THe Irish Famine Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

THe Irish Famine - Essay Example nineteenth century were severely underdeveloped† which â€Å"had crucial implications for the working of the economy.†1 However, it cannot be denied that the effects of the potato failure had long-reaching and detrimental effects upon the population at large. There were many reasons why potatoes emerged as the primary crop for Irish farmers to subsist upon. Potatoes are nutritious, easily grown and stored which made it the perfect food for the times and circumstances. The production of potatoes as a means of feeding the family, while all other crops and manufactured goods were used for outside trade or to further enrich the land for planting, enabled society to flourish in the first part of the century. However, when potatoes became suddenly unavailable, the hardships and deaths that followed were of catastrophic proportion. There have been a wide variety of theories as to why this happened, including the contention that the decline would have occurred regardless of what might have happened with the potato crops, but careful analysis has continued to demonstrate that the failure of the potatoes created a significant shift in the direction of Ireland that continues into the present day. This sad event in history has led people to question why it happened, the effectiveness of governmental remedies and how a similar event can be prevented in the future. The human suffering that resulted from the ‘Irish Potato Famine’ of 1846 to 1850 occurred predominantly due to the peasant class of Irish being reliant solely on one crop, the potato, for sustenance. Prior to the 1800’s, the Irish grew several different types of crops, many of which would have been able to meet the humanitarian need that would arise in the failure of potatoes. These included barley, rye, oats and vegetables.2 However, British law, concerned with protecting British interests, introduced the protectionist legislation referred to as the Corn Law. This law, and subsequent laws

Appraise the proposition that the bank failures and crisis of 2007-8 Essay

Appraise the proposition that the bank failures and crisis of 2007-8 could have been foreseen from academic work published prior to 2004 - Essay Example In the United States, the Federal Government was left with no option but to initiate a bailout program to secure the financial markets and control the crisis before it spread to other parts of the world. Over a period of time the crisis became a global financial crisis and many banking institutions around the world felt the shock. As the financial system faced rapid deterioration, many causing factors came to surface. There are many factors which have been pointed out as those which contributed to the banking crisis. This paper aims to analyze the literature which was developed prior to 2004 which contained information which could have been used to avoid the current bank failures and crisis which have reshaped the economy of the world. This paper will look at some of the root causes of the banking crisis and the ways in which it could have been avoided, while looking at the literature which was available prior to 2004 which could have been used to predict the crisis. A report by the Inter American Development Bank (2004) states that in order to avoid costly banking crisis it is essential to understand what causes them in the first place. One of the prime reasons for the banking crisis was the deregulation. In the past there have been incidents where deregulation of a particular industry showed similar trends. One such example is the airline industry which did well initially following the deregulation but eventually some of the airline service providers were forced to face bankruptcy. This is one example which could have been used to determine what the outcome of unmonitored banking and mortgage lending practices could have resulted in. Secondly banks did not consider the integrity of the borrowers when lending them huge amounts of money. Even individuals who were not fit to obtain loans were approved large sums of money. A) The US boom