Essay --

Linguistic profiling is the auditory form of racial discrimination by making judgment solely based on the way a person speaks and sounds. This type of racial discrimination has been detected in regards to housing, job opportunities and the criminal law. The effects of linguistic profiling is detrimental to individuals who are perceived as having an undesirable accent. These perceptions often lead to stereotypical misconceptions that society has created or attached to a certain race group. Dr. John Baugh, a professor of linguistics from Stanford University of California, was the inventor of this term. He conducted an experiment to examine the reaction of Americans to different accents. He calls properties that are advertised for rent and uses different accents. He uses an African American accent, a Latino accent and finally a neutral American accent. During these calls there was no mention of job history, qualifications, credit scores or educational background. His findings concluded that the minority dialects inquiries were often disregarded particularly in the affluent communities. Many times the researchers determined that those with the minority accent were often told by the property managers that there were no Ladesh 2 vacancies, but openings were available to those who spoke in a Standard English accent. â€Å"Those who sound white get the appointment,† Baugh says. â€Å"When challenged in lawsuits, many businesses deny that they can determine race or ethnicity over the phone. However, Baugh’s ongoing study shows that over the phone many Americans are able to accurately guess the age, race, sex, ethnicity, region of heritage and other social demographics based on a few sentences, even just a hello.† (†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.) Baugh ... ... confused and even shocked. That is when John realized that when he spoke to them on the phone he used his professional voice and often he was criticized for â€Å"sounding white†. That’s when he made the discovery that they were shocked because they expected him to be white. In fact, four agents told him the properties were no longer available. This whole idea of linguistic profiling encompasses steering, redlining, and overall racial discrimination towards individuals based on their personal characteristics. The assumptions and preconceived notions, the stereotypical associations are what is keeping racism alive. The way Ladesh 7 in which we talk shouldn’t be a negative, but in fact should be embraced by our cultural differences. The content of our words can be debated and questioned, but the way we sound when we speak these words should not.

The Financial Crisis of 2008

This paper explores the factors, which caused the recent financial crisis of 2008. Furthermore this paper will explain how the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) monetary policies and the Federal Government’s fiscal policies are crucial in limiting and perhaps eliminating future catastrophes.The Financial Crisis of 2008Factors and PreventionThe financial crisis of 2008 is widely considered the worst financial crisis, since the Great Depression (Pendrey, 2009). The repercussions of the crisis were mind-boggling, and unfortunately for many, it was life altering. Families lost their houses, their jobs, and in many cases, they lost their entire life savings. Furthermore, neither businesses nor banks escaped the massacre. The financial crisis not only devastated the United States, it also had far reaching worldwide consequences. The global economy suffered, as a result of what was happening here.The devastation was so severe, that the economy has yet to fully recover. To make matters e ven more frustrating, Sewell Chan of the New York Times explained, â€Å"The 2008 financial crisis was an â€Å"avoidable† disaster caused by widespread failures in government regulation, corporate mismanagement and heedless risk-taking by Wall Street†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (2011). This paper will attempt to discuss the factors, which led to the crisis, and perhaps more importantly, attempt to provide courses of action, which would prevent similar incidents in the future.DiscussionIn the years that led up to the financial crisis, seemingly everyone who could fog a mirror could get a home loan. These loans were often much more than the borrower could ever possibly afford to pay back. The government commission, which investigated the crisis, believes one of the main factors causing the financial crisis was the Federal Reserve’s and other regulators  failure to recognize the poisonous combination of careless mortgage loans, in addition to the packaging and sale of loans to inve stors and risky bets on securities backed by the subprime loans (Chan, 2011).The previous statements are best summarized, when Leon Hadar, a research fellow in foreign policy studies, opines in his Cato Institute commentary, â€Å"The housing boom and bust that precipitated the crisis were facilitated by extremely loose monetary policy.† (2009).Faulty monetary policies are not alone in the blame, however. The Federal Government’s shoddy fiscal policy also played a role. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, also known as the Financial Modernization Act of 1999, repealed the injunction on the collaboration between investment and commercial banking established by the New Deal-era Glass-Steagall Act’s of 1932 and 1933. According to Hadar, this policy also proved dreadful. He states the Act, â€Å"†¦caused the crisis by clearing the way for investment and commercial banks to merge, and thus giving investment banks the incentive to take greater risks, while reducing the amount of equity they are required to hold against any given dollar of assets.† (2009).Not surprisingly, the incompetency and, in some cases, illegal actions of corporate management, in addition to Wall Street’s propensity to risk, also contributed to the 2008 financial meltdown. The US government’s official report, on the financial crisis, concluded, â€Å"several financial industry figures may have broken the law in the run-up to the crisis.† (Rushe, 2011). Furthermore, risk taking is an every day occurrence with Wall Street. Charles Ferguson pulls no punches with respect to Wall Street’s share of the blame, in an online article.The article titled â€Å"Heist of the century: Wall Street’s roll in the financial crisis† orates, â€Å"It is no exaggeration to say that since the 1980s, much of the global financial sector has become criminalised, creating an industry culture that tolerates or even encourages systematic fraud. The behavio ur that caused the mortgage bubble and financial crisis of 2008 was a natural outcome and continuation of this pattern, rather than some kind of economic accident.† (2012). SolutionWith the previous factors given, one might wonder how to prevent another  financial crisis from occurring. Costas Markides provides a very reasonable thesis in my opinion. In a Bloomberg.com blog, which addresses actions needed to avoid the next predicament, Markides contemplates, â€Å"If you want to change how people behave, don’t tell them. Instead, change the underlying environment that produced their â€Å"bad† behavior in the first place.† (2012). In other words, it is human nature to demand punishment and thereby obtaining a sense of instant gratification. To prevent future financial calamities, however, it is wise to address the underlying causes and understand what went wrong.Although there can never be a hundred percent solution to managing the national economy to su ch an extent that there will never be another crisis, the needed adjustments seem to lay at the feet of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy and the Federal Government’s fiscal policy. The Fed addressed one major cause of the financial crisis by implementing much needed regulations regarding mortgage loans and requiring proof of borrowers ability to pay the loan back (Warner, 2013).The Government, on the other hand, initiated mass government spending in order to stimulate the economy. Both the Fed and the Federal Government need to tighten regulations, but perhaps more importantly, they need to act more quickly and decisively to limit, or even more optimistically, prevent the next financial crisis. Mark Thoma of CBS best summarized this point by stating, â€Å"This disaster could have been prevented by a strong regulatory response, but the belief that markets would self-regulate†¦ led to a regulatory hands-off approach†¦ The hands-off regulatory approach wa s a mistake.† (2009).SummaryIn summary, it is clear that the financial crisis of 2008 was caused by errant monetary and fiscal policies. Furthermore, there was a delayed reaction by both the Fed and the Federal Government, which was caused by a hands-off regulatory approach. In the future, the Fed and the Federal Government need to act more decisively and promptly to better steer the economy away from a downward trending economy. Both the monetary and fiscal policies are vital to the ongoing recovery and future growth of the country’s economy.

Poisoning Planet Earth Pollution and Other Environmental...

ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION Efforts to improve the standard of living for humans--through the control of nature and the development of new products--have also resulted in the pollution, or contamination, of the environment. Much of the worlds air, water, and land is now partially poisoned by chemical wastes. Some places have become uninhabitable. This pollution exposes people all around the globe to new risks from disease. Many species of plants and animals have become endangered or are now extinct. As a result of these developments, governments have passed laws to limit or reverse the threat of environmental pollution. Ecology and Environmental Deterioration The branch of science that deals with how living things, including†¦show more content†¦Factories sometimes turn waterways into open sewers by dumping oils, toxic chemicals, and other harmful industrial wastes into them. In mining and oil-drilling operations, corrosive acid wastes are poured into the water. In recent years, municipal waste treatment plants have been built to contend with water contamination. Some towns, however, still foul streams by pouring raw sewage into them. Septic tanks and cesspools, used where sewers are not available, may also pollute the groundwater and adjacent streams, sometimes with disease-causing organisms. Even the purified effluent from sewage plants can cause water pollution if it contains high concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus. Farm fertilizers in some regions fill groundwater with nitrates, making the water unfit to drink. Agricultural runoff containing dangerous pesticides and the oil, grime, and chemicals used to melt ice from c ity streets also pollute waterways. Land and Soil Pollution In order to sustain the continually growing human population, current agricultural methods are designed to maximize yields from croplands. In many areas, the overuse of land results in the erosion of topsoil. This soil erosion, in turn, causes the over-silting or sedimentation of rivers and streams. One answer to the garbage problem is recycling. Some towns have passed ordinances that encourage or require residents toShow MoreRelatedEssay on A Better Earth4696 Words   |  19 Pagesfluids. When symptoms are treated in one area, more pop up in other areas. If this were a usual patient, doctors would be inclined to declare the multiple sicknesses as chronic and terminal. Not knowing what else to do, they would just take steps to make the patient as comfortable as possible until the end came. However, this is not a human patient. It is our home - the earth. 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