Understanding The Federal Reserve System Essay Example for Free

Understanding The Federal Reserve System Essay Operating Federal Reserve System through Stocks. The Federal Reserve System (Fed) is the principal monetary authority or the central bank of the United States of America. Its primary role is to conduct monetary policy, supervise federal and state banks and maintain stability in the system by providing payment services to depository institutions. It is made up of a seven member Board of Governors in Washington DC, 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks and their 25 branches. The Board is appointed by the President and approved by the Senate. Federal Reserve issues monetary policy guidelines and carries out stabilization activities which are particularly important in times of financial crisis such as stock market decline in 1987, the international debt crisis of 1998 and the terrorist attacks in September 2001. The principal instruments at the disposal of the Federal Reserve for maintaining stability are interest rates for loans, reserve ratio stipulations for commercial banks thereby determining liquidity and regulating circulation of new currency. The latter is carried out by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) by buying securities in the open market thereby increasing money supply. This will simultaneously decrease the federal funds rate, reducing interest on mortgages and loans and generating demand. The price of bonds and securities operate within a narrow margin as these are long term instruments pledged by the government. During such times, it would be seen that the price of stocks which are volatile instruments will undergo large fluctuations as opposed to bonds and securities. Similarly an increase in money supply also results in people putting more money into the stock market. In case the economy is growing too fast, Fed can sell Treasury securities and reduce the money supply, marking higher interest rates. Stocks construe ownership of shares in the assets of a company. The price of shares is determined by the market. The New York Stock Exchange provides a facility for trading shares. Stocks are guaranteed to the extent of the liquidity of assets of the company and unlike federal bonds are not direct instruments of liquidity. There is a possibility of default in stocks unlike bonds. The US Fed will not be able to ensure stability through regulation of money supply by holding stocks. The aim is also to ensure sustained long term growth in the economy; this is achieved through investments in long term instruments as mortgages, insurance and loans. Stocks are relatively short term instruments which provide market marked returns and thus are not suitable as a policy instrument for the US Federal Reserve. Impact Open Market Purchase of Gold or Foreign Currency. Purchase of gold or foreign currency by the Federal Reserve will increase money supply in the domestic market. Buying gold or foreign exchange is similar to outright purchase of government securities from the open market. In this case money supply is altered permanently rather than temporarily. The purchase of gold or foreign currency is carried out in very few cases merely to send an appropriate signal as the impact is considerable. Similarly theoretically speaking if the Fed sells gold and foreign currency it will be decreasing money supply in the domestic market. The gold and foreign exchange markets are beyond the control of the Federal Reserve as there is no regulatory authority unlike the bond market. Thus fluctuations can be substantial and impact the domestic economy gravely. Instability in the Gold and Forex market has not been defined and can cause speculation which is related to fluctuations in the exchange rates as well as trader’s reluctance to buy and sell the commodity or foreign exchange. Maintenance of stability in the economy is the principal role of the Federal Reserve. This has to be done through specific instruments which are provided for the same and the controlling organization for it, which is the Federal Open Market Committee, the federal and the state banks. The Federal Reserve has been intervening from time to time in a small way in the foreign exchange market merely to send an appropriate signal to the investors. In this case Federal Reserve sells dollars and buys foreign currency to exert downward pressure on the price of the dollar while it buys dollars and sells foreign currency to exert an upward pressure.

Stroke Mortality Among Alaska Native People :: Article Review, Ronnie Horner

My article review is on, â€Å"Stroke Mortality Among Alaska Native People†, by Ronnie Horner. The Alaskan Natives have been suffering with the vast number of mortality rates caused by strokes. This article was written to successfully understand the Alaskan’s stroke problem or factors that contribute to this problem, and eventually find strategies that will aid in its prevention. The only problem that exists with trying to come up with strategies for prevention is the sparseness of the epidemiological data of the Alaskan Natives. It is hard to categorize the Alaskans in one separate group, the Horner states, â€Å"to its failure to consider Alaska Native People as one distinct cultural group, one among the many that comprise the American Indian/Alaska Native designation†(Horner 1). This creates a problem because it puts limitations on the efficiency of the epidemiology of the Alaskan Natives. With this being said, patterns have arisen in the number of stroke vict ims that are Alaskan Natives, â€Å"Stroke Mortality appears to be significantly elevated among relatively younger American Indians/Alaska Natives compared to US whites of similar age† (Horner 1). This shows that there must be an unknown factor that has led or caused the younger Natives to have a stroke. Something must had to change because the word â€Å"elevated† is used which indicates recently increased to what it normally was. It seems that Alaskan Natives are the number one ethnic group that is impacted by Stroke Mortality, Horner points out, â€Å"Of note, data for the 1990’s indicate that stroke mortality has decreased in all racial ethnic groups except for American Indians/ Alaskan Natives†(Horner 1). In detail this article attempts to figure out what factors are causing these elevations in stroke mortality that is not seen in any other ethnic group. Methods/Results/Conclusion The doctors had to first gather the death certificate data of the Alas kan Natives, Horner states, We conducted an analysis of death certificate data for the state of Alaska for the period 1984 to 2003, comparing age standardized stroke mortality rates among Alaska Natives residing in Alaska vs. US whites by age category, genders, stroke type, and time† (Horner 1). This will allow the doctors to examine the data to really conclude that Alaskan Natives were more prone to strokes than whites. With this data the doctors also need a population of Alaskans that they could carefully examine and study, Horner explains, â€Å"the study population was defined as all Alaskan residents who self-identified as Alaskan Native People.

Federal Health Care Essay

Federal health care is one of the biggest social and economic problems Americans face today. Due to the rising cost of medical care and health insurance, many Americans are either uninsured or do not have adequate coverage. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), commonly known as Obama Care, is part of a decade-long effort to reform the nation’s health care system and ensure that more Americans have adequate and affordable health care coverage (Salem Press Encyclopedia, 2013). This essay will briefly explain the elements of Obama Care, the pros and cons of the policy, and how the policy raises issues of federalism. President Barack Obama made health care reform the foundation of his agenda during his first year as president. According to Salem Press Encyclopedia (2013), â€Å"he charged the Democratic Congress with crafting a comprehensive bill that would provide coverage to all Americans, lower health care costs, and improve the quality of health care of the entire country.† Even though the Democratic majority embraced the idea, they had considerable difficulty in embracing a single package that satisfied liberals, moderates, and conservative Democrats alike (Salem Press Encyclopedia, 2013). However, Republicans and a growing number of independent votes immediately pushed for an appeal of the law. In light of the major controversy that surrounded the reform, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act had been significantly modified, removing sticky points underscored by moderates and conservatives, to make it palatable to enough moderate and conservative Democrats to gain passage (Salem Press Encyclopedia, 2013). The Ninth Amendment states that â€Å"the enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people† (Huffman, 2012). However, the federal government and the states view the Obama Care policy has a struggle for power when their central concern should be with establishing the division of powers best suited to preserve liberty. According to Huffman (2012), â€Å"Obamacare’s transparent impositions on liberty were given scant attention in the oral arguments over the law’s constitutionality, notwithstanding the fact that the reason the healthcare law has been consistently opposed by a majority of voters is their objection to the individual mandate.† President Barack Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on March 23, 2010. Its goal is to  give more Americans access to affordable, quality insurance and to reduce the growth in health care spending in the United States through consumer protections, regulations, subsidies, taxes, insurance exchanges, and other reforms (ObamaCareFacts, 2014). According to ObamaCareFacts (2014), â€Å"ObamaCare offers a number of new benefits, rights and protections including provisions that let young adults stay on their plan until 26, stop insurance companies from dropping you when you are sick or if you make an honest mistake on your application, prevent against gender discrimination, stop insurance companies from making unjustified rate hikes, do away with lifetime and annual limits, give you the right to a rapid appeal of insurance company decisions, expand coverage to tens of million, subsidize health insurance costs, require all insurers to cover people with pre-existing conditions, among other things.† Obama Care, or PPACA, has been designed to help Americans medically and financially when it comes to health insurance.  There are many pros and cons related to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or commonly known as Obama Care. Some pros of PPACA include tens of millions of uninsured will get access to affordable quality health insurance through the marketplace, helps to curb the growth in healthcare spending, over half of uninsured Americans can get free or low cost health insurance, and even small businesses can get tax credits for up to 50% of their employees’ health insurance premium costs (ObamaCareFacts, 2014). Some cons of PPACA include in order to get the money to help insure tens of millions there are new taxes which mostly affect high-earners, focuses more on making sure people are covered than it does on addressing the cost of care, mandates that you have to obtain health coverage by January 2014, get an exception or pay a fee if you cannot afford it, and even mandates that in 2015 businesses with over the equivalent of 50 full-time employees must provide health coverage (ObamaCareFacts, 2014). The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has been fairly effective in achieving its goals of give more Americans access to affordable, quality insurance and to reduce the growth in health care spending in the United States through consumer protections, regulations, subsidies, taxes, insurance exchanges, and other reforms (ObamaCareFacts, 2014). According to  Dictionary.com, LLC (2014), effectiveness means â€Å"adequate to accomplish a purpose; producing the intended or expected result.† Even though there are many pros and cons to the policy, they have been fairly effective to ensure all Americans receive affordable, quality health insurance and coverage. American federalism’s constitutional framework is based off of national and state governments sharing the authority that is derived from the people (Levin-Waldman, 2012). The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is successful based off of the cooperation of local, state, and national authority. PPACA is consistent with American federalism’s constitutional framework because all stages of government, as well as people, are working together to ensure all Americans are taken care of medically, as well as financially, when it comes to health care and insurance. Furthermore, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is part of a decades-long effort to reform the nation’s health care system and ensure that more Americans have adequate and affordable health care coverage (Salem Press Encyclopedia, 2013). It has many pros and cons, but has been effective and demonstrates American federalism’s constitutional framework because it includes all stages of government, as well as ensures all Americans receive affordable, quality health insurance and coverage. References Dictionary.com, LLC. (2014). Effectiveness. Retrieved from http://dictionary.referance.com/browse/effectiveness Huffman, J. (2012). Obamacare vs. Federalism. Retrieved from www.hoover.org/publications/defining-ideas/article/119436 Levin-Waldman, O. M. (2012). American government. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. ObamaCareFacts. (2014). ObamaCare Facts: Facts on the Affordable Care Act. Retrieved from obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-facts.php ObamaCareFacts. (2014). ObamaCare: Pros and Cons of ObamaCare. Retrieved from obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-pros-and-cons.php Salem Press Encyclopedia. (2013). Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Overview. Retrieved from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/eds/detail?sid=2b1be3dd-154d-43ab-84e9-aeeaa71be0c7%40sessionmgr4004&vid=5&hid=4205&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#db=ers%AN=89158281

What Makes A Tragedy - 908 Words

What Defines a Tragedy? The dictionary describes a tragedy as, â€Å"a serious drama typically describing a conflict between the protagonist and a superior force (as destiny) and having a sorrowful or disastrous conclusion that elicits pity or fear.† Aristotle’s â€Å"Poetics† have long been the standard of a proper tragedy. Yet, could there be more to the perfect tragedy than what either the dictionary or Aristotle suggests? What are the actual characteristics that form a â€Å"true† tragedy? In Sophocles’ â€Å"Oedipus the King† and Shakespeare’s â€Å"Hamlet† (two of the most renowned tragedies ever written), lay the keys to unearthing the facts about what characteristics produce the ultimate tragedy. â€Å"Oedipus the King† tells the terrible tale of a brilliant man who became king of Thebes and later discovers that he is the cause of a plague on the city because he killed his father and married his mother. â€Å"Ham let† follows the events of a Danish prince who has been called upon to kill his uncle and thereby avenge his father’s murder. These two tragedies appear to have little in common on the surface, but upon closer inspection, share the many qualities of an epic tragedy. Another critical element in the perfect tragedy (in order from greatest to the least) is the presence of strong â€Å"Plot, Character, Language, Thought, Spectacle, and Melody† (Aristotle 780-781). 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