Rates Of Return Essays - Investment, Income, Financial Markets

Rates Of Return The issue of rates of return on foreign owned companies through foreign direct investment. On Wednesday Oct. 25th.2000,at a meeting in Montreal, the finance Minister of Canada Mr. Paul Martin in his opening address to the G20 group on promoting Globalization, stated that ?globalization will have a more human face with measures to ease financial crises and social safety nets to protect the poorest?. The meeting concluded with all the participants agreeing on a package of measures, which they say, will lead to more financial stability in the world. From a political perspective this endorsement may seem realistic. However this futuristic goal will require more foreign direct investment from corporations and other sources of private enterprise at a time when most expatriate firms are complaining about the decline of the (R.O.A) rate of return of foreign owned companies, specifically in the U.S.A. Firms based in one country increasingly make investments to establish and run business operations in other countries.U.S firms invested US$133 billion abroad in 1998,while foreign firms invested US$193 billion in the US.Overall world FDI flows more than tripled between 1988 and 1998,from US $192 billion to US$600.The share of FDI to GDP is generally rising in both developed and developing countries. In addition to this information the World Bank further stated that developing countries received about one quarter of the world FDI inflows in 1998-1998 on an average, though the share fluctuated quite a bit from year to year. It would seem that this is the largest form of private capital inflow to developing countries. This data will seem to encourage more foreign investment. Hence, one will ask if there are truly low rates of returns on investment by foreign owned companies. If this is the case then why are there so many foreign direct investment by small as well as multi-national corpo rations? In order to answer this question there must be an examination of the actual low rates of return from foreign-owned companies. This examination will be based on the performance of U.S.owned companies. A research done by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) provided new estimates of the rate of return for foreign ?owned US nonfinancial companies that are disaggregated by industry and valued in current-period prices for the years 1988 to 1997.The new estimates. Along with company-level estimates for US owned nonfinancial US companies, were used to examine factors that help explain the low rates of return. The rate of return measure was the ( ROA) i.e. the return on assets.. This is also looked at as the ratio of profits from current production, plus interest paid to the average of beginning and end of year total assets. Also profits from current production are profits that result from the production of goods and services in the current period. Both profits and assets are valued in prices of the current period. Profits reflect the value of inventory withdrawals and depreciation on a current-cost basis. These have been adjusted to remove the income from equity investments in unconsolidated business and the expense associated with amortizing intangible assets. Total assets reflect the current cost of tangible assets. These have been adjusted to remove assets for which the return is not included in the numerator of the ROA ratio e.g. equity investments in unconsolidated businesses and ammortizable intangible assets. The new ROA estimates for foreign-owned companies indicate that: - The new current-cost estimates show that the average ROA of foreign owned companies in 1988-1997 was 5.1 percent. In contrast, the historical-cost estimates show an average ROA of 5.7 percent. - The ROA of all foreign non financial companies was consistently below that of US owned non-financial companies in 1988-1997,but the gap narrowed over time from nearly two percentage points in 1988 to one percentage point in 1997.The narrowing of the gap appeared to be related to age effects. Acquiring or establishing a new business add costs such as startup costs that disappear over time. - ; Additionally, experience can yield benefits, such as learning by doing that accumulates over time. - High startup and restructuring costs related to acquisitions also lower the profitability of foreign-owned companies. Newly acquired foreign-owned companies showed very low or negative rates of return. - Many foreign ?owned companies had a tax-related incentive to shift

How does Charles Dickens create suspense and fear in The Signalman Essays

How does Charles Dickens create suspense and fear in The Signalman Essays How does Charles Dickens create suspense and fear in The Signalman Essay How does Charles Dickens create suspense and fear in The Signalman Essay Essay Topic: Literature Charles Dickens uses many methods to create suspense and fear in The Signalman story. He introduces fear to make the short, ghost story more interesting. Dickens set his ghost story on a railway line, which at the same time has a very modern setting and not a traditional dark, crooked old house. The tale begins with a gripping and dramatic opening line, which instantly grabs the readers attention. The first line introduces the narrator who was left anonymous throughout the story. This instantly builds up tension, as the reader does not know what sort of a person the narrator really is. When the narrator is a character in the story, it makes it easier to know how the person is feeling; this makes the reader more aware of the character and can begin to relate to them. Charles Dickens begins to create fear and suspense in the first couple of lines. The story begins with halloa! Below there! The words were shouted by a mysterious figure standing above the cutting on top of the bridge. It leaves us guessing who had shouted the words; all we know at this point is that it was a figure in the distance. Halloa was an informal welcome in the late 19th century. The actions create mystery, which is effective to create the overall suspense. Also you still havent had any kind of a physical description of the signalman so at this time you dont even know if hes human or not and you cant just make an guess you have to read on. The description of the signalman is also quite fearful as when he describes him with, pale skin, dark hair and eyes, you feel quite scared of him, when they say he has his hand to his chin, that is quite mysterious. You want to know why he has his hand to his chin The signalman is an important character as once they get talking and his actions are very weird to start off with; He stands carefully in the railway with his hand on his chin, not moving a muscle until they are face to face Before he stirred I was near enough to have touched him. Also when they do meet he makes no attempt to start the conversation, instead he looks at the red light Look towards the red light He seems very mysterious and again pretty strange. As they begin to talk again the man becomes slightly threatening and the narrator thinks that he might be a ghost This was a spirit. This is a very tense point in the story because the ghosts identity may have already been given away, but the signalman begins to show fear and asks if they have met before. After their conversation the man leaves and the signalman tells him that on his return journey not call out those words. Halloa! Below there. It builds tension over what these words really mean to the signalman and why he is scared of them. The signalman himself looks mysterious A dark pale man. This would add to the readers suspense and build up the tension, as he gets closer. They go back to the signal box and from his long description you realise that he is quite a knowledgeable man Worked at fractions and decimals. If he is so clever why is he a signalman? He is also a very skilled workman Safest of men to be employed. These questions add mystery to who he really is, which in builds up the suspense. Within their talk, the signalman looks outside toward the tunnel more than once. This creates mystery of whats going to happen, and why does he keep looking out of the box? In the first conversation he tells the man that he is troubled. This makes you ask the question what is he troubled about and does it have anything to do with his weird actions before? Could he be or knows the ghost? These questions make you think about whats about to happen? This also builds suspense. On the mans return visit he is told about the mysterious figure and how it disappeared. It was gone. This long passage describing the ghosts actions adds tension and what is the ghost going to do next? He also clears up his odd actions (when he looked down the tunnel). The ghost says those very same words. We now know that he is not the ghost so some tension is lost but it is now a matter of if the man will see the ghost and what it will say. He also tells the man of the lady who died in the carriage just after he had seen the figure Within six hours after this appearance, the memorable accident happened. You begin to think of the death and the ghosts and start wondering whos next? He is described as seemed to make the place strike colder to me, but I said no more.. This a weird description to give someone, could he be the ghost? As you here about the ghost, the narrators actions are very intriguing,. The man has the same reactions when he hears about the second ghost In the end it is the narrators fault that the signalman dies because if he hadnt called down to him in the first place, the signalman would have looked up as the train came down the tunnel. Below there, look out. The first words of the story are the most decisive words of the story. Could it have been fate? And no matter what had happened between the start of the story and his death, it couldnt have been prevented. The man obviously feels responsible for his death and you feel that if he hadnt called down to the man none of this would of happened. This is quite a mysterious and even more, a scary thought.