Group items tagged

The World Bank and IMF are calling for support for Middle Eastern nations, arguing that higher food and oil prices, and a jobless economic recovery, will harm nations in the region. The World Bank and IMF are saying that, in the long run, lack of involvement in the Middle East will cause a downturn in the economy - and an increase in poverty.

Poverty is fueling the protests in the Middle East. This article is relevant to this week's topic because lack of education and unhealthy environment leads to low-quality human resources, and thus the slowdown in the economic growth.

This article is about how the financial crisis of 2008 has affected the market for luxury yachts in the Middle East. The article reports that sales of leisure boats are expected to plunge up to 75% as people are less willing to splurge on luxury goods. This shows that the YED for luxury yachts is relatively elastic, as the loss of income resulting from the crisis has caused a greater than proportional change in quantity demanded.

In this article BBC special correspondent Tom Feilden 'looks at the reasons why the era of cheap food is coming to an end'. The article describes how the prices of basic foodstuffs around the world are rising at a rapid rate. It explains that a population boom and economic growth created a new middle class which drastically increased food consumption. This excess demand over supply has therefore hiked up food prices considerably.

This article addresses the price discrimination in the American healthcare system. It pertains to both medical treatments and procedures, as well as medications. Specifically, it talks about the price discrimination that occurs against the lower and middle classes. This is a growing problem, seeing as many treatments are becoming highly advanced (and therefore very expensive).

This article is about how rising food prices, recently aggravated by unrest in the Middle East, have rapidly been "pushing" many people below the poverty threshold. 44 million people are now below the threshold of extreme poverty.

Obama visited Iowa to make a speech about his future plans for econommic expansion and recovery of the middle class who have been hit hard by the recession. His stimulus package involves the investment into clean energy which have been criticizd for its validity and effectiveness.

One of the major problems in the Thailand, a country at political crisis, is the economic inequality between the rich and poor which is aggravating the political situation between the middle-class and low-class. This is relevant to this week's topic because a proper government is not placed in Thailand to redistribute the riches' wealth to the poor population.