1. Current Values and Ethics Article

Coca Cola 2020 vision and values are to be accountable for their actions and inactions and responsive to customer needs. However, the soda industry has overall declined due to a culture habit, where people are drinking less soda and are leaning toward energy drinks and diet drinks. Obesity rates are at all time high as well as Diabetes. Some states are even looking at legislation to limit the ounces of drinks in movie theaters or ban them altogether from schools. The ethical dilemma includes the ability for the company to create moments of happiness and make a difference in the world while providing products that are contributing to health ailments. Coca Cola is such an American icon who provides help to African communities bringing clean water systems a contrast to the health disparities which are created in part by the products. Coca Cola can align with company values by listening to the market changes and adjusting to consumer demands and needs. 

Businessweek (2014) Coca Sales Decline. Retrieved: www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-07-31/coca-cola-sales-decline-health-concerns-spur-relaunch

So, if it is no longer ethical to sale sugared drinks, due to obesity and diabetes epidemics, what should Coca-Cola do? Will there be a time when it will no longer be profitable to sell sugared drinks? What would your advice to Coca-Cola be?

2. GDP

How does the country, Bhutan, measure their progress? What does this say about what is important to the citizens of Bhutan?

- Try to target a method other then Gross National Happiness (GNH) if at all possible

3. Determinants of Aggregate Demand

There are many factors that influence aggregate demand. How does the following example affect aggregate demand? 

As the midterm election approaches, Americans are expecting that the big winners will be politicians that promise to lower the personal income tax.

4. Business Cycle

As we are in the expansion phase, we can expect to reach a peak eventually. What are some policies that could increase the capacity of the economy? What would be some benefits of this?

5. Gross domestic product (GDP) defines aggregate output as the dollar value of all final goods and services produced within the borders of a given country during a given period of time, typically a year. For example, if an individual bakes a loaf of bread and sells it for $3, he has created $3 of output and made $3 in income. Similarly, the buyer of the loaf of bread spent $3, which counts in the expenditure column. The equivalence between overall output, income and expenditure is simply a result of this principle aggregated over all of the goods and services in an economy.

We know that the sale of the loaf of bread has added $3 to GDP. What about the ingredients? Did the flour and yeast add to GDP? What about the baker's time? Does this add to the GDP?

6. Cyclical Impact: Durables and Nondurables

Every product or service offered in the economy can be divided into two different categories durable goods or nondurable goods. Cars, boats, houses are a durable good, food, clothing or anything that wears, or a service is a nondurable good. The government tracks the production and consumption of these goods to determine the state of the economy. When the economy strong and consumers have faith in the continued growth they tend to purchase big dollar item (durables), when the economy is down trending and consumer confidence is low they shun these types of purchases. These types of indicators are a good pulse for the economy.

Armed with this information, what can we expect of durables, non-durables and services in the near future? What has happened to these categories in the past few years? Personally, did the recession affect your purchase of durables?