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Haydn W

Income distribution of New York City: What does it take to be rich? - 1 views

  • So You’re Rich for an American. Does That Make You Rich for New York?
  • New Yorkers have a notoriously skewed sense of wealth—at least when they work in industries like finance or media and live in Manhattan or Brooklyn. It’s hard not to, seeing how we’re surrounded by expensive restaurants, expensive apartments, and expensively dressed people who seem able to afford it all.
  • If I mention that a six-figure salary counts as rich in much of the country—that just $250,000 gets you into the top 2 percent—the response is usually, “Sure, but that’s not New York rich.”
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  • The greater New York metro area may be home to an enormous share of the country’s 1 percenters, and it's certainly a magnet for exorbitant, plutocratic wealth. But in the city itself, the basic income curve isn’t that exceptional. In the entire U.S., according to the Census, about 22 percent of households earn six figures. In NYC, it’s about 25 percent.
  • Real estate here is expensive, and we don’t get much square footage for our buck. But as I wrote yesterday, the high rents in this city are balanced out somewhat by the low, low cost of commuting on the subway. (Not paying for a car, or gas, or car insurance is pretty financially sweet.)
  • Combine that with the fact that salaries are somewhat higher than average here, and New York is reasonably affordable compared with other large cities.
  • The upshot: If you’re rich by U.S. standards, you’re probably also rich by New York standards. Now, if you do want to see a city where incomes are crazily out of line with the national norm, check out San Francisco, where 39 percent of households make six figures—it really is becoming a city for the rich.
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    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.
Marenne M

Super Bowl XLVIII Pricing: A Lesson In Demand Elasticity - Forbes - 1 views

  • club-level seats in the mezzanine of MetLife Stadium are likely to cost about $2,600, as compared to the $1,250 charged for the top tickets at last year’s Super Bowl in New Orleans.
  • next-cheapest set of tickets in the lower bowl of MetLife would cost about $1,500, up from the $950 charged for second-tier seats sold in New Orleans.
  • professional sports teams typically price their inventory in the inelastic portion of their demand functions.
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  • eams charge too low a price to maximize ticket revenues
  • maximum attendance
  • omplementary purchases associated with sporting attendance…such as concessions, parking, merchandise.
  • maximizing ‘revenue per seat’ as opposed to just gate revenues
  • onsiderable mark-ups for Super Bowl tickets
  • willingness to spend thousands of dollars above face in some cases merely reflects the uniqueness of the event
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    The author describes inelastic demand taking the Super Bowl as an example of pricing in many other sports.
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    This article describes how many sports events try to keep their prices low, in order to maximize attendance and thereby complementary costs such as food and parking. However, the Superbowl tickets are very expensive, and increasing in price. This is because they want to earn more money purely on ticket sales, and they believe they can make more revenue because the high prices only show how special this event is, which means there is a high demand to meet the high prices.
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    This article describes how many sports events try to keep their prices low, in order to maximize attendance and thereby complementary costs such as food and parking. However, the Superbowl tickets are very expensive, and increasing in price. This is because they want to earn more money purely on ticket sales, and they believe they can make more revenue because the high prices only show how special this event is, which means there is a high demand to meet the high prices.
Aleksi B

BBC Sport - Cristiano Ronaldo: Real Madrid forward agrees new contract - 0 views

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    Real Madrid CF have reported to give Cristiano Ronaldo a new contract making him the most expensive player in football. Now the question is will the club benefit from all this money being spent on this one player? This this the opportunity cost Real Madrid are taking hoping this will lead them to some football glory 
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    I believe you are right. I never though of applying economic concepts to sports and especial soccer. But you are right, soccer teams are similar to companies now days and some are even in the stock market. They are investing money on Cristiano Ronaldo hoping to get back some glory and therefore money. I find that is horrible to classify a soccer player and therefore a human being as an economic good.
Yassine G

Price Controls Cause Chaos in Ethiopian Markets - 0 views

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    I choose this article as I found that It demonstrates all the consequences of a price control and from different points of view. In this case, the government set a maximum price. A lot of the citizens were very happy, as they can now afford what they couldn't before, however, with time, they started to realise that the products are disappearing from shelves. The reason is that with the lower price, demand has increased and suppliers can't supply more. The suppliers were affected by this price control too. They are not able to pay their costs any more, and profit made is very little. If the government doesn't take another action to fix what they did, they will have a bigger problem than food being expensive, which is food not exciting due to most groceries closing after not being able to make profits. 
Marenne M

True Costs of So-called Cheap Food | Ellen Gustafson - 0 views

  • when you look at the prices of so-called "conventional" junk food compared with local, organic fruits and veggies, on a calorie per dollar basis, the junk often wins.
  • Many people assume that it's the produce or organic foods that "cost more" than highly processed, shelf-stable ubiquitous and cheap junk food, but what if the price tags that we see don't tell the whole story?
  • hich requires acres of corn fields, seeds, gallons of water, gas for heavy machinery, pounds of fertilizer and sprays of pesticides, and government subsidies.
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  • give them antibiotics, deal with their waste, transport them to slaughter, power the slaughter facility, refrigerate the ground meat and then cook it
  • processed wheat bun and condiments.
  • so efficient that all of those costs amortize over tons of ground beef and fixings to make a really cheap burger, or are there parts of that whole list of "costs" that don't actually show up in the price of our fast food burgers?
  • Examples of costs not currently factored into our food supply include the environmental outcomes of chemically-intensive and petroleum-intensive agriculture, costs for soil erosion, real water and irrigation costs, pesticide and waste runoff that creates dead zones in our waterways (like the "New Jersey-sized dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico" that stems from nitrogen runoff from our Corn Belt) and then affects the livelihoods of fishermen and shrimp farmers in the Gulf region.
  • Hidden health costs like our global obesity epidemic and the food-related public health issues of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer are certainly not included in the cost of your fast food meal.
  • unpaid externalities like low wages for food workers that often mean government subsidies like food assistance, which is what over 50 percent of fast food worker families are getting
  • "value" and "low prices" of cheap food that we see at the cash register, are not the whole story
  • We are paying today in our health and our taxes and our children
  • will be paying tomorrow with a degraded environment, dirty water, decimated communities and jobs, and denigrated health.
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    This article describes how processed food and fast food have many negative externalities which in the end makes them cost more than organic foods which are more expensive in the stores. Processed foods may be cheaper than organic food, however the pollution during the process of producing the food, the health problems involved and the low wages which are unpaid for are all consequences which in the end will make these foods cost more.
Jakub B

Why Are Lawyers So Expensive Even With The Excess Supply Of Lawyers? - 2 views

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    The article's main topic is describing the reasons of not adapting supply of lawyers. Although the demand for their services is decreasing, their wages are still as during typical prosperity. The author states that the unwilling law milieu, It is an example of a supply curve which do not change in order to get equilibrium price. The reference to the game theory indicated in Johnson's essay which considers such stalemate as 'lose-lose situation'.
Pietro AA

Analysis: Energy costs keep Japan's focus on nuclear, despite risks and use of renewabl... - 0 views

    • Pietro AA
       
      Other scarse vaariables introduced: time and technology
    • Pietro AA
       
      safety is a desire of most men and it is also not infitite therefore it is scarse.
  • ctions take about six months for each reactor, and obtaining con
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    • Pietro AA
       
      a conflict between the scarsity of safety and scarsity of energy
    • Pietro AA
       
      a conflict between the scarsity of safety and scarsity of energy
  • Energy costs keep Japan's focus on nuclear, despite risks and use of renewables
  • other plants remained closed for intensified safety checks
  • The issue is cost, and to a lesser extent, concern over a resurgence in climate-changing carbon emissions due to increased use of coal and oil to generate power. Clean energy still only accounts for 10 percent of total consumption — most of it hydropower. Much of the new capacity approved has yet to come online.
  • nuclear power remains essential, even with a surge in generation capacity from solar, wind and other renewable sources, and that the world's No. 3 economy cannot afford the mounting costs from importing gas and oil.
  • Japan has managed to avoid power rationing and blackouts. Industries have moved aggressively to avoid disruptions by installing backup generators and shifting to new sources, such as solar power.
  • households no
  • paying 30 percent more for electricity than before, with more rate hikes to come.
  • prompted a rethink of plans to raise nuclear capacity from one-third to over half of total demand.
  • Reliance on imported oil and gas has surged from about 60 percent of energy consumption to about 85 percent.
  • The recent weakening of the Japanese yen has added to the burden on the economy from oil and gas imports.
  • Abe and others in favor of resuming nuclear power contend that renewable energy is too expensive and unreliable — wind doesn't always blow, the sun doesn't always shine.
  • Apart from those issues, national security requires that Japan retain some self-sufficiency
  • Local communities are divided: many have relied heavily on nuclear plants for jobs and tax revenues, but worry over potential risks.
  • hat there's a huge opportunity in power
  • We're also seeing radical efficiency gains.
  • he disposal and security of nuclear waste are issues yet to be resolved.
  • For now, however, it appears any phase-out of nuclear power will be very gradual.
  • "In the long term if we can create new resources that are more efficient than the current oil-based system, then we can rely less on nuclear power, that's quite possible," Adachi said. "But it will take quite a long time."
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    This article shows how, since the meltdown of the Fukushima plant in 2011, the "want" of security (which is scarce) increased and gave energy problems to the country (energy is one of the most important scarce resources . Japan finds itself making decisions limited by the scarcity of energy, safety, time and technology. Should it take risks and stop spending money? Should it keep everybody safe and just go for the hydrocarbur plants? Should it simply invest on renewable energy plants? Should it take time and reaserch   Pietro
Haydn W

Rightmove triples its estimate for housing price rises | Money | The Guardian - 0 views

  • A leading estate agent has tripled its forecast for house price rises in 2013
  • Online estate agent Rightmove has raised its 2013 house price forecast for the third time this year to more than double the rate of inflation
  • The chain expects the average property price to increase by 6% this year
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  • On Wednesday the Bank of England's financial policy committee
  • and what remedial measures
  • discuss the possibility of a property bubble
  • can be taken
  • The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics)
  • has called on the committee to cap annual house price growth at 5% a year.
  • Vince Cable, the business secretary, has warned of the risks of "returning to the problems of the last decade when housing got out of control,"
  • and said the chancellor should consider halting the second phase of his Help to Buy scheme.
  • The controversial mechanism, which
  • will allow people to buy homes worth up to £600,000 with a 5% deposit.
  • The Liberal Democrat president, Tim Farron, also attacked George Osborne's flagship scheme
  • The Rightmove report said the average asking price reached £245,495 in September, a 4.5% increase on the same month a year earlier.
  • Prices are rising fastest in greater London, up 8.2% over the past year to £493,748, and the West Midlands, up 6.8% to £195,429.
  • In London, prices are up in all boroughs except Barking & Dagenham (down 0.8% to £218,242). Prices in Croydon and Tower Hamlets rose by more than 2% in September alone.The most expensive homes are in Kensington and Chelsea, where the average home is priced at £2.16m – a 6.5% increase on last year.
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    This article explains how many organisations are forecasting a rise in house prices in my home country, the UK. It also details opposition by UK politicians to the Chancellor's 'Help to Buy' scheme which is supposed to help more people get on the property ladder. I believe this is related to what we are studying in Economics as it relates to houses being a scarce resource and how people have to choose between the increasing difficulties of getting on the property ladder and other living essentials in todays economy. (Opportunity Cost)
Aleksi B

India Plans Price Controls on Patented Drugs - WSJ.com - 0 views

  • India plans to widen the scope of price controls on pharmaceuticals
  • The new proposals would extend price restrictions beyond generic medicines to apply for the first time to patented drugs
  • The plans come as Bayer AG BAYN.XE -0.17% Bayer AG Germany: Xetra €94.89 -0.16 -0.17% Nov. 15, 2013 5:35 pm Volume : 2.67M P/E Ratio 25.24 Market Cap €78.47 Billion Dividend Yield 2.00% Rev. per Employee €363,176 10/31/13 Bayer Boosted by New Drugs 09/13/13 Bayer Under Scrutiny in China More quote details and news » BAYN.XE in Your Value Your Change Short position is fighting an order from India's patent authority that required the Germany company to issue a license allowing an Indian generic-drug company to sell a less expensive copy of Bayer's patented cancer drug Nexavar.
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  • India sets prices for 74 generic medicines and is considering increasing the number of medicines covered by price caps to 348
  • Any attempt to restrict prices of patented drugs likely will rankle foreign pharmaceutical companies
  • The move raised fears in India that without price controls patented drugs might be unaffordable for a majority of the country's 1.2 billion people.
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    The article explains on how India are planning to put price controls on their drugs making them go for lower prices so that people can afford them.
Aleksi B

Department of Pharmaceuticals seeks Law Ministry opinion on drug pricing mechanism issu... - 0 views

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    Drugs are raising in price due to price mechanism, now the government might start getting involved and lowering prices to some drugs
John B

Technology Eases the Ride to Higher Tolls - New York Times - 0 views

  • I imagine that some of the children being driven to the Jersey Shore today won’t even look away from their DVD players as they glide through a toll.
  • As a result of E-ZPass and its ilk, even many adults don’t notice the cost of a toll.
  • Which raises an interesting question: If you don’t know how much you’re paying for something, will you notice when the price goes up? Or has E-ZPass, for all its benefits, also made it easier for toll collectors to take your money?
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  • fter an electronic system is put in place, tolls start rising sharply. Take two tollbooths that charge the same fee and are in a similar setting — both on highways leading into a big city, for instance. A decade after one of them gets electronic tolls, it will be about 30 percent more expensive on average than a similar tollbooth without it. There are no shortage of examples: the Golden Gate Bridge, the George Washington Bridge and the Tappan Zee Bridge, among them.
  • “You may be less aware you’re paying the toll,” said Ms. Finkelstein, now an associate professor at M.I.T., “but you’re paying a higher toll than you used to.”
  • The E-ZPass economy is indisputably more convenient. It saves time and frustration. But the old frustrations that came with cash also brought a hidden benefit: they forced you to notice that you were spending money. With electronic money, it’s much easier to be carefree.
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    In this article we read about how ignorant we can be for the taxes we pay when entering cities due to the electronically tolls. It is very easy for the E-ZPass company to raise the cost when going through a toll since it is payed with electronic money. Still we get something out of this. We save time and we don't get frustrated on waiting to pay the toll. That is a demand that is very high since everyone has very little time to spare and we really don't Want to become frustrated. So this company use these demands in to their benefits.
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    In this article we read about how ignorant we can be for the taxes we pay when entering cities due to the electronically tolls. It is very easy for the E-ZPass company to raise the cost when going through a toll since it is payed with electronic money. Still we get something out of this. We save time and we don't get frustrated on waiting to pay the toll. That is a demand that is very high since everyone has very little time to spare and we really don't Want to become frustrated. So this company use these demands in to their benefits.
Talisha R

Apple's Ipad Mini - 2 views

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    This article shows how when the prices of luxury goods decrease, the demand increases. Usually, Apple's products are quite expensive, but by decreasing the price, it attracts more consumers which shows that their product is price elastic. When there is a change in price, this causes a significant change in demand as shown in this article.
Samuel Choi

The Return of the Supply Side - 5 views

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    This is a very interesting article because it presents a well-known health care reform in the context of a supply-side policy. The article is about how Republicans have been blaming Obamacare for having negative supply-side effects on the economy and the labour force by reserving budgets for subsidising the system.
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    This article discusses the return of the supply side policies..
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    Republicans believed that supply rather than demand was to be blamed for the economy's state. However, there has been clear evidence that the job market was held back due to low demand. The article then starts to delve int Obamacare and how it had negative supply-side effects on the economy.
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    Obamacare is nothing new - it has been debated about for months, if not years, in one shape or form. This problem with Obamacare is that it has negative supply-side effects. These effects were offset by a half, with the presence of Medicaid, but now that the subsidies for health care have shrunken, the marginal tax rate would rise, thus discouraging people to find work and keep working. Politicians are pushing for supply-side reforms, but the Congress isn't budging due to the possibility that Obamacare, an expensive and time-consuming venture, might be scrapped.
Haydn W

Fossil fuel subsidies 'killing UK's low-carbon future' | Environment | The Guardian - 0 views

  • Fossil fuel subsidies 'killing UK's low-carbon future'
  • despite commitments to cut carbon emissions and reduce "perverse" fossil fuel subsidies.
  • Britain is "shooting itself in the foot" by subsidising its coal, oil and gas industries by $4.2bn (£2.6bn) a year even as government reviews the "green levies" on energy bills which support energy efficiency and renewable power, according to a report published on Thursday.
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  • The figures from the Overseas Development Institute suggest that Britain is now the world's fifth largest subsidiser of fossil fuels
  • For every $1 spent to support renewable energy, another $6 were spent on fossil fuel subsidies
  • In 2011, the latest year for which data is available, Britain gave tax breaks of £280m to oil and gas producers and reduced VAT on fossil fuels by several billion pounds
  • Rich countries have committed to phase out "inefficient" fossil fuel subsidies but the ODI figures, drawn from the International energy agency, OECD and other sources, suggest global subsidies to fossil fuel producers totalled $523bn a year in 2011 – dwarfing subsidies to renewable energies.
  • £2.6bn yearly incentive favours investment in carbon at the expense of green energy, says thinktank
  • In effect, each of the 11.6bn tonnes of carbon emitted from the top 11 developed countries comes with an average subsidy of $7 a tonne – around $112 for every adult
  • The figures have been released as ministers prepare to go to Poland for the deadlocked UN climate talks and as uncertainty surrounds the future of government-mandated levies on energy bills that support fuel poverty schemes and renewable energy.
  • G20 governments accepted in 2009 that fossil fuel subsidies encourage wasteful consumption, reduce energy security, and undermine efforts to deal with the threat of climate change.
  • The report said: "Investors are being sent the wrong signals on two fronts as carbon prices decline and fossil fuel subsidies increase."
  • The report argues that fossil fuel subsidies also fail in one of their core stated objectives, which is to to benefit the poorest.
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    This article describes how the UK government is heavily subsidising fossil fuel producers instead of prioritising and investing money in renewable sources of energy. Although it is essential to keep crude oil and fossil fuel prices low, as they are essential to many businesses, consumers and indeed the country itself, the G20, of which the UK is part of, has made a commitment to phasing out fossil fuels in favour of greener and more sustainable energy sources. 
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