Strategic Financing for Discussion Essay Example for Free

Strategic Financing for Discussion Essay Preferred stock is defined as a type equity that has priority over common stock in terms of dividend payment and asset distribution in the event of liquidation. Basically it is a hybrid security that actually shares features with both debt and common stock. Further, it has the following features, convertibility to common stock, nonvoting right, and callability at the corporation’s option. However, its usage does not actually increase the probability of the firm’s bankruptcy. It pays dividend just like common stock out of the firm’s after-tax income (Brigham Houston, 2009). In case the preferred stock does not have a stated date of maturity, its cost is determined using the following formula (Brigham Ehrhardt, 2013). Cost of the Preferred Stock = the dividend on Preferred stock/ (Price of Preferred stock/1-Flotation Costs) Whereby the price of preferred stock is basically the current market value while the floatation costs are the preferred stock’s underwriting costs which are usually given as a percentage. Firms that use preferred stock should include its cost in their weighted average cost of capital (WACC) formula (Brigham Ehrhardt, 2013). Three publicly-traded companies that have preferred stock in their capital structure include: American Capital Agency Corp. (NASDAQ: AGNC) This is mortgage REIT that basically invests in agency securities that their interest and principal payments are usually guaranteed by US Government-sponsored entity (Federal National Mortgage Association) and the US Government agency (Government National Mortgage Association) Wells Fargo and Company             This is an American multinational company that deals in banking and financial servicers hence providing mortgage, banking, credit card, insurance, investing, and commercial and consumer financial services. Bank of America Corporation             This is an American multinational corporation that deals in banking and financial services and is has its headquarter in Charlotte, North Carolina. References Brigham, E. F., Houston, J. F. (2009). Fundamentals of financial management. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. Brigham, E. F., Ehrhardt, M. C. (2013). Financial management: Theory and practice. Mason, Ohio: South-Western. Source document

The Glass Menagerie :: essays research papers

Glass Menagerie is a collection of fragile glass animal figurines. Fragile is the word which describes the family in the story. From the mother which sees no reality with a cripple daughter that she sees beautiful to a son that wants out but is also Amanda’s sole provider. The daughter is such that fragile is to harsh a word. Her life buried in glass animals and a victrola, she is a fragile as that unicorn that breaks in scene four. Tom is full of contradiction. On the one hand, he reads literature, writes poetry, and dreams of escape, adventure, and higher things. On the other hand, he seems completely bound to the petty world of the Wingfield household. One of the key things of the play is how it relates to Williams' life with the mixture of illusions and reality. All of the characters appear to be connected in some way to members of his family. The mother, Amanda Wingfield, shares similarities with Williams' mother, a harsh woman who had been known of being a southern belle and living a luxurious life. Laura Wingfield, her daughter, is similar to Williams' sister, Rose. Laura is shy and uneasy to the point of being socially unable. As a result of her mother's nagging, Laura's slight limp is exaggerated in her mind to the point where she believes herself crippled. Amanda’s illusion or what she wanted to see was that Laura was beautiful and had many male callers. Williams' sister was also mentally unstable, and spent most of her life in a mental institution. The play’s protagonist Tom Wingfield, is very similar to Williams himself. For most of his life, Williams felt guilty about leaving his mentally ill sister on her o wn, to nearly die from a botched lobotomy. In the play, Tom feels as if he is betraying his sister by leaving home, just like his father did. Some critics have thought that Tom is a homosexual (just as Williams was). Tom is a writer working a crappy job in a shoe factory. Which Williams also worked a shoe factory for three years which lead to a minor nervous break down. While he works at this factory, Tom actually writes poetry. For Tom’s adventure and illusions he would spend all hours of the night at the movies. Williams' real name was Thomas, so there is clearly a connection between Tom in the play and Williams himself.

A Critique of Chinua Achebe’s “An Image of Africa” Essay

â€Å"Certainly Conrad appears to go to considerable pains to set up layers of insulation between himself and the moral universe of his history. He has, for example, a narrator behind a narrator. The primary narrator is Marlow but his account is given to us through the filter of a second, shadowy person. But if Conrad’s intention is to draw a cordon sanitaire between himself and the moral and psychological malaise of his narrator his care seems to me totally wasted because he neglects to hint however subtly or tentatively at an alternative frame of reference by which we may judge the actions and opinions of his characters.† Although Achebe recognizes Conrad’s use of multiple narrators, he dismisses any intention on Conrad’s part of utilizing the narrators to introduce psychological depth in Heart of Darkness. I believe, however, that Conrad’s full objective was to establish a moral and existential tone in his novella; he accomplished this by incorpo rating a second narrator. Conrad introduces the narrator and his surrounding characters as they navigate the Thames River. As the narrator describes Marlow and the other Seamen the reader begins to question where Marlow stands in this social hierarchy. Conrad thus establishes a tone of uncertainty in the credibility and morality of both Marlow and the narrator. The entire novella is a retelling of Marlow’s tales in Africa, years after they had occurred, which leaves the extent of Marlow’s exaggeration and embellishment of his story up for question. 2. Disagree â€Å"Joseph Conrad was a thoroughgoing racist. That this simple truth is glossed over in criticisms of his work is due to the fact that white racism against Africa is such a normal way of thinking that its manifestations go completely unremarked† Achebe is not reading Conrad’s work on a symbolic level rather he superficially judges parts of the novella as racist. The novella Heart of Darkness is not a racial slur, nor is it an insulting depiction of the people of Africa in any way. It is an examination of the false pretenses the Europeans held over their assumed benevolent work in Africa. The purpose of Marlow’s story was to show the adverse effects of imperialism on white European tradesmen. Conrad is thus in no way a racist, as he set out to depict the malice of Europeans during this time period. He uses his experiences in the Congo during King Leopold of Belgium’s tyranny to show the malevolence greed instills in mankind. 3. Disagree â€Å"Africa as a metaphysical battlefield devoid of all recognizable humanity, into which the wandering European enters at his peril. . . . . Can nobody see the preposterous and perverse arrogance in thus reducing Africa to the role of props for the break-up of one petty European mind? But that is not even the point. The real question is the dehumanization of Africa and Africans which this age-long attitude has fostered and continues to foster in the world. And the question is whether a novel which celebrates this dehumanization, which depersonalizes a portion of the human race, can be called a great work of art.† Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is a great work of art; is it a symbolic delineation of Western covetousness and the effects materialism has on mankind. Africa is not meant to be â€Å"devoid of all recognizable humanity.† Africa is a setting which could be moved anywhere white Europeans use phony moral objectives to carry out their greed. The novella is not specific to Africa but, is a representation of the degradation of man when he works on fake moral grounds. It is for that very reason that Conrad begins his novella with Marlow’s recount of man’s historical occupations -including Roman and British sieges- and the darkness that follows all acts of greed. 4. Disagree Unfortunately his heart of darkness plagues us still. Which is why an offensive and deplorable book can be described by a serious scholar as â€Å"among the half dozen greatest short novels in the English language.† Although Achebe’s defensive view is reasonable as he is of African descent and feels affronted by the opinion he believes Conrad holds, he misses the overall meaning of the novella. Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is not a plague, nor should it be regretted. This novella gave insight into the shameful acts committed by Europeans in search of fame and fortune. Heart of Darkness is not a slander on the African people; it is the exposure of European cruelty and man’s madness derived from greed and feeling empowered over another. 5. Disagree â€Å"I am talking about a book which parades in the most vulgar fashion prejudices and insults from which a section of mankind has suffered untold agonies and atrocities in the past and continues to do so in many ways and many places today. I am talking about a story in which the very humanity of black people is called in question.† Humanity is questioned in Heart of Darkness but, Achebe fails to realize Conrad’s intention. Achebe focuses primarily on the depiction of the Africans in this novella and disregards the contempt Conrad holds for the imperialists. Conrad’s objective was to unmask the â€Å"prejudices and insults from which a section of mankind has suffered untold agonies and atrocities† but, not in the â€Å"vulgar fashion† Achebe describes. The humanity of Europeans is instead called in question. Conrad had witnessed firsthand how the Europeans pillaged and devastated African communities and used his experiences to illustrate the obscen ity of imperialism. 6. Disagree â€Å"As a sensible man I will not accept just any traveler’s tales solely on the grounds that I have not made the journey myself. I will not trust the evidence even off man’s very eyes when I suspect them to be as jaundiced as Conrad’s. And we also happen to know that Conrad was, in the words of his biographer, Bernard C. Meyer, â€Å"notoriously inaccurate in the rendering of his own history.† In fiction it is often the author’s idiosyncratic perspective that makes a story intriguing. Factual recounting does not arrive in a fictional book. Whether Conrad’s portrayal of imperialism in Africa was entirely accurate or an embellished version of his own existential struggles, Heart of Darkness was a landmark piece for his time period. The atrocities committed during European imperialism were not a subject of conversation but, Conrad helped to bring the issues to the surface. Conrad did not aim to offend the people of Africa; he intended to expo se the Europeans of their veiled immorality.

Industrial Revolution post Civil War - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 3 Words: 1047 Downloads: 6 Date added: 2019/05/18 Category History Essay Level High school Tags: Industrial Revolution Essay Did you like this example? Industrial Revolution post Civil War In, the aftermath in what was the Civil war, most of the south and parts of the norths land had been decimated and ran through. This along with urbanization of land that was once mostly rural used for farming every day good and mass producing exports like tobacco, cotton, and lumber. (Cite) Plus, the expansion of the United States territories westwards. These lands were either acquired through purchase from other countries or from winning them in war. The time period that this is generally known as is, the Second Revolution or the Technological revolution. This time period last between the years 1870-1914. Between these years the United States was affected economically, socially and technology. The separation between the rich and the poor was auntalked about problem that could not be silenced anymore. The social impact might have been the biggest of them all. By the end of the Second Industrial Revolution in the United States 40% of the population lived in cities compared to 6% in the beginning of the 1800s.(cite) In, 1846 the United States acquired Oregon from Great Britain with the signing of the Oregon Treaty. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Industrial Revolution post Civil War" essay for you Create order It took many disputes over land borders and years of being stubborn on both sides for this deal to get done. In 1848, the southwest part of todays United States was obtained from Mexico by way of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo.(Engelman, 2018) This along with the annexation of Texas created a necessity for more jobs, food, education and other important factors in a nation that is expanding and becoming themselves. With all of this expansion going towards the west people needed away to travel that way and once arriving be able to send and receive goods back and forth to the east. At this time, even with railways being around horses were the main source of travel especially for short distances. The Second Revolution saw a mass expansion of the railway system across the United States and horses were replaced by oil and electric powered vehicles. In order to reach new territories especially port cities like San Francisco and to obtain the newly found gold reserves. The increase of steel production in the 1860s helped this happen. Since there was so much steel railroads could be completed at a lower price. Also, since steel was more durable and stronger than iron which is what used to be used to make the rails, the new iron rails could be rolled because of their longer length. Cities were also becoming more and more developed and industrial by the year and needed better means of transportation systems. The first automobile was created in 1886 by Karl Benz (cite) and changed how we travel until this very day. It, had wire wheels which differentiated from the wooden frames that carriages had and more importantly was the first automobile to be powered by itself unlike how carriages were pulled by animals most often horses. While being very effective and the easiest way to go from place to place in cities cars were took a long time to assemble and were very expensive meaning only the upper class could afford them and that class of people was pretty small compared to the impoverished. In 1896, Henry Ford began his path that would lead him to become a pioneer in the automobile industry by building his first car. In 1903 the Ford Motor Company was founded. Ford and the people who worked under and alongside him at the company struggled with ways to produce these cars all while in keeping Henry Fords vision of a car that is efficient and affordable. The solution that they devised was a newly built factory with machines that were systematically positioned in the work sequence. All unnecessary human motions were eliminated by placing all work and tools within easy reach, and where practical on conveyors, forming the assembly line, the complete process being called mass production. However, the biggest overall change in this time period energywise is that electricity replaced steam power. Electricity which many people give the credit of being discovered by Benjamin Franklin who, was one of the greatest scientific minds of his time. Franklin had many interest throughout his life but was very well versed in many areas of science. He also was an inventor and one of his inventions were the bifocal glasses.(Cite) Electricities importance in the Second Industrial Revolution is astronomically significant. Great developments in communication where a result of the advancements of electricity. In, 1876 Alexander Graham Bell invented and patented what he would call the telephone. Bell, described what the telephone did by saying If I could make a current of electricity vary in intensity precisely as the air varies in density during the production of sound, I should be able to transmit speech telegraphically. (cite) The first telephone call was completed successfully by Bell to his assistant Thomas Watson and said Mr. Watson, come here. I want you.(cite) Three years later, another man with the first name Thomas had made a discovery involving incandescent lamps other wise known as light bulbs. Edison is often given credit for this discovery but it is shown others came up their own versions before Edison. The reason that Edison is often noted for is because his version worked better in three different ways than his predecessors. Edisons light bulb had effective incandescent material, a higher vacuum than others were able to achieve and a high resistance that made power distribution from a centralized source economically viable.(cite) In, 1878 Thomas Edison filed his for patent for his new device and after two years of adjustments and modifications to this device, his company Edison Electric Light Company (cite) began to market the new commodity. Today we see the light bulb as a convenience and that is in big part because of Edison. Technology boomed during this time period and we saw advancements in transportation, energy and power, and in many other fields but this was not the only impact this revolution had. When the 20th century had rolled around the United States had felt the impact the revolution had. Urbanization was increasing at a rapid rate and because of that, people went from living on farms and producing goods to moving into cities and working in factory jobs.