Herd mentality

This weeks word of the week is herd mentality. In our article the author puts forward the idea that investors following each other when investing has cost them hundreds of pounds in lost profits.
Read the Telegraph article and then discuss the following points in class or with a colleague in English.

1. The article states that following the herd means investors often buy at the top of the market and sell at the bottom. Explain to a non financial person why this causes them a problem.
2. Why do you think the herd mentality exists?
3. In the article Colin Maclean is recommending buying shares in companies with overseas exposure. Why is this?
4. Read the paragraph which starts "Robert Burdett of..." and decide what type of investment Robert is recommending. Write a short paragraph to explain his recommendation.

IMF - "Steering Committee" fails to find ...

Our word or phrase of the week for this week is "steering committee".I have taken our article from yahoo this morning where they are reporting on the IMF steering committee's attempts to deal with a possible future currency  war.
Exercises
Read the article and then write a short report to summarize the meeting.

Do you agree with Dominique Strauss-Kahn's opinion about co-operation? Why Why not? Please write a short note to your teacher to explain your opinion.


Which countries are said in the article to agree with the United States and which to disagree?

Create a short table to show this.

Stinginess is the word of the week

Our word of the week this week is stinginess as Chinese Billionaires were accused of this after not attending a charity banquet organised by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. Read the article from the Guardian and answer the following questions.

• What famous Dickens character was accused of being stingy?
• Do you agree that the Chinese billionaires are stingy or are they being careful not to expose how much money the have to the world.
• Is American Billionaires philanthropy only a "tax dodge."
• Write a letter to a Billionaire asking him her for money for your favourite charity. Explain why it is a good cause.
• How the money will be spent
• What benefit the billionaire will have if they give the charity the money.
• Give your letter to your teacher to check or post it to this blog as a comment.

Irish banks BAILOUT

This week’s article is a very short one for a change and it is not from a newspaper, it is from yahoo. However, the language is still quite difficult it deals with rumors of the need for a bailout of the Irish banking system. Follow the link for an explanation of bailout. http://www.squidoo.com/learning-financial-and-professional-english
We do not have a quiz this week instead we have two writing exercises for you to try.

Please read the article and the explanation then prepare firstly a very short note to your boss on the contents of this article. Write as if your company has money in the Irish banks.
Then write an email to your Irish bank manager asking him-
1) If his bank will need financial assistance for the IMF
2) If he expects any further large financial losses
3) Also ask how much money the bank holds in gold reserves.
Give your exercises to your teacher for marking or add then as comments to the blog so I can mark them.
Have a good week look out for a new posting next weekend.

Tax BLUNDER- Quiz

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Quiz for How the US economy is being 'Japanised'.

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