US faces worst recession in 26 years Essay Example for Free

US faces worst recession in 26 years Essay The United States is once again experiencing a recession similar to what happened in 1982. The Treasury and Federal Reserve Offices are caught in surprise as they did not expect the economy to take such a fast and dramatic collapse as it has been doing for the past months. As a result, there has been a slowing down of retail sales as consumer confidence collapses. People are not spending as much as before. They are not using their credit cards and making loans as often. Home prices are going down. Foreign demand is also weakening. Alan Blinder, a professor at Princeton and former Fed vice-chairman, is certain that the country will face a recession worse than in 2001 or 1990 but the concern now, according to him, is making sure that this recession is less deep and less long than the 1982 recession. The government has put into action the $100 billion rescue plan to stabilize the banking system and hopes that it will improve things in the next few weeks. Columbia professor and former Fed governor, Frederic Mishkin, believes that in spite the bailout, the damage has been done already so that the future still looks uncertain. In the meantime, the possibility of rising unemployment rates threatens to deepen the housing slump, depress mortgage rates and increase non-payments of consumer loans. Nevertheless, Fed officials continue to look for ways and options to improve the economic outlook of the future. I agree with the writer’s views that the economic recession exists and that it is bound to get worse even as Fed officials are doing as much as they can to at least soften the blow of the crisis. No one can deny it as we feel it everyday through stories of friends or their parents who got laid-off, who have to move because they cannot pay their house mortgages anymore or those who could not pay their credit card interests anymore. However, the economic recession that the country is experiencing today can be looked upon as just another financial problem for the United States. In the history of modern America, the country has undergone one economic crisis after another, but is still able to rise above each one. For years before every economic downturn, the country has grown and improved. One cannot always be moving up. One has to fall sometimes. The crisis today is a good wake-up call to Americans who have become too comfortable with being citizens of a rich country so that they simply buy things on credit, confident that they would always find the means to pay for them because salaries would keep increasing and their standard of living would only keep improving. A recession makes the people conscious of their spending habits and maybe this is why after a while, the economy grows again. When all of America learns to be more conservative about their spending and become more conscious of how they manage their money, the economy would improve. Reference Guha, Krishna. (19 October 2008). â€Å"US faces worst recession in 26 years,† The Financial Times. Last updated on October 19, 2008. Accessed from http://www. ft. com/cms/s/0/232eb4de-9e20-11dd-bdde-0077b07658. html? nclick_check=1

Comparing Wiesels Night and The Gospel According to Mark :: Comparison Compare Contrast Essays

Comparing Wiesel's Night and The Gospel According to Mark Wiesel's Novella, Night, can be labeled a 'religious book' when looked at in light of the unquestionably religious text, the "Gospel According to Mark" from the "New Testament" of Christianity's Holy Bible. This proves to be the case if one looks at the central parallels which may be drawn between the two works. A comparable narrative framework, consistent use of light and dark images (indicating 'good' and 'evil,' respectively), and the ongoing theme of questioning faith serve as these central similarities. However, the works do part company when the reader seeks to answer those questions of faith which the characters of both works raise. The narrative frameworks of the two texts are quite similar. Both are biographies (Night in first person, the "Gospel" in third person) of a strong and admirable individual's life (or aspect of his life) told in the form of a story. Both of these individuals, Wiesel and Jesus, experience an inversion of occupation within their lives. Wiesel, a "student" at home, says that he is a "farmer" when he is brought to the concentration camp in order to seem to the SS officer who is questioning him that he will be a good worker (Wiesel 29). Likewise, Jesus, who by birthright was a carpenter, chooses to lead his life as a teacher and healer. The oddity of this inversion is pointed out by the people of Jesus' "hometown", they ask "is not this [Jesus] the carpenter?" (Mark 6.3). Their question implies the absurdity of his teaching the word of God and healing when he is 'supposed' to be a carpenter. In addition, in both texts, the narrator's perspective is limited. Mark's limitation is revealed b y the other three gospels, that serve as a part of the canon of the "New Testament," in that his testimony is not entirely consistent with theirs. This is shown most explicitly in the difference between his gospel and John's gospel; "Mark's Jesus will neither confirm nor deny that he is the long-awaited king... [but] repeatedly throughout John's gospel, Jesus declares himself to be the means of salvation" (Oxtoby 211). Mark does not narrate the definitive version (or perspective) of Jesus' life. Wiesel's limitation is admitted by himself. He is a prisoner, and so he does not know what is going on in the greater world, or even who is winning the war.

Applications of Machiavelli Essay

There are many ideas people can learn from history’s great thinkers and achievers. The Renaissance Era had the fastest progress in history. During this era, many thinkers and achievers such as Niccolo Machiavelli, Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo introduced new ideas and new forms of art. Niccolo Machiavelli was an Italian politician and diplomat. The reason his theories are advanced is that he is already used critical thinking while he lived in a country where most people explained things using God and religion. He was also a philosopher, and his many theories about managing a kingdom were quite innovative in Renaissance times. The Prince is a manual about how to manage a kingdom successfully. The Prince was written for Lorenzo de Medici of the Medici Family, which was the best known family in the Renaissance Era. Medici Family made great contributions to the culture because it traded and paid for many works of art in that period. The Medici Family was rich and powerful in Italy, and it was the Renaissance equivalent of a major corporation. Machiavelli lived hundreds of years before the major corporation of today, but The Prince can still be used as a guide to getting ahead in business, just as it is a guide for building a successful princedom. The Medici Family had existed for hundreds of years, and it was powerful and rich just like the Coca-Cola Company. The Coca-Cola Company may also last for hundreds of years since it has been successful for over a hundred years. The Prince tells readers how to use power correctly; it also tells readers how to sustain the kingdom’s power and prevent the kingdom’s  decay. More specifically, Machiavelli tells readers that what kind of personality and morality a successful prince should have. The Prince contains some of Machiavelli’s ideas which were very advanced for that period. These ideas are still useful now and can also equally be applied to the Coca-Cola Company. The Coca-Cola Company is the leader in the beverage industry, and it is a very successful global company. Managing the Coca-Cola Company is similar to managing a kingdom. Therefore, Some of Machiavelli’s theories could be used by the Coca-Cola Company. In the chapter â€Å"How princes should honor their word† and â€Å"The constitutional principality†, I found some appropriate ideas which may be helpful to The Coca-Cola Company. Thesis statement: Although Niccolo Machiavelli died hundreds of years ago, some of his ideas such as showing only the good qualities, keeping a good relationship with people, and making the product indispensable to people are helpful to the Coca-Cola Company. Honor the word: In The Prince, Machiavelli makes some recommendations to the king about how princes should to honor their word. The recommendations can also apply to the advertising of the Coca-Cola Company. Machiavelli said, â€Å"A prince, therefore, need not necessarily have all the good qualities I mentioned above, but he should certainly appear to have them.†(57) No one is perfect, including the prince. Machiavelli believes that a prince should show his good qualities, and hide his bad qualities. It is like the advertisements of the Coca-Cola Company. A good advertisement should show all the advantages of the products or services advertised, and hide the disadvantages. Furthermore, we use our genuineness to earn other people’s trust. However, Machiavelli has a unique perspective on how to earn the trust of people. In chapter eighteen of The Prince, â€Å"†¦princes who have achieved great things have been those who have given their word lightly, who have known how to trick men with their cunning, and who, in the end, have overcome those abiding by honest principles.† (56) If princes want to earn the trust of people, they need to use some type of scheme instead of being honest. This idea can also be used in advertising. A good advertisement is impressive, and it shows only the advantages to the customers instead of showing  everything about the product to the customers. According to Interbrand, Coca-Cola is the most valued brand in the world. Coca-Cola has good sales performance because it attaches great importance to its products’ advertisements. It placed advertisements in magazines, on TV, in websites, and on street signs. In China, the Coca-Cola Company hired a number of well-known Chinese movie stars and athletes to make commercials for Coke. Coke is a great drink for summer because it is thirst quenching and cool. One of the short commercials was very impressive. A group of teenagers was running on the street, and they were sweating hard. Everyone was tired and thirsty. At this time, a van with a Coca-Cola logo passed by. They recovered their energy by drinking Coke. The whole advertisement focused on the teenagers’ athletic bodies and their expressions of enjoyment. This advertisement showed the advantages of Coke, which are the wonderful taste and the cool refreshment; however, it did not show the disadvantages of Coke including high amounts of sugar, caffeine, and chemical additives. After watching the commercial, people have the desire to buy Coke. As Machiavelli advised, The Coca Cola Company is using cunning to trick customers into drinking their soft drinks by showing only the positive aspects of Coca Cola. Relationship with people: Machiavelli has written about the relationship between the prince and the people. â€Å"I shall only conclude that it is necessary for a prince to have the friendship of the people; otherwise he has no remedy in times of adversity†(34) If a prince does not have a good relationship with the people, he will soon lose his power. A prince brings peace and prosperity to the people, and the people give their support to the prince. The â€Å"people† in The Prince are similar to customers in modern society. If a company wants to hold a great market share in the industry, it must focus on its relationship with customers. The Coca-Cola Company has a positive image for customers. The product is shown as â€Å"energetic and youthful†. When people visit the Coca-Cola Company’s official website, they can feel the company’s enthusiasm. The Coca-Cola Company has a short film on its home page which shows polar bears. This film is about the happy life of polar bears. The bears in the film are really cute and kind, and they are enjoying Coca Cola. It definitely leaves a good impression on the customers. Also, the Coca-Cola  Company has successful marketing strategies. The Coca-Cola Company has a great amount of loyal customers because it serves more than 200 countries in the world; customers can buy their products everywhere because they have the most advanced distribution channel. As a result, Coca-Cola is the most valued brand in the world; it has held about a 48% market share of the beverage industry. The Coca-Cola Company is the leader in the industry because it has a good relationship with customers. Make products indispensable: According to The Prince, â€Å"Therefore a wise prince must devise ways by which his citizens are always and in all circumstances dependent on him and on his authority; and then they will always be faithful to him.†Ã¯ ¼Ë†35) That is to say, If a prince wants the people always be faithful to him, he should make people dependent on him. The Coca-Cola Company has a similar idea. When it was introduced, Coca-Cola contained cocaine, and this is the origin of the name â€Å"Coca Cola†. Cocaine is a stimulant from the leaves of the coca plant. People become addicted to cocaine by the long-term use of it. After cocaine was prohibited, The Coca-Cola Company put caffeine in Coke instead of cocaine. However, caffeine still can make people become addicted to Coke, thus, they become dependent upon having Coca Cola for the unique flavor and for the caffeine. One of the most important people in the Coca-Cola Company’s history is Robert W. Woodruff. He was the CEO of the Coca-Cola Company in 1923. Woodruff had the same idea as Machiavelli, which is making customers â€Å"dependent† on Coke. He mentioned that if the customers could not get Coke immediately when they were thirsty, Coca-Cola would lose in the competitive marketplace. The first vending machine was invented, and the Coca Cola Company began to sell coke in retail stores and convenience stores. Woodruff’s idea was to satisfy all the customers no matter when and where the customers wanted Coca Cola. The Coca-Cola Company made a very successful commercial in 1937, which was groundbreaking for that period because the theme was lifestyle. In this commercial, The Coca-Cola Company highlighted the importance of Coke in life instead of the attributes or ingredients of Coke. The most famous advertising slogan from this commercial is â€Å"The Pause That Refreshes†. Woodruff spent a lot of money and time on promoting Coke, but it was well worth the effort. The Coca-Cola  Company still spends lots of money on advertising even in nowadays. In 2012, the Coca-Cola Company spent more than three billion dollars on their advertising and increased the sales of firm and brand recognition. The Coca-Cola Company now has many loyal customers, and Coke plays an important role in our daily lives. Conclusion: Machiavelli wrote The Prince for the Medici family. The Medici family was like the big corporations of today. Because of this, Machiavelli’s ideas are just as important now as they were during the Renaissance era. As Machiavelli advised, princes should only show their good qualities and hide the bad qualities. Through its advertising, the Coca-Cola Company is using cunning to trick customers into drinking its soft drinks by showing only the positive aspects of Coke. Moreover, Machiavelli believes that if princes have a good relationship with people, people will always support them. In modern society, the Coca-Cola Company has many loyal customers because it has a good relationship with them. Furthermore, Machiavelli advised that people will always be faithful to a prince if people are dependent on him. The Coca-Cola Company is using caffeine in its products, so when people drink Coca Cola, they become addicted. Also, the Coca-Cola Company spent a lot of time and money promotin g its products. As a result, the Coca-Cola Company has a great number of loyal customers. All in all, many of the ideas in The Prince are similar to the ideas of the Coca-Cola Company, although The Prince was written during The Renaissance hundreds of years before Coca Cola was introduced. Works Cited Machiavelli, Niccolo. â€Å"The Prince.† Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Prince. London: Penguin Group, 1961. 106.

Deconstruction Paper - Daddy by Sylvia Plath - 839 Words

â€Å"Daddy† Deconstruction Paper The poem â€Å"Daddy† by Sylvia Plath paints a great picture of a daughter and her Nazi father, but this poem is more than just that. It symbolizes the relationship that they once had, and how it has affected her throughout her whole life. This poem also shows a very generalized depiction of how women see men who have treated them not so greatly. Although Sylvia’s father was German, he was not a Nazi, which is how she depicted him in her poem â€Å"Daddy,† She imagines her father as an ordinary man when she states: â€Å"You stand at the blackboard, daddy, in the picture I have of you. A cleft in you chin instead of your foot but no less a devil for that, no not any less the black man who bit my pretty red heart in two,†¦show more content†¦To prove the hate side of the relationship, she states â€Å"Daddy, I have had to kill you. You died before I had time,† in the first stanza, in the eleventh stanza, â€Å"No less a devil for that, no not any less the black man who bit my pretty red heart in two,† and in the last stanza, â€Å"Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I’m through.† To prove that she loved her father she states, â€Å"I used to pray to recover you† in the third stanza, and â€Å"At twenty I tried to die and get back, back, back to you† in the twelfth stanza. Many people say that they have a love-hate relationship with someone close to them, but I think it is rare if it ever reaches the severity of Sylvia’s relationship with her fath er. We see many different events of Sylvia’s relationship with her father in this poem, and although he died when she was eight, she seems to remember much of that time in her life. This could mean two things, either she is blowing her relationship with her father way out of proportion, or this relationship really was terrible. Either way, she is putting the issue on a pedestal, and letting it affect her much more than it should. Most suicidal people tend to think that the issue that they are dealing with is not worth living with. Life is precious, whether we believe it or not. No issue should affect us so greatly that we do not want to live life anymore. I am not trying to mock, but I honestly feel that people who are suicidal are just trying to get attention, but that’s a different