Essays on Financial Markets

Background

Today, the financial industry is more regulated than any other time in the history of economic globalization. However, the lack of fundamental professional behavior, ethics, and compliance raises the important question whether the current financial sector in Australia is destined for an endemic future. The persistent fraud cases in the Australian financial industry paints an impression that behaviors are yet to change even after experiencing the global financial predicament that emanated from the US. The recent ANZ suspected interbank interest rate rigging, CBA’s CommInsure denial of compensation to legitimate claims from terminally ill patients, and the Macquarie Group ...

Introduction

The financial crisis of 2007/9 was the worst in the U.S. since the Great Depression of the 1930s. It was the cause of the failure of some of the biggest financial institutions including Washington Mutual which was closed in 2008, and its assets transferred to JP Morgan. In 2008, the crisis reached its peak with loans dropping dramatically to the lowest levels to be witnessed in a half a century. For example, new loans to large borrowers fell by 47 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 as compared to the previous quarter and by 79 percent relative to ...

Japanese Economy in the Recent Years

Introduction During the advent of economic downturns particularly in terms of financial crises or bubbles, the usual resort of the government is to rely primarily on its monetary tools alongside expansionary fiscal policies to stimulate the economy. Monetary policies are tools used to deal with inflation, budget deficits, unemployment, incomes, international economic relationships among others. Monetary policies have profound effects on our jobs, incomes, livelihood, and career choices. One of the considerations and is always on the watch in an economy is the behavior of prices of the goods and services. As the law of demand states that with ...

The emergence of digital currencies and their rapid expansion into international financial markets and the lives of common people has been nothing but a substantial shake-up for the global financial sector. These digital or virtual currencies, often known as cryptocurrencies, employ cryptography to secure and authenticate transactions, as well as to administer the creation of new units. Today, both youngsters and older people know the Bitcoin benefits and Ethereum features: they are decentralized and operate on a peer-to-peer network, giving users more independence and near-absolute anonymity.

In recent years, digital currencies have grown in popularity, and their use has spread beyond ...

The current Russian-Ukrainian war is the largest armed conflict in Europe since World War II. The front line where active fighting is taking place is over 1000 miles, and general losses amount to hundreds of thousands. No wonder the war between one of the world’s largest fossil fuel providers (Russia) and one of the world’s leading agriculture countries (Ukraine) has had global impacts in multiple economic areas. If you need to develop a Ukraine vs Russia war essay regarding this topic, the example paper below will make a great starting point for your research. In case you, for some ...

The latest global financial crisis of 2007-2008 years was merely forecasted or expected. Furthermore, no one could predict that it will actually start from the collapse of the real estate and later financial markets of the United States. By that time, globalization processes have occupied not only trade and service industry, but also labor, financial and banking segments. In the modern world, globalization is inevitable, due to fast spread of the information, constant movements of the human resources, development of the international companies, emergence of new economic and trade unions, etc. Definitely, globalization opens new horizons and helps to ...

The recent Brexit vote has brought about a number if tensions associated with membership in the European Union and a common European economic area. It has also put into serious question the European Project started in the post-World War II era. Please argue for or against Britain being a member of the European Union. Be sure to cover five broad areas of disagreement economics (Benefits/ Costs), political (Benefits/ Costs), Labor market (who wins? Who lose), social (costs/ benefits), and issue ofan identify? Britain a second-largest economy after Germany is a member of the European Union, has taken up a ...

International Investments Diversification

International Investments Diversification The term global portfolio refers to a group of investments, assets and securities held in foreign markets rather that the domestic market. Traditionally, investors have preferred to focus on international portfolio investment when it comes to the investment in marketable securities. As opposed to the only domestic portfolios, the international portfolio yields more value for the same level of risk. Ideally, an investor should analyze the global stock market to identify the markets that are related to their domestic stock/ securities market in terms of risks and rewards (Agati, 2007). This helps investors reduce their anxiety ...

2007 Economic Crisis Review

Abstract

This article is an academic review of the economic crisis that struck in 2007 whereby the world economy experienced deep and long prolonged recession with the crisis being considered as the worst to be experienced since the Great Depression . This article largely lies its basis on the U.S experience during that period with the effects, which resulted from the crisis in the overseas markets outlined. Also, the article brings an understanding of some of the conceptual underpinnings of the issues lying at the heart of the economic crisis. The underlying causes of the economic crisis ...

Adopted Derivative and Function in the Financial Markets

Derivatives are important tools in the financial markets because they help reduce investment losses resulting from the fluctuating interest rates. For example, Societe Generale lost about $7 billion following the 2008 property market crisis, which could have been much higher if the company did not hedge its funds. Credited default swaps (CDS) or credit derivative contracts on mortgage-backed securities played a major role in the development of the housing bubble in the American property markets. The swipes were widely used to insure debts using subprime housing securities in the property markets. Swap derivatives can be defined as a series ...

Question 1.

As the production will increase, the supply curve will shift to the right, therefore the equilibrium price will decrease, (Figure 1): Figure 1. The increase in production on the mango market Thus, as the quantity of production has increased by 30 % from Q0 to Q1, the supply curve shifts from S0 to S1 and the equilibrium price decreases from P0 to P1.

Question 2.

In agriculture, the term bumper harvest means the unusually high production of a crop. Though some politicians might claim that this benefits the farmers, actually that is not exactly so. Firstly, with the increased production the ...

Bose, S. (2016). Xerox (XRX) Misses on Q1 Earnings, Split Likely in 2016. Zacks. Web. 21 July 2016. Supriyo Bose (2016) discusses financial results of Xerox Corporation in first-quarter of 2016. Despite a little decline in earnings some years ago and a challenging macroeconomic environment, a company has improved its positions and productivity that resulted in adjusted earnings. The author informs about the current economic environment, financial result of Xerox, and provides points of view of experts on how to increase earnings.

Areas of Agreement

Supriyo Bose (2016) proclaims that Xerox has adopted a decision to provide a three-year strategic transformation program ...

Introduction

Casino Capitalism is a vivid description of the international financial markets, their behavior, and the economic strength they yield to various entities. The book goes on to describe the advantages of international financial markets and some of the evils associated with the same. The author, Susan Strange was a former student of the British international relations studies; she is mostly renowned for her contributions to the creation of the international political economy. Apart from her major publication of the Casino Capitalism in 1986, she also published other books, namely: States and Markets (1988), The Retreat of the State (1996) ...

Russel Baker frequently uses the word ‘junk’ in his article, either referring to buildings or the results of work performed at workplaces by ‘market analysts’ or “data processors”. What the author is hinting at is not only the fact that “the machines that make things make them in such a fashion that they will quickly fall apart” (Baker 431), but also that no matter what is it we do, it makes no sense at all, it has no value. It is as useless and as senseless as junk, an absurdity that does not add value to the world. How ...

Article review

Article review

Introduction

Government interference play huge role in the economic processes: by conducting monetary or fiscal policy, policymakers are able to stimulate the economy during the periods of downturn and moderate too fast growth during the periods of economic boom: both these cases have devastating consequences for the general growth and development. Particularly, central banks, that make decisions regarding the monetary policy, are most important players. By using different tools, such as interest rates, open market operations, required reserves etc., central banks might influence on aggregate supply and aggregate demand, thus shifting equilibrium to the desired level (in other ...

The development of financial markets in a country does increase its productivity. A financial market is a venue for the transfer of funds from those with excess capital or funds to those who are in need of the same. A developing financial market may help an economy prosper and become more productive in several ways. In the capital markets, enterprises wishing to secure more funds for operations and expansion can obtain funds by holding an initial public offering or an “IPO”, thus becoming a public organization. It is then bound by the designated financial and commercial laws of the ...

Introduction

A discussion among the classical economists and the Keynesian economists continues on the government intervention in the free markets. According to the classical economists, the free market mechanism can develop solutions for the crisis in the market if there is no external influence on the markets. The Keynesian economy merely expresses that the free market economy carries the risk of generating crises and undesired deficit or surplus in the economy when the demand cannot clear the supply (Posner 234-252). The discussion on the government intervention is changing direction each time the world economy suffers from a global crisis becomes ...

The American Economy has faced one of the most destructive economic crises in 2008. The crisis started in the sub-mortgage markets has expanded to the financial markets, and the largest financial institutions have declared their bankruptcies. Subsequently, the collapse of the financial markets has spread to all the industries in the country. What the American lost in the global financial crisis and what made the recovery from the crisis tough was the loss of trust for the American Economy among the agents in the economy. Until 2008, the economic development in the US was based on the consumption economy. ...

Financial institutions and financial markets play a massive role in guiding the international economy. The financial industry is the purveyor of credit in the market, allowing individual investors to prepare for their retirement and consumers to purchase homes. The financial industry also works closely with the central banking system of the countries they are located in through legislation and interest rate control, directly relating them to the machinations of the central banking authorities. The roles of financial institutions have changed over time, developing as economics advanced and more needs accrued. Banking institutions were originally created for people to store ...

What is Fundamental analysis?

Fundamental analysis is developing an understanding of a company, its business and the future prospects of the business. The practice involves reading and analyzing reports and consolidated financial statements to get an understanding of the company’s growth prospects, comparative advantages, competitors and the potential market. Further, the procedure of evaluating a stock by way of measuring its intrinsic value by analyzing the associated economic, financial and other functional and non-functional factors is known as fundamental analysis of a stock. If a company is growing at a good pace, has no or fair debts, enough cash and is generating ...

Abstract

Do the imbalances in current accounts still matter in today’s deep global financial markets that exhibit two-way gross economic flows that dwarf the new outcomes provided by current accounts? Contrasting the adult perception of the world and complete markets, extreme current account imbalances indicate severe financial and macroeconomic stresses, particularly as was the case in the mid-2000s. The increasingly massive valuation differences in nations’ net global investment standards and positions, as well as risk allocations, cannot be relied upon to offset the variations in regional wealth systematically as implied in the current accounts. The same conditions that warrant ...

Essay one (China’s financial system)

Introduction and Thesis Statement The restoration of an economy from a depression requires a careful adoption of strategies. Various measures that governments use to promote the growth of key sectors as wells the entire economy have severe outcomes which must be considered before they are put in practice. Fundamentally, governments implement different fiscal and monetary strategies to solve economic problems, which may be successful or not. Thus, the analysis of the strategy to be deployed becomes essential to achieve the desired objectives. The financial sector in an economy is of central importance. As such, public policies that impact on ...

Introduction

Business growth requires the adoption of various corporate levels strategies such as diversification into new markets. With that, it is necessary to identify the most suitable market regarding market demand and policies. That is because the country’s productivity determines the living standards, hence, the demand while policies determine ease of doing business and the productivity level. In that view, this report presents a recommendation and analysis of the most suitable country for Apple to expand to for its iPhone brand. To achieve the objective, the report presents a summary of the country of choice followed by an overview ...

Corporate governance refers to a system in which companies in a given region are directed and controlled. It involves a set of relationships existing between the board, management, shareholders and any other stakeholders of the company. Corporate governance as well is instrumental in the provision of a structure of setting the objectives of a company, the means of attaining the set objectives and monitoring performance of the company. Corporate governance lies on four pillars which include accountability, transparency, fairness and responsibility (Sharar, 8). A corporate governance framework is necessary to safeguard the interest of the various stakeholders in any ...

Mahathir bin Mohamad is a Malaysian politician, born December 20, 1925, in Alor Setar, the state capital of Kedah, north west. Mahathir was the fourth Malaysian Prime Minister from 1981 to 2003. Mahathir was the youngest of ten children of a professor of Indian origin and a Malay mother. He began a career doctor before entering politics in 1964. Climbing the ladder quickly, he became Prime Minister in July 1981 and quickly gained a reputation as a maverick. Mahathir bin Muhamad was educated in Alor Setar and the King Edward VII Medical College in Singapore. He joined the administration ...

The book brings to the attention the growing culture of job insecurity in the Wall Street. The dream of every competent American is to have the best job as well as the best pay for their services. Such dreams are often shattered by a culture that tends to lean much on the short-term returns rather than long-term aggrandizement. As a result, investment bankers have adopted a culture of constant worker layoff even in times when there is no crisis. In the view of the author, the building culture of the short-term boom as a model of success in the ...

Financial Development and Economic Growth bear a strong relationship with each other. “Theory and evidence imply that better developed financial systems ease external financing constraints facing firms, which illuminates one mechanism through which financial development influences economic growth” (Levine, 2005). Studies suggest that an economy’s financial system cuts transaction and information costs which in turn results into mobilizing savings, better investments and proper resource allocation. These in turn bring about innovation in technology, accumulation of capital and economic growth. Levine (2005) suggests that when financial intermediaries are present in the market, investors gain access to high quality and ...

Introduction to Financial markets

The financial market is a term that is used to describe any marketplace where both buyers and sellers participate in asset trading like bonds, equities, derivatives, and currencies. Therefore, it is typically defined by possessing transparency pricing, regulations on trading, and market forces that determine the value of securities that are in the trade. Financial markets are almost found in every country. However, some may be small with few participants while others like the New York Stock Exchange are big and do trade trillions of dollars on a daily basis. Moreover, the investors have the access to a large ...

Introduction

Shanghai and Hong Kong have become important in the global financial sector. Modern banking and finance started in HK and Shanghai in 1845 and 1847 respectively when the first British bank was opened, the Oriental Banking Corporation. The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, a multinational Holdings was founded in 1864 with its Head office in Hong Kong. Other foreign and local banks from Britain, Europe, America and Japan were subsequently opened. The modern Commercial Bank of China was formed in 1897 with its head office in Shanghai. The first stock exchange was established in Hong Kong in 1891 ...

Part 4 and Part 5 Final Paper

Actual changes that are eminent in the expounded Chapter three of ‘A History of Usury and Debts’ entails an in-depth insight of the connection between war, capitalism, Protestants as well as their significance in the development of banking and debts around the world, an ordeal which reflects the current status of financial markets. The author well explains Protestants' connection to usury and debt, and how the selection from the Roman Catholic influenced other themes in the chapter, such as war and capitalism (Geisst 107). Actual changes include the way the three themes related in the previous part is construed ...

The Qatar Stock Market

Before discussing Qatar’s stock market, let us gain some relevant information about the country itself. Qatar is located in the continent of Asia and covers over 11,000 square kilometers of land which makes the country the 168th largest nation when looking at land area. Qatar became an independent state in 1971 gaining its independence from the United Kingdom with a population of 1,951,591 people in 2012. The currency is the Qatari Rial (World Atlas, 2015). When viewing the stock market, there is information that every investor should know about Qatar before investing in the market ...

Summary of the WSJ article

The article by the Wall Street Journal illustrates the drop in oil prices over the years in the United States and the global market. According to the article, the oil market is not attractive to investors all over the world due to the dropping prices of fuel over the years. Oil prices have dropped significantly to settle at very low prices per barrel. The US economy currently regards oil as one of the worst performing commodities in the country which is unlike the previous years where oil was one of the most profitable investments. According to the article, the ...

What 2008 events gave rise to the need for this legislation?

The need for the Dodd-Frank Act (which complete name is the “Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act”) was given rise by the financial crisis of 2007–08. This crisis triggered the Great Recession, an event many economists consider the worst crisis in the financial markets since the 1930’s (Dodd-Frank Financial Regulatory Reform Bill Definition, 2016). The United States had suffered a “housing bubble” – an unexpected and sharp increase in real estate prices, fueled by easy credit, that lasted over a decade – which had burst in 2004. Many traded financial instruments had their value directly or ...

(Reforming the financial systems)

Introduction

The term financial crisis is mainly applicable to situations where certain financial assets suddenly lose a large part of the nominal value. Through the crisis, the financial institutions equally lose value and become incompetent in the local as well as international financial markets. Financial crisis is a major cause of economic crisis where the economy experiences a downturn in liquidity as well as unpredictable inflations. However, when the financial crisis occurs several things may be done as a solution but the reformation of the financial system is one of the actions that may be undertaken. ...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is one of the independent financial regulator institutions in the United States- created by Dodd Frank Act. CFPB operates within banks, mortgage offering firms and even securities firm within the US. This financial protection body was established to restore peace and trust within the financial institution and their customers.

CFPB has a number of goals and missions which are as follows:

The bureau has the obligation to make financial markets work best for consumers. This Act makes sure that consumers are not exploited of their rights. It is also worth noting that, the bureau puts some checks and balances in all the financial undertakings within ...

Essay Question: How different investor types impacts Market Efficiency

Individual investors When individuals talk regarding marketing efficiency, they simply refer to the degree to which the aggregate decisions of all participants in financial markets are accurately reflecting the value of companies and their shares at any given time (Allen and Gale, 2000, pp. 236-255). Therefore, it requires the determination of the intrinsic value of the company while providing a constant update to valuations because new information is becoming familiar. Consequently, the more a financial market becomes accurate, it will be able to price securities and the more efficient it is said to be. Thus the principle of the ...

The paper looks at the UAE stock exchange industry and the mergers between DFM-ND and ADX. The article further evaluates the risks and the business implications. According to the article, the security exchange market has grown to be a potential investment for many people in the world. Large players in the market such as the NYSE look at mergers with smaller security exchange markets in order to boost their revenues. The public stock exchanges have moved to acquire models that are for increased profits and cost effectiveness. As a result, there has been a growth in competition between the ...

Issues of Competition an Expansion of the Customer Base

This research project entails a critical review, analysis and subsequent discussion of the major competition issues as well as the expansion of the customer base within the banking sector with a specific focus on the interstate banking framework in the United States. The need to carry out this research was informed by the realization that the introduction of the interstate banking framework has revolutionized the financial sector in the United States and created competition issues as well as the expansion of the customer base factors that are unique to this framework in comparison to the previous framework where banks ...

On first January 1999, eleven European countries decided to denominate their currencies into a single currency. The 1991 Maastricht Treaty had established a convergence criterion for countries wishing to join the European Monetary Union (EMU). The criterion was designed to be a foundation for qualifying for the EMU and related to the size of national debts, interest rates, inflation and budget deficits. The Euro system consisted of the European Central Bank with eleven central banks of the participating states presuming the roles in monetary policy (Mody et al. 2012). In 2002, the Euro took the form of coins and ...

REFLECTION PAPER

Reflection Paper Introduction I am a student of global financial management studies at the Regents Business School in London. I actually believe this school is the best choice for training and all other finance-related disciplines. My objective is to work in the financial markets after graduating from university. Some of the areas that I want to focus on include wealth management, private equity, private banking, and the hedge funds. In other words, I am focused on developing a career in the investment banking concentrating on the high net worth individuals across the world. To gain the core competencies required ...

Finance

2016-04-19

Introduction

This paper is devoted to the possible spillover effects between the usual banking and existing shadow banking systems and the impact of regulatory policies on the shadow banking system. The usual banking system consists of the banks and regulatory agencies. In comparison, the shadow banking system is a set of financial institutions, which are not banks, but perform their functions. The issue of the shadow banking system has become more important after recent global financial crisis. The Financial Stability Board has been established at that time. According to experts of this organization, various aspects of the shadow banking ...

Introduction

For many years, financial crises have been pervasive. According to Collardi (2012), the frequency of occurrence of financial crises in the recent decades has doubled the occurrence during the Bretton Woods Period and the Gold Standard Era. Nevertheless, the occurrence of the 2007-2008 financial crisis came as a great surprise to many individuals. Initially, the crisis was seen as difficulties that were being experienced in the United States subprime mortgage market. This, however, spilled rapidly to the financial markets before spilling over to the real economy. This paper discusses the causes of the financial crisis and the measures that ...

Introduction

Failure to regulate the derivatives market during President Bill Clinton’s and President Bush eras contributed to the economic crisis that hit the U.S in the year 2008. “The Warning” is a documentary that was aired on PBS Frontline in 2009.In the documentary, a former Chairperson of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Mr. Brooksley Born talks of her attempts to control the derivatives market while she was at the helm of the CFTC. She says that these attempts failed and legislation was passed to prevent her and the CFTC from regulating the derivatives markets. The passing of this ...

Interest Rate Sensitivity

The financial markets both impact and are controlled by the interest rate sensitivity. Therefore, understanding the term structure of the interest rates and the intrinsic price of the fixed income security is one of the core aspects of the financial markets. In this paper, we will focus on the valuation of bonds with embedded options such as call and put through binomial interest rate tree. Additionally, we will also comment on the concept of effective duration and how the same affect the bonds. Important to note, while an option free bond can be easily valued using the spot rates, ...

The book titled “When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management”, written by one of the famous financial journalists, Roger Lowenstein gives an account of how the 1998 collapse of Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM), a hedge fund panicked the financial markets . The author explains in his book about how banks relied on various brand names that have been established LTCM through its partners and how lenders were ignorant to the assets and strategies of LTCM. He illustrates several examples that suggest the models, strategies and trades used by LTCM, thereby offering valid reasons as to how ...

International Financial Markets: Impact of the global financial recession on our lives

Introduction The financial crisis of 2008 through affecting economies sent important impact on the lives of the public. In result of the crisis, many people had to face layoff and higher living costs. The purchasing power of people decreased. However, the inflation increased, people had to make more efforts and spend more times to keep their household going (Hossain et al. 24). Greater uncertainty contributed to the level of stress and per person workload increased in offices and responsibilities at home increased as well because the downturn resulted in new patterns that contributed to job losses and increased prices ( ...

While financial crises have been present for many years such as the Great Depression in and the 2008 financial crisis surprised many. The difficulties and struggle in the mortgage market in the United States had moved up to larger financial markets and later the economy. This financial crisis in 2008 that ensued the global recession until 2012 had changed the way the economy is viewed globally. The crisis had made global economy spiral down. The prices of commodities were constantly changing in an unpredictable ways which had frozen consumers. Secondly, due to the uncertainty in prices of commodities, there ...

At a time when the corporate financial sector was faced with issues of malfeasance, Sarbanes-Oxley Act was enacted in a bid to restore the confidence of the public in corporate financial statements. Before this period, the public disclosures had suffered massive misappropriations characterized by inaccuracy, and inadvertent unreliability. It thus became essential for the government to act so that there would be a proper end to the rising cases of accounting fraud (Lee et al. 733-74). Many stakeholders in the industry had become part of a broad scheme that thrived in the unaccountable corporate segments that spewed fraudulent activities ...

The term global finance describes the existence of a financial system that comprises of regulators and institutions that perform various financial transactions on an international front. By definition, the term does not constitute institutions and regulators that act on local and regional capacities. Instead, its primary components include huge financial institutions such as the IMF and a series of national agencies and federal departments. These agencies and departments include finance ministries, federal banks, and multinational private financial organizations. Contrarily, banking refers to the corporate activity of receiving and protecting private money as well as offering financial credit to earn ...

Government’s intervention into the market economy is one of the most fundamental debates in the economics. To what degree should the market be free is also a very controversial issue. Nevertheless, multiple market failures, negative externalities and asymmetric information justify the governments’ active role in the economic development. Firstly, free markets are not interested in providing the public goods and common resources for free. Therefore the government has to collect the taxes and grant financing of the infrastructure, justice system, national defense, etc. that can be beneficial for all citizens. In terms of the common resources, the government ...