How the crisis in the U.S. housing market and new Chinese policy is affecting Chinese manufactures

It is amazing how influential the Unites States is with the world. If something happens to their economy, the whole world suffers. The same thing happens in the Dominican Republic, in which if something happens to the U.S., there is going to be an effect in our economy since we depend on the U.S. But now the housing market crisis as hit hard the Chinese manufactures. They generated a lot of demand from the U.S. housing market since they make the majority of the bathroom sets, all the way to bathroom fixtures. The housing crisis has made their demand and profit decrease. Also the Chinese manufactures have been hit hard by a new Chinese labor law that took effect at the beginning of the year which raised the the labor and energy costs, and also the superior policies for the exporters.

A lot of plants are going to shut down due to this situation. Some companies already started moving their plants to other countries like Vietnam and India, where labor is relatively cheaper but is also getting affected

Even though this is affecting their economy, I believe it has a good aspect for them. By passing down a new labor law, it is going to reduce export since China has a huge trade surplus. I believe that they need to make a balance. So now they are going to focus also in the domestic market because it will do well for the people and also good for the country. But don’t get me wrong China is not going to forget about exporting since it is a great income for their economy.

I was just so surprised on how the U.S. economic slowdown as affected different countries in the world making clear how globalize the economy is these days.

Undergraduates and graduate students are getting affected by the US recession

Right now is a very difficult time to get a job after graduation due to the economic slowdown the US is living. But I believe that for graduates students the stake are even higher. Now students are facing very tough choices in which it is going to affect the rest of their lives. Typically, when the economy is in a bull, most of the graduates students from business schools already have job offers but lately those offers have been decreasing as a of the recession.

I believe that a good choice for students would be either to stay in school or to go into a different industry and start their careers. You never know where you are going to go but it’s better to have a path and then you may find a chance to change your path to one of your past aspirations. At the same time this affects a lot of MBAs and undergrads because graduating at this point in time would reduce your lifetime earnings, since the starting wage is going to be different. Also staying in school might sound like a great idea but is also going to be difficult because not everyone has the luxury to keep paying for tuition. I believe that we have to keep in mind that some students even work two different jobs in order to pay their tuition.

So in my opinion I believe it is more beneficial for students to get into a different industry even though there are not going to get the same salary but at least you start from somewhere in which you will do networking that might be helpful in the future.

Record labels should start getting involve in the Net

We already know how important the Internet has become since this past decade. The record labels have been having a lot of problems with the Internet. Their sales have dropped down a lot as a result of piracy. There is always some way in which you can download a song. Record company’s annual revenues have from music sales have been decreasing every year as a result of piracy. The problem is that the Internet is worldwide so it is going to be very hard to shut down the millions of people that are online at all different hours.

Recently in April, a couple of record labels and MySpace have been meeting up and now are cutting a pretty good deal I believe. Since the CD sales have dropped as a result from the fans, which the majority gets songs off the Internet, Warner, Sony BMG, and Universal have gathered together and managed to get a joint venture with the giant networking, MySpace. As we already know, MySpace is one of the sites that have more social networking in the world. The deal their cutting in is that MySpace music will let people listen to music and watch video for free online but at the same time you can buy merchandise, concert tickets and music just the Apple is doing through iTunes.

I believe that the music culture has to adapt to this change because is a new era and the people now are very dependant to technology or in other terms the “digital culture.” The record labels need to understand that they would never beat piracy, there is no way of stopping it. So I support their deal since I believe it is going to bring them more equity and also ad income.

The Aftermath from the collapse of Bear Stearns

People were surprised how fast a major firm can suddenly collapse. In just one week, Bear Stearns lost the majority of their market value, their reputation, and their identity. In addition to the chaos that this created in the U.S. market, the 14,000 employees that Bear Stearns employs face job cuts. It has become difficult to know whom and what to blame, I believe that this drove people to get frightened and anxious since they don’t know what to expect now, thus making them less willing to invest and more inclined to save, as a result creating a down spiral in the U.S. job market. I believe that right now is the most difficult time to get a job in the finance industry. This is due to the unemployment and also to the economy’s recession. As a result there have been massive layoffs in large companies so some people are wondering where are they going to go and what is going to happen.

The majority of the employees and investors felt like they were robbed and now there is no one to blame. They are putting all their hopes to Joseph Lewis, which owns 8% of the bank and is trying to block the buyout from JPMorgan. But since JPMorgan is being backed up the fed, I believe that Lewis is going to have a hard and challenging time in order to the stop this buyout. The fed supplied JPMorgan to purchase Bear Stearns and I think it was the smartest move because I believe if that didn’t occurred, then the stock markets would have gotten very hurt and it would also contributed to the US economic slowdown

I believe that now is going to be a good time for the corporate counselors since a lot of employees are going to need a venting solutions and also a little bit of guidance. I believe people are going to get worried of their future because the Finance world is layoff a lot of people, so it is getting harder to find a job.

How today’s economy is affecting Hedge Funds

We already know that our economy is going into a slowdown. The majority is due to the credit crisis and also the housing market, which also created a credit crunch. However this has affected a lot the Hedge Funds. A Hedge fund is a private investment taking huge risks and also very advanced investment strategies such as derivatives with the goal of generating high returns. But not everyone can invest in them. You need at least $1 million dollars to invest in a hedge fund. Also they are the only type of investment that it is unregulated since it is done very cachet portfolio managers.

Now a day, Hedge Funds are facing some difficult situations. Most of their clients want to get their money back since the economy is in a slowdown, housing market keeps declining, and the stock market is being very volatile. Keep in mind that a lot of the Hedge Funds’ investments were made in the mortgage market in which they have lost a lot of money and are projecting that it is not getting better. Now the Hedge Funds had to limit investors from taking their money or if they did they could only take a certain amount. If they sold all the assets to give money back to the investors, both the company and the investors are going to lose a good part of their initial investment. Also by doing this, fund managers protect their paychecks because in a freeze like this, they still collect their management fees.

Keep in mind that the hedged funds have been a victim of the credit crunch. So I believe that right now is not a very good idea to invest in a hedge fund unless you are economically capable and also have the advanced investments methods to do so.

Apple is thinking about getting into the corporate market

As we already know, Microsoft has been dominating the corporate market for years. Now, Steve Job wants to take the iPhone to another level. He wants it to compete with the BlackBerry, the device that has dominated the wireless e-mail market for years in the corporate world.

I believe that they are going to have a really hard time introducing the iPhone to the corporate market because since the beginning, Apple has aimed its products to consumers. First they would have to develop more software for the phone in order to make it work smoothly as the popular BlackBerry does. Then they would have to find a way to make the keyboard in the iPhone more comfortable to write e-mails. People find it sometimes uncomfortable and slow since most of the time you can only use one finger since it’s keyboard is based on a touch screen.

They even face a bigger challenge, which is that Apple needs to gain more corporate buyers. Corporations has not been very interested in the Apple products, so it is going to be very hard to make them change their mind. Also Apple might have to be a little more open with other partners in which they have not been in the past.

I believe that Apple definitely can do it because their technology has advanced incredibly. If it does, then most likely it will create an intense rivalry with the BlackBerry. But Apple has to remember that it is not going to be an easy task.

Some critics argue that newspapers should abandon the inverted pyramid news story structure. They say that television and radio deliver news much fast

In my opinion, I think that the newspapers shouldn’t abandon the inverted pyramid news story structure because I believe is a great way to persuade your reader into the story. Also the inverted pyramid structure is more accurate. I consider that the television and radio are not as accurate as the newspaper. Now a day the media is even focusing on things that are not that important like Britney Spears, while there are bigger things going on around us.

The critics should have in mind that not everybody can afford a television or a car radio, meanwhile they can go in a shop and get a newspaper for a few dollars but most of the times the newspapers are for free. Due to the technological advancements, people expect instant gratification when it comes to world events and in most cases the newspaper gives you a general overview of important information. Most Americans tune in to the 5 o’clock news because they receive information faster but I still think that the news are not as accurate. Also you need to have in mind that not everyone has time to sit and watch a television while you can read a newspaper anywhere.

I believe that the inverted pyramid is a very organized way of writing and getting the information to the reader as quick and accurate as possible. This structure makes it easy for the reader to skim through the news and grab the most important information without spending an entire hour sitting in front of a television.

The author says that "writing for the mass media is one of the most important jobs in our society."

In my opinion writing for the mass media is definitely a very important job in our society. Not a day goes by that we as a community are not influenced in some way by media, weather it is an advertisement or news. The America society is a society of consumers, and they are always interested in the newest and best products to outdo other consumers. We are exposed to well over 8,000 adds a day in magazines, on the internet, on TV, we even see them on cars. The people responsible for these advertisements spend so much time and money developing them in such a way that it reaches their target market quickly and effectively. Advertisers are just one of the many people responsible for the new age media frenzy.

In recent years blogging, and personal websites have become extremely popular. People enjoy the fact that it is not just the major corporations that have control over what we see, read, and hear about. More and more useful information are on these sites that are getting millions of hits a day. The media through globalization has become an endless library for floating information that is constantly at our fingertips. Because of this not only can we see what is happening in our country almost minutes after it happens, but we can also see what is happening around the world just as fast. The amount of information and technology that we have now makes it very easy for our culture to be influenced. For this reason writers for the media are faced with extreme pressure to properly convey their message.

How is our discussion today change your thinking about the meaning of the term style and its use in writing for the media?

Today’s discussion made me understand deeply what style is all about. As I said before, there are many styles but only some specific ones can be used in writing for the media. Also my reaction to the statement in my past blog “Writing is thinking,” helped me understand how many different ways you can express yourself. There were numerous different styles; some classmates expressed themselves in poems, lyrics, or writing music like me. Others enjoyed writing research papers, as others didn’t have a specific style. Writing for the media might be considered complex, but it can be done with facility if the correct and appropriate styles are used. There are two levels of styles, which are individual and editorial. This made me understand better the way you can use each style in writing for the media.

For example: I like to express myself through music. I could be happy, angry, or dejected and I would sit down, grab my guitar and just play. Then after a while of jamming on a specific rhythm, an idea would come up and with those ideas I create a song. Sometimes I express myself through lyrics but not very often, usually through music. There was another classmate that expressed herself through music, writing lyrics. Another classmate expressed himself through poems. I think that poems a great ways to express your writing since you can use simile and metaphors in which it puts more life into the poem.

So definitely today’s class made understand the different styles that there is and the way you can you use it in writing for the media.

People say that a consistent style restricts creativity. Others say it enhances creativity. What are the arguments on both sides of this question?

In my opinion, I believe that writing in a consistent style will restrict your creativity. But of course, that depends on the writer because some might like to be restricted in order to enhance or kind of bring out their creativity. If you don’t have any restriction then you can combine your creativity by using different ideas and somehow connect them together making your writing more enjoyable and more persuasive to the reader.

Sometimes is hard to write in a consistent style, depending on the writer. Since your creativity is restricted, now you have to sit down and come up with ideas and one way or another integrating it to your writing. There may be times in which you run out of ideas of the consistent style your were ask to write in, making it harder and longer to complete your task. Due to this situation, now you have to sit down again and try to gather more information and put it together with the rest of your writing. In the other hand, if you are not restricted you can jump into other topics and try to get something out of it and then include it in your writing. You can keep doing this once you start running out of ideas and then you just have to put it together. So I think that if you don’t have any restrictions you can be more creative and even make a fusion of different types of topics that will make your writing yet more creative.

"Writing is Thinking"

When people write they get their thought across to others, therefore influencing their actions of everyday life. Writing is the vehicle for which people express their inner thought and emotions. I think that writers should first brainstorm and make an outline of the ideas. Then they could start writing, so as a result I believe that you need to think before you write. Writing definitely complements thinking, since you cannot write without thinking but even though you might need to think before writing, thoughts might naturally emerge in the process of writing. Writing helps develop thoughts and at the same time make them clearer. Clearer in a way that the reader understands what is trying to be expressed, and what are the exact thoughts that the writer is trying to describe.

I think that you can think in different ways and then write. For example: you can first draw some idea that is in your head or you can express your emotions in the present time. Then you can focus on the picture and you could explain and make the reader understand your emotions or idea and what message are you trying to portray. Another way to express your thoughts before you write is through music. I believe that you can write a song about something that happen that day and express your emotions by venting with your instrument. That’s what I do, I always vent with my instrument. Then later on you can sit down and write something about the song, what drove you to that stage and you can write a poem about it and sing it.

So I believe that in no matter what way you write, you first need to think your emotions or ideas, so when you write them, your expressions could be interpreted much clearer and your message would be delivered.

I was born and raised in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. I did elementary, middle, and high school over there. After I graduated I decided to do my college studies in the United States. Currently I am a senior in Manhattanville College in New York. My major is Finance and also have a minor in Political Science. I first started with Music Management but then as time passed, I started to get interested in the economy and its markets and that is how I started to study Finance.

I plan to graduate with a Bachelors of Arts degree. After that, my plan is to get a job in an investment banking firm in New York City and keep playing with my band. After a couple of years working in New York City, I want to do my masters in a economics school in London. The way I would like to do this is by trying to get the company that I am working for to transfer me to a branch in London, and that way I could have a working experience there while doing my masters. Also I would like become part of the music world in London since the music industry over there is really big and that is my hobby and passion.

I think that this class would help me understand and improve the various types of copywriting used in the mass media today. Also it will make me understand effectively the role of communication in the world today since in the finance and music world, communication plays a big role.