They were very close because in the first 5 days they were doing so well. The Ludendorff offensive was far from winning because the western front had broken, this was a disadvantage of winning because, they wanted to split the British and French and be able to push the British and conquer the French but it’s was late because the British and French had agreed to be like a team. The British had the best scientists in the war; these helped then have fast planes and they were able to use it wisely and quick therefore the German’s were losing by shortage of men as they were
Many would refer to this as relative stabilisation but not completely. Politically Germany suffered as the parties that were supposed to be protecting the interests of the German people were acting more like interest groups, therefore when a coalition government was elected they struggled to work together resulting in the problems that needed to be addressed never came to a conclusion, however the interests of the ‘bourgeois’ parties of the DNVP, BVP and DVP were divergent. Within the coalitions, however, some important social legislation was passed. Within the political structure the vote had always varied but at this time the left were making important gains with the SPD increasing its share of seats by 22 to 153 and the KPD showing a rise of 9 seats to 54, this in turn meant that the parties of the centre and right saw their votes drop, which escalated the amount of splinter parties. The political polarization that was a developing feature of the period meant that forming a stable majority government had become near impossible, therefore questioning the stability of the political aspects of Germany.
Similarly, there were several signs of social progress and cultural development, but the years were significantly characterised by cultural polarisation. Therefore the blanket statement: “Germany experienced a period of political calm, economic development and social progress in the mid 1920s” ignores the problems in Weimar Germany at this time and is therefore not entirely correct, each clause contains some validity. In politics, there was a clear reduction in extra-parliamentary attempts opposing the government and political system. This was particularly significant as the preceding 1919-23 period was characterised by such threats from the Left and Right of the political spectrum, for example the Spartacist uprising, the Kapp Putsch and the Beer Hall Putsch. However, the mid 1920s cannot be said to have been years of political stability.
However, in order to solve this problem once and for all, Hans Luther took decisive action and replaced the mark with the rentenmark, a new currency. Since this currency was not produced on the scale of its predecessor - supply was restricted to 3.2 billion rentenmarks - the value held much better and therefore the inflation rate was significantly curbed. As a result, economic stability was achieved for the first time in 18 months in Germany, for which Luther and Schact, not Stresemann was hugely responsible. Without a solution to the hyperinflation crisis, Germany could have
However, I disagree to a smaller extent as the quality of the goods produced were very poor. Firstly, the Five-Year Plans allowed USSR to avoid the Great Depression. The FYP made USSR an autarky. Hence, being self-sufficient, it did not rely on trade with other countries. Therefore, when almost the whole world was badly affected by the Great Depression in the 1930s, USSR was able to avoid the economic downturn caused by it.
The Dawes Plan provided for an end to the Allied occupation and a staggered payment plan for reparations payment. This softened the burdens of the war reparations on the state. Further, the plan helped secure $800 million in loans for the German state. This is significant as this investment in the German economy helped offset the disastrous effects of the hyperinflation by increasing employment and restarting industries. The Ruhr area that was being occupied by French troops was to be evacuated.
This however was supposedly solved by the intervention of the Dawes Plan of August 1924. This made the current German governments popularity grows as they had seemingly saved Germany from certain disaster. This denied Hitler and opportunity in that he could not come out and attack the government as they had been able to save Germany’s economy. However elsewhere in the country problems were beginning to remerged. An economic crisis was happening in agriculture and Industry.
* Cost of Equity: * Beta: she used the average beta of the last 5 years, which is also acceptable. However, we decide to use the Bayesian beta calculated with the firm’s present beta as a measure of the future beta assessing for future risk. * Risk-free rate: from the investor’s perspective, we conclude that a 10-year holding period would be more realistic estimate than 20-year. Therefore, we decide to use 10-year U.S. Treasury yield as our risk-free rate in this case. * Risk premium: using the geometric mean from 1926 to 1999 might be problematic, since the risk premium of recent decades is obviously lower than earlier (stated in the lecture).
“It is more accurate to talk of a potential revolution which ran away into the sand than the genuine article” Before we can assess whether a ‘genuine’ revolution took place in 1918, or if held many promises and yet failed to deliver, we must look at the term ‘Revolution’. This often refers to a substantial change in power/structure that takes place within a short time span. Germany was in a vulnerable position, susceptible to change as the defeat in the war had shaken people’s faith in the government. There was undoubtedly political changes undergone in Germany but whether they fundamentally shook the German foundations of society can be seriously questioned. It can be argued that the ’Weimar Republic’ , the outcome of the revolution was a facade of the old authoritarian regime, carrying out change under false pretences of a democratic institution, with the Right Wing Conservatives still in control.
One aspect that Wolsey did have great impact was justice, with him introducing many new ideas. Although, some of his policies were unsuccessful such as the Enclosures, the policy that was the most unsuccessful and almost a complete failure was the amicable grant. This was a factor in Henry’s lack of trust in Wolsey during the latter part of his position as Lord Chancellor. The first part of his domestic policies, and arguably the most successful one is justice. Unlike his other policies, the justice system was now greatly improved by Wolsey.