Alexander Hamilton and the National Economy

Alexander Hamilton and the National Economy Alexander Hamilton made a name for himself during the American Revolution, eventually rising to be the untitled Chief of Staff for George Washington during the war. He served as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention from New York and was one of the authors of the Federalist Papers with John Jay and James Madison. Upon taking office as president, Washington decided to make Hamilton the first Secretary of the Treasury in 1789. His efforts in this position were hugely important for the fiscal success of the new nation. Following is a look at the major policies that he helped implement before resigning from the position in 1795. Increasing Public Credit After things had settled from the American Revolution and the intervening years under the Articles of Confederation, the new nation was in debt for more than $50 million. Hamilton believed that it was key for the US to establish legitimacy by paying back this debt as soon as possible. In addition, he was able to get the federal government to agree to the assumption of all the states debts, many of which were also sizable. These actions were able to accomplish many things including a stabilized economy and a willingness of foreign countries to invest capital in the US including the purchase of government bonds while increasing the power of the federal government in relation to the states. Paying for the Assumption of Debts The federal government established bonds at Hamiltons behest. However, this was not enough to pay off the huge debts that had accrued during the Revolutionary War, so Hamilton asked Congress to levy an excise tax on liquor. Western and southern congressmen opposed this tax because it affected the livelihood of farmers in their states. Northern and southern interests in Congress compromised agreeing to make the southern city of Washington, D.C. into the nations capital in exchange for levying the excise tax. It is noteworthy that even at this early date in the nations history there was much economic friction between northern and southern states. Creation of the US Mint and National Bank Under the Articles of Confederation, each state had their own mint. However, with the US Constitution, it was obvious that the country needed to have a federal form of money. The US Mint was established with the Coinage Act of 1792 which also regulated the coinage of the United States. Hamilton realized the necessity of having a safe place for the government to store their funds while increasing the ties between the wealthy citizens and the US Government. Therefore, he argued for the creation of the Bank of the United States. However, the US Constitution did not specifically provide for the creation of such an institution. Some argued that it was beyond the scope of what the federal government could do. Hamilton, however, argued that the Elastic Clause of the Constitution gave the Congress the latitude to create such a bank because in his argument it was, in fact, necessary and proper for the creation of a stable federal government. Thomas Jefferson argued against its creation as being unconstitutional despite the Elastic Clause. However, President Washington agreed with Hamilton and the bank was created. Alexander Hamiltons Views on the Federal Government As can be seen, Hamilton viewed it as supremely important that the federal government establish supremacy, especially in the area of the economy. He hoped that the government would encourage the growth of industry in a move away from agriculture so that the nation could be an industrial economy equal to those of Europe. He argued for items such as tariffs on foreign goods along with money to help individuals found new businesses so as to grow the native economy. In the end, his vision came to fruition as America became a key player in the world over the course of time.

Analyzing Civil Rights

Analyzing Civil Rights Slavery, Civil Rights, and the Constitution during the 19th CenturyIn 1619, a Dutch ship sailed into Jamestown, Virginia and sold twenty African slaves to the Virginia colonists, thus slavery and involuntary servitude begun. Throughout the early 1800s the South and the North drifted progressively further apart over the issue of allowing the institution of human slavery to continue in the United States. In 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected president and refused to let the southern states "go in peace and made a movement to abolish slavery, which resulted in the American Civil War. After the Civil War was over, Congress passed the three great Civil War Amendments to our constitution. In this paper I will take a closer look at Slavery, Civil Rights, and the Constitution during the 19th Century (AfricanAmericans.Com, 2004).The Dred Scott DecisionDred Scott and his wife Harriet were slaves owned by Master Sanford.English: 14th Amendment of the United States Const...In 1846, Mr. and Mrs. Sc ott filed suit for their freedom in the St. Louis Circuit Court. This suit began an eleven-year legal fight that ended in the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court issued a landmark decision declaring that Scott and his wife are to remain a slave, that they are property, and the Constitution made no distinction between slaves and other types of property. The judge reasoned that the Missouri Compromise deprived slaveholding citizens of their property in the form of slaves, and that therefore the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional, which contributed to rising tensions between the free and slave states just before the American Civil War (University Libraries, 2004). Mr. and Mrs. Scott's only last hope was that the Chief Justice would decide that Scott was free because of his length of stay in the free state of Illinois, but the Chief Justice made no such decision.

Comparison of todays sport with the characteristics of sport in past Essay

Comparison of todays sport with the characteristics of sport in past times suggests why sport is such a major cultural force both then and now - Essay Example The time period of 1890 till 1920 is marked as progressive era in the history of USA. This was the period when industrialization flourished in the country. However because of industrialization the workload of factories as well as industries also increased which affected the social life of workers of USA. They did not find much time for their extra curricular activities. Owners of industries put their pressures on employees to increase their productivity at any cost (Quandt iii). There were many sports which were played during progressive era. However boxing was one of the most popular games played during that period. There were many people who were interested in this sport. USA’s Black Afro-Americans in particular were very fond of boxing. Jack Johnson the first Black American who achieved heavy weight title also belonged from progressive era of American History. Politics of reach also came into play when White Americans observed that Black people were going to rule on boxing in future. Since Blacks were not recognized as first class citizens in progressive era that is the reason why majority of the conflicts in the sports also arrive because white people often hesitate to play against the people of color. Progressive era is also among one such period where Black American came in positive news in American Press. In USA boxing was mostly played by working class of that time which was sponsored by upper class of the society (Hartmann-Tews and Pfister i ii). Besides boxing baseball was also one of the games which were introduced in progressive era. The introduction of baseball was facilitated by Young Women Christian Association. Football was also among one of the popular sports of that time. It was considered as a college sport, however during this era, football also made its way to schools as well. Soccer, hockey, baseball and boxing all have had their best players in that era. Women also had a major contribution in the development of sports. There

Seismic Analysis and Response of Bare and Masonry-Infilled Reinforced Coursework

Seismic Analysis and Response of Bare and Masonry-Infilled Reinforced Concrete Frame Structures - Coursework Example Since the infill walls play some roles during earthquakes, their design need consideration to withhold lateral forces. From a research conducted out, most concrete structures succumb to seismic loads due to: Failures of beam-column joints as a result of poor reinforcement at the joints and/or poor workmanship in installation of reinforcement beams; Basic failure that results from flexural weakness and or low shear strength; Failure of the infill wall that results from enough shear strength or a flexural strength that is out-of-plane (Griffith, Mike 2008, p.2). The relationship between un-reinforced masonry in-fills and reinforced concrete has led to unique influences in comparison to bare frames or seismic response. The behaviour of the in-fills to seismic loads remains controversial for existing buildings (Magenes, Guido and Pampanin Stefano, 2004). The issues to be addressed are modelling of structural elements and masonry in-fills panels. The analysed model need validation in term s of Beam-Column Subassemblies, single storey frames with infills, Dimension Frame with infills for multi-storey structures. Limitations related to infill panels and joints area also considered (Magenes, Guido and Pampanin Stefano, 2004). ... Therefore, structures in these areas need to be designed to withstand seismic loads. The success achieved will assist in reducing risks of collapsed structures in case of earthquake disasters. The aim of this project is to analyse the importance of masonry infill in relation to seismic loads. A comparison between structures with infill and bare structures are considered to help determine the best structures for earthquake prone areas. Part Two: References Article One:Diptesh Das and C.V.R. Murty, Brick masonry infills in seismic design of RC buildings: Part 1- Cost implications. 2004. The Indian Concrete Journal. According to Diptesh das and C.V.R. Murty(2004), the infills of reinforced concrete structures has contributed some strength to a structure in relation to seismic loads when compared to bare structures. Keen interest should therefore be put during seismic design stages of the infill walls. The focus is on design methods that make use of the importance of infills, improve the ir functions and minimize their negative impacts. The purposes of infill walls are; I. They minimize drifting in inter-storey structures, II. Improve the strength of the structure and III. Makes the structures stiff. Despite these advantages, infills reduce the structure’s ductility. Other factors that determine the strength of infill masonry is the quality of material used, the workmanship and the type of frame-infill interface. The design codes for infill are very few. The common codes are; a. Eurocode 8 b. Nepal building code 201 and c. Indian seismic code. The Eurocode 8 (EC 8) refers to RC frames and infill of brick masonry as a dual system. This infill is classified thrice depending on ductility, mainly low, medium and

Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Governance Research Paper

Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Governance - Research Paper Example CSR- related policies function as built-in, mechanisms through which the business evaluates and ensures that it operates actively in compliance with ethical standards, the law, and international expectations. As such, CRS activities are supposed to impact the stakeholders, environment, communities, consumers, employees and the overall public sphere positively. There are a number of goals that drive businesses into engaging in corporate citizenship. However, the key objective of the activity relates to the establishment of sustainable businesses, which, in fact, need healthy communities, markets, and economies. Some of the drivers of corporate social responsibility include enlightened self-interest, social investment, trust and transparency, and increased expectations of enterprises by the public according to ASOCIO (2004). There are various approaches that corporate entities can take in regard to social responsibility. While for example, some will opt for philanthropy, others will op t for a community-based development approach. Yet again, others will prefer to go the Creating Shared Value (CSV) way. Whichever method or approach is assumed, however, the organization somehow commits some of its resources for the good of other parties as earlier mentioned. Research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) has blossomed in the 21st century. There is also an increased interest in the topic by different firms and people as seen in table 1. This is attributed to various factors like pressure exerted on organizations to demonstrate high ethical standards and the increasing concern about CSR expressed by policymakers. Firms from developing countries are driven by heightened demands on forms exporting to their products to Europe and other western countries do document their compliance to high ethical standards so as to be competitive. Generally, various organizations develop and express CSR because of various factors that can be summarised as internal and external factor s. In this paper, three international companies namely Monsanto Company, Microsoft Corporation, and Coca-Cola Company will be used to illustrate the various arguments. All the three companies already have a CRS in place.   Why International firms are showing increasing interests in corporate social responsibility and corporate governance There are internal and external factors that are making or motivating international firms to show increasing interests in CSR and corporate governance. Internal factors include managers, shareholders, employees, customers, and suppliers while external factors include social, economic, cultural, legal/government regulations, technological, global standard and nongovernment organizations. Economic and Social factors Researchers have given a special attention to the connection between CSR and the financial performance of an organization.

Privatization of Public Utilities Essay

Privatization of Public Utilities Essay A National Government’s Decision to privatize It’s Public Utilities Introduction There has been a prevalent political agreement on improving-benefit effect of private governance in the last decades. More than $1 trillion revenues have been generated for the government on the sale of government-owned firms to private owners. Public executives nowadays evaluate privatization as a suitable tool to implement a rapid growth of promising product innovations, facilitate financial economy development and promote more efficient production technologies. However, substantial figures of firms across the world are still owned by government. (Aghion and Tirole, 1994; Ahmed and Ashutosh, 2008). Having mentioned the privatization benefits, why are there general impediments in the decision process from the government, prioritizing to privatize some firms over the others to private sectors? In answering this research question, certain firm’s political and financial-economy factors were investigated in the selection of companies for privatization. As supported by literature on private firm decision to go public, financial characteristics of firms that can probably influence the decision to privatize were recognized (Ansolabehere and James, 2007). Arguably, the sale of government owned firms can not only confide in financial-economy factors but also on political settlement and costs. However, Dixit and Londregan (1996) argued that privatization may be seen as a negative development by the public on the opinion of undemocratic shift of property owned by the government to private investors. This can result in the governing party losing its votes in such region. The position of political patronage in the decision to privatize was considered, such as; hiring decisions of government-owned firms can be influenced by politicians to favour supporters. Further to the evaluation of political and financial-economy effect on privatization, research was conducted on India Government. This country was used as a case study because it has a huge political competition among its political parties with multiparty democracy (Dinc and Gupta, 2011). This research contributes to the political and finance-economy literature by investigating privatization effects suggest that selection of companies for privatization are done randomly, but the result presented from Dinc and Gupta (2011) point out that privatization decision is probably endogenous to characteristics of the firm. The literature is structured as follows; Section one describes the political system in Indian along with its privatization. Section two, discusses the political and financial-economy factors that are possible to affect government decision to privatize its public utilities. While section three, presents the conclusion of this research. 1. Privatization and Indian Political System 1.1. Firms Owned by Government In Indian post-independence era, firms owned by government were justified by anxiety that projects that involve large investment and time-consuming gestation periods will not be awarded to private sectors. There was rapid nationalization of firms across all sectors between 1960 and 1991, which boost the formation of gross capital in firms owned by the Federal Government to 40% of the entire gross capital establishment in the market economy (Ministry of Finance, 1996). According to Ministry of Finance (2004), the wages of government companies’ workers are higher compare to private companies’ staff and overstaffed usually occur in government companies. For instance, federal government firms employed over 10% workers from various structured sector in 2003, and their wages were averagely double that of private sector (Panagariya, 2008). This huge difference in their wage recommends why government workers vigorously disagree with government decision to privatization. 1.2. Political System India has a legislative system where representatives are directly elected from 543 single member constituencies dispersed across 35 states, while the national government was formed by alliance of parties or political party that wins most of the constituencies. About 450 political parties participated in five elections to the federal government, held since the commencement of privatization program in 1991. These elections are 1991, 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2004. It is important to recognize the establishment of alliance among national political parties, before the commencement of election so as to inflate their probability of acquiring the majority (Dinc and Gupta, 2011). The Congress Party initiated the economic reforms that won the 1991 elections with the support of its allies and remain in as the ruling party until the 1996 election. After 1996 election, there were successive short-lived governments that later collapsed as a result of support deficiency from affiliated members (Dinc and Gupta, 2011). 1.3. Privatization Process In 1991, Indian created sweeping economic reforms which comprises of privatization and deregulations, as a reaction to balance payment crisis. 50 companies out of 280 nonfinancial companies that are owned by the Federal Government were privatized between 1991 and 2006. The decision to privatized list of companies was takes at the Cabinet level where every government produce its own list. The Congress government commenced the privatization in 1991, and later continued in 1999 by the BJP administration after a brief interruption by the successive government (Dinc and Gupta, 2011). Comparatively, privatization is not famously practiced in India unlike United Kingdom (UK) where almost all government-owned firms are been privatized such as British Gas, Transport for London (TFL), British Airport Authority. Since Congress and BJP parties have engaged in privatization, neither any of them as an intellectual obligation to privatization, as both parties have campaigned against each other using anti-privatization rhetoric (Dinc and Gupta, 2011). For instance, the Congress government were attacked by the BJP conservatives on privatization plans (Reuters News, 1992; cited in Dinc and Gupta, 2011), and eventually collide with the labour unions to protest privatisation (Reuters News, 1993; cited in Dinc and Gupta, 2011). In 2004, the Congress Party also campaigned against the BJP’s reform agenda, based on the platform of limited privatization, the Congress party won the election (Dinc and Gupta, 2011). 2. The Role of Political and Financial-Economy Factors in Privatization Decision 2.1. Financial Factors: Firm Size and Profitably Adverse effect could exist in the quality of companies that decide to publicized, if the issuers have more information than the investors about the company’s value (Leland and Pyle, 1977). According to Chemmanur and Fulghieri (1999), they argued that there is probability for adverse selection cost to be greater for both smaller and younger companies. This is backed by the result of Pagano et al. (1998), who suggested that smaller companies are not likely to be privatised. In the context of privatization, the methods of sales in a cross-country sample of privatised companies were compared together by Megginson et al., (2004). From his analysis, he finds that compared to private capital markets, big companies have the possibility to be privatized over shares sales to the public. 2.2. Political Factors Theoretically, Persson and Guido (2002) suggested that is likely for the politicians to target public funds to important constituencies with swing voters to succeed in elections. Experimentally, Dahlberg and Johansson (2002) shows that allowance allocation in Sweden is intense in constituencies with more swing voters, and research shows that French companies that are politically associated create additional jobs in politically aggressive constituencies (Bertrand et al., 2007). Shleifer and Robert (1994) argued that interference in the operation of companies by politicians is a major cause of inefficiency in companies owned by the government. Conclusion Since most privatizing governments sell companies, owned by the government over time or not at all, we investigate if political and financial-economy factors as well as political objectives are likely to affect government decision to privatized its public utilities. Using Indian as an exemplification, government owned companies which comprises of companies that remain fully government owned and privatized companies were investigated. Although privatization advantages like efficiency developments are distributed across the community, the costs are probably to be distinctively intense among a small group. Therefore, the voter’s support could be declined for the governing party in constituencies where the company is located. Similarly, the public may have negative opinion on privatization as a diverging transfer to public utilities or assets to private investors. The adverse reaction on outcome of elections in that constituency will be increased if the ruling party encounter a close race with the other political parties. Finally, the research suggests that selection of companies for privatization is not by chance. Accepting political contest as a tool for privatization decision, the sale of companies owned by the government was found as a facilitator to significance development in efficiency as well as profitability of these companies. References Aghion, P., Tirole, J., 1994. The management of innovation. Quarterly Journal of Economics 109, 1185–1209. Ahmed, S. and Ashutosh, V., 2008, Battles half won: The political economy of India’s growth and economic policy since independence, World Bank Working paper No. 15. Ansolabehere, S., and James S. J., 2007, Party control of state government and the distribution of public expenditures, Scandinavian Journal of Economics 108, 547– 569. BÂ ¨os, D., 1991. Privatization: A Theoretical Treatment. Oxford University Press, Oxford. Chemmanur, T. and Fulghieri, P., 1999, A theory of the going public decision, Review of Financial Studies 12, 249–279. Department of Disinvestment, 2007. Evolution of Disinvestment Policy in India . Government of India. Available at: http://www.divest.nic.in/evolutionp.htm.> Dinc, S. and Gupta, N., 2011. The Decision to Privatize: Finance and Politics. The Journal of Finance, LXVI(1), pp 241-269. Dixit, A. and Londregan, J,. 1996, The determinants of success of special interests in redistributive politics, Journal of Politics 58, 1132–1155. Gupta, Nandini, 2005, Partial privatization and firm performance, Journal of Finance 60, 987–1015. Leland, H. and David P., 1977, Informational asymmetries, financial structure, and financial intermediation, Journal of Finance 32, 371–387. Ministry of Finance, Government of India, 1996, Economic Survey of India (Government of India, New Delhi, India). Ministry of Finance, Government of India, 2004, Economic Survey of India (Government of India, New Delhi, India). Pagano, M., Fabio, P. and Luigi, Z., 1998, Why do companies go public? An empirical analysis, Journal of Finance 53, 27–64. Panagariya, A., 2008, India: An Emerging Giant (Oxford University Press, New York). Persson, T. and Guido T., 2002, Political Economics: Explaining Economic Policy (MIT Press, Cambridge). Persson, T. and Guido, T., 2002, Political Economics: Explaining Economic Policy (MIT Press, Cambridge). Shapiro, K. and Willig, R., 1990. Economic rationales for the scope of privatization. In: Suleiman, E.N.,Waterbury, J. (Eds.), The Political Economy of Public Sector Reform and Privatization. Westview Press, Boulder, CO. Shleifer, A. and Robert, V., 1994, Politicians and firms, Quarterly Journal of Economics. 109, 995–1025. A National Government’s Decision to Privatize its Public UtilitiesPage 1

Hubspot: Inbound Marketing Essay

HubSpot is an online marketing software company that utilizes inbound marketing, a system which pulls prospective customers to a business and its products. Although inbound marketing has been highly successful and the company has reached its milestone of 1,000 customers, HubSpot is now faced with the dilemma of which direction to steer towards, while considering the viability of inbound marketing at a larger scale. HubSpot must decide whether to target the Marketing Marys (MM) segment, the Owner Ollies (OO) segment or both. We recommend that HubSpot focus on the OO segment. Our strategy is to actively grow this market segment, lower the churn rate and increase the retention rate. By targeting this segment, it will help HubSpot further its goal of becoming an industry leader in the Leads, Analyze and Qualify Traffic sectors of the inbound marketing industry. Our recommendation is based on quantitative analysis which showed that the OO segment is more profitable than the MM segment. Considering the $1000 acquisition cost of OOs and their current pricing, the breakeven for this segment is 2 months. In addition, the lifetime revenue for the OOs is estimated to be $1. M (Exhibit B). In contrast, the breakeven time calculated for the MMs is 9 months with an estimated lifetime revenue of $1. 6M. In addition to quantitative analysis, we also considered qualitative factors in determining our recommendation. We determined that inbound marketing should remain the primary marketing system because it is a user-friendly and a cost efficient product and most importantly, it is HubSpot’s guiding philosophy. Inbound Marketing, a core value and strength, will continue to differentiate HubSpot from its competitors as it grows. In choosing to target the OO segment, we are assuming that OOs will continue to migrate to HubSpot’s hosted content management system at the same rate. The plan is to foster the OOs through retention programs and an improved quality customer service department. The company can lock the customer into a one-year contract at a discount or offer initial free consulting services. In addition within this timeframe, HubSpot’s salesforce will promote the advantages of migrating to the CMS system. We considered alternatives such as targeting both OO and MM segments or focusing solely on the MM segment. However, according to the company product timeline, it takes more than 3 months to develop new products and processes so the alternative of targeting both segments was rejected. As a new company, HubSpot has limited resources to service the diverse client base, which will cause product growth to lag behind servicing customers’ needs. In the long run, this will put the company at a less competitive position in the industry. Additionally, we also considered targeting only the MMs because this segment realized the most growth during the last four months of 2008, perhaps indicating long term growth potential. We rejected this strategy as a result of our expense breakeven analysis: it takes 4 ? times longer to breakeven with MM customers than it does with OO clients (Exhibit B). Finally, while we realize that the shift in focus could potentially lead to loss of market share within the MM segment, we believe that the gain in OO segment will offset the loss in the long run. In conclusion, we recommend that HubSpot target the OO segment. We identified HubSpot’s goals as growth within the OO segment, a lower churn rate and an increased retention rate. HubSpot can accomplish these objectives by promoting the CMS system and implementing a new customer contract initiative. As the company moves towards accomplishing these goals, it will no doubt become a market leader in the online software marketing industry.