Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Chapter 7 blog

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Bank+Canada+keeps+interest+rate+unchanged/4600848/story.html

summery : 


This article is about the bank of canada keeping its interest rate at 1.00% and there would be no increase in the interest rate. The central bank boosted its outlook for 2011 GDP growth by a half-percentage point and signalled economic slack shrank faster than anticipated. This is good news for everyone with a mortgage. However the bank of canada is unsure when the interest rate might go up. Canada's overall inflation is set to rise to 3 % in the coming month.



connections: 

This article is related to chapter 7 because it talks about chartered banks and bank rates. the charted bank in this article are borrowing money from the bank of canada because interest rates are low. the bank rate is the rate of the rate of interest paid by chartered banks on money borrowed from the bank of canada. The canadian interest rate will determine the economic growth of a country. 

reflection: 

interest rate staying at 1.00% is a huge advantage for mortgage holders. Also if people want to buy houses right now it's a good time because interest rate is so low. however they are disadvantages about this our saving account interest rates would decrease. if interest rate for saving accounts were low then people would stop saving money and start spending even more money. 


  

Recession

1. How did the Great Depression start?

The great depression started in the US starting with the fall in the stock prices that began on September 4 1929 and became worldwide news with the stock market crash on Oct. 29 1929. This day is known as Black Tuesday.

2. How did the current recession start?

The demand for housing properties started increasing due to high liquidity and low interest rates on mortgage loans. People started buying homes using these loans not knowing that this would in return cause residential property prices to increase. The prices increased exponentially and people who already owned homes, opted for refinance at lower interest rates.
At the same time, Banks were lending mortgage loans to everyone who asked for it, considering the property price hike. On one hand, they would get their money back even if the borrower doesn't repay the loans and on the other hand the banks were selling their loan products to investment companies who packaged them into MBS and sold them in the open market. This resulted in the bank getting back almost their entire loan amount which they started lending to further supreme customers.
The usual explanations include numerous factors, especially high consumer debt, ill-regulated markets that permitted overoptimistic loans by banks and investors, the lack of high-growth new industries, and growing wealth inequality, all interacting to create a downward economic spiral of reduced spending, falling confidence, and lowered production.

3. How did the government take part following the event? Were /are they successful attempts?

The Government took part in the great depression by introducing employment programs to help employ numerous people that were greatly affected by the depression. They also increased the interest rates to maintain the worth of the US currency. However their efforts did not help the situation greatly, until WWII as they needed a substantial amount of people to be employed.
During the current recession, the US government had handed out bail-outs to several corporations most notably: AIG, General Motors and Chrysler LLC. However they didn’t offer a bailout to Lehman Brothers and as a result, they filed for Bankruptcy.

4. What factors are present now that were not present during the Great Depression? (ie. Banking, online resources, etc.)

What is present now that wasn’t present during the Great Depression is probably credit card payment methods. People are able to apply for a credit card at a bank and with this card they are given the priviledge to be able to not pay for the “amount owed” right away but to have an extended period of time to pay the “loan”. What is bad about this however, is the fact that a lot of people don’t end up having enough money paying for their credit card spendings due to overly high credit limits.

5. How did these two affect United States’ GDP?

In the times of both the Great Depression and the current recession, the United States GDP decreased drastically. Around the 1920s, the United States GDP peaked at around $1 trillion dollars. However, since they were in a depression, the dollar value went down. Many people lost their jobs due to a decrease in the consumer behaviours. As a result of all these events happening, they contributed to the low GDP of United States of $600 billion. The United States lost over $400 billion during the Great Depression.
Same with the current recession, it has dropped the United States GDP, decreasing its dollar value.

6. Reflection: In your own words, tell me which one has made more of an impact on the world.

I believe the Great Depression in the 1920s has made a bigger impact on the world because at that time, no one was ready for this to happen. No one knew how to respond to such a great event that changed United States overnight. But as the years passed, the country has learned to cope with the consequences, therefore, if anything like this was to happen again, the people and nation would have more preparation instead of getting hit all of a sudden with the Great Depression and going into a mess.



Sources:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080220160718AAeaThR
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_did_your_current_recession_start
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recession
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression
http://www.actionplan.gc.ca/eng/feature.asp?featureId=18

Monday, May 2, 2011

questions

how long do you think it's going to take to get all virtual cards? how many years?why?

I think it will take about 10-20 till we all get virtual cards. If everyone is using one virtual card( credit debit driver license) for everything than the people who are creating these cards must make sure its safe.



who will not be on board with this new virtual wallet?

I think people who don't believe in new technology would be against the new virtual wallet.  Especially people in the older generation, like my parents aunt, and grandparents they don't even know how to use a computer. Almost everything now is online like you can now read books online, watch tv on the computer and banking and paying your bills online.


what companies are going to be affected negatively by this? name 3
I think credit card companies such as Master card , Visa and amercian express. after the new virtual card comes out people would slowly stop using credit cards.  as people stop using their companies credit card the company would have to close down.

who is going to make money from this? name3

Cell phone companies ( sony ericson , samsung , htc android ) , wireless internet ( shaw , bell , roger) and Apple company would make a lot of money after virtual cards are introduced. All these companies would be making millions of dollar if people accept the new virtual card system.