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.

North Korea is really mad at the U.S. & South Korea

North Korea has been very upset with us lately. With tensions rising between North Korea and the U.S.   and South Korea, the recent testing of North Korea's missile program, the whole world has been on high alert. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has made it clear that the conflict cannot be resolved peacefully and has sworn that The United States is their number one enemy. North Korea has done very extreme things recently including cutting off their nations internet access and taking 53,000 North Korean workers out of a factory where both South and North Korean workers work together. This action will seriously damage the North Korean economy. They pulled out these workers to prove that they hate the United States and South Korea so much that they are willing to hurt their own economy. If you ask me North Korea and Kim Jong Un really need to re-think think their latest actions and try for a peaceful resolution. I say this because if North Korea takes it as far as war they no longer have China backing them up and the United States, South Korea and all of their allies will dominate North Korea.

Jobless claims go up again.

It seems like we just can't get our unemployment issue solved here in the United States. Last week the number of Americans filling out new claims for unemployment benefits rose more than it was expected to. Isn't expecting unemployment to go up a bad thing? Well even though unemployment went up again Washington has stated that it is not enough to make the labor market take a few steps back. A different report confirmed that the economy expanded at a slow rate in the fourth quarter of 2012. Also, a big gain in business investment and higher exports of services let the government to push up its previous estimate of growth. Hopefully Jobs will start to open up and our nations economy will begin to improve before China totally owns us.

Remember Blackberrys?

What was the name of that phone that did everything that everyone wanted years ago before the Droid and the iPhone came out? Oh yeah thats the name, Blackberrys! Blackberrys use to be the top phone on the line but sadly not anymore. The sales of Blackberrys dropped ever since the releases of the Android phones and the iPhones. Blackberry has recently released a new line of phones and software to try to gain back some of its profits that they had lost. To their surprise it somewhat worked. Blackberry saw a slight profit after the release of the new phones and software the other day. In their latest quarter Blackberry lost a total of 18 million dollars from their operations but gained a total of 98 million from their income taxes. I wonder if Blackberry might be able to make it to the top again and beat the Androids and iPhones.

Cars

Today cars aren't just cars anymore, well at least not for some. Some consumers want fast sports cars, some want safe reliable sedans and some want big noisy trucks, but now a days theres a new style consumers want. This new want by consumers is luxury. People in todays world want a car that is not only slick and attractive on the outside, but shiny, new and advanced on the inside. People want touch screen radios, digital sped-ometers, heated seats, voice command/bluetooth calling and a whole bunch of other high tech stuff. This is what people want and automakers are listening! The majority of automakers are rushing to fill their showrooms with the latest and most advanced luxurious vehicles. The total sales of vehicles has risen eight percent in the past year, while sales for advanced luxurious vehicles has gone up 11 percent.

Oh wal-mart

Today I read an article about how Wal-Mart plans to step it up in their competition with Amazon. The new policy is basically a new form of pre-ordering or picking up a already purchased item. The new policy will allow customers to order and pay for a product online and pick it up in the stores in a locker. Yes Wal-Mart is now adding lockers to their stores but for the customers instead of the employees. This lockers idea is part of Wal-Marts goal to become a superstore online and even on your cell phones. While Wal-Mart still dominates Amazon in total sales, Amazon destroys Wal-Mart when it comes to online sales. The lockers should be ready for Wal-Mart shoppers by the summer but only for a few dozen stores to see how fond the customers are before they make the lockers nationwide.

Gay Marriage and the Economy

The United States supreme Court is currently making decisions on whether or not Gay or Same Sex Marriage is constitutional or unconstitutional. Most people in America have no problem with same sex marriage but many people don't. Heres a thing you might not have known, and this goes out to all of those nay sayers. Legalizing Same Sex Marriage could actually be a possible aid to our economy. When someone gets married they must pay something known as a marriage tax. Yes you actually get taxed by the government for getting married. So by allowing Gays or Lesbians to get married could give the United States a possible new form of tax dollars. Also these same sex couples will need to hire planners and books locations for the wedding which could improve businesses.

Iraq and Afghanistan

Even after 11 years or so, the United States government is still providing both financial and military aid to the middle eastern countries of Iraq and Afghanistan. Today we are actually still fighting terrorism over in Afghanistan which means we still have troops stationed over there. In Iraq however, we are no longer fighting a war at all, our soldiers stationed over there are currently acting more like a police force than anything else. This is actually bad for our economy. We have to pay those soldiers that are over in Iraq and Afghanistan. Iraq no longer needs a police force, we should not have to enforce their laws for them, thats a total waste of our money. We are also providing economic aid to Iraq to rebuild their nation. Originally this was a nice idea but after 11 years of funding them its about time to cut them off and leave them on their own.

War and the Economy

Even though it might sound crazy it is 100% true that war is actually a good thing for the economy. How is this possible you might ask? It's actually a very simple answer. During times of war our soldiers need money for food, ammunition and other necessary supplies. To help pay for these needs, the government offers us little pieces of paper known as War Bonds. When you purchase a war bond you are just basically lending money to the government to help support the troops. An example of when this type of situation has occurred was back in World War Two. During World War Two everyone was purchasing War Bonds and this boosted our economy. So this is how war can actually be a huge form or economic aid.

Clean U.S.A

To this very day car and truck fuel economy performance has been some of the worst in the world. Also, only seven percent of our nations energy comes from renewable energy sources, this is much less compared to most other technology advanced nations. According to president Obama, since the year 2007 American CO2 emission levels has fallen almost 13 percent. This decrease is one of the biggest declines among most industrialized countries and much steeper than in Europe. This is because in the past few years European nations have focused more on climate control rather than CO2 emission levels. This is also the biggest decline in CO2 emissions for the United States ever!

Cyprus

Today I read an article on the issue of Cyprus and the European Union. On Monday the European Union leaders decided to prevent the collapse of the Cyprus banking system by bailing them out to keep them in the Euro Zone and help rebuild its economy. The deal was decided by the finance ministers of the euro zone. The 17 nations that use the currency. This will drastically "prune" the over sized banking sector of Cyprus. The sector is bloated by billions of dollars from Russia and in the former Soviet Union. The deal would remove the idea of putting a tax on bank deposits. The head of the finance ministers Jeroen Dijsselbolem of the Netherlands said that the deal could go into effect very soon and without a new vote by the Cypriot Parliament who had recently rejected a financial deal within the last week. On Friday a bill was passed by legislation that would set the frame for the new deal.

Cambodia

This week in Economics we started watching a documentary. The documentary is called "Small Voices" and is about Cambodian street children. This documentary is about homeless children who have to work and beg on the streets to survive. These children have no choices like we do here in the United States. Here we have free public schooling, where these children live their public schooling is also free but since the teachers are so poor the students must pay the teachers 50 cents per class. If the student does not pay the 50 cents then he or she will not get any grades or proof that they had attended school. The children here wish that they could go to school and try to turn their lives around unlike the children here in the U.S. that gripe and complain constantly about going to school. The worst part of the matter is what the children have to fear, kidnappers. The street children are often kidnapped and forced into the underground sex slavery ring. We have not finished watching the movie but it is very sad and I am very grateful for the things I am allowed to do and the things I have.

March Madness

Today in economics class we covered the factors of inflation and poverty. First off, inflation is the general increase in prices of all goods. With inflation there are three different ways to cause inflation. The first theory and the most simple theory is known as The Quantity Theory. The Quantity Theory of inflation is when a country puts too much money into their economy, this lowers the value of that money and could cause prices to increase. The next theory is the Cost-Push Theory. The Cost-Push Theory states that inflation occurs when producers raise prices to meet increased costs. The final theory is The Demand-Pull Theory. The Demand-Pull Theory states that inflation occurs when demand for goods and services exceeds existing supplies. We also learned about the factors that cause the difference between rich and poor in society. These factors include talents. inheritances, luck, skills, and differences in demand. If a person can rap and appeal to a large crowd he could be signed by a record deal and make millions, if a person can lift heavy objects but has little education and no talents he won't be as successful in getting jobs.

Flammable Ice

Today in Economics class I researched a new form of gas found in Japan. On Tuesday Japan had taken gas offshore deposits of methane hydrate, also known as flammable Gas.This breakthrough has made officials and experts say that methane hydrate could be a huge step toward tapping into a new and very promising but still little understood source of energy. This new discovery could be a huge economic aid for to Japan, which is the largest importer of liquefied natural gas. Japan has also been having controversy on whether to continue their heavy reliance on nuclear energy. Even though this new form of gas could be a huge aid, it could be very harmful towards the environment. Scientists have identified that the amount of carbon in these gas hydrates is double the amount of carbon in all other fossil fuels. Looks like Japan has some testing to do before they take their next step into this new field of energy.