Group items tagged

This article talks about the trade deficit in Japan due to imports of smartphones, the recent earthquake and the consequences of nuclear energy. The trade deficit happened due to numerous numbers of imports against exports. Since Japan's nuclear energy accident, Japan switched to thermal generators and needed/still need to import fossil fuels, which is taking a big part in the trade deficit. In addition, the gadget industry is focusing on smart phones, and this is causing the massive imports of iPhone's and Android's to Japan impacting the market and the people. Also, after the earthquake of 2010, there has been a recover, but not to the level Japan needs to overcome the trade deficit.

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?

"Japan's trade deficit nearly doubled on-year to a bigger-than-expected $10.9 billion in October as the country's energy bill soared... " Japan's trade deficit was the biggest in the last 44 years and entered a 16-month trade deficit run. The reason behind this is because of the transfer from energy sources. Until 2010, Japan was the first in using nuclear energy in the world. When the accident in Fukushima happened, Japan had to start using fossil fuels and started importing it increasing their trade deficit.

Japan posted its biggest October trade deficit on record, as a revival in exports to the U.S. and China was overwhelmed by the nation's soaring costs for imported fuel in the wake of the nuclear industry's shutdown.

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 deflation and trade balance relating topics in Japan.

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.

This article is about increased foreign direct investment to China despite its weakening economic growth. Not only does China receive inflowing FDI, but it also invests outflowing FDI into other places such as Japan. The investment comes even as China's economy show signs of slowing from the stellar growth rates of years past as the government looks to shift the emphasis to structural reform rather than growth for its own sake. One pillar of the reform drive is to make the economy driven more by the service sector and consumers, ending its traditional reliance on investment and exports for growth. The obvious reason why foreign-based MNCs want to invest into China is because of increasing sales or decreasing their profits. The question is what kind of pull factors China has to attract such high levels of FDI. Stable economic environment, political environment, low labour costs are primal reasons.

Japan's exports have been rising at an extremely fast rate for the last 3 years although the trade balance seems to remain mired with the Japanese imports expected to increase due to the shuttering of its nuclear power industry.

The article talks about the Boeing 787, which is creating a loss for airlines all over the world. There is less supply for the 787 flights, and people are scared therefore there is also a loss in demand for flights.

The article relates more to monetary policies and demand-side policies but I believe that it can be connected to supply side policies. In fact, the government is spending a lot of money meaning that those money could be invested for supply-side policies. It doesn't say how much money the government will spend, but the increase in government spending could be related to supply side policies and an increase in the supply of products/goods and services.

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.

Because of the decreased amount of work opportunities the unemployment rates go higher. That is bad enough for any country, and even worse for a country like China who are dependent on their production and export. The scarcity of work opportunities get bigger, and creates competition on the market. This will contribute to a poorer population since the competition gets higher and people then work for less money.

This article discusses how sometimes the use of barriers has a negative effect on the economy of a country, for example, as can be seen with Bush's administration that imposed tariffs on steel imports. Trade protection can be seen with the rush of agreements that countries are not willing to partake in, such as Japan. Of course after the Bush administration, the democratic party picked up the "protectionist baton" and have worked toward trade liberalization.

The article talks about tariffs imposed by the US government on the steel market. It shows the other side of protectionism. In the case of the US the tariff impose had a negative effect on the steel market. The tariff robbed more in profits than it gave to steel making companies.