The Effects of Merger and Acquisitions on the Recent Worldwide Assignment

The Effects of Merger and Acquisitions on the Recent Worldwide Financial Crisis - Assignment Example Mergers occur when two or more entities come together (in a form of partnership) to form a single trading unit- the entities cease to exist and form a new firm. A good example is the merger of two banks Lloyds TSB and HBOS, following the global financial crisis, to form Lloyds TSB-HBOS (Rosenbaum, 2009). Acquisitions on the other hand, refer to one entity, the bidding company, taking over a target entity, by acquiring, through purchase, of its stakes that could include shares, stocks (majority control of its capital) or assets. For example, Lehman Brothers was declared bankrupt (at a debt of 613 Billion Dollars) due to the recent global financial crisis was bailed out by the American Federal Government (Mihm, 2010). Therefore, the major distinction between mergers and acquisition is the position of the shareholders. In mergers, the shareholders exchange their shares for shares of the new entity, while in Acquisitions; the target company is bought out, with shareholders paid in cash o r debt. Objectives of Mergers and Acquisitions The current wave of M&A began in 2005. A report by the International Monetary Fund indicates that, during this time, the world’s real GDP grew by 4.8%. ... Many business firms opt for M&A due to many reasons. To state briefly, it is argued most firms, go for M&A, to cut on production costs; that, it is cost effective in the long run to merge with or acquire a firm producing a raw material for the larger firm. This saves on market exchange costs while the synergy due to M&A cuts on departmental and running costs, compared to an increased revenue stream from a large market share and a centralized management. Secondly, M&A is seen to achieve competitive advantage, due to new market knowledge and goodwill acquired, territorial advantage of the native firm acquired. A firm will merge or acquire another, and excel in the new market, due to the knowledge and experience of the target entity, as opposed to efforts of the bidding company going to it alone, in the foreign market (Shan & Hamilton, 1991). Another reason for M&A is the financial advantage of tax reliefs. It is argued that a company which reports loses, is more likely to be bought off by another profitable one, as the target company’s reported loss will be utilized in reducing tax liability. However, most governments like the United States have legislations that limit and check against this practice (Mihm, 2010). A statistical study by Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies & Research indicated that, the Arabian banks and Companies, which are smaller in size compared to similar foreign institutions needed to merge so as to remain globally competitive. Also, indicated in the report is because, in the first three quarters of 2008, there were 48 mergers in the Middle East only (Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research, 2009). Shan & Hamilton in their article â€Å"country-specific advantage and

United states search for alternative fuel sources Essay Example for Free

United states search for alternative fuel sources Essay The world over, nation’s economies depend on fuel sources for their growth. Fuel sources are crucial as they offer fuel and act as sources of power for the production of goods and services. A nation’s economic growth is very crucial since it also affects the politics of the nation as well as people’s social life. Consequently, nations have had an increased demand to develop alternative fuel sources. The United States of America has not lacked behind. As a developed nation, it has been compelled to see to it that it develops and adopts alternative fuel sources so as to sustain its economic growth and ensure that the future economy is safe. In the United States of America, the search for alternative fuels was still a matter of concern. Before the year 1920, the super power was still in the verge for searching for alternative fuel sources. In fact, the Stanley Steamer Automobile was not in the market by the mid 1930s (Bernstein, pp 54) the steamer was powered by different types of fuel i.e. gasoline, coal, charcoal, raw petroleum and wood. Combustion of coal and other petroleum products produced smog, which was a health hazard. Gasoline then became the only source of power for motor vehicles (Berinstein, pp 59). Alternative fuels are usually used to mean fuels for motor vehicles but not gasoline. Any other fuel that is not fossil can also be termed as an alternative fuel source. Alternative sources of energy or power like hydroelectric dams and geothermal power plants cannot be said to be alternative fuel sources. Alternative fuel is also known as non-conventional fuels. The term alternative fuels usually refer to renewable sources of energy (Hass, pp 61). Examples of common alternative fuels included biodiesel, ethanol, butanol, chemically stored electricity (batteries fuel cells), peanut oil, hydrogen methane, and natural gas. The growing interest of people desiring to change their way of life is one of the factors which has led to the search for alternative sources of fuel in the United States of America. People desire to raise their living standards by looking for alternative sources of fuel. They need power sources, which are efficient and can be relied on. In addition, United States economy is high and the nation wants to ensure that production and manufacturing of goods and services is not affected so the nation has seen to it that sources of power are efficient and reliable. As a Super power, the United States of America has to ensure that its politics are carried out well not to forget its fight against terrorism which requires effective power sources. One of the reasons for the search for alternative fuel sources is sustainability. The economy, environment, and the geopolitics of the United States of America require sources of fuel which can be sustained. One of the main aims when looking for a source of fuel is its ability to store energy. The energy has to be stored in a form that is stable and that can be transported easily from its point of production to the consumer. Most fuels that store chemical potential energy are referred to as chemical fuels. This is important so that the user will consume the fuel whenever he wants. The energy released is in the form of heat and can be used as a source of power for an engine or a source of heat for a building. Most alternative sources of fuel can be used more than once and can sustain their energy for long a long period of time. The United States of America has had a great zeal and zest to search for alternative fuel sources. This is as a result of the environmental hazards caused by the existing ones. Secondly, another major concern has been the fact that, direct use of conventional fuels may contribute to the global warming crisis. Continued use of alternative fuels in the United States of America has affected and will continue to affect the country’s economy. For instance, in the 1940s, there was a lot of smog in American cities, which caused a serious hazard to its environment ( Bernstein pp 60) in the 1960s, most of America’s waters were not fit for human consumption because there was a lot of acid rain poisoning (Flavin, pp 98 ). As a result, American States decided to rise up and fight air pollution, which was eminent in their states. Each state stood by itself and decided to take measures to end the eminent dangers. Laws were enacted by the federal government whose aim was to reduce air pollution and eventually end it (Hostetter pp 76). In the early 1990’s, vehicles powered by ethanol were introduced in the market in a bid to meet the regulations of the 1990 Clean Air Act in the United States. By the end of the year 1999, ethanol, which is produced from corn and other plant products yield approximately $5 billion (US Dollars) annually to farmers (Hass pp 60). Vehicles powered by electricity were also introduced in the market. The major set back with these vehicles was that recharging posed a major challenge to the users. Manufacturers also opted to substitute traditional diesel, which is derived from vegetable oil with biodiesel. Motor vehicle manufacturers in the United States of America have preferred to use methanol, which is derived from natural gas. Consequently, gasoline has been substituted with compressed natural gas (Hass, pp 61). In developed countries like the United States of America, a great percentage of the total energy budget is spent on trucks and automobiles. Since most of the interests on alternative sources of fuels have paid a lot of attention on vehicles used for transportation, which consume nearly ? of petroleum consumption, most alternative fuels have been found not to be effective (Berinstein pp 34) In the United States of America, alternative fuels are designed with the citizen’s needs in mind, not withstanding the types of needs, whether economic, political or environmental. For instance, in the Mid-West of the United States of America particularly in Illinois and Minnesota, gasoline is more expensive than E85, environmentally; cars powered by gasoline pollute 90% more than those powered by electricity (Hass, pp 62). It is costly for governments to develop alternative fuels. Most governments offer task breaks to manufacturing companies, which develop alternative sources of energy (Berinstein, pp 45). Consequently, this will affect a country’s economy and the United States of America is no exception. In addition, the amount of available oil reserves is uncertain. It is difficult to see underground and determine the amount of oil reserves even if the reserves have been supplying oil for a long period of time (proven-reserves). Nowadays, oil extraction process uses a lot of energy, electrical energy and heat, which comes from natural gas, which is in short supply. Currently, non-conventional oil production is not very efficient in producing energy and has a large environmental impact than conventional oil production (Berinstein pp 69) In conclusion, the United States of America will relentlessly continue to search for alternative fuel sources, which will continue to affect the country’s economy, both negatively and positively, in the present and in the future. This is because humans cannot meet their social, economic and political needs without the use fuels. What the United States needs is to ensure that the alternative fuel sources can be sustained and cannot cause health hazards to the environment. References Berinstein, P. Alternative Energy: Facts, Statistics and Issues. Westport, Conn. : Oryx Press, 2001. Flavin, C. â€Å"Clean as a Breeze. † Time, 15 December 1997. 60-62 Hass, N. â€Å"Alternative Fuels. † Financial World, 19 January 1993. Hostetter, M. , ed. Energy Policy. New York: H. W. Wilson. 2002.

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Nowadays the children spent most of the time watching television than years ago, and therefore viewing more advertisements. The study conducted by Children’s National Institute found that children in America are spending more time watching television programs in a year than they are spending in school (Dumont, 2001). Within their website, the American Academy of Pediatrics says that advertising to children is deceptive and studies shown that children recall the ads on television whether it is an ad for a toy or food items. Children are even remembering the ads targeted towards their parents and also able to identify the alcohol and tobacco ads (Gardner, 2011). There exists a strong need to ban advertisements on television programs targeted for children under age 10 because the children are just like flowers having innocent and immature minds and they are not at a position to judge the benefits and harms associated with the products being advertised. Advertising is the art of a ttracting the human intelligence to get money from it. In the present scenario the great deal of adverting has been targeted towards children. As per the study of the Global issues organization, children are the most captive audiences for the United States marketers and an average child watches an estimate of nearly forty thousand television commercials per year (Gardner, 2011). Advertisement on TV targeted towards children can adversely affect their mental and physical health. The minds of children are very sensitive and they believe advertising claims they see on the TV. As the children under age 10 have immature minds the advertisers use special tactics to appeal to young viewers. The children also emulate the characters they see in the ads such as Barb... ...ernment says that advertising targeted to children is morally and ethically unacceptable, since children cannot distinguish the purpose of advertising. In Belgium, it is forbidden to telecast the ads during children’s programs as well as during the 5 minutes before and after them (Gardner,2011). Australia also banned advertisement during children programs. In addition to these the parents also had to educate the children the negative aspects of advertising and teach them the importance of healthy food habits. It is the responsibility of every parent to make their child aware of the negative effects of the media surrounding them and educate them. Will the marketing agents will completely stop targeting children remains a question of concern and the future of the children and their families remains ambiguous until there is a complete ban on advertisements.

Hunting and Animals Essay

Charles Dickens once said, â€Å"There is a passion for hunting something deeply implanted in the human breast. † I agree with this quote. Hunting is very exciting and fun. However, many disagree with me. No one rides the fence though. You either think that hunting is good or that hunting is bad. What do you believe? Do you think hunting is positive or negative? I believe hunting is good because it helps feed those in need, it helps control the population of wild animals, and it helps farmers who may have animals on their land they want to get rid of. A lot of people look at hunting and think of all the gruesome things we are going to do to Bambi. They never stop to think about what the hunter is doing with the game. Hunters aren’t just killing animals for fun, they use the meat to either eat or donate it. Several hunters give their game to people in need. They donate their meat to homeless shelters or food banks for less fortunate people that might not be able to afford to put enough food on the table. That way the people in need will be able to have a little bit extra on their plate. Hunting also helps control the population of wild animals. You can only hunt during a certain period of time during the year so that the animals are able to reproduce and won’t become extinct. You are also limited to the amount of game you can get. That way it won’t become a chaotic free-for-all and protects the animals from being wiped out. However, if hunting wasn’t legal, the population of wild animals would skyrocket. This would cause a boost in the already high number of car crashes due to animals, such as deer standing in the middle of the road. According to State Farm, an estimated 1. 5 million vehicles collide with deer in the United States. This caused over $1. 1 billion in property damage. These crashes also caused several injuries and deaths. Hunters must also pay to get their hunting license. The money they spend for their licenses go back to the conservation of the environment. Finally, hunting also gets rid of unwanted pests. Several animals annoy farmers and other land owners by messing with the farmer’s crops. Animals will go through the fields and eat the crops that the farmers can go out of business because the crops aren’t plentiful or good enough. For this reason we need hunters because farmers wouldn’t be able to succeed and all of us would suffer because the less crops coming into the stores, the more money the stores are going to ask for the customers to pay for the product. So actually vegetarians depend on hunters. Most vegetarians buy their vegetables from local stores. Hunters get rid of the animals that would ruin the food vegetarians would buy. Many people think hunting is wrong simply because they don’t look at the benefits that come with hunting. Hunting has many benefits including feeding others, controlling wildlife population, and helping farmers get rid of unwanted pests. For most hunters, the reward isn’t killing animals, it’s knowing they helped people that may not be able to survive or succeed without them. That’s what boosts my passion to hunt.

Colonial School vs Modern Era

Colonial School vs. Modern Era The impact of schools has been ever changing. From their New England traditions, to civilizing of western settlers, and finally the requirement of educated individuals what schools and education have to do in society is constantly being molded and remolded. New models, ideas, ideals, and requirements for schools are constantly being established and have come a long way from the colonial period to the modern era.During colonial times school and education was used to â€Å"maintain the authority of the government and religion† (Spring 13) as well as to maintain social distinction and uphold morals. Unlike today, many schools in the New England colonies relied heavily upon religious and racist teachings. And many people agreed that it was important to include religion in schools just as it was included in many other practices at the time. This however created a major problem for the growing country as schools not only excluded all religions besides Protestant Christianity but also as a result were racist against peoples of other beliefs.Many new immigrants to the United States were shocked and upset that a nation boasting freedom of religion was forcing one specific religion through the use of schools and even discriminating against the people of different religious backgrounds. As pointed out in the film School: The Story of American Public Education, Part 1 early Irish settlers, who were mostly devout Catholics, came to find that the primers used in schools forced children to not only learn and recall Christian beliefs and proverbs but also painted Irishmen in an undoubtedly negative light going even so far as to call them â€Å"foul† and even the â€Å"lowest of people†.As a result of this discrimination Catholic groups in the nineteenth century rebelled and reform of schools began to take place. Schools were also means to teach children to obey the laws of society and the government. Much of colonial society was based upon class and the distinction between them. It was not only important to the puritan society that children read the Bible but also become good workers and members of society.First thanks to the Massachusetts Law of 1642 and then in 1647 the â€Å"Old Deluder Satan Law† (Spring 17) a system was established that required towns to be concerned with the literacy and education of their children. It also required towns with over fifty households to appoint a teacher to teach reading and writing in the community and those with over one hundred households to also establish a grammar school, which emphasized Latin and Greek, to prepare students for higher education.During the colonial period apprenticeship was common but because the nation was small many of the apprenticeships were either cut short or unavailable. It was one of the jobs of a master to teach literacy and maybe arithmetic to his apprentice but because of the unavailability many fell short of this requirement. It then fell upon the law to create the aforementioned schools and educate children to not only teach them the ability to read the bible and the laws of the nation but to also educate them in the proper way to conduct themselves in social and formal work settings.Much of the actual teaching of morals and way of conducting oneself was taught in the literacy schools, once a child was able to adhere to the rules and was sufficient enough in reading and writing they were able to attend grammar schools, with enough money in some cases, so that they may be able to move onto college and careers beyond. It comes as no surprise that English colonists thought of the Native Americans as uncivilized, lawless, and godless and attempted to introduce all of these elements to them through schools and religious institutions for their own benefit.Here education served an entirely different purpose, as cultural imperialism. Despite the disinterest from Native Americans, and cultures worldwide, the En glish refused to give up their hopes on instilling their culture and beliefs upon other peoples. In North America these efforts were accompanied by genocide and â€Å"it is estimated that ninety percent of the Native American population on the East Coast was lost during the European invasion† (Spring 24), largely due to diseases brought by settlers but also due to the feelings of cultural and racial superiority that white settlers heavily believed in.Benjamin Franklin even believed that there needed to be more white people in the world and that â€Å" ‘the principle body of white people’ should populate North America†¦[and] ‘why increase the Sons of Africa, by planting them in America, where we have so fair an opportunity, by excluding all Blacks and Tawnys, of increasing the lovely White? ’† (Spring 25) This overwhelming feeling of superiority by the white settlers brought them to see the Native Americans as an obstacle they needed to ov ercome. Some of the things that they wanted to change about the Indians were their work habits, views on sexuality, family organization, and women’s power.All of these things directly contrasted to the puritan beliefs of a male dominated authoritarian modest culture. Early education of the Native Americans was completely unsuccessful with many of the teachings being simply laughed at by the Natives and forgotten. After passing an execution law for those who were not civilized and God-fearing people, schools began to be established specifically for the process of civilizing Native Americans. Eleazar Wheelock founded the Dartmouth College in 1769 (Spring 28) where Indian children were â€Å"removed from their tribes†¦and plac[ed] into boarding schools for cultural conversion. (Spring 28) Wheelock believed that if the Native Americans were deterred from their native culture and taught to live like the colonists and educated into specific roles such as farming and cultivati on for boys and homemaking for girls they would be able to successfully convert and that Indian Wars would no longer be a problem. This system seemed to have worked when Samson Occom, a Mohegan Indian, not only successfully passed through the school but also went on to travel to England to advocate for the system and the establishment of more â€Å"Praying Indian† schools.Obviously today’s schools are much less grounded in religious and white superiority traditions. Although some themes do continue to the present such as education being a means of preparing children to obey government laws, that education will eliminate crime, immorality, and poverty, and that education is a source of social mobility. (Spring 14) In the home children today are nurtured and while they are taught social conduct and what is right and wrong it is in the classroom that children learn to sit still, obey people outside their family, work with others, and to complete tasks on time.These are al l requirements any job will entail and are best experienced in an educational setting. Many people also believe that education for their children will give their children a better life than them. Today’s parents want their children to grow up to be better, to be more prosperous, and more educated than themselves. Schools promise to provide the means for children to excel in life. Not only will the education of children allow them to obtain better jobs and more rewarding careers but it is considered that by acquiring knowledge people will inherently choose to â€Å"be good† eradicating immorality and crime.As previously mentioned modern education frowns upon the inclusion of religion in the classroom, except in cases such as Catholic or other religious or private non-publically funded school. Schools today are for knowledge only, a place where all the findings, ideas, and information of the world is attempted to be taught to the young and bright minds of today. Another stark difference between colonial education and today’s society is that culture and difference are celebrated. While cultural superiority may never fully die out today’s schools advocate for acceptance and pride in the diversity of students.Rather than suppress the cultural individualism many classrooms explore and exhibit the as many cultures as they can and bring light and information to everyone about each other. Much of education today leads toward higher education, whereas during colonial periods higher education and prestigious jobs were delicacies for the elite. In some cases this is still true, where students who may be deserving of quality education may not be able to pay the tuition of prized private schools such as Harvard, Stanford, or MIT.But for the most part educations at non-Ivy league schools are still highly regarded and sometimes even praised as those who may attend them have more â€Å"real life experience†. Employers today not only worry abo ut where one went to school but what he or she did there and what type of person they are. This makes schools in the modern era a place for equality, where anyone can become their wildest dreams. Bibliography Spring, Joel H. The American School: A Global Context from the Puritans to the Obama Era. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. Print.