Group items tagged

BBC News - Greece jobless rate hits new record of 28%

Official figures about to be released are expected to show the UK economy grew at its fastest rate since before the financial crisis.

Car prices in Venezuela are expensive so the government put a price ceiling it.

Smoking is a negative externality. Children who have exposure especially to relatives who smoke will have a greater chance of childhood asthma. The smoking ban is very healthful, as it has caused a decrease in the rate of children emitted to the hospital with severe asthma. The ban on smoking in the enclosed public places has helped the children to have less health problems. The government benefits because it reduces government expenditure in the NHS, which is a public good. The statistics reflect the decrease in admission of about 6800 is a positive benefit to the public especially the young children.

A negative externality hits the society as smokers affect children giving them asthma, according to this article. This effect does not affect the cigarette companies, however, but smoking restrictions came into force in attempts of decreasing the damage it does to society.

Whether you own a sprawling estate or a shoebox with a tiny garden, any oil or natural gas to be found underground belongs to the Queen. How did this happen?

This is my article for this week's topic - China overtakes US as the biggest importer of oil. The article above relates to Aggregate Demand My write-up can be viewed here: https://pamojaeducation-com.campuspack.eu/Groups/13.Y2.ST.ODP.MAY.ECON.SL.A/Nattanopthorns_Economics_Blog/2014/02/20-3_-_Aggregate_Demand_Newsstand - Bee

hort supply of the latest Apple iPhone has left mobile networks "frustrated" and "concerned", the BBC has learned.

Atalia supplier warns over fuel supply

This is my article for this week's topic - supply/equilibrium/price mechanism. The article above relates to the supply of a renewable energy: the solar energy farm. My write-up can be viewed here: https://pamojaeducation-com.campuspack.eu/Groups/13.Y2.ST.ODP.MAY.ECON.SL.A/Nattanopthorns_Economics_Blog - Bee

"Collective community-based rights could put the world's fisheries on a sustainable footing after decades of over-exploitation, an expert suggests."

Business growth in the eurozone eased this month but the bloc's economy continued to expand at a "robust pace", a closely watched survey suggests. The latest Markit eurozone composite purchasing managers' index (PMI) dipped to 52.7 from 52.9 in January. A figure above 50 indicates expansion.

The Minister of Education, Mr. David Laws, wants to reduce the national expenditure on school uniform. He believes that the inflated price of school uniform up to 52 million pounds per year is excessive. The schools in the UK have to reduce the opportunity cost of demanding overly priced uniform. This practice must be stopped. In implementing this policy, British families would be able to save 52 million pounds in one year, which is a sizeable proportion of many poor families budgets. In many lower income families in this period of recession, families who are depending on food banks will benefit from this opportunity cost of spending on uniform as they have a scarce budget. This will help them to shift their household expenditures to more essential items such as food. The opportunity cost of them budgeting a significant percentage of their limited income to an inelastic demand for uniforms may create problems of great scarcity to families with many school-going children. The guideline by the minister stated that the uniform must be purchase from the cheaper suppliers, which will reduce the opportunity costs. This will mean savings for the parents. The question is how do these new policies going to be effectively worked out because some rich parents with no scarcity problems will insist or prefer their children to wear higher quality and more expensive uniforms, some even tailoring them.

This article discusses about the income effect of rich millionaires in China. The demand for butlers for the superrich has created a special school of training for them. The butler is trained to be able to work as managers to have the proper attitudes and training to help their bosses to live more comfortably. The training includes how to handle foreign guests and important officials. This means that the butler must be well paid and the ability to handle various responsibilities increase their demand. There is a ready supply of young China graduates who desire to work because of the re-numeration and the opportunity to have occupational mobility.

"The slowdown in the eurozone and US has hurt Asia's manufacturing and export sectors"

This talks about Blackberry letting go of 40% of its workforce due to its anticipated $1 billion plunge in profits. Blackberry's share price has also dropped 17%. This was all mainly due to competition from others like Apple and Samsung, and also from its customers sticking to earlier phone models of the brand.

This article talks about how economic growth on its own is not sufficient enough to battle extreme poverty. The world bank stresses that we need to reduce poverty, at a rate of 50 million a year until 2030. As we know fiscal policies can be used to stimulate growth but this is not the only use. We can also use them to redistribute income, which is necessary in this case. Further more monetary policy is not good enough in tackling these issues directly. Dedicated government spending and tax cuts on the poor are far better fiscal policies to deal with the issue.

"The UK economy grew by 1.9% in 2013, its strongest rate since 2007, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS)"

This article talks about how the UK's economy is growing as a result of the long-policies the government made in order to rebalance the economy.