College Admissions Essay Topics - Write Them Down!

College Admissions Essay Topics - Write Them Down!In these difficult times, if you are a high school senior, you might be wondering what college admissions essay topics you should write. You will find there are many things to think about. You want to write about the strengths and skills that you possess. Many a high school junior will be preparing an admission essay for college.You will need to write a college admission essay about who you are and what you have done. The SAT, ACT and other tests for admission will have admissions essay questions. To make it easy for you, you should focus on a few key areas.The first aspect to think about when writing college admissions essay topics is how you can utilize your strengths. You may be quite surprised at some of the questions you will find. Many will be about things you have done or experiences that have made you who you are.Writing about your achievements and where you went wrong is a good idea. Many people will get the sense that you ar e proud of yourself when they read your college admission essay and it will be helpful to get feedback from friends or family members.The second part of writing a college admissions essay is about what you want to do in life. Make sure you spell out what you want to do so that they are clear. Most admissions writers don't like to read essays about something that they don't care about. They will want to know why you wrote it.If you take care of the two elements outlined above, writing a college admissions essay will not be as hard as you think. Many of the admissions counselors will ask you about a college curriculum and what you will be studying in college. They will also want to know about the courses you plan to take so they can help you with their decisions on admission.There are many tips for you to think about when writing a college admissions essay. Write them down so that you will be prepared.

Writing an Essay About Depression

Writing an Essay About DepressionYou can learn about depression in a sample essay. People with depression often make great candidates for completing such a small paper. Though they are short on words, they can easily tell you what it is like to suffer from this form of emotional turmoil.There are a few easy ways of writing an essay that will let you talk about your experiences and problems. At first, you must be able to write the best essay that you can. Many people with depression avoid writing long essays. The good news is that you don't have to limit yourself to writing about what has happened to you.Take your life out of the equation and focus on the stress you are dealing with. List all the things that are stressing you out. Write out a list of what you find stressful, what stresses you out the most, and then list out a few things that make you happy. Keep things in perspective and do not get wrapped up in the negative aspects of life. You may be surprised how much information y ou can come up with about life and others if you are honest and to the point.When you have finished writing the essay, sit down and write the rest of the essay from memory. Do not use your actual writing style. Write everything out from memory as if you were taking a test. Listen carefully to what you have written so that you will know exactly how to take it further.Give samples of essays that you are fond of reading. If you have read other sample essays, start with one of those. Make sure that your essay is based on information that has already been written by others. You want to make sure that you put your own voice into your essay, and that you are writing it based on your experiences and knowledge.An important part of the essay is to explain why you feel the way you do. In doing so, you will be able to determine whether your experience is related to depression or not. Many people with depression have very specific reasons for their experience. When they are sad and wish that thi ngs would just go away, it is usually because they are feeling pain or disappointment. To get to the root of why you are sad, you must know what caused it.Try writing your essay with one group of people at a time. For example, you may write it first for close friends and family members. They will understand better than anyone else the nature of your feelings and why you had a negative experience.

10 Facts on White Collar Crime for a Research Paper

10 Facts on White Collar Crime for a Research Paper White Collar crimes are financial crimes which are non-violent in nature and crimes that fall under this category are usually committed by personnel working in business or governmental organizations. Despite their non-violent nature, do you know that corporate crime in the United States causes far more damage than all the street crimes combined together? For those who dont know and are in need of hard facts, here are some statistics on white collar crime and its effects to the global community. Corporate crime results in more collateral damage than all the street crimes such as robbery, individual credit card scams, and burglary incidents if classified under one category. Putting numbers to this fact, the FBI crimes statistics unit estimates the financial losses from street crimes to approximately $3.8billion yearly while losses from corporate crime from only the healthcare industry, amount to approximately $100 to $400billion yearly. The Saving and Loans crisis which affected the Federal Savings and Loans Insurance corporation and the Resolution Trust Corporation racked up an unprecedented 400 to 500 billion dollar loss as well as the failure of a third 1043 of the 3234 savings/loans association in the United States. Corporate crimes lead to violent crimes in many situations and here are the numbers to back it up. The FBI states approximately 16000 people die yearly as a result of direct violence done to their person while approximately 56000 people die due to work related incidents or occupational diseases such as black lung cancer. It is important to note that this figure does not take into consideration the thousands that die from hospital malpractice, and hazardous consumer products or bureaucratic negligence. The publics perception of white collar crime places it as a crime more serious than Car theft but far less serious than murder. A survey conducted in 2005 by NW3C Group gives a clearer picture on how corporate crime is perceived in the US. To better understand the survey, here are the parameters used: A scale of 0 to 7 was used as the measurement scale, with 0 representing not serious while 7 represented very serious The survey saw car theft rated as the least serious crime at 4 while murder was the most serious offense at 6.89. According to the survey, corporate crime was more serious than Car theft but somewhat less serious than murder. The respective scores for the different types of white collar crimes where: Deliberately Omitting Safety Reports at 6.18 Insurance fraud at 5.83 Hacking into corporate databases at 5.6 and Embezzlement at 5.18. White collar crime arrests also spring a few surprises when one considers the percentage it contributes to the overall population arrested in the United States. Statistics from the FBI Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) show you that out of the 14.1million arrests processed across 10,974 agencies, 458, 946 were related to corporate crime. Which means corporate crime amounted to approximately 3% of total arrests. Looking deeper into these numbers we have; 118, 455 arrested for forgery, 321,521 for fraud and 18,970 arrested for embezzlement. The white collar crime demographic in the United States has also been mapped out by the FBI and statistics show that the south contributes a larger percentage to white collar crime than any other region in the United States. These are the facts: An analysis of 10.4 million arrests through the country contained the following information; 37,328 arrested on forgery and counterfeiting were made in the south, the West accounted for 23,410 arrests, the Midwest 13,984 while the Northeast accounted for 12,624 arrests. Also, the numbers for fraud and embezzlement follow this pattern. For fraud; the south leads with 140,271 arrests, followed by the Midwest 34,401, the Northeast with 34,093 arrests and the West with 22,856. Statistics on white collar crime emanating from cities, suburbs and metropolitan areas create no surprises and buttresses the fact that white collar crime occurs predominantly in cities where more commercial and governmental agencies are located. The numbers show that from the 10.4 million arrests analyzed, 64,874 people were arrested for forgery and counterfeiting in cities, 34,552 from suburban areas while metropolitan areas made up 14,944 arrests in 2005. Statistics on fraud are also not different. Arrest on fraudulent crime in cities accounted for 120, 631 of the total number, suburban areas were close behind with 115,295, metropolitan areas had 70, 881 arrests while non-metropolitan areas experienced 40,209 arrests. Analyzing white collar crimes and offenders age group points out the fact that adults are the more active party participating in white collar crimes when compared to teenagers. This is to be expected due to the opportunities and access available to adults who work as professionals in corporate organizations. According to the FBI UCR, data from 1996 showed that 5,433 teenagers were arrested for forgery while 6,947 were arrested for fraud. This is in contrast to the 120,232 adults arrested for forgery and 150,245 arrested for fraud. Another interesting fact from the FBIs research on white collar crime showed that these criminal activities among teenagers sharply declined in later years. In 2005, only 2,600 people under 18 were arrested for forgery which was a 52.1% decline when compared to 1996 while the 2005 numbers for fraud was 4,779 which led to a corresponding decrease of 32.1% compared to 1996 figures. Comparing white collar crimes and offenders gender brings to light another unsurprising fact. Men are more likely to be involved with white collar crime than women. A 2013 review of white collar crimes in courts across the United States concentrated on 483 defendants taking part in 83 representative cases showed that: Less than one in ten offenders from the 483 defendants were women. All solo executed frauds were carried out by men. No case had ever involved an all-female conspiracy to commit white collar crime. All male groups were responsible for 75% of the cases while mixed-groups involving a female were responsible for a quarter of the cases reviewed. White collar crime in the real estate sector dominates every other sector in terms of financial losses. Data from the FBI UCR showed that the arrest rate for individuals associated with property crime was almost twice the number of those arrested for fraud forgery and embezzlement put together. Property crime led to the arrest of 635,500 offenders in 1997 through 1999, while fraud accounted for 131,500 cases, embezzlement 6,500 and forgery/counterfeiting 40,700. White collar fraud is poorly prosecuted in the United States and leads to lesser incarceration or jail time than crimes classified under street crime such as robbery, carjacking, murder, peddling banned substances etc. According to a 2015 report from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, 93.7% of inmates were convicted under crimes considered as street crimes while 0.3% were convicted under crimes considered to be white collar crimes. We hope that these facts get you up the speed with white collar crime. For more material on the subject be sure to check our 20 topics on white collar crime for research paper writing along with our guide on how to tackle such academic task. References: Russel, M. (2008). Soft on Crime. http://multinationalmonitor.org/hyper/issues/1995/05/mm0595_09.html Wikipedia: The Savings and Loan Crisis. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savings_and_loan_crisis Rebekah, D. (2011). US White Collar Crime Policy too Soft. duqsm.com/us-white-collar-crime-policy-too-soft/ Gale Research. (2008). Crime, Prisons and Jails. encyclopedia.com/topic/white-collar_crime.aspx Nicel, A. (2013). When the Gender Gap is a Good Thing: Women and Corporate Crime. huffingtonpost.ca/leah-eichler/women-and-corporate-crime_b_3985784.html FBI National Press Office. (2002). The Measurement of White Collar Crime Using Uniform Crime Reporting Data. https://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/white-collar-crime-study Understanding White Collar Crime: Definitions, Extents and Consequences. sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/43839_2.pdf

The Outsider (Of Mice and Men) Research Paper Example

The Outsider (Of Mice and Men) Research Paper Example The Outsider (Of Mice and Men) Paper The Outsider (Of Mice and Men) Paper Essay Topic: Of Mice and Men George, especially foreshadows future problems between Lennie and Curleys wife because Lennie got into trouble in Weed from trying to touch a lady wearing a red dress. As the story progresses, we learn more about Curleys wife. We learn that her husband does not trust her with the other ranch workers, being isolated from the community in the ranch and because of that, must feel really despondent and alone. Curleys wife is given a reputation of creating trouble between the different characters in the novel. Most of the men in the ranch rarely sees females, only recognizing females who go to town to a whore-house. This then reveals the stereotypical view on women as that of a whore. Curleys wife states I never get to talk to anyone. I get awful lonely. This shows that being the only female leaves her with the lack of companionship especially when she is being disliked by other characters in the novel and not being truly loved by her husband. There is no mutual trust between Curley and his wife, as we see that he starts a fight when he thinks that there was something going on between his wife and Slim. We also learn the prejudice side of her when she goes to Crooks door on the Saturday night where everyone goes to town. From this we see the bitterness and seclusion in her. She knows that Curley has gone out to town, and this is when we get to see the reality of her life on the ranch. She enters Crooks room with the excuse of looking for Curley to talk to him, Lennie and Candy. When Crooks suggests that she go(es) along to your (her) own house and that they didnt want no trouble, she tries to convince them to talk to her and expresses her loneliness. Well, I aint giving you no trouble. Think I dont like to talk to somebody ever once in a while? Think I like to stick in that house alla time? This then draws the readers sympathy towards her as we realize how forlorn she is, even being ostracized by Crooks, a Negro. However, the sympathy we have for her soon becomes washed away when she reveals the cruel side of her, intimidating people with her status. When Crooks told her to leave the room for the 2nd time, she gets angry and shows the contemptuousness she feels for Crooks, Lennie, and Candy, referring them as a nigger an a dum-dum and a lousy ol sheep. The situation worsens when she also threatens and reminds Crooks of his status as a Negro, removing Crooks pride and dignity, when he dares to demand her to leave his room. Listen, Nigger, You know what I can do to you if you open your trap? This then causes the reader to recognize both the lonesome and malevolent side of her. She also mocks and puts people down when it comes to the dreams of other people. I seen too many of you guys. Dreams are a major reoccurring theme in the novel Of Mice and Men. When Lennie tells Curleys wife of his and Georges dream, she mocks them saying its Baloney. However, we then find out that she has a dream of her own, revealing the ambitious side of her. She indulges in a different fantasy, far less likely of fulfillment. As many young women do, she aspires to stardom in films. She claims to have met an actor when she was 15, and was being told that she was a natural in acting, but her mother forbade her to pursue her dream. This is shown when she says Well, a show come through, an I met one of the actors. He says I could go with that show. But my ol lady wouldn let me. She says because I was ony fifteen. But the guy says I coulda. If Id went, I wouldnt be livin like this, you bet. From this it shows how unsatisfied she is with her mothers decision and how she really wished she had been able to pursue her dream. She thinks her talent is merely waiting for an opportunity and that her mother has stolen the letter which represents her chance for fame. Steinbeck describes precisely the small grand gesture with which she demonstrates to Lennie her supposed talent. This shows how nai ve she is to believe that her mother has stolen her contract, which was obviously never written. When she received no letter from the actor, she married Curley. However, she has always wanted to make some accomplishments and loved attention. Throughout the novel she constantly wanders around the ranch, creating trouble. When she was killed by Lennie, her dreams ended. Lennie, Candy and Curleys wife were not capable of having their dreams come true but stayed hopeful. From the many incidents that the characters in the novel encounter, it is shown how big dreams often cause tragedies and are sometimes unrealistic. In the novel as a whole, she is represented as the marginalized and disempowered part of society. She uses her status and power to intimidate people in the ranch. Overall, Curleys wife is presented as a flirtatious, lonely young woman who is very discontented with life. Readers who read the book would evoke sympathy for her because of her sad situation and cruel husband, but also dislike her because of her flirtatious and mean attitude. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE John Steinbeck section.

Managing Organisational Change Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Managing Organisational Change - Case Study Example In 1994 it experienced a tough competition from one of its strong competitor Airbus which booked more number of orders in the market. Since World War II there were only slight changes in the system of the organization and there were outdated technologies that were used for the business operations which gave scope to the other players in the market to capture the market share of Boeing. In 1997 there was a surplus demand in the market which was the major factor that enabled the company to adopt efficient measures in the production system so as to meet the market demand. The company lacked the communication flow and even the operated on the principle of ‘win at all costs’ which resulted into major crisis for the company where it had to halt its production for 20 days of 747 aircrafts (Bunker and Alban, 2006, pp. 53-54). There was a lot of manufacturing difficulties that appeared across the business operations of Boeing which initiated the company to incorporate some change s to increase efficiency of the operations and also remain focused on cost and production. The change drivers was mainly fluctuations in the revenue that occurred every year because of the demand cycle of Boeing’s products and the company needed more of stability in the business environment. The main reason for adapting various new technologies in the system and even lean manufacturing was to counter the demand of the market so that they are able to take mote contracts before their competitors captures the opportunity. The competition was fierce and the market demand was more efficient products delivered at the least possible time this made Boeing to take initiatives in order to restructure its entire manufacturing process. The company when recognized that the traditional commercial airline industry was highly saturated it changed its strategy

Canadian Economy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Canadian Economy - Essay Example Besides the USA, the trade agreements saw an increase in Canadian trade among other countries such as Chile, Costa Rica, Israel, Mexico and other southern American states.(Beltrame) This had profound benefits for the country and the economy growth has been soaring since. Besides those agreements that took place about a decade ago, the country has entered into a free trade agreement with the European Union which has further offered a boost to the already robust economy. The signing of this agreement took place in 2008. The economy of Canada is supported by several sectors which must be looked at as having a better understanding of the economy and the effects of the economy. These include the service sector, the manufacturing sector, the energy sector and the agriculture sector. This is the largest of the sectors in the Canadian economy, accounting for just about two thirds of the total GDP. The largest of the employers under this sector are the retail sector which employs about 14% of the total Canadian work force. Initially, the retail sector was composed of small retail outlets within the urban centers as well as in the suburbs. However, entry of big outlet stores such as the Future Shop and the Wal-Mart stores originally of the US has forced most of the small retail outlets to migrate to the suburbs where they still employ a considerable number of people. Other employers in the service sector include the business services sector which employs about 12% of the Canadian population. The sectors falling under this are the real estate firms and the banks. The other important sectors falling within the service sector are the education and health sectors. Though these are not part of the private sector, they continue to provide reasonable employment opportunities to the rest of the Canadian economy. The last of the service sector includes the hospitality cum tourism sectors which are equally important for the country. (Viera) Though with the recent recession, there has been a decline in the number of tourists visiting the country mainly due to the strong Canadian dollar. The highest numbers of tourists visiting Canada are from the US though the recent times have seen an increase in Asian tourists especially those from China. Manufacturing sector The manufacturing industry in Canada unlike in most other developed countries is not the core business, though this is not to mean it is unimportant. Most of the industries or manufacturing companies in Canada are affiliates of externally founded companies with an example being the motor industry. Most motor manufacturing industries have a manufacturing plant in Canada but none of them are indigenous. The reason for this has been cited to be the cheaper service charges in Canada e.g. lower health care insurance as compared to the United States. Besides this, Canada has a greater population of educated people making labor considerably lower as compared to the US. Canada presents one of the most interesting economies with a minimal reliance on industries the opposite of other developed countries around the world. Agriculture Canada was initially an agricultural nation especially in the 19th century; that is before the service industry gained considerable dominance in the 20th century. Even in current times, the country is a major exporter of wheat globally though most of it goes to the neighboring US. The Canadian government

Sumitomo Corporation And Yasuo Hamanakas Copper Scandal Finance Essay

Sumitomo Corporation And Yasuo Hamanakas Copper Scandal Finance Essay The financial world had been confronted heavily by trading scandals in 1995, with Japans Daiwa Bank and the rouge trader, Nick Leeson. When it seemed the scandals couldnt get much worse, the Sumitomo Copper Scandal emerged. This was the biggest scandal in the history of commodities trading and ranked in the top five trading losses in financial history up until the late 1990s. Sumitomo Corporation is a Japanese trading house, which is currently one of the largest worldwide trading companies headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. In the 1990s Sumitomo owned large amounts of both physical copper, which was stored in warehouses and factories, as well as numerous futures contracts. Copper was a relatively small market compared to other metals, such as aluminum. According to Andrew Beattles article, The Copper King: An Empire Built on Manipulation, copper is an illiquid commodity that cannot be easily transferred around the world to meet shortages. For example, a rise in copper prices due to a sho rtage in the United States will not be immediately cancelled out by shipments from countries with excess copper. This occurs because moving copper between storage and delivery costs money, which can cancel out the price differences. It is important to note that Yasuo Hamanaka was the chief copper trader of this trading house, and attempted to corner the entire worlds copper market leaving Sumitomo with a loss of more than $1.8 billion (Beattle). WHAT HAPPENED: For ten years, Yasuo Hamanaka had successfully managed to control the worlds price of copper. He eventually came to control five percent of the entire supply of copper, which may not seem like much considering ninety-five percent was in other traders hands (Beattle). However, due to the fact the abundant and cumbersome challenges that exist in the copper market (in movement, delivery, etc.) and the fact that even the largest traders in the market owned an even smaller percentage, Hamanakas five percent was indeed very significant. During the ten years of his manipulation he was able to use Sumitomos size and large cash reserves to corner and squeeze the market through the London Metal Exchange. The London Metal Exchange is the worlds biggest metal exchange. Furthermore, the London Metal Exchanges copper price essentially dictated the worlds copper price at the time (Beattle). Although the London Metal Exchange was large in size, it was fairly poor in terms of regulation. In fact, this exchange had little to no regulation at the time of Hamanakas rampant market manipulation. The Sumitomo Copper Scandal lasted for about a decade due to these negligent and almost nonexistent regulations on behalf of this particular exchange. To put the entire crisis into laymens terms, one must first understand that Hamanaka was taking a long futures position on copper and simultaneously buying up a substantial amount of physical copper as well. This caused any one trader who took a short futures position to have to buy long positions in order to cancel out their short positions. Due to the fact that Hamanaka had a large number of long positions, those people looking to buy them had to pay increasingly higher prices. These skyrocketing futures prices are what Hamanaka was able to control; the more the prices rose, the more money he made. This is because those with short positions were still paying this higher price in order to liquidate those positions. Another way that Hamanaka was making money was that while these prices continued to rise, some people holding short positions thought that instead of paying a high price for a long position they would buy the physical copper and deliver it to the holder of the long positi ons. So, because Hamanaka also owned 5% of the physical copper he could charge a very high price to those with short positions because they didnt want to keep paying money to liquidate their short positions. Essentially, he was making money by owning long futures as well as physical copper. WHY: There are no assured reasons as to why Hamanaka engaged in such illegal trades. Perhaps he felt pressured to maintain the consistent levels of annual revenue for Sumitomos traditional copper business-about ten billion dollars. He would therefore maintain his reputation as a phenomenal copper trader as well as his firms dominance in the commodities market. It is also important to note that individuals such as Hamanaka, do attempt to corner the market in order to create an unfair advantage by purchasing a significant amount of shares. This eventually increases the price of shares, making them appear to have a greater value. As the price of the shares continues to rise, more buyers become attracted, and then demand further increases the price of the shares. This causes short sellers to be driven out of the market through a short squeeze. In the article Short Squeeze, it explains that a short squeeze is a situation in which an increase in the price of the stock triggers a rush of buying activity among short sellers. Therefore, it is necessary for the short sellers to buy stock in order to close out their short positions to minimize their losses, causing a further increase in stock prices. Overtime, this causes one to sell their holdings at an artificially inflated price and then leave their investment or opt to sell their shares with the knowledge that the price will decrease once normal supply and demand forces return (Investing Answers). WHO WAS RESPONSIBLE: Yasuo Hamanaka, also referred to as Mr. Copper, was the former copper trading chief for Sumitomo Corporation. Following research of the Sumitomo Copper Scandal, one can confidently say that Hamanaka is the key player who is held responsible for the 2.6 billion dollar loss over a ten-year period. In fact, the article, Sumitomo Corporation states that, it believed that Mr. Hamanaka was solely responsible for the unauthorized trading (215). His attempted action to corner the worlds entire copper market by falsifying financial records and forging signatures alluded to such a significant loss for the company. It is also important to note that prior to the discovery of Hamanakas accumulation of illegal trades, he was given a great amount of responsibility within the company. This was because he was perceived by top executives to have superior knowledge and experience within copper trading. Therefore, one can also conclude that the top executives within the corporation can also be held responsible for the Sumitomo Copper Scandal. This is because the Sumitomo Corporation and senior management did not have secure safeguards in place to ensure that they knew exactly what their employees were doing. Furthermore, Hamanakas reputation as being a superstar copper trader only worked to solidify the lack of regulation and discipline (Sumitomo Corporation). When Sumitomo Corporations reputation began to tarnish from individuals outside the company, they responded to the allegations by stating that Merrill Lynch and JPMorgan Chase were the two banks responsible. In the article The Copper King: An Empire Built On Manipulation, author Andrew Beattle explains that Sumitomo Corporation claimed that Merrill Lynch and JPMorgan Chase granted the loans to Hamanaka via future derivatives; hence the two banks kept the scheme going. Consequently, both banks were found guilty to some extent (Beattle). RIPPLE EFFECTS ON THE MARKET: Historically, there has been a close correlation in the behavior of metal prices. When one metal falls, the others tend to follow. However, the Sumitomo announcement did not harm other metals despite the recent dramatic drop in copper prices. Copper is a relatively small market compared to other metals, such as aluminum and gold. The price of the metal was above $1.25 a pound in New York in early May of 1996, but it fell to $1.04 on June 13, just before Sumitomo announced its loss. Following the announcement, copper was trading at about 89 cents (Wall). The decline in prices of copper before the Sumitomo scandal was believed to have risen from people being concerned about the number of new copper mines that were planned and the potential supply problems that it could bring about (Wall). Copper prices fell ten percent in the weeks following Hamanakas removal (Fletcher), however, prices had been falling for a while, and the scandal only exacerbated the trend (Uchitelle). The main effect of Sumitomos losses was the decline in public confidence in financial institutions. Americans wondered how well their local financial institutions were handling oversight of management. They also were concerned about a temporary decline in stock prices as well as higher interest rates for money to seek to borrow from banks (Uchitelle). The dollar is driven by peoples perception of commodity price movements, and although the dollar had weakened before news of the Sumitomo scandal, the fall in copper prices has contributed to the dollars softness (Wall). The Sumitomo affair concerned the United States about the openness of Japans financial system and the implications for interest rates. These worries as well as the copper crisis had contributed to the decline of the yen. The collapse in copper prices also hurt the Australian dollar. RISK MANAGEMENT ERRORS: In the Sumitomo copper scandal, the financial debacle originates from the failures of proper risk management. By entering into fictitious trades for over ten years and manipulating several accounts, Hamanaka successfully misled his management into believing that he was making huge profits. Hamanaka had been trading on the London Metal Exchange forward market for copper. Sumitomo was the largest participant in the physical market for copper-he handled twice the volume as his competitors. Hamanaka was known in the copper markets as Mr. Five Percent because Sumitomos copper trading team traded approximately 500,000 metric tons of copper a year, which was five percent of the total world demand for copper (Weston). In regards to risk management, whenever any hedge fund or speculator who was aware of manipulation tried to take short positions, Hamanaka invested more money into his positions, thus sustaining a higher price because he dominated the market. However, despite these illegal practices no action was taken against Hamanaka because of the profits he generated for the company (Weston). There are several reasons from a management perspective as to why the scandal carried on as long as it did. The middle office may have bypassed early warning signals perhaps because Hamanaka was perceived as an experienced senior trader. Hamanaka was chief of the trading office and intentionally had an incentive to maximize profit opportunities through illegal ways. Employees within the firm may have allowed the fraud to occur by turning the other way. This is a case of decentralization (Tschoegl). The Sumitomo scandal has provided valuable insight and enables one to appreciate and understand the importance of internal and external controls. If there had been any controls, it is believed that the scandal would have been detected much earlier and before a loss of $1.8 billion. WAS IT PREVENTABLE? IF SO, HOW? The Sumitomo Copper Crisis was, at its core, a very preventable crisis-almost embarrassingly so. The huge financial swings that the copper market saw in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a result of Hamanakas indiscretions were exactly that: the result of one mans greed and indiscretions. Hamanaka initiated and participated in the illegal trade of copper-like making off the book deals in order to recover unrealized losses-and incited a wave of regulatory laws by the London Metal Exchange and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Hamanaka exploited various agents and partnerships in his ten-year long market-manipulating extravaganza. He was able to do this due to serious misgivings and loopholes in the commodity futures markets, as well as taking advantage of gaps in the chain of command and knowledge. Hamanaka maintained two different sets of trading books: one that recorded fabricated profits for the Sumitomo Corporation and another real record of all the off-the-book and under-the-table deals that were made to maintain control of the market. This long-term interference and domination of the copper market was nonetheless very hard to maintain due to one key fact: in order to corner a commodities market, the company must actually hold the assets, which presents an additional strain on resources and funds. This very requirement may be the answer to preventing scandals like this in the future (Wall). As aforementioned, the Sumitomo Copper Crisis was largely unavoidable simply because one mans poor decisions affected the rest of the affiliated market. The essence of the problem was unauthorized trading that the culprit undertook to enhance his firms profitability and then his own career and pay, Adrian Tschoegl mentioned in The Key to Risk Management. However, the true debacle is a result of a lack of internal and external controls. The Sumitomo Corporation, which was divided into essentially three separate offices (front, back and middle), simply did not harbor or even encourage communication between departments and sectors (Tschoegl). The middle office (which is responsible for one of the most key business functions: risk management) can easily be said to have failed most spectacularly in this scandal. The lack of risk awareness and management led to a loss of $1,800 million dollars and a stain on the Sumitomo name, all because of a decentralized, non-communicative corporate str ucture (Tschoegl). The most effective approach to avoiding something like this in the future is basically three-pronged: more and better management-level controls, independent transaction monitoring, and more stringent regulation (of the London Metal Exchange, by the government, and of corporations e.g. corporate social responsibility) (Tschoegl). The management-level controls should consist of a conscious effort at centralizing every part of the company, as well as maintaining strict inter-company discipline and training. Independent transaction making should be monitored so no two-book accounting systems are permissible; that is to say, that there is a system of checks and balances within the corporation to ensure above-board transactions. In terms of regulation on behalf of various agencies and governments, its only necessary to say that more of it is probably needed to avoid price manipulation. Perhaps a system of rigorous reporting and accounting policies could be implemented, which would strength en the markets effectiveness anyways. CONCLUSION: Its fair to say that the Sumitomo Copper Crisis leaves the skilled and careful trader with a few pivotal takeaways. First, both internal and external management controls are absolutely crucial to the success of any company, but if said management is left to run unchecked through the system, mishaps and misdeeds are bound to occur. Strict and standardized corporate training and discipline is the remedy to this pitfall. Second, given the right amount of determination and finesse, the market on almost any given commodity can be cornered, for better or for worse. Events like this, despite their far-reaching negative implications for the perpetrator, always help make the market a more efficient and fluid network. The lessons that are learned from scandals such as the Sumitomo Copper Affair in the long run only work to better and enhance the market.