Group items tagged

This article is about the trade off and trade defiecits between America and China during iPhone production and exportation. It discusses the idea in terms of America and China, but also uses an example involving fictional places to give a clearer picture and explanation of the idea.

This article describes a decision by the US Federal reserve regarding inflation rates. The article points out that the unemployment rate has declined and inflation has increase, showing the trade-off. They hope, by monetary policy, however, to attempt to both reduce unemployment and achieve a stable rate of inflation.

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.

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 problems of unemployment around the world - while unemployment is leveling off in the United States, it continues to increase in the Euro Zone, which is suffering from economic problems.

"We need to have a much more honest conversation about the tradeoff between inflation and real growth." There is an ongoing conflict of how to manage inflation via increasing aggregate demand which is the classic trade off. The article indicates "liberals arguing for government intervention and conservatives often pushing for tax breaks and incentives to get the private sector moving again." This is not only a national economic conflict, but a political conflict as well.

This article talks about how inflation affects the economy and society. It mainly talks about how it affects unemployment. It later goes on to test the theory that (quote) "a short-term rise in unemployment can permanently damage an economy, by making it harder for those laid off to find work even when times recover". The government, however, is tackling the problem.

Most of you all already know about RIM's decision to cut the selling price of their tablet, the Playbook, by more than half (presumably because they are discontinuing the product). This is an example of a large firm cutting costs and reducing its output (from their inventories). We can also relate it to the concept of economies of scale, since Blackberry was able to afford to lose the Playbook as their other products are more successful.

This article details how the large company Proctor & Gamble is attempting to cut variable costs by eliminating jobs, which leads to lower labour costs. This action results in a lower cost for their products, leading to more productive efficiency. This competitive behaviour is also partially reflective of perfect competition, where companies must decrease costs in order to increase profits; however the article also focuses a lot on the advertising done by Proctor & Gamble, which is not fitting with the assumptions of the perfect competition model.

MITT ROMNEY'S dense comments about the dependency of Americans who pay no income taxes were dense not only because they seemed to write off a significant portion of... This article talks of how the amount of people who pay no tax is very high and tax cuts are currently being discussed to try to decrease the burden on the middle class. The upper class currently has quite a high tax rate. This is trying to distribute the income more fairly.

"It's not a question of if, but when Iraq revalues its currency," said the Las Vegas-based Scarpa, who keeps dinars in his retirement account. "The dinar will eventually have substantial value, possibly the highest in the world." He's not alone in risking his money on an investment that can charitably be described as a long-term turnaround project that will pay off only for the extremely patient. Thousands like Scarpa in America are buying the dinar, hoping someday the war-torn nation can revalue a currency worth just a fraction of a penny.

This article disscuses the rising rates of unemployment as well as a rising rate of inflation at the same time in the eurozone. This goes to show that sometimes, when you are trying to mend both, both can end up going in the wrong dirrection and causing a very unhealthy economy

This article on the distribution of income interested me because of the connection to economic growth and development. The efforts to create more equal income distribution are not only good for the population socially, but for helping economic performance. From the article; "This goal is worthwhile not only for reasons of fairness and social welfare, but because it would improve economic performance," says UNCTAD.

"I think we've got something of an abnormal equilibrium in the market at the moment in that we've got high inflation and a weak economic recovery on one side but we've got very low interest rates on the other," explains Cook. This article, as said by Mr.Cook above, explores the current market, and how the equilibrium is "off" because of the high inflation, weak economic recovery, and low interest rates. It is almost as if although measures were taken to find that equilibrium, the market has not responded as it should.