Codification of Law in India

Codification of Law in India Douglas C. North in his book Institutions, Institutional Change, and Economic Performance talks about the importance of institutions, and how these institutions influence economic performance. Institutions include both informal rules  [1]  like code of conducts, traditions and customs and formal rules like constitution, laws and property rights  [2]  . People generally pay attention only to the formal rules that exist in the society and the informal rules dont get the attention and importance that they should get. The British in India did the same thing. But, North argues that these informal rules are also important and they shape the future of the economy. Institutions as defined by North are humanly devised constraints that structure economic, social and political interaction.  [3]   Entry of British in India When the British came to India in 1600s they saw a society which was not governed by any formal laws like the Bible (which was considered to be a divine source of power, law and rules for them) which governed the English; but a heterogeneous society where every individual followed his or her own custom and tradition which were varied. There was no uniformity in the practices that were followed by the people. The concept of formal law like being governed by a uniform system of law or a constitution was an alien concept to the Indians. Kautilya in Arthashastra recognizes existence of four sources of law which are dharma (scriptures), vyavahara (mutual agreement), charitra (local custom) and rajashasana (state decree).  [4]  Kautilya says that these were in ascending order and that the state order prevailed above all the scriptures and customary practices, when a conflict would arise. Similarly even Ashoka and Akbar developed laws which were to be followed by the subjects but they n ever mandated the people to follow these laws unless their customs were such so as to lead to communal disharmony. Thus, we see that the Indians had complete freedom to practice any norm, practice, custom etc. that they pleased as long as harmony was maintained. When the British stayed here as traders they did not interfere into these local customs and practices and were least concerned about it. When they came to the sub-continent the political power was weak as the power of the Mughal Empire in the center was crippling, thus making it easier for the British to gain political control and make a strong foothold in India. The English did gain the central control but their supremacy would only be recognized by the people if they would resolve disputes, which encouraged the British to develop judicial system in India. The law provided the British nothing less than a comprehensive ideology through which to rule.  [5]   The ideology which was used by the British was as Edward Said talks about in his path breaking book Orientalism.  [6]  They made the Indians believe that they were barbaric, uncivilized, in darkness and backward and it was their (British) duty to make the Indians civilized, modern, and progressive and bring them enlightenment. There was cultural hegemony which existed and the British believed that they could improve the Indian situation. The image of the cruel and superstitious natives who needed Christian salvation was deliberately constructed by the Evangelists.  [7]   Informal Institutions in early India and path dependence Initially the British tried administering the practices, norms, culture and traditions that were prevalent in the Indian society, but as there was lack of uniformity as everyone followed different customs and traditions the British found the administration to be difficult. James Mill and Thomas Babington Macaulay wanted to codify the laws in India and wanted to conduct an experiment and see how codified laws worked. They wanted to make the laws based on the principal of utilitarianism and wanted a code which was symmetric in all parts  [8]  and which would bring in uniformity. Thus, began Indias shift from an informal institution where interactions between parties were based on social norms and customs to formal institutions like codified laws. The natives in India for centuries had been following their own local customs and usages.  [9]  The Indians had been travelling on a path where they were not mandated to follow a particular law or text and were free to choose the norm or custom that they wanted to follow. Since there were no restrictions on them the Indians had complete freedom. The Indians had been on this path for a long time and thus there was path dependency.  [10]  This means that since the Indians had been traversing this path for a long time taking an alternative path would be difficult and there would be a high price for changing the path. Another definition of path dependency is that which states that history matters and this affects the possible outcomes in future.  [11]  The change in path in future becomes difficult because of the increasing returns or positive feedback  [12]  that is received because it has been being followed for a long period of time by large number of people. With the idea of the British to bring in formal rules and to codify laws there was a shift in the institution from informal to formal. Shift in the criminal sphere was not difficult as criminal law was universal and was to be applied universally on everyone. Warren Hastings agreed with this codification, but objected to the codification of the personal laws of the Indians as he knew it was dangerous and wanted to stay away from it.  [13]  Since the British could not impose their ideology  [14]  Hastings decided that there would be Indian officials like pandits and maulvis who would help the English judges take decision. Since, the English judges were unaware of the Indian jurisprudence, this help by the officials was essential for them to decide upon cases. Reasons leading to shift in institution from informal to formal The court wanted specific solutions to complex issues. The colonizers did not pay any importance to the existing diversity and would ask questions of general rule and the pandits would answer keeping dharma in mind.  [15]  The answers which the British got were never in tandem with the questions asked, as the pandits and maulvis had never faced such a situation before and the answers differed from one pandit to the other; and these answers were then accepted as general rule of law and were imposed upon the people. Different pandits came to different conclusions even when the circumstances were same because they would refer to different texts or scriptures as there was complete freedom to choose the custom that people wanted to. For example if an Englishman would ask how to turn into a Hindu, the method or the procedure told by different pandits would be different as there was no one particular way of doing it. Thus, there was no uniformity. The pandits in India were not an organization like the Pope of the church. The pandits did not interfere in the political sphere at all; unlike the church where the Pope would coronate the King and then only could he rule. There were varied customs prevailing and every pandit would interpret the text in a different way as there was no single interpretation like there was of the Bible. A well trained pandit would be in a position to cite numerous versus on particular topics or only those that made a particular point useful to a specific scenario or indeed he might express his own opinion on the matter  [16]  but these differed greatly from each other. The customs would change from place to place and the British were baffled at this dissimilar existence of customs. Thus, there was no uniformity and certainty in the decisions given by the pandits and the maulvis. This led to a mistrust of them by the British and hence they decided to codify the law. Another reason for codification of the laws were that they believed that there was popular demand for such changes; and the popular demand according to them consisted of group of elite Hindus who were a part of the British administrative structure itself.  [17]   Organizations acting as change agents North in his book also talks about the existence of organizations which are group of individuals bound together for purpose to achieve objectives  [18]  and are created to take advantage of the opportunities  [19]  that the existing institution provides them and then either work within the existing institutions or change and alter the existing institutions, depending on the objective to be achieved; and hence the organizations which are created out of the existing choice set act as major agents of institutional change.  [20]   When the British realized that administration in India was difficult because of the non-existence of any certain law they finally took the bold step of codifying the personal laws as well. Hastings had wanted to stay away from personal laws as he realized that marriage in India was tied to religion and they had decided on staying neutral towards the native religious affairs and secondly because they thought that there interference might lead to communal violence.  [21]  But the assistance of the pandits and maulvis was now looked at with mistrust and thus, Hastings selected 11 pandits to codify laws which would then be followed by everyone. The pandits came up with Vivadarnavasetu which literally means a bridge on the ocean of disputes was the original Sanskrit version. Later on these were translated in English (with which also there were problems which will be dealt ahead) under the name of A Code of Gentoo Laws. The meaning was totally transformed and words like code and law which were never a part of the original text were now legitimized.  [22]  Then again William Jones appointed Jagannath Tarkapanchanan, the legendary scholar on all branches of the Dharmasastras to compile Vivadabhangarnava which literally means a break wave on the oceans of disputes and it was later translated into English under the title A Digest of Hindu Law. Again the importation of British concepts of digest and law were used to legitimize the transformation of the prescriptive guidelines in the Sastras as legal rules to be administered by the court.  [23]   Initially the British gave regard to the customs that were ubiquitous while codifying the laws,  [24]  but even then they realized that there were uncertainties and they could not trust the Indian officials as there was a possibility of them defrauding the company for their own benefits.  [25]  Thus, many English jurists like William Jones, Colebrooke decided to translate the texts into English so that the judges could use it. But the translations were done by European scholars. When translations were done the essential meanings got lost and the entire meaning and its essence could not be understood and translated, as there are certain words the exact word for which might not exist in the other language. For example the word dharma which means the all en-compassing duty to do the right thing at the right time, at any point of ones life, was simply translated as law.  [26]   The English jurists who translated the texts into English were the organization which objected to the existing informal institution. This organization had the common objective (having political control over India) was the ease of administering laws. The goal which the organization sought to achieve of uniformity and stability could not be achieved with the existing institution of informal norms, code of conduct and behavior; they had to get in something more concrete like formal laws so that there could be certainty and uniformity. This organization emerged because of the existing choice set which was available to them because of the informal rules in place and they took advantage of the position that they had attained and acted as change agents or as North would call them entrepreneurs in economic terms and gave India codified laws. Importance of informal norms North in his book also states that move from informal to formal institutions is a slow process.  [27]  Although formal rules may change overnight due to political or judicial decisions, informal constraints embodied in customs are much more impervious to deliberate policies. These cultural constraints not only connect the past with the present and the future, but provide us with a key to explaining the path of historical change.  [28]   In India if we see the move from informal non-codified laws to formal codified laws was a slow process as the British initially tried to administer the informal rules only, but when the result was not to their satisfaction they decided to move towards codified formal rules. But, if seen from another perspective then we see that the change was all of a sudden as the British imposed these codified laws on the Indians when for a long time they had been following a different path altogether. This imposition of the laws on the Indians could not percolate into the society and could not become a part of the society easily as these were imposed from outside and were not from within the society itself and sometimes were not in conformity with the existing norms. Change from informal to formal institution has a cost Transaction Cost Now this institutional change from informal to formal could not be without any cost. There was a cost which the society had to bear, but this cost was not taken into consideration when the organization was taking the decision of altering the institutions according to its own benefit. The cost borne was the change of many customs that were existing, loss of many customs as they were not codified, freezing of identities, creeping in of foreign ideologies and biasness and death of plurality of customs, traditions and indigenous practices. This cost is known as transaction cost as it is the cost of changing the path upon which one has been travelling for a long period of time (non-codified laws) to a new path (codified laws). Transaction cost is a result of the institutional change, but this transaction cost also could have brought in Indians a feeling of unity which had not existed before within a group and also led to the abolishment of many evil practices that were being practiced by the people. Codification of Hindu law was a humongous task because there was no existence of anything called the Hindu law (its existence was presumed by the British keeping in mind the bible which was their source of law) prior to the colonial era, and secondly because what the British mistook to be the source of Hindu law was so vast that they were unable to codify everything as there were various norms being followed in the society which did not come from some ancient scriptures or religious texts. In England there existed a homogenous society with everyone following what the church told them and as already mentioned above the church was an organization and hence their interpretations of the bible (which was the divine source of their law) were also same. So when the English came to India they came with a framework in their mind that, there would be a homogenous society and that this homogenous society would have a divine source of law. But, the British were in for a surprise when they came t o India. They realized that a heterogeneous society with various different practices existed in India and they failed to find a divine source of law; but were adamant on finding a source of law something which was akin to the cannon law and hence in their desperate attempt to find a source, William Jones who was to then translate the sources of law in to English considered Manusmriti which were the Memories of Manu to be the source of law and the translation came to be known as the Institutes of Hindu Law.  [29]  India does not have a cannon law which legitimizes a uniform code for all the diverse groups of the community; but, because of this arbitrariness the British started patronizing education and interpretation of the shastras for their own.  [30]   The British thought that they would derive the law from the texts and scriptures but this task was cumbersome and impractical. They were influenced a lot by the legal theory especially that of Jeremy Bentham.  [31]  Bentham believed in the principle of utilitarianism. Utilitarianism means greatest good for the maximum number of people. In such a scenario it is the minority that is left out and their needs are not taken into consideration; but while codifying these laws the opposite happened. Codification of these laws was done by few pandits who had their own interpretation of the texts and it was done on the demand of a few people with whom the British interacted. Thus, what got codified were just a few traditions and customs and a large number of them were left out and hence got lost. There was strong impact when colonial law encountered the personal law. It led to customs like property rights which are important for the development of any society being substantially altered in Bengal and rights of women to hold property was also substantially changed.  [32]  There were two schools of thought that existed in India Mitakshara and Dayabhag with regards to property rights. Mitakshara was followed everywhere except in Bengal where Dayabhag school of thought was followed. When codification was done by William Jones he was influenced by the Dayabhag School and hence, most of their beliefs got codified and beliefs of the other school were left out leading to the death of many customs. The loss of customs was not only because they were not codified, but also because the judges refused to recognize the existing norms if they did not have any spiritual authority. Customs that the people followed were something which had been developed by the community on their own and h ad no spiritual backing and hence they were considered invalid by the courts. When there was a conflict between customary law and the official law, then the customary law had to be established and then only would the customary law prevail. But the standard set for proving customary law was so high that hardly any law could meet the requirements and slowly all of them withered away.  [33]  The judges also had the power to strike down the law on the basis that they considered it to be against public policy. There was no definition given as to what was against public policy and this gave unfettered power in the hands of the judge to decide which laws were valid and which were against public policy.  [34]   There was freezing of identities as Hindus were now considered to be a larger group of people and were considered to be a community while on the other hand the Muslims were considered outsiders.  [35]  This also happened because in courts the judges had to apply Hindu law to the Hindus and the Muslim laws to the Muslims; so now the people had to decide which religious community they belonged to, whereas initially there was no such pressure on them to identify themselves with a particular religion and were free to choose any custom of any religion they wanted to follow. The translation of the code was done by English jurists who were trained in English laws and customs. So when they translated the law they could not keep aside their biasness and facets of English law crept in. Thus, the new law which came into being comprised of first, the interpretation of the laws by the judges, in the form of case laws acting as precedents and secondly, through codification of the scriptures. T hey also used the principles of justice, equity and good conscience while deciding the cases. This led to the emergence of Anglo Hindu law.  [36]   As Anderson in Islamic Law says  [37]  : the construction of Hindu law in India by the British colonial government [and] the British effort to find Hindu lawà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦assumed that the Hindu law would be found thoughà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦deduction from precedent and a focus on cases. Hindu law gradually came to be based on previous judges decisions, not on Hindu sacred texts. These texts themselves were mistranslated and selected according to the conceptions of English civil law, so that Hindu law was ultimately defined in terms of European conceptions of Hindu law. But the transaction cost borne also helped as this death of plurality led to removal of many practices that were evil and were rampantly practiced in the society. Various acts were passed which made the social condition better, like the Sati regulation of 1829, the Caste Disabilities Removal Act 1850, the Hindu Women Remarriage Act 1856, and Child Marriage Restraint Act of 1929. Removal of Sati was an important step as this practice was highly followed in Bengal. Sati was so prevalent in Bengal because they followed the Dayabhag School of thought which gave property rights even to women. These acts helped improve the social conditions in the society at least on paper if not reality, as there is evidence to show that sati was more widely practiced after the regulation that came into being. There were retentionists as well who were unhappy with such codes, and in many areas the customs were not changed in accordance to the code and they still continued; as a stroke of pen cannot comple tely do away with or abolish customs that had been being followed for centuries. This could have brought in more unity as now the Indians had something to identify themselves with, which were common to all the people. North says in his book that the resultant path of institutional change is shaped by:  [38]   The lock in that comes from the symbiotic relationship between institutions and the organizations that have evolved as a consequence of the incentive structure provided by those institutions the new path of codified laws that India started walking on after codification was traversed on for a long time and the path became locked in history and thus, gave India codified laws which exist even today. This codification could only take place because the existing institutions did not provide for the political unity of India which gave British the incentive to codify the laws using their political power; and The feedback process by which human being perceive and react to change in the opportunity set keeping aside the costs borne because of codification, from British point of view this process of institutional change was beneficial as it helped in smoother governance of the country and better control over the people. Bengal as an illustration Now lets look at the existence of this framework through example of Bengal. During this time Bengal comprised of Bihar as well and was named Bengal presidency. The populace of Bihar consisted of Muslims as well and not only Hindus. As already mentioned above there were two schools of thoughts that existed. One was called the Mitakshara which was followed in all parts of India and the second being Dayabhaga which was followed in Bengal only. There was difference in the two Schools because they had different rules which governed them. for example: in Mitakshara the son had an interest in the property as soon as he was born, while in Dayabhaga School the son got the property after the death of the father. According to the Dayabhag School the women had substantial property rights. In some cases they managed the property on behalf of the male members and on other occasions they would hold property in their own name after the death of the husband. During the British era in the 19th century the amount of property that would be held by the women substantially reduced than what is was earlier. Their property was vulnerable to competing claims of the local powerful men. This change also happened because in England the British women did not have property rights and when the British saw this new scene in India while codifying the laws they brought this change and the right of women to hold property was substantially taken away. Warren Hastings had been the governor general of Bengal but towards the end due to financial instability he was replaced by Lord Cornwallis. One central aim of this project was to restore the landlord and property rights that existed a generation before.  [39]  Lord Cornwallis planned to give a constitution which would protect the personal property of the individual and thus help in the prosperity of the state.  [40]  Thus, he created new offices and courts to collect more revenue which was the aim of the British. When the British came to India they came with their English notions of how property was related to politics. So when they came to India lord Cornwallis could not disassociate this notion and believed that there would be the existence of same relation even in Bengal.  [41]   Using their pre-colonial notion of the existing offices and without bothering to understand the existing social institutions they removed Indian officials from important posts and made them mere informants or agents. During Warren Hastings stay he gave importance to the customs and usage of the local area, but when Lord Cornwallis came he thought that the information about the customs could be gained from the inhabitants of the place and thus abolished the office qanungu  [42]  who was the district officer and would be a ready source of information regarding the existing customs. But Lord Cornwallis removed the office thinking that the post had deep rooted immersion in the historical continuities of a particular society made them easily corrupt and there were chances of them defrauding the Company with the landlords.  [43]   This essentially happened because the British wanted to maintain their supremacy and did not want to lose their political power in India, but while being insecure about the hold of power politically they forgot to give due importance to the existing social institutions which would have made their rule easy. The constitution given by Lord Cornwallis had a paradox.  [44]  It was based on the Burkean philosophies of trust and customary practice, but sadly, when it came to Bengal both were nonexistent as there was severance and a distance existed between the world of government and the relations it governed.  [45]   The judges in the court had officials that would assist them, but then the British started mistrusting these officials who were either pandits or maulvis. Thus William Jones wanted a text which could help the judges decide cases and their dependence on these officials reduced. The book was a translation of Sanskrit commentaries on contracts, property and inheritance laws written by Jagannatha Tarkapanchanam who was the most respected jurist in India in the 18th century. This Digest was not to codify the laws but to compile all the usage so that administration would be easy and not an attempt to codify laws. The text was meant to supplement the decision taken by th

Dont Care High - Summary :: essays research papers

The novel Don’t Care High was written by Gordan Korman. This novel, as well as other novels he wrote were based partly on his experiences in high school, where he says, â€Å"the only way to get through high school alive was by laughing†. This novel relates to teenagers about high school and how their high school is different. Korman wrote his first novel at age 12, This Can’t Be Happening at McDonald Hall. Korman graduated from New York University’s Dramatic Writing Program. He now lives in New York City with his wife and children. This novel is based in various High Schools in New York City. One of the main characters Paul, just moved to New York from Saskatoon, Alberta. This novel takes place in the mid 1980’s. At this high school, Don Carey High, none of the students or teachers care about anything that goes on within the school. They have no team spirit at all, there are no teams or clubs because no one shows interest. Shelton Pryor was Paul’s best friend; he was more outgoing than Paul. He didn’t care what the consequences of his actions would he just wanted to have fun. Shelton was upset because of the facts that nobody cared about the school. He had the idea that if they got a student to run for president things would change.Paul Abrams is a conniving teenager who causes trouble when he is around his best friend Sheldon. Since he was the new kid, he acted shy and quiet until he made some friends. Paul met a teen named Sheldon, he was Paul’s first friend in New York and they shared similar interests. When he arrived at Don Carey High he felt weird because it was a dump and know cares about what happened to it. Paul knew right from wrong but Sheldon did not, so Paul got in trouble when he was around Sheldon. Paul’s nickname was â€Å"ambition† because he was the only one with ambition in his life. Mike Otis is a main character that is certainly not popular at Don Carey High. He is an unusual person who is shy and he keeps to himself. He always wears a big raincoat and safety pins in his jeans. Mike is a dweeb who minds his own business. Mike was also a paranoid person. For example, he gave the wrong address and phone number to the school so if something happened they could not contact him.

Correlation between Oil and Gold Prices and the US Dollar

Correlation between Oil & Gold prices and US dollar The History The forex exchange market is one of the largest and most liquid securities exchanges in the world with over $3. 2 trillion in average daily turnover. This equates to 10 times the average daily turnover of global equity markets and 35 times the average daily turnover of the New York Stock Exchange. The forex market is open 24 hours a day, 6 days a week, with the EUR/USD accounting for 27% of total turnover. There is plenty of opportunity to make and lose money in currency exchange. The gold standard era in the U. S. officially began with the passing of the Gold Standard Act in 1900. But it was not until World War II that brought about the need for a worldwide standard for currency values and exchange rates. The Bretton Woods Agreement in 1944 established two very important international institutions: the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (now the World Bank). What came from this agreement was that all the world’s currencies would be pegged against the value of gold, and with the U. S. dollar on the gold standard, the U. S. dollar effectively became the world’s reserve currency. The value of gold was fixed at $35 per ounce until the gold standard was effectively withdrawn in 1971 as President Nixon ordered an end to the out-dated system and the price of gold was allowed to â€Å"float†. Now, every major currency is no longer on the gold standard but rather is referred to as â€Å"fiat† currency. This basically means that a country’s own currency is intrinsically worthless because it is not backed by any type of reserve, such as gold. The value each currency is therefore based citizen’s perception of their economy, supply and demand for money in general, and how their currency is compared to other country’s currency. Something to think about though is 40 years ago, the world’s currencies used to be pegged against the price of gold and ultimately the Dollar. Now it would not be a stretch to say that global currency is on an Oil Standard. From 1944 until 1971, US dollars were convertible into gold by central banks in order to adjust for any trade imbalances between countries. Up to that point, the price of gold was fixed at US$35 per ounce, and the price of oil was relatively stable at about US$3. 00 per barrel. Once the US ceased gold convertibility in 1971, OPEC producers were forced to convert their excess US dollars by purchasing gold in the marketplace. This resulted in price increases for both oil and gold, until eventually oil reached US$40 per barrel and gold reached US$850 per ounce. In 1975 when the U. S. Government made a deal with Saudi Arabia and OPEC to only trade oil in U. S. Dollars, their â€Å"partnership† effectively gave the USD a monopoly over all other currencies when it comes to oil trading. The US has enjoyed inexpensive oil-based energy for nearly a century, and this is one of the prime factors behind the unprecedented prosperity of its economy in the 20th century. While the US accounts for only 5 percent of the world's population, it consumes 25 percent of the world's fossil fuel-based energy. It imports about 75 percent of its oil, but owns only 2 percent of world reserves. Because of this dependency on both oil and foreign suppliers, any increases in price or supply disruptions will negatively impact the US economy to a greater degree than any other nation. The majority of oil reserves are located in politically unstable regions, with tensions in the Middle East, Venezuela and Nigeria likely to intensify rather than to abate. Because of frequent terrorist attacks, Iraqi oil production is subject to disruption, while the risk of political problems in Saudi Arabia grows. The timing for these risks is uncertain and hard to quantify, but the implications of Peak Oil are predictable and quantifiable, and the effects will be more far-reaching than simply a rising oil price. In the early 1950s, M. King Hubbert, one of the leading geophysicists of the time, developed a predictive model showing that all oil reserves follow a pattern called Hubbert's Curve, which runs from discovery through to depletion. In any given oil field, as more wells are drilled and as newer and better technology is installed, production initially increases. Eventually, however, regardless of new wells and new technology, a peak output is reached. After this peak is reached, oil production not only begins to decline, but also becomes less cost effective. In fact, at some point in this decline, the energy it takes to extract, transport and refine barrel of oil exceeds the energy contained in that barrel of oil. When that point is reached, extraction of oil is no longer feasible and the reserve is abandoned. In the early years of the 20th century, in the largest oil fields, it was possible to recover 50 barrels of oil for each barrel used in the extraction, transportation and refining process. Today that 50 -to-1 ratio has declined to 5-to-1 or less. And it continues to decline. The Correlation between Oil & Gold Is there a strong correlation between the prices of gold and oil? It depends on which data are  used to measure. Many price movement studies suggest that the correlation between the two commodity prices over time is quite strong. Typically, these studies rely on data covering extensive periods of time and show that when oil increases in price, gold will inevitably follow. On the other hand, there are correlations calculated from data that show a weak relationship between the two prices. The data in these cases usually cover periods as short as years or months. â€Å"From 1965 to 1994, the monthly correlation between gold and oil weighed in at a  very  impressive +0. 879. From 1995 to 2000, however, this correlation seemingly vanished with a negative 0. 133 reading,† according to a May 2004 article by Zeal LLC. â€Å"Since 2000 though, the historical oil and gold correlation has been restored, now again running positive at +0. 715. †Ã‚  It would seem that gold may be well correlated with oil in the long term, but it is not necessarily so in the short term. While oil prices have exploded and gold prices have shown marked appreciation, protagonists of a tight long-term correlation between the two evoke previous historical price movements such as those in last half of the 1970s. From the mid-1970s to 1980, oil prices rose from around $20 USD per barrel to  more than  $100 USD per barrel in 2008 dollars. Gold followed along and roughly quadrupled in price during that same time period. [pic] The long-term chart above is also very valuable to help visualize just how closely gold and oil prices tend to correlate over strategic time frames. If one looks at major secular trends measured in years, gold and oil pretty much move in lockstep. Yes, they deviate tactically over shorter periods of time as their respective supply-and-demand influences dictate, but over the long run they travel the same path. Their prices tend to oscillate around each other and periodically cross on this chart. Over the entire four-decade span of time charted on this graph, these monthly gold and oil prices have a correlation coefficient of 0. 835 and an R-Square value of 69. 7%. These are very impressive numbers over such a long period of time and really drive home just how closely gold and oil are intertwined. If one focuses his attention on the far right side of this graph, however, a glaring anomaly becomes instantly apparent. Since oil bottomed near $11 in December 1998 ($13 in 2004 dollars) it has surged up dramatically in several subsequent uplegs achieving a mammoth 312% bull-to-date gain. But over the same period of time gold has lagged dramatically, only rallying by 39% or so in nominal terms. So far the gold price has not been able to even attempt to retain parity with oil in recent years. Now the only other similar time in history when oil was strong and gold lagged was in the late 1970s. As this chart reveals, for years gold lagged oil but when it finally did decide to catch up it powered higher with a vengeance. Gold, Oil and Dollar Relationship The answer to this question begins with the historical desire of Arab producers to receive gold in exchange for their oil. This dates back to 1933 when King Ibn Saud demanded payment in gold for the original oil concession in Saudi Arabia. In addition, Islamic law forbids the use of a promise of payment, such as the US dollar, as a medium of exchange. There is growing dissention among religious fundamentalists in Saudi Arabia regarding the exchange of oil for US dollars. Oil, gold and commodities have all been priced in US dollars since 1975 when OPEC officially agreed to sell its oil exclusively for US dollars. Today, apart from geopolitical threats in oil-producing regions, supply/demand imbalances from Peak Oil and increasing demand from developing countries, the price of both gold and oil can be expected to increase as the US dollar declines. With an ever-increasing US money supply, growing triple deficits and mounting debt at all levels, the US dollar is likely to continue the decline that began in 2001. Long term trend analysis shows negative correlation between gold prices and the value of dollar but gold price does not increase proportionately to the diminishing dollar. Market is not so simple that every down-day for the dollar corresponds to an up-day for gold and every up-day for dollar correspond to down day for gold. The effect may not be immediate and the lagging can sometime be attributed to the information gap and time lag which an individual wastes in doldrums not being able how to react to the changes. Daily and weekly fluctuations are not important at all as they don’t give analyst any idea of clear cut trend and interrelationship between them. Inflationary 1970’s saw soaring of gold above $800 while dollar fell. Dollar bounced back in 1980 and rallied before peaking in 1985, while concurrently gold peaked in 1980 and dropped all the way down to $300 during the same 5 years that dollar rallied. The Future of Gold, Oil and Dollar The word â€Å"recession† has been hurled around the biggest financial capitals in the world from New York to London to Tokyo, and no one really wants to be the one to drop the bomb. While all the experts and economists around the world want to debate who is or is not in a recession right now, it is pointless and frankly useless information. The incessant chaos and obvious current state of the global economy is clear cut enough that the world is facing major hurdles in moving forward with our economies. The fact of the matter is, all the major economies are hurting badly and answers are becoming more infrequent and costly as time continues. Amongst a multitude of important topics to discuss in relation to a worldwide recession, the currency markets are a great source of risk and sometimes guaranteed investing opportunities no matter how unpredictable the world’s stock markets are trading. It’s quite clear that over the past six months, the Euro was the place to be if one wanted to lose a lot of money. Sure it was trading at all-time highs versus the Dollar back in May, but with the U. S. slashing interest rates, the Euro has given all of those wonderful gains back and then some, to the tune of 2 year lows. It seemed that an even one-to-one exchange rate was the next stop for the EUR/USD, until the past 10 days when bad went to worse. As bellwether, blue-chip companies continue to fold across the U. S. the only solution the world can come up with is to give them all the money they need to stay alive and skip out on the much publicized Chapter 11. The average U. S. consumer simply cannot handle reality in times of massive financial distress and force the government to hold their hand through this horror movie that is the year 2008. With government money flooding the economy and interest rates on their way to 0% and beyond in the U. S. , inflation is on the brink of exploding and no one is going to want to be anywhere close to a U. S. Dollar. [pic] Oil Relief Rising crude oil prices over the last two years and the general rush to commodities has been a major roadblock for the U. S. Dollar. As discussed above, there has generally been a negative relationship between crude oil prices and the value of the U. S. Dollar. It is no coincidence that as oil prices peaked in May, the Dollar was at all-time lows versus the Euro, and conversely as oil prices have shed over 60% in value since then, the Dollar has rallied against most major currencies. Something that has been a very debatable topic is how crude oil prices have fluctuated so wildly in the past 12 months and the role of speculators in the commodities market. With oil prices falling this year primarily on falling consumption and increasing reserves, how countries like the U. S. and China react to the recent economic turmoil will determine the fate of crude oil prices going through 2009. The recession affecting all the major economies will remain dire without substantial relief in sight in the near future. Provided speculators do not drive the prices up and the recent terrorist attacks in India fail to spread panic in the Middle East, crude prices will remain modest and will not have a major effect on the U. S. Dollar. Nonetheless, if there happens to be a large run-up in oil prices back towards the $100 mark, the Dollar will be back on the defensive. As far as gold is concerned, with such a huge demand for gold coming from around the world, it is no wonder that the price is projected to reach an almost unbelievable $1000 per ounce. One of the biggest importers of gold is China, constituting a large chunk of the price hike. Most of the gold usage is jewellery related. Supply is also a factor. With such a high demand, gold is becoming scarcer. Miners are searching for new sources to combat the possible shortage. The Federal Reserve has a lot of control over the value of the dollar. When it raises interest rates, usually the value of the dollar goes up. Now, with the Fed lowering interest rates in hopes of promoting trade between banks, the value of the dollar is going down and so, the value of gold is going up.

Symptoms And Treatment Of Huntington s Disease - 1263 Words

The name Huntington’s disease comes from an American physician, George Huntington (see figure 1), after he was the first person to give an official description of the disease in 1872 (Bhattacharyya, 2016). In Canada alone, more than 21 000 individuals have been affected by Huntington’s Disease, an incurable illness that results in death typically between 15-20 years after diagnosis (Scrivener, 2013). This disease causes both physical and mental changes in an individual, therefore completely changing one’s way of life. Huntington’s disease is an important illness to study because it affects many individuals, and there is currently no cure. Therefore, the more knowledge and understanding society has around it, the better the chances of discovering a cure. This disease affects individuals in every country, however, there is a trend of Huntington’s disease in European individuals and in individuals of European descent (Liou, 2010). Across Europe, 40 to 100 cases of this disease are reported per million people. This information proposes that several different mutations likely caused Europe’s high Huntington’s disease prevalence rates. A study done in 1994 demonstrated that Sweden alone contains a minimum of three origins of the Huntington disease allele (Liou, 2010). The following paper will cover a description of Huntington’s disease and the symptoms that go along with it, how to test for Huntington’s disease, a case study, what gene is involved, the chances ofShow MoreRelatedSymptoms And Treatment Of Huntington s Disease1350 Words   |  6 PagesHuntington s Disease Huntington s disease is an inherited neurodegenerative disease that is caused by a mutation on the HTT gene. It typically effects persons in their third to fifth decade of life and can be passed onto their children. Neurons in the brain waste away or degenerate in different areas causing the characterizing symptoms, such as dance-like movements and mental decline. Diagnosis and prognosis can be devastating to both individual and family. However, there are genetic tests thatRead MoreSymptoms And Treatment Of Huntington s Disease2653 Words   |  11 PagesHuntington’s disease INTRODUCTION AIM The aim of this project is to discuss the various components that shape Huntington’s disease. The efficiency of this paper will depend heavily on a brief but, comprehensive examination of past and future research that may offer plausible suggestions and explanations to the following four subtopics; the history of Huntington’s disease, anticipation and genetic markers of Huntington’s disease, symptoms and treatment of Huntington’s disease and finally livingRead MoreHuntington s Disease And Its Effects831 Words   |  4 PagesHuntington’s Disease Huntington’s is named after George Huntington who was the first person to describe the disease in 1872. However it wasn’t until 1993 that the gene that causes Huntington’s was discovered. Huntington’s is an inherited progressive disease that affects the brain and causes severe cognitive decline. The result is involuntary movements, emotional disturbance, damaged perception and memory as well as overall lowered though processing ability. We know that Huntington’s is a geneticRead MoreHuntingtonS Disease . Our Bodies And The Functions Of1381 Words   |  6 Pages Huntington s Disease Our bodies and the functions of our body parts work in cohesion. Some systems include but not limited too cardiovascular, urinary, respiratory, digestive, endocrine, reproductive, and most importantly the nervous system. The central nervous system consists of the brain and the spinal cord and the peripheral nervous system consist of all the nerves that branch off of the brain and spinal cord. With those systems we have the sensory division and the motor division alsoRead MoreA Research Project On Huntington s Disease1675 Words   |  7 PagesContents Introduction Methodology (How the research of the project was carried) What is Huntington’s disease? 1. Signs and symptoms 2. Causes 3. Treatment Huntington’s Association of South Africa Literary Review Conclusion Bibliography Appendix 1. Plagiarism check 2. Articles 3. Questionnaires Introduction According to the University of Utah a genetic disorder is described as a disease that is caused by an abnormality in an individual’s DNA. This means that there is a mutation presentRead MoreHuntington s Disease : A Genetic Disorder1121 Words   |  5 PagesAbstract: Huntington’s Disease- Huntington s disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative genetic disorder. It affects the muscle coordination and decline in cognitive that leads to dementia. It affects both males and females in their middle age (J.D, 2015). Huntington’s disease is most common in genetic causes the leads to abnormal involuntary movement also called Huntington’s chorea (J.D, 2015). Epidemiology: Huntington s disease is a rare neuropsychiatric disorder it occurs in aRead MoreHuntington s Disease : A Progressive Brain Disorder Caused By A Defective Gene1134 Words   |  5 PagesHuntington s Disease (HD) is a progressive brain disorder caused by a defective gene. This disease causes changes in the central area of the brain, which affect movement, mood and thinking skills. Nerve cells become impaired, causing several segments of the brain to fail. The disease disturbs movement, behavior and perception the affected people abilities to walk, think, reason and talk are slowly weakened to a point that they eventually become entirely dependent on other people for care. HD isRead MoreGenetic Disease Is An Autosomal Dominant Neurodegenerative Disorder737 Words   |  3 PagesGenetic diseases are diseases that are passed on from parents to their offspring. An example of a genetic disease which can be inherited is Huntington Disease. Huntington Disease is an autosomal dom inant neurodegenerative disorder with midlife onset characterised by psychiatric, cognitive and motor symptoms(G. Vonsattel and DiFiglia, 1998). The statistics for HD blah blah blah Like all genetic diseases, huntington s disease has a specific inheritance pattern. Huntington disease is an autosomalRead MoreHuntington s Disease And The Nervous System856 Words   |  4 Pages Huntington’s disease, also known as Huntington’s chorea, is a rare pathology among the nervous system. With fewer than 200,000 US cases per year is an inherited condition in which nerve cells in the brain break down over a period of time. This disease will usually start to effect people when they are in their 30s or 40s. Huntington’s usually results in psychiatric symptoms, progressive movement and thinking. No cure to this disease exists but physical therapy, drugs, and talk therapy can help manageRead MoreDisorders of the Nervous System: Huntington’s disease800 Words   |  4 PagesHuntington’s disease Huntington’s disease destroys the organs that carry the functions of the central nervous system. Kalat (2013) states, â€Å"Huntington disease (also known as Huntington disease or Huntington’s Chorea) is a severe neurological disorder that strikes about 1 person in 10,000 in the United States† (A.B. Young, 1995, p. 258).Individual’s develop the symptoms in their middle age, but even if it is a rare disorders juveniles as well as children before the age of ten can develop the disease. Huntington’s