Explanation on the Evolution of the Federal Indian Policy from Washington through Jackson’s Administration Essay Example for Free

Explanation on the Evolution of the Federal Indian Policy from Washington through Jackson’s Administration Essay President Lincoln in his Gettysburg address told the nation that the state promotes a government of the people for the people and by the people. In Jackson’s time he stressed out what Thomas Jefferson believes that independent society is making dependent people independent (studyworld 1998). Both have spoken of people and a nation. Being once the heads of this super powerful nation, the yoke of responsibility on governing whose people and what nation is on their shoulders. It is a matter of whose will are being protected when what is put in question are the rights and obligations between the natives and the whites. For the rich and influential will sovereignty rule? During the Jackson administration it wasn’t so. Authority at that time must eliminate all the risk to carry on a business plan. We can never measure the enormous weights between love for ones country and the evil of greed but history repeats itself and is always a witness to the fall and rise of many cities and country’s. The past Jackson administration has its goals or measure to take. However, democracy is meant to give each one according to its due. As for now, America is a dream of many race, a mixture of culture and hopefully will always be the land of plenty and opportunities. It is so because it was the fruit of its enormous labor, tears and pain and good leadership of some honorable statesmen but more so of its people. Much to be said but humanity stands where humans are treated reverently. Many great leaders had fathomed this thought. Many so called good leaders have thrown out the weakest from the sinking ship in order to save a chosen few or the meanest. Jackson at first diplomatically covered the Cherokees land until pushing them to Mississippi as narrated in the book: the Trails of Tears. He injected in these so called savages that they can not just be hunters but also agriculturists (Native Indians are inborn hunters and naturally obedient but strong people in body and character). They asked the native inhabitants to transfer from one state to plant cottons but in reality the Native Americans do not dig to cultivate because during their times food is in abundance. On the other hand, that present administration intends to dig for gold and by all means will strive hard to become a super power that is known today. Despite the ruling of the Supreme Court on sovereignty, the Indians left their ancestral lands led by Chief Ross who at that time can only do the least he can do best when only destiny could dictate the future. Civilizations like industrialization or advancement are always paid for at a great price. Georgia’s effort to dislodge the Cherokees is more about oppressing than helping its inhabitants. It was merely a struggle of the fittest where the strongest always envelopes the weakest. Reformers of the past could have set their goals on advancement without due respect to Indians tribal customs and traditions. The present Indian law and nonetheless about five tribes is complex as we view the state government with the history of federal Indian policy. Though they are just minority compared to the whole U. S. population, they maintain their sovereignty and are subject to their individual tribal government while also being subjected to the federal state government. Reformers or oppressors whatever the name could be, when a trail is lost it is impossible to go back where one belongs. Native cultures are loss because the new school taught that their parents and grand parents learning are inferior to what is new (Montana 1993). After a century, efforts on behalf of the present government to regain the loss culture among the Native Americans is being acted upon, laws concerning sovereignty (House 2007) is upheld but only to few remaining 1. 7 Million Indians since most of them had already faded away together with their homelands. Reference http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/hrd/pubs/indiangb.pdf

International Tax Havens And Money Laundering

International Tax Havens And Money Laundering Introduction Layering is the procedure of sorting out the capital gained from illegal actions from their source using different levels of composite fiscal transactions, for instance changing cash into travellers checks, shares, investments, or acquiring expensive assets, for example painting or jewellery. 4 Introduction In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. Benjamin Franklin (1789) Cited in Sharon (2009), p333 International tax havens and money laundering is becoming a major issue in the current world economy. A tax haven country is a place where certain taxes are levied at a small rate or does not exist. People and/or businesses can find it smart to move into those places which will create tax competition amongst governments which also include illegal activities such as profits gained from unfair trading or frauds in a companys accounts and corruption. Goerke (2008) study shows that there is a negative relationship between tax havens and corruption. This is because a country with tax evasion policies, the normal tax rate has to be high in order to generate the same level of income as a country with no tax evasion policy. High tax rate has a tendency to ease corruption. In the UK, Her Majesties Royal Court (HMRC) is trying to gain access to details of overseas accounts of UK citizens in tax havens countries (Riem, 2009). The Financial Times in July 2008, reported the Swiss bank UBS will no hold have overseas account for U.S. citizens following a law suit by the U.S. government in May, 2008 (GFIP, 2009). The US Treasury has lost on an annual basis around US $ 100 billions in revenue because of the accounts held in tax haven countries. The U.S. congress introduced the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act (STHAA) in March 2009 which includes a list of tax haven countries. Companies are planning to move away from the place where the Act is in force. The Italian Finance Minister, Guilio Tremonti had the fight against tax haven countries as his main priority in the G-8  [1]  summit in Aquila in July 2009. Money laundering is the procedure to cover the correct source, possession, route and use of capital, largely gained from illicit actions with the intend of making appear is was obtained legally. There are three main ways of doing this, namely: placement, layering and integration (Shehu, 2003). Placement occurs when an individual deposits money gained from illegal activities into financial services providers such as banks. Layering is the procedure of sorting out the capital gained from illegal actions from their source using different levels of composite fiscal transactions, for instance changing cash into travellers checks, shares, investments, or acquiring expensive assets, for example painting or jewellery. Integration is when an individual uses legal means to hide illicit money, therefore leaving the illegal funds to be distributed back to criminals. These can take the form of fake import/export invoices. Advantages and Disadvantages of International Tax Havens and Money Laundering Offshore financial institution offers access to steady political and economic matters. This is advantageous to the residents who lives in areas of political turmoil who fear their assets may be frozen. Some banks operate at a low cost base and provide high interest rates than what is legal in the home country due to the lack of government interference in the affairs. Money laundering in remote islands and countries helps increase the economy growth. The services of offshore banks are advantageous when compared to domestic banks, they offer number of bank accounts, risk is based on high and low rates of investments. Some individuals have specific tax advantages because these banks are linked to other offshore companies, trust or foundations. However, through money laundering the banks have been involved to help terrorist groups, crime gangs, and other state and non-state actors. Money laundering encourages tax evasion, by helping them deposit their hidden income in an attractive place. Access to offshore banks are difficult as they operate in far distant places. Yet accounts can be created by online and other modes, a country such as India finds it difficult to deal with the issue of money travelling in and out without restrictions. Offshore accounts aid this money, and this can cause financial problems in the country. The charge to uphold these accounts is possible by the high earners . The tax load falls for the middle income group. Also the people who earn more are left to pay more taxes to facilitate the economy. Acquisition, possession or use of property, knowing at the time of receipt that such property was derived from criminal activity or from an act of participation in such activity (Lockett, 1999). Government review fiscal transactions to make sure the work is carried out properly on the administrative side, prevent welfare and other benefits fraud, prevent money laundering and to detect any other illicit doings (World Bank Institute, 2008). These advantages, however, government employees gaining access to these data and other individual might misuse these financial data (World Bank Institute, 2008). These advantages, however, government employees gaining access to these data and other individual might misuse these financial data (World Bank Institute, 2008). People who are involved in trying to hide or transfer properties that are used for criminal purposes will face legal sanctions (Lockett, 1999). For instance, these properties may be used for drugs dealing, hide dirty money, and any other criminal activities. Global Overview International tax havens and money laundering is having a global impact. For instance, in India, money laundering is become a huge problem as money generated from illegal activities, such as crimes, terrorism and drug-trafficking, is instantly transferred to tax havens countries such as Switzerland. India are made up of tax havens, laws allowing secrecy, disguised corporations, anonymous trust accounts, fake foundations and assorted money laundering mechanisms which are designed to move money and keep hidden their sources (Financial Times, 2009). The local government and authorities, for instance, the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, seems to have no interest investigating into the matter. Even during the G-20 meeting in London (2009), the Indian representative though this topic would be out of line when actually tax haven countries and money laundering was making the headlines. In February 2009, an Indian newspaper reports that several Indian ministers visited Switzerland on private voyage. (Vaidyanathan, 2009) Kar and Cartwright-Smith (2008) in a report for the Global Financial Integrity (GFI) that illicit financial outflow from India for the period 2002-2006 was on an average low of US $ 22.7 billions and high of US $ 27.3 billions per year ranking India as the 5th largest outflow of illegal money outflow in the world. These come from mainly second hand goods markets which are not accounted for and largely processed by a financial service provide named Hawala Bank. Hawala Bank is a financial services provider which is unlicensed and therefore under no government authority. The financial institution accept money in all its form in one country and pays out in another country but does not find it important to keep proper records of clients and transactions. Their main trading activity is transferring money from developed countries into the Middle East and North Africa where the firm originated. Institution trading often goes through Pakistan; Dubai and Africa countries such as Nigeria before reaching the customer as a means to protect the privacy of clients and that is the main reason is it use for money laundering as shown in Appendix 1. No studies manage to analyse the amount of money traded by the company but it is believed that Hawala bankers are hugely involve for tax evasion and money laundering. Since it has no legal obligation, preventing them from trading is almost impossible as it is done in an informal way. (van de Bunt, 2008) As compared to this, Italy is showing a great concern in tax haven countries and money laundering. Italy has the highest corporate tax rate in Europe as shown in Appendix 2 which triggers Italian base companies to send profits in tax haven countries. De Mooij Ederveen and Dharmapala (2008) argued that company profits and income is more responsive to taxes that where the company or individual is situated. On 3 October 2009, the Italian government granted a grace period for company and individuals to return profits from tax haven countries for a small charge of 5% of the capital. They expect around US $ 148bn to flow back in the country generating tax revenue of US $ 7bn mostly from Switzerland as in the pass, the later was responsible for 58.3% of inflows of profits from overseas. The Finance Minister of Italy, Guilio Tremonti, said in an interview in July 2009: The true benefit of this measure is that it will close Ali Babas cave and measures are useless if they leave tax havens open. Financial Times (16 July, 2009) In 2008, Giulio Tremonti made the account of all Italian tax payers available online which was on of his approach to track incomes of Italian tax payers. Scherer Salzano (2008) discussed that this would not help the government as it could induce financial crime as private details of individuals such as income earned and address were made public and consequently the website was closed. Furthermore, some countries enjoy labelling themselves as tax haven countries such as the Caribbean Islands. However, offshore financial services firms prefer to promote themselves as wealth management centre. A recent approximation by the Tax Justice Network (2009), show that around a third of the worlds assets is held in these countries (i.e. US $ 11.5 trillion). Countries such as France, UK and Holland have no interest in to crack down these tax haven countries as many of them form part of the colonies. Nevertheless, following the September 11 attack, the U.S. government wants to eliminate these countries tax policies as it prompts money laundering therefore helping terrorist groups. Their main targets in the Caribbean are Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Belize, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Guatemala, and Panama. This is because these countries have slack financial authorities which benefit money laundering. Caribbean islands are consequently joining force to establish guidelines to combat money laundering mainly because of world regulators (Rosdol, 2007). Legal Side and Policies Since the 9/11 incident there has been an interest and growing concern for the rules and regulations made against serious crimes including money laundering and tax havens. The Indian government took advantage of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) sanction threats against tax havens and money laundering. They took a hard look at the countrys Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements focusing on restricting the outflow of clack money and adopting measures to arrest anyone involved within the country. In their urge to stop black money funding growth, the Indian government began a negotiation with Switzerland to help release their infamous secrecy laws and share data on tax evasion cases. Since OECD drives against tax havens, many countries have started to sign international standards on transparency and exchange of information. For instance the Cayman Islands have recently signed a joint agreement with seven other countries, which allows them to exchange information on tax matters unilaterally. If similar agreements like the one Caymans Island took were taken by India, it would allow tax authorities to track down tax evaders and money launderers by gaining access to financial information that are hidden. (Basu, 2009) Before the 2008 tax haven and money laundering laws caused a lot of conflict with the Caymans and U.S, however political stability, strict and clear regulations has helped the country escape the OECD clampdown on tax havens. Financial services comprise around 40% of GDP and have made the Caymans the worlds fifth largest financial centre. Strict laws against money laundering got the Caymans removed from the Financial Action Task Force blacklist in 2001 but since then they have maintained a good relationship with the main hosted banks. Regulations in the Cayman Island are provided by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority, which also manage their currency. (Oxford Economic Country Briefings, 2008) In the Bahamas the government is considering introducing VAT, but this is a challenge for them as the country has built their fortunes on their tax haven status. The financial sector has undergone a deep transformation recently, since they brought down the reputation by introducing all surrounding anti-money laundering legislations. (Oxford Economic Country Briefings, 2008) The Financing and Money Services Act was enforced by the British Virgin Islands (BVI) in November 2009. The aim of this act is to make sure BVI laws and regulations are on the same level with international regulations and policies to fight money laundering and financing of terrorist. A board will be setup following the act to monitor licensing, regulation and supervision of financial services provided in the BVI, which will also include reviewing firms which do not comply with the law (Heath, 2009). There are number of offences which now these financial services providers will have to be line with so as not to break the law, otherwise fines can go up to US $ 60,000 applicable for offenders. U.S. Policies on International Tax Havens and Money Laundering The approach of U.S. law enforcement and regulatory agencies have faced relatively remarkable changes over the past decade such that money laundering and tax havens have been now operated as a primary issue. This change in approach and focus has brought improvement regarding tax havens and money laundering. The assessment of Obamas policies consolidates a tremendous amount of information in this perspective. In May 2009, president Obama presented a set of proposals focusing at international tax policies. The objective of Obama is to eradicate the benefits for those companies and well off individuals that transfer their cash in offshore accounts. He described the current system as: a tax code that says you should pay lower taxes if you create a job in Bangalore, India, than if you create one in Buffalo, New York. The key feature of this proposal is to restrict the companies which are exempted of tax payments on profits earned offshore. The plan of administration is to keep a strict hold on those companies which are not paying their taxes in U.S. pretending that they paid a huge amount of foreign taxes. During his presidential campaign Obamas party promise to work on tax havens and money laundering ACT. In February 2009, he said in a conference: We need to simplify a monstrous tax code that is far too complicated for most Americans to understand, but just complicated enough for the insiders who know how to game the system, finally ending the tax break for corporations that ship our jobs overseas. U.S. President Barack Obama This was his outmost priorities in a speech to the Congress that he guarantees to make the tax code more reasonable. According to the white house Mr. Obama is trying to close the international tax gaps. Companies which are investing in foreign countries and creating job opportunities overseas, will loose their tax advantages as planned by the U.S. President, companies which are creating job opportunities in U.S. will be offered tax advantages with incentives. The President and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner proposal of tax policy could help in increasing revenue over next year. The estimated income according to the studies carried out is US $ 210 billion. However, this proposal has some drawbacks and has been opposed by several business communities. Congressional leaders, in March 2009, suggested that this change in tax code result in making USA companies less competitive around the business globe. About 200 companies and trade associations, including Microsoft Corp., General Electric Co. and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, collectively signed a letter stating that the following changes to the tax code would set them at a disadvantage with their competitors. This proposal faced considerable opposition by democrats who are hugely represented in senate creating a bug opposite for President Obama. During his election campaign Obama criticised the tax code policy as American companies deferring their tax liabilities on corporate profits. According to democrats the profit earning by overseas investment allows American companies to invest this money in their foreign subsidiaries operations. The loophole which is not covered by Obamas policy is transfer pricing. Transfer pricing is the biggest source of tax avoidance in corporate America. An economics professor at Rutgers, (Altshuler, 2009), called transfer pricing the elephant in the room as it is a major problem which was not addressed under Obamas proposal. According to Ernst Young, reforms in Obamas policy for outsourcing have no affect on offshore corporate companies. By creating separate business entity these offshore corporations can contract with entity to outsource the job. Obama tax reforms have faced a lot of criticism from critics and the leaders in senate but the only purpose of these tax reforms is to encourage the U.S companies to invest locally to create more job opportunities for Americans. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said that after evaluating the benefits of outsourcing in India, if the cost of revenue is lower than the tax paid by multinational companies in USA. They would stop investing in foreign subsidiaries. To pursue the dream, Obamas administration announces their budget policy for the year 2011 which is increasing the tax on richest individuals and decreasing taxes for the individuals earning less. Individuals earning more than $200,000 have to face increment of US $ 970billion tax on their earnings. For businesses there is an addition of US $ 400 billion. Conclusion From research a number of laws and regulations have been put in place to improve tax haven and money laundering crimes however, most of the countries still manage to avoid those regulations and laws. In future many countries have decided it is best they work together to put together laws and regulations to decrease the crimes in the financial system if not like India it could become part of their economy and may be difficult to resolve in the future. The Caribbeans, India and Italy have undertaken the laws and regulations of the OECD. They undermine the legal economy because money laundering affects normal competitive conditions of markets which is a threat to the efficiency and stability of each countrys financial system. In Italy the prevention of money laundering plays a strategic role in fighting crime and is based in the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) requirements which are: Customer due diligence Record-keeping requirements concerning business relationships and occasional transactions Adoption of adequate organisational procedures and internal control measures Suspicious-transaction reporting. On the other hand, financial privacy is has to be accounted for before deciding whether to investigate a persons account and income which may end up on morality issues. With all the measure enforced recently and future prospects, tax evaders may want to consider paying the taxes rather than being sued for fraud for moving money to tax haven countries (Economist, 2009). Money laundering is a different case however as however strict the laws are, governments do no any proper knowledge on the amount of illegal paper money circulating. This capital flows to tax haven countries and they are the one who have to have laws in place to determine the origin of this money. The Swiss Ambassador in India, H.E. Mr Philippe Welti, said: Switzerland was accused of giving shelter to black money and there has been a lot of inflow of such wealth from India and other countries of the worldà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ I would not say it would be stopped 100% (under a new law). But through this measure, it would be controlled up to a certain limit. Cited by Vaidyanathan (2009, DNA Read the World [Online]) The capita lost in money laundering can be gained back if there if a political will as shown in the case of Nigeria, Italy, Philippines and Israel (Vaidyanathan, 2009). References and Bibliography [n.k], (2008), Oxford Economic Country Briefings. Oxford, p1-4. [n.k]. [n.d] Advantages and disadvantages of offshore banking [Online]. [n.k]. Available from: http://www.nomad4ever.com/2006/11/26/advantages-disadvantages-of-offshore-banking/ [Accessed 30 January 2010]. Baker, R. (2009). India shows us the curse of black money [Online]. Available: http://www.gfip.org/index.php?option=com_contenttask=viewid=205. [Accessed 29 January 2010]. Bank of Italy. [n.d]. Prevention of money laundering [Online]. Available from: http://www.bancaditalia.it/UIF/prev-ricic;internalaction=_setlanguage.action?LANGUAGE=en [Accessed 25 January 2010]. Basu, I. (2009). India tries to tame tax havens [Online]. Available from: http://www.upiasia.com/Economics/2009/07/01/india_tries_to_tame_tax_havens/5024/ [Accessed 25 January 2010]. Brevik, F. and Gà ¤rtner, M. (2008). Can tax evasion tame Leviathan governments?. Public Choice. 136, p103-122. Browning, L. (2009). Obama Plan Leaves One Path to Lower Taxes Wide Open [Online]. Available from: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/05/business/05shelter.html/?_r=2. [Accessed 22 January 2010]. 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(2008), Illicit Financial Inflows from Developing Countries: 2002-2006. Washington D.C: Global Financial Integrity. Knosalla, K. (2009). Tax Havens, Evasion and Banking Secrecy: A Review of the State of Financial Privacy vs. Financial Transparency. London School of Economics. Unpublished. Lockett, N. (1999) European Business Review. Legal Perspectives on Digital Money in Europe. 99(4), 238-239. Malkin, A. (2009). G20 Communiquà © Catalogue on Tax Havens and Money Laundering, 1999-2009 [Online]. Available from: http://www.g20.utoronto.ca/analysis/taxhavens.html. [Accessed 24 November 2009]. MSNBC. (2009). Obama pledges to simplify the tax code [Online]. Available from: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30228444/ [Accessed 01 February 2010]. Oak, R. (2009). Obamas Offshore Outsourcing Corporate Tax Code Change has no impact on offshore outsourcing vendors [Online]. 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Journal of Money Laundering Control. 7 (2), p175. Spencer, D. (2009). Cross-Border Tax Evasion AND BRETTON WOODS II. Journal of International Taxation. 20 (10), p44-53. Tanenbaum, E. (2009). US Inbound: Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act has broad implications [Online]. Available from: http://www.internationaltaxreview.com/?Page=10PUBID=35ISS=25409SID=720491TYPE=20. [Accessed 29 January 2010]. Tax Justice Network. (2009). Corruption and the Offshore [Online]. Available from: http://www.taxjustice.net/cms/front_content.php?idcat=100à £Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹â€ =1client=1. [Accessed 30 January 2010]. The Economist. (2009). Finance And Economics: Haven hypocrisy; The G20 and tax [Online]. Available from: http://proquest.umi.com/pqdlink?Ver=1Exp=11-17-2014FMT=7DID=1668199651RQT=309clientId=28275. [Accessed 23 January 2010]. TODAYOnline. (2010). Obama seeks $2.7 trillion tax rise on rich, businesses as well as tax cuts for working families [Online]. Available from: http://www.todayonline.com/Business/EDC100202-0000134/Seeking-a-balanced-tax-code [Accessed 02 February 2010]. Vaidyanathan, R. (2009), Tax Havens and Illegal Funds of India [Online]. Available from: http://www.iisc.ernet.in/prasthu/pages/PP_data/104.pdf [Accessed 25 January 2010]. Vaidyanathan, R. (2009). Illegal Indian money in tax havens: The way we debate it [Online]. Available from: http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:_I_4shq-SSsJ:janamejayan.wordpress.com/2009/04/23/illegal-indian-money-in-tax-havens-the-way-we-debate-it/+tax+haven+legislation+in+hawalacd=5hl=enct=clnkgl=uk. [Accessed 23 January 2010]. van de Bunt, H. (2008). A case study on the misuse of Hawala banking. International Journal of Social Economics. 35 (9), p691-702. World Bank Institute (2008). Anti-money Laundering Literature Search Technology [Online]. [n.k]. Available from: siteresources.worldbank.org/PSGLP/Resources//aml_technology.pdf. [Accessed 30 January 2010]. Zeleny, F. (2009). Obama Takes Aim at Offshore Tax Havens [Online]. Available from: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/04/obama-takes-aim-at-offshore-tax-havens/. [Accessed 24 January 2010]. Zeleny, J. (2009). Obama Takes Aim at Offshore Tax Havens [Online]. Available from: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/04/obama-takes-aim-at-offshore-tax-havens/. [Accessed 22 January 2010]. Appendices Appendix 1 Source: van de Bunt, H. (2008). A case study on the misuse of Hawala banking. International Journal of Social Economics, 35 (9), p691-702.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Controversy

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Controversy No matter what school may teach, honesty is something that could be abused or even betrayed by ones friends, coworkers, and even various people involved in politics. Sometimes when people get appointed at such a high level within a government and presented with such fame, the power could go to their heads causing them to make decisions that could not only be irrational but also easily avoidable bonehead moves. In one particular scenario, there was a time when former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales misused his power to his advantage. The Senate had reauthorized a law where it permitted the Attorney General to appoint interim U.S. Attorneys without a term limit in office, and avoid a confirmation vote. The change gave the Attorney General greater recruiting or hiring powers than the President, in terms of hiring attorneys for the states. Since the Presidents U.S. Attorney appointees are required to be confirmed to work in office by the Senate. By April 2007, there was some speculatio n that the dismissal of the U.S. attorneys might affect cases of public corruption and voter fraud. First, generally speaking, there was a large amount of people involved in this matter. However, the center point is around Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Gonzales was born on Aug. 4, 1955, in San Antonio, Texas, and his parents were Mexican immigrants (Holscher). Gonzales served in the U.S. Air Force from 1973 to 1975 and studied at the U.S. Air Force Academy from 1975 to 1977. He earned a bachelors degree from Rice University in 1979 and a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1982. After graduation, he joined a law firm in Houston (Holscher). He is a hard worker nonetheless; he will continue to strive for success throughout his entire life. Furthermore continuing with Gonzales, he remained with the Houston firm, specializing in corporate law, until 1995. That year, Bush, then governor of Texas, selected Gonzales to be his general counsel-that is, chief legal adviser. Gonzales served in that position until 1997, when he became Texass secretary of state (Holscher). This alone is a very remarkable achievement for anyone; he is on his way to something bigger, according to the trend of his rise in his career rankings. However, just like when everyone becomes a politician during some point of his or her life if they do make that choice, people will always try to find out info about them to find out if they were involved in any wrongdoings. In 2001, after Bush had been elected president of the United States, Gonzales left the court to become counsel to the president. He remained in that position until Bush named him to the Cabinet in 2005 (Holscher). He became the 80th United States Attorney General. In addition to that, he was also the first Hispanic American to hold the office (Holscher). However, here on out a series of events would begin to unfold to be controversial for Mr. Gonzales. One of the people affected by the actions of Alberto Gonzales is Michael A. Battle. Mr. Battle has held several distinguished public service posts, including serving as directo r of the U.S. Department of Justices Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, where he oversaw all 93 U.S. Attorneys and acted as a liaison with other federal agencies (Michael A. Battle). He is one who is very well involved with law, and in doing so someone typically wants to have an open-minded mentality with no judgmental bias when dealing with particular cases or scenarios. Mr. Battle was a U.S. Attorney he à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦sat on the Attorney Generals Subcommittee on Civil Rights, U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and White Collar Fraud, and helped create a U.S. task force to prosecute fraud in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (Michael A. Battle). During his several years of service, he is/was definitely an asset for the American people. However, in relation to this mess of a situation he was the one who informed the seven attorneys of their initial dismissal on the date December 7, 2006. That was his main part during this whole thing. Whether the firings were with good reason, one would think he would question whether it was ethical to just release those people from their jobs all on the same day, even when there was mild speculation regarding if it was all for political reasons? Given if someone has a job/career and a boss tells them to do something they would typically do it, in this scenario someone would have at least given some thought on if it was okay or not. Alas, Michael Battle did what he had to do. The seven attorneys released that day include David Iglesias, Kevin V. Ryan, John McKay, Paul K. Charlton, Carol Lam, Daniel Bogden, and finally Margaret Chiara. Each one of these people played a part, minor rather, in this scandal. First, David Iglesias was initially recruited over the summer of 2001 by former President George W. Bush, in which he served as an attorney for the U.S. for the district of New Mexico. However just like several of his colleagues he was fired in 2006, describing the matter as a performance related issue. It was speculated of course that that was not the case whatsoever. Next is Kevin V. Ryan, another person related to the dismissal of the U.S. attorneys. He was the former attorney for the northern part of California. He was confirmed of his position by nomination of again, George W. Bush in 2002; he announced his resignation in early 2007. He was actually fired leading to his resignation for the same reason of poor performance and how it could be a problem in various ways including how it would be a public relations issue. John McKay, former attorney for the western part of Washington State, comes from a well-known background of being a republican. Of course, just as if everyone else was given the description of his dismissal/resignation to be performance related, worried about his leadership and how he managed priorities. Paul K. Charlton was until his release in 2006, a U.S. attorney for the state of Arizona but now serves as a partner at a law firm in Phoenix Arizona called, Steptoe Johnson. The disclosure of his release is also regarding how poor his performance was while he was serving as a U.S. attorney. Next is Carol Lam, and she was the southern U.S. attorney for the district of California. However, her good service in terms of her job still caused accusations of corruption and poor work related moves, or performance. Thus ultimately leading to her resignation from her duties. Daniel Bogden was another victim of these sudden firings in 2006; his services were for the state of Nevada as well. He is a republican, thus leading to speculation for his, among other people, dismissal of their position at the time. However, President Barack Obama offered him a position in 2009. Lastly, Margaret Chiara, former and first female attorney for the state of Michigan. She was told that she was going to be removed and havea successor take her spot. She was quoted saying, To say it was about politics may not be pleasant, but at least it is truthful and went on to say that poor performance was no t truthful nor possible as an explanation on her firing. Many of the facts of the scandal are repetitive and recurring on how the attorneys were fired, the most common is the disconnect between the actual truth on how and why they were all released. All of them just so happen to be performance related when really it seemed to be, as the scandal broke out and was much more widely inspected by others, to be for political reasons for why they were fired. It being on the date of December 7, in an episode that some of its victims have already taken to calling the Pearl Harbor Day Massacre' (Zagorin). It was said that when the attorneys were hired that they can be replaced, at least theoretically, at any time for any reason (Zagorin). However what can be called into question is the ethics on why they were all truly fired, given the situation there is not any doubt that there could be some sort of wrongdoing. Of course Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is the main pinpoint of the whole controversy, as it turns out in a twist it seems that it is h im that has performance related issues in his work as well, except his in this case he had actual issues. Every one of the U.S. attorneys seemed to have a hunch that all of the allegations that were being thrown at Gonzales direction were going to be true, and that one day the truth will come out. Finally, as a result Gonzales ethics came into play. In addition to that, It was also unclear how directly involved Gonzales and the White House were in the decision (Gonzales, Alberto R.). He actually had quite some history with his controversial career that he has had, dating even to the start of the Bush administration in 2001. He was a somewhat controversial figure for having provided legal justification while White House counsel for the brutal treatment of prisoners and detainees held during the U.S. battle against terrorism (Gonzales, Alberto R.). He subsequently resigned during the year of 2007 from his position as U.S. attorney general. Following his resignation as attorney general in 2007, Gonzales worked as a consultant and public speaker. In 2009, Texas Tech University hired Gonzales as a recruiter and instructor (Holscher). His former chief of staff Kyle Sampson did not help Gonzales much either. Even was said to say, The decision-makers in this case were the attorney gen eral and counsel to the president (Akron Beacon Journal). This is a direct blow at the attorney general depicting his direct general involvement in the matter while at the same time this increased the concern of a growing scandal. In conclusion, to all of this, the scandal of the U.S. attorneys being fired for political reason proved to be a diminishing setback on former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales career. It is safe to say that the lives of the people he had effected/been involved with his actions and changed their way of life. In the end, any negativity is eventually resolved and this can pertain in real life. Time help in the general healing of issues with people, groups, or even the U.S. government.

Biliography of Edgar Allan Poe :: essays research papers

Biography of Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allen Poe was born in Boston Massachusetts on January 19,1809. He was the second child of Elizabeth and David Poe. Both of his parents were actors traveling to perform in theatres from Massachusetts to South Carolina. David Poe abandoned his family while Edgar was still an infant. His Mother died in December of 1811, at which time the orphaned Poe was taken in by a prosperous Virginian Merchant and his wife, John and Frances Allan. Edgar Allan Poe and his new family moved to England in 1815, where he attended boarding school until he was eleven. The Allan family returned to Richmond Virginia because his foster Father’s business failed. Poe attended the University of Virginia. He was very good in ancient and modern languages. His past time was gambling, which he did not do so well incurring a large debt. His father refused to help him pay off his gambling debt. This caused he and his father to fight. Poe left for Boston to avoid further conflict. In Boston, he published his first volume of poetry†Tamerlane and Other Poems†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ. He also joined the United States Army using the name Edgar A. Perry. Poes foster mother died in 1829, at which time he made up with his foster father. His foster father arranged for Poe to be nominated to West Point. Poe began his studies at West Point but was dismissed for disobeying orders in 1831. He Moved to New York where Poe tried to support himself by writing but had to rely on his grandmother, aunt and cousin for room and board. Early in 1835, he began to publish book reviews in a Richmond magazine called the Southern Literary Messenger. He was hired as a regular contri butor and as an editor of the journals review. He re established family ties in Richmond and married his cousin Virginia Clemson in 1836. Poe resigned from the Messenger in 1837 due to disagreements with the owner. Poe obtained another steady job in 1839 as editor of Barton’s Gentlemen’s Magazine, where he published â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher† Poe was fired from Barton’s in 1840 and accepted a job as literary editor for Graham’s Magazine. Poe published â€Å"The Man of the Crowd† and his first detective stories in this magazine Virginia Poe became seriously ill in 1842 and almost died; Poe’s own health was also poor.

Occupational Stress Essay -- Work Related Stress, Job Stress

Job stress has proven to be a difficult issue to tackle. Unlike physical or chemical hazards, there is not an obvious tangible hazardous agent. This issue has also been preempted by corporate stress management, health promotion, or employee assistance programs, which explain stress as a purely personal reaction, and often treat the symptoms, not the causes, of job stress. The occupational stress field also has been plagued by a variety of definitions and difficulties in measurement of stress.(Buunk,De-Jong,Y-Bemas&De wolff,1998) In addition, changes in job design or work organization are often inherently more "systems challenging" and require more radical restructuring of workplaces than reducing levels of exposure to toxic substances or ergonomic hazards. According to Mclean (1979) stress affect everyone in the workplace whether blue collar or white collar workers. Hughes (1971, p342) supported Mclean by stating that† the essential problems of men at work are the same whether they do their work in some famous laboratory or in the messiest vat room of a pickle factory† So this essay will review the major explanations that have been given for the higher rates of stress amongst working women’s based of the interview conducted on south African female worker. Part one of this paper will discuss how the factors such as Gender’s, race, marital status can cause stress among workers. In the second part work related factors such as heavy workload demand, control over work ,rewards and poor social relationship will be discussed. Lastly changes facing South African workplaces shall be discussed. The issue of stress is complicated because there is no single definitions that allows one to defines it .According to Buunk at al (1998) psychol... ...(1978). Stress at work: Chichester .J-Wiley Eckenrode J, & Gore ,S (1990). Stress between work and family: New York .Plenum press. Frankenhaeuser ,M ,Landberg U, & Chesney ,M. (1991).Women work and health :Stress opportunities .New York :Plenum press Friesen ,D & Sarros ,J (1989). Sources of burnout among educators :Journal of organizational behaviour,10 p.p 179-188 Gale group(2004). Bad relationship affect women more . Retrieved 14 march 2005 from http://www.findaeticle.com./mobsc/18-10/62085373/p1/article. Karasek RA. Control in the workplace and its health-related aspects. In Job Control and Worker Health, eds. SL Sauter, JJ Hurrell, CL Cooper. New York: Wiley, 1989; 129-159. Philips,D.L.& Segal .B.E (1969). Sexual status and psychiatric symptoms. American sociological review,34,58-7Shostaka,B(1980).Blue-collar stress :London .Addison –wesley.

Programming Language and Future Career

Career-related discussions are something that my dad and I tend to have on the weekly basis, and have increased since changing my major to Management Information Systems last year. Our latest discussion was on the phone about word choice and the do’s and don’ts when writing/typing papers and other documents, moving forward in college as well as in my future career. What sparked up this conversation though was my dissatisfaction with a comment I got on a paper from a peer review. The comment stated that my choice of words were not â€Å"scholarly† or on the college level.It really got under my skin so I decided to call my father about it. I told him the situation, and I felt that my paper was scholarly and I wrote it in a way that my fellow classmates would understand. His response was, moving forward into my career, the choice of words I used really would play a big part. As more advice he told me that having a bigger vocabulary showed professionalism and knowled ge. Throughout our discussion I became frustrated because I believed that as long as my audience understood what I was talking about it should not matter how â€Å"simple† the words were.Even though I knew what he saying was right I did not want to hear it, because I was frustrated about the comment. I wanted to tell him that I didn’t care what he had to say after a while, but I have a lot of respect for my father. I knew what he was saying was right from experience being a computer programmer, where he is constantly in meetings and speaking in front of his colleagues. After we finish talking I still felt a little frustration, because I kept thinking back to the comment.I really was surprised by the valid points my father made about the situation because I was so set on the way I felt and my stubbornness took over. The discussion was really needed though, initially I was not going to go back and reedit my paper but my father words really made sense. I guess he was righ t the choice of words you choose can really go a long way. The advice I took from our discussion to help me in my future career was to continue practicing and improving my writing skills.

Only one submission assignment

Is required for each group. Late Penalty: The late penalty for the assignment is 10 percent of the full mark per day for each day the assignment Is late. Including weekends and public holidays. Other Penalties: The penalty for groups of more than 7 students is 50% deduction of the total mark received. Total 15 marks Part 1: Hedging with Futures Assume that you are holding a portfolio of S&P index and consider using the S&P 500 index futures contracts to hedge the portfolio risk.Determine your hedging strategy nd discuss how to implement your strategy (note that the contract information of the S&P 500 index futures can be found at the CME website). Data file can be downloaded from the course Blackboard under the Project folder. The file contains daily prices of S&P 500 index and S&P 500 index futures. Part 2: Trading Options Go to Yahoo Finance http://finance. yahoo. com/ and click on the Dow Jones, NASDAQ (on the top panel). Then click on components on the left panel. You can see a l ist of stocks in the â€Å"Symbol† column.When you click on any stock, you will get basic Information on the stock. Among them. Market Cap Is the one you need to use to select stocks. You need to select three stocks (a stock with market capitalization more than $10 billion, a stock with market capitalization In between $10 billion and $500 million and a stock with market capitalization less than $500 million) whose options are reasonably actively traded. Click on a stock and then click on options on the left panel, you will get the prices of calls and puts.