What does Wendell Berry mean when he says that it is wrong to assume that literature’s only context is the literary world”? Do you agree with his belief?

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Literary world

What does Wendell Berry mean when he says that it is wrong to assume that literature’s only context is the literary world”? Do you agree with his belief?

Be sure to support your position with concrete evidence. This evidence may be taken from your observations, your experiences, or your reading, especially the reading from this class.

 

Describe the colonial origins of the American identity and a set of American values. How did Americans define themselves coming out of the American Revolution? How did they determine who belonged and who could claim this American identity, as well as who could not?

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Prompt Option 1: Trace the legal development and growth of slavery in North America before and after the American Revolution (through the new republic). Which economic, geographic, and social factors encouraged growths of slavery in the colonial period (1607- 1775) and the early republican period (1780s through the 1810s)? How did the American Revolution affect the institution of slavery? How did slavery shape colonial and American society?

Prompt Option 2: Describe the colonial origins of the American identity and a set of American values (freedom of speech, freedom of religion, equality, liberty, etc.). How did Americans define themselves coming out of the American Revolution? How did they determine who belonged and who could claim this American identity, as well as who could not? Confine your answer through 1800.

Prompt Option 3: Explain the factors contributing to European immigration to the British North American colonies (later states) through the American Revolution. How did ideas and policies on immigration (and indentured servitude) change after the Revolution? What political, economic, and social challenges did European immigrants to the US face during the first presidential administrations? Confine your answer through the 1810s.

Prompt Option 4: Trace the changes to Native American life since early English settlement in North America. Confine your answer through the War of 1812 and Tecumseh’s War. Describe the nature of British and American policies regarding Native Americans in the colonial period and the early republican periods.

 

Does Andrea Dworkin believe that fairy tales have a strong cultural influence? Which fairy tales does she talk about in her piece? How does she interpret the female protagonist of the fairy tales; how does she think they are portrayed?

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Fairy tales

1-Does Andrea Dworkin believe that fairy tales have a strong cultural influence?

2-Which fairy tales does she talk about in her piece?

3-How does she interpret the female protagonist of the fairy tales; how does she think they are portrayed?

4-What other kinds of female characters does she see in the fairy tales other than the protagonists?

5-What sorts of roles according to her are assigned to men in the fairy tales?

6-What is Dworkin’s argument about standards of feminine beauty in modern culture?

 

What does the factory produce and why was it opened in America? Who are the customers of the factory? What problem happened during the factory opening ceremony? Explain the problem.

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American Factory

The exercise is a documentary film analysis

Each student must watch the movie The American Factory on Netflix and answer the questions:

https://www.netflix.com/qa-en/title/81090071

(The movie is on YouTube, but in parts)

  1. What does the factory produce and why was it opened in America? Who are the customers of the factory?
  2. What problem happened during the factory opening ceremony? Explain the problem (use the Google search engine to identify the problem)?
  3. Discuss the interviews with the Chinese factory employees and the speech of the head of the factory workers union (between about 48 and 50 minutes)
  4. What is the automation that is being talked about at the end of the movie? And what is its impact on countries with a population density such as China and on countries with a low population density such as Qatar?
  5. Discuss the film in general (give your opinion about it in detail) and mention the most prominent things you learned about in this film?

 

 

Describe what colorblindness is and it’s relationship to whiteness and racial structures. Lastly use the the theory of color blindness to analyze a tv show, movie, viral social media post, or an event in your life.

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Color blindness

Analytic Essay: This essay should be analytic. Citations are required.

Color blindness has played an important role in maintaining institutional racism. Describe what colorblindness is and it’s relationship to whiteness and racial structures. Lastly use the the theory of color blindness to analyze a tv show, movie, viral social media post, or an event in your life.

 

Produce a complete 2-4 page paper in which you do a comparison and contrast between driverless cars and/or traditionally driven cars.

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Produce a complete 2-4 page paper in which you do a comparison and contrast between driverless cars and/or traditionally driven cars. Be sure to define your reason for writing , and treat both ideas equally as to pros and cons, costs to promote, validity, efficiency to use, probability of success, and manpower requirements, etc. Your paper should contain an introductory paragraph,statement, body paragraphs each supporting a major idea regarding your point for writing, and a concluding paragraph to wrap-up the paper and signal the completion of your support for your reason for writing.

Although actual research is not a part of this assignment, provide a brief statement at the beginning of the assignment explaining how you would have gone about finding and providing support for your paper.

 

What type of intellectual capital does Bonobos gain from Walmart, if any? Can you give specific examples of other retailers (brick and mortar or e-commerce) which have acquired intellectual capital by buying or partnering with firms?

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Week 4 To Acquire or Not to Acquire? To Merge or Not to Merge?

As we think about the goals of the firm, financial management, and overall retail financial strategy we should also think about how mergers and acquisitions play a part in achieving profitability and increasing market share for the firm.  Should a firm merge with another?  Why or Why not?  Should they acquire a firm instead of merge?

If you will recall in my initial announcement this week I listed some of the biggest mergers and acquisitions of our time.  One concept we can discuss this week is the idea of “intellectual capital” and how it allows firms to achieve and surpass financial goals.  We can also discuss how it helps shape retail financial strategy.

Let’s turn our attention to Wal-Mart and Bonobos.  Wal-Mart acquired Bonobos, a menswear company,  2017 for $310 million.  Some analysts discuss this acquisition by Walmart as gaining intellectual capital.  This becomes an interesting topic as Walmart stands to gain not just expanded digital presence but also numerous resources in terms of knowledge from individuals with these companies who have a broader knowledge base of what it takes to be successful and profitable in the e-commerce segment.

review the following resources within the Reading & Resources area located in the Lessons tab.

1)  Wal-Mart Acquires Bonobos article from New York Times

2)  Video:  Ceri Hughes:  KM Teams can unlock intellectual capital through knowledge and learning systems

3)  Video:  What is intellectual capital?  What does intellectual capital mean?  Intellectual Capital Meaning

Address the following questions in your responses this week.

  • What is intellectual data? Do you agree with this or do you have a different definition?
  • What type of intellectual capital does Bonobos gain from Walmart, if any?
  • Can you give specific examples of other retailers (brick and mortar or e-commerce) which have acquired intellectual capital by buying or partnering with firms?
  • How do you believe these acquisitions will allow this, and any other retailer, to achieve financial goals and create financial retail strategy?
  • Lastly, do you believe intellectual capital is something that can allow a firm to achieve financial goals?  In other words, do you believe this is impactful to the firm financially?

Week 5 The 5 Principles of Finance

After reading all of the articles and/or chapters for this week please review and respond to the following:

  • What are the 5 principles of finance?
  • A fundamental principle of investing is that higher risk requires higher rewards or returns. Give two examples of the risk-return relationship.
  • What is meant by market prices reflect information?

Feel free to incorporate resources into your discussion this week!  Personal experiences are also great to share in your posts as well.

Week 6 Capital Budgeting

After reading all of the articles and/or chapters for this week please review and respond to the following:

As we discuss capital budgeting we can also have a conversation about some of the computer applications we use to help us better understand various capital budgeting techniques.  Locate a specific capital budgeting software and discuss how it supports the various capital budgeting techniques we discussed this week.  What are some of the pros and cons of the software based on the concepts you learned in the lessons and reading this week as well as the previous content from prior weeks?

As a reminder here are the capital budgeting techniques we discussed this week.

Please make sure you provide the website for the capital budgeting software and compare and contrast the software you chose with that of your peers.  Please be as thorough with your response as possible providing complete details.

Feel free to incorporate resources into your discussion this week!  Personal experiences are also great to share in your posts as well.

Week 7 Financial Forecasting and Planning

After reading all of the articles and/or chapters for this week please review and respond to the following:

This week our discussion is on page 216 of your textbook.  It’s also listed below:

Look at newspapers and periodicals, such as The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and Fortune.  You are also able to use other resources that I provided during the first week of course or any other industry related resources.  Think about business news from the past few years or even recently.  Can you find examples of companies that lost their strategic focus?  What were the consequences?

Financial planning is about recognizing factors that influence a company’s success and prepare to respond to them as necessary.

As you complete the discussion this week make sure you provide either a PDF or link to the resource you chose for identification of a recent news event.  As you respond to your peers make sure you are comparing and contrasting the company you chose with that of your peers while also using concepts we have learned in the course.  Remember – applying concepts you learned are very important and you must be able to demonstrate this in a meaningful way.

Week 8 Create a Personal Finance Plan

We have come to our final week of class. I hope you all have enjoyed the semester. I know finance can be a tough subject. However, it is essential to have a basic understanding as you move forward in your career and personal life.

 

For this week’s discussion I would like you to answer the following and  create your own personal financial plan for the future using the financial plan document. This will help you make decisions that will affect your future. (There is no need to use personal financial numbers here) Just create a plan using fictitious numbers. You can save a copy for later to create a real financial plan for yourself and your family.

What is the purpose of a financial plan? How can you benefit by creating one?

Respond to 3 students for questions 4 & 5. Must be at least 100 words and include direct questions

 

What are the assumptions behind the market demand curve? What are the assumptions behind the market supply curve? Draw a market supply curve and a market demand curve for a hypothetical widget market. Label the equilibrium price p* and the equilibrium quantity.

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Macroeconomics 201 Lecture #3: Supply, Demand, and Equilibrium

  1. What are the assumptions behind the market demand curve?
  2. What are the assumptions behind the market supply curve?
  3. Draw a market supply curve and a market demand curve for a hypothetical widget market. Label the equilibrium price p* and the equilibrium quantity q*.
  4. For a hypothetical widget market, label a price p1 that is above the equilibrium price. Using dotted lines, indicate the quantity demand qd1 and the quantity supplied qs1, corresponding to price p1. How would you describe this market situation?
  5. Suppose there was excess demand in the widget market. Explain thoroughly the process by which the market would move from that disequilibrium position to the equilibrium.
  6. Suppose there was a market surplus in the widget market. Explain thoroughly the process by which the market would move to the equilibrium.
  7. Use a graph with market supply and demand functions to demonstrate the impact of an increase in income.
  8. Use a graph with market supply and demand functions to demonstrate the impact of outlawing some technology used by firms in that market that increased productivity, and for which there is no substitute.
  9. What is own price elasticity of demand and what are the factors that determine it?

 

Do you believe that directors have the right to approve their own compensation without taking it to shareholder vote? Did Zuckerberg break the law by not bringing the compensation issue up in a stockholder meeting?

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Excessive Director Compensation at Facebook?In 2014, a shareholder derivative suit was filed in the Delaware Courts alleging that the Facebook Board of Directors violated their duties to their shareholders by paying its nonexecutive directors 43% more than “peers,” despite its net income and revenues being 66% and 49% lower, respectively, than its peers. The peers named in the suit included Adobe, Amazon, Cisco, eBay, EMC, LinkedIn, Netflix, Qualcomm, SAP AG, The Walt Disney Company, VMware, and Yahoo!, Inc. The suit noted that in 2013, the Facebook Board paid its nonexecutive members an average $461,000 per director, 43%, or $140,000 higher than the average per director compensation in Facebook’s Peer Group. It further noted that the Board is free to grant its board members an unlimited amount of stock as part of their annual compensation under a 2012 equity incentive plan, with the only limit a $2.5 million share limit per director in a single year (worth approximately $145 million at the time of filing). The Facebook Board at the time consisted of eight individuals, six of whom were “outside” (i.e., nonemployee) directors including Lead Independent Director Donald Graham, and Directors Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, Reed Hastings, Erskine Boles and Desmond-Hellman. Inside directors included founder and CEO/Chairman Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg. The lawsuit alleged that all of the Directors approved the compensation and all of the nonexecutive directors received the compensation. The lawsuit claimed breach of fiduciary duty, waste of corporate assets, and “unjust enrichment.” The issue of director compensation accelerated in late 2014, when Jan Koum, WhatsApp cofounder and CEO, joined the board and received a salary of $1, but stock awards worth over $1.9 billion, representing a sign-on award of $25 million restricted stock units when Facebook acquired WhatsApp. However, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg allegedly approved the stock grants in a written affidavit, rather than at a stockholder meeting—and with 60% of the voting power, he had the ability to approve whatever he wanted. The question remains as to whether Mark Zuckerberg failed to comply with Delaware corporate law, where the company is incorporated, in circumventing shareholders by signing off on directors’ stock grants instead of presenting it at a shareholders’ meeting.

  1. Do you believe that directors have the right to approve their own compensation without taking it to shareholder vote? Justify your answer and explain what might or might not warrant this.
  2. Did Zuckerberg break the law by not bringing the compensation issue up in a stockholder meeting?
  3. What is an appropriate level of director pay? Is the proposed compensation in the Facebook situation excessive? How might this be determined?
  4. Institutional Shareholder Services, a proxy advisory firm, has noted that there is “too much work and too much time” required of directors; could this justify higher director pay?

 

Write about the leadership skills shown in the Boston Teas Party.

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Leadership skills

Write about the leadership skills shown in the Boston Teas Party. (The Boston Tea Party was an American political and mercantile protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1773.)