...career or daily life. What is economics Professor Israel Kirzner in The Economic Point of View points out that even among professional economists, there are ‘a series of formulations of the economic point of view that are astounding in their variety’. Many people feel that they are generally familiar with economics. However, if what the economics is asked, people will find that it is difficult to define the subject. After all, economics is more than money. As Mankiw mentioned in his book, economics is a study of mankind in the ordinary business of life, it examines that part of individual and social action which is most closely connected with the attainment and with the use of the material requisites of well-being. More generally, economics is the science which studies human behavior as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses, and scarcity refers to the limited nature of society’s resources. That is to say, economists not only study the consumption determination and investment portfolio, but also pay attention to the results that led by the consumption and investment, especially they may focus more on the influence in demand and supply in the market. Furthermore, economists concern the workings of the economy as a whole, which is linked with the policies of a country and the global economic condition like inflation and unemployment. To understand the developing society in which we live, we must be informed about what is going on in our...
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...interests tend to lean towards macroeconomics and learning how an economy can be driven forward. With the knowledge gained from an economics degree, I intend to someday be a part of the process of driving the Nigerian economy forward. In terms of career paths I intend on entering the commercial world and being a part of a fast growing sector of our economy, such as banking. I would eventually like to run a business of my own. The other subjects I am studying at A Level provide a good grounding in skills and knowledge for this course. The knowledge gained in geography has sharpened my analytical skills as I have learnt to gather and evaluate data. This will be very important for my research skills. Politics is valuable as it helps me look at issues from different angles, improved my essay writing and most importantly, keeps me on top with contemporary world issues and offers insight into how/why political choices are made by governments around the world. My interest in the subject goes beyond the classroom, as I have recently become an avid reader of the economist and financial times. I also read the famous ‘the undercover economist’ which raises questions such as why the gap between rich and poor countries is so great, the economic principles behind daily events such as high coffee prices and how firms succeed in making us spend all our money. I believe by the end of my 3 years doing this course I would be able to answer these questions myself! In addition I recently attended a conference...
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...policies in lending to a country with struggling economy made people think if IMF was the responsible for the default crisis that affected Argentina in 2001. Public Deficit – The Major “devil” As economic reforms were happening in Argentina, the country started to face large capital inflows, as it was able to borrow large capital amounts at lower interest rates because of the currency pegging, in the global market. However the government fiscal policies failed to maintain surpluses during economic growth period and actually even during this period the government budget deficits were large. Fiscal mismanagement can be considered as the main reason for the economic crisis, which includes: * Weak fiscal policy – the fiscal policy should have been adjusted during times of economic rapid growth in order to achieve fiscal surpluses and give a cushion in government accounts against future downturns. Lax in tax collection and high budget expenditures led the government budget to deficits which combined with the economic recessions led to long-run budget constrains because the deficit was unsustainable. * Structural Reforms – failed to place the key structural reforms during the economic growth period in some critical areas hindered the ability of domestic wages and prices to adjust quickly, making the expenditures in social issues higher than normal. * Political Factors – political factors limited the federal government to take decisive actions, and the provinces had been entrusted...
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...policies in lending to a country with struggling economy made people think if IMF was the responsible for the default crisis that affected Argentina in 2001. Public Deficit – The Major “devil” As economic reforms were happening in Argentina, the country started to face large capital inflows, as it was able to borrow large capital amounts at lower interest rates because of the currency pegging, in the global market. However the government fiscal policies failed to maintain surpluses during economic growth period and actually even during this period the government budget deficits were large. Fiscal mismanagement can be considered as the main reason for the economic crisis, which includes: * Weak fiscal policy – the fiscal policy should have been adjusted during times of economic rapid growth in order to achieve fiscal surpluses and give a cushion in government accounts against future downturns. Lax in tax collection and high budget expenditures led the government budget to deficits which combined with the economic recessions led to long-run budget constrains because the deficit was unsustainable. * Structural Reforms – failed to place the key structural reforms during the economic growth period in some critical areas hindered the ability of domestic wages and prices to adjust quickly, making the expenditures in social issues higher than normal. * Political Factors – political factors limited the federal government to...
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...introduction to the principles of macroeconomics. In learning how to analyze the purpose and functions of national income accounting, the components of Gross Domestic Product, the determinants of long run economic growth and the causes and costs of inflation and unemployment on our economy. By implementing graphs to interpret these principles and the economic outcomes I have learned to determine how markets allocate resources, analyze the components of the Gross Domestic Product and what the conditions required to promote long term economic growth would be. In the following summary I will be investigating a current event and composing an essay to identify a minimum of three economic concepts that I have gained knowledge about during my journey through the macroeconomics realm. The data basses I used in conducting this essay were the web sites of the Wall Street Journal and the News Week home age along with the Kaplan Library. I used goggle to locate the first two at which point I came across several other sites that when I typed the key word” economics” or “microeconomics “brought me to several sites. At which time adding another key word” current events” seemed to narrow down the sites that were originally displayed. After a search of the theses different site I had decided to use the Kaplan source as my main focus it was much easier to maneuver around and offered a better selection of articles. This is where I found most of the research I needed for the following essay...
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...strategies were discussed in class, I began to take more of an academic approach in regard to my investment strategy. I began to not only rely on news articles but I also analyzed company financials, giving me a better picture of the company as a whole. I decided to buy stock in safe, well-established companies that I new would give me a steady profit. That strategy worked pretty well for me, I made a profit with Alibaba, Starbucks and Wal-Mart. I made the biggest profit with Alibaba “ $18,139 and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc “ $20,161, while I made only minimal profit with the others. However, I failed to make a profit with Direxion Daily Russia Bear 3X ETF and Momo Inc, losing a total over $20,000 with each. I decided to take a chance and buy some stock in companies that I was not familiar with and achieved slight success doing so. I used various articles available on Stock Trak such as, Stocks to Watch, The Market Story, and Market Update, as my guide to buying stocks in unfamiliar companies, I received my biggest profit with VS 3X WTI CRUDE at $12,870 and Direxion Daily FTSE China Bear 3X ETF at $12,280. Both of these two stock are 3 X ETF, which seeking a return that is +300% or -300% of the return of their benchmark index for a single day. I gained only a minimal profit in the others, while I had slight losses Chimerix Inc. and Direxion Daily Russia Bear 3X ETF, which also is a 3 X ETF. Generally speaking, the first class I learned from this three-month stock...
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... In the first part of this practical project, we develop a model that helps the Venture Capital (VC) firm to identify good business opportunities, using the data provided by CrunchBase. In this context, we define “good business opportunities” as opportunities that are likely to be acquired and then sold profitably. Therefore, in our further analysis, we only consider companies that have been acquired (and that show on the “Acquisitions” tab of the excel file). With our application, we will provide the Venture Capital company with in-depth information that will help it decrease its risk of investing in companies that are likely to fail, and at the same time increase its opportunities for high return on investments. More precisely, with the support of our application, the VC company can predict the average return on investment of a potential target, identify both the most profitable industries and geographical areas and by that in consequence minimize its risk of investment. To do so, we go through three general stages. First, we compute the average return on investment that investors gained by investing in the companies of the data set. Then, we relate this ROI with both industry and location. Based on this, we classify and rank the regions and industries according to the calculated average ROI (which we computed in the first stage). Two buckets are created: bucket one (which we call “promising”) contains all combinations of industries and locations which display a satisfying...
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...2/5/2015 Print Principles of Macroeconomics: Ch 1 Problems and Applications flashcards | Easy Notecards front 1 back 1 a. Money spent on a new car could of been put in saving or used for food, clothing, vacation expenses, education expenses etc. b. When deciding how much money to allocate towards national parks, members of Congress much calculate the tradeoff with other important expenses such as national defense, infrastructure (bridges and roads), social programs, education etc. c. Opening a new factory may limit investments in other projects, operation expenses, capital on hand etc. d. Tradeoffs a professor should consider when deciding how much to prepare for a class include time spent with family, personal activities and research. e. A recent college graduate that goes to graduate school would tradeoff earning money now with a full time job and the money it costs to go to graduate school. Describe some of the tradeoffs faced by each of the following: a. a family deciding whether to buy a new car b. a member of Congress deciding how much to spend on national parks c. a company president deciding whether to open a new factory d. a professor deciding how much to prepare for class e. a recent college graduate deciding whether to go to graduate school front 2 back 2 The benefits of a vacation will vary from person to person. You are trying to decide whether to take a vacation. Most of Most people associate a vacation with relaxation, peace and a...
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...Economics relates to business because it teaches business people how to make choices that can get their business the most revenue with the least amount of cost. The understanding of economics can help business people succeed, economics can teach you things like marginal cost and revenues and this is essential to an type of business. Economics can teach you statistics that if used properly can provide you with an upper hand against competition. 2. Compare and contrast microeconomics and macroeconomics. How do the 2 approaches interrelate? Use a specific example to explain. Macroeconomics and Microeconomics are both dealing with economics but indifferent levels, Macroeconomics is the study of a country's overall economic issues and Microeconomics deals with economics on an individual consumer,families and individual businesses. They can affect how much you can purchase for your family and what is available for you to purchase for your family. 3. What are the fundamental elements of the free market economic system? How can businesses thrive within this system? 1. The rights to own a business and keep after-tax profits 2. The right to private property 3. The right to free choice 4. The right to fair competition Free Market economies allows businesses to thrive by allowing owners to keep the profits, encouraging growth. 4. Describe the 4 degrees of competition within the free market system. Offer 2 to 3 examples of each type of competition...
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...trying to use “top-down” approach to invest in our portfolio. Top-down approach is a method of analysis that involves looking at the "big picture" first, and then analyzing the details of sector or industry then towards the company or stocks. By first analyzing the overall picture, such as a macroeconomic trend, we can start narrowing potential companies to invest. After conducting some economic analysis, our group concludes that the U.S. economy is recovering slowly and it should be the case for next year. However, we believe that those indicators such as housing sector, unemployment and others may not tell us how long the improvement will continue in the future. For this reason, we should be more conservative when selecting sectors in which we should invest. Our team thinks that stability, return or equity (ROE), and P/E ratio should be used as criteria for selecting sectors then towards the company. As a result, we selected three sectors in which we invest, namely, conglomerates, consumer goods, and services that we expected to have the potential to increase in the future. We average out nine sectors P/E ratio and ROE as a benchmark for comparison. Conglomerates and services both have higher ROE than all the industry average. Their P/E ratios are little higher than all the industry standard but they fall into our acceptable range (+/- 20% of all the industry average). In addition, we also choose consumer goods to invest. Although its ROE is little below all industry average...
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...I remember the night vividly – it was cold, dark, and quiet. My family and I had our bags packed, our entire life squeezed into six suitcases and three backpacks. Other than each other and our UN representative in Turkey, not a soul in the world knew we were leaving our apartment in Tehran that night. Being believers of the Baha'i Faith under a regime governed by religious extremists meant receiving phone calls from officials with death threats almost every night. It was time we escaped. As a seven-year-old boy, I couldn't understand much, but I knew that it was the lack of justice – fairness – that had taken us to this point. The interplay of justice and injustice, oppressors and those who protect human dignity, human rights and the lack...
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...Abuse of Keynes’ Theory of Government Spending | And Why Government Spending Needs to Stop | | Chase Cooper | 12/13/2012 | Political Economy Dr.Ramos Abstract: The goal of my research paper is to analyze and present how John Maynard Keynes’ theory on government spending is being abused by the American government insofar that the American government is not following the guidelines and foundations that premised Keynes’ theory, and instead are picking the parts of the theory that allow them to spend at unsustainable levels, creating problems that, one way or another, eventually have to be resolved. My research will prove how the American government is conducting fiscal policy in a way that abuses Keynes’ theory on government spending, and, as a result, why Keynes would not support the American government in their spending endeavors, despite using his theory as their justification. I will be critiquing the application of Keynes’ theory from the Austrian, specifically the works of Friedrich A. Hayek, and Monetarist perspectives, supported by arguments given by Milton Friedman. Section 1: Keynes’ Theory on Government Spending John Maynard Keynes published his famous work, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, in 1936, during the Great Depression. Economies all over the world were suffering severely from the Great Depression, and there was little hope of economic recovery in the near future. Keynes agreed with the classical economist’s notion that the...
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...“Tax is a compulsory levy made by the public administration for which nothing is received directly in return’’ (James and Nobes, 2011). The income tax was primarily developed in England by Pitt the Younger in 1798 to help out finance the Napoleonic Wars.’’ In earlier times, taxes were usually only levied occasionally to pay for some huge expenses such a war. Since then the British tax system has developed in a largely ad hoc and politically expedient method’’. Amendments have been made to the existing tax systems, usually when the government required more funds. Little if any planned or integrated thinking seems to have taken place. According to the Adam Smith Institute, Great Britain has the most complex tax system in the world, which is largely believed that is roughly five times as long as the German tax code (Geraint Jones, 2011) Currently, governments request to use taxation in some situations for purposes which is different than raising funds to cover up its expenditure. To begin with, the economic resources, which are accessible for the nation are limited, thus a raise in government spending usually leads to a decrease in private expenditure. In addition to this, one technique of transferring recourses from the private to the public sector is the use of taxation, but there are also further methods. One of these alternative methods is the degradation of the currency through the creation of additional money, but the main problem of this method is that it leads to inflation...
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...The Perils of Privatization The Perils of Privatization Initially, privatization allows governments to decouple from an unsustainable state-led economic model, which reduces fiscal pressures and provides space for entrepreneurial experimentation. But, from India to Brazil and Turkey, we have seen how several years of impressive economic expansion, under the guidance of market-oriented governments, has been followed by an explosion in public discontent over endemic corruption, macroeconomic uncertainty, and slowing growth -- signifying a major gap in the relationship between the state and markets. Among newly-emerging economies such as the Philippines, recent economic gains have largely failed to trickle down to the masses. In absence of real political parties, reforms have been more a function of the personal whims of the political leadership rather than a reflection of carefully-considered programmatic action. There has been hardly any policy consistency, with cyclical leadership change ushering in new policy directions -- undermining the positive legacy of the previous administration. True, the Aquino administration has managed to restore a measure of confidence in the economy, with more global investors taking notice of the country's massive economic potentials. And a legion of hard-working Filipinos around the world will continue to boost their national economy through tens of billions in annual remittances. Nevertheless, the long-term trajectory of the Philippine economy...
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...Internationalization process for Kone elevators 7 Comparison in the internationalization process of firms 8 Similarities 8 I. External environmental conditions: 8 II. Leadership and top management: 8 Differences 9 I. Strategy for Internationalization 9 II. Outlook of the company 11 III. Organizational and business structure: 12 Conclusion 13 Introduction The study of the Internationalization process for Finnish firms has been quite interesting in terms of the variety of the methods used by the companies to do so and in the nature of the learning that can be gained from the same. While studying about processes and the tactics being used by the companies’ one also has to pay importance to the external environment in terms of the economy, government and social and cultural factors that play a very important part in the decision making during the internationalization process. The major factors that have led to the internationalization process in Finnish firms can be classified into five major categories as mentioned. The first factor is the competence development in individuals and exploitation of the critical events that occur in the world. The second is the creation of international business through focused acquisitions, which has led to long term development. The third is the group transformation, identity building wherein corporations have searched for new focus and identity which has led to internationalization. Exploitation of the opportunities of rapid globalization...
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