In this article, Pakistan's Federal Minister, Ahsan, vows to invest in Human Resources for Economic Development. A skilled population and knowledge based society would be the "solution" Ahsan believes. He also believes that economic development may be achieved through community volunteering in Masses.

South Korea has moved closer to joining a 12 Nation trading pact which aims to slash trade barriers between nations which make up about 40% of world economy. Some of these countries that are already in the pact include United States of America and Canada.They are entering negotiations about possibly joining the TPP - The Trans Pacific partnership Trade pact.

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.

Andres Dombret has defended Germany's trade surplus. In recent weeks Germany has been criticized for their extremely high trade surplus due to the mass amounts of exports they ship out. Their Current accounts surplus ended up being at 19.7 billion, the highest in the world. Officials are saying they are hurting the Global Economy with this and that they need to boost their domestic demand. What do you think?

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.

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.

The japanese government has started to consider removing tariffs from imported wine. This would mean other negotiatiors in the Trans-Pacific Partnership would also have to consider scrapping the tariffs on wine. The government believes that removing tariffs would greatly benefit the domestic consumers while also increasing sale exports from Japan. It will be interesting to see what Japan decides to do as it will have a great effect on the Japanese economy.

Barack Obama is convening his advisory council on International trade as he outlines his agressive goals in doubling USA's exports. This fits into week 36's lesson quite nicely as we are learning about the Basics of International Trade and how it may be beneficial for nations. To double a country's exports would be very difficult but we will see how Obama does over the next year or so!

The brazilian government is easing their fiscal policy as they plan to increase spending in the near future. They will ease some rules which forced it to account for higher spending by states and cities to ensure their fiscal policies were met. For example, they are reducing the taxes. This will help them with government expenditure.

Slovakia will miss their budget target this year as the GDP Growth has slowed down. They have been hurt from slowing demand from their western peers because slovakia is a high exporting country. The expected growth has dropped to 0.9 from 1.4. This article shows us how important it is to have a balance import and export trade system with other nations. Due to the lack of demand in exports from the western part of the world, slovakia is struggling with economic growth.

Inflation in indonesia nearly reached a two-year high. It rose from 5.30 to 5.91 in only 1 month. This jump in inflation is due to climbing prices in staple foods. Analysts are warning that indonesia could see capital outflows if the central bank maintains its benchmark policy. This will provide an interesting test to indonesias economy.

This article explains how singapores GDP is likely to be revised upwards. Their economy "expanded at a faster pace during the fourth quarter of 2012 than was earlier estimated, helped by higher production of oil rigs and pharmaceuticals in the final weeks of the year". It is likely that it grew 1.2 percent.

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.

Scientists in Alberta have found evidence that oilsand operations have been sending toxins into the atmosphere for decades. Also, levels of toxins in Namur Lake have tripled since 1960. Critics have raised serious concern over the rising pollution in our atmosphere and lakes. This relates to our lesson for the week because the atmospher and lakes are common access resources. They are open to the common. These resources are becoming depleted because of the overuse of these resources.

The author of this article, Dennis Dugan, brings up many valid points as to how Wal Mart is a market failiure and how they have many negative externalities. He says one of the negative externalities they have is that because of the low wages they pay their employees, this has increased the need for publicly funded social services. I found this article very intriguing.

Officials want price controls put on the transportation of cement In Israel. Various government ministries are fighting over who should have the decision to impose price controls in the first place. The treasury thinks it should share responsibility over determining these factors with Transportation Ministry. However Transportation Ministry believes it should not. This argument comes after a government meeting, where they were tasked in finding ways to "up" the cement competition.

The government in Manila is taking advantage of taxing Tobacco. Franklin M. Drilon, acting chairman of the senate, is trying to make this tax a done deal. He thinks it should be taxed because it is a "sin" product. It would see the government raise 40-45 billion Peso's in tax revenue. Senator Ferdinand R. Marcos is concerned about this and is doing his best to prevent this tax. He knows the affects it could have on the tobacco farmers. There are about 18,000 tobacco farmers who are concerned about this tax. I think this is unfair of the Government. I don't think tobacco is a "sin" good, as it is many peoples alternative to drugs. This tax could put many producers out of jobs seeing as the demand will not be as high, and also this tax could force poor people to go back to cheaper alternatives that are very unhealthy and addictive.

Royal Mail has recently spiked their prices. This has resulted in a large decrease in number of stamps bought. A fall of 9% of mails have been sent with Royal Mail. They are certainly testing the elasticity of demand curve, but are they just putting themselves out of business? This article relates perfectly to price elasticity because this company, Royal Mail, is testing the elasticity of the market. They are taking a big risk, because if the elasticity is high, they may go right out of business. There are many free substitutes for sending mail, like E-Mail, Texting, and Social Networking. In my opinion, I think it is quite bizarre of Royal Mail to spike their price knowing that their demand has gone down. It will be interesting to see if they lower the prices again!

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 !

The most recent searches by Rabobank say that commercial wine are at their lowest prices in over a decade. Many wine companies globally have had to tighten their supply. The tighter supply situation has eliminated much of the unsustainable competition that had been undercutting pricing. Markets that do not pay much for bulk wine will be outbid by markets that will pay higher prices. Europe will see decline in imports, and therefore also consumption of wine. I found this article interesting because there are quite a few non-price determinants shifting the supply curve and therefore changing the market price equilibrium. This article sums up many concepts that we have learned over the past 6 weeks.