Football Essays (1142 words) - Pittsburgh Steelers, Steagles

Football This is a crwative essay only A Steeler Game I harbor a lot of passion for the game of football. It's more than just a game to me. Some people fish or do crosswords. What I do to relax and have fun in my spare time is watch or read about football. While engaged in watching or reading about this particular sport, I escape from the everyday grind of life. Going to a sporting event like a football game is outrageous. The building anxiety weeks before I attend a Steeler game can drive any normal fan to insanity. It's 6:00 AM Sunday morning. There was no need for an alarm to wake me up on this fine morning. I am about to pack my portable grill and a few cases of beer into my car to go on a two-hour road trip to Three Rivers Stadium. I am going to attend a Steeler game. On the road it's WDVE on the radio all the way to Pittsburgh. Myron Cope, WDVE's celebrated play by play analyst, sounds off. As usual he is as exited about toady as I am. Myron Cope is talking about players, injuries and coaches. There are a lot of things he'll talk about with Tunch Ilkin, his sidekick and former Steeler player. As they make their predictions, as to how the day will go for the Steelers, and other teams in the Steelers division. After two hours of listening to the analysts, its time to pay the ten dollars to park my car. I open my car door and its pandemonium. Organized chaos! Thousands of people (fans) parking their cars, setting up their grills and cracking their first beer of the morning. All of this is happening at 8:00 AM. The day has just started, and it gets better. My breakfast on a day like today would consist of two hamburgers over easy and sixteen ounces of beer. In this kind of environment, Fruit Loops and O.J. just won't do. It seems as though a lot of fans feel the same way I do. I smell nothing but grilled food and stale beer. For those of you who come from other planets, and with me being a responsible citizen of earth, I must tell you this. Sitting in a parking lot or open field, drinking alcohol, eating large quantities of food, and socializing before or after any football game is called tailgating. There are other things to view before the game even starts. Low flying aircraft with advertisement banners in tow. You know the kind, the same ones that interrupt your quiet time at the beach every ten minutes. Sometimes one of those huge blimps will be flying over Three Rivers Stadium too. I really like those blimps, and the blimps fly really low to the ground in the parking lot too. But I did not pay to see an air show. I came to watch a football game, and the only thing that I want to see in the air is a football. And looking at Three Rivers Stadium is quit a site, in itself. It's not just its size, but its history that impress me. Well its time to get inside the stadium to watch the game. I'll pass many scalpers in the parking lot on my way to the stadium. At this time I'd like to address the visitors from other planets again. Scalpers are not Indians trying to cut your forehead off. No sir, they are humans selling tickets to the game for three times their original value. I then get my game day program. I always buy this program. It makes a great souvenir. Once inside the stadium, it's a new world. It's nothing like watching the game from home. Everything looks different; the field is ten times more colorful than on television. The fans cheering are ten times louder, and more exciting. It feels like you're apart of something really big. Once I sit down in my seat, like most fans I stay there until halftime. And at that point in time I wonder why I waited, because now I have to fight my way in and out of the restroom. That my friends, is the only bad thing

khdsaf essays

khdsaf essays Universal Essay: Slaughterhouse Five Throughout history, society, in general, has been molded by the ravages of war. From King Henry VII's invasion of Brittany, to the bloodshed on the shores of Iwo Jima, all the way to the present-day territory dispute in Bosnia and Herzegovina, war abounds mankind and its short history. As nations, ethnicities, ect. constantly attempt to outdo one another war will continue to arise. In recent years much has been said about the poor effects war has on society in a general sense; but what does war do to an individual? This is a question often avoided as a result of the bitter truth: War can all but destroy the sane mind of the common man. This is a fact that was abundantly presented in Kurt Vonnegut's "absurdist classic" Slaughterhouse Five. The story is initially set during World War II, but moves from place to place, and from time period to time period throughout the novel. The story centers around the infamous fire-bombing of Dresden and the mythic journey of an American soldier/ prisoner-of-war named Billy Pilgrim. Pilgrim suffers from post traumatic stress syndrome and imagines his abduction by aliens, and a great journey through space and time, to a fictional planet named Tralfamadore. A great deal of strange thoughts occurred inside Bill Pilgrim's mind, but Billy had no control over these thoughts. War has an uncanny ability to inflict mental stress on man. The story of Billy Pilgrim is a near-perfect example of the horrendous way in which war can affect the mind of the common man. As a prisoner of war, Billy Pilgrim is subjected to daily torture ranging from beatings and malnourishment. Pilgrim also witnessed the beatings of many other soldiers, some of whom he was familiar with. Billy Pilgrim's mind was not only a victim of torture, but also the Dresden fire-bombings one of the most deadly acts of war ever. Despite the fact that Billy was confined to a subterranean prisoner-of-w ...

Recruitment and Selection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Recruitment and Selection - Essay Example Heavy reliance on internal sources is thought to perpetuate the racial, gender, and age composition of the workforce. Thus, a balance between promoting current employees and hiring outside applicants is needed. Newspaper ads. Running ads in periodicals such as local newspapers or professional journals is a common method of recruiting employees. In fact, in a survey of 188 organisations, personnel executives claimed newspaper advertising to be one of the most effective avenues of applicant recruitment (N.A. Mason & Belt, 1986). Although little research is available, there is plenty of expert advice on the best way for an employer to write recruitment advertisements. Kaplan, Aamodt, and Wilk (1991) tested some of this expert advice by first determining the characteristics of help-wanted ads and then comparing the design of actual help-wanted ads in 10 newspapers with the quantity and quality of applicants who responded After examining thousands of ads, Kaplan et al (1991) found 23 advertising characteristics, as follows: Ad Design: company emblem included, creative illustrations used, creative wording, white space around ad, job title enlarged or in bold face. Legal Information: affirmative action statement, EEO statement. Information about the Job: Benefit package listed, job title mentioned, salary description, multiple jobs listed in the same ad. Information about the Company: company address listed, company description included, company name mentioned, phone number listed. Applicant qualifications: educ ation requirements, personality traits desired, pervious experience requirements, skills needed by applicants, salary history requested. After comparing the presence or absence of the 23 characteristics with the presence or absence who responded to the ad, the researchers found that ads displaying the company

Pedestrian and bicycle facilities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Pedestrian and bicycle facilities - Essay Example Both regional and local authorities have the responsibility of planning, and implementi8ng cycling policies. National level commitment is essential for putting right the legal, regulatory, and financial framework that lead to successful implementation of cycling initiatives. This is the city in the region with a well advanced form of League of American Bicyclists Bicycle Friendly Community where bicycling is an important means of transport and recreational activity. According to the 2007-2011 American Community Survey, 4% of Newark households engage in bicycling for recreation (Delaware Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan Survey). It is a normal phenomenon that all cyclists at one time have felt to be invisible to motorists. Bike Delaware has provided the â€Å"intentional blindness† that addresses this phenomenon. Another issue of safety is the question as to why cyclists’ and pedestrians’ safety is termed as invisible to traffic engineers. Most traffic engineers pay close attention to road safety and traffic congestion. Despite this safety, little is realized on the ped/bike safety projects. The federal program called the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) is responsible for funding Road Safety in Delaware. According to the data collected from the research, Delaware has spent more than $8 million HSIP dollars every year on road safety improvement projects but none focused on reducing pedestrian or cyclist fatalities. As a result, motor vehicle occupant fatalities have reduced while pedestrians’ fatalities have not. Cycling around Delaware University and Newark area is a favored means of transport to students, staff, faculty, and locals living in the area. Cyclists are assisted by the Newark Traffic Relief Committee (NTRC) that has prepared a Newark City Bicycle Map. The map shows cycling and pedestrian routes in the city and provides

Sports Sponsorship Paper Term Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Sports Sponsorship - Term Paper Example This paper is aimed at analyzing the extent of sponsorship by indicating what has been spent and by whom with the aim of arming the readers with the relevant information in planning for sponsorship. Sports sponsorship is a golden opportunity for companies to market their products on a large scale. Whenever companies align their products with the value of the sport, the result is that the customers associate the success of the brand with that of the sports team that they sponsor. The linkage of brands and the emotional connection that the target consumers have for particular sports in one of the largest market places in the world can have a profound impact on the market share of those brands. Brands and corporations can have the power to leverage upon the sponsorship of certain sports with the goal of building a long lasting relationship with the customers. The emotional bond that sports enthusiasts attach to the sports can be transferred to a brand if the sponsorship is right. Such b onds are not usually temporary and in most cases last for a lifetime (Dobson & Goddard, 2001). This presents the corporations with the perfect opportunity to capitalize on those opportunities by building customer loyalty which may be the cure for surviving economic uncertainty in the long term. Discussion TV programming now encompasses a vast diversity in terms of coverage of sports events. There are many channels that are now dedicated entirely on sports. Studies that have been done on the Spanish population reveal that 70% of them watch news where about 20% is dedicated to sport which is the same amount of time dedicated to politics (Garcia & Rodriguez, 2002). It is no wonder that sports stars now enjoy the same level, if not more, of prestige as do the politicians. Olympic Games and world football are the two major events in the world that drive people in a frenzy. These events easily bring countries where they are being held to a standstill. The previous events and most recently the Olympics in Beijing, previous world football events like the recent world cup in South Africa are some of the examples of the enthusiasm that is attached to sports. The physiognomy of a country changes rapidly due to hosting an international event. The Olympics for example changes both the physical as well as the economic standing of the country it is held in. PricewaterhouseCoopers, an audit firm conducted a study in 2004 which placed the impact of the Sydney Olympics as having been 2.78% of Australia’s GDP in that year. The 1996 Atlanta Games also accounted for 2.41% of the American GDP. Professional football also has a profound impact on the GDP of a country. In Spain, for example, the industry accounts for 1.7% of the GDP and rises to 2.5% when in relation to the service sector. With such immense numbers both in terms of revenue and the attendance by the people, corporations see it as a perfect opportunity to market their products. Real Madrid, a football club in Spa in, is one of the most reputable worldwide. The election of Florentino Perez as its president had a profound effect on the club. He is responsible for the success of what was referred to as the Galacticos era or the Galaxy players. These players were world class and they were brought in order to improve the image of the club. Perez referred to the club as being both a brand and content. The brand was built on the human resources who included the players, coaches and the management

Inclusive School And Inclusive Teacher

Inclusive School And Inclusive Teacher Providing a quality education for all students in inclusive settings has been acknowledged as perhaps the most challenging, yet most important issue in education. The concept of inclusion places the stress on altering the system rather than the child. The inclusive school system is often thought of as the inclusion of all students, regardless of ability into the same schools and classrooms with peers who are not considered to have disabilities. Inclusive school is a school where all children are taught to understand and appreciate human differences. Teachers and administrators receive the support necessary to include all students in regular education classrooms. Parents concerns for their children are taken acutely. In inclusive school special education is a service not a place. Inclusive teacher is a teacher who is equipped with general as well as special techniques of teaching and who can ensure quality education for all students. Introduction Inclusive school is a school where all children are taught to understand and appreciate human differences. Teachers and administrators receive the support necessary to include all students in regular education classrooms. Parents concerns for their children are taken gravely. Supportive learning and peer instruction are strategies used throughout the school. Where all kids are given the opportunity to develop real friends, not just peers buddies or helpers. In inclusive school the entire community honors diversity and supports quality education for all students. Philosophy of teachers about inclusion Heres what some teachers say about the philosophy of inclusion: Kliewer (2001) Inclusion involves all kinds of practices that are ultimately practices of good teaching. What good teachers do is to think considerately about children and extend ways to reach all children. Eventually good teaching is a relationship between two people. Good results acquire to the teachers because they enter into that relationship. Inclusion is very important and providing more options for children as ways to learn. Its structuring schools as society where all children can learn. But theres no formula for becoming an inclusive teacher or an inclusive school. Its not a preset system. Etscheidt (1999) Inclusion is based on the belief that people/adults work in inclusive communities; work with people of different races, religions, aspirations, disabilities. In the same stratum, children of all ages should learn and grow in environments that look like the environments that they will ultimately work in. Heston (2000) When good inclusion is in place the child who needs the inclusion does not stand out. Strong parental participation includes in the inclusive curriculum, students making choices, and a lot of hands-on and heads-on involvement. East (1995) Inclusive education means working of teachers with the students in that situation which is suitable to a miscellaneous population of students. It also means the teacher may need another prospect and goals for students, and its complex to get teachers to do this. Inclusive education Inclusive education means that achievement of education is the right of all the children in their own community schools. Inclusive education means that classroom teachers have the final authority and responsibility for educating them. This does not mean that all children will necessarily receive all instructional services in the regular classroom. Kronberg (1992) Inclusive education does not mean that students must waste every minute of the school day in general education classes, that students never receive small-group or individualized instruction, or that students are in general education classes to learn the core curriculum only. It means, rather, that if a trained disciplinary team decides that students require instruction beyond the normal developmental curriculum, need services beyond the ability of the classroom teachers (e.g. mobility training or speech reading) or specialized services, then them (which includes the classroom teacher) ensures that students receive this help in their community school. Moreover the classroom teachers are in charge of orchestrating all the required elements of his or her program plan. Stainback (1992) Some educators have suggested that inclusion means getting rid of special education special educators, and a continuum of services (e.g. individualized instruction and tutoring). We believe that inclusion means that those elements are brought into regular classroom. Inclusion embraces the concepts of integration and mainstreaming and promotes the idea that very one has a contribution to make, that a childs school experience should be one that is maximized, not restricted. We agree with Rogers, J. (1992) they note that inclusion means that the childs educational program is adapted to meet his or her academic or social needs and the child and teacher receive the support they need to succeed. Full inclusion never means simply placing a child with challenging needs in an ordinary classroom without adaptations or supports. Collier (1987) Inclusive education can function on many levels. In inclusive education the disabled student joins the general education classroom for part of the day, depending on the type and strictness of the disability. In inclusive education all students are in the general education classroom instead of the special education classroom. Theoretically this would eliminate the need of a special education classroom. Full inclusive education should allow disabled students to be part of the various setting, teach social skills, foster independence and provide opportunities to build friendships with non-disabled peers. Factors to be considered in the development of a full inclusion classroom should include age appropriate placement in local public schools, integrated delivery of services in the general education classroom, social integration, curricular expectations adapted to the level that best challenges the handicapped student, home-school partnership, staff development, team collab oration, and systematic evaluation and related services. Implementing inclusive classroom in schools Salisbury (1994) It is actually useful that the process of inclusion needs to occur within the larger context of a school where there is a clear philosophical foundation teaming practices and a commitment to shared decision making. Unfortunately not all schools and communities value the inclusion and or teaming model of intervention. Even though national mandates and policies call for the provision of intervention services in mainstream schools laws alone are insufficient for changing attitudes. Stainback, (1993) Opponents of inclusive classrooms often refer to barriers that inhibit effectiveness of this approach. Such barriers include lack of adequate training in general and special early education philosophical difference between the two disciplines lack of related services in many programs (e.g. speech language therapy physical therapy etc and lack of monitoring systems and negative staff attitudes. Additional barriers that have been identified by other researchers include the emphasis on academic achievement in the educational reform movement competition for shrinking fiscal resources lack of flexibility in teachers contracts and lack of clear policy directives. All of these identified barriers are indeed real issues and need to be addressed in planning and implementing inclusive programs for he/ she children with special education needs. Unless these barriers to inclusion are adequately addresses it will be difficult to convince reluctant schools and communities to move toward or adopt the inclusive approach. School-based learning All parents want their children to feel comfortable and competent when they enter school yet there is no way to build in assurance that this will be the case. While this is true whether or not a child has a disability the concerns are certainly magnified for children with special educational needs. Common concerns expressed by parents of children with disabilities relate to medical fragility and or special health condition (e.g. seizures asthma immune deficiency etc). Peer acceptance and making friends participation in group activities (e.g. listening to stories playing group games etc) and fear and distress in separating from parents. The transition from home-to school-based learning places new expectations and demands on the child and family. Bout child and family must become acquainted with new people in their lives and adjust to new schedules. Parents know there will be certain school-related behaviors that their child will be expected to adopt. Inclusive Teacher To be effective an inclusive teacher education program must instill in the pre-service teacher an understanding and appreciation of diversity. It means they must be equipped with both general as well as special education techniques through pre service, and in-service. Pre-service teachers must also become comfortable with change and they must learn early in their preparation to be flexible and creative. Our classrooms have undergone tremendous changes and those changes will continue in the future. It is one of the biggest roadblocks to inclusion has been the inability of many educators to shift from one operational standard to another. This can be proficient by providing experiences that require forthcoming teachers to develop creative problem-solving skills and to view situations from different perspectives. Some of the main essentials of inclusive teacher are as under: Teachers Beliefs, Values, and Attitudes inclusive education Many teacher characteristics affect the process of inclusive education, for example, the type and level of educational training and the number of years of teaching experience. Ostensibly, the more training and experience teachers have in special-needs education and programming, the greater their chances for successfully implementing educational programs and practices based on inclusive education. And if classroom teacher are willing to teach children with diverse learning and behavioral needs, the chances for effective inclusive education are greatly increased. Inclusive education also depends on certain necessary values. Teachers need to value learning as a lifelong process in which they share responsibility with parents for maximizing the quality of childrens loves; the need to enrich childrens academic and social competencies; their colleagues and the benefits of collaboration; and, perhaps most importantly, the goals of inclusive education. It has been suggested that the most critical element of inclusive education is the attitude of classroom teachers toward children with special needs. Teachers attitudes affect not only what happens in classroom settings but also the instructional option that is chosen for students. Unfortunately, many teachers are opposed to having children with diverse needs in their classrooms. This finding suggests that teachers must be given opportunities to confront their biases so that constructive and workable solutions can be developed. Attitudes vary according to types of disabilities, the types of perceptions people have about disabilities and the labels assigned to children with disabilities. Teachers attitudes influence the nature of the interaction between students and teachers, as well as the students achievement. Schrag (1994) point out those teachers constantly communicates important messages to students about individual differences. It becomes obvious to all students whether teachers favor high achieving students, feel respect, pity, or disgust for students who have special problems, believe that every person has inherent value, or are prejudiced against those who are different. Enabling Conditions for Incisive Education The merger of regular and special education will not happen quickly or easily. The process requires regular and special educations to consult and collaborate with one another and to plan provide adaptive instruction for all children. It also depends on teachers positive attitudes and the resources available. From our perspective the most important enabling conditions are professional training and development, pooling of resources and administrative leadership and support. Adaptive Instruction Inclusive education requires regular and special education teachers to respond and adapt innovatively and collaboratively to the unique learning needs of all students. Adaptive instruction assumes that each teacher will identify and provide a wide range of instructional supports that are needed by individual students to effectively master the learning and behavioral objectives. Wang (1984) Adaptive instruction requires teachers to, Assess the characteristics and capabilities of each student, collaborate and consult with others to plan developmentally appropriate instruction. Than make environmental and individual accommodations to facilitate student learning. Than manage and instruct students in ways that permit those to master content at a pace suited to their abilities, needs, and interests. This will result in promoting all students social ability and social integration. One of the basic premises of effective adaptive instruction programs is that a variety of educational objectives, instructional materials, and learning tasks is needed; furthermore, success in achieving instructional objectives requires a wide selection of teaching and learning strategies. Successfully implementing and practicing adaptive instruction procedures depends on teachers beliefs about student diversity, and on the enabling conditions of the educational environment. Professional Training and Development Teachers federations agree that present in-service training methods fail to provide successful integrated learning experiences. Teachers need information that will broaden their understanding and appreciation of children with special needs-for example, information on how to identify learning problems, and on how to adapt the environment and their instruction to accommodate those problems. Their courses should include such things as dynamic assessment, individual educational planning, adaptive instruction differentiated learning, multicultural education, and holistic curriculum development. Pooling of Resources Inclusive education will need a high quality of service, requiring well-trained teachers, support personnel (e.g. teachers aides), transpiration services, school building modifications, and material resources (e.g. assessment instruments program materials and instructional aides). Inclusive education will impose additional financial demands on school board. Therefore teachers must be trained to pull recourses for inclusion. Collaborative Teaming Smith (1993) The ultimate goal of collaborative teaming is the creations of a collaborative school. At its core are the professional relationships, particularly between teachers and administrators, and the unified goal of school-wide, continuous improvement, and shared responsibility for the continuous progress of all students within the learning community. Salisbury (1994) Collaborative problem solving to promote inclusive education is typically carried out between teachers and other support professionals who get together to solve specific problems, usually concerning a student or group of students, focusing on classrooms- based interventions increase the students chances for success. Assistance might involve interactions between classroom teachers and speech and language specialists, counselors, school psychologists, specialists in visual and auditory impairment, special-education specialists, or other specialists bilingual education, reading and mathematics. The relationship in collaborative problem solving is based on mutually defined goals and a common framework, and involves shared authority for idea generation, mutual accountability for success, and the sharing of recourse and rewards. Co-teaching Reynolds (1991) Co-teaching may refer to cooperative teaching or collaborative teaching, and is sometimes referred to as team teaching. Cooperative teaching requires a group structure and clearly defined roles for the participants. Collaborative learning requites only a collaborative goal. Team teaching is seen to be either the equivalent or a subset of co-teaching. Co-teaching as an activity in which special educators and general educators work together in one physical space in a variety if instructional activates in order to provide optimal instruction to the greatest number of students. Achieving social integration Research findings indicate that children with and without disabilities generally do not engage in high levels of social interaction with one another unless they are encouraged and supported in doing so. Factors frequently associated with this lack of interaction include language and cognitive delays poorly developed play skills and behavior disorders on the part of the children with special education needs. It takes a great deal of energy and creativity on the part of early childhood educators to achieve social integration between children with special education needs and their typically developing peers as the levels of social interaction skills of these two groups generally differ to a significant extent. Individualized curricular accommodations Salisbury (1994) Curricular adaptations are usually designed to serve two main goals to promote positive child outcomes and to optimize the physical social and instructional inclusion of the child in ongoing classroom actives. Do adaptations in an inclusive program actually achieve these goals? Results of studies relating to each of these outcomes lend support to the effectiveness of the inclusion-with-modifications model. Further studies however are certainly warranted. Such studies would do well to focus on the effects and perceived value of the process by stakeholder groups including school administrators teachers and parents.

The House Of The Seven Gables Essays -- essays research papers

Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables The mood of Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables is dark, and painstakingly creepy and slow. The story centers around the murders of two men, centuries ago, the curse that was placed upon the house as a result of that conflict, and the repercussions to the current generation. The overall story is like that of a nightmare of total and complete oppressive darkness. Not so much the fright that results from images of goblins and monsters, but that feeling of being scared of the dark; not because of what is there, but because of what you don’t know is there. Hawthorne sets this mood by describing the events that triggered the curse placed upon the Pyncheon mansion in the very first chapter, but never reveals more than a piece of the motivations and consequences at a time, throughout the remainder of the story. The descriptions of the house deteriorating throughout the years covered in the book establishes the sensation of the endless nightmare – that despite mortal man, the house remains as it was from the day it was erected and only the outward appearance changes. . In fact, as the story centralizes around the curse placed upon the house, it is almost the main attraction of the story, the other characters only playing supporting roles to show the potency of the dark power that the house holds on members of the Pyncheon dynasty. Because Hawthorne gives the house human characteristics, â€Å"So much of mankind’s varied experien...

Multiple Regression Model

Project: Multiple Regression Model Introduction Today’s stock market offers as many opportunities for investors to raise money as jeopardies to lose it because market depends on different factors, such as overall observed country’s performance, foreign countries’ performance, and unexpected events. One of the most important stock market indexes is Standard & Poor's 500 (S 500) as it comprises the 500 largest American companies across various industries and sectors. Many people put their money into the market to get return on investment.Investors ask themselves questions like how to make money on the stock market and is there a way to predict in some degree how the stock market will behave? There are lots and lots of variables involved in how the stock market behaves at a specific time. The stock market is in a way an information agency. Based on new information, whether good or bad regarding almost everything from political issues to interest rates and inflation, the stock market can go up or down. The market is anticipating economic occurrences proactively, ignoring already occurred events that were predicted before.This way it is very hard to predict how it is going to move in the future. As S 500 is considered to be the most reliable benchmark  for the overall U. S. stock market, we decided to study what factor has the most impact on it. We created two regression models and included the economic indicators, such as Consumer Price Index, Producer Price Index, House Price index, Interest Rate, Unemployment Rate, and Gross Domestic Product of some countries. Model Specification and Data How accurately can we predict the stock market behavior?People working in the finance industry have been trying to estimate or predict the behavior of stock market for a long time, or maybe some of them already have a very long and complex model of predicting the behavior of a stock market based on many factors and variables. We decided to use the US econo mic indicators and the other countries’ GDP. With this research we are hoping to find a statistically significant model that would describe what affects the stock market. We used the average annual data from 1980 to 2011 to track the influence on the US market. Our data is a time-series data.It is very interesting since within these 31 years there were a lot of changes in the countries’ economies, financial regulations and policies. At the very beginning, we assumed that the following factors may have influence on stock market: S (Percentage Change) = ? 0 + ? 1*(Annual CPI) + ? 2*(Annual Average PPI) + ? 3*(Annual Average House Price Index) + ? 4*(Annual Average Interest Rate) + ? 5*(Percentage Change of Annual Average GDP of US) + ? 6*(Percentage Change of Annual Average GDP of Spain) + ? 7*(Percentage Change of Annual Average GDP of Germany) 1: Consumer Price Index reflects the state of inflation in the country’s economy. That indicator is very important in th e assessment of the stock market performance. If inflation grows, the interest rate rises and this prevents the companies to borrow money for further development of their businesses. This entire situation may hurt the stock prices of the companies and that’s why we wanted to see how big the impact is. We assume that this variable is going affect the dependent variable a lot. ?2: Producer Price Index indicates early state of inflation.Therefore, if investors know that the PPI heralds a strong economy with no increase in an interest rate, then they feel confident to invest in the businesses what means increased positive activity in the market. We assume that this variable is going to have some impact on the dependent variable however; it is not going to be crucial. ?3: House Price Index is an analytical tool for estimating changes in the rates of mortgages. If mortgage rates are high, then housing market is weak because demand for houses drops due to expensive loans, therefore HPI drops.In 2008 mortgage default affected stock market very severely because before that period house prices went down because people couldn’t pay their mortgage payments and banks collapsed. Decrease in house prices is one of the possible contributors to recession because the home owners lose their equity in their houses. Considering such recession scenario, the stock market always becomes bearish. Additionally, house market is considered more stable investment than stock market. When stock market drops, people are willing in the houses and HPI goes up.We assume that HPI and stock market shouldn’t move in the same direction thereby we don’t take into consideration the complex scenario of 2008. ?4: 10-Year Treasury Constant Maturity Rate impacts on the number of issued bond and is used as risk free rate to calculate the excess return on the investment. It also has an influence on the stock market. ?5: Gross Domestic Product of the US is important for business profit and this can drive the stock prices up. Investing in the stock market seems reasonable when the economy is doing well.If the economy is growing fast then the stock market should be affected positively, the investors are more optimistic about the future and they put more money into market more. This variable is crucial for the dependent one. ?6: Gross Domestic Product of Spain. Since Europe is currently in a recession, we wanted to include the GDP of Spain, as one of the weakest economies in Europe now, to check if there is any relationship between Spain’s economy and the US stock market performance. Very small percentage of US investments goes to Spain.Compared to Germany, which is the 5th country the USA invests into, Spain is the 31st country on the list. There should not be any correlation between these two variables, so we included Spain’s GDP into our regression to check our hypothesis. ?7: Gross Domestic Product of Germany is an indicator of Germany is the 5th largest economy in the world and is the largest European trade and investment partner of the US. Germany is the largest economy in Europe and almost 1/5 of GDP of the European Union is that of Germany alone. We assume that this variable has to have an impact on the US stock market.The second regression model is the following: S (Annual Average) = ? 0 + ? 1*(Annual CPI) + ? 2*(Annual Average House Price Index) + ? 3*(Annual Average Interest Rate) + ? 4*(Average Annual Unemployment Rate) + ? 5*(Annual Average GDP of US) + ? 6*(Annual Average GDP of Germany) + ? 7*(Annual Average GDP of China) After we run the regression of the second model, it resulted in improving of our model accuracy. We excluded PPI, GDP of Spain because it came out that these variables have no impact on the US stock market.Also, we added the unemployment rate and GDP of China because it is the largest US business partner. Here is the explanation of the new variables: Unemployment Rate is one of the most impo rtant factors of the economy’s performance. High unemployment rate decreases the buyer power of the consumers. 2/3 of the US economy is consumer based and it influences the stock market negatively. We assume that there is a relationship between these two variables. Gross Domestic Product of China affects the US economy because cheap export from China prevents inflation in the US.China is a huge buyer of the US Treasuries. It lowers the interest rate and companies borrow money to invest in development hence, it directly affects the stock market. We assume that GDP of China and US stock market move in the same direction, meaning if China does well, it has money to buy US Treasuries. Additionally, the US stock market increases because production of those US companies that is outsourced to China grows. Results The First Model [pic] Looking at this model, we see that only the interest rate and GDP of US are statistically significant because they have P-values lower than 0. 05.The rest variables do not correlate with S because their P-values are high. Our assumption about Spain’s economy affecting the US stock market was proved. The coefficient we got for GDP of Spain is statistically insignificant. Looking at the US and Spain investment relationships in the broad aspect we see that Spain’s performance has no significant impact on the US stock market even considering its economic situation. PPI is a fraction of inflation and CPI also reflects inflation, so we decided to exclude one variable because two variables together cancelled each other out and we got defected result.As P-value is smaller compared to P-value of PPI, we decided to keep it in the second model. Looking at the adjusted R square which is 26 %, we concluded that model is deficient and we have to change the variables. The Second Model [pic] Each estimated coefficients we can interpret as follows: -For every 1 unit increase in Annual CPI, the S will go down by -25. 68 S points. Whe n inflation goes up, it causes interest rate to go up, therefore companies are not willing to borrow money and invest. Hence the S index moves in the opposite direction to CPI.The P-value of 0. 000368 implies that the results are statistically significant and it coincides with our assumption. -For every 1 unit increase in House Price Index, the S goes down by -7. 97 units, which tell us that when the price of houses rises, the stock market moves in the opposite direction and it shrinks because people invest in the housing market. The P-value of 0. 000028 shows it is a statistically significant outcome. -For every 1 unit increase in Annual Average 10-Year Treasury Constant Maturity Rate, the S index goes up by 27. 4 units. It would imply that when interest rates go up then the stock market goes up as well, but the p-value of 0. 154 tells us the results are not statistically significant and we should not rely on this outcome. There is no correlation. -For every 1 unit increase in Annu al Average Unemployment Rate in US, the S goes down by 40. 44 units. The p-value of 0. 043 shows what we consider a statistically significant correlation. We can conclude that unemployment rate has a reverse impact on the stock market.When more people have jobs, more people have money to spend and to invest, hence the economy speeds up and the stock market goes up. -For every 1 unit increase in Annual Average GDP of US, the S goes up by 0. 601 index units. The p-value of 0. 00000069 shows the outcome is statistically significant, and implies that when the GDP of US grows meaning that the economy is doing better, investors are more confident and invest more and stock market also goes up. -For every 1 unit increase in Annual Average GDP of Germany, the S goes up by 0. 224 units.We assumed that when Germany is producing more products and their economy is doing well, then the stock market in US does somewhat better too because Germany and US have an economic interaction. The P-value of 0. 155 tells us that the relationship is not statistical significant to conclude the Annual Average GDP of Germany has a positive relationship with S. -For every 1 unit increase in Annual Average GDP of China, the S goes down by . 154 units. US economy as we know is affected by Chinese economy. When US companies move production overseas, specifically to China, the stock market in US does poorly.The P-value of 0. 005 means that this results is statistically significant. We did not find any violations with SLR/MLR assumptions. There appears to be no problem with the data and all the results are relevant. Summary The adjusted R2 of . 96 means that our regression of 96% explains the changes in S. We found out that the biggest correlation is observed between US GDP, CPI, HPI, and China’s GDP. We found out that the GDP of Germany and Interest Rate has no significant correlation with S predicted performance.As we explained above in the result section, the investors should look at US economy performance as well as China’s economic performance, CPI and HPI to try to predict the stock market behavior. References: 1. http://www. infoplease. com/ipa/A0774473. html 2. Federal Housing Finance Agency Web Site 3. U. S. Department of Commerce: Bureau of Economic Analysis Web Site 4. U. S. Department of Labor: Bureau of Labor Statistics Web Site 5. mhttp://research. stlouisfed. org/fred2/series/SP500/downloaddata? cid=32255

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