I read an article in the December 12 Daily Press by Sandra Pendicini titled "Restaurants Change Their Tunes."  It explained that chains such as Olive Garden and Red Lobster fell that a good way to make more money is to update their soundtrack.  Olive Garden used to play songs by people like Frank Sinatra, but now he is heard less often and artists like Adele are being played more.  The sales managers at these restaurants think that by playing new music will attract younger customers, and change the atmosphere of the place, which might people want to stay longer and spend more money.  I think that this is a good marketing strategy, yet I think Olive Garden should probably keep Itialian music more often than not because it might add to the theme of the restaurant.  I also disagree with Sonny's BBQ because they have decided to play less country music.  A BBQ restaurant in the South should definitely play country music to add to the atmosphere.  In class, maybe Pete and Joe's or Weserville family restaurant could learn a lesson from this.

On Sunday, December First,  Daily Press had an article by Geoff Williams titled "Bracing For the High Price of Teen Drivers."  It explained that a new driver is very expensive for a teen's parents. Insurance companies will raise the insurance rate when you add your child to your policy.  A girl in Alexandria, VA received her driver's license, and since than has gotten into two accidents.  The insurance company quickly cancelled her family's policy.  The average premium increase in the nation after adding a 16 to 19 year old driver to the policy is 84 percent.  Insurance rates are raised higher if a male is added. I think this is hard financially on parents of teenage drivers.  I do not think this is unfair, however.  Teen drivers are more likely to get into a wreck because they are new to the skill.  Insurance companies will lose a lot of money if they have to pay the cost of the wrecks a new driver will get in. However, I also think these increased insurance rates will affect the economy because it may discourage the parents of wanting their teen to drive.  This would mean less people buying cars as well as gasoline.  Already, the majority of teens do not want to drive because it is too expensive for them anyway.  With an increase in insurance rates, though, new drivers are more expensive to themselves as well as their parents.

In yesterday's Daily Press I read an article by Robert Reich titled "Henry Ford could educate Walmart."  The article was interesting because we recently had a debate about Walmart in Weserville, and we had talked about Walmart's low wages.  It turns out these low wages might be hurting Walmart's sales, as well as the economy.  Mainly people who work at Walmart shop at places like Walmart.  If the company were to increase its wages, then the workers could buy more, helping the economy as well as Walmart.  Walmart is so big that if it increased its wages, many other companies would as well, boosting the entire nation's economy.  Henry Ford did this in 1914.  By increasing his wages to his factory workers, many more people could now afford his cars, meaning he made a fortune and helped America.  I admire good ol' Henry's descision, because he helped his workers, the economy, and got rich.  I think Walmart would be very wise to do the same, however they may not understand the benefits.   In our classroom, we could increase Weserville's economy if maybe the almighty giver of our paychecks would maybe increase our wages...            Maybe.  Anyway this would let us be able to put more money into the market of Weserville.  Do you want to earn more money and at the same time help your town?????  Wink wink nudge nudge mrs weser :)

An article in Yesterday's Daily Press by Andrea Chang called "Heat on Blackberry to hang up on phones" showed me that Blackberry is in the trough part of the business cycle.  The author thinks that if Blackberry keeps on trying to sell smart phones then they will never enter a reconstructing stage.  In the business cycle, this means they will never reach a peak again.  Blackberry is trying to transform its business model to save itself.  I think this is a smart decision because the company is obviously not doing to well in the smart phone department.  I hardly see Blackberry phones at all anymore.  To other businesses in the smart phine market, mainly Apple and Android, this is probably good because even if it was a very weak competitor, it still is decreasing the competition a little bit.

On Tuesday, October 29, an article in the Daily Press titled "Burger king thinking 'impactful' ", explained that Burger King is not going to put introduce as many seasonal menu items in order to improve the speed of service as well as profits.  They will stock new and interesting food items, such as a bacon sundae, but not as many as usual.  I think this is a good idea for Burger King because they can make more profit, and satisfy customers at the same time.  Though there are not as many new food items, the items seem very attention grabbing, like bacon sundae. Like we learned about in class, fast food hamburgers are an oligopoly, because a few companies own almost all of the percentage of the market.  If Burger King offers these cool menu items, its competitors may need to rack their brains and find some new ideas as well.

This week we started a project about advertising tourism in Weserville.  We must think of ideas that will appeal to other people and make them want to come to the town.  We have learned before that one of the factors that changes demand is consumer taste, which is influenced greatly by advertising.  I think that it is interesting how advertisers are paid money for the sole purpose of changing someone's mind.  They would have to be good at this in order for the business to make stacks and stacks.  BOYCOTT RAY'S BLOG!!!!

This week I read another article about the stock market.  It was in Wednesday's newspaper and written by Gail Marks Jarvis.  The article was called "Stocks Unfazed By Stalemate."  It said that even though the government is temporarily  shut down,  investors of the stock market did not panic and frantically sell out.  The article explains says that if anything, the stocks went up.  I was scared at first with our virtual stock market game, but luckily I forgot to check my stocks so I didn't have a chance to sell out.

Good News! An article written by Walter Hamilton in the Daily Press today was titled "Americans 2% Richer Than 3 Months Ago."  And guess why???? THE STOCK MARKET!   People who have enough money to own stocks and a house are wealthier than they were earlier this year.  An ultraeasy monetary policy has been used to boost recovery in the nation's housing market after the Great Recession.  This helped put U.S. stocks at record levels.   It's kind of cool we are playing the stock market game at the same time this article was written.

An article in today's Daily Press called "New Countertops Counter Germs" that was written by Tara Bozick talked about a Sentara hospital in Norfolk buying new countertops and surface infused with copper.  Copper is known to kill bacteria, and the company that is providing the surfaces claims they will kill 99.9 percent of the bacteria.  The hospital will be putting the copper infused surfaces on commonly touched places like doorknobs.  Even though this is probably pretty expensive, as copper tends to be, they are not using straight copper, just surfaces infused with it.  I think it is important for hospitals to continue to look for new ways to keep the hospital clean, to protect the patients and help their own income by bulding a good reputation.

This week we started by continuing our discussion of market economies.  We talked about their disadvantages, such as unequal distribution of wealth and the economic good of an individual is superior, and the advantages, such as freedom, profit, and efficiency.  We also talked about Adam Smith who was a supporter of a free market economy.  He wrote The Wealth of Nations and was most famous for his idea of the invisible hand.  However, he thought that there should be no government involvement in the market.  I disagree with this because I think without the government there would be much disorder.  The government needs to play at least a small part in the market so that the product market and the factor market are receiving resources.  Adam Smith thought that if we were left alone, that human nature would work everything out on its own, but I think it is too much of a risk to try it without a body to maintain order.

On September first there was an article called "Living Large? Start with Small Cuts, Like Bottled Water" in the Daily Press by Brian J. O'Connor.   His mother-in-law lives in Tampa, Florida where fertilizer from the orange groves gets into the water and makes it taste terrible. making buying bottled water a necessity. But Americans who live in areas with the best and cleanest drinking water on the planet spent 12 billion dollars on bottled water last year. If people want to go on vacations or to afford a car, you should start with cutting out small things like bottled water and just drink out of the tap. He says you won't make much of a dent in your savings, but if you cut down on things like housing, transportation and food as well forgoing bottled water you can make big changes.  I think this is very true.  I don't mind drinking out of the tap in our area, but if people really hate it they can buy pitchers that filter the water as you pour. I can see how not buying bottled water would cut down on money spending.

     In this Sunday's Daily Press was an article written by Steve Rosen about new freshmen in college and their  dorm supplies. The article was called "Shopping list essentials for the college dorm room."  Steve Rosen explained that families buy all they think they need, only to find out later that they have to buy an item for a more expensive price than they could have purchased it for back at home. If the parents feel panicked about their children leaving and the children themselves are stressed, it could lead to a bad economic choice.  The author says commonly overlooked items ares a set of basic tools, a safe, and bicycle and computer locks.
     I think this is good advice. I can see how an overwhelmed college student would forget these small but important things.  The same is true if you go on vacation and forget something such as sunscreen or a jacket, the only thing to do would be to buy it for a higher price than at home.