Scavenger Hunt

Q1[pic 1]

According to OECD website, the business confidence index (BCI) is based on enterprises' assessment of production, orders and stocks, as well as its current position and expectations for the immediate future. If the index be negative, then means most enterprises is not optimistic about their own country's economic outlook. In graph, it clearly show the negative increase in BCI after 2008 in US and Europe. Because of financial crisis of 2008, which effect by subprime mortgage crisis in US, investor lost their confidence in mortgage backed security. This crisis lead to many banking institution capital slump, Lehman Brothers Holdings bankruptcy, and credit crunch in the world.

Reference

Data.oecd.org, (2016). Leading indicators - Business confidence index (BCI) - OECD Data. [Online] Available at: https://data.oecd.org/leadind/business-confidence-index-bci.htm [Accessed 27 Jan. 2016].

Q2

[pic 2]

From the table for the exports of agricultural products of regions by destination in 2014, it show the exports value of North America is 277 and the imports value is equal to the total exports value from Europe, Asia, North America, South and Central America, Commonwealth of Independent States, Africa and Middle East to North America. The total value is 220. Because of the regions exports exceeds its imports. Then we are run a trade surplus in agricultural.

Reference

World Trade Organization. (2015). International Trade Statistics 2015. [e-book], p76. Available at: https://www.wto.org/english/res_e/statis_e/its2015_e/its2015_e.pdf

Q3

According to Tim Jones who is the Tribune staff reporter, in 1948 presidential election, the polls show the Dewey was going to defeat President Harry S. Truman. By this effective, Life magazine just carried a big photo of Dewey with the caption "The next President of the United States." Also 150,000 copies of papers report this Headline news when radio reported that race was surprisingly close. But at end, Truman won the presidential election. So the Tribune blamed the pollsters for its mistake. This case show the statistics sampling may have been negatively involved.