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A government sponsored agency currently controls the prices for dairy products in Canada. This was implemented because the government wanted to regulate the prices paid to dairy farmers and the amount of milk they could produce, in order to protect the farmers. However, problems have begun to arise because of these price controls, mostly due to the fact that the market price is much higher than it should be (which hurts consumers) and it is costing billions of dollars each year.

Street lights are an example of a public good - one person using a street light will not prevent others from using it, and it is impossible to stop other people from using a street light once one person is able to use it. Because they are public goods, they are provided by the government, but in this case it is costing the government too much to leave the street lights on all night, so they are considering shutting them off for a portion of the night to save money.

Basically the government has been subsidizing essential items to help the public by using tax money. But they are also subsidizing Big Energy Producing Companies (IPP) who sell their electricity to TNB at a fixed rate which is very high. Why the government agreed to this is basically corruption meaning, they (the rich) can force the government (public money) to pay and pay. Now, the government is going broke so they want to charge the public by reducing the essential item's subsidies but they are NOT reducing the subsidies to the rich! The government says that there is an agreement and they cannot change it.

This article describes the vast amounts of subsidies that are available to companies providing renewable energy sources in the United States. The government decided to provide subsidies for these projects because it felt that they were necessary for the environmental health of the country, however some people believe that the government provided too much unnecessary money in this situation.

This article is about how the Indian government is going to end its drug control policy. By keeping the "anti-competitive" policy, the Indian government has been artificially keeping the supply of drugs low.

This article talks about Canada's economic growth is better than what the economist anticipated. It reveals the economic growth is desirable for government, along with low unemployment rate. Consumer spending contributes to economic growth, the consumer spending is repressed while oil prices rise so high nowadays. Interest rates is one of the measures government take to control economy.

This article talks about the ongoing Social Security debate happening in the U.S. federal government. Some state governments, such as Texas, form their own version of Social Security which has been confusing to the original plan. The trade-off illustrated here is "more you contribute, the more your savings will be." By contributing more money now, you will eventually make more money. However, many people don't want to give up lots of money now!

This article discusses the current "Occupy" protests which are taking place worldwide, and how the effect which they are having. The protesters are pushing to government to expand the budget of the government so that more goods can become public goods, like health care, for example. The article also discusses how protesters stood outside malls pleading for consumers not to purchase goods however if that were to happen, the economy would obviously sink back into recession.

This article outlines the consistent debate over nutrition, especially in schools. The beneficial externalities are obvious in an increase in health for the student, as well as the encouraged development of healthy eating. However, if junk-foods are so much easier to obtain and the number of un-educated consumers in terms of nutrition are so low, the public will be more inclined to just keep eating in their old habits. How on earth can the government effectively change this situation for the betterment of society?

Hello, In this article it talks about how the Venezuelan government are trying to control inflation by setting fixed prices. The government's policy of price control demonstrate faith that one day they might succeed and lower their inflation rate which is at 27 per cent, the same as last year. The government are imposing a new law which the price controls will affect five general areas; personal and domestic hygiene products, car parts, medicines and health services and food. The government tries to prevent companies from "hoarding and speculation" and "exploiting the people". Also, the prices for 18 products are being frozen, and companies like Heinz, Pepsi, Coca Cola, and Nestle need 'special' attention. People say that the fear the private companies how will lead to more shortages and more inflation. From Tim

A tad early, but Christmas music will be coming on the radio next week! At least here in DC.. The article outlines a government plan to make a little extra revenue, and how that plan was so fiercely opposed. The tax would be imposed on the producers, given that they produce more than 500 trees a year, and in turn the producers would probably have to increase their prices. Since it is a specific tax with a fixed amount of $0.15 (not dependent on the price of the trees) it will shift the supply curve up. Even though the article states that the program "wouldn't have any impact on the final price consumers pay for their Christmas tree" - there would be an inevitable small impact at least in one retail area of the trees. Since there are so many consumers that will want Christmas trees, a tax would bring in a fair amount of money, as there are no substitutes for Christmas trees.

This video talks about how after the economic crisis a company located in England called BAE, the world's second largest military defense company who employs more than 40,000 people, talks about opportunity cost because of the resent cut backs in their contract. It talks about how England is trying to become more reliant on industry instead of finance. Lastly, it talks about the companies cuts from the government and job security because local governments have cut their spending with BAE, they are spending their money to invest into their own economy. Finally, I think it relates to scarcity because money itself is scare and government have to decide how to spend it efficiently.

One topic we have discussed a lot in supply-side policy is the funding of education, and how increased funding can lead to more efficiency in the economy. However, after the Ontario budget, the government decided to freeze teacher wages to try to reduce funding in this education sector; which has created many problems in our province as teacher unions are now taking action, with the threat of a strike still being possible. Supply-side policy gone wrong.

It is interesting to receive a totally different perspective on the issue that China keeps its currency artificially low. In this article, it actually says that the benefits to the US of China manipulating its currency far outweighs the costs. The reason is that the consumers get cheaper goods, which are essential goods such as toys and clothes. The other reason is that when the Chinese government is constantly buying dollars to keep Chinese yuan low, it helps to stabilize the price level in the US because the imported goods do not become more expensive, and it also helps to keep the interest rate low. This is beneficial to the US economy.

This article describes the transition of the Canadian Wheat Board after the Canadian government ended its monopoly. This means the wheat farmers in Western Canada are now going to have to be more competitive as they don't have a monopoly over the industry, and so the industry is ideally transitioning from a concentrated market structure to a competitive market structure.

National defence is an important public good. It is non-rivalrous and non-excludable, as once it is provided, the whole nation will benefit. The government is in charge of the provision of national defence.

This article talks about how negative externalities links to taxes and how it can affect a person. It compares taxing soda with other products like fuel, cigarettes etc. and how the government makes decisions on what to tax. Quote the article: "Even as adults, we sometimes wish for parents to be looking over our shoulders and guiding us to the right decisions. The question is, do you trust the government enough to appoint it your guardian?"

As many of us know, Canada has a great healthcare program that is provided by the government. The US, on the other hand, has opted in the past to keep healthcare a private good. The American goverment is now seeing negative repercussions of this decision, and this article outlines how they are thinking of modelling their healthcare system after Canada's by introducing government healthcare insurance. Although this may not completely eliminate private healthcare companies, it may discourage them for the reasons we learned in Week 12. This idea of reforming the current policies has stemmed from stories of families who have gone broke after needing emergency surgeries while not being able to afford insurance.