Economic News Investigation
Read All About Economic News
By: Hannah Hoepner
How's the American Economy Doing?
Taken from CNN Money, this article showed how the economy isn't just one sided. The economy can be doing well in some areas in poor in others. So the article showed how you can look at the economy in a half full or half empty view. Right now in our economy the stocks are at a record high, gas is under $3 a gallon, and Our economy is expanding. But on the other hand wages for workers rant rising, millions of americans can't find full time jobs, and the inequality in our economy is growing. This article made some good connections with the rate of unemployment, which is the percentage of the total labor force that is unemployed but actively seeking employment and are willing to work. Back in Oct. of 2009 the unemployment rate was 10%, now as of Oct. 2014 the rate is 5.8%. So there has been a great decrease in the rate. But when it comes to the long term unemployment rate its a different story. Back in Oct. of 2007 the total was 1.3 million and as of Oct. 2014 the rate has increased to 2.9 million. This makes me think that if one can decease but as the same time on can increase we are using the wrong type of official unemployment rate. I strongly think we should be using the U-6 rate, it shows more realistically what the real rate is. There wouldn't be as large of a gap between the unemployment and long term rate.
Robots At Mcdonald's?
Taken from Politic$ on 25 CNBC, this article showed the disadvantages from raising our minimum wage to $13-$15. According to Sam Zell, "The tinkering with the minimum wage is a very dangerous game." He went on to explain that when you raise the minimum wage so high places like McDonald's will be replacing there employees with robots. The reason being they could do it cheaper then paying someone the raised minimum wage. This article related greatly with cost of production, which is how much it costs a business to manufacture a good or produce a service. If we raise the minimum wage it could actually cause a higher unemployment rate, because it could cost businesses less to have robots to do the job of someone they would have to pay $14 per hour that they were paying $7.25 per hour. The cost of production would go up for business if the minimum wage was raised. It could also cause businesses to cut back on there work force causing the unemployment rate to increase. There are many ways that raising the minimum wage could effect the unemployment rate
What is Making eye glasses to expensive?
Taken from Forbes.com, this article explains the madness behind our high price glass market. As you may know some types of high end glasses can cost anywhere from $400-500, when they really only cost the producers around $25-$50 to make. The common question you may ask your self is why do I have to pay so much? Well the answer is there is a single company called Luxottica that manufactures most frames for high end companies such as Oakley, Coach, and LensCrafters to name just a few. Luxottica 80% of major brands in the eyeglasses industry. This would be called a monopoly, which is when a company has exclusive possession or control of the supply or trade in a product or service. Since Luxottica has a monopoly in eyeglasses it is a price maker, this means it can set the price of products as high as consumers are willing to pay. This doesn't mean that it's always fair for us consumers.
White House explains why its visa reforms are a big deal for the U.S. economy
Taken from CNN Money, this article talks about how America's largest service export is tourism and the role it plays in our economy. The growth in international visitors has crested many jobs in the past 5 years, 260,000 to be exact. There has also been a 42% increase of visas issued since 2010. Obviously it would be a smart idea to try to expand this growth even further. The president is doing this by making an agreement with the President of China, making tourist and business visas now good for 10 years instead of yearly. This article related to industrial economies because it talked about the U.S. and China. Industrial economy means that they have the higher standard of living. Since both countries are industrialized they are still trying to make there countries better, and they are doing this by working together to achieve a goal of bettering their county.
Do You want to eat chines chicken?
Taken from CNN Money, this article talked about how the U.S. Department of Agriculture approved four chines companies to be able to export cooked chicken products to the U.S., but there was a catch to it. The only chicken that they can export to us must be first imported from countries that USDA poultry standard in there countries, which is America, Canada, and Chile. I think its interesting how China hasn't met the USDA poultry standard but for some reason where letting them send it to us as long as its form a different country, but I guess we will do anything to meet our supply and demand needs. This is how the article relates to economics, because our demand for poultry products are so high that we must get it imported to use form other places. So china is now going to be able to supply our demand. The definition of supply and demand is the availability of product (supply) and the desire or need for it (demand).