Author: chris

1. Compare and contrast the continuous current account deficits of the U.S. with the continuous current account surpluses of Japan. Discuss the likely consequences for both countries if the deficit and surplus roles are reversed in the next 10 years.

Analyze the possible strengths and weaknesses of SDRs versus the dollar, and determine if the SDR should or could replace the U.S. dollar as the main global reserve currency.

2. From the e-Activity, discuss the implications of the deviations from purchasing power parity for countries’ competitive positions in the world market.

Researchers found that it is very difficult to forecast future exchange rates more accurately than the forward exchange rate or the current spot exchange rate. Examine the underlying factors behind these findings and make at least two (2) recommendations for improving the forecast of future exchange rates.

3. Compare and contrast the basic differences between the operation of a currency forward market and a futures market.

Discuss how the FX call and put option model pricing can change with respect to European option-pricing relationships.

4. Discuss and compare hedging transaction exposure using the forward contract versus money market instruments.

From the first e-Activity, determine the best way to leverage a currency options contract as a hedging tool compared with a forward contract. Provide specific examples to support your response.

5. General Motors exports cars to Spain, but the strong dollar against the euro hurts sales of GM cars in Spain. In the Spanish market, GM faces competition from Italian and French car makers, such as Fiat and Renault, whose operating currencies are the euro. From the second e-Activity, determine the best course for GM to take to maintain its market share in Spain. Explain your rationale.

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of maintaining multiple manufacturing sites as a hedge against exchange rate exposure.

After reading Chapter 2 of the text, please write a 4-5 page essay that addresses the following:

Considering Lockheed’s past and some of the ethics related issues they (and other defense contractors) experienced in past decades, identify and describe what you consider to be some of the key turning points in the organization that ultimately led to a genuine effort to institute a working ethics program at Lockheed. What were some of the things they did to initiate the company’s ethics program and why do you think so much effort needs to be expended to affect cultural change at a company like Lockheed?

Select a health care provided with which you are familiar and write a four to six (4-6) page paper in which you:

Determine the direct impact of marketing for the health care provider you selected.
Outline a strategy for the health care provider you selected to determine the utilization of its products or services.
Outline a marketing strategy for the health care provider you selected.
Recommend at least three (3) separate ways the health care provider you selected could shape the buying decisions of its customers.
Provide at least three (3) qualified sources, e.g., peer-reviewed journals, professional organization Website, or health care provider Websites.

Using the same multinational company that was chosen in the Assignment 1 prepare an analysis that will examine key strategic risks and a financial strategy for your supervisor to consider for possible expansion into this new international market.
Write a 6-8 page paper in which you:

Examine possible risks of foreign currency exposure for your company and prepare a strategy for how each of these risks can be managed. Please be specific and consider all possible implications to your company.
Evaluate the basic functions of the international banking system and financial market (such as bonds, equity, and money markets) and provide a plan for using these financial markets to finance your global operations.
Present a financial strategy to support long-term financing of operations for possible expansion of your MNC (taking into consideration portfolio management, capital budgeting and foreign direct investment decisions).
Provide final recommendations based on both your findings and your initial assessment of opportunities and risks on the three dimensions of international finance, economic trends of the country, impact of globalization, and the monetary system.
Use at least three (3) quality references. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not quality as academic resources

Imagine you have recently been hired as the Information security director at a start-up health care research firm, where confidential client data is housed in its Data Center. Currently, the company has 100 employees and expects to expand its workforce to 300 in the next three (3) months and the company is moving to a new location in an urban office building across four (4) floors. The security operations and defensive mechanisms have been run in the past by the Networking Department and due to the move, you have a chance to start anew with the company’s security operations to improve its overall security posture.

Write a ten (10) page paper in which you:

Identify what you perceive to be the five (5) most concerning threats to the network, computing environment, and the database operations of the company.
Examine each threat you identified in number 1, in which you:
Explain why this is your perception.
Identify what is at risk from these threats.
Determine how you would design the security controls to mitigate the risks involved.
Determine the security defense mechanisms that you would utilize in order to secure communications from floor to floor in the office space, including equipment and physical controls.
Create an office space diagram detailing the security defense tools, equipment and controls utilized, using a diagramming application such as Visio or Dia. Note: The graphically depicted solution is not included in the required page length.
Explain in detail the defensive mechanisms that you would implement to secure the corporate wireless network, including encryption, authentication methods, and at least two (2) WLAN security tools you would utilize on a regular basis.
Create a wireless network diagram, using a diagramming application such as Visio or Dia based on your explanation in number 5. Note: The graphically depicted solution is not included in the required page length.
Determine whether or not you would utilize encryption technologies on the network and / or computing equipment. Justify your response.
Consider the use of a cloud-based solution for storing the company’s data. Determine the benefits and / or risks that would result using this kind of data storage, and decide whether or not you would utilize this storage option. Justify your decision.
Select a minimum of five (5) security tools that you would implement on the network as security auditing and / or defense countermeasures.
Analyze each security tool you selected in number 8, and determine why / how you would use them as part of your security operations.
Provide an overview of the recovery and continuity plans you would develop to ensure the company could survive a temporary or prolonged disruption. Explain why each plan is needed based on the benefits it provides to the company.

This assignment consists of two (2) sections: a written paper and a PowerPoint presentation. You must submit both sections as separate files for the completion of this assignment. Label each file name according to the section of the assignment it is written for.

You are the Chief Security Officer (CSO) for an e-Commerce company and are concerned about security for your e-Commerce applications. Specifically, your company’s Board of Directors has requested a detailed forward-looking plan with emphasis on securing your Web presence assets. Read the article titled, “Web application security is growing problem for enterprises” located at http://www.infoworld.com/d/security-central/web-application-security-growing-problem-enterprises-843?page=0,0. Also, be sure research at least four (4) other articles concerning the challenges of Web application security.

Section 1: Written Paper

Write a ten (10) page paper in which you:
Summarize the current state of Web application security for your Board of Directors to understand. Determine any common themes that need to be addressed specific to the Web security.
Describe the techniques and technologies you would use that you would implement to mitigate these security challenges and explain why you chose these techniques and technologies.
Analyze the internal security procedures and practices you will use to validate the security of your enterprise’s Web applications.
Represent your Board recommendations graphically using Visio or Dia. Note: The graphically depicted solution is not included in the required page length.
Use at least four (4) quality resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and similar Websites do not qualify as quality resources.

You are a new associate at the law firm of Dewey, Chetum, and Howe. John, a former researcher at PharmaCARE, comes to your office. He has concerns about PharmaCARE’s use of AD23, one of the company’s top-selling diabetes drugs. Two (2) years ago, after PharmaCARE’s research indicated that AD23 might also slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, John and his team of pharmacists began reformulating the drug to maximize that effect. In order to avoid the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) scrutiny, PharmaCARE established a wholly-owned subsidiary, CompCARE, to operate as a compounding pharmacy to sell the new formulation to individuals on a prescription basis. CompCARE established itself in a suburban office park near its parent’s headquarters. To conserve money and time, CompCARE did a quick, low-cost renovation.

CompCARE benefited from PharmaCARE’s reputation, databases, networks, and sales and marketing expertise, and within six (6) months had the medical community buzzing about AD23. Demand soared, particularly among Medicare, Medicaid, and Veterans Affairs patients. Seeing the opportunity to realize even more profit, CompCARE began advertising AD23 directly to consumers and marketing the drug directly to hospitals, clinics, and physician offices, even though compounding pharmacies are not permitted to sell drugs in bulk for general use. To circumvent this technicality, CompCARE encouraged doctors to fax lists of fictitious patient names to CompCARE. PharmaCARE sold CompCARE to WellCo, a large drugstore chain, just weeks before AD23 was publicly linked to over 200 cardiac deaths.

As CompCARE and its new parent company enjoyed record profits and PharmaCARE’s stock price approached $300 per share, reports started surfacing that people who received AD23 seemed to be suffering heart attacks at an alarming rate. The company ignored this data and continued filling large orders and paying huge bonuses to all the executives and managers, including John, whose wife recently died from a heart attack after using AD23.

John has come to you with an internal company memo describing the potential problems with AD23, and information describing the company’s willingness “roll the dice” and continue to market the drug.

Your senior partner has asked you to write a memo outlining the following issues for review by the senior partners.

In preparation for this assignment, use the Internet or Strayer Library to research examples of intellectual property theft that occurred within the past two (2) years.

Write an eight to ten (8-10) page paper in which you:

Research three to five (3-5) ethical issues relating to marketing and advertising, intellectual property, and regulation of product safety and examine whether PharmaCARE violated any of the issues in question.
Argue for or against Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) marketing by drug companies. Provide support for your response.
Determine the parties responsible for regulating compounding pharmacies under the current regulatory scheme, the actions that either these parties or the FDA could / should have taken in this scenario, and whether PharmaCARE could face legal exposure surrounding its practices. Support your response.
Analyze the manner in which PharmaCARE used U.S. law to protect its own intellectual property and if John has any claim to being the true “inventor” of AD23. Suggest at least three (3) ways the company could compensate John for the use of his intellectual property.
Summarize at least one (1) current example (within the past two [2] years) of intellectual property theft, and examine the effect on that company’s brand.
Analyze the potential issue surrounding the death of John’s wife and other potential litigants against PharmaCARE as a result of AD23.
Specify both the major arguments that John can make to claim that he is a whistleblower and the type of protections that he should be afforded. Justify your response.
Use at least three (3) quality resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia is not an acceptable reference and proprietary Websites do not qualify as academic resources.

An annotated bibliography of at least five references (see the attached document for a model) and a outline for your final paper on recruitment and incentives to join the military. The outline might include areas such as why the topic is important, contemporary practices, recent research findings, examples of how the issue is being addressed by specific organizations, and your recommendations for HR professionals. At least one of your articles must be on an empirical study published in a academic (or peer-reviewed or refereed) journal. For your final paper, you will review an HR practice or topic (recruitment and incentives to join the military). The paper should be at least 8 pages in length (excluding cover and citations) with at least five different references (one may be the text book). At least one of the references must be from an empirical study. Please make sure the paper is free of grammar and spelling errors.

Below can be used to scope the work and topic for paper

Recruitment and Incentives to join the Military

The Military is one of the largest and recognized organizations in the world. Getting to that point has not always been voluntarily, it was once forced. The driving force behind this was the draft. The draft was used to single out individuals that where eligible to join the military and fight for their country. This was at a time of war when there were not enough volunteers. The only incentive was the fact that you earned the right to say that you fought for your country. In today’s military, the recruitment process has many incentives for new recruits. There is no one that is forced to join and individuals choose to serve at their own free will. The recruitment process is important to human resource managers because it is the key to building todays military by providing eligible, physically fit, and reliable new soldiers. The incentives for the recruiting process allows human resource managers the ability to entice and offer new recruits certain benefits that only the military can offer. Having that flexibility to provide recruitment incentives has ensured that the military will never have to resort back to a forced military again.

Imagine you are the head administrator at Well Being Hospital, a hypothetical local health care facility. Your task is to communicate with Get Well Drugs, a major U.S. pharmaceutical manufacturer, in order to determine if the drugs supplied by this manufacturer are within benchmark standards set forth by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and are thus suitable for use at your hospital. Specifically, you have to report your findings to the health care professionals who use these medications.

Note: You may create and / or make all necessary assumptions needed for the completion of this assignment.

Write a four to six (4-6) page paper in which you:

Recommend a strategy for communication with Get Well Drugs in order to determine if the drugs supplied by this manufacturer are within benchmark standards set forth by the FDA.
Outline a plan for asking questions directed toward Get Well Drugs about any FDA regulations which may be applicable to your local hospital.
Outline a plan for communicating these findings to a local consortium of nurses and physicians at your hospital. This plan must include, at a minimum, the cost of the drugs, as well as the types of drugs for use in mental, behavioral, and general services.
Conclude your findings, in which you suggest the pros and cons of using Get Well Drugs.

Consider The Dark Knight, and evaluate the following three decisions made, in the context of Mill’s philosophy. 1) Batman’s decision not to kill the Joker. 2) Batman’s use of cell phone surveillance technology to locate the Joker. (remember that was an invasion of privacy and done without the consent of anyone) and 3) Batman’s decision to take the blame for Harvey Dent’s death and deceive the people of Gotham. How would a utilitarian like Mill evaluate each of these decisions? For Mill, which are right and which are wrong, and why? Now, speak to your own opinion. Is Mill right, is happiness the only worthy end? Do consequences matter more than intentions, why or why not? In your opinion, Which, if any of Batman’s decisions were morally correct, why or why not? If you agree, be sure to defend your opinion based on what you’ve learned about utilitarianism. And if you disagree, be sure to explain what flaw you see in utilitarianism that has led you to this decision.