Jacob Solomon's group - M2015(B)

This article discusses Germany's GDP in detail

The attached article compares and contrasts the contribution made to aggregate demand by varying foreign and domestic demand. It states, that despite relative increases in demand overall (especially in public opinion), domestic demand figures are still low. Instead, foreign trade appears to make up the majority of aggregate demand in the overall economy.

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.

This article discusses how to secure the UK's economic recovery. It is suggested that increase in employment and hours worked could restore economic growth. At some point, this increase will diminish due to growth in the aggregate demand combined with education and welfare reforms that results in a decrease in the available workers. However, it is argued that rising aggregate demand would lead to increase in the productively over time, but other reasons are holding back productivity growth. 

This article is about the consumption and production of milk in the US. The comparison helps reflect the aggregate supply, as I believe- milk is a product that is bought in nearly every household in the US, and hence takes up a big proportion of the economy. 

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 represents the point of view of the experts about the effect of the increase in the budgetary on aggregate supply in Qatar, Peninsula.

In this article stated that Spain's largest bank made a claim saying the unemployment will take over a decade just to fix. Spain are in a large amount of debt as they rose from last year and the Spanish research and development spending is 70% below the EU level

This article deals with the effect of unemployment benefits on the unemployment rate.

This article is about inflation, and that it has fallen after six months to 1.6 per cent. However, regular pay is  expected to rise in rate from 1.3 per cent to 1.8 per cent. 

This article is dealing with the inflation in India. The inflation in India are seemed to be sticky, but due to El Nino (the warmer-than-average sea surface temperature in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean). It contributes to extreme droughts that makes the price of food increase, and therefore the inflation for food increase

This article shows how important it is to sustain proper inflation. It should be not too high as well as not too low. Central Bank is able to control it with the interest rate.

Japan's inflation rate continues to rise according to this article from the Guardian. Prime minister Shinzo Abe aims to boost the inflation rate in the country to an approximate 2% level but, as typical with many countries, wages have not caught up with these levels and thus consumer spending power has been reduced drastically. Other interesting things to note are the rise in electricity and gas prices contributing to the increased CPI data.

This article concerns the publication by the Office of National Statistics that, after six years, the weekly wages have met inflation rates.

This article is not very long, however, we can see a lot of the concepts studied this week within the article. It is clear that Indonesia has an independent central bank. It is also clear that some actions are being taken in order to reduce inflation and they seem to be successful as inflation has actually fallen, however, this small amount of change could be good in the long run. 

The unemployment rate, though, tells a much cheerier story: it dropped to 6.6% in January from 7% in November. Indeed, it could soon hit the Federal Reserve's 6.5% threshold at which it may consider raising interest rates.

This article describes the unemployment among youths in Australia. It describes how no matter whether you have a degree or not, it is barely possible to find a job. This is due to a lack in demand for labor, which generally results from a lack of aggregate demand, meaning that the economy isn't operating at its full potential. Therefore there is a surplus of supply for a minimal demand of labor, leading to a decrease in wage cost and a decrease in chances of finding a job. This is why many people are recommending doing internships for free, because firms are no longer paying as much for the employees, but even these internships are hard to get.

This article deals with the long-term unemployment issue in the US that have been rising a lot since 2002. One solution to this is to follow one of the Swedish programs, wage subsidies. This have given great results and might be a good solution to the problem in the US as well.

This article describes how the U.S. is considering becoming more self-suffiecient in the fuel industry. The want to decrease their  imports and increase exports. Decreasing their imports will decrease import cost, increasing the aggregate supply. Simultaneously, increasing export will increase aggregate demand. This will shift the U.S. from a net importer to a net exporter.

This article discuss how the aggregate supply curve works in the U.S economy