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A commodity boom has helped pull millions out of poverty across South America over the past decade. It has also unleashed a new scramble for oil, minerals and cropland that is accelerating deforestation and fueling a new wave of land conflicts from Colombia to Chile. The land and the forests are poorly regulated and protected leading to illegal plundering of resources which end up deteriorating and damaging the environment. This article is also a good example of negative externality of consumption and how demand can indirectly increase the damage inflicted on the environment. Since the amazon rainforest is only protected in some places and not in others (and the protected places are still open to the public), it is a common resource that is constantly being violated and reduced.

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.

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday he will dissolve the lower house Friday for a general election and postpone a planned consumption tax hike, citing the economic downturn following a tax increase in April. Abe told senior officials of his Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner Komeito that campaigning for the House of Representatives election will start Dec.

Mark Bittman has a piece in the New York Times where he analyzes the "true cost" of hamburgers. There are some things right with the piece and some things wrong. In general, thinking about the costs of meat consumption is important, and casting the discussion in economic rather than moral [...]

This article discusses how the Indian Government is clamping down on tobacco consumption by imposing higher taxes on cigarettes, chewing tobacco products, and unmanufactured tobacco. The increase in excise duty in the range of 11-72% for different types of cigarettes is the steepest in a decade. With this move, government taxes are projected to account for around 70% of the retail price of some cigarette types.

Article introduces a new way to fight obesity unhealthy food consumption ; by increasing the tax on fast food and sugary drinks and decreasing the tax of vegetables and fruits in order to encourage a healthy diet.

I think that this a great article in many ways. First of all, it shows how we can no look at economics in only one way and that nothing is actually certain because there are many determinants. One action can have exactly opposite results even. Secondly, I think that it is really interesting that a change would effect one group but not the other. I mean it is not actually "interesting" because it is a daily life that we can observe, but it was interesting to be reminded of that fact once more, related to what we have learned this week. Lastly, the strategy they have thought of to fight obesity really made sense to me. Nutrition is really important and it always seemed very irrational to me that all these junk food is more expensive than healthy food. It makes sense considering that different markets benefit from this situation, but still on something that relates to health, I believe that we should be more worried about society's benefit than companies benefits'. I believe that there may be exceptions to equilibrium, if it will benefit humanity.