SYNTHESIS

Due to technical problems while shooting this video, the beginning of the act was not successfully captured. We sincerely apologise for this problem.


Our group presented 3 scenes set in a flower shop market that depicted how the market reacts under certain situations.

Scene 1 is when a perfectly competitive market was described using the conditions we visually presented. The actors, in addition, explained further the characteristics of such a market in their dialogs. A perfectly competitive market, as we tried (and hopefully succeeded) to depict, is a type of market where there are many buyers and sellers and which has homogeneous products. The actors' dialogs highlighted these and some other traits of this market. Our background, presented using a set of flower shop pictures and animation, showed the uniformity of product prices (if you noticed the price lists in the pictures) within the market to show that buyers and sellers have negligible impact on market price. Furthermore, in this scene, we decided to have dialogs in different languages to emphasize our cultural differences and our unity as a team, and to imply universality of a perfectly competitive market's characteristics (meaning such markets exist around the world).

Scene 2 was designed to show what surplus is and how it affects market price and vice versa. It showed that in the presence of surplus, market price drops. Once again, the dialogs played a huge part in showing these concepts. 

Scene 3 was crafted to explain shortage and its effects to market price. We showed that shortage causes price to increase to reach equilibrium. The scene touched a little of the concept of equilibrium to help illustrate the reasons why price adjusts for both situations (shortage and surplus).

The last scene was purely for entertainment :)


Production

The storyline, proposed by Donnavie Geronimo and James Angub, was inspired by the nearing Valentine's Day and was later developed into a script by Kevin Milo and Donnavie. Because it was difficult to show the concepts, the scriptwriters focused on the actors' dialogs to inject the concepts into the story. As suggested by the scriptwriters, the production team, prepared a number of props such as the paper flowers and bouquet, and the visual and music effects on the background to compensate for the overemphasis on dialogs.

Donna, Maricris, and Joy preparing for the Flower Props...
it seems the three are enjoying themselves... just look at Maricris' wide grin :D

Leong, Maricris and Hyeyoon practicing their lines...
and James and Donna discussing the script..
ooh~ Our Director Donna is hardworking as always

The whole class is busy for the role play...
we were all probably exhausted after the presentation
but we had fun, anyways...

The team had been very busy preparing for the presentation. Everyone helped for the props and at the same time prepared for their lines. 

Explanation of the Perfectly Competitive market

setting the set?... it looks like it... but we're actually tidying up in this picture
as the next group prepares their stuffs

Production Staff / Cast

	Scene Roles	Production Roles
Angub, James	Buyer #3	Location Manager
Arce, JA	Buyer #1	Synthesizer
Capocao, Rovi	Flower vendor	Cinematographer
Caralos, Jill	Understudy	Art Director/Special effects supervisor
Clarin, Joy	James’ girlfriend	Production Manager/Props master
DelaRosa,Migs	Buyer #2
Esgana, Maric	Korean Flower Vendor	Cinematographer
Geronimo,Cha	Narrator	Script writer/Director/Narrator
Kim Hye-yoon	Korean Flower Vendor
Jeresa	Understudy	Props master assistant
Lim, Karen	Japanese Flower Vendor	Visual/Music Effects Producer
Leong	Ms. Capocao's understudy
Milo, Kevin	Understudy	Script writer/casting director
Reyes, Alvin	Waiter

Taxi fare hike up starting Monday

From: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/breaking-news/taxi-fare-hike-starting-monday

Friday, January 21, 2011

THE P10 increase in flag-down rate of all taxicabs in the country will be implemented starting Monday, January 24.

The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) has increase the flag-down rate from P30 to P40 for the first 500 meters and from P2.50 to P3.50 for every succeeding 250 meters.

The LTFRB based its decision on the petition filed last January 22 by the Philippine National Taxi Operators Association (PNTOA) stressing that "since the last taxi fare increase was approved on September 30, 2004, the costs of living, fuel, spare parts, vehicle maintenance and labor have increased."

The decision, however, states that taxi operators need to comply with conditions to charge the increase, which include the use of taxi meters that issue receipts, payment of the P510 filing fee, proper resealing of taxi meters, and at least three uniforms for each driver.(Sunnex)

Reaction:
This move by the LTFRB will not only hurt the students like me but will also hurt a lot of taxi drivers. I interviewed a taxi driver and he said that this increase will hurt him specially because he has an old taxi cab. He said that old taxi cabs will now have lesser customer than before (thinking that as of now they have much lesser customer than those good new taxis) because of the fact that people want something worth their money and will not settle for an old cab (unless in a very odd situation). I as a student will be having a hard time with this one because of the price which is very high. I do think that the one who would benefit the most out of this increase are the jeepneys, given that a lot of students like me would start to think of the expensiveness of hiring a taxi cab. That's all and by the way the one that I interviewed was my uncle and he's a brilliant taxi driver whose taxi is as cool as Alaska. God bless us all. 

Pasig River rehab a failure

‘One possible explanation is that no money was to be made by improving Pasig’s water quality or removing the squatters from its banks.’

THE Asian Development Bank has declared the Pasig River rehabilitation project a failure, two-thirds into its 15 years of programmed completion in 2014.

"The program was too ambitious, and its implementation arrangements too complicated to be led by a newly established agency," ADB said in a report on the Pasig River Environment Management and Rehabilitation Sector Development Program which it primarily funded.

Among the key goals of the program is to improve the quality of the river to Class C standard by 2014. Class C standard river water is capable of sustaining aquatic life, is suitable for secondary contact sports and, after treatment, may be used for industrial processes. This is supposed to be achieved by improving the oxygen level to support life.

ADB said the targeted level of oxygen was met only between 2000-2003 and has since been declining.

"These results indicate that no progress in improving the water quality has been achieved over the last 10 years and attaining Class C water standards by 2014 is not achievable," ADB said.

As to the two goals – encouraging urban renewal within the Pasig River basin and upgrading urban areas around the river – these are as unrealizable as the

Class C water target by 2014.

The ADB said the program proved difficult to implement due to a) the complicated institutional structure and b) the wide scope of activities, and – surprise – c) "the changing political landscape."

"The success of the program depended on high-level political support which was reduced with the change in administration in 2001," ADB said.

ADB did not elaborate, but the reduced funding for the program underscores the low-priority given after the "change of administration in 2001."

The program’s original funding was $250 million, with the ADB extending $100 million as policy loan and another $75 million as investment loan for project developments in the area. The government committed $75 million as counterpart fund.

Government fiscal constraints reduced the spending to $98 million. ADB contributed $63 million, while the government contributed $35 million.

The ADB, diplomatic as always, did not identity the administration which was half-hearted in supporting the rehabilitation of the river. But there could be no other than Gloria Arroyo’s (2001 to 2010).

So why the weakened support? One possible explanation is that Mike Arroyo never had the enthusiasm for the project that Ming Ramos had. Another is that no money was to be made by improving Pasig’s water quality or removing the squatters from its banks.

Take your pick.

Reaction:

This certain problem lies on the initiative of those who are on the top to make this river as good as it was before. This is not only a problem that can be easily solved with funds or money but needs a leader to implement this solutions and alternatives. Take for example those squatters who are near the river, this problem can never be solved unless those squatters be relocated in order to prevent garbage or trashes from this people to flow again to the river that would render almost if not all the solutions useless. The government must take a stand and implement this solutions in order to attract more tourists and help the economy boost.

Chapter 3 Review Question Answers

1.	The production possibilities frontiers used to explain trade in the text are straight lines because: a. the author assumes the farmers can switch at a constant rate from producing meat to producing potatoes.

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2.	The principle of Absolute Advantage refers to the situation in which one producer: b. can produce a good using fewer resources than other producers.

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3.	The principle of Comparative Advantage refers to the situation in which one producer: a. has a lower opportunity cost than other producers in the production of a good.

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4.	Which of the following is true regarding the principle of Absolute Advantage? c. Nations should specialize in producing those goods for which they have an Absolute Advantage.

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5.	Which of the following is true regarding the principle of Comparative Advantage? b. Nations should specialize in producing those goods for which they have the lowest opportunity cost.

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6.	The boy next door has offered to mow Tiger Woods' lawn. It will take this boy twice as long as Tiger Woods to mow the lawn. Would Tiger Woods let the boy mow his lawn, instead of doing it himself? a. Yes, as long as the boy's opportunity cost is less than half of Tiger Woods' opportunity cost.

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7.	Suppose that engaging in free trade means we have to stop making cars, which will cause bankruptcies and will make people lose their jobs. Is it still worth having free trade? b. Yes, because the gains outweigh the losses: new businesses and new jobs will flourish in other industries.

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8.

Suppose that Jill can type 10 pages per hour in the computer, while Jim can only type 8. Further suppose that Jill can review 5 articles per hour while Jim can only review 2. If they are working on a final project together, who should specialize in what task in order to be as productive as possible? b. Jill should specialize in reviewing articles and Jim in typing.

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9.	Suppose that Jill can type 10 pages per hour in the computer, while Jim can only type 8. Further suppose that Jill can review 5 articles per hour while Jim can only review 2. Based on this, we can say that: b. Jill has an absolute advantage over Jim in reviewing articles.

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10.	The principle of Comparative Advantage argues all of the following, EXCEPT: c. free trade allows producers to specialize.

Chapter 2 Review Question Answers

1.	Which of the following is FALSE, regarding economics as a science? d. Economic theories represent irrefutable facts.

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2.	Economists use assumptions in order to: c. simplify economic theories, so as to make it possible to answer economic questions.

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3.	Economic models are: d. all of the other options are true.

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4.	All of the following are characteristics of the Circular Flow Model of the economy, EXCEPT: c. the model describes two circular flows: one for inputs and one for resources.

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5.	The circular flow model of the economy demonstrates that: b. dollars in the economy are used over and over in an endless cycle.

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6.	Which of the following is true regarding the Production Possibilities Frontier Model of the economy? a. Any point along the PPF represents an efficient level of production.

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7.	Economic growth in the economy can be portrayed in the Production Possibilities Frontier model as a: b. shift of the PPF away from the origin.

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8.	Microeconomics is the study of: c. how households and firms make decisions and how they interact in markets.

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9.	Which of the following is an example of a normative statement? b. The government should increase spending during recessions, so that the economy recovers quickly.

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10.	Economists tend to disagree with each because: d. all the other options are true.

Chapter 1 Review Question Answers

1. Government policies designed to promote efficiency:

a. usually do so at the expense of equity.

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2.	All of the following can be considered a student's costs of going to college, EXCEPT: c. room and board (that costs her about the same as she was paying before entering college).

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3.

An airline's plane from Los Angeles to New York is about to take off, but it still has a few seats empty. If the average cost per seat is $500, what price should the airline charge passengers in standby to fill in those remaining seats? (Consider that quantitative decisions are made at the margin) c. Any price above zero that will entice standby passengers to take the flight.

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4.	The Federal government enacted regulation in the 1960s requiring people to wear seatbelts in their cars. All of the following resulted from this regulation, EXCEPT: c. fewer pedestrians were killed in car accidents.

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5.	When two persons trade goods: b. both persons usually gain from the exchange.

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6.	In a market economy, the decisions of what and how much to produce are made by: b. all producers and consumers.

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7.	Even though markets do a great job in organizing economic activity, governments are needed to do all of the following EXCEPT: d. decide what and how much should be produced.

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8.	Living standards in the United States have risen tremendously over the years, mainly due to: a. relentless increases in the productivity of labor over the years.

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9.	Rapid and persistent inflation occurs mainly due to: c. rapid increases in the quantity of money in the economy.

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10.	A government that implements a policy designed to reduce inflation can expect unemployment to: a. increase in the short-run.