Further the article analyze how he handled the situation during of the financial crisis. I think it is important that the European Union will work together for a plan against the crisis. Mr. Barroso has to be a good leader and has to make sure that all countries communicate with each other. The article calls him a referee and I think it is a good description.
I think the article is also a really good example of a election campaign in the European Union. There are always different positions and a lot of important politicians who argue for their favourite. I am sure each government of all twenty seven states want the best for their countries.
I also want to include that I would like to know more about the European Commission and how they work. The European Union is getting more and more power and it is important that all citizens of all European countries are good informed.
Finally it is to say that the election was displaced from June to September 2009. Reason therefore was the strong criticism to his reappointment from the opposition. This article shows a few arguments. José Manuel Barroso won a parliamentary vote endorsing his second term as European Commission president on the 16th September 2009. The European Parliament voted 382 to 219 to approve Mr. Barroso.
Sailing away
Summary
The economies of the two largest economies, Germany and France, grew contrary to all expectation by 0.3%. The GDP of the whole euro area shrunk by 0.1%, far less than the 2.5% slump in the previous quarter.
Personal Comment
From my point of view the article is easy to read, but still quite interesting and informational. I think it is quite good that the author compared more than two countries with each other, he compared four countries and the average of all European countries.
I want include that I think it is great that the author used current numbers to explain the topical situation of the European economy. I have read a lot of articles about the financial crisis and I am still very interested of it. This article gave me a lot of topical information. After reading the article you are up-to-date with the topic. I miss some basics in the article. You have to know a lot of general information about the crisis to understand all of it.
I think the connection between this article- the lectures Macro Economics & Law- and the literature I have read for the course is that this article use the GDP to measure the current situation. The abbreviation "GDP" stands for Gross Domestic Product. The GDP is a basic measure of a countries economic performance. The most common approach to measuring and quantifying GDP is the expenditure method. As we discussed it in class the formal is:
C+I+G+(X-M) = GDP
The formal is standing for consumption (C), investments (I), government production (G), exports (X) and imports (M). You can find examples in the article for changes of consumption, exports and imports.
The consumption in Germany and France raised, helped by government subsidies for car sales. The Government of Germany gives their citizens two thousand five hundred Euros if a citizen scrap their old car and buy a new one. The exports-minus-imports part of the equation is often called net exports. In Germany exports fell but less than imports. So this is actually an example of how to interpret the GDP.
After I read more about the GDP in the internet I found out that a lot of economists think the GDP is to superficially. For a precisely look of the economy you have to add more factors. For example the Human development index (HDI) uses the GDP and add factors in indicators of life expectancy and education levels.
I do not think the article is very educational. You have to know all basics of business and economy to understand it. The article just telling about the numbers and not where the numbers are from.
After the lecture of macro Economics & Law I am able to calculate the GDP and GNP. From now on I really know what the GDP is when I read article like this one.
China Reports Falling Prices and Low Demand
Summary
The Chinese consume prices and producer prices decline for the first time since 2002. The Chinese government has to react on the situation of a possible deflation.
Personal comment
I do like the article because it is easy to read, but still quite interesting and informational. The writer of this article explains the current situation of the Chinese economy. Before I read the article I did not know a lot about the current situation in China but the article gives me a good overview. The writer used a lot of numbers to verify their article. I really like to read articles like this one with a lot of facts in it. The reason why I used this article is the link between the article and the theory of supply and demand. The article shows a good example how it is in a real economy.
The connection between this article- the lectures Macro Economics & Law- and the literature I have read for the course is the theory of supply and demand. During the lecture we learned how the curves of supply and demand could change. We discussed the outcomes of a decreasing consumer demand and one of them is a declined consumer price. The following graph shows the declined demand curve:
You can see the outcome is a lower consume price and a lower quantity. The article and the graph show the situation in the current Chinese economy. The article also shows the outcomes for the producers and manufacturers in China. The capacities of the factories are not running at full capacity and a lot factories have actually closed. I think the article could be about many economies during the financial crisis. I think it is really interesting to see the theory in a real economy. Further I think the reaction of the Chinese government is quite interesting especially because the Chinese government plays a greater role in the market an in prices than many governments in the west. In the beginning of the crisis the Government has been very aggressively expanding the countries money supply. This is a common method to decrease the consumer consumption.
The author of the article wrote also about the real estate prices in China. The index of real estate prices in 70 Chinese cities fell and could also be a possible hint of deflation.
Further in the article you can read about the Consumer Price Index and the Producer Price Index. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the are the most widely used measures of inflation and deflation. So the article is a good example for using this measures.
I think the article is educational because you get a lot of topical information with a good explanation.
5. References
Article 1:
Bradsher, K. (2009, March 10). China Reports Falling Prices and Low Demand. The New York Times. Retrieved September 20, 2009, from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/business/worldbusiness/11yuan.html?_r=2&scp=11&sq=supply%20demand&st=cse
Article 2:
Charlemagne (2009, June 4). Lonely at the top. Economist.com. Retrieved September 19, 2009, from http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/displaystory.cfm?subjectid=3856661&story_id=13782546
Article 3:
The Economist Newspaper Limited (2009, August 13). Sailing away. Economist.com. Retrieved September 21, 2009, from http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14216744
