The Revolutionized Kindle Is Set To Take On The iPad

Amazon is introducing the new Kindle Fire to the world, which is said to be even better than the iPad. The Kindle Fire is set at $199 and it will have a 7 inch display, be integrated with Google's cloud storage system, and contain an extensive library of books, music, and more. Amazon is using Google's powerful android system and integrating it with the Kindle. The device is extremely easy to use and it allows you to watch movies, listen to music, and access any book or magazine whenever you want, wherever you want. The Kindle Fire will also have a "split browser", which will allow it to have the power and speed of the Amazon Web Services Cloud. If you are interested in purchasing the Kindle Fire or want to know more about it, this link here will fill you in on what you need to know (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/28/amazon-tablet-announcement-live-blog-kindle-fire_n_984780.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000008).
My view:
With looking at the marketing aspects of this product, the company gave their new product the name "Kindle Fire" because they wanted to emphasize the reasons why this product is so good. It will pull up any information you want in a matter of seconds and it's not complicated to use at all. The systems integrated into the Kindle Fire stand for the "Fire" part of the product's name because the information can be downloaded extremely quickly and easily. The company knows they have tough competition against the iPad but I believe that with their enhanced and revolutionized technology, they will be able to bring consumers over to the Kindle side.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/28/amazon-kindle-fire-tablet-price_n_984928.html

Cantaloupe Outbreak!

One of the deadliest food outbreaks may have just hit us. On Tuesday, health officials have reported that approximately 16 people in Colorado have died from the illness, listeria, which is commonly found in cantaloupes. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has said they there were a reported 72 illnesses and 13 deaths so far, with possibly 3 more to add to the number of deaths. Since Tuesday, more deaths have been reported in states of Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Texas, Maryland, and Oklahoma. Listeria is said to be more dangerous than e-coli and salmonella, even though those two cause more illnesses.  Listeria is known to have a dangerous effect on pregnant women, the elderly, and people who have already weakened immune systems. It is said that more and more people will be reported having this disease because it generally take 4 weeks for the symptoms to progress and worsen. Even if a person ate the food a few weeks ago, the disease could still show its effects several weeks later. The Food and Drug Administration went to several homes of the people who were infected with listeria. Traces of the disease were found in the cantaloupe they ate and in the grocery stores where they bought the cantaloupe.
My View:
This sudden breakout could cause a decrease in revenue for cantaloupe farmers, the stores that sell their cantaloupes, and any other companies that use cantaloupe in their products. People are going to be overwhelmed with the fear that any product with cantaloupe in it will have traces of the disease. Panic and hysteria of consumers is definitely going to have an effect on the profit of companies who make cantaloupe-based products.

http://news.yahoo.com/cantaloupe-outbreak-deadliest-decade-232323377.html

Reebok Sued Over False Shoe Claims

Here is a perfect example of marketing gone wrong. When the shoe retailer, Reebok, came out with its new toning shoes, it claimed these shoes would increase muscle strength while giving you perfectly toned legs. Reebok came out with ads saying these shoes are essentially multi-taskers, strengthening hamstrings much more than regular sneakers while toning buttocks. The shoes were designed to be a little unstable, thus forcing you to work harder and strengthening your muscles. Unfortunately these claims were false because it's a known fact that in order to have a toned, healthy body you need to put some effort and time into working out. Just simply wearing a pair of shoes will not get you the results you are hoping to achieve. People's complaints started to pour in and Reebok found itself in the middle of a controversy. But Adidas, who owns Reebok, defended the shoes, claiming they were accurately tested and they did not falsely advertise their product. They said they will stand behind these shoes because they were inspired by the technique behind balance-ball training. Since so many people complained that they were not fully satisfied with this product, Reebok agreed to cooperate with the FTC (Federal Trade Commision) and pay $25 million to settle the charges made against their product.
My view:
With the situation Reebok has found itself in, I think that they made a smart move by cooperating with the FTC and agreeing to pay the charges. The whole point behind a product is to deliver benefits the product promises and more. When consumers had a chance to try out the new sneakers, they realized the sneakers did not give them the results they had hoped for. Of course some people's expectations could have been too high and that is why they were so easily dissappointed. But the company made the right move by showing their customers that the company cares about customer satisfaction and that they are working hard to deliver promised benefits to customers.

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/reebok-paying-to-settle-charges-over-shoe-claims-2571097/

Venezuela's President Fears His Illness Is Being Exploited

Venezuela's President, Huge Chavez, is distressed over the fact that government officials are using his illness as a way to lower his chances of being re-elected in the 2012 presidential election. In June, President Chavez underwent intensive surgery to remove a tumor in this pelvic area. President Chavez claims government authorities are using his illness in order to portray him as being an unfit leader and gain uncertainty from the Venezuelan people. President Chavez went out of his way to address the public by  saying that he is "recovering completely." Still, others aren't convinced that Chavez is a suitable choice for a nation's leader. Lawmaker, Julio Borges, has stated that a country cannot be governed by an authority who fails to show up at meetings and deliver vital public speeches because he is going in and out of hospitals receiving treatment. Officials are concerned with the uncertainty of whether or not  President Chavez will continue to need treatment or another surgery in case the cancer shows up again.
My view:
Especially with Venezuela's fragile state, the people of Venezuela need some sort of reassurance that they will be protected and guided in the right direction. President Chavez has been a popular candidate for many years, but people are starting to question his abilities as a leader due to the government's failure of resolving issues such as shortage of housing, in addition to violent crimes and political unrest. Chavez promised the people that if he were to be re-elected, he would run a national development plan that would run through 2030. These people already fear for their safety and their rights and it is only fair for them to want a strong political leader to help guide them through these tough times.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/27/venezuela-hugo-chavez-illness_n_982877.html

Wendy's Brings Back It's Very Own Best

When Wendy's first started advertising its hamburgers, their initial slogan was famously quoted by Clare Peller saying, "Where's the beef?"These words were heard worldwide and now Wendy's is going to bring it's famous slogan back in order to answer the question, "Where's the beef?" The answer is in Dave's Hot'N Juicy Cheeseburgers, named after Wendy's founder, R. David Thomas. The new Wendy's commercial, set to air Monday October 3, shows a man wearing a t-shirt saying "Where's the Beef" and he finally finds the answer when he ends up in front of a Wendy's restaurant that has a poster of the new Dave's cheeseburgers saying, "Here's the beef!" Then the commercial ends with Dave Thomas' daughter, Melinda, who is the original Wendy Thomas and she says that because the hamburgers are their "hottest and juiciest ever", they are worth being named after her father. She then says, "These would've made my dad say, 'Here's the beef!' Wendy's knows that with today's economy, people are struggling to find the time and resources to make a home cooked meal, so they turn to fast food.
My view:
Wendy's goal is to provide these people with good quality and quantity. They feel that their food should not only be delicious, but filling too. Along with natural-cut french fries with sea salt, Wendy's made a smart move by adding another new and improved addition to their menu, Dave's cheeseburgers. Of course the ad campaign is  definitely going to cost Wendy a lot more than other ones but when it comes to promoting a product, any company knows that they need to invest their best resources into marketing the product to its full potential. In today's fast food market, competition is tough because of powerful rivals like McDonalds, Burger King, and In-and-Out Burger. Wendy's saw that they needed to refine their slogan from "Where's the Beef" to "Here's the Beef." This is a good move on Wendy's part because it differentiates their slogan from other brand's slogans. People will start to see Wendy trying to improve their quality of service and product and gain much stronger loyalty towards the company.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/After-27-Years-an-Answer-to-nytimes-522602526.html?x=0&.v=1

Muffins Causing A Stir Among The Government

No one would actually think that muffins would lead people to question what the government is really doing with our money. According to this article, this seems to be the case. On Tuesday, September 20, it was revealed that the Justice Department has been spending a ridiculous amount of money on catering its conferences in the past few years. From $5 meatballs to $8 coffees, it is apparent that the department isn't stingy when it comes to shelling out money on themselves. The real controversy was surrounding these $16 muffins. When journalists and auditors visited a hotel conference, they discovered a display of 250 muffins that were there to serve those attending the conference. Much to their surprise, they weren't just any ordinary muffins, these muffins cost a whopping $16 each.
My view:
Anyone in their right mind would realize that $16 for a muffin is a bit too extravagant. The reason why many people were outraged when they saw this was because this gave them a bit of an insight to how the government is really spending our money. Despite the fact that our country is $15 trillion in debt, we're now spending lots of money on petty items such as muffins. Even Senator Chuck Grassley said that whoever allowed this to happen should be fired. As I was reading, the story lead to a surprising twist. Apparently the muffins didn't really cost $16. The price of the muffins was based on an invoice price of the muffins, which included overhead and service charges for the use of the conference space. If you click on the link below, there's an updated story attached to the article which explains what really happened with these $16 muffins. As a citizen, hearing about officials spending more money rather than saving money really infuriates me. If they are spending that much money on things such as muffins, it worries me that our hard earned money could be spent on other pointless things as well.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/22/16-muffins-justice-department_n_976237.html

Target's Too High in Demand

       


When Target launched its line of Missoni for Target products, people jumped at the opportunity. Customers were flooding the company's site and stocking up on these unique, low-priced designer finds. The massive amounts of orders that bombarded Target's site and caused many complications  led  the company to delay orders or cancel them. The company had trouble sending out people's orders as soon as they came in, and of course, customers were angered. A few people claimed they were treated unfairly and poorly by the company's customer service and a few customers even threatened to never shop at the retailer's stores again. Target immediately made the effort to answer those claims by saying that they were working diligently to fix any issues and work with customers to get their orders to them as soon as possible. Even then, customers were still livid, saying that items from their shopping carts were missing, while some claimed that they were unable to checkout. Other people are saying that they felt taken advantage of because they haven't heard from the company on whether or not they would receives their orders.
My view:
Target realized that they needed to do something in order to retain their customers. Target made an extremely intelligent and generous move by offering gift cards to people who were affected by this crisis. Although some damage has been done to the company's reputation, with time Target will eventually push itself out of this hole and be on top again. It's evident that Target has been loyally serving customers for years and one glitch in their system isn't going to tarnish the company's reputation severely. Just like Brian Sozzi, a Wall Street analyst, said, "It's short-term anger." Looking at the whole situation, Target handled this situation in a calm and orderly manner, which is one of the reasons why the company is so successful. They are able to handle large amounts of problems at once and address them as soon as possible. It is inevitable that customers will still remain loyal to the company because one small, setback won't severely decrease the amount Target's customers.

http://shopping.yahoo.com/articles/yshoppingarticles/692/targets-blunder-with-designer-continues/

New Toys on the Rise

People love the holidays, but one reason that makes them love it even more is they associate the holidays with presents, and lots of them. Americans are known for being massive, intense shoppers and when the holiday season starts to creep up, stores are flooded with people trying to get their hands on the latest products. Each year companies want to lure customers to come to their stores and buy their products and they do so by introducing new products on their shelves. These products can be completely new inventions, revolutionized products, or the same products.
My view:
Retailers know that the newest, most popular products are the ones in demand and those are the products they want displayed on their store shelves. The holiday season accounts for 40% of toy seller's annual profit and even though Christmas is months away, companies are savvy moves by already marketing new products that they expect people to demand in high numbers by the time the holidays roll in. Companies like Fisher-Price, Mattel, and Hasbro are already trying to get their products on the shelves of retailers like Toys'R'Us. Holiday's bring in the move revenue for companies and it's a known fact that consumers aggressively compete with each other in order to get their hands on the latest toys. So companies are following good marketing strategies by pushing their newest products out during the holiday season because they know they will make the most sales then.

http://shopping.yahoo.com/articles/yshoppingarticles/689/flying-fish-monsters-on-toys-r-us-hot-toy-list

Fitting Room Dilemma

When we  think of fitting rooms, we think of having our own privacy while we are trying on an item we want to buy. Recently people have been noticing that the fitting room doors allow people passing by to see inside. In fact, it's not even that difficult to see inside, meaning the shutters on the door are not protecting your privacy as you change.  Except when your'e inside is when you can't see people walk by your dressing room, making you feel as if you have some sort of privacy. Customers have described this realization as, "scary, sad and not private by any means." CBS 3 decided to go into several stores and see for themselves if these allegations were true. They discovered that in over  different 12 stores, it was pretty obvious that you can see inside of these dressing rooms. When security in one of these stores was asked about this, they said that stores usually make their doors that way in order to prevent shoplifting. When Macy's was targeted about this issue, they said they were trying to “strike a balance between preserving the privacy of customers…and deterring the theft of merchandise.” Soon after this issue became more viral was when women's popular retailer, Ann Taylor, said that some of the doors were installed improperly and that they were going to take care of that matter as soon as possible. 

My view: 

Still, it is unjust and disturbing that a store would go that far as to violate people's privacy in order to prevent robbery of their merchandise. It seems that companies are beginning to overlook and disregard the well-being of their customers, which is suppose to be one of the main concerns of a company. Once customers feel unsafe in a store's environment, they will eventually stop going to that store, eventually causing a loss of consumers for that company. If you click on the link below, there is a video with the article where you can see just how easy it is to look inside someone's dressing room without them knowing it.

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2011/09/19/privacy-concerns-arise-in-area-department-stores/

Yahoo News

On September 6th, Carol Bartz, a former CEO of Yahoo, was let go from her position through a phone call from Yahoo!'s chairman, Roy Bostock. He apparently wanted to let her know in person but changes in the  weather left him no choice but to deliver the devastating news via telephone. For the past few years, Yahoo! has not been as profitable as it once had been. The company had trouble expanding the company to foreign markets such as those in Asia due to a past dispute with Asian partners, such as Alibaba, which left the company with falling sales. Yahoo! had been one of the biggest names on the web, but recently it's popularity and prosperity had started to lessen compared to that of Google and Facebook. For a while, Yahoo!'s executives were not happy with Mrs. Bartz's performance. They claimed ever since she had been added to the board, Yahoo! was not able to stabilize it's finances nor recruit a better engineering team to push the company through the rubble. Yahoo! claimed she lacked a vision for the company and thus she couldn't determine the outcome of the company in the long-run. Also, ever since Mrs. Bartx became part of the Yahoo! team, stock price only increased by 10%, making Yahoo! less valuable than it was before she took over. That is one of the main reasons why she was let go from her position. She failed to see the problems of the company and lacked to acquire leadership skills and insights that would help the company prosper in the future.
My view:
When I first came across this article, I was shocked to see that a respected employee of a high profile internet site was fired in the way that she was. Although she failed to measure up to her responsibilities, Carol Bartz should not have, by any means, been fired that way. When it comes to business, there has to be a certain level of respect that comes into play, and in this situation, there was no respect. Even though Yahoo! is already suffering from low stock prices, it now has another issue that could hurt the company in the future. It's important to think about Yahoo!'s clients and how they will view this situation. Many people may frown upon the fact that a woman was treated in the way that she was and thus giving Yahoo! a bad reputation to its fans, especially the female population. It's also unfair to blame a companies faults and failures upon one person. Yahoo! is suppose to be a team, and a team that wins together, loses together. Another question that comes to mind is: how well of a job is Yahoo! doing at recruiting the right people to join their team? It seems as if Yahoo! should either increase their requirements for the hiring process, or dedicate more time in trying to find the best personnel for the business.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/yahoos-revolving-door-spins-again-09072011.html

Cambodian Cattle May Signal Hopes for Tigers

Extinction of tigers has been a major issue that has been rarely addressed in the past few years. There are less than 2000 tigers left in the world and no more than 5 are alive in the eastern plains. Conservation group, World Wildlife,  has found out that there have been large populations of banteng spotted roaming around in eastern Cambodia. This could mean this area of Cambodia could be a possible place for tigers to repopulate and steadily grow in number. The near extinction of tigers mainly occurred due to low levels of prey for tigers and increased hunting sprees for these rare animals. But thanks to the banteng, the tigers now have hope for a sustainable prey to hunt. Unfortunately, there is another obstacle standing in the way of tigers repopulating. There are talks of many projects being built on the grounds where the banteng live. There are about 2,700 to 5,700 banteng living in the eastern Cambodian area and if their population is wiped out, the tigers have little chance of surviving. Eastern Cambodia is one of the best places for tiger populations to recover and if the banteng, who are also declining in number, are gone, then the tigers are most likely going to become extinct very quickly.
My view:
The WWF has said, "In recent years, the forests in the eastern plains, and across the rest of the country, have become increasingly at risk from large-scale land concessions." With this statement, it is very clear that immediate action must be done to preserve this land in order to help in efforts of saving the tiger. It seems like money is playing a key role here, with these companies trying to clear out land in order to situate their businesses on it. As a company, it is important to take into account how your business decisions might affect the habitats and environment around you. 

                                           
http://news.yahoo.com/cambodian-cattle-herds-offer-hope-tiger-wwf-151225007.html

President Obama's New Proposal on Taxing the Rich

In order to get more support from citizens for the 2012 re-election, President Obama is proposing a new plan that will impose a higher tax, called the "Buffett Tax", on every household that brings in an income of $1 million or more. The proposal is expected to bring in around $3 million in 10 years but this plan isn't going to do much in raising revenues.  The point of this tax is that President Obama wants the wealthy population of the States to pay at an equal percentage that middle class folks are paying. Obama hopes this will jumpstart the economy along with the $447 billion in new tax revenue that Obama is seeking to pay due to his short-term spending and tax cutting plan.
My view:
Still I believe the best way to cut debt is to cut spending. It seems like lately when a plan of the President Obama's or Congress' doesn't work, they seem to try to find new ways to throw more money at it. There just aren't enough millionaires to amount to pay for all the programs President Obama is pushing for. Instead of spending money on a bunch of programs that have a 50/50 chance of being successful, we we should save our money and put it through more dependable programs that have higher chances of being beneficial to the nation. Below is a link to a Youtube video where President Obama addresses the nation on reducing the deficit with his new proposal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VnwRo7DrNM

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-seek-tax-rate-wealthy-225820977.html

Housing Prices Affecting College Attendance

As housing prices went down in 2003, the number of student attending college also dropped down significantly. Studies have shown that the rise and fall of housing prices go hand in hand with whether or not more or less students attend college. Throughout 1990 and 2006, housing prices increased dramatically, and so did the attendance of students going into college. Today, the real estate market has faced decreasing housing prices and therefore parents can't seem to afford to send their children to experience the once in the a lifetime opportunity.
My view:
With the tuitions of schools rising more and more each year, it has become even more difficult for parents to even consider sending their children to good colleges. As housing prices fall,  many parents are either left with no choice but to take out loans to even make it possible to send their children to school. Even if parents do have some money to send their children to school, it wouldn't be the school their children wanted and they may be forced to pick a community college over a university.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/16/housing-prices-college-attendance_n_965933.html

Netflix Makes a Bad Move With Higher Prices

In the past few days, Netflix customers have been shocked to find out that the company has increased its prices by more than 60%. Because of this high rise in prices, Netflix is at risk in losing over half a million customers by the end of September. Ever since they announced that they wanted to increase prices, the company's stock prices went down 19%, thus causing a lot of  financial loss for their shareholders.  People are starting to turn their backs on Netflix's services because they feel the company isn't doing much to give their customers better quality of content. So why should they rise their prices if they're not evening doing anything to improve their services? But Netflix stands by its decision to keep the higher prices, saying that they see this as a the "right long-term strategic choice." They feel that the longer the keep up with these high prices that eventually people will give in and just pay the price they have set sine Netflix is the leading provider of on-demand internet streaming media in the United States, Canada, and Latin America. 
My view:
Netflix has a certain competitive edge over their customers because they are the only ones who offer release out movies as they come into the movie theaters. Although Netflix has already lost a good number of customers, the company believes they still will make a larger profit than they could with a larger number of customers. But I also see this a turning against the company because people will either start to cancel their accounts or just subscribe to plans that don't cost much to begin with. With the economy these days, people are looking for cheaper ways to order movies. That is why other companies should take this opportunity to offer cheaper subscriptions to people and gain popularity through lower prices. A perfect example of this is sites like Amazon, who are already taking some of Netflix's customers by creating a free-streaming service to people. Seeing all this pan out, perhaps Netflix should definitely rethink its strategic choices before it decides to raise its prices again.


http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Higher-Netflix-prices-equals-apf-1466852939.html?x=0&.v=8

Heinz Faces a Crisis in Australia

             In Australia, there are two large retailers who are in constant competition with each other, Coles and Woolsworth. These two retailers carry everything from condiments, to snack, to meals and recently they have been rejecting high brand name products, like Heinz, because they want to focus on lower-priced home-brands. They are trying to get their customers to choose home-brand products over brands like Heinz. Companies like Woolsworth are even trying to create demand for generic products in order to strengthen their private label products. Although these changes are helping these retailers, it's hurting brands like Heinz because they are generating less revenue due to a decrease in demand for their products. Because Woolsworth is creating more space to display their private label products, the visibility for Heinz's products is diminishing, therefore people are not demanding the product as much anymore.
My view:
Basically these retailers are preventing Heinz from marketing their products and creating more demand for the company. Now Heinz has to compete with not just brand names like Kraft or Tyson Goods, it has to fight to get more attention than private label goods in the Australian segment. Since the Australian market brings in around $1 billion/year for Heinz,  this sudden decrease in demand for Heinz's products will definitely have a big impact on the company's profit. Now Heinz has to reevaluate its cost structure and close down a certain number of factories as a way to prevent the company from suffering further.


http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2011/09/16/heinz-gets-squeezed-down-under-collateral-damage-of-aussie-retail-battle/?partner=yahootix

Trash for Cash

        Whenever anyone has an electronic they don't want to use anymore, they toss it in the trash and just go buy a new one without even thinking that their trash could make some easy profit. Recently there has been buzz about how used, old electronics can been recycled to benefit the enviorment and their wallets. Ebay and Amazon are best known for selling used items for cheaper prices. If a phone or computer is in decent condition and still works, it'd be a smarter idea to put the items on the market for sale. Someone looking for a cheap phone could greatly benefit from something that you don't care to own anymore. Companies like Capstone Wireless and Gazelle take used cell phones if they turn on and have a decent LCD display on the screen. Even Apple is willing to offer gift cards in exchange for used computers. Another way to get rid of old electronics is to donate them. ReCellular is company that sells as many used phones as they can and recycle the rest so it be a good idea to just hand over used and unwanted electronics here. Best Buy takes back most electronics and even resells them. There's companies like Call2Recycle, which pick up used and old electronics from chains like Best Buy or Radio Shack.
My view:        
Helping the enviorment and making some extra cash are two of the many goals people these days try to accomplish. These days, people are taking are more productive approach to handling items that we don't use anymore, items that are out of style, broken, or have been replaced by a newer, better item. Usually when people have an old cell phone, they just toss it into the trash without thinking that they could profit from this item. Instead of throwing it away, companies like Ebay and Capstone Wireless are environmentally savvy and generous enough to give us a chance to make some sort of profit. In reading this article, it clear the Yahoo.com put the names of these companies in their article as a way to advertise their purposes and make them more popular and known to people. By advertising these companies and using their names on its website, Yahoo! receives some sort of payment for allowing these companies to be mentioned in its article. At the same time, these companies are also benefitting because they are getting more customers due to increased popularity.

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/113467/dont-bury-electronic-trash-kiplinger

Obama's Job Proposal

          Just a few days ago, President Barack Obama addressed the nation in a speech about increasing the payroll cut through the American Job Act, which would lead to an increase in job availability, increase the nation's Gross Domestic Profit, and cut the unemployment rate in Texas. But some economists argue that this plan isn't enough because they think more has to be done in order to sufficiently help the economy. Other economists, like Mark Zandi, believe the plan would "help stabilize confidence and keep the U.S. from sliding into a recession." Although this plan seems like it would help lead the economy in the right direction, there still are mixed reviews about whether or not this plan would pass through Congress. Brian Gardner, vice president of Washington research at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, said he believes Republicans would be hesitant to pass it because many people are still cautious about following through with proposals because many of the aren't successful.  Others, like Alex Merk, president and chief investment officer of Merk Investments, said he thinks that Congress will pass the proposal, but the impact of the plan wouldn't be strong and it wouldn't help "fix Social Security in the long run." Also, there's talk about whether or not the success of the proposal would affect President Obama's chances of being re-elected.
My view:
As we all know, the nation is currently $55 trillion in debt. People are suffering due to lack of employment and income isn't flowing is as it used to. In an effort to help the struggling nation, President Barack Obama came up with a proposal that would cut the payroll tax in order to increase the number of jobs available. This proposal can go either way, it can help the economy or it can bring it down even more. But the United States is in critical condition and we need more than just one proposal. The best thing the U.S. can do right now is to cut spending instead of spending more money on a plan that might not even work. The citizens of the United States cannot afford to lose anymore and if this plan does not work like President Obama claims it will, then the nation could lose hope for a recovery in the near future.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/180741-economists-say-obama-plan-could-boost-economy-but-wall-street-thinks-otherwise