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.