Group items tagged

This article from the Global Times is about how rising oil prices are affecting logistics firms. As logistics firms are involved with the transport of goods, oil constitutes a large part of their costs. In the past, these companies have been able to neutralize rising costs by increasing their service fees, but now that the economy is on the rebound, this isn't as easy.

This article is about an large increase in profit of Warren Buffet's investment firm. Revenue increased by two billion dollars in the course on one year.

Japan has fought off the hard economic struggles after WWII, and seemed to finally achieve economic stability after twenty years of hardship........until the economic crisis hit worldwide and paradise lost. Wages began to fall at the nation-level even before the crisis hit Japan because the workforce shifted from well-paid elderlies to underpaid yougnsters. Because of this, Japanese consumerism seems to have changed - people are suddenly more thrifty. The firms have to fight for a better deal against other firms under the competition.

How far will a nation go for energy? Sweden is now allocating its resources in a more productive manner: bunnies are turned into heat. Due to the overpopulation of rabbits in the region, Konvex, an incinerator firm, uses rabbits to heat homes in Sweden. Since there are so many rabbits, representatives explain, this method is quite efficient in terms of energy production.

That's a reall interesting article. Who would think of burning rabbits to make green fuel? It is efficient but it might cause a problem with the animal rights groups.

This article doesn't specifically mention a natural monopoly, but it refers to one because it is an industry with high sunk costs that is more efficient with less firms and central infrastructure.

This article shows how the recall of several Toyota models acts as a form of non-price competition for other firms in the car industry. Ford and GM have benefited from the lack of consumer trust in the Toyota, and have both seen an increase in sales.

The Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States, have promised to keep interest rates at rock-bottom levels for the time being. Low interest rates encourage investment by firms and spending by consumers. Rising interest rates have a negative effect on storable commodities.

This article is about the declining revenues and profits at Time Warner, one of the world's largest media firms. Time Warner owns news corporations such as CNN, TNT and HBO. The main reason for this is declining DVD sales, but the loss in profits also reflects the change in the way people are viewing and consuming television and movies.

Rostelecom, a Russian firm, suffered 85 percent profit loss, falling from 9.8 roubles to 1.4 roubles. This was due to a foreign exchange loss.

This article is about a pending deal to stop "banana" wars. This is a dispute over the policy enacted in 1993 to give preferential treatment to bananas from former British colonies, and to put tariffs on other bananas. This distorted the market and created barriers to entry and exit. It also meant that firms in former colonies were making supernormal profit in the European banana market. This deal will put an end to this policy and make move the market for bananas closer to one of pure competition.

The EEF manufacture organization in UK announced that public finances are needed to restore the stability of the Uk's productive sector or else firms are going to drop out of the industry. This is relevant to the concept of effeciency because if these firms cannot either reach the allocative or productive effeciency, they will have to exit from the industry due to tremendous loss.

Discount retailer Dollarama says solid sales driven by new, higher-priced products and the opening of 42 stores last year helped boost its profit in the latest quarter. Although the firm is a dollar-shop, its controversial price tagging of over $1 is bringing product - essntially a price discrimination to increase its profit.

This article reports on the a small Sri Lankan tea company called Dilmah challenging the world's transnational tea manufacturers like Twinings and Lipton. Dilmah is selling high-quality, exclusive teas at higher price than the market price. Ultimately, Dilmah is selling the "exclusiveness" rather than the actual price.

This article is about a small company of Sri Lankan tea called "Dilmah". The tea factory is challenging the world´s transnational tea manufactures such as Lipton and Twinings. It is selling high quality, Dilmah is selling select and exclusive teas at higher prices. so we can say that the company is selling exclusiveness rather than the actual price.

They have excellent tea, actually.

The two big players of the online-retailer shops are Amazon and Wal-Mart. As the holiday season approaches, their price-discoutngin battles becomes intense every now and then. This ties into the topic of monopoly because these two firms dominates the online-retail industry.

Colombia-based multi-utility EPM has launched a prepaid electric power program for marginalized communities. EPM has monpoly over the electricity and water-supply which makes the firm narturally monopolistic.

The dispute between British Airways' management and the Unite trade union, which is over working conditions and pay freezes, intensified over the weekend after the two sides disagreed about the effectiveness of the strike. This article is relevant to this week's topic because if the strike consists and the firm must agree to defrost its pay-freeze and increase real wage, that would result in a cost-push inflation caused by pressure from trade union.

The British Airway has decided to lay-off the number of staff on long-haul flights and freeze their pay for this year. The aim of this reduction in cost is to save 62.5million euros to help cope with a fall in demand, volatile fuel prices, and increased competition against low-cost airline firms. This article is relevant to Week 25 topic because this is an example of demand-deficient unemployment where potential supply for labor exceeds the actual demand for these labors.

This article centers around President Obama's attempt to reduce unemployment and create jobs through encouraging exports. As American products find new overseas markets, aggregate demand will increase. Firms will then increase their demand for labor, reducing unemployment.

Japal Airline is experiencing a massive loss of revenue. The theory of pure competition is relevant to thsi article because if JAL continues to fail to maximize profit and reduce its loss, there are possibilities of the firm to withdraw from the industry.

Air India has lost over a billion dollars in the past year because the current recession has reduced air traffic, and thus profits. This is an example of a market without pure competition, because the firm and others in the industry are losing so much money.