Sunday, January 26, 2020

The Liberal International Economic Order Economics Essay

The Liberal International Economic Order Economics Essay The issues of the environment were not in the minds of the framers of the Liberal International Economic order (LIEO) when they met together at Bretton woods towards the end of World War II. LIEO was focused on promoting peace after the post war and destroy the economic competition that was destructive to the relationship between the countries of the world. LIEO is the key to future stability, peace and security globally. Right after the end of the Second World War, the World Bank creation, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the International Monetary Fund established the foundations for the organization of a liberal trading order. These institutions promoted the state sponsored dedication to markets and ensured economic prosperities to the developing nations. Governments realized that liberal trading arrangements and efficiency of the market are essential prerequisites to realize the potential for the economic, political and social progress after Second World War. The expansion of the liberal trading order, the strength of the free market and the freeing of capital from domestic restrictions which was visualized by the framers of the Bretton Woods Institution took precedence over the provision of social development and on account of this people were left with the false promise that the efficiency in and of itself would produce political, social and environmental progress. Therefore even if the initial purpose was achieved, the numerous multilateral organizations created for the purpose of promoting a new LIEO has also created negative impacts. They have been instrumental in making the Governments exerting strong influence often with considerable but not with all the features of a centrally planned economy which is very much essential for the progress of a country. Therefore, the Governments must ensure that their actions do not affect the purpose of the Liberal International Economic order (LIEO). The United States of course played a vital role in the development of Liberal International Economic order (LIEO) the reason being as a dominant economy, it carried the primary burden of military defense for the entire free globe and it opened its huge market to foreign competition and free trade and it was able to and willing to carry on the burden of free trade as it was a powerful and rich country. At this point of time, the United States made the dollar a universally accepted parallel currency by fixing a relationship between the gold and the dollar and committed to exchanging at any point of time these two units. Therefore I believe that this regime could not have been developed without the influence of hegemony such as the United States. I do believe that the decline in United States influence signals a threat to the LIEOs continued existence because the United States was no longer considered the dominant economic power as before. This might prove a threat to the LIEOs existence as they mostly depend upon the United States as they do not have sufficient resources and most of the time the expertise they required and funded or supplied by the United States. There is a considerable loss of the dominance of dollar which signals a threat to the LIEOs existence because they were solely dependent on the currency of the United States for their functioning. The breakdown of hegemonic stability theory, collective goods, and free riders are as follows: Hegemonic stability theory: Identical to the materialization of hegemony, when a single nation rise to hold military and economical powers in a given situation along with the formation of international economic stability based on liberal principles which is a mixture of liberalism and mercantilism which paves the way for the elimination of fears is called as the theory of Hegemonic stability. Here, the mercantilists and realists hold common views that the key to global economic order is the balancing of power among competing state actors. Collective goods: Everyone has equal chances of deriving benefits in the case of collective goods. Irrespective of a persons contribution in the case of service or taxes in the military, national security is a collective good from which everyone within a country benefits. The majority of economists view an open international economy as a collective good. Free riders: Those who make the fullest use and exploit a common good are called as free riders. Imposition of trade restrictions by a nation and getting away from the negative impacts and thereafter deriving the maximum benefits from the free trade policies prevailing in other nations takes place with regard to free riders, But nevertheless, without rules and someone to enforce the rules, the cooperation required to maintain a common good is tedious to achieve. 7. International trade has contributed to the economic development throughout the industrialized world and blended the cultures and traditions of different countries together and contributed to the cooperation among different countries with regard to sharing of resources though exports and imports which helped to maintain a positive equilibrium. Even though the world trade is increasing at a faster pace and it is favorable according to the world trade economists, it still has its own negative sides after the global economic crisis that hit the world in 2008. The global economy suffered severe losses and it paved the way for unemployment which increased drastically throughout the world for the past two years. In spite of all these setbacks, the rules and principles of world trade organization have assisted governments in keeping the markets open is provided for the world trade as there is some considerable improvement in world trade. An economic policy which is meant to favor domestic producers of services and goods is called protectionism. I read an article the other day by David Leonhardt of the NYtimes which fundamentally proposed the idea that China has adopted the biggest policy of protectionism since the World War II by intervention and manipulation of the foreign exchange markets and by following strict measures of protectionism creating negative impact for itself and countries like the United States (David Leonhardt, 2010). When a nation is having protectionist policies, producers are protected against competition from the foreign firms with the help of import restrictions where as free trade is a policy where commodities are allowed to cross borders or boundaries without restrictions. The reason behind why some governments favor protectionism is, as soon as foreign commodities are made available in the domestic market, the domestic industries suffer heavy losses because the foreign goods are available at cheap prices or the producers who export commodities to other countries are able to keep costs low due to the subsidies of the foreign government. Therefore the governments hold the views that it can increase the demand and market for the domestic goods by closing the market to foreign producers and marketers and by imposing strict quotas and import tariffs so that the domestic economic situation doesnt get bad and derives maximum benefit. Even though protectionism is intended for protecting domestic companies, this is not always the case. There is also a darker side: companies will tend to use the old technologies and they will seldom take any initiatives to produce innovative products and there is no spirit of good competition. Countries that go by protectionism are often faced by export barriers or restrictions from other countries who give the same response to countries that go by protectionism. Inflation of prices for prices and commodities takes place and the domestic compani es may start fleecing the consumers by fixing their own prices when there are no foreign competitors. In order to maintain a balance of trade surplus, a country can make exports to the foreign sector which exceeds imports from there and a balance of trade surplus takes place for a country if its domestic economy produces commodities which are in high demand by other countries and purchased by foreign countries enabling the country to increase its exports, the value of which is greater than the value of imports produced by the foreign countries. Therefore a country must ensure that its makes maximum use of its own resources and after catering to its own need must ensure that there is no wastage and should find out the potential market abroad where there is high demand for its commodities which are lying in surplus. For example, Brazil is the colossal producer of coffee in the world and after catering to its own need in a substantial manner, it exports the rest to foreign countries thereby creating a favorable method to maintain balance of trade surplus. It has the capability of export ing huge quantity of coffee seeds which surpasses all other imports which will help it to maintain balance of trade surplus. The balance of payment imbalances needs to get cleared by the succeeding suitable methods for the purpose of maintaining a consistent balance of trade surplus. By making imports cheaper, the exports of a nation could be less competitive. This usually ends up in correcting the surplus of a current account which is also helped by the upward shift in the currency value of a nation. With the help of an agreement between the nations to fix their rates of exchange against each other, any disproportion that is taking place by rules based and changes in exchange rates which are negotiated could be sorted out. Fixed adjusting rates of exchange rates which is the systems of Bretton Woods is a crucial example of a rules based system. When a country adopts a regime of policy which centralizes currency decisions in the hands of a central government by controlling the movement of capital, discouraging imports and encouraging exports, such a policy is called as neomercantilism. Allowing more effective fiscal and monetary policy by increasing the level of foreign reserves is the goal of the policies of neomercantilsm. This is believed to provide greater control and autonomy to the government. Japan and Germany have been believed to have derived the maximum advantages of the neomercantilist trade policies. Most of the nations of the world always believe that the trade policies of neomercantalism always work for them and fail to notice its negative side. When every country starts following the neomercantilist trade policies, they discourage imports and start concentrating only on exporting. A nation definitely has the need to encourage imports when it is crucial for the welfare of the country and if majority of the nati ons follow this policy, the rest of the countries will follow the same and when they cut down imports, they are discouraging and preventing the other countries to export. The countries which follow this policy should observe the comparative advantages of both export and import. The way in which value can be created by trade for both parties even when one could produce all goods with fewer resources than the other is highlighted by comparative advantage. This encourages for the occurrence of gains of trade which can be beneficial to both the parties that is the country which exports its commodities to another country and the country which imports the commodities exported by the other country. Rationalization of neomercantilist trade policies is possible when there is cooperation among the countries involved in international trade. Developing countries need to participate more vigorously in trade negotiations during trade agreements with mutual trust and confidence with other nations.

Saturday, January 18, 2020

Proton Holdings Berhad Company Vision & Mission Critique Essay

The Critiques on Vision & Mission of Perusahaan Automobil Nasional (PROTON) Vision can be define as an inspire statement that consists of goal and objective that an organization would like to achieve or accomplish in the mid-term or long term future. It is intended to serves as a clear guide for choosing current and future course of action. It also becomes the driver statement that will lead the organization to achieve its objective and goals. Mission is a statement or a written declaration that consist of organization core purposes. Normally a mission statement remains unchanged over time. Mission statement serve as filters to separate what is important from what is not, a statement that clearly state which markets will be served and how for business organization and a statement that communicate a sense of future direction to the whole organization. Vision and Mission statement for an organization must be clear and understandable by all staff  in the organization. Mission statement is slightly different from Vision statement, although both statements carry same objective which lead and drive the company by act as a railway path in order for a company keep track on all course of action to achieve the organization objective and target. A mission is something to be accomplished whereas a vision is something to be pursued for that accomplishment. As mentioned earlier, it is important for a company to have its own Vision and Mission statement and it is import for both statements are logically achievable and understandable. A vision helps to lead the company to its main objective. A mission defines the organization purposes. Vision of PROTON is to be â€Å"A Leading Globally Mobility Solutions Provider†. Mission statement of PROTON is to â€Å"continuously create innovative processes, products & services that win people’s hearts & minds†. In my opinion, I do agree with the both Vision and Mission statements due to some reason and factors that will be briefly explain and critique on the next paragraph. The reason I agree with the Vision statement because of several factors that physically may be observe and analyze on the result that related to the statement. The word of â€Å"A Leading† describes the position of PROTON in the automotive industries in Malaysia. For past a few years back, PROTON did achieve on that level as a No 1 ranking car manufacturer and volume of sales in Malaysia Automotive industries. The ranking drop and become No 2 since year of Myvi launched by Perodua. The only reason PROTON drop in ranking due to several factors that makes the Brand name losing its customers confidence. Since PROTON share being bought by DRB-Hicom, this Vision statement has been impose and to lead the company to get back on the No 1 ranking not only in Malaysia Automotive Industries but ranking No 1 globally in term of mobility solution provider which will further explain on next paragraph. The word â€Å"Global† being used and presence since PROTON start to export car to United Kingdom and acquired LOTUS. For the financial year of 14/15, PROTON had exported almost 600 Units of various model of car (Proton Models) to almost 45% big automotive market around the globe. The emergence of Research & Development (RND) Division in Proton is also one of the main factors that the Vision statement has been setup as the Global Mobility Solutions Provider. With the ability to perform research and development on car engine, safety features and other related technology for developing a new car that meet the demand and current  requirement of global environmental act, PROTON set a target to be the leading Global Mobility solution provider which resulted to ensure PROTON excel in future. In order to perform this, a knowledge transfer and adoption of new technology being done by PROTON and it resulted from joint venture projects, exchange technology and others with various othe r automotive manufacturers around the world. The word of ‘Mobility† in the vision statement is referring to 6 main pillars of PROTON Business Structure. There are motor vehicles, technology provider, engineering services, manufacturing services, human capital development and supporting business. Motor vehicles manufacture refers to the development of passenger vehicles (Exora), Performance-niche (Preve, Suprima & Iriz), alternative propulsion (Saga EV, Exora EV, Preve EEV & Iriz EV-Prototype and has high intension to be develop and produce in future), commercial vehicles (All Model) and others (Prototype Engine). All this activity has shown a various results and this justify a positive feedback on the vision statement setup by PROTON. It also inline with the objective to be a leading global mobility solution provider where all the 6 pillars had to be works together, by having a good human capital development through a professional training and supporting business through increase number of sales volume and high thro ughput of Service revenue. Besides that, PROTON has various strategy implemented to ensure all this 6 pillar working together, by having a contract assembly, component manufacturing (Proton Parts Centre), Sales & Service, Financing, Insurance and other for PROTON to build and develop a good platform to achieve the level in leading global mobility solution provider. Besides that PROTON has the capacity to serve the concept of mobility solution provider because, under PROTON there is more than 1 brand that joint with PROTON such as LOTUS, MIYAZU, POTENZA and others. PROTON also has experienced adoption of different management, business operation for sales and service brand such as Mitsubishi and Honda. With all this, it shows that the Vision is achievable and logically states the ability of PROTON to be at that particular level in future. On the mission statement, it is verified that PROTON mission give and defines the organization as a whole. The word â€Å"Continuously Create† refers to the PROTON activity that continuous and constantly put an effort to deliver better solutions to target recipients which is the customers. A rapid development of new product technology and to rapidly close all issues  related to products failure become one of the major priority by PROTON. It is true that there is quite a lot of complaint on products but most of case solve within the time period set by the company. PROTON continuously develops an efficient and effective process in line with the needs and preference of the customer. For example, the appointment booking for service job done through phone call, reminder of service done by Customer Retention Executive, delivery of cars at the customer doors, and others. The words of â€Å"Innovative† give the definition of new or improved solutions that is beneficial to users or customer and environment. Customer always becomes the first priority to PROTON. In inventing a new te chnology and process, environmental issues and local act remain to be one of the factors to be looks into before any changes made. As at 2015, there is a zero cases Proton involvement in Environmental Issues in Malaysia. All environmental rules and regulation fully complied by PROTON. All PROTON Service equipment being certified with Jabatan Kesihatan dan Keselamatan Pekerja (JKKP) and follow the standard set by the government and local authority. â€Å"Process, Products and Services† refer to the Outcomes from the efforts and initiatives by PROTON. This can be seen by PROTON had impose rapidly training for all staff on the process operation, products knowledge and Service quality in order to ensure a good service provide to the customer. This also to ensure all service provided in line with the statement of â€Å"Win People’s Hearts & Minds† which desirable benefits by all stakeholders, especially to the customers and business partners. The main focus is to produce a quality services to all customers and to retain customer confidence on the service provided. This shows the commitment of PROTON to serve customer, stakeholders, employees and business partners by offering preferred and desired products and excellent services, delivering sustainable profit together with financial growth and sharing successes within the business process. As a conclusion, the Vision and Mission statement done by PROTON is clearly defines its objective and its target. It’s reflecting the management aspirations for PROTON perform in high performance with support of its capabilities and creates the competitive conditions. The mission statement clearly identifies PROTON products service, specifies the customer needs and strategy to fulfil it’s and shows PROTON identities. Furthermore, the Vision statement shows clearly the company future strategic core and direction  where PROTON should be in the future.

Friday, January 10, 2020

Ethical Issues of Deception in Psychological Research Essay

In psychological studies, ethical issues associated with deception have always the major concern area. It is largely been viewed as something which in long will cause effect on participants’ willingness to be a part of any psychological research. The controversy associated with this issue has itself led to many researches to ascertain the positivity and negativity associated with the use of deception in psychological research. The findings of those researches have been contradictory. Some researcher has indicated that use of deception has a very negative impact on participant’s perception of researchers and hence reduces the possibility of its further participation in the ongoing project as well as any other research in future (Tuffin, 2005) While on the other hand there are evidences that deception has positive effect and participants have reported that they actually enjoyed being deceived and showed positive participation in the researches in which they are being deceived and feel more benefited than those without deception. Hence it becomes more evident that deception has basically no effect on participants and neither reduces nor increases their willingness in taking part in any future researches irrespective of those requiring deception or not (Lefkowitz, 2003). The above mentioned two contradictory preferences related to deception actually gives a picture which shows that the people have no clear meaning of deception and it varies from person to person i.e., they have different interceptions of what it actually means. This reinforces the need for further research and hence underscores the requirement for an expanded investigation to figure out the possible effects of deception in a prospective participant and the psychological study. The beginning of this new research could be initiated through a controlled environment when some of the participants and informed about the use of deception while some are not informed. The final objective is to ascertain the actual impact of deception when both researchers as well the participants have better understanding of deception (O’Donohue, 2003). References: O’Donohue, W. (2003) Handbook of Professional Ethics for Psychology. Sage Publication Ltd.,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   London. UK Lefkowitz, J (2003) Ethics and values in industrial-organizational Psychology. Lawrence  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Mahwas, NJ Tuffin, K (2005) Understanding Critical Social Psychology. Sage Publication Ltd., London. UK

Thursday, January 2, 2020

Vygotskys Theory of Sociocultural Development - 1076 Words

Vygotsky studied the Sociocultural Theory, which had three themes: the social sources of individual thinking, the roles of cultural tools in learning and development, and the zone of proximal development (Driscoll, 2005; Wertsch Tulviste, 1992 as cited in Woolfolk 2013). In other words, Vygotsky believed that the happenings of people occur in cultural settings and cannot be understood outside of these situations. This theory emphasizes the relationship between children and those who are more knowledgeable because children learn through the culture of their environment and through their interactions. According to Vygotsky, a child’s development appears two times: first, on the shared level and later on the individual level.†¦show more content†¦By: Andrea Davis Pinkney Brian Pinkney Objective: Students will be able to better understand how the inequalities of segregation led to the Civil Rights movement. One morning, unexpectedly, without the students being aware, divide the class in two groups for a few hours. †¢ Group 1 will sit in the front, stand in front of the line and receive privileges that the other group won’t have. †¢ Group 2 will sit in the back, be ignored by the teacher, and stand in the back of the line. They will be treated differently and not as good as the first group. †¢ After lunch, there will be a role reversal, Group 2 will be treated as good as Group 1 was and now Group 1 will be treated as badly as Group 2 was. The hypothesis is that because the teacher was being mean to group 2, group 1 would treat group 2 just as badly because they are imitating what they see from the teacher. They believe that it is ok to be disrespectful and mean because someone older is doing it. However, when group 2 is treated better than group 1, they will be more kind and respectful to their peers because they know what it felt like being singled out and mistreated. This is a way of scaffolding because the students learn from their peers and from those who are more knowledgeable than them. Because the teacher has authority, they believe it is the right to do to make fun and mistreat the lower group. Essentially this makes sense because people do what is accepted in society and are afraid ofShow MoreRelatedVygotskys Sociocultural Theory Of Development831 Words   |  4 PagesSocio-cultural developmental theory Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of development is essential in d primary school and early childhood settings. Through an understanding of the socio-cultural theory, it facilitates pedagogical practices and teaching strategies for educators. The socio-cultural theory is underpinned by the influence of the environment and cultural contexts such as beliefs, values and skills in facilitating development (Mooney 2013, p. 77). 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