Energy Flow Systems :: essays research papers

Energy Flow Systems   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Richard White's Organic Machine, and William Cronon's Changes in the Land, both examine environments as energy flow systems. The energy flow model was utilized by the authors to explain relationships within ecosystems.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Richard White's thesis is to examine the river as an organic machine, as an energy system that, although modified by human intervention, maintains it's natural, its â€Å"unmade† qualities. White emphasizes on energy because it is a useful concept that can be easily understood. He says, â€Å"the flow of the river is energy, so is the electricity that comes from the dams that block that flow. Human labor is energy; so are the calories that are stored as fat by salmon for their journey upstream.† White notes that energy is as concrete as salmon, human bodies, and the Grand Coulee Dam. White wants his readers to think about nature and its relationship with humanity.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  White explains how the river is energy. The Columbia River works as gravity pulls it to the Pacific Ocean. The Columbia is continuously cutting into the terrain that it flows through. Over millions of years water rushed through the Columbia Basin to form the Columbia River. Water carries soil, silt, and debris downstream. The constant movement of material in the river cuts and shapes the river basin into the land. This movement is a slow and inefficient use of energy. According to White, only two percent of water's potential energy results in the work of erosion. The other ninety-eight percent of water's energy was lost as water molecules rub against themselves, the river bed, and the river banks. This energy was released as heat into the river.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Often the energy of flowing water was not recognized. There are occasions when rivers do show their power is destructive ways. Power was usually demonstrated through floods, and more so in flash floods. Thousands of years ago, an ice dam in the Columbia River, holding the glacial lake Missoula, broke and created the largest known freshwater flood in earth's history. The flood rushed into the Columbia Channel and created the Grand Coulee and other rock channels that would have taken the Mississippi River three hundred years at full flood to create.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Salmon are also a part of the Colombian energy model. As the river works its way downward to the Pacific Ocean, the salmon work their way up the Columbia to spawn. The energy in salmon can be measured by their body fat and caloric value. Salmon start their run upstream prepared for the long hard run. Their bodies have stored fat and oil after a year worth of feeding at sea.

Balancing Inequality Essay -- Education

The California public school system is failing in educating children state-wide. One of the most difficult problems is budget, which affects tremendously children in poor areas. Children from these areas should have equal access to resources, programs and opportunities as those from more propitious communities. In order to close the gap of inequality, we all need to change the way California school system’s funding is allocated and put into use. First, we must increase the income tax of the richest people or the top two tax brackets and divide that extra tax money we collected to public schools in poor areas. This idea was mentioned in a research by professor Picus from University of California Rossier School of Education. Although the idea does not sound very fair to the richest people, it is what needs to be done for California school system to improve statewide. The gap of expenditure per student in higher and low-income districts is too great. According to Just Schools California, districts like Palo Alto spend more than $10,000 per pupil, while largely low-income communities like Lynwood spend around $6000 per pupil. There are rich people who donate a large amount of money to schools every year because they have a lot of extra money and they like to do their part for the society. In fact, the wealthiest Californians have a lot of extra cash even after they bought their Lamborghinis and holiday mansions. Increase the inc ome tax of these people by as little as 1% or 2% will not affect them much, but will benefit a lot to all Californian students, especially those in the poor areas. The reason this extra money will be given to only schools in low-income areas is because the current taxes on wealthier areas is high enough to gi... ..., we could provide every child in California with a better education and equality. Works Cited Picus, Lawrence O. Funding California's Schools: Past, Present and Future? Rep. 2006. Print. "$1B in Teacher Compensation under Attack | California Watch." California Watch | Bold New Journalism. Web. 29 Nov. 2010. . "Prop 13 Facts | Close the Loophole." Close the Loophole | Close the Prop. 13 Loophole. Web. 30 Nov. 2010. . Moore, Michael. Idiot Nation. Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing. By Gary Colombo, Robert Cullen, and Bonnie Lisle. 8th ed. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins, 2010. 128-46. Print. Conditions, Opportunities and Outcomes in California Public Schools. UCLA IDEA & UC/ACCORD, Jan. 2010. PDF.

What Is Social Anxiety Disorder?

i. Introduction Social Anxiety is a worldwide disorder that can affect anyone, no matter what ethnicity or gender they are. Social anxiety is an intense fear of social situations, especially when you are being judged or watched by others. Such as presentations, being the center of attention, public speaking, making phone calls or eating and drinking in front of others. I chose to study this topic because I find it interesting how certain social situations can cause fear in people.Also, I show some symptoms of having social anxiety and I wish to learn more about this topic. Social anxiety disorder is also known as social phobia. It is defined as the fear of social situations that involve interaction with other people. It is the fear and anxiety of being judged and evaluated negatively by other people or behaving in a way that might cause embarrassment or ridicule. This leads to feelings of inadequacy, self-consciousness, and depression. The person with social anxiety disorder may beli eve that all eyes are on him/her at all times.Social situations that provoke social anxiety are eating or drinking in front of others, being the center of attention, public speaking, presentations, talking on the telephone and asking questions. People with this disorder will do whatever it takes to avoid social situations. The symptoms of Social Anxiety Disorder are extreme self-consciousness, immense fear of being judged or watched, nausea, rapid heartbeat, sweating and trembling. ii. Overview There are many different perceptions about people with social anxiety. Statistics show that this disorder is the third largest mental disability in the world and can affect 19. million Americans at any time. Even though it can occur at any time in people’s lives, it happens most often in childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Statistics also show that women are more likely to get diagnosed with Social Anxiety, than men. People who do have it are often seen by others as just being shy, u neasy or quiet. The people who are diagnosed with social anxiety may be conflicted by these perceptions, so they may fail to seek treatment. The problem is generally unheard and they may think that they are the only ones who suffer from it.People who do seek treatment are often misdiagnosed and labeled as â€Å"personality disorder† or â€Å"manic depressive. † This is because social anxiety is not well understood by the general public, or medical or health care professionals. Those with the disorder usually know that their anxiety, thoughts, and fears are irrational. They realize that it is angst and terror that they are experiencing. They know that people around them are not really judging them or evaluating them. They understand that everyone is not out to degrade or embarrass them.But despite this logical knowledge and sense, they still continue to feel and believe differently, which causes thoughts and symptoms of anxiety usually persist with no indication of goin g away. People with social anxiety may usually experience extreme distress in some of these situations: when they are being introduced to other people, being teased or criticized, being the center of attention or meeting important people or authoritative people. Or by being watched while doing something, announcing something in a public situation and getting embarrassed easily.Social anxiety may be selective. A person may have an extreme fear of one occasion, such as public speaking, but be perfectly comfortable in any other situation. People with a social phobia are nervous, anxious, and afraid about many social situations. Simply attending a business meeting or going to a party can be highly nerve wracking and intimidating. Although people with social anxiety want to be social with everyone else, their anxiety about not doing well in public is strong and hinders their efforts. They freeze up when they meet new people. ii. What Causes Social Anxiety Disorder? What Are The Symptoms? Knowing the exact causes of social anxiety is still an ongoing research and there is no single known cause. However, there are environmental and psychological factors that will play a role in its development. This development of this disorder can be from a humiliating experience the patient has experienced in the past. People diagnosed with social anxiety may have developed this disorder by seeing what has happened to someone else when that person has been embarrassed.As mentioned before, there are also emotional, physical and behavioral symptoms of social anxiety. Emotional symptoms can range from fearing that other people will notice that you’re nervous, to worrying for days or weeks prior to a social situation. Physical symptoms are nausea, sweating, rapid heartbeat, feeling faint, trembling and shaking. The behavioral symptoms are avoiding any type of social situation to an extent where it disrupts your life and hiding â€Å"behind the scenes† to escape from being noticed. iv. Treatment for Social Anxiety DisorderTwo types of treatment may be used to help patients suffering from social anxiety. A certain type of therapy can be used, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and it has proved to be effective in most cases. Medication is also useful in treatment. Antidepressant, such as MAOI’s, in contrast with CBT, is the most beneficial. Benzodiazepines like Xanax, Valium and Ativan are prescribed to people who have social anxiety to treat it. But research has shown that if the two treatments are not used together, success is only temporary.Also, treatment must include a therapist and an active behavioral therapy group. Group therapy for social anxiety use CBT techniques includes role-playing and training of social skills. This group therapy uses acting or mock interviews to work on the social situations that will make you anxious. The most important steps in defeating social anxiety disorder is understanding, becoming aware of the problem, and c ommitting to go through all treatments, including therapy. v. Conclusion I learned that Social Anxiety Disorder can affect millions of people at any given time.I think I show signs of Social Anxiety Disorder because during social situations, such as presenting, I show the symptoms. I get anxious, shaky, nervous and rapid heartbeats. In my opinion, this is probably one of the worst mental disorders that someone can have, because it is so misunderstood and misdiagnosed. What makes the situation even more difficult is the fact that the disorder does not just come and go like other disorders. A person is faced with it every day of their life, every time they have to go out anywhere or are put in a situation where others are involved.They have to deal with this all the time, until they are treated. Unfortunately, most people do not know that they have it. Without some kind of formal education, knowledge, or treatment, social anxiety continues to ruin their lives. And if they finally do t ry to seek help, chances are that they will not find. This is the reality for 19. 2 million Americans, but yet there is very little being done in the way of trying to help them realize that they are not just shy or introverted, they really have a problem. REFERENCES Websites: Stein MB, Stein DJ. Social anxiety disorder.Lancet. 2008;371:1115-1125 – (http://www. ncbi. nlm. nih. gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001953/) Jaffe-Gil, Ellen, M. A. ; Smith, Melinda, M. A. -www. helpguide. org ;(http://www. helpguide. org/mental/social_anxiety_support_symptom_causes_treatment. htm) www. nimnh. nih. gove/index. shtml (http://www. nimh. nih. gov/health/publications/social-phobia-social-anxiety-disorder-always-embarrassed/what-is-social-phobia. shtml) www. wikipedia. org (http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Social_anxiety  ) www. webmd. com (http://www. webmd. com/anxiety-panic/guide/mental-health-social-anxiety-disorder)

Baz Luhrman: Romeo and Juliet Transformation

Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet Transformation A hugely successful transformation of the complex written version to the action packed film took place when accredited writer Baz Luhrmann redefined the classic tale of Shakespeare’s Romeo And Juliet. Luhrmann and co-writer Craig Pearce were tenacious in deciding â€Å"to stick absolutely to the Shakespearean text, to keep as many of the Elizabethan customs as possible, such as a highly evolved code of etiquette and honor, even in the use of violence† in the context of a created world, based on twentieth century icon.They discovered that one of this century's most powerful and effective icons, the movies, best exemplify the notion. â€Å"There are textual facts in Romeo and Juliet, having to do with Elizabethan society, which exist in Mexico,† Luhrmann explains. â€Å"For instance, during Shakespeare's time religion was very involved in politics; there was a very small percentage of great wealth and a large p opulation of poor; it was violent; and people were openly armed. We've interpreted all of these Elizabethan things in the context of the modern, created world.In fact, much of this occurs in modern-day Mexico, in varying degrees. You could actually set the piece in Mexico City itself and just play it. It has mysticism about it and, for me it's exotic. It has a music and magic to it. It's not Verona Beach, but it certainly had a lot of the elements to it. † The costume party was a fabulous pretext for the romantic quality of the film; Romeo being the knight in shining armour, Juliet the angel that comes into his life, completely absorbing him like some fantastical being, driving his obsession with love.There were also a few clever imageries Luhrmann used to further show exactly what the situation was-which, to be honest is challenging for many younger readers of the Shakespeare novel, both in terms of the language used and the fact that it somewhat lacks in the nature of popula r entertainment). These were: the fish tank which was the barrier between the two lovers- just like the water and the beautiful little fish, so exciting, but there was the glass ( the family rivalry) that wouldn’t budge and to break it (defy the rules) would only mean death.What was so clever was that one imagery summarized the main fact of the story of Romeo and Juliet- they are only truly free from their parents when they’ve taken the poison. Imageries are only a part of the beauty of this transformation – as Luhrmann relates, the way it sounds also has a huge effect on audiences. â€Å"To me, the language in Leonardo's mouth is a wonderful thing to hear because the words have resonance. He speaks them as if they really are his words, and that's something you don't always get in a Shakespearean performance. And it’s certainly something you don’t get in his written plays! For enhanced comprehension of Shakespeare's language, Luhrmann set the film in what he calls â€Å"a created world,† a collage of modern and classic images, portraying aspects of religion, theater, myths, technology and of course, pop culture. â€Å"Basically, the created world is a universe that is recognizably modern but has a little distance,† Pearce reveals. â€Å"It's like a fairy tale world, a world of stories which really parallels the movies.The reality' we see in the movies is always a bit magnified, even when it is supposedly realistic. † Luhrmann’s main focus was in getting the youth to appreciate as well as enjoy the purity and brilliance of Shakespearean literature, by appealing to their general love for all things action and romance. Perhaps also, to some extent, even connect with some of the incidents and characters, which is always a factor in movies.This is shown in one way by the characters: The Lady Capulet, for instance, who is so incredibly self-absorbed that she doesn’t see the emotional gulf between herself and daughter Juliet. Everything about the transformation was trying to simplify the understanding of this, and give connections to contemporary society; â€Å"Lady† was dropped to be replaced with the highly religious, uncommon (but well-known) name Gloria, which is a perfect choice.The simple but effective use of over-applied make-up and magnificent clothes illustrates the matter further, and anyone can relate to an egotistic peer. Furthermore, Juliet's father, the imposing and unpredictable drunken monarch is portrayed using a bloated, somewhat hideous actor, which doubtless, reminds many youngsters of the Julius Caesar’s senate as well depicted in the popular Asterix comics.There is also the obvious approach of beginning the film with an attention- grabbing opening of headline articles thrown in a very in-your-face manner, followed by an loud (though not obnoxious) fast action scene, including the ever popular use of guns and impressive somersaulting, only to end in a very cliche CSI like discovery, where the whole affair, complete with police choppers, ends up on the news.Another obvious symbol was the huge statue of Christ which seemed to tower of everything, like some silent guardian watching over all the tragedies, doing nothing for the sufferers. Luhrmann envisions Fulgencio Capulet as â€Å"†¦ the classic Godfather patriarch. â€Å", which shows quite clearly As for Romeo, â€Å"†¦ in a way, he was the original rebel without a cause, the first James Dean. His is a non-politicized rebellion. He is a Byronesque rebel in love with the idea of love itself. â€Å"

Global Financial Crisis and Nigerian Stock Market Volatility

GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS AND NIGERIAN STOCK MARKET VOLATILITY Abdul ADAMU Department of Business Administration, Nasarawa State University, Keffi – Nasarawa State. [email  protected] com [email  protected] com Tel. +2348029445391, +2348064851648. Paper presented at the National Conference on â€Å"Managing the challenges of Global Financial Crisis in Developing Economies† organised by the Faculty of Administration, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Nasarawa State – Nigeria held between March 9 – 11, 2010. Abstract The current global financial crisis is no longer news but a reality. Our policy makers in the country have been proven wrong based on their argument that the country was insulated. Some of the sectors that have felt the heat of the crisis are the banking sector and the stock market. In the stock market, investors lost trillions of naira due the downward fall in the prices of stock. Based on this, the study assesses the extent of the stock market volatility in the period preceding the crisis and the period of the crisis. Using the All Share Index, the returns for various months were computed, descriptive statistics of the returns was calculated and the volatility of the market was estimated using the standard deviation. It was found that the stock market is highly volatile in the period of the financial crisis than the period preceding it. The recommendation is that the depth of instruments in the stock market should be varied in terms of fixed securities than equity instruments. Introduction The global economic crisis, which first emerged as a financial crisis in one country, has now fully installed itself with no bottom yet in sight. The world economy is in a deep recession, and the danger of falling into a deflationary trap cannot be dismissed for many important countries (UNCTAD, 2009). The recent global economic crisis was a result of economic and political events in the United States. What started with amended federal policy and poor mortgage lending practices, resulted in a world-wide economic meltdown that spread like a virus (Beck, 2008). The US sub-prime mortgage market triggered the crisis as a result of credit crunch within this market. Most countries around the world have approached this ‘tsunami’ pragmatically with emergency funding support for relevant sectors, so as to mitigate the impact of the crisis on economies as well as avoiding the entire collapse of the international financial system (Ajakaiye & Fakiyesi, 2009). Despite these supports by various governments in the form bailout, it does not stop some countries to go into recession, because of large decline in their wealth, manifesting itself in falling productive capacity, growth, employment and welfare. At first, the direct impact of the financial crisis on the African economies was limited as African countries has weak integration with the global economy and most commercial banks in the region refrained from investing in the troubled assets from the US and other part of the world (Adamu, 2008). This is why most commentators argue that Africa is so far insulated from the direct effects of the financial crisis at least in the short-run. But now, this is not the case as the rate of unemployment and liquidity squeeze is becoming unbearable. In Nigeria, like other African developing countries, the initial response to the crisis was rather meek, as if our policy makers do not understand the gravity of the crisis. While the developed countries were busy trying to bailout their economy in order to mitigate the effects of the crisis, our leaders were hiding under the shadow of insulation. The most visible sector being hit by this crisis in the Nigerian economy is the capital market. The Nigerian Stock Exchange, the flagship of Nigeria’s capital market has witnessed unprecedented turbulence since April, 2008. First, the downward slide of the stocks on the market dominated by the banking sector made experts restive and regulatory authorities jittery. While accusing fingers were being pointed at different directions as the cause of this volatility in the prices of stocks, the market began a free-fall never witnessed in the history of capital market operations in Nigeria. Both local and foreign investors who had taken advantage of the optimal return on investments on the stock exchange began to scamper elsewhere in desperation. Some of the questions that are critical to this trend in the capital market are; what is the extent of the stock price volatility on the Nigerian Stock Exchange? What are the factors that impacted the stock price volatility? To what extent has this volatility in stock price affected investors? What can the regulatory authority do to contain this problem? This paper will address the first question raised above. This part is the introduction and the rest of the paper is arranged as follows; section two discussed the concept of financial crisis, the Nigerian capital market and the crisis, then stock market volatility. In section three, we discuss data and methodology, then results and discussions in section four and finally, summary and conclusions in section five. The concept of financial crisis The term financial crisis is applied broadly to a variety of situations in which some financial institutions or assets suddenly lose a large part of their value. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many financial crises were associated with banking panics, and many recessions coincided with these panics. Other situations that are often called financial crises include stock market crashes and the bursting of other financial bubbles, currency crises, and sovereign defaults (Kindleberger & Aliber, 2005, Laeven & Valencia, 2008). Some economic theories that explained financial crises includes the World systems theory which explained the dangers and perils, which leading industrial nations will be facing (and are now facing) at the end of the long economic cycle, which began after the oil crisis of 1973. While Coordination games, a mathematical approach to modelling financial crises have emphasized that there is often positive feedback between market participants' decisions (Krugman, 2008). Positive feedback implies that there may be dramatic changes in asset values in response to small changes in economic fundamentals, Minsky’s theorised that financial fragility is a typical feature of any capitalist economy and financial fragility levels move together with the business cycle, but the Herding and Learning models explained that asset purchases by a few agents encourage others to buy too, not because the true value of the asset increases when many buy (which is called â€Å"strategic omplementarity†), but because investors come to believe the true asset value is high when they observe others buying (Avery & Zemsky, 1998, Chari and Kehoe, 2004, Cipriani & Guarino, 2008). The Nigerian Capital Market and the Crisis The All Share Index and the market capitalisation of the 233 listed equities capture activities and performance on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). Before the crisis, there has been a consistent growth in these performance indicators over the year (see fig. 1). For instance, the All Share Index according to data from www. cashcraft. com grow from a value of 12,137 in 2002 to 66,371. 2 points on March 5, 2008, with a market capitalisation of about N12. 640 trillion, after which values fell to 20,827. 17 points on December 31, 2009, with a market capitalisation of 4. 989 trillion because of the meltdown. This shows that by the end of the year 2009, the All Share Index had lost a total share of about 69%, while market capitalisation had lost 61% of its value. There are concerns regarding how rapidly the global financial crisis affected the Nigerian Capital Market, especially given that there is virtually no cross-ownership of banks (investment or otherwise) between Nigeria and foreign countries, and there is hardly any domestic mortgage market for there to be a sub-prime problem as found particularly in the UK and the USA (Aluko, 2008; Ajakaiye & Fakiyesi, 2009). The decline of indicators of activities on the NSE before the escalation of the crisis on the global scene in July 2008 became a source of concern for many. It is difficult to attribute this decline to any particular factor, but those factors that may have direct or indirect impact are as follows; i. Foreign portfolio investments withdrawals and reduced foreign direct investment affect investor confidence in Nigeria (Adamu, 2008; Aluko, 2008; and Ajakaiye & Fakiyesi, 2009). This is the case because most foreigners withhold their investments in order to service their financial problems at home. This exposed the country to FDI uncertainties and vagaries, particularly in an era where public-private partnership (PPP) of huge investment plans such as oil and gas – LNG projects, power plants, railways, housing and roads are being encouraged. ii. Another factor which according to Ajakaiye & Fakiyesi (2009) that had serious impact on the stock market is what they called the ‘intensifiers’. These include policy interpretations by the market, which may have been induced by the slow government initial stand on the economy. This also includes interpretation of announcements, proclamations and rumours by the market. Examples include the proposed recapitalisation plan of the stock market players (stock broking firms), as well as rumours on the termination of margin lending by banks. iii. The phenomenon of marginal lending in Nigeria, whereby investors borrow money from banks to invest in other financial instruments like IPOs of banks with the hope of making quick returns. This may also be termed Nigeria's own version of the ‘sub-prime problem’, as it resulted in an exploding domestic stock market and stock prices and astounding returns to both the speculators and providers of the margin funds. This make the banks to feel the heat of the crisis as most margin loans become difficult to repay due to the downward trend in the market. iv. With the currency overdependence on oil revenue, the downward trend in the price of crude oil and prospects for economic recession in the developed world and Europe which are the markets for the oil, also contributed for the fall in the stock market. Because it look as if Nigeria's capital market bear cycle actually began with the decline of oil prices in July, and accelerated with its further decline in September and October (Aluko, 2008; Ajakaiye & Fakaiye, 2009). Stock Market Volatility Stock volatility refers to the potential for a given stock to experience a drastic decrease or increase in value within a predetermined period of time. Investors evaluate the volatility of stock before making a decision to purchase a new stock offering, buy additional shares of a stock already in the portfolio, or sell stock currently in the possession of the investor. In recent months, it has not been unusual to see the value of major stock indexes, such as the S 500, NIKKEI, DOW JONES, KOSPI, FTSE, and our own NSE-ASI change by as much as 3% in a single day. Unfortunately for many investors, the general direction of those changes has been downward. To many, this volatility is driven by the recent global financial crisis. Stock market volatility tends to be persistent; that is, periods of high volatility as well as low volatility tend to last for months. In particular, periods of high volatility tend to occur when stock prices are falling and during recessions. Stock market volatility also is positively related to volatility in economic variables, such as inflation, industrial production, and debt levels in the corporate sector (Schwert, 1989). The persistence in volatility is not surprising: stock market volatility should depend on the overall health of the economy, and real economic variables themselves tend to display persistence. The persistence of stock market return volatility has two interesting implications. First, volatility is a proxy for investment risk. Persistence in volatility implies that the risk and return trade-off changes in a predictable way over the business cycle. Second, the persistence in volatility can be used to predict future economic variables. For example, Campbell, Lettau, Malkiel, and Xu (2001) show that stock market volatility helps to predict GDP growth. Volatility may impair the smooth functioning of the financial system and adversely affect economic performance (Mala & Reddy, 2007). Similarly, stock market volatility also has a number of negative implications. One of the ways in which it affects the economy is through its effect on consumer spending (Campbell, 1996; Starr-McCluer, 1998; Ludvigson & Steindel, 1999; and Poterba, 2000). The impact of stock market volatility on consumer spending is related via the wealth effect. Increased wealth will drive up consumer spending. However, a fall in stock market will weaken consumer confidence and thus drive down consumer spending. Stock market volatility may also affect business investment (Zuliu, 1995) and economic growth directly (Levine & Zervos, 1996; and Arestis, Demetriades, & Luintel, 2001). A rise in stock market volatility can be interpreted as a rise in risk of equity investment and thus a shift of funds to less risky assets. This move could lead to a rise in cost of funds to firms and thus new firms might bear this effect as investors will turn to purchase of stock in larger, well known firms. While there is a general consensus on what constitutes stock market volatility and, to a lesser extent, on how to measure it, there is far less agreement on the causes of changes in stock market volatility. Some economists see the causes of volatility in the arrival of new, unanticipated information that alters expected returns on a stock (Engle, 1982). Thus, changes in market volatility would merely reflect changes in the local or global economic environment. Others claim that volatility is caused mainly by changes in trading volume, practices or patterns, which in turn are driven by factors such as modifications in macroeconomic policies, shifts in investor tolerance of risk and increased uncertainty. The degree of stock market volatility can help forecasters predict the path of an economy’s growth and the structure of volatility can imply that â€Å"investors now need to hold more stocks in their portfolio to achieve diversification†(Krainer, 2002). Data and Methodology This research relies on the daily All Share Index (ASI) of the Nigerian Stock Exchange as reported by the exchange and on Cashcraft database. There are 233 listed companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and the ASI is the major index that captures the performance of all the shares of the listed companies. Using the ASI, the monthly returns (%) were calculated using the formula below; Where Vf is the ASI at the end of the month, and Vi is the ASI at the beginning of the month. These returns were calculated for all the 48 months used in this study. We measure volatility using the standard deviation and/or variance. This is done by dividing the period under study into two. The first period comprises of 24 months observation for 2006 and 2007, the period prior to the crisis and the second 24 observations were for 2008 and 2009, the period of the crisis. In examining volatility changes over time, we compare the variances or standard deviations of the different periods and determine if they are statistically significantly different from each other. To estimate volatility, the expected returns or mean for these periods returns were computed using the equation; This implies that is the average of the return values. Using this value for and the variance estimate results in a formula for the volatility is given as; . It follows that the estimation of the volatility constant given by Wilmott, Howison and Dewynne (1995) is: Lastly, the expected returns and the standard deviations will be used in testing the hypothesis whether there is a significant difference between the means of the two observation using t – statistic for testing difference of two means. Results and Discussions Table 1 shows the descriptive statistics of the monthly returns for the two periods. For the period 2006 – 2007, the average return was 3. 42% with a standard deviation of 5. 37%. This is showing that during this period, stock market returns was less volatile because a less volatile stock will have a price/return that will deviate relatively from the mean little over time. This is the period when investors have consistent positive returns on their investment and there are willing to invest because stock returns are less volatile and their exposure to risk is less. Table 1. Descriptive Statistics RETURNS %2006-072008-09 Mean3. 4233 -4. 3658 Standard Error1. 09552. 5003 Median3. 550-4. 8400 ModeN/AN/A Standard Deviation5. 367012. 2489 Sample Variance28. 8050150. 0365 Kurtosis0. 67236. 3865 Skewness0. 39191. 4372 Range24. 6669. 15 Minimum-7. 44-30. 95 Maximum17. 2238. 2 Sum82. 16-104. 78 Count2424 Source; excel output On the other hand, during the period 2008 – 2009, there was a negative average return of –4. 37% with a standard deviation of 12. 25% showing high volatility in returns. This is as a result of the accelerated downward fall of the stock prices on the Nigerian Stock Exchange as a result of loss of investors’ confidence due to the global financial crisis. This period is characterised by negative returns which results to high volatility, and as we can see, the more volatile that a stock is, the harder it is to isolate where it could be on a future date. Since volatility is associated with risk, the more volatile that a stock is, the more risky it is. Consequently, the more risky a stock is, the harder it is to say with any certainty what the future price of the stock will be. When people invest, they would like to have no risk. The least amount of risk that is involved, the better the investment is. Since almost every investment has some risk, investors have looked for ways to minimize risk, so their best reaction was to avoid the stock market and this affected the market. The other descriptive statistics showed that both distributions are positive or right – skewed, meaning that most of the returns are in the lower portion of the distribution and there are some returns that has extremely large values and this pull the mean return upward to be greater than the median, specifically for the second period. Both has a positive kurtosis value of 0. 6723 and 6. 865 indicates a distribution with a sharper peak than a bell – shaped curves. The result of the test for the hypothesis to determine whether there is a significant difference between the means of the two observations is presented in table 2 below. The hypothesis is; Ho:  µ1 =  µ2 i. e. there is no difference in the means of the two observations H1:  µ1 ?  µ2 i. e. there is difference in the means of the tw o observations. From the result of the t- test, the null hypothesis is rejected at 5% level of significance. This is because t = 2. 85 ; t = 2. 01. the p – value computed is 0. 064 and it indicates that if the means are equal, the probability of observing a difference this large in the sample means is only 0. 0064. Based on this, there is sufficient evidence to conclude that the mean returns are different for the two periods, and that returns are lower in the period of the crisis than the period before it. This confirms the reason why there is higher volatility in this period than the other period. Table 2. t – Test for differences in Two means (assumes equal population variances) Data Hypothesized Difference0 Level of Significance0. 05 Population 1 Sample Sample Size24 Sample Mean3. 233 Sample Standard Deviation5. 367 Population 2 Sample Sample Size24 Sample Mean-4. 3658 Sample Standard Deviation12. 2489 Intermediate Calculations Population 1 Sample Degrees of Freedom 23 Population 2 Sample Degrees of Freedom23 Total Degrees of Freedom46 Pooled Variance89. 42012 Difference in Sample Means7. 7891 t Test Statistic2. 853384 Two-Tail Test Lower Critical Value-2. 012896 Upper Critical Value2. 012896 p-Value0. 006463 Reject the null hypothesis Source; Excel output Conclusion and recommendations The paper studied the extent of the stock market volatility in the period of 2006 – 2009. The period is divided into 24 months each to study the volatility of market returns between 2006 – 2007, and between 2008 – 2009. On the basis of the results it was found that the period 2006 – 2007 is less volatile than the period of 2008 – 2009; and this is due to the global financial that have affected investors’ confidence. Since volatility is associated with risk, the more volatile that a stock is, the more risky it is. Consequently, the more risky a stock is, the harder it is to say with any certainty what the future price of the stock will be. When people invest, they would like to have no risk. The least amount of risk that is involved, the better the investment is. Since almost every investment has some risk, investors have looked for ways to minimize risk, so their best reaction was to avoid the stock market and this affected the market. The recommendation is that the stock market instruments need to be diversified away form equity instruments to more of fixed security instruments. References Adamu, A. (2008). The Effects of global financial crisis on Nigerian Economy. International Journal of Investment and Finance Vol. 1. #1&2. Ajakaiye, O. & Fakiyesi, T. (2009). Global financial crisis Discussion paper 8: Nigeria. Oversea Development Institute, London. Aluko, M. (2008). The global financial meltdown: Impact on Nigeria's capital market and foreign reserves. retrieved from www. google. com on 14 January, 2010. Arestis, P. , Demetriades, P. O. & Luintel, K. B. (2001). Financial development and economic growth: The role of stock markets. Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, 33(2):16-41. Avery, C. , & Zemsky, P. (1998). Multidimensional uncertainty and herd behavior in financial markets. American Economic Review 88, pp. 724-748. Campbell, J. (1996). Consumption and the stock market: Interpreting international experience. NBER Working Paper, 5610. Campbell, J. , Lettau, M. , Malkiel, B. , & Xu, Y. (2001). Have individual stocks become more volatile? An empirical exploration of idiosyncratic risk. Journal of Finance 56, pp. 1–43. Chari, V. , & Kehoe, P. (2004). Financial crises as herds: overturning the critiques. Journal of Economic Theory 119, pp. 128-150. Cipriani, M. , & Guarino, A. (2008). Herd behavior and contagion in financial markets. The B. E. Journal of Theoretical Economics 8(1) (Contributions), Article 24, pp. 1-54. Engle, R. F. (1982). Autoregressive conditional heteroscadasticity with estimates of the variance of the U. K. inflation. Econometrica, 50(3):987-1008. Kinder, C. (2002). Estimating Stock Volatility. retrievd from www. google. com on 19 January, 2010. Kindleberger, C. P. , & Aliber, R. (2005). Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises (5th ed). Wiley, ISBN 0471467146. Krainer, J. (2002). Stock market volatility. FRBSF Economic Letter, Western Banking, 2002-32, pp1-4. Krugman, P. (2008, October, 27). The widening gyre. New York Times. Laeven, L. , & Valencia, F. (2008). Systemic banking crises: A new database. International Monetary Fund Working Paper 08/224. Levine, R & S. Zervos (1996). Stock market development and long-run growth. World Bank Economic Review, 10(1):323-339. Ludvigson, S & C. Steindel (1999). How important is the stock market effect on consumption. Federal Reserve Bank of New York Economic Policy Review, 5(1):29-51. Mala, R, & Reddy, M. (2007). Measuring stock market volatility in an emerging economy. International Research Journal of Finance and Economics Issue 8 126-133. Poterba, J. M. (2000). Stock market wealth and consumption†, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 14(2):99-118. Schwert, W. (1989). Why does stock market volatility change over time? Journal of Finance 44, pp. 1,115–1,153. Starr-McCluer, M. (1998). Stock market wealth and consumer spending. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Finance and Economics Discussion Paper Series, 8/20. UNCTAD (2009). Global economic meltdown. Geneva: United Nation Conference on Trade and development Wilmott, P. , Howison, S. , & Dewynne, J. (1995). The Mathematics of Financial Derivatives. New York: Cambridge University Press. Zuliu, H (1995). Stock market volatility and corporate investment†, IMF Working Paper, 95/102. www. cashcraft. com Appendices 1. Monthly returns computed using the NSE-ASI MONTHS/ YEARSRETURNS %MONTHS/ YEARSRETURNS % Jan-06-1. 69Jan-08-0. 02 Feb-060. 30Feb-08-11. 1 Mar-06-2. 00Mar-08-4. 01 Apr-06-0. 75Apr-08-5. 67 May-065. 45May-08-0. 33 Jun-065. 66Jun-080. 00 Jul-066. 75Jul-08-6. 90 Aug-0617. 22Aug-08-9. 22 Sep-060. 67Sep-08-6. 07 Oct-060. 35Oct-08-20. 96 Nov-06-3. 84Nov-08-9. 08 Dec-064. 92Dec-08-2. 37 Jan-078. 93Jan-09-30. 95 Feb-0710. 62Feb-097. 17 Mar-074. 87Mar-09-12. 60 Apr-078. 44Apr-098. 15 May-075. 9 5May-0938. 20 Jun-072. 44Jun-09-12. 63 Jul-070. 94Jul-09-7. 09 Aug-07-7. 44Aug-09-10. 42 Sep-07-0. 12Sep-09-2. 2 Oct-07-0. 16Oct-09-3. 08 Nov-077. 82Nov-09-3. 64 Dec-076. 83Dec-090. 05 Figure 1. Stock market performance, 2002-2009 Source: Extracted from Ajakaiye and Fakiyesi (2009)

Analysis of Dubai Development Model with relevance to India

Table of Contents l. Introduction and Dubbed Policy Relevance to India II. Challenges faced by both India & Dubbed Ill. Policy Changes – What can be adopted by India & Dubbed from each other IV. Business Context of the policies in India & Dubbed V. References To: The Leaders of the Business Association of India From: Hull Consultancy Group Date: Reason: Analysis of Dubbed Development Model and relevance to India Dubbed Is one of the most flourishing clues In the world attracting people from all over the world with a strong economy.India being a part of the BRICE nations and with the ambition of being perceived as a developed nation need some changes economically and politically. Could the Dubbed model work in India? L. To analyses how Tuba's model can be relevant to India we need to look at various different factors. Looking at the model of Strategy, Structure and Resource we could make some comparisons of how Dubbed is similar to India. Dubbed India Relevancy Strategy Economi c Development Political Stability Import Talent & reliance on foreign companies in Dubbed. Logistical Hub and this promoted with good port facility.Strong ties with other Emirates Strong & Continuous Leadership Relaxed religious laws although still Islamic focused. Focus on education, medical & engineering sectors good. Primary sector of Agriculture not ignored. Infrastructure development, cities and broadband development is another major focus. Political Stability Member of the BRICE countries. Democratic government with secular laws. Relevant Infrastructure development at the ports as the south of India is also strategically located. Strong ties between cities Egg: Bangor & Hydrated can be made Low Relevance One leader strategy may not be applicablePolicy of importing talent for domestic needs. Structure City vs. Rural Development Education system City vs. Rural Cluster focused for companies and development towards ABA Dhabi close to the coast line. Old Dubbed vs. New Dubbed Educa tion System Focus is on introducing more foreign universities. Satellite city structure. New development outside major cities towards small towns. Egg: Whitfield, Oneida. Infrastructure development in rural areas. Good education system after British colonization. Science & Engineering has special focus. Focus on rural areas education. Cluster structure could be replicated.It is already done in a few places but could be done in most cities. More foreign universities can be introduced in India. Not Relevant Old city vs. New City is already in place in some cities. Egg: Delhi Resources Natural resources Human Resources Population- Low Manpower (Skilled, Unskilled, Technical)- Low Natural Resources- Low Alliance with ABA Dhabi for resources- High Population- Very high Manpower (Skilled, Unskilled, Technical)- High Natural Resources- High Alliance with other states or countries for resources- Low Alliance with neighboring countries or other BRICE countries for resources can be Dade.II. T o analyses if Tuba's model can be adopted by India, the challenges faced by both countries should be analyses further. Policies used by Dubbed for the above mentioned challenges are: 1 . Quality of Education: AAU government invested up to Dabbed invested on improving general education. Solution : They have a partnerships with several international schools in order to improve their education system. 2. Policy relevance to India is low. Main issue faced by India is inaccessibility in rural areas.Extreme poverty is another problem Solution- Mandatory CARS activities enforced by the government. Secondly broadband services to provide education by internet in inaccessible areas as done in Gujarat . 3. Quality of Health care : Expanse have expressed their lack of confidence in the Dubbed Health care services. Solution: To improve medical quality partnerships with international organizations like ‘John Hopkins' and ‘Cleveland ‘ medical centre have been made. Policy relevan ce to India is low.Issue is infrastructure with lack of sanitation and clean water causing illness. Lack of roads or transport makes it difficult for unmet needs to be fulfilled. Solution: Having infrastructure projects like the ones in Gujarat as initiated by the current prime minister is a better solution then attracting foreign medical care. 4. Expiate Migration : Tuba's over reliance on expiate employees. Competition from nearby countries like Qatar and Oman. Solution : Better infrastructure, attractive surrounding and tax free policy Similar problem with rising unemployment.Solution: Foreign companies can be attracted like in Dubbed but a realistic solution would be to encourage local entrepreneurship in order to create Jobs. Dubbed is conscious about the over reliance on fossil fuels to generate power Solution: Collaborations with Policy relevance to India is again low. Energy requirement in India is massive compared to AJAX. There are local companies with renewable technologi es which needs to be promoted. Solution: Collaborating with foreign companies is a temporary solution though it can be done.Natural gas exploration and nuclear energy long term solution. Ill. Many of the policies used for Dubbed are not recommended for India. These are because of many reasons like the Population, different Industrial focus, focus on domestic development including talent and technology. To further analyses this and understand what policy changes can be adopted for either India or Dubbed we need to look at the and the ‘Fragile Failed State' Index. The Fragile State Index, is an index which focuses on the stability of the nation on 3 different factors: 1.Economic: Uneven economic development, Severe Economic decline 2. Social: Demographic pressures, Massive refugee movement, Group grievances 3. Political: Crystallization, Progressive Deterioration, Security apparatus , Ethnic cleansing Based on these criteria, India is ranked at 81 which is categorized as ‘ High Warning and I-JAKE is inked at 143 which is considered a stable society. Under Economic , India has huge inequality in incomes and some states like UP, Briar are not highly developed. There are refugees movement and grievances from the lower class or religious sectors in society.Politically India is democratic and secular and given the religious and cultural diversity in India that an Autocratic rule would only increase the trouble in the country. Policies which India could copy from I-JAKE is to have infrastructure development, which could be awarded to foreign companies as this is the major problem in India. Better infrastructure could lead to solving some of the other problems like better education, reducing group grievances when people have the same basic facilities, and make uniform economic development.Security could improve with better roads and reaching in time . Infrastructure and roads have been a key element of all great civilizations starting from the Romans till mo dern countries like I-JAKE , Germany and the USA. If Infrastructure development has to be rapid foreign investment and companies would be essential. Having one religion and an autocratic government with very low population solves means that AAU does not face cost of the problems which India faces and thus makes it a very stable economy.However their reliance on foreign investment and technology, education is too high. This could bring about economic downturn to I-JAKE in the future. The change of policy which I-JAKE requires is to increase the amount of local universities and improve local education and businesses. A major aspect of doing business in any new country could be the ‘Corruption' in the country and ‘Business regulations' in the country. The ‘Ease of Doing Business' index helps analyses the conduciveness of a country to start a business.The factors considered are Infrastructure, Poverty ratio, Credit lines available, Tax rates, Educations standards , Reg ulations etc. Based on these criteria lets compare India to I-JAKE India- ease to do Business, Rank-134 Factors favorable are: Improving infrastructure Highly educated society Annual GAP expected to increase and best in South Asia Factors unfavorable are: Infrastructure still poor in many parts IN per capita is low Regulations are rigid High taxes Low credit lines as compared to I-JAKE Political rules favoring local companies Factors favorable are : Good infrastructure No taxesHighly educated people (mainly expanse though) Good autocratic leadership conducive to business High IN per capita Annual GAP best in MEAN region Factors unfavorable Expensive to run a business Need to attract talent from abroad Corruption is another major factor which businesses consider. According to the ‘Corruption Index' I-JAKE ranks at 26th whereas India ranks at 94. This shows that there could be a fear of corruption for businesses to enter India. ‘V. Businesses in India could play a major ro le in making some minor changes which would enable the country to become more business conducive.Collaborations or JP with foreign companies- This would attract more funds which would enable them to expand faster and also reduce unemployment. CARS activities to improve education and sanitation facilities. If CARS activities are not feasible Join with Social welfare groups like ‘Magic Bus' Transparency in business activities and raise awareness to reduce corrupt activities. Work closely with government to improve their sustainability and becoming energy efficient. Factories investing in machinery to have energy efficient equipment. Business in Dubbed could also take certain steps awards helping the local Political and Economic situation.Work with local universities and help hire local Emirate graduates. Take specific measures towards Energy conservation and sustainable measures Medical related companies can provide training for local Emirates. Considering the various factors th ere are some ideas and policies that either country can adopt. However the two countries are vastly different. While AAU is an autocratic society, it mainly focuses on one major sector locally which are the Emirates. Decisions are made and executed quickly as no consensus is required from the caked by huge funding which enables them to accomplish their goals.However in the long run the reliance on the foreign countries cannot be relied upon and local education and entrepreneurship definitely needs to be improved like what is been focused in India. India on the other hand is a very diverse society and it cannot focus on any major ethnic group. As it is also a huge country with a population of 1. 2 billion decision cannot be made by an individual. The consequences have to evaluated. Also despite the availability of natural resources funding is not as direct and easy like in Dubbed.Like some of the European countries they try to focus on agriculture and education, as in the long run th is would make their society self-reliant and not lament the lack of natural resources. There is a need for infrastructure in the form of roads of pipelines and sanitation facilities but the funding is not direct. Hence the rule of a mandatory CARS fee is created. Lastly to have a long term sustainable economy they need local entrepreneurship which they are focusing in many different areas like Finance, Infrastructure, Engineering, and Renewable Energy.

American Cars and Foreign Cars

American cars are now almost living. A car owned by a person shows the world what type of person they are. Most of these cars are the top ten car companies that dominate the automobile market. There are more than 250 million cars on the US road. Five of the ten car brands are American brands. For its incredible safety and reliability, unique style, support for the same or higher fuel economy and work in the United States, more people should buy American cars. American cars are stronger and more reliable than foreign cars. Another comparable difference between the US and foreign cars is performance. As we all know, American cars have bigger engines, which makes cars feel a way of driving. Unlike American cars, most foreign cars have a small but complicated engine to improve the reaction of driving cars. Regardless of whether the car is an American car or a foreign car, the engineering design of foreign cars made for performance is more complicated than most American cars. In contrast, the components of each type of car are similar, but foreign car seems to have a more sophisticated component system with better performance in handling, acceleration and braking. In terms of distinguishing performance, foreign cars have higher standards than American-made cars. From an American point of view, foreign cars are more expensive than similar cars in America. The most obvious answer is that foreign cars are being imported, so the retail price must be higher. This is true in almost all cases, but by contrast foreign cars are more valuable than American cars. The explanation of the difference in value may be that the quality of a foreign car is better than that of an American. Repair and maintenance of each type of car is directly related to value. Using general logic, expensive cars can be said to cost more as cars are repaired. In most cases, unless most foreign cars are of better quality, they are unlikely to need repair like an American car. Obviously foreign cars are more expensive and more valuable than American cars.