Chinese Chicken Factory?

So apparently there was a poultry processing factory in China that had caught fire the other day. The fire and release of ammonia gas in the factory lead to the deaths of over 100 employees. This poultry factory was praised and also supported by the Chinese government as being a model enterprise. At first government officials believed that a leak in ammonia gas used for preserving the poultry could have caused the explosion. After being inspected the factory showed no signs of ammonia storage problems or containment. If there wasn't an ammonia leak than what caused the explosion? That's what I'm wondering right now.

New Cancer Drugs?

In Chicago a new test on a new line of Cancer fighting drugs has produced very successful results, raising the hopes of the world's top cancer specialists who see this as maybe a new milestone in the fight against cancer. All the buzz on these new drugs has also started to influence wall street. Shares in the companies Merck and Bristol Meyers Squibb, the companies developing the new drugs, have risen three percent on monday after the results on the new drugs were released. These new drugs are still very new and require much more testing before they take things any further, but apparently these drugs work in a whole new way. The new drugs unleash the body's immune system to attack the cancer cells as they would bacteria. All this new research is giving everyone around the world new hope, lets just hope that this new medication isn't a total let down.

China causing problems for Germany and European Union

China has been using skillful tactics of threatening trade war and increased purchases with the E.U. and now have caused a major issue. Due to these threats China has appeared to have caused a gap between Germany and the rest of the European Union. After years of being a loyal supporter of the European Union, Germany must take China's side of things now. Germany's economic minister said Monday that Germany was voting against the European Unions purposed $27 billion dollar tariff on imported solar panels from China. A test Tuesday however showed that not only Germany but the majority of European governments opposed the tariff on Chinese solar panels. Looks like China wins this one.

Britain in trouble

The International Monetary Fund released a report on Wednesday stating that though recent economic data showed signs of improvement, the information did not suggest any major economic recovery any time soon. This is completely different compared to what the Governor of the Bank of England Meryvn A. King said last week. King said that there was a, "welcome change in the economic outlook," and that the recovery of the English economy was "in sight." George Osborne, chancellor of the exchequer said that the English economy would improve quicker if the government would slow its spending cuts and tax increases. The International Monetary Fund said that in their current economic situation, calling for additional public spending would be a good thing.

Unemployment

So the short - term unemployment here in the United States has fallen back to where it was back in the year 2007. Although short-term unemployment has fallen the amount of long-term unemployment is still very high. Although long-term unemployment has dropped to 4.1% that is still too high. More than half of the people in this category have been umemployed for atleast 15 weeks. There are also 4.4 million workers in the United States that have been unemployed for atleast 6 months, thats really not a good thing. 4.4 million unemployed workers might be lower than that peak of 6.7 million workers but is still unacceptabe.

America's getting up there again.

So America's economy has been doing pretty good for the first quarter of the year. Our output expanded at a rate of 2.5% according to a Commerce Department report that was released last Friday. Economists were not that excited by the increase, for they had expected our output to increase at a rate of at least 3% for the first quarter. Economists are stating that the increase in our gross domestic product was due to our very slow increase at the end of 2012 where our output only increased at a rate of .04%. So even though the expansion of our output didn't meet expectations, the fact that it is still going up is still a very good thing to look positive towards.

Gun Control Bill Failed

So as we all know by now the bill proposing stricter back round checks that would make it much more difficult to sell guns here in the United States was rejected by the Senate. If the bill had passed the amount of guns being sold most likely would have decreased. The reason behind all these new gun control policies changing of course is due to the shooting that happened in Newtown not to long ago. Since the bill has not passed though, the amount of guns sales will be unchanged. This is a good thing in a way because the taxes on those firearms go towards the state and federal governments. At the same time however this bill not being passed will allow almost anyone out there to still buy weapons. So it's a good thing for the Economy but not a good thing for many Americans.