Reflection

1.  There are so many things that I have learned in this class that help me to understand how the world works.  The one thing that I feel really helped me was learning the differences between cultures.  I never really did realize how different each and ever country is, and even the difference within a country.  Each country has its own standards, whether that is physical standards like money or measurements or social standards like not smiling to people on the street or social interaction and greetings.

2.  I am extremely fascinated by the evolution of technology and how that has shaped international trading and the economy.  The world is becoming smaller at such a remarkable rate.  Someday I hope to come up with a new technology that will change the world and it is remarkable how much each new technology changes the world.  For example, the container has simply revolutionized the trading industry.  I am so curious to know what the next big innovation will be and how it will shape the world economy.

3.  I would tell a student taking this class to be prepared to learn about some very interesting and applicable information.  There is not another class on campus, as far as I know, that will better prepare you for traveling the world.  It is important to understand how the world works and the way of life of other cultures before traveling or living there, and this course did a fantastic job of that.  A bit of advice would be plan on going abroad.  I do not plan on going abroad in the fall but now I wish that I was.  Now that I have such a great background of France, I wish that I would have applied to go in the fall.

Is France trying to 'kill off' the e-cigarette? (6/4/2013)

A typical e-cigarette advertisement

On Friday (May 31st), France's health minister, Marisol Touraine, decided to establish "the same laws for electronic cigarettes as for regular cigarettes."  This means that they will not be allowed in certain public places, the legal age will be 16, and advertising will be prohibited.  Many physicians are outraged because there is no medical evidence proving that the electronic cigarettes are even dangerous.    The French Office for Tobacco Prevention reported that, "Right now, we don't know enough about the products [in e-cigarettes]...to our knowledge, appropriately made and used, it presents infinitely fewer dangers than [regular] cigarettes."  Dr William Lowenstein gave an interview with France 5 on May 16 about the benefits of the e-cigarettes and claims that, "...the benefits of e-cigarettes are undeniable."  I was interested in the interview so I was able to find it on youtube and have provided it below.  It is all in French but I was able to turn on English captions.  The words are directly translated so it is not completely clear.  Nonetheless, the point of the interview can still be made out.  The article continues to talk about the cigarette and then jumps to "a lucrative market."  The e-cigarette raked in 40 million euros in 2012 and is expected to make 100 million in 2013.  New laws against e-cigarettes will easily cut these projected numbers down.  

The interview with Dr William Lowenstein
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFgNVCR7yH8

It is very easy to see how these new laws will effect the cigarette market.  First of all, regular cigarettes have been seeing a huge drop in sales due to these newer, more healthy, e-cigarettes.  The regular cigarettes now have a competitor that by far exceeds their quality.  I would expect regular cigarette companies to quickly go out of business because the demand is now for e-cigarettes, not regular cigarettes.  The e-cigarette companies are simply supplying a better product that regular cigarette companies will not be able to compete with.  On the other hand, with the new government regulations, the e-cigarette companies will see a hit in sales in the near future.  They will be losing all sales to people under the age of 16, and the demand will decrease because people simply will not be able to smoke everywhere anymore.  We have not talked much about advertising in class but it is quite obvious that if there is no advertising, sales will decrease.  

The government has recently placed this law but I feel that it will soon change.  The medical evidence clearly shows that they are much safer than traditional cigarettes, therefore, they should be treated differently by the law.  I would expect this law to be altered in the near future due to medical research and statistical evidence.  If the law was to be changed, the e-cigarette companies would continue to see an increase in sales over the next few years.  

Article Link: http://www.france24.com/en/20130531-france-trying-kill-e-cigarette-marisol-touraine

City Analysis: Strasbourg, France

1.  Strasbourg has a population of approximately 760,000 people.  This puts Strasbourg as a regional city.  This makes Strasbourg the 9th largest city in France.  Some other smaller cities in and around Strasbourg include Eschau, Plobsheim and Mundalsheim.  Another large city near Strasbourg is across the border; Offenburg, Germany.

2.  Strasbourg offers a very large transportation industry.  This includes many warehouses and train depots due to Strasbourg's close proximity with Germany.  In addition, Strasbourg includes several universities including the Université de Strasbourg, the university that I will be attending.  Something that is unavailable in Strasbourg is a large public transportation system.  Larger cities like Paris will have many public transportation option such as trams, but Strasbourg does not have any trams.

EGT Consulting: Vehicle Market Executive Summary- France

France has a relatively high GDP per capita making the motor scooter simply too cheap to buy, especially with the increase in environmental awareness.  France is very dependent upon its cars as a mode of transportation but with the recent plans to further develop the train and tram systems, it is likely that car sales will drastically decrease.  The limousine market is brightest avenue to pursue.  France is home to dozens of global business empires with hundreds of executives and ambassadors who will most likely move by means of a limousine.  Paris is also a very common wedding location as well as honeymoon destination which has also proven to be quite profitable in the limousine market.  France has a well-established container transportation system with several major seaports.  Containers will be easily moved from ship to warehouse via trucks.  

French economy falls back into recession (5/21/13)

French 24's report on the new numbers released about the French economy*.

The French economy has fallen back into recession, a recession affecting the 17-nation eurozone that has lasted for the past 6 quarters.  This recession is statistically longer than the slump that hit the region during the 2008-2009 financial crisis.  According to the article, French GDP has dropped by 0.2 in the first quarter of 2013, which is neither progress nor setback from the previous quarter.  The national statistics agency INSEE reported "weak exports and drop in investment and household spending as factors in the decline."  INSEE reported that investment lost 0.9 percent, business investment lost 0.8 percent and exports lost 0.5 percent in this most recent quarter.  In addition, INSEE also reported household consumption dropped by 0.1 percent, which was extremely surprising despite a particularly cold winter that would cause higher spending on energy.

This entire article is related to the GDP equation described in class...
              GDP = Consumption + Investment + Government + (Exports - Imports)
The article even revealed the numbers associated with each aspect of the equation and it is clear as to why GDP has been dropping in the recent quarters.  The very first thing that the news spokeswoman said in the video related to the story was "Consumption, investments and exports ALL down."  This is clearly the reason why the GDP has been dropping.  Unfortunately, this is not what France needs to know; France needs to know why these aspects of GDP are dropping and how to reverse them.  I would expect that the French government will be doing all it can to get France's economy back to where it used to be.  Unfortunately, it seems that the government is "belt-tightening."  I would assume this would imply increased taxes on consumers and businesses, which is simply hurting every aspect of the economy.  Businesses are simply closing down and consumers just aren't buying goods, which is going to hurt the GDP even more.

I have not been following the European recession for the length of its life but if I had to guess, I would assume that the economy is suffering because jobs simply are being outsourced.  I would expect that France is experiencing things similar to the United States, where huge employers are simply going to where the labor is cheap.  Transportation costs have dropped so much in the past years that it is more profitable to send the raw materials to where the labor is cheap and ship the finished goods around the world from there.  The way to reverse what is happening in France is to create more jobs there.  French companies keep cutting jobs when they need to be creating them.  One of my previous news blog posts was about how a bank was cutting thousands of jobs in Paris.  France needs to get manufacturing back in the country so that exports can increase, as well as consumption because people will have money in their pockets from the jobs.  A policy that could influence this could be to create high taxes on imported goods so that companies will create the goods in state.  This may have some repercussions, however, because other countries will retaliate and they may create their own high taxes on imported goods.

Article: http://www.france24.com/en/20130515-france-economy-recession-insee

*The video showed above is not the video I referenced in my writing.  The video I reference can be found in the article, simple click on the link above.

"The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger" by Marc Levinson: Chapter 1

1.  A selection that I found particularly interesting was when the author was talking about the movement of shipping crates.  I never did realize how many crates were actually being moved at a fairly quick rate.  It seems that the unloading and loading of crates is a well oiled machine that has revolutionized the movement of goods.  "The process is repeated every two minutes, or even every ninety seconds, each crane moving 30 or 40 boxes an hour from ship to dock."  The crane is simultaneously loading and unloading the ship for the next shipment.  It is absolutely astonishing to me how many goods are being moved in such a short amount of time now.

2.  The author sees that the development of the shipping container has drastically contributed to globalization.  This is even clear in the title of the book "how the shipping container made the world smaller..."  The world truly has become smaller.  The author describes how a shipment of 35-tons of coffeemakers can move 11,000 miles around the world in as little as 22 days.  The author also talks about how pharmaceutical companies would not even see the benefit from trying to send drugs abroad because of the shipping costs but nowadays, with very limited shipping costs, it is possible to ship necessary drugs virtually anywhere.  In addition, the author talks about how other countries are getting involved.  For example, although Apple computers are designed and developed in California, these crates make it possible for Apple to ship raw materials to China, and in return, get thousands of Macbook Pros.  The shipping container has certainly contributed greatly to globalization.

3.  I believe that it is pretty clear who will gain and lose from this major transformation of global transportation.  First of all, it is pretty clear that big businesses will gain from this change.  Companies are reducing their shipping costs greatly with the change in transportation.  Any money that was previously spent on shipping is now profit.  In addition, this change will lead to expansion because companies will be able to ship their goods all over the world with very little costs.  In addition, this can create jobs for underdeveloped countries.  Big businesses will send raw materials to where the labor is cheap, creating thousands of jobs in underdeveloped countries.  On the other hand, this means that the same businesses will be cutting jobs in the United States and moving them to where the labor in cheap. The author also touches on how small businesses will suffer from this transformation.  "...factories in Malaysia could deliver blouses to Macy's in Herald Square more cheaply than could blouse manufacturers in the nearby lofts of New York's garment district."  This does not seem like it will turn out well for small businesses who do not have to ability to lower prices to compete with these global businesses.

French Bank Société Générale announces job cuts after profit slump (5/7/13)

The French bank, Société Générale, plans to cut more than a thousand jobs after reporting that the first-quarter net profit fell by half to 364 million euros.  This cut will call for the loss of about 550 jobs at the bank's headquarters in Paris.  The bank employs over 150,000 people throughout the world including 60,000 in France.  

This series of job cuts may result in a decrease of the national GDP of France as well as in other countries.  In all countries where the bank's jobs will be cut, there will be a decrease in consumption due to less money in the people's pockets.  On the other hand, the bank plans to invest 600 million euros which should balance out the changes in GDP in France.  I would not expect this to really effect the GDP too much because I expect the bank to get back to where it was and the economy should strengthen.  It will be interesting to observe any drastic changes in the economy due to the sudden increase of unemployment.  

What led to this situation was the decrease in money made by the bank.  The bank looks at those 154,000 jobs as expenses and the bank wants to decrease that expense so that they can get back to making more money.  I feel that this will only work if the bank also goes through with the investment part of the move.  The bank needs to change its ways so that they do not continue to lose profit.  The bank currently does have plans for a new program that would involve restructuring and the 600 million euro investment.  I am not really familiar with any policies associated with the bank situation in France or exactly how the bank system works unfortunately.  

Article: http://www.english.rfi.fr/france/20130507-french-bank-societe-generale-announces-job-cuts-after-profit-slump