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Kyuhwan L

How to Know When to Tax and When to Spend - 1 views

truth-out.org/...-when-to-tax-and-when-to-spend

business cycle government spending taxation recession prosperity

shared by Kyuhwan L on 03 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • Kyuhwan L on 03 Mar 13
     
    I really found this article interesting because it explains the strategy of taxation that aligns with the business cycle. It explains that during times of economic hardship, a recession, then government should increase spending to first "soft blow for businesses and average working people," but to also stimulate the economy and move on to recover. This is reflected by the Keynesian theory of economy, where the government intervention is necessary to put the economy back on the right track. On the other hand, the government should relax expenditure and slightly increase tax to pay off deficit. This strategy is also supported by history, where the article gives examples of past U.S. presidents and government decisions during different times of the business cycle.
  • ...1 more comment...
  • Andrzej Z on 07 Mar 13
     
    I agree with you that this article is very interesting. Like you said before it reflect the Keynesian school of economics. However, there is one problem with these theory, you don´t know if the government intervention are helping the economy or not. It is impossible to state which theory is better or if the economy work better with government intervention or without them. To investigate which one is better you would need two identic economies (this is impossible) in recession and intervene in one economy and in the other don´t make any intervention and expect that the market forces will solve the problem. "This strategy is also supported by history, where the article gives examples of past U.S. presidents and government decisions during different times of the business cycle." However the business cycle doesn´t affect all the economies in the same ways. For example the Spanish government is making a lot intervention but the economy is not recovering. On the other hand the biggest problem with the government interventions is that you can´t be sure in 100% about the effect of the intervention. You can study a lot the economy and prepar the intervention for months but you will know the result after the intervention, and the result may not be positive. The other problem with the government interventions is that many of them are not popular and many governments won´t risk losing popularity.
  • Benjamin D on 08 Mar 13
     
    I agree with what Andrzej said about the fatc that we don't what are the best ways to help the economy, either making a goverment intervention or not. The problem is that none of this policies are 100% efficient and the example that Andrzej gives us about the Spanish government shows us how sometimes intervention doesnt recover the economy.
  • Benjamin D on 08 Mar 13
     
    I agree with what Andrzej said about the fact that we don't what are the best ways to help the economy, either making a goverment intervention or not. The problem is that none of this policies are 100% efficient and the example that Andrzej gives us about the Spanish government shows us how sometimes intervention doesnt recover the economy.
Jina K

Venezuelan Government to Control Rent Prices - 1 views

venezuelanalysis.com/7502

price controls rent government intervention

shared by Jina K on 26 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • Jina K on 26 Nov 12
     
    The Venezuelan Government has announced price controls on housing rents and with prices of medicines also underway. Many basic goods have already been under price controls as a result of inflation. The government has decided to put rent prices under control in order to protect consumers from high prices from landlords. Furthermore, with price controls on medicines, the government hopes to ensure that medicines will be accessible to all. Many producers have claimed that the price controls create a lack of supply. On the other hand, small and medium businesses seem to benefit from this through economies of scale. Lower prices allow producers to producer more for a cheaper price. However, government assured that the price control was throughly evaluated, so that it does not affect the supply. This relates directly to our topic of price control. In this case, government puts price controls in order to protect consumers from being exploited by producers. We can also notice that government intervention through price control does not always receive positive feedbacks from all parties.
Caitlyn S

Price Controls Cause Chaos in Ethiopian Markets - 0 views

www.voanews.com/...134022.html

price-controls ceiling-price government-intervention

shared by Caitlyn S on 23 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • Jean Eric on 23 Nov 12
     
    Price controls on many staple food items ordered by Ethiopia's government early this month have reduced grocery bills for many low-income families. But now shopkeepers are upset and some basic items are disappearing from store shelves. Economists are concerned about the long-term effect of the government's price-fixing strategy. The consumers responded by going to local retail shops on the first day of the new low prices to stock up on much needed basic good. how ever chaos has broken out between shop keepers and consumers as the shelves aare being cleaned of basic and even normal goods. The shopkeepers responded complaining that the weeks of low prices were unbaraible because of consumers being unhappy of even the lowest prices. The Ethiopian government defended it self that the price caps were needed to help the economic crises but 4 independant economist say that it would help the economy recover, but the government ignored them saying it would. Critcs warn that it will only help in the short term and only worsen the economy in the long term.
  • Caitlyn S on 25 Nov 12
     
    Price controls on many staple food items ordered by Ethiopia's government early this month have reduced grocery bills for many low-income families. However, shopkeepers are now upset and many basic items are disappearing from store shelves. Economists are concerned about the long-term effect of the government's price-fixing strategy as the price controls have triggered chaos and tension in the local marketplace. 'Ceiling price have been put on items such as meat, bread, rice, sugar, powdered milk and cooking oil due to merchants taking advantage of global price hikes. The consumers have greatly benefitted yet storekeepers are unhappy, some products they bought before the price controls must now be sold below cost. In a free market economy, the preferred way of doing this is to increase the supply and increase competition. The Ethiopian government has been heavily criticized. Despite the upheaval, government officials are hoping their experiment in price-fixing will help to curb inflation. Recently released figures show the inflation rate jumped from 10.2 percent in November to 14.5 percent last month.
Andrzej Z

A Government Imposed Disaster: Price Controls in the Wake of Sandy - 0 views

www.huffingtonpost.com/...nt-imposed-disa_b_2077734.html

control price demand supply scarcity government

shared by Andrzej Z on 23 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • Andrzej Z on 23 Nov 12
     
    This article talk about the maximum price in New York and New Jersey after the sandy huracane. The government has set new laws in order to reduce the price for the neccessity products. However those laws are causing shortages in New York and New Jersey. Government-imposed price controls are making the disaster worse a week after Sandy hit shore. The producers can´t increase the prices for goods considered neccesarie for the consumers.The businesses aren´t allowed to raise their prices more than 10 percent within 30 days of a declared state of emergency. If the businesses increase above the maximum prices they will have to pay penalties. When there is a situation of scarcity (shortage) the people will try to buy the products in the black for a higher price. When high prices are prohibited from serving their function the result is a shortage where there are more buyers than sellers. Buyers still compete with other buyers to try to get the scarce gas, but because price competition is illegal their competition takes less beneficial forms.
Caitlyn S

Ending the Oceans' 'Tragedy of the Commons' - 0 views

www.sciencedaily.com/...100914095930.htm

ocean- crisis -tragedy of the commons

shared by Caitlyn S on 11 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • Mariya L on 11 Jan 13
     
    Oceans are one of the Commons, and as any other commons, it becomes overconsumed. Fishers all around the world keep devastating populations of the fish. To prevent overfishing, pollution and other human impacts, leading international marine scientists are proposing radical changes in the governance of the world's oceans. They carried an experiment in Chilie, and based on it, scientists state that they would be able to help to reverse "the tragedy of the commons". Problems in Chilie made people be open to new arrangements, scientists and fishers began working together to improve the situation with fish. By working together for some years, scientists became able to reveal about fish stocks and and the surrounding marine ecosystem. The new laws gave exclusive ocean territories to local 'artisanal' fishers, and excluded the big industrial fishing fleets, which had their own exclusive fishing zone. Scientists and small fishers then worked together to understand and rebuild the shattered fish stocks in their zone, leading to a shared vision and voluntary agreements on how to manage them.
  • ...2 more comments...
  • Benjamin D on 17 Jan 13
     
    This article talks about an experiment made in Chile. The use given to our oceans are no good, the article encourages huge changes in the governance of world's ocean to save them from pollution, over-fishing and other impacts made by the humans. All of these factors affect the marine ecosystem in a drastic way, now the levels of fish are decreasing as it says in the article "There was a general recognition that Chile's fish stocks were in trouble," says Professor Carl Folke. This has led to some fisheries to collapse leading the Chilean government for being responsible to take actions.This serves as an example of what's happening in the world today and for facin this problem he suggests that "You need a shared recognition that something has to be done, you need a good understanding of the marine ecosystem and how to regenerate it, you need a strong rapport between scientists and fishers, and you need a political moment when sweeping changes can be brought in." This problem needs to be faced responsibly otherwise there will be almost no fish stocks in the future, treating our commons well is important for us humans as this affects goods that are importand for living.
  • Caitlyn S on 18 Jan 13
     
    Leading international marine scientists are proposing radical changes in the governance of the world's oceans to save them from overfishing, pollution and other human impacts. "Marine ecosystems are in decline around the world. New transformational changes in governance are urgently required to cope with overfishing, pollution, global changes, and other drivers of degradation. Fishers and scientists had been working together on the problem for some years, trialling new co-operative models for fishery management, based on that science can reveal about the state of the fish stock and the surrounding marine ecosystem." The result is a national system of marine tenure that allocates user rights and responsibilities to collectives of fishers. The research indicates the key to managing fisheries depend on creating agreements that are both voluntary and flexible enough to cope with changes in the ocean environment, leading to fisheries that are both ecologically and socially sustainable.
  • Jean Eric on 21 Jan 13
     
    I find this article particularl interesting because due to a political change in Chile, it has now effected the common resource tradegy of the Oceans. It has reduced the over fishing in Chile, which has let the fish start to regenerate. The research has found out that the key to managing the fisheries depends on making decisions flexible enough to cope with the changes that the ocean goes through.
  • Jean Eric on 21 Jan 13
     
    I find this article particularl interesting because due to a political change in Chile, it has now effected the common resource tradegy of the Oceans. It has reduced the over fishing in Chile, which has let the fish start to regenerate. The research has found out that the key to managing the fisheries depends on making decisions flexible enough to cope with the changes that the ocean goes through.
Kyuhwan L

Canada's penny heads into retirement - 0 views

www.theprovince.com/...story.html

Canada penny government spending

shared by Kyuhwan L on 04 Feb 13 - No Cached
  • Kyuhwan L on 04 Feb 13
     
    As a cost-saving strategy, the Canadian government has cut off circulation for the Canadian penny. The nickel, the toonie and all the coins in between cost less than their face value to produce, yet the penny cost 6 cents more than it is worth. The federal government has calculated that terminating the production of the penny will save the government 11 million a year, allowing the federal government to spend on more pressing issues. However, this change only affects physical cash transactions and not purchases made with credit or debit cards.
Andrzej Z

Chinese antisubsidy tariff on U.S. solar-panel materials adds to previous levy for dumping - 0 views

online.wsj.com/...3527004579079070572200630.html

worldwide tariff China USA trade international

shared by Andrzej Z on 25 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • Andrzej Z on 25 Sep 13
     
    It is an article about the government of China that has decided to impose a 6.5% tariff on materials from most U.S. polysilicon suppliers. A tariff is a tax that is charged on imported goods. The Chinese government decide to impose this tariff in order to prevent dumping from USA. Dumping is the selling by a country of large quantities of a commodity, at a price lower than its production cost, in another country. However it is difficult to deduce if this tariff is imposed to prevent dumpling or if it is a revenge for the tariff that the USA government imposed Chinese-made solar cells one year ago. I think that the Chinese government should talk first with the USA government because protectionism is a very dangerous weapon because it often invite to retaliatory actions. This may reduce the benefits that can be gained from international trade by all consumers and producers in all countries.
Mariya L

US government shutdown: Doing away with the dollar - 1 views

www.newscientist.com/...oing-away-with-the-dollar.html

value of currency currency US dollar government shutdown

shared by Mariya L on 05 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • Mariya L on 05 Nov 13
     
    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.
Matthew R

Higher Excise Tax to Affect Tobacco Farmers in Manila - 0 views

www.mb.com.ph/...-affect-tobacco-farmers-marcos

excise tax supply demand government

shared by Matthew R on 18 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • Matthew R on 18 Nov 12
     
    The government in Manila is taking advantage of taxing Tobacco. Franklin M. Drilon, acting chairman of the senate, is trying to make this tax a done deal. He thinks it should be taxed because it is a "sin" product. It would see the government raise 40-45 billion Peso's in tax revenue. Senator Ferdinand R. Marcos is concerned about this and is doing his best to prevent this tax. He knows the affects it could have on the tobacco farmers. There are about 18,000 tobacco farmers who are concerned about this tax. I think this is unfair of the Government. I don't think tobacco is a "sin" good, as it is many peoples alternative to drugs. This tax could put many producers out of jobs seeing as the demand will not be as high, and also this tax could force poor people to go back to cheaper alternatives that are very unhealthy and addictive.
Tisha D

Price control on Drugs- Failure - 1 views

articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/...-chemicals-ministry-bulk-drugs

price control drug india government

shared by Tisha D on 22 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • Tran H on 22 Nov 12
     
    This is an article which states the drug is now under the price control of the government. But according to it, there would be non-price control for medicine/drug options as well. It also says that the task force will serve as a framework for the new drug pricing policy. Since the government thinks that price controlling system doesn't really work for this kind of product, the drug makes are really looking forward to the new pricing policy.
  • Tisha D on 29 Nov 12
     
    The government of India has decided to remove the price control that it had earlier set. They have come to the conclusion that having a price control will make the drug companies not sell non profitable products.
Jean Eric

Government to fight cigarette price control case - 1 views

www.irishexaminer.com/...-price-control-case-94102.html

price tax tobaccoo profit

shared by Jean Eric on 18 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • Jean Eric on 18 Nov 12
     
    This article talks about Ireland having the highest tobacco pricesses in Europe. The european commision is stating that the Irish government "is against EU law, distorts competition and keeps tobacco company profits high." The Irish government says that by keeping the prices high on tobacco its a good way to control smoking in the country and that its policy of high prices is with the World Wide Health Organisations regulation policy. what the European comission is trying to do acoording to this article is to encourage Ireland to take off the price controls. but they refused and are going to court against the EU regulations in Luxemburg.
Benjamin D

Dairy processors fight milk price controls with anti-government campaign - 1 views

dailycaller.com/...trols-anti-government-campaign

'Price controls' 'government intervention'

shared by Benjamin D on 25 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • Benjamin D on 25 Nov 12
     
    A trade group representing milk processors debuted an ad campaign Tuesday to eliminate New Deal-era federal price controls on unprocessed milk. The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) complains that the current price support system for dairy farmers dates back to 1937. Its ads call for "Big Government to get out of your milk." The main concern is that family with children are gradually paying more for milk hence the consumption of milk has dropped in the past years.
Jean Eric

Oil Spills, global warming and negative externalities - 3 views

tucsoncitizen.com/...ing-and-negative-externalities

'negative externalities'

shared by Jean Eric on 30 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • Tisha D on 30 Nov 12
     
    A negative externality is a cost incurred by a comapny or a party that did not agree to whatever action caused the extra cost. This article discusses the negative externalities that we incur when we use fossil fuels etc. The cost of production and damage caused by the use of fossil fuels is not included in the price we pay for 1 gallon of gasoline. This is the negative externality. A lot of the government involvement in the private sectors is actually aimed at reducing such negative exteranlities concerned with environmental pollution. Several companies also try to reduce externalities by introducing policies. For example, SAP AG has policies that its employees cannot buy cars that have carbon emissions beyond a certain limit.
  • ...1 more comment...
  • Jean Eric on 06 Dec 12
     
    A negative externality is an action of a product on consumers that imposes a negative side effect on a third party. Many negative externalities are related to the environmental consequences of production and use. for example the emmisions of green house gases. in this article it explains that when i company creates negative externalities neither the company nor the consumer pays for them so there the government has to step in to stop it by ptting regulations which increases the cost of the comapanies decreasing the negative externalities. but national companies complain because they say if regulations are set they cant compete with international firms like in china where there are no regulations for fuel negative externalities. for example a negative externality was the gulf of mexico oil spill where BP oil prices didnt rise to clean up the mess but the taxes did.
  • Andrzej Z on 06 Dec 12
     
    Your article is very interesting. In the end the writer talks about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, two weeks ago or something like that I read that BP (they were the owners of the deepwater Horizon) will pay $4.5 billion in fines and other payments, the largest of its kind in US history. It is a lot of money but how can we estimate the value of million animal life's and the destruction of a big part of the Gulf of Mexico. The worst is that we could avoid it because the BP company saved money in the security systems in these Deepwater. I think that after this disaster the government should check all the deepwaters in order to reduce the possibilities of new cases.
  • Jean Eric on 07 Dec 12
     
    A negative externality is an action of a product on consumers that imposes a negative side effect on a third party. Many negative externalities are related to the environmental consequences of production and use. for example the emmisions of green house gases. in this article it explains that when i company creates negative externalities neither the company nor the consumer pays for them so there the government has to step in to stop it by ptting regulations which increases the cost of the comapanies decreasing the negative externalities. but national companies complain because they say if regulations are set they cant compete with international firms like in china where there are no regulations for fuel negative externalities. for example a negative externality was the gulf of mexico oil spill where BP oil prices didnt rise to clean up the mess but the taxes did
Tisha D

Kids go Hungry due to Political Unrest - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...s-global-food-prices-rise.html

supply food rationing hunger

shared by Tisha D on 12 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • Tisha D on 12 Oct 12
     
    Following the recent government unrest in Yemen, the presence of terrorist groups in the country and the ongoing economic crisis the country is facing serious issues with food and hunger. The country depends solely on imported food due to the unavailability of arable land, but due to the lack of funds the government is not able to do so. The country is already in a weak state due to the fall of the government and presence of Al- Qaeda occupied regions in the country. The country has also been hitten hard by the global increase in fuel and food prices Due to the excessively high prices 5 million people or 22% of the population that mainly consists of the poor economic section cannot feed themselves enough or go hungry to bed on most nights. Yemen is the third country in the world to have the largest number of malnourished children. Most of these kid's parents are landless labours, so they cannot grow their own food and because of the high prices, they cannot afford to buy it either.
Andrzej Z

Reilly plans 10pc sugar tax on soft drinks - 1 views

www.herald.ie/...ax-on-soft-drinks-3292081.html

excise tax demand supply Equilibrium worldwide elasticity price

shared by Andrzej Z on 15 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • Andrzej Z on 15 Nov 12
     
    This article talks about an increase in the excise duty on soft drinks which are already subject to a 23pc VAT rate. With this measure the government is trying to reduce the obesity and to increase the revenues of the government. I think that this is a good idea because the problem of obesity is very concerning. Also the costs of treating the obesity are very high (in Spain the government is paying 37 million each for treating the obesity) Many doctors says that the obesity is the epidemic of the XXI century. The fat tax has been introduced in some countries in Europe. The problem is that these taxes are very unpopular because the food is a necessity product. The biggest impact of a tax increase would be felt by the young and lower income groups who are the biggest consumers of soft drinks.
Jina K

Foreigners taxed out of Hong Kong property? - 0 views

edition.cnn.com/...index.html

excise tax property hongkong

shared by Jina K on 19 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • Jina K on 19 Nov 12
     
    Hong Kong government has decided to impose 15% excise tax on property in Hong Kong that is bought by foreigners. This is a difficult measure for many foreigners wishing to purchase houses in Hong Kong. Some foreigners that has been around for several years are also not feeling as happy as before. Some clients are also thinking about leaving. The government primary reason is to protect its economy from inflating property resulting from foreign investments, low interest rates, and limited supply of housing in the market. Clearly, this situation is related to the topic of excise tax, or specifically, ad valorem tax- fixed percentage is charged on a particular good. This has led to an increase in price, which leads to a fall in demand from foreign investors that wish to invest in Hong Kong properties. This shows that properties are in fact elastic products, but government is able to impose tax since it does not affect the producers dramatically and it does not affect the majority of the consumers. Only foreign investors are affected. Realtor can still generate sales from local investors.
Tisha D

Euro Crisis - 2 views

online.wsj.com/...3751104578150620577134366.html

inflation unemplyment greece spain economy

shared by Tisha D on 19 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • Tisha D on 19 Mar 13
     
    This article is about the ongoing European Economic Crisis. A decrease in number of jobs and increase in population has led to higher rates of unemployment than ever before. Due to the high unemployment, lesser people are paying taxes as well. So the tax revenues for the country is falling too. Hence they cannot extricate themselves from the debt either. Two of the worst affected countries are Spain and Greece. However countries like Germany and Austria were not affected that badly. Initially in Germany retails sales went down, but since unemployment didn't increase tax revenue wasn't affected. For example the state of Baden- Württemberg pays 49% of the income for taxes.
  • Andrzej Z on 04 Apr 13
     
    Like you said one of the most affected countries is Spain where the situation is really bad and the unemployment is really high. There are a lot of things that contributed to this situation, the people spend more than gain, the banks didn´t work properly, the government didn´t intervened… The reasons that many people don´t pay the taxes is because they don´t have nothing and the inequality in Spain is a big problem now. The standards of live of a lot of persons are bad; there are families that live on the grandfather's pension. The people are angry and blame for everything the government.
  • Jean Eric on 06 Apr 13
     
    This article talks about how the euro crisis is effecting the unemployment level severly. It states that due to the record new high level of unemployment since 1975 at 11.6%, at a rate of 11.7% now, less people are paying there taxes. This causes the governmnet to have less of a budget nad therefore it cant subsidize as many companies as it originally wanted to further increasing the crisis. What the governmnet needs to do in this case in lower the taxes so a larger amount of people can afford it and therefore more people would pay tax increasing the governments budget and therefore increasing subsidies
Jina K

Danish government lowers corporate tax - 0 views

www.icenews.is/...overnment-lowers-corporate-tax

Supply Side corporate tax

shared by Jina K on 21 May 13 - No Cached
  • Jina K on 21 May 13
     
    Danish government aims to reduce corporate tax to 22% by 2016. It also aims to increase international competitiveness by offering tax credits, reducing energy tax and public investments. This amendments is implemented in the hope of stimulating growth and make it more attractive for foreigners to run a business in Denmark. Reducing corporate taxes allow companies to have more capital for investments. This could potentially increase factors of production. This wil give corporate incentives to produce more efficiently. In all, this policy can produce a shift in the supply curve to the right, giving positive supply-side benefits.
Jean Eric

Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon Falls - 1 views

online.wsj.com/...3830404578145460604201172.html

tradegy of the commons

shared by Jean Eric on 11 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • Jean Eric on 11 Jan 13
     
    This article talks about the decline in deforestation in Brazil of the Amazon. It states that the deforestation in brazil has decreased dramatically from its peak in 1995, at 30 000 square km per year to 4656 square km this year. Although this doesnt seem as alot of space..its actually the size of The New York state. This has all happend due to the rising awareness of the Government to preserve the Amazon. Althoigh enviromentalists are still not completelty happy because the Brazilian government recently signed an agreement in favor of the farmers cutting down trees to increase agriculture. The Brazilians government is planing to reduce deforestation to 3925 by 2015. this is a market failure because by cutting down trees it affects the oxygen levels in the atmosphere increasing the effects of global warming.
Patrick vD

Olympics expected to have boosted UK GDP - 1 views

www.bbc.co.uk/...business-20054174

macroeconomic activity

shared by Patrick vD on 11 Feb 13 - No Cached
  • Patrick vD on 11 Feb 13
     
    Due to big events like the Olympics, the country receives a lot of overall income due to all the visitors of the such events. It will boost up the GDP since it measures all the assets produced in the economy and due to the event more assets are produced than normally.
  • Andrzej Z on 15 Feb 13
     
    It's a great article about the relationship between the consumption, the investments, the government spending and the economic growth. The investments of the firms in the UK and the government spending of the UK government related to the Olympics have brought important benefits to the consumers. The consumption (Consumption is the total spending by consumers on domestic goods and services) in the UK have increased and this have produced an economic growth in the country. Also we can't forget that it have brought other benefits like tourists, fame, sponsors, new companies, new stadiums...
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