http://blog.castsoftware.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/honda-software-failure.jpg

A political issue can highly affect the demand of certain products. Rupinder Ahluwalia’s blogpost, Honda Forecasts a drop in yearly net Profit, summarized the political problem between China and Japan currently has that greatly reduced the demand of Japanese products. The dispute over islands in the East China Sea has aroused some protests in Japan. Many businesses were forced to shut-down for a period of time, causing a declining demand in goods from Japan. Many of the car companies’ sales dropped, and Honda’s drop in sales was considered the largest – 40.5% drop. Shares of Honda also dropped greatly to a 9-months low – “dropped nearly 6 percent on Monday, and last traded down 4.3 percent at 2,408 yen.” (cit: yahoo).

The support of the citizen in China can be greatly seen by their huge decline in buying Japanese products. As we can see, forecasting is very difficult. Political events, as such, can also greatly intervene the operation and sales of businesses. From this, I agree to Rupinder that many external factors and unexpected factors, such as natural disasters, are what make forecasting hard.

Information From: https://blogs.ubc.ca/rup02/2012/10/29/honda-forecasts-drop-in-yearly-net-profits/ (Rupinder Ahluwalia’s blog)

http://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/honda-slashes-net-profit-forecast-031712823.html (Yahoo)

http://www.pstinbc.ca/media/PST_Transition_Timeline_OCT.jpg

Few years back, I remembered the times when I was able to buy clothes with only one tax, the GST. The change in tax to HST from PST and GST caused a huge debate within the citizens in British Columbia. Sales without exemptions were decreased due to the additional taxing percentages. After all these two years of getting used to HST, the government had decided to change back the taxing system to an “improved” PST system on April 1st, 2013.

The “improved” PST system includes the following: “consumers will only pay PST on those goods and services that were subject to PST before the implementation of the HST. All permanent PST exemptions will be re-implemented” says Falcon, the Finance Minister.

What are the differences noticed in the “improved” PST from the PST system that we had three to four years back? Honestly, to me, I see no difference. All the exemptions will be back to how it was like before HST came to place.

From many of the households’ perspectives, they were all shocked when they heard about the news. Asking my neighbours how they felt about the coming PST system, they replied, “Government is really just a waste of time. Why did they bother changing the tax system from PST to HST and then from HST to PST again?” I really can not understand why they would do that aside from wanting more tax from taxpayers with the use of HST.

Information from: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/05/14/bc-hst-legislation.html

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One cent alongside five, ten, and twenty cents are the first series of coins produced by the province of Canada. The cost of minting a penny has been rising and the cost has always been an issue since the year it was first produced.

“Canadians became reluctant to carry pennies, hoarding them in jars and leaving them in convenience store take-a-penny trays.” (cit: canadian business) Since many of the pennies are withheld in Canadian’s hands, Royal Canadian Mint was forced to produce more pennies every year – around averagely 25 pennies per canadian. The cost for new production was too high and on March 29th Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced that the end of penny production will end in the month of March.

Problems of businesses, due to stopping penny circulation, are described from the external blogpost – As the penny drop: what it means for your business. I agree with the blogger. He/she mentioned that although the pennies in the market now can be used indefinite, they will be removed from the circulation really soon. This causes the businesses to round up/down their prices. Rounding up and rounding down the prices will cause the companies to gain and lose a bit of profit respectively. Same goes to the customers. If the business rounds up prices, then customers will eventually need to pay more. The change of slowly withdrawing pennies will cause a hectic for the businesses in the markets – changing the prices or decide to round up/down.

Information From: http://canadabusiness.ca/eng/blog/entry/3943

http://www.canadianbusiness.com/article/79184–canadian-penny-proves-too-costly

http://va3qv.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/gmc_canada_post_truck.jpg

If I were to be the Chief Executive Officer or the boss of a company, would I have given out bonuses to around 10% of the employees during the company’s recession period? My answer would be no. However, the case with the Canada Post is different. Many of us would have never expected such a company that was on a $327-million deficit in 2011 to be giving out bonuses to over seven thousand employees. Many questions have been raised.

Why is it that they are still giving out bonuses to employees during recession year? “Bonuses apparently aren’t unusual when companies perform poorly,” says Richard Powers, director of governance programs at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. (cit: yahoo news) Why isn’t it unusual? Does the bonuses apply to those who move the packages and deliver them or those who just sit around the offices?

A while back, Canada government had to legislate the Canada Post employees to stop their strike action to continue work and offer them less money. Then now, Canada Post is giving out bonuses to thousands of their employee during their down year. Is it me or does this just sound contradicting to everyone of you?

Why did Canada Post give out bonuses is my question.

Information from <http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/dailybrew/canada-post-workers-receive-bonuses-money-losing-201034485.html;_ylt=Av1k9uETZ9lK1vOmqS4zRiKTssB_;_ylu=X3oDMTRiMms5a3BtBG1pdANGZWF0dXJlZCBCcmV3IEJsb2dzBHBrZwM3ZDlmOTU2NS01MjA2LTM5MzEtYjhjZC04MjU3OGNlN2NlNzIEcG9zAzIEc2VjA01lZGlhQkxpc3RNaXhlZExQQ0FUZW1wBHZlcgM0YWJmNzRjZC0xMTg1LTExZTItYmVkNS1iYzk5Yzk0OTM3OTE-;_ylg=X3oDMTMyYnRxZW5kBGludGwDY2EEbGFuZwNlbi1jYQRwc3RhaWQDMzhkMmMxMmEtYzFlNS0zNDU3LWFhY2EtNTMzMWFhZTA1ZGNiBHBzdGNhdANibG9nc3xkYWlseWJyZXcEcHQDc3RvcnlwYWdl;_ylv=3>

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How will the market be like without any competitions at all? Or should i say, how will the market be like if legal actions are taken to eliminate a strong competitor? This is a question that we should ask ourself about the legal actions between Apple and Samsung.

To be honest, legal actions are not too necessary. It is because ideas might have had stroked both companies at the same time; however the ideas were registered/used at different times. Does this mean that the company that uses it first had gotten the idea before the other? Does this mean that Samsung copied Apple? Honestly, I really don’t think making this on court is an advantage for both companies.

There are other companies that copied ideas from Apple and Samsung, why is it that they didn’t take legal actions against those other companies but to the one that is considered as “strong” competitor? Is it because it is needed to eliminate their “strong” competition? Or is it because of the large amount of money that they, Apple or Samsung, will be compensated by the losing side of the court action?

Information from: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/samsung/9580996/Samsung-sues-Apple-over-iPhone-5.html>