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According to this article from the Deloitte University Press, the length of recovery has little to do with the probability that a recession might occur. Dr. Daniel Bachman claims that modern business cycle thought and recession data suggests that business decision makers should look elsewhere to gauge where the economy is headed. Since WWII, the average US business cycle expansion has lasted 56 months. The last three expansions have been exceptionally long and the current expansion is already longer than most of the expansions in the 1950s-70s. Therefore, it is possible that something such as a the role service in the economy has changed but the sample is small and the uncertainty is high. In fact, most economists who study business cycles do not view them as cycles. The world's first industrialized economy, the UK, suffered banking panics in 1825, 1847, 1866, and 1890 and the fact that a crisis appeared every 20-25 years suggest that there was some form of regular force at work in modern economies that lead to a cycle. However, as economists began to use statistical techniques, they discovered that the cycles in the data were probably illusions. As, a result, economists have mostly rejected the idea of business cycles repressing an inherent, regular feature of the economy. Instead, they view the economy as experiencing random shocks, both positive and negative.

According to top Chinese officials, China's economy is showing signs of improvement while capital outflows from the country are moderating. Chinese leaders are trying to reassure major trading partners and jittery financial markets that the government is able to manage the slowing economy following a slide in the nation's stock market and depreciation of the yuan.

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.

Singapore is a robust economy with a sound political system and yet very fragile as it is very dependant upon global forces of wind. Politics in Singapore is almost like Board of Directors of Singapore Inc. The Scarcity of land, combined with high cost of living and ageing population & increasing the healthcare costs are real issues facing our country. The Economy is faced with tough global pressures, cheaper hubs of production in the neighbourhood. Singapore has to reinvent every few years. Value addition was the key in the past few years but now that is not enough. Value creation in the economy is the new need and our politicians know that and doing their best to drive strategic initatives to set up Innovation and Research hubs and also trying to become Startup Capital of the East.

This article discusses the need for the US economy to become more sustainable and the role of the American government in this process. The author argues that the private sector can't make the transition from a waste-based economy to a renewable one by itself. He believes that a public-private partnership is necessary. The article claims that the private sector has a more important role in the transition because it produces the goods and services that are depended on today. However, the government can implement rules to ensure that economic activity does not destroy the plant. The government can fund basic science needed for renewable energy and resource technology and uses taxes, government purchasing power, and other financial tools to steer private capital toward investment in sustainable technologies and businesses. The government can also invest in sustainable infrastructure, regulate land use, work with private or state organizations, measure society's progress toward sustainability, and transfer sustainability technologies to the developing world. It is the belief of the author that sustainability issues cannot be addressed by the private sector/free market alone and require government action. The future of the nation and the plant depends of the government's role in a transition to a renewable resource based economy.

The Nigerian government must diversify the economy if the country is to survive falling global oil prices, said World Bank VP and Treasurer, Arunma Otteh. She said that Nigeria ranks 152 out of 188 in the HDI, and ranks below the average for sub-saharan Africa. Life expectancy in Nigeria is 53 years, 8 years lower than Ghana and 21 years lower than Brazil. Nigeria also ranked 136 out of 168 most corrupt countries in Transparency International's 2015 report. This affects the flow of FDI to the country. Nigeria's rapid GDP growth over the past decade hasn't translated to strong human development or competitiveness. Nigeria can no longer only depend on oil, which not sells for as low as $26/barrel which accounts for 95% of the country's foreign exchange.

This article highlights how the GDP is not the only factor in measuring the development of a nation, but how corruption and business confidence can play a role. This is seen by the decreasing oil prices, which has affected the Nigerian economy greatly.

After a seemingly turbulent beginning to 2014, the economy is growing again in its normal business cycle routine. The main graph depicts the business cycle with periods of economic expansion and contraction.

This article, published by the Wall Street Journal on October 28, 2015, describes cash injections into the economy by the government sector. The article explores what U.S. economic growth could have been like if the U.S. government hadn't cut spending in the economy. The author wagers that if spending had continued, the U.S. economy could have grown more significantly than it has.

Japan's economy is another recession. Many economists believe that the amount of old people int he country could be causing this. Japan's GDP reduced by .8%. Japan has been having economic issues for many years now. Japan's demographics aren't benefiting the country's economy. Since there are more old people then young people in Japan this hurts their GDP. The old people's population is bigger and growing faster than the working population, so the workers cant produce enough to sustain a stable economy. The GDP is Japan suffers because of this.

Economists had predicted that the US would add thousands of jobs t the economy but only 142,000 were adding falling a bit short the unemployment rate start 5.1%. Businesses are continuously adding new jobs but at a cautious pace. However .labour rate participation has gone down which is bad but so has part time workers except this one is a good sign because it means more people are finding full time jobs. Sectors like healthcare, information, retail, and businesses have received a growth and are now creating more available jobs. Mining however has gone down ( this could be structural unemployment).

The article discusses the increase in the minimum wage and its effects on employment as the government struggles with the rise of inequality over the previous years. David Neumark an economist at university of california argues in his paper that a high minimum wage wage may not be effective in tacking poverty. Other impacts on the increase in minimum wage is higher productivity on the other hand labor is so cheap that there is less incentive to increase the wages. Higher minimum wages could boost the economy and if employers focused on high-skilled workers in the short term, that could boost productivity and the economy in the long term, eventually providing jobs for the low skilled.

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 shows the government of Japan struggling to get Japan into a low inflation. taxes are increasing exponentially but all because of the recession. He tried to get more workers to work and reduce inflation. However, the money is losing its value because the Central Bank is printing too much currency. Therefore, the income of consumers is literally worth nothing.

this article look at the economic growth and what caused it in Switzerland. It also explains what the increase in economic growth implies for Switzerland.

This article talks about how oil and how oil is becoming a very limited resource. The demand on this resource is high and has stayed that way. So because the price raised and the demand is still the same they have to supply a lot more equally everywhere.

Foreign unemployment fall cuts jobless rate Published on: 10 Apr 2015 09:23 CET Facebook Twitter Google+ reddit Switzerland's official jobless rate fell in March to 3.4 percent from 3.5 percent in the previous month, driven by a drop in foreign unemployment, according to government figures released on Friday. The decline marks the first time since June 2014 that the rate has fallen in a further indication that the Swiss economy is so far weathering the rise in the value of the franc, which forecasters have said will cut growth this year. The percentage of foreigners registered as out of work tumbled to 6.7 percent from seven percent, while the rate for Swiss citizens remained unchanged at 2.3 percent, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) said in its monthly report. The number of unemployed registered in regional job placement offices in March dipped by 4,813 from the previous month to 145,108, Seco said. But the jobless rate last month remained above the 3.3 percent level in March 2014. The rate declined or remained the same in all 26 cantons with the canton of Valais recording the biggest fall, from to 4.6 percent from 5.4 percent. Neuchâtel registered the highest rate (5.7 percent, down from 5.8 percent), just ahead of Geneva (5.6 percent, unchanged). Obwalden had the lowest rate at one percent, down from 1.1 percent. Unemployment in Zurich, Switzerland's largest job market, remained unchanged at 3.6 percent. The impact of the strong franc may not have yet affected the Swiss job market but observers believe that unless the currency weakens, jobs cuts can be expected. In January, the Swiss National Bank abandoned a policy of maintaining a euro floor of 1.20 francs and foreign exchange traders immediately bid up the value of the franc. On Friday, with uncertainty about Greece's finances lingering, the euro was trading at around 1.04 francs, making life difficult for Swiss exporters selling products into the eurozone, the biggest ma

India's economic growth has exceeded expectations. India's GDP increase by 7.4% which was more than expected. The manufacturing sector that needed to improve grew by 9.4% which helped increase the country's GDP. Trade, hotels and transport, broadcasting, and professional services sectors all saw increases. India's economic growth and increasing GDP shows that the country's economy is getting stronger.

It is estimated that the Indian economy will grow between 8.1% and 8.5% in the 2016 financial year. Trade, hotels and transport & communication and services related to broadcasting, financial, insurance, real estate and professional services and manufacturing have registered growth over 7%. It indicates that although India majorly focuses on primary and secondary industries such as agriculture and manufacturing , the tertiary industries such as the services industry have been largely boosting the economic development in India.

As prices for commodities have decreased, the value of the Canadian dollar has decreased as well. Two years ago the Canadian dollar was worth 93 American cents, yesterday to was worth only 69 American cents. This depreciation in value is because the Canadian economy is heavily dependent on oil and other resources and it has had many impacts on Canadians. Imports, like fresh American vegtables, are now more costly for Canadians. Currently, a single head of broccoli in Canada sells for around $4. Last winters, Canadians could buy 2 for only $1.50. However, in many ways a weaker currency is helpful to the Canadian economy. The US is overwhelmingly the largest market for Canadian exports, which are now less expensive across the border because of the currency's fall. In addition, almost all commodity exports are priced in American dollars so foreign exchange gains have helped cushion some of the blow to Canadian oil producers and mining companies.

This article describes how the Indonesian economy swung from a deficit in balance of payments of $160 to a $50 surplus. The imports of the country fell significantly, resulting in a decrease in deficit of the balance of trade in goods and services, which has been a factor in the swing in balance of payments.

Sri Lanka's export economy suffers in Europe, so economists look for opportunities elsewhere. The largest economy near Sri Lanka is India, but trade with India has been traditionally blocked by protectionist policies. This article discusses the potential gains for Sri Lanka should it choose to do away with protectionist policies.