CAREERS
Green Pastures

ADDITIONAL READING: How Going Green Draws Talent, Cuts Costs

WEB RESOURCE: Environmental Protection Agency

INTERVIEW
Mixing a Solution

ADDITIONAL READING
Renewed Effort
Building Green, and Affordable (second item)
China Eco-Watchdog Gets Teeth

WEB RESOURCES
Business for Social Responsiblity
GreenBiz
The Wall Street Journal Energy Blog (now Environmental Capital Blog)

ECONOMICS
Kidneys for Sale?

ADDITIONAL READING
Kidney Swaps Seen as Way to Ease Donor Shortages
More Kidneys For Transplants May Go to Young

WEB RESOURCES
Alvin Roth's Kidney Exchange
Alliance for Paired Donation

WORKSHEET: Effective Debating

ADDITIONAL READING
A Young Tinkerer Builds a Windmill, Electrifying a Nation
Helping Startups Win Investors

WEB RESOURCES
The Moot Corp Competition
Wall Street Journal Small Business

ADDITIONAL READING
Slump in Vehicle Sales Augurs Ill for '08
GM Crossover Trip Lures Drivers Away From Asian Brand Vehicles
Scion Taps the Brakes

WEB RESOURCE: Edmunds.com

DISCUSSION NOTES:
Laws of Supply and Demand: GM's strategy generally conforms to the law of demand. It has priced its vehicle below comparable competing vehicles, so as to stimulate demand. It is assuming that consumers will respond to the competitive pricing by choosing the Enclave over competing vehicles. But GM's move challenges the law of supply. Rather than supply more vehicles into the marketplace at the prevailing market price, GM is supplying fewer vehicles. This suggests that GM isn't confident enough about the outlook for the economy that it can sustain enough consumer demand to absorb an increased supply or support a higher price.

Incentives are designed to stimulate consumer demand for a product or modify consumers' choices. The cost of these incentives can diminish profit margins for the car makers, but their impact can increase overall sales volume and market share, which are both important benchmarks for company performance in a competitive market. But by reducing the purchase price of the vehicle, incentives also contribute to a decline in the vehicle's resale value; vehicles sold with heavy incentives tend to depreciate more quickly, which, in turn, diminishes the brand's prestige and its new-car prices.

COLLEGE & MONEY
Student Debt Soars

ADDITIONAL READING
Finance Gets Personal
Some Colleges Cut, Eliminate Student Debt
Yale Joins Financial-Aid Push

WEB RESOURCES
SmartMoney's College Planning
Student Loan Advisor for Undergraduate Students

WORKSHEET: Effective Debating

ADDITIONAL READING
Fires Turn Up Heat On a Key Advocate of California Shurbs
Wildfires Test Overhual of Crisis Response