Thursday, March 31, 2011

Japan’s Economic Crisis and the Global Economy

After reading and article based mainly on the risk of seafood contamination due to the crisis at Japan’s atomic plant leaking radioactive particles into the ocean surrounding Japan, I began to consider how this would affect the global fishing and seafood economy. Obviously Japan’s seafood sales have and will continue to drop for sometime because of the crisis, but Japan is also a major seafood supplier to other nations. If the supply of fish from Japan is dropping but the demand of seafood restaurants stays the same, “the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has played down the risks of seafood contamination,” then other fisheries will have the opportunity to, sadly, make profit from the disaster. Not only will the price for fish rise but buyers will want to buy fish from fisheries that are not near the disaster, increasing business and therefore increasing profit for those fisheries. Considering there is no way to instantly produce a fish to sell, it will take some time for fisheries to catch up to the demand for fish but since Japan does not seem to be gaining much progress, these other companies will have time to increase their amount of fish raised and then sold. This is a great example of how competition can be a factor of demand, when a competitor’s product is labeled unsuitable the demand for the other companies product will rise. Also, it is an example of elasticity. Fish are not elastic, but in this scenario it is still smart for fisheries to plan ahead for the long run and raise more fish even though it will take some time.

Monday, March 28, 2011

How Gay Marriage is Good for the Economy

No matter what your politics are or your beliefs on if gay marriage is right, studies by the Williams institute has proven that if all 50 states in the U.S. would allow same sex marriage, the federal government will benefit almost $1 billion a year. The number of marriages will start off very high but even once they taper off they will be accepted to stay at the same rate as their heterosexual counter parts. Estimates claim that 10% of all Americans are gay. This number might seem low but not when you add in the numbers. According to the Wedding Professional International, the wedding industry in the U.S. forks in a whopping $86 Billion a year without including honeymoons and other expenses. And let's not forget the pre marriage costs. Just adding on the costs of the previous 6 months brings the total to $120 billion. Now add the 10% that is that of the Homosexuals. The reception site, jewerlers vacation sites, photohraphers, restaurants, and etc. benefit from this. And let's not forget the tax revenue and the marriage license fees. Acording to Wiliam Institute the taxes and licenses would bring in $63 million alone. No matter your belief on the issue, you can fight the number.

"The Rising of Tuition on Higher Ed"

Legislators have come up with ideas to cover for the cuts in state funding by raising the tuition of colleges. Their ideas are coming up with money from the private sector, ending tax exemptions, and protecting higher education in the state constitution. Since it's in a dangerous position ideas have been proposed. Increasing tuition and having more a more flexible tuition is an idea. Even though this is making many students pay more, it is helping the state cuts. This has an affect on who will be attending these colleges though. Students start raising money at a young age to make sure they are able to go to college but with this drastic increase in tuition, it is stopping them from getting to where they want. If the price goes up, then the quantity of people attending these colleges will go down. Having such a high tuition for these schools will probably create a more competitive scholarship program and even student loans. These student loans can lead to debt with such a high cost of schooling.  Another idea is offering tax incentives to businesses that contribute to scholarships endowments, which would raise $1 billion over 10 years. Students are unaware of these cuts in higher education so it is making students drop out of school due to them going into debt. Another idea is that colleges and students can get money from the state business and occupation tax if they are required to give it to the public university system, which is also a cause of debt. It is a necessity to cover all the cuts and this could come from the increase of college tuition. However, raising money and taxes to cover for college education has the ability to make our economy come to a crash.
http://www.theolympian.com/2011/03/21/1587022/higher-ed-proposals-focus-on-rising.html

Bri Sharp, Catherine Gregory, Chris Kennard

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Ronald McDonald Where Did You Go?

According to Bloomberg, McDonalds is taking a new turn in their advertisement. We do not see Ronald as much as we did before. In recent commercials, the focus has not been on children and the happy meal; it has been on coffee, Wi-Fi, and healthier food. I think this is a great idea on the business side of the restaurant. They have not gotten rid of the originals but are adding more adult desirable items on to the menu. People want something cheap, something they can find on every street, something generally easy and fast. McDonalds is keeping up with the economy by keeping in mind how busy adults are, and how keeping a clean and pretty environment can attract customers of all ages. They are not getting rid of the play place, the happy meal, or the family friendly ambiance but are just adapting to the changes around the world money and health wise. McDonalds is the wealthiest fast food chain on the market right now valued at $33.6 million, with KFC for second-place valued at $5.84 million. Their competition will need to step it up if they want to be able to compete. McDonalds has been successful with children, adults, and after the movie Super Size Me, health conscious people. We all miss Ronald but McDonalds has seen that focusing on children is overrated and that adults are the new focus.


Elianah (lead author)
Haley (lead researcher)
Iram (secretary)

Thursday, March 24, 2011

AT&T STATES THEY WILL BUY T-MOBILE FOR 39 BILLION

Recently, representatives from AT&T have annouced that the company will aquire T-Mobile for 39 billion dollars. Just 30 years after the company had been broken up by the government because of their monopoly, AT&T is at it again, slowly taking over the cell phone market once again. Suspected to go through sometime next year, the purchasing of T-Mobile will give AT&T much more power economically. It can be expected that AT&T will infact charge lower monthly rates and offer more affordable plans due to the enormous quantity of servives combined with their large customer platform. Also, one of the main reasons behind this transaction, is that AT&T wants to come off as the larger, more powerfull, and more affortable phone service provider; demonstrating that this buy wasn't just for the money, it was for the reputation. In result, this transaction should make other service providers such as Spring and Verizon lower their rates for serives in response. In conclusion, these are merely predictions based on economic principles. In the end, the only way to find out what the future of phone prices will be is to just wait and see what happens.

-Cameron Casey, Andrew Velvin, Will Noble

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Super Bowl Helps the Economy

The Super Bowl is a huge event in sports encompassing the United States annually. Not only did the Packers win the Super Bowl in 2010, but Sponsor Papa Johns did as well. Papa Johns expected to deliver 1 million pizzas to viewers all over the country. 110 million viewers watch the game on TV which means the Dallas Metropolex will rake in $611 million; and the NFL got a $720 million check from Fox for this season’s broadcast rights. PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates that visitors to Dallas spent 202 million dollars on everything from hot dogs to hotel rooms.  If the accounting firm is right, Super Bowl XLV would beat last year’s record of $197 million. Besides from the overly expensive cost for seats at the Cowboy Stadium, hotel rooms, and parties hosted by celebrities, most fans will choose to enjoy the game from their homes. Add up the 7.5 million parties hosted by the TV audience, including dipping chips into nearly 70 million pounds of guacamole washed down by approximately 50 million cases of beer, the supply and demand needed for the Super Bowl may just be what the economy needs to end the recession.  Every year the Super Bowl will continue to spend an immense amount of money, helping the economy tremendously. The products purchased for the superbowl is a result in shift in demand because so many people are interested in buying party beverages and snacks at the same time. As the quantity of supply increases the price decreases, so more people purchase items needed for the superbowl.