rose perfume. These molecules are al so extracted from plants or chemically synthesized to be used as pharmaceuticals (e.g. taxol, bisabolol, lycopene, artemisinin), animal feed supplements and food colorants (various carotenoids) For instance, lycopene is the red pigment in tomatoes while carotene, an isoprenoid and precursor of vitamin A, is responsible for the pigment in carrots. Given the biological importance and applications of these molecules, numerous chemical techniques have been developed for their isolation from their natural sources, which inevitably contains some amount of water. Conventional separation techniques such as distillation, fractional distillation, stream distillation, crystallization, solvent extraction, enfleurage, and chromatography are used. The chemical and physical properties of the compound as well as its abundance and distribution in nature, influenced the choice of technique. For instance, while volatile and plentiful isoprenoids such as turpentine are isolated by distillation of oleor esins, extremely rare compounds such as insect’s hormones are separated from the substrate by chromatography. Currently, fundamental research has been directed towards extraction of these molecules from their natural source by bioaccumulation in microorganism, from which these isoprenoids can be extracted (Clark, Maury and Asadollahi 29). This article seeks to discuss the various conventional and emerging separation techniques used for the separation of isoprenoids from aqueous substrate. This discussion will include overview of the underlying principle involved in the process, design considerations with respect to the technique, fundamental challenges associated with the technique and suggestion of the best technique with respect to performance, safety, cost, and energy efficiency. In addition, specific applications of the best technique will be given. Conventional separation techniques for the isolation of isoprenoids Conventional technologies employed include, simple disti llation, fractional distillation, stream distillation, vacuum distillation, solvent extraction, crystallization, and chromatographic techniques. Simple distillation Distillation involves the conversion of a liquid into vapor and the subsequent condensation of the vapor to back to liquid form. Distillation, as performed in the industry or laboratory is based differences in their volatilities (boiling point) of the mixture. Thus distillation is a physical separation process, and not a chemical reaction.

The Schlesinger Polls and the Reasons behind the Change Essay Example for Free

The Schlesinger Polls and the Reasons behind the Change Essay Americans love to take polls. They rank everything from Hollywood scandals to insects, and they often reflect the state of mind of the American people at the time of the ranking. This propensity for opinion polls has been carried over to the equally American love of criticizing the government and the people in it, especially Presidents. One only has to turn on the television to watch spoofs about George W. Bush to get an idea of this. Presidential ranking was begun by historian Arthur Schlesinger whom in 1948 polled 55 scholars. He took a second poll in 1962 in which 34th president Dwight D. Eisenhower placed 22nd, a little over year after his second term of president. What is interesting to note that when son Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. , following in his father’s footsteps took another poll in 1996, Eisenhower placed 10th. Prior to this 1996 poll, other polls showed a similar tendency to elevate Eisenhower in the presidential rankings, with 2000 C-SPAN Poll placing him at ninth place. (Watson and Berger) This paper will provide some insights into the possible reasons for these shifts in opinions in the case of Eisenhower from a historical perspective. I. Brief background on Eisenhower Dwight David Eisenhower, popularly referred to as â€Å"Ike† was born in Texas in 1890, the 3rd of seven boys. He was brought up in Abilene Kansas and was a West Point graduate who became stationed in Texas as a second lieutenant where he met and married Mamie Geneva Doud. (â€Å"Dwight D. Eisenhower†) Ike was an excellent staff man, rapidly rising in the Army ranks under generals such as John J. Pershing, Douglas MacArthur, and Walter Krueger. His performance as supreme commander over the NATO forces in 1951 led to his nomination as Republic presidential candidate, with the slogan â€Å"I like Ike† leading him to the White House. (â€Å"Dwight D. Eisenhower†) A successful soldier and military leader, Ike nevertheless negotiated for peace whenever possible. The Cold War was escalating but he negotiated for better relations with the Soviet Union from a position of military strength, an effort undermined by the death of Stalin in 1953. In the same year, Ike signed a truce which rough armed peace in South Korea. In further efforts to conciliate with the Soviets, Ike invited Nikita Khrushchev to the Presidents Camp David retreat in Marylands Catoctin Mountains to discuss Khrushchev’s demands for Western allies to get out of Berlin. Kruschchev did agree to lift his ultimatum, which positive response was cut short in 1960 when the Russians shot down an American U-2 spy plane. (â€Å"Eisenhower: soldier of peace†) It led to public humiliation for Ike, but it emphasized his desire to maintain world peace. He developed his â€Å"atoms for peace† program which was designed to develop uranium for peaceful uses. He also urged conservative military spending, pushing for enough military strength to ensure national security while monitoring potentially dangerous military spending policies. (â€Å"Dwight D. Eisenhower†) It was during his second term that he issue orders to desegregate schools, a significant landmark in the civil rights movement, which was also carried out in the Armed Forces. He declared that There must be no second class citizens in this country. Ike was chronically ill, but he was a vigorous man and when he finally succumbed on March 28, 1969, he was almost 80 years old. (â€Å"Dwight D. Eisenhower†) His popularity was such that he could have run for a third term if he wanted two and if the 22nd Amendment prevented him from doing so. (â€Å"Eisenhower: Soldier of Peace†) II. Criticisms Despite his popularity during his two terms, Ike was constantly being criticized by political analysts for his â€Å"middle-ground† stance and was characterized as a â€Å"caretaker† president who did not really get much done. (Watson and Berger) In fact, in the 1970s Ike’s presidency characterized as the Eisenhower doll: â€Å"You wind it up and it does nothing for eight years. † With the myopia of near history, many believed that Ike concentrated on keeping the status quo in military, social and economic issues. Of particular damage was his handling of Senator Joseph McCarthy, who was condemned for his extreme anti-communist views and what is termed a â€Å"witch hunt† for Soviet spies within the government. (Ansary) â€Å"â€Å"I am convinced that the way for me to defeat Senator McCarthy is to ignore him,† Eisenhower noted in a personal memo in April 1953. † (â€Å"Eisenhower: soldier of peace†) He was seen uninvolved and ineffective in the day-to-day running of the country. He often delegated such decisions to his aides and advisors and was widely considered to spend most of his days in pleasurable pursuits such as golf, social functions and vacations. Politically, he was aloof and he made no secret of the fact that he disliked politics and politicians, and made many decisions which made him politically vulnerable. He once said that the â€Å"only thing successful politicians had in common was that they married above themselves. † (qtd. in Madonna and Young) The 1961 Time Magazine article â€Å"The Debits† enumerated some of the specific issues. Ike was said to have been unable to implement a workable farm program, resulting in an annual $9 billion cost of price supports and food storage, from the $1. 5 billion at the end of Harry Truman’s term. The tax policies were also criticized because Ike showed no interest in reforming outdated, piecemeal tax laws, preferring to concentrate on balancing the federal budget and reducing debt. His failure to promote the rule of law in his foreign policy and practical politics that would make him politically viable was also attacked. It is suggested that such criticisms stemmed from Ike’s belief that in his dual role as head of state (which unifies and symbolizes the nation) and head of government (political decision maker), the former should be prominent while the latter should be hidden, a governing style now referred to as the hidden hand presidency. (Madonna and Young) It also explained why in 1962, Ike ranked 22nd of 35 presidents despite his apparent popularity and military hero status. III. Discussion The upward revision on Ike’s poll ranking may well be due to what is referred to as â€Å"hindsight. † Many of his policies made little sense to his contemporaries and the public during his two terms. However, later events proved that Ike was a man who was more than he appeared to be, and that his policies had a sound basis. Ike was first and foremost a military man. He realized from his campaigns that military preparedness was crucial to a nation’s security, and took great pains to ensure that the state of military strength during his presidency was adequate. However, he was also a staff man, so he was aware of the potential dangers associated with unbridled military spending and took steps to ensure that there was balance between necessity and spending. His knowledge of war would also account for his efforts to avoid it breaking out as much as possible. As a soldier and campaign strategist, Ike had to deal with the casualties and collateral damages of war, and sought â€Å"peace with justice† (â€Å"The Debits†). He was unable to prevent the Cold War from escalating or the Cuban missile crisis that bore fruition in Kennedy’s term with such disastrous results, but he never stopped trying, an attitude which recent anti-war sentiment fully supports. Because he was a soldier, Ike probably loathed admitting physical weakness, but later accounts both from his personal memoirs and from other sources revealed that Ike suffered from several, severe health crises associated with gastrointestinal problems and heart disease. It was little known at the time, but Ike’s health gave him a lot of trouble, and he was said to have suffered anywhere up to 7 cardiac episodes. However, because this was not widely known at the time, his recuperative periods were misinterpreted by his critics as part and parcel of his â€Å"caretaker† governing policy. In particular, his 12-day stay in the presidential retreat in Key West from December 28, 1955 to January 8, 1956 was illustrative of how circumstances could be grossly misleading. Far from being on a repairing lease, Ike’s visitors and schedule showed how hard we worked even when he was supposed to be resting. (Madonna and Young; Watson and Berger) It was this as well as other documentary evidence that was later revealed which showed how much more deeply Ike’s â€Å"hidden hand† was in the various pies in political decision making and policy formulation, although his aim was to provide general policy guidelines than specific policies. Scholars now concede that Ike had a good grasp of most situations and made sound decisions that allowed him to keep his options open and yet enabled him to act decisively when necessary. (Madonna and Young) It is well to consider as well that of the presidents three had great military reputations in actual war prior to ascending to the presidency and subsequently consistently ranked high in the polls. These were Washington, Jackson and Theodore Roosevelt. A fourth was Eisenhower, whose 1962 below average ranking was revised in later polls. This would seem to indicate that those who were great military prowess were likely to become good presidents when they are elected into office. While their styles of governing are widely divergent, they were all practical and sensible decision makers in times of crisis. (Schlesinger) In Ike’s case, he chose to be relatively low profile in such decisions. John Dean in his 2001 article â€Å"Ranking presidents – utter nonsense or useful analysis? † points out that polls such as the ones undertaken by the Schlesingers were without any consistent basis for the criteria used by the surveyed scholars. Even with efforts to benchmark the results, the results remain largely subjective and vague, making it difficult to provide comparisons within the polls as well as between polls. The fact that it was a survey of scholars it was by no means a reflection of the general public’s opinion of Ike’s presidency. In fact, Ike was very popular when he left office and retained the admiration of the public as a man of integrity, strength and modesty. (â€Å"Dwight David Eisenhower†) However, in the case of Dwight Eisenhower, existing documents and later events do seem to provide a basis for his rise in the polls. It may well be that the 1962 Schlesinger Sr. poll and the 1996 Schlesinger Jr. poll is an accurate reflection of the political and social climate of the respective time period. IV. Conclusion It has been said that one can miss the forest for the trees; in retrospect, it seems clear now that Ike’s politically unpopular â€Å"centrist† image was deliberate. It allowed him to move silently away from the limelight to make crucial policy and political decisions. Because he had projected himself as an ineffective president, he was able to put his policies forward without being targeted by his critics of being its author. Despite the criticisms, Ike retained his popularity, no doubt as a result of his war record, his subsequent pacifist attitude as president and his widely known dislike of political posturing. In retrospect, he was more effective for his â€Å"hidden hand† style of governing than was initially suspected, as evidenced by the 1996 poll undertaken by Schlesinger Jr. , considered a more accurate reflection than that of his father’s 1962 survey. Works Cited â€Å"Dwight D. Eisenhower. † The White House. 6 November 2007 http://www. whitehouse. gov/history/presidents/de34. html. â€Å"Dwight David Eisenhower. † Findarticles. 2005. 6 November 2007 http://findarticles. com/p/articles/mi_gx5221/is_2005/ai_n19136311/print. â€Å"Eisenhower: Soldier of Peace. † Time. 4 April 1969. 6 November 2007 http://www. time. com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,839998-9,00. html. â€Å"Ike’s Presidential Legacy. † Eisenhower Memorial Commission. 6 November 2007 http://www. eisenhowermemorial. org/legacyreport/presidential-legacy. htm. â€Å"The Debits. † Time. com. 27 January 1961. 6 November 2007 http://www. time. com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,826765,00. html. Ansary, Tamin. â€Å"Who Was the Greatest President? † Encarta. MSN. com 2007. 6 November 2007 http://encarta. msn. com/encnet/features/columns/? article=greatestpresident. Dean, John â€Å"Ranking presidents Utter Nonsense or Useful Analysis? † FindLaw. 11 May 2001. 6 November 2007 http://writ. news. findlaw. com/dean/20010511. html. Madonna, G. Terry Young, Michael. â€Å"Why George Bush Should Like Ike. † Real Clear Politics. 19 October 2007. 5 November 2007 http://www. realclearpolitics. com/articles/2007/10/why_george_bush_should_like_ik. html. Murphy, Arthur. â€Å"Evaluating the Presidents of the United States. † Presidential Studies Quarterly 14 (1984): 117-126. Schlesinger, Arthur Jr. â€Å"Rating the Presidents: Washington to Clinton. † Political Science Quarterly 11. 2 (Summer 1997): 179-90. Watson, Robert Berger, Dale. â€Å"Reconsidering Ikes Health and Legacy: A Surprising Lesson in Duty at the Little White House Residential Retreat. † The Eisenhower Institute. Gettysburg College. 6 November 2007 http://www. eisenhowerinstitute. org/publications/opinions__editorials/Watson_Berger_Reconsidering. dot.

A critical analysis of Goodbye Lenin!

A critical analysis of Goodbye Lenin! The Relationship between History and Memory: The post-war period ends in Germany in 1989 by demolishing of the Berlin wall. The unification process brought a lot of problems in all sections of the society. It has also brought problems to Germany’s future role as economic and political powers and directs the attention again to the challenging bequests of the past and tries to change the meanings of the national culture as a united Europe to sharp and clear the economic, social and ethnical differences. After 17 year of CDU rule, in 1998, the new SPD was led by Chancellor Gerhard Schroder and it made its way into recruit social and economic reforms to make the country more flexible on immigration, employment problems and more competitive in the global market. However, this move made a lot of concerns about the pulling down of the social welfare state, the crosion of a German Leitkultur and the problems in the New States as there were still racial violence and employment issues. When the government moved into Berlin, the st ructures of Reichstag and Potsdamer Platz, made the public think about the changes in the nation and identity. All of these events had an impact on the German cinema but they were less traceable in the few feature films that had a direct theme about the unification than in the unpredicted revival of popular cinema, based on a critical examination by some film scholars (Rentschler 2000). Film-makers returned to the post-war period genre to address special unification problems as a method of retrieving the stabilising purpose of classical narrative and of applying these effects. This process found an expression in the new generation’s disagreement to film movement with the social and political including New German Cinema. The young film-makers from producers to directors did not accept its philosophy of the authorship and individualism for a more practical, cooperation and between creative and marketable interests. Considering entertainment as a primary essential in cinema and films, they organized themselves with international trends in film-financing and marketing that had made the 1990s an bland decade for films, conquered by the blockbuster films. However, replying to some domestic worries, film-makers registered the consistent effects of genre in the modifying of the German past and the remapping of the German present inside the cultural and geopolitical of post-wall Europe, and trying to approach themselves openly to German audiences, the films of the 1990s required to house the audience’s conflicting desire of both creating the narratives of the Germannerss less complex and give more room for optimistic images of a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural culture. It is also considered that the wider the effect of continuing reconsideration for modern filmic performs and the writing of film history. Film scholars have started to check the main serious models and give extra care to the connections between German popular cinema and its purpose. In Goodbye Lenin! (Dir.: Wolfgang Becker, 2003), it reveals the change of viewpoint on the sense of East-West unity in post-wall Germany. Becker approaches to unification in his film Goodbye Lenin! By exanimating the images of separation and connection that he created. He also approaches unification between the East and the West as something unwelcome. The conception of merging two parts together becomes the idea of one part is overwhelming the other and the other is fighting this engagement. The resistance rest on viewing the German Democratic Republic which is known as East Germany as a unified individual part. As the rest of the film focus on keeping the impression of GDR unity in the unification’s strength to erase that impression. The beginning scenes of Alex’s childhood express the separation of Germany in this film as a represented by the family. It seems to allow for more pleasant relationships for Alex’s disappointment to his father who travels to the we st and Alex’s mother and sister remains in the East. The separation is not about the division of the two parts but rather about the discharge of disruptive elements from the controlled unity of the GDR. The separation leads to more tightly enforced impression of the unity as a clue in the mother’s efforts to express any need for going back with the father. However, instead of trying to bring the father back to her world, she creates a new world where the father has no role in it. She merges the family without him in her alleged fight to assistance the GDR achieve its socialistic values. Therefore there is no desire to overcome the separation between the East and the West. The film represents the unity of the GDR through many home movies and flashbacks to Alex’s childhood which makes the family overcomes the difficulty of the fact that the father left the home and the mother’s breakdown to develop as loyal supporters of the GDR socialism. Later on, Alex jo ins in protests for freedom to travel out the GDR. At this moment, the mother sees Alex in the protest and she faint because of her son’s challenge for his dream, she represents diverts him from his hard work to rebel. Christiane goes into an eight months coma. As Christiane wakes from her coma, Alex fears that if she knew about the GDR after the fall of Berlin wall, the shock will give her another heart attack after the first heart attack in 1989 and it will result in her death as her doctor advised Alex. As he is faced with the loss of both of his mother and the state with which she recognized, the memory of his childhood and the vanishing GDR starts to take on parallel potentials to his imaginations of space. The historical distance of his East German childhood, offers Alex a wish of a resting place away from experience of time that would separate him quickly from his mother and his past. All of these losses to Alex share a desire for a division, a slow flow of time. As Svetlana Boym says of nostalgia: â€Å"At first glance, nostalgia is a longing for a place, but actually it is a yearning for a different time- the time of our childhood, the slower rhythm of our dreams. In a broader sense, nostalgia is a rebellion against the modern ide a of time, the time of history and progress.† [1] The film represents the adult’s relationship to the memory of childhood through Alex’s attempts to retain a link to his personal past with all of these changes that happens in his world that surround him, hoping that he can extend his mother’s life. Alex hides the breakdown of the East German state by recreating his mother’s bedroom with the outmoded GDR furnishings that he and his older sister threw after the breakdown. Alex also create the childhood â€Å"heaven† that he never had before and his dream of that perfect place battle both of communism and capitalism’s large-scale difficulties of endless progress, Alex turns his perfect place desire hidden, looking for asylum in the expectedness of everyday life and in the national spaces of personal childhood. Andreas Huyssen proposes that this â€Å"memory boom†¦ is a potentially healthy sign of contestation† in our fast-paced world, â€Å"recover[ing] a mode of contemplation outs ide the universe of simulation and fast-speed information and cable networks† as well as stating â€Å"the basic human need to live in extended structures of temporality.†[2] However, Alex’s preservation act carries a positive potential in the context of the unification and the resulting disagreements of both the social and political structures of East German. He risks delaying a method of observation that would result to his mother’s death, covering himself instead in the comfort of a timeless present. Christiane’s bedroom becomes a shelter, where the desperate hurry to unification and the similarly swift closure of the GDR have slowed down. In reconstructing the physical environment linked with his childhood, Alex offers himself a historical space to renegotiate his connection to his past in the way of the incoming loss. As modern institutions to everyday life in the GDR favour to concentrate on house entities rather than the political leftovers, Alex’s plan steps out of the current of historical disorder and harsh change, lasting in the slower pulses of his private life. The level of protection about the objects that relates to his mother’s extended survival, Alex’s museum space offers him time to imitate on the chance of his mother’s death, by the help of artefacts that created a memory aid link to the disappearing GDR. In a argument on the changing meanings of museums in the modern culture, Andreas Huyssen proposes that modern museums support us â€Å"to negotiate and to articulate a relationship to the past that is always also a relationship to the transitory and to death, our own included;† we may therefore see the museum as â€Å"a life-enhancing rather than mummifying institution in an age bent on the destructive denial of death†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . [3]Alex’s museum space offers him the chance to get to the loss on his own agenda, to show sorrow if his mother died without a limit, surrounded by entities that reminds him of the childhood in an atmosphere of quiet echo. Regardless of the positive Alex’s protection of culture entities to protect against the comprehensive removal of the East and to heal his approval of his personal loss, the trick is triggered in his rebuilding that will eventually prevents from a positive relationship to the past, present, or future. To defend his mother from the shock he worries that he will kill her, Alex must retain the impression that the radical changes of the Wende did not happen. Rather than easily simplifying things his mother, and himself, into the present, Alex works progressively to duplicate a frame in the past, pouring Western foods into East German jars and bottles collected from the trash, filming fake East German news and even forcing friends and guests to wear old East German clothes. Unlike a museum, where the physical and historical distance between viewer and entity inspires a serious echo, Alexâ€℠¢s complete rebuilding a time-sphere to put his mother in the impression of a timeless present, where artefacts of the past may not show any symbols of age. Boym distinguishes between two types of nostalgia: restorative nostalgia, which search for to reconstruct the missing home and reflective nostalgia, which lingers lovingly on ruins. As Boym express that, â€Å"Restoration signifies a return to the original stasis, to the prelapsarian moment. The past for the restorative nostalgic is a value for the present; the past is not a duration but a perfect snapshot. Moreover, the past is not supposed to reveal any signs of decay; it has to be freshly painted in its â€Å"original image† and remain eternally young. Reflective nostalgia is more concerned with historical and individual time, with the irrevocability of the past and human finitude. Reflection suggests new flexibility, not the reestablishment of stasis. The focus here is not on recovery of what is perceived to be an absolute truth but on the meditation on history and the passage of time†.[4] Both the ordinary route of time and the historical disorders of 1989-1990 have distorted Alex’s childhood desire to travel and the physical distance to outer space into a desire for the historical distance of his East German childhood, by exaggeratedly breaking up the historical distance of his East German childhood. However, he fights his thinking on the route of time, and as a result, he fails to arise to a conclusion of loss. Though his mother’s bedroom protects him from the leap of life in the real world, Alex dodges fronting the option of death by constructing a zone where time is reach a stationary point. Also, since he cannot settle the joy of unification and trying to protect of the past at the same time, Alex’s inner and external worlds develop ever more separation. Throughout the film, the West German football team’s victory in the 1990 World Cup aids as an icon of internal unity in Germany, motivating the approaches of unity and shared celebrati on. Good Bye, Lenin! Ends with the collocation of the depressing, broken-down streets of the GDR and the bright colours of the Super-8 films that had represented happy moments in Alex’s childhood in the beginning of the film. Once the Berlin Wall falls, Alex’s desire for the slower pace of life was paid by the distance of space as well as his East German childhood is an answer to his requirement to sorrow the loss of his mother in a historical time-space isolated from that which so quickly and unsentimentally thrown out the GDR. Though he briefly falls as a victim to a returning nostalgia that would prevent him from carrying on into the future, Alex on the other hand reveals how the protection of East German popular and culture’s entities in unified Germany can aid the GDR citizens to keep a connection to the his past, simplifying the echo on the route of time and recognising the loss that relates to the unstable cultural significance of East German entities. Alex in the end sends his mother’s ashes into the air on a firecracker that had the same identity and was almost a replica to the tiny rocket of his childhood. As he is looking up at the fireworks in the sky, he imagines that his mother is looking down on them from space. The meaning of his relationship to space has now upturned from the diversion of his childhood to accept the death fact in adulthood. For Alex, GDR childhood breaks and fails as being a â€Å"haven† to him, where he can delay sadness forever, and he develops a collection of cultural markers and personal memories that open up a dialogue between the real and imagined spaces of past, present, and future. Alex’s desire for a different knowledge of time eventually will accomplishes its positive prospective to recuperate a missing connection to the slower rhythms of East German childhood, standing in front of fast and confusing historical disorder. In Pierre Nora article ‘Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Memorie’, he claimed that many section of memory exists because people do not have impulsively arising memory, instead, the people depend on history to fill in the gaps of their memory. He also claims that the leftovers of an experience have been â€Å" ‘moved under the heaviness of a essentially historical sensibility’ with haunting images of the â€Å"push and pull† result of historical moments that are being separated from the movement of history and then re-joint, ‘like shells on the shore when the sea of living memory has receded.† [5]Nora proposes that the existing desire for archives files aids his philosophy in that nations are trying to record everything based on the philosophy â€Å"record as much as you can, something will remain.† Nora appears to understand the government’s history storing because the culture’s quantity has crushed the real m emory. Bibliography: Anton, Christine, Pilipp Frank, Beyond Political Correctness. Remapping German Sensibilities in the 21st Century (Germany: Rodopi, 2010), pp: 218-220 Clarke, David, German Cinema since Unification (London: Continuum, 2006), pp: Hake, Sabine, German National Cinema (London: Routledge, 2001), 179-180 Nora, Pierre, ‘Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mà ©moire’ in Representations, No. 26, Special Issue: Memory and Counter-Memory, (spring, 1989), pp. 7-24. [1] Clarke, David, German Cinema since Unification (London: Continuum, 2006), pp: 26 [2] Clarke, David, German Cinema since Unification (London: Continuum, 2006), pp: 27 [3] Clarke, David, German Cinema since Unification (London: Continuum, 2006), pp: 27 [4] Clarke, David, German Cinema since Unification (London: Continuum, 2006), pp: 32 [5] Nora, Pierre, ‘Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mà ©moire’ in Representations, No. 26, Special Issue: Memory and Counter-Memory, (spring, 1989), pp. 7-12.

To Kill A Mockingbird - Moral :: Kill Mockingbird essays

To Kill A Mockingbird - Moral In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the author intends the reader to learn that you shouldn't judge people by there race. Later on I will be telling you about a life as the Cunningham's, Bob Ewell, and Atticus. So if you listen up and pay attention you will almost be as smart as me. The Cunninghams were the poor family they were so poor they couldn't afford shoes for the family and they also never had any food. "Walter Cunningham's face told everybody in the first grade he had hookworms. His absence of shoes told us how he got them." Page 19. This quote shows that the Cunningham's don't have a lot of money at all. This quote also shows that the Cunningham's are so poor they cant even afford a pair of shoes. "Walter Cunningham was sitting there lying his head off. He didn't forget his lunch, he didn't have any. He had none today nor would he have any tomorrow or the next day. He had probably never seen three quarters together at the same time in his life." Page 20. This quote shows that the Cunningham's are so poor they can't even take care of there own child. This quote also shows that the Cunningham's never have any money and they cant afford food. The Cunningham's would be a very hard family to be, because you would have nothing you own right now, you would be flat broke. Mr. Bob Ewell was a lazy man, and not very many people like him. "The first thing was that Mr. Bob Ewell acquired and lost a job in a matter of days and probably made himself unique in the annals of the nineteen-thirties: he was the only man I ever herd of who was fired from the WPA for laziness." Page 248. This quote shows that Bob Ewell is a really lazy man. This quote also shows that Bob Ewell doesn't try anything hard, not even for money. "First thing you can do, Ewell, is get your stinkin' carcass off my property. You're leanin' on it an' I cant afford fresh paint for it, second thing you can do is stay away from my cook or I'll have you up for assault-" Page 249.

Lawsuits and the End of Sanity in America :: Exploratory Essays

Lawsuits and the End of Sanity in America Not having experienced much of the past is a mixed blessing. What's grotesque, shocking and unheard of to older Americans might seem normal, perhaps just a bit curious, to younger Americans. For example, last year New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial brought suit against gun manufacturers to recover carnage costs in his city. This January, Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell met with his advisors to consider whether the City should sue gun manufacturers for creating a public nuisance since guns were used in Philadelphia's 400-plus homicides. The City would seek to recover the cost of everything from cleaning up after bloody murders to the costs of court and social workers for victims. Mayor Rendell's imagination has also led him to discover a new liability for tobacco companies: since some of Philadelphia's fires have careless smoking as their origin, why not sue tobacco companies to recover the city's fire losses? Decades ago anyone suggesting bringing lawsuits against gun manufacturers for homicides, or tobacco companies for fires caused by careless smoking would have been considered a prime candidate for a lunatic asylum. If one generalizes from the lawsuits brought against gun manufacturers because people use their product to commit murder and mayhem, and against tobacco companies for smoking illnesses and fires caused by careless smoking, he would conclude that people are not to be held responsible for anything they do. It is the inanimate object, while incapable of acting, that is responsible. That is, a gun is responsible for murder, not the gun's user. A cigarette is responsible for a fire, not the careless smoker. That being the case, it "logically" follows that manufacturers of the offending inanimate object are culpable. After all had the manufacture not produced the gun or cigarette there would be fewer homicides, smoking-related illnesses and fires caused by careless smoking. This it's-not-my-fault principle could be broadened to include just about anything. If a scantily clad young lady is prancing along the street, distracts my attention, and I have an automobile collision, the it's-not-my-fault principle would hold the young lady liable for my accident. But she might make the case that it is the manufacturer of her mini-skirt who is really liable. If we Americans were to carry the it's-not-my-fault principle to its logical conclusion, we would virtually guarantee poverty. There would be little production. Why should I manufacture irons if I could be held liable for anything a person might do with the iron, including assault or leaving the iron unattended thereby causing a fire.

Japanese Auto Manufacturing :: essays research papers

The Road to Japanese Automobile Manufacturing Dominance Japan was devastated at the end of World War Two. Although the automobile industry wasn’t as heavily hit as some of the other industries, there were some severely hindering effects on production. Steel and other materials were difficult to obtain causing production to drop 50% by the end of the war (Chao, 1997). Now they are the leading automobile manufacturers in the world. Japan is the epitome of car manufacturers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Japan had a big ditch to dig themselves out of. First of all to enter into any kind of production they had to get permission from the General Headquarters of the Allied Powers of G.H.Q. This entity regulated trade of the Japanese until 1955. They allowed for as many as thirty manufacturers to enter the production of trucks in 1945, and in 1947 as the ambitions of the industry increased they allowed manufacture of small passenger cars (although limited to only 300 cars per year). With such small potential for production there was mass unemployment and the manufacturers had to take on the repair of their own damaged vehicles.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Consequently, in 1949 with the tight government finance and banking policies adopted (to suppress inflation) Japan was hit with a massive recession. It was a real blow to the automobile industry; manufacturers had to cut wages and layoff workers. From 1949 to 1950 employment in the automobile industry was slashed by 23% (6,200 people). The labor unions confronted the management of the car makers, and all the manufacturers were hit with the longest strikes in Japanese history.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Japan struggled through the early 1950’s, and in 1955 the â€Å"Post-War Era† officially ended. With the G.H.Q. out of the picture the Ministry of Transportation announced the People’s Car Plan, which gave Japanese auto manufacturers an excellent opportunity to develop new original cars of their own. The plan was eventually be scrapped because the manufacturers thought that proposal’s requirements would be â€Å"impossible to manufacture with the performance and sales price requested† (Shimokawa, 1994). The People’s Car Plan did influence competition to market new products and it gave primarily three-wheeled vehicle makers a way to enter the four-wheel market. Suzuki, Fuji (Subaru), Mitsubishi, and Toyo Kogyo (Mazda) all entered small cars into the market almost immediately.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Moreover, the first two small cars that really made a name for themselves were the Toyota Corona and the Nissan Bluebird. Of course 90% of these cars were used for business (Rinehart, 1997).

Rate of Photosynthesis: Limiting Factors

Rate of photosynthesis: limiting factors Limiting factors The main factors affecting rate of photosynthesis are light intensity, carbon dioxide concentration and temperature. In any given situation any one of these may become a limiting factor, in other words the factors that directly affects the rate at which photosynthesis can take place masking the effects of the other factors. Light and rate of photosynthesis At low light intensities, as light intensity increases, the rate of the light-dependent reaction, and therefore photosynthesis generally, increases proportionately (straight line relationship).The more photons of light that fall on a leaf, the greater the number of chlorophyll molecules that are ionised and the more ATP and NADPH are generated. Light dependent reactions use light energy and so are not affected by changes in temperature. Rate of photosynthesis Intensity of light As light intensity is increased further, however, the rate of photosynthesis is eventually limited by some other factor. So the rate plateaus. At very high light intensity, chlorophyll may be damaged and the rate drops steeply (not shown in the graph). Chlorophyll a is used in both photosystems.The wavelength of light is also important. PSI absorbs energy most efficiently at 700 nm and PSII at 680 nm. Light with a higher proportion of energy concentrated in these wavelengths will produce a higher rate of photosynthesis. Carbon dioxide and rate of photosynthesis An increase in the carbon dioxide concentration increases the rate at which carbon is incorporated into carbohydrate in the light-independent reaction, and so the rate of photosynthesis generally increases until limited by another factor. As it is normally present in the atmosphere at very low concentrations (about 0. 4%), increasing carbon dioxide concentration causes a rapid rise in the rate of photosynthesis, which eventually plateaus when the maximum rate of fixation is reached. Rate of photosynthesis Carbon dioxide c oncentration 1 Temperature and rate of photosynthesis Although the light dependent reactions of photosynthesis are not affected by changes in temperature, the light independent reactions of photosynthesis are dependent on temperature. They are reactions catalysed by enzymes. As the enzymes approach their optimum temperatures the overall rate increases.It approximately doubles for every 10 Â °C increase in temperature. Above the optimum temperature the rate begins to decrease, as enzymes are denatured, until it stops. Limiting factors In 1905, when investigating the factors affecting the rate of photosynthesis, Blackmann formulated the Law of limiting factors. This states that the rate of a physiological process will be limited by the factor which is in shortest supply. Any change in the level of a limiting factor will affect the rate of reaction. For example, the amount of light will affect the rate of photosynthesis.If there is no light, there will be no photosynthesis. As light i ntensity increases, the rate of photosynthesis will increase as long as other factors are in adequate supply. As the rate increases, eventually another factor will come into short supply. The graph below shows the effect of low carbon dioxide concentration. It will eventually be insufficient to support a higher rate of photosynthesis, and increasing light intensity will have no effect, so the rate plateaus. Rate of photosynthesis Temperature Rate of photosynthesis Higher CO2 concentration; higher temperature.Higher CO2 concentration; lower temperature. Lower CO2 concentration; lower temperature. . Intensity of light If a higher concentration of carbon dioxide is supplied, light is again a limiting factor and a higher rate can be reached before the rate again plateaus. If carbon dioxide and light levels are high, but temperature is low, increasing temperature will have the greatest effect on reaching a higher rate of photosynthesis. Finding out How might the factors that affect the r ate of photosynthesis be investigated? Design a suitable series of experiments. 2

Price Control

Price Controls Econ 360-002 Sonia Parsa [email  protected] edu G00509808 Word Count: 1540 Abstract This paper examines how, in the United States, the government imposes several forms of taxes and price controls and how all individuals are required to pay direct and indirect taxes. It looks at how the approach of taxation and how the constraints of taxation on goods and price controls affect the U. S. economy. Introduction Regulations have played a huge role in the political and economic world for centuries. There are various different types of regulation. One regulation that the government imposes under its tax policy is price control, which is not considered to be voluntary. Price control can play two different roles, a price ceiling or a price floor. A price ceiling is the maximum price that can be charged in the market for a certain good, causing shortages, and a price floor is the minimum price that can be charged in the market, which then causes surpluses. Measures are usually taken by a government under its regulatory policy to control wages and prices in an attempt to check cost-push inflation and wage-push inflation[1]. However, these policies never help the economy. Instead, it worsens the situation. Governments also impose price controls as an indirect mechanism for taxation. The most well-known price controls enforced by the United States government today are: the policy of minimum wage, rent control, and oil price control. Having enforced price controls generate opportunities for economy failure, i. e. shortages and surpluses, as well as opportunities within the black market, and international arbitrage. The Economic Philosophy When a price control is forced by the government, it’s usually imposed to help or protect particular parts of the population which would be treated inequitably by the unfettered price system. But one must wonder which part of the population, the consumers or the producers? Is it not true that the consumers always feel as if the prices of a good are much higher than their actual value, while producers always feel as if the prices are too low? Price controls are usually justified as a way to help consumers, but whether they actually do is open to debate. Imposed price controls by the government are not only an absolute disaster, but have resulted in dislocating many economies in the past. The key is to recognize that when governments impose price controls; it does not only affect their nation, but also affects parallel imports with their trade partners because of a price â€Å"discrimination,† in regards to tariffs. The Economic Logic The effect of taxation and price controls on the economy vary from the decrease of the supply of goods to an increase in costs and can be demonstrated by a supply-demand analysis (Figure 1). In a free market, the equilibrium selling prices are shown by an upward sloping supply curve (S) with respect to price. The maximum buying prices on the part of the consumer is then shown by a downward sloping demand curve (D) with respect to price. After a quantity of a good is acquired by a consumer, the less important the desire is than before. Therefore, the supplier has to lower the price for each unit as it is sold. Where the supply and demand curve intersects at the margin is called the equilibrium price. In a maximum price control, a deadweight loss occurs in the triangle of a, b, c. pic] For example, when there is a tax imposed on a good like tobacco, there is an increase in the price of the product. This is called minimum price control and the price is not legally allowed to fall below the minimum. This shifts the supply curve of the product to the left. In other words, there are fewer goods available at the same prices than there were before. There is then a decline in the quantity demanded and a new equilibrium between demand and supply is reached. On the other hand when price controls are imposed there is an artificial decline in the prices. At the lower prices, a higher quantity is demanded but the production is insufficient to fulfill that demand and causes a shortage. We can also use the supply-demand analysis to dissect the labor market when a wage-control is placed by the government (shown in Figure 2). By establishing a minimum-wage law, it mandates a price floor above the equilibrium wage; therefore, the rate of unemployment among unskilled workers increases. When wages increase, a greater number of workers are willing to work while only a small number of jobs will be available at the higher wage. Companies can be more selective in whom they choose to employ causing the least skilled and inexperience to be excluded. [pic] Figure 2 assumes that workers are willing to work for more hours if paid a higher wage. We graph this relationship with the wage on the vertical axis and the quantity of workers on the horizontal axis. Combining the demand and supply curves for labor allows us to examine the effect of the minimum wage. We will start by assuming that the supply and demand curves for labor will not change as a result of raising the minimum wage. This assumption has been questioned. If no minimum wage is in place, workers and employers will continue to adjust the quantity of labor supplied according to price until the quantity of labor demanded is equal to the quantity of labor supplied, reaching equilibrium price, where the supply and demand curves intersect. Evidence- Minimum Wage Basic theory says that raising the minimum wage, which is a type of price-control, helps workers whose wages are raised, and hurts people who are not hired because companies cut back on employment. The very first federal minimum wage laws were imposed under the National Recovery Administration. The National Industrial Recovery Act, which became law on June 16, 1933, established industrial minimum wages for 515 classes of labor. Over 90 percent of the minimum wages were set at between 30 and 40 cents per hour. [2] C. F. Roos, who was the director of research at the NRA at that time, estimated that â€Å"by reason of the minimum wage provisions of the codes, about 500,000 Negro workers were on relief in 1934. † Roos added that â€Å"a minimum wage definitely causes the displacement of the young, inexperienced worker and the old worker. [3] By imposing minimum wage rate, free contract in the labor market is shattered. A firm is no longer allowed to pay below the minimum and the laborer cannot accept anything below the minimum that has been set as well. The free-market allows inexperienced workers to obtain entry-level positions, which gives them on the job training, by working for less. With the imposed wage-control, if the monetary compensation falls below minimum, th e trade-off becomes illegal which is a direct violation of a workers liberty to free contract. Thomas Rustici, in his book about minimum wage, makes an excellent point when he states: â€Å"In virtually every case it was found that the net employment effects and labor-force participation rates were negatively related to changes in the minimum wage. In the face of 50 years of evidence, the question is no longer if the minimum wage law creates unemployment, but how much current or future increases in the minimum wage will adversely affect the labor market? †[4] For years we have witnessed the effects of what minimum wages execute, yet we continue to conduct the same mistakes. Conclusion Obligatory price controls by the government are not only an absolute disaster, but have resulted in dislocating many economies all over the world for thousands of years[5]. As economic history has shown us, price controls being effective in a free competitive market are very rare. We either experience shortages or surpluses as a result. Who wins and who loses with an imposed price control? Setting a price control in one country affects other countries around it as well due to parallel imports and personal trafficking. Prices are not just numbers to a free competitive market; they are the expression of the value the supplier sets, no matter how subjective it may be. To regulate or to impose a price control, like any form of regulation, is unconstitutional. In some cases, it either violates the 5th amendment and/or 14th amendment. Price controls, wage controls, and money controls are really people controls. Regimentation at its worst- that is what a socialist dictatorship is all about. I believe that the free market has its own way of equalizing the economy and when the government interferes and sets price ceiling or price floor, it causes a chaos within our economy. Regardless if it results in a dead weight loss or a shortage, the consequences can sometimes be more destructive in the long run. Even if a government believes that price controls are set and affect only their country, it does not; it affects every nation that does any trade with them, exports or imports. The appeal of price controls is understandable. Even though they fail to protect many consumers and hurt others, controls hold out the promise of protecting groups that are particularly hard-pressed to meet price increases. However, when the government has proposed a control, there is a lag in time, causing an economy to become more impaired. References Barfield, C. E. and Groombridge, M. A. â€Å"The Economic Case for Copyright and Owner Control over Parallel Imports. † Journal of World Intellectual Property, Vol. 1 (1998), pp. 903-939 Benjamin M. Anderson, Economics and the Public Welfare: A Financial and Economic History of the United States, 1914-1946 (Indianapolis: Liberty Press, 1979), p. 36. Cambridge Pharma Consultancy. Pricing and Reimbursement Review 2003. Cambridge, UK: IMS Health-Management Consulting, 2004. â€Å"Gas Fever: Happiness Is a Full Tank. † Times Magazine 18 Feb. 1974. 19 June 2009 . Grossman, Gene M. , and Edwin L-C Lai. â€Å"Parallel imports and price controls. † RAND Journal of Econ omics 2nd ser. 39 (2008): 378-402. Princeton. Web. 8 Dec. 2009. . Richard M. Alson, J. R. Kearl, and Michael B. Vaughan, â€Å"Is There a Consensus Among Economists in the 1990’s? † American Economic Review 82, no. 2 (1992): 203–209. Rustici, Thomas. â€Å"Public Choice View of Minimum Wage†. Cato Journal, 5. 1) Spring/Summer 1985: 114. ISSN: 0273-3072 Steenhuysen, Julie. â€Å"Drug price controls may shorten lives: report | Reuters. † Business & Financial News, Breaking US & International News | Reuters. com. 16 Dec. 2008. Web. 8 Dec. 2009. . The Power of Oil: The Arab Oil Weapon and the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, and the United States Roy Licklider International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 32, No. 2 (Jun. , 1988), pp. 214 ———————– [1] Grossman, Gene M. , and Edwin L-C Lai. â€Å"Parallel imports and price controls. † RAND Journal of Economics 2nd ser. 39 (2008): 378-4 02. Princeton. Web. 8 Dec. 009. . [2] Leverett Lyon, et al. The National Recovery Administration: An Analysis and Appraisal (New York: Da Capo Press, 1972). pp. 318-19. [3] Benjamin M. Anderson, Economics and the Public Welfare: A Financial and Economic History of the United States, 1914-1946 (Indianapolis: Liberty Press, 1979), p. 336. [4] Rustici, Thomas. â€Å"Public Choice View of Minimum Wage†. Cato Journal, 5. (1) Spring/Summer 1985: 105. ISSN: 0273-3072 [5] Barfield, C. E. and Groombridge, M. A. â€Å"The Economic Case for Copyright and Owner Control over Parallel Imports. † Journal of World Intellectual Property, Vol. 1 (1998), pp. 903-939