Human Resource Management (HRM) refers to a strate Essays

Human Resource Management (HRM) refers to a strategic and coherent approach which involves the management of manpower, the main asset, in an organization. It involves the maximization of the organizational effectiveness through the management of the human potential such as their capabilities, talents and time. The major functions of the human resources management are human resource planning, recruitment and selection; human resource development; compensation and benefits; and employee and labor relations among others. Staffing (Human Resource Planning, Recruitment and Selection) HRM planning involves the assessment of both the present and future needs of the organization in comparison with the present resources and the predicted future resources to avoid overstaffing or understaffing. This brings demand and supply into equilibrium. As a human resource manager, I should first conduct a job analysis to determine the skills, activities, and knowledge requirements for an employee in a given job. We usually conduct the job analysis when organization starts; when a job changes due to introduction of new methods and procedures and changes in technology; and when there is a new job creation ( Cherrington 1995). In human resource, we regard the use of job description as a crucial tool during the staffing process. We attract qualified applicants in the advertisements, screen the applicants' resumes and interview those with proper qualifications. After the selection, there is the appointment of the new employees to respective jobs in the organization. Compensation and Benefits The term compensation refers to the payment that employees receive after working for an organization. On the other hand, benefits include things like insurance for the employees, pensions, vacation, stock options and sick days ( Cherrington 1995). The compensation and the benefits that employees receive profoundly influence their performance. Ideally, employees should feel that the pay is worth the work they do . We, human resource management, are responsible for the allocation of proper compensation, rewarding the employees with adequate benefits and ensuring they receive intrinsic satisfaction through our provision of stimulating work and enjoyable working conditions. Human Resource Development As a human resource manager, I am responsible for the development of the already existing employees by instrumentally identifying ways of helping their present responsibilities and preparing them for probable opportunities that may arise in the organization. Usually, the structure of the organization keeps on changing as a result of expansion and changes in technology hence the necessity of offering programs that focus on the employees' self development in order to obtain new skills and develop on the old ones. This broadens the employees' horizons in performing challenging tasks that may arise in due course. Examples on such human resource development include our teaching programs for the employees on the use latest technologies in production, how to handle devices correctly in order to reduce the number or the cost of accidents, and how to improve on the quantity and quality of productivity. Other forms of resource development that we offer are career counseling and mentor ing services. Safety and Health Our organization ensures that there is no violation of the employee's rights and also we are able to provide a healthy and safe working environment. According to Mondy and Noe (1996), safety is "protecting employees from injuries caused by work-related accidents" while health is "ensuring that employees are free from physical or emotional illness." It is our role in an organization to prevent our employees from any health hazards that may arise during work. We therefore carry out occupational health and safety measures to decrease the accidents that may lead to increased operating costs and decreased productivity. The recognized healthy problems that usually arise in place of work include effects of alcohol and drug/substance abuse, smoking, stress and AIDS. We thus provide assistance programs to the employees suffering from emotional problems and physical illnesses. Conclusion The functions of human resource management system in an organization are ideally aimed to ensure there is recruitment of employees, compensation for their services, helping them perform their tasks and solving different problems that arise during work in order to optimize business profitability through their performance. As a human resource management team, we should ensure that the employees meet the goals and objectives of an organization through the above discussed functions.

How to Trace Your U.S. Military Ancestors

How to Trace Your U.S. Military Ancestors Nearly every generation of Americans has known war. From the early colonists, to the men and women currently serving in Americas armed forces, most of us can claim at least one relative or ancestor who has served our country in the military. Even if you have never heard of military veterans in your family tree, try a bit of research and you might be surprised! Determine if your ancestor served in the military The first step in searching for the military records of an ancestor is to determine when and where the soldier served, as well as their military branch, rank and/or unit. Clues to an ancestors military service may be found in the following records: Family storiesPhotographsCensus recordsNewspaper clippingsJournals, diaries correspondenceDeath records obituariesLocal historiesGrave markers Look for military records Military records often provide an abundance of genealogical material about our ancestors. Once you have determined that an individual served in the military, there are a variety of military records which can help to document their service, and provide useful information about your military ancestors such as birthplace, age at enlistment, occupation, and names of immediate family members. The primary types of military records include: Military service records Enlisted men who served in the regular Army throughout our countrys history, as well as discharged and deceased veterans of all services during the 20th century, can be researched through military service records. These records are primarily available through the National Archives and the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC). Unfortunately, a disastrous fire at the NPRC on July 12, 1973, about 80 percent of the records of veterans discharged from the Army between November, 1912 and January, 1960, and about 75 percent for individuals discharged from the Air Force between September, 1947 and January, 1964, alphabetically through Hubbard, James E. These destroyed records were one of a kind and had not been duplicated or microfilmed prior to the fire. Compiled military service records Most of the records of the American Army and Navy in the custody of the War Department were destroyed by fire in 1800 and 1814. In an effort to reconstruct these lost records, a project was begun in 1894 to collect military documents from a variety of sources. The Compiled Military Service Record, as these collected records have come to be called, is an envelope (sometimes referred to as a jacket) containing abstracts of an individuals service records including such items as muster rolls, rank rolls, hospital records, prison records, enlistment and discharge documents, and payrolls. These compiled military service records are primarily available for veterans of the American Revolution, War of 1812, and the Civil War. Pension records or veterans claims The National Archives has pension applications and records of pension payments for veterans, their widows, and other heirs. The pension records  are based on service in the armed forces of the United States between 1775 and 1916. Application files often contain supporting documents such as discharge papers, affidavits, depositions of witnesses, narratives of events during service, marriage certificates, birth records, death certificates, pages from family bibles, and other supporting papers. Pension files usually provide the most genealogical information for researchers.More: Where to Find Union Pension Records | Confederate Pension Records Draft registration records More than twenty-four million men born between 1873 and 1900 registered in one of three World War I drafts. These draft registrations cards may contain such information as name, birth date and place, occupation, dependents, nearest relative, physical description, and country of allegiance of an alien. The original WWI draft registration cards are at the National Archives, Southeast Region, in East Point, Georgia. A mandatory draft registration was also conducted for WWII, but the majority of WWII draft registration records are still protected by privacy laws. The fourth registration (often called the old mans registration), for men born between April 28, 1877 and February 16, 1897, is currently available to the public. Other selected WWII draft records may also be available.More: Where to Find WWI Draft Registration Records | WWII Draft Registration Records Bounty land records A land bounty is a grant of land from a government as a reward to citizens for the risks and hardships they endured in the service of their country, usually in a military related capacity. At the national level, these bounty land claims are based on wartime service between 1775 and 3 March 1855. If your ancestor served in the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, early Indian Wars, or the Mexican War, a search of bounty land warrant application files may be worthwhile. Documents found in these records are similar to those in pension files.More: Where to Find Bounty Land Warrants The two main repositories for records relating to military service are the National Archives and the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC), with the earliest records dating from the Revolutionary War. Some military records may also be found in state or regional archives and libraries. The National Archives Building, Washington, D.C., holds records relating to: Volunteer enlisted men and officers whose military service was performed during an emergency and whose service was considered to be in the federal interest, 1775 to 1902Regular Army enlisted personnel, 1789–October 31, 1912Regular Army officers, 1789–June 30, 1917 li]U.S. Navy enlisted personnel, 1798–1885US Navy officers, 1798–1902US Marine Corps enlisted personnel, 1798–1904Some US Marine Corps officers, 1798–1895Those who served in predecessor agencies to the US Coast Guard (i.e., the Revenue Cutter Service [Revenue Marine], the Life-Saving Service, and the Lighthouse Service, 1791–1919) The National Personnel Records Center, St. Louis, Missouri, holds military personnel files of US Army officers separated after June 30, 1917, and enlisted personnel separated after October 31, 1912US Air Force officers and enlisted personnel separated after September 1947US Navy officers separated after 1902 and enlisted personnel separated after 1885US Marine Corps officers separated after 1895 and enlisted personnel separated after 1904US Coast Guard officers separated after 1928 and enlisted personnel separated after 1914; civilian employees of Coast Guard predecessor agencies such as Revenue Cutter Service, Lifesaving Service, and Lighthouse Service, 1864–1919 The National Archives - Southeast Region, Atlanta, Georgia, holds draft registration records for World War I To have the National Archives staff search these records for you, get a World War I Registration Card Request form by sending an email to archivesatlanta.nara.gov, or contacting: National Archives - Southeast Region5780 Jonesboro RoadMorrow, Georgia 30260(770) 968-2100archives.gov/atlanta/

Manifest Destiny Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Manifest Destiny - Essay Example In 1845, America considered that it was ordained to its increase democratic institutions beyond its own borders and into North America, and Manifest Destiny was given as the support for this belief. It was considered that this expansion would give the United States a strong moral right to govern throughout North America, where the belief was not respected. One way of describing the concept is that set forth by William E. Weeks. He proposed that there were three themes within Manifest Destiny. The first was the virtue of Americans and their institutions, the second was that these institutions had a mission to aid America in restructuring the entire world and finally the third was that this was inevitable and a matter of destiny. One area where the concept of Manifest Destiny played a major role was during the time in which Texas announced independence from Mexico and planned to join as a new state in United States of America. According to O'Sullivan, this was the crucial time in the p rocess of expansion for the United States, as new policy had been created which meant that any state that was independent could request entry into the Union. This legislation worked in favor of those who believed in Manifest Destiny. However, the concept was not widely accepted. For example, not all American’s believed that the country should expand in such a way. In addition, the expansion of the Americans within the United States had a significantly negative impact on the Native Americans, as their land was being encroached on.

Texas Is the First State To Approve Modified Test Essay

Texas Is the First State To Approve Modified Test - Essay Example According to Zyskowski and O’Malley (2009), TAKS vertical scale allows scores to be compared across grade levels for a subject.   In this manner, it is very much useful for tracking a student's progress in performance across years, at the same time, its performance standards (i.e. Met Standard and Commended) can be numerically compared across grade levels (Zyskowski and O'Malley, 2009). Texas created the so-called vertical scale per Section 39.036 of Senate Bill 1031, which required TEA to develop a vertical scale for assessing student performance on the TAKS assessments (Zyskowski and O'Malley, 2009; TEA, 2009). On the other hand, the Texas projection measure (TPM) is a multi-level regression-based projection model that is applied to TAKS, TAKS (Accommodated), and linguistically accommodated versions of TAKS. Furthermore, it projects student performance separately for each subject in the next high-stakes grade (defined by the Texas legislation as grades 5, 8, and 11) (Zyskowski and O'Malley, 2009, p. 25). The figure below illustrates the TPM: (taken from Zyskowski and O'Malley, 2009, p. 26. According to the stipulations in the Texas Education Agency's Accountability System for 2009 and Beyond - Standard Procedures (Commissioner of Education Final Decisions April 2009), the following quotations revealed the determination of the accountability rating for 2009: Standards for 2009 were published in the 2008 Accountability Manual and adopted as commissioner rule to provide districts and campuses with advance notice before the 2008-09 school year began.The 2009 Academically Acceptable standards are 70% for reading/ ELA, writing, and social studies; 55% for mathematics; and 50% for science. These standards represent increases of five percentage points to the Academically Acceptable standards for four of the five subjects (writing, social studies, mathematics, and science.)The 2009 Recognized standard of 75%, which applies to all subjects, is unchanged from the prior year. (p. 2) Still according to the Texas Education Agency's Accountability System for 2009 and Beyond - Standard Procedures, the following are quoted statements regarding the changes in accountability rating for 2010: Standards for 2010 will be published in the 2009 Accountability Manual and adopted as commissioner rule before the 2009-10 school year begins.The 2010 Recognized standard will increase by five percentage points to 80% as previously planned.The 2010 Academically Acceptable standards will increase by five percentage points for both mathematics and science to 60% and 55%, respectively.The reading/ELA, writing, and social studies standards will remain

Media Reaction Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Media Reaction Paper - Essay Example The article begins by citing the incident of the attempted robbery of a local video store, and how two of the children had been retained in police custody, while the third, the nine years old, was returned to his parents. Additionally, the article quoted the City of Charleston Councilman’s reaction to a string of robberies which occurred during the month of September in an upscale neighborhood east of Charleston. The article was so inflammatory until it was imperative that the author draws parallels. The underlying thrust of the piece had very strong negative overtones, there was no explicit mention of race. Nonetheless, as the locations were mentioned, it was obvious that race was being put on trial. In mentioning the residential locations of both groups, the city councilman was implying that he had a zero tolerance for juvenile crime. However, in my mind's eye, it was calculated positioning, to avoid admonishment or being labeled as a racist. While he made value judgments an d cast aspersions upon the character of American parents, he did not follow in kind with the parents from east of Charleston. This article was minus a reasonable base and exhibited a lack of respect for diversity. The City Councilman was expressing his outrage concerning the recent crime wave and he felt the most appropriate manner to address these types of negative behavior would be to sterilize the parents. Obviously his response borders on genocide. He would prefer to eliminate a race of people and forever remove this aspect of diversity. ... Additionally, the article quoted the City of Charleston Councilman's reaction to a string of robberies which occurred during the month of September in an up-scale neighborhood east of Charleston. The article was so inflammatory until it was imperative that the author draw parallels. Albeit, the underlying thrust of the piece had very strong negative overtones, there was no explicit mention of race. Nonetheless, as the locations were mentioned, it was obvious that race was being put on trial. In mentioning the residential locations of both groups, the city councilman was implying that he had a zero tolerance for juvenile crime. However, in my minds eye, it was calculated positioning, to avoid admonishment or being labeled as a racist. While he made value judgments and cast aspersions upon the character of African American parents, he did not follow in kind with the parents from east of Charleston. This article was minus a reasonable base and exhibited a lack of respect for diversity. The City Councilman was expressing his outrage concerning the recent crime wave and he felt the most appropriate manner to address these types of negative behavior would be to sterilize the parents.. Obviously his response borders on genocide. He would prefer to eliminate a race of people and forever remove this aspect of diversity from the American landscape. The article exhibits a wanton disregard and an absence of sensitivity towards human nature in general and diversity in particular. To what extent do the media rely on stereotypes when depicting a certain group The media ostensibly exists to serve a public good; to present an unbiased and accurate

Relationship Between Developed and Emerging Stock Markets

Relationship Between Developed and Emerging Stock Markets Introduction Due to inclination towards liberalization and deregulation in the capital and money markets, global markets have tended to become highly integrated in recent times in case of developed as well as developing countries. There are many reasons as to why the linkages among the different stock markets should be studied some of the reasons are emerging markets have attracted a great number of foreign investors, removal of statutory controls over their capital market and foreign exchange, stock prices interconnection due to the global capital movements, regional policy and the presence of economic ties. Specialists of finance have given substantial attention to the linkages and the relationships between different stock markets, to explore and examine the potential benefits from international portfolio diversification. Most of the studies are done taking into account developing and emerging Asian markets. Interest of foreign investors have resulted in several fund management centres concentrating on Asian developing markets not only for the growth and development but also to diversify their risk. The aim of this paper is to study the relationship of developed and emerging stock markets. Literatures on the different prospects of stock market have been studied. Many researchers have focused on the integration among the stock market. While studying the literatures it has been seen that different areas are being covered and focused which includes dynamic linkages among stock market during pre and post Asian financial crisis and Russian financial crisis, effect of linkages on the portfolio diversification, effects of linkages on the daily stock prices and domination of developed markets over the developing markets. Further, examining of the empirical question in the literature on capital market integration between different economies is done. For the empirical analysis, data of twenty year for everyday closing stock prices of six indices have been taken from 3 January 1989 to 8 June 2009. Six indices are New York Stock Exchange (USA), London Stock Exchange (UK), Tokyo Stock Exchange (Japan), Bombay Stock Exchange (India), The Stock Exchange of Thailand (Thailand), Bursa Malaysia (Malaysia). In the econometrics literature, there exist a number of alternative methods to estimate cointegration. Econometrics techniques which are being used in this study are Augmented Dickey-Fuller test, Johansen’s cointegration test and Error Correction test. E-views software is used for the calculating the results. Empirical results obtained from the three test, it was found that time series are non stationary and null hypothesis is not rejected which suggest that they are highly cointegrated and to test whether any variations in one stock exchange can lead to fluctuations in other stock indices. Johansen cointegration test is conduct ed which shows that there is no evidence of cointegration between Indian stock index and other stock indices. Further, Error Correction test is conducted which shows that there is poor cointegration between Indian stock exchange index with other stock indices. Indian stock market appear to be least integrated with Malaysia, where as Malaysia stock market is integrated with all the other stock markets. Thailand stock market is seems to be more dependent on Japanese and Indian stock market than other stock markets. Little integration is seen between Japanese stock exchange and USA stock exchange. It is found that UK and USA are highly integrated. To conclude, stock exchanges of the developed economies are better cointegrated as compared to those of developing economies. Background What is stock market? In simple words stock refers to a supply. But in financial market terms, stock refers to the money which a company has raised. And the supply of the money comes from the people who invest in the company in hope that the company will make their money grow. Stocks exist because it enables the company to â€Å"sell† pieces of the business called as stocks (equity securities) in need of long term financing. When stocks are issued by corporations are owned by the public at large which includes both private investors and institution are said to be publicly held. A public place where things are bought and sold is called as Market. And the term stock market refers to a business where stock is bought and sold. Stock market can be splitted into two main sectors; the primary market and the secondary market. The primary market is the one where new issues are offered for the first time and primary market is the one where subsequent trading goes on. There are basically two types of stock namely common stock and preferred stock. A security which represents ownership in a corporation is known as common stock. Holder of the common stock has the power to vote and elect board members. If the company goes bankrupt, the common stockholder will not be paid until unless creditors, bondholders and preferred stockholders are paid their share of the leftover assets of the company. Where as, preferred stock is a stock which is issued when all the common stock has been issued. Preferred stock olders are given dividends. They have a preference that is why they are paid dividend before any dividends are paid to common stock holders. The stock market is not a specific place but still some people use the term â€Å"Wall Street† which is the main street in New York City’s financial district and it is referred to the US stock market. Why companies issue stock market and why people buy it? As every company wants to grow, so some owners build more factories and some develop new product which needs money. A company can actually get loan from the financial institution like banks but companies without going into debt by taking loans issues stock which raise money for the growth of a company. Only Business Corporation can issue the stock which has special legal rights and responsibility. A proprietorship or ownership cannot issue stock. A shareholder invests in a hope that company will grow and so will their money grow because if a company earns money, the shareholders will share the profits. There are different types of gains from the stock such as dividends, capital gains, short selling, risk and rewards for investing. Over the long term bases, investments in stocks have proven to be an excellent way to more than keep pace with erosive effects of inflation. Stock Exchange Stock market is an organised market for trading of stocks and bonds. These markets were originally open to all but now a days only members of the association can buy and sell directly and these members or stock broker can buy and sell for themselves or others by charging the commission for their provided service. A stock can only be bought and sold if it is listed on an exchange. There are stock exchange in all the financial centres of the world. Some of them are stated below; the New York stock exchange since 1792 which had the largest trading in the world of $7.3 trillion in 1998, Tokyo stock exchange, London stock exchange, Bombay stock exchange and NASDAQ. NASDAQ was the first exchange which recognised the role of electronics in stock market. History of the Stock Exchanges Japan In the decade of 1870s, introduction of a securities system initiated the public bond negotiation in Japan which resulted in the need of a public institution for trading and hence in May 1878, the â€Å"Stock Exchange Ordinance† was in enacted followed by establishment of Tokyo Stock Exchange Co. Ltd. On May 15, 1879 and trading began on June 1st. On June 30, 1943, establishment of a quasi-public corporation named the â€Å"Japan Securities Exchange† took place by uniting all 11 stock exchanges throughout Japan. During the Second World War, the trading sessions were suspended on August 10, 1945 but the trading restarted under the management of unofficial group transactions in December 1945. Japan Securities Exchange was dissolved on April 16, 1947. Three stock exchanges in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya were founded on April 1, 1949 and trading began on May 16 followed by formation of five additional stock exchanges in July in Kobe (dissolved, October 1967), Hiroshima, Kyoto (merged into Tokyo Stock Exchange, March 2001), Fukuoka and Niigata. In the beginning of the next decade of 1950s, margin transactions were introduced and bond trading started on April 2, 1956. October 1, 1966 observed the first listings of government bonds after the Second World War and in the following year, a new process of auction was put into action and â€Å"Baikai† trades (off-exchange trades) were eliminated. In April 1968, registration system was replaced by licensing system for securities companies and on July 1, 1969, Tokyo Stock Price Index (TOPIX) was launched. Joining the International Federation of Stock Exchanges (FIBV) along with starting of convertible bonds trading and Book Entry Clearing system were the major developments by TSE before listing of Yen-based foreign bonds and opening of Foreign Stock Section in 1973. The next 10 years observed major developments in technical fields such as introduction of Market Information System (MIS) and Computer-assisted Order Routing and Execution System (CORES). From February 1, 1986 to May 23, 1988, a total of 32 securities companies joined the TSE membership out of which 22 were foreign companies. Trading in TOPIX futures, TOPIX options, U.S. T-Bond futures and Japanese government bond futures began by May 1990. Other 10 securities companies including 3 foreign ones joined the TSE membership followed by introduction of Floor Order Routing and Execution System (FORES) by the end of that year. Major happenings in the next decade were: Starting of Central Depository and Clearing System on Oct 9, 1991; Listing of Nikkei 300 Stock Index Listed Fund on May 29, 1995; Initiation of 5-year Japanese government bond futures trading on Feb 16, 1996; Trading in equity options on July 18, 1997; Calculation of new stock price index series on Apr 2, 1998; introduction of ToSTNet and TDnet (Timely Disclosure Network) in 1998; restriction on off-exchange trading for listed securities abolished on Dec 1, 1998; 50th Anniversary celebrations on Apr 2, 1999; introduction of Target (TSE wide area network) on June 1; brokerage commission liberalized in October; establishment of MOTHERS market for emerging companies and growth on Nov 11, 1999; and merging of Hiroshima and Niigata stock exchanges into TSE along with introduction of TSE ARROWS in 2000. Demutualization of TSE resulted in the formation of Tokyo Stock Exchange Inc. in 2001 and later on August 1, 2007, Tokyo Stock Exchange Group, Inc. was established. Tokyo Stock Exchange Regulation was established on October 17th with its commencement on November 1, 2007. Thailand The present Thai market’s origin starts from the early years of 1960s when a private group established a stock exchange in July 1962 as a limited partnership which later turned into a limited company under the name of Bangkok Stock Exchange Co. Ltd. (BSE) in 1963. But BSE was relatively inactive irrespective of its good foundation as its annual turnover values reduced from being 160 million baht in 1968 to an all time low of 26 million baht in 1972, even when turnover in debentures were 87 million baht. So finally, BSE stopped operating in early 1970s and the major reasons behind its failure were limited understanding of equity market among the investors and no government support officially. But, BSE’s concept was able to attract enough attention to form an organized securities market with official support. Hence, a plan to establish a market having apt facilities and regulations for securities trading was proposed by the Second National Economic and Social Development Plan (1967-1971). On recommendation of the World Bank in 1969, the government gained the works of Professor Sidney M. Robbins from Columbia University who studied different methods for the development of Thai capital market. And in the same year, the Bank of Thailand also created a working group for the development of capital market which was given the job of establishing the stock market. After a year of intensive study, Professor Robbins generated an all-inclusive report named â€Å"A Capital Market in Thailand† and this report turned out to be the master plan required for the Thai capital market development in future. In 1972, the government brought some changes to the â€Å"Announcement of the Executive Council No. 58 on the Control of Commercial Undertakings Affecting Public Safety and Welfare† according to which the government now controlled and regulated the operations related to finance and securities companies. â€Å"The Securities Exchange of Thailand† also known as SET was passed in May 1974 after the amendments were made followed by the amending of the Revenue Code by the year-end. By 1975, the legislative framework was put into action and official trading at SET started on April 30, 1975. January 1, 1991 saw the changing of name from â€Å"The Securities Exchange of Thailand† to â€Å"The Stock Exchange of Thailand†. Malaysia In 1930, Singapore Stockbrokers Association was Malaysia’s first formal securities business organisation establishment and in 1937 was re-registered by the name of Malayan Stockbrokers Association. The public shares trading began after the establishment of The Malayan Stock Exchange in 1960 and the board system was having its trading rooms in Kuala Lumpur as well as Singapore, connected by usage of direct telephone line. The year 1964 saw the foundation of the Stock Exchange of Malaysia but in 1965, the withdrawal of Singapore from Malaysia forced the Stock Exchange of Malaysia to become the Stock Exchange of Malaysia and Singapore. In 1973, the Stock Exchange of Malaysia and Singapore was divided into two separate markets namely the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange Berhad and the Stock Exchange of Singapore due to ceasing of interchangeability of currency between Malaysia and Singapore. The Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange integrated on December 14, 1976 as a company limited by guarantee took over the operations and management of the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange Berhad. On April 14, 2004, the demutualization exercise made the name to be changed to Bursa Malaysia Berhad. The main aim of this exercise was to boost competitive position and to act in response to trends in the exchange sector globally by becoming more market-oriented and customer-driven. The listing of Bursa Malaysia on the Main Board of Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad took place on 18 March 2005. The certifications for conformance to the ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management System and ISO 14001:2004 Environmental Management System standards were received by the exchange on 5 October 2007. Faster processing and execution of orders and providing wider trading functions and features were done by introduction of Bursa Trade Securities as a new trading platform in Dec 2008. United States The New York stock exchange trace back to 172, when twenty four New York City stock brokers and merchants signed the Buttonwood Agreement. At that time five securities were traded in New York City out of which three were government bonds and two were bank stocks. It was agreed that securities will be traded on commission basis on signing the Buttonwood agreement by the brokers. After the war in 1815 securities market in New York began to grow. The New York stock and exchange board was formed on March 8, 1817. The name was shortened The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in 1863. More than 2800 companies are listed in NYSE which are having value exceeding $15 trillion. During the period 1824 to 1830 annual trading reached a peak of 380,000 shares. Average volume reached to 8500 shares which show that it increased a 50-fold in seven years. During 1836-1853 NYSEB prohibited trading in the street and in 1837 average daily volume fell down from 7393 in January to 1534 by June. Due to invention of telegraph, brokers and investors broaden the market participation outside New York City. It was a panic period during 1857 when Ohio Life Insurance Trust company collapsed, prices dropped eight to ten percent in the single trading session and there was 45% decline in market value in the beginning of the year. During 1860s first stock ticker came into existence, membership in NYSE became a â€Å"property right†, prohibition of issue of shares in secret known as watering stock and at the end on 24th September 1869, gold speculation resulted in â€Å"Black Friday†. In 1890s NYSE established clearing house, it also recommended that all listed companies will send their shareholder the annual report and in 1896. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was published by the Wall Street journal for the first time, with an initial value of 40.74. During that period DJIA topped 100 for the first time. Federal Reserve System Wall Street became world financial leader. Centralized stock clearing system was established and fraud bureau was established during the period. In the mid of 1929 Black Thursday came when market crashed on volume of over 16 million shares which was the beginning of the Great depression and the Dow finally reached bottom in July 1932. During 1960-1979, International Federation of stock Exchange and daily volume on the NYSE exceeded 4 million shares nearly triple the level immediately following the war. On February 03, 1977 foreign broker were permitted membership on the floor. The Inter market Trading system (ITS) was inaugurated. Taking about 20th century, first Global index was launched in 2000, DJIA experienced its largest one day point gain and new trading room at 30 Broad street was opened. In 2001, NYSE volume topped 2 billion shares. The NYSE is now a for-profit business. It is formed out of the merger of the NYSE and Archipelago Holding, Inc. And the merger is the largest ever among securities up to this time. United Kingdom The London Stock Exchange is one of the world’s oldest stock exchanges and traces its history back more than 300 years. It started in the 17th century in London coffee houses. Exchange grew quickly and became the city’s most important financial institution. John casting began in back 1698 to organise the market in Jonathan’s coffee house through a simple list of stock and commodity prices. The wave of speculative fever known as the south sea bubble burst in 1720. In 1761 a group of stock broker form a club at Jonathan’s to buy and sell shares and then in 1773 they put up their own building in Sweeting’s Alley with dealing room and members named it â€Å"The Stock Exchange†. On 3 March 1801, first regulated exchange comes into existence in London and the business reopens under a formal membership basis and the modern stock exchange was born. First codified rule book was created in 1812 and first regional exchange were opened in Manchester and Liverpool in 1836 and it was rebuilt in 1854. A new deed settlement came to existence in 1876. In 1914 after Great War, the exchange market was closed from the end of July till the New Year. During 1986, there was deregulation of market which is known as ‘Big Bang’. Ownership of member firms by an outside corporation was allowed. Brokers were able to operate in a dual capacity and minimum scales of commission were abolished. Trading was moved to computers and telephones from separate dealing rooms. The exchange became private limited company under the Companies Act 1985. The trading name became â€Å"The London Stock Exchange† in 1991. In 1997, SETS (Stock exchange Electronic Trading System) was launched. In 2003, EDX London was created, a new international equity in partnership with OM Group and later in 2004, LSE moved to new headquarters Paternoster Square. Latest in 2007, LSE merged with Borsa Italiana, creating London Stock Exchange Group. India The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) is located in Dalal Street, Mumbai. It was established in 1875 and is one of the oldest stock exchanges in Asia. Around 3600 companies in the country are listed on this stock exchange and have a substantial trading volume. The market capitalization of the BSE is about Rs.20 trillion (US$ 466 billion). The ‘Sensex’ is commonly used market index for the BSE and it is among the five big exchanges in the world in terms of number of transactions. Its history traces back to the time in mid 1850s, when an informal group of 22 shareholders used to trade under banyan tree in the Town Hall of Bombay. The association the native sharebrokers was formally organized as The Bombay Stock Exchange in 1875. The BSE is the oldest stock exchange in Asia and Premchand Roychand used to be the leading sharebroker in that time. He was the one who assisted in setting out procedures and conventions for the trading of stock at BSE. James M. Maclean inaugurated the Brokers Hall in 1899. in 1928, it was shifted to an old building in Town Hall, Bombay and later on the building was constructed on Dalal Street in 1930 where the BSE building now stands. The BSE follows the system of eTrading, which came into use in 1995. In 2000, BSE Sensex was used to open its derivatives market for trading Sensex future contracts, followed by development of equity derivatives in 2001 and 2002 which expanded its trading platform. Stock exchanges by providing a centralized and ready market, facilitates the business for financing through flotation of bonds and stocks. Sometimes speculation in stock can put stress on the instability of an economy. The reality of the Great depression was emphasised by the stock market crash in 1929. Financial Crisis Stock market crash of 1929 After the First World War, there was a growth in industrialisation and new technologies. During 1920s was the time of peace and prosperity because the economy was benefited greatly from the new life changing technologies. Many investors quickly purchased the shares on seeing Dow Jones industrial average surged. Due to the powerful economic boom the stocks were seen very safe to most of the economists. Stocks were purchased by the investors on margin. From 1921 to 1929, the Dow Jones rocketed from 60 to 400 and for every dollar invested; a margin user would borrow 9 dollars worth of stock. But on Thursday October 24, 1929 the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 38 points to 260, which was a drop of 12.8 percent and across the two days its average fell 23 percent and finally at the end of the period on November 11, there was a cumulative drop of 40 percent. Overvalued stocks, low margin requirements, interest rate hikes and poor banking structure were the few causes of the crash. In total, 14 billion dollars of wealth were lost during this market crash. Stock market crash of 1987 Dow hit a record 2722.44 points on 25 August, 1987 but then the Dow started to head down. And valuation in the United States dropped around 36 percent from the days between October 14 to October 19, 1987. On black Monday October 19, 1987 the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 508 points losing approx 22.6 percent of its total value and SP 500 dropped to 20.4 percent. Reasons for the crash were no liquidity, overvalued stock, program trading and the use of derivative securities software. During the crash half trillion dollars wealth were lost. Stock market crash of 2008 The failures of financial organizations in the USA due to exposure of credit default swaps and subprime loans resulted in a global crisis as banks all over the world failed and the values of shares and commodities fell drastically. The Indonesian Stock Market stopped operating on seeing a 10% drop in a day on October 8. Comparisons were made of this crisis with the one in 1987 but that lasted for just one day whereas the present one lingered on for the whole week. Dow Jones saw its worst ever decline of 18% during the week commenced on October 6. The failure of banks in Iceland devalued the Icelandic Krona and forced the country to the verge of bankruptcy which was saved by an emergency loan from International Monetary Fund (IMF). The main index of Iceland had a 77% decrement. October 24 saw the worst downfalls for many countries whereas Dow Jones industrial average was somewhat better at 3.6%. The value of United States Dollar and Japanese Yen increased whereas that of British Pound and Canadian Dollar was among the major losers. Literature review 1.1 Introduction The competition among different industrial countries markets was witnessed by their respective national stock exchange markets during the late 1980s and the economists observed that linkage or interrelation between the global markets existed. Due to the less restrictive climate towards capital movements, economists actually started thinking that the major financial markets of the world are systematically interrelated. Growth can be seen in reaction towards external developments in macro-economic policies and the world financial environment due to this interrelation. Technological developments in communications, trading system and the innovations of financial products have created global international investment opportunities. Linkages among stock market have important implication and significance for security pricing, trading strategies, hedging and financial market regulations. And also the presence of short term and long term relationship may be used to attain financial gains from international portfolio diversification and to also reduce systematic risk. International Market linkages have been widely investigated. Several studies have been conducted explaining the empirical and theoretical issues on linkages amongst stock market and mainly focused on the co-movement between developed and emerging markets. There is a wealth of literature on stock market interdependence and integration. However, depending on the data, methodology, and theoretical models used there is no clear resolution of the issue yet. Some previous work has have found that international stock markets are integrated and some found that stock markets are not interlinked. Most of the studies on stock market interdependence in emerging markets have been done on geographical groups of markets, such as markets in Central and Eastern Europe  and America  and in Asian countries. Further, I summarize some of the most recent findings. 1.2 Interdependence of Stock Markets A number of studies have examined stock market linkages among emerging stock market and the developed stock markets like Arshanapalli, Doukas and Lang 1995 and Chen, Firth and Rui, 2002. Arshanapalli, Doukas  and Lang (1995) report that after the 1987 crash international market linkages have strengthened in terms of increased number of co-integrating vectors in the post crash period. They investigated in their paper that presence of a common random variable trend between the US and Asian stock market movements during the post October 1987 period. They showed that the cointergating structure which actually ties the stock market together has significantly increased since October 1987. US stock market influence on the other markets was considerably found greater in the post crisis period. Their results indicate that the Asian equity market is more integrated with US equity market than Japan equity market. Where as, Masih and Masih (1997) and Masih and Masih (1999) found cointegration relationship among the equity markets of Malaysia, Thailand, US, UK, Japan, Singapore and Hong-Kong during pre-financial crises period 1987. Number of papers investigates the short term and long term linkages among Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) stock exchanges. Talking about long term relationship, Gilmore and McManus (2002) and Gilmore and McManus (2003) analysed that no long term relationship can be established among the CEE stock markets with the US and Germany stock markets, where as Voronkova (2004) shows the existence of long term linkages among the Central European markets and CEE. Hamao and Masulis (1990), King and Wadhwani (1990), Kasa (1992) and Arshanapalli and Doukas (1993) have found that the equity markets of developed markets are integrated and US equity market leads the other developed market like Japanese equity market, UK equity market and few other European equity markets. Yang, Hsiao, Li and Wang (2005) also examined the long run price relationship and the dynamic price transmission among USA, Germany and four Eastern European emerging stock markets. They paid particular attention to Russian crisis in their study. VAR analysis was conducted. It was concluded that both long run relationship and the dynamic transmission were strengthen among these markets after the crisis and Germany became dominant and noticeable only after the Russian crisis amongst all the Eastern European markets. Syllignakis and Kouretas also examined the short and long term relationship between ten central Eastern European stock markets and two developed stock market i.e US and Germany, they used Gowzalo and Granger method and indicated weak partial integration among these markets. They also indicated that the four big stock exchange market like Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia together with Germany and the US stock market have substantial permanent factor which drives the system of stock market exchange in the long run. Egert and Kocenda (2006) analyse the co-movement and interdependence among three stock markets in Western, Central and Eastern Europe and found no robust cointegration relationship for any of the stock index pairs. Data from 2003 to 2005 for stock indices have been taken and applied wide range of econometric techniques like unit root and stationary tests, cointergration tests, Granger causality test, VAR estimation have been used. Results show that there are signs of short term spillover effects both in terms of stock price and stock return volatility. Granger causality test show the existence of bidirectional causality for both returns and volatility series and limited number of short term relationships using VAR framework. Limited interaction has been found among the market in case of Poland and Hungary by Li and Majerowska (2007) and also showed that emerging markets are weekly linked to the developed markets by using GARCH approach .In this paper linkages between the emerging markets of Warsaw and Budapest with the established market in Frankfurt and US were studied by using four-variable asymmetric GARCH-BEKK model. At the end it was implied that by adding the stock in the emerging markets to their investment portfolio they may benefit from reducing the risk. Further, looking at some more European counties Lucey andVoronkova (2008) examined relationship Russia and other equity markets over the period of 1995-2004 by using number of co-integration approach like Gregory-Hansen test, a stochastic cointegration framework, the non-parametric test for unit root and cointegration and found Russian market does not show strong evidence of increased long run convergence either with regional or developed markets, so therefore correlation is low. They also stated that Russian equity market in the long run was isolated from the influence of international markets and structural break in August 1998 did not alter the long term relationship nature. Ozdemir, Olgun and Saracoglu (2008) examined dynamic linkages between the equity market of US representing the center and emerging market using the Granger causality test as a result showed significant causal relation to all emerging markets and conclude that there is no evidence in the literature suggesting an effect of an emerging stock exchange market to that of large markets like US, Japan and UK. Where as Chinzara, examined to what extent South Africa equity market is integrated into world equity market using cointegration, VECM and VAR model and taking data for period 1995-2007. He fi Relationship Between Developed and Emerging Stock Markets Relationship Between Developed and Emerging Stock Markets Introduction Due to inclination towards liberalization and deregulation in the capital and money markets, global markets have tended to become highly integrated in recent times in case of developed as well as developing countries. There are many reasons as to why the linkages among the different stock markets should be studied some of the reasons are emerging markets have attracted a great number of foreign investors, removal of statutory controls over their capital market and foreign exchange, stock prices interconnection due to the global capital movements, regional policy and the presence of economic ties. Specialists of finance have given substantial attention to the linkages and the relationships between different stock markets, to explore and examine the potential benefits from international portfolio diversification. Most of the studies are done taking into account developing and emerging Asian markets. Interest of foreign investors have resulted in several fund management centres concentrating on Asian developing markets not only for the growth and development but also to diversify their risk. The aim of this paper is to study the relationship of developed and emerging stock markets. Literatures on the different prospects of stock market have been studied. Many researchers have focused on the integration among the stock market. While studying the literatures it has been seen that different areas are being covered and focused which includes dynamic linkages among stock market during pre and post Asian financial crisis and Russian financial crisis, effect of linkages on the portfolio diversification, effects of linkages on the daily stock prices and domination of developed markets over the developing markets. Further, examining of the empirical question in the literature on capital market integration between different economies is done. For the empirical analysis, data of twenty year for everyday closing stock prices of six indices have been taken from 3 January 1989 to 8 June 2009. Six indices are New York Stock Exchange (USA), London Stock Exchange (UK), Tokyo Stock Exchange (Japan), Bombay Stock Exchange (India), The Stock Exchange of Thailand (Thailand), Bursa Malaysia (Malaysia). In the econometrics literature, there exist a number of alternative methods to estimate cointegration. Econometrics techniques which are being used in this study are Augmented Dickey-Fuller test, Johansen’s cointegration test and Error Correction test. E-views software is used for the calculating the results. Empirical results obtained from the three test, it was found that time series are non stationary and null hypothesis is not rejected which suggest that they are highly cointegrated and to test whether any variations in one stock exchange can lead to fluctuations in other stock indices. Johansen cointegration test is conduct ed which shows that there is no evidence of cointegration between Indian stock index and other stock indices. Further, Error Correction test is conducted which shows that there is poor cointegration between Indian stock exchange index with other stock indices. Indian stock market appear to be least integrated with Malaysia, where as Malaysia stock market is integrated with all the other stock markets. Thailand stock market is seems to be more dependent on Japanese and Indian stock market than other stock markets. Little integration is seen between Japanese stock exchange and USA stock exchange. It is found that UK and USA are highly integrated. To conclude, stock exchanges of the developed economies are better cointegrated as compared to those of developing economies. Background What is stock market? In simple words stock refers to a supply. But in financial market terms, stock refers to the money which a company has raised. And the supply of the money comes from the people who invest in the company in hope that the company will make their money grow. Stocks exist because it enables the company to â€Å"sell† pieces of the business called as stocks (equity securities) in need of long term financing. When stocks are issued by corporations are owned by the public at large which includes both private investors and institution are said to be publicly held. A public place where things are bought and sold is called as Market. And the term stock market refers to a business where stock is bought and sold. Stock market can be splitted into two main sectors; the primary market and the secondary market. The primary market is the one where new issues are offered for the first time and primary market is the one where subsequent trading goes on. There are basically two types of stock namely common stock and preferred stock. A security which represents ownership in a corporation is known as common stock. Holder of the common stock has the power to vote and elect board members. If the company goes bankrupt, the common stockholder will not be paid until unless creditors, bondholders and preferred stockholders are paid their share of the leftover assets of the company. Where as, preferred stock is a stock which is issued when all the common stock has been issued. Preferred stock olders are given dividends. They have a preference that is why they are paid dividend before any dividends are paid to common stock holders. The stock market is not a specific place but still some people use the term â€Å"Wall Street† which is the main street in New York City’s financial district and it is referred to the US stock market. Why companies issue stock market and why people buy it? As every company wants to grow, so some owners build more factories and some develop new product which needs money. A company can actually get loan from the financial institution like banks but companies without going into debt by taking loans issues stock which raise money for the growth of a company. Only Business Corporation can issue the stock which has special legal rights and responsibility. A proprietorship or ownership cannot issue stock. A shareholder invests in a hope that company will grow and so will their money grow because if a company earns money, the shareholders will share the profits. There are different types of gains from the stock such as dividends, capital gains, short selling, risk and rewards for investing. Over the long term bases, investments in stocks have proven to be an excellent way to more than keep pace with erosive effects of inflation. Stock Exchange Stock market is an organised market for trading of stocks and bonds. These markets were originally open to all but now a days only members of the association can buy and sell directly and these members or stock broker can buy and sell for themselves or others by charging the commission for their provided service. A stock can only be bought and sold if it is listed on an exchange. There are stock exchange in all the financial centres of the world. Some of them are stated below; the New York stock exchange since 1792 which had the largest trading in the world of $7.3 trillion in 1998, Tokyo stock exchange, London stock exchange, Bombay stock exchange and NASDAQ. NASDAQ was the first exchange which recognised the role of electronics in stock market. History of the Stock Exchanges Japan In the decade of 1870s, introduction of a securities system initiated the public bond negotiation in Japan which resulted in the need of a public institution for trading and hence in May 1878, the â€Å"Stock Exchange Ordinance† was in enacted followed by establishment of Tokyo Stock Exchange Co. Ltd. On May 15, 1879 and trading began on June 1st. On June 30, 1943, establishment of a quasi-public corporation named the â€Å"Japan Securities Exchange† took place by uniting all 11 stock exchanges throughout Japan. During the Second World War, the trading sessions were suspended on August 10, 1945 but the trading restarted under the management of unofficial group transactions in December 1945. Japan Securities Exchange was dissolved on April 16, 1947. Three stock exchanges in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya were founded on April 1, 1949 and trading began on May 16 followed by formation of five additional stock exchanges in July in Kobe (dissolved, October 1967), Hiroshima, Kyoto (merged into Tokyo Stock Exchange, March 2001), Fukuoka and Niigata. In the beginning of the next decade of 1950s, margin transactions were introduced and bond trading started on April 2, 1956. October 1, 1966 observed the first listings of government bonds after the Second World War and in the following year, a new process of auction was put into action and â€Å"Baikai† trades (off-exchange trades) were eliminated. In April 1968, registration system was replaced by licensing system for securities companies and on July 1, 1969, Tokyo Stock Price Index (TOPIX) was launched. Joining the International Federation of Stock Exchanges (FIBV) along with starting of convertible bonds trading and Book Entry Clearing system were the major developments by TSE before listing of Yen-based foreign bonds and opening of Foreign Stock Section in 1973. The next 10 years observed major developments in technical fields such as introduction of Market Information System (MIS) and Computer-assisted Order Routing and Execution System (CORES). From February 1, 1986 to May 23, 1988, a total of 32 securities companies joined the TSE membership out of which 22 were foreign companies. Trading in TOPIX futures, TOPIX options, U.S. T-Bond futures and Japanese government bond futures began by May 1990. Other 10 securities companies including 3 foreign ones joined the TSE membership followed by introduction of Floor Order Routing and Execution System (FORES) by the end of that year. Major happenings in the next decade were: Starting of Central Depository and Clearing System on Oct 9, 1991; Listing of Nikkei 300 Stock Index Listed Fund on May 29, 1995; Initiation of 5-year Japanese government bond futures trading on Feb 16, 1996; Trading in equity options on July 18, 1997; Calculation of new stock price index series on Apr 2, 1998; introduction of ToSTNet and TDnet (Timely Disclosure Network) in 1998; restriction on off-exchange trading for listed securities abolished on Dec 1, 1998; 50th Anniversary celebrations on Apr 2, 1999; introduction of Target (TSE wide area network) on June 1; brokerage commission liberalized in October; establishment of MOTHERS market for emerging companies and growth on Nov 11, 1999; and merging of Hiroshima and Niigata stock exchanges into TSE along with introduction of TSE ARROWS in 2000. Demutualization of TSE resulted in the formation of Tokyo Stock Exchange Inc. in 2001 and later on August 1, 2007, Tokyo Stock Exchange Group, Inc. was established. Tokyo Stock Exchange Regulation was established on October 17th with its commencement on November 1, 2007. Thailand The present Thai market’s origin starts from the early years of 1960s when a private group established a stock exchange in July 1962 as a limited partnership which later turned into a limited company under the name of Bangkok Stock Exchange Co. Ltd. (BSE) in 1963. But BSE was relatively inactive irrespective of its good foundation as its annual turnover values reduced from being 160 million baht in 1968 to an all time low of 26 million baht in 1972, even when turnover in debentures were 87 million baht. So finally, BSE stopped operating in early 1970s and the major reasons behind its failure were limited understanding of equity market among the investors and no government support officially. But, BSE’s concept was able to attract enough attention to form an organized securities market with official support. Hence, a plan to establish a market having apt facilities and regulations for securities trading was proposed by the Second National Economic and Social Development Plan (1967-1971). On recommendation of the World Bank in 1969, the government gained the works of Professor Sidney M. Robbins from Columbia University who studied different methods for the development of Thai capital market. And in the same year, the Bank of Thailand also created a working group for the development of capital market which was given the job of establishing the stock market. After a year of intensive study, Professor Robbins generated an all-inclusive report named â€Å"A Capital Market in Thailand† and this report turned out to be the master plan required for the Thai capital market development in future. In 1972, the government brought some changes to the â€Å"Announcement of the Executive Council No. 58 on the Control of Commercial Undertakings Affecting Public Safety and Welfare† according to which the government now controlled and regulated the operations related to finance and securities companies. â€Å"The Securities Exchange of Thailand† also known as SET was passed in May 1974 after the amendments were made followed by the amending of the Revenue Code by the year-end. By 1975, the legislative framework was put into action and official trading at SET started on April 30, 1975. January 1, 1991 saw the changing of name from â€Å"The Securities Exchange of Thailand† to â€Å"The Stock Exchange of Thailand†. Malaysia In 1930, Singapore Stockbrokers Association was Malaysia’s first formal securities business organisation establishment and in 1937 was re-registered by the name of Malayan Stockbrokers Association. The public shares trading began after the establishment of The Malayan Stock Exchange in 1960 and the board system was having its trading rooms in Kuala Lumpur as well as Singapore, connected by usage of direct telephone line. The year 1964 saw the foundation of the Stock Exchange of Malaysia but in 1965, the withdrawal of Singapore from Malaysia forced the Stock Exchange of Malaysia to become the Stock Exchange of Malaysia and Singapore. In 1973, the Stock Exchange of Malaysia and Singapore was divided into two separate markets namely the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange Berhad and the Stock Exchange of Singapore due to ceasing of interchangeability of currency between Malaysia and Singapore. The Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange integrated on December 14, 1976 as a company limited by guarantee took over the operations and management of the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange Berhad. On April 14, 2004, the demutualization exercise made the name to be changed to Bursa Malaysia Berhad. The main aim of this exercise was to boost competitive position and to act in response to trends in the exchange sector globally by becoming more market-oriented and customer-driven. The listing of Bursa Malaysia on the Main Board of Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad took place on 18 March 2005. The certifications for conformance to the ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management System and ISO 14001:2004 Environmental Management System standards were received by the exchange on 5 October 2007. Faster processing and execution of orders and providing wider trading functions and features were done by introduction of Bursa Trade Securities as a new trading platform in Dec 2008. United States The New York stock exchange trace back to 172, when twenty four New York City stock brokers and merchants signed the Buttonwood Agreement. At that time five securities were traded in New York City out of which three were government bonds and two were bank stocks. It was agreed that securities will be traded on commission basis on signing the Buttonwood agreement by the brokers. After the war in 1815 securities market in New York began to grow. The New York stock and exchange board was formed on March 8, 1817. The name was shortened The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in 1863. More than 2800 companies are listed in NYSE which are having value exceeding $15 trillion. During the period 1824 to 1830 annual trading reached a peak of 380,000 shares. Average volume reached to 8500 shares which show that it increased a 50-fold in seven years. During 1836-1853 NYSEB prohibited trading in the street and in 1837 average daily volume fell down from 7393 in January to 1534 by June. Due to invention of telegraph, brokers and investors broaden the market participation outside New York City. It was a panic period during 1857 when Ohio Life Insurance Trust company collapsed, prices dropped eight to ten percent in the single trading session and there was 45% decline in market value in the beginning of the year. During 1860s first stock ticker came into existence, membership in NYSE became a â€Å"property right†, prohibition of issue of shares in secret known as watering stock and at the end on 24th September 1869, gold speculation resulted in â€Å"Black Friday†. In 1890s NYSE established clearing house, it also recommended that all listed companies will send their shareholder the annual report and in 1896. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was published by the Wall Street journal for the first time, with an initial value of 40.74. During that period DJIA topped 100 for the first time. Federal Reserve System Wall Street became world financial leader. Centralized stock clearing system was established and fraud bureau was established during the period. In the mid of 1929 Black Thursday came when market crashed on volume of over 16 million shares which was the beginning of the Great depression and the Dow finally reached bottom in July 1932. During 1960-1979, International Federation of stock Exchange and daily volume on the NYSE exceeded 4 million shares nearly triple the level immediately following the war. On February 03, 1977 foreign broker were permitted membership on the floor. The Inter market Trading system (ITS) was inaugurated. Taking about 20th century, first Global index was launched in 2000, DJIA experienced its largest one day point gain and new trading room at 30 Broad street was opened. In 2001, NYSE volume topped 2 billion shares. The NYSE is now a for-profit business. It is formed out of the merger of the NYSE and Archipelago Holding, Inc. And the merger is the largest ever among securities up to this time. United Kingdom The London Stock Exchange is one of the world’s oldest stock exchanges and traces its history back more than 300 years. It started in the 17th century in London coffee houses. Exchange grew quickly and became the city’s most important financial institution. John casting began in back 1698 to organise the market in Jonathan’s coffee house through a simple list of stock and commodity prices. The wave of speculative fever known as the south sea bubble burst in 1720. In 1761 a group of stock broker form a club at Jonathan’s to buy and sell shares and then in 1773 they put up their own building in Sweeting’s Alley with dealing room and members named it â€Å"The Stock Exchange†. On 3 March 1801, first regulated exchange comes into existence in London and the business reopens under a formal membership basis and the modern stock exchange was born. First codified rule book was created in 1812 and first regional exchange were opened in Manchester and Liverpool in 1836 and it was rebuilt in 1854. A new deed settlement came to existence in 1876. In 1914 after Great War, the exchange market was closed from the end of July till the New Year. During 1986, there was deregulation of market which is known as ‘Big Bang’. Ownership of member firms by an outside corporation was allowed. Brokers were able to operate in a dual capacity and minimum scales of commission were abolished. Trading was moved to computers and telephones from separate dealing rooms. The exchange became private limited company under the Companies Act 1985. The trading name became â€Å"The London Stock Exchange† in 1991. In 1997, SETS (Stock exchange Electronic Trading System) was launched. In 2003, EDX London was created, a new international equity in partnership with OM Group and later in 2004, LSE moved to new headquarters Paternoster Square. Latest in 2007, LSE merged with Borsa Italiana, creating London Stock Exchange Group. India The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) is located in Dalal Street, Mumbai. It was established in 1875 and is one of the oldest stock exchanges in Asia. Around 3600 companies in the country are listed on this stock exchange and have a substantial trading volume. The market capitalization of the BSE is about Rs.20 trillion (US$ 466 billion). The ‘Sensex’ is commonly used market index for the BSE and it is among the five big exchanges in the world in terms of number of transactions. Its history traces back to the time in mid 1850s, when an informal group of 22 shareholders used to trade under banyan tree in the Town Hall of Bombay. The association the native sharebrokers was formally organized as The Bombay Stock Exchange in 1875. The BSE is the oldest stock exchange in Asia and Premchand Roychand used to be the leading sharebroker in that time. He was the one who assisted in setting out procedures and conventions for the trading of stock at BSE. James M. Maclean inaugurated the Brokers Hall in 1899. in 1928, it was shifted to an old building in Town Hall, Bombay and later on the building was constructed on Dalal Street in 1930 where the BSE building now stands. The BSE follows the system of eTrading, which came into use in 1995. In 2000, BSE Sensex was used to open its derivatives market for trading Sensex future contracts, followed by development of equity derivatives in 2001 and 2002 which expanded its trading platform. Stock exchanges by providing a centralized and ready market, facilitates the business for financing through flotation of bonds and stocks. Sometimes speculation in stock can put stress on the instability of an economy. The reality of the Great depression was emphasised by the stock market crash in 1929. Financial Crisis Stock market crash of 1929 After the First World War, there was a growth in industrialisation and new technologies. During 1920s was the time of peace and prosperity because the economy was benefited greatly from the new life changing technologies. Many investors quickly purchased the shares on seeing Dow Jones industrial average surged. Due to the powerful economic boom the stocks were seen very safe to most of the economists. Stocks were purchased by the investors on margin. From 1921 to 1929, the Dow Jones rocketed from 60 to 400 and for every dollar invested; a margin user would borrow 9 dollars worth of stock. But on Thursday October 24, 1929 the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 38 points to 260, which was a drop of 12.8 percent and across the two days its average fell 23 percent and finally at the end of the period on November 11, there was a cumulative drop of 40 percent. Overvalued stocks, low margin requirements, interest rate hikes and poor banking structure were the few causes of the crash. In total, 14 billion dollars of wealth were lost during this market crash. Stock market crash of 1987 Dow hit a record 2722.44 points on 25 August, 1987 but then the Dow started to head down. And valuation in the United States dropped around 36 percent from the days between October 14 to October 19, 1987. On black Monday October 19, 1987 the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 508 points losing approx 22.6 percent of its total value and SP 500 dropped to 20.4 percent. Reasons for the crash were no liquidity, overvalued stock, program trading and the use of derivative securities software. During the crash half trillion dollars wealth were lost. Stock market crash of 2008 The failures of financial organizations in the USA due to exposure of credit default swaps and subprime loans resulted in a global crisis as banks all over the world failed and the values of shares and commodities fell drastically. The Indonesian Stock Market stopped operating on seeing a 10% drop in a day on October 8. Comparisons were made of this crisis with the one in 1987 but that lasted for just one day whereas the present one lingered on for the whole week. Dow Jones saw its worst ever decline of 18% during the week commenced on October 6. The failure of banks in Iceland devalued the Icelandic Krona and forced the country to the verge of bankruptcy which was saved by an emergency loan from International Monetary Fund (IMF). The main index of Iceland had a 77% decrement. October 24 saw the worst downfalls for many countries whereas Dow Jones industrial average was somewhat better at 3.6%. The value of United States Dollar and Japanese Yen increased whereas that of British Pound and Canadian Dollar was among the major losers. Literature review 1.1 Introduction The competition among different industrial countries markets was witnessed by their respective national stock exchange markets during the late 1980s and the economists observed that linkage or interrelation between the global markets existed. Due to the less restrictive climate towards capital movements, economists actually started thinking that the major financial markets of the world are systematically interrelated. Growth can be seen in reaction towards external developments in macro-economic policies and the world financial environment due to this interrelation. Technological developments in communications, trading system and the innovations of financial products have created global international investment opportunities. Linkages among stock market have important implication and significance for security pricing, trading strategies, hedging and financial market regulations. And also the presence of short term and long term relationship may be used to attain financial gains from international portfolio diversification and to also reduce systematic risk. International Market linkages have been widely investigated. Several studies have been conducted explaining the empirical and theoretical issues on linkages amongst stock market and mainly focused on the co-movement between developed and emerging markets. There is a wealth of literature on stock market interdependence and integration. However, depending on the data, methodology, and theoretical models used there is no clear resolution of the issue yet. Some previous work has have found that international stock markets are integrated and some found that stock markets are not interlinked. Most of the studies on stock market interdependence in emerging markets have been done on geographical groups of markets, such as markets in Central and Eastern Europe  and America  and in Asian countries. Further, I summarize some of the most recent findings. 1.2 Interdependence of Stock Markets A number of studies have examined stock market linkages among emerging stock market and the developed stock markets like Arshanapalli, Doukas and Lang 1995 and Chen, Firth and Rui, 2002. Arshanapalli, Doukas  and Lang (1995) report that after the 1987 crash international market linkages have strengthened in terms of increased number of co-integrating vectors in the post crash period. They investigated in their paper that presence of a common random variable trend between the US and Asian stock market movements during the post October 1987 period. They showed that the cointergating structure which actually ties the stock market together has significantly increased since October 1987. US stock market influence on the other markets was considerably found greater in the post crisis period. Their results indicate that the Asian equity market is more integrated with US equity market than Japan equity market. Where as, Masih and Masih (1997) and Masih and Masih (1999) found cointegration relationship among the equity markets of Malaysia, Thailand, US, UK, Japan, Singapore and Hong-Kong during pre-financial crises period 1987. Number of papers investigates the short term and long term linkages among Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) stock exchanges. Talking about long term relationship, Gilmore and McManus (2002) and Gilmore and McManus (2003) analysed that no long term relationship can be established among the CEE stock markets with the US and Germany stock markets, where as Voronkova (2004) shows the existence of long term linkages among the Central European markets and CEE. Hamao and Masulis (1990), King and Wadhwani (1990), Kasa (1992) and Arshanapalli and Doukas (1993) have found that the equity markets of developed markets are integrated and US equity market leads the other developed market like Japanese equity market, UK equity market and few other European equity markets. Yang, Hsiao, Li and Wang (2005) also examined the long run price relationship and the dynamic price transmission among USA, Germany and four Eastern European emerging stock markets. They paid particular attention to Russian crisis in their study. VAR analysis was conducted. It was concluded that both long run relationship and the dynamic transmission were strengthen among these markets after the crisis and Germany became dominant and noticeable only after the Russian crisis amongst all the Eastern European markets. Syllignakis and Kouretas also examined the short and long term relationship between ten central Eastern European stock markets and two developed stock market i.e US and Germany, they used Gowzalo and Granger method and indicated weak partial integration among these markets. They also indicated that the four big stock exchange market like Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia together with Germany and the US stock market have substantial permanent factor which drives the system of stock market exchange in the long run. Egert and Kocenda (2006) analyse the co-movement and interdependence among three stock markets in Western, Central and Eastern Europe and found no robust cointegration relationship for any of the stock index pairs. Data from 2003 to 2005 for stock indices have been taken and applied wide range of econometric techniques like unit root and stationary tests, cointergration tests, Granger causality test, VAR estimation have been used. Results show that there are signs of short term spillover effects both in terms of stock price and stock return volatility. Granger causality test show the existence of bidirectional causality for both returns and volatility series and limited number of short term relationships using VAR framework. Limited interaction has been found among the market in case of Poland and Hungary by Li and Majerowska (2007) and also showed that emerging markets are weekly linked to the developed markets by using GARCH approach .In this paper linkages between the emerging markets of Warsaw and Budapest with the established market in Frankfurt and US were studied by using four-variable asymmetric GARCH-BEKK model. At the end it was implied that by adding the stock in the emerging markets to their investment portfolio they may benefit from reducing the risk. Further, looking at some more European counties Lucey andVoronkova (2008) examined relationship Russia and other equity markets over the period of 1995-2004 by using number of co-integration approach like Gregory-Hansen test, a stochastic cointegration framework, the non-parametric test for unit root and cointegration and found Russian market does not show strong evidence of increased long run convergence either with regional or developed markets, so therefore correlation is low. They also stated that Russian equity market in the long run was isolated from the influence of international markets and structural break in August 1998 did not alter the long term relationship nature. Ozdemir, Olgun and Saracoglu (2008) examined dynamic linkages between the equity market of US representing the center and emerging market using the Granger causality test as a result showed significant causal relation to all emerging markets and conclude that there is no evidence in the literature suggesting an effect of an emerging stock exchange market to that of large markets like US, Japan and UK. Where as Chinzara, examined to what extent South Africa equity market is integrated into world equity market using cointegration, VECM and VAR model and taking data for period 1995-2007. He fi

Faulkner’s Forefathers in the Film, William Faulkner: A Life on Paper

The role of fathers looms large in this Faulkner documentary. In terms of strictly male lineage, William Faulkner seems trapped in this sort of grey world between being his own man and the fact that he was so much like his male ancestors. I imagine this is true of all individuals, struggling to make our way between ourselves as individuals and as shaped by our contexts. In Faulkner's case, however, he seems conspicuously geared towards adopting those traits first shown by his ancestors, the same arrogance, a "haughty pride,"and a tradition to "look for a fight." At the risk of psychoanalyzing far beyond my knowledge, what seemed interesting to me is how the collective Faulkner males seem content to rest on the laurels of their forefathers. Faulkner's father, for example, dreams of inheriting his father's fortune rather than making his own. Faulkner himself loafed through numerous jobs, perhaps only waiting for the colonel's writing abilities to be channeled through Faulkner's own ski lls and establish him as a writer. The dynamics of such behavior puzzle me. Is this some sort of inher...

French Toast

French Toast GENERAL PURPOSE: To inform on how to make French Toast. ————————————————- SPECIFIC PURPOSE STATEMENT: After listening to my speech, the audience will ————————————————- have learned that there are different kinds of French Toast. ————————————————- INTRODUCTION I. Attention-getter:Did you know there are different kinds of French Toast then just our regular cinnamon French Toast? According to incredibleegg. org there are five other ways to make French toast. II. Credentials: One of my breakfast foods is French toast.I am always finding new ways on how to â€Å"spice it up†. I like to cook, but I am mostly a baker when it comes to food. A nd when it comes to the holidays like this time of year my family is all about baking and cooking. But what family isn’t. III. Thesis statement:French toast is a great breakfast food but can be messy when making it. But it is all the more fun when you are making it as a family. IV. Preview of main points:Today I will be talking about an easy way how to make French toast and two other ways to make French toast that are fun and enjoyable during the holidays. BODY I. Main Point:Easy French Toast Recipe.According to culinaryarts. bout. com this is how to prep for making French toast in the oven. A. Supporting point- Ingredients: 1. 4 eggs 2. 1 cup half and half 3. 2 tsp sugar 4. 8 slices regular white bread 5. ? tsp pure vanilla extract 6. 2 Tbsp butter B. Supporting point- Preparation: 1. Pre-heat oven to 200 °F. 2. Beat eggs thoroughly. Whisk in sugar, half and half and vanilla. 3. Pour the custard mixture into a shallow glass dish. An inch deep should be fine. 4. Heat your g riddle to medium-low, and melt the butter on it. 5. Soak a couple of slices of bread (but only as many your griddle can accommodate at once) in the custard while you count to ten.Flip them over and repeat. 6. Carefully remove the soaked slices from the custard, letting the excess liquid drain into the dish, and transfer the bread to the griddle. Flip when the bottoms are golden brown. When the other sides are also golden brown, remove from the griddle. 7. Serve French toast right away, or transfer it to a dish in the oven to keep warm. This makes about a serving for four people. II. Main Point: Make Ahead Stuffed French Toast According to incredibleegg. org here is another way to French toast. A. Supporting point- What You Need 30 to 36 | | thin French bread or baguette slices, 1/2† slices (12 oz)| 4 | | oz. ream cheese, softened| 1| | cup strawberry preserves| 8| | EGGS| 1-1/2| | cups milk| 1| | can (8 oz) crushed pineapple, undrained| ?| | cup orange juice| 2| | tsp. freshly grated orange peel| 1| | tsp. vanilla| ?| | tsp. salt| B. Supporting point- Here’s How 1. HEAT oven to 350 °F. 2. SPREAD 1/2 of the bread slices with cream cheese and strawberry preserves and TOP with remaining bread slices to make little sandwiches. ARRANGE sandwiches in greased 13 x 9-inch glass baking dish. 3. WHISK eggs in medium bowl until foamy. STIR IN milk, pineapple, orange juice, orange peel, vanilla and salt.SLOWLY POUR egg mixture over bread; press bread into egg mixture. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour or overnight. 4. BAKE in center of 350 °F oven until puffed, golden and knife inserted near centers comes out clean, about 45 to 50 minutes. III. Main Point: Mini Orange-Maple French Toast Breakfast Casseroles According to incredibleegg. org here is another way to French toast. A. Supporting point- What You Need 4 | oz. mascarpone cheese OR cream cheese, room temperature| 4| EGGS| 2/3| cup milk| 1/3| cup orange juice| 1/4| cup maple-flavored pancake syru p| 1/2| tsp. freshly grated orange peel| 3| cups bread cubes (1 inch) (about 4 slices)|B. Supporting point- Here’s How 1. HEAT oven to 350 °F. WHISK cheese in medium bowl until smooth. ADD eggs, 1 at a time, whisking after each addition until smooth. STIR IN milk, orange juice, syrup and orange peel until smooth and blended. 2. DIVIDE bread among four greased 10-ounce ramekins or custard cups. SLOWLY POUR a generous 1/2 cup egg mixture over bread in each cup; press bread into egg mixture. PLACE cups in baking pan. 3. BAKE in center of 350 °F oven until custards are puffed and knife inserted near centers comes out clean, about 30 minutes. CONCLUSION Thesis Statement / Review: Now you know some other ways to make French toast.Closing statement: I how you enjoyed what you have learn on making French toast. I hope it has encouraged you to go home and try to make it†¦Works-Cited using APA format Incredibleegg, (ND) â€Å"Make Ahead Stuffed French Toast† http://www. incredibleegg. org/recipes-and-more/recipes/make-ahead-stuffed-french-toast Incredibleegg, (ND) â€Å"Orange-Maple French Toast Breakfast Casseroles† http://www. incredibleegg. org/recipes-and-more/recipes/mini-orangemaple-french-toast-breakfast-casseroles culinaryarts. about, (ND) Danilo Alfaro â€Å"Easy French Toast Recipe† http://culinaryarts. about. com/od/griddledspecialties/r/frenchtoast. htm

The Amazing and Horrifying Story of Kurt Gerstein

The Amazing and Horrifying Story of Kurt Gerstein Anti-Nazi Kurt Gerstein (1905-1945) never intended to be a witness to the Nazi murder of the Jews. He joined the SS to try to find out what happened to his sister-in-law, who had mysteriously died in a mental institution. Gerstein was so successful in his infiltration of the SS that he was placed in a position to witness gassings at Belzec. Gerstein then told everyone he could think of about what he saw and yet no action was taken. Some wonder if Gerstein did enough. Kurt Gerstein Kurt Gerstein was born on August 11, 1905, in Mà ¼nster, Germany. Growing up as a young boy in Germany during the First World War and the following tumultuous years, Gerstein did not escape the pressures of his time. He was taught by his father to follow orders without question; he agreed with the growing patriotic fervor that espoused German nationalism, and he was not immune to the strengthening anti-Semitic feelings of the inter-war period. Thus he joined the Nazi Party on May 2, 1933. However, Gerstein found that much of the National Socialist (Nazi) dogma went against his strong Christian beliefs. Turning Anti-Nazi While attending college, Gerstein became very involved in Christian youth groups. Even after graduating in 1931 as a mining engineer, Gerstein remained very active in the youth groups, especially the Federation of German Bible Circles (until it was disbanded in 1934). On January 30, 1935, Gerstein attended an anti-Christian play, Wittekind at the Municipal Theater in Hagen. Though he sat amongst numerous Nazi members, at one point in the play he stood up and shouted, This is unheard of! We shall not allow our faith to be publicly mocked without protest!1 For this statement, he was given a black eye and had several teeth knocked out.2 On September 26, 1936, Gerstein was arrested and imprisoned for anti-Nazi activities. He had been arrested for attaching anti-Nazi letters to invitations sent out to invitees of the German Miners Association.3 When Gersteins house was searched, additional anti-Nazi letters, issued by the Confessional Church, were found ready to be mailed along with 7,000 addressed envelopes.4 After the arrest, Gerstein was officially excluded from the Nazi Party. Also, after six weeks of imprisonment, he was released only to find that he had lost his job in the mines. Arrested Again Not able to get a job, Gerstein went back to school. He began to study theology at Tà ¼bingen but soon transferred to the Protestant Missions Institute to study medicine. After a two-year engagement, Gerstein married Elfriede Bensch, a pastors daughter, on August 31, 1937. Even though Gerstein had already suffered exclusion from the Nazi Party as a warning against his anti-Nazi activities, he soon resumed his distribution of such documents. On July 14, 1938, Gerstein was again arrested. This time, he was transferred to the Welzheim concentration camp where he became extremely depressed. He wrote, Several times I came within an ace of hanging myself of putting an end to my life in some other way because I hadnt the faintest idea if, or when, I should ever be released from that concentration camp.5 On June 22, 1939, after Gersteins release from the camp, the Nazi Party took even more drastic action against him regarding his status in the Party - they officially dismissed him. Gerstein Joins the SS In the beginning of 1941, Gersteins sister-in-law, Bertha Ebeling, died mysteriously at the Hadamar mental institution. Gerstein was shocked by her death and became determined to infiltrate the Third Reich to find out the truth about the numerous deaths at Hadamar and similar institutions. On March 10, 1941, a year and a half into the Second World War, Gerstein joined the Waffen SS. He was soon placed in the medical services hygiene section where he succeeded in inventing water filters for German troops - to his superiors delight. Gerstein had been dismissed from the Nazi Party, thus should not have been able to hold any Party position, especially not become part of the Nazi elite. For a year and a half, the anti-Nazi Gersteins entry into the Waffen SS went unnoticed by those that had dismissed him. In November 1941, at a funeral for Gersteins brother, a member of the Nazi court that had dismissed Gerstein saw him in uniform. Although information about his past was passed on to Gersteins superiors, his technical and medical skills - proven by the working water filter - made him too valuable to dismiss, Gerstein was thus allowed to stay at his post. Zyklon B Three months later, in January 1942, Gerstein was appointed the head of the Technical Disinfection Department of the Waffen SS where he worked with various toxic gases, including Zyklon B. On June 8, 1942, while the head of the Technical Disinfection Department, Gerstein was visited by SS Sturmbannfà ¼hrer Rolf Gà ¼nther of the Reich Security Main Office. Gà ¼nther ordered Gerstein to deliver 220 pounds of Zyklon B to a location known only to the driver of the truck. Gersteins main task was to determine the feasibility of changing the Aktion Reinhard gas chambers from carbon monoxide to Zyklon B. In August 1942, after having collected the  Zyklon B  from a factory in Kolin (near Prague, Czech Republic), Gerstein was taken to  Majdanek, Belzec, and  Treblinka. Belzec Gerstein arrived at Belzec on August 19, 1942, where he witnessed the entire process of gassing a trainload of Jews. After the unloading of 45 train cars stuffed with 6,700 people, those that were still alive were marched, completely naked, and told that no harm would come to them.  After the gas chambers were filled: Unterscharfà ¼hrer Hackenholt was making great efforts to get the engine running. But it doesnt go. Captain Wirth comes up. I can see he is afraid because I am present at a disaster. Yes, I see it all and I wait. My stopwatch showed it all, 50 minutes, 70 minutes, and the diesel did not start. The people wait inside the gas chambers. In vain. They can be heard weeping, like in the synagogue, says Professor Pfannenstiel, his eyes glued to a window in the wooden door. Furious, Captain Wirth lashes the Ukrainian assisting Hackenholt twelve, thirteen times, in the face. After 2 hours and 49 minutes - the stopwatch recorded it all - the diesel started. Up to that moment, the people shut up in those four crowded chambers were still alive, four times 750 persons in four times 45 cubic meters. Another 25 minutes elapsed. Many were already dead, that could be seen through the small window because an electric lamp inside lit up the chamber for a few moments. After 28 minutes, only a few were still alive. Finally, after 32 minutes, all were dead. 6 Gerstein was then shown the processing of the dead: Dentists hammered out gold teeth, bridges and crowns. In the midst of them stood Captain Wirth. He was in his element, and showing me a large can full of teeth, he said: See for yourself the weight of that gold! Its only from yesterday and the day before. You cant imagine what we find every day - dollars, diamonds, gold. Youll see for yourself! 7 Telling the World Gerstein was shocked by what he had witnessed. Yet, he realized that as a witness, his position was unique. I was one of the handful of people who had seen every corner of the establishment, and certainly the only one to have visited it as an enemy of this gang of murderers. 8 He buried the Zyklon B canisters that he was supposed to deliver to the death camps. He was shaken by what he had seen. He wanted to expose what he knew to the world so that they could stop it. On the train back to Berlin, Gerstein met Baron Gà ¶ran von Otter, a Swedish diplomat. Gerstein told von Otter all he had seen. As von Otter relates the conversation: It was hard to get Gerstein to keep his voice down. We stood there together, all night, some six hours or maybe eight. And again and again, Gerstein kept on recalling what he had seen. He sobbed and hid his face in his hands. 9 Von Otter made a detailed report of his conversation with Gerstein and sent it to his superiors. Nothing happened. Gerstein continued to tell people what he had seen. He tried to contact the Legation of the Holy See but was denied access because he was a soldier.10 [T]aking my life in my hands every moment, I continued to inform hundreds of people of these horrible massacres. Among them were the Niemà ¶ller family; Dr. Hochstrasser, the press attachà © at the Swiss Legation in Berlin; Dr. Winter, the coadjutor of the Catholic Bishop of Berlin - so that he could transmit my information to the Bishop and to the Pope; Dr. Dibelius [bishop of the Confessing Church], and many others. In this way, thousands of people were informed by me.11 As months continued to pass and still the Allies had done nothing to stop the extermination, Gerstein became increasingly frantic. [H]e behaved in a strangely reckless manner, needlessly risking his life every time he spoke of the extermination camps to persons he scarcely knew, who were in no position to help, but might easily have been subjected to torture and interrogation. . .  12 Suicide or Murder On April 22, 1945, near the end of the war, Gerstein contacted the Allies. After telling his story and showing his documents, Gerstein was kept in honorable captivity in Rottweil - this meant he was lodged at Hotel Mohren and just had to report to the French gendarmerie once a day.13 It was here that Gerstein wrote down his experiences - both in French and German. At this time, Gerstein seemed optimistic and confident. In a letter, Gerstein wrote: After twelve years of unremitting struggle, and in particular after the last four years of my extremely dangerous and exhausting activity and the many horrors I have lived through, I should like to recuperate with my family in Tà ¼bingen. 14 On May 26, 1945, Gerstein was soon transferred to Constance, Germany and then to Paris, France in early June. In Paris, the French did not treat Gerstein differently than the other war prisoners. He was taken to the Cherche-Midi military prison on July 5, 1945. The conditions there were terrible. On the afternoon of July 25, 1945, Kurt Gerstein was found dead in his cell, hung with part of his blanket. Though it was apparently a suicide, there is still some question if it was perhaps murder, possibly committed by other German prisoners who did not want Gerstein to talk. Gerstein was buried in the Thiais cemetery under the name Gastein. But even that was temporary, for his grave was within a section of the cemetery that was razed in 1956. Tainted In 1950, a final blow was given to Gerstein - a denazification court posthumously condemned him. After his experiences in the Belzec camp, he might have been expected to resist, with all the strength at his command, being made the tool of an organized mass murder. The court is of the opinion that the accused did not exhaust all the possibilities open to him and that he could have found other ways and means of holding aloof from the operation. . . .Accordingly, taking into account the extenuating circumstances noted . . . the court has not included the accused among the main criminals but has placed him among the tainted.15 It was not until January 20, 1965, that Kurt Gerstein was cleared of all charges, by the Premier of Baden-Wà ¼rttemberg. End Notes Saul Friedlnder,  Kurt Gerstein: The Ambiguity of Good  (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1969) 37.Friedlnder,  Gerstein  37.Friedlnder,  Gerstein  43.Friedlnder,  Gerstein  44.Letter by Kurt Gerstein to relatives in the United States as quoted in Friedlnder,  Gerstein  61.Report by Kurt Gerstein as quoted in Yitzhak Arad,  Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: The Operation Reinhard Death Camps  (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1987)  102.Report by Kurt Gerstein as quoted in Arad,  Belzec  102.Friedlnder,  Gerstein  109.Friedlnder,  Gerstein  124.Report by Kurt Gerstein as quoted in Friedlnder,  Gerstein  128.Report by Kurt Gerstein as quoted in Friedlnder,  Gerstein  128-129.Martin Niemà ¶ller as quoted in Friedlnder,  Gerstein  179.Friedlnder,  Gerstein  211-212.Letter by Kurt Gerstein as quoted in Friedlnder,  Gerstein  215-216.Verdict of the Tà ¼bingen Denazification Court, August 17, 1950 as quoted in Friedlnder,  Gerstein  225-226. Bibliography Arad, Yitzhak.  Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: The Operation Reinhard Death Camps. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1987.Friedlnder, Saul.  Kurt Gerstein: The Ambiguity of Good. New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1969.Kochan, Lionel. Kurt Gerstein.  Encyclopedia of the Holocaust. Ed. Israel Gutman. New York: Macmillan Library Reference USA, 1990.