...time. Although it is used to gauge an economy’s health, it cannot be viewed as the size of the same economy as there are other factors that must be considered. Economists use GDP to compare the previous fiscal period with the current one. As an example, if the GDP for this quarter is up by 2%, then this means that the economy has grown by that percentage over the last quarter. An increase in the GDP signifies economic growth, a decrease means that the country is in a recession. Roles of Government Bodies that Determine National Fiscal Policies There are four sections of government in the United States that are involved in determining national fiscal policies. They are: the Department of Treasury, the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Government Accountability, and the Office of the President (Hubbard & O’Brien, 2010). The Department of Treasury designs and manages the fiscal policy. This office determines what the budget is, what monies need to be spent, and what the country’s income is. This body of government is also responsible for implementing new policies. This agency, however, does not act alone as the U.S. government functions under the basis of a system of checks and balances. The Office of Management and Budget develops and analyzes fiscal policies. It works side-by-side with the Department of Treasury with doing the necessary research that determines what the country needs. This body of government provides the Treasury...
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...mission of ensuring that veterans receive medical care, benefits, social support, and memorials. However, without adequate security protections, VA’s systems and information are vulnerable to exploitation by an array of cyber-based threats, potentially resulting in, among other things, the compromise of veterans’ personal information. GAO has identified information security as a governmentwide high-risk area since 1997. The number of information security incidents reported by VA has more than doubled over the last several years, further highlighting the importance of securing the department’s systems and the information that resides on them. GAO was asked to provide a statement discussing the challenges VA has experienced in effectively implementing information security, as well as to comment on a recently proposed bill aimed at improving the department’s efforts to secure its systems and information. In preparing this statement GAO relied on previously published work as well as a review of recent VA inspector general and other reports related to the department’s security program. GAO also analyzed the draft legislation in...
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...the current liquidity crisis in the U.S., and how it has affected U.K. and Asian markets, strong, comprehensive policy-making is now crucial to sustaining long-term economic viability. The American economy is a complex balance of services, financial, manufacturing, agricultural, and banking industries. For this reason, the U.S. is a global economy, relying upon foreign investments and trade to create and retain wealth. Over the years, America has evolved from farming-based, to industrial, to a services-based economy. As a result, the banking system from its inception has weathered the many growing pains associated with a new government and currency, instituting regulations and a centralized bank to examine the economy, and implementing policies intended to offset factors negatively affecting the general financial health of the country. Despite the growing need for quick, precise actions by the Federal Reserve System, the decision-making regarding the economy is often met with controversy. The recent bail out plan, passed by Congress, faced skepticism and is still being questioned as to its effectiveness. As we have seen in the news, the Federal Reserve has taken a strong stance and defends its rationale for its response to the growing crisis. “For these reasons”, the Federal Reserve System,” while an American institution” is indirectly a global policy-maker, and therefore, its influence is both far-reaching and necessary....
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...INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND AND THE WORLD BANK Managing Public Debt: Formulating Strategies and Strengthening Institutional Capacity Prepared by the Staff of the IMF and World Bank Approved by Christopher Towe, Danny Leipziger, and Kenneth Lay March 3, 2009 Contents Page Acronyms...................................................................................................................................3 I. Introduction ............................................................................................................................5 II. The Financial Crisis: Implications for Debt Managers .........................................................6 III. Work Program Linkages ......................................................................................................7 IV. Medium-Term Debt Management Strategy.........................................................................8 A. Developing the Framework.......................................................................................8 B. The Guidance Note..................................................................................................10 C. The Cost-Risk Analytic Tool ..................................................................................11 D. Preliminary Results from Early Application of the Framework .............................13 V. Debt Management Performance Assessment (DeMPA).....................................................15 A. The DeMPA Framework........
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...(Investopedia, 2013). Conditionality in its broad sense covers both the design of IMF-supported programs—that is, the macroeconomic and structural policies—and the specific tools used to monitor progress toward the goals outlined by the country in cooperation with the IMF (IMF, 2013). Over time, the IMF has been subject to a range of criticisms, generally focused on the conditions of its loans. The IMF has also been criticized for its lack of accountability and willingness to lend to countries with bad human rights record. On giving loans to countries, the IMF makes the loan conditional on the implementation of certain economic policies. These policies tend to involve: * Reducing government borrowing - Higher taxes and lower spending * Higher interest rates to stabilize the currency. * Allow failing firms to go bankrupt. * Structural adjustment. Privatization, deregulation, reducing corruption and bureaucracy. The problem is that these policies of structural adjustment and macro-economic intervention often make the situation worse. For example, in the Asian crisis of 1997 (Giancarlo Corsetti, 1999), many countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand were required by IMF to pursue tight monetary policy (higher interest rates) and tight fiscal policy to reduce the budget deficit and strengthen exchange rates. However, these policies caused a minor slowdown to turn into a serious recession...
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...EVALUATING WORK 1. JOB EVALUATION Job Evaluation is the process of systematically determining the relative worth of jobs to create a job structure for the organization. The evaluation is based on a combination of job content, skills required, value to the organization, organizational culture, and the external market. This potential to blend organizational forces and external market forces is both a strength and a challenge of job evaluation. 2. TYPES OF JOB EVALUATION JOB BASED Job-based employee performance evaluations focus on the duties of the position and the tasks required to perform them successfully. This is a standard type of evaluation you can use for all employees filling the same position. First you must perform a job analysis, separating all duties into large categories, such as essential functions and communication. Under the categories of the position, specify tasks required to fulfill them. Be thorough in your analysis and ask your manager or the human resources department to review it. This will be the performance plan for the position. Each employee will receive the plan, sign it and be reviewed formally at the end of the rating period based on the duties outlined. PERSON BASED A person-based evaluation is specific to each individual employee. It takes into consideration the knowledge, skills and abilities the employee possesses upon hire and learns in the course of the rating period. In this way, an employee is compensated fairly for...
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...The Taka 1917.38 billion proposed budget for the forthcoming fiscal, 2012-13, is sized at 18.1 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) that is projected to do grow at 7.2 per cent during the year. There are challenges and risks, both domestic and external, that do provide some strong reasons for being not much optimistic at this stage about achieving this growth performance. That does not mean that the growth target itself is overambitious. The actual performance of the Bangladesh economy has otherwise been impressive over the past several years in a row, given the comparative picture of other low-income developing countries and the odds and difficulties, both exogenous and endogenous. But even this performance has been considered below the potential of Bangladesh. This is what the economists, analysts, development practitioners and all others, within and outside, have been stating about Bangladesh over the years. The growth rate, however, is not the sole indicator of 'socio-economic development' in its broad sense. But it unquestionably remains to be one of the important criteria for assessing the overall performance of an economy. The quality of growth -- its nature and dimension of inclusiveness, impact on social development indices concerning the state of education, health, nutrition and, thus, human resource development, income-distribution and employment-generation effects, poverty alleviation efforts etc. -- is also a pertinent point for consideration...
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...starts with the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC). It is headed by the DBM Secretary and its members are the Secretary of Finance, the NEDA Director-General, and the Bangko Sentral Governor, with the Office of the President for general oversight. The NEDA provides the over-all macro-economic assumptions with which budgetary levels are to be determined. They involve the projected Gross National Product (GNP) real growth rates, inflation rates, 91-day treasury bill rates, the London Interbank Offered Rates (LIBOR) rates, foreign exchange rates, population growth, and other economic parameters. The Department of Finance (DOF), the Bureau of the Treasury, the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Bureau of Customs help the DBCC in determining the sources of financing. They project the revenues that will be generated for the budget year as well as the borrowings that may have to be tapped. The DBCC determines the overall economic targets, expenditure levels, the revenue projection, deficit levels and the financing plan. It submits them to the President and the Cabinet for approval. Once these are approved, the DBM issues the Budget Call. This requires agencies to prepare their budgets in accordance with the said guidelines, macro-economic assumptions, and ceilings. The DBM spells out guidelines, procedures, and timetables. Agencies undertake their own internal consultations. They rank programs, projects and activities using the capital budgeting approach. Then they submit...
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...Collaboratory, and organizing flights, hotels, meeting rooms, and scheduling for of annual meetings. Jessica Wang Cheng, Fund manager, She has been a research fund manager at UCLA for 28 years and has extensive experience with PO1 and UO1 grants requiring oversight of subcontracts and coordinating fiscal management between institutions. Vadim Bichko, PhD. Vice President of ChemDiv Inc, Medicinal chemistry consultant. ChemDiv is the recognized global leader of pre-clinical chemistry and biology for drug development and clinical trials. Dr. Bichko is a virologist with 15 years of successful research and development management experience in pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Jean Gudas, Ph.D. Vice President of Research and Development of ImaginAB, Inc. Antibody-based imaging consultant. ImaginAB develops and commercializes engineered antibody fragments...
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...economic, political and social factors peculiar to that jurisdiction. Budgeting is a unified series of steps to line and implement four functions: ❑ policy development – as policy instrument, CEO and legislative body need to articulate the goals, objectives and strategies that underline the budget – the flip side of proposing policy changes is accountability ❑ financial planning – includes gov’t financial condition; current/past-year trend financial act. by dept or prog; formal revenue est; look to the future to anticipate events/conditions; ensure debt service remains under control (while debt service receives first draw on municipal exp, financial plan set a rational debt service level for multi-year period ❑ service/operations planning – blueprint that governs the amount of service provided ❑ communications – way for decision makers to communicate changes in priorities, rationale for decisions and changes to vision in the future The final step in securing a framework w/in w/c the needs of policy setting, financial planning, service planning and communications can work is the development of quantitative performance measures. Environment/actors dictate the extent to which the linkage occurs and the form of linkage. Four phases of local budget cycle: ❑ planning/preparation – key that encourages integration of policy, financial and operation aspects of budgeting – planning is the process of preparing a set of decisions for action in the future, directed at achieving...
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...Government always feel managing currencies as a tough job. Here the video presents how to manage the currencies, why are the countries governments want to manage the currency and how far they are succeeded in managing the currencies along with the importance of policy coordination, Institutions that helped to formulate the coordination internationally along with the benefits and negatives of policy coordination. Here this video is supported by two cases such as Strict fiscal and monetary policies of US in 1985 and the other is UK joining in European monetary system [1] Managed currency The majority of major world currencies are managed at least to some degree. This is due to the purchase and sale of these currencies by the central banks of different countries. They do this in order to stabilize the international money markets and affects their own monetary policies. Why managing currencies? a. Reduce currency fluctuations If the value of currencies fluctuate significantly this can cause problems for firms engaged in trade. * For example if a firm is exporting to the US, a rapid appreciation in sterling would make its exports uncompetitive and therefore may go out of business. * If a firm relied on imported raw materials a devaluation would increase the costs of imports and would reduce profitability. b. Stability encourages investment. The uncertainty of exchange rate fluctuations can reduce the incentive for firms to invest in export capacity. Some Japanese...
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...Haider Chowdhury shishchowdhury@yahoo.co.uk Cell: 018 19225594 02 March 2012 Fiscal Policy and Monetary Policy Fiscal Policy Government's revenue (taxation) and spending policy designed to: (1) counter economic cycles in order to achieve lower unemployment, (2) achieve low or no inflation, and (3) achieve sustained but controllable economic growth. In a recession, governments stimulate the economy with deficit spending (expenditure exceeds revenue). During period of expansion, they restrain a fast growing economy with higher taxes and aim for a surplus (revenue exceeds expenditure). Fiscal policies are based on the concepts of the UK economist John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946), and work independent of monetary policy which tries to achieve the same objectives by controlling the money supply. Stances of fiscal policy The three possible stances of fiscal policy are neutral, expansionary, and contractionary. The simplest definitions of these stances are as follows: • A neutral stance of fiscal policy implies a balanced budget where government spending equals tax revenue. Government spending is fully funded by tax revenue and overall the budget outcome has a neutral effect on the level of economic activity; • An expansionary stance of fiscal policy involves government spending exceeding tax revenue; and • A contractionary fiscal policy occurs when government spending is lower than tax revenue. However, these definitions can be misleading...
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...Auditor _________________________________________ 16.4 Preparing For Your Annual Audit __________________________________________ 16.5 Documents _______________________________________________________ 16.5 Financial Statements _______________________________________________ 16.6 Other Schedules And Reconciliations __________________________________ 16.6 Other Supporting Documentation _____________________________________ 16.6 Single Audit Requirements _______________________________________________ 16.7 Background ______________________________________________________ 16.7 Commonwealth Implementation ______________________________________ 16.7 Audit Scope ______________________________________________________ 16.8 Risk-Based Approach For Determining Major Programs ____________________ 16.8 Schedule Of Expenditures Of Federal Awards____________________________ 16.8 Single Audit Report Package _________________________________________ 16.9 Single Audit Report Submission Requirements ___________________________ 16.9 LEAs Not Required To Have A Single Audit_____________________________...
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...What defines marginal utility? the gain (or loss) from an increase (or decrease) in the consumption of that good or service. Economists sometimes speak of a law of diminishing marginal utility, meaning that the first unit of consumption of a good or service yields more utility [ than the second and subsequent units. Marginal cost: the change in total cost that arises when the quantity produced changes by one unit. That is, it is the cost of producing one more unit of a good. [1] What will happen according to the law of diminishing marginal utility upon acquiring an additional unit of a product? Consumer satisfaction declines. The law of diminishing marginal utility is at the heart of the explanation of numerous economic phenomena, including time preference and the value of goods... The law says, first, that the marginal utility of each (homogenous) unit decreases as the supply of units increases (and vice versa); second, that the marginal utility of a larger-sized unit is greater than the marginal utility of a smaller-sized unit (and vice versa). What is defined as an increase in total production expense resulting from one more unit of output? Marginal Cost What is a change to the total revenue resulting from the sale of one more unit of output in a perfectly competitive firm? Marginal Revenue Which economic principle describes the imbalance between what people want and what can be produced? Scarcity ***If a company decided to make more of A it must make less...
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...that the SOX required. The main purpose of the Sarbanes Oxley Act was to establish an accountable system of regulations and policies to ensure proper compliance. The set of standards and deadlines the act put into place was mainly in response to an alarming amount of corporate and accounting scandals. With hopes of restoring the nation’s faith in its capital market, this government enacted legislation was divided into eleven sections that ranged from additional penalties to the establishment of a new accounting oversight committee, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. Overall the new standards made publicly held corporations more liable for their actions or inactions, and even set in place procedures to apply to new legislation. The first tittle of the SOX established the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), and their purpose was to deliver proper registration of all auditors as well as ensure proper compliance with specific mandates. Part of the first title was also the exact definition of specific processes and procedures that all auditors must adhere to while performing their duties. The board also established policies that emphasized the importance of policing conduct, verifying compliance, and ensuring exceptional quality control. Title two of the SOX deals mainly with the independence of auditors. It sets policies for external auditor’s independence, decreasing the instances of conflicts of interests. Along the same line, another section in...
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