Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Positive Effects of Japanese Saving Rate Essay Example for Free

Positive Effects of Japanese Saving Rate Essay The economic saving rate of Japan is among the highest in the world. According to a recent study, â€Å"the rate in the 80s and the early 90s had been over 10% steadily and higher than any other developed country. † (Katayama 1). This high saving rate has immediate positive effects on Japan’s economy and to foreign economies as well. In this short paper, we will discuss and explore some of the advantages brought by Japan’s high saving rate. As we are all familiar with, Japan is well known for being a self-sufficient country. It is a country that innovates its own useful products, and produces quality that is competitive with American made products. One great difference between the two is that Japan’s economy has a better inclination towards saving, while the American economy is more geared towards spending and making foreign investments. That is a major advantage for Japan as far as economic stability is concerned, because by being able to save well, they are able to sustain their position as a self-sufficient nation. That would mean, they don’t need to focus on making foreign investments to maintain and even increase their gross domestic product. In countries with relatively very high spending rates such as China and the United States, there is almost a desperate need to make foreign investments and export goods. Japan, meanwhile, is able to attract more foreign investors to their soil because of its high savings rate and economic self sufficiency. Future economic stability of citizens is another positive domestic effect of Japan’s saving rate. According to Katayama, â€Å"the life-cycle theory, one of the representative consumption theory, shows that while a rational household may save some of the income in youth, they may spend their savings after their retirement. † (3). This means that majority of Japanese citizens are placing more focus on their future rather than the present. When the current workforce reaches old age and eventually retire, they have personal savings that will ensure a better quality of life even during old age. It is a very good domestic advantage for Japan because the future generation of retired workforce will be taken good care of, even when they reach the age when they leave their jobs and cannot contribute to the Japanese economy anymore. Japan’s saving rate does not impact its own people only, but the entire Asia and the world as well. One of our research sources states:: â€Å"†¦since Japan is the worlds second largest economy (and the largest in Asia), developments within its borders have implications not only for itself, but the rest of the world as well, particularly the rest of Asia and the United States, its largest trade partner. Indeed, the faltering Japanese economy is potentially a significant impediment to economic recovery in the rest of Asia† (Nolan, Robinson and Wang). Although much has been said about the slight weakening of Japan’s currency and savings rate during the past 10 years, the fact remains that Japan is still the world’s second largest economy. It is also considered as the world’s largest creditor. The country’s savings rate, although not as good as before, remains slightly higher than those of highly developed countries and emerging economies. Thus, Japan is still in a position to greatly influence global economic trends in positive ways, eventually quell the current economic crises and pull more resources in the future. Bibliography: Brooke, James. â€Å"Quarters Growth Rose in Japan To 7%, Buoyed by China Trade†. The New York Times. (18 Feb. 2004). 1 Dec. 2007. http://query. nytimes. com/gst/fullpage. html? res=9B01E0DD123DF93BA25751C0A9629C8B63 Katayama, Kentaro. â€Å"Why Does Japan’s Saving Rate Decline So Rapidly? †. Policy Research Institute, Ministry of Finance, Japan. (Dec. 2006). 1 Dec. 2007. http://www. mof. go. jp/jouhou/soken/kenkyu/ron164. pdf. Noland, Marcus. , Sherman Robinson and Zhi Wang. â€Å"The Global Economic Effects of the Japanese Crisis†. The Peterson Institute for International Economics. 1 Dec. 2007. http://www. iie. com/publications/wp/wp. cfm? ResearchID=147.

Monday, January 20, 2020

Comparing The Rakes Progress and The Threepenny Opera Essay -- Compar

Comparing The Rake's Progress and The Threepenny Opera Upon a first listening to the collaborations of Auden-Kallman/Stravinsky in The Rake's Progress and Brecht/Weill in The Threepenny Opera, the idea that there could be anything in common with the two works might seem to require a great stretch of the imagination. While the 1951 Rake's Progress is clearly neo-classical, and specifically Mozartian, the 1928 Threepenny Opera is as easily termed the precursor to the Broadway musical as it is termed "opera." Closer examination of the collaborators' sources and motivations, however, reveal several striking coincidences. Both operas draw upon eighteenth-century works as their primary sources: The Rake's Progress was conceived after Stravinsky saw the 1745 William Hogarth print-sequence of the same name, and The Threepenny Opera is an adaptation of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, written in 1728. (Incidentally, Hogarth also painted a scene from this enormously popular ballad-opera.) The Threepenny Opera follows the ballad-opera tradition, in that it is a series of songs interspersed with dialogue, not recitative. Each scene, as in The Beggar's Opera, is complete in itself, pertaining to the whole, but not necessarily driving the action of the plot. Stravinsky's initial conception, though not realized, was to write "an Opera with definitely separated numbers connected by spoken (not sung) words of the text, [...] to avoid the customary operatic recitative" (Griffiths 10). Brecht's libretto re ads like a Marxist manifesto, and although The Rake's Progress is by no means overtly Marxist, Auden's "most serious objection to Hogarth's Rake's Progress was based on his reading it as 'a bourgeois parable' [...] he approached Hogarth's pr... .... Eighteenth-Centruy Plays. Ed. Ricardo Quintana. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1952. 179-238. Griffiths, Paul with Igor Stravinsky, Robert Craft and Gabriel Josipovici. Igor Stravinsky: The Rake's Progress. Cambridge Opera Handbooks. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1982. Lindenberger, Herbert. "Anti-theatricality in Twentieth Century Opera." Modern Drama 44.3 (2001): 300-317. Paulson, Ronald. "Auden, Hogarth, and The Rake's Progress." Raritan: A Quarterly Review 16.2 (1996): 30pp. http://shelley.library.ualberta.ca:8590/mla?sp.nextform=mainfrm. htm&sp. usernumber. Savage, Robert. "Making a Libretto: Three Collaborations over The Rake's Progress." Oedipus Rex / The Rake's Progress. English National Opera Guides: 43. Ed. Nicholas John.London: John Calder Publishers, 1991. 45-58. Stravinsky, Igor and Robert Craft. Memories and Commentaries. London: Faber, 1959.

Sunday, January 12, 2020

How to Write a Reflective Essay Essay

This type of essay is aimed to reflect a personal event or experience of the essay author. The main condition is that it has to be a certain personal experience on which the author has his very own perception. This experience or even is revealed in the essay in order to demonstrate its importance for understanding social relations and the essence of people. It may be said that a reflective essay possess the traits of a philosophical analysis of different experiences we face in our everyday life. This type of essay reveals the creativity of the students and their ability to change standard perception to a unique one, to their own unique perception of social issues. Writing a Reflective essay In order to produce an excellent reflective essay it is vital to remember that the reflective is to have a personal character and to relate to certain philosophic categories. This implies a wide range of possible understanding of the topic of the essay. One of the widespread topics for a reflective essay is â€Å"What is love?† in which the author shares his own reflective of this term through the prism of his experience and the common attitude to this social phenomenon. The majority of the questions in such essays are rhetoric Reflective essay structure Reflective essay do not have a certain structure because cannot be written according to a standard essay scheme. This is due to the fact that the thesis statements and the conclusions of reflective essays are often blurry. Here is a probable scheme of a reflective essay: * The aim of the opening paragraph is to get the reader involved in the author’s story including interesting details, personal experiences. The style must be very vivid and therefore to appeal to the reader as if it was a tete-a-tete conversation on the meaning of life or love. * The middle part reveals a good variety of the author’s ideas on the topic. * The concluding sentences summarize the main ideas and experiences of the essay. The author makes a reflective of his general perception of the given topic. Reflective essays topics and ideas. Reflective essays can be written on many different topics which base on the reflection of a personal event or experience of the essay author. Delicate approach to the choice of a topic or keen understanding of the one topic is the key element of good essay writing. If you hesitate either on choosing the essay topic or the idea for Reflective essay please feel free to contact us and we gladly help you any time you need assistance. What is a reflective essay? Think of the word â€Å"reflection†. It means to look back upon a situation and present your findings. It is all about your perspective, post-experience. Whether you are writing a reflective essay about an event in your life, or you are reflecting on a poem that you were assigned to read for your high school english class, reflective essay writing is all about composing your thoughts on the subject. It is different than an informative essay, for which you may research a topic, or have to come up with ways to support your conclusions. Instead, reflective essay writing is unique to the individual. There is really no wrong answer. In fact, this is the kind of essay in which your teacher wants you to explore your creative thoughts and really think outside of the box. What is the format for writing a reflective essay? If you are writing a reflective essay as a school assignment, your teacher may have provided specific guidelines as to how it should be constructed. Before you get started writing, it is important to make sure you read over any information your teacher has provided about the assignment. In general, reflective essay writing should follow the typical format of introduction, body, and conclusion. It is important to keep up the technical aspects of your writing when constructing a reflective essay because it is so easy to ramble and get off topic. The introduction should give the reader an idea of what your essay is about as well as hint at the conclusion. Brainstorming and prewriting This is a very important step that often goes overlooked when writing a reflective essay. Because of the nature of the assignment, it is often not very hard to gather thoughts and begin writing. However, one of the biggest mistakes that writers often make is feeling confident about an assignment and therefore skipping the prewriting and brainstorming process. Prewriting is not just designed to help you come up with things to write about- it is also plays a very important part in providing structure and framework so that your great thoughts are well connected. Choosing a great prewriting activity depends on your personal style as writer. Some prefer bubble maps to connect thoughts, while others enjoy creating an entire first draft and going back in to edit. Whatever your style, prewriting for a reflective essay should be all about finding structure and creating a backbone for your assignment. Some questions to consider If you are having trouble reflecting on a particular event or literary work, here are some questions that will be helpful in getting you going. Remember, do not be afraid to be bold and have confidence in your thoughts. 1. How did this make me feel? What emotions were evoked? (happy, sad, scared, excited) 2. What did this remind me of? Something in my past? Another story Ive read? 3. How was it different from what I thought it would be? Did I have any ideas going into it? Did it live up to my expectations? 4. How could it have gone differently?

Saturday, January 4, 2020

Last Chance in Texas The Redemption of Criminal Youth

1. Name and quick summary of book: Last Chance in Texas: The Redemption of Criminal Youth, by John Hubner, follows Hubner as he observes the â€Å"worst of the worst† juvenile offenders at Giddings State School. This treatment program is truly a â€Å"last chance† for may of the adolescents there – their last chance to change the direction of their lives before ending up in jail. Hubner takes the reader through a gripping and emotional journey as the teenagers go through the Capitol Offenders group and delve into their past hurts, childhood years, and reasons that contributed to their involvement in crime. Each member of the group must tell their life story and crime story and relive them by observing both in a drama, as well as participating in†¦show more content†¦His mother was Hispanic and his father was Caucasian, which was a problem for his father’s parents, who talked him into divorcing Ronnie’s mother, despite the loving relations hip they had. Ronnie’s mother left the area after awhile and moved in with her sister, where she often left Ronnie and his brother while she went out with her drug addicted boyfriend. When his mother was gone, Ronnie’s aunt started abusing him and lying to his mother about it. One time Ronnie begged his mom to take him with her, and she allowed him to come. While at her boyfriends’ house, he witnessed a brutal stabbing that caused him to start fantasizing about doing the same thing to his aunt. After more abuse by his aunt, Ronnie’s mom finally takes the boys back to her parents house, but soon abandons them when Ronnie was only six. He took his anger out by being a bully at school, and started to beat up his younger brother. His mother came back occasionally, but never stayed. Ronnie went to visit her and her new boyfriend and was introduced to fighting by his mother’s new husband. Around the same time, he found his stepfather’s gun , which he used to threaten his brother. Ronnie would have killed his brother and himself if the gun had not misfired. After that incident, Ronnie bonded more with his stepfather, and even stayed with him when his mother left. He started hanging out with his step cousins and committing robberies withShow MoreRelatedHow to Treat Violent Young Offenders1007 Words   |  5 Pagesto receive treatment,it does more damage than good. For example, John Hubner’s(2005) book, Last Chance in Texas: The Redemption of Criminal Youth, describes how experimental treatments at the Giddings State School in Texas can change the lives of violent young offenders for the better. Giddings State School is a facility run by the Texas Youth Commission for those who have not only broken the law in Texas, but who are also considered to be â€Å"the worst of the worst† (p. xviii). This means that GiddingsRead MoreDeterminate Sentencing: Last Chance in Texas Essay1325 Words   |  6 Pagespostadjudication stage occurs to determine whether or not their adult sentence should be suspended or invoked (Belshaw et al, 2011). I personally do support utilizing the determinate sentencing for these offenders and believe that it would fail the criminal justice system not to utilize them. This is considered a heinous crime and they should not be shown leniency. At the age of 12-14, the juveniles know that murder is wrong, and the fact that this young man had to lose his life at the age of 19 overRead MoreCompassion Impacts Wayward Youth1619 Words   |  7 Pageswayward youths. However, politicians changed this with â€Å"tough on crime† policies for election. Many juvenile criminals became labeled as â€Å"superpredators† and were thus deemed beyond any help and were tried as adults. Fortunately, not everyone in the criminal system believes that juvenile criminals are beyond help. Some of the people that believe that there is hope for the juvenile criminal work in the Texas Youth Commission, in particular at Giddings State School or the last chance in Texas. ThisRead MoreLast Chance in Te xas Essay1052 Words   |  5 PagesHubner, John. (2005) Last Chance in Texas: The Redemption of Criminal Youth. New York, NY. Random House Inc. Last Chance in Texas is an eye opening look into the efforts of the juvenile justice system to rehabilitate youth offenders and integrate them back into society. The book chronicles the research of author John Hubner who heard about a facility in Texas that ran an aggressive and one of the most successful, treatment programs in America for violent young offenders. He was particularlyRead MoreThe Cell Door Slams Shut2636 Words   |  11 Pagesprisoners. It was not always this way, so how did this come to be? The criminal justice system changed drastically around 1970s as the country developed a tough-on-crime policy to fight drugs and the large increase in street violence. This policy joined forces with developing war on drugs, which had set minimum sentences for possessing certain drugs as well as other federal penalties in the 1950s. Consequently, the criminal justice system was transformed and incarceration skyrocketed. Prisons poppedRead MoreThe State Of Wisconsin Department Of Corrections2728 Words   |  11 Pagesrate in juveniles. Two programs that will be examined further are the Capital Offender Group that was implemented by Giddings State School in Texas, and the Juvenile Cognitive Intervention Program that was implemented by the State of Wisconsin Department of Corrections. Description In John Hubner’s book, â€Å"Last Chance in Texas: The Redemption of criminal Youth,† he recounts everything he saw and heard while he looked into how the program at Giddings State School worked. The program that was ran byRead MoreMarketing Mistakes and Successes175322 Words   |  702 Pageseditions. I think this may even be my best book. The new Google and Starbucks cases should arouse keen student interest, and may even inspire another generation of entrepreneurs. A fair number of the older cases have faced significant changes in the last few years, for better or for worse, and these we have captured to add to learning insights. After so many years of investigating mistakes, and more recently successes also, it might seem a challenge to keep these new editions fresh and interesting