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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.

The article discusses the total sale of houses (a good) is rising in the economy in the UK. Due to this rise by 5%, the economy was able to grow and increase. The real estate businesses and bank of England are able to work together to get maximum profit from the rise in sales from houses.

There has been an increase in how the amount of houses sold, which created an improvement in the economy of the UK. The increase was created by the increase of supply of mortgage, which increase the possibility for the population to buy a house.

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.

The government of Greece decided to put an old airport (twice as big as Central Park) for sale for 6 billion euros. In this way, the government would sell this old area to a private owner, therefore creating 9,000 jobs for Greece and helping the government and the country. We can say that this is price control, since the Greek government gave the price for the area, and is trying to stabilize/help the economy by creating a price for this area that could be used to help greatly Greece. In fact, not only jobs would be given but tourism would increase greatly (as well as the Greek income).

You don't have to read much of this article to understand the gist of what the author is saying. As we all know, the business cycle fluctuates like a sin graph, except, at the same time, the real GDP steadily increases as more innovations are made the things can be done for cheaper. Paying attention to those ups and downs are important for governments because, when the downs occur, the government needs to put in more spending to cover for private industries and to try and stimulate the economy. However, what the US government has failed to do now-a-days is lower spending when the economy has built its way back up and above where it was before. This isn't because US citizens will start mass protests in the streets against a higher sales tax or less funding for the public education system, but because officials want to ignore the fundamental concept that, just like the economy went down before, so shall it in the future times.

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 demonstrates demand well, simply because it shows how the demand for a certain product is growing and companies in Russia are racing to have the better product on the market. "Cost, reliability, service contracts, after-sales support, and customer relationships will be key competitive factors," concluded Tohani.

Here we have an uncanny case of a company that has little to no competition, yet its market share is actually dropping. Sony has been constantly ignoring the price elasticity of it products so much so that they refuse to recognize their fall from favor in the market war. "Our initial expectation is that sales should double at a minimum," Jack Tretton, chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment America, said in an interview [at the time]. "We've gotten our production issues behind us on the PlayStation 3, reaching a position to pass on the savings to consumers, and our attitude is the sooner the better." As a result Sony has kept its prices constant.

For the past century or so, cigarettes have been an inelastic product. Due to their addictive properties, changes in the price have had a minimal effect on market demand, allowing tobacco companies to rake in boat loads of cash. In the early 1900s, big tobacco hit its peak in sales with the ability to advertise in color and through whole new mediums (newspaper, radio, TV, etc.) It was at this time that the American public and many other nations, although I don't which, started to recognize the dangers of smoking and the government begin creating restrictions. Though cigarrettes now have prices that fluctuate like gas, can't have ads on radio or television, and can't be sold to minors, consumer demand has still remained for them because of how powerful the addictive effects of nicotine are on the human brain. However, now there is an alternative to conventional smoking which replaces deadly secondhand smoke with clean water vapor. E-cigarettes are a trend that is sure to build demand and will cigarettes and cigars as elastic as a rubber band.

China's economic growth picked up pace in the July-to-September period, the first rise in three quarters. The world's second-biggest economy grew 7.8% from a year earlier, up from 7.5% expansion in the previous quarter. The official figures also showed growth in industrial output, retail sales and fixed asset investment. After years of blistering growth, China has seen its pace of expansion slow recently and there have been fears that growth may slow further. China has set a growth target of 7.5% for the year. Analysts said the latest numbers indicated that it was likely that Beijing would meet this.

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 article discusses the controversies involved in the sale of wildlife and a global ban in the trade of a species when it is threatened with over-exploitation. The author relates to trade bans as something that do more harm than good. This is perfectly illustrated by the following quote: "Combine inelastic demand, lack of substitutes, scarcity and open access to habitats with a trade ban, Dr Conrad argues, and a black market will flourish." Some of these conclusions also relate to arguments against protection we did in class, such as the limited options that consumers and firms have.