Artistic Theme of The Bacchae of Euripides - 453 Words

My artistic theme is about the play â€Å"The Bacchae of Euripides† and how the god Dionysusis irrational behavior is in accord with that of Alcibiades in Plato’s Symposium. In both books the above named character’s behavior was reactive to their situations rather than proactive. In the Symposium, Alcibiade’s unrequited love, or rather lust for Socrates drives him to make a fool of himself at the â€Å"dinner party†. During his speech Alcibiades speaks of Socrates as if he were a superior being; he has a special hold or power over emotions of others. He mentions that â€Å"(Socrates) presents himself as your lover, and before you know it, you’re in love with him yourself! Therefore, justifying to himself that he is not in control of his body or†¦show more content†¦In conjunction with this is the concept of love. According to Socrates lust or sexual desire is on of the lowest forms of love; thus does always need to be obtained. Rather wisdom, the highest form of love according to Diotima and Socrates should be sought and revered. The concept of honoring life and love as it is, exemplified in the Handbook of Epictetus. In the Handbook Epictetus specifies â€Å"not to seek to have events happen as you want them to, but instead want them to happen as they do happen†. This concept Dionysus in the Bacchae of Euripides did not comprehend. He was embittered the Milles-Dave 2 people of Thedes did not believe that the God Zeus impregnated his mother, thereby making him half God, that he took revenge on the women of the city including his aunt. Dionysus, the God of ecstasy removes the women from their daily work schedule and leads them to the forest where they make a world of continuos play.nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Even though Dionysus is the God of ecstasy according to myth, a world filled with pleasure does not ensure a fruitful existence. To honor Dionysus would be to follow Epictetus’s handbook to a certain extent. Epictetus would like his followers to live life without any emotional attachments, or standards-with standards come disappointment. On the other hand, Dionysus would except his followers to live life freely. These are two extremes and productive lives can not be lived on either end ofShow MoreRelatedGreek Tragedy And The Morality Of Greek Culture Essay2193 Words   |  9 Pagesfor a play to be performed at The City Dionysia festival; tragic playwrights would first have to appeal to the state official that was organizing the festival by submitting ideas to him and his committee. The ideas submitted were outlines of main themes and points of interest to be performed in the play. If a playwright was selected by the state official and his committee, then they received a finan cial backer and a chance to compete in the drama competition of the festival. The state official, orRead More Euripides Support of Women’s Rights Essay4032 Words   |  17 PagesEuripides Support of Women’s Rights      Ã‚  Ã‚   One can hardly deny that in Euripides’ plays women are often portrayed as weak, uncertain, and torn between what they must do and what they can bring themselves to do.   Other women appear to be the root of grave evils, or simply perpetrators of heinous crimes.   In a day when analysis of characters and plot had yet to be invented, it is easy to see why he might have been thought to be very much against women.   However, when looking back with currentRead MoreEssay on African theatre1586 Words   |  7 Pagesinfluences. This resulted in an imaginative presence in literary and popular theatre that was to be influential throughout Africa. Yoruba Opera companies, also known as traveling theatres, had hit the road. Ladipo produced spectacular productions based on themes from Yoruba mythology and history. His series on the kingdom of Oyo was published in 1964 as Three Yoruba Productions (Oba Koso [â€Å"The King Did Not Hang†], Oba Moro [â€Å"The King o f Ghosts†], and Oba Waja [â€Å"The King Is Dead†]), had the power and mythologyRead MoreDionyysus Character Analysis1803 Words   |  8 Pagespleasure, festivity, and vegetation are hinted at in his origin story and become a foundation of his overall personality after he encounters Pentheus in an intense tale. The evolution of his representation and characteristics can also be seen through artistic rendition, from the subject of Ancient Greek pottery to book subjects and the name for wine cellars around the globe, proving that Greek gods and goddesses still play a role in modern humanity. Dionysus has various origin stories, but the most prominent

It Goes Largely Undiscussed That The Declaration Of...

It goes largely undiscussed that the Declaration of Independence we all celebrate on the fourth of July is an edited, abridged version. Americans tend to hold the documents written by our forefathers as â€Å"sacred text† debating on the correct interpretation of the Continental Congress’s meaning (Pencak, 1). Often these everyday men leave the debate at that whereas scholars delve below the surface to see the document in the original form and follow the evolution into the modern legacy. The Declaration of Independence is often quoted, memorized and cited as one of the most important documents in North America yet, very seldom comprehended in context of the time. Scholars know that meaning lies beneath the face value of the written words and†¦show more content†¦This struck fear into the hearts of many, due to the likely probability of the occurrence. Congress, in a maneuver to appease both sides struck the bulk of the paragraph because some of the southern states, like Georgia and South Carolina, possessed slave driven economies, and would not agree to sign because they agreed with the institution, or at least the lifestyle slavery enabled. Jefferson later wrote a letter to a close friend about having what he felt the issues were watered down in the context of his document, claiming he did so for the greater good of the movement and not because he wanted to alter his text. â€Å"Domestic insurrections† was a politically cultured way of admitting to the enslavement of a people, which was a source of contention. Essentially, majority agreed that the Native Americans were â€Å"merciless Indian savages† due to different points of view and the lack of ability to control them; whereas the slaves where subdued and a threat always hanging just under the surface, particularly when individuals put ideas into their heads. Political leaders look back and call slavery a great stain on our nation’s history, saying it is a shameful practice, and when written in the subtext the issue could be addressed without having

International Business Nike

Question: Discuss about theInternational Business for Nike. Answer: Introduction and Overview of Nike In this report, the organization chosen is Nike, Inc. whose ranking is jumped to 343th in the year 2016 from 425 out of Fortune 500 Ranking in the year 2015 ("Nike"). The US-based company was founded as Blue Ribbon Sports on 25th Jan 1964 by Bill Bowerman and Philip Knight, later on, in 1978, it officially became Nike, Inc. Nowadays, Nike, Inc. is a global market leader in supplying and manufacturing of premium apparels, gear and sportswear. The mission of Nike is To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world ("About Nike - Company Profile"). Nike, Inc. claims that they fosters a culture of invention and create products, services and experiences for todays athlete while solving problems for the coming generation. By the early 21st century, the organization had retail outlets and distributors in more than 200 countries across the world. Today, Nike has contracted with more than 700 stores all over the world and has offices located in 45 countries outside the US. Most of its factories can be found mainly in India, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Pakistan, Thailand, Philippines, and Indonesia. From time to time, NIKE has been launching the new high-tech advanced shoe models, followed by the modern advertisements, with authorization from the celebrities, and event sponsorships. Fiscal-year sales of Nike, Inc. have increased to $30.6 billion in 2015[1] from $27.8 billion in 2014 since Americans and shoppers around the world have been inspired by the trendy logo Swoosh or Just do it, which is appealing the customers with the marketing strategy centred on a brand image that has a high level of recall value, and the company has predicted to project $50 billion in sales by 2020(Nike , 2015). Figure 1: Key Financials including revenue of NIKE in 2015 ("Nike") (Nike , 2015) Nike as a Multinational Corporation Multinational Corporations (MNC) are identified as business institutions that focus on enhancing their value through the use of their overseas holdings. Further, MNCs are also identified as companies that directly investment in development of holdings across overseas markets thereby upholding their value-addition based on their operation in international markets(Rioux, 2014). The international operations are carried out by MNCs through distribution of an effective package of potential capital, technology, skills and knowledge along the different foreign economies where it had set up its branches. Similarly, MNCs are also featured a companies that tend to set up its base in one country and conducts its production, marketing and distribution operations through investing and development of holdings in other nations(Shah et al., 2012). Nike is identified as a multinational corporation that focuses on interlinking different economies on an international scale for carrying out its production functions. The firm focuses on arranging different material and non-material resources through the formulation of a complex arrangement between diverse international economies. The Air Max Penny basketball footwear produced by Nike is essentially developed through the integration of 52 different components gained from 5 international economies(Kazi, 2011). Factors Influencing Internationalisation Process of Nike in India Political Risk Nike faces a political risk from the existence of unionised parties operating in the factory establishments. The union groups and bodies demand a proper compensation and work environment to be provided to the employees. The Fair Labour Association (FLA) during 2009 required the bonus qualification to be set at Rs. 10,000 which is identified to be the legal amount where Nike was observed to pay only Rs. 3,500 to its employees. A notice was also generated in the Nike factory to help create needed awareness among the workers concerning the change(Fair Labor Association, 2012). Financial Risk Nike faces increased financial risks in terms of its operation in the Indian market. The total losses incurred by Nike during 2014-15 amounted to Rs. 541 crore that required Nike to shut down around 35 percent of its stores operational in the region(Sarkar, 2016). Economic Analysis Nike Inc. has potential economic resources that can help in developing an effective presence in emerging economies like India. However, the event of economic depression and emergence of recessionary trends happens to affect the market for sportswear generated by Nike in the Indian market. Nike also tends to gain the advantages of availability of cheap labour in the Indian market for carrying out its production and distribution operations. The company also tends to gain increased threat from other foreign players operating in the sports retail segment owing to the existence of effective FDI regulations encouraging the flow of foreign income in the nation(Garg, 2013). Dunnings Eclectic Paradigm Key factors in India that encourage the internationalisation of Nike can be effectively analysed based on the use of Dunnings Eclectic Paradigm. The Theory of Eclectic Paradigm operates based on three paradigms like ownership, location and internalisation. Ownership based advantages refer to the different types of intangible assets that are possessed by a business institution and are rather transferred between translational or multinational companies at reduced costs. The same contributes in creating higher income opportunities for the companies in the international markets. The multinational companies are required to possess some effective competencies that would help them in countering the increased operating costs that are required to be expended in terms of their operation in foreign economies. Translational firms gain on monopoly advantages in terms of earning the privilege to access and penetrate foreign market territories through gaining ownership over trademarks and patents. Similarly, the innovation potential of the firm also contributes in enhancing its potencies in the international market. Again, the firm gaining on economies of scale and scope also earn advantages of earning higher capital gains(Dunning, 1995). Location based advantages are earned by the translational companies in terms of the economic benefits associated with production potentials, reduced costs of transport and logistics and also the existence of effective telecommunication networks. Similarly, the size of the market with also the government legislations and regulations encouraging the flow of foreign direct investment are also evaluated to be potential advantages that can be gained by the multinational firms entering into a new market. The existence of effective understandings of cultural norms and values of different economies by the social groups of the country also amount to encourage the entry and operation of the foreign firm(Denisia, 2010). The internalisation paradigm of the Eclectic Model focuses on understanding whether the company would gain needed potential for potentially penetrating the international market for setting up its production and distribution bases. It thereby reduces the dependence of the firm on the generation and maintenance of licensing agreements with like firms operating in the foreign market(Chowdhury, 2015). Application of Dunnings Eclectic Paradigm The application of the Eclectic Paradigm generated by Dunning is made to the internationalisation aspect of Nike in the Indian market. Nike gains specific advantages for developing an effective presence in the Indian market. The company earns effective advantages in terms of existence of effective production resources and also increased demand for the generation of fresh product lines for both the sports enthusiasts and also for the athletes. It thus gains an effective exposure in the Indian market to develop a niche selling market for selling its apparel, footwear, accessories and other types of merchandises on a mass scale. The same helps the company gain on economies of scale and scope in the region. Further, apart from the development of mass scale franchisee outlets, Nike also focuses on gaining increased market penetration through selling its merchandises through the incorporation of multi brand outlets or MBOs and also based on integration of the multichannel framework. The fr anchisee outlets of Nike operate as exclusive stores of the sports retail brand in the Indian market. Nike also focuses on developing an effective brand presence based on the use of high profile advertising and also through the use of star endorsements that would help in attracting Indian youths and high profile customers to the sports brand(Fashion United , 2012). Entry Strategies Applied by Nike Nike made its foray in the Indian market through generation of a seven year licensing agreement with an Indian firm, Sierra Industrial Enterprises. The global sportswear company however in the later period developed its presence in the Indian sports retail market as Nike India that operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of the parent company based in United States(BS Reporter , 2014). Benefits of the Entry Strategy of Nike Nike Inc. in terms of incorporating the market entry strategy of Wholly Owned Subsidiary for setting up wholly owned subsidiaries of its parent company in India gains on specific advantages that are outlined as follows. The formation of wholly owned subsidiaries in the Indian market contributed in helping Nike gain on long-term profitability potential. Further, the setting up of wholly owned subsidiary units also helped Nike in development and sustenance of effective contacts with local and regional players like customers, suppliers groups, intermediary firms and other government and other non-government institutions. Further, setting up of wholly owned subsidiary units in India is taken to help Nike to gain on needed competitive advantages. The above features significantly contribute in enhancing the performance potentials of the sports retail company in the global market(Ghahroudi, 2011). Constraints of the Entry Strategy of Nike The use of the wholly owned subsidiary strategy by Nike for developing an effective presence in the Indian market is evaluated to generate considerable problems. The same are identified as follows. The application of the wholly owned subsidiary strategy would require Nike for generation of increased commitments based on the incorporation of potential resources and capabilities for conducting its production, distribution and marketing related functions. Further, the formation of wholly owned subsidiary units would require Nike to expend greater time, energy and cost such that it would affect the productivity and efficiency level of the business corporation in the shorter and current period. Similarly, the formation of wholly owned subsidiaries by Nike in India would require the former for involving considerable amount of local investments and resources. The same would generate increased risks for Nikes operation in the Indian market. It also creates and enhances the level of uncertain ty for Nike regarding its operation in the Indian market. Again, the dependence of Nike on the development of wholly owned subsidiaries would also require the company to effectively manage and counter social and cultural dealings for helping in the reduction and minimisation of problems emerging on a large scale(Lee Huang, 2009). Major Contributions of Nike to India Nikes contribution to the Indian economy and society can be increasingly observed in terms of its production of new type of jerseys for promoting the Indian cricket team in the global arena. Nike operated as the official sponsor for India in the one-day international series against Australia. The sports retail company contributes in meeting the sustainability objectives based on the use of recycling plastic bottles for generation of sportswear and apparels out of the recycled polyesters. Moreover, the sustainability efforts are also met by Nike based on reducing its supply chain wastage by around 17 percent, use of environmentally safe materials for production of apparel products by around 20 percent and also in achieving a reduction in the emission of volatile organic compounds by around 95 percent. Further, Nike also focuses on expanding its base to semi-urban markets in India by opening large number of stores in towns and cities. The same helps Nike in meeting the needs of middle income households in the Indian market(Puri, 2010). Nike focuses on generating large scale employment opportunities for Indians in that it encourages the growth of creativity and innovation in its work atmosphere based along different offices located in India. The company generates increased opportunities for growth potential of the skills of Indians employed in its different offices and retail outlets(Nike Inc. , 2016). Application of the UN Global Contact Principles Nike Inc. operating in India needs to effectively focus on reducing problems associated with child exploitation and labour problems in terms of addressing Principles 3 to 6 pertaining to the labour dimension. The principles require Nike to eliminate all forms of compulsory and child labour practices and also in addressing the problems associated with discrimination at the workplace and also development of employment and compensation conditions(United Nations , 2016). Nike focused on addressing the issues associated with sweatshops and child labour based on conducting of effective monitoring of its sweatshops and supplier and manufacturing facilities located along different Asian economies. The company management also focuses on enhancing the level of transparency through the generation of CSR and sustainability reports such that the same contributes in effectively meeting the information needs of its different stakeholders like governments, investors and the larger societies includin g the consumers. Similarly, the enhancement of the transparency level of its CSR and sustainability reports also contributed in effectively addressing the problems associated with low wages paid to employees operating in sweatshops and in other Asian factories(Nisen, 2013). Conclusions Nike Inc. to gain an effective presence in the Indian market needs to effectively market its merchandises through the employment of the multichannel marketing platform such that the same helps the consumers in making effective choices of ordering products via the digital platform and thereby collect the same from their brick-and-mortar outlets or from the courier companies. References BS Reporter , 2014. Nike to open fully-owned stores in India. [Online] Available at: https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/nike-to-open-fully-owned-stores-in-india-114090101497_1.html [Accessed 14 October 2016]. Chowdhury, A.K., 2015. The Theory of Multinational Enterprises: Revisiting Eclectic Paradigm and Uppsala Model. Business and Management Horizons, 3(1), pp.72-79. Denisia, V., 2010. Foreign Direct Investment Theories: An Overview of the Main FDI Theories. European Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies , 2(2), pp.104-10. Dunning, J.N., 1995. Reappraising the Eclectic Paradigm: In An Age of Alliance Capitalism. Palgrave Macmillan Journals, pp.461-91. Fair Labor Association, 2012. Ensuring Proper Benefits for Workers in India. [Online] Available at: https://www.fairlabor.org/impact/case-studies/study/ensuring-proper-benefits-workers-india [Accessed 14 October 2016]. Fashion United , 2012. Nikes Indian expansion strategy. [Online] Available at: https://www.fashionunited.com/executive/report/nikes-indian-expansion-strategy-20122908489926 [Accessed 14 October 2016]. Garg, G., 2013. An Economic Analysis of Foreign Direct Investment in Retail Sector in India. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 3(12), pp.1-10. Ghahroudi, M.R., 2011. Ownership Advantages and Firm Factors Influencing Performance of Foreign Affiliates in Japan. International Journal of Business and Management , 6(11), pp.119-37. Kazi, T.B., 2011. Superbrands, Globalization, and Neoliberalism: Exploring Causes and Consequences of the Nike Superbrand. Inquiries , 3(12), pp.1-2. Lee, Y.-H. Huang, Y.-H., 2009. Entry mode Choices between Wholly-Owned and Joint Ventures of Taiwanese Firms in ChinaAn Eclectic Theory Perspective. The Journal of International Management Studies, 4(1), pp.77-84. Nike , 2015. Form 10-K. Oregeon : Nike. Nike Inc. , 2016. Go Corporate at Nike. [Online] Available at: https://jobs.nike.com/article/Corporate [Accessed 14 October 2016]. Nisen, M., 2013. How Nike Solved Its Sweatshop Problem. [Online] Available at: https://www.businessinsider.in/How-Nike-Solved-Its-Sweatshop-Problem/articleshow/21122639.cms [Accessed 14 October 2016]. Puri, T., 2010. Our focus is on top Indian cities: Tarun Puri, MD, Nike India. [Online] Available at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/interviews/our-focus-is-on-top-indian-cities-tarun-puri-md-nike-india/articleshow/6654681.cms [Accessed 14 October 2016]. Rioux, M., 2014. Multinational Corporations in Transnational Networks: Theoretical and Regulatory Challenges in Historical Perspective. Open Journal of Political Science, 4, pp.109-17. Sarkar, J., 2016. Nike shuts 35% stores in India to cut losses. [Online] Available at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/54421174.cms [Accessed 14 October 2016]. Shah, F.A., Yusaff, R.M. Hussain, A., 2012. A Critical Review of Multinational Companies, Their Structures and Strategies and Their Link with International Human Resources Management. IOSR Journal of Business and Management , 3(5), pp.28-37. United Nations , 2016. The Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact. [Online] Available at: https://www.unglobalcompact.org/what-is-gc/mission/principles [Accessed 14 October 2016].

Which Allied Power Contributed the Most in Ww2 free essay sample

Every Country has an extreme amount of dedication and support to help the Allied power conquer the Nazis but in my Opinion the Soviet Union made the biggest contribution to winning WW2. In WW2 over 23 million Soviet military civilians were killed. The Battle of Stalingrad was the bloodiest battle in human history, Over 1. 5 million Russian solider and civilians died. The United States and The United Kingdom dead’s combined does not reach a million . United kingdom lost over 450,900 people and United States lost 418,500. Together they lost approximately 869,400 people. I am not saying United States and United Kingdom deaths weren’t important as Soviet Union deaths. Every death deserve honor. I just believe Soviet Union have up a massive amount of its people in WW2. Soviet Union was a big country; it had a population168, 524,000 in 1939. United States had a population of 131,028,000. United Kingdom had a population of 47,760,000. Russian lost 14. 2% of its population in WW2. We will write a custom essay sample on Which Allied Power Contributed the Most in Ww2 or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page You may say that not a lot but think of it this way 23,000,000 out of 168,524,000 people. That includes soldiers and civilians. You might still say that not a lot well let try this. The United States lost 418,500 people in WW2 out of 131, 028,000. That is approximately half of a million people the United States lost in the war. That is . 32 of United States population. United Kingdom lost 450,900 out of 47,760,000. that is . 94 % of the United Kingdom population. That is also another half of million people the United Kingdom lost in the world together that makes a million. Now how a million lives for 2 countries compare to 23 million lives lost one country. Think of it this way million out of 23 million, a million is 0. 04 of 23 million. A million is not even a full percent to compare to the massive loss of 23 million people. I believe everyone on the Allied Side deserve Glory for they all contribute to the defeat of Nazi army , but I believe Soviet Union gave the biggest contribution for the Allies Power . If Soviet Union solider and people didn’t sacrifice their lives and fight to defeat the Nazi, It could have been a totally different war that could of lead to a billions more deaths all over the world.

Your Discussion Chapter Will Be Bright

Your Discussion Chapter Will Be Bright Writing a Dissertation Chapter – Discussion If you feel worried about the future of your dissertation, join the ranks of students who are worried like you. Believe it or not, every other student has serious concerns about whether he or she will be able to finish the dissertation on time. It is difficult to say anything, since every dissertation is unique. However, every student is in a position to improve the quality of his or her writing. We have developed these recommendations to help you cope with the discussion chapter of your project. It is a very important piece of your work, where you will need to discuss the results of your experiment or investigation in the context of previous findings. In essence, writing a dissertation chapter is telling your readers what they can learn from your work. You will also need to include some information on how significant your findings are for your practice and future research. So, what do you do to write a perfect discussion chapter for your dissertation? First, you must be confident that you can do it. Developing confidence is probably the most difficult thing about writing a dissertation. However, it is not enough to be certain that you can be a perfect academic writer. What is needed is a thorough understanding of your subject, the results of your study, and the extent to which they fit or do not fit in previous research. Be ready to accept a simple fact that readers will not take your claims for granted. They may not believe you, no matter how convincing you are. Thus, your confidence must be scholarly. It essentially means that you must be ready to prove your claims and use as much scholarly evidence as you can to support your findings. Another important thing to remember is that you must be creative. You must use your analytical and critical thinking skills to understand how the results of your study meet the broader demands of your professional community. Be creative. Imagine that this dissertation is a matter of your life or death in your future profession and career. Now think of the way your dissertation will be structured. Apparently, all dissertations have a set of mandatory components. These are introduction, literature review, methods, findings, and discussion. So, your main task here is to decide if you want to write your dissertation as a separate component of your dissertation or have it merged with other sections, for example, the section for results. The proposed structure is used widely in dissertation writing. However, the problem is that it is the dead end of dissertation writing. It leaves little room for imagination and creativity. At the same time, it allows readers to find the information they need quickly, without scanning the entire dissertation as it may take hours. You are the one to decide which format and style you want to pursue in your work. However, do not forget that your dissertation must meet the requirements and instructions developed by your supervisor. You are not entirely free in your decisions about dissertation writing. Ultimately, if your university requires that you rely on the traditional dissertation structure, you will not be able to change that. Now about your discussion section – you may want to place it separately from other chapters, or you may want to link it to your other sections such as results, and in ways which create a more coherent picture of your experimental findings or investigation results. You can make the final decision, taking into account all possible variables, including the purpose and intent of your project and even the discipline you are in. Medical professionals may want their discussion section to operate separately from other sections of the dissertation, while graduates in sociology and history may want more integrity and structure in their works. So, now you know the difficulties you may encounter when crafting your discussion chapter. It is time to overcome them. Use the advice below to write a perfect discussion section for your dissertation: Compare and contrast. This writing technique never loses its relevance. Create a table and include the results of your work and the findings of similar experiments in the past. You will see the similarities and differences that will translate into a coherent piece of writing. You can begin with a simple reiteration of your findings. Create a simple picture and then make it more complicated, step by step. Add new information to explain your decisions and justify your recommendations. One more advice you could follow when working on your dissertation chapter is using your null hypothesis. Apparently, you assume that there is some null hypothesis suggesting that your variables are not related in any way. Now try to explain why is that? If you take your null hypothesis as a starting point for your discussion, it will mean that, probably, your findings are meaningless. Can you tell me why? Answer this question and surprise your reader. Ask your friend or family member to help you. Imagine that you are writing for them. You can record your speech or present your discussion in writing. Ask your audience to evaluate your successes. Use their recommendations to improve the quality of your writing. Consider the limitations of your experiment. These limitations will help your readers understand the significance of your story.

Regime vs. Regimen

Regime vs. Regimen Regime vs. Regimen Regime vs. Regimen By Mark Nichol What’s the difference between regime and regimen? In one sense, there is none, but in their most common connotations, one letter makes a lot of difference. Both terms stem ultimately from Latin regere, meaning â€Å"to direct.† They are related to other words starting with reg-, such as regular, regulate, and regulation. In addition, they are akin to other words referring to direction, including reign, right, and rule and ruler, as well as the element rect in, for example, direct and rectitude. The Hindi word raja, the German term reich, and the Latin form rex are also part of this regal family tree. Regime, borrowed from French (and sometimes, as in French, written in English as rà ©gime), can refer to a regular pattern or behavior of a natural phenomenon, but more often it denotes a form of management or rule, or a government or the duration of its rule. In this last sense, it generally has a negative connotation, implying a repressive, totalitarian government. The phrase â€Å"ancien rà ©gime,† sometimes styled with initial capital letters, refers to the sociopolitical system in France during the several centuries preceding that country’s revolution in 1789 and, coined by revolutionaries, was a derogatory dismissal of the outmoded model of government. (However, to others it conveyed a nostalgia for a time when aristocrats, not the bourgeoisie, set cultural standards.) The generic term, as well as the Anglicized form â€Å"ancient regime† or the translation â€Å"old regime,† refers to any such ineffectual and/or corrupt government or management. Regimen was borrowed directly from Latin into Middle English to refer to a direction, a set of rules, or a position of authority. It is, in one sense, synonymous with regime to denote rule but is now rarely used for that meaning; more often it pertains to a training system, as for athletes, or a plan intended to improve one’s health. One other word closely related to regime and regimen is regiment. It, too, once referred to rule, but now its primary sense as a noun is a reference to a military unit that originally numbered about a thousand soldiers but in modern armies varies widely according to a unit’s particular function. The term is also used as a verb synonymous with organize, in the sense that a regiment is neatly arrayed in marching and inspection formations. However, the connotation of the verb form is often negative, implying excessive control. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Coordinating vs. Subordinating ConjunctionsAnyone vs. Everyone10 Tips for Clean, Clear Writing

UK Zero Tolerance Policing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

UK Zero Tolerance Policing - Essay Example This concept of Zero Tolerance was founded in the year 1994 from what was known as the "broken window theory of crime" which had the same objective of doing away with social ills just as the zero tolerance (Cox & Wade, 1998, p.22). Through the establishment of a Zero tolerance policy, everyone would be a subject to the set laws and regulation, and the idea that had been long used to treat socials problems as if they were criminal offense would be part of history. Before the full enactment of this concept, justice was being practiced unfairly and a crime would only be defined as so if committed by others (members of the society in a lowers class) but the other portion of the society in higher social classes walk free. "Dealing with only those crimes committed by the poor and omitting the white collar crimes has never, and will never achieve much in the fight against crime" (Robinson, 2002, p41-75). Such an idea is what shook the United Kingdom to the realization that led them to embrace modern methods of fighting against the vise [Zero Tolerance Policing]. The U.K administration reasoned that it was a lot more easy to prevent the escalation of crime in the society that to put a stop to it. This stand prompted t hem to adopt the zero tolerance strategy which provided for the fight of smaller crimes with an equal magnitude just like the other bigger crimes...since it is these small isolated crimes that if left unattended to will mutate or rather develop into the high profile crimes. The criminal statistics of England and Wales indicate that, in a period of fifty decades (1950-2000), recorded criminal cases rose from 500-5500. Further reports in (Newburn, 2003, p.3) show that there was a 23% decline in public confidence with the police from 1992-2000 (Newburn, 2003, p.3).This new direction that zero tolerance policing has taken must therefore factor in these two concerns and work towards improving the relationship. This research paper will look at how the government of UK has faired so far with its strategy of zero tolerance policing since its inception, and what the government has so far achieved. The paper will also go further to analyze the viability of the concept in fighting the high pro file criminal acts of the 21st Century. The Case of U.K on Zero Tolerance Policing The Zero Tolerance Policing in the United Kingdom is under the docket of CID, headed by a Director Superintendent. The concept has received a lot of political support but is quiet unpopular among some of the U.K police force. Some of the Police Departments who advocate for the program argue that it was this new concept that had resulted into the drastic fall of crime as evident lately in New York (Sherman, et al.1997, p.51). Because of such positive reports, it has become widespread in the major cities especially in New York and those of North America. In the United Kingdom, it is mainly used in Middlesbrough, Strathclyde, Hartpool and Landon. A report that was released in February 2009 (Summers et al. 2009.) showed that criminal activities has switched bases, currently, more and more youngsters are getting involved in crime than before. The report further revealed that more than 50,000 teens in the United Kin

Organization Project Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Organization Project - Assignment Example BP Oil is among the top six major oil and gas corporations in the world. They are currently involved in massive explorations in different parts of the world. The company is a British multinational corporation with headquarters in London. The analysis of the history of BP Plc. reveals that the company’s management strategy has not changed much over the years. The origin of BP is traced to 1908 when a group of British geologists discovered oil in Iran. The company has a reputation for partaking in highly risky ventures. It was officially called the British Petroleum in 1954 (BP, n.d.). The willingness to take on risky ventures has yielded both positive and negative returns. The positive return is the increase in revenue earned while the negative effects are the public relation problems caused by many oils spills. The company management was based on the establishment of structures that divided the company into top, mid-level and lower level management. BP has always used the system management style, which ensures a proper division of the business to facilitate the flow of orders and functions. The orders came from top management to the middle level and lower level expected to implement them. Top management formulates strategies and the overall goals. The middle-level management can plan and control resources to ensure the overall strategic goals are met. The lower level management are involved in implementing the plans that have been made by middle-level management. Currently, BP Systems management style has been enhanced by the addition of sustainable management. The 2010 Oil Spill played a significant role in pushing BP to adopt sustainable management, which aims at protecting the environment. Sustainable management is meant to ensure BP prevents further environmental damage. It also improves the public image of the company. The company’s current strategy is guided by clear priorities, quality portfolio, and

Comparison of The Raven and The Erlking Essay Example for Free

Comparison of The Raven and The Erlking Essay In this essay, I am going to compare and contrast the two famous poems, The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe and The Erlking by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The Raven is a one hundred and eight line poem about a lonely man who is unstable after losing his wife and comes across a raven who only speaks the word, nevermore. The Erlking is a poem about a man in a small girls nightmare as he torments her but nobody else can see him. There are many similarities and differences between the two poems. Both poems have a gothic atmosphere and can be compared strongly in this way. However, both are of different lengths and differ fro9m each other. In this essay, I am going to discuss how the two poets create tension and suspense and make a conclusion after studying these poems. The first element I am going to compare and contrast is the storyline of the poem and the impression it is meant to have on its reader. I am going to start by analysing each poem individually and then make a small conclusion when I will see how they are similar and how they differ. I will be using this structure for each point I will discuss. I will start by analysing The Raven. The main principle of Edgar Allen Poes poem was to have a lasting effect on its reader. Shortly, before he wrote The Raven, Poes wife had been diagnosed with an illness. This illness was later the cause of her death soon after he had finalised is poem. It is said that this poem is his forecast of what was going to happen to his wife. This is, therefore, the reason why he chose a raven to be the main character, because it was thought to be the most evil bird. The Raven is meant to be a representation of Edgar Allen Poe reflecting his responses to the bad news of his wife. The Erlking is a very dark poem and starts by giving a notion that the boy is simply imagining the Erlking and is dying of a strange disease. However, the poem takes a sinister twist when the boy dies at the end of the poem. Goethe had many reasons of writing such a dark poem. Such a reason is that the night before he wrote the poem he saw a local farmer carrying a bundle. This turned out to be a man who was carrying his sick child to hospital. This was where the main inspiration for the storyline for the poem of the Erlking came from. Also in German mythology there is meant to be a spirit/ supernatural power that is meant to cause controversy and ruin the minds of children. These two factors were merged together to make the Erlking. They are both dark poems and want to create a mysterious mood for the reader. Both had an individual reason of why they were written but then their similarity grew because they had the same atmospheric impression. The second point I am going to examine is the linguistic techniques used by the poets. The Raven has a lot of alliteration and is used very frequently. Examples of this alliteration is:- While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain Both are examples of alliteration but in different ways, one very simple and the other has more complexity. The first quote is just three consecutive words starting with the same letter. The second quotation, on the other hand, uses two words consecutively starting with the same letter. However, the third word is part of the alliteration. The un is not part of the alliteration but the second part is. Although this part of the word starts with a c, it is pronounced as the letter s. This is still part of the alliteration because this poem was obviously written to be read aloud. The Erlking is very different to the Raven, in this way, as it does not contain hardly any alliteration used for boosting the atmosphere. The Erlking does use a linguistic technique that the Raven does not use as much is repetition. An example of this is:- Dear father, oh father, and do you not see, This is a technique very similar to alliteration as it created the same type of tension and both are meant to be read fairly slowly. Later on in The Erlking, this repetition phrase is repeated, showing that there is internal repetition (with the word father) and also phrasal repetition. The third I am going to consider is the rhyming scheme of each of the poems. The Erlking has a different rhyming scheme to the Raven. The Erlkings rhyming scheme is a very common one but the one of the Raven is very peculiar. Many poems have the rhyming scheme the same as the Erlking because it is very basic. This rhyming scheme is:- 1. A 2. A 3. B 4. C An example of this rhyming scheme in the poem is:- 1. Who rides so late where winds blow wild? 2. It is the father grasping his child; 3. He holds the boy embraced in his arm 4. He clasps him snugly, he keeps him warm. The rhyming scheme of the Raven is very different and unusual, not many poems have the same rhyming scheme. This rhyming scheme is:- 1. AA 2. B 3. CC 4. CB 5. B 6. B An example of this rhyming scheme is:- 1. Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, 2. Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore- 3. While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, 4. As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door- 5. Tis some visitor, I muttered, tapping at my chamber door. 6. Only this and nothing more. The two poems differ greatly in their rhyming schemes and have similarities. The Erlking has a very simple rhyming scheme with only two lines that rhyme out of the four. However, the Raven has a much more complex rhyming scheme with internal rhymes as well as end-of-line rhyming. The Ravens rhyme scheme, however, has an effect on how the poem is read. The Raven is a very gothic poem and this rhyme scheme changes the way the poem is read, especially when the enunciation is used. The Erlking is very different and is a lot easier to read, compared with the Raven. This could mean that the poem is meant for a younger audience because of the simplistic reading ability needed. The other issue I am going to study is the excess of patterning. The Raven uses this several times, however, the Erlking does not. Excess of patterning is when a sound is repeated in a line to give an emphasis of those particular words. An example of this in the Raven could be:- Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter, This quotation from Poes poem gives emphasis on the description to make this highlighted when the poem is read. This could have been a good technique that could have been added to the Erlking poem to make a part of the poem more prominent. The final factor I am going to consider is the length of the poems. The Raven is considerably longer than the Erlking. The Raven being 108 lines long compared to the Erlking which is a mere 32 lines long. The length of the Raven allows Poe to go into a lot of depth in his descriptions. However, this style of writing does not suit the Erlking as well. The reason for this is that the Erlking is meant to leave questions unanswered and a sense of mystery. If it had gone into the depth that the Raven did in its length, this would have been taken away. Over all, I can see that both poems are very individual but still contain some similarities. Both poets had very different inspirations of why they wrote their poem but they still had a very similar atmosphere that was created. They also use different linguistic techniques, although they create a very parallel effect. I can see that Edgar Allen Poe uses many more techniques in his poem than Goethe does, this may be because the Raven is longer and may have more room to use more effect without over-doing them.

Pure Luck :: English Literature Essays

Pure Luck During a warm and lucid evening in September my life would change forever. Something like this does not just happen to anyone; fate decides who deserves such a wake up call. That seemed to be the last night I expected a scene so horrifying to happen because the vibe of the whole evening was uplifting. Everything seemed perfect since everyone happened to be in that happy-go-lucky mentality. We did not expect the events that were to follow later that evening. I heard the restlessness in his voice. â€Å"You got a light?† Steve questioned with eagerness. He was not the only one with the anxious tone to his voice. I hooked him up with that so needed light to calm his nerves a little. We were on an excursion to one of the greatest places in the world: New York. Steve, Dennis, and I had planned this journey for several weeks now. Our anticipation grew immensely. The outing was to a club in New Rochelle which would be a new experience for all of us. Riding in the car seemed ominous. â€Å"Na man, you gotta take the exit for the George Washington Bridge,† I nearly screamed at Steve when he almost took the wrong exit, which would have put us in a position we absolutely did not want to be. â€Å"Alright, DICK† he sarcastically replied. After what seemed like an eternity we hit the right exit and it put us down the road from the club. We arrived, jumping furiously out of the car and hauling ass to the line at the front of the club. At the club there were many DJ’s and live acts that I looked forward to catching. Fortunately I got to see most of them. The experience was quite a relief after that car ride. The inside of the club appeared amazingly pleasing to the eye. The surroundings were the most comfortable of leather couches and a balcony over the main floor that was humongous. More than two hundred people occupied the balcony alone: drinking, talking, and staring awestruck at the sights, which included a thirteen foot tall glass case housing two six foot long iguanas and two sixteen-foot long Burmese pythons. After a few hours the party ended and patrons dispersed including my friends and I. Once outside, the masses gathered around handing out flyers that would most likely end up with a new home on the sidewalk.

What Do You Think Are The Most Important Qualities

What do you think makes you a good call center agent? Am a responsible and positive person, I am totally dedicated to my job. And I believe will get along well with colleagues, learn from each of them and become an asset to the company. What I can bring into this position is my 10 years of customer service experience, the passion to help others in a timely manner. Plus the ability to communicate and build customer relationships.I see more challenges ahead of me and that's something thrive on. I'm a quick learner and take pride in all my work. Why should we hire you? ;You should hire me because although may not have experience, I am very much willing to learn the gropes and be trained. Believe that have the exquisite competence and qualities that perfectly fit this position. I want to be part of this company and believe that would be a valuable asset to it.Tell me about yourself ;It's my pleasure to introduce myself to you; basically I'm Aziza Del Rosaries. I graduated from Holy Angel University with a bachelor degree in business administration major in accounting. Am an industrious person, open to criticism, hardworking. I can easily get along with others. I'm loyal, sincere, energetic and approachable person am a fast learner and responsible person willing to learn and focus on what am applying for. Why do you want to work in a call center?

Pyscological Disorders Essay

Behaviourism has many different strengths and weaknesses. One strength of the approach is that is has successfully applied classical and operant condition to its theories. This is strength as it is used in different therapies such as systematic desensitization, which is a type of behaviour therapy to help overcome phobias and other anxiety disorders; it is based on classical conditioning. Another strength is that it uses scientific methods of research making it much more objective, measurable and observable as well as being able to obtain reliable results. An example of this is Banduras’ bobo doll of study of aggression. However, there are also weaknesses to this approach. The Behaviourism approach focuses too much on the â€Å"nurture† side of nature/nurture debate and suggests that all behaviour is learned. However, research has shown that cognitive and biological elements have been proved to affect individual’s behaviour. For example, people learn behaviour by observing others getting rewarded for certain actions. Another weakness is the ethical issues raised by using animals in experiments. This is because animals cannot consent to take part and are unable to withdraw themselves from experiments, for example, Pavlov’s dog studies. A major strength of this theory is that it is quick and affordable. As the behaviourism theory focuses on the future and what is happening now instead of the past, treatment can be quick and effective as they are not discussing past experiences which may be time consuming. However, because this theory ignores past experiences and influences, it may cause problems as individuals may need to discuss past experiences in order to sort their emotions out. Because this theory ignores them and focuses on present experiences it can cause a major problem as people may not be able to benefit from the therapy as they need to discuss their past. * Social Learning Theory: The Social Learning theory was developed my Albert Bandura who believed that we can learn by observing others. This theory however, has different strengths and weaknesses. One of the great strengths of the social learning theory is that it combines important models of learning. This therefore makes it a good education theory. Another strength is that children are seen are easy to teach and any child can be taught. Albert believed that motivation comes largely through praise. The praise, however, is seen indirectly, since it is the model that is praised, not the child. Once motivated, the model provides the bulk of teaching. The general concept is that children just the right environment to begin learning useful skills. Another strength is that it is an easy theory to grasp and it seems to be generally proven by actual experience. For example, when learning to play football, individuals often first watch a game on TV, which provides the inspiration and motivation to learn to play. However, there are weaknesses that question if this theory is correct. The main weakness of this theory is that is does not include the child’s cognitive development. While there are some cognitive insights in the social learning theory, they are not explained. Albert believed that a child was seen as a sponge, absorbing information through modelling. However, the child’s contribution to how models are absorbed is processed and worked out through time and is not present to any extent in the theory. Another weakness is that is does not have any given cause. The social learning theory explains that motivation exists though praise. However, it seems that motivation is socially conditioned, and therefore relative. The social learning then takes the basic social structure as normative and standard, without judgement. * Psychodynamic: This theory was developed by Sigmund Freud and Erik Erickson and believed that we are not always aware of all aspects of ourselves. They ignored all science theories and focused going â€Å"inside the head†. However this theory has different strengths and weaknesses. One strength of the psychodynamic theory is that is focused on the effects that childhood experiments have on the personality. This is a strength because Freud was the first psychologist to realise the importance of childhood. It also led to other psychologists including Piaget developing theories on childhood. Another strength is that it takes both nature and nurture into account. This is a major strength as is emphasise the importance of both. For example, Freud’s assumption of childhood experiences focused on nurture whereas the ID, Ego and Super-ego focused on nature. However, a weakness of the psychodynamic approach is that it is capable of being tested. This is a weakness because the assumptions cannot be scientifically measured or proved wrong, for example, is the idea of the mind being split into three parts. This cannot be proven so therefore questions if its valid information. Another weakness is that it suggests that all behaviour is pre-determined and people do not have free will. * Biological approach: The biological approach was developed by Arnold Gessel who explained the developmental process and stages involved from conception onwards. A strength of this theory is that it is very scientific. This is a major strength because the experiments used are measurable, objective and can be repeated to obtain reliable results. Also, the researcher has more control over the variable. Another strength of the approach is that it increases the likelihood of being able to treat people with abnormal behaviour and provides explanations about the causes of behaviour. This is a major strength as it can be used to improve people’s lives. However, a weakness of the biological approach is that is focuses too much on the â€Å"nature† side of the nature/nurture debate. It argues that behaviour is caused by hormones, neurotransmitters and genetics. Another weakness of the biological approach is that it develops theories about disorders and generalises them to apply to everyone. It does not take into account the view that humans are unique. An example for is that general adaption syndrome assumes that everyone responds in the same way to stress but does not take into account that some people have or need more support than others. * Cognitive: The Cognitive theory was development by Jean Piaget who believed children are born with a very basic mental structure, genetically inherited and evolved, in which all subsequent learning and knowledge is based. One strength of the cognitive approach is that is looks at thought processes which were ignored by other psychologists, especially behaviourists. It looks at processes such as memory, attention and perception which all have an effect on our behaviour. Another strength of this approach is that its theories have been applied to cognitive therapies such as rational emotive therapy which is a therapy that focuses on resolving emotional and behavioural problems and helping people to lead happier and more fulfilling lives. This therapy has been successful in changing irrational thoughts so that behaviour improves. However, a weakness of the cognitive approach is that it reduces human behaviour down to individual processes such as memory and attention. This is a weakness because the human is a product of all the processes working together and not just individual parts. Another weaknesses is that the approach is too mechanical, it compares the human to computers and suggests they have similar though processes. This is a weakness as humans are much more complex than computers. * Humanistic: The humanistic approach was developed by a psychologist called Abraham Maslow who observed the study of the whole person. He looked at human behaviour not only through the eyes of the observed, but through the eyes of the person doing the behaving. A strength of this theory is that is focuses on both the positive nature of humankind and the free will associated with change. Another strength is the way in which many of its aspects fit well with other approaches. Many therapies have provided a more humanistic undertone in their work with clients. Even though they may argue that the humanistic theory does not go far enough, they see the benefit in helping people change. However, a weakness of this theory if that is appears to centre on its lack of concrete treatment on specific issues. With the basic concept behind the theory being free will, it is difficult to develop treatments and study the effectiveness of this theory. Secondly, there are those who believe that the humanistic theory does not help those with more severe personality or mental health problems. Another weakness is that this theory is still not complete as there are different questions that are still unanswered. For example, are people basically good or are their some individuals who are not capable of this? As these questions are still unanswered it questions if the theory is effective.

Its All Fine

Its All Fine It’s All Fine It’s All Fine By Mark Nichol The two diverse meanings of fine- as a noun or a verb referring to payment of a penalty and as an adjective denoting quality- stem from a common root. Fine and its various derivations come from Latin finis, meaning â€Å"border,† â€Å"limit,† or â€Å"end†; from the early days of the printing press until into the modern era, this term was often printed at the end of a book regardless of the language of the text in the volume, and aficionados of French cinema are familiar with its Gallic descendant, fin, shown at the conclusion of many French-language films. The verb finish, meaning â€Å"to bring or come to an end,† and the noun form, describing a conclusion, as well as a surface coating intended to complete a crafted object, also derive from finis, as does the noun final, which pertains to that which comes or happens last; it is also often employed as an adjective, though adjective-noun phrases such as â€Å"final competition† or â€Å"final examination† are frequently truncated to merely final. The adjective fine, meaning â€Å"of high quality† or â€Å"pure,† comes from the Old French term fin, a back-formation of finis. By extension, fine also became synonymous with structural delicacy and intricacy, as well as monetary value and moral standing. It is also used casually to mean â€Å"good† or â€Å"satisfactory,† though when uttered with an edge, it is being delivered sarcastically to indicate that the situation is anything but that. (In print, to indicate a speaker’s or writer’s sarcastic emphasis, the word is best treated in italics to convey this sense.) In medieval times, the word meant â€Å"end of life† or â€Å"termination†; although this sense eventually became obsolete, the word survived in the later sense of â€Å"payment for compensation or punishment.† The verb form originally meant â€Å"pay,† but the sense was subsequently reversed to mean â€Å"impose payment.† Another word related to fine in the monetary sense is finance, which was borrowed directly from the French word meaning â€Å"payment† or â€Å"settlement.† The noun acquired a verb form meaning â€Å"ransom†; the sense, as well as that of the noun form, was later extended to refer to money management in general. Other terms descended from finis include affinity, meaning â€Å"natural attraction† and referring to relationships in scientific and other scholarly contexts; it is descended from the Latin term affinis, meaning â€Å"adjacent.† The noun confine, almost invariably in plural form, refers to boundaries or limits; confinement developed as a euphemism for the period in which a pregnant woman prepares to give birth. The verb confine originally meant â€Å"border on† but later acquired the sense of â€Å"keeping within limits.† To define was originally to end, but from the sense of â€Å"limit† it acquired the meaning of â€Å"explain†; the sister adjectives definite and definitive, respectively, mean â€Å"clear† or â€Å"unmistakable† on the one hand and â€Å"settled† and â€Å"most accurate or complete,† or â€Å"best,† on the other. Definition first meant â€Å"decision† or â€Å"establishment of boundaries† but followed the semantic shift of the verb form, developing a sense of â€Å"statement of what something means.† Later, it came to apply to the meaning of a term and then to the degree of distinctness in an image. Infinite, meaning â€Å"limitless,† is also descended from finis; related terms are the noun form infinity, as well as the adjective infinitesimal (â€Å"infinitely small†) and the noun infinitive (â€Å"uninflected form of a verb†). The Latin phrase â€Å"ad infinitum† (literally, â€Å"to infinity†), adopted into English, means â€Å"endlessly.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:16 Substitutes for â€Å"Because† or â€Å"Because Of†The Possessive ApostropheList of Prefixes and Suffixes and their Meanings

Family Tree of Harry Potter Author, JK Rowling

Family Tree of Harry Potter Author, JK Rowling Joanne (J.K.) Rowling was born in Chipping Sodbury near Bristol, England, on 31 July 1965. This is also the birthday of her famous wizard character Harry Potter. She attended school in Gloucestershire until the age of 9 when her family moved to Chepstow, South Wales. From an early age, J.K. Rowling aspired to be a writer. She studied at the University of Exeter before moving to London to work for Amnesty International. While in London, J.K. Rowling began her first novel. Her long road to the publication of the first Harry Potter book, however, was shadowed by the loss of her mother in 1990 and over a year of rejections by various agents and publishers. J. K. Rowling has since written seven books in the Harry Potter series and was named the greatest living British writer by The Book Magazine in June 2006 and Person of the Year in 2007. Her books have sold hundreds of millions of copies around the world. J.K. Rowling Joanne (J.K.) Rowling was born on 31 July 1965 in Yate, Gloucestershire, England. She first married television journalist Jorge Arantes in Portugal on 16 October 1992. The couple had one child, Jessica Rowling Arantes, born in 1993 and the couple divorced a few months later. J.K. Rowling later married again, to Dr. Neil Murray (b. 30 June 1971) on 26 December 2001 in their home in Perthshire, Scotland. The couple has had two children: David Gordon Rowling Murray, born in Edinburgh, Scotland on 23 March 2003 and Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray, born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 23 January 2005. J.K. Rowling's Parents Peter John Rowling was born in 1945. Anne Volant was born on 6 Feb 1945 in Luton, Bedfordshire, England. She died from complications of multiple sclerosis on 30 Dec 1990. Peter James Rowling married Anne Volant on 14 Mar 1965 in All Saints Parish Church, London, England. The couple had the following children: Joanne (J.K.) Rowling.Dianne (Di) Rowling, who was born on 28 Jun 1967 in Yate, Gloucestershire, England. Rowling's Grandparents Ernest Arthur Rowling was born on 9 July 1916 in Walthamstow, Essex, England and died about 1980 in Newport, Wales. Kathleen Ada Bulgen was born on 12 January 1923 in Enfield, Middlesex, England and died on 1 Mar 1972. Ernest Rowling and Kathleen Ada Bulgen were married on 25 Dec 1943 in Enfield, Middlesex, England. The couple had the following children: Jeffrey Ernest Rowling, born on 2 Oct 1943 in Enfield, Middlesex, England and died of bladder cancer on 20 Jul 1998 in Juno Beach, Palm Becah County, Florida.Peter John Rowling. Stanley George Volant was born on 23 June 1909 in St. Marylebone, London, England. Louisa Caroline Watts (Freda) Smith was born on 6 May 1916 in Islington, Middlesex, England. According to a 2005 article Plot twist shows Rowling is true Scot in the London Times, based on research by genealogist Anthony Adolph, Louisa Caroline Watts Smith is thought to have been the daughter of Dr. Dugald Campbell, who is said to have had an affair with a young bookkeeper named Mary Smith. According to the article, Mary Smith disappeared soon after giving birth, and the girl was raised by the Watts family who owned the nursing home where the girl was born. She was called Freda and told only that her father was a Dr. Campbell. The birth certificate for Louisa Caroline Watts Smith lists no father and identifies the mother only as Mary Smith, bookkeeper of 42 Belleville Rd. The birth took place at 6 Fairmead Road, which is confirmed in the London Directory of 1915 to be the residence of Mrs. Louisa Watts, midwife. Mrs. Louisa C. Watts later appears as a witness to Fredas marriage to Stanley Volant in 1938. Louisa Caroline Watts (Freda) Smith died about April 1997 in Hendon, Middlesex, England. Stanley George Volant and Louisa Caroline Watts (Freda) Smith were married on 12 March 1938 in All Saints Church, London, England. The couple had the following children: Anne Volant.Marian Volant.

Insurance and Economic Development & Insurance companies' Finances Research Paper

Insurance and Economic Development & Insurance companies' Finances - Research Paper Example The way the insurance company makes payments more easy and convenient to the insured is that it pools in the risks of various customers of different individual risks and invest in relevant financial assets such as bonds, stocks, real estate, mutual funds etc. This enables the insurance company to establish a suitable correlation of risks and returns so as to reduce the overall risk. Considering the nature of the service provided by insurance companies, they ensure financial protection for individual investors who then are ready to invest in their willing ventures without any fear of liquidation or insolvency. This aspect fosters entrepreneurial attitude that is creation of new businesses takes place and innovation is triggered in the market by those who are insured. This ultimately accelerates investment in the economy which in turn enhances economic development as the productive capacity of the firms and the economy as a whole increase. This further enhances living standards of peop le and per capita income also rises. The entrepreneurs are willing to take risk as they get protected financially with the help of insurance companies which pool in risk of versatile clients. ... Uninsured companies, on the other hand, are not able to reap out the benefits of innovation and tapping into new markets. This is because they have not created a framework for risk mitigation which is present when a firm is insured. Uninsured companies invest less of their earnings in innovation and so they participate less in domestic as well as global markets leading to less acclaimed market share. 2. Insurance and its contribution to consumption and economic stability Consumption is the spending of resources particularly money to acquire something. In financial terms, it is discussed alongside savings as they are two totally opposite concepts. Savings means to save money for the future; this concept is tried to being implemented in almost every country as this leads to benefits for the economy. Consumption trends vary between people and between their life stages. These two imperative concepts make up the standard of living of people in an economy. To produce an optimal standard of living, there should be a balance between consumption and saving patterns. Consumption patterns are one of the igniters of economic development, growth and the wellbeing of the dwellers of a country. Insurance is a helping tool for people to smoothen their consumption throughout their lives. Regardless of any insurance type, this service works as a security border for households as it provides financial protection; with its help they can stabilize their consumption throughout their life time. The added advantage of this is that in times of income fluctuations, consumption remains unwavering. Property or home and damage insurance shield the status of clients in unfavorable

Argument in favor of Holistic Therapy for Lung Cancer Patients Essay

Argument in favor of Holistic Therapy for Lung Cancer Patients - Essay Example The holistic therapy focuses on five aspects of life that contribute to persons’ sense of well being, namely physical, social, spiritual, emotional, and intellectual (St. John, 2009). To have a better understanding of the benefits and advantages of CAM over conventional medicines (specifically chemotherapy), three arguments will be created to support Holistic Therapy. Chemotherapy is a method of treatment wherein anticancer drugs are administered to the bloodstream usually via IV infusion, with some that can be taken by mouth. The treatment not only affects rapidly multiplying cancer cells but also has adverse effects with healthy multiplying cells (Rothenflue, 2010). Focusing on the chemotherapy for lung cancer, the treatment has inherent side effects that can cause temporary as well as permanent damage to the patient. This side effect includes the reduction of healthy blood cells that lead to vulnerability to infections, bruises and bleeding, and the constant feeling of weakness and fatigue. It may also permanently damage the cells in hair roots; even if hair grows back after treatment, the color and texture would be different. The anticancer drug can also harm the cells in the digestive tract that leads to loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, or mouth and lip sores. Side effects become even worse when radiation therapy is taken at the same period (Rothenflue, 2010). For the first argument, it is evident that conventional medicines are detrimental to the physical and emotional well-being of the patient. The invasive nature of chemotherapy makes holistic therapy more appealing to cancer patients, with current studies indicating that increasing number of cancer patients have undergone at least one alternative treatment. The most common CAM treatment is the use of vitamin and mineral supplements, which is intended to strengthen the patients’ immune system and to

Environmental Laws and Regulations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Environmental Laws and Regulations - Essay Example nt environmental laws under the UN Conferences on Climate Change (Montreal and Kyoto Protocols), there is strident opposition from the powerful industry lobbies, especially in the developed world, to such efforts. Their arguments are mainly based on the reliability of the predictions of the impending drastic global warming on the one hand, the exorbitant costs of meeting the new emission norms, and the impact of such costs on industry competitiveness and profitability. Competitiveness and profitability are at best comparative measures in a given set of circumstances. It has been proven time and again that compliance to laws is more economical than paying the penalties for an environmental disaster. ‘Polluter pays’ is now an accepted principle. If environmental laws are not fully implemented or are violated, the potential risk of unforeseen liability also has to be counted in the profitability calculations, and this was not being All calculations of competitiveness and profitability are reduced to nothing, and the very survival of a business is threatened, when it has to pay millions or billions of dollars as penalty for non-compliance. The Bhopal Gas Tragedy (dubbed as ‘Hiroshima of the Chemical Industry’), which killed more than 2000 and injured over 300,000 people, cost Union Carbide $500 millions (Pratima, 1998). This is a pittance since it occurred in India and would have run into several billions if it occurred in the USA. Exxon Valdez oil spill was of catastrophic proportions on marine life, with hundreds of thousands of birds killed, fish poisoned, and large-scale death of other marine life like seals, sea otters and whales. Exxon spent $ 2.2 billion in clean up operations, while the total cost was of the order of $ 4 billion (Thinkquest). The adverse publicity of such events through the print and electronic media can threaten the very survival of the concerned businesses. At individual level, consumers are concerned with the quality of their

Coincidence of Cycles in Credit and Property Markets

Coincidence of Cycles in Credit and Property Markets Abstract What caused the financial crisis that is sweeping across the world? What is the role of debt and leverage in causing asset market bubbles to form and collapse? What keeps asset prices and lending depressed? What can be done to remedy matters? This paper will present a qualitative review of the role of debt and leverage in causing asset market bubbles to form and collapse in the real estate market under the context of the global financial crisis. Long-run causality appears to go from property prices to bank lending. Literature Review The direction of causality between bank lending and property prices The causality between bank lending and property prices goes in both directions. Property prices may affect bank lending via various wealth effects (Hofmann, 2003). First, due to financial market imperfections, households and firms may be borrowing constrained. As a result, households and firms can only borrow when they offer collateral, so that their borrowing capacity is a function of their collateralisable net worth. Since property is commonly used as collateral, property prices are therefore an important determinant of the private sectors borrowing capacity. Second, a change in property prices may have a significant effect on consumers perceived lifetime wealth, inducing them to change their spending and borrowing plans and thus their credit demand in order to smooth consumption over the life cycle. Finally, property prices affect the value of bank capital, both directly to the extent that banks own assets, and indirectly by affecting the value of loans secured by property. Proper ty prices therefore influence the risk-taking capacity of banks and thus their willingness to extend loans. The literature in the last few decades referred to risk-taking behavior of financial market participants in times of abundant liquidity, banks leverage targeting behavior and a portfolio real balance effect of other financial intermediaries. Financial intermediaries, which must maintain an adequate ratio of capital to assets, can be deterred from lending, or induced to shift the composition of loans away from bank-dependent sectors such as small businesses, by declines in the values of the assets they hold (Bernanke Gertler, 2000). Bank lending, on the other hand, may affect property prices through various liquidity effects. The price of property can be seen as an asset price, which is determined by the discounted future stream of property returns. An increase in the availability of credit may lower interest rates and stimulate current and future expected economic activity. As a result, property prices may rise because of higher expected returns on property and a lower discount factor. Property can also be seen as a durable good in temporarily fixed supply. An increase in the availability of credit may increase the demand for housing if households are borrowing constrained. With supply temporarily fixed because of the time it takes to construct new housing units, this increase in demand will be reflected in higher property prices. This potential two-way causality between bank lending and property prices may give rise to mutually reinforcing cycles in credit and property markets. A rise in property prices, caused by more optimistic expectations about future economic prospects, raises the borrowing capacity of firms and households by increasing the value of collateral. Part of the additional available credit may also be used to purchase property, pushing up property prices even further, so that a self-reinforcing process may evolve. Potential simultaneity problems are controlled for the direction of causality between bank lending and property prices, as studied by Gerlach and Peng (2002). Bank lending, which was transformed into real terms by deflation with the CPI (consumer price index), is defined as total credit to the private non-bank sector. Cross-country comparisons of the development of bank lending are flawed by differences in the definition of total credit across countries. These differences in definition will be reflected in the results of the empirical analysis. Differences exist, for example, with respect to the treatment of non-performing loans (NPLs) in national credit aggregates. A drop in property prices will on the one hand have a negative effect on the extension of new loans. On the other hand, it will give rise to an increase in NPLs. The estimated effect of property prices on bank lending will therefore depend on whether banks are forced to write off NPLs quickly or not. For instance, Japan and the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) experienced severe banking crises in the late 1980s or early 1990s, which were preceded by a collapse in property prices. While NPLs were quite quickly cleansed from banks balance sheets in the Nordic countries, this was not the case in Japan. To a broader view, bank lending has contributed significantly to the real estate bubble in Asia prior to the 1997 East Asian crisis. Quarterly residential property price indices were available for all countries except for Japan, Italy and Germany. For Japan and Italy, semi-annual indices were transformed to quarterly frequency by linear interpolation. For Germany, a quarterly series was generated by linear interpolation based on annual observations from the first quarter of each year. In order to obtain a measure of real property prices, nominal property prices were deflated with the CPI. Residential property prices may not fully capture the property price developments, which are relevant for aggregate bank lending. Credit aggregates comprise bank lending to households and enterprises. The appropriate measure of property prices for the empirical analysis would therefore be aggregate property price index, comprising both residential and commercial property prices. For most countries, the available commercial property price data are available only in annual frequency and represent only price developments in the largest urban area of the country. The use of these data in empirical analysis is therefore quite problematic. In the few countries where high quality commercial property price data are available, such as Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore, residential and commercial property prices are closely correlated, suggesting that residential property prices may act as a proxy for omitted commercial property prices in the empirical analysis. The short-term real interest rate is measured as the three months interbank money market rate less four quarter CPI inflation. The short-term real money market rate serves as a proxy for real aggregate financing costs. A more accurate measure would be an aggregate lending rate. Representative lending rates are, however, not available for most countries. Empirical evidence suggests that lending rates are tied to money market rates, implying that money market rates are a valid approximation of financing costs. The global financial crisis and debt explosions A chain of events, beginning with unexpected losses in the U.S. subprime mortgage market, was destined to bring the global financial system close to collapse and to drag the world economy into recession. In the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis between 2007 and 2009, economists have paid more attention to the role of debt and leverage in causing asset market bubbles to form and collapse. For instance, the asset price inflation and rising leverage for the United States exemplified nearly all the signs of a country on the verge of a financial crisis-indeed, a severe one. Then, we find that asset market collapses are deep and prolonged. Obviously, the transparent global banking system shows that the main cause of debt explosions is not the broadly critically valued costs of bailing out and recapitalizing. In essence, the crucial drivers of debt increases are the inevitable collapse in tax revenues that governments suffer in the wake of deep and prolonged output contractions, as well as often-ambitious countercyclical fiscal policies aimed at mitigating the downturn. Firms private investment and asset market valuation are negatively associated with their top lenders real estate exposure. Global firms have a flexible average and they can get the leverage market, so there is an opportunistic approach about it. The characteristic huge buildups in government debt are driven mainly by sharp falloffs in tax revenue and, in many scenarios, big surges in government spending to fight the recession, declared by Reinhard and Rogoff (2008). The rise in real government debt in the three years follows a banking crisis, tending to explode with a rise at an average of 86% in the major post-World II episodes (Reinhard and Rogoff, 2008). Using the money amount of borrowing from the banks is the amount of credit available to the firm. Lang, Ofek, and Stulz (1996) find that future growth and investment are negatively related to leverage, especially for real estate firms with high debt ratios. In the current economic background, the effects of firms collateral losses may also depend on firm leverage, with highly leveraged firms investing less owning to more binding borrowing constraints. Hofmann (2003) suggests that property price cycles, reflecting changing beliefs about future economic prospects, drive credit cycles, rather than excessive bank lending being the cause of property price bubbles. Most asset classes have derivative markets. Professional investors assume that property derivatives market worked property, and the deleveraged REIT returns are closely linked to underlying market. Real estate invest in real estate debt (in effect deleveraging), use derivative trades for liquidity or use long-short trading to take positions on market views, and need to buy real estate at all. Purchaser gets low cost, diversified returns without alpha. Seller hedges underlying assets or reinvests cashflow. If there are some products that allow them to invest to increase the house price, then the investors can hedge against the increase of the house price and build up my investment. The investors could track the increase of the house prices and reduce the exposure of the house. They can diversify in the portfolio. A derivative market will give you pricing information for the pricing symmetry. The U.S. real estate is strongly distorted by derivatives and arbitrage argued by Schiller. The global financial crisis and leverage: worsening the impact of collateral losses and borrowing The factors that determine the leverage level are: financial covenants, property market/cycle, income to repayment ratio, sum of deals, maintain credit rating, dividend policy, competitor debt levels, tax benefits, and other factors. They are weighted from the largest proportion to the smallest proportion respectively. Leverage does hurt growth in the sense that it worsens the impact of collateral losses. Figure 1 explores the impact of a lower steady-state leverage ratio, 25% instead of 50% as in the baseline scenario. The figure shows that a reduction in leverage significantly moderates the cycle. Figure 1. The effects of leverage on responses to an asset-price boom and bust Notes: Comparison of high steady-state leverage (ratio of net worth to capital of 0.5, as in baseline simulations) and low steady-state leverage (net worth-capital ratio of 0.75). Monetary policy is assumed to target expected inflation aggressively. For example, firms or households may use assets they hold as collateral when borrowing, in order to ameliorate information and incentive problems that would otherwise interfere with credit extension. Under such circumstances, a decline in asset values (for example, a fall in home equity values) reduced available collateral, leads to an unplanned increase in leverage on the part of borrowers, and impedes potential borrowers access to credit. Supportive of the bubble-size hypothesis shows that the greater the gain prior to the shock between 1986 and 1989, the greater the fall in the post-shock period. Leverage is significantly positive, probably suggesting that firms that can secure borrowing are better firms and those with better relationships (Gan, 2007). Lamont and Stein (1999) show that house prices into metro areas with high levels of leverage are more sensitive to income shocks than house prices in metro areas with less leverage. At an individual level, Genesove and Mayer (2001) show that leverage has a large impact on seller reservation prices in a downturn, affecting both the probability of sale and the subsequent sales prices. Others have shown that liquidity affects refinancing behavior and mobility. While Case and Shiller (1988) use surveys to show that market conditions affect the reported expectations of recent home buyers, few papers have explored the role of information and psychology on expectations formations and transactions prices. Leverage drives up volatility of returns and bad timing issues, and LTV based lending is highly risky with the characteristics of being both pro-cyclical and vulnerable to downturns. Income/earning based constraints are more robust, and NB debt maturity, downside risk and refinancing risk are both crucially important for the leverage performance. Non-contractibility imposes limits on borrowing: and debt contracts secured on land are the only financial instruments that creditors can rely on (Miller and Stiglitz, 2010). This puts a strict upper limit on the amount of external finance that can be raised: so the rate of expansion of the small businesses is determined not by their inherent earning power but by their ability to acquire collateral. Even without intermediaries, a credit-constrained market economy-where collateral is used to handle repudiation risk-can exhibit liquidity crises and asset price crashes (Geanakoplos, 2003). Highly leveraged borrowers can very easily become insolvent. Giacomini et al. (2015) show highly leveraged REITs produce lower average returns and lower Sharpe ratios over cycle and much greater falls in bear markets. Leverage is producing the worst risk adjusted return. If their net worth were only 5% of assets held as collateral for loans, a correction of asset prices in excess of this would be enough to wipe out their net worth-even before fire-sales begin. As Koo (2011) describes it, the collapse of an economy-wide asset bubble could be the economic equivalent of the collapse of a supernova-with the black hole of insolvency threatening to swallow whole sectors of an over-leveraged economy. The consequences of technical insolvency were seen as so severe, indeed, that a preemptive strategy of concealing the true balance sheet position was apparently in Japan (Koo, 2011). As lending is liberalized and leveraged increased at the same time that prices are inflated (as the result, in p art, of banks capital reserves growth), moral hazard further undermines lenders incentives to price loans efficiently and exacerbate these underlying forces for the provision of excessive credit (Herring and Wachter 1999). The impact of leverage (recall irrelevance proposition-but also costs of financial distress and no tax shield for REITs) is dependent upon market perception of management ability, and CAPM (or factor models) can be used to assess the risk premium. The study covers the short-term and long-term dynamics of the assets, correcting for leverage in the direct real estate indices. Results suggest that long-run REIT market performance is more closely related to the direct real estate market than to general stocks, similar response to shocks in fundamentals. Asset market features that hamper arbitrage processes The inefficiencies in underlying asset market include high round trip transaction costs, illiquidity and time to trade, real management costs, and heterogeneity and alpha (the retail portfolio preference). An obvious reaction to market inefficiency is arbitrage. Arbitrage signifies taking advantage of pricing inefficiencies without any exposure to risk, and creates abnormal profits (no free lunch). When arbitrage speculators enter the market, adding liquidity, it is reasonably assumed that these are mostly short-term investors, as arbitrage investors by their nature tend to buy and sell more rapidly than most other investors. Theoretical analyses suggest expected margin should be zero or close to zero for the underlying asset markets and rational margins (arbitrage portfolio). However, in practice consumers and FI do not arbitrage in the housing market (Farlow, 2004). Arbitrage in the real estate market is risky for several reasons. First, a player has to be sure that there are enough players in the market that are also arbitraging: an insufficient proportion of arbitrageurs might cause the inefficiency to persist. The execution time is more painful for the buyers than the sellers. In any one market, there are more buyers than sellers. Second, another risk is the impossibility to obtain general agreement on the deviation from a certain fundamental value. Third, houses are heterogeneous assets that rarely have close substitutes and hence are traded in segmented markets. In addition, no central exchange exists so information is far from perfect. Furthermore, the relatively high transaction costs and the absence of short-selling opportunities in housing markets make arbitrage even riskier (Hong and Stein, 2003; Farlow, 2004). Money illusion in real estate implies the failure of consumers to evaluate alternatives during a period of inflation due to a difference between nominal and real values. It plays an important role in real estate because it generally deals with long-term projects and frictions, like short-sale constraints, which makes it difficult to arbitrage mispricing away. There are several ways of the improvement of the market: the lack of liquidity, the pricing issue, the inability to arbitrage, the trench to pension funds and so on. Hence, it is better to exploit momentum in this risky market than to try to fight against it in time of excess. When the real estate portfolios lack momentum effects, they would rather have big margins. Professional investors should get rid of their retail portfolios while they are actually selling and trading. Research Methodology An iconic model with high leverage and overvalued collateral assets is used to illustrate the amplification mechanism driving asset prices to overshoot equilibrium when asset bubble bursts-threatening widespread insolvency and what Richard Koo calls a balance sheet recession (Miller Stiglitz, 2010). For the purpose at hand-to study the dangers posed by excessive leverage and how capital restructuring may be needed to avert economic collapse when an asset bubble bursts-we make use of a stripped-down framework of heterogeneous agents with explicit credit constraints but no intermediaries (Miller Stiglitz, 2010). Before considering what happens when an asset bubble collapses globally, consider how things evolve with perfect foresight, starting with small businesses that borrow up to the hilt and happily postpone consumption of traded goods to some later date. Their flow of funds accounts show land holdings, denoted evolving as: or, in symbols,  where is the amount of one-period borrowing to be repaid as (R is one plus the one-period interest rate), is price of land, and measures the productivity of land in this sector. The credit constraint, assumed to bind at all times, is that borrowing gross of interest matches the expected value of land, i.e. As the degree of leverage is keyed to expectations of future prices, there will be more lending when capital gains are in prospect-as was true for sub-prime lending according to Gorton (2008). This will be crucial when an asset bubble is considered. But with perfect foresight of future land values, substitution into (1) yields an accumulation equation for small businesses who use all their net worth to make down payments on land, namely: where the expression in parentheses on the left is the down-payment required to purchase a unit of land and the term on the right measures both the productivity of those resources in this sector and SB net worth. By adding an asset bubble to a canonical model of highly leveraged businesses, Miller and Stigliz (2010) have highlighted the vicious downward spiral that may develop when asset prices begin to fall and have outlined a variety of measures that may be used to check this-with the government stepping in because of the externalities and moral hazard involved. The authorities in both the US and UK have of course undertaken extraordinary financial interventions, amounting in total to around three quarters of GDP (Miller and Stigliz, 2010). The arbitrage scenario of the asset market bubbles Suppose in addition to the fundamentals (net rents), we define a periodic bubble component b; then any of the following form will also satisfy arbitrage conditions and be rational: , with . Thus, if at time t an asset is overvalued by an amount , a rational investor will still purchase such an asset, if the degree of overvaluation is expected to grow by a rate equal to or greater than the appropriate discount rate. In turn, this implies that a necessary condition for housing bubbles to form is serial correlation in price changes. However, to anticipate results below, in our model housing bubbles will be self-limiting because new supply is being built. Panel unit roots and co-integration tests As a tentative attempt to partly overcome this problem, I exploit the rather large cross-section dimension of my analysis to perform unit root and co-integration tests. Asa first step I perform standard augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) unit root tests (Dickey and Fuller, 1981) to test for the order of integration of the time series under investigation. The ADF test regression is of the form: Allowing for a maximum lag order of four, the lag order was determined by sequential t-tests eliminating all lags up to the first significant at the 5% level. The test regression for the level of each variable contained a constant and a trend; the test regression for the first difference contained only a constant. The ADF test statistic is the t-statistic of . If is significantly smaller than zero, the null hypothesis of a unit root can be rejected. I also report a panel ADF test proposed by lm et al. (2003). They show that the standardized average of the N individual ADF test statistics (6) has a standard normal distribution, where is the average of the individual ADF test statistics and and are respectively the mean and the variance of the distribution of the ADF test statistic. The appropriate mean and variance adjustment values are tabulated in Im et al. (2003). The test is one sided. The 1%, 5%, and 10% critical values are -1.96, -1.64, and -1.28. Large negative values therefore imply a rejection of the null of a unit root. On the whole, the results suggest that the natural logs of real bank lending, real property prices and real GDP are integrated of order one. This conclusion is suggested both by the individual country level tests as well as by the panel tests. The short-term interest rate appears to be a borderline case. The null of non-stationarity is rejected at least at the 10% level in seven countries out of 20 countries. The panel unit root test strongly suggests that the real interest rate is a stationary process. Given the results of the unit root tests we test in the following for the presence of a long-run relationship between real bank lending, leverage and real property prices. The level of the real interest rate is not allowed to enter the long-run relationship. The Johansen approach is based on maximum likelihood estimation of a cointegration VAR model, which can be formulated in vector error correction form: (7) where x is a vector of endogenous variables comprising the log of real bank lending, leverage and real property prices. is a vector of constants and is a vector of white noise error terms. Since I want to allow for deterministic time trends in the levels of data I leave the constant unrestricted. The rank of the matrix indicates the number of long-run relationships between the endogenous variables in the system. The cointegrating rank hypothesis for the Johansen trace test is specified as against the alternative . The lag order of the VECMs was determined based on sequential likelihood-ratio tests, eliminating all lags up to the first lag significant at the 5% level. The 1%, 5% and 10% critical values are respectively 35.65, 29.68, and 26.79 for , 20.04, 15.41, and 13.33 for for and 6.65, 3.76 and 2.69 for I also report the result of a panel cointegration trace test proposed by Larsson et al. (2001). Policy Suggestions Flexible inflation targeting Under the accommodating policy, the bubble stimulates aggregate demand, leading the economy to overheat. In contrast to the accommodative policy, the more aggressive inflation targeting policy greatly moderates the effects of the bubble. As with the case of bubble shocks, the results indicate that the policy that responds aggressively to inflation and does not target stock prices works best. Under inflation targeting monetary policy is committed to achieving a specific level of inflation in the long run, and long-run price stability is designed the overriding or primary long-run goal of policy. Inflation targeting is generally characterized by substantial openness and transparency on the part of monetary policymakers, including for example the issuance of regular reports on the inflation situation and open public discussion of policy options and plans. Regulatory initiatives to control excessive lending in real estate markets Banks have overextended their lending during periods of high asset inflation, exposing themselves to greater portfolio risks during periods of declining asset value. Bank lending to related parties, as bank owners sought to capture the gains from their speculation, has aggravated the adverse impact of speculative lending. In response, regulatory authorities have increasingly restricted lending for real estate and to related parties-as well as lending concentrated on a few borrowers. Restrictions on related lending have been difficult to implement, however, because disclosure rules are generally poor, and in Indonesia, Japan, and Thailand, banks and firms have interlinked ownership, and companies are closely held (Stiglitz and Uy, 1996). Although governments established priorities for lending-and discouraged lending for real estate and consumer goods-they still employed commercial standards. Prudential regulations, particularly capital adequacy requirements and controls on real estate lending, are essential and replicable. The adaptability of government policies-the ability to abandon policies when they fail and to change policies with changing circumstances-is clearly a lesson of general applicability, although it is hard to design institutions that capture that lesson. A monetary policy regime focuses on asset prices rather than on macroeconomic fundamentals may well be actively destabilizing. The problem is that the central bank is targeting the wrong indicator. As an alternative metric for evaluating policy responses to bubbles, Bernanke and Gertler (2000) computed the unconditional variances of output and inflation under the four different policy scenarios (accommodative versus non-accommodative on inflation, responding to stock prices versus not responding). Conclusion Over the last few years, the coincidence of cycles in credit and property markets has been widely documented and discussed in the economic policy oriented literature, In this paper, I analyse the causes of this coincidence. From a theoretical point of view, the relationship between bank lending and property prices is multifaceted. Property prices may affect credit via various wealth effects, while credit may affect property prices via various liquidity effects. Previous empirical studies were not able to disentangle the direction of causality, since the focus was usually on one of these effects bot not on both. Long-run causality appears to go from property prices to bank lending, rather than conversely. This finding suggests that property price cycles, reflecting changing beliefs about future economic prospects, drive credit cycles, rather than excessive bank lending, in the wake of financial liberalization or overly loose monetary policy, being the cause of property price bubbles. However, there is also evidence of short-run causality going in both directions, implying that a mutually reinforcing element in past boom-bust cycles in credit and property markets cannot be ruled out. References Bernanke, B. and Gertler, M., 2000. Monetary policy and asset price volatility (No. w7559). National bureau of economic research. Case, K.E. and Shiller, R.J., 1988. The behavior of home buyers in boom and post-boom markets. Farlow, A., 2004. The UK housing market: bubbles and buyers. Oriel College. Gan, J., 2007. The real effects of asset market bubbles: Loan-and firm-level evidence of a lending channel. Review of Financial Studies, 20(6), pp.1941-1973. Geanakoplos, J., 2001. Liquidity, default and crashes: Endogenous contracts in general equilibrium. Genesove, D. and Mayer, C., 2001. Loss aversion and seller behavior: Evidence from the housing market. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 116(4), pp.1233-1260. Gerlach, S. and Peng, W., 2005. Bank lending and property prices in Hong Kong. Journal of Banking Finance, 29(2), pp.461-481. Giacomini, E., Ling, D.C. and Naranjo, A., 2015. Leverage and returns: A cross-country analysis of public real estate markets. The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, 51(2), pp.125-159. Gorton, G.B., 2008. The panic of 2007 (No. w14358). National Bureau of Economic Research. Herring, R.J. and Wachter, S.M., 1999. Real estate booms and banking busts: an international perspective. Hofmann, B., 2003. Bank lending and property prices: Some international evidence. Hong, H. and Stein, J.C., 2003. Differences of opinion, short-sales constraints, and market crashes. Review of financial studies, 16(2), pp.487-525. Koo, R.C., 2011. The Holy Grail of Macroeconomics: Lessons from Japan? Great Recession. John Wiley Sons. Lamont, O. and Stein, J.C., 1997. Leverage and house-price dynamics in US cities (No. w5961). National bureau of economic research. Lang, L., Ofek, E. and Stulz, R., 1996. Leverage, investment, and firm growth. Journal of financial Economics, 40(1), pp.3-29. Larsson, R., Lyhagen, J. and Là ¶thgren, M., 2001. Likelihoodà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ based cointegration tests in heterogeneous panels. The Econometrics Journal, 4(1), pp.109-142. Im, K.S., Pesaran, M.H. and Shin, Y., 2003. Testing for unit roots in heterogeneous panels. Journal of econometrics, 115(1), pp.53-74.<