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This is my article for this week's topic - price controls. The article above relates to Thailand's government's attempt to control prices of goods. My write-up can be viewed here: https://pamojaeducation-com.campuspack.eu/Groups/13.Y2.ST.ODP.MAY.ECON.SL.A/Nattanopthorns_Economics_Blog/2013/11/11-2_-_Price_Control_Newsstand - Bee

The Thai government wants to increase the alcohol average tax by a significant percentage. The tax ceiling for the beer and wine will increase to 2000 baht per liter, which is very significant. This is aimed at increasing the government revenue, as the demand for alcohol is inelastic and increasing in consumption. Thailand has a significant percentage of foreign tourist and foreigners living in the country who enjoy alcoholic beverages. Locals are increasing in their income inelastic and consuming more alcohol. This will hopefully reduce the demand, as alcohol is extremely addictive and have negative externalities such as dream driving causing many innocent deaths.

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 following article discusses how the local waters near Hong Kong have been depleted of fish since the 1980s. Therefore the suppliers are shifting their method of production to having fish farms located in industrial buildings to meet Hong Kong's demand for live fish.

The following article talks about how China has loosened its one baby policy, in order to face the growing problem of a rapidly aging population and slowing economic growth. However many young couples are not taking advantage of this new policy due to the rapidly rising costs of living in China.

The demand for gadgets among the young people from 12 to 17 years old reflected the inelastic demand for iPhone. The most desire Christmas present is the Samsung Galaxy phone follows by the Apple. This shows that young people, most of them, who do not have their own income, are very interested in the technology in order to keep up the latest news updates and gossips with their peers or their families and friends. The advertising od these oligopolies are very successful by promoting the products as an essential tool for daily living. The incomes of the families that are able to afford these gadgets reflect that they are from middle income or the rich. The pricing of these products are reasonable affordable as the US dollars is stronger than the Korean Won. The close substitute, cross elasticity is the Apple, which is an American product, which may be compatible in price and functions, but Samsung seems to have greater inelasticity. Christmas is a period of seasonal demand where the inelasticity of new gadgets increases because adults want to please the teenagers with new technology. The businessmen are able to intelligently respond by increasing the supply because they are inelastic in their supply to increase their marginal revenue and to enjoy of scale.