The Process of Reconstructing The Economy

Last time I chose the article about the Greek economy from BBC News and this time I would like to introduce the same topic from a different source. I read this editorial on the Economist.

Short Summary

It can be said that the view of the Economist against the Greek economy is quite similar with that of BBC News. For example, both of them emphasized the fact that the process of reconstructing the economy will take more time than it used to be expected.  Then, both articles point out that this fact concerns other European countries and these countries request Greece to expedite economic reconstruction process. It is also same to consider privatisations as optimal solutions for expediting the process. This article introduces interesting ideas such as the “Vienna initiative” and “reprofiling,” it suggests that it is very difficult to improve the Greek economy with a sentence such as ” it would do nothing to reduce Greece’s debt burden and would hugely difficult to co-ordinate.”.

Opinion

The article from BBC News has various kinds of information such as the Prime Minister’s opinion and the voice from citizen, and these factors make the article interesting. However, I think that the article from the Economist is much easy to understand because of the examples such as a specific percentage of the Greek debt rating and the table of options. It also refers to the fact that the rating of the Greek debt was decreased by another three ranks and this will cause Greece to be unable to borrow another debt next year. That is a logical explanation why ranking down becomes a problem.

This time, I tried to use “refer” “process” “seem” in order to make sure that I actually have understood them or not. Although it seems a long way to understand how to make correct sentences, I would like to improve my English bit by bit.

The Reconstruction of Greek Economy

Today's CALL class

First, I have to apologize to all my tutors for my rudeness in email I sent before.

In today’s CALL class, we learned how to write email politely. Then I noticed how my mails were terrible. Sandra sent us a document which had 11 examples of email from student to Sandra. Some of them were enough polite and others were not acceptable. Then, I compared the emails I have sent to my tutors before with the examples labeled as non-acceptable. Unfortunately, they were quite similar. I decided to pay more attention when I send email to my tutors.

The Reconstruction of Greek Economy

Summary

According to the article written by Chris Morris from BBC News, European Union asked Greece to expedite its reconstructing process of economy the process of reconstructing the economy..

As a clue key to reconstructing the Greek economy, privatisation programmes are regarded as the most efficient solutions. It aims to raise 50 billion euros and it may also become a clue key to reduce its debt.  However, privatization programmes are also seemed to also seems to contain some problems. For example, although selling Greece’s land is regarded as one of the preferable privatization projects, it is expected to cause problems because of its land registry system.

Mr Morris suggests that not only an internal situation but also external factors. He refers to the opinion of Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou in order to show readers the external factors which preventing Greece from recovering its economy. Papandreou announced that Greece was still ranked in low credit in spite of its “remarkable reform.” He also pointed out that one of the reasons of it would be the global market’s cautiousness, mainly the market of U.S, China and Japan.

Mr Morris says that Greek government is supposed to deal with not only the pressure from the rest of Europe but also from Greece itself. This article also contains the voice of a Greek citizen who lost his job. At last, he mentioned the discussion about solidarity.

My Opinion 

In this article, I found a lot of new words such as ultimatum, unfold, rebel, expedite, cautious… and the most remarkable phrase was “the cream of Europe's financial elite.” First I totally could not imagine what the cream of Europe’s financial elite was. However, thanks to the Longman dictionary, I could understand what it meant finally.

The Fight against Inflation

Last week I mentioned the article about today’s inflation in East Asian countries and it seems to be consisted by a general view. So I would like to introduce a particular example which is facing the inflation in East Asia: Vietnam.

SUMMARY
Situation
Vietnam is being faced with extremely inflation. According to the editorial of The Economist, consumer price index of Vietnam grew up by 17.5% in the year to last April*. Continuing high inflation in Vietnam suggests the fact that the currency of Vietnam, the dong, continues devaluing especially against international key currencies, especially US dollar.

The Solution
Of course Vietnam’s government and the central bank are dealing with this situation. Especially, the government is carrying the package called “Resolution 11” in order to recover its public finance and make economy grow up more and more while dealing with inflation. Resolution 11 is a plan of public investment, which amounted to 17% of GDP in 2009.  Besides high inflation, however, there are other controversial problems to be grapple in Vietnamese economy such as a “dollarization” “goldisation” and huge debt. It also should be noticed that the central-bank governor is also the member of cabinet.

Conclusion
According to the editorial, it may take time for the governments or the central bank to know what the outcome of their plan will be. However, it should not be forgotten that not only them but also the Vietnam people such as farmers are being faced with the harmful effect of inflation.


My Opinion
This article is filled with useful phrases and accurate descriptions. As for vocabulary, my favourite sentence is that “Vietnam’s government seems newly determined to douse the inflationary fires.” Using the words “douse” and “fire” helps readers imagine the situation. “World record-holder for debt creation” which is mentioned by Jonathan Anderson of UBS shows readers how huge the debt of Vietnam is very clearly. I think that these expressions are very interesting and tell readers which information is important. Someday I would like to write essays with a variety of expressions.

*Suppose you went to TESCO and bought a basketful of things for £100 just a year ago. Then, if consumer price index in Colchester rose by 17.5% in the year, you have to pay £117.5 although you only try to buy just same things. (This is a very simple example and actually Consumer price index counts not only daily necessities but also facilities and so on!)

Myskills

I would like to introduce writing skills, especially “Introduction and conclusion writing.”

“Introduction and conclusion writing” contains 7 parts and it has 4 tasks.

Then, the most interesting task for me was Task3.

This task will help you when you want to link introductions to essay titles.

There are some examples of introductory paragraphs.

So all you have to do is read the example texts and guess what the title of the essay might be.

“Features of conclusion writing” shows the lists of what we have to remember when we write essay.

It will help me make conclusion clear and it will improve my essay.

“Features of conclusion writing” has Task4, so please try it although it might be a tough task.

Inflation in Asia-Pacific

I read this editorial on the BBC Website. Last time I wrote only the summary. So this time I try to write not only summary but also my opinion.

A Very Short Summary

According to the report from BBC, Asia-Pacific countries are facing the excessive inflation now.  The report also suggests that it is needed for governments and central banks in these countries to tighten their monetary policies in order to hedge the risk of inflation.  It strongly declares that the China actually has faced with overheating inflation.  Inflation is not the problem for only firms, monetarist or politicians.  It does attack affect our daily life.  The cost of foods and houses become higher and higher.  Then, strong currency is regarded as a solution against inflation. 

My Opinion

Of course, inflation has good aspects. It makes imports cheaper. I think that, however, we East Asian countries have to be sensitive against to inflation. We have to learn something from bitter experience.  Moreover, we should remind remember that the country which has a strong currency in East Asia is Japan and Japan will face with economic damage caused by after effects of earthquake and Tsunami.
We do not have regional monetary union and there is no criteria or rule, although our markets are deeply committed and depend on each other.  Therefore, it can be said that East Asian countries need to keep watchful eyes on inflation by their selves especially in this time.

The Albert Sloman Library

     The thing I have excited in University of Essex is the big library.

  When I was in Japan and go to Tsuda college, which is a small woman college in Tokyo, it was famous that the library of Tsuda college is one of the worst dreadful library in Japanese university and college. So I was very happy when I first visited the Albert Sloman Library and know that it opens 24 hours. However, there are too many people who use the library and it is crowded especially in the afternoon. Then, I decided to spend about an hour before my class starts and I do so almost every day.

Homework

1) Learning how to access the library’s online resources at CALL helped me so much. I could find the book easily because of checking classmark, title, and writer before. However, I didn’t borrow the book actually. It is because I already borrowed some books about East Asian economy from the library and I have to read and return them by this weekend! One of the books I am reading is “Asian States Beyond the developmental perspective” edited by Richard Boyd and Tak-Wing Ngo. Every time I read just a sentence, I have to look many words up in my dictionary.

2) As for searching an online article, I think it is very useful because if I have whole article in online such as a pdf file, I can read it anytime. In addition, it is possible to specify the time it was written, so I can read the latest academic journals.

To tell the truth, I prefer reading novels or books about world history to reading books about my subject, Economics. So I don’t want to use reading list and read books or academic journals about international economy as much as possible.

Blog Feedback Quiz

I tried Blog Feedback Quiz and last question advised me as below.
"If you think there is an alternative way to punctuate this sentence, you may be right. Write a blog post with your suggestions and Sandra or Mark will take a look for you."
So now I try to think of alternative ways.

First, I need to show what the last question. The last question is...
"How many sentences should this be divided into?
so i think i am good at grammar and vocabulary also my speaking is not very bad i will do my best"

And possible answers I expect are...
So I think I am good at grammer and vocabulary as well as speaking. I will do my best.
So I think I am good at grammer and vocabulary. Also my speaking is not very bad and I will do my best.

Someday I want to say that sentence!
Therefore, I have to do my best in GVD class and Speaking class.

G20 or G25?

I read the editorial "G20 + 5 reinforces the problem of arbitrary mechanisms"

on the FINANCIAL TIMES Website.

MY SUMMARY

There is a problem with G20. Today world economy is no more handled by a few countries with economic power.  Not only the voice of developed countries but also that of developing countries are needed in order to deal with crisis. Therefore, the scale of international economic conferences seems to enlarge more and more.  This means that G7 or G8 is not enough anymore, and it became indeed G20 or a “G20 plus 5.”

However, the system of G20 is not considered as perfect. It has a problem with equality. G20 is consisted of not only member countries but also regional organizations such as the African Union, the Association of South East Asian Nation(ASEAN), and the European Union as ad hoc invitations. So when we compare a member country which also haves membership in regional organization and one which does not belong to any regional union, the opportunity or participation is not fair.

How was my summary? 

Please compare with the editorial and tell me your opinion:) 

introduction of me

Speaking of my English, I like reading although it costs quite long time.
On the other hand, I'm very poor at speaking. It is the matter of life and death to me.
Not only I cannot make sentenses in my mind, but also I know that I have terrible accent.
So I want to improve speaking the most dring the presessional programme.

In order to practice my English, I try to read out the sentence, listen to bbc English learning programme, and write diary in English. I should speak in English more and more with teachers and my friend in the presessional programme course.
So please do not be hard on me even if I speak to you in terrible English.