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Basically, article is about Egypt's endeavor to find foreign investors for financing infrastructure projects and increasing its dwindling foreign currency reserves. Two of the most important terms derived from the week 2 are scarcity and opportunity cost. Turkish investments of $20 bn dollars and 500 mio euros from the EU (depending on Egypt securying the loan from IMF) in Egyptian infrastructure and foreign currency reserves deficit have an opportunity cost of spending that amount of money for other purposes. In this article, Egypt's foreign currency reserves and budget are scarce, so Egypt wants to get money to reduce unemployment rate via economic growth (4.5 %). Here we also have the factor of production - this is capital which comes from investments in physical capital (infrastructure) and in my opinion also human capital (reducing unemployment, improving education and healthcare perhaps ...). One thing that will be crucial for Egypt is the factor of entrepreneurship.

More and more Americans are dabbling in currency trading and losing in spectacular fashion. Experts say the structure of the currency market makes it hard for amateurs to beat the house.

The article talks about the reasons why countries keep foreign currencies. The main reason why the keep the reserves are to meet the international payment obligations in the long term and in the short term. Furthermore countries keep foreign currencies in order to pay imports or for commercial debts.

According to the article, a currency trader named "Richard Usher" has allegedly been manipulating market prices with the help of the other banks. Authorities from numerous countries, including Switzerland and the US, have been looking into these accusations, but so far they say they can't find anything on which to charge Richard or the other traders he supposedly worked with.

The article talks about the trouble with currency in Cuba

This article talks about the drop in price for the Australian dollar. Glenn Stevens commented on this drop and admits that the volatility of Australia's currency will deter investors. Obviously, volatility means there is the potential for a quick rise in exchange rate as well as a quick fall, but investors want something more secure, something that is steadily increasing, not a moving target.

This article is about the fluctuation of the bitcoin. A bitcoin is a distributed peer-to-peer digital currency that functions without the intermediation of any central authority, which was created in 2008 to prevent double spending. The bitcoins raised an enormous amount in the last four years. A man by the name of Kristofer Kroch invested about 27$ in 5000 bitcoins in 2009, that in today's rate measure up to 886000$.

There have been predictions of the Euro increasing by a .9% over the next year which are thought to potentially affect unemployment rates especially in Spain. Also, higher currency values are being linked to higher export prices from the European region. Even though export prices are higher, economists predict they will "keep growing despite the stronger currency"

The article compares some of Asias largest economies and how different currency values affect them.

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.

As the article states: "The world's largest economies took a step toward common global guidelines for exchange-rate policies with a pledge Saturday to refrain from targeting their currency policies to gain a competitive trading advantage." This is well-involved in this week's topic, which is aggregate demand. Particularly, this article refers to its component, net exports (export revenue minus import expenditure, or simply X-M) and then its subsidiary component, changes in exchange rates. If a country's exchange rate becomes stronger, then this makes the country's exports more expensive to foreigners and vice versa. Manipulating with exchange rates can bring a certain country substantial trading advantage and this is what G-20 wants to overcome and allow free-trade market as it should be.

This article discusses the hard empirical evidence, arguing that, in fact, Japan is behaving rather responsibly and that other strong economies have themselves benefited from undervalued currencies. That said, it is true that politicians' short time horizons often lead to stealthy policy and large swings in exchange rates. Economists should therefore aim to promote longer-run cosmopolitan interests rather than shorter-run nationalistic agendas where possible.

The article talks about the effect of a fixed currency exchange rate in Venezuela.

Pound sterling / euro exchange rate has increased, meaning that pound sterling appreciates in value. That is due to a run of good economic data and Britain's industrial output in June rose much faster than forecast and hit its quickest pace in two years. I believe demand for sterling, which reflects the value of its exports of goods and services rose because of the peak tourist season in Britain (urgency to buy foreign currency) and increased industrial activity. However, as far as many economic analysts are concerned, sterling will continue to weaken in a long run...

The article was initiated by a series of event regarding a man, Mark Shuttleworth that transferred money to the South African Reserve Bank. Through powers granted under exchange controls legislation, the South African Reserve Bank imposed a levy of 10% to the money deposed. A big scandal started around the court cases which brought up several good points for the economy of South Africa. It was stated that controlling currency flows gives smaller economies more stability as well as independence. The free flow of capital would also cause account deterioration, inflation and currency devaluation. It was also mentioned that large institutions in South Africa (like its reserve bank) are not interested in red tape or levies, but some how imposed on on Shuttleworth. In addition, they stated that free trade comes as a cost that comes in a form of lost tax revenues and a loss of jobs in South Africa.

In the article the US government accuses Germany of causing economical instability. The US government thinks that Germany relies too much on their exports and does not focus on domestic economy. Furthermore the german government keeps the value of the euro low in order to insure high exports.

Abbott confused on A$ - and that gift to the RBA Did Prime Minister Tony Abbott's confusion over economics and the strength of the Australian dollar lead him to mislead Parliament last week, and suggest the Reserve Bank had done a deal with the government to lower the value of the dollar?

This article talks about ZImbabwe, and the hyperinflation they are experiencing at the moment. The inflation has gone so far that the government currently is owner of an amount of Zimbabwe's currency equal to 217 dollars. The economy in Zimbabwe hit rock bottom around a decade ago, after longtime President Robert Mugabe seized white-owned farms, which prompted international sanctions, damaged investor confidence, damaged tourism, and caused other economic problems.

This article mentions how Japan's monetary policy has led to the weakening of its currency, the Yen. In other words, this is an example of monetary policy leading to inflation. To do this, the Japanese likely decreased interest rates too much, or increased the supply of money too much. Both of these are the result of loose monetary policy, and were attempts at expansion.

India has further eased rules on foreign direct investment in a range of industries in an attempt to support the sliding currency and boost growth.The reforms still need clearance from the full cabinet.