Group items tagged

This article truly scares you with all the facts about food. It is a pity how mass food production turns out to be 50% inefficiently allocated and at the same time huge consumer of water for growing the crops. If all food produced was adequately allocated, there would be probably enough food for all people and therefore it would be almost completely accessible for general public. At the same time also water could be consumed more effectively instead of wasting it for pointless excess in food production which turns out to be industrial waste. Water - meaning the drinking water was never a Common, however nowadays it all appears this situation is getting only worse and taking into account its fruitless use, some measures should be taken designed with sustainability in mind.

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.

The article I chose for this week talks about how organic foods are increasing in quantity and the industry is increasing in profit as well. Many people have started consuming only 'organic foods' and this is causing distress for the industry because they need to be able to supply more. However, some consumers consider the idea of 'organic foods' as just healthier foods but they aren't receiving the extra health they're paying for.

This article for me was the perfect example to show how the human needs have trouble coexisting with the finite amount of resources present. Fred Neumann, co-head of Asian economic research at HSBC Holdings said, "Countries such as China have seen droughts over many years. Now we see other parts of the world facing some water shortages, which is starting to impact the global price of certain goods."In this article it basically states the fact that some areas are running low on water and simply cannot keep up with the growing demand for food. Thus instead of having a balance the price of food increased at an alarming rate.

This article talks about how the prices of food have increased in many countries around the world. In the past years the price of wheat was low, for example in May it was about $200 but in September the cost rose to $400, just within some months. Economists say that the prices of foods have increased continually since 1845. Food scarcity is also caused by the weather because if there is no rain in a country then the crops would not be able to grow well for example Australia. However, the wants for meats in countries like China and India is high and this also increases the demands for cereals. The cereals are used to feed the animals in this countries so that the country can have enough meats.

This article talks about how people in the UK tried to buy cheap meat, and instead got horse meat. The article is related to aggregate demand as it involves the whole economy of the country: people can't consume as much, therefore they are buy cheap meat online or importing it so that they won't spend as much money. However, the government is preoccupied as there is no control over the meat. This is not only happening in the UK, but also in other countries where the population is not consuming as much due to the lack of money and the economic crisis.

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.

These article talks about how people spend less of their income for charity. This could be income elasticity, since people would spend their income or something they would find more necessary (such as food for their families or just buy necessary things for their own good). Therefore, there is no more demand for charities and people do not offer their money to charities anymore.

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.

Punto Fijo, November 22nd, 2012 (Venezuelanalysis.com) - The Venezuelan government has announced new controls on the prices of housing rents, while prices of medicines are also currently under review. Many basic goods in Venezuela are subject to price controls, including some food items and domestic goods, and the government has now added housing rents to the list of products subject to regulated pricing. In taking some pointers from "The Rent Is Too D*** High" party, Venezuela has decided to set a case to case price ceiling for the housing rental market. Most landlords will set the price based on construction costs, which tends to put tenants in a tight situation when looking for a somewhat temporary residence. Because of this, the government of Venezuela has forced landlords into setting prices only as high as what the Housing Ministry determines to be the true value product. Venezuela has also started doing this with medication, since medicine should be made available to all who are in need of it, although there has been backlash from pharmaceutical companies. They argument is that the artificial lowering of prices in the pharmaceutical industry will cause suppliers to produce less of the medicine than what the population needs.

I think this article is good, because it shows both negative and positive externalities. Negative because the outcome of eating a lot of junkfood is something no government likes, and it eventually has a backlash on them because people can't work as well and the general health in the country drops. Because of this they want to make people eat less, and they could to it with a tax to change the equilibrium. This would make the quantity demanded closer to that wanted from the government. (In the article they did it by banning 16-ounce softs drinks) Can you see the positive side?

The part which I believe is most important about this article is its demonstration of a business strategizing around macroeconomic change and not just microeconomic change. We mostly only think of this stuff on the small scale, pretending like we live in a global community in which a company can survive purely by being better than its competitors and not by having a stronger sub economy. The fact is, even in our growingly international market, that just isn't the case. Countries are like microeconomic ecosystems inside of one big habitat. Just because one has food in it and the other doesn't won't mean that the inhabitants of second ecosystem can just move to the first.

This article is about the current inflation rate in Great Britain and its unchanging status in the past four years. Jeremy Cook, chief economist at the World First foreign exchange company said, "Home-grown price pressures are also increasing with transport, food and utilities boosting upwards in the latter part of 2012; this will continue to erode wage value through 2013, hurting consumer confidence and limiting spending."