The last few days have seen all sorts of interesting news, from the iPhone to overall consumer spending. There's lots to choose from! Due Monday, Sept 17 at 11:59pm.
In this article, IPhone5 sales could offer big boost to GDP, Sudeep Reddy explains that the release of the IPhone 5 could boost the economy in a drastic way, something congress and the federal reserve having been trying to do for years. Sales are estimated to add anywhere from a quarter to a half of a percentage point for the country’s fourth quarter economic growth. In other words, IPhone 5 sales have the potential to increase GDP by 12.8 billion at an annual rate or, 3.2 billion in the fourth quarter. Many think this estimation is too large and therefore unreasonable. However, after the release of the IPhone 4S, the fourth quarter report was boosted by a fifth of a percentage point and also brought a 0.8% increase in online sales and computer/software sales. This release will be even bigger and has the potential to improve our economy in drastic ways.
The first article states the 2012 presidential election is defined by the weakness of the U.S. economy, and very dependent on the candidates' economic proposals and solutions. As Romney is entering a critical campaign period, he is planning on discussing the specifics of his economic message: energy production and trade, improving education, cutting government spending, helping small businesses, and reducing regulations. Romney is scheduled to take about the U.S. Debt of $16 trillion on Monday and provide specifics about his plans. The second article was more general; stating that “the economy will have a varying political impact from state to state.” For example, states like Iowa and New Hampshire have strong job markets, while others like Nevada and North Carolina are suffering. Both Romney and Obama have targeted these states; the Romney campaign released a new tv ad on Friday, blaming the Obama administration for Nevada's economic woes, while the Democratic party even went as far as to hold their national convention in North Carolina, a state with one of the nation's worst unemployment rates.
On March 21, mutineer Malian soldiers stormed the country’s national cotton company, CMDT, in an attempt to force the government to take care of a northern rebellion. Realizing that they had broken into the main office building and not the television headquarters next door, they left. Although the coup was not violent, it was the beginning of a government crisis that has lead to chaos and food shortages for the people of Mali. However, throughout the midst of all this, the country’s two biggest “economic engines,” cotton and gold, have emerged virtually unscathed. Mali is Africa’s biggest producer of cotton, and is third in the continent’s gold. The cotton industry employs about 4 million of Mali’s 15 million people, and thanks to the heavy seasonal rains, is estimated to make at least 500000 tonnes this coming year. Gold, too, though giving investors a brief scare after the coup, has stabilized, and accounts for 15 percent of GDP. Nevertheless, the people of northern Mali are in need of aid to combat poor healthcare and rising food prices, and radical fighters rule the countryside. That being said, the nation can find some assurance that their two biggest products are doing quite well. http://main.omanobserver.om/node/110046
How efficient is solar power? According to this article in the Wall Street Journal, there are five criteria to determine if one would benefit from installing solar panels on the roof of their home. These include efficiency of the solar panels, subsidies from the state, city or federal governments, tax credits (which is about 30% investment), rebates from the electric company and how much one pays for electricity now.
The cities used in the study included Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York and Portland. The study was based on 11,500 kilowatts per hour annually and was mostly for a 5 kilowatt system except for Portland which had a 3 kilowatt system.
This study might have been a waste of time because there were no studies done in Florida which is called the sunshine state nor were any states used from the sunshine belt. Our family's electric bill can be quite high because of air conditioning in the summer and heating the pool in the winter. Once, we rented an electric golf cart which made the bill very high that month.
http://money.cnn.com/2012/09/11/news/economy/wages-jobs/index.html Why aren’t wages rising? In this article we see why because of unemployment is keeping workers from getting their salary raise. For the past year the Bureau of labor Statistics show that the hourly wage (in the private sector) has gone from 23.12 dollars an hour to 23.52 dollars an hour. That represents a gain of 1.7%, slightly higher than inflation over roughly the same time period. "People think high unemployment only affects people without jobs," said Shierholz "But it also prevents people from getting raises.” The main problem for wages not being raised is because of the high unemployment percentage.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/09/16/the-economics-of-channel-surfing/ The article I read started with how economists usually think of humans as irrational and not very bright. They judge people for things from spending money to channel surfing. Turns out that people usually will be lazy and not channel surf, even if they are not enjoying the program they are watching, and a more entertaining program is on another channel. Apparently economists believe that this is not economical. They find that people usually only watch a small number of the same stations. The article stated that television executives know how to manipulate people into only watching their own channel, consequently losing profits for other channels with potentially better shows.
The iPhone 5 is the fastest selling phone ever! AT&T, the second largest service provider, set their personal record of the fastest phone sold and the phone is not even out yet! The iPhone 4 sold over 600,000 units in a mere day, and the iPhone 4S surpassed that by almost double by selling over 1,000,000 units. Certain analysts predict that in September there will be over 30 million units sold in total. The iPhone alone accounts for more than half of Apple's revenue, not to mention the other successful product lines such as: the MacBooks and iPad. Apple also released the all new iPod Nano and iPod Touch; however, despite all of this Apple's shared only increased 1%, increasing from $694.88 to $691.28. We can conclude that at least one business is thriving through the economic times.
http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/09/17/maryland-revenue-growth-estimates-idINL1E8KHH8420120917 Maryland is estimated to grow 2.7% in fiscal 2014, with total general fund revenue forecast to be $15.32 billion, state officials said. Maryland’s comptroller and chairman of the board of Revenue Estimates said that the state’s economy “remains fundamentally fragile” and the U.S. recovery “is wishy-washy at best. “Adjusted for tax raises revenue collections through 2014 are forecast to only grow 3.1%. He also warned that awaiting confiscation of federal funds could worsen the state’s economy. Maryland is ranked 3rd in the U.S. in the percent of federal government employees and contractors. He urges the Maryland lawmaker and governor to restrain new spending.
The article I read focuses on the third major sports lockout we've seen in three years; this time it is by the National Hockey League. This is the second lockout by the NHL since 2004, and seems to be happening because the first lockout was never really solved. Hockey players are the most under-paid of professional athletes, and went on strike back in 2004 to hopefully increase their salaries. The strike came to a mutual halt in 2004 with the understanding that the issue would be resolved some point later on. The league is coming off of a record setting year, with revenues being at an all time high, so this would seem like an odd time to go into lockout (what's really odd is that the league locked out the players, this is not a player strike. The players union has proposed a deal in which 57% of all league profits would go to players, but no officially face to face meetings or steps forward have been made. As of right now there is no indication as to how long this lockout will last.
This week’s article was about the president and the power that he has over the economy. The president of the United States definitely has a lot of power over the economy but is it enough to change it? The economy in this article was described as a large ship and it will be very hard to turn it back around. With that in mind it will be difficult for just the president to influence it. The president is not the only one to influence the economy there are many factors that go into it. An analogy that was given in the article was if Greece sneezed all the other countries got a cold.
Connecticut’s economy is now facing a series of economic problems. In the second quarter of 2012 it lost over 4,000 jobs. Dr. Steven Lanza, executive of the Connecticut economy, predicts a slow pickup of 2.3% in the next six quarters. Relative to other states it is recovering well, but if you look at the rates it still sometimes seems “agonizingly slow”, as Lanza put it. Fairfield County is setting the example for the rest of Connecticut’s economy with the lowest unemployment numbers. In the midst of their relative success, the unemployment numbers are too high. They are so high that it is hard to ever get back to the original employment rates.
Turkey's unemployment rates have recent fallen 1.6% to a mere 8%. Although the struggling US only has an unemployment rate of 8.3% (www.google.com/data) this is the lowest Turkey's unemployment rates have been since June 2001.
Although some economists claim that these new decreases are here to stay because of incentives and contribution to exports, other economists muse that these newer improvements are due only to the tourism of the recent season.
The creation of more jobs is a very important issue for most Americans. Although America's unemployment rates are comparable to Turkey's, at the moment, her unemployment rates are beginning to spike upward again. Since April 2012, American unemployment rates have increased .3%.
Which candidate is more adept to dwindle the unemployment numbers?
It seems as though the 'threat of a China slowdown' has been recently taking effect on those surrounding countries such as Australia and other Asian countries such as Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. With Australia's relative importing percentage increasing to 31.6% it is evident that the country's vulnerable economy will become at risk if this slowdown does in fact occur. This would not only be effecting those Asian countries but also many other countries that receive imports from China. Consequently, we should be expecting some kind of fallout pretty soon but for the most part, it seems as though the United States will be able to hold her own for a while. The actual timing of this slowdown is not exact yet but they're expecting it to be soon.
In this article, IPhone5 sales could offer big boost to GDP, Sudeep Reddy explains that the release of the IPhone 5 could boost the economy in a drastic way, something congress and the federal reserve having been trying to do for years. Sales are estimated to add anywhere from a quarter to a half of a percentage point for the country’s fourth quarter economic growth. In other words, IPhone 5 sales have the potential to increase GDP by 12.8 billion at an annual rate or, 3.2 billion in the fourth quarter. Many think this estimation is too large and therefore unreasonable. However, after the release of the IPhone 4S, the fourth quarter report was boosted by a fifth of a percentage point and also brought a 0.8% increase in online sales and computer/software sales. This release will be even bigger and has the potential to improve our economy in drastic ways.
ReplyDeletehttp://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2012/09/10/iphone-5-sales-could-offer-big-boost-to-gdp/
http://news.yahoo.com/romney-hits-obama-looming-fiscal-cliff-015703878--finance.html
ReplyDeletehttp://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/09/07/glance-at-economic-political-conditions-in-some-election-closely-contested/
The first article states the 2012 presidential election is defined by the weakness of the U.S. economy, and very dependent on the candidates' economic proposals and solutions. As Romney is entering a critical campaign period, he is planning on discussing the specifics of his economic message: energy production and trade, improving education, cutting government spending, helping small businesses, and reducing regulations. Romney is scheduled to take about the U.S. Debt of $16 trillion on Monday and provide specifics about his plans. The second article was more general; stating that “the economy will have a varying political impact from state to state.” For example, states like Iowa and New Hampshire have strong job markets, while others like Nevada and North Carolina are suffering. Both Romney and Obama have targeted these states; the Romney campaign released a new tv ad on Friday, blaming the Obama administration for Nevada's economic woes, while the Democratic party even went as far as to hold their national convention in North Carolina, a state with one of the nation's worst unemployment rates.
On March 21, mutineer Malian soldiers stormed the country’s national cotton company, CMDT, in an attempt to force the government to take care of a northern rebellion. Realizing that they had broken into the main office building and not the television headquarters next door, they left. Although the coup was not violent, it was the beginning of a government crisis that has lead to chaos and food shortages for the people of Mali. However, throughout the midst of all this, the country’s two biggest “economic engines,” cotton and gold, have emerged virtually unscathed. Mali is Africa’s biggest producer of cotton, and is third in the continent’s gold. The cotton industry employs about 4 million of Mali’s 15 million people, and thanks to the heavy seasonal rains, is estimated to make at least 500000 tonnes this coming year. Gold, too, though giving investors a brief scare after the coup, has stabilized, and accounts for 15 percent of GDP. Nevertheless, the people of northern Mali are in need of aid to combat poor healthcare and rising food prices, and radical fighters rule the countryside. That being said, the nation can find some assurance that their two biggest products are doing quite well.
ReplyDeletehttp://main.omanobserver.om/node/110046
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444506004577615662289766558.html
ReplyDeleteHow efficient is solar power? According to this article in the Wall Street Journal, there are five criteria to determine if one would benefit from installing solar panels on the roof of their home. These include efficiency of the solar panels, subsidies from the state, city or federal governments, tax credits (which is about 30% investment), rebates from the electric company and how much one pays for electricity now.
The cities used in the study included Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York and Portland. The study was based on 11,500 kilowatts per hour annually and was mostly for a 5 kilowatt system except for Portland which had a 3 kilowatt system.
This study might have been a waste of time because there were no studies done in Florida which is called the sunshine state nor were any states used from the sunshine belt. Our family's electric bill can be quite high because of air conditioning in the summer and heating the pool in the winter. Once, we rented an electric golf cart which made the bill very high that month.
I could see how we would benefit.
http://money.cnn.com/2012/09/11/news/economy/wages-jobs/index.html
ReplyDeleteWhy aren’t wages rising? In this article we see why because of unemployment is keeping workers from getting their salary raise. For the past year the Bureau of labor Statistics show that the hourly wage (in the private sector) has gone from 23.12 dollars an hour to 23.52 dollars an hour. That represents a gain of 1.7%, slightly higher than inflation over roughly the same time period. "People think high unemployment only affects people without jobs," said Shierholz "But it also prevents people from getting raises.” The main problem for wages not being raised is because of the high unemployment percentage.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/09/16/the-economics-of-channel-surfing/
ReplyDeleteThe article I read started with how economists usually think of humans as irrational and not very bright. They judge people for things from spending money to channel surfing. Turns out that people usually will be lazy and not channel surf, even if they are not enjoying the program they are watching, and a more entertaining program is on another channel. Apparently economists believe that this is not economical. They find that people usually only watch a small number of the same stations. The article stated that television executives know how to manipulate people into only watching their own channel, consequently losing profits for other channels with potentially better shows.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/hardware/iphone-5-sets-new-sale-record-becomes-fastest-selling-iphone-ever/articleshow/16433683.cms
ReplyDeleteThe iPhone 5 is the fastest selling phone ever! AT&T, the second largest service provider, set their personal record of the fastest phone sold and the phone is not even out yet! The iPhone 4 sold over 600,000 units in a mere day, and the iPhone 4S surpassed that by almost double by selling over 1,000,000 units. Certain analysts predict that in September there will be over 30 million units sold in total. The iPhone alone accounts for more than half of Apple's revenue, not to mention the other successful product lines such as: the MacBooks and iPad. Apple also released the all new iPod Nano and iPod Touch; however, despite all of this Apple's shared only increased 1%, increasing from $694.88 to $691.28. We can conclude that at least one business is thriving through the economic times.
http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/09/17/maryland-revenue-growth-estimates-idINL1E8KHH8420120917
ReplyDeleteMaryland is estimated to grow 2.7% in fiscal 2014, with total general fund revenue forecast to be $15.32 billion, state officials said. Maryland’s comptroller and chairman of the board of Revenue Estimates said that the state’s economy “remains fundamentally fragile” and the U.S. recovery “is wishy-washy at best. “Adjusted for tax raises revenue collections through 2014 are forecast to only grow 3.1%. He also warned that awaiting confiscation of federal funds could worsen the state’s economy. Maryland is ranked 3rd in the U.S. in the percent of federal government employees and contractors. He urges the Maryland lawmaker and governor to restrain new spending.
A check-plus comment (double credit). Well done!
Deletehttp://aol.sportingnews.com/nhl/story/2012-09-15/nhl-lockout-2012-cba-negotiations-hockey-strike-gary-bettman-owners-nhlpa
ReplyDeleteThe article I read focuses on the third major sports lockout we've seen in three years; this time it is by the National Hockey League. This is the second lockout by the NHL since 2004, and seems to be happening because the first lockout was never really solved. Hockey players are the most under-paid of professional athletes, and went on strike back in 2004 to hopefully increase their salaries. The strike came to a mutual halt in 2004 with the understanding that the issue would be resolved some point later on. The league is coming off of a record setting year, with revenues being at an all time high, so this would seem like an odd time to go into lockout (what's really odd is that the league locked out the players, this is not a player strike. The players union has proposed a deal in which 57% of all league profits would go to players, but no officially face to face meetings or steps forward have been made. As of right now there is no indication as to how long this lockout will last.
http://www.loansafe.org/president-not-only-factor-on-economy-experts-agree
ReplyDeleteThis week’s article was about the president and the power that he has over the economy. The president of the United States definitely has a lot of power over the economy but is it enough to change it? The economy in this article was described as a large ship and it will be very hard to turn it back around. With that in mind it will be difficult for just the president to influence it.
The president is not the only one to influence the economy there are many factors that go into it. An analogy that was given in the article was if Greece sneezed all the other countries got a cold.
http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Connecticut-s-economy-may-face-new-challenges-3872343.php
ReplyDeleteConnecticut’s economy is now facing a series of economic problems. In the second quarter of 2012 it lost over 4,000 jobs. Dr. Steven Lanza, executive of the Connecticut economy, predicts a slow pickup of 2.3% in the next six quarters. Relative to other states it is recovering well, but if you look at the rates it still sometimes seems “agonizingly slow”, as Lanza put it. Fairfield County is setting the example for the rest of Connecticut’s economy with the lowest unemployment numbers. In the midst of their relative success, the unemployment numbers are too high. They are so high that it is hard to ever get back to the original employment rates.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/unemployment-at-lowest-since-2011.aspx?pageID=238&nID=30346&NewsCatID=344
ReplyDeleteTurkey's unemployment rates have recent fallen 1.6% to a mere 8%. Although the struggling US only has an unemployment rate of 8.3% (www.google.com/data) this is the lowest Turkey's unemployment rates have been since June 2001.
Although some economists claim that these new decreases are here to stay because of incentives and contribution to exports, other economists muse that these newer improvements are due only to the tourism of the recent season.
The creation of more jobs is a very important issue for most Americans. Although America's unemployment rates are comparable to Turkey's, at the moment, her unemployment rates are beginning to spike upward again. Since April 2012, American unemployment rates have increased .3%.
Which candidate is more adept to dwindle the unemployment numbers?
http://www.tradingfloor.com/posts/asia-macro-not-only-australia-suffers-from-a-china-slowdown-324195592
ReplyDeleteIt seems as though the 'threat of a China slowdown' has been recently taking effect on those surrounding countries such as Australia and other Asian countries such as Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. With Australia's relative importing percentage increasing to 31.6% it is evident that the country's vulnerable economy will become at risk if this slowdown does in fact occur. This would not only be effecting those Asian countries but also many other countries that receive imports from China. Consequently, we should be expecting some kind of fallout pretty soon but for the most part, it seems as though the United States will be able to hold her own for a while. The actual timing of this slowdown is not exact yet but they're expecting it to be soon.