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Currently the Obama administration is talking about finding new ways to create jobs and stimulate growth. However, it has proved to be unsuccessful, as the only policy that will really help is an increase in aggregate demand. The article explains that aggregate demand simply means spending: "spending by households, businesses and governments for consumption goods and services or investments in structures, machinery and equipment." At the moment, businesses should not to invest because there is lack of consumer demand. The federal government could increase aggregate spending by directly employing workers or undertaking public works projects yet this proves to be difficult. The author explains that the most important thing is for policy makers to stop focusing on debt and attempt instead to raise aggregate demand.

THis article talks about how the recession has effected America and what America really needs is an increase in aggregate demand. That is the increase in consumption, investments, exports etc. They say that a direct solution to increase aggregate demand would be an increase in aggregate spending by employing citizens in public projects controlled by the government and if that isnt enough then its all up to the citizens. It then talks about how consumer confidence significantly effects spending. that is if house holds feel that they are rich, then they dont feel the need to save and as a result of that they spend the money they were going to spend and vice versa.

This article talks about how the unemployment is affecting the United States and how it is related to a decrease in the aggregate demand of the country. And how this possibly causes the real GDP being 6 percent under the trend path.

This article tells us how the recession in the United States has affected the unemployment rate; people consume less thus the aggregate demand is lower and remains like this as unemployment increases. I also found important something that is mentioned: "During a deep recession, more workers move into the category of those who take a long time to find new jobs, and so the decline in unemployment across the labour force as a whole is quite slow" Factors mentioned in this article are what determine the real GDP to be 6% under the trend path.

This article talk about how technology is improving at a rapid pace and thus leading to unemployment in the manufacturing sector. Since these manufacturing industries comprise three quarters of the 20- sub industry sectors, the level of unemployment is considered quite large. Some of these sub industries are leather tanning, paper mills, fertilizer factories, glass products etc. Another influencing factor in the drop of aggregate demand in the U.S is the shift in the age of the labor force. According to statistics, by 2020, people over 55 will compose of more than 25% of the labor force in manufacturing.

If aggregate demand were to expand, would there be sufficient spare capacity to allow aggregate supply to expand to meet the additional demand? This is the question addressed by the podcast and article below.

This article shows how the environment can influence the aggregate supply in the economy. The article states that heat stress from global warming may be having an impact on outdoor work productivity in hot regions like northern Australia, Southeast Asia and the southern US. And the calculation tells us thatin temperate regions, people work continuously, but in the hottest places, the working day is split between 80% work and 20% rest. Therefore, people and government should pay attention to the environment problems nowadays because it will lead to a change in nation's GDP. And economists also should consider environment as a determinant of aggregate supply.

This article talks about how global warming is causing a decrease in work productivity, which would lead to a decrease in production. It states that in the hottest months of the year, labour capacity decreases by around 10%. They estimate that by 2050 the temperature would have risen by 1.8 degrees. At this temperature labour capacity would decrease by 20%. So overall this could have huge effects on the economy as production will decrease, and therefore there will be over aggregate demand. this then would cause inflation.

The article does not talk about the whole aggregate demand, but rather focus on one component that contributes to aggregate demand. The article talks mainly about exports in Spain, contributing to its nation's economic growth. Spain's exports figures have increased despite the recession phase. The exports have broke a record of the least trade deficit since 1998. Exports increase to 222.6 billion euros in 2012 from 215.2 billion euros in 2011, which is the highest exports since 1971. Spain's trade deficit decreased 34% as imports fell 2.8%. This is due to changes in exchange rate and improvements in competitiveness. Apart from that, measures like labor law changes have improved investors' confidence.

The cement company Lafarge, says that UK faces a 200 million tonnes shortfall due to slow planning procedures. There is an extremely high demand currently in the UK. If this continues or increases, then the countries capacity to supply will begin to decline after 10 years. Out of the 200 million tonnes, only 60 is recyclable which leaves the rest to be extracted from primary sources. Since the procedure to quarry materials from primary sources requires authority permission, the process is very slow. This slow process is going to create the shortfall says Lafarge.

What this article talks about is the two points of view, which are completely different in nature, to why the US economy is failing. The one point of view is that there is too little aggregate demand and an excesive supply of wasted potencial. The other view is that there is too much government intervention. It talks about how the recession has effected investments and aggregate demand and therefore decreased the average wages of the country. The article states that a solution to the problem would be the fiscal policy where the governmnet would lower percentage taxes in order for the rich to start investing again. This would then promote the recovery of the economy.

The article talks about the overall German economy. The economy ministry states that although there is weak development in industrial output to the point where there is contraction the GDP during the fourth quarter of 2012, there are many signs that indicate the growing economy. He states that the economy has reached its lowest point already. The country sees a growth of 0.8 percent in industrial orders as there is an increase in euro zone. Furthermore, many surveys indicate that many businesses, investors, and consumers are becoming more optimistic. Data has shown that there is increase in exports, international trade, and as well as a decrease in unemployment. Contribute by a narrowed US trade deficit indicates an increase in global demand. This article can be related back to the business cycle. As you can see, by description, German's economy is in a trough phase and with evidences indicating that it is leading towards the recovery phase. This shows that there is a lowest point in the phase where the economy can not get any worse. There is a point that there is still consumption. We can also see that during the recession, GDP decreases, aggregate output decreases, aggregate demand decreases, and unemployment increases. This clearly reflects the business cycle.

Foreign direct investment in Mexico has increased 178 percent in 2013 from the the $12.7 billion seen in 2012. The increase in foreign direct investment was stimulated through economic reforms in industries ranging from telecoms to energy, which was pushed through Congress by President Enrique Pena Niet. The economic reforms has lured in many investors. Increase in foreign direct investment can help stimulate aggregate demand in Mexico, since there are an increase in capital inflows into Mexico. With an increase in aggregate demand, the country GDP can increase, and therefore contribute to economic development. The article also states that the investment was largely made into manufacturing sector. This could help contribute to research and development for machines or technology.

It is an article about the recession and unemployment in Spain. The unemployment is a very serious problem in Spain because the rate of unemployment is about 25% or more so is a lot. This article report that the Spanish situation is stabilizing but we can´t assume that is the end of the recession and the start of the new business cycle. The business cycle is the periodic fluctuations in economic activity measured by changes in real GDP. Output cannot continue to fall for ever as there will always be some people with jobs to maintain a given level of consumption, foreigners will demand exports, governments will continue to spend by running budget deficits, and people will be able to use savings to finance their consumption. Additionally, the low demand for money for investment will result in lower interest rates. Thus, aggregate demand will pick up, the economy will enter the recovery phase, and the cycle will repeat itself. So after the recession the national economy of Spain will suffer an economic growth, the amount of the goods and services produced by an economy over time will increase.

Canada's economy seems to have taken a hit as housing, jobs and exports fell. First there was a 21,900 jobs loss in January plus a 58,000 decrease in Canadians looking for work. In addition, exports fell 2.1%, exports to the US alone dropped, 4 points and imports fell as well. Furthermore a 19% reduction in the housing industry topped Canada's misfortune these past 2 months. Many Canadians are questioning the actions of the conservative government as economic growth is slowing to a crawl.

I think that you have chosen a very nice and interesting article because it's related to our actual topics. Is a good example about the importance of the exchange rates in the exports. If a country's exchange rate becomes stronger, then this makes the country's exports relatively more expensive to foreigners. According to the law of demand, this will cause the quantity of exports to fall. Another think to highlight is the increase of the unemployment rate, this will probably decrease the consumption because However, if people expect economic conditions to worsen then they are likely to reduce their consumption today in order to save for the future. In brief i think that it's a great article to talk about the aggregated demand, macroeconomic and the monetary policies.

I find this article particularly interesting because i never knew that Canada was suffering so much from the recession. Since it states in the article that 21,900 jobs were lost means that the household cinsumption must be very low a resulting in a low agregate demand, and since the agregate demand is low firms gain less proffit and therefore have to cut costs which in this case would be workers.

LISBON: The Portuguese economy is set to contract by 2.3 per cent this year due to a sharp fall in domestic demand and disappointing export growth

This article basically talks about the decreasing growth of the Portuguese economy. It states that the Portuguese economy will contract by 2.3% this year due to a steep fall in aggregate demand and exports. This can only lead to negative consequences as the firms will start to sell less/produce less and therefore earn less of a profit or no profit at all. SO what these firms will start to do is cut costs of FOP which basically means lay off workers, raising unemloyment, further worsening the economy, because then the people laid off will buy less from other firms and the same process will occur over and over again untill you get to the economic situation of Greece.

Central Bank of Russia will continue to cut interest rates to 8% at which central bank lends to commercial banks. This target is to be completed in early May. This action is done in the hope to boost Russia's economy after a slow down. In addition, inflation rates are beginning to decline. Lower interest rates will lower costs of saving and thus encourage people to invest or get a loan to consume goods such as houses. This will move aggregate demand outwards and as well ad economy's potential output. This, in turn, will encourage economic growth. As such, this method can be classified as a part of an expansionary monetary policy or reflationary policy.

It is an article about the important of fiscal policies in the emergent economies, where the fiscal policies remain very conservative. The fiscal policy would be very helpful to continue the economic growth and create jobs. The fiscal policy is a very good method to encourage greater consumption or investments, and as when know, when there is an increase in investments or consumption there will be an increase in the aggregate demand. Axa Framlington fund manager Julian use as example the Mexico's economy that is demonstrating a strong economic growth because they use efficiently the fiscal policy.

In the article author describes the world trade between the countries - exports. Exports are one of the four components of GDP. In comparison to the 2011, the exports in 12 largest countries declined in 2012. Only US, China and Canada had an insignificant growth last year. Declining incomes are the main reason for low consumption, consumers keep purchasing less imports. Author also considers difference between exports in 2008 and 2012. German exports fell by three percent, while Indian exports were 50 percent higher. It is a huge difference, but if one remembers the reasons for changes in net exports from the chapter 14, it is not that serious. The last reason was the difference in inflation, i.e. "if inflation in the US were relatively higher than in Canada then US goods would be less competitive in Canada and may reduce the export revenues which the US earns from its exports to Canada. " Thus, looking at India and Germany this difference in growth is justified.

It's a nice article about the consumption in India. The consumption do durable and non-durable goods in India is decreasing at the same time as the inflation is increasing. The value of money is not the same as it was before, so the consumer can't buy the same quantity of products and this reduce the output of the consumers. The interest rates are relatively high so the households prefer to save money at a higher interest rate than loan money from the bank. The decrease of the consumption is real problem for the industrial production, according to the author I think that lower interest rates and reform measures may be able to revive the consumption. Also in my opinion the government should think about new monetary policies to reduce the inflation because the inflation at 10.8% is a serious problem.

This article talks about how Indias consumption is straining. Since the inflation is so high at a level of 10.8% the money has begun to lose its value and therefore the consumption of durable and non-durable goods has decreased as we can see in the article by 8.2% and 1.4%. Causingg the production to decrease by 0.6% further more making the economy suffer more. Although in the article it states that low interest rates and reform measure might be able to increase the consumption of the economy and therefore decrease the already hight inflation rate.