Reflective learning journal

Reflective learning journal Reflective learning journal It is time to write the Reflective learning Journal at the end of this semester to conclude what we have learned from the Economics and Finance Engagement Project. Through reading outline, I realized that there was a great difference with other courses. First, almost all courses have mid-term exam and final exam; however, there are no any examinations in this course. Second, course arrangement is two hours in lecture and one hour in tutorial in other courses, while there is half an hour meeting with clients project sponsor in this course and two hours in group discussion. At the beginning of this course I felt that it would be simpler compared with other courses. In fact, I was wrong. I need to spend more time on this subject. Each week our group has group meeting in Cabramatta library, discussion always continue on two hours or the whole afternoon. After discussion, each member needs to spend long time on researching materials in internet and evaluating them. Although the process is hard, the result is wonderful. After the efforts of our teammates, our group has accomplished tenders and final reports on time. The communication skills, learning styles, information literacy, and data analysis has greatly improved through three months studying; it will be helpful for my postgraduate study and future works. In the tender documents I have mentioned that there are three units relevant to the project which is Investment, Project Management, and Statistics. Investment is relevant in regards to milestone seven which documents the retail and commercial opportunities Fairfield has in attracting office space leavers from Parramatta and Liverpool. Project Management is highly relevant to this project as time planning, material organizing, data analyzing, time controlling is all very crucial in ensuring the project successful and achieving all its objectives and milestones. Statistics is quite helpful as the project will need charts and tables to compare data and statistics and hence evaluate them. When our group has completed all the tasks, I found that Project Management plays the greatest role with the other two units. Investment theory is applied to the milestone seven. It is just recommends investors how to catch the opportunity in disadvantage situation. I mean that Fairfield has lowest pri ce, lowest quality and hardest to get transportation compared to Parramatta and Liverpool, why investors choose Fairfield rather than Parramatta or Liverpool? It is necessary to use investment theory to evaluate them. We have draw lots of charts and tables in the final reports to compare data, but the data analysis and evaluation are reflected from the Project Management. It can be said that project management in the tenders and final reports played a leading role in this project. Project Management tell us how to collect enough information in limited time, how to filter the most significant points from complex information. Although these three units play an important role in tenders and final reports, other economic and finance content is still need to add. For example, Macroeconomic and Market Model knowledge is widely used in final reports. Macroeconomics is a course that combined with the reality of the economic situation and development trend of the world. Our group found that there are a lot of retail rental advertisements in Parramatta, Liverpool, and Fairfield. The historic data show that the number of retail rental advertisements increasing in recent months. Whats more, the rent is cheaper than before. This fact is meeting to world economic situation. All we know that the world economics face to the hugest downturn in 21 century, during the financial crisis, many banks and large companies have declared bankruptcy. In Australia the impact of financial crisis is also considerable. The unemployment rate goes up nearly twice. Many small business investors are forced to give up their own business. It is quite normal that there are a lot of vacant retail stores in real estate agent website. Market Model is extremely relevant to the project; in particular the final objective where the concepts and strategies obtained in Marketing Principles will need to be implemented to evaluate the opportunities that Fairfield LGA has in attracting potential office space l eavers from Liverpool and Parramatta as well as introducing specific techniques to ensure this occurs. Macroeconomic have been learned in my sophomore, but Market principle have not learned now. In addition to, I think library is a good place for researching, discussion, studying. I can find any book I want to it. Except for the theories of economics, other learning skills and language abilities is especially needed for foreign student. Overseas students have to face language and cultural differences problem, for example, when I first meeting to the word â€Å"tender†, I confused it. I can not understand what the Chinese meaning of this word. My teammates explain the meaning of this word clearly for me. Overall, I still lack of sufficient knowledge to finish this course perfectly, it is force me to study harder and master more knowledge. Even if I have learned sufficient economic and finance knowledge, the emotion changes still have enormous impact on my learning. Particular to an overseas student who just arrived in Australia six months, it is very important for me to adjust psychological change. When I first meet this course I have a great interest in this project, each member of our group have enough enthusiasm to complete our own milestone. It is normal that disgusted with the project occasionally, because I must do lots of job in one day that included another subject assignment. This situation raises the pressure, and these pressures may come from learning, life and finance. For example, I accepted the East education nearly 15 years, so it is difficult for us to truly integrate into Western societies. What more, before I came to Australia, my parent give me lots of help when I needed. Without parents support, I am afraid to face some problem. On the other hand, I have to face language and cultural differences. I must thank our teachers spend long time on our foreign students and provide particularly concerns sometimes. I have improved myself a lot after I arrived in Australia. I was a shy, introverted student, and even performed unconfident sometimes. I would not like discussing with other group members at first. However, through four month communication, I have slowly started to change myself. I would like to talk with my teammates when I confused some problems and other life problems. So I really want to appreciate our group members, thanks for their serious, hard-working, humorous, and enthusiastic attitude to me. On one occasion, I should be completed my task that belong to my part, unfortunately, I must move house that day. I was so busy that I cleaned my home until 12 pm, it is really felt tried. When I intend to start my task, team leader send the SMS to me told me that I must be very tired for moving house, they have finished my part. I am really very grateful for their help. Both learning styles and education styles have different way in China and Australia. Although this is my first time experience the Western education, I already known that there are huge differences between Eastern educations with Western educations. Firstly, the different way was from the teaching methods. When I see our teacher Ingrid sitting at the table directly during the first class. It is amazing for me, because it looks like impolite for students in china. In fact, I find that the teachers purpose is wants to communicate with students more closely. However, this teaching method is impossible happened in China. In China every classroom has the podium and a blackboard in high school or university. The teacher is used to stand on the podium during the class. Secondly, from the student point of view, the distinction is even more apparent. If students meet problem in the class, we are willing to raise our hands to answer questions after the teachers permission or directly ask the teach er after the class finished. It is impolite for student to interrupt teacher lecture. Student need to keep silent in class in order to not disrupt teachers thinking. In Australia, I find every student is concentrated and activity in the class. Students can ask any questions without teachers permission in the class. For example, if any student feels their thoughts or ideas not the same as teachers idea, student will be asked it directly. However, It is a pity that teacher have to force student to answer questions in China, whats more, no one wants to give the answer even someone know the solution. Thirdly, there are few group discussions or group meeting in senior school or university in China. Even there is one group discussion in one semester which is a choice to chat with another topic that no relation with teachers topic. Whats more, most of students do not cherish these opportunities. All assignment completed independent by the most excellent students in the group without any as sistance. In fact, group meeting is important and useful in research or business. It is a good way to improve our team spirit. Reading and reference and that Chinese girl provide a lot of help. I have acknowledged some of the theories that I did not know. For example, from the Goldsteins article† Service Learning and Teaching about Globalization, I learned that Service and Activist learning(SAL)is a way that analyze social problem by corporate with community, many students were attracted who hope the world be better in the future. Other opinion is that Globalization is not just the region different from north to south, and that combined with winners and losers in both economic worlds. In another article â€Å"Increasing Creativity in Economics: The Service Learning Project† by Hervani and Helms. In the figure 2 Service learning pedagogy: Steps and implementation procedure, it looks like our course procedure. I also understand that the profit of this project is a good chance for developing the critical thinking skills such as analysis, synthesis and evaluation. Our research topic relevant to soci al, I realized that there are lots of social problem still waiting for us to deal with them after research. The key values of service learning project are to improve the social awareness and caring, responsibility, accountability, critical thinking, creativity and active learning. That Chinese girl provides us lots of useful information, teaching us how to do the tender document, which part we should be attention to. In conclusion, I want to appreciate again our teachers Ingrid and Julianne, our teammates Brian, Ian, Linh, Kim and other people who always help me. Overseas students really have different experience with local students. From China to Australia is a very hard experience. First of all, we need to get great results in domestic examination. Followed by we spend long time to prepare for Ielts test, whats more, no one can guarantee your Ielts test result will be able to achieve what you wanted result, some students test 2 times, even more than 4 times 5 times. Visa through Australia government is also complex issues that we need to provide detailed information and sufficient finance source. Duration for Visa always last on one month. It can be said that overseas students harder than domestic students. So I cherished the opportunity to learn as much as possible I can.

Japanese Asset Price Bubble

Japanese Asset Price Bubble Introduction A financial crisis is said to happen when an asset loses a huge part of its face value. This can prompt to an extensive variety of hostile outcomes such as currency crashes, fall in output and as worse as sovereign defaults. Such striking emergencies have been happening since fourth century BC and have proceeded on various scales and levels. Among various crises, the Japanese asset price bubble was one of the greatest financial bubbles in history with incredibly increased stock and real estate prices. It is believed that the Japanese possess an ability to develop what they receive from the Americans. Unfortunately, the Japanese have taken up on crashes as well and made theirs much bigger than that of America. This price bubble broke down in early 1992. The bubble was characterized by rapid increase of asset prices and overheated monetary movement, and additionally an uncontrolled cash supply and credit expansion. All the more particularly, over-confidence and conjecture regarding asset and stock prices had been closely connected with extreme monetary easing policy at that time. By August 1990, the Nikkei stock index had plunged to a large portion of its crest by the time of the fifth monetary tightening by the Bank of Japan. By late 1991, prices of asset started to decline. Despite the fact that asset prices had clearly collapsed by mid 1992, the economys decline proceeded for over 10 years. This decline brought about an enormous aggregation of non-performing assets loans (NPL), bringing on challenges for various financial institutions. The bursting of the Japanese asset price bubble added to what many call the Lost Decade. Main Causes That Led To The Crisis Japans exceptionally traditional society faced substantial changes after they were defeated in the Second World War due, to a limited extent, to the Westernizing impacts of the possessing Allied Forces (Molasky, 1999). Post World War 2, Japans booming export economy and strict fiscal strategies that were intended to encourage household savings brought about a cash surplus in the nations banking framework that in the long run prompted to more lenient lending. The nations solid exchange surpluses and the Plaza Accord in 1985, which sought to debilitate the U.S. dollar against the Yen and German Deutsche Mark, made the Yen currency to appreciate against different currencies, which thus made foreign capital investments comparatively modest for Japanese organizations. The blend of abundance liquidity in the banking system, financial deregulation and the nations export miracle inevitably prompted to overconfidence and over extravagance in Japans economy, which turned into the second biggest economy on the planet after the USA in only a couple of decades. Banks began to take extreme risks that were partly funded by 186 trillion worth of Yen acquired from different capital markets. The Japanese stock price index started to ascend in the early 1980s and kept on ascending to more than five circumstances the 1980 level. Then, from 1990 it started a long stretch of decline with medium-term variations. From 1985 to 1989, Japan saw an increase in Nikkei stock index to 39,000, which was three times of the 1985 level and accounted for more than one third of the worlds stock market capitalization (Economist, 2011). The Japanese land saw similar price movements however with little amplitude. The average land price witnessed an increase an increase that was double the previous price. One year later, in 1991, the land price began to decline. There were various events that are considered responsible for causing the asset price bubble in Japan. Fukao (2001) and Kamigawa (2001) both consider financial deregulation as one of the major factors responsible in creating a favourable environment for a land price bubble, allowing firms to borrow severely in order to invest in commercial real estate, golf courses, private land and golf club memberships for households. The increasing growth in terms of Japanese asset prices is firmly linked with a noteworthy fall in short-term interest rates, between 1986 and 1987. The Bank of Japan had dropped the official discount rate from 5.00% to 2.50%. The official discount rate stayed unaltered until May 30, 1989. Post 1991, the land showed a decline and kept on falling till mid 1998, triggering the quality of loans to the real estate industry to worsen significantly. Besides, collateral value declined as before 1991, borrowers could acquire up to 90% of their land security, which dropped to half from 1991 to 1998, leaving 40% of such credits revealed. Loans to industries with land as their collateral became non-performing, leading to the bad-loan problem of Japanese banks (Hoshi 2001). The value of problem debt was recalculated by Financial Supervisory Agency (FSA) as 123 trillion yen (Lincoln 1998), raising the ratio of bad debt to GDP to 25 percent. Impact of Japanese Asset Price Bubble The years from 1991 to 2000 are referred to as the Lost 10 Years or the Lost Decade in which the Japanese asset price bubble collapsed within its economy. The explosion of the Japanese Asset Price Bubble activated materialization of adverse effects, which made the structural adjustment further arduous, thereby leading to a downward move in growth trend in the 1990s. This further reduced the asset price beyond the boom-bust cycle. It took longer to recover from the impact of these events because the new conditions imposed by the new environment were not favourable to the Japanese management style at that time. In this incident, the economy undesirably failed to resuscitate. Although, in the beginning there was a recovery in spending due to the instantaneous impact of the consumption tax hike wore off. Unfortunately, in late 1997 output toppled again and remained to fall all along the whole year of 1998. Japan had experienced the worst recession due to this downturn. After the consumption tax hike in 1997, the unexpected shock led to a terrible reduction in household spending. Also, in the later part of the year, weakness was aggravated due to the financial factors which consisted of several failures of the large firms as well as the failure of the major banks. Moreover, the increased in crisis in emerging markets of Asia disable external demand which led to additional blow to confidence. Even though there was a shift towards macroeconomic policies yet recession perpetuated 1998. In the beginning of the 1999, the interest rates were taken down to nearly zero and consistent amount of fiscal stimulus embossed fiscal deficit of general government to about 10 percentage of GDP. At last, in 1999 the economy again started to recoup. The turnaround was started by a blast of open venture spending ahead of schedule in the year and recuperation of buyer confidence as compelling activity by the government to manage feeble banks and infuse public capital into the banking system mitigated fears of financial crisis. Nonetheless, a rapid increase in the yen from its low point in mid-1998, connected to a limited extent to external improvements and in addition enhancing sentiment about the Japanese economy, has raised worries about the effect on the still delicate recuperation and prompted to calls for further facilitating of monetary policy even though short-term interest rates are a s of now practically at zero. Furthermore, a wide scale of Japanese economy is until now recuperating from the effects of the 1991 collapse. Japan also lacked in terms of producing a significant level of output per capita. In 1991, Japan had a higher percentage than Australia in real output per capita but unfortunately in 2011 Japan was overpowered by Australia. Japan was a global leader in gross output as well as labour efficiency. However, in a period of 20 years, Japan was overtaken in both the areas. Moreover, it costed them 12 excruciating years for Japans economy to revive back to its original level as was in 1995. Policy Response to The Crisis Initially the Ministry of Finance of Japan implemented a policy that aimed at safeguarding the weak banks through regulatory forbearance as well as other forms of monetary support while buying time for an anticipated revival of the economy and asset prices. The very first bank failure to take place in the post war period in Japan was the crash of Toho Sogo Bank in 1991. This was followed by collapse of other small financial institutions in 1995-1996. However, in those years, the government shelled out JPY 680 billion to help the jusen and non-banking housing loan companies to recover. This policy came under a lot of criticism as it aimed at aiding only the nonbanking financial institutions. In the June of 1996, the Deposit Insurance law was amended to bolster the deposit insurance system that consisted of a brief suspension of limits on deposit protection which was initially till March 2001 but was later extended to 2002 after which it was further prolonged till March 2005. The amendment of the Deposit Insurance Law also led to an increment in the insurance premium from 0.012% to around 0.84% on all deposits that were outstanding. This was primarily done to manage the problems of credit cooperatives instead of the major banks. In the December of 1997, the government declared that up to JPY 30 trillion of public funds will be made accessible to the Deposit Insurance Corporation of Japan (DICJ) by 1998 March. This consisted of JPY 13 trillion to revitalize the bank balance sheets while JPY 17 trillion were to boost the deposit insurance system. The funds were increased to a total of JPY 60 trillion which was higher than 12% of the countrys GDP to assist the banks in 1998 October. In March 1998, 21 prime banks were rendered with JPY 1.8 trillion to help them meet the requisite capital adequacy standards. Regardless, the government interceded to aid two major banks namely Nippon Credit bank and the Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan which had to be provisionally nationalized in October 1998 as they faced difficulty in managing their loan portfolio post the bubble period. However, JPY 1.8 trillion was not sufficient to completely revive the ailing banking system. Thus, the government injected JPY 7.5 trillion more funds into 15 banks by the March of 1999. By the April of 1999, the banking system experienced a little stability for the first time after the lost decade and the Japan Premium reduced considerably. An authorized inspection manual was released by the Financial Regulatory Authority which enforced the banks to endorse stricter asset classification of NPLs. The Bank of Japan decided to implement a zero-interest rate policy (ZIRP), after nearly two decades of stagnant growth rate, to tackle the deflation and boost up the economy. ZIRP is a technique to keep the interest rate close to zero while at the same time triggering economic growth. The Central Bank, under this policy, cannot reduce interest rates anymore thus leaving the traditional monetary policy futile. Thus, the unconventional monetary policy like quantitative easing is used effectively to expand the monetary base. In 1991, the consumption and investment looked promising. The GDP growth rate was up by 3% while the interest rates were secure at 6%. However, after the tumbling of the stock prices in 1992, the Japanese economy experienced stagnation. The Consumer Price Index, a standard to measure inflation rate, fell from 2% to 0% by 1995, at the same time the period interest rates plunged to 0%. Therefore, the ZIRP was unable to revive the economy from deflation and stagnation hence leading japan into a liquidity trap. Despite the unsuccessful run of the ZIRP, this policy is still used in Japan till date. Lessons Learnt and What Could Have Been Done Differently The after math of the crisis led to the zombie decade. An era in the Japanese economy that took years to overcome once the bubble burst. There were many lessons that could be learnt from the collapse of the bubble. These can be classified into two categories. The first one being the lessons that were learnt towards the prevention of the bubble and the second being the lessons learnt from the handling of the bubble. This section will analyse the ramification the bubble had and how such an incident could be avoided in the future. It is always important to gauge the sustainability of economic and financial systems while assessing economic risks. During the bubble period, there was no stress testing when it came to the banking system. This can be seen through the analytical value of risk (VaR) done by Shimizi and Shiratsuka (2000) to predict the magnitude of non-performing assets in the Japanese banking system. It is essential for banks and central banks to perform stress tests to prevent further collapses through the formation of bubbles. Although it is necessary for banks to restructure their debt, it is essential to note that if zombie firms stick around in the market, the shrinkage of the businesses will be lasting. Caballero, Hoshi and Kashyap (2008). The central banks can act pre-emptively when it comes to matters of potential inflationary pressure Bernanke and Gertler (1999). There was an excessive amount of inflationary pressure that existed in the Japanese economy. Taylor (1993) gave the rule, named the Taylor rule as a guide post for central banks to deal with asset price fluctuations. According to the Taylor Rule, the operational target levels of interest rates must be set based on the divergence of the output gap and the inflation rate when held at equilibrium. During the end of the bubble there was an upswing in the money supply and credit and not much attention was given to it. This is an indicator to signal an increase in interest rates; which the Bank of Japan did not pay heed to. Therefore, it is significant to pay close attention to the conduct of the monetary policy in avoiding unpleasantness in the economy. There was a lack of regulation in the part of the government in managing credit risk products. To gauge the extent of a banking crisis, the total amount of loan losses should be aggregated at the earliest. This gives the agencies and policy makers an idea about the extent of the crisis and act accordingly. Fuji and Kawai(2010) suggested that once the value of NPLs has been gauged, recapitalization should be done at a faster rate than it was conducted in Japan. According to Caballero, Hoshi and Kashyap (2008), theoretically, this is possible, but practically it takes longer and most of the publicly funded recapitalization programs need parliamentary/senate approval so at times it is too late as the market developments outpace the recapitalization process. Steps Taken to Prevent Similar Crisis There has been various crises after the crisis in Japan, but the lessons learnt here have been implemented across the world to mitigate the effect of crisis or to prevent them to some extent. Krugman (1998) said that the Japanese Asset Bubble Crisis was like a full dress rehearsal or a blue print for prevention and handling of further crisis. He was right in saying so. The policies and the measures taken were mirrored and implemented across the world, most notably in Sweden, Germany, USA, and England. IMF also departed from its austerity stance for an expansionary fiscal and monetary policy. The European Central Bank implemented a series of Quantitative Easing programs. In Sweden, the vice president of the Swedish Central Bank, Riksbank implemented one of the most expansionary monetary policies as a counter to the crisis in the US. The interest rates were dropped from 4.5% to 0.25%. Currently, they are negative, which could be considered as a repercussion of the policy implemented. The quick and unconventional response aided the economy during the time of crisis. Elmer, Nessen, Guibourg, and Kjelleberg(2012) The US and Japan, both have a negative feedback loop when it comes to the economy. Although the economic conditions across the globe were different when both the crisis are compared, but it almost seemed like dà ©jà   vu, when it came to dealing with the crisis. Both countries had taken similar measures, although the US was quicker in implementing it. The USA adopted the policy of public capital injections quicker, thus preventing the crisis from becoming deeper and more severe. On the monetary policy front, the US had been more aggressive in lowering rates. Shirakawa (2008). In 2015, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi implemented quantitative easing. This was done to revitalise the EU economy, wake it up from the slump it was undergoing, to stimulate the depreciating Euro and counter deflation. Although it had many critics, it has been successful and has helped in preventing a full-blown crisis. Conclusion The research study of the crisis suggests that the government of Japan failed in handling the banking sector issues in 1990s in a timely and critical manner since the crisis developed slowly and the gravity of the matter was underestimated. The government had a positive prediction for the growth while no domestic or external pressure prevailed during that time as well as there was a lack of a systematic legal framework to aid ailing banks. However, post the crisis, the authorities became more assertive in dealing with the problems. Several policies were introduced by the government to help revive the economy. They also implemented an extensive legal framework for bank resolution to help the distressed banks. Essentially, deterioration of the real economy can lead to another round of financial crisis, which can further damage the real economy. If the authorities do not address the banking sector problem promptly, then the crisis may prolong, and a full-fledged economic recovery will be significantly delayed. This could result in a lost decade for the economy. References Fujii, K., Fujii, M. and Kawai, M. (2010) ADBI working paper 222 Asian development bank institute. Available at: https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/156077/adbi-wp222.pdf (Accessed: 19 February 2017). Fund, I.M. (2000) Post-bubble blueshow Japan responded to asset price collapse. Available at: https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/nft/2000/bubble/ (Accessed: 19 February 2017). Nath, T. (2015) What is Zero interest-rate policy (ZIRP)?, in Available at: http://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/031815/what-zero-interestrate-policy-zirp.asp (Accessed: 19 February 2017). Bubble burst (no date) Available at: http://www.grips.ac.jp/teacher/oono/hp/lecture_J/lec13.htm (Accessed: 19 February 2017). compuirv (2017) The Japanese deflation myth à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ inflation matters. Available at: http://inflationmatters.com/japanese-deflation-myth/ (Accessed: 19 February 2017). JAPANS BUBBLE ECONOMY (1992) Available at: http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/bubble.htm (Accessed: 19 February 2017). Japans bubble economy of the 1980s (2017) Available at: http://www.thebubblebubble.com/japan-bubble/ (Accessed: 19 February 2017). Revolvy, L. (no date) Japanese asset price bubble on Revolvy.Com. Available at: https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Japanese%20asset%20price%20bubbleitem_type=topic (Accessed: 19 February 2017). The causes of the Japanese lost decade: An extension of graduate thesis (no date) Available at: http://daigakuin.soka.ac.jp/assets/files/pdf/major/kiyou/16_keizai3.pdf (Accessed: 19 February 2017).

When a Flower Blossoms :: essays research papers

When a Flower Blossoms   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  William Shakespeare addresses the question of identity in The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark through the characters of Hamlet and Ophelia. Although the play is centered on Hamlet’s struggle for identity, a more important issue is addressed through Ophelias’ struggle. She is ignored and left alone to find the truth about what it means to become a woman, while Hamlet receives constant concern while struggling with his identity issues as an adult. Her struggle of identity may be similar to his, but it is different in that she is not a man, but an adolescent girl who lives in a society that revolves around men. The dysfunction of her family, deterioration of her intimate relationship, ultimate death of her father, and absence of a mother figure worsen her internal struggles. She is an adolescent facing the internal conflicts of acceptance, identity, and self-worth, which commonly plague pubescent girls. Puberty for a young girl is perhaps the most difficult time of life, and is often misunderstood by adults. In society, men receive more concern than women do as they struggle to adulthood, which is demonstrated through the character of Hamlet. Adolescent girls often feel confused about their bodies and identity in that they are becoming different from boys for the first time. In Ophelia’s case, she is left completely alone to figure out what is happening to her body and to understand her emotions. If Ophelia were a man or a pubescent boy struggling with identity as is seen in Hamlet throughout the play, she possibly would have survived these tragic situations.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The most devastating moment for her was when Hamlet no longer appeared to be her safe haven. She thought that she could trust him and some how he would help her get through her confusion of adolescence, and therefore, make her way to adulthood. She proves her naivete in the way she reacts to him when he attacks her in her room and she does not fight back, but instead runs to her father, Polonius, for comfort and safety. His motives as a father are not what they need to be to help her understand what has just happened to her. Instead of comforting or explaining to her what has happened, he feels that he needs to defend the idea of her being a whore, and more importantly his ability to raise an upstanding young woman.

Continental Carriers, Inc. :: Finance Advanced Financial Management

Continental Carriers, Inc. (This is not an essay. This paper responds to each of the comments raised by the five members of the board.) Continental Carriers, Inc. (CCI) should take on the long-term debt to finance the acquisition of Midland Freight, Inc. for a few reasons. The company is heavy on assets, the debt ratio will only grow to 0.40 with the added $50M in debt. Also, the firm will benefit from an added $2M in a tax shield and be able to return $12.7M a year to its stockholders and investors, instead of $8.9M if equity is raised to finance the acquisition. Lastly, the stock price and earnings per share will increase to $3.87 in comparison to an equity-financed acquisition of $2.72 per share. CCI would be taking a somewhat high risk by issuing additional stock due to the uncertainty about the offering price. Having a low P/E ratio with respect to the rest of the market, and the replacement cost of the firm being greater than its book value (argument 3), there is a good chance that the current stock price and the proposed offering prices are too low. Although long-term debt is a better financing choice a few of the drawbacks are pointed out. Debt holders claim profit before equity holders, so the chance that profits may be lower than expected, increases risk to equity may reduce or impede stock value. However, in extreme financial situations such as a recession period, CCI would still be able to increase its cash during a recession period with all debt capital structure. Also, there is a remaining 12.5 million that would have to be paid at the expiration of the bonds, but that could be paid off by issuing new bonds or additional equity at that time. Five members of the board raised comments that have been addressed as follows: 1. The argument of the debt financing being a risky venture since the proposition was to pay out to a sinking fund does not make sense. Over the course of the next seven years, CCI had a historical growth in revenue of 9%. This growth along with the $2M tax shelter would easily pay for the sinking fund. In addition, by buying back bonds annually, the interest expense is further decreased, thus creating less of a burden on the cash flow. In contrast, an equity-financed acquisition would spread the net income out over 3 million more shares, thereby reducing the dividend pay-out to shareholders. 2. Another director argued that with equity financing, the shareholders will yield a 10% EBIT of $5M. Furthermore, this director posited that 3 million shares at $1.

Is Charlies Operation a Success? Essay example -- English Literature

Is Charlie's Operation a Success? Many medical operations are performed everyday, and sometimes they can change a person’s life forever. They can alter the way a person thinks or their personality traits. Picture someone who is so determined to become smart, that they risk their own life for it. It could be just for a moment, their whole life, or it could not even work. In the book, Flowers for Algernon, Charlie Gordon did just this. He was a 32-year-old mentally challenged man, who worked at Donner’s Bakery as a janitor. Charlie risked his life in order to have an experimental operation, which could potentially make him smart forever and raise his IQ to above average or to the level of a genius. The operation that Charlie underwent had many consequences, and he had to pay a sad price for trying to get smarter. Charlie’s operation was unsuccessful because he experienced painful flashbacks concerning his childhood, it caused a dramatic change to his personality in comparison to what he was prior to his operation, and he also suffered from loneliness. Firstly, Charlie’s operation made him have many upsetting nightmares, like remembering painful memories of his childhood. As a child, children took advantage of Charlie, because he was mentally challenged. Even his mother and sister made fun of him, and were ashamed to be related to him. One particularly painful memory happened on Valentine’s Day. All the boys, including Charlie, had feelings for a girl named Harriet. Charlie wanted to give Harriet a card, so he asked one of his schoolmates, Hymie, to write, â€Å"Dear Harriet, I think you are the most prettiest girl in the whole world. I like you very much and I love you. I want you to be my valentime. Your friend, Charlie Gordon.† Hymie took advantage of the situation and wrote something dirty to make Harriet think that Charlie was a perverted person. Charlie did not realize what Hymie had done, and he gave the card to Harriet. She got mad at him, and her two older brothers, Gus and Oscar, beat up Charlie and k nocked his teeth out. This incident caused Charlie to move to a new school. (Keyes 37-38). Charlie was an innocent boy, and his fellow schoolmates took advantage of him. They caused him to move schools for no fault of his own. Similar to that situation, was a flashback Charlie had of his mother and sister who treated him like trash. Charlie’s mother, ... ...lity in comparison to what he was before he had the operation, and it also caused him to suffer from loneliness. Due to all of the negative effects of the operation, Charlie’s intelligence deteriorated, and he made the wise decision to stay at the Warren Home School. Charlie would have been better off without the experimental operation to make him smarter, because he would not have lost his friends, he would maintain his friendly personality, and he could continue to live the life he liked to live. The operation messed up Charlie’s life and caused him to lose everything he possessed. He always thought that people who were smart had more friends, but it turned out that after his operation, he lost all his friends and this proved his statement wrong. He describes this well when he says, â€Å"When I was retarded I had lots of friends. Now I have no one. † (Keyes 174). He realized that it is who ‘you are’ that takes to have a lot of friends. It is b est not to tamper with God’s creation and let things happen naturally. Whether good or bad happens in your life, you must have faith and trust in the plans that God has in store for everyone, or one day, people could end up like Charlie Gordon. Is Charlie's Operation a Success? Essay example -- English Literature Is Charlie's Operation a Success? Many medical operations are performed everyday, and sometimes they can change a person’s life forever. They can alter the way a person thinks or their personality traits. Picture someone who is so determined to become smart, that they risk their own life for it. It could be just for a moment, their whole life, or it could not even work. In the book, Flowers for Algernon, Charlie Gordon did just this. He was a 32-year-old mentally challenged man, who worked at Donner’s Bakery as a janitor. Charlie risked his life in order to have an experimental operation, which could potentially make him smart forever and raise his IQ to above average or to the level of a genius. The operation that Charlie underwent had many consequences, and he had to pay a sad price for trying to get smarter. Charlie’s operation was unsuccessful because he experienced painful flashbacks concerning his childhood, it caused a dramatic change to his personality in comparison to what he was prior to his operation, and he also suffered from loneliness. Firstly, Charlie’s operation made him have many upsetting nightmares, like remembering painful memories of his childhood. As a child, children took advantage of Charlie, because he was mentally challenged. Even his mother and sister made fun of him, and were ashamed to be related to him. One particularly painful memory happened on Valentine’s Day. All the boys, including Charlie, had feelings for a girl named Harriet. Charlie wanted to give Harriet a card, so he asked one of his schoolmates, Hymie, to write, â€Å"Dear Harriet, I think you are the most prettiest girl in the whole world. I like you very much and I love you. I want you to be my valentime. Your friend, Charlie Gordon.† Hymie took advantage of the situation and wrote something dirty to make Harriet think that Charlie was a perverted person. Charlie did not realize what Hymie had done, and he gave the card to Harriet. She got mad at him, and her two older brothers, Gus and Oscar, beat up Charlie and k nocked his teeth out. This incident caused Charlie to move to a new school. (Keyes 37-38). Charlie was an innocent boy, and his fellow schoolmates took advantage of him. They caused him to move schools for no fault of his own. Similar to that situation, was a flashback Charlie had of his mother and sister who treated him like trash. Charlie’s mother, ... ...lity in comparison to what he was before he had the operation, and it also caused him to suffer from loneliness. Due to all of the negative effects of the operation, Charlie’s intelligence deteriorated, and he made the wise decision to stay at the Warren Home School. Charlie would have been better off without the experimental operation to make him smarter, because he would not have lost his friends, he would maintain his friendly personality, and he could continue to live the life he liked to live. The operation messed up Charlie’s life and caused him to lose everything he possessed. He always thought that people who were smart had more friends, but it turned out that after his operation, he lost all his friends and this proved his statement wrong. He describes this well when he says, â€Å"When I was retarded I had lots of friends. Now I have no one. † (Keyes 174). He realized that it is who ‘you are’ that takes to have a lot of friends. It is b est not to tamper with God’s creation and let things happen naturally. Whether good or bad happens in your life, you must have faith and trust in the plans that God has in store for everyone, or one day, people could end up like Charlie Gordon.

Marketing Plan for Redbox Essay

Redbox is a DVD/Blu-Ray rental company which utilizes kiosk machines placed in convenient, high-traffic locations. The first Redbox kiosk was opened by McDonald’s in 2002. Redbox was later purchased by Coinstar, Inc. , and over the years, Redbox has rented over one billion movies and has grown to more than 27,000 locations in restaurants, grocery stores, pharmacies and convenience stores nationwide. Redbox proves to be a very unique way to rent DVD’s and by the nature of Redbox’s rental process, most businesses would benefit from the increased traffic generated by having a kiosk machine at their location. This type of relationship proves to be a win-win situation for both Redbox and the businesses which are housing the kiosk machine. Redbox’s primary target market proves to be the busy, I don’t have time to visit Blockbuster or login to Netflix type of consumer. There kiosk machines are located in common shopping locations which lend themselves to the â€Å"lazy† consumer. Furthermore, Redbox is also targeting the casual movie watcher who isn’t necessarily intending on renting a movie. In a way Redbox has turned renting movies into an impulse item. As a result, Redbox provides consumers with a service never seen before and has emerged as one of the largest DVD rental chains in the world. Redbox’s marketing mix is simple, unique, and clever. They have successfully turned a shopping item into a convenience item. Times have changed since the first movie rental store, Magnetic Video, was opened during 1977 in Los Angeles, California. During that time home personal computers were barely seen and the internet was nowhere on the horizon, so movie rental stores with good customer service provided the consumer with knowledge about the movies they were interested in. However, in today’s fast moving, information crazed world, consumers can obtain better information on the fly with there Blackberry, iPhone, or any other internet ready handheld device. Obviously Redbox recognized that consumers generally already know what movies they want to watch and they do not need to visit a movie rental location to get these hot new DVD releases. Not only does Redbox provide a unique service, they provide it at a low cost at convenient locations. Most movie rental stores charge $4-5 to rent a new release for approximately 3 days, whereas Redbox provides a similar service for $1. 29 per night. This is extremely cheap considering most consumers watch their movie rental the same day they rent it. Furthermore, Redbox gets this low cost movie rental product to the consumer through a channel of distribution historically associated with snack foods and soda. By providing movie rentals through vending machines called kiosks located at shopping locations where consumers already go to shop, they have eliminated much of the costs associated with conventional movie rental stores and the need for consumers to make an additional stop just to rent a movie. Since Redbox’s inception, it has experienced enormous growth and profit, but they will need to evolve in order to get ahead of the curve. Although Redbox appears to have established themselves as a formidable competitor to Netflix and Blockbuster, they are facing a gruesome reality. The take-home movie rental business is rapidly losing ground to online streaming video directly to consumers’ homes via the internet. Netflix has already been providing this service for quite some time and both Redbox and Blockbuster are feeling the pressure. Blockbuster, Inc. has already declared bankruptcy and very well may close conventional brick and mortar locations entirely. Redbox will need to change their marketing strategy significantly in order to stay competitive. The industry is changing and Redbox will need to seriously consider providing a viable online streaming video service which can rival Netflix. I propose Redbox should cease all efforts in providing any more kiosk machines so they may focus most of their resources to providing the consumers with what they want, online streaming video. Netflix has already got a head start, but even they will not be an exclusive online service for a few more years. So, Redbox must follow the money if they plan to be in business in the next five years. On the other hand, Redbox also has a golden opportunity to gain a large market share in the gaming industry. Redbox needs to become the first and only company to offer video game rentals through vending machines. Redbox is poised to achieve this goal with little to no effort and with their only possible competitor in this area being Blockbuster, they are sure to make huge profits from offering this service. Redbox already has the distribution channels in place; all they need to do is make a smooth transition from offering DVD’s in the kiosks to offering games. This should be a tiered transition which coincides with their streaming video efforts. In other words, Redbox cannot simply remove DVD’s from the kiosks and replace them with games immediately. As Redbox begins to provide consumers with a reliable, concrete streaming video service at a competitive price, they can slowly remove DVD’s from kiosks and replace them with the hottest new video games on the market. In conclusion, Redbox is currently providing a service which is in its decline stage and they need to consider changing their product mix in order to get ahead of the curve. They can accomplish this by providing consumers with an online streaming video service and becoming a pioneer in the gaming industry. Get Your Game on with Redbox!

The Silver Linings Playbook Chapter 17

Tiffany's Head Floating over the Waves When Ronnie picks me up in his minivan – which has three rows of seats – Tiffany is already buckled in next to Emily's car seat, so I climb into the very back, carrying the football and the bag my mother packed me, which contains a towel, a change of clothes, and a bagged lunch, even though I told Mom that Ronnie was bringing hoagies from the local deli. Of course my mother feels the need to stand on the front porch and wave, as if I were five years old. Veronica, who is riding in the front passenger's seat, leans over Ronnie and yells to my mother. â€Å"Thanks for the wine and flowers!† My mother takes this as an invitation to walk to the minivan and have a conversation. â€Å"How do you like the outfit I bought for Pat?† my mom says when she reaches Ronnie's window. She ducks down and takes a long look at Tiffany, but Tiffany has already turned her head away from my mother and is looking out the window at the house across the street. The outfit I am wearing is ridiculous: a bright orange polo shirt, bright green swimming shorts, and flip-flops. I did not want to wear any of this, but I knew Veronica was likely to make a fuss if I wore one of my cutoff T-shirts and a pair of workout shorts. Since Veronica and my mother have pretty much the same taste, I allowed my mother to dress me – plus, it makes Mom really happy. â€Å"He looks great, Mrs. Peoples,† Veronica says, and Ronnie nods in agreement. â€Å"Hello, Tiffany,† my mother says, sticking her head into the car a little more, but Tiffany ignores her. â€Å"Tiffany?† Veronica says, but Tiffany continues to stare out the window. â€Å"Have you met Emily yet?† Ronnie asks, and then he is out of the car and Emily is unbuckled from her car seat and placed in my mother's arms. Mom's voice gets all funny as she talks to Emily, and standing next to Mom, Veronica and Ronnie are all smiles. This goes on for a few minutes, until Tiffany turns her head and says, â€Å"I thought we were going to the beach today.† â€Å"Sorry, Mrs. Peoples,† Veronica says. â€Å"My sister can be a little blunt sometimes, but we probably should get going so we can have lunch on the beach.† My mother quickly nods and says, â€Å"Have a good time, Pat,† as Ronnie buckles Emily back into her car seat. Again I feel like I am five. On the way to the shore, Ronnie and Veronica talk to Tiffany and me the same way they talk to Emily – as if they are not really expecting a response, saying things that really don't need to be said at all. â€Å"Can't wait to get on the beach.† â€Å"We're going to have such a good time.† â€Å"What should we do first – swim, walk the beach, or throw the football?† â€Å"Such a nice day.† â€Å"Are you guys having fun?† â€Å"Can't wait to eat those hoagies!† After twenty minutes of non-talk, Tiffany says, â€Å"Can we please have some quiet time?† and we ride the rest of the way listening to the yelling noises Emily makes – what her parents claim is singing. We drive through Ocean City and over a bridge to a beach I do not know. â€Å"Little less crowded down here,† Ronnie explains. When we park, Emily is put into what looks like a cross between a stroller and a 4Ãâ€"4 vehicle, which Veronica pushes. Tiffany carries the umbrella. Ronnie and I carry the cooler, each of us grabbing a handle. We take a wooden walkway over a sand dune covered with sea oats and find that we have the beach all to ourselves. Not another person anywhere to be seen. After a brief discussion about whether the tide is coming in or out, Veronica picks a dry patch and tries to spread out the blanket while Ronnie begins digging the umbrella spike into the sand. But there is a breeze, and Veronica has some trouble, as the wind keeps folding the blanket over. If it were anyone but Veronica, I would grab a corner and help, but I do not want to get yelled at, so I wait for instructions before I do anything. Tiffany does the same, but Veronica fails to ask for help. Maybe some sand gets kicked up or something, because Emily starts screaming and rubbing her eyes. â€Å"Nice,† Tiffany says. Veronica immediately attends to Emily, telling her to blink, demonstrating what to do, but Emily only screams even louder. â€Å"I can't take a crying baby right now,† Tiffany adds. â€Å"Make her stop crying. Veronica, would you please make her – â€Å" â€Å"Remember what Dr. Lily said? What did we talk about this morning?† Veronica says over her shoulder, shooting Tiffany a serious look before turning her attention back to Emily. â€Å"So now we're talking about my therapist in front of Pat? You fucking bitch,† Tiffany says, shaking her head, and then she is walking away from us quickly. â€Å"Christ,† Veronica says. â€Å"Ronnie, can you handle Emily?† Ronnie nods solemnly, and then Veronica is running after Tiffany, saying, â€Å"Tiff? Come back. Come on. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry.† Ronnie flushes Emily's eyes with bottled water, and after ten minutes or so, she stops crying. We get the blanket spread out under the shade of the umbrella, weighting the corners down with the cooler, our flip-flops and sandals, and Emily's super stroller – but Veronica and Tiffany do not come back. After every inch of Emily's skin is coated with sunscreen, Ronnie and I play with her down at the water's edge. She likes running after the waves as they recede. She likes digging in the sand, and we have to watch to make sure she does not eat the sand, which seems weird to me, because why would anyone want to eat sand? Ronnie carries Emily out into the ocean, and we all float over the waves for a time. I ask if we should be worried about Veronica and Tiffany, and Ronnie says, â€Å"No. They're just having a therapy session somewhere on the beach. They'll be back soon.† I don't like the way he emphasizes the word â€Å"therapy,† as if therapy were some sort of ridiculous idea, but I don't say anything. After we dry off, we all lie down on the blanket – Ronnie and Emily in the shade, and me in the sun. I doze off pretty quickly. When I open my eyes, Ronnie's face is next to mine; he's sleeping. I feel a tap on my shoulder, and when I roll over, I see that Emily has walked around the blanket. She smiles at me and says, â€Å"Pap.† â€Å"Let Daddy sleep,† I whisper, and then pick her up and carry her down to the water. For a while we sit and dig a small hole in the wet sand with our hands, but then Emily stands and chases the foam of a receding wave, laughing and pointing. â€Å"Want to go swimming?† I ask her, and she nods once, so I scoop her up into my arms and begin to wade out into the water. The surf has picked up some and the waves have a lot more height, so I quickly walk past the breakers to where the water is up to my chest. Emily and I begin to float over the swells. As the waves grow in size, I have to jump and kick really hard to keep both of our heads above water, but Emily loves it and begins squealing and laughing and clapping her hands every time we float up. This goes on for a good ten minutes, and I am so happy; I kiss her chubby cheeks over and over. Something about Emily makes me want to float over waves with her for the rest of my life, and I decide that when apart time is done, I will make a daughter with Nikki ASAP, because nothing has made me even close to this happy since apart time began. The swells get even bigger. I lift Emily up and put her on my shoulders so she will not have her face splashed by the waves, and her squeals seem to suggest that she likes being so high in the air. We float up. We float down. We are so happy. We are so, so happy. But then I hear someone screaming. â€Å"Pat! Pat! Paaaaaaat!† I turn and see that Veronica is running very quickly down the beach, with Tiffany trailing far behind. I worry that maybe something is wrong, so I start to make my way in. The waves are pretty big now, and I have to take Emily down from my shoulders and hold her against my chest to ensure her safety, but soon we are able to negotiate our way back to Veronica, who is now running into the surf. When I get closer, Veronica seems to be very upset. Emily starts to scream and reach for her mother. â€Å"What the hell are you doing?† Veronica says to me when I hand Emily over to her. â€Å"I'm just swimming with Emily,† I say. Veronica's screaming must have woken up Ronnie, because he has run down to meet us. â€Å"What happened?† â€Å"You let Pat take Emily out into the ocean?† Veronica says, and by the way she says my name, it's obvious she does not want Emily to be left alone with me, because she thinks I am going to hurt Emily somehow, which is unfair – especially since Emily only started crying when she heard Veronica screaming, so really Veronica was the one who upset her own daughter. â€Å"What did you do to her?† Ronnie says to me. â€Å"Nothing,† I say. â€Å"We were only swimming.† â€Å"What were you doing?† Veronica says to Ronnie. â€Å"I must of fallen asleep, and – â€Å" â€Å"Jesus Christ, Ronnie. You left Emily alone with him?† The way Veronica says â€Å"him,† Emily crying, Ronnie accusing me of doing something awful to his daughter, the sun burning my bare chest and back, Tiffany watching now – suddenly I feel as though I might explode. I definitely feel an episode coming on, so before I blow up, I do the only thing I can think of: I start running down the beach away from Veronica and Ronnie and Emily and the crying and the accusations. I run as fast as I can, and suddenly I realize that now I am crying, probably because I was only swimming with Emily and it felt so right and I was trying to be good and thought I was being good and I let my best friend down and Veronica screamed at me and it's not fair because I have been trying so hard and how long can this fucking movie last and how much more do I need to improve myself and – Tiffany passes me. She runs by me like a blur. Suddenly, only one thing matters: I need to pass her. I start running faster and catch up to her, but she picks up her speed and we run side by side for a time until I find that gear women do not have, and I blow by her and maintain my man speed for a minute or so before I slow down and allow her to catch up with me. We jog side by side on the beach for a long time, neither of us saying a word. What feels like an hour passes before we turn around, and what feels like another hour passes before we see Ronnie and Veronica's umbrella, but before we reach them, Tiffany veers into the ocean. I follow her – running directly into the waves – and the salt water feels so cool on my skin after a long run. Soon we are in too deep to stand, and Tiffany's head is floating over the waves, which have calmed down considerably. Her face is a little tan and her hair hangs dark and wet and natural and I see freckles on her nose that were not there earlier that morning – so I swim over to her. A wave lifts me up, and when I come down over the other side, I am surprised that our faces are very close. For a second Tiffany reminds me so much of Nikki, I worry we might accidentally kiss, but Tiffany swims a few feet away from me before this happens, and I am thankful. Her toes come up out of the water, and she begins to float, facing the horizon. I lean back, stare at the line where sky meets water, allow my toes to rise, and float next to Tiffany for a long time, neither of us saying anything. When we walk back to the blanket, Emily is sleeping with a fist in her mouth, and Veronica and Ronnie are lying down, holding hands in the shade. When we stand over them, they squint and smile at us like nothing bad had happened earlier. â€Å"How was your run?† Ronnie asks. â€Å"We want to go home now,† Tiffany says. â€Å"Why?† Ronnie says, sitting up. â€Å"We haven't even eaten our lunch. Pat, you really want to go home?† Veronica says nothing. I look up at the sky. No clouds at all. Nothing but blue. â€Å"Yeah, I do,† I tell him, and then we are in the minivan driving back to Collingswood.