Shop Class as Soulcraft Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Shop Class as Soulcraft - Essay Example With the push to use your brain instead of your brawn this society seems to be slowly devaluing work done by your own hands. Work that would have been considered noble fifty years ago, perhaps even prestigious, is viewed as somewhat beneath us today. So is this just society moving on, using forward thinking to advance, or is America slowly digging its way into a hole that it will one day have to climb out of? After taking a peak at our country fifty years ago, where it is today, and where its heading, our society may want to reconsider reinstating shop class over the latest technology class in our educational system. Fifty years ago a little over forty percent of Americans were â€Å"blue collar workers† and people employed in the farm sector in 1947 stood at 7.9 million (About). Sixty percent of Americans owned their own home, at this time and the majority also had a retirement of some sort (Young, and Young). The average male could not only change his own flat tire, but due to the fact that the majority of cars driven in America were American made, they also had the knowledge and resources to fix the majority of other problems that arouse in their vehicles. At that time no job was considered unreasonable or too lowly if it was a means to support your family. In actuality many people took pride in what they could build or do themselves. Schools also prided themselves in not only teaching the basics: reading, writing, and arithmetic, but also in offering classes in the vocational since, such as shop, agriculture, and mechanics. It was out of this, â€Å"do it yourself† era that America made its climb to the number one spot in world power and recognition. America was leading the way in the automotive, industrial, and agricultural industries, and there was no need to outsource because the American people were more than capable and willing to do the work themselves. Now we fast forward through the eighties were the push became to, â€Å"Prepare Kids for High-Tech and the Global Future.† During this time it was decided as a society that technology was were our future was heading and the need for people to do the work themselves was a thing of the past. So slowly classes such as shop and agriculture were taken out of the mainstream public school system and replaced with computer technology and literacy. Now we arrive in present day were it is estimated that we are actually the first generation since the formation of this country expected to make less that their parents. 9.1 percent of people who graduated from college in 2009 are still unemployed and only 24 % of the people who applied for jobs upon graduating in 2010 reported getting one (Greenhouse). These people graduated with all the right mental skills, and were promised hope for great careers and lives, and now they have nothing to do. In fact 8.7 of the people on unemployment in 2010 have some kind of higher education (Table A-4). There is a push to stop outsourcing and immigration because it’s, â€Å"taking jobs away from the American people†. The majority of the jobs, however, that are outsourced, or worked by those from other countries, are in fact blue collar jobs. If in today’s society the typical middle aged American male can’t, or won’t, change his own tire will he really be willing or able to work these jobs if presented? It is no doubt that this generation is far more

Interest Rate Risk Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Interest Rate Risk Assignment - Essay Example Indeed, the credit was sold to the customer at a lower price (lower interest rate) than it could have been if it had been sold at a later time. Certainly, this is one of the simple examples, but we must consider that the value of the bank itself can be directly affected by the interest rate risk, through changes in its overall assets and liabilities values2 and given the time value of money. The repricing gap model is one of the simplest used by banks to determine the amount of exposure for their assets and is based on "the net differences between interest rate sensitive assets and liabilities maturing at different times"3). Within established time bands (one day, 1 day 3 months, 3-6 months etc. up to assets and liabilities with maturities of over 5 years), total liability values are subtracted from total asset values to evaluate a gap between the two. Each gap value thus obtained can be multiplied by a the assumed change in interest rates in order to obtain the potential numerical expression of the impact the change in interest rates will have on the value of that respective bandwidth (evaluated as the gap between assets and liabilities). ... Despite the fact that the repricing gap model is simple enough to be used by almost everybody, one of its biggest disadvantages refers exactly to this simplicity of the model. Indeed, there is practically no other variable being taking into consideration other than the difference in value between assets and liabilities within a time band. The market conditions generally impose multiple variable, such as different maturing and repricing periods4 or payments that need to be taken into consideration, so we may point out towards the fact that this model is only an approximation of the level of exposure of a bank to the interest rate risk. The duration gap analysis is somewhat more complex and provides more answers for a proper interest rate exposure analysis. It "focuses on managing NII or the market value of equity, recognizing the timing of cash flows"5, which is something that the repricing gap model ignored. According to the same source (Koch and MacDonald), an effective duration gap analysis will include three main steps. First of all, the bank management and analysis department will need to develop a forecast for the future levels of interest rate. Subsequently, the management determined the market value for all the assets and liabilities held by the bank. Third of all, an estimation of the weighted duration of assets and of the weighted duration of liabilities is made. In order to be able to hedge the market value of the bank's equity, the management will evaluate the difference between the weighted duration of assets and the weighted duration of liabilities and will set the condition that this equals to 0. Upon calculation, the bank management's conclusion will hold either an adjustment of either asset or liability weighted duration. 3.a)