Allisa Eunsol Hwang
6.24.2013

http://money.cnn.com/2013/06/20/investing/premarkets/index.html?iid=Lead

published June 20,2013

by  CNNMoney Staff

CNN

This article says that "World Stock market were deeply in the red as investors took fright at plans by the Federal Reserve". World's second biggest economy is growing slowly. also, Stocks tumbled after Bernanke said that the central bank will slow the pace of its bond-buying program later this year if the economy continues to improve. 

I think it will be fine. But it is surprising that economy is improving so that the Fed would think they will stop the program, because every news about world economy that I recently heard were saying that they are having hard time. Still it is good to hear that economic is getting better. 

Seoul shares down 1.42 pct on foreign selling

Allisa Eunsol Hwang
6.14.2013

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2013/06/123_137457.html

published June 13, 2013

by The Korean Times

The Korean Times

South Korean stocks fell 1.42 percent, as foreign investors offloaded local share, because they were worried if U.S. Federal Reserve may reduce its quantitative easing. As KOSPI  drops, many Korean companies fall, too. But not only Korea, all Asia is in trouble now because they were also worried about U.S. Federal Reserve may reduce its quantitative easing. 

I honestly don't understand why people are so depending on U.S. Federal Reserve's quantitative easing. However, I think it is very powerful and important because every Asia nations are affected by that. I hope everybody would be okay. 

Choosing the Next Head of the Federal Reserve

Allisa Eunsol Hwang
5.31.2013

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/30/choosing-the-next-head-of-the-federal-reserve/

published May 30, 2013

by Simon Johnson

The New York Times

This news is about choosing the next head of the federal reserve, as its title says. Ben Bernanke is present chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and his term will be expired at the end of January 2014. Including him, there are several candidates; Janet Yellen, current vice chairwoman of the Fed, Timothy Geithner, former Treasury secretary and former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Lawrence Summers, former Treasury secretary and former head of the National Economic Council. Non of them made clear promises yet, but they will start to do soon. 

It is interesting that they already start to thinking about choosing new head because it is 6 months before. I hope good person would be the head of Fed, so that there would be no problem and would give good advice to president.

Koreans operating in tax havens revealed

Allisa Eunsol Hwang 
5.24.2013

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2013/05/488_136170.html

published May 22, 2013

by Na Jeong-ju

The Korean Times

This article says that there are 245 Koreans who built their company on Tax Heaven, like Virgin Island. Those 245 Koreans include Lee Soo-young, CEO of OCI, and his family. They say that this is just result of primary investigation, and they think there will be more people. It is not "illegal" to build their company on Tax Heavens, but it can led to tax evasion, so it is kind of problem. 

I don't understand why people don't want to pay taxes. Of course it is large money for those who earn a lot, but still they will get that much services. I think they must be very apprehensive right now. I will rather pay tax and live with comfortable mind. 

Obama Pushes Congress to Help More Homeowners Refinance

Allisa Eunsol Hwang
5.17.2013

http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2013/05/13/obama-pushes-congress-to-help-more-homeowners-refinance/

Published May 13, 2013

by Kate Rogers

FOXBusiness 

President Obama is pushing Congress to give more homeowners the chance to refinance their current mortgages to help maintain the housing market recovery. Refinancing mortgages can save or give you more money. So president Obama says people that if your state don't do that, you can go and ask for it. 

If people have more money by this, then people will want more. then it can possibly led to inflation. anyways i think this is good to refinance mortgages so that i can have more money. 

Inefficient borders can knock GDP by 5%

Allisa Eunsol Hwang
5.10.2013

http://bdaily.co.uk/environment/08-05-2013/inefficient-borders-can-knock-gdp-5/

published May 8. 2013

by Tom Keighley

This article says that inefficient borders can drop as much as 5% of GDP, because they can take more money and time to travel through borders. Some of other factors may influence are Transport and infrastructure logistics. So country should take care of them well to have good economy. 

I think the government cannot control borders and infrastructure logistics that much. So I think government should take care of transportation and those related things and make it efficient. 

Wanted: Sense of economic urgency

Allisa Hwang Eun Sol
5.3.2013

http://koreajoongangdaily.joinsmsn.com/news/article/Article.aspx?aid=2970593

published April 24, 2013

Korea JoongAng Daily

This article says that economics future of Korea is getting darker. ADB, Asian Development Bank, lowered prospect rate of growth from 3.4% to 2.8%. This is second low rate among Asia top 11 economic growing nations, except Japan. This is not good situation, but government is not doing anything for the economic growth. So it seems hard to be recovered if the government just watches it. 

I honestly don't feel that Korea's economy is declining. Maybe because I am just student, and I don't involved in economic things in society that much. Anyways, I hope Korea's economy would become better and grow more. 

Who’s Happy About the Falling Price of Gold?

Allisa Eunsol Hwang
4.19.2013 

http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2013/04/18/whos-happy-about-the-falling-price-of-gold/

published April 18,2013

by Sudepp Jain and Debiprasad Nayak 

INDIAREALTIME

Recently, gold has been considered as a safe bet, because its value was stable, and is not affected by inflation. But since last Friday, its price dropped. This decline has done significant effect to India, For some groups of Indians, gold price falling is not that bad news. Those are new buyers, India's finance minister, central banks, and gold bears.

I think nowadays economics are not that good. I thought decreasing gold price only means bad thing, but it is interesting that there are some groups that would glad this situation. I hope no one would get harmed by this.  

Worst PC sales drop in history

Allisa Eunsol Hwang
4.12.2013

http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/10/technology/pc-sales/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Published April 10, 2013

by Julianne Pepitone

CNN

According to IDC, shipment of computer dropped about 14% last quarter. The article says the is the worst yearly decrease since 1994. IDC expected about 7.7% of decline, but it decreased about twice more. also, another technology consultant, Gartner said similar thing on Wednesday, too. The analysis firm said only 79 million PCs were sold worldwide in first quarter. This is the fewest shipment since 2009. PC companies had made a lot of new things, and Microsoft made Windows 8. But Windows 8 didn't help increasing shipment. Consumers feel uncomfortable with a lot of changes in Windows 8. So shears of every computer companies dropped.

I think the shipment will increase naturally when time passes, and people needs new computer. So I think it will be okay. Also, I agree with customers who said Windows 8 is complicated. I saw Windows 8, and it was difficult and very unfamiliar and uncomfortable. It was interesting, though. I hope those computer related companies would rise again. 

Chemical accidents face tough sanctions

Allisa Eunsol Hwang
4.5.2013

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2013/04/116_133325.html

published April 4, 2013

by Kim Jae-won

The Korea Times

This article is about a policy about environment. This policy states that if any company have at least three chemical accident in particular amount of period, the company should shutdown. Also, if there is any damage on environment, like pollution and chemical accident, the assailant responsible for recompense everything. The policy about chemical accident will start from next year, and its particular period is not yet decided. For the other policy, that assailant recompenses everything, if the amount of damage is over assailant's ability, he should pay it by insurance. Also, they will make damage of environmental pollution helping fund, so that they can pay for it if there is no particular assailant. 

I think this policy is cool, and I hope this would work well. I think this is good example of government regulation. Even though I like this policy for environment, I think this will hurt companies, because they should work on regulating and take caring of things that might pollute environment. No matter what type is the company, and how big it is, this policy will influence a lot if they against it. 

Apple Sued In China Over Siri Patent Claims

Allisa Hwang Eun Sol
3.29.2013

http://news.sky.com/story/1070385/apple-sued-in-china-over-siri-patent-claims

published March 27, 2013

by Sky News 

Its subtitle is "The technology giant has appeared in court accused of copying software used in a similar voice recognition system". Apple's Siri was sued by Zhizhen, a company from China. Zhizhen's technology is 5 years faster than Siri. Lawyer for Zhizhen said "The company will ask Apple to stop manufacturing and selling products using its patent rights, once Apple's infringement is confirmed". 

I think this is very complicated. I thought that Siri is the first and Samsung is following them, but actually there was another one that started earlier than Apple. While I was reading this article, I thought why didn't Zhizhen sued Apple earlier. Anyways, this was interesting story, and by this I could understand more about how people trying to get technological monopoly. 

Will raising minimum wage help New Yorkers?

Allisa Hwang Eun Sol
3.22.2013

http://www.whec.com/news/stories/S2970495.shtml?cat=566

published March 20, 2013

by Lynette Adams

WHEC

This article is says minimum wage should not raise. People thinks raising minimum wage is needed to help those who earn minimum wages. However, there are people says it will harm more than good. History supports this opinion. According to the Employment Policies Institute, "history shows us that raising the minimum wage hasn't helped ease poverty or put money in the pockets of people who are the poorest in our society". Saltsman says if minimum wage increases, it will be herder for businesses to hire and train workers. So this article suggests to find other way instead of rising minimum wage if you really want to help people who are in real hard situations. 

I agree with this opinion, because when minimum wage, the input cost, increases, supply decrease. Also then, equilibrium price will increase. As its price increases, consumers may think that it is time to find other supplementary products, then the owner will eventually close his or her business. Then, it will led to decreasing jobs, and finally unemployed person will increase. I'm pretty sure real poor people will be there. And if so, setting minimum wage to help employee will finally kick them out. So if government wants to help people who live by minimum wage, they should find other way to help.  

With the arrival of yellow dust, retailers see gold

Allisa Hwang Eun Sol
3.15.2013

http://koreajoongangdaily.joinsmsn.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=2968472

published March 13, 2013

by Kim Jung-yoon

Korea JoongAng Daily

Every spring, Korea is influencing by yellow dust from China, that causes some illnesses. This year, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration, many areas of Korea had been attacked since mid-January. Since yellow dust is not good for our health, consumers try to buy things to protect themselves immediately when dust arrives. As a result, according to many big convenience store chain, such as CU and GS25, sales of masks, hand sanitizes, mouthwash, soap, wet wipes, and contact lens cleaner increased rapidly compared to usual sales. Also, sales of every other dust-related supplies, or air-cleaning goods like air purifiers, stroller covers, children’s capes, and plants, increased significantly. 

I think it is funny that sales of air related things increases a lot because of yellow dusts. I guess it will drops after yellow dusts go. I think it will be a great time for producers to cell air cleaning things or dust-related goods in higher prices, because consumers' demand is higher than usual. If there are some new goods, related dust, consumers will try to buy that even though that is quiet expensive than others. Especially mothers would do that more, for their children. 

Tax Credits Help With Higher Education

Allisa Hwang Eun Sol

3.8.2013

http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2013/03/05/tax-credits-help-with-higher-education/

published March 06,2013

by Kay Bell

Foxnews

There are many tax credits in U.S.A., and among them, American Opportunity credit and Lifetime Learning credit can help you and your parents pay educational expenses like tuition. However, they are credits, not deductions. So they will take more tax bill. The American Opportunity credit is worth $2,500, and 40% of them are refundable. then, you can get $1,000 back even though you don't owe any taxes. It is improved, but still it has some restrictions. It is just during the first four years of college, and it is temporary. However, the lifetime learning credit can be used for undergraduate, graduate, and professional degree courses for everyone. 

There are other many restrictions on both the American Opportunity credit and the Lifetime Learning credit. Even though they have restrictions, I think it has better conditions than others. However, I'm very sad that it is only for Americans, and I cannot get it.  

Park dismisses plan to raise taxes

Allisa Hwang Eun Sol
2.28.2013

http://koreajoongangdaily.joinsmsn.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=2967820&cloc=joongangdaily|home|top

published Feb 28, 2013

by Ser Myo-ja 

Korea JoongAng Daily

Its little title is "Delayed restructuring makes national security aide miss secretariat meeting". Ms. Park elected as new president last year, and she had inaugural ceremony on last Monday. She had her first meeting with senior secretaries yesterday, and its key words were price stabilization, and not increasing tax. She and her party thinks it is the most important to make people comfortable, so she choose two things that are the most important to make people stable and comfortable. She decided not to increase tax immediately, and she said she will stabilize prize first. 

I choose this article, because it shows how government interferes with economy. I think it is government's one of the limited roles to collect proper amount of tax, and to control price for their citizens. I think she made good decision to not increase tax, and stabilize price. This is her first year as a president, and she is the first women president in Korea, so i hope she would do well.  

Hewlett-Packard sees sales fall 6%

Allisa Hwang Eun Sol

2.22.2013

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21542485

published 21 Feburary 2013

by GMT

BBC news

Hewleet-Packard, HP, has seen a 6% drop in first quarter sales. Chief executive Meg Whitman said she will increase HP again, but she doesn't know how long will it take. However, Dell, the rival company, drop in revenue 11%, and fall 31% in quarterly profit. Both companies HP and Dell are having struggle to increase profits. To get over, HP made a plan to fire 27,000 people by the end of 2014. Ms. Whitman said "While there's still a lot of work to do to generate the kind of growth we want to see, our turnaround is starting to gain traction as a result of the actions we took in 2012 to lay the foundation for HP's future" 

I chose this article, because I thought this is one example of microeconomics. HP made choice to cut 27,000 jobs, and i think it would be a hard choice. I thought about its benefits and opportunity costs to cut 27,000 people. I think its benefit is that HP will not have to give salary for those 27,000 people. However, the opportunity cost may be that much of labor. I would choose to fire them. In this moment, the company is dying, so i think it is more important to save the company than make a profit.