Understanding finance begins by reading reputable articles in newspapers/magazines such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Forbes, Fortune, US News and World Report, and other web based resources.

POST #1 Find an article that interests you and write 3 paragraphs. Your format should be:

1. INTRODUCTION: Briefly introduce the article (author, date) and the major financial topic it attempts to address (bankruptcy, merger, financial crisis, financial literacy, a specific company).
2. MAJOR TAKEAWAYS: Discuss the 3-5 points the article made about the financial topic.
3. CONCLUSION: What did you learn about finance and did the article address the question it posed?
4. Include APA CITATION at the end of the post.

POST #2 AT LEAST ONE MORE POST: Respond to another person’s post with an article or video reinforcing that post or extending the conversation. For example, you could say “Hi Cathy, I really enjoyed your post on Apple reaching $1 trillion this past week. Thank you for your research. I recently reviewed a short article which walks through the history of Apple’s financial success.Statista.com (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. reports a wonderful chart on the history of Apple and its successes on the way to $1 trillion. Some analysts actually believe that when Petrochina launched its IPO in 2007, it surpassed the $1 trillion mark then. Thanks! Anne

Citation: Imbert, F. (2018, August 3). The first company to reach $1 trillion in market value got crushed. Retrieved from https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/topstocks/the-first-company-to-reach-dollar1-trillion-in-market-value-got-crushed/ar-BBLpQrI?li=BBnbfcN&srcref=rss (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..

** note

Find article Try to find something within the last 3 months or so. and Respond to another person’s post

respond to (

The article that caught my attention this week was, “Sears CEO is making a last-ditch effort to avoid bankruptcy” by Hayley Peterson on Business Insider. Sears is currently on the edge of bankruptcy. In a proposal made Monday, Sears CEO Eddie Lampert said he wants creditors to restructure about $1.1 billion of debt coming due in the next two years and asked sears board to sell $1.5 billion of real estate and divest $1.75 billion of assets. Wall Street analysts have predicted for years that Sears will be going bankrupt very quickly. Sears is running out of options they have already cut its store count in half within the past five years (1980 stores in 2013 to 894 as of May 5). Sears has also cut down about 420 corporate jobs this year.

Some of the major takeaways from this article was the way how Sears is planning to restructure to avoid bankruptcy and how they are intending to reduce real estate. Sears has to consider also that if they are going to be closing more stores, will the stores they have now generate enough revenue, or will the sales volume still be low. Sears currently has an outstanding debt of about 4.5 billion, half of which is due over the next two years. Although Sears is trying their best to avoid bankruptcy, they are on the edge so, I don’t think they will have any other choice but to file for bankruptcy soon in the upcoming years.

Peterson, H. (2018, September 24). Sears’ CEO is making a last-ditch effort to avoid bankruptcy. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/sears-ceo-proposes…

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