Group items tagged

This article is a great example of government intervention into the market of public goods. This article details the rather controversial plan of President Obama to cut $487 billion dollars over the next decade, with the possibility of an additional $500 billion dollars of cuts if Congress agrees, which will most likely never happen.

This article is very interesting in that it shows how a massive company like Air France is making decisions to cut spending drastically in order to reduce their production cost. On a side note, I found this article thanks to my french class, so if any of you are french / speak the language and would like a more interesting view on the topic, check out this link. http://www.france2.fr/jt/20h/

Cirque du Soleil has announced that it will cut around 400 jobs from its circus troupe in order to keep up with production costs. They will also be cutting 15 of the 19 shows they currently play around the world.

This article from the Huffington Post explains why Fedex, the popular express mail company, is cutting jobs in the united states and over seas to save a more money as 2012 was not a good year for fedex. They expect to save 300 million in fuel alone from the job shredding. Very interesting article as it shows why companies would cut jobs to save more money, basically a way of thinking put in place by President Reagan long ago.

Canada is cutting the tariffs on their hockey gear. Very little hockey gear is produced in Canada, and thus the tariff only hurt the economy.

This is a great article about the copper market, and how it is attempting to reach equilibrium. They had been stuck in a period of oversupply, and there had even been rumors of productions cuts to compensate for the oversupply; however, all such rumors have been dismissed as consumption is on the rise and they expect that equilibrium will soon be met.

The article says that Iran began cutting subsidies on energy and food in 2010. The second phase, which targeted gasoline subsidies, was to take effect in March 2012.

The article is talking about the economy of US right now. The aggregate demand is far lower than potential and government is cutting expenditure rapidly. However, the author thought that's not the right way of doing it. Although the money is short, government is still supposed to take necessary actions to induce recovery.

This article is very interesting because it shows another situation pertaining to subsidies that we have not discussed in a lot of depth, this being the removal or reduction of subsidies. This article also shows the clout that the International Monetary Fund holds, as well as the impact that subsides or lack thereof can have on the citizens of the country in which they are implemented. 

This article talks about China lowering the price ceiling for gasoline prices. The article gives justification for the price decrease. The article then gives an in depth explanation of the change and how that might have further economic impacts.

This article is strangely similar to the questions that we had for our discussion. It talks about sustainability in the future and also about future levels of consumption and how they have changed over the past few years.

The article is about the giant West German Daimler- Benz group which tries to decrease the cost of production to avoid the future economic breakdown the cost of technology which was the main concept for Daimler and the number of workers decreased according to the such find of economic collapse of the company.

According to the Commerce Department, consumer sales have risen 1.1% in February, the largest increase in 5 months. The good news calmed fears that the recent expiration of the payroll tax cut would reduce the willingness of consumers to purchase goods. Consumer spending makes up 2/3 of the macroeconomy and it therefore always a reliable gauge of the current status of the national economy.

The article is talking about the strengthening housing recovery and robust auto sales contributed to moderate growth across the United States.Employers added only 88,000 jobs in March, a sharp slowdown from average gains of 220,000 in November through February. And consumers cut back on their spending at retail stores and restaurants last month, a sign that higher Social Security taxes have made more Americans cautious about spending.Debate was about Fed policymakers about when to rein in the bond-buying program, which began last fall.The Fed is expected to stick with plans to keep short-term interest rates at record lows at least until unemployment falls to 6.5 percent. And it will likely continue purchasing $85 billion a month in Treasury and mortgage bonds to lower long-term rates and encouraging more borrowing.

Unemployment benefits will fall by 13% for those "who have been unemployed for at least six months." This cut on unemployment benefits will affect 45,000 Massachusetts residents and 2 million people nationwide.

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.

Nokia, a well-known cellphone manufacturer based out of Helsinki, Finland, has been struggling for the past few years to keep its revenue at sufficient level. Last year, the corporation was not able to pull any profit and lost over $1 billion. After many cuts and streamlining procedures, Nokia was able to gain a profit this quarter of $200 million, however, revenue continued to fall by 20%. This is an excellent example of how profit and revenue are truly separate concepts, because although the profit gain gave the impression that Nokia's status is improving, it is still in fact losing income.

Investors and traders are betting on an increase in demand of copper in China, the world's largest user of metals. With the upcoming National Day week-long celebrations in China and continuing worries of the European debt crisis, many manufacturers are stockpiling and cutting risk. However, China is expected to announce new plans for economic growth and this, along with signs that future demand may increase, has returned the price of copper to $8175, up about 0.7%.

The articled is talking about NEW DELHI that the government reduced the import tariff value of gold and silver to $418 per 10 gram and $699 per kg, respectively, in line with global rates of the precious metals.The tariff value, the base price at which the customs duty is determined to prevent under-invoicing, stood at $436 per 10 grams for gold and $702 per kg for silver during the last fortnight.