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Home/ Groups/ Economics HL - Jacob Solomon's group - Year 1
Katie Edwards

Fed's Policies Have Been 'Hideous' for Economic Recovery - 2 views

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    "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.
Lola Z

Off With Their Heads! The Fantasy Google Monopoly - Forbes - 2 views

    • Lola Z
       
      Here it deals with the concept of menacing monopoly. Google isn't doing anything "evil", but it is just so comprehensive that everyone can't help to use it.
  • . Microsoft’s impressive growth of Bing in a mere two or so years shows that new competition in search can come at any time.
    • Lola Z
       
      There is actually competitor of Google. It is Microsoft's Bing.
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  • They rest on their laurels and do not innovate.
    • Lola Z
       
      If there is a monopoly in industry, consumers can be end up in disadvantage as the monopolist refuses to innovate and discourages other firms which can potentially innovate from entering the industry.
  • Google continues to innovate in many spheres of Internet and e-commerce activity, from mobile operating systems to books to social media.
    • Lola Z
       
      However, we can see that Google is innovating and giving consumers advantages. It is a benign monopoly.
  • Google search is a free product, supported by advertising. And that advertising is not priced by Google itself, rather through an auction among advertisers bidding on the use of search keywords. Google doesn’t control price, let alone raise prices.
    • Lola Z
       
      Here again, Google is shown to be a benign monopoly. Monopolists usually control the price freely, and raise the price as high as they can to earn profits. However, Google is free. Even if advertisers post commercials on it, the price is not set by Google.
  • Monopolists also have no incentive to reduce costs and increase efficiency, because the absence of competition assures them of selling products very profitably.
  • Google doesn’t act like a monopolist and shares none of the characteristics sheltering classic monopolists from competition. Its astounding success in Internet search is universally regarded as a consequence of better design, superior code, better products and plain old hard work.
  • an “evil” monopolist
  • Of course, it’s unlawful to monopolize a market, not to become a monopolist as a result of superior business acumen or execution.
Sebastian van Winkel

Higher Production Costs Shift Chinese Manufacturing - 2 views

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    This articles start out by talking about how Chinese support the world with cheap goods. However, prices are expected to go up as Chinese manufacturers run down with higher wages, more expensive raw materials and an growing currency. This article shows the increase of production cost and the effects it will cause, such as: having companies to opt out, or relocating their companies to other countries.
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    For decades, China's factories have supplied the world with cheap goods - from denim jeans to desktop computers. But export prices are expected to go up as Chinese manufacturers are battered by higher wages, more expensive raw materials and an appreciating currency.
Desmond M

Obama Tax Plan Would Ask More of Millionaires - NYTimes.com - 2 views

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    This article demonstrates opportunity cost because a rise in government revenues may lead to a shortfall in private sector investment.
Dan Call

Eurozone Unemployment spikes to record 10.8% - 2 views

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    This article talks about the increasing rate of unemployment across the EU. Although there is a record spike in the last month, unemployment has been rising in every area for a number, and the article discusses likely results and factors leading to this issue.
Adam C

The end of food - CBC News - 2 views

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    As world worries grow about a crash in the system, this article looks at some of the current issues involving the depletion of food in North America. We have already seen the severe consequences of scarcity (in terms of food) in Eastern Africa with the current famine. Certain steps will need to be taken to make sure that the same this doesn't happen in North America
Olachi Nwabuikwu

BBC News - Somalia famine: UN warns of 750,000 deaths - 2 views

  • "In total, 4 million people are in crisis in Somalia, with 750,000 people at risk of death in the coming four months in the absence of adequate response,"
  • 'Not short-term'
  • "Even if we are able to get food and supplies to the main ports of Somalia, I think there is a real challenge in being able to deliver that assistance - what I call the 'last-mile' problem.
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    Now for Somalian citizens who are faced with a compulsory pattern of living with famine, scarcity can be thought as not invited but already a citizen, despite the environmental constraints of hydro climatically-induced water scarcity and the considerable fluctuations which characterize the natural freshwater supply supposed to exist; a water-stress routine is now an impact on the responsibility of improved water supply for self-sufficient crop production (resulting in lack of food and crop production) as well as the number of these Somalian individuals desperately depending on any flow unit of water available to them from the water cycle. Sadly as stated it is not of a short term crisis but if seen in a medium-term-perspective, water may not be readily available to support improved life quality for this growing African population, so the economy therefore is faced with a great deal of scarcity without knowing what to do about it.
Mirren M

Economic hit from Japan quake seen up to $200 billion | Reuters - 2 views

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    This article talks about how an earthquake in Japan has cause economic losses to the "world's third largest economy" and the global effects of it.
Tim O

UK industry on the defence - 2 views

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    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.
Monique T

Home shopping goes high end - Jul. 19, 2011 - 2 views

  • white ones.
    • Lola Z
       
      Value of the white ones is the opportunity cost.
    • Lola Z
       
      Human wants are unlimited. Ladies always want more fancy jewelries. 
    • Lola Z
       
      Human wants are unlimited. Ladies always want more fancy jewelries. 
  • everyone wants to be at the party." 
    • Lola Z
       
      Once again, this shows that human wants are unlimited.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • "The recession may be the best thing that happened to the home shopping networks because designers needed new outlets to offer more affordable prices," said Jack Plunkett, CEO of Plunkett Research.
  • By selling directly to the consumer, shopping channels eliminate the steep mark-ups taken at boutiques and department stores and offer more competitive pricing, said Plunkett.
    • Lola Z
       
      Opportunity cost for customers is that the convenience of going to shops to see the real goods and try them on.
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    Not only is there an opportunity cost for the designer, but the people spending this money on the jewelry have the opportunity cost for other large items - such as a vacation or new computer!
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    I commented on this article, and now on my screen above it says shared by Monique T... just to clarify, Lola posted the article, not me.
Amy X

Starbucks Customers Feel Burned by Surprise Price Hikes. - 2 views

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    This article talks about that the increase in price for starbucks had an major impact on their costumers. Their costumer rate have decreased since the price increases, their price elastics was not calculated fairly, which had an impact on their service and costumers.
Katrina D

The soul-destroying search for a family doctor - 2 views

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    This piece by The Globe and Mail outlines Canada's ongoing shortage of healthcare professionals, particularly family doctors. Although it doesn't address economics directly, this article applies to our topic because doctors are considered a 'service', and thus not having enough of them is a scarcity within Canada's economy. The author talks about how difficult it is to find a regular family doctor in her area. According to her, there are actual business dedicated to helping people locate doctors. At the end of the article, statistics reveal that this is a normal problem occuring in a large part of Canadians. There is actually also a major shortage of healthcare professionals in developing areas such as Africa, where there aren't even suitable medical locations in the case of an emergency. **By the way: I apologize for my lack of tags other than 'scarcity'... I accidentally posted the article before tagging anything else! **I fixed the tags... finally figured out how, woohoo!!
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    This is a great example of scarcity, and even opportunity cost. These doctors are somewhat of a luxury, and although they are a need, the scarcity makes them a reasonable want as well. Scarcity may have largely negative repercussions, yet there is an occasional positive outcome for some unit in an economy. It's certainly beneficial to the other businesses (helping to locate doctors) that have evolved from this problem, and those companies are profiting from a Nation's scarcity.
Desmond M

AP IMPACT: Hospital drug shortages deadly, costly - 2 views

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    This demonstrates scarcity by showing that a shortage of drugs, caused by manufacturing problems, is causing high markups from secondary suppliers. 
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    I never thought how the shortage of drugs could be so impacting because companies are always producing drugs and we never think how it could affect our lives without them. I has to make you think how different our lives would be without modern medicine.
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    I recently heard about a similar issue in Canada and I assume the same problem is occurring elsewhere... Drug companies have decided to switch their focus to more expensive drugs, such as cancer treatment drugs, because they can make so much more money on them. At the same time, they are reducing production of the cheaper drugs because of the low profit margin, even though these drugs may be essential in saving people's lives. The scarcity of the drugs for the people who need them could be easily fixed, but is being prevented due to the greed of large corporations.
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    It's really unfortunate how so many individual events, such as stolen goods or contaminated drugs, have lead to so much suffering. The market is the big, but (as the article says) there are only about a half-dozen companies that produce these drugs, and so when there is one little problem, it quickly becomes something much bigger. It isn't just one reason, this article otulines several, all of which are wreaking havoc on patients and the healthcare system as a whole. Clearly, pharmacists are scrambling to provide for their patients. Hopefully, this shortage doesn't lead to illegal imports or other bad things that can occur when people are desperate.
Tim O

Hilfiger's Pricing Power Shows Apparel Profit Holds Up - 2 views

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    This articles talks about the retailers are managing to increase their prices and pass on higher costs onto their customers. Its talks about how people think that increasing the price will not change the demand or quantity because consumers would accept the price increase because all retailers have the same cost structure and would start to pass the higher prices through. It also talks about that they can increase their prices because their is no substitute for their product. In general there is a economic growth within the world. Average prices in the apparel market rose more than 5 percent from January to May.
Hannah S

Mexico's two monopolies - 2 views

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    The telephone market has two monopolies. 1 has over 70% of the landlines the other over 70% of the mobiles. This means that there are two extremely powerful companies which have a lot of influence in the market and how the mnexican population spend.
Hannah S

How the recession is affecting manufacturers - 1 views

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    Hey, This article is about how the current economic climate is affecting many industries in the eurozone and how this may be making our situation worse in the long run as less money is being fed into the economy. Hannah
Monique T

Outlook for U.S. Consumer Spending Brightens on Employment Gains | Bloomberg Businessweek - 1 views

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    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.
Nadiya Safonova

Colorado Forest Fires and Increased Natural Disasters in USA - 1 views

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    Natural Disasters, Latest Natural Disaster News - Aggregate supply rises when weather conditions are stable and well, however the rate of bad weather, such as these fires which are destroying large chunks of land will cause the aggregate supply to decrease.
Monique T

Malta's power stations cost up to €126m a year in health, environment | The M... - 1 views

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    This article discusses the environmental and human health costs of power plants. These type of costs would be considered negative externalities of production, because they are harmful effects that do not effect the firm producing the power, but rather a third party, society as a whole. When producers are making the power, they value the cost as the private costs to their firms, but as outlined by this article, there are many social costs which they do not consider, and this leads to over-production, which means the market is failing, as the resources are not being allocated efficiently. An interesting aspect is that they are able to put a true "cost" on environmental and health effects, which can be quite hard to determine.
Dan Call

Some Britons Too Unruly for Resorts in Europe - NYTimes.com - 1 views

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    This article talks about how British teens going to other European resorts are too unruly to be there. There only aim is to get drunk and party, so the article examines how this haoppens, why this happens, and the effect such actions have on local communtities in the areas where thiese problems are most prevalent.
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