Han LeeMr. VinkEnglish 50 DATE @ "MMMM d, y" February 12, 2012Actors! Come on in, come on in! It's my great pleasure to have you all here. I want to welcome to my palace. Oh, my old friend -- I see you have grown a seriously splendid beard since we last saw each other. Are you here to compete in "The Most Splendid Beard" contest with me in Denmark? Oh, my goodness, who is this? I clearly remember you, my young lady and mistress! It looks like your high heel has taken you a step closer to heaven, mistress! I sincerely hope that your beautiful voice will last forever. Actors, you have absolutely no idea how very excited I am to have you all here. Now, let's get to work so we can pull off some great performances. Why don't we have a speech from you right now. Shall we? I humbly ask you, please let me see a bit of your reputed talent. Come on, put on a very passionate performance.I remember that you once gave a splendid performance, but I don't believe it was given in public. Even if it whought it was absolutely brilliant. It was a excellent act with well-written lines and much dramatic cleverness and modesty. I remember one critic said that there was no shallowness in the spiciness of the play, nor was any braggart able to induce him to criticize the writer. He called it an excellent play with refined sweetness that contained no superficiality.Having heard the full account of his father’s death from the apparition, Hamlet devises a crafty plan to discover if Claudius committed the murder without revealing his detailed knowledge of the murder. When Rosencrantz informs him that tragic actors are “on the way [to Elsinore], and hither are they coming to offer you service” (2.2.298-299), Hamlet, thinking that the players could be helpful to his mission, responds, “He that plays the king shall be welcome” (2.2.300), implying that the players would play a central role in his plan to corroborate his father’s death.When the players arrive in the palace, Hamlet welcomes them ra with Hamlet, and excitedly tells them how much they have changed since their last encounter. Hamlet then gives his best wishes to the players so their talented voices will not become worthless like “a piece of uncurrent gold, be not cracked within the ring” (2.2.390-391) and insists on getting to business “like French falconers” (2.2.392) for much needs to be done for his plan to verify the truth. Not being able to hold his exuberance out of the joy of having them, he asks the chief player to deliver a passionate speech in order to get “a taste of [his] quality” (2.2.393).When the player asks him about what speech he has in mind, Hamlet recalls a play in which the player spoke in the past but never performed in public more than once for it “pleased not the million” (2.2.397). He draws a parallel between the play and caviar, explaining that the play was too complex and elegant for the general public and hence went widely unappreciated. On the other hand, Hamlet and others who he claimsmessage to the audience, something that Hamlet’s blueprint needs for a successful outcome. Hamlet recalls that there was no preponderating frivolity or artificial pretense that might have made the play more entertaining but less valuable as a piece of art. He calls the play “honest” (2.2.403) for avoiding flamboyancy while retaining a high level of elegance and profound meaning.To Hamlet, it is crucial that he delivers his message to Claudius very clearly and effectively because any distracting flamboyance in the play might hinder Claudius from understanding Hamlet’s message. Therefore, Hamlet wants to be assured of the players’ ability to emotionally engage in a completely fictional play as if the play reflected their real life. Hamlet feels unsure about his future steps in response to his father’s apparition because he lacks solid, reliable knowledge that Claudius indeed murdered his father. On the contrary, the tragic players have the ability to embrace a fictional story and reproduhis own conceit that from her working all his visage wanned, tears in his eyes, distraction in his aspect, a broken voice, and his whole function suiting with forms to his conceit” (2.2.509-516). Although their performances may not be based on a true story, Hamlet believes that the players’ emotional engagement with the audience will convince them to sympathize with the actors.After the players leave, Hamlet remembers that he has heard guilty people watching an emotionally watching play “struck to [their] soul that presently they have proclaimed their malefactions” (2.2.554-555) and decides to use the same measure to ascertain the truth. Utilizing the talents of the tragic players, Hamlet expects Claudius to emotionally engage in the act that will enable effective conveyance of his message, to which Hamlet expects Claudius to display guilt or anger. Hamlet mutters to himself that he would “observe his looks [and] tent him to the quick” (2.2.559-560), and concludes “the play’s the thing 1
Han LeeIS EconomicsMr. JacklinJanuary 16, 2012Euro and Its Depreciation TrendAs a student studying abroad, the currency exchange rate is probably the most palpable measure of the economy to me. When the subprime mortgage crisis hit South Korea in 2008, a substantial amount of foreign direct investment ebbed away from the Korean stock market as people moved on to more stable assets such as gold. Consequently, the exchange rate for the Korean won (KRW) to the U.S. dollar (USD), which was 930 KRW = 1 USD on October 1, 2007, skyrocketed to 1545 KRW = 1 USD on March 11, 2009, suddenly making everything that Korean students purchased in the United States 50% more expensive, including tuition. Along with many well-known equity indices such as the NASDAQ, currency exchange rates are very sensitive to the market’s financial variability and a good indicator of the economy’s “health.”In the closing stage of the subprime crisis, the world is now encountering another financial crisis that is havingpean sovereign debt crisis. In the past five months, the EUR/USD exchange rate, which peaked on May 4, 2011, at 1.483 USD = 1 EUR, has plummeted by 20%, and 1.27 USD is now traded for 1 EUR. However, this trend is not limited to the U.S. dollar; the euro’s depreciation has become a worldwide phenomenon. On October 14, 2011, 1604 KRW = 1 EUR, but now, 1458KRW = 1 EUR, a drop of almost 10%, which is widely considered substantial since South Korea is aheavily export-dependent country and its inflation rate is relatively higher (4% in 4Q 2011) than that of the eurozone. This current depreciation trend of the euro has been throwing cold water on Brussels’ almost decade-long effort to make the euro the world’s dominant reserve currency, like the USD and, hence, to generate considerable seigniorage by printing an enormous amount of euro bills in accordance with worldwide demand for the euro.The primary reason for the recent depreciation of the euro is the increasing eurozone debt concerns andpril 2010 when Greece’s long-term interest rate surpassed 7%, the so-called Styx for long-term government bonds, because national debt is highly likely to get out of control with interest rates over 7%. The Greek government requested an EU/IMF bailout package, but the bond interest rate continued to soar, reaching almost 36% in December. Consequently, S&P lowered Greece’s bond rating to BB+, a rating that is usually given to junk bonds with a high default risk. Greece has rather reluctantly adopted retrenchment policies enforced by the EU and the IMF, but neighboring European countries such as Portugal and Italy have become increasingly embroiled in ceaseless bond runs, which has contributed to the growing wide fear of the instability of the euro, maintaining the eurozone’s current trend of depreciation.Other fundamental factors such as inflation are also worsening the state of Europe’s single-currency system. The average eurozone inflation rate jumped from near zero to 3% in the past the near future seems unlikely, as the European Central Bank has predicted that “[the eurozone’s average] inflation is likely to stayabove 2% for several months to come” (ECB 5). Likewise, many economists have predicted thatthe inflation rate is likely to increase over the course of this year because many European governments are increasingly adopting retrenchment policies, reducing government spending and social welfare brackets, and levying “emergency patriotic taxes” as a part of a desperate effort to stop the avalanche of national debt that seems to have gotten out of hand. As Mankiw’s model of small economies suggests, high inflation rates will drive prices up in the eurozone and, consequently, continue to accelerate the euro’s depreciation. Other domestic problems, such as nationwide worker strikes against governmental retrenchment policies in Greece and Italy and the upcoming French and German elections, which are making their leaders reluctant to take decisive action, present ae the complexity and difficulty of the problem, European leaders have been working to alleviate the crisis through a series of summits. However, as The Economist constantly points out in “Charlemagne,” its weekly opinion piece on Europe, leaders have yet to come up with fundamental solutions, and the Europe-wide bond run (and consequent increases in national debts) will only get worse in the meantime. The leaders of Europe should make a bold move to provide groundbreaking measures to rescue Brussels by overcoming their own domestic problems. Otherwise, the euro’s depreciation trend, indicative of the euro’s ill health, will only persist in the future.Work CitedEuropean Central Bank (ECB). "Economic and Monetary Developments." Monthly Bulletin December 2011. Dec 2011. Print.Ewing, Jack. "Cuts to Debt Rating Stir Anxiety in Europe." New York Times 27 Apr 2010. Print.Mankiw, N. Gregory. Macroeconomics. Worth Pub, 2012.Standard and Poor's, . "The Time Dimension Of Standard & Poor’s Credit .
After the devastating economic calamity of 1929, many economists believed that a new model was needed to explain such a large economic downturn the classical model could not explicate. According to the classical economic model, total output depends on factor supplies and the technology, but neither of them underwent significant change around the time of the Great Depression. Applying John Maynard Keynes’ theory that addresses “low aggregate demand is responsible for the low income and high unemployment,” modern economists came up with the IS-LM model to demonstrate the relationship between interest rates and real output in the goods and services market and the money market. The IS-LM model especially comes in handy to explain effects of government policies, since the model takes the aggregate market, money market, and labor market into consideration. Ever since, Adam Smith’s laissez-faire theory has become passe and governments practice heavy influence in all markets by utilizing various economic policies that encompass both monetary and fiscal means. And the model does give us a general idea how each policy would affect the population as a whole by showing expected changes in the total outcome and interest rates.
Han LeeMr. JacklinIS Economics DATE @ "MMMM d, y" April 12, 2012The Concept of Social RegulationSocial regulation is defined as government intervention that resolves societal problems resulting from companies’ economic activities. It emphasizes corporate responsibility to deliver reliable goods and services, reduce environmental contamination, and protect employees from unfair treatment, and it becomes feasible when there is widespread awareness of the consequences of firms’ economic activities. After the industrial revolution began in England, it took more than thirty years to achieve nationwide awareness of ongoing environmental problems and for legislature to institute social regulatory acts that could alleviate widespread smog problems in heavy-industrial cities. When the United States’ GDP per capita passed $20,000, American citizens began to care deeply about environmental problems, and the government began to take a more active position in response to the public’s rising awarenion began to develop rapidly in the early twentieth century to balance the needs of people and industries, social regulation was introduced when the federal government began increasingly to interfere with the environmental consequences of industries in the 1960s, so the history of social regulation is relatively short. Social regulation in America tended to be executed and overseen through independent regulatory commissions, such as the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) and HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Aeronautics_Board" Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB). Because the resolution of discrimination against minorities cannot be left to market’s invisible hand, nowadays the government actively seeks to pass regulations in order to resolve social problems.In order to consider regulations against social discrimination, legislators must distinguish rational discrimination, which does not require governmpts of equality: equality of chance and equality of result. “Equality of chance” means being able to use all of one’s personal talent and qualities, without external limitations, in order to reach one’s goal. Thus, the concept of equal chance will not provoke any fundamental conflict in a free society. On the other hand, “equality of result,” a concept that has been on the rise with the advent of democratic socialism, insists on everyone receiving the same result, which is like the sprinters finishing first and last getting the same prize. It is therefore no surprise that this concept of equal result generates much social controversy. As a result, discussions of social regulation against discrimination tend to focus on the concept of equal chance. Of course, it is practically impossible to achieve complete equality of chance, since individuals begin at different starting points depending on their parents’ wealth in a capitalist society; that is, all individuals, as soon as they are borhoose one’s job solely according to one’s belief and talent; gender, nationality, race, religion, innate disability or sexual orientation should not be allowed to limit or interfere with life goals.It can be said that social regulation, is fundamentally vastly different from economic regulation in the following ways:Economic regulation generally has an economic object of consumer and producer protection. However, social regulation’s goal is to allow them to live according to their constitutional rights and eliminate social inequality.While economic regulation, like antitrust legislation, tends to address market failure but is essentially designed to address distrust in the theoretical effectiveness and fairness of market competition, social regulations are implemented mainly to address market failure.Whereas economic regulation targets primarily a certain industry sector, social regulation has the potential to affect nearly all citizens and have an overreaching effect. Targets of socia teenagers, and social welfare—so many sectors, whose boundaries tend to be vague, that even many regulators find it difficult to define conceptual extension.Economic regulation that targets one particular industry can easily lead to “regulatory capture,” in which a regulatory commission sympathizes with the industry being targeted and regulates in favor of the target industry. However, because social regulation targets such a broad spectrum of society, regulatory capture rarely occurs, due to lack of specific target, but can be heavily influenced by civil society and opposition forces.Economic regulation tends to be implemented through independent commissions, but social regulations are usually formed through an office under the executive branch. In the United States, all economic regulatory agencies were commissions beginning in the late nineteenth centuries, as opposed to social regulatory agencies, which were installed under the executive branch and reported directly to the preside 1
MERGEFIELD First Han MERGEFIELD Last LeeMr. VinkEnglish 50BW Rot 6 DATE @ "MMMM d, y" September 25, 2011Minor Characters as Idols of Main CharactersThe majority of people have role models in their lives who serve as their exemplary epitomes, ranging from billionaires to next-door neighbors. Dissatisfied with their current identities, followers find a common denominator with their idols’ lives and look up to their lifestyles. They believe that they can eventually be as successful as their icons are. Some yearn to emulate their idols’ behaviors and life paths, thinking that following in their footsteps can effortlessly lead them to success. In the meantime, however, most of them fail to face their demanding realities and pursue their idols’ lifestyles. In Death of a Salesman and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Willy Loman and Stephen Dedalus discover appealing characteristics of shadowy minor characters, who serve as their exemplary life benchmarks. The protagonists wholeheart, he made his living” (Miller 69). Convinced that there is nothing “more satisfying than to be able to go . . . into twenty or thirty different cities, and pick up a phone, and be remembered and loved and helped by so many different people” (Miller 69), Loman becomes confident that “selling was the greatest career a man could want” (Miller 69). Moreover, his observance of hundreds of salesmen and buyers at Singleman’s funeral further supports Loman’s ambition to pursue a career as a salesman. In addition, it is a primary reason behind his rejection to travel to Africa, where Ben becomes affluent from diamonds. Without realizing the effort and talent necessary to achieve his goal, Loman firmly believes that his popularity would easily guide him to the path to success. Unfortunately, this delusion leads him only to adversity.Loman continues to struggle with living up to his expectations. His sales record and commission dwindle, which eventually precipitates his layoff. His reality is harHe purposelessly tries to justify his past rejection to go to Africa by stubbornly insisting that he still has potential, even though his heart does not believe it. Loman is cognizant that he should have chosen to head to Africa, but his futile confidence driven by his determination to emulate Singleman’s achievement and rejection of reality only allows him to think that “a salesman is got to dream, boy” (Miller 128), as Charlie recalls at Loman’s funereal. Further, his obstinacy to avoid reality and retain his belief in the easy American dream brings detrimental ramifications not only to Loman, but also to the rest of his family.Driven by his absurd illusion and Singleman’s achievement, Loman’s didactic measures inculcate his children that they can easily achieve success in the future without much effort. He overlooks the importance of mathematics, failing to note its significance to his son’s future career. Moreover, Loman’s compulsive bragging about his self-proclaimed successful camire.Another fervent zealot of his idol is Stephen Dedalus, the protagonist of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. As Dedalus begins to enter his adolescence, he develops affection for a girl named Emma, whom he idolizes over more than a decade. Although Dedalus barely mentions her explicitly, his tacit admiration for Emma prevails throughout the story. Dedalus recounts accosting Emma at a party and attempting to write a poem starting with “To E— C—” (Joyce 97) to praise “her heart [that is] simple and willful as a bird’s heart” (Joyce 326). Thinking highly of her purity and innocence, Dedalus agonizes over “how his brute-like lust had torn [by prostitutes] and trampled upon [Emma’s] innocence” (Joyce 168). Having experienced lustful relationships with prostitutes, he consciously draws a sharp contrast between the prostitutes and Emma. That is, he reveres her as a symbol of feminine purity and celibacy, whereas he views the prostitutes as symbols of promiscuity and filthiness. Mor“[meeting her] seems a new feeling to [him]” (Joyce 382). Trying to “sleep off” (Joyce 382) memories about her, he restrains and stabilizes his conflicted longing for her. With his firm commitment to leave Ireland, Dedalus concludes that women cannot manipulate his mind anymore. Moreover, seeing their vanity and inaccessibility, he decides that they are irrelevant to his forthcoming escapade. Therefore, Dedalus ultimately perceives Emma as a mere human being and forgets his idolized imagery of her.In both novels, minor characters, such as Dave Singleman and Emma Clery, serve as idols whose intangible qualities the protagonists dare to approach. Captivated by illusion of the seemingly unconditional American dream that his icon accomplished, Loman obstinately adheres to his belief that he can be successful one day. Further, he incessantly longs for unachievable success, which results in his unfortunate suicide. Dedalus also ceaselessly longs for his symbol of femininity and her qualities