SUMMARY: Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank Act) created a reporting requirement for publicly traded companies that manufacture products using ''conflict minerals'' from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) or adjoining countries. Under certain circumstances, companies must file a Conflict Minerals Report (CMR) in addition to a Specialized Disclosure Report (Form SD). Companies that claim their products are free of conflict minerals from the DRC must have an audit of their CMR. We investigate the extent to which companies have complied with the new disclosure requirements as well as the current and future auditing implications.

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This paper addresses the question of why the student loan crisis has arisen through the use of a demand and supply model. The model serves as a framework for analyzing the student-borrower motivations (the demand side), the bank-lender motivations (the supply side), externalities that motivate government support for student loans, and the perverse incentives government regulations spawn for educational institutions and lenders. Analysis of the model reveals that the crisis is driven by students desire to increase their socioeconomic standing, by banks search for profits in a climate of decreasing risk, and by the governments efforts to lessen the impact of externalities.