Where is your bill?

Today, while going through the internet, I found this really cool site called Wheresgeorge. If you happen to carry out your daily transactions in dollars or just possess the 1 dollar bill, look up the serial number on the bill and enter it in the site. It would tell the places where the bill has been before coming in your hands. Now isn't that cool?

Countries' GDPs

One of the most important factors in determining the affluence in a country is undoubtedly its GDP. It is the measure of total output by a country and can be used to measure the income of a country. However, this figure alone is in itself pretty misleading as a country may have a GDP double than another country but this may be just because the latter's population is double. What is more important is the GDP per capita of countries. No example other than Falkland Island can illustrate the difference between the two terms. GDP wise, Falkland Island is at a position of 192 in the world but when it comes to GDP per capita, Falkland Island joins the elite (it is 23rd). Anyways, here I post the links to both pages of GDP and GDP per capitas of all countries.
GDPs
GDP per capita

Shaukat Tareen

It is good for us to know more about people who run the country in which we live. Shaukat Tareen, our finance minister, has quite some honors attached to his name to boast about. He has served as the country head of citibank in Thailand and has been twice elected the president of Karachi Stock Exchange. This sort of reminds me of Shamshad Akhtar and her extra-ordinary achievements apart from her being the only woman to rise to one of the most prestigious positions in the country. Anyway, if somebody wants to learn more about Mr. Shaukat Tareen, I have attached the Wikipedia link to his page.
Shaukat Tareen

Allocative efficiency means P=MC

One of the basic conditions of economic efficiency is allocative efficiency. The oft cited condition for this is P=MC. While it is hardly difficult to understand the condition behind productive efficiency (P= min. AC), it is a little more perplexing to think how allocative efficiency can be achieved at P=MC. Interestingly, my teacher actually told me to just learn the condition without going into a lot of details but what I could surmise with my limited knowledge was that since the price we attach with a good is a measure of value we put on a good, if a consumer does not want more of a certain good, it means he puts more value to the good. Thus, if P=MC, we are just paying the price we attach to the good and firms extra cost of producing that goods equals the valu consumers attach to it. Maybe anybody could elaborate on this topic?

Dartmouth's Financial Aid questions answered

Go to this site. It answers many questions regarding Financial Aid. I was sent this link a couple of weeks back but did not watch it until today. Even if you did not apply to Dartmouth as a financial aid recipient, it is a good way to know more about how financial aid works.
Financial Aid Questions Answered

Sony Ericsson loses another 167M euro

It seems that woes continue for the merger between Sony and Ericsson. Despite selling half a million handsets more than they did in the Q4 of last year they still registered a loss of 167 million euro. The company's tedious restructuring has continued and has consumed 150 million euros. This move is supposed to save about 800 million euros in the end as for now, is hurting the balance sheet.The full 2009 financial report of Sony Ericsson shows that the company managed to ship 57.1 million handsets (41 decrease compared to 2008) for an average price of 119 euro (2.5% increase). The net loss for the period totals 836 million euro. Since, the net cash position of the company stands at 620 million euro, the company can not afford to have another year like this one; so, lets hope that the company makes a miraculous comeback.

Game Theory

One of the most interesting topics in Economics has to be the Game Theory. It allows us to see how people's choices are dependent on choices other people make and how people can benefit from cheating in collusions . Today, a story I read in a children magazine as a seven-year-old boy, which incidentally showed people cheating in a collective order(?) suddenly came back to my mind. I would like to narrate it to you all. There was a Raja who was on a trip throughout his kingdom. Midway in the trip, he came across a village whose residents complained that the appointed tax collector was very cruel. The Raja was very wise; he replied that he will look into the matter but would first like the villagers to do a favor for him. He had always wanted to create a pond of milk. Since the village was known for healthy cattle, the Raja said that he wants everyone in the village to put one cup of milk in the dried pond of the village overnight, so that the next day, the dried pond be changed into a milk pond. The villagers went back into their home. Each villager independently hatched a plan that since every other villager is going to put in milk, he could put in a cup of water and nobody would know. So, each villager, thinking that he is cleverer than others and can get away with this cheating, pours a cup of water in the pond at night. The next day, the Raja summons everyone at the pond and the villagers are horror-struck to find a pool of water. The Raja remarks that since all of the villagers are such cheaters, it is only appropriate that the tax-collector is so harsh.
This story shows that it is important to thoroughly analyze the pay-offs of other people before making any decision and that the Game Theory does not account for such clever a people as the Raja.

Apple just continues to earn incredulously large profits

The boys at cupertino have reported a net revenue of 15.68 billion US dollars and a net quarterly profit of 3.38 billion US dollars, which compare really favorably to the numbers from the last three months of 2008 (11.88 billion and 2.26 billion respectively).
The Iphones' sales, almost double than that in the previous quarter, has been the main contributory factor behind the amazing financial report.
Here's the link to the full report if anybody wants to read.
Apple Q4 report

Nokia is back on the profit-making list after a long time

After a year of struggle with falling sales and scary losses, Nokia has just reported a profitable Q4 report. The new touchscreen phones which the company introduced some time back, seem to have been a hit big enough to give the company a net profit of 882 million Euros. The largest phone manufacturer in the world has managed to ship 126.9 million devices in Q4 2009, which is 12% better than Q4 of 2008 and 17% better than Q3 of 2009.Those have generated a revenue of nearly 12 billion euro (which is a 5.3% decrease Year-on-Year and 22.2% increase Quarter-on-Quarter).
Full Q4 Financial report of Nokia

Want To study Economics in Graduate School

People like me who are actually pretty sure that they want to pursue a degree in economics later in their life should be overjoyed to read these tips about applying to graduate school. Even though, this advice is not very significant for me because I am still in high school but it can still provide people like me a rough idea of what to do right while applying to the grad school for an econ degree.
This piece of advice comes straight from the Harvard department of economics.
Econ in Grad school

s-cool

S-cool is an excellent site for anyone who wants a quickie revise for their A level syllabus. Be sure to check this site out.
S-cool

$$$ for Financial Aid

The college admissions process is pretty hectic-this is a no brainer. But what most people fail to realise is that applying for financial aid is even more hectic. If one has submitted his or her application correctly on the dreaded 31st December deadline, they can, for the most part, be sure that they are through the hectic process but with financial aid, things are extremely tricky. Each institution has its own deadline and to add to the confusion, each institution has its own preferred forms and some even have their own online financial aid applications. But the irony is that to apply for financial aid, some of the forms cost money: not infinitely-impossible-to-pay money, but the sort of money which caused my parents a significant burden. While I do recognise that the testing service involved is more than justified to charge us the money (after all they do have to send it those applications to colleges) but still it seems pretty ironic to give money to get money

Indus day

Today was the day of River Indus, or Darayay Sindh. The home to one of the world's oldest civilization, River Indus plays a piotal role in the lives of people of Pakistan. It is the river which helps run the biggest canal system in the world and helps run the agrarian economy of Pakistan (which was the face saver for Pakistan in the previous financial year). It is a the backbone of the fairly important fishing industry of Pakistan. It gives food to the whole country and it is a symbol of Sindh. Therefore, it is impossible to ignore the importance of the river and the river does deserve its very own day.

Test tube baby

In my biology class some days back, we discussed the issues of having test tube babies. One of the issue which my teacher raised was the exorbitant cost of the procedure; a single IVF treatment easily costs upward of $5000, which is considered expensive even in developed countries such as the US, let alone countries like Pakistan. The argument that the procedure is expensive is pretty debatable. We have to consider the utility that consumers (i-e couples) get from the product. A childless couple wants nothing more than a baby in their house. Mostly, they are willing to pay their entire saving to hear the cries of their own baby. The psychological and physical torment of being childless is also considerable. Thus, for a couple that is so desperate to have a child, it is logical to say that the utility gained from such a procedure is practically infinite. Thus, even though a price tag of $5000 may be an effective deterrent for a good with much smaller marginal utility, but for a good that gives the couple its own child seems extremely inexpensive because of the marginal utility it gives. This argument highlights another aspect: the utility we gain from goods can sometimes be caused by the evolutionary roles nature has caused us to play in the world :)

Gas Loadshedding

To the lucky souls that are yet unaware of the monster known as load shedding, it is a beast which the gas management company has decided to unleash upon the Pakistanis every weekend. This monster cuts off all gas supplies in the gas stations!! With such draconian a regulation in place, almost all activity comes to a standstill in the weekends because the cars do not have fuel. I have (un)fortunately experienced first hand the consequences of the regulation and can tell you that they are not pretty. But I am not going to grumble about this because I have something else to talk about. The actual imposition of this regulation is not as strong as it might be expected. (Still, most of the gas stations adhere to the rules set) but occasionally, during the load shedding time, one of the gas stations ignores the rules and continues to operate even in the prohibited period. Today, as I watched my car slow down as it used up the last traces of the gas and frantically prayed to God that I find some gas station which has decided to evade the regulation (I didn't!), it occured to me that this situation is very similar to collusion. The various cartels that form between the firms in the industry also follow the basic assumption: the other firms would also act according to the cartel rules and not take unfair advantage by cheating. Similarly, in the Load shedding model :) , the stations agree to forgo their potential earnings because a) it is a law and b) they can console themselves that they are not the only ones suffering but just as in cartels, a firm might cheat and earn even more profits, a gas station might risk ignoring the ban and open up. It would not only attract infinitely many customers (which does happen) and can act as a monopoly and charge as much as it wants (and consumers pay the price it wants; gas has inelastic demand) . Although, this practice is extremely unethical but what can we do: in economics, everyone is a profit maximiser :)

China's 1,459-year-old Buddha gets $10.8M facelift

With surpluses running all time high (see my post a few days back), the chinese have started spending hefty amounts on the makeover of cultural landmarks. China's oldest Buddhist statue, which is on the brink of collapse, is about to get a $10.8 million facelift.
The 1459 years old Meng Mountain Buddha in northern Taiyuan citywill be restored and repaired after the closure of seven nearbycoal mines which inflicted environmental damage. The closure took place in 2007 for the protection of statue.

What will happen tomorrow?

Jang News, Pakistan's largest newspaper, has issued journal called "Kia Hoga 2010" (What will happen?). This journal, a first in Pakistan, is being published under the license of "The Economist" and will not only feature the enticing,"economicy" articles similar to those in The Economist but also articles on a diverse array of subjects including the ubiquitous actress Meera. The price of the journal is slightly on the costly side (The price is Rs. 150) but considering that it is a licensed journal of "The Economist", I am very willing to pay the price.
I have searched for the official site of the journal but I have failed to find it thus far. However, rest assured that I will post any updates about the journal as they come.

After surpassing US in automobile industry and beating Germany in 2007 to become the world's second largest economy, China has gone on to become the biggest exporter in the world, beating Germany by the boost in exports in December 2008. The exports jumped 17.7%, for the first time in 14 months, and continue to underline the power China is achieving in the world economy.
Even though, China taking over US as world's largest economy in immediate futureremains a media hype (the assumption being that it continues to grow at its present rate for the next 25 years, which is, frankly, a bit too early to tell), the growing influence China is achieving is establishing it as a power to be dealt with. American and other governments continue to stress that such surpluses come from the price competitiveness which is endowed to the Chinese exporters by the government subsidies and from the widespread dumping which the exporters carry out in western markets. To counter the threat, the western governments have passed legislations-US has passed specific specific anti-dumping laws while the EU has imposed curbs on Chinese shoes. What would be interesting to watch in the future will be whether, with these strict regulations, the chinese government would succeed in becoming the world's largest economy even in the distant future.

World stocks take a plunge as inverstors anticipate the US jobs data

World stocks have fallen as the US jobs data, due Friday, looms. The job data which are expected to shed some light o the state of recovery of the world's largest economy, can define the fate of markets for the next week or two.
In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 19.98 points, or 0.4 percent, at 5,510.06 while Germany's DAX fell 52.78 points, or 0.9 percent, to 5,981.55. The CAC-40 in France was 21.55 points, or 0.5 percent, lower at 3,996.12.
It seems investors look forward to such reports so that they can establish the way markets should go in the new year. The market participants predict that for the first time in last two years, the figures could show jobs rising. However, the market is convinced , especially after a weaker than expected private jobs report, that at least 10000 jobs were lost in December.

Yahoo and Microsoft ink web agreement

It is official. Yahoo! and Microsoft announced earlier that they have finalised the details of their planned internet search and advertising partnership. The companies hope to implement the deal this year with the approval of anti-trust regulators.
Although the software and web giants had planned to complete their agreement by October 27 but the talks had continued given what they called "complex nature of the transaction". The plan to ink a 10-year Web search and advertising pact was unveiled in July and promises to set the stagee for a Yahoo!Microsoft offensive against the growing power of Google, the king of lucrative search and advertising market.
Under the no cash deal, yahoo will use Microsoft's new bing engine on its site while Yahoo! will provide the exclusive global sales force for premium advertisers.