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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.

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 article talks about an earthquake and the lack of water available.This article essentially talks about how the demand for water was high but the price remained therefore people with more use for the water werent able to get the resource; it; some needed it for baby formula whilst others for cleaning dishes. The writer argues that if the price of the water was raised, as it was scarce, then people with higher priorities wouldn't mind spending the extra money. Economist Eric Cramption then dismisses an argument against price allocating resources; the poor would get poorer. . 

This article is a fairly recent article that talks about international trading. Particularly, it talks about a free trade agreement that will soon be finalised between countries that could potentially represent 1/3 of global output. This free trade agreements seeks to reduce barriers in some countries allowing for easier trade and aims to increase the share of knowledge between the countries, trying to make the knowledge similar to a perfect competition scenario. However this agreement may lead to the alienation of power-house China, a heavily influential country that had not been invited to join the agreement. this could have potential backfires such as trade embargos, but for now we will have to wait and see.

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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.

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.

Zimbabwe has set extremely low price controls for many primary products, and this has caused many people to go out of business. People are losing a lot of money, but the government is refusing to let the prices go higher. The government is making up for the loss by printing more money, which is causing price inflation. The people are upset, but with the government making sure that the prices are low by threatening to close businesses, there is nothing the people can do about it.

Zimbabwe government is controlling food price by physically forcing merchants and shop keepers to low their price down, other wise will be beaten. It is actually not going to work and can not last for long time. Producers can not supply the goods at a price that allows retailers to make a profit. The inflation of this country also reached the world's highest level. This article showed that price control has to be realistic otherwise will harm the economy.

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 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 article is interesting because it talks about the chain affect of low supply. The articles talks about how the global failure to harvest maize and soya is causing the supply of pig-feed to be low. This causes the price of pig feed to increase and makes it hard for farmers to continually purchase it. This isn't only affecting the farmers, but it is affecting the public. Farmers can't maintain healthy pigs so the supply of pork and ham decreases, which causes the price to increase. This means people aren't as willing to buy pork and ham. The competition between the large amounts of farmers also doesn't help the supply of pig-feed.

When it comes to the reasons of deflation most of the economists see it as a monetary phenomenon which is affected by demand and supply. If the supply of money is more than demand then the value of money increases and prices go up as a consequence. When the supply of the products are higher than demand it results with the mass production which leads to the fall of prices. Some people believe that the deflation occurs because of the mass production and falling the aggregate level of demand. The biggest effect of deflation is unemployement. Deefletion is more serious and dfficult than inflation. To prevent deflation first is give an upward push to the aggreagte demand by increasing government spending or the second they can increase the money supply by decreasing cash reverse ratio.

When it comes to the deflation some of the economists believe that it is a monetary phenomenon which is affected by supply and demand. The reasons that leads to deflation are if supply of money is less than its demand than the value of money increases and the prices would go up. If the supply of the product is more tha its demand then it will lead to the mass production which the large amount of products will lead the prices to fall immidietly. The biggest effect of deflation is unempoyment. Deflation is more diffucult and serious than inflation. To prevent deflation first give an upward push to the aggregate demand by increasing government spending or the secong they can increase the money supply by decreasing cash reserve ratio.

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.

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 is talking about how the result of the presidential election effect the health care. Mitt Romney will probably end the health care whereas Obama will absolutely keep it. Health care is a public good, it has positive externality and should be encouraged. However, the cost of providing health care is very high. According to the article, 'Affordable Care Act won't be fully in place until 2014'. Two candidates has different solutions. Obama choose to keep it, and Romney choose to end it due to the high cost. From this article we can see the limitation of government intervention of economy, and how different parties and people have different opinions.

This article talks about how Fresno's supply of the raw material required to make concrete, asphalt, road base and other building products is decreasing quickly. Since this raw material is used by a majority of industries, the decreased supply will have a significant effect.

This article is about how the aggregate supply in Fresno County is reducing due to the lack of reserves of raw materials such as mines. The aggregate reserves is less than 11 percent of the 50 year demand, and mining operations are estimated to have less than 10 years to end. If mines can run out, so can oil and gas. We should be alarmed that our aggregate supply of country might also decrease due to lack of oil.

The Congress is preparing to cancel subsidy for corn ethanol and the tax break for oil companies. The tax credit deepened the budget deficit. It also raised corn price and food price as farmers started to replace other crops with corn. However the House of Representatives won't pass any law that would end the subsidy because their paymasters want the subsidy to keep the demand up.

This article talked about how an Iceland company Carbon Recycling International ehf, saw the rising demand and planned to increase output. It made the firm more efficient because recycling carbon reduced cost and saved resources. It also reflected the situation of perfect competition. Oil companies are price takers, they can't control the price of oil. And the product are homogeneous: oil form different company don't have significant quality difference.

House Representative John Mica of Florida, my home state, is planning to introduce legislation to Congress to address what he considers to be Amtrak's monopoly over passenger-rail service. The legislation would aim to increase competition in this industry, not end Amtrak itself. Mica is a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and hopes that Congress will consider federal rail policies later this year.