ACCOUNTING DISCUSSION

1. How does accounting impact your life, and why is accounting important to all of us?
2. If total debits equal total credits in a trial balance, is it free of errors? Explain.

FINANCIAL MANAGMENT

1. Suppose you want to start a business and you have to decide on the best organizational form. Explain to classmates the purpose of the business and the reason you chose this business. Briefly describe what type of business and organizational form you selected. Explain why you selected that form over alternative forms.

2. Discuss the ways in which managers can "manage the firm's earnings." Should earnings management always be viewed negatively?

BUSINESS LAW

1. Article II, Section I of the United States Constitution provides that the President must "take care that the laws be faithfully executed." Presidents have used this authority to issue Executive Orders which are orders to federal agencies that are part of the Executive Branch and which contain detailed instructions on how laws enacted by Congress should be carried out. Does this provision of the Constitution allow a President to issue Executive Orders that directs federal agencies NOT to enforce specific laws that have been enacted by Congress? Has any ever issued an Executive Order that told a federal agency not to enforce a law?

2. According to Fortune magazine, in 1978, chief executive officers (CEOs) of major American corporations earned 30 times the average earnings of the employees of the corporations that they ran. In 2016, CEOs earned 276 times the average earnings of the employees of the corporations that they ran. Do corporations have ethically responsibilities to their employees that suggest that this kind of CEO compensation is improper? Do corporations have ethical responsibilities to their customers to control CEO compensation?

PRINIPLES OF MACR

1. Despite the economic progress that the U.S. has observed in the past century, the standard of living remains extremely low in many countries. Consider the following regarding poverty in developing countries:

• Why are some countries relatively wealthy while others are not?
• Consider some primary differences between countries. Which differences do you expect to affect economic growth and wealth?
• Can you think of anything else that can help other countries to achieve economic growth

2. Examine the following variables that could affect the price of oil:

a. Tax credits were offered for expenditures on home insulation.
b. The Alaskan pipeline was completed.
c. A supposed ceiling on the price of oil was removed.
d. A new, very large deposit of oil was discovered.
e. Buyers in large numbers all of the sudden started driving large sport utility vehicles.
f. The use of nuclear power suddenly decreased.

Choose any two of the above variables, and describe how your selections would affect oil prices based on the supply and demand analysis.