Brief Description Of The Economy Of Finland Economics Essay

Brief Description Of The Economy Of Finland Economics Essay Finland is highly developed industrialized country with a mixed economy with per capita of 50000$ which is nearly the same as Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Finland was not one of the developed countries until 1990s as they have lack of resources. They had Central Planned Economy as the other socialist countries. In 1950s half of the population had been working for the primary productions and Finland was relatively poor country compared to their neighbors, but in the 1970s, there was an industrial boom led by government in Finland and strengthened its competitiveness. In 1980s, Finnish government deregulated financial market and opened it to the foreign capital; therefore lots of foreign capital flowed to the firms and households. As a result, investment and consumption increased rapidly and the prices of assets got expensive. At the beginning of 1990s, Finland had suffered a serious economic risk as the collapse of Soviet Union and the economic recession in Western E urope and America. Finnish financial authorities tried to fix the exchange rate and therefore the exports decreased dramatically. Finland faced financial crisis caused by debts, and reduction of exports until 1993 and started to recover in 1994. In the course of recession, the government has proceeded restructuring its economic system. The Finnish government focused on export promotion in ICT industries by investing more in Research Development and education. Finland made dramatic changes in social and economical sectors and became one of the most competitive developed countries in the world. In the short period of time Finland has been transformed to the knowledge based economy with very high performance in the high-tech industries. Finland is a country of forest and lake. 86% of the countrys area is covered with forest and so in the past the forestry played a major role in the Finnish economy. Because of climate, the agricultural development is limited and it takes only 1/12 of the GDP. Now Finland has developed a modern, competitive economy. Export has a big impact on Finnish economy. Main exports are timber, pulp, glass ware, ceramics, stainless steel, engineering products and telecom equipments. Finland has a strong competitiveness in manufacturing the wood, metal, engineering, telecommunication, and electronics. Finland is famous for its high-tech exports such as mobile phones. The Finnish company Nokia which has 40% of market shares of mobile phone is well known all over the world. As Finland has lack of natural resources the biggest sector of the economy is services at 66%, followed by manufacturing and refining at 31%. With respect to foreign trade, the key sector is manufacturing. Industries like electronics (22%), machinery, vehicles and other engineered metal products (21.1%), forestry (13%) and chemicals (11%) takes the major parts in the economy. Finland has wood and several mineral and freshwater resources. Forestry, paper factories, and agricultural sectors are very important for rural population because they provide most of the jobs for rural residents. The Finnish government is paying attentions on these sectors because they are very important for controlling unemployment rates. Finland is highly integrated in the global economy, and international trade takes a third of countrys GDP. The European Union makes 60% of the total trade. The major flows of trade are with Germany, Russia, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States, Netherlands and China. As Finland has been among the free trade supporters, The European Union manages the trade policy. Finland has joined European Union in 1995 and in 2002 it became the only Nordic country to adopt Euro as its national currency instead of Finnish Mark. Employment rate in Finland was 68% and unemployment rate was 6.8% in early 2008. 18% of residents are outside job market at the age of 50 and less a third working at the age of 61. Impact of Fiscal policy and Monetary Policy on the economy There are some underlying economic factors that affect the major market trend. Factors like GDP growth rates, tax, interest rate, unemployment or threat of inflation, economic trends are the major determinants of what happens to the companies and their stock prices. Fiscal policy and monetary policy have widespread effects on the decisions and behavior of businesses and individual. Fiscal policy How the government gets the revenue, how to spend for the expenditure, how to deal with the national or public debt and how to budget are determined by the fiscal policy of the government. Fiscal policy consists of taxation, fees and fines, borrowings, government expenses on the expenditure and budgeting which affects directly to the national economy. Taxation plays major role in fiscal policy because most of the governments in the world get their revenue from taxes. Tax is a sum of money that individuals and organizations have to pay to the government at a specified rate which is imposed by government. There are two types of taxes which are direct tax and indirect tax. A direct tax is a tax that are imposed and collected on a specific group of people or organizations. For example, income tax would be a direct tax which is collected from the people who actually earn their income. On the other hand, indirect taxes are collected by intermediaries such as retailers from the consumers who actually take the economic burden. Sales tax is an indirect tax and merchants collect it from the customers and merchants actually dont take any burden. The rising in direct tax reduces the post-tax income of general public. This could motivate individuals to work more hours to maintain their target income that can lead more productivity. But on the other hand, individuals could be de-motivated since their income has reduced. The government has to introduce a low level of direct taxes like income taxes for lower income earners in order to motivate people to work extra hours and keep more what theyve earned. Changes to tax system can reduce the risk of unemployment and therefore increase the total GDP growth rate. For example, when the income tax is high, the households with low income are not trying to work extra hours as their net income is very low after the tax. If the income tax rate got lower, they can be motivated to work which increase the labor supply. The changes to indirect taxes have a strong impact on the demand of general public for goods and services. Rising tariffs on foreign cars can reduce the demand for foreign cars and helps to protect and develop the national car manufacturing industry. In Finland theyve imposed relatively high tariffs on some foods from abroad, in order to maintain stability of their agriculture. In contrast, government financial assistance (subsidy) has impact on reducing their costs of production, lowering the market price and helping to increase the demands. Tax changes can have a role on motivation of work forces and their overall efficiency and productivity. Reducing the rates of cooperation taxes and other business taxes can encourage the capital investments in the businesses. If the investment increases, the national capital stock can rise and the capital stock for the individuals can also rise. The government can also use some tax allowances to encourage more start-up businesses and increase and developments in RD. With the low rate of cooperation taxes and other business taxes can lead more inflows of foreign investment which might benefit both public demand and supply. Fiscal policy has been used as a tool of demand management for a long time by many governments in the world. The decisions of changing the fiscal policy must be made deliberately as it has a great impact on the general economy. The fiscal stance is a term that is used to describe whether fiscal policy is being used to actively expand demand and output in the economy or otherwise to take demand out of the circular flow. A  neutral fiscal stance  might be shown if the government runs with a balanced budget where government spending is equal to tax revenues. Adjusting for where the economy is in the economic cycle, a neutral fiscal stance means that policy has no impact on the level of economic activity. A  reflationary fiscal stance  happens when the government is running a large deficit budget. Loosening the fiscal stance means the government borrows money to inject funds into the economy so as to increase the level of aggregate demand and economic activity. A  deflationary fiscal stance  happens when the government runs a budget surplus. The government is injecting fewer funds into the economy than it is withdrawing through taxes. The level of aggregate demand and economic activity falls. The level of government borrowing is an important part of  fiscal policy  and management of aggregate demand in any economy.  When the government is running a  budget deficit, it means that in a given year, total government expenditure exceeds total tax revenue. As a result, the government has to borrow through the issue of debt such as Treasury Bills and long-term government Bonds.  The issue of debt is done by the central bank and involves selling debt to the bond and bill markets. Continuous running of large budget deficit can be a problem for government and the economy. The budget deficit can be financed by issuing of new government debt to investors from home and abroad. But if the budget deficit rises to a high level, the government might have to offer higher interest rates to attract buyers of the debt which will affect the general economy negatively. In the long term, government borrowings become a heavy burden as the government has to spend more each year in interest payment for the debts to the holders of government bonds and other securities. Therefore the government has to introduce a high rate of taxes which can hinder or decrease the growth rate of GDP, consumption and investment spending. This has happened in Finland in the 1990s which was the financial crisis caused by massive national debt. Fiscal policy should not be isolated from monetary policy. Monetary policy is made and developed by central bank of the nation to control supply of money within the economy. Monetary policy affects all the sectors of the economy but in different ways and with a variable impact on it. Monetary policy plays a very important role in controlling inflation, interest rate, exchange rate and money supply which has great impact on overall economy. Lower interest rates will lead to an increase in both consumer and business capital spending which increases equilibrium national income and also the growth rate of GDP. In the contrast, high interest rates will decrease the capital spending of both consumer and business which will definitely reduce the productivity and buying power. But raising interest rate can be used effectively used to control the inflation when it is caused by the bank credit. When the economy is in a recession, fiscal policy may be more effective in increasing spending and income by stimulating demands. But when there is inflation problem, it can be easier to control it by introducing monetary policies such as controlling interest rate, cash reserve ratio and open market operations. http://www.jftc.go.jp/eacpf/04/singapore_p.pdf http://www.odi.org.uk/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/6056.pdf http://www.cuts-international.org/pdf/CCIER-2-2008.pdf http://www.isnie.org/ISNIE06/Papers06/09.3/voigt.pdf q1 http://economydetail.blogspot.com/2010/01/allocation-of-resources-in-economics.html     http://www2.gsu.edu/~ecomaa/Lecture2.pdf http://economicsworlds.blogspot.com/2010/02/resources-allocation.htm

A Poet’s Mindset on War and Its Consequences Essay

In this essay the two poems being discussed are hawk roosting and charge of the light brigade, their outlook on war and conflict will be analysed with contrasts and similarities studied. Hawk Roosting is a very powerful poem the title suggests that the hawk is very comfortable in its position at the ‘top of the world’ and there is more to the poem then first meets the eye. Ted Hughes writes the poem putting himself into the body and mind of a hawk. The hawk is portrayed as an arrogant power hungry being and Hughes is very good at showing the way the hawks mind works in a number of different situations and in different places. The themes throughout most of the poem revolve around power, ignorance and self-indulgence much like many powerful people of the world today as this poem compares the mind-set of a hawk to a modern day dictator. The hawk itself represents power and ignorance at the same time because he thinks that he is the most important animal in the woods and he is ignorant to the fact that he cannot have everything, in the poem Hughes shows this very well by using lots of emotive language and description about how the hawk thinks. The opening line, I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed, is referring to the hierarchy of the wood. The hawk thinks of itself as the king of the woods, he is unchallenged and fearless. Hughes goes on to say that the hawk wants or needs nothing, no falsifying dream, his dreams are not something that he wants he already has everything he wants his dreams are his reality. Hughes mentions the hawks hooked head and hooked feet next, Hughes is describing these because they are his weapons, his tools for killing, he is proud of them because they have helped him into the position at the top of the food chain and, as the hawk thinks, to the top of the world. The hawk is remembering his perfect kills and rehearsing for the next time he needs to eat, or just wants to kill. Hughes writes kills before eats suggesting that to the hawk, killing is more important than eating. Even if the hawk did not have to eat to survive he would kill, just for the fun and thrill, almost as if it was his duty, it was what he was made for. The hawks perspective then shifts to his domain, the convenience of the high trees, he sits at the top of the wood using the high trees as an advantage to him so that he can see everything that is going on beneath him, he is like a manager watching all his employees from a distance. The last line in this stanza shows that the hawk thinks it is more important than the Earth itself, the hawk seems to think that the Earth is subservient to him. This entire poem represents a dictator or tyrant, they believe they are a the highest power or in relation to the poem, top of the food chain, they are untouchable for if anyone was out of line then there would be no problem taking care of it with the arms at the tyrants disposal much like the claws and beak of the hawk overpowering prey and relentlessly ripping it apart. The whole effect of the poem on the reader almost makes the reader feel somewhat insignificant, vulnerable and even threatened, as the hawk tells of how it, like a juggernaut, crushes all in his path with ease and without hesitation. During parts of the poem where the hawk boasts of its power the structure of the sentences emphasis its authority, yet in sentences where the hawk glides over the woodland and all in it the sentences flow into each other. Whereas charge of in the light brigade the theme of the poem is associated with pride in battle, selflessness, and true bravery. The soldiers in Charge of the Light Brigade have obviously fell victim to a tragic mistake from their lieutenant to ride into battle against thousands although they had only six hundred brave men The poem is very regular in it structure, with several examples of repetition. The Charge of the Light Brigade is a narrative poem, with each of the stanzas intensifying the story of the attack. The rhythm of the opening lines creates a relentless beat which is continued throughout the poem, reflecting the riding of the Light Brigade into battle on horseback. Tennyson’s heavy use of repetition in the poem is perhaps intended to communicate the relentlessness of the charge, and of the dangers faced by the Brigade. These dangers are presented as being unavoidable, with death inevitable â€Å"Cannon to the right of them, Cannon to the left of them, Cannon in front of them† — â€Å"Into the jaws of Death, Into the mouth of Hell† The final two lines of the first three stanzas act as a refrain, depicting realization of the inevitability of death regardless of the blind valor projected. Tennyson’s use of alliteration creates a more visceral effect, that is, it helps to create a realistic and powerful description. Tennyson uses a rhetorical question at the beginning of the final stanza: â€Å"When can their glory fade?† After the five previous stanzas the answer to this question is clear: their glory should not fade, as their sacrifice is symbolic of all those who sacrifice their lives for the country. The poem offers a balance of glorious language, which celebrates the Brigade, and graphic description of the danger they faced. In conclusion, these poets’ attitude to conflict is very different, Ted Hughes sees the power behind war and concentrates on the behavior of leaders and their control over their followers, however Alfred Tennyson concentrates on the soldiers patriotism and heroism in battle this Is influenced in no small part I imagine because he was poet laureate of the Crown.

Starbucks Chap 7 Malhotra - 1121 Words

M07_MALH4481_04_SE_WC07.QXD 6/8/11 1:16 PM Page 2 ONLINE VIDEO CASE 7.1 Naresh K. Malhotra, Basic Marketing Research: Integration of Social Media, 4e. Copyright  © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall. STARBUCKS: Staying Local While Going Global Through Marketing Research Named after the first mate in the novel Moby-Dick, Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world. As of 2010, there were more than 16,700 stores in over 50 countries including more than 8,850 company-operated stores and more than 7,850 licensed stores. The company’s objective is to establish Starbucks as the most recognized and respected brand in the world. It expects to achieve this by continuing with rapid expansion of retail stores†¦show more content†¦Growing a brand overseas, however, can be different from doing so in Starbucks’ home market. According to Thomas Yang, former senior VP of International Marketing, this difference in growth behavior in different countries can be attributed to Starbucks’ different stages of development in the United States and different parts of the world. In international markets, Starbucks is at the brand development and establishment stage, allowing consumers to discover what the brand is about and what the Starbucks experience is about. In contrast, Starbucks has had a presence in North America since 1971. In the United States, the Starbucks experience is pretty well-known and understood, and thus it is in a different stage. Starbucks has been extremely successful in achieving its objectives. It has been able to maintain a local feel despite massive growth around the globe. It has done this by stressing its culture and placing the focus on its employees and customers through marketing research. Starbucks hopes to continue staying local while going global through marketing research. Conclusion Starbucks has gone from a small local coffee startup in the 1970s to the largest coffeehouse company in the world. This success has largely been due to the strong connection it has been able to foster with its consumers and to

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