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Unit II C and D AP Econ in the News
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.
Dana Yeon: The Falling Down Professions
Kevin Yeh: Gas stations repeatedly cited for air pollution
This article talks about how the gas stations leak pollution into the air in spite of special leak-proof gas nozzles. Such leakage is a major cause of pollution in San Diego, and thus there have been fines placed on gas stations which do not keep up their safety features and vapor recovery systems. However, these fines seem to be minimal compared to the amount it would take to maintain the pumps, because gas stations continually get cited for leakages. Obviously, the marginal cost of fines is exceeded and outweighted by the marginal cost of maintiaining their systems.
Howard Lin: Politics by Other Means
The “Why” of Immigration to the United States
This article is dealing with the issue of immagration in America. I think that America should allow immigrants in. Even though many argued against it says that it would create a rising number of unemployment and that it would bring the wages down, thinking from another point of view, it would bring the cost for firms down, which means lowing the price. Then, if the percentage drop of the good were greater than that of the wage, it would actually be a positive externality.
Jo Lo: California sues EPA over Emissions
This article deals with the Environmental Protection Agency not allowing California to set up its own greenhouse emission limits on cars, trucks, and SUVs. California looks to challenge the Bush Administration's views that states have no business setting emission standards. If California is eventually allowed to set up its own policies, this would prove a positive extrenality because many other states will see what California has done and will follow suit.
Jeff Ye: Global Warming Heats Up
When global warming first became a topic, many thought that human race would have centuries to correct the problem. However, this article compares the Earth's response to a pot of hot water. There is a ceratin "boiling" point where everything really starts to happen, and we've reached it. Destructive natural disasters are hitting hard and fast, and even the most critical skeptics have concluded that something should be done. The planet's ill and it's trying to fight a fever, unfortunately for us, these methods usually hurt in some way.
Dana Yeon: The Falling Down Professions
The textbook says that meter readers, textile machine operators, and credit authorizers are amongst the 10 most rapidly declining U.S. occupations. However, an interesting article from New York Times brought out a fascinating trend. Not as many students are applying to law schools and medical schools! Not only that, "As of 2006, nearly 60 percent of doctors polled by the American College of Physician Executives said they had considered getting out of medicine because of low morale, and nearly 70 percent knew someone who already had." Why are lawyers and doctors, who have one of the most prized occupations, so willing to drop out? Why the low morale? Read this article to find out about the most recent employment trends. (I couldn't find Unit III's AP Econ in the News, so I am writing about resource demand in Unit II C and D's AP Econ in the News.)
Jessica Chiang: SeaWorld raises prices on tickets
I've never really thought about SeaWorld as an industry, but I guess it's an oligopoly. Its competitors include Disney, Six Flags, and other amusement parks. It is a differentiated product, because seaworld is the only one that has animals. Also, they are price makers, which is seen by this article. Furthermore, the barriers to entry are pretty high; they need a lot of land and money to construct roller coasters and such. Will Disney raise its prices too?
Drew Venkatraman: Money drives Iraqi fightersMoney is now the main source of hiring new soliders to fight on the Iraqi side. There is a severe shortage of workers so terrorists are offering large sums of money as salary to any individual interested in joining, this shows a unique side to the war that can only truly be understood while knowing the nature of demand and demand of resources/labor. Interesting to see how without people nad resources, a war can truly not be fought.Mond Gu: BHP Billiton's bid for Rio Tinto stirs fears of iron ore monopoly
Steelmakers in Asia are protesting against BHP's proposition to takeover Rio Tinto Group claiming that it would create a monopoly for iron ore. The market structure right now is an oligopoly with the three biggest producers BHP, Rio Tinto and Companhia Vale do Rio Doce accounting for more than 75 percent of all global iron ore trade. If BHP was to buy Rio Tinto it would control 38% of the seaborne iron ore trade. All of the steel companies are against this takeover because they fear a monopoly.
Howard Jing: Google Enters Cell Phone Industry
Well, kinda. On November 5th, Google announced that they would be developing an open source operating system for cell phones called Android. Android won't be available until late 2008, but it already has high ambitions of dominating the market by forming an "Open Handset Alliance" of 33 cell phone makers. These firms include heavy hitters such as Motorola, Samsung, and Sprint. However, it is doubtful whether this alliance will have much of an effect on the industry as a whole, since companies such as Nokia, Apple, and Microsoft are missing. Although Android will be free, Google is hoping to profit from it by turning it into another outlet for online advertisements, which is an area where Google holds a massive marketshare.
Claire Moon:
Kevin Ma: Past the Monopoly Barrier
Consumers in Fiji have asked the government to break some monopolies so the consumers may enjoy the quality that competition allows. Lots of businesses are making huge profits because of the protection they had from the government. These monopolies include communication, television sectors, and airline. They talk about how Fiji TV is bad for the people because of cheap and mediocre movies, non educational programs for the kids, irrelevant broadcasts, lack of sport coverage, and bad timing. However, the shareholders for Fiji TV do not care so the consumers frequently request that the government get rid of their protection to allow competition to happen.
Jonathan Lau: Builders see worse times ahead
As the housing market in America continutes to slip, home builders are becoming less and less optimistic that a recovery will occur in the near future. Builders have widely reported offering incentives such as covering closing costs and extra features on a new home for free in order to spur demand, but many have reported that these incentives had little success. This is a good example illustrating one of the determinants of demand: consumer expectations. Since consumers see that the housing market is going to continue to fall, they will demand less, meaning they will wait until the housing market recovers before buying a house. Unfortunately, home builders are the ones who are being affected by the poor economic status of the housing market.
Rebecca Sung: On lists of holiday wishes, kids talk tech
For the holdiay season, kids are looking forward to new game consoles like Xbox and Wii from Santa. There are even MP3 for babies! This demand for high tech toys has caused toy makers like Hasbro, Playskool, and Fisher Price to change and alter their products to meet consumer tastes/preferences. Five year olds are getting learning labtops with Star War games to teach them basic things; bascially, kids do not want the traditional toys like Tickle me Elmo. Toy makers will now have to compete with game console industry which is an oligopoly, major firms being Nintendo and Playstation.
Andy Xu: China Property Index Hits New High in Oct
Does this sound familiar? Rising housing prices in China has been in the local debates for just about the past 3 years. Well, there are professors and "real estate strategy advisers" all over the internet stating their claim whether the current level is inflated and will undergo any sort of price drop anytime soon. This is because of the amount of people whose salary increase over the past decade cannot keep up with the pace of the real estate market, thus unable to "purchase" property and unable to receive loans.
Well, here's what I think, if there are people buying houses and apartments in China, then the probability that the current price levels fall is almost nonexistent. Even with the majority of citizens who cannot afford housing, the demand for housing is still there by the minority who can indeed afford these high-priced apartment complexes and houses.
As for inflation, while it may not benefit each individual consumer, it certainly helps to increase wealth in the hands of a few, even if they are often a segregated group of government officials or group investors. In doing so, I believe that this leading group will reinvest the money they earn into new businesses, which in turn require employment, consumption and production, aiding the Chinese economy as a whole. I believe this is similar to Ronald Reagan's Trickle Down distribution of wealth. Such methods should prove more effective in a country like China.
Judy Chen:Korea’s Gasoline More Expensive Than Japan’s The gasoline prices between Korea and Japan has increased by the day. In 1998, Japan’s yearly average gasoline price was 97.9 yen per liter (1,050 won based on the exchange rate at that time), while Korea’s at 1,123 won. However, in 2003, the price differences have increased to 200 won and 363 won in 2006. In 2007, Japan’s gasoline price is higher than Korea’s because “When international oil prices rise, Korean oil companies pass the burden to consumers. In contrast, Japanese firms offset the rise through intense competition.”
James Tsao: Shoe brands battle for China market
As Nike and Adidas, the two main oligopolisitic industries of the sports-gear market compete for market shares, China strikes as a major area to compete for due to its enormous potentials. They engage in nonprice competition as they compete for the sponsorship position of the Beijing Olympics. The Olympics, an external factor, significantly impacts both comapany's sales. " Both companies may hit $1 billion in sales annually in China by the Olympics."
Calvin Lu:So Google's down? That means BUY
We've been talking about market share and product differentiation in class, well here is an example. This article stated that google's stock droped 16% from it recent high, and suggest people to buy as there is still a space for google to grow in the future, and thus appreciating its stock price. This predicted growth is base on google's stategy of differenciating it self, such as binding related advertisements on search page, and providing faster search speed, from others in the search engine industry.
Taka Ono: How Lenovo makes mergers workIf oligopolies couldn't dominate the market enough, why not combine into one entity? This article explains the merger of Lenovo and IBM's thinkpad laptops in 2005. Bill Amelio, who is now the CEO of Lenovo, gives the step by step analysis on how he successfuly merged the two companies together and is a good example of the ever expanding global business. Amelio even made a new word for it "worldsourcing" he calls it where the headquaters are strategically placed in places which advantageous to the company.
Tim Chu: Oligopoly to dominate Global water market
Ok so i know that the article is a bit old, but its still interesting. basically, the article states that by 2015, 80 companies will dominate the world market for drinking water. It predicts that soon, 60% of the market will be controled by 80 companies when in 1998, it was being controlled by 500 companies. That is quite a big jump, and with a utlity such as water and the decreasing supplies of water in the world, this could be a bit of a problem for consumers if the number of companies owning the market keeps declining. who knows it might even reach a natural monoply.
Kristie Chung: McDonalds.... Coffee Market?
McDonalds is thinking about entering the growing coffee market by offering consumers lattes, mochas, cappuccinos and espressos. McDonalds believes that its speed, convenience, and the value at which it will offer its cofee will make it a "formidable" player. Dunkin' Donuts has already introduced its full line of coffee beverages in 2003, and Tim Hortons is expanding in the US coffee market. Even though, McDonalds is considering entering this market, some believe that McDonalds and Starbucks can both be successful in selling coffees simultaneously as they appeal to different types of consumers...
Hansen Gu: Zune 80
On virtual and physical shelves alike, the new 80 gig Zune has sold out. We can say that perhaps the Apple iPod is a leader in innovation and product differentiation of their portable music players. However, with Elaine's article mentioning laser-engraved designs and now the Zune's jump from 4 to 8 to 80 gigabytes of storage, the Zune is moving towards the likes of the iPod. Will it be a closer subsitute good? Maybe, maybe not. Apple still holds product differentiation with its design and easy user interface.
Howard Lin : Cooking oil price to rise by 10%
The price of cooking oil in China will see a 10 percent increase in this new round of consumer goods price hikes due to soaring prices of raw materials, according to the Beijing Times. THIS ARETICLE IS NOT ABOUT THE gasoline, but COOKING OIL, which is also getting more expensive, this is gradually causing inflation in China.
Chan Min Park: Toys “R” Us Seeks Product Differentiation
As we are learning monopolistic competition, product differentiation is very important in the specific market. In monopolistic competition, there are many factors of differentiated products such as service, location, brand names, etc. Toys “R” Us may rely a lot of brand name, but the CEO mentions that they cannot do that forever. Therefore they need to start differentiating their products, certain product attributes should be what is attracting customers.
Jennifer Choi: Excellence in A Cup
This article is similart to what Chan Min brought up, it's about product differentiation. So in Brazil held the Cup of Excellence competition at the Federal University of Viçosa, and the winning beans are sold worldwide in an online auction. How this is connectied to the concept of product differentiation is that the participants were focused on how to differentiate their beans from others, for example, where the coffee beans are grown and harvested, how they were cultivated, how long and in what way they were roasted and etc.
Dana Yeon:http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/stung-and-now-they-can-fight-back/2007/10/16/1192300768647.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
Chan Min Park: Market Failure: Pollution, the Environment and Externalities
This article deals with one of the most obvious negative externalities, which is pollution. Pollution creates a market failure, where negative externalities cause the resources to be overallocated towards that market. To control this, the Environment Agency fined these companies and these fines have rose 41% since 2001, but companies are not changing their behavior. Companies are not taking care of the pollution they are creating, which are even deadly at times, and therefore creating negative externalities. Profits will be high and costs low if companies do not take care of their wastes. However to society, there is a high cost. Another problem companies face is the increasing costs for safely disposing their waste products. If waste products are safely disposed, then the negative externalities would not be as great. However since the cost is increasing to safely dispose wastes, companies and others are not taking care of their waste products.
I've never really thought about SeaWorld as an industry, but I guess it's an oligopoly. Its competitors include Disney, Six Flags, and other amusement parks. It is a differentiated product, because seaworld is the only one that has animals. Also, they are price makers, which is seen by this article. Furthermore, the barriers to entry are pretty high; they need a lot of land and money to construct roller coasters and such. Will Disney raise its prices too?
Drew Venkatraman: Money drives Iraqi fightersMoney is now the main source of hiring new soliders to fight on the Iraqi side. There is a severe shortage of workers so terrorists are offering large sums of money as salary to any individual interested in joining, this shows a unique side to the war that can only truly be understood while knowing the nature of demand and demand of resources/labor. Interesting to see how without people nad resources, a war can truly not be fought.Mond Gu: BHP Billiton's bid for Rio Tinto stirs fears of iron ore monopoly
Steelmakers in Asia are protesting against BHP's proposition to takeover Rio Tinto Group claiming that it would create a monopoly for iron ore. The market structure right now is an oligopoly with the three biggest producers BHP, Rio Tinto and Companhia Vale do Rio Doce accounting for more than 75 percent of all global iron ore trade. If BHP was to buy Rio Tinto it would control 38% of the seaborne iron ore trade. All of the steel companies are against this takeover because they fear a monopoly.
Howard Jing: Google Enters Cell Phone Industry
Well, kinda. On November 5th, Google announced that they would be developing an open source operating system for cell phones called Android. Android won't be available until late 2008, but it already has high ambitions of dominating the market by forming an "Open Handset Alliance" of 33 cell phone makers. These firms include heavy hitters such as Motorola, Samsung, and Sprint. However, it is doubtful whether this alliance will have much of an effect on the industry as a whole, since companies such as Nokia, Apple, and Microsoft are missing. Although Android will be free, Google is hoping to profit from it by turning it into another outlet for online advertisements, which is an area where Google holds a massive marketshare.
Claire Moon:
Kevin Ma: Past the Monopoly Barrier
Consumers in Fiji have asked the government to break some monopolies so the consumers may enjoy the quality that competition allows. Lots of businesses are making huge profits because of the protection they had from the government. These monopolies include communication, television sectors, and airline. They talk about how Fiji TV is bad for the people because of cheap and mediocre movies, non educational programs for the kids, irrelevant broadcasts, lack of sport coverage, and bad timing. However, the shareholders for Fiji TV do not care so the consumers frequently request that the government get rid of their protection to allow competition to happen.
Jonathan Lau: Builders see worse times ahead
As the housing market in America continutes to slip, home builders are becoming less and less optimistic that a recovery will occur in the near future. Builders have widely reported offering incentives such as covering closing costs and extra features on a new home for free in order to spur demand, but many have reported that these incentives had little success. This is a good example illustrating one of the determinants of demand: consumer expectations. Since consumers see that the housing market is going to continue to fall, they will demand less, meaning they will wait until the housing market recovers before buying a house. Unfortunately, home builders are the ones who are being affected by the poor economic status of the housing market.
Rebecca Sung: On lists of holiday wishes, kids talk tech
For the holdiay season, kids are looking forward to new game consoles like Xbox and Wii from Santa. There are even MP3 for babies! This demand for high tech toys has caused toy makers like Hasbro, Playskool, and Fisher Price to change and alter their products to meet consumer tastes/preferences. Five year olds are getting learning labtops with Star War games to teach them basic things; bascially, kids do not want the traditional toys like Tickle me Elmo. Toy makers will now have to compete with game console industry which is an oligopoly, major firms being Nintendo and Playstation.
Andy Xu: China Property Index Hits New High in Oct
Does this sound familiar? Rising housing prices in China has been in the local debates for just about the past 3 years. Well, there are professors and "real estate strategy advisers" all over the internet stating their claim whether the current level is inflated and will undergo any sort of price drop anytime soon. This is because of the amount of people whose salary increase over the past decade cannot keep up with the pace of the real estate market, thus unable to "purchase" property and unable to receive loans.
Well, here's what I think, if there are people buying houses and apartments in China, then the probability that the current price levels fall is almost nonexistent. Even with the majority of citizens who cannot afford housing, the demand for housing is still there by the minority who can indeed afford these high-priced apartment complexes and houses.
As for inflation, while it may not benefit each individual consumer, it certainly helps to increase wealth in the hands of a few, even if they are often a segregated group of government officials or group investors. In doing so, I believe that this leading group will reinvest the money they earn into new businesses, which in turn require employment, consumption and production, aiding the Chinese economy as a whole. I believe this is similar to Ronald Reagan's Trickle Down distribution of wealth. Such methods should prove more effective in a country like China.
Judy Chen:Korea’s Gasoline More Expensive Than Japan’s The gasoline prices between Korea and Japan has increased by the day. In 1998, Japan’s yearly average gasoline price was 97.9 yen per liter (1,050 won based on the exchange rate at that time), while Korea’s at 1,123 won. However, in 2003, the price differences have increased to 200 won and 363 won in 2006. In 2007, Japan’s gasoline price is higher than Korea’s because “When international oil prices rise, Korean oil companies pass the burden to consumers. In contrast, Japanese firms offset the rise through intense competition.”
James Tsao: Shoe brands battle for China market
As Nike and Adidas, the two main oligopolisitic industries of the sports-gear market compete for market shares, China strikes as a major area to compete for due to its enormous potentials. They engage in nonprice competition as they compete for the sponsorship position of the Beijing Olympics. The Olympics, an external factor, significantly impacts both comapany's sales. " Both companies may hit $1 billion in sales annually in China by the Olympics."
Calvin Lu:So Google's down? That means BUY
We've been talking about market share and product differentiation in class, well here is an example. This article stated that google's stock droped 16% from it recent high, and suggest people to buy as there is still a space for google to grow in the future, and thus appreciating its stock price. This predicted growth is base on google's stategy of differenciating it self, such as binding related advertisements on search page, and providing faster search speed, from others in the search engine industry.
Taka Ono: How Lenovo makes mergers workIf oligopolies couldn't dominate the market enough, why not combine into one entity? This article explains the merger of Lenovo and IBM's thinkpad laptops in 2005. Bill Amelio, who is now the CEO of Lenovo, gives the step by step analysis on how he successfuly merged the two companies together and is a good example of the ever expanding global business. Amelio even made a new word for it "worldsourcing" he calls it where the headquaters are strategically placed in places which advantageous to the company.
Tim Chu: Oligopoly to dominate Global water market
Ok so i know that the article is a bit old, but its still interesting. basically, the article states that by 2015, 80 companies will dominate the world market for drinking water. It predicts that soon, 60% of the market will be controled by 80 companies when in 1998, it was being controlled by 500 companies. That is quite a big jump, and with a utlity such as water and the decreasing supplies of water in the world, this could be a bit of a problem for consumers if the number of companies owning the market keeps declining. who knows it might even reach a natural monoply.
Kristie Chung: McDonalds.... Coffee Market?
McDonalds is thinking about entering the growing coffee market by offering consumers lattes, mochas, cappuccinos and espressos. McDonalds believes that its speed, convenience, and the value at which it will offer its cofee will make it a "formidable" player. Dunkin' Donuts has already introduced its full line of coffee beverages in 2003, and Tim Hortons is expanding in the US coffee market. Even though, McDonalds is considering entering this market, some believe that McDonalds and Starbucks can both be successful in selling coffees simultaneously as they appeal to different types of consumers...
Hansen Gu: Zune 80
On virtual and physical shelves alike, the new 80 gig Zune has sold out. We can say that perhaps the Apple iPod is a leader in innovation and product differentiation of their portable music players. However, with Elaine's article mentioning laser-engraved designs and now the Zune's jump from 4 to 8 to 80 gigabytes of storage, the Zune is moving towards the likes of the iPod. Will it be a closer subsitute good? Maybe, maybe not. Apple still holds product differentiation with its design and easy user interface.
Howard Lin : Cooking oil price to rise by 10%
The price of cooking oil in China will see a 10 percent increase in this new round of consumer goods price hikes due to soaring prices of raw materials, according to the Beijing Times. THIS ARETICLE IS NOT ABOUT THE gasoline, but COOKING OIL, which is also getting more expensive, this is gradually causing inflation in China.
Chan Min Park: Toys “R” Us Seeks Product Differentiation
As we are learning monopolistic competition, product differentiation is very important in the specific market. In monopolistic competition, there are many factors of differentiated products such as service, location, brand names, etc. Toys “R” Us may rely a lot of brand name, but the CEO mentions that they cannot do that forever. Therefore they need to start differentiating their products, certain product attributes should be what is attracting customers.
Jennifer Choi: Excellence in A Cup
This article is similart to what Chan Min brought up, it's about product differentiation. So in Brazil held the Cup of Excellence competition at the Federal University of Viçosa, and the winning beans are sold worldwide in an online auction. How this is connectied to the concept of product differentiation is that the participants were focused on how to differentiate their beans from others, for example, where the coffee beans are grown and harvested, how they were cultivated, how long and in what way they were roasted and etc.
Dana Yeon:http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/stung-and-now-they-can-fight-back/2007/10/16/1192300768647.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
Australia's two cardboard companies, Amcor and Visy, had gotten away for raising prices covertly for years. Recently, however, their devious dealings to gain higher profits has been revealed and the Australian Federal Court has ordered both companies to pay a penalty of $36 million. But were Amcor and Visy's practices indeed so underhanded? Did the two oligopolistic companies really raise prices simultaneously with the intention of ripping customers off or was it mere collusion? Does the Australian government need to regulate its oligopolies more stringently to eliminate such inefficiency from happening again?
Cassy Chang: Free schools vs State schools
Free schools are schools established by anybody. As long as they have enough students, the government will subsidize the schools. These schools create competition with the state schools, since free schools are innovative in their teaching style and the founders of those schools have incentive to make the education better. This is an example of oligopoly.
Annie Sung:Woman sues for $1 million over iPhone cost cut
Apple lowers its prices consistently, selling the iPhone in a range of prices between $599 and $399, so people who are willing to pay $599 can pay their share, and they continue to receive more revenue as prices lower and more consumers are interested. Good example of a firm using price discrimination to further maximize their profits.
Elaine Lung: Zune players to get laser-engraved designs
So, most of us here in SAS use iPods, and as we all know, we have the option of getting Apple to engrave text on the backs of them to personalize them, in a way. Zune, which is otherwise similar to the iPod, is taking it one step further by allowing for engraved designs -- like images reminiscent of tattoo art and other designs created by contemporary artists -- in addition to a line or two of text. This is an attempt at product differentiation and advertising to entice potential customers -- oligopoly, anyone?
Yun Qi Mok: Ron Paul and the Gold StandardJon Paul, a 2008 Presidential hopeful, wants to bring the US back to the Gold Standard. Why does he attempt this folly? The US can hardly have enough gold to back all their expenses, especially with the Iraq War and such going ons. What is his rationale? This fascinating article goes into the whole history and reasons for the Gold Standard, such as prestige and the like, as well as the disastrous or not so disastrous consequences of the standard.
Kevin Chiu: Lawsuit Claims iPod iTunes Bond is Monopolistic
This article discusses the lawsuit that was filed against Apple because iTunes' song purchases are only insertable in an iPod device and iPod devices can only use iTunes to input music; the unfairness behind this lies in the fact that Apple has forced a monopolistic control over the digital media market because Apple is able to inflate prices and exclude competition of the market (i.e. people that use Apple or purchase songs and other stuff off iTunes).
Jonathan Lau: Gap: Child Labor
Wow, so this article was a pretty interesting read. It is about Gap being accused of using child labor to sew its clothes made in New Delhi, India. According to Gap, they "strictly prohibit the use of child labor and they have a history of addressing challenges like this head-on, and their approach to this situation will be no exception." It will definitely be interesting to see if Gap's sales go down because of this shocking issue.
Robert Wang:Who Really Owns the Roads?Drawn to this article at first by it's title, I was rather surprised to discover that states in the US have begun to sell their roads to private companies to in order to raise money for the state's infrastructure. Although a justifiable cause, I've always known the US as a country in which the government ran the public facilities like roads, where the government would set the tolls and taxes of the roads. Now, with a lot of the roads in the control of private individuals, the toll booth prices can potentially skyrocket, disrupting America's transportation system. It's an interesting read and it shows the change from one market type to another.
Hansen Gu: F.C.C. Set to End Sole Cable Deals for Apartments
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is preparing to ban individual cable companies from having sole rights to certain apartment buildlings. This is in response to rising cable costs for many. This change would also create a more pure competition market as many companies such as Verizon and AT&T have started offering their own video services. According to the article: "Government and private studies show that when a second cable company enters a market, prices can drop as much as 30 percent."
Howard Jing: College Loans, The Price of ProcrastinationThe price of attending a four year college in the United States has gone way up over the last few years. Yet many parents do not save money to go towards their children's college education until it is too late. Although some people say that one day parents will think that "enough is enough" and decide that the marginal cost of attending college exceeds the marginal benefits, it looks like that will not happen anytime soon. For now, parent's should stop procrastinating and invest their money in a long term investment plan.
Drew Venkatraman:Immigration Raids lead to Farmer shortage
Recent raids by the U.S. Immigration officials have left many farmers without workers to harvest their crop. DUe to the nature that most farm hands and crop pickers are illegal immigrants (due to the nature of their low wages), arresting these people leaves little or no people to do this job. Now farmers are frantically searching for workers in order to harvest their crop on time. This labor shortage could possibly affect the supply of crops and maybe the price in the future.
Rebecca Sung: Apple Unleashes Leopard
Apple is releasing a program called "Leopard" that is easy to use and has a "slick interface." It is an upgrade program for Macs consumers can use this program to complement their IPods and IPhones. Even though Microsoft still dominates the PC market, Apple has made significant gains in these past years with stores like Best Buy carrying Macs. I think the PC market is oligopoly because it is difficult to make computers and there are only a few forms in the market. Apple and Microsoft does a lot of advertising for their PCs and other products in order to prove to the consumers that their product is the best.
Mina Song - Apple Limits Sale of i-Phones: Two Per Person and No Cash
okay... basicly, apple is limiting the sale of i-phones to two for each person from 5 for each person. the reason is to prevent the locking activity to provide better usage to the i-phone users, but I think it is not following the law of supply, because according to the law of supply, if the demand increse, they increase the price and produce more, but Apples, they keep the price at same but decrease the supply. ??
Jessica Chiang- Starbucks Raises Prices of Most Coffee Drinks by 5 Cents
Oh dear, it seems like Starbucks is getting more expensive every year. Apparently, costs of fuel and energy are going up, and Starbucks feels it needs to increase coffee prices to compensate for its increased costs. The coffee industry is a monopolistic competition. It is relatively easy to enter the industry, and its products are differentiated. Each company has their own unique coffee beans and secret ingredients. As seen in this article, they have some control over price. Of course, as we all know, Starbucks relies heavily on advertising and its brand name.
Kevin Ma - Robotic Surgery Monopoly
Intuitive Surgical manufactures robotic surgery machines and is the only one approved by the FDA to sell them. They sell their machines from 1 million to 1.7 million a piece. Their stocks have gone up 2200% percent in the last five years and will cost you around 330 dollars to get just one stock. One of the reason why they're doing so well is because they are "a monopoly that's being driven by increasing competition between hosipitals." I thought this was an interesting monopoly.
Alex Goldman - Wal-Mart Says Sales Growth Will Slow The article “Wal-Mart Says Sales Growth Will Slow” discusses Wal-Mart’s plans to ease down on the mass addition of new outlets and focus on the stores they currently have. This is because Wal-Mart’s share price has dropped recently after strong gains in the 1990’s, and Wal-Mart feels that it will be in their investors best interests to cut down spending and tighten cost controls. The declining share-price could indicate that Wal-Mart is heading towards a diseconomy of scale as a result of its mass expansion, while its profits in the past decade came while it was an economy of scale.
Richard Tu- Innovation in Asia
China's market is best known for its cheap labor. However, with the aid of globalization and improved communication systems in recent years, Chinese entrepreneurs are catching up to the Western world. Mr Seely Brown argues that the activity of private entrepreneurs means “China is rapidly emerging as the global centre of management innovation, pioneering management techniques that most US companies are struggling to understand.” Although right now the firms are only producing so-so quality products, they are believed to improve.
Jeewon Oh: AirAsia breaks Singapore-KL 35-year monopoly
This article is about the Malaysian AirAsia that "won its long battle to fly the lucrative Singapore-Kuala Lumpur route," breaking the 35-year monopoly by the two national airlines. The Malaysian cabinet has finally given permission for Malaysia-based AirAsia and Singapore's Tiger Airways to operate the leg, in order to "set the stage for a price war." This is the result of AirAsia's intense campaigning to break the monopoly held by Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines. Now with AirAsia in the market, there will be more competition among the airlines and change in price, as AirAsia is offering 60 dollars for one-way tickets, while others are proposing round-trip ticket on the route for 298 dollars.
Andy Xu:
Forget Wine - California's biggest crop is bright green and funny-smelling This article discusses the lastest home grown crop that has repopulized in California - the infamous marijuana. By reading this article, one can relate back to a fundamental in economics: the laws of supply and demand. In order words, if the demand is so high while there is no supply provided with the government ban, people will start to revaluate their marginal cost and benefit analysis: cost = risks with American police; benefit = profits and fulfilling desires.
James Tsao: Baseball Players and Oppurtunity Costs
The explicit and implicit costs of signing contracts with outfielder Jose Cruz in the Toronto Blue Jays is illustrated in this article by Mike Moffatt. The explicit costs of having to sign this popular player totalled up to $ 5 million per season that was decided by an arbitrator. Not only this, an implicit cost is present: if the team signed this player, it can not use the $ 5 million for other uses. The marginal benefit coming from the 6 players that the Blue Jays signed instead is clearly greater than the marginal benefit from contracting Jose Cruz for the team to make such a decision.
Jenny Kim: China Oil Firm Eyes Record Float
PetroChina, being China's biggest oil and gas producer, is setting a goal to increase their profit in mainland China and be listed in the Shanghai Stock Exchange listing. It is also hoping to break the record of their competitor, Shenhua Energy. Statistics show that flotations in mainland china for PetroChina, which is owned by China National Petroleum has doulbled in an year. This article shows the competition between two of China's leading petroleum firms.
Judy Chen:India's gold demand low as prices inch up
Demand of gold in India has been decreasing recently. I was not surprised by that. First, gold is not the normal good, not everyone is able to purchase it. Second, gold is the limited resource, therefore, the value would increase as the lessening of gold resource in the world. However, behind those factore, the decreasing demand of gold is related to crude oil as well. If the price does not fall soon, people are unlikely to purchase it anymore.
Yun Qi Mok: Moving to a higher level
As people get richer, they obviously want to puchase more expensive goods. This "income" determinant of demand is perfectly illustrated with the newest shopping mall complex built in Dehli, India. The Indian marke is expanding just like the Chinese one, and its inhabitants are demanded better and better goods. People also have larger outlooks on life, as international brands, not only like Chanel and Gucci, but also traditional brands are also opening up in the new complex. So, although people say money doesn't bring happiness, it certainly helps...a lot.
Caleb Liao: Realse of the Leopard The new realise of Apple's latest Operating System has attracted a huge number of customers for the company. Lines in San Francisco stretched down and around streets. The monopoly that Apple has over this OS has allowed Apple to charge at whatever price they would like. This article just shows Apple's ability to set prices subjective to their own schedule as they have a monopoly in the industry.
Elaine Lung: Disney to overhaul disappointing California Adventure park
A little part of me died when I saw the title of the article, but my mood's been significantly improved since I actually read it. Disney is going to completely redo their California Adventure theme park in Anaheim, California, drawing it back to more distinctly Disney roots by bringing in Pixar movies and the Little Mermaid, hoping to increase the poor park attendance. A major problem with the park before had been its greater emphasis on California (which is a bit redundant since the park is located in California) over Disney attractions - leading to what some consider a boring experience. Since we've been talking about economic costs and profits, it would seem likely that a reason for Disney's overhaul in favor of an alternative solution is because the profits from the park have not been able to cover the economic cost of maintaining it.. It's likely then, that economic profit is actually less than zero - i.e., normal profits aren't even covered.
Jacques Zhang: French Supermarket Warns President about InflationWe all know what inflation is. Or at least we should all know. Inflation occurs when a certain currency declines in value. This eventually decreases a consumer's purchasing power, and products are abnormally high priced. A supermarket in France warns the new French president Sarkozy that the country's econonmy is headed towards inflation in a full-paged advertisement in a magazine depicting the prices of numerous products at abnormally high, two-digit prices. (Personally, I think stuff that happens in France is pretty boring, but this is kind of interesting.)
Jessica Ng: Valet Parking, Robot Style
This article mentions the profit-maximizer developers in the world who seek to maximize their profits are under pressure to maximize yields from their real estate. And this means to squeeze out the space of a traiditonal multi-storey parking lot. Because of ramps, elevators, and maneuvering space, each floor has significantly less storage space than a flat lot, and that means fewer cars and fewer revenues. Therefore, some companies are using high-tech robot-style parking systems to minizie the space needed. This reflects the way firms minimize their costs in order to gain more revenue.
Kevin Yeh: WB cancels costlly '7th Heaven'The Famous WB show '7th Heaven' is ending this may due to the fact that the WB is losing money off of the show. In fact, there is a $16 million loss for the show in the past year. The success of shows such as 7th Heaven reflect the the marginal revenue curve. At first, the marginal revenue increases as time goes on because the show becomes more and more famous. However, after a certain point, the actors become more expensive to maintain and there are less viewers for the show, thus forcing costs up and profits down, decreasing revenue.
Timothy Sun: Microsoft Buys Stake in Facebook
Microsoft, arguably one of the most well-known companies of all time, are looking for some way to make more money. Butting out Yahoo and Google, Microsoft will start investing in Facebook, one of our best friends. The company is said to be worth over $1 billion, and it seems to be a good idea for Microsoft. This can prove to be quite a risk, though; it could choose not to take it. However, the non-accounting profits from this should be very high, explaining why Microsoft is venturing sort of half-blindly into this situation. Why not MySpace? The future for it seems to be less fruitful than Facebook, even though it's twice the size. Besides, professionals view it as artificial.
Helen Chu: Stay Vigilant - Why Regulators Should Keep Their Eyes on Microsoft, and Others
Microsoft is again under the scrutiny of various anti-trust courts due to its monopolistic nature. But now the question arises - can Microsoft be truly considered as a monopoly? One side argues no, as the extensive interconnections and networking within computers have weakened Microsoft's power over the "computing world". The other side says yes, and their argument is that BECAUSE PCs and Internet servers are connected, Microsoft has been extending its monopolistic power into the market of servers. Looking at this issue on a wider scale, the article mentions other near monopolies, such as Apple with its "copy prevention software" like iTunes,and Google, who is continuing on its mission of expansion after its takeover of Youtube, and is now looking to take over DoubleClick, a firm that delivers online advertising.
Karen Chen: War costs could total $1.6 trillion by 2009, panel estimates
With the war raging on in Afghanistan, concerned democrats have tried to pull out troops as they finally realized the great toll these wars are having on the USA economy. But it's not just the cost of sending troops to the Middle East and buying weapons/artilleries that has been sucking up the economy; there are also other factors such as the increase in oil prices, the cost of recovering the veterans and the amount of entrepreneurs lost since they left America to go fight for their nation.
Soyeon Yoon: Sony Profits Up Sharply, Signaling Recovery
Sony is back! after the disappointing sales of its new PlayStation 3 console, Sony is recovering very well offering the latest sign that the new strategy of non-core business is actually the key for opening the door. The new strategy was done by chief executive, Sir Howard Stringer, and he actually Sony is now "operating profits at its electronics division rose 12-fold to 106.9 billion yen, or $939 million, as sales rose 20.7 percent." Jennifer Choi: Apple's Leopard OS goes on sale
Apple's next-generation operating system, Mac OS X "Leopard," will be available October 26 for $158! Mac revenues have hit record highs for the past year, and Apple's share of the PC market has grown. Analysts expect Apple's strategy of introducing products that work with Microsoft's Windows software to further boost computer sales.
Serena Tu: Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond?When i was reading this article, i immediately link this passage to monopoly. We didn't really learn it yet, but we touched it on the basis already. Diamond is the perfect example for describing a monopoly. This article was basically talking about the creation of the current diamond monopolist, De Beers Consolidated Mines, Ltd; the company was formed because they didn't want anyone else to be selling or supplying the diamond, this one firm basically controlled almost all the supply and demand for this industry. Michael Chow: Are Wars Good for the Economy?
In this article the author Moffatt suggests that one of the more enduring myths in Western society is that wars are somehow good for the economy. Such evidence for this is the Great Depression which happened almost immediately after World War II. Moffatt with the statement "a war gives the economy a boost". By backing himself with an example, "Let's suppose that the economy is in the low end of the business cycle, so we're in a recession or just a period of low economic growth. The unemployment rate is high, people may be making less purchases than they were a year or two ago, and overall output is flat. But then the country decides to prepare for war! The government needs to equip its soldiers with the extra gear and munitions needed in order to win the war."
Christina Hu:Housing Horror Could Hang Around for Years
At first glance, I thought this story could relate to diseconomies of scale. Then, I realized that the housing industry may be a special circumstance. Firms in the housing industry create huge, time and money consuming products: houses and apartments. This industry has so many special characteristics, such as land as a variable resource, even in the short run, that it became unclear whether firms producing houses really do have economies or diseconomies of scale. I'm pretty sure they do not, since each house requires a separate plot of land for a different price, and houses are not mass-produced and assembled, like cars or toys.
Margaret Liu: Oil Reaches a Record High
We learned that in the long-run, determinants of supply and demand will return the price to long run equilibrium. However, we didn't really think about how scarce our resources are. If a resource is scarce enough, it may never return to its long-run equilibrium. Here, oil is a perfect example. As a fossil fuel, it's increasing prices may never be lowered to its lovely price of the 1960s and will thus never return to its long run equilibrium. The supply of oil is increasingly scarce and the demand for oil is rising steadily. It should also be rising particularly high this year since the biggest generation is turning 18, getting cars, and driving.
Nicole Wong: Cameras, TVs boost Sony turnaround
During the past year, Sony's sales had decreased dramatically. Its PlayStation 3 was not match for Nintendo's Wii, and Sony found its sales in the red zone. While PS3 sales continue to drag, Sony has begun focusing its production of cameras and televisions. Consumers seem to desire these new gadgets more than the PS3, as Sony sales are now 40 times that of last year's. Allocative efficiency on Sony's part has lead to a greatly beneficial increase in total revenue for the company. However, how long will demand for SOny cameras and televisions last? Will Sony continue to allocate their resources towards producing what society wants?
Katherine Yang: Monopoly Monopoly
This article describes the game "Monopoly" and how it has become as famous as it is. Charles Darrow, the inventor of "Monopoly" originally designed the game for friends and family, the game evolves around spending money to buy, sell, or rent real estate. As the game spread from friends to department stores and then to manufacturers the "Parker Brothers" it gained popularity. The Parker Brothers then bought games similar to "Monopoly" created by other everyday people with knowledge of economics to eliminate competition. I thought this was an interesting article because it describes the monopolization of "Monopoly".
Jenny Kim: Consumer Champion.
This article mainly deals with Chinese economy's evolution, and its similarities with the Japanese and the South Korean economy when they were ar their developing stages. It also discusses the government's role in "cajoling and coaxing" the firms to steer the nation's economy. This relates to the topic we learned in class because it deals with the government's role in an industry.
Claire Moon: Apple Says 250,000 iPhones Sold to Unlockers
An interesting article about Apple. "Apple's conference call to discuss their fourth quarter earnings that they estimate 250,000 of the 1.4 Million iPhones that have been sold were bought by people intending to unlock the phone." Therefore, the elasticity in demand let Apple to make the price drop and to make them million units cumulatively at the end of the quarter.
Tim Chu The Silent Monopoly
So I googled monopoly in the news, which is what i usually do when posting for this blog and i found something that was quite shocking. There actually is a company very close to a monopoly. No it's not microsoft or sony, It's ARM. ARM? you say? yup its a british chip manufacturer that actually controls more than 80% of the market of silicon chips. How does the company get away with it? It sells to larger companies who pay ARM in licsensing fees. Currently,ARM chips are used in iPods, HD TVs, computers, you name it. Quite intresting since they get no dirt about it at all.
Howard Lin: The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits People often hear that business man say that they have "social responsibilities of business in a free-enterprise system." The discussions of the "social responsibilities of business" are notable for their analytical looseness and lack of rigor. What does it mean to say that "business" has responsibilities? Only people can have responsibilities. A corporation is an artificial person and in this sense may have artificial responsibilities, but "business" as a whole cannot be said to have responsibilities, even in this vague sense. Many say that the Social reponsibilites of busineesman is to earn it's profit....
Sharon Li Meandering Giants
This article discusses the expansion of pharmaceutical companies by merging with other companies. By expanding their firms, they hoped to acquire access to certain drugs, for example Schering-Plough's purchase of Organon to gain its 'promising' drugs. These expansions were also made in hopes of achieving economies of scale- bigger firms, reduce average total costs, and gain efficiency.However, diseconomies of scale are bound to appear and, as Mr Hassan of Schering-Plough describes it, "the meandering giant syndrome," when firms get too big, they lose the characteristic "innovative culture" of smaller firms and eventually become inefficient.
Conrad Liu: Houses and Determinants of Supply
This article posted on Yahoo talks of the before-decreased rate of houses being bought having an unexpected gain. Although the percentages are still a little shaky, we can still see that no doubt determinants of demand are affecting this aspect of selling/buying, whether large or small. Houses can be considered normal goods, and as new families struggle to get jobs, their income rate is not as high, which affects the income determination of demand; less houses will be bought.
Kevin Chiu: Investing in the Robotic Surgery Monopoly
Recently, there was a discussion in the Student Thought Forum about whether monopolies existed in the world today, and discussion about how monopolies could not exist in a free-competitive market unless it was perhaps producing a very unique product or brief period of time that a product was first introduced. Well, apparently there is a monopoly! The only-approved robotic surgery machine by the FDA is the only-one of its kind in the current market and is being highly demanded by hospitals and still selling at prices between 1-1.7million USD; however, it is still not known whether the production-costs of the machines are really worth this price, but that doesn't matter yet as there is only one firm in the production of this type of good, hence a monopoly.
Jacques Zhang: Desperate Housewives on the Phone
In class, we've talked about price wars as well as advertising as a means of revenue. This article exhibits both. It reports that in the past, Apple has been selling its music and movies on their online store for about 99 cents to 1.99 apiece. Apple has also collaborated with Disney to provide popular TV series on their site for about 2 dollars apiece. As a response to this, Fox and NBC sought to attract more consumers by providing FREE downloads of TV series while encouraging viewers to send them to their friends and family. At the same time, Fox and NBC have realized that placing advertisements on their website and offered videos provided more money than actually selling these TV series.
Charlie Gao: The Forbidden latte
STARBUCKS is leaving the Forbidden City.Starbucks says it understands the reasons for the decision, and that its departure is “very congenial”. The firm must be hoping that this does not portend further attacks on its operations in China, where it already operates nearly 200 outlets and plans to grow rapidly. This is an example of a monopolistic industry in that, Starbucks is trying to set up stores in all of China in order to kick out competitors so that it can dominate the market. Although they got kicked out of Beijing, there are plenty of other places where Starbucks can continue to plan its Monopoly.
Michael Chow: Thanksgiving Dinner Cost 'up 11%'
One of the most essential factors contributing to this cost increase is the increase in the price of turkey "with a bird having gone up $1.93 to $17.63." "The US Labor Department said its consumer price index rose by 0.3% in October compared with September while core prices, which exclude the volatile components of food and energy, climbed by 0.2%." However since this dinner is almost a nessecity and a tradition annually on a specific date the dinner is still reasonably priced.
Mond Gu:The Opportunity Costs of the Iraq War
The explicit and implicit costs of the war are illustrated in the article. The article provides statistics on the money spent on the Iraq war. The explicit cost of the war is the money spent on it, which is approximately 144.4billion US dollars. The implicit cost is what the money could have been used for; the article discusses whether the 144.4billion US dollar would be sufficient to protect the United States from terrorist threats.
Jo Lo: US must compete with India and China
The US needs to remain on the cutting edge of jobs in the world, said George W. Bush. In this article, Bush talks about the two developing countries of India of China and whose people are competing with people from the US for jobs and resources. Bush calls on Congress to pass new bills that would invest in research and development. He is concerned that if US citizens do not have the skills needed to compete for new jobs in the 21st century, they will fall behind.
Trevor Sun: Workers at Chrysler Approve Contract
The workers at Ford factories have been on strike for quite a while now. Recently the United Automoblie Workers union agreed for a four-year contract with the Ford Motorcompany. This article is and example of dealing with unions in North Americas which can be viewed as an explicit cost for the automotive firms.
Kristie Chung: iPhone... Monopoly?
A lawsuit has been filed against Apple claiming that it has created an monopoly with the iPhone as customers are unable to choose their cellphone service provider, and are only able to use their iPhone with AT&T. The lawsuit also claimed that Appl ehas created an "unlawful" trust with AT&T. Furthermore,Apple has released a software update, which disabled iPhones that have been unlocked by customers who have then chose to go through another carrier. The lawsuit pushes for Apple to unlock the iPhones among other demands.
Kai Lin Fu:Is Google a Monopoly?-Understanding Google
Okay, so I googled "pure monopoly news", and guess what happened? That's right, Google googled up an article about google. More specifically, it's about whether or not Google is a monopoly. It starts off with a definition of monopoly and its primary characteristics. Then it compares and contrasts those characteristics to those of Google. Want to know the results? Read it and see.
Cassy Chang:
The diggers are poorly paid and their working conditions are "worse than in the Middle Ages," so it's more profitable to smuggle the diamonds and sell them. This oligopoly is experiencing diseconomies of scale due to poor management and a lot of corruption.
Jeff Ye: The Economic Costs of Climate Change
According to economists and environmentalists, if policy makers fail to take action over climate changes, then there might be dire consequences for U.S. economy. Delayed action would not only affect the economy, but resulting natural disasters would further place a financial burden on the country. Billions of dollars are spent on development without much consideration for the effects on the climate, which would lead to many "hidden costs" regarding weather and the economy.
Charlie Gao: Super-spiked
According to this passage, the price increases of recent months have stemmed from a marked drop in stockpiles of oil, particularly in America. That indicates that the world is using more than it is producing. However, OPEC has agreed to increase the supply for the next month. This, plus a gradual tempering of demand, should decrease the price...eventually. This has to do with what we're learning because of the very close to pure monopoly that the oil industry is. There is a limited amount of oil and most of those oil concentrations are located in the middle east, which is a location barrier to entry. Consumers have no substitute for gasoline to run cars, therefore they have to bear with the fluctuating prices of oil.
Soyeon Yoon: Beijing Seeks New Scrutiny of Investments by Outsiders
China is to pass the law banning monopolistic behavior of state-owned firms which made foreign firms happy. However, the last condition of the draft was added unexpectedly, which says the foreign firms cannot aquisit domestic firms unless they passes through national security checks. Foreign firms express displeasure in that China makes the process of purchasing domestic firms more complicated while it encourages domestic firms to purchase foreign firms or buy stock of the firms which have name value.
Katherine Yang: The Future of Advertising is Here
This article describes an "advertising revolution" where firms are able to branch out their ads using high-tech media. The plan is, "over time we [they] can cut the cost of advertising in half while maintaing customer response." Internet is supposed to be the reason for this, one click in a search engine brings up the result of your search and a barrage of advertisments. Even freakier is that companies are starting to figure out how to get to their specific target audience, "'we look for subsegments of internet users who care about certain things,' explains Breen Vogel. 'We find them when they're online, we intercept their activities, and we start a relationship with them.'" Sounds more like companies are becoming ad stalkers to me.
Claire Moon: Microsoft: Sony's Online Service is No Competition
Microsoft’s Robbie Bach used Xbox Live’s fifth birthday and opened a quick potshot at the PlayStation Network, saying it is “clearly head and shoulders above anything, anyone else has tried to do”. This gives a great gaming experience to people and it is purely monopolistic that there is no competitors for it.
Emily Yeh: Crazy Little Thing Called Risk
This article doesn't directly deal with monopolies or oligopolies, but rather with investment. However, it relates to the topic in that it discusses the interdependence between the consumer and producer. Assume that investment, with stock shares as products, is an industry. The consumers seek to buy these products, and the marginal utility they gain is money. This article discusses how earning money may be dependent on other consumer's decisions or other firms' decisions to release, sell, or purchase stock at different prices. Hence, the risk involved. The consumer discussed in this article seems to be ignorant of this, and hence when he actually loses money on stocks because he neglects all other factors, he is surprised.
Alice Su: Bitter Times at Hershey
In this article, the problems that Hershey has been facing with its executive managers recently are exposed. As a firm that controls 43% of the American chocolate market on its own, Hershey is obviously one of the "big" producers in the oligopolistic chocolate industry. This article discusses the sacking of many of Hershey's top executive board members and the reasons behind it; these reasons deal with failure to adjust to changes in costs and not putting enough emphasis on advertising. This reflects what we have learned in our text about the importance of nonprice competition in olgopolistic industries; in addition, the article brings up ideas of how Hershey ought to collaborate with Cadbury to gain firmer market power and to fight back against its rival, Mars. These issues directly relate to our textbook characteristics of oligopolistic industries as ones in which firms are mutually interdependent and their profits are affected by not only their own, but also by each other's prices, as well as addressing the concept of collusion in order to create higher profits within the oligopolistic industry.
Jeff Ye: The End of a Pharmaceutical Monopoly
This article talks about passing an amendment to the 2007 Prescription Drug User Free Bill called the "Dorgan amendment No. 990" that ends Big Pharma's monopoly over pharmaceutical sales. Americans pay the most for prescription drugs, two times or ten times more than Canadians and Europeans. This is because companies charge their drugs up to 569,000% over the price of raw materials. Formerly, these companies restriced the purchase of sales outside of the U.S. so that they could sell their drugs at such a high price, and paying off the government to support them. The new amendment howerver, now allows cities and companies to buy their drugs from foreign sellers.
Nicole Wong: Bridling at Insulin’s Cost, States Push for Generics
Though the insulin market may seem to be a monopoly, this article reveals how it there is, in fact, more than one brand or company that sells this medication. However, there is still a widely communicated issue that insulin is too expensive and that its price should decrease in order for it to be more easily obtainable among diabetics. It sounds almost contradictory at first, that an industry consisting of more than one firm is able to control market price and be a “price maker”. However, this merely reflects an impure monopoly, where there are few firms in the industry. As insulin is an inelastic good, monopolies have control over the price of insulin and consumers do not have the option of refusing to buy it.
Jo Lo:Addidas and Reebok
Adidas, the #2 sportswear company in the world, and Reebok, the #3 in the world have merged to try to catch Nike. Nike owns a whopping 36% of the world market share, while Adidas only has 9% and Reebok 12%. Adidas leads in Europe, but Nike is quickly catching up. The next region with the most potential for sales in Asia. Reebok has a head-start because the company is endorsing China's only sports superstar, Yao Ming.
Trevor Sun: L.A. Auto Show
Competition in this oligopoly is increasing due to the U.S. government passing laws concerning emmitions and fuel economy. More fuel efficient cars are being designed to use alternate sources of fuel. The pressure is already on other firms now that Chevrolt has showcased its new Volt "plug-in hybrid car".
**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.
So, most of us here in SAS use iPods, and as we all know, we have the option of getting Apple to engrave text on the backs of them to personalize them, in a way. Zune, which is otherwise similar to the iPod, is taking it one step further by allowing for engraved designs -- like images reminiscent of tattoo art and other designs created by contemporary artists -- in addition to a line or two of text. This is an attempt at product differentiation and advertising to entice potential customers -- oligopoly, anyone?
Yun Qi Mok: Ron Paul and the Gold StandardJon Paul, a 2008 Presidential hopeful, wants to bring the US back to the Gold Standard. Why does he attempt this folly? The US can hardly have enough gold to back all their expenses, especially with the Iraq War and such going ons. What is his rationale? This fascinating article goes into the whole history and reasons for the Gold Standard, such as prestige and the like, as well as the disastrous or not so disastrous consequences of the standard.
Kevin Chiu: Lawsuit Claims iPod iTunes Bond is Monopolistic
This article discusses the lawsuit that was filed against Apple because iTunes' song purchases are only insertable in an iPod device and iPod devices can only use iTunes to input music; the unfairness behind this lies in the fact that Apple has forced a monopolistic control over the digital media market because Apple is able to inflate prices and exclude competition of the market (i.e. people that use Apple or purchase songs and other stuff off iTunes).
Jonathan Lau: Gap: Child Labor
Wow, so this article was a pretty interesting read. It is about Gap being accused of using child labor to sew its clothes made in New Delhi, India. According to Gap, they "strictly prohibit the use of child labor and they have a history of addressing challenges like this head-on, and their approach to this situation will be no exception." It will definitely be interesting to see if Gap's sales go down because of this shocking issue.
Robert Wang:Who Really Owns the Roads?Drawn to this article at first by it's title, I was rather surprised to discover that states in the US have begun to sell their roads to private companies to in order to raise money for the state's infrastructure. Although a justifiable cause, I've always known the US as a country in which the government ran the public facilities like roads, where the government would set the tolls and taxes of the roads. Now, with a lot of the roads in the control of private individuals, the toll booth prices can potentially skyrocket, disrupting America's transportation system. It's an interesting read and it shows the change from one market type to another.
Hansen Gu: F.C.C. Set to End Sole Cable Deals for Apartments
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is preparing to ban individual cable companies from having sole rights to certain apartment buildlings. This is in response to rising cable costs for many. This change would also create a more pure competition market as many companies such as Verizon and AT&T have started offering their own video services. According to the article: "Government and private studies show that when a second cable company enters a market, prices can drop as much as 30 percent."
Howard Jing: College Loans, The Price of ProcrastinationThe price of attending a four year college in the United States has gone way up over the last few years. Yet many parents do not save money to go towards their children's college education until it is too late. Although some people say that one day parents will think that "enough is enough" and decide that the marginal cost of attending college exceeds the marginal benefits, it looks like that will not happen anytime soon. For now, parent's should stop procrastinating and invest their money in a long term investment plan.
Drew Venkatraman:Immigration Raids lead to Farmer shortage
Recent raids by the U.S. Immigration officials have left many farmers without workers to harvest their crop. DUe to the nature that most farm hands and crop pickers are illegal immigrants (due to the nature of their low wages), arresting these people leaves little or no people to do this job. Now farmers are frantically searching for workers in order to harvest their crop on time. This labor shortage could possibly affect the supply of crops and maybe the price in the future.
Rebecca Sung: Apple Unleashes Leopard
Apple is releasing a program called "Leopard" that is easy to use and has a "slick interface." It is an upgrade program for Macs consumers can use this program to complement their IPods and IPhones. Even though Microsoft still dominates the PC market, Apple has made significant gains in these past years with stores like Best Buy carrying Macs. I think the PC market is oligopoly because it is difficult to make computers and there are only a few forms in the market. Apple and Microsoft does a lot of advertising for their PCs and other products in order to prove to the consumers that their product is the best.
Mina Song - Apple Limits Sale of i-Phones: Two Per Person and No Cash
okay... basicly, apple is limiting the sale of i-phones to two for each person from 5 for each person. the reason is to prevent the locking activity to provide better usage to the i-phone users, but I think it is not following the law of supply, because according to the law of supply, if the demand increse, they increase the price and produce more, but Apples, they keep the price at same but decrease the supply. ??
Jessica Chiang- Starbucks Raises Prices of Most Coffee Drinks by 5 Cents
Oh dear, it seems like Starbucks is getting more expensive every year. Apparently, costs of fuel and energy are going up, and Starbucks feels it needs to increase coffee prices to compensate for its increased costs. The coffee industry is a monopolistic competition. It is relatively easy to enter the industry, and its products are differentiated. Each company has their own unique coffee beans and secret ingredients. As seen in this article, they have some control over price. Of course, as we all know, Starbucks relies heavily on advertising and its brand name.
Kevin Ma - Robotic Surgery Monopoly
Intuitive Surgical manufactures robotic surgery machines and is the only one approved by the FDA to sell them. They sell their machines from 1 million to 1.7 million a piece. Their stocks have gone up 2200% percent in the last five years and will cost you around 330 dollars to get just one stock. One of the reason why they're doing so well is because they are "a monopoly that's being driven by increasing competition between hosipitals." I thought this was an interesting monopoly.
Alex Goldman - Wal-Mart Says Sales Growth Will Slow The article “Wal-Mart Says Sales Growth Will Slow” discusses Wal-Mart’s plans to ease down on the mass addition of new outlets and focus on the stores they currently have. This is because Wal-Mart’s share price has dropped recently after strong gains in the 1990’s, and Wal-Mart feels that it will be in their investors best interests to cut down spending and tighten cost controls. The declining share-price could indicate that Wal-Mart is heading towards a diseconomy of scale as a result of its mass expansion, while its profits in the past decade came while it was an economy of scale.
Richard Tu- Innovation in Asia
China's market is best known for its cheap labor. However, with the aid of globalization and improved communication systems in recent years, Chinese entrepreneurs are catching up to the Western world. Mr Seely Brown argues that the activity of private entrepreneurs means “China is rapidly emerging as the global centre of management innovation, pioneering management techniques that most US companies are struggling to understand.” Although right now the firms are only producing so-so quality products, they are believed to improve.
Jeewon Oh: AirAsia breaks Singapore-KL 35-year monopoly
This article is about the Malaysian AirAsia that "won its long battle to fly the lucrative Singapore-Kuala Lumpur route," breaking the 35-year monopoly by the two national airlines. The Malaysian cabinet has finally given permission for Malaysia-based AirAsia and Singapore's Tiger Airways to operate the leg, in order to "set the stage for a price war." This is the result of AirAsia's intense campaigning to break the monopoly held by Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines. Now with AirAsia in the market, there will be more competition among the airlines and change in price, as AirAsia is offering 60 dollars for one-way tickets, while others are proposing round-trip ticket on the route for 298 dollars.
Andy Xu:
Forget Wine - California's biggest crop is bright green and funny-smelling This article discusses the lastest home grown crop that has repopulized in California - the infamous marijuana. By reading this article, one can relate back to a fundamental in economics: the laws of supply and demand. In order words, if the demand is so high while there is no supply provided with the government ban, people will start to revaluate their marginal cost and benefit analysis: cost = risks with American police; benefit = profits and fulfilling desires.
James Tsao: Baseball Players and Oppurtunity Costs
The explicit and implicit costs of signing contracts with outfielder Jose Cruz in the Toronto Blue Jays is illustrated in this article by Mike Moffatt. The explicit costs of having to sign this popular player totalled up to $ 5 million per season that was decided by an arbitrator. Not only this, an implicit cost is present: if the team signed this player, it can not use the $ 5 million for other uses. The marginal benefit coming from the 6 players that the Blue Jays signed instead is clearly greater than the marginal benefit from contracting Jose Cruz for the team to make such a decision.
Jenny Kim: China Oil Firm Eyes Record Float
PetroChina, being China's biggest oil and gas producer, is setting a goal to increase their profit in mainland China and be listed in the Shanghai Stock Exchange listing. It is also hoping to break the record of their competitor, Shenhua Energy. Statistics show that flotations in mainland china for PetroChina, which is owned by China National Petroleum has doulbled in an year. This article shows the competition between two of China's leading petroleum firms.
Judy Chen:India's gold demand low as prices inch up
Demand of gold in India has been decreasing recently. I was not surprised by that. First, gold is not the normal good, not everyone is able to purchase it. Second, gold is the limited resource, therefore, the value would increase as the lessening of gold resource in the world. However, behind those factore, the decreasing demand of gold is related to crude oil as well. If the price does not fall soon, people are unlikely to purchase it anymore.
Yun Qi Mok: Moving to a higher level
As people get richer, they obviously want to puchase more expensive goods. This "income" determinant of demand is perfectly illustrated with the newest shopping mall complex built in Dehli, India. The Indian marke is expanding just like the Chinese one, and its inhabitants are demanded better and better goods. People also have larger outlooks on life, as international brands, not only like Chanel and Gucci, but also traditional brands are also opening up in the new complex. So, although people say money doesn't bring happiness, it certainly helps...a lot.
Caleb Liao: Realse of the Leopard The new realise of Apple's latest Operating System has attracted a huge number of customers for the company. Lines in San Francisco stretched down and around streets. The monopoly that Apple has over this OS has allowed Apple to charge at whatever price they would like. This article just shows Apple's ability to set prices subjective to their own schedule as they have a monopoly in the industry.
Elaine Lung: Disney to overhaul disappointing California Adventure park
A little part of me died when I saw the title of the article, but my mood's been significantly improved since I actually read it. Disney is going to completely redo their California Adventure theme park in Anaheim, California, drawing it back to more distinctly Disney roots by bringing in Pixar movies and the Little Mermaid, hoping to increase the poor park attendance. A major problem with the park before had been its greater emphasis on California (which is a bit redundant since the park is located in California) over Disney attractions - leading to what some consider a boring experience. Since we've been talking about economic costs and profits, it would seem likely that a reason for Disney's overhaul in favor of an alternative solution is because the profits from the park have not been able to cover the economic cost of maintaining it.. It's likely then, that economic profit is actually less than zero - i.e., normal profits aren't even covered.
Jacques Zhang: French Supermarket Warns President about InflationWe all know what inflation is. Or at least we should all know. Inflation occurs when a certain currency declines in value. This eventually decreases a consumer's purchasing power, and products are abnormally high priced. A supermarket in France warns the new French president Sarkozy that the country's econonmy is headed towards inflation in a full-paged advertisement in a magazine depicting the prices of numerous products at abnormally high, two-digit prices. (Personally, I think stuff that happens in France is pretty boring, but this is kind of interesting.)
Jessica Ng: Valet Parking, Robot Style
This article mentions the profit-maximizer developers in the world who seek to maximize their profits are under pressure to maximize yields from their real estate. And this means to squeeze out the space of a traiditonal multi-storey parking lot. Because of ramps, elevators, and maneuvering space, each floor has significantly less storage space than a flat lot, and that means fewer cars and fewer revenues. Therefore, some companies are using high-tech robot-style parking systems to minizie the space needed. This reflects the way firms minimize their costs in order to gain more revenue.
Kevin Yeh: WB cancels costlly '7th Heaven'The Famous WB show '7th Heaven' is ending this may due to the fact that the WB is losing money off of the show. In fact, there is a $16 million loss for the show in the past year. The success of shows such as 7th Heaven reflect the the marginal revenue curve. At first, the marginal revenue increases as time goes on because the show becomes more and more famous. However, after a certain point, the actors become more expensive to maintain and there are less viewers for the show, thus forcing costs up and profits down, decreasing revenue.
Timothy Sun: Microsoft Buys Stake in Facebook
Microsoft, arguably one of the most well-known companies of all time, are looking for some way to make more money. Butting out Yahoo and Google, Microsoft will start investing in Facebook, one of our best friends. The company is said to be worth over $1 billion, and it seems to be a good idea for Microsoft. This can prove to be quite a risk, though; it could choose not to take it. However, the non-accounting profits from this should be very high, explaining why Microsoft is venturing sort of half-blindly into this situation. Why not MySpace? The future for it seems to be less fruitful than Facebook, even though it's twice the size. Besides, professionals view it as artificial.
Helen Chu: Stay Vigilant - Why Regulators Should Keep Their Eyes on Microsoft, and Others
Microsoft is again under the scrutiny of various anti-trust courts due to its monopolistic nature. But now the question arises - can Microsoft be truly considered as a monopoly? One side argues no, as the extensive interconnections and networking within computers have weakened Microsoft's power over the "computing world". The other side says yes, and their argument is that BECAUSE PCs and Internet servers are connected, Microsoft has been extending its monopolistic power into the market of servers. Looking at this issue on a wider scale, the article mentions other near monopolies, such as Apple with its "copy prevention software" like iTunes,and Google, who is continuing on its mission of expansion after its takeover of Youtube, and is now looking to take over DoubleClick, a firm that delivers online advertising.
Karen Chen: War costs could total $1.6 trillion by 2009, panel estimates
With the war raging on in Afghanistan, concerned democrats have tried to pull out troops as they finally realized the great toll these wars are having on the USA economy. But it's not just the cost of sending troops to the Middle East and buying weapons/artilleries that has been sucking up the economy; there are also other factors such as the increase in oil prices, the cost of recovering the veterans and the amount of entrepreneurs lost since they left America to go fight for their nation.
Soyeon Yoon: Sony Profits Up Sharply, Signaling Recovery
Sony is back! after the disappointing sales of its new PlayStation 3 console, Sony is recovering very well offering the latest sign that the new strategy of non-core business is actually the key for opening the door. The new strategy was done by chief executive, Sir Howard Stringer, and he actually Sony is now "operating profits at its electronics division rose 12-fold to 106.9 billion yen, or $939 million, as sales rose 20.7 percent." Jennifer Choi: Apple's Leopard OS goes on sale
Apple's next-generation operating system, Mac OS X "Leopard," will be available October 26 for $158! Mac revenues have hit record highs for the past year, and Apple's share of the PC market has grown. Analysts expect Apple's strategy of introducing products that work with Microsoft's Windows software to further boost computer sales.
Serena Tu: Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond?When i was reading this article, i immediately link this passage to monopoly. We didn't really learn it yet, but we touched it on the basis already. Diamond is the perfect example for describing a monopoly. This article was basically talking about the creation of the current diamond monopolist, De Beers Consolidated Mines, Ltd; the company was formed because they didn't want anyone else to be selling or supplying the diamond, this one firm basically controlled almost all the supply and demand for this industry. Michael Chow: Are Wars Good for the Economy?
In this article the author Moffatt suggests that one of the more enduring myths in Western society is that wars are somehow good for the economy. Such evidence for this is the Great Depression which happened almost immediately after World War II. Moffatt with the statement "a war gives the economy a boost". By backing himself with an example, "Let's suppose that the economy is in the low end of the business cycle, so we're in a recession or just a period of low economic growth. The unemployment rate is high, people may be making less purchases than they were a year or two ago, and overall output is flat. But then the country decides to prepare for war! The government needs to equip its soldiers with the extra gear and munitions needed in order to win the war."
Christina Hu:Housing Horror Could Hang Around for Years
At first glance, I thought this story could relate to diseconomies of scale. Then, I realized that the housing industry may be a special circumstance. Firms in the housing industry create huge, time and money consuming products: houses and apartments. This industry has so many special characteristics, such as land as a variable resource, even in the short run, that it became unclear whether firms producing houses really do have economies or diseconomies of scale. I'm pretty sure they do not, since each house requires a separate plot of land for a different price, and houses are not mass-produced and assembled, like cars or toys.
Margaret Liu: Oil Reaches a Record High
We learned that in the long-run, determinants of supply and demand will return the price to long run equilibrium. However, we didn't really think about how scarce our resources are. If a resource is scarce enough, it may never return to its long-run equilibrium. Here, oil is a perfect example. As a fossil fuel, it's increasing prices may never be lowered to its lovely price of the 1960s and will thus never return to its long run equilibrium. The supply of oil is increasingly scarce and the demand for oil is rising steadily. It should also be rising particularly high this year since the biggest generation is turning 18, getting cars, and driving.
Nicole Wong: Cameras, TVs boost Sony turnaround
During the past year, Sony's sales had decreased dramatically. Its PlayStation 3 was not match for Nintendo's Wii, and Sony found its sales in the red zone. While PS3 sales continue to drag, Sony has begun focusing its production of cameras and televisions. Consumers seem to desire these new gadgets more than the PS3, as Sony sales are now 40 times that of last year's. Allocative efficiency on Sony's part has lead to a greatly beneficial increase in total revenue for the company. However, how long will demand for SOny cameras and televisions last? Will Sony continue to allocate their resources towards producing what society wants?
Katherine Yang: Monopoly Monopoly
This article describes the game "Monopoly" and how it has become as famous as it is. Charles Darrow, the inventor of "Monopoly" originally designed the game for friends and family, the game evolves around spending money to buy, sell, or rent real estate. As the game spread from friends to department stores and then to manufacturers the "Parker Brothers" it gained popularity. The Parker Brothers then bought games similar to "Monopoly" created by other everyday people with knowledge of economics to eliminate competition. I thought this was an interesting article because it describes the monopolization of "Monopoly".
Jenny Kim: Consumer Champion.
This article mainly deals with Chinese economy's evolution, and its similarities with the Japanese and the South Korean economy when they were ar their developing stages. It also discusses the government's role in "cajoling and coaxing" the firms to steer the nation's economy. This relates to the topic we learned in class because it deals with the government's role in an industry.
Claire Moon: Apple Says 250,000 iPhones Sold to Unlockers
An interesting article about Apple. "Apple's conference call to discuss their fourth quarter earnings that they estimate 250,000 of the 1.4 Million iPhones that have been sold were bought by people intending to unlock the phone." Therefore, the elasticity in demand let Apple to make the price drop and to make them million units cumulatively at the end of the quarter.
Tim Chu The Silent Monopoly
So I googled monopoly in the news, which is what i usually do when posting for this blog and i found something that was quite shocking. There actually is a company very close to a monopoly. No it's not microsoft or sony, It's ARM. ARM? you say? yup its a british chip manufacturer that actually controls more than 80% of the market of silicon chips. How does the company get away with it? It sells to larger companies who pay ARM in licsensing fees. Currently,ARM chips are used in iPods, HD TVs, computers, you name it. Quite intresting since they get no dirt about it at all.
Howard Lin: The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits People often hear that business man say that they have "social responsibilities of business in a free-enterprise system." The discussions of the "social responsibilities of business" are notable for their analytical looseness and lack of rigor. What does it mean to say that "business" has responsibilities? Only people can have responsibilities. A corporation is an artificial person and in this sense may have artificial responsibilities, but "business" as a whole cannot be said to have responsibilities, even in this vague sense. Many say that the Social reponsibilites of busineesman is to earn it's profit....
Sharon Li Meandering Giants
This article discusses the expansion of pharmaceutical companies by merging with other companies. By expanding their firms, they hoped to acquire access to certain drugs, for example Schering-Plough's purchase of Organon to gain its 'promising' drugs. These expansions were also made in hopes of achieving economies of scale- bigger firms, reduce average total costs, and gain efficiency.However, diseconomies of scale are bound to appear and, as Mr Hassan of Schering-Plough describes it, "the meandering giant syndrome," when firms get too big, they lose the characteristic "innovative culture" of smaller firms and eventually become inefficient.
Conrad Liu: Houses and Determinants of Supply
This article posted on Yahoo talks of the before-decreased rate of houses being bought having an unexpected gain. Although the percentages are still a little shaky, we can still see that no doubt determinants of demand are affecting this aspect of selling/buying, whether large or small. Houses can be considered normal goods, and as new families struggle to get jobs, their income rate is not as high, which affects the income determination of demand; less houses will be bought.
Kevin Chiu: Investing in the Robotic Surgery Monopoly
Recently, there was a discussion in the Student Thought Forum about whether monopolies existed in the world today, and discussion about how monopolies could not exist in a free-competitive market unless it was perhaps producing a very unique product or brief period of time that a product was first introduced. Well, apparently there is a monopoly! The only-approved robotic surgery machine by the FDA is the only-one of its kind in the current market and is being highly demanded by hospitals and still selling at prices between 1-1.7million USD; however, it is still not known whether the production-costs of the machines are really worth this price, but that doesn't matter yet as there is only one firm in the production of this type of good, hence a monopoly.
Jacques Zhang: Desperate Housewives on the Phone
In class, we've talked about price wars as well as advertising as a means of revenue. This article exhibits both. It reports that in the past, Apple has been selling its music and movies on their online store for about 99 cents to 1.99 apiece. Apple has also collaborated with Disney to provide popular TV series on their site for about 2 dollars apiece. As a response to this, Fox and NBC sought to attract more consumers by providing FREE downloads of TV series while encouraging viewers to send them to their friends and family. At the same time, Fox and NBC have realized that placing advertisements on their website and offered videos provided more money than actually selling these TV series.
Charlie Gao: The Forbidden latte
STARBUCKS is leaving the Forbidden City.Starbucks says it understands the reasons for the decision, and that its departure is “very congenial”. The firm must be hoping that this does not portend further attacks on its operations in China, where it already operates nearly 200 outlets and plans to grow rapidly. This is an example of a monopolistic industry in that, Starbucks is trying to set up stores in all of China in order to kick out competitors so that it can dominate the market. Although they got kicked out of Beijing, there are plenty of other places where Starbucks can continue to plan its Monopoly.
Michael Chow: Thanksgiving Dinner Cost 'up 11%'
One of the most essential factors contributing to this cost increase is the increase in the price of turkey "with a bird having gone up $1.93 to $17.63." "The US Labor Department said its consumer price index rose by 0.3% in October compared with September while core prices, which exclude the volatile components of food and energy, climbed by 0.2%." However since this dinner is almost a nessecity and a tradition annually on a specific date the dinner is still reasonably priced.
Mond Gu:The Opportunity Costs of the Iraq War
The explicit and implicit costs of the war are illustrated in the article. The article provides statistics on the money spent on the Iraq war. The explicit cost of the war is the money spent on it, which is approximately 144.4billion US dollars. The implicit cost is what the money could have been used for; the article discusses whether the 144.4billion US dollar would be sufficient to protect the United States from terrorist threats.
Jo Lo: US must compete with India and China
The US needs to remain on the cutting edge of jobs in the world, said George W. Bush. In this article, Bush talks about the two developing countries of India of China and whose people are competing with people from the US for jobs and resources. Bush calls on Congress to pass new bills that would invest in research and development. He is concerned that if US citizens do not have the skills needed to compete for new jobs in the 21st century, they will fall behind.
Trevor Sun: Workers at Chrysler Approve Contract
The workers at Ford factories have been on strike for quite a while now. Recently the United Automoblie Workers union agreed for a four-year contract with the Ford Motorcompany. This article is and example of dealing with unions in North Americas which can be viewed as an explicit cost for the automotive firms.
Kristie Chung: iPhone... Monopoly?
A lawsuit has been filed against Apple claiming that it has created an monopoly with the iPhone as customers are unable to choose their cellphone service provider, and are only able to use their iPhone with AT&T. The lawsuit also claimed that Appl ehas created an "unlawful" trust with AT&T. Furthermore,Apple has released a software update, which disabled iPhones that have been unlocked by customers who have then chose to go through another carrier. The lawsuit pushes for Apple to unlock the iPhones among other demands.
Kai Lin Fu:Is Google a Monopoly?-Understanding Google
Okay, so I googled "pure monopoly news", and guess what happened? That's right, Google googled up an article about google. More specifically, it's about whether or not Google is a monopoly. It starts off with a definition of monopoly and its primary characteristics. Then it compares and contrasts those characteristics to those of Google. Want to know the results? Read it and see.
Cassy Chang:
The diggers are poorly paid and their working conditions are "worse than in the Middle Ages," so it's more profitable to smuggle the diamonds and sell them. This oligopoly is experiencing diseconomies of scale due to poor management and a lot of corruption.
Jeff Ye: The Economic Costs of Climate Change
According to economists and environmentalists, if policy makers fail to take action over climate changes, then there might be dire consequences for U.S. economy. Delayed action would not only affect the economy, but resulting natural disasters would further place a financial burden on the country. Billions of dollars are spent on development without much consideration for the effects on the climate, which would lead to many "hidden costs" regarding weather and the economy.
Charlie Gao: Super-spiked
According to this passage, the price increases of recent months have stemmed from a marked drop in stockpiles of oil, particularly in America. That indicates that the world is using more than it is producing. However, OPEC has agreed to increase the supply for the next month. This, plus a gradual tempering of demand, should decrease the price...eventually. This has to do with what we're learning because of the very close to pure monopoly that the oil industry is. There is a limited amount of oil and most of those oil concentrations are located in the middle east, which is a location barrier to entry. Consumers have no substitute for gasoline to run cars, therefore they have to bear with the fluctuating prices of oil.
Soyeon Yoon: Beijing Seeks New Scrutiny of Investments by Outsiders
China is to pass the law banning monopolistic behavior of state-owned firms which made foreign firms happy. However, the last condition of the draft was added unexpectedly, which says the foreign firms cannot aquisit domestic firms unless they passes through national security checks. Foreign firms express displeasure in that China makes the process of purchasing domestic firms more complicated while it encourages domestic firms to purchase foreign firms or buy stock of the firms which have name value.
Katherine Yang: The Future of Advertising is Here
This article describes an "advertising revolution" where firms are able to branch out their ads using high-tech media. The plan is, "over time we [they] can cut the cost of advertising in half while maintaing customer response." Internet is supposed to be the reason for this, one click in a search engine brings up the result of your search and a barrage of advertisments. Even freakier is that companies are starting to figure out how to get to their specific target audience, "'we look for subsegments of internet users who care about certain things,' explains Breen Vogel. 'We find them when they're online, we intercept their activities, and we start a relationship with them.'" Sounds more like companies are becoming ad stalkers to me.
Claire Moon: Microsoft: Sony's Online Service is No Competition
Microsoft’s Robbie Bach used Xbox Live’s fifth birthday and opened a quick potshot at the PlayStation Network, saying it is “clearly head and shoulders above anything, anyone else has tried to do”. This gives a great gaming experience to people and it is purely monopolistic that there is no competitors for it.
Emily Yeh: Crazy Little Thing Called Risk
This article doesn't directly deal with monopolies or oligopolies, but rather with investment. However, it relates to the topic in that it discusses the interdependence between the consumer and producer. Assume that investment, with stock shares as products, is an industry. The consumers seek to buy these products, and the marginal utility they gain is money. This article discusses how earning money may be dependent on other consumer's decisions or other firms' decisions to release, sell, or purchase stock at different prices. Hence, the risk involved. The consumer discussed in this article seems to be ignorant of this, and hence when he actually loses money on stocks because he neglects all other factors, he is surprised.
Alice Su: Bitter Times at Hershey
In this article, the problems that Hershey has been facing with its executive managers recently are exposed. As a firm that controls 43% of the American chocolate market on its own, Hershey is obviously one of the "big" producers in the oligopolistic chocolate industry. This article discusses the sacking of many of Hershey's top executive board members and the reasons behind it; these reasons deal with failure to adjust to changes in costs and not putting enough emphasis on advertising. This reflects what we have learned in our text about the importance of nonprice competition in olgopolistic industries; in addition, the article brings up ideas of how Hershey ought to collaborate with Cadbury to gain firmer market power and to fight back against its rival, Mars. These issues directly relate to our textbook characteristics of oligopolistic industries as ones in which firms are mutually interdependent and their profits are affected by not only their own, but also by each other's prices, as well as addressing the concept of collusion in order to create higher profits within the oligopolistic industry.
Jeff Ye: The End of a Pharmaceutical Monopoly
This article talks about passing an amendment to the 2007 Prescription Drug User Free Bill called the "Dorgan amendment No. 990" that ends Big Pharma's monopoly over pharmaceutical sales. Americans pay the most for prescription drugs, two times or ten times more than Canadians and Europeans. This is because companies charge their drugs up to 569,000% over the price of raw materials. Formerly, these companies restriced the purchase of sales outside of the U.S. so that they could sell their drugs at such a high price, and paying off the government to support them. The new amendment howerver, now allows cities and companies to buy their drugs from foreign sellers.
Nicole Wong: Bridling at Insulin’s Cost, States Push for Generics
Though the insulin market may seem to be a monopoly, this article reveals how it there is, in fact, more than one brand or company that sells this medication. However, there is still a widely communicated issue that insulin is too expensive and that its price should decrease in order for it to be more easily obtainable among diabetics. It sounds almost contradictory at first, that an industry consisting of more than one firm is able to control market price and be a “price maker”. However, this merely reflects an impure monopoly, where there are few firms in the industry. As insulin is an inelastic good, monopolies have control over the price of insulin and consumers do not have the option of refusing to buy it.
Jo Lo:Addidas and Reebok
Adidas, the #2 sportswear company in the world, and Reebok, the #3 in the world have merged to try to catch Nike. Nike owns a whopping 36% of the world market share, while Adidas only has 9% and Reebok 12%. Adidas leads in Europe, but Nike is quickly catching up. The next region with the most potential for sales in Asia. Reebok has a head-start because the company is endorsing China's only sports superstar, Yao Ming.
Trevor Sun: L.A. Auto Show
Competition in this oligopoly is increasing due to the U.S. government passing laws concerning emmitions and fuel economy. More fuel efficient cars are being designed to use alternate sources of fuel. The pressure is already on other firms now that Chevrolt has showcased its new Volt "plug-in hybrid car".
**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.
Free schools are schools established by anybody. As long as they have enough students, the government will subsidize the schools. These schools create competition with the state schools, since free schools are innovative in their teaching style and the founders of those schools have incentive to make the education better. This is an example of oligopoly.
Annie Sung:Woman sues for $1 million over iPhone cost cut
Apple lowers its prices consistently, selling the iPhone in a range of prices between $599 and $399, so people who are willing to pay $599 can pay their share, and they continue to receive more revenue as prices lower and more consumers are interested. Good example of a firm using price discrimination to further maximize their profits.
Chan Min Park: Market Failure: Pollution, the Environment and Externalities
This article deals with one of the most obvious negative externalities, which is pollution. Pollution creates a market failure, where negative externalities cause the resources to be overallocated towards that market. To control this, the Environment Agency fined these companies and these fines have rose 41% since 2001, but companies are not changing their behavior. Companies are not taking care of the pollution they are creating, which are even deadly at times, and therefore creating negative externalities. Profits will be high and costs low if companies do not take care of their wastes. However to society, there is a high cost. Another problem companies face is the increasing costs for safely disposing their waste products. If waste products are safely disposed, then the negative externalities would not be as great. However since the cost is increasing to safely dispose wastes, companies and others are not taking care of their waste products.
Kevin Yeh: Gas stations repeatedly cited for air pollution
This article talks about how the gas stations leak pollution into the air in spite of special leak-proof gas nozzles. Such leakage is a major cause of pollution in San Diego, and thus there have been fines placed on gas stations which do not keep up their safety features and vapor recovery systems. However, these fines seem to be minimal compared to the amount it would take to maintain the pumps, because gas stations continually get cited for leakages. Obviously, the marginal cost of fines is exceeded and outweighted by the marginal cost of maintiaining their systems.
Howard Lin: Politics by Other Means
The “Why” of Immigration to the United States
This article is dealing with the issue of immagration in America. I think that America should allow immigrants in. Even though many argued against it says that it would create a rising number of unemployment and that it would bring the wages down, thinking from another point of view, it would bring the cost for firms down, which means lowing the price. Then, if the percentage drop of the good were greater than that of the wage, it would actually be a positive externality.
Jo Lo: California sues EPA over Emissions
This article deals with the Environmental Protection Agency not allowing California to set up its own greenhouse emission limits on cars, trucks, and SUVs. California looks to challenge the Bush Administration's views that states have no business setting emission standards. If California is eventually allowed to set up its own policies, this would prove a positive extrenality because many other states will see what California has done and will follow suit.
Jeff Ye: Global Warming Heats Up
When global warming first became a topic, many thought that human race would have centuries to correct the problem. However, this article compares the Earth's response to a pot of hot water. There is a ceratin "boiling" point where everything really starts to happen, and we've reached it. Destructive natural disasters are hitting hard and fast, and even the most critical skeptics have concluded that something should be done. The planet's ill and it's trying to fight a fever, unfortunately for us, these methods usually hurt in some way.
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