Gross Domestic Product Essay Example for Free

Gross Domestic Product Essay 2. Using information from our textbook and from the following BEA links, define each of the sub components of GDP and discuss their importance. (20 points) The BEA links are: http://www.bea.gov/national/pdf/nipa_primer.pdf â€Å"Measuring the Economy: A Primer on GDP and the National Income and Product Accounts† http://www.bea.gov/about/pdf/jep_spring2008.pdf â€Å"Taking the Pulse of the Economy: Measuring GDP† http://www.bea.gov/scb/pdf/national/nipa/methpap/mpi1_0907.pdf â€Å"An Introduction to the National Income and Product Accounts† 1. GDP is Gross domestic product. GDP is the market value of all the goods and services produced by labor and property located in the country. The GDP is comprised of Sub-Components to the Major Components. The components of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) tell you what that country is good at producing. 2. Personal consumption measures the real value of goods and services purchased by individuals. It is very important because over 70% of what the U.S. produces is for personal consumption. 3. Goods Comprehensive is the measure of how much consumers spend each month. This uncludes durable goods, consumer products, and services. This is an important factor because it is an included measure of GDP, and the figure acts an indicator for economic trends. How much consumers spend also has an affect on inflationary pressures. Goods or products make up nearly one-fourth of the US economy. 4. Durable Goods are the hard goods that yield utility over time, rather than being completely consumed all at once. Some examples of durables goods are automobiles, jewelry, and furniture. Although this is the smallest category (only 7%), it still has an impact on GDP. 5. Nondurable Goods are soft goods or consumables, which are goods that need replaced immediately or are used all at one time. Examples of nondurable goods are food and clothing. These goods also make up a small portion (16%), however, still important to GDP. 6. Services are explained as the non-material equivalent of a good. Service provision has been defined as an economic activity that does not result in ownership. No transfer of possession takes place when services are sold. Examples of such are financial services or healthcare. Nearly half (47%) of US GDP is made up services, not products. This makes this portion very important. 7. Gross private domestic investment (I) are the expenditures on capital goods that are used for productive activities in the domestic economy that are undertaken by the business sector during a given period of time. Gross private domestic investment make up anywhere between 12-18% of gross domestic product. Investment is an important cause of business fluctuations. 8. Fixed investments are the investment expenditures that include capital goods, such as means of production, that most people consider spending on fixed capital. This area is important because it is one of two main categories of gross private domestic investment included in the National Income and Product Accounts maintained by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. 9. Nonresidentials are the purchases of nonresidential structures, equipment, and software. Nonresidentials are important for future productivity growth, optimism of businesses, and economic growth. 10. Structures are important in general. These are office buildings, shopping centers, warehouses, restaurants, industrial buildings and institutional buildings. 11. Equipment and software are hardware and machinery. These are important for increasing and improving productivity. 12. Residentials are homes, apartments, or condominiums and residential equipment that is owned by landlords and rented to tenants. These areas account for about a quarter of all private investment. 13. Change in private inventories are the changes in inventory investment which measure the value of the change in the physical volume of inventories over a specified period. This includes the value of goods owned by private business at the end of a specified period, whether the goods were made in that period or in the past. Inventory investment makes up a very small percentage of GDP, however, it is still an important component of GDP. 14. Net exports of goods and services (X-IM) are described as the growth in imports and exports of goods in the U.S. These goods are only finished goods, not including intermediate products. Imports and exports have great effects on GDP. 15. Exports (X) are an addition to GDP and therefore, are important. They are a way of economic transfer. 16. Goods are the physical products sent or transported abroad for future trade or sale. 17. Services include non-material goods. This is usually economic activity sold outside the US. 18. Imports (IM) are economic transfers that are opposite, yet greater than exports. 19. Goods include physical products that are purchased and sent in from foreign countries. 20. Services are non physical products that are sent in from foreign countries. 21. Government consumptions expenditures and gross investment (G) is usually subtracted from the actual GDP numbers and the growth rate. This is so that it is possible to reach an easier understanding of activity and demand. Because the governments actions can be dependent on other factors than supply and demand, it is important to reach this figure. 22. Federal is the measure of the federal governments expenditures.

Farewell To Arms :: essays research papers

â€Å"You are all a lost generation† -Gertrude Stein This quotation’s importance on author Earnest Hemmingway is reflected in his modern Romeo and Juliet novel entitled A Farewell to Arms. The recurring tone of the novel suggests that the only reality is the harsh truth which is anything but romantic and proves that in the end, all is futile. This generation in which Stein spoke of to Hemingway is the generation of romantic war times. This idea is symbolized in the character Catherine Barkley’s vision of her wartime love where she states â€Å" ‘ I remember having this silly idea he might come to the hospital where I was. With a sabre cut, I suppose, and a bandage around his head. Or shot through the shoulder. Something picturesque.’ ‘This is the picturesque front,’ I said. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘People can’t realize what France is like. If they did, it couldn’t all go on. He didn’t have a sabre cut. They blew him all to bits.’ (20)† Catherine’s pathetic ideal of a â€Å"picturesque† rendezvous is also the majority mentality at the time. Her realization of the cruel truth is but a glimpse of the futile art of war and life. Yet, even though it appears that she, who ultimately represents all of society in this scene, realizes this truth, she in fact is ignorant to it many times throughout the novel.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The novel is terrorized by the overlaying tone of the harsh nihilism. Belief in nihilism is the melancholy view in which there is no point to life, and faith in nothing. This tone is best portrayed in the agony of Henry when questioned about his desires for the war by the priest. â€Å" ‘I had hoped for something .’ ‘Defeat?’ ‘No. Something more.’ ‘There isn’t anything more. Except victory. It may be worse.’ ‘I hoped for a long time for victory.’ ‘Me too.’ ‘Now I don’t know.’ ‘It has to be one or the other.’ ‘I don’t believe in victory any more.’ ‘I don’t . But I don’t believe in defeat. Though it may be better.’ ‘What do you believe in?’ ‘In sleep,’ I said. He stood up. ‘I am very sorry to have stayed so long. But I like so to talk with you.’ ‘It is very nice to talk again. I said that about sleeping, meaning nothing.’ (179)† As the dismal priest describes his lack of faith on the side of victory, the irony of the passage is increased when Henry confronts his nihilistic ways with the priest who represents the opposite.

Leadership Motivation

Leadership is the process of motivating others to work to meet specific goals and objectives. â€Å"Leadership is deliberately causing people-driven actions in a planned fashion for the purpose of accomplishing the leader's agenda† (Crosby 2). A leader motivates others to action. Thus, it is the motivation of others and their actions that defines a successful leader. In other words, leadership is the art and science of getting others to perform and achieve a vision. Therefore, leadership is not only reflected in performance, no matter how good that performance is, but in accomplishment. As a leader one's focus should be on accomplishing that leadership goals, whether in a personal, community or charitable, business, political, or industrial forum. In the business world, managers have a great responsibility of leading employees working under them. In order to achieve successful leadership, a leader or a manager should possess certain principles and essential skills. Leadership Principles, Objectives and Problems There are several principles a leader should follow to be successful. A few of the principles are as follows: The most important principle of leadership is ‘listening'. â€Å"A good leader is always an active listener† (Rausch, Washbush 143). Active listening shows that the leader cares, is interested and wants to be involved, enabling the n leader to benefit from the experience. The primary objective of a leader would be to adapt the principles of ‘listening' into their own life. If the leader is not a good listener, then he/she should learn how to really listen. In addition to listening and carefully understanding what a team member is saying, leader should also make sure that every team member gets leader's undivided attention (Normand, Jackson 111). Unfortunately, as a listener, leaders have their own problems to face with. Listeners frequently have too many sound and visual signals reaching them at the same time. It is difficult for the listener to pay attention to multiple speakers all at once. Also, there could be a number of other problems the leader could be facing in their own life. The leader as a listener will never listen with understanding until other matters are forgotten for the moment and attention is given to the speaker. Another problem involved with listening is the leader not being able to understand the words being spoken. Hearing what is being spoken is just a part of listening, but understanding some of the words could be tricky sometimes. To avoid problems involving listening, the listener should use good eye contact so that he/she can concentrate on the particular speaker. That helps the listener pay attention on the subject too. Leader should also learn the meaning of the words the speaker is using and if he is unable to understand, he needs to ask questions. This also lets the speaker know that the listener is unable to understand and the listener is paying attention. Planning is determining what you want to accomplish, working out beforehand how it is to be done, deciding who will responsible for each step, and having every phase written down. One of the leader's objectives is to be able to appreciate the value of careful and complete planning. Good leader applies the steps of good planning to each part of life. The leader should visually plan the steps involved to reach a certain goal. For example, assume that an organizational agenda is â€Å"A return on assets of atleast 15 percent, revenues per employee over $155,000 annually, zero customer complaints, twenty new products†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Crosby 33). The first step is to separate the revenue-producing areas into those that are never going to reach that performance level, those that could with the correct investment of time or money, and those that are meeting it now. Things that can must replace those that cannot meet. This sort of planning is a regular part of leaders organizational life (33). The biggest problem with planning is it is time consuming and involves a lot of thought. In addition, it involved paperwork and other systematic procedures. Many people hate paperwork and following systematic procedures, which makes the planning process inefficient. To achieve good planning results without any problems, the leader should set a broad goal or objective and decide what form the project will take. Then develop a step-by-step course of action to completion (Lundy 13). Keeping all the other objectives in mind, the plan should then be put into effect while readjusting the plan as necessary. Most important of all the leadership principles is to be able to effectively manage time. The leader must determine not only how he will use his own time, but also how the group's time will be used. Managing time effectively will allow the leader to achieve success, happiness and pride at the workforce. As a leader, personal time management is one of the chief objectives. At work place, the leader should manage meeting time more effectively. The leader should develop and follow his own personal plan for the effective use of time. Often times leaders find having trouble with managing time. Due to poor organization and lack of planning, time management becomes a tricky task. â€Å"Being unable to set the priorities will make time management process very ineffective and sometimes completely useless† (Washbush, Rausch 269). There are several ways to manage the group's or organization's time effectively. The leader should provide a job description to each person. To save more time, the leader should train or take key people further and commit to these key people when things need to be done immediately. These key people should be kept informed and the leader should have these key people take initiative to report back. The leader should utilize only the time needed for successful completion of the group project, event or activity. Every individual working in the team is important and every individual has varied talents and not to mention problems of their own. Knowing the person, understanding the person and identifying the strengths and needs of the individual are vital for the leader in order to be most effective with the person (Rausch, Washbush 233-235). Leader's objective is to perform more effectively as a leader by getting to know and understand individual members of the group. Leader should be able identify the characteristics and needs of the members of a group. The leader should be able to look for and accept the strengths of each individual (Lundy 43-45). Getting to know a person is a very complex skill and there are several problems involved during this process. People are complex. An individual is like a mixed bag with different characteristics. Until many of the characteristics of an individual are identified, it is impossible to begin to know and understand that person. To overcome the problems of knowing a person, the leader should spend more time with his team members. The leader should make attempts to know the needs and characteristics of his team member and fellow employees. Every human being has need for love. If we love a person, we care for that person and we try not to hurt the person in any way. Love is expressed by doing things to strengthen, improve, support and defend the one loved. A good leader does what is morally and ethically right and does not abuse the management power or privileges he/she has over their sub-ordinates. A good leader loves and gives individual consideration, coaches, advises and gives help to those who need it. A good leader also treats newcomers with a lot of respect and love (Row). Leader should give love to each person he associates with. The primary objective is to overcome the fear as a leader by extablishing close feelings of love with the team members. â€Å"Leadership involves being as well as doing. Individual styles of leadership may be quite different, yet equally effective† (Lundy 76). As conditions and situations change, leaders need to change their styles of leadership. The challenge of the leader is not to follow one leadership style all the time, but to use the leadership style needed by his followers. Leaders should maintain the power or influence of their offices by being kind and knowledgeable. The primary objective of being the leader would be to recognize the qualities necessary for a leader to be successful. Leader should be able to recognize various leadership styles and understand when each would be appropriate. â€Å"Sometimes leader will have to follow their group member and in such situations the good leader will appreciate the leadership in other while serving the role of a follower†(Carlin). Leader often have trouble deciding what leadership style to be used at what given instance. Another problem with leaders is that some leaders tend to follow the same leadership principles all the time and this is not a good idea to tackle special situations. The leader must not consider himself locked into a style of leadership with any individual or group. To avoid problems leaders should always act accordingly and change leadership skills depending on the situation and need. At the same time leader should be confident enough to be able to deal with the new skills (Carlin). Every group needs a leader and the group's performance depends on the leader either directly or indirectly. Whether it is a hospital, private practice, health maintenance organization, government facility, or university, or a business, they all need supervisors and leaders. The behavior as a manager has a direct impact on staff performance, productivity, satisfaction, and turnover. Proper Leadership skills are highly essential for a manager as well as the company or organization to become successful. The leadership principles mentioned in this paper are just a simple guideline for managers and leaders to follow; however, a good leader does not require any guidelines. A good leader inherits leadership qualities by inheritance of leadership abilities and characteristics from their own life. Leadership Motivation Leadership is the process of motivating others to work to meet specific goals and objectives. â€Å"Leadership is deliberately causing people-driven actions in a planned fashion for the purpose of accomplishing the leader's agenda† (Crosby 2). A leader motivates others to action. Thus, it is the motivation of others and their actions that defines a successful leader. In other words, leadership is the art and science of getting others to perform and achieve a vision. Therefore, leadership is not only reflected in performance, no matter how good that performance is, but in accomplishment. As a leader one's focus should be on accomplishing that leadership goals, whether in a personal, community or charitable, business, political, or industrial forum. In the business world, managers have a great responsibility of leading employees working under them. In order to achieve successful leadership, a leader or a manager should possess certain principles and essential skills. Leadership Principles, Objectives and Problems There are several principles a leader should follow to be successful. A few of the principles are as follows: The most important principle of leadership is ‘listening'. â€Å"A good leader is always an active listener† (Rausch, Washbush 143). Active listening shows that the leader cares, is interested and wants to be involved, enabling the n leader to benefit from the experience. The primary objective of a leader would be to adapt the principles of ‘listening' into their own life. If the leader is not a good listener, then he/she should learn how to really listen. In addition to listening and carefully understanding what a team member is saying, leader should also make sure that every team member gets leader's undivided attention (Normand, Jackson 111). Unfortunately, as a listener, leaders have their own problems to face with. Listeners frequently have too many sound and visual signals reaching them at the same time. It is difficult for the listener to pay attention to multiple speakers all at once. Also, there could be a number of other problems the leader could be facing in their own life. The leader as a listener will never listen with understanding until other matters are forgotten for the moment and attention is given to the speaker. Another problem involved with listening is the leader not being able to understand the words being spoken. Hearing what is being spoken is just a part of listening, but understanding some of the words could be tricky sometimes. To avoid problems involving listening, the listener should use good eye contact so that he/she can concentrate on the particular speaker. That helps the listener pay attention on the subject too. Leader should also learn the meaning of the words the speaker is using and if he is unable to understand, he needs to ask questions. This also lets the speaker know that the listener is unable to understand and the listener is paying attention. Planning is determining what you want to accomplish, working out beforehand how it is to be done, deciding who will responsible for each step, and having every phase written down. One of the leader's objectives is to be able to appreciate the value of careful and complete planning. Good leader applies the steps of good planning to each part of life. The leader should visually plan the steps involved to reach a certain goal. For example, assume that an organizational agenda is â€Å"A return on assets of atleast 15 percent, revenues per employee over $155,000 annually, zero customer complaints, twenty new products†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Crosby 33). The first step is to separate the revenue-producing areas into those that are never going to reach that performance level, those that could with the correct investment of time or money, and those that are meeting it now. Things that can must replace those that cannot meet. This sort of planning is a regular part of leaders organizational life (33). The biggest problem with planning is it is time consuming and involves a lot of thought. In addition, it involved paperwork and other systematic procedures. Many people hate paperwork and following systematic procedures, which makes the planning process inefficient. To achieve good planning results without any problems, the leader should set a broad goal or objective and decide what form the project will take. Then develop a step-by-step course of action to completion (Lundy 13). Keeping all the other objectives in mind, the plan should then be put into effect while readjusting the plan as necessary. Most important of all the leadership principles is to be able to effectively manage time. The leader must determine not only how he will use his own time, but also how the group's time will be used. Managing time effectively will allow the leader to achieve success, happiness and pride at the workforce. As a leader, personal time management is one of the chief objectives. At work place, the leader should manage meeting time more effectively. The leader should develop and follow his own personal plan for the effective use of time. Often times leaders find having trouble with managing time. Due to poor organization and lack of planning, time management becomes a tricky task. â€Å"Being unable to set the priorities will make time management process very ineffective and sometimes completely useless† (Washbush, Rausch 269). There are several ways to manage the group's or organization's time effectively. The leader should provide a job description to each person. To save more time, the leader should train or take key people further and commit to these key people when things need to be done immediately. These key people should be kept informed and the leader should have these key people take initiative to report back. The leader should utilize only the time needed for successful completion of the group project, event or activity. Every individual working in the team is important and every individual has varied talents and not to mention problems of their own. Knowing the person, understanding the person and identifying the strengths and needs of the individual are vital for the leader in order to be most effective with the person (Rausch, Washbush 233-235). Leader's objective is to perform more effectively as a leader by getting to know and understand individual members of the group. Leader should be able identify the characteristics and needs of the members of a group. The leader should be able to look for and accept the strengths of each individual (Lundy 43-45). Getting to know a person is a very complex skill and there are several problems involved during this process. People are complex. An individual is like a mixed bag with different characteristics. Until many of the characteristics of an individual are identified, it is impossible to begin to know and understand that person. To overcome the problems of knowing a person, the leader should spend more time with his team members. The leader should make attempts to know the needs and characteristics of his team member and fellow employees. Every human being has need for love. If we love a person, we care for that person and we try not to hurt the person in any way. Love is expressed by doing things to strengthen, improve, support and defend the one loved. A good leader does what is morally and ethically right and does not abuse the management power or privileges he/she has over their sub-ordinates. A good leader loves and gives individual consideration, coaches, advises and gives help to those who need it. A good leader also treats newcomers with a lot of respect and love (Row). Leader should give love to each person he associates with. The primary objective is to overcome the fear as a leader by extablishing close feelings of love with the team members. â€Å"Leadership involves being as well as doing. Individual styles of leadership may be quite different, yet equally effective† (Lundy 76). As conditions and situations change, leaders need to change their styles of leadership. The challenge of the leader is not to follow one leadership style all the time, but to use the leadership style needed by his followers. Leaders should maintain the power or influence of their offices by being kind and knowledgeable. The primary objective of being the leader would be to recognize the qualities necessary for a leader to be successful. Leader should be able to recognize various leadership styles and understand when each would be appropriate. â€Å"Sometimes leader will have to follow their group member and in such situations the good leader will appreciate the leadership in other while serving the role of a follower†(Carlin). Leader often have trouble deciding what leadership style to be used at what given instance. Another problem with leaders is that some leaders tend to follow the same leadership principles all the time and this is not a good idea to tackle special situations. The leader must not consider himself locked into a style of leadership with any individual or group. To avoid problems leaders should always act accordingly and change leadership skills depending on the situation and need. At the same time leader should be confident enough to be able to deal with the new skills (Carlin). Every group needs a leader and the group's performance depends on the leader either directly or indirectly. Whether it is a hospital, private practice, health maintenance organization, government facility, or university, or a business, they all need supervisors and leaders. The behavior as a manager has a direct impact on staff performance, productivity, satisfaction, and turnover. Proper Leadership skills are highly essential for a manager as well as the company or organization to become successful. The leadership principles mentioned in this paper are just a simple guideline for managers and leaders to follow; however, a good leader does not require any guidelines. A good leader inherits leadership qualities by inheritance of leadership abilities and characteristics from their own life.

Conjugation Tables for the Italian Verb Finire (to Finish or End)