« Joseph Provenzano The Blame Game In modern times, and namely in Western culture, identity has become a wholly introverted principle. ...» Document abstract
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3 word format
Language : english
film studies
school essay
date published
19/11/2007
review : not yet assessed
level : Advanced
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SummaryIn modern times, and namely in Western culture, identity has become a wholly introverted principle. People strive to define themselves solely as individuals; identity is thought of as exclusively self-contained. American culture, for example, celebrates above all else the “individual;” he (or she) who stands out from the masses is reputed. It is within this celebration of “original identity,” however, where one of American culture’s deepest ironies lies. While on the surface a person’s autonomy may seem salient, if he or she does not conform to certain pre-disposed social constraints, he or she may be in danger of being viewed by others (and by him/herself) as “valueless.” Nowhere is this more prevalent than in the eating disorders of Americans. Disorders such as Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa affect millions, and kill thousands of Americans every year; yet they are kept in the shadows of the culture’s collective consciousness.
Table of Contents- These potentially-fatal disorders are largely the byproducts of a society's quest for shared 'individual' identities.
- On the most basic level, Anorexia Nervosa involves a person refusing to maintain his/her normal body weight for age and height.
- The [relatively] recent insurgence of eating disorders like Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa is, on the most base level, connected to the way our culture eats.
- It is hard to tell from modern American culture, but thin was not always 'in.?
- This, in turn, brings about the 'social' explanation of eating disorders such as Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa.
- The power the media has to form society's concepts of the 'ideal' anything is virtually undeniable.
- The quest for a biological explanation for eating disorders is a relatively new one; scientists are only recently thinking of eating disorders as actual 'diseases.?
- Eating disorders such as Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa have silently killed thousands of Americans every year for decades.
« This idea reminds of the "beauty contest" experience, well known in game theory. in EDF as a strong guarantee in times of crisis, most blame its excessive ...» Document abstract
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16 word format
Language : english
finance
presentation
date published
23/11/2006
review : not yet assessed
level : Expert
requested 53 times
SummaryInitial Public Offerings (IPOs) have a very special place in contemporary economics and finance. They represent the entrance on a deep and liquid market with access to almost unlimited reserves of capital from all over the world. But IPOs appear also as a short-term fund-raising tool, especially used during the high tech bubble of the late 1990s from new, innovative and invincible-looking start-up companies from the Silicon Valley. In those years, investment bankers (who set up IPOs for the companies going public) thrived and were sacred “kings of capitalism” by The Economist. Since then, the euphoria vanished but IPOs continued at a respectable pace.
Between 1980 and 2001, the number of IPOs in the US exceeded one per business day. The distribution was not equal: in 1999 and 2000 alone, 900 companies went public. What is more, the IPO business has reached global importance, raising $167 billion around the world in 2005 with 1537 operations. During the period 1998-2004, North America represented 27% of the global market, Europe, Africa and the Middle East combined 42% and Asia-Pacific 31%. The trends of globalization are thus reflecting on the IPO business worldwide: dominance of the US market (on a country basis comparison) and rise of East Asia (especially China).
In a system dominated by market financing, flotation appears often to be a mandatory step in the life of a company above a certain size. We do not discuss in this paper IPOs under this perspective of structural necessity; rather we question the short-term stakes of going public. Besides the strategic choice to be listed on the stock market, what are the immediate objectives of an IPO? It has certainly become, especially since the internet bubble, a corporate financing tool, along with private equity and mergers and acquisitions, aimed at raising funds in a short period of time. Thus, we consider here IPOs under this aspect of short-term financing, even if it has obviously much broader implications.
We can define the objectives of an IPO for a company as follows: raise the maximum value possible through the flotation, and assure a stable and, if possible, increasing price in the aftermarket. The second objective depends partly on the first one, which is basically the direct result of the sale price. Setting the price of the stock to be traded publicly is the greatest challenge in the IPO process, as it determines the equity allocation among investors and the subsequent trading price on the market. Financial theories give no final answer as to what method is the best. Hence the perpetuation of the academic debate.
We have chosen to envision IPOs, the challenges they pose to efficient markets and the theoretical answers to those, through game theory. This approach allows us to detect where inefficiencies occur, what the different motivations of the actors involved are and what possible solutions have been proposed and tested. Game theory appears to us as the best tool to study market inefficiencies by offering a special opportunity to have a critical outlook on market mechanisms and the effects of strategic interaction upon them.
Therefore, we will first present the challenges which IPOs pose to efficient markets (section one). Then we will detail an alternative mechanism for setting the price in an IPO process – auctions: what are their advantages and drawbacks (section 2)? Finally, we will study the flotation of EDF, one of the greatest IPOs in the world in the last years, a rare example of overpricing and also a subject of polemics in France (section 3).
Between 1980 and 2001, the number of IPOs in the US exceeded one per business day. The distribution was not equal: in 1999 and 2000 alone, 900 companies went public. What is more, the IPO business has reached global importance, raising $167 billion around the world in 2005 with 1537 operations. During the period 1998-2004, North America represented 27% of the global market, Europe, Africa and the Middle East combined 42% and Asia-Pacific 31%. The trends of globalization are thus reflecting on the IPO business worldwide: dominance of the US market (on a country basis comparison) and rise of East Asia (especially China).
In a system dominated by market financing, flotation appears often to be a mandatory step in the life of a company above a certain size. We do not discuss in this paper IPOs under this perspective of structural necessity; rather we question the short-term stakes of going public. Besides the strategic choice to be listed on the stock market, what are the immediate objectives of an IPO? It has certainly become, especially since the internet bubble, a corporate financing tool, along with private equity and mergers and acquisitions, aimed at raising funds in a short period of time. Thus, we consider here IPOs under this aspect of short-term financing, even if it has obviously much broader implications.
We can define the objectives of an IPO for a company as follows: raise the maximum value possible through the flotation, and assure a stable and, if possible, increasing price in the aftermarket. The second objective depends partly on the first one, which is basically the direct result of the sale price. Setting the price of the stock to be traded publicly is the greatest challenge in the IPO process, as it determines the equity allocation among investors and the subsequent trading price on the market. Financial theories give no final answer as to what method is the best. Hence the perpetuation of the academic debate.
We have chosen to envision IPOs, the challenges they pose to efficient markets and the theoretical answers to those, through game theory. This approach allows us to detect where inefficiencies occur, what the different motivations of the actors involved are and what possible solutions have been proposed and tested. Game theory appears to us as the best tool to study market inefficiencies by offering a special opportunity to have a critical outlook on market mechanisms and the effects of strategic interaction upon them.
Therefore, we will first present the challenges which IPOs pose to efficient markets (section one). Then we will detail an alternative mechanism for setting the price in an IPO process – auctions: what are their advantages and drawbacks (section 2)? Finally, we will study the flotation of EDF, one of the greatest IPOs in the world in the last years, a rare example of overpricing and also a subject of polemics in France (section 3).
Table of Contents- IPOs and challenges to market efficiency
- IPOs and the Issue of Information
- Distortion mechanisms and waste of value through underpricing
- The key role of investment banks
- The auction model for setting the price: a viable alternative ?
- The main features of the auction model
- Game theory and auctions
- An illustration with Google’s IPO
- A case sStudy of EDF’s IPO
- Main characteristics of the state-initiated offer
- Winners and losers in EDF’s IPO
- Lessons from the IPO: the case for overpricing?
« that other immigrants didn't get killed (Spener 22) Although they are committing illegal activity, it is difficult to blame certain coyotes The Coyote's Game". ...» Document abstract
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2 word format
Language : english
international law
school essay
date published
07/12/2007
review : not yet assessed
level : General public
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SummaryIn all the various interrelated issues of the border, there is one central group that is essential to allowing immigrants to cross in the United States: the coyotes. Coyotes are smugglers who assist immigrants in getting across the border without getting stopped by the border patrol, or anyone else. They are almost always Mexican, and often were at one point immigrants themselves, who over time have made enough trips across the border to know the best routes to take, where they will encounter the least amount of trouble. Coyotes do provide a service to the immigrants, and this service, of course, costs money. Today the cost is much higher than it has ever been, for a number of reasons. The border patrol has increased security greatly in the past, and despite their best efforts, this has only made coyotes have a more lucrative occupation, due to the fact that coyotes are no longer a luxury, they are now a necessity (Campbell). Immigrants have almost no chance of crossing the border without a guide. The immigrants do run the risk of being abandoned, robbed, raped, or even killed by people in line with their coyotes, or by the coyotes themselves. However, some coyotes safely get people across the border. The question is then: how should we view coyotes? Are they heroes, villains, criminals, or somewhere in between? Coyotes as a collective group are criminals who are necessary.
« If you keep it, don't blame me for what happens. on their annual hunting-and-fishing trip stopping where they please and reaping the vast amounts of game to be ...» Document abstract
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6 word format
Language : english
literature
presentation
date published
12/10/2007
review : not yet assessed
level : General public
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SummaryTemptation preys upon what we wish for and what we dream for. Want a flashy car: a cherry red, nitrous infused Lamborghini with leather seats, a thumping sound system and a set of wicked hydraulics? Sure it sounds good, but how possible is that on such a measly salary? Maybe, but only after working 60 hour work weeks and cutting your budget so that you’re surviving on toast and ramen noodles. Do this for the next decade or more, working to the break point and sacrificing everything comfortable, and only then would you be able to afford your dream car. But that is why your dream car is still a dream; the plausibility of purchasing it is so far out of your reach that you can only imagine it and dream about one day owning it. You continue to dream and hope, thinking about your fantasy becoming true, but you are positive the closest you will get to owning a Lamborghini is when you ogle it at the dealership as you drive by. What would happen if a person just offered a Lamborghini to you? That mysterious new guy from accounting approaches you and tells you he can grant you anything you want…all you have to do, is wish for it. Would you do it? Of course you would! If someone could offer you your dream car for doing no work at all, automatically, your first response would be “yes!”, but after a minute, you would remember nobody offers anything for free and you would ask: “Ok, what’s the catch?”
Table of Contents- Temptation preys upon what we wish for and what we dream for. Want a flashy car:
- There is never a free lunch; there is a consequence for every action, however direct or indirect it may be.
- Dr. Faustus knew the power of temptation all too well.
- The monkey's paw may hold the power to fulfill wishes, but it is Sergeant-Major Morris, the visitor to the White's house, that enlightens the family about the power of the paw.
- . The Sergeant could have brushed aside the story behind the monkey paw, but that would mean he would have to die with the power of the paw dying with him as well.
- Despite the subconscious thought that the paw brought about the death of her son, Mrs. White cannot resist the temptation to cheat death.
- One night, Charles walks to the playground and is greeted by a solemn little boy that is in fact the son of his friend Thomas Marshall.
- In both The Monkey's Paw and The Playground it is a person that offers a Faustian-Bargain to the character or characters.
- As if the lake could hear the fearful sounds of Hugh's wishes, it responded by forming into a familiar shape. And a shape began to emerge.
- The devil tempts a person with an unattainable wish being granted, but the consequences of dealing with evil usually cost that person his life.
« to become what they see on television, that their docility is to blame for this "lost that media giants like MTV have gotten so far ahead of the game that they ...» Document abstract
$9.95
20 word format
Language : english
humanities/philosophy
school essay
date published
19/10/2007
review : not yet assessed
level : Advanced
requested 8 times
SummaryThe controversy surrounding self-fulfilling prophecies, while originally centered on proving their existence, has recently settled on the probability of such phenomenon occurring in a natural environment. While not directly cited in this resource guide, the original “Pygmalion Effect” experiment by Robert Rosenthal and Leonore Jacobson, while a success in its own self-absorbed goals, failed to make any connections outside of its own hypothesis. The Harvard professor and elementary school principal proved that teacher expectation can directly influence student achievement, but the experiment, conducted in a fixed environment, did not initially translate to the naturalistic world. The original teachers, the independent variables of the test, were told what to expect from their students, and although those students, a heterogeneous mixture of academic potentials, did in fact respond with positive correlation to the subsequent behaviors of their teachers, there was no guarantee that such cause and effect would occur in a literal classroom. In a series of experiments that followed in the decade after Rosenthal and Jacobson’s revolutionary yet flawed research, the naturalistic implications of the Pygmalion Effect were established, answering the question of whether or not teachers do make such drastic predictions, basing their expectations on first impressions and superficial observations and inadvertently fulfilling their own prophecies concerning their students.
Table of Contents- Most of the peer-reviewed journal articles concerning self-fulfilling prophecies acknowledge their existence, especially in the classroom.
- The other journal articles have taken the conclusions of Lee Jussim further.
- Teacher expectations and observations, as stated before, occur naturally.
- Popular media, for the most part, has focused on why such negative perceptions of adolescents exist in contemporary society.
- This image, as stated by Veronica Lacey in an issue of the Toronto Star, is 'that of a lost generation.
- The birth of MTV has definitely added a modern twist to the self-fulfilling prophecy.
- And not much can be expected from a 'lost generation.?
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