Financial Markets and Bank Management Coursework

Financial Markets and Bank Management - Coursework Example The banking and financial system in Cyprus is significantly large when compared to the Cypriot economy. Total asset held by the country’s banking system is close to 900% of the gross domestic product generated by the country (Stephanou, 2011a). This number is strikingly high when compared to EU and Euro zone asset acquisition of 357% and 334% respectively (Stephanou, 2011a). Even if the overseas operations conducted by the country’s domestic banks are excluded, the size of the country’s banking system will still be large thereby exceeding the gross domestic product by the multiple of 7 (Stephanou, 2011a). Nevertheless Cyprus is not exclusive in this respect. This is precisely because a number of EU member countries have similar or larger banking system. The banking system in Cyprus grew considerably over the last decade. The underlying reason behind this rapid enlargement is the accommodation of a global environment as well as the policy enacted by regulatory aut horities in the country in order to highlight them as international financial centre. It is only off late that the financial crisis-provoked deleveraging of globally active banks and delay in cross border capital flows have stopped that trend (Michaelides, 2012). Two aspects that differentiate Cyprus from another country with a large banking system are domestically owned credit institutions such as commercial banks and cooperatives which have an instrumental role in ensuring economic stability and the country’s domestic banks which are although small in absolute terms but are considerably large as far as their asset acquisition is concerned (Milesi†Ferretti and Tille, 2011). While the domestic owned credit institutions account for nearly 64% of the total banking system assets, the domestic owned banks own a considerable proportion of assets as a proportion of the country’s GDP (Stephanou, 2011a). Not many European countries are

Why Marching Band Should Be Considered a Sport Essay Example for Free

Why Marching Band Should Be Considered a Sport Essay There may be as many as 500+ members in a marching band, each having their own part that inter-locks with the 499 others. I believe marching band should be considered a sport. Everyone must be incredibly coordinated and precise. The band as a whole, and individually must practice. Then theres all the physical stresses that you have to overcome. Coordination plays a key roll in marching. A lot of teamwork goes into it as well. All the musicians have to play in the right key, stay in step, and stay musically in time or else the entire show could be compromised. Memorizing game plays is a large roll in football and other team sports, same with band. You must remember the basic notes, key signatures, and various other musical symbols. Then there are the hundreds of sets, or where and when you have to be on the field during the show. Just one person off can throw off the entire form or melody. Athletes selected for the Olympics have trained for almost all their lives for their event. In Bellevue Wests marching training, we have a two week period of living hell, aka band camp. You basically do nothing but eat, sleep, and think band during the two hottest weeks of the entire summer. Mr. Haugen, our band director, pushes hard and some break down and quit, but in the end, the majority of the group is remaining. All thats left now is a well oiled machine, just like any sports team. I only hinted how physically demanding this â€Å"extra-curricular activity† actually is. You must carry an instrument exactly level while marching, and all your body wants to do is bounce up and down like loose luggage. Then if youre a sousaphone, like me, you have around 45-50 lb. ushing down on your shoulder as you try to elevate yourself as high as possible, as to follow correct marching form. Then you must remember that half your air as you march down the field, goes to playing your instrument. If thats not enough, youre also trapped in a dark, thick fabric uniform, squeezing the last whistles of your breath from your lungs. It may be only for 15 minutes, but even track athletes get breaks in-between events. In those god-forsaken uniforms, that quarter hour feels like centuries. For some odd reason, people have the idea that its easy to play in motion, its anything but! You must have incredible music-making skills, especially considering your bouncing up and down as you sometimes run to get to your spot. Sports are very physically strenuous and demanding, so is marching. Sports teams practice all year long to get ready to compete, we only the summer and a few weeks into school. Each individual plays such a key role in the tone and appearance of the band, its unreal. Marching band isnt just a bunch of nerds and fat guys playing tubas. Its a tight-knit brotherhood of strength and skill. Like football, if you are not in the right spot, you arent scoring the touchdown.

What do we learn about life in Americas in the 1930s from John Essay

What do we learn about life in Americas in the 1930's from John Steinbeck's novel, Of Mice and Men? John Steinbeck was born and raised in Salinas, in 1902. Steinbeck was of German and Irish ancestry. His father was the county treasurer and his mother was a teacher. Steinbeck attended Salinas High School and went on to study Marine Biology at Stanford University, but failed to finish his course. He travelled to New York and worked as a reporter, unfortunately he was fired. After he took on many different jobs and became an apprentice, a painter, a caretaker, a surveyor and a fruit picker. He married three times in 1930, in 1943 and in 1950. During the World War Two, Steinbeck became a War correspondent. In 1960 he toured 40 states of America and was awarded with a Noble Prize in the same year. Steinbeck later died in 1968, at the age of 64. In the 1920s share prices in the USA rapidly increased year after year. Many Americans believed that by investing money in the stocks they could make quick and easy money. The selling and buying of shares almost became uncontrollable, many people brought shares without realising that they could easily loose it. Some companies were totally false and others lied to their customers in order to take advantage of the money hungry people of the USA. On the 24th and 29th of October 1922, share prices on Wall Street fell dramatically. This fall became known as the Wall Street Crash. This crash became the main cause of the nationwide depression. The depression hit America first then spread to other countries around the world. People began to lose their confidence in the stock markets and embarked on saving as opposed to buying stock. Many banks collapsed as people withdrew th... ...or information on the 1930's. It helps us to understand what was happening in the 1930's. It gives us a clear idea of white people's attitude to black people and everyone's attitude towards The Great Depression. This story is a very good reference of oppression in the 1930's. Candy describes the bosses' behaviour to George and says; I guess the boss'll be out here in a minute. He was sure burned when you wasn't here this morning. Come right in when we was eatin' breakfast and says, 'Where the hell's them new men?' An' he give the stable buck hell, too." This shows how even though Crooks' work was good and that even though he was much liked around the ranch he did not seem to be much appreciated. The 1930's were a very hard period for black people and women of all colours. I think that "Of Mice and Men" is an excellent source for information on the 1930's.

China – the aims and effects of the one child policy

A variety of social policies aimed at controlling population change have been established around the world. But in this answer I will be evaluating a very controversial example of a policy that aimed to tackle rapid population growth by reducing fertility rate (also known as anti-natalist) – China's One-Child Policy. During the second half of the twentieth century, the Chinese government became concerned about the population growth; this is mainly due to the philosophy of the government under Chairman Mao, in the mid-twentieth century, which was that ‘a large population gives a strong nation' and so the government encouraged people to have more and more children. This consequently led to an increase in population of 55 million every year and a famine in 1962 which caused nearly 30 million deaths. This massive growth in population forced a policy change in 1974, in order to avoid a Malthusian-type disaster in the future (The theory that population increases more rapidly than the food supply leading to famine and, inevitably, death). It encouraged the country to reduce the birth rate by the slogan ‘wan-xi-shao' which called for later marriages, longer gaps between children and fewer children. However, this policy was not effective enough, and the population continued increasing and did not follow the pattern of the DTM (demographic transition model). This then led the government to introduce the one-child policy in 1979, which set strict limits on the number of children that a couple were allowed to have. In order to further enforce this policy; strong pressure was put on women to use contraceptives (e.g. contraceptive pills) which were more widely available. Special family planners and ‘granny police' were introduced in order to make sure that women were practising contraception and were instructed to report any pregnancies. The government also introduce incentives like; free healthcare and education for one child and then fines for more than one child. Also, more controversially, enforced late abortions and sterilisation became common, which mainly human rights activist heavily criticised and opposed. However, the policy had very negative effects on the country. Firstly, it led to female infanticide; where couples preferred sons, and baby girls were killed so they could have another chance of getting a boy. This occurred more often in rural areas, where there was less control from the government, and also where traditions were most important. This was mainly because male descendents were preferred as they can carry on the family name from generation to generation. This male dominance led to an imbalance in male to female sex ratio, where the number of men far exceeded that of men. This then further lowered fertility rates as there weren't enough women ‘to go round'. As well as an imbalance in the sex ratio, where was also an imbalance in the age ratio, as the policy vastly increased the dependency ratio and the country suffered from an ageing population. This was mainly due to the ‘4-2-1' situation, which meant that ‘1' child had to look after their ‘2' parents and ‘4' grandparents all at the same time and because of the increasing life expectancy. The policy also led to social implications on the child itself, such as the spoilt ‘little emperor' syndrome where the attention of the family fell on one child. It is also suggested that it had a negative effect on the child's social skills, as they grew up with no other siblings, therefore found it harder to integrate into society and led to poor communication skills. However, from 1990 onwards, the policy was slightly relaxed in order to combat some of the problems. For example, only-child couples were allowed to have two children, in order to relieve some of dependency on the children and also because they were concerned about the economic implications of an ageing population. In addition, the policy became harder to enforce for reasons such as the revolution in global communication and socialisation, which opened up the country to much greater social influence from the west. However, in more remote parts of the country, the policy is still encouraged. For example, the authorities in Guangdong (state capital) order 20,000 abortions and sterilisations by the end of 2001. Despite all of the negative implications, the decrease in overall population growth has had some positive effects, such as the positive economic growth. This was mainly due to the major decrease in demand for resources to support the needs of the population, which in turn led to a reduction in the stress placed upon the environment. There was also a drop in unemployment due to labour surplus and more disposable being available due to less money being spent on children. In conclusion, I believe that the one-child policy was a very brutal policy that disregarded the basic human rights of people and that a more gentle approach should have been taken. However, there is no argument that population management was inevitable in order to maintain a high standard of living, and that the one-child policy has avoided a Malthusian-type disaster (e.g. famine and war) and has better stabilised the population of China. This is because 400 million births were prevented and the annual growth rate had fallen to 0.6% as well. It is also clear that the policy is evolving for the better, as by 2006 the Chinese government moved towards a more health-orientated policy and committed itself to implement international agreements, promoting mother and child welfare.

Petroleum Exploration

Petroleum Exploration and Production consists of four major processes of exploration, well-development, production and site abandonment. In this assignment, we had chosen the major process of exploration and production. Petroleum Exploration is conducted to find and detect the site which contains oil or natural gas. Visible surface features such as oil seeps, natural gas seeps, pockmarks provide basic evidence of hydrocarbon generation. However, most exploration depends on highly sophisticated technology to detect and determine the extent of these deposits using exploration geophysics.Areas thought to contain hydrocarbons are initially subjected to a gravity survey, magnetic survey, passive seismic or regional seismic reflection surveys to detect large-scale features of the sub-surface geology. Features of interest are subjected to more detailed seismic surveys which work on the principle of the time it takes for reflected sound waves to travel through matter of varying densities and using the process of depth conversion to create a profile of the substructure.Finally, when a prospect has been identified and evaluated and passes the oil company's selection criteria, an exploration well is drilled in an attempt to conclusively determine the presence or absence of oil or gas. On the other hand, after the process of exploration and well development, the thrid process will be the production of oil. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling.This comes after the studies of structural geology at the reservoir scale, sedimentary basin analysis, reservoir characterization mainly in terms of porosity and permeable structures. It is refined and separated, most easily by boiling point, into a large number of consumer products, from petrol or gasoline and kerosene to asphalt and chemical reagents used to make plastics and pharmaceuticals. Petroleum is used in manufacturing a wide variety of materials, and it is estimated that the world consumes about 88 million bar rels each day.