ZIS IB Year 2 2013-14

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.

Tis is an example for an demand article because it shows that the scarcity of diamonds if driving the prices up. In the last couple of years experts have seen a constant rise in the price for diamonds. This is because of the number of potential buyers has risen because coutries like China, India and russia are economily growing and creating more wealth. The interest is growing and the scartcity aswell. A lot of old diamond mines are running out and one is not sure if there are a lot more around the world.

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.

The price of maize has risen this year due to lower yields which will reduce this year's crops to less than what was originally expected.. The problem being created, is that this year's food price index of maize is above of what it has been at the same point during the years 2008 and 2011. Now it is feared that the same thing might happen to America's soya bean harvest, and with this it would have a huge impact on livestock farmers, which are already starting to have trouble with their harvests. The worry is now that, just like maize, the soya beans will become higher priced and with this less people would be able to afford it. But not only would it affect the soya beans, that would simply be the beginning; next would be the meat and then a wider food-price problem could be underway. Therefore, society is worried that this wave of pricing food higher than other years due to worst crops might not only affect the agricultural economy, but would expand into all of the food market, making less people be able to buy more food.

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. 

Analysis- Shampoo Demand Article This article about the demand for Shampoo is connected to the class topics due to showing parts of what we have learnt during our sessions in the classroom. The main key word which we have learnt in class that is shown in this article is demand, as the title states. It is a bit less connected to opportunity cost and resources than it is to demand and supply, which are both exploited in chapter 2. The chosen article speaks of demand of Shampoo, and how smaller packets are more wanted in the past few months or weeks. This relates to the supply part of economics, due to the producers and sellers no longer selling larger packets of shampoo, but sticking to the one time use ones. Therefore, this article reflects on the key ideas of what we have learnt in economics so far, because it relates directly to two of the key terms.

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.

Throughout the first six months of the year Lego posted an increase in profit of 36%, revenue increase of 24%, however the demands for the Lego products along with all of the toy market has started to fall. This has been the most negative toy market in the U.S. for now. The reason for why the toy market has started to record such negative results are various factors. Amongst those factors were the approaching presidential elections meaning that taxes will go up for all the people making them want to save up more. Moreover the rising debt and the huge economic uncertainty going throughout the country has also started to deeply affect the toy market, making people have to spend less which ultimately leads the consumer to buy or spend less money on their products leading to worse economic results and making the toy market decrease.

This article illustrates the increasing demand for "greener" cleaning products, which sparks the industry changes.

The palm oil is used for many products and recently due to the pollution caused by the palm tree plantations, not as much oil can be produced without harming the environment. Many people who are environmentally aware will try to refrain from using products containing palm oil which are numerous. Products affected: processed food such as chips, instant noodles, soaps, shampoos and many cosmetic products. The awareness will cause the quantity of demand for these products to go down and as a result the prices will go down in order to keep the customers.

Demand article as Oil demand falls in China

Mini Analysis: 150 words- connecting article to concepts learned in class. For almost ¼ of the world's population, the demand for water is greater than the supply available. Water is a necessity for everyone and a want for all. The prices of water are increasing, as water is becoming scarcer. For many countries such as Egypt, India, Pakistan, water is very rare and therefore has a higher price. In Switzerland for example, water is not as scarce and therefore our prices aren't as high. Although Switzerland may take water for granted, the prices are still rising, as water is running out all over the world. Primary economies are running into issues, as they are not able to harvest and produce as many crops as they were in previous years. The main problem is that there is no substitution product for water. Other drinks such as tea, sodas etc. don't count for water.

MUMBAI Aug 21 (Reuters) - Indian sugar futures fell nearly 2 percent on Tuesday on slow demand and additional supply of non-levy sugar, though a likely rise in demand next month because of religious festivals have limited the downside. Because of a few slow days in the sugar market, India's profit on sugar has decreased which means that sugar prices should drop in the coming days as the demand law states. Although a contributing factor, next month's festival, has limited the downside. With the demand decreased, there was a shift in the demand chart but because of future events which will occur, sugar prices will come back up in the coming days which means that the left shift which occurred these couple of days will pump back to the right because if this contributing factor. Because of this occasion the prices on sugar most likely will increase because of the higher demand of sugar during the Ganesh festival.

This is a demand article, because it talks about how the demand of Gas seems to not go up that much, or drop. Yet the Price of oil seems to rise a lot.