Public Law Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Public Law - Assignment Example At what point is a constitutional convention said to exist? Scholars have developed several tests over time to indentify existed of a convention. They include Jennings test developed by Sir Ivor Jennings and Marshall and Moodie test. The objective of this paper is to examine the two tests, their differences and how both tests apply in case of an individual minister responsibility. Jennings test According to Sir Ivor Jennings, a constitutional convention exists if three core requirements are satisfied: (1) The must precedents underpinning it, (2) the parties to the particular convention must be bound by it and (3) there must be a reason for the existence of the convention. This test was adopted by the Supreme Court of Canada in Re Amendment of the Constitution of Canada.5 In this case, the government had proposed certain changes to the constitution without seeking consent of the provinces. The Constitution of Canada did not require consent of the provinces in such circumstances. Howev er, a convention had developed such that the consent of the provinces was always sought before such a change to the constitution. ... The main issue was whether education convention had been extended over time by custom to include advocacy correspondence. The court adopted Jennings test. It had no problem with establishing the first element since the prince had clearly been engaging in advocacy correspondence. With regard to the second element, the tribunal found that Prince Charles did not feel entitled to contact ministers and they did not feel they were obligated to respond as part of his â€Å"preparation for kingship.6 The third element was also finding lacking. The tribunal held that the education convention did not extend to advocacy correspondence: â€Å"it is the constitutional role of the monarch, not the heir to the throne, to encourage or warn government†.7 Consequently since two out of the three requirements failed, the tribunal held that the educational convention did not extend to advocacy.8 Marshall and Moodie test Marshal and Moodie9 state â€Å"a convention is a non-legal rule of constitu tional behavior which has been consistently accepted by those affected by it as binding on them, but which is not enforceable in the courts† Therefore, according to Marshal and Moodie, the question to ask is whether the convention has been consistently accepted by those to whom it is binding. Secondly, it has to be formulated on the basis of an acknowledged principle of government.10 According to the Upper Tribunal in Evans, â€Å"there was in fact nothing said by Marshall and Moodie which was inconsistent with what was said by Jennings†.11 However, the two tests exhibit some differences. To begin with, according to Jennings first test, the particular convention must have had a precedent. â€Å"A single precedent with a good reason may be enough to establish the

Yield Curve Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Yield Curve - Essay Example If we compare the price movement of the stock with that of the S&P 500, NASDAQ and Dow Jones Industrial Average, we see a positive correlation between the stock price and the three indices. The stock prices have moved with the market in the past one year. But on the other hand, the stock price movements have been less vigorous than the three indices, which mean that the stock is not as volatile as the market. In absolute terms the sales and profitability of the firm has increased in the past 3 years. The sales have grown at a rate of 2.15% in the past three years. The profitability of the firm has grown at a rate of 10.67% in the past three years. The profit margin has also seen an increase in the past three years. It was 3.31% in 2009, 3.52% in 2010 and 3.89% in 2011. The trailing profit margin is also following this trend with a margin of 3.87% for the quarter ending July 31, 2011. According to upgrades and downgrades history, the stock was downgraded on February 10, 2011 to neutra l from buy. But analysts after that have estimated a mean price target of $60.10, which is approximately $7 above the current price. Analysts’ estimates show that the sales will show a growth at the end of this year and the next one. The analysts also expect that the EPS will also show a growth. The analysts have estimated the Wal-Mart will grow at 10.41% per annum over the next five years and the industry will grow at 14.82% per annum. The analysts recommend buying to holding on to the stock with a mean recommendation of 2.2. Part 2 Complete the following table:   Business Date Chosen Five Years Ago 30/08/2006 1-month Nominal T-bill Rate on that Date 5.16   3-month Nominal T-bill Rate on that Date 5.05 6-month Nominal T-bill Rate on that Date 5.14 1-year Nominal T-bill Rate on that Date 5.06 5-year Nominal T-bill Rate on that Date 4.72 10-year Nominal T-bond Rate on that Date 4.76 20-year Nominal T-bond Rate on that Date 4.98 30-year Nominal T-bond Rate on that Date 4.91 1. The yield curve is almost inverted on this date. This is because the trend that can be inferred from the graph is that the long-term debt instruments have a lower yield than the short-term instruments. Inverted yield curves have been an accurate forecasting tool for recessions. This type of a yield curve shows that the future interest rates will be lower because of which there is an increase in the demand for long-term bonds. And as a result the yields fall for the long-term bonds. 2. 10- Year Bond Purchased for $1000 5 Years Ago   Original Value $1000   Coupon Rate 4.79 Current 5-Year Yield to Maturity 0.98 Number of Semi-Annual Periods 10 Current 5-Year Yield to Maturity/2 0.49 Current Value $1,185.47 Gain or Loss on the Bond over the 5 years $185.47 20- Year Bond Purchased for $1000 5 Years Ago   Original Value $1000   Coupon Rate   5.00 Current 15-Year Yield to Maturity (est.) 2.70 Number of Semi-Annual Periods 30 Current 15-Year Yield to Maturity (est.)/2 1.35 Cur rent Value $1,282.14 Gain or Loss on the Bond over the 5 years $282.14 The gain for the 20 year bond is greater than the gain on the 10 year bond. It is because the value of the 20 year bond is higher than the 10 year bond. Both the bonds will be sold at a premium because the coupon rate is higher than the YTM for both bonds. The only difference is that the 20 year bond has a longer time to maturity because of which its value is higher. -----------------------------------Please Leave a Positive Feedback------------------------------------- Works Cited Brigham, E. F., & Ehrhardt, M. C. (2005). Financial Management: Theory and Practice. USA: South-Western Cengage

Why Students Should Work Essay Example for Free

Why Students Should Work Essay I disagree that high school students should be limited in the amount of hours they work because students will be making less money. So they won’t be able to save enough money for college. Also students will learn about responsibility and will learn on how to manage their money,write checks, and use their credit card. I think that high school students should work as many hours as they want in conclusion they would be making more money to support themselves and their families. Also, because they get to experience what working is like so they could get ready for their career. Having a job has many benefits. One of these benefits is obvious, earning an income. With an income comes responsibility. When a student becomes an adult, he or she has to learn to depend on their own income, and there is nothing they can do to prepare themselves for that except to begin to get a feel for the responsibilities earning an income brings. Also, I think that students who work, it gives the student experience on what their working on so that they get good at it. I think that students who work more get more money so that they could buy a car and not be tired from school and work. Also, I think that this is an opportunity to learn how to manage their money and how to use it wisely. Students can gain experience by working through high school. This brings the opportunity to learn how to budget money, which is a vital part of being independent. Budgeting takes a lot of self-discipline and trial and error, but is possible to learn. It is also important for students to start making purchases that result in monthly payments, such as cell phone or car payments. Not only does this give students the ability to establish credit, but also a feel for what having bills is like. These are things that all students need to gain exposure to and begin become experienced with. It would be much more difficult to learn these things when one is dependent on themselves. It raises the risk of struggles with money. I think that students who work more could also maintain good grades and do homework because they only have to work after school. So they could do homework after work and still good to school with enough energy to last the  whole day.

Strategic Management and Information Systems

Strategic Management and Information Systems Now this is the time of modern technology which is the based on Information System it should be use in strategically. Strategic management is a level of managerial activity under setting goals and over Tactics. Strategic management provides overall direction to the enterprise and is closely related to the field of Organization Studies. In the field of business administration it is useful to talk about strategic align men between the organization and its environment or strategic consistency. According to Arieu (2007), there is strategic consistency when the actions of an organization are consistent with the expectations of management, and these in turn are with the market and the context. Strategic management is an ongoing process that evaluates and controls the business and the industries in which the company is involved; assesses its competitors and sets goals and strategies to meet all existing and potential competitors; and then reassesses each strategy annually or quarterly [i.e. regularly] to determine how it has been implemented and whether it has succeeded or needs replacement by a new strategy to meet changed circumstances, new technology, new competitors, a new economic environment., or a new social, financial, or political environment. Marketing action plan Placement and execution of required resources are financial, manpower, operational support, time, technology support Operating with a change in methods or with alteration in structure Distributing the specific tasks with responsibility or moulding specific jobs to individuals or teams. The process should be managed by a responsible team. This is to keep direct watch on result, comparison for betterment and best practices, cultivating the effectiveness of processes, calibrating and reducing the variations and setting the process as required. Introducing certain programs involves acquiring the requisition of resources: a necessity for developing the process, training documentation, process testing, and immolation with (and/or conversion from) difficult processes. As and when the strategy implementation processes, there have been so many problems arising such as human relations, the employee-communication. Such a time, marketing strategy is the biggest implementation problem usually involves, with emphasis on the appropriate timing of new products. An organization, with an effective management, should try to implement its plans without signalling this fact to its competitors.[3] In general terms, there are two main approaches, which are opposite but complement each other in some ways, to strategic management: The Industrial Organizational Approach based on economic theory deals with issues like competitive rivalry, resource allocation, economies of scale assumptions rationality, self discipline behaviour, profit maximization The Sociological Approach deals primarily with human interactions Information- and technology-driven strategy Peter Drucker had theorized the rise of the knowledge worker back in the 1950s. He described how fewer workers would be doing physical labour, and more would be applying their minds. In 1984, John Nesbitt theorized that the future would be driven largely by information: companies that managed information well could obtain an advantage, however the profitability of what he calls the information float (information that the company had and others desired) would all but disappear as inexpensive computers made information more accessible. Daniel Bell (1985) examined the sociological consequences of information technology, while Gloria Schuck and Shoshana Zuboff looked at psychological factors. Zuboff, in her five year study of eight pioneering corporations made the important distinction between automating technologies and info mating technologies. She studied the effect that both had on individual workers, managers, and organizational structures. She largely confirmed Peter Druckers predictions three decades earlier, about the importance of flexible decentralized structure, work teams, knowledge sharing, and the central role of the knowledge worker. Zuboff also detected a new basis for managerial authority, based not on position or hierarchy, but on knowledge (also predicted by Drucker) which she called participative management. In 1990, Peter Senge, who had collaborated with Arie de Geus at Dutch Shell, borrowed de Geus notion of the learning organization, expanded it, and popularized it. The underlying theory is that a companys ability to gather, analyze, and use information is a necessary requirement for business success in the information age. (See organizational learning.) In order to do this, Senge claimed that an organization would need to be structured such that:[75] People can continuously expand their capacity to learn and be productive, New patterns of thinking are nurtured, Collective aspirations are encouraged, and People are encouraged to see the whole picture together. Senge identified five disciplines of a learning organization. They are: Personal responsibility, self reliance, and mastery We accept that we are the masters of our own destiny. We make decisions and live with the consequences of them. When a problem needs to be fixed, or an opportunity exploited, we take the initiative to learn the required skills to get it done. Mental models We need to explore our personal mental models to understand the subtle effect they have on our behaviour. Shared vision The vision of where we want to be in the future is discussed and communicated to all. It provides guidance and energy for the journey ahead. Team learning We learn together in teams. This involves a shift from a spirit of advocacy to a spirit of enquiry. Systems thinking We look at the whole rather than the parts. This is what Senge calls the Fifth discipline. It is the glue that integrates the other four into a coherent strategy. For an alternative approach to the learning organization, see Garratt, B. (1987). Thomas A. Stewart, for example, uses the term intellectual capital to describe the investment an organization makes in knowledge. It is composed of human capital (the knowledge inside the heads of employees), customer capital (the knowledge inside the heads of customers that decide to buy from you), and structural capital (the knowledge that resides in the company itself). Manuel Castells, describes a network society characterized by: globalization, organizations structured as a network, instability of employment, and a social divide between those with access to information technology and those without. Geoffrey Moore (1991) and R. Frank and P. Cook[85] also detected a shift in the nature of competition. In industries with high technology content, technical standards become established and this gives the dominant firm a near monopoly. The same is true of networked industries in which interoperability requires compatibility between users. An example is word processor documents. Once a product has gained market dominance, other products, even far superior products, cannot compete. Moore showed how firms could attain this enviable position by using E.M. Rogers five stage adoption process and focusing on one group of customers at a time, using each group as a base for marketing to the next group. The most difficult step is making the transition between visionaries and pragmatists (See Crossing the Chasm). If successful a firm can create a bandwagon effect in which the momentum builds and your product becomes a de facto standard. Evans and Wurster describe how industries with a high information component are being transformed.[86] They cite Encartas demolition of the Encyclopedia Britannica (whose sales have plummeted 80% since their peak of $650 million in 1990). Encartas reign was speculated to be short-lived, eclipsed by collaborative encyclopedias like Wikipedia that can operate at very low marginal costs. Encartas service was subsequently turned into an on-line service and dropped at the end of 2009. Evans also mentions the music industry which is desperately looking for a new business model. The upstart information savvy firms, unburdened by cumbersome physical assets, are changing the competitive landscape, redefining market segments, and disintermediating some channels. One manifestation of this is personalized marketing. Information technology allows marketers to treat each individual as its own market, a market of one. Traditional ideas of market segments will no longer be relevant if personalized marketing is successful. The technology sector has provided some strategies directly. For example, from the software development industry agile software development provides a model for shared development processes. Access to information systems have allowed senior managers to take a much more comprehensive view of strategic management than ever before. The most notable of the comprehensive systems is the balanced scorecard approach developed in the early 1990s by Drs. Robert S. Kaplan (Harvard Business School) and David Norton (Kaplan, R. and Norton, D. 1992). It measures several factors financial, marketing, production, organizational development, and new product development in order to achieve a balanced perspective. Knowledge-driven strategy Most current approaches to business strategy focus on the mechanics of management e.g., Druckers operational strategies and as such are not true business strategy. In a post-industrial world these operationally focused business strategies hinge on conventional sources of advantage have essentially been eliminated: Scale used to be very important. But now, with access to capital and a global marketplace, scale is achievable by multiple organizations simultaneously. In many cases, it can literally be rented. Process improvement or best practices were once a favored source of advantage, but they were at best temporary, as they could be copied and adapted by competitors. Owning the customer had always been thought of as an important form of competitive advantage. Now, however, customer loyalty is far less important and difficult to maintain as new brands and products emerge all the time. In such a world, differentiation, as elicudated by Michael Porter, Botten and McManus is the only way to maintain economic or market superiority (i.e., comparative advantage) over competitors. A company must OWN the thing that differentiates it from competitors. Without IP ownership and protection, any product, process or scale advantage can be compromised or entirely lost. Competitors can copy them without fear of economic or legal consequences, thereby eliminating the advantage. (For an explanation and elucidation of the post-industrial worldview, see George Ritzer and Daniel Bell.) The psychology of strategic management Several psychologists have conducted studies to determine the psychological patterns involved in strategic management. Typically senior managers have been asked how they go about making strategic decisions. A 1938 treatise by Chester Barnard, that was based on his own experience as a business executive, sees the process as informal, intuitive, non-routinized, and involving primarily oral, 2-way communications. Bernard says The process is the sensing of the organization as a whole and the total situation relevant to it. It transcends the capacity of merely intellectual methods, and the techniques of discriminating the factors of the situation. The terms pertinent to it are feeling, judgement, sense, proportion, balance, appropriateness. It is a matter of art rather than science. In 1973, Henry Mintzberg found that senior managers typically deal with unpredictable situations so they strategize in ad hoc, flexible, dynamic, and implicit ways. . He says, The job breeds adaptive information-manipulators who prefer the live concrete situation. The manager works in an environment of stimulous-response, and he develops in his work a clear preference for live action.[88] In 1982, John Kotter studied the daily activities of 15 executives and concluded that they spent most of their time developing and working a network of relationships from which they gained general insights and specific details to be used in making strategic decisions. They tended to use mental road maps rather than systematic planning techniques.[89] Daniel Isenbergs 1984 study of senior managers found that their decisions were highly intuitive. Executives often sensed what they were going to do before they could explain why.[90] He claimed in 1986 that one of the reasons for this is the complexity of strategic decisions and the resultant information uncertainty.[91] Shoshana Zuboff (1988) claims that information technology is widening the divide between senior managers (who typically make strategic decisions) and operational level managers (who typically make routine decisions). She claims that prior to the widespread use of computer systems, managers, even at the most senior level, engaged in both strategic decisions and routine administration, but as computers facilitated (She called it deskilled) routine processes, these activities were moved further down the hierarchy, leaving senior management free for strategic decions making. In 1977, Abraham Zaleznik identified a difference between leaders and managers. He describes leadershipleaders as visionaries who inspire. They care about substance. Whereas managers are claimed to care about process, plans, and form.[92] He also claimed in 1989 that the rise of the manager was the main factor that caused the decline of American business in the 1970s and 80s.The main difference between leader and manager is that, leader has followers and manager has subordinates. In capitalistic society leaders make decisions and manager usually follow or execute.[93] Lack of leadership is most damaging at the level of strategic management where it can paralyze an entire organization.[94] According to Corner, Kinichi, and Keats,[95] strategic decision making in organizations occurs at two levels: individual and aggregate. They have developed a model of parallel strategic decision making. The model identifies two parallel processes both of which involve getting attention, encoding information, storage and retrieval of information, strategic choice, strategic outcome, and feedback. The individual and organizational processes are not independent however. They interact at each stage of the process. References David, F Strategic Management, Columbus:Merrill Publishing Company, 1989 Lamb, Robert, Boyden Competitive strategic management, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1984 Sweet, Franklyn H. Strategic Planning A Conceptual Study, Bureau of Business Research, The University of Texas, 1964 Chandler, Alfred Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the history of industrial enterprise, Doubleday, New York, 1962.

Marketing Essay -- Technology, Internet, Digital Information

Internet permits small businesses to gain and maintain their market share that helps them to compete with huge industry. The Internet is no longer a novelty in the minds of today’s population as it is the availability of having internet connection. In fact, the Internet and digital information have taken over many aspects of our lives from communication to information consumption, to new ways of doing business. It has reinvented our vocabulary and gave new meanings to words in cyberspace, for example surfing, visitors, and hits or navigates (Nicholas and Dobrowolski, 2000). These changes in meaning can be discovered as well in the word â€Å"user’’, it can mean a surfer or a visitor. Consumers today are increasingly utilizing technology as an effective tool in their shopping experience. The popularity of Web2.0 has helped in the growth and public popularity of social networks and has created a new world of collaboration and communication. Online shopping is as a complex process, and requires basic IT knowledge and requirements (credit card, computer) for customers to buy goods online. However, the focus of Malaysian government is on building up the platform required to support electronic business. Malaysian electronic consumerism is evolving at rapid rate because of consciousness and communications availability that convince consumers to involve in electronic business activities. Malaysia from March 2011 according to Internet World Stats , there were Internet users with 58.8 % penetration and 1,331,800 broadband subscribers as of March 2008). The penetration of Malaysian shopping online (those who bought or ordered goods and services online) in 2000 was 1% of the total adult population in Malaysia (Taylor Nelson Sofres, 2001). Accor... ...2006). (Peter Drucker, 1999) wrote: â€Å"in the psychological natural features of e-commerce, remoteness has been removing. Ever business must be internationally competitive. The rivalry is not local anymore.† tactical assessment will result in to the best reward, while make an investment in online marketing (Scanlon, 2009).Consumers can evaluate competing goods and services with minimum expenses of personnel time or effort, which results in competitive business markets and lower brand loyalty (Srinivasan, 2002). Thus, my study will be determined to realize the causes of loyalty on the online shopping environment. Consumer-created information has become a rather significant influence on consumer behaviour such as decision making. Online consumer’s reviews are part of consumer-created information by web site users who have by now bought the target product (Park, 2007).

Willy Russells Educating Rita Essay -- English Literature

From your study of Willy Russell's Educating Rita, describe which character in the play changes the most Explain:  · How the characters change  · The characters role in the play  · How the playwright uses dramatic devices  · How the use of language shows these changes  · How these changes reflect the social, historical and cultural background. The play 'Educating Rita' was written by Willy Russell in 1985, for all the 'Rita's' and all the 'Frank's' in the audience. The play is based on Willy Russell's life so it could be interpreted as an autobiographical play. Like Rita, Russell did not study at school so he did not have any O levels, so he wanted an education to get away from Hairdressing like Rita wanted an education to see what she could become. At this point in the play Frank can tell Rita anything and she will listen and believe all of it. As time goes on she looses this hunger for knowledge because of summer school and her flatmate Trish that dramatically changes Rita. At the end of the play the two characters seem to have changed roles, Rita comes back from summer school and knows more then she ever thought she could and discovers that the 'proper students' are not as good and intelligent as she thought. Franks relationship with Julia is breaking down and the banishment to Australia seems more and more imminent. The two seem to swap roles because Frank used to tell Rita things and she would try and understand it, but the return from summer school shows that she has memorised Blake poetry and has significantly changed. Rita is driven by the need for education, having realised that life has more to offer then her ordinary existence in the hairdressing salon. Rita says to Frank that b... ...that there is only one thing for her to do to thank him so he sits down and the audience gets the impression of something sexual about to happen but Rita gets a pair of scissors and begins to cut Franks hair. In this scene the dramatic device used is one for humour. Educating Rita is mainly about a character trying to find the right words to express herself, and as she becomes more educated Rita learns to adapt her language to different audiences. Rita's increasing mastery of the language helps her to grow more confident. In the character of Rita, Willy Russell was reaching out to an audience whose daily language was not of the theatre or the university but to all the Franks and Rita's in the audience. Rita attempts to change her language to the proper use of words, because of what Trish said: 'you can't discuss beautiful literature with an ugly voice.'

The Character of Mr Collins in Pride and Prejudice

Mr Collins is introduced to us for the first time in Chapter 13, possibly one of the most famous chapters of the novel. This is the chapter in which Mr. Bennet reads â€Å"the letter† out loud to his family. This letter gives us the most fundamental impression on Mr Collins’ character. The contents of this letter makes us judge him straight away and this judgement marks the image we have of this clergyman for the whole story. As soon as his name is mentioned by Mr Bennet at the start of Chapter 13, Mrs. Bennet’s reaction is: â€Å"Oh! My dear (†¦ ) pray do not talk of that odious man! †. This shows how Mr Collins is not particularly liked in the society and the word odious is particularly well-suited to the man as we understand further on. This is because he ways of gaining trust and building relationships with other people is not very agreeable as he does this through endless flat compliments which, as Mr Bennet later points out are often: â€Å"are the result of previous study â€Å". Most of the impressions we get of Mr Collins are heavily subject, as I said before, to the words of the other characters. This is further emphasized as the characters that immediately criticize William have good credibility in this. Mrs Bennet is always the first to shine a good light on possible rich suitors for her daughter so if she decides to criticize a man that fits this description than it means that he is really disagreeable. Also Elizabeth comments his behaviour as being† an oddity† and as having â€Å"something very pompous in his style†. This is yet again a very good description of him from a very credible character. This is because Elizabeth is throughout the whole novel depicted as being the most intelligent and clever of the Bennet sisters and is therefore a reliable testimony. The first impressions we get which are an actual description by Jane Austen seemingly follow the assumptions we get about him: he is â€Å"heavy looking† and â€Å"very formal†. Both these traits are in great concordance with the Pre-analysis we have already made. These adjectives fit perfectly because even though the adjective heavy is not usually associated with looks in this case it makes us imagine Mr Collins as a character full of responsibilities he does not actually have and this â€Å"heavy look† shows how he heavy in his way of behaving therefore quite boring and staying with him is a toil rather than a pleasure. We have two more occasions when Mr Collins first impressions are finally concluded and he has no chance of redemption. Firstly in chapter 14 Mr Bennet, after dinner and after having had the conversation with Mr Collins at the table, thinks back to his conversation. Austen describes his thought as reflecting how ridiculous his cousin was and at how this satisfies all his expectations: â€Å"His cousin was as absurd as he had hoped. â€Å". This is yet again a comment made by one of the most reflective characters of the novel and therefore we are more prone to believe, this is even stronger as he is thinking so he is much less likely to be lying. Lastly and most dramatically chapter 15 starts with the words: â€Å"Mr Collins was not a sensible man,†. This is very powerful as the first thing we read of this chapter is the apex of disdain for Mr Collins. Overall the impressions we get of Mr Collins are negative and he represents an uninteresting almost pathetic character. His lack of depth and of honest pan out to being fundamental in our analysis of him and he is immediately labelled as a negative character