This article is about the East African Community (EAC) choosing to pass a monetary union deal. The trade comprising of Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and Tanzania has decided to adopt a single currency for all the five countries. They plan to converge their currencies and establish a central bank, helping them to harmonize fiscal policies and increase commerce. Kenyatta, the leader of the biggest economy in the east Africa say that 'Businesses will find more freedom to trade and invest more widely, and foreign investors will find additional irresistible reasons to pitch tent in our region'.

This article is about the trade relation between China and USA and the manufacture and export of Barbie dolls. These dolls sold in the States for 9.99$ fetches each Chinese woman manufacturing them, only around 35c. This is a classic example of China exporting cheap labor. And this cheap export is causing the trade deficit between China and USA to increase even further, in favor of China. As China has cheap labor, it is much more economical to manufacture these dolls here than in USA. Consumers too would be against buying more expensive goods when there is a cheaper alternative. Thus China keeps providing cheap labor an USA keeps becoming more in debt.

This article is about the drop in balance of payment deficit in Egypt in 2012. Balance of payment deficit is when the import of goods and services exceed the export of goods and services. A bank of the country says that such a situation has occurred because of the large number of Egyptian laborers working abroad, especially in countries in The Gulf. We know that in theory, the balance of payments should equal 0. Although balance of payment deficit dropping is a good thing, economists still say that this is still a pressure on the Egyptian government and they will have to strike a deal with the IMF.

This article deals with the new resolution that has been passed by the EU government demanding that the free trade pact with the US be under discussion. This is to safeguard the movie industries and online media of countries like France against foreign competition. With the influence of American culture and Hollywood films in every country around the world, the EU is determined to maintain its own culture and industries. This is a good example of how countries set up trade barriers to protect their own local industries against powerful international competition.

This article is about the European Central Bank finally deciding to cut interest rates, to provide as much liquidity of stocks as possible. They also plan on enabling smaller companies to get credit which was relatively difficult before. The bank believes that smaller companies are very important in Europe and they should have the opportunity to get credit as well. Annual inflation plunged to 1.2% in April, pressuring the ECB to cut rates and induce inflation. However economists believe that this decision will not have much of an effect. The sudden slump in price pressure also is making the ECB look into other policy changes to counter any further slide in inflation.

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.

This article is about how the current recession is affecting the business cycle. It has had a toll on not only firms and businesses, but also on non profit organizations such as charities working in Africa. Currently, I would say that the business cycle is in one of the 'trough' points. This is because of the ensuing recession. However due to this, funds going to charities are now being cut off.

The cement company Lafarge, says that UK faces a 200 million tonnes shortfall due to slow planning procedures. There is an extremely high demand currently in the UK. If this continues or increases, then the countries capacity to supply will begin to decline after 10 years. Out of the 200 million tonnes, only 60 is recyclable which leaves the rest to be extracted from primary sources. Since the procedure to quarry materials from primary sources requires authority permission, the process is very slow. This slow process is going to create the shortfall says Lafarge.

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.

This article talks of the increase in macroeconomic activity in Pakistan, particularly in agriculture and the service sector. Recently stable weather conditions have greatly helped the agricultural sector of the country especially in rice and cotton crops. The banking sector has greatly improved too. Statistics have shown that the budget deficit has dropped down to 2.5% of the GDP in 2011-12 lesser than it was in 2012-13.

This article is about the Tea Party supporters who sprang into action in the United States last year. They demand to block the democratic agenda on the economy and also the environment and health care. Tea Party supporters are Republicans and believe President Obama and the Democrats to be 'far too liberal'. These supporters are strongly backed up by Republican politicians, Sarah Palin in particular. One of the major issues that the tea party argues is the misuse of economic resources in health care. They feel that all the health care opportunities are targeted towards the poor section of the country, not the middle or rich class. However since the latter are tax payers, the health benefits should be more focused on them. Thus in this situation a political party has a direct influence on the economic policies taken in a country.

It is interesting to note that economists put the blame of climate problems on economic market failure. One of the externalities responsible they say is the ' greenhouse gas negative externality'. it is considered a negative externality because the effects of the activities are not felt by the people who conduct these activities but by future generations. So a different party feels the effect which defines an externality.

A negative externality is a cost incurred by a comapny or a party that did not agree to whatever action caused the extra cost. This article discusses the negative externalities that we incur when we use fossil fuels etc. The cost of production and damage caused by the use of fossil fuels is not included in the price we pay for 1 gallon of gasoline. This is the negative externality. A lot of the government involvement in the private sectors is actually aimed at reducing such negative exteranlities concerned with environmental pollution. Several companies also try to reduce externalities by introducing policies. For example, SAP AG has policies that its employees cannot buy cars that have carbon emissions beyond a certain limit.

The government of India has decided to remove the price control that it had earlier set. They have come to the conclusion that having a price control will make the drug companies not sell non profitable products.

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.

This article describes the effect of raising taxes on the people. Tax payed by the rich can be used by the government for man reasons such as implementing new policies, improving public amenities, and to benefit the poor. The article says that raising taxes has two main effects, one that people work less since work is now less rewarding. It also may cause people to feel the need to work longer hours because the might need to make some more money to keep the household running. One important determinant of the effect of tax rates is the relative position compared to other countries. Another is the international mobility. This mobility occurs because people believe that in other countries with lower taxes their pay will be greater and they can live a better life. The greater the mobility, the greater the elasticity of supply with respect to changes in taxes.

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.

Following the recent government unrest in Yemen, the presence of terrorist groups in the country and the ongoing economic crisis the country is facing serious issues with food and hunger. The country depends solely on imported food due to the unavailability of arable land, but due to the lack of funds the government is not able to do so. The country is already in a weak state due to the fall of the government and presence of Al- Qaeda occupied regions in the country. The country has also been hitten hard by the global increase in fuel and food prices Due to the excessively high prices 5 million people or 22% of the population that mainly consists of the poor economic section cannot feed themselves enough or go hungry to bed on most nights. Yemen is the third country in the world to have the largest number of malnourished children. Most of these kid's parents are landless labours, so they cannot grow their own food and because of the high prices, they cannot afford to buy it either.

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,

Water crisis is a growing problem in our world today. The reducing water supply causes serious problems. It could affect health, production of food, energy etc. According to me it is a matter of grave importance and needs to be dealt with immediately. This issue must be a top UN priority.