Economics HL - Jacob Solomon's group - Year 1

China will make job creation a more urgent priority in the face of slowed economic growth and weakened exports. Equilibrium is connected to this article because of the balance needed to keep the economic growth in china. The growth of China may be going too fast and it is needed to slow down and in order to keep the Economics i china, China had create jobs to counter the economics slowdown.

What really could be constraining the housing demand? is it really the different circumstances covering a householders finances due to weak earnings or higher inflation as suggested or the PRICE?!

This article is related to oil prices; which are very much connected to our demand for them and the amount that can be supplied. This particular article is in reference to lower oil prices; which would increase the demand for the oil.

It is so amazing to see, how if a country is having problems, then the price for oil is drastically changed. Also, if the price for oil decreases then more countries are willing to buy it and hence it circles around because then the supply becomes limited and the price for oil rises again.

This article demonstrates how price is used to allocate resources in a free market, in the area of education. Since there aren't enough teachers and universities for every student across the world who wishes to go to university to go, this education must be allocated to people via price. Because of this, only people who can afford the education can go to school. The amount of people who can go to university is also regulated by admissions and marks, but it is an example of where price can affect who gets to make use of the resources.

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!

By 2030, more than half the world's population will live in high-risk areas By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor Humanity is facing "water bankruptcy" as a result of a crisis even greater than the financial meltdown now destabilising the global economy, two authoritative new reports show.

This seems like a big issue that will unfold during our generation. In Canada, we have one of the world's largest fresh water supplies, and that will be an important resource for our country moving into the future. But even with such a large supply, it is still a very scarce resource. Last year I visited a museum exhibit on the world's water supply, and it demonstrated the amount of water usage per capita in places around the world... In North America, we were using around ten times more water per day than people in Africa. This demonstrated the availability around the world affecting people's usage, but even in places where water is abundant, if we use too much it can still run out, so we need to be careful in everything we do.

This article talks about the rising prices of commodities due to the aggressive and proactive economic policy of China. With the surge in Chinese purchases of commodities such as iron ore and oil, a huge demand has been created in the commodity markets, which were previously unprecedented. The sluggish reactions to the commodity demand,due to archaic infrastructure and depleted resources, have lead to a substantial spike in the prices of commodities. I personally believe that the massive purchases of resources by China is leading to a bubble in the commodity markets. As said in the article Iron ore was once 13$ a tonne in 2001, and now is 178$ a tonne. Although some might say that the rise in prices are a corollary to the rise of China as a economic power, I do not believe the mass consumption of commodities can be sustained over time.

It is clearly stated at about the first line that China is facing pressure to increase prices, Because of scarcity of sources the prices are going up even though it is only the short term and the long term remain positive, it is still something we need to think about. Countries such as Japan has less resources therefore all of their resources are imported, thats why the price in Japan is so high. the article says that China should prevent the rapid growth in order to not having another economic crisis.

The Government of Canada is currently spending lots of money sustaining and improving Canada's universities (and creating more scholarships to help students pay for school) - this demonstrates oppurtunity cost because funding and creating more scholarships, stimulates competition between students, thus raising the level of achievement, thus the universities output more valuable students...

This article states the relationship between currencies, which links to prices, and the demand for goods and services. While the currencies are weakened worldwide, the manufacturing industries are highly impacted. Therefore, the supply is lowered.

Basically what this article is trying to convey is the issue of the unstable price of palm oil in Malaysia and how it affects and is affected by the economy. The decease in demand of palm oil due to high stock and a festive season ending is assumed to increase due to other festive seasons starting therefore predictably showing a recovery trend.

This is an example of the non-price determinant of demand that we learned about earlier, seasonal change. As different festive seasons approach, different demands change. Another example would be as some cultures celebrate Halloween at the end of October, the demand for pumpkins (and candy!) increases.

This Financial Post article talks about the successes of Porter Airlines, a small Canadian company that founded about 5 years ago. The company is currently moving through the price mechanism, but hasn't reached its second equilibrium yet. Its demand has increased by a lot recently (due to holding a monopoly at their island airport in Toronto, and higher profit margins per plane compared to other airlines), therefore shifting the curve to the right. However, since the Price has yet to increase, they are stuck at the 'middle stage' of the price mechanism where the demand is higher, but the price is still the same. We can predict from this that the prices will soon increase to make a higher profit with the growing demand, as we've seen in the textbook graphs.

"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.

This article talks about the supply and demand equilibrium for oil. It says how the price of oil has changed in recent years, and perhaps what the true equilibrium price of oil should be, as well as making some future predictions about the possible price of oil.

This article focuses on the equilibrium in the oil market, or in this case a "fragile" equilibrium. Recently, Europe as well as other parts of the world, have been trying to find alternatives for using oil. For everything, other than transportation, there is an alternative to burning oil. So in places where the population is steady, and not rising dramatically...the demand for oil is going down, therefore shifting the demand curve and the equilibrium price. However there are still many countries in which the demand for oil is growing. I the oil industry, the equilibrium is constatly wavering...but so far, it has stayed in a range and hasn't strayed too far from that range yet.

Due to the increase in different nationalities in the population of the US, there has been a huge increase in demand for translation services, especially in the medical field. Because of this non-price determinant of demand changing, the demand curve for translating services shifted to the right. As the curve shifted to the right, this means that the equilibrium price and quantity both increased. Since a market always moves toward equilibrium, in this case it meant supply had to increase as well. It is for these reasons that the company discussed in this article is looking to expand its services and acquire new companies - so the market will be back at equilibrium and the demand for translating services is met by the same supply.

The National Broadband Network Company (NBN) wanted to slowly reduce their internet connection prices to benefit consumers. However, any price mechanism they try is just increasing the CPI (Consumer Price Index). The CPI measures change in price level of consumer goods and services purchased by households; in this situation specifically internet providers. We all obviously need the internet, but many companies are struggling with correct pricing, a key component of their business. They are beginning new projects that need more money, which in turn causes a price hike. The article uses a lot of technological 'lingo' with statistics to back up plans of price comparison.

This article demonstrates the concept of equilibrium by pointing out that there is a shortage of sugar in Europe because the EU is trying to shrink the sugar industry. The shortage of sugar means there's excess demand; the supply is insufficient because of certain trade barriers and import duties.