International Trade ECO 372 University of Phoenix There are many contributing factors to the stabilization and prosperity of our global market. We, the United States, are living in a time of severe trade deficit, meaning that we are importing many more goods than we are exporting. While it is nice to be able to buy foreign products at a lower price, there is risk in doing so. When we purchase foreign goods over domestic at lower prices it forces our domestic companies to sell their goods at lower prices to remain competitive. These lower prices may lend to making enough profit to sustain the current workforce.
A 2004 study in the Journal of Human Resources by economists William Wascher, Mark Schweitzer and David Neumark determined that lower-wage union workers typically see a boost in employment and earned income following a mandated wage hike. Never mind the corresponding drop in jobs and earned income for nonunion minimum-wage workers. They may have been priced out of the jobs they need, but that is not the union's concern—its members have landed higher wages and reduced competition for jobs. Such considerations are worth keeping in mind when contemplating the president's wage proposal and the fervent Democratic support for similar and often more ambitious measures, such as Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin's bill to raise the minimum wage to $9.80. Labor unions spent an estimated $174 million on the 2012 election, with 91% of the money going to Democrats, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Economic: maximizing stockholders wealth and value In regards to evaluating your company on their attitude toward economic social responsibility, I have found that your company has made some good moves, although there could be some improvements made in this area. By closing down the two stores that were losing money you increased the profits at your other stores. This helps the wealth of your stockholders, and shows a good attitude toward economic social responsibility. Considering the high profit margin of stocking health and organic products your company took years to stock the products and still only carries a limited supply. This shows a bad attitude toward economic social responsibility.
budgeted: $220,000 This also seems too low based on the increasing trend for Executive Compensation between Years 6, 7, and 8 ($170,000; $220,000; and $220,000 respectively) (Horizontal Analysis). Again, to keep up with the cost of living and to motivate good executives to stay with the company, a more realistic figure would be approximately $270,000. Concern #5: Utilities (costs to run utilities) Competition Bikes, Inc. budgeted: $150,000 This seems too low based on the increasing trend for Utilities between Years 6, 7, and 8 ($130,000; $135,000; and $150,000 respectively) (Horizontal Analysis). To keep up with inflation, a more realistic figure would be around $165,000. Concern #6: Other General and Admin.
Problem Statement The problem, in this case, stemmed from declining department sales and inappropriate business practices that created unpleasant work conditions and significant reductions in employee productivity. There was poor communication between management and employees and the tally system incentivized individual goals rather than the group goal. This methodology caused
These medals are success stories for the countries, but as well as the Olympics. Also, Iowa teenager, Nastia Luikin, takes home the gold for the U.S. under pressure. And China collected 51 gold medals which is the highest figure for nations who have competed in the Olympics within the last 20 years. With 159,801 views of the U.S. Girls Gymnastics Olympics team and 155,830 of Women’s Olympic Gymnastics teams alone, these two sets of gymnasts’ show the success for the 2008 Gymnastics Olympics.
Factor number two is the company offering free shipping to orders over $100. Not only did this cause the company to lose the income that it brings in for shipping and add shipping costs to it’s expenses, it also added to marketing by $13,000 plus an additional $32,000 for magazine marketing when ‘Marketing and administration’ it was only budgeted at $90,000. The shift in the economy during this time frame affected the budgeted ‘labor’ expense due to the increase in pay for it’s hourly employees. All of these factors combined worked against the company to cause a negative in operating profit. Although AGM fell short in meeting it’s master budget for this quarter, these unexpected occurrences can help them to better budget for the future of agm.com.
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.
The National Employment Law Project finds that about sixty-six percent of low-wage workers are employed by large companies or corporations, not small businesses. “It also found that more than seventy percent of the biggest low-wage employers have recovered from the recent recession and are recording strong profits, yet wages remains unchanged for their frontline employees. The minimum wage hasn't kept up with inflation, making those with families of three or more people well below the poverty level.”(National Employment Law Project) One group claims that by increasing the rate, small businesses will be strapped for making ends meet thus potentially having fewer available job positions. There is also the concern of having to layoff employees in order to make a profit. Another factor to consider is perhaps companies may have to raise the price of a consumer good or product to offset the increase in an employee’s wages.
Most people immigrants who are undocumented don’t pay taxes because they are paid under the table. Edward P. Lazear, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, stated, “Immigrants not only help fuel the Nation’s economic growth, but also have an overall positive effect on the income of native-born workers”. Immigrants are a critical part of the workforce (1 in 7 workers) and contribute to productivity growth and technological advancement. Without the immigrants, we would have a decline in labor force of 3 to 4 percent, we could not have grown nearly as much as we did in the ‘90s and in the last few years our growth would have been slower. Edward Lazear also says that immigrants are more likely to be entrepreneurs than native-born U.S. citizens.