Group items tagged

This article talks of the increase in macroeconomic activity in Pakistan, particularly in agriculture and the service sector. Recently stable weather conditions have greatly helped the agricultural sector of the country especially in rice and cotton crops. The banking sector has greatly improved too. Statistics have shown that the budget deficit has dropped down to 2.5% of the GDP in 2011-12 lesser than it was in 2012-13.

This article talks about the importance of caring about the environment because this year there have been alarming weather activities possibly caused by climate change: Droughts, floods, the record melting of Arctic ice and the recent Superstorm Sandy. We can´t affirm that this happened because there is a change in the climate but we have to admit that this is one of the possibilities. If we don´t do nothing the situation will be getting worst. The water level is increasing more than we have predicted and many specialists admit that San Francisco and other cities near the coast might be under water in 20 years. Retrospect, we have neglected the full costs and hidden environmental price tags of economic progress. Only if we are aware of the externalities of our actions can we then build a more organic living environment and actively cut down emissions.

The article discusses how during recessions, the rich become richer and how the businesses cycles still disadvantage the poor and benefit the rich. During recessions, income inequality increases and favors those who are wealthy. As unemployment rises, many people see a significant decline in their income and saving abilities. They are no longer able to afford common resources. For example, people will need to sell their business, houses… This leaves the rich buy up such resources for a cheaper price. This is what keeps the rich constantly "on top" and the poor even poorer. There is a chart which really illustrates this statement put forth by the author.

I think it's funny to see how rich people can get even richer during recession.

This article talks about how the top 1% doesn't get affected by recessions and actually gets richer while the poorer get poor. This came as a surprise to me as I thought recession always had a negative effect on the incomes of the population, but obviously this isn't true. The article states since the recovery period of 2009, the bottom 99% of workers incomes decreased by 0.4% while the top 1% workers income raised by 11.2%, an enormous amount during a recession. In my opinion I think this might be because of the increase in black market activity during a recession, due to the fact that the richest people in the world have earned their income, one way or another, through illegal activity.

The economic growth in the US has been slowed down in the past month. Overall in March, the rate of new orders dropped causing the fall of national factory activity to 51.3 from 54.2 that occurred in February. A reading above 50 indicates expansion in the manufacturing sector, and a number below 50 means contraction, thus despite the fact that the index fell, there is still expansion in factory activity but it had a lower rate in March. Altogether, new orders index, prices-paid gauge, inventories fell, while the employment improved.

It is interesting to note that economists put the blame of climate problems on economic market failure. One of the externalities responsible they say is the ' greenhouse gas negative externality'. it is considered a negative externality because the effects of the activities are not felt by the people who conduct these activities but by future generations. So a different party feels the effect which defines an externality.

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.

In this article the author talks about the slow down in the economic growth of 16 leading emerging markets. Earlier compare to the Eurozone countries, UK and the US, the economic growth of those 16 countries was far higher. After this short period of stagnation, the world economists ask whether the growth, which depends a lot on exports, will increase or not. It weather will "wobble along, buffeted by worries in the developed world"; or temporary stop and then "bring back the days of the strong growth". Right now, the world economy is in the state of the recovery, in the past it went through the recession that started in 2008 and the trough. The fall in indicators mostly stopped, and the economic health very slowly continues to recover from the past.

"The index covers 16 leading emerging markets, including India, Brazil and China, which all saw their rate of growth fall. Rates of economic growth in these countries have been far higher than in developed nations, often coming in at about 10% a year." I think that the author is trying to say that Brazil in China have the highest rates of economic growth and not UK and the US. The exports in these two countries are very important; China is the country which more products export in the world. Their economic growth is slowing because of the recession in the other counties where the consumption has decrease and the people try to save money so the imports of products from China is not so high as it would be in a period of economic growth in all the world. I think that only in few countries the economy started to recover from the recession, in most of the economies are in stagnation. This suggest us the probably the worst part of the recession is behind us and the economies will start to recover, however these fluctuations in economic activity do not follow a mechanical or predictable periodic pattern so we can´t be sure when the recovery will start.

I find this article very interesting because it is really related to our actual theme and it is about a recent topic. It talks about the decrease in the unemployment benefits and the decrease in the unemployment rate is USA. The unemployment rate fell to a four-year low of 7.7%, however, is not so low because probably in the USA there is a big hidden unemployment (people who are working in an industry that doesn't utilize their skill set properly or those who have given up on looking for another job are not counted in the official figures and are thus considered a part of hidden unemployment). The good aspect is that the government is reducing the spending's on the unemployment benefits. The unemployment have very big costs, cost for the unemployed people (they receive less employment and some of them suffer mental problems like depression), the society (poverty, homelessness, higher rates of crime and vandalism, increased gang activities, however not all of them are created by the unemployment) and the whole economy (It´s not operating at full capacity).

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.

This article explains how South Korea's export-driven economy picked up slightly in the final quarter of 2012 on private consumption, yet recovery will likely be delayed until global demand gathers momentum. Asia's fourth-largest economy increased by 0.4% from October-December which was better considering in September there was only a 0.1 % rise, the slowest growth in over three years. This was the seventh consecutive quarter with growth of less than 1%, the longest in more than four decades. South Korea's economy has been hit hard by the depressed global demand, as it had to rely on exports due to high consumer debt surpassing private consumption. The nation's economic growth rate has obviously been stunted with further government intervention needed.

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.

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...

According to the article economy finally passed the recession and now demand for houses rises again. Near record low mortgage rates, rising home prices and a drop in foreclosures have combined to bring buyers back to the market. Right now the supply of houses is very low, there is nothing to sell, while the demand keeps growing. That change won't lead only to increase in jobs in the housing sphere, but also in the furniture, appliances, and other manufactures. But despite that fact, economists still predict only a modest rise in the overall economy this year.

I found this article very interesting, it relates to Green GDP. The Indian government is aiming to use natural resources, and fight global warming, India is one of the most affected countries due to global warming. India's stand in the fight against global warming will let them be in a better position on negotiations about cutting emissions by an average of 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12 which take place in Denmark. India has no obligations to actually reduce emission as it is still a developing countries and as it says in the article it is a "proof of its sincerity in fighting climate change". The Indian governmen t will even consider their Green GDP as part of their economic growth. This won't be an easy challenge for India though due to millions of people living in poverty and having to burn fossil fuels so their lives improve.

I like this article because it is very short and it is related to the topic of this week. It is about the GNI in Korea. The GNI is the growth of the national income, consists of: the personal consumption expenditure, the gross private investment, the government consumption expenditures, the net income from assets abroad (net income receipts), and the gross exports of goods and services, after deducting two components: the gross imports of goods and services, and the indirect business taxes. The GNI is similar to the gross national product (GNP), except that in measuring the GNP one does not deduct the indirect business taxes. The GNI of Korea has experimented a very high grow this year, it is almost the double of the GNI from the year 2002. The nominal GNI from the last year was $118.7 billion, this information is based on the assumption that the country's nominal GDP expanded by 3.2 percent.

This article talks about how other countries, but in this case Spain, are sufferig from a very profound economic crises where its unemployment rate is 24.3%. It explains that with this rate of unemployment no foreign countryis going to invest in the country and that most young spaniards are going to travel abroad, further worsening the spanish situation, stating that its partly due to bad macroeconomic managemeent. It states that Spain should learn from Argentina, a country very similar from an economic point of view. It advises that Spain should leave the Euro zone because its constructed around a German macroeconomic policy that doesnt work for some countries, in this case Spain. So what is it says is that spain has a better chance of going by its own macroeconomic rules than piggybacking on Germanies

The coral reefs in Sweden is an important common resource where it provides habitat for many marine life and maintains biodiversity. However increased human activities such as trawling and eutrophication has caused the number of coral reef sites from 3 to 1 and the last remaining site is in bad condition. Coral reefs, once damaged causes many of the species of marine life to disappear and extremely difficult and time staking effort is required to restore. This is an example of "tragedy of commons" and adequate measures must be made to prevent further tragedy from happening.

This article talks about the decline in coral reefs due to a virus affecting their growth. This is a huge problem for the oceans because coral reefs support around and estimated 75% of all sea life and with out them, well we wouldnt have any fish to catch. So the survival of corals in our seas is absolutely essential.

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.

It is an article about the trade deficit in U.S. The U.S. trade deficit with China rose slightly in September to the record monthly level of $30.5 billion. The U.S is a country that normally imports more than they export. One of the factors that contribute to this situation is the fact than many countries in Asia, especially China, are undervaluing their currency what cause an increase in the imports of Asian products in the U.S. Trade deficit is not a new problem, the U.S has been running a trade deficit for more than 20 years. There is a big concern among policymakers about this situation, many of them argue that in some moment foreign countries will stop lending money to the U.S, and the U.S will have to start to repay its debts. This could drive the value of the dollar down, force U.S. interest rates higher, and consequently stifle economic activity. On the other hand there are economists that argue that the trade balance is not a good indicator of economic. They consider that we should look at national savings rate.

This article talks about how the trade deficit is affected by the export and import activity of the US.