McDonald's CEO Bio and Stock Price History

Jim Skinner is the current CEO of the well - known McDonald's franchise.  Skinner has been the CEO since 2004 and leads the world's largest food service company with over 32,000 restaurants in a heaping 117 different countries.  On average, McDonald's serves approximately 60 million customers per day with over 1.7 million employees in corporate, as well as restaurant positions worldwide.  According to his online bio,

"In 2007, Dow Jones/Marketwatch named Skinner 'CEO of the Year,' and Restaurants & Institutions magazine bestowed him '2007 Executive of the Year.' In 2008, Skinner was named one of 'America’s Best CEOs' by Institutional Investor magazine. Chief Executive magazine named Skinner the '2009 CEO of the Year' and he was recently named one of Barron’s '30 Most Respected CEOs'.”


[http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/our_company/bios/jim_skinner.html]


Despite a slight downfall near the end of the century, McDonald's has been a relatively stable stock performer throughout it's history.  In 1992, McDonald's set the stage for it's consistency as it broke through it's $10 mark.  By the end of 1999 it's stock was set at $48 per share.  Right before the recession, McDonald's stock hit a low point in late 2003.  Ironically enough, however, as the recession hit it's hardest, McDonald's stock had hit it's all - time high by the summer of 2008 as the world's largest restaurant chain. Since then McDonald's stock price has been pretty constant, if not increasing little by little. As of yesterday, April 28, 2011, McDonald's stock price opened at $78.00 and closed at $78.03. For more information about McDonald's stock price history please feel free to visit: 


[http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=97876&p=irol-stockLookup&t=HistQuote&control_firstdatereturned=]

Stock for Goldmans Sachs

I am really new to all of these business aspects of our discussions in class so I am just putting down what I think is right so DON'T JUDGE ME! haha...  Well from overviewing my research of Goldman Sachs' stock before the recession hit and I got "8.58 k".  Then when the recession hit their stock went down to
"-60.11 k".  The year after that it jumped to "101.87 k".  I looked at their funds and they were funded by a bunch of people and different companies it was to much to count.  Like I said earlier I am fareley new to all of this business stuff so I did not really know how to properly read it so I could be wrong about the information I am giving.  I found it interesting how they made such a substantial comeback after the recession though.

Effects of the Free Trade

In the long run, free trade negatively effects the US economy.  Because of the fact that big corporations are able to go over seas and charge the minimal price for their labor, they fully take advantage of that.  In a business sense it is kind of smart for an increase in personal profit, but it does not help our economy.  Instead of outsourcing with other countries the US could make their own accessories here and eventually help the economy.  For example, it could help with the unemployment rates here in America especially during our recession.  Even though it would mean that these big corporations would not profit as much, it would go more for the greater cause of not just them but the economy.  It would also help eventually because all the money that we spend on other countries to produce our products, if we manufactured our own products the money would eventually be, in a way, recycled to us because everyone pays taxes.  I think that we as the people should try harder to find more US made products.  Even if it is a lot more expensive, you are not only helping the economy, your purchase would probably last twice as long as another countries product.  Think about it.......

What People Do For Money

It makes me sick to my stomach hearing all of these new stories about how careless and inconsiderate these big corporations and companies are becoming now a days.  I was just reading about how, in our global issues book, those poor people were complaining about the cracks in the buildings supporting columns.  But these corporations and the people who run the sweatshops did not listen and built five more stories on top of it, added with all of the heavy machinery.  The Building collapsed and killed 64 workers and injured dozens and dozens of people.  This was a killing not an accident, as said in the book.  I hate to see how far people will go to stretch that extra dollar by paying the minimum amount for the manufacturing companies and not even thinking about the suffering people who have to work because there are no other jobs in their country so they will do anything to support their family.  It is just sad to see what people do for money and how far they will go to get it...

USA vs China Lifestyle

The federal minimum wage of the United States is $7.50 an hour.  I looked up a bunch of the brands of my clothes and most of them were manufactured in China.  So i researched the wage of the people who make these clothes and I found out that they make $2.74 a day.  If a person were to make this kind of income in our country they would not be able to survive any where especially how many hours they work and how hard they do it.  These poor people, im sure, put far more effort and dedication into their work than half of the well paid citizens today in the USA.  But some say that these sweat shops have given alot of the people who did not have work before a job and some a better lifestyle than how they were living before.  But just because this is true does not mean that people can take advantage and give them pretty much nothing and let them be treated the way they do in these places.  They should at least provide them some type of benefits and a good working environment.  These people work 12 to 13 hour days without any overtime pay.  It may not be our country's primary responsibility but since they give us so much in imports from an ethical standpoint, we should try to improve work conditions and laws for the sweatshops we  profit from.

about me

I was born and raised in San francisco and I am now attending foothill college.  I want to pursue a business/marketing management major.  I wish to attend San Diego State University to receive my bachelors and maybe even my masters.  Maybe one day I can become a head CEO of a company or something successful that involves business of some sort. I wish to learn better writing skills in English 1A this semester.  This blog will give me better experience on the internet and help me with voicing my opinion on world issues and such.