One who wishes to pursue a career in Economics which is policy related is expected to know a lot about Math, to begin with. However, the students of economics may not get quite comfortable with this demand of the knowledge of Math. There are several valid reasons behind the authorities expecting Economics students knowing a lot of Math before pursuing Economics.

All the economists must have a strong foundation of the basic theories as well as econometrics. This strong foundation can never be achieved without a solid base of Math as the theory of Economics uses a lot of language of Math.

There are occasions when an Economist needs to use Math in his job. Any policy economist must be able to draw conclusion from research ideas whether or not they have any relevance for a specific policy. That is only possible by studying academic literature which uses a lot of Math. To be able to read the same with an intelligent head, one must be outfitted with Mathematical devices. On the other hand, Math trains the mind for better purposes, which makes one a better thinker in the process.

The graduate programs of Economics focus more on training for academic study rather than for policy careers. Even though many of the researchers have to do policy work, most of the people get engaged only in academics. There are several academicians who do not have any idea about the real world. This, however, is not any kind of discouragement. This is just to reemphasize the important role of Math in the study of economics.

Much before the financial crisis in the US, the politicians banked hugely on the mortgage agencies called Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. These agencies are backed by the government itself. The idea was to encourage lending among the low income group in the individual constituencies. There is even a hidden grave concern behind the fresh enthusiasm for housing among the poor. The conspiracy was to grow inequality in the income structure.

Since the seventies, 90th percentile workers’ wages have developed much stronger than that of 50th percentile workers. The growing difference between these two has a few strong reasons. May be the most significant among them is the technological development in USA. This requires a labor force which is far more skilled than the past. While it was enough in the past to get a job with a diploma from the high school, nowadays it is difficult even with an undergraduate degree. However, it is seen that the education system has failed to equip the labor group with the required learning. The dysfunctional schooling makes it even more difficult for the colleges.

Whatever changes are expected, it will take years to be implemented in a proper manner. That is why the electoral candidates are less anxious about the same as their concern focuses majorly on the current problems that requires instant solution for fast popularity. That is why inequality is growing due to the weak political reaction against the task.

Economics is often considered as “dismal science” but is the study of critical aspects of a society. Adam Smith is called the “Father of Modern Economics”. He, along with many of his successors, enquired in to the theory of understanding why certain theories work for a nation while other theories faces a natural death in the process.
Any individual person has to fulfill the needs having only limited resources in hand. A normal person spends his earnings in paying for the food, rent and utilities like electricity bill, phone bill etc. After completing the essential expenses, he goes on spending for his choices like going to a movie theatre or purchasing a new jacket. Economists have always been interested in the choices people make to spend their money on, leaving the basic necessities behind. They are interested to know if you would still buy your usual bottle of beer if the price is increased by $10 per bottle. The basic essence of economics is to know these finer aspects in order to find out how individuals and countries perform while faced by certain material restrictions.
The basic rule behind these studies is the assumption that people aim to accomplish their self-interest. The needs and wants are unlimited. In that case, economists presume that people behave in a rational order to accomplish the unlimited needs of their life. Therefore, Economics is not only a science that studies wealth or the lack of it but a genuine program that studies human beings and their behavior in order to fulfill their needs and wants.

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Recently reports by the FDA have come out to say that the Americans spend 5.55% of their disposable income of consumables at home and 3.93% on consumables away from home in hotels and fast food joints that totally is around almost 10% of their income on food which is slightly higher than the last years average percentage. It is surprising to note that this is the lowest amount all over the world and shows how cheap the cost of just surviving here in America is compared to other parts in the world. The cost of wholesale milk has come down to rated before the 19^th century began. So it can be easily concluded that the Americans enjoy the cheapest food in the whole world, this after Americans being people who also waste the highest quantity of foods. This is one thing that the recession struck Americans can feel good of when compared to other European countries where the money spent on food is always in the dual digits and in places like Pakistan, Kenya and most of the gulf countries where the cost of living is close to 50% of their income.

It was 77 years when a meeting of almost all of the industrialized nations took part in an conference. This conference held in London amazingly had the participation of China and Russia. The sole reason for the conference was to find a solution to end the depression which started with the fall of the American stock market in 1929. There were some major issues that had to be tacked like deflation, borrowing by undeveloped countries. This was a time when the treasury was considered as the all knowing body and all actions to bring monetary stabilization were on the shoulders of this treasury view. This treasury view was the doctrine followed by the British and American governments to balance budget. This view curbed the spending of the governments in line with the annual tax revenue generated. This led to the public effect known as “crowding out”, which was retaliation by the public in response to the expenditure cuts which led to a decade long global depression.

Well looks like history is going to repeat itself with the governments world over, instead of co-coordinating the finances, the governments are taking into account the treasury view coming from the IMF. Economists world over have been studying the effects of the 80 year old depression and have realized and studied how the economy works and not. And this time they are against it.

The mounting pressure of the three debts; the public, private and the foreign debts causes problems in the stability of the Eurozone and led to depressed growth.

The private debts were increased overtime and the easy lending led to a fast growth and huge debts which led to the creation of a bubble. This led to decrease in public debts before the crisis. The four main countries; Greece, Spain. Ireland and Portugal were brought down by these Private debts. This increase in private debts led to a push in the increment of external debts and therefore these debts being owned by foreign creditors. Therefore the after crisis measures of deleveraging the private debts is causing imbalances in the fiscal deficit. This led to the creation of foreign debt bubbles before and after the crisis. The low interest rates offered by the Eurozone keeping in mind the slower growing coutries like Germany were misused and caused financial irregularities in many of the European countries. The fall of recession burst these bubbles and the debt had to be paid, but since the GDP rate was well below the interest rate, this led to a big fiscal deficit which was too large to pay. Hence the new policy being created need to take care of these three debts and increase saving in them.

The emergency budget was released recently but it fell short in the section where George Osborne retained the international development budget and also forced the government to renew and increase the health spending. The fact is that these two budgets are incomplete and flawed where they should actually perform well. The part where the already weakened U.S. government is willing to spend 0.7% of the annual GDP on the international budget policy is a completely random number that was made up by the lobbyists as far back as in 1970’s. This 0.7% of the GDP spending was based on discredited evidence. But if you look at one place where the spending can be cut is the health budget where it has doubled in the recent years. This cutting is necessary to maintain and reach the reform goals.
But instead the government is preparing on spending cuts from unprotected departments in their departmental spending limits and the cuts will be as big as 25%. There is a much easier way to do this and without all the unnecessary spending cuts by realizing what the priorities of running a government should be and the scrapping of unnecessary programs and departments. There are just 9 additional departments which are really important and can run with just a few programs.

It is scary to watch as numerous apartments and offices are being constructed every day in China with knowing very little if they will be able to find customers for these. But many economists argue that there is demand for these buildings in the residential sector.

More specifically the real estate market in the ultra luxury apartment section is growing due to Chinese people migrating from the villages to the cities. It has been estimated that about 15 and 20 million people migrate to urban cities like shanghai, Beijing, and Hong Kong. This demand has seen the prices of properties grow by about 12.4 %.

The Chinese them self’s are worried about this growth and see it as a growing credit risk in the real estate sector. The worries of the Chinese authorities are relevant and mimic what took place in 2000 in the internet stocks sector which led to a bubble.

The increase in the prices of residential living spaces will create a bubble which will pop any time now. It’s already beginning in china as there are malls and entire cities that are vacant and the property bubble is just waiting to pop.

The recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico from the B.P. owned oil well is becoming one big nightmare for B.P. There is about 60,000 barrels of un-distilled oil being spilled into the ocean everyday from the oil well and the authorities are unable to stop the leakage still.

B.P has already spent about 1.5 million dollars in trying to repair the problem and to reduce the impact of this oil spill on the local environment. It is also agreed to pay round 20 million dollars to the oil spill victims and volunteers who are affected by this oil spill through the escrow account. Although it’s anyone’s guess that the environmental damage that this spill is going to cause is going to linger on for the next decades to come. Hence the amount declared is not fair enough keeping in mind all the environmental damages that this oil spill is going to cause. A proper study needs to be conducted to estimate the proper cost of the damage this oil spill is going to cause. But this as many economists agree is not an easy task and even if an amount is estimated, there is little doubt if both the parties will agree. The impact that his oil spill will have on the local fishermen, the tourists, the restaurants and the sea food consumers is another non-environmental aspect of this oil spill that cannot be fairly justified in any case.

The recent off shore oil spill near Mexico has shown an aspect of the disgusting politics of the ethanol industry. This is worse than the images of the oil soaked birds dying on the shores of Mexico and the beautiful beaches ruined by black oil. The corn oil manufacturers have been pushing the government to expand the money that they are receiving form tax payers.

The unfortunate BP oil spill gives them a perfect excuse to push for the need of an alternate and renewable oil source. They want to enrage the public with the hatred that the drilled oil causes more harm than good to the citizens of U.S. It seems to the corn ethanol industry like a golden opportunity has come their way and they can squeeze the government of whatever they can. The corn ethanol industry has already been living on mandate and subsidies from the federal government and needs more to just keep running further along. The mandates to the corn-ethanol industry were increased in 2005 through the energy bill passed by the congress which along with the money poured by the german bank WestLB AG caused a ethanol bubble to form.

Already the subsidized ethanol industry has tripled its ethanol production to levels which cannot be absorbed by the fuel market can absorb.