2. Question : (TCO 6) In the 1980s, Caterpillar was negatively affected by a strong dollar and lost significant market share to Japanese competitor Komatsu. The situation prompted Caterpillar to revise its global strategy and by the 2000s, the company was in a much better position to deal with volatile currency values. More recently, a strong dollar has actually helped boost Caterpillar’s bottom line. In the 1980s, a stronger dollar hurt Caterpillar’s competitive position, but in 2008 a stronger dollar did not seem to have the same effect.
Chapter 39: The Stalemated Seventies A. Describe the economic situation going into the 1970s- The baby boom generation would be making less money than their parents but as the economic growth crested, the American spirit gave an unaccustomed sense of limits. I. Sources of Stagnation A. List a few reasons economists speculate could be the cause of the slump in productivity increasing presence in the work force of women and teens (had lower skills, less likely to take full time jobs),declining investment in new machinery, general shift of American economy from manufacturing to services B.
Notwithstanding increasing dividends and a moderately stable share price, the home improvement retail industry remains to struggle due to the fragmentary world wide economic complications. Throughout 2009 Home Depot recorded expenses as much higher as well as the drop in sales. While Home Depot the company is very strong, the drop in sales and net earnings brought fourth some restraints until the economy shows signs of improvement. With this in mind The Home Depot, Inc. initiated strategies in the fiscal year 2008, to help minimize losses while maintaining a strong customer base. Which in turn may have the company to increase their credit programs for consumers with the intention to increase sales.
Recession is two consecutive quarters of negative economy growth. During recession, there is low level of demand because people don’t have much money to spend. So they look for cheaper products that they can afford. At this time businesses confidence gets low as people aren’t demanding for their products so they would have to cut out their productions as they don’t need to make as much products. At this time they would need to provide cheaper price to attract their consumers and to increase the demand.
I calculated an “inventory turnover ratio” which measures the number of times a company sells its inventory during a year. A high rate of turnover indicates easiness in selling inventory; a low rate indicates difficulty. In 2011, the inventory turnover was 6.1. By 2012 the ratio decreased to 5.2. The decrease may be due to a slow ability to turn around merchandise in sales and potentially due to paying a higher cost for goods.
Discuss how the economic environment in the US culture was changing. How did the changes affect the toy industry and Gilbert? There was a higher demand for low cost, low quality toys that A.C. Gilbert couldn’t compete, until the point where the company introduced 50 new toys for different age groups and toys for girls and preschool children. Although the company tried to change and adapt to the rapidly changing industry, their low quality toys hurt the company a lot, because of the high return rate on some of the poorly built toys. 5.
Recession- The recession is an opposite of boom stage. The unemployment increase, most of firms are losing confidence and stops invest or expand. They may change their planning and started to survive. The customers are likely to save money then spend and the percentages of loans are high and may increase. Individuals are losing jobs and the government have to spend more money of benefits.
ECON545: Project 2—Macroeconomic Analysis By Shawn M. Gilliam Professor Peterson 4/17/15 Looking at the decision of Melanin Car Manufacturing Company expanding their operations to meet the increasing demand from car manufacturers to produces parts for the auto industry. After strong research in various areas to make this expansion successful I concluded that through looking into the industry in the eyes of already profitable plans along with the resources we have there is no way to fail. Three years ago, the nation barely avoided a double-dip recession, after emerging in the second half of 2018 from the longest period of U.S. economic contraction in eight decades. Emerging from the Great Recession, the U.S. economy picked up in 2025 to nearly the level it is
The increase in real GDP would put downward pressure on the price level and reduce inflation. Supply-siders also believed that the budget deficit would not increase substantially as a result of the tax cut. Even if it did increase, it would be offset by increased saving due to the lower taxes. Many economic critics today and in the 1980’s questioned the effectiveness of Reagan s policies, also known as Reaganomics. Economists still argue whether Reagan’s actions were helpful or harmful to the United States economy.
The New York Times claimed that, “When immigrants do take jobs, they’re hard workers” (Preston and Connelly a1). Therefore, it greatly contributes to America’s retirement system. The presence of immigrants also contributes to America’s long term population growth, necessary to stabilize the overall retirement fund. The Springer Science and Business Media’s journal states that some other countries in the world suffer from the labor shortages and a demographic crunch, in which a very small number of workers will be expected to pay the retirement and health care for elderly people (Gold 409). The ratio of retired people to workers is expected to dramatically increase in the coming decades, which would result in significant changes in the Security System of America’s retirement money.