Economics HL - Jacob Solomon's group - Year 1

Gone are the days when cellphones were a luxury, or a tool for a few business elite. They are now a normal and essential part of life - both in business and personal affairs. Many families, like mine, have done away with fixed line phones completely, and this trend is growing.

This is a report on the World Bank's economic predictions for the financial situation of India in 2012-13. Economic growth will be low, and aggregate demand in mentioned in the context of fiscal consolidation and higher interest rates. These factors will decrease the AD, and we are especially aware that higher interest rates decrease investment and firm spending. Both of those activities will undoubtedly hinder India's national economic growth.

The aggregate demand in an economy is made up of the total spending on goods and services in a country, and one of the components of aggregate demand is consumption (consumer spending). This article outlines some reasons as to why consumer spending - consumption - is expected to increase in the US in the coming months.

On Wednesday, White House officials summoned dozens of leaders of nonprofit organizations that strongly back the health law to help them coordinate plans for a prayer vigil, press conferences and other events outside the court when justices hear arguments for three days beginning March 26. This article shows concern over the American Health care system which is *none profitable*. "For months, Democrats in Congress and progressive groups have urged the White House to make a more forceful defense of the health care law, which is denounced almost daily by Republican lawmakers and presidential candidates."

This article concerns the fact that German exports have fallen since December. This reflects what was learned on the "determinants" of exports; national income in foreign nations, exchange rates, relative inflation rates, etc. Considering the recent economic turmoil in Europe, one can assume that the economic situation of foreign countries has affected the level of Germany's exportation.

Unemployment is one of the indicators used to look at a country's macro-economy. The low unemployment in Germany leads economists to believe that the economy is recovering, meaning it is going through the "recovery" stage of the business cycle - a positive thing for a country after a global recession.

Jan 26th 2012, 15:07 by E.G. | AUSTIN MATTHEW YGLESIAS, writing at Slate, is perplexed by Barack Obama's plan to "boost the economy by hindering trade". He argues that in his state-of-the-union address, the president evinced "a strikingly retrograde, self-contradictory, and confused agenda of reviving American prosperity through mercantilism". He says that due to macroeconomic events out of their control people are losing jobs and the economy is shrinking.

This artcile involving an interview with YV Reddy, talks about how aggregate demand is very important to not only specific countries, but to the world, talking about how the Eurozone is a key factor within the worlds economies.

By Jack Dolan, Los Angeles Times By Jack Dolan, Los Angeles Times A convicted killer who got caught because he'd tattooed a graphic mural of the murder scene on his chest raked in more than $30,000 in unemployment benefits while he sat in the Los Angeles County jail system, a sheriff's spokesman said.

This article discusses China's economic growth over the past few years, and that although the GDP has been increasing, it is doing so at a decreasing rate (e.g. a 10.4% increase in 2010 and a 9.2% increase in 2011). This could reflect a contraction on the business cycle; as it is a period of the economy in which increases, but at a decreasing rate.

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 shows the precise level of different economic activities within the UK at this moment in time, including Inflation, Interest rates and Consumer spending to name just a few sub headings.

This demonstrates economic activity because it focuses on the performance of an industry in the economy and is therefore a component of GDP. The article also evaluates what is likely to happen in the future of the industry, and the expected consumption patterns of certain individuals.

Recently, the NFL's Buffalo Bills made a deal with the city of Toronto to hold a certain number of regular and preseason games at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. However, due to scheduling conflicts, one of the games has had to be dropped, but the Bills say that the price of the tickets won't be going up because of it, but actually going down to increase demand. The NFL can be considered a monopoly because there is no professional football league like it in the world, and its annual revenues are huge.

A big drop in business spending on machinery and equipment helped pushed orders for long-lasting manufacturing goods down in January by the largest amount in three years. The Commerce Department says orders for durable goods - products that are expected to last at least three years - fell 4 per cent last month. This directly relates to macroeconomic activity as it discusses the macroeconomic system in the US.

This article depicts the failure of the macroeconmic system in Nigeria, and how the country's poverty is exemplified through GDP. The low development of the country is due to a cumulation of low income rates, and a non-industrialized economy. Macroeconomic tactics are failing, and this results in high poverty of the country.

This article is about how in China the state always has control of the market and doesn't allow things like monopolies and ologopolies to exist that often and that they are always the ones who decide what happens in the end even if it seems as though the consumers are the ones that are making the decision.

This article talks about the effect production costs have had on the number of episodes in a season. In an attempt to be productively efficient as production costs per episodes rise, show producers have simply had to cut down the output of episodes. This makes sense because if we shift the AC curve left, the cost will decrease, but so will the output when AC=MC (productive efficiency).

This article discusses how petroleum countries in South Africa were fined for price-fixing. This is an example of large firms who form a collusive oligopoly, because they are working together to agree on prices that will maximize their joint revenue. However, due to the fact that this means higher prices for consumers, it was an illegal agreement and so the firms are being fined.