2021 – Vanderbilt Business Review

Dec

26

2021

Squid Game Token Cryptocurrency Scam: What Went Wrong?

All Posts, Industries

By: Neelesh Raj As a result of the popularity of the South Korean Netflix series Squid Game, the developers of a cryptocurrency named after the Squid Game token made off with nearly $7 million. According to its website, which has now been deleted, the coin marketed itself as a "play-to-earn cryptocurrency," which encouraged investors to risk their hard-earned money into a currency which they actually could not sell. Many investors put in lots of money, in which one of them would exit as the winner of the contest, starting with 456 squid coins (roughly $6.3k) to play in the first…

Dec

26

2021

By Ke Tang

How does inflation influence different sectors?

All Posts, Economy and Government

By: Ke Tang OverviewInflation in October is rising more than expected. According to the US Bureau of LaborStatistics, the consumer price index in October has increased 0.9% and pushed the year-over-year increase to 6.2%, hitting a 30-year high. In comparison, the consumer price index inSeptember has risen 0.4% on the month and 5.4% on the year. 1 The rise of inflation exceedspeople's expectations and will increase people’s costs for living. However, it is not necessarilythat inflation will influence everyone equally. Depending on an individual’s consumption basket,the impact on one’s cost of living will be different because different products have experiencedvarious…

Dec

26

2021

By Marvi Ali

Biden’s Pick for Fed Chairman

All Posts, Economy and Government

By: Marvi Ali The Federal Reserve System, or the Fed, is the central bank and monetary authority of theUnited States. Founded in the aftermaths of the Panic of 1907 and a series of financial crises, theFed was tasked with the major responsibilities of conducting national monetary policy,supervising and regulating the banking system, and ensuring financial stability. There are threemain components of the Fed: the Regional Banks, the Board of Governors, and the Federal OpenMarket Committee. One of the seven governors from the Board of Governors is appointed as theChairman of the Fed by the President of the United States and…

Dec

26

2021

By Eric Wang

Avoiding Surveillance Capitalism: Corporate Social Responsibility in Tech Companies

All Posts, Industries

By: Eric Wang With advancements in internet technology, mass distribution of information has become accessible to people worldwide. Accompanying these improvements, information technology corporations also developed marketing and promotion tools to attract more growth in user rates and page views. However, customers are impacted dramatically due to their disadvantages in protecting themselves from the overwhelming information flow's harm. One study conducted by researchers at Yale University shows that the spread of biased news and information is altering the public's perspectives on large-scale civic issues, including climate change and environmental protection. Hence, the independent organizations formed by expertise in the IT…

Dec

26

2021

By Mi Nguyen

COVID-19 Impact on November 2021 Economy

All Posts, Economy and Government

By: Mi Nguyen It has been almost two years since the COVID-19 virus was detected and the world is going deepinto quarantine and isolation to battle the immense spread of the virus. By this point, wearingmasks indoors and showing vaccination cards at restaurants has become the new normal already.As we become so used to living with the virus, we tend to forget that COVID-19 is still there,and it still has a huge impact on our current economy. Examining the report from S&P Global Ratings, we can see that although the economy is slowlyrecovering from the initial impact of COVID-19, the…

Dec

26

2021

By Lexi Blakes

Pulling the Rug on Squid Game

All Posts, Industries

By: Lexi Blakes This past September, Netflix’s hit series Squid Game debuted at No. 1 with over 3 billion minutes viewed in its first week of streaming, easily gaining the title of “most popular show in 2021”. Squid Game is a Korean television series that acts as an allegory to greed, capitalism, and the prison of debt. The show explores the extent to which money has power in our lives and how shamelessly society’s wealthiest exploit others. Viewed in more than 142 million households globally, its viewership made it 7-times more popular than the most-watched episode of “Game of Thrones”,…

Nov

18

2021

By Geneva Bass

Carbon Offsets Industry Set to Soar from Carbon Neutrality Market Orientation

All Posts, Sustainability

By: Geneva Bass As firms and consumers brace against the Climate Crisis, the market for carbon offsets soars to new heights. Saturday, November 6th, 100,000 people flooded the streets of Glasgow, Scotland in climate protest as world leaders convened for COP26. Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg denounced COP26 as “a failure” and “a two-week-long celebration of business as usual.” "The eyes of all future generations are upon you,” Thunberg told world leaders two years ago at the UN Climate Summit on September 23, 2019. “And if you choose to fail us, I say - we will never forgive you."…

Oct

31

2021

By Neelesh Raj

How Powell’s Comments on Inflation Deflated Gold

All Posts, Economy and Government

By: Neelesh Raj During an online conference hosted by the South African Reserve Bank, FederalReserve Chairman Jerome Powell stated that supply-chain issues would eventually be resolved.He also claimed that the current stagflation caused by the supply chain bottleneck would bescaled back, bringing inflation back to the Fed's current goal of two percent per year. The impactof his statement can be seen on the securities market, causing the price of gold to drop bynearly $30 per ounce, bringing the gold price below $1800 once again. Historically speaking, investors usually would invest in government bonds and bullion(such as gold) when they believe…

Oct

31

2021

By Marvi Ali

The Great Resignation

All Posts, Economy and Government

By: Marvi Ali During the onset of the pandemic, employers were furloughing and firing workers rapidly, in an effort to downsize. Unemployment peaked in April 2019 at 14.8%. There was great uncertainty as to whether workers would find any jobs, let alone better jobs. However, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics recently reported that, in August, 4.3 million Americans had quit their jobs, setting a new record but following the trend of rising quit rates from previous months. Economists have increasingly begun to recognize this new phenomenon as “The Great Resignation,” which is a term coined by Anthony Klotz, an…