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This article talked about eBay increasing their revenue in double digit percentage and brought in 1.8 million$ last quarter. They were able to do so because in the long run they planned ahead and predicted that mobile phones would become a platform for commerce, so eBay used PayPal to make a lead in mobile payment, which gave them more market share. eBay was also experimenting with new app called eBay Now, which allows customers to buy goods from their phones from Macy's Target and Walgreens and have them delivered the same day. So we can see how important it is for a form to plan ahead in the long run: it decides the revenue for the firm in future.

The article is a really interesting article that explains an interesting fact about how the employment level change in developing and developed nations. It is interesting that in developed nations the unemployment level is more than developing nations. It should be the opposite because developed nations are developed in every way but developing countries are not fully developed yet they still have a lot of improvements they have to achieve as a country politically and especially economically. The average unemployment rate in OECD countries was 6.7%. During the nineties, the average unemployment rate was 7.7% in UK, 9.3% in Canada, 11.7% in Finland and 11.3% in Ireland.The countries such as UK, Finland and Ireland has lower employment rates when you compare with India which was 6-7%. But if developing countries have close to full employment why do they have greater economic misery and lower GDPs you may ask? The answer to this puzzle of full employment, yet low GDP and greater economic misery, is not quite straightforward. In developing countries is that most of them have few programmes to provide relief to the unemployed. the people in developing countries do not have the luxury to remain unemployed.They take whatever jobs they get. Most European countries are welfare states with generous unemployment insurance programmes. During recession, many people in European countries do not find it worthwhile to work at minimum wage. They accept jobs that pay less or they accept jobs in the informal market, with lower or no benefits and little protection.

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 showed the relation between the price and demand. The oil companies need guar gum powder for fracking to get oil, this increase the demand of guar and the guar price rised up. In our textbook, the relationship is a little bit different. Our textbook said as the price increase the demand of the product will increase, where as in this article as the demand increase the price will increase. This article showed me the mutual relation between the price and the demand.

Economies of scale is the increase in efficiency as a company gets bigger. In this case the economy of scale is the creation of larger shipping containers. The great thing about scales of economy is that it has lowered the production cost of products such as the creation of t- shirts for some companies. However as companies have more products to they needed bigger containers to transport their goods. As the supple of t- shirts increases the size of the ship that transports the goods needs to increase in size as well. Maersk lines , the world's biggest shipping container company has decided to increase the size of his ships. The company plans to build 20 ships with a capacity of carrying 18,000 twenty-foot equal units. The company does this out of efficeny in transportation and gas cost. The larger the ship the more it can carry and the less times the ship will have to travel back and forth to transport goods. The increase in ship size than is an example of the economies of scale when bigger = more efficient.

This article is interesting because it is quite important in terms of the impact it could have on the U.S. India is one of very few countries near the Middle East that is "stable" at the moment, and the U.S. as a country imports quite a bit of its oil from the Middle East. This is very closely related to what we have been studying this week, in that when something is scarce, or demand is high, prices elevate. Not only is it a good decision on India's part to raise prices because it will help their own national fiscal rating, but it will also take advantage of the fact that many countries will begin turning to them as a primary source of oil / diesel until the situations in the arab spring are resolved. India is doing a smart thing fiscally, while capitalizing on unrest in the arab spring and maximizing their profit during this time of high interest in the good that they have to offer.

Since our topic this week is on exchange rates i thought it would be a good time to address a topic of interest to me - virtual money. the bitcoin is accepted as a form of currency by many and from the article, we can deduce that it has a high exchange rate. A norwegian man had bout $27 worth of bitcoins which now translates to $886,000. this value and exchange rate is un-paramounted and extremely high but there are reasons for this. Bitcoins are now being used as a form of currency for illegal trading - forged documentation serving as an example. This increase in demand has lead to appreciation for the value however many countries are just starting to recognise the bitcoins currency value. many owners are just starting to accept bitcoins as a form of payment in the hopes that it can appreciate and they can sell it for more in the future. However in the article we get an understanding that the bitcoin fluctuates greatly. This detracts consumer confidence however the sheer idea of investing in virtual money is enticing to many, increasing the demand for the bitcoin.

The article is talking about India's exports which are expected to grow by 7.2 per cent in 2014 fiscal on the back of improvement in growth of developed markets, says a report by Morgan Stanley Research. "We expect export growth of 7.2 per cent in fiscal year 2014 versus minus one per cent in fiscal 2013," it said in a report on Asia Pacific Economics.Morgan Stanley Research expects a gradual sequential recovery in India's exports on the back of improvement in developed markets growth from the third.

This article discusses the new Chevy volt hybrid and debates it's future. it can be said that the company, in regards to this car, is going to start benefiting from economies of scale as in the article it states that the production cost will become cheaper however it is obvious that the company is not producing at the minimum efficient scale as allegedly for each volt it sells, the company loses $49,000

Currently, the Chevy Volt costs $89,000 per car to produce. However, GM is selling the car at about $40,000, offering even more discounts in certain places to reel in customers. GM argues that in the long run, the production cost will decrease and begin to bring in profit.

This article is an excellent example of the concept of long term vs. short term decision making by a company. Right now, GM is losing massive amounts of money whenever they make and sell another Chevy Volt, but they hope the investment will pay off in the long run.

The Japanese automobile maker Nissan announced a couple years ago its plans for a new completely electric car, the Nissan Leaf. However, sales in the United States have been fairly low, only selling 10,000 of the cars in 2012. The reason for the small amount of sales is believed to be caused by its high price, due to an expensive and large battery back in the car, and the fact that the car has a small 80 mile range. In hopes to increase sales, the company is beginning to start production here in the United States. Producing the product closer to where it will be purchased will reduce production costs for the company, allowing it to decrease the price of the car and leading, hopefully, to an increase in demand.

Nissan is opening up a production plant in the U.S. to produce their car, the Leaf electric car. This is the first production plant. The short term is the building of the plant, which should decrease unit costs because they will no longer need to transport the cars to the U.S. The long term is the plan to create new technology to improve the car (battery, charging, etc.) and hopefully increase the demand, which could reduce unit costs even further. 

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 talked about how Apple broke the monopoly in computer industry controlled by Microsoft. 14 years ago Justice Department worried that without government intervention, consumer choice would be significantly limited by Microsoft. However, today Apple broke this monopoly and took a big share of market. By using non-price competition and creating innovative product, Apple survived and succeed in computer industry. So we can see there is no such thing as a monopoly in computer industry, the advancement of technology will always give the market to the firm.

 Sony has managed to get rid of the competing technology,the HD DVD.   Instead of an increase gain in market share,Sony has had a decrease in  market share. The reason is that people are savvy to the pricing strategies that vendors use. They understand that with no competition, Sony will eventually have to lower its own price.  In taking out competition Sony has caused a decline in its own products.

This article talks about the rising tensions in the middle east and its effect on the price of oil in the world. As the middle east supplies most of the world with oil, the recent demonstrations in Libya and Egypt, and the sanctions on Iran are causing oil prices to rise. The threat of higher prices due to the fact that only a few countries control the limited oil supply in the world is causing increased pressure on the United States to release their oil supplies.

I like how you identified that all of this forces the U.S. to consider releasing their oil supplies. Some problems with this are that it is currently not possible to do so in the areas where oil is most abundant. After the B.P. oil spill, the current administration put a time ban on all off-shore drilling and new construction. If this ban were to be lifted, companies like B.P., Shell, and Marathon would begin constructing new refinement plants and drilling facilities immediately, which would significantly reduce the price of oil at home. When some people here this, their inclination is to say "the government has good reason to do this, look at what happened in the gulf, it is better to ere on the side of caution," but the sad thing is, these companies have put forth revised safety plans as well as contingency plans that have all been approved, but legally, they can do nothing. The companies own the land / water as well, which in my mind makes the fact that they are prohibited to build on land that they own that has never been part of a reserve or park seem a tad bit anti-constitutional, but until the piece of legislation is overturned, prices will continue to rise.

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.

The article is talking about India is projected to grow by 6 per cent in the current fiscal while growth is expected to be steady in most of the Asia Pacific economies.It, however, cautioned that a weaker global risk appetite and a poor monsoon would pull down growth to around 5 per cent in 2013-14 fiscal. In India, poor monsoon seasons would pull growth down to around 5 per cent in 2013 and would reach 6.5 per cent.India's growth forecast has been lowered to 6 per cent in 2013 and 6.7 per cent in 2014 on weaker consumption and exports.

This article talks about the agricultural decline in Uganda. Uganda's economy's backbone is their agricultural sector, but the production has gone downhill for multiple reasons. The rise in population is a major reason. Since they gained their independence, Uganda has gone from 6 million to 35 million and farmers are unable to keep up with the rise. A big reason why they aren't able to keep up is because the youth is more interested in non-agricultural jobs. This makes food more scarce and due to Uganda's heavy reliance on agriculture, the economy has descended continuously. 

Do you think that there is a solution to this problem? To me, the agricultural decline in Uganda seems unlikely to resolve. The land available for farming is not enough for the growing population, not to mention the lack of future farmers.

This website is very interesting on not just a world scale, because most people have already heard of the food problems in the world, but as well on a local scale. Meaning the article talks about how the average human is contributing to this growing problem.

This article does a really good job at capturing the chain effect of changes in the world. An example is how they talk about how water shortage affects food shortages. People tend to overlook how much one disaster can cause many others.

I agree full heartedly with what Landon has said, as well as what you have said Miro, in regards to the chain affect of changes as well as the fact that understanding problems on a local scale is important. I know that we in Indiana have really been hit hard by drought this year, and we have seen first-hand how the lack of rainfall hurts everyone. The chain reaction of sorts begins with the farmers, who had a horrible growing season in Indy this year, and thus they passed on the cost to the consumer. We are having to pay noticeably more for all grown products this year, and it really is a testament to the harsh reality that is the chain affect that Landon mentioned, as well as a wake up call to all of us here that economic problems exist everywhere, and just because we live in a well developed place doesn't mean we are safe from them.

This Bloomberg article talked about how China is trying to raise the currency and make Yuan become a global currency. It also mentioned China used to peg Yuan on US dollar until 2005, then they changed the policy to manage Yuan in a certain range.

The article is concerned with the increasing currency value of the Yuan. In the past couple years, the value of the Yuan has increased significantly. This increase in the currencies value is due to the China opening its markets and showing leniency in trading. However, the Yuan though growing in strength has much to do before it becomes the world currency. It must be adaptable. The Chinese government has stated that they will open the market more by 2020. When the currency will replace US is unknown but it seems that it will surpass the US dollar with time. The article was eyeopening. I had never realized the Yuan was so strong. I will definitely look at the Yuan when i read economic news.

T