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.