Were it not for the vulcanization of rubber and its subsequent development into tires, the automobile might never have become popular.

Initially, the royal charters provided support for early North American colonial farms and businesses, but later, monarchs used the charter’s powers to impose taxes and regulations on the colonists...

Rockefeller created a near monopoly of the oil industry with the Standard Oil Company and established the model for philanthropic foundations.

The robber barons transformed American business after the U.S. Civil War, helping found the modern, industrialized economy of the twentieth century.

The third most important cereal grain in the United States, after wheat and corn, rice is one of America’s major food exports, as well as being used in quantity domestically.

The war established the United States as a sovereign nation, allowing it to set up its own system of taxation and trade.

Retail trade plays a critical part in any economic system by linking producers and consumers.

Since the early twentieth century, the American restaurant industry has boomed and made a major contribution to the transformation of American culture.

In a little more than sixty years, the American rental industry grew from a young market into a mature industry that in 2007 pumped hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues into the American economy.

The recession demonstrated that the New Deal was having problems, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt blamed business for the economic downturn.

Twenty-first century housing costs account for 30-50 percent of the typical American family budget, making housing the largest sector in the nation’s consumer economy.

As economic activity has grown more complex over time, commercial real estate has developed as a separate category from residential real estate.

Based initially on the principle of condensing articles from other publications, Reader’s Digest has become one of the most successful and enduring periodicals in U.S. business history.

As a leader in incorporating African Americans into the trade union movement and working to end discrimination in employment and segregation in the military...

Railroads were the formof transport that revolutionized American business.

Workers in many industries joined the railroaders in their strike, making this first nationwide strike one of the broadest general strikes in American labor history.

Radio broadcasts at once drew audiences to advertising and revolutionized entertainment in American households.

The RICO Act was designed to put an end to the enormous illegal profits enjoyed by the Mafia.

Rules of origin define the country of origin for exports and IMPORTS. Rules of origin are important in determining what, if any, TARIFF applies to the importation of a PRODUCT. Many products contain components and materials produced around the world and then assembled in another country.

Compounding is the process of finding an unknown future value from a known present value—that is, moving forward in time from a known amount in the present to an unknown amount at some point in the future. Obviously, in dollar terms, future values are larger amounts than are present values because of the time value of money (INTEREST RATES are always positive, never negative).

The Robinson-Patman Act of 1935, as amended, is found in Section 2 of the CLAYTON ANTITRUST ACT. Adopted in the middle of the GREAT DEPRESSION, Robinson-Patman was intended to protect small retailers from the growing number of price-cutting chain stores. In that basic purpose it clearly failed, yet the act remains on the books and is still used by small businesses to challenge chain-store practices.

Risk exists when a probability of occurrence can be assigned to each of a set of possible outcomes. Thus, risk is measurable. Uncertainty exists when it is impossible to determine the probability of occurrence for each of a set of possible outcomes or when the entire set of possible outcomes is not known. As a result, uncertainty is not measurable.

After a huge marketing campaign, a computer company sends out a defective game. The same people who stood hours in line to be the first to own it cram the stores demanding their money back. The company loses millions of dollars.

Right-to-work laws are state laws mandating that workers cannot be required to join or pay dues to a UNION as a condition of EMPLOYMENT. The 1947 TAFT-HARTLEY ACT allowed states to pass right-to-work laws, and right-to-work laws exist in 22 states. Most southern states have passed rightto- work laws, but most northeastern and all Pacific Coast states have not passed similar legislation.