Address an economic issue of current interest to WSJ readers Assignment

Address an economic issue of current interest to WSJ readers - Assignment Example This is a considerable drop, when compared the previous year’s estimate of 12%. This has also caused new home building to slow down which directly affects economic growth. Besides, the effect of this drop to the economy, those planning to buy new homes may have a smile as the pressure on home prices is expected to ease up with a notable drop of 1.2% compared to the same period in 2013. After reading the article, I would like to share few ideas that crossed my mind concerning what the editor states about economic growth and the real reasons behind this drop. For a start, I believe there are various reasons that are responsible for this drop and severe weather and rising mortgage is only a fraction of these reasons. As it is a trend, new homes only account for 10% of all home sales; therefore, a drop in sales for home sales does not necessarily mean that homebuyers have slowed down. This means that, despite the severe weather conditions and rising mortgage, new home sales could have gone down after losing potential buyers to older house sales. An article in 2013 by Cho highlighted that Shadow Inventory held by the GSEs and US-HUD largely outnumbered REO. This shows there is a large supply of homes that could come to market and sustain the current demand, leaving little room for new homes. In support of this opinion, another article by Gundlach specifies that the hou sing market is soft and has been significantly slowed down by the aging pool of loans in the foreclosure process. The forecast done by National Association for Business Economics on this year’s housing investment is a valid reason that, despite the severe weather conditions, new home ownership will still experience slow growth perhaps, the rise in mortgage being a more viable reason. Other significant factor in the drop, in new home ownership, is the increasing cost of

Social performance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

Social performance - Essay Example ce an average of about 3.3 million barrels of oil on a daily basis in addition to its having proven oil reserves estimated to stand at about 17 billion oil barrels. BP is also considered to be among the largest producers of global natural gas producers. Of note is that the production of natural gas by BP plc currently makes up for more than half of the company’s energy production. It is this aspect that has caused the company to become the largest natural gas suppliers and producers in the United States (British Petroleum, 2013). There are a number of BP plc external environment factors that can be able to greatly affect the success of the company. These include factors such as Economic factors and social factors. Economic factors such as interest rates, inflation, economic growth, exchange rates and taxation changes can greatly affect the overall success of BP plc. High interest rates might potentially deter the company from investing in certain regions across the world because it generally costs more to borrow, factors such as inflation might result in the provocation of high wage demands by the company’s employees which will then result in increased cost of production, having a strong currency may potentially cause it to become more difficult for the company to export its produce as it might raise the price in terms of foreign currency. Social factors can also affect the success of BP. Changes in social trends can impact the demand of the company’s products as well as the willingness and availability of individuals to work for the company as employees (Abrams, 2013). Factors such as an increasing aging population can also force BP plc to recruit older employees whose rate of production might be relatively low. BP plc has a number of key stake holders that are found to be crucial in the company’s operations, some of these stake holders include the company employees, its shareholder and analysts as well as various governments and regulators. BP plc.