In this chapter we have considered the nature of the “business sector” of the economy, which produces the supply of goods and services. In Chapters 6 through 10, we will see how supply and demand interact to determine prices. This task is complicated somewhat by the fact that supply – the production of goods and services by businesses – occurs under various conditions, ranging from industries comprised of large numbers of small firms to industries dominated by a few large firms to industries in which there is only one producer (a monopoly). These different conditions – referred to as “market structures” by economists – are of great significance to the supply of goods and services. If there is only one firm in an industry (a monopoly), it is in a position to control the supply of the product, thereby raising the price of the product and increasing its profits. In industries dominated by a few large firms, it is sometimes possible for these firms to get together to avoid competing on prices and thus increase their profits. On the other hand, in industries in which there are a large number of small firms, such collective action is very difficult or impossible to achieve; as a result, competition in such industries tends to be more intense, ad profits lower, than in either of the first two cases. In Chapter 6, we will examine the concept of “demand,” then in Chapter 7, we will begin our examination of “supply” (and its interactions with “demand”) in those industries in which there are a large number of small firms – industries that economists call “competitive”.
Create Good Content And Your Site Will Be Popular. One more article about text filling of a site. After all the text, the information containing in the text, involves the visitors, all the rest is minor. The text – here that actually will keep the visitor on your site,...
Save Time, Money and Space in Over 80 Ways If you're looking for handy gadgets, tools and various items that can save you time, money or space (or all three!) this list of more than 80 top products is just what you need. Everyone's got saving money on their...
Start Online Business People all over the world face tough financial times. Perhaps you were laid off, and do not have a job, maybe you have your own business, which moves down quickly, or you might simply can not keep up with bills....
How Coins are Valued A coin collection can be a fascinating hobby or an investment the can increase in value over time. If you have a sizable collection or want to become a serious collector, it may be wise to get a professional assessment...
Many schools employ student labor for various purposes, such as partime help in the athletic department. Try to draw the supply curve and the demand curve for student labor in your school, so as to estimate the equilibrium wage rate for student help. (Hints: For the supply curve, survey your friends to try to determine how many hours per week they would be willing to work at various wage rates. For the demand side, determine or estimate the school budget for student help so as to calculate how many hours of student help could be bought at various wage rates. The equilibrium price will be a wage rate, while the equilibrium quantity will be the total number of hours of work purchased by the school.)
St Tammany Parish School Board There are 2 noteworthy news regarding the St Tammany Parish School Board: 1) The St. Tammany Parish School Board announced that all students and employees would be given an opportunity to receive the H1N1 vaccine free of charge. According to...
Student Loan Repayment Options In the first two days of the Student Loan Series, we covered whether college is worth the cost and the different types of student loans. Today we'll tackle student loan repayment methods. There are several ways of repaying student loans....
Celebration School Technology Fundraiser – Support TechupK8 Celebration School is in the midst of a fund drive to raise $240,000.00 for instructional technology. As technology has increased in the classroom over the years, Celebration School has fallen behind. There are three reasons why Celebration School is behind...
Are You a Broke College Student? Get a Dirty Job... I Did! One of my favorite shows over the past few years has been The Discovery Channel hit series - Dirty Jobs. Mike Rowe (plus a crew of brave cameramen) pick a few disgusting and/or labor intensive jobs each week that no...
Top 3 Craziest Ways to Save the Economy (And Why They Could Work) Our economy will survive. Despite the FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) about our future, we will be fine. It will just take time. The devil is in the details with our recovery though. Do we let the market sort it...
5 Cities Where Home Prices Will Rise Photo by nDevilTV Economists are saying that some of the country's real estate markets are showing signs of recovering. Yahoo! Finance says that they expect the national market to bottom out in 2010. You can read the original article by...
Inflation is to cart as COLA is to horse I suppose in some ways it might look like zero inflation is bad for you. After all: Social Security checks don't go up. Marginal tax bracket cutoffs don't go up. The standard federal income tax deduction doesn't go up. Interest...
Price Gougers: Mercenaries or Life-Savers? My wife ran across this post on price gouging (caution -- f-word): Do We Need This? The price-gouging part is on the bottom part of the post. It's criticizing the views of John Stossel here: In Praise of Price Gouging...
Market Structure – Term used to describe the organization and nature of a market or an industry, particularly whether it is competitive or non competitive in nature.
Competitive Industry – An industry that consists of many small firms and is easily entered by new competitors.
Non-Competitive Industry – An industry that is dominated by a few large firms and is not easily entered by new competitors.
Price-Taker – Term used to describe the position of the individual small firm in a competitive industry, which is unable to influence the price of its product and is forced to accept (take) whatever price is determined in the market.
Price-Maker – Term used to describe the position of the dominant firm(s) in an industry, which can influence the price of the product.
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Understanding Fundamental Analysis Sponsored by online fx trading Fundamental analysis refers to the study of the core underlying elements that influence the economy of a particular entity. It is a method of study that attempts to predict price action and market trends by...
Opinions About Hedge Funds This is what a young analyst at EverBank had to say about hedge funds after hearing that 2 hedge funds were going to sponsor Tom Cruise's next movie."Hedge funds are the worst plague in capital markets. First they destroy the...
Get Useful Information About Forex Forecasts The presented article covers one of the most important (in author’s opinion) aspects of trading in general and FOREX trading in particular – managing of orders and positions. This includes choosing entry points, making decisions about exit points, stop-loss and...
This idea is reinforced further by the fact that many directors serve on the boards of several companies, in what are called “interlocking directorships,” which tends to magnify their influence further. About one-quarter of Canadian corporate directors have significant “interlocking” connections, many of which are effected through Canada’s large and powerful chartered banks, as senior personnel from large corporations often serve on the boards of the banks and vice versa. There are different views concerning the significance of this so-called corporate business elite, with some observers feeling reassured by the stability and judgment that it provides, others seeing in it something threatening and sinister, and still others doubting whether its significance with respect to the actual operational decisions of Canada’s major corporations is as great as is often supposed.
Regardless of which of these views is the more accurate, it can be said in conclusion that large corporations play a very important role in the Canadian economy, even greater relatively to the size of the economy than in the USA, and that in these large corporations, control is often separated from ownership. Widespread small shareholders are not in a position to exercise active control. As a result, control tends to shift, depending on the circumstances, to the top management of the corporation or to the groups of influential members of the Board of Directors. Generally, neither top managers nor directors are major shareholders in their corporation; their claim to control over the corporation is based on their expertise rather than on ownership.
Which Type of Hunting is Right for You? Camping, fishing and hunting are popular outdoor sports. What makes someone want to do any of those instead of just taking a hike through the woods and going home, or taking a stroll through a field to do some bird...
Small Business 101: S and C Corporations (Welcome, welcome, welcome! It's time once again for that most fun day of the week, Small Business 101 Day! Yes, it was getting boring calling the day after Monday something like Tuesday, so from now on, I shall refer to...
Stream Techniques In streams, wild trout generally find their food, their shelter and the right temperatures behind rocks as well as in or near currents and under banks or around logs. You should be moving quietly and casting from downstream as trout...
Wealth, Greed, Envy and Shame The title sounds a bit like a shady law firm, doesn't it? Actually, it's meant to convey the emotions of this post's topic. A topic I've thought a lot about recently, and one that another blogger covered in a recent...
Are you in control of your financial future? This checklist can help ensure you are in the driver’s seat.
Cash flow needs
Establish a budget to track income and expenses to uncover any potential surplus for investment.
Where you have cash flow shortfalls, review discretionary expenses and determine areas where you can cut back.
Establish an emergency fund or approximately three month’s worth of expenses. Or, establish a personal line of credit.
Take advantage of any pre-payment options on your mortgage.
Estate needs
Review your Wills and Powers of Attorney once every three years (or more frequently if appropriate) to ensure your estate will be distributed according to your wishes.
Prepare Powers of Attorney (both General and for Personal Care).
Review beneficiary designations on RRSPs, RRIFs, and life insurance policies.
Insurance needs
Review your level of life insurance coverage to ensure that your family will be taken care of in the event of your death.
Review your disability insurance – is it adequate?
Ensure that coverage for your home, dwelling, and contents reflect their true replacement value.
Retirement needs
Review and update your retirement plan to ensure that you stay on track to realizing your retirement goals.
Comparing Life Insurance Policies pt 2 Continued from part one. What are the advantages of this type of insurance? Term life insurance policies tend to be a lot less expensive in comparison to other types of insurances, including whole life insurance, universal life insurance and variable...
Guide to Investing Money & Money Management Much of money management focuses on investing money to reach a financial goal. You can get low-cost investment management help and still be your own money manager. Here's your basic guide to investing and money management on a budget. As...
What types of insurance do you really need? Since none of us can predict the future, we look for ways to prepare for the unexpected. For example, even though you are a perfect driver, your insurance company knows there are some real crazies out there, so they insist...
Do You Need a Million Dollars to Retire? When baby boomers were young adults, we imagined becoming millionaires and being set for life. Today, that million dollar nest egg doesn't look so comforting. This was the topic of a recent survey conducted by Scottrade of 226 registered investment...
Flexible. Patient. Sensitive. Those might sound like adjectives from a Match.com listing, but they’re terms Morning star analyst Dan Lefkovitz uses to describe Artisan International fund manager Mark Yockey. Yockey, who has helmed the portfolio since 1996, has made a name for himself by finding longterm growth stories across developed and emerging markets. He closely studies global trends like demographic changes, infrastructure development, increasing privatization, and the surge in outsourcing to unearth catalysts that could spark corporate earnings growth or high levels of free cash flow. At the same time, Yockey is sensitive to valuations, using a variety of metrics to make sure he’s not overpaying.
Those themes and price concerns result in a portfolio of some 90 stocks based anywhere from Canada to Qatar. (European stocks make up roughly 60% of the fund; companies in emerging markets account for about 20%.) One recent addition: In the third quarter of this year, Yockey picked up Spanish telecom leader Telefonica, which serves some 220 million customers in Europe. It was a call that paid off quickly: The stock has soared more than 40% since the beginning of July, helping the fund post an impressive 23% gain over the past 12 months.
With stock-picking successes like that, it’s no wonder the fund has gained more than 15% a year over the past decade, whipping the MSCI EAFE foreign index by six percentage points. That makes Artisan International a real world-beater – and puts Yockey well on his way to becoming an Old Master.
Raise Update (part 2) The time was right for a talk with the boss man today and I have to say that the initial reaction seemed quite positive. I didn't particularly go after any specific numbers, but I should find out tomorrow how much...
Mutual Funds 101 One way that investors can pool their money is mutual funds, which allows them to invest together in a variety of different stocks. Each of the participating investors is charged a percentage fee based on what they invest so that...
Finding a superior small-cap fund is no easy feat. Sifting through the thousands of burgeoning companies around the world is exhausting work for money managers. Those that do it well are often inundated with cash, forcing them to either eye larger targets or shut their doors to new money.
The Bridgeway Ultra-Small Company Market fund is the rare small wonder: a strong performer that’s responsibly run and still open to new cash. Bridgeway founder John Montgomery is known for his quantitative strategies, but this fund takes a different approach. Instead of actively screening for the next Microsoft or Google, it tracks an index of tiny stocks with market caps no bigger than the smallest 10% of companies on the New York Stock Exchange. Montgomery and his crew try to roughly mirror the index by owning some 550 of the 1,900 or so stocks it comprises.
At the same time, the fund’s managers avoid businesses that could blow up and hurt overall performance. (In the very-small-cap space, that adds more to the return than you might think,” says Montgomery.) The fund is also run with a strong emphasis on tax efficiency, and it boasts an extremely low expense ratio of 0.67%.
All this means that when the market for micro caps heats up, as it did for a seven-year stretch beginning in 2001, this fund really shines. Over the past five years it has posted annualized gains of 19%. Over ten years, it has averaged returns of nearly 15%, beating the Russell 2000 and 97% of the competition in its category. To be sure, those profits may be hard to sustain in coming years if investment trends start to favor large caps, as many suspect they will. But even if that happens, this fund makes for a smart way to sprinkle micro caps into any balanced portfolio.
There Are No Stock-Picking Geniuses I shake my head when someone writes about managed funds or picking individual stocks as a preferred way of investing. For every lucky home run investor or fund manager genius of the day, there is a genius has-been. This year's...
How To Determine Mutual Fund Holdings With Morningstar Morningstar is one of the best mutual fund research tools out there for small investors and is pretty much the only tool I use. If you don't already have a free Morningstar account, I highly recommend you sign up for...
U.S. Open at Pebble Beach 2010 This week in golf featured the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, a notorious Major at a notorious location. This U.S. Open was the fifth at Pebble Beach, bringing plenty of history into the picture. The Pebble Beach U.S. Open featured...
Index Funds 101 The most significant invention in the 20th century as far as investing goes is mutual funds, at least if you are a small individual investor with modest means. Thanks to mutual funds, the benefits associated with large scale international capital...
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