Group items tagged

This article shows how demand for shares in the newly floated UK postal service Royal Mail has pushed the price up from 330p a share to 450p. This is the price in which demand is seen to be equal to supply, something the UK Government are being criticised for failing to notice as they believed 450p was a far to high price. The move itself if highly controversial and has been a hotly debated topic ever since it's proposal with many employees fearing that jobs will be lost.

I think this is really normal. Simply because private companies tend to have higher efficiency rates and therefore make more profits, this is the business part of the reason. Now if we consider the economical reason, I think that higher profits (deviants) will attract a lot more shareholders, this means higher demand. from the other side, shareholders will be willing to keep their shares as the company is making more and more profits, therefore less shares supply. So in short, more demand, less supply of shares could not lead to anything else except hiher prices and greater value of the company.

This article from the BBC News website details how Royal Mail, the recently privatised public service has seen a 2% increase in revenues. Th controversial move triggered widespread uproar from opponents and share prices rose rapidly above the target when the company was floated in October 2013. This article shows that despite the move the firm has continued to make money and appears to be in no immediate danger.

This article describes the sales of the new Iphone 5s and 5c over the first weekend. They had a great number of sales, however the demand for the Iphone 5c is not what they expected. It is said that the price is still too high for their target market. Apple was hoping to expand their market into Asia by producing a cheaper version of the IPhone in order to increase their market share, however it is likely that they will fail to do so, because the demand will remain low as the product is still not affordable for many Asians. Relating to our question of the week, the price helps allocate a product in the free market because it determines who the target market is, and if the pricing is off, it will effect the efficiency of the sales.

This article describes the sales of the new Iphone 5s and 5c over the first weekend. They had a great number of sales, however the demand for the Iphone 5c is not what they expected. It is said that the price is still too high for their target market. Apple was hoping to expand their market into Asia by producing a cheaper version of the IPhone in order to increase their market share, however it is likely that they will fail to do so, because the demand will remain low as the product is still not affordable for many Asians. Relating to our question of the week, the price helps allocate a product in the free market because it determines who the target market is, and if the pricing is off, it will effect the efficiency of the sales.

This article details the rise of so called 'budget supermarkets' Aldi and Lidl in the UK taking market share from the 'Big Four' supermarkets Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrisons. The supermarket industry in the UK is a prime example of an oligopoly, I'd argue that there isn't perhaps a better example anywhere as this market features all the tell-tale signs; the four supermarkets often compete in price wars, especially Asda, the store mentioned here. Also the firms often collude and fix prices across the board together. The market, however is changing with other firms entering the market to provide cheaper alternatives to the ' Big Four' whom so many consumers have become disenfranchised with.

The European Union have reached an agreement with China to end the threat of EU tariffs on Chinese telecommunications equipment. The tariff was going to be imposed as a form of protectionism to protect the European manufactures Ericsson, Nokia and Alcatel against the Chinese firms Huawei and ZTE. The Chinese firms are able to produce equipment cheaper than the European firms, due to more abundant natural resources, but also, crucially through subsidies from the Beijing government. The deal reached on October 9th, sees the Chinese companies granted a share of the market, but not access to it fully, as this is reserved for the European firms, to protect EU economic growth in such a tempestuous time, showing that, forms of protectionism still exist in the market, despite this agreement.

this article wants to tell us that the copyright monopoly is something bad. That it slows down the development in the future. Personally, I would say that this article is not thought through since it is contradicting and use language like "can fuck off and die". The writer aims a lot on the right of duplicating, and that copyright monopoly stands in its way for that. I would say that duplicating something that a company has put a lot of money and time on, would not be morally right, because the one that is duplicating it will spend a very little fortune and time on doing this compared to the real producers. It is actually a pretty bad article, it feels like the writer tries to promote the duplication right of copying movies, programs, etc. and then share it on for example pirate bay.

The article is about regulating the petrol oligopoly in Pakistan. It argues that the petrol-firms under oligopoly set their own high prices, and the government is deregulating the prices but the prices are still too high. 

Oligopolies contain firms that operate at a profit maximizing level and that in the short run can have burst of price changes. These changes in prices are due to an instant attempt at increasing the market share, however this leads to issues for other firms as well as consumers. In order for this to be prevented, government regulation is an option. This article describes how instead of regulating the industry the government is operating it, and what problems this causes

This article shows how bike sharing scheme spreads all around the world in last decades. This idea is more and more popular in every region. Moreover, this concept has a lot of positive externalities. For example, healthier and environmentally friendly mean of transport.

this article talks about the price mechanism and influence on the price that could be caused by two corporations which are very strong on this market. both industires have impact on price and the dispute should be resolved by the supreme court.

This article gives us an idea on how prices of some necessities are set. In this case two of the biggest companies in the oil market in their area are having some disagreements on what the price should be. Since they have a big share of the market, they act like a monopoly. the supreme court intervention was required to help settle this dispute.

Australia, Russia exports seen hit; Indonesia to be exempt * China thermal coal futures, China shares of top coal firms rise (Adds analyst's comments, coal futures and coal firms' shares) By Fayen Wong SHANGHAI, Oct 9 (Reuters) - China, the world's top coal importer, will levy import tariffs on the commodity after nearly a decade, in its latest bid to prop up ailing domestic miners who have been buffeted by rising costs and tumbling prices. China will levy import tariffs between 3-6 percent.

This article explains how production costs in India could have been cut if Coal India had kept prices lower. The article also tells us that the company has a monopoly on the industry and is state-run which has lead some people to criticise the government. The company has been accused of protecting its own interests by raising prices to cache its bank balance. 

Propane producers try to gain more by selling more. But they need a greater demand. Since natural gas and propane are substitute goods, and the natural gas industy has recently boomed, propane lost a lot of demand. So "propane distributors seek to boost demand with land mowers" and by exporting these two complementary products to other countries.

This article talks about the economic implications of imposing a tax on carbon emissions and how this would affect the different social classes of society in different ways. The article makes specific reference to economic theory and the elements on elasticity.

Taxation almost always decrease the economic surplus and therefore it makes a decline in effectiveness. In this case, the energy companies will be the most affected group.

This article from Slate tackles the issue of income distribution in one of the most notoriously expensively cities on Earth - New York. The article relates the economic principles learned this week to real life and the cost of living in a bustling city, with an interesting conclusion that might surprise some.

showing that a surplus is not always desirable

The monetary union of the Euro zone has been heavily criticized as only a place that shares one thing: its currency. It has been judged however they have incorrect, due to the integration of the countries' economies.

This article really looks into how a monetary union can work when it is so divided, and it goes on to say that the political ties are what enables it to thrive without major disturbances. It also mentions how important these ties are for the central bank and monetary policy of the bloc to work