Recently I read an article on Braeden’s blog regarding a once powerful, wealthy man Eike Batista and how he went from a multibillionaire to a multimillionaire. Was is a gambling problem that got to Batista? No. It was greed. Batista promised investors that his oil company would be able to pump out 400,000 gallons a day. The company stock was flooded with investors and ballooned to over $21 a share. When the actual date to mine came, it only pumped 15,000 gallons a day leading investors to quickly dump their stock while they still can. I agree with Braeden, you can never be too comfortable dealing with money. Batista had the entire world bowing down towards him and because of one costly mistake, it cost him his entire fortune. Other billionaires like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet take extreme measures to protect their money and are careful with what they say or invest. Being a billionaire should entitle you to never work again but with poor business management one false step and you drown.

https://blogs.ubc.ca/braedenelsaesser/2013/10/06/how-to-lose-34-5-billion/

In the US, roughly 30% of Americans have bachelor’s degree. To increase the economy in the US, President Barack Obama has proposed to increase the number of years in high school from 5 to 6. One school in the US already offers this program with students graduating from it not only earning a high school diploma but also an associates degree. It is an interesting concept considering almost 70% of Americans only have a high school diploma. There are a lot of young people in America who are making $15 an hour working on low level jobs. With the additional year and an associates degree, the hourly rate will increase with a lot more people working on specialized jobs such as web programmer. I support the US government by the fact that they are willing to spend billions of dollars on kids to ensure they graduate from high school. My criticism comes with the government for unwilling to spend the money towards post secondary degrees. It should be noted that a high school diploma is all but useless in today’s economy. Yes there are those occasional success stories but for the majority of people, they are not able to find a well paying job simply because they do not have the skills to do so. In the end, I fully support the proposal to increase the number of year of high school from 5 to 6 to ensure that kids are armed with the knowledge they need to succeed in today’s society.

Foroohar: To Compete, America Needs 6-Year High Schools

To this day, almost everybody you or I know has a Facebook account. Everything from a person’s personality to the types of people associated can be found on Facebook. Because of this, many job candidates are having their Facebook account checked out before they are considered fit for the job. According to the article, more than 40% of recruiters have reconsidered one’s application after processing a candidate’s Facebook account and 60% say poor grammar and use of slang will think of the candidate’s writing as dreadful. Many Facebook profiles are not private which is why a lot of the times, recruiters are able to locate the account. For me, using Facebook as a method to find potential candidates is a terrible idea. Recruiters have to know that Facebook is a site where people interact with friends. Many people use improper, foul, or even racist language because they know that they are talking towards a friend who can handle it. Facebook is not a site where official business interactions are conducted but rather a site for leisurely fun. Recruiters cannot expect people to behave the same way they would during work hours otherwise if candidates know that their Facebook account are monitored, they will manipulate it to make themselves stand out which may not be a true reflection of their work skills.

Will Your Facebook Profile Sabotage Your Job Search?

How would you like to get paid for doing nothing? This could potentially be true in Switzerland as Swiss activists delivered a public referendum proposing to give the public around $10,000 a year for simply being Swiss. Everyone is entitled to the money no matter how rich, poor, hardworking, or lazy they are. The main object of course is to eliminate poverty but there are many problems with this proposal that I’ve noticed. The first and foremost is that a lot of people will simply take advantage of this referendum and consider themselves retired and never have to work again. In a country with a population of 8 million citizens, this will certainly slow the economy if there are not a lot of people working. With this another problem arises. There are many low paying jobs that are necessary for an economy to grow. Demanding jobs such as labourers and construction workers might be overlooked simply because one has the security of $10,000 and can afford the time to look for well paying jobs that are not physically and mentally demanding. Sure it would be great to see a cheque of $10,000 every year arrive at your house but it may not be so great for the economy.

Unlike traditional stock investments, I came across an interesting article regarding investing in a professional athlete. Arian Foster, running back for the Houston Texans has an IPO on himself and surprisingly, a company called Fantax has already bought 20% shares for $10 million. You might wonder how you make money from investing in athletes. When a shareholder buys a stock on Foster, they own a piece of Foster’s lifetime football related earnings. Those earnings depend heavily on Foster’s performances and public image. Would you ever invest stocks in a professional athlete? Knowing the risks involved and the potential for career ending injuries, it is not something that I would personally invest in. It is however, an interesting concept. Foster is 27 years old and for a football player, that is not someone who is young and upcoming rather it is someone who has matured and are at the peak of their performance. If I were to invest in any professional athlete, I would take a gamble on someone who is a high draft pick and has shown upsides in their first couple of years playing.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-29/want-to-buy-stock-in-an-nfl-running-back-.html

I read a blog recently by Calvin that had to do with Burger King changing their name to Fries King. My first thought was laughter. Then as I realized that this was happening, I couldn’t help but feel for the marketing department in Burger King. Every business knows that a brand is just as important as the item it sells. For example, people buy Nike shoes simply because they are Nike. Even if the design was same and another company sold it, people would still prefer to buy Nike. What if a company like Apple changed their name to Orange? Sales would go down tremendously because most people are not susceptible to change and they will think that the entire company model has changed. If a company was rebranding itself because of a bad situation then I would certainly understand. For Burger King, whose name has stood for over 60 years, changing the name not only changes what people see the restaurant as. In my opinion, Burger King should stick with the name that has helped them generate billions of dollars in revenue.

Burger King = Fries King?

Recently, Walmart has faced criticism for their low hourly pay. A report, revealed by Bill Simon, the president and CEO of Walmart has 525,000 full time employees make less than $25,000 a year. If your curious, $25,000 a year equates to roughly $12 an hour on a full time job Monday to Friday from 9AM to 6PM. $25,000 is however, well above the poverty line in the United States but why would there be complaints for the low wage? A study at one Walmart in Wisconsin found that 300 employees needed roughly $900,000 worth of public assistance a year. Certainly, it is difficult for us to imagine living on less than $25,000 a year but in reality, many people do. If Walmart does raise the wages, Walmart is almost certainly to have their profits decreased which is not what they want. However, Catherine Ruetschlin, an analyst at Demos, the progressive policy center, said that “a raise to $25,000 a year would lead to at least $11 billion of new GDP and generate 100,000 new jobs.” She explains that when a company like Walmart raises the salary, more money will go back into their cash registers because the workers are likely to spend more at Walmart.  Even though she makes a good point, if I were Walmart and seeing how successful this giant of a company has been would not raise the wage unless there is a downward trend in sales.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-10-23/more-than-half-of-walmarts-hourly-workers-make-less-than-25-000#r=hp-ls

IBM a business giant was awarded the 2012 Gold Medal award for International Corporate Achievement in Sustainable Development. The company was recognized for its dedication and effort to making environmental friendly products. Why would a business, whose revenue exceed well over $100 billion, care so much about the environment that it goes to great lengths and spends millions of dollars to developing and creating environmental products? Realistically, IBM does not have to commit millions into environmentally friendly products, they just have to abide by the law. IBM recognized that being environmentally friendly and having their efforts recognized is very good business. This however, was not the first time that IBM was awarded the Gold Medal award. It is however, the first time that a company has been awarded the Gold Metal award twice. People want change. They want big companies to start being environmentally friendly because people such as Al Gore and David Suzuki have been on TV and have explained the dangers of waste. Does IBM, being a large company as it is, have a moral obligation to protect the planet? Perhaps, but other companies should look at IBM as an example to follow so businesses all around the world can make the planet a better place to live.

http://citizenibm.com/2012/05/why-good-environmental-policy-is-good-business.html

http://www.ibm.com/ibm/environment/policy/

In 2010, an astonishing 13 Apple workers committed suicide in China after complaints of low wages, long hours, and unsafe work environment. Apple responded quickly by vowing to increase wages by 20% and hired an independent suicide prevention team to survey the workers. Apple also vowed to intensify its interview when it comes to hiring new workers. Even with all these implementations, since 2010, there has been an additional seven reported deaths in Foxconn. So what went wrong? Living conditions has not improved since 2010 and a 20% increase in wages is not enough for many workers. Also, Apple reportedly threatened it’s employees with the “stay silent” policy or else they would be fired. Apple is seemingly concerned when confronted by the media but when out of the spotlight, things go on like normal. Indeed, for Apple to treat the low number of suicides since 2010 as an improvement is horrendous. For me, Apple did not do enough to help it’s workers nor did it care enough about the lives of those workers.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Apple-Report-Details-Response-to-Foxconn-Suicides-139217/

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505124_162-57597168/what-happened-after-the-foxconn-suicides/

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/three-suicides-at-apple-suppliers-china-factory-20130521-2jxmr.html