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economy has been worsening since 2010. This has led to an increase of 65 billion pounds. The IFS has to take fiscal measures to reduce expenditures, but will try to aviod these measures if possible.

This article mainly talks about the positive externalities of being obese, but also mentions negative externalities: "If your friends and family get fat, chances are you will too, researchers report in a startling new study that suggests obesity is 'socially contagious' and can spread easily from person to person. If obesity is considered a traditional disease then the contagious effect represents a clear negative externality. Others can only be made worse off if your illness increases the chances of their getting sick."

Quarrying and aggregate supply firm Breedon believes profits will "significantly exceed expectations" after margins continued to improve in the final few weeks of last year. The company, which has its Scottish headquarters at Ethiebeaton in Angus, said market forecasts for the year look set to be significantly surpassed during a finish which escaped the disruptive influence of winter weather. We don't often think about how macro- and micro-economics can come together, but, for big companies, one is no more important than the other. Not only do you have to think about the margins and competition of your own market, but how your market is doing in general. It doesn't matter if your beating the other guys with a better price and more demand if that price is barely enough to cover what your supplying. On the flipside, your countries economy could be doing great and your factors of production most favorable but, if everyone's getting more benefit from those advantages than you are, it's only a matter of time before get too far a head. This article is a perfect example of where a European company has become enthusiastic about future profit predictions based not only on competition and margin but just on the welfare of the whole country in general

The article talks about topic covered already in the title, with some interest to the growth of industry of southern euro-zone countries and exacerbation of German and French production. So obviously, here I can refer to PPF where resources (also human capital) are being used more efficiently; here is the movement inside existing frontier or perhaps even outward shift with improved quantities and qualities of goods (especially capital). Nevertheless, economists still fear the euro-zone might fall in recession again if there are two quarters of consecutive fall (if the economy contracted). The market clearing price of many durable goods can be determined only to some extent, due to the presence of outside disturbance (fiscal and banking crisis - therefore always introducing new policies and bail-out deals). Another thing associated with the previous sentence and the article is the price mechanism (interaction of demand and supply) which allocates resources. Under unstable circumstances which are currently taking place in euro-zone, incomes are plummeting (falling GDP per capita) except for some particular periods of time when the economy meets actual growth, meaning that there is less demand leading to an inverse effect for producers. Normally, producers wish to supply more at higher prices, especially if income of people soars so they buy more of that goods. Therefore, higher prices do not present an incentive for producers to produce more. All the producers want to increase their producer surplus; but the trend is clear - towards maximized community surplus, since producers depend on consumers' utility.

I chose the article because it was talking about how Syria was giving a $25-million reward for the capture of the president. I thought it related to scarcity because, now a days, money is very important for a person to sustain life, and if they wanted to capture the president the best way was giving a lot of money so people would do it as fast as possible. If people have an opportunity to get a lot of money, they will take it. Money is a limited resource; it is scarce and it will always be. If the government decided to print more money, then every time we would have more money to spend and everything would be more expensive.

In this article it talks about the poor economy in Indonesia and the little income some of its citizens have. Due to so little income some people cannot buy proper food for their families resulting in malnutrition. This is a huge problem for the economy as it cannot get back on its feet if people do not spend money, but if there is no money to spend then what can one do?

This article tells us that because the prices of foods as increased, there is poverty and malnutrition is countries like Indonesia. Two different types of surveys was taken in Indonesia before 1996 and immediately after the economics crisis in 1999. The result was that some food nutrients like iron and calcium was more than usual during the crisis years and and food nutrient like Vit C was almost nothing.

according to the article, increasing excise taxes, encouraging smoke-free public places,and reducing salt and trans fat in food might help decrease deaths from noninfectious diseases. It would make sense because, if excise taxes are imposed, demand will slightly fall. Also if smoke-free places are encouraged, non-smokers will not have to be exposed to smoke all the time.

This article is a perfect example of economics and corruption. Corruption if when money within governmental lines is distributed "off the chart", something citizens don't like since it could have ben used for their benefit. In this case, the money came from donations from companies and individuals. If we apply this to the flow chart of a macroeconomy, there is negatives from both households and fabrics, but no input. Though, the input gets there by the government employees spending more. So there is a hidden extra flow that should not be there.

This article talks about the increase in demand of gold and the amount of price paid to get gold between 2010 and 2011. The demand of gold increased by 11% from the first quarter of 2010 to the first quarter of 2011 while the price increased by 40%. The increase in demand directly increases the supply of gold because if people want it, the rate of mining would increases so that gold is available at all time. Also, the amount of money spent on the gold would also increase because gold does not grow and one day gold would finish. The people who sell the gold would therefore put additional money on the price of the gold to get their own profit. This process would however continue because every time gold is found, the amount of gold left in the earth reduces. This allows the seller to always increase the price of the gold which means that there can never be a balance between the price and the demand. As the demand of gold increases, the price of gold decreases and the amount of gold left on earth decreases. Looking at the chart in the article, we can see that if the demand of gold increases the supply of gold would also increase but there was a slight decrease in the years 2007 to 2009. The article states that 'China's total annual gold demand topped 700 metric tons for the first time ever last year and is expected to keep rising over the next decade'.

Gas being an inelastic product, has a small change in demand if the price is increased. It was a good time to increase the price of oil because "The improvement in the nation's economic health has increased demand for oil" so there would be an increase in revenue if the price was increased.

This article talks about the risks of lowering prices in hope of increasing demand. It mentions the effects of price elasticity on this as well, it states, "If we assume the products' price elasticity is at the lower end of that range [...] then price promotions become even riskier". This is because it requires a big change in price to get even close to a substantial increase in demand. If the change is not huge, the effect on demand will be negligible.

This article talks about the new warning Russia has sent to Ukraine saying that moscow could implement protectionist barriers if its former soviet ally joins a free trade pact with the EU. Russia has sent the warning because they are allegedly worried it will be "flooded" with European goods if Ukraine joins the pact.

It states that "it will be a plus, as long as it doesn't make us (Russia) weaker". This is because of the bond they have from the former Soviet union. Since they have conjoined boarders and a lot of trade between the nations they fear that this (increasing european trade) might influence this trade.

This article talks about how a few larger electricity and gas companies have increased their prices after the news about a cold and bitter winter in the UK. If we apply this to what we have read about this week, they know that the demand for fuel in houses will increase, but with a increased price they can avoid shortage during this period of time, hopefully. At leas this is what they try to do. They also know it is profitable for them, since people will still need the fuel due to the cold, so the income for the company gets higher.

This article presents the increases in gas prices that are upsetting consumers all over the world. There is an "unconventional gas" boom going on ,which is affecting the market and supplies for gas in the States. The issues are global, though, and conserns politicians if this rise in price keeps up.

This article mainly focuses on China's economic growth and its fast approach to what could put it's economy in an equilibrium state."The rate, the spot rate and future rate, determined by the market supply and demand, basically are very close to the equilibrium rate," said Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China. He also warns that at this time China is trying to maintain low prices and if external governments begin to have inflation problems this could potentially create problems for China's economy. This comment was a directly linked with China's exchange rate against the US dollar, an issue that has yet to be addressed.

This article describes how a hotel manager is changing the plan to achieve a higher total revenue, as the hotel no longer offers what is demanded the most. Competitors may have these facilites that are demanded, and one could make a graph on the cross elasticity of demand with this hotel and a competitor if one had the right numbers.

This article talks about the crisis in the UK, and how the stores keep on closing and will keep on closing if the government doesn't freeze rates by 2013. Therefore, this article is not about something that the government has done (putting taxes) but something it needs to do to help the market in the UK.

This article talks a lot about the recent "fiscal cliff" that congress or some government branch put together to ensure that the two United States parties, the democrats and the republicans, tried to come to some sort of agreement on where cuts can be made to try and fix the deficit. What's interesting about this article, more than the content itself, is the site it links to which talks a lot about how individual cities are doing their part to try and fix up the country. The fact is, the US has gotten some very bad grades lately (whatever that means), so mayors and representatives are getting citizens to invest in projects that will cost a lot of money but will go a long way toward a better future. Fixing up public resources, like water ways and levies, is crucial to trying to build a better community, even if the effects are long term. This is probably the closest we'll see to a sustainable economy.

This article suggests that the lack of recovery from the recession might lead to weakness in the American business cycle. The potential is not present as it was before the recession, and that is what concerns the author of this article. It will be very interesting to follow the course of the American business cycle (economic growth), and if this article is right, it opens for even bigger Chinese dominance in the economic world.

This talks about just what we read in chapter 19; that GDP increases if the supply does.