The One Thing Needful from the Hard Times by Charles Dickens Hard times, published in 1854 Essay Example For Students

The One Thing Needful from the Hard Times by Charles Dickens Hard times, published in 1854 Essay The One Thing Needful from the Hard Times by Charles Dickens Hard times, published in 1854, Dickens shortest novel was not popular in its day, though it has since received critical acclaim for its rousing satire against materialism. This is quote taken from Msn Encarta Encyclopedia. This extract is about a person who is considered to have authority and to be greatly respected telling other grown-ups how he wants children to be taught and how they should be taught, this shows what education in the 19th century might have been like. The main purpose of this text is to emphasise what should be taught and how it should be taught and the speaker thinks that by enforcing a teaching method, children will have better lives as it would be based on nothing but facts. This passage makes modern children compare and think about how lucky they are to be able to express how they feel and imagine things. The way the word Facts is written and repeated shows their importance in the speakers life, this also highlights how important the thought of teaching facts is, well at least to the speaker, this explains why it is written as a proper noun with the use of a capital letter, the speaker personifies Facts. Dickens deliberately uses repetition to represent the way in which children learn, by repetition. The speaker refers to children in several ways, but his main point is that children learn by things being repeated to them. We will write a custom essay on The One Thing Needful from the Hard Times by Charles Dickens Hard times, published in 1854 specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now This explains why he calls them reasoning animals, because animals learn by things being repeated to them and once they are used to it they would do it automatically. The speaker is trying to say that teaching them facts is like training them to be good, but unlike animals, human beings especially children have opinions and wild imaginations. Dickens uses a metaphor, which could have different meanings. Plant nothing else and root out everything else. The fact he uses gardening shows that children are just like a garden: they have a lot of things in their heads, but grown-ups have to plant the seeds which are the facts in the garden to be able to make them grow properly. The structure of the passage has a great impact on what the reader thinks about the speaker after having read the first paragraph and after having read the last paragraph. From the way in which the writer describes the speaker, the audience has a clear understanding that the writer does not like the speaker. He is not mentioned by any names or titles but as the speaker; this leaves the reader to guess his identity and distances himself from the speakers view. The description of the speaker matches his sentence structures in the quotes. They are short, snappy and straightforward. Dickens describes him as square to show that he is predictable and unchangeable. The speaker makes sure that his point gets across and to do so he uses a harsh, strict tone. Dickens uses hyperbole to describe the speaker by describing him using a great deal of exaggeration square wall of forehead line 10, his eyes found commodious cellarage in two dark caves, overshadowed by the wall. Line 12, a plantation of firsline 16, square coat, square legs, square shouldersline 19. This is shown by the repetition of the word square and makes the reader be perceived as the best. Victorian education was Dickens main focus in most of his novels. He uses different social classes to make the audience especially young people see that education should not be taken for granted and that if they think their teaching system is harsh, they should look at what it used to be like in Victorian times. The language used is not hard however everything is straightforward and easy to understand as well as imagine. Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare Act 1 scene 1. This scene is a strange opening for a play. Orsino says how much he loves Olivia, but he is told that she is still mourning her brothers death for seven years. .ub73a9dba5831c92f001e7c41259b479d , .ub73a9dba5831c92f001e7c41259b479d .postImageUrl , .ub73a9dba5831c92f001e7c41259b479d .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .ub73a9dba5831c92f001e7c41259b479d , .ub73a9dba5831c92f001e7c41259b479d:hover , .ub73a9dba5831c92f001e7c41259b479d:visited , .ub73a9dba5831c92f001e7c41259b479d:active { border:0!important; } .ub73a9dba5831c92f001e7c41259b479d .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .ub73a9dba5831c92f001e7c41259b479d { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .ub73a9dba5831c92f001e7c41259b479d:active , .ub73a9dba5831c92f001e7c41259b479d:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .ub73a9dba5831c92f001e7c41259b479d .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .ub73a9dba5831c92f001e7c41259b479d .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .ub73a9dba5831c92f001e7c41259b479d .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .ub73a9dba5831c92f001e7c41259b479d .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .ub73a9dba5831c92f001e7c41259b479d:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .ub73a9dba5831c92f001e7c41259b479d .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .ub73a9dba5831c92f001e7c41259b479d .ub73a9dba5831c92f001e7c41259b479d-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .ub73a9dba5831c92f001e7c41259b479d:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: JD Salinger s Catcher in the Rye Compared to Mark Twains EssayOrsino loves her so much that he imagines her being in love with him and compares two different kinds of love: the love she has for her brother and the love that she might have for him one day. The purpose of this text is to engage the reader into the theme of the play and most of the times when something is about love, there is a show of great interest. Shakespeare used a great method by opening with play with rhymes that is guaranteed to catch the readers attention. This scene shows the impact love has on people. It makes it interesting that the play opens directly telling the reader what is happening. There is no background information, the only piece of information that the reader gets from this extract is that Orsino is the Duke of Illyria and is deeply in love; he sounds a little bit obsessed with the idea of love and this extract allows the reader to see what kind of personality Orsino has. He can be portrayed as someone highly emotional and someone who will fight to get what he wants. The language used in this text is quite hard to understand if you are a young person who is not used to hearing the traditional way of the English language. Some words are quite easy to understand, as they are quite similar to the words we use nowadays, or we can relate them somehow. Pestilenceline 20 means plague but this could be guessed with pestilence. This play uses imagery containing food. Orsino describes his love for Olivia as an appetite: If music be the food of love play on, Give me excess of it- that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die line 1-3, he wants to feed his love with music, he wants to feed it so much that he would be full and become sick of it and wont feel his love anymore. This is also used when Olivias grief is described. In this case water is used to describe Olivias mourning. Shakespeare uses different parts of the body to show the same emotion- love hart eyes liver brain lines 18 and 27. He constantly uses the sense of smell and taste, The sweet sound That breathes upon a bank of violets line 6, stealing and giving odour line 7, tis not sweet nowà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Line 8 Sweet beds of flower line 40. This may induce some sexual thoughts into the readers mind. The language used makes the reader feel what the characters are feeling especially if they have felt like that about someone before. The fact that Orsino goes into great detail about his love for Olivia shows the reader that he is willing to do anything to win her heart. The use of abstract nouns, love and grief makes the reader feel pity for the characters. There is a simile That, notwithstanding thy capacity, Receiveth as the sea line 10-11 which suggests that love is like the sea, devouring everything. Nothing can satisfy it. Shakespeare also uses hyperbole to show the love that Orsino has for Olivia and the grief Olivia has for her brother. I dont think there is a historical context in Twelfth Night; it seems to be purely fictional. However this was set in the Elizabethan era. Since Shakespeare wrote Twelfth Night a lot has changed and mainly peoples sense of humour, even though this play was a comedy in Shakespearean times it may not be what we call a comedy now. During that time women had a poor role in society, there was this idea of the women not being allowed to do certain things such as, acting therefore, men had to play the role of women and unlike all his other comedies, twelfth night includes a conception of love and other themes which most of his other comedies do not have, this was one of his last three mature comedies. .u3d1be5985a49df8d1e19315f851639e0 , .u3d1be5985a49df8d1e19315f851639e0 .postImageUrl , .u3d1be5985a49df8d1e19315f851639e0 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u3d1be5985a49df8d1e19315f851639e0 , .u3d1be5985a49df8d1e19315f851639e0:hover , .u3d1be5985a49df8d1e19315f851639e0:visited , .u3d1be5985a49df8d1e19315f851639e0:active { border:0!important; } .u3d1be5985a49df8d1e19315f851639e0 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u3d1be5985a49df8d1e19315f851639e0 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u3d1be5985a49df8d1e19315f851639e0:active , .u3d1be5985a49df8d1e19315f851639e0:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u3d1be5985a49df8d1e19315f851639e0 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u3d1be5985a49df8d1e19315f851639e0 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u3d1be5985a49df8d1e19315f851639e0 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u3d1be5985a49df8d1e19315f851639e0 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u3d1be5985a49df8d1e19315f851639e0:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u3d1be5985a49df8d1e19315f851639e0 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u3d1be5985a49df8d1e19315f851639e0 .u3d1be5985a49df8d1e19315f851639e0-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u3d1be5985a49df8d1e19315f851639e0:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Benito Cereno by Herman Melville EssayTwelfth Night is a celebration of romantic love that can be pictured as traditional romantic love. The play contains many elements of Elizabethan romantic comedy. The things that are in the play are meant to make the audience go through a series of moods. Because this play is a comedy most of the things that happen are meant to make the audience laugh. It does achieve this aim with nearly every character. However in the opening scene, the main emotions that Shakespeare wants the audience to feel are pity and grief. Samaritans This text is about ways to identify people who want to commit suicide and how to help them. The purpose of this text is to make the readers aware of things that are happening in their surroundings. This makes the reader think and may prevent many people from committing suicide and to advertise them of what to do. This text is written in interrogative form because this makes the reader wonder and understand the reasons why people would try to commit suicide. I would associate this extract with mostly teenagers, as they are the ones who undergo the situations listed however this can happen to anyone, but mostly teenager would want to commit suicide if they are dumped by their loved ones. The first paragraph is written as a question but due to the punctuation it could be classed as a declarative sentence. The first sentence after the first paragraph is a statement, which is followed by a question and then an answer, which doesnt directly answer the question. Unlike all the other extracts this extract is not fiction therefore it focuses on a more serious issue. The use of bullet points attracts the reader to indulge into the extract and might make some readers want to know more about suicide. This could also restrict those who are trying to commit suicide to what they will tell people. Even though this subject is quite delicate, there is no use of euphemisms or dysphemisms. Everything is straight to the point; nothing is exaggerated or left out. There a lot question which are facts that people need to consider in order to look out for themselves and others. The way the questions are posed will make the reader observe the people around them and try to help them if they see any of the suicidal signs. There are 1745 words in this document AUTHOR Fatim Toure Page PAGE 4 DATE 20/02/2006 Reading and comprehension of texts

Ernest Hemingway Essay Example

Ernest Hemingway Essay Example Ernest Hemingway Essay Ernest Hemingway Essay Essay Topic: A Farewell to Arms Everything Is Illuminated For Whom the Bell Tolls Ernest Hemingway is one of the most legendary figures in American literature. known for his authorship every bit good as his love of the dangerous- deep sea fishing. large game hunting. tauromachy in Spain. etc. As an writer. he covers countless capable affair in a really typical manner. His sentences are short and non-descriptive. and the reader must work to bring out literary elements like subject. Dialogue is his existent forte. He uses really few descriptive inside informations. His novels tend to be more about masculine topics and based on his escapades while his short narratives are known for his geographic expedition of functions between work forces and adult females. His novels tend to be based on his experiences. In fact. as the Hemingway Resource Center provinces. When you want to happen the truth about Hemingway’s life. look first to his fiction ( Hemingway resource centre ) . In Our Time was published in 1925 and contained some really noteworthy short narratives. such as Big Two-Hearted River. Work force Without Women was published in 1927. The Sun Besides Rises was one of the first books he published. and the capable affair was a group of immature people populating in Spain. expatriates populating abroad. The chief character was in love with a adult female who was besides in love with a toreador. The Sun Besides Rises introduced the universe to the lost generation and was a critical and commercial success. Set in Paris and Spain. the book was a narrative of unrequitable love against a background of bars and bullfighting ( Hemingway Resource Center ) . Soon after that in 1929 came A Farewell to Arms. which some would state is the best book to come out of the experience of World War I. The tragic stoping really comes from one of Hemingway’s married womans ( Pauline ) and her battles with childbearing. And after that came his thesis called Death in the Afternoon. all about bullfighting. Hemingway says that. It is intended as an debut to the modern Spanish corrida and efforts to explicate that spectacle both emotionally and practically. It was written because there was no book which did this in Spanish or in English. In this thesis he began to organize his thought of the true hero as grace under force per unit area. He besides outlined his theory of omission or iceberg rule. which is a theory really of import to future literature. He states: If a author of prose knows plenty about what he is composing about he may exclude things that he knows and the reader. if the author is composing genuinely plenty. will hold a feeling of those things every bit strongly as though the author had stated them. The self-respect of motion of the iceberg is due to merely one-eighth of it being above H2O. The author who omits things because he does non cognize them merely makes hollow topographic points in his authorship. ( Hemingway Resource Center ) . His novel called The Green Hills of Africa in 1935 came from the captivation Hemingway had with Teddy Roosevelt’s African runing campaign. With borrowed money from his wife’s uncle. Hemingway spent three months in Africa on a campaign of his ain. The novel comes from this. 1940 brought For Whom the Bell Tolls. a novel about the Spanish Civil War. Many of his novels were truly about that whole thought of the Hemingway hero. The Hemingway hero must confront decease courageously and unrecorded life to the fullest even in the presence of decease. Hemingway suffered through a long period of non being favored by the critics and was determined to derive back his old position. This is when he published The Old Man and the Sea. the quintessential novel of bravery and continuity. This book sold over 5 million transcripts in a really short clip. and all of a sudden Hemingway was on top of the pile one time once more. This book about a man’s battle with a banging marlin even won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953. He merely could non double the glare of this book once more. His nonfiction studies of Paris in the 1920s called A Moveable Feast ( 1964 ) did nil to progress his repute. Unfortunately. due to age and medical jobs Hemingway neer wrote anything near to this once more. He ended up killing himself due to depression and medical jobs. While the subjects of his novels tend to go around around his experience. his short narratives do so excessively but to a lesser extent. His focal point in many of his celebrated short narratives tends to be more about the deficiency of communicating between males and females. For illustration. His short narratives The Snows of Kilimanjaro and The Short Happy Life of Frances Macomber both come from the safari experience every bit good although the focal point is different. In Snows of Kilimanjaro. Hemingway’s chief male character is a author who has fundamentally wasted his endowment by going sexually involved with a rich adult female who buys him everything he needs. This short narrative can surely be seen as Hemingway himself keening the manner that he was wasted his endowment as a write although some say it is about F. Scott Fitzgerald. His male character. Harry. is a chauvinistic hog while the female character attends to his every demand. She is weak. and this allows the author to take entire advantage of her. Again. the reader can’t aid but inquire how much of this is autobiographical. Another short narrative that has gained much attending is from the 1927 book called work forces without Women. This narrative is called Hills Like White Elephants shows how much of a narrative Hemingway could state with really small. It defines his minimalist manner. In authoritative Hemingway manner a twosome sits at the saloon of a train station discoursing an unknown topic. Part of the beauty of the narrative is that the reader must work to bring out the topic of their conversation. but besides that every item in the scene. in the narrative itself goes toward doing significance. It besides shows the communicating dislocation between adult male and adult female. For illustration. the really fact that the narrative is set in a train station is pure beauty. This twosome must do a determination about the issue before them ( abortion ) . There is no traveling back and there is non standing still. They must acquire on whichever train they are acquiring on without vacillation. As the miss looks out one side of the station. she sees green. fertile land. As she looks out the other side. she sees dry barrenness. Again. the symbolic significance is clear. The twosome has an full conversation and neer references the word abortion. nor do they look at each other. They look at everything else which shows the extent to which they are uncomfortable with the topic and each other. They repeat the same phrases over and over once more without any true apprehension. although the miss does look to catch on in the terminal. This is authoritative Hemingway to demo the deficiency of communicating even between two people who are supposed to be near. A sample of Hemingway’s consummate duologue follows: Well. ’ the adult male said. if you don’t want to you don’t have to. I wouldn’t have you do it if you didn’t want to. But I know it’s absolutely simple. And you truly desire to? ’ I think it’s the best thing to make. But I don’t want you to make it if you don’t truly want to. ’ And if I do it you’ll be happy and things will be like they were and you’ll love me? ’ I love you now. You know I love you. ’ I know. But if I do it. so it will be nice once more if I say things are like white elephants. and you’ll like it? ’ I’ll love it. I love it now but I merely can’t think about it. You know how I get when I worry. ’ If I do it you won’t of all time worry? ’ I won’t concern about that because it’s absolutely simple. ’ To state that this adult male and girl do non understand each other is pure understatement. They are speaking in circles and are merely non pass oning. Hemingway’s short narratives are full of this sort of duologue. Another celebrated narrative called Cat in the Rain discusses the sense of isolation for an American married woman. As Darren Felty provinces. The work revolves around the desire of Hemingway’s supporter. an American married woman holidaying in Italy. to deliver a cat from an afternoon rain storm. She fails in her effort. disclosure in the procedure the emotional distance she feels from her hubby and the attenders at the hotel. The narrative employs a composite of barriers. enclosures. and geometrically defined inside informations to stand for the emotional and psychological boundaries that restrict character interaction ( Felty ) . This apparently simple narrative uses barriers to typify the relationship between the adult male and adult female. Once once more. communicating is a immense job. While the married woman tells her hubby of this hapless pool in the rain. he hardly looks up from his paper. Finally she ends in a fit. much like Hills Like White Elephants in order to be heard. But the inside informations of puting that Hemingway utilizations are genius to demo the disaffection of the characters. This narrative is told to hone satisfaction in two pages. In following with a really of import subject of Hemingway is Big Two-Hearted River. In this narrative. the reader follows Nick from artlessness to knowledge. Basically Nick returns to a topographic point he fished when he was younger. but the whole country has been destroyed by fire. However. by returning to this topographic point of artlessness from his young person. Nick is able to travel frontward in life as Hemingway’s heroes are. The subject of disaffection is played out chillingly good in A Clean Illuminated Place. Again. we see a Hemingway hero populating his life but accepting decease. In this narrative an old adult male comes to this diner every dark. He arrives tardily one dark as the immature server is shuting up. but the immature server doesn’t want to allow him hold a drink. An older server. the voice of experience. allows him to hold a drink because he understands merely how of import it is for everyone to hold a clean illuminated place that is unfastened every bit long as possible. In other words. he understands solitariness in a manner the younger server could neer conceive of. Lastly. an of import short narrative is The Short and Happy Life of Frances Macomber. In this narrative. Hemingway’s thought of a hero is played out. On this campaign. French republics is really frightened. He is besides ruled by his married woman. However. he stands up to his married woman and is happy for a few seconds until he is killed. Like Hemingway’s codification hero. he becomes weather ( if merely for a minute ) . He faces his fright and overcomes it ; it matters non that he dies shortly after. F. Scott Fitzgerald criticized Hemingway for composing narratives in which nil happens. That is true in a manner. There is non much action in Hemingway’s novels or short narratives. but the duologue and the scene state the reader so much. Hemingway is known for his consummate usage of duologue and his sparse inside informations to state more than a complete narrative. He describes this in his iceberg rule. If it is any usage to cognize it. I ever try to compose on the rule of the iceberg. There is seven-eighths of it submerged for every portion that shows. Anything you know you can extinguish and it merely strengthens your iceberg. It is the portion that doesn’t show. If a author omits something because he does non cognize it so there is a hole in the story ( Hemingway ) . Overall. Hemingway is one of the greatest American authors the universe has seen.

Leonardo da vinci and the science work Research Paper

Leonardo da vinci and the science work - Research Paper Example This paper details a brief account of Leonardo Da Vinci’s life, his achievements and discoveries and an analysis of his life based on the parts of creativity. Brief Biography Leonardo was born on 15th April, 1452, in Vinci, Italy, out of wedlock and raised by his father, ser Piero, and his step mother. In the modern sense, Leonardo had no surname and was named â€Å"da Vinci† meaning â€Å"of Vinci†. However, his full names were â€Å"Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci† implying â€Å"Leonardo, son of ser Peiro, from Vinci†. Little literature is available about Leonardo’s early life. According to Vasari (23-32), Leonardo lived in Achiano, his mother’s home, for the first five years of his life and later moved to his father’s household in Vinci. His father had remarried numerous times. Fig. 1 Leonardo’s portrait Leonardo attained informal education on mathematics, geometry and Latin language. He joined Verrocchio’s work shop at the age of fourteen. He was exposed to chemistry, leather working, mechanics, carpentry, drawing, painting and metallurgy (Buchholz 35-40). He graduated at the age of twenty as a qualified master in the union of doctors of medicine and artists. At the age of 22, court records indicate that Leonardo Da Vinci was charged and exonerated of sodomy (Vasari 58). In 1482, Leonardo was commissioned by Lorenzo de Medici to create a silver lyre in the shape of a horse’s head. ... Within his life, his â€Å"great strength and generosity, outstanding physical beauty, and aspects of life† attracted the curiosity of many people (Vasari 67). Leonardo had numerous friends who are also renowned for their contributions in history and other fields. He kept his private life discrete and was involved in numerous intimate relationships with his pupils. Accomplishments Buchholz (76) regards Leonardo as a genius and a renaissance man. Additionally, he is described as a man whose immeasurable inquisitiveness was made equal only by his powers of invention. Arguably, his talents stretched further than his artistic works. Like most of the renaissance leaders, he did not observe any separation and distinction between art and science. Leonardo is primarily known as a painter (Moon 83). Two of his paintings, the Mona Lisa and The last Supper, are the most celebrated, reproduced and imitated paintings. Leonardo’s iconic drawing of the Vitruvian Man is renowned. He al so made numerous notebooks where he made scientific drawings, and diagrams. However, since he did not publish his diagrams, nobody else knew about the whereabouts of the notebooks and, therefore, they were discovered long later after he had died (Capra 21). As an engineer, Leonardo’s thoughts and ideas were hugely in advance of his period. He hypothesized a tank, a helicopter, solar power, calculator, and the elementary theory of plate tectonics. However, a few of his designs were feasible during his period. Some of his inventions came into the world of manufacturing unannounced and unpredicted. As a scientist, he immensely enhanced the state of knowledge on areas such as optics, hydrodynamics and anatomy (Capra 107-13). Leonardo was captivated by birds. He observed them, drew them

Marketing management Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Marketing management - Research Paper Example 2. A company that has a well-executed branding strategy will enjoy the good aspect of marketing. This is because customers will be able to identify themselves with the good due to its color, brand name and even the price. Consumers will enjoy the benefits of easy selection and budgeting of their selected brand. With regard to a newly launched product, the brand name provides the advantage especially due to the customer base already created by pioneer brands. 3. Most of the new products fail in the market because of several reasons. One of the reasons is the level of competition. Most of the newly launched products are unable to compete effectively in the market hence fail. Most of the marketers also fail in conducting feasibility tests before launching their products in the market. In addition to this, poor branding strategies and failure to connect the new product with pioneer brand creates a loophole which eventually leads to the failure. Marketers are therefore under obligation to conduct a proper feasibility test before they introduce a new product. They must ensure that the product is appealing to the customers and meeting their demands in terms of price quality and quantity. 4. Most marketers are have engaged in understanding the psychological behavior of the consumers and are now utilizing the strategy of perceived value. This means that the value of the price of the goods or services are according to what the customers thinks they are. The key to perceived value pricing is providing the customer with what they want in form of size, quality, quantity, and price. Once this is done customer loyalty follows and this is the most important aspect of perceived pricing. The marketer is able to predict the price to be paid through customer loyalty, customer demands and customer cares services. 5. One of the strategies is to increase the compensation such that the highest marketer gets the highest commission. This will act

Relationship Between Machbeth and Lady Macbeth Essay Example for Free

Relationship Between Machbeth and Lady Macbeth Essay Throughout the play Macbeth, there is an ongoing relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Right away you pick up that Lady Macbeth is a very cold controlling person, while her husband is very naive and weak. The relationship these two share is as what most people would see as unhealthy. There are never any agreements, there is never any reasoning, it’s one way, Lady Macbeth’s way, and that’s it. This is one of the biggest factors as to why all these tragedies happened. She sparked Macbeth’s dark side, she brought it out of him and as the play progresses, you see how Macbeth is out of control and how Lady Macbeth loses all her power over him. The roles become reversed and it leads to one big mess spiralling out of control. Macbeth, once a meek, loyal man is influenced by his cold, cruel wife and from there, tragedy strikes. The relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, you can see right away is not a good one. She is the type of person who has to have it her way. She is making Macbeth live the life she wants. When the three witches foresee him becoming King of Scotland, Lady Macbeth doesn’t even question if he will achieve it or whether to try, she orders him to be it saying â€Å"Shalt be thou art promised† (Macbeth 1, V). Besides her always taunting and ordering Macbeth, you never see any affection between the two. You never hear them acting like a normal married couple. It seems as if they are just two people with the label of husband and wife. They can never just have a normal conversation, it’s always orders and arguments. Macbeth never wants to let down or disappoint her, it’s almost like he is scared of her. This relationship is what causes the tragedies. Lady Macbeth has a huge influence on Macbeth. Their relationship has to be the engine that sparked all the deaths. It starts off by Lady Macbeth ordering him to kill King Duncan, the King of Scotland. She first taunts him by saying â€Å"It is too full o’th’milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way† (Macbeth 1, V). This shows how cold Lady Macbeth is, as milk is the food of a new born child, she implies Macbeth is too much like a kind child to murder anyone, which is a method used to spur Macbeth on into killing the King. When Macbeth finally finds the courage to tell her he doesn’t want to kill, she shuts him down instantly. She goes â€Å"And live a coward in thine own esteem† (Macbeth, 1, VVI). This is a huge insult to Macbeth, and this is what finalizes his decision to kill King Duncan. You can see how she starts rubbing off on him when he says â€Å"False face must hide what the false heart doth know† (Macbeth 1, VVI). As the play continues, Lady Macbeth is constantly telling Macbeth what has to be done. Killing after killing, she is in his ear about what to do next. Eventually, Macbeth has no more control over his darkness and you quickly see things start to change. Once Macbeth started getting more confident by his killings, he realized he was gaining more and more power, and his ambition grew stronger and out of control. You start to see his and Lady Macbeth’s relationship change. Lady Macbeth starts feeling guilty in act three. â€Å"Tis safer to be that which we destroy, than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy† (Macbeth 3, II), this shows she realizes that getting what you want doesn’t bring peace. Despite the fact that both are feeling guilty, Lady Macbeth tries to remain strong in front of Macbeth â€Å"Things with without all remedy should be without regard: what’s done is done†. This shows Lady Macbeth again telling Macbeth that the murder has happened and that he should get over it, as nothing can be done to change it. There is however a hint of remorse in Lady Macbeth’s voice, showing how she is losing her power over Macbeth, mainly because she is finding it hard to get over her guilt. It happens once again when Macbeth shouts out â€Å"O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife† (Macbeth, 3, II). This is where we understand Macbeth cannot let go, he has to now take the matter of murder into his own hands. As the scenes go by, you see Macbeth making his own decisions. He starts killing firstly without conscience or guilt, and secondly, without Lady Macbeth’s consent. He stop telling her his plans and when Lady Macbeth hears word of her husband’s actions, she is overwhelmed with guilt and commits suicide. When he finds out about this, he shrugs off her death, he felt more guilty about the killing of the King, a person he hardly even knew, than the death of his wife, the woman he believed to have loved. This proves that one, either Macbeth was in too deep with his evil side at this point, he showed no remorse, or two, he didn’t really love his wife, another point proving their unhealthy relationship. Perhaps it is Lady Macbeth’s cold hearted ways that have taught Macbeth not to care, perhaps if there was no Lady Macbeth, Macbeth would still be the man he started off as. Every person has a dark side amongst themself, it’s just a matter of how you contain it. By the end of the play we see how the relationship has deteriorated to such a state Macbeth loses all emotions. He no longer cares who the person is, who will be affected by their murder, or if they deserve to die or not, if there is the possibility of them coming in the way of Macbeth and his dream, they are dead. Macbeth no longer has the fear of getting caught either. He believes he is invincible, that he can do anything. This just goes to show how much one person can have such a huge impact on your life and how the right amount of taunting and nagging mixed with a whole lot of ambition creates a very dangerous, deadly mix.

Lord Of The Flies - Discovery :: essays research papers

Lord Of Flies( The Importance of self-discovery) 1Human should understand the importance of self-discovery. In the Lord of the Flies, Ralph, Simon and Samneric learned the weaknesses and darkness within the human hearts. People grows up when they faces a challenge. Ralph ‘s challenge is how to be a good and responsible leader. Simon’s challenge is how to speak at front of people. Samneric’s challenge is how to make right choice. The truth about self-discovery may be cruel, but it is worth to learn from it. 2Ralph is being a playful, innocent child in the beginning of the story, but towards the end he matures significantly. Excluding Piggy, Ralph is the most mature and responsible member of the boys, for he is concerned throughout the book with keeping the fire on the mountain going, and building shelter. " If a ship comes near the island they may not notice us. So we must make smoke on top of the mountain. We must make a fire." pg,37 Ralph always has the strong belief that all the children will be saved from the island sooner or later, but at middle part of the story he begins to doubting it. At end of the story, after the death of Piggy, Ralph’s encounter with the Lord of the Flies, he knocks over the pig’s skull. " A sick fear and rage swept him. Fiercely he hit out at the filthy thing in front of him that bobbed like a toy and came back, still grinning into his face, so that he lashed and cried out in loathing." pg206 Ralph realize the evil is part of him and just as to other boys. However, he is the only person who acknowledges the importance of being responsible, and he takes over as a true leader even though he is not necessarily good at it. 3Sam and Eric represents the crowd in modern society, just like every ordinary human. They are faithful and mostly good. They can be described as loyalist in the story. Their rule is to serve whomever is the leader. For example when Jack says " Grab them! No one moved. Jack shouted angrily. I said " grab them"! " Samneric finally give into his threats on their travel to Castle Rock. Later, then betray Ralph, by showing his hiding place to Jack. " You’re sure he meant in there? The twin moaned faintly and then squealed again. " " He meant he’d hide in there?" pg. 214 In this way, Samneric symbolize the weakness of human nature. They have lose any real sense of loyalty to others.

Madoff Scandal

Contents Introduction2 Early Career2 The Firm3 Sales Strategy4 Investment Strategy5 The Scandal7 He was not alone9 The Markopolos Whistle11 The collapse13 Charges and Sentence13 The Victims14 2009 Ponzi Schemes16 The SEC Failure17 SEC post- Madoff19 Hedge Fund Transparency20 Conclusion21 Bibliography25 Tables Table 1: List of Madoff Clients (taken from the â€Å"The New York Times†, last updated June 24, 2009)15 Table 2: 2009 Ponzi Scheme SEC Charges17 Figures Figure 1 Fairfield Sentry vs Gateway6 Figure 2 Madoff Investor Funds (taken from http://orgnet. com/madoff. html)7 Introduction Operating from central Manhattan, Bernie Madoff developed the first and biggest global Ponzi scheme, an event of greed and dishonesty that lasted for more than 20 years, in which $65 billion dollars vanished from the pockets of some of the world’s richest people, charities and ordinary investors alike. This scheme lasted longer than any other white collar crime in history and along the way ruined countless individuals and organizations. The Madoff Ponzi scheme has changed the rules of trust that governed the money game. † Unlike other similar schemes, Madoff’s Ponzi scheme also scammed wealthy and investment savvy individuals that Madoff associated with. Bernard Madoff is a former financier, American hedge-fund investment manager, chairman of the NASDAQ (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) stock exchange, and chairman of the firm Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. He is the main conspirator of the history’s largest investor fraud committed by a single person. As a result of his act, Madoff was sentenced on June 29th, 2009 to 150 years in prison for crimes that the judge called â€Å"extraordinarily evil†3 and imposed a sentence that was three times as long as the federal probation office suggested and more than 10 times as long as defense lawyers had requested. Early Career Bernard Lawrence Madoff was born in New York City on April 29, 1938 and grew up in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood. He earned a degree in political science from New York’s Hofstra University in 1960 and founded the Wall Street firm Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC the same year. 1 He was a pillar of finance and charity. As an outstanding philanthropist he served on boards of nonprofit organizations around the world such as businesses, charities and foundations, many of which were entrusted by his endowments. The firm started as a penny stock trader with $5,000 dollars he saved from working as a sprinkler system seller and lifeguard. In the beginning the firm started trading common stock over the counter (OTC) through the National Quotation Bureau using Pink sheets. It later challenged the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) old brokers by using powerful marketing techniques to win clients and promoting electronic trading using innovative computer information technology. His firm grew with help from people around him such as his father-in-law, who referred him to friends and family. Madoff helped created NYSE rival, NASDAQ, where he later became the chairman. The Firm Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC functioned as a securities broker and/or dealer in The United States and internationally. Headquartered in New York City, it provided executions for dealers, brokers and financial institutions. The firm had been one of the top market makers on Wall Street with Madoff as the principal face. In plain terms, a market maker is an institution (brokerage company or bank) that is ready to execute stock trades (buying and selling) at every second of the trading day and charges a small fee for every trade via the use of a spread in the ask or bid price. It functioned as a third-maker provider by directly implementing commands from retail brokers. At one point, Madoff Securities was the largest market maker at the NASDAQ and in 2008 was the sixth largest market maker on Wall Street. Sales Strategy Around the 1970s, Madoff began administrating money for investors, some on them he knew personally and several others who belonged to clubs he was member of. He attracted billions of dollars and several large hedge funds also invested in the firm because he did not charge usual fees and only collected fees for processing trades. Madoff offered modest and steady returns to exclusive clients instead of offering high returns to all clients, giving the appearance of his firm to be exclusive. The firm’s annual returns were abnormally consistent, a key factor in achieving the fraud. Most business men believed the story that a single person could generate returns of 12 to 13 percent a year trading the stock market no matter what happens without a single down quarter. 7 Some of these people applied for membership to the clubs that Madoff was a member of, in order to meet and be accepted by him. In addition, he never hustled anyone for investing with him; instead he let them come to him. Thus, he created this aura of exclusivity around him and everyone wanted to be a part of his club. One of the groups targeted by Madoff was the â€Å"Jewish circuit. Being Jewish, Madoff attracted many wealthy Jewish people he met at country clubs on Long Island and Palm Beach. This was an Affinity Ponzi Scheme, as it was called by Newsweek article. 7 Affinity fraud includes investment frauds that prey upon members of identifiable groups, such as religious or ethnic communities, language minorities, and the elderly or professional groups. Around 1995, some of the most prominent Jewish individuals in finance and industry began to invest with Madoff. 1 His most effective recruiter, Jacob Ezra Merkin, was president of the Fifth Avenue Synagogue, member of Yeshiva University, Carnegie Hall and other nonprofit organizations. Mr. Merkin started the investment firm named Gabriel Capital Group. Embraced by philanthropies and installed in a superior position of trust, Merkin seemed to be a Wall Street wise and trusted person to manage other peoples’ money. 1 Investment Strategy His investment strategy consisted of purchasing blue-chip stock, from well established companies like Coca Cola, Intel and General Electric, having stable earnings and no extensive liabilities, and taking option contracts on them. Typically, a position will consist of the ownership of 30-35 S&P 100 stocks, most correlated to that index, the sale of out-of-the-money calls on the index and the purchase of out-of-the-money puts on the index. † When done correctly, this strategy creates boundaries in the stock and protects them against a quick decline in the share price. The investment strat egy used in Madoff’s feeder fund, Fairfield Sentry, is called the split-strike conversion strategy and involves a combination of stocks and options. In plain terms, Madoff bought 40-50 stocks from the S&P 100 index. He then bought put options on the index at strike prices below the market's current level and sold call options above the index's current price. It is similar to using collars, an options strategy that limits losses along with the gains for a particular stock. The following chart outlines the returns of the Madoff feeder fund against Gateway, a fund running the same split strike strategy. A feeder fund is a fund that conducts virtually all of its investing through another fund. Madoff used such feeder funds to mask the fact that he’s acting like a hedge fund in order to avoid SEC investigation. Figure 1 Fairfield Sentry vs. Gateway After the stock market crash of 2001, Gateway follows a downward path for a period of almost 3 years, before it starts to gain positive traction that will last until mid 2007, just in time for the mortgage meltdown that ignited one of the worst recessions in history. Interestingly enough, Madoff’s returns shows no signs of volatility and continue to gain positive traction with only minor fluctuations. Apparently he worked with multiple feeders and the network of individuals and funds were set up to pass money to him. Most of the investors did not know that all of their money was going to the same place: Madoff’s firm. The next diagram depicts the depth and interconnections of Madoff’s funds. The directions of the arrows represent the direction of the money flow. Figure 2 Madoff Investor Funds The Scandal The investment scandal was unveiled with Madoff’s confession. He reportedly confessed to his two sons during the first week of December 2008 that his business was â€Å"giant Ponzi scheme. † Madoff sons, Mark and Andrew, turned him in to U. S authorities on the day after his confession. On December 11, 2008 he was arrested and charged with securities fraud; also known as stock fraud and investment fraud, securities fraud covers a wide range of illegal activities, all of which involve the deception of investors or the manipulation of financial markets. He said to the agents that there was no innocent explanation to the fraud that cost clients $65 billion dollars. He traded and lost money and paid investors with money that was not there. How did Bernard Madoff set the most audacious fraud in history? Madoff said that had absolutely nothing, everything was just a big lie and it was essentially a giant Ponzi scheme. No one ever questioned the investment strategy and resources of the firm. No verification of the accounting was ever made. 7 A Ponzi scheme is a type of illegal pyramid scheme. It is named after Charles Ponzi who became infamous throughout the United States for using the technique in the early 1920s. The Ponzi scheme operation pays returns to investors from their own money or from money paid by new investors, rather than from actual return earned. This type of schemes attracts many investors because it offers high and consistent returns that other investments cannot provide. Eventually the system is destined to collapse under its own weight because earnings are usually less than the payments. â€Å"The business had been insolvent for many years. † Madoff was lying to his clients when he said he was investing their money and generating stable returns. 3 The money of new clients was used to pay clients who wanted to cash out. Some may still ask the question of why he started the scheme in the first place. A possible explanation of his actions could be that he incurred some trading losses and in order to recoup them quickly, put a quick plan together where he would shuffle money between new and old accounts. Initially he may have had the intention of paying all the investors back, but since his real investing strategy did not work fast enough, he stuck to the scheme. His initial intentions were probably not to carry on indefinitely to its present point. However, once his real trading strategies were not producing enough returns to cover his advertised returns (when the market was performing well), he continued until he lost control. If the economy were not in a recession, he would most likely keep going. The only reason he gave up is because investors started withdrawing money and he could not cover the upcoming withdrawals. If the economy kept going strong, Madoff would have been able to attract new money and continue living his double life as usual. He was not alone Few people knew that Bernard Madoff had a highly structured second life for more than 20 years. Bernard Madoff confession and the afterward fraud scandal triggered the investigation to uncover Madoff’s mysteries. He initially claimed that he committed the crimes all by himself, but because it extended trough decades and continents â€Å"a fog of suspicion immediately engulfed Madoff family members who worked at the firm, as well as employees and business associates. There were some small clues on how he pulled off the massive fraud, for instance, the 1980s server that Madoff refused to replace even though some data had to be typed by hand. When government investigated the machine it discovered that it was the heart of the fraud. The statements printed out from this old IBM machine showed trades that were never made. 15 First, the in vestigators turned to the accounting department. Madoff’s accountant David Friehling was also charged with securities fraud, investment adviser fraud and false filings made to the SEC. Unlike any other professional who protects the interests of his clients, accountants have the commitment to protect the public by ensuring accurate financial reporting. â€Å"They are the first line of defense against fraud. † Friehling’s duty at the investment firm was to ensure clients’ securities and money were they when they wanted to withdraw it. In addition, the SEC filed a civil enforcement action against him alleging that he did not perform his duties as an auditor. David Friehling was the auditor and the bookkeeper, which means that he audited his own work. It’s no great surprise that he found nothing wrong with any of his own work. †18 Next, they turned attention to the person second in command at Madoff’s firm. Frank DiPascali was Madoff’s right hand man for 33 years and his unofficial title was director or of options trading and chief financial officer. Nobody was sure what he did or what his official title was, but everyone knew he was a big deal. DiPascali rose to the position of CFO despite his lack of education and financial experience industry. On August 11, 2009, he pled guilty to ten counts of fraud related to the Madoff investment scandal and he is currently trying to negotiate his sentence (to be set on May 2010) in exchange of information of additional people involved in the scheme. Madoff trusted DiPascali completely to keep the secret of the scam operations. DiPascali manipulated fake returns on some key investors and if one of these clients had large gains, he would fabricate a loss to reduce the tax bill. 15 This means, if true, that these investors knew their returns were suspicious. JP Morgan Chase was the primary bank Madoff used to make his Ponzi deposits. According to one estimate, his deposits totaled $5. 5 billion sometime in 2008, and the after-tax profits grew to $483 million over a period of sixteen years. The bank withdrew a total of $250 million in the summer of 2009, due to suspicions arising from due diligence in Madoff’s investment-advisory business. According to a pending lawsuit against the bank: â€Å"Upon acquiring this knowledge, Chase entered into a conspiracy with Madoff and BMIS in violation of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (â€Å"RICO†), 18 U. S. C.  § 1961 et seq. 19Depending on the outcome of the lawsuit, along with many more to come, JP Morgan Chase may have to shell out hundreds of millions of dollars in settlement. Madoff’s family was also the center of attention to find clues of Bernard Madoff’s fraud, although none of them have been charged or accused so far. During the plea hearing Madoff took all the responsibility of the fraud most likely to c over up his family. Peter Madoff, Bernard Madoff’s brother, was the chief compliance officer of the firm. He was in charge of ensuring adequate internal control and that the client funds and securities were properly protected. Even though Madoff sons, Mark and Andrew, did not have any position with the investments firm, they were involved in other areas within the firm. They are the ones that turned Madoff in. The family must have known about the long running scheme and should be indirectly responsible for some of the investor losses incurred, as the scheme had supported their lavish lifestyles. Irving Picard, the court appointed trustee in charge of liquidating Madoff’s firm, sued some of the Madoff family members (two sons, brother, niece) for $198. 7 million seeking defrauded investor damages. The Markopolos Whistle Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC firm was inspected at least 8 times and he was personally interviewed twice in a period of 16 years by the SEC and other regulators before being uncovered. For years, he avoided regular reviews by saying that he was managing accounts for hedge funds instead of running an investment advisory business. During the years of 1999 and 2000 the SEC was worried that the firm was violating a trading rule and sent examiners to investigate but in response Madoff summarized new procedures to deal with the findings. 12 In 2001 some outsiders were becoming suspicious of Madoff’s firm activities. Harry Markopolos, Barron’s, a Dow Jones & Co. publication and Marhegdge, a hedge fund trade publication, raised concerns about Madoff’s steady returns. 12 In 2005 Mr. Markopolos met with SEC investigators in New York and prepared a 21-page report entitled â€Å"The World’s Largest Hedge Fund is a Fraud† summarizing his concerns. The memo specified 29 red flags and in part concluded that â€Å"Bernie Madoff is running the world’s largest unregistered hedge fund† and â€Å"†¦yet since Bernie Madoff is not registered as a hedge fund but acting as one via third party shields, the chances of Madoff escaping SEC scrutiny are very high. 12 The SEC examined Madoff and did not find any violations. He failed for 8 years to get SEC to step in until the scam collapsed and prompted Madoff to confess. In his report, Markopolos clearly outlines some pretty obvious (by now) facts that the regulatory authorities omitted. Here is a short summary of some points that stood out: †¢If the Madoff returns are legitimate, they’re due to insider trading (unlikely scenario). If they’re illegitimate, they’re due to the setup being a Ponzi scheme (likely scenario). †¢The secrecy around the fund’s assets doesn’t make sense as a typical hedge fund would brag about such returns. The secrecy is probably due to the fact that Madoff doesn’t want the regulatory authorities to know he exists as a secret hedge fund. †¢Since Madoff is a broker-dealer, he can generate any trade tickets he wants, therefore generate false information. †¢The Madoff family has held important leadership positions in NASD, NASDAQ ® and other prominent industry bodies that would not be inclined to lead an investigation. †¢Out of 174 months, only 7 months (4%) saw negative returns in Madoff’s Fairfield Sentry fund. No MLB hitter bats . 60, no NFL team has ever had a 96-4 record out of 100 games, and no money manager is up 96% of the months. †¢Since Madoff is not registered as a hedge fund but acting as one via third party shields, his chances of escaping SEC investigations have remained high. The collapse The final weeks of the biggest scheme in history began on December 2008 when the market continued to fall. Madoff struggled to keep the scheme afloat wh en investors tried to withdraw $7 billion from the firm. In typical Ponzi scheme fashion, Madoff desperately needed money from new investors to pay off existing investors. Ten days before his arrest, he received $250 million dollars from Carl Shapiro, a 95 year old philanthropist and entrepreneur, and one of Madoff oldest friends. Mr. Shapiro helped Madoff launch his investing career by giving him money to invest in 1960. He also asked others to invest including Wall Street financier Kenneth Langone. Madoff said he was raising money, between $500 million and $1 billion, for a new investment vehicle for exclusive clients. Mr. Langone declined to invest. 13 Mr. Langone’s denial could have been based on quantitative analysis that most of Madoff’s investors failed to undertake. In addition, by the time Madoff proposed the new investment vehicle to Mr. Langone, rumors of his questionable returns had increased considerably. Charges and Sentence â€Å"On March 10, 2009, a Criminal Information was filed in Manhattan federal court charging Bernard L. Madoff with eleven felony charges including securities fraud, investment adviser fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, false statements, perjury, false filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (â€Å"SEC†), and theft from an employee benefit plan. † The case is United States v. Bernard L. Madoff, 09 Cr. 213 (DC). The criminal information or complaint declared that Madoff had defrauded his clients for $65 billion. On March 12, 2009 he pleaded guilty to all eleven counts and on June 29, 2009 he was sentenced to 150 years of imprisonment at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York (he was later moved to a prison in Butner, North Carolina) and $170 billion in restitution. A breakdown of his sentencing is given below:19 †¢40 years for two counts of international money laundering †¢20 years for securities fraud †¢20 years for mail fraud 20 years for wire fraud †¢20 years for false filing with the S. E. C. †¢10 years for money laundering †¢5 years for investment adviser fraud †¢5 years for false statements †¢5 years for perjury †¢5 years for theft from an employee benefit plan The Victims Some of Madoff’s clients included hedge funds, banks, charities, universities, astute financiers, hospitals, film prod ucers and many others. According to the latest Trustee Interim Report assigned for fund recovery, as of June 30, 2009 the recovery of funds from Bernard Madoff has been $1,088,507,818 with an additional $13. billion in incoming recovery requests. A short list of the investors with the largest losses follows: CLIENTTYPE OF CLIENTEXPOSURE Fairfield Greenwich Group Financial Firm$7. 5 Billion Kingate ManagementFinancial Firm$3. 5 Billion Tremont Group HoldingsFinancial Firm$3. 3 Billion Banco SantanderFinancial Firm$3. 1 Billion of client exposure Bank MediciFinancial Firm$2. 1 Billion Ascot Partners, run by Jacob Ezra Merkin, GMAC’s chairmanFinancial FirmMost of the firm's $1. 8 billion in assets Access International AdvisorsFinancial firm$1. 4 billion Fortis Bank NetherlandsFinancial firm$1. billion Union Bancaire PriveeFinancial firmunder $1. 08 billion HSBC HoldingsFinancial firm$1 billion Picower FoundationCharity$958 million Carl ShapiroIndividual$545 million Carl & Ruth S hapiro Family FoundationCharity$145 million Yeshiva UniversityCharity$100 to $125 million Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of AmericaCharity$90 million Korea Life InsuranceInsurer$50 million Fairfield, Conn. pension fundPension fund$42 million Madoff Family FoundationCharity$19 million Jewish Community Foundation of Los AngelesCharity$18 million Alicia KoplowitzIndividual$14 million Table 1: List of Madoff Clients (taken from the â€Å"The New York Times†, last updated June 24, 2009) As if the loss of fortunes were not tragic enough, there were also 2 suicides that stemmed from the scandal. Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, 65, who lost more than $1 billion of his own and his investors’ money, took his own life on December 23, 2008 after realizing that he would not be able to recoup his investment. The Magon de la Villehuchet family was one of the most prominent families in France, building its fortune in the shipping industry during the 17th century. William Foxton, 65, was the second suicide victim of the scandal, but unlike the first victim, he had never heard of Madoff and lost his investment through one of Madoff’s feeder funds. 2009 Ponzi Schemes The now infamous Ponzi scheme may have been popularized by Bernie Madoff during the present year, but the SEC has been uncovering such schemes at a rapid pace since the Madoff scandal. The following is a list of all the Ponzi schemes charges the SEC has issued in 2009 so far: DATEDEFENDANTSPONZI AMOUNT (In millions) 1/08/09Joseph Forte, Joseph Forte LP$50 1/15/09James G. Osie, CRE Capital$25 /19/09Robert Allen Standford$8,000 2/19/09Marvin Cooper, BCI Inc$4. 4 3/11/09Anthony Vassalo, Kenneth Kenitzer$40 3/26/09Millenium Bank$68 4/01/09Edward T. Stein$55 4/06/09Weizhen Tang$50-75 4/08/09Shawn Merriman$17-20 4/09/09Robert P. Copeland$35 4/13/09Clelia Flores, MRI Inc$23 6/09/09Peter Son, Jin Chung$80 6/10/09Gregory Bell & Lancelot Mgmt$2,000 6/15/09David J. Hernandez$11 6/24/09M ichael C. Regan, Regan & Co$15. 9 6/24/09Moises Pacheco, AMM, BD&C$14. 7 6/28/09John Bravata, Richard Trabulsy$50 9/08/09Philip Barry, Leverage Group$40 9/28/09Frank Bluestein$250 10/16/09Homepals14. 3 Table 2: 2009 Ponzi Scheme SEC Charges According to the SEC website, 2008 SEC Ponzi charges totaled $470 million (excluding Madoff charged on December 11), compared to 2009’s approximate amount of $11 billion YTD. The earliest Ponzi scheme on SEC recent records dating back to 1997 is reported on July 4, 2001 for $67. 5 million. There is no mention of another such scheme until June 9, 2005 for $6 million, while the next such scheme is reported on July 24, 2007 for $41. 9 million. The SEC Failure Bernie Madoff was so above suspicion that he even got his name informally applied an SEC rule. The â€Å"Madoff exception† allowed market makers such as Mr. Madoff to sell stock short to facilitate a customer buy order, even if the stock in question was ticking downward. Under a rule that was in place until 2007, short sales on a downward-ticking stock were normally prohibited. In a short sale, investors borrow stock and sell it, hoping to repay with shares bought at a lower price. Madoff was frequently and unsuccessfully investigated by the SEC. His firm’s first contact with the SEC was in the early 90’s when he hired two accountants, Frank Avellino and Michael Bienes, for his first small investment advisory business. The accountants helped him recruit more than 3,000 clients. They were violating the law selling unregistered securities; however they were not accused of securities fraud. The SEC shut down the Avellino & Bienes operation and forced Madoff to return more than $400 million to investors. 13 In 2000, the SEC Boston office is contacted by Markopoulos where he outlines his first concerns about Madoff. Unable to persuade an investigation, Markopoulos is told to contact the SEC New York office. 13 However, no further investigation is conducted partly because the information presented to the SEC is not understood by its investigators due to its highly complex nature. Since then many other letters from concerned outsiders are being sent to the SEC about Madoff. No action is taken from the SEC until January 2006 when it launches an investigation prompted by the Markopolos memo. After an interview with Madoff in May 2006 in its case-closing recommendation, the SEC said it â€Å"found no evidence of fraud. †13 After the uncovering of the investment fraud, the SEC conducted an internal investigation entitled â€Å"Investigation of Failure of the SEC to Uncover Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. A 477-page report was released in September 2009 were the SEC Office of Inspector General (OIG) analyzes the SEC failure to uncover Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, how it missed all the red flags and identifies recurring opportunities to find the fraud and how unsuccessful their efforts were. In a recent PBS interview with Henry Pitt, former SEC commissioner from 2001-2003, Mr. Pitt indirectly pointed out some SEC flaws:31 †¢The SEC’s exami nation program was put in place in the mid 90’s is fatally imperfect. The total staff of the SEC is 3,500 people (not all of them do examinations) and there are 11,000 registered investment advisers subject to the SEC’s jurisdiction. There will never be enough money, enough people and enough sophistication to conduct examinations the way they needed to be conducted. †¢The law for broker-dealers was setup in 1934 and in 1940 for investment advisers. The relationship between the two entities is treated separately. In today’s marketplace, this viewpoint needs to change. This is one of the reasons why Madoff continued to be in business after the Avellino and Bienes scandal. The SEC was heavily focused on legal analysis, while not paying too much attention to economic and financial analysis. †¢There needs to be more hedge fund transparency, something the SEC has failed to convince the courts to do so up to now. Arthur Levitt Jr, former SEC chairman from 1993-2001, maintains a view that supports a more focused approach on risk-assessm ent within the SEC. Mr. Levitt has been drawing criticism lately regarding his personal and business relationships with Madoff. When asked about SEC resources, he raises a valid point: â€Å"Since 2002, the number of investment advisers — such as Madoff Securities — has increased by 50%. Yet enforcement resources have been flat or even reduced. The number of SEC enforcement division personnel was cut by 146, to 1,192 in 2007 from 1,338 in 2005. †37 SEC post- Madoff Since the Madoff scandal, the SEC has been taking significant steps to reduce the probability that such frauds will occur in the future. A summary of the post-Madoff Reforms are included on the following list: †¢Safeguarding Investors’ Assets †¢Revitalizing the Enforcement Division †¢Revamping the Handling of Complaint and Tips †¢Advocating for a Whistleblower Program †¢Conducting Risk-Based Examinations of Financial Firms Increasing Focus on Agency-Wide Risk Assessment †¢Improving Fraud Detection Techniques for Examiners †¢Recruiting Staff with Specialized Experience †¢Expanding and Targeting Training †¢Seeking more Resources †¢Integrating Broker-Dealer and Investment Adviser †¢Enhancing Licensing, Education and Oversight Regime for †Å"Back-Office† Personnel In summary, the changes focus where the SEC had previously failed: enhancing investigator financial education, providing incentives for whistleblower tips, allocating additional resources. Hedge Fund Transparency One of the SEC’s attempts towards hedge fund transparency came in 2003 where the entity unsuccessfully tried to enforce the registration of a majority of hedge fund managers by re-interpreting the definition of ‘client’ to an investment-adviser. This rule would have required hedge funds to register as investment advisers. This attempt was dismissed by the U. S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on June 23, 2006. The hedge fund industry as a whole is against regulation in part because such regulations would reveal the trading strategies employed internally to the competition. This is a viable argument in favor of the hedge fund industry, however not viable enough to prevent further regulation, at least in the US markets. A possible suggestion could be to create a quasi-government committee made up of various former heads of finance-related industries that are given the power to review and approve hedge funds. The information they have on their hands is solely between them and certain high level members of the SEC, with secrecy comparable to that of the likes of the Department of Defense. In this way, hedge funds avoid public disclosure of their strategies, while the SEC accomplishes the regulation they have always been pursuing. There could be different levels of approval according to the market value of a hedge fund. While this suggestion may not be the most viable, it is serves an option for both the SEC and hedge fund managers. Conclusion Given its impact on the financial world, it would seem that this scandal could have been prevented much earlier. Why did FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority), SIFMA (Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association), SEC, and other regulatory bodies not act quicker? Below follows a list of possible concluding points for such long inaction. The world to which the securities laws apply — laws now 70 and 75 years old — is light years away from the world we have today. †34 Point 1: Bernie Madoff was a legend on Wall Street. He and his family were among the elite of the Street and, due to his long career and connections, he obtained a God-like status on the Street and as someon e who could do no wrong. As any religious individual, they do not question God’s actions, they just believe. Furthermore, individuals who commit fraud usually do not have Madoff’s impressive background, connections and reputation. Madoff used his status on the Street as an advantage to raise more money and fly under the radar for as long as he did. A scheme is the last thing one would expect from someone whose resume includes a time as former chairman of NASDAQ. In addition, Harry Markopolos admits that he did not contact FINRA due to his family’s connections with the regulatory authority. In particular, Andrew Madoff served as an incoming District 10 member of FINRA in 2003 while his brother Mark served on FINRA’s Mutual Fund Task Force in 2004. Also, Bernie Madoff’s brother Peter served on the board of directors of SIFMA. Point 2: Madoff was not using any illegal trading strategies. The split-strike option is a legitimate strategy that has been employed for years by a few experienced industry professionals, such as Harry Markopolos. It is a highly complex strategy that even Markopolos in his SEC paper admits that few really understand, hence many of Madoff’s experienced investors failed to quantitatively analyze, yet they rather based their assumptions on word of mouth. In the same token, the SEC did not pay attention to something that they could not completely understand and did not put as much emphasis as they should have. Point 3: Red flags were not raised initially due to the overall economy’s performance. When the market was performing well, a 12% return was within reasonable lines of S&P returns. Some flags came up when the market started producing negative returns, yet Madoff’s returns kept their usual steady, profitable path. If the market were still performing neutral to slightly above neutral levels, chances are that the scandal would still lie beneath fake returns. Point 4: The SEC did not act any sooner possibly due to the psychological structure of its own investigators. A typical SEC investigator is young, non-aggressive, and lacks enough resources to fully take on such a case single-handedly. The aggressive and talented individuals get absorbed by Wall Street due to obvious lucrative reasons. This is not to say that the SEC does not employ talented, aggressive individuals; all that is being conveyed here is that probably some of the investigators’ psychological and character structure coupled with the lack of resources was a key mixture of ingredients the organization was missing. Plus, in order to raise such a high stakes complaint an SEC investigator would have to go through the usual bureaucratic red tape inherent in government process. Point 5: The SEC is made up of lawyers, thus lack the experience and knowledge of financial markets. The institution is not a financial entity that relies on satisfying shareholder returns; it is a regulatory authority that interprets and applies the law. Lawyers are not fund managers, thus are not familiar with the complexities and headaches that come with such territory. Point 6: The SEC failure in the Madoff case is yet another example of a ‘failure’ of the invisible hand to regulate capitalism’s promotion of self-interests. While de-regulation of capital markets was very instrumental to transform the US economy into a global powerhouse, lack of de-regulation brought upon the Madoff scandal along with one of the worst recessions in US history. If the markets were more heavily regulated from the beginning, one can only speculate on how far the US economy could have reached. In his testimony to Congress, Allan Greenspan admitted that his ideology of free market capitalism has a major flaw: â€Å"I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interest of organizations, specifically banks, is such that they were best capable of protecting shareholders and equity in the firms. † In short, Greenspan’s flaw was a variable he never considered as part of his ideology of free market capitalism: human greed. Not surprisingly, Greenspan’s flaw has influenced many areas of free markets from credit-default swaps and mortgage lending tactics, to unregistered hedge fund management practices. Bernard Madoff has left his imprint on Wall Street's ‘disgraced' list and his case will be used as an example to further regulate hedge funds and transparency needed in the financial industry. His life story of rising to the top and falling from grace highlights the double-edged sword of capitalism's laissez faire attitude. It will be very interesting to see how effectively the regulatory authorities will tackle this issue, as Madoff's case moves from the public eye to university case study in the coming years. Bibliography