...Policy Making and Policy Implementation Public policy refers to the actions taken by government — its decisions that are intended to solve problems and improve the quality of life for its citizens. At the federal level, public policies are enacted to regulate industry and business, to protect citizens at home and abroad, to aid state and city governments and people such as the poor through funding programs, and to encourage social goals. A policy established and carried out by the government goes through several stages from inception to conclusion. These are agenda building, formulation, adoption, implementation, evaluation, and termination. 1. Agenda building Before a policy can be created, a problem must exist that is called to the attention of the government. Illegal immigration, for example, has been going on for many years, but it was not until the 1990s that enough people considered it such a serious problem that it required increased government action. Another example is crime. American society tolerates a certain level of crime; however, when crime rises dramatically or is perceived to be rising dramatically, it becomes an issue for policymakers to address. Specific events can place a problem on the agenda. The flooding of a town near a river raises the question of whether homes should be allowed to be built in a floodplain. New legislation on combating terrorism (the USA Patriot Act, for example) was a response to the attacks...
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...The Effect of the Proposed Abolition of the Pork Barrel “MAKIBAKA WAG MAGBABOY!”, a popular scream of the Filipino people rallying in accordance with the proposed abolition of the pork barrel. Many things have been said about abolishing the pork barrel system but something seems omitted. Has anyone suggested another option? An alternative perhaps? The reason why I chose this topic is because it somehow affects all of us. I want to know the reason why some people take PDAF for granted not only the politicians but also those who are pretending to organize projects, etc but instead they use it for their personal gains. Is pork barrel the real root of corruption? These questions are just some of the many subjects that are inclined with the topic. With all the commotion and protest over the pork barrel scam, there are still a number of Filipinos who have no idea what it is. This term paper aims to give information about the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or the pork barrel and some issues and controversies connected with it; thus enlightening the effect of the proposed abolition of the pork barrel. Generally, pork barrel refers to the appropriation of government spending for localized projects secured solely or primarily to bring money to a representative's district. The usage originated in American English. In election campaigns, the term is used in derogatory fashion to attack opponents. Scholars, however, use it as a technical term regarding legislative control...
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...counts sessions were simply intended as a role call and to ensure that the prisoners were made aware of their identification numbers and the rules. However, the count sessions very quickly became abusive from the first day. The sessions went beyond the intended duration, during which prisoners were humiliated, physically abused, psychologically weakened and punished without reason. At one point, the abuse even turned sexual in nature. As a result of the rapid escalation of abuse, the study was terminated just after 6 days. Yet, for the duration of the study, Zimbardo and the other researchers did not intervene in any of the abuse that took place. At the end of the study, Zimbardo put forth several observations and key insights on why good people do evil things which I believe are very relevant and applicable to corporate governance. Corporate governance Corporate governance as...
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...her neighbors and how they are going to pay for the new house they just put a down payment on. I would advise her to stay true to what matters most to “you.” Meaning, if you know based on the type of decision you make will determine whether you still have a job or not (depending on the seriousness of the Intel) then you have to do what’s right for you before you ended up without a job. (Exploring Business. 2014) When making an ethical decision in oppose to ethical dilemmas, one being the right (ethical) choice or wrong (unethical and illegal) choice. Employees’ Roles/responsibilities in Ethical Situations 1 According to NBS there are three reasons why people act the way they do when it comes to keeping it ethical in business. There are bad apples (individual), bad cases (moral issue), and (organizational environment) bad barrels. Many...
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...Why the loonie’s fortunes are still tied to oil By Jeff Rubin January 18, 2013 – The Globe and Mail It’s a few weeks into a brand new year and so far Canadians are discomfited by watching our dollar rank among the world’s worstperforming currencies. The oft-cited reasons include high consumer debt levels, the potential for a housing bubble, and worries that Canada’s economy is on a divergent path from the U.S. Really, though, it’s about oil. For years now, Canada’s currency has traded as a petrodollar. That might not jive with its standing in the domestic economy, where it accounts for around 4 per cent of GDP and roughly 2 per cent of employment. When it comes to investment and trade flows, though, it dominates. Given that the loonie’s fortunes will continue to be tied to oil for years to come, what might that future hold? Canada certainly has the potential to become an even bigger player in the global oil market than it is now. The oil sands are the third-largest oil reserves in the world. The Harper government, meanwhile, has made no secret that it will do everything it can to ensure environmental and other concerns won’t stand in the way of the oil industry’s plans to more than double bitumen output from northern Alberta to five million barrels a day over the next two decades. But is that best-case scenario for the oil industry realistic? Prime Minister Harper may think so. He clearly still has visions of Canada becoming an energy superpower. Financial markets have more doubts...
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...Production and Operations Management Strayer University May 14, 2011 Production and Operations Management On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded fifty miles from the coast of Louisiana, killing eleven men and setting off the largest oil disaster in U.S. history. Its impact would reverberate well beyond the Deepwater Horizon and the families of the eleven men who died, and even beyond the people and places of the Gulf of Mexico. Known as the BP spill, this tragedy seemingly was not an isolated incident. According to Juhasz (2011), “BP was not a lone actor; rather, this tragedy was the predictable outcome of an industry that has pushed well beyond its own technological capacity and beyond the government’s ability to regulate it” (p. 2). This oil well disaster has had important ramifications for the future of our country. In order to tackle the nation’s energy crisis, there must be an establishment of an orderly transition from crude oil to an affordable, sustainable energy future. The purpose of this paper is to explore ways of converting crude oil to consumer fuels. The paper will examine Marathon Oil’s product process and give a determination as to which phase shows a need for the greatest efficiency improvements. In addition, the paper will address the retail price of gasoline and its relation to the world’s demand for crude oil, as well as what Marathon can do to keep the gas prices the same without losing profits even if global crude...
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...is Old Trailridge Bourbon Whisky * High quality of whisky due to the unusual iron-free spring water used in the distillation process and the specially prepared fire-charred white oak barrels used in the aging process. * David Dobbins takes over in 1973. * Constant demand over the years * High demand surge forecasted due to maturity of Baby boom generation. Manufacturing Process * Ingredients controlled by laws. * Barrels can be used only once * Barrels are made through a patented process * Whisky has to mature for at least 4 years after the process. * Stored in 50 gallon barrels for mellowing in warehouse Maturing or Aging Process * The 50-gallon barrels manufactured under a unique patented process at acost of more than $60 per barrel. The barrels could not be reused foraging future batches of bourbon whiskey but could be sold to used barrel dealers for $1 each at the end of the aging period. * The increased production in 1988 necessitated the leasing of an additional warehouse at an annual rental cost of $200,000. The temperature and humidity of the warehouse space had to be controlled since the quality of the whiskey could be ruined by its aging too fast or too slowly. * A small amount of liquid was removed from representative barrels at this time and sent to the sampling laboratory for quality inspection (usually performed by skilled tasters). If the quality of the whiskey was not up to standard, certain measures were...
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...being in Kuwait and Afghanistan relates to that. To me it makes sense why our soldiers are there; however, I don’t support it, let me make myself clear, I do not support this, but the situation is understandable. It makes sense to me because some of these third world country's, which are country's that do not have much opportunity as us, cannot defend themselves. Our country gets critiqued and criticized an abundant amount due to the way we help other country’s out, but it is because we believe everyone deserves democracy or some sort of it, we believe in freedom, and opportunity. Our country will try to help every other country we can and because of that we are considered by some to be the greatest country. In my eyes we strive for greatest, and that is gratifying to me. We went to defend the Kuwait border and that is where Anthony Swofford is, we went to defend the people of Kuwait and its fields of oil from its neighboring country. It is a tremendous amount of oil. Swofford talks about how the Iraqi military forces set fire to these oil wells, and it is hard to imagine, but what a sight it must've been to see 600+ oil wells on fire. Swofford talks about how it was always dark due to the smoke blocking the sun and how it would...
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...Introduction to Macroeconomics 5 June 2011 High Gasoline Prices Cause and Effect Hurricanes, wars and all sorts of chaos could lead to shortages in our oil supply. These shortages would bring expected higher prices. But what happens when other factors are at work? The laws of supply and demand indicate “Quantity demanded rises as price falls, other things constant”. Or alternatively: “Quantity demanded falls as price rises, other things constant” (Colander 84). For some, it is easy to blame the speculators and separate them from the laws of supply and demand. In reality, speculators only changed who purchased the future supply. They did not change the principle fact that there was a shortage, albeit an artificially created one, but still a shortage. Until 2000 US energy futures were traded only on regulated exchanges within the US and they were subject to great oversight by the CFTC in order to detect price fixing and fraud. Recently, there has been a very large growth in trading contracts that look like futures contracts and are structured exactly the same. The only difference, these contracts are traded on an unregulated market. This unregulated OTC electronic market was exempt from CFTC oversight by a provision inserted in the late hours of the 106th Congress. Enron and many other large traders lobbied congress for this passage. By buying large quantities of futures contracts and pushing the prices higher speculators have given oil companies the incentive...
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...Matthew Catan September 22, 2015 ACC 380K | Smith Cash Flow Analysis 1. Prepare a table comparing the following metrics for Southwest Airlines for the years 2007 - 2009. Use reported numbers from the 2009 10-K. Southwest Calculations Year 2009 2008 2007 A Revenue $10,350 $11,023 $9,861 B Operating profit margin 2.53% 4.07% 8.02% C “Net” profit margin 0.96% 1.61% 6.54% D Accounts Receivable days 6.67 8.08 9.62 E Inventory days 9.51 9.82 11.10 F Trade creditor days 31.72 30.32 35.36 G Return on assets 0.70% 1.15% 4.27% H Return on common equity 1.90% 2.99% 9.63% I Cash Flow From Operations $985 -$1,521 $2,845 J Cash Flow From Investing -$1,569 -$978 -$1,529 K Cash Flow From Financing $330 $1,654 -$493 2. Briefly describe the cash generation / usage activity of Southwest over this same time period. From analyzing the statement of cash flow we get a good picture at Southwest’s cash usage over the three-year period. Operating Activity In 2007 Southwest was able to generate a comparatively large amount of cash. The main reason for this large cash gain is due to the relativity large starting Net Income for the period, about 72% and 84% higher than in 2008 and 2009 respectively. In 2008 the recession really hammered the net cash from operating income with a 153% loss from 2007. Besides the major decrease in Net Income, Cash collateral provided to fuel derivative counterparties resulted in an unusually large loss, this...
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...I believe the reason behind this rise was because of the stock markets rapid inflation and the dollar continuing to slide. However it should be taken into consideration that this was the 1st time since October 14th 2008 that Crude has settled over $75 a barrel and although this may suggest that this is a one of, because of the dollars downfall, other currency holders from overseas may see this has a slight advantage over the dollar. Europeans who have a very strong currency can easily step in and buy the oil which in short would be cheaper for them and more expensive for their American rivals. Another segment that I found interesting was about the long running debate on whether federal lawmakers should create a passenger bill of rights. A lot of people seem to think that airlines are not doing enough to meet people’s basic needs for enough food, water, hygienic toilets and temperature control. If these rights are introduced it would be great for the passenger, but the problem is with the airlines because these things do not come cheap. Airlines do have a responsibility to give passengers what they need. But what airlines might argue is they need the bare minimum. And the bare minimum means cheap in the aviation industry. Why should airlines have to fork out extra millions on these unnecessary luxuries especially if what they are giving...
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...wholesale to private brand marketers and to large commercial and industrial consumers, as well as to the spot market. The company has operations in more than 20 US states. The phase open to the greatest number of efficiency improvements is the pipeline transport of crude oil. Once the crude oil is in the pipeline it will take about eight to ten days to reach the refinery. “The Capeline Pipeline is a major thoroughfare for crude oil in the U.S., transporting up to one million barrels of crude oil a day…at an average speed of four miles per hour…” (“The time it takes,” n.d.). Transporting oil through pipelines is more economical than transporting over land. If Marathon improves the throughput rate of crude oil delivery they will be able to refine more barrels of gasoline and other petroleum products a day. As previously stated the pipeline can transport up to one million barrels of crude oil a day, and according to marathon.com their refinery network has a crude oil throughput capacity of 1,142,000 barrels per day. Improving the pipeline transport will improve the operating and production efficiency. Discuss the relationship...
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...1. Introduction The company, BP is the third-largest energy company where produces approximately 3.8 million barrels of oil and gas per day and possesses 22,400 service stations over the world. However, the oil disaster called as BP oil spill or the deep water horizon oil spill was occurred on April 20th, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico recording the greatest oil spill compared to other oil spill accidents in our history. The Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion caused deaths of 11 workers, 17 workers injured as well as a tremendous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. In fact, this case has been described as a complex accident including a variety of issues ranging from environmental to economic, politics and even ethical issues. The goal of our research is to find any ethical issues since this disaster happened is closely related to ethics which is concerned with moral obligation, social responsibility and justice (Carolyn Wiley, 1997) either individual (‘bad apples’) or organizational (‘bad barrels), which should be evaluated to verify this case. Firstly, the ethical issues can largely be divided into three categories, namely (1) technical design which has had some testing flaws before the actual usage and insufficient guidelines against the negative pressure test, (2) human factors including misjudgment, errors and a failure in duty, (3) organizational system such as taking risk procedures to save time and money and refusing the advice of staff and contractors as well as slowness to...
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...executions were carried out in public for example hanging. The atmosphere was festive. Sometimes, riots would break out. Additionally, there was sympathy for the convicts. They had other forms of punishment such as The Water Torture, and what they did was whoever was in charge had to give the punishment by pouring water into a barrel that was placed onto the criminals head. Water would then come pouring down through a hole that had been cut out of the top of the cask, and it fills the barrel. The criminal would then have to hold their breath for however long or till death. There was so many different kinds of torture methods that they used during this era that was twisted, and sick. The reason why they would use these kinds of punishments was to scare the public with it just to help prevent crime rates from rising. Fortunately, they did have an alternative punishment for the physical punishments they used ; it was known as transportation. Convicted criminals got sent to the colonies to serve their sentences. (1) The advantages to this was that the criminal would be removed from society at a low cost, and it showed people not to do bad things. By the end of the 18th century not only was the crime increasing but also poverty. The industrial revolution gave significant changes for both rich and poor people. Though, the poor families’ life was quite disheartening. In 1834 The Poor Law Amendment was introduced to stop poverty on the streets of England and to relief...
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...significantly? What else could Coors have done to improve their position? Could Coors have changed their strategy in order to take advantage of the changes in the brewing industry, or were they destined to be the victim of changes in the industry that they could neither control nor remedy? Extraordinary Success into the 1970s Coors was extremely successful prior to 1977. Key to their strategy was a set of unique, co-specialized elements: geographic focus, low-cost production, a differentiated product, and market power over their distribution customers. By managing these aspects well, Coors achieved 21.2% market share in their market, with the lowest relative amount of advertising in the industry. At the same time Coors’ low cost per barrel, at $29, was second only to Heileman Brewery. In spite of their low cost, Coors’ differentiated product allowed them to charge a premium over most of their competitors, giving Coors the highest profit margins in the industry, nearly twice that of their nearest competitor! Coors’ single production facility, located in Golden, Colorado, served 11 western states stretching from California to Texas. Even though their shipping costs were twice the industry’s, average shipping costs would have been much more had they attempted to enter other states. Besides, Coors made up for the inefficiency with the scale of their plant, the largest in the nation. The...
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