Tennessee Williams Life Story Portrayed in The Glass Menagerie Essay

Tennessee Williams' Life Story Portrayed in The Glass Menagerie Tennessee Williams' play, The Glass Menagerie, originated in the memory of Williams. Williams' family embodied his father, Cornelius Williams, his mother, Edwina Dakin Williams, his sister, Rose Williams, and his younger brother, Dakin Williams. Cornelius was an alcoholic, always away from home; Tennessee and Cornelius did not have a strong relationship, "By the late 1920s, mother and father were in open warfare, and both were good combatants. He came home drunk and picked up a bill-perhaps for Tom's clothing or schoolbooks-and he'd fly into rage."(Spoto, 18). Edwina, on the other hand, revered "refinement and the good manners of Southern gentry." (Barron's Book Notes, 2). Tennessee adored Rose immensely and were close as they could be. The Glass Menagerie is based on a mother and her two children who live in a dream world away from society. Williams' play is drawn heavily upon his family life and experiences; they are very much parallel to the events that occur in Williams' lif e. Tom is modeled after Tennessee, an ardent poet who works in a shoe factory; Williams was passionate about writing, "He[Cornelius] saw that Tom devoted to his writing as unnatural for a boy his age†¦ worse, Tom did not have companions among boys of his own age, not did he participate in sports."(Leverich, 82). Tom tries to support his mother and sister by working in a shoe factory even though he dreams to become a poet. His mother disapproved of him writing as well as his father, "Despite Tom's being published, Cornelius persisted in his belief that his son was wasting his time and should be thinking of a more practical way of making a living."(Leverich, 82). Tennesse felt so doleful and devastatingly miserable that he did not know another way of escaping reality but to write, "At the typewriter he transformed the confusion, the bitterness, the longings into poems, and for a time he cracked out a diary in which he recorded little anecdotes about St. Louis street life."(Spoto, 20). Williams's character, in like manner, felt that same emptiness, "He[Tom] is a poet by nature and feels that his environment is destroying his creative abilities."(Cliff Notes, 9). Amanda Wingfield mirror images Williams's mother, Edwina Dakin Williams. Both of these women... ...'s Book Notes). Laura and Tom do not like the dismal atmosphere of the apartment, "The new apartment had only two small windows, in the front and in the rear rooms, and a fire escape blocked the smoky light from a back alley."(Spoto, 16). Tom uses the fire escape as a break from the real world, "As he climbs the few steps to the fire escape landing light steals up inside†¦At last he find the key, but just as he is about to insert it, it slips from his fingers. He strikes a match and crouches below the door."(Williams, 55). Williams' play, The Glass Menagerie, is drawn heavily upon Williams' family life and experiences; they are very much parallel to the events that occur in Williams' life. Tennessee's and Tom's whole life revolved around their mother and sister. They were struggling with life's cruel realities which they were not able to face and defeat, but instead, ran away from. Tom can not lose his memories of Laura. He needed to find his own identity and try to find a place for himself in the world.(Barron's Book Notes). If he had stayed with his mother and sister, their illusions and dreams would have deceived him.

Coming to America, Scarface, and Borat Essay

Motion pictures due to its nature, creates somehow a subliminal effect on its viewers. Certain dialogue and inherent acting can leave an impression to anyone who may watch it. These impressions have a large probability that what people see on screen could actually be real. Filmmakers on the other hand, know this effect on its viewers and create movies based on their own intention. For some filmmakers the purpose could be is to simply entertain, for others to educate. But even with this purpose in mind, some films made even though most likely unintentional, can cause a variety of reactions depending on the viewers perspective and comprehension of a specific film. A lot of these kinds of reactions may come from a twisting plot or a thought provoking characterization of its actors. The latter proves to have more reactions generated due to its social relevance, the characterization in films by the minorities of society. Since the inception of including minorities in film, a lot of criticisms were raised due to what others may deem offensive for the part of how the minorities are at times being falsely stereotyped and while others will consider it socially acceptable when analyzing it in a larger context (Sienkiewicz & Marx, 2009). The purpose of this paper is to critically analyze three films namely Scarface, Coming to America, and Borat. The study will discuss the roles portrayed by the lead actors in which they are also considered as part of the social minorities. This paper will break down the stereotypes or negative images in which the film may convey and how does these films contribute to oppression of one group or another. Data Analysis Coming to America In this film, Eddie Murphy plays the role of Prince Akeem a soon to be King of his wealthy country Zamunda. The plot revolves around Prince Akeem’s motivation to find his bride, since the type of wives being offered to him by the current king his Father, seems to be like Prince Akeem’s soon to be slaves, due to their nature to obey and please whatever the Prince will desire. That part alone shows the characters of women, (in this movie majority of the women are black) especially growing out from poverty will do anything just to get married to a Prince. Although women here is not considered minority but the negative image conveyed by the film of their characters, except for the main lady Lisa McDowell (in which Prince Akeem soon married due to her distinct quality), are basically like Gold diggers and will do absolutely anything just to get rich. Another incident, in which the film portrays and intentionally to be funny, was when Akeem and his cousin went to America to find the bride of his dreams, they encountered deceit and theft mainly from black people living in the impoverished area of Queens New York. Criticisms here depends on the type of viewer perception, some may react that not all Black people are like that, and they might even add that they just did those crimes due to poverty, but others will just look at it as unintentional and as a way to create a joke, but based on a study social and political themes the proportion of blacks who resort to violence has risen substantially over the last decade (Powers, Rothman & Rothman, 1996, p. 179). Also a scene worth noting, was when it showed the future Father in-law of Akeem, Cleo McDowell (played by John Amos) running his business, which have almost the perfect resemblance of McDonalds due to its signature usage of the Golden Arches, in which he calls the McDowell’s. This scene portrays another character of the black people engaged in playful deceit for the purpose of comedy, although ugh the scene naturally funny but again may create a message that in general black people are simply like that. Even on the way Cleo treats his daughter on finding the right man, he always preferred a wealthy young man to be his future son in law, thus Akeem here for his purpose to be loved by the way he is and not for money he assumed the role of a poor man, in which his Cleo totally disliked and preferred the more well off son of a rich family Daryl. Deceit lies and the motivation for money seems to be the underlying themes of this movie, although created as a comedy to somehow cover these types of elements, it was really shown clearly when the stereotyping ended on the scene when Akeem’s father the King went to New York to find his son and stop the potential marriage of him and Lisa, offered a significant amount of money to Cleo for his troubles, Cleo then stood up for his hidden principles and reacted as if it was an insult to treat her daughter like that. This could a positive affirmation and probably the filmmakers created this scene for viewers not to generalize and jump into conclusions on the nature of the black people in this film. Scarface On the movie Scarface, Al Pacino plays the role of a Cuban refugee named Tony Montana. As an immigrant Tony was depicted as a very strong character incapable of fear especially driven by his goal of making it big on a different country like America. This characterization of Al Pacino explains the American immigrant experience suggesting that crime which is the centerpiece of which is drugs cannot be disconnected from the American Dream (Sharret, 2001). After him and his best friend Manolo (played by Steven Bauer) went out the refugee camp after a tumultuous rebellion, they found themselves on having a job as dishwashers. This shows that in America most of the jobs for immigrants with little education end up as blue collared workers doing hard work and long hours. This kind of work only made Tony feels that it was nothing different from back home in which he tried anything possible to get away of the communism grip. He decided to results into what he feels he can do best. Violence and drug dealing, this has made the movie somehow more dangerous in respect to all immigrants trying to live an honest hardworking life in America, as viewers may perceive that this is the way immigrants are, due to their background on either poverty or a tough government from their own countries. Thus stereotyping again may exists, however this film offered much more than just the immigrant experience, from that foundation it went to describe the both the horrific image of drugs in the contemporary world and the violence and corruption attached to it (same as Sharret, 2001). It was not long when Tony Montana thought he had achieved the American Dream, he killed his former boss, took away his business and his wife and even his own bodyguard to work for him. This happened as portrayed, that tension occurs when minorities (like Tony the immigrant from Cuba) and his White boss tried; but failed to resolve issues and misunderstandings (Powers, Rothman & Rothman, 1996, p. 180). Tony knows he cannot do it alone without the help of corrupt bureaucrats who actually assist drug traffic as part of the realpolitik of post-war foreign policy (same as Sharret, 2001). Those scenes have a tremendous negative effect on not only to the violence by an immigrant but on his ability to utilize the system of the society in America that seems to support the idea of competition and acquisition as hallmarks of success and accomplishment (same as Sharret, 2001). There was what it seems as turning point in the film, in which Tony, His Wife Elvira (played by Michelle Pfeiffer) and Manolo went to a fine dining restaurant. In this particular scene Tony now considered rich and powerful, went beyond as he insulted his wife for being a drug addict, and made a scene with the whole considered to be the elite class of the society. The film conveys the message that this kind of society only knows where to point fingers when it comes to trouble and it a lot of times it goes to the immigrants whom they perceived are the bad guys and specializes on dealing drugs and partaking in violence. This explains that those other diners may have no idea what an immigrant experience could be and possibly do not care except if it affects them directly, in this particular scene it did. A lot of people considered Scarface as an epic gangster film, due to its themes of the capitalist lifestyle (in contrast to communism) violence and effects of drugs. Borat Borat is a film, that is supposed to comedic in nature, turned out as a heavy racist context, full of offensive themes for both the Kazakhstan people and the Americans as well according to its critics. But is it really? again depending on the type of viewers’ point of view. The film portrayed the country of Kazakhstan as a medieval society in which rape and incest are cheerfully accepted, and sometimes combined, some audiences knows that this kind of joke is not on the country itself, but on the western perception that foreign cultures are backward (Ryan, 2006). The ploy is centered on the character Borat Sagdiyev, (played by Sacha Baron Cohen) Kazakhstan’s second-best reporter, going to America to analyze the attitude and nature of the American people. In his travel accompanied by his producer Azamat Bagatov (played by Ken Davitian), Borat tries to learn the American sense of humor by interviewing an American coach, this scene conveys that the joke in which adding the word and exclamation Not! At the end of every sentence is proudly of American Origin ( same as Ryan, 2006). The other particular scene in which Borat interviewed the Veteran Feminists of America, can be considered nothing more sophisticated than a prank at the expense of those who don’t know what the joke is, or even that there is a joke (same as Ryan, 2006). But this scene in particular portrayed the seriousness of the Veteran Feminists which either way doesn’t want to be stereotyped as Borat would prefer. This somewhat immigrant experience of Borat has also led him to his infatuation to television personality Pamela Anderson. Borat then meet with a group of drunken friends ( which this scene is not scripted) and these guy showed Borat a videotape of Pamela Anderson having sex with his then boyfriend Tommy Lee, having seen this Borat feels very depressed, since in his country the belief of virginity is very important, and before he have seen the video he thought that Pamela is still a virgin, this again portrays that Kazakhstan people are primitive as well as naive. The guys who showed Borat the video claimed (since this was an actual shot) that they are unfairly represented in the film as sexist louts because of their drunken state, but during that scene their celebratory screening of the tape reveals their sexism indisputably (Metz, 2007). There a lot of scenes in the film in which can be easily concluded as racist tags or false stereotyping, but as some of the scenes which are shot are not scripted like, the scene discussed earlier, explains some of the actual nature of the Americans on how they sometimes treat an immigrant especially if they don’t have any background of a specific immigrant. The immigrant experience here shows that people in whom he interacts can be well perceived as if they are trying to understand the minority, but at the same time holding their ground if they see something is not just normal by their standards. Conclusion The influence of film on audience perception can really be significant. Especially when dealing with the social order of the society. In this study we analyzed three films on which the corresponding focal point is the immigrant experience by the main characters. They all seemed reacting on what the new society already has in place for them. For us viewers, we see these types of minorities and a lot of times we simply cannot enjoy a film as it is, due to the disturbance of the negative messages of violence, offensive jokes, racism, drugs, sexism and lot of subliminal messages the film itself conveys to us. The problem with this is clear from this study, that it indeed has an effect that can possibly create oppression for a particular group, and in this case the immigrant minorities of our society. Reference List Charles, L. (2006). Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. United States:Four by Two. De Palma, B. (1983). Scarface. United States:Universal Pictures Landis, J. (1988). Coming to America. United States:Eddie Murphy Productions Metz, W. (2007) Shark Porn: Film Genre, Reception Studies, and Chris Kentis’ Open Water. Film Criticism 31. 1 Powers, S. , Rothman, D. , and Rothman, S. (1996). Hollywood’s America: Social and Political Themes in Motion Pictures. Boulder. CO: Westview Press. Sharrett, C. (2001). Cinematic Drug Wars. USA Today, Society for the Advancement of Education. Sienkiewicz, M. & Marx, N. (2009). Beyond a Cutout World: Ethnic Humor and Discursive Integration in South Park. Journal of film and video 61. 2 Ryan, G (2006). Thongs of Freedom: The Kazakh Ace Reporter Uncovers Uncomfortable Truths about the US. New Statesman

Global Financial Crisis in Us - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 9 Words: 2756 Downloads: 9 Date added: 2017/09/11 Category Advertising Essay Did you like this example? INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT Critically discuss the contention that inadequate regulatory oversight in the United States of America combined with a culture of greed within the finance sector led to the global financial crisis of 2008-2009. SUBMITTED BY: PANKAJ PARASHAR STUDENT ID: 3098673 SUBMITTED TO: DR. LISA BARNES GSBS6484:CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY PANKAJ PARASHAR 3098673 GSBS6484 Page | 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Global Financial Crisis in Us" essay for you Create order EXECUTIVE SUMMARY†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 3 2. INTRODUCTION †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 4 3. GROWING OUT OF FINANCIAL CRISIS†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 4. INITIATION OF GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. .5 5. CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF US POLICIES AND IRREGULARITIES OF FINANCIAL MARKET†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦6 6. CORPORATE GOVERNANCE PERSPECTIVE OF CRISIS†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 7 7. OTHER GLOBAL MEGATREND RESPONSIBLE FOR CRISIS†¦8 8. OVERALL ANALYSIS OF US POLICIES IRREGULARITIES 9 8. 1. 8. 2. 8. 3. 8. 4. 8. 5. FAILURE TO REGULATE FINANCIAL DERIVATIVES†¦.. 9 UNSUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC BOOM†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã ¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 10 POOR MONETRAY POLICY†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 10 EXCESS PRODUCTION OF GOODS†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 11 CASHING IN ON FALLING SHARE PRICE†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 11 9. CONCLUSION†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 11 10. REFERENCES†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦12 GSBS6484-Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility 3098673 Page | 3 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report endeavors to support the contention that US unlawful practice and greed in higher authorities were somewhat responsible for the global financial crisis in 2008-2009. Additionally, discussion involves the unethical practices and flaws in both private and public sector, especially intermediaries between investors and borrowers, which were the accountable for this economic crisis. It also argues about the tendency to blame US, is not the right approach because poor governance practice and loose regulations are worldwide incidents and other countries are equally responsible for a current universal downturn. Later, paper investigates the role of various government policies in the burst of housing and financial bubble and describes how the greed of officials and erroneous banking and financial regulations were the roots of current recession. This report is trying to expose a number of previously observed, documented but unresolved fragilities within the integrated financial system. GSBS6484-Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility 3098673 Page | 4 2. INTRODUCTION Every crisis has its lesson. A global financial and economic convulsion of the degree we have just experienced should offer more lessons than most (Neal, 2009). The effects of their mistakes had a ripple effect on other countries as well, which is said to be the largest socio-politico-economic event in last 65 years(Yeoh, 2010). The main elements involved in global financial crisis include a dramatic swing in the recent account statements, true depreciation, and a considerable lag in net output(Summers, 2000). The leading approaches to understand the cause of crisis include namely: †¢ Macro-economic, †¢ Accounting –finance and †¢ The legal corporate government position(Yeoh, 2010). 3. Growing out of Global Financial Crisis (GFC): The US economic catastrophe, which has since become global, it mainly originated from 2007 due to poor performance of US mortgage industry(Kregel, 2008). US has followed aggressive economic policy aking, which emphasizing namely on low interest rate, deregulated market (financial) and low tax(Donato, 2009). New financial aura has been created in US financial market by these policies in which money became cheap, positive prediction on housing market instigate financial institutions and home owners to lend and borrow money(Obama, 2009b). Eventually sub-prime lend ing climbed up whereby a bank lent money to even those with poor credit histories. These irregularities resulted as a burst of housing bubble, which had adversely affected on the global prime market orldwide(Donato, 2009). This report is mainly emphasizing on the origin of the GSBS6484-Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility 3098673 Page | 5 GFC lax macroeconomic policies in the context of weak prudential and regulatory oversight, led to excessive leverage, mispricing of risk and build up of systemic risk(Lin, 2009). 4. Initiation of global financial crisis: The entire financial crisis since 1930 has proximity to one another overpriced stocks, trouble-free credit expansion, insatiability of power money and substantial fraud(Yeoh, 2010). However, 2008 economic catastrophe resembles that markets are more closely linked to each other and systemic risk can be originated from many market resources and can be transferred very quickly due to lack of proper corrective measures(Kindleberger et al. , 2005). The crisis mainly begun in January 2007, when US market reported losses in mortgage market and credit exposure due to certain delinquencies, especially in sub prime loan category. Stage 2 of crisis came up with fast deflation of housing value in slowing world economy, and it damaged property market in UK and Eurozone. Northern Rock one of the most renowned UK mortgage bank collapsed because of the knock on effect of US mortgage bubble bursting1(Gerson LehmanGroup, 2009). Aftermath NR collapse the banking credit spreads2 reached over 175 points for AA-rating companies. This showed the way of entire shutdown of asset securitization3 markets. Stage four of the crisis begun in September 2008 1 Housing bubbles may occur in local or global real estate markets. In their late stages, they are typically haracterized by rapid increases in the valuations of real property until unsustainable levels are reached relative to incomes, price-to-rent ratios, and other economic indicators of affordability. This may be followed by decreases in home prices that result in many owners finding themselves in a position of negative equity—a mortgage debt higher than the value of the property. 2 3 The risk premium paid by banks and other financial institutions over the cost of funds paid by the government Asset secur itization capital market where mortgages, credit card balances, and other types of loans are packaged nto securities GSBS6484-Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility 3098673 Page | 6 when many US financial institutions that dealt with the US housing finance market bailed out by US government(Yeoh, 2010). For example Washington Mutual Bank, Us financing agencies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, invest bank Lehman Bros and then AIG insurance group(Gerson LehmanGroup, 2009). US financial authorities failed to give the kiss of life to Lehman Bros. which was the key link between the securitization market and mortgage banker, US insurance and housing financing industry. The collapse of Lehman Bros gripped whole US market into trouble(Coffee, 2009). 5. Critical analysis of US policies and irregularities of financial market: The reasons behind the precipitation of crisis in US are as follows: †¢ Bad money policy of a deflated dollar to promote public and private debts †¢ The extension of the banking and finance service sector through offensive (abusive) adaptation of risky financial innovation and irresponsible behavior in shadow banking system4 †¢ Interrelation of home rights with global credit insecurity/instability (Phillips, 2008) In the early 2000, US federal placed many policies to undervalue risk in the subprime mortgage market. †¢ Loose Fed interest rate policy (2000-2005), provided low interest rate for a constant period. This resulted in overpricing of houses due to flexible monetary policies, which supported the housing market with cheap excessive credit(Yeoh, 2010, Donato, 2009). The shadow banking system or the shadow financial system consists of non-bank financial institutions that play an increasingly critical role in lending businesses the money necessary to operate. GSBS6484-Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility 3098673 4 Page | 7 †¢ These policies also promoted high risk culture in various financial institutions. For example, Federal pressure has been places on government supported enterprises like Fannie Mae to provide housing access to underclassed by investing in highly risky sub prime mortgages and offer them various lending policies as well(Yeoh, 2010). †¢ The restrictions placed on bank stock purchases for the institutional shareholders. So many corporate leaders then promote the short term interest of stockholders by manipulating compensation packages. Many irregularities in financial policies like withdrawn of Glass-Stegall act and FABS SEC5 provided ambiguous policies for the regular use of Off-balance sheet accounting6 and careless financial culture(Kregel, 2008, Yeoh, 2010). †¢ The unethical practices of Gatekeepers in the US market cause this financial catastrophe. Gatekeepers’ word here refers to the renowned intermediaries that verify or certify financial documents to investors. This may include auditors, debt rating agencies, security analysts and investment bankers. They have been engaging into the unethical activity which gave the big loss to the company by showing inflated financial status of the company(Yeoh, 2010). 6. Corporate Governance Perspective of crisis: Corporate governance issues in US also argue about the flaw associated with the processes and law governing which accounts for the financial crisis. The monetary catastrophe is an important attributed of failure and weaknesses in corporate governance, which was not able to provide protection against proliferated risk in the financial market(Lin, 2009). Failure of corporate governance, in US results in global capital imbalance, loose monetary policies weak regulatory oversight. For 5 6 FASB- Financial Accounting standard board SEC- Securities and Exchange Commission. Off balance sheet (OBS) usually means an asset or debt or financing activity not on the companys balance sheet. GSBS6484-Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility 3098673 Page | 8 instance, at Bear Stearns higher management lost over the USD 1. 4 billion by investing in highly risky portfolio called CDO7 which was backed by sub prime mortgages. However, they were showing flawless strong balance sheet including its liquidity to the investors(Yeoh, 2010). 7. Other global megatrends responsible for crisis: There are many other reasons for 2008 global financial crisis, not only US but many other countries also experienced major banking and financial sector weaknesses. Other mega trends that forge global financial crisis are: †¢ Post war trade liberalization which permitted trading business on convenient prices from Asia’s low-priced labour through their economic policies, which were export oriented to keep inflation at bay. Japan’s loose monetary policy for its asset bubble deflation. †¢ Enhancement of quantitative technique in finance which involves complex derivatives, which is helpful but led to the use into a misguided application. For example, Enron debacle in 2002 troughs the unethical procedure and application of off-balance sheet. The slight variation of these financial and accounting concepts in creased greed, which contaminated financial modernism and thus unleashed the current global crisis. †¢ Deregulation of financial services and capital control(Yeoh, 2010) All these developments produced essence of economic crisis, namely, extreme greed, intricacy, leverage and liquidity(Summers, 2000). An investment-grade security backed by a pool of bonds, loans and other assets. CDOs do not specialize in one type of debt but are often non-mortgage loans or bonds. 7 GSBS6484-Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility 3098673 Page | 9 8. Overall Analysis of US Policies and irregularities: USA is one of the largest consumers of exported product by other nations and also the source of the latest innovations and technology. As of late 2008, an economic recession took the whole industrialized nations into crisis with the different level of indicators such as: †¢ Extensive range of unemployment †¢ Less export trading volume across many nations those rely on exports. †¢ Volatility of various financial systems †¢ The unstable Financial markets with varying and low stock prices(Yeoh, 2010). All these indicators led to the number of discussions and debates regarding this issue (Melda, 2010). This report shall focus on main discussion of culture of greed and argue about the unethical corporate governance and regulatory practices in the financial market in US, which were the basic reason for the financial crisis. The discussion follows the major insufficiencies of USA, which were the main cause of GFC: †¢ Failure to regulate financial derivative in the market †¢ Unsustainable economic boom †¢ Excess production of goods †¢ Poor monetary policy †¢ Cashing in on falling share price(Melda, 2010) 8. 1. Failure to regulate financial derivatives: Many economists said that lacking in regulation of financial derivative can ead to the financial crisis. In USA, the crisis mainly triggered by the collapse of financial GSBS6484-Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility 3098673 Page | 10 derivative known as the mortgaged Assets which includes prime (Borrowers with good credit history) and subprime (Borrowers with weak credit history) (Yeoh, 2010). Subprime mortgage crisis has put the USA economy into the worst recession. Subprime borrowers are those who have poor credit history but lenders could have seen the other opportunity o make large earning by charging higher interest rate to provide more return for more risk. Federal Reserve chairman never opposed these derivatives, in other words, intentions of greed came into this scenario (Buser et al. , 1981). 8. 2. Unsustainable economic booms: US Federal Reserve chairman brought down interest rate level up to only one percent for reviving the US economy after Dot-come bubble burst8. This led to the sharp introduction of credit based money into the financial market of the country; these were resulted in unsustainable superficial economic boom. Investors were making money on investments that had no back up. They knew this fact but greed stuck in the way of ethical investment wisdom of the investors and then whole world eventually paid for their action(Soderbaum, 2009, Melda, 2010). 8. 3. Poor monetary policy: US had Neo-liberal policies for protecting the shareholder’s equity. However, legislators carried out some of the new policies such as Community reinvestment act and expansionary monetary policies to improve their stand in public eye and give investors immediate satisfaction but ignore to accommodate future challenges(Kindleberger et al. , 2005). Thus politicians took the greed affected 8 The dot-com bubble was a stock market bubble which popped to near-devastating effect in 2001. It was powered by the rise of Internet sites and the tech industry in general, and many of these companies went under or learned some valuable lessons when the bubble finally burst. GSBS6484-Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility 3098673 Page | 11 decision and pursue those policies that were beneficial in short term but unfavorable in the long term. 8. 4. Excess production of goods: Many multinational companies in US transferred their production to India or China for minimizing their cost of production and increase revenue. This led to the overproduction which caused deflation of price for goods, but the government hadn’t stepped into set a cap on excessive outsourcing. So greed of power deviated from their decision from long term financial issues, and they ignored out the concern next to globalization(Pettifor, 2008). 8. 5. Cashing in on falling share price: Stock brokers manipulated with share prices and ignored important rules of economics. Their main aim was to bluff people and get the highest return from their respective areas. This was one of the reasons that world went into the global crisis(Hale, 2009). 9. Conclusion The financial catastrophe has been evaluated through various means of a way. However, each way has shown how greed and unethical regulatory practices were the key driving force in making most of the decision. Politician, investors and traders were equally responsible for this crisis because hunger of politicians for power led them to the failure of the economic policies which could be helpful to avoid this economic crisis. Additionally, greed of making quick money drove investors and stoke brokers to invest in securities, which were not real and created an unsustainable economic boom that later, caused a major economic crisis. GSBS6484-Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility 3098673 Page | 12 Despite the strong governing rules by the Federal government in US, they failed to regulate some volatile financial instruments as they were looking for some quick results that can satisfy their greed for success. To recapitulate this, if all higher authorities in US had played their role in a righteous manner, this situation would have been better. 10. REFERENCE 1. BUSER, S. A. , CHEN, A. H. KANE, E. J. (1981) Federal Deposit Insurance, Regulatory Policy, and Optimal Bank Capital The Journal of Finance, 36, 51-60. 2. COFFEE, C. J. (2009) What went wrong? An inquiry into the cause of the 2008 financial crisis. Journal of Corporate Law Studies, 9,1, 1-22. 3. DONATO, I. I. (2009) The United state:Crisis Leadership in times of transition. IN HART, P. TINDALL, K. (Eds. ) Framing the global economic downturn :Crisis rhetoric and the politics of recessions. Canberra,Australia, ANU E Press. 4. GROUP, G. L. (2009) The global crisis claims Northern Rock building Society,among others,Viewed on 3 April 2010, 5. HALE, D. (2009) There is only one alternative to the dollar. Financial Times,P. no. 16. London,UK. 6. KINDLEBERGER, C. P. ALIBER, R. SOLOW, R. (2005) Manias, Panics and Crashes: A History of Financial Crisis,5th ed. , John Wiley Sons,INC,Newyork. GSBS6484-Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility 3098673 Page | 13 7. KREGEL, J. (2008) Changes in the US financial system and the sub-prime crisis, working paper, no 530. The Levy Economic Institute of Bard College. 8. LIN, J. Y. (2009) Policy Response to the Global Economic Crisis. Development Outreach:Putting knowledge to work Washington,USA, World bank publisher. 9. MELDA (2010) Economic crisis a cause of human Greed. Artical alley, Viewed online on 2 April 2010 ; ttp://www. articlealley. com/article_1451059_50. html; 10. NEAL, C. (2009) Growing out of crisis. Develpoment Outreach-Putting knowledge to work for development, 11,3. USA, World Bank Publication. 11. OBAMA, B. (2009b) The state of the nation:address to the joint session of congress,Viewed online on 4 April 2010 12. PETTIFOR, A. (2008) Americas financial meltdown:Lessons and prospects, Viewed online 3 April 2010 13. PHILLIPS, K. (2008) Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Financed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism, Newyork times,Newyork. 14. SODERBAUM, P. 2009) A financial crisis on top of the ecological crisis:Ending the monopoly of neoclassical economics. Real-world economics review,49, p. no. 8-19, Viewd online on 5 April 2010 15. SUMMERS, L. H. (2000) INter national finacial crises:Causes, Preventation, and cures. The American Economic Review, 90, 1-16. for development. GSBS6484-Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility 3098673 Page | 14 16. YEOH, P. (2010) Cause of the global financial crisis:Learning from the competing insights. International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, 7, 42-69. 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