State of the current economy (Economics) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

State of the current economy (Economics) - Essay Example rici declares "we are in a depression (Shinkle, p1)."   He signifies a recession as an economic decline from which an economy can eventually recover but poses that the state the American economy is in today is much worse and can’t be resolved with a quick fix. "My feeling is that . . . if (the president) doesnt fix whats structurally broken, what caused this, well be back into this after the federal stimulus has had its effect," says Morici (Shinkle, p1).   Many different aspects of the American economy have come under fire as the cause of this financial crisis, most infamous of these methods to date are credit default swap contracts and short selling. The very first credit default swap contract was constructed in 1997 by JP Morgan and it is given credit for what initiated the market to balloon up to a $45 trillion value in 2007 (Pinsent, p1). In a CDS contract, credit risk from emerging market bonds, mortgage-backed securities, municipal bonds or corporate debt is transferred between two parties.   It is a bilateral contract in that both parties are obligated to carryout their end of the contract.   CDS contracts were designed because as Stephan Teak puts it in his article Did Credit Default Swaps Cause the Financial Market Meltdown?, lenders were encountered with a problem they needed solved.   He best describes the factors leading up to this revelation by lenders when he says, â€Å"When a lender provides financing in the form of a loan, it has to keep a certain amount of cash, called capital, on hand to cover any problems with the loans such as defaults. For larger financial institutions like JP Morgan, this meant havin g huge amounts of money tied up and doing nothing. The credit default swap was designed to deal with this problem (Teak, p1).†Ã‚   The basic goal of the credit default swap is to free up the unused ‘safety-net capital by selling off the risk of the loan to a third party for a premium.   Once the capital was freed-up it would be available for

NAVAJO CULTURE Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

NAVAJO CULTURE - Essay Example Navajos are known to be semi-nomadic from the 16th century through the 20th century. By nomads, they move constantly in search for pasteur and a place to live. This explains their travel from as far as Alaska, to Canada, to finally settle in Arizona. Their homes are called hogans which were built in traditional fashion until the 1900s. This type of dwelling is made from wooden poles, tree barks, and mud. Due to the way they constructed their dwelling, early historians had difficulties confirming their accurate location and way of life. Their early language was referred to as Athabaskan. This type of language is spoken today by another type of Indian tribe known as the Apache. Details from the Navajo, indigenous people of North America found in Columbian Encyclopedia (2001 – 2007) noted that â€Å"their original language belongs to the Athabascan branch of the Nadene linguistic stock†. Like other cultural people from other parts of the world, the Navajo’s way of life was influenced by a diversity of different races. Since they were formally nomads, traveling from one place to the other, they got to meet different kinds of people: the Canadians, Spaniards, Pueblos, and other Indian tribes. They got to imbibe traces of the other people’s way of life and apply and adapt them as their own. Originally, they were farmers who planted corn and beans. They also hunted animals such as deer, elk and antelope, among others. Intermittently, the Navajos gathered wild vegetables, fruits and other plants for food. The Navajo Indians were famous for their weaving of blankets and rugs. Their blankets were indigenously woven using raw materials which they themselves gathered and prepared. As quoted from the article the Navajo Indian Tribe from, â€Å"no two blanket designs ever are the same†. The uniqueness and intricate patterns produced by the Navajos made them known for their woven