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Louis Hobeika, an economics and finance professor, has stated that "the slowdown in economic activities this year was translated into lower imports and therefore a lower deficit in the balance of trade, which resulted in the shrinking in the balance of payments deficit."

A combination of lower imports and increased exports have led to an improvement in the balance of payments of the country of Lebanon. The country has in past years imported several times more the amount that it exports, which had led to a great deficit of trade. Due to a slowing economy, imports have decreased enough to begin to improve the deficit. In addition, an emphasis placed on the service export sector (health care, education, etc.) has contributed to the improvement.

This article talks about how wine is reaching a equilibrium between it's supply and demand. Global demand for wine is at a low right now, but the price of grapes is increasing. This means companies can't afford to supply the same amount of wine, which actually means they reach a balance with the decreased demand. This is a good representation of how a decrease in demand isn't always bad. 

This article talks about how rising oil prices have led to an increase in imports in Indonesia

This article discusses how oil is becoming an inelastic good. Although people can arrange their lives to reduce their consumption of oil, quickly there comes a point where it is not possible to purchase a smaller amount of oil. Oil would definitely be considered an essential good.

The article evaluates elasticity in terms of oil supply and demand. it states that there are still untapped oil reserves which are more expensive to obtain and requires more time. As a result, oil is becoming less elastic. it talks of possible ways of reducing oil consumption such as public transport or getting a more fuel efficient vehicle which is unlikely as it is expensive. it also evaluates the the elasticity of supply. it talks off how suppliers need a minimum price/barrel in order to keep a balanced budget so suppliers are reluctant in increasing supply in order to reduced the prices. It provides data over a 10year time period which analyses the oil consumption and supply of oil in terms of different uses and change in costs. It also relates it to the recession stating that job loss has lead to less people commuting decreasing demand and increasing price

this article talks about the balance of payment in china, and also explains how that for the first time in a very long time (1999) the country is experiencing more money leaving the country than enters it.

The article is talking about China which starts as for the first time since 1998 more money leaves China than enters it mainland China can now boast over 1m wealthy citizens (qianwan fuweng) each with over 10m yuan ($1.6m), says the latest edition of the "Hurun Report", which keeps track of China's capitalist high-roaders. But the mainland seems to be having trouble keeping them. According to the report, published on July 31st, more than 16% of China's rich have already emigrated, or handed in immigration papers for another country, while 44% intend to do so soon. Over 85% are planning to send their children abroad for their education, and one-third own assets overseas.

The republicans shift by saying that taxing the wealthy will balance the economy by a bit.

This article discusses the delicate balance between fiscal and monetary policy. The president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Eric Rosengren, blames inefficient fiscal policy on the little-effect monetary policy is having on the economy. He argues that tight fiscal policy, or contractionary strategies, are making it more difficult for the Federal Reserve to lower the unemployment rate. However, it is important to understand that monetary or fiscal policy is not better than the other. Instead, it is likely to take a combination of strategies to combat problems in the economy.

This article deals with the delicate balance between inflation that is too high or too low. The president of the Federal Reserve Bank in St. Louis, James Bullard, argues that the current inflation rate (1.3%) may be getting dangerously close to reaching deflation. Although the unemployment rate has remained higher than 7%, the inflation rate is well below the comfortable 2% goal kept by the Federal Reserve. If the issue becomes preventing deflation, the "Fed" should instead use policies to increase the money supply rather than adopt "tight" money supplies that slow inflation and economic growth.

Although the rate of economic growth in China has slowed recently, a high amount of Foreign Direct Investment in China shows that there is still a large amount of confidence in the economy. Investment increased 16.1% over last year, up to $10.76 billion. Growth has shifted away from manufacturing towards services, partly due to an effort by the government to restructure the economy. In addition, the FDI by China to foreign countries has increased by nearly 50% to $7.23 billion, showing that the country receives nearly the same amount in FDI as it provides to other countries, reflecting balanced investment,

The article is talking about the federal government which has shut down today because of an impasse over the budge and in two weeks, the nation is set to hit its borrowing limit.The major problem in the articles is that there is an oversupply of global labor, an oversupply of global productive capacity and an oversupply of global capital. The jobs created low wages and part time. Growth in domestic manufacturing is still slow which will prevent the development of a country in their own production and prevent the large amount of profit they will get as a result of the domestic production.Business spending has fallen, rents of the houses falling where home prices have increased. The reason why its hard to get out from the rut is because they are no longer faced with a world in which supply-side economic remedies, easy money, reduced taxation, fiscal belt-tightening and deregulation can spur new capacity and the creation of well-paying private sector jobs.Countries that were recently poor find themselves with huge surpluses and sovereign wealth funds. The rich countries of the world, while still rich, struggle with monumental levels of debt, both private and public, and unsettling questions about whether they can compete globally.Also to clear this mess,developed nations need to put the huge surplus of underemployed workers back to work by any means, including big public sector investments to improve infrastructure and competitiveness.Moreover, a new economic multilateral ism with the developing world, to encourage them to re balance their economics away from savings and toward consumption, while we in the West must curb our addiction to credit and consumption is necessary.

The U.S. has had a current account deficit since 1999. Lately, a growing U.S. economy is not contributing to the global trade market as much as it had in the past. This is causing people to become worried about a global economic storm that might emerge in the near future.