Thursday, May 21, 2020
The Advantage Over Its Competitors by Studying the SWOT Free Essay Example, 2500 words
Strategic planning in the company provides a framework to conduct business in the rapidly changing and competitive global market and provides a vision for the future. Large companies like Thomas Cook have more products in the market and the greater is the need to have an effective planning process and to understand any future fluctuations in the market. The recent years of growth in the travel and tourism industry obscure the perceived need for strategic planning, though the unpredicted economic recessions and discontinuities in the market have brought the matters of planning into focus. The recent developments surrounding mergers, strategic alliances, globalization and investments have also heightened the focus into strategic planning (Middleton et al. , 2009). The strategic decisions should focus on long-run decisions that involve the development of new technology and major investments. This is because Thomas Cook has multiple markets and requires strategic planning to attain effe ctive allocation of resources between all components of the business and efficient relationships. Strategic planning is an effective part of the process through which organizations convince the stakeholders and investors about the vision of the business and the direction they wish to take. We will write a custom essay sample on The Advantage Over Its Competitors by Studying the SWOT or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now It comprises of a statement of objectives and goals, a program activity to attain the goals and an outline of resources needed. Middleton et al. (2009) stipulate that it requires market research and analysis and programs undertaken are analyzed and constantly monitored to assess how well targets are being achieved. It is conducted on the assumption that the effort in resources and time is required to produce quantifiable results and an increasing recognition that future development must be considered. Effective strategic planning involves an analysis of the industry and the current market position occupied by the company, the emerging opportunities in the dynamic world, future prospects of the organization and the measures to be undertaken to achieve set goals and objectives.
Sunday, May 17, 2020
Argentavis - Facts and Figures
Name: Argentavis (Greek for Argentina bird); pronounced ARE-jen-TAY-viss Habitat: Skies of South America Historical Epoch: Late Miocene (6 million years ago) Size and Weight: 23-foot wingspan and up to 200 pounds Diet: Meat Distinguishing Characteristics: Enormous wingspan; long legs and feet About Argentavis Just how big was Argentavis? To put things in perspective, one of the largest flying birds alive today is the Andean Condor, which has a wingspan of nine feet and weighs about 25 pounds. By comparison, the wingspan of Argentavis was comparable to that of a small plane--close to 25 feet from tip to tip--and it weighed anywhere between 150 and 250 pounds. By these tokens, Argentavis is best compared not to other prehistoric birds, which tended to be much more modestly scaled, but to the huge pterosaurs that preceded it by 60 million years, notably the giant Quetzalcoatlusà (which had a wingspan of up to 35 feet). Given its enormous size, you might assume that Argentavis was the top bird of Miocene South America, about six million years ago. However, at this time, terror birds were still thick on the ground, including descendants of the slightly earlier Phorusrhacos and Kelenken. These flightless birds were built like meat-eating dinosaurs, complete with long legs, grasping hands, and sharp beaks that they wielded on their prey like hatchets. Argentavis probably kept a wary distance from these terror birds (and vice-versa), but it may well have raided their hard-won kill from above, like some kind of oversized flying hyena. A flying animal the size of Argentavis presents some difficult issues, chief of which is how this prehistoric bird managed to a) launch itself off the ground and b) keep itself in the air once launched. Its now believed that Argentavis took off and flew like a pterosaur, unfurling its wings (but only rarely flapping them) in order to catch the high-altitude air currents above its South American habitat. Its still unknown if Argentavis was an active predator of the huge mammals of late Miocene South America, or if, like a vulture, it contented itself with scavenging already-dead corpses; all we can say for sure is that it was definitely not a pelagic (sea-flying) bird like modern seagulls, since its fossils were discovered in the interior of Argentina. As with its style of flight, paleontologists have made a lot of educated guesses about Argentavis, most of which, unfortunately, are not supported by direct fossil evidence. For example, analogy with similarly built modern birds suggests that Argentavis laid very few eggs (perhaps an average of only one or two per year), which were carefully brooded by both parents, and presumably not subject to frequent predation by hungry mammals. Hatchlings probably left the nest after about 16 months, and were only fully grown by the age of 10 or 12; most controversially, some naturalists have suggested that Argentavis could attain a maximum age of 100 years, about the same as modern (and much smaller) parrots, which are already among the longest-lived vertebrates on earth.
Wednesday, May 6, 2020
Hunger And Undernourishment Positioning Wild Edible...
Hunger and undernourishment: Positioning Wild Edible Plants in food security and nutrition debates in forest areas in the Congo Basin By Tata-Ngome Precillia Ijang1,25, Charlie Shackleton2, Ann Degrande3, Julius Chupezi Tieguhong4 1 Institute of Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD) - Cameroon 2 Department of Environmental Science, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa 3 World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), Yaounde, Cameroon 4 Bioversity International, Yaounde, Cameroon 5 2014 McNamara fellow, Rhodes University Abstract Wild Edible Plants (WEPs) are often relegated in measuring household nutrition because no suitable food group categories exist that simplify their appraisal in conducting food consumption surveys. This paper is a theoretical article that triggers the positioning of WEPs in food security discussions so that programmes and policies can be more targeted. It discusses the diverging approaches adopted by food systems policies and nutrition programs to address malnutrition; and without considering WEPs. Among others, three food categories and 12 sub-groups are engendered to develop an understanding on how WEPs could be mainstreamed into food security and nutrition debates. Key words: Food groups, Food security, Nutrition, Wild Edible Plants Introduction Progress in achieving dietary adequacy for the worldââ¬â¢s population is challenging (FAO, IFAD and WFP, 2013; FAO, 2013; Termont et al., 2010). First, feeding the worldââ¬â¢s increasing population is
The Relationship Between Porcine And Human Cysticercosis
Some of the other risk factors are linked to both porcine and human cysticercosis. According to Bhutta et al (2012) ,Garrett et al (2015) and Assana et al (2010), low level hygiene environment such as dirty contaminated soil and lack of latrine may rise opportunities to access Taeniid ova because dirty soil can increase the possibility of exposure to taeniid ova for both human and pig and taeniid ova can flow to water resource like wells in rainy season. Certainly, according to many of these articles including WHO, the installment of a large number of latrines can control the risk factor because it can prevent the contamination(WHO 2015), However, there is the article reporting that public(community) latrine can bring weaker effect and allâ⬠¦show more contentâ⬠¦Interestingly, more than 10 members decreased the risk in the result. Although Mwape infer this is because such large size family cannot consume pork frequently due to the costs, a stronger evidence would be necessary to prove this. Therefore,a more large-scale observation such as cohort study is highly recommendable to identify the necessity of latrines in the future. Each of the resources examines other risk factors why such transmission situation between pig and human occur from various points of view in detail. Carabin et al(2015) and Edia-Asukeet al(2014) maintain that the older people, the higher infection rate it is. They infer that the frequency of the exposure is related to the infection. Interestingly, the change point analysis which determine the number of people with active infections (cysticercosis)increases from at 30 years old in Zambia. This result is quite younger than the result in Ecuador under the same analysis (Mwape et al, 2015). This result could imply that sub-saharan Africa is at higher risk for T. solium infection than Latin America. As an interesting site as a possible risk factor, slaughterhouse situations are referred in some articles. For example, in Nigeria, there is an existing abattoir law to do proper management. However, various problem is identified from the actual situations. Especially, unregistered and private home pig slaughter slabs may cause more
Public Key Cryptography Free Essays
string(201) " might encrypt a piece of information using the siteââ¬â¢s public key and ask the web server to decrypt it, thereby demonstrating that the server has the right private key, and proving its identity\." Abstract- Public-key cryptography is a key technology for e-commerce, intranets, extranets and other web-enabled applications. However, to garner the benefits of public-key cryptography, a supporting infrastructure is needed. The Microsoftà ® Windowsà ® 2000 operating system includes a native public-key infrastructure (PKI) that is designed from the ground up to take full advantage of the Windows 2000 security architecture. We will write a custom essay sample on Public Key Cryptography or any similar topic only for you Order Now This paper describes the fundamentals of public-key security systems, including what benefits they offer and what components are required to implement them. It also describes how the Windows 2000 PKI components deliver the needed services while providing interoperability, security, flexibility, and ease of use. I. Overview Public-key cryptography offers significant security benefits when itââ¬â¢s properly implemented. Like other enabling technologies, public-key cryptography requires an infrastructure to deliver its benefits. However, the public-key infrastructure, or PKI, isnââ¬â¢t a physical object or software process; instead, itââ¬â¢s a set of useful services provided by a collection of interconnected components These components work together to provide public-key-based security services to applications and users. This white paper has two goals: to explain public-key technology and its uses, and to describe the features and benefits provided by the native PKI in the Microsoftà ® Windowsà ® 2000 operating system. Understanding both of these topics will help you to decide where you can use PKI technology to improve your business processes and increase your ability to securely handle transactions with others. In this paper, youââ¬â¢ll learn what a public key infrastructure is, what desirable benefits it can offer your operations, and how the Windows 2000 PKI delivers interoperability, security, flexibility, and ease of use. II. History During the early history of cryptography, two parties would agree upon a key using a secure, but non-cryptographic, method; for example, a face-to-face meeting or an exchange via a trusted courier. This key, which both parties kept absolutely secret, could then be used to exchange encrypted messages. A number of significant practical difficulties arise in this approach to distributing keys. Public-key cryptography addresses these drawbacks so that users can communicate securely over a public channel without having to agree upon a shared key beforehand. In 1874, a book by William Stanley Jevons[1] described the relationship of one-way functions to cryptography and went on to discuss specifically the factorization problem used to create the trapdoor function in theRSA system. Since the 1970s, a large number and variety of encryption, digital signature, key agreement, and other techniques have been developed in the field of public-key cryptography. The ElGamal cryptosystem (invented by Taher ElGamal) relies on the (similar, and related) difficulty of the discrete logarithm problem, as does the closely related DSA developed at the US National Security Agency (NSA) and published by NIST as a proposed standard. The introduction of elliptic curve cryptography by Neal Koblitz and Victor Miller independently and simultaneously in the mid-1980s has yielded new public-key algorithms based on the discrete logarithm problem. Although mathematically more complex, elliptic curves provide smaller key sizes and faster operations for equivalent estimated security. III. What is public key cryptography? When most people hear the words encrypt or cryptography, they immediately think of secret-key cryptography, wherein two parties share a single secret key thatââ¬â¢s used both to encrypt and decrypt data. Loss or compromise of the secret key makes the data it encrypts vulnerable. By contrast, public-key systems use two keys: a public key, designed to be shared, and a private key, which must be closely held. These keys are complementary: if you encrypt something with the public key, it can only be decrypted with the corresponding private key, and vice versa. Public-key systems depend on the mathematical relationship between the public and private keys. Itââ¬â¢s not feasible to derive one from the other. There are two fundamental operations associated with public key cryptography: encryption and signing. The goal of encryption is to obscure data in such a way that it can only be read by the intended party. In public-key cryptography, if Bob wants to send Alice some private data, he uses her public key to encrypt it, then sends it to her. Upon receiving the encrypted data, Alice uses her private key to decrypt it. The important concept here is that Alice can freely distribute her public key in order to allow anyone in the world to encrypt data that only she can decrypt. If Bob and Chuck both have copies of her public key, and Chuck intercepts an encrypted message from Bob to Alice, he will not be able to decrypt it; only Aliceââ¬â¢s private key can do that, and she is the only person who holds it. These two operations can be used to provide three capabilities A Privacy Privacy is a necessity for businesses of all kinds, but itââ¬â¢s of vital importance for ones that use the Internet. The Internet allows anyone in the world to communicate with anyone else, but it doesnââ¬â¢t provide security. Even within your companyââ¬â¢s internal network, if someone can gain physical access to your network media, they can eavesdrop on any data that traverses it. Public-key cryptography provides privacy via data encryption, whether the data is in the form of e-mail messages, credit card numbers sent over the Internet, or network traffic. Because public keys can be posted freely, complete strangers can establish private communications simply by retrieving each otherââ¬â¢s public keys and encrypting the data. B. Authentication Any transaction involves two parties, whether theyââ¬â¢re a client and a server or a customer and a vendor. For many transactions, itââ¬â¢s desirable for one or both sides to be able to authenticate, or verify the identity of, the other. For instance, before a customer provides their credit card number to an e-commerce web site, they will want to know that they are not talking to an imposter. One way that a customer can do this is by making the web site prove that it holds the right private key. For example, a web browser might encrypt a piece of information using the siteââ¬â¢s public key and ask the web server to decrypt it, thereby demonstrating that the server has the right private key, and proving its identity. You read "Public Key Cryptography" in category "Papers" Authentication can also take the form of assuring your customers that you produced a particular piece of data and that it has not been tampered with. Public-key cryptography enables you to do this by means of a digital signature, a concept which is an extension of the public-key signing operation discussed above. If Bob wants to digitally sign his companyââ¬â¢s annual report, he first generates a unique fingerprint of the report using an algorithm called a hash algorithm. Hash algorithms are specially designed to guarantee that even a single changed byte in the document will generate a completely different hash. Next, he encrypts the report and the hash using his private key. Alice (or anyone else) can verify the origin and authenticity of the signed report by first decrypting it using Bobââ¬â¢s public key, then calculating her own version of the fingerprint and comparing it to the fingerprint she received. If the two match, it proves two things: that the report has not been tampered with, and it came from Bob. C. Non-repudiation Businesses require the ability to enter into binding agreements, whether in the physical world or on the Internet. Suppliers and buyers need the assurance that if they enter into an agreement, the other party will not be able to repudiate the agreement at some later point. Digital signatures on electronic purchase orders, contracts, and other agreements are legally binding in several countries and in many U. S. states, and legal acceptance is rapidly growing. D. infrastructure Manage keys: a PKI makes it easy to issue new keys, review or revoke existing keys, and manage the trust level attached to keys from different issuers. Publish keys: a PKI offers a well-defined way for clients to locate and retrieve public keys and information about whether a specific key is valid or not. Without the ability to retrieve keys and know that they are valid, your users canââ¬â¢t make use of public key services. Use keys: a PKI provides an easy-to-use way for users to use keysââ¬ânot just by moving keys around where theyââ¬â¢re needed, but also by providing easy-to-use applications that perform public-key cryptographic operations, making it possible to provide security for e-mail, e-commerce, and networks. E. A capability,not a thing A common misperception is that a PKI is a thing. In fact, itââ¬â¢s a capabilityââ¬âthe capability to easily publish, manage, and use public keys. Think of a PKI like a municipal water system. A water system is made up of purification plants, storage towers, pumps, water mains, and so on, as well as the pipes and faucets in your house. All of the disparate service-providing objects work together to provide a capability for users to obtain water on demand. In a similar way, a PKI consists of a group of discrete components that work together to allow you to use public keys, and public-key cryptography, seamlessly and transparently. The best place to implement a PKI is in the operating system. Operating systems already provide a number of other infrastructures, like the printing infrastructure that moves documents to printers and the file service infrastructure that retrieves files from shared storage. In both cases, the operating system provides a capability to transparently and easily use a network service, just as a PKI does. F. Digital certificates:packaging for public key So far, this paper has mentioned public keys when talking about the objects that a PKI uses. While public keys are required for PKI-based security, theyââ¬â¢re usually packaged as digital certificates. (Itââ¬â¢s important to stress that only public keys are packaged into certificates. The private key is never shared, so it doesnââ¬â¢t require packagingââ¬âitââ¬â¢s simply stored securely). The certificate contains the public key and a set of attributes, like the key holderââ¬â¢s name. These attributes may be related to the holderââ¬â¢s identity, what theyââ¬â¢re allowed to do, or under what conditions the certificate is valid. The binding between attributes and the public key is present because the certificate is digitally signed by the entity that issued it; the issuerââ¬â¢s signature on the certificate vouches for its authenticity and correctness. For a real-world analogy, look in your wallet. If you have a driversââ¬â¢ license, you have the equivalent of a digital certificate. Your license contains a unique key (your license number) and some attributes (an expiration date, your name, address, hair color, and so on). Itââ¬â¢s issued by a trusted agency and laminated to prevent it from being tampered with. Anyone who trusts the agency that issued your license and verifies that the lamination is intact can rely on its authenticity. At that point, though, the analogy breaks downââ¬âin the real world, only the government can issue a driverââ¬â¢s license, so everyone knows that a license issued by Joeââ¬â¢s Really Good DMV isnââ¬â¢t valid. How do you make the same determination with a digital certificate? The answer lies in the concept of a certificate hierarchy. In a hierarchy, as shown in Figure 1, each issuer, or certificate authority, signs (using its own private key) the certificates it issues. The public half of the CAââ¬â¢s keypair is itself packaged in a certificateââ¬âone that was issued by a higher-level CA. This pattern can continue through as many levels as desired, with each CA certifying the authenticity of the certificates it has issued. Eventually, though, there must be a top-level CA, called a root certificate authority. Since thereââ¬â¢s nobody above the root CA in the hierarchy, thereââ¬â¢s nobody to vouch for the authenticity and origin of its certificate. Instead, the root CA signs its own certificateââ¬âit simply asserts that it is the root. Figure 1: What a certificate hierarchy looks like Clearly, itââ¬â¢s not secure to accept a root CAââ¬â¢s assertion of its own identity. To verify a root CAââ¬â¢s certificate, a trusted copy of its public key is obtained via an out-of-band method-ââ¬âthat is, itââ¬â¢s delivered by a third party instead of over the networkââ¬âand the key is used to verify that the root certificate is bona fide. Microsoft provides the public keys for many popular root CAs in PK-enabled products like Internet Explorer, allowing users to verify those roots transparently. Root CAs can also provide copies of their public keys for downloading from public web sites. Once the root key has been delivered via an out-of-band means, the user can verify the root certificate, and hence the entire certificate chain. Even better, because each certificateââ¬â¢s digital signature protects it from tampering, certificate chains can be freely passed over insecure media like the Internet. G. Public key enabled application Once your PKI can issue, publish, and control certificates, the next step is to deploy applications that can use them. A well-written application that is tightly integrated with the rest of the PKI can make the use of public-key cryptography all but transparent to the user. The user should not need to know how cryptography works, where certificates are stored, or any of the other detailsââ¬âthey should simply indicate what they want done, and leave it to the applications and the PKI to make it happen. Applications can use digital certificates to deliver the benefits of public-key cryptography, and they can combine cryptographic functions like signing and encryption to make possible e-commerce, secure network access, or other desirable services. All Microsoft applications that use public-key cryptography are natively public-key enabled. For example, the Microsoft Outlookà ® messaging and collaboration client offers built-in signing and encryption support, combined with the ability to use certificate publishers and root certificates from a number of sources. Internet Explorer, Microsoft Money, and Internet Information Server provide the ability to set up encrypted web sessions. PKI-enabled applications can build on industry-standard protocols to speed development and allow easy interoperability with other organizations, too. H. Hardware support The increasing market demand for PKI implementations has spurred hardware vendors to develop cryptographic hardware, including smart cards, PC cards, and PCI cards that offer onboard cryptographic processing. These hardware devices offer a wide range of capabilities. On the low end, smartcards offer limited cryptographic processing combined with secure key storage; on the high end, multiprocessor crypto-accelerators allow high-volume web services to secure data without suffering from bottlenecks caused by software cryptographic modules. The best thing about PKI hardware devices is that theyââ¬â¢re optionalââ¬âif your application requires additional performance or security, you can add hardware to provide it as necessary, but you can still build a completely functional PKI in software. I. Models The standalone CA model The standalone CA model (see Figure 2) is probably familiar to you if youââ¬â¢ve used SSL-protected web sites. In the standalone model, some third-party entity holds the root key and certificate for your organization, and it issues and revokes all certificates for your users. This third party might be a commercial CA like VeriSign, Thawte, Belsign, or GTE Cybertrust; it could also be a bank, a law firm, a trade association, or any other organization that you trust to issue certificates on your behalf. Figure 2: The standalone CA model This model allows trust both within and outside your organization, so you can exchange secure e-mail and e-commerce transactions with outsiders. Standalone CAs also free you from the complexities of issuing, revoking, and tracking certificates. However, it requires you to trust some outside entity with your certificate management, and many third-party CAs levy an individual charge for each issued certificate. The enterprise CA model In this model (see Figure 3), your enterprise acts as its own CA, issuing and revoking certificates subject to your business requirements. Because no outsourcing provider is involved, your organization maintains complete control over its PKI. In addition to that control, though, you can guarantee that no one outside the enterprise can obtain a certificate unless you issue it to them. This model works well for controlling access to internal resources, or for generating certificates whose attributes would be meaningless to an outside entity. For example, you could issue certificates to managers that would allow them to make electronic travel reservations through the company travel office. Figure 3: The enterprise CA model Enterprise CAs with subordinates You can expand the flexibility of the enterprise CA model by adding subordinate CAs for individual departments, business units, or subdivisions of the organization. Most organizations already delegate some amount of administrative control to their subunits. For example, individual managers at most companies have some level of purchasing authority; higher-ranking managers can write bigger checks. Even though thereââ¬â¢s a centralized purchasing department that does much of the enterprise-wide buying, individual units still have the ability to perform day-to-day purchasing tasks. Choose your trust model If the choice of a CA model is the most important one you face when implementing a PKI, choosing a trust model comes in a very close second. When you trust a root, youââ¬â¢re making an implicit statement that you trust them to be careful about who they issue certificates to. In this case, careful isnââ¬â¢t quite the right word; what youââ¬â¢re really saying is that you trust them to follow their prescribed policies and procedures to verify the identity of a certificate holder when they issue the certificate. When you choose to trust a root certificate, youââ¬â¢re also choosing to trust certificates signed by that root. Depending on the CA model you use, the practical impact of this choice could be large (as when you choose to trust a large, widely used commercial root CA) or small (like deciding to trust your own accounting department). Normally these decisions are made for the enterprise as a whole; however, the Windows 2000 PKI allows individual users (or their administrators) to make their own trust decisions. In addition, administrators may override or augment user trust decisions with group policies. You also have to choose what you trust certificates to be used for. The X. 509 v3 certificate standard allows you to specify whether certificates can be used for signing, encryption, or both. For example, you might want to give everyone signature certificates but restrict the use of encryption-capable certificates to certain departments or individuals. Microsoft has extended this feature to allow you to specify additional uses, including signing software components, logging on using a smart card, or recovering an encrypted file. When using the Windows 2000 PKI, the issuer has total control over what the certificate can be used for. IV Conclusion Public key cryptography offers critical business advantages, including the ability to conduct e-commerce and normal business operations with increased privacy, security, and assurance. To deliver these benefits, a public-key infrastructure is necessary that makes it easy to manage, publish and use public keys. Windows 2000 offers a PKI that is completely integrated with the operating system and provides flexible, secure, interoperable services that are easy to use, easy to deploy, and easy to manage. References N. Ferguson; B. Schneier (2003). Practical Cryptography. Wiley. ISBN 0-471-22357-3. J. Katz; Y. Lindell (2007). Introduction to Modern Cryptography. CRC Press. ISBN 1-58488-551-3. J. Menezes; P. C. van Oorschot; S. A. Vanstone (1997). Handbook of Applied Cryptography. ISBN 0-8493-8523-7. IEEE 1363: Standard Specifications for Public-Key Cryptography Single Sign-On Technology for SAP Enterprises: What does SAP have to say? [1] ^ Ed Gerck, Overview of Certification Systems: x. 509, CA, PGP and SKIP, in The Black Hat Briefings ââ¬â¢99, http://www. securitytechnet. com/resource/rsc-center/presentation/black/vegas99/certover. pdf andhttp://mcwg. org/mcg-mirror/cert. htm ^ Stephen Wilson, Dec 2005, ââ¬Å"The importance of PKI todayâ⬠, China Communications, Retrieved on 2010-12-13 ^ Mark Gasson, Martin Meints, Kevin Warwick (2005), D3. 2: A study on PKI and biometrics, FIDIS deliverable (3)2, July 2005 How to cite Public Key Cryptography, Papers
Assignment for International Economic Relations Lecture free essay sample
Assignment for International Economic Relations lecture Topic:Milton Friedman as the criticised economic agitator which has chances to succeed In my opinion, things which are fascinating in the economy for people without more than average knowledge about this science are not elaborate models, taxation or tariff systems. Really captivating issue for ordinary man is a picture of economy as a metaphysical force which rules our lives. In this context it is a reasonable tool for explaining global processes. Somehow, we should be a little skeptical, because it is quite dangerous to think that one and only impact on world society is supply and demand rule. In my essay I would like to focus on the understanding and the idea of world which Milton Friedman offered in the book ââ¬Å¾Free to Chooseâ⬠. In the reality as he presented it there are two categories of action- according to ââ¬Å"real economicsâ⬠and against it. That real and good economics is a set of actions, but also lack of any action, which are undertaken for purely economical reasons. One should emphasize that Friedman sees economics as overwhelming power which, in terms of the effectiveness and the profit, is the best solution. As an example he is points to ZSSR- an opposite of the model to free economics. In his view commonwealth with the planned economy would be in even worse condition if it werent for the elements of drawing aside from the Marxist ideology in the direction of the capitalism. American economist illustrates the way in which the system works by describing the situation of the Soviet citizen who is decides to break the principles of soviet economy. He is handing the washing machine over to the national point of repair illegally. He is paying more, but repair is done without the queue and he has his working washing machine in the short time. What is more a mechanic from the national point of repair gets some additional earnings. Both benefit from that transaction, which is a pure example of capitalistic way of handling business , all that happening in the center of gravity of a planned economy. Friedman is also assigning a very important role to the price as the notifying, stimulating and regulating factor. One should add typical Smiths attitude to the role of the government presented in the epitaph for Hong Kong of the end of years 80, written in the same spirit. My point is not to report Friedmans ideas, as I think that what he presents to his readers is not only the image of economics. I can see it more as the program, desired state of affairs. In my mind a Nobel Prize winner in field of economics from the year 1976 is in a way reminding of Karol Marx. Despite the fact that the Communist Manifesto is from other times and presents the opposite ides, I could say it uses similar rhetoric. As a matter of fact the American economist is scoring the program of the co-founder of the International Workingmens Association, as if he wanted to show that the capitalism won already as the best economic system, now is the time for it to become the leading ideology. Finding support in such attributes as the freedom, the equality in the access to goods explicitly in the context of the economic system is making the text of Friedman agitational. In the following part of the essay I will be trying to confront utilitarian (or even Utopian) vision of Friedman with views of other economic minds. It is probably the best to argue against Milton Friedmans theory by using the achievements of the school of John Maynard Keynes. It is obvious that the British scholar sees the role of the government and the state rather differently. Keynes wants administration to take care of citizens in the full-time manner, rather than only as a night watchman. However he agrees with the global scope of economics. According to him the domestic production depends on the world demand, and unemployment is an effect of the insufficient demand. When comparing the two points of view I shall focus on the vivid aspects. There is a method of the psychoanalysis with the colloquial name ââ¬Å¾ dictator â⬠. The test examines 2 persons- one is assigned to be a dictator receives for example 100 dollars. He is supposed to share money with the second person, so that the other accepts the exchange. If the second person agrees on the division of money, the amounts are given to the participants. If the division wont be accepted money is coming back to researchers. It isnt possible to negotiate and the second person knows what amount the dictator has at his disposal. Supposedly the situation is simple- the second person should agree to accept any amount the dictator offers, as it would always result in the intrinsic gain for him. Meanwhile, 69% of people for which the suggested amount stayed from 1 to 3. 7 dollar decided not to agree for the division. Dictators most often pay amounts between 28 and 44 dollars. It is one of many undoubted proofs for the fact that people do not always act reasonably and according to the spirit of economics. Adam Smith wrote, that the exchange between sides based on the principle of the freedom would take place exclusively when both sides will recognize it as profitable. How can receiving 3 dollars for nothing not be recognized as profitable? It turns out that there is something else apart from the profit as understood by Friedman. In ââ¬Å¾Free is Chooseâ⬠and ââ¬Å¾The Essence of Friedmanââ¬Å¾ is summoning the famous Leonard E. Reads pencil, of which ââ¬Å¾ no man knows how to make a itâ⬠. Read is describing all stages of the coming into existence of the pencil, with a broad spectrum. The pencil ââ¬Å"is sayingâ⬠that thanks to the function of price none of the buyer is interested in a aspect who is getting the graphite: believer of the Yahweh or the Allah and whether Americans or Japanese people cut the trees down. The whole matter is showing itself not to be so simple and that is why nobody is registering international price of pencils, and more a barrel of oil concerns us. Furthermore an example of the ââ¬Å"dictatorâ⬠shows that the point of reference is extremely important in making economic decisions. Not to search far, let us take the example of the European Union, which ideology is more related to Keynes than Friedman. What I mean is the Union as the institution bristling with the customs, rates, and artificial subsidies of Community economies. After all opening to other markets, with cheap products (provided it is not dealing with the dumping) should benefit the EU. Isnt it a fact that the more participants in the free global exchange, the more effective the economy is? We, Europeans prefer to pay extra for ââ¬Å"ourâ⬠grain, by subsidizing it, rather than allow for goods from Africa. Maybe the explanation for this is the fact that we are aware that even tough the profit is less, it stays within European economy, and does not allow inhabitants of Africa to make comparatively higher profit. It is worthwhile to mention the opponent of classical economics and the self-regulation of the world market. Karl Polanyi regarded specific business activity and its rooting in the culture together with the historical moment and the social situation as the main factors influencing the shape of the economy(ââ¬Å¾ The Great Transformation â⬠). According to Polanyiego economic transactions are not as much guided by receiving an economic or financial benefit as they are aimed at supporting and refreshing norms and social values. He found global markets moving on into the side of the laissez-faire, the main reason for the atomization of the society and the breakdown of social bonds. From the other side Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto is slightly narrowing the issues. He definitely rejects the argumentation of supporters of liberal economics, who claim that capitalism is not working in some countries (e. g. South America) due to cultural differences. He regards these views as offensive and unconvincing. In his ââ¬Å¾ The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else â⬠, he highlights the inborn feature of entrepreneurship of inhabitants of countries which find it difficult to function as the free market economy. De Soto claims that the poor men of noncapitalistic world have significant amounts of the saving which are being estimated to account for as much as forty-fold the entire foreign help from 1945 to 2000 r. The Peruvian can see the problem in the lack transparency of these goods. The wealth which people have from outside of the range of capitalism, is not circulating in the worlds economy. It is not possible to take a loan or to pawn the central mortgage with the help of these assets. For de Soto capital is not only a transparentness. The secret of Capital lies in abilities of people of capitalist systems which can see living their wealths which they can invest as a living capital. For them it works already on the principle of the unconditioned reflex, however the rest of the world is left with the dead capital and not being able to invest it. Here Hernando de Soto is seeking the cause of the poverty. I will devote the last paragraph to the quite obvious accusation, that in the model of Friedman there is no such an instrument like social benefits. The government, which is not helping poor men to rise their quality of living and help become economically active or in more extreme cases giving them a chance to survive, seems worthless. Apart from that, words about equality of opportunities and of the access to goods, seem to be empty words in the context of a society diversified in terms of wealth from the assumption. It is not difficult to attack Milton Friedman and his views. Equally easily like Karol Marks and his social and economic model . After all in the communism a logical cohesion and an adequacy in relation to reality were not the most important issue, its aim was to give an uncomplicated and interesting interpretation of world surrounding us. The same concerns the laissez-faire of Friedman. This gives the American economist greater chances of the success than the German a philosopher had. If to examine the criticism of de Soto, Keynes, Polanyi and socialists it it is possible enough to reach the conclusion that they criticize small shortcomings rather than serious professional errors. Following Keynes thoughts, it is possible to say that there are other factors which influence human action then mere economics. However it is worth to remember the fact that at one time we didnt know how to measure the social capital, social tensions, social inequality. Perhaps at one time in the future we will manage to measure even more intangible factors such as love, pain or the dislike. Then when they become measurable and countable, it will be possible to include them in the system of economic exchange, and to check whether being a ââ¬Å"dictatorâ⬠is still more profitable. It is difficult to force people to retreat from global exchange, in favor to the local one which is fulfilling the social role, as Karl Polanyi wanted. As for de Soto, the poor of developing countries must learn the same lesson as the Americans in The Wild West did- the important of title deeds and the fact that they are liable to an exchange for other goods, that is in short transparency. There remain two questions: how to convince people for acting within the free economy, and how to solve a problem which the laissez-faire doesnt predict? First what is coming to my mind it is a Grameen Bank example. First bank in the world which opened to people without essential capital. The homeless, unescorted women, families in need could take the microcredit fitted to their needs. Everything acting as a bit as in the fairy tale- as people are rising their standard of living and Grameen notes considerable profits. What is more they already have their followers in major banks: Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, BNP Paribas. Of course, just as in every other system there are already certain shortcoming, but one should remember that the project is young. One should appreciate the fact that it is satisfying social needs of the welfare state belongs, and it is not in opposition to the laissez-faire. And if the economic liberalism would be supposed to control entire world, it is in my opinion one of the best solutions we could offer yet. It is as if we corrected the shortcoming of the framework by using the tools that the framework gives us. Maciej Bialoruski, IS UW(International Economic Relations, Wed,16. 45)
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