Week 1

• Based on your research or what you learned by watching the video What does the Federal Reserve do?, list at least two (2) functions of the Federal Reserve System and describe how the decisions made for each of the two (2) functions you chose could potentially impact the U.S. economy.
• Next, describe how those functions may personally impact you or any U.S. Citizen.

2 Watch The 2008 Financial Crisis, in Crash Course Economics

Describe how the credit crisis may have adversely affected many people beyond homeowners and mortgage companies. Do you believe the impact of the credit crisis is still being felt today? Why or why not? Are we headed in the direction of another credit crisis? What indicators hint at what could happen in the future?

3 Select a company you want to use for assignments 1 and 2. This company MUST come from the approved company list.

• Identify a prominent or influential stakeholder associated with your selected company. From your reading, remember stakeholders can be individuals (do not choose the CEO) the company board, employees, customers, shareholders, unions, etc.
• In your post, describe one way your selected stakeholder has impacted the corporation in the past 12 months. and if you believe the action or actions were good for the company.  Why or why not.

4 Briefly define corporate social responsibility (CSR) in your own words.

• How is your selected company (from the approved company list) accountable to itself, its stakeholder and the public?
• Find a current event in the past 1–2 years in which your selected company went above and beyond to demonstrate corporate social responsibility (CSR), or, where they may have sorely failed to demonstrate CSR.
  • In your post, provide the name of the company and the good or bad deed.
  • Do your findings change the way you will support the company in the future?

5 Ethics in Business 

Have you witnessed unethical practices in the workplace?  

• If so, share your experience with the class and explain how this impacted your perception of the business.  
• If not, find a current example of unethical business practices, share the source, and explain how you would have handled this situation differently. 
• Respond to at least one of your classmates' posts on Ethics in Business and be sure to cite your sources using SWS in-text and source list formatting.