Target's Drive up Service

Target’s Drive Up Service

Jesse Weyer

Over the years major retailers such as Walmart, Sam's Club, Target and many more have been making headlines over topics varying from online ordering, wage raises, yodeling kids and much more. However, recently Target has announced their very own version of pick and saves drive up service. They are simply calling it “Drive up”. Target says that their newly introduced ship from store option where consumers could order items off the shelves and have them shipped straight to their homes become a huge success over the holiday season. Fueling the idea of consumers no longer having to wait 2 days for their items to arrive but just simply driving up to a designated parking spot. Target says the app works by guests placing an order and getting a confirmation when their order is ready (taking no longer than 30 minutes). Guests then are able to pick when they will arrive and items will be brought out to the guests car in no longer than 5 minutes. 

Dawn Block, senior vice president of Target Digital says “Stopping for diapers and toilet paper may not be glamorous, but it’s still on a lot of our to-do lists. Drive Up is our latest effort to make it easier and faster for busy guests to conveniently get what they need, and simply get back to their day.” Not only is drive up now a change to the way consumers are shopping but it also is a new generation of careers available that previously had not been. Jobs are becoming available at pay rate of Target’s  $12 minimum, adding to the overall health of the economy. 

Works Cited: 

“Drive Up : Target.” Target : Expect More. Pay Less., www.target.com/c/drive-up/-/N-9d42z.

“Target Launches Drive Up Service in Twin Cities Area – For Days When You Don't Want to Leave the Car.” Target Corporate, corporate.target.com/article/2017/10/drive-up.

Revenue Increase during the NBA Playoffs

Revenue Increase During the NBA Playoffs
Owen Krumenacher

As the NBA playoffs are now underway many teams are winning, and winning big.  Not only are they winning games they are winning when it comes to their profit gained during these next few weeks to come.  The playoffs started April 12th and will be going until at least May 31st when the finals begin.  In this time teams are going to racking in big money and TV networks are really going to be bringing in the money.
When the playoffs start, for the 16 teams involved it is a big opportunity to gain money.  Ticket prices are going to increase about 4.5%, and ticket sales will increase various amounts.  The ticket sales increase changes due to stadium seating and what a teams average sales was during the season.  In addition to ticket sales, most venues through all games played will sell-out.  For example, the Milwaukee Bucks played their first home game during their series against the Boston Celtics at the BMO Harris Bradley Center on Friday.  It was the first game all season in which the stadium sold out and had all 20,000 seats filled.  What helps with sales is the demand for tickets.  Playoff games are more rare to see, and have more consumer interest, which means it’s much easier for a consumer to buy that $98 ticket during the playoffs, compared to a regular season game ticket that costs $98  As the average ticket costs around $98, for the Bucks that means they made around $1,960,000 off the one game.  This story is the same for all teams that are participating in this years playoffs.
It’s not only an increase in ticket sales that is bringing in the money, there’s concessions sales and merchandise sales.  When your team makes the playoffs, instantly merchandise that states somewhere that the team is in the 2018 playoffs is made and then sold at the stadium.  With people coming in, now that the shirts or sweatshirts say 2018 playoffs people are sure to buy it, and when one sweatshirt costs upwards of $40 and possibly $50, just off two sales that’s $80-$100 dollars for the team.  In addition to the merchandise, many teams have even stated they are rising concessions stand prices.  An example of this is the Boston Celtics.  The stated they will be increasing prices of the their concessions stand items.  The percentage they increased their product buy is not known, but not matter what it is, an $11 Cheeseburger and fries is always going to be  a lot, and always going to be profitable.

Outside of teams making money, it expands to the companies who provide the games on TV.  ESPN, ABC, TNT, and many other companies are making around $3 million a game off of viewership and ad revenue.  For a company to make an ad and get it put on during the game comes at a hefty price.  It isn’t close to what it costs for the Superbowl, but it has the same increasing trend.  WIth these prices in place it makes gaining profit much easier for both the NBA and the network companies.
Lastly, cities hosting make money off the playoffs.  Just like any other sporting event you get people coming in from the opponents state, and you also have your own fans coming to your area for the day.  With this, cities are seeing an increase in spending each day there is a game held.  Many fans after the game or before are going to go out and eat, or spend their time doing something that is going to cost them, and the local businesses and city win in this case. 
Overall all sporting events have an economic impact on their team and local area, but the playoffs help more than others.  Although prices aren’t as high as Superbowl tickets, or World Series prices, what makes a big impact is the length.  When the playoffs almost span an entire two months, that’s two months of high spending and a high revenue increase.



Works Cited
“2018 NBA Playoffs Schedule, Matchups and News.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 19 Apr. 2018, www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/23027084/2018-nba-playoffs-schedule-matchups-news.
“Boston Celtics Tickets.” Boston Celtics, www.nba.com/celtics/tickets.
Himmelsbach, Adam. “Rising Ticket Prices and a Waiting List Are Byproducts of Celtics' Upward Trend - The Boston Globe.” BostonGlobe.com, www.bostonglobe.com/sports/celtics/2018/04/01/celtics-continue-hot-ticket/Xv6EiRaxSGpJdbWqXGSf6M/story.html.
Imgur. “Concession Stand Prices at the NBA Finals.” Imgur, 5 June 2015, imgur.com/gallery/mI8eT34.
“TD Garden – Boston Celtics.” Stadium Journey, stadiumjourney.com/stadiums/td-garden-s93.

The Harmful Effects of Yang's Universal Basic Income

The Harmful Effects of Yang’s Universal Basic Income

Recently a newcomer to the political scene, Andrew Yang, has announced that he will be running in the 2020 presidential campaign on the democratic platform. While a new candidate is relatively boring news, Yang’s entire campaign rests on his idea to “implement a Universal Basic Income, ‘the Freedom Dividend,’ of $1,000/month, $12,000 a year for every American adult between 18 and 64”(The Freedom Dividend). Universal Basic Income, referred to as UBI from here on out, isn’t a particularly new idea. But it has been gaining some traction within particularly left leaning groups because of recent advances in automation.

Yang’s believes that implementing UBI is necessary because according to him automation will upset America’s economy by displacing enough workers to cause either a significant depression or at the very least more poverty. Here’s the catch that Yang likes to brush over though, a conservative estimate of the number of eligible citizens is 201,945,890(U.S. Census Bureau). Which means that the cost of implementing his UBI is about 202 billion usd a month or $2.43 trillion annually. That number is over half the total U.S. federal budget last year and more than four times the annual military spending. To put that into perspective, if the U.S. Government were to cut all subsidies and spending in: Medicare and Health, Military, Food and Agriculture, Education,Transportation, Science and Environmental efforts then there would be just enough money to implement UBI, assuming there was still a country left to give it to and no government overhead.

So something's got to give obviously, and that “thing” is that Yang proposes a 10% VAT in order to cover about a third of the UBI costs. He has yet to state how he will get the rest of the money. For those that don’t know, VAT stands for value added tax and functions essentially the same as a sales tax, but with the producer paying the tax instead of the consumer. The effects of such a tax are quite simple, prices of goods and services affected will go up in price by about 10%, or more accurately, the supply graph in a supply and demand graph will shift upwards resulting in a new equilibrium price that in this case will be about 10% higher.


Value added taxes are dangerous for several reasons. First of all, they are hidden from consumers. If you or I went to buy gas there is no way for us to know whether the government is taking 5% of our purchase or 20% despite still having to pay that amount of money. Secondly, VAT is regressive since it is a consumption based tax meaning that you are hurt more the poorer you are. Considering that this tax is supposed to fund a program to help poor people that seems a bit backwards to me. Additionally, taxes beyond a certain level have been proven to reduce economic growth(Gale) which means that the quality of life overall will not increase as quickly as it has in past, potentially leading actually worse conditions for Americans even with an extra $1000 in their pocket every month. Unfortunately the economic effects of a rise in taxation as extreme as this one is unstudied, but they will for sure be harmful to the economy.

Yang hopes that the economic benefits of automation and more spending money for low income groups will offset the tax burden, but even optimistic economists are quite uncertain about the effects of UBI since the trials in Canada and Scotland are under a year old and the trial by the Finnish government only targeted unemployed citizens There are a couple of other problems theorized to be inherent to UBI that I haven’t mentioned yet. For one, the inflation of prices for staple goods and services such as food and housing is likely to increase as an increase in disposable income could shift the demand curve to the right. Unemployment would also decrease significantly since UBI is a disincentive to work. This unemployment means we produce less as a country, meaning we have less money, making UBI even harder to pay for.

Finally consider immigration problems. What will certainly happen if the U.S. were to start giving all people “free” money? We become an immigration hotspot for everyone, which means that the smart and productive potential immigrants are less likely to get in and we will be flooded with immigrants that provide no value. Additionally, the increased taxes will cause companies and people capable of moving away to do that. Without the rich paying the taxes the government would have to increase taxes more, causing more people to move away, eventually ending up with a situation like Chicago; and let me tell you, the U.S. does not want to emulate Chicago.


Works Cited
“File:TaxWithTax.svg.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:TaxWithTax.svg.
Gale, William G., and Andrew A. Samwick. “Effects of Income Tax Changes on Economic Growth.” Brookings, Brookings, 8 Aug. 2016, www.brookings.edu/research/effects-of-income-tax-changes-on-economic-growth/.
“The Freedom Dividend.” Andrew Yang for President, Andrew Yang, www.yang2020.com/policies/the-freedom-dividend/.
“U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: UNITED STATES.” Census Bureau QuickFacts, 2018, www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045217.

Walmart

Austin Salbeck




With all of the different businesses out in retail, Walmart and there partner company Sam’s Club, are some of the most successful businesses still around for over 40 years the company has been growing and growing. Founded by Sam Walton, Walmart was to help customers get what they needed and also their employees by giving a various amount of jobs and all different positions. 

As of late last year, Walmart has been closing down their grocery stores known as the neighborhood markets costing people their jobs and removing a local store out of some areas. Now as of earlier this year, Walmart and Sam’s Clubs have closed over 60 stores affecting thousands of workers and customers. Employees were given no information about this prior until the day of closing. After this Walmart also eliminated some of their higher positions in stores such as some management positions on no notice as well. I find this to be strange as Walmart has been making more and more profit over the years and that there are stores all over states and even in some other countries as well and then they give no notice to employees about them being let go from their jobs. I find this to be morally wrong and then afterwards, they decide to give new employees and some current positions as well an increase by a dollar every hour. It may seem like a little amount but it all adds up in the end. Even though Walmart is a large company, you would think they would have some decency to tell their employees that they lost their jobs due to the store shutting down then just letting them come to their store and see a large “Closed” sign.

Works Cited

Peterson, Hayley. “Walmart Is Abruptly Closing 63 Sam's Club Stores and Laying off Thousands of Workers.” , Business Insider, 11 Jan. 2018, www.businessinsider.com/walmart-suddenly-closes-sams-club-stores-2018-1.

Trump’s Budget Affecting Women

Trump’s Budget Affecting Women
By: Hunter Hext

The movement of Women’s Rights has been a hot topic dating all the way back to the mid 1800’s. Throughout the years women have gained many opportunities in the workforce from earning middle management positions to running for president. However, recent budgeting by the Trump Administration is hurting foundations supporting women. A form of gender-based budgeting found that the deepest cuts in the budget were in programs that spent more on women than on men. A few of the main ones were in Medicaid, housing assistance, and low-income energy assistance. The main reason that these three will be the big sores for women organizations is because typically women benefit from social safety net spending more than men. In fact, women receive roughly 70 percent of their total spending from Medicaid. This will lower the consumer spending because women won’t feel as though they can put their money into a foundation that’s getting cutted financially. In addition to Medicaid, the budget also plans on cutting food stamps where the majority of these funds are spent on women.

Trump’s cuts in the budget for women organizations could either hurt or help us from a foreign exchange standpoint. Many women organizations are not just international, but reach out globally, touching many countries that the United States trades with or helps out. The budget cuts could hurt from a health standpoint, in the sense that foreign aid is allocated for vaccines, health services, and HIV/AIDS treatments. If these things our cut out of the picture, it is likely that countries will view the United States negatively, possibly affecting the trade from smaller countries to the United States. 




On the contrary of implementing a budget deficit in regards to women, Trump is planning on performing a budget surplus in regards to men. The largest concern in Trump’s eyes is the unemployment insurance for men. Under Trump, the government spending is going to boost
to make up for the lost consumer spending.

Personally, I believe funding cuts for things such as reproductive health are doing much more than strictly improving women's health. In fact, it pauses the need to create the conditions that allow both women and girls to make positive decisions in their everyday live and also gives them more control over their futures. In cutting access to these foundations, female education is hindered and so is their ability to earn sustainable incomes and participate actively in society. Equal spending for females can potentially build the economic, political, and social aspects of our economy. After all, everyone is going to pay the same price for a bag of chips at the local Pic ‘N Save.

Works Cited

Bui, Quoctrung, and Susan Chira. “How Trump's Budget Affects Women.” How Trump's Budget Affects Women, The New York Times, 24 May 2017, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/05/24/upshot/how-trumps-budget-affects-women.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FEconomics&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=17&pgtype=collection.

“This Is How Trump's Proposed Budget Cuts Will Hurt Women and Girls Around the World.”Global Citizen, www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/stop-the-cuts-to-womens-programs/.

China-U.S. Tariff Dispute

China-U.S. Tariff Dispute

Written by: David Bell

If you have been watching the news lately, there is a dispute between China and the U.S. regarding tariffs. China has imposed a tariff of up to 25% on 128 american goods. This is targeting goods such as pork, wine and fruits. Those products had a worth of up to $3 billion for our economy.

Although this sounds bad for the U.S. because we are going to need to pay more for these goods since China imposed a tariff on them, President Trump has imposed $60 billion of tariffs on alleged intellectual property theft on China. To make that more clear, China has stolen some of our trade secrets and is now selling them for cheaper. For example,  American Superconductor started doing business in China. The company partnered with Sinovel, which manufactured the wind turbines while American Superconductor made the technology that powered the turbines. This partnership turned AMSC into a billion-dollar business. They built a factory in China, a design center in Europe, and added hundreds of jobs in both of those countries (Massachusetts).

  After working so well together, Sinovel started to show signs of refusal. They owed AMSC about $70 billion on a shipment it had already received, and also refused a shipment that was ready to go. The AMSC stock price had been almost cut in half overnight, losing about a billion dollars in shareholder equity causing them to cut around 700 jobs. McGahn, CEO of AMSC, said “Wall Street had written us off as dead”. That is a big deal for a company, when a credible source that many people rely on called your business “dead”. The graph below shows how from the years 2000 to 2007, China’s IP theft cases were increasing dramatically.

                                                                                   

(Fig. 1. This shows the IP theft cases for China between the years 2000-2007)

After the refusal of many shipments, AMSC was wondering why China stopped doing business with them. After investigation, Dejan Karabasevic, an employee of AMSC confessed to giving China the source code for the wind turbines because China bribed him with $2 million, women, an apartment, and a whole new life in China.

You are probably wondering how IP theft relates to tariffs. Well if a country's trade secrets are being stolen by a country that they do a lot of business with, you are going to put tariffs on the goods that the other country needs out of retaliation. In this case, imposing tariffs on goods that China needs will cause a lot of positives and negatives for the economy. A positive would be that we impose tariffs on goods that China is very dependent on so in the long run we earn more money on those goods. A negative to imposing tariffs would be that China might retaliate and impose tariffs on the good we are dependent on. And when retaliation happens between countries it is called trade wars. I feel as though trade wars and tariffs are means of negotiation, if done right, they will benefit the Economy. If both parties come out of the negotiation feeling equitable about the situation, they will feel that it was a success.

You might say that imposing tariffs on goods that China buys from us will cause our economy to lose money, but in reality, trade wars and tariffs help regulate the prices to better our economy as a whole in the long run.

Works Cited

“Here's How the China-U.S. Tariff Talks May Already Be Hurting America's Job Growth.” Fortune, fortune.com/2018/04/23/tariffs-trump-china-list-trade-war-jobs/.

Lawder, David, and Howard Schneider. “Donald Trump's next Chinese Tariffs Likely to Hit Consumers' Wallets.” Global News, 22 Apr. 2018, globalnews.ca/news/4159908/donald-trump-chinese-tariffs-effects/.

The Massachusetts-based energy technology company won a landmark case in January against its former Chinese partner Sinovel. “Chinese Trade Secret Theft Nearly Killed My Company.” CNNMoney, Cable News Network, money.cnn.com/2018/03/23/technology/business/american-semiconductor-china-trade/index.html.

The United States has long said that intellectual property theft has cost the US economy billions of dollars in revenue, and thousands of jobs. “How Much Has the US Lost from China's Intellectual Property Theft?” CNNMoney, Cable News Network, money.cnn.com/2018/03/23/technology/china-us-trump-tariffs-ip-theft/index.html.

Standing Toe to Toe: The World Watches to See What will be the Effects of the Trade War Between the United States and China

Standing Toe to Toe: The World Watches to See What will be the Effects of the Trade War Between the United States and China

By: Seth Bickett

The schism between economics and politics is one that is well documented, but in no area are the debates larger than in the world of international trade. Although economists believe with near consensus that international trade is a positive good in the world, every country in the world has imposed restrictions on trade between other nations and itself (Phiri). Now, with the two largest economies in China and the United States seemingly entering into a trade war, the world can only watch to see how large the fallout may be. With all of the evidence showing support for free trade, many question why the United States, and then China in retaliation, would wager the futures of large industries in what appears to outsiders as a contest of flexing muscles. In reality, these policies have very specific political reasons. However the question still remains: do the benefits outweigh the consequences?

It is difficult to go a day in America without using something that was made in China. Chinese made goods are ubiquitous in the United States, and while we certainly export many goods to China, the number is not nearly as high. This has created a trading deficit in the billions of dollars, as shown in the figure below. China has also been under fire from the United States


seekingalpha.com/article/4062061-trade-war-u-s-china-yet

for unfair trading practices including the theft of trade secrets, and internationally for having a
fixed exchange rate (Landler). All of this led to the signing of the executive order by president Trump shown in the video, and the subsequent imposition of tariffs by China. The effects of all of this are yet to be seen, but the damage could completely change the outlook of the world economy.


Although the connotation of a trade war has brought a negative light on the imposed tariffs, there are some positive political and economic implications. On the economic side, tariffs can protect domestic industries by allowing prices to rise as competition falls. In many cases, the cheap labor that is used by many Chinese markets allows them to produce goods at a cost well below that of their American counterparts. The tariffs will also allow American competitors to catch up in highly advanced markets such as semiconductors and self driving cars, with the hope that soon domestic businesses may develop the competitive advantage in these industries (Landler). Politically, Trump has sent a message that this country will no longer stand by and accept attacks on businesses in the United States by Chinese parties to reverse engineer or steal products. However, as purposeful as these decisions may seem, there is no war without casualties.

The first casualty of any trade war is the consumer. The same thing that protects American industries hurts the American consumer, rising prices. While estimates about when and how much prices will increase are yet to be know for sure, it can be certain that prices will wise, which could create a ripple effect in the supply and demand of the economy as well as the in the money market. However, American businesses, specifically large exporters, will not be left unscathed, as the tariffs placed on the United States by China will hurt industries such as farming and manufacturing. However, as an article from the Guardian by Linda Yueh reports, the repercussions will not only be felt hear in America. Not only would numerous international car manufacturers with plants in the United States be hit by these sanctions, but “in the worst-case scenario, companies may have to relocate factories or distribution centres,” (Yueh). The end result could be rising prices globally as companies maneuver themselves from the blast zone and production costs increase, all in the name of American pride.

Will the tariffs placed by the United States end in a more stable nation, or a more unstable world? The answer will only come in time, and it will be decided by the moves made in the next few months. If the impending impacts bring the two nations to the table to hammer out a deal where both economies come out in the positive, these harsh sanctions will be seen as simply a mean to a worthwhile end. However, if each new set of sanctions simply brings on more retaliation, the global economy could be looking at a war more impactful than any trading of bullets could be. 

Works Cited

Census Bureau, US Global Investors. “US Faces a Widening Trade Deficit with China.” Seeking Alpha, 12 Apr. 2017, seekingalpha.com/article/4062061-trade-war-u-s-china-yet.

Landler, Mark, and Alan Rappeport. “Trump Plans Stiff Trade Tariffs and Other Penalties on China.” The New York Times, 21 Mar. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/03/21/us/politics/trump-china-tariff-trade.html.

Phiri, Desmond Dudwa. “Why Nations Impose Trade Restrictions.” The Nation Online, 5 July 2013, mwnation.com/why-nations-impose-trade-restrictions/.

“Trump Announces Tariffs and Other Measures on China.” Fox News, FOX News Network, 22 Mar. 2018, video.foxnews.com/v/5756362433001/#sp=show-clips.

Yueh, Linda. “How a US-China Trade War Would Hurt Us All.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 5 Apr. 2018, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/05/us-china-trade-war-supply-chains-consumers.

China Boosting Tariffs on U.S. Goods

China Boosting Tariffs on U.S. Goods

Ben Miller
AP Economics

With tensions rising among some of the global superpowers in the last few months, China has not made anything better by now announcing they have boosted tariffs on U.S. goods. Some of these goods are apart of huge industries within the US, such as soybeans, aircraft and vehicles. Experts have estimated that the tariffs are worth a combined $50 billion, and are at this point praying that they won’t see a full-scale trade war. Tariffs are the tax paid on a particular import or export, and a $50 billion increase to these US goods is a significant and statement move by China.

This action did not come out of the blue, as it was provoked by recent economic moves performed by the Trump Administration. Recently the Trump Administration has published a list of nearly 1,300 Chineses products that they plan to impose with a 25% tariff. Of course, the Chinese Embassy was the first to condemn the action by saying: “Such unilateralism and protectionist action has gravely violated fundamental principles and values of the WTO (World Trade Organization). It serves neither China’s interest nor U.S. interest, even less the interest of the global economy,” they go on to state, “As the Chinese saying goes, it is only polite to reciprocate.” China got creative with it and even listed several agricultural products with the goal being to harm the economy of Iowa, whose ex-governor Terry Branstad, is the current U.S. Ambassador in China.

As seen in figure one, Trump responded on Twitter by saying: “We are not in a trade war with China, that war was lost many years ago by the foolish, or incompetent, people who represented the U.S. Now we have a Trade Deficit of $500 billion a year, with Intellectual Property theft of another $300 billion. We cannot let this continue!” This situation is interesting considering Trump has reached out to China as an ally to counter North Korea, but from an economic point of view, these two powerhouses are nothing short of enemies at the moment.

I understand the justification behind the decision to increase tariffs on China as unfair trade practices in the past (with the current tariffs), has caused the economy to see an increase in unemployment by 6 million people and also has caused 60,000 factories to close, according to the Time.com. A decrease in factories within the US would cause a decrease in capital stock, thus leading to a decrease in investment spending which would lead to an overall decrease in GDP. With a decrease in the GDP, to me, it justifies the Trump Administration’s decision to increase the tariffs on China. On the other hand, though, I believe that the situation must have  been handled in the wrong way considering China came back and raised the tariffs on the US even more. Especially in this current time period, I believe that government actions, especially relating to the economy, must be done with great attention to detail and to a certain level of precaution. If the US simply sprung this increase in the tariffs on China with no warning or explanation, that would justify the response that China had. Trump also claimed according to Time.com that the trade deficit of $375.2 billion between both the US and China is costing the US a significant amount of American jobs. This again justifies and proves to me that increasing the tariffs on China was initially a good idea with the proper intentions in mind, but was simplied carried out in the wrong fashion.

Works Cited

Chandran, Nyshka, and Everett Rosenfeld. “China Announces It's Imposing New Tariffs on 128 US Products.” CNBC, CNBC, 2 Apr. 2018, www.cnbc.com/2018/04/01/china-announces-new-tariffs-on-us-meat-and-fruit-amid-trade-war-fears.html.

“China Hits Back at Trump by Targeting U.S. Goods Worth $3 Billion.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/china-imposes-additional-tariffs-response-u-s-duties-steel-aluminum-n861916.
“Twitter.” Twitter, Twitter, twitter.com/.

“China Increasing Tariffs - Search Results.” Time, Time, time.com/search/?q=china+increasing+tariffs.

Free Trade, or Trade War?

Ian Reinke

Mrs. Straub

AP Economics

Free Trade, or Trade War?

If anyone has been paying attention to news in the business world recently they’ve most likely come across some headlines reading along the lines of “Trade War With China”, “Tariffs Imposed on Chinese Goods”, or something of the like. Recently, in an effort to crack down on what the Trump Administration views to be “unfair” trade practices being committed by China on the United States. To enforce this crackdown, the administration has decided that the route that they would like to go about in would include posing trade tariffs, or a tax on imported goods, on multiple products that China sells here in the United States. China, in retaliation against what it sees to be a violation of its potential for economic growth has decided recently also to place its own tariffs on goods that companies in the United States ship and sell in the Chinese markets. These tariffs have included everything from washing machines to aluminum. More recently, China has even taken the step to threaten to impose sanctions on American-produced and grown “production crops”, a direct threat to the economy of some of the states, mostly located in the Southern United States, that voted heavily for Trump in the 2016 election. With no current stable end it sight, it remains to be seen whether or not threat of a trade war comes to fruition.

To make matters even the more frightening, China’s commerce ministry stated last week Thursday that, “China will not enter into any negotiations while under threat from the United States” and that “China will follow through to the end and fight resolutely” (NPR). Without any substantial potential for talks, aside from the fact that the current administration might find future implementations of sanctions to be taken as incredibly personal - as they would be directly attacking the guarded constituency of states making up the Republican party - it remains to be seen whether any amelioration of the current crisis can come to reach reality.

In my personal view, in addition to what many proponents of free trade would say, would be that the existence and newfound appearance of these tariffs and their imposition will end up very badly for not only both the economies and consumers of the United States and the People’s Republic of China, but also the world economy as a whole. Consumers in both nations will be forced to spend more money on these goods due to there existing a hefty tax now on them, and will ultimately result in much political and economic woes in the both countries’ constituencies. Higher prices are something that no one wants, and continuing with free trade - without the existence of any tariffs or other barriers - is the right way to go and internationally the world economy will thank us for it.

Sources Cited

Press, DAKE KANGAssociated. “In China, Soybean Industry Shrugs off Risks of Tariffs.”, 14 Apr. 2018, www.pressherald.com/2018/04/13/in-china-soybean-industry-shrugs-off-risks-of-tariffs/.

Gonzales, Richard. “Trump Threatens China With Additional $100 Billion Of Tariffs; China Ready To Fight.” , NPR, 6 Apr. 2018, www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/04/05/600014441/trump-suggests-more-tariffs-may-be-coming.

Mcdonald, Joe. “Chinese Exporters Scramble to Cope with Trump Tariff Hike.” , ABC News Network, 16 Apr. 2018, abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/chinese-exporters-scramble-cope-trump-tariff-hike-54493955.

Why are Home Prices still rising?

Why Are Home Prices Still Rising?

Mikayla Jenkins

Recently, housing is in strong demand with limited availability. The reason why home prices are rising is because there are many purchasers looking to buy, but way fewer homeowners ready to sell. If this continues, prices will continue to rise. Housing inventory remains the most persistent factor affecting housing prices. There has been talk that media and politicians blame building costs, speculation, cost of living, interest rates, and mortgage rules. When the economy is well off, people want homes. Even though construction is strong, they are unable to keep up with the amount of people wanting to buy at this time. The rule of Supply VS Demand is simply driving home prices. 

As you can see in the graph, in the last three months, there has been more buyers than sellers by far. With these results, the house prices will continue to rise until the supply increases dramatically. 

The high home prices (8-15% year to year) started two years ago and are expected to expand for another two years. The interest rates are at an historic all time low which make people around our area want to buy a home at this time. Also, millennials who typically rent, are now wanting to be home owners which puts even a tighter squeeze on supply. Most families in the area are looking for middle class homes ranging from $300,000-$400,000. Dan Prothero says, “Which right now, there is a limited amount of houses in that price range and even when a house in that range is listed, there is typically an offer within 24 hours”.  Overall, there is an abundance of demand which is currently overpowering the supply and will continue to do so for the next two years. 

Works Cited:

Dan Prothero - real estate agent for Shorewest Elmbrook/Wauwatosa, 18, April. 2018 

Simplify. “Buyer Demand Still Outpacing the Supply of Homes for Sale.” Simplifying the Market™, 26 Mar. 2018

Simplify. “House Prices: Simply a Matter of Supply & Demand.” Simplifying the Market™, 4 Apr. 2018,

Brewers Game Food Prices

Brewers Game Food Prices
Tyler Schroeder

Living near the big city of Milwaukee, which is home to the Milwaukee Brewers, is a must see game for everyone in Wisconsin at least once in their life. People come from all over Wisconsin and neighboring states to come see the Brewers perform live. Although for anyone that has been to the brewers game knows that the food prices can be very expensive; especially if you are feeding a family or a group of people.

Brewer games are monopolies. People are here to watch their team play and there is no where else to get food unless you eat before, and the only liquid you are allowed to carry in is clear, water bottles where the seal has not been broke yet. In doing so the Brewers can raise their food and drink prices and people are still going to buy them because they want to have a good time and get hungry or thirsty at games. A survey found that the Brewers are above the MLB average day at the ballpark. The average is 77.92 dollars whereas the Brewers are at 80 dollars. The cost for a Summer Shandy beer at the ballpark is 9.25 dollars per can. This is a crazy amount for any kind of beer considering you can go to the store and get a six pack for less then that. Although people are still going to buy this because you are not allowed to carry in beer. Not being able to carry in beer allows the Brewers to raise their prices of beer because people who want beer will still pay the money because otherwise they will not be able to get it anywhere else during the game.

Many people have resorted to other ways of eating such as tailgating, carrying in small snacks and bottled water, or going out to eat at a local restaurant before hand. This may be hindering and decrease the revenue that the Brewers are bringing in from their concessions. These high prices really make it hard for families that have a lower income to enjoy a game with there family. Families with lower and even middle iconome that attend games with their family can not afford to spend the 9.25 for a beer, or 9 dollars for some dippin dots for their children.

The Atlantic Falcons, a NFL team is a good example of a corporation that has lowered their food prices. They lowered their food prices and their total revenue increased because of the lower prices. They added unique menus such as two dollar hot dogs,  bottomless soft drinks, and five dollar cheeseburgers.  Ken Belson states “Despite a 50 percent decrease in prices for food and nonalcoholic drinks compared to prices in the Georgia Dome, the amount spent per fan increased by 16 percent.” People are already paying a lot of money for just the tickets alone, so many people do not want to buy a lot of food or drinks because they will be spending a lot of money for four hours of entertainment. This also allowed people that had a little less money to be able to buy their kids a hot dog or two and have something to drink during the game. Therefore since the prices went down the quantity of food and drinks demanded per person increased and revue increased.

If the Brewers took the line that the Falcons took they would also see an increase in revenue. Brewers tickets average at about 50 dollars which is above the average MLB ticket price of 43 dollars. Lowering the prices of food would allow people to buy more food and drinks for them and their families and possibly allow them to come to more games because it it not as expensive to attend a game anymore. In big games such as when the Brewers battle the cubs, if they have lower food prices they will see a increase in revenue, because of the amount of people at the game and the quantity demanded for the lower priced food and drinks. Right now with the high food and drink prices the quantity demanded is lower for some people. Although with lower food and drink prices the quantity demanded will increase because people will be able to afford more food and drinks allowing them to buy more food and drinks.

Summerfest Rakes in Millions of Dollars and Tourists

Summerfest Rakes in Millions of Dollars and Tourists
Nicole Stark

With the 2018 lineup for Summerfest recently being released, the music festival has been a growing topic of conversation. Every year the festival brings in hundreds of thousands of music fans. Additionally, Summerfest brings in hundreds of millions of dollars. This year, these numbers are expected to be even higher.
Summerfest takes place along the border of Lake Michigan in Milwaukee, WI every summer for 11 days. The grounds are made up of 11 different stages which hold over 800 performances every year. The Summerfest grounds also consist of various food and beverage vendors as well as shops. To get into Summerfest, a ticket must be purchased. There are also alternative options like a Power Pass; a Power Pass allows admission to all 11 days of the festival. The majority of the shows that take place are free, but there are multiple headliners that perform in the amphitheater. The tickets to these shows cost money. The artists that perform on this stage are usually A-listers that are in very high demand, so the tickets can become quite pricey. Each of these costs contribute to the total amount of money that the entire 11 days of Summerfest rakes in. According to Wisconsin Public Radio, in 2017, Summerfest brought in around $200 million for the Milwaukee area. This makes it the biggest event in Wisconsin that is hosted every year. It is also the event that brings in the most amount of people from out of area. Additionally, WPR stated, “...hosting the U.S. Open earlier in June and the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament in March are important events but they don't have the same international draw. Those events brought in $130 million and $6 million, respectively” (Ross Terrel, WPR). So, out of all the different events held in Milwaukee, Summerfest brings in the most amount of money.

Not only does Summerfest bring in a substantial amount of money, it also brings in a massive amount of people. Year after year Summerfest promotes itself as, “The World’s Largest Music Festival.” This fact has even proven by the Guinness Book of World Records since 1999. Every year Summerfest brings in more and more people from all over the world. Because of its title, it attracts many and it grows every year. According to Milwaukee Business News, 804,116 people attended the festival in 2016. In 2017, attendance increased by 3.4% which increased the total attendance to 831,769 people. This year, attendance is expected to grow even more. The festival park also just recently went under renovations which is expected to bring in an even bigger crowd.
Summerfest will continue to bring in money to Milwaukee as well as people. Since Summerfest began, Milwaukee, WI has become a larger tourist attraction than ever before. As the “Largest Music Festival in the World” continues, so will the increase in money and tourism.


Works Cited
Anderson, Lauren. “Summerfest Attendance up 3.4 Percent in 2017.” BizTimes Media
Milwaukee, BizTimes Media Milwaukee, 13 July 2017,
www.biztimes.com/2017/industries/arts-entertainment-sports/summerfest-attendance-up-3-4-percent-in-2017/.
Glauber, Bill. “Klement's Links up with Summerfest for a 10-Year Sponsorship Deal.”
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee, 21 Mar. 2018,
www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/milwaukee/2018/03/20/klements-links-up-summerfest-10-year-sponsorship-deal/441415002/.
“Summerfest Announces 100 Headlining Artists Playing Over 11 Days & On 12 Stages.” L4LM,
4 Apr. 2018, liveforlivemusic.com/news/summerfest-2018-lineup/.
“Summerfest, The World's Largest Music Festival.” Summerfest - The World's Largest Music
Festival, summerfest.com/.
Terrel, Ross. “Summerfest Expected To Generate $200M For Milwaukee.” Wisconsin Public
Radio, 28 June 2017, www.wpr.org/summerfest-expected-generate-200m-milwaukee.

iPhone Red

Luke Hahn

In our society today, many people with a cellular device use an iPhone from Apple. Statistics say that in 2017 around 223 million people, in the United States alone, had a smartphone and well over half of them were an iPhone. Apple is a worldwide technology company that makes many products ranging from phones, laptops, or watches, as well as accessories to go with them. Apple has just recently released a new red colorway for the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus called the (PRODUCT)RED Special Edition. 

The release of a new iPhone is nothing new for Apple. Typically, this company has been known to release new products to the market on a yearly basis. They consistently make changes to their products and add new aspects to each phone to appeal to consumers. However, over the past years the iPhone has only been released in a few general colorways. The new red iPhone was released to help raise money for the testing, counseling, and treatment for people with HIV/AIDS. They also released a red leather folio for their latest and greatest product, the iPhone X, which also contributes to the cause. PRODUCT(RED) is an organization founded in 2006 thats goal is to raise awareness and money to help fight against HIV/AIDS. Apple has donated over 160 million dollars to PRODUCT(RED) making them the largest corporate donor for this organization. The PRODUCT(RED) iPhone will be available in different GB models starting at $699 as well as the iPhone X Folio for $99. To make the phone and case more wanted by consumers, Apple announced that the products will only be available for a certain time. They are limited edition items and will not be on the market again, therefore increasing the demand substantially. Despite the good cause I personally think that apple overprices many of their products. The iPhone X red leather folio is priced at $99 and is simply just a leather phone case. Many large corporations these days think that their label alone on products increases the value substantially. If they made charity products like these less expensive for consumers and more affordable to everyone in the market, they could raise much more for PRODUCT(RED). Apple itself is already over a 200 billion dollar corporation, and as a consumer, I don’t think that the Apple logo should automatically make a product incredibly expensive. Although their products are very top of the line and some should be highly priced, I don’t think they will raise much by selling a phone case for a hundred dollars. If large multi-billion dollar corporations do more special products like this we can raise billions for charities. Overall, it is a good message to other corporations and hopefully can influence them to do something similar for other charities. 

Works Cited

“Apple.” Apple, www.apple.com/.

“Home.” (RED), www.red.org/.

“(PRODUCT)RED™ - IPhone 8 Special Edition.” Apple, www.apple.com/product-red/.

Microtransactions

Virtual Stuff Makes Big Bucks
David Young

Ever since the creation of free mobile games, microtransactions have had an increase in popularity. Game developers have gradually started inserting microtransactions into mainstream games. Now they carry a bad stigma with them because games have progressively become more centered around them. Even though microtransactions have been single-handedly ruining games, game developers and publishers have continued to make them a main component of the game. This is only done though because of all the money microtransactions bring in. Simply put, microtransactions are in-game purchases that are another avenue for companies to make money. You use real money to purchase in-game currency; that in-game currency can then be used to buy in-game items.
In 2015, the large video game publisher Activision made $1.6 billion from only microtransactions. In that same year Activision’s total profits were $4.66 billion (You Won’t Believe). 34.3% of the company’s total profits came from microtransactions. When first putting that into perspective, realizing that a typical purchase is no more that $10 is important. There millions of players bought into these microtransactions. Plenty of people are willing to throw money at their screen if they find that the amount of in-game content is valuable and fairly cheap. Although people may question why anyone would purchase a virtual item, it can still be justified. People either want to look good, be better than others or have access to more content. Developers will plan to create extra content for any and every game they put out as long as they known money can be made. This way they can earn even more money than just of the release of the base game. Them knowing that there’s an incentive to increasing the longevity of the game is what drives microtransactions.
A game now synonymous with microtransactions that are actually not harmful to gameplay is Fortnite: Battle Royale. This game has taken the world by storm and it’s actually free to play. The only way Epic Games, the Fortnite developers, can make money is from all the cosmetic gear players buy. Nowadays the cool thing to do is to purchase in-game items. Looking good is way more important than being good. In Fortnite you can buy v-bucks using real money and use those v-bucks to purchase cosmetic items. In the month of February, Fortnite generated $126 million in revenue: all from microtransactions (Thier). Epic Games’ Fortnite: Battle Royale has a booming virtual economy and both sides are benefiting.



With the ever increasing presence of microtransactions, the value of them may be monetary, but the real value is left up to the buyer. Though, the wealth they provide for each company is undeniable. Extra profit for the company creates some incentive and keeps the wheels turning. Hopeful developers will constantly be able to provide worthwhile in-game that will keep demand high.

Works Cited

Martinez, Madisen. “Should College Student-Athletes Be Paid? Both Sides of the Debate.” CollegeXpress, CollegeXpress. Web. 20 Mar. 2017.

Thier, Dave. “Report: Here's How Much Money 'Fortnite Battle Royale' Is Making.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine. Web. 22 Mar. 2018.

Pink Tax

Pink Tax

Kailee Corica

With Women’s History Month just closing, the Pink Tax is something on every woman’s mind.Though this tax has been around for decades, the discrimination is still a solid issue between genders. The Pink Tax refers to the price difference between female-specific and male products throughout various companies. Whether it’s toys, clothes, or toiletries, women pay a slightly higher cost. The reasoning for this discrimination is because it’s speculated that women are willing to pay the higher amount, not taking into consideration that some products are a necessity. These unequal prices have brought to light the issues some women have with making ends meet. 

To prove the issue was real, researchers brought an immense amount of data to the table. In 2015, a study was done comparing 800 products from over 90 different types of brands to see the price differences between genders. The study included comparisons from toys, clothes, and accessories. In the category of toys, girl’s entertainment costed an average of 7% more than boys, otherwise known as “general” products. Furthermore, within the price differences, there were only slight changes between products. For example, a girl’s scooter costed $49.99 while a boy’s scooter costed $24.99. The only difference between products was the color. This main example from the study furthers the point of the pink tax. The other significant difference in prices was from personal care. Data showed that female care products costed 13% more than mens. Necessities like hair care, shaving accessories, and deodorant had at least a dollar increase for women. This aspect of the pink tax enrages women especially because of the generic nature of personal care. The chart to the right highlights the personal care prices between genders. Going in accordance to the 2015 study, women’s deodorant and lotion were most notable. The justification from companies for these results is because women have a need for more “luxurious” items as opposed to men. Companies take advantage of the overused excuse, “women are willing to pay more” to use a reason for raising their prices for specific products. However, female consumers are affected most by this. Not all personal care items are a “luxury”, and are in fact a necessity, which companies fail to acknowledge. 

While understanding both sides of the argument, the Pink Tax should have an end put to it. Regardless of the gender, products are necessary for living. The reasoning is, is because if companies keep their prices higher on female products, the demand will decrease, resulting in a loss of profit for producers. With the Pink Tax covering both economic and gender issues, there should be more done to end it. 

Works Cited

Kellner, Lindsay. “Yes It Is More Expensive To Be A Woman. Here's Why.” Mindbodygreen, 31 Jan. 2018, www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/what-is-the-pink-tax.

Ngabirano, Anne-Marcelle. “'Pink Tax' Forces Women to Pay More than Men.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 29 Mar. 2017, www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2017/03/27/pink-tax-forces-women-pay-more-than-men/99462846/.

The Neenah Streetball Challenge

The Neenah Streetball Challenge by Isaac Woelffer

The Neenah Streetball Challenge was a 3 on 3 basketball tournament hosted in downtown Neenah and was a staple in the community of Neenah for 25 years and it was run by a for profit company called Future Neenah. Sadly, this event came to a close in 2016.

This event brought in many people from around wisconsin to Neenah for 25 years benefiting the local community. The Neenah Streetball Challenge was run by volunteers and donations by local businesses. Although this might not seem like a good use of resources for the local businesses, it brought in more customers and got their company name out into the open as well which helped to improve sales. At its peak, over 500 teams were competing against each other which brought in over 2,000 people to the community which led to many competitors getting a hotel room in the area supporting the local economy while also helping the economy of neighboring cities. These people ate at local restaurants, bought food from local grocery stores and did fun activities such as going to Badger Sports Park in Appleton.

 In 2016, this event only brought in 221 teams and only 881 people which is a major turnaround from what had happened in the past. Also, because it had become so small, the economic benefit that it had provided to the local economy for two days had diminished and it was becoming more costly to operate. It had become more costly to operate because the demand for the tournament had gone down, this led to the price of the tournament increasing which might have persuaded less people to participate in this tournament. Because of this shortage of players, the Neenah Streetball Challenge was no longer seen as a money making event which it had been in the past and because less people were attending the event, the demand to have the event went down. This was the last year the event was run by Future Neenah and it seemed to be the last 3 on 3 tournament that would happen for a while. Even though that the number of teams that were brought in for its 25th anniversary and last year, many people were sad to see it go because it had helped bring the community together and improve the local economy. This drove the demand back up for the tournament which helped to show the importance of the event.

 

By driving the demand back up for the event, the community including and around Neenah created a need for this event to continue. One person saw this as an opportunity to bring back the 3 on 3 tournament because he would be able to make money off of it as well as providing a service that the community desperately wanted. Also because 2017 was its “grand reopening”, more people were drawn into the event which helped the to greatly improve the local economy. Overall, the Neenah Streetball Challenge improved the local economy of Neenah and the surrounding towns by bringing people together to have a little fun. It is now called Wisconsin Streetball. 

Works Cited

Froberg, Tim. “Neenah Streetball Could Return This Summer.” Post-Crescent Media, Wisconsin, 26 Jan. 2017, www.postcrescent.com/story/sports/2017/01/25/neenah-streetball-return-summer/97063744/.

Zettel, Jen. “Game over! Neenah StreetBall Calls It Quits.” Post-Crescent Media, Post Crescent, 17 Aug. 2016, www.postcrescent.com/story/news/local/2016/08/16/game-over-neenah-streetball-calls-quits/88832764/.

Netflix vs. Cable

Amy Yarcho
Some common phrases now a days a days are “do you wanna Netflix and chill?” or “have you seen the new Netflix original?” but some you don’t really hear are “do you wanna cable TV and chill?” or “have you seen the new cable TV show?” Netflix has been getting more and more popular since the time it started to stream online.

Since 2012, Netflix has seen a constant growth in subscribers, while cable has maintained a steady amount of users. This can be seen in the graph below


 Towards the end of 2016, Netflix subscriptions surpassed the amount of cable TV subscriptions by about 2 million subscribers.

There are a couple of different reasons as to why people are choosing Netflix over cable TV, one being that you can binge watch many seasons in a week, but for cable, you have to wait for a certain time and day just to watch one episode in a season. In an survey done by Cinemablend, users reported “The experience is better: 79% say binge watching makes the actual show better.” This makes sense because people are typically impatient when it comes to things that they want, so they don’t want to wait to see more like they would have to do if they were watching a show on cable TV.  Another reason would be that for Netflix, there are no interruptions, while on cable TV there are commercial breaks. In an article by Scott McKelvey, it states that, “People hate advertising because it gets in the way of what they really want. A funny video, a TV show, a song or an interesting article. Ads make people wait to have a want or need satisfied.” 

Netflix caters to a crowd of people that are busier than ever. Statistics from quartz state that, “...about 67% of people now watch movies and TV shows in public”. With cable TV, you can’t watch that just anywhere you go. Typically you need a TV and an internet connection, but with Netflix, there is an option to where you can download movies and TV shows so that you are able to stream what you want to watch without an internet connection, which comes in handy when you want to watch something on an airplane or when you’re bored in a waiting room and don’t want to waste your cellular data.

Personally I have had a Netflix subscription for 4 years now and I’ve binge watched about 10 different series of TV shows and probably about 100 movies. All my friends also use Netflix almost on a daily basis. The statistics that I found are very accurate because I can’t even remember the last time I watched Cable TV besides the for the news or background noise for doing chores.

This is increasing the demand for Netflix, which is responding by investing in more moveis, hiring more employees, and even creating their own “Netflix originals” to keep the customers interested in them. See below

Because of the per employee, Netflix is making more money, so they’re going to want to keep hiring employees which is good for the company.

Morris, Ian. “Netflix Is Now Bigger Than Cable TV.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 13 June 2017, www.forbes.com/sites/ianmorris/2017/06/13/netflix-is-now-bigger-than-cable-tv/#6f3eb968158b.
West, Kelly. “Unsurprising: Netflix Survey Indicates People Like To Binge-Watch TV.” CINEMABLEND, CINEMABLEND, 13 Dec. 2013, www.cinemablend.com/television/Unsurprising-Netflix-Survey-Indicates-People-Like-Binge-Watch-TV-61045.html.

McKelvey, Scott. “ABOUT.” Scott McKelvey Copywriting & Marketing, 17 Feb. 2015, scottmckelvey.com/people-dont-hate-advertising-this-is-what-they-hate/

Rodriguez, Ashley. “People Watch Netflix Unabashedly at Work (and in Public Toilets, Too).” Quartz, Quartz, 14 Nov. 2017, qz.com/1128973/people-watch-netflix-at-work-and-in-public-bathrooms/.

The Impact of Spring Break on the Economy

Mya Monarrez
Mrs. Straub
AP Economics
April 10, 2018

The Impact of Spring Break on the Economy

Each spring, families and college students look forward to taking a break from work and school to relax and do something fun outside of their normal routine. During the annual Spring Break vacation time, many businessesーincluding airlines, hotels, gas stations, restaurants, and retail storesーexperience a substantial increase in demand for their products and services.

The pie chart below shows the breakdown of a trip for 2 people to Costa Rica, a popular Spring Break destination. A little more than half of the total cost is for travel and lodging, with food and drink being a close second.

                                                         Fig. 1 Costs of a Vacation (Gen X)

According to Free Enterprise, a website presented by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce featuring stories about American businesses, “depending on the location...business growth between 2001 and 2005 posted positive gains in every year, increasing from 634 to 779 total businesses.” Successful businesses lead to a better economy, which then increases gross domestic product. The money families and college students spend on travel, lodging, food and entertainment during Spring Break proves how our economy is doing by money transferring from individuals’ bank accounts into liquid cash which shows the flow of money that helps boost the economy. A better money flow creates an environment that will eventually increase production, sales, wages and employment.

College students preparing for Spring Break tend to not think so much about their opportunity costs as they are packing for warm beaches. Students do not want to “waste” time worrying about their units of account or the future value of their money, and would rather purchase whatever attracts their attention while on Spring Break, even if it means they spend more money than they should. Typical impulse buys often include apparel and souvenirs, food and drinks, and fun activities and excursions.
I believe that families, and especially college students, should look at their commercial bank accounts, create a budget for vacation and work to control their spending impulses during Spring Break. Ali Garland, an experienced world traveler who gives advice on her blog Travel Made Simple, says it is important to track your spending throughout your vacation and create budgets for every category that revolves around a vacation (Garland).

Spring Break vacationers create an amazing revenue boost to many local economies each March and April. By planning ahead, it is possible to have a fun and exciting vacation without returning home feeling like you overspent. The key is to be realistic about your spending, make sure that you have enough money to last your entire trip and if you have money left over to invest for next year’s vacation, then that’s a bonus. 

Works Cited

Free Enterprise Staff. “Why Florida and Texas Don’t Have Any Spring Break Regrets.” Free Enterprise, 14, March 2016, Washington, DC. https://www.freeenterprise.com/spring-break/ .

Garland, Ali. “How To Make A Travel Budget.” Travel Made Simple ,16, January 2013, https://travel-made-simple.com/how-to-make-a-travel-budget/

Joanna, Tim. “Budget For Travel.” Gen X Gypsies, 10, April 2018, http://www.abroaddreams.com/2013/02/24/budget-for-travel-to-costa-rica/

An Increase in Toll Roads

An Increase in Toll Roads
Kelly Longhini

While Wisconsin does not currently have any toll roads--roads on which drivers must pay a fee for passage--many of us are familiar with tollways or turnpikes. Common on busy highways, tollways assess a fee on drivers to gain funding for road construction and maintenance. The concept of tollways is nothing new; dating back to colonial America, the first turnpike opened in Pennsylvania in 1792. As the map depicts, a majority of states (shaded in green) possess tollways today, some familiar ones being the Chicago Skyway, the Florida Turnpike, and the New York State Thruway. Tollways are a current discussion topic, as many states are considering adding toll roads or increasing toll rates this year to compensate for a lack of infrastructure funding.

Many drivers would agree that tollways are inconvenient: they interrupt your trip, requiring you to either come to a complete stop to pay with cash at a toll booth, or slow down enough for cameras to detect an electronic transponder on your windshield that is linked to your credit card. Indeed, members of the National Motorist Association have argued that toll roads are inefficient and cause people to take alternate routes, creating congestion on non-interstate roads. Avoiding toll roads comes with an opportunity cost: faster travel time. However, roads without tolls do have an incentive of not having to pay. Additionally, a “2016 report from the Congressional Research Service found average U.S. toll collection costs requiring 8% to 11% of toll revenue” (Poole), meaning that a percentage of the money gained from tollways is not used for road repair, but to pay toll booth attendants and maintain the toll structures. This all begs the question: Why would states consider adding more toll roads?

Recently, funding for transportation infrastructure has gone down due to declining federal funding and a lack of revenue from gas taxes because new, fuel-efficient cars no longer require gasoline. From an economic standpoint, creating more tollways is an effective solution to collect money to maintain roads. In January, Bill Cramer, a member of the international Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association, said that, “Local governments are seeing [imposing tolls] as a viable and useful option...It pays for the road, providing a steady stream of revenue to maintain that road at high quality and safety.” A widespread creation of toll roads with an option to pay cash would consequently drive up the demand for money in the money market, shifting the money demand curve to the right and increasing the interest rate. The Federal Reserve may eventually increase the money supply to bring interest rates back down to equilibrium level. Oppositely, if more electronic tolls are created, meaning that individuals can purchase transponders like an E-Pass, EZ-Pass, or I-Pass and pay online, then the demand for money will decrease as physical cash and coins are not necessary. In addition to gaining revenue, creating more toll roads would stimulate employment and production growth, as, “studies would need to be conducted to identify the best locations to collect tolls, equipment would have to be ordered, and physical infrastructure such as road-spanning gantries and communications structures would need to be designed and constructed” (Kirk), all of which would create more jobs and increase GDP.

Wisconsin is among the states considering adding toll roads. Debate in Congress has suggested that tolling would help resolve Wisconsin’s long-term funding dilemma for transportation. As the graph depicts, funding for highway maintenance in Wisconsin has steadily decreased due to stagnant gas tax. In February, Wisconsin Senator Scott Fitzgerald discussed a new federal infrastructure plan, saying that, “Trump's plan might promote a fix by providing $200 billion in federal infrastructure money over 10 years but only for states that bring their own money to the table” (Stein). Fitzgerald supports building tollways to manage Wisconsin’s lack of funding. Governor Scott Walker, who has been wary of tolls, responded by saying he would only implement tolling if taxes were cut by an equal amount in other areas. If Wisconsin establishes tolls, whether they be flat rate or variable, meaning they change based on congestion levels, it is important that the money go towards actual improvements. Ultimately, strategic, minimally irritating tolling proves economically beneficial; however, it is also important that citizens are informed about how their money is spent and witness actual improvements on the roads that need it most.

Works Cited

Baxter, James. “Why Toll Roads Are A Bad Idea.” National Motorists Association, www.motorists.org/issues/tolls/bad-idea/.

Kirk, Robert S. “Tolling U.S. Highways.” Federation of American Scientists, 26 Aug. 2016, fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R43575.pdf.

Poole, Robert, and Mike Nichols. “Why Toll Roads Are Wisconsin's Only Realistic Solution to Its Transportation Roadblock.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee, 14 Feb. 2018, www.jsonline.com/story/opinion/contributors/2018/02/14/wisconsin-toll-roads-realistic-solution-transportation-roadblock/335383002/.

Povich, Elaine S. “More States Are Turning to Toll Roads in 2018.” The Fiscal Times, 9 Jan. 2018, www.thefiscaltimes.com/2018/01/09/More-States-Are-Turning-Toll-Roads-2018.

Stein, Jason. “Wisconsin Should Use Tolls to Get Matching Money for Trump's Infrastructure Plan, Top Lawmakers Say.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee, 7 Feb. 2018, www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/07/top-wisconsin-lawmakers-use-tolls-get-matching-money-trumps-infrastructure-plan/314732002/.

The Economics of the NBA Playoffs

The Economics of the NBA Playoffs
Written by: Cole Bergman

With the NBA regular season coming to a close the playoffs are right around the corner. Each year eight teams from each of the two conferences are put into a bracket to compete for the Larry O'Brien Championship trophy. These teams are decided by the teams with the best records. Each matchup is decided by the first to win four games which causes the pressure for your team to win to increase. This causes the demand for merchandise and tickets to skyrocket. One problem that has come up is people are complaining that they cannot afford to go to playoff games because they are so expensive. I think ticket prices should not be decreased because of these fans. With this great demand the teams should be able to charge the highest price people will buy similar to price discrimination.

Consumers are willing to spend a lot more on tickets as they get to witness a game that could determine there team winning or losing. Along with that consumers are willing to spend more money on special merchandise that is playoffs themed as it is purchasable for only a limited amount of time.

Teams in bigger cities often take better advantage of this opportunity charging more for tickets than other smaller cities. One example of this is in last years playoffs in the first round the Houston Rockets tickets averaged a price of $225 compared to the much smaller city of Cleveland home to the cavaliers who averaged a ticket cost of $105 for their first round games of the playoffs.

Not only do the playoffs affect the purchase of tickets and merchandise. Similar to olympics, the economy of the city hosting the playoff game grows as more people come into the city from all around the country. People are roaming the streets, hotels fill up, and restaurants are packed. These teams also have more total games than the teams that didn't make the playoffs which causes them to get more publicity and more fans. The team that gets to four wins first wins which means there are no following games in that series. This means that there could only be four games or there could be up to seven games total. Relating to this Larry Coon states that the league would "love for every series to go seven games. Then it's raking in more advertising dollars." (The More)

Works Cited

“2018 NBA Playoffs Tickets.” SeatGeek, seatgeek.com/events/nba-playoffs.
Brown, Larry. “LeBron James' Block, Kyrie Irving's 3-Pointer Were the Plays of the Game.” Larry

Brown Sports, 20 June 2016, larrybrownsports.com/basketball/lebron-james-block-kyrie-irving-3-pointer-game-7/309239.

Marketplace.org. “The More Playoff Games NBA Stars Play, the Less Money They Make per Game.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 10 June 2016, www.businessinsider.com/the-more-playoff-games-nba-stars-play-the-less-money-they-make-per-game-2016-6.