Taylor McCauslin Essays (1297 words) - Anna Quindlen, 9, Free Essays

Taylor McCauslin Essays (1297 words) - Anna Quindlen, 9, Free Essays Taylor McCauslin Nick Lakostik English 1100 3 October 2015 The Dynamic Meaning of Happiness Anna Quindlen evaluates the average American and their need for consumption in her op-ed; "Stuff is Not Salvation." She discusses the impact of various roles given to people in society on how Americans views' on possessions has changed over the years. She uses real life experiences to drive home the point that Americans are losing focus of what matters. Overall, Quindlen's view that "stuff is not salvation," could not have a more true relation to modern American ideals. I wholeheartedly agree that Americans today have a very misaligned sense of priorities with unimportant materials somehow taking control of the priority list for way too many people. Quindlen uses the high need for "real things" as a response to the apparent need Americans seem to have for buying various items. She later states that when a consumer gives in to their urge to buy items, it shadows the importance of needs that are much more severe and widespread. Quindlen then makes it known that, "For the first time this month, the number of people on food stamps will exceed the 30 million mark. Hard times offer the opportunity to ask hard questions, and one of them is the one my friend asked, staring at sweaters and shoes: why did we buy all this stuff?" (par. 8-9). This is a fantastic argument. I admit to being guilty of asking myself this same question multiple times over. The sad part is that I didn't realize it was junk until I was staring at a collection of unused items in my closet, none of which have been used in more than a year. I wanted them so badly at the time that I actually thought I needed them. By feeding the urge, I in turn let thoughts of important matters fall to the background. Almost every paycheck, I believe that I am going to spend a certain amount on charity. More often than not, I don't. I end up spending it on items instead. This societal want has already gotten out of hand. In the process of turning our heads towards what we want, we turn our heads away from what others need. Quindlen also explains that Americans' need for possessions has been on a rising trend for years. She views the changing technological times as part of the reason behind this growth. We see this when Quindlen explains, "I suspect television advertising, which made me want a Chatty Cathy doll so much as a kid that when I saw her under the tree my head almost exploded" (par. 4). That's the essential goal of advertising these days. Advertisers are paid to make people want something and to make them want to go out and buy it. These advertisers are getting increasingly better at their jobs as well. I often find myself being drawn into infomercials late at night and wanting everything I see so badly. An example is when I was up late watching an infomercial for a fishing hook. I wanted it so badly, but I don't even fish. In fact, I hate fishing. It's all just a game to big companies. They bait consumers with whatever they can. But it's up to us to decide whether or not we bite. We see advertisements so often in our daily lives that it starts to become part of our normal environment to see faces smiling and endorsing a product on practically every surface. They are included in any and every media outlet. However, why don't we see more advertising for the things people truly need? With the exception of the occasional ASPCA or UNICEF commercial, we rarely see anything highlighting the suffering of others. It's because we don't like to. It makes people uncomfortable. But we can't make a change until we become so uncomfortable with something that we can't stand it anymore. Nobody can deny media is the most powerful method of communication in modern society. Thus, we urgently need to change the way media portrays its content in order to change the world. Readers later view Quindlen's stance that in the process of the increasing need for valuable things related to livelihood, people are

Teachers as influential individuals essays

Teachers as influential individuals essays Teaching is a way to train the young, in a selected environment (such as Miriam College), to help them adjust to the world in which they live. The researchers accept as true that teaching is passed on by people around, particularly the teachers. As a teacher, one must acknowledge the value and skill of each individual. Given that teaching is considered to be a dynamic art, a successful teacher should be very artistic, innovative and resourceful in order to meet the changing needs of the students. In addition, teachers are viewed as greatly influential individuals. Therefore, it is understood that one should be skillful in using strategies as well as having a full grasp of the basic teaching strategies present. They can somehow make or break the academic performance of the students. Often times we hear students complaining about one or more subject/s. Possible failure of students has been a reality, because of so many reasons, and lack of interest may be one of these. Lively teachers who creatively think of different activities for lessons may successfully grasp the attention of the students. While teachers who are too strict may encourage students to strive harder or it can also happen that the students will be too tensed to completely understand the lesson. We usually hear teachers saying, You are the ones who make your grades. We only record it. There is truth in the statement, and it is in the hands of the students, indeed, on how they will attain good grades, but have teachers ever thought that they are partly a factor of how students perceive, and accept the subject? Also, do teachers consider the fact that they are responsible for encouraging students to improve on their academic performance? There is a tendency for students to be lazy in coming to class religiously, giving their best in school works, and even being attentive during class discussions. It is noticeable that it becomes harder to...

The Black Model for Interest Rate Derivatives Essay

The Black Model for Interest Rate Derivatives - Essay Example Over the last two and half decades, finance has experienced tremendous and exciting developments especially with reference to derivatives markets. One of the reasons explaining the idea of tremendous and exciting developments within financial sector is the fact that both hedger and speculators within financial markets find it attractive to trade derivate specifically assets rather than trading on the assets themselves (Gupta and Subrahmanyam. 2005). Development of derivatives is considered as one of the most successful upcoming within capital markets (Brigo and Mercurio 2001). Within derivatives, there are three main traders; hedger, speculators, and arbitrageurs. Application of derivatives within financial markets helps in eliminating or reducing risk associated with the fluctuations in the prices of assets. Overview and Development of Black Model Financial markets have experienced an increase in the interest-rate contingent claims that include amongst others caps, swaptions, bond o ptions, mortgage-backed securities, as well as captions. The main problem however that is currently experienced is the development of effective and efficient instruments for valuing such contingent claims. Different models have been developed and used in an attempt to find the best and most effective one. Nonetheless, there has been indifference amongst traders on the model effective and efficient enough to help in measuring, controlling, and supervision of interest-rate risks. Hull (234) identifies Black-Scholes Model as a major innovation is pricing of various stock options. During the early 1970s, Fischer Black, Myron Scholes, and Robert Merton developed a model that can be used effectively and efficiently in pricing stock options (Hull p234). In addition, Clewlow and Strickland (2000) confirm that Black Model has been frequently used in valuing bond options due to its effectiveness and efficiency. Black Model borrows extensively from the Black-Scholes Model (Black, 1976). Actual ly the former is an extension and modification of the latter. Black Model for pricing stock options assumes that the value of an interest rate, bond price, or other variables at a given time is future follows a lognormal distribution. One of the reasons that necessitated the extension and modification of the Black-Scholes Model to Black Model is the difficulty experienced in valuing interest rate derivatives as opposed to valuing foreign exchange derivative (Hull p508). The difficulty is experienced due to a number of reasons such as complications within the behavior of individual interest rate as compared to stock prices of exchange rates (Hull p508). In addition, there has been the need to develop a model that will help in evaluating the behavior of the entire derivate including the zero-coupon yield rate. Consequently, Black Model was developed, which derives most of its assumptions from the Black-Scholes-Merton differential equation that represents the model. For instance, the m odel assumes that there are no transactional costs of taxes involved in applying the model to value stock options (Black, 1976). What’s more, the model assumes that there are no dividends obtained during the derivatives’ life coupled with facts that arbitrate opportunities are termed as riskless. In this model, another important assumption is that the rate of risk-free interest is constant and equals