Short Medium And Long Term Sources Of Finance

Short Medium And Long Term Sources Of Finance There are many sources of finance, which would all provide the business with a quick source of money, which will have to be paid back. But the amount the company needs can limit them to a range of sources of finance and methods of repayment e.g. interest. The sources of finance can be split up into three types; long term, medium term and short term. Long term finance is mainly for companies who need a large sum of money, which would be difficult to be paid back, this would be used to provide start-up capital to finance the business for its whole lifespan, finance the purchase of assets with a longer life, such as buildings and provide expansion capital for large projects, such as building a new factory or taking over another business. The repayment as it is so much would be paid over a number of years rather than straight away. Medium term finance is again for high sums of money needed but not as high as long term, these usually would be used to finance the purchase of assets with a two to five year life, such as vehicles and computers, to replace an overdraft which is difficult to clear and is proving expensive and to finance a change in strategy, such as to switch marketing focus from Britain to the whole of Europe etc. But the repayment would be faster than long term, such as in a couple of years etc. Short-term finance is when a company needs money quickly for immediate things, which are temporary; the repayments are much quicker than the others. They would be used to bridge temporary finance gaps, to get through periods when cash flow is poor and to cover temporary needs for extra funds due to unexpected problems or opportunities. There are possible sources of finance, which available to a Limited company. Sources of Short-term Finance There are a number of sources of short-term finance which are listed below: 1. Trade credit 2. Bank credit Loans and advances Cash credit Overdraft Discounting of bills 3. Customers advances 4. Instalment credit 5. Loans from co-operatives 1. Trade Credit Trade credit refers to credit granted to manufactures and traders by the suppliers of raw material, finished goods, components, etc. 2. Bank Credit Commercial banks grant short-term finance to business firms which is known as bank credit. (i) Loans When a certain amount is advanced by a bank repayable after a specified period, it is known as bank loan. . (ii) Cash Credit It is an arrangement whereby banks allow the borrower to withdraw money upto a specified limit. This limit is known as cash credit limit. Initially this limit is granted for one year. This limit can be extended after review for another year. However, if the borrower still desires to continue the limit, it must be enewed after three years. (iii) Overdraft When a bank allows its depositors or account holders to withdraw money in excess of the balance in his account upto a specified limit, it is known as overdraft facility. This limit is granted purely on the basis of credit-worthiness of the borrower . (iv) Discounting of Bill Banks also advance money by discounting bills of exchange, promissory notes and hundies. When these documents are presented before the bank for discounting, banks credit the amount to cutomers account after deducting discount. 3. Customers Advances Sometimes businessmen insist on their customers to make some advance payment. It is generally asked when the value of order is quite large or things ordered are very costly. Customers advance represents a part of the payment towards price on the product (s) which will be delivered at a later date. 4. Instalment credit Instalment credit is now-a-days a popular source of finance for consumer goods like television, refrigerators as well as for industrial goods. 5. Loans from Co-operative Banks Co-operative banks are a good source to procure short-term finance. Such banks have been established at local, district and state levels. District Cooperative Banks are the federation of primary credit societies. 18.5 Merits and Demerits of Short-term Finance Short-term loans help business concerns to meet their temporary requirements of money. They do not create a heavy burden of interest on the organisation. But sometimes organisations keep away from such loans because of uncertainty and other reasons. Let us examine the merits and demerits of short-term finance. Merits of short-term finance a) Economical : Finance for short-term purposes can be arranged at a short notice and does not involve any cost of raising. The amount of interest payable is also affordable. It is, thus, relatively more economical to raise short-term finance. b) Flexibility : Loans to meet short-term financial need can be raised as and when required. These can be paid back if not required. This provides flexibility. c) No interference in management : The lenders of short-term finance cannot interfere with the management of the borrowing concern. The management retain their freedom in decision making. d) May also serve long-term purposes : Generally business firms keep on renewing short-term credit, e.g., cash credit is granted for one year but it can be extended upto 3 years with annual review. After three years it can be renewed. Thus, sources of short-term finance may sometimes provide funds for long-term purposes. Demerits of short-term finance Short-term finance suffers from a few demerits which are listed below: a) Fixed Burden : Like all borrowings interest has to be paid on short-term loans irrespective of profit or loss earned by the organisation. That is why business firms use short-term finance only for temporary purposes. b) Charge on assets : Generally short-term finance is raised on the basis of security of moveable assets. In such a case the borrowing concern cannot raise further loans against the security of these assets nor can these be sold until the loan is cleared (repaid). c) Difficulty of raising finance : When business firms suffer intermittent losses of huge amount or market demand is declining or industry is in recession, it loses its creditworthiness. In such circumstances they find it difficult to borrow from banks or other sources of short-term finance. d) Uncertainty : In cases of crisis business firms always face the uncertainty of securing funds from sources of short-term finance. If the amount of finance required is large, it is also more uncertain to get the finance. e) Legal formalities : Sometimes certain legal formalities are to be complied with for raising finance from short-term sources. If shares are to be deposited as security, then transfer deed must be prepared. Medium term finance Bank term loan This is possibly the simplest form of loans available to businesses. The average bank manager dealing with a medium sized firm and responsible to head office for the performance of the branch uses a set of well-defined criteria when making a loan. A bank loan is for a fixed amount at a fixed rate of interest. There is likely to be a demand for regular payments. The advantages of a bank term loan is that financial planning is made easier as repayments are made in regular instalments and the interest rate are often fixed, but the disadvantages are the smaller the business the higher rates paid due to presenting a higher risk of things going wrong. Long term Finance Sale of Shares This is the issuing of shares of the business to other investors who want to buy into the company. The main advantage of issuing shares is that the shareholders have limited liability if the business fails. Personal possessions are not at risk and their liability is limited to the actual capital invested. Also the capital is raised by issuing shares (which are a proportion of what the company is worth) to investors, who are encouraged to buy by the promise of receiving dividends or profits on their shares. Also shares can be sold as preference shares which offer a fixed return as profits change from year to year, according to how well the company has done. The disadvantages of selling shares are the administrative costs of issuing shares are high. Also it is difficult to estimate the market price of shares, though this problem can be avoided if tender issues them, where investors state how much they are willing to pay for them. Also the price of the shares can go up or down and shareholders may have to sell at a lower price than they bought it. Also the shares of an Ltd will have to be sold privately, which costs money and investors would might not want to invest due to the lack of hassle from buying into a Plc. Reinvested Profits This is the money that the business makes being re-invested into the business to aid its plans. The advantage of this is capital can be raised by the company reinvesting or ploughing back the profits made at the end of the year, after expenses and dividends to shareholders have been paid. The disadvantage of this is profits may be scare or non-existent, especially in times of recession. Mortgage Loans This is a loan where the lender insists on some asset of the business being tied to the repayment of the loan. In the event of bankruptcy or liquidation that lender will then have priority on the money from the sale of that asset for the repayment of the loan. The asset is always land or property. The advantage of this is capital is often supplied by pension or insurance funds for a loan over 25 30 years for buildings or land, with the asset as security. The disadvantage of this the loans are usually only given when large sums are required. Venture Capital Loans Venture capital is risk capital, usually in the forms of loan and shares as a package, to provide a significant investment in a medium or large business. The advantages of this are capital is supplied by venture capital firms who accept a certain degree of risk being inevitable. Also most venture capitalists also provide help in the form of back up management and financial expertise. Also the governments Enterprise Investment Scheme offers incentives to private investors willing to invest in unquoted companies. The disadvantages are that most venture capitalists are only interested in loans for more than  £50000 and some only consider ventures where more than  £250000 is involved, as the administration costs are not worthwhile on smaller projects. Also they charge a negotiation fee for arranging the finance and they generally expect a non controlling equity stake of 20 40% in the firms capital, as a return of their investment. Debenture Loans A debenture is a long-term loan, which does not have to be repaid until an agreed date. Debenture holders are entitled to a fixed rate of the return year and have priority over all the shareholders. The advantage of this is that individuals can supply capital to a company in the form of a long-term loan called debentures, which have to be repaid on an agreed date. These payments take priority over payments to all other shareholders. The disadvantage is that the company has to offer some security for the loan, which can be sold if the company cannot meet the payments. In the case of a fixed debenture this is a specific asset such as a building or land. (Source Advantages/Disadvantages Understanding Industry by Ian Marcousà © pg 85-86, Definitions Business Studies Pg 297 301 Susan Hammond A-Z Business Studies pg 148, 167 David Lines, Ian Marcousà © Barry Martin)

Depictions of violence towards women in ‘Halloween’

However the initial praise heaped upon Halloween for It's portrayal of a previously unheard of strong female character may have been premature due to the almost Insurmountable criticisms heaped upon It by the second wave feminists at the time. Despite attempting otherwise, the film, and the horror genre as a whole, have been misguided In bringing what the audience Is to perceive as strong female character to the screen. Although years have passed since it's first release in 1978 Halloween can still be viewed by many as misogynistic and over equalized.Presenting a negative outlook on women, judging them based on gender as well as showing them only as sex objects and devaluing their worth. We are introduced touch Carpenters film ‘Halloween' through a subjective point of view killing of a young woman, a young woman, who without the directors intended perception of events, has done nothing to deserve such treatment. Throughout the opening scenes of this film we can sense the disapp roval and contempt for the sexual actions that both Lane and her boyfriend are partaking in, and while they are both equal participating parties.We watch as Michael allows the male to leave down the stairs and out of the house unscathed before continuing upstairs to murder his male of course to is be applauded for exercising his sexuality but the female who should pride herself up her purity deserves to be punished for it. This gender inequality is only further enforced when we follow Michael upstairs to his sisters bedroom with a knife, we see him turn his head towards to bed as if to verify that she has in fact ‘defiled' herself before turning back and stabbing her multiple times.This behavior of Judging women much more harshly is prevalent throughout history, where the actions of a man would be taken much more lightly then if the same action had been undertaken by their female counter part, even in young children we are taught to view assertive women as bossy and assertive men as confident. Watching the rest of the movie we are shown several scenes where the mans behavior is over looked in favor of inflicting violence being upon women. Pulling up to the mental institution Dry. Loomis is allowed to exit the car unharmed by Michael, even thoughMichael would have had 15 years worth of reasons to use the opportunity to attack him, while the young nurse is subject to his terrifying harassment before she manages to escape the car herself. Another such scene occurs after Michael has taken his first victim. In this scene he does kill Bob but does so quickly and only his association with Lynda, we are made well aware of the fact that upstairs Lynda is his primary target and this is proven by the lengths he goes to to torment her before slowly killing her.What we are left to gather from these scenes of violence being inflicted upon women is that the inequality between genders is prevalent enough to influence a 7 year old boys decision to murder his older sister and develop his view of women in the future. It seems to be a common theme in slashes films to depict women in compromising or sexual positions near or during their time of death, this over equalization of women and their bodies portray them as objects to be view, coveted, desired, or in the case of ‘Halloween', murdered.With Michael Myers being 7 at the time of his first murder it would be hard to attach any sort of sexual impulse to his desire to murder is sister, but we are clearly shown a connection throughout the film between the nakedness of women and his desire to murder them. His sister, being the first was completely naked in front of a mirror at the time of her death, Annie and Lynda, while not naked during their deaths, had both been depicted in various states of undress in the sequences leading up to them.While of course up until the climax of the film it would seem that both Annie and Lynda had avoided being completely nude on screen however we are then shown tha t both of the girls had been stripped down stormed and left for Laurie to find. In Linda Williams essay When the Woman Looks,' she writes that ‘there is not that much difference between an object of desire and an object of horror as far as the male look is concerned' (Williams).It seems that in slashes films it is not enough to simply show women being murdered on screen, they must sexuality the act by having the women be naked at the time or be stripped down after the fact and displayed for the audience under the guise of Michael Myers perverse pleasures. Of course the act of equalizing the deaths of these women is not solely because halls symbol of the knife, as wielded by Michael, could be used as a means to expend his own sexual frustration upon these women, by means of the thrusting of the knife and the subsequent penetrating of their flesh.Although this point is disputed specifically in Carol Clover's Men, Women, and Chainsaws where in John Carpenter is quoted saying, â⠂¬Å"They [the critics] completely missed the boat there, I think. Because if you turn it around, the one girl who is the most sexually uptight Just keeps stabbing the guy with a long knife, she's the most sexually frustrated. She's the nee who killed him. Not because she's a virgin, but because all that repressed energy starts coming out. She uses all those phallic symbols on the guy†¦ â€Å"(Clover).A fair point to be sure but calling Laurie out on her own repressed sexual urges in no way diminishes the perversity of the acts of violence undertaken by Michael in the first four murders in this film, but actually Just verifies the fact that Michael does indeed express his own sexual frustration through these over murders. Further more, by looking at this film we see violence being inflicted upon women†¦ ND only women, we must draw the conclusion that simply being feminine is enough to warrant your death in a slashes film. Feminine' in these movies often being synonymous wi th weak. It is a tried and true formula of horror film to present women in a negative light, as the victim, simply a plot device used when seeking to reach as large a body count as possible. However it has been argued in recent literature that ‘Halloween' presents the audience with a female victim that forces the audiences identification to shift to that of the female victim and begin relating to Laurie as a throng feminine character.Once again referencing the works of Carol Clover, she writes that Halloween, in line with the second wave feminist movement, marks the beginning of a more positive portrayal of women in horror films. â€Å"Given the drift between Texas chain Saw and Halloween – from passive to active defensive – it is no surprise that films following Halloween present Final Girls who not only fight back but do so with ferocity. â€Å"(Clover).We are being told that the final girl presents the audience with an empowered female figure, but we must no w take a look at the scenes which present Laurie as the final girl who ferociously fights back, or perhaps more importantly the scenes leading up to them, for it isn't until Laurie exchanges her feminine attributes for masculine ones, by arming herself and actively seeking to fight back, that she manages to gain the upper hand and become a serious threat herself.Through the film we are shown woman after woman being senselessly slaughtered simply for the ‘crime' of being women and it isn't until the audience no longer views the final girl as feminine do they find themselves able to relate her and goes she earn the right to survive the horrors being inflicted upon her. † †¦ The slashes film resolves it either through eliminating the woman (earlier victims) or reconstituting her as masculine(fall girl). (Clover) We are not given a final ‘girl' we are told from the beginning that the weak female deserves what is being done to her and the only one worthy of avoidin g causality is the female who is the embodiment of masculine traits. Halloween fails to depict women any better then its predecessors in the western point in women in horror cinema, perhaps it planted the seeds of thought in the erectors which followed John Carpenter that women could be more then what they have been for the past decades.Fortunately we mostly tend to see the poor portrayal of women in most of the western horror film and do have many European films to look to which often have women shown as the killer and predominant threat which is refreshing to see. We must hope to see the trend continue in future slashes film where we see women continuing to fight back against the years of mistreatment and misrepresentation. —Bibliography— Clover, Carol J. Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film.

“One Out of Many” by V.S. Naipaul Essay

Read â€Å"One Out of Many† by V.S. Naipaul (in the Anthology, A World of Difference, pp. 261-94). Discuss the ways in which the author explores the concept of freedom in the story. â€Å"One Out of Many†, a short story by the famous Trinidad-born British writer V. S. Naipaul, first published in his anthology In a Free State in 1973, is a story which concerns a young Indian man from Bombay who starts a new life and struggles with his own personal identity in the city of Washington D.C. Through narrative structure within the short story Naipaul seems to question the meaning of freedom, and what constitutes freedom on both a societal, and personal level. In order to fully explore the theme of freedom within the plot and the narrative of â€Å"One Out of Many†, it is worthwhile to mention a few of its key elements, and how they fit into a wider political, and social context. There are a number of important events that happen to the main protagonist, Santosh, that help to shape his own sense of self identity and thus bring him to question the freedom which he has in his own life. The first of these events is Santosh’s emigration to Washington D.C. with his employer, which causes Santosh to leave his wife and two children behind. Even at this early point in the story Santosh is divided. â€Å"Was there a job for me in Bombay?† Santosh questions himself, showing a reluctance to stay on in his native city without the security that has been provided for him by his vocation and his employer. Sometime into his stay in Washington D.C., Santosh seems to gain a greater sense of self-identity (which will be looked at in more depth later), and a sexual encounter with a â€Å"hubshi† woman at the time of the race riots in Washington D.C. leads him to abandon the life he has with his employer and to become a more independent citizen. This leads our protagonist on to what could be seen as one of his most important realisations in terms of his own sense of personal freedom within a wider context. Having met an Indian restaurant owner named Priya, Santosh discovers that a lot of his fellow employees within the restaurant are  indeed Mexicans who wear turbans in order to give a faà §ade of being Indian men. â€Å"Their talk amid the biryanis and the pillaus was all of papers and green cards,† notes Santosh, â€Å"They were always about to get green cards or they had been cheated out of green cards or they had just got green cards†. It is this talk of legal and illegal citizenship that leads Santosh to question his own freedom within US society, and eventually make a very important decision that will bring him a certain amount of freedom. Naipaul uses first person narrative effectively in order to bring the reader closer to the main protagonist, Santosh. Through this first person narrative the reader gains an insight into Santosh’s naivety within his new surroundings in Washington D.C., and his initial experiences within it. At times, therefore, it could be said that it is necessary for Naipaul to portray Santosh as a rather simplistic character in order to show just how little Santosh knows of the USA and the cultural differences between it and his native Bombay. Naipaul manages to achieve a much more, it could be said, â€Å"personal† experience for the reader through these means, with the reader also also being able to feel the same â€Å"fish out of water† feeling that is portrayed throughout Santosh’s travels and the â€Å"adventure† which unravels before him. Naipaul really emphasises the theme of freedom when Santosh seems to speak directly to the reader, and this is no more evident than when Santosh, upon realising his living space is a cupboard, says, â€Å"I understood I was a prisoner. I accepted this and adjusted †¦ I was even calm†. He is a prisoner not just of circumstance, but of his place on the class ladder. Later, upon leaving the confines of the cupboard and going on his â€Å"adventure†, he pursues what some would call the â€Å"American Dream†, and it is effective how Naipaul seems to allow the reader to question themselves with regards to just how â€Å"free† Santosh becomes. Another example of this effective use of first person narrative is when Santosh describes his guilt and desire for repentance directly after what he sees as a shameful sexual encounter with a â€Å"hubshi† woman. Incidentally, this is a key event in Santosh’s eventual pursuit of freedom. Throughout the story Santosh seems to gain a greater sense of identity, and a stronger perception himself. On his flight to Washington D.C. Santosh, thrust into an environment which is entirely alien to any aspect of his life  in Bombay (which is described thoroughly and affectionately at the beginning of the story), Santosh immediately begins to note the reactions that people have to him. He especially notices an â€Å"airline girl†, and notes that â€Å"[she] didn’t like me at all†. The girl then proceeds to ignore Santosh, and this first cultural encounter with Western people who look down upon his somewhat shabby appearance teaches him to question the way he comes across to others. This is reflected throughout the story in Santosh’s various mentions of mirrors, and his own reflection within them. It is later on when Santosh has his first walk through the streets of Washington D.C. that he himself finds himself looking down on other people – the â€Å"hubshi† people, or African Americans, whom he has never encountered in his own life until then. Even though Santosh himself has been looked down upon by many people on his journey west, for example the aforementioned girl on the plane, he still percieves the â€Å"hubshi† people to be below him, an opinion which was held very widely at the time the short story is set. Meanwhile, Santosh seems to constantly fight an internal battle between his old spiritual identity, and the more materialistic, consumerist American way of life. By writing in the first person, the author really outs this point across as the reader is given a deep insight into the inner turmoil that Santosh experiences as a result of his own culture shock. A key incident in the short story which makes Santosh think about the differences in these two cultures is when a wealthy man comes to dinner, and seems to insult his employer by describing an incident in which he paid a servant to cut off a statue’s head within a temple in India. Santosh’s disagreement with this sacreligious, â€Å"illegal† act is heightened by the reader’s existing knowledge of Santosh’s own spirituality, which is derived from a previous incident in which Santosh described praying to ornamental Eastern statues which have been erected in his employer’s apartment. From a political point of view, it could be said that it is somewhat crucial that Santosh arrives in Washington D.C. during the civil rights movement in the US, shortly before the race riots of the 1960’s, which occur sometime into the story, with Santosh describing â€Å"the city on fire†. Even though Santosh is looked down upon by many people he encounters on his journey west, for example the air hostess on the plane there, he still percieves the â€Å"hubshi† people he finds in  Washington D.C. as below him. This is highlighted by many of Santosh’s statements throughout the short story, and indeed when he questions i f his punishment for having sex with the hubshi maid may be being reincarnated as a â€Å"hubshi† himself. It could be argued that the character Santosh’s lack of freedom in his own life is shown by Naipaul by the number of things that happen to him in his life that are out of his control. However, this seems to be altered towards the end of the story with Santosh’s final decision to marry the hubshi woman who has sought him out in order to gain legal US citizenship. This piece of advice is ultimately suggested to Santosh by Priya, who has seen Santosh living with anxiety in the knowledge that he is an illegal immigrant and could be deported. On a purely societal level therefore, Santosh has gained a superficial form of freedom through his marriage to the hubshi maid. The power that the short story has, as a medium, to convey many ideas and concepts within a relatively short narrative space is, it could be said, proven by the many concepts and themes that V.S. Naipaul explores within the story. All of these themes seem to relate back to the concept of freedom. In the first few paragraphs of the story alone, Santosh brings up many of the ideas that are explored throughout his change of setting and his struggles brought on by it. He describes the â€Å"respectabl e people† as opposed to â€Å"riff raff†, and then, while observing â€Å"the workings of fate†, mentions â€Å"the importance of his employer†. This could be seen as a metaphor for the question that the whole story centres around, and that is, how much freedom does the character Santosh have, and how much of his life is ultimately in his own control?

Socratic Wisdom

Socratic wisdom refers to Socrates understanding of the limits of his knowledge in that he only knows that which he knows and makes no assumption of knowing anything more or less. Although never directly penned by Socrates as a theory or treatise, our understanding of his philosophies as they relate to wisdom derives from Platos writings on the subject. In works like Apology, Plato describes the life and trials Socrates that influence our understanding of the truest element of Socratic wisdom: We are only as wise as our awareness of our ignorance. The True Meaning of Socrates Famous Quote Although attributed to Socrates, the now famous I know that I know nothing really refers to an interpretation  of Platos account of Socrates life, though is never directly stated. In fact, Socrates often highly asserts his intelligence in Platos work, even going so far as to say he would die for it. Still, the sentiment of the phrase echoes some of Socrates most famous quotes on wisdom. For instance, Socrates once said: I do not think that I know what I do not know. In the context of this quote, Socrates is explaining that he does not claim to possess the knowledge of artisans or scholars on subjects he has not studied, that he bears no false pretense to understanding those. In another quote on the same topic of expertise, Socrates once said, I know very well that I possess no knowledge worth speaking of on the topic of building a home. Whats actually true of Socrates is that he has said quite the opposite of I know that I know nothing. His routine discussion of intellect and understanding hinges upon his own intelligence. In fact, he does not fear death because he says to fear death is to think that we know what we do not, and he is absent of this delusion of understanding what death could mean without ever seeing it. Socrates, the Wisest Human In Apology, Plato describes Socrates at his trial in 399 B.C.E. where Socrates tells the court how his friend Chaerephon asked the Delphic Oracle if anyone was wiser than himself. The oracles answer — that no human was wiser than Socrates — left him bewildered, so he embarked on a quest to find someone wiser than himself in order to prove the oracle wrong. What Socrates found, though, was that although many people had particular skills and areas of expertise, they all tended to think they were wise about other matters too — such as what policies the government should pursue — when they clearly were not. He concluded that the oracle was right in a certain limited sense: he, Socrates, was wiser than others in this one respect: that he was aware of his own ignorance. This awareness goes by two names that seem virtually opposed to one another: Socratic ignorance and Socratic wisdom. But there is no real contradiction here. Socratic wisdom is a sort of humility: it simply means being aware of how little one really knows; how uncertain ones beliefs are; and how likely it is that many of them may turn out to be mistaken. In the Apology, Socrates doesnt deny that true wisdom — a real insight into the nature of reality — is possible; but he seems to think it is enjoyed only by the gods, not by human beings.