Weighted-average cost of capital and capital structure Essay

Weighted-average cost of capital and capital structure - Essay Example These days the world community is fast coming to terms with the recessionary trends in almost all sectors. The corporate world is under severe pressure to cut costs and do justice with the existing workforce.On the one hand companies are trying to gain valuable support from the respective governments; while on the other hand, all efforts are being made to do away with undue expenditures, and making the capital structure optimal in efficiency. Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) is a fundamental approach towards making the capital structure the most advantageous for the company. No doubt companies might have undertaken such exercise many a times in the past, but the manner in which the industry is experiencing the pressure in today's context, makes it all the more necessary for the companies to have a relook at some of the policies and procedures for calculating the WACC. Therefore, this study is an effort to analyze the procedures adopted for calculating the weighted average cost and how companies make use of such calculations in arriving at sound financial decisions for their investment plans.Managers are supposed to make strategic moves on the basis of both external and internal analysis. They have to control costs and manage money for the ongoing operations as well as for the futuristic investments. This could be in the form of preparing or reviewing budgets, expense reports, or travel authorizations. It may be cash management or sales management. For financial management, markets and environments are assessed. Internally, operating and financial capabilities of the company/ organization are analyzed by using the hard facts, i.e. the financial statements, budgets etc. Investment decisions happen to be quite crucial for a company and its business operations. Entrepreneurs often face the dilemma of adopting one type of capital structure as compared with alternatives available. There are a number of stakeholders involved in a business proposition. Besides the financial resources, the enterprise requires the support of human capital, intellectual capital, relationship capital etc. (Fletcher et al, 2003). While the efforts for optimizing other types of capital requires more of intellectual capital and internal control, the financial decisions for the company require a sound understanding of the fiscal position prevailing within the country/ region, the market position and the strategies being adopted by the competitive companies. The Weighted Average Cost of Capital therefore proves to be a handy tool in dealing with the financial decision and finding out the rate of returns that the company can expect in due course. The long term planning decisions ta ken with the help of WACC can also be reviewed during the course of operations, if it is found out that the actual figures are widely at variance with the expected rates of returns. The calculations of weighted average cost of capital involves according proportionate weight to each category of capital sources like, common stock, preferred stock, bonds and any other long-term debt1. Managerial economics demands analysis of current and actual costs. In the cost-benefit analysis opportunity cost also emphasizes the role of judgment. Computerized calculation can be done while analyzing the financial details of one's own company,

American Indians Essay Example for Free

American Indians Essay The people now known as Indians or Native Americans were the first people to live in the Americas. They had been living there for thousands of years before any Europeans arrived. The Vikings explored the east coast of North America around A. D. 1000 and had some contact with Indians (Watson Howell 1980). But lasting contact between Indians and Europeans began with Christopher Columbuss voyages to the Americas. In 1492, Columbus sailed across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain. He was seeking a short sea route to the Indies, which then included India, China, the East Indies, and Japan. Europeans did not then know that North and South America existed. When Columbus landed in what is now known as the West Indies, he did not realize he had come to a New World. He thought he had reached the Indies, and so he called the people he met Indians. Almost every Indian group had its own name. Many of these names reflected the pride of each group in itself and its way of life. For example, the Delaware Indians of eastern North America called themselves Lenape, which means genuine people. Today, many Indians refer to themselves as Native Americans. The first Indians came to the New World from Siberia, in Asia. Most scientists think they arrived at least 15,000 years ago. At that time huge ice sheets covered much of the northern half of the earth. The Bering Strait, which today is a narrow area of water that separates Asia and North America, was easily walked across by the Indians who were following the animals that they were hunting. Much later this ice sheet melted and the land bridge became covered with water. By then, Indian groups had already spread throughout the New World, all over North and South America. These Indian groups developed different cultures because of the different climates and landforms in the regions in which they settled. Body Anthropologists, scientists who study human culture, classify the hundreds of North and South American Indian tribes into groups of tribes that are alike. These groups are called culture areas. Some of the cultures of North America are the Arctic; the Northeast, or Eastern Woodlands; the Plains; and Southwest. The Indians spoke hundreds of different languages and had many different ways of life. Some groups lived in great cities and others in small villages. The Aztec and the Maya of Central America built large cities. Some of the Aztec cities had as many as 100,000 people. The Maya built special buildings in which they studied the moon, the stars, and the sun. They also developed a calendar and a system of writing. Many of the Indians of Eastern North America lived in villages. They hunted and farmed, growing such crops as beans, corns and squash (Bains, 1985). Most of the Indians were friendly at first and taught the newcomers many things. The European explorers followed Indian trails to sources of water and deposits of copper, gold, silver, turquoise, and other minerals. The Indians taught them to make snowshoes and sleds and to travel by canoe. Food was another of the Indians important gifts. The Indians grew many foods that the newcomers had never heard of, such as avocados, corn, peanuts, peppers, pineapples, potatoes, squash, and tomatoes. They also introduced the whites to tobacco. The Indians, in turn, learned much from the whites. The Europeans brought many goods that were new to the Indians. These goods included metal tools, guns, and liquor. The Europeans also brought cattle and horses, which were unknown to the Indians. The Europeans and the Indians had widely different ways of life. Some Europeans tried to understand the Indians ways and treated them fairly. But others cheated the Indians and took their land. When the Indians fought back, thousands of them were killed in battle. At first, they had only bows and arrows and spears, but the Europeans had guns. Even more Indians died from measles, smallpox, and other new diseases introduced by the whites. As the Europeans moved westward across North America, they became a greater threat to the Indian way of life. Finally, most of the remaining Indians were moved onto reservations. Most daily activities of an Indian family centered on providing the main necessities of life such as food, clothing, and shelter. Men and women usually had separate tasks. For example, both men and women were often involved in providing food. But they did so in different ways. In some areas, the women gathered wild plants for food, and the men hunted. In the Northeast and Southeast culture areas, the men hunted, and the women farmed the land. In parts of what are now Arizona and New Mexico and in Middle and South America, the men did the farming. The women gathered plants. In all areas, women were generally responsible for preparing the food. Many Indians married at an early age, the girls between 13 and 15 and the boys between 15 and 20. In some Indian tribes, the parents or other relatives chose the marriage partners for the young people. In other tribes, especially those of North America, a young man could select his own mate. He had to convince the girl and her parents that he would make a suitable husband. In many cases, he offered them valuable gifts to win their approval. Throughout most of the New World, marriage was a family affair and not a religious ceremony. The boys family usually gave presents to the brides family. Many newly married couples lived with the girls family and the husband worked for her family until the birth of a child. Then the couple might establish their own home. But they generally did not move to a new home in a new area. Many other newly married couples joined an existing family group or lived close to one. Some of the couples moved in with other relatives of the woman or with the relatives of the man. This extended family shared with the daily work of the household, including the raising of children. Many Indian groups allowed men to have more than one wife. But this practice was common only among rich or powerful men. After a man died, his wife would often live with his brother as husband and wife even if the brother was already married. Similarly, if a woman died, her family would probably be expected to give her husband another unmarried daughter to replace her. Most Indian families were small because many children died at birth or as babies. Indian children were praised when they behaved well and shamed when they misbehaved. Only the Aztec and Inca tribes had regular schools. Boys and girls of other tribes learned to perform mens and womens jobs by helping their parents and older brothers and sisters. After most boys reached their early teens, they went through a test of strength or bravery called an initiation ceremony. Many went without food for a long period or lived alone in the wilderness. In some tribes, a boy was expected to have a vision of the spirit that would become his lifelong guardian. Some groups also had initiation ceremonies for girls. A teenager who successfully completed an initiation ceremony was considered an adult and ready to be married. Food that Indians ate depended on where they lived. Indian tribes that lived on the plains of the United States, where buffalo and other game were plentiful, ate mainly meat. Meat was also the principal food of those Indians who inhabited the woodlands and tundra (frigid treeless plain) of Alaska and Canada. The Pueblo of the Southwest and other farming groups lived chiefly on beans, corn, and squash. Potatoes were an important crop among the Inca. MacNeish (1992) stated that Indians in the tropical areas of South America made bread from the roots of bitter cassava, a small shrub. Tribes that lived near water caught fish and gathered shellfish. Most Indian groups ate berries, nuts, roots, seeds, and wild plants. They also gathered salt and collected maple sap wherever they could. Indians made a kind of tea from such plants as sassafras and wintergreen. Many Indians drank a mild beer that was known as chicha. They made this beer from corn, cassava, peanuts, or potatoes. Indians who ate mostly meat cooked it by roasting, broiling, or boiling. Farming Indians and others who ate chiefly vegetables developed various methods of boiling or baking. They often made pit ovens by lining holes in the ground with hot stones. Indians preserved meat by smoking it or by drying it in the sun. North American Indians mixed dried meat with grease and berries to make a food called pemmican. Most Indians ate with their fingers, but some used spoons made from animal bones, shells, or wood. Indians built many kinds of homes because they lived in different climates and had different building materials available to them (Brandt Guzzi, 1985). Those who moved about a great deal had simple shelters they could carry easily, or they built temporary shelters. Indians who stayed in one place built larger, more permanent homes. Some groups built large houses where many families lived together. Others had simple dwellings that housed only a few people. In some cases, shelter changed with the season. Some Indians in Canada built snow houses during the winter. But in the summer, they lived in tents made of animal hides. In the United States, these Indians are sometimes called Eskimos. In other areas, the Indians covered their tepees with animal skins or with tree bark. Indians at the southern tip of South America also used skins to cover shelters called windbreaks, which were open on one side. Some tribes of the Northwest made cloth of bark and reeds, and the Pueblo wove cotton cloth. The Aztec, Inca, Maya, and some Caribbean tribes wove beautiful cotton and woolen cloth. Indians in the hot South American areas often wore no clothing at all. In many tribes, a man wore only a breechcloth, a narrow band of cloth that passed between the legs and looped over the front and rear of a belt. Women wore simple aprons or skirts. Indians in colder climates wore leggings, shirts, and robes. Some wore sandals or moccasins to protect their feet. Travel by water was the most common means of transportation. Many Indians used bark canoes, which were light and easy to carry. Some large dugout canoes carried as many as 60 people. The Plains tribes used dogs and, later, horses to pull a load-carrying frame called a travois. Andean Indians used alpacas and llamas as beasts of burden. But these animals could not carry heavy loads, so the people themselves carried most of their goods. People often supported a heavy load on their back with a pack strap called a tumpline. Indians of the Arctic and the Northwest Coast and some other areas hunted or fished for most of their food. They also hunted some birds only for the feathers, and they prized the fur of beavers and certain other animals. Indians in the West got most of their food by gathering wild seeds, nuts, and roots. Even in the Southwest and other farming areas, hunting, gathering, and fishing were important. The most important game animals of North and South America included deer; rabbits and other small game: ducks, geese, herons, seals, sea lions, whales, turtles, and snakes. Bear, buffalo, caribou, elk, and moose lived only in North America. Animals that were hunted mainly in South America included the guanaco, jaguar, peccary, rhea, and tapir. Indians hunted with the same kinds of weapons they used in war. Many bows and arrows, spears, and clubs had special features for hunting. For example, some Indians used unsharpened arrows to shoot birds in trees. These arrows stunned the birds so that they fell to the ground. The Hopi stunned small game with a kind of boomerang. The Indians caught fish with harpoons, hooks and lines, spears, and traps and nets. Tribes of the Northwest Coast also used long poles called herring rakes. These poles had jagged points and could catch a number of herring at one time. In tropical South America, Indians stood on river sand bars and shot fish with bows and arrows. Both North and South American Indians used drugs to catch fish. In one method, Indians chopped up certain plants and threw them in the water. These plants stunned the fish. Then the Indians could easily scoop them out of the water. Indians of the Northeast and the Tropical Forest used slash-and-burn farming methods. They cut down a number of trees and burned them. Then they planted their crops among the trunks. The ashes from the burned trees served as fertilizer. Indians in Mexico and the Southern United States raised turkeys. Wars occurred from time to time among the tribes of the Americas. But not all tribes took part in warfare. Many tribes opposed fighting, and others were so small that they did not have enough warriors to fight a war. Many of the Indian leaders who tried to defend their tribes and land against the white people became famous warriors. They included King Philip, a Wampanoag; Pontiac, an Ottawa; Tecumseh, a Shawnee; Osceola, a Seminole; Crazy Horse, of the Sioux; and Geronimo, an Apache. The bow and arrow was probably the most common Indian weapon throughout North and South America. Some South American tribes put poison on their arrowheads. Many Indians fought with spears and war clubs (Steele Galdone 1992). The Indians of eastern North America developed a special type of club known as the tomahawk. A weapon of the Aztec consisted of pieces of obsidian (volcanic glass) stuck into a wooden club. South American Indians used blowguns and slings. Warfare gave Indians a chance to achieve high rank in their tribes. On the Plains, it was considered braver to touch a live enemy and get away than to kill the enemy. This act was known as counting coup â€Å"koo†. Warriors on the Plains carried a coup stick into battle and attempted to touch an enemy with it. Those warriors who counted coup wore eagle feathers as signs of their courage.

The Representation Of Gender In Disneys Films Film Studies Essay

The Representation Of Gender In Disneys Films Film Studies Essay In the golden age of animation, 1928 1960s, Walt Disney was one of the famous animators in the industry who founded The Walt Disney Corporation. He was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, entertainer and entrepreneur. The book, From Mouse to Mermaid, described that Disney ethos both reflects and promotes particular elements of the dominant ideology of United State culture (Murphy, p.127). Most of Disneys work represents characters that embody racial, ethnic, and gender stereotypes. As well as middle-class perspective and royalist ideology while focusing on themes like innocence, friendship, magic and fairytale. The old Disney works such as Bambi (1942), Snow White (1937), Cinderella (1950), and Sleeping Beauty (1959) are misleading in the image that they portray to young children whose mind is still impressionable. Disney also created subtle messages of stereotypical of social construct of men and women. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs released in 1937, it was well-known as the first to use Technicolor cel animation, about 250,000 celluloid frames for each animated film. Each frame is repeated from frame to frame, as layers upon layers of retelling, and in particular, a retelling of womans body. They also used live-action models for the characters and cinematic conventions of representing women. Each individual cel of film was hand-painted by women who created indelible images of the feminine. Elizabeth Bells said in her essay the women in these films are not bifurcated into good and bad, but represent a continuum of cultural representations of womens power and performance (Bell, p. 121). Eventhough I agree with her that Disneys work represents steriotypical role of female in our society, but I do not agree with her at this point because in Snow White and Cinderrella, we can see a clear distinction between a good characters and a bad characters that womens. A good characters fullfill a typical role of the ideal woman. The ideological woman is supposed to be skinny, beautiful, acquiescent, and perform duties of a housewife. She will not disobey direct orders and does not hold a job on her own. Whereas the bad woman is independent, strong willed and does not perform duties of a house care taker. During that time, the standards of contemporary beauty in Hollywood were young, pretty, white, graceful and slender. Disneys heroine character moved along with these standards except for the old Femmes Fatales. According to Middle-aged women represented as femme fatales are dark, independent, and treacherous; they are dressed on extravagant costumes. The example of this can be seen in Snow White, with the Evil Stepmother. As Bell rightly point out Disney transforms the vain, active and wicked woman of folktales into the Femme Fatale, the deadly woman od silent film and of Hollywood classic film. They usually played the roles of an evil stepmother who envied the younger heroine for her looks and ended up being defeated or killed. The old crone from Snow White represents the old female character which is depicted as gray and wrinkled, clumsy, and frumpily dressed. Disneys representation of women is the treatments of the feminine life-cycle in hegemonic social disclose and stereotypes a bout womens bodies. Another notable film technique is use by Disney film Bambi. Released during World War II, the film still used Technicolor cel animation but the goal was to obtain a highly realistic look than the previous productions. Bambi is a story about the birth and maturation of a young male; the son of the stag who rules the forest and his mother who was killed by man. Walt Disney attempted to achieve realistic detail by lecture the animators, so they could study movement of animals. Los Angeles Zoo was shipped a pair of fawns to showed animators, therefore the artist could draw nature look and realistic movement of Bambi and Faline. Each individual shows detail of nature; for instance, in the open scene we saw the shadow of sunlight which represents the morning hours. But because of the realism that they tried to created, multiples of cel made color of the film faded. Bambi used Anthropomorphism to represent gender of male and female stereotypes by using non-human characteristics to display an object or abstract concepts. Even though the film does not ascribe to the typical view of physical appearance but it still portray ideological of gender through Anthropomorphism. Anthropomorphism ascribes human motivation, characteristics or behavior to things not human, such as inanimate objects, animals or natural phenomena. Bambi also represent royalist ideology because the title character is a son of the Great Prince of the Forest and he became the Prince of the forest. The male stereotypes are represented through Bambi, Ronno and Bambis father, while female stereotypes are represented through Bambis mother and Faline. Beginning with male stereotypes, the father is labeled as the Great Prince of the Forest during the film, which represents his authority amongst the forest community which shows that only a male can lead the society and be a protector of f amily or community because males are perceived to be smarter that females. In the scene, Bambis father told everyone in the forest to escape from the hunter it shows how he tried to protect everyone in the forest because he would stay back to ensure that everyone is safe. The mother is represented as the natural stereotype of typical mom who always loves and cares about the children. One of the scenes that showed the way that mothers would do everything for their children is when they ran away from hunter, she preferred to give up her life in order to save her childs life. Another stereotype of young men represent in Bambi and Ronno, when they fight for Faline because young males always fight for a women. We also see the stereotype of young female Disney character in Faline which describe as young, pretty and slender stereotype that depends on a male. She was falling in love with the prince and ended up with the happy ending. The ideology of fairy tales is showed in a female character in Disneys film  which is the inherent expectation to falling in love and getting married to the prince so they can have happiness in life.  An example of this is in Snow White character that allows girls to have fairy-tales to dream of and hope for. As Murphy point out in his essay the Disney ethos both reflects and promotes particular elements of the dominant ideology of United States culture (p. 127), where the young girls are waiting for prince charming and dreaming of being princesses. They set the standards and ideology for girls on how to grow up. Contemporary society believes that women need to be more independent through the film because it has a huge impact on young audience on how they see the world. They want Disney to show that women can take care of themselves, more independent, be leaders, have jobs and do not rely on men. They also want Disney to transform into equality of gender because most of their films show a male dominated outlook. Feminists concerned about perception of the world and values about the point of view on young children especially girls to watch for unhealthy look of the physical attributes along with the values supporting male dominance. Disney production films showed the ideals of nature conflict through their female protagonists where women are fully dependent on men and female characters are often shown as happy housewives. This is due to the personal belief and attitude Walt Disney has towards how the family life is shaped and wha t roles women should play in society. The narratives of media associated between genders offer patterns of proper and improper behavior, messages, and ideological conditioning with pleasurable of popular entertainment being show on television. Even though there have been changes over years, we can see appropriate societal roles for men and women. By analyzing and interpreting animation films through history, one is able to understand the representation of gender which entails the inequalities that rest amongst sex, gender, nature, and ethnicity.

Spanish American War :: essays research papers

The Spanish and American War The Americans were brought into The Spanish and American War on February 15,1898. The Americans came into this war because a naval boat of ours called the Maine was blown up. On that boat, 327of our sailors were killed in the explosion. With this explosion, the navy used it by having a slogan ,â€Å"Remember the Maine,† to get volunteers into the navy to help fight. We though that the Spanish were to blame for blowing up our ship. But, really there was something wrong with the engine which lead to the big explosion. This was not found till they lifted the ship out of the water in 1911. When this happened many newspapers journalist {yellow journalism} took advantage of the explosion and wrote whom they thought did the explosion or who did the people want it to be. One of these newspaper tycoons was William Randolph Hearst. He took great advantages of the war and stretched the truth to the extreme. He did this just to sell more newspapers and to make money. Hearst went over in h is personal boat and took pictures in Cuba of poor and starving people there. He even captured a couple of the Spanish soldiers and turned them over to the Americans. America fought because we had big money in Cuba. All together we had over a $250 million dollars invested there with sugar and other materials that we did not what to be destroyed. We also had $100 million dollars invested in the tobacco plantations, and $50million in transportation. Our president at that time was William McCleain. He did not want to get in this war because he hated war. But when he did he decided to take some other thing that we need also. These things are the Philippines, Guam, and Portico for navel passages. On April 11,1898 McCleain gave a speech to congress for war, and they approved it. The war looked in big favor for the Spanish because they had an army of 400,000 men and we only had only 28,000 men, but this changed after congress declared war. The national guard got 1million recruits during the war, this was the highest ever. In the war there were two generals from the Civil War. These guys are William Shaft who weighed 320 pounds. He had to get a special tub and had to be hoisted up onto his horse.

Sandwich Blitz

Dalman and Lei have discussed two possible avenues to grow and expand Sandwich Blitz, Inc. One possible strategy would be to franchise locations. Another strategy would be to secure venture capital to finance an internal expansion by opening more company-owned shops. Dalman feels that he just does not have time to investigate these options because he is spending an increasing amount of his time assisting the location managers. Lei noted that two of the location managers had exhibited a lot of skill in the management of their locations and perhaps a new position could be added to coordinate with the location managers. This would free Dalman to work on these larger issues.1. How would creating a new position between the CEO and the location managers help the business to grow?Creating a new position will allow Dalman to devote his time and energy towards more important issues regarding growing the company as a whole; namely the possibility of franchising locations and or securing ventur e capital to finance and internal expansion by opening more company owned shops. In this new position, the new manager would have the authority to make decisions, give orders, draw on resources and do whatever else is necessary to fulfill that responsibility. Dalman would only need to have a weekly or bi-weekly meeting with the new manager as to the status of the locations at the operational level and dispense advice or direction if needed.2. Is promoting an existing manager the best option to fill this position? If not, what is an alternative source to fill the position?Yes, promoting an existing manager is the best option to fill this position because the existing manager already knows the job and with the additional responsibilities, he will feel like he’s contributing. Also, with his exceptional managerial skills, he will remain focused, put over 100% effort into the tasks at hand and become involved in new ideas and innovation for the company.3. Who within the company sh ould make these decisions?Dalman and Lei should make these decisions. Since they both know who the managers are and their skill set, then they are the ones who should decide who to promote and/or move into the position.4. List the levels of authority (management) that Sandwich Blitz, Inc. would have if the new position is created.The levels of authority (management) that Sandwich Blitz, Inc. would have if the new position is created are:1.Strategic Managers, CEO, CFO, Dalman and Lei 2.Middle Manager – Senior Manager, New Position 3.Operational Managers – 8 Location Managers

Character Study of Andy For th essays

Character Study of Andy For th essays Andy was a great example of conversion. He really had goals and kept to them for years. He was a hard-determined person to achieve freedom. He was living a great life as a banker, and knew his profession well. He had everything going for him, except his true love. He had suspected his lover was cheating on him, and one day he caught her in the act. He went to get drunk and then came back with a gun. Bad thoughts came into his mind. He didnt follow through with this act, but someone else did. The situation showed that he had done it because of the brandy bottle with his fingerprints, he had the same kind of gun that matched the bullets used, and that it was a situation where he would be furious. The courts found him guilty and gave him a life sentence. After being sent to jail and being innocent, he first began to accept that he was in jail, and that there was no way to change it. After getting the rock pick and knocking the rock off the wall when he was trying to carve h is name, he realized that getting out was a possibility. This scene was the place where he had a major cross over. Then, he set out to gain his rightfully earned freedom. He finished off his crossing over when he realized with when he was sitting by the wall in the courtyard with Red. He said, You have to get busy living, or get busy dying. This scene made us think that he was going to hang himself, but instead he chose the road to living. I believe that Andy had some major new responses to life and himself. If he was never convicted, he would not of learned what he had learned. He found that it is a cruel world out there and he had it good. He had changed how he saw the world and people around him. He found out how to set serious goals, and keep up with them for years and years. In the real world as a banker, he most likely had everything provided for him with all the money he made. In prison, he had to learn how to get things...