Factors of Creation of Nationalism Essay -- Political Science

â€Å"It is nationalism which engenders nations, and not the other way round.† Such words were written by prominent social anthropologist Ernest Gellner in his work Nations and Nationalism (1983). Nationalism can be defined as a person or group’s loyalty and support for their nation, whatever that nation may be. This brings to light a very troublesome and tortuous subject. Expressed simply as Nationalism, this being is very controversial, many hailing it as a propitious concept, while others putting it down and viewing it in animosity. But what is more controversial & more complex would be the establishment of such. What effects its creation? What factors develop it? And what factors affect it the most? As with the topic of beauty, War, or Religion, nationalism and its roots are a again, a being of much controversy. Constantly being argued upon, assumptions of nationalism’s creation ranges from it being solely created upon historic, religious, social, geographical, and economical factors, or any combination(s) of the factors stated. An example of an argument which supports History as being the primary (and possibly the only) source of nationalism is prevalent within Margret Macmillan’s work The Uses and Abuses of History (2009) where she states that â€Å"History provides much of the fuel for Nationalism† and that the â€Å"celebration of the nation’s great achievements—and the shared sorrow at its defeats—sustain and foster it.† What she fails to mention is that there is more to development of nationalism than just history. Through my eyes it is evident that Professor Macmillan hasn’t fully grasped the depth, or simply has ig nored the other factors of nationalism. In respect to a nation and its nationalism, history has a major impact on its... ...D=567>. "French Revolution (1787-99) -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia." Encyclopedia - Britannica Online Encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2012. . "Lecture 11: The Origins of the French Revolution." The History Guide -- Main. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2012. . MacMillan, Margaret. The uses and abuses of history. Toronto: Penguin Canada, 2009. Print. Sebesta, Edward , and Euan Hague. "The US Civil War as a Theological War: Confederate Christian Nationalism and the League of the South." 22 (2002): 253-271. Print. "The Reformation." History Learning Site. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2012. . Gellner, Ernest . Nations and Nationalism. 1983. Reprint. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2006. Print.

Nickel and Dimed

As the main objective of this experiment was to determine that it is practically impossible for a low skilled and low-wage female worker and a single mother to earn enough money in order to get proper lodging, fulfill necessary needs and support her children, the outcome of her experiment in her own perspective was quite positive and satisfactory. Ehrenreich spend one month in three different cities of the United States to determine the workplace conditions, wages, behavior of the employers regarding the low-wage and low skilled employees and she was successful in finding out with a nearly real life experience that’s why she was satisfied with her experience and find herself as an above average low skilled worker. The experiment undertaken by Ehrenreich was extremely successful in her own perspective because she eventually found out what she intended to. As she has discussed in her last chapter â€Å"The Evaluation† that all the three case studies explicitly reveal that it is extremely difficult for a low-wage worker to find proper lodgings with the current level of wages in the country. She also found out that a single job is never enough for a low skilled worker to earn enough money in order to meet his/her end meets. Moreover the employers behavior is also highly disparaging. The employers use wicked techniques to keep the wages as low as possible and keep the employees in constant pressure so that they never get organized against their unfair treatment. (Ehrenreich) All these things make the life of a low-wage worker extremely difficult and demanding. According to her evaluation in all the three cities the rate of housing surpassed the wages of the low-income employees making it virtually impossible to get proper lodgings. (Ehrenreich) So by keeping in mind that her objective was to finding out that it is impossible for a low-income wageworker to get proper lodgings and meet end meets, her experiment was extremely successful in her own perspective also. She can certainly said that she has met the objectives of her experiment as she has found out that lowest 20% of the workforce of the U.S. economy is in extremely difficult condition and their problems are so severe, so complex that it is also extremely difficult for them to overcome these problems or find better jobs even if they exist in their surroundings. (Ehrenreich) Her main objective was to determine the difference between the lives of the high paid and low-wage workers, and that most of the needs of the high paid labor is met by the low paid and unskilled labor. In my own perspective the experiment carried out by Ehrenreich was highly successful. She presented us the true picture of the low-income Americans’ lives and helps us realize the severity of the problems the low-income labor force faces during their jobs and in their workplace. She gives the living proof of the reality that it is virtually impossible for a low-wage worker to survive in these conditions and find a shelter for himself, especially if the worker is a single mother and she has to provide food and support to her siblings also. Thus the outcome of this experiment clearly indicates of its success. She proved that the employers’ exploit is so extreme in nature that even the shortage of the labor does not compel them to raise the wage, i.e. universal economic rules do not apply for these low-income labor. (Ehrenreich) As a learned member of society I can use the knowledge of this book by making people realize that the so-called claim of a prosper and welfare America is just a bluff and a slogan which only depicts the external shine and wealth of the corporate America. While in the deep there are certain levels of the American economy and workforce, which suffers as much as any other workforce in a third world and developing country. We can use this book and the outcome of this research in order to find the solution, which will help us to eradicate the deprivation of the low-income workforce at the bottom of the U.S. economy. We can use this book to increase the awareness of the people about the sufferings of the low-income workers. We can use this knowledge to disclose the persecution of the corporate sector of their low-income employees and to persuade the employers to behave more humane with their low-income employees and make the workplace a better place for them and raise their wages to a level which would practically make it possible for them to meet their end needs, but also to go ahead. The overall output of the experiment of Ehrenreich and the tone of the language of last chapter evaluation clearly indicates that the experiment was a complete success in the view of the author and she thinks that she has finally determined what she has sought through out her 3-month expedition. She finally came with the living proof of what she initially claimed that it is virtually impossible for a low-skilled and low-income wageworker to earn enough money, by which they can get proper housing and meet their end meets and support their dependants like siblings or get medical treatment even when their lives and health is at stake. The book is a complete success in a reader’s perspective become it creates awareness of this unfair practice of the employers of the corporate America, who continue to insist on exploiting the low-wage workers and deprive them not only of their end needs but also from any prospect of getting ahead. Thus this book and the research in it is an important and helpful knowledge regarding the unfair class structure in the American Society. Works Cited Ehrenreich, Barbara. â€Å"Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.† Holt Paperbacks. May 1, 2002.                                                                      Nickel and Dimed Nickel and Dimed, written by Barbara Ehrenreich has been published in 2001 for the first time. This book explains and describes the condition of the working poor in United States in the 21st century. To write this book the author who is a well-known journalist at the New York Times decides to experience being a low-wage worker for a few months. She gives up her middle class life to become and live as a working poor. The author establishes a few rules at the beginning of her challenge such as not to go hungry or always having a car. But, except for those few exceptions she decides to go through the same life as her new coworkers. She starts her experience in Florida then she goes to Maine and finally to Minnesota. Therefore, Nickel and Dimed describes the experiment and the troubles Ehrenreich had to go through while she was a working poor. She particularly accentuates on how humiliated and how ashamed people are of being poor. Shame and humiliation are essential themes of this book are explained and described through different ways such as the fact that poor people are invisible or not respected in their jobs or not able to talk freely, or mistreated by their manager even if they are sick. First of all, the author explains that the poor are invisible and how they feel about it. â€Å"Maids as an occupational group, are not visible, and when we are seen we are often sorry for it† (99). The feeling of invisibility is normally one of the worst feelings that a human being should feel. But according to Ehrenreich, the maids feel relieved when they are not seen. Other people are looking at them as stupid people. They do not fit in the society. In fact, nowadays a person who does not use their brain in their work is not respected by others or by the upper classes. Holly, Ehrenreich’s coworker and friend, describes in chapter two the mean and negative remarks people did to her when they know that she is a maid. She said, â€Å" We’re nothing to these people† (100). Therefore, the poor are invisible in this society where the intellectual skills are valuable. They feel better when they are not noticed because they prefer to avoid the mean remarks from other. But, feeling invisible in their everyday life is a shame. They are human beings who need to be considered by others and integrated in a group to socialize as everyone else. Second of all, readers understand that low-wage workers are not respected in their job and this starts at the hiring process. While Ehrenreich tries to be hired at Wal-Mart in chapter three she explains that she has to go through psychological and drug tests. The first test is not supposed to affect the decision of the managers but in fact it does. Roberta, her coworker â€Å"takes it off to another room where, she says a computer will ‘score it’. After about ten minutes, she’s back with alarming news: I’ve gotten three answers wrong† (240). Corporations start to lie to their employees before hiring them. Low wage people as B. Ehrenreich are not hired because of their quality or personality. The relation between the employees and them is a computer. The corporation does not consider them. Working poor could be compared as animals that pass or fail a test before being bought. Those workers lose their self-esteem because of the lack of consideration they receive in their jobs. It is a perpetual humiliation to feel ignore by everyone. Third of all, Ehrenreich describes how employees are not allowed to talk to the customers. For example, when the author works at Hearthside her manager tells her, â€Å"No chatting for you, girl. No fancy service ethic allowed for the serfs. Chatting with customers is for the good-looking young college-educated servers in the downtown capriccio and ceviche joints, the kids who can make $70-$100 a night† (35). And Ehrenreich explains that she was not also allowed to talk to her coworkers while she was at Wal-Mart of certain subjects. And if she did, she could be fired. But, forbidding people to talk about certain subjects or to discuss with some of their coworkers is a violation of the fundamental rights. In the author’s experiences, readers understand that she has lost her humanity because freedom of speech is one of the fundamental rights that is expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that was established in 1945 by the United Nations. Speaking is an advantage of men because we are the only species who can communicate. Losing this advantage makes the person feel like she is not even human anymore. He loses all his self-esteem and feels humiliated. Finally, Ehrenreich shows how the health of people is not respected in the low wage class. While the author works at The Maids we have the perfect description of this kind of humiliation because her manager â€Å" Ted doesn’t have much sympathy for illness, though; one of our morning meeting was on the subject of ‘ working through it’ †(87). He mistreats the author’s friend and coworker, Holly who is pregnant and has to work to survive because she does not have any money. But Ted forces her to work in terrible conditions. Holly cannot take a real lunch break or a few days of vacation to rest even if she is extremely sick and tired because of her pregnancy. And if she takes her break without her manager’s approval she could be fired. She appears like a slave who is forced to do every task her manager assigns her even if Ted does not pay attention to the fact that she is sick. Therefore, Ehrenreich has to stand up and fight for her friend to have the permission to take a day off. But Ted would let a woman works even if he knows that she is about to be taken to the ER. I believe that a person who is sick cannot be forced to fight against her body. Unhealthy people should be helped and not used as slaves. Therefore, this episode underlines how humiliating it is for a sick person to be forced to work. Holly in this episode becomes an animal who has to work even if she is physically unable to. Working poor are not only having money problems they also have to go through humiliation and shame in their everyday life. Trying to modify their social status is almost impossible when we understand how they are treated. They lose their self-esteem and do not trust themselves anymore. Therefore, they will not even try to change jobs. They are stuck in their own conditions. They are not considered as humans in their job. The low-wage workers are unsocialized because of their wages and are mentally destroyed by their managers. Barbara Ehrenreich describes their situation in this book through her own experience to inform the world of their situation. In the 21st century in a country like United States, which is supposed to be the most powerful nation in the world, citizens cannot accept that others are treated like that. Low-wage workers need to be respected. Nickel and Dimed Nickel and Dimed, written by Barbara Ehrenreich has been published in 2001 for the first time. This book explains and describes the condition of the working poor in United States in the 21st century. To write this book the author who is a well-known journalist at the New York Times decides to experience being a low-wage worker for a few months. She gives up her middle class life to become and live as a working poor. The author establishes a few rules at the beginning of her challenge such as not to go hungry or always having a car. But, except for those few exceptions she decides to go through the same life as her new coworkers. She starts her experience in Florida then she goes to Maine and finally to Minnesota. Therefore, Nickel and Dimed describes the experiment and the troubles Ehrenreich had to go through while she was a working poor. She particularly accentuates on how humiliated and how ashamed people are of being poor. Shame and humiliation are essential themes of this book are explained and described through different ways such as the fact that poor people are invisible or not respected in their jobs or not able to talk freely, or mistreated by their manager even if they are sick. First of all, the author explains that the poor are invisible and how they feel about it. â€Å"Maids as an occupational group, are not visible, and when we are seen we are often sorry for it† (99). The feeling of invisibility is normally one of the worst feelings that a human being should feel. But according to Ehrenreich, the maids feel relieved when they are not seen. Other people are looking at them as stupid people. They do not fit in the society. In fact, nowadays a person who does not use their brain in their work is not respected by others or by the upper classes. Holly, Ehrenreich’s coworker and friend, describes in chapter two the mean and negative remarks people did to her when they know that she is a maid. She said, â€Å" We’re nothing to these people† (100). Therefore, the poor are invisible in this society where the intellectual skills are valuable. They feel better when they are not noticed because they prefer to avoid the mean remarks from other. But, feeling invisible in their everyday life is a shame. They are human beings who need to be considered by others and integrated in a group to socialize as everyone else. Second of all, readers understand that low-wage workers are not respected in their job and this starts at the hiring process. While Ehrenreich tries to be hired at Wal-Mart in chapter three she explains that she has to go through psychological and drug tests. The first test is not supposed to affect the decision of the managers but in fact it does. Roberta, her coworker â€Å"takes it off to another room where, she says a computer will ‘score it’. After about ten minutes, she’s back with alarming news: I’ve gotten three answers wrong† (240). Corporations start to lie to their employees before hiring them. Low wage people as B. Ehrenreich are not hired because of their quality or personality. The relation between the employees and them is a computer. The corporation does not consider them. Working poor could be compared as animals that pass or fail a test before being bought. Those workers lose their self-esteem because of the lack of consideration they receive in their jobs. It is a perpetual humiliation to feel ignore by everyone. Third of all, Ehrenreich describes how employees are not allowed to talk to the customers. For example, when the author works at Hearthside her manager tells her, â€Å"No chatting for you, girl. No fancy service ethic allowed for the serfs. Chatting with customers is for the good-looking young college-educated servers in the downtown capriccio and ceviche joints, the kids who can make $70-$100 a night† (35). And Ehrenreich explains that she was not also allowed to talk to her coworkers while she was at Wal-Mart of certain subjects. And if she did, she could be fired. But, forbidding people to talk about certain subjects or to discuss with some of their coworkers is a violation of the fundamental rights. In the author’s experiences, readers understand that she has lost her humanity because freedom of speech is one of the fundamental rights that is expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that was established in 1945 by the United Nations. Speaking is an advantage of men because we are the only species who can communicate. Losing this advantage makes the person feel like she is not even human anymore. He loses all his self-esteem and feels humiliated. Finally, Ehrenreich shows how the health of people is not respected in the low wage class. While the author works at The Maids we have the perfect description of this kind of humiliation because her manager â€Å" Ted doesn’t have much sympathy for illness, though; one of our morning meeting was on the subject of ‘ working through it’ †(87). He mistreats the author’s friend and coworker, Holly who is pregnant and has to work to survive because she does not have any money. But Ted forces her to work in terrible conditions. Holly cannot take a real lunch break or a few days of vacation to rest even if she is extremely sick and tired because of her pregnancy. And if she takes her break without her manager’s approval she could be fired. She appears like a slave who is forced to do every task her manager assigns her even if Ted does not pay attention to the fact that she is sick. Therefore, Ehrenreich has to stand up and fight for her friend to have the permission to take a day off. But Ted would let a woman works even if he knows that she is about to be taken to the ER. I believe that a person who is sick cannot be forced to fight against her body. Unhealthy people should be helped and not used as slaves. Therefore, this episode underlines how humiliating it is for a sick person to be forced to work. Holly in this episode becomes an animal who has to work even if she is physically unable to. Working poor are not only having money problems they also have to go through humiliation and shame in their everyday life. Trying to modify their social status is almost impossible when we understand how they are treated. They lose their self-esteem and do not trust themselves anymore. Therefore, they will not even try to change jobs. They are stuck in their own conditions. They are not considered as humans in their job. The low-wage workers are unsocialized because of their wages and are mentally destroyed by their managers. Barbara Ehrenreich describes their situation in this book through her own experience to inform the world of their situation. In the 21st century in a country like United States, which is supposed to be the most powerful nation in the world, citizens cannot accept that others are treated like that. Low-wage workers need to be respected.

Inside Job Documentary Film Essay

The ‘Inside Job’ film (documentary film) draws parallel views to the referenced text â€Å"Impact on Accounting† of this course coupled with the associated research executed during the past weeks with respect to understanding the cause of the financial crisis. The documentary film zeros in on the contributory factors of the financial crisis such as falling interest rates, securitization of home mortgages and credit default swaps (derivatives). Other stunning contributory factors expressed in the documentary film were greed in addition to the deregulation and an unsupervised financial industry by the Federal government. Snyder (2011) reported that, â€Å"There have been several deregulations in the financial and housing markets over the past 30 years. Some of these include The Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board establishing adjustable mortgages, the 1982 Garn-St Germain Depository Institutions Act establishing a secondary mortgage market, the repeal of the Glass-Stegall Act allowing commercial and investment banks to merge, and the 2004 SECs deregulation of investment banks, allowing investment banks to increase their leverage ratio from 12:1 to 30:1.† (pages 1-16) After researching the cause of the financial crisis, though seemingly insignificant to some, one of the fastening screws that assisted in the great fall with respect to the financial industry was falling interest rates. During the early 2000s the United States economy began to slow down and in an effort to rejuvenate this downward condition the Federal Reserve introduced a stimulation project to cut interest rates to induce customer spending. Investors took advantage of this stimulus exercise as the return on mortgage backed securities was attractive and as a result there was a boost and desire to purchase such securities. Consequently, lending  institutions became very excited as the demand for mortgage backed securities increased and thus the quest began to write more mortgages. Hence, the qualifying standards for loan approvals were done away with allowing a prospective home owner getting approval with ‘zero-down’. The introduction of no payment down increased the likelihood of failure to pay by borrowers and this default risk thereof was disregarded. Another supporting aspect of the documentary film with respect to the cause of the financial crisis was securitization. Historically during the safe age, a home mortgage was a loan contract between the borrower and financial institution which was supported by tangible property used as collateral. Such loans would be held until the full loan obligation has been satisfied in the long term. Conversely to the days of old, financial institutions sought new innovative means to generate income and came up with securitization of home mortgages. In this sense, during the 1990’s, home mortgages were not held to maturity but instead the high risk home mortgages were, bundled, repackaged and resold creating mortgage backed securities whereby income is received when homeowners satisfied their home mortgage obligation. Despondently, when borrowers defaulted on their home mortgages, investors suffered dearly as losses were realized, consequently, financial institutions collapsed and unemployment rose above its usual average rate. Other research has concluded that derivatives also played a chief role in the financial crisis. Derivatives are financial contracts between two parties of which the value can derived with not affiliation to the good or service. For example, a buyer can purchase an option agreement to buy a good or service in the future at an agreed price within a specified time frame. Within the given period the buyer may exercise the right to purchase or chose not to upon weighing the benefits of the option contract with the current market conditions. One type of derivatives that aided in the financial crisis was credit default swaps (CDS) which allowed investors to participate in naked CDS purchases without having legal ownership of the insured property. CDS is an innovative and prevalent derivative which is similar to an insurance contract that permits investors to transfer risk to other parties who are more qualified and willing to bear it, thus making it very attractive risk mitigation tool. CDS became extremely popular and experienced an unprecedented demand up to the latter part of 2007. However, since the derivatives market was not regulated companies such as AIG which sold billions of swaps without collateral or reserves to satisfy potential losses. According to Hobbs (2011), at the end of 2007 AIG credit debt obligation totaled $562 billion which was shockingly ironic that an insurance company would fail to hedge such substantial risk. Charles Ferguson’s award winning documentary film ‘Inside Job’ narrated by Matt Damon surveyed the deregulation of the financial industry and explored how the lack of good ethical banking practices assisted in creating the financial crisis. This jaw dropping documentary in its fearless interviews and prying identified greed and deregulation by the Federal government as principle causes of the financial crisis. At the twilight of 1981 the Ronal Regan administration made the deregulation of the financial industry top priority and the highest order of business in an effort to restore economic prosperity. Froese (2011) stated that, â€Å"The campaign trend of deregulation was followed through by the Bill Clinton and George Bush administration team.† (p. 59-75). According to Maxwell (2011), â€Å"The documentary film sets out to prove the idea by first pointing to the 1980s, when deregulation of the financial industry in the US allowed banks and loan companies to begin taking bigger risks with depositors’ money.† (p.16) The documentary film exposed the recycling of top bank executives being integrated into key government positions even after having full knowledge of misconduct and unethical behavior driven by greed. The greed for lavish lifestyle such as having six airplanes, helicopters, yachts, beachfront homes and penthouses was evident in the documentary film. Apparently, the more money top bankers earned the more they seem to want. The root of this greed was driven by huge compensation and hefty bonuses. According to Ferguson (2010), Richard Fuld the CEO of Lehman Brothers actually was hardly ever seen on the trading floor as he went out of his way to avoid contact with other employees even to the extent of extent of installing a personal elevator that took him to his office undetected. These chief top guns even went to the extent to cheat the government of taxes by understating their  income. Sterngold (2011) reported that, â€Å" Oliver Budde, a former lawyer for the financial services firm Lehman Brothers, has charged that the bankrupt company’s former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Richard S. Fuld lied to Congress when stating the amount of his salary and other compensation from 2000-2007. Budde, whose duties included preparing Lehman’s financial statements on executive salaries, says that Fuld understated the amount of his earnings by hundreds of millions of dollars.† (p, 56-59). Under the Regan administration CEO of the treasury, ML Donald deregulated the Savings and Loans which created a platform for unsafe investments by allowing hundreds of financially dead institutions to continue to operate while making more risky loans. Within 10 years hundreds of Savings and Loans companies became insolvent which resulted in 124 billion dollars of tax payers’ money. Greenspan supported Charles Keating’s business plans verifying that they were sound, proficient and without risk. It was later discovered that Keating who owned one of the Savings and Loans companies in California, used investors’ money to support his personal company and eventually went to prison as a result. While on the other hand, Greenspan was promoted appointed as president of the Federal Reserve by Ronald Ragan and was reappointed by Clinton and Bush administration to police the big bucks. It was also alleged that Greenspan received a kickback of 40,000 for validating Keating’s report Keating afloat in the industry. Deregulation continued under the Clinton administration congress overturned the Glass-Steagall Act by passing the Gramm-Leach Bliley Act which facilitated the Citigroup merger. Further, despite the cries to regulate the derivatives industry, Alan Greenspan in addition to other congressmen brought about the Commodity Futures Modernization Act banning all regulation in the derivatives market. Other new theories that developed from the documentary film were economists, credit rating agencies and top executives have all contributed to the financial crisis. It was unthinkable that reputable economists failed miserably to disclose any conflict of interest regarding their economic research report concerning economic trend. According to Ferguson (2010), economist Frederic Mishkin stated in his economic research report that  Iceland’s economy had already adjusted to financial liberalization and that while prudential regulation and supervision was quite strong, however, the banking industry in Iceland exploded shortly after the report. Frederic was paid $124,000 by the Iceland government to write the report even though the report proved to be very wrong. Another economist, Robert Glenn Hubbard former head of President Bush council of economic advisors, when asked whether there is and conflict of interest of economists he avoided the question and stated that most economist are not wealthy people. The documentary exposed him for having an annual salary of $150,000 as a board member of Met Life and that he formally served on the board of Capmark Financial Corporation, a mortgage institution that went bankrupt during the bubble. The documentary film brought the curtains down on credit rating agencies as it provided undeniable evidence of their involvement in the financial crisis . The three credit agencies namely, Standard & Poor, Moody’s, and Fitch misrepresented the credit rating of companies such as Lehman Brother, Merrill Lynch, AIG and Bear Sterns as they were all given credit rating of AA and above just weeks prior to becoming bankrupt. Questions were put to the governor of the Federal Reserve, Frederic Mishkin whether he was aware of excellent credit ratings and as in the past he danced around the question without providing clear answer. In 2008 Frederic Mishkin resigned in the height of the economic crisis and said that this coward move was owed to him reviewing some university book. Investors depend heavily on security rating for decision making. Clearly if a security has been classified as AAA and AA ratings, they appear to be as safe as government bonds. Instead, investors were deceived into investing in insolvent companies as a result of the ratings provided thereof. Continuing, top executives were also woven in the fabric of the financial crisis whereby top Chief Executive Officers walked away with top dollars. It is said that follow the money to solve the crime. The documentary film listed top guns such as Lehman Brothers CEO, Richard Fuld who reaped in 485 million, AIG’s CEO went smiling with earnings of 315 million and Merrill Lynch raked in 161 million of severance bonus. Other culprits named were Bear Sterns CEO and especially Goldman Sachs top executives. Apparently, these top executives had much knowledge of their falling companies and cooked the books so that investors would believe otherwise. What come out of the documentary film was that executives were rewarded for selling subprime mortgage investments as if it was top priority. Below are exhibits A and B and key players in the financial crisis: Exhibit A Major Players identifies in Week 2 Exhibit B Major Players in Inside Job Film 1. Homeowners 2. Financial / lending institutions 3. Wall Street 4. Federal Government 5. Securities Exchange Commission 1. Homeowners 2. Financial / lending institutions 3. Wall Street 4. Federal Government 5. Securities Exchange Commission 6. Economist 7. Credit Rating Agencies 8. Top Executives The new players pulled from the documentary film are economists, credit agencies and top banking executives. Economists were apparently paid handsomely to produce favorable reports of which most did not disclose their connected conflict of interest. Credit rating agencies also provided falsified rating to dying institutions and as a result investors were misinformed and consequently realized losses which could have been prevented. Lastly top banking officials were recycled throughout the government and other top ranking banks. They were driven by greed and  received compensation of up to 485 million dollars. Bringing it all together, I strongly believe that they were all in it together with the object to rape the economy of its finances and so they did successfully without being prosecuted. APA Format References Global Economic Crisis Resource Center (2010). Global economic crisis: Impact on accounting. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning Snyder, T. (2011). How did deregulation and financial innovations impact housing, wealth, and output?. Journal Of Finance & Accountancy, Hobbs, J. (2011). Financial Derivatives, the Mismanagement of Risk and the Case of AIG. CPCU Ejournal, 1-8. Ferguson, C. (Director) & Marrs, A. (Producer). (2010) Inside Job [Motion Picture]. United States: Sony Picture Classics Froese, R. (2011). THE LIMITS OF INSIDE JOB: CRISIS, IDEOLOGY, AND THE BURDEN OF CAPITALISM. Studies In Political Economy: A Socialist Review, (88), 59-75. Sterngold, J. (2010). Who Cares About Another $200 Million?. Bloomberg Businessweek, (4177), 56-59. Maxwell, C. (2011). Inside the crash. Director (00123242), 65(4), 16.

Digital Fortress Chapter 34

Susan sat alone in Node 3, waiting for her tracer. Hale had decided to step outside and get some air-a decision for which she was grateful. Oddly, however, the solitude in Node 3 provided little asylum. Susan found herself struggling with the new connection between Tankado and Hale. â€Å"Who will guard the guards?† she said to herself. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes. The words kept circling in her head. Susan forced them from her mind. Her thoughts turned to David, hoping he was all right. She still found it hard to believe he was in Spain. The sooner they found the pass-keys and ended this, the better. Susan had lost track of how long she'd been sitting there waiting for her tracer. Two hours? Three? She gazed out at the deserted Crypto floor and wished her terminal would beep. There was only silence. The late-summer sun had set. Overhead, the automatic fluorescents had kicked on. Susan sensed time was running out. She looked down at her tracer and frowned. â€Å"Come on,† she grumbled. â€Å"You've had plenty of time.† She palmed her mouse and clicked her way into her tracer's status window. â€Å"How long have you been running, anyway?† Susan opened the tracer's status window-a digital clock much like the one on TRANSLTR; it displayed the hours and minutes her tracer had been running. Susan gazed at the monitor expecting to see a readout of hours and minutes. But she saw something else entirely. What she saw stopped the blood in her veins. TRACER ABORTED â€Å"Tracer aborted!† she choked aloud. â€Å"Why?† In a sudden panic, Susan scrolled wildly through the data, searching the programming for any commands that might have told the tracer to abort. But her search went in vain. It appeared her tracer had stopped all by itself. Susan knew this could mean only one thing-her tracer had developed a bug. Susan considered â€Å"bugs† the most maddening asset of computer programming. Because computers followed a scrupulously precise order of operations, the most minuscule programming errors often had crippling effects. Simple syntactical errors-such as a programmer mistakenly inserting a comma instead of a period-could bring entire systems to their knees. Susan had always thought the term â€Å"bug† had an amusing origin: It came from the world's first computer-the Mark 1-a room-size maze of electromechanical circuits built in 1944 in a lab at Harvard University. The computer developed a glitch one day, and no one was able to locate the cause. After hours of searching, a lab assistant finally spotted the problem. It seemed a moth had landed on one of the computer's circuit boards and shorted it out. From that moment on, computer glitches were referred to as bugs. â€Å"I don't have time for this,† Susan cursed. Finding a bug in a program was a process that could take days. Thousands of lines of programming needed to be searched to find a tiny error-it was like inspecting an encyclopedia for a single typo. Susan knew she had only one choice-to send her tracer again. She also knew the tracer was almost guaranteed to hit the same bug and abort all over again. Debugging the tracer would take time, time she and the commander didn't have. But as Susan stared at her tracer, wondering what error she'd made, she realized something didn't make sense. She had used this exact same tracer last month with no problems at all. Why would it develop a glitch all of a sudden? As she puzzled, a comment Strathmore made earlier echoed in her mind. Susan, I tried to send the tracer myself, but the data it returned was nonsensical. Susan heard the words again. The data it returned†¦ She cocked her head. Was it possible? The data it returned? If Strathmore had received data back from the tracer, then it obviously was working. His data was nonsensical, Susan assumed, because he had entered the wrong search strings-but nonetheless, the tracer was working. Susan immediately realized that there was one other possible explanation for why her tracer aborted. Internal programming flaws were not the only reasons programs glitched; sometimes there were external forces-power surges, dust particles on circuit boards, faulty cabling. Because the hardware in Node 3 was so well tuned, she hadn't even considered it. Susan stood and strode quickly across Node 3 to a large bookshelf of technical manuals. She grabbed a spiral binder marked SYS-OP and thumbed through. She found what she was looking for, carried the manual back to her terminal, and typed a few commands. Then she waited while the computer raced through a list of commands executed in the past three hours. She hoped the search would turn up some sort of external interrupt-an abort command generated by a faulty power supply or defective chip. Moments later Susan's terminal beeped. Her pulse quickened. She held her breath and studied the screen. ERROR CODE 22 Susan felt a surge of hope. It was good news. The fact that the inquiry had found an error code meant her tracer was fine. The trace had apparently aborted due to an external anomaly that was unlikely to repeat itself. Error code 22. Susan racked her memory trying to remember what code 22 stood for. Hardware failures were so rare in Node 3 that she couldn't remember the numerical codings. Susan flipped through the SYS-OP manual, scanning the list of error codes. 19: CORRUPT HARD PARTITION 20: DC SPIKE 21: MEDIA FAILURE When she reached number 22, she stopped and stared a long moment. Baffled, she double-checked her monitor. ERROR CODE 22 Susan frowned and returned to the SYS-OP manual. What she saw made no sense. The explanation simply read: 22: MANUAL ABORT

Tips for Action For Single Parents Health Education Essay

Tips for Action For Single Parents Health Education - Essay Example I have chosen 4 of the guidelines to discuss in this paper based on my experience with my parents. They are: set fair ground rules and discipline with love, be positive, give the child responsibility commensurate with maturity levels, and be a good role model. As am I not yet a parent myself, the only personal experience I have with parenting is by observing my own parents. Our household had a set of rules that were strong as iron. An infraction, or breaking of one of these rules was akin to a slap in the face. The rules were elegant in their simplicity. #1 Respect - above all else. Each person in the household was entitled to respect as a person. Our parents respected our opinions, and listened to what we had to say as long as it was in a correct tone of voice and in turn, we respected our parents because they seemed less dictators than guides. #2 Work hard, and work together. This meant if there was a job to be done, we were all to assist in completing it. Mom might have assigned individual tasks to us, but it was based on who was available at the moment, not who's "job it was".. Often, we were all working on different tasks at the same time in order to ensure everything got done in the least amount of time. These two simple rules governed our daily lives, and it worked to bring easy harmony. When one of the rules wasn't followed, my parents were believers in "reality discipline". This meant that we had to accept the reality of the outcome of our decisions. "Reality itself is conditional: If you do certain things, you face certain consequences" (Leman 27). This meant that the time I forgot to pick my clothes up off the floor, I didn't have any clean socks to wear. My parents were experts at this type of discipline. They were not being mean to me, I did not feel unloved. I only felt that the decision I had made was the wrong one and since I made the decision I was forced to accept the consequences. In this way, there was love - not anger- in my parent's discipline. In my opinion, this method of discipline was most effective for me and would be useful for most parents. Single parents would find this method particularly useful, as it allows the natural course of action to assist in teaching their children; acting in a fashion as an additional parent. Conversely, when we did something exceptional, or just noticeable, my parents rewarded our good behavior. Single parents would find this tip most helpful because it encourages the children to do right, in effect making them more helpful to the parent. Single parents are at a disadvantage when it comes to time with their children. In a traditional dual-parent home, there are two adults to share the responsibilities of maintaining a household; whereas in the single parent home the parent must shoulder the burden of everything. The single parent is the primary provider and caretaker, the gardener and the cook, the cheerleader and the coach. When the children are rewarded and encouraged, they feel that they can make a difference and are more willing to help around the house. This is a tremendous help to the overwhelmed single-parent. Children who are rewarded for picking up their toys, folding clothes, or any number of chores will remember that praise and will actively look for another opportunity to receive it. This will enable the single-parent with a wiling, helpful support

Petro-geology, petro-politics,and frontiers for Iraq(2005onward) Term Paper

Petro-geology, petro-politics,and frontiers for Iraq(2005onward) - Term Paper Example All these elements were already identifiable by the initial exploration geologists; thus a general procedure of exploration was to conduct drilling of the peak of the anticlines. Kirkuk is renown, very lengthy anticline, which was amongst the first sites to be drilled (Benko, 2008). The extensive reserves revealed in the carbonate basins gave a constructive response to the above mentioned discovery tactic, and in the preceding years a huge number of topographically articulate anticlines were bored. Even though a majority of these structures had a very huge amount of hydrocarbons, impenetrable exemptions do exist, or different explanations concerning reservoir rocks and their efficacy (Hips, 2008). In some oil mine fields of varying eminence, or gas and condensate was revealed in the matching reservoirs. It came to be noticed later on that cretaceous fonts are slightly established. The oil kept in the Cretaceous is obtained from a Cretaceous font. It is decayed in the open parts and n on-biodegraded in the deeper parts; though still at depth the tar is unaffected. In agreement with other regional research, the Jurassic foundation rocks are affluent and are in the oil window (Jassim & Goff, 2006). The carbonate font may give an explanation for the high quantity of sulphur and the considerably high viscosity, but the resultant oils must be of better quality than what is actually established. It was initially presumed that a sediment or gravitational division took place (Sarbazheri, Ghafor & Muhammed, 2009). All in all, more unstable divisions tend to be missing from these oil deposits. The system of Triassic must be late oil to damp gas established, and the petroleum established there keep up a correspondence to the proposed maturity of the origin (Pitman, Steinshouer & Lewan, 2005). Oil Frontiers in Iraq Iraqi Kurdistan region, celebrated by intercontinental petroleum firms as the final frontier for ashore gas and oil discovery, is making efforts to improve its en ergy infrastructure. Greeters at Erbil’s international airport have a sign that sums it all: Weatherford, General Electric, and Reliance-the forerunner of a wave of important new entrance prepared to bore wells or construct pipelines, energy factories and oil refineries (Navabpour, Angelier & Barrier, 2007). The main point of reference of the location’s gas and oil producers is that aid is within reach. This was the main motivation given the fact that in recent times the Kurdistan’s revolutionary oil and gas manufacturers had to be their own drilling and hauling service providers, engineers, repair men, and even mine cleaners. One of the founders of oil and gas exploration is the UAE that found Crescent Petroleum, which started manufacturing gas in Kurdistan in the late 2008. The Corporation’s CEO recounts the major challenges experienced in transporting over 60,000 metric tons of steel and marshalling numerous truckloads over the Turkish border in effort to establish their plant for oil and gas production. This was during the construction of the pipeline. They had to cross the rivers, construct bridges and clear the mines according to the report released by (Robert, 2006). The current situation is very different as power generation plant has been installed, facilitating a transition from the 185 MW supply of power to the current supply of 2,200 MW by use of a twin 50-year old hydroelectric power plant

A case study of social movement or collective action event by ethnic Essay

A case study of social movement or collective action event by ethnic group(s) - Essay Example Discussions of discrimination can raise the blood pressure of even the most neutral person. On the one hand, there are those who steadfastly claim there is no such thing as discrimination in the mortgage industry: everyone is an â€Å"equal opportunity housing lender,† after all; it says so right on the application. On the other hand, there are those who have examined the issue with as much neutrality as possible and have arrived universally at one conclusion: all things being equal (such as similar credit reports, income, and down payments) African Americans are the victims of predatory, abusive, and discriminatory mortgages at a sickening rate. Just a quick glance at a few numbers: In 1993, approximately 100,000 subprime loans were originated. In 2001, more than a million subprime loans were originated. In 2008, more than 65 percent of subprime loans were refinances, not direct purchase (ACORN.org). Racial discrimination is often hidden and it certainly can be inadvertent. This does not excuse banks and mortgage brokers accused of discrimination. Three major organizations address this as a part of their foundation missions, and steps have been taken to remedy the problem, such as neutral research, education, and collective action. Before we can understand what organizations and the collective actions of individuals do to expose the problem of discriminatory lending, we must define what we mean by predatory and abusive mortgage loans. Once we have created a broad definition of discriminatory lending, we must seek to understand how the African American community can fall victim to such practices on a broad level through a culture of overt and inadvertent discrimination. The major leaders and organizations involved in exposing the problem have a multi-pronged approach to the problem, and institutional recognition of the problem lends strength to individual collective action. Final ly, there are several effective