Group items tagged

"Hewlett-Packard (HP), the world's largest information technology company and an icon of U.S. business, announced that it intends to exit the personal computer industry, including the rapidly expanding smartphone and tablet segments"

This article details how the large company Proctor & Gamble is attempting to cut variable costs by eliminating jobs, which leads to lower labour costs. This action results in a lower cost for their products, leading to more productive efficiency. This competitive behaviour is also partially reflective of perfect competition, where companies must decrease costs in order to increase profits; however the article also focuses a lot on the advertising done by Proctor & Gamble, which is not fitting with the assumptions of the perfect competition model.

"Wal-Mart's influence on the U.S. economy has reached levels not seen by a single company since the 19th-century rise of Standard Oil, economists and historians say" To state that Wal-Mart is huge would be an understatement and in my perspective, it is the perfect example of economies of scale. The article is a bit lenthy though but the points are well explained.

I thought this article about the state of the US economy was particularly interesting. The statistics of ratio large firm to small firms (3-1, small) is increasing. The article also states, "The market rewards and punishes with little regard to whom or what or how it impacts. Generally, it is large firms that enjoy these little gems of taxpayer munificence. They have become "too-big-to-fail."

"Facebook Inc.'s lineup of six major Wall Street banks to manage its initial public offering reflects the social network's determination to pursue a conventional IPO and avoid an exotic approach to the share sale, people familiar with the company said." This article approaches to the idea about the interaction between the banks and Facebook, these interactions can shown in a relation of the free markets. also, the article mentions the competition Facebook with other social sites.