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John B

Consider Economies of Scale When Evaluating Money Saving Tips and Tricks - 2 views

lifehacker.com/...g-money-saving-tips-and-tricks

economies of scale

shared by John B on 26 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • Factor in the economy of scale for the changes you're making to see the true savings.
  • The small initial cost of the thermostat combined with a small amount of your labor, multiplies over time to make the value of that single hour of labor worth significantly more than the initial investment.
  • John B on 26 Jan 14
     
    This article is about taking economies of scale into account when trying to save money. Instead of buying your breakfast, you can make your own, like burritos. It will require little labour, time and money when it is spread on all burritos.
John B

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

www.nytimes.com/...04leonhardt.html

Price mechanism

shared by John B on 14 Oct 13 - Cached
  • 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?
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • 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.
  • John B on 14 Oct 13
     
    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.
  • John B on 14 Oct 13
     
    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.
Aleksi B

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

www.bbc.co.uk/...24099077

Opportunity Cost contract sport

shared by Aleksi B on 15 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • Aleksi B on 15 Sep 13
     
    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 
  • Clemente F on 16 Sep 13
     
    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.
Amanda Anna G

Morocco government raises energy prices to cut subsidies - Yahoo News - 0 views

news.yahoo.com/idies-102303630--business.html

Subsidy

shared by Amanda Anna G on 11 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • RABAT (Reuters) - Morocco's Islamist government raised energy prices on Monday as it began sensitive subsidies reform needed to meet International Monetary Fund (IMF) requirements.
  • Five ministers from the government's junior partner party have resigned in protest over the decision to raise prices.
  • But the move could shake the frail economy of the North African kingdom which relies mostly on tourism, agriculture and remittances from Moroccans living abroad. The government said it would return part of the increase on diesel fuel to professional drivers in the goods and people transport sector to avoid a snowball effect on prices.
  • Amanda Anna G on 11 Nov 13
     
    This article relates to subsidies since the government of Morocco has raised energy prices to save subsidy money that is needed for the International Monetary Fund requirements. Protests have been made from the government's junior partner party over the raise in price of energy. Higher taxes for energy will cause higher price for transportation for tourists and higher costs of production for agriculture. The government though, said they will return parts of the increase of energy prices for professional drivers to avoid a "snowball" effect on prices. But is the raise in price of energy due to the save of subsidy money rational for the country, looking upon the people's use of energy and the agriculture?
Aleksi B

China set to test loans, subsidies to support farmers - Economic Times - 0 views

articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/...ckpiling-ndrc-sugar-conference

China loans farms Government subsidies

shared by Aleksi B on 09 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • BEIJING: China is set to test using loans and subsidies to support farmers from next year
  • Reduced reliance on stockpiling, which has pushed domestic prices way above international markets, would be welcomed by local firms such as sugar and cotton mills that have had to shell out more for raw materials.
  • But in driving up domestic prices, the policy has fuelled a surge in cheaper imports, benefiting overseas suppliers rather than the local market.
  • Aleksi B on 09 Nov 13
     
    This article tells us about how China will soon be experimenting granting farmers loans to help them in producing more food. With more farmers being able to borrow money they can turn that money into profit by harvesting and selling sugar, cotton, soy and corn
Haydn W

Mexican Central Bank Head Warns of Spillover Effects of Dramatic Monetary Policies - WS... - 0 views

online.wsj.com/...702304811904579587782635533664

Mexico Central Bank Wall Street Journal Monetary Policy

shared by Haydn W on 27 May 14 - No Cached
  • SINTRA, Portugal—The head of Mexico's central bank said Tuesday that he supports the dramatic measures that central bankers in advanced economies have taken to stabilize their economies, but emerging markets must be mindful of the spillover effects these policies may have.
  • "The unconventional monetary policies have…established the ground for a recovery in economic activity," said Agustin Carstens, governor of Mexico's central bank
  • The inflows have led to higher exchange rates in emerging markets, Mr. Carstens said, weakening exports, as well as a compression of interest rates, leading to bubbles in some real-estate markets.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • One byproduct of these policies has been to pump new money into financial markets. Some of that money has found its way to emerging markets as investors sought higher-yielding assets.
  • "Authorities need to think about how they can spread, through time, the adjustment process,"
  • More broadly, emerging economies "shouldn't depend on advanced economies to generate growth," Mr. Carstens said.
  • Haydn W on 27 May 14
     
    Agustin Carstens, governor of the Central Bank of Mexico warns about the spillover affects into the developing world from advanced economies' banks' monetary policies. Money has found its way into emerging markets leading to higher exchange rates and weakening exports according to Carstens. This is a dangerous bubble that could be liable to burst should growth pick up soon. Overall this article provides an interesting insight into how one countries policy choices can have global consequences and how international economics really is.
Haydn W

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

www.theguardian.com/...-estimate-house-price-increase

The Guardian Money House Prices Scarcity Opportunity Cost UK Help to Buy

shared by Haydn W on 16 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • 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
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • 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.
  • Haydn W on 16 Sep 13
     
    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)
Marenne M

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

www.forbes.com/...-a-lesson-in-demand-elasticity

Price elasticity

shared by Marenne M on 27 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • 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.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • 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
  • Jakub B on 27 Sep 13
     
    The author describes inelastic demand taking the Super Bowl as an example of pricing in many other sports.
  • Marenne M on 19 Oct 13
     
    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.
  • Marenne M on 19 Oct 13
     
    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.
Haydn W

Scrap the licence fee and privatise the BBC - The Commentator - 0 views

www.thecommentator.com/...ence_fee_and_privatise_the_bbc

BBC Public Good The Commentator UK government

shared by Haydn W on 01 Dec 13 - No Cached
  • The next two years will see a lively debate over the future of the British Broadcasting Corporation, with the current Royal Charter due to run out at the end of 2016.
  • According to an ICM poll in the Sunday Telegraph last month, 70 per cent of voters believe that the licence fee should be abolished or cut.
  • With the licence fee scrapped, should the BBC remain in public ownership? Or should the BBC be privatised, so that it can compete on a level playing field with the global media giants that are now emerging? 
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Paul Samuelson, the Nobel-prize-winning American economist, advanced the concept of "public goods" in his classic 1954 paper "The Pure Theory of Public Expenditure", demonstrating that such goods had to be financed by taxation and could not be left to the free market. The hostility to advertising meant that broadcasting was the textbook paradigm of a "public good".
  • Still benefiting from the halo conferred by its wartime role, the BBC was by far the most influential broadcasting service in the world. Further, with the UK accounting for almost 10 per cent of world output in the late 1940s, its state-owned monopoly was a vast broadcasting business by international standards. The BBC may not have been part of the British constitution, but it was undoubtedly a "national champion".
  • Advertising is sometimes demonised by left-wing commentators as capitalism without taste or shame, and as free enterprise at its selfish worst.
  • The actual position is far more even-handed and complex. As the growing unpopularity of the licence fee has constrained the BBC's revenues, TV advertising spend is now about the same size as the total money collected by the licence fee and well above the portion of this money devoted to television.
  • But the truly spectacular development of the last few years is that both total advertising spend and the licence fee money have been surpassed by BSkyB's subscription revenue. As BSkyB also picks up advertising revenue on its channels, its annual income is well above the BBC's.
  • Haydn W on 01 Dec 13
     
    This article talks about the logistics of scraping the license fee that finances one of the worlds most famous examples of a public good, the BBC. Economic stagnation and falling wages have left many consumers disgruntled at the license fee and with the BBC failing to keep up with it's competitors in terms of revenue, costs have had to be cut at the world renowned corporation. The article explores the concept of the public good and how politicians have began to propose alternatives to the license fee.
Haydn W

Inflation Forecast 2014-2014: Continued Mild Price Increases - 1 views

www.forbes.com/...continued-mild-price-increases

Forbes Inflation Unemployment Phillips Curve Trade-off

shared by Haydn W on 03 May 14 - No Cached
  • Inflation is likely to remain mild in the next two years, but first a caution: none of the inflation forecasting models is doing a good job these days.
  • the Phillips Curve was our primary way of looking at inflation. William Phillips found an inverse relationship between inflation and unemployment over the period 1861-1957. This simple approach was used here in the United States in the 1960s and 70s.
  • With lower unemployment you would expect greater inflation. However, the Phillips Curve does not explain why inflation didn’t go down much when our unemployment rate was high a few years ago.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Milton Friedman said “Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon . . . .” The relationship was solid for a long time, though financial changes in the 1990s made the theory harder to apply.
  • Unfortunately, the expectations-augmented Phillips Curve has not worked well in recent years. One study found that the predicted inflation for 2010 was negative 4.3 percent, while actual inflation was still positive.
  • Different theories tell us that the actual dynamics by which inflation changes are influenced not only by unemployment but also by inflation expectations.
  • Two different money concepts have been used, the money supply (such as the M2 definition) and the monetary base Recent data for both concepts indicate that inflation should have been much higher in recent years. The fact that inflation has accelerated very little suggests that in the current environment, the money-inflation connection is not very tight.
  • Haydn W on 03 May 14
     
    This article from Forbes is primarily titled to be a forecast about inflation in the coming fiscal year but it also interestingly (and relevant to our studies) discusses the different arguments and criticism surrounding the modelled Phillips Curve. The article also contains an interesting graph that is based on recorded statistics about inflation and unemployment which helps to demonstrate the problems with the Phillips Curve model. 
John B

The Chevy Volt's $89,000 production cost: A waste of money? - The Week - 0 views

theweek.com/...oduction-cost-a-waste-of-money

Production cost

shared by John B on 17 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • the environmentally friendly Volt's base price is about $40,000, says Reuters, production costs per vehicle run a stratospheric $89,000 — given the car's pricey lithium-polymer batteries, hybrid gas-electric engine, and next-age electronics. That means GM is losing $49,000 for each Volt it sells.
  • No. The investment in the Volt will pay off: The Volt represents "a long-term investment" that is helping GM become a car company of the future
  • Yes. The Volt will never be profitable: The Volt's high production costs "prove that the innovative plug-in hybrid is impractical and will probably never be more than a niche product,"
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • The Volt demonstrates to consumers that the "reinvented company is capable of producing a high-tech, fuel-efficient car," and the Volt's technology "will almost certainly find its way into" other cars in GM's lineup.
  • John B on 17 Jan 14
     
    This article is about a car made by General Motors. The company have, if we look at this as in the way that the car will never be profitable, made a huge mistake of miscalculating the costs and profits earned from the car. But if we look at it as if the car would be profitable, they might have thought of making a good car that will sell easily. It is a car that is environmental friendly, and this will affect the cars coming up in the same series. It will then be more of a long-run investment.
Haydn W

BBC News - Royal Mail 'confident' after revenues rise - 0 views

www.bbc.co.uk/...business-25875092

Revenues Royal Mail UK BBC News Stock Market

shared by Haydn W on 26 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • Royal Mail 'confident' after revenues rise
  • Royal Mail has said it is "confident" about hitting its targets after posting a 2% rise in like-for-like revenues in the nine months to 29 December.
  • Parcel deliveries accounted for 51% of revenues, and chief executive Moya Greene said the firm handled 115 million parcels in December.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • The postal service was privatised in October 2013.
  • Richard Hunter, head of equities at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers, said the update was "perfectly acceptable".
  • She said the company's European parcels business was doing well after exploiting "growth opportunities in the eurozone". Letter revenue fell by 3% on a like-for-like basis, the company said, as the impact of London 2012 collectable stamp sales waned.
  • Shares in Royal Mail closed down 2.6% at 572.5p, against a flotation price in October of 330p-a-share.
  • Mr Hunter said Royal Mail's shares had had a "very strong run" since October but that it may struggle to make "further meaningful progress" in the shorter term. The company was "simply a hold" for investors, he said.
  • Haydn W on 26 Jan 14
     
    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.
John B

A Fair, Free Market Or The Copyright Monopoly? - Falkvinge on Infopolicy - 0 views

falkvinge.net/...rket-or-the-copyright-monopoly

Monopoly

shared by John B on 09 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • The copyright industry likes to pretend that making copies is somehow “stealing” and that on a fair and free market, everybody would be forced to buy from them.
  • the copyright industry deliberately confuses the goods that they offer for sale with the service of duplication, which is a completely different kind of offering. The service of duplication is what’s on an immoral, anachronistic monopoly, not the goods themselves.
  • In my world, and in a fair and free market, any entrepreneur or executive that claims a moral right to prohibit others by law from competing with them can fuck off and die.
  • John B on 09 Feb 14
     
    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.
Marenne M

Dutch Economy Emerging From Two-Year Recession - WSJ.com - 1 views

online.wsj.com/...702304815004579418580231847454

macroeconomic activity

shared by Marenne M on 11 Mar 14 - No Cached
  • he Dutch economy is emerging from a two-year long recession
  • The country's gross domestic product will expand by 0.75% in 2014, slightly higher than a previous forecast of 0.5% growth
  • The economy will grow by 1.25% in 2015, it added
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • CPB said the government's budget shortfall will narrow to 2.9% of GDP in 2014 and 2.1% in 2015
  • it was hit by the sovereign debt crisis in the euro zone and deep problems at home
  • A slump in the housing market has hit highly indebted households
  • he recovery will largely be driven by a pickup in exports as a result of the improving global and European economy
  • Marenne M on 11 Mar 14
     
    This article discusses how the Netherlands are finally picking up after a 2 year long recession. One of the main problems during the recession was that the Dutch citizens became afraid to spend money because they were unsure of their financial state in the near future. This caused a sort of glitch in the macroeconomic cycle of Holland, because people stopped spending and the companies stopped making as much income, therefore people got fired, and the cycle continues on. The economy in Holland is finally picking up and the GDP is said to rise by 0.75% this year.
Pietro AA

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

www.foxnews.com/...-nuclear-despite-risks-and-use

scarcity Opportunity Cost energy risks japan

shared by Pietro AA on 16 Sep 13 - No Cached
    • Pietro AA
      Pietro AA on 16 Sep 13
       
      Other scarse vaariables introduced: time and technology
    • Pietro AA
      Pietro AA on 16 Sep 13
       
      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
  • ...19 more annotations...
    • Pietro AA
      Pietro AA on 16 Sep 13
       
      a conflict between the scarsity of safety and scarsity of energy
    • Pietro AA
      Pietro AA on 16 Sep 13
       
      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."
  • Pietro AA on 16 Sep 13
     
    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
Amanda Anna G

Counting the Cost of Fixing the Future - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...cost-of-fixing-the-future.html

Counting the Cost of Fixing Future

shared by Amanda Anna G on 12 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • What would you pay to protect the world in which your great-great-grandchildren will live from hurricanes, drought and the like?
  • Perhaps the most startling conclusion to be drawn from the new estimates is that the sacrifice demanded of our generation to prevent vast climate change down the road may turn out to be rather small.
  • Amanda Anna G on 12 Sep 13
     
    I think this article was appropriate for our task, since most of the article was about opportunity cost, if we should spend our money on fixing the future. This subject (the environment) can be seen as an opportunity cost since we choose to venture our money on the environment for the future, even though we might not will take part of the advantages now, for the moment.
John B

CNN - GalapagosQuest: Water Scarcity in the Galapagos - March 9, 1999 - 0 views

edition.cnn.com/...index.html

Scarcity of Water

shared by John B on 13 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • Water is a scarce and valuable resource in the Galapagos and always has been. Only a few of the islands have regular springs where people can find water. The presence of water depends mostly on rainfall, which happens only between January and June, the wet season. The amount of rainfall is different from year to year and from island to island. But the greatest variation is a result of altitude. The highlands receive a lot more rain than the coastal areas and are a better place for most plants, animals, and people to live. Most of the underground pools and springs are found only on the older islands, like San Cristobal, Santa Cruz, and Santa María. Here, thousands of years of erosion created pockets and caverns deep underground where rain water and dew could pool and be collected. Patrick Watkins figured this out pretty quickly and managed to survive here for years. Others weren't so smart, or so lucky.
  • Back home we take water for granted, even though we know we shouldn't. People here on Santa María know what it's like to not have water for days, to go without showers and to settle for just one glass of water a day. That trickling rock where pirates filled their water casks still keeps Santa María alive. Rubber hoses carry water over four miles downhill to town, irrigating gardens and watering cattle along the way.
  • John B on 13 Sep 13
     
    I think that this article has a very important aspect on the water scarcity in the world. It's about a person visiting the Galapagos where water is seen as a very valuable resource. It can pass days before the people living on the Galapagos can drink water again. This made me think about how we (in Sweden) even flush down clean water in the toilet, and then there are people who does not even have clean water to drink every day. Though the article was posted in 1999, which was a while ago, but there is still water scarcity in parts of the world that we need to consider in our daily life. To perhaps donate money to organizations that help these people who have a lack of clean water.
  • Jakub B on 16 Sep 13
     
    Yes, indeed. There are few people from Western countries who notice that problem because they do not face with it. Of course there are still many other locations (especially in Africa), in which the residents' strongest desire is connected with scarcity of water.
  • Yassine G on 23 Sep 13
     
    In order for people to realize something is to go through it. I think that if governments around the world start supplying a limited amount of water to every house, depending on how many people live in it. this would make people realise how scarce water is and eventually start using it efficiently.
Amanda Anna G

Help-to-Buy: George Osborne makes major concession | Heather Stewart | Business | thegu... - 0 views

www.theguardian.com/...-buy-george-osborne-concession

Demand

shared by Amanda Anna G on 27 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • Subsidising high LTV mortgages in boom-bust UK housing market was political masterstroke – but economic madness
  • The centrepiece of this year's budget, Help to Buy was a political masterstroke, pumping up public confidence just as many potential buyers were thinking about returning to the estate agent's, and helping the government to claim credit for an upswing in the property market that had already been kicked off by the Funding for Lending Scheme.Economically, however, Help to Buy is madness, as the Treasury select committee, the International Monetary Fund and the outgoing governor of the Bank of England all lined up to say.
  • Offering taxpayer subsidies for high loan-to-value mortgages worth up to £600,000, just as the incorrigibly boom-bust British housing market is moving from stop-to-go mode, is at best risky, at worst, downright reckless.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Initially, the Treasury's argument was that the scheme would help to spark a building boom, as the surge in demand for homes prompted developers to re-start long-stalled projects.Housebuilding has picked up modestly – but by common consent it remains well below the levels that would be required to keep prices stable.
  • Amanda Anna G on 27 Sep 13
     
    The "Help to Buy" was a political masterstroke since, among other things, the government got help with the claim for a credit for an upswing in the property market, helping to spark a building boom. I think, the offering taxpayer subsidies, will help allocate resources in the free market since more will get willingly to pay for houses. But this is risky for the British housing market, since the levels that would be required to keep prices stable will remain below what is needed.
Amanda Anna G

Is the bank ATM a public good? - Livemint - 1 views

www.livemint.com/...he-bank-ATM-a-public-good.html

public-goods

shared by Amanda Anna G on 01 Dec 13 - No Cached
  • The aftereffects of the ATM incident show that we are still ambivalent about it. Our idea of a public good is centuries old.
  • What everyone conveniently forgets is that an ATM is not tied to the mother bank—the free usage of another bank’s ATM (up to a fairly liberal limit) has made the ATM a near-public place.
  • Very early in life, I learnt the importance of the state. By now it is well-recognized that much as we deride the state, we can’t live without it.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Is the bank ATM a public good? The idea of mandating banks to provide security to ATMs betrays a pitiable lack of understanding of the changing face of public goods
  • But several decades on have we evolved enough in our understanding of what constitutes a public good that the state should provide?
  • The implied belief is that an ATM is a bank’s product, meant for the bank’s customers, and hence its security is the bank’s problem, i.e. it is not sufficiently “public”. The subtext, sometimes articulated, is that since 60% of the adult population does not have a bank account, an ATM is essentially an elitist construct, not worthy of being within the protective cover of the general law and order setup
  • Aleksi B on 01 Dec 13
     
    This article asks the question is the ATM a public good. Inside we will find the article making statements to why it is in fact a public good and why it should be considered as one
  • Amanda Anna G on 02 Dec 13
     
    This article deals with the idea of assign authority to banks to provide security to the ATM. Is the ATM a good that benefits to the society? Since the ATM is a way to give freedom to the people I would say yes, but should then the ATM be controlled by guards? In my opinion, I think it would be a good idea. Even though one might argue that the idea would take away the freedom of ATM, I think the security will provide even more freedom to the people since they can deal with their money safely.
Clemente F

What happens when easy money ends? - 0 views

www.theglobeandmail.com/...article14853709

Demand Supply Equilibrium Scarcity

shared by Clemente F on 14 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • Clemente F on 14 Oct 13
     
    The article talks aboutthe quantative easing the FED gave and how it may affect the markets. "As interest rates rise, so does the expected return. This, in turn, pushes down the price that investors are willing to pay for a dollar in earnings" this is the concept of equilibrium in a more financial point of view. It says that the steeper the field curve is the higher the interests will be and therefore the equilibrium rises.
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