Gas prices... we've beaten this topic to death

I was watching the today show (not as great after the loss of Katie, but still informational) and they had an analyst on, talking about gas prices... He said that we may be reaching a point where the high prices will start to affect demand. If the price rises to a certain price, there will be a breaking point where americans will actually lower thier gas usage. Matt made the point that although demand will drop here in the US, other countries will continue to pay the higher price, so oil industries may not drop thier prices. It seems as if when ever we see light at the end of the tunnel, somebody turns off the sun... if you get my drift.

5, 5 dollar, 5 dollar footlong!!!!

So im sure we have all heard the catchy commericals for Subway's 5 dollar foot longs.... Well i recently saw a 5 dollar foot long commercial for quiznos!! those copycats... I thought this was a good example of competition. I think that Subway and Quiznos are monopolistic competitors... and as Subway dropped thier price for a foot long.. quiznos was forced to drop thiers as well because the market demand dropped to 5 dollars. This is the idea of how competition is good for consumers because it raises thier consumer surplus... i now wonder if 5 dollar foot longs will become the norm...

WOW!!!

So i was shopping in Shamburg Illinios this weekend for prom dresses... Kathy Erickson was purchasing her beautifully fabulous prom dress when she asked the cashier what the sales tax was there... she said it was 8.75%!!! thats way up from our 5% and way way up from minnesotas 0%!! She said it was raised because of a city tax! Is this price discrimination, or just a random higher tax? Woodfield Mall (which we were at) and Guarnee Mills are both 8.75%! Does anyone know the reason for this insane tax, cause i cant understand how it varies that much!

Maurices

I was shopping at Maurices at JC last weekend and with my purchase i was given a coupon. It was 20% my next purchase if i brought a gas receipt in with me. I thought it was kinda a wierd concept. The cashier (who was really nice and helpful thoughout the visit) told me that they were trying to give people a little bit of a break with the taxes and such. I thought i was nice.. but then again its rewarding people for the inevitable. People drive, why not give them a little perk at the pump. Thats a nice slogan, "a perk at the pump"... i like that.

FROSTIES

I was going through some old stuff from back in the day when i was done with my portfolio and i found a free cone certificate from frostie freeze. The coupon read "one free 45 cent cone" The cheapest cone you can get now days is a dollar!! I was thinking about that inflation... thats over a 100 percent rise in price!! Everyone complains that the prices have risen so much each year for frosties but yet we all still go there. It almost seems as if frosties is an inelastic good!!! No matter how high the prices go up... the demand is still higher!! Are we really that obsessed??

Grapefruit Season

So I was shopping with my mom this weekend and I was craving grapefruits. (they are my favorite fruit ya know!) SO I went to buy the grapefuit fruit cups things and they were only 6 dollars for 10 cups! This was way lower then when I bought the same cups in the fall and early winter! They were not on sale or anything... the price was just way lower. So I bought 2 boxes (and ate all 20 cups already). I was thinking about why they were so much cheaper now... thinking maybe they were old, or flawed. So I was bored and looked this up... "The season for grapefruit depends on where the grapefruits are growing. In Arizona and California, the peak season is January to June, but in Florida and Texas, the season is October to June." (http://www.seasonalrecipes.com/season/grapefruit.php) This is prime time for grapefruit! So heres what I concluded... Fresh grapefuit and grapefruit cups are substitute goods. And since the Demand for fresh grapefruit has risen as it is in season and tastes the most delicious... demand for the cups of processed grapefruits has dropped... thus lowering the price.
The End

NEW CAR!!!!

SO my parents and i were looking at cars for me to take to college, specifically a toyota corolla. We were looking at the 06's but the dealer said that there is a 1000 dollar rebate on new 08's which would make it almost cheaper to buy a brand spanking new car!!! I saw an 08 that i like and he said that there wasnt a rebate on it cause it wasnt a NEW 08. i didnt understand what the difference was that a slightly used one didnt get 1000 off but the new ones did, but they were almost the same starting. he explained this....
THe new 09s are coming out so they want to get ride of the 08's because someone in the market for a new car would want and 09 and not and 08. but if someone was in the market for a used car.. they would want a used 08 instead of a new one... so pretty much the used car loookers want not new... and the new car owners want new 09... so to highten the demand for the new 08's to get them off the lot... they give rebates for them... which is fine with me... ill take 1000 dollars off a new car!!

Beef Recall

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3673585&page=1

This is an article on the recent beef recall. The recall includes 21.7 million pounds of meat, "enough to make a McDonald's regular hamburger for every adult in America." The recall started in August, but has been expanded over 600 times to widen the range of affected beef.

This obviously has a huge effect on the economy. Demand has dropped and supply is close to follow.

The main determinent of demand affected would be consumer tastes. Personal tastes are directly changed due to the recall. '"You don't know what's in it," one concerned shopper said. "It makes me feel very scared, and I don't know what to eat."' People will be skeptical of buying beef, even if it is unaffected, due to the danger assiociated with some.

Supply will be greatly affected because the government is investigating several beef farms supplying the sick cows. If these farms are shut down, there will be less suppliers, causing less supply. Government policy will also change supply as huge amounts of beef are being recalled.

Many people are calling for stricter testing and processing due to the recent rise in ecoli outbreaks in various foods. The USDA has no explanation for the recent rise but they better figure something out soon cause I'm not a big fan of soy burgers.

GDP data

So i was on this website... http://www.bea.gov/national/index.htm#gdp... and it had the data for the Current-Dollar and "Real" Gross Domestic Product from the year 1929 on. http://www.bea.gov/national/xls/gdplev.xls is the excel document in which the data is contained. I thought i was really interesting that the only time we didnt have a rise in GDP was during the great depression. Even with the quarterly estimates of this year the numbers rose. ANother thing i thought was really interesting was the fact that in 1929 the GDP was at
103.6, which was really high compared to the following years of the great depression. Accoring to the data, the united states didnt recover from the crash until 1940 where the GDP was almost where it was in 1929 at 101.4. Another fact that I found interesting is that the data shows both
GDP in billions of current dollars and GDP in billions of chained 2000 dollars, which gives vastly different data for each year. My question to the reader is this... they show the data as such because the value of the has changed over time.... people get paid more and they also pay more for things as Naked Economics points out, but yet what we get paid has increased proportionally faster than the prices... does this show a large amount of "deflation" over time... and if so... what do you think is the cause?? just wondering your thoughts