Pericles Funeral Oration (after 490 BCE) from Thucydides, The Essay

Pericles Funeral Oration (after 490 BCE) from Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War - Essay Example Historians and scholarly readers may find this oration packed with clues and information on the culture, government and economy of Athens in Pericles’ era yet its validity raises speculations among others. The eloquence of Pericles’ testimonies, as recorded by the Greek historian Thucydides, could indeed make a reader believe his description of Athens as the real Athens. Pericles described Athenians as people with a sense of pride and a hint of arrogance as he restated their glories through every battle and the gratifying courage and character of each Athenian. He praised their ability to live their life as they wanted both in time of peace and war, and noted that they can still have pleasure and relaxations even in the time of difficulty. Athenians, as he described, acquired homes satiated with beauty and goods from their lands and from other country (Brians par.6). He further boosted the morale of the soldiers and their families as he sang in praises that â€Å"Our enemies have never yet felt our united strength† (Brians, par.7) claiming their military force to be as invincible once fought in union. This strength sterms from education and training instituted from the early ages of the Athenians therefore making them audacious and confident at every peril they may come across. Power, versatility and grace are the forces that embrace each Ath enian’s personality making them a country envied by their neighbors. He further described their government as democratic â€Å"for the administration is in the hands of the many and not of the few† – a picture of a perfect nation in the hands of the people (Brians par.7). It can be noticed that only a few words were dedicated to confer the flaws of Athens such as presence of poverty in their economy and unequal treatment for the women (Brians par.12). Instead it was soaked in positivity and praise. This speech can be a basis for

Are Capital Asset Pricing Model Useful Finance Essay

Are Capital Asset Pricing Model Useful Finance Essay The CAPM model has generally been attributed to William Sharpe, but John Lintner and Jan Mossin also made similar individual derivations in 1960s. As a result of the model is even known as Sharpe-Lintner-Mossin (SLM) capital asset pricing model. The CAPM explains the relationship that should exist between the securities expected return and their risk about security returns. It is a direct extension of the portfolio models developed by Markowitz and Sharpe. CAPM derives the relationship between required rate of returns and the systematic risk of individual securities and portfolios. The model explains how different securities or assets in the capital market are priced. The CAPM provides an explicit measure of the risk premium. The CAPM can be expressed as follows: The portfolio that contains all the securities in the economy is called the market portfolio and it plays a crucial role in CAPM. The CAPM is the theoretical relationship that should hold for all securities and portfolios, both efficient and inefficient. The CAPM when plotted on a graph gives a line as depicted: The graphical version of CAPM is also known as Security market line (SML). The SML represents the relationship between beta factor and the expected rate of return f a security. This is also called risk-free rate. In equilibrium, all securities and portfolios plots should lie on the CAPM line. Capital asset pricing model has the following implications: Risk-return relationship for individual asset/securities. Identification of under and overvalued assets traded. Pricing of assets which have not yet traded in the market. Effect of leverage on cost of equity (rate of return required by equity shareholder) Capital budget decisions and cost of capital. (Source: Capital asset pricing model; Portfolio management from ICFAI publication page no.91) The CAPM has a variety of applications. Capital asset pricing model used for decisions relating to portfolio evaluation, capital expenditure, financing etc. The CAPM determines the cost of capital for discounting of future cash flows. CAPM is even assist in risk implications of mergers and acquisitions, product mixes and many more. CAPM has been the most widely used method in finance. Since the 1990s the CAPM has been started to be used in the calculation of risk-adjusted discount rate which has been a major contribution for capital budgeting. Capital budgeting is a key input for any organization so as to know the cost of capital for which companies use CAPM as they need market risk premium for calculating cost of capital. At present all MBA courses teach CAPM so as to calculate cost of capital. However the classic method for capital budgeting is to take Net Present Value (NPV). (Source: Bierman, H.J., 1993, Capital Budgeting:A Survey, Financial Management 22, 24) Investors should be cautious when applying the model to estimate assets returns and to evaluate investment performance. Empirical appraisal of CAPM The CAPM was developed on the basis of a set of unrealistic assumptions as the assumptions are not correct in their entirety. The CAPM must be tested empirically and validated before it can be used with any real confidence. The empirical test should look for the key results first, the positive relationship between returns and systematic risk and should appear to be linear. Second, test should attempt to assess the importance of market and company specific risk. Third, whether research questions on CAPM is conceptually possible. AT last CAPM if valid will assist in financial decisions. However, when analysis of bond is done, they do not plot on the SML. (Source: 80 International Research Journal of Finance and Economics Issue 4 (2006))Empirical analysis is done to evaluate the assets, their risk, analyze and to be placed in respective place. Then only hurdle rates can be calculated for the project to be undertaken. (Jagannathan and McGrattan [1995]. Limitations of CAPM CAPM is a useful model in dealing with the risk. However, it suffers from many Limitations firstly; the calculation of beta factor is very tedious as lot of data is required. The beta factor can be found by examining the securitys historical returns relative to the return of the market portfolio. Further, the beta factor may or may not reflect the future variability of returns. The assumptions of CAPM are hypothetical and are impractical. For example, the assumption of borrowed and lending at the same rate is imaginary and not practical. In practice the borrowing rates are higher than the lending rates. Secondly the earlier tests showed positive relation between returns and betas. However, the relationship was not strong as predicted by CAPM. All empirical studies testing CAPM have a conceptual problem. CAPM is an ex-ante model; that is data on expected prices are taken to test CAPM. Unfortunately, in practice the researchers or analyst have to work with the actual past (ex-post) dat a which will put up bias in the empirical results. (Source: capital asset pricing model www.ezinearticles.com)Third; beta is used as a measure for the securitys future risk. However there is no future data or information is available with the investors to calculate the beta. Hence, these investors take the help of past data to estimate the future prices of shares and the market portfolio. Thus, investors estimate beta using the historical data. One cannot expect the beta factor to be constant over time. It must be updated frequently. And at the same time CAPM is unable to capture the risk just only with the help of beta. (Source: capital-asset-pricing-model, www. professional-edu.blogspot.com)Fourth; CAPM assumes that the returns on the investments are tax free. However in todays life the assumption is wrong as investments are subject to capital gain taxes and further adding transaction costs. And the taxes depends on the amount of return higher the return higher the tax and lower t he return and lower the tax. Fifth; The CAPM has the assumption that the transaction costs are zero but it is not as such. In the capital market there is transaction cost for every transaction done, some investments hover below or above line which is discouraged due the transaction costs. And many investments involve significant transaction costs such as acquiring a business or real estate. (Stambaugh, R. F. 1999. Predictive regressions. Journal of Financial Economics 54) Doubt began to arise when taking a close look at the assumptions and these are reinforced by the empirical tests. The model focuses on market rather than total risk is clearly a useful way of thinking about the riskiness of assets in general. We do not know precisely how t measure any of the inputs required to implement the CAPM. This input should be ex ante but we only have ex post info available. The estimates used in the CAPM are subject to large errors. Debate The CAPM has been attractive in measuring the risk and return relation since three decades. With the help of CAPM the rate of return on different securities can be compared by the investor. With the comparison of expected rate of return on different securities investors/firms can wisely decide to invest in portfolio so as to maximize the return with minimizing the risk. (Source: CAPM from Book Financial Management by I M Pandey. But unfortunately, the empirical record is too poor to validate the way it to be used. The models problems may be due to theoretical failing or the unrealistic assumptions and the difficulties faces in applying the valid model. The model has been 1959 and since decades concerns have been raised on the number of studies about the model. There has been no historical relationship between returns and the risk i.e. the betas. (Source: Fama and French 1992) The conclusion interpreted from the statistical findings. The data are noisy to invalidate the CAPM. (Source: Christensen and Mendelson [1992] and Black [1993]. Despite criticisms, the general reaction has been to focus on alternative asset pricing models. (Fama and French [1992]. The economist show lack of empirical support for the CAPM which may be due to inappropriateness of assumptions made to facilitate the empirical test. For example, the return on stock market indices is good proxy for return on market portfolio but do not capture all assets in the economy such as human capital. Beta calculated for diversified portfolios are more accurate than that of the individual securities as grouping shrink beta range and hence reduces statistical power. To improve the empirical testing of CAPM numerous changes had been done in the past overcome the limitations or even to look for the subsequent alternate model to validate. At the same time the researchers and practitioners have began to look for multi-beta models that overcome the shortcomings of the CAPM. Fama and French (1992) and Fama and MacBeth (1973) use the same procedure but the results are totally different from each other. The former has no relation at one hand and the later has a positive relation between return and risk. Everyone is in a debate of whether to follow CAPM model or not? Where the companies even use CAPM for their capital budgeting process. But still some academic feels that those who choose the CAPM will actually not be getting worthless advice. (Source: Eugene F. Fama and Kenneth R. French, Journal of Finance, Vol. 47, 1992, 427-465)The model is often used for looking the performance of mutual funds and other portfolios. One of the big problem is forming p ortfolio by sorting stocks on the basis of price ratios but the average returns do not relate to market betas. ((Lakonishok, Shleifer and Vishny, 1994, Fama and French, 1996, 1998).) At NYSE, NASDAQ from 1963 to 2003 the average return on the book to market equity ratio portfolio rises monotonically from 10.1% p.a. to 16.7% for ten portfolios in U.S. securities but the positive relation between beta and return predicted by the model was absent. Whereas all NYSE stocks between 1931-1965 estimated that the results were consistent with the CAPM model. (Black, Jensen and Scholes 1972) Conclusion CAPM has been facing a lot of criticism in the recent times still it remains a useful tool for many i.e. for estimating the cost of capital, investment performance evaluation and efficient market event studies (Moyer et al 2001:204; Campbell et al 1997:183). In some of the recent empirical studies CAPM is said to be invalid. The CAPM is stated in terms of ex ante parameters, ex post tests cannot be accepted as an ultimate rejection of the CAPM and its parameters (Levy 1997:147). The CAPM should be judged on the basis of insights it provides into the risk/return relationship. Without the CAPM, the knowledge of the capital market and the market conditions would have been very limited (Karnosky 1993:56). Every three out of four CFOs use CAPM model to estimate the cost of capital. (Source: Graham and Harvey (2001). Corporate managers in U.S. confirmed in a survey the use of CAPM as a key tool for capital budgeting. Current MBA aspirant are taught to use CAPM for estimating cost of capita l. The CAPM should be continued with both individual tests and multi-factor models joint tests such as APT. Such testing will help understanding of the stock market pricing mechanism and the risk/return relationship. The capital asset pricing model has been employed in a wide variety of academic and institutional applications such as measuring portfolio performance, testing of market efficiency, identifying under and overvalued securities, capital budgeting etc. Apart the model have also been used in business by analyst, researchers and firms. CAPM has been the basis for modern capital market theory since 30 years, but with the emergence of new equity markets around the world during the last few years, accumulating research has increasingly created doubt on the models ability due to many cases arising where the model is not able to explain the correct movement of assets return. Despite its limitations and shortcomings, the CAPM model is a popular tool in the investment analysis. The simplicity of the model towards description of the equilibrium has made it quite popular among the users even today. There are other factors i.e. taxes, inflation, liquidity, and market capitalization and price earnings ratios apart from beta which affect required returns What believed is CAPM have significantly contributed to the security pricing theory, but applied in practice has got some defects and for which an extended CAPM should be applied or have to look for a new better model which should not have any deficiencies. The CAPM model is f or sure here to stay and attempts will continue to improve the model and to make it more useful.

Weimar, Germany Essay example -- Germany German History Culture Essays

Weimar, Germany In examining great social and cultural changes in the modern West, many specific events come to mind: the Renaissance and the Reformation, the â€Å"discovery† of the Americas, industrialization, and World War Two. One such event, often overlooked, is the â€Å"Great War†, 1914-1918. Like every people affected by the expanse of this war, Germans were deeply affected and forever changed. As a social, cultural, and psychological reaction to World War I, the German people created the Weimar Republic, leading to a drastic change in German society and culture. To best understand these changes, a comprehensive analysis of World War I, before, during, and after, is necessary.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What was Germany before World War I? Before World War I, Germany was a Great Power on the cusp of social revolution, like many other European nations. The relatively new empire was struggling with the new working class and the increasing movement for labor rights (Gilbert and Large, 15-19). Wilhelm II, the Emperor of Germany when World War I began, was moving his empire toward expansive imperialism and militarism. The political, social, and cultural structure of Germany before World War I was relatively new, but almost instantly powerful and potent.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The political structure of Germany, bred of Germany’s attempt at solid unification, was rapidly becoming outdated in the face of labor and the precarious balance of power in Europe, and would soon be put under by World War I. The Bundesrat, like the contemporary House of Lords in the British parliament, was manipulated by the landowning class. The Reichstag, created to balance the weight of the Bundesrat, was extremely limited: it could in no way interfere with individual states’ armies, being limited to legislation in the areas of foreign and naval affairs, as well as other relative trivialities like customs and mail (Gilbert and Large, 71).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In spite of Germany’s authoritarian governmental system, some indicators of social progressiveness were apparent. Members of the Reichstag were voted in, and eligible voters included all men over the age of 25. Germany was also ahead of her time in terms of workers’ rights (albeit no nation was timely enough to satisfy the rapidly-growing working class.)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  For the most part, however, Germany was the symbol of authoritarianism. The Kaiser himself was an important symbol of this go... ... continued to show, what suffering in the trenches had meant. They had not turned themselves into heroes. They were not even capable of functioning in the society at the end of the war...many of the population did not like to have to face these war cripples. They did not wish to be reminded continuously of what war was really like.† (Gay, 90; italics mine)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   From such devastation came Weimar. The Germans embraced their new freedom as a republic, feeling freed from those old constraints which, they felt, driven their country to ruin. The culture or Weimar symbolized the German disdain for the â€Å"old ways† of authoritarianism and monarchy. Weimar was modern, new, and as far as the Germans knew, not doomed to fall victim in another total war.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Weimar was the hope of the people. The Germans, who felt their whole way of live had been made evil by the world, and had been annihilated in the war, reinvented themselves—and like the Germans they are, did the job all the way. World War I bred this new republic. It was, if nothing else, a cultural and psychological reaction, leading to a drastic change that would shape the German future, and forever color its gaze upon the past.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  

Nicole Kidman is Now Pregnant with Keith Urban’s Baby

The life of celebrities has always been an open book to the public. How they spend their free time and the milestones they experience are also being followed by the swarming people. Nicole Kidman, being one of the most sought after actresses, was not excluded from this. Her pregnancy at the age of 40 was sort of a shock for the viewing public. We all know that this is Nicole's first biological child, even if she was married to Tom Cruise for a period of time. She had two adopted children, one was aged 15 while the other was 12 years old.Speculations arose during her marriage to Tom Cruise as to why they never had their own children. Those speculations were never proven and everything else vanished after some time. After reading the article, I contemplated on the fact that the feature was somewhat biased. Come to think of it, when you write a specific article, one should bear in mind to show both sides of the story. In this case, all that we can see were the good points in their relat ionship and what were in the news. Nothing much was mentioned as to why she never had biological children even before she reached the age of 40.Even her feelings as a â€Å"mom-to-be† again were not disclosed. Another point that should be emphasized is the fact that the article did not dwell much on her pregnancy. The article was short and lacked more information that could have made the feature much more interesting to the viewers. It should have focused more on specific details, such as to why Keith and Nicole did not have the baby immediately after their wedding, and so forth. References: (January 7, 2008). Nicole Kidman is Pregnant. Retrieved January 9, 2008 from

Developing Leadership Attributes

Successful leaders are not born but made; everybody else has the chance to become the effective leader they desire to be. The development of good leadership is a never ending process that involves education self study, training as well as experience. Great leaders are impeccable persons who speak with integrity, one who does not take anything at a personal level. A person with a conviction that other people do and say things in a way that projects own perception is definitely a great leader. An effective leader is that individual who never makes assumptions about things that they do not understand.They always have the courage to ask and seek answers and do normally express themselves on what they actually want or need to be done. Through proper communication styles, an effective leader is able to establish clearly what his or her follows and anyone else want so as to avoid any chance of a misunderstanding. Through this the leader is able to transform an otherwise ordinary management into successful leadership. A great leader always does his best and in the best interest of the organization or followers.This is because, when a leader performs his or her best, he or she is able to change from one moment to another and will also enable him or her to avoid situations of self-abuse, self-judgment as well as regret. This paper is about leadership attributes. It is a discussion on various interviews carried out what managers as well as employees think of a leader and why they think certain people are successful leaders while others do not. It begins with an introduction of what leadership is, then in the second section it describes the three various attributes that are considered by the interviewees.Also discussed are recommendations on how to effectively implement and develop the plan for these attributes. Leadership can generally be termed as a process through which an individual is able to influence others to achieve an objective, while at the same time directing t he organization or followers in such a way that they operate coherently and cohesively. In order to achieve this, effective leaders manage this process through their leadership attributes, like beliefs, ethics, values, knowledge, skills as well as character.Often, people confuse management with leadership. Albeit the position an individual has in an organization or the society as a whole enables him or her to be in a position of authority to carry out specific tasks it does not however make him or her leader. In fact all it does is guaranteeing you the position of a boss from which to exercise the power bestowed. The difference between leadership and management is that a leader does certain things that make his or her followers want to accomplish high goals, instead of just bossing them around.When an individual qualifies you as a leader, she or he is not necessarily thinking about your attributes, but instead observes the things that you do in order for him or her to understand who you really. For instance, when an employee in one of the leading food stores was asked why she has been at the same work place for over 10 years, her response was â€Å" I have never met any person who believes in me like my first branch manager. When I joined the company, I used to be a waitress with no college degree said Chantel. â€Å"But with time, my manger realized the potential I had, and advised me to register for part time classes.Through this is i have managed to rise through the ranks and right now am manager†. Another employee in the medium level industry who believes that a great leader is someone who is able to help others advance by aiding them to overcome, barriers to personal effectiveness was Jefferson. He said â€Å"When I was faced with an eviction notice, I could not find a place to put up, and my performance at work deteriorated. But before I could discuss it with anyone, my immediate supervisor approached me and we talked about my dilemma.Later the manger called me and told me what the supervisor had suggested. The following day I was given a cheque (advance) and thereafter my performance, attitude and punctuality tremendously improve† Said he. He further adds that ever since he has always tried to get the best out of everyone by focusing on their strengths and at the same looking for ways to overcome the barriers. Largely I have been successful even though there are a few people who have disappointed by I learned a lot of respect with so many people looking up to me† said Jefferson.In order to develop this attribute one must first of all understand who and what they are. This can be achieved through being technically, proficient – a leader must know his or her job and have a familiarity with his or her employee. He or she must also make sound decisions through good problem solving skills, being good role model by setting good examples and at the same time now and understand the people you are dealing or wor king by and understanding of human nature as well as the significant of sincerity while caring for others.For instance, Jefferson was able to develop because he had a boss who believed in him and understand his problems with good problem solving skills the supervisor was able to get him out of the situation and at the same time motivate him while also showing that he cares. An effective leader too, should be one who is ready to take risks by proposing new ideas and supporting those of others. A nurse at Healing Hands Hospital says that when she first started working at the hospital six years ago, the problem of bed space for patients was very acute.However, when the manager called for staff meeting and asked for proposals on how to handle the situation. She remembers making a contribution of contracting various insurance agencies to build the extra bed spaces. On her part the manager proposed that home-based care be practiced through electronic transmission. Both of the ideas were i ncorporated and up to now the hospital have managed to provide acute health care 3 fold the initial number. This is a demonstration of effective leadership according to this nurse. To her when the manger decided the new idea, which had not been anywhere else, she took a great risk.Even though, she manger had implemented the electronic system, she did not just stop these and incorporated others ideas. The nurse has been able to practice the art of risk taking while also listening to new ideas while not paying lip service. Supporting this idea was a college tutor who had been approached by his principle on which methods of teaching could be adopted by the college to improve their performance. When asked what made this special to him Shawn says â€Å"just by the mere thought of approaching me alone was a great idea, even if it was not implement it meant so much to me.It made a whole difference when I realized part of my suggestions were considered. † Being that I was new at the college I did not envisage this situation. But, it was timely as I was able to bring new ideas from my old school that worked for the school alongside others. When a manager engages in risks and listens to others according to these two it is a sure way of being an effective leader. There are sure ways in which these can be achieved. First design the plan of seeking responsibility and at the same time take responsibility for the actions by finding new ways to lead the organizations to new heights.Always do an analysis of the situation never lay the blame on others. Through risk taking a leader can begin by making timely and sound decisions through good problem solving skills, planning tools as well as good decision-making. Great leaders inspire their followers toward a shared hopeful vision and future. This can be achieved by first articulating the vision to the followers by finding a process that they believe in then sharing the vision in ways and works than can be understood by eve ryone (followers).The leader can then empower the followers with tools as well as methods to solve problems and improve their solution. He ors he can then model the way in case the situation gets murky, the leader is able to demonstrate what can be done while at the same time sharing the glory with the heart of the followers and keeping the pain in his or her own heart. A manager at a local retail store believes that her effective leadership has be achieved through her actions.For instance, she makes it her business to help employees understand the corporations overall business strategy, how they can contribute toward achieving the essential goals and sharing information with them. All these she summarizes by effectively communicating the company’s vision. Supporting this attribute is a waitress at liquor store who has been amazed by her manager’s makes it his point to attend to patrons who seem unruly and disrespectful. Instead of forcing them to handle the situations he makes it his business. She says â€Å"He does it with finesse that you can’t help but admire and then apply his skills later. References Concepts of leadership: last updated date March 10, 2007. http://www.nwlink.com/~Donclark/leader/leadcom.html Retrieved on 9 November 2007