...June 23, 2011 Congressional Research Service 7-5700 www.crs.gov R41887 CRS Report for Congress Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Brief History of the Gold Standard in the United States Summary The U.S. monetary system is based on paper money backed by the full faith and credit of the federal government. The currency is neither valued in, backed by, nor officially convertible into gold or silver. Through much of its history, however, the United States was on a metallic standard of one sort or another. On occasion, there are calls for Congress to return to such a system. Such calls are usually accompanied by claims that gold or silver backing has provided considerable economic benefits in the past. This report briefly reviews the history of the gold standard in the United States. It is intended to clarify the dates during which the standard was used, the type of gold standard in operation at the various times, and the statutory changes used to alter the standard and eventually end it. It is not a discussion of the merits of such a system. The United States began with a bimetallic standard in which the dollar was defined in terms of both gold or silver at weights and fineness such that gold and silver were set in value to each other at a ratio of 15 to 1. Because world markets valued them at a 15½ to 1 ratio, much of the gold left the country and silver was the de facto standard. In 1834, the gold content of the dollar was reduced to make the ratio 16...
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...Research Paper Matthew Emery memery@capella.edu BUS3004 Developing a Business Perspective Lynn MacBeth 08/12/2012 Too Big to Stay Introduction A financial institution so interwoven in the fabric of the national economy that its failure could cause a massive ripple effect is deemed “too big to fail”. Unfortunately for the taxpayers, their hard earned dollars are the only thing between salvation and failure for these companies. Poor management or industry instability can ruin any business, but the larger an institution gets, the larger the collateral damaged induced by their failure will be. It is the duty of a responsible government to never leave their citizens vulnerable to such a catastrophe. The goal of this paper is to prove that too big to fail policy is what turned a period of stagnant growth into the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. It is a well known fact that the housing market and therefore the United States economy started slipping in late 2007. As the economy was faltering, it still managed to not slip into recession status until September 2008. It is lees than coincidental that America's fifth largest financial institution, Lehman Brothers, filed for bankruptcy on September 15, 2008, the very same time the economy plummeted. The instability of the market led to runs on banking institutions, which in turn led to more bank failures, which led to massive bailouts. These bailouts, while helpful at the time, lead to unprecedented...
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...GOLD DINAR - USING BILATERAL PAYMENT ARRANGEMENT OR ELECTRONIC PAYMENT SYSTEM1 WRITTEN BY: NURADLI RIDZWAN SHAH BIN MOHD DALI nuradli@kms.uniten.edu.my BAKHTIAR ALRAZI HANIFAH ABDUL HAMID UNIVERSITI TENAGA NASIONAL ABSTRACT2 The Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad first expressed interest in a universal currency that could help unite Muslim countries after attending the OIC summit in Doha, Qatar in November 2000. This led to an international conference entitled "Stable and Just Global Monetary System - The Islamic Dinar" organized by the International Islamic University in August 2002. After much research and consultation, a gold-based currency, called the ‘gold Dinar’, was put forth as a viable solution, and was expected to be implemented in 2003. This paper is an extension of the previous paper entitled "The Implementation of Gold Dinar. Is it the End of Speculative Measures?" published in the Journal of Economic Cooperation, SESRTCIC, Turkey volume 23, 2003. No 3. Keyword: Gold Dinar, Bilateral Payment Arrangement, Electronic Gold Payment System Introduction Several seminars and conferences were held in matters pertaining to gold Dinar in order to create the awareness of the government’s agencies, public and private sectors on the return of the gold Dinar as an international payment system. The seminars and conferences are also intended to find the best system or mechanism to ensure that the implementation of such system would not affect one’s economy...
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...addictive. In 1937, the Marijuana Tax Act taxed everyone, including doctors who legally dealt in marijuana. (www.deathandtaxesmag.com). In the decades that followed, especially the 1960’s and 1970’s the people’s experimentation with marijuana has exponentially increased. According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, “marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug in the United States. In 2011, 18.1 million Americans aged 12 and older (7.0 percent) reported using the drug.” (Office of the National Drug Control Policy). Compare this statistic, “to the 10.4 million young people between the ages of 12 and 20 who drank more than just a few sips of alcohol.” (National Institute on Alochol Abuse and Alcohlism). While the question of this paper is not the underage usage of alcohol or marijuana, in all the research that topic keeps being brought up. This focus of this paper is on the adult use (over the age of consent) of marijuana used to treatment medical necessity, not recreational use. Marijuana is considered a Schedule I drug as defined by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). According to the DEA website; drugs, substances, and chemicals are classified into five categories, or schedules. A drug classified as a schedule I drug has no accepted medical use and has a high potential for abuse. (DEA/Drug Scheduling). Along with marijuana, heroin, LSD, ecstasy and peyote are also listed as schedule I drugs. It is also interesting to note, that Ritalin given to children under 18 to treat...
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...Banking Industry and the Economy Ja’Net McQueen Slater Strayer University Birmingham, AL Instructor: Dr. Lisa Kincaid Research and Communication- RES 531 April 18th, 2010 Context of the Problem Today the economy is at its worst than it’s ever been before since the 1940s. Unemployment is at a record high as well as companies that are continuing to close down due to financial issues. The housing markets, auto industry, banking industry, & loss of jobs are all major things that are being affected by the way the US is spending money. The housing market and banking industry are both some of the main things that are having a major affect on the U.S. and to how this affects all other aspects of daily living. Some people may ask, “How did we get this way”? Over the past 180 years the United States grew to a huge, integrated, industrialized economy that makes up over a quarter of the world economy. The main causes were a large unified market, a supportive political-legal system, vast areas of highly productive farmlands, vast natural resources (especially timber, coal and oil), an entrepreneurial spirit, a commitment to investing in material and human capital, and at times a willingness to exploit labor. In addition, the U.S. was able to utilize these resources due to a unique set of institutions designed to encourage utilization and extraction. The economy has maintained high wages, attracting immigrants by the millions from all over...
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...ISAS Working Paper No. 85 – Date: 7 September 2009 469A Bukit Timah Road #07-01, Tower Block, Singapore 259770 Tel: 6516 6179 / 6516 4239 Fax: 6776 7505 / 6314 5447 Email: isassec@nus.edu.sg Website: www.isas.nus.edu.sg An Economic Analysis of Bangladesh’s Foreign Exchange Reserves M. Shahidul Islam 1 Executive Summary Following the rapid accumulation of foreign exchange reserves in recent months, there has been a growing interest in Bangladesh on the alternative uses of its reserves. However, different reserves adequacy measures based on global best practices confirm that its reserves holding is not markedly higher than what is required. The country’s reserves stand higher than the adequate level only when one considers the current account aspects of reserves benchmark which is perhaps appropriate for the country as its financial system is still autarkic. The dynamics in its balance of payments account also supports the fact. The paper highlights the fact that Bangladesh’s reserves build-up is the result of an ‘investment drought’ in the country. This is partly due to its underdeveloped financial systems, and partly due to other structural problems in the economy – entailing difficulties in properly channelling national savings to investments. As the Bangladesh central bank’s sterilised intervention increases, so will its cost of reserves accumulation. The reason is the interest rate arbitrage between Bangladesh and the United States. The United States government securities...
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...coming from to pay the costs of increase. Patient’s costs has doubled more in the U.S than any other country along with leaving some people without health care. This paper will discuss health care expenditures, as well as spending is too much or not enough. This paper will also discuss whether or not the nation should add or cut in certain areas and why. How the public need for health care are financed and the percentage of expenditures they represent. Lastly, I will provide future economic needs of the health care system along with reasoning for addressing these needs, and envisions for financing these needs. The spending for health care uses a great deal of the economy revenue, the national studies that have been completed within the past decade clearly shows many U.S citizens will have to make decisions that are disconcerting based on their ability to obtain affordable health care. As health care cost has been on the rise for many years. The expenditures in the United States to health care rose above $2 trillion in 2008. This has affected many families and businesses as well as the budget for the public. Health care spending cost are increasing at a more rapid rate than the economy current state as a whole and more rapidly than employee wages. Other countries spend rate is about 12% while the United States is 20% of the gross domestic product on health care alone. The health care expenditures per person as well as percentage based on GDP the United States have the most expensive...
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...Budgetary Gaps vi. Conclusion vii. Appendix a. Colorado House Bill 10-1193 b. State Budget Gaps and Uncollected Tax Revenues c. Regression Analysis i. Graph 1.1 ii. Graph 1.2 iii. Graph 1.3 viii. References Introduction It was May of 1984 in Gateshead, England when Tesco recorded the first ever-online shopping transaction from a home . Tesco is the second largest retailer in the world after Wal-Mart, based on profits . This single transaction would pave the way towards a society that relies on the virtual store as opposed to a traditional brick and mortar setting. The convenience and accessibility that the virtual market provides has consequently provided inconveniences in other areas. State and federal governments have been steadily suffering from budget short falls. E-Commerce has diverted business from the mom and pop stores to companies such as Amazon.com and Overstock.com. Small businesses have closed and the land that they once occupied now sits vacant, with no one paying the respective land and sales taxes that the business once generated. The closing of smaller, local retailers has, in retrospect, paved the way for the expansion of e-commerce and the exponential growth that has been realized over the last decade. Current legislation and lack of regulation have limited the potential for federal and state governments to cash in on these lost revenues. I chose Amazon.com as my subject for this paper. The reasoning behind it is that Amazon.com has for years...
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...example. Media plays a role in the use of drug and alcohol use among young people. Many school systems have implemented programs that teach adolescents about the problems of substance abuse that is funded by the government. The community health nurse helps provide education in the community. The cost for substance abuse can be astronomic. Emergency room visits, treatment programs and even court costs lead to billions of dollars annually. The key to prevention is education. Adolescent Substance Abuse In society today adolescent substance abuse is a growing problem. There are many risk factors that can lead to substance abuse. It is important to understand the reasons behind why the adolescent begins the experimentation of drugs and alcohol. Media plays a role in adolescent substance abuse. Many times advertisement and movies betray alcohol or drug use as fun and not addictive. Many times the people are happy and having a good time. This gives many young people the wrong idea about substance use. Substance abuse among young people between the ages of 12 and 20 years of age is a serious national problem. This abuse can lead to significant morbidity and mortality. Adolescent substance abuse that starts at an early age can lead to addictive behavior later in life. In a study it stated that when an adolescent starts drinking at or...
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...Unification of the Navy, Army and Air Force On 1 February 1968, Bill C-243, The Canadian Forces Reorganization Act became law and the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN), the Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) were combined into one service - the Canadian Forces. This process was accomplished by "integration" of the three services, and then Unification into a homogenous organization. I believe that Paul Hellyer helped shape the Canadian Forces into what it is today and also I do think that the integration and unification was a bad thing at the time as if it didn’t happen back in the 1968 it surely would have happen at a later date with General Rick Hillier. I will look into the process that Paul Hellyer took in bringing these three different services together under unification and explore some other opinions that I have found amongst way vast research upon the web. In 1964 the Minister of National Defense Paul Hellyer published the White Paper on Defense. In it he proposed the unification of the three services, the creation of a single command structure reporting to the Chief of Defense Staff and the restructuring of the current geographically based commands into six function-based commands. The process began with the introduction of Bill C-90 creating the CDS’ office and a single chain of command and culminated with Bill 243 the Canadian Forces Reorganization Act in February 1968, which unified the three services and created the Canadian Forces, as we know...
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...studying precious stones and metals. He enriched my life with passion to beauty. If God wanted us to bend over he'd put diamonds on the floor Joan Rivers Contents Acknowledgements 3 Executive summary 7 I Introduction 10 Ground for discussion 10 Objectives 10 Methodology 11 II Literature review and hypothesis development 12 Overview 12 Introduction 12 History of diamonds 12 Industry structure 13 DeBeers cartel 15 Diamond valuation 16 Diamond valuation process 16 Determinants of diamond prices 18 Diamond as an investment 19 Types of investment 19 Problems associated with investing in diamonds 20 Benefits associated with investing in diamonds 20 Alternatives to investing in diamonds 23 Hypothesis development 25 III Methodology 26 Data collection 26 Primary research 26 Secondary research 27 Methodology 28 Descriptive statistics 28 Regression analysis 28 Variables 29 Limitations and assumptions 30 IV Analysis and results 32 Interview results 32 Summary statistics 36 Explanation of variables 36 Descriptive statistics 38 Correlation 44 Regression analysis 46 V Conclusions and recommendations 49 References 52 Appendix 56...
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...INTRODUCTION On August 22, 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, also known as the Welfare Reform Bill, into effect ending welfare as it had been known for many years. “This law transformed the traditional entitlement to cash welfare under Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) into a transitional program, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), which requires most recipients to work after two years of receiving assistance, or, at state option, even earlier, with few exceptions. After 60 months of receipt during a lifetime, a recipient is ineligible for federally-funded cash benefits (NPC, 2004)”. (1) The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act shifted the responsibility of the poor to the states. The Act also made allowance for states to perform drug testing of those who were in need of federal assistance. According to an article in the New York Times “Policy makers in three dozen states this year proposed drug testing for people receiving benefits like welfare, unemployment assistance, job training, food stamps and public housing (Sulzberger, 2011) .” The controversy rising from the proposed drug testing has many debating the question: Should people seeking government assistance be required to take drug tests? PROs/CONs: There are several pros and cons to the new legislature to drug test those seeking government assistance. PROS: Those in favor of the bills feel that it is reasonable to drug...
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...AN ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTS OF INTEREST RATE AND EXCHANGE RATE CHANGES ON STOCK MARKET RETURNS: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE OF GHANA STOCK EXCHANGE A thesis submitted to the Institute of Distance Learning, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of COMMONWEALTH EXECUTIVE MASTERS OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Institute of Distance Learning, KNUST JUNE, 2011 DECLARATION I hereby declare that this submission is my own work toward the Commonwealth Executive Master of Business Administration and that, to the best of my knowledge, it contains no material previously published by another person nor material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree of the University except where due acknowledgement has been made in the text. RANSFORD CHARLES ENYAAH (STUDENT ID No: 20103521) …………………… Signature …………………. Date Certified by: EDWARD ACHEAMPONG (SUPERVISOR) …………………… Signature …………………. Date Certified by: ……………………………… Head of IDL …………………… Signature …………………. Date i DEDICATION I dedicate this project work to the Lord Almighty and all my loved ones. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all, I thank the almighty God for fulfilling his promises to my life and for granting me the strength, wisdom and knowledge to complete this work My profound gratitude goes to my Supervisor, Mr. Edward Acheampong (Lecturer, Methodist University College, Ghana) for his unflinching dedication...
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...Assignment ZipCar Evaluate this potential venture and the progress that Chase has made. For the purpose of evaluating the Zipcar business venture I made use of the format of the Salhman article named “How to write a great business plan.” Hereby, a business framework should systematically assess four independent factors critically to every venture namely; The People, The Opportunity, The Context and an overview of possible risk and the reward for coping with these risks effectively. After shortly explaining the factors I will apply this framework to the Zipcar Case and analyze the quality of its business model. This makes it possible to evaluate the potential of the venture; and its progress from scratch to start, from an investor’s perspective. The people The success of a product or service is dependent on the people developing them. “The people” refers to both the entrepreneurs developing the business as all other actors who have been actively involved in providing key resources or important services. The analysis The easiest way to analyze the people behind the business is by usage of the ‘Fourteen personal questions every business plan should answer’. Hereby, I looked at the completeness in providing the right information and the quality of the information that is provided in the Zipcar case. At first, both developers of the concept; Danielson & Chase were highly experienced and qualified within their field of interest. Danielson; having an educational background...
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...Module 2 Assignment 1: Exploring U.S. Health Care Expenditures Name: Edward Hamilton 1. Year for which data is presented 2013 Total dollar amount for expenditures $ 2.9 trillion (1 pt) | 2. Explain how national health expenditures vary from governmental spending on health care. (2 pts) National health expenditures (NHE) comprise of all expenditures from all payer sources (individual and institutional) of which governmental spending is just one component of the NHE total. For example, an insured’s copay as well as a hospital’s new cancer center construction costs all count towards the NHE total. Governmental spending is limited to expenditures from the public sector (i.e. Medicaid, Medicare, VA and single disease funds) ( | The Nation’s Health Dollar 2013: Where It Went(Expenditures Table) | Category of expenditure | % allocated to this category (1 pt each) | | Answer the questions below including citations to your sources. (3 pts each) | Program administration and net cost | 3a. 7% | | 3f. What does this category include? “Administrative costs of the health insurance system include (a) spending by public and private health insurers other than actual payments to providers and (b) costs incurred by other system participants, including providers, employers, and...
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