US Stock Market and GDP Analysis

US Stock Market and GDP Analysis Stock Prices Definition Stock (or share) which is sometimes known as equity is a claim to partial ownership or holdings of a firm. Initially, the original owners of a firm sell their shares or stock to gain additional funds to finance the firm expansion which can be said as the owners sell part of the ownership of the firm to the stockholders. This is known as the Initial Public Offering (IPO). After the IPO, the stocks can be sold and resold by the stockholders in the stock market with the aim of gaining profitable returns through the price differences of the stock. Stock prices are determined through trading on a stock exchange such as NASDAQ, SP 500 and DJIA. Generally, stock prices reflect investor expectations for future corporate earnings and thus reflect for future economic growth. The Origin of the Stock Market The stock market originated in Europe prior the industrial revolution in the 1700s. Many traders in the market wished to make investment in huge businesses but this could not be affordable with a single trader. Thus, they gathered their funds together to invest in a new business as partners (Grazian, 2008). This is similar to the practice of shares nowadays and has inspired the origin of the stock market. In the beginning, the stock market trading started on an informal note. The traders met at coffeehouse which was used as a market place in the 1700s. The first exchange was created in Philadelphia during 1800 and in New York during 1817 and finally the trading rules were formed (Grazian, 2008). In the United States, the first stock exchange took place in Philadelphia over 220 years ago which was known as the â€Å"Board of Brokers† and the Board met at the coffeehouse. The Board of Brokers was later changed into the Philadelphia Stock Exchange in 1875 and it is now included in NASDAQ as NASDAQ OMX PHLX. The market became more structured without manipulative auctions and a fair commission structure was formed. The group of stock brokers was reorganized and known as the â€Å"New York Stock and Exchange Board† in 1817 (Terrell, 2006). In 1896, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (or the Dow) created by Charles Dow and one of his business associate, Edward Jones was first calculated. Along with other stock market index, such as NASDAQ and SP 500, the Dow is one of the most closely indicator to track the stock market activity. Besides the Dow, SP Dow Jones Indices also determined the SP 500 in 1957 (Standard and Poor’s, 2009). The SP 500 is more preferable than other stock market indices as it is determined through a more diverse constituency and weighting methodology with 500 stocks chosen for market size, liquidity and industry grouping. It is recognized as the best representation of the U.S. stock market and also classified as a leading indicator for the U.S. economy. Thus, the stock indices from the SP 500 were used as the data in this study. c. Stock Prices As an Economic Indicator Economic indicators give us a better idea of where the economy is headed. There are two types of economic indicators, which are the leading indicators and the lagging indicators. Leading indicators often change before the economic adjustment and thus can be used to predict the future economy whereas the lagging indicators reflect the economy’s past performance and only identifiable after the economic adjustment. Stock market is a leading indicator. Most people will first look at the stock market performance first when talk about the economic trends although it is not the most important indicator. This is because stock prices mainly depends on the expected earnings of the domestic firms, thus it can indicate the economy trend if the estimated earnings are accurate. A strong market usually followed with economy expansion while a down market always leads to economic downturn. However, it is undeniable that here are inherent flaws for stock prices to act as a leading indicator for the future economy performance. Firstly, the estimated earnings can be inaccurate. Secondly, the vulnerability of stock market which is probably adjusted or manipulated. For example, the government can manipulate the market to keep it high via various strategies to avoid public from panicking of economic crisis and the traders and corporations can manipulate the market via high-volume trades or other strategies. Thus, the true underlying strength or value of stock prices may become unobvious due to its vulnerability to be manipulated. Thirdly, the stock market is also susceptible to the creation of bubbles (Binswanger, 2004), which may convey false information about the economy’s direction. Economic Activity Definition The goal of economic activity is to produce goods and services in order to fulfill the needs and wants as well as to improve the social welfare. Economic activities are related to production, distribution, exchange and consumption of goods and services at all level in the society. Furthermore, economic activities can be defined as human activities which are performed in exchange for money or money’s worth, in other words, economics activities are those efforts performed by human to earn income, money, wealth and to maximize their satisfaction of wants with scarce means. The primary aim of the economic activity is to produce goods and services with an objective to make them available to the consumers. Thus, gross domestic product (or GDP) is one of the common ways to assess the economic activity. In this study, the economic activity is also represented by the indicator of GDP. The Origin and History of GDP The idea of gross domestic product (GDP) arose during the period post-carnage of the Great Depression and World War II in 1930s. GDP which was described as the ultimate measure of a country’s overall welfare, a window into an economy’s soul and the statistic to end all statistics was used widely and globally and become the defining economic indicator in the last century (Dickinson, 2011). Simon Kuznets, an economist at the National Bureau of Economic Research introduced a formula to determine GDP to the U.S. Congress in 1937.The original formulation of GDP was essential as it included all economic production in a nation. However, Kuznets’ formula was not being widespread utilized until the Bretton Woods conference created World Bank in 1944. After that, GDP was used widely as a tool to determine the nation’s economic condition. Although there are few economists questioned on the accuracy of GDP in measuring overall economic welfare, the GDP is still widely used now (Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2008). GDP is also described as one of the great invention in the 20th century because without this invention, economists, researcher and policymakers could not have played their role effectively with the unorganized data. GDP As an Economic Indicator Unlike the stock prices which serve as leading indicator, GDP serves as lagging indicator which changes after the economy adjustment. Although lagging indicators do not show the direction of economic trend, they reflect how the changes in economy over time. GDP is a tool that typically recognized by economists to measure the economic welfare. Increase in GDP indicates that the economy is strong while decrease in GDP indicates that the economy is weak. As stated previously, GDP is not a flawless indicator, many economists questioned on its accuracy especially in the financial market as some strategies such as quantitative easing and excessive government spending could have been carried out by the government to boost up the GDP of a nation. Despite of the flaw, as a lagging indicator, GDP is still a good determinant to measure the economic condition of a nation. Theories on Predictive Power of the Stock Price for the Future Economic Activity There are two theories in the theoretical literature on the forecasting ability of the stock prices for the future economic activities. The first theory explains the forward looking behavior of the stock market while the second theory discusses the causal effects of the stock prices on the economic activity (Croux Reusens, 2013). Forward Looking Behavior of the Stock Market Based on the idea that the stock price is the present value of future dividends (Fama, 1990), the theory of forward looking behavior of the stock market arose. The purpose for the stockholders to own stock is to earn from the interest difference when the stock is resold or to earn the dividends from the corporation. The increasing stock prices reflect the higher expectation of stockholders to earn more dividends. As the dividend is a payment made by a corporation to its stockholders out of its profit, the increase in expectation of stockholders towards future dividends gained indicates that there will be a rise in the corporation’s profit. Furthermore, the corporation’s profit is known to be positively correlated with the GDP of a nation, thus the rise in corporation will bring increment to the nation’s GDP. Therefore, a rise in the current expectation towards the nation’s future economic activity will definitely result in increase in the stock price. However, several researchers have argued that the vulnerable property of stock market to be manipulated may affect its predictive power towards the future economic activity. Stock prices may deviate from their fundamental value due to the speculative bubbles (Binswanger, 2004). Speculative bubbles is a situation in which the securities’ pieces such as stock prices rise far above their actual value as a result of irrational exuberance rather than the basic underlying fundamentals of the market. This can attract investors or stock traders to invest in order to take advantage of the profits. After some time, the bubbles will eventually burst and causes the stock prices will drop below their market value before they reach the equilibrium again. Thus, from this phenomenon, stock prices may deviate from the fundamental value sometime and hence its predictive power will be reduced. Apart from that, the globalization of the investment market also may reduce the predictive power of sto ck prices towards the nation’s GDP (Mao Wu, 2007). This means that is foreign investment in the domestic activity which brings about increase in stock price, however, since it is the foreign investment, it may not bring direct impact on the nation’s GDP. Causal Effects of the Stock Prices on the Economic Activity The causal effects of stock prices on the economic activity can be seen through the activity of consumption and investment. The connection between the stock prices and consumption can be explained by the wealth effect (Modigliani, 1971). The wealth effect refers to the increase in spending which due to the increase in perceived wealth. The rise in stock prices will bring about an increase in the income and wealth of the stockholders, they may increase their consumption as a result from having higher purchasing power. Since consumption is positively correlated with the GDP, the increase in consumption as a result from the rise in stock prices will affect the nation’s GDP. However, Pearce (1983) argued that the wealth effect depends on the distribution of stock holders in the nation. For example, most of the stockholders in the United States are comprised of small groups of rich people who have lower propensity to spend out of wealth. Besides, the causal effect of stock prices on the economic activity can also be seen through the activity of investment which its impact is on the cost of capital. The cost of capital is the fund for a firm to finance its business. The sources for capital can be varied from company to company such as equity financing and debt financing. Generally, the cost of capital is the weighted sum of the cost of equity and the cost of debt. With the increase in the stock price, the effective cost of equity will be reduced as a result from overvaluation of the stock price (Fischer Merton, 1984). Besides, cost of debt also will be lowered due to high stock prices as it could give some positive signals towards the lenders and thus raise the creditworthiness of the firms which would result in better loan condition (Morck et al., 1990). The Economy of the United States There is lots of news recently about the rapid growth rate of China absolutely furious pace for over the last decade and may overtake the United States to be the largest economy in the world. Nevertheless, the United States still keep the place of the largest economy in the world by far in the year of 2013. The United States has been keeping the place of the world’s largest economy for at least a century. With one third of the world’s millionaires and 40% of the world’s billionaires stay in the nation, the United States become the wealthiest nation in the world. The diversify economy and open market in the United States helps the economy to stay strong. The United States is also considered the largest manufacturer and the most influential financial markets in the world. Stock Prices in the United States The United States is considered to have the most influential and largest financial markets in the world. Almost every large company in the US is traded on a Stock Exchange. This study employed SP 500 as the stock market indices to be analyzed as it is the best representation of the U.S. stock market with 500 stocks chosen for market size, liquidity and industry grouping through a more diverse constituency and weighting. Figure 1.1 Time plot for quarterly average of daily SP 500 stock price index in the United States (Source: Economic Research, 2013) Figure 1.1 shows the moving trend of stock prices in the period from first quarter of 1974 to third quarter of 2013. From the figure, the stock prices in the United States generally showed a fluctuating rising trend with a record of expansion from 1974 to 2000 with gradual increasing rate at the beginning and higher pace increasing rate later from 1993 to 2000. There were significant market downturns in 2002 and 2008. The stock prices reached the peak in the second quarter of 2000 and started to drop afterwards until the minimum point in the first quarter of 2003. This market downturn has been known as the market crash of 2000. The causes for this crash are believed to be the corporation corruption, overvalued stocks and the emergence of day-traders or momentum investors. Several strategies has been listed out by the government to overcome the crash, for example accounting reforms to have better disclosure of corporate balance sheet form and new rules are set for the day-traders to apply more restriction. Besides the market downturn of 2000, there was a market downturn in 2008 as well. From the figure, the stock price index continued to rise after the market crash in 2000 and reached at maximum point in the second quarter of 2007 but falls gradually afterward till the minimum point in the first quarter of 2009. This period was ranked among the most horrified financial market history in the United States. This market crash is believed to be caused by the corporate corruption and the mortgage crisis. The stock price indices continue to climb after the market crash of 2008. GDP of the United States The United States has been the largest economy in the world in term of GDP level for at least a century. Figure 1.2 Time plot for quarterly GDP in the United States (Source: OECD. StatExtracts, 2013) The figure 1.2 shows the time plot of GDP of the United States from first quarter of 1974 to third quarter of 2013. Generally, the GDP level in the United States showed a gradual increasing trend across the period. From the figure, there are slight decreases in the GDP level are shown in 1982 and 1991 as a result of economic crisis. In addition, a more significant fall of GDP level was shown in the third quarter of 2008 after a gradual increasing trend. The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) declared that there was an economic recession since 2007. This economic fall is believed to be the result of mortgage crisis during that period. Relationship between Stock Prices and GDP of the United States The United States is famous to be the largest economy and the most influential financial market in the world. The tradition connection of stock prices and GDP of the United States has always be the topic of interest to be study among the researchers. Figure 1.3 Time plot for quarterly GDP and quarterly average of daily Stock Price in the United States (Source: Economic Research, 2013 and OECD. StatExtracts, 2013) Figure 1.3 shows the relationship between stock prices and GDP in the time plot from first quarter of 1974 to third quarter of 2013. In the tradition connection of the stock price and GDP, stock price is believed to contain the predictive power towards the GDP. From Figure 1.3, the stock prices generally moving in the same direction with GDP. However, the market crash in 2000 brought about economic expansion instead of the economic recession. This phenomenon goes against with the tradition relationship between stock price and GDP. However, the market crash of 2008 has successfully predicted the economic recession in 2008. Therefore, the contradict phenomena have again caught the attention of several parties to further study in the predictive power of stock price towards the GDP. Objective Although the theories and the tradition relationship state that the stock prices contain the predictive power towards the future economic activity, there are several theoretical and empirical researchers have contradicted opinions. Moreover, the historical data of stock prices and GDP of the United States also show a general similar moving direction of the stock prices and GDP but the market crashes in 1987 and 2000 resulted in economic expansion instead of economic recession. This issue has again prompted the further research in the tradition relationship of the stock prices and the economic activity. Hence, the purpose of this study is to determine the predictive power of stock price on the future economic activity, i.e. future GDP in the United States. Scope of Study This study focuses on the United States which the quarterly data is obtained with the sampling period from first quarter of 1974 to third quarter of 2013. The national stock price index of the United States, SP 500 is chosen. The quarterly average of the daily index is calculated because it is believed to be more representative for the entire quarter than the value at the end of quarter. Besides, quarterly nominal GDP is chosen as the representative for the economic activity. Both data is expressed in the domestic currency with CPI base year of 1982.

Media Violence and Aggression Essay

Recent cases of violent crime have led to the emergence of a new register of justification in the argument of the defense of criminals, namely the influence of media in the commission of such acts. One thinks, for example, the massacre taking place recently in the Arab countries (where revolutions is taking place), for which have been mentioned for example the influence of violent images broadcast or the ability to access, via Internet, providers of weapons. In this context of increasing power of public debate on the issue of responsibility of the media to violence in society, there exists the role that representations play violent actually on television and its effect on the sensitivity and behavior of the public. The answer to these  questions is clear-cut: there is a net effect of the impact of the spread of violent shows on the behavior of people especially the youth, the responsibility of television was suspected, no one today can no longer pretend to ignore it. Violence has b ecome a key major analysis of the functioning and the impact of media, from all media and techniques of mass dissemination of information (press, cinema, radio, television and telecommunications). The debate is often focused solely, specifically, on the issue of explicitly violent content, conveyed by the media and their effects. But to grasp the relationship between media and violence, it seems first necessary to examine also the very presence of violence in the content profile on the reasons for the presentation: in particular, the media- is the mirror of society and violence in the media is reflected in society. In addition, it is necessary to adopt a definition that is both more accurate and comprehensive of aggression: it defines an act by which a force is exerted to influence someone or do act against his will; it characterizes a relationship marked by the exercise of coercive power. Therefore, it seems necessary to look at a form of violence that is not directly physical, symbolic violence question the ability of the media, in them, to exercise this form of violence, regardless of the simple delivery of explicit violent content. The presence of violence in media have an emotional impact on young people, causing massive unpleasant emotions such as anxiety, fear, anger or disgust, and most of all: aggression. Even if they do not recognize it right away, they are going to recognize it when they are talking about it. But they have at their disposal three great ways to manage stress and prevent it from becoming a trauma: words, the scenarios inside and the symbolization of a mode emotional, sensory and motor. First, violence in media stimulates the senses into words. The children who have seen violent images while looking for a friend who has seen images do not contain scenes of violence turn away. In other words, what makes pleasure does not call for the setting direction while the violent images that cause unpleasant emotions, call for setting direction, although, of course, they increase the capacity to achieve. A second way to develop the emotional and interior violent images is in the scenarios and representations of action they depict. In the same way that violent images often push children to talk about neutral images, it often push them to imagine representations of  action (either they imagine themselves doing, or they imagine the heroes of the film does). These small indoor scenarios can be told by some children, but others need to go through the construction of material images (such as drawings, storyboards, photography and film) to get there. A third way to develop their emotions from violent images is in the non-verbal manifestations. Children confronted with images exhibit violent attitudes, facial expressions and gestures much more numerous than those who were facing neutral images. These events are consistent with the verbal discourse and did not differ either in intensity or quality, between children who speak more freely and those who speak less. For both reasons, we can say that these attitudes, these gestures and facial expressions are for the child, as well as language, and scenarios interiors, ways for them to hold emotions and states of the body caused by violent images. These events do not preclude a verbal construction of meaning, but the support and accompany of it. It is therefore essential, for it not only does not prevent but also it promotes. All of these processing activities involved in a work at a distance from both the image content and emotional states caused by them. But on this way, the fact that the images appear as constructions is something very important. More than one image is a construction, and easier it is for the child to initiate the work of transformation rather than it can have its own representation. In other words, the images are given as representations of reality constructed to promote transformation of psychic children, and an image can be more available to its personal mental constructions that it gives itself as a construction. On the contrary, those who present themselves as a pure reflection of that discourage them. The question of the impact of violent media content on the receptors forces us to try to understand the very meaning of the presence of violence in media. But beyond the issue of media violence is that of what it is to say. We leave here the most commonly raised questions on the subject and media violence, namely that of effects on viewers to violent media content. This is whether the publicized violence can lead to violent act. Exposure (sustainable) to such content can it cause harm? It appears that for the social sciences, the debate on the impact of individual scenes of violence is mediated, schematically, two competing theories: This idea is behind its fo rmulation in Aristotle. The portrayal of violence is therapeutic in that  it would help viewers to evacuate their negative emotions. The assumption is that the unpleasant emotions such as anger or frustration can accumulate to the point that the individual may have wanted to break free. However, this release could occur through an aggressive act real or watching someone else committing such an act. Publicized violence would play a role as a substitute for violence act. Conversely, looking at a model showing violence could help, according to some authors, the reproduction of this type of behavior, giving it a normal or breaking the inhibitions that may have existed prior in with its if the circumstances of everyday life reflect the situation in which publicized violent behavior occurred. Empirical investigations lead to conflicting results and it is difficult to decide the question of the impact on the individual. Perhaps, because the issue is in itself problematic, and is badly put. Media can be considered an agent of socialization. Thus, two types of conclusions can be drawn. First, the media is an agent of socialization among many others; it is difficult to assess its role in the assimilation of social norms and values ​​regardless of the role played by other agents of socialization. Second, the current inter actionist has shown that socialization cannot be equated to a phenomenon of inculcation of contextualized: Further characteristics of the message media coverage, are the characteristics of the individual and those of the social environment and the mobilization situation of the media that must be taken into account. In the end, all social scientists agree on the idea that media violence does not have a uniform effect on everyone, so the potential impact of media violence cannot be seen as a direct or systematic, it remains almost impossible to provide an absolute answer to this problem. It is therefore necessary to make a more productive crop and the subject, to illuminate the links between violence and media interest in the reasons for the presence of violence in the media. The media coverage of violence as an expression and distribution problems of social organization: access to the public as a political lever. Turning first to the violence present is shown in the idea of ​​information (newspapers or specialized newspapers or radio broadcast), it appears that there is an increase in media coverage of violent events, over-represented. More precisely, for some authors, such information relating to severe weather would be a privileged means of access by the media to different parts of social reality. The question of life in a  country was overwhelmingly introduced in the media through riots, crimes or armed interventions that could take place there. In order to understand this phenomenon there is television reading keys that should be taken into consi deration. Thus, television would develop a special interest in the extraordinary, the sensational, the phenomena with high potential for dramatization, both to attract the attention of the spectators, but also for reasons of competition with other chains that grows in search of the scoop, the event is even more exciting and impressive (that attracts and captures the attention). Therefore, two types of conclusions can be drawn, in part contradictory. First, the overrepresentation of violence does not mean an actual increase and the same amount of aggression in society, but simply a focusing of attention on the violence, which has more to do with social representations. A circular phenomenon can then be highlighted. If we mediate much violence is that it is a fundamental concern of society, and talking about it as impressive (in the photographic sense) social representations, is to strengthen the attention given to the heightened violence. It can be shown that this idea, rather than the existence of (hyper) violent, that of a society of fear, a hyper security; obsessed by violence as it has never been so low (at least physically, the violent crime statistics prove it), it places a disproportionate contributor to the fact that social actors see violence everywhere, and obtain confirmation of their assumptions about the violence of the society in which they live, and legitimize the pervasiveness of violence in the media. The idea of ​​mirror of society refer to the media must be seriously questioned: this mirror is largely distorted and it is more a reflection of social representations that the idea itself it offers. But on the other hand, the phenomenon of over-representation of media violence can have adverse effects on reality: media coverage of violence could lead to increased violence, but this time not for reasons of mimicry. Public opinion and the ability to convert ideas is a powerful political leve r, yet the media, especially television, is a powerful way to access it. But the media is particularly a fond of violence, it is necessary to get their attention, produce events that fit their expectations or spectacular events, such as violent. Due to the structural functioning of the media, social violence would become a means of privileged access to the media, an effective way to draw attention  to problems of social organization, disseminate beliefs †¦ etc†¦ Furthermore, the relationship between media violence and so does not limit these potential effects in reality is tied to a less visible. By forcing social actors, if they want their problems and expectations are mediated, to adopt the necessary categories of perception of the television people, how the media led to a form of symbolic violence. There is indeed a violence symbolic level, forced to abandon their ways of understanding reality to adopt one of the owners of media power and internalize these as legitimate, if one wants to be heard. It is this form of violence, either in the media that we will now concern ourselves specifically. We cannot first reduce the question of violence in media content to simple questions about explicitly violent content (images of murder, incitement to discourse of racial hatred etc†¦). Another form of violence must be addressed, symbolic violence caused by the information control and social representation by certain social actors, which would be dependent on others. Assumption that the order of importance attributed by the media to disseminate information that is reflected in the level of attention the public gives to the same information. The media would have the effect of imposing the favorite themes of collective attention, thus contributing directly to the formation of public opinion. The media is able to impose the public focus their attention on topics chosen by them. This is what we saw in the first part with the imposition of violent themes, but beyond the topics themselves (content) it is possible to impose collective attention, as a form of symbolic violence, which concerns us here. Comparing the conceptions of social reality in strong and weak consumer television, highlighting the fact that high consumers of television have a conception of social reality is closer to the recurrent and stereotyped patterns found in the content television messages, yet these messages provide a distorted. The cultural and cognitive impacts: implications in terms of social recognition and self-esteem if it is not (or â€Å"bad†) represented in the media. But major problem of these theories: the failure to take into account the context of everyday life in which occurs the reception of the media, that it neglects the question of the social uses of media. Here we must also address more precisely the different uses of specific media beyond the single frequency of use. However, one can argue for a symbolic violence which is exercised in society simply because of the  existence of unequal access to the various media. To this should be added that this violence can be exercised even better than enjoy a variety of media credibility, prestige of a different (less prestigious television films, television news less valued and informative issued by the press written †¦ etc.). This is the social representations that must be mobilized in terms of symbolic domination. Dissemination of information through the media has the effect of strengthening the social and cultural inequalities that already exist within the population. To the extent that this hypothesis is verified by empirical research, this research calls into question the educational potential of some media, especially TV. A symbolic violence exerted against the relatively more disadvantaged populations, invisible, and unrelated to the level of violence broadcast content or any desire to use of coercion against a targeted audience. In conclusion, it is essential to recognize that the â€Å"reality† is not a single aspect, or even two, but three inseparable. There was first the real world objective, then the images of growing technologies that we give and obey their own rules, and finally the personal representations everyone gives it. And the problem is that we are all constantly threatened and confused with each other †¦ In order to solve this issue, we should not only take into account the risk of confuse the material images with reality, but also to confuse the images everyone sees it with those shows – because everyone makes an image as personal images they see – and even the images that everyone carries within itself with reality. The freedom from the images through the triple learning: distinguishing any moment between reality, image material and the inner image that we form. Reference List Barbara, K. (2001) The social psychology of aggression. Social psychology. New York, NY, US: Psychology Press. (2001). Lennings, H. (2011).The effect of auditory verses visual violent media exposure on aggressive behavior: The role of song lyrics, video clips and musical tone. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. ScienceDirect. Volume 47, Issue 4, July 2011, pages 794-799. Krahe, B. (2010). Longitudinal effects of media violence on aggression and empathy among German adolescents. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. Volume 31, Issue 5, October 2010, pages 401-409. Hamerton-Kelly, R. (2008). A Theory of Religion and violence. http://www.hamerton-kelly.com/talks/Theory_of_Religion_and_Violence.html. Accessed on January 21, 2012.

Descriptive Eassy on Visit for Trip

Fear On The Autobahn With definitions of difficult words One often experiences strange incidents in life. Such incidents remain etched in the memory lane. Scary or cheerful, my first trip on the Lyari expressway can never be forgotten. Why not, for it is recorded in detail in my personal diary. Before the arrival of my cousins from USA, I believed myself to be a sort of an extremely brave wunderkind. It all changed after that. Even my grandiloquence did not stop them from frightening me with hair-raising stories. Very soon, I had started to fear every nick and corner for what it may conceal.As a small child, I started believing in out-worldly people and in the fact that my cousins were clairvoyants and could see into the future. Along with these stories, my cousins had burst me with admiration for the autobahn on the Lyari River. I repeatedly tried to persist my over-burdened father into taking me for a ride, till he finally accepted my request. Dressed smartly on that eventful day, I looked for all to see as the luckiest boy in the world. As a final blood curdle, my eldest cousin warned me that something bad could happen to me on the expressway. However, even his warning could not dampen my spirits before the ride.After 5 minutes of light-hearted singing (and unhesitating driving by my father), we finally reached the tollbooth of the autobahn. I could not stop myself from thinking whether the collector was an out-worldly creature or a human. Only when I discovered that his ears weren’t pointed – but were round just like my ears – was I convinced of his being. After the toll had commanded over a little money from my father’s pocket, my father opened the car radio and started driving at a ridiculous speed. He had a wonderful sense of schadenfreude when he learnt from the car radio that a car crash had occurred near the entrance of the expressway.The crash meant that there would be no other cars on the autobahn, so my father could cont inue driving at his ridiculous speed. At this point of the narrative, I will blame my cousins for redirecting my thoughts. Their stories spooked me for a long time, especially on the Lyari autobahn. I believed that every nick and corner would reveal a specially armed kidnapper. Then suddenly I saw the outline of a man running towards us and my blood ran cold. Many people say that reading too many books can be bad for you. I sincerely agreed with them after the incident.At that point of time, I imagined myself to be an African slave of the 1800s being shipped to the States. I prepared myself to be stripped of my lederhosen and to be given a diet of kinkorn. I would be separated from my family and be thrashed by a myriad of people. Harrowingly, I told my father that a convict, who was brandishing a sword, was beckoning us to stop. Seeing my miserable face, my father started laughing uncontrollably, and almost crashed into a wall. After gazing at my surprised face, he told me that the ‘convict’ was actually guard pointing to the speed limit; which my father had been crossing.Chuckling, my father related that the guard had a much more powerful weapon to brandish than a sword; the guard had a gun! After the afore-mentioned incident, I vowed never to spook little children with haunted stories. I advise all readers never to take a trip on an autobahn during the night. Autobahn| expressway| Wunderkind| child prodigy| Grandiloquence| Grand gestures| Clairvoyant| Fortune-teller| Schadenfreude| Pleasure derived from someone’s misfortune| Lederhosen| Leather shorts| Kinkorn| Ancient wheat| Myriad| Large number| Harrowing| Extremely distressed| Definations

Civil Disobedience and Other Essays Response Questions

Question Responses to Henry David Thoreau s Civil Disobedience 6 claims Henry David Thoreau made in his essay: †¢ I heartily accept the motto,__ That government is best which governs least; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. (Page one; Section one) My thoughts: This is the very first sentence in Henry Thoreau s essay Civil Disobedience. His claim that government is best when it governs the least is explained though out the first part of his essay. By this claim he means that by a government acting less by laws and more by moral and conscience judgment it would lead to a better nation. He claims that IF people ,citizens of the United States, started acting on our conscience (the†¦show more content†¦Here he compares the government to a civilian tax collector. Saying that he only sees him once a year and at that time the tax collector taunts him with the fact that he, as a person of the United States, has to follow this law no matter how immoral or unjust he thinks it is. Even now a tax collector is someone no one looks forward to seeing but at this time, when the government was still being questioned on immoral and unjust laws, when the people of the United States were questioning if they needed a g overnment at all, tax collectors where an unnecessary necessary. Meaning that yes they were there for a reason but the people never understood their purpose. By Thoreau claiming that a tax collector represented his government he implies that the government is mainly after his money and will go to many lengths to get it. Meaning that in someway or the other a government like this one is an unnecessary necessary. †¢ The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus, etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth andShow MoreRelatedA3 Civil Rights Citizenship And Participation1216 Words   |  5 Pagesï » ¿ Unit 3: Civil Rights, Citizenship, and Civic Participation This Unit Activity will help you meet these educational goals: Inquiry Skills—You will identify and analyze real-world public problems, contribute appropriately to public deliberations, evaluate and use evidence, develop explanations and make persuasive arguments in support of your conclusions, and communicate your conclusions. 21st Century Skills—you will employ online tools for research and analysis, use critical-thinking and problem-solvingRead MoreRhetorical Analysis of Thoreau’s â€Å"Civil Disobedience†1570 Words   |  7 PagesThoreau’s â€Å"Civil Disobedience† Directions: Read â€Å"Civil Disobedience.† As you read, underline examples of Thoreau using rhetorical devices and identify and explain the devices via annotation. 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