Thursday, January 30, 2020

Lord Liverpool’s Government Essay Example for Free

Lord Liverpool’s Government Essay Liverpool faced many economic and financial problems, as well as some political problems. Some of these problems included national debt, unemployment, wars with France and America and popular protest groups. Each of these factors also contributed to the popular unrest which occurred during this period. Liverpool was highly effective in defeating Napoleon and also in dealing with protest groups. Additionally he was also successful in bringing about some economic prosperity as well as reducing the deficit. However he was least effective in gaining the support of Prince Regent. Liverpool was most successful in winning the war with Napoleon in 1815. Liverpool had been the only person which had been able to defeat Napoleon to date which consequently made him seem unbeatable. During the war Napoleon implemented an ‘economic blockade’. In response the British tried to stop America from trading with certain countries, this hardened American opinion of the British and they now wanted independence. This eventually led to another war, however this was resolved in a few years. Liverpool’s military success led to him gaining much support and therefore strengthening his position. Liverpool was also successful – to an extent in restoring economic prosperity. The war had disrupted British trade and economy and it had also encouraged British economy to over specialise in war industries which resulted in inflation and rising prices. The Corn Laws which were implemented in 1815 caused bread prices to rise rapidly in the poor harvest of 1816; this angered many working class people and caused a lot of popular unrest, it also made Liverpool very unpopular, the corn laws benefited the upper classes. Additionally by 1815 Britain had and  £861 million national debt and the deficit had reached  £13 million. The income tax which had been imposed in 1799 and brought in  £15 million was defeated by 37 votes and abolished in March 1816. This meant that the government lost a substantial amount of revenue therefore worsening the economic state of the coun try. Further the end of the Napoleonic war in 1815 caused depression as the economy shifted from a war economy to a peacetime one. Liverpool’s government thought lower tariffs on imported goods would mean lower prices for costumers and therefore increasing demand and stimulating trade which would mean economic prosperity. Liverpool’s main source of revenue was the indirect tax. During this time the government was also under increasing pressure gain the support of the people as in the election of 1818 they had lost seats. The government was severely embarrassed over its handling of Peterloo, the spy system and the Queen Caroline Affair. Matters were only made worse by Castlereagh’s weak defence of the government position in each of the matters. The government was in deep embarrassment and on the verge of losing support from voters. As a response Liverpool shuffled the cabinet in 1822. Canning was appointed as foreign secretary. This was highly controversial and further cabinet changes took places. This was an attempt to make the restore the people’s faith in the government and Liverpool hoped to regain some credibility. This reshuffle provided the impression of change, however this was not really the case therefore it wasn’t particularly effective in solving any problems. There was also much radical threat in Britain at the time. During this time Liverpool did several things to try and suppress radical action: introduced the six acts, suspended the Habeas Corpus and the Seditions meeting act. Also people were transported and some were executed due to Luddite protests. These acts allowed the magistrates to take action necessary in order to prevent any action which seemed revolutionary. This made the government seems repressive and reactionary. This was also the first time any government had to deal with mass protest and therefore it could be said that perhaps for the experience they had, the government dealt with matters fairly effectively. Although there are perhaps better ways in which it could have been handled the government was somewhat effective in oppressing revolutionary protest. Liverpool was clearly most effective are regards military action – winning the war with Napoleon and also restoring the peace with America. As regards to the economic and financial problems Liverpool was somewhat successful in reducing the problem rather than getting rid of it.

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Saddling High Levels of Debt :: essays research papers

Saddling High Levels of Debt During the 1970’s, the managers of Ling-Temco-Vought, Inc. (LTV)—manufacturers of aircraft and aircraft related electronics, borrowed heavily to exploit the advantage of financing operations with debt. At first the airlines were making profits; their operating income a lot higher than interest expenses. Unfortunately as the business cycle turned, the company was unable to continue making profits, reporting losses. Their expenses were a lot higher than their interest income. This burdened the company with a lot of debt, and hence pushed the company to the brink of bankruptcy. Airline manufacturing is one of the riskiest industries. The major cost of airline industries is money spent on research and development. Products of the aerospace industries are very expensive, a lot of money is spent on researching products that might not even leave the drawing board, even if the product finally leave the drawing boards, there is no guarantee that they will be bought. Furthermore their products are only bought when the economy is doing extremely well. This makes the aerospace manufacturing an extremely risky industry. The luxuries we enjoy today, for instance: cheaper and better air travel, would not be here, were it not for high risk taking by the airline-manufacturing administrators. In spite of the afore mentioned points, I still do not think that it is ethical for managers of Ling-Temco-Vought, Inc to saddle the company with a lot of debt. Financing business operations with debt, is a common business practice, but having high levels of debt is not good business practice at all. As a consequence of high levels of debt taken by the managers of Ling-Temco-Vought, Inc, people at the lower end of the ladder and investors are going to suffer a lot. When the Ling-Temco-Vought, Inc is pushed to the brink of bankruptcy the managers are going try to cut input cost, that means that people with skills that are easily acquired, will lose their jobs. Also people who invested in the company will lose a lot of money. It is unethical for the managers to take so much risk when they know that the chance of them losing their jobs or being affected in any form is very low. In conclusion, even though taking a lot of debt means more money is spent on research and development, and hence better products for the consumers in the long run (provided that the economy will be stable for a long period of time), I do not approve of what the managers of Ling-Temco-Vought, Inc are doing.

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

The ARES Decision

The Area's project idea aroused with the purpose to solve BAN current problems. These problems included a significant amount of resource waste and lack of coordination among departments. For instance, dispatchers who were responsible for 20-30 trains in their assigned territory most of the times were able to only focus on 5-7 trains, treating the rest of the trains with less attention. In addition, dispatchers were on their own and there was no cooperation among them since they could only see information about their territory and not others.For dispatchers, there was no way to see the whole stricture of the current situation, so poor decisions about scheduled maintenance-of-way (MOW) crews were being made. Communications with trains and MOW vehicles was poor, current information about railroad operations were difficult to obtain and sometimes the information was erroneous. Certainly, ARES will improve operations in BAN but the top management specifically the CEO of BAN and top manage ment is not completely convinced to carry out the project. ARES is a very large and costly project and they need to be sure that the benefits are realistic.Moreover, they want to make sure that BAN will obtain a return after investing $350 lions on the project and also there is the question on whether the investment could turn out to be more. Another issue is related with the organizational structure according with the chief operating officer the new technology alone will not benefit the company but the restructuring of the entire company and many operations as well (Cash, p. 25). For all those reasons they want to consider other cheaper alternatives before making this important decision.Industry Competitive Analysis -? Porters Five forces Treat of new Entrants: Given that the railroad industry requires a heavy initial investment the treat of new entrants is low. However, effects of deregulation on both the trucking and railroad industries were changing the competitive environment i n transportation (Cash, p. 62). Trucking companies needed a lower initial investment to enter and they Were gaining advantage Over railroad companies since they were providing door-to-door delivery service which was being preferred by customers in order to meet the just-in-time production.Treat of Substitutes products: For BAN its largest source of revenue was coal (Cash, p. 62), and its major competitor was the Union Pacific UP), which was another railroad company that had recently invested in a new technology. Heehaw commodities like coal and grain would normally be transported by train which put BAN in a position where it was difficult for customer to switch but when it comes to transport light products trucks were moving ahead by providing faster service that customers were willing to pay.Bargaining power of Buyers: The railroad industry had a few companies providing the service to the customers, but it was facing two major challenges which were better service and capital intens ity (Cash, p. 68). This was making the trucking industry stronger since customers were looking for a faster service and they were able to provide it. Bargaining Power of Suppliers: Farmers and other big corporations were Ban's suppliers. For suppliers providing light products like agricultural and food products they had the alternative to switch to the trucking companies, but for the ones providing yeah. Products like coal and automotive products they didn't have to much bargaining power since railroad companies were the best way for transporting these. Industry Rivalry: The number one competitor is the Union Pacific (LCP) and they were also investing to be more efficient (Cash, p. 4). Certainly, the trucking industry was becoming a strong competitor for BAN as well, since the costs in the trucking industry were going down due to the effects of deregulation and they were providing more flexibility for customers.Generic Strategy BAN currently is following the cost leadership strategy by using economies of scale to transport high volumes of commodities to its customers. Coal was the number one source of revenue and BAN had long term contract customers (Cash, p. 4). The second largest source of revenue was agricultural modesties and BAN was expecting to grow in this segment given recent changes in economic policies in Eastern Europe.To satisfy the expected increase in demand for this type of products BAN will need to become even more efficient to keep its cost leadership strategy, maintain its current customers and gain potential new customers in the future. Organizational Structure Burlington Northern is structured in a functional form, where similar knowledge, tasks and skills are being grouped together. This is because the functional form promotes economies of scale (Cash, p. 35). For instance chapters are in charge of controlled the trains and each of them were assigned to a region and they Were only responsible for that region.They also schedule maintenance with the MOW crews. Other operations were divided by function as well, such as control systems and communications, maintenance, and freight car management and each of these departments were reporting to the operations manager assigned to that department. The idea behind this form is to create a rational system to operate in as efficient as possible (Morgan, p. 22). However, the question was whether after implementing ARES this form would still be suitable; the new system might suggest an organizational structural change.Stakeholders Top management: This group has the responsibility of keeping the company running, which means that the BAN must continue making profit in order to maximize the company's value. F-or this reason they have to make sure that an investment of this magnitude is justifiable and that in the long run will provide the identified benefits. Employees: This group will be affected directly by the ARES project, the whole business process is going to change and they il l have to adapt to the new system.The advantage is that this new system promise to be more efficient and safe which can make their jobs easier but on the other hand some people might lose their job or since ARES is supposed to automate a lot of processes currently being made by them. Customers: ARES is going to improve the scheduling of trains which ultimately will provide a faster and more reliable service to its customers. However, in order to still be profitable after ARES implementation, BAN might increase the price for the service and customers which will affect customers.Solutions: One solution for BAN could be to implement the entire ARES system in a geographic region first. With this solution the top management could analyze the benefits in reality before doing a whole implementation of the system which is riskier. Another solution could be to not do any implementation for now and wait and see how other railroad companies adapt to new emerging technologies, by doing this BAN would take an adapter position which would still keep them competitive regarding technological development but with less risk.Adaptive companies use information technology at a level close to their competitors (Friedman, p. 72). But this solution affects the customers that are demanding faster delivery necessary for the recent trend of KIT manufacturing who might end up switching to trucking companies, which ultimately affects BAN because by the time they finally implement a system to improve the delivery to customers, they will have lost a lot of potential customers. The best solution and recommendation for BAN is to do a whole implementation of ARES despite its high cost.Without a question, the environment is changing and BAN must adapt and stop using old technology if they want to continue being in business. BAN is a very large company that eels with complex business processes everyday thus in order for them to survive and keep growing they should be aggressive and be the leader in the industry having the most advanced technology. ARES will automate a lot of processes in a more efficient Way minimizing human errors which ultimately will reduce labor cost by eliminating unnecessary manpower.ARES will also improve the scheduling of trains which will eradicate the meet and passes problem one of Ban's biggest challenge. Clearly, the poor utilization of Ban's assets (bad scheduling and waste of resources) is creating bottlenecks which s preventing them from making more profit and meet the market demand. One important message revealed in the book ‘The Goal† is that companies should balance the flow with the demand from the market (Goldwater, p. 139). The demand is growing national and is expected to grow more even in the international arena in the future.ARES will optimize the whole system of BAN which in the long run will generate high revenues because they will be able to meet the market demand. However, the implementation Of ARES will affect the e ntire company and operations and many organization changes will be required. Companies in order to survive must embrace change and successful adaptation of organization to environment depends on the ability of top management to interpret conditions facing the firm in an appropriate manner to adapt relevant course of action. Morgan, p. 47). In order to take advantage of all ARES features and benefits BAN they should also switch to use a matrix organizational structure. The fully developed matrix is team driven, in that priority is given to business, program, product, or project areas, with functional specialist providing support, where the focus is on end product or revere encouraging a flexible, innovative, and adaptive behavior (Morgan, p. 51 Matrix organizational structure is the best choice for a growing and complex company like BAN.

Monday, January 6, 2020

How Philosophy Effects Who And Why I Think And Behave As I Do

In this, my final paper for this class I want to explain how philosophy effects who and why I think and behave as I do. I will examine the overall perspective how different types of philosophies are blended together to become my core beliefs. How these beliefs affect the meaning of my life and further more why life has meaning at all to me. In ending I will explain my personal theories of reality, ethics, social and racial contracts come together to contribute to my acceptance of religion and human nature. When we think about philosophy we start out believing that is a complicated process left to the teachers and thinkers of the world that are best at processing it all. What we fail to realize is that it is philosophy who shapes the†¦show more content†¦As we mature as young adults we develop relationship outside of this unit and add, modify and change what we believed as absolutes. Continually throughout adult we change our views as we learn and are exposed to events which force a wider perception of the world around us. To say we are that we perceive and believe that exactly at same at 50 as we did at 20 would be impossible because even as the world has changed it in turn changes who and how we see the world. He writing the â€Å"Circles† shows how the relativism of ethics changes and moves in circles as beliefs and truths change, so we change. (Hallman, Pg 314-319, 2008) This doesn’t mean that we lose who we were when we younger only that we have modified our thinking to accommodate our increased knowledge. Raised as I was in the western influences of philosophy as a young adult I was drawn to the eastern collectivism in culture best described by Tao. Lao Tzu wrote the world is like a river flowing and blending changing and harmonizing within nature and balance ourselves we too must harmonize and flow with nature. (Hallman, pg 192-195, 2008) Here is where for me you see the changes in my belief system for in my search to understand who I am and why do I exist I choose to search in many views. I first came across Wicca and paganism which to me explained the energy and grounding which opened my experience to practice of religious experiences outside of the Christian faith. One which could believe