Month: September 2010

The House of Representatives voted 348 to 79 in favour of the bill which puts pressure on China to increase the value of the Chinese Yuan.  Robert Scott, the senior international economist at the Economic Policy Institute said, “the bill is a warning shot to the Chinese. If China does not respond to the bill, a 25% across-the-board tariff will be enforced. It is estimated that trade deficit with China is going to displace over  half a million U.S jobs in 2010. At the same time, the increasing U.S. exports to china to China will support around 200,000 more jobs.  Due to the low currency of the Chinese Yuan, goods and services  in America cannot be compared with Chinese made goods and services at the same level in terms of cost. How would China respond to the legislation to pressure China to increase the value of its currency? After all the existing tension between the U.S and China, it is likely that this incident would further promote conflict between the two nation.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/currency-bill-approved-in-house-2010-09-29

A decent survey has indicated more than 7.3 million senior citizens in America have been taken advantage of financially in terms of unnesscary investments and absurd high fees for financial services. The most common scams that specificly target senior citizens have to deal with medicare, bereavement, professional advices and investment opportunities. “Having a serious conversation with your elderly parents about how they are managing their money is not easy, but it is extremely important in order to help protect them from unscrupulous crooks,” said Dana Badgerow, president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Minnesota.

An obvious question arises from this case: Is it ethical for business to specificly target seniors as their consumers? Yes, I would think that it would be fair for certain organizations to target elderly parents as their primary consumers. However, I believe that there should always be a set of morals behind every business organzation and it could only seem fair for the consumer when the business explains exactly what the consumer is paying for before the pruchase. It is safe to consume that the economy today is still in a stage of recovery and those seniors who do not posess the neccessary knowledge are often targetted by deceitful organzations.

http://www.grandrapidsmn.com/special_sections/article_ce62577a-c0e2-11df-96d9-001cc4c03286.html

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