Group items tagged

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.

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.

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.

This article explains how the recent stand-off crisis in Ukraine is having a negative effect on the Russian economy, with the Rouble taking a further fall and GDP growth estimates being revised downwards. Predictably sanctions imposed by the west on Russia in response to the occupation of Crimea, an autonomous region of Ukraine populated largely by ethnic Russians, have affected businesses in Russia. We learn from the article that some $60 billion valuation has been lost by Russian companies in light of the tensions. This article relates to the macroeconomic concept of circular flow being a complex process with international trade and governments being involved majorly in proceedings.

This article shows how predictions and forecasting influence exchange rates  

The article concerns over the depreciation of the Ruble over the recent months that have passed. It was predicted that the Ruble would reach approximately 32.86 Rubles to the US dollar. However last month (November 1st to be exact), the Ruble reached a staggering 43 rubles to one US dollar. Being a 30 percent increase before the predicted depreciation. It has depreciated so suddenly and so quickly that the value is being measured, monitored, and shown by the minute rather than the day. Thus creating panic.

Despite the Russian Central Bank's spending of $40 billion over the last two months, the ruble has been significantly dropping for weeks. The price of 1 USD was 32.86 rubles in January, but is now 43 rubles, a drop of over 30%. Food prices in Russia have sky rocketed, dairy and meat costing over 10% more.

This article is about trying to bring down the inflation by imposing price controls for food, personal hygiene, home cleaning products, construction materials, automobile parts, medicines and health care services. I personally did not like this article since there were very little explanation of why things would occur. It was just stated one person thinks this will be a good idea, and another person thinks it is a bad idea. Nothing about why they think so.

The article is about how the demand for flights in Asia - mostly China is rising. Last year 1 out of 4 people were on a flight and this will increase. Therefor the flight company Airbus has predicted that they need an increase in the amount of flights to 29,226 passenger and freighter jets in 20 years. This would have a total cost of $4.4tn.

A great article talking about how the equilibrium of the oil market affects currencies, especially the dollar as barrels are mainly exchanged using dollars.

This article talks about the predictions of the world's largest package-delivery compony. It also shows the price chart for United Parcel Service. The analyst, Kevin Sterling said that UPS will remove 1.2 billion in obligations from its balance sheet, a trade-off worth the one-time hit to earnings.

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. 

This article talks about how voters in the Colorado state have voted to approve 'proposition AA' which imposes a 15 percent excise tax and an initial 10 percent sales tax on recreational marijuana. If proposition AA approves it it predicted to bring in $67 million a year. This shows how the government can put such a high excise tax on inelastic goods and people will still be willing to pay for it.

Venezuela is known to have a higher inflation than that of its trading partners. In the fall of 2012, Venezuela's inflation and the black market rate for the dollar both began to rise. However, the government announced a new system, SICAD II, on February 19 to break the cycle of inflation-depreciation. So far, the new system has tamed the black market. It is predicted that SICAD II will draw currency exchanges away from the black market, but it also stated that it will worsen the inflation problem.