Group items tagged

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).

UK unemployment has risen to 1.2million, resulting in a youth unemployment rate of 21.9%. The british government, which insists the deterioration in the jobs market are due to the eurozone debt crisis, have been criticised for ignoring domestic problems . "Overall, the rise in unemployment and weakness of earnings growth relative to inflation continue to place substantial pressures on household finances - squeezing real incomes, suppressing confidence and leading to increased precaution among consumers. This can only be bad news for economic growth in the short-term." said Scott Corfe, senior economist at the Centre for Economics and Business Research. Government's work programme and work experience schemes have been created in attempt to is get a significant number of young people off benefits and find exmployment.

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

Like the name of the article, the author talks about the problem after the recession: unemployment rate is high still, when job vacancies are more. This is quite a confusing and unexpected situation. It doesn't make any sense when there are many opening job opportunities, there should be less jobless people. Even though the reason which causes this issue is not clear, the author hypothesis is that there are probably some mismatching skill for the job, or we can call it structural unemployment; or it must be the firms are afraid of making hiring mistakes since the economic conditions is still uncertain.

Article basically discusses whether unemployment or inflation is worse. The overall message i get is that unmeployment is worse for many more reasons that inflation. one of them would be that if parents have no money to spend on the colleges of their children then they wont get a very good education, and as those children are the future of their economy then the work force would be lower than usual which has no upside to it. Where as inflation has positive sides like housing prices raise, debt becomes more manageable, wages increase etc, so since unemployment has no upside it would be more economical to prevent unemployment than prevent inflation.

The latest employment figures show hiring has been stronger in both 2012 and 2011 than initially believed, based on tax returns, not initially available to the government. Yet the pace of job growth decreased in January as the number of jobs added to the economy last month fell short of the 170,000 allowing the unemployment rate to increase from 7.9% to 7.8%. The pace of hiring in January suggests that businesses still remain somewhat cautious about taking on new employees.At the current pace of job growth, it is that that it will take several years to drive down unemployment back to pre-recession levels of below 5%. Also, the rise in the unemployment means the Federal Reserve is unlikely to stop its massive bond-buying program anytime soon. The bank has said it will keep interest rates at an ultra-low level until the jobless rate falls to 6.5%. However, hiring trends were somewhat better in 2012 and 2011 than the government's prior analysis indicated. The economy added 335,000 more jobs in 2012 than initially reported, with The largest amount of extra jobs showing up in the last three months of the year.

This article talks about how the unemployment is affecting the United States and how it is related to a decrease in the aggregate demand of the country. And how this possibly causes the real GDP being 6 percent under the trend path.

This article tells us how the recession in the United States has affected the unemployment rate; people consume less thus the aggregate demand is lower and remains like this as unemployment increases. I also found important something that is mentioned: "During a deep recession, more workers move into the category of those who take a long time to find new jobs, and so the decline in unemployment across the labour force as a whole is quite slow" Factors mentioned in this article are what determine the real GDP to be 6% under the trend path.

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.

"The U.S. economy added 236,000 jobs in February, according to a Labor Department report released Friday. " and the unemployment rate is down to its lowest level since December 2008 by this february, even though there are still a lot of problems, like people who got cut off on their jobs are still a lot, but in general, the employment rate got higher, we can tell from the graph this article gave to us.

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 relates directly to the concept of income elasticity of demand and cross elasticity of demand . McDonald's monthly sales fall for the first time in almost 10 years. Its revenue fell by 1.8% last month. This happens because of the various reasons. One results from the unstable economy. People are more cautious about spending their money. A lot of people choose to "eat in", simply because they cannot afford it. This applies a lot to the younger consumers, who have been facing unemployment. The company has also been affected by Europe's economy since the market of Europe counts for 40% of the company's revenue. European economy has been facing recession. There has been a tremendous amount of unemployment, which means a decrease in the general population's income. This directly relates to income elasticity of demand. As income falls, the quantity demanded for products fall as well. In this case, people choose to eat at home to be more frugal. I believe this contradicts a little to the idea of inferior goods. McDonald's may be considered as "inferior goods" to the majority. It is often said that as income decreases, inferior goods will likely benefit from it. However, in this case, McDonald's do not. People choose other alternatives instead, which is eating in. So it is just not McDonald's that has been affected, but a lot of other restaurants and fast food chains too. Furthermore, fierce rivals have also came up with strategies to out compete its competitors. For example, Wendy's Co. has decided to upgrade their menus and offer discounts. This relates to cross elasticity of demand. Obviously, as other rivals offer discounts and as well as an upgrade on their menus, consumers will shift to consuming those products that are slightly cheaper.

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

This article talk about how technology is improving at a rapid pace and thus leading to unemployment in the manufacturing sector. Since these manufacturing industries comprise three quarters of the 20- sub industry sectors, the level of unemployment is considered quite large. Some of these sub industries are leather tanning, paper mills, fertilizer factories, glass products etc. Another influencing factor in the drop of aggregate demand in the U.S is the shift in the age of the labor force. According to statistics, by 2020, people over 55 will compose of more than 25% of the labor force in manufacturing.

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.

The new health care effective 2013 will introduce an excise tax on all medical devices such as bed pans and stents. Being one of the main states with companies that produce medical devices, Minnesota will take about 25% hit of the newly levied tax. So there have been a lot protests in the state. However others parts of the medical sector such as hospitals and pharmaceutical companies are said to benefit from this tax since more people will have insurance to pay for medical facilities and drugs. The tax is also going to lead to a large of people being fired from the companies. The CEO of Medtronic, a large and prominent company in Minnesota said it will have to 1000 people go in the next year. Smaller companies are likely to be affected even worse by the tax.

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."

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.

President Obama announced new steps to help unemployed Americans on Friday, targeting people who are out of work and want to go back to school. The president outlined a plan under which the Department of Education will send colleges legal guidance, encouraging them to increase financial aid packages for the unemployed so they can enroll in educational and training programs while keeping their unemployment benefits.

In the article, the author discusses about US government fiscal policy, which has been carrying might be very dangerous because it would cause inflation increasing, even though it did make the unemployment rate fall. The author also talks about Paul Ryan and Irwin arguments. However, if we had runaway inflation, we'd have political pressure in the opposite direction and overcorrection and deflation should be some things that bother governors as well.

Canada's economy seems to have taken a hit as housing, jobs and exports fell. First there was a 21,900 jobs loss in January plus a 58,000 decrease in Canadians looking for work. In addition, exports fell 2.1%, exports to the US alone dropped, 4 points and imports fell as well. Furthermore a 19% reduction in the housing industry topped Canada's misfortune these past 2 months. Many Canadians are questioning the actions of the conservative government as economic growth is slowing to a crawl.

I think that you have chosen a very nice and interesting article because it's related to our actual topics. Is a good example about the importance of the exchange rates in the exports. If a country's exchange rate becomes stronger, then this makes the country's exports relatively more expensive to foreigners. According to the law of demand, this will cause the quantity of exports to fall. Another think to highlight is the increase of the unemployment rate, this will probably decrease the consumption because However, if people expect economic conditions to worsen then they are likely to reduce their consumption today in order to save for the future. In brief i think that it's a great article to talk about the aggregated demand, macroeconomic and the monetary policies.

I find this article particularly interesting because i never knew that Canada was suffering so much from the recession. Since it states in the article that 21,900 jobs were lost means that the household cinsumption must be very low a resulting in a low agregate demand, and since the agregate demand is low firms gain less proffit and therefore have to cut costs which in this case would be workers.