Sunday, February 16, 2020

Discuss by collecting and analyzing historical data and by giving Essay - 1

Discuss by collecting and analyzing historical data and by giving up-to-date real life example(s) from the American, UK or Europ - Essay Example The large scale of these interferences has brought intense public inspection of the Federal Reserve's institutional and power structure. Particularly, many have questioned why the Fed has the liberty to engage in such proceedings without the explicit approval from president or the Congress. This political interruption of independence is generally referred to as the independence of central bank. This essay focuses on assessing why Congress made the Fed’s independent when it created it in 1913. The important point to remember is that giving the central bank independence is the greatest way for governments to tie their own hands and put an end to them from misusing economic policies for temporary political causes. In the year of 1913, Congress purposefully formed the Federal Reserve as an independent and self-governing central bank, which formed a fundamental tension: how to guarantee that the Fed remains answerable to the voters without losing its independence. Over the years, t here have been various changes in the structure of Fed to improve its credibility, independence, answerability, and transparency. These changes have guided to a healthier institutional design that ultimately renders policy believable and based on sound financial reasoning, as against politics. In times of economic and financial crisis, there is a comprehensible tendency to reexamine the structure and formation of the Federal Reserve System. A central bank's independence, on the other hand, is the key tool to guarantee a government not misusing monetary strategy for short-term political reasons. In a currently well-known article that was published in the year of 1993, Summers and Alesina found that developed (advanced) nations with high levels of central bank independence also practiced lower average levels of inflation rate from the period of 1955-1988 (Farlex 2013: 1). Figure 1 reprints the chart from their essay, which clearly demonstrates this negative relation. Central Bank Inde pendence and Inflation: â€Å" Figure 1 Central Bank Independence versus Average Inflation. (Louis 2009: 1) More recently, as the top diagram in Figure 2 demonstrates, global inflation has slowed highly since the mid-1990s. On the other hand, as the bottom two diagrams point out, the rapid fall in global inflation was primarily due to growths in emerging marketplace and developing countries. In the advanced nations, the slowing happened much earlier, in the early 1980s. There were numerous causes for the global decline in inflation since the late 1980s, and this included stronger commitments to stability of the price (superior monetary policies), high rates of growth of productivity and the forces of globalization that increased rivalry and enhanced the elasticity of product and labor markets. As recommended by Summers and Alesina, increased independence of central bank appears to be another key motive for the decline in worldwide inflation (Farlex 2013: 1). As publicized in the ta ble below, there was a noticeable increase in central bank independence among the period 1980-89 and 2003. Though this trend was apparent and noticeable among advanced countries, it was particularly visible among developing countries and emerging market. Indeed, majority of the reforms that enhanced independence of the central bank occurred for the period of the 1990s and were in response to high levels of inflatio

Sunday, February 2, 2020

Warfare in Medieval Japan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Warfare in Medieval Japan - Essay Example During the Nara period, conscription policy did not distinguish between a warrior and a peasant, which resulted in an army that suffered from poor organization because of the presence of unwilling farmers and government failure to devise regular system of promotion or command. Prior to 789 reforms in Japan’s army system with new regulations that necessitated the use of trained warriors together with men specially selected for their strength and prowess, imperial army was humiliated in 724. The year saw Yemeshi people revolt killing the governor of the province of Mutsu and seizing much of Japan’s mainland. Military power was the province of samurai families with two clans comprising many warrior households became the main security of the Imperial and the clans were Minamoto and Taira (Ratty and Westbrook 80). Another clan, the Fujiwara at the time dominated both Imperial court and the nation, grew its impact with soft life and intricate politics in the capital, which co ntained the seeds of disaster (Brinkley 4). However, the Fujiwara experienced their its first danger in 930 when the Fujiwara attempted the customary maneuver of putting a child in throne, a son eight years old named Shujaku, since the clan had selected Tadahira for the role (Kane 48). During Tadhira’s rule, Taira Masakado a warrior in Japan aspired to be a governor in his native province; however, Tadhira appointed his companion in a debauch manner, a man named Sadabumi. This made Masakado return to his home in disgust and even though he did not instantly get involved in a revolt, he was involved in family feuds. From his actions, Masakado became an outlaw to the Imperial court and instead of submitting to punishment of rulers that he detested, he raised a revolt. In 1159 rivalry in Fujiwara family created another upheaval with a dispute that concerned imperial succession with emperor Go-shirakawa abdicating in favor of his son and Fujiwara Shinzei supporting the ex-emperor. In an open battle, once the Taira household assembled its army the households met in the battle where Taira and Shinzei won a stupendous victory. Thus, the Fujiwara no longer ruled by their power and Taira Kiyomori, a man whose martial skills twice shaped the nation’s future, took advantage of the situation and crushed several conspiracies against his life (Kane 49). The Gen and Pei war that ended in 1183 with a naval battle at Dan-no-ura, saw Minamoto forces’ 800 ships attack Taira’s fleet of 500 in a battle that involved gaining the upper hand. When Minamooto secured defection of Taira admiral Tomomori, the Taira suffered total defeat as their samurai struggled to protect the ship carrying the infant emperor (Van Bergen 41). Emperor Antoku took the throne and the victorious Yoritomi paid long visits to the imperial capital seeking the office of Sei-i-tai-Shogun, the supreme military leader of the country, which he later gained. Though in the past emperors app ointed military leaders for brief periods in order to see the nation through certain crises, Minamoto Yoritomi ensured the office became permanent (Kane 50). Hideyoshi managed to impose control as well as peace and government, which partly lay in his diplomatic skills. Moreover, Hidoyeshi fought several fights campaigns against internal enemies, which ended not in military victories but with treaties in which rival clans received an active stake in the fresh Japanese order. Hideyoshi success lay in the ruthless