The Importance of Credit Risk - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 7 Words: 2160 Downloads: 8 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Argumentative essay Did you like this example? Credit risk implies a potential risk that the counterparty of a loan agreement is likely to fail to meet its obligations as per the original loan agreement, and may eventually default on the obligation. Credit risks can be classified into many forms such as options , equities , mutual funds , bonds , loans and other financial issues as well , which in extensions of guarantees and the settlement of these transactions. (International Auditing Practice Statement 1006 Audits of the Financial Statements of Banks) IS IT Important For the Banks To manage Their Credit Risks ? Risk is always associated with the banking activities, and taking risk is the important part of any banking operation, there is hardly any banking operation without the risk. Most of the bankers are said to be sound when they have a clear overview of what is the amount of risk involved in the current transaction and they make sure that some of the partly earnings are therefore kept for these risks. The granting of any form of credit is the common form for any bank and this risk is very common and this is the source of risks the banks are always exposed to. (Anderson et al, 2001). Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The Importance of Credit Risk" essay for you Create order By being exposed to credit risk banks have been faced with a lot of problems. The banks couple of years ago realised that credit risk is important and the banks need to monitor, identify, control and measure it is very significant. Due to this the effective management of credit risk has become a critical component of approaching risk management. This approach will be especially important in terms of the long term success of any bank. Banks now ensure that they have large amount of capital against any form of credit risks so that they can be in a position to adequately tackle any risks which will be incurred. (Bank for International Settlement, 1999) The credit risk is in the entire portfolio of any bank and also the risk which is associated in individual credits or any other transactions have to be managed adequately. It is always a ascertained that the relationship between the credit risk and other forms of risks need be to considered very seriously in to account, in order to Increase shareholder value through value creation, value preservation and value optimization Increase confidence in the market place Alleviate regulatory constraints and distortions (Amitabh Bhargava ICICI, 2000) The Basel II Accord specifies that banks must have new procedures for measuring against credit risks. Advantages and Disadvantages of Credit Risk Management The advantages of Credit risk management include: Credit risk management allows predicting and forecasting and also measuring the potential risk factor in any transaction. The banks management can also make use of certain credit models which can act as a valuable tool which can be used to determine the level of lending measuring the risk. It is always better to have some alternative techniques and strategies for transferring credit, pricing and hedging options. The disadvantages of Credit risk management include: Deciding on how good a risk you are cannot be entirely scientific, so the bank must also use judgments. Cost and Control associated with operating a credit scoring system. With the existence of different models, it?s hard to decide which to use, more often than not, companies will take a one model fits all approach to credit risk, which can result in wrong decisions. How Banks Measure Credit Risk The level of credit risk faced by a bank is provided by the structure of a bank?s credit portfolio. If the portfolio consists of large amount of loans in a certain asset class then this might be an indication of an increased risk. Similarly the presence of complex financial transactions such as lending may also indicate a larger risk. In general a risk always comprises of two kinds: One is risk exposure and the other one is the uncertainty element, and for the credit risk and the credit quality represents the uncertainty element and credit exposure represents risk exposure. Therefore a bank can assess its credit risk by analysing the credit quality of an obligation and its credit exposure. While assessing credit quality and exposure a bank must consider three issues: Probability of default or any sort of possibility whether the other party which is the counter party will default on the obligation either over the life of the obligation over a specific period of time. The exposure of credit or the amount of the outstanding obligation which again depends on the size if there is any case of default. Rate of recovery this is the extent towards which the credit can be recovered through some banking processes like bankruptcy and other proceedings of settlements. In the last decade or so many banks have started to make use of models in order to assess the risks for their credit which they lend. The credit risk models are very complex and include algorithm based methods of assessing credit risk. The aim of such model is to help banks in quantifying, aggregating and managing credit risk. Despite the method the focus of credit risk assessment stays credit quality and risk exposure. Analysis of the Quality of Credit (Credit Quality) Credit quality is a measure of the that counterparties?s ability to perform on that obligation?. (Contingency Analysis, 2003) A bank adopts different approaches for assessing credit quality of considering loans to individuals or businesses. If it is for small businesses then the credit quality will be assessed through a process of credit scoring. This is based on information obtained by the bank about the party who want the loan. The information which is gathered tends to be about annual income, existing debts etc. Credit score is generally calculated by a formula which is applied to the information which is obtained which gives a number based on it the score is generated. The credit score is a highly accurate prediction of how likely the party is to pay bills, the higher the score the better it looks to the bank. (Curry, 2007) However, assessing a large party is based on credit analysis of the loan done by specially designated credit analysts. This just like mention above is base on credit scoring but it involves human judgement. It involves an in depth analysis of various aspect of the party in question including balance sheet, income statement etc. Also assessing the nature of the obligation is taken into account as well. On basis of credit analysis the analyst assigns that party a credit rating. This allows the bank to make decisions regarding credit. A bank can also use credit ratings to measure the share of the borrowers with creditworthiness in its portfolio and get a clear indication of default risk. Measuring Credit Exposure Credit exposure also needs to be taken into account when assessing credit risk or risk exposure. If for example a bank has loaned money to a business, the bank may calculate the credit exposure rate as the outstanding balance on the loan amount. However, in case if the bank by any chance has increased or extended the line of credit but none of the line have been drawn down then the approach will be different. In this case the risk exposure may seem to be nil, but it does not reflect any sort of right by itself to draw down the line of credit. If the firm gets into any financial difficulty it can be expected to draw on the credit line before any bankruptcy. Therefore in this case the bank may consider its credit exposure to be equal to the line of the credit. Credit exposure as a fraction can also be used sometimes to calculate the credit exposure for the total line of credit. (Duffie Singleton, 2003) How Banks Mange Their Credit Risk Credit risk management practices differ from bank to bank. Generally these type of practices are dependent on the type and complexity of the credit activities which are taken by the banks. In recent years banks have been using models for credit risk management. Bank Credit Risk Management Practices: Yesterday and Today The traditional approach to managing credit risk has been based on establishing a limit of credit at various levels for the individual borrowers an sometimes also based on geographical are and industry type. Also collateral and relationship exiting hardly seem adequate to cope with the declining economics of loan markets. (Gontarek, 1999) These limits specify the maximum exposures a bank is willing to take. Until the early 1990?s , credit risk analysis was limited only based on the reviews of the loans of individuals and most of the banks kept the loans on their books for maturity. (Bernanke, 2006) In recent years banking industry has made strides in managing credit risk. Managing the credit risks is the main focus of any banking operation these days and many banking?s are looking now from transaction management to portfolio management. And have slowly changed from monitoring to practising and also predicting their performance. Banks are still holding onto traditional credit risk management tools but these are becoming more and more sophisticated. Various forms of tools and models have been generated to measure and predict the performance and management of portfolio risks which in turn build competitive advantage. Despite the differences in the credit risk management practices the credit risk management in any bank rest on four pillar of: appropriate credit risk environment Sound credit-granting process or criteria that includes a clear indication of the bank?s target market Appropriate credit administration, measurement and monitoring process Adequate controls over credit risk. (Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, 2000) Therefore whether traditional or modern, credit risk management in banks involves reviewing creditworthiness of counterparties, setting credit limits for counterparties, evaluation of credit risk and reporting credit limits and exposures to management. (Caouette et al, 1998) Recent Trends in Credit Risk Management by Banks The credit risk management is undergoing an important change in the banking industry. Banks have clearly indicated that centralization, standardization, consolidation, timeliness, active portfolio management and efficient tools for exposures are the key best practice in credit risk management. (SAS, 2004) A bank in America is considering having efficient tools for ?what if? analysis and tools. Also another bank is focusing on stress testing, concentration risk, macro-hedges and capital market risk management. (SAS, 2004) The majority of the world?s large banks agree that integrating environmental and broader social issues into their core credit risk management process is essential to managing credit risk in the 21stcentury. (Huppman, 2005) Leading banks including Barclays now view that these non traditional issues as real credit risk variables that potentially affect their client?s bottom lines as well as their own. Quantitative models are being used by banks to measure and manage credit risk. Most of the Commercial bankers have started to opt for making use of the credit risk models for their credit options especially with relation to consumer lending and mortgage. These models are known as credit scoring models and were developed for consumer lending. On the other hand it has been a few years ago where the use of these credit risks models have been implemented successfully and are integrated these days with almost every bank to manage their risk. (Bluhm et al , 2003) In 2001, the UK?s biggest mortgage bank, Halifax, developed a forward looking credit risk management strategy which made use of quantitative models for risk management. (Algorithmics Incoporate, 2001) Similarly HSBC serves over 125 million customers worldwide and is the one of the world?s largest banking and financial services organizations. The world largest provider of quantitative credit risk solutions to lenders (Moody?s KMV) have decide to provide HSBC with this, which will provides HSBC a methodology for rapid, accurate measurement and benchmarking of credit risk portfolio. (Vyse, 2006) Role Of Management in Managing Credit Risk The board of directors of a bank approve and review the credit risk strategy and significant credit risk policies of the bank. The bank?s strategy reflects the bank?s tolerance for risk and the level of profitability the bank expects to achieve for incurring credit risks. These days banks establish and enforce internal controls and other practices to ensure that exceptions to policies, procedures and limits are reported in a timely manner to the management. Due to this credit risk is constantly monitored by the management. Innovations in Technology and Credit Risk Management Credit risk management in banks is also getting affected by innovations in technology. Innovations in technology have made significant improvements in bank information systems. This has also been encouraged by Basel II. The improvements in bank information systems has certainly increased the abilities of many banks and their management process to measure and identify and also control the characteristics of any kind of risk. For example ICBC (Industrial and Commercial Bank of China) the credit management computer system was further perfected with risk alert and conversion functions and it performed effective real-time monitoring on the quality and operations of the credit assets. (ICBC, 2001)

The Gospel By Martin Luther - 952 Words

Always preach in such a way that if the people listening do not come to hate their sin, they will instead hate you – Martin Luther. When I first read this quote, a thought of me in high school came to my mind. When I was in high school my catholic religion teacher use to constantly give me detentions because I didn’t want to take flowers to a Virgin Mary statue. I use to end up getting in an argument and actually telling her that one of the commandments say do not worship any idols, and she will fight back saying it is part of the gospel. But did she really know what the gospel was? A very good question to ask a Christian is: What is the gospel? Shockingly many Christian have the same belief, but different answers. Reading this book opened up my eyes and helped me understand more about what the gospel is. In this book it explains in four chapters these four main points: God, Men, Christ, Men. First, it explains who God is, he is the creator of the heaven, earth, human and animals, he is also perfect, almighty, and compassionate. Yes, all those things are true about god, but there is also a view of god that people do not like to hear. God does not leave the wicked unpunished. God loves righteousness and justice. In Genesis 6:11 the bible says that the world was corrupted and full of violence so god said to Noah that he was going to put an end to it and he did. Since god is a perfect god and cannot see sin in order to clean the world of sin he had to send down his wrath. OnShow MoreRelatedMartin Luther And His Influence On Peasant Results951 Words   |  4 PagesDecember 11, 2015 Martin Luther and His Influence on Peasant Results Martin Luther was one of the most influential people in Christian history, when he began the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century. 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Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings Chapter 33 Free Essays

string(105) " when he was losing the point – much the way he was waving in the conversational wind right now\." CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE Could Be Worse, Could Be Dog Years â€Å"Evidently,† said Nate, â€Å"where we screwed up was killing the whales.† â€Å"No way,† said Amy. â€Å"We tipped our hand. We will write a custom essay sample on Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings Chapter 33 or any similar topic only for you Order Now † â€Å"About being meme machines, right?† â€Å"Yeah. Are you sure you’re not spying for him?† â€Å"Nope. Know how you can tell? When I was spying, did I ever touch you here?† â€Å"No. No, you did not.† â€Å"And did I ever let you touch me here?† She moved his hand for him. â€Å"No, you did not. Especially not in public.† â€Å"Yeah, we should probably go back to your place.† She had called him on his buzzy, bug-winged speaky thing, about which he made a mental note to ask what the name of it was at his first convenience. They’d met for coffee at a Gooville caf that catered to whaley boys. She’d assured him that no one would notice them, and, strangely enough, the whaley boys had completely ignored them. Maybe he was no longer news. â€Å"If they say anything, I’ll just tell them that we’re having sex,† Amy said. â€Å"But you said you didn’t think I should tell the Colonel I’d seen you.† â€Å"Yeah, but that was before he let you in on his secret plan.† â€Å"Right.† â€Å"Although I’m a little ashamed of how old you are. We should talk about that.† â€Å"So should I move my hand?† â€Å"Yeah, down and a little to the right.† â€Å"Let’s head back to my place.† Back at his apartment, standing in the kitchen, he said, â€Å"Hey, what do you call this thing?† He pointed to that thing. â€Å"The phone.† â€Å"No kidding?† He nodded as if he’d known that all along. â€Å"So where were we?† â€Å"Killing whales was where we went wrong?† â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"Or how old you are?† â€Å"So,† he continued, â€Å"killing whales was a big mistake.† â€Å"Which you knew, because that’s what made you want to become a nerd in the first place.† â€Å"No, that’s not right.† † ‘Scuse me, action nerd.† â€Å"You want to know how I got into this field, really?† â€Å"No. I mean, sure. You can tell me about the destruction of the human race later.† â€Å"You have to promise you won’t laugh.† â€Å"Of course.† She looked incredibly sincere. â€Å"My sophomore year at the University of Sasketchewan in the Sticks – ; â€Å"You’re kidding.† â€Å"It’s a good school. You promised you wouldn’t laugh.† â€Å"Oh, you meant even this early in the story I’m not supposed to laugh? Sorry.† â€Å"I mean, I’m sure it doesn’t measure up to Gooville Community College –  » â€Å"Not fair.† â€Å"Home of the Gooville Fighting Loogies – ; â€Å"Okay, you made your point.† â€Å"Thank you. So a friend and I decided that we’re going to go to break out of our boring small-college lives, we were going to take some risks, we were going to –  » â€Å"Talk to a girl?† â€Å"No. We decided to drive all the way to Florida for spring break just like American kids, where we would then drink beer, get sunburned, and then talk to a girl – girls.† â€Å"So you went.† â€Å"Took almost a week to get there, but yes, we drove in his dad’s Vista Cruiser station wagon. And I did indeed meet a girl. In Fort Lauderdale. A girl from Fort Lauderdale. And I talked to her.† â€Å"You dirty little tramp. Like, ‘How’s it going, eh?  » â€Å"Among other things. We conversed. And so she invited me to go see a manatee.† â€Å"He shoots! He scores!† â€Å"But I thought it was an American way of saying matinee. I thought we were going to a movie. You know, you don’t think about those things as being real.† â€Å"But it was.† â€Å"She did volunteer work for a rescue hospital for injured marine mammals, mostly manatees that had been hit by boats. They had a bottlenose dolphin, too. We stayed there for hours, caring for the animals, her teaching me about them. I was hooked. I hadn’t even picked my undergrad major, but as soon as I got back to school, I went for biology, and I’ve been studying marine mammals ever since.† â€Å"Oh, my God, you didn’t get laid, did you?† â€Å"I found a passion for life. I found something that drives me.† â€Å"I can’t believe I fell for such a pathetic loser.† â€Å"Hey, I’m pretty good at this whale stuff. I’m respected in my field.† â€Å"But you’re dead.† â€Å"Yeah, before then, I mean. Hey, did you say that you fell for me?† â€Å"I said I fell for a pathetic loser, if the shoe fits†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He kissed her. She kissed him back. That went on for a while. They both found it excellent. Then they stopped. â€Å"You said you wanted to talk about our age difference,† Nate said, because he always picked women who broke his heart, and, figuring that his heart was now into this whole thing far enough to be broken, he wanted to get on with it. â€Å"Yeah, we probably should. Maybe we should sit down.† â€Å"Couch?† â€Å"No, at the table. You might want a drink.† â€Å"No, I’m okay.† Yep, heartbreak, he thought. They sat. â€Å"So,† she said, curling her legs up under her, sitting like a little kid, making him feel ever more the creepy old guy leching on the young girl, â€Å"you know that the whaley boys have been pulling people in here from shipwrecks and plane crashes for years, right?† â€Å"That’s what Cielle said.† â€Å"She wants you, I can tell, but that’s beside the point. Do you know that they pulled whole crews off sunken submarines, plus they’ve yanked sonar guys out of port for years?† â€Å"I didn’t know that.† â€Å"Doesn’t matter, has nothing to do with what I’m telling you. So you realize that some people who have been lost at sea, like the crew of the American sub Scorpion that sank back in 67, actually ended up here?† â€Å"Okay. That makes sense. More of the Goo looking out for itself. Gaining knowledge.† â€Å"Yeah, but that’s not the point. I mean, those guys helped put together a lot of the technology you saw on the whale ship, the human technology, but that doesn’t matter. The important part is that the world thinks that the crew of the Scorpion is at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, even though they’re not. Got it?† â€Å"Okay,† Nate said, really slowly, the way he had spoken to the Colonel when he was losing the point – much the way he was waving in the conversational wind right now. You read "Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings Chapter 33" in category "Essay examples" â€Å"And you realize that when I applied with you and Clay, that I gave my real name, which is Amy Earhart, and that Amy is short for Amelia?† â€Å"Oh, my God,† Nate said. â€Å"Ha!† Amy said. The ship broker found Clay’s ship in the Philippines, in Manila Harbor. Clay bought it based on faxed photographs, a spec sheet, and a recent hull certification for just under $2 million of the Old Broad’s money. It was a 180-foot-long U.S. Coast Guard fisheries patrol vessel built in the late fifties. It had been refitted several times since then, once in the seventies for fishing, once in the eighties for ocean survey, and finally in the nineties as a live-aboard dive boat for the adventure tourist. It had plenty of comfortable cabins as well as compressors, dive platforms, and cranes to raise and lower support vessels onto the rear deck, although, except for the lifeboats, it came with no support craft. Clay thought they could use the rear deck as a helicopter-landing pad, even if there wasn’t a budget for a helicopter, but – you know – someone with a helicopter might want to land there, and it helped no end to have a big H painted on the dec k. There was a budget for painting a big H. The ship had efficient, if not quite state-of-the-art, navigation equipment, radar, autopilot, and some old but functioning sonar arrays left over from its days as a fishing ship. It had twin twelve-hundred-horsepower diesel engines and could distill up to twenty tons of freshwater a day for the crew and passengers. There were cabins and support for forty. It was also rated a class-three icebreaker, which was a feature that Clay hoped they wouldn’t have to test. He really didn’t like cold water. Through another broker Clay hired the crew of ten men, sight unseen, right off the docks of Manila: a group of brothers, cousins, and uncles with the last name of Mangabay, among whom the broker guaranteed that there were no murderers, or at least no convicted murderers, and only petty thieves. The eldest uncle, Ray Mangabay, who would be Clay’s first mate, would sail the ship to Honolulu, where Clay would meet them. â€Å"He’s going to be driving my ship,† Clay said to Clair after he’d gotten the news that he had a crew and a first mate. â€Å"You have to let your ship go, Clay,† Clair said. â€Å"If he sinks it, it wasn’t really yours.† â€Å"But it’s my ship.† â€Å"What are you going to call it?† He was thinking about the Intrepid or the Merciless or some other big-dick, blow-shit-up kind of name. He was thinking about Loyal or Relentless or the Never Surrender, because he was determined now to find his friend, and he didn’t mind putting that right on the bow. â€Å"Well, I was thinking about – ; â€Å"You were thinking deeply about it, weren’t you?† Clair interrupted. â€Å"Yes, I thought I’d call her the Beautiful Clair.† â€Å"Just the Clair will be fine, baby. You don’t want the bow to look busy.† â€Å"Right. The Clair.† Strangely enough, on second thought, that pretty much encompassed Intrepid, Merciless, Relentless, and Loyal. Plus, it had the underlying meaning of keeper of the booty, which was sort of a bonus in a ship name, he thought. â€Å"Yeah, that’s a good name for her.† â€Å"How long before she gets here?† â€Å"Two weeks. She’s not fast. Twelve knots cruising. If we have somewhere to go, I’ll send the ship directly there and meet it at a port along the way.† â€Å"Well, now that she’s called the Clair, I hope they bring her in safe.† â€Å"My ship,† Clay said anxiously. â€Å"So,† Nate said, â€Å"You’re what, in your nineties? A hundred?† â€Å"Don’t look it, do I?† Amy posed: a coquettish half curtsy with a Betty Boop bump at the end. Indeed, it would have been a spry move for a woman in her nineties. Nate was really glad he was sitting down, but he missed the sensation he would have had of needing to sit down. â€Å"Your whole attraction was based on my age, wasn’t it?† She sat across from him. â€Å"You were working out your male menopause on the fantasy of my young body. Somehow you were going to try to recapture your youth. Once again you’d feel like more than a footnote to humanity. You’d be virile and vital and relevant and all alpha male, just because a younger – and decidedly luscious, I might add – woman had chosen you, right?† â€Å"Nuh-uh,† Nate said. She was wrong, right? â€Å"Wow, Nate, were you on the debate team at Moose Dirt U? I mean, your talent –  » â€Å"Sasketchewan in the Sticks,† he corrected. â€Å"So the age thing? It’s a problem?† â€Å"You’re like a hundred. My grandma isn’t even a hundred, and she’s dead.† â€Å"No, I’m not really that old.† She grinned and reached across the table, took his hand. â€Å"It’s okay, Nate. I’m not Amelia Earhart.† â€Å"You’re not?† Nate felt his lungs expand, as if a steel band around his chest had broken. He’d been taking tiny yip breaths, but now oxygen was returning to his brain. Funny, he was pretty sure that none of the other women he’d been with had been Amelia Earhart either, but he didn’t remember feeling quite so relieved about it before. â€Å"Well, I should have known. I mean, you don’t look anything like the pictures. No goggles.† â€Å"I was just messin’ with you. I’m her daughter. Ha!† â€Å"Stop it! This isn’t funny, Amy. If you’re trying to make a point, you’ve made it. Yes, you’re an attractive young woman, and maybe your youth’s a part of why I’m attracted to you, but that’s just biology. You can’t blame me for that. I didn’t make a move on you, I didn’t harass you when we were working together. I treated you exactly as I would have treated any research assistant, except maybe you got away with more because I liked you. You can’t ridicule me for responding to you sexually down here when you came on to me. The rules had changed.† â€Å"I’m not ridiculing you. Amelia Earhart really is my mother.† â€Å"Stop it.† â€Å"You want to meet her?† Nate searched her face for signs of a grin or a tremble in her throat that might indicate the rise of an Amy Ha! Nothing there, just that little bit of sweetness that she usually tried to hide. â€Å"So somehow, living down here, you haven’t aged. Your mother?† â€Å"We age, but not like on the surface. I was born in 1940. I’m about the same number of years older than you than you were older than me a half hour ago – kinda sorta. You going to dump me?† â€Å"It’s so hard to believe.† â€Å"Why, after you’ve seen all this? You’ve seen what the Goo can do. Why is it so hard to believe that I’m sixty-four?† â€Å"Well, for one, you’re so immature.† â€Å"Shut up. I’m young at heart.† â€Å"But for a second there I was so sure we were doomed.† Nate rubbed his temples – trying to stretch them, maybe – to make his head bigger to hold the whole concept of Amy’s being sixty-four. â€Å"No, it’s okay, we just haven’t gotten to that yet. We’re still doomed.† â€Å"Oh, thank goodness,† Nate said. â€Å"I was worried.† Later, after they had pushed the world away for a while, made love and napped in each other’s arms, Amy made a move to start another round, and Nate awoke to an immediate and uncertain anxiety. â€Å"Are we really doomed?† he asked. â€Å"Oh, goddamn it Nate!† She was straddling him, so she was able to get a good windup before thumping him hard in the chest with her fist. â€Å"That’s just un-fucking-professional!† Nate thought about how the praying mantis female will sometimes bite off the male’s head during copulation and how the male’s body continues to mate until the act is finished. â€Å"Sorry,† he said. She rolled off him and stared up at dim strips of green luminescence on the ceiling. â€Å"It’s okay. I didn’t mean to bite your head off.† â€Å"Pardon?† â€Å"Yes, we’re probably doomed. We’re doomed for the same reason that I look the way I do, that most of the Goos look much younger than we really are. Turn a gene on, you age; turn it off, you don’t. I’ve even seen some people down here who seem to get younger. Flip a switch, pancreatic cancer at age twenty-two; flip another, you can smoke four packs a day and live to be a hundred. If the Goo thinks that the human race is a danger to it, it just has to flip a switch, pick a gene, make a virus, and the human race would blink out. I hadn’t really thought about it as a threat before. My whole life I’ve worked for the Goo. Service, you know? It takes care of us. It’s the source.† He didn’t know what to say. Did he need to actually take the Colonel’s request for help seriously? Did he need to help find a way to kill this amazing creature in order to save his own species? â€Å"Amy, I don’t know what to do. Two days ago I just wanted to get out of here. Now? The Colonel and you both said I was lucky to be alive. Has the Goo killed people who were close to finding out about it?† â€Å"Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve never seen it or heard of it happening, but I – we – each just do our own part down here. We don’t ask a lot of questions. Not because we’re told not to or anything – it’s just that you can live a long time without asking yourself big questions when your needs are looked after.† For the first time Nate could see the experience of years in Amy’s face, marked not by wrinkles but by a shadow in her eyes. â€Å"I’m asking,† he said. â€Å"Do I think the Goo is ethically capable of killing the human race?† â€Å"I guess.† â€Å"I don’t even know if the Goo has ethics, Nate. According to the Colonel, it’s just a vehicle for genes and we’re just vehicles for memes and nature says that a head-on collision is inevitable. What if it’s not? This battle has supposedly gone on for millions of years, and now the Colonel wants to force an endgame? What I do know is that you’ve got to talk him out of trying to kill it.† â€Å"But he’s your leader.† â€Å"Yeah, but he didn’t tell any of us about this. I think he’s doubting his own judgment. So am I.† â€Å"But you said that it could kill everyone on the planet at the flick of a switch.† â€Å"Yeah.† She rolled over and propped herself up on her elbow. â€Å"You hungry? I’m hungry.† â€Å"I could eat.† How to cite Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings Chapter 33, Essay examples