Lab Report Essays - Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek, Microorganism, Staining

Lab Report Morphological Unknown Lab Report Introduction: There are many types of microorganisms in the world that may seem alike but are very different in function and purpose. That is why when one has to find what an unknown organism is he or she sees that its difficult to classify it based on its outer appearance. That is why there are many ways in order to classify microorganisms under microscopes. Two of the ways to identify microorganisms are by looking at the colony and cell morphologies or by conducting a series of stain procedures on the microorganisms. A colony is a mass of microbial cells (Colome, Ex6:28). Morphology is the colony's structure and form. There are six parameters used to describe a colony's morphology: overall appearance, colony margin (edge), elevation, size, pigmentation, and consistency (Colome, Ex6:28). Although colony morphology isn't the best way to identify microorganisms, it's helpful in recognizing some types. The other more efficient way to identify microorganisms is by staining them. A stain is used to co lor a microorganism and its background. On September 25, 2000, each microbiology lab student was given an unknown microorganism and was told to use series of staining procedures to identify his/her unknown organism. The identification key on page 61b of the microbiology lab manual was used in identifying the unknown organisms. Science

12 Classic Essays on English Prose Style

12 Classic Essays on English Prose Style Despite the changes in English prose over the past few centuries, we may still benefit from the stylistic observations of the old masters. Here, chronologically arranged, are 12  key passages from our collection of Classic Essays on English Prose Style. (To read the complete essays, click on the highlighted titles.) Samuel Johnson on the Bugbear StyleThere is a mode of style for which I know not that the masters of oratory have yet found a name; a style by which the most evident truths are so obscured, that they can no longer be perceived, and the most familiar propositions so disguised that they cannot be known. . . . This style may be called the terrifick, for its chief intention is, to terrify and amaze; it may be termed the repulsive, for its natural effect is to drive away the reader; or it may be distinguished, in plain English, by the denomination of the bugbear style, for it has more terror than danger.(Samuel Johnson, On the Bugbear Style, 1758) Oliver Goldsmith on Simple EloquenceEloquence is not in the words but in the subject, and in great concerns the more simply anything is expressed, it is generally the more sublime. True eloquence does not consist, as the rhetoricians assure us, in saying great things in a sublime style, but in a simple style, for there is, properly speaking, no such thing as a sublime style; the sublimity lies only in the things; and when they are not so, the language may be turgid, affected, metaphoricalbut not affecting.(Oliver Goldsmith, Of Eloquence, 1759) Benjamin Franklin on Imitating the Style of the SpectatorAbout this time I met with an odd volume of the Spectator. I had never before seen any of them. I bought it, read it over and over, and was much delighted with it. I thought the writing excellent, and wished, if possible, to imitate it. With that view, I took some of the papers, and making short hints of the sentiment in each sentence, laid them by for a few days, and then, without looking at the book, tried to complete the papers again, by expressing each hinted sentiment at length and as fully as it had been expressed before, in any suitable words that should come to hand.(Benjamin Franklin, Imitating the Style of the Spectator, 1789) William Hazlitt on Familiar StyleIt is not easy to write a familiar style. Many people mistake a familiar for a vulgar style, and suppose that to write without affectation is to write at random. On the contrary, there is nothing that requires more precision, and, if I may so say, purity of expr ession, than the style I am speaking of. It utterly rejects not only all unmeaning pomp, but all low, cant phrases, and loose, unconnected, slipshod allusions. It is not to take the first word that offers, but the best word in common use.(William Hazlitt, On Familiar Style, 1822) Thomas Macaulay on the Bombastic Style[Michael Sadlers style is] everything which it ought not to be. Instead of saying what he has to say with the perspicuity, the precision, and the simplicity in which consists the eloquence proper to scientific writing, he indulges without measure in vague, bombastic declamation, made up of those fine things which boys of fifteen admire, and which everybody, who is not destined to be a boy all his life, weeds vigorously out of his compositions after five-and-twenty. That portion of his two thick volumes which is not made up of statistical tables, consists principally of ejaculations, apostrophes, metaphors, similesall the worst of their respective kinds.(Thomas Babington Macaulay, On Sadlers Bombastic Declamations, 1831) Henry Thoreau on a Vigorous Prose StyleThe scholar might frequently emulate the propriety and emphasis of the farmers call to his team, and confess that if that were written it would surpass his labored sentences. Whose are the t ruly labored sentences? From the weak and flimsy periods of the politician and literary man, we are glad to turn even to the description of work, the simple record of the months labor in the farmers almanac, to restore our tone and spirits. A sentence should read as if its author, had he held a plow instead of a pen, could have drawn a furrow deep and straight to the end.(Henry David Thoreau, A Vigorous Prose Style, 1849) Cardinal John Newman on the Inseparability of Style and SubstanceThought and  speech  are inseparable from each other. Matter and expression are parts of one;  style  is a thinking out into  language. This is what I have been laying down, and this is literature: not  things, not the verbal  symbols  of things; not on the other hand mere  words; but thoughts expressed in language. . . .  A great author, Gentlemen, is not one who merely has a  copia verborum, whether in prose or verse, and can, as it were, turn on at his will any number of splendid  phrases  and swelling sentences; but he is one who has something to say and knows how to say it.(John Henry Newman, The Idea of a University, 1852) Mark Twain on Fenimore Coopers Literary OffencesCoopers word-sense was singularly dull. When a person has a poor ear for music he will flat and sharp right along without knowing it. He keeps near the tune, but it is not the tune. When a person has a poor ear for words, the result is a literary flatting and sharping; you perceive what he is intending to say, but you also perceive that he does not say it. This is Cooper. He was not a word-musician. His ear was satisfied with the approximate words. . . . There have been daring people in the world who claimed that Cooper could write English, but they are all dead now.(Mark Twain, Fenimore Coopers Literary Offences, 1895) Agnes Repplier on the Right WordsMusicians know the value of chords; painters know the value of colors; writers are often so blind to the value of words that they are content with a bare expression of their thoughts . . .. For every sentence that may be penned or spoken the right words exist. They lie concealed in the inexhaustible wealth of a vocabulary enriched by centuries of noble thought and delicate manipulation. He who does not find them and fit them into place, who accepts the first term which presents itself rather than search for the expression which accurately and beautifully embodies his meaning, aspires to mediocrity, and is content with failure.(Agnes Repplier, Words, 1896) Arthur Quiller-Couch on Extraneous Ornament[L]et me plead that you have been told of one or two things which Style is not; which have little or nothing to do with Style, though sometimes vulgarly mistaken for it. Style, for example, is not- can never be- extraneous Ornament. . . . [I]f you here requ ire a practical rule of me, I will present you with this: Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it- wholeheartedly- and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.(Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, On Style, 1916) H.L. Mencken on Woodrow Wilsons StyleWoodrow knew how to conjure up such words. He knew how to make them glow, and weep. He wasted no time upon the heads of his dupes, but aimed directly at their ears, diaphragms and hearts. . . . When Wilson got upon his legs in those days he seems to have gone into a sort of trance, with all the peculiar illusions and delusions that belong to a frenzied pedagogue. He heard words giving three cheers; he saw them race across a blackboard like Socialists pursued by the Polizei; he felt them rush up and kiss him.(H.L. Mencken, The Style of Woodrow, 1921) F.L. Lucas on Stylistic HonestyAs the police put it, anything you say may be used as evidence against you. If handwriting reveals character, writing reveals it still more. . . . Most style is not honest enough. Easy to say, but hard to practice. A writer may take to long words, as young men to beards- to impress. But long words, like long beards, are often the badge of charlatans. Or a writer may cult ivate the obscure, to seem profound. But even carefully muddied puddles are soon fathomed. Or he may cultivate eccentricity, to seem original. But really original people do not have to think about being original- they can no more help it than they can help breathing. They do not need to dye their hair green.(F.L. Lucas, 10 Principles of Effective Style, 1955) For the complete collection, visit Classic Essays on English Prose Style.

DOCUMENTARY CINEMA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

DOCUMENTARY CINEMA - Essay Example This essay will delve into various aspects of the film Dark Days by way of relating them to the broader social, cultural and political contexts. Firstly, homelessness in the United States can be traced back a long way. The direct and circumstancial evidence for this is available in literary and performing arts of the last one and half centuries. Prominent among the artists who dealt with this subject are Walt Whitman, Jack London, Charlie Chaplin, Woody Guthrie, John Dos Passos, Bill Mauldin, Jack Kerouac and John Steinbeck. In the early twentieth century slang, homeless people were casually referred to as hoboes, which is a term of denigration. These so-called hoboes had a reputation for being barbaric, wild, lazy and unscrupulous. The first detailed representation of these people living on the fringes of society started appearing after the end of the Civil War. We further learn that â€Å"following the Civil War, a legion of men traveled the country with no visible means of support. Some earned the sobriquet "hobo," which they embraced it as a nickname for a migrant laborer, that is, a "hoe boy." Whatever the origin, sociologists of the 1920s used the phrase "hobohemia" to describe a subaltern lifestyle embraced by white working-class males. When congregating in places such as Chicagos "main stem," they forged a swaggering counterculture that defied domesticity. They embraced the labor radicalism of the Wobblies, even while they were parodied by vaudeville and motion picture comics.† (Lookingbill, 2005, p.314) During these early days, homelessness in the United States was largely an issue of social class and was caused by the huge disparities in wealth distribution between the top ten percent of the population and the rest. But in the last century, the issue has grown to encompass factors of racial discrimination, drug abuse and homosexuality. Of the half a

Anti Discrimination Law Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Anti Discrimination Law - Case Study Example Discrimination is strictly condemned and discouraged everywhere in Europe, though there are slight differences between the European law and the English law in the determination of rights and obligations delegated by the constitution to the public at large. It is, therefore, the courts and tribunals adjudicating the cases, both civil and criminal in nature, take into serious consideration the facts regarding whether there is any sign of prejudiced behavior made by any member or organization of society while dealing with the complainant or treating as well as interacting with him under the biased attitude. In addition, the law forbids bestowing of more favors to anyone because of his personality traits and features. The provisions of law aim to set up a society where equality, justice, and fair play can be observed in all walks of life. Hence several acts have been issued and bills have been passed in order to combat the discrimination dilemma with an iron hand. Though law always recom mends equality and justice to all and sundry, it is not actually the case in reality. On the contrary, exploitation of minority groups and biased behavior towards the weaker stratum of society is actually in vogue in almost all societies of the world. Before embarking upon the topic under study, it would be advisable to define anti-discrimination law. Anti-discrimination law refers to the statute of law that prohibits any special rights or privileges to the individuals belonging to some particular race, gender, ethnicity, age group or towards the persons obtaining any physical as well as mental abilities or disabilities. The law also prohibits violation and condemnation of human rights of the individuals on the basis of their innate characteristics.

History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 6

History - Essay Example (http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/roosevelt/rrwh2.htm). 2. Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, November 18, 1903 is an agreement between the United States of America and the Republic of Panama to insure the construction of a ship canal across the Isthmus of Panama to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It entails the authorization for the U.S. through the president to acquire within a reasonable time the control of the necessary territory of the Republic of Colombia. This is made possible through the powers vested in the Republic of Panama to have sovereignty over Colombia. This is one of the self-protective efforts of the U.S. against likely invasion or opposition from other rising powers like China. (http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/roosevelt/rrwh2.htm). covers his declarations and adherence to the U.S. Foreign Policy. He stressed out the importance of the Army and the Navy in its foreign policy. He talked about the peace of justice and the positive and negative factors regarding the concept of peace. It entails both rights and responsibilities to the home country in relation to the other countries and the world at large.

Impact of Financial Leverage on Investment

Impact of Financial Leverage on Investment The term Investment is frequently used in jargon of economics, business management and finance. According to economic theories, investment is defined as the per-unit production of goods, which have not been consumed, but will however, be used for the purpose of future production. The decision for investment, also referred to as capital budgeting decision, is regarded as one of the key decisions of an entity. Leverage is a method of corporate funding in which a higher proportion of funds is raised through borrowing than stock issue. It is measured as the ratio of total debt to total assets; greater the amount of debt, greater the financial leverage. Financial Leverage is the ability of a company to earn more on its assets by taking on debt that allows it to buy or invest more in order to expand. Nowadays financial leverage is viewed as an important attribute of capital structure alongside equity and retained earnings. Financial leverage benefits common stockholders as long as the borrowed funds generate a return greater than the cost of borrowing, although the increased risk can offset the general cost of capital. In the past years, a large body of the literature has provided robust empirical evidence that financial factors have a significant impact on the investment decisions of firms. While traditional research on investment was based on the neoclassical theory of optimal capital accumulation (where under the assumption of perfect capital markets, the cost of financing does not depend on the firms financial position), more recent literature has increasingly incorporated frictions such as asymmetric information and agency problems as a source behind the relevance of the degree of financial pressure faced by the firm in determining the availability and the costs of external financing This chapter will seek to enclose literature on the impact of financial leverage on investment and other factors that may affect investment in firms. 1.1 Modigliani Miller (MM) 1958 theory with no taxation In what has been hailed as the most influential set of financial papers ever published, Franco Modigliani and Merton Miller addressed capital structure in a rigorous, scientific fashion, and their study set off a chain of research that continues to this day. Modigliani and Miller (1958) argued that the investment policy of a firm should be based only on those factors that will increase the profitability, cash flow or net worth of a firm. The MM view is that companies which operate in the same type of business and which have similar operating risks must have the same total value, irrespective of their capital structures. It is based on the belief that the value of a company depends upon the future operating income generated by its assets. The way in which this income is split between returns to debt holders and returns to equity should make no difference to the total value of the firm. Thus the total value of the firm will not change with gearing, and therefore neither will its Weighted Average Cost of Capita (Pandey, 1995). Many empirical literatures have challenged the leverage irrelevance theorem of Modigliani and Miller. The irrelevance proposition of Modigliani and Miller will be valid only if the perfect market assumptions underlying their analysis are satisfied Under the original MM propositions, leverage and investment were unrelated. If a firm had profitable investment projects, it could obtain funding for these projects regardless of the nature of its current balance sheet. 1.2 Modigliani Miller 1963 theory with tax M M (1963) found that the corporation tax system carries a distortion under which returns to debt holders (interest) are tax deductible to the firm, whereas returns to equity holders are not. They therefore concluded that geared companies have an advantage over ungeared companies, i.e. they pay less tax and will have a greater market value and a lower WACC. Following this research, the consensus that emerged was that tax is positively correlated to debt (Graham 1995, Miller 1977) and is considered a major influence in the debt policy decision. Modigliani et al (1963) argued that we should not waste our limited worrying capacity on second-order and largely self correcting problems like financial leveragingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸. That is firms should not be worried about growth as long as they have good projects in hand, since they will always be able to find means of financing those projects. 1.3 The Trade-Off Models Some of the assumptions inherent in the MM model can be relaxed without changing the basic conclusions as argued by Stiglitz (1969) and Rubenstein (1973). However, when financial distress and agency costs are considered, the MM models are altered significantly. The addition of financial distress and agency costs to the MM model results in a trade-off model. In such a model, the optimal capital structure can be visualized as a trade-off between the benefit of debt (the interest tax shield) and the costs of debt (financial distress and agency costs) as presented by Myers (1997) The trade-off models have intuitive appeal because they lead to the conclusion that both no-debt and all-debt are bad, while a moderate debt level is good. However, the trade-off models have very limited empirical support, Marsh (1982), suggesting that factors not incorporated in this model are also at work. Jensen and Meckling (1976) invoked a moral hazard argument to explain the agency costs of debt, proposing that high levels of debt will induce firms to opt for excessively risky investment projects. The incentive for such a move is that limited liability provisions in debt contracts imply that risky projects will provide higher mean returns to the shareholders: zero in low states of nature and high in good states. However, the higher probability of default will induce investors to demand either interest rates premiums or bond covenants that restrict the firms future use of debt. 1.4 Pecking-Order Theory Initiated by Donaldson (1961), the Pecking-Order theory argues that firms simply use all their internally-generated funds first, move down the pecking order to debt and then lastly issue equity in an attempt to raise funds. Firms follow this line of least resistance that establishes the capital structure. Myers noted an inconsistency between Donaldsons findings and the trade-off models, and this inconsistency led Myers to propose a new theory. Myers (1984) suggested asymmetric information as an explanation for the heavy reliance on retentions. This may be a situation where managers have access to more information about the firm and know that the value of the shares is greater than the current market value. If new shares are issued in this situation, there is a possibility that they would be issued at a too low price, thereby transferring wealth from existing shareholders to new shareholders. 1.5 Investment and Leverage One of the main issues in Corporate Finance is whether financial leverage has any effects on investment policies. The corporate world is characterized by various market imperfections, due to transaction costs, institutional restrictions and asymmetric information. The interactions between management, shareholders and debt holders will generate frictions due to agency problems and that may result in under-investment or over-investment incentives. Whenever we refer to investment, it is essential to distinguish between over- investment and under-investment. In his model, Myers (1977) argued that debt can create an overhang effect. His idea was that debt overhang reduces the incentives of the shareholder-management coalition in control of the firm to invest in positive net-present-value investment opportunities, since the benefits accrue, at least partially, to the bondholders rather than accruing fully to the shareholders. Hence, highly levered firms are less likely to exploit valuable growth opportunities as compared to firms with low levels of leverage. Underinvestment theory centers on a liquidity effect in that firms with large debt commitment invest less, no matter what their growth opportunities (Lang et al, 1996). In theory, even if debt creates potential underinvestment incentives, the effect could be attenuated by the firm taking corrective action and lowering its leverage, if future growth opportunities are recognized sufficiently early (Aivazian Callen, 1980). Leverage is optimally reduced by management ex ante in view of projected valuable ex post growth opportunities, so that its impact on growth is attenuated. Thus, a negative empirical relation between leverage and growth may arise even in regressions that control for growth opportunities because managers reduce leverage in anticipation of future investment opportunities. Leverage simply signals managements information about investment opportunities. The possibility that leverage might substitute for growth opportunities is referred to as the endogeneity problem. Over-investment theory is another problem that has received much attention over the years. It is described as investment expenditure beyond that required to maintain assets in place and to finance positive NPV projects. In these kind of situations, conflicts may arise between managers and shareholders (Jensen,1986 Stulz,1990). Managers seek for opportunities to expand the business even if that implies undertaking poor projects and reducing shareholder worth in the company. Managers abilities to carry such a policy is restrained by the availability of cash flow and further tightened by the financing of debt. Issuing debt commits the firm to pay cash as interest and principal, forcing managers to service such commitments with funds that may have otherwise been allocated to poor investment projects. Thus, leverage is one mechanism for overcoming the overinvestment problem suggesting a negative relationship between debt and investment for firms with weak growth opportunities. Too much debt also is not considered to be good as it may lead to financial distress and agency problems. Cantor (1990) explains that highly leveraged firms show a heightened sensitivity to fluctuations in cash flow and earnings since they face substantial debt service obligations, have limited ability to borrow additional funds and may feel extra pressure to maintain a positive cash flow cushion. Hence, the net effect would be reduced levels of investment for the firm in question. Accordingly, Mc Connell and Servaes (1995) have examined a large sample of non financial United States firms for the years 1976, 1986 and 1988. They showed that for high growth firms the relation between corporate value and leverage is negative, whereas that for low growth firms the relation between corporate value and leverage is positively correlated. This trend tends to indicate that to maximise corporate value, it is preferable to keep down leverage to a low level and to increase investment. Lang, Ofek and Stulz (1996) used a pooling regression to estimate the investment equation. They distinguish between the impact of leverage on growth in a firms core business from that in its non-core business. They argue that if leverage is a proxy for growth opportunities, its contractionary impact on investment in the core segment of the firm should be much more pronounced than in the non-core segment. They found that there exists a negative relation between leverage and future growth at the firm level. Also they argued that debt financing does not reduce growth for firms known to have good investment opportunities. Lang et al document a negative relation between firm leverage and subsequent growth. However, they find that this negative relation holds only for low q firms, i.e. those with fewer profitable growth opportunities. Thus, their findings appear to be most consistent with the view that leverage curbs overinvestment in firms with poor growth opportunities. Myers (1997) has examined possible difficulties that firms may face in raising finance to materialize positive net present value (NPV) projects, if they are highly geared. Therefore, high leverages may result in liquidity problem and can affect a firms ability to finance growth. Under this situation, debt overhang can contribute to the under-investment problem of debt financing. That is for firms with growth opportunities, debt have a negative impact on the value of the firm. Peyer and Shivdasani (2001) provide evidence that large increases in leverage affect investment policy. They report that, following leveraged recapitalizations, firms allocate more capital to business units that produce greater cash flow. If leverage constrains investment, firms with valuable growth opportunities should choose lower leverage in order to avoid the risk of being forced to bypass some of these opportunities, while firms without valuable growth opportunities should choose higher leverage to bond themselves not to waste cash flow on unprofitable investment opportunities. Ahn et al. (2004) document that the negative relation between leverage and investment in diversified firms is significantly stronger for high Q segments than for low Q business segments, and is significantly stronger for non-core segments than for core segments. Among low growth firms, the positive relation between leverage and firm value is significantly weaker in diversified firms than in focused firms. Their results suggest that the disciplinary benefits of debt are partially offset by the additional managerial discretion in allocating debt service to different business segments within a diversified organizational structure. Childs et al (2005) argued that financial flexibility encourages the choice of short-term debt, thereby dramatically reducing the agency costs of under-investment and over-investment. However the reduction in the agency costs may not encourage the firm to increase leverage, since the firms initial debt level choice depends on the type of growth options in its investment opportunity set. Aivazian et al (2005) analysed the impact of leverage on investment on 1035 Canadian industrial companies, covering the period 1982 to 1999. Their study examined whether financing considerations (as measured by the extent of financial leverage) affect firm investment decisions inducing underinvestment or overinvestment incentives. They found that leverage is negatively related to the level of investment, and that this negative effect is significantly stronger for firms with low growth opportunities than those with high growth opportunities. These results provide support to agency theories of corporate leverage, and especially to the theory that leverage has a disciplining role for firms with weak growth opportunities 1.6 Investment, Cash Flow and Tobins Q It was traditionally believed that cash flow was important for firms investment decisions because managers regarded internal funds as less expensive than external funds. In the 1950s and 1960s, this view led to numerous empirical assessments of the role of internal funds in firm investment behaviour. These studies found strong relationships between cash flow and investment. Considerable empirical evidence indicates that internally generated funds are the primary way firms finance investment expenditures. In an in-depth study of 25 large firms, Gordon Donaldson (1961) concludes that: Management strongly favoured internal generation as a source of new funds even to the exclusion of external funds except for occasional unavoidable bulges in the need for new funds. Another survey of 176 corporate managers by Pinegar and Wilbricht (1989) found that managers prefer cash flow over external sources to finance new investment; 84.3% of sample respondents indicate a preference for financing investment with cash flow. Researchers have also discovered the impact of cash flow on investment spending in Q models of investment. Fazzari, Hubbard, and Petersen (1988) find that cash flow has a strong effect on investment spending in firms with low-dividend-payout policies. They argue that this result is consistent with the notion that low-payout firms are cash flow-constrained because of asymmetric information costs associated with external financing. One reason these firms keep dividends to a minimum is to conserve cash flow from which they can finance profitable investment expenditures. Fazzari and Petersen (1993) find that this same group of low-payout firms smooths fluctuations in cash flow with working capital to maintain desired investment levels. This result is consistent with the Myers and Majluf (1984) finding that liquid financial assets can mitigate the underinvestment problem arising from asymmetric information. Whited (1992) also extended the Fazzari, Hubbard, and Petersen (1988) results in a study of firms facing debt financing constraints due to financial distress. She found evidence of a strong relationship between cash flow and investment spending for firms with a high debt ratio or a high interest coverage ratio, or without rated debt. Himmelberg and Petersen (1994) in a study of small research and development firms find that cash flow strongly influences both capital and R D expenditures. They argue that the asymmetric information effects associated with such firms make external financing prohibitively expensive, forcing them to fund expenditures internally, that is by making use of cash flows. An alternative explanation for the strong cash flow/investment relationship is that managers divert free cash flow to unprofitable investment spending. One study assessing the relative importance of such an agency problem was performed by Oliner and Rudebusch (1992), who analysed several firm attributes that may influence the cash flow/investment relationship. They find that insider share holdings and ownership structure (variables that proxy for agency problems) do little to explain the influence that cash flow has on firm investment spending. Carpenter (1993) focused on the relationships among debt financing, debt structure, and investments pending to test the free cash flow theory. He finds that firms that restructure by replacing large amounts of external equity with debt increase their investment spending compared to non-restructured firms. He sees these results as inconsistent with free cash flow behavior, because cash flow committed to debt maintenance should be associated with reductions in subsequent investment spending. Findings by Strong and Meyer (1990) and Devereux and Schiantarelli (1990) support the free cash flow interpretation. Strong and Meyer (1990) disaggregate the investment and cash flow of firms in the paper industry into sustaining investment (i.e., productive capacity maintaining) and discretionary investment, and total cash flow and residual cash flow (i.e., cash flow after debt service, taxes, sustaining investment, and established dividends). Residual cash flow and discretionary investment are found to be positively and strongly related. This evidence suggests that residual cash flow is often used to fund unprofitable discretionary investments pending. Devereux and Schiantarelli (1990) find that the impact of cash flow on investment spending is greater for larger firms. One explanation they provide for this result is that large firms have more diverse ownership structures, and are more influenced by manager/shareholder agency problems. The Q model of investment relates investment to the firms stock market valuation, which is meant to reflect the present discounted value of expected future profits, Brainard and Tobin (1968). In the case of perfectly competitive markets and constant returns to scale technology, Hayashi (1982) showed that average Q, the ratio of the maximised value of the firm to the replacement cost of its existing capital stock, would be a sufficient statistic for investment rates. Tobins Q, further assumes that the maximised value of the firm can be measured by its stock market valuation. Under these assumptions, the stock market valuation would capture all relevant information about expected future profitability, and significant coefficients on cash-flow variables after controlling for Tobins Q could not be attributed to additional information about current expectations. However if the Hayashi conditions are not satisfied, or if stock market valuations are influenced by bubbles or any factors other than the present discounted value of expected future profits; then Tobins Q would not capture all relevant information about the expected future profitability of current investment. If that is the case, then additional explanatory variables like current or lagged sales or cash-flow terms could proxy for the missing information about expected future conditions. The classification of q ratios into high and low categories is based on a cut-off of one Lang, Stulz, and Walkling (1989). The latters motivation for this cut-off is partially based on the fact that under certain circumstances firms with q ratios below one have marginal projects with negative net present values (Lang and Litzenberger, 1989). However, q is also industry specific and one may argue that managers should not be held responsible for adverse shocks to their industries. As such, the industry average may be a useful alternative cut-off point to separate high q firms from low q firms. Hoshi, Kashyap, and Scharfstein (1991) regressed investment on Tobins q, other controlling variables, and cash flow. They interpreted differences in the importance of cash flow between different groups of firms as evidence of financing constraints. Results obtained by Vogt (1994) indicate that the influence of cash flow on capital spending is stronger for firms with lower Q values. This result suggests that cash flow-financed capital spending is marginally inefficient and provides initial evidence in support of the FCF hypothesis. The stronger the influence cash flow had on capital spending in this group, the larger the associated value of Tobins Q. After the results presented by Kaplan and Zingales (1997 and 2000), several studies have criticised the empirical test based on the cash flow sensitivity as a meaningful evidence in favour of the existence of financing constraints. The significance of the cash flow sensitivity of investment, it was argued, may then be the consequence of measurement errors in the usual proxy for investment opportunities, Tobins Q, and may provide additional information on expected profitability rather than being a signal of financing constraints. Gomes (2001) showed that the existence of financing constraints is not sufficient to establish cash flow as a significant regressor in a standard investment equation, while Ericson and Whited (2000) demonstrate that the investment sensitivity to cash flow in regressions including Tobins Q is to a large extent due to a measurement error in Q. Likewise, Alti (2003) shows that investment can be sensitive to changes in cash flow in the benchmark case where financing is frictionless. 2.3 Investment and Profitability The idea that investment depends on the profitability of a firm is amongst the oldest of macroeconomic relationships formulated. The sharp fluctuations in profitability in the average cost of capital since the 1960s revived interest in this relationship (Glyn et al, 1990). However the evidence for the impact of profitability on investment remains sketchy. Bhaskar and Glyn (1992) concluded that profitability must be regarded as a significant influence on investment, though by no means the overwhelming one. Their results indicated that enhanced profitability is not always a necessary, let alone a sufficient condition for increased investment. However, years later Glyn (1997) provided an empirical study that examined the impact of profitability on capital accumulation. He tested the impact of profitability in the manufacturing sector on investment for the period 1960-1993 for 15 OECD countries. His findings suggested that the classical emphasis on the role of profitability on investment wass still highly significant and had a very tight relationship. Korajczyk and Levy (2003) investigated the role of macroeconomic conditions and financial constraints in determining capital structure choice. While estimating the relation between firms debt ratio and firm-specific variables, they found out that there was a negative relation between profitability and target leverage, which was consistent with the pecking order theory. This indicated that if leverage of the firm is low, profitability will be high and the entity will be able to invest in positive NPV projects i.e. increase investment. Bhattacharyya (2008) recently provided an empirical study where he examined the effect of profitability and other determinants of investment for Indian firms. He found that Short-run profitability does not have consistent influence on investment decisions of firms, implying that one should concentrate on the long-run profitability of a firm. This indicates that profitability is still regarded as one of the major determinants underlying investment decisions of firms. However, he suggested that liquidity is relatively more important than profitability when it comes to firms investment decisions. 2.3 Investment and Liquidity Under the assumptions of illiquid capital and true uncertainty, management can never be sure that investment projects will produce sufficient liquidity to cover the cash commitments generated by their financing. Yet failure to meet these commitments may result in a crisis of managerial autonomy or even in bankruptcy. Thus, capital accumulation is a contradictory process. Investment is inherently risky, while the failure to invest will ultimately lead to the firms marginalization or demise. Crotty and Goldstein (1992) Chamberlain and Gordon (1989) used the annual domestic investment of all nonfinancial corporations in the United States between 1952 and 1981 in an attempt to determine the impact of liquidity on the profitable investment opportunities available to the corporation. They have put forward that in their long-run survival model, liquidity variables play an essential role as it captures the firms desire to avoid bankruptcy. It was also noted that there was a significant improvement in the explanation of investment when liquidity variables were added to the profitability variables of their regression, thereby supporting the view that liquidity is a pre-dominant determinant of investment and that they are positively related. Hoshi, Kashyap and Scharfstein (1991) attempted to find the relationship between investment and liquidity for Japanese firms. They found that high current profits increase current liquidity, thereby generating further investment from the firm to ensure future profitability and increased output to meet demand. Myers and Rajan (1998) suggested that liquid assets are generally viewed as being easier to finance and therefore, asset liquidity is a plus for nonfinancial corporations or individual investors. However, Myers and Rajan argued that although more liquid assets increase the ability to invest in projects, they also reduce managements ability to commit credibly to an investment strategy that protects investors. Johnson (2003) found that short debt maturity increases liquidity risk, which in turn, negatively affects leverage and the firms investment. Jonson also suggested that firms trade off the cost of underinvestment problems against the cost of increased liquidity risk when choosing short debt maturity 2.4 Investment and Sales Sales growth targets play a major role in the perceptions of top managers. Using surveys, Hubbard and Bromiley (1994) find sales is the most common objective mentioned by senior managers. Additional explanatory variables like current or lagged sales are very important in the investment equation as they can act as proxy for the missing information about expected future conditions in case such information has not been captured by Tobins Q. Kaplan and Norton (1992, 1993, 1996) argue that firms must use a wide variety of goals, including sales growth, to effectively reach their financial objectives. They suggested that Sales growth influences factorsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦..all the way to the implied opportunities for investments in new equipment and technologiesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.. According to this study of 396 corporations, Kopcke and Howrey (1994) found that the capital spending of many of the companies corresponds very poorly with their sales and profits. These divergences suggest that sales and profits do not represent fully an enterprises particular incentives for investing. Consequently, these findings do not support generalizations contending that companies with more debt are investing less than their sales and cash flows would guarantee. Athey and Laumas (1994) using panel data over the period 1978-86, examined the relative importance of the sales accelerator and alternative internal sources of liquidity in investment activities of 256 Indian manufacturing firms. They found that when all the selected firms in the sample were considered together, current values of changes in real net sales and net profit were all significant in determining capital spending of firms. Azzoni and Kalatzis (2006) considered the importance of sales for investment decisions of firms. They found that sales presented a positive and significant relationship with investment in all cases. Impact of Financial Leverage on Investment Impact of Financial Leverage on Investment The term Investment is frequently used in jargon of economics, business management and finance. According to economic theories, investment is defined as the per-unit production of goods, which have not been consumed, but will however, be used for the purpose of future production. The decision for investment, also referred to as capital budgeting decision, is regarded as one of the key decisions of an entity. Leverage is a method of corporate funding in which a higher proportion of funds is raised through borrowing than stock issue. It is measured as the ratio of total debt to total assets; greater the amount of debt, greater the financial leverage. Financial Leverage is the ability of a company to earn more on its assets by taking on debt that allows it to buy or invest more in order to expand. Nowadays financial leverage is viewed as an important attribute of capital structure alongside equity and retained earnings. Financial leverage benefits common stockholders as long as the borrowed funds generate a return greater than the cost of borrowing, although the increased risk can offset the general cost of capital. In the past years, a large body of the literature has provided robust empirical evidence that financial factors have a significant impact on the investment decisions of firms. While traditional research on investment was based on the neoclassical theory of optimal capital accumulation (where under the assumption of perfect capital markets, the cost of financing does not depend on the firms financial position), more recent literature has increasingly incorporated frictions such as asymmetric information and agency problems as a source behind the relevance of the degree of financial pressure faced by the firm in determining the availability and the costs of external financing This chapter will seek to enclose literature on the impact of financial leverage on investment and other factors that may affect investment in firms. 1.1 Modigliani Miller (MM) 1958 theory with no taxation In what has been hailed as the most influential set of financial papers ever published, Franco Modigliani and Merton Miller addressed capital structure in a rigorous, scientific fashion, and their study set off a chain of research that continues to this day. Modigliani and Miller (1958) argued that the investment policy of a firm should be based only on those factors that will increase the profitability, cash flow or net worth of a firm. The MM view is that companies which operate in the same type of business and which have similar operating risks must have the same total value, irrespective of their capital structures. It is based on the belief that the value of a company depends upon the future operating income generated by its assets. The way in which this income is split between returns to debt holders and returns to equity should make no difference to the total value of the firm. Thus the total value of the firm will not change with gearing, and therefore neither will its Weighted Average Cost of Capita (Pandey, 1995). Many empirical literatures have challenged the leverage irrelevance theorem of Modigliani and Miller. The irrelevance proposition of Modigliani and Miller will be valid only if the perfect market assumptions underlying their analysis are satisfied Under the original MM propositions, leverage and investment were unrelated. If a firm had profitable investment projects, it could obtain funding for these projects regardless of the nature of its current balance sheet. 1.2 Modigliani Miller 1963 theory with tax M M (1963) found that the corporation tax system carries a distortion under which returns to debt holders (interest) are tax deductible to the firm, whereas returns to equity holders are not. They therefore concluded that geared companies have an advantage over ungeared companies, i.e. they pay less tax and will have a greater market value and a lower WACC. Following this research, the consensus that emerged was that tax is positively correlated to debt (Graham 1995, Miller 1977) and is considered a major influence in the debt policy decision. Modigliani et al (1963) argued that we should not waste our limited worrying capacity on second-order and largely self correcting problems like financial leveragingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸. That is firms should not be worried about growth as long as they have good projects in hand, since they will always be able to find means of financing those projects. 1.3 The Trade-Off Models Some of the assumptions inherent in the MM model can be relaxed without changing the basic conclusions as argued by Stiglitz (1969) and Rubenstein (1973). However, when financial distress and agency costs are considered, the MM models are altered significantly. The addition of financial distress and agency costs to the MM model results in a trade-off model. In such a model, the optimal capital structure can be visualized as a trade-off between the benefit of debt (the interest tax shield) and the costs of debt (financial distress and agency costs) as presented by Myers (1997) The trade-off models have intuitive appeal because they lead to the conclusion that both no-debt and all-debt are bad, while a moderate debt level is good. However, the trade-off models have very limited empirical support, Marsh (1982), suggesting that factors not incorporated in this model are also at work. Jensen and Meckling (1976) invoked a moral hazard argument to explain the agency costs of debt, proposing that high levels of debt will induce firms to opt for excessively risky investment projects. The incentive for such a move is that limited liability provisions in debt contracts imply that risky projects will provide higher mean returns to the shareholders: zero in low states of nature and high in good states. However, the higher probability of default will induce investors to demand either interest rates premiums or bond covenants that restrict the firms future use of debt. 1.4 Pecking-Order Theory Initiated by Donaldson (1961), the Pecking-Order theory argues that firms simply use all their internally-generated funds first, move down the pecking order to debt and then lastly issue equity in an attempt to raise funds. Firms follow this line of least resistance that establishes the capital structure. Myers noted an inconsistency between Donaldsons findings and the trade-off models, and this inconsistency led Myers to propose a new theory. Myers (1984) suggested asymmetric information as an explanation for the heavy reliance on retentions. This may be a situation where managers have access to more information about the firm and know that the value of the shares is greater than the current market value. If new shares are issued in this situation, there is a possibility that they would be issued at a too low price, thereby transferring wealth from existing shareholders to new shareholders. 1.5 Investment and Leverage One of the main issues in Corporate Finance is whether financial leverage has any effects on investment policies. The corporate world is characterized by various market imperfections, due to transaction costs, institutional restrictions and asymmetric information. The interactions between management, shareholders and debt holders will generate frictions due to agency problems and that may result in under-investment or over-investment incentives. Whenever we refer to investment, it is essential to distinguish between over- investment and under-investment. In his model, Myers (1977) argued that debt can create an overhang effect. His idea was that debt overhang reduces the incentives of the shareholder-management coalition in control of the firm to invest in positive net-present-value investment opportunities, since the benefits accrue, at least partially, to the bondholders rather than accruing fully to the shareholders. Hence, highly levered firms are less likely to exploit valuable growth opportunities as compared to firms with low levels of leverage. Underinvestment theory centers on a liquidity effect in that firms with large debt commitment invest less, no matter what their growth opportunities (Lang et al, 1996). In theory, even if debt creates potential underinvestment incentives, the effect could be attenuated by the firm taking corrective action and lowering its leverage, if future growth opportunities are recognized sufficiently early (Aivazian Callen, 1980). Leverage is optimally reduced by management ex ante in view of projected valuable ex post growth opportunities, so that its impact on growth is attenuated. Thus, a negative empirical relation between leverage and growth may arise even in regressions that control for growth opportunities because managers reduce leverage in anticipation of future investment opportunities. Leverage simply signals managements information about investment opportunities. The possibility that leverage might substitute for growth opportunities is referred to as the endogeneity problem. Over-investment theory is another problem that has received much attention over the years. It is described as investment expenditure beyond that required to maintain assets in place and to finance positive NPV projects. In these kind of situations, conflicts may arise between managers and shareholders (Jensen,1986 Stulz,1990). Managers seek for opportunities to expand the business even if that implies undertaking poor projects and reducing shareholder worth in the company. Managers abilities to carry such a policy is restrained by the availability of cash flow and further tightened by the financing of debt. Issuing debt commits the firm to pay cash as interest and principal, forcing managers to service such commitments with funds that may have otherwise been allocated to poor investment projects. Thus, leverage is one mechanism for overcoming the overinvestment problem suggesting a negative relationship between debt and investment for firms with weak growth opportunities. Too much debt also is not considered to be good as it may lead to financial distress and agency problems. Cantor (1990) explains that highly leveraged firms show a heightened sensitivity to fluctuations in cash flow and earnings since they face substantial debt service obligations, have limited ability to borrow additional funds and may feel extra pressure to maintain a positive cash flow cushion. Hence, the net effect would be reduced levels of investment for the firm in question. Accordingly, Mc Connell and Servaes (1995) have examined a large sample of non financial United States firms for the years 1976, 1986 and 1988. They showed that for high growth firms the relation between corporate value and leverage is negative, whereas that for low growth firms the relation between corporate value and leverage is positively correlated. This trend tends to indicate that to maximise corporate value, it is preferable to keep down leverage to a low level and to increase investment. Lang, Ofek and Stulz (1996) used a pooling regression to estimate the investment equation. They distinguish between the impact of leverage on growth in a firms core business from that in its non-core business. They argue that if leverage is a proxy for growth opportunities, its contractionary impact on investment in the core segment of the firm should be much more pronounced than in the non-core segment. They found that there exists a negative relation between leverage and future growth at the firm level. Also they argued that debt financing does not reduce growth for firms known to have good investment opportunities. Lang et al document a negative relation between firm leverage and subsequent growth. However, they find that this negative relation holds only for low q firms, i.e. those with fewer profitable growth opportunities. Thus, their findings appear to be most consistent with the view that leverage curbs overinvestment in firms with poor growth opportunities. Myers (1997) has examined possible difficulties that firms may face in raising finance to materialize positive net present value (NPV) projects, if they are highly geared. Therefore, high leverages may result in liquidity problem and can affect a firms ability to finance growth. Under this situation, debt overhang can contribute to the under-investment problem of debt financing. That is for firms with growth opportunities, debt have a negative impact on the value of the firm. Peyer and Shivdasani (2001) provide evidence that large increases in leverage affect investment policy. They report that, following leveraged recapitalizations, firms allocate more capital to business units that produce greater cash flow. If leverage constrains investment, firms with valuable growth opportunities should choose lower leverage in order to avoid the risk of being forced to bypass some of these opportunities, while firms without valuable growth opportunities should choose higher leverage to bond themselves not to waste cash flow on unprofitable investment opportunities. Ahn et al. (2004) document that the negative relation between leverage and investment in diversified firms is significantly stronger for high Q segments than for low Q business segments, and is significantly stronger for non-core segments than for core segments. Among low growth firms, the positive relation between leverage and firm value is significantly weaker in diversified firms than in focused firms. Their results suggest that the disciplinary benefits of debt are partially offset by the additional managerial discretion in allocating debt service to different business segments within a diversified organizational structure. Childs et al (2005) argued that financial flexibility encourages the choice of short-term debt, thereby dramatically reducing the agency costs of under-investment and over-investment. However the reduction in the agency costs may not encourage the firm to increase leverage, since the firms initial debt level choice depends on the type of growth options in its investment opportunity set. Aivazian et al (2005) analysed the impact of leverage on investment on 1035 Canadian industrial companies, covering the period 1982 to 1999. Their study examined whether financing considerations (as measured by the extent of financial leverage) affect firm investment decisions inducing underinvestment or overinvestment incentives. They found that leverage is negatively related to the level of investment, and that this negative effect is significantly stronger for firms with low growth opportunities than those with high growth opportunities. These results provide support to agency theories of corporate leverage, and especially to the theory that leverage has a disciplining role for firms with weak growth opportunities 1.6 Investment, Cash Flow and Tobins Q It was traditionally believed that cash flow was important for firms investment decisions because managers regarded internal funds as less expensive than external funds. In the 1950s and 1960s, this view led to numerous empirical assessments of the role of internal funds in firm investment behaviour. These studies found strong relationships between cash flow and investment. Considerable empirical evidence indicates that internally generated funds are the primary way firms finance investment expenditures. In an in-depth study of 25 large firms, Gordon Donaldson (1961) concludes that: Management strongly favoured internal generation as a source of new funds even to the exclusion of external funds except for occasional unavoidable bulges in the need for new funds. Another survey of 176 corporate managers by Pinegar and Wilbricht (1989) found that managers prefer cash flow over external sources to finance new investment; 84.3% of sample respondents indicate a preference for financing investment with cash flow. Researchers have also discovered the impact of cash flow on investment spending in Q models of investment. Fazzari, Hubbard, and Petersen (1988) find that cash flow has a strong effect on investment spending in firms with low-dividend-payout policies. They argue that this result is consistent with the notion that low-payout firms are cash flow-constrained because of asymmetric information costs associated with external financing. One reason these firms keep dividends to a minimum is to conserve cash flow from which they can finance profitable investment expenditures. Fazzari and Petersen (1993) find that this same group of low-payout firms smooths fluctuations in cash flow with working capital to maintain desired investment levels. This result is consistent with the Myers and Majluf (1984) finding that liquid financial assets can mitigate the underinvestment problem arising from asymmetric information. Whited (1992) also extended the Fazzari, Hubbard, and Petersen (1988) results in a study of firms facing debt financing constraints due to financial distress. She found evidence of a strong relationship between cash flow and investment spending for firms with a high debt ratio or a high interest coverage ratio, or without rated debt. Himmelberg and Petersen (1994) in a study of small research and development firms find that cash flow strongly influences both capital and R D expenditures. They argue that the asymmetric information effects associated with such firms make external financing prohibitively expensive, forcing them to fund expenditures internally, that is by making use of cash flows. An alternative explanation for the strong cash flow/investment relationship is that managers divert free cash flow to unprofitable investment spending. One study assessing the relative importance of such an agency problem was performed by Oliner and Rudebusch (1992), who analysed several firm attributes that may influence the cash flow/investment relationship. They find that insider share holdings and ownership structure (variables that proxy for agency problems) do little to explain the influence that cash flow has on firm investment spending. Carpenter (1993) focused on the relationships among debt financing, debt structure, and investments pending to test the free cash flow theory. He finds that firms that restructure by replacing large amounts of external equity with debt increase their investment spending compared to non-restructured firms. He sees these results as inconsistent with free cash flow behavior, because cash flow committed to debt maintenance should be associated with reductions in subsequent investment spending. Findings by Strong and Meyer (1990) and Devereux and Schiantarelli (1990) support the free cash flow interpretation. Strong and Meyer (1990) disaggregate the investment and cash flow of firms in the paper industry into sustaining investment (i.e., productive capacity maintaining) and discretionary investment, and total cash flow and residual cash flow (i.e., cash flow after debt service, taxes, sustaining investment, and established dividends). Residual cash flow and discretionary investment are found to be positively and strongly related. This evidence suggests that residual cash flow is often used to fund unprofitable discretionary investments pending. Devereux and Schiantarelli (1990) find that the impact of cash flow on investment spending is greater for larger firms. One explanation they provide for this result is that large firms have more diverse ownership structures, and are more influenced by manager/shareholder agency problems. The Q model of investment relates investment to the firms stock market valuation, which is meant to reflect the present discounted value of expected future profits, Brainard and Tobin (1968). In the case of perfectly competitive markets and constant returns to scale technology, Hayashi (1982) showed that average Q, the ratio of the maximised value of the firm to the replacement cost of its existing capital stock, would be a sufficient statistic for investment rates. Tobins Q, further assumes that the maximised value of the firm can be measured by its stock market valuation. Under these assumptions, the stock market valuation would capture all relevant information about expected future profitability, and significant coefficients on cash-flow variables after controlling for Tobins Q could not be attributed to additional information about current expectations. However if the Hayashi conditions are not satisfied, or if stock market valuations are influenced by bubbles or any factors other than the present discounted value of expected future profits; then Tobins Q would not capture all relevant information about the expected future profitability of current investment. If that is the case, then additional explanatory variables like current or lagged sales or cash-flow terms could proxy for the missing information about expected future conditions. The classification of q ratios into high and low categories is based on a cut-off of one Lang, Stulz, and Walkling (1989). The latters motivation for this cut-off is partially based on the fact that under certain circumstances firms with q ratios below one have marginal projects with negative net present values (Lang and Litzenberger, 1989). However, q is also industry specific and one may argue that managers should not be held responsible for adverse shocks to their industries. As such, the industry average may be a useful alternative cut-off point to separate high q firms from low q firms. Hoshi, Kashyap, and Scharfstein (1991) regressed investment on Tobins q, other controlling variables, and cash flow. They interpreted differences in the importance of cash flow between different groups of firms as evidence of financing constraints. Results obtained by Vogt (1994) indicate that the influence of cash flow on capital spending is stronger for firms with lower Q values. This result suggests that cash flow-financed capital spending is marginally inefficient and provides initial evidence in support of the FCF hypothesis. The stronger the influence cash flow had on capital spending in this group, the larger the associated value of Tobins Q. After the results presented by Kaplan and Zingales (1997 and 2000), several studies have criticised the empirical test based on the cash flow sensitivity as a meaningful evidence in favour of the existence of financing constraints. The significance of the cash flow sensitivity of investment, it was argued, may then be the consequence of measurement errors in the usual proxy for investment opportunities, Tobins Q, and may provide additional information on expected profitability rather than being a signal of financing constraints. Gomes (2001) showed that the existence of financing constraints is not sufficient to establish cash flow as a significant regressor in a standard investment equation, while Ericson and Whited (2000) demonstrate that the investment sensitivity to cash flow in regressions including Tobins Q is to a large extent due to a measurement error in Q. Likewise, Alti (2003) shows that investment can be sensitive to changes in cash flow in the benchmark case where financing is frictionless. 2.3 Investment and Profitability The idea that investment depends on the profitability of a firm is amongst the oldest of macroeconomic relationships formulated. The sharp fluctuations in profitability in the average cost of capital since the 1960s revived interest in this relationship (Glyn et al, 1990). However the evidence for the impact of profitability on investment remains sketchy. Bhaskar and Glyn (1992) concluded that profitability must be regarded as a significant influence on investment, though by no means the overwhelming one. Their results indicated that enhanced profitability is not always a necessary, let alone a sufficient condition for increased investment. However, years later Glyn (1997) provided an empirical study that examined the impact of profitability on capital accumulation. He tested the impact of profitability in the manufacturing sector on investment for the period 1960-1993 for 15 OECD countries. His findings suggested that the classical emphasis on the role of profitability on investment wass still highly significant and had a very tight relationship. Korajczyk and Levy (2003) investigated the role of macroeconomic conditions and financial constraints in determining capital structure choice. While estimating the relation between firms debt ratio and firm-specific variables, they found out that there was a negative relation between profitability and target leverage, which was consistent with the pecking order theory. This indicated that if leverage of the firm is low, profitability will be high and the entity will be able to invest in positive NPV projects i.e. increase investment. Bhattacharyya (2008) recently provided an empirical study where he examined the effect of profitability and other determinants of investment for Indian firms. He found that Short-run profitability does not have consistent influence on investment decisions of firms, implying that one should concentrate on the long-run profitability of a firm. This indicates that profitability is still regarded as one of the major determinants underlying investment decisions of firms. However, he suggested that liquidity is relatively more important than profitability when it comes to firms investment decisions. 2.3 Investment and Liquidity Under the assumptions of illiquid capital and true uncertainty, management can never be sure that investment projects will produce sufficient liquidity to cover the cash commitments generated by their financing. Yet failure to meet these commitments may result in a crisis of managerial autonomy or even in bankruptcy. Thus, capital accumulation is a contradictory process. Investment is inherently risky, while the failure to invest will ultimately lead to the firms marginalization or demise. Crotty and Goldstein (1992) Chamberlain and Gordon (1989) used the annual domestic investment of all nonfinancial corporations in the United States between 1952 and 1981 in an attempt to determine the impact of liquidity on the profitable investment opportunities available to the corporation. They have put forward that in their long-run survival model, liquidity variables play an essential role as it captures the firms desire to avoid bankruptcy. It was also noted that there was a significant improvement in the explanation of investment when liquidity variables were added to the profitability variables of their regression, thereby supporting the view that liquidity is a pre-dominant determinant of investment and that they are positively related. Hoshi, Kashyap and Scharfstein (1991) attempted to find the relationship between investment and liquidity for Japanese firms. They found that high current profits increase current liquidity, thereby generating further investment from the firm to ensure future profitability and increased output to meet demand. Myers and Rajan (1998) suggested that liquid assets are generally viewed as being easier to finance and therefore, asset liquidity is a plus for nonfinancial corporations or individual investors. However, Myers and Rajan argued that although more liquid assets increase the ability to invest in projects, they also reduce managements ability to commit credibly to an investment strategy that protects investors. Johnson (2003) found that short debt maturity increases liquidity risk, which in turn, negatively affects leverage and the firms investment. Jonson also suggested that firms trade off the cost of underinvestment problems against the cost of increased liquidity risk when choosing short debt maturity 2.4 Investment and Sales Sales growth targets play a major role in the perceptions of top managers. Using surveys, Hubbard and Bromiley (1994) find sales is the most common objective mentioned by senior managers. Additional explanatory variables like current or lagged sales are very important in the investment equation as they can act as proxy for the missing information about expected future conditions in case such information has not been captured by Tobins Q. Kaplan and Norton (1992, 1993, 1996) argue that firms must use a wide variety of goals, including sales growth, to effectively reach their financial objectives. They suggested that Sales growth influences factorsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦..all the way to the implied opportunities for investments in new equipment and technologiesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.. According to this study of 396 corporations, Kopcke and Howrey (1994) found that the capital spending of many of the companies corresponds very poorly with their sales and profits. These divergences suggest that sales and profits do not represent fully an enterprises particular incentives for investing. Consequently, these findings do not support generalizations contending that companies with more debt are investing less than their sales and cash flows would guarantee. Athey and Laumas (1994) using panel data over the period 1978-86, examined the relative importance of the sales accelerator and alternative internal sources of liquidity in investment activities of 256 Indian manufacturing firms. They found that when all the selected firms in the sample were considered together, current values of changes in real net sales and net profit were all significant in determining capital spending of firms. Azzoni and Kalatzis (2006) considered the importance of sales for investment decisions of firms. They found that sales presented a positive and significant relationship with investment in all cases.

Teaching Adults: Is it different? :: Education School Essays

Teaching Adults: Is it different? The adult education literature generally supports the idea that teaching adults should be approached in a different way than teaching children and adolescents. The assumption that teachers of adults should use a different style of teaching is based on the widely espoused theory of andragogy, which suggests that "adults expect learner-centered settings where they can set their own goals and organize their own learning around their present life needs" (Donaldson, Flannery, and Ross-Gordon 1993, p. 148). However, even in the field of adult education, debate occurs about the efficacy of a separate approach for teaching adults. Some believe that adult education is essentially the same process as education generally (Garrison 1994) and therefore does not require a separate teaching approach: that is, all good teaching, whether for adults or children, should be responsive in nature. The question of whether teaching adults is different remains ambiguous. For example, research summarized in an ERIC Digest(Imel 1989) has shown that even those educators who say they believe in using an andragogical approach do not necessarily use a different style when teaching adults. Additional myths and realities related to teaching adults are explored in this publication. Two areas are examined: types of adult learning and what learners themselves want from teachers. Different Types of Adult Learning One way to approach the question of whether teaching adults is different is by examining the types of learning in which adults engage. Drawing upon the work of Habermas and Mezirow, Cranton (1994) classified adult learning into three categories: Subject-oriented adult learning-In adult learning contexts that are subject oriented, the primary goal is to acquire content. The educator "speaks of covering the material, and the learners see themselves as gaining knowledge or skills" (ibid., p. 10). Consumer-oriented adult learning-The goal of consumer-oriented learning is to fulfill the expressed needs of learners. Learners set their learning goals, identify objectives, select relevant resources, and so forth. The educator acts as a facilitator or resource person, "and does not engage in challenging or questioning what learners say about their needs" (ibid., p. 12). Emancipatory adult learning-The goal of emancipatory learning is to free learners from the forces that limit their options and control over their lives, forces that they have taken for granted or seen as beyond their control. Emancipatory learning results in transformations of learner perspectives through critical reflection (Mezirow 1991). The educator plays an active role in fostering critical reflection by challenging learners to consider why they hold certain assumptions, values, and beliefs (Cranton 1994).

Criminal Justice in America: A Critical View Essay

Criminal justice Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Criminal justice is a system of government institutions, which are tasked with upholding social control, and directed at mitigating crimes as well as sanctioning   the law breakers with criminal penalties as and rehabilitation efforts as well.   Criminal justice covers a number of areas including; law enforcement, juvenile cases, correction and crime prevention. Criminal justice cases at level 200 cover a wide range of areas including policies on sentencing and practice, theories of policing and their effects criminal justice practice. As well as familiarizing with a wide range of police powers especially those involving searching and arrest powers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The central role of law in social processes is explored under criminal justice 200, with primary legal regimes of various types being examined and compared from different national contexts as well as across different international context. Legal and non-legal reforms, those of social ordering, are contrasted; investigating human rights law in its practice and structure. Level 200 also focuses on ‘Disability studies’. Theories on how the society interprets disability and consequences in social justice. Factors and determinants that frame disability are factored. These factors include social, political, biological, cultural and economical determinants (Sheldon et al; 455).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   On this paper, I will feature a case that will seek to examine how the judicial system decided to take a shift in the way juveniles were treated at trial in cases of criminal nature. The system saw it necessary to put into consideration the psychological factors, on growth of adolescents’ brains especially, when determining these cases as the aim of the system is more of reforming than punishing. Over the years, most states have believed the Juvenile system in the Judicial system is set up for public protection by providing a mechanism to respond to children who are getting into crime as they mature into adulthood. The children who commit these crimes are believed to be less dangerous and blameworthy hence the need to differentiate them from adults doing the same. States have been responsive to these differences and have in turn established separate court systems to cater for the juveniles. They have also provided separate youth-bas ed systems on service delivery that are different from those of adults.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Juvenile systems have grown remarkably since their first introduction. The first juvenile court was established in 1899 in the state of Illinois. At the time, the process was rather informal, consisting of conversations between the judge and the youth- with no legal representation for the youth. The system was aimed at creating a different probation system and replacing confinement of these youths in jails alongside the adults. A different approach to their incarceration was adopted which allowed for provision of guidance, education and supervision. All states later embraced the juvenile system including the then district of Columbia. In the year 1967, the ‘Re Gault’ landmark ruling by the Supreme Court determined the requirement of attorneys for youths in the system as well as provision of other constitutional rights like accused adults including confrontation of a witness before them. The Supreme Court later gave more consti tutional rights including undergoing trials requiring proof beyond reasonable doubt and against double jeopardy. However, some states give youths the right to trial y a jury through statutes and court rulings although the Supreme Court discouraged this (Bremna 342). Case ‘Miller v Alabama’   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   This case was a petition presented to the Supreme Court by the petitioner, Miller, against the state of Alabama. The case was argued on 20th March 2012 and was later decided on 25th June 2012. In this petition No. 10-9646, the petitioner by the name miller, with his friend beat up Miller’s friend seriously then continued to set his trailer on fire after a long evening of heavy drug abuse and drinking. The neighbor ended up dying. Initially, Miller had been charged by the court like juvenile, but when his case was later on removed and taken to an adult court, the court charged him with arson and murder. The jury found Miller guilty as charged and the trial court sentenced him to life without parole, which was a statutorily mandated punishment. The Alabama court dealing with appeals re-affirmed the ruling, arguing that Miller’s sentence was not even as harsh in comparison to the crime he had committed and the mandatory nature o f it was permissible according to the eighth amendment, which states that one should not be imprisoned for LWP for juvenile offenders that have committed homicide. The amendment forbids cruel and unusual punishments hence guaranteeing the defendant the right of refrain from being subjected to rather harsh sanctions. Punishment for a crime should be proportionate to both the crime and the offender. The amendment recognizes the lack of mental maturity n these youths, something that could lead to impulsiveness and recklessness as well as poor decision making (Adam 10).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   This petitioned was argued and judgment given jointly with a case of the same nature, petition No. 10-9647 of ‘Jackson v Hobbs’ in which Jackson was charged with murder and thereafter sentenced to a life imprisonment with no parole. Jackson, a 14year old had taken part in a robbery where, unknown to him, one of his friends had carried a short gun with which he used to murder the clerk in the store. Jackson was charged by Arkansas as an adult with the crime of capital felony of murder alongside robbery. The jury found him guilty of both charges something that led to the sentence. The court likened life without parole to a death sentence (Adam 10).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   On June 25 2012, the court gave a 5-4 ruling on the case, judging that a life imprisonment without parole was not constitutional if the accused is over the age of eighteen. The court was persistent on Graham’s foundational principle that states that the child status must be taken into account when passing such harsh judgments. Regardless of the crime committed, such severe penalties on juveniles cannot go on as if they were not children. The court also directed that sentences of life imprisonment without granting parole as such should be rare. The vulnerability of the children was taken into account as well as their high capability to change in the future and become better persons. The ruling would certainly have an after effect, especially on those whose sentencing did not take into account age and other mitigating factors (Adam 10).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   This decision would see at least half of the states in America change their statutes on handling juvenile cases and sentences to life with no parole: including Alabama’s statute ‘code 13A’. Efforts to end harsh judgments and reduce solitary in confinement for juveniles were evident and efforts to close juvenile detention facilities as states started re-thinking of other ways on how to deal with juvenile offenders. Campaigns for youth reforms have been started with correctional facilities aimed at creating a view on young felons as victims of circumstances rather than felons who are irredeemable (Okonkwo 45). References Top of Form Shelden, Randall G, and William B. Brown. Criminal Justice in America: A Critical View. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2003. Print. Bottom of Form Daniel Okonkwo The New York Times- Applying The Miller v Alabama Ruling Retroactively Must Be Done, 2013 Adam Liptak, Ethan Bronnerthe New York Times- Justice Bar Mandatory Life Terms For Juveniles, 2012 Source document

Biography of Ferdinand Marcos, Philippines Dictator

Biography of Ferdinand Marcos, Philippines' Dictator Ferdinand Marcos (September 11, 1917–September 28, 1989) ruled the Philippines with an iron fist from 1966 to 1986. Critics charged Marcos and his regime with crimes like corruption and nepotism. Marcos himself is said to have exaggerated his role in World War II. He also murdered a family political rival. Marcos created an elaborate cult of personality. When that state-mandated adulation proved insufficient for him to maintain control, President Marcos declared martial law. Fast Facts: Ferdinand Marcos Known For: Philippines dictatorAlso Known As: Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr.Born: September 11, 1917  in Sarrat, PhilippinesParents: Mariano Marcos,  Josefa EdralinDied: September 28, 1989  in Honolulu, HawaiiEducation: University of the Philippines, College of LawAwards and Honors: Distinguished Service Cross, Medal of HonorSpouse: Imelda Marcos  (m. 1954–1989)Children: Imee,  Bongbong,  Irene, Aimee (adopted)Notable Quote: I often wonder what I will be remembered in history for. Scholar? Military hero? Builder? Early Life Ferdinand Edralin Marcos was born on Sept. 11, 1917, to Mariano and Josefa Marcos in the village of Sarrat, on the island of Luzon, the Philippines. Persistent rumors say that Ferdinands biological father was a man named Ferdinand Chua, who served as his godfather. Officially, however, Josefas husband Mariano Marcos was the childs father. Young Ferdinand Marcos grew up in a privileged milieu. He excelled at school and took an eager interest in things like boxing and shooting. Education Marcos attended school in Manila. His godfather Ferdinand Chua may have helped pay for his educational expenses. During the 1930s, the young man studied law at the University of the Philippines, outside of Manila. This legal training would come in handy when Marcos was arrested and tried for a 1935 political murder. In fact, he continued his studies while in prison and even passed the bar exam with flying colors from his cell. Meanwhile, Mariano Marcos ran for a seat on the National Assembly in 1935 but was defeated for a second time by Julio Nalundasan. Assassinates Nalundasan On Sept. 20, 1935, as he was celebrating his victory over Marcos, Nalundasan was shot dead at his home. Ferdinand, then 18, had used his shooting skills to kill Nalundasan with a .22-caliber rifle. Marcos was indicted for the killing and convicted by a district court in November of 1939. He appealed to the Supreme Court of the Philippines in 1940. Representing himself, Marcos managed to get his conviction overturned despite strong evidence of his guilt. Mariano Marcos and (by now) Judge Chua may have used their political power to influence the outcome of the case. World War II At the outbreak of World War II, Marcos was practicing law in Manila. He soon joined the Filipino Army and fought against the Japanese invasion as a combat intelligence officer in the 21st Infantry Division. Marcos saw action in the three-month-long Battle of Bataan, in which the Allied forces lost Luzon to the Japanese. He survived the Bataan Death March, a week-long ordeal that killed about a quarter of Japans American and Filipino POWs on Luzon. Marcos escaped the prison camp and joined the resistance. He later claimed to have been a guerrilla leader, but that claim has been disputed. Post-War Era Detractors say that Marcos spent the early post-war period filing false compensation claims for wartime damages with the United States government, such as a claim for almost $600,000 for 2,000 imaginary cattle of Mariano Marcos. Marcos also served as a special assistant to the first president of the newly independent Republic of the Philippines, Manuel Roxas, from 1946 to 1947. Marcos served in the Philippines House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959 and the Senate from 1963 to 1965 as a member of Roxas Liberal Party. Rise to Power In 1965, Marcos hoped to secure the Liberal Party nomination for the presidency. The sitting president, Diosdado Macapagal (father of current president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo), had promised to step aside, but he reneged and ran again. Marcos resigned from the Liberal Party and joined the Nationalists. He won the election and was sworn in on December 30, 1965. President Marcos promised economic development, improved infrastructure, and good government to the people of the Philippines. He also pledged help to South Vietnam and the U.S. in the Vietnam War, sending more than 10,000 Filipino soldiers to fight. Cult of Personality Ferdinand Marcos was the first president to be reelected to a second term in the Philippines. Whether his reelection was rigged is a subject of debate. In any case, he consolidated his hold on power by developing a cult of personality, like those of Joseph Stalin or Mao Zedong. Marcos required every business and classroom in the country to display his official presidential portrait. He also posted giant billboards bearing propagandistic messages across the country. A handsome man, Marcos had married former beauty queen Imelda Romualdez in 1954. Her glamour added to his popularity. Martial Law Within weeks of his reelection, Marcos faced violent public protests against his rule by students and other citizens. Students demanded educational reforms; they even commandeered a fire truck and crashed it into the Presidential Palace in 1970. The Filipino Communist Party reemerged as a threat. Meanwhile, a Muslim separatist movement in the south urged succession. President Marcos responded to all of these threats by declaring martial law on September 21, 1972. He suspended habeas corpus, imposed a curfew, and jailed opponents like Benigno Ninoy Aquino. This period of martial law lasted until January 1981. Dictatorship Under martial law, Marcos took extraordinary powers for himself. He used the countrys military as a weapon against his political enemies, displaying a typically ruthless approach to opposition. Marcos also awarded a huge number of government posts to his and Imeldas relatives. Imelda herself was a member of Parliament (1978-84); Governor of Manila (1976-86); and Minister of Human Settlements (1978-86). Marcos called parliamentary elections on April 7, 1978. None of the members of jailed former Senator Benigno Aquinos LABAN party won their races. Election monitors cited widespread vote-buying by Marcos loyalists. In preparation for Pope John Paul IIs visit, Marcos lifted martial law on Jan. 17, 1981. Nonetheless, Marcos pushed through legislative and Constitutional reforms to ensure that he would retain all of his extended powers. It was purely a cosmetic change. Presidential Election of 1981 For the first time in 12 years, the Philippines held a presidential election on June 16, 1981. Marcos ran against two opponents: Alejo Santos of the Nacionalista Party and Bartolome Cabangbang of the Federal Party. LABAN and Unido both boycotted the election. Marcos received 88% of the vote. He took the opportunity in his inauguration ceremony to note that he would like the job of Eternal President. Death of Aquino Opposition leader Benigno Aquino was released in 1980 after spending nearly eight years in prison. He went into exile in the United States. In August 1983, Aquino returned to the Philippines. Upon arrival, he was hustled off the plane and shot dead on the runway at the Manila Airport by a man in a military uniform. The government claimed that Rolando Galman was the assassin; Galman was immediately killed by airport security. Marcos was ill at the time, recovering from a kidney transplant. Imelda may have ordered Aquinos killing, which sparked massive protests. Later Years and Death Aug. 13, 1985, was the beginning of the end for Marcos. Fifty-six members of Parliament called for his impeachment for graft, corruption, and other high crimes. Marcos called a new election for 1986. His opponent was Corazon Aquino, the widow of Benigno. Marcos claimed a 1.6 million vote victory, but observers found an 800,000-vote win by Aquino. A People Power movement quickly developed, driving the Marcoses into exile in Hawaii, and affirming Aquinos election. The Marcoses had embezzled billions of dollars from the Philippines. Imelda famously left more than 2,500 pairs of shoes in her closet when she fled Manila. Marcos died of multiple organ failure in Honolulu on Sept. 28, 1989. Legacy Marcos left behind a reputation as one of the most corrupt and ruthless leaders in modern Asia. The Marcoses had taken with them more than $28 million in cash in Philippine currency. President Corazon Aquinos administration said this was only a small part of the Marcoses illegally gained wealth. Marcos excesses are perhaps best exemplified by his wifes extensive shoe collection. Imelda Marcos is reported to have gone on shopping sprees using state money to buy jewelry and shoes. She amassed a collection of more than 1,000 pairs of luxury shoes, which earned her the nickname, Marie Antoinette, with shoes. Sources Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. â€Å"Ferdinand Marcos.†Ã‚  Encyclopà ¦dia Britannica, 8 Mar. 2019..Ferdinand E. Marcos Republic of the Philippines-Department of National Defense.â€Å"Ferdinand Marcos Biography.†Ã‚  Encyclopedia of World Biography.

buy custom Hamlet essay

buy custom Hamlet essay Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is a play written by Shakespeare and majorly characterized by tragedies. It is all about a son who seeks revenge for the death of his father who was a king. In most plays, it is always fulfilling when the main character is a strong and noble person. A person who is tactfully and skillfully goes about his mission. He employs good measures to achieve his mission without failure. These culminate into a great success to the main character who becomes a hero for the achievements. This play however, is about Hamlet who is the son of a murdered Danish King Hamlet. This death had seriously affected his emotional balance. His ghost appears to Horatio, Hamlets best friend. He informs Hamlet of this but he refuses to accept until he sees it himself. The ghost of his father later appears to him and claims that he was murdered by his brother, the new King Claudius. He is Hamlet's uncle. He later married Hamlet's mother, Gertrude. The ghost tells him to revenge his death. Hamlet has a mission to accomplish. He sets himself to actually achieve this but does not know how to do this. King Claudius also appears guilty of the murder and feels threatened by Hamlets presence. He plans to get rid of him. Hamlet's mission has to be well organized before for its success. He therefore embarks on a mission to establish Claudius guilt. He therefore prepares a play in which they act about the slain father. He makes King Claudius watch to establish his reaction. Hamlet represents his father in the play. Then he becomes furious and storms out of the room as they play proceeds. This establishes Hamlet's suspicion that he indeed killed his father in order to take over the thrown. He even goes further to marry his mother. He remains with no doubt in his mind that his uncle is the suspect He delays in effecting his mission due religion. The environment seems Christian and this makes him think that revenge is not good for his faith. He thinks that it is the work of God. He even got the right opportunity to kill him in scene 3 but thinks that Claudius would go to heaven if killed while praying. He draws his sword and returns it back after much thought. He postpones his mission again to a much later date. Polonius is Hamlet's chief trusted counselor. He has a son called Laertes who returns to France and a daughter called Ophelia. She is courted by Hamlet This relationship runs into problems after Ophelia's father and brother warn her that Hamlet is not serious about their relationship. Soon after Ophelia realizes that his behavior has drastically changed. Her father gets concerned of this and reports to the King, who orders an investigation. Hamlet's constant mourning of the late father becomes the concern of the mother. He confronts the mother and a quarrel elapses between them. Apparently, Polonius hides within the vicinity to spy. He becomes convinced that Hamlet is indeed mad and worries that he may harm Gertrude. This prompts him to scream for help. Hamlet identifies Gertrudes father where he hides and stabs him to death. He is however not remorseful that he has killed his lover's father. He calls him, 'Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool'. Gertrude also gets convinced of Hamlets madness after the ghost to him telling him to be gentle to his mother but to kill King Claudius. The King sends Hamlet to England for a diplomatic mission. He does this due to fears for his life. He realizes that Hamlet may harm him. He sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to accompany the princes to England after disclosing to them that he is doing this to send the princes to his death trap. Hamlet's revenge is being delayed again as he cannot gain access to Claudius. While away, his quest to avenge his father's death intensifies. He meets a bloody fight that results in many deaths on his way. Another revenge tragedy happens when Ophelia gets mad due to her fathers death. She begins to walk around singing to herself. Her brother Laertes comes back from France and gets shocked by the father's death and the sister's madness. He is convinced by King Claudius that Hamlet is responsible for all the tragedies in his family. He tells him that the prince is alive in England. This besets him on a revenge mission against Hamlet. King Claudius unsuccessfully tries different strategy to kill Hamlet in his ship and to make it appear like an accident on his way back from England . He escapes unhurt but Rosencrantz and Guildenstern die in the process. The King then resolves to capitalize on Laertes hatred by organizes a fight between him and Hamlet with the knowledge that Laertes is good with swords. Laertes further promises to poison the head of his sword to kill the prince at the slightest scratch. The king on part goes ahhead to plan to poison him with wine if the first attempt fails. Ophelia commits suicide and her death is reported. At the funeral, Laertes blames Hamlet and curses him. Hamlet appears at this time and confesses his love for Ophelia. A fight breaks between them but they are separated by Claudius and Gertrude. Hamlet is then informed by Claudius of the fight with Laertes to mend fences. He readily accepts this fight against his friend Horatio's warning. The fighting day comes and all are set. They have several rounds without success in any of the sides. Gertrude then unknowingly toasts Hamlet using the poisoned wine. She drinks it. Attempts by the King to block her not to drink are too late. At this time, Laertes finds an opportunity and stabs Hamlet with his poisoned sword. The fight continues and Hamlet manages to use Laertes sword against him. Gertrude then announces her poisoning as she dies. Laertes reveals King Claudius plot to kill Hamlet as he dies. This prompts Hamlet to stab the king using Laertes sword. He goes further to force him to drinking his own poisoned wine to kill him. Hamlet then announces Prince Fortinbras of Norway as the probable king as he takes his last breath. Horatio remains to recount the whole story to Prince Fortinbras who comes in only to be met by a deadly scene of bodies. The theme of revenge in this play has been met by a number of tragedies. Many deaths have come about the same thing. The delay of Hamlet's revenge is the main cause of many deaths seen at the end of the play. One thing leads to the other as more and more people are sucked into the saga. It seems that could Hamlet have gone ahead with his mission earlier enough, then many deaths at the end could have been avoided. The delay has also worked well for the continuation of the play. It brought the flow of the play. This is Shakespeare's longest play ever. The delay of Hamlet's revenge has thus aided in the flow of the play. Hamlets emotional life has also been built by this delay. At first he is not sure of going ahead with the or not. This changes as time goes. The experiences he undergoes harden him to and make him believe of the reason to revenge. At the end everybody with revenge mission dies. This tells us of the inability of revenge to solve problems but to lead to more corruption. People should instead work on themselves. Buy custom Hamlet essay