A Catastrophe Housing Crisis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

A Catastrophe Housing Crisis - Essay Example The astonishing part about this is that amidst this crippling crisis, no one truly has an astute understanding of how a simple subprime mortgage flap has caused so much life-changing damage. This holds particularly true for the embattled homeowner, who was bombarded with highly technical instruments without being duly informed of its potentially damaging ramifications. My uncle was one of those gravely affected by the mortgage crisis. He was always an upstanding, responsible guy, and a few years ago he proudly announced that he had taken out a mortgage for a nice new property, the culmination of all his hard work and efforts. Some in our family were particularly wary as to how he got the home loan, as he gone through a rough financial patch some years back. He proudly stated that the bank was very "kind" to him, and had worked out a "special" deal for him so he could buy his house. I distinctly remember having a conversation with him where he was really hyped about this newfangled instrument called a subprime loan. He boasted about how the bank gave him a really low interest rate for the first year, and that succeeding years would depend on how the prime rate would hold up. I asked him how sure it would hold up, and that it wouldn't skyrocket. He said he was assured by the banker he was talking to that it was the perfect time to take out a loan be cause the market was very stable and wasn't going anywhere in the next couple of years.When the prime rate went through the roof, the increase in my uncle's monthly amortization became exponential. He simply could not keep up with the payments , he was only earning so much to support himself and my three cousins. As the bills piled up, he had no choice but to let go of his dream home. The bank is starting foreclosure proceedings on his home, and I often catch him staring blankly into space. When prodded with what went wrong, all he could tell me was "They never told me it would turn out this way".Quite frankly, they never expected that it would turn out this way either. An article in the New York Times (2008) argues that "your confusion is shared by many people who are right in the middle of the crisis. (p.14.) Even top analysts and brokers are lost amidst the extreme complexity of the instruments used. Now, if even the experts do not grasp the crisis fully, what more for the ordina ry homeownerWe have to understand that we are dealing with an issue that ran so deep that once the bubble burst, everyone from the bottom up was hit hard. Its ramifications were far-reaching, extending far beyond domestic shores. According to Dattels and Antonshin, (2008), "Over the next few years losses are expected to reach the $900 billion mark, and banks and financial institutions everywhere are scrambling just to keep their head above their water". (p.9)So who could blame my uncle for not knowing what hit him, when the experts themselves were completely lost as well. Could he be completely blamed for his seeming ignorance, when everyone else was in the same boat.

An action plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

An action plan - Essay Example The APRANET which started its journey in 1969 and facilitated email has travelled a long way through the world wide web (www), the internet, internet radio, wireless internet, e-commerce and presently opened the doors for the internet TV. E-commerce has revolutionized the business processes and business transactions and the internet TV is another form of e-commerce and has opened doors of tremendous opportunity for different TV channels. This paper analyses the scope of e-commerce and the internet TV and the recent changes in the TV industry. It also discusses the action plans of TV channels NBC, Rogers, Bell Canada and Sony in order to exploit the opportunity offered by the internet TV. E - Commerce and Internet TV The Internet and the Web have enabled online business transaction which is called e-commerce and formally, it is the digital commercial transactions which is also known as E-business. E-commerce has changed the traditional processes of transactions which was considering c onsumers as passive targets and was driven by sales force. E-commerce is becoming popular due to its unique features which include its ubiquity, universal standards, global reach, richness of information richness, information density, interactivity, social technology and personalization/customization. With the growth and popularity of the internet in the world and its wider reach the internet TV is becoming very popular. Recent Changes in the TV industry Recently, there have been many technological developments in the TV industry which has changed the complete scenario of the TV industry. The recent trends require the TV industry to deliver the current form ‘TV’ via the Internet. The industry needs to not only produce huge quantity of the internet enabled TV sets but also to meet the challenges of delivering the current form of TV through the internet. The development in science and technology has enabled fast internet services and the possibility of delivering TV progr ams through the internet which can reach in any corner of the world through wireless network. The present delivery system requires the services of a network provider and a set top box but the internet TV would require only a modem to provide the services. The picture quality of the internet TV is multiple times better than the existing quality and it can be demanded by many consumers provided the basic problems are solved. The basic problems include lack of appropriate business models for the internet TV, limited bandwidth affect the quality and speed, lack of internet connections to many TV sets. The major problem experienced by consumers is the availability of millions of video programs make it difficult for them to navigate through and search for the desired program through the internet TV (Meyer & Peng, 2005). Action Plans The action plans of major TV service providers of the world like NBC, Rogers, Bell Canada and Sony need to address to the major challenges of finding an appro priate business model for generating revenue, improve the limited bandwidth quality, ensure the availability of the internet connections to TV sets and to device an appropriate system to make navigation through millions of programs easy. Their action plan should focus on positioning themselves for the transition from traditional to Internet TV that is