Group items tagged

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 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 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 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.

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,

The article talks about the economic growth in the UK. It says that the economic growth increased because of the Olympics. It is a huge events and a lot of tourists came to the UK. There was an increase in revenue of hotels and restaurants.

Who doesn't love the Olympic Games?! So this article discusses how the Olympic games helped the UK regain economic growth. "The UK economy emerged from recession in the three months from July to September, helped by the Olympic Games. The economy grew by 1.0%, according to official gross domestic product figures (GDP), which measure the value of everything produced in the country." Due to the Olympic Games the UK had a lot of tourists come in from all around the world, therefore, creating more profit for the hotels, restaurants and touristic attractions.

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 U.S. trade deficit widened more than expected in September as imports rose to their highest level in almost a year. The Commerce Department said the trade gap increased 8.0 percent to $41.8 billion, the largest since May. August's shortfall on the trade balance was revised slightly to $38.7 billion from the previously reported $38.8 billion. Economists polled by Reuters had expected the trade deficit to widen a bit to $39.0 billion in September. When adjusted for inflation, the trade gap widened to $50.4 billion, the largest since May, from $47.4 billion the prior month. This measure goes into the calculation of gross domestic product. The increase in the so-called real trade deficit in September suggested the government will probably lower its initial third-quarter GDP estimate." This does not surprise me at all with their trade balance widening because of the debt they are in. Their debt are in the trillions and there isn't a lot the US are doing. Yes, their economy might be improving slightly but a lot of people are without jobs creating a sort of dilemma.

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.

This article goes over the supply elasticities of many products seeing shortages after the hurricane in New York and New Jersey. It talks about the inelasticity of the PES for hotel rooms. The determinant for this is time period. More hotel rooms are needed, but they can't be built in a week. The article also talks about the price of gas, and how the demand for gas is almost perfectly inelastic, meaning that gas can be sold for a huge price. The article asks the question, should the scarce resources go to those who can pay the most for them, or those in line first? This goes with the moral question asked in the discussion of the reading.

A lot of people have preached in the past about how we should destroy the social class system, about how the difference between wealthy and impoverished is an abomination and that the workers should rise up against their oppressive bosses and show them that the employers need their employees and not the other way around. However, most people probably haven't considered the economic angle to it. I hadn't, till I read this article, and I didn't more than the first few sentences to get me thinking. In a country where 10% can buy whatever they want and the other 90% can barely afford to feed their families, how do you get anything done. Those 90% probably do menial labor all day, creating goods and providing services for the 10% that act as their directors, and while this system works out fine for those 10%, your entire aggregate demand is still comprised of only the wants and needs of a tenth of your population. The fewer people you have with the ability to buy things, the smaller your macro-economic activity will be and, thus, your GDP. Now, while this kind of inequality is not fatal to a countries economic stability, per the previous reasons, it definitely puts it at a disadvantage to countries of equal wealth, resources, and population where demand is spread more evenly per capita.

This article talks about Ukraine and its joining the EU Free-trade pact or the Ex-Soviet Pact monitored by Russia. When the idea was proposed, Ukraine was considering but two days before the EU Summit in Vilnius, Ukraine declined the offer - ultimately joining the Ex-Soviet Trade Pact. Now, Ukraine has came back to the idea of the EU Free-trade pact, and is again considering while people are protesting on the streets. The view of the people is split. In addition, Ukraine is close to bankruptcy which makes the choosing of the pacts even more important. Russia has money and can help Ukraine, while the EU doesn't have that ability. We shall see the outcome soon.

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.

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 talks a lot about the recent "fiscal cliff" that congress or some government branch put together to ensure that the two United States parties, the democrats and the republicans, tried to come to some sort of agreement on where cuts can be made to try and fix the deficit. What's interesting about this article, more than the content itself, is the site it links to which talks a lot about how individual cities are doing their part to try and fix up the country. The fact is, the US has gotten some very bad grades lately (whatever that means), so mayors and representatives are getting citizens to invest in projects that will cost a lot of money but will go a long way toward a better future. Fixing up public resources, like water ways and levies, is crucial to trying to build a better community, even if the effects are long term. This is probably the closest we'll see to a sustainable economy.

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.

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 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.

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 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.