Investment Banks and Commercial Banks Are Analogous to Oil and Water: They Just Do Not Mix
As a result of more than 9,000 banks failing during the Great Depression years of 1930-1933, bank regulation was greatly tightened in the United States. The legislature felt the unethical actions from the integration of commercial and investment banking aided in these failures for three main reasons: banks invested their own assets in risky securities, unsound loans were made to boost the price of securities of companies whom the bank had invested in, and the commercial banks interests in the price of securities tempted bank managers to pressure customers to purchase risky securities that the bank was trying to sell. As a result, President Roosevelt felt that the best remedy to the situation was to pass the Banking Act of 1933, which established two new provisions to financial regulation: deposit insurance and the separation of commercial and investment banking activities. Sections 16, 20, 21, and 32 of the act are referred to as the Glass-Steagall Act. These sections forbid deposit-taking institutions from engaging in the issuing, underwriting, selling, or distributing of securities. Since the provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act did not apply to foreign banks operating in the United States, they could engage in insurance and securities activities. This put the American banks at a disadvantage.
As a result of the pressure on the legislature and the constant talks of overturning the act, it was finally repealed. On November 12, 1999, President Clinton signed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act, which repealed the Glass-Steagall Act. This allowed securities firms and insurance companies to purchase banks and commercial banks to underwrite insurance and securities. From this repeal, the financial services industry has undergone a consolidating phase of commercial banks and investment banks becoming one. However, this has not always proved beneficial for these companies. My hypothesis is that the culture clash stemming from the different risk tolerance levels between investment banks and commercial banks is the main reason why such mergers and acquisitions have not resulted in the expected synergies the financial markets were anticipating.
Investment banks, by nature, have higher risk tolerance levels than do commercial banks. The principal reason for this is that investment banks are not financial intermediaries in the sense that they take deposits and lend them out.
The US has a sophisticated banking system that does a good job of allocating resources in productive place for their customers. However, in an area such as investment banking companies can use the deposited money for risky investments such as foreign government and corporate bonds. When these banks lose money on their investments or go out of business, all of the customer 's savings would be gone. Also, in this type of system bankers are more likely to commit fraud such as opening fake accounts vis a vis Wells
On February 23, 1784, a small advertisement appeared in The New York Packet, one of the many New York newspapers of that era. This advertisement announced that prominent New York citizens had established a bank. The bank, established by the prominent, would not officially open for business until June 9, 1784. That bank would come to be known as the bank of New York. Alexander Hamilton, a well-known New York attorney, was asked to write the constitution of the new bank. He complied and therefore Alexander Hamilton was credited with the founding of the Bank of New York. The Bank of New York is the oldest bank in New York and along with that is one of the oldest banks in the world since banking the way we know it today began in the 18th century.
The concept of emotional labour has often been referred to as being the performance of emotionally acting. Emotional acting can be split into two different categories; surface acting and deep acting. Surface acting is described as being the act of expressing an emotion without actually feeling that emotion (Hochschild 1983), which includes actions that are used to cover any negative emotions with positive actions. An example of this would be a bank teller who smiles continuously at a customer even though the customer has been very rude. Deep acting is another form of emotional labour which can be further split into two different types of emotional actions; the first is to exhibit the actual emotion that yo...
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act brought the most significant changes to financial regulation in the United States since the reform that followed the Great Depression. It made changes in the American financial regulatory environment that affect all federal financial regulatory agencies and almost every part of the nation’s financial services industry. Like Glass-Steagall, the legislation passed after the Great Depression, it sought to regulate the financial markets and make another economic crisis less likely. Banks were deregulated in 1999 by the Gramm-Leach-Biley Act, which repealed the Glass-Steagall Act and essentially allowed for the excessive risk taken on by banks that caused the most recent financial crisis. The Financial Stability Oversight Council was established through the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and was created to address the systemic risks in the United States financial system and to improve coordination among financial regulators.
In today’s world, a leader of a country has an immense power. That person can either wisely nurture the nation he or she has sworn to guide, or be responsible for the steps backward that country will be doomed to take at the end of their rule. There is no in between. Venezuela, a South American country that has a coastline on the Caribbean Sea, is a prime example of this truth. Venezuela is an oil-rich country that suffers from a multitude of problems created by previous governments, most notably the Chávez regime. Under Chávez’s rule, the country was guided down a devastating and highly controversial path (Rohter). Although this oil-rich nation had been lead by flawed leaders before, Hugo Chávez was the man who is ultimately responsible for the fact that Venezuela is currently spiraling out of control. A champion of the poor, his legacy in Venezuela can be felt still today (Rohter). Although he died over a year ago, the ultimately disastrous choices Chávez made for Venezuela have culminated into violent protests that began in February 2014. Hugo Chávez was a highly controversial leader whose socialistic ideologies and policies that focused on elevating the poor continue to affect not only the current president, Nicolas Maduro, but the country as a whole by providing the fuel to the violent protests occurring in the country due to issues such as inflation, government corruption, terrible crime rates, and food shortages.
Since the fast food industry is targeting America’s youth, providing healthier options on children’s menus will reduce the rate of childhood obesity and allow for a healthy future.
Hugo Chavez was a powerful and positive force in addressing social issues, however, his singular focus on social issues at the expense of other matters of the country left the Venezuelan economy in tatters. In 1998, 50.4% of the Venezuelan population was living below the poverty line, where as in 2006 the numbers dropped to 36.3% (Chavez leaves). Although he aggressively confronted the issue of poverty in Venezuela, many other problems were worsened. Some Chavez critics say he used the state oil company like a piggy bank for projects: funding homes, and healthcare while neglecting oil infrastructure and production. Without growth in the oil ind...
Harris, Jennifer L., Jennifer L. Pomeranz, Tim Lobstein, and Kelly D. Brownell. "A Crisis in the Marketplace: How Food Marketing Contributes to Childhood Obesity and What Can Be Done." Columbia.edu. N.p., 31 Oct. 2008. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
Sending a child to a gender based school, is a very big decision to make. The decision is so big, that looking at what research has to say about the topic could alter one’s decision to send their child to a gender based school. “Educators must apply different approaches in teaching make, and female students” (Gurian). This is said by Gurian, because he also believes that boys and girls learn differently. “Social pressures can be gentler and your child can learn at his own pace” (Kennedy).
It is said that fast food advertising is linked to rising childhood and teen obesity. The childhood obesity epidemic is a serious public health problem that increases morbidity, morality, and has substantial long-term economic and social costs (opposing viewpoints). Approximately 20% of our youth are now overweight with obesity rates in preschool age children increasing at alarming speed (opposing viewpoints). U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona said, “obesity is the fastest-growing cause of illness and death in the United States.” When I read this I was shocked. This is something that can change, but its up to ourselves to make that commitment. No one else has the power to do so but us. Did you know that treating obesity-related problems cost Americans $117 billion annually, that’s $420 per person (CQ Researcher).
Students are more focused and therefore have better test scores in single-sex classrooms. Although stereotypes are formed because of separating genders, a study in the 2009 British Educational Research Journal concluded that in single-sex classrooms, girls achieve more in math and science while boys achieve more in English (Kwong). Stereotypes have been developed early on of what girls and boys are more proficient at. Naturally girls are better at English; boys, math and science (compound sentence: elliptical construction). Single-sex classes encourage girls to pursue more in science and math and boys in English because it takes away gender stereotypes. If a boy and a girl are in the same science class working together, the girl becomes the scribe to write down data while the boy is doing the experiment (Kwong). Math and scien...
The proponents of single-sex education argue that boys and girls have differing needs and that their styles of learning are different. Education which respects personal differences must take this into account. ( Mullins 124) Single-gender schools seem logical, than, to a public that accepts that gender differences are real and likes the idea of expanding choices. (Silv...
Single sex education is a controversial battle that will most likely continue for decades. However, research and studies have shown in multiple cases and circumstances that single sex education is an extremely important tool that should be utilized in numerous situations. Many people think that dividing students based on sex will perpetuate gender discrimination; however, this kind of education may bridge more gaps than people realize. Not only do boys and girls develop and function differently, they are distracted by one another. Eliminating distractions and making classrooms conducive to each gender and learning style will ultimately result in a tremendous incline in academic grades and student participation.
Same sex classes make it possible for teachers to cater to student needs in a more efficient way. In general boys benefit from hands on learning, but girls benefit from calm discussions (Mullins 3). Girls tend to doubt themselves while boys think they can do anything. Boys need to be brought down from the clouds while girls need to be dug out of a hole (Mullins 3). David Chadwell says, "Structure and connection are two key concepts when examining gender in the classroom. All students certainly need both, but it seems that teachers need to consider the issue of structure more with boys and the issue of connection more with girls" (7), and Kristen Stanberry’s research has shown, "Some research indicates that girls learn better when classroom temperature is warm, while boys perform better in cooler classrooms. If that's true, then the temperature in a single-sex classroom could be set to optimize the learning of either male or female students" (1). These observations further support the idea that same sex classrooms can cater to student’s...
Even though “now” banks and building societies look much alike, they used to be completely different types of financial institutions. For this reason, I will point out the differences and similarities as we go along the historical process through which these two, once utterly distinct, types of financial institutions started to look the same.