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Professor Wakatabe says that if the tax were increased, it would slow down the process of recovery from the recession. now the deflation rate is going down, driven by the personal consumption, which is good, but if the tax were raised, this would slow down the recovery.

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.

1.The article, which reports an increase in poverty levels in Italy, discusses about both relative and absolute poverty. Relative poverty places the concept of poverty in a social context, people are defined poor when compared to those around them but still have money to survive, relative poverty is based on the cultural environment of the person. Absolute poverty, on the other hand, is when people don't have enough money to meet a basic threshold that is need by everyone to survive, and so cannot afford food, clothing, a house, heating etc. which is what is needed for survival.  2.The biggest causes of poverty in Italy are: unemployment and health/disability. According to the article Italy has been facing its greatest post-war recession, war can also be a huge cause of poverty in countries. Also, the article talks about how in the southern part of Italy people are poorer, when compared to the north, that is also because in Italy southern regions are less economically developed compared to north regions.  3.The article discusses about some consequences of poverty in Italy, by saying that poverty has risen unemployment and has declined purchasing power which have been caused by an increase in taxes which aimed at strengthening the public's finances. The article then discusses about more of personal consequences for Italians which have been considered poor, with poverty levels rising those Italians can no longer afford heating for their homes, holidays away from Italy and purchasing/eating meat. 

1. The article talks about both relative and absolute poverty. Depending on the conditions of the households, the level of poverty changes (mix of them in Italy).   2. Some of the possible causes of poverty are because there is high unemployment and higher lack of skills in the southern regions of Italy which are less developed and account for high amounts of poverty in the country. Another cause is that some families have many children, meaning there is less disposable income (they cannot work) and there are higher costs to pay for them. This is also true when the heads of the families are unemployed (unemployment benefits are not enough to support a family) or factory workers (below minimum wage, low wages, lots of hours, low skilled jobs, structural unemployment, firing because of recession). Another issue is when there are two or more elderly people (do not work, or retirement funds are lower with recession, retirement age has increased therefore with aging less productive and lower wages, less disposable income because they have to be sustained). The recession is the main cause of the unemployment and lack of disposable income, therefore purchasing power and consumption have decreased, especially because of a high increase in taxes.   3. The consequences are that people are going below the poverty line and cannot afford necessities (the amount of people in absolute poverty continues to increase, as well as the one in relative poverty). This means that people cannot afford certain key necessities; some mentioned in the article were heating, holidays and meat. 

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 speaks about the new tax for Thai jewelry imports in India. Gov't tried to defend its producers. This article is more or less neutral and speaks from neither perspective of Indians, nor from Thai people

1) Briefly summarize the article (3-4 sentences) The article is about the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's protectionist strategy in the purchase of Australian companies. This highlights the event where Archer Daniels Midland attempted to purchase Graincorp, as well as the example of George Bush's Protectionist policy for US steel workers. It is concluded it is better to maintain an open anti-protectionist policy to encourage trade to find the best comparative advantage. 2) Is your article arguing for or against free trade? Explain The Article is mainly for free trade, as it takes the stances of criticizing Abbott's actions as well as likening it to Bush's "Failure". It determines Australia needs more foreign investment to remain competitive. It does however mention Abbott's encouragement to give Quantas more foreign investments. 3) Explain how different stakeholders might be affected (foreign/domestic producers, consumers, gov't) It is stated domestic producers will suffer from the lack of investments, which will consequently affect consumers. Consumers will experience higher price levels and hence higher costs of living. Foreign producers may not experience as much difficulty as domestic producers, though the lack of any comparative advantage will make it less beneficial for the foreign producers. The government is the only stakeholder who will gain, as the higher tariffs may increase tax revenue.

1. The article addresses tariffs in relation to the so called 'Infant Industries'. Even though international free trade  helps poorer countries to get out of poverty, tariffs for the protection of an infant industry represent an exception. In fact, they are part of Protectionism which clearly counter attacks international imports, and they aim at giving a chance to developing domestic industries to become stable and efficient so that they can enter in global competition. But even in such case, economists have proved that they do more harm than good.  2. The article is more prone to free international trade, as it criticizes the application of tariffs even in relation to infant industries, as they always provide more disadvantages than benefits. 3. Of course, Infant industries would be protected with the application of tariffs, although these may not be as efficient all the times. However, this means higher costs for government, which weighs on consumers to get tax revenue to support domestic developing industries.

Using the Google News search tool please find an article that relates to one or more of the above concepts that you have just listed. Make sure that you tag it "Trade" on Diigo and share to the class. In the description box please do the following: 1) Briefly summarize the article (3-4 sentences) 2) Is your article arguing for or against free trade? Explain 3) Explain how different stakeholders might be affected (foreign/domestic producers, consumers, gov't)

Using the Google News search tool please find an article that relates to one or more of the above concepts that you have just listed. Make sure that you tag it "Trade" on Diigo and share to the class. In the description box please do the following: 1) Briefly summarize the article (3-4 sentences) 2) Is your article arguing for or against free trade? Explain 3) Explain how different stakeholders might be affected (foreign/domestic producers, consumers, gov't)