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Fall in demand for durable goods (orders for durable goods in the US fell 5.2% in January) means also fall in aggregate demand. Falling aggregate demand - the total spending on goods and services implies firms will start to lay off workers and unemployment rates are likely to rise. According to the business cycle, at current point there is a negative output gap, because economy is producing below its long-term trend economy can sustain.

This article talks about Lenovo's vision of growing demand for their 7-inch tablets. It suggests combinations of substitutes and complement goods, which has to do with the value of XED. They see tablets as competitors for large-screen smartphones (like Samsung S3), but also as something that will not replace traditional computers. So, value of XED in combination tablets - smartphones is positive, meaning that these two goods are substitutes, whereas the value of XED in combination tablets - computers is negative, meaning that these two goods are complements. Lenovo also suggests that they are prepared for the steady supply of high-resolution touch screens for which they see a bright future as components of computers. So, it is also about non-determinant of supply - expectation for future prices.

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.

This is an example of scarcity in the Mexican government. It is scarcity of capital and of labor. The scarcity of capital is the limited quality security resources. The scarcity of labor is not just of people, but as well a scarcity of good people. Many prison guards are corrupt, and there aren't a lot of them. This is also a good example of what I'll call a gambling opportunity cost. The government decided to not invest enough in security with the gamble that there could be a prison break. It would have been a good gamble if there were no prison break, however, it turned for the worse. Not only, of course, did the prisoners escape, but now the government needs to pay the wages of all of the sudden security requirements. They most likely are having to pay as much for the mistake as they would have had to pay to do it right the first time.

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.

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.

This article discusses how there is a new law in Belarus that restricts the citizens of public use of foreign websites. "That would make it illegal for firms like Amazon or eBay to sell goods to customers in Belarus." This shows how the citizens in Belarus don't get the same opportunities to purchase things online as everyone else does around the world. The government is restricting public access of purchasing goods for the citizens of Belarus. Breaking the law has consequences "Fines for breaking the law range as high as 1m Belarus rubles ($120)."

While there was a lot of economic lingo in here that I didn't completely understand, what I did pick up was the use of price increases to help the government make more money. The government makes its money off the financial interactions between households and firms. This is done through income tax, sales tax, etc. Starting to sound familiar? So, by increasing the price on diesel, the government ensures that large transactions will be made between the household and the firm, meaning they get a bigger chunk of dough. But the political motive behind this is that the government can now use the extras cash-money to fund public programs and what not for social benefit.

This article discusses how the goods are less in demand so their GDP is decreasing. Goods may be too much, the economy is shrinking every time its recorded and is projected to fall in the coming months.

This article talks about the protests of China against the Japanese goods. It states that both countries are economically independet, however China adores Japanese brands. It all started out with Japan having their factories in China, since theres a lower production cost. Now that China protests it will move the firms into other countries, such as Thailand.

OTTAWA - The Harper government is set to propose a number of new measures to close the U.S.-Canada consumer price gap, including the possibility of extending the tariff relief offered on sports equipment in the last budget to consumer electronics and other products. Put pretty simply, it seems that global corporations are using different prices on sports equipment and what not between US and Canada. In order to combat this, the countries are lowering their tariffs in an attempt to allow businesses to pass the savings onto consumers. The article doesn't give much details on the situation, but this is definitely a good example of how the manipulation of protectionist import controls can be used to affect the market.

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...

These days, with an economy recovering from a slight collapse and people looking to alternatives to gasoline and coal, a shortage of oil is not very good for the fossil fuels industry. Yesterday, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries announced that oil prices would remain stable, even in these times of uncertainty. With all the negatives of oil (the pollution, the wars it has caused, the danger it can put workers at to obtain, etc.) demand has started to decrease. But, petrol suppliers can't just increase their prices like the supply demand curves might predict because they don't want to risk scaring the remaining consumers into thinking the price of oil will only increase as more of it is used up. This has left OPEC and all of it's members in a bit of a pickle.

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.

This article is a good example of how tax can be imposed for a reason. In this case the reason is to boost revenue of the government. Though, it is debated by the people in L.A, since this is a tax made for consumers to pay so that the market can thrive but on the same time provide the government with money in their time of crisis.

This article describes the new tax on various medical wares such as replacement hips and defibrillators. The new excise tax is within the US, and the prediction is that it will raise $20 billion by 2019. The tax will affect smaller companies the most, and as much as 10% of small companies earnings per share may be paid in tax.

This article talks of the excise tax placed on replacement hips, implantable defibrillators and other FDA-approved wares. This was originally done to help fund the health laws expansion of insurance coverage. However, this tax is starting to hurt companies producing these goods as they are having to introduce cost cutting plans. "Stryker Corp. said in a statement Thursday that the $130 to $150 million in will owe next year could consume one-third of of its research and development budget." The tax is becoming a burden on companies as they must give the money to the government instead of their research funds.

This is a great show of how the government needs money and so, not out of spite for any business but out of a need for funding, they are considering putting a tax on a local Enterprise Car Rental franchise. Obviously, the owners are not happy with this and say that price would hurt them and the customers, which would only consist of out-of-towners and not the locals who want the downtown renovated in the first place. The suggestion they made, which seems fair to me, is to put an even smaller percentage tax on all restaurant's goods and services. This way there is less harm done to any single producer, because restaurants as a whole have a much lower inelasticity than car rentals in a single town, and any given customer, of which there would be many more for a restaurant, would not feel they were losing as much money to this tax. Plus, a tax on restaurants would force those citizens that wanted their community to look nicer to pitch in a little.

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?

This article suggests a few correlations between big cities and housing productivity and productivity in output of tradable goods. Besides that, also externalities are mentioned as justifications to those corollaries. To put negative externality stated in the article more like economics, MSC = MPC +- externality ("congestion, blocked views") so this is an inefficient allocation of society's resources and therefore increasing demand for government's regulation on housing. Although there already is a large gap between firms' input in housing and housing costs, this bolsters the whole situation. As a consequence, people in big cities actually pay higher cost for housing than it already is.

What I like about this article is not just that it's related to inflation (which is definitely a plus) but that it also discuss one of the factors of an economy affected by inflation, interest rates. This is very important because many articles will talk about how inflation has increased or decreased and how this is good or bad for the economy, but they don't explain in what way. You all get a sense for how the government of Nigeria intends to react to this inflationary event and what role the control of interest rates plays in the reaction.