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This article is concerned about how Japan had been mired in a malaise brought on by falling prices and a strong yen for years, resulting in deflation in the economy. The economy's prospects have brightened significantly since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced fresh spending by the government and encouraged the central bank to unleash a tidal wave of asset purchases, an approach to decrease deflation. In order to defeat deflation, Japan has submerged into increasing the country's tax consumption and are contemplating whether or not to increase the tax consumption to 10% by 2015.

The article is talking about the situation in japan. The article talk about the deflation that japan has been suffering for the past years, but is saying how japan adapt to it and benefit from it. At the end of the article talks about a paradox that is happening in Japan called the Abe's Paradox that is when a country is both suffering and benefiting form deflation so they don't now to keep it and increase the countries debt or remove it.  The cause of the inflation in japan has been based on how japan has not make any polices to increase central bank polices and that the resulted in deflation. The effect has been both positive and negative, is that the nation debt has approach the 250 percent of gross domestic product. The positive effect is that how deflation helped the price levels to be stable and act like tax cut for households, and put some sobriety for cost. Also how the economic players of japan have adapted to deflationary environment and they now how to benefit from it.

This article stresses the continue increase of the prices of goods and services in Singapore, causing the inflation in the country to keep growing further. Moreover, this article talks about that the consumer price index (CPI) has risen in August of this year 2% more in comparison with the last year, they also had calculated the CPI in July of this year, which was 1.9% meaning that the inflation kept increasing constantly. This article also strains that one of the main causes for the increase in inflation in Singapore is because of the government measures to slow the inflow of the cheap foreign workers into the city-state. If the inflation in Singapore continues to increase, in the long run this will cause the country's currency to have a value of almost nothing. The consequence of this will be that the people living in this country won't have enough money to live a normal life. Therefore, they will have to have an aid from the government.

Singapore has been dealing with high inflation, which has risen significantly. This is especially in relation to core inflation, that excludes house and car costs, which is higher than had been predicted. Their CPI has increased as well. The Monetary Authority of Singapore has tightened the monetary policy in response to decrease the rate of inflation.  The inflation has partially been caused by restrictive government policies, which attempted to reduce the amount of low-wage foreign workers. These actions were taken due to locals' requests as there is a limited amount of jobs in this small state. The effect was that firms had to increase prices because of increased wages (cost of production) once the cheaper workers were no longer available. Consequently inflation increased more quickly, as did the CPI. To solve the issue, governments are encouraging firms to hire Singaporean employees.   

This article discusses about the recent (August) increase of inflation in Japan, after a deflation that had been lasting for fifteen years. The labor market is very tight and companies have been starting to raise wages, which would indicate that prices will still rise, leading to Japan reaching its goal of a 2 percent inflation rate. Japan has come through recession in 2012, and prices raising tend to indicate that Bank of Japan's monetary stimulus and reflationary policies have been bringing improvements to the economy.  The fact that inflation has been increasing lately will have absolutely a positive effect on Japan's economy, which has grown by a third between April and June. What Japan needs to focus on now is keeping the inflation rate stable and not letting it be affected by disinflation. Prime Minister Abe has been pressuring employers to raise wages, which it might not be the best move, since it will reduce their competitiveness. In the long-run, if the inflation is kept at a normal and stable percentage it will surely be positive for Japan's economy. 

1) Distinguish whether or not the article is talking about absolute or relative poverty. The article talks about both relative and absolute poverty. It mentions that there are people living in extreme poverty, thus, unable to provide themselves with basic necessities, as well as people that are relatively poor in comparison to households with greater incomes. 2) According to the article what are some possible causes of poverty. The cause of poverty discussed in the article is the inequality and limited opportunities for the poorest people in each country, which can increase instability, and a rise in conflicts. Furthermore, another cause is the fact that prosperity is reserved for a restricted group. 3) According to the article what seem to be some of the consequences of poverty. The overall consequence is that greater inequality in income distribution will occur if the gap between the rich and the poor grows even further. This would eventually lead to a struggling economic class as well as economic instability.

1) Distinguish whether or not the article is talking about absolute or relative poverty. This article addresses absolute poverty. 2) According to the article what are some possible causes of poverty. According to the article the cause of poverty seems to be rising inequality, indicating that the benefits of recent economic gains were not distributed evenly. Additionally lack of decent and productive jobs kept most people in the region poor. Also economic growth is not generating sufficient, decent and productive employment. This is due to the nature of growth and the pattern of structural change in many countries in which workers move from agriculture into low-productivity services. 2) According to the article what are some possible causes of poverty. The major consequence or reality is that 1..64 billion people still live on less than two dollars a day. Apart from a huge part of the population starving everyday there are also problems concerning health and sanitary issues.