The most interesting fact is the the children in North Korea has one of the best healthcare and the best education. However, this progress in the status to becoming a middle-high income level country is only seen in the social development, whereas their economy is of an underdeveloped country. This article basically summarizes that North Korea needs an aid which helps nations such as these to “correct their course and lead them to a free market economy”.  At the end of the day, this is a political decision. 

The above article is about the decline in one of the economic indicators of the status of economy in India. In the article, the Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh blames the current PM Narendra Modi on the sharp decline in the GVA or the Gross Value Added due to the demonetization that had occurred last year. GVA is the “measure of the value of goods and services produced in an area, industry or sector of an economy”, (Wikipedia). It usually accounts for the output and does not include the intermediate consumption, (Wikipedia).  According to the statistics, the GDP has been slowly going down since the last year, the former finance minister says the banning of 500 rupee notes and 1000 rupee notes were all of a sudden and strongly supports Manmohan Singh. Even though the goal of demonetization was to trigger the growth of the economy, what it ended up doing was to slow the growth. Demonetization was announced on all 500 and 1000 rupee notes in order to ban the counterfeit of cash and circulation of black money which could have been used in the underground economy. This article is directly related to the course content because of the statistical measures that are taken in a nation in order to track its output of goods. The consequences of a slower GVA include decrease in the chances of  investments in new businesses, construction industry and in capital goods. Since the GVA has fallen from  0.7%  to 3.8% in a year, it is the jobs in the construction industry that is being affected the most since it is the largest industry in the country. In addition, it is also affecting the jobs of the youth. 

 Kansas City had lately experienced impacts that had lead to cutting the  education spending, depleting its reserves, cutting the highway fund money and  raising  its sales taxes. These impacts were caused by the deep cuts in taxes which was primarily a “live experiment” conducted by the Governor Sam Brownback, during his early administration, (Ehrenfreund,2017). However, his live experiment did not do what he promised it would do. This discretionary fiscal policy issued by BrownBack of cutting taxes and increasing consumer spending promised it would “spur economic growth”, (Ehrenfreund,2017). On top of these tax cuts, Brownback also eliminated taxes for people starting small businesses. This way, many people in Kansas pretended to be in a small business so that they do not have to pay taxes. Since the time of the issuing of this policy, the Kansas economy has been lagging behind other parts of the nation. Earlier this week, the lawmakers of Kansas overrode governor’s veto for a tax increase, which then makes the bill a law.  The votes were first 84%, but the votes went up to 88% which then made the decision final for a major tax increase in Kansas. By increasing the taxes,it can look for a “$293 million increase in education funding for over two years”, (US News,2017). This way, Kansas can get the economy back  on track. 

 

Imperfect competition is seen in Mong Kok and many other shops in Shamshuipo as they sell the same products in every shop, but the sellers know that there would not be limitations in the profit since they know their products are demanded more due to many sellers and buyers in the market. Sometimes you do not see the same seller another time due limitations in barriers to enter and exit the market. Likewise we do not see similar products in two products due to the monopolistic competition The owners of these restaurants  have the control over choosing the product, making it different from its respective competition using slight changes, but they have limited control over prices. 

Looking at life from an economic perspective has helped me understand newspaper articles that talks about issuing monetary policies, fiscal policies, tax cuts, unemployment, stock markets and many more issues. Hailing from a country where the currency rates are decreasing rapidly, the concepts of currency rates, interest rates and the policies which are issued according to where the country stands economically, has been a great way to understand India. While using the currency exchange rates, it can be found out that 1 USD equals to 64.48 INR according to today’s market rate. The currency exchange rates are going up, the value of the currency is weakening and inflation rates are going up. According to that, the government of India must take the respective contractionary monetary policies to bring the economy back on track.

 In addition, the concept of international trade and how much it actually plays a role in our life can be seen while living in Hong Kong. The reason as to why we have so many international brands for clothing, shoes, bags, cosmetics, food companies is because of international trade. Hong Kong is known for its economic success and it has had this success since the country allowed for foreign investments which helps in bringing money into the economy. Lastly, there certain economic responsibilities that I have to fulfill as an individual such as contributing to the economy  being one of them. While researching for an article for the concepts that we learned in personal financing budgeting, I came across a fact that even savings from individuals in the economy can be the one of the only dependant factor for an economy to grow. This way, it becomes my responsibility to help in the growing of the economy by having a financial savings plan which can both country and myself. 

These are some of the ways in which CIE3M course has helped me understand the world better using the economic concepts and viewing it from an economic standpoint.