Red Shirt and Yellow Shirt

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/19/world/asia/19thai.html?scp=2&sq=thailand&st=cse

Pro-government, ” yellow shirt” and anti-government, “red shirt” are creating more and more tension in Thailand. Thailand should quickly solve this problem because this conflict is bringing the economy spiral down. “Due to the political crisis, the economy may slip into contraction in the second quarter from the previous three months,” said David Cohen of Action Economics in Singapore.

The conflict between the Red Shirt and Yellow Shirt is a serious problem because it would decrese the number of tourists from foreign countries. Famous cities in Thailand, such as Bangkok and Phuket, are one of the world’s top tourist attracting cities. The Red Shirts are moving here and there in Bangkok, even ner the shoping district where many tourists go. If the protest continues, less tourists would visit Thailand because of the fear and fright that the tension that red shirts and the yellow shirts are creating. I was in Thailand about a month ago for Habitat for Humanity and that was during when the Red Shirt and Yellow Shirt were on their protest. Because the Red Shirt suddenly moved here and there in Bangkok, places we could visit were limited. We tried to stay away from the groups as much as possible. On top of the protest, the volcanic dust is interfering Eurpean tourists from going to Thailand. Europeans are one of the main visitors from foreign countries and if they are not able to go, even less people would visit Thailand.

The protests of Red Shirt an Yellow Shirt demonstrates decrease in AD.  Aggregate demand is the total expenditure on the national output at different values of the price level over a given period of time. An AD diagram looks like this on the bottom. As the output increases, there is a decrease in the price level.

However, in this case where there would be a recession due to decrease in the number of travellers in Thailand,  the AD diagram would shift demonstrate a recessionary gap.The area between Ypotential and Yequillibrium is the deflationary gap.

What I think is that the Red Shirts should stop trying to take away the throne of the king and try to live with the tradition. It would be hard to take the king down the throne by this protest anyway because they have had a king for a long time. Therefore, instead of brining the country to a disaster and leading into recession, the Red Shirts should give up trying to win over the king.

Earth week- Did paper saving work?

Last week, it was Earth week at our school. From monday through Friday, there were certain things we could not do, such as no food wasting or no eating meat. However, among the five days, I think no paper day was the most challenging day. I think this was the hardest challenge for other students too because we use a lot of papers. As students, papers are important source for us so there is an inelasticiy in demand for papers. Inelasticity means that one variable is unresponsive to changes in another.

However, the problem is that the majority of the students used all the papers they could not on the following day. Banning paper usage on a day triggered pent-up demand on the next day. Pent-up demand is when the demand for a service or product is unusually strong. Pent up demand is used by economists to describe the general public’s strong return to consumerism following a period of decreased spending. Some students displayed the behavior of pent-up demand and intentionally wasted excessive amount of papers on the following day. Because of these students, I don’t think “No Paper Day” brought any change in paper saving.

If the students had the incentive for saving papers, they might have cooperated better. For example, our school sometimes gives pizza for the class that did well in Spirit Days when we need to wear certain color of clothing for a day. Therefore, if our school made the No Paper Day like the spirit days we have and give a reward in return, I am sure that the students would activey participate in saving papers.

50,000 Travelers have no where to go

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1268677/Iceland-volcano-50-000-Brits-stranded-abroad-volcano-ash-chaos-home-May.html

50,000 Britons are stranded abroad from volcanic ash that has covered their country. Many cannot go back home until next month. Some are staying at the airport, spending time on sleeping bags without any food supplement. British airways was putting extra flights from countries such as New York, Hong Kong, and Bangkok. However, it turned out to be that BA was selling extra seats at premium prices from airports where passengers remain stuck. 

This is a picture of Bangkok International Airport. As you can see, it is very crowded with Brits waiting to go back home. I can imagine how much chaos this is because I have been to this airport about a month ago for Habitat for Humanity trip.When I was at the airport, it was crowded with many people even though it was before the volcanic ash eruption. I can assume how much confusion is going on in the airport.

Many were left to sleep on cardboard mats after their money ran out because  airlines including Thai Airways – the country’s main carrier – declined to  offer them the hotel accommodation that must be provided under EU regulations. The travelers shouted ‘Tell us the truth!’ ‘Give us the information’ and ‘Get us out of  here’ and angrily gathered around the check-in desks.

Due to the irresponsible behaviors of Thai Airways, the demand for that airways would decrease in a long run. Thai Airways have been known for providing cheap and decent service but they seem to be providing cheap and unacceptable services to the homeless travelers.

What is the Best Economy presentation

http://prezi.com/ufzbz5yxfcoe/

By preparing for the presentaion, I have learned about several countries and their economy.We can look at criteria such as GDP per capita, Health care, and life expectancy to determine whether a country has a good economy or not. However, what I learned the most from this project is the usage of technology.

Powerpoint slides are the same good-old tool that I have been using from elementary school for presentations. However, we chose to do a presentation through a new form this time. We used Prezi, which is a zooming presentation editor. This was a very new way for the students to present hat Doctor Anthony has introduced to us. Although it took quite a while to get to know how to use it and apply it to our presentation, I enjoyed using it. I liked how we could start from a blank paper and add on anything we would like on it. The best part of Prezi was the zooming part. Prezi zooms into images and texts from various angles and reduced the possibility of boredom of the audience. Nevertheless, since it is a newly made program, i found some weaknesses of the presentation while editing my presentation. There was no eraser tool that I could use to erase parts of what I have drawn or written on the blank sheet. I only had the choice to delete whole thing and do everything again.

Reflection on Data Response Test on 2.4 Market Failure

For the Data Response Test on Section2 and Market Failure, I did well on diagrams and definitions. I got full mark for this category. The section I lost points is the evaluation part.

The article on the test was about free public transportation in Melbourne. i think I wrote about many negative impacts about the free transportation but I the answer i have written about positive impacts was not sufficient. For the next data response test, I should try to analyze article more deeply and find details. I think it is more important to understand the concepts and apply them for situations to situations. Therefore, when preparing for other tests, I should not simply focus on memorizing but focus on thinking of the way to apply it to real life situations.

Japanese economy faces great challenges

The first challenge the Japanese economy is facing is the decreasing productivity growth. From 1980s, Japan’s productivity growth gradually fell. While they have been recovering for a few decades, other countries like China and India grew fast. Japan should take an action for preventing deflation. Falling prices seem to help the Japanese citizens but actually it indicates that the citizens are not spending money. Spending no money does not help the economy.

Another challenge is the debt the Japanese government possesses. 45 percent of the government budget will be financed by new borrowing. It is important to also note that the Japanese population is aging, meaning that there will be more spending on health care. Therefore, the aging problem can be another challenge. However, some have a positive view for this situation because 95 percent of government debt is financed by Japanese savings. Unfortunately, this will only work is more women workforce and babies enter the economy.

Moreover, lack of risk-taking business culture is also a challenge that the Japanese economy is facing. Japanese individuals are not brave enough to express their ideas and share it. This led to Japan’s loss to South Korea in contracting with the United Arab Emirates but Japanese saw this as “taking too much competition.”

The last challenge Japan is facing is that financiers are very gloomy unlike the confident foreign policy advisers. This is very different from US and Europe where foreign policy officials are gloomy and economists being confident. The situation in Japan will only create discomfort where nobody is urging to bring a change.