“Climate Change” .It seems as if this is a baffling issue that no one is too willing to confront. This unwillingness from some to confront the occurrence of climate change can stem from the fact that it is seen as economically harmful to operate in an environmentally friendly way. However, after being introduced to the idea that sustainable development concerns not only the environment, but also social and economic realms, I realize that businesses need not forget about their social and economic goals if they wish to be sustainable. As this article mentions, there are a couple of ways to highlight the need for sustainable development- “getting angry” or “going right”. It argues that while “getting angry” can drive policy changes, “going right” seems productive, as policy makers will likely be more inclined to incorporate sustainable ideas, even if they are not convinced that climate change is occurring. “Going right” is not as focused on proving a point (the “getting angry” approach) rather, its goal is to keep taking steps in the sustainable direction.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2011/10/next-steps-climate-change

The title above refers to the ‘Big Mac Index’, introduced by The Economist magazine. Essentially, part of McDonald’s marketing strategy is to offer familiar products everywhere in the world and therefore, the consumer knows what they are going to get from going to any McDonalds restaurant. The Big Mac burger can be seen as a constant good worldwide and consequently, is a convenient way to compare the purchasing power parity of different countries (basically how strong their currency is based on the price of a Big Mac).  Aside from being a homogenous good, this burger does seem to be an acceptable good to compare worldwide, because McDonalds restaurants are located almost everywhere in the world making the Big Mac easily accessible to many consumers and therefore a fairly accurate representation of countries worldwide. Also, the price of a Big Mac does reflect what the consumer is paying for the burger itself. Meaning that when a consumer goes to McDonalds, ambiance, customer service and other factors that may differ from country to country need not be included in the price of a Big Mac, because in general, consumers do not expect this from their McDonald’s experience.

http://www.economist.com/node/13055650

https://blogs.ubc.ca/adelletepper1/2011/10/04/iphone-5-expected-to-break-sales-record/#comment-12

Here is the link to a comment I made to Ms. Adelle Tepper’s blog post about iPhone sales.