Ethical Issues in Business. In the current economy, people have developed distrust towards the business sector. There have been innumerable accusations of unethical business practices especially in the energy sector. In 2001, the price of natural gas went from $ 2 to $ 6 to an abnormal price of $50. While some increase in price was understandable using the supply and demand curve economic theory. More gas demand due to the cold weather caused the demand curve to shift to the right resulting in a higher equilibrium price at the same supply. The demand for natural gas is inelastic since that is something we cannot cut back. Same is the case with medicine, tobacco and alcohol. The elasticity coefficient = % change in Quantity / % change in Price. If the elasticity coefficient is less than 1, it is called inelastic. Usually when that happens, it is short term or alternate energy is mobilized as a natural correction bringing the price down. However, as we know that there was a manipulation in the supply of energy and artificially created shortfall in supply. This caused a left ward shift in the supply curve just when the demand of electricity was high due to the hot weather in California. Energy giants like Enron, Dynergy and El Paso Energy colluded with alternate energy producers and created an artificial scarcity of electricity and energy in the market. They overloaded the grid and so power plants had to be shut down. Other power plant shut down for maintenance in the peak time of production causing shortfall in energy which in turn caused a leftward shift in the supply curve, forcing the gas prices to go up. This happened not just in the short term but even long term forcing the shift in the supply curve to the left and keeping gas prices