Nationalization: The process of a national government taking over the ownership of a private business or industry, usually in conjunction with a major revolution that establishes a communistic or socialist command economy. Nationalization was a common practice, sort of a fad, during the 1950s,1960s, and 1970s. Even non-revolutionary industrialized countries in Europe jumped onto the nationalization bandwagon. The United States also took at stab at nationalizing passenger train service when Amtrak was established in 1970.

Natural Selection: The notion that firms best suited to the economic environment on the ones that tend to survive. The natural selection of business firms is an adaptation of the biological process of natural selection, in which biological entities best suited to the natural environment are the ones that survive. The notion of natural section suggests that even if firms do NOT actively, consciously pursue the profit-maximization goal, assuming they do is not necessarily unreasonable. Those firms that approximate the goal of profit-maximization, whether intentionally or accidently, are the ones most likely to survive and remain in business.

New Classic Economy: A body of economic thought emerging in the last quarter of the 20th century based on greater reliance on voluntary market exchanges, a laissez faire approach to government policies, and recognition of the supply-side of the economy. New classical economics, as the name implies, is a rejuvenation of classical economics that dominated economic thought from the 1770s to the 1930s and was developed to counter Keynesian economics that was prevalent from the 1930s to the 1970s.

Nondurable Good: A good bought by consumers that tends to last for less than a year. Common examples are food and clothing. The notable thing about nondurable goods is that consumers tend to continue buying them regardless of the ups and downs of the business cycle.

Norris-Laguardia Act: A Congressional act passed in 1932 that outlawed the use of yellow-dog contracts by employers and made it more difficult for firms to use legal injunctions against labor unions. This act strengthened labor related provisions of the Clayton Act and foreshadowed the more favorable attitude toward labor unions under the ensuing Roosevelt administration.

All definitions are provided by AmosWeb

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Marginal Propensity to Consume: The proportion of each additional dollar of household income that is used for consumption expenditures. Or alternatively, this is the change in consumption expenditures due to a change in disposable income. Abbreviated MPC, the marginal propensity to consume is the slope of the consumption or propensity-to-consume line that forms the foundation for Keynesian economics. As such, it also takes center stage for the slope of the aggregate expenditure line and the multiplier effect. The sum of the marginal propensity to consume and the related concept, the marginal propensity to save, is equal to one.

Misery Index: The sum of the unemployment rate and the inflation rate. For example, a 5 percent unemployment rate and a 3 percent inflation rate gives us a misery index of 8. This index was developed during the 1970s when inflation and unemployment were both moving in the upward direction.

Money Illusion: The erroneous perception that a change in nominal wages or income results in an equal change in real wages or income. Money illusion occurs due to a difference between the actual prices and perceived prices. In particular, people usually have better information about nominal wages or income received than the prices paid for goods and services. For example, a worker might receive a 10 percent increase in nominal wages view this as a 10 percent increase in real wages (and living standard) by failing to recognize that the price level in the economy has also increased by 10 percent. Money illusion is one reason underlying the positive slope of the short-run aggregate supply curve.

Moral Suasion: Government policy in which policy makers or leaders encourage or discourage particular behavior using information requests of consumers, business, and others, without formal actions such as laws or regulations. The use of moral suasion can be somewhat effective during short-term crises situations, such as wars, energy shortages, or financial instability. Moral suasion is occasionally used for monetary policy when the Federal Reserve System doesn’t want to, or have the time to, use other monetary policy tools.

Multiplier:The cumulatively reinforcing interaction between consumption and production that amplifies changes in investment, government spending, or exports. In other words, if businesses decide to increase investment expenditures on capital goods or if government decides to expand the size of the already bloated federal deficit by spending more on national defense, then our economy’s production and income are likely to increase by some multiple of this spending. The amplified increase in production and income, usually from 2 to 5 times, is what gives us the term "multiplier." The process is based on the circular flow idea the people receive income by producing goods and then spend this income on additional production.

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Free Sex in Denmark

MB: Shocking! I posted earlierthat recessions can lead to businesses taking desperate measures to attract consumers to their products and services. A company in Las Vegas used a truck with a clear glass back, fully loaded with a stripper pole, and an attractive half naked dancer to advertise their business.  This age old philosophy of using sex to sell  was taking literally by a group of prostitutes in Denmark. 

First it must be known that in Denmark, it is legal to buy and sell sex. It is however not legal to profit off of anyone selling sex. (Except for the state I guess, since the women do pay taxes).  In a reaction to a slight conflict with hotel owners and the government the prostitutes of Denmark are holding a conference to promote their services.  Not only will there be a large quantity of beautiful women, anyone who comes to the conference will recieve free sex.  That’s right, hookers are offering free sex to anyone who comes to the Climate conference held in just a few days.  Buy your plane tickets now boys!

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Corporations Wasting Millions on Sports

MB: Shocking! It was reported today on CNBC that corporations who purchased tickets for sporting events, in attempts to seduce potential clients wasted approximately 43% of their tickets last year. A company named Corporate Events Group specializes in the management, tracking, and procurement of tickets as well as the execution of events exclusively for the corporate market.  Essentially their goal is to maximize companies ROI (return on investment) of sports and event tickets; this is done by analyzing what games or events the potential client will be interested in, and purchasing of the tickets to ensure that none are wasted.  This is a great example of how their are markets in everything. 

Corporations Wasted Estimated 43% of Sports Tickets Last Year

By: Darren Rovell

One of the most highly scrutinized pieces of spending by public companies during the economic downturn was sports sponsorship and bringing clients to live sporting events.

And it made sense. Companies that said they used sports to do business didn’t do a particularly good job of publicly rationalizing that spend.

Enter Corporate Events Group, one of a select group of companies that has helped businesses at least internally understand the return on their investment from doing business at the game.

Because of inefficiencies, starting at how companies hold and manage the ticket process, 43 percent of tickets bought by corporations went unused in 2008, according to Anthony Knopp, vice president of business development for the company.

Knopp’s company offers a Web-based portal that manages a company’s entire group of ticket holdings. Employees then log on and make requests and are evaluated based on specific business purpose and sometimes quality of guest and the amount of business at stake.

The portal also gives the user the opportunity to buy tickets on sites like StubHub [EBAY 23.7351 0.8251 (+3.6%) ] if the internal tickets aren’t ideal. Anything taken through the internal system, including tickets bought through secondary sites on the portal, are immediately entered into the company’s database. A company also has the ability to enter the business that was done off a particular meeting at a game so that it can better monitor the return.

Knopp said the downturn has helped the company’s business, as keeping track of spending at every level has become more important.

“For years, a lot of companies told us that they had bigger fish to fry than keep track of their sports tickets and how they are used,” Knopp said. “And our response was always, ‘Do you have any other marketing campaigns that you spend $10 million on, that you don’t track?”

The database allows companies to sort by clients taken to the game, the executive who takes them, as well as the team and the venue where most of the business takes place. It also helps companies compile a comprehensive list of their spending for the tax deduction that they can take from going to the game as a business expense.

Knopp says Corporate Events Group has 12 companies that spend more than $4 million on tickets as clients, as well as a host of brands that spend less.

“We had one company that had Tampa Bay Rays tickets and used 9 percent of the total inventory on the season,” Knopp said. “That investment obviously had to be scaled back. We think that it’s realistic for a company to use between 78 and 85 percent of the tickets they buy.

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Source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/33182576

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The Rising Cost of MBAs

From Economist.com

Times really must be tough. A recent study by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities has found that tuition fees at private American institutes of higher education increased by only 4.3% in 2009, the lowest annual rise for nearly 40 years. Even business schools, used to raising their fees with near impunity, have not been exempt from the market conditions. The average annual tuition fee for a full-time MBA programme at the top 10 American schools in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s ranking is $46,839, up 4.9% on 2008. This compares with a 5.8% rise a year earlier. If business schools are responding to the financial pressures faced by prospective students in these straitened times, the response of many may be a resounding “it’s about time.”

Business education—and in particular its flagship qualification, the MBA—has been getting steadily more expensive with each passing year. Ten years ago, the cost of two years’ tuition at Harvard Business School would have set you back $54,000—approximately $69,000 when adjusted for a decade’s worth of inflation. Today it is over $92,000, and that’s before the health-service fees and miscellaneous programme-support fees that add considerably to a student’s budget.

Price rises may have been more modest this year, but there is little chance of below-inflation increases any time soon. This is because, in America in particular, whilst students may have financial worries, so do the schools themselves. Unlike their counterparts in Europe and on the Pacific Rim, American schools tend to be substantively funded by endowments and donations by alumni. At Stanford Graduate School of Business in California, for example, as much as half of income is generated in this way. And as the recession drags on, the flow of cash has dried up (which may explain why its two-year, full-time MBA is now one of the world’s most expensive at $102,642).

http://www.economist.com/business-education/displayStory.cfm?story_id=14297397

MB: MBAs are becoming more costly, are they worth the money?  As a current MBA student I wonder.  The knowledge that I have gained over the last year has no doubt been beneficial, however was there a cheaper less expensive way to have gained this knowledge? There are some who will argue that a “personal MBA” is comparable to the real thing.

The Personal MBA features the very best business books available, based on thousands of hours of research.  There is no doubt then that the information and knowledge that is provided in b-school can be accessed with out the high costs.  However one must consider what else an MBA provides; most importantly it provides a piece of paper stating that you have an MBA.  Many employers require an MBA degree for employment in certain positions, it will likely be difficult to persuade an potential employer that you hold all the knowledge that a MBA program provides without the diploma.  Thoughts appreciated.

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