Russian Policy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Russian Policy - Essay Example Strobe Talbott, the presidential advisor to President Clinton, in his book, ‘The Russia Hand: A Memoir of Presidential Diplomacy’, has provided a vivid account of the period especially with regard to the relationship with the former Russian President, Boris Yeltsin and his subsequent fall from grace. It should be noted that the author is qualified to write his opinions and observations since he played a vital role in US Russia relations during that period. He has had personal access to all the primary stakeholders in the process including Clinton, Yeltsin and later with Vladimir Putin. The book, written in the form of a memoir clearly states that the era of Putin would not have occurred without the era of Yeltsin. This would create an impression that the transition was a smooth one planned by Yeltsin, but it is far from the truth. The relationship between President Clinton and his Russian counterpart was unprecedented in the history of the United States. It is said that the number of meeting between the US President and Yeltsin outnumbered the total meetings by all the US and USSR premiers in the past. President Clinton was of the view that the cold war attitude of former presidents including Eisenhower and Truman is no longer relevant in the changed circumstances (Talbott 133). It required a closer approach devoid of suspicion and intrigue that had been characteristic of the attitude between the two superpowers of the time. Yeltsin who had continued the reforms of Gorbachev was in an unenviable position. The country was opening up to reforms which included to a large extent, private business and ownership. People were optimistic about a situation where free market enterprise and freedom of thought and speech would result in a resurgent and prosperous Russia. But the actual situation is his country was far from rosy or perfect. A country used to Communist rule

Jpmorgan income&growth PLC Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Jpmorgan income&growth PLC - Essay Example The professors further theorized about the market value a any given firm being determined by not only the earning power of the given firm, but also by the risk associated to he underlying assets of the firm with the firms value being independent of the way it chooses to finance its investment or the distribution of the dividends. The capital structure theorists who are perceived to be orthodox are mainly divided into two different groups with the fundamentalists like Modigliani and Miller making arguments bout the world approaching perfection very much closely with the imperfections which might be offsetting to a great extent which consequently makes gearing not to matter in the real sense. Amongst the scholars classified as the revisionists include finance text authors who are famous for writing for a wide group of audience for whom theoretical ingenuity may in real terms not imply to the highest value but instead make attempts towards accommodating, though, within the confines of o rthodoxy in what is described as the stark difference between Modigliani and Millers both theoretical analysis and empirical observations as regards to the importance that has been based on a firms capital structure not only by the firm itself, but by also the investors (Findlay and Williams, 1985). It is therefore evident that what they are in real sense arguing about is the importance of imperfections which further which further attributes to the reason making gearing very important hence they play quite a critical role in making us understand why different firms make the gearing decisions the way they do. This study will therefore critically analyze both the fundamentalist and revisionist positions. The Modigliani and Miller argument is mainly founded on the following basic assumptions; That there is absence of taxes, the absence of the costs of transactions, that there are no costs of bankruptcy, that there exists equivalence in the costs of borrowing not only for the companies, but also the investors, that there exists symmetry in the flow of market information as regards to both the companies and investors being in know how with the given information (Edwards, 1987). Lastly, the theory is based on the assumption that there exists no significant effect as regards the effect of debt on the earnings of the company before interest and taxes (Findlay and Williams, 1985). It must however be noted that the reality existent in the real world is that there are taxes, costs of bankruptcy, the costs of transactions, existence of various differences in not only the costs of borrowing, but also the asymmetries in the flow of information and the effects debts has on earnings. Thus, to gain a better understanding of the failures of Modigliani and Miller (MM) economic models of gearing, we will first briefly look at both prepositions. Modigliani and Miller’s Capital-structure Irrelevance proposition The capital structure irrelevance proposition propagated by Modi gliani and Miller makes assumptions of the lack of both taxes and the costs of bankruptcy. According to the proposition, they argue that the weighted cost of capital of any given company remains constant in disregard to the numerous changes in the structure of any firm’s capital structure. A good example would the rate of borrowing of a given firm which would result in no tax benefits resulting from payments of interest hence resulting to no changes or benefits as regards the companies weighted average cost of