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Haydn W

Rules on unemployment benefits tightened to end 'signing on' culture | Politics | The G... - 2 views

www.theguardian.com/...nt-benefits-signing-on-culture

Unemployment UK The Guardian Jobs

shared by Haydn W on 13 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • Rules on unemployment benefits tightened to end 'signing on' culture
  • Jobless will have to take 'basic steps' towards finding work before they can claim, as part of government push on welfare
  • The government is to hail the end of the "signing on" culture when it announces that unemployed people will have to take "basic steps" towards finding work before they can claim benefits.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • the employment minister, will launch a significant government push on welfare this week by saying that unemployed people must prepare for their first interview with a Jobcentre Plus adviser by preparing a CV.
  • McVey will highlight tough new rules for newly unemployed people. She will say: "With the economy growing, unemployment falling and record numbers of people in work, now is the time to start expecting more of people if they want to claim benefits.
  • "This is about treating people like adults and setting out clearly what is expected of them so they can hit the ground running.
  • In return, we will give people as much help and support as possible to move off benefits and into work because we know from employers that it's the people who are prepared and enthusiastic who are most likely to get the job.
  • Haydn W on 13 Apr 14
     
    This new policy, outlined from the UK government's recent budget announcement aims to get young people out of the so called welfare culture and into employment. From around the end of the Second World War there has been a rapid increase in people leaving education and signing onto unemployment benefits. With these tougher measures the government hopes to prepare these people for work and curb the relative 7 - 8% unemployment rate. However the government has faced severe criticism, notably for their lack of efforts to get university graduates into jobs since raising university fees here from £3000 per year to £9000 when they came to power in 2010.
Haydn W

South Africa at 20: Storms behind the rainbow - Opinion - Al Jazeera English - 1 views

www.aljazeera.com/...-behi-2014320155339545752.html

Aggregate Supply South Africa GDP Mandela

shared by Haydn W on 30 Mar 14 - No Cached
  • April 27 marks the 20th anniversary of South Africa's first democratic elections.
  • Many things have improved in South Africa since 1994, to be sure. State racism has ended, and the country now boasts what some have described as the most progressive constitution in the world. People have rights, and they know that there are institutions designed to protect and uphold those rights. Still, everyday life for most South Africans remains a struggle - a struggle that is infinitely compounded by the sense of disappointment that accompanies it, given the gap between the expectations of liberation and the state of abjection that the majority continues to inhabit.
  • South Africa's unemployment rate in 1994 was 13 percent - so bad that most were convinced it could only get better. Yet today it is double that, at about 25 percent.
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • And that's according to official statistics; a more reasonable figure, according to most analysts, is probably closer to 37 percent. The situation is particularly bad for young people. The Economist recently reported that "half of South Africans under 24 looking for work have none. Of those who have jobs, a third earn less than $2 a day."
  • South Africa also boasts a reputation for being one of the most unequal countries in the world. Not only has aggregate income inequality worsened since the end of apartheid, income inequality between racial groups has worsened as well.
  • According to the 2011 census, black households earn only 16 percent of that which white households earn. About 62 percent of all black people live below the poverty line, while in the rural areas of the former homelands this figure rises to a shocking 79 percent.
  • The ANC's Black Economic Empowerment programme has succeeded in minting new black millionaires (South Africa has 7,800 of them now), but can't seem to manage the much more basic goal of eliminating poverty.
  • during the negotiated transition of the 1980s and early 1990s. The apartheid National Party was determined that the transition would not undermine key corporate interests in South Africa, specifically finance and mining. They were willing to bargain away political power so long as they could retain control over the economy. And so they did.
  • The ANC was forced to retreat from its position on nationalisation and an IMF deal signed just before the transition deregulated the financial sector and clamped down on wage increases.
  • Still, when the ANC assumed power in 1994 it implemented a progressive policy initiative known as the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). The RDP was designed to promote equitable development and poverty reduction
  • Despite its successes, this policy framework was abandoned a mere two years later. Mbeki and then Finance Minister Trevor Manuel held clandestine discussions with World Bank advisors toward drafting a new economic policy known as GEAR (Growth, Employment, and Redistribution, even though it accomplished precious little of the latter).
  • Given these contradictions, it's no wonder that South Africa is ablaze with discontent, earning it the title of "protest capital of the world".
  • Early this year some 3,000 protests occurred over a 90-day period, involving more than a million people. South Africans are taking to the streets, as they give up on electoral politics. This is particularly true for the young: Nearly 75 percent of voters aged 20-29 did not participate in the 2011 local elections.
  • The government's response has been a mix of police repression - including the recent massacre of 44 striking miners at Marikana - and the continued rollout of welfare grants, which now provide a vital lifeline to some 15 million people.
  • So far the protests have been focused on issues like access to housing, water, electricity, and other basic services, but it won't be long before they coalesce into something much more powerful
  • as they did during the last decade of apartheid. There are already signs that this is beginning to happen. The Economic Freedom Fighters, recently founded by Julius Malema, the unsavory former leader of the ANC Youth League, is successfully mobilising discontented youth and making a strong push to nationalise the mines and the banks.
  • It seems that the ANC's legitimacy is beginning to unravel and consent among the governed has begun to thin. It is still too early to tell, but the death of Mandela may further widen this crack in the edifice of the ruling regime, as the ANC scrambles to shore up its symbolic connection to the liberation struggle.
  • In short, the situation in South Africa over the past 20 years opens up interesting questions about the meaning of democracy. What is democracy if it doesn't allow people to determine their own economic destiny or benefit from the vast wealth of the commons? What is freedom if it serves only the capital interests of the country's elite? The revolution that brought us the end of apartheid has accomplished a great deal, to be sure, but it has not yet reached its goal. Liberation is not yet at hand.
  • Haydn W on 30 Mar 14
     
    From Al Jazeera I chose this article about the poor state of the economy in South Africa, 20 years after Nelson Mandela and the ANC came to power, ending the system of political, social and economic segregation, Apartheid. Despite reforms in the 90's the majority of wealth and power is still held by rich whites. With around 30% unemployment rate and young people struggling to find work many feel only anger and resentment to the current ANC government led by Jacob Zuma. Economically speaking South Africa's imports are up and exports down, reducing GDP as AS is shifted left. This is especially evident in industries like mining and banking which many are now calling for to be nationalised. 20 years on from Nelson Mandela's historic victory in the 1994 general election, South Africa, despite being free of the shackles of segregation is not in the boom many predict. The ANC must be careful in there actions, should they, following the death of Madiba lose contact with his legacy and what he stood for.
Haydn W

EU, China Reach Tentative Deal to End Telecom Equipment Tariff Threat - WSJ - 3 views

online.wsj.com/...pment-tariff-threat-1412870909

Wall Street Journal Tariff China EU

shared by Haydn W on 28 Oct 14 - No Cached
  • The European Union and China have reached a tentative deal that will end the threat of punitive import tariffs on Chinese telecommunications equipment makers
  • Chinese Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng and the EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht are expected to meet in Brussels on Oct. 18 after the Asia-Europe summit meeting in Milan to complete the agreement, an EU official said.
  • The agreement would sweep away the cloud of tariffs that has been hanging in particular over Huawei, which has become a major supplier of equipment to European telecommunications companies.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, in 2013 said it was ready to start investigations into imports of mobile telecommunications equipment made by Huawei and ZTE, claiming the two companies received unfair subsidies from the Chinese government and were “dumping” their products onto the EU market at rock-bottom prices.
  • The agreement will create an entity to review the market-share of Chinese equipment manufacturers in the EU and European companies
  • China has also committed to further discussions on the hefty loans and loan guarantees that the government gives to Huawei and ZTE to finance their exports, mostly to the developing world, the official said.
  • That represents a modest victory for the EU in an area that is highly sensitive for the Chinese government.
  • Haydn W on 28 Oct 14
     
    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.
Yassine G

BBC ON THIS DAY | 22 | 1955: New TV channel ends BBC monopoly - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...3131477.stm

Monopoly BBC ends demand

shared by Yassine G on 16 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • Yassine G on 16 Feb 14
     
    This article demonstrates how the BBC monopoly was ended in 1955. It shows that monopoly is a bad thing and that it actually harms the consumer ( in this case the people who watched Tv). BBC's monopoly was somehow used to change people's point of view or to make them think in a certain way. This demonstrated the negative sides of a monopoly. 
Marenne M

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

www.huffingtonpost.com/...lled-cheap-food_b_4337423.html

'externalities of production'

shared by Marenne M on 26 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • 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.
  • Marenne M on 26 Nov 13
     
    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.
Hardy Hewson

Mexico Ends National Crude Oil Monopoly - 4 views

www.bloomberg.com/...l-as-mexico-ends-monopoly.html

government monopoly Supply

shared by Hardy Hewson on 18 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • Hardy Hewson on 18 Feb 14
     
    After 75 years of barring foreign investment into her oil fields, the Mexican government (particularly President Enrique Pena) is set to repeal laws that had previously ensured a state monopoly of Mexican crude oil. As one of the biggest crude resources in the Western Hemisphere, this move poses a dramatic increase in North American crude exports, which will rise to second in quantity behind only Saudi Arabia. The bill to end the monopoly was approved by the Mexican Congress in mid-December and could see foreign investment eventually rise to approximately $15 billion per year. However, potential issues arise in the form of material delays, local opposition to drilling and a lack of pre-existing infrastructure.
Amanda Anna G

Beer Store Monopoly's End Would Mean Higher Prices: Study - 0 views

www.huffingtonpost.ca/...re-prices-study_n_4760946.html

monopoly

shared by Amanda Anna G on 12 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • Ontario beer drinkers can expect to see prices rise if sales are allowed in convenience stores, according to a new study carried out for the province’s Beer Store.
  • The study, to be released Monday at the Toronto Board of Trade, says consumers can expect to pay about $10 more for a 24-pack of beer if the Beer Store’s monopoly ends.
  • The study says privatization in Alberta and British Columbia led to higher prices in those provinces. It also calculates that, if Ontario had followed Alberta’s lead on beer sales, the Ontario government would have missed out on $5.4 billion in revenue over the past 20 years.
  • Amanda Anna G on 12 Feb 14
     
    This is an interesting article about monopoly. In the article, it is argued that as beer also gets allowed to be sold in convenience stores and not only in the beer store which has been a monopoly of beer, then there will be a rise in price. The government argues that it would have gained revenue if sold in convenience stores, as a study said that privatization in Alberta and British Columbia led to higher prices in those provinces.
Jakub B

Coal subsidies 'should' end in 2014 - 0 views

www.europeanvoice.com/...68550.aspx

Subsidy government employees

shared by Jakub B on 12 Nov 13 - Cached
  • Jakub B on 12 Nov 13
     
    The author discusses the problem of coal production, greenhous gases emissions and subsidies that are in use because of many ordinary employees who when fired can make a strike. There is also a detail that can draw one's attention - the article is outdated (it was written in 2010). The main thesis reflected with reality is probably false since coal subsidies are still popular.
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.
Yassine G

The End Of Elastic Oil - Forbes - 1 views

www.forbes.com/...the-end-of-elastic-oil

elasticity demand Scarcity resources energy price Supply

shared by Yassine G on 18 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • Yassine G on 18 Oct 13
     
    This is a very interesting article that really helps understand this topic in depth and with real examples. Oil market is one of the largest in the world, this article talks about elasticity of demand and supply in this market. There is an explanation on the effects of different factors that determine the elasticity and what they do for this market. 
  • Jakub B on 20 Oct 13
     
    Although there are discovered new sources of oil (e.g. in Saudi Arabia), the suppliers have to drill deeper which is time-consuming and therefore the costs of production rise. 'In economic terms, the oil supply is becoming less elastic as new oil supplies come increasingly from unconventional oil.'
John B

William Easterly: Singing About Fighting Poverty, Slightly Off-Key - WSJ - WSJ - 1 views

online.wsj.com/...ty-slightly-off-key-1412292935

Supply-side

shared by John B on 03 Oct 14 - No Cached
  • The progress against poverty in China is obvious, but whether China's government deserves to be held up as a development model is not so clear. For instance, who gets to decide whether mainland Chinese citizens should be content with improved standards of living and so few protections against the frequent violations of their rights by their own government?
  • Extreme poverty in China has been reduced over the past few decades precisely because Beijing permitted the freedoms of a market economy to infiltrate a communism-blighted society. If the regime's repression now worsens, count on the end of the country's high growth rates.
  • Yet freedom is arguably central: first, as an end that people want for themselves, and, second, as the most well-proven path to escaping poverty. Consider among others North America, most of Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Chile, where the answer to poverty was economic and political freedom.
  • John B on 03 Oct 14
     
    In this article, the author discuss the affects of the actions of the government in China. It is a modern topic today due to the demonstrations being held in Hong Kong. The authors mentions that the statement about entering a democracy, and then pulling back on the decision means that they were on the right track to get the market more free from the government, hence less poverty, but now he thinks it is gonna worsen the economical conditions. A free market has saved many economies, why should China still not give in for the human rights and improve their economy?
Samuel Choi

RBI cautious on response to gold import surge - 0 views

economictimes.indiatimes.com/...45233692.cms

balance-of-payments government gold india imports current-account

shared by Samuel Choi on 08 Dec 14 - No Cached
  • Samuel Choi on 08 Dec 14
     
    India, the world's second-largest gold-consuming country, is battling a balance of payments crisis as the gold import industry grew exponentially in a short amount of time. Though the spike in the import numbers is clear, no clear action has been taken yet; policymakers, however, agree that restrictions must be placed on private trading houses. Private jewelry exporters are the main customers and account for a massive number of the bulk for the demand of gold. "India sharply restricted gold imports in early 2013 as the country battled a balance of payments crisis triggered by the U.S. Federal Reserve's announcement that it would start to ease its programme of quantitative easing. But it eased some of the measures after India's current account deficit fell sharply from the record high of 4.8 percent of gross domestic product in the fiscal year ended in March 2013 to 1.7 percent in the quarter ending in June."
Clemence Lafeuille

Supply side economic policies would end the Obama Depression - 4 views

www.commdiginews.com/...-end-the-obama-depression-8880

supply side recession government

shared by Clemence Lafeuille on 06 Oct 14 - No Cached
Pip Dop and Hardy Hewson liked it
  • Clemence Lafeuille on 06 Oct 14
     
    This article evaluate fiscal and monetary policy in reference to a real world example, and go over the benefits of supply-side policy. It suggests another course of action for the US government, one where supply-side policy would be emphasised rather than any demand-side policy, because the author states that the economic stagnation is not a demand-side problem. Easy article that evaluates policies in a clear way.
Haydn W

Greece's leader warns Merkel of 'impossible' debt payments - FT.com - 0 views

www.ft.com/...b5-11e4-982a-00144feab7de.html

Foreign Debt Greece EU

shared by Haydn W on 24 Mar 15 - No Cached
  • Greece’s leader warns Merkel of ‘impossible’ debt payments
  • Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister, has warned Angela Merkel that it will be “impossible” for Athens to service debt obligations
  • The warning, contained in a letter sent by Mr Tsipras to the German chancellor and obtained by the Financial Times, comes as concerns mount that Athens will struggle to make pension and wage payments at the end of this month and could run out of cash before the end of April.
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  • just before Ms Merkel agreed to meet Mr Tsipras on the sidelines of an EU summit last Thursday and invited him for a one-on-one session in Berlin
  • Mr Tsipras warns that his government will be forced to choose between paying off loans, owed primarily to the International Monetary Fund, or continue social spending.
  • He blames European Central Bank limits
  • “Given that Greece has no access to money markets, and also in view of the ‘spikes’ in our debt repayment obligations during the spring and summer . . . it ought to be clear that the ECB’s special restrictions when combined with disbursement delays would make it impossible for any government to service its debt,” Mr Tsipras wrote.
  • He said servicing the debts would lead to a “sharp deterioration in the already depressed Greek social economy
  • Mr Tsipras was rebuffed in efforts to secure quick financing from either the ECB or eurozone lenders at Thursday’s Brussels meeting
  • In an interview, Luis de Guindos, Spanish finance minister, said his eurozone counterparts would not sign off on any new bailout funding until a full set of approved reforms was passed
  • Mr Tsipras’s five-page letter is particularly critical of the ECB
  • The Greek prime minister insisted the ECB should have returned to “the terms of finance of the Greek banks”
  • Far from going easier on Athens, the ECB is considering whether to give its guidance to Greek banks more authority by making it a legally binding requirement not to add to their T-bill holdings.
  • He also criticised the ECB for only increasing the amount of emergency central bank loans to Greek lenders “at shorter intervals than normal and at rather small increments”
  • Mr Tsipras wrote that Athens was “committed to fulfilling its obligations in good faith and close co-operation with its partners”, he also warned Ms Merkel that a failure to find short-term funding could lead to much bigger problems.
Clemente F

Fiat Gains Full Control Of Chrysler In $4.35 Billion - 0 views

www.businessinsider.com/fiat-chrysler-deal-2014-1

Production Cost

shared by Clemente F on 18 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • Clemente F on 18 Jan 14
     
    The Fiat S.p.a Italian company after a few years bothe chrysler. There was a merge between the two companies that ended up with Fiat taking full control of Chrysler.
Aleksi B

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

online.wsj.com/...390443819404577633070809995582

india price controls drugs

shared by Aleksi B on 17 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • 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.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • 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.
  • Aleksi B on 17 Nov 13
     
    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

Advancing the state of the art for in-ear headphones, at a lower price | The Audiophili... - 1 views

news.cnet.com/...ar-headphones-at-a-lower-price

Demand Headphone Custom made On Sale

shared by Aleksi B on 28 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • Advancing the state of the art for in-ear headphones, at a lower price
  • the JH-13 is nearly double the price of the V6-Stage, which is normally $699. Right now it's on sale for $599, but that offer ends October 1
  • Aleksi B on 28 Sep 13
     
    Shows and example of "Demand" and how selling the product for a lower price could result in more units sold.
Haydn W

Broadcasters failing to keep up with 3D TV demand - Telegraph - 0 views

www.telegraph.co.uk/...keep-up-with-3D-TV-demand.html

Demand The Telegraph 3D TV Technology Sales

shared by Haydn W on 28 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • 60 million 3D TVs are expected to be sold in 2013, and this figure is set to rise to 157.7 million by 2017, accounting for 58 per cent of all TVs sold across the globe
  • broadcasters' approaches to delivering 3D content differ widely
  • In the UK, with BSkyB has reaffirmed its commitment and Virgin Media increased its range of 3D broadcasting, while the BBC has postponed trials, which they have decided to conclude by the end of this year and will make no further 3D programmes for 3 years
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • 3D content will become increasingly restricted to premium and on-demand offerings.
  • the unique appeal of 3D to the consumer is that it offers greater immersion in content
  • A number of major broadcasters are now diverting investment to other initiatives, such as 4K and multi-screen content delivery.
  • Futuresource Consulting added that the market for 3D cinema remains stable.
  • Haydn W on 28 Sep 13
     
    This article shows how the demand for 3D TV's is increasing but broadcasters continue to not offer much 3D content to their viewers. 3D TV's were predicted by many to be a commercial failure, as the home experience is said to be not as good as the cinema experience but demand has continued to rise among consumers. Broadcasters however are not so keen to provide 3D content as they have their ever changing gaze to future investment in 4K technology in the continuous attempt to keep up with the relentless pace of modern technology.
  • Yassine G on 28 Sep 13
     
    I think that one of the reason that will not allow 3D technology to get popular is its very high cost. This is not only for consumers who are buying the TVs and Glasses, but also for producers. IT is an extra cost, without an extra profit.
Marenne M

Apple's 9 million iPhone weekend: The good and bad - CBS News - 1 views

www.cbsnews.com/...phone-weekend-the-good-and-bad

Demand

shared by Marenne M on 30 Sep 13 - No Cached
Clemente F liked it
  • the stock closed last Friday at $467, well off the 52-week high of $705
  • 5C as an attempt to shore up the low end of the market
  • expand market share
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • price of the 5C, starting at $99 for what a U.S. consumer would pay with a two-year service commitment with a mobile carrier, was nowhere near low enough
  • more price sensitive
  • missed its opportunity to improve its standing in such important markets as China and India
  • a small share would be a significant boost over previous years
  • sold out virtually everywhere
  • old out customer satisfaction and convenience to fuel its need for PR
  • Marenne M on 30 Sep 13
     
    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.
  • Marenne M on 30 Sep 13
     
    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.
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.
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