The subprime meltdown Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The subprime meltdown - Essay Example Automated systems allowed people to go online, apply for a housing loan and simply wait for the cheque to come in. Wall Street greedily provided the money for these loans as investors rushed to pick up shares in hedge funds that were supposed to give a high level of return with a high level of risk. The loans that were given out often required no down payments and could also have needed nothing more than interest payments for a year or more before the principal payments would be added to the bill. Effectively, what was considered a niche product only to be given out after careful scrutiny, became a mainstream product for banks and lending institutes (Browning, 2007). The subprime housing loan market was thus seen as virgin territory where banks needed to make inroads before the competition. They expected to get great returns but their investment risks were greatly underestimated. In fact, in some cases the risks appear to have been ignored while the search for short term profits and sales figures come out as the only important needs of the banks. The situation has taken the American economy to a place where experts are calling it the â€Å"worst financial crisis since the Great Depression (Essen, 2008, Pg. 1)†. In some ways, the problems in the current crisis can also be due to the very structure and nature of the American market and the American business environment. The buyers and sellers on Wall Street seem to respond to short term gains and short term results much better than looking at how stable the business practices of a company really are. This makes analysts such as Clendenning (2008) to say that American banks and other lending institutions with a ‘casino mentality’ while they were taking unnecessary risks. Even if the banks understood the risks involved, the lure of the rewards was simply too great for them to ignore. The crisis itself

Enlightenment Virtue in Robespierre's Writings and Speeches (RESEARCH Essay

Enlightenment Virtue in Robespierre's Writings and Speeches (RESEARCH PROVIDED) - Essay Example In one of his speeches, Robespierre claimed that â€Å"the Constitution establishes that sovereignty resides in the people, in all the individuals of the people. Each individual has the right to participate in making the law which governs him and in the administration of the public good which is his own†.1 To a large extent, virtue for Robespierre was a matter of politics and had to work for the benefit of the masses. Robespierre did not simply assert that every individual was a citizen, but granted citizens a broad range of individual and social rights, irrespective of the amount of fortune they possessed.2 Robespierre was confident that the amount and scope of the individual rights did not have to depend on the amount of money an individual was able to invest in his country.3 Otherwise, such a position would deny the relevance and meaning of virtue, equality, and justice in the human society. The humanistic nature of Robespierre’s beliefs was difficult to ignore, and it produced a multitude of positive effects on the development of the political and ethical consciousness in France. As part of his political and individual evolution, Robespierre slowly transformed and expanded his beliefs about virtue. By 1791, he no longer perceived virtue as a combination of sovereignty, equality, and justice in the masses. For Robespierre, virtue came to exemplify a sophisticated framework of attitudes and decisions that continuously affected the lives of the thousands in France. Robespierre slowly came to associate virtue with patriotism. The latter, at times, bordered on nationalism. He was willing to reach a compromise with the à ©migrà ©s and promote eternal fraternity, peace, and amnesty in France.4 For Robespierre, peace, fraternity, and amnesty were the principal preconditions for avoiding military conflicts with the perceived enemies.5 Robespierre moved even further, by denouncing the King’s political and military power: