Naked Economics Essay Example

Naked Economics Paper Chapter 1: The Power of Markets 1. What are the two basic assumptions that economists make about individuals and firms? The two basic assumptions that economists make about individuals and firms are that they attempt to maximize their utility using the available resources and that they want to make the most amount of profit possible. 2. What is the role and significance of prices in the market economy? Prices in the market economy are extremely useful because they help gauge what consumers want and how badly they want it. High prices indicate strong consumer desire for that product while low ones indicate little interest. 3. What’s so great about a market economy anyway? A market economy is so good because it corresponds with normal human behavior and allows for optimum allocation of resources. It may not be completely fair, but it is the most stable and best option compared to a communist system. Chapter 2: Incentives Matter 4. Explain how each of the following relates to efficient outcomes in a market economy: adverse selection, â€Å"perverse incentives†, principal-agent problem, and the prisoner’s dilemma. Adverse selection hinders efficient outcomes in a market economy because it involves one party in an economic action having less information than the other, therefore it might agree to buy a certain product or service and pay for more than what it gets (or vice versa if seen from the ignorant seller’s perspective). The avoidance of negative perverse incentives leads governments into better policy making and achieving the desired economic effect and increase in efficiency. We will write a custom essay sample on Naked Economics specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Naked Economics specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Naked Economics specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer If the principal-agent problem is addressed correctly, business managers and employees will strive to improve the product or service and achieve economic growth in the long run because it is beneficial to them, not only the owners. The prisoner’s dilemma will probably lead to an inefficient outcome in which both parties involved will not achieve maximum profit. The only time this isn’t the case is when agreements and communication exist between the parties and they both agree on an action and thanks to that, achieve higher profits. This though is normally prohibited by government in order to prevent monopoly power. Chapter 3: Government and the Economy 5. In your own words, explain what an externality is. An externality is the cost or benefit that the production, selling, use, or even existence of a product or service has positive or negative effects on people that were not involved in the transaction. 6. Besides addressing externalities, what other important and beneficial roles does government play in our market economy? Government tries its best to reach a more equitable income distribution through the use of taxes, provides for public services that would otherwise be produced inefficiently if produced privately, and provides a law system which also prevents monopolization of industries and coalitions between powerful firms to protect consumers from monopoly prices. Chapter 4: Government and the Economy II 7. What are the main reasons why government should only take a limited role in a market economy? Government should only take a limited role in a market economy because if let to function freely, a market economy will achieve considerably efficient outcomes and only need few regulations and assistance with public goods in order to maintain competition and fairness. These functions should be executed with moderation because excessive control and regulation of the market will lead to inefficiency and maybe even market failure.

The Mechanicals are clumsy Essays

The Mechanicals are clumsy Essays The Mechanicals are clumsy Paper The Mechanicals are clumsy Paper What Do the Mechanicals add To the Audiences Understanding and Enjoyment of the Play? â€Å"A Midsummer’s Night Dream† Is a play written by William Shakespeare in 1600. It is a play full of love, magic and dreams. With fascinating characters which range from supernatural fairies to noble humans. But how do the mechanicals add understanding and enjoyment to the play? In the play there are two worlds. The first world is the court; the second is the mysterious world of fairies. The Mechanicals are used in the play to add to the audiences understanding of the play by exploring the central theme of love and its transforming power. Shakespeare shows through bottom that something ugly can turn beautiful through love. The mechanicals are also used to add to the audiences enjoyment of the play by adding humour to the play. Shakespeare uses a comic effect of names especially Bottom, as later he turns into an â€Å"ass† which is a donkey. The mechanicals also are always mixing up their words through oxymoron, malapropisms and nonsense words. The Mechanicals are the audience’s way into the play as they appeal to all people: educated, uneducated, rich and poor in the Elizabethan time. The theatre was very different in the 1600’s compared to now. During the Elizabethan time, theatres were usually outdoors and the stage was very bare. It had little scenery so the acting companies had to rely on the imaginations of their audiences. The setting had to be created through the words of the play. The words of the play had to establish what time of day it was. Also men had to play women parts as it was judged to be inappropriate for a woman to undertake such a role so men for that reason were hired to act in the female roles. Consequently, in â€Å"A Midsummer’s Night Dream† Thisbe who is a woman would have to be played as a man, which would bring humour to the audience. In the time of William Shakespeare there was a strong belief in the existence of the supernatural. The Elizabethan Period and the academic era of the Renaissance introduced English persecution of Elizabethan Witches and Witchcraft. Ironically, this period of great learning brought with it a renewed belief in the supernatural including a belief in the powers of witchcraft, witches and witch hunts. In â€Å"A Midsummer’s Night Dream† the supernatural is a recurring part in the play. The Mechanicals add understanding to the play by bringing the two worlds of the play together. In â€Å"A Midsummer’s Night Dream† there are four main plots: The lovers, the fairies, the Mechanicals and the Duke and Duchess. The Mechanicals bring together the palace and the woods as they use both settings. They use the palace to perform their play and the woods to practise there. The mechanicals fit perfectly into the structure of the play. The higher class which are the nobles, the lower class, which are the mechanicals and the supernatural world, which are the fairies. The Mechanicals bring together the world of law, order and reason by being unsystematic. They do this by contrasting themselves to the nobles. In these quotations they show the nobles law, order and reason. My Gracious Lord[Theseus] Shows the characters’ respect for Theseus, also shows that Theseus has power and embodies Athens and the law. Theseus also shows that Athens is a land of law and order. Either to die the death or abjure forever the society of me. This line shows the rigidity of the Athenian law. Because Hermia’s father does not approve of her love, she must listen to him to not marry him, or to face the consequences. On the other hand the Mechanicals are not as educated as the aristocratic characters. In this quotation it shows a clear contrast between the nobles and the Mechanicals. What is Pyramus? A lover or a tyrant [Bottom] I. i. 17 This quotation shows the lack of education and shows typical characters for a male lead in the theatre. It shows the lack of education, as this play would have been read in schools, at that time if they were educated. The mechanicals also make the audience understand some of their characteristics I am to entreat you, request, you and desire you to con them by tomorrow night [Quince] L. i. 78-80 This quotation tells the audience that the Mechanicals are a little bit unreliable.

Using the JSON Gem in Ruby

Using the JSON Gem in Ruby Its easy to jump into parsing and generating JSON in Ruby with the json gem. It provides an API for parsing JSON from text as well as generating JSON text from arbitrary Ruby objects. Its easily the most used JSON library in Ruby. Installing the JSON Gem On Ruby 1.8.7, youll need to install a gem. However, in Ruby 1.9.2, the json gem is bundled with the core Ruby distribution. So, if youre using 1.9.2, youre probably all set. If youre on 1.8.7, youll need to install a gem. Before you install the JSON gem, first realize that this gem is distributed in two variants. Simply installing this gem with gem install json will install the C extension variant. This requires a C compiler to install, and may not be available or appropriate on all systems. Though if you can install this version, you should. If you cant install the C extension version, you should gem install json_pure instead. This is the same gem implemented in pure Ruby. It should run everywhere that Ruby code runs, on all platforms and on a variety of interpreters. However, its considerably slower than the C extension version. Once installed, there are a few ways to require this gem. A require json (after a prerequisite require rubygems if needed) will require whichever variant is available and will prefer the C extension variant if both are installed. A require json/pure will explicitly require the pure variant, and a require json/ext will explicitly require the C extension variant. Parsing JSON Before we start, lets define some simple JSON to parse. JSON is typically generated by web applications and can be quite daunting, with deep hierarchies that are difficult to navigate. Well start with something simple. The top level of this document is a hash, the first two keys hold strings and the last two keys hold arrays of strings. { CEO: William Hummel, CFO: Carlos Work, Human Resources: [ Inez Rockwell, Kay Mcginn, Larry Conn, Bessie Wolfe ], Research and Development: [ Norman Reece, Betty Prosser, Jeffrey Barclay ]} So parsing this is quite simple. Assuming this JSON is stored in a file called employees.json, you can parse this into a Ruby object like so. require rubygemsrequire jsonrequire ppjson File.read(employees.json)empls JSON.parse(json)pp empls And this programs output. Note that if youre running this program on Ruby 1.8.7, the order the keys are retrieved from the hash is not necessarily the same order theyre inserted. So your output may appear out of order. {CEOWilliam Hummel, CFOCarlos Work, Human Resources [Inez Rockwell, Kay Mcginn, Larry Conn, Bessie Wolfe], Research and Development [Norman Reece, Betty Prosser, Jeffrey Barclay]} The empls object itself is just a hash. Nothing special about it. It has 4 keys, just as the JSON document had. Two of the keys are strings, and two are arrays of strings. No surprises, the JSON was faithfully transcribed in Ruby objects for your perusal. And thats about all you need to know about parsing JSON. There are some issues that come up, but those will be covered in a later article. For just about every case, you simply read a JSON document from a file or over HTTP and feed it to JSON.parse.

The impact of recordings on performance with particular reference to Essay

The impact of recordings on performance with particular reference to violinists, Kreisler, Heifetz and Menuhin - Essay Example Many critics have debated on John Phillip Sousa’s argument; however, the most apparent issues that have risen from these debates is the fact that Music has changed overtime. The current society has evolved technologically creating a scenario whereby people can record music of DVD players, disk drives and even download from the internet. The existence of such technology that has enabled man to manipulate music has certainly made music a virtual medium; that is, an art without identity. Even music that was played in the part can easily be searched on the internet and rearranged to entertain the listeners. Recording has played a major role in enhancing the work done by violinists. Many violinist for instance those that aspire to record solo violin sonata with a mixture of other instruments, do not require to undergo a process of looking for other instrumentalists but rather record their solo violin sound. This is later automatically mixed with other desirable instruments using modern technologies. Moreover, modern technologies used in recording have improved the quality of violin sounds through the use of technologies such as the condenser; hence making such sounds appealing to human ear. By improving the quality of the sounds produced by violins, many violinists have the opportunity to attract a large number of audiences. Consequently, recorded violin sounds are usually sold to different audiences thereby increasing their income. One of the renowned violinists who has greatly benefited from recording of his performance was Fritz Kreisler who was born in Austria in 1875. One of his major recordings that were recorded is â€Å"Liebesleid†. This piece has formed the staple of the current violin sounds produced by various violinists owing to the fact that many violinists have used it as a benchmark. On the other hand, recordings have also negatively affected

'The War on Terror produces more terrorism' Essay

'The War on Terror produces more terrorism' - Essay Example According to them, terror should be dealt with in a different way. Even though certain democrats accept the fact that applying force is necessary in certain cases, a complete solution can be achieved only by improving the ideological appeal and moral authority of the United States. More efficient democracy and smarter techniques to better relationship between nations would help reduce terror in the world. Improving cooperation among nations would eliminate misunderstandings and other issues that generates enmity between nations. According to the critics of Bush, the war on terror has contributed only in creating more terrorists. War on terror has not eliminated terror from the face of the earth. War on Terror produces more terrorism. The United States should change course completely as war on terror is expected to give birth to more terrorists. War on terror is not the right action as it cannot wipe out terror. The war on terror is found to be causing more terrorism. According to new reports the United States has played a major role in making the world more terror-filled. The world has become unsafe not just for non-Americans, but for Americans as well. The war on terror has given birth to more terrorism. Innocent people in different parts of the world are suffering because of the ‘Iraq effect’. ... Research studies have been performed to study the effect of Iraq issue on global terrorism. According to the research, the number of people lost their lives in jihadist attacks in different parts of the world has increased dramatically after the beginning of the Iraq war in 2003. The research compared the events between Sep 11, 2001 and the attack of Iraq. Excluding the Arab-Israel conflict, the count of deaths increased from 729 to 5420. Apart from conflicts in Europe, wars happened in Kashmir and Chechnya. The Centre on Law and Security (in NYU Foundation) who performed the research reported that there has been a steady rise in the number of deaths due to war and conflicts. After the attack on Iraq, terrorist activities have increased considerably. War on terror has contributed to more terrorist activities on various parts of the world. According to the reports Iraq became the reason for a fierce fundamentalist reaction that caused more terror. Iraq affairs have encouraged more ter rorist attacks that ever before. Muslim activists and terrorists became more active than ever after Iraq affairs. The number of people killed by Islamists in Iraq increased from 7 to 3,122. Afghanistan also witnessed an increase in terrorist activities as the British and US forces invaded them after the attacks of Sep 11. The number of deaths in Afghanistan was few in 2003. The number of deaths increased to 802 since then. In the conflicts at Chechen, the number of deaths increased from 234 to 497. In the Kashmir issue, Pakistan and India had their number of deaths increase from 182 to 489. Europe that had zero deaths had it increased to 297 in the terror activities. War on

Costs of residential photovoltaic solar electricity Essay Example for Free

Costs of residential photovoltaic solar electricity Essay Abstract Now a day’s electricity is more important concern. We use a lot of home appliances which is operated by electricity but electricity we use; it is costly and not available every where. As we know sun is the source of energy, the energy which provided by the sun, less in cost, mostly available every where in abundance.  Ã‚   Where electricity is not available in that case electricity generation by using solar energy can solve our problem but the main problem is that before apply such a technique, we familiar with installation cost, its limitation, uses etc. In this paper I want to focus our attention Costs of residential photovoltaic solar electricity with battery storage and its installation. Costs of residential photovoltaic solar electricity with battery storage   Sun is the most imp energy source of energy. Energy which is finding from sun is almost free of cost, pollution free and most abundant in nature. The generation of electricity from solar energy is one of the best uses of unconventional energy resources. We can generate electricity from solar energy by two ways one by used to photovoltaic technologies other by used to solar thermal technologies. Photovoltaic cell is the most important means for electricity generation; we use photovoltaic generated power because it is very reliable, low operating and construction cost and pollution free, so its use increases day by day. There are around thirties different devices used now a days. We store this electrical energy in the battery bank. There are around 400,000-800,000 photovoltaic systems operating worldwide its typical size varies from 50 watt to 1 kilowatt (kW) for stand-alone systems with battery storage and small water pumping systems; its cost varies according to use of photovoltaic panel, the average cost of approximately US$4 per watt. Its approx cost for 5000/kw photovoltaic module is $2600 and for photovoltaic system approx 7000/kw is $4700.to accurate measurement of the cost it is necessary we compare it from other energy resources with all aspects. We use photovoltaic module less than 10kw and it is increases according to use. In the beginning the installation cost is much but if we compare it from other resources it is cheaper to use as in the village where no electricity or it may have, the photovoltaic technology provide direct electricity.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   So the electricity generation by photovoltaic solar panel is cheaper than other electricity generation if we compare it for all aspects.   References:   Gupta, D., Mishra, V. (2005) Energy Ecology, Environment and Society. India.    Joshi, J.C., (2007-08) Research and Development. India. Hurricane, G., (2007-08) PV- An edge over other energy forms, article on PV.

The narrative epic, ‘The Odyssey’ composed by Homer between 750 and 650 :: Classics

The narrative epic, ‘The Odyssey’ composed by Homer between 750 and 650 BC recounts the nostos or homeward voyage of Odysseus If I were you, I should take steps to make these men disperse. Listen, now, and attend to what I say: at daybreak call the islanders to assembly, and speak your will, and call the gods to witness: the suitors must go scattering to their homes. Then here’s a course for you, if you agree: get a sound craft afloat with twenty oars and go abroad for news of your lost father— perhaps a traveller’s tale, or rumored fame issued from Zeus abroad in the world of men. Talk to that noble sage at Pylos, Nestor, then go to Menelà ¡los, the red-haired king 330 at Sparta, last man home of all the Akhaians. If you should learn your father is alive and coming home, you could hold out a year. Or if you learn that he is dead and gone, then you can come back to your own dear country and raise a mound for him, and burn his gear, with all the funeral honors due the man, and give your mother to another husband. When you have done all this, or seen it done, it will be time to ponder concerning these contenders in your house— how you should kill them, outright or by guile. You need not bear this insolence of theirs, you are a child no longer. Have you heard what glory young Orestà ªs won when he cut down that two-faced man, Aigà ­sthos, for killing his illustrious father? Dear friend, you are tall and well set-up, I see; be brave—you, too—and men in times to come will speak of you respectfully. Now I must join my ship; my crew will grumble if I keep them waiting. Look to yourself; remember what I told you.† Telemachus replied: â€Å"Friend, you have done me kindness, like a father to his son, and I shall not forget your counsel ever. You must get back to sea, I know, but come take a hot bath, and rest; accept a gift to make you heart lift up when you embark— 360 some precious thing, and beautiful, from me, a keepsake, such as dear friends give their friends.† Written Commentary: The Odyssey The narrative epic, ‘The Odyssey’ composed by Homer between 750 and 650 BC recounts the nostos or homeward voyage of Odysseus, a renowned Greek warrior hero. This extract from the ‘The Odyssey’ is taken from the Telemachy narrative section of the epic; the Telemachy contains the exposition of the great epic which opens on the island of Ithaca. These opening passages of the epic elucidates Odysseus’s circumstances as the Gods contemplate his fate; though eccentrically the focal point