How have journalists and academics investigated current themes and Essay

How have journalists and academics investigated current themes and issues in the US presidential elections - Essay Example This research tells that the Presidential elections in the United States generate plenty of interest both within and outside the country.   Ascending into the role of a superpower at the culmination of the Second World War, the US foreign policies have had a significant impact in determining the political and economic success of nations all across the globe.   In this context, the scholarship, reportage and opinion editorials published in the lead up to the elections can reveal the contentious issues and underlying themes.   Such a study will help assess the merits and drawbacks of the American democratic enterprise, which the rest of this essay endeavors to. An issue that is always at the forefront of American politics is domestic economic policy and more importantly the issues of taxes and their expenditure.   In spite of political rhetoric about America being a â€Å"classless society, the statistics don't measure up to this claim. As Paul Krugman points out, â€Å"Thirt y years ago we were a relatively middle-class nation. It had not always been thus: Gilded Age America was a highly unequal society, and it stayed that way through the 1920s. During the 1930s and '40s, however, America experienced the Great Compression: a drastic narrowing of income gaps, probably as a result of New Deal policies. And the new economic order persisted for more than a generation: Strong unions; taxes on inherited wealth, corporate profits, and high incomes; close public scrutiny of corporate management--all helped to keep income gaps relatively small.... While Roosevelt's New Deal economic and social reforms met with outstanding success, it remains to be seen how the new President would cope with the Wall Street collapse of late. The historical similarities between the two don't end there. They both come from the Democratic Party and as Lichtman points out, piggybacked on a message of "change". And change is all the more imperative now than ever before in the post Second World War American history. For, irrespective of the fact that the country is the richest in the world, the extreme disparities in standard of living among its demography is a symbol of failed economic policies of previous presidents. According to estimates by the economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, based on statistics released by the Congressional Budget Office, "between 1973 and 2000 the average real income of the bottom 90 percent of American taxpayers actually fell by 7 percent. Meanwhile, the income of the top 1 percent rose by 148 percent, the income of the top 0.1 percent rose by 343 percent and the income of the top 0.01 percent rose 599 percent. (Those numbers exclude capital gains, so they're not an artefact of the stock-market bubble.) The distribution of income in the United States has gone right back to Gilded Age levels of inequality" (Lichtman, 2008). While these statistics represent the systemic injustices of the American economic system, which all Democratic Party candidates point to in their campaigns, there is also a dedicated conservative press and its team of scholars, who attempt to discredit blatant realities with ideological rationale. A case in point is the conservative think-tank Heritage Foundation, which has published articles supporting the reactionary policies of the Republican Party even as the

Opening a new sport shop Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Opening a new sport shop - Essay Example Scott McPherson is starting out as a small-scale businessman, testing his market and value chain before going full blast into an entire chain of stores. McPherson must therefore start out with a single store and expand gradually after that after gaining a stronger foothold on the business. The choice of a business should be one that has a quick cash cycle that would turn over sales at a relatively fast pace, but which has the potential of growing to a chain of store catering to retail sale of consumer goods. For this purpose, a sports retail business would be a good enterprise for McPherson, whose twenty years as secondary school teacher would have kept him abreast of the various sports events at least in the school level. The appeal and demand for sports and outdoors gear and equipment has a stable market because of the strong interest in sports and fitness. An image attaches to being associated with a healthy lifestyle, even if it be conveyed by one’s clothes or footwear. Fi nally, sports activity is usually complemented by a desire for healthy and nutritious A comprehensive analysis of the sports retail sector follows: SWOT ANALYSIS The SWOT analysis is a helpful tool for formulating the strategic plan of a business. It identifies the strengths and weaknesses of the firm and juxtaposes this against the opportunities and threats in the environment, maximizing strengths for opportunities and minimizing weaknesses to avoid the threats. The SWOT analysis for McPherson’s store chain follows: STRENGTHS A source of strength is the familiarity of McPherson with secondary schools’ sports programs, and his contacts with sports teachers and program directors in the different schools. It should be recalled that McPherson’s twenty year history as a secondary school teacher would have created friendships that would be useful for his business, from a relational point of view. Another strength of McPherson’s business would be its financial stability, having skipped the period of economic crisis which had ruined or weakened the finances of many small (and large-scale) businesses. OPPORTUNITIES A good number of schools and universities located in the South England area provide a lucrative market, which could still expand and absorb additional supply despite the existence of other stores. Retail customers are in constant search of new shops which may provide better product offerings, or better terms of sale. A further opportunity presenting itself is the growing interest in new media sports, where indoor digital sports consoles games enable persons interested in keeping fit but without the