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You are an economist for the Vanda-Laye Corporation, which produces and distributes outdoor cooking supplies. The company has come under new ownership and management and will be undergoing changes in its product lines and operating structure. As an economist, your responsibilities include examining the market factors that affect success or failure of a product, including the supply and demand for the product, market conditions, and the behavior of competitors with similar products.

Your supervisor, Jorge, has assigned you the task of evaluating a new product. The new product, oven mittens, has several competitors in the marketplace, but your company will be using a new patented material that provides protection from heat and maintains a great deal of flexibility. The supply and demand functions for oven mittens are as follows:

Q_d = 45 – 6.9P

Q_s = –15 + 10P

where Q_d is the quantity demanded, Q_s the quantity supplied, and P the price.

Tasks:

Jorge has asked you to research the market and provide detailed responses to the following questions:

• What is the equilibrium price and quantity for oven mittens? Using Microsoft Excel, construct a table that shows the quantity demanded, the quantity supplied, and the surplus or shortage associated with prices from $2 to $5.55. (Use appropriate intervals.) Indicate the level at which equilibrium is achieved. Graph the data, indicating the equilibrium level and the areas of shortage or surplus.
• If a price floor were established at $4, what would happen in this market? Explain your answer.
• If a price ceiling were established at $3, what would happen in this market? Explain your answer.
• What will happen to the demand curve for the product if the following changes occur? Answer separately for each change, assuming each event to be independent of the other:
  • The price of the substitute Good A increases.
  • The price of the complementary Good C increases.

Submission Details:

• Compile your calculations and graph in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet  and your analysis in a Microsoft Word document 

Note: There are two (2) parts to this journal entry.

Part A: Executive Summary

You will create a fictional start-up company that serves the U.S. market with a product or service.

Write one to two (1-2) paragraphs in which you:

1. Provide a detailed description of your company. The description should include, at a minimum, the company’s name, its history, founders, business purpose, and mission.
2. Describe, in detail, the product or service the company produces or services. Include trademark, color, shape, packaging, labeling, and any characteristics that you deem relevant.

Part B: Targeting Customers

You will now consider who your customers are and identify your market segment.

It is vital that you clearly identify your target customers within your marketing plan. Knowing your target customers will help you to:

• pinpoint where you should spend your advertising budget
• determine the type of campaign you intend to run, and
• ensure that your marketing message speaks the customer’s language (based on their needs and wants, demographic, location, ethnicity, etc.).

Write one to two (1-2) paragraphs in which you:

1. Analyze the business customers / clients that you wish to target. Your analysis should include, but not be limited to, their:
   1. demographic profile (e.g., age, gender, ethnicity, etc.)
   2. psychographic profile (e.g., interests, routine, habits, etc.)
   3. profession (e.g., income, occupation, education)
   4. geographic location (e.g., country, region, city, rural, urban, climate)
   5. precise wants and needs as they relate to the products and / or services you offer.
2. Use at least two (2) quality references. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources.

Note: Upon completion of the journal, fill out the “Company Overview” section in the Marketing Plan Template, located in Week 1. Next, insert the information from the completed Journal 1 entry into “Section 1: Executive Summary” and “Section 2: Targeting Customers” within the provided Marketing Plan Template.

Film makers often dramatize historical events.  In some cases this dramatization involves placing fictional characters in a particular historical setting.  In other cases it involves portraying the life and times of actual historical figures.  These efforts are artistic and entertaining; however, they also raise many important questions:

1.  How historically accurate is the film?
2.  If there are inaccuracies, what accounts for them?  Is the director simply taking dramatic license in order to keep the story moving?  Are the inaccuracies designed to manipulate the audience’s understanding of history for political or ideological reasons?  Are the inaccuracies simply the result of carelessness on the part of the script writer and director?

With this in mind, your assignment in this Blog is to:

1.  Read the following “Re-Viewing the Past” articles in your text:

     A.  Black Robe (p. 46)
     B.  The Crucible (p. 76)
     C.  The Patriot (p. 138)
     D.  The Alamo (p. 316)
     E.  Cold Mountain (p. 428)

2.  Post your response to the following questions:

     A.  What reasons do your authors give to explain the historical inaccuracies in the films?  Give an example from one of the articles.
     B.  In your view, do the historical inaccuracies harm or help our understanding of past events and historical figures?  Explain.
     C.  In your view, do the historical inaccuracies harm or  help our understanding of the present (people or groups)?  That is to say, do directors use historical events and people to make a point about America and Americans today?  Explain.

GUIDELINES

Your score will be based on the following:

1.  Length.  Your response must include a minimum of one paragraph for each question (A, B, and C), a total of three paragraphs.
2.  The extent to which your response demonstrates critical thinking skills.
3.  The extent to which you addressed the questions posed by the instructor.
4.  Proper spelling and grammar must be observed (no text-speak).

Performing tax research to find correct answers to a given tax situation and composing memoranda summarizing these findings are important parts of tax practice. As there are a number of authoritative primary tax law sources. The first, the Internal Revenue Code, is the law enacted by Congress. The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service publish a number of materials that interpret and provide decisions, pronouncing their interpretation and application of the Code, including Treasury regulations, revenue rulings, and revenue procedures. Finally, courts are often asked to hear tax disputes between taxpayers and the United States, and these courts issue rulings that interpret and apply the tax law, creating additional tax authority in the process. These combined writings constitute primary tax law authority, and these are the authorities that tax practitioners rely upon when a client asks for their opinions regarding how a proposed or a completed transaction should be treated for tax purposes.

In this project, you will be presented with two such transactions and asked to answer one or more tax questions related to these transactions. You will be provided with selected primary authorities—such as the applicable Code sections and court opinions—that are relevant to these transactions and questions. Accordingly, you will need to read and analyze these authorities, apply their holdings to the facts you are given, and conclude how the transaction you are given should be treated for tax purposes. You will then document all of these findings and conclusions in a tax file memorandum, as explained and outlined in Chapter 2 of your text. Each of these two memoranda is worth 30 points, for a combined total of 60 points.

In addition to these two transactions, you will be presented with a third research project that will introduce a particular tax concept or current issue of tax law and ask you to perform some research and analysis related to that concept or issue. To complete the project, you will be required to perform Internet research to find materials relevant to these concepts or issues, as well as complete a written analysis and explanation of these materials and findings that answers one or more questions posed by the problem.

The Research Essay should be completed using a conventional essay format. A thorough submission should consider including all of the following elements:

• Cover Page: Include who you prepared the paper for, who prepared it, and the date.
• Table of Contents: List the main ideas and section of your paper and the pages in which they are located. The illustrations should be included separately.
• Introduction: Use a header on your paper. This will indicate that you are introducing your paper. As you know, the purpose of an introduction is threefold:
1. to introduce the subject and why the subject is important;
2. to preview the main ideas and the order in which they will be covered; and
3. to establish a tone of the document.

   Include in the introduction a reason for the audience to read the paper. Also include an overview of what you are going to cover in your paper, and the importance of the material. (This should include or introduce the questions you are asked to answer on each assignment.)

• Body of Your Report: Use a header titled with the name of your project. Example: “The Development of Hotel X—A World Class Resort.” Then proceed to break out the main ideas. State the main ideas, state major points in each idea, and provide evidence. Break out each main idea you will use in the body of your paper. Show some type of division like separate sections that are labeled; separate groups of paragraphs; or headers. Include the information you found during your research and investigation.
• Summary and Conclusion: Summarizing is similar to paraphrasing but presents the gist of the material in fewer words than the original. An effective summary identifies the main ideas and major support points from the body of your report. Minor details are left out. Summarize the benefits of the ideas and how they affect the subject.

Works Cited: Use the citation format… APA format  is needed

Ethics and Social Responsibility
Please respond to the following:

• Select a small business with which you are familiar and develop a plan of action for encouraging ethical behavior. Provide specific examples to support your response.
• Analyze a business’s responsibilities to the environment, employees, customers, investors, and the community, and determine which is the most important. Explain your rationale.