Value at Risk Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Value at Risk - Essay Example Risk management methods and nature varies from industry to industry like it can't be same for project management, industrial process and financial portfolios. From a management view point, risk management is an important tool which is used in decision making because it is systematic and well structured. For better utilization of risk management in management's decisions, risk analyst's reports must be based on the latest and best available information. The cause behind the mentioning of the Chinese proverb above is that risk management is the only tool which differentiates a good management with a bad one. From a bank's standpoint the term is usually used synonymously with specific uncertainty because the usage of statistics allows us to quantify the uncertainty which is called the measure of dispersion (Shirref, 2004). We know that every country have mostly two regulators on their heads, one for the banks and one for the companies. Usually Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulates the companies while the Reserve bank regulates the financial institutions. Bank of International Settlement is the regulator of the regulators. From the same concept there is another regulator which regulates the financial institutions risk management department regarding the capital requirement and capital adequacy ratio. The name of the regulator is Basel Accord. Let's see in detail, what Basel accord has in its regulation. FROM ORIGIN OF BASEL TILL IMPLEMENTATION: Basel was an attempt to reduce the quantity of bank failures in a country, due to the insufficient capital which ties a bank's Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) to the risk of the loan Bank's makes. In 1988, The Basel Committee for Banking Supervision (BCBS) did the first attempt to implement such methods worldwide, which enhance the risk absorption power of the banks. Basel I was the initial or first set of capital requirement for all actively international banks because it sets charges for the credit risk which is known as crude capital charges. It instituted for the first time the requirement of minimum capital which must be held by the international banks to avoid the financial risk. In 1980, credit risk was the dominant player in risk class for banks but by the early 1990s, banks became more anxious to be a part of the capital market and for those markets which are larger and more liquid, and to play their role, and they did that. The significance and importance of risk then arose in the banks, but the Basel I merely emphasized on the credit risk. To overcome the risk of all traits, a new framework was desperately required to make the risk calculation and reporting more sophisticated. The BCBS agreed upon the market risk amendments in 1996 from there the concept of Basel II was born (Reuvid, 2008). Initially, the capital charges were based on definite standards, defined by the BCBS,

Charles Tangs Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Charles Tangs Leadership - Essay Example These theories seek to describe what makes a good leader and are formulated to determine characteristics that organizations should look out for while scouting for a leader. This study considers that it is only by incorporating several of these theories that an effective model can be built one capable of predicting an effective leader. In this study, an effective leader is considered as one capable of motivating and enabling others to attain organizationally relevant goals (Kerr & Jermier, 1978). Organizationally relevant goals refer to productivity, social integration, optimal levels of continuous learning as well as goals and ethical means to achieve. An effective leadership must have natural cues separate from the regular people. In this case, this model considers the dictates of the trait theory as well placed. The trait theory holds that individuals inherit certain qualities that spell their ability to be leaders (Judge, Bono, Ilies & Gerhardt, 2002.p.770). In this case, openness to experience is considered a relevant trait. Openness to experience includes active imagination, aesthetic sensitivity, awareness of one’s feelings, accepting variety and willingness to learn. The other pertinent trait in defining an effective leader is interpersonal relations. ... The path-goal theory is a development of Robert House and holds that a leader’s conduct is contingent to the contentment, enthusiasm and performance of his/her subordinates (Wofford & Liska, 1993.p.865). In this regard, a leader must have the ability to determine subordinate’s abilities and needs and thence implore on ways and means of complementing the abilities and compensating for deficiencies (Mumford et al 2007). In this regard, the model identifies that an effective leader must be open to experience, develop interpersonal skills, be task oriented and engage in improving employees as defined by the task-goal theory. Putting your philosophy to a test, evaluate Charles Tang’s leadership. Charles Tang passes as an effective leader. This is arrived at by weighing his practice against the discussed model of effective leaderships. Firstly, Tang appears as a leader who is open to experience. Tang’s leadership approach has been informed by past experiences as a student in China and later a student and employee of Intel in the West (Barling et al 1996). Unlike most Chinese managers, Tang was more open, and encouraged employees to oppose his position as he believed it is through consensus that potent solutions can be attained (House et al 2004). Secondly, being â€Å"externally Chinese† made him aware of the likely pitfalls in being authoritative as he had grown up under this system or approach to leadership (Gerstner & Day, 1997). Besides openness to experience Tang demonstrates a strong orientation to tasks. At the moment, Tang is aware of the challenge ahead which is ensuring optimal performance of his employees. To ensure this, he tasks himself with

Should Abortion Be Legalized Pros and Cons Essay

Should Abortion Be Legalized Pros and Cons - Essay Example Pro-choice supporters argue for a woman’s right to make her own choices, but are willing at times to consider some restrictions if the abortion comes very late in the term of pregnancy. The right to terminate a pregnancy is thought by them to be a choice that a woman makes to be in charge of her own body. Therefore, it is almost held as a sacred obligation that society does not interfere with that choice. In cases of late-term abortions, they are sometimes willing to balance the life of the child. Pro-life advocates want to strip that right. For them, the life of the child is held as sacred, and it must be balanced against the choice of the mother. Even they are generally willing, however, to make exceptions in the case of danger to the mother’s life or pregnancy resulting from rape or incest. Such balancing is often done with heavy hearts on both sides of the issue. To complicate matters even further, some hold extreme positions that do not allow for any compromises at all. Some advocate for choice and some for life, with no exceptions. This is why abortion has remained, on both sides over the years, a hotly-debated and controversial issue. This paper will summarize the arguments that have been involved in this debate. One of the main problems with abortion’s legality in the view of those who argue for a pro-choice position is the procedure’s terrible history. In the past, women had to go to doctors or unlicensed individuals (e.g., midwives or, worse, shady â€Å"chemists†) for illegal abortions. These procedures were often performed in secret, unclean surroundings. Most of the operators who performed abortions when they were illegal were poorly qualified (or, as stated, unlicensed), and the care delivered was unsanctioned, unregulated, and dangerous. It sometimes resulted in infertility. Some women met with tragic circumstances, including death by infection and bleeding that could have been prevented if abortions had been done

Competition Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Competition - Essay Example The regulations are put in place to help reduce the conflicts in the commercial; procedures like those of maximizing profits. The entities may require raising the profits and the only way they find to do this is to raise the prices of their products where the burden ends up with the people. The government, therefore, comes in and regulates this to avoid conflicts as well as to ensure that the functioning of the business is taken care of. These regulations come with laws like the minimum wage laws which act in the same way as minimum price laws. When this is implemented, workers who produce less than the minimum wages are laid off leading to unnecessary unemployment. The market efficiency and transparency reduces due to these regulations especially if they work against insider trading. The result of this is that the share price becomes higher than that which would have been if the insiders were allowed to use their information. Inadvertently, the outsiders who were to be protected end s up paying higher prices for the same shares and loses more than they would actually have lost. These regulations have led to market imbalance in some cases. If the amount demanded and supplied is the same and the regulations bring about a fall in the prices, then the supply will reduce and the demand will increase. To solve these imbalances, there have arisen cases of black markets and other dubious means of avoiding the effects of the regulations. Monopoly market structures are the most affected by these regulations as they work independently. The government advocates for the customers to have access to their information, set the price controls and also regulate their operations in the countries of operations. The effect of these is that new markets are opened that bring about competition and thereby increased efficiency and quality services. There is liberalization which is promoted that leads to the mobility of labor, financial capital, goods and services. These bring about new businesses into the industry and intensify competition. [Djankov, Simeon et al, 2002] The competitive market structures are effected through the laws that govern their operations and competitive strategies. Certain acts are prohibited like setting very low prices to accrue short term losses at the expense of the other competitors so that they may even end up closing down. The regulations also govern the number of similar businesses in a certain area. The monopolistically competitive markets have been forced to provide enough information regarding their products. In these markets the consumers have relied on the advertisements which sometimes have given a super perspective of the products. The government regulation has had to control the prices in these firms because in the long run, these firms set prices that are very low to kick out their rivals from the market through their slightly differentiated products which is prohibited. Sometimes these firms set high prices especially bec ause the marginal cost is less than the price in the long run. In a monopsony, the government works together with a monopsonist consumer to ensure that the partial regulations are in place to work at the right time. The government analyses how the consumer is to be protected and also when there should be the intervention from other sources. The second market structure that also faces regulation is an oligopoly market structure. This market structure involves a situation which falls in between perfect competition and monopoly. It refers to few firms

Success of Product Repositioning Strategy for Class B Office Essay

Success of Product Repositioning Strategy for Class B Office Development in Moscow - Essay Example My company hired by a real estate investments fund, an owner of this property, received commercial contract to arrange marketing campaign and to sell these buildings as residential property. The reasoning behind this strategy is quite simple. On one hand, relatively small investors receive opportunity to invest into lucrative office property market in Moscow, which has 10-12% rate of return on investment compared to 5-6% that of residential property market. On the other hand, property developers receive so much desired cash significantly decreasing the whole property development cycle and improve their own rate of return on investment. The classical scheme (when office buildings are kept by developers to receive lease income or sold to strategic investors interested in regular income stream provided by lease payments) is modified with a new buy option for typical clients (lease holders) and completely a new option for residential property investors. Despite recent severe turbulence o n the equity markets and overall pessimistic attitude towards any long term investments our group managed to achieve remarkable results. The success of the strategy is proven by retail sale of a number of office buildings in Moscow. The purpose of this essay is to illustrate how theoretical strategic tools can be used in a real business situation to identify new business innovations and to assess how close the theory is to reality. The strategy theory undoubtedly provides useful tools for assessing current situation and identifying new opportunities. Elements of Five forces, basic supply – demand analyses, Value creation model, ERRC (Eliminate, Raise, Reduce, and Create) grid, reluctant customers and non-customers issues are theory tools used in the analysis. The analysis consists of macro and micro examination of the current commercial property industry situation in Moscow, and formulation of new opportunities in the office property sector of the industry based on the above analysis. The description of the real estate investment market in Russia In the situation of global market economic crisis, investors are becoming more risk averse and switching investment portfolios in favor of core assets like gold and real estate. Investments in property market in Russia in 2011 demonstrated 46% year on year growth with the highest volumes of 7 bn USD (See Exhibit 1 Investment volume dynamics), of which the commercial real estate sector accounts for about 95% (See Exhibit 1 Investment by sector). 2011 in Russia was remarkable by the rising number of foreign capital investments, which comprise around 45% of the total investment volume (See Exhibit Investment by investor origin). The reason for this is potentially high demand almost on all sorts of commercial property. Retail and office segments usually dominate the sector investments having 40% of total investment volume each (See Exhibit 1 Investment by sector). Moreover, the deal size increased in 2011: the numb er of deals exceeding 100 mn USD increased to 33% of total number of deals compared to 23% 2010. The market sector prime yields in Moscow stabilized at 9% in office and 11% in warehouse sectors in 2011 from the recent highs of 11.5% and 14.5% in 2009 (See 1 Exhibit Prime yield dynamics in Moscow) reaching pre crisis levels achieved by the market in 2007-2008. Historically, the office sector in Moscow has been the most attractive for

Economics Essay Example for Free

Economics Essay Economics is regarded as one of the earliest and arguably most essential of the social sciences. While not exactly a science as the term science is widely known as today, there are similarities that allow for its classification as a social science. One of these similarities lies in the roles that economists play as social advisors vis-a-vis the role of scientists. As a policy advisor, an economist is expected to make reliable predictions and forecasts with regard to the policies to be instituted. Since the expectation is that of reliability, there is a large amount of precision required which is similar to that of the scientific method employed by scientists. The use of the null and test hypothesis as a scientists has an application for policy advisors in coming up with these forecasts. No policy advisor can make any suggestion without any empirical data or figures in the same way that no scientist will present a dissertation without any evidence. While these may make the roles as policy advisors and scientists similar to a certain extent, there are also differences depending on the situation the economist is placed in. As a policy advisor, an economist is expected to present reliable information in order to aid in the formulation and implementation of policies, while these may have a certain amount of scientific evidence (so to speak), there is a certain reality check which takes place that demands that the economist take the most viable option. The most scientifically correct approach may not always be the most viable option and this is what an economist must deal with when taking on the role of a policy advisor as opposed to when an economist takes on the role of a scientist in policy making, which more often than not entails that only the facts be presented in a scholarly manner without particular attention to its viability under different constraints.

Why did Operation Barbarossa Fail?

Why did Operation Barbarossa Fail? Before Operation Barbarossa was launched, Hitler and Germany have great success on invasion and battles, except Battle of Britain. Hitler invaded Poland in 1931, attacked Belgium, France, and Holland, battle with Britain. But when he comes to invading Soviet Union, the operation was the beginning of Hitler’s downfall. Operation Barbarossa is a code name for German’s invasion of USSR. That operation was launch on June 22, 1941, and because it was launched at that time, Germany has to deal with one of the biggest problem when they were invading Soviet Union winter. It was the largest military attack in World War Two. Operation Barbarossa was the turning point of World War Two, and reason why is because the invasion of Soviet Union is one of the biggest mistakes Hitler makes in World War Two. The idea of invading Soviet Union is not the problem, but the way Hitler did it. Operation Barbarossa failed because Germany used weak military forces, had poor logistics and plannin g, and failed to win the Battle of Stalingrad, which is one of the main battles in Operation Barbarossa. First of all, Germany has weak army and military forces. Their condition, military forces, army were weaker than Red army. One of the main problems is the winter in Russia. German’s army and military forces can’t handle the winter in Russia. â€Å"The German tanks had narrow treads with little traction and poor flotation in mud. In contrast, the new generation of Soviet tanks such as the T-34 and KV had wider tracks and were far more mobile in these conditions.† (Operation Barbarossa) According to the information above, Soviet Union has more reliable and improved vehicles than Germany’s. Their military forces such as tanks were not good as Soviet Union’s. They were also not prepared for the weather and Soviet Union’s poor road network, even reaching to certain destination was also hard for them. â€Å"Consequently, the troops were not equipped with adequate cold-weather gear, and some soldiers had to pack newspapers into their jackets to sta y warm while temperatures dropped to record levels of at least -30  °C (-22  °F). To operate furnaces and heaters, the Germans also burned precious fuel that was difficult to re-supply.† (Operation Barbarossa) Besides transportation problem caused by the winter, German’s army were also affected by the winter. Their equipment and gears were not fit for the weather. For example, they have to burn fuel, which is a very important supplies and very hard to get, to keep them warm. On the other hand, Soviet Union’s troops have warmer clothing. Their vehicles such as aircraft also weren’t in a good condition, because sometimes fuel will freezes and soldiers will have to took time to fixed it, otherwise those vehicles can not be used. Lubricants for vehicles were also useless as well in such a cold weather in Russia. These supplies such as lubricants, oil, fuel, were extremely important, because these supplies keep German’s military forces such as guns, vehicles in action and a good condition. Second reasons were German’s poor logistics and planning strategy. One of the reasons is because Germany was way too confidents, they’ve over underestimated Soviet Union. That leads to unrealistic, poor strategy and logistics. â€Å"The invasion had three main objectives. Army Group Center, consisting of 1.3 million troops, 2,600 tanks and 7,800 artillery pieces, mounted a massive drive on Moscow. Meanwhile, Army Group North, consisting of 700,000 troops, 770 tanks and 4,000 artillery pieces.† (Erik Sass, Operation Barbarossa: The Biggest Military Adventure in History) Hitler uses the strategy called â€Å"blitzkrieg†, or â€Å"lightning war†. This is the same strategy Hitler use to defeat France and Poland, but this doesn’t work on Soviet Union. Soviet Union was also surprised by this invasion, due to Stalin’s belief Germany won’t attack it’s own allied, especially after signing the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Due to the di fficulty of getting fuel for supplies, Germany sometimes has not enough fuel to reach to the destination. Their army doesn’t have enough ammunition and other supplies as well. Food was never important to Hitler. Because it is hard to get supplies while in the frontline of battlefield or marching toward the heartland of Russia, Hitler has to choose between food, ammunition, and warm clothes, Hitler mostly choose ammunition instead of others. â€Å"Commanders in the field relied on foraging local livestock to feed the soldiers and this continued until such time when shortages resulted in troops eating their units horses.† (MAJ Loganathan, Failure Of Logistics In â€Å"Operation Barbarossa† And Its Relevance Today) By September 1941, Germany was winning and the invasion was successful so far. They have already conquered Kiev and Odessa, and pushing forward to Leningrad and Moscow. â€Å"By December 1941, the combined German armies had killed 360,000 Soviet soldier s, wounded one million, and captured two million more, for total Red Army losses of around 3.4 million by the end of the year. In six months, German troops and their allies advanced up to 600 miles and occupied over 500,000 square miles of Soviet territory, home to 75 million people.† (Erik Sass, Operation Barbarossa: The Biggest Military Adventure in History) Finally, Germany lost the battle of Stalingrad, which is the turning point of this operation. Before this battle, Hitler was mostly success in this invasion. â€Å"Russians consider it to be the greatest battle of their Great Patriotic War, and most historians consider it to be the greatest battle of the entire conflict.† (Battle of Stalingrad) The Battle of Stalingrad was started at 17 July 1942, in this battle Soviet Union successfully defend the city of Stalingrad. One of the reasons why Stalingrad is important is that it was Russia’s main communication center in the south. German’s commander was General Paulus, and his main goal was to secure the oil field in Caucasus, on the other hand, Russia would try not to let Germany secure the oil field. German’s army had to deal with and handle the winter in Russia while fighting with Soviet Union. That makes Germany harder to defeat their enemies. Zhukov, Russian commander, used strategy to go around the city and trap German’s army. At this point, Hitler still refused to give up, and commanded General Paulus to hold their ground. â€Å"Hitler ordered that Paulus should fight to the last bullet, and to encourage Paulus, he promoted him to field marshal. However, by the end of January 1943, the Germans could do nothing else but surrender. Paulus surrendered the army in the southern sector on January 31st while General Schreck surrendered the northern group on February 2nd, 1943.† (Battle of Stalingrad) 91,000 soldiers were taken as prisoners and about 150,000 men were lost. That’s a huge lost for Germany and their military had been weaken since then. In conclusion, Operation Barbarossa was one of the greatest mistakes Hitler had made. It was the turning point of World War Two. Operation Barbarossa failed because Germany used weak military forces, had poor logistics and planning, and failed to win the Battle of Stalingrad, which is one of the main battles in Operation Barbarossa. The major problem that leads to the failure of this operation was the winter in Russia. That cause many major and minor problems such as weaker military forces, poor transportation. Russian army also has better equipment, gears, vehicles that suit the situation more. Second is that Germany has poor logistics and planning strategy. Germany has over underestimated Soviet Union, and their army, supplies were too confident. That leads to unrealistic, poor strategy and logistics. Finally, Germany lost the Battle of Stalingrad, which is a important major battle in Operation Barbarossa. German’s army was surrounded and Hitler makes the wrong call. Works Cited â€Å"Operation Barbarossa†. New World Encyclopedia. Web. 12 May 2015. MLJ Loganathan. â€Å"Failure Of Logistics In â€Å"Operation Barbarossa† And It’s Relevance Day†. mindef. gov. sg. Web. 12 May 2015. â€Å"Battle of Stalingrad†. History.com. A+E Networks. 2009. Web. 12 May 2015. Erik Sass. â€Å"Operation Barbarossa: The Biggest Military Adventure in History†. Mental_floss. Web. 12 May 2015. Chris Trueman. â€Å"The Battle of Stalingrad†. History Learning Site. 2014. Web. 12 May 2015. Professor Richard Overy. â€Å"The Soviet-German War 1941-1945†. BBC. Web. 12 May 2015. Kennedy Hickman. â€Å"World War II: Battle of Stalingrad†. about education. Web. 12 May 2015.