Tuesday, May 29, 2018

The Economics Behind Internet Ads

The Economics Behind Internet Ads
Written by: Matt Dehart

Ads are one of the most important parts of websites.  You might say that many get annoying, appearing before videos, or taking space on the page.  But these advertisements are necessary for the content on the internet.  People want things free, and ads are the only way to keep a site free.  Things are a lot more complicated though.  In simple terms, a business gives money to a publisher when they show an ad for the business.  Without earning money, a publisher would shut down with the opportunity cost of getting a job is lower than the hours spent for no income.  Most revenue from ads is based on clicks, meaning the payout is based on how much business the advertiser receives from the ad.  It gets much deeper though.  A company will choose which sites to advertise for based on the audience.  They have to compare the possible profit from sponsoring one website compared to another.  A publisher had to think of many different factors while placing ads on their site.  They have to use a lot of marginal analysis to estimate ad amount and placement.  They have to decide if they think another ad will increase either viewers and or clicks on the advertisement, and not use an amount that will give less than before.  Over the years tools have been developed to help an advertiser with placing ads.  One such example is Google Adsense, which will use content on the website to place ads that will make more revenue.  So before you just look away with the next advertisement, think about how much work and economic analysis was used to bring the ad to you.





Works Cited

Bishop, Tyler. “How Internet Ads Work & How Sites Make Money Using Them.” Ezoic Blog, 13 Mar. 2018, blog.ezoic.com/how-internet-ads-work-how-to-make-money-using-them/.

Suggett, Paul. “Start Making Money Today with Google Ads.” The Balance Small Business, The Balance Small Business, www.thebalancesmb.com/how-to-make-money-with-google-ads-39108.

Thursday, May 24, 2018

The Shortage of Skilled Trades in the US

The Shortage of Skilled Trades in the US
Adam Immel

The expectations of the American youth have changed much since the days when industry thrived in the United States. Whether it was for better or for worse is debatable, but as the country transitioned from manufacturing to service based industries, the generations of people were further divided by changing labor expectations. The changes have led many to believe that the United States is experiencing a labor shortage, an insufficient amount of qualified workers, in the market of skilled trades. Because of this, many consumers are finding it much more difficult to find contractors that aren’t being replaced fast enough to accomodate for the wave of retiring baby boomers.

The decline in demand for such jobs is the change in expectations in career development that began in the 1970’s and 80’s. 40 years ago, the United States was a powerhouse economy that relied heavily on manufacturing. Since that period, economic decision making by manufacturers to produce overseas to lower the cost of production, as well as America’s fledgling effort to combat air pollution in the 1970’s, have sent those jobs out of country, taken by countries such as China that own a significantly lower minimum wage than the US, and have made less of an effort to mitigate air pollution from factories. Because of this, America has lost “some 7 million manufacturing jobs”, according to Forbes. While the same source argues that the US has “added some 53 million jobs in services”, the impact of the changes has been left on following generations. Millennials and Generation Z have been persistently advised that the best option towards finding reliable employment is through a four-year Bachelor’s Degree. These factors have all contributed to the steadily growing “skills gap” as the older generations tire from their laborious careers.

What makes this gap in demand for skilled trades surprising is the potential such a career provides for a lucrative career. According to an article by NPR, Pacific Northwest Ironworkers based in Seattle provides workers and opportunity to earn “$28.36 an hour, or more than $50,000 a year”, a wage that is commonplace in many similar careers. Besides this, the shallow belief that the only way to “make it” in life is via a traditional college continues, even with increasing average debt. Some may assume the youth are too afraid the get their hands dirty; others may argue ignorance and a lack of promoting the field are to blame. Regardless, this trend doesn’t appear to be improving; the outlook on the youth’s demand in skilled trades hasn’t shifted at all, and the proportion of skilled trade workers older than 45 in 2012 was 53 percent, according to EMSI, which is a significantly high proportion. With demand as low as it is currently among the younger generation, in 20 years the majority of current employees in the field will be retired, putting a strain on industries that many of American workers in service based industries take for granted. Somehow, new parents and school systems need to promote the promise that becoming a machinist, electrician, welder, or any similar career can provide and prevent more Americans from college debt and looming unemployment straight out of college. The opportunity is there if the youth are willing to put in the effort.

Works Cited
Wright, Joshua. “America's Skilled Trades Dilemma: Shortages Loom As Most-In-Demand Group Of Workers Ages.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 23 May 2014, www.forbes.com/sites/emsi/2013/03/07/americas-skilled-trades-dilemma-shortages-loom-as-most-in-demand-group-of-workers-ages/#2b0f15bd6397

Gross, Ashley, and Jon Marcus. “High-Paying Trade Jobs Sit Empty, While High School Grads Line Up For University.” NPR, NPR, 25 Apr. 2018, www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/04/25/605092520/high-paying-trade-jobs-sit-empty-while-high-school-grads-line-up-for-university.

Krupnick, Matt. “After Decades of Pushing Bachelor's Degrees, U.S. Needs More Tradespeople.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 29 Aug. 2017, www.pbs.org/newshour/education/decades-pushing-bachelors-degrees-u-s-needs-tradespeople.

Worstall, Tim. “The U.S. Lost 7 Million Manufacturing Jobs--And Added 33 Million Higher-Paying Service Jobs.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 19 Oct. 2016, www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2016/10/19/the-us-lost-7-million-manufacturing-jobs-and-added-33-million-higher-paying-service-jobs/#66e2a7b04a20.

The Subtle Economics Of AP Classes

Liam O’Neill Mrs. Straub AP Economics 18 May 2018
The Subtle Economics Of AP Classes

It is sunday may 20th, and the awful stress of AP testing is over, and i’m sure you all can agree that it is great to finally feel as though the school year is almost over. Although it may feel as though only thing AP classes do is bring unneeded stress into our lives, Ap classes have a real impact on our economy in a way that none of us even think about.

Long before I took my AP test, I thought long and hard about the opportunity cost that comes with it. I looked at the tradeoffs that come with taking and not taking the test. The primary thing I thought about was whether or not the test would truly benefit me, especially for $90 (AP data). For many, $90 is a lot of money, especially for the students that have to pay the fees themselves. And $90 is just for one class, it is an additional $90 for every test meaning that some students will need to spend $400 to take tests. Although Paying $90 to take a test might at first sound like one of the dumbest decisions a person could ever make, it’s much more than just a test. Not only does the AP score you receive demonstrate your performance on your AP Exam, but it also measures of your achievement in your college-level AP course. This score will be used by colleges and universities to determine if they will grant you credit for what you've already learned, scoring a 3 (4 for some colleges and even 5 for others) will result in you being qualified to skip the equivalent course once you get to college. This reason alone is a significant incentive to take the AP test as $90 and passing the test can turn into a potential $2400 in savings. To break that down on how big of a potential impact that is, of the 841 students at Pewaukee 53% participate in AP testing with a 83% pass rate on the various AP tests meaning that around 371 kids are successful on passing an AP test each year at Pewaukee (rankings). When you take that into consideration, that is a total of $887,894 in potential savings on college tuition for students at Pewaukee High School.
Everybody knows what it is like to feel broke, but for college students they rarely know the feeling of not being broke. High school students work for hours in attempt to save up enough money for college, taking AP classes results in less money that is needed to be saved as the cost of college tuition decreases significantly. Less money that is needed to be paid off in loans also means that college students have to worry significantly less about debt and interest rates. This is a positive externality for businesses around colleges as less money to pay off means that the purchasing power of students increases greatly for normal goods thus greatly increasing potential consumption expenditures on things such as food or clothes.
Additionally, taking an AP class allows you to differentiate yourself from other college applicants as all AP classes are greatly respected across all the nations institutions. Colleges look at how rigorous a students classwork was as a determinant in acceptance and academic scholarships. On average $50 billion is awarded to eligible students in scholarships, with 94% of these funds came from federal, state and local government sources (saving for college). In conclusion AP classes have an impact that goes far beyond our individual lives. Their impact on the economy is undeniable whether it goes unnoticed or not. They provide individuals with many benefits and positive externalities and are an overall great addition to our lives although we may rarely feel that way. Works Cited “AP Data - AP Report to the Nation 2014.” SAT & SAT Subject Tests™ – Research – College Board, research.collegeboard.org/programs/ap/data/nation/2014. “AP Program Participation and Performance Data 2017.” SAT & SAT Subject Tests™ – Research – College Board, research.collegeboard.org/programs/ap/data/participation/ap-2017. “Google Sheets - Create and Edit Spreadsheets Online, for Free.” Google Slides, Google, docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mIgxDcES1F_nfpb6ksj7oq-JDJ_w9adN7x0W67yDfpg/edit#gid=0. Rankings, National. “How Does Pewaukee High Rank Among America's Best High Schools?” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/wisconsin/districts/pewaukee-school-district/pewaukee-high-21834. “Surprising Facts About Scholarships.” Savingforcollege.com, www.savingforcollege.com/articles/surprising-facts-about-scholarships-836. “Table 5. - Average Public School Size (Mean Number of Students per School), by Instructional Level and by State: Overview of Public Elementary and Secondary Schools and Districts: School Year 1999-2000.” Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education: School Year 2001-2002, E.D. Tab, National Center for Education Statistics, nces.ed.gov/pubs2001/overview/table05.asp. Wilson-Swokowski, Tye. “AP Test Scores, Participation Rise in Wisconsin.” The Badger Herald, 26 Feb. 2016, badgerherald.com/news/2016/02/26/ap-test-scores-participation-rise-in-wisconsin/.

Trump Tariffs On Auto Parts Is Going To Be HUGE

Andrew Dempsey

Trump Tariffs On Auto Parts Is Going To Be HUGE

Nearly half the vehicles sold in the U.S. are imported coming from plants in Canada and Mexico. The current administration does not like this fact and said that the imports of automobiles and auto parts are a threat to the national security.  They have taken action about this and have launched an investigation into whether tariffs are needed on the imports. Trump says that “core industries such as automobiles and automotive parts are critical to our strength as a nation”.

During a meeting with top American automaker executives, Trump said he is going to push for an increase in the production of vehicles produced in the US. In addition to that Trump also criticized the European Union auto imports and threatened a tax on these imports. Trump is seeking a new tariff of 20 to 25 percent of these imports. Critics of this move fear that countries will strike back and impose trade sanctions of their on for a threat to their national security.

If Trump is able to follow through with his plans it will be huge for US automakers. Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler have been struggling lately. Ford Stock had been plummeting lately and in February hit an all-time low at 10.24 a share. General Motors revenue has been falling in the past year and Chrysler American made cars have been reporting low sales numbers. Many plant employees of these companies have been laid off and some plants have been shutting down completely. With a boost that Trump is promising this might put light back into struggling companies. This would also lower unemployment in the U.S. especially in Detroit where the unemployment is 7.8%. In addition, this will boost GDP with more products being built in the US. Overall this tariff would be a good thing for the United States.   https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-administration-explores-tariffs-on-autos-auto-parts/ar-AAxISpK

https://www.autoblog.com/2017/03/16/trump-cafe-review-not-good-for-automakers/

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/06/trumps-tweets-aside-automakers-are-fastest-us-job-creators-under-obama.html

https://www.google.com/search?q=ford+stock&rlz=1C1GCEA_enUS789US789&oq=ford+stock+&aqs=chrome.0.0l6.2936j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&safe=active&ssui=on

   

Apple's Control

 Andrew Brown
Apple’s Control
Ever since 2005 Apple has been making huge profit. At the end of 2015 Apple had recorded there highest sales out of every year they have been a company. And by that end of the year they made 50.6 Billion in sales. More money for them means more deals for us. Apple has always said if they ever reach the top they would decrease prices and This year they might be able to call them self #1. It's a bit early to tell the second counter just ended and on May 1st Apple posted the record breaking sales they have ever had.
Most to all there sales are the Iphone X, Iphone 8 plus, and Apple watch series 3. The most sales they have had this year is the Iphone 8 plus. And just in this year Apple made over $65.4 Billion in sales. Growing the company by 16% and the EPS sales (Earning per share) grow 30%. They is the highest Apple has ever had. And if they keep it up they will reduce their prices. If this happens Apple will have even more sales because more people are likely going to buy there phones. Even though with the actions that Apple has done last year with the older phones. People has existed there apology and are still stand by their sides. For everyone who does not know late last year Apple was slowing down peoples Iphones 6s and under to save the battery life. And they had a good reason to. If you where the person who had their phone for more than 2 years, there has been signs of batteries heating up and melting in your pocket. After people found out apple was willing for 1 week to give away new free batteries for anyone with a bad one. And after they lowered the price of the Battery for $35.
 Apple is going to use this 16% of money they have earned put it to making the Iphone, (11 or 9) they have picked a name yet but it will be called one of those. Apple is trying to make a bezel-less phone, the highest they can push it is 98% seen on top and on the side and 96% seen on the top because of the speakers. If they are able to do this to the eye there will be no bezel.

So this is Apple’s income form 2005 to 2017 and you can see the to is $53 Billion and last year in 2017 it was $48.35 Billion so if you take that number and divide it by 100 Apple made 4.8 million in profit that goes to them and in this year just form the beginning of the year to may 1st, Apple has made $5.4 Billion in profit they can use feely and that is a lot of money. So you might be asking What happens to the rest of that money. And the answer is it goes of paying bills, people, lawsuits, and so much more. So even if you like Apple or not they are making a huge leap ahead form any other company.


 Work Cited
“Apple Reports Second Quarter Results.” Apple, 1 May 2018, www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/05/apple-reports-second-quarter-results/.

* All products require an annual contract.  (New York). “Apple: Net Income by Year 2005-2017.” Statista, www.statista.com/statistics/267728/apples-net-income-since-2005/.
*https://i.pinimg.com/originals/3c/21/65/3c2165053a5e3a83c34f4a511fc61259.png
*https://upload./commons/thumb/f/fa/Apple_logo_black.svg/1200px-Apple_logo_black.svg.png
Haslam, Karen. “Apple Reports Second Quarter Earnings - New March Quarter Record.” Macworld UK, 2 May 2018, www.macworld.co.uk/news/apple/apple-financial-results-3581769/.

Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Dear Nicaragua,

Written by: Carlos Teran 


Dear Nicaragua,
An Economic/Philosophical Poem that Meets All The Requirements of the Biannual Summative Blog Post

Nicaragua. Why are you the way that you are?
When I was a child, I loved your green pastures, your beautiful mountains, the leaves that danced on your trees, and the good life that you gave your people.
My people.

Not but a generation ago, your pastures, mountains trees and streets were painted red.
With the blood of 50,000 fallen Nicaraguans.
For the freedom of your valleys, for the freedom of your people.
Not but a generation ago, a proxy civil war for the battle of territorial economic control and the spread of Capitalism and Western culture versus Eastern culture and Marxism backed by Reagan and his band of misfits as well as Mr. Gorbachev broke out in your confines.
And you were painted red.

And in the name of what and whom?
You cut the head off of a snake, attached to the head of Medusa.
Your shaved your capitalist free market head with a communist command market Mach 3 razor only for your hair to grow back thicker.
And now you pick up the razor again.

The man who promised you prosperity, 
And that your rivers would run thick with milk and honey.
Stole all social security from the very same people who fought for him to gain power invested the money into his construction companies and laundered drug money through those same companies then lost all of the money in his offshore accounts and asked for the very same people who gave him the power in the first place  to bail him out with a regressive tax system that makes the retired the old and the poor give him and the government more money (Chavez)

The new generation, they stay woke.
Because sleep is the cousin of death.
And for opening their eyes and mouths,
More than 40 students were killed fighting for your freedom (Chavez).
And now the streets are red once again.

Don’t you know that if you continue to have revolutions for your economic and human freedom that it will prevent capital inflow to your country and deter Americans from investing and from exploiting your resources to build water parks so fat American families with their fat American dollars can use you as a place to “get away from their problems”? Thus causing your Cordoba to depreciate in the foreign exchange market because demand for your currency will decrease to the left on the money market graph and the global market.
And increase unemployment because you won’t have those waterparks, and the would be workers won’t have the opportunity to continue to be slaves with blue polos, who would go home and still wouldn’t be able to afford a good home and a life for their children, and some food to feed them every night.

Ok this poem is getting long and I need a thesis.
What should my you do?
How do we stop the violence, and provide a stable economy?
Do we buy bonds and increase the money supply so that interest rates will decrease, which will in turn increase investment as well as demand, hopefully increasing our GDP?
But would that really work?
If I knew the answer, I think I’d be in a better place.
Plus I only know my opinion of other people’s opinions.
So I’ll ask my comedian/philosopher friend Bill Hicks. Bill what should we do?

“Take all that money that we spend on weapons and defense each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would many times over - not one human being excluded - and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace.” (Goodreads).

The End.




Works Cited

“A Quote from Love All the People.” Goodreads, Goodreads, www.goodreads.com/quotes/511079-fundamentalist-christianity-fascinating-these-people-actually-believe-that-the-world.

Chavez, Nicole. “More than 40 People Were Killed in Unrest in Nicaragua, Rights Groups Say.” CNN, Cable News Network, 29 Apr. 2018, www.cnn.com/2018/04/27/americas/nicaragua-unrest/index.html.

Monday, May 21, 2018

The Economics of Post Malone

Patrick Cullen
Mrs. Straub
AP Economics
15 May 2018
The Economics of Post Malone

As you may have noticed the music industry does not have very high barriers to entry. If you produce a hit, you have a chance to make it big, for a little while, and the rest depends on what you put into it. You see a lot of young artists with a variety of different names entering the industry and it becomes kind of grueling to keep up with. However, one name that continues to linger and thrive in this industry is Post Malone. What differentiates him from the rest of the pack is his ability to incorporate his own spin on R&B with melodic choruses and catchy repetitive rhymes. He does it all. It is this one solid attribute that keeps Post Malone towards the top of the music industry oligopoly. 

You may be confused as to why I gave an industry a economic label, but the truth is that at any given time the industry is being lead by 1-3 artists. The current Billboard: Top 100 charts show the top four spots being dominated by Childish Gambino, Drake, along with Post Malone in the #4 spot with is hit single “Psycho” which was released numerous months prior to the release of his album “Beerbongs & Bentleys”. It is due to this single that his album was certified platinum within a week of its release. Though this may sound impossible and shows just how big of a rockstar that Post Malone really is, people often forget about the vehicles we use to listen to these artists music. Along with being certified platinum within a week of being released, Post Malone can also be credited with driving the record-breaking streaming week that occurred following the drop of album. In an article from Billboard magazine, the author states, “The effort, released on April 27 via Republic Records, earned 461,000 equivalent album units in the week ending May 3, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 153,000 were in traditional album sales”(Caulfield). What this shows is that Post Malone isn’t the only one raking in the big bucks from his album being present on so many different platforms. With streaming platforms such as Apple Music and Spotify available, it eliminates the demand for a physical copy of the album. This is why only 153,000 of the album units were traditional album sales out of the nearly 500,000 that occured over the span of that week. This shows that Post Malone isn’t just a high performing firm in the music industry, but he helps drive the industry itself by bringing in excess amounts of traffic to streaming vehicles while also pumping money into our nation’s economy through his beautiful form of entertainment.

As you can see Post Malone has a lot left in the tank and has a very bright future ahead of him. It is through artists such as himself that make the entertainment industry such a driving force for our economy. He is an inspiration to young people and creates an incentive to consume for people who are not usually high contributors to our economy. Post Malone is more than a public figure, he is a key piece in the music industry which is a large block in the foundations of our economy.

Works Cited

Caulfield, Keith. “Post Malone's 'Beerbongs & Bentleys' Breaks Streaming Record, Debuts at No. 1 on Billboard 200 Albums Chart.” Billboard, Billboard, 6 May 2018, www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/8454698/post-malone-beerbongs-and-bentleys-no-1-billboard-200.

Thursday, May 17, 2018

Macy's is Closing

Macy’s is Closing
By,
Megan Willborn

Macy’s has been in business since 1858, and is one of the oldest stores the U.S has to offer.  The store’s long run history all began with $11.06 in sales, and led to becoming one of the world’s largest retailers.  However, it's all coming to an end.  Macy’s has been struggling for a while ever since 2015.  Online shopping has dominated the retail market, pushing brick-and-mortar businesses out of it’s way.  Since then they have closed more than 100 stores across the nation resulting in over 5,000 jobs loss.  11 of those are expected to close this year in 2018.  That is 15% of all their stores.  

Amazon surpassed Macy’s stock in 2015, and stayed on top  The internet age has left  American’s without a need to go to stores anymore.  Everything they need can be sent by drones to their doorsteps.  Look at these graphs.  Macy’s is nowhere close to amazon's profits.  Amazon has managed to surpass Macy’s stock in 2015, and ever since has been on top.  This shows how the online era is making brick-and-mortar businesses worry.  Through the century, businesses showed their growth as a company by building more stores.  Now, that is meaningless when a entire store can be compacted into a website.  Lately many large retailers have been closing their stores due to the rise of the internet age.  
Macy’s is not done for however.  The retailer is worth $6.4 billion, but owns more than $16 billion in real estate.  They have been slowly selling off parts of their estate ever since 2015.  Even though it may seem terrible for the company to e selling off parts of their business, they are saving over $300 million in annual expensive.  By shutting down stores early, Macy’s saves money and it helps them transition more quickly to becoming a online market.

Sources:
Bowman, Jeremy. “Why Macy's Is Closing Even Profitable Stores.” The Motley Fool, The Motley Fool, 21 Jan. 2017

Thomas, Lauren. “Here Are the Stores Macy's Is Closing Next.” CNBC, CNBC, 4 Jan. 2018

This is America

This is America
Connor Vogt
Whether you’ve heard of Donald Glover a.k.a Childish Gambino through song or through his many roles in the art of television entertainment. You might also know him for his grammy nominated show Atlanta. But recently he came out with a music video titled “This is America.” Pulling out over a million views in just seven hours. Currently after nine days reaching a very impressive 100 million views. Which consisted of explicit images, gun violence, tropical dancing, choir singing, and touchy subjects. In this song Gambino travels through a chaos infested party dome where a lot and I mean A LOT is going on. Too much to try to recap in this blog post.

There had been, to be sure, an alternative vision embodied in the word “America,” one that placed an emphasis on ideals like universal liberty and equality of justice under the law, but this lofty mirage had never managed to shy away from the matter of its implication in the violence of American racism. Created by guns, overflowing with guns, America had always been a sort of rhetorical weapon.What the Trump campaign and election signaled was an abolition of all alternative Americas, the permanent reduction of the nation to a weapon directed at people whose skin is not pale. In the video, when Glover stages the murder of a black guitarist and a black church choir, it’s not a white policeman pulling the trigger, but Glover himself, and after each killing he resumes his dancing with the same uplifting energy and his rapping with the same assured flow, as if nothing had happened.

Also with his different flows, on particularly stands out as this new “wave” of hip hop’s Lil’s “mumble rap” which stands out as him possibly mocking the way rap is portrayed right now. Donald Glover coming from middle class and using lyrics like “gun you down” and talking about his mexican drug supplier is all intentional. Instead of talking about his personal life he’d rather get the audience to focus more on what he is saying and the many problems he is trying to reach and push.

Overall this gruesome and exciting/powerful video has indefinitely raised some eyebrows on current topics that most artist won’t touch on especially the creative way Childish Gambino layed out. With his creative mind and team Donald Glover in my opinion put together the most controversial and well put together work of art in a very long time and has grabbed people’s attention to some of the topics America wants to shy away from. 


Thursday, May 10, 2018

Trump's Economy

Trump’s Economy
William Seif

Governments hold vital assets needed to sustain any healthy economy. There isn’t any successful countries without laws, and regulations that support a “free market”-meaning prices are decided by suppliers. However, these aren’t truly “free” but somewhere in the middle because without government interference monopoly’s and other negative influences on the economic infrastructure. That’s why it’s important to keep up with politics because representative can propose bills that can benefit the economy. Recently, Trump has established a new tax plan which will affect the economy in that it’ll send it in a expansionary motion.

   This graph depicts the effect of Trump’s plan made on the economy. Programs like Obama-Care has also bid cut, and demolished which adds more to the federal budget. These economic decisions are beneficial because they’ll lead to interest rates lowering. This aids with small business, and the working class by making it easier to take out loans. The actions of Trump’s party boosted his support but these were reversed by bad press about recent scandals. Also, decisions made with foreign relations have increase the tension in middle east causing friction that’ll result in conflict. These can lead to economic downfall into a trough in where consumers have less money, and employers are forced to cut people leading to increase in unemployment. Lastly, Trump Tax plan is good for the economy while his other decisions aren’t as good.

The Harmful Effects of Yang's Universal Basic Income

The Harmful Effects of Yang’s Universal Basic Income
Matt Wildman

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.

Do Professional Sports really affect the economy?

Do professional sports really affect the United States economy?

May 2018 by Alex Clementi, Pewaukee High school Junior

What would result if professional sports and the sport industry discontinued all leagues and competition? How would the economy be impacted if this world of competition was destroyed?

Despite popular belief, the sports industry a major contributor to the United States economy and contributes to the employment rate immensely.  “The sports industry as a whole brings roughly $14.3 billion in earnings a year”(Burrow). The counted $14.3 billon does not even include the  indirect economic gain caused by various sporting events for example, Super Bowl Sunday which is the second largest food sale day in the country, right behind Thanksgiving. “The industry also contributes 456,000 jobs with an average salary of $39,000 per job”(Burrow). With these towering numbers of sales throughout each sports season, a loss of professional sports would send the United States into an economic hole. The thousands of jobs created due to these large sports events such as, security, food vendors and event planners. Not only are thousands of jobs created through professional sports, but millions of tourist dollars are brought in every year to cities around the United States. For example, “In 2010, the New York City Marathon boosted the city’s economy to the tune of $340 million.

Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported that the Chicago Cubs generate $600 million annually for the state of Illinois”(Depta).  Without these professional sports  and live events the United States economy would be set to decline and thousands of people would be out of their jobs. Local businesses would also lose money because with these large events fans are bound to buy souvenirs and products from these local companies. Overall, professional sports are way more than an overpaid athlete throwing a ball, it is an economic powerhouse that the United States continues to benefit from again and again. 


Works Cited
Burrow, Gwen. “Not Just a Game: The Impact of Sports on U.S. Economy.” Emsi, 9 June 2017, www.economicmodeling.com/2013/07/09/not-just-a-game-the-impact-of-sports-on-u-s-economy/.
Depta, Laura. “12 Ways Sports Make a Positive Impact.” Bleacher Report, Bleacher Report, 12 Apr. 2017, bleacherreport.com/articles/2347988-12-ways-sports-make-a-positiveimpact#slide0.

Thursday, May 3, 2018

Shortage of Nurses

Shortage of Nurses
Abby Fox

Whenever you go to the hospital, you taken care of by the nurses long before you meet with the doctor. They give you shots at your doctors office, they check up on you and make sure you are okay, and many argue that they are the backbone of the healthcare system. During the past few years, the healthcare system has been in crisis mode trying to fill the open slots in their offices and hospitals; and with the high job growth projection it should be easy to fill the slots.

The cause for such a shortage is because the age of the nurses. Many are apart of the baby boom generation and they are now starting to retire. The reason that this is such an issue is because they are retiring in the masses and there aren’t enough applicants and graduates to fill the spots; yet colleges are still turning away perfectly good applicants who are more than qualified. Since there are so many professionals retiring all around the same time, that is why it is such a job crisis. According to CNN Money, there are about 3 million nurses around the country and by 2022, there needs to be 1 million more. Colleges cannot have all of hopefuls applying to nursing school because there aren’t enough teachers to teach them.

The supply and demand for nurses is so great due to the rise of the population and the job growth rate of 40% in the coming years. The reason so many people gravitate towards nursing is because of the scheduling and they get to help people. In the graph, it shows the supply and demand curve for nursing. It explains that by 2020, there will be a shortage of over 800,000 RN’s across the country. This along with NP’s and other specialty nurses, the growth rate will continue and the demand will try to be met.

All in all, there are more nurse openings then there are nurses which can cause issues down the line when it comes to employment rates and job openings. Luckily, there are more and more colleges that are opening nursing schools and giving more opportunities for the roles to be filled in the hospitals and the offices. 


Works Cited
America, In. “Amid US Nursing Shortage, Colleges Reject Thousands of Applicants.” CNNMoney, Cable News Network, money.cnn.com/2018/04/30/news/economy/nursing-school-rejections/index.html.
“Nursing Shortage Will Continue to Pinch Hospital Margins.” Modern Healthcare, www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20180307/NEWS/180309921.

The Avengers: Infinity War’s Effect on Marvel’s Success

The Avengers: Infinity War’s Effect on Marvel’s Success
Lauren Wroblewski

Recently, Avengers: Infinity War has been spreading through theaters across the world. Fans have been waiting years for this movie to arrive and finally, the time has come. It was known that the theaters would be filled on opening night, and its budget recieved $106 million Friday, April 27. As people continue to visit the theaters to see the Avengers in action, Marvel’s budget continues to increase. As Marvel continues to grow, the demand for merchandise will increase and supply will decrease. Due to their high grossing films, merchandise has been a huge hit in every store. Children want toys of their favorite hero and fans would want apparel and collectibles. As the popularity of Infinity War increases, products will keep up their prices until it dies down, which causes elasticity. The Law of Demand states that consumers will buy more of a good when its price is lower and less when the price is higher, so when the popularity of the movie decreases in time, prices will decrease and consumers will buy more of that product. This will still benefit Marvel greatly since their franchise is so large and they’re still releasing movies.

Photo: https://wall.alphacoders.com/big.php?i=857340

Marvel started off in financial ruin, and as stated by Mark Savage, “The comic book market crashed in 1993, thanks to a glut of underwhelming titles, and a crisis of confidence amongst collectors. Sales dropped by 70 per cent and Marvel was left heavily in debt. Shares that had been worth $35.75 in 1993 dropped to $2.38 in just three years” (Savage). This caused cyclical unemployment due to the market crash and since sales dropped, supply dropped. The demand for comic books wasn’t as popular, so there wasn’t much income coming in to the Marvel industry. After a while of fighting through the financial ruin, Marvel required the funding they needed to start their franchise with a character that wasn’t licensed anywhere else -- Iron Man. Iron Man was their first movie as an independent company, and it was a huge hit. This started their rise for success as they continued to create more and more movies. Each movie built up on their company, which helped create the funding they needed to continue creating fantastic movies. They were able to use the technology they wanted and needed to gradually build up to Avengers: Infinity War.

Photo (make bigger in blogger): http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-32379661

As fans continue to support Marvel’s upcoming movies, the company’s income will keep increasing for more years to come. Since Deadpool 2 is soon to release in three weeks, the company is doing great on their continuation of the franchise. Their budget has been a huge help in creating popular, successful movies and it has created more jobs in the long run. This helps decrease the unemployment rates by creating opening positions for each film for actors, cameramen, makeup crews, tech crews, and more. Avengers: Infinity War is so far, one of the biggest Marvel hits yet due to the movie’s crossovers, but we will hope to see more from the Avengers.


Video:
http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/5777230368001/?#sp=show-clips

Works Cited
“‘Avengers: Infinity War’ Already Breaking Records.” Fox Business, Fox Business, 27 Apr. 2018, video.foxbusiness.com/v/5777230368001/#sp=show-clips.
“Avengers: Infinity War 5k Retina Ultra HD Wallpaper and Background Image | 8400x4299 | ID:857340.” Wallpaper Abyss, wall.alphacoders.com/big.php?i=857340.
Mendelson, Scott. “Box Office: 'Avengers: Infinity War' Superhero Fatigues To Record $106M Friday.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 28 Apr. 2018, www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2018/04/28/box-office-avengers-infinity-war-superhero-fatigues-to-record-106m-friday/#20d626e0774c.
Nyren, Erin. “Box Office: 'Avengers: Infinity War' Sails to $240 Million-Plus Opening Weekend.” Variety, 28 Apr. 2018, variety.com/2018/film/box-office/avengers-infinity-war-box-office-opening-weekend-1202791140/.
Savage, Mark. “Marvel Avenged: From Financial Ruin to the Biggest Film Franchise in History.” BBC News, BBC, 23 Apr. 2015, www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-32379661.
Tartaglione, Nancy. “'Avengers: Infinity War's $630M Global Bow Sets All-Time Record – International Box Office.” Deadline, 29 Apr. 2018, deadline.com/2018/04/avengers-infinity-war-worldwide-opening-record-all-time-international-box-office-1202378926/.

Universal Studios

Universal Studios
Lisa Rittmeyer

When is comes to winter or the summer, many people go on vacation. One place that many people enjoy traveling to is Universal Studios. Universal Studios is a huge theme park owned by Comcast Corporation. It is the second largest company in the United States with an annual revenue of 3.3 billion US dollars.



In the first quarter of 2018, Universal Studios’ earnings increased about 25%, to 495 million US dollars. Because of the new attractions being continuously implemented, the company has higher per capita spending. Since the economy is improving, consumers can spend their income on elastic goods or services, like Universal Studios.

By adding more attractions, Universal Studios receives more revenue because they meet the consumers’ tastes in demand and the supply in demand. By meeting the consumers’ tastes in demand, the company sometimes replaces an attraction to extend an attraction that is more popular throughout the country. One example of attractions being replaced with others was the extension of the Harry Potter section in Orlando, Florida. In July of 2014, Universal replaced the Jaws section with Diagon Alley. 
Universal makes most of their revenue from their Harry Potter attraction. They continuously upgrade and update this section of the park because they want to implement more rides, merchandise stores, and restaurants to appeal a vast majority of their consumers. An example of how their Harry Potter attraction increases the revenue was in the second quarter in 2017, in Hollywood, California, there was a 60% increase in attendance of this attraction.

Depending on how popular the attractions are in each year, determines the price of the tickets. When more consumers attend, the price of the tickets increases and the amount of tickets increase, while when less consumers attend, the price of the tickets decreases. To keep up with the supply in demand, Universal continues to implement new rides and attractions to make consumers more willing to pay high prices for tickets. One attraction that will gain more profit is the new Fast and Furious: Supercharged; which will be implemented sometime this year in Orlando, Florida. Because the Fast and Furious is such a popular franchise, more customers will want to visit the Fast and Furious section.



There are many hotels and restaurants nearby the theme parks, which improves the economy. In Hollywood, California, these nearby businesses have provided around 2,600 jobs in 2016. Due to all of the job creations, people who are currently experiencing frictional, structural, and seasonal unemployment can be hired to continue to produce income. As time goes on, more hotels and restaurants are being constructed because Universal continues to become more and more popular each year. Between the rides, merchandise, and the food; inflation increases because tourists continue to spend lots of money while at Universal. By continuously meeting their consumer expectations, Universal continues to remain as one of the best theme parks known in the United States. Universal Studios is a rare, expensive, treat that most middle-class citizens usually experience at least once in a lifetime.

Works Cited:
Brigate, Ricky. “From Jaws to Diagon Alley – Tributes to the classic Universal Orlando ride hide in new Harry Potter land”. Inside the Magic, 23 Jun. 2014, https://insidethemagic.net/2014/06/from-jaws-to-diagon-alley-tributes-to-the-classic-universal-orlando-ride-hide-in-new-harry-potter-land/.
Holmes, Jamie. “Universal Studios Adding Major new Attractions to its Orlando Theme Park”. WFTV9: ABC, 11 Apr. 2018, https://www.wftv.com/news/local/universal-studios-adding-major-new-attractions-to-its-orlando-theme-park/730208844.
Kondolojy, Amanda. “The 6 New Attractions Coming Soon to Universal Orlando Resort
”. Theme Park Tourist, 28 Sep, 2017, https://www.themeparktourist.com/news/20170928/33242/7-new-rides-coming-universal-orlando-resort-5-years.
Martin, Hugo. “Big investments in Potter world and other attractions will pay off for the Southland economy”. Los Angeles Times, 10 Apr. 2016, http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-theme-park-economy-20160410-story.html.
“North American Box Office Revenue of Universal from 2000 to 2017 (in million U.S. dollars)”. The Statistics Portal, 2017, https://www.statista.com/statistics/187335/box-office-revenue-of-universal-in-north-america-since-2000/.
“Parks - Statistics & Facts: Amusement & Theme Parks”. The Statistics Portal, 2017, https://www.statista.com/topics/1525/parks/.
Pedicini, Sandra. “Universal Parks and Resorts' Theme-park Revenue Increases”. Orlando Sentinel, 27 Apr. 2017, http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-comcast-earnings-20170426-story.html.
Russon, Gabrielle. “Universal: Theme Park Revenue Grows 15 percent”. Orlando Sentinel, 25 Apr, 2018, http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/tourism/os-comcast-universal-earnings-2018-story.html.

The Economics of Fortnite

The Economics of Fortnite
Damon Bates

Almost everyone has played and or has heard of the FTP(Free To Play) powerhouse, Fortnite. It's a game that has taken over the gaming world by storm and has no plans of stopping. The thing that makes Fortnite special over other games is not its premise but how in a culture dominated by $60 games Fortnite is completely free and is on almost every mainstream console to date. Well how does Fortnite makes its money and how much are they making?

The success Fortnite is seeing is quite comparable to the success of free games like Candy Crush and Pokemon, who make their money from ads and in-game transactions rather than a upfront base cost. This opens up a much larger for revenue for companies and Fortnite knows exactly how to play this system. They use a chip system similar to casinos where instead of using money your using chips which is really money but you are less cautious with your “chips” then you are with your physical money. V-Bucks or their system of chips can be bought at prices from $10.00, $24.99, $59.99 or $99.99. Each amount gets you a certain amount of chips you can use to buy cosmetics and emotes and cool stuff to show off in game

Skins which are most popular among players cost between $10-$20 in real money. All of this is optional but they purposely make basic skins and emotes bland and not flashy or eye-catching so that people will buy these skins or emotes to spice up their game or show off. If they have each player just buy 3 skins they can make the same as selling a game at full price and people don't realize this because they are spending V-Bucks instead of real money.

You can see this apparently become true when you see Fortnite in February grossed $126 million and surpassed their competition PUBG who made $110 million selling their game for $35. Aswell Fortnite’s system is outperforming mobile super powers like Candy Crush and Clash of Clans.


With the success of Fortnite microtransactions you can bet too see games to start following in their footsteps. I mean who wouldn’t because if it is done right then games have chances of making millions more and making fans even happier.


Wednesday, May 2, 2018

FED’s Monetary Policy Meeting

Michael Miosi
AP Econ Blog
Mrs. Straub
5/1/2018

FED’s Monetary Policy Meeting
On 5/2/2018 the FED will be holding one of its 8 yearly meetings to discuss how to move forward with the economy in terms of monetary policy and what they should change before the next meeting which occurs in June. Your average American would say the small changes they may make are irrelevant and in turn just ignore the fact that it occurs, however, as you will learn by reading there really is a lot to it. In this meeting, the FED can lower, raise or maintain the federal funds rate based on how they see fit.The FED prefers keeping the Federal Funds Rate at between 2 and 5 percent as this indicates a healthy economy. In this range, the GDP grows while also keeping unemployment where it should be naturally, at around 5% as well as keeping inflation rates at or below the target of 2%.So as you can tell, they historically play changes pretty close to the chest, however, there have been times in the past that they have decided the necessary move is a drastic change. For example, in 1979, to combat double-digit inflation rates the federal funds rate was raised 20% leaving it at an all-time high. On the other end of the spectrum, the lowest mark ever was in 2008 to combat recession as the federal funds rate dropped all the way down to 0.25%. While of course since America is currently neither in a recession or experiencing extreme inflation, we can expect much smaller changes than that in this months meeting.

The impact of this meeting reaches wide as it hasn’t even happened yet and we have already seen change stem from it. Because economists believe the FED is going to be raising interest rates, investors have all been recently on a scramble to invest in the U.S. dollar as to benefit from this increase. Do to this the U.S. dollar has surged up in worth, gaining half a percent on the rate between it and the euro as well as reaching key levels on the Australian dollar, Swedish crown, Swiss franc, British pound and other emerging currencies. Now, I’m not an economist, but the topics regarding this meeting that I have discussed as well as the many others I’m sure someone more qualified could tell you, I believe it is pretty clear these meetings are important and carry a lot of weight.




Works Cited
Amadeo, Kimberly. “Highest and Lowest Interest Rates and Why They Changed.” The Balance, www.thebalance.com/fed-funds-rate-history-highs-lows-3306135.

CNBC. “FOREX-Dollar Roars into Positive Territory for 2018 before Fed Meeting.” CNBC, CNBC, 1 May 2018, www.cnbc.com/2018/05/01/reuters-america-forex-dollar-roars-into-positive-territory-for-2018-before-fed-meeting.html.

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