Financial Crisis and Brazil Essay Example for Free

Financial Crisis and Brazil Essay The economic crisis that has swept the world since 2008 has wrought havoc in national economies all over the world. As a group, one of the more particularly hard-hit groups of nations has been the Latin American countries of Central and South America. One notable exception to this trend appeared to be the nation of Brazil. The gloomy projections appeared not to apply to Brazil. According to Mauricio Cardenas of the Brooking institute: This doom and gloom has not infected Brazil, however, where President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is showing unprecedented self-assurance. Speaking in Madrid, Lula said somewhat rhetorically that this idea that markets can do everything is over,† and more fundamentally â€Å"The times in which emerging countries depended on the IMF are over. † This is not Hugo Chavez speaking, but the president of Latin America’s largest economy, who enjoys 80 percent popularity in his country. (Cardenas, 2008) Although Brazil weathered the early months of the financial crisis better than its Latin American neighbors, the longer the crisis has continued, the more the Brazilian economy has weakened. One of the factors that prevented an immediate collapse of the Brazilian Economy in the wake of the 2008 Crisis was the relative lack of foreign banks in the country. (Cardenas, 2008) Unlike many Latin American nations that have a high percentage of foreign banks (i. e. Mexico: 80% foreign banks), Brazil has only 30% foreign banks. (Cardenas, 2008) In the short term, this allowed Brazil to assume that a contraction in foreign lending would not have as deep an impact on their economy than that of other nations. Brazilian banks, in times of previous economic prosperity, had built reserves, rather than engaging in profligate loaning, leading to the hopes that these reserves were sufficient against the day that foreign banks severely restricted credit. (Cardenas, 2008) By September of 2008, this theory seemed to erode in the face of certain economic indicators. The Bovespa index, a market indicator similar to the Dow Jones industrial Average, lost half of its value from May to September of 2008. (Cardenas, 2008) 10% of that drop occurred in the second half of September. More strikingly, the value of Brazil’s currency, the Real, fell 32% against other world currencies. (Cardenas, 2008) These factors show that Brazil may still be prone to suffer in the economic crisis. Other analysts, such as John Williamson of the Peterson Institution of international Economics, have been less sanguine about the prospects of Brazil’s economy. Wiliamson stated: Moreover, the markets decided that while many of the emerging economies might no longer have any need for an inflow of loans, many (like Brazil) are still significant net debtors to the rest of the world and therefore still vulnerable to a sudden withdrawal of foreign credit. Compounding this is the fact that one may have a balanced overall position and still be vulnerable because debts are concentrated at short maturities. Hence one read, for example, of the Bovespa index falling by over 10 percent in a day (it has cumulatively halved in value since the peak in May). Likewise, the real has fallen by a cumulative 32 percent in the past month. The markets clearly do not believe that Brazil has been made invulnerable†¦ (Williamson, 2008) The world market contraction has had a significant effect on Brazil’s foreign trade. (Williamson, 2008) The export economy has relied upon raw materials for 50% of exports, and the prices of these materials have dropped dramatically in the face of world-wide declines in demand. (Williamson, 2008) The other half of Brazil’s exports, differentiated manufactured goods have also decreased in the face of reduced demand. Ironically, the weakness of the real against foreign currencies has softened the negative effect of these factors. (Williamson, 2008) The soft real will inspire increased purchase of manufactured goods from Brazil. This will soften, but not eliminate, the negative effects of low demand. The decrease in foreign capital that these commodity price decreases have reflected, will rapidly eat through Brazil’s trade surplus, and put strain on lending institutions in Brazil. (Williamson, 2008) The future of Brazil’s economy has been reported with varying degrees of optimism. The GDP of Brazil is projected to contract anywhere from 1. 5 to 20% in 2009 after growing 5% in 2008. (Williamson, 2008) An increase in the shift of agricultural exports to China has also contributed to the overall positive projections of the Brazilian economy. (Xinhua, 2009) The increase from March of 2008 (8. 5%) to March of 2009 (12. 5%) amounts of agricultural exports to China reflect this phenomenon. (Xinhua, 2009) The president of Brazil claims that the crisis has passed, and that Brazil has weathered the worst part of the economic crisis of 2008. (Xinhua, 2009) The longevity of the world-wide recession will determine if this is in fact a true prediction. (Xinhua, 2009) Brazil weathered the economic crisis of 2008 comparatively well, but suffered great financial repercussions late in the year. The economy seems to be in a stage of recovery, but its continued well being will rely on the recovery of other nations that control lending power and demand for Brazil’s exports. Work Cited Cardenas, M. (2008) â€Å"Global Financial Crisis: Is Brazil a Bystander? † Retrieved June 4th, 2009 from Brookings Institution website: http://www. brookings. edu/opinions/2008/1015_financial_crisis_cardenas. aspx Williamson, J. (2008) â€Å"The Impact of the Global Financial Crisis on Brazil† Retrieved June 4th, 2009 from Peterson Institution of international Economics website: http://www. iie. com/publications/papers/williamson1008. pdf Xinhua (2009) â€Å"Brazils agricultural exports to China up 52. 5 percent in March† Retrieved June 4th 2009 from China’s people’s Daily website: http://english. people. com. cn/90001/90778/90857/90861/6634356. html

Stephen Leacocks Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich :: Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich Essays

Stephen Leacock's Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich    Jonathan Swift has suggested that "Satire is a sort of Glass, wherein Beholders do generally discover every body's Face their own; which is the chief reason...that so few are offended with it."   Richard Garnett suggests that, "Without humour, satire is invictive; without literary form, [and] it is mere clownish jeering." (Encyclopaedia Britannica 14th ed. vol. 20 p. 5). Whereas Swift's statement suggests that people are not offended by satire because readers identify the character's faults with their own faults; Garnett suggests that humour is the key element that does not make satire offensive. With any satire someone is bound to be offended, but the technique the author uses can change something offensive into something embarrassing.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Stephen Leacock's Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich is a nonthreatening, humorous, and revealing satire of the moral faults of upper class society. The satire acts as a moral instrument to expose the effect money can have on religion, government, and anything within its touch. Writing about such topics is hard to do without offending people. Leacock's technique combines money with humour, and accompanies his moral message with ironic characters; their exaggerated actions, and a constant comical tone to prevent readers from being offended.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Leacock's utopian world is filled with humorous labels that represent the "Plutonian's" personalities. "Ourselves Monthly"; a magazine for the modern self-centered, is a Plutonian favourite. To fill their idle days, the Plutonian women are in an endless search for trends in literature and religion. Without the distractions of club luncheons and trying to achieve the "Higher Indifference", the women would have to do something productive. Readers that identify themselves with the class of people the Plutonians represent would be embarrassed rather than offended by Leacock's satirical portrayal of them.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   "The Yahi-Bahi Oriental Society" exaggerates the stupidity of the Plutonians to a point where the reader laughs at the character's misfortunes. The con men give ridiculous prophecies such as "Many things are yet to happen before others begin." (Leacock 87), and eventually take their money and jewelry. The exaggeration increases the humour while the moral message is displayed.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The characters of the novel are ironic in the sence that they percieve themselves as being the pinicle of society, yet Leacock makes the look like fools. For someone who prides themself on being an expert on just about everything, Mr. Lucullus Fyshe's (as slimmy and cold as his name represents) perceptions are proven false. Mr. Fyshe makes hypocratic statments about ruling class tyranny, while barking down the neck of a poor waiter for serving cold asparagus.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Leacock exposes the whole Plutonian buisness world to be

Mental health and illness

The nature of `mental health` and `mental illness` has been described as `contested`. Who are the contestants and what is the contest about? The Mental Illness has always been considered as a contested issue, because this is the only suffering of unfortunate human beings, which is being highly misunderstood. There are different types of mental illnesses that are suffered by human beings, and in each mental illness there are number of complexities involved like social problems, defect in any part of the brain etc.Psychologists, psychiatrists, doctors and sociologists, who so ever are dealing with the issue of Mental illness are contestants to this issue and advocates their own perceptions like Psychiatrists consider mental illness as a physical state of debilitation and look at it from the social angle, whereas doctors dictates it as a faulty or malfunctioning parts of the brain, such as infections, genetic defects and chemical imbalances within the individual, and neglects the wider social picture which is an ingredient part of illness.How well does the idea of labeling explain what happens to someone who is diagnosed as mentally ill?When a person is diagnosed mentally ill, he or she is labeled., a doctor or practitioner can understand the intensity of his problem and can prescribe the best treatment for him. Thus labeling can be a boon in disguise. Naturally if doctor labeled a person as â€Å"mentally disable†, that means he is considering the symptoms that a person is showing which is typical of mental disorder and can delve upon the problem and chart out the solutions.Critically review the evidence that there is an association between mental health and socio-economic inequality.No doubt there is a deep association between Mental Health and socio economic inequality. Socio economic inequalities lead to high psychiatric morbidity, disability, depression, Schizophrenia.   Studies by the World Psychologist, 2005 October; 4(3): 181–185 on 10,108 adults aged 16-65 resident in private households in the UK reveal that people who had no access to a car had an odds ratio for neurotic disorder of 1.4 (95% CI 1.1-1.7), compared with those who had access to two or more cars. People who rented their homes were also at increased risk of depression (1.3 [1.1-1.5]). These Income inequalities in the western market economies last 20 years had adverse consequences on the mental health of the people. Basically, the inferiority complex is a basic root and cause of this severe problem.Discuss how a family might affect and be affected by one of its members having a psychiatric diagnosis mental illness.Families of the patients suffering from severe psychotic symptoms often suffer from heavy emotional and social strains.   Many households may accept the patients, but the social rejections that are followed can cause serious consequences on the whole family. They can lead to strains of mental illness on a marriage life may also be very devasta ting. The divource rate is high among people who have depression or bipolar disorder.How might consultation be used to improve the sensitivity of mental health services to different needs?Consultation is a very important means of service delivery for mentally ill child and adolescents.   Consultation can be provided in number of ways: group or individual; fixed session or on demand; clinical-based or area office-based. For psychiatrists, the consultancy service is a very valuable experience. Trainees develop an awareness of the difficulties facing social work staff in difficult cases. The social work team also gains considerable benefit from an informal consultation service, which can improve their skills in further understanding the patient problems.   Through consultation, social workers can go into the depth of the causes of the problems of mentally ill within the family setting.Many people who have mental health problems are socially isolate. What can be done to provide them with informal support and friendship if they want this?The stigma that is attached to the mentally ill patients leads them to be isolated from the Society. Lot can be done for mentally ill patients. They can be, as suggested by World Health Organization (WHO), http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs218/en/ï‚ ·Ã‚  Ã‚   Openly discussing about the problem of mental illness in the community.ï‚ ·Ã‚  Ã‚   Providing accurate information on the causes, prevalence, course and effects of mental illnessï‚ ·Ã‚   Countering the negative stereotypes and misconceptions surrounding mental illness;ï‚ ·Ã‚   Providing support and treatment services that enable persons suffering from a mental illness to participate fully in all aspects of community life.ï‚ ·Ã‚   Ensuring the existence of legislation to reduce discrimination in the workplace.What are the particular challenges of resettling long-stay mental patients in the community, and what kinds of resource are needed to support them there?1. Hard to place psychiatric patient due to behavioral/management problems.2. Difficulty placing patient into the community due to lack of financial resources.3. How do we take care of the geriatric patient with a psychiatric disorder who becomes combative/disruptive that he is not allowed to remain in secure environments due to the high risk of harm to other patients?RESOURCES NEEDED TO SUPPORT THEM1. First fix the behavioral problems and poor compliance.2. The Training centers, employment programs, volunteer options and local clubs should all be part of the life plan of these people.3. Encourage realistic consideration of work and practical steps in preparation for reintegration, such as enrolment at a day programme.4. Involve them in any Meaningful occupation such as volunteer work etc.What are the rewards and stresses of work in mental health services? What measures might employing organisations take to reduce the effects of stress on staff and improve their job satis faction? The biggest reward for the people who are engaged in the mental health services is naturally the one when patient is recovered from mental illness. Besides getting mental satisfaction, they are also reward by the government for their meticulous services like â€Å"Award for Excellence in Community Mental Health Services†, 2006 Public Citizen of the Year award. Thus Government does appreciate these noble souls who are engaged in community welfare programs.HOW THE EMPLOYING ORGANIZATIONS REDUCE THE STRESS OF STAFF:They can reduce the stress of staff by:Effective management structureClear purpose & goals Functionally defined roles Team support Making appropriate plans for stress management Proper management of workload Balanced lifestyle Discuss the view that madness can be a valuable experience if only its value is recognized.Never consider the person who is mad as incompetent, as what he can provide to the Society, no able person can provide. For eg. If a person is di sillusioned with the society apathetic attitude, so in his madness he will keep on reflecting and mentioning about what’s wrong in the Society but we ignore his talks, but if we clearly ponder on his talks,   we will realize what role he is playing in giving the best to the Society which no body will ever intend to give.

Healthcare A Huge Part Of Our Lives - 1604 Words

Healthcare is a huge part of our lives. Professionals in this field assist in educating the general public, nursing individuals with ailments back to health, and assisting with keeping America in good health. There are many challenges that the healthcare field is faced with; including, a shortage of workers, the 2010 health care reform, and the disparities of diversity. One challenge threatening the health care field is the shortage of workers. The shortage of Registered Nurses is well known, but the background applies to all sectors in health care. Nursing shortages have been on the rise throughout the country, in which has continued to become a problem due to an aging baby-boomer population causing increased turnover throughout the United States (Cox,Willisk,Caistasse2014). According to History.com, in 2010, baby boomers are considered to be individuals that were born nine months after World War II ended, during the years of 1946 through 1964. The baby boomers range from the age of 70 to their mid-50s. With such a large portion of the United States aging all at one time that means that there is also a great number of people going into retirement. Not only are the baby boomers leaving their health care jobs, but they are also in need of health care. There has been a recent surge of baby boomers turning 65 at a rate of almost 10,000 persons a day, which totals 79 million people or 26 percent of the total population (Cox, Willisk,Caistasse,2014). It has become veryShow MoreRelatedThe Rising Cost Of Healthcare1701 Words   |  7 Pages(Source: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation). The rising cost of healthcare is a huge problem in America today. In this paper I will analyze the different issues and causes for the increase in cost. There are many problems with healthcare in America today. One of them including the astronomical cost. According to CDC.ORG in 2007 the average person spends seven thousand four hundred dollars per year on health care alone. This rise in healthcare is extremely detrimental for families, seniors, and peopleRead MoreEscape Fire Paper1423 Words   |  6 Pagesï » ¿The documentary Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare explains the numerous controversies in our healthcare system and where the system is going if it follows the same footsteps it has been taking for the past decade. Throughout the documentary there are many hosts in which they all give their personal insight on the American Healthcare System and how the system is failing and on the verge to a catastrophic breakdown. All of the hosts gathered their data through personal researchRead MoreThe Movement Of Healthcare Workers Essay1570 Words   |  7 PagesThe movement of healthcare workers from one country to a nother has shaped many nations economic standing. There are positives and negatives for the country receiving these new workers as well as the countries losing them. I conducted an interview with a current clinical pathologist who received her education in IRAN, but migrated to the U.S for a better opportunity. She is currently working for UCLA in California earning more than she would have if she stayed in IRAN. I learned a lot from her andRead More3d Printing Of Care And Patient Outcomes1029 Words   |  5 Pages3D Printing in Healthcare All throughout the world there are constant technological innovations. As time progresses, more inventions come about and alter our lives. Since the industrial revolution we as a nation have had plenty of technological advances that have impacted our lives. Healthcare is one of the most prominent and impactful systems in the world. Technology in healthcare can ultimately make a huge difference in the performance of care and patient outcomes. One recently new innovation inRead MorePositives And Negatives Of Technology1037 Words   |  5 PagesThe purpose of this research is to identify the positives and negatives of technology. Those positive and negatives include healthcare, jobs, education, and the environment. The aspects of technology are rapidly changing forcing us worldwide to adapt to those changes. The study concludes that technology could harm out environment with possible pollution in the air and could potentially lead to job loss in the future. The larger technology become s workers are increasing their productivity, but medianRead MoreAn Organizational QI Plan for ABC hospital933 Words   |  4 PagesAn appropriate organization to develop an organizational improvement plan At ABC hospital healthcare facilities are provided to patients at home under the supervision of experienced and expert physicians. This system is generally referred to as as home healthcare system. The type of care the organization provides Multiple services are provided under home healthcare systems. The main services are medical social services, speech-language therapy, occupational, physical and nursing care to theRead MoreEssay about HSA Assingment One Primary care clinic1528 Words   |  7 Pagesï » ¿The Primary Care Clinic January 31, 2015 HSA 300 - Health Services Organization Management Professor Janet Kaplan The Primary Care Clinic Many important factors go into play when running a healthcare organization. I plan to discuss some of the key components that have influenced the development of this health care facility. The clinic mission statement will be stated and addressed to clear up any confusion. I plan to identify the three performance measures I would use to measure the clinic’sRead MoreThe US Healthcare System1235 Words   |  5 PagesU.S. Health Care System Introduction The U.S. healthcare system is entirely private, but the modes of payment for their services are of two kinds: private and public. Healthcare insurance of the U.S. is something that is a dream for people in the developing countries who are dying in huge numbers due to inadequate facilities and insufficient funds for their treatment. It seems like a fantasy for someone sitting outside the U.S. to be able to pay for a million dollar operation just through yourRead MoreThe Pros And Cons Of Artificial Intelligence1245 Words   |  5 Pagesand TV s are common things we use every day, and all contain computers. It is for this reason that computers and their software should become more intelligent to make our lives easier. Artificial Intelligence systems can and will benefit us all, however many have constantly warned that making computers too intelligent can be to our downfall. Artificial Intelligence has been around for years, but what is artificial intelligence? It is an artifact to perform the same kinds of functions that characterize