Vikram Akula, the founder of SKS Microfinance, the for-profit company that is accused of aggressive collection tactics, made an unexpected observation Sunday night at the Social Enterprise Conference at Harvard University. "Professor Yunus was right," Mr. Akula said, referring to Muhammad Yunus, the Grameen Bank founder, economist and a frequent critic of Mr. Akula and others who tried to turn microfinance into a for-profit industry.
This article is about a firm (Krispy Kreme) having an increase in their profit, as of compared to a loss the previous year. This also has to do with the increase in total revenue.
This article is saying how a land as barren as that of Nevada, can still make for good trade. Nevada has made itself a place where questionable events may be held. By doing this they give them self the comparative advantage in tourism. Tourism may not seem like a good but it is. Nevada, by hosting these events, give the tourist an incentive to come. Nevada has made itself more profitable than other tourist destinations by having things such as Boxing and Prostitution. In the interstate/international market for tourism, Nevada has made itself a top competitor.
In the economic terms, Nevada can produce certain services (prostitution, casinos, boxing,...etc) with less opportunity costs (prison, fines, fees,...etc) than the leading competitor. Also it is in a prime location. People from all over the states can fly or drive to Nevada to see the shows and events that would be illegal elsewhere.
This truly shows that with smart planning, any country/entity has the ability to trade successfully.
This article is about how the Argentinian government is protecting the domestic production of BlackBerrys in order to "cut foreigners' share of Argentina's mobile-phone market". Even though this seems to be a valid case of protectionism, it will "cost $23m upfront, plus $4,500-5,000 a month per worker, some 15 times more than in Asia". This is because Asian laborers and factories have already perfected the production of cell phones. They have the 'factor endowment' in the production of cell phones. This is because to start a factory in Asia, the price is already low. Also the labor is cheap and skilled. The start up price for this endeavor is already going to be $23m, they will also have to train the workers and pay them more than they would if the Argentinian companies outsourced the production to Asia. Another problem with the domestic production of cell phones in Argentina is that Argentina, at this moment, is not known for their production of cell phones. They are not a place in which companies like Motorola or Nokia look for to manufacture their products.
Argentina could do this but it will take them a long time before they clean of their capital debt. In the short run, they will not make any money but nobody knows for sure what the long run has in store for this unorthodox market.
In my opinion, Argentina should focus its money on something that will be profitable not only in the long run but also in the short run. This is possible. Argentina has a factor endowment, its tourism. It does not take that much money and effort to increase the amount of tourism in a country that is obviously beautiful and worth seeing. Even if they were not to invest in tourism, they could focus on, for instance, the exporting of more beef or fish. These are things that people already are accustomed to getting from Argentina. It all bundles down to this: when you think about Japanese production, you think cars and phones. When you think about Argentinian production, you
Time Warner and News Corp. revenues in the past quarter surpassed expectations. However, the high revenues may not last long due to the potential decrease in consumer demand for big cable channels.
This article talks about the increase and decrease in price for overnight bookings/stays for hotels in European countries. We can see that there are several different 'firms' or 'hotels' that are both increasing or decreasing room prices to make profit/attract customers.
This article is about Train operators who have been accused of topping up their profits by increasing the cost of car parking. (it is monopoly)
Sorry for delay...
This is about a man who is going to swim to Maine to raise money to preserve the lighthouses. The article shows that a lighthouse is a public good which does not make any profits.
This is a form of price discrimination as prices of oil are increasing even if the supply of oil is increasing. And the suppliers able to do this and still earn profit as oil is an inelastic good and a necessity. However the suppliers do not have to worry about reducing the price of oil as the demand for oil would not become elastic (at least for now and a long time).
This is not really an example of price discrimination as consumers are not separated in different groups and prices are not different for different consumers.