Weekly Econ News Articles
A round up of this week's economics-related news
GDP and Economic Fluctuations: What country leans the most on its biggest player? | Sherwood News
In Denmark, Taiwan, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia, more than 10% of GDP comes from a single company in each country. As a result, their overall GDP is highly sensitive to changes—positive or negative—in the demand and supply of just a few products.
Perfect and Monopolistic Competition: China auto market price war stokes fears of industry shake-out | Reuters
China has 169 automobile companies, most with under 1% market share. But these smaller companies lack the economies of scale to match the low prices BYD is currently offering.
Money and Banking:America is finally killing the penny | Quartz
It’s official, the last US pennies have been minted. Current pennies will remain in circulation, but when businesses run out, they’ll need to round to the nearest nickel. But those nickels may be next on the chopping block. They cost 14 cents per coin to make–an even worse tradeoff than the penny!
Supply, Demand, and Equilibrium: Mocktails Cost $15 and Nobody Knows Why | MSN (WSJ)
Why are mocktails as expensive as the real deal? Restaurants and alternative spirit makers often cite high production costs—but the more compelling rationale is that a small group of consumers has inelastic demand and a high willingness to pay for booze-free beverages.
Globalization: IBM laid off 8,000 employees to replace them with AI, but what they didn't expect was having to rehire as many due to AI. | Farmingdale Observer
Automation at IBM isn’t destroying jobs–it’s changing what jobs are available, and freeing up IBM to invest in new areas.
Labor Markets and Unemploymet: College Majors With the Lowest Unemployment Rates: Report | Entrepreneur
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York released some surprising results on college majors and employment rates. While the overall unemployment rate of recent college graduates clocked in at 5.5%, rates varied by major-with computer science, chemistry, and physics majors experiencing the highest unemployment rates.