In your module 6 textbook chapters, you've learned about the nature and goals of 'the Megacorp' and 'technostructures', relatively recent institutions (since the last 100-150 years or so) which have largely replaced the competitive market with various governing rulesthrough which long-term planning can be accomplished.For this week's discussion find a particular instance, from a new site such as theFinancial TimesorCNBC, in which businesses have actively shaped the 'rules of the game' (that is, the market and corporate governance structures that make up the environment in which they operate).Then share your findings in a post discussing the following:

1. The particular connections you see between your example and the module 6 textbook chapters.(For instance, does the business activity you discuss involve a particular arrow in the M-C...P...C'-M' diagram?)
2. Whether your example can either be understood with the concepts and models of the neoclassical theories you've learned earlier in the term, or requires a distinct approach, as in the heterodox ideas you've learned this week and last.

Note: Module 6 was the chapter for Cost and Prices. You've read the materials on heterodox microeconomics and the Megacorp it should be clearer that there are fundamentally different approaches to studying economics, and fundamentally different understandings of how modern capitalist economies work.It is not the purpose of this course to argue that one is superior to another, but it is expected that you will come away with a basic understanding of the neoclassical and heterodox approaches, and of their differences.

Having completed this module, you should now be able to:

1. Form and test hypotheses concerning firms and prices from standard neoclassical theory
2. Recognize alternative approaches to pricing
3. Use standard pricing procedures to calculate full-cost and target-rate-of-return prices
4. Differentiate between the neoclassical and heterodox approaches to costs, prices, competition, and so on in modern capitalism