Chapter 5: Lucky Us! Jobs for EVERYONE!!!
If you're currently looking for a job in B.C or Alberta, and you don't have one. There are two reasons to your problem. One, you're not trying at all, or you may have one really sucky resume or reputation.
Retailers are currently begging for workers and have upped the perks for choosing to work or their company, such as higher pay, more vacation pay, and flexible hours. Not only retailers are desperately recruiting workers, a huge majority of professionals, such as a Geoscientist, are aging and ready to retire.
The latest unemployment rate, according the article, that in March it was 4.8%. Not bad, considering the last time it was this low was in the olden ages, 1969, when it was at 4.6%.
However, this is a bit of a sticky situation. Shortage of workers is quite an extreme issue in British Columbia and Alberta. This has caused some businesses to slow down plans to expand, and could possibly deminish our sreak of economic growth. Alberta and British Columbia, are side by side geographically, but they are also competing with us for workers! The baby boomers have left the later generations some big shoes to fill and at this rate, we are unable to fill them. According to some statistics, in the next 10 years, there will be 400, 000 new jobs and only 300,000 of them will be filled if the economy continues grow at this rate.
RELATIVITY:
An unemployed person is one who does not hold a job position but is currently seeking for one. If unemployment is high, it will be a great concern, because it is an indicatot we are not using our resource efficiently. By not using resources efficiently, the amount goods and services produced will fall insid production possibilities curve and we well know that it is a no no! However, this is not the case for British Columbia. We are using our resources at a great rate, but we might be using it at a faster rate then we can handle. GDP measure the market value of final goods and services produced in Canadan a given period of time. Seeing our current situation, our GDP should be growing. Therefore, as employment rates raise, standards of living only grows because employees are earning a higher income while producing goods and services at a higher rate. However, living standards only growsif GDP grows faster than the population. Currently, our population is growing but I am unsure if the GDP is growing faster.
Retailers Fight Shortage of Workers
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=10231d87-ee07-496f-adca-610a433230b2&k=0
Go West Young ( or Old) Man ( or Woman)
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=f1d17d23-980b-4f18-b3da-08b0bbf8afb6&k=39006
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Monday, January 22, 2007
Chapter 3:
When should the government intevene in the economy?
When you feel your stomach rumbling and making sounds like a monster, you know that you're starving. You look in your wallet to see what good food you can get, but no cash! How devastating, so the nearest ATM belongs to another bank (your bank account is not associated with this company). You put your card into the card slot thingy and withdraw $40 and BAM! you see that you have been charged a service fee of $1.50.
When should the government intevene in the economy?
When you feel your stomach rumbling and making sounds like a monster, you know that you're starving. You look in your wallet to see what good food you can get, but no cash! How devastating, so the nearest ATM belongs to another bank (your bank account is not associated with this company). You put your card into the card slot thingy and withdraw $40 and BAM! you see that you have been charged a service fee of $1.50.
Should ATM Fees Be Regulated By The Government?
People often complain why we have to pay a fee to have access to our own money. However, the government has not considered taking action upon this issue because many people are willing to pay an extra fee for convenience sake. This fee has not stirred up a major problem because people are choosing taking a short trip to an ATM and paying a small fee over taking a longer trip to the bank in which your account is associated with.
However a loonie here, and a toonie there, these fees will add up. Its not a big favour to ask of to reduce or take away these silly fees because in Canada, banks are already regulated to reduce foreign competition. The reason of this results in few bank companies and fewer ATM's, making the service charge higher.
If fees are reguylated by lowering it and/or taking it away, it will cause the number of ATM's around Canada to be even lower. On the brighter side, banks are already heavily regulated and it won't hurt to regulate some fees to help the comsumer out.
Relativity:
Usually when the government intevenes with something, the cause has to be great enough to benefit the good of the citizens or that if it is not dealt with, it will greatly harm the ecnomic status of the economy.
When and Why should the government step into fees that are being charged for using the ATM?
ATM's are a public good and it greatly helps the economy by encouraging people to spend more by having more cash on them. Everyone can use an ATM if they have a bank account with money in it. However, government is not regulated these service fees because banks are owned by private sectors and are already heavily regulated by the federal government. If the government should regulate these fees, it is because tey want to stabilize the economy. When they want to expand, government will hike up interest rates/service fees to encourage saving and discourage investments. When the economy is going through recession, goverment will lower interest rates to discourage saving and encourage investment, which is the Keynes Theory. Investments are where governments make the most profits due to taxes.
http://economics.about.com/od/governmentregulation/a/bank_fees.htm
Related post: Stop Paying To Use Your Own Money.
http://financialplan.about.com/cs/banking/a/AvoidATMFees.htm
Thursday, November 09, 2006
"New housing supply outstripping demand"
Greater Vancouver is such a great place to live and with the prices that were rising for houses, people were competing to get a space in this great city. Though now, as the cost of living in Greater Vancouver has risen, more and more families have moved out to the suburbs where the cost of a house is much less. Thus, for the article says, there is new housing to satisfy the demand for Greater Vancouver houses but the market has slowed down making the demand not as high. Now there are many vacant new houses, which also makes the re-selling and selling of homes uncertain.
As housing is an elastic or a luxury good, the price of it varies and subjects to the supply and demand of the houses. If the supply is low and the demand is high, the price will definately go up. However in this case, the supply is high and the demand is starting to go down but not drastically dropping, which makes the market uncertain.
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=a749a8c3-b564-41b3-8ec3-ee4b787fb3e0&k=94899&p=2
Greater Vancouver is such a great place to live and with the prices that were rising for houses, people were competing to get a space in this great city. Though now, as the cost of living in Greater Vancouver has risen, more and more families have moved out to the suburbs where the cost of a house is much less. Thus, for the article says, there is new housing to satisfy the demand for Greater Vancouver houses but the market has slowed down making the demand not as high. Now there are many vacant new houses, which also makes the re-selling and selling of homes uncertain.
As housing is an elastic or a luxury good, the price of it varies and subjects to the supply and demand of the houses. If the supply is low and the demand is high, the price will definately go up. However in this case, the supply is high and the demand is starting to go down but not drastically dropping, which makes the market uncertain.
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=a749a8c3-b564-41b3-8ec3-ee4b787fb3e0&k=94899&p=2
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Scarcity
Scarcity is an important concept in Economics.
scarcity: "an insufficiant amount of supply"
An item that is always scarce is money.
Interest rates: The cost of money
As they say, what goes up must come down, with money it is: what goes down, always goes up...in interest (as well with the other way around). It has been said by Canadian Economists that the interest rates of the Canadian Dollar is heavily influenced by the Americans. Our dollar can be higher or lower, but never fully independent. When the Canadian economy is doing better, the bank may not have to mimic the moves of the Americans and build on the road of a stronger economy for our country.
The ever changing rate of money is due to supply and demand. By raising the interest price it puts a limit on the supply of money making the demand go down. When the interest rates from the bank go down, it is a signal that the economy is busting. Low interest rates attract businesses and companies to borrow more, ultimately making the economy rise again. When interest rates are high, it shows that the economy is very strong and can afford to charge that high because the demand is high. However, interest rates can't go high or else it will result in inflation.
In Canada, it hit 40-year lows in interest rates during 2004, now it is steadily going up but rates depend on a number of factors. The bank of America and the status of the Canadian economy. Inflation also plays a big role because the bank does no want inflation to happen, so they change the interest rates accordingly.
With these decisons on interest-rates that are made eight times a year, they must be made wisely or else it will greatly impact our economy and make a huge difference from either boom or bust. If we take advantage of the wealth we have in our country, the economy here will definately go down and interest rates will go down in an attempt to save the economy and give it a boost. However, there are also scarce natural resources that give reason to our economic status. The resources must be carefully decided on its purpose inorder not to go into an economic depression. Thus, it is why we have the study of Economics. It is the study of we make decisons regarding the use of our scarce resources.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/economy/
scarcity: "an insufficiant amount of supply"
An item that is always scarce is money.
Interest rates: The cost of money
As they say, what goes up must come down, with money it is: what goes down, always goes up...in interest (as well with the other way around). It has been said by Canadian Economists that the interest rates of the Canadian Dollar is heavily influenced by the Americans. Our dollar can be higher or lower, but never fully independent. When the Canadian economy is doing better, the bank may not have to mimic the moves of the Americans and build on the road of a stronger economy for our country.
The ever changing rate of money is due to supply and demand. By raising the interest price it puts a limit on the supply of money making the demand go down. When the interest rates from the bank go down, it is a signal that the economy is busting. Low interest rates attract businesses and companies to borrow more, ultimately making the economy rise again. When interest rates are high, it shows that the economy is very strong and can afford to charge that high because the demand is high. However, interest rates can't go high or else it will result in inflation.
In Canada, it hit 40-year lows in interest rates during 2004, now it is steadily going up but rates depend on a number of factors. The bank of America and the status of the Canadian economy. Inflation also plays a big role because the bank does no want inflation to happen, so they change the interest rates accordingly.
With these decisons on interest-rates that are made eight times a year, they must be made wisely or else it will greatly impact our economy and make a huge difference from either boom or bust. If we take advantage of the wealth we have in our country, the economy here will definately go down and interest rates will go down in an attempt to save the economy and give it a boost. However, there are also scarce natural resources that give reason to our economic status. The resources must be carefully decided on its purpose inorder not to go into an economic depression. Thus, it is why we have the study of Economics. It is the study of we make decisons regarding the use of our scarce resources.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/economy/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)