Group items tagged

This article examines profits, production, and also the costs of necessary expenses. It looks at the changes that have occurred in the Devon Energy Corporation since last year. It also looks at how lower product costs affect production of the corporation.

This article is about the need for Industrialization in African states. Industrialization would improve the productive efficiency in these countries by lowering the average costs of production. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon believes that increased industrialization in Africa will increase competition and allow integration into the global economy.

This article gives an example of a nation putting price control on a product and how that affects the consumtion of that and associated products in a nation.

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 talks about how Apple uses advertising and promotions to encourage consumers to purchase Mac products. Rather than competing with price, Apple promotes its products by incorporating new software, like the Intel Core i5 processor. This way, Apple competes with higher level software, rather than with a more competitive price.

Chrysler looks to decrease costs by improving efficiency and productivity. They planned to reduce costs by making the type of car they created variable in the long run. The new short run as a result of this new, cheaper car has the cost of production of the new Chrysler at a lower fixed cost.

Russian steelmaker, Severstal, has posted a net profit of $66 million. The article says this was partly due to the reduction in production costs, thus improving the productive effciency.

The US Congress is expected to back a set of punitive tariffs on Chinese imports in order to compensate for the artificial lowering of the value of the yuan. China's currency makes its products very cheap. The US is engaging in this protectionism in order to protect domestic workers.

This article mentions a possible tariff to be applied on cheap chinese products in the US. Such protectionism would result in higher prices for consumer, and possible retaliation from China.

Apple will host a product event on Jan. 27, giving chief executive Steve Jobs a chance to unveil a long-rumored, touch-screen tablet device for surfing the Web and playing movies and music. This is an example of non-pricing competition because Apple is introducing a new product through product innovation and improved technology. Apple has been succesfull in grabbing the consumer's hearts with their unique design and functions.

The Canadian methonal producer Methanex is planning to start operating its second methanol power plant to operate two plants at reduce rates and increase production rate by 20% over the next year. Productivity is major factor that influences that Average Cost of the gas consumption.

This article from the BBC exposes the rate at which oil is running out, and the consequences it will have on society. The implication is that the market price of oil is far cheaper than its real value, and this means that consumption is rapidly exceeding production. The article questions whether oil rationing should be imposed in order to preserve this scarce resource.

This article is about the UK's record high trade deficit. This means that it imports more goods and services than it exports. This is because it does not hold a comparitive advantage in any production; it is cheaper to import, and have someone else produce a good, than it is to keep production at home.

This article analyses the economic rationale of Brazil's tariff policy during the first two years of the Plano Real. To this end, a study is made of the changes made in import duties for all the products traded. The tariff reform process in Brazil was begun in 1988, after the old Tariff Act had been in effect for thirty years, and represented a marked intensification in the process of trade openness, with the definition of a schedule of gradually decreasing tariffs which was further speeded up as from 1990.

As the articles describes the ways in which employment is increasing in the manufacturing sector in the US, it also proves that production is increasing, thus demonstrating the Keynesian view of the LRAS.

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 is about Google introducing a new smartphone. It is intended to compete with the Apple iPhone. This is non-price competition because it is centered around product differentiation rather than prices. Google's aim is to compete by offering a different product rather than lower prices.

This article describes the slow recovery Citigroup is going through after the "recent near-death experience" it suffered; this was due to the increasing costs of production which brought negative returns and started to create debts, almost deleting all budget. It is rising again thanks to a subsidy offered by the government.

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.

This article is about the opportunity cost of producing biofuels. When the amount of water needed to irrigate crops is factored in the average mileage is 50 gallons of water a mile.

After G20 summit discussing the aftermath and the resolution for the ecnomic crisis that left great impact in the world market, countries agreed to establish tighter regulations over financial institutions and made advices for specific countries for improvement. For example, Japan and China were encouraged to reduce their dependence on exports by promoting products domestically. Quotas like these are examples of price controls in a world wide scale.