Assess the recent performance and future prospects of any commercial Essay

Assess the recent performance and future prospects of any commercial bank known to you - Essay Example UBS is one of the best-capitalized financial institutions in the world, with invested assets of 2.2 trillion Swiss francs, shareholders equity of 35.4 billion Swiss francs and market capitalization of 95.4 billion Swiss francs. UBS is present in all major financial centers worldwide, with offices in 50 countries. UBS employs 65,929 people, 40% of whom are located in Switzerland, 39% in the Americas, 15% in Europe and 6% in Asia. As an integrated firm, UBS creates added value for clients by drawing on the combined resources and expertise of all its businesses. As an organization, UBS combines financial strength with a global culture that embraces change. In the 10 years before their merger, both banks had made a series of purchases to increase their investment banking presence. The most significant was the 1995 acquisition of SG Warburg, a venerable London investment-banking firm, by SBC. S.G. Warburg, was founded London in the 1930s and reached prominence after the Second World War. UBS strengths have traditionally lain in Europe. But the bank is seeking to raise its game in the US. In the 1990s in the US, it acquired Dillon Read, a corporate finance specialist and OConnor, a derivatives specialist. In 2000 it acquired Paine Webber, a US Stock broker and investment bank for $10.8bn (â‚ ¬8.3bn, $5.7bn). UBS has also been boosting its US corporate finance and equities teams with additional hires. UBS has almost $2 trillion in personal and corporate assets invested, among the worlds largest asset pools. With acquisitions such as Sauerborn, UBS is pursuing a bold strategy that is not without risks. It is expanding rapidly beyond its Swiss base. It is also taking on clients, such as those at Sauerborn, who had chosen not to put their wealth in the hands of a big institution and who may be skeptical about staying with a money manager as giant as UBS. But UBS figures if it can win the confidence of these top business families its position in Europes

The violence currently facing Colombia's dispossessed is indicative Essay

The violence currently facing Colombia's dispossessed is indicative that the country could soon experience a revolution - Essay Example Observe, do not fulfill† (Brenner 8). From this background, different leaders arose and rebelled against the government: although these leaders had different agendas, the support of the Mexican masses lied on one desire: the desire to change the social structure, to implement reforms that would give economic and socio-political empowerment to the majority of the people (Brenner 35-40). From the above statement, the researcher of this paper thinks that a similar revolution is also brewing in Colombia: a revolution to empower the dispossessed and make radical reforms that would change society’s structure and give more opportunities to the poor. As the Mexican Revolution of the 1910s sought to overthrow the elites and give â€Å"Mexico back to the Mexicans† (Brenner 62), so will happen with Colombia, where several rebel guerilla groups, most notably the FARC-EP, are already there proclaiming itself as the army of Colombia’s poor and dispossessed. ... s â€Å"The Wind That Swept Mexico† and Alfredo Molano’s â€Å"The Dispossessed: Chronicles of the Desterrados of Colombia.† One of the main characteristics of Mexican society in the 1910s was the monopoly of political power by the elite. In the time of the dictatorship of Diaz, almost all of the positions on the government bureaucracy were given to the elites, either to the â€Å"biggest landowner or businessman† (Brenner 10). Such political tradition gave Diaz the support of the elite for much of his administration. In addition, this political; system was justified with the fact that Mexico is not ready for democracy, given that ninety percent of its people is dominantly Indian, viewed as â€Å"racially inferior† and â€Å"subhuman† (Brenner 10). While the idea of open elections was also dismissed by Diaz due to the fact that only â€Å"not even fifteen percent (of the population) can read† (Brenner 10), it was also declared that dem ocracy was a utopia that must not to be toyed with. In addition to political power was economic power: both the elites and foreign corporations controlled the Mexican economy (Brenner 14). Much of the economy was driven buy investments from foreign corporations, most notably the United States, using cheap Mexican labor that neither have control over their own land or their country’s national resources (Brenner 14). Most of Mexico’s industries where controlled by foreign enterprises, reaping much revenues, making Mexico a â€Å"bonanza land† for investors using a steady supply of Mexican â€Å"cheap and docile labor† (Brenner 15). Meanwhile, in the countryside, haciendas ruled the land, with them owning almost all of the arable lands, making the land reform of the previous Juarez regime useless (Brenner 19). In fact, it was actually