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Japan's trade deficit increases in October as increase in imports exceed increase in exports to the US and China. Over the past years, weakening yen has helped promote exports, but also increases the cost for imports. The increase in cost for imports, such as crude oil, helped widen trade deficit. This shows the relationship between the current account and the exchange rate. Japan is currently going through a balance trade of goods and services deficit. This results in downward pressure on the exchange rate of the currency as there is an increase in the supply of yen due to increase in imports.

This article focuses on the trade deficit of Japan. Japan's trade deficit nearly doubled in October, as growth in imports outpaced robust increases in exports to the U.S. and China, the Finance Ministry reported Wednesday. There are several factors that led to trade deficit. Firstly, the weakening of the yen over the past year had its significant impact on imports and exports. After meltdown of the nuclear power plant in 2011, Japan has faced loss of the generation capacity, therefore forcing Japan to import natural gas and oil. Overall, weakening in the Japanese yen over the past year has helped exports, but it has also increased the cost of imports.However, the exports are not as stable as they could be. Slowdown in economic growth of China has led to decrease in demand for Japanese exports.Overall the article talks about the details of the trade deficit of Japan.

It is an article about an increase of 3.7 percent in the price of goods purchased by K-State students from 2011 to 2012. In this article you read about elastic and inelastic products like gasoline or tuition. The Tuition has experimented the biggest increase, although the rate at which it increases has slowed a bit. This index created a decade ago by the KSU Economics Club, shows annual price changes in the items and services purchased by students in the Manhattan area. Items on the list include gasoline, groceries, tuition, beer, housing, textbooks and movies. Since 2002 the price increased in 85 percent. The Internet has suffered the biggest increase. The price of textbooks has decreased in 2011.The causes of inflation can often be linked to legislation and the actions of the government, which often have an indirect effect on the economy.

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.

Singapore's labour productivity- defined as average output per period of time- fell by 2.6 percent in 2012. This includes the manufacture sector, construction sector, and service sector. Only the information and communicators sector show a positive increase. Labour productivity has been decreasing continuously. In the fourth quater of last year, labour productivity fell by 2.5 percent, which is the fifth consecutive quater showing a decline. The numbers attribute to the slower economic growth in the past two years. The government has been trying to increase productivity in certain sectors that see the most potential increase. Not only that, nominal wages- wages not yet adjusted for inflation- shows a 2.3 percent increase. Unemployment rate is 2%. The article can be related to aggregate supply. If labour productivity sees a decrease, it is likely that aggregate supply falls as well since labour is one of the factor of production. If the country sees a fall in its output then this suggests a decrease in the growth of the economy or may even reflect in the country's GDP value. Not only that, an increase in wages will also increase firms' cost of production, and therefore contribute to a fall in aggregate supply. However, on a good note, its unemployment rate is at 2%, which is considered as quite a good rate. This may suggest a quite full working capacity of the economy.

Because of the world's population is keep increasing, and absolutely everyone needs food. That means we have increased on demand, but we might don't have enough food. That led to increasing the price of food, and the result might increases the price of everything because when the price of food increased, everyone who bought foods would want to increase their own product.

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.

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.

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.

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

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 this article it explains why we, the consumer, are unable to influence gas prices. The article suggests 3 main reasons: 1) for oil companies it is more profitable to set a higher price and then let the price adjust to the demand. Simply, instead of letting the price adjust upwards, the price is set a higher level to let it adjust downwards. 2)The increasing price over the past two years has not created a drop in demand. Rather, the increasing price is accompanied by increasing demand. 3)For countries, the increase of price and demand are signs of prosperity, so a positive thing. This is an example of where it is hard to achiever a price equilibrium.

It is an article about supply side policies in Africa specially investing in human capital in order to increase the potential output of the African countries. We know that education creates positive externalities and the benefits of education and training are not just felt by those who receive education, it will help the economy as a whole because it will increase the potential output of the economy. Greater regional integration and investment in social entrepreneurship and industry are also necessary for inclusive growth. Competition hast the effect of encouraging greater efficiency. Therefore, any policies that increase competition will increase efficiency and improve the productive potential of an economy. After reading this article I research a bit about the economic growth in Africa and I found this: Six of the world's ten fastest growing economies of the past decade are in sub-Saharan Africa. A clutch of countries have enjoyed growth in income per person of more than 5% a year since 2007.

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 talks about how the government is trying to Real GDP of the country by lowering the taxes on exporting oil prices. By doing this the governmnet has enevitably increased the Real GDP because siince the oil firms FOP cost less they can now supply more oil, also the price will rise from 42$ per barrel to 70$ per barrel meaning that the oil firms will even make more of a profit. Again since the taxes have decreased it will cause foreign investments in the oil industry of Argentina since they just discovered that Argentina is setting on one of the biggest oil deposits. so overall, the long term aggregate will shift to the right, an increase in the real GDp

Argentina has devised a new system of export taxes on oil shipments that will cut taxes, as the government seeks to encourage investments to revive production. The change means energy companies will receive $70 per barrel of exported oil, up from $42 previously. Argentina controls the price of oil exports in order to guarantee domestic supply. The reform means that the state will only retain the difference between the market prices, meaning increased revenue for oil companies that export crude. The long run aggregate supply is expected to shift the right, an increase in the real GDP.

President Obama visited the University of Michigan and outlined a new plan aimed at limiting tuition increases at U.S. universities.A key reason for high rates of tuition increase, is simply that the supply of freshman slots hasn't kept up with demand and such shortages lead to price increases.Top universities should focus on increasing the number of students they admit and all who care about expanding opportunities should pressure boards and presidents to spend some of the money on opening up more spots in the classes.

The article is written about a survey that was consucted in Australia to study the elasticity of food items. 15 food groups were surveyed and compared to each other. Milk, bread, fresh fruit and vegeatbles were seen as the most inelastic. Even when prices were increased people bought these items and could absorb the price increase easily. Normally sales would have increased with a drop in prices and decreased with a hike in prices but not in these cases. This clearly shows what we studied this week about how essential products are inelastic. The article also discusses how Aussies in comparison with the American and Canadian are more likely to give up meat in case of a price increase.

It is no surprise that Apple products are in high demand, and the new iPhone 5 is no exception. Demand is defined as the willingness and ability of a consumer to purchase a product. The demand curve is also sloped downwards, opposite that of a supply graph. However, in the case of Apple, the demand curve does not follow the norm. The New iPhone 5 reached a pre order sale of 2 million in the first 24 hours, while the iPhone 4S reached one million. The demand has gotten higher, yet the price has risen from $179 to $199. The course companion states that demand increases as a result of a price fall and the graph shifts to the right with an income increase, yet the iPhone manages to be not only the best selling iPhone, but the most expensive. I think the size of the population and the change in the age structure played a big role in the massive pre-order sales. The whole population did not necessarily increase, yet the population of smartphone users has increased. It was exciting and interesting to see how these regular news articles relate to what we have learned throughout the week.

In this article the CEO of total says that the increase in oil prices is bad for the consumers all over the world. This increase in prices is because of an increased demand by the society today. However since oil cannot be produced quickly the production rate cannot keep up with the demand rate. Hence there is scarcity and more demand for oil. This increased demand is also the reason why oil prices are skyrocketing today,

The recent drought in the pass summer in the Midwest has resulted in a decrease in crops. As a result, not only that restaurants have to struggle with high fuel costs and inactive economy, they also have to struggle with higher food costs with poorer quality. For example, a restaurant used to offer a bowl of pasta at $8.95. However, in the late August, the price jumped to $9.95. Eggs cost 18% more than they did a year earlier. Restaurants need to adjust menus, reduce portion sizes, even consider staff cuts, and also increase prices of their food in order to sustain their businesses.Experts predict that the overall food costs could possibly rise at 5% to 20%. In consequence, customers are less seen out in restaurants. This relates to price mechanism and equilibrium. Lower supply of food shifts the supply curve to the left. This means that the amount being supplied and demanded is different. Producers then must have to raise prices to adjust to higher costs of production. In consequence, amount being demanded at a new price is decreased, setting a new equilibrium price and quantity. This is a downside for the producers since they must increase price to adjust to higher food costs, but because of that, less is being demanded. The restaurants can either choose to lower their price to the original in order to attract customers or remain at the increased price. Either way, restaurants are still affected.

House prices in the UK have fallen for the third month in a row. Although the government has supported in mortgage borrowing, but the consumer's uncertainty surrounding the economy and their ability to afford the houses still causes the decrease in price in the market. The increase in demand is believed to be driven by seasonal factors compounded by the Olympics. It is believed that the house prices will continue to decrease slowly over the remainder of the year. There is also the first decline in supply in September after seven months of growth. I think this article fits perfectly under the topic of demand. The basic law states that as price falls, the quantity demanded of the product will usually increase. However, this does not fall under the basic law behind the demand curve, but it indicates that price of houses have fallen as a result of an increase in demand. The Europe's economy isn't doing very well at the moment and it causes more hesitant in how they consumers choose to spend their money. Price may be low, but they may choose to spend their money elsewhere. This does, however, support the supply law. As price falls, the quantity supplied is dropped. Suppliers wouldn't want to produce or supply to any products that isn't very well demanded.

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.

I think they shouldn't increase the tax on the medical device. because if the medical device have higher price. It would be bad for all people, patient might have to pay more money(even though normally is still expensive), they might buy the low quality medical device to save some money to buy another medical device they have to use as well. If the government want to increase the tax they should increase on wine, beer,cigarette, algohols, and kind of that better than the nessessary things like medical device.