Introduction Hyper Inflation Has Plagued Most Of The Worlds Developin

Introduction Hyper inflation has plagued most of the world's developing countries over the past decades. Countries in the industrialised world, too, have at times duelled with dangerously high inflation rates in the post WWII era. With varying degrees of success, all have employed great efforts to bring their inflation rates within acceptable limits. Generally, a moderate rate of inflation has been the ultimate goal. More recently, however, a few countries have pursued policies that strive to eradicate inflation altogether through complete price stability. This has proven to be a contentious enterprise, which clearly indicates that there is still no universally accepted solution to the inflation problem. Indeed, there is not even an agreed consensus regarding the source of inflation itself. The monetarist perception that the root of inflation is solely the excessive creation of money remains. So too does the belief that inflation originates in the labour market. And amongst a variety of others, the opinion that inflation "serves the critical social purpose of resolving incompatible demands by different groups" is also strong. This last, and more widely accepted, case shows that the problem is hardly a technical one; but rather a political one. It highlights the now unquestionable fact that politics and inflation are inextricably linked. And as with all inherently political issues, consensus is difficult, if not impossible, to achieve. But, political characteristics do provide flexibility. In some countries, high rates of inflation have clearly been compatible with rapid economic growth and fast rising standards of living. In such cases, it is quite reasonable to suggest that higher rates of inflation are acceptable--perhaps even necessary. In this setting, it is by no means clear that pursing a policy to stop moderate inflation is either required, or in the best interests of the mass of the population at all. While inflation guarantees that some will gain at th e expense of others, the redistributions of income and wealth which do take place can, on normal value grounds, be quite desirable. In other circumstances, it may be quite desirable to place strict controls on inflation, or strive to keep it at ?zero' level. Policies aimed at virtual price stability have been in use by central banks in Europe, New Zealand, and Canada over the past few years. Such policies have been particularly focused in Canada. As noted by Pierre Fortin, "the only objective the Bank of Canada has pursued since 1989 has been to establish and maintain the inflation rate at ?zero level', which it sees as a CPI inflation rate that is clearly below two percent" (italic added). To the surprise of many, it has been incredibly successful, achieving its objective several years before schedule. Although separated by only a few percentage points, Canada's policy is a sharp contrast to the moderate and balanced approach used in the U.S. "Since 1989 the Federal Reserve has bee n satisfied with achieving an inflation rate of around 3 percent. In setting the interest rate, it has continued to pay explicit attention to real economic growth and employment, with the result that the U.S. unemployment rate is currently in the 5 to 6 percent range." Based on this statistic alone, it can be argued that the more moderate U.S. approach has enjoyed greater success than the deflation oriented policy pursued by the Bank of Canada: Canada continues to be burdened with a higher rate of unemployment. Yet, it continues to believe that the unemployment costs of low inflation are ?transitory and small' . The directors of most European Central Banks also continue to support this dogma. Clearly, the credibility of the "classical idea that the Phillips trade off between inflation and unemployment disappears in the long run" is still very high throughout the world. But, in Canada, as in most of Europe, the waiting continues. This is not to suggest that the waiting game has been silent and entirely pleasant. Indeed, the relative lack (or lag!) of success of zero inflation policies and strict price controls has spurred much heated debate. As a case in point, more people are curious why Canada has exclusively focused on inflation cutting and turned a blind eye to the more balanced, and arguably more successful, approach adopted by the

Treasure of the Sierra Madres essays

Treasure of the Sierra Madres essays In Treasure of the Sierra Madres Humphrey Bogart plays Dobbs, an American cowboy in Mexico. He live on nothing, always borrowing money and doing odd jobs. He meets Curtin whom he befriends. They spend time working together and make some money. Finally the meet Howard, an old timer who knows a thing or two about prospecting. The three of them combine their money along with what Dobbs wins in the lottery, and decide to go and try their luck with prospecting. They hit it rich, but then the reality hits them along with greed and many suspicions. All three characters are affected differently. They all have their own way to handle the situation, and each other. At first Dobbs is the one saying That he only want a certain amount then would leave. In the end his greed costs him his life along with the sin of shooting to kill Curtin. Dobbs is overwhelmed by all the gold and goes crazy to keep it all for himself. He Doesnt win in the end. Curtin is a very down to earth character. He and Howard are the least affected characters. Curtin just goes along with however much they take. When Howard is called away by the Indians, he looks out for Howards goods. He is responsible and fair in his actions. He has great plans, realistic plans, for what to do with his gold. Unfortunately Because of his trying to protect howards gold, he loses his friendship with Dobbs and almost his life. He is saved and comes out okay. Howard is probably the least affected character. Because he has been around gold so much, he doesnt think much about the big find. He knows how people act around it and tells Dobbs and Curtin but Dobbs doesnt hear him. Howard has great plans for his money. He knows that Curtin is a good guy and trusts him to keep safe the gold and to give it to him later on. Howard and Curtin dont get their gold in the end because of Dobbs greed. After he runs ...

UK Coffee Industry Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

UK Coffee Industry - Case Study Example Dominance of instant coffee is attributed to a combination of aggressive marketing and branding campaigns by brand manufacturers, as well as the price consciousness and brand loyalty characteristic of coffee drinkers. However, instant coffee growth rates lag behind ground and roast, increasing only by 11.1% from 2003-2005, compared to 13.6% for the latter, which can be attributed to the development of new pod technologies and the decreasing prices of coffee machines, which allows consumers greater convenience in home brewing; and the prevalence of repertoire drinkers2, indicating an increase in consumers drinking both instant and ground coffee. The market is also highly segmented with distinct divisions in terms of age groups, geography, and consumer behaviour. Demographically, consumption increases with age as majority of heavy coffee drinkers in both sectors found among the 35-64 groups, with 76% drinking instant coffee and about 43% drinking instant exclusively. With respect to ground coffee, consumption is concentrated in more affluent regions of the country, indicating price consciousness among drinkers. Only a few manufacturers do... Base: adults aged 15+ All users % Heavy users % Medium users % Light users % Non-users % All 76.1 37.1 25.1 13.2 23.9 Men 75.6 38.0 24.4 12.6 24.4 Women 76.6 36.3 25.8 13.7 23.4 15-24 52.2 20.2 20.0 11.5 47.8 25-34 73.1 35.1 22.7 14.8 26.9 35-44 78.3 42.8 21.1 14.0 21.7 45-54 81.7 43.9 23.7 13.4 18.3 55-64 85.1 44.9 25.7 13.7 14.9 65+ 84.4 35.8 35.8 11.9 15.6 Taken from the TGI survey of around 25,000 adults (Source: Mintel 2006) table 3: Usage of fresh ground coffee, by demographic sub-group, 2005 Base: adults aged 15+ All users % Heavy users % Medium users % Light users % Non-users % All 36.4 8.2 11.2 16.1 63.6 Men 36.5 9.5 10.9 15.3 63.5 Women 36.3 7.0 11.6 16.9 63.7 15-24 23.8 3.6 7.6 11.1 76.2 25-34 34.5 7.2 10.8 16.0 65.5 35-44 40.0 8.9 12.4 18.0 60.0 45-54 42.7 10.1 13.1 19.2 57.3 55-64 41.5 10.6 13.0 17.4 58.5 65+ 35.6 8.8 10.5 15.1 64.4 Taken from the TGI survey of around 25,000 adults (Source: Mintel 2006) Only a few manufacturers dominate the coffee market. For instant coffee, the market is dominated by Nestl (56%) through its Nescaf Original Blend (33%) and Gold Blend (15%) - the two highest-selling brands - followed by Kraft (22%), and Own-label products (11%), while other manufacturers made up the remaining 11% in 2005. There are no dominant suppliers for ground and roast. However one company, Douwe Egberts, had the highest market share at 12%, followed by Cafdirect, Taylors, and Lavazza, with 8% market shares each. Own-label manufacturers for ground and roast coffee, however, possess 40% of the total market. table 4: Market share of instant coffee, by producer, by value, 2003 and 2005 2003 2005 (est) %

Financial Markets and Bank Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Financial Markets and Bank Management - Essay Example The banks are faced with credit risk that involves change in net asset value due to changes in the ability of the counter-party to meet the contractual agreements (Thomas 2005). Performance risk includes the possible loses that may emanate from dishonest employees while operational risk include costs such as inability to meet regulatory requirements or settlement failures (Rao 1999). The bank’s net profit margin for 2012 was negative due to lack of growth of the non-customer interest income. The net profit margin was positive in 2013, but the current low interest environment prevailing in the market will continue maintaining the net interest income growth rate low. This means that the bank should divest the low-yielding non-core assets like investment securities portfolios in order to scale up the bank’s net interest margin. The operating margin was too low to generate substantial increase in net profits in 2013. The return on invested capital growth rate stagnated thus demonstrating imprudent investing strategy due to low returns from the non-core business segments. The improvements in return on assets and return on equity were low while the leverage position declined slightly due to injection of additional capital through rights issue. The stringent regulatory environment forced the bank to improve on its capitalisation and implement measures of lowering its leverage. Some of the measures implemented include the rights issue and reduction in the risk-weighted assets (RWAs) (Gregory 2011). Barclay’s loan to deposit ratio stood at 110 percent in 2012, but the ratio declined to 101 percent in 2013. The deposits were almost equal to the customer loans thus demonstrating increased prudence in retail lending. The investment banking business segment is funded by a high proportion of liabilities. The bank should have sufficient liquid assets to withstand any market and internal stresses (Mehta and Fung

12 Angry Men Essay Example for Free

12 Angry Men Essay In 12 angry men there are many themes that are present one of the major themes that is found was present is, one determined and skilled individual can wield a lot of influence. Juror number eight is a â€Å"quiet, thoughtful, gentle man† he seesall points of the argument and wants to find the truth. On the other hand juror number three is â€Å"a very strong, very forceful, extremely opinionated man† his opinion is all that matters and if other people don’t agree with it they are automatically wrong. All of the characters in this story help develop the theme but in my opinion jurors number three and eight play a very large role in it. Juror three is a very outward with his opinion from the beginning. He lets everyone know what he thinks and that no one will be able to change his mind. In his mind his opinion is the most important thing and no one can say anything against it. When others try to look at all the facts and have a discussion he finds that it is pointless and a waste of his time because he will not change his vote from guilty and that means everyone else must be the ones to agree with him. See more: Satirical elements in the adventure of Huckleberry Finn essay This juror is a man who is very â€Å"easily excitable† as the say in the book many times. He will snap at any moment when someone else is trying to share their opinion just because they say something that doesn’t support what he thinks. His anger plays a large part in developing him as a character. There are many jurors that don’t want to deal with him and are scared to speak up to say what they think because there is no telling the next time number three will start to yell at them. The other characters see him as an angry man who is too stubborn to listen to what anyone else has to say. In this book juror three often explodes into extremely loud yelling while everyone else is trying to keep calm and decide on a fair verdict on the case. At one point during the story juror number eight is trying to calmly explain the facts and evidence that proves juror threes opinion wrong and instead of calmly listening like everyone else he tries to attack juror eight; having to be held back by three of the oher men. This shows a lot about his character as a man. He is a loud man set in his ways that has lived with one opinion on the situation nd isnt willing to change it. The boy who is being charged with allegedly killing his father is black and that causes a lot of mixed opinions within the jury room. Juror three doesn’t seem to like anyone who is black or from a certain area of town which is not the best. There is a larhe amount of prejudice in this book not only from juror three,  and it seems to alter a lot of the thoughts of some of the jurors. The way that he tries to influence people to be on his side is not very effective at all, no one wants to listen to him because all he does is yell and scream at them without backing up what hes saying with any facts. Juror number eight also has a set opinion from the beginning of the story but he has a completely different way of approaching things. He is very quiet and keeps his thoughts to himself at the beginning. When it gets to talking about facts and evidence he has a lot to say but doesn’t try and force the other jurors to agree with him. He only wants to fully discuss all of the information that has been presented to try and determine what the fair verdict should be. At first I don’t think he was even 100% sure that he wanted to vote not guilty he did it mostly because a boys life is at atake and he couldn’t let that go without talking about it. Juror eight is a calm man who is very nice and tries his best to state what he thinks is right but not do it in a forceful way. He isnt saying that there is only his opinion on the case but he also doesn’t say that what anyone else thinks is wrong. This man wanted only to try and come to find the truth instead of just saying that the boy is guilty without full examining everything. Juror eight took the time to look at the facts and put personal opinions aside which is the compete opposite of what juror number three did. The way that he stayed very calm even when everyone else was yelling at each other is one thing that I think really helped influence othe r jurors to change their vote. Even after jjuror wight said only a few things they tooka asecond vote and he already had convinced someone to agree with his view on the case. The way he could calmly debate what everyone else was gettinginto large arguments about without changing from the very calm and not outspoken person that he is was a large factor in amking other people change their vote. He brought up very valid points that no one else would have thought twice about without him. By keeping his personal feelings on the boys race etc he was able to come up with a better end result than that of everyone else. He is a very influencial man who was really only looking for the truth in a case that is made up of a lot of lies and exxagerations. Juror eight and juror three might seem like complete opposites who could never be thought of as having some things alike. This though is not completely true. Yes, they have very different personalities and ways of going about explaining their  opinions but there is some similarity. They both have aclear stance on whether or not they think the boy is guilty. Also they both want to convince the rest of the jury that their opinion is right. Even through all the arguments and yelling that was done they do have a couple of things that are similar between them. The way that everyone in this book especially juror eight debated his point shows how someone who is determined and who knows what they are saying can convince many to believe their side. Juror eight in the end got everyone to vote not guilty because of the way he went about explaining his point. He didn’t yell and just say that his opinion was right just because he thought so, there was evidence to back it up that no one else would have seen if it weren’t for him.

Schedules of Reinforcement Essay -- Behavior Management

The schedule of reinforcement has many variables, as well as many ways behavior is reinforced. In order to completely create reinforcement schedule the person must understand the behavior that they wish to change. In my case, the behavior that I wish to change is eating habits. In this paper, I will explore the different schedules of reinforcement and how each would work towards changing my behavior, as well as cause weight loss. My eating habits are very easy to explain, I eat when I am hungry which is not very often. This causes my body to store whatever nutrients I do take in, as well as any fat. This way of eating, in addition to medications I have and am taking make it extremely hard to lose any weight. The first reinforcement schedule to explore is continuous interval reinforcement. The way this is done is by strengthening the behavior by rewards each time it occurs (Feldman, 2011). As Skinner hypothesized the rapid depletion of rewards, in Skinner’s case food pellets, can and should be taken for granted (Morgan, 2010). In my case, a continuous reinforcement of eating healthily would not be ideal because the reinforcement desired is weight loss. With continuously losing weight comes many health problems, especially if the drop is brisk. Another problem with continuously strengthening that behavior is the rewards themselves begin to mean little. The next reinforcement schedule the Skinner developed is the partial reinforcement schedule, meaning behavior is strengthened with a reward only part of the time (Feldman, 2011). The partial schedule of reinforcement is further divided into four different categories, the fixed ratio, variable ratio, fixed interval, and variable interval. The fixed ratio schedule is where after... ...fore I have taken the steps outlined in this essay and made a change in my behavior by joining Weight Watchers. The final plus to weight loss is being able to fit into a wedding dress. At the current time, I am unable to fit into the dress I want, as they do not make a size big enough to fit all of me. By following the fixed ratio and variable interval schedules of reinforcement I will be able to lose the weight in order to stay healthy and fit into my dress. Works Cited Feldman, R. (2011). Operant Conditioning. In Essentials of Understanding Psychology (9th, pp. 179-182). New York, New York: McGraw Hill Companies, Inc. Freedman, D. H. (2011). How to fix the obesity crisis. (Cover story). Scientific American, 304(2), 40-47. Morgan, D. L. (2010). SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT AT 50: A RETROSPECTIVE APPRECIATION. Psychological Record, 60(1), 151-172.

Dinner Table Conversations

Dinner table conversations had been considered as contributor to the learning of the child particularly to the language skills and reading skills. A number of randomly-selected parents were asked to participate in the study by allowing their dinner table conversations to be audio-taped. Their conversations were analyzed and it was found that the dinner table conversations the child has with his parents can be a basis for the learning output of the child. It has improved vocabulary and reading skills of the child. It can also be an avenue for the development of the social-well being of the child.DISCUSSIONIt is most probably that the family is complete in gathering during dinner. Because of that, of the three important meals of the day, dinner was viewed to be of importance not in terms of nutritional benefits but of learning. Dinner table conversations have been viewed as an important factor that affects a child’s learning positively. There could be a lot of ways that it could improve language and cognitive learning of the child. First thing that a dinner conversation can do would be to improve the faculty of language of the child. Learning and broadening the knowledge about the language starts early.It has been said that children speak the language even before they could understand it (Snow and Beals). During dinner, the parents of the child can help the child improve his vocabulary with the parent’s guidance. At dinner, many stories both by the children and the parents are told. In that case, explanatory and narrative talk is what being utilized. Results show that the degree of their explanation and narration depends on the level of vocabulary of the child. It was also found that narrative talks during a young age allow for an easy definition of terms when they get six years older.Results also showed that narrative talks at a very young age of two can help improve reading skills when the child gets into grade 2. It also showed that explanatory t alks are related to the scores the child can get in school. These findings only show that dinner table conversations with both the children and the parents participating on it can improve the language skills of the child by improving his vocabulary and the reading skills. And why wouldn’t it? The parent’s assistance helps them to recognize what they could have said wrong are what exactly are the words they are using.The parents also guide them to use the appropriate words. The child may use words that he has only heard of from other people of from watching the television and may not understand what it really means. The child would use those words and when the parents could hear of it, the parents could correct improper use of the words and if it is inappropriate to use. The parents also have the option to â€Å"filter† the words that the child may use by commanding the child not to use such words or by not introducing such words. Introducing new words is also a good way of improving vocabulary.Reading skills are improved because the child had already learned of the words and clearly understand what a certain statement conveys. When a child doesn’t understand what the word means, it is more likely that the child wouldn’t understand what he read or heard. These findings also tells that it is good that both the parents and the child are present during the meal especially while the child is very young since the child’s learning at that very young age is critical for the learning output a few years from now.If the child could start early with his improved language skills, he can do a lot better when he gets older. In some cases though, the contribution of the mother to the child is greater than that of the father probably because the mother is at the primary level of care giving to the child (Ely et. al,). But dinner table conversations not only affect cognitive learning of the child. It could also contribute to the social- well being of the child. The child can see many things from his parents and may look at it as examples.Parents may consciously shape up to be the best example for the child (Pontecorvo, et al. , 2001). The parents mold their kids through teaching appropriate use of the language. The parent may teach the child how to use words to convey a message that sounds polite and not being rude. Also, by having conversations, the child gets to have a wider perspective of a lot of things and can use those to analyze and critically think over certain things. During conversations, the child is also encouraged to participate by telling what goes through his mind and is encouraged to clarify his thoughts.That is a very important behavior especially in class. If the social-well being of the child can be molded while they are still young, then, they should be molded while still young. And if this can happen during conversations during dinner, then let it be. This only tells that parents have the respo nsibility to look forward to the future of their children and prepare them for what they could be. The study was conducted based on random sampling of the family. The study is more focused on the descriptive analysis of the data.It would be difficult, though, to quantify the results because words or language is involved. The method used to correlate the trend with practical implications was statistical analysis. Their correlation determined what it could contribute towards the conclusion, but, dinner table conversation can really be a basis for the learning output of the child. It is difficult to say, though, that there is an absolute relation between dinner table conversations with both the parents and the child participating on it and the child’s future learning output.One problem may have risen during the data gathering. It is possible that the parents were being conscious with the way they held their conversations with their children and was aware that they are being tape d. In that way, they may have deviated from their natural way of having a conversation within the family. The way they have behaved during the data gathering may be a bit different from how they behave when they are in that unsuspecting mood. They may have tried to be more polite and avoided making rude comments because they want to make an impression.The age of the children participating in this study was from two to five and a half. The learning output was taken into account several years after the dinner table conversations. The learning output cannot be attributed solely to the dinner table conversations the child had during his earlier years. There are a few questions that are yet to be answered by conducting further researches, like, how long a conversation should be to make it effective?Does the improvement in language skills due to dinner table conversations encompasses all types of people and all races? ; and would it matter if the parents are not the one present during the dinner and having conversation with the child? This study is very good basis for child development. Because of the findings, perhaps, even the government may promote complete gathering of the family during dinner time. Parents with very young children would surely be interested to start conversations with their child.