Business

In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall as a Category 3 storm with maximum winds of 125 mph, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The cost of the ensuing damage to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast was more than $80 billion; it is generally considered to be most destructive tropical storm in U.S. history in terms of property damage, followed by Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and Hurricane Ike in 1998.

Plastic trash is a potential — and plentiful — fuel source, but up to the present many regions of the United States have been reluctant to adopt waste-to-energy technologies. Among the reasons are the availability of relatively cheap land for trash disposal, recyclers who viewed such programs as potential threats, and resistance by local homeowners.

During the 1930s, the upheaval of the Great Depression spurred a wave of protectionist trade policies and created a global atmosphere of isolationism that further exacerbated the contraction of economic activity. Many observers feared that the Great Recession of 2008-09 might similarly prompt nations hurt by the financial turmoil to erect barriers around their economies.

According to a 2010 report on Fortune 500 companies, women represented only 2% of CEOs, 14% of top executives and 16% of corporate directors. Some two-thirds of such companies had at least one woman in their executive ranks, however.

In recent decades, some American corporations have promoted team work and encouraged looser job roles. By 2002, up to 80% of medium- to large-sized workplaces had put in place cross-boundary structures that increased collaboration across work functions. These programs have often given non-managerial women and minorities the opportunity to interact with a wider range of workers, managers, and jobs across their organizations.

The United States has traditionally led the world in the manufacture of advanced technological products, but in recent decades global patterns have shifted. The country recorded a trade surplus in terms of such products as recently as 2001, but by 2010 that trade balance was a deficit of $81 billion. Overall, from 1998 to 2010 the U.S. lost some 6 million general manufacturing jobs and now has only 11.6 million such jobs, representing just 11% of the labor market.

While companies’ charitable activities often get favorable publicity, studies on the relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial performance haven’t allowed broad conclusions to be drawn.

Millions of dollars of instructional videos for infants have been sold to hopeful parents in the past decade, many promising accelerated learning. While children may enjoy watching such products, are there any real educational benefits, or are they just “electronic babysitters”?