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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.

We see in the chart that in developing countries arms are considered a normal good. This is apparent as the number of sales is at its lowest in 2007, 2008, and 2009 - the time period of the late financial crisis. Incomes decreased and therefore also government expenditure. So since the governments had a reduced budget, they were forced to purchase fewer arms. However, once the global economy started to recover from the crisis, incomes rose again. Thus, governments were able to spend more on arms again (which we see in 2010 and 2011). This is a good example of how income, a non-price determinant of demand, can influence the demand on a good. Another non-price determinant of demand is government policy. The article states that Saudi Arabia was the developing world's biggest arms buyer in 2011, with deliveries of $2.8 billion - an unusually high number. Therefore, there must have been a change in Saudi Arabia's government policy; otherwise they would not suddenly be buying more arms. So now we see how government policy influences demand on arms. 

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.

Samsung underestimate demand for Galaxy SIII, losing a possible 2 million sales in a single month. A manufacturing glitch resulted in the slowing of production. Demand has increased substantially in the last two years, especially in the Asian market. Samsung used to only hold 10% of the market share, but they have now overtaken Apple completely. Samsung's success could be down to the price of their phones (substitution good), or the altering tastes of customers.

The demand curve for Samsung's Galaxy SIII would shift to the right, resulting in greater scarcity, and a required increase in supply. This did not occur in this situation. Customers were forced to ration their consumption, as some versions of the phone went out of stock completely. Price of the product would increase in most scenarios to further incentivise an increase in production, and a rationing of the good. If Samsung had kept up with their demand, they may have won some market share over other companies, but their quarterly incomes were predicted as far lower than what could have been achieved with adequate supply.

RIM, the Canadian company that developed and designed the Blackberry smartphone devices released from 1999 onwards, published revenues and profits below the analysts' estimates that were made earlier on this year. According to Bloomberg, RIM's share of global market decreased to a mere 8.2 percent in contrast to the 14 percent they obtained in the previous year. This decrease in global market share can be traced back to the skyrocketing iPhone shares, which simultaneously rose from 16 percent market share to 24 perfect. With so much of the consumer demand shifting towards iPhones and alternative smartphones, the consumer demand for Blackberries are decreasing, thus in turn lowering the annual revenue and profit of RIM. Another way this article relates back to the Economic concepts we discussed in class would be the market structure of cellular phones. Seeing as RIM's global market shares' decrease was so closely correlated to Apple's iPhones market share increase, we are looking at a low number of cellphone producers with large global market share percentages. We can also establish that they produce either similar or slightly differentiated goods, which concludes that the type of market structure being discussed in the article would be an oligopoly.

This article discusses the reasons which have resulted in a fall of fertilizer demand in India. The author states that the demand for fertilizer will drop 1/5  from 54.6 million tons  to 24 million tons by 2013. Additionally companies supplying fertilizers to the public have already experienced the first signs of decreasing demand and have been confronted with 50% decrease in potash consumption and a 30% decrease in the phosphate consumption.  Indian Companies supplying fertilizer had raised their prices the previous year due to record sales however these prices are now representing one of the key reasons for the decrease in consumption. India has experienced unpredictable rainfall this year meaning that farmers were unable to determine when they should  apply fertilizer. They knew that if they applied the expensive fertilizer without rainfall in the following days , the fertilizer would be wasted and therefore the farmer would have made a big loss. This has resulted in a decline in fertilizer consumption as farmers are not willing to take this large financial risk as the price for fertilizer is so high they will not be able to afford the economic consequences if the fertilizer is not applied at the correct time.  This links into our classwork as this scenario shows an ideal example of the law of demand. The law of demand states that as a price of a product rises the demand for it will decrease. In the article the demand for fertilizer falls as the price for fertilizer rises. 

This article tells us that fertilizer is become less scarce in India as the demand for fertilizer decreased. This means that less products are being consumed and therefore their is a surplus of the good on the market. Because the price for fertilizer was so high farmers have decided to invest the money in other products which will benefit their crops. The consumers will wait for the price to decrease before they start consuming fertilizer again. Producers will now decrease production and will sell their product at lower prices. As the demand for fertilizer has increased firms are not making as much profit and therefore they will shift their resource allocation to more profitable products.

Gold Demand falls (16. Aug 2012)

This article shows the fact that the demand for gold dropped. The global demand fell by 7 pc within three months up until the end of June. The World Gold Council stated that this is due to economies facing challenges as well as extremely high sales last year. The analysis also says that this is due to taxation on gold (mainly jewelry) in India. Luckily India is only one of many in the gold market, therefore It did not affect the demand too much. This relates to our discussion in class by addressing the fact of the demand curve moving to the left (the demand is decreasing). India's demand of gold may have dropped due to the new taxation has supply is limited.

The demand for iPhones is greatly increasing in China. In Apple's fiscal year of 2011, they were able to sell 72 million iPhones, a number that soon might almost be sold in China alone. Currently, 10 million iPhones are sold in China, but this is because China's lead mobile carrier; China Mobile, has a network that is not compatible with the iPhone 4s. However, this year China Mobile is flipping to their knew network; the 4G which is compatible with the iPhone 5. This will open up a new market for Apple, as now, millions Chinese will be able to effectively use the iPhone 5 with China Mobile's network. Therefore, the demand for the iPhones will greatly increase due to the 'new' market.

Apple sold 72 million iPhones in 2011 to more than 100 countries. It is said that Apple will sell 57 million more iPhones per year in China since the demand is increasing. There are currently 650 million people who are branched to China Mobile which does not carry the iPhone network which includes 100 million who have found ways to use the iPhone through the network. Next year, China Mobile will change to the 4G network which will allow those additional 500 million people to get the iPhone.