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As banks are starting to snatch up smaller banks and are headed toward a oligopoly, the U.S. federal reserve has started to try and take action. With just two banks leading the forefront (Wells Fargo and Chase), other banks have started to pull out, stating that their competitors have become too powerful.

This article is very interesting because it describes how the banking industry has become an oligopoly. I chose it because I would never have expected as such, as there seem to be so many small banks. It is also a greatly informative article because it discusses the increasing prices that will result from the shift in the type of market and talks about how the oligopoly is going to end up hurting the 99% of americans. 

This is an example of perfect competition that we don't normally think of, the banking sector. 

This is an extremely interesting article in that it shows a real life situation that is described in our reading, the situation in which massive monopolies may need to be broken up. In this case the reasoning behind the proposal is the fact that these banks are making massive profits, and sparking public outrage, which China's premier hopes to quell by putting forth this proposal.

This article takes about the Reserve Bank has turned to a growth. The author explains how the aggregated demand (even not visible) isn't the main factor.

This article is fairly recent and introduced me to another way of measuring economic growth in industries. the IIP stands for the Index for Industrial Production and it is discussed in the article that this value has corresponded to what has been expected, a negative number that is close to zero. This however is because there are many factors that are affecting aggregate supply, such as wage price inflation and the increase in land, a factor of production. However the author doesnt seem to be too worried about aggregate supply, rather He is worried that aggregate demand is on its way down.

This article talks about an increase in wages in India and that land prices is a key factor in wage changes. Also they are talking about a reserve bank, how it turned to grow and essential role of aggregate demand in it operating.

Money has become virtual with the introduction of virtual currencies such as bitcoin and ripple. Through sites such as bitcoin and ripple, which were the forerunners for online currencies, people can invest, transfer and convert money on the web with ease. It is simple and efficient. It is similare to an online bank. Bitcoin producer states that he made bitcoin to provide a more efficient "way to send money around the world". True to his word, it is efficient. A person interested in sending money online can open a bitcoin account. The individual would than transfer the amount of money he/she wishes to send to his account and send it to the designated individual person or place. Of course this transaction is not free, it requires bitcoins. A bitcoin is essentially 1/1000 of a penny. Amazing right. However, virtual currency is not real. If the police and government decide to crack down , the system will have to shut down. But for the most part, it seems they dont have the intention to.

Money has become virtual with the introduction of virtual currencies such as bitcoin and ripple. Through sites such as bitcoin and ripple, which were the forerunners for online currencies, people can invest, transfer and convert money on the web with ease. It is simple and efficient. It is similare to an online bank. Bitcoin producer states that he made bitcoin to provide a more efficient "way to send money around the world". True to his word, it is efficient. A person interested in sending money online can open a bitcoin account. The individual would than transfer the amount of money he/she wishes to send to his account and send it to the designated individual person or place. Of course this transaction is not free, it requires bitcoins. A bitcoin is essentially 1/1000 of a penny. Amazing right. However, virtual currency is not real. If the police and government decide to crack down , the system will have to shut down. But for the most part, it seems they dont have the intention to.

Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, said that the economy should be left alone in order for the "automatic stabilizers to work." He said that the "government's plan to aid home buyers shouldn't become permanent."

This article discusses the common trade-off between unemployment and inflation. In Europe, the Central Bank is expected to lower interest rates, a monetary policy strategy, in order to aid with the current issue of low inflation and high unemployment. Decreasing interest rates has the general effect of increasing Aggregate Demand in an economy, and according to the relationship between these two aspects of macroeconomics this increase is likely to increase inflation while also reduce unemployment as real output increases.

As the government has been encouraging sovereign debt purchases, it is hard to identify susbstantive inflationary purchases. European banks do not operate like american banks because they do not have a system that has print insurance.

The governor of the bank of Thailand, Prasarn Trairatvorakul, has stated in a speech that the bank will pursue supply-side policies in order to fuel additional economic growth. Trairatvorakul believed that the country must dedicate more resources towards upgrading the "engine" of the economy. Somkiat Tangkitvanich, the president of the Thailand Development Research Institute, believes the country must spend more on research in development in order to fuel economic growth,

This is a fairly recent article that talks about supply side policies implemented by the new head of the "Bank of England", Mark Carney. The article mainly discusses their new strides to reach unemployment rates, which heavily involves controlling inflation and interest rates. It is interesting how it talks about how Keynesian supply side policies were not effective post war era because they let inflation spiral out of control. The author believes in Mark Carney's aggressive take on the issue as it plans to control inflation, unemployment and has a contingency plan.

this article explores how china's central bank pledged to push forward with market-driven reforms on interest rates and capital account opening in a pilot free-trade zone set up in Shanghai.

China's central bank has resolved to push market driven reforms on interest rates and capital accounts. Residents will be allowed to do cross-border investments.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch expects Taiwan's GDP growth to be 2.9 percent this year. This is higher than the 1.26 percent recorded last year, but lower than forecasts of between 3.5 percent and 4.23 percent by other institutes.

This article discusses the options that Reserve Bank of India governor Duvvuri Subbarao faces regarding how to handle the current issue of slow economic growth in the country. The author argues that a lack of aggregate demand is not to blame for the economic issues, so attempting to increase demand through lower interest rates, for example, is not the correct way to go about solving the issue. Instead, he points to fundamental issues in the management of the country's economy that have led to an unstable condition.

The primary reason unemployment remains high is a lack of demand. An aggregate demand shortfall is exactly the kind of problem monetary policy can address. Thus, we need powerful and continuing monetary stimulus to move toward maximum employment and price stability. The following is adapted from a presentation by the president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco to The Forecasters Club in New York, New York, on February 21, 2013.

Japan is facing deflation, and it will effect the consumer confidence because of the exchange rate, this will cause a downward slope in the aggregate demand to shift to the left.

This article discusses the efforts of Japan to combat deflation and improve economic growth using monetary policy through the Bank of Japan. The country is in a particularly peculiar position because Japan's public debt is twice the size of its economy, therefore rising interest rates could prove to become a potentially out-of-control situation. There is much debate over which policies the country should take to best correct its economic situation, while some are suggesting that the current policies being used may be successful without causing much inflation at all.

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.

This article highlights the complex relationship between inflation and unemployment by pointing out the effect that each has on the well-being of individuals. A recent study showed that a whole 4 percent increase in inflation leads to the same amount of unhappiness as an only one percent increase in unemployment. Inflation and unemployment have always been considered inverses, in other words as one increases the other decreases. However the author of the article points out that the goal of central banks should be to keep unemployment as low as possible, instead of inflation, because of its widespread "misery" effect.

Although inflation makes people unhappy, it turns out that unemployment makes people unhappier. The country's "misery index" is extremely high.