The Sectional Struggle, Reborn: 1848-1854

APUSH Study Guide 17 The Sectional Struggle, Reborn, 1848-1854 Themes/Constructs: The sectional conflict over the expansion of slavery that erupted after the Mexican War was temporarily silenced by the Compromise of 1850, but Douglas’s Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 re-ignited the issue again. In the 1850s American expansion in the West and the Caribbean was extremely controversial because it was tied to the slavery question. The acquisition of territory from Mexico created acute new dilemmas concerning the expansion of slavery, especially for the two major parties, which had long tried to avoid the issue. The antislavery Free Soil Party pushed the issue into the election of 1848. The application of gold-rich California for admission to the Union forced the controversy into the Senate, which engaged in stormy debate over slavery and the Union. After the untimely death of President Taylor, who had blocked a settlement, Congress resolved the crisis by passing the delicate Compromise of 1850. The compromise eased sectional tension for the moment, although the Fugitive Slave Law aroused opposition in the North. As the Whig Party died, the Democratic Pierce administration became the tool of proslavery expansionists. Controversies over Nicaragua, Cuba, and the Gadsden Purchase showed that expansionism was closely linked to the slavery issue. The desire for a northern railroad route led Stephen Douglas to ram the Kansas-Nebraska Act through Congress in 1854. By repealing the Missouri Compromise and making new territory subject to â€Å"popular sovereignty† on slavery, this act aroused the fury of the North, sparked the rise of the Republican Party, and set the stage for the Civil War. Terms/names/topics: Gen. Lewis Cas ‘popular sovereignty’ Zachary Taylor Free Soil Party ‘conscious Whigs’ Martin Van Buren Election of 1848 ‘gold fever’ California Constitution (1849) Texas boundary dispute Underground Railroad‘stations’‘passengers’ ‘conductors’ Harriet Tubman ‘Immortal Trio’—Clay, Calhoun, Webster â€Å"Great Pacificator†Ã¢â‚¬Å"Great Nullifier† Millard Fillmore Nashville Convention Compromise of 1850 Fugitive Slave Law (1850) Franklin Pierce—‘second dark horse’ Winfield Scott (Whig) Election of 1852 Jefferson Davis—Secretary of War ‘slavocrats’ William Walker Clayton-Bulwer Treaty (1850) Cuban â€Å"filibustering expeditions† Ostend Manifesto Crimean War Gadsden Purchase (1853) Stephen A. Douglas Repeal of the Missouri Compromise Kansas-Nebraska Bill (1854) The new Republican Party Past APUSH essay questions from this area of study: 1. Although historically represented as distinct parties, the Federalists and Whigs, in fact, shared a common political ideology, represented many of the same interest groups, and proposed similar programs and policies. Assess the validity of this statement. (FRQ, 1991) 2. Discuss the impact of territorial expansion on national unity between 1800 and 1850. (FRQ, 1997) APUSH Study Guide 18 The Road to War, 1854-1861 Historian’s view: James McPherson, from Ordeal By Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction (1992) â€Å"The social and political strains produced by rapid growth provoked repeated crises that threatened to destroy the republic. From the beginning, these strains were associated mainly with slavery. The geographical division of the country into free and slave states ensured that the crisis would take the form of sectional conflict. Each section evolved institutions and values based on its labor system. These values in turn generated ideologies that justified each section’s institutions and condemned those of the other. â€Å"For three-quarters of a century the two sections [North and South] coexisted under one flag because the centripetal forces of nationalism—the shared memories of a common struggle for nationhood—proved stronger than the centrifugal forces of sectionalism. But as early as 1787, conflict over slavery at the constitutional convention almost broke up the Union before it was fairly launched. † Themes/Constructs: A series of major North-South crisis in the late 1850s culminated in the election of the antislavery Republican Abraham Lincoln to the presidency in 1860. His election caused seven southern states to secede from the Union and form the Confederate States of America. The 1850s were punctuated by successive confrontations that deepened sectional hostility until it broke out in the Civil War. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin fanned northern antislavery feelings. In Kansas, proslavery and antislavery forces fought a bloody little preview of the Civil War. Buchanan’s support of the proslavery Lecompton Constitution alienated moderate northern Democrats like Douglas. Congressman Brooks’ beating of Senator Sumner aroused passions on both sections. The Democratic Party split along sectional lines, allowing Lincoln to win the four-way 1860 election. Seven southern states quickly seceded and organized the Confederate States of America. As southerners optimistically cast off their ties to the hated North, lame-duck President Buchanan proved unable to act. The last minute Crittenden Compromise failed because of Lincoln’s opposition. Terms/names/topics: Harriet Beecher StoweUncle Tom’s Cabin Hinton R. HelperImpending Crisis of the South New England Immigrant Aid Company â€Å"Beecher’s Bibles† Burning of Lawrence John BrownPottawatomie Creek Lecompton Constitution â€Å"Bleeding Kansas† Charles SumnerPreston Brooks Election of 1856James Buchanan ‘Nativists’ American PartyKnow-Nothing Party John C. Fremont Dred Scott decision Panic of 1857 Abortive Homestead Act (1860) Tariff of 1857 Lincoln-Douglas debates Freeport Doctrine John BrownHarper’s Ferry Charleston Nominating Convention John C. Breckenridge Constitutional Union Party Republican Party platform (1860) Election of 1860 Secession of South Carolina Jefferson Davis â€Å"lame duck† interlude Crittenden Compromise Self-determination Southern nationalism Past APUSH essay questions from this area of study: 1. To what extent was President-elect Abraham Lincoln responsible for the defeat of the Crittenden proposal on the territorial expansion of slavery? (DBQ, 1974—Mr. D has the documents) 2. John Brown’s raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in October 1859, involved only a handful of abolitionists, freed no slaves, and was over in two days. Although many Northerners condemned the raid, by 1863 John Brown had become a hero and martyr in the North. To what extent and in what ways do the views about John Brown expressed in the documents illustrate changing North-South relations between 1859 and 1863? (DBQ, 1982—Mr. D has the documents) 3. Throughout our history, the Supreme Court has acted as a partisan political body rather than a neutral arbiter of constitutional principles. Assess the validity of this generalization for the period 1800-1860. (FRQ, 1984) 4. By the 1850s, the Constitution, originally framed as an instrument of national unity, had become a source of sectional discord and tension and ultimately contributed to the failure of the Union it had created. Using the documents and your knowledge of the period 1850-1861, assess the validity of this statement. (DBQ, 1987—Mr. D has the documents) 5. â€Å"I am not, nor have ever been, in favor of bringing about in any way, the social and political equality of the white and black races. † How can this 1858 statement of Abraham Lincoln be reconciled with his 1862 Emancipation Proclamation? (FRQ, 1988) 6. Analyze the ways in which supporters of slavery in the nineteenth century used legal, religious, and economic arguments to defend the institution of slavery. (FRQ, 1995) . Assess the moral arguments and political actions of those opposed to the spread of slavery in the context of TWO of the following: (FRQ, 2000) Missouri Compromise Mexican War Compromise of 1850 Kansas-Nebraska Act 8. Analyze the effectiveness of political compromise in reducing sectional tensions in the period 1820 to 1861. (FRQ, 2004) APUSH Study Guide 19 Building the War, Fighting the War, 1861-1865 Histori an’s view: James McPherson, from Battle Cry of Freedom (1988)—A view of the Civil War as expanding national power and Northern economic dominance The old federal republic in which the national government had rarely touched the average citizen except through the post-office gave way to a more centralized polity that taxed the people directly and created an internal revenue bureau to collect taxes, drafted men into the army, expanded the jurisdiction of the federal courts, created a national currency and a national banking system, and established the first national agency for social welfare—the Freedmen’s Bureau†¦. These changes in the federal balance paralleled a radical shift of political power from South to North†¦. The accession to power of the Republican Party, with its ideology of competitive, egalitarian, free-labor capitalism, was a signal to the South that Union victory in the war destroyed the southern vision of America and ensured that the northern vision would become the American vision. † Themes/Constructs: Building for War The North effectively brought to bear its long-term advantages of industrial might and human resources to wage a devastating total war against the South. The war helped organize and modernize northern society, while the South, despite heroic efforts, was economically and socially crushed. Lincoln’s skillful political leadership helped keep the crucial Border States in the Union and maintain northern morale, while his effective diplomacy kept Britain and France from aiding the Confederacy. South Carolina’s firing on Fort Sumter aroused the North for war. Lincoln’s call for troops to suppress the rebellion drove four upper South states into the Confederacy. Lincoln used an effective combination of political persuasion and force to keep the deeply divided Border States in the Union The Confederacy enjoyed initial advantages of upper-class European support, military leadership, and a defensive position on its own soil. The North enjoyed the advantages of lower-class European support, industrial and population resources, and political leadership. The British upper classes sympathized with the South and abetted Confederate naval efforts. But effective diplomacy and Union military success thwarted those efforts and kept Britain as well as France neutral in the war. Lincoln’s political leadership proved effective in mobilizing the North for war, despite political opposition and resistance to his infringement on civil liberties. The North eventually mobilized its larger troop resources for war and ultimately turned to an unpopular and unfair draft system. Northern economic and financial strengths it to gain an advantage over the less-industrialized South. The changes in society opened new opportunities for women, who had contributed significantly to the war effort in both the North and the South. Since most of the war was waged on Southern soil, the South was left devastated by the war. Fighting the War The Civil War, begun as a limited struggle over the Union, eventually became a total war to end slavery and transform the nation. After several years of seesaw struggle, the Union armies under U. S. Grant finally wore down the Southern forces under Robert E. Lee and defeated the Confederate bid for independence as well as the institution of slavery. The Union defeat at Bull Run ended Northern complacency about a quick victory. George McClellan and other early Union generals proved unable to defeat the tactically brilliant Confederate armies under Lee. The Union naval blockade put a slow but devastating noose around the South. The political and diplomatic dimensions of the war became critical. In order to retain the border states, Lincoln first de-emphasized any intention to destroy slavery. But the Battle of Antietam in 1862 enabled Lincoln to prevent foreign intervention and turn the struggle into a war against slavery. Blacks and abolitionists joined enthusiastically in a war for emancipation, but white resentment in part of the North created political problems for Lincoln. The Union victories at Vicksburg in the West and Gettysburg in the East finally turned the military tide against the South. Southern resistance remained strong, but the Union victories at Atlanta and Mobile assured Lincoln’s success in the election of 1864 and ended the last Confederate hopes. The war ended the issues of disunion and slavery, but at a tremendous cost to both North and South. Terms/names/topics: Building For War â€Å"Butternut region† â€Å"King Wheat and King Corn vs. King Cotton† Trent Affair (1861) CSS Alabama Charles Francis Adams Laird Rams Southern States’ Rights Lincoln’s arbitrary powerhabeas corpus Federal conscription power New York draft riots â€Å"bounty brokers† â€Å"rich man’s war but a poor man’s fight† Income tax Morrill Tariff Act National Banking System Homestead Act (1862) Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell Clara Barton Dorothea Dix Sally Tompkins Fighting the War â€Å"On to Richmond† Bull Run (Manassas Junction) â€Å"Stonewall† Jackson Gen. George McClellan The Peninsula Campaign Shenandoah Valley â€Å"Jeb† Stuart Seven Days’ Battles â€Å"Total War† â€Å"Blockade running† 2nd Battle of Bull Run Gen. John Pope Antietam Emancipation Proclamation 13th Amendment Fort Pillow, Tenn. Gen. A. E. Burnside Fredericksburg, Va. â€Å"Fighting Joe† Hooker Chancellorsville, Va. Gen. George G. Meade Gettysburg, Penn. Gen. George Pickett Ulysses S. Grant Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, Tenn. Battle of Shiloh David G. Garragut Port Hudson Vicksburg Chattanooga Gen. William T. Sherman Atlantaâ€Å"March to Savannah† Election of 1864 Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the Warâ€Å"Radical Republicans† Copperheads Union Party Andrew Johnson Battles in the Wilderness Hampton Roads, Va. Appomattox Courthouse John Wilkes Booth English Reform Bill (1867) Past APUSH essay questions from this area of study: There have been no DBQ or FRQ questions from this area of study. APUSH Study Guide 20 Reconstruction, 1865-1877 Historian’s view: William A Dunning, Reconstruction: Political and Economic (1907)—A view of Reconstruction as a national disgrace. Few episodes of recorded history more urgently invited thorough analysis than the struggle through which the southern whites, subjugated by adversaries of their own race, thwarted the scheme which threatened permanent subjection to another race†¦. The most rasping feature of the new situation to the old white element of the South was the large predominance of northerners and negroes in position of political power†¦. The most cunning and malignant enemy of the United States could not have timed differently this period of national ill-repute; for it came with the centennial of American independence†¦ Kenneth Stamp, The Era of Reconstruction (1965)—A favorable view of Reconstruction. Finally, we come to the idealistic aim of the radicals to make southern society more democratic, especially to make the emancipation of Negroes something more than an empty gesture. In the short run this was their greatest failure†¦. Still, no one could quite forget that the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments were now part of the federal Constitution†¦. Thus, Negroes were no longer denied equality by the plain language of law, as they had been before radical reconstruction, but only by coercion, by subterfuge, by deceit, and by spurious legalisms†¦. The blunders of that era, tragic though they were, dwindle into insignificance. For it was worth four years of civil war to save the Union, it was worth a few years of radical reconstruction to give the American Negro the ultimate promise of equal civil and political rights. Themes/Constructs: Johnson’s political blunders and southern white recalcitrance led to the imposition of Congressional military Reconstruction on the south. Reconstruction accomplished some good, such as the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, but it left behind a legacy of racial and sectional bitterness. With the Civil War over, the nation faced the difficult problems of rebuilding the South, assisting the freed slaves, reintegrating the southern states into the Union, and deciding who would direct the Reconstruction process. The South was economically devastated and socially revolutionized by emancipation. As slaveowners reluctantly confronted the end of slave labor, blacks took their first steps in freedom. Black churches and freedmen’s schools helped the former slaves begin to shape their own destiny. The new President Andrew Johnson was politically inept and personally contentious. His attempt to implement a moderate plan of Reconstruction, along the lines originally suggested by Lincoln, fell victim to Southern whites’ severe treatment of blacks and his own political blunders. Republicans imposed harsh military Reconstruction on the south after their gains in the 1866 Congressional elections. The Southern states reentered the Union with new radical governments, which rested partly on the newly enfranchised blacks, but also had support from some sectors of southern society. These regimes were sometimes corrupt but also implemented important reforms. The divisions between moderate and Radical Republicans meant that Reconstruction’s aims were often limited and confused, despite the important Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Embittered whites hated the radical governments and mobilized the Ku Klux Klan to restore white supremacy. Congress impeached Johnson but failed to convict him. In the end, the poorly conceived Reconstruction policy failed disastrously. Terms/names/topics: Exodusters Black Baptists churches African Missionary Association Freedmen’s Bureau 10% Plan—Lincoln Wade-Davis Bill Radicals Johnson’s Reconstruction plans Black Codes Sharecroppers â€Å"whitewashed rebels† Civil Rights Bill Fourteenth Amendment Congressional elections, 1866 Radicals in the Senate Thaddeus Stevens Moderate Republicans Military Reconstruction Act Fifteenth Amendment Ex parte Milligan (1866) â€Å"scalawags† â€Å"carpetbaggers† KKK ‘literacy tests’ Tenure of Office Act Edwin M. Stanton Past APUSH essay questions from this area of study: 1. The unpopular ideas and causes of one period often gain popularity and support in another, but the ultimate price of success is usually the alteration or subversion of the original ideas and programs. For the period 1830-1877, discuss this statement with reference to both (a) the ideas and activities of abolitionism and (b) the policies of the Republican party. (FRQ, 1978). . How do you account for the failure of Reconstruction (1865-1877) to bring social and economic equality of opportunity to the former slaves? (FRQ, 1983) 3. Discuss the political, economic, and social reforms introduced in the South between 1864 and 1877. To what extent did these reforms survive the Compromise of 1877? (FRQ, 1992) 4. In what ways and to what extent d id constitutional and social developments between 1860 and 1877 amount to a revolution? Use the documents and your knowledge of the period 1860 to 1877 to answer the question. (DBQ, 1996—Mr. D has the documents)

Astronomy: From the Earth to the End of the Universe

What is the universe? For something so mind numbingly large, it is quite simply to define – the universe is simply everything that exists. However let us ponder that question. Imagine a blind goldfish born and raised in a tiny fishbowl.For that goldfish, the universe is the gallon of water, the glass boundary, and the sand and ornaments sitting at the bottom. While it is apparent to us the universe is much larger than that, for the fish that is the entire extent of the universe – a gallon of water, a glass bowl, some sand and the rain of fish food coming from above.In some ways, mankind is that blind fish, oblivious to the extent of the universe since his universe is defined only by what he can perceive and observe. Astronomy can be seen as a tool by which mankind slowly grew his universe, from his planet, to his solar system, to his galaxy to 156 billion light years wide thing that we call our universe today.One could argue that astronomy is the first science to emerge , beating out physics, biology, chemistry and other fields of study in occupying mankind’s academic curiosity. We can say this because astronomical phenomena are probably one of the first observations made by our ancestors. It does not take a knowledge or curiosity of science to notice the presence of night and day.It does not take a scholar to notice that the sun rises in the same direction and sets in the opposite direction day after day. Primitive man looked at the moon and would notice its changing shape and the fact that on some days it is present and on some days it is not. One does not need a telescope to notice those numerous twinkling points of light in the sky called stars.Even without possessing the astronomical tools we have today, ancient civilizations have created numerous ways to observe and catalogue the behavior of celestial bodies. The concept of a calendar was based around the changing patterns of stars in the heavens.Knowledge of such patterns became impor tant for ancient farmers as the presence of specific patterns in the sky could tell them that it is time to plant, another set of patterns would tell them that it is a good time to harvest, and another set of patterns could tell the imminence of the annual flooding of the river. For early man, the connection between movements of stars and the events unfolding in his midst were clear. Knowledge of celestial movements aid him feed himself and his family.With such heavenly foretelling, the development of a feeling of connection between the Gods and the stars is hardly surprising. Huge monuments were erected to serve as observatories for these events.Monuments to the gods were created to align with celestial behavior. Stonehenge in Britain served as a stencil for solar motion. In Chichen Itza, pyramids and towers dedicated to the gods also served as astronomical observatories.

Student development in higher education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Student development in higher education - Essay Example Higher education institutions tend to spend more on students particularly with a good educational profile in order to bring them up as potential faculty members or else, knowledgeable scholars to serve the country at various levels. Students are most ambitious about their professional careers while they are in their higher education. Students tend to do study harder in an attempt to be eligible for various scholarships that are offered by the higher education institutions. This comes as a source of inspiration for the relatively careless students, and they tend to realize the importance of working hard. In turn, they also participate in the race of professional development. Ambitious class fellows serve as a source of inspiration for the usually careless students. Higher education institutions particularly encourage the students to work harder by making them aware of their faculty development programs. Nowadays, many higher education institutions including government and private colleges and universities offer faculty development programs in which they bear their teachers’ tuition and accommodation expenses while they go abroad for to foreign reputable universities for further education. The institutions finance their faculty so that they would be equipped with faculty educated in well-ranked universities across the globe. This causes a good impression of the institution on the prospective students and the institutions get more applications from capable students in the country. The current students who have already been made aware of the faculty development programs tend to work harder in order to secure the minimum GPA required to make them eligible for selection as a faculty member in the future. Many higher education institutions are practically linked with industries and are responsible to ensure a constant supply of scholars and educated personnel to take part in the

Economic inflation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Economic inflation - Essay Example Inflation is the consistent and sustained general price increase of commodities over a period of time leading to fewer goods being purchased with every unit of the current currency. Inflation indicates a loss in the purchasing power based on each unit of money within an economy. This is measured through the consumer price index over specified duration of time (Hart, 2009). There are two major causes of inflation in any economy which are the demand-pull inflation and the cost-push inflation both of which will be discussed below in detail and their effects explained as well. Causes The demand-pull inflation occurs when the demand of the goods or services exceed the ability to produce them or exceed the supply. Suppliers start increasing the prices of the reduced goods and services when they start realizing its diminishing supply. If this continues, the central bank starts increasing the supply of money as a reaction to the aggregate demand. With the increase in money supply in circulat ion, businesses cannot increase the production and hence supply remains constant for a short while but this leads in the long run to an increase in equilibrium and prices rise resulting therefore to inflation (Tucker, 2012). According to the illustration, Demand moves from D0 to D1, the supply remains constant for a while but then the equilibrium shifts from A to B leading to price increase and hence inflation. Source: http://econrsrch/wklyltr/2000/el2000-21.html. The cost-push inflation is the other cause of inflation where there is an increase in cost of production which ultimately leads to an increase in the prices of raw materials and wages. This increased cost by the firms is passed on to consumers. The cost-push inflation is caused by a monopoly company, inflation in the wages, natural disasters, when the natural resources deplete, when the foreign exchange rates fall leading to a reduction in the imports or by the government when it increases its taxation (Tucker, 2012). All the above mentioned situations lead to a reduction in supplies. In the illustration, when the production cost increases caused by any of the above mentioned factors, the supply reduces from S0 to S1. The high demand and the reduced supply leads to a shift in the equilibrium and ultimately an increase in the price level from Z to Y causing inflation to take place. Source: http://econrsrch/wklyltr/2000/el2000-21.html. Effects There are positive and negative effects of inflation. The positive effects of inflation include the fact that with inflation, the central banks adjust the interest rates as a way to mitigate the economic recession. This then leads to a ripple effect as banks also adjust their interest rates causing more people to take up loans and mortgages in a bid to deal with the consistently increasing prices and diminished supply. The banks therefore benefit from all this even though mainly it is for a short while depending on how long the inflation last (if it lasts for lon g, the loose as people will be unable to repay the loans and mortgages). The other positive effect is that with the inflation looming, investment is directed to non-monetary projects which otherwise suffer when there is no inflation as people do not get time to invest their time and energy on them but with inflation they become able to (Dwivedi, 2010). The negative effects however surpass the positive ones. These negative effects range from loss of employment leading to massive unemployment as companies which cannot afford to pay wages dismisses their workforce leaving only a few who are overworked with no pay increase while others close their doors as they declare bankruptcy. There is also the fact that people start reducing their spending and usage rates as commodities become rare or the money to buy them dwindles causing a change in the number of meals per day, others go hungry and homeless as they fail to repay to mortgages or their other debts

The development and future of the Sukuk in Saudi Arabia financial Essay

The development and future of the Sukuk in Saudi Arabia financial services - Essay Example n the global markets This chapter aims to provide a through insight into the research that has been conducted regarding regulation and securitization involving Sukuk. The chapter aims to elaborate the structure of the Sukuk markets and the processes that go into issuing Sukuk and summarize. The global perspective on Sukuk has been thoroughly-researched in the past few years and this has helped us considerably in conducting the present study. Moreover, previous researchers have provided a convergent viewpoint regarding the growth of Sukuk in Muslim as well as non-Muslim countries. A number of definitions of Sukuk have been proposed by researchers and scholars. Sukuk can be regarded as a product of Islamic banking that allows the creation of a system of investment that results in profits for the investor and at the same time aims to comply with the Islamic ban on usury. According to the definition proposed by the Academy of International Modern Studies (2009), Sukuk are referred to as trust certificates or as participation securities1. Sukuk are considered to be ideal tools for the management of liquidity. In general terms, Sukuk could be defined as a structure of Islamic banking that provides assets to the investor with a cash flow2. The word Sukuk is an Arabic word which is a plural of the word sak which refers to any financial certificate. The word Sak is a cognate of the English word Cheque. Sukuk are implemented by following a process of securitization which aims to meet the standards of Islamic financing required by the Shariah and by the national laws of Islamic financing. Another definition that sheds light on the issue of profit and risk taking in the issuing of Sukuk had been proposed by Tan Wan Yean (2009) in his research on Islamic banking quotes the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) definition of Sukuk: â€Å"†¦ certificates of equal value representing, after closing subscription, receipt of the value of

Annotated bibliography Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Annotated Bibliography Example ternet marketing, in terms of how the online marketing influences consumer psychology and hence consumer purchasing behavior, which makes the book a must read for anybody interested in our topic. In this journal article, the authors discuss extensively online consumer information and advertising. Basically, they discuss on Internet advertising gives information to consumers online, which in turns affects their purchasing behavior; hence, the article is very relevant to this topic. In this article from The New Yorker Magazine, the author, Malcom Gladwell, examines the science of marketing and incorporates aspects of Internet marketing and their influence on the consumer. He discusses how such marketing strategies influence consumer purchasing behavior; thus, the article is very relevant to this study. In this book, the author extensively explores Internet marketing concentrating on online marketing andterming it as the newest and one of the fastest growing forms of marketing. The author argues that Internet marketing is increasingly becoming popular and that it is playing a big role in influencing consumer behavior, that is consumer purchasing behavior, which makes it very relevant to the topic of our discussion. In this article in the Time Magazine, the author, Steven Johnson, discusses how bloggers, hobbyists and diarists among others promote extensive Internet marketing and how their activities influence consumer demand and behavior. Due to this, the article is very relevant to the research, which deals with the role of Internet marketing on consumer behavior. In this article, the author, Abhilasha Mehta, touches on the issue of advertising attitudes and advertising effectiveness, where he looks at how Internet marketing is becoming a major type of advertising and how it is massively beginning to influence purchasing behavior of consumers all over the world. He emphasizes the fact that Internet marketing is becoming a very effective means of advertising in

The Saddest Day in My Life Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Saddest Day in My Life - Essay Example We were taught to live in righteousness and morality. Even at a young age, I learned the importance of holding fast to one's belief. Even when I am already married and have a family of my own, I am still very closely attached to my family. My brother and I are even teamed up in a small business of importing used cars. One of my aspirations in life is to help alleviate the abject poverty that my countrymen are experiencing in Ethiopia. Although I can say that my family is living in a good condition, it is my conviction that a successful and meaningful existence can be measured by one's concern for others and the compassion he had shown towards his fellowmen. Each of us has a specific duty on earth. No matter how great or small it may seem to be, it is what we must be committed to pursuing. Life is short and one has to take advantage of that fleeting moment to make a difference. I was an active member of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), a coalition of four existing political parties of Ethiopia which combined to compete for seats in the Ethiopian General Elections. I was a member of the propaganda and awareness division. One of my responsibilities is the distribution of flyers. I actively participated in the national elections for my party by organizing various meetings and training. One of our objectives is to inculcate in the minds of our youths the culture of democracy for them would be aware of their rights and duties as Ethiopian citizens.Because of my active involvement in CUD, I received much harassment. With the absence of any search warrant, my office was raided by government forces. They took several documents from my possessions and I was accused of different kinds of falsified information. My brother and I, together with some of my colleagues in the party, were arrested and were detained for several days. For the three days that I was detained, I was interrogated and was told that my business would cease from the operation because it is linked with anti-government bodies. I was told that the only way to straighten the situation is if I denounce my membership in CUD and if I testify against CUD. I was warned that if I refuse to cooperate with them, my business would remain closed. They even threatened that I would suffer the consequences of my unlawful deeds.After much thought, I decided to agree to their terms in order to save myself for the moment. With that, I was released. I then realized that it would be impossible for me to live peacefully in Ethiopia. I decide at once to leave the country at the earliest possible chance to spare my life. Since I already have a valid US Visa at that time and my wife works for an Ethiopian airline, she was able to book me a flight with an open family ticket. Very shortly, through connection and assistance, I finally managed to exit from Ethiopia. I left on Sunday night of July 10, 2005, and arrived in the United States on July 11, 2005. I was very sad to be departed from my wife and family but I was forced to by circumstances. My father has also been living in the United States for six years under political asylum because of human rights violation of the current government. I stayed with him while I was processing my own request for asylum.

Project Part #2 Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Project Part #2 - Coursework Example The enthusiastic employees who are ready to get involve with the programme will be further motivated through explaining the positive outcome of the programme. Once they are motivated, they can make the other employees understand the benefits of the programme. As per the human psychology, employees are more relax and comfortable conversing with their colleagues in comparison to their supervisors or boss. Even before starting of this programme, I will allow the employees to have few informal sessions among them in my absence. Apart from this, I will conduct a session where a few real life success stories of this programme will be discussed along with the positive changes that might actually happen with them. I have a strong belief that this session will be fruitful and a positive response from the employees can be noticed in due course of time. Wellness programmes always have major impact on the employees. It not only enables the employees to increase their productivity but also it helps to make them happier and healthier. Even disease prevalence rate will also get lower. Through this programme, the extrinsic motivation will change into the intrinsic motivation and thus employee’s self perceived quality of life and quality of health will also experience change. Basically intrinsic motivation creates win-win situation for both the employees and the organisation and that can be possible through the activity that can provide intrinsic benefits to the employees. Wellness programme make the employees self motivated and they want to do the job by their own and not by force. It will lower the medical cost; employees can become stress free, gain physical fitness, increase stamina and improved mental health. All these factors enable the employees to lead a better work life. Also, these intrinsic benefits have an impact on th e productivity of the employees which will further lead to various rewards and incentives that can be clubbed under the category of extrinsic benefits

African Americans in Pop Culture Essay Example for Free

African Americans in Pop Culture Essay African Americans have had an incredible lasting impression on popular culture. African American singers, artists, entrepreneurs, athletes and actors have all had their say and have really stood out within the past few years. Theyve also grown and not grown in different ways all around from music, to television, to movies. African American stereotypes still exist in all aspects of pop culture, while many are trying to get away from what audiences assume is the typical black person. African Americans have been fighting for and against their own stereotypes when they started breaking out into music, then branching out into television, and making it big in the film industry. Theyve gone from being the dumb, uneducated, and underprivileged minority of America, and have started to make themselves more known as gang bangers and thugs, which are often seen as heroes in popular culture. African Americans havent only made a name for themselves or left a footprint in only their culture, but in American culture all around. African Americans have been making their mark in music all throughout history. Many started with the jazz and bebop rebellion during the 1940s and 50s in Detroit. They made their point by trying to be different. They didnt want to follow the typical white, swing music criteria, and thats exactly what happened. Bebop wasnt so mainstream, and thats what made it their own. They preferred small, unique combos to play instead of big named stars in the music industry. Detroit was shedding light on the working class people of the town and wanted to really make a sound for them. â€Å"The 1940s created an â€Å"afro-modernism,† a response to the urbanization, industrialization, and modernization of African American Culture. † Because of their movement ahead in music, they also made their movement in business. And so emerged an incredibly successful, black capitalist enterprise, Motown Records, founded by Barry Gordy. Along with the movement in Detroit, the Harlem Renaissance had happened even before all the rage for jazz and bebop, which raised awareness to the visual arts, which led to even more developments in music. And even earlier at the beginning of the 20th century, blacks were starting to be accepted into acclaimed schools to study music and they were allowed to join the base of white people in symphony orchestras. During the 50s, doo-wop and soul music became popular. Thats when legends like Ray Charles emerged and paved the way for others. Soul music remained popular among blacks for long after the pop sounds started to wave through. By the end of the decade and moving into the 70s, blacks were starting to crossover into the typical white music trends. Psychadelic music had become popular. Jimi Hendrix, along his wah-wah pedal innovation, became one of the most popular guitarists during the era. Right after that, soul had become the popular music in the black community and was starting to revolutionize African-American music. Soul had continued success in popularity during the 70s, but the 70s also brought along a rise in black bands. White people were listening to country, disco, and all sorts of rock music, while the African-Americans had their funk, pop, soul, and jazz music that was on a totally different spectrum from their white counterparts. The 70s was also when Djs started mixing their own beats and playing their funk records the way they wanted to so they could get their audience to dance. And with the beats produced by Djs along with the poets who would read their poems to those beats, came the emergence of hip hop music. The era of hip hop music was a new revolution in African American popular culture.

Poetry Response Essay Example for Free

Poetry Response Essay I really love this poem by Wendy Copes because of the message that it tells me. For some reason there are those people who wish to pull someone down. Sometimes it is because of jealousy, envy and pride. In reality, no matter how hard you try to be good and to appreciate everyone, you really cannot please anybody. There will always be those who are against you.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The poem tells me that I should not let anyone interfere with what I am doing or to let anyone block my way to greater heights. That I should always do my best and show everyone what I can do, what I am able to do, my talents and abilities.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Everyone has his or her own goal in life and we must focus on that goal, not looking to anyone but on that goal alone. We should not get our attention off our goal and let someone mess with that. We should always remain focused in achieving that goal or else we may not be able to achieve it. It is true that no one can live alone and that we need others to be able to live and be happy. Still we should not let those who dislike us or envy us to be the reason for our failure, if we do so, we will certainly achieve nothing. Every time that an opportunity for us to be recognized is given grab it. We should not favor or look onto anyone who wants the same opportunity like us. Every opportunity is a stepping stone in achieving our goal, our desire, and our future. The world is a place wherein the strongest is given greater opportunity over the weak, the talented above those that are not, and the wise over the fools.   We should let our light shine, and our talents to be revealed in order to be acknowledged both by man and society. Also, the poem tells us that we should not be move or hindered by anyone. We should not be ashamed in showing our talents and as well as emotions. We must be true to ourselves and not compromising to anyone. If we are glad let it show in our own way. Dance or jump or shout if you want to. We should not let anyone to be reason for our sadness and downfall. Works Cited The British Council. No date. â€Å"Wendy Cope†. November 19, 2007   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth174

Impact of IT on Interpersonal Communication

Impact of IT on Interpersonal Communication Advances in technology have changed the nature of interpersonal communication. Communication is an important aspect of our everyday lives, it is constantly occurring weather its verbal or nonverbal communication. Communication is a symbolic process whereby reality is produced, maintained, repaired and transformed (James Carey 1989). Technology has had a huge effect on the world and Interpersonal communication, especially since new advances in technology have been established. It has contributed in shaping the way that people communicate with each other. It is a debatable topic on whether the advances in technology has changed interpersonal communication for the better or for the worse. It has made changes to the world which enables us to do things time efficiently and effectively. The more advanced technology has become it has allowed information to travel faster, this has a huge effect on todays generation, especially with the recent obsession that people have with social media. Social media allows people to connect with people they know, people they dont know and even others that they wont expect to interact with again. Before advances in technology were discovered, people were limited to interacting face to face because there was no other way to whereas now with the progression and the development of technology, it allows people to interact with people all over the world to a much larger audience. Social media has most affected the nature of interpersonal communication, this is due to the way it has changed the way that people interact, and has caused a loss for social skills. There are incapable of interacting face to face due to how dependent they are of social media. Social media has created a sense of social relief for people who are socially awkward, this is because its easier way for them to communicate with people via social media platforms behind an electronic device. Social media creates a fake world where you can perceive yourself to the world however you like while hiding behind a screen. This isnt always a good thing, with social media you to put out an image of yourself that isnt real, its fake. Before the advances in technology, people had to learn to accept you for the way you are, you had no choice in deciding how to perceive yourself to the world other than to be yourself. Nowadays this generation are obsessed with their phones, people are on it so much that it makes them completely unaware of their surroundings. Conversation has become forced, where as before, people would naturally convers and the conversation would flow. A lot of the time people think of what to say because they have become so used to interacting using the same basic questions on social media such as how are you?, how was your day, that when it comes to interacting with people face to face, they have to think about what to ask. These questions have been asked so much that its become a norm for people to ask how you are at the beginning of a conversation especially on social media. The question how are you has become more of a conversation starter rather than a genuine question. This is a problem because it has made the generation of today lazy. There are people who use communication technology to talk to someone in the same room as them which displays lazy behaviour and is a prime e xample of how this generation have lost social skills. Before advances in technology, people genuinely cared about the questions that they asked because this was valued conversation and they were limited to what they could talk about. This generation, there is the internet, television, radio, game consoles, mobile phones and more that allows us to have access to different worlds andÂÂ   interacting with people that we dont know from all over the place. Social media and technology allows people to interact and find people who have similar interests, for example people who have Twitter created a trending aspect that allows you to find people who have similar interests and it is called Hashtag. Hashtagging has a huge effect on communication on social media nower days. The hashtags have gone from a random symbol to being a global symbol that can bring communities and people together from all over the world with the use of a relevant word, that people use to make trends or discussions known to the world. Hashtags can also be a form of on line marketing which can be used by business to advertise their company as it is an effective way of getting a message or idea or information across to the world. This is called mass communication. Advances in communication technology such as Email, Texting, Chat rooms, Social media sites, allows you to interact with people from all over the world on one platform, before technology a small bit of information would take a long time to reach the place it needed to go by writing letters and through word of mouth, meanwhile a small bit of information could be delivered within a matter of minutes from one end of the world to the next via the internet. This can be beneficial in ways for example, companies that employ people from far sway destinations can communicate and do interviews over skype rather than have them travel a long way for an hour interview if that. This then leads to the next point, people who live abroad or far from their family depend on technology and social media to communicate with them. Skype and facetime and other apps like this enable people who live far from their families and close ones to see them via live video call, even the telephone allows us to hear their voice. Before technology people were limited to letters that would take ages to be delivered, and isnt the same because theres only so much you can express through written context. Texting isnt as efficient and effective as face to face communication because technology communication is a lot different because you can only see words, and it is difficult to establish the semiotics of the conversation for example, when you are talking via text, its hard to see what the social codes are of the other person, how do they react and behave in different situations? If you were to say something over text, you are unable to see their reaction to what you said unlike in face to face. So, with communicating via text, the person could lie about their reaction which loses the value of its conversation because then it becomes fake. Not only this but we would not be able to see bodily codes such as, head nods, facial; expressions, gestures, postures etc. This is all part of ritualised discourse. This is where the emojis are evolved. Emojis are used to represent reaction, mood or facial expression in text. The evolution of emojis has extended so much that you have an emoji for almost every emotion in order for it to become easier and more fun to communicate, although even with this invention, technology communication will never beat face to face communication. Tidwell and Walther documented computer mediated conversation and face to face communication couples engaging in their first meetings and they had discovered that computer mediated conversation partners displayed more self -disclosures and greater intensity leading to quicker relational development. (Tidwell and Walther, 2002, pg147-148) Technology communication doesnt allow you to see the nonverbal communication aspect of interaction, which is considered an important if not of the most important parts of communication. Nonverbal communication in face to face communication allows us to focus on the body language and the facial expressions which reinforces the message whereas communication technology doesnt. Przybylski and Weinstein (2012) carried out and study and showed results that mobile phone communication in public interferes with human relationships. Two experiments were carried out which showed that they have an effect on, closeness, connection and conversation quality especially when conversing about personal meaningful topics. A beneficial aspect of advances in communication is the accessibility. It has created different online communication tools which have helped the world become a more connected place. Although for the older generation who didnt grow up with this type of technology,ÂÂ   they dont find it as easy as others who were brought up around it , to understand the whole online and technology process which creates a digital divide because they dont have the same level as expertise with this type of technology as the others do. Advances in technology have had a huge effect in the style of conversation that is used today in comparison to the style of communication that was used before this technology had been established. When using mobile phone device to communicate it has caused people to use shorter words as the need for longer words isnt needed when you have symbols and emojis to express what you are trying to say, however this creates shortcuts and has caused an ignorance to traditional grammatical rules which one would have said before. This has made conversation become very short and brief and contributes to the loss of conversation value. This has changed the whole nature of communication, this is due to the advances in communication. One click can online just find huge amounts of information, whereas before if you wanted to find out information, people would have to research by asking different people, reading books, searching through pages and pages which in the meantime would increase their knowledge whilst they are trying to find out one bit of information they are finding more stuff out on the way. Whereas now, anything we type into a search bar its there at an instant which has created the laziness. Campbell and Kwak (2011) carried out a study and had examined weather mobile phone communication influences to an extent than when someone engages in face to face communication with new people in a public setting. The study found some evidence that mobile phone use in public facilitated talking with strangers, for those who rely a lot on mobile phones to exchange information about news. Social media isnt the only thing that has affected the nature of interpersonal communication, television has a huge impact as well. How many people in this generation would sit with their family in silence for hours with the TV on. The television is another major aspect that has caused laziness. Many people nower days would consider sitting all together silently spending time together. In the days before advances in technology people would sit in a room and converse with their family, and this was how their family nights would be spent. Overall I think that Advances in communication has had a huge impact on interpersonal communication today and has changed the nature of it, it has also proved that through the power of the evolution and expansion of new technology being discovered it will continue to affect the nature of interpersonal communication as we know it. Although it has had a huge effect it has also created a lot more means and topics of conversation with more things being discovered online and being able to converse and interact with people around the world, it has mad people because lazy in face to face but it has allowed people to meet people from over the world and discover new things that they couldnt have without advances in technology. Bibliography Communication is a symbolic process whereby reality is produced, maintained, repaired and transformed Carey, J (1989). A Cultural Approach To Communication. Routledge, York, N.Y. Inc, B.H. (2010) How has technology changed communication? Available at: http://www.brighthubpm.com/methods-strategies/79052-exploring-how-technology-has-changed-communication/ (Accessed: 6 January 2017).In-line Citation:(Inc, 2010) Fenell, Z. (2016) Communication technology pros and cons. Available at: https://www.techwalla.com/articles/communication-technology-pros-cons (Accessed: 6 January 2017).In-line Citation:(Fenell, 2016) Drago, E. (2015) The effect of technology on face-to-face communication, Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications, 6(1).In-line Citation:(Drago, 2015) Nield, D. (2012) How technology has affected communication. Available at: http://techin.oureverydaylife.com/technology-affected-communication-1432.html (Accessed: 6 January 2017).In-line Citation:(Nield, 2012) Inc, B.H. (2010) How has technology changed communication? Available at: http://www.brighthubpm.com/methods-strategies/79052-exploring-how-technology-has-changed-communication/ (Accessed: 6 January 2017).In-line Citation:(Inc, 2010)

The Important Features of a Mosque :: Papers

The Important Features of a Mosque Possibly one of the most important aspects of the Islam religion is the Mosque, which means "place of prayer". This is seen as the centre of the Islamic community and is where Muslims join together to worship Allah, pray, and learn about the religion. Also, weddings, festival celebrations, and meetings of the Muslim community are held there. On the outside, many Mosques are plain and not elaborate at all although, it is not wrong for them to be grand. They are usually rectangular in shape and two features of them would be the dome and minarets. The dome is situated on the top of the roof and symbolises the universe. A minaret is a tall tower and every Mosque must have at least one. From here the adhan, call to prayer, is called by the mu'adhin. Most modern minarets have loudspeakers to drown out the noise of traffic, etc. The adhan is translated as: "Allah is most great, Allah is most great. Allah is most great, Allah is most great. I testify that there is no god except Allah. I testify that there is no god except Allah. I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. Come to prayer! Come to prayer! Come to success (in the life and the Hereafter)! Come to success! Allah is most great. Allah is most great. There is no god except Allah. (Morning prayer) Prayer is better than sleep. Prayer is better than sleep." The times that adhan is made is set by the sun. The first is made at dawn, the second after the sun has passed the peak, the third mid afternoon, the fourth after sunset, and the fifth when night begins. Inside the Mosque, as a mark of cleanliness and respect, shoes must be removed. Before praying, Muslims must wash in a special way called Wudu, which they were commanded to do by Muhammad. This makes them clean for prayer as they are about worship and be in close presence

North and South and Hard Times Essay -- Dickens Hard Times Essays

North and South and Hard Times       In   "Industrial" H Sussman states that "one of the most significant shifts created   by industrialism" was that of the "separation of the workplace from the home".   This "shift" created "new gender roles" with the "husband as breadwinner [and   the] wife as childcare giver" and led ultimately to the "19th century   ideology of the two separate spheres -   the masculine public sphere of work [and]   the private female sphere of domesticity". Is, however, this "shift" one which   Elizabeth Gaskell in North and South and Charles Dickens in Hard Times not only reflect but one which they endorse?    If the public   sphere is masculine then the opening chapters of HardTimes immediately confronts us with this masculinity in the form of Gradgrind. The   opening line of the novel, "Now what I want is facts", is assertive and   authorative, the masculine manifestation of public speech. The demand for facts   can be articulated by Gradgrind and responded to in the appropriate terms   by Bitzer, who too, is part of this masculine world, and who can therefore   clinically define a horse. Sissy Jupe however, in the face of such assertiveness   is unable to react in any terms other than being inarticulate and "alarmed".   Dickens however does not share Gradgrind's demands for the masculine "fact".   In writing Hard Times Dickens drew heavily from the criticism of   industrial society in Thomas Carlyle's essay "Signs of the Times". In this essay   Carlyle condemned a society where: "Not only the external and physical alone is... managed by machinery, but the internal and spiritual also". This is the idea   that the competitive, masculine, business sphere has permeated into the private   sphere,... ...ard times but reflections of deeply   divided ones.    BIBLIOGRAPHY:    North and   South, Elizabeth   Gaskell, Penguin Classics (1995).    Hard   Times, Charles Dickens,   Oxford World Classics (1998).    "Signs of the   Times", Thomas Carlyle, Thomas Carlyle: Selected Writings , Penguin   Classics (1971)    "Industrial",   H Sussman in A Companion to Victorian Literature and Culture, ed. Herbet   F. Tucker (1999).    "The   Industrial Novels", Raymond Williams in Culture and Society (1958).    "What must   not be said: North and South and the problem of women's work", Catherine   Barnes Stevenson.    "The Domestic   Sphere in the Victorian Age", Bonnie G. Smith in Changing Lives.    Charles   Dickens: The Critical Heritage ed. Phillip Collins.    Elizabeth   Gaskell: The Critical Heritage ed. Angus Fasson.

Bus405 Final Project

Final Project Ashford University Trena Mealor Dr. James Prentice August 27, 2012 ? Final Project Investing in the total stock market allows an investor to capture the return of the stock market while at the same time diversifying an investment portfolio. The easiest way to build a total stock market portfolio is with a mutual fund or an exchange traded fund. This particular portfolio is diversified with Vanguard ETF’s that were carefully chosen to seek the highest return with moderately aggressive to aggressive risk strategy.The investment strategy associated with this portfolio is short-term with an aggressive attitude of â€Å"more risk more reward†. 7/24 priceInvestment Amount# of Shares8/13 priceValue Vanguard Consumer Discretionary ETF – (VCR)67. 8910000147. 2970971. 7410567. 0932 Vanguard Financial ETF – (VFH)30. 2510000330. 578531. 5810439. 6690 Vanguard Growth ETF – (VUG)66. 9110000149. 454570. 4810533. 5531 Vanguard Information Technology E TF – (VGT)66. 9310000149. 409871. 7710723. 1413 Vanguard Intermediate-Term Corporate Bond ETF – (VGIT)86. 9410000115. 154386. 579968. 9077 50,00052232. 36Exchange Traded Funds, also known as ETFs, are mini-portfolios of securities and derivatives that track an asset like an index and/or commodity. When creating a portfolio, it is important to note that there is a difference between diversifiable risk and market risk. According to Elton (1977), diversifiable risk may be caused by random events that are particular to an individual firm. Since these events are random, the influence of events, such as a lawsuit or strike can be almost eliminated via diversification. However, diversification cannot entirely eliminate market risk. Market risk ffects most firms. Examples of market risk include war, recessions and high interest rates. By researching the portfolio funds, the investor can gain an understanding of risk and how it fits into diversification. A single stock has more risk of not creating a positive return than a stock portfolio. In a market dominated by risk-averse investors, riskier securities must have higher expected returns Ross, Westerfield & Jordan (1993) indicates, the principle of diversification tells us that the spreading of an investment across a number of assets will eliminate some but not all the risk.Unsystematic risk is essentially eliminated by diversification, so a relatively large portfolio has almost no unsystematic risk. Ong (1982) mentions that diversification can reduce the overall portfolio risk. However, the possibility for the risk reduction depends on the correlation coefficient and the proportion of the total funds invested in each. According to Jordan, etal (2012), the benchmark for a well-diversified portfolio would be a portfolio of all stocks in the market. Relevant market risk of the stocks within the portfolio is calculated using a beta coefficient.Accordingly, a stock with a high beta will bring a lot of risk t o the portfolio. The authors further explain, as you calculate the beta for various stocks, you may begin to see groupings of low, average and high beta risk. Beta measures the stock’s risk relative to the stock market average. Calculate the weighted average of these groupings, and you will discover the market risk for the entire portfolio. A â€Å"low† beta is generally 1. 0 or below. The average beta is 1. 00 and assets with a beta greater than 1. 00 have more than average systematic risk.Rosenberg and Guy (1995) further explain the importance of beta as the value of beta measures the expected response to market returns and because the vast majority of returns in diversified portfolios can be explained by their response to the market, an accurate prediction of beta is the most important single element in predicting the future behavior of a portfolio. To the degree that one believes that one can forecast the future direction of market movement, a forecast of beta, by predicting the degree of response to that movement, provides a prediction of the resultant portfolio return.To the degree that one is uncertain about the future movement of the market, the forecast of beta, by determining one's exposure to that uncertainty, provides a prediction of portfolio risk. We begin with the first description of the portfolio. Unlike mutual funds or index baskets, the investor does not have to make multiple transactions in order to achieve a market price. With ETFs it's one trade, one price. The first fund in this portfolio is Vanguard Consumer Discretionary ETF. From July 24, 2012 to August 13, 2012 the value has risen from $67. 9 to $71. 14. The annual investment returns of this ETF are: Annual investment returns as of 12/31/2011 (Vanguard, 2012) Year EndedVanguard Consumer Discretionary ETFSpliced US IMI Consumer Discr 25/50* Capital Return by NAVIncome Return by NAVTotal Return by NAVTotal Return by Market PriceTotal Return 20112. 28%1. 42%3. 71%3. 70%3. 83% 201029. 30%1. 27%30. 57%30. 62%30. 87% The Vanguard Consumer Discretionary ETF is generating 0. 16% of daily returns assuming volatility of 0. 71% on return distribution over 30 days investment horizon.MERGENT online indicates, the one month beta on this investment is 1. 03. This EFT includes stocks of companies that manufacture products and provide services that consumers purchase on a discretionary basis. The following risks are associated with this type of ETF: Stock market risk, Sector risk, Non-diversification and Investment style risk (Vanguard, 2012). Vanguard Consumer Discretionary ETF fund’s manufacturing segment includes the following industries: automotive, household durable goods, textiles and apparel, and leisure equipment.The services segment includes hotels, restaurants and other leisure facilities, media production and services, and consumer retailing. The next fund in this portfolio is Vanguard Financial ETF, which includes stocks of companies that provid e financial services. The investment has a one month beta of 0. 73 which indicates that the investment is 73% less risky than the average. This ETF fund is classified as aggressive is subject to extremely wide fluctuations in share prices.The unusually high volatility associated with these funds may stem from one or more of the following strategies: a concentration of fund holdings in a relatively low number of individual stocks, or in a particular sector of the stock market, or in a particular geographical region of the world; a heavy emphasis on small-capitalization stocks or growth stocks with relatively high market valuations; holdings of international stocks or bonds, which are subject to price declines caused by changes in the value of the U. S. ollar against foreign currencies; or investments in bonds that have exceptionally long average durations, whose prices are highly sensitive to changes in interest rates. According to the Wall Street Journal online, the annual investmen t returns of this ETF: Annual investment returns as of 12/31/2011 (Vanguard, 2012): Year EndedVanguard Financials ETFSpliced US IMI Consumer Discr 25/50* Capital Return by NAVIncome Return by NAVTotal Return by NAVTotal Return by Market PriceTotal Return 2011-16. 04%1. 69%-14. 35%-14. 35%-14. 24% 201013. 15%1. 58%14. 74%14. 77%14. 7% Vanguard Financials ETF seeks to track the investment performance of the MSCI US Investable Market Financials 25/50 Index, a benchmark of large-, mid-, and small-cap U. S. stocks in the financials sector, as classified under the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS). This GICS sector is made up of companies involved in activities such as banking, mortgage finance, consumer finance, specialized finance, investment banking and brokerage, asset management and custody, corporate lending, insurance, financial investment, and real estate (including REITs).The next ETF in this portfolio is the Moderately-Aggressive Vanguard Growth ETF with a closing p rice of $66. 91 on July 24, 2012 and an ending close of $70. 48 on August 13, 2012. The one month beta on this investment is 0. 99 with a positive strong direction. Annual investment returns as of 12/31/2011 (Vanguard, 2012): Year EndedVanguard Growth ETFMSCI US Prime Market Growth Index* Capital Return by NAVIncome Return by NAVTotal Return by NAVTotal Return by Market PriceTotal Return 20110. 0%1. 27%1. 87%1. 84%1. 96% 201015. 66%1. 46%17. 11%17. 15%17. 23% An investment in this the fund could lose money over short or even long periods. The investor should expect the fund’s share price and total return to fluctuate within a wide range, like the fluctuations of the overall stock market. Vanguard funds classified as moderate to aggressive are broadly diversified but are subject to wide fluctuations in share price because they hold virtually all of their assets in common stocks.In general, such funds are appropriate for investors who have a long-term investment horizon (ten ye ars or longer), who are seeking growth in capital as a primary objective, and who are prepared to endure the sharp and sometimes prolonged declines in share prices that occur from time to time in the stock market. This price volatility is the trade-off for the potentially high returns that common stocks can provide. The level of current income produced by funds in this category ranges from moderate to very low.The type of risks associated with this investment is: stock market risk and investment style risk. The chance that stock prices overall will decline. Stock markets tend to move in cycles, with periods of rising stock prices and periods of falling stock prices. The fund’s target index may, at times, become focused in stocks of a particular sector, category, or group of companies. Because the fund seeks to track its target index, the fund may underperform the overall stock market. The chance that returns from large-capitalization growth stocks will trail returns from the overall stock market.Large-cap stocks tend to go through cycles of doing better—or worse—than other segments of the stock market or the stock market in general. These periods have, in the past, lasted for as long as several years. The next investment in the portfolio is Vanguard information technology ETF. This ETF seeks to track the performance of a benchmark index that measures the investment return of stocks in the information technology sector. With a one month beta of 1. 1, this fund is passively managed, using a full-replication strategy when possible and a sampling strategy if regulatory constraints dictate.Includes stocks of companies that serve the electronics and computer industries or that manufacture products based on the latest applied science. The risk potential for this fund is aggressive, more risk more reward. Annual investment returns as of 12/31/2011 (Vanguard, 2012) Year EndedVanguard Information Technology ETFMSCI US Prime Market Growth Index* Capi tal Return by NAVIncome Return by NAVTotal Return by NAVTotal Return by Market PriceTotal Return 2011-0. 28%0. 80%0. 52%0. 53%0. 66% 201012. 08%0. 66%12. 74%12. 67%12. 99%Vanguard Information Technology ETF is made up of companies in the following three general areas: technology software and services, including companies that primarily develop software in various fields (such as the Internet, applications, systems, databases, management, and/or home entertainment), and companies that provide information technology consulting and services, data processing, and outsourced services; technology hardware and equipment, including manufacturers and distributors of communications equipment, computers and peripherals, electronic equipment, and related instruments; and semiconductors and semiconductor equipment manufacturers.Vanguard Intermediate-Term Corporate Bond ETF which seeks to provide a moderate and sustainable level of current income. Invests primarily in high-quality (investment-gra de) corporate bonds. Moderate interest rate risk, with a dollar-weighted average maturity of 5 to 10 years. Vanguard Intermediate-Term Corporate Bond ETF seeks to track the performance of a market-weighted corporate bond index with an intermediate-term dollar-weighted average maturity. The fund invests by sampling the index, meaning that it holds a range of securities that, in the aggregate, approximates the full index in terms of key risk factors and other characteristics. Annual investment returns as of 12/31/2011 (Vanguard, 2012)Year EndedVanguard Intermediate-Term Corporate Bond ETFMSCI US Prime Market Growth Index* Capital Return by NAVIncome Return by NAVTotal Return by NAVTotal Return by Market PriceTotal Return 20113. 77%4. 17%7. 94%8. 97%8. 03% 20106. 16%4. 48%10. 65%9. 88%10. 80% All of the fund’s investments will be selected through the sampling process and at least 80% of the fund’s assets will be invested in bonds included in the index. The fund maintains a dollar-weighted average maturity consistent with that of the index. An investment in the fund could lose money over short or even long periods. The fund’s performance could be hurt by: Interest rate risk: The chance that bond prices overall will decline because of rising interest rates.Interest rate risk should be moderate for the fund because it invests primarily in intermediate-term bonds, whose prices are less sensitive to interest rate changes than are the prices of long-term bonds. Income risk: The chance that the fund’s income will decline because of falling interest rates. Credit risk: The chance that a bond issuer will fail to pay interest and principal in a timely manner, or that negative perceptions of the issuer’s ability to make such payments will cause the price of that bond to decline. Index sampling risk: The chance that the securities selected for the fund, in the aggregate, will not provide investment performance matching that of the index. In dex sampling risk for the fund should be low. Annual investment returns as of 12/31/2011 (Vanguard, 2012)Year EndedVanguard Intermediate-Term Corporate Bond ETFMSCI US Prime Market Growth Index* Capital Return by NAVIncome Return by NAVTotal Return by NAVTotal Return by Market PriceTotal Return 20113. 77%4. 17%7. 94%8. 97%8. 03% 20106. 16%4. 48%10. 65%9. 88%10. 80% ETFs combine the advantages of both index funds and stocks. They are liquid, easy to use and can be traded in any quantity just like stocks. At the same time an ETF provides the diversification, market coverage and low expenses of an index fund. These characteristics combine to create an investment tool that provides investors with the broad exposure they require, at the level they want; at the moment they need it.As such, they are fast gaining a reputation as an innovative investment solution – a claim greatly supported by the accelerated growth in ETFs. Reference Elton, E, & Gruber, M. (1977), Risk, reduction and portfolio size: an analytical solution. Journal of Business. Vol. 50, 415-437. Hope-Bell, E. (2008). Focus on: Index investing – exchange traded funds – an innovative investment solution. Professional Wealth Management, , 1-n/a. Retrieved from http://search. proquest. com/docview/205081570? accountid=32521 Jordan, B. , Miller, T. , & Dolvin, S. (2012). Fundamentals of investments, valuation andmanagement (6th ed. ). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. MERGENT Online. Retrieved from http://www. mergentonline. com/companydetail. php? pagetype=highlights&compnumber=116548 Ong, Poh Wah (1982).Measuring the expected return and risk of combining several shares in an investment portfolio. Securities Industry Review. Vol. 8, No I, 6-16. Rosenberg, B. , & Guy, J. (1995). Prediction of beta from investment fundamentals. Financial Analysts Journal, 51(1), 101-101. Retrieved from http://search. proquest. com/docview/219118485? accountid=32521 Ross, S. , Westerfield, W. , & Jordan, B. (199 3). Fundamentals of corporate finance, 2nd ed. , Richard D. Irwin, Inc. https://personal. vanguard. com/us/home Vanguard (2012). Retrieved from https://personal. vanguard. com/us/home Wall Street Journal online. (2012). Retrieved from http://online. wsj. com/home-page

Walmart Security Issues

Review our  cookies information  for more details Special report:  Managing information A different game Information is transforming traditional businesses Feb 25th 2010 | from the print edition * * IN 1879 James Ritty, a saloon-keeper in Dayton, Ohio, received a patent for a wooden contraption that he dubbed the â€Å"incorruptible cashier†. With a set of buttons and a loud bell, the device, sold by National Cash Register (NCR), was little more than a simple adding machine. Yet as an early form of managing information flows in American business the cash register had a huge impact.It not only reduced pilferage by alerting the shopkeeper when the till was opened; by recording every transaction, it also provided an instant overview of what was happening in the business. Sales data remain one of a company's most important assets. In 2004 Wal-Mart peered into its mammoth databases and noticed that before a hurricane struck, there was a run on flashlights and batteries, as mi ght be expected; but also on Pop-Tarts, a sugary American breakfast snack. On reflection it is clear that the snack would be a handy thing to eat in a blackout, but the retailer would not have thought to stock up on it before a storm.The company whose system crunched Wal-Mart's numbers was none other than NCR and its data-warehousing unit, Teradata, now an independent firm. A few years ago such technologies, called â€Å"business intelligence†, were available only to the world's biggest companies. But as the price of computing and storage has fallen and the software systems have got better and cheaper, the technology has moved into the mainstream. Companies are collecting more data than ever before. In the past they were kept in different systems that were unable to talk to each other, such as finance, human resources or customer management.Now the systems are being linked, and companies are using data-mining techniques to get a complete picture of their operations—â⠂¬Å"a single version of the truth†, as the industry likes to call it. That allows firms to operate more efficiently, pick out trends and improve their forecasting. In this special report * Data, data everywhere * All too much *  »A different game * Clicking for gold * The open society * Show me * Needle in a haystack * New rules for big data * Handling the cornucopia Sources & acknowledgementsReprints Related topics * China * Nestle * IBM * Royal Shakespeare Company * WalmartConsider Cablecom, a Swiss telecoms operator. It has reduced customer defections from one-fifth of subscribers a year to under 5% by crunching its numbers. Its software spotted that although customer defections peaked in the 13th month, the decision to leave was made much earlier, around the ninth month (as indicated by things like the number of calls to customer support services). So Cablecom offered certain customers special deals seven months into their subscription and reaped the rewards. Agony and t orture Such data-mining has a dubious reputation. â€Å"Torture the data long enough and they will confess to anything,† statisticians quip.But it has become far more effective as more companies have started to use the technology. Best Buy, a retailer, found that 7% of its customers accounted for 43% of its sales, so it reorganised its stores to concentrate on those customers' needs. Airline yield management improved because analytical techniques uncovered the best predictor that a passenger would actually catch a flight he had booked: that he had ordered a vegetarian meal. The IT industry is piling into business intelligence, seeing it as a natural successor of services such as accountancy and computing in the first and second half of the 20th century respectively.Accenture, PricewaterhouseCoopers, IBM and SAP are investing heavily in their consulting practices. Technology vendors such as Oracle, Informatica, TIBCO, SAS and EMC have benefited. IBM believes business intellige nce will be a pillar of its growth as sensors are used to manage things from a city's traffic flow to a patient's blood flow. It has invested $12 billion in the past four years and is opening six analytics centres with 4,000 employees worldwide. Analytics—performing statistical operations for forecasting or uncovering correlations such as between Pop-Tarts and hurricanes—can have a big pay-off.In Britain the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) sifted through seven years of sales data for a marketing campaign that increased regular visitors by 70%. By examining more than 2m transaction records, the RSC discovered a lot more about its best customers: not just income, but things like occupation and family status, which allowed it to target its marketing more precisely. That was of crucial importance, says the RSC's Mary Butlin, because it substantially boosted membership as well as fund-raising revenue. Yet making the most of data is not easy. The first step is to improve the accuracy of the information.Nestle, for example, sells more than 100,000 products in 200 countries, using 550,000 suppliers, but it was not using its huge buying power effectively because its databases were a mess. On examination, it found that of its 9m records of vendors, customers and materials around half were obsolete or duplicated, and of the remainder about one-third were inaccurate or incomplete. The name of a vendor might be abbreviated in one record but spelled out in another, leading to double-counting. Plainer vanilla Over the past ten years Nestle has been overhauling its IT system, using SAP software, and improving the quality of its data.This enabled the firm to become more efficient, says Chris Johnson, who led the initiative. For just one ingredient, vanilla, its American operation was able to reduce the number of specifications and use fewer suppliers, saving $30m a year. Overall, such operational improvements save more than $1 billion annually. Nestle is not alon e in having problems with its database. Most CIOs admit that their data are of poor quality. In a study by IBM half the managers quizzed did not trust the information on which they had to base decisions. Many say that the technology meant to make sense of it often just produces more data.Instead of finding a needle in the haystack, they are making more hay. Still, as analytical techniques become more widespread, business decisions will increasingly be made, or at least corroborated, on the basis of computer algorithms rather than individual hunches. This creates a need for managers who are comfortable with data, but statistics courses in business schools are not popular. Many new business insights come from â€Å"dead data†: stored information about past transactions that are examined to reveal hidden correlations. But now companies are increasingly moving to analysing real-time information flows.Wal-Mart is a good example. The retailer operates 8,400 stores worldwide, has mo re than 2m employees and handles over 200m customer transactions each week. Its revenue last year, around $400 billion, is more than the GDP of many entire countries. The sheer scale of the data is a challenge, admits Rollin Ford, the CIO at Wal-Mart's headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. â€Å"We keep a healthy paranoia. † Not a sparrow falls Wal-Mart's inventory-management system, called Retail Link, enables suppliers to see the exact number of their products on every shelf of every store at that precise moment.The system shows the rate of sales by the hour, by the day, over the past year and more. Begun in the 1990s, Retail Link gives suppliers a complete overview of when and how their products are selling, and with what other products in the shopping cart. This lets suppliers manage their stocks better. The technology enabled Wal-Mart to change the business model of retailing. In some cases it leaves stock management in the hands of its suppliers and does not take owner ship of the products until the moment they are sold. This allows it to shed inventory risk and reduce its costs.In essence, the shelves in its shops are a highly efficiently managed depot. Another company that capitalises on real-time information flows is Li & Fung, one of the world's biggest supply-chain operators. Founded in Guangzhou in southern China a century ago, it does not own any factories or equipment but orchestrates a network of 12,000 suppliers in 40 countries, sourcing goods for brands ranging from Kate Spade to Walt Disney. Its turnover in 2008 was $14 billion. Li ; Fung used to deal with its clients mostly by phone and fax, with e-mail counting as high technology.But thanks to a new web-services platform, its processes have speeded up. Orders flow through a web portal and bids can be solicited from pre-qualified suppliers. Agents now audit factories in real time with hand-held computers. Clients are able to monitor the details of every stage of an order, from the ini tial production run to shipping. One of the most important technologies has turned out to be videoconferencing. It allows buyers and manufacturers to examine the colour of a material or the stitching on a garment. â€Å"Before, we weren't able to send a 500MB image—we'd post a DVD.Now we can stream it to show vendors in our offices. With real-time images we can make changes quicker,† says Manuel Fernandez, Li ; Fung's chief technology officer. Data flowing through its network soared from 100 gigabytes a day only 18 months ago to 1 terabyte. The information system also allows Li & Fung to look across its operations to identify trends. In southern China, for instance, a shortage of workers and new legislation raised labour costs, so production moved north. â€Å"We saw that before it actually happened,† says Mr Fernandez.The company also got advance warning of the economic crisis, and later the recovery, from retailers' orders before these trends became apparent. Investment analysts use country information provided by Li ; Fung to gain insights into macroeconomic patterns. Now that they are able to process information flows in real time, organisations are collecting more data than ever. One use for such information is to forecast when machines will break down. This hardly ever happens out of the blue: there are usually warning signs such as noise, vibration or heat. Capturing such data enables firms to act before a breakdown.Similarly, the use of â€Å"predictive analytics† on the basis of large data sets may transform health care. Dr Carolyn McGregor of the University of Ontario, working with IBM, conducts research to spot potentially fatal infections in premature babies. The system monitors subtle changes in seven streams of real-time data, such as respiration, heart rate and blood pressure. The electrocardiogram alone generates 1,000 readings per second. This kind of information is turned out by all medical equipment, but it used t o be recorded on paper and examined perhaps once an hour.By feeding the data into a computer, Dr McGregor has been able to detect the onset of an infection before obvious symptoms emerge. â€Å"You can't see it with the naked eye, but a computer can,† she says. Open sesame Two technology trends are helping to fuel these new uses of data: cloud computing and open-source software. Cloud computing—in which the internet is used as a platform to collect, store and process data—allows businesses to lease computing power as and when they need it, rather than having to buy expensive equipment.Amazon, Google and Microsoft are the most prominent firms to make their massive computing infrastructure available to clients. As more corporate functions, such as human resources or sales, are managed over a network, companies can see patterns across the whole of the business and share their information more easily. A free programming language called R lets companies examine and p resent big data sets, and free software called Hadoop now allows ordinary PCs to analyse huge quantities of data that previously required a supercomputer. It does this by parcelling out the tasks to numerous computers at once. This saves time and money.For example, the  New York Times  a few years ago used cloud computing and Hadoop to convert over 400,000 scanned images from its archives, from 1851 to 1922. By harnessing the power of hundreds of computers, it was able to do the job in 36 hours. Visa, a credit-card company, in a recent trial with Hadoop crunched two years of test records, or 73 billion transactions, amounting to 36 terabytes of data. The processing time fell from one month with traditional methods to a mere 13 minutes. It is a striking successor of Ritty's incorruptible cashier for a data-driven age. from the print edition | Special report Recommend 140 * * * Submit to reddit * inShare2 * View all comments (4) Related items TOPIC:  China  Ã‚ » * Recommended economics writing: Link exchange * Trade: Mexico rising * The Economist: Digital highlights, November 24th 2012 TOPIC:  Nestle  Ã‚ » * Consumer goods in Africa: A continent goes shopping * Schumpeter: Pretty profitable parrots * Nestle buys Pfizer Nutrition: Feeding little emperors TOPIC:  IBM  Ã‚ » * Schumpeter: Taking the long view * IBM's mainframes: Old dog, new tricks * Phase-change memory: Altered states TOPIC:  Royal Shakespeare Company  Ã‚ » * William Shakespeare: A digital reinvention Culture: Going for gold * Green architecture: The retrofit revolution More related topics: * Walmart Want more? Subscribe to  The Economist  and get the week's most relevant news and analysis. * Print edition X Feb 27th 2010 Feb 20th 2010 Feb 13th 2010 Feb 6th 2010 * Next in The world this week X Politics this week * Next in The world this week X Business this week * Next in The world this week X KAL's cartoon * Next in Leaders X Technology The data deluge Businesses, governmen ts and society are only starting to tap its vast potential * Next in Leaders X Argentina and the Falklands The beef in Buenos AiresThe Kirchners could have more oil if they stopped bullying Argentine business * Next in Leaders X Japan's frustrating politics Nagasaki fallout Japan’s prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, should jettison his Svengali, Ichiro Ozawa * Next in Leaders X India Ending the red terror It is time India got serious about the Maoist insurgency in its eastern states * Next in Leaders X Genetically modified food Attack of the really quite likeable tomatoes The success of genetically modified crops provides opportunities to win over their critics * Next in Letters X Letters On Spain, al-Qaeda, Yemen, torture, Britain, juries, stereotypes, Benjamin Disraeli Next in Briefing X Argentina under the Kirchners Socialism for foes, capitalism for friends While some private businesses in Argentina have faced harassment or even nationalisation, others†¦ * Next in Brief ing X The first family's businesses Welcome to the Hotel Kirchner Such a lovely little earner * Next in United States X Health reform Seizing the reins, at long last After leaving Congress in charge for too long, Barack Obama unveils his own plan * Next in United States X Mitt Romney and the Republicans Fired up, ready to go Mitt Romney takes centre-stage * Next in United States X The administration's economistsGrading the dismal scientists How good is the Council of Economic Advisers? * Next in United States X The economy Back to the crash The American economy has just had its worst decade since the 1930s * Next in United States X Arkansas politics Democrats beware A spirited scramble for suddenly open Democratic seats * Next in United States X Schools and testing The finger of suspicion Is too much weight given to testing? * Next in United States X California's prison-guards' union Fading are the peacemakers One of California’s most powerful political forces may have peaked * Next in United States X America's childrenProtecting the weakest The recession may hurt America’s vulnerable children * Next in United States X Lexington Is Barack Obama tough enough? 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By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies.Review our  cookies information  for more details Special report:  Managing information A different game Information is transforming traditional businesses Feb 25th 2010 | from the print edition * * IN 1879 James Ritty, a saloon-keeper in Dayton, Ohio, received a patent for a wooden contraption that he dubbed the â€Å"incorruptible cashier†. With a set of buttons and a loud bell, the device, sold by National Cash Register (NCR), was little more than a simple adding machine. Yet as an early form of managing information flows in American business the cash register had a huge impact.It not only reduced pilferage by alerting the shopkeeper when the till was opened; by recording every transaction, it also provided an instant overview of what was happening in the business. Sales data remain one of a company's most important assets. In 2004 Wal-Mart peered into its mammoth databases and noticed that before a hurricane struck, there was a run on flashlights and batteries, as might be expected; but also on Pop-Tarts, a sugary American breakfast snack. On reflection it is clear that the snack would be a handy thing to eat in a blackout, but the retailer would not have thought to stock up on it before a storm.The company whose system crunched Wal-Mart's numbers was none other than NCR and its data-warehousing unit, Teradata, now an independent firm. A few years ago such technologies, called â€Å"business intelligence†, were available only to the world's biggest companies. But as the price of computing and storage has fallen and the software systems have got better and cheaper, the technology has moved into the mainstream. Companies are collecting more data than ever before. In the past they were kept in different systems that were unable to talk to each other, such as finance, human resources or customer management.Now the systems are being linked, and companies are using data-mining techniques to get a complete picture of their operations—â€Å"a single version of the truth†, as the industry likes to call it. That allows firms to operate more efficiently, pick out trends and improve their forecast ing. In this special report * Data, data everywhere * All too much *  »A different game * Clicking for gold * The open society * Show me * Needle in a haystack * New rules for big data * Handling the cornucopia Sources & acknowledgementsReprints Related topics * China * Nestle * IBM * Royal Shakespeare Company * WalmartConsider Cablecom, a Swiss telecoms operator. It has reduced customer defections from one-fifth of subscribers a year to under 5% by crunching its numbers. Its software spotted that although customer defections peaked in the 13th month, the decision to leave was made much earlier, around the ninth month (as indicated by things like the number of calls to customer support services). So Cablecom offered certain customers special deals seven months into their subscription and reaped the rewards. Agony and torture Such data-mining has a dubious reputation. â€Å"Torture the data long enough and they will confess to anything,† statisticians quip.But it has become far more effective as more companies have started to use the technology. Best Buy, a retailer, found that 7% of its customers accounted for 43% of its sales, so it reorganised its stores to concentrate on those customers' needs. Airline yield management improved because analytical techniques uncovered the best predictor that a passenger would actually catch a flight he had booked: that he had ordered a vegetarian meal. The IT industry is piling into business intelligence, seeing it as a natural successor of services such as accountancy and computing in the first and second half of the 20th century respectively.Accenture, PricewaterhouseCoopers, IBM and SAP are investing heavily in their consulting practices. Technology vendors such as Oracle, Informatica, TIBCO, SAS and EMC have benefited. IBM believes business intelligence will be a pillar of its growth as sensors are used to manage things from a city's traffic flow to a patient's blood flow. It has invested $12 billion in the past four years and is opening six analytics centres with 4,000 employees worldwide. Analytics—performing statistical operations for forecasting or uncovering correlations such as between Pop-Tarts and hurricanes—can have a big pay-off.In Britain the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) sifted through seven years of sales data for a marketing campaign that increased regular visitors by 70%. By examining more than 2m transaction records, the RSC discovered a lot more about its best customers: not just income, but things like occupation and family status, which allowed it to target its marketing more precisely. That was of crucial importance, says the RSC's Mary Butlin, because it substantially boosted membership as well as fund-raising revenue. Yet making the most of data is not easy. The first step is to improve the accuracy of the information.Nestle, for example, sells more than 100,000 products in 200 countries, using 550,000 suppliers, but it was not using its huge buying po wer effectively because its databases were a mess. On examination, it found that of its 9m records of vendors, customers and materials around half were obsolete or duplicated, and of the remainder about one-third were inaccurate or incomplete. The name of a vendor might be abbreviated in one record but spelled out in another, leading to double-counting. Plainer vanilla Over the past ten years Nestle has been overhauling its IT system, using SAP software, and improving the quality of its data.This enabled the firm to become more efficient, says Chris Johnson, who led the initiative. For just one ingredient, vanilla, its American operation was able to reduce the number of specifications and use fewer suppliers, saving $30m a year. Overall, such operational improvements save more than $1 billion annually. Nestle is not alone in having problems with its database. Most CIOs admit that their data are of poor quality. In a study by IBM half the managers quizzed did not trust the informatio n on which they had to base decisions. Many say that the technology meant to make sense of it often just produces more data.Instead of finding a needle in the haystack, they are making more hay. Still, as analytical techniques become more widespread, business decisions will increasingly be made, or at least corroborated, on the basis of computer algorithms rather than individual hunches. This creates a need for managers who are comfortable with data, but statistics courses in business schools are not popular. Many new business insights come from â€Å"dead data†: stored information about past transactions that are examined to reveal hidden correlations. But now companies are increasingly moving to analysing real-time information flows.Wal-Mart is a good example. The retailer operates 8,400 stores worldwide, has more than 2m employees and handles over 200m customer transactions each week. Its revenue last year, around $400 billion, is more than the GDP of many entire countries . The sheer scale of the data is a challenge, admits Rollin Ford, the CIO at Wal-Mart's headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. â€Å"We keep a healthy paranoia. † Not a sparrow falls Wal-Mart's inventory-management system, called Retail Link, enables suppliers to see the exact number of their products on every shelf of every store at that precise moment.The system shows the rate of sales by the hour, by the day, over the past year and more. Begun in the 1990s, Retail Link gives suppliers a complete overview of when and how their products are selling, and with what other products in the shopping cart. This lets suppliers manage their stocks better. The technology enabled Wal-Mart to change the business model of retailing. In some cases it leaves stock management in the hands of its suppliers and does not take ownership of the products until the moment they are sold. This allows it to shed inventory risk and reduce its costs.In essence, the shelves in its shops are a highly eff iciently managed depot. Another company that capitalises on real-time information flows is Li & Fung, one of the world's biggest supply-chain operators. Founded in Guangzhou in southern China a century ago, it does not own any factories or equipment but orchestrates a network of 12,000 suppliers in 40 countries, sourcing goods for brands ranging from Kate Spade to Walt Disney. Its turnover in 2008 was $14 billion. Li ; Fung used to deal with its clients mostly by phone and fax, with e-mail counting as high technology.But thanks to a new web-services platform, its processes have speeded up. Orders flow through a web portal and bids can be solicited from pre-qualified suppliers. Agents now audit factories in real time with hand-held computers. Clients are able to monitor the details of every stage of an order, from the initial production run to shipping. One of the most important technologies has turned out to be videoconferencing. It allows buyers and manufacturers to examine the col our of a material or the stitching on a garment. â€Å"Before, we weren't able to send a 500MB image—we'd post a DVD.Now we can stream it to show vendors in our offices. With real-time images we can make changes quicker,† says Manuel Fernandez, Li ; Fung's chief technology officer. Data flowing through its network soared from 100 gigabytes a day only 18 months ago to 1 terabyte. The information system also allows Li & Fung to look across its operations to identify trends. In southern China, for instance, a shortage of workers and new legislation raised labour costs, so production moved north. â€Å"We saw that before it actually happened,† says Mr Fernandez.The company also got advance warning of the economic crisis, and later the recovery, from retailers' orders before these trends became apparent. Investment analysts use country information provided by Li ; Fung to gain insights into macroeconomic patterns. Now that they are able to process information flows i n real time, organisations are collecting more data than ever. One use for such information is to forecast when machines will break down. This hardly ever happens out of the blue: there are usually warning signs such as noise, vibration or heat. Capturing such data enables firms to act before a breakdown.Similarly, the use of â€Å"predictive analytics† on the basis of large data sets may transform health care. Dr Carolyn McGregor of the University of Ontario, working with IBM, conducts research to spot potentially fatal infections in premature babies. The system monitors subtle changes in seven streams of real-time data, such as respiration, heart rate and blood pressure. The electrocardiogram alone generates 1,000 readings per second. This kind of information is turned out by all medical equipment, but it used to be recorded on paper and examined perhaps once an hour.By feeding the data into a computer, Dr McGregor has been able to detect the onset of an infection before ob vious symptoms emerge. â€Å"You can't see it with the naked eye, but a computer can,† she says. Open sesame Two technology trends are helping to fuel these new uses of data: cloud computing and open-source software. Cloud computing—in which the internet is used as a platform to collect, store and process data—allows businesses to lease computing power as and when they need it, rather than having to buy expensive equipment.Amazon, Google and Microsoft are the most prominent firms to make their massive computing infrastructure available to clients. As more corporate functions, such as human resources or sales, are managed over a network, companies can see patterns across the whole of the business and share their information more easily. A free programming language called R lets companies examine and present big data sets, and free software called Hadoop now allows ordinary PCs to analyse huge quantities of data that previously required a supercomputer. It does th is by parcelling out the tasks to numerous computers at once.This saves time and money. For example, the  New York Times  a few years ago used cloud computing and Hadoop to convert over 400,000 scanned images from its archives, from 1851 to 1922. By harnessing the power of hundreds of computers, it was able to do the job in 36 hours. Visa, a credit-card company, in a recent trial with Hadoop crunched two years of test records, or 73 billion transactions, amounting to 36 terabytes of data. The processing time fell from one month with traditional methods to a mere 13 minutes. It is a striking successor of Ritty's incorruptible cashier for a data-driven age. rom the print edition | Special report * Recommend 140 * * * Submit to reddit * inShare2 * View all comments (4) Related items TOPIC:  China  Ã‚ » * Recommended economics writing: Link exchange * Trade: Mexico rising * The Economist: Digital highlights, November 24th 2012 TOPIC:  Nestle  Ã‚ » * Consumer goods in Africa: A continent goes shopping * Schumpeter: Pretty profitable parrots * Nestle buys Pfizer Nutrition: Feeding little emperors TOPIC:  IBM  Ã‚ » * Schumpeter: Taking the long view * IBM's mainframes: Old dog, new tricks * Phase-change memory: Altered states TOPIC:  Royal Shakespeare Company  Ã‚ » William Shakespeare: A digital reinvention * Culture: Going for gold * Green architecture: The retrofit revolution More related topics: * Walmart Want more? 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