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A new report from the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development, which represents 34 mostly developed nations, said the rise in income inequality hurts economic growth. Today, the richest 10% of the population in member countries earn 9.5 times the income of the poorest 10%.

This is an article that explains what we've learned in the past few weeks, that necessities are inelastic compared to luxurious products. Furthermore it gives information about the customer types and even explains a strategy that can be used when consumer income elasticity is high. It also mentions that products have a "life cycle" and that this cycle is also a determinant in consumer behavior. Lastly, it adds that best method to determine income elasticity is to do research surveys.

This article is about how income in India has become one of the fastest growing economies in the world and how the household income has more than doubled since 1985. This article further discusses how this rise in income has changed consumption patterns.

This article talks about how large grocery retailers have had to postpone opening new supermarkets and might have to close down existing ones because of a decline in sales and decrease in income. Because general consumer income is spent less on food and increasingly on other goods like clothing, the quantity of food demanded by the public is going down and this fractional decrease is affecting the retailers.

Australians' standard of living improved in the past year as a rise in the cost of living was outpaced by average income growth, new analysis shows. The cost of a typical basket of goods increased by 1.4% throughout 2014, compared with income growth of 2.7%, according to the report by the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (Natsem) and analytics provider SAS.

This article deals with the looming problem of increasing taxes in the US. When the government increases the taxes on goods, it makes purchasing goods very difficult for people with average incomes.

Due to the decrease in oil prices and other essential goods, people are spending more which is making the us economy grow briskly.

The rapid growth of countries like China has led to growth in the size of the markets for many luxuries. With incomes rising in emerging countries, demand for many the luxuries has been growing. However, in the past year, due to the recession in China and Europe, Prada expects its growth in sales to January 2015 will be 'low single-digit' - less than the 7% figure recorded for the last financial year.

This article is about the new tax on soda in Berkeley, California. Apparently soda is now being taxed for 1c per ounce of soda. This tax (measure D) will levy a 1-cent-per-ounce tax on sodas and sugary drinks, and the money will go to the city's general fund. This measure wasn't intended to create funds for a specific purpose therefore it only needed the majority vote for it to pass. On the other hand, san francisco had a specific use for these excised taxes so it needed 2/3 vote for their proposition to pass (prop E). Furthermore, the excised tax for San Francisco would have been 2c per ounce of soda. This tax has been predicted to impact low income households since soda is predominantly consumed by them. This then leads to an overall increase in grocery bills, since the taxes aren't just levied on soda brands but also on grocery stores. This means that grocery stores may raise overall prices (of all goods) to pay the tax on soda.

"Few carriers besides Maersk are profitable, too many new ships are being built, and demand for space on container ships is slowing as economies in Europe and Asia face headwinds." This article is about how the supply of space on cargo ships has vastly increased in the last 15 years, but demand slows as economies around the globe face the recession. This example shows how a situation of excess supply can be created due to the external forces of demand decreasing due to lower income.