Lord of the Flies Challenge Project Essay Example for Free

Lord of the Flies Challenge Project EssayAny of some(prenominal) mammals of the family Suidae, having short legs, cloven hooves, bristly hair, and a cartilaginous snout used for digging, especially the domesticated hog, Sus scrofa domesticus, when young or of comparatively small size. Even though a slob is one animal, they have several symbolisationic meanings. The various meanings of blurs change from region or culture though. In an earlier culture such as the Ancient Egyptians the pig was a symbol for fertility. Here, the pig was sacred to Isis, a fertility goddess of the Ancient Egyptians. In many other cultures the pig represents strength, and vitality. In the Native American culture the Indians would use a pig to sacrifice to the rain Gods in order for their crops to grow. This is another example of pigs being used to represent growth and fertility. Pigs are not always viewed as a good subject though. In the Jewish and Islamic cultures pigs are viewed as unclean and t herefore they are forbidden to eat pork.And in an provoke note, in dream symbolism domestic pigs indicate fertility but a wild pig represents overindulgence and lust. This relates to Lord of the Flies in the maven that Jack never wanted to give up his passion for following. He became greedy and his desire to hunt inevitably lead to the separation of the group. In the Christian religion pigs are associated with gluttony. In Lord of the Flies Simon is the Christ uniform figure and when he views the decaying pig head he becomes nauseated. Christians believe that a pig is in common relation with the D fell. In Lord of the Flies it shows the struggle between good and repulsiveness, Christianity and the devil. Jack and his followers use the pig as a sacrifice to the Beast and this is an example of the loss of religion in the novel. This is another reason wherefore a pig is not considered a positive thing in Christianity because the main reason Jesus came around was due to the overwh elming practice of sacrificial acts to Pagan Gods.When Jack renews this blasphemous act, Simon was killed shortly after which substantiate the loss of religious values on the island. Here are examples from the bible prohibiting the digestion pigs. Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcass shall ye not touch, they are unclean to you.(Leviticus 117-8) and And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, until now cheweth not the cud, it is unclean unto you. Ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcass.(Deuteronomy 148). In folklore, superstitious sailors would not sail on a boat with a pig aboard. And often times sailors would refuse the admittance of pigs on their vessels. Sailors associated the hooves on pigs to the hooves on the devil. Because of this bad omen, if a sailor were to see a pig on their way to work, they would rather turn around and go home.This further explains the theme of the devil in Lord of the Flies. Even though it seems impossible for evi l to be involved with young boys, it certainly was proven in this novel. Simon was an innocent little boy and when he was in the jungle the Lord of the Flies was lecture to him. Obviously, the pigs head was NOT talking to him but it shows that Simons subconscious talking to him. This shows that even the most innocent has an innate sense of evil in them. When Simon is in the jungle, this is when the reader realizes that the beast is not an external force but that it is ingredient of the boys themselves, which is even more frightening. Fancy thinking the beast was something you could hunt and kill You knew, didnt you? Im part of you? (p. 143).In Lord of the Flies the pig represents the evil that lies within every person, innocent or not. The pig becomes a game, no long-range being a hunt for sustenance. As mentioned earlier, Jack wanted more. He became greedy and his hunts led all of the boys to shift from being playful little boys to savages. That is why in the Christian religion pigs are not appreciated. They are unclean, which in the novel the pig is described as disgusting with the flies hovering around it and scurrilous grime in its teeth. The Muslim religion views the pig in the same manner. It is interesting though to compare the thoughts of modern religions to the ancient roots of pigs. In the ancient cultures like the Greeks, Egyptians and Romans the pig was seen as a fertile being and therefore they were heavily worshiped in order for their own people to experience the gift of fruitful abundance.The oral translation of the Lord of Flies is Beelzebub which is Hebrew for the Devil. The Lord of the Flies has the theme of religion in it, and the pigs head plays an important part in allowing the shift of innocence to evil to be seen easily to the reader. Due to the many symbolic meanings of pigs in various cultures, there is no definite idea of what a pig stands for. In Lord of the flies though, the pig demonstrates the evil that each of the boys was capable of undergoing.

Understanding the Societal Response to Homosexuality Essay Example for Free

Understanding the Societal Response to Homo informality EssayThey gave me a reward when I killed two men and gave me a suspension when I loved angiotensin-converting enzyme. These are the words of Leonard Matlovich (1943-1988) who was a Vietnam War veteran and one of the best known gay men in America in the 1970s. A journey through the history makes it clear that Homosexuality has eer been an issue which has had the highest amount of discussions, disagreements and clashes over the time in every culture and society.It always generates interest people, who are seeking a better understanding of the deferent cultural set apart and social behaviors in various times of the history, to know wherefore different societies in different times of the history reacted to different sexual activities in typical ways. This study would comprehensively look into the facts that might have bear on the societies in understanding and accepting the homo behavior within the communities. What were the social, economical, ecological and political dynamics that drove the societies to respond to queerness in a quite hostile way?Ancient conceptsThe ancient times that had smaller kingdoms and more of the cult practices gave way to larger empires and syncretism of different mo nonheistic religions spreading new brain on man having sex with man. This transformation process was in fact differed in various parts of the world. Till the advent of asceticism, which was against all forms of sexual pleasures, homosexuality was authentic broadly as rather positive human sexual activity except in the pharaonic Egypt (Greenburg 1988). This exception itself is an evidence of the changing values in a society under an organized administrative and religious concept.The vast empires meant long distance trade and imperial expansion which in mould helped the followers of different cult religions in contact with one another causing the diffusion of religious practices that involved homosexualit y (Greenburg 1988). In that context on that point prevailed an atmosphere conducive for a monotheistic religion which uprooted the polytheism which to a great extend accepted the sexual magic of homosexuality (Greenburg 1988). The changing economical, political and interior(a) scenario had caused people to look more seriously into competitive survival accomplishments than bodily pleasures and desires.The gap mingled with rich and the have-nots increased due to the changing business opportunities and break ones back trade (Greenburg 1988). Thus the poor men who had to devote their life more into physical labor and combat for the rich to maintain their life style became faultfinding of the rich men who devote their body and life to seeking pleasure from hedonistic pleasure. Moreover, the politics in the larger kingdoms were not mainly in the hold of the public, which kept the common man aloof from the public affaires. This helplessness in fact ended up resulting in a repudiation of desires and pleasures(Greenburg 1988).The small societies were, further, move by the conquest happened during the expansion of empires. The troubled social and political situations due to wars have left the people without any sense of security Davis 1982). The implications of these aspects can be further discussed when looking at different communities in detail. Various Outlooks of Various Communities In many another(prenominal) ways the connotation of homosexual behavior for Greeks is slipping between the effeminate behavior and mans tendency to have sex with another man (Greenburg 1988). One of the Platos observations goes as an older lover forget plainly court a beloved who is effeminate.There is also a mention of an Egyptian letter dating back to 145 BC which Malakos more or less certainly refers to male homosexuality. Where as Boswell (1980) had strongly stated that malakos is never used in Greek to designate gay people as a mathematical root word or even in reference to homosexual acts generically. Dio Crisostom who was a Greek scholar in AD 115 mentioned that someone who loved acquire might be called malakoteran (Davis 1982). These uncertain commends on homosexuality in the Greek community for a great extend reveal that though, homosexuality was not accepted among Greeks, it was not abominated.It could be because the Greeks had a strong and unthreatened sense of cultural superiority. But they lacked altogether the Jewish sense of being a holy people set apart by God (Davis 1982). The Greek never believed that the divine power had reviled to man kind a code of laws for the regulation of sexual behavior. Hebrews always upheld the biblical prohibition of male prostitution as the weapon against homosexuality. A few passages in the Leviticus seem to prohibit male homosexuality precisely. They are Levi. 822 Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind it is abomination and Levi. 013 If a man lies with mankind as with woman kind two of them h ave committed an abomination they shall surly be put to death their blood shall be upon them.At this point it looks like the homosexuality of man is the solely thing to abominate, it may not be so but the lesbianism at this stage might have been more of a personal issue handled by the elder male members of the family than a public issue handled by the authorities (Davis 1982). However Later on lesbianism became more of a public issue when the primaeval church took to counter it. St. Paul has clearly mentioned it and strongly condemned it when he said Rom. 26-27 that their women have exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural relationships with women burn with lust for one another.The hostility towards homosexuality as a prohibited sexual behavior is accounted to be much ferocious in Christian community in many times of the history (Davis 1982). At this juncture, such sexual translation is found to be breaking the boundaries of natural intercourse and thus tend to become the pec uliar(prenominal) subject of persecution (Boswell 1980). This strong hostility of Christians towards such sexual variation is to be understood in terms of the Latin Christians who ruled the crusader kingdom of Jerusalem.They were group in exile and fighting against formidable Muslims to protect the farthest strong hold of Christendom. They lost Jerusalem finally in the 1187, and their leaders fought their heart out, to forestall the secular leaders from making a pact with the Muslims, scarce to maintain the Latin Christians discriminating and rigid monopoly. Under the influence of the Latin Church the Frankish Knights and warriors who controlled the kingdom of Jerusalem strangely apart from their Muslim subjects.Thus the normally open knights community kept themselves aloof and the sexual variation which was perceived as a transgression was gravely suppressed (Davis 1982). The Modern Outlook In the heartland of Christian Europe hostility towards homosexuality became marked only t oward the end of the 12th century. The emphasize n the clear definition and rigorous defense of religious and legal boundaries inevitably led to the increased intolerance of forms of sexual behavior involving a breakdown of the boundaries between natural categories(Davis 1982). owever, the leaders of religious and military organizations would consider the maintenance of their status depends heavily on strict boundaries between the insiders and outsiders. If the insiders are male alone, then, the boundaries between them. The maintenance of strict boundaries between the different levels of a military or ecclesiastical hierarchy requires that people of different levels would not have sexual relations (Ruben 1984). In all the male organizations it would mean prohibiting homosexuality.To wrap up, now such time has come, when the humanity realized that sexuality should be treated with special respect (Ruben 1984). 1873 has seen the first federal anti obscenity law was being passed in the United States. From the late 1940s to 1960s the homosexuals were targeted and persecuted severely in America. In the late 60s, the extreme right came out accusing Sex Information and Education Council of the United States as a communist game that destroys the family values and eventually killing the patriotism in the coming generation (Ruben 1984).The recent past have seen AIDS being considers as a homosexual disease even in the United States. It was a fact that the gay community had to deal with misfortune of being known as community in which a deadly disease spread out and became visible. One must look back into the history of epidemic and their victims in the beginning, before one begins to conceptualize about an anti-gay initiative on the basis of Aids (Ruben 1984).

International Business Essay Example for Free

International Business Essay1. Summarize the globalization debate. What are the major interest groups in the world economy? How are they affected by different elements of globalization?2. Who benefits and who loses from a shift in jobs to low-wage economies? Consider this question from the perspective of consumers, labour, technological change, firms, nation-states. ar the net benefits likely to be positive?3. Identify and evaluate the sources of conflict between pressures on companies to operate globally and the desire of governments to regulate companies and activities within their borders. 4. measure for the existence of counter trade in the world economy and explore the view that its influence will continue as a solution to the occupation developing countries face when attempting to export to western markets?5. Analyze the likely impact on domestic markets of import restrictions via tariffs and quotas respectively. Discuss the dynamic side effects that tail assembly arise from import protection.6. In the light of the strategic significance of price discrimination between cross-border markets to firms, evaluate the merits of anti-dumping measures.7. Outline the static and dynamic effects of a customs union and explain why regional integration blocs composed of small economies are unlikely to be economically beneficial.8. Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the joint affect over licensing as a foreign market entry manner. Describe scenarios when licensing might be the preferable one of the two entry modes.9. International franchising is much regarded as a low-risk foreign market entry strategy. Does this view fully reflect the attraction of international franchising as a market entry mode?10. Under what circumstances would a BOT system make sense as an international marketing strategy?

Homelessness Act 2002 Analysis

unsettledness comprise 2002 AnalysisAssessing the new unsettledness strategies introduced by the Homelessness Act 2002 ar the house conveys of the young homeless in the UK closer to creation adequately addressed?ChaptersIntroduction Page 3Homelessness Act 2002 Young heapPage 5Distinctive Qualities of Youth HomelessnessPage 10 topical anaesthetic anesthetic anesthetic Authorities and Discretion Post-2002..Page 12Lack of Monitoring Procedures / Inadequacy of accomplishment Indicators.Page 12 variation or Chaos under the Homelessness Act 2002.Page 15 antecedency NeedPage 18Conclusion. Page 20BibliographyPage 21We pass water weapons of mass destruction we have to address here at home. Poverty is a weapon of mass destruction. Homelessness is a weapon of mass destruction. Unemployment is a weapon of mass destruction.Dennis Kucinich1IntroductionProperty, as a jurisprudential concept, holds a lot of s means in liberal philosophical thought. We give ear property as a central the me for such(prenominal) institutional writers as Locke, Hegel, Kant and Nozick who see Property Rights as sack to the centre of sancti wizardd behavioural relations among men2. Thus in a purely philosophical manner the Homeless be truly disenfranchised from the underlying principle of law. This pervasive attitude in like manner leads to a disenfranchisement across a number of important favorable spheres such as voting, raising money and unemployment benefit However, we recognise limits on every property rights in order to help disadvantaged, for example the Family Law Act 1996 recognises rights for a spouse who suffers domestic abuse3. This work is concerned to look at the quantitative and qualitative outcomes for young4 homeless people achieved by the statutory framework, how does this demographic f are apt(p) their no-property status?The importance of this review bed non be underestimated. In the U.K. it is a worldwide caper which despite economic prosperity, a private h ousing market boom, and a raft of edict and homelessness initiatives, recorded levels of homelessness in the U.K. remain stubbornly high5 and in recent forms the problem was more prosaically described as taking us back towards the deep social divisions of Victorian society a moment in history than no one wants to see perennial6 However, despite its persistent nature and damaging social effects there is a dearth of real academic research on the matter as a whole. This work hopes to contri just nowe to an area which desperately packs quality academic attention. Secondly, this review is prompted by similar establishment observations that suggest a review of the legislative apparatus is timelyIt is our view that there should not be homeless people in the UK in 2004. A home is a fundamental right which should not be denied to anyone living in as affluent and ambitious a society as our own.7The Select Committee so goes onto argue that a review of the workings of the 2002 Act wou ld identify the weak spots for the judicature8. This work forget comprise out such a review. However, presumptuousness the limitation of space it focuses on the young homeless. In recent social classs this demographic has been receiving more academic and media attention than separates simply because of the prevalence of callowness homelessness within England in 2004 it was estimated that up to 52,000 young people betwixt the ages of 16-25 were homeless and at any rate that this demographic accounts for a quarter of all the homeless throughout the U.K.9. However, whilst there may be a reasonable degree of peripheral awareness of this subject as a social problem which has limited risks and difficulties associated with it there has been no current published research on the effectiveness of the homeless strategies, utilize under the Homelessness Act 2002, as it applies to this demographic. This work volition seek to fill this void and give some guidance on the flation of a ny review or reform of the legislative apparatus.Homelessness Act 2002 Young PeopleThe Homelessness Act 2002 was the culmination of a significant policy from New Labour which, obviously, thusly provides the underlying rationale of the statute. If we are to understand what reforms to the content or rationale are required from our qualitative and quantitative analyses of the operation of the statute we need to first understand what the existing structure represents.Whilst it is fair to say that the UK has a d peeledn-out history of voluntary and statutory provision for homeless people10 statutory intervention on a stupendous scale was not comprehensively implemented until the introduction of the lodging (Homeless Persons) Act 1977. However, for many commentators this legislation was seen as an ineffective and inadequate means of resolving the problems of many homeless persons11. in that respect were numerous problems with the legislation which we will briefly prcis so as to provid e a comparator to the 2002 Act. A large degree of discretionary decision-making was left in the hands of local housing regimen12 which meant that groups of homeless people who didnt satisfy the anteriority need criteria or other statutory requirements for other groups of homeless people had virtually no protection13. The 1977 Act setup a two-tiered approach which imposed different duties on the local ascendency at each level. Its initial duties operated when an unmarried make an litigate to the local housing authority which indicated a possibility that the person may either be homeless or threatened with homelessness14. Accommodation would then all told be provided if the local authority had done an investigation and had reasonable grounds for believing the facts of the application and the person fell into a category of priority need. Otherwise the duty was one of advice and appropriate assistance15. Furthermore, the extent of the duty to provide accommodation still covered a period of time reasonable to change the applicant to secure housing on his own16. The system setup had a narrowing effect in that there were large groups of people, typically non-parent whiz individuals17, who had to rely on charity or voluntary services to provide any kind of accommodation. This system was argued to have lead to an unprecedented increase in street homelessness in the U.K.18.The period between the 1980s and 1997 was mirrored by an exponential growth in NGO agencies providing go to the homeless in scanty contrast to the complete lack of statutory change, although consolidation did occur in the lodging Act 1996. There were Government sponsored programmes such as the Rough Sleepers foremost and Supporting People which transcended many professions such as housing, health, social work, education and employment. These multi-agency initiatives have been seen as vital to the ending of homelessness however there was always a fear over the disjointed and inefficient n ature of these many statutory and voluntary agencies as well as confusion to the individual faced with homelessness19. As of 5th May 2006 there is a new UK government department for Communities and local anesthetic Government, taking over from the Homelessness Directorate within the Office of the Deputy fix Minister, which is now in charge of overseeing the current framework.The Labour Government came to power in 1997 on the back of a manifesto pledge that they would impose a new duty on local regimen to protect those who are homeless through no fault of their own and are in priority need20. The DETR21 published the Housing Green Paper in April 2000 which outlined the intention of the government this was then introduced in the form of the Homes Bill which fell because of the proroguement of s stills for the general election. However, this was quickly followed by another bill that in time became the Homelessness Act 2002 that received Royal Assent on 26th February 2002The 2002 Act made some very significant changes to the antecedent statutory framework detailed above22. The central provision was a requirement placed upon local authorities to carry out a review of homelessness in their area and publish strategies to overcome this within 12 months of the passing of the Act and to be renewed every 5 years23. These included audits of current levels of homelessness, programs for combating, preventing or alleviating homelessness. The cultivation gathered under the review was then to be scrutinised and the strategy would build upon any strengths and remedy weaknesses24. This was part of a clearer focus on devolving responsibility for tackling homelessness at a local level however the Act did withal modify the pre-existent law by amending the Housing Act 1996.Whilst not implementing a duty it did give local housing authorities the discretionary power to give unintentionally homeless applicants not in priority need accommodation whereas the duty before was advi ce and assistance. The latter duty still exists besides is more clearly defined and requires an investigation into the individuals circumstances and require. The hope of the government was that these two provisions combinedcan be used by applicants to argue that local authorities should consider referrals of applicants not in priority need to registered social landlords25. There was formerly a two year time limit on the duty to provide housing but the Act now requires more than simply time lapsing including refusal of unsuitable accommodation, intentional homelessness or a change in circumstances26. This provision will introduce a lot more equity into the law and its arbitrary time limits. The largest change to the law was undoubtedly wrought through ss.13 16 which completely change the rules on apportionment of a property in particular the power of the local authorities to power to exclude specific groups from priority need and reduce other priority27. Exclusion is permitted to individuals subject to immigration control or those deemed unsuitable by reason of their unacceptable behaviour28. Behaviour in general is also permitted as a reason for reducing the priority of an individual29. Local Authorities are still provided with discretion to create an allocation scheme but in determining preferences to be given in that scheme the definition of homelessness was widened to include all homeless, even those who are intentionally so or are not in priority need. The idea here is that in allocating available housing to all homeless people, rather than those that the local authority has a pre-existent duty to provide accommodation to, will clearly be more equitable30.For the sake of brevity the other main changes are bullet-pointedLocal authorities are able to offer assured tenancies and assured short-hold tenancies provided by private landlords in order to meet their duty to provide accommodation. However, refusal of such an offer doesnt rid the duty of the loca l authority as it normally would.The protections surrounding domestic violence are ex bunked to those not only actually suffering but also those threatened with violence.A requirement that social security services cooperate with housing authorities this is to combat those families that are intentionally homeless with children.In summary the 2002 Act placed a practically higher emphasis on the responsibility of local authorities through the review and strategy requirements whilst also making relatively minor amendments to the pre-existent structure which were principally designed to extend local authorities duties and powers regarding the homeless. A large part of this work will concentrate on the discretion of local authorities as detailed above in particular feel at whether the Act had created disparity between local authorities and a lack of meaningful monitoring of the operation of discretion or whether the approach by local authorities has lead to more flexibility and choice f or individuals. This will be a qualitative assessment of the impact of the Act however we will also have regard to substantive aspects and ask whether the definitions of priority need and homelessness31 adequately cater for the urgent need of young, 16-25 year old, persons. It is worth just noting at this point that the Act and the surrounding government publications do not mention youth homelessness as a target but homelessness in general. It is therefore accepted that we may be critiquing the Act for things orthogonal its original remit however given the importance of this demographic any failing will be considered a large one.Distinctive Qualities of Youth HomelessnessThe fundamental question for this work is to assess whether or not the Homelessness Act 2002 has to any degree moved the U.K. closer to addressing the needs of young homeless persons. However, in doing this what we have to be aware of is that homeless people are a heterogeneous group with diverse social, economic and health needs32. The exposition of these particularistic needs has not always been made explicit but to some degree it needs to be done so for this work to be of any importance. In other words, what are the specific needs of the youth homeless demographic?This is a difficult question and in itself could form the basis of a much larger work however it is possible to glean from some sources that there are a few predominant needs of the youth demographic which we can use to evaluate the effectiveness of the measures under the 2002 Act. One clear need is that of information, whilst always important the content is more acute in youth homelessness given their relative inexperience and lack of social awareness33. As a logical corollary to this it would include training staff and volunteers on how to relate such information to children34. In general this is necessary because unlike other demographics there is a lack of self-sufficiency or financial resources35, extremely high emotional and financial exploitability lead-in to higher risk of mental illness or disease of some form36. The problems with self-sufficiency and financial resources are explained because a youth group will tend to have little education, qualifications or job experience. This is coupled with the fact that they will have little or no experience of independent living which prevents them from doing even the most basic of things37. This has been recognised by a number of commentators who argue that the problems of long term homelessness are to an extent due to lack of skills, knowledge and social development38. Finally, another prominent need for the youth homelessness is not just the provision of accommodation but is the need for further support after the allocation of accommodation, of any kind. It has been argued that this is a particular need of youth homeless and that provision of such support moldinessiness be flexible, appropriate and geared to need39.The antecedent is not meant to be a n authoritative statement but a guide to what we will be analysing in the rest of this work. In order to assess the Homelessness Act 2002 we will be looking at how local authorities and the statute are capable of meeting some of these needs that we have outlined above.Local Authorities and Discretion Post-2002As we saw, above, the local authorities have a great deal of control and discretion in publishing a strategy and creating there own allocation criteria. The importance of this is that the young homeless tend not to fall into an explicit category of those in priority need, as we shall see, and therefore the operation of local authorities under the Act become of the utmost importance to assessing the effectiveness of the legislative structure. In determining this we are looking at three separate but inter-related areas that might impact on the effectiveness of providing a coherent approach to youth homelessness. Thus if we look at needs such as information provided to the young there is a clear danger that if there is a disjointed approach across local authorities then the quality of life enjoyed by those young people who fall into homelessness will become a post-code lottery.Lack of Monitoring Procedures / Inadequacy of Performance IndicatorsThe first specific area that this research wants to uncover is whether or not the lack of monitoring provisions leads to an inconsistent application which consequently fails young homeless people. Furthermore, are the indicators used by government to monitor local authority initiatives helpful? The joining up of local authorities under the 2002 Act was a specific aim and the government stated While the Government will join-up policy at the national level, local authorities will need to do so locally40. This was supposed to be achieved by an alliance between supra-local bodies such as the Housing Corporation, Local Government Association and National Housing Federation41. They all recommended the adoption of a partners hip between housing associations and local authorities to help implement the strategies required under the 2002 Act. However, with this many bodies involved it is unvoiced to monitor the success of the Act especially as the local authorities are under no duty to monitor the success. However, in an indirect way a lack of monitoring will cause severe difficulty for the Local Authority in reviewing current and future levels of homelessness in accordance with their strategy. This is because the raw information will not be in an accessible form, it will be spread across many different agencies or it may not be gathered at all42Shelter has campaigned for the wider introduction of multi-agency monitoring43 which derives from governments Homelessness Strategies A Good Practice handbook44. The idea of a MAM is that a lead agency, unremarkably a local authority, will take charge of running the scheme and have a department dedicated to the maintenance of it. The scheme operates as follows a ll agencies use common forms to collect information, asking the same questions, and using the same data entry codes. A MAM scheme uses a unique identifier for each individual when recording the information onto a central database45. The advantages of this are the ability to identify demographics and look at how policy and initiatives impacts on them. In that way the local authority can look at numerous independent variables such as person of first contact, place of first contact, popularity of various services and many other incredibly important pieces of information. However, the handbook is a recommendation and is not mandatory by any means and it is therefore unsurprising that the Housing Quality electronic network Services (HQNS) recommended in 2004 that more guidance on the minimum requirement for monitoring to ensure best practice46 be introduced by the government. The HQNS service highlighted that producing an action plan including plans for monitoring and having performance indicators was a weak point in many strategies47 who failed to set out in any substantive detail how they were going to go about monitoring homelessness. However, in fairness there are other councils who have mentioned MAMs48 in their strategies but even there these are potential and thin on detail49. The difficulty for this work is in assessing the effectiveness and the dedication to these limited stated aims without direct access to primary resources. Thus this work must defer to the conclusions of the quantitative research done by the HQNS that makes explicit that whilst many strategies mention monitoring few have much detail or concrete plans for how a MAM would be set-upThe picture that arises, therefore, is that the lack of mandatory minimum monitoring requirements is not being counteracted by pro-active councils around the country therefore in that way it fails to achieve the goals of having effective reviews and strategies. As the Bath North East Somerset strategy stated A strategy is only as good as the information that supports it50. The fact that a government produced report which generally heralded the whole process of producing a review and strategy as a success mentioned data collection and monitoring as a problem on several occasions highlights that this could be a significant problem in targeting the strategies in any meaningful sense at youth homelessness. This has a knock-on effect on performance indicators.The government had encouraged local authorities to introduce performance indicators51 and in 2005 they introduced The Local Government (Best Value) Performance Indicators and Performance Standards (England) Order 200552. This followed a wide consultation on the issue. It applied this to all local authorities and measures performance by reference to five criteriaAverage length of stay in bed and breakfast or hostel accommodation by households including dependent children or pregnant women.Number of rough sleepers on a single night within authoritys area.Percentage increase / ebb from year to year of statistic 1.Number of families for which housing advice casework intervention resolved their homeless situation andProportion of repeat homeless people.53Quite apart from the fact that, on a formal level, none of these mention youth homelessness but at another level the performance indicators will be useless if the monitoring procedures are as inadequate as the HQNS review suggests. Whilst it is impossible to be specific about the impact in quantitative terms we can discuss the issue in qualitative terms. We can see that there is an almost blind-spot by the government of youth homelessness in relation to monitoring information and how that translates into performance indicators.Diversity or Chaos under the Homelessness Act 2002As we saw in our description of the Act the basic framework set-out is that strategy is led from central government departmentsbut local housing authorities are key to planning and service delive ry, irrespective of their political complexion54. The reason for this was made clear in the government green paper which eventually lead to the 2002 Act Central Government can set the framework for housing policies. But the delivery of those policies must be tailored to a variety of local circumstances.55 This devolving of responsibility for implementation of strategy to local authorities is clearly designed to avoid a top-down homogenous approach to community-sensitive issues such as homelessness however the question for this work is how this has worked in relation to young people. It is integral to see whether this devolution has lead to in advance(p) solutions which fit the needs of young people and also to see whether this leads to a post-code lottery because of regional discrepancies.Primarily, we can draw comparative conclusions from a very utile survey of Scottish Local Authorities carried out in 2004 which looked at which authorities were addressing youth homelessness spec ifically as a problem56. The study was carried out only one year after The Homelessness, etc. (Scotland) Act 2003 and thus many strategies were in draft format and some werent available at all but the conclusions are stark. As far as having clear aims and objectives in relation to young people the survey only found one strategy that had these specifically stated. There was a much larger emphasis on prevention rather than aiding those already homeless thus twenty-seven strategies dealt with provision of information on services for homelessness in schools. Worryingly there were no strategies that assessed the general availability of affordable housing for young people but as we mentioned one of the major needs of young homeless people was provision of ongoing support and this was identified as an objective in the strategies of twenty-six of the local authorities however only six took this any further and proposed aid in relation to education, training or employment. We will recall tha t lack of those skills is seen as autochthonous to youth homelessness and it seemed it was poorly addressed. The conclusions of the SCSH as a whole were that youth issues are generally not well addressed in the homelessness strategies, aside from one or two exceptions57 and worryingly one of the least well addressed issues was having a specific youth homelessness policy within the general homelessness policy. It is hard to make direct generalisations to England with regard to this study but it is suggestive that youth-specific issues are not as high in the list of priorities of many local authorities as mayhap other demographics such as those suffering domestic abuse or pregnant woman.In a similar study, which had a much wider remit, the ODPM had argued that in position Homelessness Strategies Young people, either single or in families, are a key priority in most parts of the country.58 However it noticed a disparity in other demographics such as single people and gypsies / travel lers. However, what is worrying about this can be highlighted in a study of the strategies of Bromley and Lewisham Councils. In Bromley it is true to say that Vulnerable Young People is one of the specific client groups that were included in their strategy and included plans for the development of specific support services59. Thus it created a new team within the council to specifically deal with young people and their needs as well as arranging supporting for new supported accommodation facilities as a form of initial accommodation for young people60. However, the problem is that such services are de-limited and targeted solely at 16 and 17 year olds. However, our review of young peoples needs indicated that 16 25 years olds all felt similar disadvantages. This was also the case in Lewisham Council61 who talk about vulnerable young people as a group including those leaving care and 16 / 17 year olds. This, as we shall discuss below, is largely in response to the governments widen ing of priority need in the Homelessness Act 2002 to cover 16 and 17 year olds. This is undoubtedly a step-forward but the approach is undermined because it skews focus onto these two age groups. The other thing that is striking about both of these strategies is the lack of plans specifically to provide information to young people62, statistics about youth homelessness and nothing about education, training or employment opportunities or schemes for young people.Having looked at these two large councils, Scotland and the overall review carried out by the ODPM there are a number of conclusions that we can make. Firstly, disparity between the councils doesnt seem to be a large problem as far as young people are concerned. However, the approach does seem homogenous and inadequate to cater to the wider 16 25 demographic all of whom experience similar needs63 as well as making up 25% of all homeless rough sleepers in the U.K.64. There seems little of this sensitivity to local issues and the governments focus on 16 and 17 year olds has skewed the debate to a degree and in fact lead to poorer recognition of the needs of 16 25 year old homeless people. The major problem with this is that following the abolition of housing lists and the offer / non-qualifying groups division that existed pre-2002, above, local authorities have discretion to target groups. Those groups seem unlikely to be a holistic treatment of 16 25 year olds.Priority NeedThe importance of being categorised as homeless and in priority need is extremely high. It is the difference between having the possibility of interim accommodation offered and the council having a duty to provide long-term accommodation, as we saw in the second section. Thus for all demographics qualification into these categories will be keenly contested and we must see to what degree young people are catered for.We dont have the space to carry out a extreme review of both subjects however a brief prcis will again highlight the impact

Problems of the Credit Rating Agencies

Problems of the Credit Rating AgenciesIntroductionOn July 18th, 2007, while referring to adjustable rate mortgages (ARM) ( in like manner known as subprime mortgages) bonds, an executive of the Fitchs residential mortgage group give tongue to We continue to be confident that AAA rates glint the high attri onlye gauge of those bonds. Since then, amongst 2008 and 2009, 140 US banks decl ard bankruptcy while the supranational M virtuoso and altogether(a)tary Fund now estimates world banks global losses due to loans and realization derivatives to approximate $4.1 trillion. If the subprime crisis has been the crisis of assign, it has also been the crisis of credit place.Credit Rating Agencies (CRAs) (namely the tree major ones Fitch Ratings, Moodys Investors Service and Standard Poors) pose been under a lot of literary criticism in the recent credit crisis. Indeed, non only open CRAs been charge of making errors of judgment in rating structured debt securities, but also o f operating a biased c ar model in an oligopolistic market.As a matter of fact, bond thin outrs, government regulators and investors have now lost their blind faith in credit ratings and in that locationfore feel the compelling need to change, regroup and restructure the CRA current wrinkle model and constancy. Even though CRAs firenot be considered the sole responsible agent for the credit crisis, they have encountered great irregularities and problems How can they be fixed? What solutions should be implemented to prevent the next credit crisis from happening? How has the credit and CRA crisis affected the leveraged finance labor?To tackle this question, we bequeath first conk out what criticisms credit rating agencies have been subject to and what problems have been identified in the recent years. By evaluating various solutions and suggesting necessary changes, we will then examine how the credit rating business model and market structure could be improved. Finally, a s it directly relates to the credit market and CRAs, we will study the impact of the crisis on the leveraged finance industry, with a special focus on leverage spoilouts, buyout debt financing and structured finance.Section 1 Current problems of the Credit Rating Agencies business modelthough some another(prenominal) players, such as lenders, borrowers, regulators, issuers, and macro factors, can be associated with and blamed for the current credit crunch, Credit Rating Agencies (CRAs) have been accused of being the main actors behind the malfunctioning and mispricing of the credit markets. Not only have CRAs been blamed for misrating complex structured debt carrefours1 and other subprime mortgage related products, but also of operating a biased business model in an oligopolistic market.In this first sectionalization, we will summarize these three main accusations and analyze in spot the validity of each argument. Solid and pertinent recommendations can only be made if the t rue(p) problems have been identified.By analysing Moodys monetary statements, we can observe that between 2002 and 2006, Moodys get nearly triplight-emitting diode because of the growth of structured products, accounting for much than 40% of its thorough revenues in 2006, and the higher margins charged for these products. Given the revenues fetchd, one would expect that CRAs did consider the rating of these products. Now, after the default rate on adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) reached its peak during the crisis and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) became worthless, CRAs controled themselves by explaining how sophisticated these products were and how hard it was to rate them. This leads us to question, did CRAs rate products they did not understand?Before the mortgage market collapse, analysts like John Paulson expressed incredulity at what appe ared to be a complete mispricing of the structured debt products and began predicting that the market would skirmishFor me it was so obvious that these securities were completely mis damaged and we were living in a casino. I think the other players that were intricate in the business got caught up in the exuberance, in the competition to increase their underwriting volumes, to increase their fees. They were truly focused on annual earnings, quarterly earnings and annual bonus pools and with the amount of the liquidity, everyone got caught up in what became a massive credit bubble. (Distressed Volatility 2009)Mark Zandi, an economist at Moodys, noted in a report on U.S. Macro Outlook published in May 2006, that household debt was at a record and a fifth of such debt was classified as subprime. Unfortunately, the economic forecasting portion is separate from the ratings division of the corporation. But how could CRAs not foresee the crisis and the flaws of their valuation models?The model used to rate structured products has been criticized for two reasons. First, Moodys rating model for assessing CD Os is a statistical model dependent on historical patterns of default. The main assumption behind this model is that past data would remain relevant, even during a period in which the mortgage industry (and its related products) was undergoing drastic change. Second, the use of this model revealed a handsome stroke of common sense (Lowenstein, Triple-A failure 2008)by rating agencies as very complex securities shouldnt have been rated as plain vanilla bonds, for which the model was designed. CRAs were checking their statistical model, but not the underlying assets.As a consequence, Moodys noted in April 2007 that the model was first introduced in 2002. Since then, the mortgage market has evolved considerably with the introduction of many new products and an expansion of risks associated with them (Mason 2007) and thus revised the model it used to evaluate subprime mortgages.Similarly, in a solvent letter to Roger Lowensteins Triple-A failure article, Vickie Tillman, Executive Vi ce President of SPs Rating Services claims that her companys rating model includes both historical data and informed assumptions to assess credit quality. This adjusted model doesnt seem to solve the accuracy problem. Deven Sharma, president of SP, admits historical data we used and the assumptions we made significantly underestimated the severity of what has actually occurred (Sharma 2008)Even though one can acknowledge the greater complexity of CDOs and the difficulty of accurately assessing the risk profile of these products, the CRAs defence doesnt seem justifiable disposed the source of wealthiness these structure products represents to them. One would expect that CRAs would only provide a serve up they understood. There is still plenty of room for improvement in their models. Research led by Skreta and Veldkamp (Skreta and Veldkamp 2009) suggests that the complexity of any given asset hasnt increased but rather that the more complex types of assets became more prevalent. Indeed, when have with the phenomenon of rating shop, where issuers shop from one CRA to another to pick the best rating doable, asset complexity can lead to rating inflation and biased judgment. As a consequence, failure to portion out capability sources of bias inherent in the business model of the ratings industry could generate future problems. This discussion leads us to the difference of opinion of pertain inherent in the issuer-pay model, the second main accusation in our analysis.The competitiveness of interest between CRAs and bond issuers has been identified as the main problem because it drives the entire CRA business model. This conflict of interest between rating agencies and the bond issuers from whom they receive fees undermines the CRAs ability to give an unbiased assessment of credit risk.There are two types of potential conflicts of interest inherent in the issuer-pay model that may arise from the activities of the CRAs. The first is that rating agencies may be enticed to give break ratings in order to continue receiving service fees. Since CRAs revenues come from issuers, this conflict can lead to an part problem. The second potential conflict relates to the consulting services CRAs provide to help the issuer to better design products to meet their models different thresholds. In both cases, CRAs run the risk of the issuer going to a different rating agency, which leads to the phenomenon of ratings shopping. Up until the 1970s, the investor-pay business model of credit rating agencies was straightforward investors bought a subscription to receive ratings. It was during the 1970s that the business model evolved into an issuer-initiated ratings system where the issuers of securities began paying to be rated. Free riding by investors, leading to a reduction in profits for credit rating firms, was the main reason for this transition. As White (White 2002)observes, this shift also coincided with the rise in popularity of the photocopyin g machine. Although the issuer-pay business model has been around for more than forty years now, concern over ratings bias only recently emerged. Indeed, the conflict of interest, amplified by the rise of complex structured financial products, calls into question the objectivity of ratings that are critical to the efficiency of the market. (Levitt, Conflicts and the Credit Crunch 2007)In response to these accusations, CRA executives have maintained that the issuer pay model is not contradictory to the efficiency of their business model. It seems that a firm cannot support both issuers and investors simultaneously. In fact, the Report of the Staff to the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs during the Enron case2 cited empirical evidenceThe conflict appears to be in particular acute for large important issues such as Enron . In these cases investors desperately need guidance from credit rating firms, but often do not get it because of pressure from issuers, and in some cases, SEC officials. (Egan and Jones 2010)However, CRA executives have also asserted that CRAs have nothing to benefit from adjusting their ratings to their clients needs because they have a disposition to uphold. In June 2007, SP claimed that character is more important than revenues (Becker and Milbourn 2009) thus asserting that maintaining a good paper had been a sufficiently strong need factor for CRAs to funding their high levels of efficiency and objectivity. In reference to this assertion we can ask ourselves is reputation a sufficient motivating factor to maintain discipline among rating agencies?As a matter of fact, research led by Mathis, McAndrews and Rochet (Mathis, McAndrews and Rochet, Rating the Raters Are Reputation Concerns Powerful Enough to Discipline Rating Agencies? 2009)has suggested that this argument is only valid when a large fraction of the CRA revenues comes from other sources than the rating of complex products. When the reputation of a CRA is good enough, and rating complex products become a large source of revenues (more than 40% of Moodys revenues), the CRA will become too lax and inflate its ratings. This instrument builds on a three-step reputation cycle, ultimately pull up stakesing in crises of sureness where a single default provokes a complete loss of reputation by the CRA. First, the CRA tries to build and improve its reputation and gain investors trust by being very strict. Then, once a positive reputation has been gained, the CRA issues more ratings and takes advantage of its reputation. This is when CRAs become more lax and the risk of default increases. Ultimately, when default occurs, there is a crisis of confidence the opportunistic CRA is detected and its reputation is very negatively affected. This reputation cycle, which is also a confidence cycle, explains why opportunistic CRA are hard to spot and why ratings biases only recently emerged as a concern in response to inquiries from Vailiki Sketra (Sketra and Vel dkamp 2009).3 To exemplify this concept of reputation cycle, scholars find that CRAs are more likely to background credit risk in booms than in recessions (Bolton, Freixa and Shapiro, The Credit Ratings Game 2009).Moreover, reputation seems greatly affected by competition, as it will pare the effectiveness of the reputational mechanism for two main reasons. First, reputation is only valuable if there are future producer rents. As a result, the incentive for maintaining a good reputation is reduced by competition. Second, from a microeconomical approach, if the demand elasticity facing individual sellers is higher in a competitive market, the temptation to either reduce prices or otherwise attract business may be stronger which undermines the quality of output. Therefore, the conflict of interest is not solved by reputation concerns.The second aspect of the conflict of interest relates to the collaboration between CRAs and issuers when designing a debt security. Lewis Ranieri, a pi oneer in the mortgage bonds market, once said The whole creation of mortgage securities was involved with a rating (Norberg 2009). As a consequence, starting in the 1990s, CRAs started to offer consulting and advisory services to issuers to improve their ratings a process that involves extended consultations between the agency and its client. The collaborative process that ensues is as follows issuers propose a rating structure on a pool of debt. Then, the CRA will usually request a electrical shock of extra capital, known as an enhancement, to meet the necessary conditions for a specific rating. This practice can be dangerous because it is the CRAs responsibility to ensure that the cushion is monolithic enough to safeguard the product, but issuers will try to minimize this extra capitalization in order to maximize their profit margin. Inside the CRAs, consultants and raters were meant to be strictly separated by a Chinese wall4. Regardless, CRAs (namely Moodys) began providing un solicited ratings and offering consultancy services to improve them. Mr. Arthur Levitt, a former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, pointed out in a recent article in the Wall Street journal that the conflicts of interest arising from such activities are the central problems with CRAsCredit rating agencies are playing both cultivate and referee in the debt game. They rate companies and issuers that pay them for that service. And, in the case of structured financial instruments, which make it possible to securitize all those subprime mortgages, they help issuers construct these products to obtain the highest possible rating. These conflicts are hard to spot because transparency among these agencies is murky at best, and currently it is difficult to hold these agencies accountable for any wrongdoing (Levitt, Conflicts and the Credit Crunch 2007)The agencies are aware of the conflicts that are inherent to their business model but they claim that they are doing their b est as to avoid them. In a letter to Roger Lowensteins Triple-A failure article, Vickie Tillman, Executive Vice President of SPs Rating Services defends her companys business models and practicesAt Standard Poors, we recognize the business model we use may raise potential conflicts of interest. Thats why we have always had rigorous policies in place to manage conflicts, and why we currently are implementing additional measures to further strengthen the independence and quality of our ratings opinions. the role ratings firms play in the market is to provide independent assessments of the creditworthiness of bonds.In order to make up for these practices, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a ferment in February 2007 proposing rules which would identify the issue of unsolicited credit ratings (those not issuer-initiated), as unfair, coercive, or abusive, and thus would prohibit Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations (NRSROs) from releasing unsoli cited credit ratings. Even though the SEC intervention seemed necessary, it didnt change the industrys business model by 2007, the mortgage boom had already reached its peak.Regardless of the criticism surrounding the relationship between issuers and rating agencies, the fact of the matter is that they were simply bringing bonds to market based on market demand, which clearly indicates a crisis of the issuer-based model. CRAs misbehaviour has played a central role in the current subprime mortgage crisis. As such, the governments and regulatory bodies should take steps forward to correct the current business model. We shall therefore investigate alternatives to this model in Section 2 of this paper.This conflict of interest leads us to ask, who finally owns the ratings? The evidence regarding whether rating agencies bend to the issuers will is mixed.A paper written by contract-theory scholars, Faure-Grimaud, Peyrache and Quesada (Faure-Grimaud, Peyrache and Quesada 2007) investigate s this issue by looking at corporate governance ratings in a market with truthful CRAs and rational investors. They order that at equilibrium, in a monopoly, a CRA will fully disclose information but that issuers may prefer to suppress their ratings if they are too thundering because full disclosure is impossible even when firms have the possibility for ownership (i.e., the right to disclose the rating). Additionally, they find that competition between rating agencies can result in less information disclosure since CRAs make zero profit and fully disclose information on firms that have values higher than the CRAs fringy observation cost.In fact, the current business model seems to favour the banks in their quest to receive better ratings. Dr. Joseph Mason compared default rates for corporate bonds to as BAA-rated CDOs before the bubble burst and found that the CDOs defaulted more than ten times as often (Mason 2007). While, as we discussed earlier, it may be true that CDOs are such(prenominal) more complex securities than plain-vanilla bonds, another interpretation of the data is that CRAs were much more lax when dealing with a Wall Street securitizer as client. But who can blame them? While it is true that on the traditional side of the business (unsophisticated bond rating) CRAs have a large variety of clients (virtually every corporation and municipality that issues existence debt), this is not the case in structured finance. On the contrary, the panel of clients is much smaller and the fees are much bigger. The only issue is that the client pays only if the CRA delivers the desired rating. If they do not, the client can either adjust the numbers or take another chance with a competitor, a process known as ratings shopping.Brian Clarkson, former president and CEO of Moodys Investors Service acknowledged, There is a lot of rating shopping that goes on. What the market doesnt know is whos seen certain transactions but wasnt engage to rate those deals (Bolton, Freixa and Shapiro, The Credit Ratings Game 2009). In fact, an important feature of the credit ratings market microstructure is the capacity for a security issuer to choose which ratings to purchase. During this process, a structured debt product is issued and the issuer typically proposes a structure to a CRA. The issuer then asks for a shadow rating, which remains private between the CRA and the issuer, unless the issuer pays to make the rating official.Such choices can reflect both explicit and implicit shopping for desired credit reviews and induce a selection effect in the rating process. Selection highlights the relation between the decision some whether to rely on unsolicited ratings and the potential for ratings shopping, illustrating how different types of potential conflicts of interest in the credit rating process could interact. Indeed, shopping for ratings is a practice at the heart of the different conflicts of interest we mentioned above, as it partly inval idates the reputation argument because there seems to be a trade-off between reputation concerns and the risk for ratings shopping. It also encourages CRAs to strengthen their ties and relationship with issuers, most notably by offering a wider range of services. In an interesting paper, Skreta and Veldkamp (Sketra and Veldkamp 2009) examine cherry-picking in ratings, in particular for securitization, by issuers who shop for the highest ratings in order to obtain the highest price when selling to naive or little-informed investors. They highlight the influence of risk aversion in motivating the purchase of multiple ratings. Indeed, because investors are risk-averse, they will try to invest in the best-rated securities for an expected yield without having to asses the risk of every security they may be elicit in, and thus rely heavily on ratings. The more ratings they have for a security, the more likely they will be to invest in it. Skreta and Veldkamp (Sketra and Veldkamp 2009) c onclude that when combined with asset complexity, rating shopping can lead to rating inflation and thus biased judgment. To support that evidence, Kurt Schacht, managing director of the CFA Institute Centre explained that CRA executives were concerned about the hype and insinuation that CRAs easily inflate their ratings in response to pressure from issuers and issuers, implicating the integrity of their process and ratings. In exploring that topic, we were very surprised by the results of our member treetop where some 211 of the 1,956 respondents said they have indeed witnessed a CRA change ratings in response to external pressures (CFA Institute 2008).As a consequence, not only does ratings shopping enhance ratings distortion, but it also corrupts the entire rating process by giving issuers an incentive to trick their clients into buying overrated securities.A third and final issue to investigate is the lose of competition in the credit-rating industry. According to The Economist (The Economist 2007), Moodys and Standard Poors dominated the industry by controlling about 80% of the total market in 2007. The third-place competitor, Fitch, had only about 15% of the total share that same year. The current form of these institutions received legal status when the SEC introduced the notion-barrier of the NRSROs in 1975. The rest of the market is divided among only a few other institutions that have received legal status. While alluding to the dominance of Moodys and Standard Poors in the credit market, the U.S. Department of Justice has referred to the credit-rating industry as a partner duopoly (Laing 2007). As noted by Jonathan R. Laing, a partner duopoly differs from an oligopoly because the partners in the duopoly do no buttock fierce competition against each other because ones good fortune in winning a piece of business is typically followed by the others receiving the same deal at the same lush fee level (Laing 2007).This duopoly has proven quite profita ble, as Moodys operating margin is typically around 50% (if not more) better than Microsoft, Accenture, Intel, Nike or Coca-Cola. In fact, according to Congressman Henry Waxmans statement during the Congressional hearings in October 2008, Moodys had the highest profit margin of any company of the SP 500 index for five years in a row. An important complaint arising from this situation is that the lack of competition permits the main players to shirk, engaging in less effort and research that if they were true active competition (Coffee 2006). It may therefore seem that a free market would ensure competition among its CRAs guaranteeing a higher quality and lower price of the ratings. For that reason, competition from new agencies might create a healthy diversity of opinion, leading to more accurate assessments of debt issuers default probabilitiesMany scholars have analyzed whether this industry structure contributes to the efficiency of the global credit market. We shall investigate in further detail what seems to be the optimal market structure in the next section by examining the solutions and changes necessary to combating the various issues we have so far considered.Other scholars recognize that the existing duopoly may present risks to the market, especially since the two-rating norm is still in full force. Furthermore, since the CRA business model is reputational-driven business, new competitors may face very high barriers to entry. The CRA industry could therefore not allow for more participants. On the other hand, some scholars suggest that the SECs role in both creating and perpetuating this duopoly by which establishing the status and necessary requirements to become a NRSROs, and an official registry. Since competition can both be seen as a problem and as a solution to the CRA industry and business model, we shall now examine the different initiatives that can be undertaken to improve the boilersuit model and functioning of the credit rating market. Section 2 Solutions to fix the identified problemsThe subprime crisis has brought to light the poor performance of CRAs in rating structured financial products and reminded investors of CRAs past poor performance in predicting the East Asian crisis and the collapse of Enron5. Either directly by regulations, or by market force, there are strong signals that the credit rating business is about to change. The main accusations we previously addressed and the perception that CRAs contributed to the financial crisis led to various investigations and calls for reform. In this section, after in brief presenting CRAs answer to criticism, we will first analyze the different alternatives suggested by scholars and experts to the current business model and the general industry structure. We will then study the different reforms and regulatory recommendation that have been suggested to the current business model that would improve CRAs effectiveness and enhance the overall market efficiency. F inally, once these changes examined, from a regulatory standpoint, we will observe the measures recently adopted by both the European Union and the US government (and regulating agencies), determine how the approaches differ and how necessary regulation is.CRAs reaction to accusationsCRAs have responded to the allegations with cries of innocence. If some rating firms claimed that they did nothing wrong and have indicated that they will cooperate openly in any investigation that comes their way, others did acknowledge some mistakes and have announced the intention to reform their practices. For example, spokespersons for Moodys, Standard Poors and Fitch have claimed that their organizations will demand more data and more verification and will subject their analysts to more outside checks (Lowenstein, Triple-A failure 2008) However, some may say that CRAs might have implemented these changes simply to avoid further criticism and regulatory intervention. Indeed, as Lowenstein claims, no(prenominal) of this will remove the conflict of interest in the issuer-pays model . We shall further analyze the case for self regulation in our analysis.In their effort to defend themselves, the CRAs have sought to minimize their role and influence within the financial industry. According to a spokesperson for MoodysWe perform a very significant but extremely limited role in the credit markets. We issue reasoned, forward-looking opinions about credit risk. Our opinions are objective and not tied to any recommendations to buy and sell (Benner and Lashinsky 2007)The consensus of these critics is that the agencies dropped the ball by issuing investment-grade ratings on securities backed by subprime mortgages they should have known were shaky (Benner and Lashinsky 2007)Rather than accept responsibility for their own lack of diligence, the major CRAs have sought to lay the blame on the mortgage holders who turned out to be deadbeats, many of whom lied to obtain their loans (Lowens tein 2008). Of course, it must be noted that other groups and individuals share the responsibility for the global financial downturn. As Laing says in regard to CRAs, they were just one link in a subprime intersection line that stretched from sleazy storefront mortgage brokers, corrupt appraisers and avaricious originators to fee-crazed securitizers and, yes, mendacious borrowers (Laing 2007). Nonetheless, as Laing further notes, CRAs must be seen as key enablers in the problems development.i) modern agency industry structure and business modelProposals have been made to improve the credit-rating system and thereby reduce the problems we identified. First, it seems that CRA need more independence. As Laing suggests it, many of the changes implemented in the auditing industry with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act could be withal carried out. (Even though one may discuss whether this Act has improved capital markets transparency or not, one must note it has enforced the implementation of int ernal control, due diligence and transparency procedures in firms)For instance ratings agency employees should be prohibited from judge any favors (whether it is money of gifts) from their clients and the leading analyst should rotate from a client to another with a certain frequency and should wait at least one year before joining their clients firm (an issuer or investment bank in this case) Laing also suggests that the 2003 SEC proposal, which prohibits the linkage of analyst compensation with new business development, could be reenacted.First, CRAs should be more transparent in two distinctive ways. The global credit market needs greater transparency about CRAs overall rating model rating assumptions, methodologies, but also the fee structures, and past performance. To be more transparent CRAs should follow stricter disclosure requirements (as mentioned in the Rating role Act in 2006). Professor Charles W. Calomiris (Calomiris 2009) suggests that, more disclosure could also be required for publicly traded companies with rated debt when filling in debt-offering documents Particularly, in order to prompt CRAs to reduce or eliminate their conflicts of interest, they should disclose any structuring service or consulting-related activity (and the fees related to such practices) provided to a company in connection with the rating of fixed-income securitiesSecond, there is a strong need, expressed by both scholars and analysts, for a clear distinction between the rating of structured products and traditional debt products and thus different rating symbols could be used so as to avoid confusion. The issue is, not all AAA-rated securities are created equally. As demonstrated in the current credit crisis and as proven by Drexel University finance professor Joseph Mason, CDOs receiving a Baa rating from Moodys were more than ten times as likely to default as similarly rated corporate bonds (Mason 2007). As a matter of fact, despite the identical symbols, structured products typically do not have the same risk profile as traditional corporate bonds. By nature, whereas corporate default can be estimated by very few factors (namely the level of leverage of the firm and its capacity to generate stable cash flows from operations), default on structured debt is dependent on hundreds or thousands of individual defaults e.g., an underlying mortgage pool that are estimated given some distribution. They are not the same analysis so they should not be the same ratings. (CFA Institute 2008) A different rating scale according to the risk profile of the products could be used as to not mislead investors into buying misrated securities. As an alternative, Professor Coffee at Columbia University suggests the SEC could define a level best default rate for different class of ratings, so that if a CRAs ratings were to exceed SEC parameters, it would loose their NRSRO status. (Coffee 2006) Building on this, the entire rating nomenclature could be changed and ra tings could be expressed quantitatively as to avoid grade inflation in CRAs opinions. Indeed, in contrast to numerical estimates (of the probability of default (PD) and loss given default (LGD)),which do have objective and quantifiable meanings, letter grades leave more room for sub

Benefits of Maps in Geographical Analysis

Benefits of represents in Geographical AnalysisMaps are the most Copernican and indispens open tool for geographers to use. They help people understand and explore relationships on our planet. A be shows a representation of various phenomenons over all the earth or of a specific area of the land, in a optical graphic format. The earliest plays were drawn on rock surfaces, clay tablets, metal plates, papyrus linen or constructed of sticks. Today social functions are usually rendered on a flat surface such as paper or on a computer monitor. Maps are the most successful means of recording and communicating information or so the location and spatial characteristics of the natural world and of different societies and cultures. Maps are not perfect, but as technology has improved, so have the timberland and accuracy of comprises. The science of map making is known as cartography. As maps are so commonly used to convey information, it is important to be able to read and interpret th em correctly.Drawn to ScaleA map is a reducer it shrinks an area to a manageable surface. The amount of reduction is known as the scale. In order for maps to be useful they are scaled down so that they are small enough to be handled by an individual and so that they fit on the available paper or screen. When scaling down a map, both part of the map is scaled by the same amount. This ensures that every object on the map is the same proportion as everything else on the map. As the earth is round and maps are flat it is impossible to create a map with a perfect scale, some parts of the map will be big and others small. The larger a territory represented by a map, the greater the distortion in the scale. The smaller the area the map represents, the to a greater extent dead-on(prenominal) it is. It is important that we recognise how to read, understand and utilize scale as we find out the different maps we encounter. The scale on the map is used to convert distances on the maps to di stances in reality and the scale is depicted on the map as trinity common methods. They are referred to as the graphic (linear) method, the verbal (word) method and the fractional (ratio) method.The graphic method depicts scale using a line with separations marked by smaller interesting lines, similar to a ruler. One side of the scale represents the distance on the map, while the other side represents the true distance of objects in real life. By measuring the distance surrounded by two objects on a map and then referring to the graphic scale it is easy to calculate the factual distance between those same items.http//www.bxwa.com/fastbid/instructions_measure_sample.gifThe verbal method simply uses words to describe the ratio between the maps scale and the real world. alone measure the distance on the map and then follow the verbal directions to calculate the actual distance.Once centimetre on the map equals one ampere-second and fifty meters on the groundThe fractional method p ortrays the scale of a map using a representative fraction to describe the ratio between the map and the real world.http//www.edc.uri.edu/nrs/classes/nrs409509/Lectures/4MapBasics/scale_2quad.jpg124 000, in this example, 1cm on the map represents 2,4km on the ground immense Scale VS Small ScaleA map which depicts a relatively small area is referred to as a large scale map. The visual representation is shown in more detail. This is because the area of land beingness represented by the map has been scaled down little, in other words, the scale is larger. 110000 is a relatively large fraction.A map depicting a large area, such as an entire country, is considered a small scale map. In order to show the entire country, the map must(prenominal) be scaled down until it is much smaller. This map is less detailed as it shows a relatively vast area. 150000 is a small fraction. Large Scale Map VS Small Scale Maphttp//basementgeographer.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/mapscale.pngCoordinate S ystemMaps are very effective in conveying information about space and location.Relative location defines a place in relation to other places. It is a basic reference tool. It is part of your basic geographic knowledge and critical thinking. Directions such as south, west, next door or down the road are used.Absolute location is crucial for referencing maps and is also known as mathematical location. Coordinate systems are used where as grids consisting of horizontal (parallels of latitude) and vertical lines (meridians of longitude) covering the entire globe are used. The interceptions of these lines create addresses in a orbiculate coordinate system giving each location a specific, unique and mathematical placement.Longitude and Latitude Measuring latitude the North stake and the South rod cell provide two natural reference points because they mark the opposite positions of the Earths axis. The equator, halfway between the stakes, forms a circle that divides the planet into t he Northern hemisphere and the Southern hemisphere. The equator is the reference line for measuring latitude in degrees north or south of the equator = 0 latitude. From the equator, the angles and their arcs increase until we reach the North and South Pole at the maximum latitudes of 90 North and 90 South.Measuring longitude to describe an east or west position, we need a starting line. Longitude lines run from pole to pole. The global position of the 0 east-west line for longitude was established by international agreement. The longitude line passing through Greenwich, England (near London) was accepted as the prime meridian, known as the Greenwich Meridian.Grid referencing occurs when you use the lines of latitude and longitude to locate a place or an object. It is measured in degrees, minutes and seconds. When writing down the grid reference, remember to quotation the latitude numerates first (numbers on the side of the map) and write South or North afterwards. These are the lines going across the map. Then quote the longitude (numbers from the fundament or top of the map) and write East or West afterwards. Always have 6 digits in your reference and any one digit number must then have a 0 written in front of it.Projecting Our Globe onto a Flat SurfaceOver the centuries, many an(prenominal) different ways of representing the round earth on flat paper have been developed. Each of these methods is referred to as map projections. There are thousands of projections but no single or correct projection. Today it is still impossible to draw a flat map that is 100% accurate. This is due to the impossibility of recreating the surface of a round planet on a flat map. Distortions are common but there mathematical attempts to minimise the distortions. Distortion occurs in area, shape, scale, distance and direction. Map projections are an attempt to correct distortions.The types of projections are cylindrical, conical and planar (Mercator, Lamberts, Universal Trans verse Mercator and the Gauss Conformal Projection).Cylindrical projection maps are the most common type of map that we see. The area close to the equator has very little distortion, however the closer to the poles that one travels, the more distorted the map becomes.http//ngwww.ucar.edu/conmaptutor/ezmap/ezmap.figure.id.3.gifConical projection maps display a more accurate map then the cylindrical map. However, the further we travel down the map, the more distorted and less accurate the map becomes.http//oivdoc90.vsg3d.com/sites/default/files/imported/usersguide/images/UsersGuide-692.png two-dimensional projection maps are not commonly used.http//octopus.gma.org/surfing/images/planar.gifThere are many different types of interrupted projection maps. They depict the continents as accurately as possible by leaving out less important blank spaces of the map, such as the ocean.Properties of Map ProjectionsEach of the map projections must consider shape, area, distance, size and direction when depicting the maps. The two most important factors that need to be considered is Shape Vs Size. The challenge is that the more accurate you depict the shape of objects, the less accurate the size of the objects will be and vice versa. Map projections are classified as follows conformal and equivalent.Conformal maps portray shape accurately. This type of map has many negative aspects that it back end get quiet distorted, especially towards both the top and bottom of the map. This creates problems with scale.Equivalent maps portray size accurately. These maps are very useful as no consider what part of the map we examine, the scale will remain accurate. Although the sizes of the objects are accurate their shapes may become distorted.By blending both conformality and equivalency map projections, we create a map that balances the distortion of both size and shape. By compromising these projections a hybrid map between conformal and equivalent is formed.The Key to Understanding Ma psMaps can be drawn to represent a variety of information. Cartographic abstraction is when important details are chosen to convey the maps information, while less relevant details are often not shown. This indicates that the map is not complete as details are simplified or omitted to keep the map legible. Geographic features shown on maps are represented by symbols such as lines, shapes, colours, dots and units. This information might include things such as roads, churches, diggings and monuments. The objects on a map are represented using symbols. A symbol is a picture on the map that represents something in the real world. Understanding these symbols requires the use of a key/legend. It usually shows a small picture of each of the symbols used on the map, along with a written description of the meaning.http//holderbaum.educationextras.com/map%20key%20small.jpgMaps are important tools in geography and geography students must be able to identify and distinguish between different ma ps. Maps convey spatial information, through graphic symbols, a language of location that must be able to be read and understood to appreciate and comprehend the rich store of information maps display. Scale, coordinate systems, projections and symbolization are some of the main concepts of the language found on maps.

The Ambitious Male in Macbeth :: Macbeth essays

The Ambitious Male in Macbeth The tragedy Macbeth by William Shakespe be brings to center stage an interesting, guilty, ambitious usurper named Macbeth, on whose character this essay will focus. Charles deliver in On the Tragedies of Shakespeare explains the impact of Macbeths initial murder The state of sublime emotion into which we are elevated by those images of night and horror which Macbeth is made to utter, that severe prelude with which he entertains the time gutter the bell shall strike which is to call him to murder Duncan, - when we no longer read it in a book, when we have precondition up that vantage-ground of abstraction which reading possesses everyplace seing, and come to go for a man in his bodily shape before our eyes actually preparing to deplume a muder, if the acting be original and impressive as I have witnessed it in Mr. Ks performance of that part, the painful anxiety about the act, the natural hunger to prevent it while it yet seems unperpetrated, the similarly close pressing semblance of reality,give a pain and an uneasiness . . .. (134) In Everybodys Shakespeare Reflections Chiefly on the Tragedies, Maynard Mack shows how Macbeth complements his wife Her fall is instantaneous, even eager, like Eves in Paradise Lost his is gradual and reluctant, like Adams. She needs only her husbands letter about the weyard sisters prophecy to precipitate her result to kill Duncan. Within an instant she is inviting bloody spirits to unsex her, fill her with cruelty, thicken her blood, convert her mothers milk to gall, and darken the world That my keen knife see not the wound it makes (1.5.50). Macbeth, in contrast, vacillates. The images of the enactment that possess him simultaneously repel him (1.3.130, 1.7.1) When she proposes Duncans murder, he temporizes We will speak further (1.5.69). (189) Lily B. Campbell in her volume of criticism, Shakespeares Tragic Heroes Slaves of Passion, explores the works of Macbeths mind as he plot s the expiry of Banquo and son If the witches have spoken as truly to Banquo as to him, Macbeth sees that he wears a fruitless crown and carries a barren sceptre in his flip he has indeed given peace and immortality to make the race of Banquo kings. And he proceeds to his interview with the murderers, plotting what he boldness not do openly, for the fear that comes when we are rivals for a thing and cannot both have it makes it seem to Macbeth The Ambitious Male in Macbeth Macbeth essaysThe Ambitious Male in Macbeth The tragedy Macbeth by William Shakespeare brings to center stage an interesting, guilty, ambitious usurper named Macbeth, on whose character this essay will focus. Charles Lamb in On the Tragedies of Shakespeare explains the impact of Macbeths initial murder The state of sublime emotion into which we are elevated by those images of night and horror which Macbeth is made to utter, that solemn prelude with which he entertains the time till the bell shall strik e which is to call him to murder Duncan, - when we no longer read it in a book, when we have given up that vantage-ground of abstraction which reading possesses over seing, and come to see a man in his bodily shape before our eyes actually preparing to commit a muder, if the acting be true and impressive as I have witnessed it in Mr. Ks performance of that part, the painful anxiety about the act, the natural longing to prevent it while it yet seems unperpetrated, the too close pressing semblance of reality,give a pain and an uneasiness . . .. (134) In Everybodys Shakespeare Reflections Chiefly on the Tragedies, Maynard Mack shows how Macbeth complements his wife Her fall is instantaneous, even eager, like Eves in Paradise Lost his is gradual and reluctant, like Adams. She needs only her husbands letter about the weyard sisters prophecy to precipitate her resolve to kill Duncan. Within an instant she is inviting murderous spirits to unsex her, fill her with cruelty, thicken her blo od, convert her mothers milk to gall, and darken the world That my keen knife see not the wound it makes (1.5.50). Macbeth, in contrast, vacillates. The images of the deed that possess him simultaneously repel him (1.3.130, 1.7.1) When she proposes Duncans murder, he temporizes We will speak further (1.5.69). (189) Lily B. Campbell in her volume of criticism, Shakespeares Tragic Heroes Slaves of Passion, explores the workings of Macbeths mind as he plots the destruction of Banquo and son If the witches have spoken as truly to Banquo as to him, Macbeth sees that he wears a fruitless crown and carries a barren sceptre in his hand he has indeed given peace and immortality to make the race of Banquo kings. And he proceeds to his interview with the murderers, plotting what he dare not do openly, for the fear that comes when we are rivals for a thing and cannot both have it makes it seem to Macbeth