Instructions: Here you can post a link to an article from any online news source relating to the topics covered in the current unit. Next to the title* of the article include a 3 or 4 sentence summary in your own words explaining how it relates to the current unit in AP Economics.

**To create a hyperlink, type or paste the title of the article into the screen, highlight it, then on the "EasyEdit Toolbar" click the "Link" button. Here you can copy and paste the link URL for the article.

Kevin Ma:
China announces fall in politically charged pork prices
This article talks about the price rising for porks. I remember doing the blog on pork prices rising and thought it was interesting so i decided to research more about it. China has a shortage of pigs due to diseases, decline in pig rearing and rising raise cost. The shortages cost a raise in price. I beleive that China was getting people to raise pigs so there wouldn't be a shortage of pigs. So the price of pork is staring to slowly stabilize. It has dropped about 3% worldwide and has an average price of 19 kuai per kilogram.

Sunny Kim:
Apple profits beat Wall Street expectations
This article basically tells us how much profit is Apple making this year and how much the amount of profit increased compared to previous years. According to the article, the profit increased tremendously, and Apple is becoming a much wider, effective, and influencial company in the world. "Apple's share price up $12.19 or nearly 9% to $137.26 in after hours trading. Two years ago Apple's share price was just $44." Moreover, "Apple shipped 9,815,000 iPods during the quarter, representing 21% growth year-on-year, and accounting for $1.57bn in revenue."
This, one of the most famous Apple product, is holding more than 70% of the music market. This article was quite interesting, and I could once again sense the immense influence of Apple in the world. Now I think I know why Apple is known as the only rival of Microsoft.

Yun Qi Mok:
Oil Price Futures and Peak OilThis is a fascinating article about why oil prices are skyrocketing, as well as debates whether or not people put their money where they say they will. There are many people who tell others to buy peak oil, and yet never buy it themselves. Why? One, because lots of speculation that oil production has peaked. Two, because the North Sea is running out, with production dropping 10% in 2004 and 12.8% in 2005, and three becacuse Venezuela has nationalized nearly all of oil production, which means production will most likely fall. On one hand, people see the prices shoot up, on the other, they realize that oil market is reaching its maximum point soon.

Angel Liu:
Zimbawe Gov't Eases Price Control
The Zimbawe government has an economic policy of price control to lower inflation; the inflation rate is about 7,600%. However, govenrment's effort badly impacted Zimbawe's economics. Accomodations and basic food supplies rates are cut in half, and many suppliers cannot get enough revenue to pay for its cost. Furthermore, many hotels, restaurants and bars are closing down because food and liquor supplies are running low in the market. Every shelf is emptied immediately after foods are stocked. Zimbawenes are constantly storing food supplies in case government withdraw price control and inflation choke food supplies.
serena:
The Effects of a Black Market Using Supply and Demand
As government decided to make a good illegal, the supply and demand gradually decreased, A sharp drop in supply because selling illegal good will cause suppliers trouble thus lead people shift into other industries. A drop in demand because people won't want to buy illegal goods thus cause the demand to fall. When there's more supply and less demand the price of the good drop, but when demand exceeds the current supply, then there will be an increase in price.

Mina Song:
US At Risk Of Recession From Housing
I thought this articles is interesting because it is related to what we are learning these days. This article is about growth of US housing and the articles is saying that if it lowered the interest it would be better. Quote : "Lower interest rates now would help,". The rest of the article is about the seriousness of the problem and who and what kind of people are trying to solve prolems in different ways.

Dana Yeon:
Letter from America: New York Shows Way for Urban Renaissance
This article introduces the readers to some of the statistics of New York City's population and gives the reasons to why it is growing again. Some analysts claim that it is just another effect of globalization on major cities; they claim that all major cites, not only that of New York City, has been growing in population recently as the byproduct of economic growth. On the other hand, some analysts disagree and point to cities like Detroit, a city where constant population decline has been taking place as the result of globalization. However, what sets New York apart from other cities, the journalist claims, is because NYC, "as an economic unit has a comparative advantage, with all its cross-fertilization of ideas." I thought this article was a great way of looking at some of the principles of economics without directly relating it to numbers or businesses.

Jonathan Lau:
Toys "R" Us Recalls Crayon Boxes
This article is about how Toys "R" Us recalled crayon boxes because the printed ink on the outer packaging of the wood cases contained lead. This has been just the lastest of many faulty goods recently discovered to be dangerous due to health and safety concerns. Interestingly enough, all of these products have been manufactured in China. This article relates to the economy in many ways including its role in the circular flow model; when one good/service is changed, the rest of the market involved is affected.

Jessica Chiang:
Ethics and the iPhone
This is an article about opportunity cost, as it weighs the costs and benefits of using technology. By choosing to use technology, we are giving up many traditional social activities; for example, we no longer write personal, hand written letters. We now write emails and call up long distance friends. Although these inventions in technology have helped us greatly, we are also losing much valuable social networks. Friends no longer visit each other or write each other often because they can talk over MSN. Also, technology may be bad for us, as it increases mortality rate. The use of cell phones has an increase in car accidents over the years, and cell phone radiation may be harmful to the body.

Drew Venkatraman
Will Student Loan Reforms Cut Costs?
Being that it is almost time for all of us to be applying for student loans i found this hilarious and yet intriguing. It talks abotu the conflicts of interest (self interest) among congress and the schools themselves. And how in the end many people are forced to choose which is better, the money i could be earning right now without a college education or forgoing those dollars in order to earn more later. What type of oppurtunity cost is it to you?

Alex Goldman:
The Big Bucks
This article talks about how rich the CEOs of major American corporations are. For example, "top executives at major businesses last year made as much money in one day of work on the job as the average worker made over the entire year." Not only that, but the CEO pay over the last decade has increased 45%. The article is full of comparisons to help put in perspective how much a CEO rakes in every year. The numbers are astounding. This relates to the economic concept of specialization. CEO's have the unique skill of being able to take charge and direct a company. There is evidently a high demand for this skill, because it is with millions of dollars. 36.4 million dollars on average, to be exact. (That doesn't include benefits.)

Hansen Gu:
U.S. Weapons, Given to Iraqis, Move to Turkey
Sometimes we overlook the economics behind war and conflict. There is always a demand for weapons, whether it be for a police force, or for a rebel group. As far as self interest is concerned, the consumer demands effective weaponry for the cheapest price to best defend themselves. For the suppliers, technological advancements in the weapons and production methods of the weapons are a priority so that they can meet the demand. In this article, many US weapons, which are technologically advanced and of good quality, have been sold or traded from Iraq to Turkey. Many rebel groups in Turkey have a strong demand for this type of weaponry and the US, unwilling through Iraq, has supplied them.

Howard Jing:
Our Couch Potato Nation
This article talks about how Americans, previously known for their Puritan Work Ethic, are now spending more and more time off work. Although there are other nations that do less work than the US, such as Japan and the Netherlands, other countries such as Switzerland and Britain put in more hours than the US. Additionally, the average American has 117 hours of free time per week, compared to 110 hours in 1965. This adds up to several extra weeks of vacation time. What it means that Americans believe that the opportunity cost of doing relaxing things is lower than the opportunity cost of putting in extra hours and making more money.

Robert Wang:
Luxury baseball: The $400 glove
This article discusses the most expensive baseball glove in the world (not including signed gloves that were worn by professional players, like Derek Jeter) to be created yet by Rawlings. Essentially what the article comes down to in my eyes is the notion of supply and demand. There is an excess supply of the Rawlings Primo glove (3000 gloves made this year) compared to the demand for this glove, which is fairly low. There is a certain extent of the demand for the glove (I'd want one), but it does not reach the desired level that Rawlings expected, which is in the professional players. Players in the MLB, attached to their own gloves, do not want to have to break-in to a whole new glove, so they opt out in using the new glove and the technology that comes with it. With regard to that, I find it interesting that one player (Peavy) asked for the technology to be implemented into the glove that he currently is using, but he did not want the Rawlings Primo glove itself. Thus, maybe there is a higher demand for the new technology that Rawlings created than the finished product itself? It should be interesting to see what Rawlings does in the future to keep their new product competetive.

Jessica Chiang:
Gas Prices Rise for the First Time in Weeks
Although gas prices have been low for the past few weeks, they suddenly increased again. This is due to the fact that Hurricane Dean ruined many important oil supply routes in the southern Gulf, which led to a decline in gas inventories. The demand of oil and gas remain high. This is related to supply and demand because as the supply of gas decreases and the demand stays the same, the prices will increase because the gas is now harder to obtain and is more valuable. Economists predict that the demand for gas will continue to increase while the supply of gas continues to decrease; this will lead to more competition between gasoline companies and a significant increase in the price of gas.

Rebecca Sung:
Teen trades hacked iPhone for new car
This article talks about a teenage hacker who successfully hacked the iphone, so that it can be used with other cellular networks besides AT&T. Currently, the teenager named George Hotz has reached a deal with Certicell. This means that with the iphone being a phone that can be used with other cellular networks besides AT&T, like Certicell, AT&T will face competition in the iPhone business. In a follow up article, though, the hacker could face a legal battle. If the hacking way is spread to other companies, AT&T will face a lot of competition because in this case, they won't be the only carriers of the popular iPhone. AT&T will most likely lose profit too if other companies get ahold of the hacked iPhones because the competition will most likely lower prices.

Kevin Ma:
Betting Big on China's Vegas
This article talks about the CEO and Las Vegas Sand, a casino/hotel in Las Vegas, who went to Macau, China to open a new casino/hotel worth 2.4 billion dollars. He decides to go to Macau and open a casino because there is less competition there than in Vegas and all the other Casino's are opening up there.. Macau is one of the biggest gambling cities however competition in Las Vegas is higher. But the competition in Macau is heating up which is why they're in Macau getting a piece of that action. This article mainly has to do with competition. It can be linked to the "invisible hand" to. It benefits the casion owner and China's economy.

Calvin Lu:
PlayStation 3 price cut may be ahead This is a short article on CNNMoney.com that predicts Sony may cut down the price of PS3. Originally retailing up to 700$, Sony may cut the price by 100$ worldwide in October due to technological improvement and competitions with its rivals, Xbox360 and Wii. This illustrates the “invisible hand” theory by Adam Smith. And also shows how technology can help more production with less resource, which shifts out the production possibility curve.

James Tsao:
Scarcity of Water Threatening the world today
This IPS (Inter-Press-Service) global news article covers the idea of scarcity that we discussed about in class. New threats such as climate change, increase in global population and the sudden growth of the water-hungry bioenergy sector has endangered the availibility of water in many places in the world. An annual-meeting of over 2000 water professionals, technicians, scientists, and policy makers was held recently to discuss the impending problem. The executive director of Stockholm International Water Institute, Anders Berntell, warned in this meeting that 1.4 billion people now live in regions where there is a real water scarcity. The scarcity of water, perhaps the most important natural resource, will now focus the economists on finding new ways to use the resource more efficiently or new ways to conserve the resource.
SoYeon Yoon:
Census data shows income is up, but...
Census data shows that the income of households increased, but the gap between the poor and the rich grows bigger. It appeares that the incomes of the people increase, and the economy is working well, but actual situation is not like that. Economists say that despite the increase in incomes, the economy is not doing well as before the 2001 recession. The number of people without health insurance grew by a large amount, and the poverty thresholds are not designed according to geogrphical difference so that it does not fit the subsistence in the region.

Jessica Ng:
Samsung moves up the ranks
Korean electronics maker Samsung had recently quietly surpassed Motorola to become the No. 2 seller of mobile phones, and made it clear that they're "gunning for the market leader", Nokia. The have declared to sell more phones in emerging economies, and become the ultimate phone provider to the developing world. They also declared in adopting different strategies in appealing to younger users. This is a reflection of the competition between firms in a market economy, which in turn brings in benefits to society, in this case, better and nicer cellphones. This is in correlation with Adam Smith's "Invisible Hand."

Michael Daily:
New Technology Creates New Consumer Printers For HP
New technology from HP has allowed them to create a new line of touch screen printers for their consumeers. The new printers according to HP will increase print speeds, lower costs for high volume consumers, and provide easier access to internet-based printing. The largest of the new models has a seven inch touch screen which consumers can use to customize photos before they print. This new technology from HP is an illustration economically that when technology increases so does the production possibilities curve.

Conrad Liu:
New Casino in Macau Welcomes Tourists to Roll the Dice
The new 2.4 billion Venetian Macao Resort Hotel is up and running, with the opening scene involving the smashing of a champagne bottle against a gondola. American billionaire Sheldon Adelson, the resort's inaugurator, hopes to use this site as a popular area where tourists can make a pit stop and try their hand at gambling--it already makes Las Vegas look miniscule. Obviously, the article shows how demand and supply can potentially be the driving force in investing huge amounts of wealth into something: in this case, the billionaire hopes that with this luxery stop, uncommon to start with, the demands of having a luxurious place can be fulfilled, thus allowing an incredible amount of output from the resort.


Andy Xu:
Asia’s Skills Shortage – Capturing Talent

In the article Asia’s Skills Shortage – Capturing Talent, the inability to meet the demand of qualified staff positions to keep up with Asia’s transformations has been highlighted. In economics class, one of the most fundamental concepts taught is the condition of scarcity, but who would have thought that China, a country with so much economic growth potential and abundant resources, would be short of labor. The answer is that this shortage mainly involves in skilled labor: schools and universities are already increasing its size but still unable to keep up with educating the demand of skilled business people; specialized occupations such as the airplane pilot are in demand by huge figures; the numbers of lawyers in China, 122,000, equals the amount of lawyers in the state of California (population ratio 1.3 billion to 37 million). Of course, this is where foreign trade is especially useful, China now works hard to hire business entrepreneurs from America, pilots from Brazil, and Hai Gui’s, Asians who have been educated overseas to meet the huge demand of quality labor. This article teaches us that the mismatch between supply and demand in Asia's labour markets can be adjusted efficiently by trading resources.

Jennifer Choi:
Smaller Shares, Bigger Slices
We, in our class, talked about the competition caused by limited (scarce) resources. This particular article also talks about the increased competition between workers as the globalization continues. Workers in rich countries now have to compete against the workers who cross borders to take jobs in rich countries. The workers in rich countries not only loss their jobs by the cheap-cost workers from abroad but also by the advancing technology that is now taking the places of human labor.

Trevor Sun:
Santa Claus is Chinese or, Why China is Rising and the US is Declining
In our class we recently discussed the benefits of specialization and international trade and why countries specialize in a type of good or service. In this article it talks about how most consumer goods in the United States are all made in China. This is because China has become "the world's factory" in that most of its exports are consumer goods to the U.S. Since the U.S. consumers are buying so many goods from China it's no wonder why the economy is booming in China. In their survey, it says that 70% of the gifts opened on Christmas are produced in China which goes to show how many items are coming out of China.

Sunny Kim:
Bush: U.S. economy is thriving
In AP Economics class, roles of government and its influences on business and economy have been taught to us. According to 'Economics' by McConnell Brue, government is an active but limited organization that provides the rules for economic activity and promotes economic stability and growth. This article shows how a government can help economy of its country to thrive and grow. President Bush said Wednesday the U.S. economy is thriving and he is doing what it takes to keep it strong. According to President Bush, he will cut taxes to help the U.S. economy to grow. If the government cut taxes, companies and citizens will be able to free themselves from pressure of taxes and they will gain larger profit. Thus, like domino, the economy of U.S. will thrive.

Jenny Kim:
Singing for Supper
A great amount of Indian widows are being paid to pray with shaved heads which represent their widowhood. A woman would make only $4.60 in a month by praying in the morning and in the evening, which is not enough for a woman to live a pleasing life. India has always scorned at widow hood due to their belief in Hinduism. Because of this, widows are being discriminated in the Indian society. Although the situation for the widown got better due to the change in law, they are still not allowed to remarry, despite the fact that they were married at a young age, without their own will to get married. Many of these women were widowed at an early age, which makes their life even more sufferable.

Mond Gu:
China declares 'war' on tainted products
In response to thedefected and toxic products produced in China, the government has launch a "war" against these "flawed" goods to protect China's reputation as a safe and high quality industrial country. China's rapid economic development has increased its exported products by more than 80% in less than a year. However, China economic system cannot support the never ending increasing demands of its products, this in terms has severely affected the quality of many of its products including toys. Safety of these goods are near impossible as there is millions if not billions of products being exported to foreign countries every year.

Kathie Lee:
Australia's costly drought
Australia's most agricultural area is suffering from a major and unfortunate case of drought. However, if there is no heavy rainfall in this region over the next 2 months, Australia's prime minister, John Howard will terminate the irrigation supply to the Murray-Darling basin (Eastern Australia's main water resource). There are several factors that will be significantly influenced by this decision. For example, this decision puts farmers' livelihood and income under a great risk. This further supports the scarcity and the strong impact of water today.

Jo Lo:
Climate Wars loom over scarce resources
The division between the rich and poor will be greatly worsened in the coming years. The poorest places in the world such as Africa will experience the worst of global warming because of their inability to combat the effects of climate change. Because of the growing population in Africa and the area of land suitable for agricultural farming grows smaller and smaller, Africa faces food and water shortages in the future. As this problem starts to spread to other poor areas, tensions will form between countries in those areas for the limited resources that still remain.
This is a huge problem because global warming is happening even though some people do not think so. Climate change is causing resources to be used up more quickly, resources that are becoming scarcer every day.

Judy Chen:
Burger King net tops Street, shares fall on capex
Burger King Holdings Inc (BKC.N) posted a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Friday, helped by longer store hours, sales of breakfast items, and a popular promotional tie-in with summer blockbuster "Spider-Man 3." As United States is a Market System, most of the companies have their own property, therefore, encouraged to compete with other similar companies in order to gain profits. Such Burger King- The world's No. 2 hamburger chain behind McDonald's Corp compete with McDonald by advertising, inspires the United States Economics since there are more people choosing between two companies, therefore, opportunity cost exists for whom to purchase either food of one company.

Christina Hu:
Disney's Ross: 'High School Musical 2' Success Proves Strength of TV Movie Biz
The success of High School Musical and its sequel proves how a free market system produces the best results in an economy. Free enterprise allows entrepreneurs to sell their goods (television shows) in any chosen market, to anyone. They have the choice to create whatever kind of show they want as well, because it is not a command system where the government determines exactly what will be produced, how, and who will get it. The creators of High School Musical decided they wanted to produce a musical, and decided how it would be made by choosing actors and locations, and who it would be targeted at (in this case, 9-14 year olds).



Mina Song:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/08/23/footmouth.lifted.ap/index.html?iref=newssearch
EU band the meats from Britain. The reason for it is to stop spread the disease from Britain, but the problem that it will cause in Europe is disaster of meat markets. They assumed that there will be some problems, and they are taking the risk of it. But I think the price of the meat in Europe will increase dramatically. Therefore, both comsumers and the producers will suffer from it.

Karen Chen:
Creeps and Bounds: Can America Provide Universal Health Care Without Adopting A Government-Run System?
The most interesting thing in this article was that a solution proposed was to "distribute...vouchers free to individuals..." It made me think if it really was "free", or if there was a catch to it, seeing as how there's no such thing as a free lunch. Anyway, the whole point of this article was deciding whether to make this new policy government-run (in a larger sense, kind of like a command economy) or to make it private (like a market economy). If it's made private, it would cost the government more money, but like we learned, it also gives the people more freedom. If it's centrally planned, the people would get less choices but it would save the government a lot of money.

Tim Chu
Water Scarcity: A looming crisis?
Since so much of this chapter focuses on the main topic of scarcity, i thought i would post one up on this page. Basically, this article found on the BBC news website talks about the steady decrease in usable water and how that will affect humans and all other organisms in the future. I thought it was interesting because water, which most of us regard as a renewable resource that is easily obtained, is not available to a billion people in the world. Its a scary topic that kind of ties in with the whole global warming crisis as well.

Nicole Wong
Fans now turning final pages of 'Harry Potter'
I think that the "Invisible Hand" is at work here. The Scholastic publishing company reportedly printed 12 million copies of the Harry Potter book- something that they probably would not have done for many of the other books that it publishes. This due to the fact that Scholastic is aware of society's interest in the Harry Potter series and therefore goes out of its way to print more copies of the book than usual. Scholastic could have printed more copies of other books, but chose to print numerous copies of Harry Potter instead to satisfy consumer wants and it is clearly aware of consumer sovereignty.

Serena Tu
We Will Never Run Out of Oil
What i find interesting on this article is that, as I enter the class on the first day, I leave the room with "resources are limited", and i also learn the word "scarcity". So i assume resources are scarce. But in the article I read, it says that we will never run out of oil, "no matter if you take a pessimistic or optimistic view about the amount of oil still available to be extracted". In the article, this view is supported by the author pointing out that, as we are getting more advanced technologies, we will have better drilling skills, and thus more oil will be discovered. The article also suggested that as the price of gasoline increase, there will be less consumer demand for it, so there will still be plenty of oil in the ground. So i guess we will never run out of oil?

Yun Qi Mok
U.S. consumer sentiment weakens in August
This article is fascinating because it clearly shows the correlation beteween the producers and consumers, with pricing as a indication. The article points out that because of the sharp selling of goods in the market stocks, buyers are getting worried and consumers are begining to stem their spending. It also shows that economics is based upon confidence of the market, as well as the role that the government plays even in a free market economy system.

GM May Make 60,000 `Volt' Electric Cars in First Year
Kevin H
This article interested me because it is related to the production possibility curve. The article stated that, "General Motors Corp. may build as many as 60,000 of its Volt electric cars for their inaugural year on the market, four times the sales of Toyota Motor Corp.'s hybrid Prius." However, this is only good for the environment if they are sold and that is based on the toeiss acronym. Another person stated that, at this rate of production, GM could sell the car for even under 30,000. This is a huge improvement in technology as, the article stated and such a big increment in techonology would be represented something like what i have drawn. Below. (from the black line to the red line)














LAX Renovations
Caleb Liao
This article talks about the future renovations of the LAX (international airport of Los Angelos) that was mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration. This descision was made because LAX is one of the leading airports in the U.S. in near-collisions. The renovation of not just the landing strips but also airport decor creates job opporutnities for local contractors and residents, and possibly/most likely a cut-back for government officials. However, the opportunity cost of renovating the airport is the lost money spent on education and public services. To weigh marginal benefit against marginal costs would be to project whether the renovation of the airport would create greater economic opportunity for the people of Los Angelos in the future.

Katherine Yang:
Free Lunch Money
The article begins with a quick overview of economy and how it may relate to the environment, specifically; business firms would want to maximize profits, however environmental policy dictates that firms have to divert resouces from production towards "clean up activities". However the Porter Hypothesis argues that the environmental policy would reduce production costs once firms learn more efficient methods to create a win-win situation. The artical makes a reference to Business Week's "Top Green Companies" that have claimed to be able to fulfill the environmental policy with minimal diversion from profits.

Annie Sung
McDonald's Goes Upscale
I found this article interesting because it relates to competition in the economy. Recently, McDonald's has been gaining some negative publicity regarding nutrition, and it seems like they are now trying to appeal to customers in another way: decor and ambience. Since this new upgrade has only been implemented in Europe, customers in Europe would most likely feel more luxurious. McDonald's new sophistication shows that the market is flexible to any changes necessary to fit consumer needs accordingly.

Helen Chu:
Where Target Is Always 'Tar-zhay'
This is an article about how Target has opened up a new line called "Target Couture" where the clothes they sell are more expensive and high-end. There was a part of the article that illustrates how this strategy has outpaced Wal-mart's sales growth by a significant amount. This is a clear example of the competition and drive for innovation in the market system, as Target developed a new clothing line as a strategy to beat its biggest rival, Wal-mart. This is also an example of "the invisible hand", because even though Target employed this strategy for self-interest, many people, mainly people who love clothes, benefit from the creation of this new clothing line.

Michael Chow:
Dollar Continues to Fall Against Yuan
The Chinese Yuan now stands at approx. 7.56 against the US Dollar. It's value since July 2005 has increased more than 7%. This was the result of China's decision to raise interest rates, in a way China is under the pressure for allowing the yuan for it continuing increase. By taking advantage of it's increasing trade with the US, China is therefore is gradually making an improvement. Set by the China Central Bank the yuan is limited to raising or falling by 0.5% each day.

Julie Lin:
Why Not Just Print More Money?
I know this might seem like a stupid question to ask since we're all in high school now, however this is what i've always wondered about since i was small. This article tells us in simple words, why the government can't just print more and send everyone a stack of cash. if everyone got rich over the night, most of the money will be spent, either to purchase goods or services. command of the market will overwhelm supplies, and the market will be forced to raise prizes, which will lead to a massive inflation, money will be devalued anyway. same thing goes for wages, if you were to get a stack of cash, most people will not work as hard as they should, therefore there will be demands for extra labour, or extra wages for workers. "Labor market pressures require wages to increase, so product costs must increase as well."

Alice Su:
Up, Up, and Away
This article informs readers about IDW Publishing, a design, production, and publishing company for comic books and graphic novels that has recently ventured into the field of making comic book versions of popular TV shows and movies. Because the company focuses on those comics that they know will be more popular (for example, this last summer they came out with a four-part comic book adaptation of the Transformers movie and sold it everywhere from Toys 'R Us to Amazon.com), it illustrates the concept of consumer sovereignty in deciding what producers put on the market. In addition, this article discusses how competition with the other comic producers for the license to produce comics spurs this company to become more efficient as well as improve the quality of their goods in an effort to attract more customers, which displays how a market economy works in providing incentive for better production through competition.

Richard Tu:
http://sorrel.humboldt.edu/~economic/econ104/marginal/
This article explains more specificly about marginal analysis; it explains marginal cost and benefit in various situations, including both hard and easy decisions. It provides a well explained graph showing what happens to marginal cost and benefit when the consumption of the society increases. The article also explains how marginal cost and benefit would affect the economy efficiency as a whole. Furthermore, it also talks about "The Moral Vacuum of the efficiency standard", explaining that "one must not use the efficiency standard indiscriminately or else he/she arrives at some ridiculus or dangerous conclusions."

Kevin Chiu:
Woolworths eyes strong profit growth
This article relates to our class in the regard that it is a prime example of a business maximizing their profits. Through cutting the price of certain products, the company hopes to increase consumers in order to maximize their profit. Even though this cut has yet to be implemented by the company, competitors already fear this aggressive tactic while oppose them.

Kevin Yeh:
As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes
I thought that this article was a great example of opportunity costs in a growing economy. By having such skyrocketing economic growth, China has to pay for it by dealing with the huge pollution problems. Its citizens are contracting cancer and other diseases, and the water supply is becoming scarce. Also, if China wants to reduce pollution, they must sacrifice some of the industrial plants which are aiding its growth.

Emily Yeh:
The agonies of agflation
This article reflects the concept of inflation. The demand for grain is met by a weakened supply as Canada is hit by bad weather. The article also continues to discuss the rising demand for grain as it is replacing oil as an energy source in some areas. It further emphasizes the idea that "desires are unlimited", but "scarcity exists". There is only so much land available to plant grain. Also, the article also indicates a chain reaction in inflation as the result of grain- causing the costs of raising livestock to increase, causing the price of poultry to increase.

Chan Min:
Why oil won't hit $100
Around a year ago, all I saw on TV was about the oil, how the price is rising. Scarcity, a very important concept we learned, ties in very well with the oil resources. If resources are scarce, and at the rate of how we are using up that scare resource, I find it interesting how oil prices have actually been dropping. So scarcity isn't always about getting more and more expensive, but economics could actually solve this problem I guess.

Jack Lo:
Quantity or Quality?
Recently, all the talk has been about China's economyChina's economy is growing by double digits every year and is soon set to take over Germany and become the third largets in the world. This article mentions the recent recall of the thousands of flawed toys that were manufactured in China. This ties in with the concept of opportunity costs. The Chinese manufacturers had two options: make better quality toys at a higher cost, or make more toys at a cheaper cost. The Chinese factories decided to give up the opportunity to make higher quality toys and instead decided to produce more toys, but the toys were of cheaper quality. As the GREAT Mr.Welker said, "an opportunity cost is an opportunity lost. The chinese manufacturers ended up miscalculating and made a bad choice.

Margaret Liu:
Where Can I Go With Economics?
Since we've just started AP econ, I found this article intriguing in the sense that it manifested how useful this class is, and where we can take it. With a major in economics, you can virtually attain any job you want, not to mention the field of economics and finance is in high demand, meaning great pays for all econ majors. Questions posed at the beginnning of the article resemble those we are dealing with in class (the first chapter of the textbook involving opportunity costs, scarce resources, and choices).

Jacques Zhang:
More on the current events side, I found an article on New York Times that talks about legislation set to pass in the next week or so by the Chinese government. Here it is.
Click here and win a free iPod. Oh wait, it's never free.
According to this article, China is set on its course to pass legislation that basically states that foreign companies "should go through national security checks." Why? Connie Barbucci explains it as, the Chinese government trying to "ensure [that] the crown jewels are not pillaged away by foreign invaders." This article is a great example of how China used to require "foreign capital" and "foreign managers" (aka. entrepreneurs) as the article phrases it, but no longer needs these resources from other nations, as it can obtain these resources through ways of its own. China wins again, yes? Whether this Chinese law is passed or not has yet to be answered.

Jeff Ye:
In the Market for fresh and old corpses?
Chinese superstition demands that husbands get buried with their wives when they die, but what if a man doesn't have a wife to be buried with? The family then buys corpses from gravediggers and murderers. Chinese locals are constanly caught digging up graves and kidnapping the corpse, or murdering people as fresh corpses are worth more than old ones, to sell to families who need somone to bury their deceased relative with. This market for dead bodies has been growing larger recently, and is proving to be very profitable to some people.


Kristie Chung:
Skype vs. Jaxtr
Jaxtr, aprivately held social networking and Internet phone company, has decided to offer a new service in order to compete with other rival internet phone services such as Skype and Ooma. Voice in social networking is unprecedented, and Jaxtr sees potential in this market. By adding voice, Jaxtr will not only attract "tech-savvy kids and twenty-somethings" who use social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace, but also corporate users.Due to competition with other rival companies, Jaxtr is using innovation and adjusting to consumer tastes, in hopes of acquiring a greater profit.

David Xu:
Home sales hit slowest pace in 5 years
Okay. So I saved this once already but it didn't show... So I have to add it again. How that tied into Economics I don't know, but I want to voice my frustration. Anyways, houses have lost value for the 5th straight month in July. This ties into what we are learning because the market will adjust itself to consumer demand. When the prices of the houses fell, it signified a change in consumer trends that people are not as interested in buying houses. As a result, houses have lost value. The article discusses how the government is trying to lessen the fall of prices in housing by encouraging more loans.

Cassy Chang
IM Chats on Cellphones-Yahoo
Basically, cellphones can be used like msn messenger. Introducing another feature to cellphones is a way of responding to competition. Cellphones are constantly renewing with new technologies and ideas, and people pay for those ideas for practical and fashionable reasons. There is obviously a trend in customers' demand of cheaper, faster, and more sociable ways of communication, and IM chats on cellphones is just another variation.

Jeewon Oh:
MySpace reportedly may allow member ads
MySpace, the popular social networking site, might allow its members to send commercial messages and advertise products. Until now, MySpace has prohibited "any commerical endeavors." However, MySpace is re-examining its policy, as it could make profit from advertising sales. MySpace has recently selected Google as the Web site's search system. This is all about costs and benefits, as MySpace would be able to profit from lifting ban on sales and ads. Also, competition is a significant reason why MySpace is trying to make these changes. MySpace is currently competing with its rival Facebook, which has fewer restrictions advertising and sales. Likewise, competition among economic units promotes change and improvement.


Timothy Sun:
Jersey City Landlords Prosper in New York’s Shadow
New Jersey, probably notorious for their incredibly dense metropoles, is a great example of scarcity. Land (not the collective resource, but the actual acreage) is the central topic of this article. Linking to Ch.1, a 14% increase in rent is indicating a decrease in available land, which means that soon enough, there will be hardly any in this populous city.



Charlie Gao
Fed minutes: We'll step in if economy tanks
According to an August 7 meeting, The Federal Reserve acknowledged that a policy response might be necessary if financial market conditions worsened. As we all know, the US economy has not been very stable recently and if this continues the government may intervene. This contradicts the laissez-faire capitalism that the US has and history has shown that a restricted economy never thrives. However, although policy-makers agree that recent strains in financial markets pose risks to overall economic growth, they believe that their forecast of moderate growth would be supported by job gains, rising incomes and foreign demand for goods and services. We'll just have to wait and see.

Taka Ono
Gaijin at the gates
This is a pretty decent example of Entrepreneurship and FDI or foreign direct investment. This article explains the government's action to allow easy access for foreign investors into Japanese markets. Although Japan's incentive is not for money but for the ideas and people that the foreign investors will bring. The Japanese predicts that with the increase of FDI, there would be reform to the already crumbling Japanese markets and a brighter future for Japan despite the fact of cultural barriers.


Sharon Li
Power Outages are result of economic tradeoffs
I actually posted this yesterday, but it never appeared so I'm reposting. This article basically explains how power outages are costing the community and compares preventive measures. Power outages could be avoided if power lines were installed underground rather than suspended overhead, because they are mainly caused by broken tree branches. However, in completely preventing all power outages, underground installation is very expensive, up to ten times more than overhead installation. In this case, the marginal benefit of no power outages is outweighed by the marginal cost of underground installation. Some believe that this efficient preventive measure is not worth the price.


Howard Lin
Why The Economy Is A Lot Stronger Than You Think
This article interests me because it teaches you how to understand the economy in a very weird way. There are many stories of induestries and analysis there stats. It give people a new perception of Economy. It disproves many opinions that people use to have and introduce new thinkings.

Claire Moon
Wages Up in China as Young Workers Grow Scarce
As the China economics grow, average Chinese workers' wages are on the rise. In contrast, factory owners and experts who monitor the nation’s labor market say that businesses are having a hard time finding able-bodied workers and are having to pay the workers they can find more money..etc Kai Lin Fu: Kristie Chung
Housing troubles worsen for the poor
Rent controls intends to protect low-income families from rising rents and also to make housing more affordable to the poor. However, as many American cities have either abaonded or are in the process of getting rid of rent controls, many low-income families have housing troubles. Many low-income households have been forced to spend more than half of their earnings on housing costs. The article discusses the problem of increasing housing costs, and the effect it has on low-income families, and suggests a few solutions.

Katherine Yang:
Demand for Organic Food Growing Faster Than Domestic Supply
This article highlights the organic food industry and some of the steps (i.e. ceasing to use synthetic pesticides) farmers have to take in order to call their produce "organic". The article addresses an increase in demand for organic foods because consumers view organic foods as a healthier and more nutritious choice. In addition, organic farmers must compete price-wise with other inorganic farmers who have a bigger advantage.