This article specifically talked about interest rates, especially interest rates given out by the government.  Right now the government is debating whether to raise the interest rates that it gives to Wall street and its companies. After the recession, the government wanted to encourage people to spend money, in order to speed up the economy once again.  However one big problem with this idea is the effectiveness and efficiently, in fact many government officials and economists argue that it has not been efficient, and this program should stop.

I thought that this article was very interesting and proposed a new perspective on Wall street and how they should be handled.  This article specifically talked about interest rates, especially interest rates given out by the government.  Right now the government is debating whether to raise the interest rates that it gives to Wall street and its companies.  These Wall street companies borrow money money from the government to invest in other companies and programs.  These companies then pay the loans back to the government with whatever interest rates they gave them originally.  After the recession, the government wanted to encourage people to spend money, in order to speed up the economy once again.  However one big problem with this idea is the effectiveness and efficiently, in fact many government officials and economists argue that it has not been efficient, and this program should stop.   In this article, the author claims that the Wall street companies are using biased onions in order to continue getting this money from the government, and that zero interest rates are ineffective and in fact bad for the economy.  The author of this article believes that the government should take these interest rates away, especially now that we are no longer in that much of a recession.  I think that if these low interest rates are hurting the economy and others, then it should be stopped.

 Economists use supply and demand to monitor markets and how competitive they are.  We also learned that quantity of a product is dependent on the price of the good.  For example the higher the price, the less of the product, the cheaper the price, the more of the product.  When the price of a good falls, the amount of that certain good will increase in the market.

Chapter 4 was very interesting.  This chapter talked a lot about supply and demand.  Economists use supply and demand to monitor markets and how competitive they are.  There are many buyers and sellers, just like there are many firms and households in the market.  We also learned that quantity of a product is dependent on the price of the good.  For example the higher the price, the less of the product, the cheaper the price, the more of the product.  When the price of a good falls, the amount of that certain good will increase in the market.  Income is also a big determinant in how people will spend their money.  There are also many other factors that effect the demand curve, for example income, price substitute, taste expectations, and the number of buyers.  Unlike the demand curve, the supply curve shapes and slopes upward.  The quantity of a good produced would then depend on the price.  Therefore the demand slope sloes downward, and the supply slope slopes upward.  Other determinants for how much products should be produced include, input prices, technology, expectation, and the number of sellers or people in demand.  The connection of the two graphs will then determine where the market equilibrium is.  Equilibrium is the desired place for supply and demand, to high and there is a surplus of goods, to low and there is a shortage of goods.

Chapter 3 talked about how trade benefits everyone.  First there are production possibilities, in which people can create whatever they want based on demand on the market. Specialization of trade is also very important and maximizes the amount of productivity on the market. Opportunity cost can show if specializing on one product is a smart move.

Chapter 3 was very interesting and very applicable to the modern world.  Chapter 3 talked about how trade benefits everyone.  First there are production possibilities, in which people can create whatever they want based on demand on the market. Specialization of trade is also very important and maximizes the amount of productivity on the market.  Instead of for example, the rancher just focusing on meat, he specializes in meat, but also spends some hours on potatoes.  In the long haul, the productivity and efficiency of the market increases, as the supply of meat on the market increases as well.  Opportunity Cost then plays a large role in this as well.  Opportunity cost can show if specializing on one product is a smart move. For example in the farmers case he makes 1/4 ounce of meat in 15 minutes.  In the long haul by using the farmers opportunity cost, he can find out if it is smart to make the trade, by seeing how much time and products he would get on his own terms.