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04/15/2013| 02:55am US/Eastern Recommend: Press release 15 April 2013 Ministry of Finance The global financial and debt crisis is now in its fifth year. The Government is continuing to counter the weak economic situation with a responsible fiscal policy for jobs and stability.

This article talks about how the FCA plans to make the competition a little more intense. By doing this, they plan to have companies sell more of the products in demand and less of the ones that are less likely to sell, thus creating more profit for a company. This causes other companies to try to challenge them, growing the market/economy. The FCA is also not allowing companies to hurt a person financial, trying to grow the market.

This article talks about how the finance minister wants to release funds for export promotion.

When you're in a situation like Ukraine's, the last thing you want to worry about is stabilising your countries financial situation. Many western consumers have invested in Ukraine and, with the recent turmoil, some might worry that their investment will be worth nothing, soon. However, Ukraine's Finance Minister has stated that there is a plan to "restructure" the Ukrainian economy without defaulting on all the bonds sold to foreign investors. This might give those anxious investors a bit of comfort, but it's still hard to say whether the minister will be able to keep his word...

We've read about recessions and the business cycle, but never about double recessions! apparently this phenomenon was unfamiliar to Britain too, and their first just hit.

France was one of the last European countries to really feel the effects of the global recession, but now unemployment is increasing. The labor rules in France apparently make it difficult to fire workers, but the French president and worker's unions are working together to draft new legislation that can assist the firms in France by giving them more flexibility.

This brief article describes how the bank of England recently have decided through their Monetary Policy Committee to focus more on growth, after focusing heavily on inflation in the past years. Trade-offs are hopefully increasing growth whilst also maintaining the 2% inflation target.

This article has no direct correlation to supply side of an economy, as it mainly talks about Cypriot economy's bank crisis - credit crunch, predictions on GDP and changing patterns of banking (limitations to every-day withdrawals from ATMs). But the reason I chose this article is that they should aim at increasing the production side of an economy and so aggregate supply, shifting the LRAS curve to the right, and, in addition to that, structural reforms of the economy which overly depends on the banking. Particularly, Cyprus should undertake interventionist supply side policies, such as investments in infrastructure - roads, railways, harbours, airports and telecommunications all serve to lower production costs of all economic agents in a country. Or perhaps investments in technology and industrial policies which would increase the productive capacity of an economy.

Everybody has an opinion and I for one understand this debt crisis very little. It's not that I don't think it's important, it's that I'm very vague on who exactly we owe money to, what the current plan is to pay it off, and why everyone else is up in arms about this. The econ modules in the textbook section this week said that, sometimes, the government *wants* the budget to be at a deficit. I still don't understand why but, my guess is, the US's current situation is not a good demonstration.

This article discusses how the government is creating jobs because they want to help stimulate economic growth. There were many people people were unemployed "12.3m unemployed who have been without work for more than six weeks" and the creation of the jobs is due to the increase in taxes.

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.

A few economists opinions on inflation in the meeting at the Bank of England.

 Too much protectionism is not good as well as no protectionism, it will ruin the free trade in the world. 

This article looks at the European Commission, an organization that has warned of a slide towards "blatant and uncontrolled protectionism" across the globe as emerging markets from several countries are starting to defend themselves, warning that abuses by countries like Russia, Brazil, Indonesia, China and other key states could pose a growing threat to global recovery. The EU trading body has said "154 new tariffs and restrictive measures have been pushed through over the past year while "virtually none" has been abolished"

This article talks about Britain and its problematic exports with subsequent trade deficit problems. Interestingly enough, university courses fees are considered exports as well (money inflow). Britain is a country which is immensely integrated in the global trade flows, but they have a problem of trade deficit. "Part of the reason is the slowdown in continental Europe and America, which take 54% and 17% respectively of British exports. Another is the gradual depletion of North Sea oil and gas. A third is that Britain's strength is in services rather than in the raw materials, machine tools and handbags that emerging markets crave." This running trade deficit can amass huge problems and according to the article [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/10427783/Britain-to-have-worst-2014-trade-deficit-in-industrial-world-on-EU-forecasts.html] Britain will have to tackle it by using expenditure-reducing policies, expenditure-switching policies or supply-side policies.

Japan's trade deficit nearly doubled in October, as growth in imports outpaced robust increases in exports to the U.S. and China, the Finance Ministry reported Wednesday. A weakening in the Japanese yen over the past year has helped exports, but it has also increased the cost in yen terms... This is the importance of looking at **how** payments balance. Though Japan has seen some significant increases in exports, most notably in the vehicle and chemical industries, too much money is still leaving Japan. Part of this may be due to the fact that many Japanese firms depend on foreign manufacturing. The government has plans to revitalize a large manufacturing sector of Japan, but the question now is how quickly and how much will it help?

India has objected to some of the clauses in the trade facilitation agreement and sought support for the developing countries' food security proposal at the World Trade Organization (WTO). In the latest rounds of talks, India has also made it amply clear that if there is no forward movement on G-33 nations food security proposal, trade facilitation would also not move. The G-33 is a group of developing countries.

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 European Union and America are to open negotiations with the aim of creating the world's biggest free trade area worth €86bn (£75bn) within two years.

The article talks about the trade deficit in Europe. Prime minister Cameron wants to increase GDP by 0.5%. This would make a major difference to Europe's economy and could become a "game-changer". Cameron wants to accomplish this goal by breaking down trade barriers.

The European Union and America are to open negotiations with the aim of creating the world's biggest free trade area worth €86bn (£75bn) within two years. Breaking down the remaining trade barriers and securing a comprehensive deal will require hard work and bold decisions on both sides. EU and US economies account for nearly half of the world's economic output and a third of global trade, meaning that a transatlantic free-trade bloc would hold great sway over emerging economic superpowers China, Brazil and India.