Anything related to today's economy Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Anything related to today's economy - Term Paper Example Policies are aimed at ensuring sustainable and profitable exploitation of both natural and human resources to boost the growth of the country's economy. United States have capitalized on its strong scientific research and technological base to attract investments both locally and internationally. Moreover, it enjoys immigration of expatriates because of the opportunities and environment that necessitates growth. The unemployment rate is currently at 7.6% because of the current economic growth in the last three months. Saving and investment are considerably lower than the GDP and thus it is below the expected levels in comparison to other industrialized states. Inflation rate has risen by 1.5%, thus making the cost of living for American citizens a bit expensive (Bureau of Labor Statistics Para 4). Discussion Enterprenuers in different economic systems integrate the available resources, technology and labor to produce and distribute goods and services from the producer to the end user . Organization of different economic elements is reflected in the country's policies and culture. The American economy is a â€Å"mixed economy† because the government together with the private sector are instrumental in making economic related decisions. Although the government allows free enterprenuership, it has a primary responsibility of administering justice, infrastructure, defense and education to its citizens. It also controls natural monopolies and the price system. Moreover, the government supports the poor through providing medical care and economic support. It also helps people who suffer losses through natural disasters through giving low interest loans (Bureau of International Information Program para 4). United States economy is built on a wide range of natural resources namely minerals, moderate climate, arable lands, and extensive coastlines. The coastlines were instrumental in initiating the economic growth attained over the last 50 years as well as uniting the individual states into one economic unit. Labor mobility and emphasis on adoption of technology are the ingredients of America’s fast economic growth. According to Bureau of International Information Programs (para 5), In the America’s economy, human capital is considered important for the success of technologically advanced modern industries. To uphold the standards, the government and entrepreneurs emphasize on the importance of training and education to ensure that workers attain the knowledge and skills required in the new business environment. The business entities have adopted a modern managerial strategy to enhance efficient coordination of different operational elements. For instance, high technology industries employ expatriates and develop a culture of teamwork to attain objectives as well as maintain a competitive edge in the global market. Entrepreneurs in the united states use corporations to accumulate funds required to open up new businesses and lau nch new ones. The government has developed rules to ensure that the business environment is safe and there is efficient flow of information so that investors can be in a position to make informed decisions. Although there has been a significant growth in employment rate, statistics show that the civilian employment rate is still lower than expected. For

AP Euro FRQ on Renaissance Essay Example for Free

AP Euro FRQ on Renaissance Essay Even though the renaissance had begun in main Italian city states by 1347, the rest of Europe was still basically Medieval in culture and outlook. Analyze how the Black Death put an end on to this medieval culture and hastened the development of the renaissance.† The Bubonic plague, also known as Black Death invaded the bodies of 50% of the English population, flourishing them with welts, 104-degree temperatures, bruising, wretched stench, coughing and death within 24 hours. This awful disease forced an end to the medieval ages, creating a new way of political, economical and cultural thinking, which today we call the Renaissance. Through the inflation on silver, diminishing use of knights and castles and imposing parliaments on the king Europe was brought to a dawn of a new era, the Renaissance. When the Bubonic plague came to an end, the demand for peasants was at an all time high. This in turn gave the peasants an idea to demand more money for their work. The king had no problem paying more since his plan was to fill silver coins with half lead and lead peasants into inflation. Money would soon become worth less than it had and the amount of coins would not make up for the item being purchased. This kept the peasants stuck giving more money to the king to be grant more coins. Inflation on coinage in Europe leads to a surplus of money back into the royal family. Thus leading to the development of a renaissance lifestyle where the king traps peasants into giving more money to the throne and leading to a continuation of inflation for the next 6oo years. The loss of population from Black Death and the new ways of protection and modern thinking from the 100-year way lead to modernization for Europe. France and England were fighting over the right of the French throne. A critical turning point was The Battle of Ageneout in 1415. The French had 1,750 knights compared to England’s 46 archers. When the battle had begun the French proceeded to get stuck in the mud from the rain the previous night and the English archers killed, injured or captured all the Frenchmen. This battle marked the importance of archers over knights and a less amount of men in an army. Another idea taken out of medieval times was castles. Cannon balls were being made to be able to crash down a castle, therefore making these structures useless to the now more modern European. Modernization began to come to use after the Black Death forced Europeans to change their way of living through the renaissance by removing use of knights and castle and alter to a more modern lifestyle of using archers in military force and living in gunpowder fortification rather than castles. After Black Death had wiped out nearly half of the peasant population in Europe, the king had to establish a new way to bring in revenue. His thoughts directed towards taxing the rich considering the poor had nothing to give. This idea angered merchants, clergy and nobles and gave them an idea to make in turn with the king. If the king were to tax the merchants and clergy, they had the right to form parliaments. These parliaments took away the power of the king and stopped him from abusing his throne through taxation and government decisions, thus destroying the medieval way of power and leading to a modern way of governing typified by the Renaissance.

Our Day Out by Willy Russell :: English Literature

Our Day Out by Willy Russell The play "Our Day Out" in based around the remedial class of an inner city Liverpool comprehensive. The children are the bottoms of the heap; they are not blessed with a well off families to support them. The two main teachers are Mrs Kay and Mr Briggs who views contrast and contradict each other throughout the play. On this particular day the "remedial class" are of on a school trip hence the title "Our Day Out" to Conway castle in Wales though this is not the only place the children get to see, the play takes us to a variety of different places (due to the fact that it was written for television broadcast). Russell primary idea may seem just to produce a play that is entertaining and suitable for a television broadcast. Though Russell provides with slice of life realism. I t could have a certain biographical side to it for Russell grew up in a similar area in Liverpool. Although at some points in the play the way Russell writes may seem biased trying to perform our opinions but he actually writes from different viewpoints providing us with an actual insight into the play. Russell major themes throughout the play are poverty, the lack of education and opportunity available; the social and cultural depravation suffered from living in such an inner-city area. It questions the ethics of bad parenting. The scenes I have choossen to anylais have great dramic importance to the play they are Kay. It focuses on a major aspect of the play: the depravation of the children. It proves again to us the yearning of Carol and the attitudes of both teachers. It provides a valuable insight into the play. Mrs Kay firstly asks Carol why she does not and go and look round the castle. To this Carol relies "Miss, I don't like it. It's horrible." At first you might think that she is referring to the castle building although later on in the scene she refers to the castle been a "nice" place. We already know that Carol is not an intellectual girl; she is still unable to read and write at the age of 13.Proving her lack of educational ability is the fact that she mistakes a lake for the see. Even though she is lacking in educational ability she is still aware of her surroundings in Wales and then back at home she is also aware of the differences between them. Though she is unable to express herself due to her low vocabulary and grammar skills. So when she uses the term "It's horrible" she is actually referring to the fact it's

Far from the Madding Crowd Essay

† He admits to Bathsheba at the beginning of the novel that, â€Å"But I can’t match you, I know, in mapping out my mind upon my tongue. † He is not a man of words, unlike Troy and Boldwood, but proves that â€Å"actions can speak louder than words†. He is unable to speak the flattery that Troy can, or be as persistent and persuasive as Boldwood is, but in his devoted actions to Bathsheba, by being the hard and diligent worker that he is, he is rewarded in the end, by giving the opportunity to offer Bathsheba the love that he had talked of to her when he had first met her. In contrast to Gabriel, Francis Troy is a man who appears to understand only what he can get out of love. He does not believe in treating women fairly, and which is expressed as he says, â€Å"treat them fairly and you are a lost man,† when referring to women. Hardy also writes about his consistency when telling the truth; â€Å"He was moderately truthful towards men, but to women he lied like a cretan. † By lying to women he found it easy to get what he wanted, as Hardy describes him; â€Å"he spoke fluently and unceasingly. † At the beginning, Hardy remarks that a woman’s greatest fault is her â€Å"Vanity. † Troy, as he possesses such ease with the words he uses, has learnt that a woman’s weakness is her vanity, and knows that by flattering them he can get what he wants. This is precisely what he did with Bathsheba, and like her, he felt some sense of triumph when he saw that he had succeeded in weakening the women he flattered, as she did with the men she flirted with. However, instead of making the women he met feel confident, his flattery merely destroyed them, as they became dependent upon him to feed their vain needs. Troy did not have the emotional sense of love, but instead he felt the physical attraction to the women he met. This meant that he only got involved with beautiful women, as it was their beauty that attracted them to him. Even after having left Bathsheba for so long, when he saw her again at Greenhill Sheep Fair, it was her beauty that â€Å"found unexpected chords of feeling, to be stirred again within him†¦ † The way in which Troy judged by appearances was perhaps inevitably the cause of his failed marriage to Bathsheba, because he had not got to know Bathsheba as a person, but simply looked at her, as a symbol of beauty. In some ways it could be said that he looked at the women as trophies that he had won. Troy was also a man driven by wealth. Bathsheba, who had come into wealth after the inheritance of the lease of Weatherbury Farm, would have been even more attractive to him as she now had money. We know that he was driven by money, as he used to bet on the horses, which put considerable financial strain on Bathsheba. This was probably the reason why he did not marry Fanny, due to her financial instability. Money was also the reason why he did not return to Bathsheba initially after landing at Liverpool, as Hardy writes, â€Å"what a life such a future of poverty would be. † This, unlike the love felt by Gabriel, was a selfish form of love, because he only ever though of himself. He had a very superficial view of love, which required wealth in order to make him happy. Troy’s opinions of love did not include the idea of commitment, and another reason for the failure of his marriage could be due to his womanising and flirtatious behaviour. We learn near to the end of the novel that his opinion of marriage is negative and he sees it not as the beginning of two people’s lives together, but as he says himself, â€Å"all romances end at marriage. † He also did not believe in the idea of equality, and shared responsibilities in a relationship, as he abandons Fanny with the great burden of an unborn child to deal with alone. This is probably due to his carefree opinion of sex, which he also valued as much as he did love. Troy did not value love as anything special, and this could be put down to the fact that he had a very unstable background, and an uncertain upbringing. His profession would also have something to do with his opinion of women, and as a soldier, he probably never had to deal with women and did not understand them. This is why he tried to possess them, and this destroyed them. Hardy has some very clear opinions that he wishes to get across to the reader in this novel. He uses the characters as tools, to create a picture for the readers, expressing his personal views on love. He rewards those characters that see love as a simple but precious thing, and he shows how much he admires Gabriel Oak for his powers of endurance, by rewarding him with Bathsheba in the end. In contrast, he punishes those characters that take love too lightly. An example of this is the attitude of Troy which end is death in the end. Hardy warns us of the great power of love and how dangerous it can be. The obsession that Boldwood felt for Bathsheba, is another feeling that he condemns, and shows how life can be ruined because of obsession. This is shown by the lifelong imprisonment of Boldwood. Hardy’s opinions of love are really exposed at the end of the novel, when he describes his own thoughts about how truelove can develop. He uses Bathsheba and Gabriel as an example of how true love can develop. They were â€Å"tried friends† who enjoyed â€Å"good-fellowship and comraderie. † The main message Hardy is trying to get across to us is that love cannot hide behind a fake face. He writes that in order for a successful relationship to take place, you must know the â€Å"rougher sides† of each other’s character. This is the love Hardy describes to be â€Å"the only love which is as strong as death- that love which many waters cannot quench, nor the floods drown. â€Å"

Cooper Industries Case

Managerial Policy| Cooper Industries Case | By: Aena Rizvi, Anum Rinch & Rafia Farooqui| | Introduction: In 1833, an iron foundry was founded by Charles and Elias Cooper in Mount Vernon, Ohio. Overtime, Cooper became the market leader in pipeline compression equipment. Cooper Industries was around 150 years old and was mostly involved in the manufacturing of engines and compressors to facilitate the flow of natural gas through pipelines. They began expanding it around 1960s and for that, more than 60 manufacturing companies were acquired in the following 30 years.This came to be known as the process of Cooperization and some re-known companies became a part of the Cooper banner to form a highly successful and profitable business. Timeline of Important events for Cooper: Year| Event| 1833| Charles and Elias Cooper founded an iron foundry in Mount Vernon, Ohio| 1900| Switching to the production of natural gas compressors| 1920| Cooper became the leader in pipeline compression equipment | 1957| Gene Miller was elected as the president| 958| Cooper suffered a cyclical downturn and a corporate raider acquired enough shares to elect two board members| 1961| Miller recruited Robert Cizik as chief assistant for corporate development from Standard Oil| 1965| The company formally adopted the name ‘Cooper Industries’| 1967| Headquarters were moved to Houston| | Diversification began and Cooper acquired Lufkin Rule Company| | Bill Rector was appointed as Corporate Vice President and given capital to develop the Tool Group| 1968| Cooper acquired Crescent Niagara| 969| Cizik became Chief Operating Officer| 1970| Cooper acquired Weller Manufacturing Corporation| | Tool Group set up its headquarters in Apex, North Carolina| | C. Baker Cunningham joined the corporate planning department at Cooper| | Cooper purchased Dallas Air Motive| 1970-1988| Cooper Divested 33 businesses| 1971| Cunningham joined the Tool Group as director finance and introduced a new computer sy stem to manage inventories, sales, shipping and billing for all tool products | 1972| Cooper acquired Nicholson Company| 974| Cooper’s acquisitions had relocated their manufacturing operations to new plants mostly in the South | 1975| Robert Cizik became CEO and formed Corporate Level Manufacturing Services Group| 1976| Cooper purchased Superior, maker of engines and natural gas compressors| 1979| Cooper purchased Gardner-Denver| 1981| Crouse-Hinds was acquired| | Cooper acquired Kirsch| | Cooper sold off its Airmotive Division| | Compression, Drilling and Energy Equipment generated 50% revenues and 60% operating profits| 1984| Purchasing council was established| 1985| Cooper acquired McGraw Edison | 987| Cooper expanded its industrial compressor business by purchasing Joy’s air and turbo compressor business for $140 million| 1988| Cooper was a broadly diversified manufacturer of electrical and general industrial products, and energy-related machinery and equipment| | Electrical and Electronic (E&E) became Cooper’s largest segment, generated 50% corporate sales and 57% operating profits | | Acquisitions in the Tool Group were consolidated and new manufacturing facilities were constructed| | Compression Drilling and Energy Equipment accounted for 21% sales and less than 10% of operating profit|Vision, Mission and Corporate Strategy: Cooper’s success lied in making high quality products that become important input for other products such as turbine compressors. They wanted to be a company with a steady stream of income which is why they always went after ventures that were profitable. They made sure they had no cash flow of liquidity issues just to ensure this. Moreover, they were more interested in being an owning company rather than just a holding company.To make sure of this they made their acquired companies adapt to their benefit plans etc so that the whole organization on a whole is consistent in policy making. They even made su re that they were deeply involved in all the acquisitions they made so that they do not end up making mistakes by acquiring a wrong company. Cooper’s President, Gene Miller’s ideology was to not restrict operations to the production of engines only. This was reflected in the business decisions when Cooper began to diversify and widen its product ranges.Cooper’s acquisition strategies were well planned and they were not left to the professional managers on the grounds that they could do justice to any product categories or manufacturing processes. Great importance was given on understanding the culture and customs of the areas in which Cooper operated and diversification only took place when the prospects looked profitable. There was a limit to diversification and special attention was paid to the timing of acquisitions. Most of the companies that Cooper aimed at acquiring were market leaders who maintained records of high quality manufacturing.Cooper’s jo urney was not about acquisitions and additions only. After a business had served its useful purpose, it was divested because clinging to the past would only reduce chances of future success. Between 1970 and 1988, Cooper divested 33 businesses. Cooper also ventured into the aircraft service business by purchasing Dallas Airmotive which was mainly involved in the repair and lease of jet engines as well as the distribution of aircraft parts and supplies. After this, Cooper turned to its Energy Division and concentrated all its efforts there.Energy Divisions’ rising profits made up for the falling sales of hand tools. Cooper’s biggest merger was the purchase of Gardner-Denver, which was equal in size to Cooper and manufactured machinery for petroleum exploration, mining and general construction. One advantage of this merger was that Cooper’s needs of exploration; production, transmission, distribution and storage for oil and natural gas were met. However there were some problems with Gardner-Denver too as it was a company that lacked planning and control and its sales force was not motivated enough to steer the company in the ight direction. Unlike Cooper, the management style at Gardner-Denver was too centralized. Cooper had to change all these things subsequently in order to align Gardner-Denver with the values and business practices of Cooper industries. By late 1970’s Cooper came up with the ‘acquisition by necessity’ idea when it was acquiring Colorado Fuel & Iron (CF&I) which mainly took place because CF&I has stopped producing 1095 Steel and it was really expensive for Cooper to buy it from another German company.Crouse-Hinds was another crucial acquisition in the history of Cooper and in the words of Mr. Cizik, this was a ‘true diversification’ as compared to that of Gardner-Denver which was more of a complimentary nature. However the Crouse-Hinds acquisition was criticized on the grounds that it reduc ed Cooper’s exposure to the booming oil and gas industry. Cooper built a reputation in the electrical industry such that it came under the ambit of one of the best-managed companies. Some of Cooper’s acquisitions looked decisive such as the purchase of Kirsch (world’s largest manufacturer of drapery hardware).But actually they were not based on impulse and such opportunities are normally short-lived. Had Cooper not taken advantage of such opportunities then some other company would have. Cooper had a very flexible management style unlike other companies and it consolidated most of its acquisitions in order to maintain uniformity. Manufacturing Services Group made Cooper a quality conscious company that had state of the art Management Information Systems. It used benchmarking and cross-referencing to improve the production methods.Manufacturing Services Group also initiated training of engineering school graduates and this equipped the employees at Cooper with th e necessary skills. Cooper followed the Hay system for salaries and people with the same ranks throughout the organization had similar salaries. These salaries were at par with the industry average. EVP’s at Cooper had a management-by-exception philosophy and they only interfered in the management of a division if its performance suffered or when the division violated the boundaries set by the strategic planning process.Cooper believed that ‘cash-flow is king’ because a strong cash flow position enables Cooper to pursue acquisitions. SWOT Analysis Strengths| Weaknesses| * Highly diversified hence lower risk * Acquisition of market leaders was done based on research and not on impulse. * It had a flexible management style * Understood the cultures and customs of the areas in which it operated * Divested businesses that served their useful purpose * Focus on profitability led to the success of the firm * Due to numerous acquisitions, $1. 8 billion of Cooper’ s $1. 77 billion stockholder’s equity was goodwill| * ‘Lean and mean’ cost structure due to which many RTE senior managers left within a year after acquisition * Cooper exercised centralized control over corporate policy * Cooper retained too much control with itself which is evident in its control on working capital * Too much focus on profitability| Opportunities| Threats| * Manufacturing Services Group will make Cooper a leader in manufacturing functions. Due to Management Development and Planning, Cooper has a very rich organizational culture and hence more successful market leaders would be willing to merge with Cooper in the future. | * Downturns in industries such as electrical industry can make Cooper resort to cost cutting and layoffs rigidly. * After a merger or acquisition Cooper requires the new company to adopt its benefits package for medical insurance and pensions which leads to dissatisfaction and may make Cooper known as a conservative company|Co nclusion: Cooper remained a market leader in pipeline compressors and engines. It has always focused on being identified as a quality company and pursued only those companies for acquisitions and mergers that were market leaders, had strong core competencies and were successful in their respective industries. It had an eye for rewarding opportunities and took full advantage of them when came across one of these.