Friday, February 28, 2020

Book Review Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Book Review Assignment - Essay Example Moreover, the content of the book proves that it is specially written for architecture students. This small book is written as a selection of short comments in the field of design learning. It is specially created for those who are eager to become professional architects. It seems that the author wanted to help modern students by writing such a book as he is very sorry that he did not have this book on his table when he was a student. Actually, the book can be read by everyone who likes architecture and is interested in what architect student study and what they should know in order to become specialists. Every short explanations stands separately in order to make them more clear with drawing attached to each. Every comment observes separate subject with author’s opinion and comments provided. The book can be read differently: you can read the entire book at once or stop and analyze one separate aspect continuously. The original style of the author makes the book easy to read. Speaking about the content, I must say that the author chose and made observation on the topics, which are not dull and easy to remember. This is very important for students who are not familiar with all the labyrinths of architecture as the observations are expressed in a very easy way. Some readers say that if to evaluate the book in terms of the design and content, the design wins. I can’t agree as personally for me the book appeared to be very substantial. The author pays much attention to the explanation of what the architectural profession is. Many pages of the book are devoted to that. Some say that it was not needed as this material may be interesting only for the first-year students and for the people whose profession has nothing in common with architecture. They based such an opinion on the fact that professional architects as well as elder students have already learned what their profession is and there was no need to devote a half of the book to such explanation. However, I can state and prove that this information is very interesting and first of all helpful not only for the first year students and for the people of other professions, but also for some elder students and maybe even for them in particular. This conclusion may sound strange but I can explain my opinion. That fact is that the choice of profession is made always not by students themselves but by their parents or somebody else. A student may simply follow somebody’s advice or repeat his friend’s choice. The choice of profession in this case is unconscious. Thus I met some third-fourth year students who studied well but did not even imagine how they will work on their specialty and even did not completely understand what they studied. Thus, I am sure that after reading this book, they will realize the essence of the specialty they receive. Moreover such students will become more interested in their own specialty, thus will become better specialists. To conclude it is important to say that â€Å"101 things I learned in Architecture School† by Matthew Frederick contains a lot of practical information for those who study architecture. Students can study theoretical and practical material, learn or revise drawing and design techniques. I can’

Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Microfinance - how government regulations affect microfinance in Literature review

Microfinance - how government regulations affect microfinance in Brazil - Literature review Example The governments of the nations have a crucial role to play from the regulatory and financing points of view. A lot of measures are required to make this form of financing a sustainable one. This requires the scope of the microfinance schemes to be further widened. There are several challenges that the governments of the countries opting for these kinds of schemes face. There is lack of mobility in the credit and a lot of reliance on the government as the source of the funds. The competitive environment of the microfinance sector is a lot biased towards the public sector organisations. Therefore the government needs to ensure all forms of transparency in the way the markets and the competitive forces work. Several works have been conducted over the years on various aspects of microfinance. A review of the literature would provide an insight into the microfinance sector and the regulatory framework within which the Brazilian microfinance companies work. Microfinance companies are consi dered to be feasible alternatives for banks as well as informal sources of credit. Collaterals are used to ensure the timely repayment of the funds. The specific feature of microfinance is that instead of an individual liability toward the lending institution, there is a cooperative liability towards the lender. This method guarantees that the funds are repaid on time or the payments are paid at regular intervals. If the individuals repay the loans on time, they get incentive to get loans of higher amount the next time which makes the borrowers credit worthy. The individuals opting for these kinds of schemes are forced to save for themselves so that the there is enough collateral for the amount of loan that they have taken. Due to the joint liability feature of the microcredit the risk of default is less because the people of a particular locality know each other well and they can estimate the repayment capacity and the chances of default of their co-borrowers. Along with this each of the parties in the loan can monitor each other. Therefore the basic economic problems like moral hazard or adverse selection can be removed through this feature of microfinance institutions in Brazil (Morduch, 1999, p. 1569). Though chiefly deployed by the NGOs of Brazil, the government is equally active in the developing nations in the promotion of the microfinance institutions and setting up of a stringent regulatory framework for the proper functioning of the industry. The government also has a significant role in granting credit of lump-sum amounts to the microfinance institutions. The study of various situations where the system of microcredit has been implemented has been conducted by the researchers. The results have shown that the schemes have positively affected the economies in which they were being implemented. The repayment rates had been quite high in those countries. This has been possible because of the structure of the model which entails extreme scrutiny of the b orrowers of the funds. The capital that is provided as the loan is also used effectively which necessitated the repayment on time. About 15 million households represent the informal sector in the Brazilian Economy. However, the microfinance institutions have been able to bring less than three hundred thousand under its purview. This means that apart from 2.5% of the prospective market, the remaining has remained untapped. There have been several attempts on part of