Yizhuang Guo's Blog

Speaking at IMF (International Monetary Fund), US secretary Timothy Geithner said “Nations relying too much on exports must change their policies, or global economic growth would slow”. He said “nations” but everybody knows what he meant was China. On the other hand, China blamed “rich nations for problems in the currency markets that have hit many developing countries. If China soon allows their Yuan to rise, it would probably help other developing countries that are currently competing with China, as well as the US, which have been complaining for a long time – and of course, China would probably not raise Yuan.

Here it comes again, the conflict on currency. China probably considered themselves too much: for they never really want to stop raising their currency much by buying foreign currency. China right now has what seems like a “monopoly” in the exporting market. Their low prices on goods that are going to other countries have been benefiting the nation over the past few decades. Other countries barely got a chance to participate in the exporting market – most of the time they are buyers. I hope China can raise their currency, because recovery needs every nation to take actions.

news source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11508918

According to the US Labor Department figures, there were about 54000 jobs lost in August; there it goes, the amount of jobs lost almost doubled in September, which the number is about 95000. The jobs news sent stocks slightly higher after raising expectations the US Federal Reserve will take further action to pump money into the economy. However, the high unemployment is still undermining the US recovery.

Why are people all losing jobs? It is because companies can’t afford to keep all of them and pay them a satisfactory amount of salary. Not only the US, in Canada too, people are losing their jobs. We have seen a lot of people are unable to afford their homes, cars, etc, and a lot of companies are bankrupting, and stores are shutting down. So now people are losing their jobs, they will be even tighter with their money, and not willing to spend. And that will make the world suffer more from the economic recession because the economy just stops going forward due to individual’s unwillingness to spend their money. I think that companies must negotiate with each other and trade off to earn profit so they can provide more jobs.

news source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11502435

China and Japan have had conflicts about the Diaoyu Islands – a group of islands that is northeastern of Taiwan, over that last few decades. According to information from China, they say that “in all records, whether historical books, academic research or old maps, have well proved that those islands are in the sovereignty of China”; however in Japan, they are saying exactly the opposite way: All records show that the Diaoyu Islands belongs to Japan.

Thinking not only about the Diaoyu Islands conflict between China and Japan —- around the world throughout the history, there are so many conflicts between countries about territories. And often those conflicts ended up with warfare.

In today’s world, the world is experiencing the economic recession. So co-operation between countries and countries are extremely important as we want recovery. Every country needs to use their strength to trade off just like companies use their SWOT analysis to maximize their profit. If such conflicts like the Diaoyu Islands between China and Japan keep growing and happening around the world, then political lock down will probably be a result – and that is the worst thing that could happen to the recovering world economy.

news source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-09/21/c_13523557.htm

BC hydro estimates that theft of electricity by illegal marijuana growing operations costs the utility $100 million a year. The amount stolen is equivalent of three-per-cent increase in customers’ hydro bills each year. In 2006, Hydro commissioned three independent studies that found 500 gigawatt hours (GWh) a year was being stolen from the grid by grow operations, and now the study is being refreshed: the new estimates show 850 GWh a year are now being stolen. That’s enough electricity to power 77000 homes a year.

Since we are living in a world of scarcity, everybody desires to use the currently available resources to make money. Same for the marijuana growers, they used so much electricity —- it’s just that they did it in an illegal way by stealing the electricity. We pay the government tax so much and as well as the electricity fee, and in the end consumers just end up with losing electricity power to marijuana growers. More of that, the amount of electricity lost each year is still increasing, all these symptoms show that we surely need a much better plan to protect our consumer’s benefit.

news source: http://www2.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=2deb7b35-c988-44a5-a8f9-b565d6f10a5a