Outline the objectives of economic management and analyse the role of fiscal policy Essay Example for Free

Outline the objectives of economic management and analyse the role of fiscal policy Essay The Australian Government targets economic objectives that may provide equality and higher living standards throughout the country. For these benefits to reach Australian households, the Australia government has to overcome objectives such as economic growth, distribution of income, and external stability. To do so, the government uses the fiscal policy in order to influence the amount of government expenditure and revenue which can alter economic activity. The government’s fiscal strategy aims to ensure fiscal sustainability over the medium term; therefore the government is responsible for meeting its current and future spending commitments with revenue raised. Australia has had a low historical use of fiscal policy during the 1990s, however since the Global Financial Crisis; fiscal policy has been a powerful tool in maintaining Australia’s economy. Fiscal policy has a large influence over economic activity, through using the expansionary fiscal stance which involves a net increase in government spending, or a fall in taxation revenue. However, this was not the case during the period 1996-2007 as fiscal policy had a smaller role to play in the economy. As the Howard Government came into office, the stance of fiscal policy was largely contractionary. A contractionary stance occurs when government spending is reduced. An example of this stance is when the Howard Government was committed to achieving a balanced budget over the course of the economic cycle, as fiscal policy was tightened in 1996-97, 1998-99, resulting in a surplus of $1171 million. This meant that fiscal policy was generally not a major role in influencing the business cycle, instead monetary policy had the central role in maintaining economic activity. Although fiscal policy was not greatly used from the mid-1990s to 2007, it has had a large impact on recessions. As the Global Financial Crisis hit Australia, the fiscal policy was introduced in order to increase the level of economic activity, instead of letting Australia plunge into a recession. The impact of the GFC dramatically changed the budget balance, through a decline in government taxation revenue and an increase in discretionary government spending. This led to the movement from a cash surplus of $19. 7 billion in 2007-08 to a cash deficit of -$27 billion in 2009-10. Economic growth decreased to 1. 4% of GDP, which gave the government the incentive to introduce the fiscal stimulus, while the Rudd Government used an expansionary fiscal stance to support aggregate demand. The stimulus package involved a $77 billion package, with a $42 billion Nation building plan and Jobs Plan in the 2009 budget to support infrastructure and investment and the Economic Security Strategy package of $10 billion in spending on cash transfers to low and middle income households. The result of expansionary fiscal policy helped Australia avoid a recession, as these stimulus measures were estimated to boost Australia’s economic growth by 2. 75% of GDP in 2009-10. In addition, fiscal policy can influence the objective of inequality in income distribution. The government is committed into try to use a progressive taxation system which will provide a fairer distribution of income. The progressive taxation system is when higher income earners pay a larger proportion of tax compared to low income earner, leading to a redistribution of income to low income earners. An example of the progressive tax system can be seen in the ‘personal income tax thresholds’, where the highest income bracket of $180,001 and over has an effective tax rate of 30. 3-44. 9%. However, the structure of the progressive system of personal income tax changed when the Gillard Government announced it would increase the tax-free threshold to $18,200 on 1st July 2012 as part of the Clean Energy Future Package from the carbon tax and will rise again to $19,400 the following year. This threshold bracket changed from the previous 2009 and 2010 Personal Income tax threshold as all taxpayers where given a tax free threshold of $6000. Between 1996 and 2008, the Federal Government used fiscal policy in order to maintain external stability. External stability is an aim of government policy that seeks to promote sustainability on external accounts so that Australia can service its foreign liabilities in the medium to long run. External stability can be managed by the government achieving fiscal consolidation, which is running a budget surplus over the course of the business cycle. One of the main ways to run a budget surplus is to eliminate public debt, which in turn can help reduce the part of net foreign debt owned by the Australian Government. For instance, when the Howard Government was in power, there was a series of consecutive surplus budgets to retire a significant amount of public debt. From 1996-2007 the stance of fiscal policy was largely contractionary, since the Howard Government was committed to achieving a balanced budget over the course of the business cycle. It was tightened throughout the years of 1996-1999, and thereby, eliminated Commonwealth general government debt from the peak of $96 million (17. 6% of GDP) in 1996-97 to -0. 5% of GDP by 2005-06. This in turn increased Australia’s national savings and resulted in low net foreign debts. Subsequently, the fiscal policy has an effective role in achieving the economic objectives of economic growth during downturn economic activity, equal distribution of income and maintaining external stability. Australia was successful in using fiscal policy to avoid recession in 2009, when it implemented one of the largest fiscal stimulus packages in its history, as well as changes to the personal income threshold that gave a more equal distribution of income to lower income earners. By aiming to achieve fiscal surplus the Australian economy can achieve its economy objectives rapidly.

Ethnic Mexicans in the 20th Century Essays -- Social Movements, United

Given the social struggle of ethnic Mexicans in the United States, the 20th century turned to be pivotal in the social movements that would not only create opportunities but mobilize the ethnic Mexicans to push forward and make sure their voices where heard all throughout the century. They have used these means to incorporate into everyday life in the United States. Despite this they have struggled to achieve what in politics of the United States considers to be a ‘full citizenship’. Even though the US has dehumanized, criminalized, and subjugated ethnic-Mexicans, Social and Cultural Citizenships have changed the way of understanding politics of ethnic-Mexicans social movements because ethnic-Mexicans have countered all levels of government to achieve a form of belonging in the United States and have heavily contributed to the United States despite being discriminated. Social Citizenship is defined by â€Å"T.H. Marshall conceptualized as evolving from a combination of civil, political, and social elements in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries† (Del Castillo, 95). The three keys to social citizen as defined above are civil, political and social. All these keys as fundamentals for immigrants to live in the United States while having freedoms such as, speech, religion and fundamental civil right liberties. The other two comprise of political and social, the political is the right the full right for immigrants to participate or exercise political power and finally the third is the social component that ensures that immigrants are given rights entitled to American citizens. Social citizenship is crucial in understanding because it gives the ethnic-migrants a sense of belonging in the community. These ethnic-Mexicans ar... ...becoming U.S. Citizens, something that they have been doing with other Works Cited Chavez, Alex â€Å"Labor Revolution and the Great Migration† Mexican-American History. University of Illinois at Chicago. 3. Oct. 2013. Lecture. Chavez, Alex â€Å"The Chicano/a Generation† Mexican-American History. University of Illinois at Chicago. 29. Oct. 2013. Lecture. Chavez, Alex â€Å"Constructing Illegality† Mexican-American History. University of Illinois at Chicago. 12. Nov. 2013. Lecture. Del Castillo, Adelaida R. 2007. â€Å"Illegal Status and Social Citizenship: Thoughts on Mexican Immigrants in a Postnational World† In Women and Migration in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands: A Reader. Garcà ­a, Igancio M. 1997. â€Å"Strategies for Aztlà ¡n: Creating a Cultural Polity.† Rosaldo, Renato. 1994. â€Å"Cultural Citizenship and Educational Democracy.† Cultural Anthropology 9(3):402-411.

Letters Home

Kristin Strickland History 370 Book Essay March 21, 2013 Letters from Vietnam I found that trying to find a book to read about the Vietnam War was rather difficult because there are so many of them out there. I chose Letters from Vietnam edited by Bill Adler because it was a point of view from many soldiers in the war and they were what they were truly feeling at the time. It is not one point of view when you read this many letters and a little background on each of the authors, but there are many points of views, feelings and emotions to help us better understand what they were going through emotionally and physically while overseas.When I first opened the book to the introduction section I was not sure what I was going to find because a lot of times they filter what is out there for us to read or stick to one scheme. This book has went any should us how many of the people felt and under different schemes. I know that Dr. Lofthus always says, â€Å"a picture is worth a thousand wor ds†, while in class but reading someone else’s words is worth much more and when done correctly you can feel what they were feeling when they wrote them.One of the first letters that I read that really stuck out and made me understand that they had to define things to their families and explain what some terms and other things were that maybe they were hearing from the news stations, was a letter written by First Lieutenant James Michener. He wrote the letter in the book while he was a helicopter pilot in Vietnam from 1966-1967. The letter was dated November 17, 1966 from Tuy Hoa, Vietnam and he starts by explaining the reason that he hasn’t written in a while is because he was away from his base for over a week.He goes on to say, â€Å"We were there to furnish air support to units of the IV (Fourth) Infantry Division (â€Å"Ivy Division†) and the 101st Airborne Division (â€Å"Screaming Eagles†). These units were making a general sweep of an area about one hundred miles square. They were looking for Victor Charlie (â€Å"VC†) – that’s what we call him. † While First Lieutenant Michener was writing letters to his family he explained many things about what he was seeing to having his helicopter hit with a bullet. You could tell from his letters that he was fighting for what he believes in. In the chapter titled â€Å"Reflection†, Sgt.David Glading writes a letter home to his girlfriend. He goes on to write, â€Å"It’s a beautiful night, moons out, stars, and no clouds, ya don’t even need a flashlight. I had just finished reading the paper and found a poem, so I’m sending it along. You know, you hear and read about all the things that go on over here, but don’t really understand or believe them until you see it. I’ve seen old men beat women, girls, little boy, and young men, I’ve seen the dead and wounded, and I’ve seen little children cry when their fathers are taken away. † I could not imagine writing a letter like that back home to a loved one.It would be hard to tell them the things that I have seen or how I was feeling. I would want to lie so that they thought I was ok and that everything was fine, but many of these letters if not all can be read and not give families the reassurance that they need. I want to end by saying that I received many letters and emails from my husband while he was in Iraq. He never once let on if anything was wrong. He always asked about our kids or how I was doing. He would tell me when he wanted a new picture or socks, but he never let on as to what he saw until after he was home.He would always reassure me that things were fine when the news would say something else, or when one of our aircraft from the base crashed he would call and tell me he was fine. I am not sure how I would handle a letter like these if they were sent to me. I did not live through that era, but I am sure that it helped them get the things off their chests and out of their minds so that they could continue what they were doing and not have all that accumulated inside. It is good to get it out and now we have all of these wonderful letters to give us an idea and understanding of what they all faced during the Vietnam Era.

Definition Essay - Genre - 1750 Words

Definition Essay – Genre Genre, in the most generic definition, takes the meaning kind; sort; style (OED). Prior to the terms inception, the notion of genre in the study of media emerged in The Poetics, with Aristotles discussion of the mode or manner of imitation in poetry. Of this Aristotle writes, the medium being the same, and the objects [of imitation] the same, the poet may imitate by narration - in which case he can either take another personality as Homer does, or speak in his own person, unchanged - or he may present all his characters as living and moving before us (Aristotle, 53). Here lies the distinction between epic, lyric, and drama, a distinction based solely in convention, the usage of the medium,†¦show more content†¦It is a French word imported directly into the English language, derived from the Latin genus (the stem is gener-), itself derived from the Greek genos (OED). Having evolved separately, the Greek word and the Greek idea converged. The Greek root-word, like its Latin relative, refers to a clan or race of people, or to offspring (Liddell Scott Lexicon). This sense of familial interconnectedness is essential to genre theory. Frye writes: It is clear that criticism cannot be a systematic study unless there is a quality in literature which enables it to be so. We have to adopt the hypothesis, then, that just as there is an order of nature behind the natural sciences, so literature is not a piled aggregate of works, but an order of words (Frye, 17). In conceiving of literature as a unified order of words, Frye requires a system of genres which will encompass the entire medium, expressing each the entire state of literature at a given moment, all its bloodlines. One might extend this idea of kinship to objects within any given medium, as in literature each novel bears a relation to other novels, or across several media, as a Western film may bear relation to a similar comic-book or radio drama. From this first approach, it makes more sense to think about genres in a medium or the genres of a medium, than to think of genre as a medium. Based on the questions raised in Aristotles discussion, one might assemble a definition of genre moreShow MoreRelatedResponse to Towards a Definition of Creative Nonfiction by Brett Lott761 Words   |  4 PagesIn his essay â€Å"Toward a Definition of Creative Nonfiction†, Brett Lott attempts to describe the genre of creative nonfiction by explaining that there is essentially no definitive model. He begins by presenting an abstract definition of the genre which he later molds and amends with additions to become a much more comprehensive working definition. 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Alexander Pope wrote poetry. His favorite topic was informative. In this poem the first fourteen lines are about pride, stanza two is about the lack of learning. He also talks about wit, judging a book by the cover, how hard it is to