Wildfires sweep across Texas

There were more than 70 days of 100 plus degrees in Texas over the summer, and only few of rain dropped during those days. Because of the extreme weathers, wildfires happened many time in Texas and it has destroyed over 1000 homes and four people were killed from the fire. The worst of the fires is at Bastrop County Complex fire, already destroyed 550 homes and other properties, 5,000 people evacuate from their house. Everything they lost in the fire need to be rebuild by the owners or find other place to live which would cost a lots of money for both victims from the fire and the state government. Days when there are no rain also meant the water supply on the daily bases is decreasing day by day, and the value of water would go up. Everyone will buy the water from the store if the water supply to the house is cut off which will let the price of water go up. If there are no enough water for the people, the local government will have the limit the water supply so everyone could have limited of water. More than 3.6 million acres were burn down by the wildfires in Texas and cost over 5 billion damage to the state’s agricultural industry. Rains can bring the water for the people and plants and also help to put down the wildfire which haven’t happen in Texas. The wildfire has not only destroy the house but also the livestock of the people and killing people and costing billion of money from the governement.

Nike Air Force 1

Nike is one of the few companies to ever not have their finances go into the red. They changed their name to Nike from Blue Ribbon Sports in 1978. Four years later, Bruce Kilgore designed the Nike Air Force 1, the first basketball shoe to ever feature air technology in it's sole. This one shoe (offered in three different stylings: high, mid, low), along with Air Jordan series, and the Nike Air Max line are the biggest reasons of why Nike's finances have never gone in the red. The AF1 was released with no advertising and was initially seen as a failure, it was only produced for a couple of months. In the late 1980's and early 1990's the shoe was rereleased, around the same time that Air Maxes and Air Jordans were at their peak. In the 29 years since the shoe was originally released it has raked in over a billion dollars for Nike and in 2005 it was estimated to have a profit margin of 70%. Not only that but the Nike hasn't spent a single cent on advertising the AF1. The Nike Air Force 1 is still being produced and worn today. It's regarded as one of the most significant shoes in sneaker culture.

Example of Our Economic System

An article in the Fort Worth Star Telegram had an example of our economic system in action. Our mixed economic system borrows many ideas from the market economic system. The difference between systems being that monopolies are illegal and that the government can intervene if deemed necessary in a mixed system. In Fort Worth a hotdog vendor was accused of having a virtual monopoly; owning the rights to 5 locations. She mainly used only 2 locations; the others were only profitable during certain circumstances such as events. The local government intervened and forced the auction of 3 locations. However the vendor was already on the decline. This auction was the final blow in the vendors business and she was forced to close. The mixed side of our economic system crippled her business and its market roots offered no assistance in her closing. Though rather depressing this is still a good example of our economic system.

Lasers Used to Control Rain

Scientists in Geneva experimented with infrared lasers over the Rhone River, and discovered that the beams could trigger the growth of micron sized water droplets that eventually could turn to rain. Though if too many droplets form in can be ineffective because then no actual rain drops would form because all the moisture in the air would be used up through the micro droplets. The use of infrared lasers to produce more rain would be a huge technological advancement in the United States. For example if the U.S. was producing at maximum efficiency in agricultural output we could use these lasers to bring more rain to the dryer regions throughout the South West or even in the Mid West. Therefore increasing our agricultural mass production through technological advancements. Also these infrared lasers are predicted to bring on competition between different regions because of the ability to steal the moisture out of the air, and thus not allowing the natural cycle of moisture to take place in the next region. This could be good and bad for the U.S.'s mixed market as it can bring on more competition, but it could be more hurtful than helpful to the current system if abused. These infrared lasers are ground-based systems allowing less costly use, and easier use. This could be helpful to a region by increasing its efficiency while still keeping costs down. Overall these rain-making infrared lasers could be a tool of economic utility anywhere in the world.

Helicopters rush food, water to cut-off Vt. towns

After the heavy rain from Hurricane Irene, the flood caused the transportation completely cut off from a dozen of Vermont towns. The towns populations are under 200 to nearly 1400 and the town people need food and water. Local government has been airlift the supply by helicopters into the towns. In the towns, people needs to have their basic needs to survive until the roads and bridges are fixed. Because the transportation is cut off, the towns’ economy broke down from the mix economy system to tradition economy. Tradition economic system works in the same idea of just to survive for the town people, but in this case the people doesn't have the ability of getting food and water. In the towns, water and food is the most important supply for the people. Scarcity of the food and water is the needs for the towns and the only source of it is from the helicopters. When the transportation is fixed, towns will back in the U.S. economy as it was before the hurricane hit. U.S. economic system needs the transportation to work or the economy will break down.

NY Delis Stay Open Through Storm

The Wall Street Journal Article "Where Delis Never Sleep" reports that some delis and pizza shops stayed open through Irene to feed the populace. The storm closed many of the shops leaving only the select few to service the many. This "Scarcity" of competition led to a very busy yet profitable day. The delis were swamped just moments after the hurricane with more than enough customers to stay open. Some even ran out of ingredients and were forced to serve abstract creations to the many consumers. Not all that made the decision profited however. Some other non food related businesses had the opposite outcome of almost no customers. This is probably due to the paradox of value caused by the storm. None the less Scarcity worked both ways in this situation. The scarcity of both food for the customers and competition for the delis set the perfect setting for major profits.

Indie Record Stores Fire Back

On August 8th of this year Jay-Z's and Kanye West's much anticipated collaboration album, Watch the Throne was finally released. It was first digitally available on iTunes. Four days later it was released at Best Buy, who had the exclusive rights for the physical copies of both the regular and the deluxe versions of the album. While the album was breaking iTunes' first-week sales records and reaching gold certification in the first full week of both digital and physical copies up for sale, independent record store were hurting. They were only allowed to sell their copies of the deluxe version 10 days after Best Buy. The indie stores were outraged and penned an open letter to both Jay-Z and Kanye West stating that their exclusivity deals were putting many stores out of business. As many of their regular customers would have to go to a "mainstream giant" to get one of the year's biggest releases.