The Euro
To most people in the United States hearing the word Euro brings about blank stares. Ask this same question in England or another European country and it means bringing Europe together under one common currency. The Euro can be defined as the common monetary system by which the participating members of the European Community will trade. Eleven countries Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Finland and Italy will comprise the European Economic Monetary Union that will set a side their national currency and adopt the Euro in 2002. A new National bank, based in Frankfurt Germany, will be constructed and the interest rates that control the economies of these nations will be in the hands of this new system. It is indeed a great experiment, being masterminded in Frankfurt, one that will be felt through out Europe as well as the rest of the world.1
The combined countries, now more commonly referred to as Euroland, will fall under one national bank. This bank, the European Central Bank, will determine the economic fate of the entire “Union”. The merging of eleven currencies is a daunting and somewhat lethal task. The ECB is comprised of seventeen members, each having one vote within the governing council. What has most Europeans concerned is the ECB’s secrecy of conducting business. There is no voting record nor will there be published minutes of the meeting that take place. Wim Duisenberg president of the ECB and a native Dutchman stated that he wanted the ECB to be one of the most open banks in the world.1 When BBC reporter Steve Levinson confronted him about this in Frankfurt Germany Wim replied
I reconcile these two positions by not defining openness as publishing everything that will be available, but by defining openness as explaining every decision, every consideration. Also the pros and cons and to be very open about that and to be frequent and immediate in that openness. (Livinston, Euroland 3)
Why does the ECB operation so much secrecy? Is does not want economic policy moved by political influence. In January of this year the Bank of Ireland became a regional branch of the ECB. Morris O’Connell, its governor, supports the ECB’s tight lips stating I don’t think it’s appropriate that you should be announcing how each person may have voted. I think you’re creating other p...
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...ause they cannot gauge the governing council’s true thinking. The fourth concern of the implementation of a solitary currency in Europe is that of who is in control?4 Officially the ECB is independent and answers to no political nation. But can one council possibly have the ability to control and balance eleven different economies at the same time? Some say no, but if it can even succeed only a little bit what is good for one economy may not be good for another. This leads into the final concern: Does one economy fit all? When the economy is in the basement the first thing that politicians ask for is a cut in interest rates. In the beginning this may give the desired results but in the long run may entirely destroy an economy. It becomes macroeconomics versus microeconomics.4 What is good for the economy as a whole may not be good for every sector and region.
What one can conclude by the scheme of things that the Euro is going to happen. What the out come will be and what effects it will have towards the economic world can only be speculated. The entire world will be watching as the largest economic experiment of our time unfolds before in front of us half way around the world.
In conclusion, the European Union has “merged” the countries of Europe. It has developed a common currency called the Euro’s, and a Parliament located in Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. Also, ALL of the countries of the Union are affected when one country is affected. This is important because the continent of Europe had become very weak after the wars and they needed to strengthen, and the European Union keeps the countries of Europe strong and economically fit.
European Commission. Economic and monetary union and the euro. Publications. Luxembourg: Publication Office of the European Union, 2012. Document.
The European Union today is a political and economic entity that controls in a single market located mostly in Europe exploiting Euro as a single currency uniting the vast majority of its members. The market that all European Union members share provides free trade of goods and services as well as a common external tariff. One might argue that the European Union would not perceptible its current influence had it not been for the introduction of the Euro. Speaking of the benefits of the Euro, one can name the elimination of exchange rate problems, creation of a single financial market, providing price stability, low interest rates as well as being a political symbol of unity and commitment to the Union. Today, Euro is the second reserve currency in the entire world - a fact that clearly speaks for itself of its value in the global market.
Brain aneurysms practically go unnoticed and tend to have few to no symptoms until the rare occasion when the aneurysm ruptures. The bursting aneurysm causes bleeding in the brain and then often leads to a stroke. This is exactly what happened to my great-aunt Judy who survived a brain aneurysm and stroke.
What is a brain aneurysm? One could define a brain aneurysm as bulging, weak area in the wall of an artery that supplies blood to the brain. Over time, weak areas in the walls bulge out causing the blood vessel walls to become weaker as the aneurysm grows (Simon). In most human beings, a brain aneurysm can go undetected for years even possibly ones entire life. Some people however are not so lucky, in some instances, the aneurysm can rupture or explode, causing a hemorrhagic stroke, which is known as the type of stroke that causes bleeding in the brain. It is a known fact that approximately 8% of all strokes occuring world wide, are caused from the rupturing of brain aneurysms. Those are the unlucky people, fortunately, about 94% of all brain aneurysms do not rupture at all, and people are able to live their lives normally, just of course being careful not to do anything to severely damage their head (Nisacara).
Working for the Washington, D.C. Public Defender’s Office in the fall of 1995, I witnessed first hand the inadequacies of our legal system with respect to juvenile offenders. I believe that juvenile justice is a worthwhile topic because of its relevance to every member of American society. If we do not help children in trouble today, they will not have the capacity to be functi...
This paper discusses three aspects of the field of robotics The first is the history of where the ideas of robotics originated. Second, what was the effect that these ideas had on society? Finally, what developments in the field have proved to be useful to society?
Paylor , I. (2011). Youth justice in england and wales: A risky business. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 50, 221-233.
After this recent decade of advancement in robots, the question of how efficiently a robot makes decisions is still debated. Robots have various sensors that it takes into its central processing unit that influences its decisions. The development of gyroscopes allowed for the development of self-balancing robots and have given rise to modern day humanoid style robots. Robotic engineers can now design and teach robots various intelligent thought programmed patterns and skills to solve problems similar to humans since the technology can more resemble how humans perceive the world.
The science behind humanlike robots is advancing. They are becoming more smart, mobile and autonom...
Nowadays, technology is a dominant feature in the lives of people around the world. Most of daily life activities involve the use of technology which is expanding every day through scientific innovations. However, such innovations do not always occur in every part of the world, but mostly in technologically developed countries, such as South Korea, the USA and Japan. Presently, the development of robotics science has become a subject of considerable attention in those countries. According to Weng, Chen and Sun (2009, 267), “Technocrats from many developed countries, especially Japan and South Korea, are preparing for the human–robot co-existence society that they believe will emerge by 2030.” The word “robot” was introduced in the beginning of 1920th by the Czech playwright Karel Capek from the Czech word “robota”, meaning “forced labor” (Robertson 2007, 373). According to Robertson (2007, 373), robot, in practical usage, can be defined as an autonomous or semiautonomous device that is used to perform its tasks either controlled by human, fractionally controlled and with human guidance or regardless of external actions that are performed by people. Regrettably, the majority of robots in the past centuries could not operate without human control and intervention. However, the progress in robotics over the past few decades enabled humanity to achieve soaring results in creation of autonomous humanoid robots.
Over the years mankind has advanced greatly in the field of technology and day by day we continue to advance. The future holds many possibilities, one of which is living in a world with robots. Isaac Asimov shared his view of this possible future in his novel I, Robot. His view portrays robots as machines superior to humans mentally and physically. If robots are superior to humans, how do humans control the robots? Humans create the three Laws of Robotics, which are instilled into the positronic brains of every robot created.
It is a shared truth that humans often tend to think of robots as nothing more than computer machines made of objects like metal, plastic, silicone and computer chips. However, in truth, a robot’s general purpose is more complex than some know. In order for a robot to function, it must carry out a set of arithmetic or logical operations, and programming the specs is difficult task that could take years to finish depending on the purpose of the robot.
Webster’s New World Dictionary defines a robot as any anthropomorphic mechanical being built to do routine manual work for human beings. This term was popularized by the Czech dramatist Karel Capek (1890-1938) in his 1921 play Russum’s Universal Robots (R.U.R.). The term has been used in fiction to describe self-controlling machines that resemble human beings. This concept has been the basis of stories starting centuries before, but has become popular due to the writings of science fiction writers and movies. Isaac Asimov’s (1920-1992) book I, Robot started the recent interest in robots and this interest has been fostered by recent movies that glamorize robots, i.e. Star Wars and Bicentennial Man.
There is one thing that differentiates the international business with the domestic business where it uses more than one currency in the commercial transaction. For example, if a company from British purchases some goods from a company from US, the international transaction will require for exchanging pounds and U.S. dollars which involve the foreign exchange market. In the foreign exchange market, any country that wish to do business with foreign country, the country need to convert their domestic currency into the foreign currency that they are wish to cooperate with through foreign exchange.