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This article looks at the Elasticity of Demand and Supply for oil. The increased costs of the production and higher prices are not leading to a fall in demand, but instead a fall in the elasticity of demand.

This article fits in my opinion very well to the topic of elasticities. It deals with price elasticity of both supply and demand for oil. The author is concerned with the increasing inelasticity of supply: "reserves we're now exploiting are not only more expensive to develop, but they also take much longer between the time the first well is drilled and the when the first oil is produced". There's also a graph in the article which shows the constant fluctuations of both supply and demand for oil, and how the American oil supply struggles to adjust itself to American demand for oil.

This article addresses the changes that have occurred in the oil market over the past ten years. The author claims that changes in the demand of oil have increasingly been playing a role in maintaining the supply/demand balance. He argues that these changes will be burdensome to our economy unless the demand for oil is made more flexible. According to the article, there is not a shortage of oil. Today, due to rising oil prices, we are able to exploit oil reserves which were previously too expensive to exploit. Since these new oil reserves are more expensive to develop and take longer to access, the time it takes for oil supply to respond to changes in price is increasing as well. This means that "...the oil is becoming less elastic..." meaning that "a large change in price produces a small change in supply." In regards to the elasticity of demand, "the elasticity of oil reflects the options we have to using oil for our daily needs." Our ability to reduce oil consumption is fairly limited in the short term, but increases over the long term. However options for reducing oil consumption over any time period are often inconvenient. Reductions in demand due to high prices can be called demand destruction (a permanent move down the demand curve toward reduced demand) which can be detrimental to the economy. This is why people such as the media and politicians wish to have supply adapt to changes in demand instead. However, "there are also limits to the ability of oil supply to adjust." Oil is not easily accessible. Because oil supply has become less elastic, prices has had to become more volatile to force market adjustments. The author concludes by suggesting ways that the elasticity of oil demand can be increased and the pain of demand destruction decreased.

This article although an opinion piece is made up of many subtitles, the one I chose to focus on is Roosting chickens and Fed Bashing, It talks about how Druckenmiller keeps predicting economic dooms due to rising interest rates since he closed his business. Personally I feel this is like the quote we got that says, "looking at statistics...to save himself from having ignorance foisted on him", this article is about Krugman using his on look on statistics to see if Druckenmiller's predictions are accurate since some can say they were and others can say they weren't. Krugman gathers his knowledge from past experiences with 2008 crash and The Great Depression; with my own knowledge of the Great Depression and things that contributed to it's solution this drives me to say that government intervention and spending are what's needed to fluctuate the economy ( hence why people argue WWII was the real solution to the Depression due to it's massive spending).

The article describes how the decrease in demand affects the macroeconomics, due to suppliers of coal and petroleum using the railroad to transport their goods. The decline in railroads has caused greater competition, raising the cost of production for these goods, as using the railroad service will be more expensive at times.

Britain is experiencing a downfall in their economy due to less consumer spending. The GDP growth of the country has been slowing at a pace of .3% and according to economist Chris Williamson, this is due to the fact that consumers are being cautious with their spending and are pulling back and also that the manufacturing sector is struggling. The pound value has weakened compared to the euro and dollar. Also a poll done in the service sector shows growth at a slow pace since April 2013.

This article discusses a topic the book made fun of in this week's chapters. When describing inflation, the book makes a snarky remark about how a fraction change in percentage of unemployment is considered "news". There are a lot of uncertainties concerning unemployment, because it is difficult to measure the amount of unemployed people, due to different definitions of unemployment and because of hidden unemployment, yet these news agencies give values with such high accuracy. The article does describe how unemployment has decreased in various parts of Europe, which can be linked with higher living standards for some.

This article shows that a limited liability company named Linn Energy had their stocks lose value heavily, as well as a massive revenue decrease. This happened because of the oil bust, which was a massive decrease in demand for oil. Since the oil demand was becoming elastic due to the fact that it was a necessity for which alternative methods had been or started to be found (coal, solar energy, etc.), there was not much that could be done about the decrease in demand, which in turn took a toll on Linn Energy.

The oil bust definitely would cause a decrease in demand but it would also cause a decrease in supply because a bust is a "decrease in economic growth and production." I however have to say that u probably misunderstood the concept of elastic and inelastic. Oil demand would be inelastic because oil is a product that is necessary for a lot of human activities and since it is a necessity, demand would be inelastic and not elastic.

With the lower prices less oil production falls. The lower prices also leads to less capital into the market and smaller companies with loans will struggle to pay back due to less revenue and profit. Some may have to declare bankruptcy. It is almost impossible to increase prices, because then other firms will offer cheaper oil and win your customers. The PED of oil is close to infinity and the XED between the oil of two different companies are a very high positive value

The article speaks about the decrease of shrinking food stockpiles (i.e. wheat) around the world resulting in an increase in demand for the good. Due to the slack of supply available for markets around the world the demand needed has increased. This is a result of multiple factors, such as weather. Overall, this is affecting the health of it's people and hindering trade.

This article speaks about the increase in demand for oranges because weather conditions have damaged the harvest of other fruit, such as apples and bananas. These weather conditions have caused the fruits to increase in price because of the lack of supply available. As a result oranges became the number one choice because of its lower price, so people were able to get more for their money. However, the wealth of the company producing the oranges hasn't been shared with the people due to the cost of transportation. They will see if these result will change depending on the next harvest.

the price of commodities are rising which is leading to an increase in demand of the commodities. Also Agregate demand is increasing due to lower exchange rates, higher equity prices, and higher inflation expectations.

The price of coffee has been going up and will keep at it but this doesn't seem to affect demand as demand is still increasing. Now quality is not affected by price. These can be based on the fact that the product is addictive and not many substitutes will suffice. Some even think of it as a ritual every morning.

I agree that coffee is inelastic because it is typically contains caffeine which is an addictive drug. People are addicted to coffee and depend on it as part of their daily lives. They cannot function without it, or are at least unwilling to. Therefore, consumers will continue to purchase coffee despite rising prices. Coffee drinkers also enjoy the last of coffee and are not willing to switch to other caffeine filled drinks such as tea or soda because they are not close enough substitutes. In fact, coffee consumption has actually increased despite rising prices. Consumers will not change their tastes unless prices become drastically higher.

i agree with the point that the change in qunatity demanded is not very significant. This is due to the fact the coffee is a habit forming good and addictive to most coffee addicts. However it also depends on the proportion of income spent on the good. Coffee prices can range from being dirt cheap at hawker centres to expensive at cafes like Starbucks. Hence even if the consumer is not a coffee addict, and only a small proportion of income ( if it is 'insignificant' ) is spent on the good, then a change in price will not affect the spending behaviour ; demand is price inelasic

This article discusses the problems with China's economy and what needs to be done to resolve these issues. In China economics and politics are very closely tied. This is due to the fact that China's authoritarian leaders are largely in charge of the economy and must deliver economic prosperity in order to stay in power. However, industrial production has fallen, fixed-asset investment and retail spending has slowed, and home sales have plummeted. This has caused concern among Chinese leaders. While there was once a consensus in the West that authoritarian politics were beneficial for the Chinese economy, this is becoming increasing questioned. For the past several years, the aim has been to "rebalance" the Chinese economy by avoiding over reliance in fixed investment and imports as well as greater reliance on domestic consumption to drive GDP growth.

The demand for Nokia Smartphones has declined drastically. This can due to changes in taste and preferences. The more desirable people find a good, the more they will demand it. In current situation , consumers are favouring Smartphones belonging primarily to Apple or Samsung. Their preferences could have been influences by advertising or even comparing the quality of the products.

This article discusses the sugar market in the U.S. On average, U.S. consumers pay twice as much for refined sugar as the rest of the world. This is largely due to sugar policies in the United States. In America, the federal government offers loans to sugar cane and beet processors who are to pay sugar growers a minimum price set by the USDA. The idea is that processors will obtain a market price for their sugar that is sufficient to pay back the loans. However, the loans are "non-recourse," meaning that if the market price of sugar declines, processors can forfeit to the USDA the sugar they put up as collateral. In order to prevent sugar processors from offloading sugar onto the USDA and to protect processors from lower-cost foreign competition, the federal government has imposed a two tier system of tariff rate quotas. It also restricts the total amount of sugar that domestic processors can sell by setting market allotments which are designed to drive up the price by creating artificial scarcity.

In the final quarter of 2015, Britain's trade deficit worsened. The shortfall between exports and imports increased significantly between the first and third quarters of last year which added to concerns that Britain's worsening trade position will negatively impact GDP growth this year. Howard Archer, the chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight, said,"UK exports have clearly struggled in recent months, as they have been hampered by sterling's overall strength in 2015, particularly against the euro, and moderate global demand." While recent declines in the value of sterling may boost export sales, this could be mitigated due to the deteriorating global situation.

THE SWISS National Bank (SNB) has fixed its currency against the euro at a rate of 1.2 Swiss francs, after its value rose sharply due its status as a safe haven investment amid the troubled eurozone countries.

In the United States, many Americans are finding new jobs. However, most employers are not willing to provide significant pay increases. Recent data, reals that unemployment currently is at a 7 year low but the pace of job growth is slowing. This provides conflicting signals about the country's economic momentum. The unemployment rate has fallen to 5.1%. With such a low rate companies should be competing for workers. However, was have remained flat. Workers are seeing new buying power because prices have been slow to rise and consumer prices have held steady this year partially due to falling commodity prices. Job growth and inflation are linked. As more people get jobs and receive raises, prices increase. At some point, as the labor market tightens, it provides upward pressure on wages and inflation but how long it will take US economy is to that point is still being debated.

Swiss unadjusted unemployment rate slightly increased to 3.3 percent in October of 2015 from 3.2 percent in the previous month and matching market expectations, as the number of jobseekers and unemployed went up. Yet, youth unemployment declined by 3.9 percent from a month earlier.

Due to the bad weather in France, the quality of wheat used to make bread have been affected leading to an increase in the price of flour. Other factors that lead to the increase in prices include the Ukrainian crisis and the Russian ban on wheat exports. Because flour and wheat have many uses, the demand for these products will hardly be affected which makes them inelastic. Supply on the other hand will decrease because of the bad harvest faced by farmers.

Some key words "like determinants of price" of price which we learned in that week could have been used to explain why season affected the price of flour. With demand steadily increasing and supply diminishing Fonge could've talked about PED which she brought up but never used the term. In her comment she said wheat and flour being inelastic are not affected by any change in price so wheat has a low PED.