Roger Cheng Period 7 AP Economics 2013 Summer Assignment Mr. Sassone THIS IS A COURSE REQUIREMENT!

ASSIGNMENT WI O# #IRST QUARTER GRA$E% COUNT AS 1!"

Visit the Bureau of Labor Statistics website www.bls.gov. avigate through the site and become familiar with it. !lic" on the tab #Sub$ect Areas.% Become familiar with the to&ics and terms. &eginning the 'irst (ee) *' +u,'. !hoose a to&ic from the list below (. )efine the to&ic *. +ind a current article from an, re&utable news source -.all St. /ournal0 1 2imes0 ! .com0 etc. that relates to the s&ecific to&ic 3. Ma"e a co&, of the article 4. 2,&e a full one &age0 '( &t. 2imes ew Roman +ont0 double s&aced0 anal,sis of the article and how it relates to the s&ecified to&ic. 1ou are to do this each wee" for a total of 5 wee"s. Each wee" will concern a different to&ic from the list below. 2he to&ics need not be done in the order listed. .hen com&leted0 neatl, organi6e ,our com&leted assignment0 include a wor"s cited &age if necessar, as well as the co&ies -or originals7 of the articles and be &re&ared to hand in the first wee" of school. T*.i/s '. (. *. 3. 4. ;. 7. 5. Em&lo,ment 8ncome 8nternational Mone, 9ut&ut -:)P7 Prices Production Pa, and Benefits

Em.,*-ment< the state of being em&lo,ed0 the condition of having &aid wor". 8n this article0 the author0 ic" .ingfield0 discusses the em&lo,ment of one rising tech com&an, == Ama6on. According to .ingfield0 most tech com&anies outsource the manufacturing of its> &roducts to foreign countries0 s&ecificall, !hina. 9utsourcing is the act obtaining goods or services from a foreign countr, instead having them com&leted internall,. 2he &ractice of outsourcing is both critici6ed and &raised for its benefits and conse?uences. 9utsourcing allows &roducts and services to be chea&l, obtained. .hich is beneficial for the com&an, since their revenues will increase b, decreasing the cost of &roduction. But the downfall of this &ractice is that b, having other countries &roduce the goods or &rovide the services0 our countr, suffers since man, blue=collared $obs are lost. 2he econom, of the nation will still be balanced since it is boosted b, the &rofits made b, the com&an, but at the same time hindered due to the suffering of $obless Americans. 2his t,&e of &ractice is in fact not onl, &romoted b, tech com&anies but is also utili6ed in other industries such as te@tile and clothing. 2his &ractice t,&icall, adheres to most consumer &roducts com&anies. 1et unli"e these com&anies0 Ama6on is one that continues to create more $obs for Americans. Soon Ama6on will create more than 40AAA $obs in its BS warehouses. 2his act shows how Ama6on still understands the im&ortance of having labor t,&e $obs in America. 2his article relates to em&lo,ment because in our societ, toda, we can see that there is growing unem&lo,ment due to our current econom,. Even the global econom, is suffering. So it is im&ortant0 as of right now0 to strengthen our own econom,0 hel& the &eo&le of our nation0 and bring us out of the economic recession.

In/*me0 revenues of a business generated from sale of merchandise or the &erformance of servicesC s&ecific sources of ta@able or non=ta@able income for individuals such as commissions0 salaries0 interest0 gifts0 and retailsC increase in net assets of a business resulting from o&erations Ever, ,ear0 the &a, raise increases0 but for this coming ,ear0 it will onl, be increasing to (.DE as com&ared to this ,ears (.5E. Although this is a slight im&rovement from last ,ear and an enormous increase from a cou&le of ,ears ago such as in (AAD when it was onl, (.'E0 it is still far from reaching an, of the levels that averaged around *.4E in the mid=(AAAs. )ue to this slight increase0 the incomes of most families throughout the nation will not be increasing. 2his slight increase in &a, raise for the &ast cou&le of ,ears is somewhat due to the still high unem&lo,ment rate. Because the unem&lo,ment rate is still high0 em&lo,ers have the u&&er hand as o&&osed to the em&lo,ed because the, can easil, recruit em&lo,ees without increasing salaries. Bntil the unem&lo,ment drasticall, decreases0 the incomes of most average families throughout the nation will not increase much due to this unbalance. Bnfortunatel,0 the im&rovement rate of the unem&lo,ment rate is not the best that it can be0 but will ho&efull, be fi@ed soon. 9nce the unem&lo,ment rate starts to decrease0 the average income for families throughout the nation will begin to increase indirectl, with the decreasing unem&lo,ment rate.

Intern1ti*n1,< 8nternational economics &ertain to the interaction between economic agents0 including foreign trade0 free trade0 tariffs0 and e@change rates. 8nternational business is an im&ortant as&ect to an, nations econom,. 2heir economic status and ran"ing in the world de&ends on interaction with other nations. After all0 one of the ma$or reasons wh, economies flourish so much is because of international trading and e@&orting goods and services. 8n this article written b, Steve Fargreaves0 we learn that !hinaGs Sino&ec struc" a deal with the A&ache !or&oration giving !hina a thirt, three &ercent sta"e in A&acheGs Eg,&tian drilling for three billion dollars. A&ache is a massive string of oil com&anies that sells its assets overseas. A&ache in turn will be using this mone, to invest in other assets that will benefit the com&an,. 2he, include oil fields in .est 2e@as0 the 2e@as Panhandle0 and 9"lahoma to be such assets. 8n fact !hina has been ma"ing such deals and &artnershi&s for a while. 2his deal0 li"e the ones before0 is directed towards the !hinese e@&ansion. !hinese oil com&anies are constantl, &artnering with .estern com&anies to attain more su&&lies for its ra&idl, e@&anding econom,. 2heir deals include a H3.' billion &urchase of an offshore gas field in Mo6ambi?ue from 8tal,>s Eni0 a H'.7 billion &artnershi& with 2e@as=based Pioneer0 and a H'.4 billion deal for offshore assets with Bra6il>s Petrobras. All these deals will be aiding !hina in its e@&ansion and "nowledge in the industr, and cutting edge technolog,. 2his article &ertains to the to&ic because of the fact that !hina0 one of the world>s ma$or &owers0 is economicall, e@&anding b, investing and &artnering with other countries.

M*ne-0 currenc,0 coins0 and an, other item considered as a common means of e@change for transactions0 &urchasing &ower0 or a store of value0 measures how much a good or service is worth 2here are several different t,&es of currencies floating around the world0 t,&icall, one t,&e of currenc, &er countr,. +or e@am&le0 there are currencies such as dollars0 euros0 &esos0 and man, more different t,&es of currencies. 2he &ur&ose for currencies is to &rovide a universal s,stem to measure the worth of a good or service. According to the most recent ran"ing b, the Ban" for 8nternational Settlements0 the !hinese ,uan was the ninth most traded currenc, in the world0 brea"ing to& ten for the first time in histor,. Because of &ressure from other nations0 the !hinese government has allowed for more movement in the value of the ,uan in recent ,ears to increase its trading activit,. 2he !hinese ,uan was involved in (.(E of foreign e@change trading worldwide0 more than double that of the &revious ,ears. 2he most traded currencies in the world are currentl, the dollar0 the euro0 and the /a&anese ,uan. As a result of the increasing amount of trade of both the dollar and the !hinese ,uan0 euros have been traded significantl, less than in &revious ,ears. 2his decrease in international trade of euros was also a result of the worries of Euro&ean nations about Euro&ean sovereign debt. Mone, is an, t,&e of currenc,0 including both coins and bills0 which are used as a common means of transaction0 &urchasing &ower0 and a store of value. 8t is used to measure the value of goods and services.

Out.ut 2G$340 7= :)P stands for gross domestic &roduct0 the mar"et value of all officiall, recogni6ed final goods and services &roduced within a countr, in a given &eriod of time :ross domestic &roduct0 :)P0 is the mar"et value of all officiall, recogni6ed final goods and services &roduced within a countr, in a given &eriod of time. :)P &er ca&ita is often considered an indicator of a countr,Gs standard of living. :)P &er ca&ita is not a measure of &ersonal income0 but e@actl, e?uals the gross domestic income. 2he gross domestic &roduct is related to national accounts and is not e?uivalent to the gross national &roduct. 8t can be determined in three wa,s0 but the most direct of the three is the out&ut a&&roach. 2his a&&roach sums the out&uts of each class of enter&rise to arrive at the total. According to this article0 the gross domestic &roduct of the Bnited Iingdom has grown b, A.;E in the second ?uarter0 double the rate of e@&ansion seen in the first three months of the ,ear. 9ut&ut is still more than *E below its &ea" in (AA70 but the econom, has not delivered two consecutive ?uarters of e@&ansion of the first time in nearl, two ,ears. 2he econom, of :reat Britain is graduall, im&roving as shown through the im&roving gross domestic &roduct0 increasing &rices of houses0 record low interest rates0 government &rograms that encourage ban"s to lend0 and a strong stoc" mar"et. Even the labor mar"et is loo"ing healthier as the unem&lo,ment rate is decreasing at its fastest rate in three ,ears. 2he econom, of the Bnited Iingdom is slowl, but surel, &rogressing and im&roving.

3ri/es0 the amount of mone, that a good or service costs0 the measure of a good or serviceGs worth 2hroughout the Bnited States0 oil &rices have increased nearl, 5E within the last wee"0 to higher than it has been in over two ,ears. 8t is feared that intervention in S,ria over the countr,Gs sus&ected use of chemical wea&ons could engulf ma$or oil &roducing countries in the region such as 8ra? and 8ran. Although international events such as a labor stri"e in Lib,a0 wides&read theft in igeria0 and ongoing &roblems in 8ra?0 have negativel, im&acted the oil industr, greatl,0 gasoline &rices have not budged. .hile gasoline &rices ma, increase little b, little in res&onse to the rising &rices of oil0 gasoline &rices are generall, in a c,clical &ath down. According to some0 international events are not the onl, things that affect the &rices of gasoline0 but even sim&le things such as the demand for gasoline throughout our own nation can affect gasoline &rices. 2he ending of summer vacations means that fewer Americans will be on the road0 affectivel, cutting the demand for gasoline. Eventuall,0 the Bnited States will begin to see some relief in the gasoline mar"et. :asoline &rices have an enormous im&act on the econom, and stoc" &rices because it factors into consumer behavior. !onsumers are said to have a #nonlinear% relationshi& with bu,ing goods because the amount of consum&tion is de&endent on the fluctuation of &rices of certain goods and services. Prices of goods and services dominate the econom, because the, control the amount of consum&tion throughout the nation.

3r*5u/ti*n0 the action of ma"ing or manufacturing from com&onents or raw materials0 or the &rocess of being so manufactured 2he &roducts we ma"e are &ut on the mar"et to be sold0 resulting in a &rofit or a loss de&ending u&on the course of the mar"et. 2he &rofit ma, change due to time &eriod0 amount of labor and service used to manufacture the &roduct0 and how man, of the &roducts were &roduced and sold overall. And all these var, between different t,&es of &roducts because each &roduct re?uires something different from another. 9ne of the most im&ortant &roducts that has almost been governing the dail, lives of the global societ, is oil. 2he Middle East is currentl, the largest &rovider of gas. 1et &rices of oil would often go u& because of the limited amount of it that is actuall, sold. 8n this article we learn of the oil &roduction that is occurring in the Bnited States and its effects. B.P. !hief E@ecutive Bob )udle, sa,s #2he growth in B.S. out&ut was a ma$or factor in "ee&ing oil &rices from rising shar&l,0 des&ite a second consecutive ,ear of large oil su&&l, disru&tions%. 2he result of having oil &roduced in the BS is more li"e a relief &lan. 8t was determined that this course of action was to be ta"en to allow more oil and gas to be distributed while also &reventing the &ossibilit, of a sudden dramatic increase in oil &rices. 2his shows the im&ortance of having BS oil on the mar"et. Even though it has a slight im&act on a global scale0 it "ee&s the &rices from rising too much. 2his article shows the effects of BS oil &roduction on a global scale. Although it is onl, a meager su&&l, and does not create a sur&lus0 it grants relief to all nations after all the troubles in the Middle East.

31- 1n5 &ene'its< the amount of mone, that an individual is &aid for an occu&ation or service0 and the benefits that the, will gain after a certain number of ,ears of e@&erience 8n most $obs0 after wor"ing for a certain number of ,ears and after gaining a certain amount of e@&erience0 there is a number of benefits that a &revious em&lo,ee can earn. +or e@am&le0 after a teacher has taught for a certain number of ,ears0 the, are ensured of constant &a, after their retirement. According to this article0 members of congress receive retirement benefits that are far more generous than those earned b, the average wor"er. !ongressional re&resentatives and senators earn the guarantee of a monthl, &ension chec"0 a benefit that is slowl, disa&&earing from the lives of most wor"ers0 but the, also receive social securit, &a,ments and can o&t to &a, into the federal 2hrift Savings Plan0 which has fees that are far lower than most retirement &lans. As a result of these benefits0 longtime members of !ongress are able to retire with si@=figure annual incomes for the rest of their lives0 easil,. 2here are not man, other $obs that offer such generous benefits. Most wor"ers do receive &ension benefits0 but are not an,where near the amount of the benefits that retired !ongressmen receive. Members of !ongress who serve a mere five ,ears are even guaranteed annual &ensions of more than H'3". 2hose who serve twent, ,ears or more can ?ualif, for a &ension of at least H4D" b, the age of fift,. Pa, and benefits are ver, im&ortant to wor"ers because &a, ensures a stead, income while wor"ing0 and benefits ensure a stead, income after retiring.