L.L. Bean Essay -- essays research papers

L.L.Bean started from making a hundred pair of boots, to becoming one of America largest mail order retailer of high quality outdoor goods and apparel for men, women and children. Leon Leonwood Bean founded L.L. Bean in 1912; the company headquarters is in Freeport, Maine. Leon Leonwood Bean founded his business on a belief in honesty, commitment to quality, customer satisfaction and a passion for the outdoors. Leon Leonwood Bean was an avid outdoorsman that decided that he could improve on the typical hunting boots. He had a local shoemaker stitch a pair of waterproof shoe rubber to leather tops. Then he field-tested them himself to see first hand if they was any good. In 1912 he sold 100 pairs of the boots and â€Å"attached a tag guaranteeing 100% satisfaction. Within a matter of weeks, the shoes began coming back. Ninety pairs were returned, the rubber bottoms separated from the tops† (L.L.Bean.com). Leon Leonwood Bean make good on his promise of 100% satisfaction guaranteed by replacing all boots that was returned and established a business with his customers that is still going strong today. That value lives on today at L.L.Bean. They still measure success by the customer’s satisfaction and the guarantee upon which the company was founded that says â€Å"Our products are guaranteed to give 100% satisfaction in every way. Return anything purchased from us at any time if it proves otherwise. We will replace it, refund your purchase price or credit your credit card. We do not want you to have anything from L.L. Bean that is not completely satisfactory† (L.L.Bean.com). L.L.Bean 3 L.L.Bean doesn’t just say this, but really lives by it. My dad had a pair of the Maine hunting boots for years. He told me one day that the boots started leaking at the seams and I told him to send them back to L.L.Bean with a note telling them what was wrong and that you would like a new pair. In about three weeks from sending them back he got a new pair of the Maine hunting boots in the mail with no questions asked. So L.L.Bean really does live by the 100% satisfaction guarantee even if you have the stuff for years before you become dissatisfied with it. How many retail store will give its customers 100% satisfaction guarantee no questions asked? I can’t think of one other company in the outdoors goods and clothing business that will do that. L.L. Bean started with one store in Freepo... ...r. Customer service is the heart of L.L.Bean mail order, retail stores and web site. During the peak holidays season L.L.Bean has over 3 thousands customer service representatives working for them, to handle over 100 thousands calls on busiest days and more then 15 million calls a year. About 2 thousands of L.L.Bean customer service representatives come back to work the holiday season year after year. â€Å"L.L.Bean also does not evaluate customer service representatives based on the average length of their calls, unlike many other companies, or on the revenue they generate† (Tedeschi, 2000, p4). Customer service representatives can spend as much time as needed with a customer, which has translated to a loyal customer base for L.L.Bean. Customer service is why L.L.Bean has L.L.’s Golden Rule â€Å"Sell good merchandise at a reasonable profit, treat your customers like human beings, and they will always come back for more† (L.L.Bean.com). With L.L.Bean 100% satisfaction guarantee and L.L.’s Golden Rule value lives on at L.L.Bean today and will for a long time. They want to build a relationship that will last a lifetime. That is why L.L.Bean is one of the best-managed companies in America.

city history :: essays research papers

The Roman Empire had started at Anatolia. Byzantine Empire had lived between 330 and 1453. The Seljuk Empire had started with having most of Anatolia in the early part of 11th century. The Roman Empire, Byzantine and The Seljuk Empire, all of them have a special place in history. Also there are some similarities and differences among them in terms of their political and administrative structures, socio economic organization, daily life and regional hierarchy. A-) Roman Empire consisted of kings, magistrates, and senators. The king had a big power. He could accept, reject, or overrule senatotors’ decions because he was sen as a God of the earth. In Roman cities, councils transformed city states to central government officals. So urban councils’ functions were seperated two parts. These were civil and military authorities because of centralization. Value of political power and situation of city councilmen diminished with the transformation of authority. The consuls were not the only kings in Roma. Also Roman Empire gave importance to army. They had very organised army, military and farmer soldiers. The farmer soldiers were given grain and they made it such as porridge and wheat. Because of centralization urban councils in cities of Roman Empire. Central government had to divided to seperate civil and military authority. The Roman Empire, political organization was higly centralized and administration structure of the The Roman Emp ire had an ecclesiastic property so that the emperor was accepted as the representative of God. The church had a close relationship with the emperor of The Roman Empire because of this belief. Also christianity became state religion in the beginning period of The Roman Empire. For instace, one of the criterias to be citizen of Roman Empire was belonging to the christian church.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Roman Empire had continued with the Byzantine so major of characteristics of both empires were similar. The Byzantine Empire had city-satates as a heritage from The Roman Empire. The main changes between The Roman Empire and The Byzantine Empire were establishment of the political center and tendency to growing cetralization and reletive compactness of Byzantines’ borders that contrasted with the basic pattern of The Roman Empire. In The Byzantine Empire, church had a big importance at the political instution of senate, the court, and bureacracy. Also political organization was very centralized and the major pivotal forces of the centrality was the emperor, thebureacracy, the army and the church in Byzantine.

Comparing the Hero in Fall of the House of Usher, Rip Van Winkle, and M

The Romantic Hero in Fall of the House of Usher, Rip Van Winkle, and May-Pole of Merry Mount Hero n. a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities. Though this is the definition of hero according to Random House Webster’s Dictionary, the Romantic interpretation of hero is quite different. A Romantic hero is usually somewhat innocent and carefree, separate from the masses, and is almost always on some type of journey. This hero is idealistic, non-conforming, and rarely lives in the â€Å"here and now,† but, on the contrary, is well rounded, skilled in some fashion, and able to communicate with all walks of life. Romantic heroes are found in the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allen Poe, and Washington Irving. Edith and Edgar are the hero and heroine of â€Å"The May-Pole of Merry Mount† by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Though the people of Merry Mount are themselves romantic, these two characters typify authentic Romantic qualities. In this short story, May is a time for renewal, merriment, and celebration. This season is full of color, laughter, and animal-like costumes. â€Å"Within the ring of the monsters, appeared the two airiest forms†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (624). Edith and Edgar, the focus of the festivities, are getting married and are adorned with vibrant garments; therefore, are the most beautiful and admired of the Merry Mount group. They are both young and innocent, which is also an attribute of Romantic heroes. While waiting for the ceremony to begin, Edgar glances at Edith and is surprised by her disposition. He questions her â€Å"pensive† look and explains to her â€Å"that nothing of futurity will be brighter than the mere remembrance of what is now passingâ⠂¬ (625). Edith then acknow... ... In conclusion, not all definitions of hero can be found in the dictionary. Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgar Allen Poe offer three contrasting portraits of a Romantic hero. Rip, Edith and Edgar, and Roderick may not fill Webster’s shoes of criteria, but their wardrobe is truly Romantic.    Works Cited Hawthorne, Nathaniel. â€Å"The May-Pole of Merry Mount.† The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Bayn. New York: Norton & Company, 1999. 623-630. Irving, Washington. â€Å"Rip Van Winkle.† The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Bayn. New York: Norton & Company, 1999. 429-439. Poe, Edgar Allen. â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher.† The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Bayn. New York: Norton & Company, 1999. 717-730.

Annotations Heart of Darkness

Passage 1 â€Å"I left in a French steamer: The French Steam Ship and she called in every blamed port they have out there, for, as far as I could see, the sole purpose of landing soldiers and custom-house officers. I watched the coast. Watching a coast as it slips by the ship is like thinking about an enigma. Analogy comparing the coast slipping by the ship to a mystery. There it is before you — smiling, frowning, inviting, grand, mean, insipid, or savage, and always mute with an air of whispering, Personification: Giving humanlike features to the coast. ‘Come and find out. This one was almost featureless, as if still in the making, with an aspect of monotonous grimness. Suggesting that the coast invites us to uncover its secrets. The edge of a colossal jungle, so dark-green as to be almost black by using these two words is the author purposely trying to imply racial discrimination†¦.? , fringed with white surf, ran straight, like a ruled line, far, far away along a blue sea whose glitter was blurred by a creeping mist. The sun was fierce, the land seemed to glisten and drip with steam. Here and there grayish-whitish specks showed up clustered inside the white surf, with a flag flying above them perhaps. Whitish specks† symbolize the white settlements. Settlements some centuries old, and still no bigger than pinheads on the untouched expanse of their background. They looked so small in the huge jungle. We pounded along, stopped, landed Parallelism soldiers; went on, landed Parallelism custom-house clerks to levy toll in what looked like a God-forsaken wilderness, with a tin shed and a flag-pole lost in it; landed Parallelism more soldiers — to take care of the custom-house clerks, presumably. Some, I heard, got drowned in the surf; but whether they did or not, nobody seemed particularly to care.They were just flung out there, and on we went. Every day the coast looked the same, as though we had not moved; but we passed various pl aces — trading places — with names like Gran' Bassam, Little Popo; names that seemed to belong to some sordid farce acted in front of a sinister back-cloth. The idleness of a passenger, my isolation amongst all these men with whom I had no point of contact, the oily and languid sea, the uniform somberness of the coast, Using descriptive language to describe the calm motionless sea†¦ seemed to keep me away from the truth of things, within the toil of a mournful and senseless delusion.The voice of the surf heard now and then was a positive pleasure, like the speech of a brother. The sound of the waves was a calm sound for him and he compares it to the voice of a brother using a simile. It was something natural that had its reason that had a meaning. Now and then a boat from the shore gave one a momentary contact with reality. Sometimes the boat on the shore reminded him of reality†¦this quote touches the theme of the story, It was paddled by black fellows. â₠¬Å"Black fellows† Discriminatory language-(You could see from afar the white of their eyeballs glistening.They shouted, sang; their bodies streamed with perspiration; they had faces like grotesque masks Is this a caricature, its describing the features of the â€Å"blacks† as a grotesque mask which to me sounds exaggerated and inaccurate. How can you say that about someone? Isn’t that a bit condescending, comparing their faces to an ugly mask (simile) these chaps; but they had bone, muscle, a wild vitality, an intense energy of movement, descriptive language describing their sharp features. that was as natural and true as the surf along their coast.They wanted no excuse for being there. They were a great comfort to look at. For a time I would feel I belonged still to a world of straightforward facts. What are the straight forward facts and who defines them? ; But the feeling would not last long. Something would turn up to scare it away. Once, I remember, we came upon a man-of-war anchored off the coast. There wasn't even a shed there, and she was shelling the bush. It appears the French had one of their wars going on thereabouts.Her ensign dropped limp like a rag; the muzzles of the long six-inch guns stuck out all over the low hull; the greasy, slimy swell swung her up lazily and let her down, swaying her thin masts. In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent. Onomatopoeia(Pop, would go one of the six-inch guns; a small flame would dart and vanish, a little white smoke would disappear, a tiny projectile would give a feeble screech — and nothing happened. Nothing could happen.There was a touch of insanity in the proceeding ‘Touch of Insanity† is no t the lateral meaning of the word, in this case it can be used as a figure of speech, a sense of lugubrious drollery in the sight; and it was not dissipated by somebody on board assuring me earnestly there was a cam p of natives — he called them enemies! — hidden out of sight somewhere. Passage 2: We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness. It has a literal and figurative meaning. Literal in that the river shrunk as they continued on with their journey and opened up from the front.It’s figurative in that the heart of darkness symbolizes the things unknown and the things which represent or hold a larger importance. It was very quiet there. At night sometimes the roll of drums behind the curtain of trees would run up the river and remain sustained faintly, as if hovering in the air high over our heads, till the first break of day. Whether it meant war, peace, or prayer we could not tell. †¦ We were wanderers on prehistoric earth, on an earth that wore the aspect of an unknown planet.They had gone so far off, that they went able to recognize anything and thus they felt like they were born again as they went further down into the heart of darkness. We could have fancied ourselves the first of men taking possession of an accursed inheritance, to be subdued at the cost of profound anguish and of excessive toil. But suddenly, as we struggled round a bend, there would be a glimpse of rush walls, of peaked grass hoofs, a burst of yells, a whirl of black limbs, a mass of hands clapping, of feet stamping, of bodies swaying, of eyes rolling, Parallelism(‘†¦of†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢) under the droop of heavy and motionless foliage. .. The prehistoric man was cursing us, praying to us, welcoming us-who Parallelism (‘†¦was’) could tell. Who is to judge whether they were welcoming them or abusing them. This passage shows uncertainty in that nothing seems understandable. ? We were cut off from the comprehension of our surroundings; we glided past like phantoms, Simile in that as the glided past no one noticed them and like a ghost it almost wasn’t real. Nothing seemed real, and their presence was insignificant. They wer e invisible. ondering and secretly appalled, as sane men would be before an enthusiastic outbreak in a madhouse. Analogy: As they tried to discover the unknown just like men from a mad house released and waiting to get out and notice everything. could not understand because we were too far and could not remember, because we were traveling in the night of first ages, of those ages that are gone, leaving hardly a sign-and no memories. The earth seemed unearthly. Paradox We are accustomed to 1ook upon the shackled form of a conquered monster, but there – there you could look at a thing monstrous and free.It was unearthly, and the men were–No, they were not inhuman. Well, you know, that was the worst of it-this suspicion of their not being inhuman. I would come slowly to one. They howled and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity-like yours-the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar . Ugly. Yes, it was ugly enough; They were horrified and unable to recognize there surroundings. They felt like they had been born again into a world waiting to be re discovered. ut if you were man enough you would admit to yourself that there was in you just the faintest trace of a response to the terrible frankness of that noise, a dim suspicion of there being a meaning in it which you -you so remote from tile night of the first ages–could comprehend. And why not? The mind of man is capable of anything-because everything is in it, all the past as well as the future. What was there after all? Joy, fear, sorrow, devotion, valor, rage-who can tell? -but truth-truth stripped of its cloak of time. Let the fool gape and shudder-the man knows, and can look on without a wink.But he must at least be as much of a man as these on the shore. He must meet that truth with his own true stuff-with his inborn strength. They were searching for the truth†¦but what was really the ‘t ruth’? Principles won't do. Acquisitions, clothes, pretty rags–rags that would fly off at the first good shake. No; you want a deliberate belief. An appeal to me in this fiendish row-is there? Very well; I hear; I admit, but I have a voice, Parallelism (‘†¦I†¦ ’) too, and for good or evil mine is the speech that cannot be silenced. Of course, a fool, what with sheer fright and fine sentiments, is always safe.

Importance of Understanding Cultural, Ethnic, and Gender Differences Essay

The United States is and will continue to be a very diverse place. More than 8 million legal immigrants came to the U. S. between 1981 and 1990, and an undetermined number of undocumented immigrants enter the United States each year. In addition, the United States includes people of many religions, languages, economic groups, and other cultural groups. In order to be a successful manager in today’s very diverse society a manager needs to be open and understanding of cultural differences, different ethnicities, and gender differences among employees. Diversity is the presence of people from a wide range of backgrounds all possessing different traits. Some possible contributors to diversity include but are not limited to differences in age, race, ethnic origin, culture, physical abilities, religion and sexual orientation. As the text book states, ‘bringing diverse workers into an organization is seldom a seamless transition. ’ People tend to prejudge and place stereotypes or generalized beliefs that all members of a group possess the same characteristics from different cultures, race, or sex; this must be overcome. To be effective, managers and employees need to recognize, respect, and capitalize on each other’s differences. By being diverse in its employees, a business has a better opportunity for new ideas and growth potential. As discussed this week in class, when the department head turned down the Jamaican friend for the position, even though he seemed better qualified, it showed stereotyping and prejudices can have a negative effect in the workplace. The situation made for an uncomfortable, even negative environment in the workplace. By the department head’s negative behavior it caused a barrier for productivity and potentially harmed working relationships. It is essential in today’s business world for managers and professionals to understand the importance of cultural, ethnical and gender differences to make a positive work environment possible. While performing the ball and sock experiment, I was put outside of my comfort zone and was forced to see what it was like in someone else’s shoes. I found the lefty experiment to be awkward and difficult. I started in the early morning as I was getting ready for work. The seemingly thoughtless tasks that I completed every morning such as showering, brushing my teeth and hair, and eating breakfast now became hard and tedious. I continued the experiment when I returned home from work. Preparing dinner as a lefty was virtually impossible and almost dangerous. Most tasks as a lefty were manageable after some time and practice, but operating a knife was not. I am sure that with a little time and patience these tasks could have become easier to me. I can see how it could be frustrating living as a lefty in a right handed world. This is the same concept as being from a different culture, ethnicity, and gender then those in your workplace. Although the transition into a new company can be difficult, with time and some adjustment it is possible. I can relate the ball in the sock experiment to the importance of understanding cultural, ethnic, and gender differences in the work place because adjusting to something that we are not accustomed to can be challenging. It is important to understand that people we come into contact with everyday come from a background that we may not know much about. It can be difficult to adjust when meeting new people or entering a new work environment. I believe an organizations success can be attributed to its ability to embrace diversity and appreciate the benefits. A workplace who supports diversity can supply an assortment of solutions to problems. A diverse workplace can facilitate a broader service range. It can allow a company to provide their service to those all around the world. I think the most significant benefit to supporting diversity in the workplace is the inspiration it gives to all of its employees to perform to their greatest capacity. Diversity allows employees to come together to accomplish a common goal as a team. Employees will feel comfortable to share their viewpoints and ideas to execute a goal or solve a problem. I believe diversity opens the door for workplaces to achieve higher productivity, result in higher profits, and benefit the community. Diversity may not be something that people are familiar with and may even have a difficult time adjusting to, which is similar to trying to using your opposite hand in daily tasks. I believe understanding diversity will show employees the importance of it in the workplace and how it can enhance the quality of work.

Ancient Egypt: Palaces and Pyramids

Palaces and Pyramids: A Deeper Look Pyramids have long been an image of ancient Egyptian lands and culture, being one of the most recognizable aspects of their life and culture. Huge man made buildings give tourists and many alike a view into the past the dedication these ancient people put-forth to their craft and cause. Not long before these great pyramids were raised, another people like the ancient Egyptians built huge complexes themselves.Great palace structures like that of Sargon II, discovered in Dur Sharrukin where present-day Khorsabad, Iraq is located, allow us to understand how these people of the Ancient Near East were vastly similar and respectfully different from the people of Ancient Egypt. The pyramids of Ancient Egypt help us journey into the past and help us gain an idea of what these huge structures meant to the people constructing them, and those who they were constructed for. These structures were built for the burial of kings, rulers, and people of the like.The y were raised high to the sky, thought to help these fallen leaders become closer to the gods and to allow an easy transition into the afterlife. They had slanted triangular walls which are thought to represent the slanting rays of the sun. The first of these burial chambers was a mastaba, which was low, solid, and rectangular in shape. These mastabas consisted of a chapel where the deceased person’s family and friends could pay tribute through the offering of gifts. A serdab was also inside the mastabas where the statue of ka (believed to be the soul of a person) was placed.An underground burial chamber completed the construction of the mastaba. These mastabas were originally built with mud brick, but as the culture progressed they were built with limestone. Eventually, the mastaba evolved into a much larger structure. This structure was a stacking of mastaba forms with a large mastaba at the base and decreasing in size as it extended vertically, like steps. The stepped pyra mid, as they were called, contained an original mastaba towards the center of this raised structure. It also contained an underground burial chamber just like the original mastabas.These huge pyramids were built with massive quantities of limestone making them very sturdy structures being able to withstand strong weather conditions. The pyramid structures that followed were slightly different in their structure and composition. They no longer contained the original mastaba like that of the stepped pyramids. Instead, they enclosed ascending and descending corridors leading to and from the underground burial chamber. There are also different in that they have small corridors that are believed to be air shafts. The most famous of these pyramid structures are the Great Pyramids of Giza in Giza.These pyramids were built by three successive kings Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure. Placed on the west side of the Nile, these pyramids were constructed as funerary temples for the three kings, each having his own built where he was to be place upon his death. These pyramids are of the regular pyramid variety, not displaying the steps like those of the stepped pyramids. The building of these pyramids was no ordinary task. Teams of workers transported stones averaging 2. 5 tons by muscle power, placing logs underneath as rollers, and sliding them across mud on sleds.When the kings died, they were embalmed and placed inside a coffin which was placed deep and underground within the pyramid inside the burial chamber. A large 50-ton stone block sealed off the burial chamber. These pyramids were used as a protection device as the kings’ souls each climbed to the sky to be amongst the gods. These pyramids of Giza also contained three false passage ways to further protect the kings from intruders entering the pyramid. Inscriptions of the deceased kings depict them climbing up rays of sun to join the sun god Ra.These inscriptions help tell us that the Egyptian people were highly invested in the afterlife and spent much time preparing for it. It also reinforces the structure and function of the pyramids as their slanting walls were thought to be built in accordance with the rays of the sun. The palace complexes of Assyria during the time period of the Ancient Near East were no slouch to the pyramids of ancient Egypt. These huge complexes were elaborate in design and structure as they were built for similar reasons to the pyramids of Egypt.These palace complexes were constructed in honor and tribute of kings just like the pyramids of Ancient Egypt. However, these palaces were built in honor of military victories and ruling success, unlike the reasons of the pyramids. Constructed with adobe brick, limestone, and marble the complexes were used with different kinds of material unlike the pyramids of Ancient Egypt. These complexes were lined with relief sculptures, paintings, and wall reliefs describing military victories of kings. These works helped show the pow er of the king to the people visiting and entering the complex.A famous palace complex was built by Sargon II and was located in Dur Sharrukin. Surrounding the castle complex was a protecting fortress. The palace complex was guarded by two towers and was only accessible by a wide ramp leading up to an open square around which government and religious officials were scattered about. The main courtyard was beyond this complex which housed service buildings on the right and temples to the left. The heart of the palace was just past the main courtyard where the king’s residence was located. A gate with large a pair of lamassu guarded the entrance to the king’s palace.Inside the palace was a large ziggurat made up of seven levels each painted a different color. This ziggurat was a symbol of the king’s claim to his empire. Both the pyramids of Ancient Egypt and the palace complexes of Assyria were massive architectural achievements of their respective time periods. Th ese huge structures help show the kind of religious and military commitment that the people of these two periods possessed. The palaces and pyramids were both built upon the idea of honoring the kings of the time, each through a different avenue.The pyramids of Ancient Egypt were used as a funerary complex to honor and ultimately assist their kings into the afterlife where they would live for eternity with the gods. The palace complexes were also built in tribute of their king but were used to honor military achievement and ruling success. Although we are uncertain of the exact meaning of everything to do with the two structures, they allow us to take a journey into the ancient world and better understand the culture and life of these interesting people.

Inflation of Singapore

Bachelor of Commerce (Bridging) Intake 17 Elements of Economics Contents Introduction3 CPI inflation4 MAS inflation5 Private road transport5 Accommodation6 Recommendation7 Conclusion8 References9 Inflation here up 5. 5% in December Introduction Last December, Singapore’s inflation, which is defined as a persistently rising price level, rose to 5. 5 per cent on a year-on-year basis. The author states that CPI inflation is due to the accommodation and private road transport higher contribution. Furthermore, the author also mention the MAS core inflation increased to 2. per cent year-on-year due to the ongoing pass-through of earlier increasing costs. The report from December’s MAS’s Recent Economic Developments in Singapore further supports the author’s article. In this discussion, it could be argued that consumer demand for housing and transport are the major factors, which Department of Statistic Singapore reported, contribute to the increment in inflation . In addressing the challenge of the governments to meet the consumer demand, the paper will mention a few discussions and a recommendation about the issue on inflation of Singapore.CPI and MAS Inflation CPI inflation CPI, or Consumer Price Index, measures the average of the prices paid by urban consumers for a â€Å"fixed† basket of consumer goods and service (Michael Parkin, 2011). In Singapore, the major contributing â€Å"fixed† baskets are Housing, Food and Transport. In total, these three factors are more than half of the entire CPI. Data extracted from the December 2011’s CPI report is using year 2009 as the base period, which is derived from a Household Expenditure Survey.As Singapore inflation rates are published monthly, the Singapore Government is preventing bad or fictional speculations of future inflation. [pic] Source: Department of Statistic Singapore, 2012 Below table showing partial data of Singapore CPI December 2011 |FOOD |2,205 | |HOUSING |2, 548 | |Accommodation |2,002 | |Fuel & utilities 357 | |Household durables |189 | |TRANSPORT |1,553 | |Private road transport |1,166 | |Public road transport |366 | |Other travel & transport |21 | |Source: Department of Statistic Singapore, 2012 |MAS inflation MAS’ core inflation is stated as a smaller amount than the CPI inflation in this article. This difference is due to MAS monitoring a core inflation measure that excludes components of â€Å"Accommodation† and â€Å"Private road transport†. Private road transport Data from Department of Statistic Singapore states that the overall inflation of transport increased 10% from last year’s December with a detailed 12. 2% increment for the sub category â€Å"Private road transport†. Singapore Government controls the number of vehicles on the island via placing a quota on COE.In mid October 2011, the Singapore Government announced that the annual growth rate will be decreased smoothly until end of 2014 as vehicles population is growing faster than the government’s vehicle growth rate (Tony Ng, 2011). With the sharp increase in COE premiums in June and July 2011 (MAS, 2012), car prices surged, therefore defining the 12. 2% increment in â€Å"Private road transport†. As COE supply is tight, private road transport costs will remain firm. Hence, contribution to the increased inflation is not entirely from private road transport, but from the other main â€Å"fixed† basket, Accommodation.Accommodation Singapore’s economy recovered fast unexpectedly, this is good news but with backlash as Singapore’s infrastructure programmes could not keep pace, causing shortage in the housing program (Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, 2011). Since property cooling measures were introduced by the government in year 2010, properties firms claimed that the number of deals closed have dropped by 30% compared to a year ago (PropertyWire, 2011). One of the new measures is th at home owners being required to sell off their flats first before qualifying to the higher bank loan of 80% of next purchasing flat’s value.Most sellers prefer buy first, then sell (Eugene Lim, 2011), causing them to disqualify from the higher loan and only facing with the maximum 60% loan from the banks. Now they have to produce 40% of purchasing flat value from their own cash. With such conditions, sellers are commanding higher cash premiums or cash over valuation (COV) resulting in more expensive or inflated resale flats. On the other hand, people who turn away from resale flats, with factor from the supplies of new flats that are slow in completion, are looking into rental accommodation.The other new cooling measurement the government has introduced is the Minimum Occupation Period (MOP). It is defined that flats can be only being rented out after five years, increased from the previous one to three years period. As more Singaporeans and other people in Singapore are loo king for completed dwellings, the inflation in accommodation is caused by high demand and low supply. Recommendation [pic] Supply and Demand Graph Source: Irena Asmundson, 2010. Demand and supply curves are charted as shown above.As prices rises, suppliers are willing to produce more and consumers buying less (Irena Asmendson, 2010). In addition, the demand for accommodation is high and the supply is low, Singapore accommodation’s price has inflated. To solve this increasing demand and shortage of accommodation, Singapore government has been producing more HDB apartments. From the key statistic from the Housing and Development Board, there are 43,030 apartments under construction in the fiscal year of 2010/2011, a 20. 8% increased from the previous fiscal year.A huge increase of 68. 6% apartments completed from the previous year further reinstate the government’s effort to lower the shortage of accommodation, but the total bookings for new flats are 17,419, less than h alf the number of apartments under construction. This difference can be defined as a huge number of unsold or surplus apartments as HDB in the market. If this is to be true, the huge number of unsold apartment will lower the prices, causing suppliers to produce less and consumers buying more. ConclusionSingapore CPI inflation rate in December is hugely contributed from the factor of accommodation and private road transport. In conclusion, the increased COE premiums and accommodation shortage can the detailed explanation. The Singapore government has been doing readjustment in the property market and private road transport. With introduction of new cooling measures and building of more new apartments, the government can curb or lowered the accommodation inflation rate. Inclusion with the huge surplus of unsold apartment, the accommodation inflation rate can be lowered to with the demand and supply law.Word count: 932 References Michael Parkin, 2009. Economics. 10th edition. Pearson A ddison Wesley Department of Statistic Singapore (2012, January 25). Singapore Consumer Price Index December 2011. Department of Statistic Singapore. Retrieved from http://www. singstat. gov. sg/news/news/cpidec2011. pdf [Accessed 6 February 2012] Matthew Bishop (2004, April). Economics A-Z. The Economist. 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