British’s Columbia’s lumber industry finally booms, this is due to the current uprise of U.S. housing demands. The article states that U.S. housing cost will raise from $835,000USto $950,000US, which is about a 13% increase in price, and that lumber will raise from $264US to $336US per 1000board feet. This is believed to help with both the current U.S. and Canadian economy, this mutual business creates job opportunities and allow government to set lower export taxes.

I believe that this is very beneficial to both countries, Canada will only grow stronger when U.S. does. House pricing increase will be difficult for the population especially with current economic hardships, but overall in the long run, it will financially strengthen the country as a whole. Rebounds in the lumber industry is important because the natural resource sector is a huge part of Canada’s exports, more than 80% of wood processed from New Brunswick is sent to the U.S. Overall this is a positive effect and will create more job opportunities therefore allowing the economy to naturally fix itself.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/new-us-housing-fires-up-bc-lumber-sector/article4578131/
http://www.google.ca/imgres?um=1&hl=en&client=firefox-a&sa=N&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&authuser=0&biw=948&bih=881&tbm=isch&tbnid=vY8588gzsmT_KM:&imgrefurl=http://pranatimberframes.wordpress.com/2012/02/04/community-shared-wood-british-columbia-cswbc/&docid=gM8BE1i4DjjWXM&imgurl=http://pranatimberframes.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/flooring-1.jpg&w=2272&h=1704&ei=pP9oUJjGGKa0igKSt4DIDw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=447&vpy=332&dur=205&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=113&ty=95&sig=107828908946653301253&page=1&tbnh=166&tbnw=219&start=0&ndsp=16&ved=1t:429,r:6,s:0,i:90

Apple’s expected sales of six to ten million of the IPhone 5 within the first week disappointed shareholders as share prices fell 1.3% during the day of Monday September 24. According to statistics, 5 million IPhone 5’s were sold during the first week, apparently this is considered a “disappointment” which in my perspective is mind-boggling because these statistics considering the industry is extremely high. Samsung compared to Apple has spent much more money in marketing, an example being the sponsor phone for the 2012 London Olympic Games, and which Samsung sold ten million S3’s in two months. The numbers within the two companies are incomparable.  People have acquired such high expectations for Apple that sales below estimated guesses are considered “disappointment”. Share prices may have declined due to an incident on Monday regarding a brawl in FoxConn’s factory, this may have caused people to expect some sort of unnecessary problems regarding manufacturing of Apple products, however; if I held Apple shares; it would be very unlikely that i would sell them in this situation.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/markets/market-blog/apple-disappointment-5-million-iphones-sold/article4563264/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/apple-supplier-foxconns-factory-halted-in-china-after-brawl-of-2000-workers/article4562969/

http://www.google.ca/imgres?hl=en&authuser=0&biw=948&bih=881&tbm=isch&tbnid=FZE9QbVxZF74_M:&imgrefurl=http://article.wn.com/view/2012/08/28/Google_Wants_To_Add_One_Of_Apples_Newest_iPhone_Features_To_/&docid=nLIg2XGy5K4odM&imgurl=http://i.ytimg.com/vi/auzICoixj_M/0.jpg&w=480&h=360&ei=7fRjUNrfNartiwLYkYHoDA&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=355&sig=107828908946653301253&page=4&tbnh=175&tbnw=233&start=56&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:15,s:56,i:328&tx=158&ty=85

Foxconn is a multinational electronics manufacturing company that originated in Taiwan. The company has large global contributions to their field of specialization, the world’s largest manufacturer of electronic components, creating components to major products such as iPad, iPhone, iPod, PlayStation 3,and Xbox 360. The company is infamous for the series of suicides due to poor working conditions, worker abuse, and seemingly everlasting hours while obtaining low wages. This is such a serious problem that they have internal suicide-preventing counseling.
I believe that this company not only creates moral ethical problems relating to business, it also violates human rights. This is a authentic example of “the poor remains poor, while the rich gets richer” This company have been under investigation but due to low working regulations and high unemployment rates in China, it is difficult to avoid selfish companies from abusing the labor market. I believe that this issue must be fixed by the government itself, external organizations that attempt to help will not alter the system because there are many unemployed people that are willing to replace workers.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/06/foxconn-factory-conditions_n_858619.html
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/02/ff_joelinchina/

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