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This article is essentially connected to aggregate demand (investments), but the following part can be perfectly analyzed with the this week's topic, aggregate supply: "The investment will also help U.K. energy security by reducing hydrocarbon imports at a time of higher international oil and gas prices. "Too often we've been seen as part of the problem, rather than part of the solution because production output had fallen. But we're stopping the decline and increasing output and that will have a more positive impact on the U.K. economy," Mr. Tholen told The Wall Street Journal. The higher investment in new projects and redevelopment of older fields will help bring another 500,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day onstream by 2017, taking output up to around 2 million barrels of oil and gas a day by 2017 or earlier. The higher investment in new projects and redevelopment of older fields will help bring another 500,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day onstream by 2017, taking output up to around 2 million barrels of oil and gas a day by 2017 or earlier." High international oil and gas prices mean higher average costs of production - change in the costs of raw materials, because oil and gas are widely used in most production processes. This is the reason for the shift of the SRAS inwards. However, higher price level means that the oil production and oil-transforming industries will increase their output. This is also great for the sake of price of imports, which are relatively too high, allowing domestic industries to decrease their average costs of production, meaning that SRAS will increase. So we should consider effects of both aspects and add them up in order to get a real picture (overall effect of current oil and gas prices). Investments are shifting the LRAS curve to the right, because there are likely to be improvements in the quality of the factors of production (technological advancements, discovery of new resources and re-establishing the past (oil) fields,

This article talks about the increase in demand of gold and the amount of price paid to get gold between 2010 and 2011. The demand of gold increased by 11% from the first quarter of 2010 to the first quarter of 2011 while the price increased by 40%. The increase in demand directly increases the supply of gold because if people want it, the rate of mining would increases so that gold is available at all time. Also, the amount of money spent on the gold would also increase because gold does not grow and one day gold would finish. The people who sell the gold would therefore put additional money on the price of the gold to get their own profit. This process would however continue because every time gold is found, the amount of gold left in the earth reduces. This allows the seller to always increase the price of the gold which means that there can never be a balance between the price and the demand. As the demand of gold increases, the price of gold decreases and the amount of gold left on earth decreases. Looking at the chart in the article, we can see that if the demand of gold increases the supply of gold would also increase but there was a slight decrease in the years 2007 to 2009. The article states that 'China's total annual gold demand topped 700 metric tons for the first time ever last year and is expected to keep rising over the next decade'.

This article describes negative externalities in the oil business. This is a global problem and definitely one of the most debated topics in environmental contexts. 'The climate changes are harming the earth, a lot of it is claimed to be caused by burning of fossil fuels. The Gulf of Mexico oil spill is a great example of the creation of a negative externality. The goal of getting more oil to fuel our lifestyle and make a profit for BP trumped any recognition of the massive economic and environmental damage that flowed from their blown out well. Is the cost of this mess going to turn up in the price of gasoline in the US? Probably not. Will it turn up in our tax bills? Probably yes.'

I found this article quite interesting as it explains negative externalities very well and gives examples to better understand it. It also goes on to state that one of negative externality that is very relevant to the article is the negative effects a product may have on the environment. It shows the reader that many gas companies are able to cut corners to make the product cheap and more desirable, but in the process it makes a mess of the environment. A popular example that they use to prove their point was the Gulf of Mexico Oil spill.

I bumped into this article as I was searching for negative externalities.The article describes negative externalities as general and in terms of oil spilling. As for that it also described the environmental issues and gaves examples from the Gulf of Mexico.

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.

This article talks about the increase of oil prices due to the price of the dollar being down. This article supports the topic of this week because as the demand of oil increases so do the prices. As the demand for the consumption of a product increases, the price for the product either increases or decreases. Changes in the relative prices of goods (such as oil) occur because of technological change or shifts in supply or demand. Based on this article "The price of oil and gasoline are up because the Federal Reserve has driven the value of the dollar down." - Charles Kadlec

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 article describes how oil has become less elastic through the past years. It also discusses the balance between the scarcity of oil and the demand being supplied and the quantity demand. Oil is still in the ground, and it has been supplied frequently the past ten years, but there is some economical decisions to make to set the standard for the future of oil.

The demand of oil has been increasing over the past year which is playing a role on the demand and supply balance. Because the demand in oil is increasing, the price of the oil would also increase. It takes longer for oil to be drilled from the ground which causes the oil to take longer time and a change to the response in price. "In economic terms, the oil supply is becoming less elastic as new oil supplies come increasingly from unconventional oil." The demand for oil reflects on how much we need oil in our everyday life. Individual people can reduce the amount of oil they use by using public transportation, if where you want to go is close by. This saves gas and oil because you do not need your car and the bus would carry a lot of people.

This article describes the change in oil prices on the population. The article states that the supply of oil is becomming less elastic and therefore there is a increase in price. The way to win oil becomes harder, because deeper holes have to be made to extract it from the earth. The article furthermore looks into changes from an economical point of view. It looks at examples of what can be changed and where changes have been made.

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.

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.

This article discusses how the car sales have been hurt in the past due to the recession. The article talks about how the private sector has become a bigger target for the car companies. The elasticity of supply has grown to fit this curve, causing the car companies to gain some more profit that they had in the past. The companies also began to target people that care more about the environment, selling many more low emission type cars. They had to adapt to what the demand was, causing their elasticity of supply to grow to fit many wants.

The article says that the number of cars sold in the past has decreased. However the market for cars has recovered. The articled shows how companies adapted to the changing needs of customers. Customers now want more fuel efficient cars and often buy them on the private market. This causes the elasticity of supply of these companies to increase because they quickly had to adapt to the new situation.

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.

Ok, this one may be a bit of stretch this week but it flows more into "margin" than "negative externality", but stick with me. What I really like about this article was that it could have focused on the Chinese sweat shops or the lack of parking lot security, which, admittedly, are negative externalities, but it went in depth on the differences between the externalities of Costo's labor force as opposed to Wal-Mart's. You see, people really like Costco because it pays it's workers between $11-19 an hour while Wal-Mart only pays $11-12. Many would like to say this is because Wal-Mart is the child of Satan brought to Earth to annihilate humanity and do battle with the son of God... who is also God... And to that I say, "corporations aren't people", but that's besides the point. Wal-Mart doesn't just do this because they want more money and because Costco is socially conscious, it's because the margins are much different between both companies. You may not think about it, but all that organizing and "everything you need is here" costs a lot more than what twice as customers can suffice. A lot of that low paid wage goes towards menial tasks like waiting at a cash register for a half hour before the rush of customers arrive or going from aisle to aisle putting the cereal back on the correct shelf because you're just too lazy to do it yourself. What we don't realize is that, sometimes, the negative externalities that we see are a product of our own self-entitled sentiment.

This article doesn't have as much economic terminology as I would have liked but it proves a very important point using a topic I really enjoy, chemistry. Helium is not thought to be a very useful nor uncommon element and while the former is completely untrue, the latter is just a bit misleading. It is the second most abundant element in the universe, the first being hydrogen, but it's not as easy for us to get. As most people know, helium is lighter than air, so every time we find helium we have to catch it before it escapes into the atmosphere. Once it makes it out of our grasp, whether via a balloon or from careless mining of natural gas reserves, it might as well be gone. In the late 20th century, the US government had a huge reserve of helium gas and so, to get rid of a lot of it, they artificially set the price so that it costed less than it really should have. Even though we now recognize the value that this noble gas has, the price still hasn't been increased properly and it is still being sold off by the tank full for birthday parties and other celebrations. Helium is used for a lot more than sounding like a chipmunk. Without it, technology such as rockets, lasers, and the Hadron Collider wouldn't work. What this all goes to show is that the scarcity of a product isn't just about how much of it exists, but how much of it we can get to.

Just like overfishing in the sea, over-hunting on land is a tragedy of the commons. The tiger population in the world is endangered. However, it is now on the rebound as a result of the implementation of harsher legislation in some of the more prominent countries with tigers. This is an example of the ability of recovery.

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.

Quarrying and aggregate supply firm Breedon believes profits will "significantly exceed expectations" after margins continued to improve in the final few weeks of last year. The company, which has its Scottish headquarters at Ethiebeaton in Angus, said market forecasts for the year look set to be significantly surpassed during a finish which escaped the disruptive influence of winter weather. We don't often think about how macro- and micro-economics can come together, but, for big companies, one is no more important than the other. Not only do you have to think about the margins and competition of your own market, but how your market is doing in general. It doesn't matter if your beating the other guys with a better price and more demand if that price is barely enough to cover what your supplying. On the flipside, your countries economy could be doing great and your factors of production most favorable but, if everyone's getting more benefit from those advantages than you are, it's only a matter of time before get too far a head. This article is a perfect example of where a European company has become enthusiastic about future profit predictions based not only on competition and margin but just on the welfare of the whole country in general

Because of the people's declining trust in the safety of China made products there is an increasing demand for products made else where. Everyday people cart bulk packages of coffee, diapers, and ramen, onto Hong Kong's trains to get them into china. Their destination is the shelve's of corner shops, who make a bigger profit selling "imported" goods. This is an example of scarcity of resources.

This article talks about the increase in price of oil and the increase in demand for oil. Analysts said that the price of oil would increase as time goes and suppliers are trying to meet the demands of people. The cost of one barrel of North Sea Brent has increased and made a new record in both euro and pounds. 'Many analysts say the broader trend is that prices will continue to rise because of risks to oil supplies'. Oil supplies were slowed down in the late 1970's and early 1980's because of the war between Iran and Iraq. During global consumption, oil would increase in price by about 1.3 million barrels a day said by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. However, supply will fall by about 310,000 barrels a day.

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.

This bring cross elasticity to a whole new level. Now that the elections in the US are done, it's sometimes hard to remember just how crazy campaigning can get. Candidates will grab at whatever statistics or new bits of knowledge that tell them how they're doing in the polls and or what they need to do to get ahead. This year, one of their focuses is...what kind of soda we drink? That's right, because cross elasticity is all about how two product correlate and the correlation between the president elect and your favorite soda has only like, what, 20, 30 degrees of separation? And you'd be surprised just how many other details of your life they'll look at to see where their target audience is. And these guys aren't the only ones trying to get an edge from such seemingly irrelevant information...