Macroeconomics Assignments & Disscussions Assignment - 1

Macroeconomics Assignments & Disscussions - Assignment Example Two years before Pearl Harbor, the United States was a neutral country, meaning it did not want to be involved in the war since the country was still recovering from the effects of the Great Depression. But after Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt sought reason to enter the war. The president said that the only way to fight was to produce weapons and materials for war. This led to economic activities in the once sleepy towns of the U.S. which had been hard hit by the Great Depression (â€Å"PBS.org: War Production† par. 1). Production of war material such as aircraft and aircraft carriers, artillery pieces, tanks and hundreds of thousands of army trucks triggered the growth of the American economy. The United States manufactured more guns and ships than Europe and Japan did. The US had to shift from manufacturing agricultural products to war material (â€Å"PBS.org: War Production† par. 4). This is a report of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the second quarter of 2014 which has registered at $17,311,300,000,000. GDP, the article explains, is the gross economic output of the country, which may include goods and services. GDP is an economic measure which tells whether the economy is doing fine or not good. The article also explains about nominal in relation to real GDP. Nominal GDP provides information about economic output, with some quarterly output statistics but with no inflation calculation, and is also used for U.S. debt comparison. Debt-to-GDP ratio, which has been calculated at 102%, is an important part of the nominal GDP report. On the other hand, the U.S. per capita for 2013, an economic indicator for every American in the U.S., was estimated at $52,800. The article clearly explains the amount of GDP the country attained for the second quarter which is more than $17 trillion, but only for the second quarter of this year. It does not only provide news about GDP but it also explains about the U.S. economic output. The

Japanese tariff on imported rice Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Japanese tariff on imported rice - Research Paper Example These policies were modified sequentially thereafter until early 1980s when, as a result of pressure from Trading partners such as US made them open up rice borders. For instance, California rice producers in 1986 filed a petition to the government of United States under section 301 of the constitution that the policies of Japan were detrimental to the industry. During this time, Japan was imposing a subsidy of up to $2,200 per metric ton to domestic producers in Japan. As a result, the subsidies were about 10 times the World prices (Bergsten, Fred, Itō, & Noland, 2001). A tariff is a levied tax on the imports that raise effectively the cost of the goods imported in relation to the domestic products. Some specific tariffs are imposed as a charge that is fixed for very unit of imported good. In tariffs, there are entities that lose and those that gains. In more general terms, the state in most cases increases significantly since tariffs increases the revenue of the state. In addition, domestic producers gain since the tariff offers them protection against external competitors by cost increase of the foreign goods imported. As a result, consumer loses since they must pay extra for the imports. Thus, tariffs are anti-consumer and pro-producer, and they reduce the global efficiency of the economy (Bergsten, Fred, Itō, & Noland, 2001). As part of the policy introduced by the government, imports on rice have been banned by the government in Japan except the processed forms. In the same regard, disproportionate governing authority wielded by rice farmer’s production of rice has been subsidized. Trade friction between US and Japan has worsened. Tokyo logical basis on imposing such policies is to attain self-sufficiency in the production for food security reasons. In the same vein, farm groups domestically have maintained that cultivation of rice is part of their cultural diversity. Hayami (1988) argued that consumers of rice