Gas Prices are Down, Finally

With economy still in a slump and 9.1% of America unemployed, it's good to see at least one issue has seen improvement. Gas prices have lowered to under three dollars a gallon in parts of Texas, Michigan, and Missouri. In Bridge City, Texas, the price of gas was only $2.62 a gallon. Some analysts believe it might reach as low as $2.50 a gallon in some places by Thanksgiving. Some economists are saying that it is to stimulate the economy. More people will decide to go the movies, or eat out, or go shopping. Also it might just drive down the prices of other things too as the price to transport it from Point A to Point B will be lower.

Injury Plagued New York Giants

The New York Giants's 2011 season is already looking grim in just the third week of the season. The Giants have suffered injuries to ten players already and most of them season ending. Specialization of labor has back fired on the Giants as they have decent receivers and line backers, but they are hurt with no one of equal value to take there job. The NFL is pretty much the definition of specialization of labor as most guys play just one position, but right now for the Giants it would be helpful if the league was not so specialized. Then they could just move someone from another position to fill in, but since players are not acquainted to playing multiple positions at the pro level it would be a inefficient to the team. So instead of being able to move veterans around to help the team contend, they just put rookies out there in the game to fill the spots and hope for the best. Although this specialization of labor keeps a level of demand in the league for backups and rookies. For example since the Giants have multiple injuries they now have a larger demand for players to come and fill that spot. Therefore sports in a way goes against the Law of Demand in that as the injuries become more costly the demand increases. Overall I think economic principles are a bit different when referring to football or just sports in general.

Thousands march against nuclear power in Tokyo

Using nuclear power can provide enough electricity for the whole country but the safety issues of the reactor are considered. After 311 the Japan Fukushima nuclear reactor melt down disaster, many country starting to realize its dangerous and the cost of recover could be. Because of the radiation leak, any item could be infect by the radiation in Japan can’t be sold which is lots of area and costing the economy be tough on people. Now, the Japanese wants to use natural energy resource which won’t cost the damage like nuclear reactor did. But for poor natural resource country like Japan would need to find another way to replace the amount of nuclear electricity which isn’t invented yet. The shortage of electricity costing the sacristy, electricity price won’t necessary go up alot, but the demand would still be the same.When there are not enough electricity for the country, Japan government will have the cut down the power for certain area. Also, for those were evacuated for the radiation around the reactor would have to find a second home for them to stay until the area is clear which will take a lots of time. Lands in Japan are limited, it can be use up as much as it can because Japan is one of the best technology in the world. When lands can’t produce anything to sell or be bought, the land lose it value and cost economy to go down. Because of radiation effect too much in Japan, the protesters of nuclear power in Japan are getting more and more.

Chief Economist of European Central Bank Resigns

Juergan Stark, the chief economist of the ECB, resigned on friday, September 9, 2011 over his opposition to the ECBs bond buying program. Apparently Stark opposed the purchasing of many government bonds from ailing economic european countries. He believed it jeopardized the independence of the bank. He did not want the politics of Europe mixing with economics; he believed these decisions would cause a command economic system. Also he feared for the stability of the euro. He believed these purchases would inflate the currency and cause further economic strife. This sudden resignation is yet another blow to the Christian Democratic Union(CDU). This will make the second instance of a prominent economist abandoning their approach to saving the euro. This resignation is a great loss to all European economists. Read more here.

The "Buffett Tax"

Earlier this year, billionaire Warren Buffet stated that many billionaires like himself actually paid less in taxes than many of his employees due to loopholes in the system. On Monday, Obama is expected to officially announce the 'Buffett tax" on millionaires. It would raise taxes on people who make over $1 million a year. The new set of taxes would be part of the plan to save $3 trillion over the next 10 years. Although it sounds like a good plan (at least to me), other than helping out the debt, Obama is suspected of having an ulterior motive. Some suspect the only reason this move is being done is because it would garner more voters for the 2012 election. I believe this is long overdue, although I'm not the biggest fan of his ulterior motive.

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-propose-buffett-tax-millionaires-225402476.html

Obesity on the Rise

According to the article below, half of the U.S. will be obese by 2030. The stated solution is to have the government market healthier foods more aggressively and to educate the people more on how to eat. But in our mixed economic system it is difficult for the government to step in and play down foods like McDonald's, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell when they are at such a high demand. People like to eat good tasting, cheap food, but right now in America the healthier foods have to go through a more rigorous test to get put out on shelves at stores and therefore raising the price of this good. Since healthier foods are not a necessity to Americans they are an elastic good, which also means that the rise of price for these healthier foods will cause the quantity demanded to decrease according to the Law of Demand. So basically the solution is to raise the demand for the goods by lowering the price for the public and marketing the healthier products more to make them more desired. This is just an economic solution to obesity, but it is largely based off of individual's decisions. For example it is very difficult for a person after they just ate three grilled stuffed burritos from Taco Bell for $5, to give that up the next meal and eat a healthier food that cost twice that of Taco Bell. Healthy eating is a habit that must be perfected day by day, it's not always the most enjoyable activity. But more aggressive marketing and the lowering of prices on these healthy foods could lead many Americans to be more willing of eating healthy.

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/08/26/half-us-adults-will-be-obese-in-2030-study-says/

Record number of Americans living in poverty

When the economic in a country or a society goes down, the unemployment tends to go up and more people lives in poverty. It happens because there are no jobs available for the people and daily supply or inelastic demand value increased from the previous year. An inelastic demand like gasoline has never been stop using and the value increased throughout last year. There were 46.2 million Americans lived in poverty last year which is the highest since it started record. The unemployment percentage rate has been increasing for four straight years. Because adults are living in poverty, the children from the family are also living in poverty which was more than a fifth for last year. Income of the individual person or family is one consider of being poor and be able support himself. Government has been trying to cut off the tax from the people and they have the money to put into the society and increase the demand. Tax cut makes people have more money to spend on whatever they need or want; it helps the economic when they do spend it. Because it’s not always the case that people would spent the money they saved from tax, but people do spend their money if they have jobs. Government would need to have a stronger unemployment insurance system to avoid people losing their job and live in poverty.