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High crime rate has hindered Caribbean economic development, report the United Nations Development Program. 8.5 percent of human population resides in Latin America and the Caribbean, but 27 percent of crimes occur in that region. Corruption in the policies is one of the difficulties in trying to combat crime. Although insecurity and violence are not directly a part of the high development index, these situations may effect health indicators and may reflect the standard of living of the people in the countries. High rates of crime may reflect poor standard of living, such as people not having enough to feed themselves. This could be reflected in low human development index of Caribbean countries. Insecurity and violence certain affect the well-being of the people, both mentally and physically.

NEW YORK-According to a new report published Friday by the United Nations Development Programme, Raider Nation has for the fifth straight year held the lowest position in the Human Development Index rankings. Taking into account such factors as health, education, and poverty, the report stated that the Human Development Index value of Raider Nation is 0.302, far below the global average and indeed at the very bottom of the 187 territories surveyed by the international organization.

This article talks about the relationship between the success of a country at the olympics and its Human Development Index. The countries that had a higher HDI won more medals than countries with low Human Development Index. Nevertheless, Ethiopia hasn't followed the trend. With HDI equal to 0.33, Ethiopia came 29th in the end of the games. It is not surprising that there is a relationship between HDI and number of medals. In developing countries sports are often not as popular as in developed countries. In the US students are encouraged to develop both educational and extra-curricular skills. While on the other hand, in lots of developing countries education is the only aspect that values.

This article shows how developing countries are improving their development.

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.

I have chosen this article because I think the situation it reports is a bit ironic. Russia's Foreign Ministry is criticizing the human rights situation in Europe without presenting any facts, while in the human development ranking; they occupy the 55th position in the world, behind every EU country except for Romania (56th) and Bulgaria (57th). The Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite statistic of life expectancy, education, and income indices used to rank countries into four tiers of human development. I disagree with the opinion expressed by the article because since the establishment of UE there has been made a huge step towards the increase of equality in the member countries. For example, the highest scores in gender equality are achieved by European countries like Finland or Iceland.

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.

The article talks about Britain's key services factor showing a growth in output. The purchasing managers index (PMI) shows an increase from 51.5 to 51.8. A figure above 50 suggests that the sector is growing.This pust away triple-dip recession fears as figures show a 0.3% decrease in Britain's economy for the last 3 months of 2012. Confidence has increased for service companies, which contributes to more employment of the sector. Some economist suggests a brighter economy growth in March, but some economists are still reluctant to believe, stating that a triple-dip recession is still possible. This relates to business cycle as we can notice how several factors can contribute to the business cycle. Here, we can see that output for service facts are increase, though contradicting to output in manufacturing and construction factor. Service sector is the biggest of Britain's sector. This suggests that Britain is still in a recession or possible a trough. It has probably reached its lowest point, but hasn't yet emerged to a full recovery just yet.

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.

UK expects an increase in the Consumer Price Index to 3pc by June 2013 and to remain above 2pc until early 2016. In comparison, wages are only expected to rise at an average of 1.5pc. This will put more pressure on household as they have already seen a higher cost of living, which has risen four times more than wages. The recent increase is a result from petrol prices and energy bills. The bank's aim has been at 2pc, but the Chancellor may change the mandate. Another interesting point is the Chancellor may change the target inflation measures to CPIH- includes housing costs- and RPIJ, which is an alternative way of calculating retail prices. This article obviously relates to inflation rate. We can see the use of CPI as a measure for inflation rate. We can see that inflation rate does affect people with high cost of living and also people which has fixed income. Here, although many people does not have fixed income, they are still affected by the inflation due to the slower increase in the wages. We can also see that in order to reduce inflation, it does not only involve the government, but also the banks of those countries.

I choose this article because it's surprising that the countries in Africa are experimenting a big economic growth. The article reports that Economic growth in East Africa, including Kenya, is expected to remain among the fastest in Africa this year aided by natural resource discoveries, improved agricultural performance, and economic diversification, a new report showed. The main reason for this economic growth are the natural resources, we have to remember that in Africa there are huge quantities on natural resources. In Africa the main problem is the inequality because the power and the resources are in the hand of few. There are international companies that controls the big parts of the resources. Another issue to take into consideration is that I some Africans countries the government aren't working properly because they use the money to buy weapons or they use the money for they own benefit.

I found a similar article that talked about Africa's situation at the moment, many countries in Africa are having a rapid economic growth, people are becoming wealthier and even a middle class is emerging. Africa in general has got plenty of resources to ensure an econoic growth for many years. However, as you say, inequality is the biggest problem as a minor group within the country owns everything, there is still cheap labour and many people starving to death. I totally agree with you, the governments in Africa don't function properly as they dont allocate the money for people's benefit and they keep it for themselves in order to have more power and become wealthier.

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.

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.

Benjamin Diokno of Malaya Business Insight believes that taxes on cigarettes, liquor, gambling, and oil should be taxed much more heavily. He believes they should account for one third of all taxes. Price elasticity is about 0.6 for cigarettes and about 0.23 for liquor. I do not agree with Benjamin on this one. Firstly, because I do not believe that drinking or smoking is a sin. Some people have lots of pain and trouble in this world and maybe drinking is the only way for them to experience peace. And what if someone has just come off drugs, so instead uses cigarettes instead of Cocaine. Would you still think its a sin to smoke cigarettes? These should be taxed just as equally as other products. Im interested on your views. Comment and let me know !

Due to an American drought in the summer of 2012, the government expects that the price of food increases by 4 to 5 percent in 2013 , including milk , beef , chicken and pork. Fortunately , Americans spend only 13 percent on their groceries. But economist fear a greater impact outside the USA , because America exports a lot of agricultural products.