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In this article author talks about excise tax and specificly about excise tax that was imposed in 1898 and survived till nowadays. The purpose of that taxation was to pay for the Spanish-American War. The war was over in 6 months but tax stayed. The amount received from taxation was about $300 billion, and the amount spend on war was $6 billion. This tax is very unfair to customers, "This is a 19th-century tax on a 21st-century technology," says Jim Cicconi, AT&T's general counsel. The original purpose of the tax was to raise revenue for a specific purpose, and to do so in a way that would not be noticed by the average consumer. Today, the purpose is gone, and consumers are definitely feeling the pinch. Businesses and consumers pay the same: 3% of the total. On a $100 phone bill, that works out to $3. On a $10,000 bill - not uncommon for businesses - the tab is about $300. Another important fact pointed in that article is that phones were luxury during XIX century, but now they are almost necessities. Seven federal courts have so far declared the tax to be illegal.

As the war rages on, the drought worsens and with the prediction of late rainfall ,the only thing that the somalians can do is pray for some luck as the rest of the world tries to help there hopeless situation. Due to the war and the drought Somalians are forced to flee leaving there unripe and unharvested crops behind, to only raise the price of food and worsen the food crisis. The article states that the worst has past of the drought but that the region still remains in emergency level 4, on the IPC scale. The article also talks about how the rescue organizations need to set up a long term exercise instead of coming in and helping when the drought occurs but rather prevent the whole crisis during the drought.

This article talk about the supply elasticity and try to answer the question: "Should scarce resources go to those who are willing and able to pay the most for them, or should they go to those who manage to get in line soonest?" It explain us that the mayor part of oil is going to the military use because the priority is to win the war, and civilians are making due with a fixed supply. With the hurricane the good where supply is inelastic is probably hotel rooms because they can build more hotels and rooms it is impossible. The hotels will increase the price because the demand for the hotel room is increasing, as a result there will be a movement along the demand curve. It try to explain that there should be a fixed price for the emergency products because with the huracane the transport is more difficult and the prices rises. That results in an overall more brittle system in which local supplies aren't very resilient to disruptions in transportation.

It is an article about the trade bloc created between Byelorussia, Russia and Kazakhstan. This Customs Union in its three-member format of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan still appears tiny beside the European Union, however countries like Kyrgyzstan and Armenia have declared interest in joining this group due to the energetic privileges that Russia offers to the countries members. One of the strongest points of this Custom Union is its large population that creates a big consumer market. On the other side the countries members of this block will have to accept the high interest rates of the Russian government. This article has a very good conclusion that I Would like to write down: ''The market is global but there is no global regulation,'' Valovaya says. The response has been a rush to recruit nations into regional trade blocs. It is a rivalry recalling the Cold War, but these new trade groups are mostly creedless structures, able to espouse little if any distinguishing ideology.

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.