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Raise in market price of soda in Chicago is discussed. Will it result in an increase in revenue and reduction in consumption? The PED suggests so. A similar policy was introduced in Mexico, and the soda there had a PED of 0,6, making it inelastic. Will the same happen in Chicago? Demand, elasticity and the PED are discussed in this article.

How exactly has this affected the elasticity? You should elaborate on price and its relation to demand and the PED. I agree that the raise in price would increase revenue and reduce consumption. However you contradict your previous point by stating that soda will become inelastic. I don't agree with you because soda is not a necessity and it is not healthy so if there is a raise in price and PED which will cause demand to decrease meaning it is elastic.

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

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 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.

Market failure in the fuel market led to government intervention, in order to decrease the consumption of fossil fuels. The marginal social benefit would hopefully be reached by this, but the government intervention did not go as planned. Supporting certain biofuel producers caused a decrease in production of other biofuels, resulting in little change in the fuel market after all.

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.

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.

GDP growth starts here. I chose this article because of one of the TOK questions we had this week it brings up education. Well this article talks about how education can lead to economic growth in many different ways. It doesn't just build up one sector it affects multiple, an interview has shown that people will need more than a high school education if they want to find a suitable job. If education standards increase so do income, technology , jobs all leading to an economic growth and I feel that this is actually even better because since it creates new things there is not chance of people losing jobs so employment is not at risk and as for inflation it will increase in the short run but level off.This research was done by Wössmann.

Overwhelmingly, more economically developed nations are states with a well-educated workforce. There is a clear and strong correlation between the educational attainment of a nation's workforce and economic productivity. Nations can build a strong foundation for economic success and shared prosperity by investing in education. Nations can increase the strength of their economies and their ability to grow and attract high-wage employers by investing in education and increasing the number of well-educated workers by improving the literacy rate. Investing in education is also good for the long run, since employees with higher incomes contribute more through taxes over the course of their lifetimes. Hence it can be concluded that investing in education , will definitely boost GDP maybe not in the short run but indefinitely in the long run.

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.

In economy we always say food is always inelastic, diaries such as cheese, cheese, butter are considered necessity for people and the price should be inelastic with PED less than 1. As time is changing, the raise of price will cause less revenue, it's not as inelastic as it use to be. The government use to be the biggest clients and they have control over the elasticity of the product, which they aren't any more. There are also a lot more alternative to fluid milk as well. This is also relating to the FDA's view on butter, it use to be vilified and now it seem to be the best product available, people are buying butter, but as the price increase, they buy a little less. We see this change in restaurants as well, McDonald's are moving away from cheeseburger and pizza restaurant are putting less cheese on their product.

I think this shows how time also has an effect on elasticity. In the past dairy has been typically seen as an inelastic product but it is now viewed as an elastic product. There have also been growing amounts of substitutes to dairy products especially milk product substitutes.

This article looks into the reasons while dairy demand has become more elastic in recent years. In the past, demand for dairy products was fairly inelastic. However, that has changed. In the past, the US government purchased a large amount of dairy products which kept prices stable but that is no longer the case which has caused prices to destablize. Additionally, there are now many alternatives to fluid milk with more stable price. As a result, it has become the most elastic dairy product. Butter and cheese are less elastic. The article also mentions that restaurants and fast food restaurants drive the fluctuation in dairy demand.

Manufacturing in Germany is slowing down while economic activities for France is also at a low. Although output has been "increasing modestly", the manufacturing and service sectors are "showing strains." The economic slowdown in Germany would not only affect the country itself, but also the other countries in the eurozone. The United States and Japan has also been briefly mentioned in this article on how they are doing in the economic growth. Things do not seem to be going too well for Japan, and although the U.S seems to be doing well, they cannot "carry the global economy on its own"

This article speaks about the increase in demand for organic food. I find this article really interesting as it speaks about how tastes and preferences, one of the determinants for demand pushes for this increase of availabilty in organic products. As evidenced by the article , consumers are now more conscious of what they eat and are adopting a healthier lifestyle. This information is really beneficial as not only can the organic food industry increase its sales , but all other industry related to health and fitness such as production of vitamins , fitness programmes , exercise machines can also react to this trend and increase their supply to meet the consumer's demand. It is also mentioned in the article that organic tea and coffee were highly in demand in 2014. Hence coffe cafes such as Starbucks and Coffeebean can also increase their sales if they react to the health conscious trend by introducing organic beverages in their stores. To conclude , it is important for producers to study the trends of consumers so that they can react accordingly in order to increase profits or avoid losses.

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.

One of the main things we talked about or that stood out to me was how the income of the indivisible affected demand of a good and it seems we all came to a consensus that luxury goods are most affected by changes in income. In the article a BMW car company speaks out it's total revenue has been decreasing as the economy is slowing down . Over the past 5 years China has been experiencing periods of economic downturn and car sales were declining drastically people were even canceling orders, however, increased government action led to a period of economic growth in the third year which increased sales by 4% or so. But things slowed down again this year and Song ( an owner of the company ) talked about how he had to cut prices even further from 4%- 20% just to increase consumer demand even though it only made a slight difference because people's income have decreased they can't spend as much money as they used to on luxury products such as BMW cars or multiple cars, they are now focused on saving money.

I agree that the demand for luxury cars has declined as a result of decreased economic growth in China. Shares of some luxury car companies have dropped by more than 30% in the last year while shares of an inexpensive compact car manufacturer have increased more than 20%. The demand for luxury cars is very elastic. These cars are a luxury, not a necessity. Luxury goods take up a relatively large proportion of income and are used over a long period of time. There are a relatively high number of substitutes for luxury goods. In China, customers are choosing to purchase inexpensive cars rather than luxury vehicles in order to save money.

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.

Switzerland Considers Banning Volkswagen Diesel Car Sales Because there the scandal relating to the Volkswagen's pollution in diesel engines, Thomas Rohrbach, spokesman for the Swiss federal office of roadways decides he should ban all cars with diesel engine in the "Euro 5 emission category" including all VW cars. This could affect  180,000 unsold cars in the country

The article mentions of the increase in jobs being add in November and during the holidays, which will lead to a drop in unemployment thus an increase in real GDP. However the jobs are only seasonal and there has also been a drop in the deficit.

The average earnings of non-supervisory retail worker in September 2014 was calculated to be lower than the average earnings ten years ago. Meanwhile, private-sector average hourly wages were lower last month than they were the same month back in 2010. Although the US is currently in its "recovery" stage (from the business cycle), the average wages of the workers has still yet to prove this. In fact, the wage rates are contradicting.

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.

Along with the high amounts of violence in Burundi the inflation rates in the country are also increasing. The inflation rates in Burundi has risen to 5.6%. This should cause the Burundi economy to contract by 7.2% but it grew 4.7%. After President Pierre Nkurunziza won the election in a controversial violence in the country has significantly increased causing many donors including Belgium. The country's economic status could worsen if the violence continues and donors remove their aid. The European Union funds 50% of their annual budget and they are threatening to suspend if Burundian authorities do not their countries issues with diplomacy.