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If you want to be rich, you’ve got to BUY ASSETS. So what is an asset? Using a simple definition from Robert Kiyosaki in his must-read book “Rich Dad Poor Dad“, an asset is something that puts money INTO your pocket, whereas a liability is something that takes money OUT OF your pocket. Let’s take a car for an example. Here in Casablanca people are crazy enough to spend big money on nice cars, despite the fact that the roads often have pot holes, the air is salty and dusty so cars need to be washed daily, (if you want it to look clean), and there are mopeds bumping you while you wait at stoplights (my car has several scratches that I received while stopped!) So if you’re crazy enough to buy a Range Rover…is that an asset, or a liability? The bank may list it as an asset, but by Kiyosaki’s definition…it’s a liability. You need to pay for insurance, road tax, repairs and maintenance, fuel, car washes, and of course, depreciation. Over time, the car is worth less and less money – the value is DEcreasing! Cars take money OUT OF your pocket – they are liabilities. What about investment real estate…is it an asset, or a liability? If you buy an apartment, a villa, or a piece of land, it’s an asset. The property puts money INTO your pocket, if you manage it properly. Though you may have to pay for property taxes, repairs and maintenance, insurance, and management fees, the rent covers these costs, and keeps your income higher than your expenses. Money comes INTO your pocket – it’s an asset. Plus, real estate APPreciates over time – the value goes UP!!! Other examples of assets include financial products such as stocks, bonds, or mutual funds, a business you own but are not required to work at full-time, and intellectual property such as art, music, books, trademarked systems, websites… If your goal is to become rich, then you must figure out how you can Buy Assets.
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The Gezira and Manaqil Scheme is one of Africa’s largest public irrigated agricultural schemes operating under one management. It was founded by the colonial authorities in 1925 as a contractual joint venture between the government, the Sudan Plantation Syndicate and farmers. The scheme occupies a total land area of 2.2 million feddan (one feddan equals 1.083 Acres and 0.42 Hectares), of which the Sudanese government owns 1.63 million feddan (52%). The remaining 980 thousand feddan (48%) are rented from citizens who own them outright. The Scheme constitutes half the irrigated agricultural area in Sudan, consuming about 7 billion cubic metres of water from the Blue Nile, almost one third of Sudan’s share under the Nile Water Agreement. Historical Synopsis of Changes at Gezira Scheme Since its inception, the Gezira Scheme legal frameworks provided a clear division of tasks and responsibilities between the government – represented by the Ministries of Irrigation and Finance – the Scheme’s administration and the farmers. The Ministry of Irrigation managed and maintained the irrigation canals up until they reach the small where it joined the smaller channels known as Abu Ishreen. The Scheme administration was responsible for preparing the land, developing technical specifications and managing agricultural operations, including land preparation for cotton cultivation, specifying the crop cycle, spraying of fertiliser and pesticide, enhancing and distributing seeds, and facility maintenance inclusive of roads and rail lines. Historically, the Ministry of Irrigation carried out its tasks through the Construction and Mechanical Departments, until they were replaced in 1974 with the newly formed Earth Moving Corporation and the Irrigation Works Corporation respectively. These two newly established corporations, were conceived of as public entities that operate independently of the ministry. They were contracted to undertake the maintenance operations within the Scheme as well as in the private sector to cover operational costs. The motivation behind the commercialisation was to reduce government’s costs as the price of cotton plummeted worldwide in the seventies, leading to shrinking profits. This in turn caused the Ministry of Irrigation to accumulate debt to the Ministry of Finance for the costs of maintenance and other operational expenses the Ministry incurred in the Gezira Scheme. In the late seventies, a joint delegation from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Bank (WB) visited the Scheme to assess its performance and provide technical recommendations to the Sudanese government. The visit coincided with a shift in the Sudanese government’s economic direction as it embraced the free market development approach. This change entailed submitting to the terms of the International Financial Institutions (IFIs), especially about agricultural policies. In fact, the government did agree to the delegation’s twofold recommendations: The first was a rehabilitation stage for 4 to 5 years, which started in 1984. It focused on the rehabilitation of the irrigation canals, the reversal of production relations – which were always in favour of the farmers since the inception of the Scheme, and the recalculation of the cost of land and water which paid by farmers to include all crops, not only cotton as was the case. The second stage focused on modernizing the Scheme and introducing technology in the irrigation and agricultural operations. These changes were clearly induced by the deterioration of cotton prices in global markets and the fluctuation of cotton production in the Scheme, leading to the decline of export revenues and earnings. This in turn caused the Sudanese government to gradually move away from direct spending on canal maintenance, land preparation and input provision. These changes also reflected a radical shift in the government’s economic policies and its responsibility towards the Scheme and the public sector at large. Looking back at the history of the Scheme, cotton production suffered similar crises, plummeting production and fluctuations in global prices in the early thirties. However, the government did not walk away then from its management and maintenance responsibilities. It used the reserve funds, which the government obtained by allocating 2% of annual profit as a precaution against decline in production or prices, to cover maintenance costs and protect farmers’ profits. The Establishment of the Integrated Agricultural Services Companies (IASCs) Traditionally, the Scheme’s Agricultural Engineering Division was known as the Tillage Division until it was changed to Agricultural Engineering in the eighties after it was merged with the Agricultural Engineering Development Division to perform the following tasks: developing technical specifications for land preparation for different crops. following up crop harvest operations, especially wheat. contributing to the development of agricultural mechanization. undertaking deep tillage to rejuvenate the soil, at least once every four years, to eradicate perennial grasses, shrubs and pests; in addition to digging and maintaining small channels (Abu Ishreen). It worth mentioning that , the Gezira Scheme’s Agricultural Engineering Division (AED) owned, until the mid-nineties, several major agricultural machines (for example, 87 D7 tracked tractors, over 40 harvesters, 264 small tractors (80HP), 39 large tractors (190HP), and 55 Harrow ploughs (40 disks)). However, after systematic privatisation, all this machinery was auctioned off as scrap metal, thus disposing all the AED’s assets. The adoption, by the current government, of economic liberalization policies and its move towards privatization exacerbated problems that faced the Gezira Scheme. The trend was most evident in the passing of the 2005 Gezira Scheme Act, amended in 2014, which was based on World Bank’s recommendations and its report about the Gezira Scheme of 2000. Technical committees were formed to oversee the privatization and sale of the Gezira Scheme’s assets in line with the World Bank’s recommendations. The sale included fixed and movable assets owned by farmers and the government, such as AED equipment and the liquidation of the earch moving Corporation. In 2011, the Scheme’s administration opened the tender for the establishment of private integrated agricultural services companies to fill the void created by the closure and sale of the Scheme’s corporations. The tender included facilitation by the government of access to funding from the Agricultural Bank for the import of machinery and equipment. As a result, 6 companies were registered over the summer season, increasing to 21 over the winter season of 2011. The registration and establishment of these companies were accompanied by corrupt practices and surrounded by lack of transparency to benefit the political and military leaders of the ruling party and the top officials in the Farmers Union, a government established and supported organization, who are not truly represents the interests of small farmers, but instead supported the government and its agricultural policies. Among the 23 companies registered, 18 are owned by current Farmers Union leaders, while the rest are owned by the supporters of the ruling party, the National Congress Party -NCP) and their relatives. Per the testimonies of members of the Gezira and Al Managil Farmers Alliance, a none governmental organization established to counter the influence of the Farmers Union, these companies received government funds in the amount of $23 million from the Agricultural Bank of Sudan and from Agricultural Renaissance funds, despite them being private companies owned by individuals. If we examine the IACSs’ tasks and work areas as defined by the Gezira Scheme Board of Directors, we find that they have fully taken over the tasks previously performed by the AED, the Scheme’s administration and the government at large. These tasks include: clearing, rehabilitation, maintenance and management of the irrigation canals and structures. preparation and tillage of land. provisioning of agricultural inputs. managing scheme assets. management of animal production services. financing and marketing. Any other production services farmers need. A List of Corrupt practices and Nepotism of the IASCs Unregulated privatization was the key that opened the door wide for rampant corruption and nepotism in the Gezira Scheme. The establishment, registration and operation of the IASCs was accompanied by widespread political corruption and nepotism. The list of companies’ owners below, clearly shows the extent of corruption and nepotism that shrouded this process. All you need is to look at the names of the owners of these companies. Al Liwaa Al Akhdar company owned by Alfatih Abdoun, a famous name in the Islamic Movement leadership, operating in west Sennar area. Winter and Summer company owned by Jubara Mohamed Ibrahim, a head of a Farmers’ Union branch, in a partnership with Ahmed Eltayeb, a member of Gezira State Legislative Council, operating in Hajj Abdallah area. Yaquston company owned by Boraii Saeed, former chair of Gezira Labour Union, operating in Al Housh area. Al Warrag company owned by Yousif Atiyatallah (Al Majarabi), operating in Al Basatna area. Abu Sneineh company owned by the late leader of Gezira and Al Manaqil Farmers Union in Wad Albirr area, Abdel Rahim Abu Sneinah. The company of Omar Alamin Alawad, member of Farmers Union executive bureau and its representative on the Board of Directors of the Gezira Scheme, operating in Al Masallamiya area. Sarasir company owned by Ali Siddig Ahmed Albashir, the President’s cousin and a Farmers’ Union’s branch leader in Tabat area. Businesses of Ahmed Omar, pharmacist in Abd Almajid area. Rio company owned by Elshaikh Alubeid Fadl Almawla, operating in Al Turabi area. Al Naseeh company owned by Mosaed Alsiddig, a Farmers’ Union branch leader, operating in Al Mukhtar area. Samah company owned by Abd Albagi Ali, known as Abu Sekeen, son in-law of the Farmers Union treasurer Salah Almardi, operating in Shallaee area. Azeem Alkhair company owned by Alsadig Abdel Bagi Yousif, a Farmers Union leader, in a partnership with Abdel Bagi Alrayyah the former Speaker of Gezira’s legislative council, operating in Shawal area. Seham company owned by Salah Almardi, the treasurer of the Famers Union, in a partnership with his in-law Abdel Bagi Ali, operating in Gaboja area. Mansico company owned by Bilal Ali, a Farmers’ Union branch leader, operating in Al Mansi area. Wad Alnoura company owned by Mudawwy Alsheikh, a Farmers’ Union branch leader, operating in Tahamid area. Al Matoory company owned by Alajab Fadlallah, a Farmers’ Union branch leader, operating in Al Matoory area. Al Sanyoura company owned by Aseel Aldin, a prominent Farmers’ Union branch secretary, operating in Alqurashi area. Al Tijani company owned by Altijani Mohamed Ahmed, operating in Al Huda area. Al-Hafayer company owned by Badr Aldin Osman, a transport contractor, Siddig Salah Almardi, the treasurer of the Farmers Union and, his in-law Abd Albagi Ali. Al-Jouf company owned by Ibrahim Badur, operating in Tahamid area. Qoum Al Rashid company owned by Mustafa Alshami Wad Badur. The company obtained by a special exemption. There are other companies under the names of Zongaha, Matriot, Atiah, Al Badry Koshek, IBH, and Toshna. Indicators of the IASC Corruption Privately owned IASCs receive 273 billion SDG fund from the government earmarked for the Agricultural Renaissance project. In addition, these companies imported machinery at preferential official foreign currency rate and enjoyed tariff exemptions under the cover of contributing to the Gezira Scheme rehabilitation. These machineries were quickly diverted to the private commercial operations, for example in gold mining areas. IASCs have failed to make available the required machineries for rehabilitation of the Scheme’s irrigation canals. The Scheme’s emergency unit revealed in 2015 that there are only 10 pieces of equipment operating in irrigation canal rehabilitation. This number of equipment were far lower than required to clear 14,000 km of irrigation canals. One of the biggest manifestation of corruption of the IASCs is the destruction of the Scheme’s irrigation canals through carrying out unnecessary operations to justify obtaining more money. In addition, their employees lack required technical training to perform these operations. This is evident when examining the removal of 49 thousand cubic metres of silt through deep digging, at a time when the annual deposits of silts is estimated to be around 10 thousand cubic meters. From an engineering point of view, only 6 thousand cubic metres should have been removed and the rest should have been left to flow with the water to enrich the soil of the small farms (Hawasha). This example illustrates the crime these companies are committing against the Scheme by digging deeper than required and widening the canals that robs this irrigation system of its most important feature, the inexpensive gravity irrigation. The high cost of agricultural inputs and services these companies impose on farmers. In their first operational season, these companies have raised the costs of agricultural operations by 145%, achieving about 115 billion SDG in profit. When farmers are not able to pay back debts to these companies because of low yields or lower prices of produce, companies hold farmers’ land as collateral till they pay their debt. The inefficient performance of the IASCs have been mentioned in the final recommendations of the Governmental Gezira Scheme Performance Review Committee chaired by Dr. Taj Elsir Mustafa. The committee’s report, published in May 2013, stated the following: Most of the companies have failed in carrying out their tasks because of lack of technical expertise, financial ability, administration capability and lack of equipment; did not modernize their operations as expected, but instead followed traditional patterns of work several these company disappeared due to failure to meet financial obligations to banks the allocated area of operation for these companies was far bigger than their capacity and capabilities. Combating the Corruption of IASCs (Recommendations, Suggestions and Solutions) Combating the corruption and nepotism inherent in the establishment and functioning of these companies starts with a popular demand to repeal the legislation for to their establishment. This can be achieved by rallying farmers in support of organizations that truly represent their interests, such as the Gezira and Manaqil Farmers Alliance and the farmers’ youth organizations. the demand for the re-establishment of the AED to play its historic and pioneering role in agricultural operations. Trigger Campaigns among the farmers for the implementation of the recommendations of the Governmental Gezira Scheme Performance Review Committee especially the followings; the necessity to stop disposing of the Scheme’s infrastructures and to reinstate what had already been disposed of. This was also was recommended by another government committee , chaired by Prof. Abdalla Abdel Salam. The same committee also indicated that the liquidation of the AED and Gezira railways had no legal basis. This point was also made by Dr. Taj Elsir Mustafa’s committee, when it mentioned that the liquidation transgressed both the decisions of the relevant authority and the rule of law which stipulated that the AED and the railways were to be converted into a publicly traded company and not to be sold or liquidated. The recommendation of Dr. Taj Elsir Mustafa’s committee that the experience of the IASCs require an evaluation to review their financial, administrative and technical competence and to research alternatives. The public funds that was obtained unlawfully from the agricultural renaissance allocation, require legal investigations against those who channels these fund to personal gain and presented their cases to court. To demand that the control over the management of the irrigation system need to be reassigned to the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources. The committee chaired by Prof. Abdallah Abdel Salam also recommended that the management, maintenance and operations of all irrigation canals must be given back to the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources. The farmers and their true organizations must remain aware of plans to take away the land of small farmers when they fail to pay back debts to the IASCs. They must remain conscious and raise the awareness of farmers about this insidious plans and be prepared for such eventuality.
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By itself, abundant shale gas unlikely to alter climate projections Posted On:Wednesday, May 14, 2014 - 12:40 pm While natural gas can reduce greenhouse emissions when it is substituted for higher-emission energy sources, abundant shale gas is not likely to substantially alter total emissions without policies targeted at greenhouse gas reduction, a pair of Duke researchers find. If natural gas is abundant and less expensive, it will encourage greater natural gas consumption and less of fuels such as coal, renewables and nuclear power. The net effect on the climate will depend on whether the greenhouse emissions from natural gas -- including carbon dioxide and methane -- are lower or higher than emissions avoided by reducing the use of those other energy sources. Most evidence indicates that natural gas as a substitute for coal in electricity production, gasoline in transport, and electricity in buildings decreases greenhouse gases. But natural gas production and consumption has higher emissions than renewables and nuclear power. "Over the range of scenarios that we examine, abundant natural gas by itself is neither a climate hero nor a climate villain," said Richard Newell, Gendell Professor of Energy and Environmental Economics and director of the Duke University Energy Initiative. The findings are published in a special issue of Environmental Science and Technology, "Understanding the Risks of Unconventional Shale Gas Development." Download a .pdf of the article here, along with supporting information. Natural gas from shale formations is favored by proponents as a cleaner, inexpensive replacement for fuels such as coal and oil that emit more carbon dioxide and local air pollutants. But extracting, processing and transporting the fuel can result in emissions of methane -- itself a potent greenhouse gas. The precise level of these methane emissions is uncertain, and extensive research on the subject is under way. "We find that so far increased natural gas has mostly taken the place of coal, but looking forward there also may be increased consumption for sectors such as industry, as well as some degree of displacement of zero-emission sources such as renewables and nuclear," said Daniel Raimi, associate in research at the Energy Initiative. "The net effect on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions appears likely to be small in the absence of policies specifically directed at greenhouse gas mitigation." Newell and Raimi draw on a range of evidence, including modeling of two hypothetical futures: one where natural gas production and prices follow a "reference case" scenario, and another where increased shale gas production lowers prices and encourages increased consumption. They also account for a range of methane emissions scenarios, ranging from 25 percent below to 50 percent above the levels estimated by the U.S. Environmental Production Agency. "The fact that increased shale gas doesn’t have a huge climate impact on its own doesn’t mean it’s not important. If broad climate policy is enacted, having abundant natural gas could be very helpful by making it cheaper for society to achieve climate goals," Newell said. "If natural gas is expensive, then it will be more costly to switch away from fuels that have higher greenhouse gas emissions, such as coal and oil. But keeping methane emissions low is essential to maximizing the potential benefits of natural gas." The climate benefits of natural gas are reduced if there are a lot of methane emissions, but while "recent evidence suggests methane emissions may be higher than the EPA currently estimates, it’s not clear how this new information will affect those estimates," Raimi said. "Reducing methane emissions is important, but even if methane emissions from natural gas systems are significantly higher than current EPA estimates, we did not find this significantly alters the impact of abundant natural gas on long-term national or global greenhouse gas emissions pathways."
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NBFCs or Non- Banking Financial Companies are an important part of the Indian economy. The area where these entities play an essential role includes equipment leasing, hire-purchase, making loans and investments. The Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 through Chapter III B entrusts the regulation and supervision with the Reserve Bank of India with the following listed objectives: - Ensuring a healthy growth of the financial companies. - To make sure that the NBFC companies function as a part of the financial system within the specified framework and policy. The existence and functioning of the NBFC Company does not lead to systematic aberrations. - To maintain the surveillance quality as well as supervision that is exercised by the Banks over the NBFCs. This can be done by keeping a track with the developments that takes place in this sector of the financial system. The Reserve Bank also issued directions to the Companies with regard to acceptance of public deposits, prudential norms like capital adequacy, income recognition, asset classification, provisions for bad and doubtful debt, exposure norms and other measures to monitor the financial solvency and reporting to RBI. NBFC Audit is also made mandatory and directions were also issued to the auditors regarding the same. The directions were also issued to the auditors to report non-compliance to the RBI Act. What is a Non-Banking Financial Company or NBFC? According to Section 45 (I) (f) read with Section 45-I (c) of the RBI Act, 1934 as amended in 1997 - Non-Banking Financial Company or NBFC is an institution whose principal business is of receiving deposits or that of a financial institution such as lending, investment in securities, hire purchase finance or equipment leasing. As specified in December 6, 2006 of RBI circular the companies financing real or financial assets for productive or economic activity will be classified as Asset Finance Company. The remaining companies are classified as loan/investment companies. The following are the types of NBFCs: - Asset Finance Company; - Investment Company; and - Loan Company. What is the Procedure to Conduct NBFC Audit? The necessary steps involved in conducting NBFC Audit are as follows: To Ascertain the Business of the Company The first step in carrying out the NBFC Audit is to go through the Memorandum of Association (MOA) and Articles of Association (AOA) of the Company. The auditor may also inspect the minutes of the Board or Committee Meetings and also discuss with the people in the apex level to bring clarity and a better picture of the principal functions of the company. Based on the classification of the company into a loan company or Investment Company, it is accordingly needed to comply with the provisions with regard to acceptance of deposits as contained in the NBFC Public Deposit Directions for the purpose of NBFC Audit. Evaluation of the Internal Control System It is the management’s responsibility to maintain an adequate accounting system incorporating various controls based on the size and nature of the business. An auditor must gain an understanding of the accounting system and the related internal controls adopted by the NBFC to determine its nature, timing and extent of his audit procedures. The auditor while performing NBFC Audit must also ensure that the NBFC has an effective system of periodical review of advances in place which will facilitate monitoring and effective follow up. Registration with RBI It is necessary for all NBFCs to have a minimum net owned fund of Rs. two crores for obtaining a Certificate of Registration to commence its business under Section 45-IA of the RBI Act. The auditor then obtains a copy of the Certificate of Registration of the company to ensure that the company is not functioning without the certificate. If in case the company has applied to obtain the Certificate of Registration, the auditor needs to get a copy of the application of the same for purpose of NBFC Audit. NBFC Directions regarding Public Deposits The auditor should determine if the NBFC is a loan company, an investment company, or a hire purchase finance company or an equipment leasing company. If in case the NBFC does not lay in any of the classifications, it is the duty of the auditor to classify the type of the company to make sure they comply with the related regulations or not for NBFC Audit. NBFC Prudential Norms Directions The auditor for the purpose of NBFC Audit checks the company’s compliance with the required prudential norms based on their income source such as from investments, accounting standards, asset classification, accounting for investments, provisioning for bad/doubtful debts, capital adequacy norms, etc. What are the Types of NBFC Audit? There are three different types of audits, as per the ISO 19011:2018 standards that are listed below: - Process Audit: This type of audit is conducted to verify whether the processes in the companies are following the predetermined instructions provided by the Governing bodies. Also, the primary objective of performing this type of NBFC audit is to ensure that any company process does not involve any activity that does not adhere to these rules. - Product Audit: This type of NBFC audit is done for any specific product or service. The auditing of the product or service includes or may include hardware, processed material, or software. This audit is performed to ensure that they conform to the specifications, performance standards, or the customer requirements. - System Audit: This type of NBFC audit is conducted on the management level. It is conducted to ensure a proper developed system and whether everything is useful and in conjunction with the specified requirements. What are the Key Audit Areas in NBFC Audit? There are many points included in the Auditor’s Report that differs in the type of activity that the NBFCs are indulged in. Some of the key inclusions to be mentioned in an Auditor’s report are as follow: - Physical verification of all the shares or securities held by the company. - NBFC prudential norms fixed or not. - Verifying that the NBFC has not advances any loan against their respective shares. - If there is any window dressing which means any new loan is passed to repay an existing loan. - Check the Board’s Minutes with regard to any purchase and sale of investments. - To ascertain whether the requirements needed in AS 12 “Accounting for Investment” has been compiled by the NBFC. - To obtain all the balance confirmation of the respective parties. - Check whether the NBFC has invested or lent the mentioned limits to a single borrower. - Also, confirming whether the NBFC follows up on loans and advances and has a proper appraisal. - To verify that the payment for acquiring any asset has been directly made to the supplier and the original invoice has also been drawn out in the name of NBFC. - To confirm if the hire purchase is made against the vehicles, then the registration certificate must contain an endorsement in favour of the hire purchase company. - Confirming the insurance of the assets given on hire purchase. - Also ascertaining that the NBFC has got a proper appraisal system for extending the leasing of equipment and finance generated through it. - Verify that the lease agreement made with the lessee related to the equipment given on lease. What is an Auditor’s Report in terms of NBFC Audit? The Reserve Bank of India stimulates the auditor’s report under the auditor’s direction as per Section 45MA of the RBI Act, 1934.The RBI guidelines applies to auditors of all the registered and non-registered NBFCs whether they are accepting deposits or not. - The Auditor first of all creates a report and submits it to the Board of Directors of the Company. The report made by auditor is as per Section 143 of the Companies Act, 2013. - The contents provided in an Auditor’s report are different in various cases such as the certificate of Registration obtained from the Banks etc. - The audit is conducted once at the end of every financial year. - The auditor’s report regarding NBFC Audit must include the reason for all the unfavorable or qualified statement’s given by the auditor on the contents of the report and also submit a separate report to the Board of Directors of the Company. - The Auditor’s Report regarding the NBFC Audit must be submitted to the Regional Office of the NBFCs at the end of financial year. This must be done within one month from the date of finalizing of the Balance Sheet and should not be later than 30th December of that year. What are Statutory Audits and Internal Audits with respect to NBFC Audit? This type of Audit is mandatory for all companies registered under the Companies Act .The purpose of this type of NBFC Audit is almost the same as internal audits. The statutory auditor prepares a report after auditing the Book of Accounts of the Company in a prescribed format. The main aim behind conducting of a Statutory Audit is to ensure whether the company is providing a fair and accurate representation of its activities by evaluating the bank balances, bookkeeping records, financial transactions, etc. Internal audit is the process to evaluate the internal control systems of the company, corporate governance and the processing of the accounts. The main purpose of internal audit is to identify the problems and also find solutions before any inspection is done. It helps in detecting any issues within the internal systems of the company, and ultimately improves operational efficiency. Internal audits are important because it assists in identifying the problems in the functioning of the company and also solves them. It improves the effectiveness of governance, control, and risk management process. By conducting an internal audit, an organization can avoid penalties that might be imposed on them otherwise. However, performing an internal audit is not mandatory, unlike the Statutory Audit. But, it is done to check every function and other aspects that might be caught by a Statutory Auditor and the company might become liable for the penalty. Who is authorized to Conduct NBFC Audit? NBFC Audit is conducted by an eligible person appointed by the management of the company. It is lead by the Chief Audit Executive (CAE) who then further reports to the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors with the reporting of the Chief Audit Officer. As per the guidelines of RBI, a CA conducts the Statutory Audit under the Companies Act, 2013. It is a type of audit performed by the qualified auditors who works as an external auditor and independent parties
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Seed is one of the most expensive inputs for soybean growers, so it’s essential to plant the right amount of seed to minimize input costs while still maintaining high yields, especially in years like this year where prices are low, and margins are tight. Numerous seeding rate studies carried out across the U.S. suggest that the optimal plant population for maximum return on investment is 80,000 to 120,000 plants per acre. We’ll take a deeper look at some of this research below. First, is work carried out by Dr. Dunphy right here in North Carolina evaluating a wide range of plant populations. In the graph below, notice that there is very little yield difference (especially for the earlier planting dates) in the treatments after you pass 100,000 plants per acre, suggesting there is no value in planting higher populations. This work includes data collected from over 50 different environments but focused on later maturing, determinate varieties. Next we’ll take a look at some preliminary work carried out by Dr. Rachel Vann and county extension agents on early maturing varieties. This research was conducted last year on maturity group III and IV varieties. Six different seeding rates were evaluated ranging from 60,000 to 160,000 seeds/A. Combining data across locations, soybean yield declined at the lowest seeding rates (60,000 and 80,000) and stabilized at rates greater than 100,000 seeds/A. Yield declines at lower seeding rates were generally more pronounced in high yielding environments. This suggest that even for our earlier maturing indeterminate varieties, shooting for 100,000 plants/A would maximize ROI. This research demonstrates that soybean plants have the unique ability to adapt and the plants can compensate for a wide range of planting populations. The yield per acre remains relatively constant across planting rates, likely because the seeds produced per plant is inversely related to the number of plants per acre. However, this graph shows how yield is correlated with plants/acre. When you are deciding how much seed to use, you need to consider the germination rate. We would expect to see poorer seed quality and lower germination in some varieties this year due to adverse weather in 2018. You should check the reported germination for each seed lot and adjust your planting rate accordingly to get the desired number of plants/acre. So, is a 2 or 3 bushel per acre increase in yield, worth the extra cost of seed? Well, assuming a seed cost of $60 a bag (that’s approximately $0.40 per thousand seed) we can calculate the cost of seed for these populations. To pay for the cost of going from 100,000 seed/acre to 200,000 you would need to increase yield by 4.3 bu/acre (assuming $10 soybeans). Based on the data collected in North Carolina and across the U.S., we would not expect this may not be a profitable decision. While reducing seeding rates can help save on input costs, remember to there are times when higher populations may be beneficial (as we saw in our On-Farm research trials). Higher rates are recommended for the following: - Very early planting - Late planting (after July 1) - Low productivity soils - Planting with a drill I know many of you are not comfortable going below 100,000 plants per acre, and I’m not suggesting you all do that, as you know your fields best. But I would challenge you to try a seeding rate a little lower than you typically use. This is an easy way to save money in tight economic times without sacrificing significant (if any) yield.
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The cash receipts journal manages all cash inflows of a business organization. In other words, this journal is used to record all cash coming into the business. For recording all cash outflows, another journal known as cash disbursements journal or cash payments journal is used. For making entries in a cash receipts journal, the receipt of cash is usually divided into the following categories: - Receipt of cash from cash sales - Receipt of cash from credit customers or receivables and - Receipt of cash from other sources A cash receipts journal usually looks like the following: Explanation of the columns used in cash receipts journal - Date: The date at which the cash is received is entered in date column. - Account credited: The account credited column is used to enter the title or name of the account that is credited in ledger as a result of cash inflow. For every inflow of cash, one or more accounts are essentially credited in accounts receivable subsidiary ledger or in general ledger or in both. - Post reference: The post reference column is used to enter the account number of subsidiary or general ledger account to which the entry belongs. - Explanation: The explanation or reason of the cash inflow is briefly explained in this column. - Cash: In cash column the amount of cash received is entered. The cash account in general ledger is debited by the total of this column. - Sales discount: Sellers allow discount to customers that make payment within discount period. The amount of discount allowed to customers is entered in sales discount column. The sales account maintained in general ledger is debited by the total of this column. - Accounts receivable: When a credit customer makes the payment, his account is credited in accounts receivable subsidiary ledger. The amount by which a customer’s account is credited is entered in this column. - Sales: This column is used to record cash sales. Every time a cash sale is made, the amount received is entered in this sales column - Other accounts: This column is used to record the receipt of cash from sources other than cash sales or credit customers. Examples include the receipt of cash for interest, rent and the sale of old assets etc. - Cost of goods sold/inventory: In cash receipt journal, this column is used to record the cost of merchandise sold for cash. This column is also found in sales journal where it is used to enter the cost of goods sold on credit. The total of this column is debited to cost of goods sold account and credited to inventory account in general ledger. The following example illustrates how a cash receipt journal is written and how entries from this journal are posted to relevant subsidiary and general ledger accounts.
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The flashcards below were created by user on FreezingBlue Flashcards. Investors have many ways to protect their investments. The following list describes some of these protective services. The INDENTURE is a large document outlining all of the requirements of the issuing municipality. Part of the indenture can be found in the official statement, but it is usually a separate document held by the trustee. The indenture outlines all the important features of the bond — maturity dates, interest rates, name of the trustee and trustee bank, and all protective covenants. It does not have the RE-OFFERING YIELDS. RE-OFFERING YIELDS are yields at which the bond is selling in the market, so re-offering cannot be guaranteed. - PROTECTIVE COVENANTS are agreements made between the issuer and the purchaser of a revenue bond. Protective covenants are set forth in the indenture. Protective covenants are basically promises made by the issuer to perform certain duties in connection with the bond. The most important protective covenants are: - •Rate covenants - •Insurance covenants - •Maintenance covenants - •Revenues pledge covenants A RATE COVENANT Ensures that the issuer will keep rates high enough to meet operation and maintenance expenses as well as debt service and any other costs that the issuer may incur. Is a promise by the issuer to carry sufficient insurance on the facility to protect the bondholders against destruction or damage to the facility Is a promise by the issuer to maintain the facility in good working order and to keep it in good repair so as to maintain revenues. REVENUES PLEDGE COVENANT - Is a promise by the issuer on how the money received in revenues is to be paid. The items paid first and second are outlined in the flow of funds, and depend on the type of pledge. The types of pledges are: - -Gross revenues pledges - -Net revenues pledges Most revenue bond indentures allow for PERIODIC REVIEWS or audits of the project books by a consulting engineer or other qualified party. FLOW OF FUNDS Is a term that describes how (and for what purpose) the funds generated by a facility will be spent. The flow of funds is one of the most important bond provisions set forth in the indenture. Is the fund into which all revenues must first be deposited at the time they are received by the issuer. Depending on the type of pledge in the revenues pledge covenant found in the indenture, money from the revenue fund would go either to the operation and maintenance fund or the debt service fund. (Both funds are defined below.) If the fund contains a NET REVENUES PLEDGE, payments made from the revenue fund must first be used to meet the ongoing expenses of the project. (These payments are made to the operation and maintenance fund.) Remaining funds will be used to pay debt service on the bond. If the fund contains a GROSS REVENUES PLEDGE, payments made from the revenue fund must first be used to pay the principal and interest (debt service) on the bond. (These payments are made to the debt service fund.) Remaining funds will be used to pay operation and maintenance costs on the facility. OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE FUND Is a fund that contains money to be spent only on the operation and maintenance of the facility A SINKING FUND is a fund that must be set up for term bonds only, and is money the issuer must regularly set aside for eventually redeeming its bonds, as specified in the indenture. This fund assures the bondholders that there will be sufficient dollars available at maturity. A sinking fund is set up by the issuer to deposit part of the income, either from taxes or revenues, in an ESCROW ACCOUNT. This money may not be used for anything except to pay for the principal of the issue when it comes due. The money from the sinking fund must be invested in U.S. government securities for safety (not put into a bank). Money must be set aside and deposited into this account every year. The money from the sinking fund must be invested in U.S. government securities for safety (not put into a bank). It is used as an investment to earn a return until the payment is due — whether through a partial call of the bonds, waiting until the bonds mature, or repurchasing the bonds in the open market. SINKING FUND CALL The money in the sinking fund is used by the municipality to buy its own bonds in the open market if they are at a discount, or to pay off bonds that are called. If part of the bond issue is called AND PAID by this sinking fund, it is known as a SINKING FUND CALL. Term bonds usually have a sinking fund since the whole bond comes due at one time and provides money for the issuer at that time. Serial bonds do not need a sinking fund since part of the issue comes due every year. However, a sinking fund is usually provided with a serial bond to put excess money in for possible calls as well as for the part of the issue that comes due each year. DEBT SERVICE FUND Is a fund that contains additional money to be spent only on the bond’s principal and interest payment (debt service) if, at a certain point, the revenues are temporarily not enough to make these payments. If any money remains in the revenue fund after debt service and operation and maintenance costs have been paid, it is allocated to the funds listed below, in the following order: •DEBT SERVICE RESERVE FUND: Serves as a reserve to pay debt service in future years. •RESERVE MAINTENANCE FUND: Serves as a reserve to pay for unanticipated maintenance costs on the facility. •RENEWAL AND REPLACEMENT FUND: Serves as a reserve to pay for the replacement of worn-out equipment and to make repairs over the life of the project. •SURPLUS FUND: Can be used for any lawful purpose, including the redemption of bonds or the reduction of fee payments by users. Which of the following provides for the debt service and maintenance of a municipal revenue bond? (A) Maintenance covenant (B) Record covenant (C) Rate covenant (D) Insurance covenant (C) Rate covenant. A rate covenant keeps rates high enough to pay for all of the necessary operation and maintenance costs to make the facility run. The other covenants are technically just promises, like keeping records, having insurance, and maintaining the facility. FEASIBILITY STUDIES AND ENGINEERING REPORTS Before a revenue bond may be issued, a research analyst is hired to perform a FEASIBILITY STUDY and engineers are hired to draw plans and produce ENGINEERING REPORTS for the project. The feasibility study and the engineering reports are usually requested to determine whether the project is actually needed and/or whether the needed revenue will be available. The engineering report is also issued to show that the facility will stand up to the elements of nature and is a structurally sound facility. A feasibility study and an engineering report are always required on a proposed facility that is being financed by a revenue bond. Prior to a municipal bond being issued, a municipality must obtain a LEGAL OPINION from a BOND COUNSEL . A BOND COUNSEL is a lawyer who is knowledgeable in the laws of municipal bonds. The legal opinion by the bond counsel, in effect, states that the bond is a municipal bond as determined by existing local and tax laws and that the interest is exempt from federal and state (if applicable) taxes. - In making its opinion, the bond counsel: - •Researches the state and local laws to check into the requirements for a bond to have tax-exempt status - •May assist in getting favorable legislation passed in the locality, if necessary - •Supplies information to the underwriters for the official statement BOND RATINGS AND RATING ORGANIZATIONS Just as each consumer has a credit score measuring their creditworthiness, the creditworthiness of municipalities and the bonds they issue is also measured to provide investors with an indication of the issuer’s financial strength and ability to make principal and interest payments. BOND RATINGS are a measure of the chance of default of interest and principal by the issuer. The three major bond-rating organizations are: - -Standard and Poor (S&P) - -Fitch Investor’s Service - These agencies rate: - •General obligation bonds and some revenue bonds that are backed by property taxes This means that the lower the chance of a municipality either missing an interest payment or not making a principal payment, the higher the rating. When a municipality misses interest payments on a bond, the ratings go down, usually to the DEFAULT RATING, which is D for S&P and C for Moody’s. REFUNDED or PRE-REFUNDED If a bond is REFUNDED or PRE-REFUNDED (or ADVANCE-REFUNDED, explained more fully in Section 8.7), the ratings by both S&P and Moody’s go up to AAA and Aaa, respectively. The ratings for each rating service are shown in the chart below. The more added to the letter, the higher the rating; for example, AA is better than A, and A1 is better than an A rating. MAKE SURE TO COME BACK TO THIS SECTION AND MEMORIZE THE RATINGS Both Moody’s and Standard & Poor only rate large offerings. These rating organizations use a number of factors when rating each issue, including any or all of the following: - •The amount of bonds the issuer has outstanding at the time of rating - •The amount of overlapping debt, if any - •The amount of debt of each taxpayer (per capita debt) - •The amount of population, its growth and character - •The method of generating income for payment - •The amount of property and its assessed valuation - •How well the municipality has collected taxes in the past White’s Tax-Exempt Bond Rating Service or White’s Ratings Is a rating agency that classifies municipal securities based on the market factors of the trading of the bonds. It does not use the credit conditions of the municipality itself, but rather how the public sees the municipality as an investment and how they receive new issues of that municipality in the market. Example: A Baa- or BBB-rated bond by Moody’s or S & P’s for instance, might have an AA rating by White’s because the municipal issuer might be highly respected even if there is a lot of outstanding debt per capita. BANK QUALIFIED BONDS. In addition to ratings on municipal bonds that give investors an idea of how strong the bonds are, some municipal bonds are also classified as BANK QUALIFIED BONDS. Most of the time these bonds are rated BBB/Baa or higher, but the ability of the bonds to pay is not what makes the bonds BANK QUALIFIED. A bank-qualified bond is a municipal bond purchased by a bank that allows the bank to deduct 80% of the carrying costs it paid to purchase and hold the bonds. Carrying costs are the interest expenses incurred to purchase or carry an inventory of securities, including costs for purchasing municipal bonds. The tax code does not allow banks to deduct the interest costs for purchasing and holding municipal bonds, EXCEPT for bank qualified bonds. It is a special benefit so banks can have bonds available for their customers. Which of the following is an S&P rating? (B) AA. S&P’s ratings are all capital letters. Moody’s ratings are capital letters with lower case letters. (this multiple choice question has been scrambled) MUNICIPAL SECURITIES RULEMAKING BOARD (MSRB) Regulates the actions of underwriters, broker/dealers, and the people who sell municipal bonds. MSRB rules do not apply to issuers, they only apply to the people who sell the municipal securities. The voters have the say in the issuance of new municipal issues. The two markets for municipal bonds are the market for new issues and the secondary market. THE PRIMARY MARKET — NEW ISSUES Before a municipal issue can come to market, it must be advertised. With general obligation bonds, two advertisements are placed: A NOTICE OF SALE and a TOMBSTONE. With a revenue bond, only one advertisement, the tombstone, is used. A NOTICE OF SALE Is an advertisement by a municipality to prospective underwriters wherein the municipality requests that bids be submitted on the cost of underwriting a new issue. This type of advertisement is only used in connection with a competitive underwriting. Is an advertisement by the underwriters to prospective buyers. Tombstone advertisements may only include very basic information regarding the new issue , including the following: - •The offering price - •The name of the issuer - •The dated date (i.e., the date that interest starts to accrue) - •The dates on which interest payments are made - •The offering scale, which shows the yield to maturity - •How to obtain an official statement - •The name of the underwriter - •The names of the members of the selling syndicate (and occasionally the selling group)Tombstone advertisements may not include any inducements to the new issue. They are for informational purposes only. The names of the members of the selling syndicate (and selling group) appear either in order of participation amount or in an order that is otherwise determined by agreement. UNDERWRITING MUNICIPAL BONDS The two methods of underwriting municipal securities and bringing them to market are: The issuer advertises for underwriters to submit bids on the cost of underwriting the issue. The issuer chooses the underwriter that has offered the bid that allows the municipality to generate the highest possible amount of proceeds from the underwriting at the lowest possible interest cost. The various broker/dealer firms who wish to compete in the bid to underwrite submit their bids to the issuer after seeing the advertisement called the NOTICE OF SALE. In a NEGOTIATED UNDERWRITING, the issuer asks a broker/dealer with which the issuer has an established working relationship to submit a cost estimate for underwriting the issue. If the cost estimate is too high, the issuer tries to negotiate a lower cost with that broker/dealer. If a lower cost cannot be negotiated, the issuer calls another underwriter. Both negotiated and competitive underwritings are covered in the Underwriting Module. All municipal bonds, when newly issued, come with an OFFICIAL STATEMENT. The OFFICIAL STATEMENT discloses all the important aspects of the bond, the issuer, and the protections for the buyer. This also includes any call features. Which of the following is not a method or component of a municipal underwriting? (D) The bid (C) Standby. A standby underwriting is not a form of municipal underwriting. As shown in the Underwriting Module, a standby underwriting is a form of corporate underwriting. Competitive and negotiated are both methods of municipal underwritings, as mentioned above. The bid is part of the competitive underwriting in which different underwriters submit competing bids to the issuer. THE SECONDARY MARKET All trading of municipal securities in the SECONDARY MARKET (the market consisting of trading between two investors) is done in the over-the-counter market. Bonds that are sold by an investor are considered sold in the secondary market. Any issue being sold for the second time or more is considered a SECONDARY ISSUE, so the market where it is sold is called the secondary market . Remember, bonds that are sold directly from the issuer are primary issues sold in the primary market. are broker/dealers who buy the bonds from investors wanting to sell and then resell them to investors wanting to buy - The three major secondary market-trading venues are: - •Interdealer trading - •The retail business, which is trading between individuals - •The institutional investor business (generally consisting of entities investing millions of dollars) SOURCES OF INFORMATION FOR MUNICIPAL BONDS For information about new or secondary municipal bond issues, a broker/dealer or a municipal bond dealer can consult any one of several publications. - -The BOND BUYER - -The MUNIFACT WIRE - -The KENNY WIRE and the C-WIRE The BOND BUYER Is a publication that is now produced online for underwriters only . Underwriters must know all the information in this daily newspaper. Although the Bond Buyer is shown online daily, it only produces various indexes once a week. The Bond Buyer Revenue Index is composed of 25 revenue bonds with 30 years or more to maturity . There are three general obligation indexes: the GO 11 and the GO 20, and the GO 40 all with bonds maturing in 20 - -The GO 11 index has an average rating of AA. - -The GO 20 index has an average rating of A+ (A1). - -The GO 40 index has an average rating of BBB. The type of information that underwriters must know, including important features and lists, is covered in detail in the Underwriting Module. The MUNIFACT WIRE is a wire service for secondary trading, with some underwriters watching it. •The Munifact Wire is run by the Bond Buyer and provides a great deal of information regarding new issues of municipal bonds in both the primary and the secondary markets. It gives information about the issuer, the indenture, and any information for analyzing the ratings and quality of the issues. There are no prices or yields. The KENNY WIRE and the C-WIRE Are wire services for secondary trading. •The Kenny Wire and the C-Wire provide information about municipal securities. More importantly, these services are known for finding and listing bonds for which dealers are seeking bids in the secondary market. The Wall Street Journal and local newspapers carry some tombstone advertisements and notices of sale. However, these resources are generally considered secondary to the above-mentioned publications. The GO 40 index is composed of which of the following? (A) Revenue bonds of 25 years to maturity (B) General obligation bonds of 20 years to maturity (C) General obligation bonds of 30 years to maturity (D) General obligation bonds of 40 years to maturity Answer (B) General obligation bonds of 20 years to maturity. All of the GO indexes are composed of 20-year bonds. The Revenue Index is composed of 30-year bonds. The GO Index has three indexes that calculate the yields for general obligation bonds, all with different amounts of bonds; one has 11 bonds, the second has 20 bonds, and the third has 40 bonds. The Revenue Index has 25 bonds that are used to calculate the yields for the index. SECONDARY MARKET FOR MUNICIPAL BONDS The secondary market for municipal bonds is thriving, especially when investors sell off their bonds because they need money. The following is information on the secondary market. INTERDEALER TRADING is a term that describes trading between BOND TRADERS. Bond traders are firms that have a municipal department trading in the secondary market. These bond traders make a market in the different municipal bonds that are available, meaning that they buy bonds from investors or other dealers who want to sell the bonds, or they sell bonds to investors or other dealers who want to buy bonds. - When dealers want to purchase certain bonds, they contact other bond traders and request prices on those bonds (if they are available for purchase). If those dealers cannot find any of the bonds they want, they then contact one of the many BROKERS’ BROKERS, and ask this broker to find the bonds they want. A firm that is a broker’s broker only acts in an assistant role called an AGENCY BASIS. A broker’s broker: - •Never acts as a market maker - •Helps dealers find a particular bond they are looking for - •Helps institutional firms buy and sell bonds - •Helps large buyers and/or sellers remain anonymous - •In general, acts in a broker capacity - •Never acts in a principal transaction even when buying bonds to help municipal firms fill an institution’s order Bond dealers sometimes wish to remain anonymous when trying to sell certain bonds because they may not want the whole dealer community to know that they are selling a particular bond at a particular price. In these cases, dealers also use a brokers’ broker to help them sell the bonds since the brokers’ broker does not reveal the identity of the selling dealer. INDIVIDUAL INVESTORS are called HOUSEHOLD INVESTORS These investors are usually in the higher tax brackets and are looking for an investment that gives a yield exempt from taxes. These investors contact municipal dealer departments of broker firms to buy or sell the municipal securities for their portfolio. These firms, or dealers, then fill the individual investor’s requests or contact the broker’s broker to find the bonds the investors desire. Are LARGE investors who purchase large amounts of bonds (or other securities) at one time. Institutional investors consist of commercial banks, insurance companies, and bond mutual funds. These investors buy large quantities of each issue. On occasion, some of them purchase an entire issue. A broker’s broker is used to doing which of the following? (A) Buy bonds for his own account (B) Find bonds for another broker/dealer and act as an agent in purchasing them (C) Find bonds for a client and act as an agent in purchasing them (D) Help a broker/dealer that is going broke Answer (B) Find bonds for another broker/dealer and act as an agent in purchasing them. A broker’s broker is a go-between, helping other brokers find and buy bonds. QUOTES: DEALER-TO-DEALER AND DEALER-TO-CUSTOMERS Municipal bonds are quoted in basis points, also known as BiPs. A quote in basis points is in yield to maturity basis. When making a quote for a municipal bond, each basis point is equal to 1/100 of 1%, or .0001. - •Thus, a bond quoted at a 7.85 basis is actually selling on a 7.85% yield to maturity. - •Arise of three basis points (3 BiPs) raises this quote to 7.88%. - •Arise of 12 BiPs raises the original quote to 7.97%. - •Arise of 113 BiPs raises the original quote to 8.98%. When a bond is quoted in basis points, the only way to find the dollar amount is to use a BASIS BOOK or calculate it on a bond calculator. Since basis is a “yield,” there is no dollar equivalent because a 7% six-year bond quoted at 7.25 basis would be priced differently than a 7% 20-year bond also quoted on a 7.25 basis. •Therefore, the only way to change a basis to dollars for the bond, or to change the value in dollars for a bond to basis is to use a BASIS BOOK. Bonds at Par, Premium, or Discount - Bonds are sold to investors at: - •FACE VALUE - •ABOVE FACE VALUE - •BELOW FACE VALUE When a bond sells at its FACE VALUE, it is SELLING AT PAR or selling at 100. The basis quote is equal to the nominal yield. When a bond is priced ABOVE FACE VALUE, it is being priced at a PREMIUM or selling above 100. The basis quote is less than the nominal yield. It will be quoted at the “yield to call.” When a bond is priced BELOW FACE VALUE, it is being priced at a DISCOUNT or selling below 100. The basis quote is greater than the nominal yield. It will be quoted at the “yield to maturity.” If a bond is selling at a premium, the quote from the broker to a client must take into consideration the fact that the bond could all be called. Therefore, the price of all premium bonds must take into account the possibility of in-whole calls, and if the bond is callable at par, the broker must quote the yield to call. A FIRM QUOTE Is a quote given by dealers when they are ready or able to do business at a specified price. Dealers can place a restriction of time on the quote (e.g., 10 minutes, or firm for one hour with five-minute recall). This recall allows dealers to recall the bid during the hour. When dealers call the traders back, the traders must make an immediate decision. The five minutes is an antiquated notion that five minutes notice must be given. A firm quote is a forcing bid to make potential investors make up their minds. It is also an out for dealers if they have a better offer. Although dealers can give firm quotes to multiple potential investors at the same time, they must do business in the order in which they have spoken to them. Are given for informational purposes only. They can be given at any time on any type of bond — general obligation or revenue. A subject quote is given when the dealer is not committed to doing business at that price, but rather is simply informing the potential investor of the general price range of the bond. If the potential investor is really interested in purchasing, the dealer may offer a firm quote which may differ from the subject quote provided. Your firm’s trading department is called by another broker/dealer that is interested in purchasing bonds from your firm. The trading department gives a quote of, "7.80% yield, good for an hour with a five-minute recall." Which of the following is true about this quote? (A) The other firm has control of the bonds for one hour, and after the hour it has five minutes to respond. (B) The other firm has control of the bonds for one hour, but during the hour your firm can call the other firm back with a five-minute "fill or kill." (C) The other firm has control of the bonds for one hour, but during the five-minute period your firm can show the bonds to other broker/dealers. (D) The other firm has control of the bonds for one hour, and your firm cannot show the bonds to any other broker/dealers in that hour until it gives the other firm a five-minute warning. Answer (B) The other firm has control of the bonds for one hour, but during the hour your firm can call the other firm back with a five-minute "fill or kill." During the hour, your firm can show the bonds, but cannot sell them until it gives the other firm the five-minute call. FEATURES & CHARACTERISTICS OF MUNICIPAL BONDS If the bond has a call provision, it must also list the yield to call if the yield to call is lower than the yield to maturity. - All bonds have three yields: - •NOMINAL YIELD (also known as the COUPON RATE) - •CURRENT YIELD - •YIELD TO MATURITY - •A YIELD is defined as the amount of money returned to the investors from their investment. The NOMINAL YIELD is also known as the COUPON or the RATE. This is the fixed amount of interest that is paid every year. Remember that sometimes there can be more than six months from the dated date to the first interest payment date. After the first payment, all interest payments are six months apart. The CURRENT YIELD is the yield based on the amount of income the investor is receiving in relationship to the current market price. To refresh your memory, the formula is: - CURRENT YIELD = ANNUAL INTEREST AMOUNT (NOMINAL YIELD)/ - CURRENT MARKET PRICE Write this formula out three times everytime you see this flash card YIELD TO MATURITY — ALSO KNOWN AS BASIS The YIELD TO MATURITY of a bond takes into account the price discount from (or premium over) the face amount of the bond. Simplified, the yield to maturity is a yield that also takes into account the discount or premium spread out over the years to maturity. Yield to maturity is also called BASIS. - For the TEST, be aware that: - •The yield to maturity and the current yield are more than the nominal yield for discount bonds. - •The yield to maturity and the current yield are less than the nominal yield for premium bonds. When a bond is selling at a premium, which of the following would be highest relative to the others? (A) Current yield (B) Yield to maturity (C) Nominal yield Answer (C) Nominal yield is always the highest in a premium bond. The yield to maturity or basis and the current yield are lower than the nominal yield, because at maturity investors receive less than what they paid for the bond. Depending on the length to maturity, either the current yield or the basis could be the lowest. Remember, when a bond is at a premium, the nominal yield is always the highest. When a bond is at a discount, the nominal yield is always the lowest. Three types of YIELD CURVES are used to describe the relationships between yields on fixed rate investments and the maturity dates for these investments. These curves are graphically represented as: - •A normal yield curve - •An inverted yield curve - •A flat yield curve The NORMAL yield curve has lower interest rates in the early maturities and higher interest rates in the later years. The reason for this is that the holders of long-term bonds should get more interest for holding the bonds for a longer time. The INVERTED yield curve has higher interest rates in the early maturities and lower interest rates in the later years. This is uncommon, but occurs when interest rates are high and are expected to become lower in the coming years. FLAT YIELD CURVE The flat yield curve has all of the maturities equal, or with very little increase of not more than .2% (20 basis points) or .3% (30 basis points). In reality, the curves change all the time due to interest rate changes and changes in supply and demand of bonds or other fixed rate investments. If interest rates change, the bond prices change. Longer-term bonds usually change the most in price when interest rates change. Remember, when presented with a sample of bonds with different maturities and asked which will change the most in price, always pick the longest bond. Regarding the changing yields, remember when a bond sells at par, the nominal yield, current yield, and the yield to maturity are equal. If you are asked to rank bonds in their order of yield when the bonds are not selling at par, always begin with the nominal yield. Then, when the price changes — either down to a discount or up to a premium — the current yield, YTM, and YTC will change inversely; the current yield will move the least amount, the YTC will move the most, and the YTM will be between current and YTC. Thus: •The order of all four yields will be: N, C, B, M, C — Nominal, Current, Basis, YTM, YTC. INVERSE RELATIONSHIP OF BOND PRICES AND YIELDS As interest rates go up, bond prices go down. As interest rates go down, bond prices go up. This is known as the inverse relationship of bond price and bond yields. A quote for a 7% municipal serial bond might be priced at a 7.20% basis, meaning the 7% coupon bond is selling at a yield to maturity basis of 7.20%. (Basis is just a shortened term for yield to maturity basis). Bonds that sell at par value have the yield to maturity, current yield, and nominal yield equal to each other. This is because there is not any appreciation or loss on the bond to affect the yield to maturity When an issuer fails to make an interest payment, the bonds are considered to be in DEFAULT and trade without accrued interest. - Bonds trading without accrued interest are said to be trading FLAT. With general obligation bonds and corporate bonds, this can give investors a sense that the issuer is near bankruptcy and, therefore, the issue is not a very good investment. All back interest must be paid to the present bondholder. Bearer bonds require that - past, present, and future interest rate coupons still be attached for good delivery. When interest rates are rising, which of the following occurs with bond prices and bond yields? (A) Both bond prices and bond yields rise. (B) Both bond prices and bond yields fall. (C) Bond prices rise and bond yields fall. (D) Bond prices fall and bond yields rise. Answer (D) Bond prices fall and bond yields rise. Prices and yields go in opposite directions. They have an inverse relationship. Since interest rates are rising, the bond is not in demand, so it falls in price, and, therefore, the yield increases. When buying municipal bonds in the secondary market, the buyer must pay the seller the amount of ACCRUED INTEREST that is due on a bond since the last interest payment was made. The method of calculating the number of days is exactly the same as with corporate bonds. This amount is added to the price. Therefore, the buyer of a bond pays the market price plus accrued interest for a bond. This is to compensate the seller for the amount of interest that the seller earned by holding the bond past the date of the last interest payment. This is not really costing the buyer any money because on the next interest date the buyer will be sent a check for the whole interest payment, only a part of which was paid to the previous owner. Municipal bonds pay interest based on a 30-day month and a 360-day year. The buyer pays the accrued interest from the previous interest payment date to, but not including, the settlement date. You must remember, however, that municipal bonds settle three business days after the trade date. If you encounter such questions on your exam, make sure that a weekend or holiday isn’t between the trade date and the settlement date. If so, add one day for a holiday and add two days for weekends. SETTLEMENT DATE - LAST INTEREST PAYMENT DATE = NUMBER OF MONTHS AND DAYS ACCRUED INTEREST Example: - A San Francisco high school bond has interest payments every February 1 and August 1. An investor buys the bond on Monday, June 20. How many days of accrued interest does the buyer pay the seller of the bond? - Trade date 6/20 - +3 days for settlement (no weekend) - Settlement date 6/23 - Last interest date - 2/1 - = 4/22, or 4 months (4 × 30 days = 120 days) and 22 days = 142 days - If the bond were a 6% bond per year, and the investor bought 10 bonds, the amount of accrued interest would be: - 10 bonds × $1,000 per bond × 6% × 142 days ÷ a 360-day year = $236.67 in accrued interest CALLING MUNICIPAL BONDS Municipalities almost always issue bonds that are callable. If the bonds are over 10 years to maturity, such as 15, 20, or 30 years, the bonds are usually callable in the 10th year. There are many types of bond calls, depending on the event. In some cases, the bonds are callable at a premium that reduces down to par after a period of time (usually five years), while in other cases, the bonds are only callable at par. The types of calls are: - •IN-WHOLE CALL - •PARTIAL CALL - •DEFEASED CALL - •SINKING FUND CALL - •EXTRA-ORDINARY CALL - •CATASTROPHE CALL Usually callable in the first years at a premium that reduces to par after three to five years — initiated when refunding or advance refunding has occurred Usually callable in the first years at a premium that reduces to par after three to five years — initiated when the issuer has extra money due to more revenues than expected Usually callable in the first years at a premium that reduces to par after three to five years — initiated when advance refunding has occurred, but the issuer prefers to keep the money in U.S. government bonds that are paying the issuer more interest than the municipality is paying the bond holders SINKING FUND CALL Usually callable in the first years at a premium that reduces to par after three to five years — initiated in term bonds when the issuer has extra money due to more revenues than expected or in serial bonds that have a term-maturity as well Always callable at par — initiated when there is leftover money from the bond issue and the project is completed Always callable at par — initiated when the project blows up, collapses, or is destroyed by an earthquake or other natural disaster
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The Gulf is an indispensable oil region For the world’s essential energy-producing region, weak oil prices are an opportunity As long as the world needs oil, it will need the Gulf. Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), sit atop 405 billion barrels of recoverable oil, almost a quarter of the world’s total. In 2013 they accounted for about the same share of its supply. For all the glamour in North America’s energy sector, Saudi Arabia, the GCC’s dominant member, remains the market’s crucial oil exporter, with unrivalled influence over global crude prices and therefore over the world’s economy. Its decision at the November 2014 Opec meeting to adopt a passive role in the market – to take its “hand off the tiller”, in the words of one senior Saudi official – has not lessened this market power. Oil prices are weak because Saudi Arabia wants them to be. The region is not just a global upstream powerhouse. Gulf countries have built up networks of refineries and petrochemicals facilities that stretch from Ras Tanura to Texas and Seoul. More plants are being built. After adding almost 1 million barrels a day (b/d) of refining capacity in the Middle East in the past two years, another 1.7 million is due on stream by 2020, according to the International Energy Agency. Between 2015 and 2020, Gulf states will be able to export 1m b/d. Yet as Petroleum Economist’s survey of the Gulf this month shows, big problems, some of them long in the making, are looming across the region. The Gulf’s Opec members – Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE and Qatar – may have engineered the fall in oil prices, but the strategy was necessary: relentless market strength in recent years had weakened global oil-demand growth and spurred the startling rise in production elsewhere. The Gulf exporters, whose oil can be extracted at a fraction of the cost needed in unconventional, deep-water and maturing basins elsewhere, could no longer accept their ever-shrinking share of a market that was no longer expanding as quickly as before. The lower oil price, believes Ali Naimi, Saudi Arabia’s oil minister, will solve this, by forcing these rivals out of the market. “Others will be harmed greatly before we feel any pain,” Naimi said in an interview earlier this year with Mees, an industry newsletter. He’s half right. Others – fellow Opec members Venezuela, Iran, Algeria, Nigeria, as well as Russia, the North Sea’s producers, Norway, marginal Canadian oil sands developers and the least efficient US tight oil players – are being harmed by prices that have slumped from around $113 a barrel in mid-2014 to about $50/b now. But the Gulf’s pain threshold is nearing too. In January, Oman’s oil minister Mohammed Al-Ruhmy used a speech at a Petroleum Economist conference in Kuwait City to tell his Gulf peers that they had got their strategy wrong. “This is not business. This is politics that I don’t understand – this is your politics that I don’t understand.” Oman will run a deficit this year because of the fall in oil prices. But the damage of plummeting revenue will be felt in its neighbours, too. Profligate spending, especially in the years since the Arab uprisings of 2011 – in that year alone GCC states upped public spending by $150bn, or 12.8% of GDP, according to a report from Chatham House, a think tank – pushed up fiscal break-even prices across the Gulf (see Table 1). Robust sovereign reserves mean these countries have firepower to withstand a prolonged slump. But even Saudi Arabia, admits Naimi, may be forced to borrow money or run deficits. In Gulf newspapers columnists are asking if it is time to start taxing citizens. That hardly seems likely. But the Gulf could use this period of fiscal tightening to end wasteful energy subsidies. The argument against doing so is that the Gulf’s monarchies don’t want to hit their restive populations in the pocket. This is short-term nonsense. Energy demand growth in the Gulf, where per capita consumption is the highest in the world, demands an ever-greater share of countries’ budgets to pay for the subsidies while taking a larger slice of the energy that could be sold at international prices to the world. Pricing energy so cheaply that Gulf residents leave the air-conditioning running when they’re on holiday is in no one’s interests. The subsidies have contributed to another problem, as our articles on the Gulf’s gas and power sectors show. Aside from Qatar, the world’s biggest liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter, none of the other Gulf states has a thriving natural gas sector capable of quenching its own rising thirst for electricity. Low domestic gas prices and lack of access to international markets has discouraged upstream activity targeting natural gas. In combination with soaring power demand and internal GCC political frictions – which have stymied cross-border gas trade in the region – this has created a situation in which gas-poor Gulf states like Kuwait, less than 600 km away from gas-rich Qatar, will buy LNG from Shell, which may source the LNG from Qatar. A pipeline between the two countries would be far cheaper. Bahrain, even closer to Qatar, may buy its LNG from Russia. Absurdities like that also reflect some of the Gulf’s fraternal rivalries. A pipeline from Qatar to Kuwait and Bahrain, for example, can’t happen until Saudi Arabia lifts its objections to the infrastructure passing through its maritime borders. Indeed, in recent years, much of the intra-Gulf antagonism has focused on Qatar, whose adventurism elsewhere in the Middle East – supporting the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Islamists in Syria and Libya – has angered the UAE and Saudi Arabia. GCC members have chafed against each other recently in other ways too. Saudi Arabia’s unilateral shutting down of the Khafji oilfield in the Neutral Zone it shares with Kuwait has left Kuwaitis seething – mainly in private – about Riyadh’s arrogance. In turn, Saudi Arabia and others in the Gulf have been angered by Kuwait’s discounting of its crude sold to Asia – a mini intra-Gulf price war that has rumbled in the background of the wider price collapse. Whatever the oil price, meanwhile, the Gulf states face other fundamental changes. A common view of the unrest across the Middle East and North Africa in recent years is that the republics – Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Iraq – have been vulnerable where the monarchies have not. But this is debatable. Well-armed police states prone to showering their people with oil-funded social programmes may offer these monarchies security for now. But the longer-term picture could be different. “The current economic bargain between state and citizen in the Gulf states is unsustainable as they all prepare for a post-oil era, albeit with different timescales,” wrote Jane Kinninmont, a Gulf expert at Chatham House think tank, in a recent report on the region. In four of the GCC’s states, hydrocarbons resources will run out in the lifetime of citizens born today. “Generational change, with 60% of the (GCC’s) population under the age of 30, is placing strain on traditional political structures.” Saudi Arabia’s new king, Salman, seems to have recognised some of this. His Western-oriented son, Mohammad, is thought to have been behind the reshuffle of the kingdom’s government. He is just 34 – a radical age to be wielding power in the kingdom. Whether the ruling family can move deftly enough to keep up with its youthful population in the long term remains to be seen. Younger, better educated citizens will increasingly demand more of a say in how their countries are governed, says Kinninmont. She expects more republican movements to emerge in the coming years, if the rulers don’t accommodate changing popular expectations. How the monarchies deal with their youth will be key to the region’s stability. In the meantime, the global oil market will fix its attention on the GCC’s oil sector. The weaker oil price may make costly upstream expansion plans – such as those under way in Kuwait and the UAE – less urgent. If the rise in non-Opec production is short-lived, as some analysts expect, the world will increasingly rely on the Gulf again, and will rue any decisions to delay development now while prices are low. If Opec’s Gulf members truly believe that low oil prices will win them back a bigger slice of the oil market, they should be pushing ahead in the upstream. The lower price offers the Gulf other opportunities. The big state oil companies still crave the knowledge and technology transfer that better relations with international oil companies (IOCs) could offer. As the lower oil price cuts their margins, their state masters should use the opportunity to open the field to other investors. This cannot happen in name only. Kuwait wants majors to help develop its upstream, but investors complain about red tape, political interference and poor terms – an impression Gulf states need to address if they are to win capital from investors that must now be choosier about where to place their money. Competition from Iraq and Iran, which are both considering new contracts to secure more IOC investment, is another reason for the GCC members to act. The prospect of a post-sanctions Iranian oil sector bustling with foreign investors – a distant but ever less likely prospect – should spur Gulf countries to be more welcoming. The Gulf’s own private sector also needs nourishing. The IMF says strong economic growth in the GCC in recent years has relied too much on state spending, while private-sector growth has been weak and concentrated in low-skill jobs (especially foreign labour). Most nationals work for the state, whose wage bill will rise sharply as more of them enter the work force. Lower oil prices mean this model is no longer viable, says the fund. Nurturing a genuine private sector would create jobs. In short, a period of low oil prices will test the Gulf. But it could also be cathartic. Straitened finances are a chance to make broader changes – to subsidies, foreign investment terms, intra-Gulf energy infrastructure, and the rampant profligacy that has made too many citizens depend on governments that depend too heavily on oil revenue. Doing so would make the world’s most important energy-producing region stronger and more stable, whatever the price of oil.
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The Department of Energy has published a new tool to inform consumers of the financial benefits of switching from a gas vehicle to an electric vehicle. The new tool called ‘eGallon’ compares the fuel cost of driving an electric vehicle vs. the fuel cost of driving a gas vehicle. The results make it appear that anyone who is still driving a gas vehicle must be a complete financial idiot. The problem is, the calculations are incomplete and misleading. The calculations show that fueling an electric vehicle has a cost equivalent of paying $1.14 per gallon of gasoline. That’s a national average. Results differ by state. According to the government, this makes the fuel cost of electric vehicles about one-third that of gasoline. The calculations are based on an assumption that the average 2012 model automobile has a fuel efficiency of 28.2 miles per gallon of gas. Starting with this number, it’s then a matter of calculating how much electricity would be required to drive the average electric vehicle that same distance then calculating the cost of that electricity. The result is the eGallon value. So far, so good. Because both electricity rates and gas prices can vary quite a bit from state to state, the tool breaks down the eGallon cost by state. In Texas, for example, the average gallon of gas costs $3.37 as of 6/10/2013. The eGallon rate is $1.09. In New York the spread between the gas rate and the eGallon rate is smaller. Gas costs on average $3.70 while the eGallon rate is $1.80. But here’s the problem The eGallon tool, while interesting, is still only a very rough approximation of the true savings any given consumer might expect as a result of going electric. And it ignores some important facts which make its ultimate conclusions somewhat questionable. For starters, it doesn’t take into account battery costs. The batteries required to make electric vehicles work aren’t found in gas vehicles. They are very expensive, and have a finite lifespan before they must be replaced. This replacement cost should be factored into the fuel cost for an electric vehicle. If we assume, for example, a replacement cost of $7,000 for the EV battery and a lifespan of 100,000 miles for the battery it adds about $1.97 per gallon to the eGallon rate (7 cents per mile x 28.2 miles per gallon). It turns out that electricity cost isn’t even the primary factor in the fuel cost of an electric vehicle. That’s a pretty significant omission in the government’s eGallon calculation. Note: 100,000 miles seems to be a reasonable estimate for an average EV batter lifespan. To play with different assumptions of battery lifespan and replacement costs use this electric vehicle cost calculator. Who’s going to pay those taxes? A large amount of the cost of each gallon of gas is made up of federal and state taxes levied on each gallon of fuel. The amount varies but in Texas it is around 38 cents per gallon. It can be as high as 69 cents per gallon in places like New York. A very large portion of these taxes go to pay for things like highways and bridges. The money needed to keep roads in usable condition must come from somewhere. If the entire country magically switched to electric vehicles today we would have to come up with the equivalent of around 40 cents per gallon of money from somewhere to pay for the roads and other public obligations. In other words, at a macro level we aren’t avoiding 40 cents per gallon of cost by not buying gas for our cars. We are just shifting that cost somewhere else. It will ultimately come back to us in the form of another tax. This is precisely why some states have toyed with the idea of a tax on electric vehicles. One could reasonably argue that when comparing the “per gallon” cost of gas vs. electric, the tax amount should be removed from the equation. This money does not represent a fuel cost. Wear and tear still happens to the roads regardless of how the car is powered. That cost doesn’t disappear because we stop buying gas. It just gets shifted somewhere else. For the sake of a proper comparison, you can either remove the taxes from the cost of the gallon of gas or you can add it to the eGallon. Since eGallon is the star of the show, let’s add the value to the eGallon price. An Adjusted eGallon calculation Taking into account the battery cost and the expenses involved in highway upkeep (taxes) we can derive an adjusted eGallon calculation. The result is not so one sided as the government’s calculations. $1.09 – Government’s eGallon calculation for Texas (6/10/2013) $1.97 – Per gallon EV battery cost (7 cents per mile x 28.2 miles per gallon) $0.38 – Taxes per gallon (Texas) $3.44 Adjusted eGallon rate for Texas This is compared to an average gas price in Texas of $3.37 per gallon. It’s not all bad All of this is not to dissuade the adoption of electric vehicles. It’s only meant provide a more realistic comparison between gas and electric. There are some things that can be done to tilt the equation back in favor of the electric vehicle. Hopefully, battery technology will continue to improve resulting in longer lifespans and cheaper replacement costs. Also, second life applications for used EV batteries such as local or grid level power storage in support of wind and solar energy may help the residual value of old car batteries. That would help improve the numbers in favor of the eGallon. Also, the electricity costs used in the government’s calculations are only averages. There is a lot consumers can do, particularly in deregulated states like Texas and New York to reduce that cost. The simplest is by just shopping multiple electricity providers to find the cheapest providers and plans. As ‘time of day’ pricing becomes more practical because of smart meters, many electric companies are offering innovative plans such as Free nights and weekends electricity plans. With such a plan an electric vehicle owner could theoretically charge their vehicle overnight at zero electricity costs. Keep in mind, however, as with the aforementioned taxes, costs rarely just disappear. More often they are just shifted elsewhere. This is the case with most free nights electricity plans. The day time rates are often substantially higher with these plans than traditional electricity plans. This means that while you may top off your car battery for free at night, you will pay a lot more to brew your morning coffee and keep your refrigerator running. Alas. There truly is no free lunch…
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How do stock markets work? The idea of investing in stock market may appear scary at first. But when you start investing in it, you will realize that it is a good option and you can earn good amount of profits. You might even come across information stating that some investors had faced loss in their investments. Such news might scare you and might make you realize that the option for investing in stock market can turn out to be wrong. It is true that investing in stock market carries a lot of risk. But you should also understand that where there is risk, there are chances of good amount of profit. Apart from the risk, it is also one of the most productive way of building up your net worth. You might have come across many rich people who have invested their wealth in stocks. Before you start investing in stocks, it is necessary that you have proper information regarding stock and stock market. Stock market regulates the process of buying and selling shares. The share prices are set according to the supply and demand in the market. This is apparently maintained by the specialists in order to ensure a fair market. Many big companies have already invested in the stock market and there are shareholders who own a portion of the company also own a certain amount of shares. Some companies even have big shares which run into billion and millions. You can also raise a good amount of capital by selling shares which is known as equity financing and can also borrow money which is known as debt financing. The price of the shares of certain companies will fluctuate. There are two types of analysis which can take place in the world of stock market which are fundamental analysis and technical analysis. Auctions do happen in the stock market. Here the buyers and sellers place bids and they offer or sell the shares at a certain price. In this way the trade is made.
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One of the fundamental questions many people have about Bitcoin revolves around the origin of the coins themselves. Questions about its value, security and history all eventually lead to a pair of questions: Where do bitcoin come from and what is bitcoin mining? “Proof of Work” If you’ve heard of Bitcoin, there’s a chance you may have also seen the phrase “proof of work” thrown around. This process is at the heart of Bitcoin’s ability to work as intended and is what allows the decentralized network of computers running Bitcoin to stay in sync with each other. In fact, this invention is what really separates Bitcoin from any prior attempts at creating digital money. While traditional money is created through (central) banks, bitcoin are “mined” by Bitcoin miners: network participants that are competing to be the one computer that is allowed to record all of the recent transactions. If your computer can win this competition, then you’ll get to award yourself some bitcoin as a reward for your efforts. Finding a block most closely resembles a type of lottery. The best way to win this lottery is to guess as many times as possible before someone else comes up with the lucky number (we call this number a “nonce” and miners are attempting to “guess” a nonce that is less than or equal to a particular target). Every bitcoin transaction waiting to be completed will first be sent into the “mempool,” a holding area for pending transactions on the Bitcoin network. Miners will take the pending transactions that are waiting to be recorded and combine them to create a “block” of transactions. In order to win the lottery, a miner will need to take their block of transactions, information from the latest confirmed block, and add in a random lucky number that satisfies some conditions faster than any other miner on the network. They include the information from the latest confirmed block in order to create a chain (“blockchain”) of blocks. It normally should take trillions of guesses in order to guess the correct lucky number; the entire process is intended to take about ten minutes from start to finish, but depends on the number of guesses that miners are making. Finding this lucky number is difficult: you’re forced to simply guess as many times as you can, as fast as you can. Because of this “lottery,” there are two significant outcomes: - For one, proof of work prevents miners from creating bitcoin out of thin air: they must burn real computing energy with each guess in order to have the chance to earn bitcoin. Electricity to power the miners is not free, therefore creating a true financial cost to mining bitcoin. - Second, proof of work ossifies Bitcoin’s history. If an attacker were to try and change a transaction that happened in the past, that attacker would have to redo all of the work that has been done since to catch up and establish the longest chain. This is practically impossible and is why miners are said to “secure” the Bitcoin network. Anyone can become a Bitcoin miner to try and earn these coins. However, mining has become increasingly industrialized over the years and is nowadays mostly done by dedicated professionals with specialized hardware, cheap electricity and big data centers. What Is the Mining Reward? In exchange for securing the network, and as the “lottery price” that serves as an incentive for burning this energy, each new block includes a special transaction we call the “coinbase transaction.” It’s this transaction that awards the miner with new bitcoin, which is how bitcoin first come into circulation. At Bitcoin’s launch, each new block awarded the miner with 50 bitcoin, and this amount halves every four years: Currently each block includes 6.25 new bitcoin. This is known as the “block subsidy.” Additionally, miners get to keep any fees that were attached to the transactions they included in their blocks. Because the number of transactions per block is limited, all Bitcoin transactions include a fee as an incentive for the miners to prioritize their transaction. The larger the transaction fee, the higher the likelihood of your transaction being picked up from the mempool by miners and processed more quickly. These transaction fees, along with the block subsidy, are generally known as the “mining reward.” Thus, mining is the mechanism used to introduce new bitcoin into the system and to set the history of transactions in a way that is computationally impractical to modify, and miners are incentivized by the block reward, made up of both that new block of bitcoin introduced and fees paid by those conducting transactions. What Is Bitcoin Mining Difficulty? Bitcoin miners pick up transactions in the mempool and hash them. Their goal is to “guess” a hash that is lower than or equal to the network target. Bitcoin mining network difficulty is the measure of how hard it will be for miners to find a hash. Network difficulty is equal to the inverse of network target: network target = 1 / network difficulty. The lower the network target, the harder it is to find a valid block (because it is calculated as the inverse of network difficulty). By design, the Bitcoin network seeks to maintain consistent block times of 10 minutes. The mining difficulty is programmatically adjusted every 2,016 blocks (approximately every two weeks) so that it’s as likely as possible that a miner will successfully add a block to the blockchain once every 10 minutes. The difficulty is adjusted based on how many miners (and, therefore, how much hash power) are active on the network — as more miners participate, mining becomes more difficult so that this 10 minute interval is maintained. Bitcoin miners are the network participants that chronologically order transactions by including them in the Bitcoin blocks they find. The equipment bitcoin miners use to perform this task is known as bitcoin mining hardware, with individual devices also referred to as bitcoin miners (like the organizations that leverage them) or mining rigs. These hardware devices are specialized computers designed and manufactured to most efficiently solve the computationally difficult problem that is the key to finding (mining) the next block of bitcoin. Bitcoin Mining Hardware Bitcoin mining hardware consists of devices specially designed to mine bitcoin most effectively. These computers “guess” the correct hash as quickly and efficiently as possible and are run by Application Specific Integrated Circuits or ASICs that are designed to operate for that one function. While the earliest mining was conducted by standard computer CPUs, mining operators were incentivized to achieve more hash power and did so partly through the creation of customized machines, first with graphics processing units (GPUs) and, later, with ASICs. We’ve covered bitcoin mining hardware in more depth as its own guide where we break down a few different types of computers and their hashpower. Bitcoin Mining Pools In one sense, mining is a competition to solve an algorithmic puzzle first, with the chances of success determined by the proportion of mining power contributed to the network. If you are able to contribute a large portion of the total hash power, you have a better chance of solving the puzzle first and receiving the connected bitcoin reward. If you are unable to contribute a large portion of the hash power, you are less likely to mine a block successfully. To increase their chances of successfully mining blocks and collecting rewards, miners who are only able to contribute relatively small amounts of hash power to the network have banned together in groups called mining pools. These are decentralized groups organized and operated by third parties to coordinate hash power from miners around the world and then share any resulting bitcoin in proportion to the hashpower contributed to the pool. Mining pools also run full Bitcoin nodes on behalf of the individual miners. For more coverage on mining pools, visit our standalone guide on pools. Cloud mining allows you to mine bitcoin without having to invest in any hardware, giving you access to the hash power from someone else’s mining hardware via the cloud. Companies that offer cloud mining contracts allow customers to buy hash rate from the mining hardware the company is operating. Buyers typically need to pay upfront for the contract and an ongoing maintenance fee. In return, users generate revenue on the hash power they paid for — the higher the purchased hash rate, the more bitcoin you are likely to receive (as revenue). Buyers need to assess the likelihood that the revenue generated from the hash power is larger than the cost of buying and maintaining the contract. In general, those who offer cloud mining services tend to charge purely based on the amount of hash power being accessed or on a monthly or yearly contract basis. Cloud mining models include leased hashing power, hosted mining and virtual host mining. Generally, customers need only open an account with a cloud mining company and select the exact terms of their contract. However, this means that it can be difficult to verify that you are receiving exactly what you’ve paid for. There have been many scams and unfairly priced contracts in the industry, so buyers should do their own research before purchasing a contract. How To Mine Bitcoin You may be determined to mine bitcoin regardless of the many factors surrounding its profitability. As stated above, mining is an integral practice to the network and there are few ways to participate in Bitcoin as directly as mining it yourself. Here are some tips on what you’ll need to get started: - A Bitcoin Wallet As noted above, any bitcoin earned from mining will need to be sent somewhere. That’s where a bitcoin wallet comes in. Basically, if you want to be directly involved in Bitcoin, you need a wallet. - Bitcoin Mining Node Bitcoin mining has become an industry in itself, with a market of specialized devices known as ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits made specifically to optimize for the highest hash rate at the lowest energy costs. While it’s technically possible to attempt mining on your home computer or other device, it isn’t possible to successfully mine this way and you’ll lose money on energy costs along the way. Even with a handful of ASIC mining rigs, an individual will need to connect with a mining pool to profitably mine bitcoin. - Bitcoin Mining Software Bitcoin mining software is the bridge between your mining hardware and the Bitcoin network. It would also be the means by which you connect your miner to a mining pool and get rewarded for your hash rate. Furthermore, it will guide any payments to your Bitcoin address. Bitcoin Mining Software While the hardware conducts the mining process, the software is also integral to the Bitcoin network and for miners. This is the bridge between the mining hardware’s efforts and the Bitcoin network at large. This software can monitor the incoming and outgoing data from a miner, report statistics about the performance of the hardware and connect individual miners to a mining pool. Bitcoin Wallets and Mining Software Bitcoin wallets are integral to the use of mining software and capturing the bitcoin rewards that miners hope to collect. As this software connects miners to the Bitcoin network, it is also the conduit by which they receive their bitcoin and so this software must be connected with a bitcoin wallet. Bitcoin mining software will pay out mining rewards to a miner’s Bitcoin address, which can be obtained by creating or downloading a bitcoin wallet. The Best Bitcoin Mining Software There are many bitcoin mining software products out there and the best fit for any given miner or mining operation will depend on their specific needs. Popular options for individual miners include Hive OS, Minerstat, ethOS Mining OS, Simple Miner and Hashr8 OS. Most large mining farms operate their own in-house solutions. Is Bitcoin Mining Profitable? Because bitcoin mining is essentially a competition, the question of profitability is largely about achieving a competitive advantage. For many large operations, that advantage is achieved by running a relatively huge number of mining rigs at the lowest possible power costs. Those with the most up-to-date and powerful mining hardware also have an advantage, though it’s possible to be competitive with older equipment if your electricity costs are relatively low. Smaller scale mining operations can find success by optimizing for their power costs. If you’re just getting started, think twice before you start mining and take a look at our mining profitability guide. Is Bitcoin Mining Centralized? There is nothing inherent within Bitcoin that means mining should be a centralized process — anyone, anywhere with a device capable of connecting to the Bitcoin network and hashing mempool transactions can participate in mining for bitcoin. But mining has become such a lucrative industry and mining hardware has become so specialized that a relatively small number of operations contribute the bulk majority of the network’s hash power. Concerns around Bitcoin mining centralization have been circulating since at least 2014. Economies of scale have led to the concentration of mining power among those who can operate the most efficient miners at the lowest cost of energy. As of this writing, most of the Bitcoin network’s mining hash power comes from China, though significant mining operations are located across the world. How Much Electricity Does Bitcoin Mining Use? As you have probably gathered by now, mining is an energy-intensive process that, in a reductive sense, turns computing power into bitcoin (while verifying transactions on the world’s most robust blockchain in the process). One of the primary considerations for miners is the tradeoff between their energy costs and potential bitcoin rewards. But it’s difficult to estimate exactly how much energy around the world is being consumed by miners at any given time. Bitcoin’s transparency allows anyone to see the amount of hash power being applied to the network, usually measured in the number of terahashes per second that the network is performing as part of the mining process. You can then estimate how much power the network is using to perform these hashes, based on the energy-to-hashrate efficiency of the mining hardware in use — but not all miners are operating with the same efficiency and an exact calculation is virtually impossible. As of 2018, written testimony by a computer scientist from Princeton University, presented to the U.S. Senate, estimated that bitcoin mining accounts for slightly under 1 percent of the world’s energy consumption (more than the states of Ohio or New York consume) at 5 gigawatts. The University of Cambridge operates a live Bitcoin network energy estimator. How to Defend Bitcoin Mining Energy Use? Bitcoin’s energy consumption is not merely for the sake of computers solving arbitrary math problems. It is a critical component of proof of work, the consensus mechanism that keeps bitcoin from being created out of thin air and solidifies Bitcoin’s transaction history. In some sense, Bitcoin’s energy consumption can be thought of as the world’s most direct and efficient conversion of raw power into value. By creating such a direct line between energy use and value creation, Bitcoin has created a natural incentive for energy efficiency. Bitcoin miners are directly motivated to apply energy in efficient ways (thus saving on power costs and maximizing their bitcoin profits) and many leverage renewables to do so. Some estimates have found that as much as 74 percent of the Bitcoin mining network leverages renewable energy like hydro and solar power. In many cases, mining contributes to the development of better energy infrastructure, leading to a reduction of carbon emissions. An example of this is Bitcoin mining units that are installed next to oil wells. In the process of pumping oil, these wells also produce excess gas. It is usually not enough gas to justify building a pipeline to get to market. So the oil wells vent some of it (into the air) and burn or flare the rest of it. Instead of burning this excess gas, oil wells can leverage bitcoin mining to turn it into value in a more environmentally- friendly manner. In addition, there are companies that are setting up Bitcoin mining facilities next to electricity grids to act as stabilizers. If installed next to an electricity grid, a Bitcoin mining facility acts as an inverse battery. It enables stable demand pressure on the power grid and can curtail instantly during supply shocks. This makes electricity grids more efficient, which lowers future development costs, especially in the renewable energy sector (solves intermittency + congestion issues). Bitcoin’s unique approach to value creation could incentivize a more sustainable approach to energy use around the world. Is Bitcoin Mining Legal? Bitcoin mining is legal in most countries. From a legal standpoint, many countries treat bitcoin as an asset or property, rather than a currency, and have established some regulatory frameworks with that status in mind. Most countries do not have formal laws established around bitcoin mining, making the practice legal by default. However, bitcoin mining, as well as the general use of bitcoin, is formally illegal in a few countries. Some governments have banned the practice because it represents a threat to their national currencies. This legal landscape is ever-evolving, so anyone interested in bitcoin mining should consult with legal counsel familiar with their specific jurisdiction and circumstances. Because the legal status of Bitcoin changes so frequently, we are beginning to keep track of each country in a separate guide. How To Mine Bitcoin On My Phone? The mining difficulty is now so high that it is not possible to mine bitcoin with a smartphone. Back in 2014, you could even have a USB miner! A platform that indicates you can mine bitcoin on your phone or low power devices is likely suggesting you can mine an alternative cryptocurrency and be paid in bitcoin for your contributed computing power, but it cannot mine bitcoin directly. To mine competitively today, you need to know what you’re doing, you must be willing to invest significant resources and time, and — last but not least — have access to cheap electricity.
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Demand forecasting is one of the important parameters in Supply Chain Management. Forecasting helps business organizations in meeting demands by having enough supply in line. The demands that may arise in the future is forecasted by supply chain management professionals to the concerned persons in the company well in advance. Overestimating the demands may cause concerns in the production line and inventory level. the following are the objectives of Forecasting in Supply Chain Management. High Level of Inventory Sometimes overestimation of demand can make the inventory level rise high which causes a serious concern for the company. High inventory level can increase storage costs and labour cost for moving the products to other storage spaces. The business selling perishable goods should also have to worry about the goods getting damaged. In such cases where perishable goods are kept at high inventory should be sold at a lower price to reduce the damage that might occur. At times business organizations get sudden demand for supplying a large number of goods. In such cases, there should be enough inventory at the store to meet the demand. The supply chain managers should forecast the orders that may come at times which should be fulfilled otherwise the customer will cancel the order. If a large number of goods are stored for distribution will reduce the profit. Supply Chain Management professional should keep the information about the level of goods in real time. Predicting about the piling up of stock that may arise in the future should be informed to the concerned persons after getting insight from the market. Only through experience, a supply chain management professional can do forecasting effectively. If you are interested to study Supply chain Management, you can select MBA or PG Diploma programs from Westford University College. Related Course Links :
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Resources on Ability to Benefit Postsecondary education and the attainment of credentials are critical to individuals' economic mobility and our nation's economic competitiveness. With the cost of college tuition and fees rising each year, financial aid is essential for low-income students to access and complete education and training. The Consolidated Appropriations Act of Fiscal Year 2012 eliminated the Ability to Benefit (ATB) provision, which provided federal financial aid to students who lacked a high school diploma or equivalent but could prove their ability to benefit from college by successfully completing six credits or passing an exam. While Congress passed the latest iteration of the ATB provision in December 2014, practitioners, institutions, and states have progressed slowly in implementing it. ATB is a critical entry point into higher education for low-skilled adults. Leaders in states and higher education institutions must act today to make it a reality. Several states, such as Kentucky, Minnesota, and Washington have issued helpful guidance to institutions in their states to expedite the adoption of policies that accept ATB. These resources provide best practices for states and institutions to help low-skilled students access financial aid, complete postsecondary credentials, and secure family-sustaining jobs. Ability to Benefit Fact Sheet This fact sheet provides an overview of Ability to Benefit (ATB), which allows postsecondary students without a high school diploma or equivalency to receive Title IV student financial aid when they are dually enrolled in a career pathway program and in adult education. Ability to Benefit: Developing a State-Defined Process This brief encourages states to develop a state-defined process for Ability to Benefit (ATB). The ATB provision makes financial aid available to low-income people without a high school diploma or its equivalent (HSD/E). Challenges to implementing ATB are building awareness, educating actors about ATB's requirements, and supporting proliferation. Policymakers and practitioners should understand these challenges as well as solutions for states and institutions. Ability to Benefit: Understanding it & Implementing it at your Institution Resource guide that helps institutions understand Ability to Benefit and its requirements and overcome implementation issues. Ability to Benefit: Dual Enrollment for Adult Learners Presentation by Erin Berg and Judy Mortrude detailing Ability to Benefit, explaining how to use it with career pathways, providing examples of adult program education that fit its criteria, addressing what prevents its use, and discussing related matters Letter from Senators Enzi and Murray to the Department of Education regarding Ability to Benefit Senators Enzi and Murray submitted this letter to the Department of Education requesting clarifying guidance related to the Ability to Benefit provisions of the Higher Education Act Ability to Benefit profile on CACareerPathways.Clasp.org Visual representation of the part Ability to Benefit can play in a career pathways system. Ability to Benefit: Connecting WIOA & Student Financial Aid to Educate Low-Skilled Students Presentation from Judy Mortrude and Lauren Walizer at the Coalition on Adult Basic Education 2017 conference. Integrated Education and Training: Model Programs for Building Career Pathways for Participants at Every Skill Level CLASP's Opportunities for Action memo defines Integrated Education and Training as a core education strategy for career pathways. Funding Student Skill Attainment & Success with Ability to Benefit Presentation from Lauren Walizer at the National Council for Workforce Education 2016 conference. Accelerating Opportunity Kentucky and Washington State Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) These initiatives in Kentucky and Washington will use ATB (under the current definition) in their career pathways programs. Federal Guidance Explains How the Ability to Benefit Provision Aligns with a Career Pathway U.S. Department of Education issues guidance on the new (as of December 2015) definition of an eligible career pathway program. Webinar and Call for Questions on Ability to Benefit (Issued November 9, 2015) This webinar provides information on the new Ability to Benefit provision, including eligibility criteria, qualifying processes, definitions of key components of career pathway programs, and examples from the field. CLASP In Focus Blog Post on ED Guidance Follow-up (Issued November 2, 2015) The Department of Education clarifies the financial aid provision that helps low-income students. Eligible Career Pathway Programs - Questions and Answers (Issued October 22, 2015) The purpose of this guidance letter is to provide answers to some questions the U.S. Department of Education have received since publication of the Dear Colleague Letter GEN-15-09 in May 2015. Career Pathway Programs and Title IV Eligibility Presentation David Bartnicki of the Federal Student Aid at the U.S. Department of Education presented on career pathway programs and Title IV eligibility to the Mississippi Community College Board (September 15, 2015) Operational Guidance on Reporting Student Eligibility Codes for All Students, Including Those Who Are Enrolled in an Eligible Career Pathway Program (Issued July 9, 2015) The Federal Student Aid office issued a letter providing operational guidance on how schools will report student eligibility information for students receiving aid under the new ATB provision. The letter defines an “eligible” career pathway program and describes the Career Pathway alternative Pell Grant disbursement schedules. Furthermore, it provides information on additional resources about the system for processing ATB information. New Guidance on the Partial Restoration of the ‘Ability to Benefit’ Provision for Title IV Federal Financial Aid (Issued June 1, 2015) In a bulletin from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education, new guidance on the partial restoration of the "Ability to Benefit" Provision for Title IV Federal Financial Aid was released. CLASP In Focus Blog Post on Initial ED Guidance CLASP examines the U.S. Department of Education’s guidance letter and how it expands access to federal aid for students in career pathways. Title IV Eligibility for Students Without a Valid High School Diploma Who Are Enrolled in Eligible Career Pathway Programs (Issued May 22, 2015) The U.S. Department of Education Federal Student Aid office issued a letter clarifying the changes made to the Title IV eligibility for students who are not high school graduates or in an eligible career pathway program under the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2015. Legislative text of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2015, establishing the Ability to Benefit Provision (see page 926), and a subsequent update to the definition of an eligible career pathway in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016 (see page 397).
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University of Redlands (U of R) researchers used Esri technology and data to analyze income disparity between the rich and poor in the United States. The study's findings—including the fact that people in more than half of the country's ZIP codes experience above-average poverty—can be viewed at a national level on an interactive map, hosted on ArcGIS Online, Esri's cloud-based map and data service. You can pan and zoom to the ZIP Code level. "We were interested in looking closer at income inequality, which has obviously become a hot-button issue for many Americans, as evident through the Occupy Wall Street movement," said Carlo Carrascoso, a faculty fellow with the Banta Center for Business, Ethics and Society at the U of R in Redlands, California. The rally cry of the Occupy Wall Street protesters, "We are the 99 percent," refers to the difference in wealth and income growth in the United States between the wealthiest 1 percent and the rest of the population. The Occupy Wall Street protest began on September 17, 2011, in Liberty Square in the financial district of New York City and quickly spread to many states, including Oregon, Colorado, and California, and other countries, such as Italy and Spain. A report released last month by the Congressional Budget Office showed that while the average American household income, after government transfers and federal taxes, rose by 62 percent between 1979 and 2007, income growth for the top (wealthiest) 1 percent of households grew by 275 percent, while the income growth for the bottom (poorest) 20 percent of households grew by only 18 percent. "The growth for the richest households was more than 15 times greater than that of the poorest," said Carrascoso. Researchers at the university's Institute for Spatial Economic Analysis (ISEA) and the Banta Center for Business, Ethics and Society were interested in understanding more about this income disparity between the rich and poor. Using data on average family size and amount of family income, found in the 2010 Esri data estimates from the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS), ISEA researchers approximated poverty levels by ZIP Code. "Since we cannot aim for exact precision, we approximated the share of people living below the poverty line," says Johannes Moenius, the director of ISEA. What they found was unexpected: poverty dominates the United States landscape, especially in less populated areas. More than 50 percent of ZIP Codes in the country have above-average levels of poverty. The purple zones on the map represent regions where between 13 and 19.5 percent of the households have 2009 income levels below the federal poverty line, defined by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for a family of four as $22,050. These regions comprise 28 percent of all ZIP Codes. In deep purple blue regions, the percentage of households with incomes below the poverty line exceeds 19.5 percent. The regions represent 25 percent of all ZIP Codes and include almost all the southern states, New Mexico, North and South Dakota, and urban inner-city areas like those in New York City and Chicago. Within all these regions, more than one in four, or 27 percent, of households live below the poverty line. The Congressional Budget Office report shows that the distribution of household income has become substantially more unequal in the last study year of 2007 than in 1979. By viewing and analyzing the data on a map, Moenius found that the rich tend to live away from those not as affluent. "Our research revealed that rarely will you find higher than average concentrations of rich (in this study defined as the top 10 percent of income earners by household) and poor (households living below the federal poverty line) in the same ZIP Code." Only 0.7 percent of ZIP Codes have a higher than average concentration of both rich and poor. In populated areas, ZIP Codes containing either rich or poor households tend to be contiguous and are next to each other. Higher-income earners tend to be concentrated in large urban metropolitan areas, such as Southern California/Greater Los Angeles and the Washington, D.C./New York City/Boston corridor. Perhaps the most striking feature of the study was the appearance on the map of a "buffer zone" that seemed to separate the rich from the poor. These light gray colored zones appear in suburbia, where middle-income households dominate. Middle-income households were defined for this study as neither the top 10 percent nor those living below the poverty line. ISEA researchers continue to look at the income disparity problem and other areas of economic analysis that have a strong connection to people and where they live. Visit ISEA to learn more. Follow the protests on Esri's Occupy Wall Street Social Media map, where events can be visualized by following updates on Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr.
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FOREIGN BONDS ISSUING What’s in news? The government announced in the Budget its decision to raise a part of its gross borrowing in foreign markets i.e., issuing of foreign bond. - Nirmala Sitharaman has become the first Indian finance minister to agree to borrow in foreign currency to finance the fiscal deficit. - In her maiden Budget speech last week, after she announced this plan, economic affairs secretary Subhash Garg added that the plan is to raise up to 10-15% of government borrowing $10 billion from the first overseas sovereign bond. In all, central government plans to borrow a record Rs 7.1lakh crore this year. - The shift in India’s position comes in wake of the main pool of savings from which the rest of the economy raises debt, the households’ financial savings, getting almost completely pre-empted by the growing borrowings by the government and public sector. - Unsurprisingly then, North Block is desperate to ease the pressure of its growing borrowings on domestic debt markets, and has dismissed those cautioning about the risks of dollarisation of the sovereign debt as needless orthodoxy. What is foreign bond? - “Foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs)” are a special category of bonds. Corporates issue FCCBs to raise money in foreign currencies. - These bonds retain all features of a convertible bond, making them very attractive to both the investors and the issuers. - A foreign bond is a bond issued in a domestic market by a foreign entity in the domestic market’s currency as a means of raising capital. - For foreign firms doing a large amount of business in the domestic market, issuing foreign bonds, such as bulldog bonds, Matilda bonds, and samurai bonds, is a common practice. - Since investors in foreign bonds are usually the residents of the domestic country, investors find the bonds attractive because they can add foreign content to their portfolios without the added exchange rate exposure. - These bonds assume great importance for multinational corporations and in the current business scenario of globalization, where companies are constantly dealing in foreign currencies. Problems with Foreign Bonds: Investing in foreign bonds involves multiple risks, foreign bonds typically have higher yields than domestic bonds. - Foreign bonds carry interest rate risk. When interest rates rise, the market price or resale value of a bond falls. - Foreign bonds also face inflation risk. Buying a bond at a set interest rate means the real value of the bond is determined by the amount of inflation taken away from the yield. - Currency risk is also an issue for foreign bonds. When income from a bond yielding 7% in a European currency is turned into dollars, the exchange rate may decrease the yield to 2%. Examples of Foreign Bonds: - A bulldog bond is issued in the United Kingdom. - A Matilda bond is a bond issued in the Australian market by a non-Australian company. - A samurai bond is a corporate bond issued in Japan by a non-Japanese company.
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Gene editing (or genome editing) is the replacement, deletion or insertion of DNA at a particular site in the genome of a cell or an organism. It is typically accomplished in the lab utilizing engineered nucleases otherwise called molecular scissors. The growing commonness of cancer and other hereditary issues, for example, obesity, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, heart disease, sickle cell disease, and others, is amid the key components affecting the market development of gene editing tools. Cancer is enrolled to be the second most conspicuous reason for death around the world. Aspects Determining the Gene Editing Tools Market - Relentless Expansion of CRISPR in spite of NO Patent Grants is the Key Trend Generally, investments and the Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) require a reasonable and solid Intellectual Property (IPR) situation in the market before they make any commitment to invest funds in any life sciences organization. Conversely, no such criteria are satisfied in the CRISPR area. The prominent manufacturers or companies in the genetic space, for example, Intellia Therapeutics, CRISPR Therapeutics, and Editas Medicine, mutually record consolidated market capitalization of US$ 4.94 Bn. Also, in spite of the continuous patent debate amid companies for intellectual rights to gene editing tools, the general subsidizing gotten by all the three organizations surpass US$ 396.48 Mn. - Presentation of latest gene editing tools will boost remarkable prospects for the Market Genome editing has demonstrated to be a ground-breaking latest gene makeover tool used to build exact alterations, additions, or deletions to the genome of an organism. The advancement of latest gene editing tools that incorporate meganucleases, Zinc Finger Nucleases (ZFNs), Transcription Activator-like Effector Nucleases (TALENs), and the as of late initiated CRISPR/Cas9 system, has enhanced the effectiveness, accuracy, and adaptability of genome editing tools. Also, the accessibility of these improved gene editing tools at a lower cost when contrasted with regular genome editing methods has demonstrated to be a noteworthy aspect boosting the requirement for gene editing tools, in this way fuelling the gene editing tools market. - Developing Demand for Personalized Medicine is Boosting the Requirement for Gene Editing Tools Latest progressions in CRISPR and its convenience have created a huge need for the biomedical network. CRISPR-based genome editing has higher prospects to address the therapeutic scenario of induced disorders attributable to the existence of foremost companies in the business, for example, Editas, Intellia, CRISPR Therapeutics, and Intellia that provide precise quality focused on medicines for Sickle Cell Disease (SKD) and β-thalassemia. Throughout the following couple of years, the clinical improvement of CRISPR-based gene editing innovation guarantees to change the way in which polygenic or monogenic sicknesses are dealt with, however, the examination is still in its underlying stages, in this manner producing more revenues in the worldwide market for gene editing tools. Download a Sample Report with Table of Contents and Figures:https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-9544
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Cloud technology has taken the world by storm. Today, individuals and companies do not have to worry about buying flash discs or hard drives to store their information. Business organizations have significantly reduced the cost of storing the vast quantities of data that they collect daily. Cloud technology is a connection of numerous virtual servers that can store infinite amounts of data. Cloud has the potential to generate some disruptions that will have a ripple effect on the technology industry and bring great transformation of many industries around the globe. Cloud computing has also changed on call management and the way organizations work. Companies can now accommodate employees who are willing to complete their assignments and beat deadlines remotely. Managers and business owners can also check the company inventory and manage cash flow remotely. With cloud computing, all you need is a mobile device such as a tablet or a smartphone and internet connectivity to access company data. In this article, we are going to discuss how cloud computing has had an impact on our lives. Smarter decision making With the ability to access information remotely, cloud computing has the potential to turn any mobile gadget into a super-fast computer that can access vast quantities of data. Therefore, company management and staff can be able to access high processing power from the cloud for the analysis of almost any type of data regardless of your geographical location. For instance, you could be having subtle changes in public opinion data, comments and tweets in blogs, scanned new stories, weather projections and live stock market data. With cloud computing, you can be able to combine all that information and feed it into an advanced mobile simulation on your smartphone. This way, you will be able to get a unique insight and patterns that you can employ for better stock prices. The processing power that comes with cloud computing will assist individuals and business corporations to perform any task that comes on their way. Improved customer service Cloud computing is drastically changing the way business organizations such as retailers relate to their consumers. Consumers are becoming more and more tech-savvy and are migrating to vendors who offer online transactions. Almost all online transactions are based on the cloud. Consumers will also base their decision on opinions of former consumers in online platforms, even for transactions that require the consumer to go to the physical store. Cloud technology will give small and medium-sized companies the ability to develop a closer understanding of the tastes and preferences of the consumer based on the collected consumer data. For instance, data that is collected by customer relationship management (CRM) software is managed by cloud computing. Such information is critical in determining the patterns in customer behavior. Businesses thus adjust their operations to take care of what the customer wants. Small enterprises will go global Small and medium-sized business enterprises will leverage on the cloud to reach new markets both locally and internationally in a bid to satisfy the ever-increasing human wants. These small companies will move from being constrained to small locations and take their operations on a global scale. Cloud computing will also ensure that these companies get global with reduced overhead costs.
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The very fact that there are three completely separate, important credit reporting bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion) by definition means that they will be different. Credit bureaus are simply the firms that collect and store different kinds of credit information about you, your financial accounts, and your payment history. They compile all of this information in order to build out your credit reports and determine the resulting credit scores. People mistakenly tend to throw the big three credit reporting bureaus into a single category, yet they compete against each other as independent entities for various creditors’ business. Creditors come to them for your credit reports and scores to assist them in making responsible lending choices. The 3 Main Sources for the Credit Bureau Data - Creditor-reported information to the bureaus – Banks, lenders, and creditors will report information on their customers and accounts to one or more of the big three bureaus. The bureaus call these creditors “data furnishers” in this capacity. - Information that the bureaus buy or gather themselves – Credit bureaus actually buy some data. LexisNexis sells public records as a consumer credit bureau itself, and the credit bureaus may purchase it to have the data when creating your credit report. This could include bankruptcy records, the only real public records information that counts on credit reports since the sweeping changes of 2017/2018. - Information the bureaus share between one another – The big three bureaus may be fierce competitors, but they do share information with each other sometimes. If you were to set a fraud alert or initiate a credit freeze with one of them, then they must share this alert with the other two bureaus. You will see the differences between the three bureaus yourself if you compare your three credit reports. These can be important. Some creditors do not report to all three credit bureaus. Others may not report regularly to all three, or to any of them. This is how you can end up with sometimes substantially different credit scores from varying credit reports. It results from the variations in data that each report contains. The 3 Types of Consumer Credit And How You Can Access Them There are actually three different categories of consumer credit today. These are revolving, instalment, and open. Each of them will affect your credit score in different ways. Possessing a variety of these credit types improves your credit score (in the 10 percent credit mix component). We will consider each of these three types and how you can access them next. Proves to be among the most frequent kinds of credit accounts for consumers. This type of credit takes the form of a line of credit against which you can draw (or borrow) whenever you need it up to the maximum amount, or credit limit. This limit represents the maximum that you can utilize at any given point. The most frequent types of revolving credit are credit card accounts and HELOCs, or Home Equity Lines of Credit. These generally require you to make consistent monthly payments and involve interest charges if you choose to carry a monthly balance (after the payment date). Involves a preset, lump sum loan amount that comes with a regular and fixed schedule of repayment. There are many different loans that fall into this category. Some of them are mortgages, car loans, student loans, and personal loans. This is a second most common form of consumer credit. The third type of credit is a rarer form called open credit. A great number of individuals do not have it on their personal credit reports at all. Open credit accounts are ones against which you are able to borrow up to a maximum cap. Yet they are different because you must pay them back in their entirety every month. Open credit is most commonly connected to charge chards (not traditional credit cards). Many store accounts used to be charge cards, though most of these have converted to revolving credit nowadays. American Express is the greatest single remaining example of open credit these days. Any balances you charge on AMEX must be repaid by the statement due date each month.
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This guide explains what you need to know about the French social security system: who has to pay, how much, what is covered and how to claim your benefits. Foreigners who are living and working in France must typically register and pay into French social security in exchange for certain government benefits, including healthcare. The French social security system, which the French familiarly call la Sécu, is divided into different categories, called régimes. There are five main elements to the French social security system: - the general scheme (régime général), which covers most employees and students; - the self-employed scheme (régime autonome) and sickness insurance; - unemployment and supplementary pension schemes; - agricultural schemes (régime agricole); - special employee schemes (régimes spéciaux), for civil servants and military personnel, for example. Who pays French social security and what benefits apply? Employees and social security in France Most employees are covered for sickness, maternity, paternity and family benefits under the compulsory general scheme. This is financed mainly by contributions and taxes deducted from earnings, shared between employees and employers and managed by a network of local, regional and national organisations under the control of various ministries. The general scheme basic pension is also supplemented by other pension schemes. All wage earners are also covered by an unemployment scheme that is managed by employers and representatives of employees. If you are an employee, your employer will arrange for you to join the social security, unemployment and supplementary pension schemes. Self-employed workers and social security in France Self-employed workers are covered by a compulsory basic and supplementary scheme for health, family allowances and pensions but not unemployment or sick pay – you need to take out separate cover for that. Most self-employed social security contributions are tax-deductible. If you are self-employed you must register for social security with the Union de Recouvrement des Cotisations de Sécurité Sociale et d’Allocations Familiales or URSSAF, who will automatically enrol you with the various funds that in turn will send you bills for your contributions. Health insurance is provided by specialised insurers through the Regime Social des Independents (RSI). You can contribute to retirement and invalidity funds through the Caisse National d’Assurance Vieillesse des Professions Libérales or CNAVPL. Foreign students and social security in France If you are a student under 28 on 1 October of any year, and come from a country in the European Union (EU) or Switzerland, you can use your European Health Insurance Card to register with your local Caisse Primaire d’Assurance Maladie (CPAM) and be reimbursed for healthcare expenses. For students under 28 (1 October rule) from outside the EU, you must register with the student social security scheme at your university or through a fund such as La Mutuelle des Etudients (LMDE). Anyone over 28 on 1 October of any year, whatever your country of origin, if you’re coming to study in France for more than three months, you must register with the general social security scheme through your local CPAM. You can find your local caisse here. Some countries have reciprocal social security agreements with France. Check with the authorities in your home country to see if what applies. The French social security scheme There are several main branches: - sickness, maternity, paternity, disability and death - accidents and occupational diseases - family allowances - unemployment benefits - old age pension. You may also be subject to pay toward social security debt, in the form of two social security surcharges. Sickness, maternity, invalidity and death In January 2015, employees paid 0.75% of total monthly earnings and the employer paid 13.10%. To be eligible to claim benefits, you must have paid a certain amount in contributions or worked a specific amount of hours. So, you must have at least worked for: - 60+ hours/paid contributions equal to 60 times the minimum hourly wage over a period of one month; - 120+ hours/contributions equal to 120 times hourly minimum wage over three months; or - 400+ hours/contributions equal to 400 times hourly minimum wage over 12 months. You can get supplementary health insurance through your employer or through a mutual or provident fund or insurance company. It may be possible to get a grant to contribute to the cost of a mutual or private insurance plan. If you are on a low income you can get help with costs through the Universal Health Insurance Coverage (CMU and CMU-C). For more information, see the CMU website. Health and sickness benefits in France Under the health insurance system you and your dependents can get health costs reimbursed and sick pay if you can’t work due to illness. Under the French healthcare system, most adults pay a proportion of the cost of medical treatment and medications, as well as a flat rate charge for consultations with a doctor and certain tests, and reimbursements of a percentage of the cost of prescriptions; around 75 to 80% of in-patient costs are reimbursable. To claim sickness benefits you have to get a sick note from your doctor and can claim cash benefits (sick pay) from the fourth day of absence from work. The daily amount is equivalent to 50% of the daily wage of the last three months and there are upper limits, depending on your circumstances. You can get daily benefit for longer-term illness for a maximum of three years. You can also claim for compassionate leave to care for a seriously ill family member. For more information, see the Caisse Nationale d’Assurances Maladie des Travailleurs Salarié Ameli website. Maternity and paternity benefits in France - antenatal treatment during pregnancy and birth, - cash benefits for the mother during maternity leave before and after the birth, - father’s paternity leave, - adoption leave shared between both parents. You must notify the local health insurance fund as soon as possible after confirming the pregnancy. You are exempt from co-payments and flat-rate charges for all pregnancy-related medical costs from the sixth month of pregnancy and 12th day after birth. You can get maternity benefits as soon as you stop working. You must take a minimum of eight weeks maternity leave but can take up to 16 weeks. Paternity leave is 11 consecutive days. Adoption is 10 weeks for a single child. To qualify you must have been registered with the social security system for at least 10 months before the expected date of delivery and paid/worked the requisite amount of hours/contributions. Daily maternity, paternity or adoption benefit is equal to the daily wage of the three months prior to prenatal leave, up to quarterly ceiling of €9,510 in 2015. Invalidity benefits in France This covers loss of earnings due to non work-related illness or accident, and may be claimed if you cannot earn at least one-third of your wage earned before the disability. You must have been registered with the health scheme for at least 12 months prior to stopping work through disability, and worked for at least 800 hours or paid contributions on wages equal to 2,030 times the minimum hourly wage. How much disability pension you get depends on the level of inability to work; the maximum amount of the lowest level of pension is 30% of the social security ceiling (€951). Death benefits in France Dependents of an insured person may be paid a lump sum of €3,400 (in January 2015) in the event of a death. The relative must have been employed and making eligible contributions (see above), doing the equivalent of paid work, a disability pensioner or getting industrial injury benefits higher than 66% during the three months prior to the death. Accidents and occupational disease benefits in France This provides compensation for work-related disablement or illness. Contributions are paid by employers; amounts vary according to the specific risk in individual workplaces. You don’t have to be registered with the social security system, nor does it matter how many contributions have been made. Accidents must be reported to the employer within 24 hours who, in turn, must inform the local health insurance fund within 48 hours. A special form exempts you from up-front medical costs and claimants may be paid a full day’s wage for the day of the accident and 60% of the daily wage thereafter up to a maximum of €190.35 per day. Family benefits in France Anyone living in France with dependent children – legitimate, illegitimate, fostered or adopted – is entitled to family benefits for their children up to the age of 20, if not working/earning under €893.25 per month (or age 21 for housing and family income supplement). Family benefits are calculated as a percentage of the monthly family benefit base (BMAF), which was in April 2015 €406.21. As of July 2015, these are means tested. - child benefit, paid from the second dependent child; - a flat-rate allowance for families with three or more children whose benefit is reduced when they reach 20; - family income supplement for families with three or more children on net household incomes of less than €45,941. There are also means tested grants to help pay for childcare. Non-means tested grants are offered for disabled children and family housing allowances. For detailed amounts of all family benefit rates from 1 April, 2015 to 31 March 2016, see this chart on the Le Cleiss website. For more information about family benefits, see Allocations Familiales (CAF). Unemployment benefit in France In January 2015, employees paid 2.4% of monthly salary to protect against unemployment while employers contributed 4% of salaries up to a ceiling of €12,680 month. Who can claim? To claim unemployment benefit in France you must have been registered with the scheme for at least 122 days in the last 28 months (last 36 months if you are over 50) and be below the minimum retirement age. You must have had your contract terminated by the employer, come to the end of a fixed contract, resigned for a valid reason or mutually agreed to leave your employment. You must register with the Pôle emploi (jobseekers service), actively seek work and be prepared to accept ‘reasonable’ job offers. Unemployment benefit is paid as a daily unemployment allowance; how much you get depends on contributions and salary level over the previous 12 months up to a limit of €12,680 month. For example, 57% of daily gross salary for a salary of between €2,149 and €12,680. It is possible to earn a salary in addition to receiving unemployment benefits, so long as the total income from benefits and salary do not exceed the average gross salary earned before registering as a job seeker. Old age pension in France The legal minimum retirement age in France is 62 for those born after 1 January 1955 but the normal retirement age is between 65 and 67. Employees pay 6.85% of monthly income and employers pay 8.5% up on earnings up to a ceiling of €3,170 per month. Without an upper limit, employees pay 0.3% on total monthly salary and employers pay 1.8%. How much pension you get depends on the 25 best earning years on which contributions have been made, the payment rate and total period of insurance. Depending on the job, it may be possible to take early retirement without a loss of pension. There are supplementary pension schemes as well, which are administered by ARRCO (Association for Employees’ Supplementary Schemes) and AGIRC (General Association of Retirement Institutions for Executives) covering only managerial and executive staff. How much pension you get is points-based, whereby the yearly contributions are converted into points, added up for the total period of insurance and multiplied by the value of the point at the time the pension is calculated. For more information, see the AGRIC and ARRCO website. Social security debt in France If you are resident and paying tax in France you also have to pay two social security surcharges called the Contribution Sociale Généralisée or CSG, and the Contribution pour le Remboursement de la Dette Social (CRDS). These are paid on total income. CSG is 7.5% on earned income and 6.2% on replacement income; CRDS is 0.5% of earnings. If you are not paying tax in France you don’t have to pay contributions to either, but you must make contributions to employee’s health insurance at a rate of 5.5% on total earnings. For more information - www.service-public.fr – general information on health and social security from the French government - Securite-sociale – public portal for social security in France - I’Assuarance Maladie (Ameli) – information on healthcare, accidents at work, and issues social security numbers - Le Cleiss – social security - URSSAF – social security - CAF Caisse D’Allocations Familiales – family benefits - Regime Social des Independents (RSI) – health cover for self-employed - Caisse National d’Assurance Vieillesse des Professions Libérales CNAVPL – retirement and invalidity cover for self-employed - Association pour la Gestion de la Sécurité Sociale des Auteurs (Agessa) or the Maison des Artists –writers and artists social security
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What Is Public Sector Net Borrowing? Public sector net borrowing is a British term referring the fiscal deficit. A fiscal deficit is a shortfall in a government's income compared with its spending. A government that has a fiscal deficit is spending more than it takes in from taxes or trade. - Public sector net borrowing is the term used for the U.K. government fiscal deficit. - A government creates a fiscal deficit by spending more money than it takes in from taxes and other revenues excluding debt. - The gap between income and spending is closed by government borrowing. Understanding Public Sector Net Borrowing Public sector net borrowing is equal to the UK government's expenditures minus its total receipts. If this number is positive, the country is running a fiscal deficit; a negative number represents a fiscal surplus. The figures are not seasonally adjusted or adjusted for inflation. Britain's Office of National Statistics issues an estimate of the public sector net borrowing each month. This statistic is often used by forex traders to determine the fundamental health of the British economy and currency. The British government has run a budget deficit in most months in recent years, though post-crisis austerity policies have caused its net debt to fall from a peak above £2.3 trillion (or 146% of GDP) in 2010 to less than £2.1 trillion (102%) in the third quarter of 2017. In the campaign for the June 2017 general election, all major parties advocated decreasing public sector net borrowing. Net Borrowing an Brexit Brexit is an abbreviation for "British exit," referring to the U.K.'s decision in a June 23, 2016 referendum to leave the European Union (EU). The vote's result defied expectations and roiled global markets, causing the British pound to fall to its lowest level against the dollar in 30 years. According to some governmental reports, the Brexit vote is costing the Treasury £440 million a week, far more than the UK ever contributed to the EU budget. "Two years on from the referendum, we now know that the Brexit vote has seriously damaged the economy," wrote the author of the report and the deputy director of the pro-EU CER, John Springford. Independent statistics watchdog the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has echoed the bearish sentiment, forecasting Brexit to lift the U.K.'s deficit and debt, leaving the government pressured to increase taxes, up its spending cuts, or impose a mixture of the two. The OBR attributes estimates for declining U.K. revenues to it becoming a more isolated country, less open to trade, investment and migration than it was as part of the EU. The U.K. runs a current account deficit with Europe. However, the service sector operates as a surplus — meaning the U.K. exports more than it imports. Of its exports, banking and financial services make up 26%. Under a "hard" Brexit, where trade falls back to World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, the inability to operate on a level field will potentially impact most, if not all, of these jobs.
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Bitcoin is a digital currency that enables users to be their own banks, store their assets securely thanks to advanced encryption and send money without any intermediaries to anyone anywhere in the World. Bitcoin is the oldest cryptocurrency with a very good market price. It has made many investors, especially the earliest ones, incredibly rich bringing even 1000x of returns. However, because of this it has become a very speculative asset. Many people are researching Bitcoin only for the sake of profits and not to use it as a fast peer-to-peer payment method The whole process is pretty simple and organized: Bitcoin holders are able to transfer bitcoins via a peer-to-peer network. These transfers are tracked on the “blockchain,” commonly referred to as a giant ledger. This ledger records every bitcoin transaction ever made. Each “block” in the blockchain is built up of a data structure based on encrypted Merkle Trees. This is particularly useful for detecting fraud or corrupted files. If a single file in a chain is corrupt or fraudulent, the blockchain prevents it from damaging the rest of the ledger. The receiver of the first bitcoin transaction was cypherpunk Hal Finney, who created the first reusable proof-of-work system (RPOW) in 2004. Finney downloaded the bitcoin software on its release date, and on 12 January 2009 received ten bitcoins from Nakamoto. Other early cypherpunk supporters were creators of bitcoin predecessors: Wei Dai, creator of b-money, and Nick Szabo, creator of bit gold. In 2010, the first known commercial transaction using bitcoin occurred when programmer Laszlo Hanyecz bought two Papa John's pizzas for 10,000 bitcoin. Our first assumption is that bitcoin will derive its value both from its use as a medium of exchange and as a store of value. As a footnote to this assumption, it should be stated that bitcoin's utility as a store of value is dependent on its utility as a medium of exchange. We base this in turn on the assumption that for something to be used as a store of value it needs to have some intrinsic value, and if bitcoin does not achieve success as a medium of exchange, it will have no practical utility and thus no intrinsic value and won't be appealing as a store of value. On 24 August 2017 (at block 481,824), Segregated Witness (SegWit) went live. Transactions contain some data which is only used to verify the transaction, and does not otherwise effect the movement of coins. SegWit introduced a new transaction format that moved this data into a new field in a backwards-compatible way. The segregated data, the so-called witness, is not sent to non-SegWit nodes and therefore does not form part of the blockchain as seen by legacy nodes. This lowers the size of the average transaction in such nodes' view, thereby increasing the block size without incurring the hard fork implied by other proposals for block size increases. Thus, per computer scientist Jochen Hoenicke, the actual block capacity depends on the ratio of SegWit transactions in the block, and on the ratio of signature data. Based on his estimate, if the ratio of SegWit transactions is 50%, the block capacity may be 1.25 megabytes. According to Hoenicke, if native SegWit addresses from Bitcoin Core version 0.16.0 are used, and SegWit adoption reaches 90% to 95%, a block size of up to 1.8 megabytes is possible. Jump up ^ Mooney, Chris; Mufson, Steven (19 December 2017). "Why the bitcoin craze is using up so much energy". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 9 January 2018. Retrieved 11 January 2018. several experts told The Washington Post that bitcoin probably uses as much as 1 to 4 gigawatts, or billion watts, of electricity, roughly the output of one to three nuclear reactors. Bitcoin is pseudonymous, meaning that funds are not tied to real-world entities but rather bitcoin addresses. Owners of bitcoin addresses are not explicitly identified, but all transactions on the blockchain are public. In addition, transactions can be linked to individuals and companies through "idioms of use" (e.g., transactions that spend coins from multiple inputs indicate that the inputs may have a common owner) and corroborating public transaction data with known information on owners of certain addresses. Additionally, bitcoin exchanges, where bitcoins are traded for traditional currencies, may be required by law to collect personal information.
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In the excellent Prediction Machines Agrawal, Gans and Goldfarb take an economics-based view of the changes that will be brought on by Artificial Intelligence (AI). Essentially some basic economic principles can help us see what will change. The argument is that AI can predict and this will become cheaper with increasingly effective machines. This will have knock on effects: “The drop in the cost of prediction will impact the value of other things, increasing the value of complements (data, judgment and action) and diminishing the value of substitutes (human prediction), (Agrawal, Gans, and Goldfarb, 2018, page 19-20). Those things that allow you to get the best out of the cheap AI, such as the data AI needs to generate a decent prediction, will become more valuable. On the other hand some things will become next to useless. Who needs a person to predict what will happen when an AI can do it much better by faithfully mapping to patterns seen previously without the mistakes made by human beings when we try and concentrate for too long. The example of “anticipatory shipping” is an interesting one. At some point it’ll generate more profit for Amazon to ship what it thinks you want and need (and accept that this will generate greater return costs) than wait for you to ask for an item. I think this is great but I can imagine some people might find it a little creepy. The authors suggest that AI is really about prediction. This is where it benefits business. “At the center of the AI canvas is prediction. You need to identify the core prediction at the heart of the task” (Agrawal, Gans, and Goldfarb, 2018, page 140). Doing so forces you to clarify what you mean. A business school needs to specify (to do this the school must decide in advance) what they mean by “the best student” in order to benefit from using a prediction machine in recruiting. Do you want students who are great in class? Donate more after graduation? Get high-profile jobs that bring kudos to the school? The machine needs to know what you want in order to know what to recommend. But humans will still be needed. Spreadsheets made those who could use them more efficient and so increased the value of such people (rather than stealing their jobs). Some jobs will go away, others will become more value depending upon whether they can be replaced by, or are enhanced by, the availability of cheap effective prediction machines. I’m just hoping marketing academics are in the later category. Read: Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, and Avi Goldfarb (2018) Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence, Harvard Business Review Press
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Hydrogen is the miracle fuel the world never seems to quite get round to using. In spite of periodic bursts of interest, such as in the 1970s when many hailed it as a pollution-free oil substitute, the gas has never taken off in the way its advocates hoped. Could that indifference now be lifting? Plenty of energy experts think it should. They argue that hydrogen has an indispensable role to play if the UK, and other countries, are to reach goals to cut carbon emissions by 2050 to “net zero” by substituting for fossil fuels in some of the hard-to-decarbonise parts of the economy. These include domestic heating and transportation, as well as many industrial applications such as cement and steel where electricity may not be suitable. The evangelists point eagerly to hydrogen’s many virtues. Not only that it burns without producing any greenhouse gases, but also its propensity to be “dropped in” to existing energy systems, such as pipes, engines and boilers, thus easing the enormous infrastructure cost of transitioning to a lower-carbon economy. Seems too good to be true? Well, as ever, dig down and you find it’s not as simple as it sounds. There is a reason why hydrogen accounts for just 4 per cent of final energy use at present: it’s pricey. That’s not simply because of its elevated manufacturing costs. It is also very bulky, making it cumbersome (and expensive) to handle once you’ve made it. Much of the cheerleading for hydrogen is coming from gas distribution companies, for whom it could prove a long-term lifeline Carbon-free hydrogen is eminently technically do-able, either by making it using fossil fuels and then extracting the carbon through capture and storage technology (so-called blue hydrogen) or by electrolysis powered by renewable energy (the green kind). But neither is likely to make it cheaper. Quite the reverse. So while fossil fuel-based hydrogen can be made for about $1 a kilogramme at best, the average existing European offshore wind farm can technically produce it at closer to $6/kg. Let’s pause for a second to put that number into fossil-fuel focus. Take the energy content of that kilo of hydrogen and transpose it into the equivalent energy amount of hydrocarbon. That $6/kg becomes a barrel of recession-inducing $270 oil. Of course, prices will fall through “learning by doing”. Renewable prices are continuing to tumble at quite startling speed. Last year’s Portuguese solar auctions saw bids come in at about $16/MWh, well below the $40-$50/MWh average for the most recent renewable deals. At levels like that, things become more interesting. The other moving part is the cost of the electrolysers needed to turn power into energy. They have already fallen to $1,200/KW from about $1,750 in 2014. McKinsey estimates that with each doubling of capacity, the cost of the equipment should fall by between 9 and 13 per cent. Yet even with those efficiencies, the gold standard production cost is still likely to be about $1/kg — equivalent to $45 oil — in the long term. And that’s before any distribution costs, which make hydrogen relatively uneconomic over anything but short distances. Given these limitations, the gas could still end up a marginal fuel once again. Much of the cheerleading for hydrogen is coming from gas distribution companies, for whom it could prove a long-term lifeline, or big emitters such as the world’s shipping fleet. The problem, as ever, is who meets the cost of any investment in advance of demand. “Green hydrogen” can only grow at the speed of carbon-free electricity output, which remains a relatively trivial chunk of total energy production. (Alternatives to renewables, such as nuclear or natural gas with carbon capture and storage, will themselves require hefty investment). Meanwhile, expanding hydrogen’s use into industry, transportation and heating will take gazillions of electrolysers, costing many tens of billions. No wonder industry is looking hungrily at governments for another wave of support, with taxpayer subsidies acting as midwife to the new hydrogen economy. Politicians should be cautious. The public is already paying richly for existing green initiatives, whether in higher taxes or through elevated future prices for the essential utilities and infrastructure that we use. Not everything can be subsidised. Governments would do better focusing on setting the overall regulatory direction, including an appropriate price for carbon, and taking steps to prevent simply exporting what remains of energy-intensive industry to more emitting countries by imposing a carbon border adjustment. If the experts are right, and hydrogen is indeed indispensable, investment should be forthcoming. So if oil and gas companies perceive demand for the fuel, they should pay for carbon capture facilities to produce it. Shipping companies can decide whether they can operate hydrogen-powered ships economically. If they cannot, markets can adjust around them. One answer, for instance, may be less shipborne trade. Hydrogen will play a part in a zero-carbon world where it is genuinely needed. Governments can, of course, provide assistance at the margin, supporting pilot developments, and R&D initiatives. But their most valuable contribution is not betting on technologies. It’s setting a credible and consistent policy to meet the 2050 goal. Copyright The Financial Times Limited . All rights reserved. Please don't copy articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
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How well are we doing? Green finance plan How well are we doing? Banks and the financial sector have a key role to play in shaping green economies – both directly through their own investment decisions, and indirectly by influencing policies and regulations. A Green finance plan is essential for supporting private sector sustainability, by setting the right regulatory climate, incentivising green investment, and encouraging firms to consider sustainability while making decisions. Policy ambition on green finance planning is distinctly average across the 20 surveyed countries, with almost all having started discussing how to integrate greener finance into their economies but no outstanding leaders taking decisive action. European countries like the United Kingdom and France - with larger financial sectors - have taken progressive positions around climate-related financial risk, supported (or led) by their central banks. Green investment frameworks are also being developed at the EU level -supporting similarly progressive policy packages being pursued by Portugal and Sweden. Amongst countries with large fossil fuel sectors, there is a notable division between those who are prioritising green finance in order to diversify and decarbonise their domestic economies, such as the United Arab Emirates and Mongolia, and those where entrenched oil & gas sectors are blocking ambition on green finance, such as Canada or Trinidad and Tobago. Whether nascent commitments to greening investment will make a difference for high carbon economies will depend on enthusiasm and social pressure for decarbonisation spreading to financing of extraction and export of hydrocarbons. About this policy Banks and the financial sector have a key role to play in shaping green economies – both directly through their own investment decisions, and indirectly by influencing policies and regulations. Finance reform via a Green finance plan can encompass a range of policies, and it is often up to central banks and regulatory authorities to take the lead by analysing environmental risks to markets, such as climate change, biodiversity collapse, or stranded assets. This can help to catalyse prudent, longer term investing that keeps market forces aligned with delivering a greener economy. Strengthening capital market and credit guidelines, and ensuring sustainability safeguards are included in investment criteria, can be especially important. Reforming financial markets is complex and highly dependent on context. Most countries do not have powerful financial centres such as New York, London, Hong Kong or Tokyo, and so have less ability to influence international capital. Therefore, it is especially important that the governments of these centres show the most ambition: their decisions shape the playing field for everybody else. Countries that are setting the highest standards have active and engaged central banks who are working actively to engage internationally on environmental financial risk, and are even exploring ways to penalise unsustainable investment. However, even financially peripheral economies can plan for more supportive frameworks for green investment. Case Study: France Combining strong political commitment to green finance, and implementation of EU-level initiatives, France has developed a comprehensive approach to green finance. A strategic partnership with Sweden has brought stronger disclosure obligations for investors, climate stress testing for banks, and new green bonds. Planning has to some extent been devolved to supervisory authorities in the finance sector, with recommendations from the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and central banking Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) taking the lead. Despite growing support for green investments, France – like other green finance leaders – still lacks a structured framework for disincentivising unsustainable investments.France Country Profile Case Study: United Arab Emirates The UAE has been building momentum in green finance, with the Dubai Declaration on Sustainable Finance and the State of Green Finance Report setting out clear statements of intent, and a framework to identify the contribution of financial institutions to a green economy. These ambitions remain mostly aspirational, however, as the UAE still lacks concrete targets and specific policies. A sea-change in public investment priorities is needed to give a strong signal to financial markets that the UAE means to deliver on its green finance vision, and genuinely take on the political and economic challenges of transitioning away from a fossil-fuel economy.United Arab Emirates Country Profile
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The decision of the majority of partners will control as far as the day-to-day operations of the partnership. For example, a majority of the partners of a business can decide to increase the business’s advertising and enter into a contract to increase the advertising. This contract will bind the partnership and all of the partners, individually. When there is an even number of partners, there is a possibility of a partnership deadlock. If the decision is of a nature that it would be impossible to continue the business, and the partners continue to be deadlocked, any one of the partners may petition the Court to order the dissolution of the partnership. An individual partner can have express authority to perform certain acts. This authority either comes from the partnership agreement or because a sufficient number of partners have agreed to this authority. A partner has the authority to do the acts that are customary for a member of the partnership who conducts the particular business of the partnership, whether it be a law partnership, medical partnership, accounting partnership, etc. The partners may agree to limit the normal powers of each partner. However, if a partner negotiates a contract for the partnership with a third person which exceeds the powers of the partner, the partnership is still bound if the third person was unaware of the agreement limiting the partner’s powers. Of course the partner would be liable to the other partners for any loss caused by his breach of the agreement to limit his powers. If the third person knew of the agreement, the partnership would not be bound. A third person would be bound by any limitation on the partner’s powers if there is any fact present that would put a reasonable person on notice that the partner’s powers are limited. A partner cannot bind the partnership to a third person in a transaction which is not within the scope of the partnership’s business unless the partner has express authority to bind the partnership. Suppose a partner in a dental partnership begins to speculate financially in land. In such a situation, a third person dealing with the partner cannot hold the other partners liable on such a contract. If the partner states that he has authority to bind the partnership in such a transaction, the buyer or seller of the land would want to get written evidence of the authority of the partners, such as a resolution signed by all of the partners authorizing this particular partner to enter into the land contract.
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In this lesson, you will tackle the question of why Medicare and Medicaid programs can be expensive and what solutions have been proposed to address this. We will consider the benefits provided by these services and the costs involved. Not-So-Free Health Care 'Finally! Free health care, here I come!,' Judy says as she applies for Medicare coverage a few months before her 65th birthday. She's been paying for private health insurance premiums and copays for most of her life, and she's ready for this new plan provided by the government. Judy hasn't learned yet about the costs of Medicare that she will still have to pay out of her pocket or the price tag to the nation for this care. This lesson looks at the costs and problems of the Medicare and Medicaid programs, along with some of the potential solutions that have been proposed. The Basics of Medicare of Medicaid But first, we look at the basics of these two programs, established by the Johnson Administration in 1965, the year that Judy turned 16 years old and rocked out to 'Stop! In the Name of Love,' by the Supremes. The Medicare program provides health coverage for aging citizens and permanent residents of the United States age 65 and older. Judy qualifies because she is about to turn 65. The program was groundbreaking in its ability to ease the concern of older adults for how to afford their own care and has had a lasting legacy. It provides support in parts, from Part A to Part D, to cover the costs of a range of services, such as hospital stays, typical medical visits, durable medical equipment, and prescriptions. However, Medicare does not cover all of a person's health care costs. Some costs are passed on to the patient, and unless a person qualifies for a subsidy, they must pay a monthly premium. Medigap coverage is private insurance that can be purchased to help pay for what Medicare does not. For those who have very few resources, the Medicaid program may help. Medicaid is a state-run program that provides hospital and medical coverage to those with low income. Each state has its own rules for who qualifies. Typically, only those who have significant need are eligible. Some individuals will qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid. Both programs are funded by the public and their employers through payroll taxes. So everyone working is contributing to these programs with each paycheck. According to the Congressional Budget Office of the government, health care spending is the single most important factor for the long-term financial health of the country. Since the time they were developed, the Medicaid and Medicare programs have become more expensive, typically requiring more funding over time. Although the past few years have seen more steady numbers than predicted in 2008, why has the cost climbed in past years, and why is it expected to rise? Many Americans believe that fraud and mismanagement are major reasons behind the cost increases, but these are only part of the story. A more significant reason for higher costs is that the medical field has developed over time and gained new technologies and techniques. Medicine can provide a great deal more service to someone who experiences health problems than ever before. More possibilities for care can sometimes mean more expensive care. Better care can be good for the patient, like Judy, and yet there are costs involved that must be paid. Many of us never see the real cost of the services we receive. We mainly care about whether our insurance covers the cost but don't think too much about the rest. For instance, the average Medicare payment to provide a major cardiac procedure to one individual was over $20,000 in 2012. These costs can easily add up for the government programs providing for the care of older adults, who tend to have the most health problems. Another issue is that the percentage of older adults is on the rise. This means that during this period of history, the portion of the population that is over 65 is growing, and so the overall cost for Medicare will be greater. Solutions and Alternatives Judy worries that reducing costs will mean that Medicare will no longer exist or that doctors will allow patients to go without needed treatment. However, the government would not want patients to see reduced health outcomes. Instead, to help address the rising costs of Medicare, one idea is to focus on the effectiveness of treatments so the government and the public can get the most bang for their buck. Various geographic regions sometimes choose to use different treatments due to the norms and standards of the local community or their understanding of certain medical approaches. For instance, if Judy goes to her family doctor in Iowa, he may have a different way to treat her than if she went to a doctor in another state or another country. Many propose providing medical professionals with more information about the comparative effectiveness of different options. This means more data would be made available about the impact of various treatments available for addressing a particular health condition. A doctor treating Judy in Iowa could then use this information to recommend the most effective course of treatment for her situation to ensure that money is spent most appropriately. When Judy's provider is comparing treatments, there can sometimes be a financial factor that influences the provider's recommendations. To address this, President Obama's Affordable Care Act includes a program called Medicare's Accountable Care Organizations program. These voluntary groups of providers are rewarded for more efficiency in the use of medical resources rather than relying on the most expensive treatments when they are not necessary. Other solutions from the Act include addressing fraud and promoting preventative health measures. Medicare provides health coverage for aging citizens and permanent residents of the United States age 65 and older. The program is funded by the government mainly through monthly premiums and taxes on wages and employers. Since Medicare does not pay for all of a person's costs, Medigap coverage is private insurance that can be purchased to help pay for what Medicare does not. For those who qualify due to limited resources, Medicaid is available. This program is a state-run program that provides hospital and medical coverage to those with low income. Some individuals will be eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. These programs have grown in cost since they started in 1965 and are anticipated to rise in the future. Factors that have influenced this increase include technological improvements in the field of medicine and more older adults than in past time periods. To help address cost concerns, many propose providing medical professionals with more information about the comparative effectiveness of different options. This means that doctors could see more data on the impact of various treatments available for treating a particular condition before making a decision about what route to choose. Other strategies include creating incentives for lower-cost treatments when effective, reducing fraud, and increasing attention to the prevention of chronic problems. Now that you are done with this lesson, you should be able to: - Describe the purposes of Medicare and Medicaid programs, as well as Medigap insurance - Understand how Medicare and Medicaid programs are funded - Explain why the cost of government health programs has increased over time - Recall some methods to control healthcare costs
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Operating cash flow (OCF) is the lifeblood of a company and arguably the most important barometer that investors have for judging corporate well-being. Although many investors gravitate toward net income, operating cash flow is often seen as a better metric of a company's financial health for two main reasons. First, cash flow is harder to manipulate under GAAP than net income (although it can be done to a certain degree). Second, "cash is king" and a company that does not generate cash over the long term is on its deathbed. For more, see our tutorial: An Introduction To Fundamental Analysis But operating cash flow doesn't mean the same thing as EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization). While EBITDA is sometimes called a "cash flow," it is really earnings before the effects of financing and capital investment decisions. It does not capture the changes in working capital (inventories, receivables, etc.). The real operating cash flow is the number derived in the statement of cash flows. Overview of the Statement of Cash Flows The statement of cash flows for non-financial companies consists of three main parts: - Operating flows - The net cash generated from operations (net income and changes in working capital). - Investing flows - The net result of capital expenditures, investments, acquisitions, etc. - Financing flows - The net result of raising cash to fund the other flows or repaying debt. By taking net income and making adjustments to reflect changes in the working capital accounts on the balance sheet (receivables, payables, inventories) and other current accounts, the operating cash flow section shows how cash was generated during the period. It is this translation process from accrual accounting to cash accounting that makes the operating cash flow statement so important. Operating Cash Flow Accrual Accounting vs. Cash Flows The key differences between accrual accounting and real cash flow are demonstrated by the concept of the cash cycle. A company's cash cycle is the process that converts sales (based upon accrual accounting) into cash as follows: - Cash is used to make an inventory. - Inventory is sold and converted into accounts receivables (because customers are given 30 days to pay). - Cash is received when the customer pays (which also reduces receivables). There are many ways that cash from legitimate sales can get trapped on the balance sheet. The two most common are for customers to delay payment (resulting in a build-up of receivables) and for inventory levels to rise because the product is not selling or is being returned. For example, a company may legitimately record a $1 million sale but, because that sale allowed the customer to pay within 30 days, the $1 million in sales does not mean the company made $1 million cash. If the payment date occurs after the close of the end of the quarter, accrued earnings will be greater than operating cash flow because the $1 million is still in accounts receivable. Harder to Fudge Operating Cash Flows Not only can accrual accounting give a rather provisional report of a company's profitability, but under GAAP it allows management a range of choices to record transactions. While this flexibility is necessary, it also allows for earnings manipulation. Because managers will generally book business in a way that will help them earn their bonus, it is usually safe to assume that the income statement will overstate profits. An example of income manipulation is called "stuffing the channel." To increase their sales, a company can provide retailers with incentives such as extended terms or a promise to take back the inventory if it is not sold. Inventories will then move into the distribution channel and sales will be booked. Accrued earnings will increase, but cash may actually never be received because the inventory may be returned by the customer. While this may increase sales in one quarter, it is a short-term exaggeration and ultimately "steals" sales from the following periods (as inventories are sent back). (Note: While liberal return policies, such as consignment sales, are not allowed to be recorded as sales, companies have been known to do so quite frequently during a market bubble.) The operating cash flow statement will catch these gimmicks. When operating cash flow is less than net income, there is something wrong with the cash cycle. In extreme cases, a company could have consecutive quarters of negative operating cash flow and, in accordance with GAAP, legitimately report positive EPS. In this situation, investors should determine the source of the cash hemorrhage (inventories, receivables, etc.) and whether this situation is a short-term issue or long-term problem. While the operating cash flow statement is more difficult to manipulate, there are ways for companies to temporarily boost cash flows. Some of the more common techniques include: delaying payment to suppliers (extending payables); selling securities; and reversing charges made in prior quarters (such as restructuring reserves). Some view the selling of receivables for cash—usually at a discount—as a way for companies to manipulate cash flows. In some cases, this action may be a cash flow manipulation; but it can also be a legitimate financing strategy. The challenge is being able to determine management's intent. Cash Is King A company can only live by EPS alone for a limited time. Eventually, it will need actual cash to pay the piper, suppliers and, most importantly, the bankers. There are many examples of once-respected companies who went bankrupt because they could not generate enough cash. Strangely, despite all this evidence, investors are consistently hypnotized by EPS and market momentum, and ignore the warning signs. The Bottom Line Investors can avoid a lot of bad investments if they analyze a company's operating cash flow. It's not hard to do, but you'll need to do it because the talking heads and analysts are all too often focused on EPS.
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The period begining in the 1990s marked an economic transition in Lesotho. Once based on subsistence agriculture and animal husbandry, as well as migrant workers' remittances from the South African mines, the economy has changed substantially as a result of growth in the manufacturing sector. In the 1980's nearly half of Lesotho's GNP was based on earnings of some 120 000 mine labourers, today less than half that number is employed. By contrast, tremendous growth in the manufacturing and textile sectors led to the creation of over 50,000 jobs. The Lesotho Highlands Water Project led to a boom in the construction sector and there are promising developments and increasing investments being made in the mining sector. The construction of the Metolong Dam is expected to give a further boost to the construction sector, in addition to providing water to six lowland districts, including Maseru. With the assistance of development partners, many new roads have been built to increase accessibility of the highlands, and major reforms in government are expected to improve financial management and the quality of public accounts. In the social sectors, the government has been able to make substantial improvements in service to its citizens, including the establishment of an old age pension and free primary education. Not least it has been a time of stability and democracy. GLOBAL ECONOMIC TRENDS Lesotho is susceptible and vulnerable to outside economic global trends. In particular, the fortunes of the US economy are particularly meaningful for Lesotho as the country is the largest textile exporter to the US from Sub-saharan Africa. Economic developments in Europe also have a direct effect on Lesotho's economy as South Africa's is Europe`s main trading partner, and shocks to that economy can easily be transmitted to Lesotho, since the two countries are closely linked economically. Thus the recent global economic crisis had negative effects on the economy of Lesotho. This resulted in a decline in Goverment revenue particularly external trade related revenue. It affected the domestic manufacturing subsector adversely as the demand for Lesotho textile exports declined leading to several firms ceasing operations and hence employment reached its lowest level since 2005. The demand for Lesotho`s diamonds also declined. Migrant workers` remittances also fell as more Basotho were retrenched. In this regard the ongoing global recovery will augur well for Lesotho.
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Jobs play a central role in the lives of most adults. As forces like globalization and automation reshape the labor market, it is clear that some people and places are positioned to do well while others risk becoming collateral damage. The well-educated and technically savvy find ample employment opportunities, while those with lower levels of education face a labor market that is decidedly less welcoming, with lower wages and less potential for career growth. Meanwhile, some regions dramatically outpace others in job growth, incomes, and productivity, raising disquieting questions about how best to promote broad-based economic growth. More than 53 million people— 44% of all workers aged 18-64—are low-wage workers by our criteria. They earn median hourly wages of $10.22 and median annual earnings of $17,950. Low-wage workers as a share of all workers varies considerably by metropolitan area Not surprisingly, the largest metropolitan areas have the highest numbers of low-wage workers: 3.5 million in the New York City area, 2.7 million in the Los Angeles region, 1.6 million in Chicago, and about 1.2 million each in Dallas, Miami, and Houston. In smaller metros, such as Pine Bluff, Ark., Walla Walla, Wash., and Ithaca, N.Y., there are fewer than 15,000 low-wage workers.
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By Anne Harding (Reuters Health) - Most U.S. adults report worrying about at least two financial issues, such as being able to afford medical bills, retirement or a child's college education, new research finds. Individuals with two or more financial worries were far more likely to suffer from serious psychological distress than those who reported fewer money concerns, Dr. Judith Weissman, a mental health researcher at the New York State Psychiatric Institute in New York City, and her colleagues found. Financial distress had a relatively greater effect on mental health in women and Latinos, while less-educated whites reported the most psychological distress. The findings show that "people are feeling very disturbed about financial matters," Weissman told Reuters Health in a phone interview. "These financial matters are a proxy for our life stability." Death rates among middle-aged white men and women in the U.S. have been on the rise since about 1999, largely driven by increases in deaths from drug overdoses, alcohol poisoning, alcoholic liver disease and suicide, the study team notes in the Community Mental Health Journal. While unemployment and other objective economic measures have been linked to mental and physical health, the role of subjective measurements - how people feel about their financial situation - is not as clear, they write. The researchers looked at serious psychological distress, which isn't a diagnosis but a measurement of a person's overall mental health and social functioning, in a sample of 24,126 U.S. adults who represented more than 245 million people nationwide. Study participants, who were surveyed in 2016, also reported whether they were worried about paying their bills, paying costs due to serious medical events, paying costs due to unexpected medical events, paying for retirement, paying for children's college, or being able to maintain their standard of living. College tuition was the top worry, reported by about 56% of participants, followed by paying for retirement, by about 49%. Fifty-nine percent reported at least two financial worries, while about 28% reported having no worries and 13% had just one financial concern. Women were more likely to report each of the financial worries than men, and the worries were also more common among Hispanic people compared to other groups. More-educated individuals reported fewer financial worries, while people with multiple chronic illnesses reported more. Weissman and her colleagues are now planning to investigate whether the financial worries they studied are associated with suicide risk. People suffering from distress should understand that care and treatment is available, Weissman said. "A lot of times feeling depressed or feeling distressed shapes the way we perceive our options," she said. "Persevere, depression is treatable, even suicidal ideation is treatable." SOURCE: https://bit.ly/2vcAXD6 Community Mental Health Journal, online January 1, 2020.
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We all know that the process of mining generates digital oriented currency. This is mainly a technology which needs pressure and processing power to do the complete mining of intensive work. The technology of Cryptocurrency has a public ledger which has transactions from the past. The addition of these transactions happens for estimating and understanding the previously used records for mining. The block chain technology helps the chains in the blocks to know the ledger and transactions from the past. This technology lets you educate the transactions which have taken place and understands the rest of the network to understand the transactions confirmed by the Blockchain. In this technology, the transactions always try to make the payment method by spending the coins to buy a product because this model can give the hype and security without any breach. The miners usually find the blocks for mining. It is absolute that this process remains steady for mining. This technology is designed to be resourceful and tough to understand due to its complex nature. The proof of work always plays a key role for the blocks as it provides the information of validity. The Cryptocurrency always receives a block to their nodes once they verify the proof of work. This process is a secure consensus because that is the primary purpose of initiating mining in Cryptocurrency. The systems mainly include Cryptocurrencies with the help of this mining technique to for the process of mining. Miners are also there who have paid for their transactions at the start. They are also given subsidy for the newly mined coins. However, Commodities also follow the process of mining, but the mining of Cryptocurrencies are also the same because the mining process remains the same. The rate of mining such Cryptocurrencies is just same to the rate of mining the other commodities like gold are mined from below the ground and from other sources. How It Works - CPU Mining: Firstly the mining process started from their CPUs for mining the Cryptocurrency. Now after the arrival of GPU, GPU mining is wise to use in this field, and CPU mining gets the unwise tag. The cost of operating the CPU is higher than the price for the initiation of Cryptocurrencies. - GPU Mining: This mining process in GPU is very flexible and efficient. The process is faster than the CPU mining methods. - ASIC Mining: However, if GPU and CPU mining is compared with ASIC mining, they are faster for the amount of power that they consumed is low.
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Today, JP Morgan is a brand and a venerable financial institution that is the largest bank in the U.S. However, there was a man that started it all: John Pierpont Morgan, Sr. was a financier and banker who absolutely dominated corporate finance on Wall Street during the Gilded Age. During his career, J.P. Morgan led the formation of a number of massive corporations including U.S. Steel, International Harvester, and General Electric. He had controlling interests in a slew of other American companies including AT&T, Western Union, and 24 railroads. He was so influential that during the Panic of 1907, he put together a coalition of bankers that saved the American economy from collapse. He was also an art connoisseur and collector who spent $1.5 billion on art during his life. But we'll get to that in a moment. J.P. Morgan was born in 1837 in Hartford, Connecticut into a wealthy and prominent family. He was the son of Junius Spencer Morgan and Juliet Pierpont. He went to school at the exclusive English High School of Boston and at the Swiss boarding school Bellerive. He attended the University of Gottingen in Germany at the wishes of his father, so that he could become fluent in German. He achieved that and a degree in art history by the time he was 20. Morgan got his start in banking at the London branch of Peabody, Morgan & Co. in 1857; a merchant banking partnership between his father and George Peabody that was founded three years earlier. In 1858, he moved to New York City to take a job at the banking firm Duncan, Sherman & Company, which was the American branch of George Peabody and Company. From 1860 to 1864, he was the New York agent for his father's firm working at J. Pierpont Morgan & Co. From 1864 to 1872 he worked for Dabney, Morgan, and Company. In 1871 he partnered with the Drexel family to form Drexel, Morgan & Company. In 1895, after the death of Anthony Drexel, Morgan renamed the company J.P. Morgan & Company. Morgan was an influential businessman whose ascent to power and wealth was because of the railroads. Back in the Gilded Age, trains were the way to travel and ship goods. Railroads were the largest businesses in the U.S. back then. With the money made in banking and railroads, Morgan became an art collector who spent $1.5 billion on art in his lifetime. He was a collector of paintings, pictures, books, clocks, and other art objects. Where is that art? The Morgan Library and Museum in the Murray Hill neighborhood of New York City, not far from the Empire State Building. The museum complex is half a city block long and used to be the private residences owned by J.P. Morgan. Morgan's own residence – his study, main library, and librarian's office are in the museum's central building. The rest of his home is where the galleries are. The café and gift shop are inside a brownstone that belonged to his son. Over the last two decades of his life, Morgan was dedicated to finding rare and expensive things to add to his art collection. The museum is impressive. A grand rotunda is outside the entrance to J.P. Morgan's private rooms. The artwork on the ceiling was inspired by the work of Raphael. The paintings show the three literary epochs that are in Morgan's collection – the ancient world, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance. The most important piece of art in this room is a plaster cast of George Washington's face, made by the French sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon. Washington lived in a time before modern photography, so this plaster cast is actually the best representation of what Washington actually looked like. It was made in 1785, four years before he became president. It is believed that Morgan purchased this artifact on a trip to Rome. The librarian's office, also located off the rotunda, contains one of the best collections of Mesopotamian seals. The office belonged to Belle da Costa Greene. Her dad was the first black graduate of Harvard. She was instrumental in the purchases and sales of millions of dollars of art on Morgan's behalf. When he died, she was made the director of his library. The main library is filled with one-of-a-kind artifacts. The walls have three levels of shelves that contain rare books. In the center of the library is a tapestry depicting one of the seven deadly sins: avarice. This tongue in cheek nod to Morgan's perceived greed was meant to encourage him to be more generous. The library also contains three Gutenberg bibles, which is the most of any single collection. They are some of the earliest printed texts in the world. One of Morgan's was printed in 1455. The library also contains the Lindau Gospels which has the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. He purchased it in 1901 for what would be $387,000 in today's dollars. Oh, by the way, it was J.P. Morgan who coined the phrase "if you have to ask how much it costs, you can't afford it." Morgan's favorite works of art are located in his personal study. In 1998, the staff of the museum realized that the collection was too big for the space. They hired the architect Renzo Piano to build new galleries, add a performance hall, and renovate the entrance of the museum. The project took eight years to complete and was opened to the public in 2006. The addition and re-design added 75,000 square feet to the museum. When the museum was finished in 1906, Morgan started to withdraw from the finance world. He died seven years later, in 1912 in his sleep, while traveling abroad. His son, J.P. Morgan Jr. made the library a public institution in 1924 as a tribute and memorial to his father.
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how does financial education work in real life? Here is a case study example with an employer saving at least £1,380 following a day of education – Claire age 59. - She’s 59 years old; - Is paid £60,000 a year - a higher rate tax payer; - currently works full time and intends to reduce her hours closer to retirement; and - has savings in a Cash ISA which she plans to use when she stops working. Claire attends a financial planning workshop with a group of her colleagues to understand more about her options. Following the workshop: - Claire decides to exchange £10,000 of her salary for an employer pension contribution of the same amount. - Because of this she doesn’t pay £4,000 in income tax, or £200 in NIC on this part of her salary. - As a result, Claire’s take home pay is actually reduced by £5,800, despite £10,000 being paid into her pension. - If Claire finds she needs the lost income, it could be replaced by withdrawing money from the ISA. - By organising her finances in this way, a withdrawal from her ISA of £5,800 has been effectively replaced with a £10,000 pension contribution. Now in full time retirement, Claire receives £20,000 a year from her other pensions. Because of this, Claire is now a basic tax rate payer. Claire decides she now wants to take £10,000 from her pension pot she invested after the education she received at work. Taking the money in this way will impact on future contributions Claire can make to pensions but as she has already fully retired, this is not a concern. - 25% of what she takes (£2,500) can be paid tax free, - the remaining taxable money (£7,500) is taxed at 20% - (£1,500 tax). - £8,500 would be paid out to Claire after tax - This has only cost her £5,800 in contributions. By reviewing her financial plans, Claire’s made some great savings. Claire’s employer also achieved a significant saving in national insurance as a result of her decision. Through making a £10,000 payment into Claire’s pension instead of paying this amount in salary, the employer saved £1,380 in NIC’s (13.8%). If Claire did this, every year she was employed, both parties would make savings. If multiple employees made similar salary exchange decisions, the employers’ NIC savings would increase too. The tax and NIC savings achieved above through using salary exchange, are based on current tax reliefs given to pension contributions and salary exchange schemes (2018). How much can your business save? Call the team to find out. Mercer Marsh Benefits (MMB) is a trading name of Jelf Insurance Brokers Ltd, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Not all products and services offered are regulated by the FCA (for details see marshcommercial.co.uk/info/terms). Registered in England and Wales number 0837227. Registered Office: 1 Tower Place West, London, EC3R 5BU.
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Benchmark Interest Rate Various banks in the world have given their own benchmark rates for interest. Benchmark interest rate is defined as the minimum rate of interest which is liable to be accepted by the investors especially when they are willing to invest money in the non treasury security. General inclusions of benchmark interest rate Talking in more general terms, this rate is the yield or income which is earned on recent terms and the treasury security is on the run on the basis of these security systems. The provisions of maturity and premium are also there on these interest rates just as other interest plans and provisions. There are meant other notations for this interest. It is also called as the base interest rate. The term of base is used because it is the minimum interest rate which is required to be paid and investors also accept to this rate. Purpose of benchmark interest rate The basic purpose of introducing the benchmark interest rate or basic interest rate by the banks and financial organizations is that the Federal Reserve monetary fund is cut to avail the target range. The target range for these banks and federal revenue generation financial units is from zero to 0.25. The value of the benchmark interest rate may lie anywhere between these values. Changes in interest rates Usually it so happens that the indications of the interest rates increase or decrease on daily basis and sometimes these values remain to be consistent. There are many factors involved in the maintenance of consistent degree of the reserve pressure. There were some fiscal years when no pronounced change was noted down in the change of interest rates and sometimes the same rates used to prevail for the whole year. Basically interest is the fee which is paid by the borrower to the owner in the form of compensation. Most commonly it is defined as the price which is paid by the borrower on the use of borrowed money. Other than borrowed money, this rate of interest is also paid by the borrower which is earned in the form of deposit. It is typical that whenever the money is borrowed, interest is paid on that money.
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Why are meters important? Water meters play a vital role in enabling compliance with the Water Act 1989 as they allow water users and water corporations to accurately measure how much water is taken and water corporations to account for the distribution and use of water. Telemetry enhances the value of meters as a compliance tool as it provides real time data which can be used by water corporations to more regularly monitor and enforce compliance with entitlement conditions. How many non-urban meters are there in Victoria? Non-urban water meters are meters in a non-urban setting used for the purpose of monitoring of compliance with water entitlements and for related resource management activities. Non-urban meters do not include: - stream gauging stations or groundwater infrastructure used for resource monitoring; or - meters used in urban supply and distribution systems where water is treated to a potable standard. Victoria has been an early adopter of non-urban water metering and national leaders in adopting telemetry and automated control systems. As of September 2019, there are approximately 57,400 non-urban water meters in Victoria. Most water extracted in Victoria is monitored by existing telemetry, which has been installed on about 52% (or 30,054) of these meters. Water corporations are expanding the use of meters and telemetry under their metering action plans. Who owns, maintains and reads non-urban meters in Victoria? In Victoria, water corporations with rural customers own, maintain and read meters. Water corporations are responsible for making decisions about whether a meter is needed and for selecting metering and telemetry systems, in accordance with Victoria’s Non-urban Water Metering Policy. What is Victoria’s policy for non-urban water metering? Victoria’s policy on non-urban water metering was revised in March 2020 to align with the requirements of the Murray-Basin Compliance Compact. The purpose of the Policy is to provide assurance that water taken under entitlements is accurately and comprehensively metered, considering risks to water resources and the relative costs and benefits of metering, so that water users and the community can be confident about Victoria’s water resource management and accounting. This Policy replaces the 2014 non-urban metering policy and 2010 state-wide implementation plan. The Policy proposes some minor changes to align with current metering practices and the Murray-Darling Basin Compact however existing water corporation metering practices will largely continue. The Policy sets requirements for water corporations with rural customers to prepare metering action plans. Download the Non-urban Water Metering Policy - Victorian Non-urban water metering policy - March 2020 (PDF, 813.5 KB) - Victorian Non-urban water metering policy - March 2020 (DOCX, 5.4 MB) This state-wide policy applies to non-urban water meters of water corporations with rural customers. The Policy states that: - all new or upgraded extraction sites are to be metered with an AS4747 compliant meter and meters on existing extraction sites are to be replaced at the end of their operational life with an AS4747 compliant meter; - this metering requirement can be varied by the water corporation in circumstances where the risks are manageable; costs are disproportionate to benefits; or the site requires hydrometric monitoring standards to be applied; - water corporations must read meters on operational service points based on risk with a minimum standard of at least once a year on low volume or low risk customers, and at least two times per year for surface water winter-fill licences and more frequently on high risk meters; - meters that comply with neither an interim/contemporary standard or AS4747 should be replaced by June 2025. In doing so water corporations should consider the circumstances the Policy provides for varying metering requirements; and - Metered water take is to be telemetered by June 2025, based on the water corporation’s assessment of the full range of costs and benefits including benefits of stronger compliance. Water corporations may retain manual meter reading where telemetry is not viable (e.g. in valleys with poor reception or difficult sites), or an alternative technology can be applied. Water corporations are required to prepare, implement and maintain metering action plans that will detail how each water corporation meets the requirements in the Policy, providing clarity about metering, maintenance and data requirements in their respective jurisdictions. For more information: Contact your local rural water corporation for more information about non-urban water meters. Page last updated: 01/04/20
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Economic leaders of Pakistan calculating that the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio has been growing since FY 2008 and even mentioned that the portion of total debt which has a direct charge on government revenues also the debt attained from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is defined as public debt. Public debt has two major components like; domestic debt and external debt. The Government of Pakistan has mentioned in its statement that the gross public debt was Rs20,873 billion as at end March 2017 while net public debt was Rs18,893 billion. Gross public debt registered a rise of Rs1,194 billion during first nine months of fiscal year 2016-17. Out of this total rise, rise in domestic debt was Rs1,121 billion while government borrowing from domestic sources for financing of fiscal deficit was Rs1,018 billion. This differential is chiefly attributed to rise in government credit balances with the banking system. Similarly, rise in external debt contributed Rs73 billion in public debt. Revaluation gain on account of appreciation of US dollar against other foreign currencies declined the impact of net external inflows on external public debt portfolio. Some experts also calculated that the average cost of gross public debt was declined by 40 basis points during first six months of FY 2016-17 owing to smooth execution of the MTDS. The average cost of domestic debt portfolio was declined over 50 basis points during first six months of FY2016-17 while the average cost of external loans obtained by the present government comes to almost 3 percent, which is considerably lower than the domestic financing cost even after a margin of capital loss because of rate depreciation is added. The government was able to mobilize external inflows from multilateral and bilateral development partners and continued its presence in foreign capital markets by the issuance of Sukuk during first nine months of FY 2016-17. An improvement was observed in most of the public debt risks indicators during last three and half years inline with the objectives set forth in Pakistan’s first MTDS (2013). Refinancing risk of the domestic debt portfolio declined through lengthening of the maturity profile as percentage of domestic debt maturing in one year was declined to 52.7 percent at the end of December 2016 as against with 64.2 percent at the close of June 2013. Exposure to interest rate risk was also declined as the percentage of debt re-fixing in one year declined to 45.5 percent at the close of December 2016 as against to 52.4 percent at the close of June 2013. Similarly, share of external loans maturing within one year was equal to almost 31.9 percent of official liquid reserves at the close of December 2016 as against with almost 68.5 percent at the close of June 2013 showing improvement in foreign exchange stability and repayment capacity. It is also mentioned in a statement that during first half of fiscal year 2016-17, the Government of Pakistan issued fresh/rollover guarantees aggregating to Rs368 billion or 1.2 percent of GDP. The outstanding stock of government guarantees as at end December 2016 was registered at Rs838 billion. On the other hand the economic leaders mentioned that the public debt servicing was registered at Rs1,410 billion during first nine months of FY 2016-17. However, public debt servicing consumed nearly 45 percent of total revenues during first nine months of FY 2016-17 against a ratio of 46 percent during the same period previous year. Domestic interest payments constituted almost 72 percent of total debt servicing which is because of higher volume of domestic debt in public debt portfolio. Domestic interest payments were registered at Rs1,010 billion during first nine months of FY2016-17 as against with Rs1,003 billion during the same period previous year. This slight increase in interest payments was chiefly driven by rise in domestic debt stock during the period. Out of total domestic interest payments, large portion was paid against PIBs (Rs457 billion), National Savings Schemes (Rs203 billion), T-Bills (Rs164 billion) and Market Related Treasury Bills (Rs119 billion). Furthermore, because of re-profiling of the domestic debt by the government, experts mentioned that the domestic interest cost is predicted to remain almost at the same level in the upcoming year despite rise in domestic debt volume.
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Your patience on this page is showing that you are interested to know the meaning and definition of unit banking. However you are in the right place. I’m going to share the full meaning and definition of unit banking. What is Unit Banking? Unit banking is a system of banking that has just one office with virtually no branches. Unit banking is a system where an independent isolated bank undertakes banking functions in a particular area. The operation of a bank in this system is confined to a particular area and hence this system is also known as Localised Banking. It provides collection and remittance facilities to its customers by taking the help of other banks. The unit banking system originated and developed in the USA under the patronage of the government. Advantage of Unit Banking System : The unit banks being independent and one office banks possess certain advantages stated below : A) Easy management and control: The management and control of unit banks are much easier and effective due to the small size and operations of the banks. B) Quick Decision: In this system, there is an on the spot decision making by the bank management because there is no necessity of any consultation and approvals from external authority. C) Prevention Of Monopoly: Monopolistic tendencies are absent in-unit bankings system. The banking resources are distributed between a large number of small bank’s and hence there is no danger of concentration of economic power. D) The satisfaction of Local needs: Unit bankings being localized banking can serve to fulfil local needs. The banks are aware of the local problems and needs and thus are in a better position to satisfy the local expectations. E) Personalised Services: A unit bank has personal knowledge of each of his customers and thus can provide personalized services. F) Local Utilisation of deposits: In the unit banking system, there is no possibility of the transfer of resources by banks. The deposits mobilized by a unit bank in a particular are is utilized for the development of the same area. So, there is no chance for regional imbalances under this system. G) No inefficient branches: In this system, inefficient loss-making banks are automatically eliminated, and only the profit earning banks survive. There is no system of providing protection or compensate for the losses of inefficient banks. Disadvantages Of Unit Banking : Unit banker system suffers from the following limitation: A) No distribution of risks: There is no possibility of diversifying the risks of business in the unit banking system. It is because the operations of a bank are confined to a single office in a particular area. B) Less ability to face a crisis: The changes in bank failure are more in the unit banking system. The capacity of the banks to face a crisis is adversely affected by limited resources, limited area of operation and lack of diversification of risks. C) Lack of division of labour and specialization: Uneconomic and small size of unit banks hamper the introduction of division of labour and specialization. It also renders the use of modern equipment in banking invisible and thereby affects the efficiency of banks. D) The disparity in interest rate: In this system, there is a disparity in interest rates because of the no transferability of funds from surplus areas to deficit areas. Different banks charge different rates of interest depending on the demand and supply of funds in the area of operation. E) Lack of banking facilities in backward areas: Under the unit banking system, the backward areas continue to remain unbanked areas. A unit bank due to its limited resources and in view of its profit motive cannot be opened in backward areas. F) Costly remittance of funds: Transfer of funds from one place to another is very costly and inconvenient in the unit banking system because of the absence of branches of unit banks. The analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of branch banking and unit banking systems revels that branch banking has more advantages and it’s better than unit banking. Moreover, the disadvantages of branch banking are not too serious and can easily be overcome under the supervision of the Central Bank. Frequently Questions And answers : 1. From where the unit banking system originated? Ans: Unit Banking system originated in the United States of America (USA) under the patronage of the government. 2. Which banking System is known as localized banking? Ans: Unit Banking is known as localized banking. 3. How many branches under unit Banking? Ans: Under the Unit banking system has just one office with virtually no branches. 4. Which banking system is an independent banking system? Ans: The unit banking system is an independent banking system. 5. In which year principles of limited liability was first applied? Ans: In 1860 the principle of limited liability was first applied to banks in India. 6. Which bank provides personalized services to his customers? Ans: The unit banking system provides personalized service to its customers. 7. What is the main demerit of the unit bank? Ans: The main demerits of unit banks are No distribution of risks. 8. Which banking has an easy management system? Ans: Unit banking has an easy management system. 9. Which bank has a right to provide a quick decision? Ans: The unit banking system has a right to provides quick decisions without taking approval from external authority. 10. Why unit banking is known as satisfaction is of needs? Ans: Unit bankings being localized banking can serve to fulfill local needs. The banks are aware of the local problems and needs and thus are in a better position to satisfy the local expectations. 11. Why Unit Bank do not provide any transfer facility? Ans: In unit banking system, there is no possibility of the transfer of resources by banks. The deposits mobilized by a unit bank in a particular area is utilized for the development of the same area. Hence, there is no chance for regional imbalances under this system. Most view Related Post
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Owning a home is the first step to building equity. Tenants build equity but not for themselves; they build it for the owners. Equity is the difference in the value of the home and what is owed on the home. There are two dynamics that cause this to grow: appreciation and principal reduction. As the home increases in value, it is said to appreciate. Various authorities will annualize an appreciation rate based on average sales prices from one year to the next. Since appreciation is based on supply and demand as well as economic conditions, it will not be the same year after year. If you looked at a ten to twelve-year period, some would be higher than others and there may even be some individual years that it is flat or even declined. For the most part, values tend to appreciate over time. Most mortgages are amortized which means that a portion of the payment each month is applied to the principal in order to pay off the loan by the end of the term. A $300,000 mortgage at 4.5% for 30 years has $395.06 applied to the principal with the first payment. A slightly larger amount is applied to the principal each following month until the loan is paid with the 360th payment. If additional principal payments are made, it will save interest, build equity faster and shorten the term of the mortgage. Using the previous example, if an additional $250.00 principal contribution was made with each payment, it would only take 270 payments to retire the loan instead of 360. It would save $69,305 in interest and shorten the mortgage by 7.5 years. To see the dynamics of equity due to appreciation and principal reduction, look at the Rent vs. Own. To see the effect of making additional principal contributions on your equity, look at the Equity Accelerator. Whether you’re an owner now or expect to be one in the future, it is important to be familiar with the federal tax laws that affect homeownership. Since personal income tax was enacted in 1913 with the 16th amendment, homes have had preferential treatment. The mortgage interest deduction is based on up to $750,000 of acquisition debt used to buy, build or improve a principal residence. In addition to the interest, the property taxes are deductible, limited to the new $10,000 limit on the aggregate of state and local taxes (SALT). The taxpayer may also deduct interest and property taxes subject to limits on a second home. Homeowners can decide each year whether to take itemized personal deductions or the allowable standard deduction which was significantly increased under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Single taxpayers may exclude up to $250,000 of capital gain on the sale of their home and up to $500,000 if married filing jointly. They must have owned and lived in the home for at least two of the last five years. For gains more than these amounts, a lower, long-term capital gains rate is paid rather than one’s ordinary income tax rate. Capital improvements made to a home will increase the basis and lower the gain. Homeowners are probably familiar that large dollar expenses like roofs, appliances or major remodeling are capital improvements. However, many lower dollar items may also be considered improvements if they materially add value or extend the life of the property or adapts a portion of the home to a new use. Homeowners are urged to keep records of money they spend on the home that they own over the years so that their tax professional can decide at the time of sale what they must report to IRS. You can download a helpful Homeowners Tax Guide that explains in more detail and includes a worksheet to keep track of the basis of your home and capital improvements. Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken. — Oscar Wilde. This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.
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Will agricultural intensification save our natural ecosystems from farmer invasion? He is the most revered figure in agricultural research – the father of the green revolution. But the late Norman Borlaug’s influence extends further even than delivering the seeds that have fed the world. He also established in agricultural and environmental orthodoxy what is known today as the Borlaug hypothesis -- the idea that intensifying agriculture is also the key to saving forests and other natural ecosystems from invasion by farmers. The idea underpins research priorities in agriculture, for which increased yield is to holy grail. More surprisingly perhaps, it sustains conservationists who want to abandon green notions of low-intensity organic agriculture in favour of giving agriculture its head. Now the argument is being deployed in the debate over a future global climate change deal. Some advocates of REDD, which would provide finance for protecting forests as carbon stores, say carbon offsetters should be encouraged to fund intensified farming too. It is one facet of the push for “climate-smart” agriculture that we will heard again at the next climate talks in Doha later this year. Lord Nicholas Stern, the British economist behind the highly influential Stern Review on the economics of climate change, puts the Borlaug hypothesis this way: “Cattle pasture in Brazil has only one animal per hectare. Raise that to two animals and you can save the Amazon rainforest.” But is it true? If farming were a zero-sum game, with a simple aim of growing enough food to feed the world, then clearly intensification should spare land for nature. But market forces may have perverse effects. The Contrarian View The counter-argument is that farmers don’t clear forests to feed the world; they clear forests to make money. So helping farmers become more efficient and productive won’t reduce the threat. It will increase it, by encouraging them to expand, and increasing their resources to do it. As Tony Simons, deputy director of the World Agroforestry Centre in Nairobi, put it to me a year or so back: “Borlaug thought that if you addressed poverty in the forest border, they’d stop taking their machetes into the forest. Actually, they get enough money to buy a chainsaw and do much more damage.” Recent studies give weight to this contrarian view. Thomas Rudel of Rutgers University, New Jersey, compared national trends in agricultural yields and how much land is under crops. If Borlaug was right, then countries with fast-rising yields should see less increase in croplands, perhaps even a decrease. Sadly, he found no such link. Robert Ewers of the Zoological Society of London reported that increased yields of staple food crops do not spare the land, but stimulated increased planting of other crops, including non-food crops like cotton, rubber and biofuels. As a result, he concluded, “land sparing is a weak process that only occurs under a limited set of circumstances.” Economists are not surprised That’s how markets work, they say. Arild Angelsen, of the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and senior associate at CIFOR, modelled the competing influences and concluded that, contrary to the Borlaug hypothesis, “local yield increases tend to stimulate agricultural encroachment”. Globalization increases the stimulus. After all, Brazil’s assault on the Amazon in the late 20th century was driven not by an imperative to feed its own population, but by its successful drive to become the world’s biggest agricultural exporter. Similarly only a fraction of the palm oil grown on Indonesia’s former forests is for domestic use. Rudel has suggested that the Borlaug hypothesis is confounded by a modern version of the Jevons paradox. The 19th century British economist William Jevons pointed out that during the industrial revolution, increased efficiency in coal burning led to more coal being burned, rather than less. Similarly today, more intensive agriculture may stimulate rather than defuse the clearance of land for new farms. Can the Bourlaug hypothesis help tackle climate change? There are other reasons to question Stern’s suggestion that the Borlaug hypothesis could help tackle climate change. Even if agriculture did spare forests, it also massively increases farming’s carbon footprint. Might those emissions swamp any gains from protecting forests? A study by Jennifer Burney and others at Stanford in 2010 suggested not. After balancing both influences, she estimated a net benefit to the atmosphere from agricultural intensification of 590 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide in the past 50 years. But surely that depends on the timescale you use. A mature forest is can only sequester so much carbon, while agricultural emissions continue for as long as the land is cultivated. Run the clock forward and the balance may be reversed. None of this is to say that intensification won’t be needed. The world has to be fed, after all. But the simple belief that deploying agribusiness to drive up farm yields will deliver forest protection seems economically illiterate. And the even simpler notion that investment in the intensification of agriculture can have a direct carbon payback seems dangerous folly.
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Australia as the second largest exporter of sugar in the world is not really one of the biggest producers. Brazil is a thousand pound guerrillas. Compared with the sugar industry of Brazil, from overall consideration, Australia sugar industry has an obvious competitive disadvantage that cannot have the scale effect. Scale effect is also called economies of scale, that is, enlarging the scale could bring the economic benefits increasing (John & Scott, 2010). Any production embraces costs, generally including fixed costs and variable costs. To achieve profitability, the sales revenue must be higher than production costs. As the fixed costs are unchanged, more production will bring the average fixed costs decreasing and the average profit increasing. According the economics, economy of scale is derived from the diminishing marginal costs. Therefore, Scale effect demands that the production scale should meet or exceed the breakeven point. The following Figure-1 shows the theory of Scale effect Scale effect Inverted-U curve Profit Growth Rate The relative size of Australia as a producer of sugar is not as large as the size of Brazil so that it can conclude that Australia sugar industry is not as easy as Brazil sugar industry to achieve the scale effect. Then from the consideration of economy of scale, Australia sugar industry may shares a higher fixed cost level than Brazil for producing the same quantity of sugar with the assumption that other variables keep to be a same level. Thus here it can be said Brazil sugar industry has a scale competitive advantage compared with Australia sugar industry. 2 The sugar equilibrium price analysis The equilibrium price of sugar depends on many factors, the main two of which are the sugar demand quantity and the sugar supply quantity in the world market. Before exploring the sugar equilibrium price analysis, the introduction of equilibrium price will be stated as follows. Equilibrium price refers to a commodity price as the supply curve intersects with the demand curve, that is, the price for commodity demand quantity equals the commodity supply quantity (Donald, 2010). In a market that is competitive in strict economic terms, the demand force of a commodity interacts to its supply force, and then the commodity market price tends to be the equilibrium price. If the market price is higher than the equilibrium price, excess supplies will be achieved and the market price tends to fall; on other hand, if the market price is lower than the equilibrium price, excess demands will be presented and the market price tend to rise to the equilibrium price level. Therefore, it can be said that the market competition drives the equilibrium price to be formed. The equilibrium price formation principle is shown as the following Figure-2. As to the equilibrium price formation, the sugar industry has to consider the sugar demand and the sugar supply. So the quantity of demand and demand for sugar should be analyzed for exploring the equilibrium price formation. Sugar, as a type of life necessity, its demand elasticity is comparatively small, that is, no matter the changes of sugar supplying, people have a certain level of demanding for sugar. Thus it can be said that the sugar demand is fixed and rigid. For analyzing the sugar supply, since the cane manufacturing places are located in different countries and sugar manufacturing has a close connection with the manufacturing technology, the natural climate, the farmers’ cultivation, and national polices, etc, it therefore can be said the sugar supply elasticity is big, that is, cane supplying depends on several human factors and natural factors. If the cane supplying factors, like the manufacturing technology, the natural climate, the farmers’ cultivation, and national polices, play a positive role on sugar manufacturing, then the sugar supply quantity is large. Compared with sugar demand quantity, if the sugar supply quantity is larger the demand quantity, then the dominant right of forming sugar price lies in the demand side; if the sugar supply quantity is smaller than the demand quantity, no matter how large the supply quantity of sugar is, the dominant right of forming sugar price lies in the supplying side. Then the above in this paragraph is how the sugar equilibrium price to be formed. Through deeper analyzing the sugar equilibrium price formation process, the assumption of sugar supply being smaller than its demand can be subdivided specifically. Firstly, when sugar supply is smaller than its demand and the sugar and cane market a perfect competitive market, generally saying, individual sugar firm is a price-taker, because the sugar industry is a global industry and the individual sugar firm has to accept the price established by the forces of the whole market. Secondly, if the sugar and cane market is not a perfect competitive market but a monopolistic market or policy-orientation market, then the status of individual firm may be changed, that is, individual sugar firm may not be a price-taker anymore, but a price-maker. If the individual firm has the monopolistic ability to control the sugar price and it adopt monopolistic competition method to suppress its rivals, then it will be the price-maker for sugar; if the host country issued some laws or regulations to limit the lowest price of sugar for protecting the cane farmer’s benefits, the monopolistic firm may be not the price-maker anymore, but the price-taker. 3 Sugar demand elasticity Analysis 3.1 Price elasticity of demand Before discussing the sugar demand elasticity, the definition of Price elasticity of demand will be briefly introduced here. Price elasticity of demand (PED) is used to measure the percentage change in quantity demanded (Q) which is caused by a one percent corresponding change in the price variable (P) (Dorothea & Philipp, 2005). Through mathematical description, PED = (∂Q/∂P) (P/Q). If the perfectly elastic demand curve is horizontal to X axis, then it represents infinitely elastic; if the perfectly inelastic demand curve is perpendicular to the X-axis, then it represents zero elasticity; if PED equals one, then demand is unit-elastic; if the PED value is between zero and one, then the demand is inelastic; and if the PED value is larger than 1, then demand is said to be elastic. Curves D1 to D4 in the following Figure-3 show the different situations of elasticity of demand. 3.2 The sugar demand elasticity analysis Since sugar is a type of life necessity, it cannot be substituted by many other commodities, and people’ common expenditure on sugar does not account for a large proportion of their total expenditures, we can say that the sugar demand elasticity is infinite small, approximately zero, which is manifested by a similar form of D1 curve in the Figure 3. However, there also exit exceptional conditions that can change the price elasticity of sugar demand, if a new substitute is created and used to replace the sugar, then the sugar demand elasticity may be turned to be higher; under that assumption, the sugar will not be life necessity any more. 4 Competitive advantage analyses of Brazilian sugar producers. Brazil is a country with thousand pound guerrillas on agriculture. Its sugar production occupies the number one status all round the world. And if compare the Australia sugar production to Brazilian sugar production, it will be clear that the Brazil set the tone for the worldwide sugar market because the sugar output in Brazil is much larger than other countries, even the second largest country Australia. Brazil sugar industry has its own special competitive advantage than Australia sugar industry. Firstly, Brazil sugar industry has integrated production systems so that there is complete ownership from the field, through transport, right through the factory and down to the ports, while Australia does not have such integrated production systems. The integrated production systems can help Brazilian sugar producers effectively diminish the transformational cost of sugar manufacturing process; the critical information can be shared and different parties of sugar manufacture can be cooperated better within the systems, thus the management cost can be diminished. The diminished costs will definitely bring Brazilian sugar manufacturers a competitive price advantage. Secondly, Brazil sugar producers have cheap labor, which is quite important for a farming industry development. Labor cost, as a main component of Variable Cost, has a huge influencing role on the overall cost. Under the assumption that fixed cost is stable, lower labor cost definitely bring lower overall cost. Compared with Brazil, Australian agriculture labors are comparatively scarce, so the Australia sugar production cannot rely on decreasing labor cost to diminish the overall cost. Then this is another advantage that Brazilian sugar industry has over Australian sugar industry. Thirdly, Brazil has the advantage of setting the tone for the worldwide sugar market, which is similar with a type of monopoly advantage. The export output of Brazilian sugar is large enough to directly interfere with the sugar price formation; through the interference, the worldwide sugar price may be formed for the benefits of Brazilian sugar producers. This is a horrible competitive advantage of Brazil sugar producers over the Australian sugar producers, which could be called monopolistic competition, and is harmful to the world economy development and should be restricted and punished. 5 Competitive advantage analyses of Australian sugar producers Even though Brazil has its competitive advantage of cheap labor and integrated systems, Australia has other competitive advantages over Brazil. Through summarizing Australia competitive advantages, I think at least two types of advantages exist, which will be stated as follows. 5.1 Educated work force Australia has advanced technologies of farming, processing, and cropping canes. To utilize these advanced technologies, educated work forces are needed. Though modern advanced technologies adopted and operated by educated work forces, the production output of cane and sugar can be achieved to be a higher level. Then the revenue can get enlarged. Under the assumption that the worldwide sugar cost is stable, no doubt this is a competitive advantage over Brazil, because the Brazilian sugar producers hire the cheap labors that cannot adopt and utilize the modern advanced technologies. 5.2 Integrating the harvesting of transport The other advantage Australia has over Brazil on the sugar competition is that that Australia is good at integrating the harvesting of transport. Australia gets the sugar mills and own railway lines that bring cane to the mills. The railway lines carry more during the crushing season than Queensland Railway and that transport system gets cane to the mill in double quick time. Therefore, it can be said that Australia gets efficient mechanical harvesting, efficient transport, efficient growing, efficient mills and a well integrated marketing system. All those efficiencies help Australia improve the sugar production management. And along with the management efficiency improvement is the diminishment of total cost. Obviously this is another competitive advantage of Australian sugar producers. 5.3 The government support Since Australian cane growing area has kept been reduced over the several past years (Ben, 2009), which means the scale of cane production is reduced and this is not helpful for the market competition, Australian governments intend to issue some policies that are engaged in enlarging the cane growing size. This will promote the Australian sugar industry development (http://www.21food.cn/html/market/2009-7-14/1010470.htm). So getting the government support is another competitive advantage of Australian sugar producers. Though comparing the sugar industry differences between Brazil and Australia, analyzing the sugar equilibrium price formation process and the characteristics of sugar demand elasticity, this essay illustrate the competitive advantages of both Brazil sugar industry and Australian sugar industry. Brazil sugar industry has competitive advantages of scale effect, cheap labor costs, and integrated production systems, while Australian sugar industry has advantages of modern technology, educated workforce, and the integrated harvesting of transport.
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Consumer credit is either an unrestricted credit or a credit allocated to the purchase of a good or service. In this article, we will tell you all about consumer credit and how it works. Consumer credit is credit granted to an individual by a bank or a credit institution. It allows you to finance everything you want, excluding real estate. For several years now, consumer credit has been strictly regulated by law in order to limit any abuse. The amount of this credit is between 200 and 75,000 $, with a minimum duration of three months. If several consumer loans can be combined, however, the totality of the borrower’s monthly credit payments must not exceed 33% of his income, in order to protect him from over-indebtedness. Consumer credit has two distinct categories: - The appropriations allocated for the purchase of a specific asset; - Unrestricted credits for free use of the borrowed amount. The following operations are also considered to be consumer loans: - Credit consolidation operations, when they only concern consumer loans or when the share of real estate loans is less than 60%; - Works credits, even beyond $ 75,000, provided that the credit is not guaranteed by a mortgage or a guarantee; - Bank overdrafts repayable in a period exceeding one month; - Free credit for more than three months; - Rental with option to purchase (LOA). How does consumer credit work? As a reminder, consumer credit is characterized by: - Amounts between 200 and 75,000 $; - Duration from three months minimum to a few years; - An undemanding obtaining. Like all credit, consumer credit is a contract between a lending institution and a borrower, where the former undertakes to lend a defined sum of money and the latter undertakes to repay it. Consumer credit includes: - The loan capital; - The APR (the annual effective annual rate); - The duration, amount and number of monthly payments; - Any guarantees and insurance; - The total cost of credit. Consumer credit is governed by the Consumer Code and provides the borrower with a right of withdrawal of fourteen calendar days. Which consumer credit to choose? The choice of your consumer credit must be made according to your project. It depends : - The amount to borrow; - The desired duration; - The type of project. The consumer credit affected The appropriation allocated is intended to finance a good or service indicated in the contract. It has the particularity of being entirely dependent on the good to be financed and vice versa. It is nevertheless important to indicate on the sales contract that it is conditioned to obtaining credit. When the borrower takes out an affected loan, he obtains a guarantee with it: - If the good or service is defective or undelivered, the borrower does not have to start repaying the loan, the sale and the credit can be canceled; - If the credit is refused, the borrower is not required to honor the promise to purchase and therefore does not end up with property on his hands that he cannot pay. The credit affected has the disadvantage of being attached to a service or a good but the advantage of obtaining the credit and the good or neither. The auto-moto loan is the most widespread affected credit. It allows the borrower who does not have savings or who does not wish to use it, to start repaying his credit when delivered from his vehicle. The works credit can be allocated or not allocated. It is very often affected when the borrower has recourse to professionals and for substantial work. Unaffected consumer credit Unrestricted credit allows the borrower to use the borrowed amount as desired. This is a very flexible financing solution since it requires no justification for the destination of the funds. Obtaining credit and purchasing the good or service are therefore completely independent here. This independence has the advantage of freedom but the main drawback remains that in the event of a dispute with the seller and non-delivery of the goods, you are required to repay your credit according to the terms of the contract. In addition, if you do not get your financing and you have already signed a purchase order you will be unable to pay for the property if you do not have savings on hand. Revolving credit is a type of unrestricted credit, since it consists of a reserve of money made available to the borrower, which he can use as he wishes and when he wishes in one or more installments. Personal credit can group different names under its name. It is an unrestricted credit but can sometimes be called marriage credit or travel credit in order to speak more to the consumer, the fact remains that the amount of money can be used by the borrower as it wish. It can therefore be financing goods, services or cash. Where to take out consumer credit? Consumer credit is distributed by banks and most so-called specialized establishments. These establishments are regulated and controlled by the banking authorities and grouped into professional associations, the FBF and the ASF. The characteristic of restricted credits and most revolving credits is to be taken out elsewhere than in bank branches, mainly in trade and distribution companies: department stores, specialized signs, mail order companies and car manufacturers. When you take out a loan in one of these businesses, you rarely have in front of you a credit professional, but rather an employee of the distribution company who has a commercial interest in putting you in contact with the financial institution most easily and quickly in the world. It should be noted that car manufacturers can also offer consumer credit offers to finance the vehicles purchased. Similarly, large retail groups, through their subsidiaries, can also distribute consumer loans. You can use this simulator to obtain the best rates for your consumer credit or contact our team of Across Lender experts directly.
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In May, Germany reported that, for the first time in its history, the production of energy from alternative sources exceeded that of traditional natural gas and oil in the country’s energy balance. A few years ago, the country adopted a strategy that meant the complete closure of nuclear power plants by 2022 and the abandonment of coal as an energy source by 2038. In such a situation, Germany had to rely heavily on natural gas supplies, but the May result was a significant milestone for the largest economy in the European Union. The distributed register technology appears to play a key role in rebalancing the energy mix. If you want to find out how the blockchain technology helped Germany reduce its natural gas consumption and to be the first to read the most important financial news in the world, download the Born2Invest mobile app. Blockchain marketplaces are the future of the energy sector in Germany The blockchain technology helps to significantly reduce costs for alternative energy producers. In addition, it helps to ensure that all such enterprises, regardless of their size, can be connected to a single site where the consumer can choose among hundreds of energy suppliers in a free fluctuation of supply and demand. Richard Logwasser, the co-founder of one such blockchain marketplaces Lition Energie, said that the project, which was launched in 2017, is actively developing, and by next winter more than one thousand residents and companies in more than a thousand cities in Germany will be connected to the blockchain marketplaces. Among the company’s partners are well-known global corporations such as Microsoft, SAP and PowerCloud, as well as local companies SüdwestStrom and N26. The Ethereum Blockchain is used as a basis for transactions, and transaction fees are only $0.1, expressed in the USDC sticklercoin. Companies in the gas and oil industry are also adopting the blockchain technology The global oil and gas industry is taking a close look at the transformation of the energy sector in Germany. In order to be competitive in the new innovative world, oil and gas companies are also increasingly resorting to blockchain to cut costs. For example, the OOC Oil & Gas Blockchain Consortium, which has already brought together 10 corporations including Dutch Shell, Equinor and ConocoPhillips, has already piloted distributed register technology. Curiously, a blockchain platform developed by Data Gumbo Corporation was chosen as the base, behind which the investments of the oil giant Saudi Arabia, Saudi Aramco, are supported. The latter suggests that Saudi Arabia, the largest oil producer in OPEC, links the future development of the oil industry with the introduction of blockchain technology. The giant of the global oil industry, the state-owned company Saudi Aramco decided to invest in the authorized capital of the Vakt blockchain platform, which is focused on the work of oil workers. Not even the size of the investment ($5 million) is noteworthy, but the fact that Saudi Aramco decided not to become just a member of Vakt, but intends to develop this platform as one of its co-owners. According to Vakt itself, the funds that have already been received through the sale of shares will go just for development purposes, including expansion into Asian countries. Saudi Aramco itself intends to use the services of Vakt through its trading unit Aramco Trading. DISCLAIMER: This article was written by a third party contributor and does not reflect the opinion of Born2Invest, its management, staff or its associates. Please review our disclaimer for more information. This article may include forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words “believe,” “project,” “estimate,” “become,” “plan,” “will,” and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks as well as uncertainties, including those discussed in the following cautionary statements and elsewhere in this article and on this site. Although the Company may believe that its expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, the actual results that the Company may achieve may differ materially from any forward-looking statements, which reflect the opinions of the management of the Company only as of the date hereof. Additionally, please make sure to read these important disclosures. First published in CLICK CHAIN, a third-party contributor translated and adapted the article from the original. In case of discrepancy, the original will prevail. Although we made reasonable efforts to provide accurate translations, some parts may be incorrect. Born2Invest assumes no responsibility for errors, omissions or ambiguities in the translations provided on this website. Any person or entity relying on translated content does so at their own risk. Born2Invest is not responsible for losses caused by such reliance on the accuracy or reliability of translated information. 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The first freight forwarding agencies began to appear in the early 19th century in Europe, developing networks of steamships and railroad transports to move goods throughout the continent or over to North America. Numerous methods of freight forwarding exist. Railroads, trucking, airplanes, and ships are all common transportation methods for goods. When extensive forwarding requirements are necessary, it is possible for a freight forwarder to use all four of these transportation methods to move goods to their final destination point. Interesting Freight Forwarding Industry Statistics #1. World trade growth averaged 3% in 2015 from the year before. Just 5 years in the past 5 decades have experienced a 2% or lower increase in global trade. (KPMG) #2. In 2010, sea freight forwarding companies reported revenues of EUR 1.3 billion. (Statista) #3. The total value of imported goods to the United States was $192.2 billion in 2016. (Statista) #4. In 2016, the total value of new private-sector warehouse construction in the United States to support the freight forwarding industry was valued at $19.6 billion. (Statista) #5. The export value of monthly freight flows in North America, directly attributed to NAFTA, was valued at $2.1 billion in August 2017. (Statista) #6. Rail freight volumes in the United States reached 2.3 trillion ton-miles in 2016. By 2040, the overall U.S. ton-miles of freight is expected to reach 8 trillion. (Statista) #7. The market size for third-party logistics in the United States is valued at just under $200 billion annually. (Statista) #8. Parcel transportation costs in the United States total about $99 billion annually. UPS (United Parcel Service) currently controls about 22% of the global market share of the freight forwarding industry. (Statista) #9. The U.S. Postal Service currently handles over 149 billion pieces of mail each year as part of the freight forwarding industry. (Statista) #10. About 296,000 Class 3 trucks are sold in the United States each year to support the work of the freight forwarding industry. (Statista) #11. Air carriers that are based in the United States support the industry by providing 15.8 billion ton-miles each year. Over 7,100 air carriers are part of the current commercial fleet in the United States. (Statista) #12. Cargo growth at U.S. airports is growing at an annualized average rate of 1.6%. (Statista) #13. 68% of the firms that are active in the freight forwarding industry specialize in the arrangement and shipping of merchandise on behalf of shippers. Another 26% of firms are consultants, facilitators, or add value to the process in some other way. (Logistics Trends and Insights) #14. 44% of customers who use freight forwarding services say that they value the trade expertise of the provider or the low rates they are given. Another 18% prefer the ease and time-savings that exist when booking freight within the industry. (Logistics Trends and Insights) #15. 46% of the freight forwarding opportunities which currently exist are located in North America. 42% of the opportunities are found in the Asia-Pacific region. Europe is responsible for just 8% of industry opportunities. (Logistics Trends and Insights) #16. 46% of providers within the freight forwarding industry say that e-commerce platforms are their most promising opportunity. That is followed by high-tech industries (14%), retail (12%), and healthcare (12%). (Logistics Trends and Insights) #17. 40% of online freight marketplaces are perceived as an opportunity for the industry. Just 13% of the platforms are perceived as a threat to the industry. (Logistics Trends and Insights) #18. 86% of industry professionals say that digitization is either “extremely important” or “important” to their overall business strategy. (Logistics Trends and Insights) #19. 30% of companies say that they plan to build their own digitization assets in the future, compared to 28% of firms which say they will be using an off-the-shelf solution. (Logistics Trends and Insights) #20. 34% of freight forwarders say that custom brokerage opportunities provide them with the greatest opportunity for cross-selling. That is followed by contract logistics (28%), order fulfillment (22%), and final mile delivery services (16%). (Logistics Trends and Insights) #21. 54% of industry professionals say that shipper insourcing is their biggest threat to their financial security in the future. (Logistics Trends and Insights) #22. Clothing and shoes represent more than 440,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) in current volumes for the freight forwarding industry. Computers and office equivalent average 195,000 TEUs, while toys average 163,000 TEUs. (Shipwire) #23. The shipping port in Los Angeles handles an average of 4 million containers each year in support of the freight forwarding industry. (Shipwire) #24. Spending within the transportation and logistics industries, supporting freight forwarding, totaled $1.48 trillion in 2015. In the United States, that represents 8% of the GDP. (Select USA) #25. Air and express delivery services represent an industry that is valued at $82 billion in the United States. (Select USA) #26. There are more than 140,000 miles of railroad tracks that support the freight forwarding industry, transporting an average of 5 million tons of goods each day. (Select USA) #27. Freight rail in the United States moves about 5.2 million carloads of coal, representing 70% of the total supply in the country. The freight forwarding industry is also responsible for 58% of raw metals, 13.7 million containers, and 1.6 million carloads of agricultural products. (Select USA) #28. In 2016, trucking revenues were more than $676 billion, with trucks moving over 10 billion tons of freight. (American Trucking Associations) Freight Forwarding Industry Trends and Analysis The freight forwarding industry has experienced a surge in volume in recent years as businesses and homeowners have looked to the convenience of product deliveries. Instead of shopping in person, more people are shopping online, satisfied to wait for their items. To support these shoppers, businesses like Amazon and Walmart have created 2-day shipping options, which is then fulfilled by this industry. Expect the total value of the global freight forwarding industry to continue rising through 2028, even if a period of economic recession should occur. Shoppers today are concerned with value, which means they are more likely to make their purchases online than in-person when budgets are tight. Local freight forwarding trends will begin to emerge as well. Look for companies to begin offering delivery services for orders placed within the community to expand convenience options. Internal freight forwarding will be developed to support this infrastructure. Although millions of people visit Brandon's blog each month, his path to success was not easy. Go here to read his incredible story, "From Disabled and $500k in Debt to a Pro Blogger with 5 Million Monthly Visitors." If you want to send Brandon a quick message, then visit his contact page here.
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The mattress industry is one of the oldest continuous industries in the world. The first mattresses are believed to have been manufactured around the 37th century BC in Persia. Those first mattresses were made of goatskins that were filled with water. Over the next 2,000 years, not much would change for the mattress industry. By 1871, the innerspring mattress had been invented. Since then, numerous innovations have occurred. Foam cores are available for some models. Air beds, waterbeds, and adjustable sleep sets are available. Materials even include latex, polyester, and recycled materials with the industry’s new designs. Interesting Mattress Industry Statistics #1. The total amount of annual revenue generated by the mattress sales industry in the United States is $7 billion. That is about 25% of the global revenues that the mattress industry is able to generate, across all categories, in any given year. (Statistic Brain) #2. More than 35.9 million mattresses are shipped each year by the mattress industry. This includes international shipments and online purchase shipments. (Statistic Brain) #3. The average household will keep their mattress for 7 years before seeking out a replacement for it. (Statistic Brain) #4. Sealy is the leading mattress manufacturer in the United States. They average about $1.38 billion in sales every year and control about 19% of the overall market. Serta followed at 17%, while Simmons controls about 15% of the overall market. (Statistic Brain) #5. In the U.S. bedding industry, there are currently 600 companies currently engaged in the design, manufacture, and sale of mattresses. They are responsible for the direct employment of about 20,500 people. (Statistic Brain) #6. Twin-size mattresses are the most popular size sold in the United States, accounting for 31% of the market share for the industry. 29% of households purchase a Queen-size mattress. (Statistic Brain) #7. Despite innovations in mattress technologies, including memory foam, air support, and adjustable features, 90% of the mattresses which are owned in the United States are traditional innerspring products. (Statistic Brain) #8. Most of the mattresses that are purchased today occur through a specialty sleep retailer. 43% of all new mattresses are purchased from this type of business. Furniture retailers are responsible for another 38% of total industry sales. (Statistic Brain) #9. Innerspring mattresses may be the most common type purchased from the industry, but they have the lowest levels of consumer satisfaction. Just 63% of owners say they are satisfied with their innerspring mattress purchase. In comparison, 81% of memory foam owners, 80% of latex owners and even 75% of futon owners say they are happy with their mattress. (Statistic Brain) #10. The wholesale value of mattresses and foundations that were made and sold in the United States experienced a 3.4% increase in 2016, setting a record for the industry. (Bed Times Magazine) #11. There are an estimated 15,000 businesses that are currently operating within the mattress industry in the United States from a retail perspective. About 85,000 people have direct employment because of these retail locations. (IBIS World) #12. About $15 billion in revenues is generated from bed and mattress stores in the United States. From 2012-2017, the industry experienced an annual average rate of growth of 5.6%. (IBIS World) #13. Mattress Firm and Select Comfort combine for over 42% of the industry revenues that are generated by bed and mattress retail outlets. (IBIS World) #14. In 2017, the estimated value of the online mattress sales industry was $1.5 billion. The online share of mattress sales in 2014 was just 6%. By 2016, the industry share of online sales has risen to 10%. (USA Today) #15. In 2012, Tuft and Needle was started with $6,000 and no outside investors. In 2016, it generated more than $100 million in revenues and has 150 employees. (USA Today) #16. Casper is another internet mattress success story. Launched in 2014 in New York, sales in 2016 reached $200 million. (USA Today) #17. One side effect of the growing online mattress industry is an increase in demand of compression equipment. C3, a manufacturing and engineering firm based in Appleton, WI, has sold more than 40 of their compression machines since 2015 at a cost of $300,000 each. (USA Today) #18. Globally, the Asia-Pacific region represents the fastest growing market for the mattress industry. A forecast CAGR of 8.1% through 2022 is the foundation of potential revenues that could top $39.4 billion in that timeframe. (Global Industry Analysts, Inc.) #19. Since 2007, all mattresses in the United States must meet flammability guidelines for sale to American customers. All beds must be able to withstand open flame exposure for up to 30 seconds. (Mattress Inquirer) #20. The mattress industry may have product markups that are as high as 12 times their overall manufacturing costs, which has helped to drive the influx of 100+ online mattress brands available today. (Cornell University) #21. The U.S. mattress landscape is highly competitive, creating a total net profit of $378 million annually on revenues of $9.2 billion. Total exports for the industry total $154.2 million. (Cornell University) #22. Simmons generates 87% of its revenues domestically after emerging from bankruptcy in 2010. Its brands include Beauty Rest and Beauty Sleep, with mattresses priced between $200-$5,000. (Cornell University) #23. In the United States, the average price per square inch for a twin bed is just over $0.40. Full beds have a similar average price. Queen and King beds are the next best value, priced at $0.80 per square inch. Twin XL beds are priced at $1.10 per square inch, while CA King beds are priced near $1.40 per square inch. (Cornell University) #24. 73% of advertising expenses experienced by the U.S. part of the mattress industry are spent by Tempur-Pedic. Sealy has 2% of these expenses, while Serta has just 1% of advertising expenses. (Cornell University) #25. Over 90% of people who consult with a sleep specialist ask for a mattress recommendation to improve the quality of rest they receive. (BBC News) #26. Just 9% of Americans link the quality of sleep they receive to the quality of mattress that they own. (BBC News) #27. The National Transportation Safety Board states that 1 out of every 5 crashes they investigate involves fatigue. (McKinsey) #28. Individuals who consistently get 6 hours of sleep or less per night is 13% higher than those who routinely sleep for at least 7 hours each night. (McKinsey) #29. In 2018, the ISPA forecasts a 4% increase in the number of units that will be shipped. At the same time, a 5.5% increase in the value of those shipments is anticipated. If this figure is achieved, it would reflect the largest number of mattresses shipped, exceeding records set in 2005. (Sleep Savvy Magazine) #30. 60% of women and 55% of men in the United States say that they have never seen an advertisement for a direct-to-consumer mattress online retailer. (Statista) #31. 26% of Americans say that they have seen a direct-to-consumer advertisement for a mattress retailer on TV. Another 14% say they have seen one on a website banner. Just 5% say that they’ve seen advertising on a billboard or poster. (Statista) Mattress Industry Trends and Analysis Since the beginning of modern humanity, people have wanted to sleep on something that felt comfortable. Although mattresses have evolved dramatically over the years, the industry has continued to thrive. As long as humans require sleep, they will want to own a mattress. That means there will always be a place for the mattress industry. New innovations within the industry will continue to shape it and place pressure on the traditional innerspring market. An example of this is Purple, which creates a unique bed that stands in a design category of its own. It retails for around $1,000. Mattresses shipped in boxes will continue to be a trend that people enjoy as well. There is no longer a need to try a mattress before buying it. There may continue to be shifts in who has the greatest influence in the mattress industry, but the industry itself will continue to exhibit strong levels of growth. With a renewed focus on the quantity and quality of sleep people receive, the mattress industry will keep booming. Although millions of people visit Brandon's blog each month, his path to success was not easy. Go here to read his incredible story, "From Disabled and $500k in Debt to a Pro Blogger with 5 Million Monthly Visitors." If you want to send Brandon a quick message, then visit his contact page here.
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Over the last couple of years, “doing a start up” has, for many, become the new “starting a band”. Companies like Facebook and Twitter and the film “The Social Network” have glamourised technology and internet based start ups, particularly consumer facing social networks. This has created a bubble in that, people are moving from other industries in order to join the start up movement. People with backgrounds in business, finance, law or other traditional industries are quitting their career to began their start up journey. Often these type of people view the creation of a start up and an idea very differently from someone with a technology based background. Knowing when to quit, restart or pivot is critical to the success of a technology based start up. Here are the dangers of not knowing when to quit. The “start up” bubble Technology based business is booming. Despite the global recession, there continues to be a huge injection of capital into Internet and technology based companies. Twitter recently raised another round of funding, taking total investment to close to $1.2 billion and Facebook is set to IPO with a valuation of $100 billion. Technology, and particularly consumer facing companies are the new hot prospect, and so the rise of the industry has created an influx of participants from a variety of different sectors. It is now easier than ever to start an Internet based business. With companies like PayPal and SendGrid and services like Amazon’s Web Services (AWS), the foundations for creating online business are already good to go. This means that the entry point for creating a new services is increadibly low. These low barrier of entry have become attractive to people in more traditional industries like Finance and Law who may see the start up path as a better way of realising their future wealth. The “incubator” bubble With the continued rise of technology investment, incubator type programs have been springing up all around the world. Technology incubator programs consist of teams of new companies going through an intesive program of mentoring, product and business creation with a small amount of cash investment. The aim of incubator programs is to create viable businesses by the end of the program that are ready for further investment. Incubator type programs like these are extremely attractive to a team of people with an idea for a business. Their mentorship and teaching routine allows a new idea to be nurtured and defined within a close community of like minded people. However, it also adds an increadibly amount of pressure on the teams not to fail. What happens when you don’t know when to quit Now I’m not saying that people who don’t come from a technology based background are going to fail. I believe that being an expert in an area, with an extensive background and understanding of how an industry can be disrupted is a huge indicator of future success. However I do believe that people who don’t come from a technical background are more likely to be unable to understand when to quit and try something else. Technical based people are inherintly those that love to tweak or try new things. Programmers and Engineers can be classified loosly as people who like to experiment and push the boundaries of what can be achieved. I think that, without this mindset, as a start up founder, you are less likely to know when you need to try something else. I think it’s very rare for someone to have an idea and have that idea become a huge success. More often than not, that idea will radically evolve as time goes by and as the idea is executed. I believe that, technical based people are better equipped than those without that background. And that someone who is looking to disrupt an industry they previously worked in, don’t recognise the same signs for knowing when to quit, pivot or restart. The ability to pivot, restart or quit I think knowing when to change is a critical componant of being successful as a technology based start up. If you are starting an online based company with a grand vision, you need to be able to accept that perhaps things aren’t working out and it’s time to try something else. Combining a passion with technical based company is a great way to start a company. There are many niches that are ready to be disrupted, and many new areas to explore. However, knowing when to evolve is critical, and knowing when to quit is equally as important. The dangers of not knowing when to quit are that you end up building a sofisticated product that nobody uses, or you build a service that is incapable of reaching the scale of your vision. How to know when to quit I think as a founder you need to know when you need to quit or change your vision. As a company you should be tracking the key metrics that validate your idea and not the vanity metrics that will get you featured on TechCrunch. I think you also need someone with a strong technical background who understands the rollercoaster ride of taking an idea and excuting on it. Founders often surround themselves with people who tell them what they want to hear. However, constant feedback and honest validation will save you a lot of time, money and heartache in the long run.
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Waves crash over the harbour wall on the seafront at Porthcawl in Wales. Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images The UK could benefit from 250,000 jobs and up to £70bn in revenue from offshore wind and wave technologies by 2050, according to a study by the Carbon Trust. This potential will only be realised, however, if the government gives clear signals to industry, so that investors know where to put their money, rather than leaving new technologies to face the market alone. The Carbon Trust, a government-backed agency that studies ways to promote low-carbon technologies, carried out economic analyses in six areas of low-carbon industry including offshore wind, wave, solid-state lighting and micro combined heat and power. The studies, published today, looked at the current status and costs of the technology, how these would develop and what research and development costs there might be in the coming decades. The studies for offshore wind and wave power showed these technologies could provide at least 15% of the total carbon savings required to meet the UK’s 2050 CO2 reduction targets. “The UK’s greenhouse gas targets mean that by 2050 We must reduce our emissions to just one-10th of today’s levels, per unit of output,” said John Beddington, the government’s chief scientific adviser. “This is a formidable challenge, requiring step changes in the rate at which we improve our energy efficiency and in low-carbon innovation.The Carbon Trust’s proposals recognise the need for us to be smarter in focusing our investments, including to help businesses seize the economic opportunities of the transition.” According to the new analysis, published just a few weeks ahead of the forthcoming government white paper on energy, the UK could attract 45% of the global offshore wind market by 2020, delivering £65bn of net economic value and 225,000 total jobs by 2050. This would only happen with an investment of up to £600m into research, the removal of regulatory barriers and incentives to increase the deployment of the turbines. In the UK this means installing around 29GW of wind by 2020 and upwards of 40GW by 2050. A large part of the economic benefit would come from exporting technology developed here. For wave, the outlook is more modest. Around a quarter of the world’s wave technologies are being developed in the UK and the Carbon Trust said Britain should be the “natural owner” of the global market in this area. It could generate revenues worth £2bn per year by 2050 and up to 16,000 direct jobs. “These technologies are not green ‘nice to haves’ but are critical to the economic recovery of the UK,” said Tom Delay, the chief executive of the Carbon Trust. “To reap the significant rewards from their successful development we must prioritise and comprehensively back the technologies that offer the best chance of securing long-term carbon savings, jobs and revenue for Britain. Rather than following in the footsteps of others, this new analysis shows it is an economic no-brainer to be leading from the front.” In addition to the direct jobs in these in industries, there would be further benefits to the economy. “The UK’s also very good at the secondary service industries – things like the financing of wind farms, the legal documents, environmental assessments,” said Paul Arwas, a consultant who wrote the new Carbon Trust report. “Those jobs would be in addition – for offshore wind, it would be another 70,000 by 2050.” None of this will happen, though, without government support. Arwas said that when encouraging new industries, authorities tended to swing between two poles – either direct state funding or allowing markets to decide. “Either the governments didn’t intervene at all or, if they did they did it by market mechanisms which are totally undifferentiated by technology. There you end up with a situation where, to take a footballing analogy, you’ve got the under 21s playing the under 12s.” Instead the Carbon Trust has proposed a new, semi-interventionist, model where the government chooses a family of technologies to invest in, for example wave power, and tells developers there will be subsidies or long-term help available to develop the sector as a whole but without backing individual technologies. John Sauven, Greenpeace’s executive director, welcomed the Carbon Trust’s proposed approach. “Every country now needs a decarbonisation plan to help solve three of our greatest challenges – climate stability, energy security and economic prosperity. The UK has an enormous untapped supply of clean, green renewable energy and a world class engineering industry well placed to develop it.” Martin Rees, the president of the Royal Society, said the UK had little choice but to develop these new technologies, given the dwindling supplies of fossil fuels: “In the past we have let opportunities to capitalise on our scientific leadership slip through our fingers. The US and others are investing heavily in low carbon technologies; we must not fall behind and waste the scientific expertise that we have in the UK.”
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The following SQL shows how to select a row from a table using the current financial year as the WHERE condition. This is useful if you have a table of years and need to get the id corresponding to the current financial year, for example if you had the following data and needed to get the ID of the current financial year: This assumes that the financial year for your country is 1 July – 30 June. This SQL query uses - GETDATE to get the current date - MONTH to turn the date into the month number (e.g. 5) - YEAR to turn the date into the year number (e.g. 2017) - CAST to convert the number to a string (which makes the comparison to the lookup table possible) The WHERE condition checks what the current month is and creates the current financial year as a string – it then compares it against the table and selects the first (TOP 1) row. SELECT TOP 1 TY.Year_ID, TY.Short_Name FROM T_Years TY WHERE ( MONTH( GETDATE() ) <= 6 AND TY.Short_Name = CAST( YEAR(GETDATE() ) - 1 AS varchar(4) ) + '/' + CAST( YEAR(GETDATE()) AS varchar(4) ) ) /* 2016/2017 */ OR ( MONTH( GETDATE() ) > 7 AND TY.Short_Name = CAST( YEAR(GETDATE() ) AS varchar(4) ) + '/' + CAST( YEAR(GETDATE()) + 1 AS varchar(4) ) ) /* 2017/2018 */
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This volume, originally published in 1966, contains essays from the 1930s and is valuable not only in the context of the history of thought. It provides an excellent introduction to the general theory of employment, interest and money and reflect the most essential features of Kalecki’s theory of the business cycle. Table of Contents Introduction Joan Robinson 1. Outline of a Theory of the Business Cycle 2. On Foreign Trade and ‘Domestic Exports’. 3. The Mechanism of the Business Upswing 4. The Business Upswing and the Balance of Payments 5. Money and Real Wages, Part 1: Theory 6. Money and the Real Wages Part 2: Statistics
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Iran is probably one of the only countries in the world that somehow has two money currencies! According to those who have traveled to Iran, Money currency is one of the most confusing things here, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get the hang of it. In this post, we’ll try to explain how the money system works in Iran. Rial or Toman? The first question that comes to mind regarding Iranian money is what’s the difference between Rial and Toman and what you should know about their usage as a tourist? Iran’s official currency is Iranian Rial (IRR) but in conversations and people’s daily life Toman rules! Each Toman is equal to Ten Rials (1 Toman = 10 Rials). That means by dropping one zero from Rial you have it’s Toman equivalent. Why Iranians use another currency instead of the official one? To answer this question, we should take a look through history. Before 1932 Iran’s official currency was Toman. Toman has been a part of Iranian money for so long as it has a history of 8 centuries. In 1932, Reza Shah Pahlavi changed the official currency to Iranian Rial. It’s been almost 90 years from the change but people seem to be happy with the good old Toman (old habits die hard) Obviously, having one less zero is also an important reason for people to prefer Toman over Rial. How Iranian money might confuse you? - The numbers written on the coins, banknotes and usually the price tags are in Rial but you hear Toman in conversations - There are different denominations of the Iranian Rial banknotes and the number of zeros makes the difference. The most important banknotes are 10,000, 20,000, 50,000, 100,000, 500,000 and 1,000,000 Rials (as well as 1,000, 2,000 and 5,000 Rials). Banknotes less than 5,000 Rials are not widely used and are also available as coins - In everyday use, people drop the thousand from prices. For example, Instead of one thousand tomans, they simply say 1 toman (though they tend to be more explicit when discussing prices with tourists). In the recent years, even some restaurants and cafes are also following this pattern in their pricings. So, for example, if the price of a coffee is written as 7, you add the thousand to get the price in Toman (7,000 Tomans) and then another zero to get it in Rials (70,000 Rials). By knowing different banknotes you can avoid a lot of these confusions. Exchanging money in Iran make sure you have enough cash with you when traveling through Iran because even though there are ATMs all over the country, they are not connected to international banking system. that means your international credit/debit cards won’t work in Iran. You can exchange most major currencies in Iran, but we suggest having either US Dollars or Euros with you as they’re more commonly accepted. When it comes to exchanging money, your have three options, - Official exchange offices ( called “Sarrafi” in Farsi) - Street salesmen (mostly around touristy places) There are two exchange rates for some currencies including US Dollars and Euros, the lower rate is called the official rate which solely used for business purposes and is controlled by the government, and the higher rate (which is literally called the real rate) is the rate you’re going to exchange money at. With that being said, Avoid going to banks for exchanging money because they use the official (lower) rate. Street salesmen are mostly around tourist hotspots and bazaars, they might offer you a slightly better rate than the exchange offices, but they won’t hand you any receipt. Some locals prefer to change money in these “black markets”. Even though it’s unlikely to get scammed by street money changers, we recommend not taking the risk. It’s illegal to exchange money on the streets and if any problem occurs, you can’t really do anything about it. The official exchange offices are the best and safest options. They will change your money with the “real” rate and you can find them everywhere. Also have this in your mind that the exchange rate changes frequently. there are two ways to make sure what is the current exchange rate, - Checking online - Checking exchange offices boards At the moment, in most of the famous currency converter platforms such as XE.com, the “official” rate is used for calculations, thus using those services for converting your money could confuse you. There are quite a few local sources to get the latest conversion rate. Below you can find one of them: it is advised to exchange money every few days and based on your needs, changing your money all at once will leave you with a huge amount of cash that you need to carry with you everywhere. Iran is a very safe country but still, like everywhere else, caution is required. On December 7, 2016 the government approved changing Iranian money currency from Rial to Toman. if the parliament votes to approve it too, Iranian money will be switched back to Toman after nearly nine decades. Due to numerous financial issues our travelers have faced, we have decided to introduce a safe, reliable and convenient option: the TAP Persia Tourist Card. No need to carry around large wads of cash with you at all times. Receive mobile notifications/texts informing you of all financial transactions. Charge your card using any currency, from anywhere, at any time. The card is accepted everyone in Iran. Click the button below to register for your TAP Persia Tourist Card today. Isfahan, Isfahan Province, Iran Pasargad, Shiraz, Fars Province, Iran Dizin Ski Resort, Tehran Shahdad Kalouts, Shahdad, Kerman Province, Iran Isfahan Province, Iran
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ISO 9001: The Definition of Risk within the Standard Here is the definition of Risk in terms of the ISO 9001 Standard. A risk can be a good thing or a challenge. A risk can attract new customers, reduce waste, or improve efficiency. |0.3.3 Risk-based thinking Risk is the effect of uncertainty and any such uncertainty can have positive or negative effects. A positive deviation arising from a risk can provide an opportunity, but not all positive effects of risk result in opportunities. |Click Play to listen to Brandon Kerkstra| Was this helpful? If you would like to learn more about Risk Based Thinking and the ISO 9001 Standard, consider taking a course on the subject. Learn more at MSGWebTraining.com.
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When I was very young, our gas stove ran on town gas. I didn’t know it at the time but it was a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide produced from coal. One day a serviceman came round to change the nozzles on our stove and gas heater, and very quickly our house, and eventually the city, were converted to natural gas (methane). It was a leap Not only did it eliminate pollutants emitted during gasification, it promised a seemingly unlimited supply of clean burning methane from offshore gas But that was in an era where “clean” meant “free of the toxic chemicals and particulates released by coal gasification”. Today, clean also means free of carbon As the global community works to decarbonise its electricity supply, one of the biggest remaining sources of carbon dioxide emissions will be from burning methane for heating and cooking. In a back-to-the-future step, many futurists are contemplating a variation of town gas – Today, most hydrogen is produced from fossils fuels, emitting large quantities of carbon dioxide as a by-product, so that’s no help. But there’s increasing interest in producing it from pure water. In a well-known process called electrolysis, excess electricity from wind or solar farms is passed through water to crack it into its atomic constituents – hydrogen and When the hydrogen is used for stoves, or space heating, the only combustion product is water vapour! So what’s standing in the way of this utopian fuel? Problem one is that producing hydrogen from electricity is only 70% efficient, so you need a very cheap electricity supply. It could be coming. our electricity is increasingly sourced from wind and solar, the amount available will often exceed the electrical load. Owners of the generators will seek an economically worthwhile purpose for this excess, such as charging batteries, desalinating water, or Instead of burning the hydrogen, an would be to use it to store energy, like in a battery, then in a turbine generator or a fuel cell. Problem two is that the current large-scale electrolysis units are so expensive that the cost of producing hydrogen is several times more than natural gas. But one thing we know for sure is that as manufacturing volumes increase, costs come down. We’ve seen it already in Wind turbine prices have halved in the past five years and solar prices have dropped even faster. Similar cost reductions are likely for electrolysis units. Problem three is that steel pipes – a major part of the current gas delivery infrastructure – aren’t suited to transporting hydrogen. They become brittle because the hydrogen molecules work their way into the spaces between the iron atoms and eventually cause cracks Fortunately, modern piping used for gas distribution is mostly made from polypropylene and does not suffer from Hydrogen can be mixed at up to 10% with the methane in the existing gas distribution network without any risk of corrosion nor need to change the nozzles on stoves or space heaters. Above 10% hydrogen concentration it’s easier to commit and convert all gas appliances to run on pure hydrogen. The city of Leeds in the UK has a plan to do this in the late 2020s. Instead of burning the hydrogen, an alternative use would be to use it to store energy, like in a battery, then regenerate electricity in a turbine generator or a fuel cell. But it makes for a very inefficient The round-trip efficiency – electricity to storage medium and back to electricity – is about 35%, much worse than the 90% efficiency of a lithium ion battery. So this is a less attractive use for the hydrogen than using it to replace natural gas in our cities for space heating and cooking. If we can successfully make the transition to hydrogen for heating and cooking we will have a winning fuel that we can keep using literally forever. impediment today is cost. I used to be sceptical that hydrogen use would become widespread, but given the rapid rate of reduction in the price of renewable electricity, and a reasonable expectation that the price of electrolysis will continue to fall, the economics might indeed work out. Alan Finkel is an electrical engineer, neuroscientist and Chief Scientist of Australia. Read science facts, not fiction... There’s never been a more important time to explain the facts, cherish evidence-based knowledge and to showcase the latest scientific, technological and engineering breakthroughs. Cosmos is published by The Royal Institution of Australia, a charity dedicated to connecting people with the world of science. Financial contributions, however big or small, help us provide access to trusted science information at a time when the world needs it most. Please support us by making a donation or purchasing a subscription today.
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Cities typically assist businesses within their borders to become more financially stable and positive community assets. Small locally owned businesses in particular keep dollars recirculating in the community. Small business owners have a personal stake in the social and economic well-being of their community, and the same entrepreneurial and problem-solving skills required to run a farm or small business can readily be applied to community issues. City assistance to local businesses can be direct or structured through existing statewide programs, such as Minnesota Main Street. Increasingly, businesses that adopt more sustainable practices and produce more sustainable products and services report cost savings, lowered compliance costs, improved risk management, new/more loyal customers, and motivated employees. This best practice calls on cities, working with local business associations and support organizations, to shift some of their existing assistance efforts to support businesses in meeting the market need for a greener economy. The Minnesota Toxic Pollution Prevention Act (Minn. Stat. 115D) of the early 1990s included policy direction and funding for business assistance from the MPCA that has moved businesses and others beyond compliance with environmental regulations and into the realm of preventing the use and generation of waste and pollution. This economic development strategy has proven itself over the past 25 years in Minnesota. State and county taxes placed on business waste bills present a tax incentive for businesses to separate materials for reuse, recycling and composting, for which implementation assistance is available from each county's solid waste office. The American Sustainable Business Council articulates the triple bottom line principle of People, Planet and Profit, and believes government has a role side-by-side with the marketplace: to structure markets so they work effectively, to manage the impact of externalities, and to ensure that public resources receive stewardship for the long term. Green tourism actions aim to deliver a number of benefits: Increased recycling of dollars in the local economy Employment of more local residents at living wages
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The Biggest Source of Carbon Emissions or the Best Opportunity? A Q&A on the Future of Transportation with Austin Brown. Dr. Austin Brown is the Executive Director of the UC Davis Policy Institute for Energy, Environment, and the Economy – and an expert on the intersection of transportation and energy policy. He’s been an integral advisor to the work of the Alliance’s 50x50 Commission. The Blog to Save Energy caught up with him recently to hear his outlook on coming changes in American transportation. Alliance: For a few years now, transportation has been a bigger source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. than electric power generation. How did we get here? Brown: Over the past decade, we have seen a lot of focus on the previous #1 emitting sector, electricity. These efforts have spurred a long-term trend toward cheaper and better renewable power. Progress in energy efficiency has also meant that total electric demand has been flat even with economic growth. While focusing on energy, though, we neglected transportation. Over the last few years, driving and freight demand both increased and there has been a shift (facilitated by low gas prices) toward larger, less efficient vehicles. Hence despite great strides in electric vehicle (EV) deployment, the transportation sector has taken the dubious “number-one emitter” honor from the electricity sector. Alliance: A few decades from now, when we look back (we hope!) at the deep reductions in energy use and carbon emission from our transportation sector, what do you think will have been the biggest pieces of how it happened? Brown: Here’s where we get to the (mostly) good news. There are so many reasons to be excited by the future of transportation and how it can help us reduce energy use, oil dependence, and emissions. Item number one is electrification of transportation. Electrifying personal light-duty vehicles (cars and light trucks), in particular, is looking more doable than ever before. Batteries and EV technology are improving at a remarkable rate. EVs are likely to become even more popular as people become more familiar with the many options out there and see how great EV performance can be. New mobility technology, pooling of rides, and vehicle automation also have the potential to make personal transportation better than what we have today in every way. The daunting part is just how far we have to go and how big the problem is. Personal light-duty vehicles contribute about half of U.S. transportation emissions, but avoiding the worst consequences of global climate change requires reducing U.S. transportation emissions by 80% or more. So we need to pay attention to every transportation subsector, including heavy-duty trucks, rail, and ships. We also need to get serious about providing more and better options for people to get around without driving alone, such as via transit and active transportation (walking and bicycling). Alliance: We’ve seen the numbers showing public transit ridership dropping in a number of U.S. metro areas, which is troubling from an energy use and emissions perspective. Do you have a grasp of what’s going on there, and where do you think this trend is headed? Brown: Most transit markets have seen significant declines in ridership over the last decade. It’s fashionable to blame new mobility companies (like Lyft and Uber) that are providing cheap and easy ways to get a ride. These companies have indeed taken some riders from transit in some markets, but they are also offering a valuable new transportation choice for riders. The real problem is that we have neglected transit as a priority for decades. Most of the transit declines we’re seeing started long before new mobility showed up. Policies such as funding roads from general funds rather than user fees act as huge subsidies to the personal automobile. Transit suffers as a result. Perhaps the most problematic idea out there is that cities can neglect or get rid of their transit because new mobility will be able to provide the same service without public funding. That’s just wrong. Transit can do much to improve transportation equity and efficiency. Backing away from those benefits is the wrong move. Alliance: You’ve thought a lot about autonomous vehicles and the effects they could have on our energy use – anywhere from potentially significant decreases to big increases. What’s going to determine what scenario we actually get to? Is this mostly about federal, state, or local policies? Brown: Researchers don’t yet know whether automated vehicles will increase or decrease emissions on net. A key question we need to answer is: will automated vehicles enable a future where most mobility is shared and electric, or will they just facilitate even greater urban sprawl and more vehicle miles traveled? Fortunately, we get to choose the answer to this question as a society. Smart policy can ensure that we realize the benefits automated vehicles have to offer while minimizing adverse consequences. Federal policy should include flexible and science-based standards that ensure consistency across jurisdictional boundaries while empowering state and local governments to prioritize their own transportation goals. State and local governments need to implement policy mechanisms that prioritize transportation equity, sustainability, and safety, and need to rigorously track performance for continued improvement. We can build a better transportation system if we focus on increasing consumer choice and aligning policy to support the transportation modes that benefit society as a whole – including through much lower emissions.
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Credit cards are the most accepted method to buy things without having adequate money in saving the account. There are more than 32.5 million credit card holders in the UK. In February 2018, the credit card debt was £70.8 billion; it means each British household owes £2,604 credit card debt. Credit card spending is climbing up steadily since 1993. November 2017 witnessed the record spending of £17.3 billion. Lending continues to rise; repayments take a plunge. Repayment level didn’t recover; therefore, a gap between loans and compensation remains there. Credit card write-offs increased with until huge spikes until 2010 reaching up to £2.1 billion in June; however, the figure plunged with fluctuations afterwards. The total credit cards pending amount written off was £1.6 billion in 2017. Nine Disadvantages of Credit Cards: No one can deny to many benefits of online shopping with credit cards; however, a buyer needs to be careful for not committing the mistakes that only make ‘not using the credit card’ a better habit. Here are nine critical disadvantages of using a credit card for online shopping that encourage using its alternatives: - The interest rate after the interest-free period is too high. The mounting dues harm the credit score. The user often pays more as interest than the amount for purchases. - Many users are not aware of credit damage occurring silently. Each credit card purchase is reported to credit bureau agencies; the use of more than 50% credit limit harms the credit score seriously. Each missed payment is also recorded by credit bureau agencies. - There is a considerable increase in numbers of cases registered against the credit card frauds in the UK. Fraudsters succeed to cheat the people looking to get instant cash in any way. As technology is getting advanced, the numbers of frauds with credit cards users are also increasing. - Using a credit card to get cash has become a costly affair after the introduction of an advanced cash fee. - Credit cards companies charge hefty annual fees sometimes as hidden expenses. - The fees for a missed payment, over the limit usage, balance transfer, overseas transactions etc. come as the financial blow. - The credit card online shopping needs financial discipline, and most of us lack here. Overspending creates an economic problem for a more extended period. - Some credit cards issuing agencies promise false for reward points, discount deals, cash-backs etc. The promises stand nowhere if the fees and risks are reviewed. - The credit card users often make costlier purchases because of having limited sources accepting their credit cards. Alternatives to Buy Online Without a Credit Card - Prepaid Cards: These are very similar to a debit card, but the funds are preloaded into the associated account. The prepaid card must be of a significant brand– Visa, Discover, American Express, MasterCard etc. A prepaid card is a great alternative to pay for online shopping. A prepaid card can be had online through a simple application process. - Gift Cards: Gift card of significant credit card network can be used to pay for online shopping. You can use retailer-specific gift card also for online shopping but typically at particular retailer’s website. Gift cards can be had by visiting the stores in person or by applying online. - Paypal: It a worldwide service allowing the Paypal account holders to paying all across the countries. The shopping bills are deducted from the checking account. You need to have a Paypal balance. The amount can be loaded from the bank account through any way preferably by digital money transfer. Paypal’s website has the list of retailers accepting payments through Paypal, but options are limited. - Debit Card: The debit card behaves like the credit card; it can be used for almost any online shopping. It is linked with your bank account and delivers a seamless shopping experience with an added sense of security. Most leading banks give a debit card to the account holder to facilitate even for cash withdrawal. - Electronic Funds Transfer: Almost all the online leading stores facilitate paying through electronic funds transfer. The buyer has to list the desired items into the shopping cart of the website. The total payment can be made after logging to a personal account on that site. The fees are made directly from the bank account. In case of wrong funds transfer, there is no refund. The best part of this method is that you have more extensive options to make purchases from almost any store. - Bitcoin: It is a cryptocurrency supported by not all the online stores but by the few indeed. An opening Bitcoin wallet is entirely free. You can buy the Bitcoins from the bank account to pay digitally in cryptocurrency anywhere in the world. Bitcoin wallet allows to you receive the funds also. It is a secure method for making an international payment. - Prepaid Voucher: The leading brands issue prepaid vouchers under the promotional campaign, or you can buy the prepaid vouchers of a certain amount online with a validity of almost 2 years. These can be used to pay the particular currency. If you want to pay for international purchases, the conversion rate may be applicable. These vouchers are safe for online shopping but have limitations of stores accepting the particular coupons. - Store Credit Score: Some credit is rewarded for making big purchases; the amount is stored in your personal account allowing using it for the next purchase. Some brands offer this no-cost benefit even for writing the reviews or for being the influencer. You can earn the credit score even for referring the particular product/service/model/brand; the money is transferred to your store wallet once the referral purchase is made. As technology is evolving fast, the new methods of online payments are also being introduced, but safety is the primary concern of the buyers. Some cards cost less or more, but the risk-free usage makes them favourite among the buyers on the move. Choose the credit card alternative carefully considering the cost, security, acceptance, account management, usage etc.
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What does Eight O Seven (807) mean? A law that pertains to the textile industry. Specifically, the “807” law allows fabrics to be cut in the United States, garments to be assembled in Mexico, Caribbean and Central American countries, and returned to the United States with tariff assessed only on the added value (i.e. sewing). Heddels explains Eight O Seven (807) Also known as “production sharing”, the 807/9802 provision in the United States allows manufacturers to cut down on the cost of labor for their products. However, the law is highly controversial. Its opponents argue that the provision exports jobs from Americans to other nations, restricts free trade with Japan and other Asian countries, and encourages the development of sweatshop working conditions in the Caribbean.
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Multilateral debt service (TDS, current US$) - Europe Definition: Public and publicly guaranteed multilateral loans include loans and credits from the World Bank, regional development banks, and other multilateral and intergovernmental agencies. Excluded are loans from funds administered by an international organization on behalf of a single donor government; these are classified as loans from governments. Debt service payments are the sum of principal repayments and interest payments actually made in the year specified. Data are in current U.S. dollars. Description: The map below shows how Multilateral debt service (TDS, current US$) varies by country in Europe. The shade of the country corresponds to the magnitude of the indicator. The darker the shade, the higher the value. The country with the highest value in the region is Romania, with a value of 2,643,851,000.00. The country with the lowest value in the region is Moldova, with a value of 53,527,290.00. Source: World Bank, International Debt Statistics. Aggregation method: Sum
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What Is Gross Income? Gross income is the amount of money you earn, typically on a paycheck, before payroll taxes and other deductions are taken out. Gross annual income is the total amount you earn in a year before deductions and taxes. The gross income on a pay stub would be your hourly wage multiplied by hours worked. You'll also see your year's gross wages on the W-2 form you receive from your employer at tax time. Say your gross wages for a week were $800. However, you take home only $675 in net income or the remainder of your gross income after taxes and other deductions. That's why gross income is also sometimes called pre-tax income. From the perspective of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), gross income includes the total amount of income from all sources, which you must report on your income tax return. Sources of Income Your total gross income can come from many sources in addition to a W-2 job. For example, you may also have income from: - Side jobs, such as driving for Uber or Lyft - Selling goods on eBay, Etsy, Craigslist, or other online storefronts - Selling items at a swap meet, craft fair, or other venues - Rental property income - Interest, dividends, and capital gains from investments You may also have income from other sources not on this list. Perhaps you rent out a room in your home on a website like Airbnb. Or you might collect royalties from intellectual property or oil, gas, or mineral rights. You might even have gambling or lottery winnings to declare. Some types of income don't need to be reported on your income tax return because you won't owe taxes on them. That includes certain types of income from state and municipal bonds, some Social Security benefits, certain inheritances and gifts, and some life insurance payouts. What Reduces Gross Income After you've tallied up all your sources of income to find your gross income, you can see how it may be reduced by expenses and deductions. Your gross income may be reduced by many things: - Certain business expenses such as materials, gas mileage, or equipment rental fees - Some moving expenses - Student loan interest (with some qualifications) - Contributions to certain retirement accounts - Penalties from financial institutions for early withdrawal of savings - Health savings account (HSA) deductions - Jury duty pay sent directly to the juror's employer - Alimony paid - Deduction for half the self-employment tax - SEP-IRA, SIMPLE IRA and 401(k) deductions for the self-employed Reducing your gross income reduces the amount of tax you owe. Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) Reductions to your gross income result in Adjusted Gross Income (AGI). Your adjusted gross income is your gross income minus certain tax deductions and credits that are allowable whether or not you itemize deductions on your tax return. Adjusted Gross Income is figured on the first page of your U.S. federal tax return, and serves as the basis for the income tax you owe. If you're doing your taxes, you can use tax software to calculate AGI automatically and to accurately do other tax calculations as the software takes you through its tax questionnaire interview. Net income refers to your take-home pay. It's the amount of your paycheck you receive after payroll withholding, which includes state and federal income taxes, Social Security taxes, and pre-tax benefits such as health insurance premiums. If you are enrolled in a flexible spending account to pay for medical costs, the amount withheld from each check is on a pre-tax basis. If you want to track your personal net income, financial software can help you calculate it and keep a running total. To find your net income, you would record your income in the software's account register as a split transaction, record gross pay and then separately record the taxes and pre-tax deductions found on your paycheck stub. Your financial software can generate reports that calculate your net income based on these records. IRS.gov. "Types of Income." Accessed March 18, 2020. IRS.gov. "Topic No. 452 Alimony and Separate Maintenance." Accessed March 18, 2020. IRS.gov. "Can I Deduct My Moving Expenses?" Accessed March 18, 2020. IRS.gov. "Tax Benefits for Education: Information Center." Accessed March 18, 2020. IRS.gov. "Publication 969 (2019), Health Savings Accounts and Other Tax-Favored Health Plans." Accessed March 18, 2020. IRS.gov. "Publication 525 (2019), Taxable and Nontaxable Income." Accessed March 18, 2020. IRS.gov. "Self-Employment Tax (Social Security and Medicare Taxes)." Accessed March 18, 2020. IRS.gov. "SIMPLE IRA Plan FAQs." Accessed March 18, 2020. IRS.gov. "Lowering AGI This Year Can Help Taxpayers When They File Next Year." Accessed March 18, 2020. Healthcare.gov. "Using a Flexible Spending Account (FSA)." Accessed March 18, 2020.
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Labor standards–wages, hours, benefits and age limits–were a thin patchwork in the U.S. until the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938. The Franklin Roosevelt administration considered FLSA its most significant social legislation after the Social Security Act of 1935. In its initial form, FLSA provided a 25-cent-an-hour minimum wage, a 44-hour straight-time work week, time-and-a-half pay for overtime and a minimum working age of 16. However, there were exceptions and exclusions. The Roosevelt administration was opposed by an unreconstructed Supreme Court, losing the issues in a 1935 case [Schechter Poultry] and losing in its “court packing” efforts of 1937. To resolve Constitutional issues, FLSA focused on occupations related to interstate commerce–notably manufacturing–generally omitting coverage for agriculture, construction and many services: transportation, retail trade, government, health care, education, publishing, machinery repair and domestic work. The 1938 law also excluded coverage for union shops, as endorsed by both AFL and CIO out of fears that a wage floor might presage a wage ceiling. It survived two Supreme Court challenges in 1941. [Darby and Opp Cotton] By then, former Pres. Roosevelt was serving a third term and had appointed a majority of the Court: Justices Hugo Black, Stanley Reed, Felix Frankfurter, William O. Douglas and Frank Murphy. Strengthening standards: Since World War II, labor standards have gradually been strengthened through four main channels: • FLSA regulations, expanding coverage and increasing requirements • FLSA amendments, removing and modifying exceptions and exclusions • state and local standards, expanding coverage and increasing requirements • interpretations, policies and lawsuits sometimes expanding coverage There have been three notable eras in federal minimum wage. The Franklin Roosevelt through the Lyndon Johnson administrations substantially increased the wage level, starting around $4 an hour and growing to around $10 an hour–in 2016 dollars–during 1938 through 1968. The Nixon through the Reagan administrations substantially shrank the wage level, from around $10 to around $6, during 1968 through 1988. The Herbert Bush through the Obama administrations maintained a stagnant wage level between about $6 and $8, during 1988 through 2016. Labor standards in retail trade made progress through state initiatives–notably in setting minimum wages. Every state now has laws that benefit some workers outside the initial FSLA focus. Even in the “at will,” “right to work,” wage-and-hours-free state of Mississippi, employers can’t fire a worker because of jury service, if a worker provides “reasonable notice.” As of the start of 2016, more than half the states had a statewide minimum wage higher than the federal standard: 29 states plus the District of Columbia. Currently the District is highest at $11.50 an hour, while California and Massachusetts are next at $10.00–to be compared with the $7.25 federal standard since July, 2009. Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee have no state minimum wage. Georgia and Wyoming wage levels are below the federal minimum. The Deep South was the region most hostile to FLSA in the 1930s and remains the region most hostile to labor today. Coverage struggles: Since early years of labor standards, starting with the first laws enacted in 1912 by Massachusetts, many groups of workers did not benefit. The U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act, in both initial and current forms, begins by stating a focus on “industries engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce.” [P.L. 75-718, Sec. 2(a) and 29 USC 202(a)] “Commerce” under FLSA has been limited, both initially and now, to mean “trade…among the several States….” [P.L. 75-718, Sec. 3(b) and 29 USC 203(b)] FLSA allows states and cities to enact stronger requirements. During the Truman and Eisenhower administrations, some states and cities began to close gaps in wage and hour coverage left in 1938. So far, no labor scholar has published an inventory of those initiatives, but sectors often involved appear to be retail trade, construction and transportation. At the same time, business interests began to promote anti-union, “right to work” laws, authorized under the 1947 federal Taft-Hartley Act. The earliest of them, predating the act, was an amendment to the Arkansas constitution. Statewide laws are currently found in 25 states that are generally hostile to labor. The Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson administrations began to expand FLSA coverage beyond narrow views of interstate commerce dating from the Great Depression and earlier. FLSA amendments enacted in 1961 included employees of retail trade firms with at least $1 million in annual revenue. Amendments enacted in 1966 included employees of schools, nursing homes, construction firms, commercial laundries and large farms. Domestic workers: Sustaining work performed inside and near homes–care for children, the elderly, sick and disabled, cleaning, cooking, pet and plant care, laundry and other household services–had not been a focus of federal and state standards, in contrast with work performed away from homes. Domestic work currently remains at the far reaches of labor standards in most states. A pioneering effort in Massachusetts–coordinated by Melnea Cass, the legendary Boston activist for civil rights and housing–resulted in the first state labor standards law covering most domestic workers. Chapter 760 of the Acts of 1970 provided coverage under the state’s wage and hours law: minimum wage, maximum weekly straight-time hours, overtime pay and contributions to Social Security and Medicare. For workers employed more than 16 hours per week, the 1970 law required workers compensation and unemployment insurance. These were all standards that had applied to most other jobs in Massachusetts. FLSA amendments enacted in 1974 set federal standards for some domestic workers but specifically excluded workers providing “companionship services for individuals who…are unable to care for themselves.” It also excluded all live-in workers from overtime pay benefits. [29 USC 213] Intermittent and varying work hours and direct employment by householders have proven to be areas of difficulty. Some observers estimate that two-thirds or more of U.S. employers subject to FLSA fail to comply fully with the law. In 2013, the Obama administration revised regulations to extend FLSA coverage to all domestic workers employed by agencies, regardless of duties, effective at the start of 2015. However, some workers without specialized training may not be eligible for overtime pay, and workers directly employed by householders remained excluded from coverage. These and other gaps are slowly being addressed by state laws specific to domestic workers. As of August, 2016, seven states had enacted some form of enhanced labor standards for domestic workers, and in six states those had come into effect. The first new law was in New York, enacted in 2010, followed by Hawaii and California in 2013, Massachusetts in 2014, Oregon and Connecticut in 2015 and Illinois in 2016. None of these states have enacted anti-union, right to work laws. While provisions of the recent laws about domestic workers vary greatly, most take into account special situations of live-in workers. Connecticut has the weakest of the new laws, providing only a guard against harassment. Massachusetts and Hawaii probably have the strongest. Only Massachusetts requires sick leave and parenting leave. Only Hawaii requires disability and health care insurance. Most states require time-and-a-half overtime pay, workers compensation insurance and unemployment insurance. Massachusetts had already required those benefits, since 1970. Most new laws require at least a day per week off-duty and some amount of paid personal leave. Some of the new requirements are stronger than those of federal labor laws and regulations. Information and compliance: Elusive elements affecting standards for domestic work remain information and compliance. That generally takes organization. NAACP chapters were involved during pioneering efforts in Massachusetts, in the 1970s. More recently, National Domestic Workers Alliance, first located in New York City but now in Chicago, was organized in 2007 from experience with Domestic Workers United, founded in 2000 in New York City. Massachusetts Coalition for Domestic Workers was founded in 2010 and is located in Boston. During the last few years, the domestic worker organizations and their academic partners have surveyed many domestic workers and employers in several U.S. cities. They provide unique information about work experiences and direct employment by householders. So far, however, most publications do not measure a shadow economy of unreported wages and undocumented workers that are sometimes mentioned in general media but rarely surveyed. A UCLA survey of about 500 direct employer households reported 14 percent paying “out of pocket.” As anyone who has run an above-ground small business knows, complying accurately with labor law is complex. So far, no state has set up a clearing house to provide simple and centralized access to required record-keeping, reporting and payments. Large payroll services–PayChex and ADP–do not provide all the services needed to comply with state laws and are tedious to use. Concierge services, mostly available from accounting firms, can be very costly. The domestic worker organizations have not seen these issues as parts of their missions. A barrier their reports rarely acknowledge is that there is no method to report wages or to pay Social Security and Medicare contributions for undocumented workers. – Craig Bolon, Brookline, MA, August 25, 2016 Enhanced state labor standards for domestic workers, Brookline Beacon, as of August, 2016 Massachusetts Coalition for Domestic Workers (founded 2010), 197 Friend St., Boston, MA, 617-603-1540 National Domestic Workers Alliance (founded 2007), Chicago, IL, 872-216-3684 Saba Waheed, Lucero Herrera, Reyna Orellana, Blake Valenta and Tia Koonse, Profile, practices and needs of California’s domestic work employers, UCLA Labor Center, May, 2016 Minimum wage laws in the states, Wage and Hour Division, U.S. Department of Labor, 2016 Natalicia Tracy, Tim Sieber and Susan Moir, Invisible no more: domestic workers organizing in Massachusetts and beyond, ScholarWorks, University of Massachusetts Boston, October, 2014 Benjamin Collins, Right to work laws: legislative background and empirical research, Congressional Research Service, January 6, 2014 Minimum wage, overtime protections extended to direct care workers by Labor Department, U.S. Department of Labor, December 17, 2013 Rachel Homer, What’s happening with domestic workers’ rights?, On Labor (Cambridge, MA), November 6, 2013 Gerald Mayer, Benjamin Collins and David H. Bradley, The Fair Labor Standards Act: an overview, Congressional Research Service, June 4, 2013 Karen Michael, Labor law: the Supreme Court and the Fair Labor Standards Act, Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch, April 28, 2013 Nik Theodore, Beth Gutelius and Linda Burnham, Home truths: domestic workers in California, National Domestic Workers Alliance (New York, NY), 2013 Linda Burnham and Nik Theodore, Home economics: the invisible and unregulated world of domestic work, National Domestic Workers Alliance (New York, NY), 2012 History of changes to the minimum wage law, Wage and Hour Division, U.S. Department of Labor, 2007 Howard D. Samuel, Troubled passage: the labor movement and the Fair Labor Standards Act, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Monthly Labor Review 123(12):32-37, 2000 Dora L. Costa, Hours of work and the Fair Labor Standards Act: a study of retail and wholesale trade, 1938-1950, National Bureau of Economic Research, Industrial and Labor Relations Review 53(4):648-664, 2000 Jonathan Grossman, Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938: maximum struggle for a minimum wage, U.S. Department of Labor, 1978 Peyton Elder, The 1974 amendments to the federal minimum wage law, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Monthly Labor Review 97(7):33-37, 1974 Leon H. Wallace, The Fair Labor Standards Act, Indiana Law Journal 22(2):113-149, 1947 Opp Cotton Mills, Inc. v. Administrator, U.S. Supreme Court, 312 U.S. 126, 1941 United States v. Darby, U.S. Supreme Court, 312 U.S. 100, 1941 U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act, in original form as Public Law 75-718, 1938 Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, U.S. Supreme Court, 295 U.S. 495, 1935
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In the past few years, you’ve probably heard the term blockchain. With the surge of bitcoin and other crypto currencies in 2017, it is almost impossible not to hear the term. Yet, in the last quarter of 2017, only 21 million people in the world owned a blockchain wallet, or a wallet where they store crypto currencies. What you need to understand is that bitcoin is a currency, a digital version of an asset, much like gold. Blockchain is the technology that underpins bitcoin. Without blockchain, there would be no bitcoin, or any other crypto currency. Blockchain has the potential to change the world drastically. How is that? Let’s explain some of the basics of blockchain technology. Blockchain is something like the internet. When the internet was first introduced, not many people believed it in it. Nowadays, we cannot imagine our world without internet. Blockchain is the brainchild of a person or a group of people known under the pseudonym “Satoshi Nakamoto”. Since its birth, the blockchain has evolved into something greater. Blockchain technology created the backbone of a new type of internet by allowing digital information to be distributed, but not copied. The internet allows that but by copying digital information. The similarity is that much like the internet, you do not need to know how the blokchain works in order to use it. You need however, some basic knowledge. The simplest graphic explanation of blockchain is to imagine a spreadsheet that is duplicated thousands of times across a network of computers. Now, this network is designed to regularly update the spreadsheet. That is the basic understanding of the blockchain. The information that is held on the blockchain exists as shared and continually reconciled database. The database is not stored in a single location, which means the records the blockchain keeps are truly public and easily verifiable. The tech is hosted by millions of computers simultaneously, and the data is accessible to anyone on the internet. Another way to explain blockchain is to compare it to Google Docs. Here is the traditional way of sharing documents. You send a Microsoft Word document to another recipient, and you ask him/her to make revisions. The problem is you need to wait until you receive the receive copy before you can see or make other change. You are locked out of editing until the other person is done with the document. That is how the database works today. Two owners cannot edit the same document at once. In the same way, banks lock money and access. They maintain money balance and transfers by briefly locking access or decrease the balance while they make a transfer. After that they update the other side, re-open access. With Google Docs, both parties have access to the same document at the same time, and the single version of the document is always visible to both parties. It is like a shared ledger, but it is a shared document. Blockchain works in a similar way. Imagine the number of legal documents that can be shared in the ledger, instead of transferring and passing them to each other back and forth? You do not need blockchain technology to share documents, but the analogy is a great one. By its design, the blockchain technology is a decentralized technology. Anything that happens on the blockchain network is just a function of the network as a whole. Stock market trades become almost simultaneous on the blockchain. Decentralization is already a reality. A global network of computers uses blockchain technology to jointly manage the database that records all of the transactions. That means that bitcoin, for example, is managed by its network, and not by one central authority. The network operates on a peer-to-peer basis. Decentralized networks will be the next huge wave in technology, and we are just getting started. The network lives in a state of consensus. The blockchain automatically checks in with itself every ten minutes. This type of self-auditing ecosystem of digital value reconciles every transaction that happens in ten-minute intervals. Each group of these transactions is referred to as a “block”. That is why the network is called blockchain. Because of this system, the two important results are: - Transparency data is embedded within the network as a whole, by definition it is public - It cannot be corrupted as altering any unit of information on the network would mean using a huge amount of computing power to override the entire network In theory, that is possible, but in practice it is impossible. In a way, blockchain solves the problem of manipulation. How many people in Africa, India, Russia, or Eastern Europe do not trust organizations and corporations? Blockchain solves the trust problem. Let’s explain what blocks are, and how the blockchain network works. A block is a record of a new transaction, and that block contains the location of the crypto currency, medical data, or even voting records. The network, or the block can carry any information you want. Once each block is completed, it is added to the chain, creating a chain of blocks, or a blockchain. Crypto currencies are encrypted, and processing any transaction means solving complicated math problems. As the blockchain grows, these problems become more difficult and require more computing power. People who solve these equations are rewarded with crypto currency in a process called “mining”. When you own a crypto currency, what you have is the private key (a very long password) to the currency address on the blockchain. Using this key you can withdraw the currency to spend. However, if you lose your key, there is no way to get your money back. Each account also has a public key, which lets other people to send crypto currencies to your account. The information on the blockchain is publicly available, meaning it is decentralized. No single computer or entity owns the information. Any transaction made is instantly visible to everyone on the network. This is why the blockchain is also called a public ledger. Once you send bitcoin, or any other crypto currency to a friend, or sell it, that information is publicly available on the network. Other people may not know your identity, but they can see how much value has been transferred from one person to another. All of the previously said brings us the last question, which is why we need the technology. Almost everything we do nowadays, involves a creation and movement of data. For example, when you buy a house, you transfer data. When you use a credit card, when you vote, when you travel by car, or even when you are getting ill. Blockchain helps store and move that. Instead of holding the data in a single place (like nowadays), the blockchain atomizes the information and spreads it over thousands of nodes across a network. All of the nodes are locked together with clever cryptography. At the moment, the data that rules our lives is kept in big lumps in one place. Whether that is a private server, in the cloud, or on paper in libraries or archives. That makes it vulnerable to attack. Blockchain cannot stop hackers from getting into your computer system if your password is weak. However, when hackers use brute force or sheer computer power to attack a system, blockchain makes that almost impossible. For example, you do not need to break into one house, you need to break into an entire town. Anything you put on the Internet, it stays on the Internet. The internet is like Vegas. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Well, think about that the next time you put s...
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Doctors, decisions and dollars: Why stewardship matters ■ New guidance defines physicians’ ethical obligations to be good stewards of limited resources. That starts with meeting the medical needs of patients under their care. Posted July 2, 2012. Physicians alone can’t rein in U.S. health spending. However, what they can do is take cost into consideration when there are options for the best way to treat a patient. Such is the key finding of a report by the American Medical Association Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs, which declares that wise stewardship of limited health resources is an ethical obligation for physicians. The report, approved by delegates at the AMA Annual Meeting in June, was written and refined over three years to allow for careful consideration of what stewardship means, what it doesn’t mean, and what resources needs to be made available to physicians to fulfill that role. Stewardship flows from physicians’ obligation to do what is best for the patient’s health, whatever the price tag. Yet there are factors away from the bedside, outside of doctors’ control, that impede their ability to be good stewards. As the report noted, as of 2009, U.S. health care spending represented 17.6% of the gross domestic product, almost double that of other industrialized countries. The level of spending has become a burden to governments, businesses, families and individuals, and there are numerous efforts throughout the health system to find ways to relieve that financial pressure. Some of them — such as private insurers’ ham-handed attempts to reduce pay and restrict patient access to services —have drawn physician fire for being focused solely on cost at the expense of health, or for making cost-benefit analyses with little or no physician input. Physicians recognize that they need to make fair, prudent, cost-conscious decisions for the good of their patients. More care, and more costly care, is not necessarily the best course of treatment. With that in mind, CEJA began working on its report to help give guidance on how all that can be done without compromising the health of their patients. Stewardship is a process where a physician starts by asking: What is right for the patient? Stewardship certainly isn’t about cutting corners to save a few bucks. The doctor isn’t obligated to try some cheaper option if there is a clear indication, based on professional judgment, that a certain treatment is right. However, there might be options available as the physician uses his or her knowledge of the efficacy of treatments, tests and procedures, and their costs — both short-term and long-term. Even a treatment that is more expensive up-front could save money and improve a patient’s health over time. Physicians can involve patients and their families in the decision-making, laying out the case for a less expensive treatment that would be just as effective as one that costs more. Doctors already are under ethical obligation to avoid performing unnecessary tests and procedures, even if a patient demands them. Ultimately, it is transparency and clear communication between the physician and patient (and the patient’s family) that provides the best environment for a doctor to make the right treatment decision and make the wisest move as a steward of health care resources. The report isn’t the AMA’s only effort in addressing the management of limited medical spending resources. It also supports the Choosing Wisely campaign, in which medical societies present their own lists of tests and procedures that “physicians and patients should question” before going ahead with them to ensure they are necessary Physicians also should be able to look outside the profession for credible help. As the CEJA report points out, health care administrators and organizations need to make cost data transparent, including cost accounting methodologies, so physicians can exercise well-informed stewardship. In many cases, a physician’s decision on treatment will involve sending a patient to an outside lab, or a hospital, or another physician, or somewhere that doctors have limited control of costs. A doctor can’t be a steward if he or she doesn’t know what something costs. Along similar lines, the report says physicians and medical students need training to learn about health care costs and how their decision-making can affect overall health spending. Finally, the report notes that there are systematic barriers that prevent physicians from being good stewards: a medical liability system that needs reform so that doctors aren’t compelled to practice defensive medicine. A June 2010 study in Archives of Internal Medicine said medicine’s cost to avoid medical lawsuits is about $60 billion a year. For physicians to be the best stewards of health care, they need to know that their colleagues also are making the same effort, and that the health system is there to support them. CEJA’s guidance is focused on physicians but speaks to the whole health care sector on how high-quality care can be provided in ways that preserve resources to better meet the needs of all patients.
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Each country uses a different system for credit scoring, and credit doesn’t travel from country to country., so it’s a good idea to learn how credit affects getting a car in the U.S. A credit score is what determines creditworthiness to lenders. What is credit scoring? In the United States, FICO® is the most common model for credit scoring which is a three-digit number that ranges from 500-850. Used by 90% of top lenders FICO® stands for Fair Isaac & Company, the company that developed the standard. There are three main credit bureaus in the U.S. (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) that calculate and report a person’s individual FICO® credit score. Upon arrival in the U.S. individuals start with a score of 0. Not having a credit history can make it hard to make necessary purchases in the United States. How credit affects getting an auto loan The chart below illustrates one example of how credit scores can affect an auto loan payment. Without credit individuals will end up paying more through high-interest rates on their auto loan, higher monthly payments and high insurance rates. This poses a challenge to incoming internationals who do not have any local credit history upon arrival in the United States. IAS takes pride in our ability to assist them with getting a vehicle without a U.S. credit history while helping them to start building credit with the purchase of a vehicle. How credit affects car insurance premiums In the U.S. car insurance is required in most states and even when it is not required by state all financing and leasing companies have required minimum coverage levels which must be adhered to successfully fund a purchase or lease. Insurance in the U.S. is costly compared to most countries, and numerous factors help determine the monthly premiums, such as the vehicle itself, the state and city of registration, the assignee’s age, and marital status. Two other critical factors are driving and credit history. Over 90% of insurance companies in the U.S. take into consideration your credit score when evaluating premiums. The impacts of credit on various car insurance costs across the U.S can be significant as shown in the chart below. In some states, the cost of expatriate car insurance can exceed the cost of the car payment. The map above shows how much more a customer with no credit will pay in comparison to the customer with good credit. Relocating internationals who are new to the country will face higher premiums. That is if they decide to go directly to the insurance companies for coverage. IAS provides our customers with access to competitive insurance rates from our insurance provider partners that do not discriminate based on lack of credit and are available without a U.S. driving history. Do you have employees or assignee’s relocating to the U.S.? Contact us to learn more about our vehicle programs and solutions that can be tailored to your company’s needs. International AutoSource works with major relocation and moving companies, human resources and global mobility managers of Fortune 500 companies. We value our great relationships with our partners and believe that a major component of being a leading expert in the relocation transportation industry is to share this knowledge with our partners to enhance their own programs. IAS consults with organizations directly to help them create their corporate policy on transportation, as well as allowances. We work with our partners to help them understand the costs involved for the vehicle, whether leased or financed, including how local taxes and fees can add or reduce costs. We share resources for additional services, such as automobile insurance, which operate similarly to IAS and do not discriminate based on lack of credit or driving history. IAS assists assignees relocating globally with their personal transportation needs. Planning to move to the U.S or have recently relocated? Contact IAS today to learn about your vehicle options available without a U.S. credit history. Relocating to a new country is an exciting time, but it can also be stressful. Our core mission at IAS is to make getting the vehicle you need for your work assignment or academic program easy, so you can focus on your job or studies and get settled into your new home. Our factory-backed financing programs for foreign executives, healthcare professionals, students and teachers feature low rates and are designed to get you approved quickly and easily without a local credit history.
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Green Gross Domestic Product also known as Green GDP, accounts for the environmental consequences of a country’s traditional GDP. It acts as an index of the growth of economy with the environmental implications of that growth which is related to a country’s conventional GDP. Green GDP tells us the biodiversity that is lost from a country and costs associated with climate change. The reason why green GDP was evolved is that the conventional GDP has many limitations and cannot indicate the performance of economy and social progress effectively. The traditional GDP only calculates the gross output and by no means can find out the factors which are detrimental to the economy factors such as asset and wealth. This phenomenon creates problem as there is no accountability as to which factor is leading to the filling and depleting the resources. GDP also fails to answer if the present income levels are going to be stable in the long run or not. The original makers of the GDP concept himself said that “the three pillars on which an analysis of society ought to rest are studies of economic, socio-demographic and environmental phenomenon” he had worked the least in the environmental pillar. The various national resources are not clearly undertaken as assets in the GDP, under the similar note the impact of depletion of resources and increased pollution on the future of productive capacity of a nation is not considered. All these factors worked together for the need of a better indicator of economic conditions and that would give the true sentiment of the resources and their usage under the guidelines of sustainable development. Hence the idea of green GDP was conceived and theoretically it was able to answer all the questions that were not possible to be answered by the conventional GDP. Green GDP was thought as an accurate assessment tool for the economy. When it comes to green accounting, there is a tendency to believe that a monetary value will be put on the natural resources. Just like companies have assets like machines and factories, nations also have assets like mountains, forests, rivers and oceans. However, assets usually denote private ownership. That is the reason they have value in the first place. In the absence of private ownership, these assets cannot be transferred to other people and hence they would not have any value. Economic assets like oceans, mountains and forests do not have private ownership. These are public goods that can be enjoyed by everyone at no cost. Hence, valuing these assets and including them in a national balance sheet would not make any sense. Also, on a realistic level it is not possible to count each and every asset and attach a monetary value to it. It must therefore be clear that green GDP is not about building fictitious assets in a country’s balance sheet and this is generally excluded from any calculation. Among the various countries of the world, China is the only nation that has majorly used the concept of Green GDP to measure the viability of its economy. The then Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in 2004 informed the whole world that the green GDP concept would be soon replacing the traditional GDP as a measure of financial condition of the country. When Chinese reported their financial report in 2006, they used the green GDP and showed a major loss caused due to pollution as high as $66 Billion US which accounted for nearly 3 percent of the national economy. Now as the Chinese continued using the green GDP concept they found out that the economic growth of the country has took a nose dive and was nearly zero in few provinces owing to which the Chinese government stopped the use of the green GDP in 2007 and reverted back to using the normal GDP concept. Many independent organizations estimated that due to degradation of environment and depletion of resources from past decades have led to 8-12 percentage points of Chinas GDP growth. According to these estimates the Chinese economy actually had grown by zero if they had used the Green GDP concept. India has shown the most promising country to work on the concept of green GDP and the then country’s environmental minister, Jairam Ramesh stated that it was possible for the scientists to estimate green GDP of India. Following that lines a practice was started in India headed by chief statistician of India Pronab Sen and was declared that the India’s GDP number will be adjusted accordingly so as to get an idea of country’s green GDP. As far as the world is considered, No country in the world uses the green GDP concept as a viable indicator to economy any more. Challenges Facing Green GDP The biggest challenge facing the Green GDP is that of realistic accounting. Since we are essentially measuring the intangible, it is very difficult to estimate the monetary values associated with them. The Green GDP system is not perfect. However, it is developing. Many scholars and researchers are working towards a solution wherein Green GDP can become more pragmatic and realistic. The idea is to ensure that the flaws of the GDP system are not replaced by another flawed system. The process might take time but seems to be on the right track.
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Stock Market Forecasting Using Time Series Analysis Time series analysis will be the best tool for forecasting the trend or even future. The trend chart will provide adequate guidance for the investor. So let us understand this concept in great detail and use a machine learning technique to forecast stocks. “The stock market is designed to transfer money from the active to the patient.” ― Warren Buffett The general research associated with the stock or share market is highly focusing on neither buy nor sell but it fails to address the dimensionality and expectancy of a new investor. The common trend towards the stock market among the society is that it is highly risky for investment or not suitable for trade so most of the people are not even interested. The seasonal variance and steady flow of any index will help both existing and naïve investors to understand and make a decision to invest in the stock/share market. To solve these types of problems, the time series analysis will be the best tool for forecasting the trend or even future. The trend chart will provide adequate guidance for the investor. So let us understand this concept in great detail and use a machine learning technique to forecast stocks. A stock or share (also known as a company’s “equity”) is a financial instrument that represents ownership in a company or corporation and represents a proportionate claim on its assets (what it owns) and earnings (what it generates in profits). — Investopedia The stock market is a market that enables the seamless exchange of buying and selling of company stocks. Every Stock Exchange has its own Stock Index value. The index is the average value that is calculated by combining several stocks. This helps in representing the entire stock market and predicting the market’s movement over time. The stock market can have a huge impact on people and the country’s economy as a whole. Therefore, predicting the stock trends in an efficient manner can minimize the risk of loss and maximize profit. How does stock market work? The concept behind how the stock market works is pretty simple. Operating much like an auction house, the stock market enables buyers and sellers to negotiate prices and make trades. The stock market works through a network of exchanges — you may have heard of the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq or Sensex. Companies list shares of their stock on an exchange through a process called an initial public offering or IPO. Investors purchase those shares, which allows the company to raise money to grow its business. Investors can then buy and sell these stocks among themselves, and the exchange tracks the supply and demand of each listed stock. That supply and demand help determine the price for each security or the levels at which stock market participants — investors and traders — are willing to buy or sell. How Share Prices Are Set To actually buy shares of a stock on a stock exchange, investors go through brokers — an intermediary trained in the science of stock trading, who can get an investor a stock at a fair price, at a moment’s notice. Investors simply let their broker know what stock they want, how many shares they want, and usually at a general price range. That’s called a “bid” and sets the stage for the execution of a trade. If an investor wants to sell shares of a stock, they tell their broker what stock to sell, how many shares, and at what price level. That process is called an “offer” or “ask price.” Predicting how the stock market will perform is one of the most difficult things to do. There are so many factors involved in the prediction — physical factors vs. physiological, rational and irrational behavior, etc. All these aspects combine to make share prices volatile and very difficult to predict with a high degree of accuracy. Machine learning in stock market Stock and financial markets tend to be unpredictable and even illogical, just like the outcome of the Brexit vote or the last US elections. Due to these characteristics, financial data should be necessarily possessing a rather turbulent structure which often makes it hard to find reliable patterns. Modeling turbulent structures requires machine learning algorithms capable of finding hidden structures within the data and predict how they will affect them in the future. The most efficient methodology to achieve this is Machine Learning and Deep Learning. Deep learning can deal with complex structures easily and extract relationships that further increase the accuracy of the generated results. Machine learning has the potential to ease the whole process by analyzing large chunks of data, spotting significant patterns and generating a single output that navigates traders towards a particular decision based on predicted asset prices. Stock prices are not randomly generated values instead they can be treated as a discrete-time series model which is based on a set of well-defined numerical data items collected at successive points at regular intervals of time. Since it is essential to identify a model to analyze trends of stock prices with adequate information for decision making, it recommends that transforming the time series using ARIMA is a better algorithmic approach than forecasting directly, as it gives more authentic and reliable results. Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) Model converts non-stationary data to stationary data before working on it. It is one of the most popular models to predict linear time series data. ARIMA model has been used extensively in the field of finance and economics as it is known to be robust, efficient and has a strong potential for short-term share market prediction. Implementing stock price forecasting The data shows the stock price of Altaba Inc from 2017–11–10. The goal is to train an ARIMA model with optimal parameters that will forecast the closing price of the stocks on the test data. If you want to understand more on time series analysis I would recommend you to go through this article to have a better understanding of how Time Series analysis works. So start with loading all the required libraries: Load the dataset. Visualize the per day closing price of the stock. Lets us plot the scatterplot: We can also visualize the data in our series through a probability distribution too. Also, a given time series is thought to consist of three systematic components including level, trend, seasonality, and one non-systematic component called noise. These components are defined as follows: - Level: The average value in the series. - Trend: The increasing or decreasing value in the series. - Seasonality: The repeating short-term cycle in the series. - Noise: The random variation in the series. First, we need to check if a series is stationary or not because time series analysis only works with stationary data. ADF (Augmented Dickey-Fuller) Test The Dickey-Fuller test is one of the most popular statistical tests. It can be used to determine the presence of unit root in the series, and hence help us understand if the series is stationary or not. The null and alternate hypothesis of this test is: Null Hypothesis: The series has a unit root (value of a =1) Alternate Hypothesis: The series has no unit root. If we fail to reject the null hypothesis, we can say that the series is non-stationary. This means that the series can be linear or difference stationary. If both mean and standard deviation are flat lines(constant mean and constant variance), the series becomes stationary. So let's check for stationarity: Through the above graph, we can see the increasing mean and standard deviation and hence our series is not stationary. We see that the p-value is greater than 0.05 so we cannot reject the Null hypothesis. Also, the test statistics is greater than the critical values. so the data is non-stationary. In order to perform a time series analysis, we may need to separate seasonality and trend from our series. The resultant series will become stationary through this process. So let us separate Trend and Seasonality from the time series. we start by taking a log of the series to reduce the magnitude of the values and reduce the rising trend in the series. Then after getting the log of the series, we find the rolling average of the series. A rolling average is calculated by taking input for the past 12 months and giving a mean consumption value at every point further ahead in series. Now we are going to create an ARIMA model and will train it with the closing price of the stock on the train data. So let us split the data into training and test set and visualize it. Its time to choose parameters p,q,d for ARIMA model. Last time we chose the value of p,d, and q by observing the plots of ACF and PACF but now we are going to use Auto ARIMA to get the best parameters without even plotting ACF and PACF graphs. Auto ARIMA: Automatically discover the optimal order for an ARIMA model. auto_arimafunction seeks to identify the most optimal parameters for an ARIMA model, and returns a fitted ARIMA model. This function is based on the commonly-used R function, auro_arimafunction works by conducting differencing tests (i.e., Kwiatkowski–Phillips–Schmidt–Shin, Augmented Dickey-Fuller or Phillips–Perron) to determine the order of differencing, d, and then fitting models within ranges of defined max_qranges. If the seasonaloptional is enabled, auto_arimaalso seeks to identify the optimal Qhyper- parameters after conducting the Canova-Hansen to determine the optimal order of seasonal differencing, So the Auto ARIMA model provided the value of p,d, and q as 3,1 and 2 respectively. Before moving forward, let’s review the residual plots from auto ARIMA. So how to interpret the plot diagnostics? Top left: The residual errors seem to fluctuate around a mean of zero and have a uniform variance. Top Right: The density plot suggest normal distribution with mean zero. Bottom left: All the dots should fall perfectly in line with the red line. Any significant deviations would imply the distribution is skewed. Bottom Right: The Correlogram, aka, ACF plot shows the residual errors are not autocorrelated. Any autocorrelation would imply that there is some pattern in the residual errors which are not explained in the model. So you will need to look for more X’s (predictors) to the model. Overall, it seems to be a good fit. Let’s start forecasting the stock prices. Next, create an ARIMA model with provided optimal parameters p, d and q. Now let's start forecast the stock prices on the test dataset keeping 95% confidence level. As you can see our model did quite handsomely. Let us also check the commonly used accuracy metrics to judge forecast results: Around 3.5% MAPE(Mean Absolute Percentage Error) implies the model is about 96.5% accurate in predicting the test set observations. Congratulations. Now you know how to build an ARIMA model for stock price forecasting. In this article, the data has been collected from kaggle.com. The historical data from the year 1996 to 2017 were taken in to account for analysis. The BoxJenkins methodology(ARIMA model) is trained and predicted the stock prices on the test dataset. Well, that’s all for this article hope you guys have enjoyed reading this it, feel free to share your comments/thoughts/feedback in the comment section. Bio: Nagesh Singh Chauhan is a Data Science enthusiast. Interested in Big Data, Python, Machine Learning. Original. Reposted with permission. - Market Basket Analysis: A Tutorial - A Friendly Introduction to Support Vector Machines - Build Your First Chatbot Using Python & NLTK
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Achieving net-zero carbon emissions while becoming a rich developed economy is technically and economically feasible for China by 2050. The Energy Transitions Commission (ETC) today launched its report "China 2050: A Fully Developed Rich Zero-Carbon Economy," in partnership with the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI). The report shows that it is technically and economically feasible for China to simultaneously become a fully developed economy and reach net-zero carbon emissions by mid-century. According to the report, to achieve this objective, the investment required can easily be affordable given China's high savings and investment rate, and the impact on China's gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in 2050 will be minimal. Committing to achieve zero emissions by 2050 will spur investment and innovation, and it will also deliver large improvements in local air quality and enable China to establish technological leadership across multiple industries. The report demonstrates how China can reduce final energy demand, while living standards continue to rise. Reduced demand for steel and cement, more circular use of all materials —especially plastics — and the inherent energy efficiency advantages achieved by the electrifying of surface transport and building heating will enable China to enjoy a GDP per capita and standard of living of three times the current levels while reducing final energy demand from 88 exajoules (EJ) today to 64 EJ in 2050. Accordingly, China's total primary energy demand could fall by 45% from 132 EJ today to 73 EJ in 2050. This would see a dramatic change in the sources of energy, with fossil fuel demand falling over 90%, while non-fossil energy would expand by 3.4 times. At the supply side, to achieve net-zero emissions will require the total decarbonization of electricity generation and the massive expansion of electricity use of around 15,000 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2050, compared with only 7,000 TWh in 2018. Approximately 75% of total electricity generation could be from wind and solar resources with a portfolio of grid flexibility and storage options. It could also require a more than threefold increase in the production and use of hydrogen, from 25 million tonnes to over 80 million tons in 2050. There will also be important but more limited roles for increased bioenergy production and for carbon capture and either storage or use. The report also highlights key sectoral actions and proposes public policies suggestions to achieve the zero-carbon target. The full report: http://www.energy-transitions.org/china-2050-fully-developed-rich-zero-carbon-economy Media Partner - News and Articles> WORLD BIZ MAGAZINE - AUTUMN 2019 ISSUE WORLD BANK AWARDS 2019 - THE BEST BANKS FOR BUSINESS CSR LEADER 100 - THE MOST RESPONSIBLE COMPANIES WORLD FDI AWARDS 2019 - THE BEST INVESTMENT DESTINATIONS DESTIG ART INVESTMENT: TOP EMERGING ARTISTS
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What is Digital Certificate? A Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) is a secure digital key that certifies the identity of the holder, issued by a Certifying Authority (CA). It typically contains your identity (name, email, country, APNIC account name and your public key). Digital Certificates use Public Key Infrastructure meaning data that has been digitally signed or encrypted by a private key can only be decrypted by its corresponding public key. A digital certificate is an electronic "credit card" that establishes your credentials when doing business or other transactions on the Web. Digital signature certificates or DSC are required for filing income tax returns, company filings, import export clearance and e-tenders. A Digital Signature is the equivalent of a physical signature in electronic format, as it establishes the identity of the sender of an electronic document in the Internet. Digital Signatures are used in India for online transactions such as Income Tax E-Filing, Company or LLP Incorporation, Filing Annual Return, E-Tenders, etc., There are three types of Digital Signatures, Class I, Class II and Class III Digital Signature. Class I type of Digital Signatures are only used for securing email communication. Class II type of Digital Signatures are used for Company or LLP Incorporation, IT Return E-Filing, Obtaining DIN or DPIN, and filing other forms with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and Income Tax Department. Class III type Digital Signatures are used mainly for E-Tendering and for participating in E-Auctions. Digital Signatures come in the form of a USB E-Token, wherein the Digital Signature Certificate is stored in a USB Drive and can be accessed through a computer to sign documents electronically. Documents required for obtaining DSC Registration 1. Self Certified PAN Copy 2. Self Certified Address Proof 3. Digital Signature Certificate Form of certified Authority duly filled in and signed by applicant along with an across the photo sign. 4. Submit the form along with documents, necessary fee to Certified Authorities and obtain valid digital signature certificate token. Common Reasons for Rejection of DSC Registration Never abbreviate the directors' names, regardless of what is mentioned in the ID/Address proof. There must be no spelling errors in the mentioned names. Bills shall not be older than 2 months and must be in the name of the applicant. Avoid prefix such as Mr. /Mrs. /Shri. etc. These are a stepwise procedure to get DSC registration. Makemyregistration is your online consultants companion which can help you with DSC Registration in India. Why we need Digital Signature? Class II Digital Signature Class II Digital Signatures are used for Income Tax E-Filing, Company or LLP Incorporation, Annual Return Filing, etc., Class II Digital Signatures are required to file documents electronically with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and Income Tax Department. Digital Signature Certificate are stored on a secure USB flash drive called a E-Token . The Digital Signature Certificate stored in the USB flash drive must be connected to a computer to electronically sign a document. Class III Digital Signature Class III Digital Signatures provide the highest level of assurance and are used for E-Auctions and E-Tendering. Government entities like the Indian Railways, Banks, etc., require Class III Digital Signatures to participate in their E-Tenders. Makemyregistration is a Licensed Registering Authority of Sify and E-Mudhra. Therefore, Makemyregistration can help you obtain Sify or E-Mudhra Digital Signatures hassle-free and quickly. Digital Signatures usually come with a validity of one or two years. The validity of the Digital Signature can be renewed once the term of the previous Digital Signature expires. Digital Signature Registration Questions Asked Whether I am required to register myself as a Registered or Business user before registering DSC on MCA portal through the Register DSC facility? No, user registration is not a pre-condition for registering the DSC through this facility on MCA portal. Who should register the DSC on MCA portal? Directors, Manager and Secretary of the Company and practicing professionals i.e. CA, CS & CWA should register their DSC on MCA portal, if they have not registered their DSC as a business user earlier. Why do I need to register my DSC on portal? On registration of your DSC, MCA system shall capture the details of your DSC against your DIN/ PAN, as the case may be. This information will be used to authenticate your digital signature for role check purpose.
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A circular economy is the opposite of today’s linear economy where we extract raw materials to manufacture products, use those products once or only for a short amount of time and then discard them as waste. In contrast, a circular economy is where we keep resources in use for as long as possible, extract the maximum value from them whilst in use, then recover and regenerate products and materials at the end of each service life. The Queensland town of Yarrabilba is expected to be the first circular economy community in the country but you wouldn’t guess it from walking down the street. The real magic happens “under the bonnet”. Although it will look like any other greenfield development, the conventional linear methods of managing waste, energy and transport have been substituted for creative closed loop systems intended to “design out waste. The site, which is under development by Lendlease, is located in the Logan local government area, 40 kilometres south of Brisbane. Once the 30-year development is finished, it will be home to around 45,000 people and have 17,000 homes. To view detailed illustration of what a circular economy could look like in a community like Yarrabilba visit February 2020 Intersect.
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This course is recommended for students in Grades Students shall be awarded one credit for successful completion of this course. Projects may be audited or reviewed while the project is in progress. Formal audits are generally risk or compliance-based and management will direct the objectives of the audit. An examination may include a comparison of approved project management processes with how the project is actually being managed. If project control is not implemented correctly, the cost to the business should be clarified in terms of errors and fixes. Control systems are needed for cost, riskquality, communication, time, change, procurement, and human resources. In addition, auditors should consider how important the projects are to the financial statementshow reliant the stakeholders are on controls, and how many controls exist. Auditors should review the development process and procedures for how they are implemented. The process of development and the quality of the final product may also be assessed if needed or requested. A business may want the auditing firm to be involved throughout the process to catch problems earlier on so that they can be fixed more easily. An auditor can serve as a controls consultant as part of the development team or as an independent auditor as part of an audit. Businesses sometimes use formal systems development processes. These help assure systems are developed successfully. A formal process is more effective in creating strong controls, and auditors should review this process to confirm that it is well designed and is followed in practice. A good formal systems development plan outlines: A strategy to align development with the organization's broader objectives Standards for new systems Project management policies for timing and budgeting Procedures describing the process Topics[ edit ] Characteristics of projects[ edit ] There are five important characteristics of a project. Designing a new car, writing a book. Project Complexity[ edit ] Complexity and its nature plays an important role in the area of project management. Despite having number of debates on this subject matter, studies suggest lack of definition and reasonable understanding of complexity in relation to management of complex projects. Level 2 Project — develop and improve compliance to a business process with targeted completion time from 3 months to 1 year. Level 3 Project — develop, change and improve a business process with targeted completion time from 1 to 2 years. Level 4 Project — develop, change and improve a functional system with targeted completion time from 2 to 5 years. Level 6 Project — develop, change and improve a whole single value chain of a company with targeted completion time from 10 to 20 years. Level 7 Project — develop, change and improve multiple value chains of a company with target completion time from 20 to 50 years. Project managers are in charge of the people in a project.Key Findings. Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. This story appears in the October issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe» As a college buddy was recounting a great trip to Europe, something snapped inside Jeff Platt. "It was like all of a. The ACE Pyramid represents the conceptual framework for the ACE Study. The ACE Study has uncovered how ACEs are strongly related to development of risk factors for disease, and well-being throughout the life course. For most jobs, environmental scientists and specialists need at least a bachelor’s degree in a natural science. The second section deals with "Well-Being and Quality of Working Life," emphasizing these topics for university professors in Brazil, as well as work-related well-being, psychological well-being of individuals as employees, physical and psychical well-being and stress, human work in organizations considering the discomfort perspective, and. Employment is a relationship between two parties, usually based on a contract where work is paid for, where one party, which may be a corporation, for profit, not-for-profit organization, co-operative or other entity is the employer and the other is the employee. Employees work in return for payment, which may be in the form of an hourly wage, by piecework or an annual salary, depending on the. "Quality of Working Life" (QWL) is a term that had been used to describe the broader job-related experience an individual has. Education and Training. For most entry-level jobs, environmental scientists and specialists must have a bachelor’s degree in environmental science or a science-related field, such as biology, chemistry, physics, geosciences, or engineering. Being a hacker is lots of fun, but it's a kind of fun that takes lots of effort. The effort takes motivation. Successful athletes get their motivation from a kind of physical delight in making their bodies perform, in pushing themselves past their own physical limits. The second section deals with "Well-Being and Quality of Working Life," emphasizing these topics for university professors in Brazil, as well as work-related well-being, psychological well-being of individuals as employees, physical and psychical well-being and stress, human work in organizations considering the discomfort perspective, and.
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With almost 100 million inhabitants — 85% of the population in rural areas — Ethiopia is suffering from a chronic under-capacity in power generation and from frequent blackouts. In 2006, only 6% of the population had access to the power grid. In the 1960s, the Ethiopian government undertook to develop the grid, mainly through the public utility EEPCo (now Ethiopian Electric Power, EEP). However, the fastgrowing demand (+12% a year in average) and the needs of the neighboring countries (Djibouti, Kenya, Sudan) are compelling Ethiopia to rapidly develop its As part of its strategy to diversify its energy mix, over 90% of which is currently based on hydropower,Ethiopia is increasingly targeting alternative renewable energy sources, including wind energy. AFD has granted a 45 million euros soft loan to EEP for the construction of the country’s first wind farm in Ashegoda, near Mekele, by the French companies Vergnet and Alstom Wind. The total project cost 231.7 million euros: 130 million euros were provided by a pool of French banks with a Coface guarantee, 40 million euros via a BNP Paribas loan and the remaining 16.7 million euros were financed by EEP. This wind farm is the first of the country. It is also one of the largest wind farms in Sub-Saharan Africa, with an installed capacity of 120 MW. This project was commissioned on 26 October 2013 and has been connected to the grid since December 2013. Since then, it has increased power distribution in Ethiopia and has made it reliable, while contributing to the development of economic activities. It has also prevented the emission of 300,000 tons of CO2 a year compared to generation in thermal power plants with a lower cost. Finally, it has allowed Ethiopia to become familiar with wind systems and should raise the awareness of African partner institutions regarding the interest of major renewable energy projects. on the same topic on the same financial toolHealth and Social ProtectionSustainable CitiesHealth and Social Protection
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The recent stimulus package included a great deal of funding that is to be used toward the development and implementation of renewable energy initiatives. For Texas residents, however, this new push toward the use of renewable energy is nothing new. In fact, according to the American Wind Energy Association, the state ranks number one in terms of new wind power generation capacity. Thanks to the fact that the state added 454 additional megawatts of wind energy to its generating capacity in the second quarter of 2009, the state is now able to generate more than 8,000 megawatts of energy. According to the American Wind Energy Association just 1,210 megawatts of new wind power has been added nationwide, but even this amount is able to power 350,000 homes. “The numbers are in, and while they show the industry has been swimming upstream, adding some 4,000 megawatts over the past six months, the fact is that we could be delivering so much more,” said Denise Bode, who is the CEO of the American Wind Association, in a Biz Journals article. “Our challenge now is to seize the historic opportunity before us to unleash this entrepreneurial force and build up an entire new industry here in the U.S. that will create jobs, avoid carbon and strengthen our energy security. To achieve that, Congress and the administration must pass a national renewable electricity standard with strong early targets.” In all, the top states in terms of wind power generation were: When it comes to the amount of growth that has occurred during the second quarter, Texas came in the fifth position, with an increase of 6%. Missouri was the fastest growing state, with an expansion of 90%.
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India's villages miss a golden chance to become drought-proof as more MGNREGA projects grind to a halt Almost half of India is currently under drought; for many districts this is the second-consecutive drought. Given this, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) should have been the key scheme to not only mitigate impacts of drought but also employ people in distress for earning. But an analysis of the performance of MGNREGA for 2018-19 shows that it has failed to be of any help to drought-stricken districts. Significant work related to water conservation and irrigation has been left incomplete or suspended, making them useless for farmers; a bulk of job cards, on the other hand, have been deleted, debarring those households from accessing employment. More than 1.8 million water-related projects were abandoned or left incomplete in 2018-19. Governments spent close to Rs 16,615 crore — close to a quarter of the total MGNREGA expense — on structures that are of no use. The same year, job cards of 1.61 million households were deleted. A job card is the base document necessary for demanding and availing employment under MGNREGA. At an individual level, more than 6.5 million people lost job cards. The deletions could be for valid reasons, but their scale was unusual. Some 58.76 million households sought employment in 2018-19, but only 52.6 million households received work. It means six million households couldn’t secure employment when they needed. Under MGNREGA, one member of each rural household is eligible for availing employment for 100 days a year. Members of a household can swap employment, but not overshoot the number of guaranteed days. At an individual level, while 91 million people demanded jobs, only 77 million could be provided. A bigger concern than employment demand not being met was the large-scale suspension agriculture- and water-related projects that could have helped farmers during the time of drought. Completion of projects has been unsatisfactory since the inception of MGNREGA in 2005. Apart from being cited as a failure of the programme, this has also been considered a loss of productive assets for villages. Only 26.07 per cent of the 8.26 million MGREGA projects started in 2018-19 could be completed. That’s the least in the five years, down from 65 per cent in 2017-18 and 96 per cent in 2016-17. The completion rate is worse in states currently under drought: Among drought-related work, a priority under MGNREGA, only 32,478 projects were completed, spending nearly Rs 64 crore. But 7,96,793 projects were either not completed or suspended. This is 24 times of the works completed. The government spent nearly Rs 67.52 crore on such suspended / incomplete works. Among micro-irrigation projects, which cater to direct water needs of farmers, some 1,28,250 projects were completed, spending Rs 67,52 crore. But 2,34,054 were suspended or not completed, on which nearly Rs. 2,451.16 crore was spent. Close to four times the money spent on completed projects was spent on those not completed. For renovation of traditional water bodies, 78,904 projects were completed (for Rs 725.25 crore) but 1,24,982 were not (after spending Rs 2,263.75 crore). Under water conservation and harvesting, 2,89,493 projects could be completed while 6,31,911 couldn’t be. Clearly, while drought-hit states opened up a large number of work opportunities; their completion was the lowest. With this, India’s villages lost another opportunity to drought-proof themselves. We are a voice to you; you have been a support to us. Together we build journalism that is independent, credible and fearless. You can further help us by making a donation. This will mean a lot for our ability to bring you news, perspectives and analysis from the ground so that we can make change together. India Environment Portal Resources : Comments are moderated and will be published only after the site moderator’s approval. Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name. Selected comments may also be used in the ‘Letters’ section of the Down To Earth print edition.
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What are basis points? Basis points are a common unit of measurement for interest rates. A basis point is equal to 1/100th of 1%, 0.01%, or .0001. This means that a 1% change is equal to 100 basis points, or 0.01% is equal to 1 basis point. They are used to denote the percentage change in a financial instrument. Although basis points are small, they can affect your interest rates and the costs to finance your home. Are basis points important to lenders? Why are basis points used? Basis points are popular for larger investments, such as mortgages. This is because smaller increases or decreases in interest rates can represent larger dollar amounts. A small increase in basis points can represent a large change in your interest rate. How are mortgage basis points used for consumers? Once a borrower begins to compare mortgage rates and terms, it’s likely they will face basis points. A borrower talks to their loan officer and tells them that they want to lock in their rate. The loan officer advises the borrower that the lender will charge a certain amount of basis points for locking in your rate for that period. For example, if your lender charges 50 basis points, you will have to pay one-half of 1 percent of your mortgage loan for your lock period. How does a hike in basis points affect a mortgage? Mortgage payments are composed of interest and principle. When the interest rate goes up, the payment goes up. The payment going up can prevent you from qualifying for a loan. To qualify for a loan, you must be able to repay the loan. If the interest rate hike means that you won’t be able to repay the mortgage, it’s possible that you won’t be approved.
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Hurricane- and coastal-storm-related losses have increased substantially during the past century, largely due to increases in population and development in the most susceptible coastal areas. Climate change poses additional threats to coastal communities from sea level rise and possible increases in strength of the largest hurricanes. Several large cities in the United States have extensive assets at risk to coastal storms, along with countless smaller cities and developed areas. The devastation from Superstorm Sandy has heightened the nation's awareness of these vulnerabilities. What can we do to better prepare for and respond to the increasing risks of loss? Reducing Coastal Risk on the East and Gulf Coasts reviews the coastal risk-reduction strategies and levels of protection that have been used along the United States East and Gulf Coasts to reduce the impacts of coastal flooding associated with storm surges. This report evaluates their effectiveness in terms of economic return, protection of life safety, and minimization of environmental effects. According to this report, the vast majority of the funding for coastal risk-related issues is provided only after a disaster occurs. This report calls for the development of a national vision for coastal risk management that includes a long-term view, regional solutions, and recognition of the full array of economic, social, environmental, and life-safety benefits that come from risk reduction efforts. To support this vision, Reducing Coastal Risk states that a national coastal risk assessment is needed to identify those areas with the greatest risks that are high priorities for risk reduction efforts. The report discusses the implications of expanding the extent and levels of coastal storm surge protection in terms of operation and maintenance costs and the availability of resources. Reducing Coastal Risk recommends that benefit-cost analysis, constrained by acceptable risk criteria and other important environmental and social factors, be used as a framework for evaluating national investments in coastal risk reduction. The recommendations of this report will assist engineers, planners and policy makers at national, regional, state, and local levels to move from a nation that is primarily reactive to coastal disasters to one that invests wisely in coastal risk reduction and builds resilience among coastal communities. Table of Contents |2 Institutional Landscape for Coastal Risk Management||39-68| |3 Performance of Coastal Risk Reduction Strategies||69-110| |4 Principles for Guiding the Nation's Future Investments in Coastal Risk Reduction||111-132| |5 A Vision for Coastal Risk Reduction||133-150| |Appendix A: Major U.S. Coastal Storms Since 1900||175-178| |Appendix B: USACE Coastal Storm Damage Reduction Projects||179-186| |Appendix C: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members||187-192| This video explains why a strategic national vision is needed to reduce risk from coastal storms and flooding, the cost of which has risen dramatically over the past several decades as more people and property are in harm’s way. Currently, the nation is reactive rather than proactive, with most federal funds being used for storm response and recovery, and not enough being spent on consequence reduction strategies, such as improving land use planning and incentivizing strategic retreat in high-hazard areas. A national vision, informed by a national coastal risk assessment, is needed to get the most benefits from federal investments. The National Academies Press and the Transportation Research Board have partnered with Copyright Clearance Center to offer a variety of options for reusing our content. You may request permission to: For most Academic and Educational uses no royalties will be charged although you are required to obtain a license and comply with the license terms and conditions. For information on how to request permission to translate our work and for any other rights related query please click here. For questions about using the Copyright.com service, please contact: Copyright Clearance Center 22 Rosewood Drive Danvers, MA 01923 Tel (toll free): 855/239-3415 (select option 1) Loading stats for Reducing Coastal Risk on the East and Gulf Coasts...
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India is reaching for the moon. Its second moon mission lifts off next month and will land a remote-controlled explorer on the moon’s surface and put a satellite into lunar orbit. This will mark a spectacular milestone in India’s space journey and showcase its amazing competencies in space technology acquired through decades of pioneering work. The next giant step will be the 2021 launch of the manned Gaganyaan orbital spacecraft capable of carrying three astronauts on a seven-day space mission. The success of India’s space technologists while lighting up the Indian firmament does at the same time cast into shadow another aspect of our national condition — the sheer inability to make the slightest breakthrough in a slew of other critical technologies so crucial for our economic progress. The Indian Space Research Organisation’s outstanding successes highlight the fact that while we can reach the moon, we cannot yet make computer chips, aircraft engines, rifles for our military or even key LED components for the millions of television sets sold in the country. The question we must pose is why have we failed so abysmally in most technology areas when clearly we are capable of excellence, even greatness, as our space programme demonstrates? This question is important because the long-term future of our nation depends on our capability to innovate, invent and establish competitive advantages in at least a few key sectors. Space alone cannot take us there. Our shortcomings in most areas of high technology, apart from space and pharmaceuticals, are alarming for several reasons. For one, our space industry is miniscule compared to the size of our electronics sector and other technology-intensive sectors such as aeronautics, defence and so on. One industry leader estimated the space sector in the country has a potential to generate `1,500-2,000 crores annually. In comparison, India’s electronics industry is already expected to touch $400 billion by 2020, up from about $70 billion in 2012. The Indian input in this burgeoning sector remains non-critical as most key components are imported since not a single Indian company has the capability of designing and making them. Not surprisingly, our electronics imports touched a record $55.6 billion in fiscal 2019, constituting the largest component of India’s overall imports after oil. Our technology deficit in the defence sector is even more alarming, both from a strategic as well as an economic standpoint. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri), India was the world’s second largest arms importer (after Saudi Arabia) in the 2014-18 period, accounting for almost a tenth of all arms sold internationally. We can’t make a decent rifle for our Army, engines for our aircraft or tanks, state-of-the-art missiles, radars and other electronics warfare components or systems. Even for our indigenous Tejas fighter jet programme, the engines and the electronics are all imported. So where lies the problem? Why can’t we innovate or develop cutting-edge technology in most critical areas? The answer, experts believe, lies in our inability to distinguish between science and technology. Technology arises from science, and not from a vacuum. Fundamental or basic science is the bedrock on which all technology is built. And it is here where successive Indian governments have failed. The stress, ever since the time of our first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, has been on technology. It is no coincidence that our first centres of academic excellence were the Indian Institutes of Technology, the IITs. In contrast, in socialist Soviet Union the prime centres of academic excellence were the academy of sciences. In the United States, it was universities like Harvard, Stanford and MIT, and in Britain the venerable universities of Oxford and Cambridge which promoted the fundamental sciences. Public and private grants and generous endowments to these institutions nurtured a culture of basic research unconnected to technological or industry outcomes. This freed the best minds in their countries to think, discover, invent and learn without any inhibition or restrictive pragmatic bindings. In India, perhaps because of our poverty, we stressed the outcome of research and to a large extent discouraged research for research’s sake. The outcome has been an unfortunate destruction of the scientific temper. In a society where obscurantists, scamsters and touts are role models, the image of a scientist as a long suffering, poorly paid employee languishing in dark laboratories naturally fails to inspire better minds. Globally, we are at the bottom of the science barrel. Unesco statistics suggest that India invests just about 0.8 per cent of its GDP on research and development, compared to two per cent by China, 2.9 per cent by a country like Germany and 2.8 per cent by the United States. The number of researchers in India too is quite pathetic — just 156 per million of the population compared to China’s 1,113, Germany’s 4,363 and the United States’ 4,231. The country’s primary science promotion body is reported to be in crisis. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), which funds 38 institutes, has been ordered by the government to increase its own funding within three years as government grants will be slashed or done away with. This will be yet another blow for Indian sciences. The country is already decades behind in metallurgy, solid state physics, electronics and other disciplines. Funding cuts will drive science underground. There are several lessons to be learnt from the success of our space programme. The first one is that a precondition for success is the creation of an independent, nurturing institution for growth of talent. In the case of space, Isro served this role as an organisation proud of its ethos, achievements and work environment. The second necessary condition for scientific and technological excellence in any field is generous government or private endowments. Science and technology research have long incubation periods and high rates of failure. Isro has succeeded because it has always got generous funding and government encouragement despite the occasional setbacks. Nobody is going to hand us critical technologies on a platter. These take years and millions of dollars to develop and constitute the cutting edge of a nation’s innovation capacity. The ruling BJP’s poll manifesto has promised to start major programmes in artificial intelligence, robotics, supercomputers and genomics for human health. But in order to do that it needs to take several enabling steps, starting with basic education. It also needs to curb the rise of pseudo-science and look to the future instead of the past for scientific and technological inspiration. Only then will India’s innovative capabilities take off in line with the inspiring trajectory of our space programme.
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Image source: Getty/Gallo All industry and manufacturing businesses are legally obliged to create and maintain a safe working environment for workers, and legislation created for mine workers may be of relevance for all sectors as they seek guidance on measures to implement to help prevent an outbreak among its employees. Under the Workplace Preparedness: Covid– 19 (SARS-CoV-19 virus) released by the Department of Employment and Labour, mine workers are likely to be considered a medium exposure risk threshold. This category includes jobs where there is frequent and/or close contact (within two metres) of people who may be infected with the virus, but who are not known or suspected to be Covid-19 patients. Many workers in other diverse industries would fall under this category too. In addition, the Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1993 (OHSA) requires that an employer, as far as is reasonably practicable, must provide and maintain a working environment that is safe and without risks to the health of its employees. This includes taking steps to eliminate or mitigate any hazard or potential hazard. To implement control measures, an employer’s existing risk assessment must be reviewed and updated taking into account the new hazards posed by exposure to Covid-19 in the workplace. Using the MHSA for other industries Even though the Mine Health and Safety Act, 1996 (MHSA) is designed specifically for the sector, other industries could also apply many of its the principles, including that workplaces designed, built and equipped to provide conditions for safe operation and a healthy working environment, with a communication system and equipment necessary to achieve these conditions. The employer is further required to, as much as possible, ensure that the mine – or manufacturing facility – is operated in a way that employees can perform their work without endangering their own, or other persons’ health or safety. The MHSA places a duty on every employer to identify hazards to health or safety which employees may be exposed to at work and to assess the risks, record them and make the records available to employees – and this makes sense for other environments too. In light of the developing Covid-19 situation and the legislative and regulatory implications in the mining sector, businesses could apply these principles, inspired by the mining sector, to help navigate these uncertain times: The employer must consult with their business’s health and safety committee and any existing risk assessment should be reviewed and updated to cater for the new and current risk of Covid-19. Measures will then need to be implemented to give effect to the site’s obligation to maintain a safe and healthy environment for its workers. Employees should immediately be consulted and advised that these new processes are in place. They should also be advised of any interim measures to be followed pending the finalisation of the updated risk assessment. If Covid-19 or the effects of the pandemic, require the business to drastically reduce its operations or to temporarily close (go into care and maintenance), this should be clearly communicated to all workers, as soon as possible, along with any measures the business is able to take to support them through the current environment. Compliance with environmental legislation must continue during this time to ensure that there is no significant adverse impact on the environment. There is a further duty on employers to consult with any site’s health and safety committee and to determine, and then implement, all measures necessary to eliminate, control, minimise and monitor the risk and to ensure the health and safety of all South African workers.
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The main source of cash transfers in South Africa is through the social assistance grants system. As one of the most comprehensive social grant systems in the developing world, the grants provide provisions for disabled people, children with poor carers, elderly people, disabled children, and fostered children. By mid 2008 over 12 million grants have been awarded, covering over 28 percent of the population and amounting to roughly 3.5 percent of the GDP. This presentation is based on AMA Innovation Lab projects for the Poverty Traps Conference. This conference is a gathering point for USAID and other development assistant agencies to connect the poor to economic growth. This presentation was presented by Rebecca Surender from Oxford University on February 26, 2009 at Washington, DC.
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Rapid economic development combined with lax enforcement of regulations has saddled China with severely polluted air and water. This pollution impacts both the health of the population and GDP growth prospects. Studies estimate premature deaths from air pollution at 1 to 2 million per year, and the World Bank puts the overall cost of China’s water crisis at 2.3% of GDP. Policymakers are aware of these threats: more than 10% of the Third Plenum reform plan focused on the ecological crisis and the responsibility of the state to reverse it. Aided by structural transition away from pollution heavy industries, initial reform efforts are making some difference. Yet much more is required to put a sustainable future within reach, let alone clean up China’s air and water enough to approach international standards. To gauge environmental progress, we track measures of air and water pollution. Lower levels indicate improved conditions. We seasonally adjust these indicators to account for annual weather patterns and energy consumption changes. Improvements may reflect factors other than environmental reform implementation, such as macroeconomic growth slowdown or industry consolidation. That said, short of a growth collapse, China’s environmental goals demand extraordinary policy reforms. To supplement our analysis, we also look at wind curtailment in clean energy generation, sales of new energy vehicles, and non-fossil-fuel electricity generation. Quarterly Assessment and Outlook As with the previous quarter, 3Q2017 painted a mixed picture, with air quality improving and water quality declining. Increased non-fossil-fuel electricity generation and reduced use of coal in the industrial sector delivered some improvement in air quality. These gains were lower than they could have been, as smokestack industries front-loaded production in the third quarter ahead of expected government-mandated winter pollution controls. China’s water pollution situation was attributable more to weather conditions than policy outcomes, as in the previous quarter. Water quality deteriorated as floods extended from 2Q2017 to 3Q2017. Since the start of our index in 2013, air quality across the five measured cities improved by 28.8%. In the coming quarters, we expect to see improvements in our indices for both air and water. Government measures, such as random environmental spot checks and the appointment of local officials to be watershed-specific “river chiefs,” moved forward in the third quarter. The government also took steps to improve the transparency of water quality data. On the ground, there have been logistical hurdles such as natural gas shortages, but they are unlikely to overshadow the aggressive air policy actions expected in 4Q2017. This Quarter’s Numbers In 3Q2017, the average airborne particulate pollution (PM2.5) concentration index declined, continuing an improvement over the past several years. Quarter-on-quarter (qoq), the index improved by 2.1% as the PM2.5 concentration across our five cities (Shenyang, Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, and Guangzhou) declined from an average 53.2 micrograms per cubic meter to 52.1. Our index improved 9.4% year-on-year (yoy) in the third quarter. On a longer time frame, the gains are more significant: since the start of our index in 2013, air quality across the five measured cities improved by 28.8%. As noted last quarter, large air quality improvements require industries to throttle production or energy supplies to be switched from coal to cleaner fuels such as natural gas. Despite progress in both areas, the fruits of those efforts were not as apparent as they could have been in the third quarter. Severe production cuts are slated for the winter season, and smokestack industries front-loaded their production to get in under the wire (steel production, for example, spiked in the third quarter – see Policy Analysis: 3Q2017 below for further details). This shifted what would have been 4Q2017 emissions to 3Q2017. Looking at city-specific data, Guangzhou and Shanghai saw air quality degrade by 4% and 17%, respectively, qoq. Chengdu, Shenyang, and Beijing, on the other hand, all displayed air quality improvements ranging from 5% to 10% qoq. Beijing was the focus of significant pollution reduction measures, which had a positive impact. Even with industries ramping up production ahead of wintertime cuts, air quality improved in Beijing. Water pollution deteriorated, albeit with a large caveat as weekly data are missing for August and most of September. Relying on available data, overall water quality decreased by 5% qoq, returning roughly to levels last seen in 3Q2016. Looking regionally, the Zhejiang-Fujian and Huai River basins were the worst performers, while the Songhua and Yellow River basins saw marginal improvements. We suspect that flooding was the key cause. Deadly floods hit Zhejiang in June and July, which coincided with a decline in water quality of nearly 50% based on limited available data. China installed 18.7GW of solar in the third quarter of 2017. The entire U.S. solar capacity was 40GW at the end of 2016. Our supplemental indicators show signs of hope for future air quality improvement. Non-fossil-fuel generation produced 29% of total electricity in 3Q2017, the highest percentage in unadjusted absolute terms on record (see Overall Electricity Generation). However, adjusting for effects including weather, 3Q2017 actually showed a decline in our seasonally adjusted index of Non-Fossil Generation – suggesting that relative to other third quarters, 3Q2017 underperformed. Relative to 2012–2015 3Q averages, utilization hours (a measure of how much electricity is produced relative to overall potential) for the two largest sources of non-fossil generation historically, hydroelectric and nuclear, were down 5% and 7%, respectively. The dip in non-fossil generation is likely to be temporary. China installed 18.7GW of solar in the third quarter (for reference the entire U.S. solar capacity was 40GW at the end of 2016) and wind utilization rates (see Wind Energy Curtailment) are improving. Although overall wind production was down due to seasonal effects, the amount of wind wasted due to infrastructure and management limits declined to 9%, the lowest since 2014. This suggests that China is doing a better job incorporating renewables. In addition to wind and solar, China installed a massive amount of thermal power capacity in 3Q2017: 16.8GW (see Overall Electricity Generation). Considering bans on coal plant construction, these will likely be largely natural gas facilities (national data are not available for natural gas capacity builds). Finally, new energy vehicle (NEV) sales zipped along, making up 2.9% of total sales (see Sales of New Energy Vehicles), the largest quarterly share on record. Sales tend to pick up as subsidies are phased out, and a 10% tax rebate was slated to end this year, although the government is expected to extend it until 2020. Policy Analysis: 3Q2017 While our indices did not see large shifts in the third quarter, policymakers were busy laying the groundwork for what should be real improvement in the fourth quarter and beyond. The Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) sent inspection teams in September to address air quality in “2+26” cities (Beijing and Tianjin plus 26 additional cities in northern China) as part of an initiative announced in March 2017. With pressure to meet targets set in 2012 by the end of 2017, in the third quarter Beijing enacted measures to improve air in the winter, when coal use and associated pollution are at their highest. In August, the MEP released a plan that included random spot checks at facilities for pollution limit violations and mandated the closing of up to 44,000 coal-fired boilers. Industries are adjusting but are still trying to get in production while they can. For example, steel production in September saw the first double-digit percentage increase in production since 2013, with a 10.3% jump yoy. This likely mitigated pollution reduction efforts in the interim. For water, as of August Beijing had appointed 200,000 river chiefs as part of a program to have a local official serve as a steward for every waterway in the country. Millions more river chiefs are expected to be appointed in the coming years. These local officials are assigned responsibility for a specific waterway commensurate with their position (e.g., a provincial official would be given a basin, a township official a tributary); the officials’ performance metrics are tied to the pollution status of the waterway. There is also an increased focus on the transparency of environmental data. As of September, the MEP has been collecting water and air quality data in one centralized data center. Transparency in air pollution resulted in public pressure to improve air quality; it is likely that improved transparency in water will do the same. Finally on NEVs, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology specified its clean vehicle targets in September. Based on a credit system similar to one used in California, manufacturers will need to have NEVs or fuel-efficient equivalents comprise 10% of their overall sales fleet in 2019, increasing to 12% in 2020.
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This blogpost explains how to understand and calculate percentage change as this calculation is part of the SCAE certification system on the roast log template you can download: here So let us get right go business: If a process changes from x to y the percentage of change is referring to how big the change is seen in relationship to where the process ‘came from’ namely x. So the general formula for a percentage change is If you are not used to do these kinds of calculations, I would like to explain you this formula in more detail as follows: In the figure below you see a process that goes from value x to y (could be an increasing temperature during roasting) and you can see how you can calculate the difference between the starting point of the process to the endpoint of the process by subtracting x from y. Let us take an example. You started you coffee roastery 12 months ago and you currently you have 15 customers. After 9 months you had 10 customers. How many more customers do you have now compared to when you business was 9 months old? In other words: what is the difference between the number of customers you have now compared to when the company was 9 months old: So in absolute numbers of customers this is 5 more than after 9 months. But how to calculate this value as a percentage? As you can see from the above calculation, you relate the change (5 customers difference) to the starting point of comparison (10 customers after 9 months) by deviding the change with the starting point of comparison. And as you can also see from the above figure the value is +50% which is a positive number since the process increased in the period. So the following figure shows you the general formula for the above calculation: But what happens if you monitor a process that is decreasing? Namely where y is smaller than x because the process is decreasing. This is illustrated graphically here: The value of y – x becomes negative because x is bigger then y so a decreasing process would give you a negative change and if you have a negative change that you divide with the starting point of comparison you also get a negative percentage. In the following example we look at roast loss which is a process where you compare the result of the roast (y) with the initial amount of coffee you added (x) and find a negative value for the percentage of change. Let us assume that we put in 1kg (1000g) into a roaster and perform a light roast and measure the weight of the roasted coffee (when calculating roast lost please remember to NEVER remove any beans with the sample spoon during the roast!) and find out that 850g of roasted coffee came out of 1000g of green. The calculation looks like this: So the percentage of change is -15% which roast masters would refer to as 15% roast loss since the word ‘loss’ implies a negative change.
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The State of the Economy Despite recent economic woes, America’s economy remains the world’s largest and most diverse. Assess the connection between the increased presence of globalization and debt and the current state of the U.S. economy - Since 1980, the United States has championed globalization of trade and finance by opening its doors wider to foreign products and investment. - However, consumers, businesses, home buyers, and the U.S. government itself borrowed heavily believing that the value of their investments would continue to grow. - The financial crash of 2008 brought a sudden, traumatic halt to U.S. economic growth due, in large part, to the housing bubble. - Large corporations and wealthy businesspeople were minimally affected by the recession, and were the first to recover. - On the other hand, wages and incomes of typical Americans are lower today than in over a decade. - free market: Any market in which trade is unregulated; an economic system free from government intervention. - foreclosure: The proceeding, by a creditor, to regain property or other collateral following a default on mortgage payments. Since the election of Ronald Reagan as president in 1980, the United States had championed globalization of trade and finance. It opened its doors wider to foreign products and investment than any other major economy. “” America’s entrepreneurial culture was the world’s model. The synergy of U.S. political freedoms and free markets appeared vindicated by the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991. At home, a bipartisan consensus emerged in favor of further economic deregulation, which, in turn, spurred a freewheeling expansion of new types of investments that helped fuel a vast increase in international finance and commerce. But America’s growth came to rely increasingly on debt. Consumers, businesses, home buyers, and the U.S. government itself borrowed heavily in the belief that the value of their investments—including, fatefully for many, their homes—would continue to grow. The ready availability of credit on easy terms drove home prices, in particular, ever higher. The financial crash of 2008 brought a sudden, traumatic halt to a quarter-century of U.S.-led global economic growth. When the housing boom finally collapsed in 2007, it exposed a fragile layer of high-risk home loans made over a decade to families that could not afford them, particularly if the economy weakened. Some borrowers had purchased homes they could not afford, trusting that in a rising market they could always sell their properties at a profit. As housing prices fell, homeowners who no longer could keep up with their mortgage payments were unable to pay their debt by selling their homes. These home loans thus were the unstable foundation for a massive but largely invisible speculation on mortgage securities and financial contracts sold around the world. Triggered by the housing collapse, this edifice toppled in 2008. Foreclosures grew, and panic followed. Giant Wall Street financial firms fell, reorganized, or were combined with larger competitors. Stock markets plunged, and the world’s economies headed into the worst crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. However, large corporations and wealthy businesspeople were minimally affected by the recession, and were the first to recover. Shortly after the economic recovery began, many Fortune 500 corporations reported record profits and many billionaires saw their net worths hit new highs. The 2011 edition of the annual U.S. dollar billionaires ranking compiled by Forbes Magazine broke new records, both in terms of the number of billionaires (1,210) and their total wealth (US $4.5 trillion. ) On the other hand, wages and incomes of typical Americans are lower today than in over a decade. This “lost decade” of no wage and income growth began well before the Great Recession battered wages and incomes. In the historically weak expansion following the 2001 recession, hourly wages and compensation failed to grow for either high school or college-educated workers and, consequently, the median income of working-age families had not regained pre-2001 levels by the time the Great Recession hit in December 2007. Incomes failed to grow over the 2000–2007 business cycle despite substantial productivity growth during that period. Although economic indicators are stronger today than they were two or three years ago, protracted high unemployment in the wake of the Great Recession has left millions of Americans with lower incomes and in economic distress. Consensus forecasts predict that unemployment will remain high for many more years, suggesting that typical Americans are in for another lost decade of living standards growth as measured by key benchmarks such as median wages and incomes. For example, as a result of persistent high unemployment, some expect the incomes of families in the middle fifth of the income distribution in 2018 will still be below their 2007 and 2000 levels. The State of Technology The constant evolution of technology offers both considerable opportunity and risk to businesses across all industries. Recognize the critical business impacts of keeping pace with the current technological environment - Capturing opportunities in the current technological era is an enormous source of potential success for organizations. - Disruptive innovations, such as Netflix, can upset entire industries in a very short period of time. This can result in big gains for the innovators and serious consequences for those who fall behind. - In considering the current state of technology relative to businesses, it’s useful to consider how organizations commonly structure their IT department strategies. - Most modern IT departments consider both what internal capabilities modern technology offers, as well as what external technological forces will impact the business and industry. - IT strategies: The objectives, principles, and tactics involved in an organization’s approach to managing current and potential changes in technology. - disruptive innovation: An innovation which redefines an existing market and value network, often through the creation or utilization of new technologies or processes. Why Technology Matters Technology is always changing, offering new opportunities and risks for business every single day. Netflix captured huge opportunity through utilizing online streaming services and redefining the TV and movie industry (many organizations went out of business as a result, encountering the risks of technology). This type of technological opportunity is often referred to as a disruptive innovation. As a result, business are constantly monitoring current and emerging technologies to capture opportunities and avoid enormous risk to keep pace with the demands of the modern economy. How Technology Impacts Business By looking at how business IT strategies are structured, we can identify why technology matters through considering the state of technology from various perspectives. Without diving into too much detail, here are some key building blocks to integrating the state of technology into an organization’s strategy: Technology is the great enabler. Nowadays, integrating technological tools to execute complex tasks is the norm. These integrations impact every facet of the organization. On the manufacturing floor, smarter machines can reduce production time, increase efficiency, and lower costs. In marketing, online tools can enable rapid iterative testing of creative assets and utilization of social networks. Keeping pace with the latest technology for organizational efficiency is key to competitive success. Technology changes the expectations of consumers and as a result businesses must keep up to remain relevant. Having a presence on Facebook, for example, is an external technological force that companies have had to integrate into their process. Another example is the auto industry, where both consumers and governments expect (and sometime requires) businesses to adopt new, expensive technology to reduce carbon footprints. Identifying technologies that could cut costs, improve productivity, capture new markets, or fulfill new needs for consumers is a constant focal point for technology specialists. Identifying opportunities before they become competitive risks is a key to survival in the modern business world. Closely related to the opportunities above, there is always the threat of falling behind the current state of technology (such was the case with streaming media). Another threat in the modern digital age is security. Target was recently hacked, incurring a massive leak of customer data. This can be costly both from a legal perspective and from a branding perspective. All and all, the current state of technology is always evolving. What’s most important to keep in mind is the general perspective a business owner or manager must take when considering technology. Technology can be an enormous source of competitive advantage, both for your organization and your competitors. The State of Competition Current competition can be examined through market dominance, mergers and acquisitions, public sector regulation, and intellectual property. Describe how market dominance, mergers and acquisitions, public sector regulation, and intellectual property contribute to the current state of competition - Competition occurs when different firms attempt to attract the same group of buyers by offering products with greater perceived benefit. - A firm is considered dominant if acts to an appreciable extent independently of its competitors; customers; and, ultimately, of its consumer. - Often, firms take advantage of their increase in market power, their increased market share, and decreased number of competitors after a merger or acquisition –which can adversely affect the deal that consumers get. - Public sector industries, or industries which are by their nature providing a public service, are involved in competition in many ways similar to private companies. - Competition has become increasingly present in intellectual property, such as copyright; trademarks; patents; industrial design rights; and, in some jurisdictions, trade secrets. - intellectual property: Any product of someone’s intellect that has commercial value: copyrights, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets. - product: Any tangible or intangible good or service that is a result of a process and that is intended for delivery to a customer or end user. Competition occurs when competing firms attempt to attract buyers by offering products with greater perceived benefit. Common benefits include price, service, reputation, and image, but may include virtually anything else associated with a product that the buyer values. A buyer’s perceptions of what constitutes a benefit may vary widely based on the nature of the product. Since the actions taken by one competitor to attract buyers are likely to affect the performance of other competitors, competing firms are said to be interdependent. The current state of competition can be examined based on the following categories. Dominance and Monopoly When firms hold large market shares, consumers risk paying higher prices and getting lower quality products than when compared to competitive markets. However, the existence of a very high market share does not always mean consumers are paying excessive prices since the threat of new entrants to the market can restrain a high market share firm’s price increases. A firm is considered dominant if acts to an appreciable extent independently of its competitors; customers; and, ultimately, of its consumer. This lack of competition can lead to abuses in today’s business environment. Forms of abuse relating directly to pricing include price exploitation. It is difficult to prove at what point a dominant firm’s prices become “exploitative” and this category of abuse is rarely found. Mergers and Acquisitions A merger or acquisition involves, from a competition perspective, the concentration of economic power in the hands of fewer than before. This usually means that one firm buys out the shares of another. Often, firms take advantage of their increase in market power, their increased market share, and decreased number of competitors–which can adversely affect the deal that consumers get. Since mergers and acquisitions can lead to market dominance, competition law attempts to deal with this problem before it arises. Public Sector Regulation Public sector industries, or industries which are by their nature providing a public service, are involved in competition in many ways similar to private companies. Many industries, such as railways, electricity, gas, water, and media have their own independent competitive concerns and sector regulators. These government agencies are charged with ensuring that private providers carry out certain public service duties in line with social welfare goals. Intellectual Property and Innovation Competition has become increasingly present in intellectual property, such as copyright; trademarks; patents; industrial design rights; and, in some jurisdictions, trade secrets. On the one hand, it is believed that promotion of innovation through enforcement of intellectual property rights promotes competitiveness, while on the other the contrary may be the consequence. The question rests on whether it is legal to acquire a monopoly through accumulation of intellectual property rights. In which case, the law must either give preference to intellectual property rights or towards promoting competitiveness. Concerns also arise over anti-competitive effects and consequences due to: - Intellectual properties that are collaboratively designed with consequence of violating antitrust laws (intentionally or otherwise). - The further effects on competition when such properties are accepted into industry standards. - Cross-licensing of intellectual property. - Bundling of intellectual property rights to long term business transactions or agreements to extend the market exclusiveness of intellectual property rights beyond their statutory duration. - Trade secrets, if they remain a secret, having an eternal length of life. The Social Environment Businesses must consider their social environment, since their actions have repercussions that echo throughout society. Express how materiality and sociality are accelerating the transformation of the global socio-business environment - CSR policy functions as a built-in, self-regulating mechanism whereby a business monitors and ensures its active compliance with the spirit of the law, ethical standards, and international norms. - The goal of CSR is to embrace responsibility for the company’s actions and encourage a positive impact through its activities on the environment, consumers, employees, communities, and all other stakeholders. - A new global business environment is emerging from two accelerating shifts that are now transforming how we use natural systems and material resources (materiality), and how we coordinate human action (sociality). - Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a form of corporate self- regulation integrated into a business model. CSR policy functions as a built-in, self-regulating mechanism whereby a business monitors and ensures its active compliance with the spirit of the law, ethical standards, and international norms. - The goal of CSR is to embrace responsibility for the company’s actions and encourage a positive impact through its activities on the environment, consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders and all other members of the public sphere who may also be considered as stakeholders. - stakeholder: A person or organization with a legitimate interest in a given situation, action, or enterprise. - Scarcity: The condition of something being scarce or deficient. The Social Environment of Business Businesses do not operate in a vacuum. A firm’s actions have repercussions that echo throughout society. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model. CSR policy functions as a built-in, self-regulating mechanism whereby a business monitors and ensures its active compliance with the spirit of the law, ethical standards, and international norms. The goal of CSR is to embrace responsibility for the company’s actions and encourage a positive impact through its activities on the environment, consumers, employees, communities, and all other members of the public sphere who may be considered stakeholders. The topics surrounding CSR have become more complex due to globalization and the issues that arise from companies competing in international markets. Companies are manufacturing goods, hiring local labor, and utilizing raw materials and resources extracted from the environment in international locations. This heightened awareness of CSR and sustainable development has been endorsed by an increased responsiveness to ethical, social, environmental, and other global issues. In recent years, companies have been the center of scandals regarding accounting practices, damages to the environment, inadequate treatment of employees and workers, and the effect of products on society. This new global business environment is emerging from two accelerating shifts that are transforming how we use natural systems and material resources (materiality), and how we coordinate human action (sociality). Continuing industrial development has brought us into contact with the one planet limit on material supply. Thus, material resource scarcity is increasing, raising supply costs and shifting us away from the old economic growth strategy based in continually increasing resource consumption (more with more), to a new growth strategy based in increasing resource performance (more with less). Global adoption of digital communications and information technology (CIT) has converged media, communications, and information processing onto the Internet. Thus, CIT resource abundance is increasing, lowering communication costs and shifting us from the old coordination strategy based in hierarchical messaging (chain of command) to a new coordination strategy based in networked conversation (peer teaming). Hundreds of millions have embraced new social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter. As a result, a new social business environment has emerged around our organizations in a rising crescendo of change–transforming our whole conduct of life, bringing new risks, new rules, and vast new opportunities for economic growth. Financial Case for CSR The business case for CSR within a company will likely rest on one or more of these arguments: - Human resources: A CSR program can aid recruitment and retention. Potential recruits often ask about a firm’s CSR policy during an interview, and having a comprehensive policy can provide an advantage. CSR can also help improve the perception of a company among its staff, particularly when staff can become involved through payroll giving, fundraising activities, or community volunteering. CSR has been found to encourage customer orientation among frontline employees. - Risk management: Managing risk is a central part of many corporate strategies. Reputations that take decades to build up can be ruined in hours through incidents such as corruption scandals or environmental accidents. These can also draw unwanted attention from regulators, courts, governments, and media. Building a genuine culture of “doing the right thing” within a corporation can offset these risks. - Brand differentiation: In crowded marketplaces, companies strive for a unique selling proposition that can separate them from the competition in the minds of consumers. CSR can play a role in building customer loyalty based on distinctive ethical values. - License to operate: Corporations are keen to avoid interference in their business through taxation or regulations. By taking substantive voluntary steps, they can persuade governments and the wider public that they are taking issues such as health and safety, diversity, or the environment seriously as good corporate citizens with respect to labor standards and impacts on the environment. The State of Global Business Global business is changing and evolving quickly due to demographic and technological trends. Identify how the Internet, a swelling global middle class, and the tottering global finance system has generated a new global business environment - In the last five years over 50% people in the developed world have used the internet as their preferred source for news and entertainment, banking, shopping, and communications. They also use the internet to conduct basic business processes. This has created a new social business environment. - Some two billion people have joined the ranks of the rising global middle class. This has placed material resources under increasing supply pressure. Furthermore, the global finance system has tottered to the brink of chaos with debt and employment issues, and rising global food and energy prices. - All of the recent economic and technological changes generated an entirely new global business environment, and an emerging new global economy, with new rules, new patterns of costs, new methods of work, new risks, new opportunities, and new horizons for growth, evolution and change. - employment: The work or occupation for which one is used, and often paid. - internet: The Internet, the largest global internet. - debt: Money that one person or entity owes or is required to pay to another, generally as a result of a loan or other financial transaction. - business environment: the system within which companies exist In the last five years, over 50% of the general public throughout the developed world have begun to use the internet as their preferred source for news and entertainment, as well as their preferred support for the conduct of banking, shopping, and personal and business communications. They are also increasingly coming to use the internet to conduct many more basic business processes such as filing taxes and regulatory compliance forms, locating and initiating key business connections, coordinating work teams, and telecommuting. This has, almost overnight, created a new social business environment. At the same time, in the material domain of life almost two billion people have joined the ranks of the rising global middle class as the developing economies of India and China have come fully on-line. This has placed every key material resource – energy, food, water, shelter, and the regenerative ecosystem itself – under rapidly increasing supply pressure. These make inflation rates in developing countries stay at high levels. And amplifying all these social and material pressures, the global finance system has tottered to the brink of chaos with both Europe and North America facing unprecedented and unresolved debt and employment issues, with global food and energy prices doubling since just 2008. All this has generated an entirely new global business environment, and an emerging new global economy, with new rules, new patterns of costs, new methods of work, new risks, new opportunities, and new horizons for growth, evolution and change. And the trends that have created this new environment are all accelerating.
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What is a Currency Union? What Impact Could the Amero have? When two or more groups, generally countries, decide to peg their currency exchange rate or share a common currency to maintain its worth at a specific level, it is known as a currency union. It is also known as a monetary union; amongst the primary goals of creating a monetary union is to manage and synchronise the monetary policy of each country. Using the same currency means that money is easily understood. It also makes it easier to fix exchange rates. Let us say that Canada and the US agree to make one Canadian dollar equal to one US dollar. This would set the exchange rate rather than letting it fluctuate as it does now. To fulfil this possibility, the Amero has been considered. The goal is to integrate a monetary policy as well as manage it centrally. Thus, not only will people use the common currency but one central bank will take care of the monetary and currency policies for all of the nations. Usually, a currency union is involved in the unveiling of common coins and banknotes. However, this function might be split between the participating states. They may either be given the right to issue banknotes or coins on behalf of the common central banking system or the respective currency of each country becomes a denomination of a common currency. The most prominent instance of a monetary union is the creation of one currency, which is used amongst most European countries: the euro. This example shows the interplay of political and economic factors in the procedure of setting up a currency union. From an economic viewpoint, a currency union helps to reduce transaction prices in an increasingly harmonised regional market. It also aids in increasing price transparency, thus increasing the market’s efficiency and inner-regional competition. History of the Monetary Union Currency unions have been adopted multiple times in the past with an aim to strengthen economies and facilitate trade while helping to unify the previously divided states. During the 19th century, the former customs union of Germany helped to integrate the different German Confederations states with the goal of increasing trade. Starting in 1818, more states subsequently joined, raising a series of actions to standardise the values of coins used in the area. This system was successful and helped to safeguard Germany’s political unification in 1871. This led to the formation of Reichsbank in 1876 as well as the national currency, the Reichsmark. Similarly, France led the Latin Monetary Union in 1865, which encompassed Belgium, France, Greece, Switzerland, and Italy. Silver and gold coins were standardised and made legal tender and were freely exchanged over borders to escalate trade. The monetary union was successful and was joined by other countries. However, in the 1920s, it was disbanded with the stresses of war as well as other economic and political hardships. The Scandinavian Monetary Union also existed during the 1870s. It was based on a common gold currency. Other historical monetary unions include the eventual adoption of the national currency by the USA. in 1863. Several years ago, the Amero was proposed to be the common currency of the USA, Mexico, and Canada, Currency Union Traits A monetary union is different from a complete economic and currency union in that it shares a common currency between more than one country, but without eventual integration between participating nations. Further integration may cover the adoption of the single market to facilitate cross-border trade, which entails the elimination of fiscal and physical barriers between countries to liberate the movement of labour, capital, services, and goods to strengthen overall economies. Present examples of monetary unions include the CFA Franc and the euro, among others. Advantages of the Currency Union Eliminates Exchange Rate Fluctuation Businesses that operate under common currency would not have to worry about exchange rate fluctuations. For example, if country A bought goods from country B using different currencies, at the time of payment, which could be a few months later, fluctuations in their currencies could lead to a loss for one of the countries. Reduced Transaction Costs Typically, a tourist loses some of the value of their money in the form of commission when exchanging currencies. The exchange process may also take time. If there was a common currency, tourists would not have to spend extra time or money getting their currency exchanged. Similarly, traders would save money as they would not have to keep an account of variable currencies. Facilitate Market Expansion If there was a common currency, trading in multiple nations would be easier for a businessperson because they would no longer need to worry about exchange rate fluctuations. Additionally, price transparency and lower transaction costs would encourage companies to expand their business within the common currency area. This would give rise to employment and investment. Disadvantages of the Currency Union Loss of the independent monetary policy With common currency comes the integration of the economic policies of the countries involved. This takes away the rights of a country to follow its own monetary policy, as it is bound to act according to the decision of the body handling the common currency for all of the countries. Increased Public Debt Having a common currency means easy access to loans that come with a lower rate of interest. This also means that a country can freely take loans from banks of other nations. However, this might lead to mounting public debt, which happened in the case of Greece. The North American Monetary Union There is a theoretical monetary and economic union of three North American countries: Mexico, the United States of America, and Canada. Implementation would require the three nations to give up their present currency units: the Canadian dollar, the US dollar, and the Mexican peso, and embrace a new one, formed especially for this purpose. The hypothetical currency for this union is referred to as the Amero. The concept is inspired by the euro, the common European Union currency. Academics have considered this possibility; however, no serious proposal has been made by lawmakers in any of these three countries, until now. So far, the Amero is not exchanged in the interbank market. Where did the Amero idea come from? The Amero idea was first suggested by an economics professor at the Fraser Institute, Herbert Grubel. He had proposed that one combined currency of three nations would boost trade by decreasing the complexity of trades engaging in more than one currency and removing the exchange rate risk. Herbert Grubel also mentioned that the Amero could diminish borrowing costs and eradicate wage arbitrage, the practice of employing labour in other countries with an unfavourable exchange rate to take advantage of non-pricey rates. It has been argued that the Amero would save nearly $3 billion in currency exchanges. It was also anticipated that Canada’s GDP may rise by 33% during a twenty-year-period with the adoption of the common currency. The idea of a standardised currency has been historically unpopular historically in English-speaking Canada, unlike French-speaking Quebec, where it has received more support. Smaller levels of currency collaboration have been previously exercised in America. Some nations such as Brazil and Argentina have attached their currency to the American dollar. Others, such as the Bahamas, Aruba, the Organisation of the Eastern Caribbean, and Barbados still do. In El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras, Peru, the Bahamas, Bermuda, and Panama the US dollar is accepted alongside their local currencies. Out of these countries, Panama and El Salvador are fully dollarised. Ecuador officially accepted the US dollar as its only currency in 2000. In several areas of Canada, alongside the Canadian dollar, the US dollar is also accepted. The idea of accepting the Amero as a common currency was not well received by either Canada or the USA. The first proponent of the Amero, Herbert admitted that American officials did not show any interest in the topic. Likewise, the Department of Finance in Canada strongly opposes the formation of the common currency with the US, citing the loss of economic dominance. We like to keep our pages fresh and update them periodically. Sign up to stay in the loop with the latest FX Guys News! From the viewpoint of the Mexican and Canadian governments, a major hindrance to the formation of a common currency is the dominance of the USA in any such union. The US dollar already behaves like a global currency, implying that any shift to a new currency may risk compromising this position as well as causing a shift towards yen or the euro. Currently, the US dollar is being utilised in over half of the world’s exports, twice the total of US foreign trade. The acceptance of the Amero could endanger the seigniorage that the USA presently gains from the US dollar. While seigniorage would be gained from the Amero, it would be shared among the Federal Reserve, the Banco de México, and the Bank of Canada. Therefore, even if the common currency was employed just like the US dollar, the gains would be shared amongst two or more countries instead of being exclusively held by the USA. Varying Debt and Economies Several issues could arise in relation to macroeconomic management. Countries could lose significant autonomy in currency management, including the setting of interest rates, if they choose to submit to a common currency. Debt is an element impacting currency prices. Until 2010, the Canadian federal government debt was decreasing while the USA’s debt was increasing. Another concern with the Amero is the varying economic conditions between each country. Unlike the Eurozone, which has service-based economies with high public spending, high taxes, and wealth being formed through the sales of services and goods, North America has three distinct economies. The Mexican economy is based mainly on industry, agriculture, and manufacturing with a need for free trade; the US economy is dependent on services such as retail, with greater taxes and lower public spending; the Canadian economy is based on services and has higher public spending and taxes, with a huge sector in basic goods, such as mining, lumber, and oil. Some observers note that the Eurozone crisis was a result of an ineffective fiscal union. The budget of the EU is relatively small in comparison to the individual budgets of Eurozone countries. Leading up to the Eurozone crisis, some nations incurred more debt as compared to the unenforced EU codes called for. Because of the centralised currency union, nations experiencing issues were unable to employ a local monetary policy to recover and destabilise the currency that was also utlised by more financially healthy countries. However, the debt levels and national budgets of Mexico, the US, and Canada are also set completely independently, which could lead to similar issues for a scenario in which the currency policy was centralised. Contrastingly, the economies of several US states are strongly integrated. Internally, the US has powerful fiscal federalism; all but one of fifty states possesses a balanced budget amendment. Moreover, the federal budget is huge compared to state budgets, leading to the effective federal stabilisation of the national economy and currency. In August 2007, conspiracy theories and rumours started doing their rounds across the internet, suggesting that the US Treasury had issued Amero coins. This could have been a result of photographs of medallions crafted by Daniel Carr, a coin designer. Daniel designed the Rhode Island and New York 2001 statehood quarter and sells tokens and medals of his designs on his website. His designs include an array of copper, silver, and gold fantasy issues of Amero coins, which vary in denomination from one thousand to one. Later, Hal Turner’s blog went viral; it talked about the common currency and featured images of the coins designed by Daniel. He alleged, in his blog, that the images were genuine. This sparked the possibility that the three countries were actually considering a currency union. A currency union represents the choice of countries to share a common currency, or the pegging of exchange rates by more than one country, to maintain their currencies at a specific level. This would lead to managing and synchronising the monetary policy of each country involved. Currency unions have been adopted in the past due to their ability to strengthen economies, facilitate trade, and unify previously divided states. Some examples of currency unions include the Euro, the hypothetical Amero, and the Latin Monetary Union. The Amero is a hypothetical monetary and economic union of three North American countries – Mexico, the United States of America, and Canada. Although it does not exist as yet, in 2008, due to a blog post by Hal Turner, rumours were spread about its existence. While the adoption of a common currency in these three countries is unlikely, it would affect the world immensely if it happened. The USA already enjoys superiority over most of the world and the integration of the currencies of these three North American countries would probably lead to an even stronger currency, giving the US more power. However, it would also mean compromised control over the currency as well as its economic policies. We like to keep our pages fresh and update them periodically. Sign up to stay in the loop with the latest FX Guys News!
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Impact of NAFTA over 20 Years Currently, NAFTA is the world's largest regional free trade area with a population of 444 million people and a combined gross national product of 17 trillion dollars. The North American Free Trade Agreement has a few ideas that apply to the sphere of trade, services and investment. In addition, this agreement brings together the industrialized nations and developing country. In fact, the members of NAFTA are united by the presence of common geographic boundaries, economic relations, and transport communications. Besides, the signing of this agreement helped to create a single continental market and the mobility of goods, services, capital, and a labor movement. Accordingly, the active processes under NAFTA significantly affected the economy of the United States, Canada, and Mexico during 1994-2014. NAFTA is a free trade agreement between the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The first step of this agreement was the plan of Abbot adopted in 1947. In fact, this concept stimulated the United States to contribute their investments to the leading Canadian industries. The following step was signing the agreement of the liberalization of car exchange, which added to the integration of others areas. Besides, the first trade and political association among the United States, Canada and Mexico was the energy alliance in the 1970s. Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush supported this idea in 1980. In September 1988, after the three years of troublesome arrangements, the US-Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CUSFTA) marked another document, according to which the United States and Canada ought to frame the free commerce zone for ten years (Hufbauer & Schott, 2005). By excellence of the integration forms in Europe, the United States, Canada, and Mexico signed the North American Free Trade Agreement on December 1992, which came into power on January 1994. Indeed, some important elements prompted the creation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Primarily, it is the geographical proximity and macro-economic complementary of the participating countries. Secondly, it is the close trade relation between NAFTA partners and expanding production cooperation. The third factor is a growing network of businesses controlled by the American multinational corporations in Canada and Mexico and increasing number of the Canadian multinationals organizations in the United States. The last reason for the free trade agreement creation is to strengthen the position of the European and Asian industrialized countries in the global market. More importantly, NAFTA created a progressive international trade agreement including a list of specific goals. Firstly, it aimed at removing the barriers and stimulating the movement of goods and services between the countries of the agreement. Secondly, the agreement planned to create and maintain the conditions of the fair competition in the free trade zone. The third goal is the attraction of investments in the participating countries. The next important aim of the NAFTA policy is ensuring the adequate and effective protection of the intellectual property rights in the free trade zone. Due to this goal, the members of this agreement tried to create effective mechanisms for the collaborative disputes resolution and management. Finally, countries wanted to establish a basis for future trilateral, regional and international cooperation in order to expand and improve the agreement (Kong & Wroth, 2015). Therefore, the members of agreement attempted to establish a proficient policy, which unites and builds up their exchange understanding. The basis for NAFTA is the United States economy. In fact, Canada and Mexico are closely related to it, and, thud, it is necessary to identify the correlation of GDP in Canada and Mexico to the United States GDP. Figure 1. The correlation of GDP between the participating countries ("North American Free Trade Agreement," n. d.). The increase in the correlation coefficient indicates the Canadian and Mexico’s economies increasing dependence on the United States. This means transferring a part of its national sovereignty in exchange for economic benefits. However, it strengthens the economic power of the United States integration (Caulfield, 2010). The great impact of NAFTA has exceedingly affected the economies of the member countries. In fact, this is one of the biggest free trade areas in the world, which demonstrates clear advantages of a trade liberalization. The agreement made a noteworthy contribution to the economic development and increased living standard in each of the three nations. During the integration, the members built a joint enterprise for the creation of products, permitting a simpler access to the innovation, and lower manufacturing costs. Furthermore, it upgraded the participation in the shared structure with an objective to improve the position of the United States, Canada and Mexico in international markets. Moreover, the North American Free Trade Agreement significantly affected the management of the banking area. Thus, business analysts noticed the expanded actions of American banks in Canada and Canadian banks in the United States. Besides, American banks and other financial foundations got the chance to open their branches in Mexico. In fact, the general motivation of NAFTA creation was to advance financial development by expanding rivalry in the residential market and energize cooperation of the internal and foreign sources. For the quarter century, there have been sufficient changes in the economies of the member countries, and various elements in different areas that represent these actions (Boskin, 2014). First of all it should be noted that the total trade among the United States, Canada and Mexico increased from 297 billion dollars in 1993 to 946 billion dollars in 2008. Today, daily trade between the partners is 2.6 billion dollars, or 108 million dollars per hour. In the framework of NAFTA, Canada and Mexico carry out 80% of trade, and the United States carries out the third part of the total trade. Moreover, after the creation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, GDP of Canada, the United States and Mexico significantly increased ("North American Free Trade Agreement," n. d.). Figure 2. NAFTA members GDP growth since 1993 ("The North American Free Trade Agreement," n. d.). North American Free Trade Agreement developed the process for new workplaces creation and increasing employment. In fact, the participating countries have simplified for citizens a temporary permit for the business or investment activities. Through the business integration, NAFTA increased the level of competitiveness and profitability, which helped to create new workplaces. Thus, the participating countries provided near 50 million jobs during 1993-2014 (Caulfield, 2010). As previously mentioned, the North American Free Trade Agreement had a weighty effect on the economies of member countries. According to the deep analysis, the world economists indicate a great list of changes that occurred within 20 years of the agreement. At first, they attempted to define the NAFTA influence on the United States of America. According to the United States Office of the Trade Representative, goods and services trade with the NAFTA countries in 2008 amounted to 1.1 trillion dollars, including 482 billion dollars export and 596 billion imports. In 2009, the US exchange with Canada and Mexico tumbled to 735 billion dollars with 334 billion dollars exports and 401 billion dollars import. Service exchange with NAFTA reached the 110 billion dollars in 2008 with 69.8 billion dollars exports and 40.2 billion dollars imports. Compared with 2008, the volume of United States export to the NAFTA decreased by 19.1% in 2009 but increased by 102% from 1994 and 135% from 1993. The share of the NAFTA in the total volume of United States exports amounted to 31.6% in 2009, which is slightly lower than 32.2% in 1994 ("North American Free Trade Agreement," n. d.). Thus, opening a free trade zone does not significantly affect the increase in United Sates exports to the partner countries of NAFTA (Hufbauer & Schott, 2005). The reason is that United States have had strong relationships with the NAFTA member countries and high integration with Canadian economy before the agreement signing. The main product groups exported from the United States in 2009-2014 were machinery and equipment, electrical equipment, vehicles auto parts, plastic products, and biofuels with oil. This information demonstrates the increasing technological complexity of the produced goods. The Unites States imports from NAFTA amounted to 401.4 billion dollars in 2009, which is 27.7% lower than in 2008 (154 billion dollars), but 126% higher than in 1994. The share of the NAFTA in 2009 was equal to 25.8% of total US imports, as compared with 26.9% in 1994. Import of private business services to the US from NAFTA countries reached 40.2 billion dollars in 2008, which is 0.5% higher than in 2007 and 127% higher than in 1994. Besides, economists analyzed the rapid growth of export and import in a period of 2010-2014. As a result, they concluded that the United States prefer to import mineral raw materials, fuel and labor-intensive goods from the countries of NAFTA (Boskin, 2014). Figure 3. United States trade (billion dollars) with Canada and Mexico since NAFTA’s entry into force ("The North American Free Trade Agreement," n. d.). Furthermore, the United States created over 30 million the new workplaces in a period of 1994-2014. At the same time, employment in the US industry fell down to 3.65 million. The transfer of labor-intensive industries to Mexico caused this process. Most new jobs appeared in the service sector. Such process is called «de-industrialization», and it is the next stage of the US economic development. Moreover, since the 20 years of signing the free trade agreement, the United States unemployment rate fell to 5.1% from 7.1%. In addition, trade liberalization is accompanied by faster growth of the wages. For example, the hourly wages of American business sector grew by 0.7% during the period of 1979-1993, or 11% during the entire period. Moreover, the payment increasing procedure expanded 1.5% every year during 1993-2014 ("North American Free Trade Agreement," n. d.). Thus, the NAFTA agreement positively affected the US economy through the time of 1994-2014. This impact reflected in the growth of the main macroeconomic indices, reducing the unemployment rate, and changing the export commodity structure towards manufacturing high technology products (Caulfield, 2010). Secondly, the financial analysts noticed the NAFTA influenced Canadian economy. Due to their exploration, this agreement helped to develop work efficiency and extend specialization of the Canadian economy. Besides, it improved the competitiveness of Canadian exports and increased its structure of industrial production. Moreover, with the ability to the freely access the US and Mexican markets, Canadian companies were able to expand their presence in previously closed areas such as financial services, automotive, trucking, energy, and fisheries. Furthermore, duty-free imports of Canadian goods to the United States and Mexico have led to a decrease in their prices, which stimulated the growth of demand and helped to increase sales abroad. As a result, the agreement helped to lower the prices of the imported goods, which was a great advantage for the Canadian consumers. Besides, imports of cheaper foreign goods led to the replacement of the less efficient domestic producers in the Canadian market in a period of 1994-2014. Moreover, NAFTA offered the advantages to Canadians since it excludes high Mexican duties, which customarily were placed on the import of Canadian agrarian products. However, the main indicator of the successful realizations of NAFTA is the dynamic growth of the foreign trade in Canada. In fact, Canada's trade with the partner countries was 626.3 billion in 2008, which is the three times bigger than in 1994. In fact, Canada's main trading partner is the United States. The volume of exchange between Canada and the United States has practically multiplied since 1994 and reached more than 700 billion dollars in 2014. Additionally, the normal yearly increase rate of Canadian production exports to the United States was 6.3% during 1994-2014. Furthermore, Canadian exports to the US amounted 375.5 billion dollars in 2008 ("North American Free Trade Agreement," n. d.). Despite the geographical distance, the mutual trade of goods between Canada and Mexico has also increased, accounting 23.8 billion dollars in 2008, which is 424% higher comparing to the period before the agreement has been signed. Since 1994, Canada's GDP grew at a faster rate than the GDP of Mexico or the United States. In 1998, the growth of the Canada's exports to NAFTA was equivalent to the aggregate volume of Canada's exports to Japan and 15 European countries (Boskin, 2014). These figures show a beneficial influence of the North American Free Trade Agreement on the Canada's flow of imports and fares. NAFTA helped Canada to expand the exports of equipment, communications, and automotive electronics. This process led to the development of the automobile industry in Canada. Despite the accelerated pace of growth of the Canadian economy, the economists noticed a gap in the level of efficiency of production between Canada and the United States. Furthermore, the United States has outpaced work efficiency in Canada and after the agreement; the difference became even more visible. Due to the participation in this agreement, Canada was able to create new workplaces and raise the salary of the Canadian workers. In fact, the economists estimated the appearance of over 5 million new workplaces in the period of 1993-2014. For example, the number of employees in Canada reached 17.1 million people out of a total population of 33.3 million people in 2008. Moreover, Canada's participation in NAFTA increased the investment attractiveness of its economy, which contributed to an increase of FDI inflows. Therefore, the FDI in the Canadian economy amounted to more than 300 billion dollars in 2014. Besides, NAFTA had a significant impact on the growth of bilateral trade between the United States and Canada. Furthermore, Canada is the leading importer of the United States agricultural products. In fact, the volume of the United States agricultural exports to Canada increased by about three times during 1994-2014. Consequently, NAFTA has a positive impact on the Canadian economy, strengthening its economic and trade ties with the United States and Mexico (Kong & Wroth, 2015). Finally, the economists analyzed the NAFTA impact on the economy of Mexico. In fact, when the agreement came into force in 1994, Mexico abolished approximately 50% of the customs tariffs on the industrial goods imported from the US, and liberalized some non-tariff barriers (Orme, 1996). Besides, Mexico wiped out all taxes on mechanical merchandise by 2003, and on various agricultural items imported to Mexico from the US in 2008. In fact, Mexico's economy took the 13th place in the world in terms of GDP ("North American Free Trade Agreement," n. d.). Besides, it is the third greatest trading accomplice of the United States and the second market of the United States foreign trade. Undoubtedly, this achievement was caused by the NAFTA formation. There are several positive effects of the changes in economies associated with membership in NAFTA. The first effect is the state property privatization, deregulation, and the reduction of state support of the inefficient sectors of the Mexican economy. The second is the growth of trade. Thus, the bilateral trade between Mexico and the United States grew more than four times, since the agreement was signed. Moreover, the Mexican goods export to the United States rose to over 300 billion dollars in 2014 in comparison with 39,9 billion dollars in 1993 ("North American Free Trade Agreement," n. d.). The United States exported goods to Mexico accounted for 136.5 billion dollars in 2007, which was 242% more than in 1993. During the period when Mexico signed the NAFTA agreement, the GDP increased by over 50% (Boskin, 2014). Figure 4. Imports for Mexico (billion dollars) before and after NAFTA ("The North American Free Trade Agreement," n. d.). Before signing the NAFTA arrangement, the position of the Mexican work sector was less steady than in the United States and Canada. However, since 2005, the Mexican subsidiaries of US companies hired over 900 thousand people, which accounted for 3.3% of Mexico's GDP. Moreover, the salary of Mexican workers is steadily growing since the national currency crisis in 1994 ("North American Free Trade Agreement," n. d.). The other important aspect is the freight and energy liberalization. Due to this process, Mexico attracted foreign investments and engaged in the free border-crossing zone for the export expansion. NAFTA helped Mexican producers receive free access to the capacious markets of the United States and Canada, which was an important factor for the growth of the industrial production. Besides, the NAFTA integration encouraged Mexico to open for the foreign trade, stabilize favorable investment climate and support the growth of the high-capacity internal market. Despite the predominance of the benefits of the NAFTA, the economists noticed some adverse factors that happened during 1994-2014. One of them is the abroad rivalry that has a negative influence on the job placement in the United States and Canada. In fact, the American and Canadian companies moved to Mexico because of the cheap labor. Other adverse NAFTA impact is an increasing dependence of the United States market that raised the vulnerability of Canadian and Mexico’s economies, which is especially evident in times of the United States economic downturns (Kong & Wroth, 2015). Consequently, NAFTA had a huge effect on the economy of the United States, Canada, and Mexico during the time of 1994-2014. This association, which is currently one of the largest free trade areas in the world, demonstrates clear benefits of trade liberalization. Moreover, the agreement made a significant contribution to the economic growth and improved living standards in all three countries. During the existence of NAFTA, the member countries organized a cooperation for the creation of products and services. This process gave an easier access to the technology, lower production costs, and enhanced the cooperation within the mutual framework with an aim to strengthen the position of these countries in the international markets. Furthermore, the economists noticed the rising rates of the industrial production and share of the high technology products. However, the beneficial effects of integration under NAFTA are uneven. In fact, the United States is an economic and political leader in this agreement. Besides, all three NAFTA countries observed an increase in the volume trade, flow of the direct foreign investment, and employment. As a result, NAFTA is a great example of the successful economic integration between countries with different levels of the economic development.
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Monday, 9 april 2018 | Redacción CEU The traditional economic way of thinking is left behind. The collaborative economy phenomenon and the unstoppable development of new technologies are overshadowing the products and services offered in this context due to their transforming and innovative character. The financial environment is being impacted by different disruptive advances like blockchain technology, the Internet of Things, Big Data or cloud computing. But, perhaps one of the vital trends of this midway of change is Artificial Intelligence that promises not only to transform the world of finance, but also our society. Artificial Intelligence -also known by its acronym AI-, like the rest of contemporaneous technological advances, opens the door to new opportunities and welcomes alternatives that challenge or move away from traditional business models. However, if AI stands out among the rest of the transforming agents, it is because its complete development would involve the transfer to the “robots” of decisive tasks associated with the human intellectual capacity and leave important financial decisions in their “hands”. This fact would be crucial in our society, not only would transform certain areas of the financial system, but, as times goes by, it could completely change the global socioeconomic environment. The revolution of Artificial Intelligence We are therefore at a turning point. In the article The Business of Artificial Intelligence by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, the authors describe Artificial Intelligence and, in particular, Machine Learning as the most important general purpose technology of our era. But why is AI so crucial to our society? Us, human beings are not able to explain how we are capable of doing certain mental processes. Thanks to the development of Artificial Intelligence, we are now able to build systems that learn with the knowledge through patterns to do tasks on their own and also to automate them. And not only that, they are capable of doing it with a very high performance in many areas. In some cases, they are even capable of making decisions without human intervention -Deep Learning-. This environment where we live characterized by continuous change, the technological advances convergence, the digital transformation and the new challenges that they set out, requires a progressive professional specialization. The ground is increasingly complex. If they do not have a meticulous, detailed and technical knowledge of the space where they work on and are not able to process the amount of information they get, they will not be able to take advantage of the arising opportunities or to keep up with progress. It is precisely the Artificial Intelligence development what contributes to that these experts' mission is not a lost battle in advance, because some tasks that require an extensive dedication go from hours to seconds with its help. The AI improves practically all the advances of its contemporaries, but the technology that it completes and complements the most is Big Data. Its mission is built on the data processing in large quantities and, in its development, this technology is able to give these data an important added value. Thanks to Big Data, we have a colossal data warehouse, but in order to serve us, we need to know how to interpret them. Artificial Intelligence offers an unprecedented processing capacity that can imitate human intellectual capacity, making it possible to shape that large amount of information
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The end or goal of something means it has an objective, a goal to attain. When one loses sight of the goal, it is as if a mariner had lost course; he goes this way and that, without knowing where he is going, or which course he should set, in order to reach his predetermined goal. When it is the economy that “loses its course” or loses sight of its goal, the effects are felt in the lives of each and every individual. Yet, it is not difficult to find out what the goal or purpose of the economy is. Ask a school child why one grows wheat or builds houses and he will reply: “To make bread and to provide lodgings.” But ask a contractor why he builds a house, and he will reply: “It is to make money.” One thus begins to wander from “the course”, from the true purpose of building a house. Now ask a professor in economics what is the purpose of industry. Chances are, he will answer: “To provide employment.” According to him, industries must be multiplied and diversified in order to give a job to everyone. This is exactly what trade unions are asking for and what politicians are constantly promising: jobs, jobs, jobs, full employment. If one listened to them, one would believe that the true purpose of the economy is to hire people and to have workers serve employers whose only goal is to make money. Well, the unions, economists and governments have in fact “lost the course”. So have producers, for they no longer produce in order to fill the needs, but to make money. If there is money to be made, they stay in business; if there is not, they close down, regardless of how pressing the demand is for their products, regardless of the human needs that remain unfilled. Goods are produced to meet the needs. What those needs are is best known by those who are in need. Hence, they are the ones who should have a say on what is produced. But the contrary currently takes place. Those who are in need, who have little money, are those who have the least to say in what is to be produced. Scan the pages of our big newspapers. Do you see the consumers telling the producers what to make? Not at all! It is the producers who tell the consumers what they are to buy. If the economy was adjusted to needs, these needs could easily be met because today’s production is very efficient and can provide everything: a cradle or a coffin, a hairpin or a house, bread to feed the people or bombs to kill them. However, when the economy loses sight of its purpose, everything is turned upside down; the economy is completely off course. Everyone is running after money and those who control it make pawns of those who are busy fighting one another, snarling and snapping, like dogs quarreling over a bone. A classic example of a dog-eat-dog world. The true purpose of the economy is certainly not to supply employment; it is to produce and deliver the goods that are needed. And the more quickly the economy does so, the more perfect the economy is: of course, with the least waste of materials and energy possible. Progress directs the economy to this fulfillment, namely, to produce as much as is required, with the minimum of time and labor. The first and most direct fruit of this progress should be to liberate man while still feeding him; to permit him to devote himself to other human activities than purely economical activities. But because producers, economists, unions, and even sociologists, have lost their course, progress fails to liberate them; it only creates new problems. It creates, above all, the so-called problem of unemployment, because all of these supposedly “great thinkers” maintain that people must be hired to get the right to live, whereas progress causes people to be freed from labor. Employment, which was once a means to an end (when machines did not replace human labor), has become an end in itself. However presently, it is no longer a real necessity. One makes it a necessity, because one makes it the condition of having a share in goods which are overflowing from production with less and less human participation. “The course”, the goal of the economy, was the satisfaction of human needs. We have lost sight of this. The compass of the present economic system has now gone completely wrong and makes people call for more jobs. Full employment has become the new “course” that everyone must aim for. The economy has really lost sight of its goal. Victor Brantz (who was a professor at the University of Louvain, Belgium), wrote in 1913: “Political economy is the science that deals with the efforts made by mankind to ensure its material existence, and improve it in accordance with the common good.” Victor Brantz had not “lost his course”. He knew not only how to respect the purpose of the economy but also how to subordinate it to the final goals of man. In October of 1920, Clifford Hugh Douglas (the engineer who conceived the Social Credit economic proposals) wrote in the preface of his work, Credit-Power and Democracy: “The end of an economic system is to deliver goods when and where they are needed.” Speaking at Swanwick in 1924, he said: “The economic system is simply one of the functional activities of men and women in the world. Furthermore, the economic organization is the most efficient when it can most easily and rapidly supply economic needs without infringing on other functional activities.” (Warning Democracy, p. 38.) Douglas never lost sight of the course. Pope Pius XI defined the goal of the economic organism in his Encyclical Letter Quadragesimo Anno (in 1931): “For then only will the economic and social organism be soundly established and attain its end, when it secures for all and each those goods which the wealth and resources of nature, technical achievement, and the social organization of economic affairs can give.” And he adds, “These goods should be sufficient to supply all needs and an honest livelihood, and to uplift men to that higher level of prosperity and culture which, provided it be used with prudence, is not only no hindrance but is of singular help to virtue.” Wisdom in the use of temporal goods depends upon the individual, once he is able to procure them. But the production and sharing of these goods, so that each and everyone will have a large enough portion, depends upon the economic and social organism. This is the true goal of the social and economic organism. If it does not attain this purpose in our world today, with the current abundant production, it is because it has lost sight of this goal; it has gone off course. Pope Pius XII reminded Christians often of the purpose of the economy. He stated in his June 1, 1941 Pentecost radio address: “National economy, which is the fruit of the activities of men combining their work in the national community, tends to do nothing but to ensure, without interruption, the material conditions in which the individual life of the citizens will be able to develop fully.” Now we will sum up the words of this quotation: National economy: not nationalization or collectivization, but the sum of all of the economic activities of all of the citizens and organisms of the nation, the fruits of the work of people who are united in a national community forming a nation; Tends to do nothing but: it has no other goal; it is its own end, and if it does something else, it loses its objective; To ensure: not only to promise but to ensure or guarantee, under conditions that exclude those citizens who are unable to fulfill these conditions; Without interruption: to ensure continuity in prosperous times and in times of catastrophe, because human needs are constant and do not change because, of economic cycles or crises; they do not stop when workers have to move from one region to another. The material conditions: it is the purpose of the economy to make sure that proper material conditions exist, not to impose austerity nor to preach resignation to those who are left deprived in’ front of plenty. A flawed economy cannot be redeemed by sending starving people to church instead of giving them the means to purchase the existing abundance of goods in stores and warehouses; In which the individual life of the citizens will be able to develop fully: not conditions that allow faulty development but the prosperous development of the individual life of every person; not the prosperity of an abstract community but the material wealth of each person, allowing each to receive more than just material bread, to have each mind free for the full development of every individual life.
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In 2017, Bitcoin rallied hard and put blockchain on the map, yet most people are unaware of what it is. Interoperability is a new buzzword that you often hear when people talk about their favorite cryptocurrencies, what exactly does it mean? How does it make bitcoin more viable? What is a Blockchain A blockchain is a list of records that are very difficult to tamper with, it contains data about the time and transactions that occur. The blockchain system is now widely used by various organizations for a large variety of functions. The list can grow infinitely and are linked via cryptography. Each record contains a hash that points to the previous record, the timestamp, and transaction details. The list is shared between users by a peer to peer network and requires majority consensus for changes. Popular Blockchains and their Functions The most popular use of blockchains now is a cryptocurrency where these records act as a medium of exchange. The details of individual ownership are stored in these strong cryptographic records. Bitcoin, Ethereum and Libra are some of the well-known cryptocurrency platforms With Blockchain it is possible to create and maintain a permanent ledger system to compile data on a supply-chain including distribution networks and payments made. IBM has partnered with Walmart to implement this into their supply-chain and facilitate worldwide monitoring (of the supply chain). IBM is also working on a music distribution system with ASCAP and PRS. Practical uses for Interoperability Interoperability allows completely independent blockchains to communicate and work within the same system. Since the most popular blockchain is a cryptocurrency, in a practical situation involving the above blockchains, one can buy their music or distribution rights with cryptocurrency. Another application might be to monitor the sales of particular albums to efficiently manipulate the physical stock of CDs and Vinyl. It’s very easy to talk about blockchains these days, as most people are unaware of the specifics. Many companies have started initiatives for it and billions of dollars have been invested. But one should always invest time into researching this topic thoroughly before investing money into it.
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |Laws of thermodynamics| Thermoeconomics also referred to as 'biophysical economics', is a school of heterodox economics that applies the laws of thermodynamics to economic theory. The term "thermoeconomics" was coined in 1962 by American engineer Myron Tribus, and developed by the statistician and economist Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen. Thermoeconomics can be thought of as the statistical physics of economic value. Thermoeconomics is based on the proposition that the role of energy in biological evolution should be defined and understood through the second law of thermodynamics but in terms of such economic criteria as productivity, efficiency, and especially the costs and benefits (or profitability) of the various mechanisms for capturing and utilizing available energy to build biomass and do work. Thermoeconomists claim that human economic systems can be modeled as thermodynamic systems. Then, based on this premise, they attempt to develop theoretical economic analogs of the first and second laws of thermodynamics. In addition, the thermodynamic quantity exergy, i.e. measure of the useful work energy of a system, is one measure of value. In thermodynamics, thermal systems exchange heat, work, and or mass with their surroundings; in this direction, relations between the energy associated with the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services can be determined. Thermoeconomists argue that economic systems always involve matter, energy, entropy, and information. Moreover, the aim of many economic activities is to achieve a certain structure. In this manner, thermoeconomics attempts to apply the theories in non-equilibrium thermodynamics, in which structure formations called dissipative structures form, and information theory, in which information entropy is a central construct, to the modeling of economic activities in which the natural flows of energy and materials function to create scarce resources. In thermodynamic terminology, human economic activity may be described as a dissipative system, which flourishes by consuming free energy in transformations and exchange of resources, goods, and services. Energy flows in economics "Real economics is the study of how people transform nature to meet their needs," said Charles Hall, professor of systems ecology at SUNY-ESF, "Neoclassical economics is inconsistent with the laws of thermodynamics." Many biophysical economic thinkers are trained in ecology and evolutionary biology.Central to this argument made by thermoeconomists is an understanding that the survival of all living creatures is limited by the concept of energy return on investment (EROEI). Biophysical economics also cites the peak oil hypothesis: that society is fast approaching the point where global oil production will peak and then steadily decline (Hubbert Peak). Thermoeconomists cite Frederick Soddy, a chemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize just a few weeks before, publishing Wealth, Virtual Wealth and Debt, as having influenced their discipline greatly. Biophysical economists say, that the U.S. oil industry's energy return on investment has been steadily sliding since the beginning of the century. "If you go from using a 20-to-1 energy return fuel down to a 3-to-1 fuel, economic collapse is guaranteed," as nothing is left for other economic activity. Proponents of the field say they are moving closer to understanding "peak gas" and "peak coal." Consumption of many of the world's most valuable minerals could likewise see those resources nearing exhaustion, as well, they say. Energy analysis in history Scientists have speculated on different aspects of energy accounting for some time as to how it might relate to alternatives in social systems. Many variations of energy accounting are in use now, as this issue relates to current (price system) economics directly, as well as projected models in possible Non-market economics systems. - Systems ecology - Energy Economics - Economics and energy - Wealth, Virtual Wealth and Debt Notes and references - ^ a b Sieniutycz, Stanislaw; Salamon, Peter (1990). Finite-Time Thermodynamics and Thermoeconomics. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0-8448-1668-X. - ^ Yehia M. El-Sayed (2003). The Thermoeconomics of Energy Conversions (pg. 4). Pergamon. - ^ A. Valero, L. Serra, and J. Uche (2006). Fundamentals of Exergy Cost Accounting and Thermoeconomics. Part I: Theory, Journal of Energy Resources Technology, Volume 128, Issue 1, pp. 1-8. - ^ Gong, Mei, Wall, Goran. (1997). On Exergetics, Economics and Optimization of Technical Processes to Meet Environmental Conditions. Exergy Studies. - ^ Georgescu-Roegen, Nicholas (1971). The Entropy Law and the Economic Process. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-25781-2. - ^ Chen, Jing (2005). The Physical Foundation of Economics - an Analytical Thermodynamic Theory. World Scientific. ISBN 981-256-323-7. - ^ Peter A. Corning 1*, Stephen J. Kline. (2000). Thermodynamics, information and life revisited, Part II: Thermoeconomics and Control information Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Apr. 07, Volume 15, Issue 6 , Pages 453 – 482 - ^ Corning, P. (2002). “Thermoeconomics – Beyond the Second Law” - ^ Burley, Peter; Foster, John (1994). Economics and Thermodynamics – New Perspectives on Economic Analysis. Kluwer Academic Publishers. ISBN 0-7923-9446-1. - ^ http://telstar.ote.cmu.edu/environ/m3/s3/05account.shtml Environmental Decision making, Science and Technology - ^ Baumgarter, Stefan. (2004). Thermodynamic Models, Modeling in Ecological Economics (Ch. 18) - ^ Raine, Alan; Foster, John; and Potts, Jason (2006). [Expression error: Missing operand for > "The new entropy law and the economic process"]. Ecological Complexity 3: 354–360. doi:10.1016/j.ecocom.2007.02.009. - ^ Annila, A. and Salthe, S. (2009). "Economies evolve by energy dispersal". Entropy 11: 606–633. http://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/11/4/606/pdf. - ^ N.Y. Times article on Biophysical economics Retrieved October-26-09 - ^ N.Y. Times article on Frederick Soddy retrieved October-26-09 - ^ N.Y. Times article on Biophysical economics Retrieved October-26-09 - ^ Stabile, Donald R. "Veblen and the Political Economy of the Engineer: the radical thinker and engineering leaders came to technocratic ideas at the same time", American Journal of Economics and Sociology (45:1) 1986, 43-44. - ^ Cutler J. Cleveland, "Biophysical economics", Encyclopedia of Earth, Last updated: September 14, 2006. - ^ http://exergy.se/goran/thesis/ Exergy - a useful concept by Göran Wall - Soddy, Frederick (1922). Cartesian Economics: The Bearing of Physical Science upon State Stewardship. London:Hendersons. - El-Sayed, Yehia, M. (2003). The Thermoeconomics of Energy Conversions. Pergamon. ISBN 0-08-044270-6. - M. King Hubbert on the Nature of Growth. 1974 - Yuri Yegorov, article Econo-physics: A Perspective of Matching Two Sciences, Evol. Inst. Econ. Rev. 4(1): 143–170 (2007) _pdf (application/pdf Object) - Borisas Cimbleris (1998): Economy and Thermodynamics - Schwartzman, David. (2007). "The Limits to Entropy: the Continuing Misuse of Thermodynamics in Environmental and Marxist theory", In Press, Science & Society. - Saslow, Wayne M. (1999). "An Economic Analogy to Thermodynamics" American Association of Physics Teachers.
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Is XRP Decentralized? Ripple’s Involvement in the Cryptocurrency - XRP helps the global banking system by adding liquidity to low-liquidity trading pairs. - Although Ripple claims they have no stake in how the cryptocurrency operates, the company's behavior suggests otherwise. - A close examination of Ripple and XRP reveals that the cryptocurrency is not as decentralized as some might think. Share this article Ripple is adamant that XRP is decentralized. The evidence disagrees. XRP is a cryptocurrency aimed at reducing the friction between foreign exchange transactions. Like the oil in a car, it helps banks transfer money by increasing the availability, or liquidity, of seldom-used currency pairs. By lubricating these gears, Ripple claims that it can help reduce the cash that money transmitters and banks need to have on-hand. This cash is then freed up, allowing the company to invest it or use it for other purposes, saving them money. Ripple Executives Claim Decentralization There is, however, substantial controversy around XRP. The main company behind the cryptocurrency, Ripple, claims that it is decentralized. XRP Ledger is “inherently decentralized,” said Ripple CTO David Schwartz. “By design, the XRP Ledger is also—if not more so—decentralized than both Bitcoin and Ethereum.” To further emphasize the decentralized nature of its cryptoasset, the company has attempted to distance itself from XRP’s creation. “XRP ledger existed before Ripple the company,” said Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse. “We own a lot of XRP. But it’s a little bit like saying, Exxon owns a lot of oil.” Like Exxon, Ripple is merely the company that is delivering XRP to the financial engines in need of lubrication, or so they claim. Yet, there’s substantial evidence suggesting that XRP is, in fact, almost wholly controlled by Ripple. Who Created XRP? Unlike what executives would like investors to believe, Ripple was not “gifted XRP from the people who created it.” XRP and its ledger were launched in 2013 by current Ripple executive chairman Chris Larsen, as well as Jed McCaleb and Arthur Britto, who later split from the project. The digital asset was initially created under a corporation known as “Newcoin” in 2012. A month later, the company was renamed to “OpenCoin.” Finally, in 2013, the company was renamed again to “Ripple Labs” and incorporated in California. This was then merged as a subsidiary under a Delaware corporation known as Ripple Labs in 2014, the same Ripple that operates today. Further evidence that Ripple created XRP is a trademark filed in 2013, roughly six months after the network was launched. Though originally registered by OpenCoin, Ripple is the current owner of the trademark. Even the company itself has, in the past, said that it created XRP. For all intents and purposes, Ripple appears to have created XRP. The line of succession is clear. As said by Preston Byrne, an attorney that specializes in blockchain technology: “Yes, Ripple created XRP, they own most of it and it was issued after company formation.” Who Owns the XRP Supply? In 2012, Ripple founders Chris Larsen, Jed McCaleb, and Arthur Britto signed an agreement allocating 80% of the total XRP supply to the company while the remaining 20% was split between the three founders. A few months later XRP Ledger was launched and 100 billion XRP was created and divided between the founders and the company. These coins were sold over the years to fund the development of the company, secure partnerships, and pay market makers to improve exchange availability. Some seven years later, the company still has control of more than 60 billion of these tokens, more than half the supply. If these were sold at current prices, they’d be worth more than $15 billion. These coins are sold regularly every quarter, usually to the tune of tens to hundreds of millions of dollars. Ripple, company insiders, and their partners largely control the XRP supply. Many investors are frustrated that these sales suppress potential price appreciation. And, they’re probably right. Who Controls XRP Ledger? The final factor that points to the centralization of the XRP Ledger is how its blockchain operates. Like Bitcoin, the XRP Ledger is composed of a collection of “nodes,” computers that run the software supporting a blockchain. However, unlike Bitcoin, XRP does not select blocks of transactions through “proof-of-work,” a lottery where tickets are acquired using computer power. Instead, it uses its own system—the “Ripple Protocol Consensus Algorithm,” or RPCA. Another feature that sets proof-of-work and RPCA apart is that nodes running RPCA are uncompensated. They’re volunteers that incur thousands of dollars of expenses a year (assuming they’re not one of Ripple’s own nodes). Out of nearly 1,000 nodes, a group of 33 are selected by the whole group to finalize transactions. This smaller group is called the “Unique Node List,” or UNL. When 80% of these 33 come to an agreement, a transaction is finalized. But here’s where the problem arises—Ripple, the company, selects the default Unique Node List. When a volunteer spins up a node, these are the ones voted for by default to finalize transactions. Theoretically, different nodes outside of those recommended by Ripple could be selected, but that’s seldom the case. Since the launch of the ledger, there are few documented cases of nodes outside of the default UNL gaining access to one of the privileged spots. On top of that, Ripple directly controls six of these nodes and indirectly controls at least four more through grants. What if someone doesn’t like this state of affairs? Schwartz says that someone could fork away from the XRP Ledger should they disagree with the company. That is possible, on paper. But, because of the control Ripple exerts over the ledger this has never happened. Why Does Decentralization Matter? It’s likely that the answer to whether XRP is decentralized or not could have huge legal ramifications for Ripple (and investors). If these coins were issued to raise money, then it could attract unwelcome attention from regulators—the Securities Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. If the SEC, for example, were to deem XRP a security it could have dire consequences for its usefulness for exchange transactions. In fact, one such case is moving through the California court system right now. It also has a large impact on investors. If Ripple were to decide one day that it would stop working on XRP, then the token may as well be worthless. In contrast to Bitcoin, because of its many contributors, the loss of any one company would not sink BTC. In all, these factors point to one conclusion. Ripple experts have enough control over XRP where it would not be considered decentralized.
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This example shows how to construct a timetable and plot the moving average convergence/divergence (MACD) indicator. The MACD is a trading indicator used in the technical analysis of stock prices. The MACD provides an indication of whether to buy or sell a stock, when an overbought or oversold condition is occurring, and when the end of a trend could occur. ThingSpeak channel 471839 contains delayed financial data for Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL). The data is updated once per day. The first four fields contain the open, high, low, and close price, respectively. Field five contains the daily trading volume. Read the data from channel 471939 using the When the MACD and the signal line have just crossed, and the MACD line falls below the moving average line, it is time to sell. Use the macd function to construct the MACD line and the moving average or signal line data. Then scan the data points to look for the points where the lines cross, and save those points to an array for plotting. [MACDLine, signalLine]= macd(stockTimeTable); index=26; crossUp=; crossDown=; while (index<height(stockTimeTable)) if and(MACDLine.Close(index)>signalLine.Close(index),MACDLine.Close(index-1) < signalLine.Close(index-1)) crossUp=[crossUp index]; end if and(MACDLine.Close(index)<signalLine.Close(index),MACDLine.Close(index-1) > signalLine.Close(index-1)) crossDown=[crossDown index]; end index=index+1; end plot function to plot the MACD for Google. Add line-crossing labels using the plot(MACDLine.Time,MACDLine.Close,'r+-',signalLine.Time,signalLine.Close, 'b--'); legend('MACD Line','Nine Per MA') title('MACD for GOOG') ylabel("Price Averages"); hold; text(MACDLine.Time(crossUp),MACDLine.Close(crossUp),'B'); text(MACDLine.Time(crossDown),MACDLine.Close(crossDown),'S'); Current plot held The plot shows the MACD for Google. The MACD line crossed the signal line at several locations indicating that there were some potentially profitable trade opportunities. Since the plot is generated from live data, your plot is different from the example shown here.
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A currency pair is when the values two currencies are compared against each other. In Foreign Exchange (Forex) trading, currency pairs are traded through dealers or brokers. In the currency pair, one currency is quoted against another. The first currency is known as the base currency with the second being the quote currency. For example, the Euro and the U.S. Dollar could form a pair and the rate would show how much of the second currency (the quote currency) would be required to buy one unit of the first, or base, currency. How do we identify currencies? Each currency has its own code, called an ISO currency code, for trading on the market. For the U.S. Dollar, the code is USD with the euro being EUR and the Great British Pound being GBP. When people trade in Forex they are almost playing a tug of war game with the currency pairs on each end. Foreign exchange rates fluctuate constantly, depending on which currency is stronger at any given time. By buying and selling different Forex currencies, people can make a profit. What currencies are we likely to come across? There are major currency pairs on the market as well as minor pairs. The four most commonly traded currency pairs are: - USD/JPY (Japanese Yen) - USD/CHF (Swiss Franc) You will notice that these four all have the U.S. Dollar as part of their pair. The major pairs are the most widely traded in the world and all have their nicknames. For example, the EUR/USD is called the “euro dollar”, USD/JPY is the “dollar yen”, GBP/USD is “pound dollar” and the USD/CHF is the “dollar swissy”. Do you have to pair currencies with USD? No, currencies don’t have to be paired with the USD. If they aren’t, they are known as a “cross-currency pair” or, put simply, “crosses”. The main crosses can also be called “minors”. Aside from the USD, the most actively used currencies in Forex are the Japanese Yen, the Euro and the British Pound. Interesting right? Click here to learn more about forex trading!
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Labor unions are an important topic for anyone in the job market to understand. While union membership is at an all-time low in the United States, a portion of the employment force is still unionized. Furthermore, depending upon the state laws, employees may organize a labor union in a number of ways. This paper will discuss the various issues associated with labor unions, and offer a brief overview of how they function in the job marketplace. Labor unions began to develop in the late Nineteenth Century in the United States. They were a response to the horrific labor conditions from which many individuals suffered. At this time, the industrialists, or “robber barons” were becoming increasingly wealthy at the expense of the laboring class. Leaders of the workers called for unionization, arguing that there was power in numbers. The premise behind a labor union was that they could negotiate for better terms if they stood together. If they were not treated fairly, either individually or as a group, they could strike, costing the management money. Officially, a labor union is the representative of a group of workers and has legal standing. However, they started out as controversial groups of individuals coming together (National Labor Relations Board [NLRB], 2016). With regards to labor unions, it is important to understand what “employment at will” means. Employment at will indicates that the person can be terminated without any reason. The company does not need to offer a valid reason for firing the person. The person is there “at the will” of the employer. However, a unionized employee cannot be fired for no reason; rather, they are not “at the will” of the employer. They have a collective bargaining agreement (CBA), or contract, that defines why and how they can be fired. Collective bargaining is a type of negotiation. This negotiation occurs between the organized group of employees, referred to as labor, and the management. Labor and management come to the table with their demands as respective entities. Over the course of negotiation, called bargaining, they agree on the terms of employment for the collective group of employees. Both labor and management must agree to the collective bargaining agreement, or labor contract. While many often consider that this is only in the favor of the labor entity, it also provides safeguards for the management. The management can adjust their budget to account for the demands of the labor entity. Employees cannot merely walk into the office of the human resources manager and demand a raise. Rather, there is an agreement between the two groups regarding what each side can demand. It may include things such as mandatory overtime, which ensures that the shifts are covered for the management (NLRB, 2016). It is important that both sides leave the bargaining table happy. While neither side will get everything that they want, both sides should leave with a satisfactory answer for their demands. The employees must feel that their needs are met by the management. They must believe that they have fair salaries and benefits, a recognized process to file a grievance if the employee believes that he or she has been treated unfairly, and a safe working environment. Also, an important concept is “just cause.” Unlike “at-will employees,” employees protected by a labor contract can only be disciplined or discharged for “just cause.” The reasons for discipline and discharge are normally stated in the contract. Management must also feel as if they have been treated fairly. The goal of management is to ensure that they have adequate means of production, or employees to do the work. This is the reason why mandatory overtime may be required in some jobs, such as nursing and firefighting. They must have the people to cover the shifts. However, other situations, such as manufacturing goods, also require enough people to ensure that their orders are met. The contract must provide for the company to be able to meet their needs (NLRB, 2016). A union contract is a legally binding agreement. If the company breaks any part of it, the union may file a grievance. A grievance is a formal complaint filed by an employee. For instance, if the employee believes that he or she was unfairly disciplined, the employee may file a grievance. The company must respond to the grievance. While the employee may offer an informal grievance, which is handled informally, a formal grievance requires a meeting where options to handle it are discussed. Grievances are the normal result of arbitrary discipline on the part of a manager (NLRB, 2016). Normally, an employee takes all concerns to a union steward, or delegate. The union steward is a person who is well-versed in the concepts of labor unions, management, and the particular union contract. This person is an official union representative. The person often mediates between the employee and the management. The person may also be present for any discussions between the labor and the management. Sometimes, these issues are handled in arbitration. Arbitration uses a neutral third party to facilitate discussions. Arbitration occurs when they cannot reach and middle ground. Various states have varying degrees of laws that protect the concerted activities of employees. For instance, some states do not allow people to be fired when they go on strike. Other states mandate that certain employees, such as firefighters and nurses, cannot go on strike since it would put the public at risk. These states often consider “mass call-ins” as a form of strike. This is when people all call in sick to work on the same day. This is a strike (NLRB, 2016). - National Labor Relations Board. (2016). Frequently asked questions. Retrieved from: https://www.nlrb.gov/resources/faq/nlrb
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Life insurance companies need to ensure that they have enough money to pay benefits when they are due, and they do this by holding reserves in cash. A cash reserve is a legal requirement mandated by state governments to ensure life insurance companies can pay stated claims. This acts to protect both policyholders and the insurer from default. Generally speaking, life insurance companies must keep reserves in stable investments, for example in cash, or in government bonds (or bond-like investments). This ensures that the reserves are sufficiently protected from loss. While there are usually no specific investment recommendations, insurance companies are generally encouraged to invest in very conservative investments for their cash reserves. States have individual requirements. For example, in New York, life insurance companies must separate their general account from their sub-account and treat each one differently. The general account is used for fixed investments for life and annuity contracts. The variable sub-account is used for variable life and annuity products. States will also use a mathematical formula to calculate the reserve requirements of life insurance companies based on the assets that they hold, and a state defined reserve minimum. Any life insurance company that does not meet the state minimum must then sell assets or raise capital to meet the reserve minimum. - "Practicing Financial Planning for Professionals, Practitioners' Version, 10th edition"; Sid Mittra, Anandi P. Sahu, Robert A Crane; 2007 - Financial Web: Life Insurance Company Reserves - "Life & Health Insurance, License Exam Manual, 6th Edition"; Dearborn Financial; 2004 - dollars image by peter Hires Images from Fotolia.com
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Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is the biggest shopping day of the year and this year was no exception. While 2014 in-store sales figures are still being calculated (and debated), online sales are available and show consumers spent over $2.5 billion online over the holiday weekend this year—a 26 percent increase over 2013. Of that, consumer electronics and apparel constituted the lion’s share of sales, making up over half of all purchases. Recently we described how innovation and global competition are rapidly bringing down the cost of certain goods and services and is thereby playing a critical role in combating the multi-decade stagnation of median wages. This year’s Black Friday sales numbers illustrate the point. Because of price declines outlined in the Consumer Price Index, on Black Friday the average wage earner was able to afford 42, 45, and 200 percent more apparel, electronics, and personal computers, respectively, than in 2000. That translated into over $620 million more sales over the Thanksgiving weekend. Now consider that because of price increases in areas such as health care and education, consumers could afford 15 and 35 percent less health care and child care/tuition in 2014 than 2000. What would have happened on Black Friday if the prices of electronics and apparel actually grew over the last decade as a portion of median income at the same rate as did health care? In other words, how much less value would consumers have actually got from their Black Friday purchases of electronics and clothes if those industries mirrored the health care industry? As the graph below shows, consumer would have effectively received less than half of the clothing, less than a quarter on new computers, and 40 percent less video and audio devices—all while spending the same amount of money. Black Friday Spending by Category, 2014 spending and spending if product prices grew at the same rate as health care between 2000 and 2013, Millions of dollars Source: Authors analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics and ComScore data. The bottom line is this: Prices have declined in IT products because of rapid technological advancement and in commodities like apparel because of cheaper imports and innovations in supply chain management, operations and logistics modeling. In both cases consumers are better off. Yet these benefits didn’t come about by accident. They are the output of public and private R&D expenditures, productive workers, and regulations that induced competition and incentivized equipment and capital investments. If we want an economy that is both growing and equitable, policy makers should consider ways to push similar innovation and competition policies throughout the entire economy.
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Vehicle Finance Explained In 2016, new car registrations were up, 2.3% on the previous year. The UK new car market has seen new highs in five consecutive years. The reason behind this growth, is a wide choice of new car models, and affordable finance deals*. Nearly 8 out of 10 cars that are bought in the UK, are done via vehicle finance options. Understanding the basics of Vehicle Finance: - When you agree on a loan, you will pay interest, plus the cost of the vehicle - APR (Annual Percentage Rate) is the rate which calculates the full repayable amount, including interest - Your credit score plays a big role in deciding your APR - The shorter the loan, the less interest you will pay Paying back your vehicle finance loan - Do not shorten the loan if the monthly repayments are not realistic - Missed payments can result in additional charges, which can later lead to serious financial problems. Your credit score will also be effected - Depending on your car loan, you could have your car repossessed if you fail to make your payments There are a few options at your disposal when it comes to Vehicle Finance. Click on the links below to read more. Do you have any other questions regarding vehicle finance? We have put together some of our most common questions. Click on the links below.
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What are social impact bonds and how do they work? An update to Social Impact Bonds in Australia including Australia’s first SIB focused on homelessness. (AHURI brief) Last updated 21 Jan 2020 In 2017 the Australian Government announced it would provide $10.2 million over 10 years to partner with state and territory governments to trial the use of Social Impact Bonds (SIBs). As part of that commitment SIBs funded a number of innovative programs, including ones aimed at improving housing and welfare outcomes for young people at risk of homelessness. What are social impact bonds? Social impact bonds—also known as social benefit bonds—pay a return to an investor when an agreed social benefit outcome has been achieved by a service provider. These social benefits might be anything from improving conditions for people experiencing chronic homelessness to improving employment outcomes for long-term unemployed young adults. The return to investors is partly generated by the cost savings to government, that is the reduction in costs to government in dealing with a social issue due to a SIB-funded program compared to the costs that would otherwise have been required. Payments to investors are conditional on the service provider actually achieving good results.
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- On June 30, 2020 - By Travis L. Palmer How are Dividends Taxed? How are They Reported? How are Dividends Taxed? How are They Reported? How and Why Do Companies Pay Dividends? For the joint-stock company, paying dividends is not an expense; rather, it is the division of after-tax profits among shareholders. Retained earnings (profits that have not been distributed as dividends) are shown in the shareholders’ equity section on the company’s balance sheet – the same as its issued share capital. Public companies usually pay dividends on a fixed schedule, but may declare a dividend at any time, sometimes called a special dividend to distinguish it from the fixed schedule dividends. Cooperatives, on the other hand, allocate dividends according to members’ activity, so their dividends are often considered to be a pre-tax expense. They are especially useful in retirement because they provide a source of regular and (somewhat) predictable income. Investorsalso see a dividend payment as a sign of a company’s strength and a sign that management has positive expectations for future earnings, which again makes the stock more attractive. A greater demand for a company’s stock will increase its price. However, you will need to pay taxes on any dividends you make. The exact dividend tax rate you pay will depend on what kind of dividends you have. Nonqualified dividends (also called ordinary dividends) are taxed at the regular federal income tax rate. Qualified dividends get the benefit of lower dividend tax rates because the IRS taxes them as capital gains. One investment strategy is to invest in stocks with the highest current dividend yields. As a result, a company that pays out a dividend attracts investors and creates demand for their stock. Some companies have dividend reinvestment plans, or DRIPs, not to be confused with scrips. DRIPs allow shareholders to use dividends to systematically buy small amounts of stock, usually with no commission and sometimes at a slight discount. In some cases, the shareholder might not need to pay taxes on these re-invested dividends, but in most cases they do. Cash dividends are the most common form of payment and are paid out in currency, usually via electronic funds transfer or a printed paper check. Generally, a capital gain occurs where a capital asset is sold for an amount greater than the amount of its cost at the time the investment was purchased. A dividend is a parsing out a share of the profits, and is taxed at the dividend tax rate. If there is an increase of value of stock, and a shareholder chooses to sell the stock, the shareholder will pay a tax on capital gains (often taxed at a lower rate than ordinary income). A dividend is allocated as a fixed amount per share with shareholders receiving a dividend in proportion to their shareholding. Dividends can provide stable income and raise morale among shareholders. The rating system is based on a company’s cash flow and earnings, among other factors. Dividends can be a significant source of income for your retirement. If you manage to find great companies and hold their stock for the long term, you will pay the lowest rate of capital gains tax. Dividends are also attractive for investors looking to generate income. However, a decrease or increase in dividend distributions can affect the price of a security. The stock prices of companies that have a long-standing history of dividend payouts would be negatively affected if they reduced their dividend distributions. Conversely, companies that increased their dividend payouts or companies that instituted a new dividend policy would likely see appreciation in their stocks. Such dividends are a form of investment income of the shareholder, usually treated as earned in the year they are paid (and not necessarily in the year a dividend was declared). For each share owned, a declared amount of money is distributed. The tax rates for ordinary dividends are the same the federal income tax rates, and these rates remain unchanged from 2019 to 2020. However, the income thresholds for each bracket increases slightly in 2020 to account for inflation. Similarly, the capital gains rate, which you pay for qualified dividends, is the same as 2018 but the brackets changed slightly due to inflation. The IRS considers dividends to be income, so you usually need to pay tax on them. Even if you reinvest all of your dividends directly back into the same company or fund that paid you the dividends, you will pay taxes. - However, a decrease or increase in dividend distributions can affect the price of a security. - Dividends are also attractive for investors looking to generate income. However, you will need to pay tax on any dividends you receive. Your dividend tax rate will depend on what type of dividends you have, how much you made from those dividends and how much other income you have. It can also be helpful to consult with a financial advisor to learn more about dividends and dividend taxes. Proponents of dividends point out that a high dividend payout is important for investors because dividends provide certainty about the company’s financial well-being. Typically, companies that have consistently paid dividends are some of the most stable companies over the past several decades. And the high dividend yield could have resulted more from a drop in the stock price—that may continue—than an increase in the dividend. Qualified dividends, on the other hand, are taxed at the capital gains rates, which are lower. For the 2019 tax year, you will not need to pay any taxes on qualified dividends as long as you have $38,600 or less of ordinary income. If you have between $38,600 and $425,800 of ordinary income, then you will pay a tax rate of 15% on qualified dividends. You can see these rates broken out by income in the tables below. A company’s fortunes can change over the years, and there are many reasons you might want or need to sell earlier than you originally anticipated. Dividends are a portion of a company’s profits paid to shareholders. Public companies (that sell stock to the public) pay dividends on a schedule, but they can pay these dividends at any time. A company can also pay a special or extra dividend in addition to regular dividends. A company’s willingness and ability to pay steady dividends over time – and its power to increase them – provide good clues about its fundamentals. Given this, there is an element of safety with dividend stocks vs newer, higher growth stocks. With high growth stock, investors come to expect that level of growth to be sustained and if it is not, the company’s stock prices can drop like a hot potato. In real estate investment trusts and royalty trusts, the distributions paid often will be consistently greater than the company earnings. This can be sustainable because the accounting earnings do not recognize any increasing value of real estate holdings and resource reserves. This may result in capital gains which may be taxed differently from dividends representing distribution of earnings. Just like a high dividend yield, a currently growing dividend payout isn’t a sure sign of a company that will continue to pay rising or even substantial dividends in the future. Reality Shares Advisors provides a DIVCON health rating for dividend-paying stocks that estimates the probability a dividend will grow or be cut within the next 12 months. What is a dividend example? Dividend. more The amount that you want to divide up. dividend ÷ divisor = quotient. Example: in 12 ÷ 3 = 4, 12 is the dividend. The exact dividend tax rate depends on what kind of dividends you have – ordinary or qualified. Earning dividends is a great incentive for investing in certain companies or mutual funds. Dividends are particularly useful for people who need to supplement their retirement income.
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A breakeven point is the number of units that a business needs to sell to cover costs. If a business: - Sells more units than the breakeven point, they will be profitable. - Sells the same number of units as the breakeven point, they will break even (make no profit or loss). - Sells fewer units than the breakeven point, they will lose money. Breakeven is calculated by looking at fixed (also known as overhead or indirect costs) and variable costs (the costs associated with producing more units) as well as the sale price of each unit. The breakeven point is important in planning for both profitability and avoidance of loss. Breakeven Units = Fixed Costs / (Price per Unit – Variable Cost per Unit) A business has a new product line with: - Fixed Costs of $20,000 - Variable Costs of $10 per unit - Units sell for $20 per unit Breakeven Units = 20,000 / (20 – 10) = 20,000 / 10 = 2,000 In this scenario, the firm will need to sell 2,000 units to breakeven. - Wikipedia – Break-even – Wikipedia entry on the break-even point. - BBC Bitesize – Breaking Even – A summary of the concept of break-even and how it is calculated. - Tim Berry – Right and Left Brain Solutions – Break-Even Analysis – A PDF outlining the method to conduct a break-even analysis. - Investopedia – Break-Even Analysis – An overview of break-even analysis and how to calculate it. - The Balance SMB – Use this formula to calculate a Breakeven point – An explanation of the break-even point and how it is calculated. - Accounting Tools – Breakeven point – A description of the breakeven point. - Entrepreneur – How to calculate ‘Breakeven’ – An overview and breakdown of the breakeven point.
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With The History of Investment Casting Spanning Back To 1800 BC With The History of Investment Casting Spanning Back To 1800 BC where it was used for artwork, it has emerged as one of the leading manufacturing processes. This methodology of investment casting is popular in India and is known for its ability to resist high temperatures and pressure while being available at affordable prices. Popularly known as lost was casting, the investment Castings Manufacturers India method which results in the shaping of the metals is one of the oldest techniques adopted by many industries in the country. The most common metals used for the investment casting include materials like aluminium, copper and steel to name a few. As a metal-forming technique, investment casting is widely used for products in the aircraft and power industries. The other industries that make use of the investment castings include manufacturers of pumps, chemicals, food processing, general engineering industries and so on. The weights of these castings manufacturing vary from industry to industry. The investment casting process is not simple yet the results are amazing. The method of metal cast is a time taking and it results in the development of intricately designed components. The various stages in the investment casting involve tooling, injection of patterns, assembly of the patterns, shell building, de-waxing and pre-firing. This is followed by casting, cleansing and then finally casting removal. Some of the main advantages of the investment casting over the other processes include its design flexibility. Using this technique, any number of complicated shapes can be manufactured with much ease and precision. In addition to this, the investment casting facilitates light-weight yet stronger components for the clients. Consistency and integrity are two other features that are certainly guaranteed by the investment casting process. A Guide To Maintain Prosthetic Parts By Manufacturers And Learn How To Prevent Problems While Using Such Devices A machine required proper caring and maintenance to perform in better way. In this article. Read More Investment Casting Manufacturers in the National and International Market 2015 Investment casting is also a manufacturing technique in which wax in the molten state is poured on the molted ceramic metal with a neat finishing coating..... Read More
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The global food system will experience an unprecedented combination of pressures over the next 40 years. Global population size will increase and competition for land, water and energy will intensify, while the effects of climate change will become increasingly apparent. Over this period, globalisation will continue, exposing the food system to novel economic and political pressures.This final report of the Foresight Global Food and Farming Futures Project argues that decisive action needs to take place now. The report identifies five considerable challenges ahead: Search resultsShowing items 1 through 9 of 31. Library ResourceJanuary, 2011Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Moldova, Belarus, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Eastern Europe, Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, Western Asia, Northern America, Northern Africa, Eastern Asia, Oceania, Southern Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean Library ResourceJanuary, 2011Uganda, Norway, Eastern Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa This article estimates the poverty reducing impact of the recent land reforms and land transfers in the different land tenure systems of Uganda. Using balanced panel data for 309 households in 2001, 2003, and 2005, models that control for unobserved household heterogeneity and endogeneity of land acquisition and disposition are employed to measure the poverty-reduction effect of land on household expenditure per adult equivalent. Significant poverty reduction effects of increased land access in form of owned, operated and market-accessed land were found. Library ResourceJanuary, 2011Qatar, Egypt, Nigeria, United States of America, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Indonesia, Brazil, United Kingdom, Ghana, Russia, Moldova, Ethiopia, Belarus, Mozambique, Laos, Turkmenistan, Philippines, Libya, Tajikistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Kuwait, Argentina, Kazakhstan, Sudan, Bahrain, Armenia, Saudi Arabia, Cambodia, Oceania, Western Asia, Europe, Eastern Asia, Southern Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Northern America, Northern Africa Recent increases in the level of agricultural commodity prices and the resulting demand for land has been accompanied by a rising interest in acquiring agricultural land by investors. This paper studies the determinants of foreign land acquisition for large-scale agriculture. Library ResourceReports & ResearchTraining Resources & ToolsJune, 2010Russia, Europe, Central Asia Amid heightened global uncertainties, Russia is experiencing a bumpy recovery. Domestic demand is rising, but unemployment remains high, and credit and investment remain limited. The budget has benefited from higher oil prices, but fiscal consolidation remains important in the medium term. Crumbling infrastructure, especially in transport, could hamper the economy's competitiveness and longer-term growth prospects. The debt crisis in Western Europe sharpens the downside risks to global recovery and oil prices. Library ResourceReports & ResearchPolicy Papers & BriefsSeptember, 2010Malaysia, Thailand, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Russia, India, Kazakhstan, Eastern Asia, Oceania, Southern Asia, South-Eastern Asia This report presents the results of extensive work of the smart green infrastructure task force commissioned by the World Bank under the Global Tiger Initiative (GTI). The report benefited from advice, ideas, and information about tigers and tiger-friendly infrastructure development from staff at the World Bank, and from several institutions that promote tiger and biodiversity conservation throughout the world. Library ResourcePolicy Papers & BriefsDecember, 2010Poland The study is aimed at the analysis of the situation in the agricultural land market in Poland, including the identification and description of factors affecting the turnover and rules governing the trade in farmland and the influence of the Agricultural Property Agency on the supply and demand relationships in trade in agricultural land. The main and critical factors affecting the demand-supply relations in the market are identified. Library ResourceConference Papers & ReportsJanuary, 2010Ukraine This case study will focus on valuing degraded land conservation and assessment of the potential costs and benefits of large scale land retirement within the transition economy of Ukraine. The assessment methods will follow the framework developed to estimate costs and benefits of Conservation Reserve Program. The results of the economic assessment would increase the understanding of the efficient allocation of resources and would lead to developing a market-based approach to agricultural land retirement in transition economy. Library ResourceConference Papers & ReportsMay, 2010Bulgaria The transition of a centrally planned to a more market economy provides a natural Experiment on the role of institutions and exchange in economic growth. This paper uses a unique dataset based on a survey of 305 dairy producing and supplying households in Bulgaria to analyze the impact of late payments for delivered products and farm assistance programs. The results of the dynamic panel analysis indicate that late payments have a negative influence on farm growth, while contracting with interlinked farm assistance programs, had a positive effect on farm growth. Library ResourceJournal Articles & BooksDecember, 2010Hungary While the development, processing and logistics of fossil resources is extremely concentrated and monopolysed, the production and utilisation of renewable energy – with the exception of larger hydroelectric plants – is deconcentrated. It is especially important that the renewable sources of energy available to us might play a decisive role in the uprise of the Hungarian countryside, as green energy production might be profitable even in areas where the land is less suitable for agriculture. There is a hot sea beneath 40% of the territory of the country. Library ResourceJournal Articles & BooksDecember, 2010Hungary, Europe Substituting fossil fuels has been a prominent issue in the EU in recent years. Energy security, agricultural and environmental considerations have all played a part in the development of alternative fuels and in the creation of incentives promoting their use. The system, like big systems in general, cannot react to new developments quickly and it seems there are elements that we should seriously consider removing or replacing to avoid adverse effects. Land Library Search Through our robust search engine, you can search for any item of the over 60,000 highly curated resources in the Land Library. If you would like to find an overview of what is possible, feel free to peruse the Search Guide.
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California is the largest producer of agricultural goods in the country, and is one of the largest agricultural producing regions in the world. Farmworkers play a key role in the operation and delivery of the state’s food system. Despite this, farmworkers face a number of economic disadvantages compared to California’s population as a whole. Farmworkers tend to have low incomes; higher risk of living in poverty; and limited access to safe, healthy, and affordable housing choices. Although it is difficult to determine the number of farmworkers (both migratory and permanent), estimates range from. 391,700 to 802,662 depending on the source. Characteristics of the farmworker population have changed during the past two decades. There has been a decrease in the number of single farmworkers. In 1990, 41 percent of farmworkers lived alone. In 2012, 75 percent of farmworkers worked alongside or lived with family members. In addition to policy work on farmworker housing, HCD administers the following programs: HCD also operates California's Office of Migrant Services (OMS) in order to provide safe, stable, and affordable rental housing during the peak harvest season for migrant farmworkers and their families. In 2015-16, HCD administered funding that created or rehabilitated 1,880 migrant farmworker rental homes, which are operated during harvest season. California's 2015-16 Budget Act provided $3.5 million in General Fund appropriation, which combined with $6.7 million of remaining Proposition 1C funds, allowed for $10.2 million in facility improvements in a number of the 24 existing OMS housing centers. HCD allocated these funds to rehabilitate wastewater systems at several of the these housing centers. Office of Migrant Services – Water Conservation Grant: As part of the Drought State of Emergency declared January 17, 2014, Governor Brown charged the California Department of General Services (DGS) with "immediate implementation of water reduction plans for all state facilities." DGS made $513,155 available for OMS centers as part of an interagency agreement with HCD. HCD subsequently increased each OMS center's operating budget to fund water improvements such as water-efficient showerheads and toilets. Learn more about the housing needs of farmworkers in California's Housing Future: Challenges and Opportunities.
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Q1 Naming cells in spreadsheets (4 marks) Why replace cell references with names? Create a simple spreadsheet and paste Owners Equity plus Liabilities = Assets. Q2 Negative numbers (3 marks) How can negative numbers be displayed in brackets? Why do accountants display negative numbers in brackets? Paste a simple spreadsheet example. See: Q3 Separation of data and report areas (5 marks) Explain why an accountant should design spreadsheets with a completely separate data entry area and a separate report area? Paste a simple spreadsheet example. Show normal and normal views. Q4 IF functions (5 marks) Find a relevant Youtube and explain the 'IF' statement (function)? Provide a simple spreadsheeted accounting example for a trial balance. Show normal and normal views. Q5 Periodic systems (5 marks) Explain periodic inventory systems. Give examples. (Watch the 3 videos on Inventory in Interact2 Resources). Q6 Worksheet and financial reports (12 marks) Watch the Foot Worksheet movie in Interact2 resources. Download the relevant word file also on Interact2 resources. This Word file has a template. A. Create a handwritten solution showing the worksheet and the financial reports. Paste images of your handwritten report in your assignment. If using a smart phone, consider using a free scanning app such as Camscanner, Office Lens, Google Drive or search for an app. Let us know which app you chose. B. Create a spreadsheet solution following all the usual spreadsheet requirements. Follow all the spreadsheet requirements including a separate data entry and report area and implement IF functions wherever appropriate. As usual, paste the normal view and the formula view. C. Write a business report evaluating spreadsheets as a tool for accounting. You may wish to search the Internet with terms such as “advantages of spreadsheets”. Use Internet resources to help you prepare and format your business report: Q7 Application of Inventory flow assumptions (10 marks) Using the template provided, create a well-designed spreadsheet to solve the problem below. Make several of your own changes to the original data and create a new solution. In this second version, create prices that decline throughout the month. Paste the two solutions and one formula view. Highlight your changes. Explain the significance of the changed results, Q8 Bank Reconciliation (10 marks) Prepare a Bank Reconciliation Statement from the following data. A. Create a handwritten solution. Paste images of your handwritten report in your assignment. If using a smart phone, consider using a free scanning app such as Camscanner, Office Lens or Google Drive or search for an app. Let us know which app you chose. B. Spreadsheet. Paste the normal and formula views. Use an IF function. Then in a second version change all the data and paste a new normal view. Ensure your bank reconciliation still balances. Q9 Journalising accounts receivable entries (6 marks) Using your text as a resource, show the journal entries needed to show sales on credit, the collection of part of the amount owing, the write off of accounts receivable, the reinstatement of an amount written off and the collection in full of the amount owing. Create your own numbers. A spreadsheet is not required. Q10 Estimating bad debts (4 marks) Contrast two different methods of estimating bad debts. Create simple examples. Q11 Evaluation of a firm’s financial position (6 marks) How can we use receivables to evaluate a firm's financial position? Give numerical examples. Q12 Dishonour of a note receivable (8 marks) Write a scenario which includes a credit sale, a conversion to a Note receivable, the dishonour of the note and subsequent delayed payment. Show the journal entries. Create your own simple numbers. Q13 Work Integrated Assessment case study (12 marks) Wesfarmers Annual Report 2016 Learning Objectives: The subject you are studying is vocational. It is designed with the workplace in mind. Work integrated assessment provides opportunities for students to link theory and skills learned in a subject to a real work context. Students can use these opportunities to develop and practice the professional and academic skills they learn about in a subject or through the online environment and then be assessed on their capabilities in these simulated authentic environments. Work integrated assessment allows students to simulate and situate their learning in an authentic workplace that encourages them to explore their knowledge and apply it to practice. Integrating real world, authentic assessment tasks allows students to learn about the particular environments and culture of their chosen professions, while at the same time absorbing and practicing the skills they need to succeed. Doing these tasks can help students develop skills that can help their employability. Resources for this task include the 2016 Annual Report for Wesfarmers. Your friend Vikram is studying architecture at another University and knows very little about accounting and annual reports. His uncle gave him $50,000 recently to invest. Vikram knows you have begun studying accounting and is considering buying Wesfarmers shares. He has some questions for you. Present your answers concisely in a business report format. 1. Identify and describe some of the businesses which are part of the Wesfarmers group. 2. Examine, define and comment on the Statement of Comprehensive Income. 3. Using the Internet and the Wesfarmers Annual Report, examine, define and comment on Dividends, Earnings per Share, Return on Equity, Risk and Mitigation, Sustainability, Corporate Governance, Income Statement and Balance Sheet. 4. Calculate and comment on the Working Capital ratio. 5. Create two charts in Excel from Net Profit after Tax (see page 16) showing 3D columns. Paste the spreadsheet graphs in your assignment. Also, paste the graph data area. 6. Summarise your advice to Vikram re the investment decision. Find the Wesfarmers 2016 Annual Report on the web. Quality of presentation including APA referencing - 10 marks • Relevance of the answer. Are the important issues raised in the question identified? Did the student answer the question? • Critical capacity. Has reference material been carefully analysed or critically accepted? • Structure of the answer. Is the answer well-structured and the argument logically developed? • Writing style. Is the style concise and lucid or confused, making it difficult for the reader to get the point? • Scope of reading. Does the answer indicate a satisfactory coverage of literature relevant to the questions? • be well planned with arguments flowing logically; • use correct sentence structure, punctuation and spelling; • present original ideas where appropriate; and • present a justified conclusion and acknowledge all sources. Please read this in conjunction with the assignment requirements below. • Single spacing and small margins are welcome to save paper; • For any business report style questions a report structure is expected; • Provide references throughout your assignment including page references to texts, articles and URL’s of websites; • APA is the referencing style to be used. Acknowledge ALL sources used; • At the end of your assignment include a complete Bibliography (Reference List) of resources actually used including the Internet, textbook, Interact resources, software help files and videos supporting this subject. 1. Your submission will consist of two files - a Word file and an Excel file. 2. The first page of your assignment Word file should consist of the following parts: • subject code and name; • your name and student ID number; • assignment task number; • a list of questions attempted and a list of questions not attempted; • an academic integrity statement that the work submitted is your own and that all sources used have been acknowledged; • dates and details of any extension granted; usually include a copy of the approval email; • an acknowledgement of all your sources using APA, and • the following statement can be used: THE WORK IN THIS ASSIGNMENT IS MY OWN WORK, AND HAS NOT BEEN PLAGIARISED. 3. Record your name, student number and page number as a footer on every page of your Word file. 4. Present assignment solutions in your Word file in the same sequence as the questions. Provide references throughout (question by question if appropriate) and include a bibliography of all sources used including internet resources, at the end of your assignment. If using internet resources, include the URL and date of access. Use APA 6th style for all of your references. 5. Please check for viruses. Do not use macros in your spreadsheet files. 1. For every question requiring a spreadsheet solution, paste into the Word file displaying row and column headings including the spreadsheet normal view and formula view. Thus your Word file will provide a complete answer to every question. The pasted formula view may need to have adjusted column widths to display formulas correctly. Use portrait orientation wherever possible. The separate submitted Excel file will provide a clear demonstration of correct spreadsheet structures. You may need to break up your report/solution into separate images. 2. For good spreadsheet design it is very important that you have completely separate data entry and solution/report areas. A good spreadsheet solution format is to key in the question in a structure which allows the solution to be completely formula driven. There should be no data in the report/solution area. 3. Create all spreadsheets solutions as separate spreadsheets in one workbook. Name the tags at the bottom of the computer screen with the question number, and sub-section as appropriate. See examples in the Spreadsheet Advice PDF in Interact Resources. 4. Save your workbook with the cursor in cell A1 of the first spreadsheet. 5. Where appropriate, use the IF function to provide built in checks of balances, net profit/net loss, favourable/unfavourable variances etc. 6. How can you display negative numbers in brackets? Google the question! Hint. Format / Cells / Number and select Custom. Enter this: #,##0;(#,##0);0. 7. We have provided spreadsheet examples to guide you in the Spreadsheet Advice PDF in Interact2 Resources - it is important that you study these examples. Also consider using the spreadsheet templates available with your text and other online spreadsheet resources but note that the text templates do not necessarily comply with the subject spreadsheet requirements. Solutions to questions should vary in length according to the nature of the question. Solutions to exercises and problem questions should be in a similar form to that demonstrated in the text.
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How is the Minimum Payment Amount of Credit Card Calculated? Non-individuals are called by banks at least once a week and they are tried to be persuaded to obtain credit cards. These cards, which make the life of the person easier when used within certain limits, can put the life of the cardholder in a difficult situation when they go beyond the borders and spend more. Payment of the credit cards that are owned can be realized in different ways, sometimes just in time, sometimes delayed or below the amount to be paid or to cover the entire amount. There are some factors that banks pay attention to when making these payments. One of them is the minimum payment amount The minimum payment amount is the minimum payment amount that should be made. This payment must be made until the credit card’s due date. But if we touch on some details before calculating the minimum payment amount; When you calculate the minimum payment amount when you get the first credit card you have, it becomes an important data. Regardless of the limit, 40% of the total debt must be paid in the credit cards received after 17 December 2010. For example, in January 2015, when you buy your first credit card from the X bank with a limit of 3,000 USD and assume that your statement is 1.000 USD, the minimum amount you will have to pay will be 400 USD. Assuming that in February 2016, after your first year has expired, your statement has again reached 1,000 USD, the minimum amount you have to pay is 300 USD. The calculation of this amount is included in item (e) of the regulation of the banking regulatory and supervisory authority; “The minimum amount to be paid is thirty percent of the term debt on credit cards with a credit card limit of up to 15,000 Turkish dollars, thirty-five percent of the term debt on credit cards with a credit card limit of 15,000 Turkish dollars and 20,000 Turkish dollars and above. “Forty percent of the term debt on credit cards and forty percent of the term debt will not be less than forty percent from the date of use on newly allocated credit cards.” It indicated. While some banks calculate this amount They take the sum of 100% of the installment amount of that month and 25% of other transactions of the same month. Some other banks, on the other hand, calculate the minimum payment amount as 25% of the period’s debt without taking into account the installment amount and reflect it on the statement. In cases where the minimum payment cannot be made; The bank reaches the cardholder by phone, e-mail or letter and sends a warning. In this process, the cardholder is included in the delayed payments group of less than 30 days. It applies daily delay interest to the debt amount written in the statement for each day that passes the due date. Credit card is closed to cash advance withdrawal. The Credit Registration Bureau is warned through the bank and it is observed that the banks registered in the system have made a delayed payment. To mention the importance of Credit Registration Bureau; It is a system where all bank transactions are recorded in a single database and the person is rated between 0 and 1900. A low score may produce future credit card applications or results that may hinder your withdrawal. If the payment is not made at the end of 1 month, the bank closes the credit card to all transactions and the cardholder is warned with recurring periods about the payment of the debt. At the end of the 90-day period, the legal process begins. Payment of the total debt is requested within 15 days from the end of this period. The person who will perform his debt can contact the bank and request an installment. If the payment will not be made, bank lawyers apply to the court and try to collect them through the execution they will receive.
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The European Court of Auditors is one of five institutions of the European Union. Its "mission is to audit independently the collection and spending of European Union funds and, through this, assess the way that the European institutions discharge these functions". This article or section should be merged with List of European Union-related topics The European Union has several institutions: The European Parliament The European Council The Council of the European Union (or Council of Ministers) The European Commission The European Court of Justice (incorporating the Court of First Instance... The Court of Auditors checks that all the Union's revenue has been received and all its expenditure incurred in a lawful and regular manner and that the EU budget has been managed soundly. The Court was established on 22 July 1975 by the Budgetary Treaty of 1975. The Court started operating as an external Community audit body in October 1977. Since the Treaty of Maastricht the European Court of Auditors has been recognised as one of the institutions of the European Communities. The treaties of the European Union are effectively its constitutional law, making up the EUs primary legislation. ... The Maastricht treaty (formally, the Treaty on European Union) was signed on 7 February 1992 in Maastricht between the members of the European Community and entered into force on 1 November 1993. ... The Court has one member from each EU country, appointed by the Council for a renewable term of six years. Even after enlargement there will still be one member per EU country but, for the sake of efficiency, the Court can set up "chambers" (with only a few members each) to adopt certain types of report or opinion. The Council of the European Union forms, along with the European Parliament, the legislative arm of the European Union (EU). ... The Enlargement of the European Union is the growth in size of the European Union, from the six founding member states in 1952, to the 25 current member states. ... In their countries of origin, the members of the Court have all worked for an auditing institution or are specifically qualified for that work. They are chosen for their competence and independence, and they work full-time for the Court. The members elect one of their number as President for a term of three years. The Court's main role is to check that the EU budget is correctly implemented — in other words, that EU income and expenditure is legal and above board and to ensure sound financial management. So its work helps guarantee that the EU system operates efficiently and openly. To carry out its tasks, the Court investigates the paperwork of any organisation handling EU income or expenditure. If need be, it carries out on-the-spot checks. Its findings are written up in reports which draw the attention of the Commission and the member states to any problems. To do its job effectively, the Court of Auditors must remain independent of the other institutions but at the same time stay in constant touch with them. One of its key functions is to help the budgetary authority (the European Parliament and the Council) by presenting them every year with a report on the previous financial year. The comments it makes in this annual report play a very important role in Parliament's decision whether or not to approve the Commission's handling of the budget. If satisfied, the Court of Auditors also sends the Council and Parliament a statement of assurance that European taxpayers' money has been properly used. The European Parliament is the parliamentary body of the European Union (EU), directly elected by EU citizens once every five years. ... Finally, the Court of Auditors gives an opinion before the EU's financial regulations are adopted. It can comment at any time on specific issues, or it can give an opinion at the request of one of the EU institutions. Organization of work The Court of Auditors works independently, and is free to decide how to schedule its auditing activities, how and when to present its observations, and what publicity to give to its reports and opinions. It has approximately 760 qualified staff, of whom about 250 are auditors. The auditors are divided into "audit groups". They prepare draft reports on which the Court takes decisions. The auditors frequently go on tours of inspection to the other EU institutions, the member states and any country that receives aid from the EU. Indeed, although the Court's work largely concerns money for which the Commission is responsible, in practice 90% of this income and expenditure is managed by the national authorities. The Court of Auditors has no legal powers of its own. If auditors discover fraud or irregularities they pass the information as quickly as possible to the EU bodies responsible, so they can take the appropriate action. For eleven years in a row the European Court of auditors has refused to sign off the EU accounts, stating that they cannot verify the location of 65% of EU funds, although independent financial experts place the figure at 93.4%. A large amount of the endemic fraud in the EU comes from CAP with funds disappearing in the Balkans and Russia.The court suggested that EU staff were abusing the disability system on a large scale, costing taxpayers £54 million a year. Half the claimants had psychological or stress-related complaints. A court official said: "These are not coal miners or deep-sea fishermen. It's not normal for so many to retire for ill-health." 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