Greed Essays (Examples)

GEED

Economics

Milton Friedman video on "Greed:" Is greed really necessary?

The University of Chicago economist Milton Freidman was famous for his endorsement of the capitalist system and the concept that 'greed is good.' Friedman believed that capitalism was the source of all positive human development and intellectual ferment. Capitalism had improved the lot of the individual worker, even though capitalism had occasionally been unfair in its allocation of resources and did not reward virtue in a just fashion. Communism, in contrast, was a system driven by political, rather than economic self-interest, and the end result was far worse for the average individual. Capitalism at least permitted some form of social mobility and the possibilities of change for people who worked hard, while communism created a calcified system where the party elite, not the 'best' rose to the top.

There are many objections that can be raised to Friedman's relatively…

However the infighting at LBKB had made the company hard to sell (pp. 179-181). Revenues were going down, but Glucksman refused to cut costs, something potential buyers noted. The infighting was the topic of a ortune article, and many believed that Peterson had leaked it (p. 184). Many at LBKB feared that the article would lower the company's sale price.

Even several years after these events, after Shearson/American Express bought LBKB, former partners of LBKB could not agree on what caused the tremendous losses of income that made the sale of their company their only option. They did not acknowledge the company's failure to streamline its expenses, and different factions still finger-pointed to other departments (p. 196). Ultimately, the collapse and sale of LBKB was due to failures in leadership. Both men who led the company at the end -- Peterson and Glucksman had significant business strengths and significant personal…

The plate that is brought through the door there... will be the turntable on which she will pose..." This passage from the plate shows how the woman is likened to the lowly animal, chicken, to demonstrate Hogarth's lowly perception of how Tom had wrongly conducted himself as a wealthy man.

Tom's eventual downfall is shown in the last two plates of "Rake's Progress," wherein he eventually lands in prison for his debt due to his drastic splurging of his wealth, and at the madhouse, where the now-insane Tom is detained, having realized his mistakes but cannot do anything to 'undo' them. Thus, he falls into insanity, the only escape that he can do from all his problems in life. In Tom's life, Hogarth reflects the downfall of humanity through madness and instability of the society, with the proliferation of individuals who become stigmatized for being imprisoned in a prison and…

greed in our society, its deteriorating impact on our society and ways to curtail the same. The orks Cited five sources in MLA format.

Greed in Society

Greed! Greed! Greed! This is all that we observe around us in business dealings, in institutions including those that are established to impart quality education, in movies, in television shows, in every part of the corporate world as well as in day-to-day routine work. Our society where we live in and which rules and regulations we strongly try to abide has innumerable proofs of evident element of greed. ith the world rapidly transmuting into a global village, more and more people are turning into materialistic and selfish souls that seek not only help from the outside world but also firmly believe in getting the more than most out of the given situation by all means whether unethical or morally adequate. Greed has many…

When this is not the case, either the state is too weak to exercise such a power, or the discontent is disproportional. In either case, it is an issue of "grievance" because it underlines the shortcomings of the state. In the first situation, it lacks legitimacy and means to exercise legitimate power; in the second case, it is unable to offer the basic principles of social security and thus threatens the well being of the society. In either case, the reasons for mutiny and civil wars are related in particular to an attack to the core values of the state, which may include lack of legitimacy, of social vision, of economic methods, or of political will. egardless of their nature, they represent "grievances" which can be potentially expressed by the society through civil wars.

Overall, it can be concluded that the debate "greed -- grievance" may offer in the future…

greed is good or that conspicuous consumption is a desirable trait seems to be gaining increasing acceptance in Western and certainly American popular culture. At the same time, there do appear to be sub-currents of reactionary movements towards lower levels of consumption, and more subtle means of consuming what must be consumed. Examining different designers in light of various theories regarding why people consume, what they consume, and how they go about consuming it yields some interesting commentary on two modern designers with very different attitudes towards greed.

Finding a designer that celebrates the "greed is good" motto espoused by the fictional financial magnate Gordon Gekko isn't at all difficult in the age of "bling." Sean Combs, also known as Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, and simply Diddy (it is difficult to keep up with his name changes) started his own clothing line and has also designed jewelry, and none of…

Greed Despoils Capitalism.

Some businesspeople are greedy and do not have a conscience, however Wilder believes that capitalism does not necessarily require greed. According to Barbara Wilder in her article, "Greed Despoils Capitalism," ethical business practices are the only way that everyone does not come away a loser from business. Wilder believes that Adam Smith, the father of Western capitalism, would be outraged and disgusted by the unethical business practices that corporations have shown in recent years. Ethics, dignity, and character are associated, in an ideal world, with wealth and capitalism. Democracy and capitalism are philosophically mingled, and the American Dream itself depends on capitalism to thrive. Capitalism thrives through the people, regardless of the system at large, and the businesses and jobs that are created by a capitalistic system provide wealth for all. When big business CEOs are unethical, it is not the fault of capitalism, but rather a…

"And, then, all of a sudden, the bottom fell out of these companies. it's a reckoning."

The question becomes: are there any honest and ethical business executives anywhere?

Let's take a look. Former corporate CEOs like Richard Fuld of Lehman rothers, faced down questions and cameras on Capitol Hill; former executives of the insurance giant AIG were also questioned. One topic of discussion: the fancy retreat hosted by AIG after an $85 billion bailout. Also facing scrutiny are the bosses of the ig Three auto companies, caught by AC's rian Ross flying private jets to Washington to beg for bailout money. (Kristin Pisarcik and Gail Deutsch)

Is it any wonder than schemes like the Madoff ponzi debacle, in such an environment, happen so often?

Probably the two most common reasons upper managers commit fraud are greed and need. oth greed and need can come into play on a personal level…

eckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, And Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua osner

In eckless endangerment: How outsized ambition, greed, and corruption led to economic Armageddon, New York Times financial writer Gretchen Morgenson and financial and policy analyst Joshua osner examine how government involvement, or lack thereof, in the economic sector helped contribute to the current economic meltdown. In the introduction, Morgenson explains the authors' goals in writing the book. First, they want to name names. She says that the book "identifies powerful people whose involvement in the debacle has not yet been chronicled" (Morgenson & osner, 2011). Second, they want to reveal how the seemingly discrete economic problems were actually interrelated, by revealing how they were connected to one another (Morgenson & osner, 2011). They recognized that the American people felt robbed, but they were also determined to try to answer the ignorance that…

In addition, early in 1998, Judge Kevin Chang accepted another trustee's temporary resignation and removed the other trustees temporarily (King and oth 254). All this was an attempt to finally reign in the Trust and the trustees, and to give a measure of fiscal control to a trust that was literally out of control and rampant with corruption and abuse. All of this corruption, although it finally was controlled, was allowed to go on for decades, and millions of dollars of money that should have gone to the schools was squandered as a result. Eventually, the trustees were all charged with over $200 million in surcharges, but in a plea deal, those charges were thrown out (King and oth 279).

The authors had a clear purpose in writing this book, and it was to make public the convoluted case of the Bishop Estate, and how it came to be so…

Bill Ivey's Art, Inc.

With an insightful analysis of modern economics and its impact on the state of art and culture in America, Arts, Inc.: How Greed and Neglect Have Destroyed Our Cultural ights is author Bill J. Ivey's attempt to sound the alarm and preserve the artistic and cultural heritage which defines every great society. As the former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, Ivey is uniquely qualified to assess the crucial importance of maintaining a thriving cultural atmosphere, as well as the role of governmental policy and political influence in fostering an environment which promotes artistic expression. The central premise posited by Ivey throughout Arts, Inc. is that the advent of intellectual property rights and copyright law, as well as the confluence between marketing and artistic viability, has weakened the foundation of America's expressive nature. He believes that a nation such as ours, founded as it…

Tammany Hall: Mirror of Human Greed

e often hear the road to hell is paved with good intentions and we can certainly use the history of Tammany Hall as an example of how this occurs. Tammany Hall was born from good intentions for the residents of New York, primarily the immigrants and lower working class. Helping others find work and shelter sounds like a way to improve the situations for many in the Lower East Side and this fact only brings us to question how a political party moves from this mindset to one of corruption so quickly and easily. The answer lies with the nature of man. hile the road to hell is paved with good intentions, we also know that power is one of the most destructive elements known to man. hen it comes to personal greed and the welfare of others, greed often wins. Tammany Hall demonstrates…

Economic Events: 1980-1989

the decade of greed. The era of onald eagan when the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. Despite this common wisdom, 1980 started off auspiciously. On May 8, 1980 the World Health Organization hailed "one of the century's greatest medical accomplishments," the final and total eradication of smallpox (Dickson 247). But how quickly times change - barely a quarter century has passed and this same disease is making headlines once again.

Attitudes change also. While many in this day and age would still agree that the 1980's was a selfish period in American history, a sea-change has occurred in the rhetoric issuing forth from Washington D.C. In a very fundamental way, party politics has been thrust aside as concerns for homeland security take precedence over petty partisanship. Michael Barone notes this in his analysis of a speech made by Democrat ichard Gephardt in the Summer…

Enron Scandal's Fraud

One of the more salient examples of the corruption type known as fraud took place in the initial years of the 20th century. It involved the multiple conglomerate entity known as Enron, which primarily operated in the natural resources and energy vertical. Enron engaged in fraud in many different levels. Perhaps the most noticeable of these applied to its book-keeping practices. Enron relied on a host of fraudulent accounting activities to widen its profit margins and to hide its losses. Subsequently, the vast majority of people that competed with, invested in, and worked for this company thought it was much more financially viable than it actually was. Some of these accounting practices included an inflated usage of marked to market accounting, which the company had approved for one specific type of asset management and regularly deployed for others (and throughout its accounting areas in general) (Norris and…

Companies secretly collecting and selling information about your online behavior
The large-scale information collection, information sale, and free access to sensitive, private information, accompanied by inadequate regulatory controls, leaves much room for misuse. Those who desire to limit access to their personal details find themselves with scant options as, in a majority of instances, parties that collect data are able to categorize, store, and sell free or captured information without the consent of the concerned individual. Even in instances where information is voluntarily given to social networking or e-shopping websites, web users cannot control who the information will be sold to (Tsesis, 2014). The data industry is currently a three-hundred-billion-dollar-per-annum industry, with around three million employees in the US alone. Information brokers attempt to understand customer identity and interests. For organizational delivery of more relevant advertisements to customers, data-brokering companies have to provide information on services and products of potential…

Kent on the other hand cannot prevent himself from gazing again and again at the man's scar and making all sorts of stupid remarks. He also fails to stop the sailor from controlling him and he is absorbed by -- enslaved to -- his superstitions:

This was the real Man with the Gash, the man who had so often robbed him in the spirit. This, then, was the embodied entity of the being whose astral form had been projected into his dreams, the man who had so frequently harbored designs against his hoard; hence -- there could be no other conclusion -- this Man with the Gash had now come in the flesh to dispossess him. And that gash! He could no more keep his eyes from it than stop the beating of his heart. Try as he would, they wandered back to that one point as inevitably as the…

business and professional ethics in the movie "all Street." Discussed are the ethical principles that are violated as related to business; how greed is presented as part of American business; Gecko's view; how Buddy reacts and deals with the issues of ethics; how Buddy's view of greed and ethics evolves and changes throughout the film; what is/are the ethical dilemmas he faces and how does he handle them.

all Street, the Movie

Capitalism is said to be the path to the American dream. The barons of the early twentieth century built empires, the majority of which remain major players in the corporate world today. The goal of a capitalist is to make the best product for maximum profit and at the same time sell it at a competitive price to give the consumer the best buy, thus, acing out market competitors. The force behind this is basically self-interest. The American…

Corporation Changed from Early 19th to 21st Century?

Corporate Change Over Two Centuries

Corporations today manifest a singularity of focus on earnings that enables them to slice unencumbered through consideration for outcomes that do not directly impact profit margins. In the book, The Corporation, Joel Bakan asserts that:

"The corporation's legally defined mandate is to pursue, relentlessly and without exception, its own self -- interest, regardless of the harmful consequences it might cause to others" (Bakan, 2005, p. 9)

Bakan argues that the institutional imperatives of corporations, coupled with their seemingly boundless capacity to become more powerful fosters a pathological orientation to doing business that poses grave economic, political, and social danger. Bakan's theory will serve as the primary touchstone in this exploration of the influence of corporate power on politics and the economy.

The first section of this paper centers on a discussion about the ways in which the…

"hen Congress returned in 1934 to complete the federal disclosure tapestry, it created express private causes of action for misleading reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as part of the newly enacted continuous disclosure requirements, (3) provided private recoveries for market manipulation, (4) and authorized suits on behalf of reporting companies for short-swing profits garnered by certain insiders (Cox, Thomas, and Kiku, 2003)."

The creation of the SEC as a government body for oversight arose out a recognition by the courts that private action was not enough to protect investors and consumers from the materially misleading representations of corporate America (Cox, Thomas, and Kiku, 2003). Since its creation, however, the numerous laws and regulations that have come to frame the world of corporate governance have exceeded the limits of manageable governance. By the time the SEC has identified a problem, pursued investigation of the corporate representations of…

Shakespeare's play Macbeth, women play influence Macbeth a brave vibrant soldier, ready die king, a murderer? Discuss witches predictions portrayed Jacobean era ambitious Lady Macbeth husband deranged.

illiam Shakespeare's play Macbeth provides an intriguing account involving concepts like greed, the influence women have on men, and the overall idea of human nature in dubious circumstances. Macbeth is the central character and he comes to employ deceiving attitudes as he becomes more and more overcome by greed. hile it is actually normal to see a person being obsessed with power and coming to act in disagreement with principles he or she previously believed in, Macbeth is also significantly influenced by women who he interacts with and it is only safe to say that they play an important role in making him commit regicide.

Macbeth is somewhat dependent to women, not from a sexual point-of-view, but from a point-of-view involving him wanting…

For example, "in 1999, a Los Angeles jury issued the biggest punitive damage verdict ever -- $4 billion -- against General Motors (GM). The plaintiffs had been trapped and burned when their automobile gas tanks exploded. In court it was revealed that GM had chosen not to warn the public about the gas-line defect because it judged it would be cheaper to pay out individual lawsuits than to recall the defective automobiles," as explicitly stated in an internal company memo (Court 2004)

Do you think pre-conviction forfeiture in criminal cases is constitutional?

Strictly speaking, the practice is of highly dubious constitutionality, given that Amendment 7 of the U.S. Constitution requires a trial by jury to convict them of a crime. In some cases, pre-conviction forfeiture has been used to remove animals when someone is charged with abuse, which may seem like a noble use of the statute, but even then,…

Corporate Mergers and the Public Good

The United States of America, during the last years of the Nineteenth Century, witnessed a rash of corporate mergers. The Industrial Revolution had taken firm hold, and the nation was changing rapidly. Millions of Americans who had once been independent farmers or tradesmen now found themselves in the position of what some termed "wage slaves." At the mercy of their corporate employers, they worked long hours at low pay, and often under appalling conditions. The reasons for the merger mania of this period are many and complex, as are its effects upon the population as a whole. In breaking down the traditional vocational environment, the gigantic new conglomerates also transformed the entire social landscape. ork was no longer a family business shared by all generations. Communities no longer clung together for mutual protection and aid. Suddenly, the citizen of this new world was out…

Fannie Mae Scandal

Fannie Mae is the second largest government sponsored U.S. financial institution engaged in mortgage finance after Citigroup Inc. An investigation lasting for eight long months by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight or OFHEO revealed massive manipulation of earnings that have been engineered to fulfill Wall Street expectations and smooth volatility in earnings from one quarter to next quarter. The revelations deserve quick corrective action announced by the Director of the Agency in a letter to the Board members of Fannie Mae. The Securities and Exchange Commission is also inspecting the books of accounts of Fannie Mae. However, a statement issued by Fannie Mae states that the company has modified its employment contracts with the three top ranking executives i.e. The Chairman and Chief Executive, Franklin aines, Chief Operating Officer Daniel Mudd and Chief Financial Officer, Timothy Howard to make sure that in the event their…

But the shareholders themselves need to be more aware and more involved in their company's business in order for any meaningful change to sustain itself:

Shareholders, the intended beneficiaries of the corporate vehicle, are the ultimate capitalists: avaricious accumulators with little fiscal risk and no legal responsibility for the way in which they pursue their imperative to accumulate. Shareholders, not corporations, show indifference to the needs and values of society. It is their behaviour that is most appropriately characterized as amoral indifference to the plight of others and their environment. Shareholders, not corporations, behave in a pathological manner. And shareholders should be the targets for the cure that we need for our ills. (Glasbeek 2005: 24)

There is also the problem of victimisation of other cultures in a global market. As Strike, Gao and Bansal (2006) point out in their article, 'Being Good While Being Bad: Social esponsibility and the…

Morality of the Minor Characters of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain makes two social outcasts, in the form of Huck and Jim, the most moral characters of his novel. Huck and Jim are the real templates of correct behavior. Yet, the rest of a hypocritical and essentially immoral society devotes itself to either catching or civilizing these characters. By showing how more socially acceptable characters minor characters of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are often less moral than Huck, who is the son of a drunken father, and Jim, who is a slave, Twain shows how conventional societal morals are completely awry with what is actually truthful and intrinsically good. After all, for all of their faults and lack of conventional education, Jim and Huck at least strive to be loving and loyal to one another. Thus, in the…

Accountability

"Accountability refers to the mechanisms by which both law enforcement officers and the agencies they serve are held responsible for promoting social order, reducing crime, and treating each individual fairly and within the limits of the law" (Chambliss, 2011). The three dimensions of police accountability are accountability to the public, accountability to the law, and accountability to each other (other members of the police force. If one were to look at the most fundamental dimension of police accountability, such as accountability to the public, one would see just how crucial this is: "It both defines and protects citizens' rights while also promoting a collective sense of faith in the larger criminal justice system" (Chambliss, 2011).

The three E's are "Effectiveness -- whether police accomplish what they are supposed to do: A. Do they effectively control crime? B. Are they successful in arresting offenders? Efficiency-- whether they accomplish their tasks…

Modern-Day Corruption and Graft

The Watergate incident that occurred in President Nixon's Administration is exemplary of modern day corruption. Here, the government under Nixon's presidency was recognized to have sanctioned a sequence of confidential monitoring operations conducted by highly-trained agents that was financed by illegal campaign contributions. The seriousness of the incident was such that ichard Nixon had to resign his presidency.

Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois offered differing philosophies, strategies, and tactics for African-Americans following econstruction. In your opinion, which of these leaders gave the best advice for their times? Why do you feel this way?

Booker T. Washington primarily believed that the approach to deal with the African-Americans after the econstruction was tolerance, adaptation, and self-assistance with maximum attention on the provision of job opportunities for possible advancement of the community W.E.B. Dubois, on the other hand, asserted that the best methodology was the use of campaigning…

Juniors of my old high school,

It has been a great pleasure to receive your letter and notice such a keen interest in economics and politics at your early age. The fact that you are already following the evolution of the presidential race and that you are asking questions about it show a great desire to learn and find out new things. I will be more than happy to share some economics pointers with you that, hopefully, will be able to fully answer some of your dilemmas.

You have clearly notice what the economic trends are for the two candidates. Indeed, Republicans, and George W. ush is no exception in this sense, have always boasted the importance of the individual and of non-governmental intervention in the market. On the other hand, the Democrats believed that not only could the government regulate some of the less efficient economic processes on the…

11th Grade Froggybottom Class

The questions you asked me about have no easy answers. Philosophers, economists, revolutionaries, and social leaders have all been debating the answers for centuries, and as usual many of our politicians don't even know the first thing about the issues involved! Though the questions seem simple, they are actually rooted in the most basic questions of human existence: what is the "good life" and how can we live it? All the world's religions have tried to answer that question, and still no one knows the real answer. I can tell you my opinion, and I can tell you what famous thinkers and politicians have said, but in the end these are questions you need to figure out on you own. Think about them carefully, because your own personal answers will help you define your political and economic position wisely.

Your first question asked, "What is in…

Atul Gawande leads with the thought that healthcare that costs more isn't necessarily better care at all. And Gawande lets the reader know that the town of McAllen, Texas, is able to provide some meaningful lessons to others on healthcare. This paper provides a review / summary of the article by Gawande.

To begin with, as background, McAllen is a border town that has the lowest family income in the United States but interestingly, has low unemployment because of the fact that it is in a foreign trade zone. Medicare is in full use in McAllen, because enrollees in Medicare receive $15,000 in healthcare benefits, about twice the national average. Speaking of healthcare, Gawande notes that the U.S. is the "most expensive in the world" and because of that the "global competitiveness of American businesses" has been damaged and President Obama is quoted by Gawande saying the greatest threat to…

Introduction
Dante’s Inferno, in essence, gives a vivid account of hell from the poet’s perspective. There are a wide range of lessons that could be learnt from this particular divine comedy. In this discussion, I concern myself with the greed circle. This fourth circle hosts those souls undergoing punishment for greed. Here, Dante and Virgil meet souls who are condemned to drag heavy loads from one place to another. The all important question I shall be seeking to answer is: is greed satiable? A bottomless pit, greed fatigues an individual and keeps one focused on an eternal pursuit of needs that will never be fully satisfied.
Discussion
In Dante’s inferno, greed, as has been pointed out in the introductory section, is identified as the fourth circle of hell (Fowlie 141). This is where the souls of persons undergoing punishment for their materialism, possessiveness, and greed undergo punishment. It is important…

Your Name
INDS 400-001
August 06, 2014
Business and Religion
IPS Integration Essay
Cognate/Career Synthesis Paper:
Incorporating a Christian orldview
MLA
Presented in Partial Fulfillment
EDU 400: Capstone
Your Name
John Doe
EDU 400-001
06 August 2014
Business and Religion Synthesis:
Incorporating a Christian orldview
Incorporating a more Christian worldview would be largely beneficial to a range of careers as such a perspective can help guide all endeavors along a more moralistic path. The last decade or so has brought us some of the most staggering corporate scandals that the human race has ever known. These were scandals which crippled the economy and which brought the nation to untold amounts of financial struggle and unhappiness. To this day, the government and private businesses are still working manically hard to dig the country out of a completely destructive great recession. The more we understand how such corporate scandals were started and…

Although the novel ends with an open-ended question about the fate of the two titular characters, it is clear that Margarita has the power to create her own reality.

Mikhail ulgakov uses three literary elements in the novel the Master and the Margarita: a multiple layered reality, symbolism, and magical realism. Each of these three literary devices helps the author to convey the central themes of greed, corruption, and social control during and after the Russian Revolution. The multiple layers of reality allow ulgakov to explore the central themes from multiple points-of-view and perspectives. The multiple layers of reality also prevent the novel from becoming a didactic commentary on life in Moscow. Symbolism also permits the exploration of greed, corruption, and social control without directly implicating Stalin or Soviet bureaucracy in the degradation of humanity. Finally, magical realism allows the author -- and his readers -- to imagine how human…

Goldman Case

hat is up with all Street? The Goldman Standard and shaded of Gray

The Goldman Standard and Shades of Gray was a case study which was focused on Goldman Sachs and their impact on the economic system. Goldman has grown large enough in which their operation were capable of affecting the economic structure of our banking system, stock shares, as well as the government to a large extent. The company is obviously profit driven, but to an extent that borders on being ruthless and perpetually greedy for more money and success. Furthermore, Goldman's culture is more "toxic" today than it was in 2005, when they were involved in inflating a housing bubble that would help crash the global economy, or in 2007 and 2008, when they began desperately offloading their housing-related assets to investors who hadn't yet realized the market was going to crash; if there was a…

obert omano on the TV show "E (obbins, 2005).

The metaphorical significance of greed in combination with selfishness, as currently mistaken for these two disorders combined, and its identification with social, economic, cultural, along with even religious status mistakes CEOs, media giants, and fortunate investors for people with this psychological disorder. In some cases, symbolic of praise; in others, disdain. The psychoanalytic explanation of greedy behavior further misleads people, who misunderstand greedy diplomatic, corporate, and political leaders, with those symptomatic of a disorder in need of treatment. At times the study of its insidious consequences on the self and on society drives a standard of hatred applicable to both.

Conclusion

Applicable Approach: Psychoanalytic Therapy

Clients interested in psychoanalysis must be willing to commit to an intensive and long-term therapy process. The intent of psychoanalytic therapy is to allow access to the unconscious as a source of conflicts and motivations. The…

Destructors, by Graham Greene and "The Rocking-Horse inner," by DH Lawrence. Specifically, it will compare and contrast the two stories. Greed has always been a powerful motivator, and greed is one of the main themes in these two works that seem quite similar at first glance. However, a closer reading brings out the dissimilarities in these works, but ultimately points to greed as a powerful destructive force in our lives, and that society reveres money and possessions above all else.

Greed in Two Similar orks

Initially, these two short stories seem quite similar. They are both set in Great Britain, and they both have young boys as their main characters. At first glance, they seem as if they might be stories about growing up in different worlds than we are used to, but underlying this first look are some dark and disturbing themes about how greed can destroy, and how…

Greedy Individuals Have a Survival of the Fittest Mentality?

It is first necessary to discuss where the saying "survival of the fittest" comes from and then apply it to the concept of greed. Charles Darwin was a keen observer and naturalist who took a voyage on the Beagle to try and discover phenomena that had escaped the rest of the world. His voyage landed him, eventually, on the Galapagos Islands where he made a number of discoveries among which was the beginnings of his agreement with others who had begun to espouse that plants and animals had not been created within a six day period a mere six to ten thousand years previous, but that all life on Earth had gradually emerged via evolution of species. During the following years he discovered one trait in the animal kingdom which has now migrated to humans and their actions also -- that…

ehavioral Finance and Human Interaction a Study of the Decision-Making

Processes Impacting Financial Markets

Understanding the Stock Market

Contrasting Financial Theories

Flaws of the Efficient Market Hypothesis

Financial ubbles and Chaos

The stock market's dominant theory, the efficient market hypothesis (EMH) has been greatly criticized recently for its failure to account for human errors, heuristic bias, use of misinformation, psychological tendencies, in determining future expected performance and obtainable profits.

Existing evidence indicates that past confidence in the EMH may have been misdirected, as the theory's models do not show a thorough understanding of trading operations in a realistic light.

Researchers have suggested that a variety of anomalies and inconsistent historical results demand that traditional financial theories, namely the EMH, be reconstructed to include human interaction as a key decision-making process that directly affects the performance of financial markets.

This research paper aims to determine whether or not there is a…

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In 46 B.C., once again Sallust was given an opportunity to shine or fail, as he was made a practor and sailed to Circina where he proved himself by stealing the enemies' stores. In return, Caesar rewarded Sallust with the title of proconsular governor of all of the province of Numidia and Africa. Others with a much stronger background were expecting this position, but it may have just been that Sallust showed a greater skill at organization. Sallust, however, takes advantage of this situation and when returning to ome was cited for extortion. [footnoteef:16] Caesar quickly acquitted Sallust, but that was the end of his political career. It appears that Caesar may have made a deal with Sallust that if he quietly disappears, he would not be tried. [16: Ibid.]

At this point in Sallust's life, he says he made the decision to give up his political career. Or,…

motivates people or corporations to partake in enterprise crime?

Among the peculiar aspects that come with business ethics, as in comparison with other domain names of applied ethics, is it handles a wide array of human matters which are more often than not stricken by serious criminality, as well as an institutional structure and atmosphere that is also oftentimes noticeably criminally inclined (Hilts, 2003). The oddity of the situation may also be lost on professionals within the area. It's quite common, for example, at business ethics discussions for most of presentations to become more concerned with straight-forward criminality and they tend to avoid ethical issues within these debates which are actually where we find frequent questions regarding where the correct strategy for countering crimes lies. In this way, all of the discussions of the 'ethics dilemmas' at the beginning of the twenty-first century continues to be very deceptive, since the…

Leadership at the highest levels on all Street -- not in all firms but in most -- failed to uphold the concept of long-term maximization of shareholder value, instead focusing on short-term returns and ignoring the risk associated with these returns.

hat is taught in business school does not support this. The orientation towards profit is natural, and a part of the manager's job. However, the orientation towards excessive risk-taking is not taught in business school, but rather learned in the workplace. The government exhibited lax oversight of the banking industry. Indeed, the FDIC chairperson Sheila Bair had called for increased regulation of the mortgage industry and those calls fell on deaf ears in both ashington and on all Street (Lizza, 2009). Those within and without the industry were more interested in the short-term profits generated by the industry than protecting the public.

The short-term time orientation of managers that…

While this is not yet true for the United tates, might the country be dangerously close? If one could return to the events on 9/11, is it not possible that the diminished freedoms brought about by legislation such as the Patriot Act and its successor almost smack of tyranny? These are important questions to consider if the much-mentioned American "way of life" is to be preserved. Tyranny is far from desirable, and governments would do well to consider its dangers as these might relate to democracy.

The answer to this question is therefore dangerously close to yes, if certain paradigms are not curbed and warnings not heeded. While I do not fully agree with Aristotle's placement of democracy in the sequence so far away from the ideal tate, it is nonetheless important to consider specific governmental paradigms. Citizens should take great care when choosing their rulers. Many believe that the…

As we have already mentioned, the mood and tone for moral corruption in New York City was prime in the 1920s and while it may seem there are the rich and the poor, class distinction among the rich plays an important role in the novel. Gatsby's success will only carry him so far because of a dividing line that exists between the new wealth and the old wealth. This is best depicted with the est and East Egg sections that divide individuals according to their wealth. Gatsby, regardless of how much money he makes, cannot hold a candle to the old wealth of the community in which Tom and Daisy live. Tom comes from an "enormously wealthy" (6) family and when he moved to the rich East Egg, he "brought down a string of ponies from Lake Forest" (6). The Buchanan's home is "more elaborate" (7) than what our narrator…

Enron could engage in their derivative trading strategy with no fear of government intervention because derivative trading was specifically exempted from government regulation. Due in part to a ruling by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC) chairwoman, Wendy Graham, derivatives remained free of regulatory oversight. Ms. Graham, wife of Texas senator Phil Graham, made this ruling 5 weeks before resigning as chairwoman of the CFTC and joining the Enron oard of Directors in 1993.

Derivative accounting is further complicated because there is no consistent way to fairly report their value and risk in a company's financial report. In 1998 Rule No. 133, "Accounting for Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities" was developed by the Financial Accounting Standards oard (FAS), an independent agency that sets guidelines for corporate auditors. Rule 133 contains more than 800 pages, which further complicates its adoption and consistent interpretation by various companies. SFAS No. 133 was subsequently…

The article that was written by Conley (2011) discusses the impact that collateralized debt obligations (CDO's) would have upon the subprime loans. These were created in 1987, by the Wall Street firm Drexel urnham. In this product, the investment bankers would take a number of different articles and combine them together as one investment. The various assets that were used included: junk bonds, mortgages and other high yielding investments from the debt. The idea with these different products is that the investment bank could offer customers a stated return on their investment. The way it worked is the brokerage firm would distribute each investor, the stated amount of returns that they would make off of the tranche (the CDO investment). This was derived using a complex mathematical formula that would divide the total amount of interest that was received, from the various high yielding products that were inside the CDO.…

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This is significant because it shows how some critics of contrarian investing will often point to the various instances of speculation and assume that it is contrarian investing. In some cases the psychology of consumers can become so extreme, that the definition of what is speculative expands greatly. As a result, using contrarian investing in conjunction with other indicators / tools can help prudent investors and traders, be able to identify when the market condition are becoming more extreme.

Contrarian Indicators and Tools

When using the different contrarian indicators / tools in conjunction with one another, you can begin to see how this strategy can be used, to effectively determine if the market conditions are overbought or oversold. There are number of different tools that can be utilized to indentify major changes that are occurring in the trend of a stock or the market averages. These would include: headlines…

abuses in every system, whether it be capitalism, communism or socialism and such abuses are primarily due to one specific motivating factor; greed. Greed is not just a few individuals who woke up one morning and decided to move their businesses to other countries because they could make more money, this is actually a societal problem of immense proportions. One recent study determined that "issues are generated in response to the dynamics of the social system and unfold within the larger structural and historical contexts where the character of the individual takes shape" (Hansen, Movahedi, 2010, p. 367). In other words the individual's greed is influenced by society, and not vice versa. The study also asserted that "the most popular explanation of the (recent) contemporary financial crisis with its disastrous social and economic consequences is personal greed" (p.367). Whether it is society's greed or the individual's greed makes no difference,…

Human Rights: King Leopold's Ghost

King Leopold's Ghost: Human Rights

Conflicting arguments have been put forth in response to the question of whether or not colonialism is justified. Proponents of colonialism argue that it helps to bring civilization, progress and growth in the colonizer's religion. However, evidence shows that colonialism only benefits the colonialist nation at the expense of the colonized population. This text demonstrates why this is so using the book 'King Leopold's Ghost' by Adam Hochschild.

Those that plundered the Congo and other parts of Africa did so in the name of progress, civilization, and Christianity? Was this hypocritical? How? What justifications for colonial imperialism have been put forward over the past five centuries?

Simply stated, colonial imperialism is the establishment and maintenance of a nation's ruler over an alien nation that is subordinate, yet separate from the ruling power. Imperial powers from ancient to modern periods have…

The Heifer, the Goat, and the Sheep, in Company ith the Lion illustrates the absolute power of the feudal lord (the lion) over the peasantry (the goat and sheep). This fable may be referring to the division of taxes and possessions, or it may be a direct reference to the hunting rights of feudal lords. The feudal lord (lion) declares that a stag killed by the goat is his, by the right of the strong.

Again, as the bravest, the third must be mine.

To touch but the fourth whoso makes a sign,

I'll choke him to death

In the space of a breath!" (Shapiro, p. 9).

This attitude represents the attitudes of the wealthy towards the peasantry. They would rather see them dead than share even a small portion of their wealth with them. This fable is where the phrase "a lions' share" originates (Shapiro, p. 9). A similar…

" James a.S. McPeek

further blames Jonson for this corruption: "No one can read this dainty song to Celia without feeling that Jonson is indecorous in putting it in the mouth of such a thoroughgoing scoundrel as Volpone."

Shelburne

asserts that the usual view of Jonson's use of the Catullan poem is distorted by an insufficient understanding of Catullus' carmina, which comes from critics' willingness to adhere to a conventional -- yet incorrect and incomplete -- reading of the love poem. hen Jonson created his adaptation of carmina 5, there was only one other complete translation in English of a poem by Catullus. That translation is believed to have been Sir Philip Sidney's rendering of poem 70 in Certain Sonnets, however, it was not published until 1598.

This means that Jonson's knowledge of the poem must have come from the Latin text printed in C. Val. Catulli, Albii, Tibulli, Sex.…

The entire framework of the country is shifting, and it is leaving the people from the rural outskirts behind. Soon, the natives will be like strangers in their own country, and they will not retain any rights or voice.

Even worse, those whites with power and money run the government, and own just about anyone they want by bribing them and throwing their money around. Conteh writes, "People who had money could to virtually anything and get away with it, if they knew the right channels" (Conteh 97). That means the government is corrupt, and does not exist for the good of the people, but only for the good of the few and the powerful. In governments like this, there is usually revolt and revolution, both by the people and inside the government, creating an unstable environment for the country and society.

There is another lasting affect on society brought…

According to Harvard's student handbook, people who conduct the hazing practice will be held responsible for what happens even though it happens to a lot of people, which indicates it id a standard process (Preventing Hazing at Harvard).

People will argue that others want to be victims of hazing because it is apart of the educational culture and most individuals had been through it (the Hazing eader). Furthermore, some believe that it is no big deal until someone becomes seriously injured or found dead especially when they can buy their way out of trouble, which makes them sinners.

History

Throughout history, rich people have proven that they are sinners because they tried to stop others' religious beliefs. For example, Hitler was a powerful and rich man who created the Holocaust because he did not want people to be different from him. It is unfortunate that people are often mistreated for…

Dallek used traditional methods of research and structure making his book a true "history" from a collegiate-academic point-of-view. But this does not invalidate Caro's work. The problem, then, in looking at both of these books to be authorities is to figure out if it really matters if Caro's lack of credentials and traditional (meaning library) method of information gathering actually denote a lesser effect on the overall impact of the work. The problem, then, that Caro faces is the determination if his work actually is quote worthy of other historians quoting / referencing him.

For Dallek, his unwavering adherence to strict academic research leaves the punch out of the story of Johnson. It is one thing to have a series of supported and peer-reviewed facts lined up chapter by chapter, and it is yet another to make those facts sing in an engaging story format. Caro's book is by far…

Business Society and Corporate Values

There has indeed been a great deal of discussion regarding CEO compensation, which is rightly viewed as being completely out of line. The core problem and cause of inflated CEO salaries cannot be attributed to a single reason, but is rather the result of a range of inter-connected factors. What is definitive is the fact that these salaries have inflated over time; this is in part due to the fact that greed is a progressive, boundless factor. "According to the Economic Policy Institute, in the late 1970s, total compensation of chief executives in large American corporations was 35 times that of the average American worker. In 2007, it was 275 times that" (Borger, 2007). These facts alone demonstrate that there is good reason to be in a state of alarm. The reasons for such severely inflated and remarkably unjust salaries are a result of the…

During times of extreme pressure from the supply or demand side, the central bank is prepared to go in and support the currency, to help provide stability. This is significant because traders around the world; will use the major currencies as a way to hedge themselves against different risks. Where, they will view the weakness of one country's currency as a sign that they could be facing a number of different economic challenges. (Fixed vs. Floating Exchange Rate, 2007) a good example of this can be seen with the ritish pound, where the ank of England decided to keep interest rates at .5%. This is important, because the increase in rates could be seen as a sign that economic stability could be returning to the country, which would help to reverse the downward pressure on the pound. However, the fact that they decided to keep interest rates unchanged, means that…

After this, there could have been very little perceived threat left; not only were the Carthaginian's surrendering rather peacefully, but they were even giving up their means of waging war effectively. The giving up of weapons in an age when manufacture and shipping -- the two methods by which any commodity, military or otherwise, can be obtained -- took an extended period of time meant that the Carthaginians were showing themselves to desire peace not only in the short-term, but as a general social principle.

Their submission to the Romans, then, should have been the end of the war. If the reason behind Rome's military invasion of the Carthaginian territory was the possible threat the area presented to Rome, then its disarmament would have solved that problem. The Romans refused to let the issue go, however, demanding that the entire city of Carthage be destroyed right to the ground.

It…

Film Interests

Choose a Film Interests

Isolate a specific issue, case, problem, or scenario related to business, politics, leadership, advertising, marketing, or ethics in the film.

In the movie Wall Street, there is a focus on a number of issues to include: business, marketing and ethics. What happened is Bud Fox is an up and coming broker who will do anything to be successful. This is when he meets Gordon Gecko, who encourages Fox to become creative in the investment advice that he is providing (by obtaining inside information). The impact is that Fox quickly become corrupted by the easy money and fast life of Gecko's world. Once he realizes that Gecko is using him for his own personal benefits, is when he begins to face legal troubles (with him being arrested for insider trading). After wearing a wire and recording Gecko's involvement is when Fox goes to court. The…

Backward and We: A Comparison

When writers think about the future it's often in dichotomous terms. Writers generally see the future in shades of black and white, with very little deviation between the two. This is particularly the case in the novels Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy and We by Yevgeny Zamyatin. The former is an optimistic tale about a socialist utopia which essentially describes a future full of improvements. The latter describes a futuristic dystopia where humans lack autonomy and privacy. In spite of these incredibly different descriptions and notions about the future, there's still a significant amount of overlap between these two novels. Exploring the different shades of each can provide a deeper understanding of each respective author's inner fears and wishes. As different as these two novels appear to be, they are both actually stories about societies which have made the ultimate (and wrong) sacrifice: they've given…

finance and financial entrepreneurship. The basis of the article is on a discussion that was held on this subject among four leading lights of financial entrepreneurship in the United States - Michael Milken, Lewis Ranieri, Richard Sandor and Myron Scholes. These people are famous in their own right and have had a sizeable role in financial entrepreneurship in the U.S. over the last 20 years. We have first discussed their achievements to get a clear idea about their personal achievements. This would certainly give a clear idea of what is possible in the U.S. today. They are of course interesting characters and one has to remember that the ideal entrepreneur of the 21st century cannot be thought of as an updated version of Henry Ford. After the discussion of the people, the meeting and the discussions held there are summarized. ased on the total information collected, we have come to…

relationship exists between difference of religion and the occurrence of civil wars within societies. The relationship between religious groups to society can be defined against the backdrop of war. Powerful emotions surround both conflict and military conflict (Yinger, 1946). A direct relationship has been recognized for several year regarding religion and violence. Students of organized religion "have frequently pointed out the ease with which most church leaders shift, at the outbreak of war, from an explicit antiwar position to a vigorous pro-war policy" (Yinger, p. 176). However, despite the seemingly strong tie between religion and war, it is critical to also acknowledge that while religion seems a backdrop for many wars, many other factors have contributed as well. Political aspirations and agendas have had as much to do with war as religion. The complex intermingling of these many different factors will be explored in greater detail below.

ecent research suggests…