Around the time of the housing crisis in the US, Hollate Manufacturing underwent a series of major changes at key managerial positions. The former CFO, Jack Brennahan, became the new CEO. Brennahan helped conduct the search for a new CFO to fill his spot, and they eventually decided on William Blackburt. Blackburt was hired mostly due to his prior success at growing a manufacturer through acquisitions. Despite the recent economic downturn, Hollate had success with their first acquisition and IPO and were looking to continue to grow the company through further acquisitions. When Blackburt was hired, he negotiated aggressively for his compensation package to include significant bonus opportunities based on higher revenue growth. Shortly prior to Blackburt being hired, Hollate’s board also underwent some changes. Mike Soltany was the Audit Committee Chair. The two other members of the board were recruited by and were acquaintances of Brennahan’s. Eventually this board would become even closer with one another and with other members of management at the firm. Once operations got underway with Blackburt as the new CFO, he was an aggressive supporter of Hollate making further acquisitions. This strategy seemed to work for the company and things seemed to be looking up. The positive environment at Hollate and the personal relationships that formed among top managers led to a strong sense of trust among top management. Eventually, this sense of trust paired with the focus on meeting
In addition to staggering the directors tenure, the company initiated employee severance agreements with key officials, providing a severance package agreement to provide a “safety net” should any of the board member positions be terminated by a hostile takeover or leveraged buy-out by an unwanted suitor. By providing these lucrative packages for senior managers, many were able to stay with Church & Dwight and allowed for continuity of leadership styles, vision and mission focus. It is because of this steadfast devotion to principles that have promoted steady growth over the years that we find Church & Dwight identified previously as a “Star” but more recently labled a “Cash Cow” using
This case focuses on David Sokol, an executive who has made a “name” for himself in recent years within the energy industries. After becoming recognized as a successful “turnaround” agent for troubled companies, Sokol was hired in 1992 to serve as the chief operating officer of JWP, Inc., a large, New York-based conglomerate. At the time, JWP had an impressive history of sustained profits and revenue growth that was being threatened by the company’s far-flung operations and unwieldy organizational structure. Unknown to Sokol, JWP’s impressive operating results over the prior few years had been embellished by the company’s
Summary – This case looks a decision that George Hausman, the co-founder and CEO of Refresh Organics (RO), makes regarding creating a board of directors. RO is a midsize, steadily growing, privately owned company which is a distributor of organic produce. RO has never had a formal board of directors, but Hausman had several close business advisors who he consulted with regularly and referred to as “the kitchen cabinet.” Hausman considered putting together a true board of directors or if simply making an advisory council would be better suited for the needs of RO. Ultimately, Hausman decided to form a board of directors of ten members, including himself and three out of four members of “the kitchen cabinet,” replacing his wife, an
The housing crisis in Detroit illuminated the grave economic reality of migrant black families living in the industrial Midwest. In order to holistically analyze the ramifications of the black labor movement, historians must understand the inextricable link between fair housing and the lack of financial capital for generations of black families. The rise of surbanization and red-lining tactics prompted white flight from Detroit’s predominately white neighborhoods, such as Dearborn. “During and after World War II, blacks flooded into Detroit’s Lower East Side: Paradise Valley” (Sugrue 36). Neighborhood deterioration, coupled with disproportionately high-rents and low Home Owners Loan Corporation appraisal scores, led to private-sector discrimination practices by predatory bank loaners and real-estate brokers in the West and East-Sides of Detroit—particularly the Eight-Mile, Paradise Valley, Oakwood, and Sojourner Truth Housing areas (Sugrue 43, 77).
It was reasonable for a CEO’s compensation to increase as the company expanded and became a larger entity, and the newly-granted shares and increasing stock options further aligned the CEO’s personal interests with those of the company and shareholders. In this sense, the second compensation package was also well-structured and not excessive. Seeing Sunbeam’s revenue rising and stock price climbing steeply upwards, Sunbeam’s shareholders and directors were fully convinced by Dunlap’s leadership, so they might perceive the increase in compensation amount necessary to retain and better motivate Dunlap to enhance the company’s value. Nonetheless, they neglected the fact that the increased portion of the equity-based compensation also further motivated the CEO’s dangerous behaviors pertaining to improper earnings management.
The housing industry has been around for many years. It is an important industry and one that will always have a necessity to exist since it creates a product that is one of the essentials of human life, housing. Economics play an important role in the housing industry along with all other industries.
During the early 2000 's, the United States housing market experienced growth at an unprecedented rate, leading to historical highs in home ownership. This surge in home buying was the result of multiple illusory financial circumstances which reduced the apparent risk of both lending and receiving loans. However, in 2007, when the upward trend in home values could no longer continue and began to reverse itself, homeowners found themselves owing more than the value of their properties, a trend which lent itself to increased defaults and foreclosures, further reducing the value of homes in a vicious, self-perpetuating cycle. The 2008 crash of the near-$7-billion housing industry dragged down the entire U.S. economy, and by extension, the global economy, with it, therefore having a large part in triggering the global recession of 2008-2012.
Macroeconomics is an excellent tool for the analysis of the housing industry as something like a capital good, as a home is considered to be, cannot easily be studied in a short-term platform. Real estate is a good that costs several times more than an average persons annual income, in the United States that number is typically 7 times as much, and in the United Kingdom that number is 14 times as much. Several factors of both supply and demand directly impact the housing market on a macroeconomic scale. (Business Economics, 1)
The housing crisis of the late 2000s rocked the economy and changed the landscape of the real estate business for years to come. Decades of people purchasing houses unfordable houses and properties with lenient loans policies led to a collective housing bubble. When the banking system faltered and the economy wilted, interest rates were raised, mortgages increased, and people lost their jobs amidst the chaos. This all culminated in tens of thousands of American losing their houses to foreclosures and short sales, as they could no longer afford the mortgage payments on their homes. The United States entered a recession and homeownership no longer appeared to be a feasible goal as many questioned whether the country could continue to support a middle-class. Former home owners became renters and in some cases homeless as the American Dream was delayed with no foreseeable return. While the future of the economy looked bleak, conditions gradually improved. American citizens regained their jobs, the United States government bailed out the banking industry, and regulations were put in place to deter such events as the mortgage crash from ever taking place again. The path to homeowner ship has been forever altered, as loans in general are now more difficult to acquire and can be accompanied by a substantial down payment.
The Big Short is a movie that discusses the housing market crash in 2008. As you may know, the banks, the mortgage brokers, and the consumers were all affected by this collapse. On each level of the system, there were things that went wrong and that could have been changed that could have prevented the failure of the housing market.
Affordable housing in the United States describes sheltering units with well-adjusted housing costs for those living on an average, median income. The phrase usually implies to applied rental or purchaser housing within the financial means of lower-income ranges specific to the demographics of any given area. However, affordable housing does not include those living in social housing owned by government and non-profit organizations. More specifically, the targeted range for housing affordability sets below 30 percent of a household's annual income, including all applicable taxes, utility costs and home owners insurance rates. If the mean income per household breaches the 30 percent mark, then the agreed status becomes labeled as
Here we see a failure of the board to look at management critically. They accepted only the information presented to them by the CEO and did not demand a better picture on the state of RBS’s business in mortgage trading even while the CEO’s story seemed to constantly be changing. The board exists as a watchdog to the executive management yet nothing was done to hold the CEO accountable to the truth.
In 2007, the U.S. fell into a deep financial recession. One of the main causes of this was the bursting of the housing bubble, which lead to a housing crisis. What is a housing bubble? A housing bubble is defined as “a temporary condition caused by unjustified speculation in the housing market that leads to a rapid increase in real estate prices” (businessdictionary.com 2014). When the bubble bursts, the result is a quick decline in home prices (businessdictionary.com 2014).
Although Mortgage Backed Security (MBS) and Collateralized Debt Obligation (CDO) are very similar, they are not the same. MBS are a type of bond or securities that represent an investment in a pool of mortgage loans. For example, if I want to buy a house the first thing I will need to do is go to a bank to request a mortgage for the amount of money I need. Then, after the bank approves me the mortgage (plus interests), the bank will sell my mortgage to an investments bank which eventually will sell it to more investors. The MBS is a way to lend money to people without worrying about they have the money to pay or not.
The current real estate crisis that America finds itself in is one of the greatest challenges America has ever faced. America’s troubles are further compounded by increasing unemployment of American citizens and environmental problems like global warming. Solving any one of these problems would be a Herculean task, yet they must each be addressed in order to protect American families from disaster. However, it is possible to find a solution to the problems of the real estate crisis that can also be used to improve the problems of the unemployment and environmental destruction. The first part of the solution involves the United States government purchasing the homes that have been foreclosed and using them to offer temporary housing to