Regulation - McGraw-Hill Introduction to Business

The Big Banks May Start to Shrink

May 2, 2015

When the stock market collapsed in 2008, the government deemed Wall Street’s ailing banks “too big to fail” and provided them with a multi-billion dollar bailout. The emergency loan ultimately saved the banks, but has provided no shortage of controversy ever since. To the financial sector’s critics, many of the problems caused by these banks stemmed from their enormous size. In fact, nothing much has changed since the financial collapse: the same five banks that dominated bond underwriting and Continue reading →

Economics, Banking, Ethics, Finance, Regulation, Dodd-Frank, Federal Reserve

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 3: Globalization, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 8: Organizational Culture and Structure, Chapter 17: Accounting, Chapter 18: Financial Management, Chapter 19: Securities Markets, Chapter 20: Money and Financial Institutions, Bonus Chapter A: Business Law

Costly Drug Development Could Curb Innovation

April 5, 2015

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Each year the pharmaceutical industry develops new drugs that go a long way towards fighting some of the world’s worst diseases. For instance, Bristol-Meyers Squibb recently received FDA (Food & Drug Administration) approval for Opdivo, a drug that significantly boosts the survival rate for sufferers of advanced melanoma. However, one major obstacle stands in the way of Opdivo’s ability to help patients: price. One year of treatment with the drug costs $150,000 per patient, an impossibly tall order for many Continue reading →

Health, Pharmaceuticals, Ethics, Product Development, Innovation, Regulation

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution, Bonus Chapter A: Business Law, Bonus Chapter D: Personal Finance

Lumber Liquidators Comes up Short

April 2, 2015

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To many amateur investors, a company that brings in more than $1 billion in annual sales would seem like a pretty safe bet. But these numbers didn’t impress Wall Street hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson when he noticed them in a report about Lumber Liquidators. From his professional perspective, this small flooring retailer should not have been enjoying such large profit margins. Suspecting that the company was cutting corners in some way, he advised his clients to sell the company Continue reading →

Product Distribution, Lumber Liquidators, Ethics, Manufacturing, Product Development, Finance, Regulation

Chapter 3: Globalization, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 9: Production and Operations Management, Bonus Chapter A: Business Law

Wisconsin Becomes a Right-to-Work State

March 30, 2015

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Near the end of February, the Wisconsin legislature passed a controversial bill that could change the face of labor in the state. Under the new “right-to-work” law, employees in unionized, private sector workplaces can choose whether or not to pay their union dues. According to Governor Scott Walker and his supporters, the law grants more freedom for individuals to choose where they work. “This legislation will ensure that Wisconsin’s workers have the sole power to determine whether they wish to Continue reading →

Ethics, Wisconsin, Unions, Labor Relations, Compensation, Regulation, Right-to-Work

Chapter 2: Economics, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 10: Motivation, Chapter 12: Labor Management and Unions, Bonus Chapter A: Business Law

Getting Drones Airborne for U.S. Companies

March 18, 2015

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Much of the American public has been familiar with unmanned aircraft for years due to the military’s continued and controversial use of drone strikes in the Middle East. However, just recently consumers have been introduced to drones that differ greatly from the grey behemoths that haunt the skies of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Sales of these small models have surged as everyone from filmmakers to farmers find a use for the flying machines. In fact, over the last two years the Continue reading →

Global, Ethics, Product Development, Innovation, Regulation, Drones

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Bonus Chapter A: Business Law

The FCC’s Big Net Neutrality Decision

March 1, 2015

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Over the last few years, net neutrality has appeared as a subject of debate everywhere from Internet forums to the highest levels of government. As of February 26, 2015 however, the Federal Communications Commission may have ended the discussion once and for all. On that day, the FCC voted to classify Internet providers as public utilities, thus preventing them from extending better service to websites who pay more money. The decision was a victory for the Internet’s many net neutrality Continue reading →

Net Neutrality, Ethics, Innovation, Regulation, Product Distribution, FCC

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Bonus Chapter A: Business Law, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

China Cracks Down on Knockoffs

February 7, 2015

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As the world’s manufacturing superpower, China is home to thousands of factories producing millions of items each day. Keeping track of all that industrial output is far from easy, though. With little oversight to monitor them, some Chinese factories make knock-off or simply poor quality products, and then sell them to retailers as if they were up to standard.

While pirated items are mainly a headache for the company that gets ripped off, products made cheaply or without regard for Continue reading →

Knockoff products, Product Development, Global, China, Ethics, Regulation, Manufacturing, Product Distribution

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 3: Globalization, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 9: Production and Operations Management, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution, Bonus Chapter A: Business Law

The Bright Future for Cuba’s Skilled Workers

January 29, 2015

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In mid-December 2014 President Obama shocked the world by announcing that the U.S. would reestablish a diplomatic relationship with Cuba. Reversing more than six decades of American foreign policy, the decision is expected to have an enormous impact on Cubans living both on the island and abroad. Diplomats are even discussing lifting the trade embargo that the U.S. imposed in the 1960s in response to Cuba’s hostile Communist regime.

Besides opening up channels for travel and trade, the easing of Continue reading →

Human Resources, Labor Relations, Regulation, Education, Cuba, Global, Training

Chapter 3: Globalization, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 11: Human Resource Management

California’s Far-Reaching Chicken Legislation

January 19, 2015

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At the beginning of 2015 a new California law went into effect requiring chicken farmers to provide more living space for their hens. As of January 1, every egg sold in the state must have been laid by a bird with at least 116 square inches of room in its coop, an increase of 73 percent from the industry standard. Although the legislation is mandatory only for egg producers in California, chicken farmers across the country are quickly adapting to Continue reading →

Food, Regulation, Product Distribution, California, Chicken, Ethics

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 20: Money and Financial Institutions

Doing Business with a Proactive Legal Strategy

December 6, 2014

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The sheer size of today’s corporations virtually ensures that companies will have to wrangle with lots of legal red tape. Most top executives spend as little time as possible dealing with law, choosing either to avoid it or grudgingly comply with the restrictions they face. In the former case, a company may try to move some operations into another country to dodge certain taxes, while in the latter executives simply do the bare minimum necessary to make it through the Continue reading →

Management, Copyright, Regulation, Disney, Legal

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 7: Management & Leadership, Chapter 20: Money and Financial Institutions, Bonus Chapter A: Business Law