The Changing Global Economy Essay Example for Free

The Changing Global Economy Essay The argument for globalisation is an argument for International trade. Classical liberal economists have always argued for the free movement of all factors of production. Adam Smith had declared that nations have absolute advantaged that they leverage to provide cheaper and more efficient production processes. David Ricardo argues in his theory of Comparative advantages that countries must utilize their relatively more abundant factors of production more intensively to produce higher levels of output. All this results in higher output and therefore the world stands to gain through increased trade. Factor mobility leads to stabilization of prices that result from goods and services moving from one place to another where the factor is scarce and fetches higher returns. Those who are against globalisation and trade base their debates on the infant industry argument which believes that small domestic players get adversely affected when large foreign firms compete. The other argument they make is that that imports cause shifts of production where firms locate to foreign lands and cause unemployment. It is also believed that globalisation leads to the dumping of poor quality or toxic goods across the border. Reliance on imports leads to dependence, and exports cause injury to locally available resources that get diverted to foreign markets. Globalisation is also seen as a phenomenon where the free flow of money and currency makes domestic economies extremely vulnerable to volatile foreign investments. This could lead countries to balance of payment difficulties and cause events such as the East Asian crisis in the mid nineties. What results is a situation where any minor turbulence in large economies like the US causes severe stress to developing and under developed economies. 2. Huntington and the clash of civilizations Huntington’s famous hypothesis states that in the modern world, the clash of ideologies will convert into a clash of cultures. He argues that the new world order will see greater examples of conflict between various cultures of the world. His thesis is seen as a justification of the US war against Islamic nations and its aggression against countries like China. These clashes would come from a conflict that emanates whenever differing cultural paradigms come into contact with each other and compete for global resources. The end of the cold war, according to Huntington, is the end of conflict based on ideology, where the capitalist and the communist bloc were engaged in war. This conflict ended with the collapse of the USSR and the coming down of the Berlin Wall. Today, the emerging economies of the world are growing fast and eroding the huge share in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the world that is now held by the western countries. These new and emerging economies are home to most of the cultures of the world that are all opposed to the dominant western thought. This opposition would give rise to global conflict. This is the conflict that Huntingdon terms as the Clash of civilizations that emerges in a world that is globalising at a fast pace. This globalisation is bringing together people from various cultures and this would manifest in a battle for domination. This then would cause conflicts among cultures. Huntington’s hypothesis has been debated endlessly and there are as many voices supporting the argument as there are that characterise Huntington’s theory as mischievous. 3. Institutional arrangements For a free economy, there are certain pre conditions that must be met. These are the protection of property rights, honoring of contracts, law and order and a competitive environment. These pre conditions are met when these are institutionalized. These institutions then enable markets in any state and cause efficiency in market transactions and therefore result in growth. Some of these institutions are put in place by the government by way of regulatory bodies and police forces. Some of these institutions are created simultaneously by a society as it evolves. Markets function best when free and perfect information is available to all players. Competition in an economy comes out of the lack of barriers to entry and exit from the market. Laws and policies that enable such an environment are all referred to as institutional arrangements. In most markets there is asymmetry of information and a differentiated access to factors of production. Such a situation prevents an economy from operating at full potential. Those states that ensure the existence of such institutions are the ones where economic growth takes place to its full extent. Weak institutional arrangements favor some players in a market and adversely affect the rest. Market based solutions to such problems are usually the most sustainable and efficient mechanisms. This gives rise to poor governance structures and cause imperfection. It is not always the state that brings about these institutions. Sometimes institutional arrangements evolve and take firm roots in markets. Such informal institutional arrangements provide players with an eco system that enables innovation and growth. 4. Shifts in the world economy The two factors that clearly set apart the last 25 years of economic growth in the world are the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fast paced changes in technology. Both these events have lead to a globalised world where trade has more than quadrupled. Technological changes, especially the strides made in communication technology and transportation have enabled the world to shrink and become a global village. Transactions are now possible at lightning speeds, at the click of a mouse, between two entities situated in different corners of the globe. What has also been seen is the spurt in trade in services, and such was not the case with the world earlier where all trade was for goods. Free trade has improved the chances of poor countries to enter new business internationally, and allow their firms to buy and sell various commodities and services. Domestic rules and standards become significant and issues such as restrictions on imports, exports, tariffs and duties become significant. (Ohmae, 1999). In all this the new entity that has emerged is that of the Multi National Corporation. MNCs today typically operate in several countries, where the source of raw material is one nation; production takes place in a second country, assembly and packaging in a third and sales in a fourth. This has enabled firms to grow in size and shape and allow economies of scale to reduce costs of production and therefore prices. Most nations in the last 25 years have made currencies convertible and have ensured that internationally agreeable norms and polices are put in place. A large credit for this goes to the World Trade Organisation that has put in place a multi lateral agreement that allows for free trade between members. The MNC has leveraged these changes to emerge as a significant player in world economics. References: 1. Clarke, G.and S. Wallsten, (2004), â€Å"Has the Internet Increased Trade? : Evidence from Industrial and Developing Countries†, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 3215. 2. Edwards, S. (1989a), Openness, Trade Liberalization and Economic Performance in Developing Countries, Working Paper No. 2908, NBER, Cambridge Mass. 3. North, D. (1990), â€Å"Institutions Institutional Change and Economic Performance† Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 4. Ohmae, K. (1999) ‘The Borderless World: Power and Strategy in the Interlinked Economy’. New York: Harper Business.

Killing :: essays research papers

Last night In the still of the night Santiago’s crying cut sharply like a knife. His crying was relentless, as though it would never end but then, a child of three knows no other way to express his horror. Abraham Naser walked down the narrow street made of hardened earth and nothing more. His dress was pure class, white blazer and pants with matching wide brimmed hat. Lost in thought he rolled his cigar between his lips, then, as if in a motion as natural to him as his tendency to smile at beautiful women, he adjusted his gun stuffed tightly in the back of his waist bond. It was then when Abraham ran into the women he knew would change his life; the women who would be his wife Arabic coffee tasted for the first tome is surpassing and strong, but soon, it turns soothing and sweet. Placida Linero’s head snapped back at her first taste, and they both laughed. Their eyes spore of there long future from across the small round table. The cafà © had been Abraham’s idea, but it w as now Placida who didn’t want the moment to end, ever. Walking down the isle had been Placida dream since she was a little girl. In Spain girls are brought up to make mariace a priority. For Abraham, on the other hand, an Arab male of wealth turn of the century Spain, life had always meant just the opposite. A man of festivities, of party and celebration, Abraham loved his boos, cigars, and women. And not necessary in that order. He felt and, not a beginning to his life. Placida was a spark of light, beauty able to contain her joy news spilled like a flood. Abraham finds he is happier than he had ever been, but battle with the confession of his changing life. In his excitement, Abraham rushed out to the baby store. There, a beautiful radon haired young women, eyes blue then the sea, assists him in selecting a crib of finished wood and white lace. The celebration that night will be remembered for all time. The drinking, the smoking, the guilt, the self-loathing and the broken promise. He could not explain even to himself how another chance meeting ¾with the young women from the baby store ¾ now stood to destroy his life. How could he have been so foolish he asked himself?

Informal learning Essay

Traditional and formal education has been for a long time been the standard and de facto method in order to deliver information. Especially considering the classroom set up, where in there is a teacher, a student, a classroom, and a designated curriculum for the discussion that is facilitated by the teacher, the method of formal education is deeply relies upon in our culture in order to deliver the information that is required for learning (Sefton-Green, 2004). This paper does not attempt to deny or ignore the efficiency of a formal education set up. However, recently, a growing number of academic studies have pointed towards informal education to be efficient and effective this will especially in the multi-faceted field of learning and education. The paper does not claim that informal education could provide a substitute and an alternative for formal education. What it does stress, however, is that informal education may be a reliable accompaniment to formal and traditional methods of teaching and that if properly used and combined with traditional means of information teaching, could yield larger results especially in the classroom set up where students have been pointed out by research to be having multiple levels and kinds of learning, education, and reception methods. Such informal education has been implemented by many academic institutions around the world. In fact, the choice of educational institution often relies not only on the ability of teachers to deliver content through traditional classroom means, but also the various facilities, activities, and informal learning methods that the school and educational institution implements e-learning framework of students. However, as has been the case by the Montessori institution problem, informal education, much like formal education, needs a specific design in order for it to be effective and efficient. One could not just throw a hodgepodge of activities and claim it to be effective informal education techniques. The identification process is just as difficult as the teaching itself. Researchers who have undergone the subject of identifying essential academic informal education processes have highlighted the efficiency of statistics — taking into consideration various variables that focus on that specific market and demographic. For example, although it has been proven that learning games had been efficient in Western schools, that method of informal education is not so effective in eastern schools because children are used to the traditional classroom set up a formal education which they have been introduced to in the past. Alternatively, eastern schools made use of such learning games only through gradual adaptation, unlike those that had been implemented in western education where it was fully integrated immediately knew the curriculum of schoolchildren. Therefore, the best method in order to identify these informal learning methods is to understand the demographics, the market, and the behavior of the students where such curriculum would be taught and adapt them to not only the learning result that may be brought about by the informal education method but also the social context which it shall be taught to. Another example of informal learning that is being integrated into discussions of undergraduate programs, especially in the fields of political science, philosophy, and the humanities, is the teaching method that requires constant interaction with students and allowing them to voice out their opinions without the permission of teachers and professors. This method has traditionally been associated to the discussion group method where in the teacher and professor is not considered the highest knowledge giving body in the classroom but rather a facilitator in the discussion where in the students would be voicing out their own opinions and learnings from the subject matter rather than being imposed upon by the strict curriculum. Especially in the humanities, and the subject matters we have identified above were in it is essential for students to have an analytical perspective and not just a memorized body of standardized knowledge, this informal learning method would not only be more effective with respect to academic learning, but also be more efficient with respect to further training and development of the students depending on the chosen field. Yet another example that we could point out in an academic institution are those that are being implemented in sports programs in secondary school. It has long been a proven fact that physical education may be able to teach concepts such as teamwork, relationship building, and trust that is very difficult to learn in a formal and traditional classroom set up. However, recently, researchers have driven such physical education classes to integrate informal learning with formal learning processes by instituting lessons of human kinetics to the sports programs themselves. Children are not just integrate the two sports and extracurricular activities without first identifying the various details and focus — as well as the science — behind such training. For example, Gym classes in secondary schools have for a long time integrated swimming activities for the student body. Recently, however, before such swimming training is integrated to the students, students are first introduced to the human kinetics and science of respiratory improvement and cardiovascular training that could be found in swimming exercises (Lucas, 1983). The promotion of such activities would be less difficult nowadays especially because recent research have pointed towards such informal education to be key aspects in student improvement. However, in institutions where such research and discussions have not reached, educators and school heads may be given solid research and peer-reviewed articles about the effectiveness and efficiency of such informal learning in their institutions and how it may be able to significantly increase the capabilities — both academic and nonacademic — standards of their students.

Robert Browning’s My Last Duchess Essay - 2367 Words

Robert Browning’s â€Å"My Last Duchess,† written in 1842, is an intriguing poem that reveals an unexpected interpretation when closely analyzed. The poem is based upon actual incidents that occurred in the life of Alfonso II, Duke of Ferrara. The first wife of Ferrara, Lucrezia, mysteriously died in 1561 with many speculations afterwards that it was supposedly Ferrara who murdered her. The poem takes place in media res of the Duke consulting and arranging his second marriage. A portrait of the former Duchess is pointed out, and the Duke begins to recall her personality and behavior. The genre is a dramatic monologue. Browning uses various techniques and ways to make the reader scrutinize what the speaker is saying in order to†¦show more content†¦Choices such as earnest, depth, passion, joy, ample, officious, fool, stopped, and trifling are just a few of the vocabulary choices that helped emphasize this shift. This transition to a more serious baffling tone st arts once he begins talking about the faults in the Duchess. He wants to portray the Duchess in a negative light, in order for his to seem like a savior. The Duke wants complete control and possession of the Duchess. He is not keen on sharing the Duchess’s attention with anyone else. Consequently, this makes the Duke very bitter and greedy. He uses the word â€Å"my† consistently such as â€Å"my last Duchess,† â€Å"my favor at her breast,† and â€Å"my gift, etc.† Placing emphasis to the envoy that all those mentioned above or his possessions and no one else’s. Even in the title there is an allusion of his wife, which reveals his selfish personality and desires. When he is showing the envoy the painting he commands he envoy such as â€Å"will’t please you sit,† â€Å"will’t you please rise,† and â€Å"we’ll go / Together down etc.† The Duke does not ask the envoy if he wants to hear this story, he rather commands the envoy to sit and endure his recollection of the Duchess. The Duke’s ego is focused on portraying his side of the story that he does not realize that he is indiscreetly showing his selfish reasoning behind the Duchess’s death. The Duke is not fond of the Duchess’s wandering eye. Certain connotations give a sense of the Duke’s unease stating theShow MoreRelated Compare and contrast Robert Brownings My Last Duchess with an1648 Words   |  7 PagesCompare and contrast Robert Brownings My Last Duchess with an extract from U A Fanthorpes Not My Best Side The dramatic monologue, My Last Duchess by Robert Browning is set around an imaginary Duke who is giving a tour of his mansion to a messenger for the father of his future wife. U. A. Fanthorpes poem is themed around the painting St George and the Dragon by the artist Uccello. Not My Best Side is broken up into three distinct verses, all of which are monologues. The first is fromRead MoreCharacter Analysis Of Robert Brownings My Last Duchess794 Words   |  4 Pagesseems to be innocent crimes. And yet he is strikingly charming, both in his use of language and his genial speech. A remarkably immoral man nevertheless has a sense of beauty and of how to reel in his listener. In the dramatic monologue My Last Duchess by Robert Browning we see the grim character of the Duke that hides behind his charm and power. The Dukes extreme demand for control comes across as his most noteworthy characteristic. The obvious manifestation of this is not only the murder of hisRead More The Sinister Duke in Robert Brownings My Last Duchess Essay1418 Words   |  6 PagesThe Sinister Duke in Robert Brownings My Last Duchess In Robert Brownings My Last Duchess, a portrait of the egocentric and power loving Duke of Ferrara is painted for us. Although the dukes monologue appears on the surface to be about his late wife, a close reading will show that the mention of his last duchess is merely a side note in his self-important speech. Browning uses the dramatic monologue form very skillfully to show us the controlling, jealous, and arrogant traits the duke possessedRead MoreRobert Brownings Poems My Last Duchess and Porphyrias Lover1459 Words   |  6 Pageswomen’s suffrage worded it this way, â€Å"Ah! how many of my sex feel in the dominion, thus unrighteously exercised over them, under the gentle appellation of protection, that what they have leaned upon has proved a broken reed at best and oft a spear.†(Grimke) The author will continue on to exclaim that womanhood is a bond because of men who believe the fairer sex to be inferior to them. This was evident in the poet Robert Browningâ€⠄¢s poems My Last Duchess and Porphyria’s Lover which are both dramatic monologuesRead MoreThe Inferiority of Women in Robert Brownings Poem My Last Duchess803 Words   |  4 PagesWritten by Robert Browning, â€Å"My Last Duchess† is a poem about an egocentric Duke who has a painting of his last wife upon the wall and is trying to impress an ambassador who is negotiating his next marriage. Although it is obvious that the Duke is trying to persuade this ambassador, however, this is where the first mystery is created. It is almost as if he is trying to persuade no one more than himself. This poem was set in Renaissance Italy and women were denied all political rights and consideredRead MoreTreatment of Women in Robert Brownings My Last Duchess and Andrew Marvells To His Coy Mistress1787 Words   |  8 PagesTreatment of Women in Robert Brownings My Last Duchess and Andrew Marvells To His Coy Mistress Sex, lies and intrigue are just a few of the themes explored in â€Å"My Last Duchess† and â€Å"To His Coy Mistress†. The control men have over women and the control women have over men are also closely observed in these 16th century poems. The two poems also give us an insight to the treatment and presentation of women in that era. The poets, Robert Browning and Andrew Marvell, haveRead More Robert Browning’s My Last Duchess and The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed’s Church2264 Words   |  10 PagesDramatic Monologue in Robert Browning’s My Last Duchess and The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed’s Church The general public knows Robert Browning as the writer of â€Å"The Pied Piper† a beloved children’s tale, and the hero of the film The Barrett’s of Wimpole Street. Most recognize him for little else. The literary world recognizes him as one of the most prolific poets of all time. However, his grave in Westminster Abbey stands among the great figures in English history. At his deathRead MoreRobert Browning and the Dramatic Monologue1390 Words   |  6 Pages13, 2004 Robert Browning and the Dramatic Monologue Controlling Purpose: to analyze selected works of Robert Browning. I. Brief overview of Browning A. Greatest Poet B. Family Life II. Brief overview of My Last Duchess A. Descriptive adjectives B. Cause for death C. Description of his wife III. Definition of Dramatic Monologue IV. Comments by Glenn Everett A. Point of View B. Tone C. Audience Imagination V. Comments by Terry Bohannon A. No Christianity B. Evil Characters Robert BrowningRead MoreWilliam Browning And Elizabeth Barrett Browning Essay1197 Words   |  5 Pagesauthors, Roberts Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, also expose the culture and the condition of the society of the Victorian era through their works. The authors are married couple authors of the Victorian era. Roberts Browning’s a typical literary work is My Last Duchess. Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s one of the most famous work is Aurora Leigh. In the two poems, the authors mainly focus on the different gender roles. Even though the two Victorian era literatures,  Aurora Leigh  and  My Last DuchessRead MoreSimilarities Between My Last Duchess And Porphyrias Lover1113 Words   |  5 PagesTrue Love (A Discussion on Robert Brownings My Last Duchess and Porphyria’s Lover.) Robert Browning wrote many amazing dramatic monologues during his time in the 1800’s. â€Å"The English poet Robert Browning (1812-1889) is best known for his dramatic monologues. By vividly portraying a central character against a social background, these poems probed complex human motives in a variety of historical periods†(Gale). Browning was super influential with his monologues during the Victorian period and even