Theoretical Analysis of the Banking Crisis

Theoretical Analysis of the Banking Crisis Crisis in the banking sector The current crisis and the Great Depression Theories and the crises: Several theories exist connected to the financial crises that have happened since the banking system was established. Some of them tried to explain the reasons and the origin of them however none of these theories could provide an acceptable solution how to prevent the crisis. To determine the continuity in the timeline and the spread of the crisis it was not enough to create just an economic comparison. The analysts set some mathematical and other type of model to investigate the behavior of the market. The two mostly accepted models of banking panics are the Diamond and Dybvig model and the Calomiris and Kahn model. These models were set in the 1990s as the reflection of the systematic banking crisis since 1970.Both of the two theories were accepted the fact that the banks liabilities are more liquid than its assets. In the Diamond and Dybvig model they set a hypothetical world without the banking system. The banks make contract to transform its illiquid assets.( Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Quarterly Review Vol. 24, No. 1, winter 2000, pp. 14-23, Dybvig: Bank Runs, Deposit Insurance, and Liquidity).The problems with the contract is that it doesnt include any risk-sharing option. The deposit insurance is the only way to reduce the risk because its decrease the ability of the bank to transform its assets. The asymmetric information affects the liquidity demand. The final conclusion of this model is that the bank run is triggered only because patient agents believe.†This result is a self-fulfilling prophecy (panic): Because patient agents expect other patient agents to withdraw their funds early, they do the same. As a consequence too many funds are actually withdrawn, which otherwise would have not been the case. (Banking and Finance /Banking Crises.ppt/2008.12.03)† The Calomiris and Kahn model basis is the Diamond and Dybvig model, but it is more complex (Charles W. Calomiris, Charles M. Kahn, â€Å"The Role of Demandable Debt in Structuring Optimal Banking Arrangements† in American Economic Review, Vol. 81, 1991). They introduced one other potential option that the banks follow a risky behavior and put their investors money into risky projects. Because the asymmetric information the investors dont know about this step. Then, two possible things can happen; the project turns out well or not. If the project turns out negatively the bank starts to invest again. In the model the depositors can purchase information, but if is shows a negative indicator they withdraw their money. If there are a huge number of the depositors who want to withdraw the bank has serious liquidity problems and the bank panic starts. The only possible solution, according to this model, is to increase monitoring in the banking sector and strengthen the regulation to avoid moral hazard. I. The Great Depression 1. The beginning of the Great Depression (1928-30) The history of the Great Depression is important to analyze the main aspect of the crisis. From May of 1928 the stock market rise continuously and the average stock price increased because the FED raised its discount rate, and saw the stock market was booming and the stock price doubled, as excessive speculation. They tried to resolve this by increased monetary policy to raise interest rate and a new deflationary policy was introduced. As a consequence, a huge financial bubble evolved. In October 22, 1929 New York Times published an article; â€Å"Fisher Says Prices of Stocks Are Low†. (The 1929 Stock Market: Irving Fisher Was Right, Ellen R. Mc Grattan p.1) Then, two days later the stock market went crashing and the stock prices had fallen by 30 %: According to Irving Fisher the problem was that the people have been speculating on the small margins. It was not that the stock market was too high, but the people so enthusiastic to making money that they properly expected to mak e. It created debts because the people bought stocks on borrowed money. The politicians issued optimistic predictions to prevent the selling panic in the U.S. market (The causes of the 1929 stock market crash, Harold Bierman).The secretary of the Treasury, Andrew W. Melon stated: â€Å"There is no cause to worry. The high tide of prosperity will continue†. The stock market did come back in the middle of 1930, more than half of the stock that has been decline as been reversed. People thought it was over recession turned into something different. The agriculture sector stocks continued to decline. This regressive tendency was intensive not only because the Great Depression. Massive overproduction started in the European agricultural production sector after the World War I to recover the lack of the agricultural goods. To increase the legislative protection of the domestic farmers the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of June 1930 raised U.S. import tariffs (U.S Department of State, http://future.state.gov/). The Smoot-Hawley Tariff declined the international trust and cooperation and caused some problems in international trade. As a result of market crush bank collapsed from October 1930 until March 1933 by this time over a third of Americans bank was out of business. It continued to decline by mid 1932, the stock had declined to 10% their value in the peak 1929 and the increase in this in uncertainty from unsettled business conditions created by economic contraction made adverse selection and moral hazard problem worse in credit market. (The great crash, 1929, John Kenneth Galbraith) There was reduction in the number of intermediation due to loss of one-third of banks. This only increases adverse selection and moral hazard problem. Funds to firm with productive investment opportunities were greatly decreased due to this problem. In some sectors like manufacturing sector the production fell dramatically which was the basis of the Firms wage rates cuts. The level of price fell by 25% in the period of 1930-1933. Debt deflation was triggered in which net worth fell C:Documents and SettingsJudyAsztalunemploymen t.gifbecause of the increase burden of indebtedness borne on the firm. One sector problems affected the others. Millions of people lost their jobs. In the period of 1900-1947 two types of unemployment were made. These researches were developed the data set for the civilian labor force and for the Non-farm employees. (Historical unemployment in relation to today, A. Andrews)The employment rate declined by approximately 20% and the economic contraction and unemployment rose to 25 percent because of the decline in net worth. The result was more increase in adverse selection and moral hazard in the credit market. This was the worst ever experienced in the United States of America. 2. The FED This system was introduced to the public as economic stabilizer in 1913 to prevent further economic crisis although Federal Reserve System was totally passive during the Great Depression. In general, the Federal Reserve controls the interest rates and the money supply (inflation).The FED is controlled by its Board members and the majority of the twelve member Constitute the Federal Open Market Committee with five Reserve Bank The Fed not only supply the money to economy, it loans the money to them at interest. Besides, it regulates the value of the currency being issued. It should have acted as the last resort to lend as that its role. For the period of 1921-1929 the FED increased the money supply by 62% .The main reasons they did nothing was they never anticipated the negative of bank failure could have on money supply and economic activity. They thought a bank failure is as a consequence of poor bank management or bad banking practice. Small banks failures were the first to be affe cted in the bank panics in the early stages. And since the big city bank was the most influential they saw the failure of the small banks as complacency. Some suggested that political role might have played an important role in the passivity of the Federal Reserve System at that period. The New York Federal Reserve System was the most dominant force in the 1928, and it supported the Fed in open market purchase to lend money to the banks during the bank panics. This was opposed by other powerful member in the Federal Reserve System and the New York position was out voted. There were multiple causes and many theories about the origin of the Great Depression. According the monetarist theory the Crisis is the consequence of the lack of the FEDs policy making. The level of government influence on a bank varies from one country to another let say for example, in China the government regulation is very high probably the highest in the world and in United Kingdom the government regulation i s very low .It can be said that in the United Kingdom it high if we compare with the United State. So depending of which countries are comparing to another, government influence is usually different. 3. The economic decline (1930-32) Thanks to the Tariff Act the world market suffered a huge damage but, the act was not enough to recover the U.S. economy. People starting lose their jobs, homes and their confidence to the system and they take out their money from the banks and in the end they couldnt repay their loans. The continuous decline shows the effect in political elections in November 1930 when the representatives of the Republican Party lost their places in the Senate and their number and voting power reduced dramatically. In 1931 some new predictions appeared in the news which says that the depression would be over in the end of that year. During this year the deepening economic depression hit Europe and credit structures collapsed there. The media blamed United States for create this depression by cutting back on imports. Various conspiracy theories were voiced about the Soviet Union and some Biblical prophecy appeared too. In1932 a new presidential campaign started where Hoover and Roosevelt describe two different political aspects about the Depression. Hoovers economic aspect based on voluntarism and individualism, but the natural economic forces and the voluntary action by business groups couldnt work in the last 3 years. So his voters lost the trust in Hoover and he was easily beaten in the election (Burner David, Herbert Hoover: Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1979). 4. The New Deal Roosevelt the new president was introduced a new program called the New Deal that contained social and economic reforms in 1933. He settled up new governmental agencies with the Glass-Steagall Act. â€Å"It gave tighter regulation of national banks to the Federal Reserve System; prohibited bank sales of securities; and created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which insures bank deposits with a pool of money appropriated from banks. (New York Times, http://topics.nytimes.com /topics/reference/ timestopics/subjects/g/glass_steagall_act_1933/index.html )â€Å" The senate tried to restore the peoples trust in the U.S financial system with the Glass-Steagell Act .It made a clear separation between the investment and the commercial banks .To handle the banks poor asset management Franklin Roosevelt declared a â€Å"bank holiday â€Å"as a result of bank panic in March 1933.The† bank holiday† regulated that the banks had to be until the governmental inspecto r investigation. The inspector after a monitoring process judged about the banks reopening. Another program was started namely in that time: the Agricultural Adjustment Act which helped to increase the income of the farmers. The overproduction created corps surplus and the government pay the farms, in the frame of this program, to leave the fields fallow and not to raise pigs and lambs. (Ronald Edsforth: The New Deal: Americas Response to the Great Depression, 2000) The Act aimed to raise the value of the corps, but few months later, natural disasters destroyed almost all the corps and the machinery. To help the farmers and teach them how to measure and reduce erosion the government established the Soil Conservation Service. This program stopped in 1936 when a new agricultural act had been accepted. The new regulation provides a possibility to the farmers to get federal subsidies. Besides of this, NIRA (National Industrial Recovery Act) had been accepted by the government to generate more jobs, strengthen the right of collective bargaining. The unemployment increased since the Great Depression had started. Based on this reason, they provided jobs in government projects such as work camps. Approximately two million people participated in this program until 1934. The unskilled workers got hard work like digging and railway repairs but they earned only a little money. National Labor Relations Act introduced new fair labor practices in 1935.The New Deal program had helped the US economy but didnt bring the end of the Great Depression. The roots of the economic problem came from the financial insecurity and the distribution of money, because the people on relief lived from one day to another (Bernardit Bellushit, The Failure of the NRA (1975)). The investors were afraid of buying sto cks and lose their money. The companies couldnt sell their new products because the people spent their money to food. The inventories were full and nobody wanted to produce more and that stopped the cycle of the economy. 5. The Second New Deal President Roosevelt decided to set a group of new economic and social measures and provided some legislative initiatives. The public and political forces lead the president to make some radical steps. . In 1936 Roosevelt won the election but the Americans wanted the government to take greater responsibility for the welfare of the nation. The Second New Deal as legislative program established some government controlled agencies and projects. He allocated billions of dollars to start and give a financial budget for the Work Progress Administration (WPA).Roosevelt nominated the social worker Harry Hopkins to be the head of the WPA. In its early years it focused on the construction programs such as build schools and government buildings. Attempt to the population of the United States it found that the one of every six people was unemployed and most of them was unskilled (http://www.u-shistory .com /pages /h1599.html). Unskilled laborers the forgotten man of past generation works at decen t wages. The nation was building and repairing schools, public buildings, community centers and airports to meet the changing needs of the modern world. In one project twelve hundred men were employed to improve bowling field and construct building hangers and administration buildings. In addition to the hundreds of the unskilled laborers, many skilled workers were employed in this improvement project. Hundreds of homes have been treated from bondage of property. In New York City WPA housing demolisher project was started which improved the families living conditions. In many other cities of the country old firetraps are being demolished to make way to modern buildings. Swimming pools and parks were constructed to make more public value to the community and remove the children from the streets. In many parts of the country nursery schools were established to where almost 10 thousand children got hot meals, supervised train activities. In these projects employment has been provided 6 00 hundred teachers nurses dieticians and cooks. More than 300 thousand adults learned to read and write first time in their life and started to learn foreign languages from native teachers. In cooperation with the national youth administration 26500 young man and women were employed as instructors laboratory assistants and clerical helpers.( Historical unemployment in relation to today, A. Andrews) Clerical white -collar workers find employment at filling and checking important land records. As part of the program of rehabilitation of the conservation of human resources a number of household training school were established by WPA. In these school girls from relief families are prepared for domestic works. Health education is an important part of the WPA program in a number health centers in large cities teaches the proper care of the children and adults. In some cities sawing rooms were established to support the poor families with clothes. Another type of permanent construction was the community stadium as a representative a large group of project provides the public gatherings all over America. Hundreds of new bridges were constructed thousands of old bridges have been repaired and made safe. In Many cities the construction was undertaken with the cooperation of the public health agencies. The rapid growth of air traffic gives the opportunity to built modern airports and gives a job to thousand s to improve and repair the existing facilities. The increased air transportation also made necessary the development of hundreds of emergency landing fields. In cooperation with the local police departments in several cities automobile inspection stations were established to reduce the unsafe vehicles on the roads. Women who had the principle to support their families are paid for the work. And the product they made was distributed free to the families on relief (John Salmond, The New Deal: The National Level (1975). pp. 188-89). Many other type of employment was provided for women and other part-time jobs were provided in kitchen and in libraries and schools. As a result of some projects thousand of books and maps were translated. This program also contained training for adults t o learn tailoring. The financial support of the administration was enough to invest into more projects like Federal Writers Projects , Federal Theater Project, Federal Art Project, National youth Administration ,to generate more jobs for white-collar workers.â€Å"Because Harry Hopkins believed that the work provided by the WPA should match the skills of the unemployed, artists were employed to paint murals in public buildings, sculptors created park and battlefield monuments, and actors and musicians were paid to perform. These white-collar programs did not escape criticism and the term â€Å"boondoggling† was added to the English language to describe government projects of dubious merit.( Jim Crouch, The Works Progress Administration Eh. Encyclopedia(2004)). The WAP was a long program and finally was abandoned in 1943.Social security act created a new health insurance system based on employer and employee contributions, supported by taxes 6. The SWOT Analysis of the WPA SWOT Strengths: Weaknesses: Education to unskilled workers Started project didnt wanted Various types of jobs WPA as Financial â€Å"black hole† Provide part-time jobs Political influences Jobs for Artist and Black people and Women No ability to control the workers productivity Improve the health care system Opportunities : Threats: Starting more useful projects Instable economical environment Decreasing political aspects of the projects Living expenses increases, because import stop Strengthen the economy throughout projects Potential health problems, disease could stop projects Developing international export-import partnerships Other political parties critics-political intervention Support the banking act, provide more financial security The SWOT analysis is for compute the Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of a sector or a company (Mehta, S. (2000) Marketing Strategy). It is used for strategic planning to create a way to the desired goal or objective. In this case it was decided to apply this technique to set a real picture about the Second New Deal through WPA. The main aim of the current analysis is not generate alternative strategies, but to summarize the situation of WPA and the critiques in 1930s.Starting with the strength of the WPA it can be seen that the group of different types of jobs were provided to a high-scale target area. People could achieve different skills by the WPAs trainings and educations, and they got motivation to learn and use their knowledge in long-term. There were several weaknesses of the program from the beginning. As a governmental project the WPA needed a huge financial background to work and in some cases they only waste the money. The critiques described that some part of the program was only started to get more votes. The real leaders of the WPA had no ability to control the workers productivity and their effectiveness. To mention some real threats the instable economic environment remained the same. The diseases could spread faster among the workers and it may stop many constructing projects and it may indicate more financial problems in the health care system. One of the most important opportunities was to prevent more political fight and decrease the obvious political aspects of the projects. It would have been useful if they could solve the import problems. The following table above contains the main strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. 6.1. The external factor analysis EFAS (External Factor Analysis Summary) External Factors: Weight Ratings Weighted Score Opportunities: O1 Starting more projects 0,1 3 0,3 O2 Decreasing political aspects of the projects 0,2 4 0,8 O3 Strengthen the economy through projects 0,05 3 0,15 O4 Developing international export-import partnerships 0,1 2 0,2 O5 Support the banking act, provide more financial security 0,05 3 0,15 Threats: T1 Instable economical environment 0,2 4 0,8 T2 Living expenses increases, because import stop 0,1 3 0,3 T3 Potential health problems, disease could stop projects 0,05 2 0,1 T4 Other political parties critics-political intervention 0,15 3 0,45 Total Scores: 1 1,0-5,0 3,25 The SWOT table can be used to introduce three other type of analysis the EFAS, the IFAS and the SFAS. The External factor analysis and the internal factor analysis are calculated in a same way. The external factors (opportunities, threats) are used to show the economic background of the company or the sector. The elements of the SWOT table are the main factors of these tables. Every row contains weights and the rates and the multiplied result; the weighted score. The sum of every weight has to equal by 1, and the factors ratings should be between 1 and 5.The total score will be the sum of the weighted scores and it shows a real picture about the companys position. The company is in danger if the result is less 3,5 than. 6.2 The internal factor analysis IFAS(Internal Factor Analysis Summary ) Internal Factors: Weight Ratings Weighted Score Strenghts: Education to unskilled workers 0,15 3 0,45 Various types of jobs 0,15 4 0,6 Provide part-time jobs 0,1 3 0,3 Jobs for Artist and Black people and Women 0,2 2 0,4 Improve the health care system 0,1 3 0,3 Weaknesses: Started project didnt wanted 0,05 3 0,15 WPA as Financial â€Å"black hole† 0,05 2 0,1 Political influences 0,1 4 0,4 No ability to control the workers productivity 0,1 3 0,3 Total Scores: 1 1,0-5,0 3 If the result is more than 3,5, the company is in safe. The internal factors (Strengths, Weaknesses) are closely related to the object of the analysis. The internal strengths and weaknesses summarize the main topics the company has to deal with. The total score is 3 and this means that the company is not in safe and for a long -term basis the management has to handle the weaknesses to strengthen the company position in the market. SFAS(Strategic Factor Analysis Summary ) Factors: Weight Ratings Weighted Score Duration (in terms) S Strenghts: Short Medium Long S1 Education to unskilled workers 0,2 3 0,6 X S4 Jobs for Artist and Black people and Women 0,2 4 0,8 X W Weaknesses: W3 Political influences 0,15 4 0,6 X W4 No ability to control the workers productivity 0,1 2 0,2 X O Opportunities: O1 Starting more projects 0,05 5 0,25 X O2 Decreasing political aspects of the projects 0,05 1 0,05 X T Threats: T1 Instable economical environment 0,2 4 0,8 X T4 Other political parties critics-political intervention 0,05 3 0,15 X Total Scores: 1 1,0-5,0 3,45 6.3. The Strategic Factor Analysis Summary The Strategic Factor Analysis Summary (Business Policy and Strategy lecture SFAS power point presentation 2008.12.03) has an additional column, the duration that is separated into three different parts; long-term, medium-term, and short-term .The most important factors are listed here with weights and ratings to represent the main internal and external aspects of the WPA and to make a summary about the problems and possibilities. As a conclusion, based on the analysis listed below, the SFAS ‘s weighted score is 3,45.It means that the WPA could work in a long-term if the leadership could handle the problems. The WPA project stopped in 1944; therefore the main reasons did not connected to the internal factors, but only the externals. Some critiques had right the all the projects of WPA had only a political step to achieve more cotes in the elections. 7. The worlds reaction to the Great Depression (Theories) The world reacted in a several way to the Great depression and created a lot of theories how to solve the situation. The most famous reaction was the communism, fascism and the Keynesian theory. The fascism took place in Germany, Italy and it represented a highly centralized economy. The public construction programs provided jobs for unskilled labourers to built roads, work camps and military facilities. It increased the demography of the population, but the system was highly dictatorial. According to the statistics the unemployment rate decreased dramatically from 6 million to 0.2 million people.The Communism, as a highly bureaucratic and centralized system, was one of response to the Great Depression. It focused to fully employ the people in a strictly regulated obligatory way. The Keynesian theory: It states that the fully employment is needed, but only the intervention of the government can create this possibility. It can be long -term purpose of the existence of the government. The Keynesian theory changed the way of the thinking about the unemployment. The idea of the welfare state was another solution of the crisis. The education, the minimal guarantee of a job to every citizen is the basis of a welfare system. It guarantees the minimum wages and the minimum social and healthcare system. II. The Current Financial Crisis 1. The beginning of the Current Crisis The current financial crisis started in 2007, but it was not until the last quarter of 2008 .Firstly, this part of the thesis going to show how it all started, the causes and those who were affected by the crisis and how they are trying to deal with the crisis. Most of the people are pointing directly to real estate as the major cause of the current financial crisis even financial institutions that not directly involve with real estate are affected. It can be seen how the subprime mortgages and unscrupulous lenders has caused the unsustainable real estate bubble which began to collapse in 2006.There was increase in homeownership in the United State to about 5 million in little more than six years thanks to the increase in subprime lending. Within these six years constructions of new house sing units grew more but this housing bubble could not grow forever. In this period the price of house went so high and rent price went so low. When the price of housing began to decrease in the lat e 2006 to early 2007, many subprime borrowers had very hard time to make their payment. The housing bubble or the excesses of the subprime mortgage market became even more evident when subprime mortgage lender filed for bankruptcy. All the sectors like households, businesses (including financial institutions), and government are the main participants in the financial market and hit by the crisis. The secondly related financial groups are the surplus units provide funds and while the other group that enter the financial market to obtain fund are the deficit units. If market securities yield low returns why invest in it? Three factors can be seen to why it important to make investment in market securities these are, as we have said before the advantage to convert to cash rapidly so it can be substitute as cash. The second reason is that when a firm has excess cash let say for a month it can invest the excess cash in form of securities as not to hold too much cash in hand. The third reason is that when a firm know it going to pay a loan soon it gathers the money monthly to pay and this money could be invest in market securities before the loan is to be paid. As it have seen when the financial crisis started the public could see that the financial system is in a deep trouble some even call it recession because the stock market came crashing and lost almost 42% of it original price. Before the peak of the financial crisis the total world stock market worth $62.5 trillion and now it $36.6 trillion so it lost $25.9 trillion. Let compare the stock market of leading countries of one day and another day and see how it doing. STOCK MARKETS May 5 prev %chg SP 500 903.8 907.24 -0.38 Nasdaq Comp 1754.12 1763.56 -0.54 Dow Jones Ind 8410.65 8426.74 -0.19 FTSEurofirst 300 846.81 842.7 +0.49 DJ Euro Stoxx 50 2407.55 2419.53 -0.50 FTSE 100 4336.94 4243.22 +2.21 FTSE All-Share UK 2226.6 2174.64 +2.39 CAC 40 3225.0 3237.97 -0.40 Xetra Dax 4853.03 4902.45 -1.01 Nikkei (c) 8977.37 Hang Seng 16430.08 16381.05 +0.30 FTSE All World $ 153.46 153.19 +0.18 ( source New York Times May 5 2008) There was turmoil in the all over the international financial system due to the losses in the subprime mortgage in the mid-2007.This was wide spread global crisis even thus firm not associated with the mortgage firm. This made the financial institutions very nervous and the stock market got very weak. Between July 2007 and March 2008, there was a significantly drop in the price of shares in the large, small and investment bank. A Theoretical Analysis of the Banking Crisis Theoretical Analysis of the Banking Crisis Crisis in the banking sector The current crisis and the Great Depression Theories and the crises: Several theories exist connected to the financial crises that have happened since the banking system was established. Some of them tried to explain the reasons and the origin of them however none of these theories could provide an acceptable solution how to prevent the crisis. To determine the continuity in the timeline and the spread of the crisis it was not enough to create just an economic comparison. The analysts set some mathematical and other type of model to investigate the behavior of the market. The two mostly accepted models of banking panics are the Diamond and Dybvig model and the Calomiris and Kahn model. These models were set in the 1990s as the reflection of the systematic banking crisis since 1970.Both of the two theories were accepted the fact that the banks liabilities are more liquid than its assets. In the Diamond and Dybvig model they set a hypothetical world without the banking system. The banks make contract to transform its illiquid assets.( Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Quarterly Review Vol. 24, No. 1, winter 2000, pp. 14-23, Dybvig: Bank Runs, Deposit Insurance, and Liquidity).The problems with the contract is that it doesnt include any risk-sharing option. The deposit insurance is the only way to reduce the risk because its decrease the ability of the bank to transform its assets. The asymmetric information affects the liquidity demand. The final conclusion of this model is that the bank run is triggered only because patient agents believe.†This result is a self-fulfilling prophecy (panic): Because patient agents expect other patient agents to withdraw their funds early, they do the same. As a consequence too many funds are actually withdrawn, which otherwise would have not been the case. (Banking and Finance /Banking Crises.ppt/2008.12.03)† The Calomiris and Kahn model basis is the Diamond and Dybvig model, but it is more complex (Charles W. Calomiris, Charles M. Kahn, â€Å"The Role of Demandable Debt in Structuring Optimal Banking Arrangements† in American Economic Review, Vol. 81, 1991). They introduced one other potential option that the banks follow a risky behavior and put their investors money into risky projects. Because the asymmetric information the investors dont know about this step. Then, two possible things can happen; the project turns out well or not. If the project turns out negatively the bank starts to invest again. In the model the depositors can purchase information, but if is shows a negative indicator they withdraw their money. If there are a huge number of the depositors who want to withdraw the bank has serious liquidity problems and the bank panic starts. The only possible solution, according to this model, is to increase monitoring in the banking sector and strengthen the regulation to avoid moral hazard. I. The Great Depression 1. The beginning of the Great Depression (1928-30) The history of the Great Depression is important to analyze the main aspect of the crisis. From May of 1928 the stock market rise continuously and the average stock price increased because the FED raised its discount rate, and saw the stock market was booming and the stock price doubled, as excessive speculation. They tried to resolve this by increased monetary policy to raise interest rate and a new deflationary policy was introduced. As a consequence, a huge financial bubble evolved. In October 22, 1929 New York Times published an article; â€Å"Fisher Says Prices of Stocks Are Low†. (The 1929 Stock Market: Irving Fisher Was Right, Ellen R. Mc Grattan p.1) Then, two days later the stock market went crashing and the stock prices had fallen by 30 %: According to Irving Fisher the problem was that the people have been speculating on the small margins. It was not that the stock market was too high, but the people so enthusiastic to making money that they properly expected to mak e. It created debts because the people bought stocks on borrowed money. The politicians issued optimistic predictions to prevent the selling panic in the U.S. market (The causes of the 1929 stock market crash, Harold Bierman).The secretary of the Treasury, Andrew W. Melon stated: â€Å"There is no cause to worry. The high tide of prosperity will continue†. The stock market did come back in the middle of 1930, more than half of the stock that has been decline as been reversed. People thought it was over recession turned into something different. The agriculture sector stocks continued to decline. This regressive tendency was intensive not only because the Great Depression. Massive overproduction started in the European agricultural production sector after the World War I to recover the lack of the agricultural goods. To increase the legislative protection of the domestic farmers the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of June 1930 raised U.S. import tariffs (U.S Department of State, http://future.state.gov/). The Smoot-Hawley Tariff declined the international trust and cooperation and caused some problems in international trade. As a result of market crush bank collapsed from October 1930 until March 1933 by this time over a third of Americans bank was out of business. It continued to decline by mid 1932, the stock had declined to 10% their value in the peak 1929 and the increase in this in uncertainty from unsettled business conditions created by economic contraction made adverse selection and moral hazard problem worse in credit market. (The great crash, 1929, John Kenneth Galbraith) There was reduction in the number of intermediation due to loss of one-third of banks. This only increases adverse selection and moral hazard problem. Funds to firm with productive investment opportunities were greatly decreased due to this problem. In some sectors like manufacturing sector the production fell dramatically which was the basis of the Firms wage rates cuts. The level of price fell by 25% in the period of 1930-1933. Debt deflation was triggered in which net worth fell C:Documents and SettingsJudyAsztalunemploymen t.gifbecause of the increase burden of indebtedness borne on the firm. One sector problems affected the others. Millions of people lost their jobs. In the period of 1900-1947 two types of unemployment were made. These researches were developed the data set for the civilian labor force and for the Non-farm employees. (Historical unemployment in relation to today, A. Andrews)The employment rate declined by approximately 20% and the economic contraction and unemployment rose to 25 percent because of the decline in net worth. The result was more increase in adverse selection and moral hazard in the credit market. This was the worst ever experienced in the United States of America. 2. The FED This system was introduced to the public as economic stabilizer in 1913 to prevent further economic crisis although Federal Reserve System was totally passive during the Great Depression. In general, the Federal Reserve controls the interest rates and the money supply (inflation).The FED is controlled by its Board members and the majority of the twelve member Constitute the Federal Open Market Committee with five Reserve Bank The Fed not only supply the money to economy, it loans the money to them at interest. Besides, it regulates the value of the currency being issued. It should have acted as the last resort to lend as that its role. For the period of 1921-1929 the FED increased the money supply by 62% .The main reasons they did nothing was they never anticipated the negative of bank failure could have on money supply and economic activity. They thought a bank failure is as a consequence of poor bank management or bad banking practice. Small banks failures were the first to be affe cted in the bank panics in the early stages. And since the big city bank was the most influential they saw the failure of the small banks as complacency. Some suggested that political role might have played an important role in the passivity of the Federal Reserve System at that period. The New York Federal Reserve System was the most dominant force in the 1928, and it supported the Fed in open market purchase to lend money to the banks during the bank panics. This was opposed by other powerful member in the Federal Reserve System and the New York position was out voted. There were multiple causes and many theories about the origin of the Great Depression. According the monetarist theory the Crisis is the consequence of the lack of the FEDs policy making. The level of government influence on a bank varies from one country to another let say for example, in China the government regulation is very high probably the highest in the world and in United Kingdom the government regulation i s very low .It can be said that in the United Kingdom it high if we compare with the United State. So depending of which countries are comparing to another, government influence is usually different. 3. The economic decline (1930-32) Thanks to the Tariff Act the world market suffered a huge damage but, the act was not enough to recover the U.S. economy. People starting lose their jobs, homes and their confidence to the system and they take out their money from the banks and in the end they couldnt repay their loans. The continuous decline shows the effect in political elections in November 1930 when the representatives of the Republican Party lost their places in the Senate and their number and voting power reduced dramatically. In 1931 some new predictions appeared in the news which says that the depression would be over in the end of that year. During this year the deepening economic depression hit Europe and credit structures collapsed there. The media blamed United States for create this depression by cutting back on imports. Various conspiracy theories were voiced about the Soviet Union and some Biblical prophecy appeared too. In1932 a new presidential campaign started where Hoover and Roosevelt describe two different political aspects about the Depression. Hoovers economic aspect based on voluntarism and individualism, but the natural economic forces and the voluntary action by business groups couldnt work in the last 3 years. So his voters lost the trust in Hoover and he was easily beaten in the election (Burner David, Herbert Hoover: Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1979). 4. The New Deal Roosevelt the new president was introduced a new program called the New Deal that contained social and economic reforms in 1933. He settled up new governmental agencies with the Glass-Steagall Act. â€Å"It gave tighter regulation of national banks to the Federal Reserve System; prohibited bank sales of securities; and created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which insures bank deposits with a pool of money appropriated from banks. (New York Times, http://topics.nytimes.com /topics/reference/ timestopics/subjects/g/glass_steagall_act_1933/index.html )â€Å" The senate tried to restore the peoples trust in the U.S financial system with the Glass-Steagell Act .It made a clear separation between the investment and the commercial banks .To handle the banks poor asset management Franklin Roosevelt declared a â€Å"bank holiday â€Å"as a result of bank panic in March 1933.The† bank holiday† regulated that the banks had to be until the governmental inspecto r investigation. The inspector after a monitoring process judged about the banks reopening. Another program was started namely in that time: the Agricultural Adjustment Act which helped to increase the income of the farmers. The overproduction created corps surplus and the government pay the farms, in the frame of this program, to leave the fields fallow and not to raise pigs and lambs. (Ronald Edsforth: The New Deal: Americas Response to the Great Depression, 2000) The Act aimed to raise the value of the corps, but few months later, natural disasters destroyed almost all the corps and the machinery. To help the farmers and teach them how to measure and reduce erosion the government established the Soil Conservation Service. This program stopped in 1936 when a new agricultural act had been accepted. The new regulation provides a possibility to the farmers to get federal subsidies. Besides of this, NIRA (National Industrial Recovery Act) had been accepted by the government to generate more jobs, strengthen the right of collective bargaining. The unemployment increased since the Great Depression had started. Based on this reason, they provided jobs in government projects such as work camps. Approximately two million people participated in this program until 1934. The unskilled workers got hard work like digging and railway repairs but they earned only a little money. National Labor Relations Act introduced new fair labor practices in 1935.The New Deal program had helped the US economy but didnt bring the end of the Great Depression. The roots of the economic problem came from the financial insecurity and the distribution of money, because the people on relief lived from one day to another (Bernardit Bellushit, The Failure of the NRA (1975)). The investors were afraid of buying sto cks and lose their money. The companies couldnt sell their new products because the people spent their money to food. The inventories were full and nobody wanted to produce more and that stopped the cycle of the economy. 5. The Second New Deal President Roosevelt decided to set a group of new economic and social measures and provided some legislative initiatives. The public and political forces lead the president to make some radical steps. . In 1936 Roosevelt won the election but the Americans wanted the government to take greater responsibility for the welfare of the nation. The Second New Deal as legislative program established some government controlled agencies and projects. He allocated billions of dollars to start and give a financial budget for the Work Progress Administration (WPA).Roosevelt nominated the social worker Harry Hopkins to be the head of the WPA. In its early years it focused on the construction programs such as build schools and government buildings. Attempt to the population of the United States it found that the one of every six people was unemployed and most of them was unskilled (http://www.u-shistory .com /pages /h1599.html). Unskilled laborers the forgotten man of past generation works at decen t wages. The nation was building and repairing schools, public buildings, community centers and airports to meet the changing needs of the modern world. In one project twelve hundred men were employed to improve bowling field and construct building hangers and administration buildings. In addition to the hundreds of the unskilled laborers, many skilled workers were employed in this improvement project. Hundreds of homes have been treated from bondage of property. In New York City WPA housing demolisher project was started which improved the families living conditions. In many other cities of the country old firetraps are being demolished to make way to modern buildings. Swimming pools and parks were constructed to make more public value to the community and remove the children from the streets. In many parts of the country nursery schools were established to where almost 10 thousand children got hot meals, supervised train activities. In these projects employment has been provided 6 00 hundred teachers nurses dieticians and cooks. More than 300 thousand adults learned to read and write first time in their life and started to learn foreign languages from native teachers. In cooperation with the national youth administration 26500 young man and women were employed as instructors laboratory assistants and clerical helpers.( Historical unemployment in relation to today, A. Andrews) Clerical white -collar workers find employment at filling and checking important land records. As part of the program of rehabilitation of the conservation of human resources a number of household training school were established by WPA. In these school girls from relief families are prepared for domestic works. Health education is an important part of the WPA program in a number health centers in large cities teaches the proper care of the children and adults. In some cities sawing rooms were established to support the poor families with clothes. Another type of permanent construction was the community stadium as a representative a large group of project provides the public gatherings all over America. Hundreds of new bridges were constructed thousands of old bridges have been repaired and made safe. In Many cities the construction was undertaken with the cooperation of the public health agencies. The rapid growth of air traffic gives the opportunity to built modern airports and gives a job to thousand s to improve and repair the existing facilities. The increased air transportation also made necessary the development of hundreds of emergency landing fields. In cooperation with the local police departments in several cities automobile inspection stations were established to reduce the unsafe vehicles on the roads. Women who had the principle to support their families are paid for the work. And the product they made was distributed free to the families on relief (John Salmond, The New Deal: The National Level (1975). pp. 188-89). Many other type of employment was provided for women and other part-time jobs were provided in kitchen and in libraries and schools. As a result of some projects thousand of books and maps were translated. This program also contained training for adults t o learn tailoring. The financial support of the administration was enough to invest into more projects like Federal Writers Projects , Federal Theater Project, Federal Art Project, National youth Administration ,to generate more jobs for white-collar workers.â€Å"Because Harry Hopkins believed that the work provided by the WPA should match the skills of the unemployed, artists were employed to paint murals in public buildings, sculptors created park and battlefield monuments, and actors and musicians were paid to perform. These white-collar programs did not escape criticism and the term â€Å"boondoggling† was added to the English language to describe government projects of dubious merit.( Jim Crouch, The Works Progress Administration Eh. Encyclopedia(2004)). The WAP was a long program and finally was abandoned in 1943.Social security act created a new health insurance system based on employer and employee contributions, supported by taxes 6. The SWOT Analysis of the WPA SWOT Strengths: Weaknesses: Education to unskilled workers Started project didnt wanted Various types of jobs WPA as Financial â€Å"black hole† Provide part-time jobs Political influences Jobs for Artist and Black people and Women No ability to control the workers productivity Improve the health care system Opportunities : Threats: Starting more useful projects Instable economical environment Decreasing political aspects of the projects Living expenses increases, because import stop Strengthen the economy throughout projects Potential health problems, disease could stop projects Developing international export-import partnerships Other political parties critics-political intervention Support the banking act, provide more financial security The SWOT analysis is for compute the Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of a sector or a company (Mehta, S. (2000) Marketing Strategy). It is used for strategic planning to create a way to the desired goal or objective. In this case it was decided to apply this technique to set a real picture about the Second New Deal through WPA. The main aim of the current analysis is not generate alternative strategies, but to summarize the situation of WPA and the critiques in 1930s.Starting with the strength of the WPA it can be seen that the group of different types of jobs were provided to a high-scale target area. People could achieve different skills by the WPAs trainings and educations, and they got motivation to learn and use their knowledge in long-term. There were several weaknesses of the program from the beginning. As a governmental project the WPA needed a huge financial background to work and in some cases they only waste the money. The critiques described that some part of the program was only started to get more votes. The real leaders of the WPA had no ability to control the workers productivity and their effectiveness. To mention some real threats the instable economic environment remained the same. The diseases could spread faster among the workers and it may stop many constructing projects and it may indicate more financial problems in the health care system. One of the most important opportunities was to prevent more political fight and decrease the obvious political aspects of the projects. It would have been useful if they could solve the import problems. The following table above contains the main strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. 6.1. The external factor analysis EFAS (External Factor Analysis Summary) External Factors: Weight Ratings Weighted Score Opportunities: O1 Starting more projects 0,1 3 0,3 O2 Decreasing political aspects of the projects 0,2 4 0,8 O3 Strengthen the economy through projects 0,05 3 0,15 O4 Developing international export-import partnerships 0,1 2 0,2 O5 Support the banking act, provide more financial security 0,05 3 0,15 Threats: T1 Instable economical environment 0,2 4 0,8 T2 Living expenses increases, because import stop 0,1 3 0,3 T3 Potential health problems, disease could stop projects 0,05 2 0,1 T4 Other political parties critics-political intervention 0,15 3 0,45 Total Scores: 1 1,0-5,0 3,25 The SWOT table can be used to introduce three other type of analysis the EFAS, the IFAS and the SFAS. The External factor analysis and the internal factor analysis are calculated in a same way. The external factors (opportunities, threats) are used to show the economic background of the company or the sector. The elements of the SWOT table are the main factors of these tables. Every row contains weights and the rates and the multiplied result; the weighted score. The sum of every weight has to equal by 1, and the factors ratings should be between 1 and 5.The total score will be the sum of the weighted scores and it shows a real picture about the companys position. The company is in danger if the result is less 3,5 than. 6.2 The internal factor analysis IFAS(Internal Factor Analysis Summary ) Internal Factors: Weight Ratings Weighted Score Strenghts: Education to unskilled workers 0,15 3 0,45 Various types of jobs 0,15 4 0,6 Provide part-time jobs 0,1 3 0,3 Jobs for Artist and Black people and Women 0,2 2 0,4 Improve the health care system 0,1 3 0,3 Weaknesses: Started project didnt wanted 0,05 3 0,15 WPA as Financial â€Å"black hole† 0,05 2 0,1 Political influences 0,1 4 0,4 No ability to control the workers productivity 0,1 3 0,3 Total Scores: 1 1,0-5,0 3 If the result is more than 3,5, the company is in safe. The internal factors (Strengths, Weaknesses) are closely related to the object of the analysis. The internal strengths and weaknesses summarize the main topics the company has to deal with. The total score is 3 and this means that the company is not in safe and for a long -term basis the management has to handle the weaknesses to strengthen the company position in the market. SFAS(Strategic Factor Analysis Summary ) Factors: Weight Ratings Weighted Score Duration (in terms) S Strenghts: Short Medium Long S1 Education to unskilled workers 0,2 3 0,6 X S4 Jobs for Artist and Black people and Women 0,2 4 0,8 X W Weaknesses: W3 Political influences 0,15 4 0,6 X W4 No ability to control the workers productivity 0,1 2 0,2 X O Opportunities: O1 Starting more projects 0,05 5 0,25 X O2 Decreasing political aspects of the projects 0,05 1 0,05 X T Threats: T1 Instable economical environment 0,2 4 0,8 X T4 Other political parties critics-political intervention 0,05 3 0,15 X Total Scores: 1 1,0-5,0 3,45 6.3. The Strategic Factor Analysis Summary The Strategic Factor Analysis Summary (Business Policy and Strategy lecture SFAS power point presentation 2008.12.03) has an additional column, the duration that is separated into three different parts; long-term, medium-term, and short-term .The most important factors are listed here with weights and ratings to represent the main internal and external aspects of the WPA and to make a summary about the problems and possibilities. As a conclusion, based on the analysis listed below, the SFAS ‘s weighted score is 3,45.It means that the WPA could work in a long-term if the leadership could handle the problems. The WPA project stopped in 1944; therefore the main reasons did not connected to the internal factors, but only the externals. Some critiques had right the all the projects of WPA had only a political step to achieve more cotes in the elections. 7. The worlds reaction to the Great Depression (Theories) The world reacted in a several way to the Great depression and created a lot of theories how to solve the situation. The most famous reaction was the communism, fascism and the Keynesian theory. The fascism took place in Germany, Italy and it represented a highly centralized economy. The public construction programs provided jobs for unskilled labourers to built roads, work camps and military facilities. It increased the demography of the population, but the system was highly dictatorial. According to the statistics the unemployment rate decreased dramatically from 6 million to 0.2 million people.The Communism, as a highly bureaucratic and centralized system, was one of response to the Great Depression. It focused to fully employ the people in a strictly regulated obligatory way. The Keynesian theory: It states that the fully employment is needed, but only the intervention of the government can create this possibility. It can be long -term purpose of the existence of the government. The Keynesian theory changed the way of the thinking about the unemployment. The idea of the welfare state was another solution of the crisis. The education, the minimal guarantee of a job to every citizen is the basis of a welfare system. It guarantees the minimum wages and the minimum social and healthcare system. II. The Current Financial Crisis 1. The beginning of the Current Crisis The current financial crisis started in 2007, but it was not until the last quarter of 2008 .Firstly, this part of the thesis going to show how it all started, the causes and those who were affected by the crisis and how they are trying to deal with the crisis. Most of the people are pointing directly to real estate as the major cause of the current financial crisis even financial institutions that not directly involve with real estate are affected. It can be seen how the subprime mortgages and unscrupulous lenders has caused the unsustainable real estate bubble which began to collapse in 2006.There was increase in homeownership in the United State to about 5 million in little more than six years thanks to the increase in subprime lending. Within these six years constructions of new house sing units grew more but this housing bubble could not grow forever. In this period the price of house went so high and rent price went so low. When the price of housing began to decrease in the lat e 2006 to early 2007, many subprime borrowers had very hard time to make their payment. The housing bubble or the excesses of the subprime mortgage market became even more evident when subprime mortgage lender filed for bankruptcy. All the sectors like households, businesses (including financial institutions), and government are the main participants in the financial market and hit by the crisis. The secondly related financial groups are the surplus units provide funds and while the other group that enter the financial market to obtain fund are the deficit units. If market securities yield low returns why invest in it? Three factors can be seen to why it important to make investment in market securities these are, as we have said before the advantage to convert to cash rapidly so it can be substitute as cash. The second reason is that when a firm has excess cash let say for a month it can invest the excess cash in form of securities as not to hold too much cash in hand. The third reason is that when a firm know it going to pay a loan soon it gathers the money monthly to pay and this money could be invest in market securities before the loan is to be paid. As it have seen when the financial crisis started the public could see that the financial system is in a deep trouble some even call it recession because the stock market came crashing and lost almost 42% of it original price. Before the peak of the financial crisis the total world stock market worth $62.5 trillion and now it $36.6 trillion so it lost $25.9 trillion. Let compare the stock market of leading countries of one day and another day and see how it doing. STOCK MARKETS May 5 prev %chg SP 500 903.8 907.24 -0.38 Nasdaq Comp 1754.12 1763.56 -0.54 Dow Jones Ind 8410.65 8426.74 -0.19 FTSEurofirst 300 846.81 842.7 +0.49 DJ Euro Stoxx 50 2407.55 2419.53 -0.50 FTSE 100 4336.94 4243.22 +2.21 FTSE All-Share UK 2226.6 2174.64 +2.39 CAC 40 3225.0 3237.97 -0.40 Xetra Dax 4853.03 4902.45 -1.01 Nikkei (c) 8977.37 Hang Seng 16430.08 16381.05 +0.30 FTSE All World $ 153.46 153.19 +0.18 ( source New York Times May 5 2008) There was turmoil in the all over the international financial system due to the losses in the subprime mortgage in the mid-2007.This was wide spread global crisis even thus firm not associated with the mortgage firm. This made the financial institutions very nervous and the stock market got very weak. Between July 2007 and March 2008, there was a significantly drop in the price of shares in the large, small and investment bank. A

Persuasive Essay Against Capital Punishment -- Papers Death Penalty Ar

Persuasive Essay Against Capital Punishment â€Å"Kill. (Verb) To make someone or something die.† Does anyone really think they have the right to take another person’s life? Apparently yes. Perhaps we should give the judge a knife and tell her that if she has decided that the accused is guilty, she should stab him herself. Perhaps then she would hesitate. But if many people (hundreds or thousands who operate the judicial system) are involved, it spreads, or even divides the feeling of culpability among many. They may feel less guilty, especially if they believe that they are representing the whole society of their country. What makes it seem more â€Å"humane† is the official perspective of it. Death here is a matter of paperwork, not actually a case of ending someone’s life. I am absolutely opposed to the death penalty. In this essay I will try to explain why I think society should not accept this barbaric punishment. The most common argument in favour of the death penalty is that it is a deterrent, i.e. someone who has murder in mind will think better of it when he realises that he could be facing death. However, I do not agree with this. When a murderer commits a crime he believes that he will not be caught. Numerous studies have tried to prove the deterrence factor, but have been unable to. A criminal dreads a lifetime prison sentence more than, or the same as, the death penalty in any case. There are two types of murders: crimes committed on the â€Å"spur of the moment† (i.e. passion crimes which have not been planned) and pre-meditated murder. If it is a crime of passion, the murderer is not thinking of the consequences at t... ... are then disbarred. They have little incentive to fight for the case when their salary may be under  £4 an hour. Finally, who are we to play with the lives of other people? Each person is just one life – how can one life be allowed to designate when the other must finish? Man is man, not God. Only God should have a divine right over a man’s life. Man is equal to man, and for him to take on the role of a superior being can only cause chaos. I believe that it is the duty of a system of justice to protect society from criminals, either by psychological rehabilitation or by imprisoning them for life if necessary; not by murdering them. Capital punishment is used to condemn the guilty of severe crimes. This means: to teach a criminal how to be humane, they must be killed inhumanely. Does this seem logical?

Discuss the Dramatic Devices Williams Uses in the Play to Suggest

Discuss the dramatic devices Williams uses in the play to suggest that Blanche is doomed. A Streetcar Named Desire is a tragedy that is unlike a traditional tragedy in that the characters in it are not struck by some calamity or fall because of unwise choices on their part. Instead, we enter the play in the delayed aftershocks of a tragedy that has befallen the main character, Blanche, as she attempts to hold on to whatever remnants of her beautiful past she can, but ultimately fails due to a combination of her past that catches up to haunt her, and also because of the rough-handed, misogynistic, and brutally pragmatic Stanley.Throughout the play, Williams hints and ultimately cements the idea that the audience will see Blanche fall. This is done through a blend of symbolism, character interaction, musical and auditory cues that foreshadow Blanche’s ultimate fall from beautiful to insane. Blanche’s tragic past is hinted by Williams to audiences even in Scene 1 by the an alogy of the names of the streetcars and place that Stella and Stanley live in.In Scene 1, Blanche tells Eunice about how she got to Stella and Stanley’s place; â€Å"They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at – Elysian Fields† Blanche’s journey on New Orleans’ streetcars represents the journey of her own life up to now. The streetcar named desire is an allusion for the life she lived after her late husband, Allan, died. Blanche was a promiscuous woman who had sex with random men for the superficial attention she longed for.After, she transferred to a streetcar named Cemeteries, a name for a place of the dead. This must’ve represented that part of her life where she has been ostracised by her hometown of Laurel for her various affairs, that probably disrupted the social and marital affairs of those in the town. After all, that was the â€Å"death† of her time of â€Å"desire†. Finally, she arrives at Elysian Fields, Stella and Stanley’s place. Elysian Fields is a place of Greek Mythology, a transition area for the afterlife.Just as Blanche as â€Å"died†, she has gone to rest in Elysian Fields. In the myth, Elysian Fields was just an area for souls to go to before moving on to their next stage in the afterlife. This alone is enough to show that Williams hasn’t intended for Blanche’s story to end in Elysian Fields. Blanche’s tragic past has effectively â€Å"killed† her, and just as she must move on from Elysian Fields as per myth, her past is due to catch up with her and continue to wreak havoc on her.Furthermore, we see Williams’ use of the dark imagery of â€Å"Cemeteries† and â€Å"Elysian Fields†, as opposed to any more heavenly images (say, â€Å"Heaven†) to suggest that Blanche’s journey after Elysian Fields to be anything rosy – which is ultimately the case. Another way Williams shows that Blanche is destined to doom is through her absolute juxtaposition to life in New Orleans. By showing her as not being able to adapt to and accept life in the seemingly balanced and progressing New Orleans, Blanche is ultimately doomed to be something forgotten and left behind, like an old obsolete symbol of the Old South.From Scene 1, we see Blanche physically standing out in the rough and tumble world of New Orleans, from her striking white clothes in the colourful world of New Orleans, and her delicate description of being a â€Å"moth†. As the play unravels, we see she is unable to adapt to any new situations New Orleans throws at her. She never changes her high register speech which starkly contrasts Stanley and crew’s pidgin English and she constantly ignores the spreading truth about her.Even her sister, who is of same background as her, is able to accept the â€Å"rougher† life in New Orleans, and th is difference is put across by when Stella tells Blanche about her and Stanley’s wedding night. Stella is â€Å"thrilled† by Stanley’s barbaric smashing of the lightbulbs, while Blanche is horrified by it. It is obvious that Stella has at least partially assimilated into New Orleans life, while Blanche never does so throughout the play. By holding on to her beautiful dream of her past life, we see that Blanche sets herself up for disaster by never being able to break away from the past and head forward into the future.Her juxtaposition in New Orleans till the very end of the play serves as a reminder that she is a relic from the Old South and could never survive in the radically changing New Orleans, and is destined to die out with the old traditions. Auditory cues in the play also serve as a symbol as Blanche’s imminent disaster. The Varsouviana Polka appears when Blanche is being confronted with her past and the truth, such as when Mitch confronts her a bout her true age and the truth about her past.The polka symbolises disaster to Blanche, playing when she witness the traumatic death of her husband and whenever situations in the future bring these feelings of disaster to her. The Polka never goes away during the play, instead, we see that the polka is a recurring symbol in the play, showing that disaster has followed Blanche to New Orleans and is affecting her in every facet of her new life there. For example, in the scene where Mitch confronts Blanche about her past, we see the Polka being distorted, coupled with what seem to be Blanche’s hallucinations of the night Allan died.When Stanley provides Blanche with the bus ticket to go back to Laurel, â€Å"The Varsouviana music steals in softly and continues playing†, which represents the disaster Blanche faces should she go back again. As such, we see the Polka (and hence, disaster) never leaving her, instead representing the disastrous past creeping out on her, as it becomes more distorted and skewed throughout the play, representing her confused and deteriorating state of mind and doomed destiny.Ultimately, the polka is also there to play along with her downfall, : where, â€Å"The Varsouviana is filtered into weird distortion, accompanied by the cries and noises of the jungle† to symbolise the final destruction of her humanity (the jungle), and her deteriorated mental wellness (the distortion). Other notable examples of music used in the play to represent doom are songs like Paper Moon, that Blanche herself sings. Say it’s only a cardboard moon, sailing over a paper sea, but it wouldn’t be make believe, if you believed in me. Without your loveIt's a honky-tonk parade Without your love It's a melody played in a penny arcade It's a Barnum and Bailey world Just as phony as it can be Paper Moon by Ella Fitzgerald, a song about make-believe and props for show, is quite fittingly sung by Blanche, who all this while has lived in her make-believe world of her former glory. Such songs surfacing in the play, especially by the perpetrator herself cements the idea to audiences that Blanche is in fact a phony in her own right, and thus cannot survive in the very â€Å"real† world of New Orleans.It is yet another indicator that Blanche cannot and has not accepted the harsh future and reality of this life. It is extremely befitting to Blanche that it is true that if someone believed and truly loved her, she need not live out a make-believe world, where she is as white and as beautiful and as false as a paper moon. As such, songs like Paper Moon show audiences that Blanche embodies the person who cannot move from fantasy out to reality, and is doomed to live out in her fantasy world where she is like a paper moon – a move that ultimately spells her insanity in the harsh real world of New Orleans.The foreshadowing of Blanche’s doomed destiny is also portrayed through other minor characters actio ns. The Mexican flower seller, an old lady close to death, sells flowers for the dead, as if to foreshadow Blanche’s imminent â€Å"death† from reality, while Shep Huntleigh’s continued absence as Blanche’s â€Å"saviour† shows not only her disillusions about who she really is now as a woman, as well as serve as a reminder to audiences that it seems nothing can pluck Blanche out from her dire situation in New Orleans.Blanche is stuck in New Orleans miserable with the increasingly abusive Stanley, and no former beau can offer escape. Williams hints from the very beginning of the play that Blanche is doomed, but it is events throughout the play that signal her refusal and inability to move from fantasy to reality, that cement with audiences that Blanche has little hope of being released from her predicament.A Streetcar Named Desire is littered with small but extremely significant events to show that Blanche is still the paper moon she sings about, an d thus leads to her ultimate fall from the pititful facade of grace we were introduced to at the start of the play, to the hopeless state of delusion she ends up in after New Orleans and the people in it are unable to fed her fantasy anymore.

Dealing with Cleanliness in the Classroom

Maintaining a clean and tidy classroom environment is important for a number of reasons. A clean classroom minimizes the spread of germs, prevents offending smells from lingering, and runs more smoothly overall than untidy classrooms. Aside from health problems they can cause, your students just wont be able to do their best learning in a filthy room. Teach them strategies for maintaining a clean environment to prepare them for real life and help them thrive in school. Get the Students Involved Building a classroom culture that values organization and cleanliness is up to the teacher. Students should be encouraged to take care of their classroom and be held responsible for their own actions from the start. Teaching Accountability Rather than spending your valuable teaching time picking up garbage and tidying up after a long day, show your students the importance of individual accountability and prevent clutter from ever becoming an issue. Demonstrate that when they dont clean up after themselves, the classroom becomes too messy to learn in and nothing gets done how it should. Make the time for a valuable lesson in cleaning. Tell the students to go a whole day without putting anything away and then meet at the end of the day to discuss the outcomes. The students will see how chaotic school can be when garbage and materials are not put away and recognize their individual parts in the process. Devote the next day to developing cleaning techniques and routines together. Cleaning Jobs Pass the majority of the cleaning responsibility to your students. One way to do this is to design a system of classroom jobs designated solely to the cleaning and organization of the room. Some jobs to try implementing are: Beginning- and end-of-day recorder: This student will assess the state of the classroom at the beginning and end of the school day and give it a cleanliness grade. Display this somewhere for all students to see so that the class can feel pride when they do well and work toward improvement when the grade is not ideal.Table monitors: The role of these students (two or three) is to keep the tops of tables and desks neat. That means returning supplies to their proper places and wiping down desks that get messy.Floor scanners: The one or two students with this job keep everything off the floor that shouldnt be there. They dispose of garbage scraps and return materials such as technology and folders to the correct students so that they can quickly be put away.Garbage tracker: This student helps out during snack time by gently reminding their classmates that food wrappers need to end up in the trash and lets the teacher know if the garbage cans get too full. If you would like, have this stu dent wear a pair of gloves and help to collect trash.Cleaning motivator: This student is in charge of keeping everyones eyes on the prize. During periods of clean-up and transition, have them use a microphone to motivate their classmates to keep their areas clean, giving reminders about what needs to be done as needed.Job checker/filler: This job is simply in place to make sure that the other jobs are getting done. Have them record who has done their cleaning job and who has not, filling in for anyone that is absent or unable to perform their duties. Model each of these jobs multiple times before asking students to carry them out themselves then rotate jobs weekly so everyone gets a turn. Individual ownership will increase over time as students assume these cleaning roles and recognize the importance of everybodys actions—they will also learn to help each other out when mistakes are made. Before long, you will have more instructional time and your students will have good cleaning habits that they will carry with them forever. Tips for Keeping the Classroom Clean Make sure that you foster good habits outside of jobs and accountability and an environment that is conducive to keeping the class clean. Try the following strategies for ensuring that cleaning is an efficient and effective part of every day. Designate cleaning times. Set routines for cleaning multiple times a day and dont allow anything to cut into these times (within reason). Your students might be inexperienced and need longer for certain tasks.Have a place for everything. You cant expect your students to make sure that things are where they belong if they dont belong anywhere. Use organized bins, shelves, and cupboards to store materials and show students where every item goes.Be explicit about what clean means. The concept of clean is learned, not innate, and it looks different in every home. Teach your students what clean looks like in school and dont allow wiggle room (e.g. It seemed clean enough to me.).Give students their own space. If you are able, provide each student with a cubby and hook to call their own. These should be homes for all the stuff they will need such as folders, coats, homework, and lunch boxes.Make cleaning fun. Cleaning is not naturally fun but that doesnt mean your students cant enjoy it. Pl ay music during clean up times to make it fun and set classroom goals to work toward. For example, 50 clean days earns a pajama party.