Predatory lending Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Predatory lending - Essay Example ose borrowers with little knowledge on money matters especially those owning expensive assets that can be repossessed in case the borrower fails to fulfill the terms of the loan (Frank 2009). For example, a borrower may be required to read and sign a lot of documents which would bind him to the loan agreement. As a result of lack of skills and trusting the lender, he may assume that all the details in the documents are correct and thus sign them without interpreting the whole information. As such, the unscrupulous lender may take advantage of the situation to add more terms on the signed documents so as to gain more from the borrower. If this happens, the borrower may not have the ability to challenge the discrepancies. If it occurs that the borrower cannot pay the loan, his assets may be seized by the lenders whose main interest would be to sell them at a profit. The recent mortgage debt crises can be attributed to predatory lending. People with high hopes of owning homes found themselves in a situation which was caused by malpractices of brokers whose intension was to benefit from the deals (Frank 2009). To achieve their objectives, the brokers issued loans with high interest rates to unsuspecting borrowers who later became unable to pay the loans. In order to qualify for a loan, a person is supposed to have the ability to repay either in cash or in kind. These brokers managed to benefit from the mortgage lending due to the government’s failure to regulate their activities (Frank 2009). If proper regulation was done, the unfair deals made to the borrowers would have been noted thus avoiding the consequences that arose later which had a negative effect on the economy. The mortgage crises can also be attributed to the fact that mortgage lenders failed to acknowledge this policy and went ahead to give loans to people who were not qualified (Luhby 2009). This resulted to bad debts which could only be solved by reacquiring the houses leaving the borrowers without

Child soilder literature review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Child soilder literature review - Essay Example Sierra Leone is a small republic founded in 1842 on the West Coast of Africa (Grover, 2009 p1). It is bordered to the north and east by Guinea, to the South by Liberia and to the South-West by the Atlantic Ocean. The country plunged into civil war which lasted throughout most of the 1990s. In the heat of the Sierra Leonean War in 1997, AFROL News announced that about 5,400 children were involved in the war and this was in sync with the UNs official figures. After the war, it was reported that Sierra Leones conflict involved about 6,914 child soldiers (Facts of Sierra Leone, 2011). These children were recruited to take part in the Sierra Leonean Civil War that lasted between 1991 and 2001 (Sillinger, 2003: p3). The root of the Sierra Leonean Civil War and the recruitment of child soldiers has a strong and deep root in international relations. The connection between the Sierra Leonean Wars and international relations has a strong connection with the diamond deposits of the country. Diamonds are found in approximately a third of Sierra Leones territory (Levy, 2003 p2) Up until the late 1980s, Sierra Leone produced about $90m worth of diamonds each year (LeVert, 2007 p81). This figure represents the official value of diamonds that was exported through the legally accepted route of the Government Diamond Office and this could be just a fraction of the actual figure (Forde, 2011 p21). Primarily, British and South African companies have been at the forefront of the exploration of the countrys diamonds and other minerals (Hirsch, 2007 p18). Multinationals from these countries were granted legitimate rights to mine and export the countrys diamonds for several years after the country gained independence from Britain in 1960. The countrys first government led by Sir Milton Margai handed over power peacfully to Siaka Stevens