Group items tagged

This article talks about the recent shutdown of the US government and its effect on the American currency. The author of the article questions whether the US dollar will save its supremacy and will stay an international currency as it used to be. The government shutdown has seriously affected the value of the US dollar. Therefore, affecting everybody who has held their money in that currency, "China, the largest foreign owner of US treasury bonds, would feel much of the pain." This serves as an example of the factors that affect the currency and what are the consequences of it.

This article states that the Euro has experienced a 8.5 month high due to a weaker dollar. The depreciation of the dollar was due to the government shutdown and the impending economic concerns. In addition, due to increases in China's growth, investors have ventured to take risks with the Euro.

This article is of particular interest to us because it would be a great article to analyze for one of our blogs. It provides a great deal of quantitative data with regards to the different powerhouse currencies, like China's and the Dollar. 

Thailand's baht appreciated extending a rebound from last month's three-year low to 4 percent, as U.S. lawmakers' failure to resolve a budget issue decreased demand for the dollar. Thailand also sees an increase in exports shipments of 3.9 percent in August, allowing the country to see a current-account surplus of $1.3 billion for the month. This shows how currencies can appreciate as an effect of another country's depreciation. Here, we US dollar depreciating due to less demand for it. Moreover, Thai baht also increases, supported by a current-account surplus.

This article might not be as relevant to fiscal policies as the ones from my peers. But I think it is important how the government distributes the money received from the taxes. In the article the author talks about the money that the US government allocates for the aid projects in Afghanistan. Millions tax of dollars were ate up with no results. Those money ended up in the Talibans' hands. It is interesting to read and understand that not always the money received from taxes are effectively used.

The fall of imports have reduced Lebanon's balance of payments deficit from $1,932.1 millions US dollars to $675.2 US dollars. Movement of imports and exports are the most significant variable affecting the balance of payments. The slowdown of Lebanon's economic activity results in lower imports and therefore lowering the deficits in the balance of payments. Imports to Lebanon is usually higher than its exports, but this had changed in 2013. Lebanon's exports of banking, educational and health services have increased. Deposit inflows had increased by 11 percent compared to last year. This article clearly relates to the Balance of Payments. Here, Lebanon's movement of goods in and out of its country pay a major role in determining the Balance of Payments. Obviously, these imports and exports are a part of the current account, which includes the balance of trade in goods (visible trade balance) and balance of trade in services (invisible balance). Lebanon sees an increase in services, which means that there could be an improve balance of trade in services.

This article represents the perfect example of how the balance accounts aren't equaling out! The article states that the the US debt has increased due to a decrease in exports. What this tells us is that the current account has decreased and therefore has further de-equalized the situation. Therefore as the article states the debt has grown by 0.4% to $38.8 billions dollars. Telling is us that the capital and current accounts arent balancing eachother

As all of us know, our world's population is increasing at a rapid rate. They predict that in 2025, there will be 1 more billion people on earth than their are today. So on average, they are predicting that there will be an increase in population of about 80 million people a year. Our resources that we have right now are already scarce, so it will only get tougher. Reporters say the 3 nations that will be most in need of more water will be China, India, and USA due to population growth, increasing irrigation and economic growth. Reporters also say that the amount of extra water needed is equivalent to 20 Nile Rivers. Failure to find the needed extra water could result in great conflicts over water. Also, with climate change (global warming) this will decrease the amount of available freshwater. Furthermore, the water needs to be sanitized to avoid diseases and sickness being spread. The report said that this could cost up to an extra 11 billion dollars a year. I chose this article because it is clearly related to scarcity and is growing concern in our world that needs to be looked at. 2025 is not very far away, and we need to come up with ideas for producing extra, clean water.

This article talks about a joint monetary policy bewteen the central banks of different countries to provide liquidity support to the financial system. This will ease of the strain in the financial markets of the world. These banks have agreed to lower the pricing on existing temporary US dollar liquidity swap arrangemnets by 50 basis points. As a contingency measure, these central banks have also agreed to establish temporary bilateral liquidity swap arrangements so that liquidity can be provided in each jurisdiction in any of their currencies should market conditions so warrant.