LIBOR Scandal and Subprime Mortgage Meltdown Who Benefits from the Manipulation of LIBOR Free Essay Example, 1000 words

As a leader, how should you respond when you know that your competitors are cheating? How should you respond when you think regulators are asking you to cheat? Barclays could not have achieved manipulating the LIBOR without the carelessness of the regulatory authorities. The swap traders of Barclays had also facilitated altering the LIBOR rates. Investigation into the case clearly revealed that the company had undergone a planned manipulation. The administrative authorities should have monitored the activities of traders and ensured that they do not manipulate the settings so as to gain greater profits. The concerns raised by NY Fed had already made the banks quite aware of the facts related to the manner in which LIBOR could have been manipulated. Barclay s senior executives and Bob should not have ignored the matter and should have imposed measures to regulate the banks activities (Prado and Rawlinson 111). Barclay s traders were tempted to report wrong LIBOR rates as the firms competitors were also seen to engage in reporting artificially low rates of borrowing. However as responsible leaders, manipulation is not the way to deal with investments made in different types of assets and enhance the overall level of the firm acquiring different types of competition. The company could have procured different types of capital market derivative instruments to mitigate the risks arising out of the loss of revenues due to competitor policies (Koblenz, Labbate and Turner 4). We will write a custom essay sample on LIBOR Scandal and Subprime Mortgage Meltdown: Who Benefits from the Manipulation of LIBOR or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now When NY Fed raised concerns regarding the manipulation of LIBOR rates, most of the banks were seen to keep silent indicating their deep vested interests in engaging in LIBOR alterations. If Barclays and other banks had supported the concerns presented in respect of LIBOR violation, the scandal could have been prevented. The heavy fine and the resigning of Bob might serve as important lessons for other firms to decline themselves from participating in such activities (Dooley 565).

U.s. Obam A History Of Education Policy And Reform

In political debates, mainstream news reporting, and traveling political speaking events, politicians speak of a variety of hot topic agenda items; unfortunately, education is typically not one of the focal points. No matter the importance of education for children and no matter the political candidates’ point of view, it seems to be shadowed by a variety of other political agenda items. Nonetheless, each candidate has a point of view and some history of education policy impact. Each candidate, Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton, have a history of education policy and reform. Each candidate has a history of involvement working toward change in each represented state with some successes, some failures, and some learning†¦show more content†¦He has reported that unions â€Å"put the comfort of adults ahead of the potential of our kids† (Arco, 2015, para. 3). Chris Christie is not a supported contender by many people of New Jersey, especially educators. Christie is very vocal about his dislike for teacher unions. He made the public comment that he wanted to punch them in the face. In response to his comments, Valerie Strauss and Russ Walsh, welcomed the challenge and stood up for teacher unions. They promote teacher unions to be a support for teachers and children alike, providing safe and productive environments for everyone, reporting when teachers fight for something it is including the children: â€Å"When teacher unions fight for be tter working conditions for teachers, they are also working for better learning conditions for children. When unions fight for job protections for teachers, they are also working to ensure that children have access to the best knowledge and the best instructional strategies available (Strauss and Walsh, 2015, para 11). Not only did he remove tenure and scrutinize unions, he also destroyed the budget of the state and the economy, leaving funding for public education unavailable; leaving teachers with larger class sizes and cuts in curriculum such as arts and music. New Jersey residents are angry about his

18th Century Poetry free essay sample

Part One Introduction Almost every day, the long eighteenth century seems to be getting longer. And wider. It’s all a matter of where to draw the artificial boundaries between the stages of time over which human culture continues to change. This volume offers just one version of a period of history many refer to as the ‘long eighteenth century’, especially as it relates to the literature and culture of England. This version of the long eighteenth century begins in 1660, when a particularly momentous historical event offers a convenient place to begin this story.The Restoration of Charles II marks a point when the nation – or, at least, some of the most powerful and influential individuals alive at the time – decided to ‘restore’ to England a form of national government which combined monarchical rule with an elected parliament. The cultural impact of the Restoration, and how authors anticipated its effect on the country’s future, is widely evident in contemporary literature. We will write a custom essay sample on 18th Century Poetry or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page So, too, are authors’ meaningful reflections on previous periods of English history, and how depictions of that history could be refashioned to suit new ideas about England’s national culture. Looking back to the beginning of the long eighteenth century, it is worth noting that the Restoration of Charles II in 1660 itself presents the culmination of ongoing political debates from earlier periods in English history, notably the period of religious and civil unrest which erupted into civil war from about 1642. The long eighteenth century The Long 18th Century starts to get a little bit longer, in other words, as soon as we seek to understand specific events in relation to cultural developments over time. In Part Two, a more detailed overview of such events is provided to give a fuller sense of this period’s rich, but necessarily complex, cultural history as a whole. A Cultural Overview Different strands of religious, economic, political, artistic and social issues are woven together throughout this volume to give a broad nderstanding of the long eighteenth century. It would not be an exaggeration to say that religion plays a fundamental role in all of the momentous cultural events of the period (the English Civil War, the Restoration and even the Industrial Revolution), but each event also has its political, economic and – vital to our understanding of the period’s literature – its artistic dimension. We must also consider precisely what it is we mean by the ter m ‘literature’ (the primary focus of artistic consideration in this volume).Several decades of critical debate about the kinds of writing that scholars should study in order to understand the past have questioned the formal boundaries that have long existed between ‘history’ and ‘literature’. There is no doubt that the imaginative writing of the past (poetry, fictional narratives, essays and so on) help us to understand past cultures, but so, too, do other forms of extant writing (including, but not restricted to, private correspondence, household accounts, ecclesiastical records, menus, legislation and so on). The increasingly recognised value of these alternative sources of cultural history, sometimes referred to as ‘historicism’, is one that is taken for granted in this volume although the principal subjects for discussion here are works of imaginative literature in the traditional sense. This book is intended to help students gain a better understanding of the long eighteenth century but also invites its readers to think about the ways in which we study the past, and past literature, in order to understand our own culture.The period between 1660 and 1790 witnessed the acquisition of many aspects of daily life that we now take for granted as ‘modern’. This is a cultural feature of the period which makes its study especially interesting to social historians and others keen to explore what ‘modernity’ really means. Indeed, the end of our period is also frequently described as the culmination of the ‘Early Modern Period’ of English history .Already apparent, in the last stages of our long eighteenth century, are some of the social and economic developments that enable further profound cultural changes to be wrought by England’s Industrial Revolution from early in the nineteenth century. Such developments include the much-improved social status of the mercantile and middle classes and the huge growth of urban centres of population. In late 1688, another momentous event in English political history occurred when the Roman Catholic King James II abdicated from the throne and was replaced by his Protestant son-in-law and daughter, William III and Mary II.Although this event did not incur the devastating losses of life that took place in the country between 1642 and 1649, it is still referred to as a ‘revolution’ because of its profound impact in shaping the structure and balance of political power in English government. The roots of the ‘Glorious Revolution’ (as it is sometimes called) go back to the Protestant Reformation which began during the reign of Henry VIII. The Bill of Rights brought in under William and Mary (and further ratified by the passage of the 1701 Act of Settlement) stipulated that no Roman Catholic could succeed to the English throne.

Marxism in Hamlet Essay Example

Marxism in Hamlet Essay Name: Course: Tutor: Date: We will write a custom essay sample on Marxism in Hamlet specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Marxism in Hamlet specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Marxism in Hamlet specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Marxism in Hamlet When looking at the play Hamlet with a Marxist critical lens, a number of issues hit the observer’s eye. There is a definite boundary between the high class/nobles and the low class/peasants. Like what happens in such kinds of societies, the high class is treated in a better way than the low class. The royalty members’ mistakes are forgiven or their mistakes covered up. For example, nobody condemns the act of Claudius murdering the existing king in order to sit on the throne. The low class has very few roles in the play to implicate that the play could still be complete even without it. Act 5, scene 1 can also be criticized using the Marxist lens. In this scene, the gravediggers act as the agents to develop Marxism in the play. Act 5, scene 1 starts with the entrance of the two Clowns in a churchyard. These two have come to dig a grave for Ophelia’s body. These two seem not to be in agreement of whether she should be given a Christian burial ceremony or not. This is because Ophelia died after drowning herself in the water (committing suicide), â€Å"†¦she drowned herself wittifully†, (lines 239 and 240). The first Clown feels that she should not be given a Christian burial but the other one feels that since the crowner (line 231) declared that she was worth having a Christian burial, then she should be given one. According to the Christian customs, a person who has committed suicide should not be given a Christian burial. This is because she has committed a sin, which cannot be cleansed (RevSocialist, 2010). The Clowns call Ophelia a â€Å"gentlewoman† (line 251), to refer to one of royal family. They also know that if she were not of the royal family, she would not have been given a Christian burial. The gravediggers want to portray that rules and customs can be bend a little to suit the high class. The clowns go ahead and ask themselves who builds stronger than the carpenter, the shipwright or the mason (lines 265 and 266). They answer that it is the gallows-maker (line 267). The gallows symbolize death. The clowns portray that death is above all. Whether one is of high or low class, death will still catch up with everyone and equalize him or her (Rummel, 2011). When Hamlet and Haratio make an entrance, the second clown makes an exit in order to fetch some stoup liquor for the first clown. The first clown starts singing as he continues to dig. Hamlet inquires why the man is singing as he is digging a grave. In Hamlet’s view, digging a grave should be a sad activity. The place itself (graveyard) was not the right place to do such kind of singing. This shows that the gravedigger was disgusted by the fact that someone was being given a Christian burial just because she was of high class. To him, this activity was like any other he had done many times before and there were no feelings attached to it (Revsocialist, 2010). As the gravedigger dug, he pulled out some skulls. This symbolized the presence of other people that had been buried at the same point. No one knew whether the skulls belonged to people who were from the low or high classes. The way the digger threw the skulls symbolized that everyone remained equal when they were dead. It did not matter the class or the place they came from once they turned into bones. The grave equalized everybody. On the other hand, Hamlet does not see the grave as an equalizing place. In his view, he still classifies the skulls according to what they were before they were dead. For example, he sees the first skull like it belonged to a singer, â€Å"That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once† (line 302). He also sees the second skull as one that belonged to a lawyer, â€Å"†¦why may not that be the skull of a lawyer?† (lines 324 and 325). Hamlet does not associate these skulls with the poor. He associates the skull with the rich and the people who had careers that mattered. Prejudice still affects him even when dealing with death issues (Wolff and Karl, 2003). It as if the people of the lower class are thrown away while those of the higher class are buried. He asks Haratio while the gravedigger is throwing the skulls in such a manner. He sees as if the wealthy should be treated well at the time of their death and in the grave when they are bones. The digger further explains that one is of no gender or status when he/she is dead. This is seen when Hamlet asks whose grave is being dug. The clown answers by saying that it is for neither a woman nor a man, but for â€Å"one that was a woman† (line 360). This further shows how the grave equalizes everyone regardless of the status. The conversation between the gravedigger and Hamlet greatly shows the differences between the social classes. the gravedigger is used by the playwright to point out the unfairness in the social status and the differences that occur between the two social groups. Hamlet is used to act as an advocator of the high class. It is quite odd to see that hamlet does not know about the death of Ophelia. He learns about this through the conversation they are having with the gravedigger. It shows how the high classes use the low class only when very necessary (Rummel, 2011). As the priest states out his emotions, Ophelia should not have been buried in the way she was buried. She should have been thrown flints, shards and pebbles instead of wearing the â€Å"virgin crants and her maiden strewnets† (Lines 451- 453). However, since she came from a high-class family, she was given the exception of wearing these garments as though a virgin and a saint. The jumping of the two in the grave was like a forecast of what would happen later. It showed that even for the high class, some things were inevitable. The way they behaved was unlike how the noble behaved. The graveyard brought some things that were hidden during the play. The true characters were brought as Lartes and Hamlet vowed to get back at each other even after the ceremony. Works Cited RevSocialist. A Marxist critique of Hamlet. Socialist Stories, 2 Feb., 2010. Web. 23 May, 2011. Rummel, R.J. UNDERSTANDING CONFLICT AND WAR: VOL. 2: THE CONFLICT HELIX Chapter 25 And The Class Literature, 2011. Web. 23, May, 2011 Shakespeare, Williams. Hamlet: A Tragedy. New York, NY: Harvard University Library, 2006. Print Wolff, Jonathan and Karl Marx. Stanford Encyclopedia of philosophy. 14 June, 2003. Web. 19 May 2011.