Financial instruments and markets Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Financial instruments and markets - Essay Example This paper computed the above ratios with a view to assessing the capital of Fortescue Metals Group (FMG). According to1, these ratios are used to measure the entitys capital structure, and they show the extent to which the business has borrowed to finance its assets and other resource acquisitions for it to efficiently carry out its normal operations. From Table 1 above, the debt to total equity ratio of Fortescue Metals Group improved in 2014 as $1 of equity had $1.99 of debt from $2.90 in 2013. This was largely attributable to the fall in the amount of the total debt from $15,578M in 2013 to $15,111M in 2014, as well as an increase in the equity from $5,289M in 2013 to $7,583M in 2014. This implies that the capital structure of Fortescue Metals Group improved as it increased the proportion of the equity fund in financing its assets and operations and reduced the debt amount. This improvement was also evidenced in its debt ratio, which indicated that for every $1 of asset financing , the debt amount was $0.67 in 2013 from $0.75 in 2013. Further results showed that Fortescue Metals Group’s debt servicing capacity improved in 2014, compared to 2013. The firms times interest cover increased to 6.25 times from 5.15 times, indicating that the company had no difficulties in generating enough cash flows to pay its interest expenses and even increased in 2014. This paper went further ahead to establish the liquidity position of Fortescue Metals Group using liquidity ratios, which measure an entitys ability to meet its short-term maturing obligations as and when they fall due.

Lady Macbeth is the real driving force behind the murder of Duncan Essay

Lady Macbeth is the real driving force behind the murder of Duncan Discuss this statement and decide whether or not you agree (1000 words) - Essay Example He is praised and made to feel successful. Discovering that Macbeth is a kinsman to the King Duncan, the audience learns of his bravery and ability on the fields of battle, but they see nothing yet of base envy, or of any desire to rule the country. His loyalty and respect for Duncan are not put into question. But the encounter with the witches plants the seeds of ambition and arrogance. Macbeth is silent while Banquo answers the witches. His mind is at work, and in his heart is growing the seed of evil. Elements of treachery enter the scene, and delusions of grandeur infiltrate where before there were none. ‘If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, / Without my stir.’(Act I, Sc 3). Still, he does not exactly leave it to chance, even if he thinks he does not have to do much. He puts the whole thing in a letter to his wife. From the apparition on the heath, desire for power has entered the credulous thane’s spirit, like a curse cast on completion of a successful battle. All of a sudden, being a respected thane is not enough. Through the fateful flaw of being gullible, and believing tenuous predictions, Macbeth is spellbound. This gullibility leads him to ignore his formerly good conscience and become obsessed with gaining what he had previously not even considered for a moment to be rightfully his: ‘to be king / Stands not within the prospect of belief,’ (Act I, Sc 3). Bewitched, he ruminates repeatedly on the prospect of authority and power. The curse travels inside a letter from Macbeth to his wife, who reads it, entranced. She cannot wait for Macbeth to return, so she can persuade him not to be so timid: ‘Hie thee hither, / That I may pour my spirits in thine ear; / And chastise with the valour of my tongue / All that impedes thee from the golden round.’(Act I Sc 5). She knows that so far, her husband has proved himself to be a good man, and fears he might be too nice to share her