Research paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Research paper - Essay Example Earthquakes are believed to be caused by different occurrences that include glacial rebounding, sliding of tectonic plates that lie over each other, and by sudden discharge of stored strain that is accumulated along a fault line. The severity of a shake from an earthquake is usually as a result of three factors i.e. its magnitude attenuation of a wave that causes the earth quake as it moves through the earth’s surface and the possible disruption caused by different rock structure (Hough par 9-12). These vibrations can be predicted before they happen in a place. When these vibrations happen also, they result in major disruptions to physical features. However, the major cause of investigation has resulted from the threat these vibrations cause to people. The ability to predict great causes of damaging events that are likely to face an area in future time is a basic element of risk reduction development practices. It becomes an important element when it is facing emergency and le ad to development of a good planning for such emergency (Albarello and Meletti 1-2). Earthquakes are caused by seismic waves. The intensity of these waves is measured with a machine known as a seismometer. The depth of the earthquake is another determiner of its intensity. Earthquakes are a major threat to life because if they happen with great magnitude, they lead to destruction of properties in which people live. When they happen on the water, they result to tsunamis that are likely to result in disruption of waters and seizing of ships. The commotion caused on the water also is extended to the coast, which causes major deaths of people at such coastal lands and destruction of property. Before the 1970s and 1980s, prominent scientists were optimistic that reliable prediction of earthquakes was possibly going to come. This was facilitated and motivated by the ground breaking prediction event of Soviet Union prediction of an earthquake and the successfully accomplished prediction of Chinese earthquake that happened in Haicheng. However, even with those optimistic achievements, there was a lot of pessimism because still many predictions were not reliable by then (Hough 34). Today, prediction of earthquakes is possible by scientists who agree that the understanding of ground motion attenuation relationships is an important aspect of predicting possibility of there being an earthquake. In March 2009, an Italian technician observed the radon and noticed some abnormalities and predicted that a great magnitude earthquake would be experienced. Although seismologists did not concur with that laboratory scientist, a fatal earthquake was experienced in L’Aquila barely a month after the prediction. The earthquake claimed many lives and were injured while a lot of property was destroyed and many were displaced from their places. Forecasting of earthquakes is faced with many debates about their occurrence once they have happened. For example, when it happened in cit y of L’Aquila a lot of questions and debates followed; scientists were fiercely faced by contradiction basing on their ability to forecast such dangers. This earthquake was so destructive such that everyone affected by it rose against the people who are responsible for predicting (Albarello and Meletti 3). Currently, there are many prediction methods for earthquakes developed such that one does not have to ask whether it is possible to

Macroeconomic Environment of Business - Limitations of the Use of Fisc Case Study - 1

Macroeconomic Environment of Business - Limitations of the Use of Fiscal Policies - Case Study Example There was a continuous rise in the staple food prices resulting in runaway inflation close to 6%. The European central bank raised the interest rates and increase in the unemployment rate at the end of 2008 due to the outbreak of the housing bubble all contributed in resulting the recession. The US GDP showed its slowdown in 2008 (Suffolk County Council, 2008, pp.3-4) and fell further in 2009, the first time since the 1950s. There was a decline in capital investment since the last quarter of 2006 and the pace of residential investment dropped down in the first part of 2009. The US domestic demand is a record breaker dropping down to 2.6% per quarter. Unemployment also started to rise and matched with that of the early 1980s. Fiscal stimulus played an important role in nullifying recessionary spiral. However, the impact seems to be much less for economies with higher amounts of public debt. In order to support the aggregate demand, the need of the time is aggressive monetary policies. Economists who follow Keynes argues that an expansionary fiscal policy act as an incentive to increase aggregate demand. Even such a step may not be fruitful because steady economic growth depends on the health of the economy. Restoring the confidence of the financial sector is the key to move out from such a situation (International Monetary Fund, 2009, pp. 111-112). The need is to analyse the effects of discretionary policies on the severity of recessions. Expansionary fiscal policy acts to increase demand either directly through an increase in government expenditure or indirectly through a reduction in tax which will stimulate the private consumption to take effect. There may be a few limitations of using fiscal policy in order to increase aggregate demand. The time factor is to be taken into account. The government needs time to change its fiscal plans and once implemented the new plan will take time to increase the aggregate demand. Again increasing aggregate demand may be the factor in causing crowding out which means that if the government tries to increase its expenditure then it may lead to falling in private sector spending.  Ã‚