#wildly confident statements about how much money they must be making and what they must be spending it on

[captainjonnitkessler]

Okay the Watcher backlash was fun at first but some of you are WAY too fucking deep in the parasocial relationships and really need to recalibrate your reaction to a pair of Youtubers deciding to quit

[lesbianlotties]

the only touchstone of truth

Chapters: 2/? Fandom: I Care A Lot (2020) Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Fran/Marla Grayson Characters: Marla Grayson, Fran (I Care A Lot) Additional Tags: Canon Compliant, Canon Lesbian Relationship, Origin Story, Canon Backstory, First Meetings, First Kiss, First Dates, Getting Together, Morally Ambiguous Character, Illegal Activities, Eventual Smut, Flirting, Partners in Crime, crime wives

Chapter 2:

There was something different about Marla that day. She wasn’t bored, she wasn’t idly waiting. She was waiting, true, but only because that was part of her plan. Standing behind her counter, her shop more or less back in shape, she wore a different blouse, higher heels, and a smile that sharpened, even more, when somebody came in. Marla sent a quick nod to Curtis, who had instructions on what to do. He pulled out his phone and walked away toward the storage room of the place.

“Marla,” the man greeted her with a perfectly polite and respectful tone that already started to crumble on his second sentence, “I wonder, what on Earth are you trying to do?”

“Mr. Nelson, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Marla replied, “It’s a pleasure to have you visit us.” What an honor to have you millionaire, corporate, chain store, ugly ass step on my broken dreams physically this time.

“You cleaned up the store,” he sighed, looking around as if to take a hold of his emotions.

This promptly reminded the blonde of the couple of hours she spent with Curtis destroying her own shop and then putting it back together again. In the upcoming years, Marla would learn just how far she was capable of playing dirty, and many would accuse her of being unscrupulous, among worse adjectives, but nobody would ever dare call her lazy, that was for sure. With or without morals, Marla was an extremely hardworking woman, and she wasn’t afraid of getting her hands dirty, for better or for worse. A practical habit that she cultivated during her days of playing fair, and kept, for some reason. Most likely because idleness simply went against her nature, and she had promised herself not to rest until she achieved her goals. 

“We did, yes. Lots of hard work,” the blonde nodded, “such a shame what happened.”

“Such a shame,” the man echoed the sentiment, speaking on autopilot, but when he focused his eyes on Marla again he was all ice. “You’re accusing us of doing it,” he said.

Purposefully, Marla gave him a deep shrug and another shark-like smile. “I believe it’s the police who marked your company as suspects,” she replied in a mockingly innocent tone.

“We didn’t do it. And the accusation is bad publicity for our business. Drop the lawsuit,” he ordered, his voice starting to shake just slightly. When Marla only shook her head slowly, he scoffed. “You’re nothing, Marla Gray,” he seethed, “Your little business is over. Why would we try to boycott you out of all people? You’re not even competition. Drop the lawsuit.”

“Grayson.”

“What?” he was still laughing with a combination of awkwardness and annoyance.

“My name is Marla Grayson,” she stated using the full power of the commanding nature that she knew she had, “and I will fight for this shop until the end.”

He scoffed again, clearly losing his patience. The man walked to the door of the store and back to the counter once, twice, until he calmed down and not quite looking Marla in the eyes, he offered, “Twenty thousand dollars, and you’ll drop the lawsuit.”

“No,” Marla denied it immediately and before she could fully think about how offensive the offer was, he continued.

“Fifty thousand, Marla,” he said, his face red and his voice trembling. It was a pretty number that put Marla at a crossroads between the attempt to feel offended and the impulse to just ask for more. Either way, that number would not do. She only tilted her head and her expression said it all. “A hundred thousand dollars, dammit! Final offer!”

At this point, Marla made it a point to pick up her vape pen and look as bored as possible. “Please get out of my store, Mr. Nelson. I’ll see you in court,” she concluded.

He shook his head, he was breathing heavily and wildly waved a finger in her direction. “No! This is not over,” he protested, “How dare you say no to me?! I’ll make you regret it, you know?” He made a pause and after seeing that his threat did nothing to disturb her, and in fact, she only exhaled the smoke in a terribly irritating way, he slammed his hands on the counter right in front of her, “Dammit just take the money!”

“I will not,” Marla fumed back at him, barely letting show a hint of her patience running out.

“And you better stop screaming.”

Both Marla and her unwanted guest hastily looked toward the door of the shop. There was Fran, casually leaning against the doorway, not so casually showing off her plaque. At first, the man didn’t even move from his place. But Fran let out a quick whistle and said, “This aggressive visit will not look on your case, Mr. Nelson.”

Finally, the big store owner groaned loudly and without even sparing either woman a word, he stormed away from the place for good.

This quick turn of events left Marla and Fran alone in the shop. Marla stayed behind the counter that she managed to handle like an equivalent to a throne, and Fran took a couple of effortless steps forward until she stood in the middle of the place, directing a small and easy smile at the other woman.

“I must say,” Fran started to say, “I didn’t expect to receive this ‘Marla needs help, come over right now’ text from a number, I assume, that isn’t yours.” She waved her phone once for emphasis.

“Personally, I don’t usually give my number to strangers,” Marla replied, earning herself a chuckle from Fran, who looked away for a second, but when their eyes met again, Marla was sincere as she said, “Thank you for coming, by the way.”

Fran nodded, accepting her gratitude without making a big deal of it. This gave Marla an opportunity to study her again. Fran looked similar to what she did that night showing up to the shop after the staged attack. A ponytail holding on for dear life to wild hair that just begged to be freed, a more or less regular detective’s outfit that most likely wasn’t designed with the purpose of fitting Fran’s curves so scandalously well on every single right place. And then there was the way she simply stood in the middle of the store with immeasurable confidence. Nothing to hide behind, nothing to lean into, just her in an open space without any issue with Marla’s eyes glued to her. She wasn’t standing there like she owned the place, not exactly. It looked like she couldn’t care less about ownership, but her world consisted of only her, and she didn’t care enough about any authority to give them the power of deciding if she belonged or if she was out of place. Fran carried herself as if the rest of the world’s ideas of right or wrong were mere suggestions. Nothing sounded more appealing to Marla.

“You weren’t exactly in trouble though,” Fran contemplated, reluctantly breaking the silence, “you looked like you had it handled.”

“But you did scare him off,” Marla grinned.

“And you didn’t take the money.”

“Do I look like someone that would have taken the money?”

Fran laughed, because they both knew the answer to that question very well. She walked forward until she could lean her arms on the infamous counter, not quite in front of Marla, just a little to the side. “Maybe you should have,” she finally mused, “this might be bigger than you, gorgeous.”

This development in their interactions came with considerable consequences for Marla, who had underestimated the effect it would have on her to have Fran again standing so close to her. She wouldn’t back down though, she wouldn’t lose her higher ground, but she couldn’t deny the fact that Fran shook her to her core in a magnitude previously unknown to Marla. She couldn’t come up with a reasonable answer until it was obviously too late, so she stayed silent, picked up her pen, and after taking a drag she left it on the counter. This seemed to spark Fran’s attention, who had previously been content to just study Marla’s face from up close and during the daylight.

“So, are you going to offer me one of these,” the brunette wondered, lightly tapping with her fingertip the tip of the pen standing between them, “or a coffee… a drink… should you at least walk me to my car?”

“I will… walk you to your car,” Marla decided, after a quick and not exactly pleasant assessment of the situation. There was nothing she’d love more than to take Fran’s hand and either lead her out of that damned store or guide her to the other side of the locked door of her office. But there were already smoke signals in the air between them that she couldn’t ignore. This could be dangerous, this was possibly great, this was certainly bigger than either of them was accustomed to. Marla was stunned by the undeniable fact that she wasn’t sure how to handle Fran, and equally as unsettled but no less excited about the fact that she had no idea how Fran would handle her. She had no doubt they could handle each other, but until she felt completely confident in a perfect plan of action, she would have to see for how long and how much she could feed this ferocious and inexplicable fire that was burning between them.

As they approached Fran’s vehicle, Marla made two statements. “I will not take the money,” she said, followed by, “and that’s not a car.”

Fran winked, “My mistake.” She leaned back on the motorcycle and focused her attention on the blonde in front of her.

“I’m taking that asshole to court,” Marla managed to say, despite that unexpected and entirely alluring image of Fran standing just like that. She should have known that even the safest option among all that the brunette had offered would still come with a trick to test Marla’s hesitant boundaries.

“For something you did?”

“I’ll have to close either way,” Marla rolled her eyes, “He took me out of business. I have to take something from him. Something big.”

Fran tilted her head. “Do you have experience in court?” she wondered.

“I’m confident I can manage,” Marla smiled.

“Of course,” the other woman chuckled. “Though,” she added, “if only you had… an acquaintance, who happened to be knowledgeable in the shady alleyways of court and would be willing to give you a hand.”

Fran was barely done with her word when suddenly Marla was almost on top of her. Marla had moved quickly and swiftly, standing impossibly close to Fran, somehow not touching, but if any of them were to so much as breathe a little harder than usual their bodies would meet in all the right places. Which was maybe the reason Fran was suddenly holding her breath. Marla had placed both hands on the bike, on either side of Fran’s hips, trapping her in place, while holding her face just inches away from the other woman.

“What do you want,” Marla slowly asked, “Fran?”

“Why do you assume I want something?”

Being softly hit with Fran’s breath on her cheek was an unexpected consequence of Marla’s plan, but she held her ground. Very deliberately, one of her hands moved slowly and confidently to one of the back pockets of Fran’s pants. The brunette, to her credit, her only reaction was a noticeable clench of her jaw, but she stood still while Marla pulled out her phone and mercifully stepped away to let both of them breathe a little easier.

“Unlock it, I’ll save my number,” Marla held out Fran’s own phone for her and proceeded to follow through with her words. 

Fran got her heart rate almost back to normal as she watched Marla quickly tap the screen, and deciding the only right thing to possibly say at that moment was to answer Marla’s question, she said, “Give me a percentage of the money you’ll make with the lawsuit. So I can finally quit the police.”

Beyond pleased with that answer, Marla bit her lip for a moment then returned the phone. “And here I thought you were just trying to have dinner with me,” she said to Fran right before walking away from her, but not before looking back just in time to catch the other woman staring, and adding a final smile she threw over her shoulder, “See you soon, Fran.”

[jubilantwriter]

No Idiots Were Harmed in the Making of His Reality

(AO3)  (First)  (Epilogue)

Summary:  The gang goes to an unnamed popular fast food joint after Pico commits mass murder in the name of protecting his duo of idiots.  And this is the thanks he gets.

Or:  An unfortunate fast food employee gets the misfortune of meeting the trio in their finest hour.

Word Count:  2127

////

There’s only so much a job description can prepare one for.  For instance: making burgers, serving customers, taking orders, so on and so forth.  That’s what this minimum wage job suggested she would be doing.  But it didn’t come with the fine print.  It didn’t tell her that she’d be making burgers, sandwiches, chicken nuggets, fries, so on and so forth under pressure as customers ranged from dead-inside but patient patrons to Karen levels of impatient and entitled.  There’s caveats, little sidebars, unmentioned stressors that go overlooked because her job is solely to serve the people shitty, shitty burgers.

And it barely even helps her pay rent.  The things she’s seen on the job only serves to make her wonder how long it’ll take for her to become either bitter and jaded or completely desensitized by the bullshit this hellish existence can throw at her.  Maybe it’ll be a mix of both.

The door opens and swings shut with a heavy, muted thud.  Cashier Girl looks up, already exhausted two hours into her shift as she catches sight of the next batch of cus-

Oh.  Oh no.  Oh no, they look like trouble.

A tall, bubbly young lady in a figure hugging dress smiles sweetly in that, “I’m going to try really hard not to create problems on purpose for you”, sort of way, which happens to be Cashier Girl’s favorite kind of customer.  Granted, this girl looks nothing like trouble.  She looks like the exact opposite of trouble.  But the two men she has in tow makes Cashier Girl think twice about lowering her guard around the pretty girl.  

Standing next to her is some dude with cyan-colored hair, a red cap turned backwards in a very dudebro kind of way.  He dresses sloppily, like he just rolled out of bed and threw on whatever happened to be in reach, which also just so happened to be the same clothes he wore the day before.  His clearly white shirt is stained with something… she hopes is nothing but the results of him being a messy eater.  Or maybe he got into a knife fight and won?  That has to be the answer for the mysterious, rusty stains and splatters on the right side of his shirt.  

However, the one who really sets off her anxiety radar is the taller young man standing next to the cyan shortie.  The guy is covered in blood.  Not only that, but she’s pretty sure he’s toting at least two guns on his person.  And to top it off, he’s wearing a sweater vest and a turtleneck in this kind of weather!  Granted, it is a bit chilly, but that level of layering just feels like overkill.  He glowers with his arms folded over his chest, clearly hating everything about this experience.  Is that dried blood on his face?  That is absolutely dried blood all over his face.

Cashier Girl sucks in a deep breath through her teeth and puts on a well practiced smile.  “Hello!  May I take your order?”

“Yes please!  Um,” the lady in red nudges the shorter man with a smile, “what were we going to order again?”

“Beep!”

...Beep?

“Oh!  Right!  Can we get the 2 for $5 deal?”

She could understand all of that from a single beep?!  “Of course!  And what would you like?”

“Badoop.”  The cyan-haired man nudges the blood covered ginger, and boy, did it look like Little Boy Blue was poking a stick at an angry bear.  “Skdeep!”

Having been in the industry for a long, two years has given Cashier Girl the ability to see when someone is about to take a dive into the deep end fairly quickly.  The ginger twitches an eye, lips pulled into a snarl as he breathes out a little too deeply.  Not quite like a sigh, but like a bull about to charge headfirst into a china shop on purpose.  He sucks in a harsh breath through gritted teeth and hunches his shoulders up.  Oh wow, he’s really restraining himself.

“Just get me…”  And of course Probably a Murderer understood everything Little Boy Blue said.  “The nugs and burg.” 

With the way he’s restraining himself, she wants to believe that he once worked in the same industry as her.  No wonder he’s a murderer.  Good for him, good for him.  Doing what the rest of them can’t do.  

“Alright!  And is there anything else I can get for you?”

“Hmm.”   Pretty Miss Sunshine looks over to Little Boy Blue who shakes his head before turning back to face Cashier Girl.  “I think that’s it!”

“Alright, your total comes to $5.40.”  

“Beep!”  Little Boy Blue pipes up excitedly and starts digging around in, what she assumes is, his back pocket.  The short man pulls out a crumpled, moist-looking five dollar bill.  He straightens it out, and Cashier Girl swears that a good quarter of the bill is stained with blood.  Probably a Murderer must have noticed the blood too, because he suddenly stiffens and glares at Little Boy Blue.

“...Boyfriend.”  Oh shit, are they dating?  Is Miss Sunshine just a lady friend of theirs?  “Isn’t that the fuckin’ money I lent to you a couple weeks back?”

Oh damn.  Cashier Girl looks between Blue and Murderer, Blue either oblivious to Murderer’s growing rage or too wildly confident that the bloodstained ginger won’t actually hurt him.   As interesting as the tension may be, she still needs the forty cents to complete their order.

“Sir-”

“Ba beep!”  Boy Blue nods vigorously, but she knows it’s not towards her.  Murderer lets out a long, aggrieved sigh as he massages his temples.

“So.  You’re tellin’ me.”  He points to the money on the counter and back at Boy Blue.  “You spent… how long at my apartment?  Botherin’ me for some extra cash for food, refusin’ to leave for a good few hours, and then completely forgettin’ about gettin' the fuckin’ food you were supposed to get?  After I gave you the goddamn money?”

“Oh, I remember that day!”  Pretty Miss Sunshine speaks up a little too cheerily given the mood.  “We were supposed to get some Chinese takeout, so Boyfriend disappeared for a bit to ask you for some extra money since he was short some.”  Wait, are they all dating each other?  What the hell?  “But Boyfriend came back looking all happy and without any food, and when I asked where the food was, he said he totally forgot!  We ended up just using Daddy’s credit card since I remembered I still had it, so we still got food in the end.”  Miss Sunshine beams brightly at the flabbergasted Murderer.  “You don’t need to worry about that!”

“That’s not what I was pissed about!”  For a yell worthy statement, Murderer does an awfully good job at keeping his voice reasonably leveled in this shitty fast food restaurant.  “And you had a credit card this entire time?!  Why do you fucks keep comin’ over to my place to ask for cash?!”  

“Ohhh, well, Daddy took it back after he found out I still had it.  But now I’m borrowing from Mommy instead-”

“Oh, so you just have another credit card you could be usin’ instead of my money-”

“Excuse me,” Cashier Girl says as politely as possible, seeing how Murderer’s hand is twitching over one of his guns, “but you still haven’t paid the full amount.”

“Boop!”  Boy Blue quickly begins to dig through his pockets, his confident smirk slowly morphing into a stricken grimace as his movements grow more frantic.  “Sk-skido, bap de doop-”

“Do not fuckin’ tell me you do not have forty fuckin’ cents.”

Ohhhh shit.  Cashier Girl feels torn between wanting to see Murderer fucking snap because man, they really are just running his patience into the GROUND, and wanting her goddamn forty cents so that she can move on with these customers.  Murderer’s face turns a bright shade of red as he inhales a deep breath through his nostrils and breathes out heavily through gritted teeth once more, the process repeating a few times before he reaches for his back pocket and pulls out a ratty wallet that’s literally being held together with duct tape.  Quietly, they all watch as he shakes some coins out and carefully counts out forty cents exactly.

“There,” he says softly in that tone she recognizes from parents who are this close to losing their absolute shit towards their children, “five fucking dollars and forty cents.”

Cashier Girl looks up and sees Miss Sunshine finally starting to sweat just a bit.  Still, she keeps up her cheerful demeanor as she addresses Cashier Girl.  “I think we’re good now, right?”

“Uh, yes!”  She takes the money and tries to get a read on Murderer to see if this shift will be her last one, but he’s got his arms crossed as he stares directly ahead.  The stony expression can only spell doom for the two standing next to him.  “Your number is 69,” haha nice, “and your order will be out shortly!”

“Babeep!  Pi-!”  Blue probably tries to make the same comment that Cashier Girl internally made to Murderer, but he’s quickly shut down by the dark glare Murderer shoots down.  He quickly laughs nervously and clears his throat, rubbing his arm as he looks away sheepishly.  “H-hm…  bop.”  Blue takes the receipt and nods his thanks, going over to stand by one of the dividers with Miss Sunshine in tow.  Murderer, however, remains where he stands, now making uncomfortable eye-contact with her.  Anger still rolls off of him in waves, but she’s starting to wonder if being angry is just his default.

“Oi,” he begins, and she quickly glances behind him to see if there are any other customers behind him.  None.  She’s not sure if she’s disappointed or a bit glad that there’s no one standing behind him.  “Honest opinion - you think this joint is a good enough reward for savin’ their asses?”

Oh boy.  Cashier Girl has no idea what he means by “savin’ their asses”, but if he means it literally then…  She sucks in a breath through her teeth and tries not to grimace.  He grunts in response and squeezes his eyes shut with a humorless chuckle.  “Yeah, thought so.  Really shouldn’t have taken them at their word when they said, ‘their treat’.  Ain’t nothin’ been their treat so far.”

Oof.  That’s right.  That five was originally his that Boy Blue was supposed to pay back, and the forty cents were definitely his.  The guy basically treated himself by force.  They both share a silent look before he sighs heavily.  As much as she’d kind of like to hear more of this dude’s story and why he’s even friends (datemates?  They did call Little Boy Blue, “Boyfriend”, after all) with them, she still has a job to do, and chatting with customers for longer than a certain, nondescript time could get her in trouble.  However, much to her relief, the ginger takes the initiative wordlessly and wanders back to the pair, sulking in his blood soaked clothes.  

Despite clearly looking like a group of troublemakers (especially Murderer), the three keep to themselves, Blue and Sunshine chatting amongst themselves and nudging Murderer every once in a while in some dangerous gambit to get his attention.  Each time they do that, he grips his arms tightly, before stiffly looking over to them as they jabber on about something Cashier Girl can’t hear.  All he does is nod and look away, intent on focusing on some spot on the wall and practice what she assumes is deep breathing exercises.  For a dude covered in blood, he’s doing a real good job at showing restraint.

Finally, their number is called.  Little Boy Blue grabs the bag with glee and nods his thanks to her co-worker before heading back to the group.  He practically thrusts the bag into Murderer’s face, and the ginger looks ready to bite his hand off when he catches sight of Blue and Sunshine’s faces.  They both look so… genuinely hopeful?  Like some shitty nuggets and a burger will be enough to quell his fury.  Cashier Girl is about to suck in a sharp breath when his expression softens.  He takes the bag and almost manages a smile, before seeing the blood on Little Boy Blue’s clothes and hardening his expression back into an annoyed glower.

They all leave without much fanfare.  The door slams behind them as she hums to herself, thinking back to this strange group of people who made less trouble than she expected.  A smirk rises to her face before she schools it for the next batch of customers.  

At least she knows now why he still hangs out with those friends of his.  What a softie.

[kaistarus]

What It Takes To Survive--Hunger Games AU

Pairing: Bakugou Katsuki x Reader

Words: 5.7K

Notes: This was a request from @deneuves​ and it took a while to complete(forgive me, but it got out of hand lol) Not all the references are accurate I’m sure, but I did my best. Please enjoy :3

Summary: Bakugou had been training his entire life to become a tribute while you stayed on the sidelines wanting nothing to do with it. What are you supposed to do when there’s a fluke and you’re sent into the arena with no training? And with the boy who you’d finally started working out your feelings with?

You watched his lips form your name with desperation in his eyes, but all you could hear was a faint buzz. You wanted to reach for him except a weight immobilized both your arms and you couldn’t move. Any senses that remained were too slow for you to use properly and you felt helpless as you watched Bakugou’s eyes become watery.

You wanted to reassure him, lie that things would be okay, but you struggled to even form words. He was screaming now. You could tell by the ugly crease he always got between his brows. You were growing dizzier by the second and just wishing you could grab his hand one last time.

This wasn’t fair. You kept repeating it to yourself as Bakugou sneered at the people who were watching you suffer for their amusement.

This wasn’t how your story was supposed to end.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

          It was your least favorite part of the day: gym training. You were off in the farthest corner with Midoriya practicing how to throw knives while he sat on the ground beside you taking notes. Although you tried your hardest, focusing intensely on the body’s center, only two of the ten knives hit their target.

          You let out a frustrated growl and stomped over to the practice dummy.

          “Don’t get upset,” Midoriya said without looking up. “It’s not like we’ll be picked to compete anyway.”

          You raised a brow after collecting the fallen knives. “You used to be so eager to get that number one spot. Where’d that fire go?”

          He lowered his notebook and gave you a dead stare. “I grew up and realized I didn’t want to die just for our district’s monetary benefit.”

          “Wish other people could realize the same thing.”

          He tilted his head before a buzzer rang throughout the gymnasium signaling the end of another sparring match. You both watched Bakugou Katsuki hop off the center mat leaving a classmate flat on his back and out of breath. Bakugou, however, looked unphased and was smirking wildly with confidence. You frowned. It hurt to see that your childhood friend turned into the District 2 show dog.

          A group of girls nearby start to whisper and point towards the center ring. You look back at Bakugou who was now taking a long swig of water and the girls started to giggle while shoving each other lightly. A sneer formed on your face. You turn back towards the target and throw a knife.

          A perfect headshot.

          “Hey! Turns out jealousy is your motivator.” Midoriya nodded his head before scribbling something down. “Who knew…”

          “Wha—” You looked between him and the practice dummy. “I wasn’t—what do you—jealous? About what?”

          Midoriya rolled his eyes. “It’s been ten years. Don’t even pretend like you don’t—”

          “Deku!” You both turned at the rough voice. Bakugou was looking over with his cocky smirk which was never a good sign. “Get over here so I can kick your ass.”

          Midoriya pouted, mumbling curses as he placed his notebook beside him. You just sighed and placed a hand on his shoulder. Bakugou always got too conceded when he was on a winning streak, and the teachers never bothered telling him what to do anymore. You were getting sick of it.

          “Fight someone else Bakugou.” You scowled.

          Bakugou raised a brow, smirking. “Yeah? Who ya thinking?”

          “It’s not a big deal. He never goes all out.” Deku looked at you wearily, but you shook your head. Bakugou taking it easy wasn’t the issue. The point was him always getting whatever he wanted just because he could.

          “You gonna fight him?” One of the girls beside you suggested. You looked back at Bakugou and his expression fell for a moment. A round of people shouting in agreeance rang before Bakugou scoffed.

          “Like I’d bother.” He sneered, turning around and walking out the gym. Your face was red as several people laughed. You clenched your fists to help bite back the burning sensation in your eyes.

          “He doesn’t mean it.” Deku frowned, picking his notebook back up. You shook your head at him.

          “Why do you always defend him?”

          Deku mulled over your question carefully, so long you assumed he was ignoring you. “Kacchan has a reason for what he does.”

          No matter how much you wanted to you could never hate Bakugou Katsuki. He was violent, arrogant, and downright disrespectful; but every time he looked at you, you couldn’t fight the truth. You couldn’t erase the years of memories you two had created. Days spent racing through town with Midoriya while you annoyed shop owners for sweets or running through backyards pretending to be tributes branding twigs before understanding what the games truly were. Years of laughter and friendship that were too poignant for you to wipe clean as easily as he had.

          You tilted your head back to where the explosive boy had marched out; just wishing you could understand him for once in your life.

*~*~*~*~*~*

          When he suddenly stopped meeting with you and Midoriya and started focusing on entering the arena you did your best to leave him in the past. When he decided that it was better to play with real swords than brandish sticks and rocks or prank the neighborhood bakers you wanted to push him away. He changed from the person you had admired into something you hated, but you were never able to shake those brave smiles and wild laughter from the younger version of the asshole he’d become.

          You were currently wandering the school’s halls, having forgotten a textbook, when you heard sounds coming from the gymnasium. The room should have been locked at this hour, so you crept towards it. Bakugou was inside, slashing a practice dummy apart with a machete. You watched with an aching heart at the fierce look in his eyes as he zoned out on the target, mindless in his actions. Was there even a shred of the old him in there or had it all been destroyed?

          “The fuck are you looking at?”

          Your eyes shot wide and you straightened up. You hadn’t even realized you spaced out and you couldn’t think of any excuse because the truth was you were watching him like a creep, and there would be no recovery. You cursed internally as he stared at you expectantly for the answer you didn’t have.

          “I don’t understand.” You went for, which was wrong, and you regretted immediately.

           “I already know you’re an idiot, but why are you being an idiot in my gymnasium?” He raised an eyebrow. You narrowed your eyes. His gymnasium? That statement made your heart drop to your stomach.

          “You’re smart, Bakugou. You’ve always been smart. Why are you putting so much effort into this?” You gestured around the gym. “You must know what it really stands for.”

          He took a deep breath. “I don’t have a lot of options.”

          “Killing people is really the best option you can—”

          “Yes.” He looked you dead in the eye and the intensity made you take a step back. “I’ve been raised to do this since I was four (Y/N). You have opportunities, but all I have is this.”

          “You could find something. You’re obviously talented I’m sure—”

          “Fuck!” He ran his hands through his hair. “I can’t… The second I started showing promise that’s it. Whether I fucking want to or not I’m going in that arena. You and Deku were always too weak you never had to worry about it. These fuckers went straight to my parents (Y/N) I never had a choice.”

          Your mouth hung half-open in shock. That must have been what Midoriya meant when he said that Bakugou had his own reasons, but you never could have imagined…

          “I’m sorry. I didn’t know…”

          “Yeah. No fucking shit,” he rubbed his palms against his eyes then looked at you confused before wiping your cheeks. You hadn’t even realized you were crying. “Don’t fucking do that. You weren’t supposed to care anymore.”

          “I wasn’t… what?”

          He took a deep breath. “I stopped talking to you and Deku when I figured it out. It was supposed to make things easier.”

          You felt your heart stop at the confession and you shoved him backward. “You can’t just walk out of people’s lives! That’s not your decision to make.”

          “I was going to come back.” He said. “Just… after I made sure I won.”

          You thought about how intensely he had always trained and how suddenly that change had happened. You had always assumed it was because of his need for attention, but it was because he wanted to live. Even now he was spending nights in the training room rather than at home. You brought your gaze to your feet, unable to face him.

          “I hate you…” You mumbled, half-assed and insincere. It was for walking out your life, for one day entering that arena, and for the fact that you didn’t hate him at all. You never had and you never would.

          You clung tightly to your new dress as you walked home. Although you would not be picked tomorrow it was still important that you looked presentable for the cameras—your district had a representation to uphold. Your mother had spent good money on the shimmering blue piece in your arms, and normally you wouldn’t be caught dead wearing it, but you couldn’t let her money go to waste.

          “That was the plan.” He scoffed.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

          It had already been six months since you spoke to Bakugou in the gymnasium and already so much has changed. Tomorrow he would be leaving and although you wanted to believe that he would return home, you still couldn’t hold back the pain that overcame you when you imagined watching him on the television. No matter what happened out there the Bakugou you knew wouldn’t be coming back.

          The lights were on in his home as you walked past, and you debated stopping by to say something. He probably had plenty of people over tonight, so there was no reason for you to bother him. He wouldn’t want to see you anyway after you insulted his very being all those nights ago. If he had he wouldn’t have gone right back to ignoring you as if nothing had ever happened.

          As those thoughts filtered through, you were pulled roughly by the arm and dragged off the main road towards back alleys. Panic flooded your system; your district was filled with dangerous people who were skilled with multitudes of weaponry and martial arts. You were as good as dead. You went to swing at your attacker but stopped short when you saw messy ash-blonde hair.

          “Bakugou?”

          “Quiet.” He kept looking around frantically while you both ran, and you became panicked for a separate reason. What were you running from? He eventually stopped in the middle of an alleyway after reassuring himself you were completely alone.

          “Are you… okay?” You took in his disheveled look. His hair was sticking in every direction and he had large bags under his eyes. He looked awful. His eyes snapped to your face and he scanned it slowly.

          “I’m leaving tomorrow.”

          You blinked several times. “I know.”

          “I… I’m going to have to kill people.” He looked down at his shaking hands. You reached for one and held it within your small grasp, rubbing it soothingly with your thumb.

          “I know.” You whispered.

          “I don’t…” He frowned frustratedly. “I didn’t…” He took a shaky breath and leaned his forehead on your shoulder which made you tense. When his body started to shake lightly you relaxed and started running a hand through his coarse locks. You knew he wasn’t talking for you, but for himself. So, you stayed like this until he was able to stand again. His eyes glistened from unshed tears, but you wouldn’t acknowledge them.

           Instead, you smiled and wiped the stray streams left by the ones that had managed to leak down his face, and he furrowed his brows. He watched you move with calculating eyes and suddenly as if a great realization had struck him, his eyes widened. Before you had the chance to question him, he was leaning down to press his lips against yours and you were jumping back in surprise, smacking your head against the wall behind you.

          “Fuck,” he reached toward your head but pulled his hand back to run through his hair stressfully. “I’m sorry. I just—I couldn’t not… I don’t know if I— I’m sorry. Fuck.”

          You didn’t know what to say. So much was happening so fast, and you were already having a hard time processing your own feelings let alone adding his into the mix. But… In front of you was a broken boy. Someone scared to death that they might not have a future and they were looking at you like you were the answer to their pain.

          And you couldn’t turn him away. Not now.

          So, you grabbed the sides of his face and pulled him down for a proper kiss. It was sloppy, bad, and extremely obvious that you both lacked experience; but it was raw and real, and you don’t think you’ll ever experience this kind of passion where your heart wants to explode again in your life. He tightened his arms around you, and you didn’t attempt to fight back the tears that streamed down your cheeks. You weren’t even sure if you had true feelings for this boy yet, or if this was nothing more than a desperate send-off. But you did know that nothing had ever felt safer than this moment in his arms, and nothing had been colder than the moment he pulled away from your lips.

          “I’m going to win,” he whispered. This time he spoke it like a promise, to who you didn’t know or care. It didn’t matter.

          You were standing amongst the familiar faces of girls you’d known since birth. Everyone was quiet today and the air was heavy as they waited for names to be drawn, even those who wished they were in Bakugou’s position were solemn. Your eyes remained on his broad shoulders as he kept up his usual bravado for the cameras; the girl beside him, however, looked as though she was going to vomit.

          “I know,” you replied, kissing him for the third but not final time that evening. When you finally managed to drag yourself home it was way past your curfew, and you found yourself sneaking in through your bedroom window. In the morning you did your best to avoid the knowing glances from your parents.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

          Eventually, the woman from the capital walked upon the stage and called out one of the boys’ name, Bakugou volunteered the moment they asked, and your heart rate spiked since it was closer to when he would be gone, possibly forever. It hurt. You didn’t even notice your own name being called until the girl beside you nudged you forward. You walked mindlessly, catching a panicked look from Bakugou who let his false confidence slip. You stepped onto the stage and gave a reassuring smile to your family and Midoriya because this was only until the real contender came forward, you were only a placeholder.

          “Do we have any volunteers?”

          Your smile started to slip at the ever-growing silence and the girl in front of you had her hands gripping her hair, breathing heavily. The cameras were on her, but nothing came from her mouth. You slowly processed what was happening and turned to Bakugou who appeared devoid of all emotion.

          “Well, no female volunteers from district 2.” The woman smirked at you. “There’s a first time for everything, I suppose.”

          Shouts of protest arose as hands shot into the air, but the woman waved them away. There was a time and place and the audience hadn’t been punctual, so their volunteering wouldn’t be counted. It would be you going into the arena.

          It was obvious to the country that you weren’t properly trained to compete. Your only advantage was being raised in district 2, but that still only had you scoring in the middle of the group. You were a below-average fighter by district 2 standards which put you at a greater disadvantage since that made you extremely unlikable in the capital’s eyes. If you were lucky, they would want to keep you around for curiosity’s sake, but more than likely they would want to be rid of you immediately.

          You bit your tongue till a metallic taste flooded your mouth in hopes the cameras wouldn’t notice your need to cry.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

          If it wasn’t for Bakugou receiving the highest score and acting like a complete alpha male around the other tributes, you probably would be even worse off. Although he hadn’t spoken to you since you had stepped foot on the bullet train, he was still sticking close to your side anytime someone went near you. The entire capital was eating up his personality and you felt miserable at each event you partook in. If he wasn’t wasting his energy on you Bakugou really could have a chance at winning this year.

          You knew it was selfish of you to reach out to him when he’d made it clear that he didn’t want anything to do with you anymore. Logically, you understood this was best for both of you, but tonight was possibly the last night you would ever have; you couldn’t spend it staring out the window of a foreign room that reeked of inhumane isolation. So, selfishly you stood outside his room with your fist raised trying to gather the courage to knock.

          You took a breath, readying yourself for possible rejection when the door slid open and Bakugou stood before you silhouetted by a radiant, artificial moonlight. Your eyes went wide, and your face flushed as you started to stutter.

          “Wha—what are you doing up?” You asked lamely.

          “Pee.” He started looking you up and down before glancing down the hallway. “Why are you outside my door?”

          You racked your brain for a not weird answer to why you had been standing there for going on fifteen minutes, but you had nothing. “You’ve been ignoring me…”

          The words sounded so much worse when you said them aloud. You didn’t know how else to phrase it in the middle of the night when you were running on little sleep and high anxiety.

          He checked the hall one more time before pulling you into his room. You felt your face turn a deep shade of red. Now really wasn’t the time to be freaking out about being in a boy’s bedroom.

          “They have ears everywhere,” he whispered. “We can’t just… I can’t let them use you against me.”

          You stared dumbfounded as he frustratingly sneered at his feet. You hadn’t even thought about them listening to your conversations before the games, but it made complete sense that they would look for information to manipulate the players. He really had thought of everything when preparing himself all these years. You nodded your head and glanced back to the door, taking a deep breath.

          “This sucks.”

          He snorted, hesitating before grabbing your hand. “Understatement of the fucking century.”

          You looked at your interlocked fingers and let yourself relish in the warmth, rolling around the thought that this may be the last time you get to do this. You were surprised at the level of affection he displayed when he gently placed his forehead against yours.

          “I’m not going to let you die, okay?” He whispered. You furrowed your brows and struggled to grasp at words before he was pulling away and ruffling his messy hair. “You should rest. We have a fucked day tomorrow.”

          You nodded slowly, allowing him to guide you out by the small of your back. You said goodnight to each other quietly and once you crawled back into your too-large bed you felt your heart begin to twist as the implications of his words hit you.

          One of you was going to die in the next few days, but it wasn’t going to be him. You weren’t the one who had prepared for this day and you weren’t going to let him waste his life trying to protect you. He had a chance and you didn’t.

          Bakugou held your arm gently, rubbing some sort of capital healing salve on the cut you’d just received on your bicep. You were both covered in grime, a layer of sweat coating your bodies and slicking your hair into wild styles. Splotches of blood were smeared across his face and you’d been too exhausted to think about who it belonged to anymore. It didn’t matter.

          Bakugou could think whatever he wanted, but he wasn’t going to die for you. Not if you could help it.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

          He dug through his knapsack and pulled out a roll of bandages to tie around your wound, fastening it till you winced. You took in the deep circles under his eyes, the gauze wrapped around his leg, and bruises along his jaw. You grabbed his wrist as he reached for more supplies—his supplies. He’d been wasting everything on you since you’d arrived there.

          “Bakugou… we can’t keep—”

          “Don’t.” He stood, tossing everything back into the bag. He handed you the small daggers that’d just been used to slice your arm and some dried meat. “These are yours now. Bitch barely had anything on her.”

          You shivered at the mention of the girl from district 1. The crazy look in her eyes as she came at you full sprint with a bloodthirsty grin. You were as good as dead if it wasn’t for Bakugou…

          A cannon went off. In the sky, a boy’s dangerous smirk flashed briefly. Bakugou let out a relieved breath—it was someone he’d tussled with early in the games who’d inflicted the only serious injury he had. You also felt relief that the strongest competitor he faced was out of the arena, simultaneously it made your stomach churn that you were both getting elated over other’s dying. What had this place done to you?

          “There’s only a few left now…” You pointed out while rotating your fists with the knives in your grasp, trying to mimic how the girl had moved with such ease.

          “Yeah,” a smile spread across Bakugou’s face. “There’s only two more and then it’s just—”

          “Just us?” You raised a brow. Bakugou looked at you for a moment before sneering and turning away. He finished packing things up and tossed the bag on his back. “Bakugou we need to split up before we have to—”

          “I can’t have you wandering around here yourself. You’ll humiliate our district.” He growled. You took a deep breath because that’s the same excuse he’s been using since you entered the arena. “I’ll figure it out…”

          “There’s nothing to figure out Bakugou.” You rolled your eyes. “One of us has to die and—”

          “Shut up!” He shouted aggressively and you just sighed dejectedly. He ran a hand roughly through his hair and looked you in the eyes. “We’re going to the lake. We need more water.”

          You looked after him crestfallen as he stomped ahead of you. You wished you could wrap your arms around him and console him, but there was nothing you could say for comfort. There was nothing to make this situation better. You wanted to walk in the opposite direction, but you didn’t have the strength to leave—mentally or physically. You were too scared and too selfish.

          You had been preparing yourself for this moment since that girl was too scared to take the place as the true tribute from your district. You knew you were going to die, whether at your own hand or by someone in the arena, you knew it had to be you. However, mental preparations didn’t make facing a reality like this any easier.

          You hoped these few moments together—this short time—would be worth it.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

          You could tell the moment you started dying. There was never a second you questioned it. The pain you had created in your upper abdomen from the knives Bakugou had given you slowly faded as all sensations lifted from your body. Your limbs grew heavier by the second, and your mind was becoming muddled as you had to consciously fight to get the thoughts you needed.

          The boy hovering above you, who you connected to be Bakugou, was pressing down on your stomach. He looked so beautiful. Was it weird to think he looked beautiful with mud and dirt smeared across his cheeks, his hair slick with days of grease and skin covered in blood that wasn’t his own? You wished he’d stop crying though.

          Why was the cute boy crying?

          Your mind continued to grow foggy and your vision started to weaken. Suddenly there were two Bakugou’s blurred and you felt like giggling, but couldn’t manage, coughing instead. Crimson liquid splattered on the boy’s forearms and he froze with widened and frantic eyes.

          This boy was really cute. What was his name again?

          Your arm felt so heavy and numb. You wanted to tell the boy to get off your arm so that you could move, but again you couldn’t find your voice. He was saying something, but you couldn’t hear so you tried smiling instead. He looked so sad. You wished he would smile.

          The boy… Bakugou. That was his name.

          Bakugou started shouting something at the sky, which you thought was silly because the sky can’t talk. His eyebrow was creased, and you somehow knew he was being really loud even without hearing his volume. You wanted to know what he was saying, but everything was just so dull—colors, sounds, feelings—nothing was right. You couldn’t remember a lot and that really frustrated you, but you felt something poking through the fog, like there was something really important you needed to do.

          You felt water on your cheeks and were confused. Was it raining? No… you were crying.

          You focused on the boy—Bakugou—who was talking to himself frantically as he dug through a backpack seated beside him and words started to flood into your mind. They seemed silly since you don’t remember much about this guy, but your chest ached in a different sort of pain and you decided to fight past it get them out.

          “Bakugou,” you croaked, and he quickly moved to you, starting to talk rapidly and poke at various parts of you. “I.. love…”

          That’s the most you could weakly get out before your coughing fit ensued. It seemed like enough because the boy—B something—seemed to freeze for a moment before a serious look took over his face. You managed a weak smile. His eyes looked so determined and cute.

          You saw him reach for a knife lying beside you in the grass and felt panic flood through you. You wanted to do something to stop him from whatever he seemed set on, but you couldn’t move. You couldn’t talk. You couldn’t do anything.

          You saw him give an ugly scream at the sky, unshed tears shining in his eyes, as he lifted the knife into the air.

          You felt a dull ache spread across your abdomen as consciousness filtered into your body. You blinked slowly, squinting at the bright lights that bounced against the pure white walls and curtains surrounding you. You fought for a semblance of an idea on where you could be, but nothing came to you. As you tried to sit up, pain shot through you and you winced, letting out a soft moan in agony. It was then that you realized how many IVs were attached to your wrist.

          Then the world faded to black.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

          Where were you?

          A distant shouting came from the hallway that gradually increased in volume. It was an unmistakable sound.

          Bakugou.

          “You said I could fucking see her.” He yelled. You heard a quiet voice attempting to calm him, but he cut them off. “I don’t give a shit. I did your fucking interview so where the hell is the room!?”

          Your door was thrown open seconds later and Bakugou stormed in wearing a capital tailored suit. It was enough for you to question the realism of where you’d woken up with your already foggy mind slow to process everything. He was at your side quickly, throwing his arms around you and pulling you close. You winced at the embrace and he immediately let go.

          “Are you okay? What hurts? When did you wake up? Do you know what they’re giving you? Where the fuck is the chart… fuck I’m so happy you’re here. I thought they were lying to me and—”

          “Am I dead?”

          He halted his search around the room for your medical chart and just stared at you. A weak smile formed on his face. “No.”

          “I vividly remember dying…” You observed your surroundings again, finally piecing them together to form a hospital room. “Did… did we win?”

          He came back to your bedside, carefully cradling your face in his hands and bringing your forehead against his. “We lived. I figured it out.”

          “Bakugou… what… what happened?”

          He sighed. “I just… said some things and threatened some people.”

          You pushed him back by the shoulders and held him at a distance. “You threatened some people? What the hell do you mean you—”

          “Look, I did what I had to.” He took your hands into his and squeezed them lightly. “I don’t regret it.”

          You regarded him carefully, scanning his face for answers but still too dizzy to do complex thinking. You nodded your head, but your stomach was in knots as various consequences came to your mind. It was child’s play for them to make people’s lives miserable, you had both found that out the hard way these past weeks, they could really hurt him if he had done something stupid.

          “How did you—"

          Someone in a long coat entered the room to check you over and even though they ‘encouraged’ Bakugou to leave the room he very aggressively denied their suggestion. Even though all of you was still in pain the doctor had okayed you for an incredibly unprofessional discharge which had left Bakugou eagerly carrying you out of the room. You realized, as they failed to prescribe you painkillers, that this was the beginning of the neglect the capital had in store.

          You were forced into an uncomfortable outfit and Bakugou ensured you it was temporary for the short trip to the bullet train. It was tight in all the wrong areas, something you had a hunch was intentional, and from the fierce rage in Bakugou’s eyes, he felt the same. You were ushered to the train and Bakugou ignored anyone asking questions, having already faced an interview that morning he told you to do the same. You had a hard time following what was happening and could only focus on how you really needed a nap.

          Once you were safely on the train that would take you home you were able to change into comfortable clothing and plop onto a couch where Bakugou was anxiously waiting. He still had large bags under his eyes, and you wondered if he had been able to sleep at all since the games had ended. You should probably both take a nap. Instead, you asked him to play the interview he kept mentioning so you could see the end of this year’s hunger games and finally understand what the hell was going on. Finally, you could jog some of your memories and learn why you’re not dead.

          He was hesitant but found the interview repeatedly playing the main television because of course, the capital would be so kind to them. He explained that the game makers wanted just him for the interview to really sell the district 2 bad boy love story the capital idiots had become so obsessed over. You were taken aback by the statement but didn’t know where to begin asking for an explanation. You hoped the recording could speak for itself.

          It was a surreal experience watching yourself nearly die. The memories of your body going numb and you losing grasp of reality had you subconsciously curling into Bakugou’s side. You saw yourself give a love confession and you turned red because you hadn’t remembered that happening. You felt your eyes burn with unshed tears as you watched Bakugou whisper your name and gently shake you, begging you to respond, calling you an asshole for confessing and then leaving him like that. You wanted to punch him when he started cursing at the game makers before picking up a knife off the ground and aiming it toward himself. Then the screen went black and it was just Bakugou and Caesar.

          He fabricated a story about how they had barely known each other as kids, but he hadn’t really thought about her since then. He obviously had never imagined a fluke happening where she’d become a tribute and it wasn’t until the arena that his feelings started to develop. The confession from you just kind of finalized it for him and he couldn’t imagine a world without you in it anymore—it wouldn’t be worth living. The entire audience was clapping and cooing. You were watching with a mouth half-open because Bakugou was one hell of an actor when he needed to be.

          “It’s not like it was a complete lie,” he said, nuzzling his cheek against the top of your head. You still had a hard time believing this was real. That you were allowed this moment of peace after everything you’d been through.

          “Which part?” You mumbled.

          “Loving you,” he shrugged. “It wouldn’t have been worth coming back after figuring that out.”

          You rolled your eyes, looking up at him as he gave you a dopey smile. “You’re an idiot.”

          “Maybe,” he said as he leaned down to kiss you. You placed a hand on the side of his face, holding him there. Your heart raced uncontrollably, and you knew this was it. That whatever was going to come next would be worth it. You had faced hell together and no matter what the capital tried to do you’d be able to face it if you had each other.

[ciestessde]

NOT My Hero Academia: Part 1 – Ch.6

Mirio-senpai was right: there were plenty of awesome things for me to do at U.A.!

Not long after the Rescue Training, U.A.'s annual Sports Festival was announced.

Everyone was pumped, but Uraraka seemed especially excited to show her skills. Which reminded me of a question I'd forgotten to ask her.

"Money…?! You wanna be a hero for the money?!" "Ultimately, yeah." Uraraka rubbed the back of her head nervously. "Sorry. I know it seems base… and really embarrassing, considering your guys's noble motivations and all."

She explained that her family ran a construction company, but that business had been bad recently. They were "poorer than poor." Uraraka wanted to help her parents by using her quirk to move and lift objects, but they told her they wanted her to make "her own dreams come true." And that, when she did, she could take them on vacation. "So I'm gonna be a hero. I'll make that money…" Uraraka had a determined look in her eyes, "... so that my mom and dad can have easier lives."

I was impressed. 'So she doesn't just idolize heroes. She's thinking of the practical as well…'

Seeing how determined Uraraka and everyone else was… it reminded me of the drive I felt while first training with Master. In fact, I felt more determined than ever to prove myself!

'I can't measure up to most of the others here in strength. But… What I lack in strength, I can make up for in skill! 'I'm not gonna fall behind. I'm going to aim for the top. With everything I've got!'

.

During the two weeks leading up to the Sports Festival, I trained -- and studied. I couldn't find out what events I'd have to deal with, but that didn't mean I couldn't prepare for the worst possible outcomes. And there was one thing I knew for sure I'd have to deal with: my fellow students.

Thankfully, Master's final gift was ready in time…

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

We were in the warehouse again, although there was no practice today. Instead, I studied the trick gun, unloaded and reloaded it, and, satisfied that it was just like the one I'd practiced with, holstered it. "With this tool at your disposal, you should have no trouble at least reaching the final event of the Sports Festival," Master said. "Actually… I've decided not to use it."

I looked up at Master. He was sitting in a chair across from where I was standing, his face as unreadable as usual. "At least… not until I reach the final event. I want to keep the element of surprise. That way, I might…" my throat tightened, "… might actually have a chance of winning." "…" Distressed by his silence, I tried to explain myself, "If I end up having to fight someone with a strong quirk, like Todoroki or Iida, the gun will be useless if they know what's coming," my hand tapped the holstered gun, "Although… I'll still use the grapple, since I've already been using that."

"… Hmm." "...Master?" "I'm impressed. So you really believe you can win?" "Ah! Well. I mean," I jolted, blanching and gesturing wildly with my hands, "I… I think I might, if-" "-Good." "-Huh?"

Master stood from the chair he was sitting in, seeming to look up and out of the skylights. "When you first came here, you would've been satisfied just making it past the entrance exam and trying again another year. 'I am quirkless, after all' you would've said. Now…" He looked back at me, "you've really grasped the truth. … I'm proud of you."

That was the last thing I expected him to say at that moment. It… it made me happy. My blanch quickly became a blush. Then I remembered, "Oh! Um… I hope it's not too much to ask, but…" Master had turned to sit back in the chair again, but he stopped and looked back at me. I continued, "Any edge I can get will be helpful, right? So…

"May I have the plant tonight?"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Master had allowed me to use the plant the night before the Festival. Even so, the size of the audience in the stadium was still unnerving.

I was a bit surprised Kacchan was the First Years' student representative, but Sero made a good point -- in that he had placed first in the entrance exam. "The hero course entrance exam, you mean," pointed out a girl from General Studies standing nearby us.

I wished I had more time to think about that, because my first thought was just 'Well, it is a hero school, right…?' But Kacchan was already on stage, ready to deliver the Athlete's Oath. He was stoic. Much more serious than I was used to seeing him. And with that neutral face, he said into the microphone, "The athlete's oath… Make no mistake about it. I'm gonna take first place!!"

The other students were understandably upset by that statement, but my brain was spinning. 'Confidence…? No…' Kacchan's expression didn't change as he walked back to his spot among the crowd. 'The old Kacchan… He definitely would've been smiling as he said that… He's pushing himself. Telling himself he can't lose.' I didn't dodge Kacchan's shoulder when he passed; I let him bump into me. Somehow, dodging it right then… would've felt like surrender. 'I need to be careful about him. His guard is up. Winning was never gonna be easy, but…'

Midnight, "without delay," announced that our first event would be an obstacle race "between every member of all eleven classes! The course is a four-kilometer lap around the stadium itself!" It was what she said next that stuck out to me -- something I was counting on, in fact. "Our school preaches freedom in all things! … Heh heh heh…

"So as long as you don't go off the course, anything is fair game!

"Racers, to your positions…" The lights above the starting gate turned off one-by-one. Ding… I looked at the size of the starting gate -- and the crowd in front of it. Ding… I measured where I was inside that crowd -- my hand grasped an object on my waist. Ding! Midnight yelled, "START!"

By the time Todoroki had frozen the ground, I had already grappled passed him. Unfortunately, my lead didn't last long; Todoroki was still faster than me on foot, thanks to his ice, and Kacchan blasted past me not long after.

The next obstacle turned out to be the zero-pointer robots from the hero entrance exam. My grapple was sufficient to get over the hulking ice monoliths Todoroki had made of them as well. As the robots crumbled behind me, I noticed a metal plate fall to the ground nearby. I grabbed it and fastened it to my back. 'I'm low on tools, since they didn't approve of many of my gadgets. This might be useful.'

Some of my classmates were falling farther behind than I'd expected. They were hesitating, too indecisive over whether to attack the robots or ignore them. Worried. Too afraid of getting injured to make the split-second decisions we needed to.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I was on the ground again. It seemed like, no matter what strategy I tried, no matter how hard I thought about it, I just couldn't find a way to beat Kurogiri-sensei! He was always one step ahead, a split second faster!!

As Kurogiri stood over me, he revealed today's lesson, "Planning is important. You must always have a strategy, no matter how simple. However… when in a REAL battle, the most deciding factor… is boldness." He reached a hand out. I took it, and he pulled me to my feet. "That is why you must train to the point that these things become second nature. So that you don't need to decide to use them!"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

'Move! Keep moving!! By the skin of my teeth is fine. Just keep going!' A robot locked onto me. Grabbing the plate from my back, I swung it straight between the robot's upper and lower sections, breaking it in two and ending its pursuit. 'Works as a shield too… This thing's handy!'

Next was a section of tightropes above a canyon. I didn't pause in returning the plate to my back and grabbing my grapple-gun. It seemed to be my saving grace in this event. Definitely a good choice to bring with me. Once on the other side, I noticed a girl using a similar tactic as me -- but with some kind of special arrow-guns and hover boots… I smiled. 'Cool…'

Kacchan and Todoroki were still in the lead when I made it to the minefield. 'Nothing to grapple onto with just these fences on the sides…' I paused for the first time, looking around, analyzing my surroundings to find the best strategy.

'There are lots of mines nearby me. Anti-personnel mines should only be 14-15 cm down -- I could dig 'em up with the plate…' I had a crazy idea, and no time to second-guess it. I swallowed nervously while pulling out the metal plate again. 'Taking a page from your book, Kacchan!'

After making a pile of the thankfully-not-too-powerful bombs, I held the plate in front of me, braced myself, aimed -- and jumped down onto them, metal-plate-first.

To my -- and everyone else's -- surprise, it worked. I went shooting passed Todoroki and Kacchan! 'Now to stick the landing…' But the two leaders were already catching back up!

'Passing them again will be impossible!! This is my one chance!! I gotta stay in the lead!!' Trusting my instincts again, I tightened my grip on the wires holding me onto the plate, let myself flip over and separate from it, and, once close enough to the ground, aimed- -and SLAMMED the plate onto a cluster of bombs. I shot forward again just in time -- with just enough of a lead to make it through the finish line in first place!

Present Mic -- and the rest of the audience! -- went wild. "THE QUIRKLESS KID IS IN FIRST PLACE!?! WHAT A TURN OF EVENTS!" "He's one you shouldn't underestimate. The fact he even made it into U.A.'s hero course should tell you that kid is practically the definition of Plus Ultra." "IS THAT A HINT OF PRIDE I HEAR IN YOUR VOICE, AIZAWA? ISN'T HE ONE OF YOUR STUDENTS?!"

Quivering from exhaustion, Uraraka walked up to me, Iida not far behind her. "Deku…! That was awesome!" "To lose a race, of all things, with my quirk… And to someone without any quirk at all!" Iida lamented, "It's clear I still have progress to make…!"

Todoroki walked up to me with purpose in his step. I stood up straighter instinctively. He paused -- then bowed his head. "Well done."

And like that, he just walked away again.

Before I had time to process that, Uraraka got up in my face, "First place, though! Man, I'm jealous!" I blushed. 'So close…!' "Aw, nah… It was -- well, it wasn't luck, exactly, but I mean… if I'd gotten unlucky…"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

All For One watched the camera feed interestedly. Everything was going remarkably well.

"If this keeps up, I might not need to use that after all…" He switched cameras to get a better view of Midoriya's face. The boy looked ecstatic. "He's practically caught in a dream. His perfect fantasy. Good…"

He switched again, this time to a view of All Might, watching from the audience. "The higher he gets in this competition…" One of his underlings sat down behind All Might. More -- so many more -- were visible in the crowd, spread through the entire stadium. "The harder he'll FALL."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Beginning]

[Previous Chapter] - [Next Chapter]

Read my original book, Crossroad of Infinity for free right here on Tumblr, on my website, or on AO3!

[expatimes]

Robinhood weathers storm with $1bn lifeline as fallout continues

Robinhood weathers storm with $1bn lifeline as fallout continues

The Reddit hordes were at it again Friday, once again bidding up shares of GameStop Corp. and warring with hedge funds by seeking out targets such as Siebert Financial Corp. and Twinkie maker Hostess Brands Inc.

Hours after Robinhood Markets said it received a cash infusion of more than $1 billion, having just angered legions of retail investors by imposing a raft of trading restrictions, the Securities and Exchange Commission said it would look to identify potential misconduct and review decisions by brokerages to curtail transactions on certain stocks.

The fallout also humbled one of Wall Street’s best known contrarians, Andrew Left, whose Citron Research announced it will no longer publish short-selling analysis after a two-decade run.

Markets opened Friday with other heavily shorted and thinly traded stocks catching massive bids. Siebert Financial soared almost 399% at one point during regular trading, and Jefferies analyst Steven DeSanctis offered up other potential targets, including Hostess and mattress-maker Sleep Number Corp. And the stock that started it all, GameStop, surged 68% at 11:40 a.m. in New York.

By mid-afternoon, Robinhood announced that it had put limits on purchases of shares and options for 23 stocks, including vaccine maker Moderna Inc., Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. and Tootsie Roll Industries Inc.

The past few days have been a whirlwind for the Menlo Park, California-based brokerage.

New York markets had just fired up Thursday, and the investing world was tuning in for the latest episode of the continuing drama: Legions of Robinhood investors versus hedge-fund Goliaths.

But within minutes, a shock wave invisible to the outside world rattled the mechanics of Wall Street — sending Robinhood rushing for additional cash. The stock market’s central clearing hub had demanded large sums of collateral from brokerages including Robinhood that for weeks had facilitated spectacular jumps in shares such as GameStop Corp.

The Silicon Valley venture with the wildly popular no-fee trading app came to a crossroads. It reined in the risk to itself by banning certain trades and unwinding client bets — igniting an outcry from customers and even U.S. political leaders. By that night, word was emerging that Robinhood had raised more than $1 billion from existing investors and drawn hundreds of millions more from bank credit lines to weather the storm.

“Look, it is not negotiable for us to comply with our financial requirements and our clearinghouse deposits,” Robinhood Chief Executive Officer Vlad Tenev said in defending his firm’s decisions on Thursday in a Bloomberg Television interview. “We have to do that.”

The capital injection is “a strong sign of confidence from investors that will help us continue to further serve our customers,” a Robinhood spokesperson later said in an emailed statement. The money will allow the firm to “continue to invest in record growth.”

Robinhood took additional precautions, limiting purchases of fractional shares and cryptocurrencies.

When the history of this month’s stock mania is written, it may be a story of how retail traders set out from Reddit message boards to challenge Wall Street’s status quo — and ended up battering their beloved brokerage too.

For weeks, Robinhood, with a mission “to democratize finance for all,” has been their trading platform of choice as they inflicted billions of dollars of losses on hedge funds by sending stocks that those firms had shorted into the stratosphere — a sort-of populist crusade into the staid world of finance.

Robinhood’s trading restrictions made virtually nobody happy, except perhaps the hedge funds. In a surreal scene, political archenemies Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ted Cruz found common ground in lashing the firm’s decisions. Conspiracy theories erupted online.

The question is whether such critics will dig into the industry’s inner workings, where pressure mounted on Robinhood and other firms to limit certain trades. That would put a rare spotlight on arcane parts of the market designed to prevent catastrophe, such as the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.

One key consideration for brokers, particularly around high-flying and volatile stocks like GameStop, is the money they must put up with the DTCC while waiting a few days for stock transactions to settle. Those outlays, which behave like margin in a brokerage account, can create a cash crunch on volatile days, say when GameStop falls from $483 to $112 like it did at one point during Thursday’s session.

“It’s not really Robinhood doing nefarious stuff,” said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Larry Tabb. “It’s the DTCC saying ‘This stuff is just too risky. We don’t trust that these guys have the cash to be able to withstand settling these things two days from now, because in two days, who knows what the price could be, it could be zero.’”

The trouble on Thursday began around 10 a.m., when after days of turbulence, the DTCC demanded significantly more collateral from member brokers, according to two people familiar with the matter.

A spokesman for the DTCC wouldn’t specify how much it required from specific firms but said that by the end of the day industrywide collateral requirements jumped to $33.5 billion, up from $26 billion.

‘Rare Circumstances’

Brokerage executives rushed to figure out how to come up with the funds. Robinhood’s reaction drew the most public attention, but the firm wasn’t alone in limiting trading of stocks such as GameStop and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc.

Charles Schwab Corp.’s TD Ameritrade curbed transactions in both of those companies on Wednesday. Interactive Brokers Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley’s E*Trade took similar action Thursday.

Thomas Peterffy, the billionaire chairman of Greenwich, Connecticut-based Interactive Brokers, told Bloomberg TV the restrictions were prompted by concerns “about the integrity of the marketplace and the system.”

E*Trade stressed that its measures were highly unusual. “We take actions like this seriously, and only initiate them in rare circumstances,” said spokesman Thayer Fox, adding that he expected normal trading to resume Friday.

Robinhood said after markets closed that it plans to allow “limited buys” to resume in affected securities. It also tried to assuage customer concerns with an email that evening: “This was a temporary decision made to best continue serving you, and was not an easy one to make.”

Credit Lines

The firm has tapped at least several hundred million dollars from its bank credit lines, a person with knowledge of the situation said. The company’s lenders include JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Representatives for Robinhood and those banks declined to comment.

Robinhood’s capital remains “strong,” CEO Tenev told Bloomberg TV, underscoring that the restrictions helped protect both the brokerage and its clients.

One question is whether frustrated customers will forgive what some see as a betrayal in their campaign against Wall Street’s financial elite.

Douglas Bray, a software developer from Connecticut who’s been using Robinhood for about five years, said he plans to withdraw about $100,000 after the trading restrictions.

“I’m disappointed I could not keep my money in GME like any institutional investor could,” said Bray, 32, referring to GameStop’s ticker. “Hedge funds are on the brink of a massive short squeeze and appear to be calling in all the cavalry. So brokers are now ‘protecting’ customers as a facade so that they can appease their institutional backers. The entire community is outraged.”

Webull, which has expanded during the pandemic, saw new accounts soar 16-fold over the seven-day average, according to CEO Anthony Denier. Its app ranked as the second-most-popular free iPhone app in the U.S. on Thursday, up from No. 60 a day earlier, according to SensorTower, which gathers data on mobile apps. (Robinhood was still No. 1.)

Denier didn’t want to comment on the reason for the jump. Earlier Thursday, Webull also restricted trading on shares including GameStop and AMC, but then reversed its decision.

Robinhood has been expected for months to hold an initial public offering this year. Late Thursday, people with knowledge of those preparations said the plan is to press ahead sometime in the first half of 2021, despite the controversy and draw-down on credit lines.

But it remains to be seen what the lasting impact is from Robinhood’s association with the retail trading revolt — and now any strains in the firm’s relationship with the rebels behind it.

“The restrictions in trading today only worsened the situation,” Douglas Boneparth, who competes with Robinhood for customers as president of the wealth-management firm Bone Fide Wealth, said Thursday. “Many will ignore the fact that Robinhood faced increased costs that created an unsustainable business environment.”

Read full article: https://expatimes.com/?p=17462&feed_id=31202

[rue-by-another-name]

“Auto-Pilot” - h.s. one shot

My friend got engaged to her pilot boyfriend and they’re so happy and he was so cute about it and made the announcement over the intercom as they flew to Bali and they’re so rich ugh and perfect and I don’t know I just had this idea and wanted to continue the trend of Y/N being a successful, confident, and amazing woman and yeah hope you all enjoy yay! 

-----

-----

Harry had never been one to indulge in his riches. Sure, he found comfort in thousand dollar button-ups and Gucci shoes, but if it wasn’t for his rockstar appearance one would hardly find him spending any extra money on the lavish lifestyle he could easily lead. 

And getting a private jet hadn’t even been his idea to begin with. He’d flown on commercial airlines quite often and was used to sitting on a long plane ride for ample amount of time amongst strangers secretly ogling him. But it was the idea of having his own pilot that finally put the last nail in the coffin on his private jet plans. 

You’d first met at a cocktail party in Monte Carlo during the great rally race. Harry felt impeccably snobbish with his champagne and sunglasses and barely-buttoned white sheer shirt, but he figured if he just didn’t talk to anyone, drank his drink, and fiddling with the rings on his fingers then maybe, just maybe, he could get out of his dreadful display of wealth without coming off as too much of a snob. This wasn’t his scene - fast cars made him nervous unlike most other Fast & Furious fans he seemed to be rubbing elbows with - but his manager had said it would be fun, and Gemma had expressed interest so he brought Gemma, for her birthday, even though Harry knew he’d damn well still be getting her some gift months later. 

The villa the party was being held at was quite large and all seemed to be made of glass, and so as he walked around the balconies, he finally was able to find some sense of relief from the large crowds as he turned into what seemed to be a sort of library/study. 

Finally, he thought, he was alone. Harry leaned against the door and let out a long breath, chugging the rest of his drink before setting the empty flute down on one of the bookcases.

“I would take your drink from the mahogany if I were you. Might leave a mark,” a sweet voice rang out, and Harry nearly died on the spot. You were sitting at the large desk, feet up on it as you leaned back in the chair with a rather large book on your lap. 

“Oh m’sorry,” you chuckled, standing as you noticed Harry clutching his chest. “Didn’t mean t’scare ya.”

“Jesus,” Harry grumbled, his heart still beating wildly as he stood up and cleared his throat, “Didn’t see ya there.”

“M’sorry,” you apologized again and chuckled slightly. “Just didn’t want you getting in trouble s’all.” 

You were dressed smartly as you gave Harry a kind smile and placed the book you’d been reading back on the shelf. 

Harry found comfort in your similar accent, noting you had to be from somewhere near where he called home, and nodded towards the book. 

“Please don't stop on my account,” he said, “Sorry for interrupting.”

“Oh no,” you shook your head, “It’s no worry at all. Just as I’m sure you aren’t supposed to be in here, I most definitely am not.”

Harry chuckled, “Considering how comfy you looked at that desk just a moment ago, I’m surprised you don’t run the place.”

You couldn’t help but laugh too, an angelic noise leaving your lips as your smile nearly blinded Harry from the ease and beauty it possessed. “I sometimes like to pretend I am,” you shrugged, “It makes for a much more interesting day, don't you think?”

Harry couldn’t think of a good answer or response to you. Mostly, he was just shocked that you were here considering he’d never seen anyone so effortlessly beautiful and confident in his life. Happiness and warmth seemed to emanate from your presence and put Harry quickly at ease where his heart had been racing faster than the rally cars outside only moments ago.

“M’Arry,” Harry offered his hand and you took it gracefully, stepping forward as you shook his with a smile still on your face.

“Y/N,” you informed him, “Are you enjoying the race?”

“Not quite my gig.”

“Mine neither,” you sighed, “But I go wherever Jack goes, so here I am.”

“Jack?” Harry asked, thinking to your mutual friend out popping champagne bottles on the balcony surrounded by multiple women. “You’re here with Jack?”

“Surprised?” you laughed.

“Quite,” Harry raised an eyebrow, “I’ve never known a friend of Jack’s to be so ... quiet.”

You merely smiled politely at this as you folded your hands in front of you, “Oh I’m not really a friend of his,” you shrugged, “I’m his pilot.”

This took Harry a moment to process. Jack’s pilot? As in, you fly planes? You obviously picked up on his look in confusion as you cleared your throat and said, “I’m a private jet pilot, and Jack usually hires me for his services and events.”

“Wow,” Harry now raised both eyebrows, “That’s spectacular.”

“Quite,” you now said, echoing Harry’s previous statement. “Would you like to go get some more champagne? I hear there might also be sushi.”

You and Harry spent the rest of the day out in the sun next to the pool as you told him about how you’d become a pilot. Your grandfather had been a pilot in the Second World War, and your father had been in the RAF for quite some time before retiring. With no brothers and two younger sisters obsessed with many other things, it seemed only natural that your grandfather and father would take you out flying. And good for you and them, you’d fallen in love with it. 

Commercial flying hadn’t been for you, because you’re more of an easy-going spontaneous free-bird. And so private jets it was, and private clients it became. Harry soaked up absolutely everything you said, and your eyes lit up when Harry talked about the spitfires they’d used on the set of Dunkirk. You had so many questions - intellectually impressive questions - and Harry blushed to think he would never be able to answer them. 

As evening came around, you sighed as you checked your watch. “I must be off. Got to get through some check-ins and prep for tomorrow. But I’ll tell you what, Harry, should we ever meet again or you need a ride anywhere, I’d be happy to be of service. First flight’s on me, yeah?” you winked as you handed him your card and stood. He scrambled to follow suit as he offered his hand but you gave him another world-class smile and pulled him in for a hug. 

“T’was lovely meeting you, Harry. You’ve defied all expectations and made my day quite less boring than it usually is.”

“Likewise,” Harry smiled, “And I will definitely be taking you up on that offer.”

“I look forward to it.”

And from there, you and Harry started to work together. Harry had never really liked traveling, but when he showed up at the hanger and saw you standing outside the door smiling at him, it made everything so much better. At first it had just been flights here and there while you continued to work with other clients. But as the months dragged on and Harry realized he selfishly didn’t want to share you, Harry took you on as his private pilot for his tour and personal life. 

And this came at a perfect time for you considering the amount of jackasses you’d had to fly that you were getting quite tired of. You loved working for Harry. He was sweet, paid well, respectful, and you never felt you were flying anywhere that would drag on. Harry and everyone he surrounded himself with were a joy to be around, and you found yourself enjoying each flight more and more. After asking sheepishly a couple of times prior, Harry finally would start to hang out in the cockpit with you from time to time, just standing in the doorway of the one-pilot jet crunching on crisps or apples as you flew, laughed, and chatted with one another. Though you were his pilot and he was your boss, you also became friends. 

And God, Harry loved it. He loved the idea of spending countless hours with you and knowing that you were being cared for while also doing what you loved. He loved your style, how confident you were, and how you held yourself and you business to such high esteem. You were always punctual, honest, and you never seemed to be in any mood other than calmly content. All Harry’s friends came to adore you, and whenever Harry would offer a trip to someone, they would always ask if you would be taking them. 

With Harry’s tour starting, Harry found himself in the jet more often than before, but you had no complaints and did nothing but encourage him and pamper him every time he stepped on board. 

Harry watched as you jogged up the steps after making sure all his luggage was taken care of. He’d watched from the window as you gave Greg, his bodyguard, a hug and Greg offered you a plate of cookies his wife had made. Your smile shone as you thanked him, giving him a loving pat on the arm before jogging up the steps and wiggling your eyebrows over the plate of cookies.

“Would you like any?” you asked, “I’m not really a chocolate fan, I must admit.”

You looked particularly cute today, and Harry appreciated that you weren’t in normal pilot attire (even though he’d definitely had tens too many dreams about you in a sexy pilot costume that he would inevitably rip off at some point). He felt his cheeks warming just at the thought and slight humiliation of what was going through his mind as he sat up and cleared his throat. 

“I will never understand how you don’t love chocolate like the rest of the human race,” he sighed, taking a cookie off the plate before you set them on the table before him. 

“Well, when your grandmum owns a chocolate shop and you sneak one to many sweets as a wee-one, you lose your interest when it’s handed to you easily,” you sighed, brushing the crumbs off your hands as you patted down your skirt. 

“Then it’s the thrill that gets you to like something?” Harry asked, smiling up at you and you couldn’t help but wonder how he could be so adorable. 

“It’s the chase for sure,” you nodded, sending him a wink, “Makes everything more fun and adventurous, don’t you think? With my sweets, my career, my men. It’s always about the chase.”

This nearly made Harry choke on his cookie as he thought of the idea of you having men chase after you. “And who would be the one chasing? You, or your men?”

“Definitely the men,” you laughed, “Alright love, now buckle up. I want to get you to England in one piece and you know the drill.”

Harry’s shaking hands fumbled with the buckle at the idea of men chasing after you as he watched you walk towards the cockpit and close the door behind you. Not moments later, your voice was coming over the intercom. “Cross-checked and ready for departure, Mr. Styles.”

Harry pressed his intercom button, “Thank you Captain. Safe travels.”

“You as well dear,” you said with a chuckle that eased Harry immediately. The flight was quicker than Harry had anticipated, probably because the soft tunes of Fleetwood Mac throughout the jet eased him to sleep for most of the journey, and you were waking him up gently not a moment later.

“We’ve arrived,” you smiled, “Sleep well? You don’t usually sleep the whole flight.” You perched yourself on the edge of the seat before Harry as he slowly shifted to sitting up straight in his seat while rubbing his eyes. His face was puffy from sleep, lips pouted, and hair a mess as he stretched. Seeing you sitting there made him watch to reach out and pull you onto his lap and cuddle you until he was fully awake, but he also wanted you to keep your job and he figured making you uncomfortable due to his own personal feelings was unwarranted and you would fly off without him in an instant. 

“Just tired I guess,” Harry yawned, “Been a lot with all this traveling and the shows. Can’t imagine what it’s like to have to fly everywhere and not be able to sleep. You deserve a raise, love.”

Your cheeks warmed and Harry’s heart hammered as he smiled at the thought of making them pink. You smoothed down your dress again and sighed, “I do worry ‘bout ya from time to time,” you sighed and reached out to flatten his hair to the best of your ability. “You do work hard.”

“M’not the only one,” Harry sighed, “You’ll rest during the shows, yeah?”

You shrugged, picking at your nails as you stood and walked over to the door. “‘M sure the family will find something interesting for me to do on the farm,” you smiled, “Now get out there rockstar, you’ve got shows to perform.” 

Harry wasn’t sure where the kiss on the cheek he gave you came from as he made his way off. It just seemed so natural to reach up and cup your face, kissing you cheek quickly and amicably before jogging down the steps of the flight. But he could feel you tense the moment his lips met your soft skin, and instantly Harry knew he’d crossed some type of boundary. 

You two were friends and you were close, but maybe you weren’t that close yet. 

“Um,” Harry cleared his throat as he got his bags, “Thank you again, Y/N. I hope you have a lovely visit with your family.”

“Of course,” you nodded, “And thank you too, H. Best of luck.”

Harry would be touring (on a bus ugh gross why, he thought) for two weeks now in England, and in that amount of time you’d be going home to visit your family for a bit and take a much needed break. Though Harry would miss you, he was glad you were getting some time off. 

And lovely was the time off indeed. You stayed with your family for a week and a half, enjoying their company, helping out on your family farm, and attending some school functions for your younger sisters. Your family was full of questions, but they were also full of patience, and you appreciated that as you spent some time getting some much deserved rest. By the time you arrived back in London for Harry’s final shows, you were well-rested. 

Harry, on the other hand, was a mess. 

He was tired. He was irritable. He loved being on stage but the moment would get off the tiredness would hit him and he’d slump into a couch to almost instantly be asleep. He had one more show before he was done and the entire tour would be over, and Harry felt guilty for looking forward to it. He loved the attention, the limelight, the crowds chanting his name and his lyrics. He loved every bit of it - he was a self-pronounced narcissist and he was okay with it - but after months on end of the same head pounding when he wakes up in the morning, he could use a break. 

You could see he was a bit more tired than usual when you stopped by to approve travel plans the day of the final show. Harry was in makeup, which you secretly found hysterical, and only half his face was done when he saw you with your iPad and eyebrows raised, iPad clutched to your chest. You were dressed for the chilly autumn air and still looked professional as ever. 

Harry wondered what you would look like with casual clothes on, or just woken up. In fact, he wondered that quite often (enough to know he probably shouldn’t) and the idea of it all kept creeping back into his mind. Did he really have a crush on his pilot? 

Shaking these thoughts from his mind, he sat up a bit more in his seat and gestured you over. 

“Miss Y/LN, I promise you this isn’t a normal thing,” he grumbled, shifting slightly in his seat and giving the makeup artist a look to signify that they would start again once he was finished with you. You gave him a soft smile, offering him the iPad with the flight itineraries as he sighed and rubbed his eye - the non-makeuped eye - and blinked a few times. 

“Yeah looks good,” he nodded. It was so interesting to you how half his face looked lively and young, while the other seemed sunken in and withered. He looked tired, and not the kind of tired that he was when he was asleep on the plane, but more just bone-tired and exhausted. You almost wanted to reach out and give him a hug, but you figured that wasn’t the most professional way to go. 

“Final show tonight then?” you asked as you took the iPad back once Harry had signed it. He nodded and sat back in the chair, head resting on the top as he closed his eyes. 

“Yeah. Just gotta survive tea with my mum first and then the show and I’m home free,” he nodded, crossing his arms over his chest as he let out a loud yawn. 

“You’re putting on makeup to meet with your mum?” you asked before realizing you were probably stepping over some sort of boundary. Harry opened one eye to look at you as his makeup artist continued to get to work on the other side of his face. 

“Well, Anne’ll probably ‘ave a fit if she sees me the way ‘am right now,” he sighed as the makeup artist tilted his head up to get along his neck. “Figured I might as well ‘ave it taken care of now.”

You chuckled and clutched the iPad to your chest. “In that case then I wish you all the best,” you nodded before taking a step back, “I’ll ‘ave the plane prepped ‘nd ready for you tonight.”

“Thank you Y/N,” Harry nodded, “Really. And if ya see my mum on the way out, could you just stall ‘er a bit?”

“You want me to stall your mum?”

Harry hesitated, “S’not quite your job, innit?”

The worst part was that Harry couldn’t even tell if you were uncomfortable or not. You always seemed to at ease with everything you were doing and so confident in the way you held yourself. He was stepping over boundaries, this whole conversation was, and he knew that it wasn’t right. You were just his pilot, no matter what feelings he was feeling for you, and any conversations you had while he was on your plane were all in good fun. Yes, you were friends - it’s always good to be good friends with your employees - but there was something professional and sophisticated about it all that even seeing you in a place that wasn’t the plane even was throwing him for a bit of a loop. 

“Don’t worry, Harry, I’ll take care of it,” you sent him another one of your smiles, the ones that shone like sunshine and sang like a canary. He watched you walk out of the room, your dress swishing a bit as your heels calmly made their way across the floor and Harry felt the need to rub his face but stopped when he realized he was still three layers away from being finished. 

It was twenty minutes later before he was grabbing his phone and walking out of the room. It was the laughter that he heard first before he turned the corner. It was your laughter, sweet like nectar and airy like wind chimes that raised goosebumps all over his body. And then when it was mixed with his mum’s, well, that just made him freak out a bit. 

“Mum,” he cleared his throat, “Sorry ‘bout makin’ ya wait.”

“Oh love it’s no worry!” Anne smiled as she stood and gave Harry a gripping hug. “Y/N was telling me your meeting was running late. Always happy to be accompanied by such lovely people.”

Anne stepped aside and Harry gave you a small, slightly embarrassed and guilty smile. But you did nothing but smile back brightly, giving him a bit of a wink that nearly almost had him falling at your feet. 

“You didn’t tell me your pilot was such a wonderful person!” Anne chastised her son, “I wish to have met Y/N earlier! You need to tell me these things more, H!”

“M’sorry Mum!” Harry chuckled and slung his arm around his mum’s shoulders, “Y/N’s a great pilot. She makes sure I get wherever I need to go safely, and makes sure I’m nothing but happy too. That doesn’t hurt much.”

“Well of course not,” Anne rolled her eyes, “You know, Y/N, we’re just about to head off for some tea. Would you care to join us?”

Harry knew he must have looked like The Scream painting right in that moment and was afraid he was going to sweat off all the damn makeup. Mums are great and all, but they also have a canny knack for ruining things through literally nothing but their naive kindness. Harry’s eyes widened, his mouth parted to reply and make up some stammering excuse, but Y/N beat him to it in a graceful and loving way.

“I would love to join,” you nodded, gracing Anne with the most kind of smiles that left your eyes scrunching with sincerity. Anne smiled triumphantly before making her way off to the car as Harry fell back with Y/N.

“You don’t have to do this,” he whispered, “She’s cute, but you don’t have to say yes to everything she asks.”

“Oh but you should,” you chastised him. “She’s such a lovely woman. She’s lonely, Harry, can’t you see? You should visit home more. It’s not every day you get to spend time just sitting back and drinking tea with your mum, and you should take advantage of every opportunity you get.”

Harry was struck by these words, mostly because he was used to getting advice from Y/N, but never like this. Y/N noticed far more than Harry had imagined. He knew she was sharp as a whip, but she seemed receptive to absolutely everything and everyone around her. He was immensely impressed, but the warmth in his heart quickly started to turn into a burning inferno as he wondered, had she noticed his budding feelings for her? 

The panic chilled in Harry’s chest as they drove to the tea shop not far from the venue. Anne and Y/N talked the whole way about Y/N’s childhood and where she’d been raised. You talked about your farm, and the first horse you’d ever tamed, and you mentioned how being a pilot was kind of in your blood. 

“Her dad flew for the RAF,” Harry input as he awaited his tea. You being with his mum wasn’t as painful or awkward as he’d figured, but he did feel as though he was invisible. His mum loved meeting new people, but sometimes he got a bit jealous after she didn’t pay enough attention to him. 

“Oh that’s exciting!” Anne smiled, “And your granddad as well?”

“Yes in the Second World War,” you nodded and lifted your cup to your lips. 

“I told her I’d take her to the Dunkirk hangers at some point before they’re taken down. Ya know, those promo ones they got?” Harry asked, smiling at you as you gave him a nod of encouragement back. 

“That would be lovely!” Anne smiled. She reached for a tray of small sweets before offering them to you.

“Oh no thank you,” you smiled, “M’not a big chocolate fan, I must admit.”

“Yeah,” Harry snorted, “S’why m’defiintely convinced she’s an alien.”

You couldn’t help but laugh, “Oh come of it!” you threw your head back, “And you still get on my plane knowing I could very well be from Mars.”

“Fly me back ta your planet?” Harry shrugged, “T’would make great in the papers, love. ‘First Rockstar to Mars, Mr. Harry Styles’ plastered all over.”

“Usin’ me for the papers,” you tsked, “Thought you knew better.”

“I bet your flights are quite fun,” Anne mused, looking between the two of you.

“He bothers me in the pit quite often,” you nodded, “Stands back there in the doorway munchin’ on his crisps and ‘v got ta clean up after him like a child.”

“Hey,” Harry pouted, fumbling with his bottom lip as he smiled at you and you smiled back. Any awkwardness between the two of you had fizzled out at this point. Remnants of the kiss on the cheek he’d given you earlier seemed to have diminished and whatever boundaries Harry had been nervous about had dissipated. Hell, his arm was even on the back of your chair and you weren’t leaning away.

“Well this was such fun,” Anne smiled, “Y/N dear, please if you’re ever in the area do stop by. And Harry,” she glared at her son, “Introduce me to more nice people from time to time, will ya love?”

“Oi Mum!” Harry cried, “Y/N’s just special, yeah?”

He saw your cheeks flare a bit from this and he cleared his throat, riding his cup of the rest of his tea before standing. “‘v got ta get back,” he mumbled, “Everything’s set up at the show for ya Mum.”

“And Y/N, will you be going?” Anne asked. 

“Oh! Um ...” Your mouth formed a cute and small ‘o’ as you looked up to Harry as if for confirmation. You’d never been to one of his shows. You’d hear him sing often on the plane, and you’d listened to his album multiple times. But you’d always been busy during his shows with prepping for the concert. But this time you weren't leaving until two hours after the show. Maybe you could make it?

“If you’re not busy,” Harry started, feeling his chest beating rapidly, “I’d love ta ‘ave ya there?”

You look down at your watch as you walked out of the shop and Harry awaited your response for what seemed like ages. “I’d love to go, H,” you smiled, “Let me just make sure everything is prepped and ready to go before, yeah?”

“‘Course,” Harry nodded, hands clasped behind his back as he leaned forward a bit and rocked on his feet. “Yeah whatever works.”

“Thank you,” you nodded as Anne went over to get the car. “It was nice bein’ around a mum for a change.”

Harry knit his eyebrows together in confusion, “Thought you’d just spent the whole week with your family?”

“Oh yeah,” you smiled at him as the two of you stood a bit closer than necessary to keep out of the wind. “But my mum passed on when I was about 12 or so,” you shrugged.

Harry felt his heart pounding as he didn’t think before reaching out and giving you a hug. You couldn’t help but laugh at Harry’s pouting face and his strong arms wrapped around you as you softly hugged him back. “It’s okay, Harry. It happened ages ago. M’all better now.”

Harry pulled away and cleared his throat, adjusting his sweater as he nodded. “Oh shit. I um ...” Harry gestured to your shoulder where he’d rested his cheek and a patch of makeup seemed to have rubbed off. This made you laugh even harder as you brushed it off a bit and cradled his cheek in your hand. 

“You’re something else Harry Styles,” you laughed before an alarm went off on your phone and Harry sucked in a breath as you pulled your hand from his skin to check it. “Alright,” you informed him, “I’m gonna go get things ready and then maybe see you at your show. Exciting, innit?”

“Very,” Harry nodded, reaching down for a hug again and trying his luck with a kiss on your cheek once more. You didn’t shy away as he stepped back and gave you a bit of a nod, “See ya later then.”

You gave him a smile before ducking into the cab you’d called down and making your way back to the airport. Harry seemed to wait on pins and needles to know whether or not you’d be coming to the show. You didn’t text him, or call, or even send any sort of confirmation to anyone about whether or not you’d be there. Everyone figured Harry was only slightly more nervous for his final show, but in reality he was just nervous to perform in front of you.

Why should he be though? You were nothing but sweet and supportive. You wouldn’t turn him away if you didn’t like his performance. You’d said you enjoyed his music and you always cheered him on and laughed whenever he sang on the jet, but now things could be different and Harry wasn’t sure how he felt about that.

But he put those feelings aside for the show. He knew he had a job to do and he didn’t want the emotional roller coaster going on in his heart to ruin an experience for all the fans who had come to see him. That wasn’t right. And besides, when he turned and looked to his mum he felt like he was suddenly flatlining, because there you were sitting beside her smiling and clapping along with her. Dancing around a bit as his mum laughed. 

You were here and you were gorgeous. Your eyes caught as he adjusted his ear piece and looked up at you and his mum. You looked over to Anne who was checking something on her phone and Harry knew that you were realizing he was looking and smiling at you. You couldn’t help but wave and give him a thumbs up, and Harry felt his entire body light on fire right in that moment.

The rest of the show seemed to have some sort of energy Harry didn’t even know possible. He felt reenergized after being tired for so long, and even his band could tell that there was something electric about the way Harry was performing. Afterwards was a crowd of hugs, kisses, laughter and tears as the tour was now officially over. Harry enjoyed every moment he spent with the people who had made it possible, but when he caught a glimpse of your shimmery purple, he was quick to turn towards you as you barreled towards him (still completely elegant and graceful, of course, Harry thought). 

“Harry!” you cried, jumping up to hug him as Harry held you close and closed his eyes, taking in the feeling of your body locked close against his as he took in your scent. Your feet were off the ground as you laughed and Harry held you close, one hand tangled in your hair and the other around your waist keeping you to him. 

Finally he set you down though and you brushed some hair from your face. “Oh Harry that was amazing,” you nodded. Your hands were on his shoulders and they ran down his arms to his forearms as he held your waist and smiled at you as you talked. “You were great! Truly I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed it; I have so many things to say!” Your eyes were bright and your cheeks flushed but Harry couldn’t smell any alcohol on you, and he knew you never drank while working. This was a natural high that he’d created. 

He felt proud.

“‘M glad ya liked it!” Harry called over all the noise, “What did ya think of -”

Harry was cut off by your phone going off and you looked down at it, some of the light draining from your eyes as you sighed. “Oh, Harry I’m so sorry I wish I could talk to you more but I have to go prep,” you nodded, “But I’ll see you in two hours! We can talk more then!”

“Okay,” Harry nodded, “‘M keepin’ ya to that!” he called after you as you jogged off, waving over your shoulder as you pushed the door open. Harry turned back to his band as they all enveloped him in cheers and cries to victory that seemed to last the next two hours. 

“We’re not finishing this celebration yet!” someone cried as they all packed up their bags. “Drinks on me on the jet!”

“Oh wait no,” Harry turned and gave his band a confused look, “Thought ya had another flight?”

“What? Think you could get rid of us that easily? Your jet’s big enough for all of us. Y/N loves us!”

Harry didn’t know what to say to this. What he really wanted to say was, “You’re not allowed on my jet. Y/N and I were going to hang out and I was going to try and kiss her, you tosser.” But instead he just let it happen as they all drove up to the hanger and Harry noticed you were off to the side going over some last minute paperwork as the band all crowded into the jet. He felt awful.

He watched as you jogged up the steps, eyes still bright as you said, “Okay love, are you - oh!” No one else might have noticed the split-second your face registered a bit of shock before your face turned bright with a smile he knew was still genuine, but maybe not as sincere as others. “Hello everyone,” you smiled, “Good to see you all. Great show tonight!”

“Thank you Y/N!” the whole jet seemed to chorus as Y/N met Harry’s eyes and she gave him a quick wink. 

“Well buckle up everyone,” you said, “It’ll be a long flight so make yourselves comfortable!”

Harry waited until not a second after the seatbelt sign was off before scrambling towards the cockpit and knocking three times. “Yes?” you asked from behind the door before Harry opened it, leaning against the doorway and clearing his throat. 

“‘M sorry Y/N,” he sighed, “They kinda overpowered me.”

“Oh H, it’s fine!” you turned and smiled at him, a small laugh following. “I know you want to spend your time with your band. You just completed a great tour. You should be immensely proud.”

“Yeah well,” Harry shrugged.

“I know I’m proud of you,” you said earnestly and Harry’s eyes finally came up to meet yours. 

“Yeah?” he asked, a smile finally finding it’s way onto his face.

“Oh definitely,” you nodded, “You were so amazing. I knew you were a performer, but that was an experience for sure.”

“Glad you could make it then. I know my mum appreciated it too,” Harry nodded.

“Now as much as I’d love to talk with you, Harry, you look completely beat and I want you to get some sleep.”

“I’ve got plenty of time to sleep now that the tour’s over,” Harry waved that off, “I want to talk with you.” You watched as he sunk down along the wall and sat with his legs stretched out in front of him. He was like a child, an adorable child, and you couldn’t help but smile as you flicked onto auto-pilot and turned to him. 

“Alright then,” you sighed, “What’s your favorite song to perform?”

When the flight was over, Harry had to wake everyone up so they could depart. With tired smiles and mumbled, “Thank you”s the band lumbered off the flight, each giving you a hug which you kindly and warmly returned by rubbing their backs and and giving them a good squeeze. 

Harry was last off as he watched you look down at your watch and try your best to shake off a yawn. “Let it out,” Harry chuckled and you gave him a look before the yawn took over and you were stretching up, cracking your neck and rubbing your eyes. “There ya go,” he chuckled.

“As unprofessional as that was,” you chuckled tiredly, “I needed that.”

“Well, take some time off, yeah?” Harry suggested, “‘M not plannin’ on travelin’ much soon.”

“Good,” you nodded, “You need a break far more than I do. Please take some time,” you urged, gripping his arms before you stepped back and offered Harry a hug. “Rest well,” you whispered as Harry held you.

Harry closed his eyes once again taking in your scent and feel against him. He let out a long sigh, hunkering down a bit and nuzzling his nose into your neck as you chuckled and pulled away awkwardly at that. You sucked in a big breath which hitched a bit before you gave Harry another smile. “Just let me know whenever you’d like to go anywhere, okay?”

Harry nodded and made his way to his car. You had pulled away from his hug. Was it just because you were tired? Was it because he was getting too close? You went to tea with his mum for Christ’s sake! These thoughts kept Harry awake as he drove home that night and were on his mind as he went to bed. And he meant what he said, that he wasn’t planning on traveling anytime soon. He was looking forward to Netflix and his bed and avocado toast for the next couple of weeks. 

That all changed though when he received a call from one of his mates Josh a couple days later. “‘lo mate,” Harry yawned as he stretched in bed and stuffed his face into his pillow.

“Harry! Hey man! Look, some of us were thinking of getting together in NYC to support Amelia’s art show on Friday. Wanna come support?!”

Amelia was a sweet girl. A little fairy of a girl with red hair and freckles that reminded him a bit too much of the orphan Annie with it’s reckless curliness. He was tired, exhausted even, but he needed to be there for his friends, sure. 

“Yeah mate just text me the details and I’ll fly out.”

“Sick! See you there man!”

You had her arms crossed and your eyebrows knit together cutely (in Harry’s opinion) when he rolled up at the jet hanger on Friday morning while it was still dark out. He took off his sunglasses as he pinched the bridge of his nose and shouldered his bag. 

“What happened to taking a break?” you asked, “It’s been two days.”

“Yeah well a friend has an art show opening tonight,” Harry yawned, “Gotta show my support. She’s a sweet girl.”

You didn’t say anything to this as you started walking up the steps and into the cockpit, not sticking around as Harry situated himself. “You alright love?” Harry called right as Y/N was about to close the door.

“Fine, H,” you turned and gave Harry a smile that would have normally melted his worry and eased him right away. But it didn’t quite reach your eyes and your face wasn’t bright with warmth and love so Harry pouted.

You rolled your eyes and smoothed out your skirt as you stepped back into the cabin and offered Harry a pillow.

“Really, Harry, I’m fine. Get some sleep, okay? I’ll wake you when we’re almost there.” 

You didn’t often accompany Harry wherever he went. When you had worked with other clients, you’d always gone to their events to be there right when they were ready to leave, or you’d stayed on the jet at all times. But with Harry things had been a bit easier with him just texting you always at least an hour before he was ready to go. He trusted you to go off and do your own thing while always being able to be back and ready to go whenever he was.

So Harry was a bit surprised when you slide into the car with him as you arrived in New York. “What?” you asked in response to his raised eyebrows. “I hate New York, and I don’t fancy sitting on that jet for much longer so I’ll just hide in the background. Besides, I like art.”

“I know,” Harry nodded, “I’m just surprised you’re not running off to some coffee shop with free wifi.”

“I can’t fit into a fancy art show?” you asked, raising an eyebrow as Harry winced.

“Love, no. That’s not -”

“I’m messing with you, H,” you chuckled and looked down at your phone, “Just let me know when I need to go and get the jet ready for you, okay?”

“You know, I can wait while you do all that at the hanger, right? I don’t mind.”

“Not professional,” you shook your head as you arrived at the building where the rooftop art show was taking place. “Just let me know,” you nodded before sliding out of the car.

Harry should have been paying attention to all his friends. They were the reason he was here obviously. And Amelia was through the roof when she saw Harry. But he couldn’t keep his attention on them when you were standing and talking to someone about a work of art, or when you were sitting at the bar with a flute of champagne, or when you were reading a brochure. You were effortlessly gorgeous and care-free. And he was head over heels for you.

And you were also struggling a bit. You obviously cared so much for Harry, or else you wouldn’t have taken the offer to be his private pilot. But seeing him look so tired and uninterested among his friends, only to smile and laugh with them and act normal when they had their attention on him was concerning to you. He needed a break, but he was too nice to stop his life for a nap. But you weren’t anything more than his pilot - sure, his friend, yeah - but it would be unprofessional to say anything else.

So you kept you mouth closed when Harry slept the entire flight back to LA. You also didn’t say anything when he went to a birthday party in Seattle three days later, or flew to Colorado for a baby shower two days after that. You just let it fester in your chest as you flew, knowing that Harry was being run thin. 

Harry noticed you become a bit more distant than usual, and he felt bad that maybe he was overworking you. He offered to hire another pilot for some trips just so you could catch a break, but the amount of force you used to say that no, you were just fine with being his pilot, was quite surprising to him. You shot the idea down so quickly that he nearly blinked before you were slamming the door shut to the cockpit. 

Harry’s trip to France though was much more rushed than the previous ones, and Harry noticed by your natural hair and outfit that you hadn’t had as much time to prepare for this one and he felt awful.

 He’d gotten the call at around nine in the morning that his friend Scott was going to be previewing his indie film and Harry had promised he’d be there - and he’d forgotten. 

As soon as Harry saw you, he started apologizing. “Y/N!” he started, “I’m so sorry! I know that this is super last minute and I totally forgot but it’s been in my calendar and for some reason I thought I’d already told you but -”

“Harry,” you cut him off by holding up your hand and giving him a soft smile, “It’s fine. Strap in, okay? This’ll be a long flight.”

Harry just sat there feeling nothing but guilty as he watched the jet take off out the window. God, he’d really messed up. He’d tried to be nothing but professional and easy for you, and here he was dragging you all across the world with only a few hours notice. 

Harry usually played music during his flights over the speakers, or slept, or was doing something, but when you peeked through the crack to check on him, he wasn’t doing anything but staring out the window with his hands clasped in his lap. Sometimes he looked down at his hands, sometimes he rubbed his eyes. But that was about it. 

Though you knew this was unprofessional, you couldn’t stomach it any longer and you hit the intercom button. 

“This is your Captain speaking. She’s concerned about you and was wondering if she could come back there to chat?”

Harry couldn’t help but smile at this. Whenever it was just him flying, you often had conversations over the intercoms. But it had been a while with the tense nature between the two of you and hearing your voice soothed him instantly.

“Considering it’s only you and me on this private jet, and you’re the pilot, shouldn’t you be occupied flying this machine?” he asked once he’d pressed the button and he swore he could have heard you laugh in the cockpit.

“That’s what auto-pilot is for, love."

“Then by all means come and take a seat,” Harry said, sitting up more and watching as you stepped out of the cockpit and let out a long sigh, giving him a once over before you walked over and sat down opposite him. 

“Hello pilot,” Harry gave you a sleepy smile and you reached out to push a curl from his forehead.

“Hello rockstar.”

“Listen, I know this was super last minute and I get that it wasn’t the most professional thing to do, but I promise that it won’t happen again and -”

“Harry, really, I’m not mad about it,” you put your arms up in defense, “I’m just worried ‘bout ya, love.” 

Harry felt his face heating up just from the fact that you were worried about him. It felt good to know someone out there was looking out for him, and knowing that it was you, that was even better. 

“I have a feeling I’m not the only one on auto-pilot right now,” you bit your lip, “It’s one thing to travel for your job and your work, and I get that sometimes that can become busy and stressful, but you have to put your health first Harry, or else you won’t be able to do that job that you love so much.”

You got up from your seat as Harry rubbed his eyes tiredly and perched yourself on the arm of his large seat. “I know that you’re a sweet and wonderful person and you care so much about others, but I’ve been watching you for almost two weeks now nearly push yourself to exhaustion because you’ve been traveling here and there merely because a friend asks. You can say no, you know.”

Harry groaned and rested his head back as he looked up at you. You usually had your hair up when you worked, but as he looked up at you now, your hair was framing your face and flowing freely down your shoulders. You looked beautiful and concerned, and that made his body buzz. 

“I know I shouldn’t be spreading myself so thin,” Harry groaned, “But majority of the year is all about me and all the things I’m doing. It’s about my job and my music and my friends come out to support me. So when I get time off and have the time to spend for others, I just feel obligated to take that.”

You nodded as you listened to Harry speak, and it almost seemed second nature that you reached up and started massaging his scalp. Harry closed his eyes and hummed lowly because of course you would be doing this. Of course you would know exactly what to do in order to calm him down and put him at ease.

“I think the solution to your problem is simple, H,” you whispered, “You can’t be there for your friends and your family if you’re not fully invested. And if you’re not putting your health first, then your mind will be elsewhere and you might even miss more things if your health declines. I want what’s best for you, and I know that I’m probably stepping over so many lines on my contract by coming back here and lecturing you but -”

“No,” Harry shook his head, “No, you’re not. You’re my friend, Y/N, first and foremost. I didn’t hire you because of your impeccable flying and great skills as a pilot, even though those are top notch and you’re basically the Wonder Woman of the skies,” you chuckled at his as Harry looked up and smiled at you, reaching lazily for your hip that was sidling up next to him as you rested on the arm rest. “But I hired you because I knew I could be myself around and trust you and that’s all you’ve ever provided for me, and for that I thank you.”

You were smiling again with that bright and loving smile full of wonder and appreciation that Harry could easily get lost in. Reaching up from his reclined position, Harry cupped your cheek with his larger hand, running his thumb along your cheekbone and watching in awe as your eyes fluttered shut and you leaned into his hand. 

“I um ...” you cleared your throat and bit your lip as you pulled away from Harry’s touch. Your hand left his scalp and you stood slowly and gracefully from the seat. “I have to get back to ... the flying thing,” you whispered.

“Yeah,” Harry nodded, “Yeah yeah of course.”

“I’m glad we had this talk,” you said earnestly, “Maybe after this you call it quits on the events for a while? Get some much deserved rest, yeah?”

“Yeah love,” Harry nodded, “That sounds good.”

“Right,” you cleared your throat again and made your way back into the cockpit, closing the door behind you. There was nothing Harry wanted more than to follow you in there and demand you both talk out your feelings. It was becoming more aware to him that maybe he wasn’t the only one harboring the feelings he was, and that maybe they were mutual. But he didn’t want to push his luck, and he knew that coming back here and talking to him was a big step for you and he didn’t want to overdo it or push it in any way. 

He fell asleep shortly after that, and when he awoke, you were standing over him again gently shaking his shoulder, your hair falling into your face again and Harry realized he really, really loved you with your hair down. 

“Hey,” you whispered softly, “We’re here.”

Harry nodded, stretching up as you pulled out his bag and waited in the hallway for him to disembark as you lowered the door. 

“Pleasure flying with you as usual, Mr. Styles,” you nodded, hands clasped in front of you as Harry shouldered his bag and pocketed his phone. 

“The pleasure was all mine,” Harry smiled and reached out, tucking a strand of hair behind your ear as he gave you a soft smile. In a moment of confidence, he leaned down and pressed a kiss to your forehead, grasping the back of your head gently before he pulled away. “This shouldn’t take long. I’ll call.”

“Yes thank you,” you mumbled, not meeting his eyes before turning back to the cockpit. 

Harry fell asleep during the film. He didn’t mean to, and he knew people noticed, but considering his face was basically consumed by the bags under his eyes, he knew his friends understood. He decided to stay the night and texted you that if you’d like to stay in the same hotel, he’d be happy to buy you a room. You showed up to his hotel not a half hour later, hair lazily placed in two braids and a comfortable dress wrapped around your body. 

God, Harry thought, you were so cute and stunning. 

Harry was waiting in the lobby and he smiled when he saw you walk through gracefully and with purpose with your small bag being rolled behind you. 

“Hey,” he said as he met you and went to take your bag but you gestured that you got it, “I’ve been trying to call you and you haven’t been answering.”

“Sorry,” you sighed, “My phone died and I forgot my charger. Have I kept you waiting long?” you asked, always the polite one.

“No, no that’s not it. You’re just on time,” Harry smiled, “Just that they didn’t have anymore rooms and but they didn’t have any available and so um, well ... yeah.” Harry wasn’t sure why he felt so embarrassed. You were both adults and had been kept to tight confines before quite often. But in that moment he felt like he might die and he was sure the entire lobby could hear his heart beating rapidly.

“Oh that’s fine, Harry, I don’t mind,” you smiled, “Don’t worry about it.” You patted his arm as you walked past him towards the elevator. “What floor?”

The elevator ride was quiet at first before you cleared your throat, “So how was the movie?”

“Couldn’t tell ya. I fell asleep,” Harry chuckled.

“Oh Mr. Styles,” you tsked, “How unprofessional.”

“Yeah well I haven’t been the most professional as of late,” Harry sighed. “Here we are.” He opened the door for you and you placed your bag down on the couch. 

“What do you think you’re doing?” Harry asked.

“I’m placing my bag on my bed. I -”

“No you’re not,” Harry shook his head, “Take the bed. What do ya think I am? An animal?”

“Harry,” you put your hands on your hips to protest and start some speech but Harry wasn’t here any of it. 

“No way,” he shook his head and took your bag as he carried it easily into the bedroom where the king sized bed awaited you. “You’re sleeping in here. I won’t hear anything else so don’t even try,” he said as he whirled around and you nearly bumped into his chest as you followed behind him quite closely. 

“If you think for a second that I’m going to -”

“I do think for all the seconds,” Harry nodded, “Don't fight me on this, Y/N. You will lose. I will wrestle you if that’s what it comes to and I’m like, twice your height.”

“My dad taught me how to fight,” you said cutely and brought up your fists.

“That’s adorable, sweetheart,” Harry smirked, “But that couch is calling my name and I’ve slept on many before. One of my redeeming qualities is that I can fall asleep anywhere, so please,” he stepped aside, “After you.”

Harry sat down on the couch once you retreated into the room, and when he heard you approaching again he didn’t think anything of it. “Would you like some water?” you asked.

“Oh that would be lovely thank -” Harry stopped as he saw you and nearly fell to the ground at the sight of you. You were in pajamas, the most elegant pajamas Harry had ever seen and your hair had been pulled from the braids, wavy and falling around your shoulders. 

You noticed him ogling you, lost for words, and you blushed. “I didn’t know we would be staying the night or I would have um ... I wouldn’t have brought such ...”

“You look great,” Harry squeaked, turning away because he knew he couldn’t control himself, “Shit,” he whispered and squeezed his eyes closed.

“Here you go,” you whispered, handing him the cup of water and sitting with your legs curled up under yourself on the seat to the right of him. Harry still wasn’t meeting your eyes, in fact he was looking in the opposite direction, and you realized that you were making him uncomfortable.

“I’m sorry,” you stood, “I can go put on a sweater. I know these are ... I bought them once for an occasion and I haven’t done laundry so ...”

“You bought them for an occasion?” Harry asked, finally turning and looking at you, “You had an occasion for those?”

He watched your cheeks heat up as you let your hair fall in your face. He’d never seen you like this before. You were always the confident and bold type, and yet here you were shy in front of him, crossing your arms over your chest and shying away. 

“I was engaged,” you mumbled, “Bought them for the honeymoon. We were going to Venice.”

“You were engaged,” Harry rose his eyebrows and stood, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “I’m uh ... I’m sorry?”

“Oh no,” you rolled your eyes, “Found him in bed with one of his friends weeks before the wedding. We rushed into the engagement. It was years ago,” you waved it off.

“I never knew,” Harry whispered.

“We don’t ... talk about, you know, this kind of stuff,” you shrugged and gave him a half-hearted smile. “How would you know?”

“I wish we did,” Harry said honestly, “I wish we talked about this kind of stuff. I wish we were more open with each other. I wish I knew everything about you. I wish I knew what your favorite color is, what dessert you prefer since you don’t like chocolate. I wish you told me your fears, you future plans, your likes and dislikes. I wish I knew your thoughts. I wish you trusted me enough to share your thoughts with me.”

Harry squeezed his eyes shut and dug the heels of his hands into his itchy eyes as he felt the need to allow tears to fall. “God, Y/N, I’m so sorry,” he shook his head, “I’ve been compressing these feelings for months, I just ... You are so loving and confident and I am so in awe of you.”

Harry let his hands fall as he looked at you standing before him, glass of water in your hands as you watched his face earnestly. “I ... I haven’t said anything because, well, because it wouldn’t be professional and I was afraid of losing you as a pilot, you know? But now we’re in a hotel room in Paris and you’re wearing the absolute best pajamas I’ve ever seen in my life and we’ve basically passed every professional line there is to cross.”

You placed your glass down slowly and Harry felt his whole world slow down. “Harry ...” you cleared your throat and reached your arms out. He willingly nearly fell into your arms for the hug you were offering, digging his nose into your neck as he tightened his grip around your waist, bunching the material of your pajamas in his fists as you ran your dainty hands up and down his back. 

You fingers ran up his broad back to nestle in the base of his neck, gripping to the hair there as Harry bent over slightly and you clung to him as he tried to consume more of you and all of you. 

“I think you’re going to have to get a new pilot,” you whispered, pulling away from Harry and brushing your fingertips across his face.

Harry’s eyes fluttered shut as two tears sprang from his left eye, a sniffle contorting his face as the force of knowing how you felt about him nearly broke him down to his knees. 

“I really thought ... I feel so dumb. I -”

“No, no no Harry,” you stepped forward and cupped his face in both your hands as you ducked down slightly to capture his gaze. “You need to get a new pilot because I don’t trust myself to keep a professional lifestyle as your pilot when I’ll want to be sitting next to you. I care for you Harry, so much, and ... and it’s been difficult for me to do my job when I’m around you. Do you know how difficult it was for me to know that you were flying across the country just to attend some girl’s art show? The jealously I felt was embarrassing,” you chuckled as Harry looked at you in awe.

“Yeah?” was all he seemed to be able to form together. You did feel something for him. You cared about him. You appreciated him probably as much as he appreciated you. Oh God, you did care for him. 

He let out a small chuckle through his tears, stepping away for a moment to wipe them from his eyes as you smiled at him and laughed as well. 

“I’m gonna kiss ya now,” Harry mumbled and waited for your nod before diving forward and capturing your lips with his. His arms snaked around your waist, arching your back as he pulled you flush against him and your once more allowed your fingers to find purchase in his curls. Your lips were soft and eased every concern from Harry’s overworking brain as he felt the need to kiss you until his lungs collapsed. 

Pulling away, you both had flushed cheeks and swollen lips as Harry leaned back in to give you a soft peck. “You can come and sleep in the bed,” you whispered, “But I’m not promising any funny business.”

“I promise,” Harry chuckled, nuzzling his head once more into your neck. 

“I’m going to have to find new clients,” you sighed as Harry wrapped his arms around you once you were both in bed. 

“No,” Harry shook his head as he nearly consumed you and wrapped himself around you, clinging to you like a koala. “No I think we can make it work,” he mumbled against your skin. “Don’t want ya goin’ back to Jack.”

You laughed, “Oh God that would be awful.”

“Besides,” Harry yawned and kissed your shoulder, “If ya were ma’pilot then we could do it while ya put the jet on auto-pilot.”

You couldn’t help but laugh as you ran your fingers through Harry’s hair. “Oh love, that’s not how auto-pilot works. But we can figure it out, sure.”

Harry kissed along you from your shoulder to your collarbone and then back up to your lips. He couldn’t get enough of your skin, the taste of you, and the way your face looked when your eyes fluttered open after a kiss. It was everything he had ever imagined and more. 

“Well, at this point love, I would really follow you anywhere. And I’m not only saying that because you’re the pilot and I’d literally bed allowing you wherever you take me, but more like because I’ve got a bit of the fallin’ in love thing goin’ on.”

You smiled down at him and kissed his forehead, scratching at his scalp as his eyes fluttered closed and he let out a groan while resting his head in the crook of your neck. He felt warm, so impossibly warm and cozy with you that he never wanted this moment to end. “Wherever you go,” you chuckled, “I go.”

“Even if it’s to support some girl in her endeavors?” Harry chuckled.

“Oh shut up and get some sleep,” you laughed, “Some well-deserved sleep, love.”

That night was the best sleep Harry had gotten in a while. In fact, he slept so well that he decided it would be pointless to fly back until the following day and just stay in. You spent the rest of the day in bed watching movies, ordering room service, and talking to get to know each other better. And it was the following night, the night before your departure, that Harry hardly slept. But you didn’t sleep much either until the early hours of the morning and considering the bed head Harry had the next morning and the marks along your collarbones, neither of you minded in the slightest. 

“If ya put us on auto-pilot for a bit on the way back love I’ll give ya a good snog,” Harry whispered, squeezing your bum as the two of you walked up the steps of the jet. 

“So eager to join the Mile High Club, are ya?” you chuckled, “Not all it’s cracked up to be, ya know.”

Harry paused for a moment and regarded you as you set to work. “You are full of so many secrets,” he said in awe, “Teach me your ways.”

“My ways, Harry,” you whispered, running your hands down his chest once the door had closed and giving him a wink, “Will take way longer than auto-pilot will allow.”

You gave him one last wink, pushing him down into his chair, before you walked over to the cockpit. Before closing the door you turned and smiled at Harry, “Enjoy your flight, Mr. Styles.”

--

Let me know if you’d like more one shots like this one! Or if you have any ideas or requests for future writing! Now that my life schedule is more solid, I know my free time and how much of a work load I have, so many more writing like this will surface! Thanks!

ASK

MASTERLIST

[writingsbyexiledfromazerath]

Saudade; Chapter 1: Sweatervest

"Perhaps a sweater vest wasn't the best choice I could have made today. I should have at least tried to dress like the others."

Eddward looked down at his semi professional attire before pulling his vest down over his collared shirt. He had felt so strongly about this outfit last week when he had picked it out; it was the first day of high school after all, and it was a fresh start for the Ed boys. Now that he was seeing what Ed and Eddy were wearing, he was starting to have his doubts.

"At least Eddy looks confident to start his first day." When Edd approached Eddy at the end of the cul de sac, he almost didn't recognize his childhood friend. Eddward had gone to Space Camp for the summer, having little more than phone call and email contact with his neighborhood friends. Eddy had broadened out a bit; his shoulders finally squared enough to fit into that leather jacket his brother gave to him on his thirteenth birthday. He had shaved the sides of his hair and gelled back the top in the odd pseudo-1970's style that he had picked up from his father's outdated Playboy magazines. Acne marks littered his forehead and slightly darkened peach fuzz had started to line his upper lip; he was determined to develop a mustache as soon as possible. He lifted his fist out to bump against Eddward's.

"About time, Sock head. We were about to go without ya, right Ed?" Eddward returned the fist bump.

"Oh please Eddy, like you would ever intentionally be early for a day of school. Am I correct, Ed?" Both boys turned to their third partner, who had been staring absentmindedly at his torn up converse sneakers. Ed's curly red hair had grown into waves covering his thick eyebrows and freckles littered his face. The green sports jacket that Eddward had grown so accustomed to had been replaced with a Peach Creek Cobblers letterman jacket. Last Eddward had heard Eddy was attempting to convince Ed to try out for the football team. He must have made the cut.

Ed continued to look puzzled for a moment before looking up at his friends and stating "I think I left my socks at home, guys."

Eddward couldn't help but chuckle. "Pretty sure you left your brain at home, Ed."

Eddy just scoffed. "Pretty sure he's never had one to begin with."

Without much more to be remarked, the boys started their walk across town to Peach Creek High School. The boys exchanged events of their time over the summer. Eddy had spent the summer in summer school and claimed to be hooking up with a few girls in the area, but would not mention who. Eddward assumed Eddy was fibbing, perhaps hoping to "start fresh" with a more radical reputation.

When they approached the school campus, the boys could see the other children corralling around the bike rack and the front steps. Nazz had started high school last year along with Kevin and Rolf. Meanwhile Jimmy, Johnny and Sarah were still in junior high across the street. It would be weird to not see them as often as he was accustomed to. Everyone had changed slightly and yet not so much at all it appeared. Eddward was overwhelmed with the lump in his throat. Eighth grade was overflowing with such conflict and insecurity; High school held promises of new beginnings and self discovery and he was anxious to discover what kinds of new starts awaited him.

A high pitched honk startled the Eds into jumping back onto the sidewalk from the street corner. A familiar streak of green and red flew past them, skidding to a sudden halt in front of the bike rack. Nazz was heard cheering with delight; Kevin had arrived.

Red 5'o Clock shadow had taken over Kevin's cheeks and chin, while his hair had been cut short into a slightly grown out crew cut. This was much different than when Eddward had last seen him, with shaggy red waves and a clean shaven face. The football jacket draped over his now square shoulders matched Ed's; they wouldn't have official placements and numbers until initial practices were finished.

Eddward suddenly felt extremely self conscious of his sweater vest.

"Jesus Christ, Sockhead, look at him! Buzzing around on that piece of crap like he owns the joint! Who does he think he is?" Eddy gestured wildly in Kevin's general direction. Eddward started at the redhead thoughtfully; it was a rather good question.

Memories of the previous school year flashed in Eddward's mind. Terrified green eyes staring into his and rough lips…the alluring stench of Axe Body Spray…

Eddward attempted to shake the memories from his mind and put his arm around Eddy's shoulders.

"It's a new year Eddy; a new start. Let us try to reintroduce relations with our neighbors with a positive effort. After all, we have so many adventures to look forward to! There is no sense in dwelling on the past!"

Eddy grumbled the corniness of Edd's statement before ushering Ed and Edd to approach campus.

Eddward believed his statement. He could not dwell on the past. He could not afford to.

The first day of classes filled Eddward with enough academic excitement to wear anyone else down. He had been placed in some AP classes, much to Ed and Eddy's chagrin. Eddward had seriously considered not taking the AP classes, but decided against it come registration time. Ed and Eddy protested, causing Eddward to compromise and promise to tutor them at lunch. They reluctantly agreed.

It was going to be a difficult year without having his friends in each of his classes, but Eddward could not help but at least try to meet the expectations of his teachers and parents. He had been told before the school year had even begun that he would be almost guaranteed valedictorian when he graduates and this piled on many expectations on him from his community.

His reputation preceded him; Teachers had already started pulling Eddward aside to discuss accelerated programs, skipping grade levels and early college acceptance. The packets of information handed to him were overwhelming. Eddward could not help but tuck the impending concerns into a folder for later review. His parents would insist on acceleration, Eddward was sure of it. But it was too early to be thinking so far ahead. The vision of such academic success was almost too exciting to bear, but Eddward was perfectly happy graduating with his friends and his high school class.

The lunch bell alerted students to the cafeteria. Eddy slammed all of his weight into the blue plastic bench by the window. He was peering disinterestedly at his lunch. Ed had already started eating.

Eddward quietly placed himself in the chair opposite Eddy and began to unpack his homemade lunch. The school lunches were too questionable for his tastes, and the discolored items on Eddy's plate only made Eddward more appreciative of preparing his lunch the evening previous.

"Man, I'd kill for a slice of pizza right now…What's a guy gotta do to get some decent food in this school?" Ed looked up from his food.

"We should go down to Cheesy's Pizza guys! Gravy and anchovies on me!" He exclaimed, beginning to salivate at the idea of his favorite pizza parlor. Eddward couldn't help but grimace at the memory of their last gravy and anchovy pizza. Eddy vomited for two days after. Eddward went home without eating that night. They tried to humor Ed. They really did.

"Well Ed, as pleasant of an idea as that is, only upperclassmen are allowed to leave the premises for lunch. Surely as we advance grade levels, we could arrange such endeavors during lunch time." Eddy scoffed.

"No one is going to take us seriously if we wait until we're juniors, Double D. If we're going to make a good impression, we need to start showing everyone that we're not dorky little kids anymore."

Ed gave a wide smile. "Wait until they see how much I have grown!" Eddward raised an eyebrow.

"I am sure we will develop respect from our classmates at our own pace Eddy. History has shown that extra effort on our end often causes more-"Eddy slammed his hands on the table, interrupting Eddward's comment. Eddward jumped back.

"Oh no! We tried that in middle school and look what happened! Nazz turned me down last year and Ed is still a virgin…and those rumors last year about you and Kevin? Super messed up." Eddward felt his face heat up at the memories.

"This year is going to be different. We're older and we're going to be hotter and more experienced than ever this year! We'll show them how much they're missing out by blowing us off! And the ladies will be all over us!" Eddward frowned. Ed seemed hardly concerned about his sexual debut, and Nazz was never going to fall for Eddy. They had nothing in common. Nazz was on student government with Eddward, running for class president. She was a cheerleader and part of the track team. She loved Gossip Girl and reality television. Eddy collects antique records and plays games on his Xbox all weekend long. Nazz would hardly be interested.

"Oh please Eddy! You can't really be serious. This isn't some Seth Green movie that you and Ed watch. This is real life! High school popularity is nothing but a fickle blimp in our lives to come."

"No one is going to mess with us anymore Double D. We're going to come out on top! I'm going to have some money coming in and I'm going to make sure we spend it right! Nazz and I will be spring fling King and Queen, and you and Ed will have ladies draping on your arms in no time!"

Eddward couldn't help but roll his eyes. The last thing on his personal agenda was obtaining a girlfriend, and Ed couldn't seem to care about anything more than food and football. Eddward looked down at his salad wrap lunch, hoping that the conversation can now transition into something less problematic. Eddward racked his brain, searching for a transitional conversation to distract Eddy.

"Oh Eddy! You mentioned that you have some money coming in! Did you get a job?" Eddy smirked.

"Well, you could say that." He hinted with a chuckle. "My brother knew a guy across town and his little brother is taking over his business, so I'm going to be working with him." Eddward lit up and leaned across the table, showing interest. Perhaps this was the conversation they needed.

"That's wonderful Eddy! Employment can be quite fulfilling! Tell me Eddy, what kind of work would it entail?" Eddy crossed his arms and grinned.

"Oh, you know sales. I know I'll be good at it!" Eddy smirked before looking over to his left. "Perhaps you should get a job, Ed." He commented. Ed looked up from his meal.

"Had one all summer Eddy! Construction with my dad! Dad wants me to focus on football this year. Yup! He says the gravy train is calling! Yum!" Ed paused before standing up. "I'm getting seconds." He stated before walking off, empty tray in hand.

"Jeez, Ed's a human garbage disposal I swear. He'll eat anything." Eddward could not argue.

"Hi guys!" Eddy and Eddward eyes jumped up at the sound of the feminine and cheerful voice of Nazz. Eddward had to admit that she was developing into a stunning young woman. She still kept her hair cut short and her smile bright. She beamed as she quickly pulled out a flyer from her purse and handed it to Eddward.

The flyer was colored neon yellow with highlighter pink lettering; Hideous, in Eddward's opinion. It was information regarding Nazz's birthday house party at the end of the month. Since Nazz's family renovated their home, the cheerleader would find any excuse she could to throw a house party. Eddward had been invited to some, but had only gone to one, her "End of the School Year Bash" in May, before he left to camp. Eddward peered up at Eddy, whose brow was beginning to moisten with anxiety. Nazz did not appear to register Eddy's body language and continued.

"It's on the 30th- a Saturday! You should totally come, Double D!" Eddward couldn't help but notice Eddy's sharp eyes glaring jealously across the lunch table. Eddward couldn't help but smirk as Eddy's face glowed red. He was not remotely interested in Nazz but was falling into her favor much more successfully than Eddy could.

"How kind of you, Nazz; I shall certainly consider your offer."

Although Eddward was feeling quite confident at that moment, his reply lodged itself into his throat as Kevin slowly meandered to the table, football jacket slung over his shoulder casually.

"Hey Nazz, are you ready to hit the-oh." Kevin's smile faded. He paused as Eddward's eyes lined up with his. Eddward's face began to feel warm.

The smell of chlorine suffocating his nostrils… Red hair…warm, wet skin…rough lips…

Eddward cleared his throat.

" However, with my academic schedule as intricate as it has become…" Nazz interrupted his attempted excuse.

"Oh c'mon silly! You have to come! It's not a party without Double D!" Eddward could hardly concentrate with Kevin's eyes burning into his. What was he trying to say to him? They almost looked….

"Well, I shall certainly make an attempt to attend. Thank you Nazz." Nazz let out a cheer of excitement, turning to unexpecting Kevin with glee.

"Isn't that great Kev?! The more the merrier, right?" Kevin's eyes slowly pulled away from Eddward's, and he suddenly plastered on what Edd believed to be the most exhausted looking smile he had ever seen.

"Yeah, of course Nazz. You're party will be poppin' with the right people." Nazz beemed, her tilting head causing her hoop earrings to fall. Eddward wished he could be that positive and cheerful consistently. Perhaps he would feel less insecure with himself.

Eddy's stuttering caught Eddward's attention. His face was red and is brow was creating perspiration.

Good Lord, Eddward mused to himself. Eddy can be so dense sometimes.

"N-Nazz, you look r-raddishing today…" There was a brief pause before Eddy had realized he had messed up. Eddward balked. Nazz and Kevin started to roar with laughter.

"It's ravishing, Eddy. Ravishing!" Eddward whispered; it was too late though.

"You're so funny, Eddy!" Nazz gushed, tears of laughter beginning to form in her eyes. Eddy sunk down beneath the table.

"What a dork." Kevin commented as he started to walk away. Eddward and Kevin made eye contact once more. Eddward could swear he saw a glimmer in Kevin's eyes.

"Oh…right…." Kevin offered. "Catch you later, Double D." Eddward felt his face flush again, feeling his stomach fill with butterflies. Eddy watched Nazz trail after Kevin, chattering about the events coming up. Eddy slammed his face into the lunch room table, despondent.

"Aw man. Why does this shit keep happening to me?!" Eddy howled, pressing his hands against his temples. "You need to ingest more fiber, Eddy!" Ed commented, plopping in his seat. "What happened, Eddy?"

"She didn't even invite us, Ed!" Eddy exclaimed, lifting his face from the lunch table. Ed appeared confused.

"Nazz's birthday party, Ed." Eddward prompted. Ed smiled.

"Oh yeah! I got one of those this morning!" Ed reached into his back pocket and pulled out a wrinkled flyer, identical to Eddward's. Eddy wailed with grief.

"What the hell?! Why did you guys get one but I didn't!" Eddy slammed his head down again. "Why won't she take me seriously?" Eddward couldn't help but muse. Nazz was a cheerleader, therefore friends with Ed, a football player. Nazz was also on the student council with himself, therefore, they had become acquaintances. Eddy had made no effort to bond with Nazz on another level. How does he expect himself to obtain Nazz's affections if he makes no effort to get close to her?

Eddward caught himself. He could hardly judge.

Eddward hated the high school lockers. They jammed far too easily to be coincidental and Eddward seriously considered sending a letter of concern to the main office. He yanked and jiggled the padlock multiple times before it finally unleashed, causing the locker to fly open and send Eddward cascading to the floor.

He felt his back hit the linoleum floor and heard his books thud harshly beside him. He opened his eyes to the bight florescent lighting above him. How embarrassing.

"Curse my impulsivity." Eddward muttered to himself. A tan hand slowly entered Eddward's vision.

"Have a nice trip, dork?" Eddward followed the hand to see the owner, Kevin above him. Flabbergasted, he allowed Kevin to assist him to his feet.

"Thank you Kevin, that was very kind of you. Tell me, how was your summer?" Eddward probed. Kevin's eyes narrowed.

"Fine." Eddward paused.

"Well, mine was just splendid! Did you know that within the next century, human kind could be living on Mars?" Kevin adjusted his hat and started to turn his body away.

"Fascinating. Gotta go…" Eddward knew that it may be best for him to remain silent, but as he watched Kevin start to depart, he couldn't help but speak up.

"Kevin, wait…" He begged. The redhead turned his head back towards him.

"Can we get together soon and discuss last year? There is much left to be said." Kevin shook his head. "Dunno what you're talking about Double Dweeb. Nothing happened last year. Quit making stuff up man. People will think you're crazy or something." Kevin stalked off, leaving Eddward feeling particularly vulnerable in the hallway.

How could he say that nothing happened? How could he pretend? There is no way he could have forgotten…

Eddward looked down at himself.

Stupid sweater vest.

[devilishdewitt]

“Ladies of Burlesque”, March 2019.

~The Eternal Disclaimer~

It is hereby declared that this little nook of the world wide web shall be devoted to the praise & critique of the art of burlesque, specifically in Russia.

Let it also be known that I am first and foremost a benevolent force, and every single criticism is documented solely for the purpose of evolution, growth and inspiration, darling.

Never forget - it is fantastic that the burlesque scene in Russia has grown so much in the last few years. Brava, ladies! As a fact and a statement, it is absolutely fabulous.

However, I volunteer to wear the heavy crown of expertise, having seen many a show in many a place, and having a keen eye for detail and a heart hungry for that wow factor. I always come with an open heart, am quite easily entertained, and know how hard the craft is - I can overlook many a fault when there’s stage presence, charisma and that fire of passion. Oh, and self-irony.

 All is sickly without self-irony.

Without further ado, onto our beautiful first show!

“Ladies of Burlesque” is the creation of Anja Pavlova, a shining star on the Berlin scene who descends into Moscow in attempt to elevate the world of Russian Burlesque.

The Venue

Quite splendid. Conveniently located minutes away from Taganskaya metro station, Dorfman karaoke drowns in luxury (it is painfully evident in the ludicrous lavatories). An atmosphere of glamour is immediately created - the view is good from all seats, the stage is well-located, the lights are a bit mad, but tolerable.

It is absurd for a Muscovite to complain about the price of anything, but the money demanded for the simplest things is aggressively silly.

The Wait

The producer of the show, who chose the somewhat childish moniker Konfetki, was at the door, checking the lists and being wonderful. She is delightful, but good God, please dress her better. The ensemble she chose did not fit the venue nor the atmosphere. She is gorgeous - let her outfit be gorgeous, too!

The magnificent lady selling pasties was exactly that - magnificent.

 I wish there was a lady like that everywhere I went.

The Performers

Anja Pavlova is undoubtedly a ray of jazzy 20’s sunshine. “This is the show of my dreams”, she announces, and you can tell it’s true - she is simply glowing. She clearly knows what she’s doing and she loves it completely. However, at times her beaming adoration for the performers seemed over the top - especially when her words were far from the truth.

When one thinks of a chorus line, the mind is immediately alight with synchronised wonders, radiant smiles & fascinating costumes. That is how Anja introduced the Ladies of Burlesque Chorus Line.

But oh boy, it was a spectacle for all the wrong reasons. The costumes do not flatter the ladies at all and look quite sloppy. They were saved by the gorgeous headpieces and smiles, but the moves…seemed incredibly random. Rare moments of synced movements provided some sense of relief, but over all, for chorus line dancers, they have an abominable sense of rhythm and don’t dance that well. The girls seem very nice, but don’t have the oomph & electricity to really capture the audience. Also, they left in what seemed to be an embarrassed hurry. Never!

Also, you’re doing a burlesque show & you’re not cinched? Girl, bye.

As a wise professor used to say, “It’s not about the size, it’s about the line”. Take care of that silhouette, mademoiselle!

Then came the singer, Marie Weinberg. If only she was as good as our charming host promised…remarkably, her stage presence was close to nil. Both of the dresses were gorgeous, but she should’ve worn the green one first - the black & diamanté ensemble should’ve been saved for dessert.

The choice of songs was excellent, but she did nothing with them. Her version of “Oops I Did It Again” was surprisingly charmless. One mustn’t even do much to make it a hit, it’s all there - the dramaturgy, the humour, the irony, but somehow she managed to make it gloriously bland.

I was bored! At a Burlesque show! Nonsense.

Does she have a good voice? Yes.  

Does she sing well? Yes.

Is she entertaining? No.

Does she know what do with an audience? No.

Do I want to see her again? No.

On to the deshabillants!

In general, I want to say that most of the acts were extremely similar. I know, I know, this is Burlesque, the main mechanism is quite predictable - but it seemed like 90% had a version of a wrap-around dress with pretty much the final look underneath. It is so fun to play with expectation in this genre, and somehow most of the performers completely overlooked this opportunity. However, this is only the beginning. Everyone started somewhere!

Ellisha Fox, I salute you. I can’t even imagine the amount of raised eyebrows and hurt pseudo-masculine egos you had to encounter on your path. His style is reminiscent of glorious anime characters, his moves are impressive, and those heels!! Those heels!!!! Good Lord, he’s a superhero!!

However, a pinch of self-irony would not ago astray. Perhaps, for a future act. I’d recommend taking a leaf out of Jett Adore’s book - specifically the Zorro act with which he travelled all over the world as part of Dita’s show.

Still, Ellisha had one of the best acts of the evening, Bravo!

If we were to speak about lack of self-irony, Tamasina Beansun is the queen of it. Her acts have excellent ideas - the Eve one she showed at last years’ Moscow Burlesque Festival, or the Little Red Riding Hood she presented this time - but her performances are so self-absorbed, at times one feels like he’s the third wheel. Like a party for one that you somehow found yourself in. And sure, it can be a style choice, but it’s not working. Sometimes it simply becomes vulgar. And it’s not a question of confidence, for it is always felt.

This is not the case. Simply put, she does not need the audience. Her self-indulgence feeds every appetite that she herself has.

Her Siberian Prime ally, Katerina Sahara, is an exact opposite. She loves the audience and it shows. Her acts range from witty & ironic (The Bunny), to majestic & mesmerising (the newest addition, The Dragon). Her moves are hypnotising, she always looks impeccable. She knows her worth and yet is the first one to laugh at herself. I must admit, her Dragon act amazed me. It was so well thought through, so gorgeous, utterly hypnotising. I often use her Bunny act as an example of brilliant Russian Burlesque. Can’t wait to see what she does next.

The Stage Kitten, our charming engineer, was quite good. I do wish she had a bigger moment though, you know, the moment. Also, perhaps it would be wiser to opt for a pair of more comfortable heels - the chance of a fall loomed over her in a quite a terrifying way.

Jeva Noir. I was particularly excited to see her, as I remember how sad she was at last years’ Moscow Burlesque Festival, sharing that they didn’t include her in the programme. Well, I must admit I can see why.

Does the act have an idea? Oh yes.

Is she gorgeous? Absolutely.

Is the costume marvelous? Quite.

The music? Good.

But something just didn’t click. Nerves? Perhaps. Some of her moves seemed forced & mechanical. In Burlesque, every move has a meaning, a purpose, a storyline to unveil. Also, a better wig is strongly advised.

If it is not a wig, better hair care is strongly advised.

Radmila Rocky Zombie got somewhat lost amongst the midst of performers. I was looking forward to this voluptuous beauty, but didn’t really get much. Caravan is a fantastic song, and she definitely has the skills, but something just didn’t work. There was no “wow” moment. I have a strong desire to see her other acts, this one seemed quite bland.

Well, Anja Pavlova is a treasure and a wonder. Not many leading ladies can shift between MC & performer with such ease & elegance. Her performances are a time machine, she exudes excitement. It is a treat to watch her.

However, when she gushed over the “kinky Burlesque” of Blanche De Moscou as something wildly original, I couldn’t help but wonder if she was convincing herself. In an industry where Dark Burlesque & Fetish Burlesque are huge, kinky Burlesque isn’t novel at all. Not even a little bit. Also, what was kinky about her number? A small demonstration of a few rather tame objects? The mask in the end? The spilling of the milk on her dainty bosom?

Blanche is a true enthusiast and her entrance look for this act is jaw-dropping. But the transformation that takes place in this performance can be made bigger, better, bolder.

THE FINALE

The show has a signature atmosphere of luscious elegance. It may not be thoroughly consistent, but it’s very clear that Pavlova knows what she wants and is working to fully fulfil her dreamy fantasy.

Perhaps if she were more strict and demanding, the results would be even more fabulous.

✶✶✶✶

[rickhorrow]

15 to watch 52217

Memorial Day Weekend is upon us, and crossover sponsors are revving their engines in Indianapolis. According to the Indianapolis Star, Pacers guard Jeff Teague is sponsoring driver Buddy Lazier's entry in the 101st Indianapolis 500, which will see Lazier's Chevrolet "sport number 44, a Team Teague sticker and the Factory at D1 Sports decal." D1 is the name of the 33,500-square-foot, state-of-the-art gym Teague is "opening in Indianapolis." Teague's business manager, Jamel Barnes, said "Not many athletes, let alone a hometown kid playing for the hometown team have their own logos and decals on an Indy 500 car." But Teague isn’t the only crossover athlete fronting an IndyCar decal this weekend – Zach Veach will drive the No. 40 Chevrolet IndyCar for AJ Foyt Racing, representing the inaugural LPGA Indy Women in Tech Presented by Guggenheim tournament taking place at the Brickyard Crossing course in September. While estimates vary wildly for what it costs to sponsor a car at the Indianapolis 500, the last study commissioned by Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2000 pegged the Indy 500 economic impact at $336 million. Just call it Motorsports Econ 101 at 230 mph.

As the French Open begins play at Paris’ Roland Garros this week, two things have dropped significantly since 2016: the number of household name players contending on the red clay, and the euro-dollar exchange rate. The currency drop left the French trailing other grand slams by a wide margin in terms of prize money, so French Open authorities announced another 14% hike in the total prize money pool to remain on par with the other grand slams. This year’s 14% increase sees the French right up there with Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, offering a total prize pool of $39.2 million, $2.29 million apiece to the respective men’s and women’s singles champion, and a respectable $39,145 to first round losers. The tournament, however, will be without marquee players Roger Federer, Maria Sharapova, and Serena Williams, meaning American ratings will likely decline as well. Grand Slam tennis is big business on both sides of the pond, and while the French is the smallest of the bigs, its impact, rich tradition, and place on the annual tennis calendar remains significant, regardless of on-court star power or exchange rate.

Head racquets owner and CEO Johan Eliasch believes that the French Tennis Federation "made the right call" not to hand Maria Sharapova a French Open wild card spot after she finished her doping-related suspension. But Eliasch, according to the London Times, "laid the blame for one of his most prominent clients missing the second grand-slam event of the year at the door" of WADA. Eliasch said, "This issue with Maria and the French Open, that is a consequence of Wada breaching their own rules for a delinquent way of operating." A WADA spokesperson said that the organization had "followed all the required procedures" before including meldonium -- which Sharapova tested positive for -- on their "list of banned substances." WTA CEO Steve Simon told the New York Times he "did not plan on pushing for re-examination of the wild-card rule, but would be open to it." Simon "maintains that the federation went too far." While WADA has no financial stake in a Sharapova-less French Open, the WTA certainly does – especially in a year when fan favorite Serena Williams is on maternity leave. No surprise that Simon is questioning the “letter of the law.”

  Kids, apparently, still like the long ball. According to a just-released Sports & Fitness Industry Association report, baseball and softball "combined to rank as the most participated team sport" in 2016. The report said that casual participation showed an average annual growth of 6.5% over five years, 10.7% over three years, and 18.1% from 2015 to 2016. SFIA President & CEO Tom Cove said that the sport "showed growth in both casual and core participation over one-, three- and five-year periods at a time when the trends in other team sports are less encouraging." MLB Senior VP/Youth Programs Tony Reagins said, "To see the numbers where they are, it’s really exciting…We’re going to keep pushing and try to get more kids playing." The participation increase, according to Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal, "almost certainly stems from MLB’s 'Play Ball' initiative," which launched in June, 2015 in conjunction with the U.S. Conference of Mayors, USA Baseball, and USA Softball. From finding funding to build fields to helping grow sports participation, the U.S. Conference of Mayors actively partners with communities nationwide to ensure our kids are healthy and engaged. I am proud to work with the Mayors Professional Sports Alliance to help see these important goals come to fruition.

The Cleveland Cavaliers and Goodyear have announced a jersey patch partnership beginning next season. The agreement, according to SportsBusiness Journal, will also involve Turner Sports, which the Cavs hired to help “amplify the deal nationally.” Turner’s in-house agency Ignite Sports will create custom Goodyear-branded content to appear on TNT NBA coverage and provide media services for the Cavs. It is the first such deal for Ignite, which is angling to align itself with other NBA jersey patch deals. Sources have noted that the deal makes good sense because Goodyear is headquartered in nearby Akron, hometown of regional favorite son LeBron James. The deal is reportedly worth upwards of $10 million a year, making it the most lucrative of the six jersey patch deals signed to date. Goodyear’s other sports sponsorships include Ohio’s Pro Football Hall of Fame, the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, and the College Football Playoff. While the Goodyear deal is reportedly eight figures, none of the jersey patch deals would have been made without the foresight of the 76ers and jersey patch partner StubHub, who pioneered the innovative revenue opportunity for the NBA.

    Maryland Governor Larry Hogan claims he "wants to keep the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore and is willing to talk about investing state money to do so." According to the Baltimore Sun, the governor's office issued a statement after Stronach Group, the owner of Pimlico Race Course, said that the 147-year-old track likely "would have to be rebuilt" at a cost of $300-$500 million to "keep the race there” rather than move it to newer Laurel Park. State House Speaker Michael Busch also "signaled he's open to a state role." Regardless of the top leaders' "willingness to consider a state investment, lawmakers warned that it would be difficult to win General Assembly approval of a sizable investment in a track that survives on the strength of one big day each year." State Senator Edward Kasemeyer "isn't ruling out what he calls a 'three-way partnership' of the state, the city and the company to rebuild Pimlico." Few sports are as tradition-steeped as horse racing, so expect Maryland lawmakers to pull out all the stops to keep the race at Pimlico – especially when this year’s Preakness drew record attendance and race card handle for the third straight year.

The race between Los Angeles and Paris is heating up as both cities are vying to “wow” IOC members before a final decision is made. According to Reuters, LA 2024 “threw down the gauntlet” to its rival Paris with IOC members visiting planned venues and sites. IOC Evaluation Commission Chair Patrick Baumann said that the bid has “no major risks and venues that he described as 'mind-blowing.'" The plan is for sustainability and cost-consciousness to be a center point of the bid, using existing facilities across L.A. and building as few permanent structures as possible. While most cities “shunned the Olympics as too expensive,” L.A. jumped at the opportunity to host the Games again, especially after experiencing a positive economic upswing these past few years. As it wrapped up the Los Angeles tour, the USOC revealed a $78.5 million surplus on $336 million in revenue during the 2016 Rio Games year, including $173 million in broadcast rights fees, benefitting from Games-time boosts in TV and sponsorship revenue, according to its annual IRS filing. The site visits are over, and now Los Angeles and Paris must wait out the IOC’s ultimate decision on who gets the 2024 Games, and likely, who gets the 2028 event. My thinking: look for Paris to prevail in 2024, and L.A. to renegotiate for 2028.

  Disney CEO Bob Iger has been rumored to potentially run for office sometime in the near future, leaving uncertainty how much longer he will “keep his grip on the company.” According to the Wall Street Journal, the 66-year-old Iger “simply doesn’t want to retire yet, despite stating repeatedly that he intents to.” Iger has lead Disney for the past 12 years with "such hands-on attention that he and Disney now seem inseparable to many employees and outside partners." Iger's "ever-extending leadership might be just what Disney needs to keep thriving where it is strong and solve problems looming on the horizon, such as declines in viewership at ESPN and the company’s other television networks." Iger has discussed the possibility of serving in a Democratic presidential administration somewhere down the line or even potentially spending time off on his sailboat. Don’t expect Iger to sail away into the sunset until ESPN’s decline is checked – whether that means installing new top management, an Iger-adjusted business model, or both.

  The fate of two potential future MLS teams will not be decided until December. According to the Sacramento Business Journal, an announcement of two expansion teams was expected by midyear, but MLS officials “indicated an announcement of which cities are chosen” will not come until the end of the year. The Sac Soccer group in Sacramento is confident it will be one of the two cities selected in seven months, especially after purchasing Sacramento Republic FC, “making the USL club part of a bid for inclusion in MLS.” On paper, Sacramento has "checked all three boxes" with an "ownership team, established soccer market and a build-ready stadium plan." The ownership group behind the bid for Northern California is strong, with San Francisco 49ers CEO Jed York and HP Enterprise President & CEO Meg Whitman part of the core. Meanwhile, the David Beckham-Oak View Group- led Miami Beckham United franchise continues to search for a stadium site in Miami, a task that’s proved more difficult than originally anticipated. With a slew of boldface names backing each MLS franchise, it’s only a matter of time before we’ll see MLS matches played in shiny new stadiums in both Sacramento and Miami. Star power usually gets things done.

Vodafone has pulled out of a naming rights deal that would have put its name on London Stadium for the next six years. According to the London Times, the deal was set to be worth $26 million over six years. Sources close to the company note that Vodafone pulled out after reporting an annual loss of $6.7 billion worldwide, “with profits down 31% in the United Kingdom, a downturn blamed largely on the weakness of sterling” amidst Brexit. EPL club West Ham United just finished out its first season at the former Olympic stadium, which was downsized after the 2012 Games. The club is desperate to land a naming rights deal for its home stadium to help cover the costs of annual rent totaling $3.2 million per year. Vodafone has been "noticeably absent" from sports marketing after it ended its seven-year title sponsorship of McLaren’s Formula 1 team in 2013. Even with a solid transition plan, the long term fate of Olympic facilities is never 100% certain because most cities fail to properly estimate ongoing maintenance and other costs. Look for the IOC to reference London Stadium as it chooses between Los Angeles and Paris.

The Tampa Bay Lightning are waiting to receive official confirmation that they will host the 2018 NHL All-Star Game. According to Yahoo Sports, if the game is awarded to Tampa Bay, it would mark the first time it would be hosted by the Lightning since 1999. Owner Jeff Vinik has invested heavily in renovating Amalie Arena instead of building a new facility. Downtown Tampa Bay has also grown considerably, making it a more attractive destination for a mega event. There has been "speculation that the lack of an NHL All-Star Game host announcement meant the NHL was hedging on its vow not to send players" to the 2018 PyeongChang Games. However, holding the All-Star Game was "always part of the contingency plan in case a deal with the IOC couldn’t be struck." As determined as NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and the league’s owners have been to keep their players away from the Olympics, a winter’s trip to Tampa Bay is looking all the more likely.

  Derek Jeter may be retired, but that has not stopped fans from buying his memorabilia. According to SportsBusiness Journal, Topps Now is selling a set of special Jeter baseball cards commemorating the short stop’s retirement ceremony at Yankee Stadium. The cards have become “the top-selling regular-season cards in history of the Topps Now daily on-demand card service.” The company said it sold more than “13,500 cards relating to the Jeter ceremony between two base cards and a limited number of autographed cards and relic cards containing pieces of a base used in the game” on ceremony day. That marker tops the 11,550 cards sold last year for a card commemorating Miami Marlins outfielder Ichiro Suzuki gaining his 3,000th hit. The Jeter set generated more than $150,000 in revenue for Topps since its release. Trading card sales have declined as interest in baseball has waned among younger generations, and Topps and its peers welcome any opportunity to boost revenues tied to MLB special events like the Jeter ceremony.

  U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati could have an unexpected challenger next year in his quest to remain in his role. According to the Washington Post, Boston attorney Steven Gans has begun exploring the option of running for the top spot in U.S. domestic soccer, but has not officially decided on doing so yet. "It’s amazing to me that such a big position, no one has ever run against Sunil,” said Gans. “There needs to be a challenger. He hasn’t demonstrated such a great track record. I don’t think the direction at the pro and youth level is so great. There are a lot of disenchanted people out there.” Gulati is officially allowed to run for one more term under current USSF guidelines; he has not confirmed his intent on running for the spot again, though many close to the organization expect him to run again. Gans has openly critiqued moves by Gulati that has demonstrated “poor judgment and leadership.” With corruption-driven leadership shifts at the FIFA level, it’s only natural that the heads of national federations would receive additional scrutiny. Gulati has had a lock on U.S. Soccer for many years, and as in most organizations, an infusion of new blood is usually a positive thing.

  United Airlines is buying the naming rights to L.A. Memorial Coliseum for more than $70 million over 15 years, making it the richest naming-rights deal among college football stadiums. At $4.7 million per year, according to sources, United’s deal will surpass the 10-year, $41 million deal Alaska Airlines signed with the University of Washington for Husky Stadium rights in 2015. The naming-rights revenue is expected to help offset costs of a $270 million Coliseum renovation, slated to be completed in time for the 2019 USC football season. It is thought that “Memorial Coliseum” will be retained in the name. United’s CEO, Oscar Munoz, is a USC grad, and nearby LAX is one of United’s biggest U.S. hubs. Down the road, the Rams' and Chargers' $2.6 billion stadium in Inglewood "will be delayed almost a year" from its originally planned opening in 2019 and is "now scheduled to be ready" for the 2020 NFL season, due to record rainfall during critical construction phases this past winter. The Rams will remain at the Coliseum for 2019, while the Chargers will play at StubHub Center. While the rain was a pain, the delay is definitely a silver lining for naming rights holders United and StubHub, which will both benefit from the additional exposure.

Jordan Spieth is the latest athlete to be featured on the Wheaties box. Spieth told media at the AT&T Byron Nelson that he will be on "about four million Wheaties boxes nationwide." Fittingly, Wheaties was "Byron Nelson’s first endorsement." Other golfers who have "had their own limited-edition boxes" include Ben Hogan, Babe Zaharias, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods. Wheaties joins a Spieth endorsement portfolio that already includes "deals with AT&T, Coca-Cola, Titleist, and Under Armour. CNBC estimated the Wheaties deal could increase Spieth's brand value by upwards of $3.1 million, while Under Armour, whose logo appears on the shirt Spieth wears on the cereal box, could garner $171,000 worth of brand exposure. Too bad Spieth started the first weekend of his new deal by skipping breakfast – after a quad bogie on Friday, he failed to make the cut.

[teesturtle]

The Sarcasm Is strong with this one shirt

The Sarcasm Is strong with this one shirt

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[coindex]

SegWit2x Hard Fork C

SegWit2x Hard Fork Could Have Devastating Consequences for Bitcoin Opinion This is an opinion piece and the views of this author do not necessarily represent the views of Cointelegraph. The upcoming SegWit2x fork could generate a black swan event for Bitcoin; that is to say there is a small chance that the fork could have enormous repercussions. The idea of a black swan event was coined by author Nassim Nicholas Taleb to explain: The disproportionate role of high-profile hard-to-predict and rare events that are beyond the realm of normal expectations. SegWit2x could be just such an event particularly because the market seems so complacent right now. Despite soon facing an incredibly contentious hard fork with possibly terrific consequences Bitcoin price remains just below its all-time high. The longest chain The upcoming fork has been written about extensively; if you arent entirely sure what SegWit2x entails feel free to check out some earlier Cointelegraph articles. In this piece I want to talk not about what SegWit2x is or whether its good or bad but about the potential consequences it could have for Bitcoin. Lets begin with Satoshis original white paper. In it the creator of Bitcoin wrote: Proof-of-work is essentially one-CPU-one-vote. The majority decision is represented by the longest chain which has the greatest proof-of-work effort invested in it. In case of any confusion Satoshi followed this statement with: Nodes always consider the longest chain to be the correct one and will keep working on extending it. In Satoshis own words therefore the longest of two competing chains is assumed to be the legitimate one. Many have argued that Satoshi would have thought differently in such-and-such situation or that SegWit2x is an exception to the rule for one reason or the other. Nonetheless without Satoshi here to guide us personally it is understood from his white paper that the longest chain is Bitcoin. Full stop. Butbut But Bitcoins core developers dont like SegWit2x! But the SegWit2x code wasnt created and vetted traditionally! But the upgrade isnt needed! But many exchanges are going to call the legacy chain Bitcoin! But! Im not here to argue any of these points. Whether the block size increase is necessary or proper is beyond the scope of this article. It nonetheless remains true that under Satoshis original white paper the longest chain represents the winner the legitimate Bitcoin. Rightly or wrongly thats how Satoshi designed the Bitcoin network. Winners and losers This brings us to the next point: Bitcoins network is going to work exactly as Satoshi programmed it. At present miner support for the 2x hard fork is running around 83 percent. Bitcoin developer Jimmy Song made some rough calculations based on 90 percent miner support for the fork. This is reasonable since statistical variance causes miner support to fluctuate. Song reasoned that if 90 percent of Bitcoins miners follow through with their current plan to mine SegWit2x then: Block 494784 splits to 1X and 2X. Initially 1X has 100 minute blocks 2X has 11 minute blocks on average. 1X and 2X have the exact same difficulty. Legacy Bitcoin (which Song calls 1X) would have 100 minute blocks. This means a single transaction with a high enough fee to make it into the next block would require 10 hours to receive six confirmations. It would take nearly half a day to fully confirm a transaction on the 1X chain! How is the ecosystem going to react to a nearly two hour block time? Given the great slowness of the network an order of magnitude slower than pre-forkhow high will fees rise? If the block size remains the same (on the 1X chain) but there are only a tenth as many blocks fees will have to rise to monstrous levels since there will be 10 times the competition for space in a block. This will be no brief inconvenience either. Song estimates that if the mining split remains as it is today the 1X chain wont experience a difficulty drop until Feb. 3 and block times wont return completely to normal until March 10. Die-hard supporters of the legacy chain will be contending with nearly two hour block times and sky-high fees for about three months! Futures markets and opportunity cost Song points out that in futures trading legacy (1X) Bitcoins are trading for about $6100 each compared to 2X Bitcoins which are priced at only $1100 apiece. He argues that this creates a massive opportunity cost as miners who choose to mine the 2X chain will receive less valuable Bitcoins as a reward than if they mined the 1X chain. However this is only the case if after the fork the 2X chain remains priced at a sixth of the 1X chain. Assuming that the 1X chain has 100 minute block times and fees an order of magnitude higher than they are currently it seems unlikely that 1X Bitcoin will maintain its high value relative to 2X Bitcoin. Its important to remember that since the 2X chain doesnt yet exist the current futures price isnt merely a bet on whether 2X will supplant 1X. Its also a bet as to whether the fork even happens at all. Theres still the possibility of a last-minute compromise or a falling away of support for 2X or the conversion of some Bitcoin core devs to the 2X cause. Until the fork happens the futures price doesnt mean all that much. Of course once the fork happens the futures markets will become moot anyway. In short take the futures markets with a grain of salt. Confusion Assuming the SegWit2x hard fork happens under the terms Song suggests (90 percent of mining power backing the new chain Core devs backing the legacy chain) its likely there will be enormous confusion in the marketplace. Consider that one chain will presumably be functioning just like normal but with even lower fees due to its higher capacity. This would be the 2X chain. The other chain the 1X chain will have only a tenth the hash power of the 2X chain and will have a block time of nearly two hours. The network will quite literally crawl and its maximum transaction throughput will be slashed by an order of magnitude. Politics aside which network sounds healthier? Which sounds more valuable? Game theory Given that the marketplace is likely to be highly confused about which Bitcoin is the real Bitcoin here lies one possibility of a black swan event. Since some exchanges will give the name Bitcoin and the BTC ticker to the 1X chain and some will give the moniker and symbol to the 2X chain its likely that buyers will be confused as to what they are buying. With a lack of replay protection there is likely to be significant disruption on both networks as transactions on each network are replayed on the other. In short the first days following the fork will likely be chaos. The price of both 1X and 2X Bitcoin could crash particularly if excess margin contributes to any flash crashes. Miners will quickly realize that the chaos must end before the value of both networks hits zero. They will likely therefore attack the 1X chain. Considering that 2X miners will have (in our imagined scenario) ten times the hash power of the minority chain reorg attacks against the 1X chain would be easy to execute and highly effective. Such attacks could reverse huge portions of the Blockchainperhaps days worth of transactionsundermining confidence in the 1X network. Bitcoins core devs who unanimously support the 1X chain have said that in the event of any attacks they will simply change the proof-of-work algorithm. While this could work it would require yet another hard fork. It should be remembered that part of Cores opposition to SegWit2x is because hard forks are dangerous yet these same developers propose to foist a risky hard fork on an already unstable 1X network thats under attack by a larger chain. This seems unwise in the extreme. Not only that but changing 1Xs proof-of-work algorithm would tend to undermine its assertion that its the true heir to Satoshis original Bitcoin network. Anything could happen In fact because people are wildly unpredictable and there are such vast sums of money and pride at stake nearly any outcome is possible. One chain could destroy the other completely both chains could co-exist one chain could be more valuable or the fork might somehow be avoided altogether. Nobody knows and if theres anything the market hates its uncertainty. Yet with Bitcoin sitting over $7000 at press time it seems like the market doesnt care at all. Black swans Talebs theory rests on the assumption that high-profile hard-to-predict events can have far-reaching consequences. But everybody knows that the SegWit2x hard fork is coming so doesnt that necessarily negate the hard-to-predict aspect of a black swan event? Not at all. In this case its not the event itself thats hard to predict but the outcome. I keep coming back to the marketright now the market isnt showing any signs of panic or unusual volatility. In fact it appears to be merely consolidating in anticipation of another possible surge. This is irrational. Since the market seems to expect the fork to be a non-event its actually creating the perfect scenario for a black swan outcome. The possibility of mass confusion and price collapse do not seem to be priced in meaning that if such events did occur the market would likely react with panic. Since very few seem to expect any trouble its likely that most traders and investors have failed to make contingency plans. If the fork becomes a black swan event a great many people are likely to have powerful knee-jerk reactions. Prices could easily tumble. Follow us on Facebook

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[freewhispersmaker]

Learning Activity #1 1. Read Chapter 1. Review the 1.8 Cases and Problems (page 40) and complete the questions. ( 2. Post your answer to #4 and 5. The ?Economy section of the CNNMoney Web site provides current information on a number of economic indicators. Go to http://money.cnn.com and click on ?Economy and then on ?Jobs, and find answers to the following questions: 1. Is the current level of unemployment rising or falling? 2. What do economists expect will happen to unemployment rates in the near future? 3. Is the current level of unemployment a burden or an asset to the economy? In what ways? 4. Do you remember the first dollar you earned? 5. Maybe you earned it delivering newspapers, shoveling snow, mowing lawns, or babysitting. How much do you think that dollar is worth today? Go to the WestEgg site athttp://www.westegg.com/inflation and find the answer to this question. After determining the current value of your first dollar, explain how the calculator was created. (Hint: Apply what you know about CPI.) —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— 1. Read Chapter 2. Review and complete the Exercises on page 34. (Due Thursday, 11:59pm) 2. Post a summary of your answers to items 1-6 of your Business Conduct and Ethics 1. (AACSB) Analysis You‘re the CEO of a company that sells golf equipment, including clubs, bags, and balls. When your company was started and had only a handful of employees, you were personally able to oversee the conduct of your employees. But with your current workforce of nearly fifty, it‘s time to prepare a formal code of conduct in which you lay down some rules that employees must follow in performing job-related activities. As a model for your own code, you‘ve decided to use Macy‘s Code of Business Conduct and Ethics. Go to the company‘s Web site (http://www.federated- http://ift.tt/2xDlVn8) to view its posted code of business conduct. Your document won‘t be as thorough as Macy‘s, but it will cover the following areas: (1) conflicts of interest; (2) acceptance of gifts, services, or entertainment; (3) protection of confidential information; (4) use of company funds or assets for personal purposes; (5) competing fairly and ethically; and (6) adherence to code. Draw up a code of conduct for your company. 2. (AACSB) Reflective Skills Think of someone whom you regard as an ethical leader. It can be anyone connected with you—a businessperson, educator, coach, politician, or family member. Explain why you believe the individual is ethical in his or her leadership. This text was adapted by The Saylor Foundation under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License without attribution as requested by the work’s original creator or licensee. 1 2 Chapter 1 The Foundations of Business Why Is Apple Successful? In 1976 Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak created their first computer, the Apple I. They invested a mere $1,300 and set up business in Jobs’s garage. Three decades later, their business—Apple Inc.—has become one of the world’s most influential and successful companies. Did you ever wonder why Apple flourished while so many other young companies failed? How did it grow from a garage start-up to a company generating $65 billion in sales? How was it able to transform itself from a nearly bankrupt firm to a multinational corporation with locations all around the world? You might conclude that it was the company’s products, such as the Apple I and II, the Macintosh, or more recently its wildly popular iPod, iPhone, and iPad. Or you might decide that it was its people: its dedicated employees and loyal customers. Perhaps you will decide it was luck—Apple simply was in the right place at the right time. Or maybe you will attribute the company’s success to management’s willingness to take calculated risks. Perhaps you will attribute Apple’s initial accomplishments and reemergence to its cofounder, the late Steve Jobs. After all, Jobs was instrumental in the original design of the Apple I and, after being ousted from his position with the company, returned to save the firm from destruction and lead it onto its current path. Before we decide what made Apple what it is today and what will propel it into a successful future, let’s see if you have all the facts about the possible choices: its [1] products, its customers, luck, willingness to take risks, or Steve Jobs. We’re confident that you’re aware of Apple’s products and understand that ?Apple customers are a loyal bunch. Though they’re only a small percentage of all computer users, they make up for it with their passion and outspokenness.? 3 [2] We believe you can understand the role that luck or risk taking could play in Apple’s success. But you might like to learn more about Steve Jobs, the company’s cofounder and former CEO, before arriving at your final decision. Growing up, Jobs had an interest in computers. He attended lectures at HewlettPackard after school and worked for the company during the summer months. He took a job at Atari after graduating from high school and saved his money to make a pilgrimage to India to search for spiritual enlightenment. Following his India trip, he attended Steve Wozniak’s ?Homebrew Computer Club? meetings, where the idea for building a personal computer surfaced. [3] ?Many colleagues describe Jobs as a brilliant man who could be a great motivator and positively charming. At the same time his drive for perfection was so strong that employees who did not meet his demands are faced with blistering verbal attacks.? [4] Not everyone at Apple appreciated Jobs’s brilliance and ability to motivate. Nor did they all go along with his willingness to do whatever it took to produce an innovative, attractive, high-quality product. So at age thirty, Jobs found himself ousted from Apple by John Sculley, whom Jobs himself had hired as president of the company several years earlier. It seems that Sculley wanted to cut costs and thought it would be easier to do so without Jobs around. Jobs sold $20 million of his stock and went on a two-month vacation to figure out what he would do for the rest of his life. His solution: start a new personal computer company called NextStep. In 1993, he was invited back to Apple (a good thing, because neither his new company nor Apple was doing well). Steve Jobs was definitely not humble, but he was a visionary and had a right to be proud of his accomplishments. Some have commented that ?Apple’s most successful days have occurred with Steve Jobs at the helm.? 4 [5] Jobs did what many successful CEOs and managers do: he learned, adjusted, and improvised. [6] Perhaps the most important statement that can be made about him is this: he never gave up on the company that once turned its back on him. So now you have the facts. Here’s a multiple-choice question that you’ll likely get right: Apple’s success is due to (a) its products, (b) its customers, (c) luck, (d) willingness to take risks, (e) Steve Jobs, or (f) some combination of these options. [1] This vignette is based on an honors thesis written by Danielle M. Testa, ?Apple, Inc.: An Analysis of the Firm’s Tumultuous History, in Conjunction with the Abounding Future? (Lehigh University), November 18, 2007. [2] Ellen Lee, ?Faithful, sometimes fanatical Apple customers continue to push the boundaries of loyalty,? San Francisco Chronicle, March 26, 2006. [3] Lee Angelelli, ?Steve Paul Jobs,? http://ift.tt/2hyCwV4 (accessed January 21, 2012). [4] Lee Angelelli, ?Steve Paul Jobs,? http://ift.tt/2hyCwV4 (accessed January 21, 2012). [5] Cyrus Farivar, ?Apple’s first 30 years; three decades of contributions to the computer industry,? Macworld, June 2006, 2. [6] Dan Barkin, ?He made the iPod: How Steve Jobs of Apple created the new millennium’s signature invention,? Knight Ridder Tribune Business News, December 3, 2006, 1. 1.1 Introduction As the story of Apple suggests, today is an interesting time to study business. Advances in technology are bringing rapid changes in the ways we produce and deliver goods and services. The Internet and other improvements in communication (such as smartphones, video conferencing, and social networking) now affect the way we do business. Companies are expanding international operations, and the workforce is more diverse than ever. Corporations are being held responsible for the behavior of their executives, and more people share the opinion that companies should be good corporate citizens. Plus—and this is a big plus—businesses today are facing the lingering effects of what many economists believe is the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. [1] Economic turmoil that began in the housing and mortgage industries as a result of troubled subprime mortgages quickly spread to the rest of the economy. In 2008, credit markets froze up and banks stopped making loans. Lawmakers tried to get money flowing again by passing a $700 billion Wall Street bailout, yet businesses and individuals were still denied access to needed credit. Without money or credit, consumer confidence in the economy dropped and consumers cut back their spending. Businesses responded by producing fewer products, and their sales and profits dropped. Unemployment rose as troubled companies shed the most jobs in five years, and 760,000 Americans marched to the unemployment lines. The stock market reacted to the financial crisis and its stock prices dropped by 44 percent while millions of Americans watched in shock as their savings and retirement accounts took a nose dive. In fall 2008, even Apple, a company that had enjoyed strong sales growth over the past five years, began to cut production of its popular iPhone. Without jobs or cash, consumers would no longer flock to Apple’s fancy retail stores or buy a prized iPhone. [3] Things have turned around for Apple, which reported blockbuster sales for 2011 in part because of strong customer response to the iPhone 4S. But not all companies or individuals are doing so well. The economy is still struggling, unemployment is high (particularly for those ages 16 to 24), and home prices remain low. As you go through the course with the aid of this text, you’ll explore the exciting world of business. We’ll introduce you to the various activities in which businesspeople engage—accounting, finance, information technology, management, marketing, and operations. We’ll help you understand the roles that these activities play in an organization, and we’ll show you how they work together. We hope that by exposing you to the things that businesspeople do, we’ll help you decide whether business is right for you and, if so, what areas of business you’d like to study further. 5 [2] [1] Jon Hilsenrath, Serena Ng, and Damian Paletta, ?Worst Crisis Since ’30s, With No End Yet in Sight,? Wall Street Journal, Markets, September 18, 2008,http://ift.tt/2xCAPKt (accessed January 21, 2012). [2] ?How the Economy Stole the Election,? CNN.com,http://ift.tt/2hyxTKL (accessed January 21, 2012). [3] Dan Gallagher, ?Analyst says Apple is cutting back production as economy weakens,?MarketWatch, November 3, 2008, http://ift.tt/2xCcuEh (accessed January 21, 2012). 1.2 Getting Down to Business LEARNING OBJECTIVE 1. Identify the main participants of business, the functions that most businesses perform, and the external forces that influence business activities. A business is any activity that provides goods or services to consumers for the purpose of making a profit. When Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak created Apple Computer in Jobs’s family garage, they started a business. The product was the Apple I, and the company’s founders hoped to sell their computers to customers for more than it cost to make and market them. If they were successful (which they were), they’d make a profit. Before we go on, let’s make a couple of important distinctions concerning the terms in our definitions. First, whereas Apple produces and sells goods (Mac, iPhone, iPod, iPad), many businesses provide services. Your bank is a service company, as is your Internet provider. Hotels, airlines, law firms, movie theaters, and hospitals are also service companies. Many companies provide both goods and services. For example, your local car dealership sells goods (cars) and also provides services (automobile repairs). Second, some organizations are not set up to make profits. Many are established to provide social or educational services. Such not-for profit (or nonprofit) 6 organizations include the United Way of America, Habitat for Humanity, the Boys and Girls Clubs, the Sierra Club, the American Red Cross, and many colleges and universities. Most of these organizations, however, function in much the same way as a business. They establish goals and work to meet them in an effective, efficient manner. Thus, most of the business principles introduced in this text also apply to nonprofits. Business Participants and Activities Let’s begin our discussion of business by identifying the main participants of business and the functions that most businesses perform. Then we’ll finish this section by discussing the external factors that influence a business’s activities. Participants Every business must have one or more owners whose primary role is to invest money in the business. When a business is being started, it’s generally the owners who polish the business idea and bring together the resources (money and people) needed to turn the idea into a business. The owners also hire employees to work for the company and help it reach its goals. Owners and employees depend on a third group of participants— customers. Ultimately, the goal of any business is to satisfy the needs of its customers in order to generate a profit for the owners. Functional Areas of Business The activities needed to operate a business can be divided into a number of functional areas: management, operations, marketing, accounting, and finance. Let’s briefly explore each of these areas. Management Managers are responsible for the work performance of other people. Management involves planning for, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling a company’s resources so that it can achieve its goals. Managers plan by 7 setting goals and developing strategies for achieving them. They organize activities and resources to ensure that company goals are met. They staff the organization with qualified employees and direct them to accomplish organizational goals. Finally, managers design controls for assessing the success of plans and decisions and take corrective action when needed. Operations All companies must convert resources (labor, materials, money, information, and so forth) into goods or services. Some companies, such as Apple, convert resources into tangible products—Macs, iPhones, iPods, iPads. Others, such as hospitals, convert resources into intangible products—health care. The person who designs and oversees the transformation of resources into goods or services is called an operations manager. This individual is also responsible for ensuring that products are of high quality. Marketing Marketing consists of everything that a company does to identify customers’ needs and designs products to meet those needs. Marketers develop the benefits and features of products, including price and quality. They also decide on the best method of delivering products and the best means of promoting them to attract and keep customers. They manage relationships with customers and make them aware of the organization’s desire and ability to satisfy their needs. Accounting Managers need accurate, relevant, timely financial information, and accountants provide it. Accountants measure, summarize, and communicate financial and managerial information and advise other managers on financial matters. There are two fields of accounting. Financial accountants prepare financial statements to help users, both inside and outside the organization, assess the financial strength of the 8 company. Managerial accountants prepare information, such as reports on the cost of materials used in the production process, for internal use only. Finance Finance involves planning for, obtaining, and managing a company’s funds. Finance managers address such questions as the following: How much money does the company need? How and where will it get the necessary money? How and when will it pay the money back? What should it do with its funds? What investments should be made in plant and equipment? How much should be spent on research and development? How should excess funds be invested? Good financial management is particularly important when a company is first formed, because new business owners usually need to borrow money to get started. Figure 1.2 Business and Its Environment 9 External Forces that Influence Business Activities Apple and other businesses don’t operate in a vacuum: they’re influenced by a number of external factors. These include the economy, government, consumer trends, and public pressure to act as good corporate citizens. Figure 1.2 “Business and Its Environment” sums up the relationship among the participants in a business, its functional areas, and the external forces that influence its activities. One industry that’s clearly affected by all these factors is the fast-food industry. A strong economy means people have more money to eat out at places where food standards are monitored by a government agency, the Food and Drug Administration. Preferences for certain types of foods are influenced by consumer trends (eating fried foods might be OK one year and out the next). Finally, a number of decisions made by the industry result from its desire to be a good corporate citizen. For example, several fast-food chains have responded to environmental concerns by eliminating Styrofoam containers. As you move through this text, you’ll learn more about these external influences on business. (Section 1.3 “What Is Economics?” will introduce in detail one of these external factors—the economy.) KEY TAKEAWAYS ? The main participants in a business are its owners, employees, and customers. ? Businesses are influenced by such external factors as the economy, government, consumer trends, and public pressure to act as good corporate citizens. ? The activities needed to run a business can be divided into five functional areas: 1. Management involves planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling resources to achieve organizational goals. 2. Operations transforms resources (labor, materials, money, and so on) into products. 3. Marketing works to identify and satisfy customers’ needs. 4. Finance involves planning for, obtaining, and managing company funds. 10 [1] 5. Accounting entails measuring, summarizing, and communicating financial and managerial information. EXERCISES 1. (AACSB) Analysis The Martin family has been making guitars out of its factory in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, factory for more than 150 years. In 2004, Martin Guitar was proud to produce its millionth instrument. Go to http://ift.tt/JN6SGY to link to the Martin Guitar Web site and read about the company’s long history. You’ll discover that, even though it’s a family-run company with a fairly unique product, it operates like any other company. Identify the main activities or functions of Martin Guitar’s business and explain how each activity benefits the company. 2. (AACSB) Analysis Name four external factors that have an influence on business. Give examples of the ways in which each factor can affect the business performance of two companies: WalMart and Ford. [1] David Baron, ?Facing-Off in Public,? Stanford Business, April 15, 2006,http://ift.tt/2xClrxq (accessed January 21, 2012). 1.3 What Is Economics? LEARNING OBJECTIVES 1. Define economics and identify factors of production. 2. Explain how economists answer the three key economics questions. 3. Compare and contrast economic systems. 11 To appreciate how a business functions, we need to know something about the economic environment in which it operates. We begin with a definition of economics and a discussion of the resources used to produce goods and services. Resources: Inputs and Outputs Economics is the study of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Resources are the inputs used to produce outputs. Resources may include any or all of the following: ? Land and other natural resources ? Labor (physical and mental) ? Capital, including buildings and equipment ? Entrepreneurship Resources are combined to produce goods and services. Land and natural resources provide the needed raw materials. Labor transforms raw materials into goods and services. Capital (equipment, buildings, vehicles, cash, and so forth) are needed for the production process. Entrepreneurship provides the skill and creativity needed to bring the other resources together to produce a good or service to be sold to the marketplace. Because a business uses resources to produce things, we also call these resources factors of production. The factors of production used to produce a shirt would include the following: ? The land that the shirt factory sits on, the electricity used to run the plant, and the raw cotton from which the shirts are made ? The laborers who make the shirts ? The factory and equipment used in the manufacturing process, as well as the money needed to operate the factory ? The entrepreneurship skill used to coordinate the other resources to initiate the production process and the distribution of the goods or services to the marketplace 12 Input and Output Markets Many of the factors of production (or resources) are provided to businesses by households. For example, households provide businesses with labor (as workers), land and buildings (as landlords), and capital (as investors). In turn, businesses pay households for these resources by providing them with income, such as wages, rent, and interest. The resources obtained from households are then used by businesses to produce goods and services, which are sold to the same households that provide businesses with revenue. The revenue obtained by businesses is then used to buy additional resources, and the cycle continues. This circular flow is described in Figure 1.3 “The Circular Flow of Inputs and Outputs”, which illustrates the dual roles of households and businesses: ? Households not only provide factors of production (or resources) but also consume goods and services. ? Businesses not only buy resources but also produce and sell both goods and services. Figure 1.3 The Circular Flow of Inputs and Outputs 13 The Questions Economists Ask 14 Economists study the interactions between households and businesses and look at the ways in which the factors of production are combined to produce the goods and services that people need. Basically, economists try to answer three sets of questions: 1. What goods and services should be produced to meet consumers’ needs? In what quantity? When should they be produced? 2. How should goods and services be produced? Who should produce them, and what resources, including technology, should be combined to produce them? 3. Who should receive the goods and services produced? How should they be allocated among consumers? Economic Systems The answers to these questions depend on a country’s economic system—the means by which a society (households, businesses, and government) makes decisions about allocating resources to produce products and about distributing those products. The degree to which individuals and business owners, as opposed to the government, enjoy freedom in making these decisions varies according to the type of economic system. Generally speaking, economic systems can be divided into two systems: planned systems and free market systems. Planned Systems In a planned system, the government exerts control over the allocation and distribution of all or some goods and services. The system with the highest level of government control is communism. In theory, a communist economy is one in which the government owns all or most enterprises. Central planning by the government dictates which goods or services are produced, how they are produced, and who will receive them. In practice, pure communism is practically nonexistent today, and only a few countries (notably North Korea and Cuba) operate under rigid, centrally planned economic systems. Under socialism, industries that provide essential services, such as utilities, banking, and health care, may be government owned. Other businesses are owned privately. Central planning allocates the goods and services produced by government-run industries and tries to ensure that the resulting wealth is distributed equally. In contrast, privately owned companies are operated for the purpose of making a profit for their owners. In general, workers in socialist economies work fewer hours, have longer vacations, and receive more health care, education, and child-care benefits than do workers in capitalist economies. To offset the high cost of public services, taxes are generally steep. Examples of socialist countries include Sweden and France. Free Market System 15 The economic system in which most businesses are owned and operated by individuals is the free market system, also known as capitalism. As we will see next, in a free market, competition dictates how goods and services will be allocated. Business is conducted with only limited government involvement. The economies of the United States and other countries, such as Japan, are based on capitalism. How Economic Systems Compare In comparing economic systems, it’s helpful to think of a continuum with communism at one end and pure capitalism at the other, as in Figure 1.4 “The Spectrum of Economic Systems”. As you move from left to right, the amount of government control over business diminishes. So, too, does the level of social services, such as health care, child-care services, social security, and unemployment benefits. Figure 1.4 The Spectrum of Economic Systems Mixed Market Economy Though it’s possible to have a pure communist system, or a pure capitalist (free market) system, in reality many economic systems are mixed. A mixed market economy relies on both markets and the government to allocate resources. We’ve already seen that this is what happens in socialist economies in which the government controls selected major industries, such as transportation and health care, while allowing individual ownership of other industries. Even previously communist economies, such as those of Eastern Europe and China, are becoming more mixed as they adopt capitalistic characteristics 16 and convert businesses previously owned by the government to private ownership through a process called privatization. The U.S. Economic System Like most countries, the United States features a mixed market system: though the U.S. economic system is primarily a free market system, the federal government controls some basic services, such as the postal service and air traffic control. The U.S. economy also has some characteristics of a socialist system, such as providing social security retirement benefits to retired workers. The free market system was espoused by Adam Smith in his book The Wealth of Nations, published in 1776. [1] According to Smith, competition alone would ensure that consumers received the best products at the best prices. In the kind of competition he assumed, a seller who tries to charge more for his product than other sellers won’t be able to find any buyers. A job-seeker who asks more than the going wage won’t be hired. Because the ?invisible hand? of competition will make the market work effectively, there won’t be a need to regulate prices or wages. Almost immediately, however, a tension developed among free market theorists between the principle of laissez-faire—leaving things alone—and government intervention. Today, it’s common for the U.S. government to intervene in the operation of the economic system. For example, government exerts influence on the food and pharmaceutical industries through the Food and Drug Administration, which protects consumers by preventing unsafe or mislabeled products from reaching the market. To appreciate how businesses operate, we must first get an idea of how prices are set in competitive markets. Thus, Section 1.4 “Perfect Competition and Supply and Demand” begins by describing how markets establish prices in an environment of perfect competition. 17 KEY TAKEAWAYS ? Economics is the study of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. ? Economists address these three questions: (1) What goods and services should be produced to meet consumer needs? (2) How should they be produced, and who should produce them? (3) Who should receive goods and services? ? The answers to these questions depend on a country’s economic system. The primary economic systems that exist today are planned and free market systems. ? In a planned system, such as communism and socialism, the government exerts control over the production and distribution of all or some goods and services. ? In a free market system, also known as capitalism, business is conducted with only limited government involvement. Competition determines what goods and services are produced, how they are produced, and for whom. EXERCISES 1. If you started a business that made surfboards, what factors of production would you need to make your product? Where would you get them? Where would you find the money you’d need to pay for additional resources? 2. Which three key questions do economists try to answer? Will answers to these questions differ, depending on whether they’re working in the United States or in Cuba? Explain your answer. [1] According to many scholars, The Wealth of Nations not only is the most influential book on freemarket capitalism but remains relevant today. 1.4 Perfect Competition and Supply and Demand 18 LEARNING OBJECTIVE 1. Describe perfect competition, and explain how supply and demand interact to set prices in a free market system. Under a mixed economy, such as we have in the United States, businesses make decisions about which goods to produce or services to offer and how they are priced. Because there are many businesses making goods or providing services, customers can choose among a wide array of products. The competition for sales among businesses is a vital part of our economic system. Economists have identified four types of competition—perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly. We’ll introduce the first of these—perfect competition—in this section and cover the remaining three in the following section. Perfect Competition Perfect competition exists when there are many consumers buying a standardized product from numerous small businesses. Because no seller is big enough or influential enough to affect price, sellers and buyers accept the going price. For example, when a commercial fisher brings his fish to the local market, he has little control over the price he gets and must accept the going market price. The Basics of Supply and Demand To appreciate how perfect competition works, we need to understand how buyers and sellers interact in a market to set prices. In a market characterized by perfect competition, price is determined through the mechanisms of supply and demand. Prices are influenced both by the supply of products from sellers and by the demand for products by buyers. 19 To illustrate this concept, let’s create a supply and demand schedule for one particular good sold at one point in time. Then we’ll define demand and create a demand curve and define supply and create a supply curve. Finally, we’ll see how supply and demand interact to create an equilibrium price—the price at which buyers are willing to purchase the amount that sellers are willing to sell. Demand and the Demand Curve Demand is the quantity of a product that buyers are willing to purchase at various prices. The quantity of a product that people are willing to buy depends on its price. You’re typically willing to buy less of a product when prices rise and more of a product when prices fall. Generally speaking, we find products more attractive at lower prices, and we buy more at lower prices because our income goes further. Figure 1.6 The Demand Curve 20 Using this logic, we can construct a demand curve that shows the quantity of a product that will be demanded at different prices. Let’s assume that the diagram in Figure 1.6 “The Demand Curve” represents the daily price and quantity of apples sold by farmers at a local market. Note that as the price of apples goes down, buyers’ demand goes up. Thus, if a pound of apples sells for $0.80, buyers will be willing to purchase only fifteen hundred pounds per day. But if apples cost only $0.60 a pound, buyers will be willing to purchase two thousand pounds. At $0.40 a pound, buyers will be willing to purchase twenty-five hundred pounds. Supply and the Supply Curve Supply is the quantity of a product that sellers are willing to sell at various prices. The quantity of a product that a business is willing to sell depends on its price. Businesses are more willing to sell a product when the price rises and less willing to sell it when prices fall. Again, this fact makes sense: businesses are set up to make profits, and there are larger profits to be made when prices are high. Figure 1.7 The Supply Curve 21 Now we can construct a supply curve that shows the quantity of apples that farmers would be willing to sell at different prices, regardless of demand. As you can see in Figure 1.7 “The Supply Curve”, the supply curve goes in the opposite direction from the demand curve: as prices rise, the quantity of apples that farmers are willing to sell also goes up. The supply curve shows that farmers are willing to sell only a thousand pounds of apples when the price is $0.40 a pound, two thousand pounds when the price is $0.60, and three thousand pounds when the price is $0.80. Equilibrium Price We can now see how the market mechanism works under perfect competition. We do this by plotting both the supply curve and the demand curve on one graph, as we’ve done in Figure 1.8 “The Equilibrium Price”. The point at which the two curves intersect is the equilibrium price. At this point, buyers’ demand for apples and sellers’ supply of apples is in equilibrium. Figure 1.8 The Equilibrium Price 22 You can see in Figure 1.8 “The Equilibrium Price” that the supply and demand curves intersect at the price of $0.60 and quantity of two thousand pounds. Thus, $0.60 is the equilibrium price: at this price, the quantity of apples demanded by buyers equals the quantity of apples that farmers are willing to supply. If a farmer tries to charge more than $0.60 for a pound of apples, he won’t sell very many and his profits will go down. If, on the other hand, a farmer tries to charge less than the equilibrium price of $0.60 a pound, he will sell more apples but his profit per pound will be less than at the equilibrium price. What have we learned in this discussion? We’ve learned that without outside influences, markets in an environment of perfect competition will arrive at an equilibrium point at which both buyers and sellers are satisfied. But we must be aware that this is a very simplistic example. Things are much more complex in the real world. For one thing, markets rarely operate without outside influences. Sometimes, sellers supply more of a product than buyers are willing to purchase; in that case, there’s a surplus. Sometimes, they don’t produce enough of a product to satisfy demand; then we have a shortage. Circumstances also have a habit of changing. What would happen, for example, if income rose and buyers were willing to pay more for apples? The demand curve would change, resulting in an increase in equilibrium price. This outcome makes intuitive sense: as demand increases, prices will go up. What would happen if apple crops were larger than expected because of favorable weather conditions? Farmers might be willing to sell apples at lower prices. If so, the supply curve would shift, resulting in another change in equilibrium price: the increase in supply would bring down prices. KEY TAKEAWAYS ? In a free market system, buyers and sellers interact in a market to set prices. ? When the market is characterized by perfect competition, many small companies sell identical products. Because no company is large enough to control price, each simply accepts the market price. The price is determined by supply and demand. ? Supply is the quantity of a product that sellers are willing to sell at various prices. ? Demand is the quantity of a product that buyers are willing to purchase at various prices. 23 ? The quantity of a product that people will buy depends on its price: they’ll buy more when the price is low and less when it’s high. ? Price also influences the quantity of a product that producers are willing to supply: they’ll sell more of a product when prices are high and less when they’re low. ? In a competitive market, the decisions of buyers and sellers interact until the market reaches an equilibrium price—the price at which buyers are willing to buy the same amount that sellers are willing to sell. EXERCISE (AACSB) Analysis You just ran across three interesting statistics: (1) the world’s current supply of oil is estimated to be 1.3 trillion barrels; (2) the worldwide use of oil is thirty billion barrels a year; and (3) at this rate of consumption, we’ll run out of oil in forty-three years. Overcoming an initial sense of impending catastrophe, you remember the discussion of supply and demand in this chapter and realize that things aren’t as simple as they seem. After all, many factors affect both the supply of oil and the demand for products made from it, such as gasoline. These factors will influence when (and if) the world runs out of oil. Answer the following questions, and provide explanations for your answers: 1. What’s the major factor that affects the supply of oil? (Hint: It’s the same major factor affecting the demand for oil.) 2. If producers find additional oil reserves, what will happen to the price of oil? 3. If producers must extract oil from more-costly wells, what will happen to the price that you pay to fill up your gas tank? 4. If China’s economy continues to expand rapidly, what will happen to the price of oil? 5. If drivers in the United States start favoring fuel-efficient cars over SUVs, will gas be cheaper or more expensive? 6. In your opinion, will oil producers be able to supply enough oil to meet the increasing demand for oil-related products, such as gasoline? 24 1.5 Monopolistic Competition, Oligopoly, and Monopoly LEARNING OBJECTIVE 1. Describe monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly. Economists have identified four types of competition—perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly. Perfect competition was discussed in the last section; we’ll cover the remaining three types of competition here. Monopolistic Competition In monopolistic competition, we still have many sellers (as we had under perfect competition). Now, however, they don’t sell identical products. Instead, they sell differentiated products—products that differ somewhat, or are perceived to differ, even though they serve a similar purpose. Products can be differentiated in a number of ways, including quality, style, convenience, location, and brand name. Some people prefer Coke over Pepsi, even though the two products are quite similar. But what if there was a substantial price difference between the two? In that case, buyers could be persuaded to switch from one to the other. Thus, if Coke has a big promotional sale at a supermarket chain, some Pepsi drinkers might switch (at least temporarily). How is product differentiation accomplished? Sometimes, it’s simply geographi cal; you probably buy gasoline at the station closest to your home regardless of the brand. At other times, perceived differences between products are promoted by advertising designed to convince consumers that one product is different from another—and better than it. Regardless of customer loyalty to a product, however, if its price goes too high, the seller will lose business to a competitor. Under monopolistic competition, therefore, companies have only limited control over price. Oligopoly Oligopoly means few sellers. In an oligopolistic market, each seller supplies a large portion of all the products sold in the marketplace. In addition, because the cost of starting a business in an oligopolistic industry is usually high, the number of firms entering it is low. Companies in oligopolistic industries include such large-scale enterprises as automobile companies and airlines. As large firms supplying a sizable portion of a market, these 25 companies have some control over the prices they charge. But there’s a catch: because products are fairly similar, when one company lowers prices, others are often forced to follow suit to remain competitive. You see this practice all the time in the airline industry: When American Airlines announces a fare decrease, Continental, United Airlines, and others do likewise. When one automaker offers a special deal, its competitors usually come up with similar promotions. Monopoly In terms of the number of sellers and degree of competition, monopolies lie at the opposite end of the spectrum from perfect competition. In perfect competition, there are many small companies, none of which can control prices; they simply accept the market price determined by supply and demand. In a monopoly, however, there’s only one seller in the market. The market could be a geographical area, such as a city or a regional area, and doesn’t necessarily have to be an entire country. There are few monopolies in the United States because the government limits them. Most fall into one of two categories: natural and legal. Natural monopolies include public utilities, such as electricity and gas suppliers. Such enterprises require huge investments, and it would be inefficient to duplicate the products that they provide. They inhibit competition, but they’re legal because they’re important to society. In exchange for the right to conduct business without competition, they’re regulated. For instance, they can’t charge whatever prices they want, but they must adhere to government controlled prices. As a rule, they’re required to serve all customers, even if doing so isn’t cost efficient. A legal monopoly arises when a company receives a patent giving it exclusive use of an invented product or process. Patents are issued for a limited time, generally twenty years. [12] During this period, other companies can’t use the invented product or process without permission from the patent holder. Patents allow companies a certain period to recover the heavy costs of researching and developing products and technologies. A classic example of a company that enjoyed a patent-based legal monopoly is Polaroid, which for years held exclusive ownership of instant-film technology. 26 [13] Polaroid priced the product high enough to recoup, over time, the high cost of bringing it to market. Without competition, in other words, it enjoyed a monopolistic position in regard to pricing. K E Y T A K E A W A Y S ? There are four types of competition in a free market system: perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly. ? Under monopolistic competition, many sellers offer differentiated products— products that differ slightly but serve similar purposes. By making consumers aware of product differences, sellers exert some control over price. ? In an oligopoly, a few sellers supply a sizable portion of products in the market. They exert some control over price, but because their products are similar, when one company lowers prices, the others follow. ? In a monopoly, there is only one seller in the market. The market could be a geographical area, such as a city or a regional area, and does not necessarily have to be an entire country. The single seller is able to control prices. ? Most monopolies fall into one of two categories: natural and legal. ? Natural monopolies include public utilities, such as electricity and gas suppliers. They inhibit competition, but they’re legal because they’re important to society. ? A legal monopoly arises when a company receives a patent giving it exclusive use of an invented product or process for a limited time, generally twenty years. E X E R C I S E Identify the four types of competition, explain the differences among them, and provide two examples of each. (Use examples different from those given in the text.) [12] United States Patent and Trademark Office, General Information Concerning Patents, April 15, 2006, http://ift.tt/2hzejOH (accessed January 21, 2012). [13] Mary Bellis, ?Inventors-Edwin Land-Polaroid Photography-Instant Photography/Patents,? April 15, 2006, http://ift.tt/2xCjxgh (accessed January 21, 2012). 1.6 Measuring the Health of the Economy LEARNING OBJECTIVE 1. Understand the criteria used to assess the status of the economy. Every day, we are bombarded with economic news. We’re told that the economy is struggling, unemployment is high, home prices are low, and consumer confidence is 27 down. As a student learning about business, and later as a business manager, you need to understand the nature of the U.S. economy and the terminology that we use to describe it. You need to have some idea of where the economy is heading, and you need to know something about the government’s role in influencing its direction. Economic Goals All the world’s economies share three main goals: 1. Growth 2. High employment 3. Price stability Let’s take a closer look at each of these goals, both to find out what they mean and to show how we determine whether they’re being met. Economic Growth One purpose of an economy is to provide people with goods and services—cars, computers, video games, houses, rock concerts, fast food, amusement parks. One way in which economists measure the performance of an economy is by looking at a widely used measure of total output called gross domestic product (GDP). GDP is defined as the market value of all goods and services produced by the economy in a given year. In the United States, it’s calculated by the Department of Commerce. GDP includes only those goods and services produced domestically; goods produced outside the country are excluded. GDP also includes only those goods and services that are produced for the final user; intermediate products are excluded. For example, the silicon chip that goes into a computer (an intermediate product) would not count, even though the finished computer would. By itself, GDP doesn’t necessarily tell us much about the state of the economy. But change in GDP does. If GDP (after adjusting for inflation) goes up, the economy is growing. If it goes down, the economy is contracting. 28 The Business Cycle The economic ups and downs resulting from expansion and contraction constitute the business cycle. A typical cycle runs from three to five years but could last much longer. Though typically irregular, a cycle can be divided into four general phases of prosperity, recession, depression (which the cycle generally skips), and recovery: ? During prosperity, the economy expands, unemployment is low, incomes rise, and consumers buy more products. Businesses respond by increasing production and offering new and better products. ? Eventually, however, things slow down. GDP decreases, unemployment rises, and because people have less money to spend, business revenues decline. This slowdown in economic activity is called a recession. Economists often say that we’re entering a recession when GDP goes down for two consecutive quarters. ? Generally, a recession is followed by a recovery in which the economy starts growing again. ? If, however, a recession lasts a long time (perhaps a decade or so), while unemployment remains very high and production is severely curtailed, the economy could sink into a depression. Though not impossible, it’s unlikely that the United States will experience another severe depression like that of the 1930s. The federal government has a number of economic tools (some of which we’ll discuss shortly) with which to fight any threat of a depression. Full Employment To keep the economy going strong, people must spend money on goods and services. A reduction in personal expenditures for things like food, clothing, appliances, automobiles, housing, and medical care could severely reduce GDP and weaken the economy. Because most people earn their spending money by working, an important goal of all economies is making jobs available to everyone who wants one. In principle, full employment occurs when everyone who wants to work has a job. In 29 practice, we say that we have ?full employment? when about 95 percent of those wanting to work are employed. The Unemployment Rate The U.S. Department of Labor tracks unemployment and reports the unemployment rate: the percentage of the labor force that’s unemployed and actively seeking work. The unemployment rate is an important measure of economic health. It goes up during recessionary periods because companies are reluctant to hire workers when demand for goods and services is low. Conversely, it goes down when the economy is expanding and there is high demand for products and workers to supply them. Figure 1.10 “The U.S. Unemployment Rate, 1970–2010” traces the U.S. unemployment rate between 1970 and 2010. If you want to know the current unemployment rate, go to the CNNMoney Web site (CNNMoney.com) and click on ?Economy? and then on ?Job Growth.? Figure 1.10 The U.S. Unemployment Rate, 1970–2010 30 Price Stability A third major goal of all economies is maintaining price stability. Price stability occurs when the average of the prices for goods and services either doesn’t change or changes very little. Rising prices are troublesome for both individuals and businesses. For individuals, rising prices mean you have to pay more for the things you need. For businesses, rising prices mean higher costs, and, at least in the short run, businesses might have trouble passing on higher costs to consumers. When the overall price level goes up, we have inflation. Figure 1.11 “The U.S. Inflation Rate, 1960–2010” shows inflationary trends in the U.S. economy since 1960. When the price level goes down (which rarely happens), we have deflation. Figure 1.11 The U.S. Inflation Rate, 1960–2010 The Consumer Price Index The most widely publicized measure of inflation is the consumer price index (CPI), which is reported monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The CPI measures the rate of inflation by determining price changes of a hypothetical basket of goods, such as food, housing, clothing, medical care, appliances, automobiles, and so forth, bought by a typical household. 31 The CPI base period is 1982 to 1984, which has been given an average value of 100. Table 1.1 “Selected CPI Values, 1950–2010” gives CPI values computed for selected years. The CPI value for 1950, for instance, is 24. This means that $1 of typical purchases in 1982 through 1984 would have cost $0.24 in 1950. Conversely, you would have needed $2.18 to purchase the same $1 worth of typical goods in 2010. The difference registers the effect of inflation. In fact, that’s what an inflation rate is—the percentage change in a price index. You can find out the current CPI by going to the CNNMoney Web site (CNNMoney.com) and click on ?Economy? and then on ?Inflation (CPI).? Table 1.1 Selected CPI Values, 1950–2010 Year 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2001 2002 CPI 24.1 29.1 38.8 82.4 130.7 172.2 177.1 179.9 Year 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Learning Activity #1 1. Read Chapter 1. Review the 1.8 Cases and Problems (page 40) and complete the questions. ( 2. Post your answer to #4 and 5. The ?Economy section of the CNNMoney Web site provides current information on a number of economic indicators. Go to http://money.cnn.com and click on ?Economy and then on ?Jobs, and find answers to the following questions: 1. Is the current level of unemployment rising or falling? 2. What do economists expect will happen to unemployment rates in the near future? 3. Is the current level of unemployment a burden or an asset to the economy? In what ways? 4. Do you remember the first dollar you earned? 5. Maybe you earned it delivering newspapers, shoveling snow, mowing lawns, or babysitting. How much do you think that dollar is worth today? Go to the WestEgg site athttp://www.westegg.com/inflation and find the answer to this question. After determining the current value of your first dollar, explain how the calculator was created. (Hint: Apply what you know about CPI.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Read Chapter 2. Review and complete the Exercises on page 34. (Due Thursday, 11:59pm) 2. Post a summary of your answers to items 1-6 of your Business Conduct and Ethics 1. (AACSB) Analysis You‘re the CEO of a company that sells golf equipment, including clubs, bags, and balls. When your company was started and had only a handful of employees, you were personally able to oversee the conduct of your employees. But with your current workforce of nearly fifty, it‘s time to prepare a formal code of conduct in which you lay down some rules that employees must follow in performing job-related activities. As a model for your own code, you‘ve decided to use Macy‘s Code of Business Conduct and Ethics. Go to the company‘s Web site (http://www.federated- http://ift.tt/2xDlVn8) to view its posted code of business conduct. Your document won‘t be as thorough as Macy‘s, but it will cover the following areas: (1) conflicts of interest; (2) acceptance of gifts, services, or entertainment; (3) protection of confidential information; (4) use of company funds or assets for personal purposes; (5) competing fairly and ethically; and (6) adherence to code. Draw up a code of conduct for your company. 2. (AACSB) Reflective Skills Think of someone whom you regard as an ethical leader. It can be anyone connected with you—a businessperson, educator, coach, politician, or family member. Explain why you believe the individual is ethical in his or her leadership. This text was adapted by The Saylor Foundation under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License without attribution as requested by the work’s original creator or licensee. 1 2 Chapter 1 The Foundations of Business Why Is Apple Successful? In 1976 Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak created their first computer, the Apple I. They invested a mere $1,300 and set up business in Jobs’s garage. Three decades later, their business—Apple Inc.—has become one of the world’s most influential and successful companies. Did you ever wonder why Apple flourished while so many other young companies failed? How did it grow from a garage start-up to a company generating $65 billion in sales? How was it able to transform itself from a nearly bankrupt firm to a multinational corporation with locations all around the world? You might conclude that it was the company’s products, such as the Apple I and II, the Macintosh, or more recently its wildly popular iPod, iPhone, and iPad. Or you might decide that it was its people: its dedicated employees and loyal customers. Perhaps you will decide it was luck—Apple simply was in the right place at the right time. Or maybe you will attribute the company’s success to management’s willingness to take calculated risks. Perhaps you will attribute Apple’s initial accomplishments and reemergence to its cofounder, the late Steve Jobs. After all, Jobs was instrumental in the original design of the Apple I and, after being ousted from his position with the company, returned to save the firm from destruction and lead it onto its current path. Before we decide what made Apple what it is today and what will propel it into a successful future, let’s see if you have all the facts about the possible choices: its [1] products, its customers, luck, willingness to take risks, or Steve Jobs. We’re confident that you’re aware of Apple’s products and understand that ?Apple customers are a loyal bunch. Though they’re only a small percentage of all computer users, they make up for it with their passion and outspokenness.? 3 [2] We believe you can understand the role that luck or risk taking could play in Apple’s success. But you might like to learn more about Steve Jobs, the company’s cofounder and former CEO, before arriving at your final decision. Growing up, Jobs had an interest in computers. He attended lectures at HewlettPackard after school and worked for the company during the summer months. He took a job at Atari after graduating from high school and saved his money to make a pilgrimage to India to search for spiritual enlightenment. Following his India trip, he attended Steve Wozniak’s ?Homebrew Computer Club? meetings, where the idea for building a personal computer surfaced. [3] ?Many colleagues describe Jobs as a brilliant man who could be a great motivator and positively charming. At the same time his drive for perfection was so strong that employees who did not meet his demands are faced with blistering verbal attacks.? [4] Not everyone at Apple appreciated Jobs’s brilliance and ability to motivate. Nor did they all go along with his willingness to do whatever it took to produce an innovative, attractive, high-quality product. So at age thirty, Jobs found himself ousted from Apple by John Sculley, whom Jobs himself had hired as president of the company several years earlier. It seems that Sculley wanted to cut costs and thought it would be easier to do so without Jobs around. Jobs sold $20 million of his stock and went on a two-month vacation to figure out what he would do for the rest of his life. His solution: start a new personal computer company called NextStep. In 1993, he was invited back to Apple (a good thing, because neither his new company nor Apple was doing well). Steve Jobs was definitely not humble, but he was a visionary and had a right to be proud of his accomplishments. Some have commented that ?Apple’s most successful days have occurred with Steve Jobs at the helm.? 4 [5] Jobs did what many successful CEOs and managers do: he learned, adjusted, and improvised. [6] Perhaps the most important statement that can be made about him is this: he never gave up on the company that once turned its back on him. So now you have the facts. Here’s a multiple-choice question that you’ll likely get right: Apple’s success is due to (a) its products, (b) its customers, (c) luck, (d) willingness to take risks, (e) Steve Jobs, or (f) some combination of these options. [1] This vignette is based on an honors thesis written by Danielle M. Testa, ?Apple, Inc.: An Analysis of the Firm’s Tumultuous History, in Conjunction with the Abounding Future? (Lehigh University), November 18, 2007. [2] Ellen Lee, ?Faithful, sometimes fanatical Apple customers continue to push the boundaries of loyalty,? San Francisco Chronicle, March 26, 2006. [3] Lee Angelelli, ?Steve Paul Jobs,? http://ift.tt/2hyCwV4 (accessed January 21, 2012). [4] Lee Angelelli, ?Steve Paul Jobs,? http://ift.tt/2hyCwV4 (accessed January 21, 2012). [5] Cyrus Farivar, ?Apple’s first 30 years; three decades of contributions to the computer industry,? Macworld, June 2006, 2. [6] Dan Barkin, ?He made the iPod: How Steve Jobs of Apple created the new millennium’s signature invention,? Knight Ridder Tribune Business News, December 3, 2006, 1. 1.1 Introduction As the story of Apple suggests, today is an interesting time to study business. Advances in technology are bringing rapid changes in the ways we produce and deliver goods and services. The Internet and other improvements in communication (such as smartphones, video conferencing, and social networking) now affect the way we do business. Companies are expanding international operations, and the workforce is more diverse than ever. Corporations are being held responsible for the behavior of their executives, and more people share the opinion that companies should be good corporate citizens. Plus—and this is a big plus—businesses today are facing the lingering effects of what many economists believe is the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. [1] Economic turmoil that began in the housing and mortgage industries as a result of troubled subprime mortgages quickly spread to the rest of the economy. In 2008, credit markets froze up and banks stopped making loans. Lawmakers tried to get money flowing again by passing a $700 billion Wall Street bailout, yet businesses and individuals were still denied access to needed credit. Without money or credit, consumer confidence in the economy dropped and consumers cut back their spending. Businesses responded by producing fewer products, and their sales and profits dropped. Unemployment rose as troubled companies shed the most jobs in five years, and 760,000 Americans marched to the unemployment lines. The stock market reacted to the financial crisis and its stock prices dropped by 44 percent while millions of Americans watched in shock as their savings and retirement accounts took a nose dive. In fall 2008, even Apple, a company that had enjoyed strong sales growth over the past five years, began to cut production of its popular iPhone. Without jobs or cash, consumers would no longer flock to Apple’s fancy retail stores or buy a prized iPhone. [3] Things have turned around for Apple, which reported blockbuster sales for 2011 in part because of strong customer response to the iPhone 4S. But not all companies or individuals are doing so well. The economy is still struggling, unemployment is high (particularly for those ages 16 to 24), and home prices remain low. As you go through the course with the aid of this text, you’ll explore the exciting world of business. We’ll introduce you to the various activities in which businesspeople engage—accounting, finance, information technology, management, marketing, and operations. We’ll help you understand the roles that these activities play in an organization, and we’ll show you how they work together. We hope that by exposing you to the things that businesspeople do, we’ll help you decide whether business is right for you and, if so, what areas of business you’d like to study further. 5 [2] [1] Jon Hilsenrath, Serena Ng, and Damian Paletta, ?Worst Crisis Since ’30s, With No End Yet in Sight,? Wall Street Journal, Markets, September 18, 2008,http://ift.tt/2xCAPKt (accessed January 21, 2012). [2] ?How the Economy Stole the Election,? CNN.com,http://ift.tt/2hyxTKL (accessed January 21, 2012). [3] Dan Gallagher, ?Analyst says Apple is cutting back production as economy weakens,?MarketWatch, November 3, 2008, http://ift.tt/2xCcuEh (accessed January 21, 2012). 1.2 Getting Down to Business LEARNING OBJECTIVE 1. Identify the main participants of business, the functions that most businesses perform, and the external forces that influence business activities. A business is any activity that provides goods or services to consumers for the purpose of making a profit. When Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak created Apple Computer in Jobs’s family garage, they started a business. The product was the Apple I, and the company’s founders hoped to sell their computers to customers for more than it cost to make and market them. If they were successful (which they were), they’d make a profit. Before we go on, let’s make a couple of important distinctions concerning the terms in our definitions. First, whereas Apple produces and sells goods (Mac, iPhone, iPod, iPad), many businesses provide services. Your bank is a service company, as is your Internet provider. Hotels, airlines, law firms, movie theaters, and hospitals are also service companies. Many companies provide both goods and services. For example, your local car dealership sells goods (cars) and also provides services (automobile repairs). Second, some organizations are not set up to make profits. Many are established to provide social or educational services. Such not-for profit (or nonprofit) 6 organizations include the United Way of America, Habitat for Humanity, the Boys and Girls Clubs, the Sierra Club, the American Red Cross, and many colleges and universities. Most of these organizations, however, function in much the same way as a business. They establish goals and work to meet them in an effective, efficient manner. Thus, most of the business principles introduced in this text also apply to nonprofits. Business Participants and Activities Let’s begin our discussion of business by identifying the main participants of business and the functions that most businesses perform. Then we’ll finish this section by discussing the external factors that influence a business’s activities. Participants Every business must have one or more owners whose primary role is to invest money in the business. When a business is being started, it’s generally the owners who polish the business idea and bring together the resources (money and people) needed to turn the idea into a business. The owners also hire employees to work for the company and help it reach its goals. Owners and employees depend on a third group of participants— customers. Ultimately, the goal of any business is to satisfy the needs of its customers in order to generate a profit for the owners. Functional Areas of Business The activities needed to operate a business can be divided into a number of functional areas: management, operations, marketing, accounting, and finance. Let’s briefly explore each of these areas. Management Managers are responsible for the work performance of other people. Management involves planning for, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling a company’s resources so that it can achieve its goals. Managers plan by 7 setting goals and developing strategies for achieving them. They organize activities and resources to ensure that company goals are met. They staff the organization with qualified employees and direct them to accomplish organizational goals. Finally, managers design controls for assessing the success of plans and decisions and take corrective action when needed. Operations All companies must convert resources (labor, materials, money, information, and so forth) into goods or services. Some companies, such as Apple, convert resources into tangible products—Macs, iPhones, iPods, iPads. Others, such as hospitals, convert resources into intangible products—health care. The person who designs and oversees the transformation of resources into goods or services is called an operations manager. This individual is also responsible for ensuring that products are of high quality. Marketing Marketing consists of everything that a company does to identify customers’ needs and designs products to meet those needs. Marketers develop the benefits and features of products, including price and quality. They also decide on the best method of delivering products and the best means of promoting them to attract and keep customers. They manage relationships with customers and make them aware of the organization’s desire and ability to satisfy their needs. Accounting Managers need accurate, relevant, timely financial information, and accountants provide it. Accountants measure, summarize, and communicate financial and managerial information and advise other managers on financial matters. There are two fields of accounting. Financial accountants prepare financial statements to help users, both inside and outside the organization, assess the financial strength of the 8 company. Managerial accountants prepare information, such as reports on the cost of materials used in the production process, for internal use only. Finance Finance involves planning for, obtaining, and managing a company’s funds. Finance managers address such questions as the following: How much money does the company need? How and where will it get the necessary money? How and when will it pay the money back? What should it do with its funds? What investments should be made in plant and equipment? How much should be spent on research and development? How should excess funds be invested? Good financial management is particularly important when a company is first formed, because new business owners usually need to borrow money to get started. Figure 1.2 Business and Its Environment 9 External Forces that Influence Business Activities Apple and other businesses don’t operate in a vacuum: they’re influenced by a number of external factors. These include the economy, government, consumer trends, and public pressure to act as good corporate citizens. Figure 1.2 "Business and Its Environment" sums up the relationship among the participants in a business, its functional areas, and the external forces that influence its activities. One industry that’s clearly affected by all these factors is the fast-food industry. A strong economy means people have more money to eat out at places where food standards are monitored by a government agency, the Food and Drug Administration. Preferences for certain types of foods are influenced by consumer trends (eating fried foods might be OK one year and out the next). Finally, a number of decisions made by the industry result from its desire to be a good corporate citizen. For example, several fast-food chains have responded to environmental concerns by eliminating Styrofoam containers. As you move through this text, you’ll learn more about these external influences on business. (Section 1.3 "What Is Economics?" will introduce in detail one of these external factors—the economy.) KEY TAKEAWAYS ? The main participants in a business are its owners, employees, and customers. ? Businesses are influenced by such external factors as the economy, government, consumer trends, and public pressure to act as good corporate citizens. ? The activities needed to run a business can be divided into five functional areas: 1. Management involves planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling resources to achieve organizational goals. 2. Operations transforms resources (labor, materials, money, and so on) into products. 3. Marketing works to identify and satisfy customers’ needs. 4. Finance involves planning for, obtaining, and managing company funds. 10 [1] 5. Accounting entails measuring, summarizing, and communicating financial and managerial information. EXERCISES 1. (AACSB) Analysis The Martin family has been making guitars out of its factory in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, factory for more than 150 years. In 2004, Martin Guitar was proud to produce its millionth instrument. Go to http://ift.tt/JN6SGY to link to the Martin Guitar Web site and read about the company’s long history. You’ll discover that, even though it’s a family-run company with a fairly unique product, it operates like any other company. Identify the main activities or functions of Martin Guitar’s business and explain how each activity benefits the company. 2. (AACSB) Analysis Name four external factors that have an influence on business. Give examples of the ways in which each factor can affect the business performance of two companies: WalMart and Ford. [1] David Baron, ?Facing-Off in Public,? Stanford Business, April 15, 2006,http://ift.tt/2xClrxq (accessed January 21, 2012). 1.3 What Is Economics? LEARNING OBJECTIVES 1. Define economics and identify factors of production. 2. Explain how economists answer the three key economics questions. 3. Compare and contrast economic systems. 11 To appreciate how a business functions, we need to know something about the economic environment in which it operates. We begin with a definition of economics and a discussion of the resources used to produce goods and services. Resources: Inputs and Outputs Economics is the study of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Resources are the inputs used to produce outputs. Resources may include any or all of the following: ? Land and other natural resources ? Labor (physical and mental) ? Capital, including buildings and equipment ? Entrepreneurship Resources are combined to produce goods and services. Land and natural resources provide the needed raw materials. Labor transforms raw materials into goods and services. Capital (equipment, buildings, vehicles, cash, and so forth) are needed for the production process. Entrepreneurship provides the skill and creativity needed to bring the other resources together to produce a good or service to be sold to the marketplace. Because a business uses resources to produce things, we also call these resources factors of production. The factors of production used to produce a shirt would include the following: ? The land that the shirt factory sits on, the electricity used to run the plant, and the raw cotton from which the shirts are made ? The laborers who make the shirts ? The factory and equipment used in the manufacturing process, as well as the money needed to operate the factory ? The entrepreneurship skill used to coordinate the other resources to initiate the production process and the distribution of the goods or services to the marketplace 12 Input and Output Markets Many of the factors of production (or resources) are provided to businesses by households. For example, households provide businesses with labor (as workers), land and buildings (as landlords), and capital (as investors). In turn, businesses pay households for these resources by providing them with income, such as wages, rent, and interest. The resources obtained from households are then used by businesses to produce goods and services, which are sold to the same households that provide businesses with revenue. The revenue obtained by businesses is then used to buy additional resources, and the cycle continues. This circular flow is described in Figure 1.3 "The Circular Flow of Inputs and Outputs", which illustrates the dual roles of households and businesses: ? Households not only provide factors of production (or resources) but also consume goods and services. ? Businesses not only buy resources but also produce and sell both goods and services. Figure 1.3 The Circular Flow of Inputs and Outputs 13 The Questions Economists Ask 14 Economists study the interactions between households and businesses and look at the ways in which the factors of production are combined to produce the goods and services that people need. Basically, economists try to answer three sets of questions: 1. What goods and services should be produced to meet consumers’ needs? In what quantity? When should they be produced? 2. How should goods and services be produced? Who should produce them, and what resources, including technology, should be combined to produce them? 3. Who should receive the goods and services produced? How should they be allocated among consumers? Economic Systems The answers to these questions depend on a country’s economic system—the means by which a society (households, businesses, and government) makes decisions about allocating resources to produce products and about distributing those products. The degree to which individuals and business owners, as opposed to the government, enjoy freedom in making these decisions varies according to the type of economic system. Generally speaking, economic systems can be divided into two systems: planned systems and free market systems. Planned Systems In a planned system, the government exerts control over the allocation and distribution of all or some goods and services. The system with the highest level of government control is communism. In theory, a communist economy is one in which the government owns all or most enterprises. Central planning by the government dictates which goods or services are produced, how they are produced, and who will receive them. In practice, pure communism is practically nonexistent today, and only a few countries (notably North Korea and Cuba) operate under rigid, centrally planned economic systems. Under socialism, industries that provide essential services, such as utilities, banking, and health care, may be government owned. Other businesses are owned privately. Central planning allocates the goods and services produced by government-run industries and tries to ensure that the resulting wealth is distributed equally. In contrast, privately owned companies are operated for the purpose of making a profit for their owners. In general, workers in socialist economies work fewer hours, have longer vacations, and receive more health care, education, and child-care benefits than do workers in capitalist economies. To offset the high cost of public services, taxes are generally steep. Examples of socialist countries include Sweden and France. Free Market System 15 The economic system in which most businesses are owned and operated by individuals is the free market system, also known as capitalism. As we will see next, in a free market, competition dictates how goods and services will be allocated. Business is conducted with only limited government involvement. The economies of the United States and other countries, such as Japan, are based on capitalism. How Economic Systems Compare In comparing economic systems, it’s helpful to think of a continuum with communism at one end and pure capitalism at the other, as in Figure 1.4 "The Spectrum of Economic Systems". As you move from left to right, the amount of government control over business diminishes. So, too, does the level of social services, such as health care, child-care services, social security, and unemployment benefits. Figure 1.4 The Spectrum of Economic Systems Mixed Market Economy Though it’s possible to have a pure communist system, or a pure capitalist (free market) system, in reality many economic systems are mixed. A mixed market economy relies on both markets and the government to allocate resources. We’ve already seen that this is what happens in socialist economies in which the government controls selected major industries, such as transportation and health care, while allowing individual ownership of other industries. Even previously communist economies, such as those of Eastern Europe and China, are becoming more mixed as they adopt capitalistic characteristics 16 and convert businesses previously owned by the government to private ownership through a process called privatization. The U.S. Economic System Like most countries, the United States features a mixed market system: though the U.S. economic system is primarily a free market system, the federal government controls some basic services, such as the postal service and air traffic control. The U.S. economy also has some characteristics of a socialist system, such as providing social security retirement benefits to retired workers. The free market system was espoused by Adam Smith in his book The Wealth of Nations, published in 1776. [1] According to Smith, competition alone would ensure that consumers received the best products at the best prices. In the kind of competition he assumed, a seller who tries to charge more for his product than other sellers won’t be able to find any buyers. A job-seeker who asks more than the going wage won’t be hired. Because the ?invisible hand? of competition will make the market work effectively, there won’t be a need to regulate prices or wages. Almost immediately, however, a tension developed among free market theorists between the principle of laissez-faire—leaving things alone—and government intervention. Today, it’s common for the U.S. government to intervene in the operation of the economic system. For example, government exerts influence on the food and pharmaceutical industries through the Food and Drug Administration, which protects consumers by preventing unsafe or mislabeled products from reaching the market. To appreciate how businesses operate, we must first get an idea of how prices are set in competitive markets. Thus, Section 1.4 "Perfect Competition and Supply and Demand" begins by describing how markets establish prices in an environment of perfect competition. 17 KEY TAKEAWAYS ? Economics is the study of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. ? Economists address these three questions: (1) What goods and services should be produced to meet consumer needs? (2) How should they be produced, and who should produce them? (3) Who should receive goods and services? ? The answers to these questions depend on a country’s economic system. The primary economic systems that exist today are planned and free market systems. ? In a planned system, such as communism and socialism, the government exerts control over the production and distribution of all or some goods and services. ? In a free market system, also known as capitalism, business is conducted with only limited government involvement. Competition determines what goods and services are produced, how they are produced, and for whom. EXERCISES 1. If you started a business that made surfboards, what factors of production would you need to make your product? Where would you get them? Where would you find the money you’d need to pay for additional resources? 2. Which three key questions do economists try to answer? Will answers to these questions differ, depending on whether they’re working in the United States or in Cuba? Explain your answer. [1] According to many scholars, The Wealth of Nations not only is the most influential book on freemarket capitalism but remains relevant today. 1.4 Perfect Competition and Supply and Demand 18 LEARNING OBJECTIVE 1. Describe perfect competition, and explain how supply and demand interact to set prices in a free market system. Under a mixed economy, such as we have in the United States, businesses make decisions about which goods to produce or services to offer and how they are priced. Because there are many businesses making goods or providing services, customers can choose among a wide array of products. The competition for sales among businesses is a vital part of our economic system. Economists have identified four types of competition—perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly. We’ll introduce the first of these—perfect competition—in this section and cover the remaining three in the following section. Perfect Competition Perfect competition exists when there are many consumers buying a standardized product from numerous small businesses. Because no seller is big enough or influential enough to affect price, sellers and buyers accept the going price. For example, when a commercial fisher brings his fish to the local market, he has little control over the price he gets and must accept the going market price. The Basics of Supply and Demand To appreciate how perfect competition works, we need to understand how buyers and sellers interact in a market to set prices. In a market characterized by perfect competition, price is determined through the mechanisms of supply and demand. Prices are influenced both by the supply of products from sellers and by the demand for products by buyers. 19 To illustrate this concept, let’s create a supply and demand schedule for one particular good sold at one point in time. Then we’ll define demand and create a demand curve and define supply and create a supply curve. Finally, we’ll see how supply and demand interact to create an equilibrium price—the price at which buyers are willing to purchase the amount that sellers are willing to sell. Demand and the Demand Curve Demand is the quantity of a product that buyers are willing to purchase at various prices. The quantity of a product that people are willing to buy depends on its price. You’re typically willing to buy less of a product when prices rise and more of a product when prices fall. Generally speaking, we find products more attractive at lower prices, and we buy more at lower prices because our income goes further. Figure 1.6 The Demand Curve 20 Using this logic, we can construct a demand curve that shows the quantity of a product that will be demanded at different prices. Let’s assume that the diagram in Figure 1.6 "The Demand Curve" represents the daily price and quantity of apples sold by farmers at a local market. Note that as the price of apples goes down, buyers’ demand goes up. Thus, if a pound of apples sells for $0.80, buyers will be willing to purchase only fifteen hundred pounds per day. But if apples cost only $0.60 a pound, buyers will be willing to purchase two thousand pounds. At $0.40 a pound, buyers will be willing to purchase twenty-five hundred pounds. Supply and the Supply Curve Supply is the quantity of a product that sellers are willing to sell at various prices. The quantity of a product that a business is willing to sell depends on its price. Businesses are more willing to sell a product when the price rises and less willing to sell it when prices fall. Again, this fact makes sense: businesses are set up to make profits, and there are larger profits to be made when prices are high. Figure 1.7 The Supply Curve 21 Now we can construct a supply curve that shows the quantity of apples that farmers would be willing to sell at different prices, regardless of demand. As you can see in Figure 1.7 "The Supply Curve", the supply curve goes in the opposite direction from the demand curve: as prices rise, the quantity of apples that farmers are willing to sell also goes up. The supply curve shows that farmers are willing to sell only a thousand pounds of apples when the price is $0.40 a pound, two thousand pounds when the price is $0.60, and three thousand pounds when the price is $0.80. Equilibrium Price We can now see how the market mechanism works under perfect competition. We do this by plotting both the supply curve and the demand curve on one graph, as we’ve done in Figure 1.8 "The Equilibrium Price". The point at which the two curves intersect is the equilibrium price. At this point, buyers’ demand for apples and sellers’ supply of apples is in equilibrium. Figure 1.8 The Equilibrium Price 22 You can see in Figure 1.8 "The Equilibrium Price" that the supply and demand curves intersect at the price of $0.60 and quantity of two thousand pounds. Thus, $0.60 is the equilibrium price: at this price, the quantity of apples demanded by buyers equals the quantity of apples that farmers are willing to supply. If a farmer tries to charge more than $0.60 for a pound of apples, he won’t sell very many and his profits will go down. If, on the other hand, a farmer tries to charge less than the equilibrium price of $0.60 a pound, he will sell more apples but his profit per pound will be less than at the equilibrium price. What have we learned in this discussion? We’ve learned that without outside influences, markets in an environment of perfect competition will arrive at an equilibrium point at which both buyers and sellers are satisfied. But we must be aware that this is a very simplistic example. Things are much more complex in the real world. For one thing, markets rarely operate without outside influences. Sometimes, sellers supply more of a product than buyers are willing to purchase; in that case, there’s a surplus. Sometimes, they don’t produce enough of a product to satisfy demand; then we have a shortage. Circumstances also have a habit of changing. What would happen, for example, if income rose and buyers were willing to pay more for apples? The demand curve would change, resulting in an increase in equilibrium price. This outcome makes intuitive sense: as demand increases, prices will go up. What would happen if apple crops were larger than expected because of favorable weather conditions? Farmers might be willing to sell apples at lower prices. If so, the supply curve would shift, resulting in another change in equilibrium price: the increase in supply would bring down prices. KEY TAKEAWAYS ? In a free market system, buyers and sellers interact in a market to set prices. ? When the market is characterized by perfect competition, many small companies sell identical products. Because no company is large enough to control price, each simply accepts the market price. The price is determined by supply and demand. ? Supply is the quantity of a product that sellers are willing to sell at various prices. ? Demand is the quantity of a product that buyers are willing to purchase at various prices. 23 ? The quantity of a product that people will buy depends on its price: they’ll buy more when the price is low and less when it’s high. ? Price also influences the quantity of a product that producers are willing to supply: they’ll sell more of a product when prices are high and less when they’re low. ? In a competitive market, the decisions of buyers and sellers interact until the market reaches an equilibrium price—the price at which buyers are willing to buy the same amount that sellers are willing to sell. EXERCISE (AACSB) Analysis You just ran across three interesting statistics: (1) the world’s current supply of oil is estimated to be 1.3 trillion barrels; (2) the worldwide use of oil is thirty billion barrels a year; and (3) at this rate of consumption, we’ll run out of oil in forty-three years. Overcoming an initial sense of impending catastrophe, you remember the discussion of supply and demand in this chapter and realize that things aren’t as simple as they seem. After all, many factors affect both the supply of oil and the demand for products made from it, such as gasoline. These factors will influence when (and if) the world runs out of oil. Answer the following questions, and provide explanations for your answers: 1. What’s the major factor that affects the supply of oil? (Hint: It’s the same major factor affecting the demand for oil.) 2. If producers find additional oil reserves, what will happen to the price of oil? 3. If producers must extract oil from more-costly wells, what will happen to the price that you pay to fill up your gas tank? 4. If China’s economy continues to expand rapidly, what will happen to the price of oil? 5. If drivers in the United States start favoring fuel-efficient cars over SUVs, will gas be cheaper or more expensive? 6. In your opinion, will oil producers be able to supply enough oil to meet the increasing demand for oil-related products, such as gasoline? 24 1.5 Monopolistic Competition, Oligopoly, and Monopoly LEARNING OBJECTIVE 1. Describe monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly. Economists have identified four types of competition—perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly. Perfect competition was discussed in the last section; we’ll cover the remaining three types of competition here. Monopolistic Competition In monopolistic competition, we still have many sellers (as we had under perfect competition). Now, however, they don’t sell identical products. Instead, they sell differentiated products—products that differ somewhat, or are perceived to differ, even though they serve a similar purpose. Products can be differentiated in a number of ways, including quality, style, convenience, location, and brand name. Some people prefer Coke over Pepsi, even though the two products are quite similar. But what if there was a substantial price difference between the two? In that case, buyers could be persuaded to switch from one to the other. Thus, if Coke has a big promotional sale at a supermarket chain, some Pepsi drinkers might switch (at least temporarily). How is product differentiation accomplished? Sometimes, it’s simply geographi cal; you probably buy gasoline at the station closest to your home regardless of the brand. At other times, perceived differences between products are promoted by advertising designed to convince consumers that one product is different from another—and better than it. Regardless of customer loyalty to a product, however, if its price goes too high, the seller will lose business to a competitor. Under monopolistic competition, therefore, companies have only limited control over price. Oligopoly Oligopoly means few sellers. In an oligopolistic market, each seller supplies a large portion of all the products sold in the marketplace. In addition, because the cost of starting a business in an oligopolistic industry is usually high, the number of firms entering it is low. Companies in oligopolistic industries include such large-scale enterprises as automobile companies and airlines. As large firms supplying a sizable portion of a market, these 25 companies have some control over the prices they charge. But there’s a catch: because products are fairly similar, when one company lowers prices, others are often forced to follow suit to remain competitive. You see this practice all the time in the airline industry: When American Airlines announces a fare decrease, Continental, United Airlines, and others do likewise. When one automaker offers a special deal, its competitors usually come up with similar promotions. Monopoly In terms of the number of sellers and degree of competition, monopolies lie at the opposite end of the spectrum from perfect competition. In perfect competition, there are many small companies, none of which can control prices; they simply accept the market price determined by supply and demand. In a monopoly, however, there’s only one seller in the market. The market could be a geographical area, such as a city or a regional area, and doesn’t necessarily have to be an entire country. There are few monopolies in the United States because the government limits them. Most fall into one of two categories: natural and legal. Natural monopolies include public utilities, such as electricity and gas suppliers. Such enterprises require huge investments, and it would be inefficient to duplicate the products that they provide. They inhibit competition, but they’re legal because they’re important to society. In exchange for the right to conduct business without competition, they’re regulated. For instance, they can’t charge whatever prices they want, but they must adhere to government controlled prices. As a rule, they’re required to serve all customers, even if doing so isn’t cost efficient. A legal monopoly arises when a company receives a patent giving it exclusive use of an invented product or process. Patents are issued for a limited time, generally twenty years. [12] During this period, other companies can’t use the invented product or process without permission from the patent holder. Patents allow companies a certain period to recover the heavy costs of researching and developing products and technologies. A classic example of a company that enjoyed a patent-based legal monopoly is Polaroid, which for years held exclusive ownership of instant-film technology. 26 [13] Polaroid priced the product high enough to recoup, over time, the high cost of bringing it to market. Without competition, in other words, it enjoyed a monopolistic position in regard to pricing. K E Y T A K E A W A Y S ? There are four types of competition in a free market system: perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly. ? Under monopolistic competition, many sellers offer differentiated products— products that differ slightly but serve similar purposes. By making consumers aware of product differences, sellers exert some control over price. ? In an oligopoly, a few sellers supply a sizable portion of products in the market. They exert some control over price, but because their products are similar, when one company lowers prices, the others follow. ? In a monopoly, there is only one seller in the market. The market could be a geographical area, such as a city or a regional area, and does not necessarily have to be an entire country. The single seller is able to control prices. ? Most monopolies fall into one of two categories: natural and legal. ? Natural monopolies include public utilities, such as electricity and gas suppliers. They inhibit competition, but they’re legal because they’re important to society. ? A legal monopoly arises when a company receives a patent giving it exclusive use of an invented product or process for a limited time, generally twenty years. E X E R C I S E Identify the four types of competition, explain the differences among them, and provide two examples of each. (Use examples different from those given in the text.) [12] United States Patent and Trademark Office, General Information Concerning Patents, April 15, 2006, http://ift.tt/2hzejOH (accessed January 21, 2012). [13] Mary Bellis, ?Inventors-Edwin Land-Polaroid Photography-Instant Photography/Patents,? April 15, 2006, http://ift.tt/2xCjxgh (accessed January 21, 2012). 1.6 Measuring the Health of the Economy LEARNING OBJECTIVE 1. Understand the criteria used to assess the status of the economy. Every day, we are bombarded with economic news. We’re told that the economy is struggling, unemployment is high, home prices are low, and consumer confidence is 27 down. As a student learning about business, and later as a business manager, you need to understand the nature of the U.S. economy and the terminology that we use to describe it. You need to have some idea of where the economy is heading, and you need to know something about the government’s role in influencing its direction. Economic Goals All the world’s economies share three main goals: 1. Growth 2. High employment 3. Price stability Let’s take a closer look at each of these goals, both to find out what they mean and to show how we determine whether they’re being met. Economic Growth One purpose of an economy is to provide people with goods and services—cars, computers, video games, houses, rock concerts, fast food, amusement parks. One way in which economists measure the performance of an economy is by looking at a widely used measure of total output called gross domestic product (GDP). GDP is defined as the market value of all goods and services produced by the economy in a given year. In the United States, it’s calculated by the Department of Commerce. GDP includes only those goods and services produced domestically; goods produced outside the country are excluded. GDP also includes only those goods and services that are produced for the final user; intermediate products are excluded. For example, the silicon chip that goes into a computer (an intermediate product) would not count, even though the finished computer would. By itself, GDP doesn’t necessarily tell us much about the state of the economy. But change in GDP does. If GDP (after adjusting for inflation) goes up, the economy is growing. If it goes down, the economy is contracting. 28 The Business Cycle The economic ups and downs resulting from expansion and contraction constitute the business cycle. A typical cycle runs from three to five years but could last much longer. Though typically irregular, a cycle can be divided into four general phases of prosperity, recession, depression (which the cycle generally skips), and recovery: ? During prosperity, the economy expands, unemployment is low, incomes rise, and consumers buy more products. Businesses respond by increasing production and offering new and better products. ? Eventually, however, things slow down. GDP decreases, unemployment rises, and because people have less money to spend, business revenues decline. This slowdown in economic activity is called a recession. Economists often say that we’re entering a recession when GDP goes down for two consecutive quarters. ? Generally, a recession is followed by a recovery in which the economy starts growing again. ? If, however, a recession lasts a long time (perhaps a decade or so), while unemployment remains very high and production is severely curtailed, the economy could sink into a depression. Though not impossible, it’s unlikely that the United States will experience another severe depression like that of the 1930s. The federal government has a number of economic tools (some of which we’ll discuss shortly) with which to fight any threat of a depression. Full Employment To keep the economy going strong, people must spend money on goods and services. A reduction in personal expenditures for things like food, clothing, appliances, automobiles, housing, and medical care could severely reduce GDP and weaken the economy. Because most people earn their spending money by working, an important goal of all economies is making jobs available to everyone who wants one. In principle, full employment occurs when everyone who wants to work has a job. In 29 practice, we say that we have ?full employment? when about 95 percent of those wanting to work are employed. The Unemployment Rate The U.S. Department of Labor tracks unemployment and reports the unemployment rate: the percentage of the labor force that’s unemployed and actively seeking work. The unemployment rate is an important measure of economic health. It goes up during recessionary periods because companies are reluctant to hire workers when demand for goods and services is low. Conversely, it goes down when the economy is expanding and there is high demand for products and workers to supply them. Figure 1.10 "The U.S. Unemployment Rate, 1970–2010" traces the U.S. unemployment rate between 1970 and 2010. If you want to know the current unemployment rate, go to the CNNMoney Web site (CNNMoney.com) and click on ?Economy? and then on ?Job Growth.? Figure 1.10 The U.S. Unemployment Rate, 1970–2010 30 Price Stability A third major goal of all economies is maintaining price stability. Price stability occurs when the average of the prices for goods and services either doesn’t change or changes very little. Rising prices are troublesome for both individuals and businesses. For individuals, rising prices mean you have to pay more for the things you need. For businesses, rising prices mean higher costs, and, at least in the short run, businesses might have trouble passing on higher costs to consumers. When the overall price level goes up, we have inflation. Figure 1.11 "The U.S. Inflation Rate, 1960–2010" shows inflationary trends in the U.S. economy since 1960. When the price level goes down (which rarely happens), we have deflation. Figure 1.11 The U.S. Inflation Rate, 1960–2010 The Consumer Price Index The most widely publicized measure of inflation is the consumer price index (CPI), which is reported monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The CPI measures the rate of inflation by determining price changes of a hypothetical basket of goods, such as food, housing, clothing, medical care, appliances, automobiles, and so forth, bought by a typical household. 31 The CPI base period is 1982 to 1984, which has been given an average value of 100. Table 1.1 "Selected CPI Values, 1950–2010" gives CPI values computed for selected years. The CPI value for 1950, for instance, is 24. This means that $1 of typical purchases in 1982 through 1984 would have cost $0.24 in 1950. Conversely, you would have needed $2.18 to purchase the same $1 worth of typical goods in 2010. The difference registers the effect of inflation. In fact, that’s what an inflation rate is—the percentage change in a price index. You can find out the current CPI by going to the CNNMoney Web site (CNNMoney.com) and click on ?Economy? and then on ?Inflation (CPI).? Table 1.1 Selected CPI Values, 1950–2010 Year 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2001 2002 CPI 24.1 29.1 38.8 82.4 130.7 172.2 177.1 179.9 Year 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

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The post Learning Activity #1 1. Read Chapter 1. Review the 1.8 Cases and Problems (page 40) and complete the questions. ( 2. Post your answer to #4 and 5. The ?Economy section of the CNNMoney Web site provides current information on a number of economic indicators. Go to http://money.cnn.com and click on ?Economy and then on ?Jobs, and find answers to the following questions: 1. Is the current level of unemployment rising or falling? 2. What do economists expect will happen to unemployment rates in the near future? 3. Is the current level of unemployment a burden or an asset to the economy? In what ways? 4. Do you remember the first dollar you earned? 5. Maybe you earned it delivering newspapers, shoveling snow, mowing lawns, or babysitting. How much do you think that dollar is worth today? Go to the WestEgg site athttp://www.westegg.com/inflation and find the answer to this question. After determining the current value of your first dollar, explain how the calculator was created. (Hint: Apply what you know about CPI.) —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— 1. Read Chapter 2. Review and complete the Exercises on page 34. (Due Thursday, 11:59pm) 2. Post a summary of your answers to items 1-6 of your Business Conduct and Ethics 1. (AACSB) Analysis You‘re the CEO of a company that sells golf equipment, including clubs, bags, and balls. When your company was started and had only a handful of employees, you were personally able to oversee the conduct of your employees. But with your current workforce of nearly fifty, it‘s time to prepare a formal code of conduct in which you lay down some rules that employees must follow in performing job-related activities. As a model for your own code, you‘ve decided to use Macy‘s Code of Business Conduct and Ethics. Go to the company‘s Web site (http://www.federated- http://ift.tt/2xDlVn8) to view its posted code of business conduct. Your document won‘t be as thorough as Macy‘s, but it will cover the following areas: (1) conflicts of interest; (2) acceptance of gifts, services, or entertainment; (3) protection of confidential information; (4) use of company funds or assets for personal purposes; (5) competing fairly and ethically; and (6) adherence to code. Draw up a code of conduct for your company. 2. (AACSB) Reflective Skills Think of someone whom you regard as an ethical leader. It can be anyone connected with you—a businessperson, educator, coach, politician, or family member. Explain why you believe the individual is ethical in his or her leadership. This text was adapted by The Saylor Foundation under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License without attribution as requested by the work’s original creator or licensee. 1 2 Chapter 1 The Foundations of Business Why Is Apple Successful? In 1976 Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak created their first computer, the Apple I. They invested a mere $1,300 and set up business in Jobs’s garage. Three decades later, their business—Apple Inc.—has become one of the world’s most influential and successful companies. Did you ever wonder why Apple flourished while so many other young companies failed? How did it grow from a garage start-up to a company generating $65 billion in sales? How was it able to transform itself from a nearly bankrupt firm to a multinational corporation with locations all around the world? You might conclude that it was the company’s products, such as the Apple I and II, the Macintosh, or more recently its wildly popular iPod, iPhone, and iPad. Or you might decide that it was its people: its dedicated employees and loyal customers. Perhaps you will decide it was luck—Apple simply was in the right place at the right time. Or maybe you will attribute the company’s success to management’s willingness to take calculated risks. Perhaps you will attribute Apple’s initial accomplishments and reemergence to its cofounder, the late Steve Jobs. After all, Jobs was instrumental in the original design of the Apple I and, after being ousted from his position with the company, returned to save the firm from destruction and lead it onto its current path. Before we decide what made Apple what it is today and what will propel it into a successful future, let’s see if you have all the facts about the possible choices: its [1] products, its customers, luck, willingness to take risks, or Steve Jobs. We’re confident that you’re aware of Apple’s products and understand that ?Apple customers are a loyal bunch. Though they’re only a small percentage of all computer users, they make up for it with their passion and outspokenness.? 3 [2] We believe you can understand the role that luck or risk taking could play in Apple’s success. But you might like to learn more about Steve Jobs, the company’s cofounder and former CEO, before arriving at your final decision. Growing up, Jobs had an interest in computers. He attended lectures at HewlettPackard after school and worked for the company during the summer months. He took a job at Atari after graduating from high school and saved his money to make a pilgrimage to India to search for spiritual enlightenment. Following his India trip, he attended Steve Wozniak’s ?Homebrew Computer Club? meetings, where the idea for building a personal computer surfaced. [3] ?Many colleagues describe Jobs as a brilliant man who could be a great motivator and positively charming. At the same time his drive for perfection was so strong that employees who did not meet his demands are faced with blistering verbal attacks.? [4] Not everyone at Apple appreciated Jobs’s brilliance and ability to motivate. Nor did they all go along with his willingness to do whatever it took to produce an innovative, attractive, high-quality product. So at age thirty, Jobs found himself ousted from Apple by John Sculley, whom Jobs himself had hired as president of the company several years earlier. It seems that Sculley wanted to cut costs and thought it would be easier to do so without Jobs around. Jobs sold $20 million of his stock and went on a two-month vacation to figure out what he would do for the rest of his life. His solution: start a new personal computer company called NextStep. In 1993, he was invited back to Apple (a good thing, because neither his new company nor Apple was doing well). Steve Jobs was definitely not humble, but he was a visionary and had a right to be proud of his accomplishments. Some have commented that ?Apple’s most successful days have occurred with Steve Jobs at the helm.? 4 [5] Jobs did what many successful CEOs and managers do: he learned, adjusted, and improvised. [6] Perhaps the most important statement that can be made about him is this: he never gave up on the company that once turned its back on him. So now you have the facts. Here’s a multiple-choice question that you’ll likely get right: Apple’s success is due to (a) its products, (b) its customers, (c) luck, (d) willingness to take risks, (e) Steve Jobs, or (f) some combination of these options. [1] This vignette is based on an honors thesis written by Danielle M. Testa, ?Apple, Inc.: An Analysis of the Firm’s Tumultuous History, in Conjunction with the Abounding Future? (Lehigh University), November 18, 2007. [2] Ellen Lee, ?Faithful, sometimes fanatical Apple customers continue to push the boundaries of loyalty,? San Francisco Chronicle, March 26, 2006. [3] Lee Angelelli, ?Steve Paul Jobs,? http://ift.tt/2hyCwV4 (accessed January 21, 2012). [4] Lee Angelelli, ?Steve Paul Jobs,? http://ift.tt/2hyCwV4 (accessed January 21, 2012). [5] Cyrus Farivar, ?Apple’s first 30 years; three decades of contributions to the computer industry,? Macworld, June 2006, 2. [6] Dan Barkin, ?He made the iPod: How Steve Jobs of Apple created the new millennium’s signature invention,? Knight Ridder Tribune Business News, December 3, 2006, 1. 1.1 Introduction As the story of Apple suggests, today is an interesting time to study business. Advances in technology are bringing rapid changes in the ways we produce and deliver goods and services. The Internet and other improvements in communication (such as smartphones, video conferencing, and social networking) now affect the way we do business. Companies are expanding international operations, and the workforce is more diverse than ever. Corporations are being held responsible for the behavior of their executives, and more people share the opinion that companies should be good corporate citizens. Plus—and this is a big plus—businesses today are facing the lingering effects of what many economists believe is the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. [1] Economic turmoil that began in the housing and mortgage industries as a result of troubled subprime mortgages quickly spread to the rest of the economy. In 2008, credit markets froze up and banks stopped making loans. Lawmakers tried to get money flowing again by passing a $700 billion Wall Street bailout, yet businesses and individuals were still denied access to needed credit. Without money or credit, consumer confidence in the economy dropped and consumers cut back their spending. Businesses responded by producing fewer products, and their sales and profits dropped. Unemployment rose as troubled companies shed the most jobs in five years, and 760,000 Americans marched to the unemployment lines. The stock market reacted to the financial crisis and its stock prices dropped by 44 percent while millions of Americans watched in shock as their savings and retirement accounts took a nose dive. In fall 2008, even Apple, a company that had enjoyed strong sales growth over the past five years, began to cut production of its popular iPhone. Without jobs or cash, consumers would no longer flock to Apple’s fancy retail stores or buy a prized iPhone. [3] Things have turned around for Apple, which reported blockbuster sales for 2011 in part because of strong customer response to the iPhone 4S. But not all companies or individuals are doing so well. The economy is still struggling, unemployment is high (particularly for those ages 16 to 24), and home prices remain low. As you go through the course with the aid of this text, you’ll explore the exciting world of business. We’ll introduce you to the various activities in which businesspeople engage—accounting, finance, information technology, management, marketing, and operations. We’ll help you understand the roles that these activities play in an organization, and we’ll show you how they work together. We hope that by exposing you to the things that businesspeople do, we’ll help you decide whether business is right for you and, if so, what areas of business you’d like to study further. 5 [2] [1] Jon Hilsenrath, Serena Ng, and Damian Paletta, ?Worst Crisis Since ’30s, With No End Yet in Sight,? Wall Street Journal, Markets, September 18, 2008,http://ift.tt/2xCAPKt (accessed January 21, 2012). [2] ?How the Economy Stole the Election,? CNN.com,http://ift.tt/2hyxTKL (accessed January 21, 2012). [3] Dan Gallagher, ?Analyst says Apple is cutting back production as economy weakens,?MarketWatch, November 3, 2008, http://ift.tt/2xCcuEh (accessed January 21, 2012). 1.2 Getting Down to Business LEARNING OBJECTIVE 1. Identify the main participants of business, the functions that most businesses perform, and the external forces that influence business activities. A business is any activity that provides goods or services to consumers for the purpose of making a profit. When Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak created Apple Computer in Jobs’s family garage, they started a business. The product was the Apple I, and the company’s founders hoped to sell their computers to customers for more than it cost to make and market them. If they were successful (which they were), they’d make a profit. Before we go on, let’s make a couple of important distinctions concerning the terms in our definitions. First, whereas Apple produces and sells goods (Mac, iPhone, iPod, iPad), many businesses provide services. Your bank is a service company, as is your Internet provider. Hotels, airlines, law firms, movie theaters, and hospitals are also service companies. Many companies provide both goods and services. For example, your local car dealership sells goods (cars) and also provides services (automobile repairs). Second, some organizations are not set up to make profits. Many are established to provide social or educational services. Such not-for profit (or nonprofit) 6 organizations include the United Way of America, Habitat for Humanity, the Boys and Girls Clubs, the Sierra Club, the American Red Cross, and many colleges and universities. Most of these organizations, however, function in much the same way as a business. They establish goals and work to meet them in an effective, efficient manner. Thus, most of the business principles introduced in this text also apply to nonprofits. Business Participants and Activities Let’s begin our discussion of business by identifying the main participants of business and the functions that most businesses perform. Then we’ll finish this section by discussing the external factors that influence a business’s activities. Participants Every business must have one or more owners whose primary role is to invest money in the business. When a business is being started, it’s generally the owners who polish the business idea and bring together the resources (money and people) needed to turn the idea into a business. The owners also hire employees to work for the company and help it reach its goals. Owners and employees depend on a third group of participants— customers. Ultimately, the goal of any business is to satisfy the needs of its customers in order to generate a profit for the owners. Functional Areas of Business The activities needed to operate a business can be divided into a number of functional areas: management, operations, marketing, accounting, and finance. Let’s briefly explore each of these areas. Management Managers are responsible for the work performance of other people. Management involves planning for, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling a company’s resources so that it can achieve its goals. Managers plan by 7 setting goals and developing strategies for achieving them. They organize activities and resources to ensure that company goals are met. They staff the organization with qualified employees and direct them to accomplish organizational goals. Finally, managers design controls for assessing the success of plans and decisions and take corrective action when needed. Operations All companies must convert resources (labor, materials, money, information, and so forth) into goods or services. Some companies, such as Apple, convert resources into tangible products—Macs, iPhones, iPods, iPads. Others, such as hospitals, convert resources into intangible products—health care. The person who designs and oversees the transformation of resources into goods or services is called an operations manager. This individual is also responsible for ensuring that products are of high quality. Marketing Marketing consists of everything that a company does to identify customers’ needs and designs products to meet those needs. Marketers develop the benefits and features of products, including price and quality. They also decide on the best method of delivering products and the best means of promoting them to attract and keep customers. They manage relationships with customers and make them aware of the organization’s desire and ability to satisfy their needs. Accounting Managers need accurate, relevant, timely financial information, and accountants provide it. Accountants measure, summarize, and communicate financial and managerial information and advise other managers on financial matters. There are two fields of accounting. Financial accountants prepare financial statements to help users, both inside and outside the organization, assess the financial strength of the 8 company. Managerial accountants prepare information, such as reports on the cost of materials used in the production process, for internal use only. Finance Finance involves planning for, obtaining, and managing a company’s funds. Finance managers address such questions as the following: How much money does the company need? How and where will it get the necessary money? How and when will it pay the money back? What should it do with its funds? What investments should be made in plant and equipment? How much should be spent on research and development? How should excess funds be invested? Good financial management is particularly important when a company is first formed, because new business owners usually need to borrow money to get started. Figure 1.2 Business and Its Environment 9 External Forces that Influence Business Activities Apple and other businesses don’t operate in a vacuum: they’re influenced by a number of external factors. These include the economy, government, consumer trends, and public pressure to act as good corporate citizens. Figure 1.2 “Business and Its Environment” sums up the relationship among the participants in a business, its functional areas, and the external forces that influence its activities. One industry that’s clearly affected by all these factors is the fast-food industry. A strong economy means people have more money to eat out at places where food standards are monitored by a government agency, the Food and Drug Administration. Preferences for certain types of foods are influenced by consumer trends (eating fried foods might be OK one year and out the next). Finally, a number of decisions made by the industry result from its desire to be a good corporate citizen. For example, several fast-food chains have responded to environmental concerns by eliminating Styrofoam containers. As you move through this text, you’ll learn more about these external influences on business. (Section 1.3 “What Is Economics?” will introduce in detail one of these external factors—the economy.) KEY TAKEAWAYS ? The main participants in a business are its owners, employees, and customers. ? Businesses are influenced by such external factors as the economy, government, consumer trends, and public pressure to act as good corporate citizens. ? The activities needed to run a business can be divided into five functional areas: 1. Management involves planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling resources to achieve organizational goals. 2. Operations transforms resources (labor, materials, money, and so on) into products. 3. Marketing works to identify and satisfy customers’ needs. 4. Finance involves planning for, obtaining, and managing company funds. 10 [1] 5. Accounting entails measuring, summarizing, and communicating financial and managerial information. EXERCISES 1. (AACSB) Analysis The Martin family has been making guitars out of its factory in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, factory for more than 150 years. In 2004, Martin Guitar was proud to produce its millionth instrument. Go to http://ift.tt/JN6SGY to link to the Martin Guitar Web site and read about the company’s long history. You’ll discover that, even though it’s a family-run company with a fairly unique product, it operates like any other company. Identify the main activities or functions of Martin Guitar’s business and explain how each activity benefits the company. 2. (AACSB) Analysis Name four external factors that have an influence on business. Give examples of the ways in which each factor can affect the business performance of two companies: WalMart and Ford. [1] David Baron, ?Facing-Off in Public,? Stanford Business, April 15, 2006,http://ift.tt/2xClrxq (accessed January 21, 2012). 1.3 What Is Economics? LEARNING OBJECTIVES 1. Define economics and identify factors of production. 2. Explain how economists answer the three key economics questions. 3. Compare and contrast economic systems. 11 To appreciate how a business functions, we need to know something about the economic environment in which it operates. We begin with a definition of economics and a discussion of the resources used to produce goods and services. Resources: Inputs and Outputs Economics is the study of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Resources are the inputs used to produce outputs. Resources may include any or all of the following: ? Land and other natural resources ? Labor (physical and mental) ? Capital, including buildings and equipment ? Entrepreneurship Resources are combined to produce goods and services. Land and natural resources provide the needed raw materials. Labor transforms raw materials into goods and services. Capital (equipment, buildings, vehicles, cash, and so forth) are needed for the production process. Entrepreneurship provides the skill and creativity needed to bring the other resources together to produce a good or service to be sold to the marketplace. Because a business uses resources to produce things, we also call these resources factors of production. The factors of production used to produce a shirt would include the following: ? The land that the shirt factory sits on, the electricity used to run the plant, and the raw cotton from which the shirts are made ? The laborers who make the shirts ? The factory and equipment used in the manufacturing process, as well as the money needed to operate the factory ? The entrepreneurship skill used to coordinate the other resources to initiate the production process and the distribution of the goods or services to the marketplace 12 Input and Output Markets Many of the factors of production (or resources) are provided to businesses by households. For example, households provide businesses with labor (as workers), land and buildings (as landlords), and capital (as investors). In turn, businesses pay households for these resources by providing them with income, such as wages, rent, and interest. The resources obtained from households are then used by businesses to produce goods and services, which are sold to the same households that provide businesses with revenue. The revenue obtained by businesses is then used to buy additional resources, and the cycle continues. This circular flow is described in Figure 1.3 “The Circular Flow of Inputs and Outputs”, which illustrates the dual roles of households and businesses: ? Households not only provide factors of production (or resources) but also consume goods and services. ? Businesses not only buy resources but also produce and sell both goods and services. Figure 1.3 The Circular Flow of Inputs and Outputs 13 The Questions Economists Ask 14 Economists study the interactions between households and businesses and look at the ways in which the factors of production are combined to produce the goods and services that people need. Basically, economists try to answer three sets of questions: 1. What goods and services should be produced to meet consumers’ needs? In what quantity? When should they be produced? 2. How should goods and services be produced? Who should produce them, and what resources, including technology, should be combined to produce them? 3. Who should receive the goods and services produced? How should they be allocated among consumers? Economic Systems The answers to these questions depend on a country’s economic system—the means by which a society (households, businesses, and government) makes decisions about allocating resources to produce products and about distributing those products. The degree to which individuals and business owners, as opposed to the government, enjoy freedom in making these decisions varies according to the type of economic system. Generally speaking, economic systems can be divided into two systems: planned systems and free market systems. Planned Systems In a planned system, the government exerts control over the allocation and distribution of all or some goods and services. The system with the highest level of government control is communism. In theory, a communist economy is one in which the government owns all or most enterprises. Central planning by the government dictates which goods or services are produced, how they are produced, and who will receive them. In practice, pure communism is practically nonexistent today, and only a few countries (notably North Korea and Cuba) operate under rigid, centrally planned economic systems. Under socialism, industries that provide essential services, such as utilities, banking, and health care, may be government owned. Other businesses are owned privately. Central planning allocates the goods and services produced by government-run industries and tries to ensure that the resulting wealth is distributed equally. In contrast, privately owned companies are operated for the purpose of making a profit for their owners. In general, workers in socialist economies work fewer hours, have longer vacations, and receive more health care, education, and child-care benefits than do workers in capitalist economies. To offset the high cost of public services, taxes are generally steep. Examples of socialist countries include Sweden and France. Free Market System 15 The economic system in which most businesses are owned and operated by individuals is the free market system, also known as capitalism. As we will see next, in a free market, competition dictates how goods and services will be allocated. Business is conducted with only limited government involvement. The economies of the United States and other countries, such as Japan, are based on capitalism. How Economic Systems Compare In comparing economic systems, it’s helpful to think of a continuum with communism at one end and pure capitalism at the other, as in Figure 1.4 “The Spectrum of Economic Systems”. As you move from left to right, the amount of government control over business diminishes. So, too, does the level of social services, such as health care, child-care services, social security, and unemployment benefits. Figure 1.4 The Spectrum of Economic Systems Mixed Market Economy Though it’s possible to have a pure communist system, or a pure capitalist (free market) system, in reality many economic systems are mixed. A mixed market economy relies on both markets and the government to allocate resources. We’ve already seen that this is what happens in socialist economies in which the government controls selected major industries, such as transportation and health care, while allowing individual ownership of other industries. Even previously communist economies, such as those of Eastern Europe and China, are becoming more mixed as they adopt capitalistic characteristics 16 and convert businesses previously owned by the government to private ownership through a process called privatization. The U.S. Economic System Like most countries, the United States features a mixed market system: though the U.S. economic system is primarily a free market system, the federal government controls some basic services, such as the postal service and air traffic control. The U.S. economy also has some characteristics of a socialist system, such as providing social security retirement benefits to retired workers. The free market system was espoused by Adam Smith in his book The Wealth of Nations, published in 1776. [1] According to Smith, competition alone would ensure that consumers received the best products at the best prices. In the kind of competition he assumed, a seller who tries to charge more for his product than other sellers won’t be able to find any buyers. A job-seeker who asks more than the going wage won’t be hired. Because the ?invisible hand? of competition will make the market work effectively, there won’t be a need to regulate prices or wages. Almost immediately, however, a tension developed among free market theorists between the principle of laissez-faire—leaving things alone—and government intervention. Today, it’s common for the U.S. government to intervene in the operation of the economic system. For example, government exerts influence on the food and pharmaceutical industries through the Food and Drug Administration, which protects consumers by preventing unsafe or mislabeled products from reaching the market. To appreciate how businesses operate, we must first get an idea of how prices are set in competitive markets. Thus, Section 1.4 “Perfect Competition and Supply and Demand” begins by describing how markets establish prices in an environment of perfect competition. 17 KEY TAKEAWAYS ? Economics is the study of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. ? Economists address these three questions: (1) What goods and services should be produced to meet consumer needs? (2) How should they be produced, and who should produce them? (3) Who should receive goods and services? ? The answers to these questions depend on a country’s economic system. The primary economic systems that exist today are planned and free market systems. ? In a planned system, such as communism and socialism, the government exerts control over the production and distribution of all or some goods and services. ? In a free market system, also known as capitalism, business is conducted with only limited government involvement. Competition determines what goods and services are produced, how they are produced, and for whom. EXERCISES 1. If you started a business that made surfboards, what factors of production would you need to make your product? Where would you get them? Where would you find the money you’d need to pay for additional resources? 2. Which three key questions do economists try to answer? Will answers to these questions differ, depending on whether they’re working in the United States or in Cuba? Explain your answer. [1] According to many scholars, The Wealth of Nations not only is the most influential book on freemarket capitalism but remains relevant today. 1.4 Perfect Competition and Supply and Demand 18 LEARNING OBJECTIVE 1. Describe perfect competition, and explain how supply and demand interact to set prices in a free market system. Under a mixed economy, such as we have in the United States, businesses make decisions about which goods to produce or services to offer and how they are priced. Because there are many businesses making goods or providing services, customers can choose among a wide array of products. The competition for sales among businesses is a vital part of our economic system. Economists have identified four types of competition—perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly. We’ll introduce the first of these—perfect competition—in this section and cover the remaining three in the following section. Perfect Competition Perfect competition exists when there are many consumers buying a standardized product from numerous small businesses. Because no seller is big enough or influential enough to affect price, sellers and buyers accept the going price. For example, when a commercial fisher brings his fish to the local market, he has little control over the price he gets and must accept the going market price. The Basics of Supply and Demand To appreciate how perfect competition works, we need to understand how buyers and sellers interact in a market to set prices. In a market characterized by perfect competition, price is determined through the mechanisms of supply and demand. Prices are influenced both by the supply of products from sellers and by the demand for products by buyers. 19 To illustrate this concept, let’s create a supply and demand schedule for one particular good sold at one point in time. Then we’ll define demand and create a demand curve and define supply and create a supply curve. Finally, we’ll see how supply and demand interact to create an equilibrium price—the price at which buyers are willing to purchase the amount that sellers are willing to sell. Demand and the Demand Curve Demand is the quantity of a product that buyers are willing to purchase at various prices. The quantity of a product that people are willing to buy depends on its price. You’re typically willing to buy less of a product when prices rise and more of a product when prices fall. Generally speaking, we find products more attractive at lower prices, and we buy more at lower prices because our income goes further. Figure 1.6 The Demand Curve 20 Using this logic, we can construct a demand curve that shows the quantity of a product that will be demanded at different prices. Let’s assume that the diagram in Figure 1.6 “The Demand Curve” represents the daily price and quantity of apples sold by farmers at a local market. Note that as the price of apples goes down, buyers’ demand goes up. Thus, if a pound of apples sells for $0.80, buyers will be willing to purchase only fifteen hundred pounds per day. But if apples cost only $0.60 a pound, buyers will be willing to purchase two thousand pounds. At $0.40 a pound, buyers will be willing to purchase twenty-five hundred pounds. Supply and the Supply Curve Supply is the quantity of a product that sellers are willing to sell at various prices. The quantity of a product that a business is willing to sell depends on its price. Businesses are more willing to sell a product when the price rises and less willing to sell it when prices fall. Again, this fact makes sense: businesses are set up to make profits, and there are larger profits to be made when prices are high. Figure 1.7 The Supply Curve 21 Now we can construct a supply curve that shows the quantity of apples that farmers would be willing to sell at different prices, regardless of demand. As you can see in Figure 1.7 “The Supply Curve”, the supply curve goes in the opposite direction from the demand curve: as prices rise, the quantity of apples that farmers are willing to sell also goes up. The supply curve shows that farmers are willing to sell only a thousand pounds of apples when the price is $0.40 a pound, two thousand pounds when the price is $0.60, and three thousand pounds when the price is $0.80. Equilibrium Price We can now see how the market mechanism works under perfect competition. We do this by plotting both the supply curve and the demand curve on one graph, as we’ve done in Figure 1.8 “The Equilibrium Price”. The point at which the two curves intersect is the equilibrium price. At this point, buyers’ demand for apples and sellers’ supply of apples is in equilibrium. Figure 1.8 The Equilibrium Price 22 You can see in Figure 1.8 “The Equilibrium Price” that the supply and demand curves intersect at the price of $0.60 and quantity of two thousand pounds. Thus, $0.60 is the equilibrium price: at this price, the quantity of apples demanded by buyers equals the quantity of apples that farmers are willing to supply. If a farmer tries to charge more than $0.60 for a pound of apples, he won’t sell very many and his profits will go down. If, on the other hand, a farmer tries to charge less than the equilibrium price of $0.60 a pound, he will sell more apples but his profit per pound will be less than at the equilibrium price. What have we learned in this discussion? We’ve learned that without outside influences, markets in an environment of perfect competition will arrive at an equilibrium point at which both buyers and sellers are satisfied. But we must be aware that this is a very simplistic example. Things are much more complex in the real world. For one thing, markets rarely operate without outside influences. Sometimes, sellers supply more of a product than buyers are willing to purchase; in that case, there’s a surplus. Sometimes, they don’t produce enough of a product to satisfy demand; then we have a shortage. Circumstances also have a habit of changing. What would happen, for example, if income rose and buyers were willing to pay more for apples? The demand curve would change, resulting in an increase in equilibrium price. This outcome makes intuitive sense: as demand increases, prices will go up. What would happen if apple crops were larger than expected because of favorable weather conditions? Farmers might be willing to sell apples at lower prices. If so, the supply curve would shift, resulting in another change in equilibrium price: the increase in supply would bring down prices. KEY TAKEAWAYS ? In a free market system, buyers and sellers interact in a market to set prices. ? When the market is characterized by perfect competition, many small companies sell identical products. Because no company is large enough to control price, each simply accepts the market price. The price is determined by supply and demand. ? Supply is the quantity of a product that sellers are willing to sell at various prices. ? Demand is the quantity of a product that buyers are willing to purchase at various prices. 23 ? The quantity of a product that people will buy depends on its price: they’ll buy more when the price is low and less when it’s high. ? Price also influences the quantity of a product that producers are willing to supply: they’ll sell more of a product when prices are high and less when they’re low. ? In a competitive market, the decisions of buyers and sellers interact until the market reaches an equilibrium price—the price at which buyers are willing to buy the same amount that sellers are willing to sell. EXERCISE (AACSB) Analysis You just ran across three interesting statistics: (1) the world’s current supply of oil is estimated to be 1.3 trillion barrels; (2) the worldwide use of oil is thirty billion barrels a year; and (3) at this rate of consumption, we’ll run out of oil in forty-three years. Overcoming an initial sense of impending catastrophe, you remember the discussion of supply and demand in this chapter and realize that things aren’t as simple as they seem. After all, many factors affect both the supply of oil and the demand for products made from it, such as gasoline. These factors will influence when (and if) the world runs out of oil. Answer the following questions, and provide explanations for your answers: 1. What’s the major factor that affects the supply of oil? (Hint: It’s the same major factor affecting the demand for oil.) 2. If producers find additional oil reserves, what will happen to the price of oil? 3. If producers must extract oil from more-costly wells, what will happen to the price that you pay to fill up your gas tank? 4. If China’s economy continues to expand rapidly, what will happen to the price of oil? 5. If drivers in the United States start favoring fuel-efficient cars over SUVs, will gas be cheaper or more expensive? 6. In your opinion, will oil producers be able to supply enough oil to meet the increasing demand for oil-related products, such as gasoline? 24 1.5 Monopolistic Competition, Oligopoly, and Monopoly LEARNING OBJECTIVE 1. Describe monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly. Economists have identified four types of competition—perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly. Perfect competition was discussed in the last section; we’ll cover the remaining three types of competition here. Monopolistic Competition In monopolistic competition, we still have many sellers (as we had under perfect competition). Now, however, they don’t sell identical products. Instead, they sell differentiated products—products that differ somewhat, or are perceived to differ, even though they serve a similar purpose. Products can be differentiated in a number of ways, including quality, style, convenience, location, and brand name. Some people prefer Coke over Pepsi, even though the two products are quite similar. But what if there was a substantial price difference between the two? In that case, buyers could be persuaded to switch from one to the other. Thus, if Coke has a big promotional sale at a supermarket chain, some Pepsi drinkers might switch (at least temporarily). How is product differentiation accomplished? Sometimes, it’s simply geographi cal; you probably buy gasoline at the station closest to your home regardless of the brand. At other times, perceived differences between products are promoted by advertising designed to convince consumers that one product is different from another—and better than it. Regardless of customer loyalty to a product, however, if its price goes too high, the seller will lose business to a competitor. Under monopolistic competition, therefore, companies have only limited control over price. Oligopoly Oligopoly means few sellers. In an oligopolistic market, each seller supplies a large portion of all the products sold in the marketplace. In addition, because the cost of starting a business in an oligopolistic industry is usually high, the number of firms entering it is low. Companies in oligopolistic industries include such large-scale enterprises as automobile companies and airlines. As large firms supplying a sizable portion of a market, these 25 companies have some control over the prices they charge. But there’s a catch: because products are fairly similar, when one company lowers prices, others are often forced to follow suit to remain competitive. You see this practice all the time in the airline industry: When American Airlines announces a fare decrease, Continental, United Airlines, and others do likewise. When one automaker offers a special deal, its competitors usually come up with similar promotions. Monopoly In terms of the number of sellers and degree of competition, monopolies lie at the opposite end of the spectrum from perfect competition. In perfect competition, there are many small companies, none of which can control prices; they simply accept the market price determined by supply and demand. In a monopoly, however, there’s only one seller in the market. The market could be a geographical area, such as a city or a regional area, and doesn’t necessarily have to be an entire country. There are few monopolies in the United States because the government limits them. Most fall into one of two categories: natural and legal. Natural monopolies include public utilities, such as electricity and gas suppliers. Such enterprises require huge investments, and it would be inefficient to duplicate the products that they provide. They inhibit competition, but they’re legal because they’re important to society. In exchange for the right to conduct business without competition, they’re regulated. For instance, they can’t charge whatever prices they want, but they must adhere to government controlled prices. As a rule, they’re required to serve all customers, even if doing so isn’t cost efficient. A legal monopoly arises when a company receives a patent giving it exclusive use of an invented product or process. Patents are issued for a limited time, generally twenty years. [12] During this period, other companies can’t use the invented product or process without permission from the patent holder. Patents allow companies a certain period to recover the heavy costs of researching and developing products and technologies. A classic example of a company that enjoyed a patent-based legal monopoly is Polaroid, which for years held exclusive ownership of instant-film technology. 26 [13] Polaroid priced the product high enough to recoup, over time, the high cost of bringing it to market. Without competition, in other words, it enjoyed a monopolistic position in regard to pricing. K E Y T A K E A W A Y S ? There are four types of competition in a free market system: perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly. ? Under monopolistic competition, many sellers offer differentiated products— products that differ slightly but serve similar purposes. By making consumers aware of product differences, sellers exert some control over price. ? In an oligopoly, a few sellers supply a sizable portion of products in the market. They exert some control over price, but because their products are similar, when one company lowers prices, the others follow. ? In a monopoly, there is only one seller in the market. The market could be a geographical area, such as a city or a regional area, and does not necessarily have to be an entire country. The single seller is able to control prices. ? Most monopolies fall into one of two categories: natural and legal. ? Natural monopolies include public utilities, such as electricity and gas suppliers. They inhibit competition, but they’re legal because they’re important to society. ? A legal monopoly arises when a company receives a patent giving it exclusive use of an invented product or process for a limited time, generally twenty years. E X E R C I S E Identify the four types of competition, explain the differences among them, and provide two examples of each. (Use examples different from those given in the text.) [12] United States Patent and Trademark Office, General Information Concerning Patents, April 15, 2006, http://ift.tt/2hzejOH (accessed January 21, 2012). [13] Mary Bellis, ?Inventors-Edwin Land-Polaroid Photography-Instant Photography/Patents,? April 15, 2006, http://ift.tt/2xCjxgh (accessed January 21, 2012). 1.6 Measuring the Health of the Economy LEARNING OBJECTIVE 1. Understand the criteria used to assess the status of the economy. Every day, we are bombarded with economic news. We’re told that the economy is struggling, unemployment is high, home prices are low, and consumer confidence is 27 down. As a student learning about business, and later as a business manager, you need to understand the nature of the U.S. economy and the terminology that we use to describe it. You need to have some idea of where the economy is heading, and you need to know something about the government’s role in influencing its direction. Economic Goals All the world’s economies share three main goals: 1. Growth 2. High employment 3. Price stability Let’s take a closer look at each of these goals, both to find out what they mean and to show how we determine whether they’re being met. Economic Growth One purpose of an economy is to provide people with goods and services—cars, computers, video games, houses, rock concerts, fast food, amusement parks. One way in which economists measure the performance of an economy is by looking at a widely used measure of total output called gross domestic product (GDP). GDP is defined as the market value of all goods and services produced by the economy in a given year. In the United States, it’s calculated by the Department of Commerce. GDP includes only those goods and services produced domestically; goods produced outside the country are excluded. GDP also includes only those goods and services that are produced for the final user; intermediate products are excluded. For example, the silicon chip that goes into a computer (an intermediate product) would not count, even though the finished computer would. By itself, GDP doesn’t necessarily tell us much about the state of the economy. But change in GDP does. If GDP (after adjusting for inflation) goes up, the economy is growing. If it goes down, the economy is contracting. 28 The Business Cycle The economic ups and downs resulting from expansion and contraction constitute the business cycle. A typical cycle runs from three to five years but could last much longer. Though typically irregular, a cycle can be divided into four general phases of prosperity, recession, depression (which the cycle generally skips), and recovery: ? During prosperity, the economy expands, unemployment is low, incomes rise, and consumers buy more products. Businesses respond by increasing production and offering new and better products. ? Eventually, however, things slow down. GDP decreases, unemployment rises, and because people have less money to spend, business revenues decline. This slowdown in economic activity is called a recession. Economists often say that we’re entering a recession when GDP goes down for two consecutive quarters. ? Generally, a recession is followed by a recovery in which the economy starts growing again. ? If, however, a recession lasts a long time (perhaps a decade or so), while unemployment remains very high and production is severely curtailed, the economy could sink into a depression. Though not impossible, it’s unlikely that the United States will experience another severe depression like that of the 1930s. The federal government has a number of economic tools (some of which we’ll discuss shortly) with which to fight any threat of a depression. Full Employment To keep the economy going strong, people must spend money on goods and services. A reduction in personal expenditures for things like food, clothing, appliances, automobiles, housing, and medical care could severely reduce GDP and weaken the economy. Because most people earn their spending money by working, an important goal of all economies is making jobs available to everyone who wants one. In principle, full employment occurs when everyone who wants to work has a job. In 29 practice, we say that we have ?full employment? when about 95 percent of those wanting to work are employed. The Unemployment Rate The U.S. Department of Labor tracks unemployment and reports the unemployment rate: the percentage of the labor force that’s unemployed and actively seeking work. The unemployment rate is an important measure of economic health. It goes up during recessionary periods because companies are reluctant to hire workers when demand for goods and services is low. Conversely, it goes down when the economy is expanding and there is high demand for products and workers to supply them. Figure 1.10 “The U.S. Unemployment Rate, 1970–2010” traces the U.S. unemployment rate between 1970 and 2010. If you want to know the current unemployment rate, go to the CNNMoney Web site (CNNMoney.com) and click on ?Economy? and then on ?Job Growth.? Figure 1.10 The U.S. Unemployment Rate, 1970–2010 30 Price Stability A third major goal of all economies is maintaining price stability. Price stability occurs when the average of the prices for goods and services either doesn’t change or changes very little. Rising prices are troublesome for both individuals and businesses. For individuals, rising prices mean you have to pay more for the things you need. For businesses, rising prices mean higher costs, and, at least in the short run, businesses might have trouble passing on higher costs to consumers. When the overall price level goes up, we have inflation. Figure 1.11 “The U.S. Inflation Rate, 1960–2010” shows inflationary trends in the U.S. economy since 1960. When the price level goes down (which rarely happens), we have deflation. Figure 1.11 The U.S. Inflation Rate, 1960–2010 The Consumer Price Index The most widely publicized measure of inflation is the consumer price index (CPI), which is reported monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The CPI measures the rate of inflation by determining price changes of a hypothetical basket of goods, such as food, housing, clothing, medical care, appliances, automobiles, and so forth, bought by a typical household. 31 The CPI base period is 1982 to 1984, which has been given an average value of 100. Table 1.1 “Selected CPI Values, 1950–2010” gives CPI values computed for selected years. The CPI value for 1950, for instance, is 24. This means that $1 of typical purchases in 1982 through 1984 would have cost $0.24 in 1950. Conversely, you would have needed $2.18 to purchase the same $1 worth of typical goods in 2010. The difference registers the effect of inflation. In fact, that’s what an inflation rate is—the percentage change in a price index. You can find out the current CPI by going to the CNNMoney Web site (CNNMoney.com) and click on ?Economy? and then on ?Inflation (CPI).? Table 1.1 Selected CPI Values, 1950–2010 Year 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2001 2002 CPI 24.1 29.1 38.8 82.4 130.7 172.2 177.1 179.9 Year 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 appeared first on Academic Writers BAy.

[cryptoga-blog]

Article-Fork Markets Await Enabling of BCH Deposits

http://www.cryptoga.com/uncategorized/article-fork-markets-await-enabling-of-bch-deposits/

Article-Fork Markets Await Enabling of BCH Deposits

As envisioned, the events foremost up to the BTC hardfork had been extraordinary. Prior to splitting off with its hardfork counterpart (Bitcoin Money), BTC-USD observed drastic swings in price tag with wildly various market values, depending on the trade. While some exchanges observed new all-time highs currently being realized (Kraken BTC-USD), other people started to see bargains in their BTC-USD values. At points, there had been even $100+ rates between Kraken and Bitfinex.

At time of this report, Bitcoin Money (BCH) markets on most big exchanges have existed in a bubble as BCH deposits and withdrawals have been halted. There are numerous theories concerning the isolation of exchanges and their corresponding BCH-USD markets’ consequences on the BTC-USD markets. Offered this bit of data, one can suppose that the extraordinary rise in BCH market cap is unreliable at the moment. There is a large portion of the Bitcoin group that is unable to offer its forked BCH and is at present sidelined. As these types of, this analysis will only acquire a glimpse at BTC-USD price tag development and what we can be expecting there.

Want to discover how to declare your BCH? Uncover out below.

Looking at the macro development of the BTC-USD market, we can see that a former test of the 23% Fibonacci Retracement values was strongly tested and subsequently rejected in the times foremost up to the hardfork:

Determine 1: BTC-USD, 12HR Candles, Bitfinex, Macro Fibonacci Retracement Traces

The $2500 values have verified to be a formidable foe for those hunting to the limited the market, and final 7 days was no exception. To date, $2500 values have designed a solid level of help in excess of the past couple months and will proceed to be a strongly contested price tag array.

The activity following the hardfork was wholly envisioned by numerous. Devoid of going into as well a lot element, the hardfork of BTC-USD can be considered of as a fracturing of its market cap — basically, an instant reduction of BTC-USD worth:

Determine 2: BTC-USD, 15Min Candles, Bitfinex, Selling price Fall Article-hardfork

At the moment, due to the fact BCH-USD has nonetheless to be opened to those devoid of coins on the big exchanges, the precise consequences of the hardfork have nonetheless to be felt (as talked about ahead of, the bulk of the BCH holders are at present sidelined devoid of big outlets to offer their coins). The present selling prices are reflective of speculators anticipating a drop in worth upon the opening of the BCH deposits and withdrawals. To date, the price tag activity has adopted the Fibonacci Retracement values very closely. A number of exams of the 50% retracement values had been attempted ahead of in the long run dropping down to the lower values. At the time of this report, the BTC-USD markets are making an attempt to test the 23% Fibonacci Retracement values.

Offered the reality that BCH has nonetheless to definitely sink its fingers into the BTC-USD markets, one would be expecting to see a test of new lows in this present bear operate. With each test of the Fibonacci lines there is a swell in quantity. A test of the lower boundaries of the bear operate will be no exception.

It is hardly ever simple to confidently write price tag projections with so a lot uncertainty in the markets. In an attempt to continue to be objective in my producing, I will just say this: Volatility is to be envisioned as BCH and BTC attempt to set their area in the market.

In common, when hunting for reliable developments, it is nearly generally highly recommended to check out the quantity development as it correlates to price tag motion. When the price tag is erratic and seems to operating irrationally, examine the quantity. If there is no quantity to substantiate a transfer, much more normally than not the transfer will be limited lived. Quantity establishes help and it reaffirms resistance lines. Quantity also is a excellent indicator of market momentum and course. When trading BTC in the coming times, quantity will be your very best buddy.

Summary:

BTC-USD showed solid help at the $2500 values in the times foremost up to the hardfork.

To date, the consequences of the hardfork have nonetheless to be recognized for the reason that BCH deposits and withdrawals from most big exchanges have not be enabled.

After BCH deposits are enabled, be expecting large volatility on the BTC-USD markets as both equally coins (BTC and BCH) compete for their market cap share.

Investing and investing in digital property like bitcoin, bitcoin income and ether is highly speculative and comes with numerous risks. This analysis is for informational needs and must not be thought of expenditure suggestions. Statements and economical data on Bitcoin Magazine and BTC Media similar internet sites do not essentially replicate the feeling of BTC Media and must not be construed as an endorsement or recommendation to obtain, offer or hold. Previous efficiency is not essentially indicative of future final results.

[literatelobstersareliterate]

Our American Pravda | The American Conservative

Our American Pravda

The major media overlooked Communist spies and Madoff’s fraud. What are they missing today?

[ARTHROPOD ARCHIVIST’S NOTE: Despite the generally lefty leanings of the circles I run in (n.b. I’m radical center myself, and often disagree with both sides) and the publication’s name, The American Conservative often manages to surprise me with very good, thought-provoking, not-necessarily-partisan commentary. This piece uses a history of major stories the American media did not cover to make the argument that we don’t have an adequate investigative press. I agree.]

By Ron Unz, April 29, 2013

In mid-March, the Wall Street Journal carried a long discussion of the origins of the Bretton Woods system, the international financial framework that governed the Western world for decades after World War II. A photo showed the two individuals who negotiated that agreement. Britain was represented by John Maynard Keynes, a towering economic figure of that era. America’s representative was Harry Dexter White, assistant secretary of the Treasury and long a central architect of American economic policy, given that his nominal superior, Secretary Henry Morgenthau Jr., was a gentleman farmer with no background in finance. White was also a Communist agent.

Such a situation was hardly unique in American government during the 1930s and 1940s. For example, when a dying Franklin Roosevelt negotiated the outlines of postwar Europe with Joseph Stalin at the 1945 Yalta summit, one of his important advisors was Alger Hiss, a State Department official whose primary loyalty was to the Soviet side. Over the last 20 years, John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr, and other scholars have conclusively established that many dozens or even hundreds of Soviet agents once honeycombed the key policy staffs and nuclear research facilities of our federal government, constituting a total presence perhaps approaching the scale suggested by Sen. Joseph McCarthy, whose often unsubstantiated charges tended to damage the credibility of his position.

The Cold War ended over two decades ago and Communism has been relegated to merely an unpleasant chapter in the history books, so today these facts are hardly much disputed. For example, liberal Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein matter-of-factly referred to White as a “Soviet spy” in the title of his column on our postwar financial system. But during the actual period when America’s government was heavily influenced by Communist agents, such accusations were widely denounced as “Red-baiting” or ridiculed as right-wing conspiracy paranoia by many of our most influential journalists and publications. In 1982 liberal icon Susan Sontag ruefully acknowledged that for decades the subscribers to the lowbrow Readers Digest had received a more realistic view of the world than those who drew their knowledge from the elite liberal publications favored by her fellow intellectuals. I myself came of age near the end of the Cold War and always vaguely assumed that such lurid tales of espionage were wildly exaggerated. I was wrong.

The notion of the American government being infiltrated and substantially controlled by agents of a foreign power has been the stuff of endless Hollywood movies and television shows, but for various reasons such popular channels have never been employed to bring the true-life historical example to wide attention. I doubt if even one American in a hundred today is familiar with the name “Harry Dexter White” or dozens of similar agents.

The realization that the world is often quite different from what is presented in our leading newspapers and magazines is not an easy conclusion for most educated Americans to accept, or at least that was true in my own case. For decades, I have closely read the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and one or two other major newspapers every morning, supplemented by a wide variety of weekly or monthly opinion magazines. Their biases in certain areas had always been apparent to me. But I felt confident that by comparing and contrasting the claims of these different publications and applying some common sense, I could obtain a reasonably accurate version of reality. I was mistaken.

Aside from the evidence of our own senses, almost everything we know about the past or the news of today comes from bits of ink on paper or colored pixels on a screen, and fortunately over the last decade or two the growth of the Internet has vastly widened the range of information available to us in that latter category. Even if the overwhelming majority of the unorthodox claims provided by such non-traditional web-based sources is incorrect, at least there now exists the possibility of extracting vital nuggets of truth from vast mountains of falsehood. Certainly the events of the past dozen years have forced me to completely recalibrate my own reality-detection apparatus.

Thoughtful individuals of all backgrounds have undergone a similar crisis of confidence during this same period. Just a few months after 9/11 New York Times columnist Paul Krugman argued that the sudden financial collapse of the Enron Corporation represented a greater shock to the American system than the terrorist attacks themselves, and although he was widely denounced for making such an “unpatriotic” claim, I believe his case was strong. Although the name “Enron” has largely vanished from our memory, for years it had ranked as one of America’s most successful and admired companies, glowingly profiled on the covers of our leading business magazines, and drawing luminaries such as Krugman himself to its advisory board; Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay had been a top contender for Treasury secretary in President George W. Bush’s administration. Then in the blink of an eye, the entire company was revealed to be an accounting fraud from top to bottom, collapsing into a $63 billion bankruptcy, the largest in American history. Other companies of comparable or even greater size such as WorldCom, Tyco, Adelphia, and Global Crossing soon vanished for similar reasons.

Part of Krugman’s argument was that while the terrorist attacks had been of an entirely unprecedented nature and scale, our entire system of financial regulation, accounting, and business journalism was designed to prevent exactly the sort of frauds that brought down those huge companies. When a system fails so dramatically at its core mission, we must wonder which of our other assumptions are incorrect.

Just a few years later, we saw an even more sweeping near-collapse of our entire financial system, with giant institutions such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Wachovia, and AIG falling into bankruptcy, and all our remaining major banks surviving only due to the trillions of dollars in government bailouts and loan guarantees they received. Once again, all our media and regulatory organs had failed to anticipate this disaster.

Or take the remarkable case of Bernie Madoff. His colossal investment swindle had been growing unchecked for over three decades under the very noses of our leading financial journalists and regulators in New York City, ultimately reaching the sum of $65 billion in mostly fictional assets. His claimed returns had been implausibly steady and consistent year after year, market crashes or not. None of his supposed trading actually occurred. His only auditing was by a tiny storefront firm. Angry competitors had spent years warning the SEC and journalists that his alleged investment strategy was mathematically impossible and that he was obviously running a Ponzi scheme. Yet despite all these indicators, officials did nothing and refused to close down such a transparent swindle, while the media almost entirely failed to report these suspicions.

In many respects, the non-detection of these business frauds is far more alarming than failure to uncover governmental malfeasance. Politics is a partisan team sport, and it is easy to imagine Democrats or Republicans closing ranks and protecting their own, despite damage to society. Furthermore, success or failure in public policies is often ambiguous and subject to propagandistic spin. But investors in a fraudulent company lose their money and therefore have an enormous incentive to detect those risks, with the same being true for business journalists. If the media cannot be trusted to catch and report simple financial misconduct, its reliability on more politically charged matters will surely be lower.

The circumstances surrounding our Iraq War demonstrate this, certainly ranking it among the strangest military conflicts of modern times. The 2001 attacks in America were quickly ascribed to the radical Islamists of al-Qaeda, whose bitterest enemy in the Middle East had always been Saddam Hussein’s secular Baathist regime in Iraq. Yet through misleading public statements, false press leaks, and even forged evidence such as the “yellowcake” documents, the Bush administration and its neoconservative allies utilized the compliant American media to persuade our citizens that Iraq’s nonexistent WMDs posed a deadly national threat and required elimination by war and invasion. Indeed, for several years national polls showed that a large majority of conservatives and Republicans actually believed that Saddam was the mastermind behind 9/11 and the Iraq War was being fought as retribution. Consider how bizarre the history of the 1940s would seem if America had attacked China in retaliation for Pearl Harbor.

True facts were easily available to anyone paying attention in the years after 2001, but most Americans do not bother and simply draw their understanding of the world from what they are told by the major media, which overwhelmingly—almost uniformly—backed the case for war with Iraq; the talking heads on TV created our reality. Prominent journalists across the liberal and conservative spectrum eagerly published the most ridiculous lies and distortions passed on to them by anonymous sources, and stampeded Congress down the path to war.

The result was what my late friend Lt. Gen. Bill Odom rightly called the “greatest strategic disaster in United States history.” American forces suffered tens of thousands of needless deaths and injuries, while our country took a huge step toward national bankruptcy. Economics Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz and others have estimated that with interest the total long-term cost of our two recent wars may reach as high as $5 or $6 trillion, or as much as $50,000 per American household, mostly still unpaid. Meanwhile, economist Edward Wolff has calculated that the Great Recession and its aftermath cut the personal net worth of the median American household to $57,000 in 2010 from a figure nearly twice as high three years earlier. Comparing these assets and liabilities, we see that the American middle class now hovers on the brink of insolvency, with the cost of our foreign wars being a leading cause.

But no one involved in the debacle ultimately suffered any serious consequences, and most of the same prominent politicians and highly paid media figures who were responsible remain just as prominent and highly paid today. For most Americans, reality is whatever our media organs tell us, and since these have largely ignored the facts and adverse consequences of our wars in recent years, the American people have similarly forgotten. Recent polls show that only half the public today believes that the Iraq War was a mistake.

Author James Bovard has described our society as an “attention deficit democracy,” and the speed with which important events are forgotten once the media loses interest might surprise George Orwell.

Consider the story of Vioxx, a highly lucrative anti-pain medication marketed by Merck to the elderly as a substitute for simple aspirin. After years of very profitable Vioxx sales, an FDA researcher published a study demonstrating that the drug greatly increased the risk of fatal strokes and heart attacks and had probably already caused tens of thousands of premature American deaths. Vioxx was immediately pulled from the market, but Merck eventually settled the resulting lawsuits for relatively small penalties, despite direct evidence the company had long been aware of the drug’s deadly nature. Our national media, which had earned hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising revenue from Vioxx marketing, provided no sustained coverage and the scandal was soon forgotten. Furthermore, the press never investigated the dramatic upward and downward shifts in the mortality rates of elderly Americans that so closely tracked the introduction and recall of Vioxx; as I pointed out in a 2012 article, these indicated that the likely death toll had actually been several times greater than the FDA estimate. Vast numbers Americans died, no one was punished, and almost everyone has now forgotten.

Or take the strange case of Bernard Kerik, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s police commissioner during 9/11, later nominated by President Bush to be America’s first director of national intelligence, a newly established position intended to oversee all of our various national-security and intelligence agencies. His appointment seemed likely to sail through the Republican-controlled Senate until derailed by accusations he had employed an undocumented nanny. With his political rise having been blocked, the national media suddenly revealed his long history of association with organized-crime figures, an indictment quickly followed, and he is currently still serving his federal prison sentence for conspiracy and fraud. So America came within a hairbreadth of placing its entire national-security apparatus under the authority of a high-school dropout connected with organized crime, and today almost no Americans seem aware of that fact.

Through most of the 20th century, America led something of a charmed life, at least when compared with the disasters endured by almost every other major country. We became the richest and most powerful nation on earth, partly due to our own achievements and partly due to the mistakes of others. The public interpreted these decades of American power and prosperity as validation of our system of government and national leadership, and the technological effectiveness of our domestic propaganda machinery—our own American Pravda—has heightened this effect. Furthermore, most ordinary Americans are reasonably honest and law-abiding and project that same behavior onto others, including our media and political elites. This differs from the total cynicism found in most other countries around the world.

 Credibility is a capital asset, which may take years to accumulate but can be squandered in an instant; and the events of the last dozen years should have bankrupted any faith we have in our government or media. Once we acknowledge this, we should begin to accept the possible reality of important, well-documented events even if they are not announced on the front pages of our major newspapers. When several huge scandals have erupted into the headlines after years or decades of total media silence, we must wonder what other massive stories may currently be ignored by our media elites. I think I can provide a few possibilities.

Consider the almost forgotten anthrax mailing attacks in the weeks after 9/11, which terrified our dominant East Coast elites and spurred passage of the unprecedented Patriot Act, thereby eliminating many traditional civil-libertarian protections. Every morning during that period the New York Times and other leading newspapers carried articles describing the mysterious nature of the deadly attacks and the complete bafflement of the FBI investigators. But evenings on the Internet I would read stories by perfectly respectable journalists such as Salon’s Laura Rozen or the staff of the Hartford Courant providing a wealth of additional detail and pointing to a likely suspect and motive.

Although the letters carrying the anthrax were purportedly written by an Arab terrorist, the FBI quickly determined that the language and style indicated a non-Arab author, while tests pointed to the bioweapons research facility at Ft. Detrick, Md., as the probable source of the material. But just prior to the arrival of those deadly mailings, military police at Quantico, Va., had also received an anonymous letter warning that a former Ft. Detrick employee, Egyptian-born Dr. Ayaad Assaad, might be planning to launch a national campaign of bioterrorism. Investigators quickly cleared Dr. Assaad, but the very detailed nature of the accusations revealed inside knowledge of his employment history and the Ft. Detrick facilities. Given the near-simultaneous posting of anthrax envelopes and false bioterrorism accusations, the mailings almost certainly came from the same source, and solving the latter case would be the easiest means of catching the anthrax killer.

Who would have attempted to frame Dr. Assaad for bioterrorism? A few years earlier he had been involved in a bitter personal feud with a couple of his Ft. Detrick coworkers, including charges of racism, official reprimands, and angry recriminations all around. When an FBI official shared a copy of the accusatory letter with a noted language-forensics expert and allowed him to compare the text with the writings of 40 biowarfare lab employees, he found a perfect match with one of those individuals. For years I told my friends that anyone who spent 30 minutes with Google could probably determine the name and motive of the likely anthrax killer, and most of them successfully met my challenge.

This powerful evidence received almost no attention in the major national media, nor is there any indication that the FBI ever followed up on any of these clues or interrogated the named suspects. Instead, investigators attempted to pin the attacks on a Dr. Steven Hatfill based on negligible evidence, after which he was completely exonerated and won a $5.6 million settlement from the government for its years of severe harassment. Later, similar hounding of researcher Bruce Ivins and his family led to his suicide, after which the FBI declared the case closed, even though former colleagues of Dr. Ivins demonstrated that he had had no motive, means, or opportunity. In 2008, I commissioned a major 3,000-word cover story in my magazine summarizing all of this crucial evidence, and once again almost no one in the mainstream media paid the slightest attention.

An even more egregious case followed a couple of years later, with regard to the stunning revelations of Pulitzer Prize winner Sydney Schanberg, one of America’s foremost Vietnam War reporters and a former top editor at the New York Times. After years of research, Schanberg published massive evidence demonstrating that the endlessly ridiculed claims of America’s Vietnam MIA movement of the 1970s and 1980s were correct: the Nixon administration had indeed deliberately abandoned many hundreds of American POWs in Vietnam at the close of the war, and our government afterward spent decades covering up this shameful crime. Schanberg’s charges were publicly confirmed by two former Republican House members, one of whom had independently co-authored a 500 page book on the subject, exhaustively documenting the POW evidence.

Although a major focus of Schanberg’s account was the central role that Sen. John McCain had played in leading the later cover-up, the national media ignored these detailed charges during McCain’s bitter 2008 presidential campaign against Barack Obama. One of America’s most distinguished living journalists published what was surely “the story of the century” and none of America’s newspapers took notice.

In 2010 Schanberg republished this material in a collection of his other writings, and his work received glowing praise from Joseph Galloway, one of America’s top military correspondents, as well as other leading journalists; his charges are now backed by the weight of four New York Times Pulitzer Prizes. Around that same time, I produced a 15,000-word cover-symposium on the scandal, organized around Schanberg’s path-breaking findings and including contributions from other prominent writers. All of this appeared in the middle of Senator McCain’s difficult reelection campaign in Arizona, and once again the material was totally ignored by the state and national media.

An argument might be made that little harm has been done to the national interest by the media’s continued silence in the two examples described above. The anthrax killings have largely been forgotten and the evidence suggests that the motive was probably one of personal revenge. All the government officials involved in the abandonment of the Vietnam POWs are either dead or quite elderly, and even those involved in the later cover-up, such as John McCain, are in the twilight of their political careers. But an additional example remains completely relevant today, and some of the guilty parties hold high office.

During the mid-2000s I began noticing references on one or two small websites to a woman claiming to be a former FBI employee who was making the most outlandish and ridiculous charges, accusing high government officials of selling our nuclear-weapons secrets to foreign spies. I paid no attention to such unlikely claims and never bothered reading any of the articles.

A couple of years went by, and various website references to that same woman—Sibel Edmonds—kept appearing, although I continued to ignore them, secure that the silence of all my newspapers proved her to be delusional. Then in early 2008, the London Sunday Times, one of the world’s leading newspapers, ran a long, three-part front-page series presenting her charges, which were soon republished in numerous other countries. Daniel Ellsberg described Edmonds’s revelations as “far more explosive than the Pentagon Papers” and castigated the American media for completely ignoring a story that had reached the front pages of newspapers throughout the rest of the world. Such silence struck me as rather odd.

Philip Giraldi, a former CIA official who regularly writes for this magazine, suggested he investigate her charges. He found her highly credible, and his 3,000-word article in TAC presented some astonishing but very detailed claims.

 Edmonds had been hired by the FBI to translate wiretapped conversations of a suspected foreign spy ring under surveillance, and she had been disturbed to discover that many of these hundreds of phone calls explicitly discussed the sale of nuclear-weapons secrets to foreign intelligence organizations, including those linked to international terrorism, as well as the placement of agents at key American military research facilities. Most remarkably, some of the individuals involved in these operations were high-ranking government officials; the staffs of several influential members of Congress were also implicated. On one occasion, a senior State Department figure was reportedly recorded making arrangements to pick up a bag containing a large cash bribe from one of his contacts. Very specific details of names, dates, dollar amounts, purchasers, and military secrets were provided.

The investigation had been going on for years with no apparent action, and Edmonds was alarmed to discover that a fellow translator quietly maintained a close relationship with one of the key FBI targets. When she raised these issues, she was personally threatened, and after appealing to her supervisors, eventually fired.

Since that time, she has passed a polygraph test on her claims, testified under oath in a libel lawsuit, expanded her detailed charges in a 2009 TAC cover story also by Giraldi, and most recently published a book recounting her case. Judiciary Committee Senators Chuck Grassley and Patrick Leahy have publicly backed some of her charges, a Department of Justice inspector general’s report has found her allegations “credible” and “serious,” while various FBI officials have vouched for her reliability and privately confirmed many of her claims. But none of her detailed charges has ever appeared in any of America’s newspapers. According to Edmonds, one of the conspirators routinely made payments to various members of the media, and bragged to his fellow plotters that “We just fax to our people at the New York Times. They print it under their names.”

At times, Congressional Democratic staff members became interested in the scandal, and promised an investigation. But once they learned that senior members of their own party were also implicated, their interest faded.

These three stories—the anthrax evidence, the McCain/POW revelations, and the Sibel Edmonds charges—are the sort of major exposés that would surely be dominating the headlines of any country with a properly-functioning media. But almost no American has ever heard of them. Before the Internet broke the chokehold of our centralized flow of information, I would have remained just as ignorant myself, despite all the major newspapers and magazines I regularly read.

Am I absolutely sure that any or all of these stories are true? Certainly not, though I think they probably are, given their overwhelming weight of supporting evidence. But absent any willingness of our government or major media to properly investigate them, I cannot say more.

However, this material does conclusively establish something else, which has even greater significance. These dramatic, well-documented accounts have been ignored by our national media, rather than widely publicized. Whether this silence has been deliberate or is merely due to incompetence remains unclear, but the silence itself is proven fact.

A likely reason for this wall of uninterest on so many important issues is that the disasters involved are often bipartisan in nature, with both Democrats and Republicans being culpable and therefore equally eager to hide their mistakes. Perhaps in the famous words of Benjamin Franklin, they realize that they must all hang together or they will surely all hang separately.

We always ridicule the 98 percent voter support that dictatorships frequently achieve in their elections and plebiscites, yet perhaps those secret-ballot results may sometimes be approximately correct, produced by the sort of overwhelming media control that leads voters to assume there is no possible alternative to the existing regime. Is such an undemocratic situation really so different from that found in our own country, in which our two major parties agree on such a broad range of controversial issues and, being backed by total media dominance, routinely split 98 percent of the vote? A democracy may provide voters with a choice, but that choice is largely determined by the information citizens receive from their media.

Most of the Americans who elected Barack Obama in 2008 intended their vote as a total repudiation of the policies and personnel of the preceding George W. Bush administration. Yet once in office, Obama’s crucial selections—Robert Gates at Defense, Timothy Geither at Treasury, and Ben Bernake at the Federal Reserve—were all top Bush officials, and they seamlessly continued the unpopular financial bailouts and foreign wars begun by his predecessor, producing what amounted to a third Bush term.

Consider the fascinating perspective of the recently deceased Boris Berezovsky, once the most powerful of the Russian oligarchs and the puppet master behind President Boris Yeltsin during the late 1990s. After looting billions in national wealth and elevating Vladimir Putin to the presidency, he overreached himself and eventually went into exile. According to the New York Times, he had planned to transform Russia into a fake two-party state—one social-democratic and one neoconservative—in which heated public battles would be fought on divisive, symbolic issues, while behind the scenes both parties would actually be controlled by the same ruling elites. With the citizenry thus permanently divided and popular dissatisfaction safely channeled into meaningless dead-ends, Russia’s rulers could maintain unlimited wealth and power for themselves, with little threat to their reign. Given America’s history over the last couple of decades, perhaps we can guess where Berezovsky got his idea for such a clever political scheme.

Major References in The American Conservative:

Christopher Ketchum: The Anthrax Files, August 25, 2008

Ron Unz: Was Rambo Right?, July 2010

Sydney Schanberg: Silent Treatment, July 2010

Sydney Schanberg: McCain and the POW Cover-Up, July 2010

Philip Giraldi: Found in Translation, January 28, 2008

Philip Giraldi: Who’s Afraid of Sibel Edmonds?, November 2009

[Erratum: In my text I mentioned that Bernard Kerik, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s New York City police chief during the 9/11 attacks, was a high school dropout with ties to organized crime, who is currently still serving his federal prison sentence on related charges. This was correct. However, President George W. Bush had nominated him to run America’s Department of Homeland Security rather than to be America’s Director of National Intelligence.]

(via Our American Pravda | The American Conservative)

[petrichorate]

The Story of a New Name: Thoughts

The Story of New Name (Elena Ferrante)

My first read of 2017! The Story of a New Name is the second book in Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels (after My Brilliant Friend). I tore through this book at an amazing pace—there was so much going on, I just needed to find out what would happen to Elena and Lila. 

This book reaffirmed my love for this series. But while My Brilliant Friend seemed to me an unveiling of the complexities of friendship between two young girls, The Story of a New Name was, for me at least, a series of revelations about the inevitabilities of relationships. I have to admit that, toward the end of the book, I was wildly disheartened by the book’s rather sober depiction of love and marriage—so many small gestures, so many minute observations by Ferrante struck me as indisputably true, things that fell neatly into my own past experiences. Besides her interpretations of relationships, I also found Ferrante’s commentary on education and inequity to be incisive and disquieting.

One thing that is especially impressive to me about Ferrante’s writing is her ability to convey things that I have always felt to be true, but could not express—and as the characters mature and their opinions shift, I realize that their new thoughts, their new perspectives, also open up truths. The characters’ actions and emotions reveal ideas and attitudes that have been my own “truth” at different points in my life. However, because I have never been able to properly express any of them, every step in their growth is like a surprising confession of my own. 

*A sidenote: The reason why I have the image of the cover is from Google, and not of the physical book—this is the first time in a long while that I’ve read a novel as an e-book. I definitely prefer reading physical books, but since I’ll be spending three months in Florence and three months in New York this year, it seems more likely that I’ll be reading e-books to travel light—I wanted to get used to this new format!

Here are some excerpts from the book that particularly struck me.

On the seemingly impenetrable divide between social classes:

“No, neither Lila nor I would ever become like the girl who had waited for Nino after school. We both lacked something intangible but fundamental, which was obvious in her even if you simply saw her from a distance, and which one possessed or did not, because to have that thing it was not enough to learn Latin or Greek or philosophy, nor was the money from groceries or shoes of any use.”

Elena, on feeling “shabby” in comparison to another girl:

“So, in order to feel as if I were not real, I sometimes went all the way to school in the hope of seeing Nino, who was taking the graduation exams. The day of the written Greek test I waited for hours, patiently. But just as the first candidates began to emerge, with Rocci under their arms, the pretty, pure girl I had seen raising her lips to him appeared. She settled herself to wait not far from me, and in a second I was imagining the two of us—models displayed in a catalogue—as we would appear to the eyes of Sarratore’s son the moment he came out the door. I felt ugly, shabby, and I left.”

Lila trying to make Elena feel left out, maybe because of her own jealousy of Elena:

“Then she started to tell me about the new grocery and the old one, and Piazza dei Martiri, with her usual exhilarating delivery, just to make me believe that these were places where marvelous things were happening and I, poor me, was missing them.”

On creativity and art, and how this can lift us from our mundane troubles:

“And I still think that much of the pleasure of those days was derived from the resetting of the conditions of her, of our, life, from the capacity we had to lift ourselves above ourselves, to isolate ourselves in the pure and simple fulfillment of that sort of visual synthesis. We forgot about Antonio, Nino, Stefano, the Solaras, my problems with school, her pregnancy, the tensions between us. We suspended time, we isolated space, there remained only the play of glue, scissors, paper, paint: the play of shared creation.”

On inequality that goes deeper than differences in wealth:

“There was something malevolent in the inequality, and now I knew it. It acted in the depths, it dug deeper than money. The cash of two grocery stores, and even of the shoe factory and the shoe store, was not sufficient to hide our origin. Lila herself, even if she had taken from the cash drawer more money than she had taken, even if she had taken millions, thirty, even fifty, couldn’t do it. I had understood this, and finally there was something that I knew better than she did, I had learned it not on those streets but outside the school, looking at the girl who came to meet Nino. She was superior to us, just as she was, unwittingly. And this was unendurable.”

Elena, on her fear that Lila will overtake her even in situations where Elena should be more comfortable:

“The reasons were tangled and I had no intention of enumerating them, but if I had I would have been confronted by contradictory statements. I was afraid that Stefano wouldn’t let her come. I was afraid that Stefano would let her. I was afraid that she would dress in an ostentatious fashion, the way she had when she went to the Solaras. I was afraid that, whatever she wore, her beauty would explode like a star and everyone would be eager to grab a fragment of it. I was afraid that she would express herself in dialect, that she would say something vulgar, that it would become obvious that school for her had ended with an elementary-school diploma. I was afraid that, if she merely opened her mouth, everyone would be hypnotized by her intelligence and Professor Galiani herself would be entranced. I was afraid that the professor would find her both presumptuous and naïve and would say to me: Who is this friend of yours, stop seeing her. I was afraid she would understand that I was only Lila’s pale shadow and would be interested not in me any longer but in her, she would want to see her again, she would undertake to make her go back to school.”

On the comfort of being accepted by others in a new environment because of your reputation:

“The boy’s name was Armando and that remark of his was decisive, it gave me a sudden sense of power. I still remember him fondly, there in the doorway. He was absolutely the first person to show me in a practical sense how comfortable it is to arrive in a strange, potentially hostile environment, and discover that you have been preceded by your reputation, that you don’t have to do anything to be accepted, that your name is known, that everyone knows about you, and it’s the others, the strangers, who must strive to win your favor and not you theirs.”

Elena, on recognizing something so perfect that she gives up on her own jealousy:

“That he had a girlfriend, that the girlfriend was in every way better than me, I already knew. The novelty was that it was the daughter of Professor Galiani, who had grown up in that house, among those books. I immediately felt that the thing, instead of grieving me, calmed me, further justified their choosing each other, made it an inevitable movement, in harmony with the natural order of things. In other words, I felt as if suddenly I had before my eyes an example of symmetry so perfect that I had to enjoy it in silence.”

Lila, trying to hurt Elena by accusing her of betrayal and claiming that her insights are separated from reality:

“‘Whoever finds a solution to the problems is working for peace. Bravo. Do you remember how the son of Sarratore was able to find a solution: Do you remember, do you—and you pay attention to him? You, too, you want to be a puppet from the neighborhood who performs so you can be welcomed into the home of those people? You want to leave us alone in our own shit, cracking our skulls, while all of you go cocorico cocorico, hunger, war, working class, peace?’”

Elena, on feeling that she has risen out of her own community and found her “people” (despite having only met some of them once—perhaps deluding herself):

“Talk about it to Lila? Lend it to her? No, it was mine. I didn’t want to have a real friendship with her anymore, just hello, trite phrases. She didn’t know how to appreciate me. Whereas others did: Armando, Nadia, Nino. They were my friends, to them I owed my confidences. They had immediately seen in me what she had hastened not to see.”

Various sources of frustration and fear—especially Nunzia, on feeling like she is an annoyance to the people she raised herself:

“The wives, dressed in their Sunday best, were annoyed with them but in different ways: Pinuccia because Rino was too encumbered to pay attention to her, Lila because Stefano pretended to know what he was doing and where he was going, when it was clear that he didn’t. As for Nunzia, she had the appearance of someone who feels that she is barely tolerated, and she was careful not to say anything inappropriate that might annoy the young people.”

Nino’s weakness and need to qualify himself with knowledge:

“I didn’t know anything else, but at school I had learned to give the impression that I knew a lot. Have you read Federico Chabod? It was the only moment when Nino seemed to be annoyed. I realized that he didn’t know who Chabod was and from that I got an electrifying sensation of fullness. I began to summarize the little I had learned, but I quickly realized that to know, to compulsively display what he knew, was his point of strength and at the same time his weakness. He felt strong if he took the lead and weak if he lacked words.”

Elena, on her fear of making a “bad showing” and her need to say the right thing:

“I certainly had no particular passion for those subjects, for the real things and people they referred to. I had no training, no habit, only the usual desire not to make a bad showing. It was wonderful, though—that is certain. I felt the way I did at the end of the year when I saw the list of my grades and read: passed. But I also understood that there was no comparison with the exchanges I had had with Lila years earlier, which ignited my brain, and in the course of which we tore the words from each other’s mouth, creating an excitement that seemed like a storm of electrical charges. With Nino it was different. I felt that I had to pay attention to say what he wanted me to say, hiding from him both my ignorance and the few things that I knew and he didn’t. I did this, and felt proud that he was trusting me with his convictions.”

Elena, on life that is isolated from things that are often considered common knowledge:

“And in fact neither she nor I had ever heard that word-formula loaded with cultural and political contempt: shopkeepers. And in fact neither she nor I knew anything about taxes: our parents, friends, boyfriends, husbands, relatives acted as if they didn’t exist, and school taught nothing that had to do even vaguely with politics.”

On the differences in how people display wealth:

“He’s well brought up, she said, a student but not too boring: he seems not to care about how he’s dressed but everything he has on, from his bathing suit to his shirt and his sandals, is expensive. She appeared curious about the fact that someone could be wealthy in a fashion different from that of her brother, Rino, the Solaras. She made a remark that struck me: At the bar on the beach he bought me this and that without showing off.”

Elena, on the “small happinesses of the unmarried girl”:

“For days, before going to sleep, I had been thinking of the weekend. Lila and Pinuccia would have their conjugal pleasures, I would have the small happinesses of the unmarried girl in glasses who spends her life studying: a walk, being taken by the hand.”

Elena, on the feeling of having lost something before even being conscious of it:

“It was a dull Sunday. I suffered from the heat all night, I didn’t dare open the window for fear of mosquitoes. I fell asleep, woke up, fell asleep again. Go to Barano? With what result? Spend the day playing with Ciro, Pino, and Clelia, while Nino took long swims or sat in the sun without saying a word, in mute conflict with his father. I woke up late, at ten, and as soon as I opened my eyes a sensation of loss, as if from a great distance, came over me and pained me.”

Elena, on hiding her troubles and frustrations:

“Did I keep my feelings muted because I was frightened by the violence with which, in fact, in my innermost self, I wanted things, people, praise, triumphs? Was I afraid that that violence, if I did not get what I wanted, would explode in my chest, taking the path of the worst feelings—for example, the one that had driven me to compare Nino’s beautiful mouth to the flesh of a dead rat? Why, then, even when I advanced, was I so quick to retreat? Why did I always have ready a gracious smile, a happy laugh, when things went badly? Why, sooner or later, did I always find plausible excuses for those who made me suffer?”

On an imbalance in how much people mean to each other:

“Lila explained Pinuccia’s absence in a few words: she had to work, she had left with her husband. Neither Nino nor Bruno showed the least regret and this disturbed me. How could someone vanish like that, without leaving a void? Pinuccia had been with us for two weeks. We had all five walked together, we had talked, joked, gone swimming. In those fifteen days something had certainly happened that had marked her, she would never forget that first vacation. But we? We, who in different ways had meant a lot to her, in fact didn’t feel her absence.”

On the coincidences of affection:

“There are moments when we resort to senseless formulations and advance absurd claims to hide straightforward feelings. Today I know that in other circumstances, after some resistance, I would have given in to Bruno’s advances. I wasn’t attracted to him, certainly, but I hadn’t been especially attracted to Antonio, either. One becomes affectionate toward men slowly, whether they coincide or not with whomever in the various phases of life we have taken as the model of a man.”

On blinding passion and boldness versus restraint:

“I understand suddenly why I hadn’t had Nino, why Lila had had him. I wasn’t capable of entrusting myself to true feelings. I didn’t know how to be drawn beyond the limits. I didn’t possess that emotional power that had driven Lila to do all she could to enjoy that day and that night. I stayed behind, waiting. She, on the other hand, seized things, truly wanted them, was passionate about them, played for all or nothing, and wasn’t afraid of contempt, mockery, spitting, beatings. She deserved Nino, in other words, because she thought that to love him meant to try to have him, not to hope that he would want her.”

Elena, on withdrawing into her studies and her determination to be independent:

“A marking of time, a straight line that went from dawn until late at night. In the past there had been Lila, a continuous happy detour into surprising lands. Now everything I was I wanted to get from myself. I was almost nineteen, I would never again depend on someone, and I would never again miss someone.”

A reference to War and Peace (!!!), and Elena’s desire to be accepted and loved: 

“Pretend to be sick? I was tempted by that solution but it depressed me: to be healthy, and desperate to be a Natasha at the ball with Prince Andrei or Kuryagin, and instead to be sitting alone, staring at the ceiling, while listening to the echo of the music, the sound of voices, the laughter.”

Elena, on feeling that Lila’s experience in the neighborhood is somehow more real than her own life:

“Every word of Lila’s diminished me. Every sentence, even sentences written when she was still a child, seemed to empty out mine, not the ones of that time but the ones now. And yet every page ignited my thoughts, my ideas, my pages as if until that moment I had lived in a studious but ineffectual stupor. Those notebooks I memorized, and in the end they made me feel that the world of the Normale—the friends, male and female, who respected me, the affectionate looks of those professors who encouraged me to constantly do more—was part of a universe that was too protected and thus too predictable, compared with that tempestuous world that, in the conditions of life in the neighborhood, Lila had been able to explore in her hurried lines, on pages that were crumpled and stained. Every past effort of mine seemed without meaning.”

On the difficulties of being trapped between two communities:

“My first impression, that of finding myself part of a fearless battle, passed. The trepidation at every exam and the joy of passing it with the highest marks had faded. Gone was the pleasure of re-educating my voice, my gestures, my way of dressing and walking, as if I were competing for the prize of best disguise, the mask worn so well that it was almost a face. Suddenly I was aware of that almost. Had I made it? Almost. Had I torn myself away from Naples, the neighborhood? Almost. Did I have new friends, male and female, who came from cultured backgrounds, often more cultured than the one that Professor Galiani and her children belonged to? Almost. From one exam to the next, had I become a student who was well received by the solemn professors who questioned me? Almost. Behind the almost I seemed to see how things stood. I was afraid. I was afraid as I had been the day I arrived in Pisa. I was scared of anyone who had that culture without the almost, with casual confidence.”

Elena, on the difference between feeling that “the questions of the world were deeply connected to me” and that they’re just “information to display at an exam”:

“Like that, a swift back and forth: a polemical exercise that they both obviously enjoyed, maybe a friendly habit of long standing. I recognized in them, father and daughter, what I had never had and, I now knew, would always lack. What was it? I wasn’t able to say precisely: the training, perhaps, to feel that the questions of the world were deeply connected to me; the capacity to feel them as crucial and not purely as information to display at an exam, in view of a good grade; a mental conformation that didn’t reduce everything to my own individual battle, to the effort to be successful.”

Elena, on the relief that people look at her as herself, and not her family background:

“My heart was pounding, I forgot who I was with and where I was. Yet I felt around me an atmosphere of increasing approval, and I was happy to have expressed myself, I seemed to have made a good impression. I was also glad that no one in that nice little family had asked me, as happened frequently, where I came from, what my father did, and my mother. I was I, I, I.”

On equipping your children with the right background, knowledge, and confidence, “magical weapons”:

“But already the next day I felt bad. The time spent with Pietro’s family had given me further proof that the hard work of the Normale was a mistake. Merit was not enough, something else was required, and I didn’t have it nor did I know how to learn it. How embarrassing that jumble of agitated words was, without logical rigor, without composure, without irony, things that Mariarosa, Adele, Pietro were capable of. I had learned the methodical persistence of the researcher who checks even the commas, that, yes, and I proved it during exams, or with the thesis that I was writing. But in fact I remained naïve, even if almost too cultured, I didn’t have the armor to advance serenely as they did. Professor Airota was an immortal god who had given his children magical weapons before the battle. Mariarosa was invincible. And Pietro perfect in his overcultivated courtesy. I? I could only remain near them, shine in their radiance.”

The relationship between Elena and her mother:

“When she left and the silence returned, on the one hand I felt relieved, on the other, because of the fever, I was moved. I thought of her alone, asking every passerby if this was the right direction for the train station, her, walking, with her lame leg, in an unknown city. She would never spend the money for a bus, she was careful not to waste even five lire. But she would make it: she would buy the right ticket and take the right trains, traveling overnight on the uncomfortable seats, or even standing, all the way to Naples. There, after another long walk, she would arrive in the neighborhood, and start polishing and cooking, she would cut up the eel, and prepare the insalata di rinforzo, and the chicken broth, and the struffoli, without resting for a moment, filled with rage, but consoling herself by saying, in some part of her brain, ‘Lenuccia is better than Gigliola, than Carmen, than Ada, than Lina, than all of them.’”

Lila, on her role as a mother:

“Just thinking of her son saps her strength. What ended up in Rinuccio’s head: images, words. She worries about the voices that reach him, unmonitored. I wonder if he heard mine, while I carried him in my womb. I wonder how it was imprinted in his nervous system. If he felt loved, if he felt rejected, was he aware of my agitation. How does one protect a child. Nourishing him. Loving him. Teaching him things. Acting as a filter for every sensation that might cripple him forever.”

On the lack of a “winner” in life:

“I understood that I had arrived there full of pride and realized that—in good faith, certainly, with affection—I had made that whole journey mainly to show her what she had lost and what I had won. But she had known from the moment I appeared, and now, risking tensions with her workmates, and fines, she was explaining to me that I had won nothing, that in the world there is nothing to win, that her life was full of varied and foolish adventures as much as mine, and that time simply slipped away without any meaning, and it was good just to see each other so often to hear the mad sound of the brain of one echo in the mad sound of the brain of the other.”