Michael Moores ‘Bowling for Columbine’ Essay -- Michael Moore, Bowlin

Michael Moore was born on April 23rd 1954. He’s An American film maker, author and a liberal political commentator. He has directed and produced four of the eight highest grossing documentaries of all time. In 2005 Time Magazine named Moore one of the world’s ‘Hundred most influential people’. The documentary ‘Bowling for Columbine’ explores the possible causes for the Columbine High School massacre. It has won the ‘Best Documentary feature’ at both the Academy and Independent Spirit Awards, together with the CÃ ©sar award for ‘best foreign films’. In this sequence we see American fighter jets dropping bombs on residential areas of a village in Kosovo. Then the American President, Bill Clinton, says they are ‘trying not to hurt innocent civilians’. Following this there’s a caption reading ‘one hour later’ with the President talking about the shooting at Columbine High School, now a transition occurs where the screen fades to a picture of the schools entrance, showing a plaque which reads ‘Columbine High School-Home of the Rebels. The video changes to a subjective point of view shot, showing someone walking into school while the audio is of a sad, acoustic guitar. As the person walks through the school with his camera he ironically stops and takes footage of a soldier with a gun in his hand. CCTV (close circuit television) footage is then shown of the children at the school scurrying around trying to protect themselves from the onslaught of ammunition and explosives. A shot of Eric Harris a nd Dylan Klebold firing rounds of ammunition and throwing grenades around the hall is followed, during this a telephone call to the emergency services from Eric’s father saying that his son was involved in the shooting is played over the top. We... ... also exposes the U.S government because when President Clinton states that ‘they are trying to minimise the civilian casualties’, he ‘forgets’ to say that the Americans targeted hospitals and primary schools. If I was an American I would feel disgraced and ashamed of my people. Michael Moore uses all the techniques of film making like location, lighting and body language to help the viewers identify the genre and context of the film. He produces a brilliant and enthralling documentary on the Columbine shooting. I think the sequence is quite thought provoking. Perhaps it’s just a subtle reminder for us to stop and think for a moment if we are heading in the right direction or should we turn a blind eye to whatever is happening around us? My opinion is that such violence, the use of guns and ammunition, should be totally condemned in any part of the world.

Domestic Violence and Abuse in Australia :: Violence Against Women Essays

Domestic violence is a significant social issue that has a major impact upon the health of women in society. Discuss this statement and identify the factors that may contribute to domestic violence. Domestic violence is known by many names including spouse abuse, domestic abuse, domestic assault, battering, partner abuse, marital strife, marital dispute, wife beating, marital discord, woman abuse, dysfunctional relationship, intimate fighting, male beating and so on. McCue (1995) maintains that it is commonly accepted by legal professionals as "the emotional, physical, psychological, or sexual abuse perpetrated against a person by that person's spouse, former spouse, partner, former partner or by the other parent of a minor child" (although several other forms of domestic violence have become increasingly apparent in today's society). Whatever name is used to refer to it, however, domestic violence is a very grave and difficult problem faced by Australian society. Although domestic violence can include the abuse of parents, children, siblings and other relatives, it predominantly involves violence against sexual partners with women being the most common victims and men being the 'aggressors' (Family Violence Professional Education Taskforce 1991). It is inadequate to view domestic violence as an aspect of the normal interpersonal conflict which takes place in most families. According to McCue (1995), many families experience conflict, but not all male members of families inevitably resort to violence. It is not the fact of family disputes or marital conflict that generate or characterize violence in the home. Violence occurs when one person assumes the right to dominate over the other and decides to use violence or abuse as a means of ensuring that domination (Family Violence Professional Education Taskforce 1991). Although all forms of domestic violence are pressing issues of equal importance, this essay is more specifically directed at spouse abuse and aims to delve deeper into the issue of domestic violence by examining its causes with respect to the socioeconomic status of the particular family and its effects upon women in Australian society. The FACS (Family and Community Services) booklet (1995), defines domestic violence as follows: 'when a woman suffers persistent physical, verbal, economic or social abuse from her partner with the result that she suffers a sustained emotional and, or psychological effect.' Domestic violence is the most common form of assault in Australia today. However, it remains a hidden problem because it occurs within the privacy of the home and those involved are usually reluctant to speak out (Healey 1993).

Pnl Explain

P&L Explain – Bonds and Swaps Tony Morris antony. [email  protected] com MICS – DKS Manila Contents 1. Bond Pricing – basic concepts 2. P&L sensitivities of a bond i. PV01 ii. CS01 iii. Theta iv. Carry 3. Extension to interest rate swaps 1. Bond Pricing – basic concepts Let’s say you have a 4 year 10% annual coupon bond, with a yield (‘yield to maturity’ or ‘yield to redemption’) of 12%. From this information, the price can be calculated as 93. 93%. The price is calculated by pricing each of the bond’s cash flows using the yield to maturity (YTM) as a discount rate.Why? Because the YTM is defined as the rate which, if used to discount the bond’s cash flows, gives its price. We could picture it like this: Bond Cash Flows on a Time Scale Each fixed coupon of 10% is discounted back to today by the yield to maturity of 12%: 93. 93% = 10 + 10 + 10 + 110 (1. 12)1 (1. 12)2 (1. 12)3 (1. 12)4 All we are doing is obse rving the yield in the market and solving for the price. Alternatively, we could work out the yield if we have the price from the market.Bond price calculators work by iteratively solving for the yield to maturity. For a bond trading at par, the yield to maturity and coupon will be the same, e. g. a four year bond with a fixed coupon of 10% and a yield of 10% would be trading at 100%. Note that bond prices go down as yields go up and bond prices go up as yields go down. This inverse relationship between bond prices and yields is fairly intuitive. For our par bond above, if four year market yields fall to 9% investors will be willing to pay more than par to buy the above market coupons of 10%. This will force its price up until it, too, yields 9%.If yields rise to, say, 11% investors will only be willing to pay less than par for the bond because its coupon is below the market. For a detailed example of the bond pricing process, see Appendix 3. For now, note that the dirty price of a bond is the sum of the present values of the cash flows in the bond. The price quoted in the market, the so-called â€Å"clean† price or market price, is in fact not the present value of anything. It is only an accountants’ convention. The market price, or clean price, is the present value less accrued interest according to the market convention. . P&L sensitivities of a bond As we saw above, the price of a bond can be determined if we know its cash flows and the discount rate (i. e. YTM) at which to present value them. The yield curve from which are derived the discount factors for a bond can itself be considered as the sum of two curves: 1. the â€Å"underlying† yield curve (normally Libor), and 2. the â€Å"credit† curve i. e. the spread over the underlying curve The sensitivity of the bond price to a change in these two curves is called: i. PV01, and ii. CS01 respectively. Related essay: â€Å"Support Positive Risk Taking For Individuals†In terms of the example above, the discount rate of 12% might be broken down into, say, a Libor rate of 7% together with a credit spread of 5%. (Note, in the following, it is important not to confuse the discount rate, which is an annualised yield, and the discount factor, which is the result of compounding the discount rate over the maturity in question. ) In addition to the sensitivities described above, we can also consider the impact on the price of the bond of a one day reduction in maturity. Such a reduction affects the price for two reasons: ) assuming the yield curve isn’t flat, the discount rates will alter because, in general, the discount rate for time â€Å"t† is not the same as that for time â€Å"t-1† b) since one day has elapsed, whatever the discount rate, we will compound it based on a time interval that is shorter by one day The names given to these two sensitivities are, r espectively: iii. Theta, and iv. Carry Note that, of these four sensitivities, only the first two, i. e. PV01 and CS01, are â€Å"market sensitivities† in the sense that they correspond to sensitivities to changes in market parameters.Theta and Carry are independent of any change in the market and reflect different aspects of the sensitivity to the passage of time. i)PV01 Definition The PV01 of a bond is defined as the present value impact of a 1 basis point (0. 01%) increase (or â€Å"bump†) in the yield curve. In the derivation below, we will refer to a generic â€Å"discount curve†. As noted earlier, this discount curve, from which are derived the discount factors for the bond pricing calculation, can itself be considered as the sum of two curves: the â€Å"underlying† yield curve (normally Libor), and a credit curve (reflecting the risk over and above the interbank risk ncorporated in the Libor curve). The PV01 calculates the impact on the price of bu mping the underlying yield curve. Calculation For simplicity, consider the case of a zero coupon bond i. e. where there is only one cash flow, equal to the face value, and occurring at maturity in n years. Note, though, that the principles of the following analysis will equally apply to a coupon paying bond. We start by defining: P = price or present value today R(t) = discount rate, today, for maturity t FV = face value of the bond Then, from the above, we know:P = FV/(1+r(t))^n Now consider the impact a 1bp bump to this curve. The discount rate becomes: R(t) = R(t) + 0. 0001 The new price of the bond, Pb(t), will be: Pb = FV/(1+[r(t)+. 0001])^n Therefore, the sensitivity of this bond to a 1bp increase to the discount curve will be: Pb – P = FV/(1+[r(t)+. 0001])^n – FV/(1+r(t))^n Eqn. 1 The first term is always smaller than the second term, therefore: * if we hold the bond (long posn), the PV01 is negative * if we have short sold the bond (short posn), the PV01 is pos itive We can also see that: the higher the yield (discount rate), the smaller the PV01. This is because a move in the discount rate from, for example, 8. 00% to 8. 01% represents a smaller relative change than from 3. 00% to 3. 01%. In other words, the higher the yield, the less sensitive is the bond price to an absolute change in the yield * the longer the maturity, the bigger the PV01. This is more obvious – the longer the maturity, the bigger the compounding factor that is applied to the changed discount rate, therefore the bigger the impact it will have.To extend this method to a coupon paying bond, we simply note that any bond can be considered as a series of individual cash flows. The PV01 of each cash flow is calculated as above, by bumping the underlying yield curve at the corresponding maturity. In practice, where a portfolio contains many bonds, it would not be practical, nor provide useful information, to have a PV01 for every single cash flow. Therefore the cash f lows across all the positions are bucketed into different maturities. The PV01 is calculated on a bucketed basis i. e. by calculating the impact of a 1bp bump to the yield curve on each bucket individually.This is an approximation but enables the trader to manage his risk position by having a feel for his overall exposure at each of a series of maturities. Typical bucketing might be: o/n, 1wk, 1m, 2m, 3m, 6m, 9m, 1y, 2y, 3y, 5y, 10y, 15y, 20y, 30y. Worked example: Assume we hold $10m notional of a zero-coupon bond maturing in 7 years and the yield to maturity is 8%. Note that, for a zero coupon bond, the YTM is, by definition, the same as the discount rate to be applied to the (bullet) payment at maturity. We have: Price, P = $10m / (1. 08)^7 = $5. 834mBumping the curve by 1bp, the â€Å"bumped price† becomes: Pb = $10m / (1. 0801)^7 = $5. 831m Therefore, the PV01 is: Pb – P = $5. 831m – $5. 835m = -$0. 004m (or -$4k) Meaning In the example above, we have calcul ated the PV01 of the bond to be -$4k. This means that, if the underlying yield curve were to increase from its current level of 8% to 8. 01%, the position would reduce in value by $4k. If we assume the rate of change in value of the bond with respect to the yield is constant, then we can calculate the impact of, for example, a 5bp bump to the yield curve to be 5 x -$4k = -$20k.Note, this is only an approximation; if we were to graph the bond price against its yield, we wouldn’t see a straight line but a curve. This non-linear effect is called convexity. In practice, while for small changes in the yield the approximation is valid, for bigger changes, convexity cannot be ignored. For example, if the yield were to increase to 9%, the impact on the price would be -$365k, not -(8%-9%)x$4k = -$400k. Use The concept of PV01 is of vital day to day importance to the trader. In practice, he manages his trading portfolio by monitoring the bucketed yield curve exposure as expressed by PV 01.Where he feels the PV01 is too large, he will perform a transaction designed to either flatten or reduce the risk. Similarly, when he has a view as to future yield curve movements, he will position his PV01 exposure to take advantage of them. In this case, he is taking a trading position. ii)CS01 The basis of the CS01 calculation is identical to that of the PV01, only this time we bump the credit spread rather than the underlying yield curve. The above example was based on a generic discount rate. In practice, for any bond other than a risk free one, this rate will be combination of the yield curve together with the credit curve.At first glance therefore, we would expect that, whether we bump the yield curve or the credit spread by 1bp, the impact on the price should be similar, and described by Eqn. 1 above. What we can also say is that, bumping the yield curve, the overall discount rate will increase and therefore, as for PV01: * if we hold the bond (long posn), the CS01 is neg ative * if we have short sold the bond (short posn), the CS01 is positive From the same considerations as for PV01, we can see that: * the higher the credit spread, the smaller the CS01 * the longer the maturity, the bigger the CS01In practice, when we look at multiple cash flows, the impact of a 1bp bump in the yield curve is not identical to a 1bp bump in the credit spread. This is because, inter alia: * the curves are not the same shape and therefore interpolations will differ * bumping the credit spread affects default probability assumptions that will, in turn, impact the bond price In general though, PV01 and CS01 for a fixed coupon bond will be similar. The exception is where the bond pays a floating rate coupon. In this case, the sensitivity to yield curve changes is close to zero so, although the PV01 will be very small, the CS01 will be â€Å"normal†.Worked example: A worked example would follow the same steps as for PV01 above, only this time we would bump the cred it spread by 1bp rather than the underlying yield curve. Theta and Carry We now look at the two sensitivities arising from the passage of time (â€Å"1 day decay†, to use option pricing terminology). First, let’s calculate what the total impact on the value of a position would be if the only change were that one day had passed. In particular, we assume that the yield and credit curves are unchanged. Again, for simplicity, consider the case of a zero coupon bond i. . where there is only one cash flow, equal to the face value, and occurring at maturity in n years. Again, we note that the principles of the following analysis will equally apply to a coupon paying bond. Following the previous notation, the value (or price) today will be: P(today) = FV/(1+r(t))^n The value tomorrow will be: P(tomorrow) = FV/(1+r(t-1))^(n-1/365)Eqn. 2 There are two differences between the formula for the value today and that for tomorrow. Firstly, the discount rate has moved from r(t) to r(t- 1). Here, r(t-1) is the discount rate for maturity (t-1) today.We have assumed that the discount curve does not move day on day, therefore the rate at which the cash flow will be discounted tomorrow is the rate corresponding to a one day shorter maturity, today. Secondly, the period over which we discount the cash flows has reduced by one day, from n to n-1/365 (we divide by 365 because n is specified in years). Theta and Carry capture these two factors. P(tomorrow) – P(today) gives the full impact on the price due to the passing of one day. This impact can be approximated by breaking down the above formula into its two component parts i. e. he change in discount rate and the change in maturity, as explained below. iii)Theta As before, we define: P = price or present value today r(t) = discount rate, today, for maturity t FV = face value of the bond In addition, we define: r(t-1) = discount rate, today, for maturity t-1 (e. g. for a bond with 240 days to maturity, if the 240 day discount rate today is 8. 00% and the 239 day discount rate today is 7. 96% then: r(t) = 8. 00% and r(t-1) = 7. 96%) We now define Theta as: FV/(1+r(t-1))^n – FV/(1+r(t))^n We can see that, compared to the formula for the full price impact above (Eqn. ), this sensitivity reflects the change in the discount rate but ignores the reduction by 1 day of the maturity. In other words, Theta represents the price impact due purely to the change in discount rate resulting from a 1 day shorter maturity but ignores the impact on the compounding factor of the discount rate resulting from the shorter maturity. Note that the sign of Theta, in contrast to PV01 and CS01, can be both positive and negative. This is because r(t-1) can be higher or lower than r(t), depending on the shape of the yield curve.That said, in practice, given that yield curves are normally upward sloping, we would expect r(t) to be higher than r(t-1). Therefore Theta will normally be positive. In the same way, if th e yield curve is flat, then Theta will be zero. iv)Carry Using the standard notation, we define Carry as: FV/(1+r(t))^(n-1) – FV/(1+r(t))^n Comparing to the formula for the full price impact above (Eqn. 2), we see that this sensitivity reflects the change in maturity on the compounding factor to be applied to the discount rate but ignores the impact on the discount rate itself of moving one day down the curve.In other words, Carry represents the price impact due purely to the change in discount factor resulting from a 1 day shorter compounding period but ignores the impact on the discount rate resulting from the shorter maturity. Where discount rates are positive (r(t) > 0), Carry will always be positive since the first term will be larger than the second. Using the Taylor expansion, we can obtain a simplified approximate value for Carry. Remembering that: 1/(1+x)^n = 1 – n. x + (1/2). n. (n-1). x^2 – †¦ we have: Carry = FV. 1-(n-1/365). r(t)) – FV. (1-n. r(t)) = FV. r(t). 1/365 Note that r(t). 1/365 would represent one day’s â€Å"interest† calculated on an accruals basis since, in the case, the yield equals the coupon rate. (Note, where a position is accounted for on an accruals basis, and therefore valued at par, the yield will always equal the coupon. ) In other words, this definition ties in to the intuitive idea of carry that we have from, say, a deposit where the carry would be equal to one day’s interest, based on its coupon.We can also see that Carry is directly proportional to the yield. We have now seen that, between them, Theta and Carry attempt to capture the two components affecting the price move arising from the passing of 1 day, all other factors being kept constant. There will be certain â€Å"cross† effects of the two that will not be captured when performing this decomposition. In other words, Theta + Carry will not exactly equal the full impact (as per Eqn. 2). The difference, ho wever, will not normally be material.In general, for a long bond position, both Theta and Carry will be positive as, with the passing of one day, not only will the annualised discount rate be less (reflecting the lower yield normally required for shorter dated instruments) but the compounding factor will be smaller (reflecting the shorter maturity). Worked example: Assume we hold $10m notional of a zero-coupon bond maturing in 240 days and the yield to maturity today is 8%. Also, the yield today for the 239 day maturity is 7. 96%. Theta = $10m/(1. 0796)^(240/365) – $10m/(1. 08)^(240/365) = $23,159 Carry = $10m/(1. 8)^(239/365) – $10m/(1. 08)^(240/365) $20,047 Theta + Carry = $43,205 To compare, the full price impact of a 1 day â€Å"decay† is: $10m/(1. 076)^(239/365) – $10m/(1. 08)^(240/365) = $43,113 Summary We have now analysed the key sensitivities that explain the 1 day move in a bond’s mark to market value. To summarise some of the main featur es; for a long bond position: PV01 / CS01: * negative * for a fixed coupon or zero coupon bond, PV01 and CS01 will be similar * the higher the yield/credit spread, the smaller the PV01/CS01 * the longer the maturity, the bigger the PV01/CS01 for a floating rate coupon (with a Libor benchmark), PV01 will be very small but the CS01 will be â€Å"normal† Theta * positive * the flatter the curve, the smaller the Theta Carry * positive * proportional to the yield 3. Extension to interest rate swaps In essence, all the above applies equally to interest rate swaps (IRSs) when calculating/explaining daily P&L. We start by noting that an IRS is simply the exchange of two cash flows, one fixed and one floating. Extending the analysis we made for bonds, we can say: a) The PV01 of the floating rate leg will be close to zero. This is as noted for a floating rate bond.In both cases, as the yield curve changes so do the expected future cash flows but, at the same time, so will the discount rates at which they are PV’d. The two effects will broadly cancel out. (The PV01 will not be exactly zero because, once the Libor fixing occurs, the next cash flow becomes fixed and therefore effectively becomes a zero coupon bond, on which there will be PV01. ) b) The fixed leg is similar to the fixed coupon stream on a bond and can be considered as a series of zero coupon bonds. Therefore the exact same analysis as applied to bonds above will apply to the fixed leg. An IRS that ays floating and receives fixed will have a PV01 sensitivity similar to that of a long bond position. c) IRSs are normally interbank trades where it is assumed that there is no credit risk over and above Libor. Therefore, the CS01 will be zero. d) Theta and Carry may be either positive or negative. Appendix 1 : Date Conventions There are several methods for computing the interest payable in a period and the accrued interest for a period. A particular method applied to a transaction can affect the yie ld of that transaction and also the payment for a transaction. Counting the Number of DaysThe conventions used to determine the interest payments depend on two factors: 1) The number of days in a period and 2) The number of days in a year. The conventions are: 0 Actual/360 1 Actual/365 : sometimes referred as Actual/365F (seldom used now) 2 Actual/Actual 3 30/360 European: sometimes referred to as ISMA method (30E/360) 4 30/360 US (30U/360) The first three methods (Actual/360, Actual/365 and Actual/Actual) calculate the number of days in a period by counting the actual number of days. For each method the number of days in a year is different. Actual/365 and Actual/Actual are similar except: 1.Periods which include February 29th (leap year) count the number of days in a year as 365 under Act/365 and 366 under Act/Act; 2. Semi-annual periods are assumed to have 182. 5 days under Act/365 and however many actual days under Act/Act. Eurobond markets use the 30E/360 basis. This calculatio n assumes every month has 30 days. This means that the 31st of a month is always counted as if it were the 30th of the month. For 30E/360 basis, February is also assumed to have 30 days. If the beginning or end of a period falls on a weekend the coupon is not adjusted to a good business day.This means that there are always exactly 360 days in a year for all coupons. For example a coupon from 08-November-1997 to 08-November-1998 of 5% is a coupon of 5%, even though 08-November-1998 is a Sunday. There is no adjustment to the actual coupon payment. The various European government bond markets are described below: Country| Accrual| Coupon Frequency| Austria| Act/Act| Annual| Belgium| Act/Act| Annual| Denmark| Act/Act| Annual| Finland| Act/Act| Annual| France| Act/Act| Annual| Germany| Act/Act| Annual| Ireland| Act/ActAct/Act (Earlier Issues)| AnnualSemi-Annual| Italy| Act/Act| Semi-Annual| Luxembourg| Act/Act| Annual|Netherlands| Act/Act| Annual| Norway| Act/Act| Annual or Semi-Annual| Portugal| Act/Act| Annual| Spain| Act/Act| Annual| Sweden| Act/Act| Annual| Switzerland| Act/Act| Annual| United Kingdom| Act/Act | Semi-Annual| Appendix 2 : Calculating Accrued Interest Even though Eurobond coupons are not adjusted for weekends and holidays, the accrual of a coupon for any part of the year has to use the correct number of days. The difference between European and US 30/360 method is how the end of the month is treated. For US basis the 31st of a month is treated as the 1st of the next month, unless the period is from 30th or 31st of the previous month.In this case the period is counted as number of months: | 30/360 European| 30/360 US| Beginning DateEnding Date| M1/D1/ Y1M2/D2/Y 2| M1/D1/Y1M2/D2/Y 2| If D1 = 31| D1 = 30| D1 = 30| If D2 = 31| D2 = 30| If D1 = 31 or 30Then: D2 = 30Else: D2 = 31| The difference occurs when the accrual period starts and ends at the end or beginning of a calendar month: European and US 30/360 Examples Start| End| European| US| Actual| 3 1-Jul-01| 31-Oct-01| 90| 90| 92| 30-Jul-01| 30-Oct-01| 90| 90| 92| 30-Jul-01| 01-Nov-01| 91| 91| 94| 29-Jul-01| 31-Oct-01| 91| 92| 94| 01-Aug-01| 31-Oct-01| 89| 90| 91|Euro money markets: 0 Day count basis: actual/360 1 Settlement basis: spot (two day) standard 2 Fixing period for derivatives contracts: two day rate fixing convention Euro FX markets 3 Settlement timing: spot convention, with interest accrual beginning on the second day after the deal has been struck 4 Quotation: ‘Certain for uncertain’ (ie 1 Euro = x foreign currency units) U. S. Conventions Product| Day Count Convention| USD LIBOR| Act/360| USD Swap Fixed Rate in U. S. | Act/Act s. a. | USD Swap Fixed Rate in London| Act/360 p. a. | T-Bills| Act/360 discount rate| Government Bonds| Act/Act s. a. |Agency and Corporate Bonds| 30/360 s. a. | Appendix 3 : Detailed worked example of bond price calculation We can check the pricing of bonds in a more complicated example by using the following German governmen t bond (or Bund) : German Government Bund (in Euros) Coupon:| 5. 00%| Maturity:| 04-Feb-06| Price (Clean):| 102. 2651%| Yield:| 4. 43%| We are pricing this bond on 27/July 2001. It matures on 4 Feb 2006 and has a coupon of 5%. The table below shows that the bond price (the ‘dirty price’ or invoice price) is simply the sum of the present value of all of the coupons discounted at the yield to maturity.Pricing the German Euro Denominated Bund Dates| AA Days| Periods| Cash Flow| Cashflow PV| 04-Feb-01| | | | | 27-Jul-01| | | | 104. 6350%| 04-Feb-02| 192| 0. 5260| 5. 00%| 4. 8873%| 04-Feb-03| 557| 1. 5260| 5. 00%| 4. 6800%| 04-Feb-04| 922| 2. 5260| 5. 00%| 4. 4814%| 04-Feb-05| 1288| 3. 5260| 5. 00%| 4. 2913%| 04-Feb-06| 1653| 4. 5260| 105. 00%| 86. 2950%| The market convention uses the yield to maturity as the discount rate, and discounts each cash flow back over the number of periods as calculated using the accrued interest day-count convention.In the case of Bunds, the day -count convention is the Act/Act convention. Appendix 1 contains more details of date conventions – it is recommended that you read this at the end of the module. The part of a year between the settlement date (27 July 2001) and the next coupon (4 February 2002) is: Day Count 192/365 (ie Actual days/Actual days) = 0. 5260 The price of the first coupon can therefore be calculated in the following way: PV of First Coupon = 4. 8873% All of the other cash flow present values are calculated in the same manner. Adding them up gives us the price of the bond.Accrued interest is calculated from 04 February 2001 to 27 July 2001 (173 days) : Accrued Interest Accrued = 5% x 0. 47397 = 2. 3699% There is more detail on Accrued interest in Appendix 2. It is recommended that you read it at the end of this module. Notice that the quoted price of the bond (the ‘clean price’) is 102. 2651% not 104. 6350% (which is the ‘dirty price’ or invoice price – ie the pric e actually paid for the bond). The dirty price is the sum of the present values of the cash flows in the bond. The price quoted in the market, the so-called â€Å"clean† price or market price, is in fact not the present value of anything.It is only an accountants’ convention. The market price, or clean price, is the present value less accrued interest according to the market convention. Practitioners find it easier to quote the clean price because it abstracts from the changing daily accrued interest (i. e. it avoids a â€Å"saw-toothed† price profile). This publication is for internal use only by Deutsche Bank Global Markets employees. The material (including formulae and spreadsheets) is provided for education purposes only and should under no circumstances be used for client pricing.Examples, case studies, exercises and solutions may use simplifying assumptions that do not apply in practice, and may differ from Deutsche Bank proprietary models actually used. The publication is provided to you solely for information purposes and is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any financial instrument or product. The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but is not necessarily complete and its accuracy cannot be guaranteed.

Terrorism Can Be Defeated If We Tackle Its Root Causes †Poverty and Injustice

In today’s world, the issue of terrorism has been prevalent. Due to the expanse and connectivity of the Internet, some believe that terrorism is now an entrepreneurial arena with the Internet as its global recruiting station. Poverty and injustice are some of the root causes of terrorism, but these are not the only factors that trigger terrorism. Hence, terrorism may be defeated or abated if we tackle other factors such as religious influence. A minority believes that tackling poverty cannot defeat terrorism. They believe that terrorist groups eschew from recruiting the poor. A high level of educational attainment is seen as signal of one’s commitment to a cause and determination, it also indicates his ability to prepare for an assignment and carry it off. Additionally, terrorist groups may offer more benefits than what one may get in reality; this may also attract more educated but unprincipled individuals into terrorism. For example, well-educated individuals may be eager to participate in terrorist groups if they think that they will assume leadership positions if they succeed. On the other hand, poverty stricken individuals may be targets for the spread of terrorism. Some these individuals are desperate to even stake their lives on immoral acts just to provide financial sustenance for their family. As a result, these individuals become easy prey for terrorist groups. Terrorists groups preach their idea of providing salvation to these troubled people, effectively convincing them to do to their bidding. They promise to reward the victim’s family with money to mitigate their situation of poverty. In most cases, the victim becomes a suicide bomber, a martyr bent on avenging his fate believing that his family will be rewarded for his act of bravery. Many believe that by alleviating poverty, terrorism can be solved. Based on an observation by Gary Becker, a professor at the University of Chicago Business School. He saw that nations or regions that are experiencing rapid growth appear to have lower incidences of terrorism. This led Becker to believe that political activism and violent activity becomes less appealing to individuals when their economic opportunities expand. People are open to more options and are less likely to resort to desperate measures. Hence, terrorism may be reduced if poverty is lessened. Some believe that getting rid of injustices cannot solve terrorism. Though the government may believe that their actions are fair and justified the public and especially extremist groups may not. These extremist groups live by their own ideology, which is seldom paralleled by the government’s actions. Take for example, The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. They are a separatist organization formerly based in northern Sri Lanka They sought to create an independent Tamil State in the north and east of Sri Lanka. This campaign spiraled into the Sri Lankan Civil War as the Sri Lankan government refused to agree to their demands. In this case, it is almost impossible to defeat terrorism by righting injustices. However, many argue that by righting injustices, terrorism can be reduced. In some cases, the origin of the intention of terrorism is when injustices take place. When a particular community feels that they are wrongly accused or that the law is unfair some of them take matters into their own hands. They believe that force is the only way to change biased laws. I acknowledge that it is difficult to change the mindset of extremist groups, as they are extremely demanding. However, terrorism can be reduced if we treat everyone with equality. Take for example, when pictures of American soldiers abusing prisoners in Saddam's notorious prison were released. There was a global outcry against these animalistic acts. By reducing these crimes, it reduces the hatred that people might feels towards the Americans. It also lessens the chance of normal civilians becoming terrorists. Hence, by tacking the injustices, fewer civilians would feel mistreated and terrorism can be reduced. I believe that the greatest player in terrorism is religious influence. These religious influences come in the form of extremist views on very sensitive issues. Some feel that religion is used to brainwash terrorists. An example can be seen from the case of Nidal Malik Hasan. He was an Army major and then turned into a mass murderer, fatally shooting twelve people on America’s largest military base. Many believed that Hasan’s path began to take a twist when he attended the Dar Al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church. Coincidentally, two of the 9/11 hijackers attended this mosque too. Although there was no evidence that the mosque had preached extremist views to Hasan, many argue that he was being brainwashed. It is difficult to stamp out religious influence of this kind as evidence is weak and interference with religious places can lead to conflict. With the large network of the Internet, religious views can be spread through these media networks. There is a plethora of YouTube videos and sermons that can be downloaded from the Internet, leaving the viewer with visions of carnage dancing in their heads. These terrorist groups garner attention via the Internet. This can be seen when Al-Qaeda posted footages of roadside bombings, the decapitation of American hostage Nick Berg, and the kidnapping of Egyptian and Algerian diplomats prior to their execution. The government can be vigilant by actively banning or censoring such websites. Video-sharing such as Youtube should act responsibly and remove these inappropriate videos. By taking down such videos, the outreach of religious influence through the Internet can be tapered. Albeit terrorism is difficult to be defeated by attempting to stamp out the ramification of religious influence, acts of terrorism can be reduced through the Internet. To conclude, I believe that terrorism must be tackled not only from the aspect of injustice and poverty but also the religious aspect. Although terrorism cannot be totally defeated we can reduce the acts of terrorism by holistically solving problems such as injustice, poverty and the spread of extremist views through religious influences.

PM Profitel Inc. Case

As a formerly government-owned telephone monopoly, Profitel enjoyed many decades of minimal competition. Even today as a publicly traded enterprise, the company’s almost exclusive control over telephone copper wiring across the country keeps its profit mar- gins above 40 percent. Competitors in telephone and DSL broadband continue to rely on Profitel’s wholesale business, which generates substantially more profit than similar wholesale services in many other countries.However, Profitel has stiff competition in the cellular (mobile) telephone business, and other emerging technologies (voice- over-Internet) threaten Profitel’s dominance. Based on these threats, Profitel’s board of directors decided to hire an outsider as the new chief executive. Although several qualified candidates expressed an interest in Profitel’s top job, the board selected Lars Peeters, who had been CEO for six years of a publicly traded Euro- pean telephone company, followed by a brief stint as CEO of a cellular telephone company in the United States until it was acquired by a larger firm.Profitel’s board couldn’t believe its good fortune; Peeters brought extensive industry knowledge and global experience, a high-octane energy level, self-confidence, decisiveness, and congenial yet strongly persuasive interpersonal style. He also had a unique â€Å"presence,† which caused people to pay attention and respect his leadership. The board was also impressed with Peeters strategy to bolster Profitel’s profit margins.This included heavy investment in the latest wireless broadband technology (for both cellular telephone and computer Internet) before competitors could gain a foothold, cutting costs through layoffs and reduction of peripheral services, and putting pressure on government to deregulate its traditional and emerging businesses. When Peeters described his strategy to the board, one board member commented that this was the same strategy Peeters used in his previous two CEO postings. Peeters dismissed the comment, saying that each situation is unique. Peeters lived up to his reputation as a decisive executive.Almost immediately after taking the CEO job at Profitel, he hired two executives from the European company where he previously worked. Together over the next two years they cut the workforce by 5 percent and rolled out the new wireless broadband technology for cellphones and Internet. Costs increased somewhat due to downsizing expenses and the wireless technology rollout. Profitel’s wireless broadband subscriber list grew quickly because, in spite of its very high prices, the technology faced limited competition and Profitel was pushing customers off the older technology to the new network.Profitel’s customer sat- isfaction ratings fell, however. A national consumer research group reported that Profitel’s broadband offered the country’s worst value. Employee morale also dec lined due to layoffs and the company’s public image problems. Some industry experts also noted that Profitel selected its wireless technology without evaluating the alternative emerging wireless technology, which had been gaining ground in other countries. Peeters’ aggressive campaign against government regulation also had unintended consequences.Rather than achieving less regulation, criticizing government and its telecommunications regulator made Profitel look even more arrogant in the eyes of both customers and government leaders. Profitel’s board was troubled by the company’s lacklustre share price, which had declined 20 percent since Peeters was hired. Some board members also worried that the company had bet on the wrong wireless technology and that subscription levels would stall far below the number necessary to achieve the profits stated in Peeters’ strategic plan.This concern came closer to reality when a foreign-owned competitor won a $1 billion government contract to improve broadband services in regional areas of the country. Profitel’s proposal for that regional broadband upgrade specified high prices and limited corporate investment, but Peeters was confident Profitel would be awarded the contract because of its market dominance and existing infrastructure with the new wireless network.When the government decided otherwise, Profitel’s board fired Peeters along with two executives he had hired from the European company where he previously worked. Now, the board had to figure out what went wrong and how to avoid this problem in the future. Questions: 1. Which perspective of leadership best explains the problems experienced in this case? Analyze the case using concepts discussed in that leadership perspective. 2. What can organizations do to minimize the leadership problems discussed above?

Summarize Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Summarize - Essay Example This also means that they have to learn from their mistakes that cause these failures. According to Amy Edmondson, it is always hard to learn from failures since people do not appreciate them, and others do not like failures and most of the time they get defensive failing to acknowledge them. It is hard for employers to accept failures and therefore it becomes very hard for them to learn from them. Thus, most executive do everything to avoid failure and therefore, they do everything not to fail. This is what makes it so hard for them to accept that they fail sometimes. It is important for big businesses to learn that big projects have bigger chances of failing especially when it is the first time they are working on the project. When big projects such as rebranding fail, the cause is not just a single failure, but small failures in different departments that end up causing the failure. However, mostly in such cases the executive would rather blame an employee rather than accept failure and learn from it. It is also important for organizations to keep trying through trial and error, learning from their mistakes and failures and with time success can be

Contracting and Ethics Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Contracting and Ethics - Assignment Example However, according to the records the individual was able to access non- public propriety information regarding the protester’s performance of the contract that was incumbent, thus appearing to be challenged procurement. Therefore AGPH should be excluded from the competitive bid as it used the services of a former government staff which is unethical with regard to government laws on contracts. With regard to protesting the bid, Government Accountability Office (GAO) will issue the decision arrived at regarding the protest within the hundred days after it has been filed. GAO considers protests that concerns awards of subcontracts by or sales of a federal agency, or of a federal agency, or procurements made by the government agencies other than the Federal agencies. According to Lebowitz (2009) asserted that If GAO finds out that the award is not in compliance with the regulations it may recommend the AGPH to pay the protester the costs of filing and pursuing the protest, and th e bid and proposal preparation. In addition, protests are dismissed on the basis of; contract administration; contracting officer’s affirmative responsibility; and procurement integrity. 2. Since TMA was in the Department of Defense (D.O.D) responsible for awarding and management of contracts. Through the issuance of an RFP the issuance of contracts was to undergo evaluation before being awarded. This includes using the technical approach, past performance and finally price/cost. By employing the services of a former employee of TMA it means the whole process is flawed as he had access to information not available to the public. Therefore, AGPH should have utilized the rating scheme for purpose of evaluating on technical merit. According to the Agency Report (AR) Tab 86, of the Source Selection Evaluation Guide (SSEG) at 11-12, a flaw in the proposal increases the risk of unsuccessful contract performance. Also, TMA should evaluate each of the sub factors stemming from propos al risk. With regard to assessment of the ethics issue relevance rating is vital. In assessment and assignment of performance the following rating scheme is utilized; exceptional, satisfactory, marginal and not satisfactory. TMA is to receive time proposals from entities like AGHP for the contracts of the North Region. TMA’s is to commence evaluation and selection process with the establishment of three evaluation teams: firstly is the technical evaluation team (TET), which is to evaluate technical proposals; performance assessment group (PAG), which evaluates past performance information of offeror’s; and the price/cost unit, tasked with analyzing the price/cost proposals. The teams’ findings are then to be submitted to the chairperson of the Source Selection Evaluation Board (SSEB), who prepares best value award recommendation and evaluation report for consideration by source selection authority (SSA). The SSA following advice from the source selection advisor y council (SSAC) makes the final decision on best value award (G.A.O, 2009). 3. So as to avoid malpractices in the bidding and contracting processes integrity is paramount. The AGPH and TMA should set integrity mechanisms in their organizations. It is useful to conduct interviews including the very key individuals within the TMA who presumably would have wider direct knowledge of the activities of the former government employee. Also