Thursday, December 26, 2019
Aggregate Expenditure And Output Of The Short Run Essay
Aggregate expenditure and output in the short run. In principle, an economy is in equilibrium when the main macroeconomic variables tend to remain stable over time without external shocks. However, the conditions that this balance must fulfill differ according to the period in which we are analyzing the economy. In any economy, output, income, and aggregate expenditure coincide. However, this cannot be the equilibrium condition, since it is an identity. In order to be able to say that the economy has reached the equilibrium, the condition that is required is that the production and the rent are equal to the planned expenditure. The difference between planned expenditure and actual expenditure is unplanned inventory investment, which is also part of aggregate demand. Therefore, another way of defining equilibrium is that the unplanned investment in stocks equals zero. If for example, the planned aggregate expenditure was lower than the output of the companies, they would see their stocks rise above what they had anticipated. As this accumulation of inventories is computed within the total expenditure, it would be fulfilled that the GDP is equal to the demand, but the level of production would not be of equilibrium. In fact, in the following periods, the companies would adjust their production downwards to give rise to the unwanted increase in inventories. The balance would be reached when production ended up at a level equal to the planned expenditure. This exampleShow MoreRelatedAs/Ad Model1332 Words à |à 6 PagesMacroeconomics ââ¬â Chapter 10: The Aggregate Demand/Aggregate Supply Model * Keynesian Economics ââ¬â Economists who focused on the short run * John Maynard Keynes - their leading advocate * the originator of macroeconomics as a separate discipline from micro * Classical Economists ââ¬â economists who focused on long-run issues such as growth * Aggregate Demand Management ââ¬â governmentââ¬â¢s attempt to control the aggregate level of spending in the economy * Equilibrium IncomeRead MoreAggregate Demand And Aggregate Supply1154 Words à |à 5 Pagesdomain of aggregate demand and aggregate supply: the long run and the short run, recessionary and inflationary gaps and long-run economic equilibrium, determining the level of consumption and aggregate expenditures and aggregate demand. I have been able to retain that aggregate demand is the total quantity of goods and services that a household, foreign buyers, and governments will buy at a given price level. A shift to the left of the aggregate demand indicates a fall in price, output returningRead MoreInflation and Aggregate Expenditure1540 Words à |à 7 PagesA decrease in planned aggregate expenditure D. All of the above 6. The planned aggregate expenditure (PAE) curve/line is: A. Upward sloping 7. The import function is _______________ , while the net export function is __________. D. Upward sloping; downward sloping 8. An income tax decrease for individual consumers will cause the planned aggregate expenditure function to: A. Shift upward 9. An increase in the real rate of interest will cause the planned aggregate expenditure function to: B. ShiftRead MoreUnit 8 Answers1388 Words à |à 6 Pagesï » ¿Unit 8 Answers 1) Long-run Macroeconomic Equilibrium and Stock Market Boom Let us assume the economy reaches its long-run macroeconomic equilibrium in 2020. When the economy is in the long run macroeconomic equilibrium, the stock market will also reach its boom. This will in turn lead to increases in stock prices more than expected, and the stock prices will stay high for some period. Answer the following questions based on the scenarios of long macroeconomic equilibrium and consequent stockRead MoreImpact Of The Construction Sector On The Uk Economy Essay1084 Words à |à 5 Pagestendencies of entering a recession. It has to be recognised that it is an extremely volatile industry which has adverse effects on macroeconomic objectives some of which includes economic growth and unemployment. This sector also affects aggregate demand and aggregate supply; all of which will be analysed and evaluated in conjunction with diagrams and the impact that they have on the economy in general. In addition to this, the effects that this sector has on the housing sector will be analysed. TheseRead MoreEssay On South Korea721 Words à |à 3 Pagesgovernment expenditure and high tax rates among the wealthy and welfare handouts as an automatic stabilizer, the unemployed or workers with low income will be able to receive benefits that alleviate their lack of income. This increases their disposable income allowing greater consumer expenditure, shifting aggregate demand (AD1 to AD2). Aggregate demand is the total demand for all goods and services produced in an economy. It also reduces the income gap. By increasing government expenditure on publicRead MoreEcon984 Words à |à 4 Pagesconsume domestically. A5-4. If aggregate household saving is negative, the marginal propensity to save from disposable income must be negative. A5-5. If desired aggregate expenditure is greater than actual national output, national output will increase. A5-6. If the domestic price level decreases, the price of domestic goods decreases relative to foreign goods. This will result in an upward shift of aggregate expenditures and a rightward shift of the aggregate demand curve. A5-7. When nationalRead MoreWhat Is Fiscal Multiplier?920 Words à |à 4 Pagesrunning these deficit levels. This is the most important fiscal policy issue that needs to be addressed. When developing a plan for fiscal policy, it is important to understand the current fiscal multiplier. Fiscal multipliers measure the change in output that would result from a change in government spending or tax revenue. There are several factors that cause changes in the fiscal multiplier. One major factor is the current state of the business cycle. The U.S. is clearly in a time of expansionRead MoreClassical Vs. Keynesian Models Essay922 Words à |à 4 Pagesmarket limitations, resembling unions, and laws. Flexible prices confirm that markets regulate to equilibrium and decrease deficiencies and overages. Say s Law proposes that the aggregate production in an economy must generate an income enough to purchase all the economy s output. Classical economics uses production output, technology, and incomes paid to produce the item as determinants to regulate prices in the economic market. In other words, if a good is produced, it has to be bought. UnfortunatelyRead MoreDifferen ce Between Fiscal And Monetary Policy Essay1345 Words à |à 6 Pageschanging due to various factors. Some of these economic policies are also developed due to various factors or events that may have occurred in the United States. This paper will discuss some policies that stimulate the economy, their relation to aggregate supply and demand, and the effectiveness of stimulation these policies will have on the economy. The article ââ¬Å"What is the difference between fiscal and monetary policy?â⬠written by Dr. Econ and posted on the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
Wednesday, December 18, 2019
Essay on The Irrelevance of a College Education - 1747 Words
The Irrelevance of a College Education Finding myself a college junior at age 56, I have often thought about why one might want an education in the first place. When asked why its taken me so long to complete college, well almost complete, my reasons are both simple and complex. I never real ly liked high school that much and my family moved around a lot. As a result, I attended several high schools. In retrospect, I now understand that high school is difficult even if one never moves. But I digress. Why get a college education? Would I be sm arter? More importantly, would people around me think of me as smarter? In fact, did it really matter at all what people around me thought? Was it money then, or pride? Perhaps it was respect.â⬠¦show more contentâ⬠¦I often wondered if this was a punishment. Several more years elapsed -- ok 20 more years -- and I decided I would take a class for fun. Imagine my surprise in finding my art appreciation course was indeed fun. How could this be? After all, this was college! Moving ahead still further in time , I was re-engineered from my job (a new word that means fired, canned, sacked.) After a year or so, I decided to look into school yet again, and suddenly I was the proud possessor of my AA degree. Hey this is pretty cool, I thought. Why not go on I aske d myself? But why? Why get an education in the first place? Graduating high school in 1961 I found there were limited opportunities for young women such as myself. The three major options were teaching, nursing, or having 2.3 babies while living a Doris Day life behind a white picket fence surrounded by flowers, all the while wearing my shirtwaist dress, heels and a pearl necklace as I vacuumed. Come to think of it, thats not so bad now. But its not 1961; its 1998 and this time around I knew of advisors. So I met with several at Pierce College. Why s everal? Well, if an advisor spent his/her time expressing their unhappiness with things, I figured they wouldnt, or rather I wouldnt do well by them because they seemed more desirous of airing their complaints than guiding me. But finally, I found someo ne who reallyShow MoreRelatedWhy Liberal Arts Education Matter?1351 Words à |à 6 PagesLiberal Arts Education Matter? There is a phenomenon that the number of liberal arts college is declining, which means we are losing liberal arts education. Recently, more and more students focus on scores and getting a degree instead of improving themselves comprehensiveness. Many students think the college degree is more important than knowledge and skills, thatââ¬â¢s why they ignore the study of liberal arts. Like Tony Woodcock (2015) said: ââ¬Å"the Liberal Arts are considered an irrelevanceâ⬠. HoweverRead MoreShould College Athletes Get Paid?999 Words à |à 4 PagesPlaying a college sport today is not just fun anymore. College sports are becoming a business and the athletes are the workers. The money some sports programs make from ticket sales, concessions, and media exposure is tremendous. Students playing sports are the ones people pay money to watch, so do the colleges not pay the athletes since they are the ones that bring in the money. They train year around to make themselves and the ir team better but what do they see for all of this hard work and dedicationRead MoreThe Effects Of Hip Hop Music On Adolescents862 Words à |à 4 PagesKnowledge on Race: Hip-Hop, White Adolescents, and Anti-Racism Educationâ⬠point out that Hip Hop may, in fact, hinder racial progress as many whites use stereotypical representations of black Americans in Hip Hop to legitimize discrimination against black people. On the other hand, Hip Hop, Color-Blindness, and Racial Stereotyping Provided Kiwanis (the author of ââ¬Å"Droppinââ¬â¢ Knowledge on Race: Hip-Hop, White Adolescents, and Anti-Racism Education) an argument about Hip Hop as a ââ¬Å"vehicle to educateâ⬠aboutRead MoreA High School Seniors Ideas on How to Reform the Educational System1387 Words à |à 6 Pagescompetence with both specific and general expected outcomes. This reinvention must cast aside the old conventions of accumulating seat time and gathering Carnegie units as the measures of learning. 3. We must address the long-term economics of education with as clear an eye as possible, which will require the absence of the hysterics, the political posturing, and the narrow self-interest of many of the change advocates and power brokers. 4. It is becoming increasingly evident, at least to someRead MorePast, Present, and Future: Personal Statement1827 Words à |à 7 PagesPast, Present, Future Paper Past, Present, Future Paper Introduction The goal of this essay is to be able to give a reflection on ones professional and personal lives throughout his or her program study at their college of choice. In this paper I will go back and give a full reflection on ones development despite the fact looking at the effects of finishing up the degree program of future and current professional objectives. In this paper, I will argue ones interpretations of learning, effectsRead MoreThe Development Of The Democratic World857 Words à |à 4 Pagesplantation slavery that established a racial hierarchy that developed a clear social div ide even after two centuries of country evolution; black people are still stuck in a system of disadvantages behind white privileges which lead to a complete social irrelevance, and then over time the modern day mass incarceration system has put them at a complete racial marginila do not even realize which creates a vicious cycle duh to the racia ââ¬Å"the state-sanctioned or extralegal production and exploitation of group-differentiatedRead MoreEssay On Data Collection And Needs Assessment1494 Words à |à 6 Pagescertain data points must be collected. The professional development plan must be grounded in reliable and correct statistics. To collect these resources, multiple sources of data will be referenced. These data sources include the state department of education graduation database, national data on graduation rates, and school specific data from the guidance office. A wide grounding in data will allow for the comparison of local and national dropout rates. While quantitative data is essential in craftingRead MoreFreedom Of Speech Should Not Be Tolerated Essay1882 Words à |à 8 Pagesas an individual. Socially, I often felt outcast until my senior year and I frequently questioned where I belonged; this led me to try and find my place by joining every organization and sports team I could, hoping to discover me. The feeling of irrelevance was exacerbated my senior year when my guidance counselor lost my Gates Millennium Scholarship application and my application to MSU. Michigan State University was the only school I was applying to. By the time I was aware of her mistake the deadlineRead MoreNative Underachievement in Canadian Schools Essay1263 Words à |à 6 PagesNative Underachievement in Canadian Schools A comparison of native students and their non-native peers quickly brings one to the realization that native students are not experiencing a comparable degree of education success in Canadian schools. It is vital that native Canadians address this issue thoroughly, to insure that the nation is no longer faced with a semi-literate, unemployable population, requiring financial support. In order to fully address native educational underachievement itRead MoreComputer Programming Research Paper4941 Words à |à 20 PagesFactors Affecting the Performance of the High School Senior Students of St. Peterââ¬â¢s College of Ormoc in Computer Programming A.Y. 2012-2013 A Research Paper Presented to the class of Mr. Francisco V. Calub St. Peterââ¬â¢s College of Ormoc in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Subject English IV by Euriah I. Galano and Chelsea Mary E. Jorda February 26, 2013 CHAPTER I Background of the Study Computer programming is defined as telling a computer what to do through a special set of instructions
Tuesday, December 10, 2019
Leadership and Governance Educational Service Company
Question: Describe about the Leadership and Governance for Educational Service Company. Answer: Introduction of the company Online Education Services Pty. Ltd. is a located in Melbourne and is a school and educational service company. It is a private organisation founded in 2011. The company has annual revenue of $2.32 million, which is higher than the competitors of the company. There are approx 260 employees working under the company. The company thus hires a typical amount of employees in the company. Online Education Services Pty Ltd. is in the top 20% of the company in this industry. Discussion on the extent to which leadership is responsible for the growth of the company The company is one of the largest companies of the school and education service industry. The company has been able to secure a stable market position in the competitive market of Melbourne since; effective leadership is practised within the company. The company focuses on the employee engagement and thus implements democratic leadership. The employees are free to engage in the companys decision-making and other activities that increase the productivity level of the employees and the company as well (Katou 2015). In the opinion Pugalis et al. (2014), creativity is one of the core attentions of the company. Implementing creativity in the business with the support of the leaders helps to turn the competition into game that generates higher performance level. The leaders of Online Education Services Pty. Ltd. are the owners, managers and the other higher authority who allows building a connection between the theory and practice of the business. The leadership practiced in the company helps the company to grow and develop further as the main priority of the leadership is to engage the appropriate staff at the appropriate time for the right task. This helps to encourage the employees to contribute in the future growth of the company. The leadership further allows obtaining ideas from all the ranks and department of the company. Moreover, with effective leadership the company is able to encourage and enable collaboration. An interdependent network is thus obtained in the organisation. Online Educat ion Services Pty Ltd. is positively affected by the impact of leadership as the practice of leadership supports the organisation to open up in diverse perspective. Online Education Services Pty Ltd. has been experiencing increase in the operation scale since the employees has been guided by the leaders in an effective manner. According to Blackburn, Hart and Wainwright (2013) the creative work of the staffs is mapped in appropriate phase that helps to achieve the organisational goals. The company witnessed rise in the revenue and profit earnings that ensured sustainability in the market. Thus, leadership is responsible for the growth of the company largely. The other factors that are more important than leadership in achieving growth Apart from the effective leadership practice of the company, Online Education Services Pty Ltd. has other factors that add to the process of achieving growth. The growth of the company is based on the aggregate of the various factors such as good strategy, good employees, healthy corporate culture, and clarity of the managers etcetera (Waniganayake et al. 2012). In order to achieve growth, the sound business strategy is an important factor that is tied to the core competency of Online Education Services Pty Ltd. Good employees helps the managers of the company in solving the issues faced by the company. Furthermore, the healthy corporate culture also encourages the company to achieve organisational growth and development. When the stakeholders of Online Education Services Pty Ltd. collaborate, brainstorm and share knowledge with each other, they tend to care about their work (Adams 2013). The performance metrics of the employees then measure the right things that ensure the company t o achieve organisational goals and growth. The creative thinkers and the innovators within the workplace make Online Education Services Pty Ltd. proactive. They provide the company with innovative solutions and ideas that help to achieve competitive advantage. The issues are identified from before and thus the risk is effectively managed. All these above factors help the organisation to handle the constant changes faced by the organisation. In addition to this, Leautier (2014) mentioned that when the managers of the organisation makes the rules, policies and the job profile clear to the employees, the employees are able to carry out the task effectively. This further allows Online Education Services Pty Ltd. to achieve the organisational growth other than the leadership. It can be therefore inferred that the company needs to pay attention towards the above-mentioned factors along with the leadership to ensure organisational growth and development in the competitive market of Melbourne. References Adams, C.A., 2013. The role of leadership and governance in transformational change towards sustainability.Global Responsibility, (9). Blackburn, R.A., Hart, M. and Wainwright, T., 2013. Small business performance: business, strategy and owner-manager characteristics.Journal of small business and enterprise development,20(1), pp.8-27. Katou, A.A., 2015. Transformational leadership and organisational performance: Three serially mediating mechanisms.Employee Relations,37(3), pp.329-353. Lautier, F., 2014. Leadership and Governance. InLeadership in a Globalized World(pp. 126-176). Palgrave Macmillan UK. Pugalis, L., Liddle, J., Henry, C. and Marlow, S. eds., 2014.Enterprising places: Leadership and governance networks(Vol. 3). Emerald Group Publishing. Waniganayake, M., Cheeseman, S., Fenech, M., Hadley, F. and Shepherd, W., 2012. Leadership: Contexts and complexities in early childhood education.
Monday, December 2, 2019
Prison Escapee free essay sample
To say that I am like Andy Dufresne, wife-killing banker and mastermind behind a money laundering scandal, would be the shortest way to sum me up in a nutshell. Scrutinizing of this statement would reveal that it is indeed true: Shawshank Prison is equivalent to all the hardships I face in life, Captain Hadley has been reincarnated into all the people who exacerbate my difficulties, and I see Warden Samuel Norton in every person who enables my suffering to occur and continue. Most importantly, my rock hammer, my salvation that lay within, is the knowledge that these times of trouble will come to pass. It chips away the walls that confine me to my misfortune, little by little, until eventually, I am free of it. I am not an ignorant f***, as Andy once called Boggs, as I know that life isnââ¬â¢t a stroll in the park. Bad luck floats around and ââ¬Å"itââ¬â¢s got to land on somebody. We will write a custom essay sample on Prison Escapee or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page â⬠When it lands on me, I proudly wield my rock hammer and handle the storm with finesse. Sometimes, though, the storm lasts awhile and the walls confining me seem to be a mile-thick ââ¬â too thick for a six inch rock hammer. Sometimes, itââ¬â¢s as if bad luck ran out of people to land on, so it makes up for it by throwing every misfortune possible at me; the tantamount of the Sisters regularly beating up Dufresne at Shawshank, or Warden Norton throwing him into solitary for two consecutive months. Despite the jaw-dropping amount of bad luck, the greatest part of being like Andy Dufresne is that I share his unrelenting determination. Andy wanted a prison library, so he committed to writing two letters a week to the state for funds and succeeded. Similarly, I once wanted a pet fish, and committed to pestering my parents about it until I succeeded in acquiring one (though it died shortly afterwards because the water was too cold). Furthermore, Dufresne decided that nineteen years at Shawshank was long enough, and escaped the same night he came to that epiphany. In the same manner, I decided that I would score a 4 on the AP English Literature and Composition test, and did just that. By spending countless hours reading and writing about classic literature, whetting my analyzing skills, I strolled out the testing room (if you consider a gym to be a room) feeling accomplished and free as a prison escapee. Being like Andy is my constant. Itââ¬â¢s helped me transcend lifeââ¬â¢s challenges and gain wisdom in preparation for problems brewing in my future. His motto is my motto: ââ¬Å"Get busy living, or get busy dying.â⬠Evidently, the latter of the two choices does not appeal to me. I dare not spend time evading my problems to become institutionalized like my fellow con mates; ergo I get busy living by solving them. Like Andy, I keep hope alive, even when the situation seems hopeless, and ceaselessly chip away at the problem until a solution has been tunneled out for me. People will wonder how I get through life, with all its Shawshank Prisons and various Captain Hadleys, and theorize that I have some miraculous secret to success. The only secret I have, however, is my determination to overcome, and a six inch rock hammer.
Wednesday, November 27, 2019
Analytical Essay Sample on the Impact of Human Activities on Natural Hazards
Analytical Essay Sample on the Impact of Human Activities on Natural Hazards Natural hazards are naturally occurring phenomena that have disastrous impact on humanity. These phenomena had been in existence even before the advent of humanity. The hazardous dimension of these natural phenomena are in the context of the impact that such a phenomenon would have on human population in the area affected by that phenomenon. In this essay, the effect that human activity has on these natural hazards would be analyzed. Some human activities may be exacerbating the factors that cause the natural hazard, like the impact of excessive and unplanned logging on floods and droughts. In certain other cases the human activities may cause subsequent or supplementary hazards to a primary hazard event, like building dams in earthquake prone zones may lead to flash floods and landslides in the event of a rupture. A hazard can be defined as an event that has the potential to cause harm. This potential may be on account of its unexpected timing of occurrence or the actual intensity of the event itself. Human societies can withstand these events within a normal scale of occurrence. However, human societies become vulnerable when these events occur unexpectedly or are of an intensity or duration that falls beyond that normal scale (Oââ¬â¢Hare and Rivas, 2005). Natural hazards can be broadly classified under the heads of geological, hydrological, climatic and diseases. This essay would limit its scope to analyzing causal relationships, if any, of human activities on landslides, floods and drought and the secondary hazards triggered by those activities in the event of an earthquake. Of all human activities that have a direct or indirect impact on natural hazards, deforestation is by far the most significant. Deforestation is the removal or destruction of forest cover of an area. It may occur due to unscientific logging practices without regeneration and may be accompanied by subsequent conversion to non-forest usage like agriculture, pasture, urban, mining or industrial development, fallow or wetland. At a very broad level, it has been argued that deforestation is a major cause of global climatic changes. It has been predicted that removal of forest cover will lead to violent and unpredictable environmental fluctuations. At a smaller landscape, deforestation has a direct bearing upon the climatic, hydrological, edaphic and biological aspects of that area. Deforestation is associated with higher levels of soil erosion and landslides, sedimentation in river beds and changes in fluvial geomorphology (Haigh, 1984). Quite a few of these effects of deforestation have a direct bearing on the natural hazards that will be covered in this essay. One of the major functions of a forest is to maintain the humidity level in the atmosphere. Trees withdraw groundwater through their roots and transpire the excess water through their leaves. Forests return a major part of the rainfall received by them through evapotranspiration. Annual evapotranspiration in tropical moist lowland forests ranges up to 1500 mm per year, with transpiration accounting for a maximum of 1045 mm per year (Bruijnzeel, 1990). This process of evapotranspiration in the leaves of trees takes the latent heat of evaporation from the surrounding atmosphere. Thus evapotranspiration has a cooling effect on the atmosphere that aids precipitation. Deforestation denies the atmosphere of this cooling effect and is thus a contributing factor to lowering of annual rainfall in an area. Further, the effects of deforestation generally compound the severity of drought. Lack of trees translates to the lack of root fibers that hold the topsoil. In the event of a drought, the topsoil flakes and gets blown by the wind, leading to severe dust storms. This phenomenon had devastated the American Great Plains for close to a decade in 1930s. The dust bowl covered farming areas in Colorado, Kansas, north west Oklahoma, north Texas and north east New Mexico. The fertile soil of the plains was exposed due to lack of vegetation cover and actions of the plow. These farming techniques that led to severe soil erosion, coupled with prolonged periods of extremely low rainfall, led to a series of severe dust storms that ranged up to the Atlantic coast. Much of the fertile topsoil was lost in the Atlantic (Cartensen et al., 1999). Direct causal relationship between human activity and drought is yet to be conclusively established. However, there are studies available that point to a positive correlation between the two. For example, climate-modeling studies have indicated that the 20th century Sahel drought was caused by changing sea surface temperatures. These changes were due to a combination of natural variability and human induced atmospheric changes. The anthropogenic factors in this case were rise in greenhouse gas levels and aerosols (GFDL Climate Modeling Research Highlights, 2007). The effect of human activities like deforestation is rather more direct and pronounced in case of hydrological hazards like fluvial floods. Fluvial floods occur when the discharge of a river exceeds its bankfull capacity. Forests create deep, open textured soils that can hold large quantities of water. When the forest cover is removed through logging, the soil becomes compacted. More rainwater is converted to runoff or near surface flow and less proportion percolates as groundwater. Research has shown significant increase in monthly runoff following logging activities (Rahim and Harding, 1993). The runoff rainwater carries with it considerable amounts of loose soil particles. Removal of vegetation cover through excessive logging activities or overgrazing leaves the soil bare. In such a situation, the upper layer of the soils becomes susceptible to erosion by surface runoff. These suspended soil particles are deposited on the riverbeds. The effect of this type of soil erosion by surface runoff is even more pronounced when the deforestation happens in the riparian zones as well. With time, this sedimentation decreases the depth of the riverbed and, thereby, the water carrying capacity of that river. When the flow of water in the river increases due to a variety of reasons like rainfall, seasonal melting of ice etc, that river can no longer contain the flow within its channel due to reduced drainage efficiency. This excess water inundates adjoining areas causing floods. The effect of soil erosion and subsequent sedimentation of the riverbeds enhances both the occurrences of floods and the area affected by floods. The impact of deforestation driven soil erosion is particularly severe in mountainous terrain. In the western Himalayas, comparison of bedload sediments trapped from parallel streams found that the sediment loads from undisturbed forest were five-seven times smaller than from deforested areas covered by grass and scrub. Deforested areas had a much smaller depth of soil and in many places large patches of underlying bedrock had become exposed ( Haigh et al., 1998). The result of this type of soil erosion on floods is amply demonstrated in the river systems in peninsular Malaysia. Malaysia is located in the equatorial belt and receives very heavy rainfall throughout the year. Peninsular Malaysia has a dense river network. The largest of around one hundred river systems is the Pahang. The runoff along exposed hillsides on the upper courses of the rivers lead to heavy soil erosion and major silting in the lower courses. Peninsular Malaysia has a major tin mining industry and disposal of unwanted tin mining tailings in watercourses has greatly accentuated the silting process. This has majorly worsened the flood situation, both in terms of inundation area and duration of flooding. The effect is particularly severe in Perak and Selangor (Chan and Parker, 1996). The type of natural hazard that is most closely linked to human activity is the landslide. A landslide can be defined as the movement of a mass of rock, soil or debris downward a slope. These occur on steep slopes of hilly terrains that demonstrate certain inherent factors like susceptible rock structure, weak material or slope form. The preparatory factors actively produce the changes that make slopes more vulnerable to a slide, without actually causing it. Some preparatory factor may ultimately become the triggering factor and start the landslide. In some other cases, geological or climatic events like earthquakes or rainstorms initiate the movement. Human activities cause some of the more widespread preparatory factors. Removal of forest cover from mountain slopes deprives the soil of the binding force of the roots of vegetation, thereby making it more vulnerable. Removal of the toe of the slope renders the mass above, unstable. This is because the lateral buttressing support for the bulk of the slope that lies on top of the excavated area is removed. Human activities like building of roads or quarrying of minerals are responsible for this type of preparatory factor. In many cases, human settlement on the slopes alters the original surface drainage of that area, eventually rendering it hydrologically unstable. The effects of human activity in the preparatory factors of a landslide were demonstrated in the landslide at Abbotsford, South Island, New Zealand on 8th August 1979. Deforestation, quarrying and modification of surface drainage further endangered the geologically unstable slope. Heavy rainfall and leakage from city water supply pipeline finally triggered the massive landslide (Pacione, 1999). Human activity like construction of roads can have a major impact on the vulnerability of a mountain slope. For example, the Indian Central Himalayas have seen major increase in road construction activities after the war with China in 1962. Many of these roads are poorly designed and constructed. This has dramatically increased in the occurrences of landslides in the region (Ives, 2004). Human intervention on the natural drainage of a slope as a major contributing factor to a landslide is amply demonstrated in the multiple occurrences of landslides on the hill slopes of La Paz city in Bolivia. La Paz region has considerable human settlements that are on unconsolidated slopes. These slopes are frequently wetted to saturation and forced to move. Some of these factors are natural, like seasonal convective showers of high intensity, flooding of lowers slopes by the rivers and streams draining that rainfall and water seepage from fluctuating water tables of adjoining lake Titicaca basin. However, the water saturation of the slopes is exacerbated by the human settlement on the slopes. Much of such settlements are unplanned, self-help housing that have no access to public sanitation and drainage systems. Waste water from such houses are drained directly on to the slopes. These factors have led to repeated landslides in the La Paz region in the past (Oââ¬â¢Hare and Rivas, 2005). Another type of mass movement that is seen in plain areas is subsidence. Subsidence is vertical sinking of materials. In many unplanned cities, the city has sprawled into areas not covered by municipal water distribution network and indiscriminate ground water usage through bore wells have severely depleted water tables. In some cities like Mexico and Bangkok, the drained soil has compacted, leading to subsidence. In some other regions like the Raniganj ââ¬â Jharia coal belt in India, improper mining excavations and inappropriate filling of excavated tunnels have led to widespread subsidence. In certain cases, though human activity does not cause a natural hazard, it may lead to secondary hazard events subsequent to the occurrence of a primary hazard. A case in point is the building of a very high multipurpose dam at Tehri in the Himalayan region in India that may be susceptible to seismic activity. In the eventuality of an earthquake and subsequent rupture of such a high dam, a tremendous flash flood is inevitable on the lower courses of the river, accompanied by major landslides as well (Ives, 2004). Thus, it can be concluded that human activities have some impact on occurrence of natural hazards. For some hazards like landslides and subsidence, there is direct, causal relationship between human activity and hazard occurrence. In some other cases like drought and floods, unscientific and unplanned exploitation of natural resources exacerbate natural hazards. In yet other cases, human activity compounds the effect of a natural hazard by triggering other hazard events that follow.
Saturday, November 23, 2019
Maria Reynolds and the First U.S. Political Sex Scandal
Maria Reynolds and the First U.S. Political Sex Scandal Maria Reynolds is best known for her role in the United States first political sex scandal. As the mistress of Alexander Hamilton, Maria was the subject of much gossip and speculation, and she ultimately found herself embroiled in a blackmail scheme. Fast Facts: Maria Reynolds Known For: Mistress of Alexander Hamilton, an affair that led to the publication of the Reynolds Pamphlet and the United States first sex scandalBorn: March 30, 1768 in New York, New YorkParents: Richard Lewis, Susanna Van Der BurghSpouse(s): James Reynolds, Jacob Clingman, Dr. Mathew (first name unknown)Died: March 25, 1828 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Early Life Maria was born in New York City to middle-class parents. Not much is known about her early life. Her father, Richard Lewis, was a merchant and itinerant laborer, and her mother Susanna Van Der Burgh had been married once before. (Of note, Susannaââ¬â¢s sixth great-grandson would become President George W. Bush.) Although Maria wasnââ¬â¢t formally educated,à her letters to Hamilton show that she was marginally literate. In 1783, when Maria was fifteen, her parents consented to her marriage to James Reynolds, several years her senior, and two years later she gave birth to their daughter, Susan. The couple moved from New York to Philadelphia at some point between 1785 and 1791. James had served during the Revolutionary War as a commissary agent, alongside his father, David. In addition, he had a pattern of filing claims with the government for damages and losses accrued during the war. In one letter to George Washington, dated 1789, James Reynolds asked for a land grant. The Hamilton Affair During the summer of 1791, Maria, then twenty-three years old, approached Hamilton in Philadelphia. She asked for help, saying James had abused and then abandoned her for another woman. She begged Hamilton, who was thirty-four and married, for financial assistance so that she could return to New York with her daughter. Hamilton agreed to deliver money to her, and promised to stop by Mariaââ¬â¢s boarding house to drop it off. Once Hamilton arrived at Mariaââ¬â¢s Philadelphia lodgings, she led him to her bedroom, and the affair began. The affair continued for the summer and fall of that year, while Hamiltonââ¬â¢s wife and son were visiting family in upstate New York. At some point, Maria informed Hamilton that James sought a reconciliation, to which she had agreed, although she had no intention of ending the affair. She then arranged for Hamilton to meet James, who wanted a position in the Treasury Department. Hamilton refused, and indicated that he no longer wanted to be involved with Maria, at which point she wrote again, saying her husband had found out about their relationship. Soon, Reynolds himself was sending angry letters to Hamilton, demanding money. In December 1791, Hamilton paid Reynolds $1,000 - a staggering sum at that time - and ended the affair with Maria. However, a month later, Reynolds surfaced again, and this time invited Hamilton to renew his romantic attentions towards Maria; she also encouraged Hamiltonââ¬â¢s visits. Each time, Hamilton sent Reynolds money. This continued until June 1792, when Reynolds was arrested and charged with forgery and fraudulently purchasing pensions from Revolutionary War veterans. From jail, Reynolds continued to write Hamilton, who refused to send the couple any further payments. The Scandal Once Maria and James Reynolds realized there was to be no further income from Hamilton, it wasnââ¬â¢t long before whispers of scandal got back to Congress. Reynolds hinted at public misconduct, promising to testify against Hamilton, but instead vanished after being released from jail. By then, though, the damage was done, and the truth about the affair with Maria was the talk of the town. Worried that accusations of financial misdeeds could destroy his political hopes, Hamilton decided to come clean about the affair. In 1797, he wrote what would become known as the Reynolds Pamphlet, in which he detailed the relationship with Maria and the blackmail by her husband. He maintained that his wrongdoing was adultery, not financial malfeasance: ââ¬Å"My real crime is an amorous connection with his wife, for a considerable time with his privity and connivance, if not originally brought on by a combination between the husband and wife with the design to extort money from me.â⬠Once the pamphlet was released, Maria became a social pariah. She had divorced Reynolds in absentia in 1793, and remarried; her second husband was a man named Jacob Clingman, who was implicated along with Reynolds in the pension speculation scheme. To escape further public humiliation, Maria and Clingman left for England in late 1797. Later Years There are no details about Mariaââ¬â¢s life in England, but when she returned to the United States years later, it was without Clingman. It is unknown whether he died, she divorced him, or she simply left. Regardless, she was using the name Maria Clement for a time, and worked as a housekeeper to a physician named Dr. Mathew, whom she later married. Her daughter Susan came to live with them, and enjoyed some degree of social status with her motherââ¬â¢s new marriage. In her later years, Maria cultivated respectability and found solace in religion. She died in 1828. Sources Alberts, Robert C. ââ¬Å"The Notorious Affair Of Mrs. Reynolds.â⬠American Heritage, Feb. 1973, www.americanheritage.com/content/notorious-affair-mrs-reynolds.Chernow, Ron (2004). Alexander Hamilton. Penguin Books.Hamilton, Alexander. ââ¬Å"Founders Online: Draft of the ââ¬ËReynolds Pamphletââ¬â¢, [25 August 1797].â⬠National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-21-02-0138-0001#ARHN-01-21-02-0138-0001-fn-0001.Swenson, Kyle. ââ¬Å"Americas First Hush Money Scandal: Alexander Hamiltons Torrid Affair with Maria Reynolds.â⬠The Washington Post, WP Company, 23 Mar. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/03/23/americas-first-hush-money-scandal-alexander-hamiltons-torrid-affair-with-maria-reynolds/?noredirectonutm_term.822b16f784ea.
Thursday, November 21, 2019
Recent developments in financial reporting of one country Essay
Recent developments in financial reporting of one country - Essay Example Investors and analyst both rely on information and the more they can understand the information being provided to them by an organization the lower they would consider the risk is. Therefore national accounting bodies are continuously changing their accounting standards to make them more global. This global approach increases the reliability, understanding and comparability for analyst and stockholders. The recent financial crisis has also encouraged the national accounting bodies to take a more stern approach to reporting standards. The general risk averse environment can lead to more sterner reporting requirements by accounting bodies in order to safeguard interests of users of this financial information. One significant movement in this regard is the movement towards ââ¬Ëfair value accountingââ¬â¢ methods. The aim is to use a more realistic approach towards reporting balance sheet items. The focus is being shifted from reporting historical prices of balance sheet items to reporting the expected future benefits received from the item (e.g. PV of expected future cash flows). This would enable users of financial information to better assess the value of company assets and thus value the entity more accurately. However this would also lead to increased volatility in value of assets. This is because the fair value of an asset is more volatile as compared to historical cost. A p otential impact of these rules would be companies looking to invest in less volatile assets to reduce the risk with their holdings. The recent economic turmoil in international markets, along with factors mentioned aboveencouraged Canada financial institutions to bring major changes to its reporting standards. Canada has used GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) for many decades. The Canadian GAAP however would now be abolished in order to shift to the IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards). Private, Public and non-profit entities all are affected by this major shift
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