Bimetallism Definition and Historical Perspective

Bimetallism  is a monetary policy wherein the value of a currency is linked to the value of two metals, usually (but not necessarily) silver and gold. In this system, the value of the two metals would be linked to each other—in other words, the value of silver would be expressed in terms of gold, and  vice versa—and either metal could be used as legal tender.   Paper money  would then be directly convertible to an equivalent amount of either metal—for example, U.S. currency used to explicitly state that the bill was redeemable â€Å"in gold coin payable to the bearer on demand.† Dollars were literally receipts for a quantity of actual metal held by the government, a holdover from the time before paper money was common and standardized. History of Bimetallism From 1792, when the  U.S. Mint was established, until 1900, the United States was a bimetal country, with both silver and gold recognized as legal currency; in fact, you could bring silver or gold to a U.S. mint and have it converted into coins. The U.S. fixed the value of silver to gold as 15:1 (1 ounce of gold was worth 15 ounces of silver; this was later adjusted to 16:1). One problem with  bimetallism  occurs when the face value of a coin is lower than the actual value of the metal it contains. A one-dollar silver coin, for example, might be worth $1.50 on the silver market. These value disparities resulted in a severe silver shortage as people stopped spending silver coins and opted instead to sell them or have them melted down into bullion. In 1853, this shortage of silver prompted the U.S. government to debase its silver coinage—in other words, lowering the amount of silver in the coins. This resulted in more silver coins in circulation. While this stabilized the economy, it also moved the country towards  monometallism  (the use of a single metal in currency)  and the  Gold Standard. Silver was no longer seen as an attractive currency because the coins were not worth their face value. Then, during the  Civil War, hoarding of both gold and silver prompted the United States to temporarily switch to what’s known as â€Å"fiat money.† Fiat money, which is what we use today, is money that the government declares to be legal tender, but thats not backed or convertible to a physical resource like metal.  At this time, the government stopped redeeming paper money for gold or silver. The Debate After the war, the  Coinage Act of 1873  resurrected  the ability to exchange currency for gold—but it eliminated the ability to have silver bullion struck into coins, effectively making the U.S. a Gold Standard country. Supporters of the move (and the Gold Standard) saw stability; instead of having two metals whose value was theoretically linked, but which  in fact fluctuated because foreign countries often valued gold and silver differently than we did, we would have money based on a single metal that the U.S. had plenty of, allowing it to manipulate its market value and keep prices stable. This was controversial for some time, with many arguing that a â€Å"monometal† system limited the amount of money in circulation, making it difficult to obtain loans and deflating prices. This was widely seen by many as benefiting the banks and the rich while hurting farmers and common people, and the solution was seen to be a return to â€Å"free silver†Ã¢â‚¬â€the ability to convert silver into coins, and true bimetallism. A Depression and a  panic in 1893  crippled the U.S. economy and exacerbated the argument over bimetallism, which came to be seen by some as the solution to all of the United States’ economic troubles. The drama peaked  during the  1896 presidential election. At the National Democratic Convention, eventual nominee  William Jennings Bryan  made his famous  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Cross of Gold†Ã‚  speech  arguing for bimetallism. Its success gained him the nomination, but Bryan lost the election to  William McKinley—in part because scientific advances coupled with new sources promised to increase the supply of gold, thus alleviating fears of limited money supplies. The Gold Standard In 1900, President McKinley signed the  Gold Standard Act, which officially made the United States a monometal country, making gold the only metal you could convert paper money into. Silver had lost, and bimetallism was a dead issue in the U.S. The gold standard persisted until 1933, when the  Great Depression  caused people to hoard their gold, thus making the system unstable; President Franklin Delano Roosevelt  ordered all gold and gold certificates to be sold to the government at a fixed price, then Congress changed the laws that required settlement of private and public debts with gold, essentially ending the gold standard here. The currency remained pegged to gold until 1971, when the â€Å"Nixon Shock† made then U.S. currency fiat money once again—as it has remained since.

Analysis Of Pablo Picasso And The Three Dancers - 1201 Words

During heart-breaking times, the despair can sometimes be revealed in the form of dance. Artists often work this art form into their paintings, sculptures, music videos, and drawings, revealing how the power of dance can reflect upon those emotions. Likewise, in the painting Les Trois Danseuses, more commonly known as The Three Dancers, the artist, Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) portrays three distorted dancers. The painting was created between Picasso’s Cubism and Classicism periods, in the year of 1925. Picasso exemplified the heart-breaking suicide of his friend, Carlos Casagemas, who had been involved in a triangular love affair illustrated within the painting (Tate para 1). Similarly, within the painting Dancers at the Barre, by the†¦show more content†¦The background appears to be an open balcony window, possibly allowing the dancers to reflect on their experiences. A sense of fresh air, a cleansing of themselves, may also be interpreted, further portraying the dance itself. Although the three dancers appear to be polar opposites, they are brought together through the art of dance, each holding hands and changing their rhythms. The use of scale and shape, variety, repetition, and color aid in exemplifying the underlying theme of tragedy within Picasso’s painting.The image emphasizes the variety of shapes, which causes the concept of chaos to be highlighted. This chaos reveals the different aspects that each of the dancers possesses. A rather prominent variety in shapes and colors provides interest by causing little focus on one specific frame. An array of colors provides for character within each dancer. The leftmost dancer shares colors with the other two, creating a sense of being a part of each. Bold reds, dull pinks, and bright blues cause this dancer to be portrayed as the most chaotic, along with the random patterns and variety of shapes that captivate the dancer’s body. Possibly resembling how hardships and successes can affect an individual. A combination of dark colors and white with jagged, geometric lines, the dancer on the far right appears to resemble the efforts of good and evil; however, in this case, the dark seems to beShow MoreRelatedGuernica a Paint by Pablo Ruiz Picasso1471 Words   |  6 PagesPicasso: Guernica â€Å" I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them.† These are the words of the wise Pablo Ruiz y Picasso, a famous and talented artist in the 19th and 20th century. Many have crowned him the most influential artist of his time. Many of his works including Les Demoiselles dAvignon, Ma Jolie, and Girl Before a Mirror have set the tone for many artists to follow after. However, Guernica was one of his most famous of his pieces, painting a nearly perfect emotional picture of whatRead MoreALST3389 Words   |  14 Pageswas where she was most likely to see what interested her most: a collision between old and new. 2      Stein returned to Europe in her twenties, settled in Paris, and quickly became a sort of den mother to the most successful artists and writers and dancers of her age. They were, she recognized, moving right along the fault line that riveted her, the one that separated the classical European way of life, with its balls, carriages, and Victorian sensibilities, from what she spotted around her: the dances

Leadership An argument for advances in its development Free Essays

Civilization and its achievements, like the wheel, hinge on the hub of leadership. The ebb and tide of world empires point to the reins handled or pulled by individuals who exert power and influence. In this country, and even in the rest of the world, the assertions and importance of leadership is re-emphasized in many ways because of the rapidly evolving paradigms that assume a more pervasive role in the society. We will write a custom essay sample on Leadership: An argument for advances in its development or any similar topic only for you Order Now   This is the era of organizational revolution. The time is marked with rapid shifts in the demography of our workforce, changing corporate culture, and changing organizations. Organizational forms have become more complex and new forms have been developed (Block, 1981). The management or leadership of people has never been as important and crucial than ever before. Today, it is considered a central figure and the key to productivity and quality especially in a very competitive society. In the light of the rapid shift in today’s organization, the skills required of human resource managers, beginners in the profession and even aspiring students in the discipline, rest on the foundation of knowledge on the whole gamut of human resources management, specifically management theories applied in the setting (Kline Saunders, 1993). The need for a more efficient, economical and equitable management of the people in the industry or organization has never been as pronounced as it is today. This need has never been brought about by factors which inevitably affect not only the established structures and ways of doing things within the personnel area but also by the more meaningful and substantial task of managing the organization’s most important asset – the human capital. Among these factors are: stiffer competition in business; rapid changes in technological, competitive and economic environments; the explosion of technical and managerial knowledge; spiraling wage and benefits cost and so many others. These factors have no doubt been responsible for the emergence of the personnel function as a vital area in the implementation of corporate strategy (Bruffee, 1993). The arguments set forth in this paper spins around the theme of leadership: there have been continued major advancements in the developments of basic leadership theories in the past 200 years.   One of the evidences simply is the theory put forth by Dr. Elliot Jacques, the great Canadian psychologist. Theories abound regarding perspectives of leadership. When Elliot Jacques developed the concept of requisite organization; it served as a unified whole system model for what he deemed effective managerial leadership. Some of the core beliefs in Jacques system, for instance, imply that people are supposed to be compensated on the basis of their individual aptitude or skills and foresight and how long it was before their judgment could be verified. Jacques also thought that where leadership gurus or external consultant like the ODs are concerned, these are only evaluated and equated with alchemy: as such these do not involve real concepts or precise or thorough definitions but rather are considered as rubbish and inauthentic to say the least. Jacques persuasion centers on much of what he calls as â€Å"maximum amount of personal responsibility† and encourages on every part of the organization, or team for that matter, to be stakeholders and thus have a say in the problems at hand. In organizational behavior which is basic to the management of human resource, it points to the inquiry and application of learning about how people, individuals, and groups perform, operate, and work in organizations. It accomplishes this by means of adopting a system approach (Demick Miller, 1993). Explicitly, it infers people-organization affairs in terms of the entire person, group totality, complete organization, and total social structure. Its intention is to put up enhance relations by attaining human goals, organizational purposes, and social goals (Kanter, 1999). In such a milieu, the goals to effect change are influenced by several significant factors which are crucial to the overall results. Hence, there are expected leadership behaviors that maintain momentum during the change process (Demick Miller, 1993). This strategic system model put forth by Jacques is a methodical approach to managing the human capital.   Those who study and make use of that data in exclusive contexts are rightly described as professionals; in them lies the heart and soul of the profession. Industrial-age institutions look for routine and habit accomplished through standardized measures. Complex responsibilities are split into simple steps that are assigned to organizational positions to guarantee that employees are both interchangeable and effortlessly replaced. Bureaucratic hierarchies are likely to esteem proven evaluation of specific aspects of complex managerial tasks. In view of this, the picture of leadership is in reality changing as the image of organizations changes. Analysis ascertains those who require training and what skills or performance improvements are designated. Aims and goals set the restriction for the instructional outline and help attain the appropriate learning outcomes (Kincheloe, 1991 ). Peter Northouse, author of Leadership: Theory and Practice observed the revival of an all-encompassing skills-based model of leadership distinguished by a map for how to reach efficient leadership in organizations (Northouse, 2004). He recommended that the classification of specific skills which can be improved by training has an intuitive appeal: â€Å"When leadership is framed as a set of skills, it becomes a process that people can study and practice to become better at their jobs† (Northouse, 2004). He also suggests that although the skills-based approach claims not to be a trait model, it includes individual attributes that look a great deal like traits. The act of leadership is also an exercise of moral reasoning. In their book Unmasking Administrative Evil, Guy Adams and Danny Balfour caution against elevating the scientific-analytical mindset higher than all other forms of rationality. Even as the rise of â€Å"technical rationality led inevitably to specialized, expert knowledge, the very life blood of the professional,† it also â€Å"spawned unintended consequences in the areas of morals and ethics as the science-based technical rationality undermined normative judgments and relegated ethical considerations to afterthoughts† (Adams Balfour, 2004). Distinguished scholar Ronald Heifetz on the other hand, developed a definition of leadership that takes values into account. He maintains that we should look at leadership as more than a means to organizational effectiveness. Efficiency means getting achievable decisions that execute the goals of the organization. â€Å"This definition has the benefit of being generally applicable, but it provides no real guide to determine the nature or formation of those goals.† (Heifetz, 1994).   Heifetz went on to say that values such as â€Å"liberty, equality, human welfare, justice, and community† are inculcated with first-rate leaders (Heifetz, 1994). It is a necessity then, the infusion of these principles into the leader and from the leader into the organization. Reference: 1. Adams, Guy B. Danny L. Balfour, 2004.   Unmasking Administrative Evil (Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, pp. 31-36. Beckhard, R. 1969. Organization Development: Strategies and Models, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA. John Wiley Sons, Inc. Permissions Department, 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ07030 USA. Block, Peter, Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used, University   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Associates, San Diego, CA 1981. Bruffee, Kenneth A. Collaborative Learning: Higher Education, Interdependence, and   Ã‚   the Authority of Knowledge. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1993. Demick, J. and Miller, P., Development in the Workplace, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates,   Ã‚  Ã‚   Publishers, New Jersey, 1993. Heifetz, Ronald A., 1994. Leadership Without Easy Answers (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, pp. 21-22. Northouse, Peter G. 2004. Leadership Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, pp. 35-52. How to cite Leadership: An argument for advances in its development, Essay examples

United States History Essay Research Paper Chief free essay sample

United States History Essay, Research Paper Chief Joseph: When he became head of the Nez Perce Indian folk in the American Northwest in 1871, Joseph led his people in an unsuccessful opposition to white colonists who were impounding land. The folk was ordered to travel. Joseph agreed, but when three of his folk killed a group of colonists, he attempted to get away to Canada with his followings. Safety Valve Thesis: This averment stated that as immigrants came to the eastern United States during the late 19th century and # 8220 ; polluted # 8221 ; American civilization, citizens of the U.S. would hold the West as a # 8220 ; safety valve # 8221 ; to which they could travel in order to regenerate their pure Americanism. Homestead Act, 1862: This act cut up Western public lands into many little retentions for the free husbandmans. It was originally started by Andrew Johnson as the first homestead measure but met strong resistance by Southern Representatives and hence could non be passed until the sezession of the Southern States during the Civil War. Dawes Severality Act, 1887: It was proposed by Henry L. Dawes, and was passed in 1887. It was designed to reform what well-meaning but nescient Whites perceived to be the failings of Indian life # 8211 ; the deficiency of private belongings, the absence of a Christian based faith, the mobile traditions of the Indians, and the general instability in their manner of life # 8212 ; by turning Indians into husbandmans. The chief point of the jurisprudence was to stress handling Indians every bit persons as opposed to members in a folk, or discreteness. Helen Hunt Jackson, A Century of Dishonor: This book, by Jackson, was a discourse refering the predicament of American Indians published in 1881. She gathered information sing American Indians and their lives while functioning on a federal committee look intoing the intervention of Indians. Jackson besides wrote Ramona refering the same subject. TheGrange: During the decennary of the 1870s, U.S. husbandmans were beset with jobs of high costs, debts, and little net incomes. the husbandmans made their grudges known through the Granger Movement. Membership peaked in the mid-1870s. There was small the husbandmans could make refering monetary values. Merely in 1877 did the Supreme Court regulation that provinces could modulate concerns of a public nature. To antagonize unfair concern patterns, the husbandmans were urged to get down co-ops such as grain lifts, creameries, and shops. Farmers Alliance: This confederation was a political organisation created to assist contend railway maltreatments and to take down involvement rates. It called for authorities ordinance of the economic system in order to right their greivanes. It was founded in New York in 1873, and consisted of the Northwest Farmers # 8217 ; Alliance in the North and the National Farmers # 8217 ; Alliance and Independent Union in the South. They failed to unify, nevertheless, and in 1892 gave manner to the Populist party. Billion-Dollar Congress: The first in peacetime to allow about this sum-gave birth to a bumper harvest of expensive legislative babiews. When the Democrats won control of the House two old ages subsequently, they paid Reed the compliment of following some of his reforms for speedier action. Pension Act: Began by the Billion-Dollar Congress, it showered pensions on all Union Civil War veterans who had served for 90 yearss and who were now unable to make manual labour. Between 1891 and 1895 the host of pensionaries was therefore rasied from 676,000 to 970,000, and by the clip Harrison left office in 1893, the one-year measure had shot up from $ 81 million to $ 135 million. Thus was faintly foreshadowed the government-financed public assistance province of the 20th century. Populist Party, 1892: The Populist party, or people # 8217 ; s party, was a party that represented the # 8220 ; common man. # 8221 ; It was created towards the terminal of the 19th century. Some of their ends included making postal nest eggs Bankss, ordaining in-migration limitation, puting a calibrated income revenue enhancement and restricting the presidential term to a individual six-year term. The Populist platform represented positions of husbandmans in the West. The Omaha platform of 1892 nomin ative James Weaver of Iowa for president. James B. Weaver: An United States legislator and outstanding figure during the Populist motion, he served as a congresswoman from 1879 to 1781 and 1885 to 1889. He was the presidential campaigner of the Greenback and People s parties in 1892. Weaver was besides a former civil war general. William Jennings Bryan: Despite the fact that he was defeated three times for the presidential term of the United States, William Jennings Bryan, the chief figure of the Populist party, molded public sentiment as few leaders have done. A Sur prise to the populace, he polled many ballots during the 1896 election, which may hold been a direct consequence of his â€Å"Cross of Gold Speech.† For many old ages he was the leader of the Democratic party, and it was his influence that won the Democratic presidential nomination for Wilson in 1912. Marcus Hanna: He was an industrialist who became convinced that the public assistance of industry, and hence the state, was bound by the lucks of the Republican party. To foster his ends he waged the most expensive political run the state had of all time seen to acquire William McKinley elected president in 1896. He besides served in the Senate. Muckrakers: Those American authors who early in the twentieth century wrote both fiction and nonfiction to expose corruptness in concern and political relations were called the mudslingers. Muckraker was a term foremost used by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906. They were given this name because of their inclination to # 8220 ; spread the sludge around. # 8221 ; Lincoln Steffens, The Shame of the Cities: An high American reformist and journalist, Joseph Lincoln Steffens, was a leader of the mudslingers. He wrote a series of articles that documented corruptness in American metropoliss, asseverating that some metropoliss were run by political foremans who remained in power with the aid of powerful business communities. Square Deal: Roosevelt, on a talking circuit against the Northern Securities Company, called for a # 8220 ; square deal. # 8221 ; This progressive construct denounced particular intervention for the big capitalists and is the indispensable component to his trustbusting attitude. This trade embodied the belief that all corporations must function the general public good. Upton Sinclair, The Jungle: Sinclair was an American author and reformist who wrote The Jungle. This book exposed the insanitary working conditions in the stockyards of Chicago, finally taking to an probe of both on the job conditions and the conditions of nutrient. It finally led to the passage of the Pure Food Act. Newlands Reclamation Act, 1902: Roosevelt drafted the Newlands Reclamation Act when he noticed that decennaries of rapid industrial growing had destroyed much of the limited natural resources of the land. It insured that all natural resources would be managed by experts. Funding came from public-land gross revenues and was used to construct irrigation undertakings. Hepburn Act, 1906: The Hepburn Act, in concurrence with the Elkins Act, granted the Interstate Commerce Commission plenty power to modulate the economic system. It allowed the ICC to put cargo rates and, in an effort to cut down the corruptness in the railway industry, to necessitate a unvarying system of accounting by regulated transit companies. Meat Inspection Act: The Meat Inspection Act was passed by Roosevelt as a strong response to Sinclair # 8217 ; s book depicting the conditions of nutrient every bit good as wartime dirts in 1898 refering spoiled transcribed meats. It created rigorous healthful demands for meat, began a quality evaluation system, and provisioned for a federal section to inspect meat. New Freedom # 8211 ; The Democratic Party, to which Wilson belonged, had a past history of 45 ballots without a nomination. To get the better of this stumbling block the Democrats united with the Progressives, running under a via media platform. Wilson s # 8220 ; New Freedom # 8221 ; run was concerned with progressive plans similar to both parties. He did non, nevertheless, support trustbusting in the same manner that Roosevelt did. To him, all large concern was morally evil and should be broken up. Sixteenth Amendment: The Sixteenth Amendment, ratified in 1913, is an obvious index to the Progressive epoch in which it was passed. It authorized the income revenue enhancement thereby leting the Underwood-Simmons Duty of 1913 to take down many duties. This amendment invalidated an earlier Supreme Court determination naming the income revenue enhancement was unconstitutional. Federal Reserve Act: The Federal Reserve Act was a via media designed to stabilise the currency in the US. It split the US into 12 parts with one Federal bank in each part. Commercial Bankss bought stock from this bank. The price reduction rate at which the federal bank lent the money determined the involvement rate. Clayton Antitrust Act: The Clayton Act was designed to clear up the Sherman Antitrust Act in footings of new economic issues that had arisen. Practices such as local price-cutting and monetary value favoritism were made illegal. The right of brotherhoods to strike, boycott, and lookout was besides confirmed. This act would hold been labour s Magna Carta had it been followed, but unfavourable tribunal readings rendered many of its pro-labor subdivisions powerless without farther statute law.