Thursday, August 15, 2019
Marbury v. Madison
In analyzing the views of the Marbury vs. Madison case one can tell that after analyzing the documents that the case resulted in puzzlement of Article Ill Section 2 of the Constitution. In the year of 1803 the Marbury vs. Madison case raised the question of if the Supreme Court should have the authority to overturn unconstitutional federal laws. Yes, the Supreme Court should have the authority to verturn unconstitutional federal laws.According to Article Ill Section 2 of the constitution, The Supreme Court is deemed the right to scrutinize a law established by Congress if it is deemed unconstitutional as document F supports. When applying this statement to the case, the conflict originated from whether the Supreme Court was able to deem Marburys wish constitutional or unconstitutional. Marburys argument In this case was that he was obligated to his posltlon as Justice of peace ecause the President nominated him and the Senate confirmed his commission.This is true, Marbury was entitle d to his appointment as justice of peace, but the Supreme Court was not the place where Marbury was able to get relief for his request. Since the Supreme Court has the right to reject a law that does not agree with the Constitution, the nation's highest law, the act is invalid. This supports the claim made by Hamilton in Document B. As Hamilton implied, this strips the Judicial ranch of its power and gives more power to the other branches and the Supreme Court.On the whole this weakens the Judicial branch and allows it to become the ââ¬Å"least dangerous branchâ⬠. In conclusion Marbury was entitled to his position and the evidence supported his claim. But due to the fact that the Supreme Court was deemed the power, Ilke stated in Document J, to state that the law being used as his verification was unconstitutional, Marbury and others appointed to government post where in lack of their Justice.
Wednesday, August 14, 2019
Case Study Barings
Summary: One of the most infamous tales of financial demise is that of Barings Bank. Trader Nick Leeson was supposed to be exploiting low-risk arbitrage opportunities that would leverage price low rage differences in similar equity derivatives on the Singapore Money Exchange (Simex) and the Osaka exchange. In fact, he was taking much riskier positions by buying and selling different amounts of the contracts on the two exchanges or buying and selling contracts of different types.Thanks to the lax attitude of senior management, Leeson was given control over both the trading and back office functions. As Leeson's losses mounted, he increased his bets. However, after an earthquake in Japan after caused the Nikkei Index to drop sharply, the losses increased rapidly, with Leeson's positions going more than $1 billion into the red. This was too much for the bank to sustain; in March of 1995, it was purchased by the Dutch b bank ING for just one pound sterling.Overview: Barings Bank had a lo ng history of success and was much respected as the UK's oldest d merchant bank. But in February of 1995, this highly regarded bank, with $900 million in capital, was bankrupted by $1 billion of unauthorised trading losses. In 1993, Nick Leeson was appointed general manager of the bank's Barings Futures subsidiary appointed in Singapore. In this capacity, he was able to conceal his unauthorised trading activities for over a year because he managed both the trading and back office functions.The senior managers at a Barings came primarily from a merchant banking background and knew very little about trading. Even in the face of large profits, which should have tipped management off to the fact that substantial risks were being taken, they continued to believe that Leeson held matched Leeson positions on the Singapore International Monetary Exchange (Simex) and the Osaka exchange, and hence was making a low-risk profit. low In fact, Leeson was trading derivatives contracts on the two e xchanges that were, in some cases, of different types and, in some cases, in mismatched amounts.For example, Leeson rent executed a trading strategy known as a ââ¬Å"straddle,â⬠with the objective of making a profit by selling put and call options on the same underlying financial instrument, in this case, the Nikkei th 225 Index. A straddle will generally produce positive earnings when markets are stable but can result in large losses if markets are volatile. Leeson created an error account numbered 88888 as a holding area for any premiums or losses that he made. Leeson claims that he initially opened the account to conceal a single loss of e. 0,000 pounds sterling that had resulted from an accounting error until he could make up the difference through trading. However, he continued booking various losses into the account and also continued to increase his volume of trading and level of risk taking. Leeson took unauthorized speculative positions primarily in futures linked to the Nikkei 225 and Japanese government bonds (JGB) as well as options on the Nikkei. He hid his trading in an unused BSS error account, number 88888. Exactly why Leeson was speculating is unclear.He claims that he originally used the 88888 account to hide some embarrassing losses resulting from mistakes made by his traders. However, Leeson started actively trading in the 88888 account almost as soon as he arrived in Singapore. The sheer volume of his trading suggests a simple desire to speculate. He lost money from the beginning. Increasing his bets only made him lose more money. By the end of 1992, the 88888 account was under water by about GBP 2 million. A year later, this had mushroomed to GBP 23 million.By the end of 1994, Leeson's 88888 account had lost a total of GBP 208 million. Barings management remained blithely unaware. On February 23, 1995, Nick Leeson hopped on a plane to Kuala Lumpur leaving behind a GBP 827 million hole in the Barings balance sheet. As a trader, Leeso n had extremely bad luck. By mid February 1995, he had accumulated an enormous positionââ¬âhalf the open interest in the Nikkei future and 85% of the open interest in the JGB future. The market was aware of this and probably traded against him.Prior to 1995, however, he just made consistently bad bets. The fact that he was so unlucky shouldn't be too much of a surprise. If he hadn't been so misfortunate, we probably wouldn't have ever heard of him. Traders sometimes speculate without authorization. Presumably, a few are able to cover their tracks. Others are caught. When they are caught, they are fired, and their employer eats the loss. Usually, neither the trader nor his employer has any interest in publicizing the incident. Leeson made headlines precisely because he was so unlucky.By the time he was discovered, he had bankrupted his employer. Publicity was unavoidable. What is amazing about Leeson's activities is the fact that he was able to accumulate such staggering losses w ithout Barings' management noticing. As Leeson lost money, he had to pay those losses to SIMEX in the form of margin. Leeson needed cash. By falsifying accounts and making various misrepresentations, he was able to secure funding from various companies within the Barings organization and from client accounts.His misrepresentations were flimsy at best. For example, he claimed that he needed funds to make margin payments on behalf of BSS clients, and he gave a technical argument related to how the SIMEX collected margin as justification. This claim was false. It was actually against SIMEX rules for a broker to post its own money as margin for a client. Even if the claim were true, the funds would have been needed only temporarilyââ¬âuntil the client could make payment. Instead, Leeson continued to ask for ever more funding.Leeson increased the size of his open positions even as his losses increased due to volatility in the markets. When an earthquake in Japan caused a steep drop i n the Nikkei 225 equity index , however, Leeson's unauthorised trading positions suffered huge losses and his operation unravelled. On March 3, 1995, the Dutch bank ING purchased Barings for 1 pound sterling, providing the final chapter in the story of the 223-year-old bank that had once helped the United States to finance the Louisiana purchase.The beginning of the end occurred on January 16, 1995, when Leeson placed a short straddle (an options trading strategy) in the Singapore and Tokyo stock exchanges, essentially betting that the Japanese stock market would not move significantly overnight. However, the Kobe earthquake hit early in the morning on January 17, sending Asian markets, and Leeson's investments, into a tailspin. Leeson attempted to recoup his losses by making a series of increasingly risky new investments, this time betting that the Nikkei Stock Average would make a rapid recovery.But the recovery failed to materialize, and he succeeded only in digging a deeper hole . Realizing the gravity of the situation, Leeson left a note reading ââ¬Å"I'm Sorryâ⬠and fled. Losses eventually reached ?827 million ($1. 4 billion at then-prevailing exchange rates), then prevailing twice the bank's available trading capital. This led to the bank's collapse. After fleeing to Malaysia, Brunei and finally Germany, Leeson was arrested and extradited back to Singapore on March 2, 1995. While he had authorization for the January 16 short straddle, he was charged with raud for deceiving his superiors about the riskiness of his activities and the scale of his losses, although some observers (and Leeson himself) have place much of the placed blame on the bank's own deficient internal auditing and risk management practices. Sentenced to six and a half years in jail in Singapore, he was released from prison in 1999, having been diagnosed with colon cancer, which he has survived despite grim forecasts at the time. While in despite prison, in 1996, Leeson published an autobiography, Rogue Trader, detailing his acts.There may be a temptation to view this debacle as being caused by just one individual ââ¬â the ââ¬Å"rogue traderâ⬠ââ¬â but in reality the fiasco should be attributed to the underlying structure of the firm, and particularly to the lack of internal checks and balances. Events: 1993: Nick Leeson becomes general manager of Barings Futures (Singapore), running the bank's Simex (Singapore International Monetary Exchange) activities. January 1994: By this date (at the latest), Leeson started selling put and call options on the Nikkei 225 equity index, placing the premiums earned into an error account number 88888.This strategy, known as a straddle, is essentially a bet on the stability of market prices. 24 February 1994: A memorandum from the Barings' asset and liability committee values the 4 options portfolio at 2. 8 billion yen. July 1994 ââ¬â August 1994: James Baker, an internal auditor, spends two weeks in Singapor e investigating the immense profits being made there. Baker identifies the weakness of internal controls and recommends that the general manager should no longer be responsible for the back office.In response, a separate financial manager in Hong Kong is given part part-time responsibility for watching over the back office. ng August 1994: In an attempt to better evaluate its overall risk, Barings sets up an integrated Group Treasury and Risk function, reporting to a new asset and liability committee (Alco). December 1994: A later Barings investigation reveals that, for unknown reasons, Leeson has run up an accrued loss amounting to Y7. 7 billion on the account by the end of 1994. 23 January 1995: The Nikkei 225 drops by 1000 points after an earthquake hits Japan's industrial heartland. 6 January 1995: The London futures team gives Barings' Alco Committee a presentation on the Baring Futures (Singapore) operation, which states that Leeson is operating a perfectly perfectl matched bo ok ââ¬â long in Osaka, but short to the same amount on Simex. 8 February 1995: Coopers & Lybrand decides to hold off signing off on Barings' accounts until it becomes possible to clear up a few points with Leeson. 23 February 1995: At close of trading, the error account contains 55,399 Nikkei contracts trading, expiring in March and 5640 expiring in June.As of February 25, this totalled a loss of 59 billion yen on Simex. 24 February 1995: The Barings Board meets to discuss a hastily prepared analysis of the hastily-prepared transactions in Account 88888. March 1995: The Dutch Bank ING agrees to purchase Barings for 1 pound and assume all of its liabilities (Bull, 1995). Lessons to be Learned: Lack of internal checks and balances Even when segregation of duties was suggested by internal audit, the concentration of power in the Leeson's hands was scarcely diluted. Lack of understanding of the business.If Barings' auditors and top management had understood the trading business, the y would have realised that it was not possible for Leeson to be making the profits that he was reporting without taking on undue risk, and they might have questioned where the money was coming from. Arbitrage is supposed to be a low risk, and hence low profit, business, so Leeson's large m. profits should have inspired alarm rather than praise. Given that arbitrage should be cash cashneutral or cash-rich, additional alarms should have gone off as the Bank wired hundreds of rich, millions of dollars to Singapore.Poor supervision of employees Although Leeson had never held a trading license prior to his arrival in Singapore, there was little oversight of his activities and no individual was directly responsible for monitoring his trading strategies. Lack of a clear reporting line Leeson's fraud may have been facilitated by the confusion caused by two reporting lines: one to London, for proprietary trading, and another to Tokyo for trading on behalf of customers. customer Allikas: http ://www. erisk. com/Learning/CaseStudies/ref_case_barings. asp Kusimused:1. Millist kauplemisstrateegiat Nick Leeson oma ulemustele teadaolevalt kasutas? Kuidas selle strateegiaga teoreetiliselt raha on voimalik teenida? 2. Millist kauplemisstrateegiat Nick Leeson tegelikult kasutas? Kuidas selle strateegiaga teoreetiliselt raha on voimalik teenida? 3. Mis on back-office funktsioonid? 4. Mis sundmus sai Barings pangale saatuslikuks? Mis selle tulemusel juhtus Leesoni positsioonidega? 5. Mis olid pohjused (mida tehti valesti), et kaesolev Baringsi case sai uldse juhtuda (5 pohjust)? 6. Milliseid eetilisi noudeid Nick Leeson oma tegutsemisega rikkus ning kuidas oleks tulnud korrektselt kaituda?
Tuesday, August 13, 2019
Doritos Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words
Doritos - Essay Example randpa is absent is not a cause for joy but his reappearance is a desirable effect by the grandson ("Doritos Healing Grandpa super bowl commercial 2011," n.d.). There need here is to have grandpa so that life can be enjoyable. Step three concerns provision of a solution (Venette, 1993). In this case, Doritos is the solution. At the end when grandpa comes back to life, he can be seen with Doritos. It is after his ashes are released from the urn and the presence of Doritos in the room that makes him come back to life. Visualizing what satisfaction will mean forms the fourth step. The Doritos advert aims to convince the audience that Doritos are that good to cause one to come back to life just to have some more. This advert shows a positive future, full of enjoyment from Doritos consumption. The final process about getting the audience to take action is paramount. That is the whole reason for making the advertisement in the first place. This involves buying the Doritos and eating them. At the end of the advertisement, everyone one is convinced that Doritos are the real deal due to their enticing
Thomas Hobbes's and Machiavelli's political theories Essay
Thomas Hobbes's and Machiavelli's political theories - Essay Example This is contrary to the teaching of Machiavellian that denounced ruthlessness and manipulation as a way of gaining power to control the masses. Machiavelli insisted that one should earn power and not to inherit. However, in most parts of the world power has been inherited and revolved within a lineage. In his book the prince, Machiavelli unequivocally states how political power should be used for the benefit of the people and how that power can be maintained. He cites the examples from his personal experiences and those from the ancient texts. Whereas he did not talk about what qualities a leader should posses, Machiavelli was keen to indicate that any method engaged by the ruler should factor in the fact that the state of the mind is not altered. In this regard, he did set the limits within which he believed gaining controlled should be checked. It will thus be construed that the cliche-the end justifies the means has been used in the most simplified manner considering the context o f his philosophical statement. Pragmatism and realism were the pillars of his philosophy, he also understood that ideals were impossible partake on as ruler. The philosophical work of Machiavelli has immensely contributed and accounted for the political manipulation seen. ... The head of the body in this case being the government that is charged with the responsibility to govern the people. In this case, the head and the body are expected to have coordination in which whatever the head does, the body must be aware of it through the transmitted effect or what may be referred to the trickledown effect. The head and the body are expected to have communication and when the head is ailing, the body too has to ail. This analogy was taken to the political scenario in which, what the government is doing has direct consequences to the people whom it is charged with the responsibility of governing. The implication the term body politics is to express the opinion that the people the government and the people are considered as one just like the body and the head do forms one thing. In some cases, sections of people have tried to redefine the term by saying that the term means exclusively the government alone. The intention of the statement is that a healthy governmen t should have the capacity to make conscious focus just like a healthy body (Hobbes, and Martinich 108). The people are regarded as a stake in the context of the head and the body as proposed by Hobbes to the extent that they are construed to constitute what is critical in the society. Though this may not be seen as a naive way of looking at the matter, it should also be considered that at times the government do exist and operate whimsically on the wishes of the people. It is thus important to note that the peopleââ¬â¢s opinion about the government may have significant impact and that in the event that the peoples turn violent, the government will have to be disrupted in its daily operation. The cordial
Monday, August 12, 2019
Elasticity of Demand Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words
Elasticity of Demand - Assignment Example Coffee, tea, and cocoa are substitute products under the beverages category, which causes cross price elasticity to be positive. This means a rise in the price of coffee causes the demand for tea to rise (Nicholson and Snyder, 2014). A coffee processor will always record increased total income after it lowers the price of its coffee products because of cross elasticity. Cross elasticity occurs mostly because of two opposing forces on overall sales returns when coffee products decrease in price. The first force originates from the processing company imposing a reduced price on every unit on sale (Nicholson and Snyder, 2014). The first force lowers total income. Nevertheless, the law of demand compels the amount of products customers are ready to buy to increase after a reduction in price. This law comes to play in the cross elasticity of demand for coffee. The other force of a reduction in coffee price is inclined to raise income since the amount of units sold rise too (Nicholson and Snyder,
Sunday, August 11, 2019
An examination of the efficacy of Behavioral Finance Essay
An examination of the efficacy of Behavioral Finance - Essay Example 383) -The weak form hypothesis asserts that stock prices already reflect all information that can be derived by examining market trading data such as the history of past prices, trading volume, or short interest. Numerous papers have demonstrated that early identification of new information can provide substantial profits. Insiders who trade on the basis of privileged information can therefore make excess returns, violating the strong form of the efficient market hypothesis. Even the earliest studies by Cowles (1933,1944), however, make it clear that investment professionals do not beat the market. It has already been stated that an efficient market is one where the prices of securities fully reflect all available information, but then what are the sufficient conditions for capital market efficiency? In an idealized world, such conditions would be The debate about market efficiency has resulted in thousands of empirical studies and literature attempting to determine whether particular markets are in fact ââ¬Ëefficientââ¬â¢, and if so to what degree. In fact, the majority of studies and researches of technical theories have gone to the result that it is difficult to predict prices. Moreover, the random walk theory indicates that price movements will not follow any trends and so by knowing the past price movements itââ¬â¢s not possible to predict the future price movements. All these state that markets are in fact efficient. However, researchers have also exposed many stock market anomalies that seem to be inconsistent with the efficient market hypothesis. Trading strategies seem to be widespread among fund managers and there is little evidence that they would generate excess returns in practice (Malkiel, 2003). Evidence proof that the use of trading strategies might be closely related to behavioural anomalies. It is impossible to consistently make abnormal returns using a
Saturday, August 10, 2019
Principles of Macroeconomics UAEs main economic challenges, including Essay
Principles of Macroeconomics UAEs main economic challenges, including domestic issues and its relations with the rest of the world - Essay Example After the discovery of oil, the country improved to a moderate nation with high standards of living and a rising GDP (The World Factbook, 2013). However, the country still has certain economic challenges that need to be addressed in order to maintain the economic performance of the country. Those challenges can be addressed in terms of GDP, Growth of the economy, labour force and unemployment rate, foreign relations and CPI and inflation. The major economic challenges of the country are: large expatriate workforce, growing inflation and over-dependence on oil. The World Factbook (2013) suggests that UAEââ¬â¢s GDP has improved since the discovery of oil in the country 30 years ago. However, efforts of diversification of the economy have reduced the proportion of GDP attributable to oil to 25%. This may have a negative impact on the size of GDP of the country if the other sectors of the economy fail to live up to the expected standards of the economy. The countryââ¬â¢s GDP was also affected by the global financial crisis of 2009. Tight international credit and deflated asset prices also led to a restrained economy in 2009. Dubai was affected the most by the financial crisis (Dargin & Lim, 2012). It encountered serious depressed real estate prices. Dubai and UAE in general lacked enough money to meet their financial debts; resulting in world concern about its solvency. The total GDP measured in purchasing power parity was measured at $275.8 billion in 2012, ranking the country in position 50 in the world. Per capita GDP of the country in 2012 was $48,400 and the country was ranked 15th in the world. This size of GDP is mainly affected by dependence on oil. In terms of GDP, UAE is ranked behind other oil producing countries in the Middle East such as Saudi Arabia and Iran. This indicates that the GDP performance in the country is poor compared to equally resource-endowed neighbors. To improve this economic performance, the country intends to develop a
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