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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 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 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.

the U.S. dollar edged down against the British pound and euro on Wednesday as a House vote on a Republican bill to reopen the government and lift the debt limit was cancelled, and Senate leaders resumed talks. The euro rose to $1.3551 from $1.3528 late Tuesday, and the pound advanced to $1.6013 from $1.5997. This article is a perfect demonstration of the currency war and the debt crises where the USA desperately tries to raise the debt barrier as depreciation of the dollar still occurs.

In this Article, Canada (the country that I am from) has its currency exchange rate compared to other nations and other currencies. The Canadian dollar to British Sterling did not change much recently as it remained at .6037 to the British Sterling. This means that 1 Canadian dollar would get you 60 pence. Also, the CAD - USD exchange rate continues to fluctuate. Right now the CAD is at .96 cents USD.

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.

It is an article about the Nigerian government that has banned the importation of foreign currency in order to protect the Nigerian currency. It is worth to point out that there were indications that the latest move was sequel to the bank's withdrawal of the operating licenses of 20 Bureaux de Change found to have purchased and sold huge sums of dollars with no documentation to show details of the transactions. The low value of the Nigerian currency has affecting negatively the society because more domestic producers are only accepting the dollar as a means of payment. The government reports that the continued import of dollars would have a devastated effect on the Nigerian economy because it would gradually become dorallized.

In this article author describes the main news - new additional jobs and overall improving economic state of Australia: "Full-time employment jumped by 17,800 and part-time employment was up by 53,700." The total workforce has been increased, altogether, it served as a sign of the improvement in economic conditions of the country. To keep the growth at the same level, the monetary policy has been eased up. Previous rate cuts are beginning to have a positive effect on the economy. The housing market shows some improvement. But the strength of Australian dollar is the main source of concerns: "The Australian dollar jumped by more than half a cent to $1.036, as traders became less hopeful that another interest rate cut was on the way."

This article talks about what should be the equilibrium price for a barrel of oil that benefits both the consumer and producer. The OPEC (Organization of petroleum exporting countries) talk about how high prices help the petroleum organization make investments in renewable fuels, but high priceces would hinder consumers as they now have less to spend on other products. The OPEC also talks about the effects of low prices where it would benefit the consumer but disadvantage the producer investing in renewable fuels. Therefore they have come to the conclusion that the price of a barrel of oil should be between 70-80 Dollars a barrel where bothe the producer and the consumer are happy. Saud Arabia ( the biggest exporter of oil) has agreed to the price of 75 dollars a barrel.

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.

The British Pound and European Euro Exchange Rate has rallied to a one month high. The Euro to Pound exchange rate has dropped 0.7 percent on the day to 84.03 pence against its lowest since early October. The Euro has also lost ground to the American Dollar, which has done well recently. The Pound has also rallied to a 5 year high versus a much weaker South African Rand.

I found this article interesting as it shows two sides of the same coin. On the one side the pound where its estimated that the british economy has passed the recession and that the pound is going to rise in value, as it has rallied to a 1month high. On the other it states how the euro is still struggling against the dollar and the rand and that the central bank of eurpope is going to decrease the interest rates in order to spur the growth of the economy.

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.

The British Columbian government has stated in its newest budget a tax increase for incomes over 150,000 dollars and a permanent 1 percent increase for corporate taxes. In the 1990s, the NDP government has implemented a similar tax hike in the hopes of increasing revenue, yet the opposite happened as the rich found ways to evade taxes and even worse found no incentive to work harder. However in 2001, the liberal party slashed taxes and revenue slowly, but surely increased. It is a period of waiting as the new tax increases take effect and to see if past still holds true, or if the future will be brighter.

In the past week, the Canadian government has officially stopped making and distributing pennies. This is a strategy on their behalf to save money. No longer will pennies be given back in "change" but instead the price will be rounded off to the nearest 5 cents. Other forms of coins are much cheaper to produce also. It will save the government approximately 11 million dollars a year.

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 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

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 in Lebanon has fallen $2.8 Billion because of a drop in imports. This is a perfect example of how current account plays an important role in Internal Economics. Lebanon has previously had a reputation for importing many goods and this has caused them to have a very big Trade Deficit. However, recently reports have shown that they have drastically reduced their imports. This has resulted in them lowering their Trade Deficit, although they still remain some $14 million dollars below a balanced Trade.

This article gives an example of how the value of the currency may benefit the economy but also affect the economy in the short and long run. Venezuela has faced food shortages in the past years, so the government decided to devalue its currency, in order to ease this shortages that are progressively increasing. However, it is expected that this measure will increase inflation and eventually weaken the economy more than it already is. As bolivars are worth less, then less American dollars can be exchanged, affecting the economy and the shortages becauseless imports can be purchased, and some of these imports are really essential (e.g. cornmeal, chicken, sugar, etc), and as it is stated Venezuela is really dependant on imports. This is a perfect example of how a weak currency may be positive yet really negative at the same time.