Future of Investment Banking

Future of Investment Banks is extremely relevant topic for today’s studies. This type of banks institutions plays one of the main roles, being circulating element in the whole body of financial system. Vital role guaranteed by the abilities to help clients to raise capital through debts, equity or other potential deals. Needless to note that investment banks are those privileged institutions that are involved in processes of mergers and acquisitions. Concern about future of such an important investment banks are brought up by relatively recent events in bank sector of the economy.Even when BNP Paribas signaled that they had problems with properly pricing its book of subprime related bonds, a lot of experts were starting to worry. Chain of events is noticeable because of Lehman Brothers’ collapse as well. And nowadays questions of the development perspectives of investment banks increased dramatically. In attempts to describe possible development perspectives of investme nt banks, following picture can be drawn. First of all, it’s given that quantity of â€Å"investment banks† already decreased.It’ better to describe it as consolidation process with a lesser amount of big banks and more small boutiques. Acquisition of JP Morgan in massive less effective structure proves this argument. Second, the problem of maturity gap should be solved. Dealing with asymmetric by the means of Repurchasing Agreements is not acceptable anymore due to the lack of trust. Moreover, asset/liability mismatch is risky and hard to control. Therefore it’s important to relay on long-term funding such as deposits. The next gesture of brush is certainly about the regulation issue.Industry experienced some sort of deregulation caused by Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which had replaced Glass-Steagall Act. Thus, commercial banks with more conservative structure noticeably had gotten closer to investment banks with all their risk-taker items. Good example is i llustrated by Citigroup, where blend of banking, security and insurance may be observed. Separation should be supported for the purpose of avoiding conflicts of interests which incurred in internal environment of financial institutions.Next thing to observe in order to fulfill the forecast of development perspective of investment banks has to deal with bonuses in sector. There are no doubts, that people who worked on the field of investment are really hard-working folks, dedicated to their job more than ten hours a day including weekends. Nevertheless, they play with â€Å"other people’s money† which imposes responsibilities that cannot be overestimated. It means that extensive impact may occur in case of unsuccessful activities but not for the trader.Bonuses should be limited. Motivation program should involve not only bonuses for profits but also some sort of provisions/allowances in undesirable case of losses. Discretion will inevitably lead to more risk aversion be havior. Actually, risk conservative approach is required all around banking due to elimination of the financial crisis threats. Before summing up, all the activities, that should be done for the future of the investment banks, there is one thing that will occur no matter what.It is something about experience that of course deserves to be thought of. Lessons learned from the significant episodes of financial crisis are really valuable. People will become more rational, especially in terms of dealing with unknown instruments like CDOs, CDO^2s and others. Arguments presented in this paper are supposed to support the idea of investment baking’s evolution. Despite the common concerns, the industry will survive, because of the never-ending demand of raising money

MLK and Thoreau

Martin Luther King, Jr. and Henry David Thoreau were two very different individuals that lived in two very different times, but each one of them contributed to history in substantial ways. In addition to their work in adding to progressive thought, each man left behind a document that expressed revolutionary ideas that should be followed by all people. For King, his literary moment in the sun happened amongst the worst of circumstances. He sat down in the city jail in Birmingham, Alabama to pen a brave work that would become known as Letters from Birmingham Jail. For Thoreau, his piece was known as Civil Disobedience. The two works came about in response to different events, but both represented an idea that can still be studied today. Both writers took a significant, individual view on whether or not it was alright to use one’s conscience to disobey unjust laws. Both men stand by their position that following the law is only the right thing to do if the law is the right thing. In Letters from Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King, Jr. is writing specifically to the leaders of the city of Birmingham. Those men had locked him up for leading a rally for Civil Rights, but King was not going to be silenced while sitting in jail. In fact, his voice rang loud and clear in his letter. King was not happy with the situation in the Deep South and particularly, in Birmingham. When the leaders of Birmingham heard that King was coming to town, they chastised King and the other â€Å"outsiders† for invading their space. In his letter from the jail, King writes, â€Å"I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham† (King 1963). To King, action had to be taken, even if that was illegal action. For him, it was much more important for a man to let his conscience guide his decisions about the law. After all, it was man’s responsibility to decide what law is just and what law is not just. In describing his reasoning for breaking some laws, while obeying other laws, King does not waver. He clearly indicates that a man must let his conscience lead the way when he writes, â€Å"One may well ask, â€Å"How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?† The answer is found in the fact that there are two types of laws: there are just laws, and there are unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that, ‘An unjust law is no law at all’† (King 1963). King’s position on the issue is one that may have been lambasted by the leaders of that time, but it holds up in history’s eyes. To him, laws were only to be followed if they had been written in a way that was right according to man. For Henry David Thoreau, his writing did not come as a result of being locked up, but rather as a commentary on the state of government and man. He wrote Civil Disobedience in 1849, during a time when many governments around the world were changing. For Thoreau, a major problem existed in the way that people went about following laws. He had little patience for folks that blindly listened to what governments had to say without first thinking about those things for themselves. It was his position that this sort of blind acceptance was both irresponsible and downright dangerous for human beings. If they were going to protect themselves against unfair and unjust governments, men had to have a mind of their own. In his work, Thoreau writes, â€Å"Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right† (Thoreau 1849). This single quotation is one that basically sums up what he thought about following unjust laws. He was a thinker by nature, which meant that much of his theory was given with a broad scale approach. Still, it does not take much to understand where Thoreau was coming from. He feels it an absolute waste for man to be given such a good brain and a good conscience and not know how to use it for the better. He feels that it is not only the responsibility of man to protect himself from wrongdoing, but to also protect his government from wrongdoing. If a man does not think for himself about the rightness or wrongness of a law, then he is giving up that right and forfeiting that responsibility. Later in his work, Thoreau goes on to write, â€Å"The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right. It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience; but a corporation on conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience† (Thoreau, 1849). The viewpoints of these two men are in accordance on this issue. Though they did not have to go through the same trials and tribulations in their respective lives, both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Henry David Thoreau had to face moral questions within themselves. For King, his mission was one that was laid on his heart to both his help his people gain Civil Rights and to protect the nation from falling into a backwards way of thinking. Though Thoreau’s viewpoint is taken at a much broader level, he feels the same way about how a man should think. Just because the legal code that was written by men says that something is illegal does not mean that it is wrong. This is the basic dichotomy that each man presents in his argument. Legality and rightness do not always have to coincide, though they sometimes do. Though it is sometimes difficult for human beings to get around following laws in order to stick strictly to their conscience, this is what both men feel is necessary for the advancement of society. According to the writings of both men, no greatness or progressive movements can ever be accomplished by men that are willing to blindly accept what they know in their soul is the wrong thing to do. It takes bravery and guts to stand up to the law in defense of the conscience, but this is something that both men had to do at one point during their lives. That obligation is reflected in their writings.

Language of poetry Essay

When looking at the language used by a poet when creating a poem it is important we do this with a number of things in mind. What kind of image is the poet attempting to create in our thoughts? When was this poem created? How is it structured and punctuated? What context has it been written? and also how does the poet want us to feel when reading the work? No matter how long or short a poem may be the language used when creating it will be vital as to deciding how we respond to the poem. It is not just what the poet is trying to say but how they are attempting to say it that will define how this poem resonates within us. There are many reasons why an author might choose to use some words instead of others. A poet might choose words for the way they sound, compliment other words, shock value, for the tense they are in or even for the perspective they want to use. For the purpose of this essay we will be looking at three American poets with the intent of studying the language used in their works in order to better understand the meanings of these poems and to also figure out why they were written in a certain way. Look more:  first poem for you analysis essay When looking at the language used in each of these poems we will be looking out for many of the things mentioned above to aid the investigation into the language within them. The first poet that we will look at is William Carlos Williams and in particular his poem â€Å"This is Just to Say†. Just like all the poems he has written it is a short piece which is created using simple words and sentences that can be easily understood by the reader. The poem is full of enjambment and this means that we put particular emphasis on the words â€Å"breakfast, â€Å"delicious†, â€Å"so sweet† and â€Å"so cold†. If we didn’t observe the enjambment in this poem it would more than likely be mistaken for a short note for someone’s sister, mother, wife or father. The way that enjambment is used in this poem has a profound effect, it is a poem written in the past tense, and one that relies heavily on the creation of an image in the mind of the reader. This poem successfully creates that image nearly to the point where we can almost see the drops of moisture on the plums as they glisten in the sunlight prior to being devoured by the writer. How the poet uses enjambment enables this strong creation of an image. He uses the words delicious, sweet and cold to great effect and their placing within the poem adds hugely to how they aid this. They are all grouped together in the last section of the poem and this means we are quickly bombarded with a triple whammy of descriptive words in what is a very short poem. It is also important to note how Williams says the plums are â€Å"so† sweet and â€Å"so† cold rather than just sweet and cold. This little word has a huge effect and it compounds in our minds just how sweet and cold they really were and as such, one might even feel a desire to have the plums themselves if reading the poem on an empty stomach. The poem is structured in one long flowing sentence that is broken up into three sections of three lines, this structure makes it easy to digest and understand. The poem â€Å"Woman Poem† by Nikki Giovanni is about a black woman and what her life is like. The woman wants things in life; the men will not let her have what she wants. The author, Nikki Giovanni uses several poetic aspects in the poem. Throughout the poem she uses synecdoche’s to make her point, for example: â€Å"me getting fat as a hog† being used to describe gaining weight. The imagery created by this poem helps to describe the way that men hold her back. It is a completely different poem to the one investigated above but again it relies heavily on imagery along with words with a real sense of shock value to get a message across to the reader. The language of this poem is language of oppression, frustration, anger, devastation and hopelessness and the images it creates are such too. It describes the life of a black woman in the 1960s and when doing so she describes a yearning to be â€Å"free†. Free from the constraints of what she describes as a male dominated society, one where she almost feels as if she has been castrated. She does not mean this literally but the use of the word â€Å"castrated† is symbolic to the genuine feeling of being powerless she feels almost as a dog being castrated would. She is using words as a means of venting and conveying her feelings and it is obvious to see the emotion attached to what she writes. The third stanza reads: â€Å"it’s a sex object if you’re pretty and no love or love and no sex if you’re fat get back fat black woman be a mother grandmother strong thing but not woman gameswoman romantic woman love needer man seeker dick eater sweat getter fuck needing love seeking woman† This stanza is the one within the poem which is the most image provoking. The language used is vulgar and not everyday conversation etiquette. She most likely uses language of this sort on purpose in order to grab the attention of the reader and highlight her plight as a woman who can be regarded by men as merely an object for sex. She repeats this process throughout the poem to great effect using words like â€Å"whore† and â€Å"black dog†. As a whole this poem is difficult to read and find meaning from but when carefully studied it created in the mind an image of hopelessness for women. One of an existence devoid of happiness, an image compounded by the final lines which read: â€Å"face me whose whole life is tied up to unhappiness cause it’s the only for real thing i know† The third poem to be investigated is â€Å"Poppies in July† by Sylvia Plaith. This poem was written in July 1962. At this stage of her life, Plath’s marriage to Ted Hughes was in turmoil, and she was suffering from a severe bout of depression. < http://sylviaplathnotes. wordpress. com/poppies-in-july/>. With this poem she enables us to have an insight into the turmoil and pain she felt inside. The colour red is prominent and this symbolises anger and rage. The images created in the mind are very dark, vivid and disturbing, imitating what her thoughts were when she created the poem. At the start of this poem we are informed that bright red colour of poppies reminds the poet of the burning fires of hell. The poppies swaying in the breeze remind the poet of flames flickering. She begins to show a desire to self harm, thrusting her hand among the â€Å"flames† to see if it burns but there is something about these flowers that she cannot touch. This is the reader’s first real insight into the pain Plath must have been feeling. Throughout the poem we are reminded of her desire to cause harm to herself. Later in the poem she describes outward appearance of the flowers again, this time with a simile. Now she likens them to the wrinkled, red skin of a bloodied mouth rather than the flames of hell. This violent imagery is another hint towards her desire to self-harm. Continuing the idea that there is something about these flowers she cannot touch, she now states that she is unable to touch their fumes and enquires about their opiates. This represents a longing for heroin or opium which is a drug created from poppies. Complex imagery is used, referring to her mouth as a means of taking the drug. Exclamation marks indicate just how desperate the poet is getting. She needs these drugs and she needs them now! Throughout this poem there is a recurring theme of desperation from the poet, desperation for obliteration through drugs or self harm, it relies on graphic imagery to get the point across and gives us an idea of the darkness encased within the mind of the poet. She closes the poem with the words â€Å"colourless, colourless† which might represent how she feels her life and marriage have become. Through investigation of the above poems we are able to come to numerous conclusions regarding the language used within them. The first poem is nothing more than a short piece but it still manages to create not only a powerful image in the mind but also a longing for the peaches described within! The last two poems investigated however are far more deep and sombre affairs. They offer us a real window into the souls of their creators. The language used in each of these is powerful and it is impossible to read them without being left with a real sense of the turmoil felt by both these women. They both utilise the shock value element of language to make their poems that bit more hard hitting and employ similar punctuation techniques also. Through doing this investigation into language of poetry we can now understand how the language used by the poet is vital when it comes to determining the feelings we are left with having read a poem.

Current Macroeconomic Situations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Current Macroeconomic Situations - Essay Example In the first quarter of this year the US economy has grown only by 1.8% whereas in the previous quarter it grew by 3.1% (Bangalore, 2011). As far as unemployment rate is concerned, it was at 9.1% in the month of August, 2011. There is hardly any improvement when compared to the data of previous months. According to a report that is recently published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, at present, almost 14 million people are unemployed in the country (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2011). What is more important is that in August the US economy could not create any ‘net new’ jobs. In July almost 85000 jobs were created but it is much lower than the expected figure 1,17,000 (BBC, 2011). It is found that Afro-Americans are mainly unemployed (16.7%) followed by the Hispanics (11.3%). There are many experts who believe that such a situation is actually the signal of the fact that US economy is preparing to get into another recession in the near future. In August it was found tha t the probability of recession in US was one fourth. A more dangerous report came in when Wall Street Journal published the result of a survey in September. According to this study, economists now believe that the chance of US economy sliding into another recession within next one year is now stands at 1-in-3 (Zappe, 2011). Inflation, in US is not a big concern. However, in 2010 inflation rate was 1.6% which is quite high as compared to previous year’s figure (-0.3%) (Central Intelligence Agency, n.d.). In August, 2011 inflation rate was found to be at 3.8%. The consumer price index has increased by 0.4% in that month (Trading Economics, n.d.). The current economic situation in US can be viewed as the failure of fiscal and monitory policies that are adopted by the government. Considering the facts like GDP growth is affected, jobs are not getting created and consumer confidence on US economy

Finance report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4750 words

Finance report - Essay Example We divided its capital into four equal portions of QR 250,000 each to invest in each of the four investment platforms available. As such, we invest QR 250,000 in the Qatar Stocks Exchange, which is the principle stock market of Qatar. It invests another QR 250,000 in Qatar National Banks as bank deposits. It then invests the third portion of their capital, another QR 250,000 in gold and other metals. Some of these gold businesses are international and not available within the country. Furthermore, it invests the last portion of their quarter million in Forex markets, mainly dealing with currencies exchange with the Qatar Riyal. We has an investment philosophy that is of a risk taking capacity, which means that we will easily go for the high risk investments because of the high returns associated with these investments. Furthermore, we is aware that these high-risk investments may either lead to the loss of all the invested capital, or lead to a significant profit way beyond their imagination. We practices on the â€Å"risk-return tradeoff† investment strategy. This investment strategy operates on the principle that the potential of returns raises with an increase I the risk of investment. As such, lower levels of uncertainty, such as loss risk investments, have a high likelihood of bringing in low potential returns on the other hand, high levels of uncertainty, such as in high-risk investments, there is a high likelihood that the investments will yield high potential returns. Consequently, in accordance with the concept of â€Å"risk-return trade off† in business investments, money invested by an investor can render higher profits only if it is subject of a high possibility of losses. This model of business investment strategy requires traders to be always aware of their personal risk tolerance whenever they make choices of their investment portfolios owing to the

Summary chp.25-emergence of the us-american history Term Paper

Summary chp.25-emergence of the us-american history - Term Paper Example But he could not keep up with this policy and soon sent a special envoy, Sumner Welles, to encourage Machado, the oppressive president of Cuba, to resign in 1933. Machado was replaced by Ramon Grau and later by Colonel Fulgencio Batista. His regime was immediately accepted by America leading to favorable trade agreement. In 1939 Mexico nationalize all foreign owned oil companies. This infuriated the American oil interest and demanded them back asking Roosevelt to use military force if necessary. In 1941 the issue was solved when Mexico and America agreed on a fixed amount of compensation. While the relations with Latin America remained agreeable, the same was not true for Asia. In September 1931, the Japanese army stationed in Manchuria seized control of it. Following Japan’s success, America invoked the Stimson Doctrine. The idea of Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity sphere was also generated by Japan. A similar idea was also circulating in Europe, Germany, and Italy. Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933 based on the promise to improve the economy of Germany and to increase its role in the world. Benito Mussolini of Italy also expressed his wish to expand Italy. In response to the increased tension in the world, in August 1935 the congress passed the Neutrality act of 1935 which prohibited the sales of arms and munitions to any nation at war. On October 3, 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia. Roosevelt announced America’s neutrality on the issue and denied the sale of war supplies to either side. However, the non-war trade continued between Italy and America. On May 9, 1936, Italy annexed Ethiopia. In March 1936, Germany occupied Rhineland and in July a civil war broke out in Spain. Roosevelt again proclaimed America’s neutrality on the issue. Congress passed the Second Neutrality Act forbidding loans to countries at war. Roosevelt easily defeated Landon

Key issues to consider when designing for people with disabilities Essay

Key issues to consider when designing for people with disabilities - Essay Example ‘People with disabilities have historically been marginalised in education, employment and community living’ (Key, 2001). This sector must be recognized as having potential to success, hand in hand with the rest of the population and having the ability of contributing substantially to the overall development of the society and nation as a whole. The rapid advancement of technology has facilitated a wide ranging scope of enabling the people with disability, giving them a strong platform to prove that they are not disabled but differently abled persons, under different circumstances, whose potential when fully exploited, can make a visible impact on the socio-economic scenario of the nation. The various enabling factors, facilitated by the emerging technologies, especially in the field of computers and information technology, have proved a milestone in the lives of the people with disabilities. They have restored the faith in the vast potential that was hitherto hidden and provided them with a means to achieve socio-economic independence, giving them self respect and a future to look forward to. It is therefore, no wonder that computers have been considered as one of the most important inventions of the century. Sensitization is a very important tool in creating appropriate atmosphere that would promote and inculcate the concept of equality and an innate sense of expectation from this sector as is the normal practice. To achieve this objective, necessity of the hour is designing a computer system that would promote the cause of enabling the persons with disability so that they can gain self respect by becoming financially independent. Hence the key issues that must be taken into account while designing and developing the system constitute very important aspect of the system itself. The following issues may be considered as highly relevant to the design and development of computer system which would