China has been known as the “world factory” for too long for anyone to expect trade deficit. Its trade numbers was surprising as it registered a $7.3 billion trade deficit, its first since last March. The growth rate for import beats that of export. As mentioned in the article, this is likely due to the Chinese New Year as factories had longer than expected holidays. The holiday tends to last a few weeks rather than the few days set as public holiday. This has left the factory empty and lead to decrease in exports produced. I agree with the author but the increase in import is also an important factor contributing to the trade deficit. With China’s booming economy, the Chinese consumers are getting richer and their spending power increases. They are more willing and able to afford more expensive imported products that are deemed to have better quality than local produce. This may lead us thinking this may occur regularly and China will no longer be the country of exports, but not so fast. The impact of Chinese New Year on export is bigger than that of import. The privileged rich ones are still limited and the vast majority would still be unable to afford imports.

I refer to Sarah Zhou’s blog post “Farewell HMV“, dated November 17^th,  2011. I agree with her to a large extent. HWV is closing its store in Downtown Vancouver. Just like Blockbuster went bankrupt and Netflix took over it, online resources, both legal and illegal, are driving HMV out of business. People
nowadays have changed their taste and preference of consuming music and movie
products, few of them would want to go to a store to get them on disc. People will most likely use their computers to play and copy them into the computers and buying online seems a better and cheaper option. For a store mainly selling music and movies on disc, it is hard to survive as there are various alternatives where you can get the virtually the same thing for a much lower cost if at all. The pirated versions on Internet are of high quality nowadays and cost nothing. Even though HMV tried to move it sales to online downloading, it is not working as almost 90% of the legal downloads are done through iTunes. HMV loses out in terms of innovation and this has led to its downfall.

I refer to Rikh’s blog post “Hermès sells saris in India“, dated October 7th, 2011. I agree with him to a certain extent.  With growing wealth in India, Indian consumers’ spending power is growing at a rapid rate. In midst of the economic downtown, every company is trying its best to increase profits to survive through. Opening up new market in India is one of the best ways to do it. There is a large market for luxury as the rich ones look beyond basic needs. Hermes’s decision to sell saris in India is a risky one. Though this may open up new markets to increase its revenue, it is a tough one. It is competing against the established local designers in the market. People may have already developed a brand loyalty to these brands and maybe unwilling to switch to other brands. Hermes needs a massive amount of marketing to break into the market.  Even if Hermes’ saris are good, it will be labeled as Westernized and Indians may have a feeling against it. Thus, they may choose local saris over Hermes’. Hermes still have a long way to go in this market.

With the new immigration law implemented, Alabama farm and fishery owners found themselves almost workerless. Most of their employees were illegal Hispanic immigrants and they went missing the day the law took effect.  The law was intended to free jobs from immigrants for Alabamians to survive the recession. However, Americans are not filling up the large number of job offerings despite the recession. Few would work for a dirty and tiring job for minimum wages and no benefits. Many deem these jobs as ‘immigrant jobs’ and feel they are too good for them. This leads to a shortage of labor when the immigrants were driven out by laws. What was intended as a beneficial law backfired and the industry faces big challenges ahead. The Governor, Bentley,  would have to be responsible for these if he wants to stay where he is. Unless  the industry makes some changes to the way it operates, it will not be able to  attract local workers and would be better-offed without the immigration law. However, this is unlikely to happen in the short term. Alabama industry owners would not have suffer such losses should Bentley heeds the advice of the Governor of the neighboring Georgia state.

Dell Inc. is founded by entrepreneur Michael Dell. He began PC’s unlimited
out of a storefront as a college freshmen and Dell computers were born from this in 1987. In 1996, Dell started selling computers over the Web, the same year his company launched its first servers. Dell Inc. soon reported about $1 million in sales per day from dell.com. The service is so convenient that you can request your made-to-order Dell computer within 36 hours by calling a toll free number. This convenience helped Dell to expand market share and become one of the biggest computer producer in the world. In the first quarter of 2001, Dell Inc. reached a world market share of 12.8 percent, passing Compaq to become the world’s largest PC maker. Dell has generated wealth at a rate much faster than if he were to work for any company. The speed and amount of wealth creation is unimaginable. With Dell’s innovation, the risk he took paid off tremendously, both in terms of wealth and fame.

With rapid economic growth over the year, China has been experiencing high inflation rates. The souring living costs have imposed huge pressure on people who saw food prices rose much faster than their paycheck. The Chinese government has tried many ways to contain inflation as souring prices may lead to civil unrest. The central bank has adjusted its interest rate 5 times a year and increase the requirement for the reserve ratio. This meant that the bank will hold more money and there will be less in the circulation. Inflation is resulted when the supply of money exceeds the demand, making money worth less. A decrease in the supply of money will lead to a credit squeeze. The main cause of China’s inflation is demand-pull as a result of economic growth where people become richer and have more money to spend. This causes the demand for goods and services to increase. A credit squeeze will decrease people’s ability to buy, decrease demand, thus curbing inflation. The measure has finally become effective as the inflation rate eased in August, after hitting a three-year high in July, according to the National Statistics Bureau.

Occupy Wall Street is an ongoing series of demonstrations in New York Citybased in Zuccotti Park. People from many cities gathered to protest against social and economic inequality, corporate greed, and the influence of corporate money and lobbyists on government, among others. To date, similar demonstrations had been held in over 70 cities.

The U.S. still have not recovered from the economic downturn and its unemployment rate is souring. The 99% of us, who are not part of the wealthiest 1% of America, suffer the most from the economic crisis. We have lost jobs, received pay cuts and owed education debt that we probably would not be able to pay off until our second child arrives with a spiraling education cost. We paid so much for education yet we could not find jobs when we get out of college.  This is a call from the people to reduce corporate influence on democracy, address a growing disparity in wealth, and the absence of legal repercussions behind the recent global economic crisis.  The greed of Wall Street is one of the main causes of the economic crisis and it has to pay for what it has done.

On Oct 5^th 2011, Apple Inc. released the press statement on the death of their former CEO, Steve Jobs. The news has been rocking the world with shocked Apple’s fans.  Apple’s symbol, the man who changed the way we use technology, passed away so suddenly. We grieve for the loss of such a talented person at such a young age.  He and his ideas have become an essential part of life for many. He created things that we wanted, even before we knew we wanted them and for most of us, we could not imagine living without them. Jobs may be mercurial, egoistic and eccentric, but none of us can deny the contribution he made to his industry. He reshaped the entire industry and brought PC closer to us than it could ever be. We would not have the convenience we now enjoy if not for him. We are thankful to God for giving us this man, for him making the world a better place. Mr. Jobs, rest in peace.

Apple has a significant market share in Asia. With its innovative products, it sets the trend for many. Other competitors do not stand much chance competing. Jobs is involved in the innovation and development of most of Apple’s products. Now that Apple has lost its creative force, this is an opportunity for them to take over some of Apple’s market share as consumers may have doubts about where Apple is going without its heart and soul. Consumer’s loyalty is not only towards Apple as a brand, but also for Steve Jobs as a person. People may question Apple’s ability to produce new and innovative products in the future and may turn to other alternatives. Other electronics producers such as Samsung and HTC may grab this opportunity to take market share away from Apple. When people are highly anticipated about the Iphone 5, Apple gives Iphone 4S instead. This lead to disappointment of many and if Apple do not act quickly to regain consumers’ confidence, it may lose out to others.

Foxconn’s ’13 Jump’ has aroused lots of speculation last year. Its poor working condtion has lead to the suicides of 13 young workers. Foxconn tried to reap the best of China’s cheap labour by giving a mere 900 yuan (CAD140) per month to its entry level workers. Most of these overworked and underpaid workers are young men from rural areas that need to support their family back home. With high inflation rate in China, one can barely survive with 900 yuan a month in a big city like Shenzhen, let alone sending money home.

Business should minimize cost to maximize profit, but Foxconn had overdone it. Its poor working condition pressurized its employees too much and it is without the consideration of their physical and mental health. Even though Apple’s Mr Jobs defended the factory’s condition that it has facilities ranging from restaurants, movie theatres to swimming pool, but few workers that work 12-hours-a-day and 6-days-a-week have any energy left to use these facilities. These facilities are merely for show and have not done any real benefits to the workers at the bottom of the hierarchy.  Should Foxconn takes into account of the welfare of workers more, none of these young lives would be lost.