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This article is about Chinese oil supply and how China is attempting to overtake the United States in yearly oil productions. It is an example of a supply article, because it speaks of how lower prices directly relate to supply. It also speaks of how both China and India are putting a lot of money into foreign oil resources, hoping for the future. Looking forward, if China continues in its current footsteps, it will be obtaining the most oil in the world, and not only from domestic resources, but mainly foreign ones.

Analysis This article about oil prices and supply in China, relates to what we spoke of in class, because some of the key elements of supply and demand are included. The main issue of the article is Chinas oil supply, along with its demand for oil. China has a generous supply of oil from its own resources, whilst she is still trying to acquire a lot of oil from foreign sources. China is also attempting to up her quantities of oil to beat the United States within the next couple of years, and by 2020, China is to be the country that will be obtaining the largest quantities of oil. The article is related to our class topic of supply, because as China plans to sink its prices for oil, the supply, or quantities should go up with time. This is exactly what was discussed in class and is shown on supply curves or graphs.

Explain what you think is happening to the equilibrium quantity and price and what it means for signalling, incentives, and resource allocation. China has made constant attempts at increasing its oil supplies, which would lead to lower oil prices and economic growth. The equilibrium quantity of oil will increase and therefore the prices will be lowered. A higher supply of oil signals lower prices for both the producers and consumers. China will try to probably keep the price up, and the consumers will look for a substitute, or try to ration the good. Although, if the consumers are willing to buy at the old price, while the suppliers gain in resources, there will be a producer surplus. In other words, the producers, China, will gain more than they could be gaining if the consumers were to adjust their standards.

The article Supply, Not Demand, to Blame for Pullback in May Home Sales addressed the issue of a lack of supply being the cause for the recent decline in house sales. In May, 1.5% of sales had fallen and the decline of properties is usually associated with the lack of demand. However recently, demand has been exceeding supply. A lack of supply leads to a left shift of a supply curve (price of houses and supply of properties) as there is a decrease in supply. The determinant of this shift is caused by productivity. Productivity is the input vs. the output; firms wish to minimize input to gain the greatest output. In this case, productivity has decreased as the input is not being met to meet the maximum output therefore leading to a lack of supply. It also relates to the basic economic problem of scarcity and that the resource (houses) is scarcer than before which affects the production therefor the supply of the good. However economists predict an increase in the supply of goods, despite these recent developments. Perhaps this lack of supply, this left shift of the supply curve was caused by a supply shock.

This article is acquainting us with China's plan to increase its supply of meat. Today, consumers in China are eating ten percent more meat than they did five years ago, so demand is increasing. However, the supply is lagging behind. Thus, Chinese officials have decided to buy millions of U.S. livestock and import it into China. This is a good example of how government intervention affects supply. By importing the U.S. livestock the cost of producing meat in China will be much less, whereas the quality will be much higher. However, critics from the U.S. are skeptic of this ordeal, as the cost of meat production is rising in the U.S. So the livestock exports to China would be increasing supply in China but they might decrease supply in the U.S. and lead to a future loss of a key U.S. export. 

Evidently, the reason for China's attempt to increase its supply of meat, is that there is an increase in the demand of meat. This means that meat has become scarcer. From a consumer perspective, the incentive now is to ration the amount of meat that is being consumed. Another consumer incentive might be to switch the consumption of meat with the consumption of a substitute good such as fish. From a producer perspective, an incentive is to produce more because the price is higher now. Therefore a producer is able to make a greater profit from the production of meat. There will also be a greater allocation of resources into the production of meat, as it is a more lucrative business.

The reason for why the Canadian government started to stockpile on maple syrup is because considering that the market for the maple syrup is very dependent on the weather and how much sap comes out of the maple trees they will stock pile and get more back- ups. The reason for this is that the Canadians are expanding their market into more regions having more than 70% of the maple syrup market and they are attempting to expand it so in order to keep the demand on maple syrup rising they will use their backups in case there isn't enough. They are making sure that there is always enough maple syrup for the market. They don't want to create a demand and then have a bad season leading to them not being able to supply. For example in 2008 when they started having failed harvests their supplies ran short which lead to the prices going up from 2.40 Canadian dollars to 4.00 which lead to several producers to be priced out of the market because of their inability to supply. Which is why they have reserve supplies of maple syrup so that they can always be able to supply the maple syrup market in case they have bad harvests one season.

The strategic maple syrup reserve signals that there is going to be less scarcity in the market for this product as they will always make sure that there is enough of this product being supplied. The producer to ration the maple syrup more, because if they supply too much of the maple syrup their reserve will start to decrease as they will not be making sure that some of it is directed towards the reserve. If the demand for the maple syrup would be very high they would allocate more of the maple syrup in their reserve stocks to the market however if they were to have a lowered demand they would allocate less of the maple syrup and keep it in their reserves.

Floods have destroyed of up to 7 million tones of rice in Thailand, and therefore greatly decreasing the supply. Many of the farmers will greatly suffer due to the fact that they get half as much income as they normally would. Due to the supply shock of rice, the price raised a little bit. There is a supply shock in rice in Thailand and therefore the supply curve shifts to the left, increasing the price and decreasing the demand. As the price is higher for every quantity supplied, the producer have less incentive to produce more as they have a smaller profit margin and therefore they decrease production. At the same time, the demand will decrease as the price is higher.

This is an article on the prices of food and the way this affects the supply. Since the year 2012 has been a very warm year, there have been major draughts throughout the world. This article although focuses on the market in America. The draughts have left a major decrease in the production of products. The government's forecast states that the prices of beef would rise 4-5%. Professional analysts although also said that they do not believe that people therefore start buying less, on the other hand they said that it might affect the economic growth over the next years.

This article describes trends in supply of food. In summer 2012, being much hotter than usual and causing the biggest drought in half a century, are causing rises in prices. Groceries such as milk, beef, chicken and pork are expected to rise in price due to the record-breaking weather. Crops, such as corn, of which 88 percent were affected, are to go through major change. General increase of food goods will cause a shift of the curve to the left.

The Article talks about the fact that prices for agricultural products will rise in 2013 due to a heat wave in 2012. This means that the warmest year yet; 2012, will impact the supply of agricultural goods. As there will be less supply, the prices of agricultural goods will increase by up to 5% of goods such as beef and pork. In addition, as the US is a large exporter of agricultural goods, expert say that there has to be a solution to make sure that the global food prices will not spike. Due to the fact that there is a reduction of supply, the supply shift will shift left or upwards. Therefore, there will be less produced at each price and the new equilibrium price will be higher than before. In addition, there will also be fewer goods demanded due to the higher price.

Verizon is expecting a surge in demand for smartphones like the iPhone in 2011, however how many Apple devices will sell is unknown because of uncertain quantity of supplies. The lack of supplies has really come to their attention in the last quarter of 2010 were they had a 2.6% decline in revenue. Even Apple claimed that they would've sold way more iPhones in the same period, had they had more supplies to meet the demand. The reason that Verizon predicted that this great surge in demand for the iPhone will come and are trying to gain more resources, is because only 26% of their customers own a smartphone, and they predict that 50% will be on a smartphone by the end of 2011. Verizon wants to be prepared for the launch of the iPhone. CFO Fran Shammo, stated that if Verizon is able to sell 11 million iPhones, that their revenue in 2011 could increase from  4% to 8%, and earnings from 5% to 8%, and these figures could double in 2012.

After having witnessed a loss in profits due being unable to meet the demands of consumers, Verizon is allocating more resources to the production of iPhones. On a PPC graph the demand line would increase showing that Verizon will have an increase in both the quantity of the supply and the increase in the price of iPhones. This is a signal of less scarcity in the market, and the incentives of both the consumer and the producer. Because of this increase in the supply of the iPhone, competition to Apple will have a decrease in potential consumers. A producer's incentives have become to produce more at a higher price. Since Verizon doesn't want to make the same mistake twice, they will allocate more resources to the production of iPhones so that they can maximize profits.

Since May 2012, the price of crude oil has fallen from $106/barrel to $78/barrel. For the first time in over a decade, the supply of crude oil has exceeded the demand for it, meaning that the price for crude oil is likely to drop even more. The reason for this increased supply has to do with technological advancements which have enhanced the production of crude oil. Some of these technological advancements include the use of long-reach horizontal well bore technology and multi-stage hydraulic fracturing. However, the price of oil cannot drop below the production costs for too long, otherwise, oil firms would go out of business. It is predicted in the article that the price for oil will not drop below $72/barrel, as the production of crude oil is currently at about $60/barrel. From the article, it can be deduced that the massive increase in supply of crude oil is due to technological productivity, which is allowing for far more oil to be supplied.

Weather disruptions and rising energy expenses have increased grain costs at record high. Current supplies may be ample to start unrest caused by the high food prices. With droughts in the Soviet Union and weak monsoon rains in India, corn and soybean prices last month exceeded records. It is said that U.S consumers might need to pay 3 to 4 percent more on food next year because of the effect droughts have on store shelves. Places such as the middle east and North Sub-Saharan Africa are at a great risk since most of their products are imported. Because of this supply shock, there is a negative shift along the supply line as supplies are becoming more expensive. With the addition of governmental intervention such as taxes, firms will have a much lower profit this year on grain supplies.Also there will be less products for the firms to sell. Not only does this affect firms but as stated before, the world should be ready for a food price increase in the coming year.

Becuase of weather changes, there is a scarcity issue in the amount of food that his growing around the world. In economic terms, this means that the supply curve has shifted to the left created a new Equilibrium point. Because of this, the price has increased as the good is more scarce and of course, the supply has decreased. This means that the demand for the good has decreased and consumers have to ration their food even more. Because of this change in supply, there are less resources on the market so because of this scarcity issue, the prices have to go up so that producers get some sort of income. Unfortunately, this means that the consumers have little or no marginal benefit as the price increases. The demand for the good is still high as everyone wants to be able to buy good but unfortunately the price is too high and consumers are not able to buy the product. The marginal benefit decreases for both the consumer and the producer.

The article Catfish Farmers Fight Fish Glut and High Fee Prices centered on the left shift in demand for catfish. There has been a steady decline in the demand for catfish in the last decade, causing its demand curve to keep shifting left. Last year, the supply of catfish was low which in turn led to higher prices (due to its scarcity). These higher prices led people to substitute (determinant of demand) catfish with other goods such as inexpensive imports or similar species of fish. The catfish industry has not been able to recover. This year (2012) the supply of catfish has managed to surpass the demand. The high supply led to cheaper catfish costs this year, which in theory should have led to more demand, however people seem to be sticking with their substitutes despite the price change. The feed prices for catfish (feed being a factor of production) are at an all-time high which is causing farmers to suffer; with high costs of production and low prices, they are receiving little profit. With the whole industry suffering, the government has decided to purchase 10 million dollars' worth of catfish hoping to act as a positive determinant of demand (trying to shift the demand curve to the right). This has not had a great effect on the catfish industry and people are starting to question its value; whether people are willing to buy catfish. The declining of this industry has already led to many catfish ponds being replaced with new crops.

This article was about the decrease in demand for catfish due to substitution and a change in taste and preferences by consumers. This has caused the demand curve to shift to the left. Because it has shifted left, the price of catfish has decreased therefore signaling that catfish is not as scarce as it used to be and its value has decreased. How have consumer incentives been impacted by this? Because the price has decreased and the good has become less valuable, people would be more inclined to buy it due to the lowered price. How would producers be impacted by this? As demand has decreased the price has decreased, and the lower the price the lower the quantities of goods firms are willing to supply. Therefore the supply of catfish will decrease. This demand shift will have a negative effect on substitute markets as consumers may find the price of catfish cheaper which may lead them to switch from their product to catfish. Lastly, how will this impact resource allocation? As there is a decrease of demand, therefore a decrease in supply, less resources will be used for the catfish industry and invested in other more profitable markets.

The article written by Peter Woodman addresses the problem of the decreased supply of aviation fuel during a short period of time in June 2012. The Manchester airport gets its fuel from the near Port on Merseyside. There was an interruption in the supply of the fuel which caused the airline to send out precautions to the passengers - their flights might be cancelled or delayed. Since the airport uses over three million liters of aviation of fuel per day, this shortage of supply created temporary problems for the airport. In other words, there was a problem because the demand of aviation fuel was high but the supply of fuel was low which caused the Manchester airport to think of alternatives for their passengers and flights. This supply issue falls under the category of a "shock" - an unexpected event that occurs that causes the decrease supply of a particular good.

Apple is facing problems due to one of their display suppliers named Sharp, having "manufactoring difficulties" as stated by The Wall Street Journal. This will result in a decrease of displays produced for IPhones, and with this, the supplies of IPhones 5 expected will not be fulfilled. This will therefore also affect the demand of the costumers which will not be satisfied since Sharp still is not in full production. Apple is still hoping to launch the Iphone on september 12th and start the sales on september 21st.

Due to Apple having screen supply problems with one out of their three companies, Apple has to see if they can increase the production of IPhone 5 screens in the other companies, or else they will have less supply than demand available. This will mean that the supply curve will shift to the left leaving lots of consumer demand uncovered. Not only would Apple not be able to cover all of the costumers demands, but also, due to a scarce amount of IPhones available, the new equilibrium will also have a higher price per unit sold. Therefore the consumers incentive will decrease due to longer waiting times in order to get their IPhone5, as well as due to higher prices, which would then decrease the IPhone sales. Therefore, in order to avoid this, Apple will need to find another way of producing all of their needed screens in order to fulfill all of the demand and avoid costumers from turning away from their product.

Real estate market supply issues addresses the fact that in America supply of low to mid-range housing continues to lag behind demand, and will do so until prices rise. The demand for the properties are high however the supply is not being reach and this is due to the fact that home owners can get such high loans. Especially in neighbour hoods which have been affected by foreclosure, the houses have gone under water and this happened during the downturn. Another problem is that buyers now believe they can demand the closing costs which can be a bad financial decision for home owners to put their house on the market as they will not get the full costs. The real estate market is destined to remain soft as many Americans are in debt and would rather let their credit cards erupt with late payments.

'Explain what you think is happening to the equilibrium quantity and price and what it means for signalling, incentives, and resource allocation.' If you would graph out this situation you would see that the supply curve shifts to the left. At this point there would be an increase of scarcity because there would be less houses to sell to match up the demand. In this example it can be assumed that producers would have incentive to produce more because the prices of the houses would therefore increase. If the demand is staying the same and the houses are become more expensive then the producers will be willing to produce more. However consumers may no longer be able to buy property anymore so may look for other substitutes including renting apartments or moving into a mobile home. More resources will be allocated to produces houses.

Prices of cotton in Tanzania dropped by almost 40 percent due to high supply. However, some Tanzanian MP's advised that people not sell their cotton for less than 1,000/kilogram and instead make mattresses with it. However, some desperate cotton merchants have been selling their cotton fro as low as 300/kilogram to the black market. By August 24, 2012, 174,000 tonnes purchased and 145,000 tonnes delivered to ginneries.

High supply causes a movement along the supply line in this graph. This lowers prices to the consumer and encourages producers to stop producing more of the same goods. The equilibrium quantity has been increasing, therefore reducing equilibrium price. This signals producers to reduce production as their profit has been decreasing. Meanwhile consumer are signaled to begin buying the goods more as the prices for them are being lowered as the producers attempt to sell their products more cheaply.

Sony cutting jobs in some departments and moving headquarters should mean that they achieve their goal of becoming efficient in the mobile market. In a diagram, the supply curve would shift to the right. This would lower prices, and give more customers incentive to buy their phones. Their phones should be less scarce, and therefore signal to producers to limit supplies. Sony is trying to win over market share on Apple and Windows, which should occur if they are selling more phones.

G-7 call on oil-producing countries to increase their oil output in order to prevent high oil prices. The G-7 countries are prepared to call upon the International Energy Agency in order "to take appropriate action to ensure that the  market is fully and timely supplied." The IEA's countries supplied 60 million barrels of crude after the Libyan output was disrupted after the armed uprising. Oil prices have advanced 24 percent since reaching a 2012 low in June as stockpiles fell. U.S. authorities haven't contacted the IEA on the use of emergency oil supplies.  The U.S. has 727 million barrels of petroleum in reserve. Rising consumer prices have dented consumer confidence in gasoline, threatening to curb spending that accounts for 70 percent of the world's largest economy. The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline has increased by 23.5 cents this month. 

Coffee supply in Starbucks and other plantations is decreasing. The global supplies are becoming less due to shocks that are occurring because of climate change. Shocks include hurricanes, mudslides, erosions and variations in dry and rainy seasons. All of these events affect the crop yield negatively, as they reduce the production of coffee and cocoa. It is suspected that by 2050 it will be too hot to grow chocolate in the Ivory Coast and in Ghana, which are the main global producers. Not only Starbucks is affected by the climate changes but also wealthy and other independent farm plantations. Central American workers reported that they have already experienced changing rainfall patters and more severe pest infestations. The Arabica coffee bean, a specialty in Starbucks, is at great risk. Coffee is a necessity for some people and it would be a real issue if coffee disappears. Jim Hanna, the company's sustainability director, informed Guardian that the U.S. government should step in and try to reduce climate change. Gap, an American company, has already stepped in and is campaigning. There have already been 2 warnings in less than a month that coffee is at threat and therefore it is important to thing and look 10 to 20 years ahead.

Coffee, a product consumed by so many people, but starbucks is now seeing climate change as a big threat to their industry. As climate change intensifies and the world's temperature is slowly but surely increasing in certain regions, it is feared that by 2050 in Ghana and the Ivory Coast it will be to hot for coffee to grow. Specifically the Arabica coffe bean which is one of the most important beans in the industry. There is now a lot of pressure on the government to act quickly and efficiently on climate change before it is too late. However coffee harvesters an farmers are already seeing severe changes in climate such as hurricanes and resistant bugs all causing for less produce. 

As the coffee beans are becoming scarcer, the supply for coffee is decreasing. Not only the coffee supply is decreasing, but also the cocoa bean, meaning a substitute is also not an option for switching to. The price of coffee will increase and the quantity demanded will therefore decrease as well, as not everyone will be able and willing to buy coffee at the higher price. The equilibrium price will settle at a higher price, with less supply being produced. This will signal to the consumers to buy less coffee/ hot chocolate and signal to the producers to produce less. In other words, the consumer incentive is to consume less and the producer incentive is to produce less. The resources will be allocated differently, as fewer resources are allocated to the production. Coffee becomes scarcer. The marginal benefit decreases and the marginal cost will increase.

In this article the company Norsk Hydro decided to change the raw material they produce for German rolling mills to 'increase in-house primary metal sourcing, replacing less cost-efficient remelting of cold metal as a source for its Neuss-Grevenbroich rolling mills.' This is supposed to optimize to the current issue in the market. The Neuss mill will increase production of aluminium to 150,000 tonnes per year unlike the last few year in which it only produced 50,000 tonnes. The factories have a maximum production limit of 230,000 tonnes. Although the tonnes created per year are now increased, it is still not exploiting the maximum point. This point may not be profitable due to limited demand in the market. Maybe the supply and new improvements including framework, CO2 compensation and more efficient smelters will increase the demand.

Although this article shifts supply to the right as there are technological advancements such as better smelters, there is also a movement along the supply curve as the company is getting closer to exploiting their maximum production point. In this case they state that supply is higher than demand. At the moment they have a surplus so the producer must decrease the price so that the quantity demanded will increase. The product, because of the surplus, is less valuable and as there is more quantity it is not as scarce as before. Related markets can buy the aluminum at lower price, increasing their benefit. The producer of aluminum must reduce resources allocated into production to return to the equilibrium point.

As the supply of diamonds keeps becoming scarcer, the demand for diamonds is increasing greatly. Global factors affecting the large demand for diamonds are increase in consumer wealth, better marketing tactics, western influence, and future value/prices. In India specifically where the population growth rate reached over 25 % - which has also led to the rise of a middle class - diamonds are now being seen as a "status symbol", or as a way to show off, the demand for diamonds is increasing quickly. China has as well due to strategically improved marketing tactics and western influences increased its use of diamond wedding rings up to 40 % of all women. As diamond prices are higher than a few years ago, diamonds can be seen as worthy to invest in because of their increasing value and finite supply. 

The world demand for diamond keeps increasing signaling that diamonds are becoming scarcer and scarcer. Producers will therefore increase the prices of diamonds as it is a limited source, producers will also however try to find more diamonds so that the resource isn't as limited. Depending on the consumer's income, demand for diamonds will decrease with higher prices. Consumers will also switch to an alternative market - an increase in demand for other stones, gems - as their behavior will change. Consumers will also ration diamonds and if purchasing it, purchase it in lower amounts.

Due to the fact that current cocoa crops are becoming less suitable for the growth of cocoa beans (temperature increases), prices have begun to rise. Due to sudden supply shocks, such as the political unrest in Ivory Coast, less cocoa beans have been harvested, and the production of 1/3 of the world's chocolate has been stopped temporarily. This is causing the supply curve for chocolate to shift to the left. The demand curve, however, shows a shift to the right, as prices and the demand for chocolate are rising (Easter Holidays; seasonal change).