Blog Archives

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The Article “Property Puzzles” written in the economist, discusses various housing markets across the globe and how they compare in value. Of the 26 housing markets tracked by the Economist, most are seen to have an increase in market. However countries who see trends in slowing construction, provide fairly low incomes or are unpopular for immigration, are seeing a significant decline in the price for properties.

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Based on the graph above, provided by the article in the economist, a majority of countries have seen an increase in price since 2008. Yet, other countries, like China and Spain, are seen to have a substantial decline in housing prices through recent years. This is likely to due to a “decade long construction boom” coming to an end in China and the population decline in Spain. With regards to the various other countries seeing lower values in market price, it is likely that there is particular predicaments within these areas which are reflected upon there most recent real estate trends.

As stated by the article, the primary cause of fluctuations in housing markets is due to changes in income. As incomes grow or remain stable at a fairly high rate within nations, more residents will look to participate in the real estate market. This leads to a greater demand in the housing market and eventually results in a rise in price.

For example, Karma Gonjo’s article, “Influences of Political Policies in the Economy of India”, discusses various political issues within India but portrays how their struggling economy and average incomes are continuously improving each year. With regards to the article in the economist, this is reflected through their growing housing market.

It is difficult to consistently predict what will occur to the housing markets for each country. Yet, being that each individual situation is unique, it is safe to determine that countries with the highest incomes will have the highest increase in real estate prices in the long run.

An example of this is when the author describes Britains “national obsession” with property, and how individuals will go through great lengths to obtain particular housing areas. Being that Britain has a fairly stable economy, as obsession increases demand will increase as well. Due to this, rural and more populous areas in London have seen a 40% increase in housing prices over the past four years.

Although various countries will incur fluctuations within their market due to unpredictable events, their change in housing prices in the long run, will be based on income.

If a country possesses a population with stable and content incomes, it is likely that their housing markets will continuously grow, which reflects that markets successful and stabilized economy.

Word Count: 447

Sources:

http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21648624-housing-markets-across-globe-both-underperform-and-overwhelm-property-puzzles

https://blogs.ubc.ca/karmag/

*=http://blogs.wsj.com/hong-kong/category/real-estate/

**= http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21648624-housing-markets-across-globe-both-underperform-and-overwhelm-property-puzzles

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The article “The Piggly Wiggly Way” regards the prevalence of “self-serving” checkout systems across a widespread of companies throughout the globe. Modern Self Serving checkout allows customers to scan the products they wish to purchase, without the aid of a cashier or employee. Various factors make this financially beneficial for companies, however this revolution can have a negative affect on a employees and the consumer.

The article depicts that with Self-Service, consumers may encounter shorter lines, yet confusion and frustration may be prevalent due to the fact that they are purchasing from an unreliable machine rather than an employee. In support of this, a survey depicted on daily.co.uk.com depicted how 60 percent of consumers prefer to visit a real life cashier(***).  Another setback of Self Service checkout regarding the customers point of view is that they would limit customer loyalty. Being that these machines are emotionless, there would be no relationships formed throughout the experience of purchasing an item and, although this may seem insignificant, it is essential towards how retailers build their reputations. 

The article also describes how employees would evidently not view Self service checkout as beneficial, due to the large sum of jobs they are likely to decrease. Many workers would likely be forced to vacate their jobs because of this much cheaper and arguably more efficient form of competition that takes a fraction of the real estate required for a cashier area. However, due to this reduction in labor costs, this would severely benefit the companies financially. An investment towards these machines, within companies, would potentially raise their profits significantly due to the few employees they would require but evidently would limit jobs.

Personally, I believe Self-service checkout systems should be limited in supermarkets and various other companies. Although they increase profit and are financially beneficial for companies, these machines cause a decrease in jobs and, although they decrease the companies expenses, they can potentially limit customer loyalty.

The fact that Self service checkout systems have already eliminated and abundance of potential jobs causes a significant negative impact on society and the economy. Due to this, consumers may potentially have a preference to support various supermarkets and other companies who hire genuine people as their employees, rather this alternative. Overall, Self-service checkout systems can be financially beneficial for businesses and companies that possess them, but are typically viewed in a negative manner by employees and consumers.

Work count: 407

Sources:

http://www.economist.com/news/business/21650554-businesses-should-think-carefully-about-continuing-heap-work-their-customers-piggly

*= http://www.economist.com/news/business/21650554-businesses-should-think-carefully-about-continuing-heap-work-their-customers-piggly

**=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3061155/Morrisons-scrap-self-service-tills-bring-staff-1-000-express-checkouts-instead-shoppers-scary.html

***=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3061155/Morrisons-scrap-self-service-tills-bring-staff-1-000-express-checkouts-instead-shoppers-scary.html

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The article “Invisible ads, phantom readers” discusses online advertisements and their strategies used to target consumers across the Internet. Companies are now spending more money than ever in order to parade their target consumer with advertisements relative to them. Online ads look to be continuously increasing within the Internet market, and it is now a key factor for distribution of various products and services.

Although this article shows little insight towards a point of view, one argument in particular is portrayed when the author claims “TubeMogul, a provider of ad-buying software, has a new advertising campaign claiming that Google has excessive power.” This argument portrays how Google is basically the king of this online marketing industry, and it is difficult for other Internet based companies to compete at this rate.

Evidently theses advertisements are not enjoyable for the average internet user, being that they cost time and interfere with their use of particular websites. An example of this would be the time wasted when https://www.youtube.com/ requires internet consumers to watch up to a 30 second ad for videos as short as two minutes. Yet these ads are necessary in order to create a consistent stream of revenue for countless free sites online.

The primary factor as to why Internet ads are continuously growing in popularity is simply due to the globalization of the Internet. As the popularity of the Internet expands, so does everything involved with it, especially online companies. So, in order to popularize their companies, websites are willing to bid on the privacy and search results of nearly all Internet users. This essentially allows them to specialize their ads for each specific user in order to attract the users interest to their website.

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Internet databases should not have the right to sell information to various advertising companies. While this occurs, it is an invasion of the users privacy being that they have access to everything individuals research on the Internet, which should be illegal.

Although it is beneficial for targeting consumers best suited for their market, the steps Internet databases must encounter, in order for the advertisements to occur, are a violation of the users privacy. Although it is difficult to determine a solution that allows all around contentment, perhaps the government could invoke laws or even taxes on privacy that limit these databases access to this mass amount of information.

Taxes would likely reduce the amount of advertisements Internet databases are permitted to parade the consumer with. Eventually, as there would be fewer advertisements, websites would only portray ads that would be in the users best interests and the user would likely devote much more attention to these less frequent ads.

Word count: 444

Source:

http://www.economist.com/news/business/21695388-worries-about-fraud-and-fragmentation-may-prompt-shake-out-crowded-online-ad

Image 1(*):

Dave Simonds. Ad Block. N.d. The Economist. Web. 2 Oct. 2016.      <http://www.economist.com/news/business/21695388-worries-about-fraud-    and-fragmentation-may-prompt-shake-out-crowded-online-ad>.

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Digital Dominance. N.d. The Economist. Web. 2 Oct. 2016. <http://www.economist.com/news/business/21695388-worries-about-fraud-and-fragmentation-may-prompt-shake-out-crowded-online-ad>.