Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Ethical Mistakes Of The 2008 Financial Crisis Essay

Ethical mistakes that led to the 2008 financial crisis In my opinion, most people failed to act appropriately during the financial crisis of 2008. One is the oversight of businesses. The oversight in place failed to do their job properly and succumbed to temptation. When issues arose individuals took one of three paths. They engaged in the unethical behavior, did nothing, or said something and never continued with follow through to ensure some action was taken. As mentioned in the lecture material, individuals engaged in â€Å"willful blindness† (Potchen, 2016). I think a lot of individuals feel that if they turn a blind eye or go along with it because everyone is, that they are covered if something occurs. The reasons these individuals act the way they do in my opinion is greed. In my opinion, money, wealth, and power roll up into greed, which, tops the list. When these people make the decisions to act unethically, it is because they are gaining something or getting some sort of fulfillment. I strongly believe that individuals do not want to start out being unethical and they have every intention to do the right thing. When they are in business school and hear all the horror stories, I feel that tell themselves that they will never engage in that type of behavior. However, when they see what the money can buy or what type of lavish lifestyle they can have, they quickly change their minds. I think another reason we as individuals engage in this type of behavior is because weShow MoreRelatedRanking the Key Principles of Corporate Governance1579 Words   |  7 Pagesphilosophy applied in this essay is based on analysis of the results of international investigations into the underlying causes of the 2008 global financial crisis (GFC). Stakeholder reactions to and perceptions about the standards of corporate governance in the lead up to the global financial crisis are also taken into account. In light of the global financial crisis, this essay proposes that the corporate governance principles be ranked based on four critical threads: risk management; board andRead MoreSustainability Report of BP1447 Words   |  6 Pagescompliance. This is particularly important in industries that can cause systemic damage to both the society and the environment. Oil companies are no different in this regard. A drilling mistake can have catastrophic consequences for all stakeholders involved, as evidenced by the case. Ultimately, executives should put ethical and social considerations first as it will directly influence profits. By doing what is best for the customer, the business will eventually profit. Many of the socially responsibleRead MoreEthical Leadership : Warren Buffett1567 Words   |  7 PagesEthical Leader Warren Buffett is an Ethical Leader because he was able to use the Three P’s (Principle, Purpose, and People) as his guiding ethical principles for running the day to day operations of the company. According to the Ethical Leadership student guide, the Three P’s are a guide for the way we should think; principle for integrity and telling the truth, purpose for developing a sustained passion for accomplishing the mission, and people referring to each member working together as a teamRead MoreLehman Brothers : The Third Largest Global Investment Bank Essay1694 Words   |  7 PagesLehman Brothers, based in New York City, was the fourth largest global investment bank until 2008. They provided financial investment services, banking, and management around the globe. Prior to its defunct, its management consisted of: Chief Executive Officer, Richard (Dick) S. Fuld; Chief Financial Officer, Erin Callan; with accounting auditor, Ernst Young. The collapse of this 158 year old firm sent the US economic market into turmoil. Their demise left 25,000 people unemployed and millionsRead MoreCountrywide Financial : A Large Diversified Financial Service Provider1018 Words   |  5 Pages Countrywide Financial was a large diversified financial service provider. They operate in five business segments, those being mortgage banking, banking, capital markets, insurance, and global operations. Countrywide was the largest market share among U.S. mortgage originators before unethical actions caused the downfall of the firm. Problems in Countrywide’s loan practices were evident. After the financial crisis of 2008 Countrywide was found to be a significant contributor to the subprimeRead MoreImportant Characteristics Of An Individual s Behavior1580 Words   |  7 Pagesto make sure that ethical principles are not broken. However, each situation is different and some times laws and ethics intertwined, and laws could cause people to act in unethical ways. Ethics could be defined as moral principles that guide an individual’s behavior. Ethics could be influenced by the person who is seeing it and by the culture in where the situation is taking place (McKay, Nitsch Peters). A major guideline that could be used to evaluate if a situation is ethical is to determine ifRead MoreWhy Did the American Banking System Fail2387 Words   |  10 Pagesimpact of the financial crisis, the following paragraph gives a general overview about the timeline of the financial crisis and the series of reactions which caused, at the end, the failure of the American banking system and led to a worldwide economic downturn with the result of the global economic crisis. The topic of this paper is the failure of the American banking system, but as the ba nking systems of the whole world are interdependent, the whole situation and the whole crisis has to be investigatedRead MoreWith The Rise Of Globalization And The Complex Dynamics1624 Words   |  7 Pageslarge ethical issues on a daily basis. The ramifications for an organization that does not handle an ethical scenario efficiently and effectively could put the entire company and organization at dire risk. Organizations put their company brand and identity on the line with their everyday decisions and how they choose to operate themselves and their business. Many companies will do anything to keep their image or faà §ade in good graces with the public and try to cover up or hide the mistakes withRead MoreLehman Brothers1021 Words   |  5 PagesLehman Brothers financial services filed bankruptcy on September 15, 2008, in the New York Southern District U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Resulting in an immediate 500 point drop in the Dow Jones (Did Ernst amp; Young Really Assist Financia l Fraud? 2011). This day became known as ‘‘Dark Monday’’ (Donaldson, 2012). This was to date, the largest bankruptcy filing in history unleashing a â€Å"crisis of confidence that threw financial markets worldwide into turmoil, sparking the worst crisis since the Great DepressionRead MoreFinancial Crisis And Its Effects On The World Of Finance1336 Words   |  6 PagesAccording to many experts, this was one of the most severe financial crises in our history since 1930. This crisis was so complex that was known throughout the world under many names, such as â€Å"the Great Recession†, â€Å"the financial crash of 2008†, â€Å"the Trouble Asset Relief Program bailout†, and â€Å"the Great Panic† (Biegelman Bartow, 2012). Whatever its name, this crisis undoubtedly disorder the world of finance dramatically. This financial chaos, now turned into a recession, had the misfortune to

Sunday, December 22, 2019

Creating A New Storage Scheme - 1560 Words

Hourglass Schemes: [1] As mentioned in the introduction, ensuring files confidentiality is a major issue in cloud computing. The authors of this paper introduce a new storage scheme called the HourGlass. In this scheme the cloud server is forced to save files in a way that enable clients challenges, the server’s response ensures clients that their files are safely stored. In most cloud providers, clients files are stored in an encrypted way based on some predefined agreement between the client and the cloud provider. Then clients can challenge the server to send back the encrypted files in timely manners. The problem with this scenario is with current resources and computation powers, the servers can easily encrypt files on the fly and†¦show more content†¦This is most likely to exceed the time limit and hence the client will know that the server is not storing their files is a secure manner. The second property is also important because this scheme should not introduce any complication to the clients when trying to access their file. When legitimate clients want to access their files on the server, they should also be easily able to uncover the hourglass encapsulation, decrypt their file and read the plain text. We will describe the proposed protocol using the following notations: F: the plaintext file, CipherF: the encrypted file, X: The output of the hourglass function that will be stored on the server, C: the client, S: the server, HG: the hourglass function, E: encryption function, RNG(): random number generator that will be used by the client , A B: M: A sending M to B. The protocol is as follows: Client Server F C S: F F CipherF = E(F) X = HG(CipherF) Discard F, Store X i = GEN(), start timer C S: i i Stop timer C S: block i of X Verify response Remark: this is a simplified version of the actual protocol; more details will be introduced in the final report. The client can verify the server response either by computing HG and storing it on the client side or by other means that will be explained in the final report. The

Saturday, December 14, 2019

The Social and Economic Hardships of Women and Blacks Free Essays

The 19th century was a difficult time for many women and blacks because of the domination of white men over them. The social and economic hardships they faced in day to day life was a constant reminder of this domination. The social ideology in the story â€Å"Desiree†s Baby† was powerful and dangerous and held no escape for any character. We will write a custom essay sample on The Social and Economic Hardships of Women and Blacks or any similar topic only for you Order Now A woman with small children who lost her husband would face extreme hardships without the support of close family members. One who happened to be down on their luck would not find much sympathy among their peers even with children. Kate Chopin was one of these individuals who was down on her luck with six children. But fortunately had the support and comfort of her mother for a short period before her mother passed away. A friend advised this mother of six children that writing was a way to solve her problems concerning money and help deal with her grief. Maternal love and all the grief from losing loved ones were to be an attribute to the writing proficiency of this literary artist. This period in Louisiana was not tolerant for mixed ancestry and one found to be non-white would be ostracized from the white community. There were some whites in Louisiana who was not racist but they would still have to follow a strict code of segregation and social guidelines or risk social or bodily death. Kate Chopin was born fourteen years before slavery was abolished so must have had strong feeling on the subject. She no doubt saw mixed ancestry in the black communities and realized the cause of it. This story crosses the line into the covert world of mixed ancestry and the problems it produced. The racism in the story is not discussed openly but is prudently mixed in with Armand†s atrocious character and his evil soul. Armand†s evil was deep as he forsakes his loving wife, infant son, and God. The story some proclaim contributed to Chopin†s early success was â€Å"Desiree†s Baby† in this story she mixed many feminist emotions from maternal love, to a wife†s love and devotion to her estranged husband. During this period, some found it tolerable to leave a baby on the doorsteps of a family to provide a chance at a better life. This was an important point in the story when the Monsieur found the baby Desiree near the front gate, it would mean that Desiree would probably never be aware of her biological parents ancestry. The chance a baby with both parents would be dropped off is not logical but was probably a single mother. A single mother knew there was little help to be found and the child would be hard pressed for a descent upbringing socially and economically speaking. Desiree grew into a beautiful and gentle-hearted young woman and soon found a wealthy suitor asking for her hand. This young suitor had known of Desiree†s past but was in love and did not care of this seemingly innocent unknown factor of her past. This suitor, Armand Aubigny was racist and wretched but the young bride was in love and looked past his flawed character. The concept of young Armand falling instantly in love after seeing Desiree standing by the gate is a bit suspicious and sounds more like infatuation. The evil in Armand did not come from his parents and the black employees were cheerful when he was growing up so it is an open question concerning his acquired hatred. The blacks were cheerful while his father was alive but was not during Armand†s strict management of the L†Abri. Armand had changed to a kinder man after his marriage and the birth of his son and it may have been the only time in his life he was truly happy. The death of his mother while living in France when he was eight years old may have had a precarious effect on his character. The way Madame Valmonde described the L†Abri as â€Å"a sad looking place, which for many years had not known the gentle presence of a mistress†(1), may have been a hint at Armands evil nature being tied to having no maternal influence during most of his boyhood. Madame Valmonde noticed the baby†s mixed ancestry immediately when she went for a visit, exclaiming out loud at first sight of him â€Å"this is not the baby†(2), Desiree thought she was referring to how big the baby had grown. Madame Valmonde looked closely at the baby and new that it was indeed of mixed ancestry but did not mention it to her daughter, this I believe was her way of hoping for the best. Madame Valmonde was wealthy but knew her influence would not be enough to help if anyone found out the baby was black. This would also mean certain social destruction for Desiree having given birth to a black child. The environment changed quickly on the L† Abri and Desiree was not aware of the circumstances that had changed it. Her husband had recognized that the baby was not white and had turned into his old malicious self and was ignoring his family in vain. One of La Blanche†s quadroon boys was near the baby when Desiree noticed the resemblance of the skin color between the boy and her baby. Desiree confronted Armand and asked him to explain what the baby†s color meant and how it happened, Armand immediately and harshly accuses Desiree of not being white like the baby. The quadroon boy is one quarter Negro ancestry and so his mother La Blanch is also of mixed ancestry. This is important to know because Armand compares Desiree with that of La Blanch when he tells her she is not white. Armand was quoted as hearing the baby crying from â€Å"as far away as La Blanch†s cabin†(2), the reason he was at the cabin could be he was using La Blanch sexually. This would explain the quadroon boys. The practice of raping a slave or employee in those days was not uncommon. Desiree compares her skin color to that of Armand who is much darker than she is but he is not bothered by this inconsistency in his reasoning. Desiree begged her mother Valmonde for help in explaining to everyone that she is indeed white. Valmonde did not respond to Desiree†s cry for help but just offered a place to stay for Desiree and the baby. This was a strong blow for Desiree who felt she was now isolated in her fight for justice against Armands unjust allegations. The struggle Desiree was trying to overcome was a losing one and mainly because of the dominance of men over women at the time. Armand did not relent in his persecution of Desiree and the baby. This demented individuals main goal was to crush the soul of Desiree and to punish God for what he feels was his unjust treatment. Desiree finally went to Armand one last time hoping that his psychotic episode would be over but Armand did not deviate telling her he wanted her and the baby to leave. The Crushed and broken Desiree finally made the fateful decision that there was no other life for her and the baby. This decision led to Desiree†s suicide and the baby†s infanticide alone in the bayou. There would be no social life or chance of a second family for a white woman with a black child during this time period. Armand†s psychotic episode continued and he burnt everything belonging to Desiree and the baby or that reminded him of them. Fear was something Armand did not know because he always had domination over everything around him, but with the baby being black he had social rejection to fear. It was during this episode that he discovered a letter from his mother to his father that revealed that it was indeed he who was black. God did enact the final revenge with the appearance of the letter. The story touches on several social issues that would not be talked about in specific places and times. The interracial conceiving of children, mans dominance over his wife, and whites dominance over blacks were all depicted in the story. In conclusion, the struggle for women and blacks continue and with changing social attitudes some things are improving for them but hatred and bias will be around for a long time. How to cite The Social and Economic Hardships of Women and Blacks, Essay examples

Friday, December 6, 2019

Statistical Data Analysis Business Decision Makers

Question: Discuss about the Statistical Data Analysis for Business Decision Makers. Answer: Introduction In each and every business data is generated. The data generated by the business can be analysed to provide useful insights into the business. The analysis of the data is generally done through the use of statistics. The results of the data analysis are important for the business manager, since on the basis of the analysis he takes decisions. The present report presents the analysis of the data on tourism sector which can be used to take business decisions. The present data is a survey of 50 accommodation providers. From an analysis of the data is found that 2 accommodation providers have not had any guests, and thus the data on the 2 accommodation providers is missing. Hence, the data contains the survey for only 48 accommodation providers. The discrete random variable selected is the number of beds. The continuous random variable is the average time spent by the guests at the accommodations. Descriptive Statistics The continuous variable selected is the average time spent by a guest in the accommodation. The descriptive statistics are shown in table 1 of Appendices (Sheet CI in Excel File). From the table we find that the average time spent by a guest at BB is 7.7150 hours which is more than the average time spent at the hotel, 7.5391 hours. The median hours spent by a guest at BB is 7.41 hours, which is more than the median hours spent by a guest at hotel 7.05 hours. The minimum and maximum time spent at BB is 5.96 hours is 11.95 hours. The minimum and maximum time spent at Hotels is 6.25 hours is 11.46 hours. The interquartile range of time spent at BB is 1.8250 which is more than the interquartile range of time spent at the hotel, 1.1550. Figure 1: Distribution of data for type of Accommodation (source created by author) From the figure (Sheet CI in Excel File) we find that the minimum and maximum time spent by a guest at the hotel is more than that at BB. Discrete Random Variable The discrete random variable can be defined as that variable whose values are discrete eg., the star rating of the accommodations. We calculated the probability of the star ratings of the accommodations (table 4 sheet 4 in Excel File). Inferential Statistics Confidence interval (CI) can be defined as the probability that the mean will lie within the given intervals. The 95% CI is given in table 2 of appendices (Sheet CI in Excel File). From the table we find that the 95% of the CI of average time spent by a guest at BB accommodations 6.9411 and 8.4889 hours with a mean of 7.7150 hours. Hence, there is a 95% probability that in a similar survey of 50 BB accommodations we would find that the mean time that a guest spends lies between 6.9411 hours and 8.4889 hours. The 95% CI for hotel accommodations is 7.0813 and 7.9968 hours with a mean of 7.5391 hours. Hence, we can say that in a similar survey of 50 hotel accommodations that there is a 95% probability that the mean time that a guest spends lies between 7.0813 and 7.9968 hours. Normal Distribution Normal distribution is used by statisticians for use in a whole array of data analysis. The normal distribution is generally depicted as a bell shaped curve. The normal distribution has also been described as a Gaussian distribution. For a normal distribution the probability distribution function is: In the above equation the mean of the normal distribution is given by m. The standard deviation of the normal distribution is given by s. In a normal distribution, the mean, median and mode are all equal. The mean, median and mode together are known as central tendency. In addition for a normal distribution the mean is equal to zero and the standard deviation is equal to 1. Normal distribution is a continuous distribution which is symmetric about the mean (Black 2016). Statisticians use the normal distribution to analyse the sampling distribution. In a survey (like in present case of tourism data) or business data if it is assumed that a variable is normally distributed then the mean and standard deviation of the sampling distribution can be established. The properties of normal distribution are applied for the analysis of the sampling distribution. Inferential statistics In inferential statistics we try to make inferences about the population from the sample data. We can also use inferential statistics to make probability estimates of the population. The central limit theorem is the basis of inferential statistics (Lomax and Hahs-Vaughn 2012). Inferential statistics provides us with the ability to draw conclusions about the populations with the help of the sample data. However the process by which the sample is collected is useful in determining the statistics that can be derived / inferred. The simple random sampling is important to make inferences since it is easy to make generalizations about the population from the sample. Regression analysis Regression analysis is used to predict the dependent variable from the independent variable. In the present assignment linear regression is used to predict the response variable (revenue on sample night) from the predictor variable (number of guests taking dinner). The linear regression model used is . In the above equation Y is the response variable and X is the predictor variable. The regression model can be described as: Revenue on sample night = b0 + b1 * Number of guests taking dinner. From the regression statistics we find that the regression equation is Revenue on sample night = 713.3846 + 46.19 * Number of guests taking dinner (table 5) In addition the R2 value is 0.677, which means that the 67.7% of the revenue generated can be predicted with the variable number of guests (table 6 Sheet Tourism in Excel Sheet). Interpolation and Extrapolation are important concepts in Regression analysis. Interpolation means predicting within the range and extrapolation means predicting outside the range of the sample. For example lets us take that on a particular night there were 80 guests taking dinner. Hence from the regression equation we can say that the revenue generated would be: Revenue generated = 713.3846 + 46.19 * Number of guests taking dinner = 713.3846 + 46.18 * 80 = 4407.78 Hence we can predict that, given on a particular night there would be 80 guests the revenue generated would be 4407.78. In addition, we are 67.7 % confident that 4407.78 would be generated. Hypothesis testing In statistics a hypothesis testing is used to investigate whether a given condition is true in a sample data. All hypothesis tests examine the presence of a Null hypothesis or an alternate hypothesis. For the present data we tested the hypothesis that the average time spent by a guest at BB type accommodation more than Hotel accommodation. Thus the null hypothesis for the present hypothesis: the average time spent at BB accommodation = the average time spent at Hotel Accommodation. The alternate hypothesis: the average time spent at BB accommodation the average time spent at Hotel Accommodation. To test the hypothesis we used the independent sample t-test assuming unequal variances. From table 7 (Sheet CI in Excel File) we find that the p-value is 0.704 (two tailed). Hence we find that there are statistically no significant differences between the mean time spent by a guest at BB accommodation compared to the mean time spent by a guest at a hotel. The p-value is used to evaluate the null hypothesis. If the p-value is more than the 0.05 (the significance level) then we fail to reject the null hypothesis. If the p-value is less than 0.05 then we accept the alternate the hypothesis. Conclusion In the present assignment we analysed a discrete random variable and a continuous random variable. After analysing the DRV and CRV we proceeded to forecast the revenue collected through the number of guests present at night through the use of regression analysis. As an extension of the regression analysis we predicted the revenue that can be collected when the number of guests would be 80. In addition we tested the hypothesis that the average occupancy at BB accommodation is more than that at hotels. Recommendation From an analysis of the above data we find that two of the BB accommodations did not have any guests. Also we find that BB have lesser number of guests as compared to Hotel accommodations. In addition we find that the number of guests taking breakfast at BB type accommodation is less as against Hotel accommodation. Thus BB type accommodation should try to investigate why lesser number of guests is staying at these accommodations even though they are cheap. Also they should try to find the reason behind less number of guests taking breakfast. More number of guests taking at BB accommodations can increase the revenue of BB accommodations. References Wang, M., Lu, Q., Chi, R.T. and Shi, W., 2015. How word-of-mouth moderates room price and hotel stars for online hotel booking an empirical investigation with Expedia data. Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, 16(1), p.72. Ladhari, R. and Michaud, M., 2015. eWOM effects on hotel booking intentions, attitudes, trust, and website perceptions. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 46, pp.36-45. Black, K. (2016). Business Statistics, John Wiley. Lomax, R. and Hahs-Vaughn, D. (2012). An introduction to statistical concepts. 1st ed. New York: Routledge.