Marginal and Absorption Costing for Financial Statements

Marginal and Absorption Costing for Financial Statements This paper aims at looking at how income statements are prepared using marginal and absorption costing. The absorption costing method charges all direct costs to the product costs as well as a share of indirect costs. The indirect costs are charged to products using a single overhead absorption rate which is calculated by dividing the total cost centre overhead to the total volume of budgeted production. (ACCA, 2006; Drury, 2006; Blocker et al., 2005). On the other hand under marginal costing, only variable costs are charged to cost units. Fixed costs are written off the profit and loss account as period costs. (Drury, 2006; Blocker et al., 2005). Sections a) and b) below show the marginal and absorption costing income statements respectively for H Ltd that manufactures and sells a single product during the years ending 2006 and 2007. It is assumed that the company uses the first-in-first-out (FIFO) method for valuing inventories. In addition it is assumed that the company employs a single overhead absorption rate each year based on budgeted units and actual units exactly equalled budgeted units for both years. Workings are shown the attached excel file. Marginal Costing Absorption costing. Reconciliation of net income under absorption and Marginal Costing. Under marginal costing inventory of finished goods as well as work in progress is valued at variable costs only. On the contrary, absorption costing values stocks of inventory of finished goods and work in progress at both variable costs and an absorbed amount for fixed production overheads. (ACCA, 2006; Lucy, 2002). In the case of H Ltd, under marginal costing, only variable costs are included in the ending inventory figure. This results in a profit figure of  £400,000. On the other hand absorption costing includes additional  £200,000 as fixed overhead in the ending inventory for 2006. As a result absorption operating profit is overstated by  £200,000 in 2006. In like manner, the absorption profit under absorption costing is overstated by  £140,000 due to an inclusion of  £140,000 of fixed overhead cost in the ending inventory figure for 2007. To reconcile the profit under absorption costing and marginal costing, we may either subtract the fixed overhead included in endin g inventory from the absorption cost operating profit to arrive at the marginal cost operating profit or add the fixed overhead costs in ending inventory to the marginal cost operating profit to arrive at the absorption cost operating profit. Stock Build-ups Stock build-ups may result from using absorption costing for performance measurement purposes because inventory is valued at both fixed and variable costs. Firstly, profit is overstated. In fact absorption costing enables income manipulation because when inventory increases fixed costs in the current year can be deferred to latter years and as such current net income is overstated which in effect results in financial statements that do not present fairly and as such affect users’ decisions on the financial statements. Secondly, maintaining high levels of inventory may result in obsolescence and as such declines in future profitability resulting from the loss in value of the inventory. (Blocher et al., 2005; Storey, 2002). Advantages of Absorption Costing and Marginal Costing According to ACCA (2006) the following arguments have been advanced for using absorption costing: It is necessary to include fixed overhead in stock values for financial statements. This is because routine cost accounting using absorption costing produces stock values which include a share of fixed overhead. Based on this argument, financial statements prepared using absorption costing present a true and faithful representation of the actual results of operation of the company. For a small jobbing business, overhead allotment is the only practicable way of obtaining job costs for estimating and profit analysis. Analysis of under/over-absorbed overhead is useful to identify inefficient utilisation of production resources. ACCA (2006) also identifies a number of arguments in favour of marginal costing. Preparation of routine cost accounting statements using marginal costing is considered more informative to management for the following reasons: Contribution per unit represents a direct measure of how profit and volume relate. Profit per unit is a misleading figure. Build-up or run-down of stocks of finished goods will distort comparison of operating profit statements. In the case of closing inventory, the inventory is valued only at the variable cost per unit. This makes the profit under a situation where there is closing inventory to be the same as the case when there is no closing inventory thereby enabling the comparison of operating profit statements over time. Unlike under absorption costing, marginal costing avoids the arbitrary apportionment of fixed costs, which in turn result in misleading product cost comparisons. Bibliography ACCA (2006). Paper 2.4 Financial Management and Control: Study Text 2006/2007. www.kaplanfoulslynch.com Blocher, E., Chen, K., Cokins, G., Lin, T. (2005). Cost Management A Strategic Emphasis. 3rd Edition McGraw Hill. Drury, C. (2004). Management and Cost Accounting. 6th Edition. Thomson Learning, London. Lucy, T (2002), Costing, 6th ed., Continuum. Storey, P (2002), Introduction to Cost and Management Accounting, Palgrave Macmillan

Exterior of the Crystal Palace Essay -- Architecture

Crystal Palace, Exterior The Crystal Palace was dismantled and rebuilt in Sydenham after the closing of the Fair and stood there until 1936 when it was destroyed by fire. Although it is no longer standing today, this structure is documented in photographs such as this one, through which it can continue to influence the worlds of architecture and engineering. The Great Exhibition of 1851 was the first event of its kind, bringing together people from all over the earth in an environment of peace and intellectual stimulation. Conceived as an "Exhibition of the Works of all Nations", the Great Exhibition was the brainchild of Prince Albert and Henry Cole of England. Queen Victoria's husband, his mind always "bent towards the artistic", was easily convinced by Cole to take on this event of massive proportions (Beaver, 11). As President of the Society of Arts, the Prince had played a large role in the exhibitions of 1847, 1848, and 1849. When a Royal Commission was formed in 1850, he was again chosen as President. Consequently, when Cole proposed a larger British Exhibition for the year 1851, he looked to the Prince for approval (Beaver, 11). The idea of a National Exhibition did not originate with the British, but with the French, who had organized the first exhibition of national products as early as 1798 and had held an exposition every five years since the beginning of the century. The fair in 1849 was particularly well organized and Cole hastily took leave to Paris to observe this event. He found that the initial plans for the 1851 Exposition in London were far too naà ¯ve, and if the British wanted to surpass the French, they must set their sights higher. The original site for the Great Exposition was to be the courtyard of... ...in Hyde Park for the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, 1851. London: Victoria and Albert Museum. 1972. Hitchcock, Henry Russell. The Crystal Palace: the structure, its antecedents and its immediate progeny: and exhibition. Northampton, Mass.: Smith College Museum of Art, 1952. Hobhouse, Christopher. 1851 and the Crystal Palace; being an account of the Great Exhibition and its contents; of Sir Joseph Paxton; and the erection, the subsequent history and the destruction of his masterpiece. London, Murray, 1950. Hyman, Isabelle; Trachtenberg, Marvin. Architecture. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc. 1986. Newhall, Beaumont. The History of Photography: from 1839 to the present. New York: Museum of Modern Art. 1982. Smithsonian. India Trough the Lens: Photography 1840-1911. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. February 2001.

Ethical Disaster of the Hyatt Regency Collapse

Eric Sandler Ethical Disaster of the Hyatt Regency Collapse Construction on the 40-story Hyat Regency Crown Center began in 1978, and the hotel opened on July 1, 1980, after construction delays including an incident on October 14, 1979, when 2,700 square feet of the atrium roof collapsed because one of the roof connections on the north end of the atrium failed. The collapse was the second major structural failure in Kansas City in a little more than two years. On June 4, 1979, the roof of the then-empty Kempar Arena in Kansas City had collapsed without loss of life.The architects and engineering firms at the two collapses were different. One of the defining features of the hotel was its lobby, which featured a multistory atrium crossed by suspended concrete walkways on the second, third and fourth levels, with the fourth level walkway directly above the second level walkway. On July 17, 1981, approximately 2,000 people had gathered in the atrium to participate in and watch a dance co ntest. Dozens stood on the walkways. At 7:05 PM, the walkways on the second, third and fourth floor were packed with visitors as they watched over the active lobby, which was also full of people.The fourth floor bridge was suspended directly over the second floor bridge, with the third floor walkway set off to the side several meters away from the other two. Construction difficulties led to a flawed design change that doubled the load on the connection between the fourth floor walkway support beams and the tie rods carrying the weight of both walkways. This new design could barely handle the dead load weight of the structure itself, much less the weight of the spectators standing on it.The connection failed and both walkways crashed one on top of the other and then into the lobby below, killing 114 people and injuring more than 200 others. The rescue operation lasted well into the next morning and was carried out by an army of emergency personnel, including 34 fire trucks, and param edics and doctors from five area hospitals. Dr. Joseph Waeckerle directed the rescue effort setting up a makeshift morgue in the ruined lobby and turning the hotel's taxi ring into a triage center, helping to organize the wounded by highest need for medical care.Those who could walk were instructed to leave the hotel to simplify the rescue effort, the fatally injured were told they were going to die and given morphine. Workmen from a local construction company were also hired by the city fire department, bringing with them cranes, bulldozers, jackhammers and concrete-cutting power saws. The biggest challenge to the rescue operation came when falling debris severed the hotel's water pipes, flooding the lobby and putting trapped survivors at great risk of drowning. As the pipes were connected to water tanks, as opposed to a public source, the flow could not be shut off.Eventually, Kansas City's fire chief realized that the hotel's front doors were trapping the water in the lobby. On h is orders, a bulldozer was sent in to rip out the doors, which allowed the water to pour out of the lobby and thus eliminated the danger to survivors. In all twelve lives were rescued from the rubble. The two walkways were suspended from a set of steel tie rods, with the second floor walkway hanging directly underneath the fourth floor walkway. The walkway platform was supported on 3 cross-beams suspended by steel rods retained by nuts. The cross-beams were box beams made from C-channels welded toe-to-toe.The original design by Jack D. Gillum and Associates called for three pairs of rods running from the second floor all the way to the ceiling. Investigators eventually determined that the new design supported only 60 percent of the minimum load required by Kansas City building codes. Havens Steel Company, the contractor responsible for manufacturing the rods, objected to the original plan of Jack D. Gillum and Associates, since it required the whole of the rod below the fourth floor to be threaded in order to screw on the nuts to hold the fourth floor walkway in place.These threads would probably have been damaged beyond use as the structure for the fourth floor was hoisted into position. Havens therefore proposed an alternate plan in which two separate sets of tie rods would be used. One connecting the fourth floor walkway to the ceiling, and the other connecting the second floor walkway to the fourth floor walkway. This design change would prove fatal. In the original design, the beams of the fourth floor walkway had to support only the weight of the fourth floor walkway itself, with the weight of the second floor walkway supported completely by the rods.In the revised design, however, the fourth floor beams were required to support both the fourth floor walkway and the second floor walkway hanging from it. With the load on the fourth-floor beams doubled, Havens' proposed design could bear only 30 percent of the mandated minimum load (60 percent in the origi nal design). The serious flaws of the revised design were further compounded by the fact that both designs placed the bolts directly in a welded joint between two facing C-channels, the weakest structural point in the box beams.Photographs of the wreckage show excessive deformations of the cross-section. In the failure the box beams split at the weld and the nut supporting them slipped through. Since the construction process includes the work and ideas of many different people, the process can become unclear, especially when meeting deadlines and budget requirements. Such a fast-paced environment stems from the concept that â€Å"time is money. † This concept constantly drives the construction industry to seek quicker methods to transfer ideas from paper to structures of concrete and steel.It has become common practice in the construction industry to begin the actual construction of a building prior to the design work being completed. The Hyatt Regency Hotel was built on this fast-track type of schedule. The main reason for the walkway collapse was not a failure of materials. It was a communication failure. In the case of the Hyatt Regency Hotel, the structural engineer sent a sketch of the proposed walkway connections to the steel fabricator. The structural engineer had assumed that the fabricator understood that he was to design the connections himself.Since the structural drawings did not state that the walkway connections were only a preliminary sketch, the steel fabricator assumed that the sketch was a finalized drawing. The fabricator simply copied the engineer’s preliminary sketch of the walkway connection to serve as the shop drawings. The development of the design was then completed. The materials selected for the fabrication were standard strength, size, and grade of material, rather than what should have been used to compensate for the added stress of the altered design. Such neglections can have grave results.The most glaring mistake in this entire chain of events was that the structural engineer did not review the final design. This is an example of deontological ethics because the engineer failed to perform his job to his full potential. As can be seen from the evidence, the real failure that caused the collapse of the Hyatt Regency walkways was actually a failure of communication in the design phase of the project. As a result of the disaster, the two engineers from G. C. E. International lost their professional engineering licenses in the state of Missouri.These engineers were Jack D. Gillum, the engineer of record, and Daniel M. Duncan, the project engineer. The engineer is ultimately responsible for checking the safety of final designs as depicted in shop drawings. When we take the implicit social contract between engineers and society, the issue of public risk and informed consent, and codes of ethics of professional societies into account, it seems clear that the engineer must assume this responsibility when any change in design involving public safety carries a licensed engineer's seal.Yet, if it is assumed that the engineer in the Hyatt case received the fabricator's telephone call requesting a verbal approval of the design change for simplifying assembly, some possible reasons that would make him approve such change are saving money and time, following his immediate supervisor's orders, looking good professionally by simplifying the design, misunderstanding the consequences of his actions, or any combination of the reasons. These reasons do not, however, fall within acceptable standards of engineering professional conduct.Instead, they pave the way for legitimate charges of negligence, incompetence, misconduct and unprofessional conduct in the practice of engineering. When the engineer's actions are compared to professional responsibilities cited in the engineering codes of ethics, an abrogation of professional responsibilities by the engineer in charge is clearly demonstrated. The Missouri Board of Architects, Professional Engineers, and Land Surveyors convicted the engineers employed by Jack D.Gillum and Associates who had signed off on the final drawings of gross negligence, misconduct and unprofessional conduct in the practice of engineering. They all lost their engineering licenses in the states of Missouri and Texas and their membership to ASCE. While Jack D. Gillum and Associates itself was cleared of criminal negligence, it was stripped of its license to be an engineering firm. At least $140 million was awarded to victims and their families in both judgments and settlements in civil lawsuits.A large amount of this money came from Crown Center Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hallmark Cards which was the owner of the actual hotel franchise. Life and health insurance companies probably absorbed even larger uncompensated losses in policy payouts. A lot was learned from this disaster. As a result of the fatal miscommunication, the American Soc iety of Civil Engineers has now set the precedent that responsibility lies with the engineer's seal.That is, that whoever places their seal of approval upon a set of plans carries the responsibility for the building and the outcome. It is now also required that all load bearing calculations must be checked by a city appointed engineer and that checks be formal. As an industry, it is important for all responsible parties such as the architects, engineers, fabricators, and whoever else is involved, to understand the challenge learned as a result of this fatality. Design presents the industry with a challenge to anticipate any failed detail and to correct it within the design process.

Seminar on Challenges in Human Resource Management in 21st Century Essays

Seminar on Challenges in Human Resource Management in 21st Century Essays Seminar on Challenges in Human Resource Management in 21st Century Essay Seminar on Challenges in Human Resource Management in 21st Century Essay Mrinal Jyoti Deka Chandan Kalita Sonam Doloi Barnali Devi Reemamoni Sarma Pranjit Choudhury INTRODUCTION Uncertainty and complexity characterize the greatest challenges todays world for managers at all organizational levels. Responding to shifts in the external environment requires ever-vigilant managers. These managers must be agile themselves in order to effectively promote agility in their environments. Agility is required in numerous areas for managerial success. These areas include flexibility in managing employees, flexibility in rewarding employees, ability to flexibly plan, flexibility in solving problems, technological agility and flexibility in addressing organizational politics. Another challenge in worker motivation is the growing diversity in the workforce. The multi-cultural workforce will continue to grow at the both sector domestic level and an international level. A diverse workforce results from a global economy. This diversity reflects the need for managers to be more flexible. All facets of managing people must be re-thought with a broader mix of workers. All jobs no longer must be performed in exactly the same way, at the same time, or even in the same location. Managers cannot llow themselves to be constrained by the past, but instead they must approach management to from an entirely new perspective with an entirely new workforce. CHALLENGES OF WORKER MOTIVATION IN 21st CENTURY 1. INNOVATIVE OF TECHNOLOGY: Due to the emergence of innovative technology, the worker those who are not familiar with the technology find it difficult to perform their jobs as they do not adapt to this. So by providing proper training it can be made familiar with the tech nology and they will motivate to perform their task. 2. WORKERS DIVERSIFICATION: Today’s workforce is very much wide. So organization should take deep insight about the behavior of the employee and accordingly device the strategies to motivate the worker is a major challenges. 3. EMERGENCE OF KNOWLEDGE WORKER: Nowadays the new employees who have joined organization are better educated, more carrier-oriented and relatively less ideologically committed. This breed employee seeks more meaning from their work instead of traditional return of employment. Importance of Workers’ Motivation Proper utilization of human resource: Human resource is of paramount importance for the success of any organization. It is a source of strength and aid. Human resources are the wealth of an organization, which can help it in achieving its goal. Through proper utilization of human resource management can get and use the skill, knowledge, ability etc. by development of skills, tapping and utilizing them again and again. Hence, human resource has become the focus of attention of every progressive organization to motivate its workers. Better organizational image: Enterprises which offer better monetary and non-monetary facilities to their employees have a better image among them. Such concerns are successful in attracting better qualified and experienced persons. Since, there is a better man-power to development programmed; the employees are likely to join such organization. Better industrial relationship: A good motivational system will create job satisfaction among employees. The employment will offer those better service conditions and various other incentives. Proper motivation create an atmosphere of confidence among the employee and employers and cordial relationship will create a healthy working environment. So, motivation among employee will lead to better industrial relationship. Acceptability to change: The changing social and industrial situations will require changes and improvements in the working of enterprises. Employees resist changes for fear of an adverse effect on their employment. When the employees are given various opportunities of development then they can easily adapt to new situation. Thus, motivation will ensure the acceptability of new changes by the employees. Reinforcement: It is a very powerful motivational tool. It is not only used for motivating the employees but also for enhancing organizational effectiveness. Organizations, now-a-days are making use of various technique for modifying the behavior of organization members, so that they are engaged in desirable behavior. How to Motivate the Workers A. Financial incentives: Financial incentives are the monetary reward. In the form of more wages and salaries, bonus, company paid insurance for their performance. According to Gellemen â€Å"Money is actually used to retain good person in the organization†. Some of such incentives are: 1. Bonus 2. Free insurance 3. Medical re- imbursement 4. Profit sharing. B. Non Financial Incentives: Non financial incentives Full fill the higher order needs for status recognition and ego in the society emerge. Some non financial incentives are: 1. People Mission: Organization should committed to investing their employers and ensuring that they work in safe and fair work environment in which everyone equipped with learning and tools to achieved in their job and fulfill their potential regardless of their age, gender, race, sexual, orientation etc. This mission attracts people with the talent to thrive in a fast moving and challenging global environment. 2. Mentoring: It is a program to help employers to raise their potential and manage their career effectively. This strongly support talent management initiative is to attract, develop and retain the best and enable the better understand the taken with the organization. 3. Strengths best Approach: This philosophy focuses on weakness and gives highest potential for the performance and personal growths are where employee is most talented. This development process focuses on helping employee understand their talent, built them in to strength. 4. Talent Management: Managing talent is just as important as attracting it. Talent management focuses on development and encourages employee to seek opportunities which enable them to stretch their talent, build their strength as well as keep them motivated throughout. HOW A LEADER CAN MOTIVATES THE WORKER Since 21st century cannot be remain static, so the organization so it much constantly respond to dynamic environment. In this situation organization need a good leadership and forceful employee. Leaders do nothing more important than get result. But leader cannot get result him or herself. He need to help employee and the best way to have other people get results is not by ordering but motivate them. THE APPROACH ADOPTED BY A LEADER TO MOTIVATE THE WORKER 1. PHYSICAL ACTION: An essential feature of motivation is not about what people think or feel but what they physically do. Leadership must have believe in him and take action to follow him through the proper physical action. . MOTIVATION DRIVEN BY EMOTION: In any strategic management, a leader must make sure that people have strong emotional commitments towards their goal. A leader must make a decision in such a way that all the level of employees are benefited out of it. Impact of workers motivation: 1. High Productivity: When the workers are motivated for the satisfaction of their lower and higher level of need, they put in all their efforts to s atisfy the organizational need also. This increase the efficiency in organizational activities. 2. Create Suitable Work Environment: Motivation help create a suitable environment or work culture in an organization where worker can work feel promoted to work for the organization goal. Congenial working condition with harmonious superior and subordinate relationship. 3. Combine Ability with Willingness: Sometimes workers posses the ability but not willing to perform a Particular task. In this situation, Effective Motivation combines the ability of the workers with their willingness to do the job and extract maximum out of them.

Economic Crashes and Booms in the 20th Century

Economic Crashes and Booms in the 20th Century Free Online Research Papers The history in the 20th century was overwhelmingly economic. The advances of technology, productivity, and organizations along with the material wealth of human mankind expanded beyond all previous imagining. Although the economic forces were still developing; the early 20th century was still very incompetant. Little was known or learned about how to manage a market. Kenneth Galbraiths analytical text entitled 1929:The Great Crash, effectively demonstrates the validity of his thesis that a frightening prelude to the stock market crash of many years ago was ignorance complimented by complete societal unexpectedness. With impeccable consistency, the author asserts that the summer just before October 1929s economically devastating crash was one marked by both a superficial affluency and an unwarranted optimism. According to Galbraith, even many of the financially-intelligent could not see it coming. In speaking of the Federal Reserve Systems weekly returns from 1929, he writes,Each Friday this report showed a large increase in loans; each Friday it was firmly stated that it didnt mean a thing, and anyone who suggested otherwise was administered a stern rebuke. (P. 68). With such comments, the book effectively begins to paint a picture of a society who may have had at least some reason to fear for their economic health, and yet who continued to adamantly ignore any potential warning signs. Elaborating the lack of relevant economic awareness that 1929s society exhibited, Galbraith uses an entire section of one particular chapter to illustrate a semi-cycle in which during the preceding summer, analysts were extremely optimistic about the economic outlook and then by September, there approached a turning point in which there was finally some concern. By the end of the month, however, when there was no disruption in economic productivity, those who warned of forthcoming difficulties, withdrew their theories that expectedand no one would dare predict such an economic failurethe stock market did indeed crash. Of course, it must be noted that there was not so much a failure to foresee the great crash of 1929 as there was a failure to listen to those who did predict its possible arrival. One example cited on page 72, was that of Paul M. Warmburg of the International Acceptance Bank who urged for a tighter Federal Reserve Policy with the warning that current conditions were inevitably aimed at instigating a collapse. Most notably, Warmburg is quoted as having said,It would bring about a general depression involving the entire country. Clearly, such representations are indicative of the fact that October 1929s crash was not a complete economic surprise to all. So why then was the general population and even the majority of the financially educated so markedly convinced that there was nothing to worry about ? According to what can be both directly interpreted and casually inferred from the book, the relevant media played a large role. Well-reputed journalists were going so far as to accept large sums of money to write favorably about the stock market. The Daily News and other widely-read papers whose opinions were respected by the public, consistently told stories of the nations undying affluency and promising future. With so little common media educating the public about reality, American society had no choice but to wholeheartedly believe that the nation was and would continue to be prosperous with the stock market as a chief ingredient for success. From a philosophical perspective, Kenneth Galbraith writes on page 75 that, Between human beings there is a type of intercourse which proceeds not from knowledge, or even from lack of knowledge, but from failure to know what isnt known. Hence, the inherent realities of the books thesis concerning true definitive ignorance can be seen in one sentence. Galbraith would probably assert even further that it is our societal responsibility to learn that which can not be learned from others, and then to teach others. In other words, we must constantly create new knowledge based upon our own individual analytical capabilites. Therefore, it should have been up to society to analyze, learn about and better predict the Great Crash. But it is that communicative failure between those who know and those who think that they know, that causes catastrophes such as these. With particular reference to the books preface, Galbraith is not shy to illustrate how frighteningly ignorant we were just eight years ago as well. This is accomplished by citing the similarities between 1929 and the crash of the late 1980s. As weeks passed after the more recent stock market crash, an alarming likeliness became apparent. In the first six months after each crash, the Dow Jones industrial average followed nearly identical paths, recovering much lost ground. And in April 1930, economists and businessmen were speaking optimistically about the economy, just as they were in 1988, after the last crash. But in late April 1930, stock prices started to decline, and they fell without interruption for two years, leading to the Great Depression. The factors that brought on the depression do not exist in the same manner today. But yet at points, Galbraith seems to warn that the nations current economic difficulties such as the budget and trade deficits, the worldwide industrial competition, trade issues, and the huge pileup of corporate and Third World debt, could still bring on yet another a recession. What happened on October 19th of 1987 is vivid enough so that the crash has become a symbol that means, basically, dont be too sure and lets watch out. And in fact, it is important to realize that for these reasons- Galbraiths book was re-printed. In analyzing and re-interpreting his thesis, it is indeed most helpful to realize that this book was originally written well-before the crash of the 80s, and therefore its inherent goals for informative productivity can not be directly related. But to watch out and to not be too sure, seems to be an integral value that the author wishes to instill in his readers. The decline from 1929-32, they say, came about largely as a result of the Great Depression, marked by widespread bank failures, a falling money supply, rising trade wars and other woes. I believe that a recurrence of such events is really quite improbably in our contemporary economy due safeguards like federal insurance on our bank deposits, Social Security, and farm price support. Part of Galbraiths 207 page-long lecture seems to revolve around the fact that the government now has overall responsibility for coming to the support of the economy, which it did not then. But then again, my rationale that a re-occurrence is unlikely seems so frighteningly similar to those which counter-predicted the Great Crash of 1929. In fact, if I learned anything from Galbraiths book, I should be exceptionally weary of any overly-optimistic or confident predictions concerning the economy. Although unfortunate, it is now apparent to me that economics can not be discussed without scrutinizing every possible disaster and accepting them as a potential reality. And in fact, the recent crash blatantly ended a certain speculative fever that rapidly augmented prices until 1990. According to a book review and commentary, in the months before October 19th in the 80s crash, Galbraith, had reportedly warned that speculation was creating a rise in stock prices and the inevitable outcome of speculation was to be a crash. Hence, we again see the sound assertion that pessimism is more important that optimism when analyzing the stock market from a macroeconomic perspective. Bibliography Galbraith, John Kenneth. 1929:The Great Crash. Boston :Houghton Mifflin Co, printed in 1997. Economist/Author Speaks on Crash. San Jose Mercury News. April 17th, 1988; P. 1E. *Internet Obtained (Via America On-Line) The Cato Journal/ vol.16 No.2 â€Å"The Growth of the Federal Government in the 1920’s†. Research Papers on Economic Crashes and Booms in the 20th CenturyAppeasement Policy Towards the Outbreak of World War 2Influences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesAssess the importance of Nationalism 1815-1850 EuropeQuebec and CanadaTwilight of the UAWAnalysis of Ebay Expanding into AsiaPETSTEL analysis of IndiaRelationship between Media Coverage and Social andMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever Product19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided Era

Suicide and the images of death in Hamlet Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Suicide and the images of death in Hamlet - Essay Example This suspicion is confirmed when he makes his famous speech wishing that his flesh would â€Å"melt,/ Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew.† (Act I, Scene 2, lines 129-130). He says that the reason he does not kill himself is because God has made laws against â€Å"self-slaughter† (Act 1, Scene 2, line 131) but in fact the real reason is probably that he is over-dramatizing his mother’s relationship with his uncle, and he does not have the courage to do this to himself. The character of Hamlet appears to be very prone to dwelling on sad events, and he also feels weighed down by the pressures of belonging to this royal family. The two young men Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are presented as a sharp contrast to the miserable Hamlet, and while they make jokes about Fortune being a woman, Hamlet just maintains â€Å"Then is doomsday near...Denmark’s a prison...† (Act II, Scene 2, lines 236 and 241) He seems to have given up on life because he says â€Å" I have of late-but wherefore I know not – lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises.† (Act II, Scene 2, lines 293-295) He contemplates suicide in another famous speech where he asks himself whether it is better â€Å"To be, or not to be...† (Act III, Scene 1, line 56). The image that he has of suicide and death is that of sleeping, and while this tempts him, because he is so tired of all the troubles that weigh him down, he is also afraid: â€Å"To die, to sleep-/To sleep, perchance to dream.

Source analysis m8 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Source analysis m8 - Essay Example Anne had an all-conquering charm and confidence that she used to make her irresistible and the king fell for her and was too in love that he allowed her to keep her at a distance for a long time while denying him intimacy as his groping hand allowed no further than her pretty knee up to the point when she certain they would get married. On his part, henry had a somewhat abnormal fixation with virginity and among the main issues that led to his divorce from his first marriage is the claim that she had lost her virginity before he married her even though at that time it was not an issue that seemed to matter (Warnicke 168). It is likely that it did not matter since he had been younger and sought to show people as well as Margaret, his grandmother, that marriage was a means of demonstrating that he was ready and had the ability to be responsible for the burdens and duties that come with kingship. It may also appear that marriage was his way of blustering to his sister Margaret who was second in line to inherit the throne through her husband. Henry had married his first wife with the belief that she was a virgin and when he decided to divorce her, his explanation for justifying his action was that she was not a virgin at the time of marriage. During the court hearing he availed blood stained sheets as proof which he believed would substantiate his claims and his first wife stated that she had pricked her heel and smeared the blood in order to make sure that Arthur’s dignity was spared (Lofts 38). Nonetheless, the divorce was successful and was consequently forgotten. However, after only three years with Anne, Henry decided to get rid of her after accusing her of incest and adultery as well as suspecting her of witchcraft even though he could not find any proof of this. Again, he tried to justify the divorce by stating that she was not a virgin at the time of marriage, however, in this case it was true as she was pregnant with