Economic Policy of Egypt Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Economic Policy of Egypt - Essay Example Hence, in this case the economic policy of Egypt is taken up for study. Egypt is one of the most populous countries in the Arab world and the country has been undergoing many significant economic and political changes. The government of Egypt has begun the reform movement in the year 1991. The most important reform that the government has done is reducing the taxes and tariffs. The other reforms include making the national budgeting information more transparent and privatization of public enterprises. The government plans to make the private sector more empowered and hopes that these measures will increase their competitiveness. The essay attempts to highlight the challenges and the opportunities that are created through the new economic policy of the Egypt. Economic indicators show that after Egypt became more vigorously engaged in a process of structural reform to increase the role of private sector, the free market and the international trade in the economy, the country's growth performance has varied from a declining phase in the latter half of the 1980s, to acceleration through much of the 1990s, followed by another declining phase during 1999-2003. The GDP growth rate of Egypt between the period of 1960 to 2000 is as follows: During the period of 1960 till 1970 the country has low growth and the share of private sector was very low. Though the government had adopted import substitution and had introduced social services, the economic growth of the country did not take off. But the period of 1975 till 1985, the country was enjoying a high growth rate in the GDP levels and this was because of the introduction of the Open door policy and from the business created through the Suez canal. Between 1986 - 1991 there was a sharp increase in the inflation rates. The rise in inflation during that period was due to the government's expansionary monetary policy to finance the fiscal deficits which was about 15% of the GDP during that period. Also during this period the government adopted the fixed exchange rate policy which resulted in a very flourishing black market. After 1991, the government of Egypt introduced stabilization efforts and the fiscal deficit decreased from 15% to 1.3 % of GDP and the inflation has returned to single digit values. Also during this period the government adopted the privatization of the state enterprises and also free exchange rate mechanism was introduced. The level of budget surplus of Egypt was -20% in 1991 and there is a huge improvement in the budget surplus to -2% in 2003 because of the combined effect of these policies. According to a study, "between 1999 - 2003, though there was an increase in the budget the country experienced several shocks including the Luxor terrorist attack in 1997, the global financial crisis of 1997-99, and a domestic financial scandal in 1998-99. All of these events had severe repercussions for Egypt and sent the economy into a decelerating growth phase. The financial scandal, in particular, had a chilling effect on the growth of credit to the private sector. Negative shocks continued for the next few years, as witness the September 11 attack (2001) and the subsequent invasion of Iraq (2003). The Egyptian government reacted to the initial shocks by expansionary fiscal policies (clearing of arrears as a stimulus to the private sector, as well as an increase in public investment in "mega" projects), which resulted in a worsening fiscal stance. Budget deficits increased from 0.9% of

Cancer Treatment Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Cancer Treatment - Research Paper Example The choice for treatment depends on factors such as location, degree of severity, grade of tumour and the general state of the patient. In essence, the goal of cancer treatment is to remove or destroy the malignant cells without excessive damage to the body. Surgical treatment involves surgical excision of a tumour or an entire organ but the propensity of cancer cells to microscopically metastases makes it effective only in localized small cancers such as breast and prostate tumours. Radiation therapy can come in the form of radiotherapy, X-ray therapy and irradiation and uses ionizing radiation to kill cancer cells. This kind of therapy is used for the treatment of cancers of the brain, cervix, larynx, breast, lung, pancreas, skin, prostate, stomach, uterus or soft tissue sarcomas. It is also used in the treatment of leukemia and lymphoma. Chemotherapy involves the treatment of cancer with cytotoxic drugs that can have many effects specifically geared towards the elimination of cancer cells. One of the effects of the drugs is to interfere with cell division by hindering the duplication of DNA and the separation of chromosomes. The anticancer drugs travel through the bloodstream making it useful for cancers that have spread. Leukemias a nd lymphomas and cancer of the testicles can be treated with chemotherapy but breast, colorectal, lung and prostate cancer cannot be cured by chemotherapy alone. Monoclonal antibody therapy involves the administration of antibodies that bind to a protein on the surface of the cancer cells. Anti-HER2/neu antibody trastuzumab (Herceptin) and the anti-CD20 antibody rituximab are examples of this type of treatment. Immunotherapy makes use of a variety of strategies to enhance the immune system of patients. Examples of these include interferons and cytokines for renal cell carcinoma and melanoma and intravesical BCG. The most common combination of cancer treatment is surgery or radiation therapy followed by chemotherapy. There are many factors that determine the effectiveness of each method but there is increasing preference for combined modalities. This includes not only the physical uniqueness of the patient but also the socioeconomic limitations of the patient and the state which may be sponsoring the treatment. It is quite well known that cancer treatment is a financially challenging enterprise. 2.0 Research Aim The financial cost of treatment varies according to the degree of treatment required and the goal of the research to be conducted is to determine whether price differentials have an effect in morbidity and mortality in cancer treatment. To be specific, the inquiry would look into whether costlier procedures would to lead better results which would be taken as the lowering or eliminating the cancerous cells in the patient's body. 3.0 Methodology As previously mentioned, there is an increasing trend towards multidisciplinary treatment of cancer implying that there could be difficulties in comparing efficiency and effectiveness due to the overlapping of treatment. There are also many forms of cancer which further compounds the complexity of the issue. These concerns necessitate the need to define and limit the scope of the

The Importance Of Capital Gearing Finance Essay

The Importance Of Capital Gearing Finance Essay Financing and investment are two major decision areas for a company. In the financial decision, the company concerns with determining the best capital structure. There are only two ways that a business can raise money debt or equity. With the right option, the business can minimize its cost and maximize company value. Bos and Fetherston (1993) described that determining debt and equity is an important financial decision faced by companies. The relationship between debt and equity is considered as capital gearing. Hence, in this report, the gearing ratio and its influence to WACC, company value and shareholder wealth will be assessed through the two major theories. Capital Gearing Capital gearing is a term describing the relationship between debt funding and equity funding in a company (Financial Management, 2007). The simplest formula for gearing ratio = (%) For example, ABC Ltd has  £1,000 of debt and  £2,500 of total assets. Thus, capital gearing of this company is: = 40% According to NGFL Wales Business Studies (2009), a company with high gearing is the one who has most of the funding coming from borrowing. It leads to reduced profits available to shareholders because of the increase in interest rate. Moreover, if interest rate increases, the financial costs of business will also go up, thereby total costs of business will rise. However, if a company has a high gearing, it is not really a bad thing. The company may need more money for their expansion activities, taking the opportunity to invest by borrowing at low rates. By using capital from borrowing, the company can take advantage of tax shields. A company with low gearing is the one who has most of the funding coming from investment of shareholders. It proves that the company is developing through reinvestment of profits, minimizing risk (NGFL Wales Business Studies, 2009). For example, in 2009, Apple Inc had Total debt/equity also known as gearing ratio at 0% (ADVFN, 2010). However, low gearing may indicate that the company is not aggressive enough to survive, and may not be seeking opportunities for growth (Pham, 2009). Thus, according to Accounting for Management (n.d.), the importance level of capital gearing is subject to various views. Effects upon WACC, company value and shareholder wealth Debt and equity Debt and equity are the two major sources of funds for a company. So, using of debt and equity proportions are the measurement tools for capital structure. (Glen and Pinto, 1998) In fact, cost of debt is generally less expensive than cost of equity. Nemethy (2010) provided two major reasons for that. Firstly, debt is a secured loan, which may be seized by the lender when the borrower cannot payment their loans. Meanwhile, equity is an unsecured loan because the shareholder cannot seize anything, they only have the right to vote at a shareholders meeting. Thus, an unsecured loan has to a higher interest rate than a secured loan. In other words, cost of equity is expensive than cost of debt. Secondly, Nemethy (2010) said that when the company issues debt in the form of bonds, they pay interest out to their investors, this interest has to be deducted by taxation. It is also called the debt tax shield. Conversely, when the company issues equity, they pay out dividends. These dividends represent corporate income, and they are subject to double taxation: one time by corporation and another time by shareholders. Thereby, the cost of debt is less than the cost of equity. With the two major reasons above, virtually all companies prefer to use debt than equity. However, the increase of debt leads to the increase of risks because when the company borrows money, they would be dependent on the lenders. UoS (2007) stated that a highly geared company may also experience difficulties in attracting fund from investors, who are not attracted by the risks involved in a high-geared company. At that time, the market price of the companys shares will fall. So, the company should choose debt or equity, and the influence of capital gearing to WACC, company value and shareholder wealth. We will assess this problem based on the two theories. The traditional view Modigliani and Miller The traditional view The traditional view of capital structure theory, based on observation and intuition, suggests that an optimum capital structure exists (Cornelius, 2002). In other words, the capital structure of a company has effected on the cost of capital. The more debt in the capital structure of a company, the lower of WACC is. The weighted-average cost of capital (WACC) represents the overall cost of capital for a company, incorporating the costs of equity, debt and preference share capital, weighted according to the proportion of each source of finance within the business (Cornelius, 2002). The formula to calculate WACC: WACC = [ x ] + [ x ] For example, a company has an issued share capital of 1,000 ordinary  £1 shares. The company wants to buy two machines with the price of a machine as  £1,000. As mentioned above, cost of debt is generally less expensive than cost of equity, so, we can assume that cost of debt = 15% and cost of equity = 20%. To buy two machines, the company needs to have  £1,000 for the second machine. There are two options for the company. Option 1: Issuing share (ungeared company) It means that the company will have 2,000 shares in total with  £1 per share. â‚ ¬Ã‚ ¢ Total equity = 2,000 x  £1 =  £2,000 = Total assets = 0% = 20% x = 20% Option 2: Borrowing (geared company) In this option, the company has  £1,000 from initial issuing shares and  £1,000 from borrowing with 15% of interest. â‚ ¬Ã‚ ¢ Total debt = Total equity =  £1,000 Total assets = Total debt + Total equity = 1,000 + 1,000 =  £2,000 = = 0.5 or 50% = [15% x ] + [20% x ] = 0.075 + 0.1 = 0.175 or 17.5% It is clear that when the gearing capital of a company increases, its WACC will decrease. According to Watson and Head (2006), the market value of a company is equal to the present value of its future cash flows discounted by its WACC. Market value of a company = Thus, when WACC of the company decreases, assuming that other factors are constant, the market value of the company increases, in other words, the company value and shareholder wealth increase. The traditional view is usually represented as follows. According to UoS (2007), from all equity financing, WACC first declines because debt financing is cheaper. At higher level of debt (beyond X), cost of equity increases because of higher risks out weights the advantage of cheaper debt financing. Hence after X, the WACC will rise. X will be the optimal debt ratio, where the company will minimize its cost of capital and the company value is maximized. In conclusion, gearing capital is very important because it effects to WACC, company value and shareholder wealth of a company. Modigliani and Miller view In 1958, American academics France Modigliani and Merton Miller (MM), presented a radically different view of capital structure theory. They demonstrated that two companies with identical investments would have the same value, regardless of their gearing capital (Cornelius, 2002). As a result, there is no optimal capital structure for a company. MMs propositions can be presented as follows. MMs proposition (without tax) UoS (2007, p.274) argued that with the same size and the same level of business risks of two companies: one company was ungeared company, another one was geared company. The value of an ungeared company equals value of equity in an identical geared company plus value of borrowings in an identical geared company. Therefore, the only factors that influence the value of a company are risk and return. Returns required by shareholders as reward for risk, , will increase at a constant rate as gearing increases due to the perceived increased financial risk. The rising would exactly offset the benefit of the additional cheaper debt in order for the WACC to remain constant. Lenders have security for their debt so they will not feel at risk whatever the level of gearing; therefore, is constant (ACCA F9 Financial Management: Study Text, 2009). This can be shown as a graph. The WACC, the total value of the company and shareholder wealth are constant and unaffected by gearing levels. No optimal capital structure exists. For instance, there are two companies with the same size and the same level of business risk: one company was ungeared company, another one was geared company. One machine got back  £200 profit yearly. The data of the two companies as follows. Ungeared Company Geared Company Share capital  £1,000  £1,000 Debt  £1,000 Machines 1 2 EPS at  £200 profit level 0.20p 0.25p If the investor in an ungeared company borrows  £1,000 at 15% interest, after buying the second machine, that company has the profit =  £200 x 2 =  £400. â‚ ¬Ã‚ ¢ EPS = = 0.4 p After receiving dividends from ungeared company, that investor has to pay interest for the lender with 15% interest per  £1. Hence, the actual return that investor can receive = 0.4 [15% x 1] = 0.25 p. This is the same return as that expected by shareholder in geared company and it had been created entirely by the ungeared shareholder. Therefore, in this proposition, capital gearing does not effect to the WACC, company value and shareholder wealth. MMs proposition (with tax) Because interest is tax-deductible, the use of debt finance gives rise to a tax saving (Cornelius, 2002). In 1963, MM developed a second version to take account of taxation. MM argued that the value of a geared company was the value of ungeared company plus the present value of any tax shield generated by using debt finance. = + T With:: The value of geared company : The value of ungeared company : The market value of debt T: Corporate tax rate With tax, MM view can be represented as below. According to ACCA F9FM (2009, p.1111), remains constant whatever the level of gearing. Likely as MMs proposition without tax, increases as gearing levels increase to reflect additional perceived financial risk. Because interest on debt is tax-deductible, WACC will fall when gearing increases. And: = x [1 ] = + (1 T) ( ) : cost of equity in an ungeared company : cost of equity in a geared company : cost of debt , : market value of debt and equity in the geared company T: corporate tax rate For example, considering two companies, one ungeared and another geared, both of the same size and level of business risk. Ungeared Company Geared Company  £  £ EBIT 1,000 1,000 Interest (200) PBT 1,000 800 Corporation Tax @25% (250) (200) Dividends 750 600 Returns to the investors Equity 750 600 Debt 200 750 800 Suppose that the business risk of the two companies requires a return of 10% and the return required by the debt holders in geared company is 5%, locking at the table above, tax relief on debt interest (also known as tax shield) in geared company = 800 750 =  £50 For ungeared company Market value of ungeared company will be the market value of equity. It will be the dividend capitalized at the equity holders required rate of return. = 750/0.1 =  £7,500 = 10% For geared company Market value of the equity of geared company is determined by the equity shareholders analysis of their net operating income into its constituent parts and the capitalization of those elements at appropriate rates = [ ] = ] =  £4,500 Market value of debt is determined by the debt holders capitalizing their interest at their required rate of return. = =  £4,000 â‚ ¬Ã‚ ¢ Total market value of geared company = 4,500 + 4,000 =  £8,500 According to MMs proposition with tax, it has: = + T = 7,500 + (4,000 x 25%) =  £8,500 Cost of equity in a geared company: = = = 13.33% = 5% x (1 25%) = 3.75% â‚ ¬Ã‚ ¢ = 13.33% x + 3.75% x = 8.82% According to MMs proposition: = x [1 ] = 10% x [1 ] = 8.82% And = + (1 T) ( ) = 10% + (1 25%) (10% 5%) (4,000/4,500) = 13.33% as per the dividend valuation model above. Thus, under MM theory with tax, there is an optimal gearing level at 100% debt in the capital structure. This is not true in practice because companies do not gear up to 100%. In his research, Cornelius (2002) argued that, in the real world, companies do not raise their gearing ratios to such extreme levels because the high levels of gearing may lead to higher risk of liquidation. Hence, for this proposition, there is no optimal gearing structure, in other words, WACC, company value and shareholder wealth do not depend on the level of capital gearing. The drawback of the two theories According to UoS (2007), both of the two theories may seem to be based on unrealistic assumptions. For traditional view, they ignored taxation, companies have complete choice between debt equity finance, and can change this decision quickly and without cost. It is impossible in the real world. The company could change their decision but it has cost and not quickly. For MM, it was built with assumptions that no transaction costs and individuals or corporations can borrow money at the same rate. In fact, individuals and companies cannot borrow at the same rate, since companies usually have a higher credit rating. Therefore, personal debt usually costs more than corporate debt and is riskier. Moreover, the theory does not mention the issue of bankruptcy costs and other agency costs, as well as personal income tax. Conclusion In conclusion, according to traditional view, gearing capital is very important because the changing of gear may lead to changes of WACC as well as company value and shareholder wealth. If gearing capital increases, WACC will fall. It leads to the increase of profits, in other words, company value will increases. Theoretically, there is an optimal capital structure, in which, the company will minimize its cost of capital and the company value is maximized. In fact, it hasnt found an optimal capital structure yet. Conversely, based on MM theory, it argued that the two companies with the same size and the same level of business risk would have the same value. It does not depend on their gearing. In other words, the level of capital gearing is not quite important for WACC, company value and shareholder wealth. Part B: Explain then critically compare and contrast two investment appraisal techniques indicating their merits and limitations in aiding the sound financial management of a company Introduction Nowadays, investing is very important for a company to survive. According to UoS (2007, p.63) an investment involves the outflow of cash at a point in time in order to obtain benefits in the future. Companies make these investment decisions in order to increase the value of the firm and maximizing shareholders wealth. However, funds are limited, thereby, companies cannot invest in all projects, they must choose between alternative investments. There are four commonly techniques for appraising capital investment projects. Payback Accounting rate of return (ARR) Net present value (NPV) also known as Discounted Cash Flow or DCF Internal rate of return (IRR) also known as Discounted Cash Flow technique In this report, we will look at payback and NPV as two investment appraisal techniques to find out how they can inform future projects, their merits and limitations, and which technique the company would prefer. Explanation of two investment appraisal techniques Payback Payback is the number of years required to recover the original cash flow outlay investment in a project (Brealey, Myers and Marcus, 2001). If the cash flows are constant, the formula is: Payback period = If the cash flows are not constant, the calculation must be in cumulative form. The payback is a commonly used method of evaluating investment proposals. Among alternative investments, the company should decide to invest in the project which payback period is shorter, in other words, this is a project which can recover the initial investment quicker (Ross et al., 2007). For example, ABC Ltd has two projects A and B which cash flows as follows. Year Cash flows from Project A ( £) Cash flows from Project B ( £) 0 (100,000) (100,000) 1 10,000 20,000 2 30,000 20,000 3 40,000 30,000 4 20,000 20,000 5 30,000 50,000 Using cumulative form, we have: Year Cash flows from Project A ( £) Cumulative ( £) Cash flows from Project B ( £) Cumulative ( £) 0 (100,000) (100,000) 1 10,000 (90,000) 20,000 (80,000) 2 30,000 (60,000) 20,000 (60,000) 3 40,000 (20,000) 30,000 (30,000) 4 20,000 0 20,000 (10,000) 5 30,000 30,000 50,000 40,000 It is clearly that after 4 years, project A has recovered all original investment and it will begin making the profit for the company from the firth year, so payback period of project A is 4 years. As for project B, after 5 years, the original investment has recovered and it also generates  £40,000 of profits, so the payback period of this project is: Payback period of project B = 4 + = 4.2 years Thus, following the rule of payback period method, ABC Ltd should invest into project A because payback period of project A is shorter than project B. It means that the company can recover the original investment quicker if they decide to invest into project A. Net present value (NPV) Based on Professional Management Education (2010), The net present value (NPV) method is the classic economic method of evaluating the investment proposals. It is discounted cash flow technique that explicitly recognizes the time value of money. It correctly postulates that cash flows arising at different time periods differ in value and are comparable only when their equivalents present values are found out. The formula to calculate NPV is: NPV = Initial Investment + = Initial Investment + With r is the rate of interest It should be made clear that the acceptance rule using the net present value (NPV) method is to accept the investment project if NPV is positive, to reject it if NPV is negative and consider accepting the project when NPV is zero. For instance, using the same data with example above, in additional, the original proposal of ABC Ltd uses a discount rate of 10%. Using discounted cash flow technique to the present value, we have: Year Cash flows from Project A ( £) Present value ( £) Cash flows from Project B ( £) Present value ( £) 0 (100,000) (100,000) (100,000) (100,000) 1 10,000 9,091 20,000 18,182 2 30,000 24,793 20,000 16,529 3 40,000 30,052 30,000 22,539 4 20,000 13,660 20,000 13,660 5 30,000 18,628 50,000 31,046 NPV NPV (A) = -3,776 NPV (B) = 1,956 > 0 Because NPV of project A is negative and that of project B is positive, in accordance with the acceptance rule, ABC Ltd should choose project B to invest because this project will bring more profits. Analyzing of two investment appraisal techniques Compare and contrast In every company, payback period and NPV are very important to evaluate the value of a proposed project before investing on it. Both of two investment appraisal techniques can measure the sustainability and value of long-term projects. From that, the company can make sound financial decisions. (DifferenceBetween.net, 2010) Regarding calculate technique, payback period is used to calculate a period within which the initial investment of a project is recovered (UoS, 2007). It is equal to the initial net investment divided by annual expected cash flows. For example, a company wants to invest  £10,000 in a new project and they expect to have annual cash flows of  £2,000, so the payback period of this project will be = 10,000/2,000 = 5 years. The shorter the payback period, the better investment is. A long payback period means that the investment will be locked up for a long time, thereby this project is relatively ineffective. Meanwhile, net present value (NPV) uses the time value of money to appraise long-term projects. According to UoS (2007), NPV uses the opportunity cost of capital to discount the flows of cash in and out, over the life of a project to give their value at the present day. NPV method focuses on the present value (PV) because NPV equates to the sum of present values of individual cash flows. For example, a project invests  £1,000 and it will bring cash flows of  £2,000 in the next year, so PV of  £2,000 = 2000/(1+0.1) =  £1,818 with discount rate of 10%. Thus, the NPV of this project = -1000 + 1,818 =  £818. When choosing between alternative investments, NPV can help to define the project with highest present value, and also apply the acceptance rule of NPV, if NPV>0 accept the investment, if NPV Ross et al. (2007) stated that NPV method removes the time element in weighing alternative investment, while payback period focuses on the time required to recover the initial investment. From that, payback period method does not assess the time value of cash, inflation, financial risks, etc. as opposed to NPV, which measures the investments profitability. In addition, although payback period method indicates the acceptable period of investment, it does not take into account what will happen after the payback period and their impact on total incomes of this project. But it is contrary to NPV. Thereby, NPV will provide better decisions than payback when the company makes capital investments. In fact, companies use more often NPV than payback period method. Merits and limitations Merits The most significant merit of payback period is that it is simple to understand and easy to calculate than other appraisal investment techniques (UoS, 2007). Comparing with NPV method, payback method uses fewer costs and less analysts time than NPV. For this method, an investor can have more favorable short term effects on earnings per share by setting up a shorter standard payback period. Professional Management Education (2010) believed that payback period can control investment risks because the longer it takes to recover the initial investment, the more uncertainties there will be during the recovery period. In addition, payback method focuses on the time to recover of the initial investment, so it gives an insight into the liquidity of the project. The shorter payback period, the higher liquidity is. On the other hand, Brealey et al. (2001) stated that NPV is more accurate and efficient as it uses cash flow, not earnings and results in investment decisions that add value. By discounting the flows, NPV can create the comparison between alternative investments, and then, making right capital decisions. NPV method is always consistent with the long-term objective of the shareholder value maximization. We can say that this is the greatest merit of this method. Limitations Payback Consider XYZ Ltd with two projects A and B. It has the same three years payback period, whose flows are as follows. Year Cash flows from Project A ( £) Cumulative ( £) Cash flows from Project B ( £) Cumulative ( £) 0 (100,000) (100,000) (100,000) (100,000) 1 20,000 (80,000) 50,000 (50,000) 2 30,000 (50,000) 30,000 (20,000) 3 50,000 0 20,000 0 4 30,000 30,000 100,000 100,000 Payback Period (Year) 3 3 Ross et al. (2007) stated that the first limitation of payback method is the timing of cash flows within the payback period. Looking at the table above, from year 1 to year 3, the cash flows of project A increase from  £20,000 to  £50,000, while the cash flows of project B decrease from  £50,000 to  £20,000. Because the large cash flow of  £50,000 comes earlier with project B, its NPV must be higher. However, as mentioned above, the payback periods of the two projects are identical. Thus, the problem with the payback period is that it does not consider the timing of the cash flows within payback period. It also shows that the payback method is inferior to NPV because NPV method discounts the cash flows properly. The second limitation is payment after the payback period (Ross et al., 2007). Lets consider projects A and B in the same three years payback period, project B is clearly preferred because it has a cash flow of  £100,000 in the fourth year. Thus, a problem here is that payback method ignores all cash flows occurring after the payback period. For the short-term orientation of the payback method, some valuable long-term projects may be rejected. NPV method does not encounter this problem because this method uses all the cash flows of the project. Because of the first two limitations, the payback method cannot maximize shareholders wealth. According to UoS (2007), the payback period method ignores inflation and discriminates against large capital-intensive infrastructure projects with long times, because it only focuses on the earliest time to recover the initial investment. Net present value (NPV) NPV is the true measure of an investments profitability. But, in practice, it still has some problems. The first limitation of NPV method is cash flow estimation (Professional Management Education, 2010). The NPV method is easy to use if forecasted cash flows are known. However, it is quite difficult to obtain the estimates of cash flows due to uncertainty. The second limitation of NPV is unrealistic assumptions (UoS, 2007). Under NPV method, there is a single market rate of interest for both borrowing lending and an individual can borrow or lend any amount of money at that rate. It is unrealistic, in practice, the interest rate for borrowing and lending is different and everyone has to follow the interest rate for each kind. For example, for Vietnam market in 2011, the interest rate for borrowing at 9% and for lending at 17% per year (Trading Economics, 2012). NPV also ignores transaction costs or taxes. Conclusion In a survey carried out by Graham and Harvey (2001), it was found that 74.9% of respondent companies use net present value (NPV) and 56.7% use payback period method when they appraise the investment projects. It means that in fact, NPV method is used more than payback period method. Techniques % Always or Almost Always Internal Rate of Return (IRR) 75.6 Net present value (NPV) 74.9 Payback period 56.7 Accounting rate of return 30.3 Source: Graham and Harvey, The theory and practice of corporate finance: Evidence from the Field, Journal of Financial Economics 60 (2001), based on a survey of 392 CFOs According to the survey of Graham Harvey (2001) and Sandahl (2003), payback period method is often used in small size companies. The major reason for this can be that payback period method is more simple, cheaper and easier to calculate. Small companies are only interested in the shortest time to recover initial investment because they often lack the source for fund. Moreover, the complexity of the other investment appraisal methods is always a barrier for the small company. However, net present value (NPV) is often used in medium and large size companies (Graham and Harvey, 2001). The major reason for this can be that these companies are interested in the profitability and time value of money than the payback period. They have the source of funds and consider maximizing shareholders wealth as their long-term objective.

Praising And Providing Honest Appraisal English Language Essay

Praising And Providing Honest Appraisal English Language Essay According to Collins English Gem Dictionary, a criticism is a skilled in, or finding fault act whereas praising is an act that expresses approval, admiration of, glorifying and giving commendation. For example, live shows such as American Idol and Americans got talent, where the participants will be judged and evaluated by the judges. The comments may be fair or biased and hurtful. Criticizing someone does not necessarily have to be viewed as something negative because a criticism is given in order to help others to improve themselves or whatever they are lack of. These are positive criticisms that will lead to positive outcomes. However, there are also negative criticisms. These are the kinds of criticisms that are detrimental to an individuals self-esteem. People who are always giving negative criticisms to others should be avoided. Appraisal on the other hand is used in the same sense as the word praise, which means an action that expresses warm approbation of, commend the merits of, glorify and extol the attributes of something or someone (The Concise Oxford Dictionary Of Current English, 1951). We give praises to someone when we agree or enjoy the persons actions. For example, we praise someone when he or she has given an inspiring and awesome speech which has succeeded to move the hearts of others. We praise others when we like them or look up to them due to the qualities that we admire. However, the praises expressed are not always sincere and honest. The praises that are given by others may be false and are actually in the form of sarcasms, ironically. For example, if someone says You have the shape of a pear, he or she might be praising you for the sexy body shape that you have, but it might be also a kind of sarcasm as well which refers to the fat of your body. Providing honest appraisal is quite similar to the act of praising, but it is definitely an honest appraisal. Providing honest appraisal is healthy because it comes straight from the thoughts and feelings. We provide honest appraisal when we sincerely wish to give someone appraisal because we think they deserve our honest appraisal. Our honest appraisal will help to boost the confidence of others and help us not to be biased toward others. 2. Meanings are in people, not in words. Explain this statement. According to Brian Paltridge in his book Discourse Analysis, people do things or perform communication acts in order to achieve their communication goals. Usually people meant what they say, not semantically, literally and not only on surface but every words uttered have its own meaning depends on the situation that they are in and to whom they referred to. For instant, a person who is a driver will understand if someone gives him direction by saying Take 12 oclock after you reach the roundabout. However, other people might get the message wrong if they are in a different situation or they dont know what those words meant. They will assume that Take 12 oclock as the time on the clock or watch. This shows that meaning is in people and not in words. It is also depends on the situation and people who are involve in the context. It is the same when you talk, share information, or story with someone. If your friend tells you about his or her problem, that person will aspect you to listen, paying attention, understand, and show support. During this time, it is important for you to try and get what your friend is saying and try to understand what he or she meant by what the person said. If you have any doubt or seek confirmation, you should rephrase and ask question for confirmation and clarification. Indirectly, you will help your friend understands the problem better and come out with solution by himself. Other than that, words can be very powerful and change peoples life. For example, the words I love you can create a strange and wonderful feeling in your heart toward somebody who feel that you are special in his or her life. It also can change your life in a split second. We should pay attention with the interaction that we make with people around us especially those who are important in our life. It urges us to learn to understand the deeper message relies beneath those words, appreciate it, and how it becomes meaningful to their users. 3. Say what you understand by sexist language and racist language. Why are these forms of speech practice considered offensive in each case? How can we avoid these barriers to effective speech? Sexist language is using language in a way that excludes either men or women when discussing a topic when actually that is meant to include people from both sexes. For instance, the statement Each student chose his own topic for his term paper, leads the reader to assume that all the students in the class were male, despite the probability that half of them were female. Therefore, sexist language is gender bias in using languages. It can occur either consciously or unconsciously. When unconscious, the gender bias in language can be considered to be the product of society: the repetition of sexist behavior and terms used by other people in their speech practice causes the speaker unconsciously produces his or her own sexist language where men are the norm and women the other. Sexist language offends people when they find themselves excluded. If you are using language that is offensive to half of your audience, you will not get your message across. People will not be receptive to your arguments if they are aggrieved by your use of exclusively masculine pronouns. Moreover, sexist language encourages discrimination and can discourage people from pursuing their dreams. In order to avoid these barriers, some strategies have to be taken to achieve effective speech. Firstly, the generic man in common terms includes man, mankind, and caveman are the most commonly used gendered nouns, so avoiding the confusion they bring by using humanity or the human race when you are referring to all people or use person instead of man when referring of a single hypothetical individual. Secondly, avoid gendered pronouns and possessive adjectives like generic he and his by making them plural and use plural pronoun they. Thirdly, sex role stereotypes should be avoided by using genderless titles whenever possible, such as flight attendant instead of stewardess, fire-fighter instead of fireman, and homemaker instead of housewife and avoid adding gender markers to genderless titles, such as male nurse; use the genderless title alone (i.e., nurse). It goes the same for racist language which most of the time are used to hurt other people who are different, in terms of their races. It may cause a lot of negative effects in every single way of its application no matter in what context it is been used. Taking Malaysia as an example, unity is one of the factors why all of us can live peacefully in a country which consist of many different races and not to mention being proud of it. Malaysia once faced racist issue and the last time it happened, thousands of people died in the tragedy and it shows how dangerous it can be when were dealing with racist issue. The point is, there is no particular race is better than the others, as long we are willing to work hard, and everyone could achieve the same success. Whether they (racist and sexist languages) are used on purpose or blindly, it is a form of abuse or bullying and I think we can all do well to watch what words escape our lips, just in case we are repeating things weve always repeated without even knowing that they may be hurting someone. On the other hand, one way to avoid these kinds of languages is always remember than we are not better than anyone else and everybody should be treated equally. By this way, we wont have any prejudice among other races or the opposite gender and of course we will make the world to better place to live.

Free Death Penalty Essays: Religious Perspectives of Capital Punishment :: Argumentative Persuasive Topics

Religious Perspectives on Capital Punishment    Travelling around the world, this paper presents the various religious perspectives evidenced in recent actions taken regarding the death penalty.    In St. Lucia, regional Roman Catholic Bishops, at the Antilles Episcopal Conference held as part of the Antilles Eucharist Congress held in St Lucia in May, publicly stated their wish to see the abolition of the death penalty. The president of the conference, Edgerton Clarke, Archbishop of Kingston, Jamaica, said that while he and his colleagues were mindful of the support for capital punishment in the region they saw life as being of tremendous value, and hoped for the abolition of the death penalty. Capital punishment was one of several issues discussed at the Episcopal Conference which is a forum through which Caribbean bishops examine what is happening in the church and society. The Congress was attended by some 20,000 Catholics from the regional and international community.    In Italy, at a papal mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II at Rome's Regina Coeli Prison on 9 July, prayers were offered for prisoners on death row who were awaiting the end of their existence, and for those kept in inhuman conditions. ''May the death penalty, an unworthy punishment still used in some countries, be abolished throughout the world'' the Pope said.    During the year 2000, the Jubilee Year of the Roman Catholic Church, the Coliseum in Rome has been lit up with a bright white light every time a country abolished the death penalty or announced a moratorium on executions. It was also illuminated if a death sentence was commuted or a prisoner sentenced to death was found to be innocent and released.    In the Russian Federation, meeting in Moscow, the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church on 16 August called for an end to the death penalty. The church gave as its reasons for opposing the death penalty the fact that it can make a judicial error irreparable and also because the penalty causes controversy in society.    In the USA, in February the pastor of the White House, the Reverend Philip Wogaman, senior minister at Washington's Foundry Methodist Church, called for a review of the death penalty, adding his voice to those concerned that innocent people have been condemned and that sentencing is prone to racial bias.    ``Maybe there are circumstances in which historically one can justify this.

Why did Virgil Want to Burn The Aeneid? :: History Historical Papers

Why did Virgil Want to Burn The Aeneid? Publius Vergilis Maro, known to us as Virgil, was born Oct 15, 70 BC in Northern Italy. Octavius, who had always been a friend of Virgil, became Emperor in 27 BC, adopting the name of Augustus. He made Virgil in a sense, a court poet, "although [Virgil] always retained his independence of thought and expression" (Milch 7). However it was the Emperor's initial idea, and not Virgil's own, for him to write the Aeneid. Virgil accepted the project although he later wrote that "he thought he must have been just about mad to attempt the task" (Quinn 73). In the end, after working on the project for eleven years, Virgil thought he had failed in the attempt. He planned a three year trip to Greece and Asia to try to fix what he thought was wrong with the Aeneid. But he died before he could finish, and on his deathbed Virgil asked for the manuscript to be burned. It is puzzling that the author of such a masterpiece, hailed by many as the best piece of literature ever written, and certainly one of the most influential, could look upon his work this way. Not just that it hadn't lived up to his expectations, but that it was bad enough that it should be burned. It doesn't seem to me that Virgil would have asked this simply because he didn't want people to read his work unless it was perfect. He must have thought that there was something actually dangerous about the Aeneid in its present form. In order to try to guess why Virgil believed the Aeneid to be such a failure, it is important to first be familiar with what Virgil was trying to accomplish with the story. Augustus wanted it to be an epic which glorified Rome and ultimately himself. Virgil himself had a passion for Italy and the peace, order, and security that could come as a result of the Augustan age. He had grown up in the midst of civil war and experienced first hand the pain and suffering that it caused. Uniting all Italy under one rule would put an end to civil war and this was Augustus' plan. So in that sense Virgil shared Augustus' vision and was an ideal choice to write the epic. But Virgil also had a deep hatred for all wars and battles, a sentiment which is hinted at in the text of the Aeneid many times.

Tree Paper

Which is the correct symbol for the stalling speed or the minimum steady flight speed in a specified configuration? C) VS. Longitudinal dynamic instability in an airplane can be Identified by B) pitch oscillations becoming progressively steeper True course measurements on a Sectional Aeronautical Chart should be made at a meridian near the midpoint of the course because thee C) angles formed by lines of longitude and the course line vary from point to point. Regulations which refer to â€Å"operate† relate to that person who C) causes the aircraft to be used or authorizes Its useTo act as pilot In command of an aircraft operated under 14 CUFF part 91, a commercial pilot must have satisfactorily accomplished a flight review or completed a proficiency check within the preceding C) 24 months Each required flight crewmen is required to keep his or her shoulder harness fastened A) during takeoff and landing, unless he or she is unable to perform required duties To increase the rate of turn and at the same time decrease the radius, a pilot should A) increase the bank and decrease airspeed. Dashed lines on a Surface Analysis Chart, if depicted, indicate that the pressure gradient is B) weak.One of the most dangerous features of mountain waves is the turbulent areas in and C) below rotor clouds. Weather Advisory Broadcasts, including Severe Weather Forecast Alerts (AWE), Convective Signets, and Signets, are provided by C) Arts on all frequencies, except emergency, when any part of the area described Is within 150 miles of the airspace under their Jurisdiction. Which Is the best technique for maligning the wing-load factor when flying In severe turbulence? C) Set power and trim to obtain an airspeed at or below maneuvering speed, maintain wings level, and accept variations of airspeed and altitude.The reason for variations in geometric pitch (twisting) along a propeller blade is that flight. What does good cockpit stress management begin with? A) Good life stress management The conditions most favorable to wave formation over mountainous areas are a layer of C) stable air at mountaintop altitude and a wind of at least 20 knots blowing across the ridge.