Articles

Note: Only archived articles published over 12 months ago are featured.

Investment Bankers, what they do, and their characteristics

Investment bankers. Individuals who often work with financial institutions and are primarily concerned with raising funds for corporations, governments, or other organizations. Now, many people reading this article have heard of, or maybe know a little bit about it. However, many have never batted an eye towards it, and some don't even know what it is. So, in this article, we will be talking about Investment Bankers, some examples, and how they start to change society.


 Let’s first dive deep into some examples of Investment Banker employers. A few notable ones include Goldman Sachs(GS), and JPMorgan Chase(JPM). These companies have generated superb amounts of money, even surpassing those of Twitter.


Investment Bankers foresee large and intricate transactions These transactions include dealing with mergers for companies, which is the voluntary blending of two companies with similar goals and terms into one entity. Investment bankers also deal with pricing financial instruments and navigating regulatory requirements. When a company first offers its IPO (Initial Public Offering), an investment banker will buy much of that company's shares and hold it, acting as an intermediary between the two.

However, when selling, Investment Banks stand to make a profit in this scenario, generally pricing their shares higher than what they bought them for. However, in doing this, Investment bankers take on a substantial amount of risks, as they can lose money if they overvalue their shares.


Let's say Paula started a potting company, where she designs and sells pots to local consumers around her state. Paula gets in touch with Justin, who purchases 100,000 shares of stock for 24 dollars a piece. The investment bankers purchase Paula's stock for 2.4 million dollars. Now, let's say that after filing the paperwork, Justins team sell the company stock for 26 dollars on the open market. However, the team cannot sell more than 20% of the stock, and must lower it done to $23. This leads to a decrease in earnings for Justin and his team due to an overvalue of the shares.


These positions require specific skills, such as excellent number-crunching skills, strong verbal and written abilities, and the ability to commit to long working hours. Being an Investment Banker may be tough, but you are awarded with a significantly high pay average, with the numbers going into the $400,000’s.

-Sohum Mishra, October 2023

Consumer Psychology. How does it work?

Consumer Psychology refers to the processes clients and customers use to select, purchase, use, and discard products and services. This allows firms to improve sales, services, products, and marketing strategies in the business world. However, this barely scratches the iceberg of Consumer Psychology. In this article, we will be reaching further into this concept.

One thing that must be taken care of before we dive deeper is that consumer psychology is a broad topic. Like business or medicine, many key parts fit into that accepted term. Some examples of this could be “Studying how consumers choose business” or “the thought process behind consumer decisions”.

Now onto the juicy stuff, what does a Consumer Psychologist do? These psychologists not only play a magnificent and significant role in helping businesses decide what they need to produce or advertise, but they also help promote certain products.

Let us take Proctor and Gamble as an example. P&G owns a large amount of companies. Examples could be Bounty or Tide. However, P&G may also own companies that you have never heard of. Consumer Psychologists study the data and advertise products that they know will benefit the company significantly.

Consumer Psychologists may also focus on social marketing, or how ideas spread throughout different types of groups. Companies can use this information to see where they need to keep advertising or promoting their brand.

From this article, you have learned the definition of being a consumer psychologist, and how these psychologists impact play a role in the business scene. Without these psychologists, companies would have no idea where to start their adventure in the first place, and would most likely fail under the pressure of the business industry. So, next time you ever see an advertisement from a big-name company, remember the consumer psychology that comes with it!

-Sohum Mishra, September 2023

Mental Health in the Workplace

Globally, about 1 trillion US dollars are lost because of reduced productivity due to depression and anxiety. Mental health problems are uncomfortably commonplace in the modern working world and have a big impact on a company profits and employee morale. It is important for businesses to not only identify these issues but also find ways to address them so they can create better working conditions for their employees. 

Problematic working conditions are not limited to long hours and excessive work loads. The World Health Organization outlines many factors that contribute to creating a bad working environment that accelerates the development of mental health issues. A lack of job security, inadequate pay, and unclear role or lack of career advancement within a company, can make employees feel like their work has no purpose, causing them to put less effort into their tasks. Additionally, unsafe or hostile working conditions put the employee in danger or expose them to discrimination and harassment further damages their mental health. There is even a link between a person’s mental and physical health as mental health issues can also manifest as conditions like heart disease, back pain, headaches, gastrointestinal disturbances or various minor illnesses (T Rajgopal). If the mental strain of work puts too much pressure on an employee, it can negatively impact their work performance. Their lack of productivity can cause employees to face repercussions from management, resulting in more stress and greater amounts of errors. This creates a cycle of worsening mental health for the workers. 

Though the key factors are consistent between fields, the intensity of mental health issues can vary based on the industry. A study in the Netherlands assessed the work pace and skill discretion of various careers and saw that low-skilled and fast paced jobs, like waiters, construction workers, and secretaries, had the highest risk of developing mental health problems. 

Knowing the effects of mental health on an employee’s performance, what can employers do to create a positive work environment? The World Health Organization offers many suggestions to improve working conditions. Training those in management positions for mental health can help them identify these issues and help employees find ways to manage them. Employers can also make the effort to train workers in mental health literacy and awareness so they can identify signs of mental health deterioration in themselves and seek help as needed. One way to do this is to offer self-assessment tools that allow employees to identify signs of the development of mental health problems. Additionally, jobs can offer interventions to help teach employees how to manage stress and reduce mental health symptoms. Mental health issues are at their most dangerous when they are not talked about, so creating a supportive environment that makes mental health discussions more open will encourage workers to reach out and get the help they need. 

Many businesses who put these suggestions into practice have seen the benefits of maintaining a good working environment for their employees. Companies like Prudential Financial have implemented many solutions to increase worker morale and job performance. They monitor the supervisor's relationship with workers to ensure that their management is not abusing its power. Employees also take part in an anonymous survey about their feelings towards the management and company as a whole so the compact is  always able to find areas of improvement. Prudential Financial’s practice for maintaining a positive working environment became so effective and well known that they earned a spot on the John Hopkins Mental Health Summit to help find ways to improve workplace environment, work productivity and cost efficiency.

Poor mental health can affect so many parts of a person’s life in and beyond the workplace. Company’s need to not neglect this aspect of their business to protect their workers and maintain their profits.  Moreover, workers need to feel comfortable enough to discuss these issues with those around them and overall remove the stigma around discussing mental health. Once these important discussions open, companies all around the world can start making progress to create a more comfortable and supportive workplace. 


Work Cited

T Rajgopal. “Mental Well-Being at the Workplace.” Indian Journal of Industrial Medicine, vol. 14, no. 3, Medknow, Jan. 2010, pp. 63–63, https://doi.org/10.4103/0019-5278.75691. 

‌ World. “Mental Health at Work.” Who.int, World Health Organization: WHO, 28 Sept. 2022, www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-health-at-work. 

Mental Health in the Workplace . 2023, www.cdc.gov/workplacehealthpromotion/tools-resources/workplace-health/mental-health/index.html. 

‌ “Mental Health in the Workplace: A Public Health Summit | Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.” Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 2020, publichealth.jhu.edu/departments/mental-health/research-and-practice/mental-health-in-the-workplace/mental-health-in-the-workplace-a-public-health-summit.

-Poorvja Joshi, September 2023

Should social media access be restricted in business environments? 

As technology increases to broader heights, social media has a bigger involvement in day-to-day lives. Social media can impact a business significantly by allowing for easier communication among employees and providing a mental break. However, social media can harm a business entirely due to work productivity depreciation and its addictive tendencies. Because of this, social media should be allowed among employees, but for a limited time only. 

Social media provides workers in the business environment to communicate and collaborate with fellow workers in their office. Apps such as Snapchat and Instagram can allow workers to grow bonds over time. This can even help the business as communication and teamwork are among a business’s fundamentals. Social media also allows workers to take a break and relieve stress from their job. Typically, employees spend 4-6 hours working without taking a single break. This leads to faster burnout and higher stress levels which could harm the employee and the business. 

However, workers should not be fully entitled to take a break every time they please. This is due to social media's addictive habits, as employees could be stuck watching or scrolling through TikTok and Instagram, not focusing on the task at hand. This leads to work productivity decreasing as more people are scrolling through their phones rather than working for the company. 

Social media provides a pleasurable environment as it creates bonds between employees. However, social media can also disrupt a person's task given to them. This is why employees should only be allowed a limited amount of social media in the workplace for productive gain for the business, as well as a mental break for employees.

-Sohum Mishra, July 2023


ChatGPT: The next global pandemic 

People have been using ChatGPT to essentially do their jobs for them. This technology turns out to be the main culprit of people being lethargic at their jobs. According to Mikaela Cohen from CNBC, “This year, the tech industry already cut 5% more jobs than it did in all of 2022” (Cohen 2). What is ChatGPT, and what harm is it doing to these day jobs?

What is ChatGPT? Similar to AI, ChatGPT is an online tool that can generate human-like responses within seconds. ChatGPT has been proven to be beneficial to some jobs. This leaves many people who have these jobs at the risk of being replaced by ChatGPT. Jobs such as Computer Programmers, Data Analytics, Graphic Designers and many more jobs. If people don’t have jobs because of this online AI tool, it’s ruining people’s lives because they are getting unemployed. 

Why does ChatGPT have such a huge impact on these jobs? ChatGPT is capable of doing many things such as programming code, writing essays, and much more. According to a source from Al Jazeera, “ChatGPT became the fastest-growing consumer app in the world two months after its launch, with more than 100 million users by January” (Al Jazeera 4). This proves that people find ChatGPT to be very useful in their everyday lives. 

ChatGPT has been proven to be incredibly resourceful at many jobs. It is better at most jobs than humans actually are. It can give an accurate response in a matter of seconds and people exploit this tool to do their jobs for them. Companies realized this and people are getting replaced by this AI tool to do their jobs for them

-Aarush Bulusu, July 2023

What strategies should businesses be using to stay competitive in a global market?

Have you ever heard of Google? What about Honda? Many of you probably responded yes, as many people in the world use these companies' products on a daily business. However, many smaller companies are getting left in the dust as many people would prefer making use of more big named companies. Small businesses still can grow rapidly, by utilizing social media advertising and improving customer experience.

Social Media has become a massive part of many lives. In fact According to the latest data, as of 2022, the average amount of time spent on social media worldwide is 151 minutes per day, with 4.48 billion people using it daily. To capitalize on these numbers, many businesses can use social media to advertise their product or service.

As companies start to grow their business, high-caliber customer service can benefit them in the long run. If customers are left satisfied with your company, they are more likely to come back to it. Customers will even refer you to friends or family and can write positive reviews for the firm. Also, as bigger companies start to become more known throughout the world, smaller companies are starting to fall behind. To combat this, smaller companies can start to advertise frequently on social media and improve customer retention.

-Sohum Mishra, August 2023

NFLX Stock from the Beginning to Now.

NFLX is a stock that has been around for almost 2 decades. Throughout Netflixes history, the stock has experienced significant shortcomings and upbringings. However, the stock still seems to be holding on. Currently, the stock is at 413 dollars, coming from the rise of a fatalistic fall. Let's see how the stock has changed from when it was first introduced.

Netflix introduced its stock around May 2002. However, the stock didn't make any significant moves until January 2013, when the stock had a massive jump, quadrupling its stock price, in almost a matter of two years. Netflix continued to rise notably, reaching a share price of 421 in 2018(an almost 300% gain from 2013). Nevertheless, Netflixes high stock price came crashing down soon after its massive rise.

Business Insider states that Netflix tumbled as much as 7.3% Friday to an intraday low of $241.36 a share and was on track for its lowest close since January. Despite Netflix's strong Q3 earnings, Netflix took a massive fall, with prices almost cut in half. Netflix however regrouped together in early 2019, bringing the price back up to its original price before the fallout. Netflix continued to soar, even throughout the Corona Virus, due to a massive increase in users throughout its duration.

However, problems arose again in late 202, due to a rise in inflation, a cutback in consumer spending, and increased competition. The stock price fell from 700, all the way down to as low as 167. Still, Netflix has shown signs of recovery, with price making its way back up.

Netflix is a well-known company with users all around the world. Thus, Netflix stock is considered highly volatile, which means it fluctuates quite often from one direction to another. Due to this high volatility, NFLX has seen major ups and downs throughout its lifetime. However, NFLX still seems to be getting back up as we head into the end of this year.

-Sohum Mishra, August 2023

How does leaving reviews truly impact Businesses? 

Many people who are reading this article have never written a review for a business. Whether it's your favorite food joint or favorite clothing company, leaving a review on a business can significantly boost its morale and customer base. In this article, we will be taking a deeper dive into how reviews can positively benefit a business. 

As technology gets more used in everyday life, more people are looking for online shopping. In doing this, they look at reviews left by other people to see how others rate the business. According to LuisaZhou.com, 95% of people look at online reviews left by other people. Furthermore, 49% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. This means that online reviews are impacting purchase decisions from shoppers on a daily. 

Even though the data shows that leaving a positive review impacts the business and customers, people tend to avoid leaving reviews due to a sense of laziness.  In fact, only 5-10% of people actively leave a positive review on businesses they have visited You may think that leaving a measly 30-word review on a company won't harm it, but you are further away from the truth. 89% of consumers have read a review before buying a product online. Your measly 30-word review could be the game-changer in a business nagging a consumer. 

As technology starts to become more prominent in the world, reviews on businesses are starting to become more necessary for companies to grow. However, a sense of laziness from consumers cuts back on major profits companies can make from buyers. This is why people should start leaving more reviews on companies as it helps the consumer by giving them a business to look at while giving the company a loyal and dependable customer.

-Sohum Mishra, September 2023

Financial Crisis of 2007-2008

2007-2008, an era known for everything. Facebook and Twitter were created, two companies with combined revenue equal to over $100 Billion. Memes took the internet by storm, famous ones include “Charlie Bit My Finger” or “This is Sparta”. However, none of these come close to the GFC. In this article, we will be talking about the effects of this economic crisis on the world and businesses.

First, let us talk about the GFC and its national effects. The GFC or the Global Financial Crisis, was a severe worldwide crisis, which some thought to match the severity of the Great Depression. Economists cite that the main cause of the issue was the collapse of the mortgage market. From the years leading up to 2007, the real estate and properties had been increasing, encouraging buyers to invest in properties. To take advantage of this boom, lenders rushed to buyers to approve as many subprime mortgages as they could. A subprime mortgage is a type of loan issued to borrowers with low credit ratings. No one could have thought that this action would have led to the main cause of the GFC.

How did banks contribute to the crisis? By making risky loans and lax lending standards. As more people started to flock to the bank for loans, banks started to compete to extend larger housing loans, which seemed very profitable at the time. However, they couldn't be more wrong. When the housing bubble crashed, banks were left with trillions of dollars in worthless investments of loans. This caused a ripple effect throughout the national and even the global economy.

Now let us talk about how businesses were affected the this crisis. Businesses had severe layoffs during the crisis. In fact, according to the National Institution of Health, over 30 million people had lost their jobs, and the rate of long-term unemployment doubled its historical high. Businesses also lost a lot of money during this period. The U.S. Department of Treasury predicted that businesses lost a total of 19 trillion dollars during the GFC. This is more than triple the amount of money the government received during the year 2022.

2007-2008 was known for a significant amount of things. However, The GFC stands above everything else. Many people and corporations lost a significant sum of money during this period, and some are still trying to recover from its disastrous effects.

-Sohum Mishra, September 2023

2023 Writers' Strike 

California’s economy has lost an estimated 3 million US dollars due to the failure to reach an agreement on the writers' strike, according to California State University Northridge professor of Entertainment Media Management, Todd Holmes. The strike has lasted much longer than anticipated and its length of 144 is close to surpassing the previous 1988 strike of 153 days as of September 2023 (Barnes and Koblin). This is in part due to the demands of the Writers Guild of America that have yet to be met. Considering there has been no signs of an end to this strike, it is important to know the impacts that this is having on the entertainment industry and viewers alike. 

Among their lists of demands, there are three main complaints that the WGA wants studios to address. The first of which is the lack of adequate compensation for writers. Not only has the median pay for a writer-producer has declined by 23 percent, there are also less job opportunities available for the writers (Bellware and Brasch). With current inflation rates, the decrease in salaries has made it harder for people to pursue writing as a full-time career. This issue of payment is made worse with the rise of streaming content taking over traditional broadcast reducing writers’ residual fees or money paid when a film or series is rerun or aired on broadcast (Isidore and Liu). Additionally, considering how most streaming shows do not run the typical 20 episode seasons, with most averaging around 8 episodes, the writer’s income is reduced even further. 

Furthermore, the emergence of “mini-rooms” reduces the stability of a writer’s job, making it even harder to maintain a career as a writer. “Mini-rooms'” are the practice of using a small core of writers to shepherd a show along while hiring other writers for a handful of weeks at a time making it harder to find a job as a full-time writer (Bellware and Brasch). The switch from the typical month long contracts to ones that only last a few weeks have made jobs in writing much more unstable. This is especially troubling for new writers entering the field as not only do they not have stable employment, with innercircle roles in the “mini-rooms” given topically to veteran writers, new writers have a harder time getting experience in the industry. Not getting the valuable experience needed to become more skilled in their craft reduced the writers’ ability to progress in the industry. 

The final main concern expressed by the WGA is the use of AI in writing and the impact it has on their job security. AI and its uses continue to be heavily contested as the WGA and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers are unable to reach an agreement on the extent to which AI use is acceptable. In an article by the Washington Post, Filmmaker Justine Bateman discussed how AI can be trained on existing seasons of her sitcom Family Ties to create new seasons without the need of a writer, essentially putting her out of the job even though the show the AI learned from was her original work (Bellware and Brasch). Seeing how fast AI is progressing, it is understandable where the writer’s concerns come from. 

These three complaints expressed by the WGA all stem back to writers not making enough money to sustain themselves. Their financial strain is worsened by this strike and both sides are facing much financial pressure. On the writer’s side, no one is able to work, and therefore get paid, during the duration of the strike. On the producer's side, many big companies in the AMPTP contract have seen drops in their stock price, leading to mass amounts of layoffs. Disney for instance has cut 7,000 jobs or about 3% of its global workforce (Isidore and Liu). The CEO of Disney, Bob Iger, says this was done in an effort to cut-costs following the announcement of the writers strike. Disney is only one of the major companies feeling the pressure of the strike, contributing to the 3 million dollar loss stated earlier. 

With the changes happening within these major entertainment companies, there is the question of what a viewer can expect to see changed due to the writers strike. As the strike goes on, writers have halted their work on their current projects, leading many to wonder how this will impact the amount of content that consumers have access to. According to Times Magazine, the content that will be impacted first is late night shows as they consistently need a group of writers to create daily content, something that is presently unachievable. It is not possible to pre-record shows of this format as they are based around current events and news. Streaming services on the other hand have more flexibility as they have banks of shows they can gradually release during the months of the strike (Mendez). This means that platforms like Netflix and Hulu will still be able to give consumers new content. However, if the writers strike carries on longer than their bank of shows can last, then viewers can expect to see delays in the production of new seasons of long-running shows like Law & Order and Abbot Elementary that will need their writers back to create more content (Mendez). Eventually, there will be a decrease in content, resulting in a decrease of viewers, which once again places a financial burden on the companies involved.

Currently, the writers strike is progressing, placing a halt on almost all major film and entertainment production. There is no telling how long the strike will last or how it will change the economy of the film and entertainment industry. However, the large public attention earned by the writers strike has increased the public’s interest in writers and their craft, leading many viewers to appreciate the time, creatively, and skill needed for this industry.

Work Cited:

Antonio Pequeño IV. “Hollywood Writers’ Strike: Here’s a Timeline of What Led to the 100-Day Mark.” Forbes, 12 Sept. 2023, www.forbes.com/sites/antoniopequenoiv/2023/08/09/hollywood-writers-strike-heres-a-timeline-of-what-led-to-the-100-day-mark/?sh=138c84327ad3. 

Barnes, Brooks and John Koblin.“Progress in Hollywood Writers’ Strike Negotiations, but No Deal Yet.” The New York Times, 2023, www.nytimes.com/2023/09/23/business/media/hollywood-writers-strike-negotiations.html. 

Bellware, Kim, and Ben Brasch. “Why Are Hollywood Actors and Writers on Strike? Here Are the Issues.” Washington Post, The Washington Post, 13 July 2023, www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2023/07/13/why-actors-writers-strike-sag-wga-issues/.

Isidore, Chris, and Juliana Liu. “Film and TV Writers Go on Strike, Bringing Production on Many Shows to a Halt.” CNN, CNN, 2 May 2023, www.cnn.com/2023/05/02/business/writers-guild-strike-hollywood-hnk-intl/index.html. 

Mendez, Moises. “How the Writers Strike Will Affect Your Favorite Shows.” Time, Time, 2 May 2023, time.com/6276392/writers-strike-tv-shows-impact/. 

-Poorvja Joshi, September 2023