What Happened This Week

   This week in class we learned about measuring economics. First we learned about GDP (Gross Domestic Product), which is the market value of all final goods and services. Economists calculate GDP by adding consumption, investments, government spending, and the difference between what we import and export. GDP is important because it indicates how well an economy is doing. We also learned about standard of living, unemployment rate, inflation, consumer price index, and national debt. To show the difference in these categories between different countries we filled out a chart. The chart showed major difference in the countries I chose but they all had one thing in common, a large amount of debt. In my opinion, countries spend too much on things that are unnecessary and that is contributing to debt. But the lack of peace in countries and mostly between countries is a huge cause of debt. Countries have to spend billions of dollars to provide military and equipment. Debt will eventually affect countries in a big way if they do not figure out a way to fix it.

Competition

    Recently, in Personal Finance and Economics we learned about the different forms of competition. Perfect Competition has numerous buyers and sellers, standardized products, freedom to enter and exit the market, independent buyers and sellers, and well-informed buyers and sellers. Monopoly has only one seller, a restricted a regulated market, and a control on prices. There is four types of monopolies: natural, geographical, technological, and governmental. Next, is monopolistic competition, which has many sellers and many buyers, similar but differentiated products, limited control of price, and freedom to enter or exit the market. Lastly, there's oligopoly, which has few sellers and many buyers, standardized or differentiated products, more control of prices, and little freedom to enter or exit market. These forms of competition have many differences as well as similarities.
In my opinion, monopolistic competition could be most successful. Not only does it have many sellers and buyers but is has similar but differentiated products and freedom to enter and exit the market, giving more options for the consumer. I went back and forth between perfect competition and monopolistic competition because they are so similar. But perfect competition offers only standardized products and has independent buyers and seller, not allowing control of prices. Which ever type of competition is used it will have a great impact on buyers, sellers, and the economy as a whole.