S&P 500

This week we have another article from CNNmoney.com the article is titled “S&P's $5 trillion bank doomsday tab” by Colin Barr. The article is about the humongous tab the S&P have created over the past couple of years.  This article was chosen because this seems to be a hot topic in today’s world. By topic we mean the debit that is on the tab.

The article starts off by discussing issues that caused S&P to develop this tab and gives some recommendation on what they can do to reduce it. The author gives ample amount of facts on the issue in the article. The author uses quotes from an anonymous source.  Then the author gives a few more facts about the current issue.

This is a great issue that concerns all of America. It concerns all of America because S&P controls a good percentage of issues that concern money for most Americans. S&P is into the stock market industry heavily and is traded around daily. This issue should be looked into in more detail to help others in America figure out what may be happening to their money in the near future.

This was a well-written article, but there were things that could have been done better. One major thing about the article was credibility. The author did not give the individual whom he quoted name. This takes some power from the quote because it could be from a random person with no real knowledge on the topic. 

Millionaires and Taxes

            This week we have another article from CNNmoney.com the article is titled “IRS cracks down on millionaires”. The article was written by the same author of last week’s blog entry Blake Ellis. This is his second week in a row discussing the topic of taxes. Last week Ellis discussed who the cheaters on taxes are. This week he discusses how the IRS will “crack” down on the millionaires when they file taxes.

            The article first discusses some facts on the taxpayers making between five million and ten million dollars a year. Next it goes over how they rich are able to afford to pay for better tax preparers. Some of the ads on the sides of the article dealt with easiest ways to file your taxes and other articles dealing with taxes and people who cut taxes. The author uses credible sources and highly approved people for his facts and quotes throughout the article.

            The average American is not rich; also the average American does not cheat or try to find small tax breaks in the system. Even though the rich Americans have plenty of money they feel that they should be exempt from taxes or should catch a break. In reality the more money you make the more taxes you can afford to pay instead of trying to make the less fortunate Americans pay.  Do to this the IRS is cracking down on millionaires and billionaires when their taxes are done.

            The IRS will be performing more audits this year to try and catch the people trying to find a hole in the tax forms, these are known as loopholes. The rich are able to pay for better tax preparers, unlike the average American who are limited and may use Turbo Tax or Jackson Hewitt. This issue has become very popular over the past couple of years in the United States. Perhaps this is why the United States is known for its greediness. 

Social Media response

            A presentation on the social media world was given on Wednesday in the JMC 201 class at Samford University. The presentation was given by Alek Pike and Clayton Hurdle, two students in the class. The two students put together an excellent presentation. The presentation lasted about an hour and a half and covered most of the aspects of the social media world.

            The presentation consisted of discussion topics and information on social media. They went into detail on all the different types of social media that are out there. Some of the different types of social media discussed were facebook, twitter, youtube, and myspace. The students presented on how these social medias can help a person communicate with large amounts of people quickly.

            They discussed how twitter has made it quick and easy to communicate with the world. They explained how most people in the public relation industry are using this social network to help their clients and advertise. Also celebrities are using twitter to help their careers and reach out to their fans. Twitter is also used among common people in today’s world to communicate and share news with their friends.

            A power point was used as a visual aid to help show the audience examples of the social media. The presenters also had a group activity where they asked the audience to pull out their cellular phones. During this activity they showed the audience how most of them had a smart phone. Smart phones are used to keep them connected to their social networks throughout the day. This activity was used to show that social media is used in our everyday life now.

            Overall the presentation was great; the group did an amazing job of putting the presentation together. They were confident about the information they had on the social media industry.