Literature and Life

The magic of reading is that it brings you to another place and feeling. At times it can make you smile with character, and other times make you cry with him. Sometimes it may even allow the reader to identify with the characters. Reality can often be a lot like a piece of literature, in that a person may be going through the exact same thing, or something similar, and be feeling the same way. It is effortless to view the tough and unspoken racism demonstrated in Nadine Gordimer’s â€Å"Country Lovers† as well as how the girl feels in Patricia Smith’s What It’s Like to Be a Black Girl (For Those of You Who Aren’t).In both readings you get a sense of the hardship the characters faced because of racism, the things that people may do or allow to happen because it is so hard. Racism is something that we see, hear about, and maybe even experience in our everyday lives. It may be something that we do not speak about, just like in the short story â€Å"Co untry Lovers. â€Å" The main characters Paul us and Thebedi were raised together since they were kids, Paulus was a white boy and Thebedi, a black girl. They played together and spent most of their childhood days with one another.As time goes by and they begin to grow up and the distance between the two also grow apart. However, the bond created between them as children is still there. Both Paulus’ and Thebedi’s parents never forbad them from seeing each other but there was always this unspoken knowledge that they knew it was wrong because they always seemed to be hiding the fact that they did spend time together. An example of this would be when Paulus came home from school and brought Thebedi a gift â€Å"She told her father the missus had given them to her as a reward for some works she had done-it was true she sometimes was called to help out in the farmhouse.She told the girls in the kraal that she had a sweetheart nobody knew about† (Clugston, 2010). Bot h Paulus and Thebedi know that it is not okay to hold on to the relationship they had as kids. But they cannot help the feelings that have grown for each other over the years. â€Å"The schoolgirls he went swimming with at dams or pools on neighboring farms wore bikinis but the sight of their dazzling bellies and thighs in the sunlight had never made him feel what he felt now when the girl came up the bank and sat beside him, the drops of water beading off her dark legs the only points of life in the earth-smelling deep shade.They were not afraid of one other; they had known one other always† (Clugston, 2010). They had strong feelings for one another and consummated them by having sexual relations. This went on for a while, and eventually Thebedi became pregnant. At this point her hand was asked for in marriage by Njabulo, since they had already had sexual relations her now husband did not question her being pregnant. â€Å"The infant was very light and did not quickly grow dark as most African babies do. Already at birth, there was on its head a quantity of straight, fine floss† (Clugston, 2010).When Paulus found out that Thebedi had a baby, and that it was his, he didn’t want anyone to find out. â€Å"Don't take it out. Stay inside. Can't you take it away somewhere? You must give it to someone—† (Clugston, 2010). Because in the time period interracial relationships were looked down upon, and were unacceptable, Paulus felt like he had to do something before anyone found out the baby was his. When Paulus came to see the baby the next time Thebedi stayed outside as he killed their baby. The authorities came because they had heard there was a white looking child that was killed and brought charges against Paulus.There was not enough evidence to convict but the fact of the matter is that he killed his child and Thebedi did nothing to stop it. Thebedi could have prevented the baby’s death but seems to feel powerless agains t Paulus. I believe there is also a part of her that feels this way is better for everyone, this way they don’t have to deal with the reality of their baby and how socially unacceptable it is. At the same time, I can’t imagine it being easy knowing her baby, with the man she had extreme feelings for, is now dead and he is the one responsible.I believe even women today sometimes feel powerless against their men. I don’t think it would be taken to the extent of killing a child, but some men dictate the relationship and how things should be. Even though interracial relationships are more socially acceptable nowadays, it is still difficult sometimes for people of different races to be together. Another instance of racism is shown in the poem What It’s Like To Be a Black Girl (For Those of You Who Aren’t) by Patricia Smith. Although this one is shown in a different way.In the poem the author describes what a girl has to do to be acceptable in the world as a black girl. â€Å"Its dropping food coloring in your eyes to make them blue and Suffering their burn in silenceâ€Å" (Clugston, 2010). Because she is a black girl and in certain periods in time white people seemed to reigned supreme she tried to make herself look more socially acceptable, even at the cost of injuring herself. This poem shows the girl desiring to be white and to fit in to that life, where she an walk around without being judged and looked down upon. It's popping a bleached white mophead over the kinks of your hair and primping in front of mirrors that deny your reflection† (Clugston, 2010). Just another example of putting yourself through pain to feel more accepted and not even wanting to see yourself the way you are because you feel ashamed. At the end of the poem, the young girl seems to feel more accepting of the fact she is black, even though she does not feel it is any easier at that point. â€Å"it's flame and fists and life according to Motownâ €  (Clugston, 2010). She has accepted that her life is following the way of her culture.It is not easy though and she must keep her guard, and her fists up. The poem, to me shows the struggles of a young girl because of societies view of people. It makes her life harder than it should be because of peoples ignorance about race and what everyone should be like. Racism is ugly and sometimes makes people feel like they need to change themselves to be accepted. The girl was trying to lead a different life, one in which she was not judged and everyone would accept her. In both of these readings the authors showed the struggles people face because of racism.There are many different ways racism affects people’s lives, in the first story â€Å"Country Lovers† it was in a horrible way where an innocent child was murdered so no one would find out the love two people shared because it was socially unacceptable for the time. In The poem by Patricia Smith, the girl also injured herself to make herself acceptable. Both of these stories show the horrible things people do because of racism. It is not fair that an innocent child, who never knew any better had to die or that a young girl must physically hurt herself to change in order for things to be okay.There are times where life imitates literature, maybe the author used real experiences of people or situations that have happened or what they believe can happen. I am sure that when racism was extremely prevalent people did try to change themselves, all while hurting themselves or others. Nowadays racism is still around, maybe not to the degree of what the readings spoke about but t is definitely here and horrible things happen because of it. Things such s hate crimes and murder, as well as people having procedures to change their appearance. I am sure we will see these things until the day everyone accepts each other the way they are.

An Analyses of “When the Saints Go Marching in”

Kevin Fickel MUSC 105. 003 An Analysis of â€Å"When the Saints Go Marching In† The origins of â€Å"When the Saints† have never been fully explained in modern times. It was originally written as a Negro Spiritual hymn sometime near the beginning of the twentieth century. On written music, composers usually notate it as a traditional piece, but the identity of the original author remains up for debate.Some sources claim that the original lyrics of â€Å"When the Saints† were penned by Katherine Pervis and put to music by James Black in 1896, but many scholars today believe that Pervis and Black’s composition was a completely different piece of music due to it being titled â€Å"When the Saints Are Marching In†. Regardless, the original lyrics contain many spiritual references, particularly to heaven and the coming of God’s kingdom.In one of the verses, the author writes â€Å"Oh when the trumpet sounds its call, oh when the trumpet sounds it s call, I want to be in that number, when the trumpet sounds its call,† which is a reference to a passage in the book of Revelations, located in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The passage describes the sounding of seven trumpets by angels of heaven. Each trumpet brings about a specific catastrophic event upon the world below, which is filled with those who were not taken in to heaven at the onset of the world’s end.Other references to things such as â€Å"†¦the moon turns red with blood†¦ † and â€Å"†¦when the new world is revealed†¦Ã¢â‚¬  are tied in with the end of days described in Revelations, which the author describes a desire to avoid by being in heaven. Though the original lyrics describe dark and unfortunate events, today â€Å"When the Saints† has a positive connotation attached to it. When it is performed in modern times, it is at a much faster tempo and the melody swings at an infectiously catchy pace.This chan ge started probably due to a trend that originated in New Orleans that consisted of inserting a verse that discussed how a former friend or relative had died, moved away, or was estranged from them and how they desired to see them again, often in the next life (i. e. heaven). In one of the earliest know recordings of â€Å"When the Saints†, the blues artist Barbeque Bob sings â€Å"†¦I had a dear old mother, she’s gone on to heaven I know, I promised the Lord I’d meet her, when the Saints go marching in†¦. The belief that a one will be able to reunite with all of their loved ones who have passed away before them, coupled with an image of heaven as eternal paradise for a soul instills hope in an individual. Taking this into account may explain the prevalence of bands performing â€Å"When the Saints† in New Orleans funeral marches. It may be that in the culture of New Orleans a funeral is not only a place for mourning the dead, but also a time t o celebrate the deceased’s passing into eternal paradise.Thus, â€Å"When the Saints† began a transformation from a solemn hymn to an upbeat funeral piece and then to one of the most famous jazz songs of all time. This transformation is quite staggering. When the song was first written, there was no recording technology that enabled its original form to be preserved. Barbeque Bob performed the earliest recording of â€Å"When the Saints† in the early twentieth century. His rendition is performed on acoustic guitar and has a very resigned tempo with the overall tone of the piece being one that fosters reflection.This style was probably representative of the standard way to play the piece at the time and most likely remained so until Louis Armstrong recorded his rendition of â€Å"When the Saints† in the format that most people recognize. Armstrong played â€Å"When the Saints† at a much faster tempo than Barbeque Bob and with a more upbeat and fun t one and with a full band featuring trombones, drums, a string bass, trumpet, clarinet, and several other instruments. Armstrong’s rendition ushered in the more common rendition of â€Å"When the Saints† that emulates his fast tempo and upbeat tone.Armstrong also created a way of playing â€Å"When the Saints† that allowed for passages of improvisation, a mainstay in jazz music. The strophic form of the verses and running bass allows for other instruments to take turns improvising before returning to the original melody. However, this also caused â€Å"When the Saints† to become a more secular piece as it lost its previously sacred themes and lyrics. In a duet between Louis Armstrong and Danny Kaye, the lyrics previously talking about the end of days and joining with others in heaven are replaced with a series of clever puns of the names of famous classical composers.This shows the shift of â€Å"When the Saints† from a sacred hymn intended to inspi re to a song intended to entertain. Instead of being played in church sanctuaries, it mostly is performed at concerts by ensembles not affiliated with any particular church. In listening to different recordings of this timeless piece that I myself have performed a few times in my life, I was most surprised to learn that â€Å"When the Saints† was not always an upbeat jazz piece. Hearing the evolution of this song through the various recordings was very interesting. I can say that I have a newfound interest in this piece that was not there before.

Why Did The Policies Of President Hoover Fail To Combat The Great Depression Effectively?

In October 1929, the USA was plunged into the sharpest recession to take place in American history. The period it lasted for became known as the Great Depression. Drastic action was required to fix the situation, and the first person people looked to was President Hoover, who had unluckily took up presidency eight months before the Wall Street Crash. However, Hoover is known for his inability to sue federal powers to overcome the Depression quickly and effectively. Some recent historians have been more sympathetic towards Hoover because they believe he was a victim of both his own mindset and of one of the most difficult to solve crises in American history. But most believe it was his political beliefs and policies that stopped him fight the Depression successfully. Hoover's main trouble was that he was not willing for direct government to take place. His two central policies were self-help and voluntary co-operation. His continued belief in these represented his continued belief that the economy had to right itself and that changes he made would not help – â€Å"Economic depression cannot be cured by legislative action or executive pronouncement†. Indeed, Hoover knew that the government was urgently required to take action but the action he was willing to take was not nearly enough to deal with the depth of the Depression, as shown through eight different areas of the Depression federal government policies were made on. These were agriculture, tariffs, repudiation of war debts, voluntarism, unemployment relief, Federal Home Loan Bank Act, Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) and war veterans and the ‘Bonus Army'. The legislation passed in all of these areas was a failure, which lost Hoover all credibility. The Agricultural Marketing Act was passed in 1929, creating a nine-person Federal Farm Board with funds of $500 million to create ‘stabilisation corps', and the crops created were eventually bought back at higher prices. The agricultural policy failed for two reasons: firstly because it paid US farmers artificially high prices and could not continue in the long term; secondly because it treated agriculture as a domestic, not foreign, issue. Cheap foreign imports became a problem, and the answer appeared to be even higher tariffs. In June 1930, the Hawley-Smoot tariff was enforced – and was the highest in US history. Its result was most European nations abandoning free trade. Hoover could have vetoed the bill but chose not to. In the repudiation of war debts, Hoover blamed the Depression on Europe, though the situation was in fact vice versa. Europe could not afford to pay back war debts, and international trades decreased. Countries worldwide were in a more depressed state, again a negative result. Hoover placed the onus of improving the situation onto the businesses rather than the government. He told businessmen not to cut their workforces or wages but to maintain output and encourage buying. As the depression worsened, however, they could not afford to do this. Workers were fired and wages reduced, raising unemployment levels. So, Hoover then secured $500 million in 1932 from Congress to use as unemployment relief, but the amount simply wasn't enough. He also set up the President's Emergency Committee for Employment to help agencies organise efforts, but still refused to help directly because of his self-help policies. An example of this is during the 1930-31 drought, which was so severe it led to almost starvation in the South. Congress gave $47 million to be offered as loans, but Hoover still didn't want to give direct relief. He didn't believe in giving out benefits. So unemployment relief was another failed attempt by Hoover to fight the Depression. The Federal Home Lon Bank Act was passed in July 1932, and was Hoover's attempt to save mortgages. A series of Federal Home Loan banks were set up to help loan associations providing mortgages. However, they only lent 50% of the property value. The Act failed and was largely ineffective, and homes were repossessed. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) was Hoover's most radical measure to overcome the Depression and the precursor to the New Deal initiatives of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The RFC was established in January 1932 and could lend up to $2 billion to stabilise banks, insurance companies, railroads and construction companies that were suffering. It was a measure taken to restore confidence. The loans, however, were given mainly to big banks and larger companies. The RFC eventually failed because it was giving too little too late. By this time, Hoover's credibility was severely damaged, but the nail in the coffin was yet to come – the treatment of the Bonus Army, which portrayed him as cold and cruel. In 1925, Congress agreed to give veterans of WW1a ‘bonus' to be paid in 1945. In June 1932, 20,000 war veterans marched to Washington to request their bonus early in order to survive the Depression. They were told that the government could not afford to pay them, but Hoover would pay for their trip home. Feeling betrayed, the veterans set up camp. Hoover feared violence, to the extent of revolution, and called in the military. Tanks, infantry and tear gas destroyed the camp and drove away the veterans. These men who had served their country were called â€Å"tramps and hoodlums with a generous sprinkling of Communist agitators†. Hoover was solely blamed for the dispersal of the Bonus Army, which was a major political blunder. By now, the people of America had turned away from Hoover and were looking for answers elsewhere – Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Already popular as Governor of New York State, Roosevelt appealed to the US people because he proposed to take the action that Hoover would not and showed flexibility. Through his time as Governor, Roosevelt showed his willingness to listen to others' ideas and his belief that direct government intervention was necessary. An example of his flexibility is the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration, set up in 1932. Though it was temporary, it was the first state-run relief effort in the nation. In comparison, Hoover refused to hear ideas remotely associated with government intervention. However, some historians argue that Hoover did in fact involve the government in more areas of life than ever before, for example the expansion of federal lending and the encouragement of public works' schemes. Hoover had a personal concern for those suffering the Depression. He cut his own and state officials' salaries by 20% and had long working hours. On the other hand, he showed optimism in public, which led people to accuse him of losing touch with reality. Although Hoover worked tirelessly to fight the Depression, his refusal to abandon his policies of self-help and voluntary co-operation prevented him from doing so successfully. In conclusion, President Hoover's policies failed to combat the Great Depression effectively because the help they provided were very limited in the extent the Depression had gone to. Because of his beliefs in self-help and voluntary co-operation he blocked direct government intervention from his policies, driving away supporters towards Roosevelt, who won the elections of 1932 and began his ‘New deal'.

Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 9

Case Study Example The scope of operations of Bank Solutions Inc. identifies the need for security measures but risk assessment of the company’s operational set up identifies security, interoperability, and operations issues that threaten the organization’s ability to implement DRBC plan and safeguard its data. This report analyses issue around the organization’s system, based on results from its internal report, and recommend IT security controls and government regulations and standards that can safeguard the company’s data. Scope of the company’s operations that identifies data in electronic format and the company’s outdated and untested data system identifies integrity, confidentiality, and authentication as major security issues (The United Nations, 2007). This is because the company’s outdated and untested could be inefficient in detecting and preventing possible internal threats. This also raises authenticity, repudiation, and integrity concerns due to possible arbitrary data alteration (Camara, Crossler, Midha, & Wallace, 2011). Confidentiality is also an issue because of company’s laxity in customization and implementation of disaster recovery and business continuity master plan that mean that stored data is susceptible to breach from employees who are not entitled to access and external threats. Such access can only identify malicious intention and breach of confidentiality (Chhabra, 2013) and lack of regulation on data access suggests this. Operational issues are also evident in the case and implementation of Information Technology governance is an example. Effective governance offers leadership for availability and implementation of necessary frameworks for operations and security of a system (Grajek & Pirani, 2012). Assessment results suggest lack of such governance, leading to application of an outdated and untested system. Identified failure by some facilities to customize and implement DRBC plans also shows lack of effective governance

Outsourcing Federal Healthcare (Operations Management) 2 Assignment

Outsourcing Federal Healthcare (Operations Management) 2 - Assignment Example Hospitals keep personal health records of patients and disseminate this information when it is needed. The other major stakeholder in the U.S. federal healthcare system includes employers; they take part in paying for the insurance costs of the employees. The goal of employers is to ensure that there is a contribution towards the insurance funds, which cater for the needs of employees (Harland, et. al., 2005). Another main stakeholder of the healthcare system in the U.S. includes patients, as well as consumers of the healthcare services, which are provided by the federal healthcare system. The goals of consumers include having access to adequate care from the government. Consumers also want to access affordable health services from the healthcare institutions. The needs of stakeholders are to get health services, which are within their reach and which can serve various health needs that they have. The federal government can also be regarded as one of the main stakeholders in healthca re provision, in the United States. As a stakeholder in the federal health system, the goal of the federal government includes providing affordable health services to the U.S. citizens. The other goal of the federal government is to ensure that medical services and facilities accessible to the United States citizens are of high quality (Medicare.gov, 2013). The current strategy of the federal government in the provision of health services, in the United States, focuses on the provision of affordable care to all citizens, in the United States. With the establishment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the United States government aims at ensuring that there will remarkable changes, which will have an impact on all healthcare organizations. The current status of healthcare reform in the United States also aims at ensuring that there is access to universal healthcare by all. The strategy used by the federal government aims at ensuring that more money is spent on health t han in any other activity. In addition, the current status of healthcare reform in the U.S. aims at ensuring that Medicaid and Medicare become affordable to all. This covers all American citizens, including the poor and unemployed persons who may face challenges when accessing healthcare (Medicare.gov, 2013). The current status of healthcare in the United States faces certain strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This warrants a SWOT analysis of the U.S. healthcare system. One of the strengths of the current healthcare plan is that it enables the government to spend money on healthcare. In addition, the system can be credited since it has led to a decrease in the infant mortality rates. One of the weaknesses of the system is that it does not guarantee access to health insurance for the majority of American citizens. For example, sixteen percent of the American population does not have access to health insurance (Medicare.gov, 2013). One of the opportunities that the cur rent healthcare system has is that it receives funding from stakeholders such as non-governmental organizations, which are interested in providing healthcare in the United States. There is also adequate support of the system from other remarkable players in the United States. Despite the opportunities that the system has there are also some threats that it poses. One of the threats is that it may make people over-dependent on the government for the provision of other needs, which

Xavier Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Xavier - Assignment Example ome information regarding these people from the local sources close to them, I have come to know that these men have come from the Goa region of India, which happens to be a colony of the Portuguese King (Moran 7). Not only these men have converted a large section of the natives in this far flung Indian land to their religion, but in achieving this purpose, they received ample political and financial help from the King of Portugal (Moran 7). As per my information, they are accompanied here by a Japanese man whom they call Paul, who not only practices their religion but is actively helping them spread their religion, as they are not conversant with our language (Ross 29). With the help of this man Paul, they have converted hundreds of Japanese people to their religion at Kagoshima (Xavier 327). This Japanese man Paul is helping these foreign men by conveying their message to the Japanese people and by translating the scriptures of their religion into the Japanese Language (Xavier 327) . These white men were extended a warm welcome in Kagoshima by the family of this Paul. I got all this information from one of the relatives of Paul. His Royal Highness, going by this information, if these so called Portuguese priests of the true religion are strongly backed by the Portuguese King, who rules over many parts of India, it would be really practical to conclude that their intention in coming to this part of Japan may not be merely to spread their religion, but also to help the Portuguese Empire spread its sway in this part of Japan. Converting our local people will really help them in achieving this purpose. Once our people get converted to their religion, it will get easier for the Portuguese people to make them rebel against His Highness and his army. In fact as per my information, they have already started taking steps at gaining influence over the Japanese people, by targeting their places of learning and worship. As per my knowledge, some of these white men have

Access to Essential Medicines Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Access to Essential Medicines - Essay Example From this discussion it is clear that  Mexico manufactures almost all categories of the essential medicines need in the country, locally. There are a variety of essential medicines that are manufactured in Mexico, which also eventually find way to other countries such as the neighboring USA and Latin America, due to the low cost of such medicines in Mexico. The essential medicines manufactured locally include anesthetics, which represents the category of medicines that are essential for any healthcare facility, applied to suppress pain in patients, to enable the doctors perform other medical procedures such as injections.This paper outlines that  the government plays a very pivotal role in providing access to essential medicines in Mexico. The Mexican government has established a very effective patent system, which creates a very favorable environment for the pharmaceuticals to launch new medicines in the country. The policy environment for pharmaceutical industry players has als o been made effective by the government, which enables the pharmaceutical industry to import the relevant equipment, raw materials and disposables, which them makes it efficient to provide essential medicines to the public health facilities, that are supplied by the government. The suitable policy environment has made it possible for Mexico to increase its export of pharmaceutical products to the USA by a massive 78%, from 1992 to 2002.

Why do Incumbents win majority of time during election Essay - 1

Why do Incumbents win majority of time during election - Essay Example Since they are in office, they can use the privileges provided to them by the taxpayers in the form of free travel, mailing, airtime, town hall meetings, hiring sizable staff to assist them in making them more likeable and others to strengthen their campaign. Furthermore, during their time in office, they certainly make some friends in the corporate world and political arena, such as labour unions, professional lobbyists and big businesses, who are likely to express their desire to find their campaigns in return for favors and advantages in the future (Gelman & King 1148). Recent statistics confirm the same. During the 2012 election cycle, every incumbent was able to raise more than 0.9 million US dollars as part of their fundraising campaign, but the same figure remained at less than 0.15 million for the challengers. Therefore, incumbents were able to outraise their challengers by 405 million to 88 million. Sitting members of Congress are paid to meet and talk with the voters, attend town hall meeting, appear regularly on the media, liaison with the press and engage in actions and decisions, which could assist them in improving their overall image because this is an imperative part of their job as members of Congress (Ashworth and Bueno de Mesquita 1009). Therefore, they can run their campaigns while performing these jobs and taking advantage of the perquisites available to them while they are in office. However, a challenger, if he or she is not extremely wealthy, would have to use their savings, go into debt and find other ways of financing to run a campaign (Sabato 142). If the challenger is not already a political servant, celebrity, or well known in the masses, it puts him or her at even a bigger disadvantage against the incumbent. This is true because the incumbent has served for at least two or six years in case of Congress and Senate respectively, thus allowing

Qatar Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Qatar - Assignment Example This ranking has been consistent, especially after the 2007-8 global financial crises, and is expected to continue for the next years due to the rising prices of oil and natural gas. This paper purpose to statistically determine whether the values of Qatar’s exports in oil and gas sector depend on Qatar’s economy, the size of the Importing country, or/and by the distance between Qatar and the importing country. The statistical analysis of the link between the value of Qatar’s export and Qatar’s economy, size of the importing country, and the distance between Qatar and the importing country will take the following regression model. When the available data of the value of exports (US $), Qatar’s GDP (Million US $), GDP of the importing country, the Distance (from Doha to the importing country capital), and the natural logs of all these variables were run in SPSS, the following were the results. According to the table above, the coefficient of determination, R square and the Adjusted R square are 0.448 and 0.444 respectively. This figure means that the independent variables have explained 44.4% of the variation in the dependent variable (lnExport). Approximately 44.4% of Qatar’s exports are attributed to Qatar’s economy, the size of the Importing country, and the distance between Qatar and the importing country. The standard error shows the standard deviation of the various sample statistics from the population i.e. the measure of variability of the prediction in the regression model. The standard error of the estimates, as shown in the table above is 2.5046, meaning only 2.5046 of the sample deviates from the population, thereby making the data credible. According to the ANOVA table above, the test for the model validity shows the F-value is 104.682. Assuming the null hypothesis argued in support of the dependence of Qatar’s export

Describe why you believe that diversity in the legal profession is Essay

Describe why you believe that diversity in the legal profession is important from a practical standpoint - Essay Example Representatives of the legal system must understand the social or even psychological mechanisms that drive individual responses from multiple demographics if they are to convey any relevant meaning to the citizen, especially if the goal is to facilitate behavioral or attitude-based changes. In the client environment, similar disparities will be ongoing with clients of many different backgrounds and social/family structures, therefore diversity in legal professional education must be present in order to work successfully with these groups. For instance, an individual seeking legal assistance who hails from a wealthy and privileged environment might automatically believe that legal servants are below them and fail to make any worthwhile interpersonal connection. Those in the legal profession must understand these differences and have the diversity of character in order to conduct their obligations toward the client. This diversity can stem from gaining academic knowledge of advantaged social groups or other sociological understandings to assist in client communications. For the legal counselor or other similar roles, knowledge of ethnic backgrounds is also critical if there is to be any headway made with citizens of varying demographics. Emotional issues that have led to criminal behavior in Asian groups, as one example, might be fundamentally different with Caucasian citizens and thus diversity of social and racial systems must be included in legal-based education curriculum. Such diversity also removes potential prejudices and biases, especially important for judicial representatives and policing units, to ensure equality and fair justice without favoritism or discrimination of any variety. Legal professionals are relied upon to provide assistance to general society by reducing criminal activities and corruption and also to ensure the well-being of national citizens

Service Operations Management - Celebrity Cruises Case Study

Service Operations Management - Celebrity Cruises - Case Study Example Celebrity Cruises has an ambiguous strategy for marketing that lacks focus in attracting new customers and improving the loyalty of previous customers. First, celebrity Cruises must start by identifying clear marketing positions to source for additional potential customers. Secondly, their customer service is also failing them. Additionally, their services are getting old and need to be revitalized to attract new customers. Finally, their product also lacks consistency. To deal with these issues, Celebrity Cruises must alter its marketing strategy to place more emphasis on customer service. Pricing also requires to be changed to emphasize upgrades with added value rather than dollars off discounts. Finally, the employees need to be re-trained in customer service provision. Background The Chandris Group started celebrity Cruises in 1989 in Greece, originally as a shipping company. The company merged in 1997 with Royal Caribbean International to form the Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. in order for the two companies to target their particular market segments, the parent company decided to separate the two brand companies’ operations and marketing. Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. ... However, given the highly competitive nature of the cruise shipping line industry, the marketing strategy employed by celebrity Cruises is, at best, indistinct since it finds it difficult to find ways of creating and maintaining customer loyalty while also working towards increasing revenues. Problem Statement Celebrity Cruises is in possession of a marketing strategy, which is ambiguous and that has no focus on attracting customers and fumbles with increasing or improving customer loyalty. Analysis Celebrity Cruises needs to develop aspects of their operations, as well as transform them if they are to increase their market share (Vogel et al 22). First, celebrity Cruises must start by identifying clear marketing positions to source for additional potential customers. While Celebrity cruises has done a commendable job in appealing to their prospective customers, their marketing initiatives still require to be fine-tuned and implemented. Celebrity cruises needs to be able direct their efforts at marketing towards the correct market segment, which, in this case, is the multi-generational market and baby-boomers market. Baby boomers make up a large population of United States with one-fourth of the population in the US being aged between forty two and sixty in 2006 (Vogel et al 24). Celebrity Cruises is also missing out by choosing not to market to the people in the thirty to forty age bracket. While this has the ability to alienate the older crowd who like travelling on cruise ships, there will be some classy ones in this generation who are already used to dining in fine restaurants and knowledgeable in theater etiquette. For this generation

Higher education in the USA Essay Example for Free

Higher education in the USA Essay Faktorami, opredelyayuschimi yavlyaetsya li uchrezhdenie odnim iz luchshih, ili odnim iz menee prestizhnyh, yavlyayutsya: kachestvo obucheniya fakultetov, kachestvo oborudovaniya dlya issledovanij, uroven finansirovaniya bibliotek, specialnyh programm, i t. d. , a takzhe kompetentnost i chislo pretendentov na priem, to est naskolko dannoe uchrezhdenie svobodno v vybore studentov. Vse `eti faktory dopolnyayut drug druga. Voobsche v Soedinennyh SHtatah priznano, chto est bolee i menee predpochtitelnye uchrezhdeniya dlya obucheniya i polucheniya vysshego obrazovaniya. Bolee predpochtitelnye uchrezhdeniya obychno, no ne vsegda, yavlyayutsya bolee dorogostoyaschimi, i okonchanie odnogo iz nih mozhet prinesti znachitelnye preimuschestva, poskolku kazhdyj chelovek ischet vozmozhnost zanyatosti i socialnuyu podvizhnost v predelah obschestva. Konkurs na postuplenie v takoj kolledzh pobuzhdaet milliony starsheklassnikov sdavat SAT kazhdyj god. No nedavno akcent na vstupitelnyh `ekzamenah shiroko kritikovalsya v Soedinennyh SHtatah, potomu chto `ekzameny pozvolyayut opredelit kompetentnost v matematike i anglijskom yazyke. V zaschituispolzovaniya   `ekzamenov kak kriteriev pri postuplenii, rukovoditeli mnogih universitetov govoryat, chto ispolzovanie SAT pozvolyaet spravedlivo reshit, kogo prinyat, kogda imeetsya 10 ili 12 pretendentov na odno mesto. Mogut li kolledzhi i universitety Ameriki osnovyvatsya na ih rezultatah? Priblizitelno 12 millionov studentov v nastoyaschee vremya poseschayut shkoly vysshego obrazovaniya v Amerike. Oni studenty v obschestve, kotoroe verit v svyaz mezhdu obrazovaniem i demokratiej. Odnako, mnozhestvo amerikancev ne udovletvoreny sostoyaniem vysshego obrazovaniya v ih strane. Vozmozhno, naibolee shiroko rasprostranennoe nedovolstvo vyzyvaet uchebnyj plan kolledzha v celom i shirokij diapazon dopolnitelnyh zanyatij v chastnosti. V seredine 80-yh godov proshlogo veka Associaciya Amerikanskih Kolledzhej (AAC) vypustila doklad, v kotorom prizyvala k prepodavaniyu bazovoj chasti obschih znanij vsem studentam kolledzha. Nacionalnyj Institut Obrazovaniya (NIE) vypustil podobnyj zhe doklad- Uchastie v obuchenii. V svoem doklade NIE zaklyuchil, chto uchebnyj plan kolledzha stal chrezmerno professionalno-tehnicheskim i svyazannym s rabotoj. V nem takzhe preduprezhdaetsya, chto obrazovanie kolledzha bolshe ne mozhet razvivat v studentah razdelennye cennosti i znaniya, chto tradicionno svyazyvayut Amerikancev vmeste. Sereznoe obvinenie. Dejstvitelno li `eto tak? V nekotoroj stepeni na dannyj moment `eto vozmozhno. Konechno, nekotorye studenty zakanchivayut svoe obuchenie bez kursa po Zapadnoj Civilizacii, ne upominaya drugie mirovye kultury. Drugie ostavlyayut kolledzh, ne izuchiv nauku ili pravitelstvo. V otvet, mnogie kolledzhi nachali peresmatrivat osnovnoj uchebnyj plan, s kotorym vse studenty dolzhny spravlyatsya. `Eti problemy priznak togo, chto vysshee obrazovanie v Amerike menyaetsya, kak `eto imelo mesto vsegda v ego istorii. I, kak v proshlom, `eto izmenenie mozhet idti v neozhidannyh napravleniyah. Puritane osnovyvali kolledzhi, chtoby obuchat ministrov. No ih studenty proyavili sebya kak osnovopolozhniki pervoj v mire konstitucionnoj demokratii. Kolledzhi predostavleniya zemli byli osnovany, chtoby prepodavat selskoe hozyajstvo i proektirovanie stroitelyam Amerikanskogo Zapada. Segodnya, mnogie iz `etih kolledzhej yavlyayutsya veduschimi shkolami v nauchno-issledovatelskom mire. Amerikancy vsegda delali stavku na sozdanie sistemnoj raboty. Oni imeyut osobo veskie prichiny dlya vypolneniya `etogo v oblasti obrazovaniya. Lyudi v Soedinennyh SHtatah segodnya stalkivayutsya s vazhnymi voprosami: CHto yavlyaetsya nadlezhaschej rolyu Ameriki kak strany s samoj staroj v mire konstitucionnoj demokratiej; s samoj bolshoj `ekonomikoj; yavlyayuschejsya pervoj yadernoj derzhavoj? Amerikancy uvazhayut svoe pravo vyrazit mnenie po vsem `etim problemam. No lyudi Soedinennyh SHtatov takzhe gluboko osoznayut, chto takie problemy dolzhny rassmatrivatsya v komplekse. CHtoby prinimat uchastie v novyh voznikayuschih problemah, bolshinstvo amerikancev chuvstvuet, chto oni nuzhdayutsya vo vsej informacii, kotoruyu oni mogut poluchit. Kolledzhi i universitety naibolee vazhnye centry takogo izucheniya. I nezavisimo ot togo, chto mogut trebovatsya usovershenstvovaniya, ih buduschee polnostyu garantiruetsya amerikanskoj zhazhdoj progressa i horoshej informirovannosti. Fakticheski, sleduyuschej zadachej amerikanskogo obrazovaniya mozhet stat tendenciya dlya lyudej prodolzhit ih obrazovanie v kolledzhe dlya dalnejshej zhizni. Slovar. A Accept Prinimat Achieves Dostigat Accomplishment Vypolnenie Account Schet Adequate Adekvatnyj Admission Dopusk Admitted Dopuschennyj Advantage Preimuschestvo Agriculture Selskoe hozyajstvo. Amount Kolichestvo Applicant Pretendent Application Zayavlenie Association of American Colleges(AAC) Associaciya Amerikanskih Kolledzhej Available Dostupnyj Aware Znaya B Bachelors degree Stepen Bakalavra Be either Byt takzhe Beyond Vne Bond Obyazatelstvo C Certainly Konechno Community Soobschestvo Competition Sorevnovanie Competence Kompetentnost Complete Polnyj Comprise Vklyuchit Condition Uslovie(sostoyanie) Contain Soderzhat Conversely Naoborot Costly Dorogostoyaschij Criticized Kritikuemyj Currently V nastoyaschee vremya Curriculum Uchebnyj plan D. Demand Trebovanie Democracy Demokratiya Desirable ZHelatelnyj Determining Opredelenie Distinction Razlichie Duration Prodolzhitelnost E Elective Izbiratelnyj Emphasis Akcent Employment Zanyatost Equal prestige Ravnyj prestizh Excessively vocational and work-related CHrezmerno professionalno- tehnicheskij i svyazannyj s rabotoj Exist Suschestvovat G Graduate Diplomirovannyj specialist Government Pravitelstvo H Higher education Vysshee obrazovanie I Impression Vpechatlenie Independent Nezavisimyj Interviews Intervyu Issued Vypuschennyj L Lead Liderstvo. Majority Bolshinstvo Masters degree Stepen mastera Measure Mera Mention Upominanie Merely Prosto Might Mog by N National Institute of Education(NIE) Nacionalnyj Institut Obrazovaniya Nuclear power YAdernaya derzhava O Offer Predlozhenie Obtain Poluchit Opinions Mneniya Opportunities Vozmozhnosti Outstanding Vydayuschijsya P Painfully Gluboko Particular Specificheskij(osobennyj) Percent Procent Perhaps Vozmozhno Proper Nadlezhaschij Provide Obespechit Public Gosudarstvennyj(obschestvennyj) Puritans Puritane Private CHastnyj R Receive Poluchit. Recently Nedavno Recognized Priznannyj Recommendations Rekomendacii Regard Otnoshenie Reinforce Ukrepit Respect Uvazhenie S Satisfactory Udovletvoritelnyj Satisfied Udovletvorennyj Seek Iskat Similar Podobnyj Simply Prosto Scholars Uchenye Scientific research Nauchnoe issledovanie Social mobility Socialnaya mobilnost Success Uspeh T Traditional bind Tradicionno svyazyvayut The shared values and knowledge Razdelennye cennosti i znanie Q Quality of research facilities Kachestvo sredstv obsluzhivaniya issledovaniya W Whether Li Widespread SHiroko rasprostranennyj.

Identity Theft in Cyber Crime | Proposal

Identity Theft in Cyber Crime | Proposal A Research Proposal on Identity Theft Abstract In Todays competitive world identity theft is increasing throughout the world. The main purpose of this research is to make people aware of what identity theft is, how its happening, and what kind of technology has been used. How do you protect yourself from Identity theft? Introduction The main study of research is regarding identity theft in Cyber Crime. Well first and foremost, what is meant by the term identity theft? A very short and simple definition for identity theft is stealing other peoples personal details like Social security number, credit card details, Date of Birth etc. What are the criminals going to do with these details? Why they do that? What kind of technologies are they using to steal the other persons details? Is it becoming very dangerous nowadays? How is it possible to protect yourself from identity theft? In the UK, almost all of the people are using broadband services (BT Group Plc, 2006). The Internet is making everything easy for the consumer. Almost half of the population in the UK is using online banking, paying their bills, shopping and using the Internet to fulfil their day to day tasks. The Internet is a form of global communication throughout the world. Almost 60% percent of the people in the UK use online banking (BT Group Plc, 2006). It is quick, and reliable; however people are not aware of the threads in online banking. The majority of the people in the UK are becoming victims of online banking. Online business, internet auction, Phishing E-Mails, Trojans, and Man in the Middle attacks, Easy Password, Spyware, Adware, Payment system and cookies are the threads on the Internet (BT Group Plc, 2006). Besides the technology mentioned above, there is more technology that will indicate, at the time of execution, the research? However consumers can protect themselves from the above threads by using effective Anti-virus software, Spyware and Adware remover, Secured Wireless connection by using WAP or WEP, avoid unnecessary cookies, delete unwanted e-mails and never give out their identity in instant messaging. If the consumers follow these systems they could protect themselves from Identity theft. These cyber crimes become a global issue throughout the world (Shinder, 2002). The hackers are using up-to-the-minute technology to get the identity. Criminals are using technologies like liberate effective virus and Phishing e-mails to millions of Internet users to capture their personal details, social security number, credit card details, and date of birth. Therefore, recently, online fraud has greatly increased day by day. The news released by Metro in 2007 says that 9 out of 10 people are affected by identity theft. So what is the solution to solve this major problem and avoid not becoming a victim of identity theft? Why do I chosen Identity Theft in Cyber Crime? As stated earlier Identity theft in Cyber Crime is increasing throughout the world. The reason why that I selected this topic is to make aware of in depth knowledge of what is Identity theft? And make the Internet users aware of the tools, technology, and programs are available in the market to protect them from Identity theft in Cyber Crime. I am going make an animation website to guide the Internet users, how to use and install the tools, technology and programs to protect them from Identity theft. Background and Literature Review Overview of Identity Theft In the UK (BT Group Plc, 2006), the USA and some parts of Europe the Identity Theft is spreading like a virus. Its become one of the major problems throughout the world. Each and every day someone becomes a victim of identity theft. The Internet is a form global communication throughout the world as we all known very well. Every individual, companys, students, Solicitor, Banking and almost in the entire field, the Internet is the key form of communication to make their work quicker, easier, more reliable and effective. Why it is Significant? As we are seeing, nowadays, online business is booming each and every day, as shown by news released by Federal Trade Commission (Loza, 2001), online businesses reach up to  £3.2 trillion by 2004. However online fraud is also increasing along with the increase in online business. Well its quite weird how millions of people are becoming victims of identity theft. The majority of the people losing their personal details are losing them by using the internet. The news releases by the Federal Trade Commission about online business fraud are as follows In United States of America online business reach up to  £3.2 trillion by 2004 (Loza, 2001) The consumers are making online business around  £3.5 million each month (Loza, 2001). The estimated online payment was  £1.5 billion in 1999 and  £30 billion in 2005 (Loza, 2001) In the UK almost five Million people use broadband (BT Group Plc, 2006). In UK almost 62% of Internet users are not aware of the threads and vulnerability in online, furthermore 40% of users said that they are not even bothered whether they become a victim or not. Some users say they dont even mind to giving out their Personal details to the third parties. Internet crime is not only the regarding credit card details but also the online Identity theft, which is increasingly rapidly throughout the world, especially in developed countries like the UK, the USA and Canada. This online ID Theft is one of the fastest growing Internet crimes in the UK especially. More or less 8% of the UK PC users are falling victim to online fraud. 15% know already that they have been targeted by an internet crook. The Internet crooks using technology to retrieve the personal information from the users, release Viruses, phishing e-mails and other effective technology. With this technology they can attack millions of Internet users very quickly. The identity theft has become a big hassle for Internet users (Atwood, 2007). Some Internet users might use E-Bay. It is the online website from which we can buy and sell whatever things that we need. It is a giant online shopping website. In this website we might need to exchange our card details to third parties, but the third party has more possibility to cheat us. This gives evidence that there are many threads and a users information is very vulnerable on the Internet. ID theft has developed online because the number of consumers surfing and shopping online has greatly increased (Insight Consulting, 2003) (Acxede, 2006). Unfortunately more from the personal information is derived from the electoral registration. Mainly we have started to use and exchange the credit card details with banks and other retailers. This projects main aims are to show the risks associated with e commerce and the Internet communication technologies. Further, discussion continues on personal ID theft As a result we are losing our privacy in the Internet (Burchell et al, 2004), for example, when we register for any subscriptions from a service from an online company or when downloads bring increased risk of giving away personal information. The main issue the world is facing now, when we submitting our personal data, is that the companies give this information to third parties. They behave dishonestly to us. Cookies, adware and web bugs are used to retrieve the personal information. As we all known, most of the Companies from the UK have their customer service in India (BT Group Plc, 2006). In lndia, Labour is cheap, thats why Almost 80% of the international call centres are located in India. Because of cheap labour in India, employees start selling the IDs to the third parties. BT (British Telecom) holds almost 90% of British peoples identity information, addresses and other security information, in the department of customer service for BT in India. Due to cheap labour they wont get panic to sell Personal Details. So no one is safe in UK. Fake ID There are some websites which sell fake ID cards and deliver the ID on the same day (FraudWatch International, 2003). The above ID is a Fake ID, so the crooks are not worried nowadays about making online fake ID. The fake ID will cost you only  £10 and the delivery charge is  £5. So there is a separate website for making fake passport, ID, National Insurance Number and Student ID card. Just for  £10. So any one could make one fake id and NI number and they can start working in the UK. Online Scam The online scam means sending fake web pages to your email from a well-known ISP (BT Group Plc, 2006) (Insight Consulting, 2003). This email will tell the addressee to update their ISP Billing information and it will direct them to click on the fake link. This is to turn the people to the bogus webpage. They are both similar in appearance. It contains the same company logo and all the other infrastructure of the website remains the same. The focal seek of the scam is to instruct to enter their credit cards details, social security number, Date of Birth and the security number. This information would be more than enough to earn thousands of pounds and dollars. In most peoples Curriculum Vitae personal information is mentioned, including Date of Birth. Millions of people register in famous jobs websites every day. In that case, many crooks will come across our personal information. If our personal information gets in to the hands of cyber criminals, then we will become the victims for identity theft. The main purpose of the research is to bring together the skills, experience, and research about the online Identity theft. It will examine what is online Identity theft is, how its happening, what technology has been used, and how to prevent the online identity theft. Methodology My methodology for this proposal is how people are losing their data, in what kind of way they are becoming gullible by the information supplied by the crook and how to protect them from this identity theft on the Internet. At the current situation, the modernised world is facing lot of tribulation from well educated crooks (Insight Consulting, 2003). As the technology develops along X -axis, they generate equal antagonist clout to overcome the security issues along Y-axis. My project mainly concerns identity theft in Cyber Crime. There are some effective technologies currently being used for online ID theft. Following, are the technologies that I recently found from my research from journals, books and online. (Shinder 2002) Network Intrusion and Attacks Password Cracking Trojans Viruses Worms Phishing Man in middle attack Spyware The above mentioned points are responsible for ID theft and other kinds of crimes over the Internet (Shinder, 2002). Thus meaning, the cyber criminal cleverly hacks the personal details by using any one of the above mention points. So the criminals use the above technology, tools and programs to make a tragedy on the World Wide Web. Network Intrusion and Attacks The Network Intrusion and attack comes from all direction (Shinder 2002). It may come from external threads or from internal threads. The external threads mostly come from the Internet and the internal threads possibly from an inside job. Internal threads may come from Local Area Network (LAN) or some kind of physical access to attack the system. Nowadays the attackers dont need to have more skills, because there are some tools available to attack. Password Cracking There are more than 100 tools are there in the market to crack the password (Shinder 2002). As far as my secondary research is concerned, password cracking tools are available in the market to crack the password. To use this tool you need to be a computer literate. Its all users friendly as anyone who has the intention to do it can do so. This is one of the ways that crooks are using to steal identities through Cyber Crime. Trojans, Viruses and worms Trojans simply called as Trojan horse (Shinder 2002). The Trojan is a software program, which is mostly written by hackers to avoid a system security (BT Group Plc, 2006). If the Trojans are installed the hackers can utilize the security gap to gain the unauthorized access. If the program is installed in the system, hackers can have full authority to delete or modify the files and install other programs and viruses. So the Trojans are hazardous if any unwary user who installs it is an administrator and has the access to the system files. Virus is another program which is more dangerous (Shinder 2002). Viruses are installed without the users awareness and it executes actions that are very harmful. The viruses can come from anywhere; mostly they come from the Internet and network services such as the World Wide Web (WWW), E-Mail, instant messaging and file sharing systems. Worms is also a program that is able to pass through crossways over the network from one system to another system (Shinder 2002). The worm was used to illustrate the code that harms multiuser systems. These programs are mainly design for legitimate users to manage the multiple systems at the same time. Perhaps hackers use worms to perform some harmful actions. Phishing E-Mail One of the major concerns for Internet users is phishing E-Mail (BT Group Plc, 2006). The e-mail ids are available for sale on the Internet for a cheap price (Shinder 2002). The crooks take advantage of this opportunity to send bogus e-mails. The E-Mail claims to be from a bank, financial institute or other online fake website and asks the addressee to enter whatever information they required like personal details, username and password etc. This kind of technology is one of the major concerns for the internet users, because its quite weird to recognise which is the original website and that of the fake. Man in the middle man attack The man in the middle attack is able to read, insert and modify at desire, (BT Group Plc, 2006) the message between both the parties without either party significant in the knowledge that the connection among them has been compromised. Spyware The Spyware is software installed on the system without user knowledge; it is somewhat like Trojan horse. The spyware program can also collect also the information like personal details, username and password and the Internet history. This may lead to harmful disruption to your system. The Network Intrusion and Attack, Password Cracking, Trojan, Virus, Worms, Man in the middle man attack and spyware (Shinder, 2002) (BT Group Plc, 2006) are the responsible for the identity theft in Cyber Crime. However I am doing primary research about these technologies, tools and programs for my dissertation with the help of my supervisor. I hope my primary research will be very helpful for Internet users, government companies and private companies to protect, learn and become aware of the Identity theft in Cyber Crime. How to prevent yourself from cybercrime? Cyber crime is spreading like a virus throughout the world (BT Group Plc, 2006), how can you protect yourself from cybercrime? What should we do to avoid becoming a victim? Awareness of Network Security Concepts Awareness of Basic cryptography concepts Awareness firewalls Awareness of Phishing E-Mail. Awareness of Virus, Trojan and Worms. Awareness of Anti-Virus Software. Internet user, Government and Private concern should know the Awareness of Network Security, Password Cracking, firewalls, Phishing E-Mails, Trojans, Virus, Worms and Spyware to protect themselves from Identity Theft. My primary research will definitely help them to protect themselves from Identity theft in Cyber Crime. I am keenly performing primary research in awareness of the above tools, technology and program. I think that hopefully, my primary research would be more effective for the Internet user, Government and private concern. What would be my contribution for Identity theft in Cyber Crime? As we all are aware of the Identity Theft in Cyber Crime, but why still 70% of the people are becoming a victim for Identity Theft? The reason is most of the people are not aware of the protocol and other technology, tools and programs that are available in the market. I am working towards creating awareness of the Identity Theft in Cyber Crime. I hopefully think that my research will be more effective for the Internet user to protect them from Identity theft and not to become a victim. Resources The maximum budget for my project will be approximately  £500. I will be visiting to research centres, and some companies to do primary research about tools and technology used by the crooks. The software requirement are Microsoft Office 2007 Adobe Photoshop CS3 HTML Adobe Premier Macromedia Flash Smart Draw AutoCAD Corel Draw 12 The System requirements. Processor Intel Pentium 4 / Duo core / Core to Duo Memory (RAM) Minimum 256MB Hard Disc Minimum 20 GB Operating System Windows Vista/ Windows XP CD-ROM Readable/ Rewritable USB Cable Keyboard Mouse. Planning The estimated time for my project will be around 4 months. During my project I plan to visit some companies and research centre to gain more knowledge about Identity Theft in Cyber Crime and also I will be doing surveys about Identity Theft with the public. Conclusion The migration of Identity Theft in Cyber Crime is not at all an easy task. It requires a huge effort, patience and understanding the fundamental architecture. This research will give a sound knowledge to Internet users, Government and private concern about what is Identity theft? How its happening? By whom its happening and how to protect yourself from identity theft? References Acxede (2006) Hack #12: Add a PayPal Button to your Office Live Basics Page [Online] http://www.acxede.net/hack_12_add_a_paypal_button_to_your_office_live_basics_page [Accessed: 29 April 2008] Atwood, J. (2007) Coding Horror: Phishing: The Forever Hack [Online] http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000852.html [Accessed: 29 April 2008] BT Group plc (2006) Security Report: Online Identity Theft [Online] http://www.btplc.com/onlineidtheft/onlineidtheft.pdf [Accessed: 28 April 2008] Burchell, D., Nielsen, D., and Sofield, S. (2004) PayPal Hacks. Sebastopol, CA, USA: OReilly Media Inc. FraudWatch International (2003) Types of Identity Theft [Online] http://www.fraudwatchinternational.com/identity-theft/idtheft-types/ [Accessed: 28 April 2008] Insight Consulting (2003) Identity Theft: Managing the Risk [Online] http://www.insight.co.uk/files/whitepapers/Identity%20Theft%20(White%20paper).pdf [Accessed: 30 April 2008] Loza, E. (2001) Internet Fraud: Federal Trade Commission Prosecutions of Online Conduct. In: Communications and the Law, Vol.23 Shinder, D. L. (2002) Scene of the Cybercrime: Computer Forensics Handbook. 1st Ed. London, UK: Syngress Publishing Greys Anatomy Vs Serendipity: Psychological Perspectives Greys Anatomy Vs Serendipity: Psychological Perspectives Greys Anatomy is a medical drama that follows group of surgical interns, residents, and the various physicians who serve as their mentors both in their professional and personal lives (Rhimes 2005). There are multiple story lines that have been or are being followed to go along with the variety of characters and plots that the series portrays. The series first aired in 2005 and was recently renewed for its seventh season. The target audience for this show is men and women of various races, cultures, sexual preferences, religions, and personalities from the ages of 18-34 years of age (Rhimes 2005). Enter the world of Seattle Grace Hospital, where residents and interns strive to become the best surgeons in the country, but first they must learn to navigate the murky waters of life, love and relationships. The series starts with a focus on Meredith Grey, a surgical resident trying to live up to the reputation of her famous mother, the brilliant Dr. Ellis Grey. Her Alzheimer-stricken mother eventually passes on and in the moment she dies finally gives Meredith the validation she has always wanted from her mother but was never able to. Meredith finally marries the brilliant neurosurgeon Dr. Derek Shepherd and is moving forward in a positive direction. As the show has progressed the focus has shifted from primarily Merediths point of view that of all of Merediths fellow interns, residents, and attending surgeons. Along with Meredith are four other interns that have started the program with her, Alex Karev, George OMalley, Izzie Stevens and Cristina Yang. They are mentored by Miranda Bailey, a general surgeon who eventually becomes the hospitals Chief Resident and later becomes an attending general surgeon as well as a number of other attending surgeons of various specialties. Dr. Addison Montgomery a highly specialized OB/GYN and neonatal surgeon, is Dereks wife who arrives in Seattle seeking reconciliation. Addison eventually leaves the show the show but continues to make occasional guest appearances through crossovers of the spin-off show Private Practice. Dr. Mark Sloan a talented plastic surgeon, is Dereks former best friend, who Derek caught sleeping with Addison. Callie Torres an orthopedic surgeon that was introduced as a love-interest for George, whom she later marries, but ultimately divorces. Eventually there is a stunning addition to the cast when the interns that the show has foll owed become residents and are assigned their own interns one of which is Lexie Grey, Merediths half-sister on her fathers side. Trauma surgeon Owen Hunt and pediatric surgeon Arizona Robbins are introduced as love interests for Christina and Callie respectively. George dies a tragic heroic death, and Izzie leaves following the breakdown of her relationship with Alex that was preceded by a dramatic fight with cancer. Lexie and Mark have a fairly serious relationship for a while until Mark chooses his newly found daughter and unborn child over her. Now that Lexie is free from Mark and Alex is free from Izzie they start a fling to help each other get over their exes and it turns into a relationship. Attending Teddy Altman is introduced as a cardiothoracic surgeon from Owens military past. Finally as a reflection of the hard economic times residents Jackson Avery and April Kepner, transfer to Seattle Grace in a merger with Mercy West. Serendipity is a romantic comedy that is a story about faith, destiny, and timing (Fields 2001). It shows the how two people connected only for a night and had such an impact on each other that they eventually end up together years later after going a little bit crazy trying to follow the signs they think fate is showing them. The movie was shown in theaters in 2001 and has since been released on DVD and aired on television. The target audience is women 18-34 years of age. Sara and Jonathon meet in New York City during the Christmas season and both want to buy the same pair of black cashmere gloves in Bloomingdales. Jonathon graciously allows Sara to buy them and as a thank you she takes him to Serendipity 3 for a treat. Even though they are both dating other people they end up spending the evening together ice skating and talking. At the end of the night Jonathon asks Sara to at least exchange names and numbers incase life happens. Sara finally gives in and the paper with her name and number is blown out of her hand. Jonathan then pleads with her to write the information down again, and being superstitious by nature, Sara decides it was a sign that maybe this connection wasnt meant to be. Jonathon asks her if fate didnt want them to be together then why did they meet? This gives Sarah an idea. She has Jonathon write his name and number on a five dollar bill and uses it to buy a role of Certs. She promises to write her own name and number in the book L ove in the time of Cholera and sell it to a used bookstore. That would put their information out into the world and if they were destined to be together these items would find their way back to each other, and they would be able to contact each other. Life goes on and eventually they give up the idea of finding each other. Jonathon is engaged to Hallie, and Sara is engaged to Lars, but neither has forgotten about the other. As the wedding dates loom closer and closer Jonathon and Sara start to think more and more about the night they spent together. They both make one last effort to find each other. Jonathon does eventually find the book and Sara does eventually find the five dollar bill. They also eventually realize that if they are looking for one another then they shouldnt be marrying anyone else. They both break off their engagements and eventually find themselves back at the skating rink where it all began, each with their single black cashmere glove. Now they are both single and are free to pursue the attraction they feel. Viewers watch this television series and this type of movie for similar psychological reasons. Fischoff (n.d.) states that a person watching dramas is doing so to fill a social/ personality need and that watching comedies is done to make a person happy. Some people watch because they want the emotional rush they have experienced in the past from watching the same television show or similar movies. This emotional rush is what Potter (2008) classifies as a behavior effect called narcotizing. However, those are the things the average person seeks out almost subliminally where the need for entertainment and escape or distraction is obvious even to the viewer them self (Fischoff n.d.). People watching Greys Anatomy do so for the vicarious emotional rush they get from see their favorite characters lives unfold. In one episode there was a man in the hospital shooting people at random all in the hopes of getting to and killing the three doctors he blamed for his wifes death. There was a sense of suspense and terror as the audience realizes who was getting shot and who the shooter was actually going for. This suspense keeps the viewers watching the show with undivided attention which is what Potter (2008) calls behavioral attraction. People watching Serendipity are not going for the dramatic emotional rush but a romantic emotional rush. These people are looking for a short term escape into a world where fate and destiny explain why things happen the way that they do. Emotions are an integral part of a persons appreciation for television and movies. We experience emotions vicariously through the programs we choose to watch. What a person feels while watching or listening to a television show or a movie is essential to the whole psychological experience. There are two main physiological components that effect emotion: the physiological and the cognitive (Harris 2009). We physiologically experience emotions via increased heart rates, facial expressions like smiling, or other physical reactions like tears. The key is to link these physical reactions with a specific feeling using cognitive appraisal. While watching that specific episode of Greys Anatomy, a person home alone may physically start crying when a well known character is shot, their pulse may increase as the suspense builds, they might even gasp, scream, or yell at the TV when someone is actually shot. A person observing a viewer can see what the viewer is watching observe that the viewer is not smiling and not sneezing. These are the cognitive clues an observer uses to know if the tears being observed are those of sadness rather than happiness or possibly allergies. While watching Serendipity in a movie theater surrounded by other people viewers are more likely to hold their emotions in only showing an occasional smile or becoming misty-eyed when Jonathan and Sara find each other at the end. An observer here would have a harder time making cognitive connections between physiological representations and the feelings expressed because the expressions are being suppressed out of concern for how other people will think. It is important to remember when going to see a movie in a movie theater a persons sensory experiences are heightened because the situation is new or special and so your body tries to take in and remember as much as it can (Forrester 2000). In the physical context of being at home alone while watching a TV show, however, people are more comfortable and familiar with their surroundings this takes away from the need for heightened senses because there is no one else to relate to or unfamiliar smells to take in and the feel of the furniture is well known (Forrester 2000). Cinematographic techniques such as the choice of shot, and camera movement, can greatly influence the structure and meaning of a film or television show. Greys Anatomy uses a wide variety of different shots and camera movement to portray different things. For example when the shooter was going by a room with people in it you can see it from their terrified point of view of peaking through the blinds. Another example would be seeing an overview shot of an entire scene where people are scrambling everywhere and the shooter isnt in focus, but the chaos that he created by shooting into the crowd is. Serendipity uses the basic popular shots of those who are talking and specific points of importance like when Sara finds the five dollar bill or when Jonathan is given the book with Saras information in it as a traditional grooms gift. Music is used in many ways in both the movie and the television series. There is sad music to queue sad feelings and upbeat music to trigger happy moods (Potter 2008). Music is used to build-up and round off various scenes by using dramatic flaring of the music and an increase volume and complexity of the music fading into a softer simpler version of the same continual piece (Fischoff 2005). These musical techniques are used to suck the audience into the world of the movie and to help focus attention on specific emotions at certain times. Greys Anatomy goes one step beyond the traditional music queues that Serendipity exhibits by having absolute silence at the moment of tragic climax. There was silence when Meredith looked out into the hall way after removing a bomb from some guys chest only to see the man who had taken the bomb from her explode with half the already evacuated surgical floor. There was also complete silence when Derek was shot by the shooter roaming the hospital. Thi s silence from music is more dramatic then the build up of music traditionally used because it is unfamiliar in this series not to have music or noise in the background and complete silence is an enormous difference. An editor uses timing and sequencing to create the spacing of events through time and develop the direction of how the movie or television show will unfold (Chandler, 1994) (Bordwell, Thompson 1993). Heim, et. al. (2004) explains how editors are the secret weapons behind the psychological believability and emotional connection the audience will have with the movie or television show. The editing for a movie is different that that for a television series. With a movie like Serendipity there is only one shot to captivate the audience and there is only an hour and a half to tell the whole story. This is why movies follow one central story and sequencing like two people have totally separate lives who meet once, and then find each other again when their lives are more compatible. There are also key timing points in the movie where Jonathan and Sara just miss running into each other or are show in the same place but a different times creating a sense destiny is aware of their connection and that they will meet again when the time is right. With a television series like Greys Anatomy, however, there are multiple chances to get a persons interest and for this television series there are about twenty hours worth of show time over the already aired six seasons. This gives the editor more time to create and focus on the bonding of the viewers with multiple main characters and various plot lines. Putting together the right sequence of shots with proper timing is very important to keep a seamless transition from one characters story to the next and make all these individual stories a whole. Agenda setting, priming, and framing theories all appear to work subconsciously and have long lasting effects (Bargh, Chen, Burrows 1996), because of these effects these theories leave people susceptible to being misled. Agenda Setting is used to manipulate the amount of coverage a topic will get, what information is given on the topic, and the manner in which the information is given (McCombs, and Shaw 1972). Agenda setting is a cognitive effect used to point the audience in the direction of what the creators think is important (Potter 2008). Priming is when a person is shown something that prepares them for the future of the show or movie (Tulving, Schacter, Stark 1982). Framing is how people file and build on what they know from experience to (Plous, 1993). Agenda setting, priming, and framing are both general and episode focused. In general the agenda of the Greys Anatomy is to show the work and private lives of a group of interns, residents, and mentoring doctors and that is the focus of the series. Each show also has its own agenda like abortion, sexually transmitted diseases, various religious conflicts, death of loved ones, mistakes that as doctors have cause a patient to die, and many more. At the beginning of every episode there is prologue in an audio format spoken over a montage of scenes that prepares the audience for what is going to happen in that specific episode. There is also an epilog at the end of each episode that is a continuation of the prolog, in that it summarizes the theme of the episode and gives the viewers closure. The series its self can alter how people think about emergency room doctors and what they have gone through to get there. Each specific episode has an opportunity to change how a person feels about t he specific agenda presented. The agenda in Serendipity is that of destiny and romance and the whole movie is focused on it. The whole first ten minutes of the movie prime the audience for what is coming throughout the rest of the movie. The audience knows that there will be a search to find each other using the book and the five dollar bill and that the pair of gloves will eventually be brought back together. When all of Jonathan and Saras best efforts to find each other are thwarted and they finally give up looking for each other, the book is given to Jonathan as a grooms gift and the five dollar bill is given as change for movie head phones in front of Sara on the plane home to England. This may change a persons framework to believe that destiny does exist and that what is meant to happen will happen when it is supposed to happen. Normative Focus Theory (Baron, Branscombe, Byrne 2009) explains why people only change according normal influences on their behavior when they can see it has relevance to their own lives. This theory can explain, for example, why an individual who is having a hard time finding love would watch Serendipity and choose to alter their framework to believe that destiny will help them find the right person. Propaganda is the manipulation of ideas, images, and symbols to persuade a large group of people to think a certain way. Propaganda can be defined in a variety of ways, according to an individuals ideology and perception of the world. Change a persons framework. Greys Anatomy persuades people to think about emergency room doctors and what their lives are like at work and in private. Serendipity tries to persuade people to believe in destiny and fate. The one thing that both this movie and this television series have in common is the focus on how incredibly important good friends are. They focus on friends who will go through anything and everything with each other and still be there for each other no matter how foolish one of them may act, Serendipity, or how much one might try to push the other away, Greys Anatomy. The amount of covert, or hidden, advertising versus overt, or obvious, advertising is very different between movies and television series. When people see a product that they use and automatically feel happy it creates a reinforced relationship with the product. This is what Potter (2008) calls an immediate reinforcement effect and is often connected with overt advertising. Activation is a behavioral effect from covert advertising (Potter 2008). Television shows are able to have more covert advertising because they are designed to have periodic breaks that for overt advertising called commercials. Movies dont have that opportunity so there is a greater need to include advertising in the actual movie itself. For example Greys Anatomy has a few covert advertisements like the use of Bic pens, Fuji water, and Motorola and Blackberry cell phones. Most of its covert advertising, however, comes from an unlikely place. The songs sung by various famous artists have been used in the series to express various emotions and the sales of these songs have increased greatly after they aired on the series (Rhimes 2005). In Serendipity there are overt advertisements for Prada, the Waldorf Astoria, Serendipity 3, Bloomingdales, and Certs along with covert advertising for Coke, Love in the time of Cholera, Snickers, the movies Cool Hand Luke, the New York Times, and Hermes ties. Positive portrayals of a relatable cultural group can make an individual feel better and not alone. Negative portrayals of a cultural group that an individual can relate to is likely to anger that person and not only cause them not to watch the television show but they may even convince other individuals not to watch also. There are so many different cultural groups that individuals can relate to in Greys Anatomy that it would be hard to list them all. There are characters who are Korean, African American, Caucasian, Irish, Jewish, Christian, married, single, heterosexual, homosexual, powerful men, powerful women, underdog men, and underdog women from various social classes. These are only some of the groups that the regular cast of characters can appeal to. There are additional groups that are portrayed by in specific episodes that open up the world of cultural diversity even further. This was actually a goal of Rhimes (2005) while creating the show. She wanted the show to be as div erse as possible. Serendipity, however, is much simpler. It is basically focused and relatable to Caucasian middle-class. The key psychological effects that celebrities have they can get individuals to watch a movie or television show just by being in it. Because of a celebritys symbolic social influence people will follow their favorite celebrities careers, watching movies and television shows they may not have watched otherwise (Baron, Branscombe, Byrne 2009). However, if celebrity watching turns into an intense personal obsession or pathological fantasy then it becomes unhealthy and dangerous (Maltby et. al. 2006). Examples of this are usually reported as celebrity stalking. This is not a regular occurrence but can happen when a person gets what Maltby et. al. (2006) calls celebrity worship syndrome, aka CWS. Movies usually profit from having already known celebrities in the cast. As far as celebrities go Serendipity may have benefited from followers of Jon Cusack, Kate Beckinsale, John Corbett, and Eugene Levy. Television series like Greys Anatomy can benefit from starting with some well known actors and if the series is popular it may then turn other actors into celebrities. In the beginning viewers may have recognized Patrick Dempsy, Sandra Oh , and Katherine Heigl from their work outside the series. Now because of the series people would recognize Ellen Pompeo, Justin Chambers, Chandra Wilson, T.R. Night and many others if they were to work outside the series. Showing how a television series not only uses existing celebrities but creates them as well. Harris (2009) explains how professions presented in a positive manner greatly increase the number of people entering that field. The scary thing is that according to Potter (2008) 12.1% of professionals on television are represented as medical workers where only .9% of people are in the medical profession in real life. If you think about it, we show a higher number of doctors making fewer mistakes and giving more individualized attention in Greys Anatomy than there are in real life. If people arent careful and thinking critically they may expect these sorts of unrealistic actions in real life. In the movie Serendipity various professions are portrayed but they are really not take seriously or focused on; they are sort of poked fun at and used to create ironic twists. There is an infuriating rule following sales clerk, a obituary writer for the New York Times, an indifferent sports caster, a holistic store owner who doesnt believe in the product she sells, a psychologist who doesnt be lieve her own advice about there not being soul mates, and a goofy self-absorbed musician. If an individual were to watch this movie and focus on how the various professions are shown there could be some negative reactions, however since they are used as character enhancements and not focused on as professions it had the desired mood lightening effect movies viewers need to connect with the characters personalities. The amount of time a person spends with a specific show or type of movie is usually because of affection for its characters. The more exposure an individual has the greater an influence the exposure has on what is applied to our everyday lives. Characters can become familiar providing comfort and interesting plots provide a means of escape (Rutlege 2009). This can be healthy and relaxing as long as there is no blurring of the line between fantasy and reality (Potter 2008). With critical thinking applied to realize the dramatic license that the creators of the movies and television shows, a person can discern between unrealistic aspects and aspects of the shows or movies that may contain a gem of truth or a valuable lesson. Watching movies like Serendipity on a regular basis can cause people to have unrealistic expectations of their current or future relationships. They want the romantic emotional rush the feel from the movie in real life, which is not realistic.

Pakistan Commercial Banks Risk Management

Pakistan Commercial Banks Risk Management ABSTRACT The agreement on international banking regulations dealing with how the banks handle the risk, the Basel Accord mainly focuses on the credit risk; according the Basel accord the bank assets divided into five main categories according to how they are risky. The five main categories are as (1) is assets without risk means 0% risk weighted, second one is 10% risk weighted, 3rd is 20% weighted, 4th is 50% weighted and last one is 100% weighted. When the banks perform international transactions they are required according the Basel Accord to hold assets minimum 8% aggregated risk according the Basel 1. The Basel 1 was written in 1988 by the Basel committee on banking supervision. All Banks of G-10 countries have try to implement this accord since the early 1990s. Now a days it is considered largely outdated and Basel committee working on Basel 1 to changing process in the shape of Basel II. This is also called Basel I accord. The document Basel I Capital Accord mainly designs to evaluate the capital in relation with the credit risk, and also the risk that can be a cause of losses in which the risk will occur if the party fail or unable to fulfill the obligations. It is mainly focus on the risk increasing modeling research process that is improvement toward the risk increasing research mode; however, it is over simplified calculations, and also classifications that have been simultaneously called for its disappearance, but the improvement in the shape of the Basel II Capital Accord and also other further agreements that are the sign for the continuously refinement for the risk and capital in the banking sector. Nevertheless, the document Basel I accords, will remain the first international instrument that evaluate the importance of risk with the relationship to capital, and also will remain as a milestone in the banking sector like finance and banking history. This study is mainly related to the risk management practices being followed by the commercial Banks in Pakistan. The questionnaire is used as a main tool to collect primary data and check the extent to which the risk management practices are being carried upon by the commercial banks in Pakistan. The six important aspects of risk management process are categorized as one dependent and five explanatory variables. This study aims to investigate the awareness about risk management practices within the banking sector of Pakistan. This study is comprised of data collected through both, primary as well as secondary sources. The purpose of using primary source data is to check the extent to which different risk management practices have been followed by the commercial banks in Pakistan. Primary data is collected through the use of a questionnaire. The questionnaire comprises a number of statements under one macro statement. It includes Risk Management Practices (RMP) as the dependent varia ble, and different aspects of risk management as the independent or explanatory variables. Whereas, the objective to use secondary data is to link the risk weighted Capital Adequacy Ratio to the different financial indicators of the commercial banks that are used to measure their soundness. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW Risk management practices by the Commercial Banks Within the last few years, a number of studies have provided the discipline into the practice of risk management within the corporate and banking sector. An insight of related studies is as follows: Amran, et al. (2009), this article mention the possible availability of risk exposà © in the annual reports of the Malaysian companies. The study was aimed to empirically test the characteristics of the sampled companies. And also the level of risk faced by Malaysian companies with the disclosure made was also assessed and compared. The findings of the research revealed that the strategic risk came on the top, followed by the operations and empowerment risks being disclosed by the selected companies. The regression analysis proved significantly that size of the companies did matter. The stakeholder theory explains well this finding by stating that As company grows bigger, it will have a large pool of stakeholders, who would be interested in knowing the affairs of the company. The extent of risk disclosure was also found to be influenced by the nature of industry. As explored within this study, infrastructure and technology industries influenced the companies to have more risk inform ation disclosed. Hassan, A. (2009), made a study Risk Management Practices of Islamic Banks of Brunei Darussalam to assess the degree to which the Islamic banks in Brunei Darussalam implemented risk management practices and carried them out thoroughly by using different techniques to deal with various kinds of risks. The results of the study showed that, like the conventional banking system, Islamic banking was also subjected to a variety of risks due to the unique range of offered products in addition to conventional products. The results showed that there was a remarkable understanding of risk and risk management by the staff working in the Islamic Banks of Brunei Darussalam, which showed their ability to pave their way towards successful risk management. The major risks that were faced by Brunei banks that was the Foreign exchange risk as well as credit risk and also operating risk. For the analysis regression model was used to explain the results which shown that the Risk Identification, or Risk Assessment and Analysis were also the most uncontrollable variables and the Islamic banks in Brunei needed to give more attention to those variables to make their Risk Management Practices more effective by understanding the true application of Basel-II Accord to improve the efficiency of Islamic Bank’s risk management systems. Al-Tamimi (2008) studied the relationship among the readiness of implementing Basel II Accord and resources needed for its implementation in UAE banks. Results of the research revealed that the banks in UAE were aware of the benefits, impact and challenges associated in the implementation of Basel II Accord. However, the research did not confirm any positive relationship between UAE banks readiness for the implementation of Basel II and impact of the implementation. The relationship between readiness and anticipated cost of implementation was also not confirmed. No significant difference was found in the level of Basel II Accord’s preparation between the UAE national and foreign banks. It was concluded that there was a significant difference in the level of the UAE banks Basel II based on employees education level. The results supported the importance of education level needed for the implementation of Basel II Accord. Al-Tamimi and Al- Mazrooei (2007) provide the comprehensive study relating of Bank’s Risk Management of UAE National and Foreign Banks. The outcome of this research is to find out that there are three most important types of risks facing the UAE commercial banks that were foreign exchange risk, 2nd one followed by credit risk and 3rd one is operating risk. And the result also found that the bank of UAE were also efficiently handle the risk; but the variables like as the risk identification, risk assessment and also analysis proved that the banks are more efficient in risk management process. Finally, the outcome of the result showed that there was a huge difference if we compare the UAE National banks and foreign Banks in the practicing the risk assessment and risk analysis as well as risk monitoring and risk controlling process. Koziol and Lawrenz (2008) provided a study in which they assessed the risk of bank failures. They said that assessing the risk related to bank failures is the paramount concern of bank regulations. They argued that in order to assess the default risk of a bank, it is important considering its financing decisions as an endogenous dynamic process. The research study provided a continuous-time model, where banks chose the deposit volume in order to trade off the benefits of earning deposit premiums against the costs that would occur at future capital structure adjustments. Major findings suggested that the dynamic endogenous financing decision introduced an important self-regulation mechanism. Basel Core Principles and Bank Risk: Does Compliance Matter? The recent financial crisis has sparked widespread calls for reforms of regulation and supervision. The initial reaction to the crisis was one of disbelief: how could such extensive financial distress emerge in countries where the supervision of financial risk had been thought to be the best in the world? Indeed, the regulatory standards and protocols of the advanced countries at the center of the financial storm were being emulated worldwide through the progressive adoption of the international Basel capital standards and the Basel Core Principles for Effective Bank Supervision (BCPs). The crisis exposed significant weaknesses in the financial system regulatory and supervisory framework worldwide, and has spawned a growing debate about the role these weaknesses may have played in causing and propagating the crisis. As a result, reform of regulation and supervision is a top priority for policymakers, and many countries are working to upgrade their frameworks. But what should the reforms focus on? What constitutes good regulation and supervision? Which elements are most important for ensuring bank soundness? What should be the scope of regulation? To date, the best practices in supervision and regulation have been embodied by the BCPs. These principles were issued in 1997 by the Basel Committee on Bank Supervision, comprising representatives from bank supervisory agencies from advanced countries. Since then, most countries in the world have stated their intent to adopt and comply with the BCPs, making them a global standard for bank regulators. Importantly, since 1999, the IMF and the World Bank have conducted evaluations of countries’ compliance with these principles, mainly within their joint Financial Sector Assessment program (FSAP). The assessments are conducted according to a standardized methodology developed by the Basel Committee and therefore provide a unique source of information about the quality of supervision and regulation around the world. Hence the international community has made significant investments in developing these principles, encouraging their wide-spread adoption, and assessing progress with their compliance. In light of the recent crisis and the resulting skepticism about the effectiveness of existing approaches to regulation and supervision, it is natural to ask if compliance with the global standard of good regulation is associated with bank soundness. Specifically, they test whether better compliance with BCPs is associated with safer banks. They also look at whether compliance with different elements of the BCP framework is more closely associated with bank soundness to identify if there are specific areas which would help prioritize reform efforts to improve supervision. The paper extends their previous work (Demirgà ¼Ãƒ §-Kunt, Detragiache and Tressel, 2008: henceforth DDT), in which they showed that banks receive more favorable financial strength ratings from Moody’s in countries with better compliance with BCPs related to information provision, while compliance with other principles does not affect ratings significantly. The policy message from this study was that countries should give priority to strengthening regulation and regulation in the area of information provision (both to the market and to supervisors) relative to other areas covered by the core principles. Using rating information to proxy bank risk significantly limited the sample size in that study, making it necessary to exclude many smaller banks and many banks from lower income countries. Furthermore, after the recent crisis, the credibility of credit ratings as indicators of bank risk has also diminished, questioning the merit of using these ratings in the analysis. In this paper, they explore whether BCP compliance affects bank soundness, but instead of using ratings they capture bank soundness using the Z-score, which is the number of standard deviations by which bank returns have to fall to wipe out bank equity (Boyd and Runkle, 1993). Because they can construct Z-scores using just accounting information, and because assessment data for additional countries have also become available, they can extend the sample size considerably relative to our earlier study, to over 3,000 banks from 86 countries (compared to 200 banks from 37 countries analyzed in DDT). This is not just a simple increase in sample size: the sample of rated banks was not a representative sample, because rated banks tend to be larger, more internationally active, and more likely to adhere to international accounting standards. From a policy point of view, they would like to investigate the effect of BCP compliance on all types of banks operating in different country circumstan ces, rather than a select subgroup. In this study, the richer sample allows us to explore whether the relationship between BCPs and bank soundness varies across different types of banks. All in all, they do not find support for the hypothesis that better compliance with BCPs results in sounder banks as measured by Z-scores. This result holds after controlling for the macroeconomic environment, institutional quality, and bank characteristics. They also fail to find a significant relationship when they consider different samples, such a sample of rated banks only, a sample including only commercial banks, and samples including only the largest financial institutions. In an additional test, they calculate aggregate Z-scores at the country level to try to capture the stability of the system as a while rather than that of individual banks, but also this measure of soundness is not significantly related to overall BCP compliance. When they explore the relationship between soundness and compliance with specific groups of principles, which refer to separate areas of prudential supervision and regulation, they continue to find no evidence that good compliance is related to im proved soundness. If anything, they find that stronger compliance with principles related to the power of supervisors to license banks and regulate market structure are associated with riskier banks. While these results cast doubts on whether international efforts to improve financial regulation and supervision should continue to place a strong emphasis on BCPs, a number of caveats are in order. First, insignificant results may simply indicate that accounting-based measures, such as Zscores, do not adequately capture bank soundness, especially for small banks and in low income countries, where accounting standards tend to be poor. They may also reflect low quality in the assessment of BCP compliance, especially in countries where laws and regulations on the books may carry little weight. It might be also argued that assessments are not comparable across countries, despite the best efforts of expert supervisors and internal reviewing teams at the IMF and the World Bank to ensure a uniform methodology and uniform standards. If their negative results arise because compliance assessments do not reflect reality or are not comparable across countries, then at a minimum they should lead us to question the value of these assessments in ensuring that supervision measures up to global standards. Review of related literature of this paper is as follows: Defining good regulatory and supervisory practices is a difficult and complicated task. Barth, Caprio, and Levine (2001, 2004, and 2006) were the first to compile and analyze an extensive database on banking sector laws and regulations using various surveys of regulators around the world, and to study the relationship between alternative regulatory strategies and outcomes. This research finds that regulatory approaches that facilitate private sector monitoring of banks (such as disclosure of reliable, comprehensive and timely information) and strengthen incentives for greater market monitoring (for example by limiting deposit insurance) improve bank performance and stability. In contrast, boosting official supervisory oversight and disciplinary powers and tightening capital standards does not lead to banking sector development, nor does it improve bank efficiency, reduce corruption in lending, or lower banking system fragility. They interpret their findings as a challenge to the Basel Committee’s influential approach to bank regulation which heavily emphasizes ca pital and official supervision. An important limitation of this type of survey is that it mainly captures rules and regulations that are on the books rather than actual implementation. IMF and the World Bank financial sector assessments have often found implementation to be lacking, particularly in low income countries, so that cross-country comparisons of what is on the books may hide substantial variation in the quality of supervision and regulation. BCP assessments have the advantage of taking into account implementation. Of course, assessing how rules and regulations are implemented and enforced in practice is not an exact science, and individual assessments may be influenced by factors such as the assessors’ experience and the regulatory culture they are most familiar with. Nevertheless, although it is difficult to eliminate subjectivity completely, assessments are based on a standardized methodology and are carried out by experienced international assessors with broad c ountry experience. Cihak and Tieman (2008) analyze the quality of financial sector regulation and supervision using both Barth, Caprio and Levine’s survey data and BCP assessments. They find that regulation and supervision in high-income countries is generally of higher quality than in lower income countries. They also note that the correlation between survey data and BCP data tend to be low, always less than 50 percent and in many cases in the 20-30 percent range, suggesting that taking into account implementation may indeed make an important difference. A number of papers also use BCP assessments to study bank regulation and performance. Sundararajan, Marston, and Basu (2001) use a sample of 25 countries to examine the relationship between an overall index of BCP compliance and two indicators of bank soundness: nonperforming loans (NPLs) and loan spreads. They find BCP compliance not to be a significant determinant of these measures of soundness. Podpiera (2004) extends the set of countries and finds that better BCP compliance lowers NPLs. Das et al. (2005) relates bank soundness to a broader concept of regulatory governance, which encompasses compliance with the BCPs as well as compliance with standards and codes for monetary and financial policies. Better regulatory governance is found to be associated with sounder banks, particularly in countries with better institutions. In this paper, as already discussed they rely on the Z-score to measure bank soundness. While the Z-score has its limitations, they believe it is an improvement over measures used in previous studies, namely NPLs, loan spreads, interest margins, and capital adequacy. Because different countries have different reporting rules, NPLs are notoriously difficult to compare across countries. On the other hand, loan spreads or interest margins and capitalization are affected by a variety of forces other than fragility, such as market structure, differences in risk-free interest rates and operating costs, and varying capital regulation. Thus, cross-country comparability is a serious issue. In contrast with ratings, Z-scores do not rely on the subjective judgment of rating agencies’ analysts. Results from the baseline regression, relating bank soundness measured by the Z-score to the degree of compliance with the BCPs. In the sample including all countries, the Zscore is higher, indicating a sounder bank, for banks with lower operating costs in countries with higher GDP per capita. Also, non-commercial banks tend to have higher Z-scores, while the other control variables are not significant. The coefficient of the BCP compliance index is positive but not significant. If they exclude Japanese banks, which account for over 20 percent of the sample, the fit of the model improves markedly (the R-squared increases from 10 percent to 19 percent) and the coefficients of many regressors change substantially.12 This suggests that the variables explaining the Z-score of Japanese banks may be somewhat different than for the rest of the sample, perhaps because of the lingering effects of Japan’s prolonged banking crisis on bank balance sheets. For example, in the sample excluding Japan inflation and the rule of law index are significant (with the expected coefficients), while GDP per capita is not (though the coefficient remains positive). Also, banks with a higher ratio of net loans to assets have higher Z-scores, perhaps because Basel regulation mandating minimum levels of risk-adjustment capital forces these banks to hold more equity. Also, in the sample excluding Japan larger banks have lower Z-scores, likely because they tend to hold less capital than smaller banks. Despite these differences, the coefficient of the BCP compliance index remains insignificantly different from zero also in the sample without Japanese banks. The same is true when they add to the regression additional macro controls, such as exchange rate appreciation, private credit, or the sovereign rating. In the regressions, they explore how the relationship between BCP compliance and bank soundness changes if they alter the sample composition to include various categories of financial institutions to explore whether BCP compliance may affect soundness for alternative types of banks. All these results refer to the sample excluding Japan, so that th e overrepresentation of Japanese banks does not distort the results. The first exercise is to examine the widest sample possible, i.e. one that includes investment banks/securities houses, medium and long-term credit banks, nonbank credit institutions, and specialized government credit institutions. These are institutions that in most countries are unlikely to fall under the perimeter of bank regulation and supervision, so they have excluded them from the baseline sample. When they include them, the sample size grows by 25 percent, but the main regression results are unchanged. In particular, bank soundness is not significantly affected by compliance with the BCPs. If they restrict the sample to commercial banks only, thereby losing about 300 banks compared to the baseline sample, once again they find that regression results remain very close to the baseline. When they focus only on banks rated by Moody’s, as in our earlier work, the sample shrinks considerably (to just over 300 banks), and the coefficient of the BCP compliance index becomes positive and significant, albeit only at the 10 percent confidence level. Thus, BCP compliance seems to have some positive effect on the soundness of this specific group of banks. To explore this issue further, they ask whether this result is driven by the fact that rated banks are larger banks. To do so, they consider two alternative samples: the first includes the largest 10 percent of banks within each country and the second includes the largest 20 percent of banks in the entire sample. In both cases, the BCP compliance index has an insignificant coefficient, as in the baseline sample. The BCP compliance index is the weighted sum of compliance scores for several individual chapters of the Core Principles. Could it be that, even though overall compliance does not seem to matter for bank soundness, some aspects of the Core Principles might be relevant? In fact, it may be possible that the overall index is not significant because of offsetting effects of its different components. In fact, in our previous study of Moody’s ratings, they found that, although overall compliance did not seem to matter, higher financial strength ratings were associated with better compliance with principles related to information provision to supervisors. They address this question by re-running the baseline regressions breaking down the compliance index into seven components, based on the standard grouping of principles used by the Basel Committee. An important caveat is that compliance scores are fairly strongly correlated, which may make it difficult to disentangle the effect of one set of principles from the others. They replicate the regression for different samples of banks to investigate the robustness of the results. There is only one component of the compliance index that has a fairly robust relationship with bank Z-scores, and that is compliance with Chapter 2 of the BCP, i.e. principles having to do with supervisors’ powers to regulate bank licensing and structure. Interestingly, this component of the index is negatively correlated with bank soundness, so that banks in countries were regulators have better defined powers to give out licenses and regulate bank activities tend to be riskier. This result holds in all th e samples except those including only the largest banks. This finding supports the contention that supervisory systems that tend to empower supervisors do not work well (Barth, Caprio, and Levine, 2001, 2004, 2006). So far, they have considered individual bank risk. In principle, bank supervision and regulation should be primarily concerned with systemic risk, rather than individual bank risk, although in practice it is not always easy to make this distinction. Could it be that BCP compliance, while not relevant to individual bank soundness, is important to ensure the stability of system as a whole? To address this question, it would be ideal to test whether BCP compliance reduces the probability of a financial crisis. However, since crises are rare events, this type of test requires a panel of data; since they have BCP compliance assessments only at a point in time, they are restricted to cross-sectional data. Nonetheless, to explore this question they compute a rough measure of systemic soundness as the aggregate equivalent of the individual bank Z-score. More specifically, they aggregate profits and equity of all the banks in the country (for which they have data), they compute the standard d eviation of aggregate profits, and then they compute an aggregate Z-score. This measure tells us by how many standard deviations banking system profits must fall to exhaust all the capital in the banking system. They then regress this measure on the BCP compliance score and a number of macroeconomic control variables. Their measure of systemic soundness is correlated with the macro variables as one might expect: higher growth, low inflation, low inflation volatility, appreciation of the currency, favorable sovereign ratings are all significantly associated with higher values of the aggregate Z-score. Once again, though, the BCP compliance index does not seem to be a significant determinant of banking system soundness. Though it is positive, the coefficient of the BCP index is small and not statistically significant in any specification. Remarks While the causes and consequences of the recent financial crisis will continue to be debated for years to come, there is emerging consensus that the crisis has revealed significant weaknesses in the regulatory and supervisory system. Resulting calls for reform have led to numerous proposals and policymakers in many countries are hard at work to upgrade their regulatory frameworks. This paper seeks to inform the on-going reform process by providing an analysis of how existing regulations and their application are associated with bank soundness. Specifically, they study whether compliance with Basel Core Principles for effective banking supervision (BCPs) is associated with lower bank risk, as measured Z-scores. They find no evidence of a robust statistical relationship linking better compliance with BCPs and improved bank soundness. The analysis of aggregate Z-scores to capture systemic stability issues yields similarly insignificant results. If anything, they find that compliance wit h a specific group of principles, those giving supervisors powers to regulate bank licensing and structure is associated with riskier banks, potentially suggesting that such powers may be misused in practice. While our results may reflect the difficulty of capturing bank risk using accounting measures, or the inability of assessors to carry out evaluations that are comparable across countries, nevertheless they raise questions about the relevance of the Basel Core Principles, the current emphasis on these principles as key to effective supervision, and the wisdom of carrying out costly periodic compliance reviews of BCP implementation in the IMF/World Bank Financial Sector Assessment Programs. Pakistan Commercial Banks Risk Management Pakistan Commercial Banks Risk Management ABSTRACT The agreement on international banking regulations dealing with how the banks handle the risk, the Basel Accord mainly focuses on the credit risk; according the Basel accord the bank assets divided into five main categories according to how they are risky. The five main categories are as (1) is assets without risk means 0% risk weighted, second one is 10% risk weighted, 3rd is 20% weighted, 4th is 50% weighted and last one is 100% weighted. When the banks perform international transactions they are required according the Basel Accord to hold assets minimum 8% aggregated risk according the Basel 1. The Basel 1 was written in 1988 by the Basel committee on banking supervision. All Banks of G-10 countries have try to implement this accord since the early 1990s. Now a days it is considered largely outdated and Basel committee working on Basel 1 to changing process in the shape of Basel II. This is also called Basel I accord. The document Basel I Capital Accord mainly designs to evaluate the capital in relation with the credit risk, and also the risk that can be a cause of losses in which the risk will occur if the party fail or unable to fulfill the obligations. It is mainly focus on the risk increasing modeling research process that is improvement toward the risk increasing research mode; however, it is over simplified calculations, and also classifications that have been simultaneously called for its disappearance, but the improvement in the shape of the Basel II Capital Accord and also other further agreements that are the sign for the continuously refinement for the risk and capital in the banking sector. Nevertheless, the document Basel I accords, will remain the first international instrument that evaluate the importance of risk with the relationship to capital, and also will remain as a milestone in the banking sector like finance and banking history. This study is mainly related to the risk management practices being followed by the commercial Banks in Pakistan. The questionnaire is used as a main tool to collect primary data and check the extent to which the risk management practices are being carried upon by the commercial banks in Pakistan. The six important aspects of risk management process are categorized as one dependent and five explanatory variables. This study aims to investigate the awareness about risk management practices within the banking sector of Pakistan. This study is comprised of data collected through both, primary as well as secondary sources. The purpose of using primary source data is to check the extent to which different risk management practices have been followed by the commercial banks in Pakistan. Primary data is collected through the use of a questionnaire. The questionnaire comprises a number of statements under one macro statement. It includes Risk Management Practices (RMP) as the dependent varia ble, and different aspects of risk management as the independent or explanatory variables. Whereas, the objective to use secondary data is to link the risk weighted Capital Adequacy Ratio to the different financial indicators of the commercial banks that are used to measure their soundness. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW Risk management practices by the Commercial Banks Within the last few years, a number of studies have provided the discipline into the practice of risk management within the corporate and banking sector. An insight of related studies is as follows: Amran, et al. (2009), this article mention the possible availability of risk exposà © in the annual reports of the Malaysian companies. The study was aimed to empirically test the characteristics of the sampled companies. And also the level of risk faced by Malaysian companies with the disclosure made was also assessed and compared. The findings of the research revealed that the strategic risk came on the top, followed by the operations and empowerment risks being disclosed by the selected companies. The regression analysis proved significantly that size of the companies did matter. The stakeholder theory explains well this finding by stating that As company grows bigger, it will have a large pool of stakeholders, who would be interested in knowing the affairs of the company. The extent of risk disclosure was also found to be influenced by the nature of industry. As explored within this study, infrastructure and technology industries influenced the companies to have more risk inform ation disclosed. Hassan, A. (2009), made a study Risk Management Practices of Islamic Banks of Brunei Darussalam to assess the degree to which the Islamic banks in Brunei Darussalam implemented risk management practices and carried them out thoroughly by using different techniques to deal with various kinds of risks. The results of the study showed that, like the conventional banking system, Islamic banking was also subjected to a variety of risks due to the unique range of offered products in addition to conventional products. The results showed that there was a remarkable understanding of risk and risk management by the staff working in the Islamic Banks of Brunei Darussalam, which showed their ability to pave their way towards successful risk management. The major risks that were faced by Brunei banks that was the Foreign exchange risk as well as credit risk and also operating risk. For the analysis regression model was used to explain the results which shown that the Risk Identification, or Risk Assessment and Analysis were also the most uncontrollable variables and the Islamic banks in Brunei needed to give more attention to those variables to make their Risk Management Practices more effective by understanding the true application of Basel-II Accord to improve the efficiency of Islamic Bank’s risk management systems. Al-Tamimi (2008) studied the relationship among the readiness of implementing Basel II Accord and resources needed for its implementation in UAE banks. Results of the research revealed that the banks in UAE were aware of the benefits, impact and challenges associated in the implementation of Basel II Accord. However, the research did not confirm any positive relationship between UAE banks readiness for the implementation of Basel II and impact of the implementation. The relationship between readiness and anticipated cost of implementation was also not confirmed. No significant difference was found in the level of Basel II Accord’s preparation between the UAE national and foreign banks. It was concluded that there was a significant difference in the level of the UAE banks Basel II based on employees education level. The results supported the importance of education level needed for the implementation of Basel II Accord. Al-Tamimi and Al- Mazrooei (2007) provide the comprehensive study relating of Bank’s Risk Management of UAE National and Foreign Banks. The outcome of this research is to find out that there are three most important types of risks facing the UAE commercial banks that were foreign exchange risk, 2nd one followed by credit risk and 3rd one is operating risk. And the result also found that the bank of UAE were also efficiently handle the risk; but the variables like as the risk identification, risk assessment and also analysis proved that the banks are more efficient in risk management process. Finally, the outcome of the result showed that there was a huge difference if we compare the UAE National banks and foreign Banks in the practicing the risk assessment and risk analysis as well as risk monitoring and risk controlling process. Koziol and Lawrenz (2008) provided a study in which they assessed the risk of bank failures. They said that assessing the risk related to bank failures is the paramount concern of bank regulations. They argued that in order to assess the default risk of a bank, it is important considering its financing decisions as an endogenous dynamic process. The research study provided a continuous-time model, where banks chose the deposit volume in order to trade off the benefits of earning deposit premiums against the costs that would occur at future capital structure adjustments. Major findings suggested that the dynamic endogenous financing decision introduced an important self-regulation mechanism. Basel Core Principles and Bank Risk: Does Compliance Matter? The recent financial crisis has sparked widespread calls for reforms of regulation and supervision. The initial reaction to the crisis was one of disbelief: how could such extensive financial distress emerge in countries where the supervision of financial risk had been thought to be the best in the world? Indeed, the regulatory standards and protocols of the advanced countries at the center of the financial storm were being emulated worldwide through the progressive adoption of the international Basel capital standards and the Basel Core Principles for Effective Bank Supervision (BCPs). The crisis exposed significant weaknesses in the financial system regulatory and supervisory framework worldwide, and has spawned a growing debate about the role these weaknesses may have played in causing and propagating the crisis. As a result, reform of regulation and supervision is a top priority for policymakers, and many countries are working to upgrade their frameworks. But what should the reforms focus on? What constitutes good regulation and supervision? Which elements are most important for ensuring bank soundness? What should be the scope of regulation? To date, the best practices in supervision and regulation have been embodied by the BCPs. These principles were issued in 1997 by the Basel Committee on Bank Supervision, comprising representatives from bank supervisory agencies from advanced countries. Since then, most countries in the world have stated their intent to adopt and comply with the BCPs, making them a global standard for bank regulators. Importantly, since 1999, the IMF and the World Bank have conducted evaluations of countries’ compliance with these principles, mainly within their joint Financial Sector Assessment program (FSAP). The assessments are conducted according to a standardized methodology developed by the Basel Committee and therefore provide a unique source of information about the quality of supervision and regulation around the world. Hence the international community has made significant investments in developing these principles, encouraging their wide-spread adoption, and assessing progress with their compliance. In light of the recent crisis and the resulting skepticism about the effectiveness of existing approaches to regulation and supervision, it is natural to ask if compliance with the global standard of good regulation is associated with bank soundness. Specifically, they test whether better compliance with BCPs is associated with safer banks. They also look at whether compliance with different elements of the BCP framework is more closely associated with bank soundness to identify if there are specific areas which would help prioritize reform efforts to improve supervision. The paper extends their previous work (Demirgà ¼Ãƒ §-Kunt, Detragiache and Tressel, 2008: henceforth DDT), in which they showed that banks receive more favorable financial strength ratings from Moody’s in countries with better compliance with BCPs related to information provision, while compliance with other principles does not affect ratings significantly. The policy message from this study was that countries should give priority to strengthening regulation and regulation in the area of information provision (both to the market and to supervisors) relative to other areas covered by the core principles. Using rating information to proxy bank risk significantly limited the sample size in that study, making it necessary to exclude many smaller banks and many banks from lower income countries. Furthermore, after the recent crisis, the credibility of credit ratings as indicators of bank risk has also diminished, questioning the merit of using these ratings in the analysis. In this paper, they explore whether BCP compliance affects bank soundness, but instead of using ratings they capture bank soundness using the Z-score, which is the number of standard deviations by which bank returns have to fall to wipe out bank equity (Boyd and Runkle, 1993). Because they can construct Z-scores using just accounting information, and because assessment data for additional countries have also become available, they can extend the sample size considerably relative to our earlier study, to over 3,000 banks from 86 countries (compared to 200 banks from 37 countries analyzed in DDT). This is not just a simple increase in sample size: the sample of rated banks was not a representative sample, because rated banks tend to be larger, more internationally active, and more likely to adhere to international accounting standards. From a policy point of view, they would like to investigate the effect of BCP compliance on all types of banks operating in different country circumstan ces, rather than a select subgroup. In this study, the richer sample allows us to explore whether the relationship between BCPs and bank soundness varies across different types of banks. All in all, they do not find support for the hypothesis that better compliance with BCPs results in sounder banks as measured by Z-scores. This result holds after controlling for the macroeconomic environment, institutional quality, and bank characteristics. They also fail to find a significant relationship when they consider different samples, such a sample of rated banks only, a sample including only commercial banks, and samples including only the largest financial institutions. In an additional test, they calculate aggregate Z-scores at the country level to try to capture the stability of the system as a while rather than that of individual banks, but also this measure of soundness is not significantly related to overall BCP compliance. When they explore the relationship between soundness and compliance with specific groups of principles, which refer to separate areas of prudential supervision and regulation, they continue to find no evidence that good compliance is related to im proved soundness. If anything, they find that stronger compliance with principles related to the power of supervisors to license banks and regulate market structure are associated with riskier banks. While these results cast doubts on whether international efforts to improve financial regulation and supervision should continue to place a strong emphasis on BCPs, a number of caveats are in order. First, insignificant results may simply indicate that accounting-based measures, such as Zscores, do not adequately capture bank soundness, especially for small banks and in low income countries, where accounting standards tend to be poor. They may also reflect low quality in the assessment of BCP compliance, especially in countries where laws and regulations on the books may carry little weight. It might be also argued that assessments are not comparable across countries, despite the best efforts of expert supervisors and internal reviewing teams at the IMF and the World Bank to ensure a uniform methodology and uniform standards. If their negative results arise because compliance assessments do not reflect reality or are not comparable across countries, then at a minimum they should lead us to question the value of these assessments in ensuring that supervision measures up to global standards. Review of related literature of this paper is as follows: Defining good regulatory and supervisory practices is a difficult and complicated task. Barth, Caprio, and Levine (2001, 2004, and 2006) were the first to compile and analyze an extensive database on banking sector laws and regulations using various surveys of regulators around the world, and to study the relationship between alternative regulatory strategies and outcomes. This research finds that regulatory approaches that facilitate private sector monitoring of banks (such as disclosure of reliable, comprehensive and timely information) and strengthen incentives for greater market monitoring (for example by limiting deposit insurance) improve bank performance and stability. In contrast, boosting official supervisory oversight and disciplinary powers and tightening capital standards does not lead to banking sector development, nor does it improve bank efficiency, reduce corruption in lending, or lower banking system fragility. They interpret their findings as a challenge to the Basel Committee’s influential approach to bank regulation which heavily emphasizes ca pital and official supervision. An important limitation of this type of survey is that it mainly captures rules and regulations that are on the books rather than actual implementation. IMF and the World Bank financial sector assessments have often found implementation to be lacking, particularly in low income countries, so that cross-country comparisons of what is on the books may hide substantial variation in the quality of supervision and regulation. BCP assessments have the advantage of taking into account implementation. Of course, assessing how rules and regulations are implemented and enforced in practice is not an exact science, and individual assessments may be influenced by factors such as the assessors’ experience and the regulatory culture they are most familiar with. Nevertheless, although it is difficult to eliminate subjectivity completely, assessments are based on a standardized methodology and are carried out by experienced international assessors with broad c ountry experience. Cihak and Tieman (2008) analyze the quality of financial sector regulation and supervision using both Barth, Caprio and Levine’s survey data and BCP assessments. They find that regulation and supervision in high-income countries is generally of higher quality than in lower income countries. They also note that the correlation between survey data and BCP data tend to be low, always less than 50 percent and in many cases in the 20-30 percent range, suggesting that taking into account implementation may indeed make an important difference. A number of papers also use BCP assessments to study bank regulation and performance. Sundararajan, Marston, and Basu (2001) use a sample of 25 countries to examine the relationship between an overall index of BCP compliance and two indicators of bank soundness: nonperforming loans (NPLs) and loan spreads. They find BCP compliance not to be a significant determinant of these measures of soundness. Podpiera (2004) extends the set of countries and finds that better BCP compliance lowers NPLs. Das et al. (2005) relates bank soundness to a broader concept of regulatory governance, which encompasses compliance with the BCPs as well as compliance with standards and codes for monetary and financial policies. Better regulatory governance is found to be associated with sounder banks, particularly in countries with better institutions. In this paper, as already discussed they rely on the Z-score to measure bank soundness. While the Z-score has its limitations, they believe it is an improvement over measures used in previous studies, namely NPLs, loan spreads, interest margins, and capital adequacy. Because different countries have different reporting rules, NPLs are notoriously difficult to compare across countries. On the other hand, loan spreads or interest margins and capitalization are affected by a variety of forces other than fragility, such as market structure, differences in risk-free interest rates and operating costs, and varying capital regulation. Thus, cross-country comparability is a serious issue. In contrast with ratings, Z-scores do not rely on the subjective judgment of rating agencies’ analysts. Results from the baseline regression, relating bank soundness measured by the Z-score to the degree of compliance with the BCPs. In the sample including all countries, the Zscore is higher, indicating a sounder bank, for banks with lower operating costs in countries with higher GDP per capita. Also, non-commercial banks tend to have higher Z-scores, while the other control variables are not significant. The coefficient of the BCP compliance index is positive but not significant. If they exclude Japanese banks, which account for over 20 percent of the sample, the fit of the model improves markedly (the R-squared increases from 10 percent to 19 percent) and the coefficients of many regressors change substantially.12 This suggests that the variables explaining the Z-score of Japanese banks may be somewhat different than for the rest of the sample, perhaps because of the lingering effects of Japan’s prolonged banking crisis on bank balance sheets. For example, in the sample excluding Japan inflation and the rule of law index are significant (with the expected coefficients), while GDP per capita is not (though the coefficient remains positive). Also, banks with a higher ratio of net loans to assets have higher Z-scores, perhaps because Basel regulation mandating minimum levels of risk-adjustment capital forces these banks to hold more equity. Also, in the sample excluding Japan larger banks have lower Z-scores, likely because they tend to hold less capital than smaller banks. Despite these differences, the coefficient of the BCP compliance index remains insignificantly different from zero also in the sample without Japanese banks. The same is true when they add to the regression additional macro controls, such as exchange rate appreciation, private credit, or the sovereign rating. In the regressions, they explore how the relationship between BCP compliance and bank soundness changes if they alter the sample composition to include various categories of financial institutions to explore whether BCP compliance may affect soundness for alternative types of banks. All these results refer to the sample excluding Japan, so that th e overrepresentation of Japanese banks does not distort the results. The first exercise is to examine the widest sample possible, i.e. one that includes investment banks/securities houses, medium and long-term credit banks, nonbank credit institutions, and specialized government credit institutions. These are institutions that in most countries are unlikely to fall under the perimeter of bank regulation and supervision, so they have excluded them from the baseline sample. When they include them, the sample size grows by 25 percent, but the main regression results are unchanged. In particular, bank soundness is not significantly affected by compliance with the BCPs. If they restrict the sample to commercial banks only, thereby losing about 300 banks compared to the baseline sample, once again they find that regression results remain very close to the baseline. When they focus only on banks rated by Moody’s, as in our earlier work, the sample shrinks considerably (to just over 300 banks), and the coefficient of the BCP compliance index becomes positive and significant, albeit only at the 10 percent confidence level. Thus, BCP compliance seems to have some positive effect on the soundness of this specific group of banks. To explore this issue further, they ask whether this result is driven by the fact that rated banks are larger banks. To do so, they consider two alternative samples: the first includes the largest 10 percent of banks within each country and the second includes the largest 20 percent of banks in the entire sample. In both cases, the BCP compliance index has an insignificant coefficient, as in the baseline sample. The BCP compliance index is the weighted sum of compliance scores for several individual chapters of the Core Principles. Could it be that, even though overall compliance does not seem to matter for bank soundness, some aspects of the Core Principles might be relevant? In fact, it may be possible that the overall index is not significant because of offsetting effects of its different components. In fact, in our previous study of Moody’s ratings, they found that, although overall compliance did not seem to matter, higher financial strength ratings were associated with better compliance with principles related to information provision to supervisors. They address this question by re-running the baseline regressions breaking down the compliance index into seven components, based on the standard grouping of principles used by the Basel Committee. An important caveat is that compliance scores are fairly strongly correlated, which may make it difficult to disentangle the effect of one set of principles from the others. They replicate the regression for different samples of banks to investigate the robustness of the results. There is only one component of the compliance index that has a fairly robust relationship with bank Z-scores, and that is compliance with Chapter 2 of the BCP, i.e. principles having to do with supervisors’ powers to regulate bank licensing and structure. Interestingly, this component of the index is negatively correlated with bank soundness, so that banks in countries were regulators have better defined powers to give out licenses and regulate bank activities tend to be riskier. This result holds in all th e samples except those including only the largest banks. This finding supports the contention that supervisory systems that tend to empower supervisors do not work well (Barth, Caprio, and Levine, 2001, 2004, 2006). So far, they have considered individual bank risk. In principle, bank supervision and regulation should be primarily concerned with systemic risk, rather than individual bank risk, although in practice it is not always easy to make this distinction. Could it be that BCP compliance, while not relevant to individual bank soundness, is important to ensure the stability of system as a whole? To address this question, it would be ideal to test whether BCP compliance reduces the probability of a financial crisis. However, since crises are rare events, this type of test requires a panel of data; since they have BCP compliance assessments only at a point in time, they are restricted to cross-sectional data. Nonetheless, to explore this question they compute a rough measure of systemic soundness as the aggregate equivalent of the individual bank Z-score. More specifically, they aggregate profits and equity of all the banks in the country (for which they have data), they compute the standard d eviation of aggregate profits, and then they compute an aggregate Z-score. This measure tells us by how many standard deviations banking system profits must fall to exhaust all the capital in the banking system. They then regress this measure on the BCP compliance score and a number of macroeconomic control variables. Their measure of systemic soundness is correlated with the macro variables as one might expect: higher growth, low inflation, low inflation volatility, appreciation of the currency, favorable sovereign ratings are all significantly associated with higher values of the aggregate Z-score. Once again, though, the BCP compliance index does not seem to be a significant determinant of banking system soundness. Though it is positive, the coefficient of the BCP index is small and not statistically significant in any specification. Remarks While the causes and consequences of the recent financial crisis will continue to be debated for years to come, there is emerging consensus that the crisis has revealed significant weaknesses in the regulatory and supervisory system. Resulting calls for reform have led to numerous proposals and policymakers in many countries are hard at work to upgrade their regulatory frameworks. This paper seeks to inform the on-going reform process by providing an analysis of how existing regulations and their application are associated with bank soundness. Specifically, they study whether compliance with Basel Core Principles for effective banking supervision (BCPs) is associated with lower bank risk, as measured Z-scores. They find no evidence of a robust statistical relationship linking better compliance with BCPs and improved bank soundness. The analysis of aggregate Z-scores to capture systemic stability issues yields similarly insignificant results. If anything, they find that compliance wit h a specific group of principles, those giving supervisors powers to regulate bank licensing and structure is associated with riskier banks, potentially suggesting that such powers may be misused in practice. While our results may reflect the difficulty of capturing bank risk using accounting measures, or the inability of assessors to carry out evaluations that are comparable across countries, nevertheless they raise questions about the relevance of the Basel Core Principles, the current emphasis on these principles as key to effective supervision, and the wisdom of carrying out costly periodic compliance reviews of BCP implementation in the IMF/World Bank Financial Sector Assessment Programs.