The Financial Crisis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Financial Crisis - Essay Example Bankers blame the public for their exuberant enthusiasm that created the fragile real estate bubble that was destined to burst. The people blamed the Congress for their inaction, while Democrats blamed Republicans and Republicans blamed the Democrats. No matter where the weakness in the system was, it was the government's failure to act in a prudent and timely fashion to stem the rising tide of waste, abuse, and corruption. At the core of the economic problems that are facing the US today is the weakness caused by an escalating national debt and the political reality of a public that has a growing concern over their scarce tax dollars. Had the government implemented a balanced budget in the recent years, or if money had been wisely invested to create jobs in the economy, taxpayers and conservatives might be more willing to manage a multi-billion dollar loan to the auto industry. However, a failed policy in Iraq has left the people with a bill that could top $3 trillion in the near future (Bilmes and Stiglitz B06). This is money that can't be used for building infrastructure or investing in much needed education. The government has failed by squandering trillions of dollars on what amounts to a handful of magic beans. The government further allowed the economic system to go into decline by failing to adequately regulate the banking and insurance systems that had become rife with abuse and

Bletchley Park GCSE Coursework Essay Example for Free

Bletchley Park GCSE Coursework Essay Bletchley Park was unique in many different was. Located just outside Bletchley, in southern England in some ways it could have been said to be detached from the rest of Britain during World War 2, lost in a secret world. The organization at Bletchley Park was unique. The method of operations, the dedication, the secrets hidden away behind the walls and even the people working there. All were completely different to what had ever been seen before in terms of code cracking. Secrecy was a big part of life in Bletchley, and even in the beginning when the initial government representatives went to check it out for possible use during wartime, they acted as privately as possible and gave reason for their stay as a hunting trip. The private aspect of station X continued throughout the war with guards patrolling the perimeters of Bletchley day and night. The secrecy kept up after the war as well, with those who had worked at Bletchley Park not being officially allowed to talk about it publicly until 1976. This was likely to be due to Churchills mistake after World War 1; of letting the Germans know that the British had cracked their code. Station X was another method of keeping the enigma secret. It was code-name used, meaning the key station where all the messages were sent. There where several other station Ys, all of which recorded any messages the intercepted and passed them straight on to the larger workstation at Bletchley (station X). This was to keep Bletchley Park looking relatively normal and aerial-free, thus aiding with the bid for secrecy. The people working at station X came from a variety of different backgrounds and were often chosen explicitly for their social records and information, rather than any skills with code breaking they had. Whilst this did only apply to the minority at Bletchley, (many working there during the war had come straight out of universities such as Oxford or Cambridge with a Maths degree) it is still a key aspect of the organization. Some were recruited on their ability to see outside of the box meaning that they were hired to see gaps (or flaws) in what others could not. This resulted in many people with more eccentric personalities residing in Bletchley during the war. Such people included the marvelous Alan Turing, who came up with the idea for the Bombe, one of the first computers in the world. He was certainly one of the abnormal people at Bletchley Park, but also an example of an extremely intelligent one. The actual organization at Bletchley was divided into certain huts. It was within these huts that the duties revolving around code cracking were divided up. For example, hut 8 may have been cracking the naval codes of the enigma, whilst hut 4 was deciding if they were to be of any use. This not only increased efficiency, but as a side effect, seemed to raise morale as well. Rather than working as a larger body were small triumphs went completely unnoticed, through these huts a sense of recognition of others efforts was able to be established. Many of the people with Bletchley were incredibly dedicated and in some cases worked solidly for 24 hours just to make sure that one particular aspect of the code was broken. This of course accelerated to process in which the enigma was eventually broken. Originally, those working at Bletchley Park were not respected or given the appropriate amount of attention by the SIS. (The secret intelligence service) However, this changed after Bletchley accurately predicted the location of a German warship that was just about the attack the British. The SIS ignored the warning, and two British ships were sunk and 1,500 men died. This was a wake up call for the SIS, who then proceeded to give any messages received from Bletchley top priority. 2. Why was Bletchley Park able to break the German enigma? Those working at Bletchley Park were able to break the enigma for several different reasons. Most importantly, it was due to their great skills at code cracking, their powerful intellect and the amazing perseverance that many had to try and achieve the goal. Other reasons must be taken into account though. Such as the clumsy mistakes by the German operators and the help that was given to the British by other countries such as the extraordinary work done by Poland before the war. The British received a great deal of intelligence from other countries during the war. The poles had secretly been working on the enigma before and during the start of the war. Three mathematicians had been trying to decode messages and solve the random jumble of letters. As Germany invaded, polish officials met up with the British and gave them all they knew about the enigma. This not only opened the gates for the British as to what the Nazis were using to scramble to letters, but also gave them a solid head start in order to go about decoding them. Later on, a German who was willing to sell information about the enigma contacted the French. French intelligence later passed this information on to the rest of the allies, including the British. Both of these two events greatly helped Bletchley Park crack the code of the enigma initially, and throughout the rest of the war. Another factor that continued to help the people working at station X were the mistakes of the German operators. It is likely that if the Germans had used the enigma exactly as directed, it would have been a lot harder to crack, thus taking up much more time. Common mistakes were not replacing or changing the order in which the cog wheels were arranged, not arranging the two plugs in the correct formation and other more minor errors that were normally results from laziness. Another fault that was used to its maximum effect was that of the double helix. In many cases, the enigma was not anywhere near as random as the Germans had first hoped, and in a few cases the British were able to see clear patterns were letters were exactly the same within the code. Whilst this was not necessarily the Germans fault, it was still as mistake that they did not know about and failed to consider. These mistakes were exploited and picked apart by the British, giving them a further chance in forming patterns out the mess. Bletchley used certain methods to ease the task of finding the right combination out of 150,000,000,000,000,000 possibilities. Techniques such as laying out perforated sheets to see if any letters matched were popular and helped the efficiency of code cracking as a whole. Also, machines that were invented during the war (including one of the first computers in the world) were a great asset to those at Bletchley as well. The machines invented during the time in Bletchley were all upgraded versions of the same basic idea. The human operator would feed in a code that had usually been worked on previously by other people or was a calculated (likely to be true) estimate (nicknamed a crib by those a Bletchley). The operator would enter the code into the machine and then it would cycle through all the possible combinations, stopping when it reached the correct one. The final version, invented by Turing, could decipher the code, possible wheel locations and possible plug locations thousands of times faster than a human. This greatly helped the British with the speed of cracking codes and sending them off to those who needed them. However it did not decrease the difficulty of knowing what formulas to use within the machine in the first place, or even decoding the initial and forming calculated guesses to feed into the machine to start off with. Those working at Bletchley had to solve several things in order to gather the information needed to have a chance at cracking the code. These included: * The Cog order and wiring * The text settings * The Cross plugging * And language (including German military slang terms) This required great patience and dedication all skills that those working at Bletchley either had already, or managed to acquire. Cracking a code can be an incredibly frustrating experience said one worker, but in most cases the results are uplifting, rewarding [and] very satisfying. Through intertwining many different people into a close knit community, along with their skills, personalities and unique ideas, Bletchley Park managed to effectively the ultimate code-cracking machine. Finally, breakthroughs were also a key factor when it came to breaking the code. Strokes of luck such as recovering German navy code books off small weather vessels that were easily captured, or getting other such Nazi secrets of sinking U-boats or crashed vehicles greatly helped advance the enigma effort. Overall, there was no key reason why the British were able to crack the code of the enigma. No huge mistake was made by the Germans that completely gave the secrets away, no massive breakthrough was made by the British to unlock all the enigma codes in one go, the end result came from many different factors that when put together, gave Bletchley Park the key to the enigma code.

Ethics - Virtue of Patience Essay -- essays research papers

Virtue and Patience In order to survive these days, there need to be at least some standards and goals of morality in a person's life. Moral excellence is definitely hard to achieve, but is something worth while to attempt. Personally, there are many distractions and obstructions the present day provides, creating a difficulty of direction in my own life. I need to overcome obstacles such as peer pressure in order to become a confident, successful person. The present day provides impediments which I believe I can overcome by way of morality and virtue. I have chosen to work on more patience in my life. According to Aristotle, for every virtue there are two vices. One is in excess and the other being deficit. Patience is a deficiency in my life. In having barely any patience, I am often stressed out and make more of simple situations. Aristotle would call this vice impatience. On the other end of the spectrum, the excess of patience is being passive. Aristotle and Plato, it was all about having balance in your life. I believe this theory is still in tact today. What I am striving for is not passivity, it is a moderate amount of patience, not too much and not too little, but just enough to make me more of a moral individual. The hard part about being virtuous is not practicing virtue sometimes but mastering it and doing it consistently. I have always been impatient and it would be extremely difficult for me to master being patient. One of Aristotle’s points about being a virtuous person is not doing everything well but doing what you do well and doing it consistently. Patience is defined as â€Å"good natured tolerance of delay or incompetence.† (www.dictionary.com) for me, this definition does the word a world of just... ...s outside and we ended up waiting for and hour for him to come back. I was going to flip out and tell my mom I wasn’t going to do this and that we should just leave and come back tomorrow but I remembered this essay and my goal of becoming more patient. So I put on my headphones and I went for a walk to find my cat, when I finally found him I was so excited for myself, I really felt like I accomplished something. For me this was a gratifying process and I actually enjoyed the journaling and paper. I think I could have put a little more effort into the specific instances. But over all it was alright for me. Before this I would have never noticed what lack of patience I had and how annoying it must be for the people around me. I’m excited to continue being a more virtuous person and improving my character through practicing more patience.

A simple index number :: Economics

A simple index number Index numbers is a number that expresses the relative change in price, quantity, or value from one period to another (1). Price index number = cost of basket in current period x 100 cost of basket in base period An index number provides a quantitative description of change over time - how much increase? How much decrease? Market researchers are also using index numbers are also using index numbers to compare a research result with an overall norm, to measure how the investment, specially in advertising industry, are working. How changes in these figures are related to the current economy as advertising is promoted as an engine that drives the economy rather than a supplement? 2. A composite index 2.1 Laspeyres Price Index The most commonly used weighted price index is the Laspeyres Price Index named after its inventor. It is a weighted aggregate price index that uses the quantities in the base period/ year as weights (Harper, 1991,p215). In essence, Laspeyres price index for the year measured shows the extent of price changes since base year on the assumption that the expenditure pattern was the same in the year measured as in base year. Thus, only price is allowed to change and the index for the current period reflects this price. 2.2 Paasche Price Index Another weighted price index is the Paasche Price Index, which uses the current quantity weights and adjusts the base each time a new period is considered. It is a weighted aggregate price index that uses the quantities in the current year as the weights (Harper, 1991,p215). Paasche price index shows the changes assuming the expenditure pattern was the same in base year as in the year measured. 2.3 Advantages and Limitations Both the Laspeyres index and the Paasche index have advantages and limitations, as indicated following: 2.3.1 Advantages Laspeyres index  · Easy to calculate.  · The Laspeyres index is the more convenient to use on a continuing basis, because the weights of base year remain fixed.  · It can be easier and cheaper to produce since the only quantities required are for the base period.  · Laspeyres where the same base weights can be used for a number of periods making it less demanding of data. As the weights don't change period to period (fixed basket) it can be considered to show exclusively price (or quantity) change (1). Paasche index -------------  · Uses quantities from the current period, thus reflects current buying habits 2.3.2 Limitations Laspeyres index  · It cannot be used if quantities are unobtainable.  · Laspeyres, as time moves on the fixed basket becomes less relevant. Paasche index  · There can be a mass of statistical data requirement, as Paasche

Identity of the Artist: Bob Dylan’s Chronicles Essay

Early on in his rambling memoir, Chronicles (2004), Bob Dylan expresses a surprising affiliation. I’d read that stuff. Voltaire, Rousseau, John Locke, Montesquieu, MartinLuther—visionaries, revolutionaries†¦it was like I knew those guys, like they’d been living in my backyard. (p. 30) This â€Å"backyard† of the songwriter, identified through much of his career with subversion and rebellion, is a striking revelation, though the â€Å"intellectual† content of his most famous early albums may, in retrospect, be viewed as a preparation for it. In various other ways Dylan is surprising. It seems likely that he took on the writing of the book out of a drive to clarify his life-motive, to â€Å"set the record straight† with regard to both his artistic heritage and his character as a man. The stereotype of the â€Å"misunderstood artist† applies in his case, in a manner to highlight not his inner reality as a mystagogue, or political luminary, but as a man, relatively, of convention—family-oriented, taking pleasure in consumption, in friendship, in home ownership, in success as a parent and provider. With marriage and fatherhood, in fact, Dylan seems decidedly to take the measure of his own would-be character. Political/cultural spokesmanship is not for him. In fact he repeatedly deplores the sort of activist political role others try to cast him in. In the â€Å"New Morning† chapter, he writes: The events of the day, all the cultural mumbo jumbo were imprisoning my soul—nauseating me—civil rights and political leaders being gunned down†¦ —the whole shebang. I was determined to put myself beyond the reach of it all. I was a family man now, didn’t want to be in that group portrait. (p. 109) Bob Dylan’s Chronicles 4 Fame and political miscasting evolve eventually into a martyrdom. Seeming proud of his acquaintances among the conventionally and competently famous (actor Tony Curtis, singer Frank Sinatra Jr. , country music star Johnny Cash), he wants no part of either his starry-eyed fans, or his politically revved-up and misguided disciples. His home is no refuge. Pursuers follow him to the country. Intolerably besieged, he moves from Woodstock in rural New York, to New York City, to the West Coast, to East Hampton on Long Island, where at last he seems find partial refuge. Visited there by Bono of the radical group U2, he shares not so much any politically â€Å"correct† views, or high-powered visions of change, as his recollections of small-town Minnesota: memories of ordinariness: the giant kitsch statue of a Viking in the town of Alexandria, the Mesabi Iron Range where he grew up (pp. 174-175). One of the more impressive aspects of Chronicles is Dylan’s candid self-assessments, especially in the â€Å"Oh Mercy† chapter. My performance days in heavy traffic had been grinding to a halt for a while, had almost come to full stop. I had single-handedly shot myself in the foot too many times. †¦You have to deliver the goods, not waste your time and everybody else’s. †¦There was a missing person inside of myself and I needed to find him. (p. 147) Here the artist appears as an honest workman. His fame established, he recognizes that his live performances have grown shoddy. He takes himself to task, rejects self-indulgence and excuses. â€Å"I felt done for, a burned-out wreck† (p. 147). Such comments are not the evasions of a complacent drone, or a degenerate renegade resting on ill-gotten laurels. This is the voice of chagrined manhood, of the tough personal stance. The singer goes on from here to chronicle his personal struggle toward a new performance style, eventuating in a whole change of approach. Dylan’s capacity to work through crises appears to stem from formative childhood situations later recapitulated in his musical influences. In the fifth chapter of Chronicles , â€Å"River of Ice,† Bob Dylan’s Chronicles 5 he reminisces about the period in his career just prior to his relocating in New York City. At this time he is living in Minneapolis, in the same state as his family, awash in Minnesotan resonances and recollections. That he is so powerfully drawn to the music of Woody Guthrie is clearly attributable to the blue-collar surroundings of his early home life, the homely truths purveyed as standard growing-up fare by his parents. His father, he tells us, was â€Å"pragmatic and always had a word of cryptic advice. † His mother concerns herself with his not being harmed by â€Å"a lot of monkey business out there in the world† (p. 226). Within two pages of these recollections, he makes explicit his antipathy for â€Å"the mondo teeno scene† and his preference for â€Å"the traditional stuff with a capital T† (p. 228). And the singer who embodies for him the conjunction of working class roots and â€Å"the traditional stuff† is, unquestionably, Guthrie. The whole uniqueness of Dylan’s musical art seems to take its early inspiration from this towering figure, whose work â€Å"tore everything in his path to pieces† and â€Å"had the infinite sweep of humanity† in it (p. 244). It is not too much to say that Guthrie is even a father figure to the young musician, who aspires to be his â€Å"greatest disciple† and feels, though he has never met the older man, that the two of them are â€Å"related† (p. 246). An exact connection between Dylan’s folk-music-and-blue-collar heritage on the one hand, and his rather middle-class approach to life in the wake of his economic success as a â€Å"star† on the other may not exist except in the singer’s own psyche. Notwithstanding, the aspiration to a â€Å"better life†Ã¢â‚¬â€understood as an increased ability to purchase and consume—is as much an American â€Å"tradition with a capital T† as folk music, or union membership. Dylan makes it clear that, once he has a family (and probably before), there is never any question of divided loyalties, or the assumption of a role seriously at odds with the political status quo. For him, the American scene of his youth â€Å"was wide open†¦not only was it not run by God, but it wasn’t run by the Bob Dylan’s Chronicles 6 devil either† (p. 293). And, on the evidence of his career and allegiances, this negative certainty has proven endorsement enough for him. Bob Dylan’s Chronicles 1 Running Head: BOB DYLAN’S CHRONICLES Identity of the Artist: Bob Dylan’s Chronicles Name School Professor Course Bob Dylan’s Chronicles 2 Abstract In his autobiographical memoir, Chronicles, Bob Dylan reveals a character that is conventional and politically unradical, despite popular misreadings and the attempts of his activist contemporaries to recruit him as spokesman for radical causes. His life and work show strong allegiances to traditional American family life and American folk music, especially that of Woody Guthrie.

Free Essays on Gregg V. Georgia

Syllabus Petitioner was charged with committing armed robbery and murder on the basis of evidence that he had killed and robbed two men. At the trial stage of Georgia's bifurcated procedure, the jury found petitioner guilty of two counts of armed robbery and two counts of murder. At the penalty stage, the judge instructed the jury that it could recommend either a death sentence or a life prison sentence on each count; that it was free to consider mitigating or aggravating circumstances, if any, as presented by the parties; and that it would not be authorized to consider imposing the death sentence unless it first found beyond a reasonable doubt (1) that the murder was committed while the offender was engaged in the commission of other capital felonies, viz., the armed robberies of the victims; (2) that he committed the murder for the purpose of receiving the victims' money and automobile; or (3) that the murder was "outrageously and wantonly vile, horrible and inhuman" in that it "involved the depravity of [the] mind of the defendant." The jury found the first and second of these aggravating circumstances, and returned a sentence of death. The Georgia Supreme Court affirmed the convictions. After reviewing the trial transcript and record and comparing the evidence and sentence in similar cases, the court upheld the death sentences for the murders, concluding that they had not resulted from prejudice or any other arbitrary factor, and were not excessive or disproportionate to the penalty applied in similar cases, but vacated the armed robbery sentences on the ground, inter alia, that the death penalty had rarely been imposed in Georgia for that offense. Petitioner challenges imposition of the death sentence under the Georgia statute as "cruel and unusual" punishment under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. That statute, as amended following Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (where this Court held to be violative of those Am... Free Essays on Gregg V. Georgia Free Essays on Gregg V. Georgia Syllabus Petitioner was charged with committing armed robbery and murder on the basis of evidence that he had killed and robbed two men. At the trial stage of Georgia's bifurcated procedure, the jury found petitioner guilty of two counts of armed robbery and two counts of murder. At the penalty stage, the judge instructed the jury that it could recommend either a death sentence or a life prison sentence on each count; that it was free to consider mitigating or aggravating circumstances, if any, as presented by the parties; and that it would not be authorized to consider imposing the death sentence unless it first found beyond a reasonable doubt (1) that the murder was committed while the offender was engaged in the commission of other capital felonies, viz., the armed robberies of the victims; (2) that he committed the murder for the purpose of receiving the victims' money and automobile; or (3) that the murder was "outrageously and wantonly vile, horrible and inhuman" in that it "involved the depravity of [the] mind of the defendant." The jury found the first and second of these aggravating circumstances, and returned a sentence of death. The Georgia Supreme Court affirmed the convictions. After reviewing the trial transcript and record and comparing the evidence and sentence in similar cases, the court upheld the death sentences for the murders, concluding that they had not resulted from prejudice or any other arbitrary factor, and were not excessive or disproportionate to the penalty applied in similar cases, but vacated the armed robbery sentences on the ground, inter alia, that the death penalty had rarely been imposed in Georgia for that offense. Petitioner challenges imposition of the death sentence under the Georgia statute as "cruel and unusual" punishment under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. That statute, as amended following Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (where this Court held to be violative of those Am...

Aeromedics essays

Aeromedics essays Death from above. The is how the modern generation has the Helicopter depicted to it by Hollywood. But reality hold a different truth. Most Ground Pounders remember things a little different. To them it was Dusty that is remembered from their war and they counted on. It was not a bird of prey, but a dove of mercy that brought life to the wounded. This air medical helicopter was the one that every wounded man listed and prayed for. And from this hope was The History behind Airmedical Evacuation began as many other things did, as an experimental derived from a war time military. During World War II the militarys of the world took enormous casualties and suffered a high mortality rate because there was no way to expeditiously evacuate the wounded. In 1951, at the start of the Korean police action, Igor Sikorskis new invention, the Helicopter, changed all that. Even tough crude it did allow for fast extrication of the worst of the wounded and allowed Doctors to begin treatment faster. And yet something As world events changed the United States found itself involved in another conflict. This time it was in a small country in South East Asia called Vietnam. It was here in 1962 that the first of the Dustoffs were seen. At first there were no medical personnel on these flights but reason soon prevailed and medics soon went into the air. For several years these medics were the first line of care for those troops. Then in 1967 a revised training program was begun and the This new breed of combat medic was trained to an advanced level of medical care unheard of outside of a field hospital. With better equipment, more knowledge, and faster transport time, care of wounded personnel significantly improved and deaths from combat related injuries decreased. As with any other good idea word spread like wild fire. The civili...