Dairy farmers from around Ottawa took their cows and tractors to Parliament Hill this week, to protest the changes they expect in the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.

Japan and the United States are discussing slashing Japan's tariff on imported low-price pork products to about a quarter of the current rate as soon as an envisioned Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement enters into force, informed sources said Thursday. The pork tariff would be immediately lowered from the current ¥482 per kilogram to ¥125.

Fiscal Policy and the EU's Economy

WASHINGTON -- The share of unemployed Americans who receive unemployment insurance benefits has dwindled to its lowest point in decades, thanks in part to benefit cuts in Republican-led states. Just 23.1 percent of unemployed workers received state unemployment benefits at the end of 2014, according to a new analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal Washington think tank.

Business Cycle is the fluctuation in economic activity over time and is characterized by four distinct phases- recovery, growth, decline and recession.

THE oil price has fallen by more than 40% since June, when it was $115 a barrel. It is now below $70. Discusses how prices, business confidence and investment can affect the AD/AS curves for Oil

We've another of those calls to arms over the loss of American manufacturing jobs. From the usual suspects, the Alliance for American Manufacturing (a lobby group of a few manufacturers and the United Steelworkers). They claim that Japans's "currency manipulation" has been responsible for the loss of 900,000 jobs in [...]

For more than two years, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an international economic organization of 34 of the world's richest countries,have been debating how to produce a global tax system that would eradicate the sort of tax avoidance that has seen Apple squirrel away more than $160 billion overseas.

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.

Oil prices are based on the supply and demand of it and not on its costs on the environment. "They price oil and gas based on current demand and supply, and not based on the costs to the planet in pollution, global climate change, sea level rise, and more."

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.

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

This article discusses how water is being sold too cheaply, even when there is a drought. Here price mechanism should come in to regulate and allocate scarce resources. It says that people consuming the water have no incentive to stop wasting if the price is so low

Also, Water is quite inelastic since people will continue to use it (largely because we need it). The fact that it is so inelastic can actually be dangerous. this is because we continue to consume it whether or not the price increases.

A bumper crop of grains has decreased the price for corn, soybeans and wheat. This is a good example as to how a non-price determinant of supply can effect the prices of products, which in turn cause an increase in demand. Although this may be good for the average consumer, economists need to make sure that inflation doesn't fall too low, or cause deflation. This could cause corporate profit losses, causing wages to lower, which could potentially cause the economy to go into a recession.

Saudi arabia is a large supplier of raw oil. It plans to cut down oil production even more due to the continuos falling prices of oil (since mid-June 2014). Apparently Oil demand is lessening while supply remains strong, causing the prices to drop. According to the International Energy Agency, this will be a year of slow growth for the world's demand for oil.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation on Tuesday overhauling the state's management of its groundwater supply, bringing it in line with other states that have long regulated their wells. This is really important because california has large agriculture based businesses (central valley). In fact, the oppositions to the legislature were people in the agriculture business. This potentially allows water companies and regulators to intervene if water use is excessive or improper. This is an article directly discussing scarcity of water and natural resources and how the government regulates these resources. This passing of this legislature could also have some opportunity cost along with it; less water=maybe more expensive food, less food, more chance of dying crops (?)