Wii video-game console..Finally the champion

Nitendo came back to the market by introducing the new video console Wii..Nitendo passed some difficult times as mircosoft(xbox) and sony(playstation) sales accelerated the last year. BUT Nitendo came back with a new idea..a console that it didnt become famous about its grafics but for the gameplay..The main concept of this console is that, you should actually play not only using your hands but also your body..its quite amazing...the sense when you play against a friend of you is great..you become competitive and actually "enter the game"..Many critisized this console and believed that Playstation 3 is going to sell much more due to its graphics..but they were too wrong(see picture below) What Nitendo managed to do was a good and new to byers console(and generallu gametype)in a cheap price comparing with xbox 360 and certentlly PS3..On Friday December 7th Nintendo announced it may even stop TV advertising in Britain until 2008 because it cannot meet demand.

Food prices in basic goods rise dramatically

I dont have the time to write about this but i found an interesting article on economist
Here is the article and its quite interesting

Exams!:(

We will be back uploading stuff as soon as exams finish
Good luck everyone

Google and its "enemies"

Many characterize google as the only company that has risen so fast..This growth entails many "areas"
1.Market value and revenues
2.The number of people clicking to search things you havent thinked about(from news,videos even cafes near their house)
3.The advertisers
4.the number of its lawyers and lobbyists.

The list of constituencies that hate or fear Google grows by the week. Television networks, book publishers and newspaper owners feel that Google has grown by using their content without paying for it. Telecoms firms such as America's AT&T and Verizon are miffed that Google prospers, in their eyes, by free-riding on the bandwidth that they provide.What is more, many small firms hate Google because they relied on exploiting its search formulas to win prime positions in its rankings, but dropped to the internet's equivalent of Hades after Google tweaked these algorithms.
And now come the politicians. Libertarians dislike Google's deal with China's censors. Conservatives moan about its uncensored videos. But the big new fear is to do with the privacy of its users.Google's business model assumes that people will entrust it with ever more information about their lives, to be stored in the company's “cloud” of remote computers. These data begin with the logs of a user's searches (in effect, a record of his interests) and his responses to advertisements. Often they extend to the user's e-mail, calendar, contacts, documents, spreadsheets, photos and videos. They could soon include even the user's medical records and precise location (determined from his mobile phone).

Info by :

An inconvenient truth by Al Gore

Thats a trailer of the movie "An inconvenient truth" by Al Gore(He also won a nobel)If you find the whole movie download it its very interesting

The dollar’s decline accelerates

Mr Ziogas told us some stuff about dollar in our class today...
Here is an article..

"There is no shortage, no crisis in the global oil supply"

Thats the words Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah, energy minister of Quatar said some days before.He also said that that oil prices are being driven to record-high levels by speculation, rather than any supply shortage. but heating oil is priced more than 70 percent above year ago levels, with November futures trading at $1.408 per gallon.Furthermore he highlighted that insufficient refining capacity in the United States was contributing the problem.
The article is here.

The Pope wades into market economy

What is the link between call centers, fast food and His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI? Until October 18th, the answer would have been, “None.” But in a message that day the pope launched an attack on the short-term job contracts that underpin many modern enterprises. Barely reported outside Italy, his words will nevertheless filter down to believers and may have a long-term effect.
Read the article:
http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10024430#top

Agricultural Development in the EU

Given that over 60% of the population of the EU members residents in agricultural regions, and that those regions cover almost 90% of the EU's total area, the importance of agricultural development has become obvious. Forestry and agriculture remain vital for the use of land and the administration of natural resources in the agricultural regions of the EU, and for that reason the enrichment of the agricultural development is one of the EU's basic priorities. Unfortunately, some major problems may occur (for instance the fires in all of Greece during the summer of 2007), which slow down the agricultural development. Therefore the agricultural development is becoming even more vital and is taken into account by the EU, so that assistance could be provided to those areas, for they should be able to face the challenges of the 21st century.
For those reasons the EU has set some goals we hope to reach by 2013. Those goals are:
- To improve competition of forestry and agricultural sectors
- To improve the EU members environment
- To improve the quality of life in agricultural regions
- To turn the above priorities in actual schedules
- The completion of civic means in agricultural regions
If those goals are fulfilled, not only life will improve dramatically in the EU's agricultural regions, but also the primary sector goods of the EU will improve, leading to the EU members being able to export these goods, the therefore bringing more money to their economy.

Elections in Switzerland

That is the advertisement the politician that became prime minister in Switzerland had...
What can i say?...hope u all understand what the picture wants to say...

Alarm is growing about rising food prices

As the price of wheat, maize, corn and other commodities that make up the world’s basic foodstuffs is soaring the poorest people in the poorest countries are the hardest hit. And as prices shoot up helping them is getting tougher too. The WFP’s food costs increased by more than 50% over the past five years.


The article is here:
http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10085859

Ireland:from one of the poorest to one of the most prosperous countries.(worth reading!!!!)

The economic performance of Europe is nothing to get excited about. Yet there is one European member state that seems to defy the law of economic gravity: Ireland also called the Celtic Tiger.

Recently the economic performance of several European countries has been compared(based in Belgium).The comparison was mainly between Belgium and Ireland(1984 - 2002)It was found out that there were a surprising amount of large differences in economic growth and GNP(gross national product) per capita.Researches showed that Belgian real growth over this 18 year period amounted to 42%.Ireland managed to get an incredible 167%! Really how Ireland managed to become one of the most prosperous countries????
n 1985, the economy of Ireland was in shambles. It faced excessive budget deficits and minimal growth.Irish unemployment stood at 17% against 10% for Belgium. Until 1985 both countries followed similar Keynesian policies of deficit spending. In 1983 Belgian public spending exceeded 50% of GNP.The first move Ireland did was in 1985:It drastically lowered the tax burden, and all wasteful government spending was eliminated.When taxes were lowered many big companies took the initiative and opened their central buildings for Europe there. Also in three years, public spending was reduced by 20%.The result was that Ireland entered a period of explosive GNP growth, averaging 5.6% from 1985 to 2002. This is roughly three times the Belgian growth rate.By doing this new jobs were created.Ireland has now more resources available for all sorts of social, cultural and environmental initiatives than Belgium does.
At first Ireland was been funded by the E.U.The aim of this funding was to "make the economy of Ireland better".In 2002 E.U. stoped funding Ireland because of this rapid and excellent economic growth the country had...

Ireland is now one of the most prosperous countries,tyrkey's economy is growing rapidly,belgium also,china's economy grew 11.5% in first 9 months...
Maybe we should all wonder...Is Greece going to do anything???

Turkey's Economy: A Future Full of Promise

Mr Ziogas talked about an advertisement of Turkey..i didnt find it but i found an article about Tyrkey's economy..

The country's progress in recent years has been remarkable. The benefits of the government's commitment to its economic program are clearly visible.This year's Forum has a forward-looking theme, and rightly so. Much has been achieved since the current reform program was started. The challenge now is to build on those achievements and exploit Turkey's potential as a rapidly-growing and increasingly sophisticated economy.The strongest argument for economic reforms is that they will improve the lives of Turkey's citizens.What Turkey needs to do now is raise the potential growth rate of the economy.

The rest article is here:
http://www.imf.org/external/np/speeches/2005/050505.htm

China: Economy grows 11.5% in first 9 months

The Chinese economy continued its robust growth driven by rapid expansion in investment and credit, while inflation pressure eased slightly, official figures showed.
The gross domestic product (GDP) increased 11.5 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier.


Picture:A worker drives a vehicle past cargo containers at Beijing airport October 23, 2007. The Chinese economy continued its robust growth driven by rapid expansion in investment and credit, while inflation pressure eased slightly, official figures showed.

Third World Economic Development

The development experiences of Third World countries since the fifties have been staggeringly diverse—and hence very informative. Forty years ago the developing countries looked a lot more like each other than they do today. Take India and South Korea. By any standards, both countries were extremely poor: India's income per capita was about $150 (in 1980 dollars) and South Korea's was about $350. Life expectancy was about forty years and fifty years respectively. In both countries roughly 70 percent of the people worked on the land, and farming accounted for 40 percent of national income. The two countries were so far behind the industrial world that it seemed nearly inconceivable that either could ever attain reasonable standards of living, let alone catch up.

If anything, India had the edge. Its savings rate was 12 percent of GNP while Korea's was only 8 percent. India had natural resources. Its size gave its industries a huge domestic market as a platform for growth. Its former colonial masters, the British, left behind railways and other infrastructure that were good by Third World standards. The country had a competent judiciary and civil service, manned by a highly educated elite. Korea lacked all that. In the fifties the U.S. government thought it so unlikely that Korea would achieve any increase in living standards at all that its policy was to provide "sustaining aid" to stop them falling even further.

Iraq: The war is good for some...

While Americans and Iraqis argue over the merits and defects of private security companies in Iraq, for David Golola, a former private in the Ugandan army, Iraq's war means seed money for his mango-juice business. For he is one of 3,000-odd Ugandans who have been working in Iraq as security guards on American military bases, thanks to a contract with EOD Technology, a Tennessee-based firm that specialises in dealing with unexploded bombs and provides general security services to the Pentagon.
Like the other Ugandans who have been in Iraq, mostly former soldiers and policemen, Mr Golola considers himself lucky. Many have used their salaries of around $1,000 a month, about ten times that of a private in the Ugandan army, for starting businesses and buying property. One began a maize-grinding plant; another now has his own soap factory.
Not everyone, however, is keen to pack off thousands of Ugandans to guard American soldiers in a dangerous and distant desert President Yoweri Museveni, the only leader among the 53 countries of the African Union to send peacekeepers to Somalia as well as Darfur, has been criticised by some Ugandans for putting his soldiers in harm's way to curry favour with the Americans in their proclaimed fight against global terror. To make matters worse, a scandal involving alleged underpayment and bad treatment of the security guards has dogged several of the Ugandan firms (one of them close to the president) that have been chosen by the government to recruit the men.
All the same, thousands of eager Ugandan men have put themselves on the waiting list to join the firms. "Even though it's a war zone," explains a guard back home on leave, with plans to start a dairy, "Iraq is a better option than Uganda." None, so far, has been killed.

Afrika and the internet:A hudge digital gap between them

Now in 2007 where our planet is based on technology and computing power the gap between Afrika and the broadband is still a Grand Canyon. Only a 4% of Africans have access to the internet.The prices for a one month low speed connection are between $250-300 a month..

The article is here--->

http://www.economist.com/world/africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9990626

What is climate change??

Our planet is surrounded by a blanket of gases which keeps the surface of the earth warm and able to sustain life. This blanket is getting thicker, trapping in heat as we release greenhouse gases by burning fossil fuels for energy and as we cut down forests and replace them with agricultural land. As a result, our climate is starting to change.

Scientific research indicates that, because of climate change, we may experience more intense and more frequent extreme weather events. A gradual increase in temperature also has major implications for ecosystems, growing seasons, animals and their habitats.

Some changes to the climate are inevitable – even if we stop emitting gases now, the gases we have already released will have an effect. However, we must do everything we can to avoid further changes and to adapt to the new situation we find ourselves in.

Available videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzjOcOcQ90U

Europe leads the fight against climate change

Climate change is real

Bolivia Coca Trade

Bolivia's economy is one of the poorest in the Americas, ranking
ahead of only Haiti. Bolivia is the world's second largest producer of coca leaf
after Peru and the second largest producer of cocaine after
Colombia.  Most of the cocaine refined from  Bolivian coca leaf is
consumed in the United States.
The coca plant,the source for the illegal drug cocaine brings millions
of dollars to the informal sector of economy. BUT it is also the only provider of work for thousands of poor people that live there.
The production of coca in the countryside has
become almost unstoppable, where hundreds of hectares of forest are
being cut yearly for the cultivation of the plant.
The government, with assistance from the United States, is
trying to curtail the expansion of coca but with little success.
One of the major challenges or problems that the government of
Bolivia faces is the fact that many people in Bolivia consider the
coca growing a part of their culture and a necessity for their
economic survival.
   The original version of what we now know as Coca-Cola, drew on
the medicinal benefits of coca.  Now, as the Coca-Cola company
points out, any trace of an addictive drug has been taken out of
its product, but the company still buys coca from Bolivia to be
used as flavoring.  The flavoring of coca is non-addictive, since
most of the chemicals that cause addiction are removed from the
product.

What the world looks like...?!

This is a humorous approach in americans' view of the world...!

What Development Round?

The global trade talks that began in 2001 in Doha, Qatar, were sold as the “development round,” a chance to give the poorest countries a leg up by making it easier for them to sell their goods around the world. Six years later the development round looks like every other trade round — with the rules being written to benefit the rich nations and now also the big developing countries...
Check out more about this article of "New York Times" in this link---> http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/21/opinion/21sun1.html

China: not enough labour, too much capital

Many countries have seen a fall in the share of labour income in recent years, but nowhere has the drop been as huge as in China. This partly reflects China's large pool of surplus labour, which has depressed wages relative to the economy's large productivity gains. But you might expect that if wages are low relative to the value of workers' output, firms will hire more staff, which will moderate the decline in the wage share. Instead, the growth in jobs has been unusually slow. Many people blame this on the fact that the financial sector is poor. Big firms have easy access to credit, but smaller, private firms find it hard to raise finance for working capital, which in turn restricts their hiring.

Adam Smith

Adam Smith was a Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneering political economist. He is a major contributor to the modern perception of free market economics. One of the key figures of the intellectual movement known as the Scottish Enlightenment, he is known primarily as the author of two treatises: “The Theory of Moral Sentiments” (1759), and “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations” (1776). The latter was one of the earliest attempts to systematically study the historical development of industry and commerce in Europe, as well as a sustained attack on the doctrines of mercantilism. Smith's work helped to build the foundation of the modern academic discipline of free market economics and provided one of the best-known intellectual rationales for free trade, capitalism, and libertarianism

Evaluation in greece

http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docgener/evaluation/doc/obj1/greece.pdf

That is a fact..

Three Americans Share Nobel for Economics

Top 10 signs you won't win a Nobel prize..Letterman :-)

I like the guy so I'm biased...

Business news from economist newspaper

Business this week

Oct 11th 2007
From The Economist print edition

A consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland won a lengthy takeover battle for ABN AMRO after Barclays dropped its bid for the Dutch bank, citing a lack of shareholder support. In the biggest-ever deal in the financial-services industry, the RBS-led group will pay euro72 billion ($101 billion) for ABN, which will be split among the consortium's members: RBS takes ABN's wholesale business and Asian operations, Spain's Santander gets its Italian and Brazilian units, and Fortis, a Belgian-Dutch group, its Dutch retail-banking business.

The British Treasury extended its guarantee of customer deposits at Northern Rock to include new accounts. The bank was bailed out by the Bank of England last month after reporting difficulties raising cash during the credit-market crisis. Several private-equity firms are weighing a takeover. Meanwhile, officials from Britain's Financial Services Authority admitted to a parliamentary committee that they had made mistakes leading up to Northern Rock's problems, which resulted in the first run on a British bank in generations.

Google's share price passed $600 on NASDAQ for the first time. The company made its stockmarket debut, at $85 a share, in August 2004.

Flight delay

Boeing said that it would, after all, have to postpone the first deliveries of its new 787 Dreamliner. The company had given reassurances that despite production mishaps and a short test-flight programme the first delivery would take place on schedule next May. That date has now been pushed back to late November or December 2008.

Chrysler and the United Auto Workers union reached a tentative contract agreement similar in scope to that signed between the UAW and General Motors two weeks ago. A strike at Chrysler that began just hours before the negotiations concluded was halted.

Gary Forsee stepped down as chief executive of Sprint Nextel when America's third-biggest mobile-phone operator lowered its profit forecast for the year. Mr Forsee oversaw the $38 billion merger of Sprint and Nextel Communications, but the company is losing customers. Its planned $5 billion project for new WiMax broadband services is thought to be in doubt.

SAP, the world's leading producer of business software, made its biggest acquisition when it agreed to buy Business Objects for euro4.8 billion ($6.7 billion).

Beer buddies

SAB Miller and Molson Coors said they were merging their brewing operations in the United States in a joint venture, enabling them to compete better with Anheuser-Busch, America's biggest beermaker.

Cadbury Schweppes confirmed that it would spin off its North American beverages arm in a de-merger rather than seek a buyer. Before the recent turmoil in the money markets private-equity groups had expressed an interest in the business, which includes Dr Pepper and 7UP among its brands.

SLM, a student-loan company better known as Sallie Mae, filed a lawsuit seeking a $900m break-up fee from a group of private-equity investors that wants to renegotiate a buy-out. Led by JC Flowers, the group made a $25 billion offer for Sallie Mae in April, but says recent government legislation that reduces subsidies to student lenders has had a materially adverse effect on the deal.

A consortium led by JPMorgan and which includes an Australian infrastructure fund won the auction of Britain's Southern Water in a deal worth £4.2 billion ($8.4 billion). The seller is Royal Bank of Scotland.

The European Union and China reached an accord on the flow of Chinese textile exports that sets up a new monitoring system. Quotas that were stiffened after Chinese clothing imports surged into Europe in 2005 are set to expire at the end of this year. The agreement between the two powers is an attempt to stave off a repeat of the “bra wars” of two years ago.

The latest employment data for America showed an extra 110,000 payroll jobs in September. The Bureau of Labour Statistics also revised the figure for August from a loss of 4,000 jobs to a gain of 89,000.

Costly cargo

The Baltic Exchange Dry Index, a measure of shipping costs for commodities such as grains, coal and iron ore, passed the 10,000 mark for the first time. One factor adding to the cost of freight is the drought in Australia. Asian countries that rely on Australian cereals have had to seek their wheat elsewhere, meaning some vessels have been tied up by travelling farther than expected to load cargo.

Test!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Watch out guys!The other class of H.L wrote a test today!The main topic that all the questions were based was "demand". We are going to write the test either tomorrow or on thursday!



P.S:This was written to inform the people that were not to class on Monday.

Giving us the answers to the tests..

This was the first time something like this happend to me..When i first read the question i said what?????shit i am going to have an E..after 3 minutes Ellie(se is blonde i cant understand how she understood this:p) discovered and told M.Ziogas that these were the answers to the test and not the questions..:p