DescriptionWeek 3 – Discussion 1
Guided Response: Respond to at least two of your fellow students’ posts in a substantive
manner. Some ways to do this include the following, though you may choose a different
approach, providing your response is substantive:
Agree or disagree with other students’ positions. Defend your position by using
information from the week’s readings.
Post 1.
K.H.
In 2008 I was a junior in high school as a teen mom working constantly at Sonic. I
remember learning about the crisis by being told that credit is never promised and can
always be compromised. As a young mother, I myself was intrigued by the low interest
rates for homes and even more so as a newly wedded military wife. I am almost positive
that the government regulating interest rates could have ensured consistency and
practicality. Having consistency wouldve ensured the understanding of stability and
wouldve deterred those who knew they could not afford such a risky buy. This wouldve
ensured that loans wouldve been paid rather than giving unachievable ideals and then
taking advantage of those who could not pay. Secondly, when supply increased and
demand decreased due to people walking out of their unrealistic home loans, the
housing market plummeted. The government couldve come up with a housing bail out or
forgiveness. This couldve helped the prevention if it wouldve been instructed sooner, Im
sure since in 2009 HARP was introduced. “In an effort to help “at-risk-homeowners”
avoid foreclosure, the Federal Government intervened and created
the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) in 2009.” (PR Newswire, 2013).
Although I agree that the government should have a say in basic regulation within
businesses, I also believe it should be as little as possible. Understanding that businesses
are essentially in competition within one another, we must consider things like
independent decisions that businesses make in order to make themselves differentiate
from their competitors. For example, many tanning salons or gyms contain basic
similarities but some carry brands that others don’t which give intensive to customers.
When the government comes in and makes their claims, be it taxes or basic
standardization, this can ensure safety and regulation but beyond these basic needs the
government should not be involved. Excessive involvement would cause this freedom
for competition to be violated in a major way. By minimizing the government
involvement, we ensure the healthy competition within differences in businesses as a
whole.
“The ethicalaccountability of business is one of the areas in which government has tried t
olegislate ethical conduct. ” (Seaquist, 2012, 4.2)
K Hassin
PR Newswire. (2013, June 4). Bay Equity Home Loans Offers Expanded HARP Loan
Program to Help Struggling Homeowners Refinance. PR Newswire US.
Jarvis, J. (2011). The crisis of credit visualized Retrieved from
Seaquist, G. (2012). Business law for managers. Zovio.
Post 2
S.J.
There are many factors that contributed to the 2008 Credit Crisis but one of the main causes is
due to the high fiscal deficits. During Fiscal Year 2008, both the Government’s budget and
operating cost deficit doubled which led the Great Recession. The housing market crashing and
homeowners being unable to pay their mortgages led to millions of homes being foreclosed and a
financial panic in the economy. In order to avoid this financial crisis, banks could have been
stricter with their loan approval process by ensuring they were only approving loans for
applicants that were financially able to afford their homes. With the housing market already
unsteady, banks handing out loans to unfit borrowers just added more fuel to the fire and made
the situation worse. “Mortgage originators were high on the amphetamine of higher profits, and
investors fanned the flames by bidding their share prices higher without care or concern for the
sustainability of the enterprise” (Silver, 2022, para. 18).
I believe the Credit Crisis incident is the perfect example of how much of a negative impact too
little government regulation of a business can have on the economy. Due to the many loopholes
that existed for the broker, lender and investors to take advantage of, when the housing market
crashed it caused catastrophic damage that not only affected the people involved, it also affected
the economy as a whole. In terms of the greater good, the banks offered mortgages to families
that may not have had the opportunity to purchase a home in the past but the downfall of that
decision was not limiting the amount of their loan to ensure that they could at least afford their
mortgage payments. For businesses, banks such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may not have
fallen to their demise if there were government regulations in place that prohibited them from
approving risky the bank loans that led to the financial crisis in the first place.
Reference:
Silver, C., (December 02, 2022)., Over 10 years later, lessons from the 2008 financial
crisis. Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/news/10-years-later-lessonsfinancial-crisis/
Week 3 – Discussion 2
Guided Response: Respond to at least two of your fellow students’ posts in a substantive
manner. Some ways to do this include the following, though you may choose a different
approach, providing your response is substantive:
Agree or disagree with your classmate’s position. Defend your position by using
information from the week’s readings or examples from current events.
Post 1
S.J.
One perspective is that government regulations can play an essential role in promoting
ethical behavior by businesses. For example, White, A. M. (2016) argues that banks
should be considered public utilities and regulated. He believes that regulators, with
clearly defined goals including providing reliable and universal service at reasonable
rates, economic stability and development, and combating wealth inequality, can better
ensure ethical conduct by banks and prevent events like the 2008 financial crisis. This
view supports the idea that government regulations play a crucial role in promoting
ethical behavior by businesses, especially in the banking sector.
Another perspective is that government regulations can burden businesses, reducing
their competitiveness and hindering their ability to grow and innovate ( Friedman, M.
2020, September 13). The primary responsibility of a business is to maximize profits for
its shareholders, and government regulations can interfere with this goal. Friedman
argued that the free market, not government regulation, is the best means of ensuring
that businesses act ethically.
These differing perspectives highlight the complex nature of the debate over
government regulation and its impact on business ethics. Political ideologies and
economic conditions can shape how people view the government’s role in regulating
business practices, with some advocating for increased government intervention and
others advocating for a more hands-off approach. In the end, the answer to this question
will likely depend on several factors, including the specific business practices being
regulated, the cultural and economic context in which they take place, and the views of
policymakers and the general public.
References
White, A. M. (2016). Banks as Utilities. Tulane Law Review, 90(5), 1241–1283.
Friedman, M. (2020, September 13). The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase
Its Profits. The New York Times.
Post 2
M.R.
The government does not need to increase its regulation of business, the exude we tend
to hear is the regulation is put into place only to have a baseline of boundaries and rules.
Sometimes ethics come into play as well.
Businesses will rule under the scope of societal responsibilities and norms. I do believe
they’re needs to be a priority to keep government intervention in the US market. It
keeps people honest and the liability goes away. Now we have all lived through 4 of the
most devastating health scares I don’t think for a minute our federal government does
thing that are too out of the ordinary and forces business to either go bankrupt. The
government has made going back to business during and after the pandemic a very
difficult thing. For example, in the City of Los Angeles during the peak of the pandemic it
made sense to wear a mask and stay away from people as best you could. But the city of
LA made up some very strenuous and costly regulations in order to continue to run and
operate. The government has created these laws and regulations in order for people to
feel comfortable around each other the city has made it very tough to operate. I think
the role the government should be is safety and compliance. These two ideas would get
the government to focus solely on these two would be a wise investment in time and
societies acceptable.
Reference
Seaquist, G. (2012). Business law for managers.
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