The Macro Economy Today 14th Edition Bradley Schiller

PREFACE
xv
IN THE NEWS
Seafood Prices
Rise after BP Oil
Spill
Oily shrimp? No thank you!
The National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) has closed a
third of the Gulf of Mexico
in response to the BP oil
spill. The explosion of BP’s
Deepwater Horizon oil rig
has spilled nearly 5 million
barrels of oil into the Gulf.
Whatever their taste, oily
fish and shrimp may be a
health hazard.
Closure of the Gulf has
caused seafood prices to
soar. The price of topquality
white shrimp has
PRICE OF SHRIMP
($ per pound)
$7.50
$3.50
Price
rise
Reduced
supply
Shift of
supply
QUANTITY OF SHRIMP
(pounds per day)
Original
supply
Market
demand
jumped from $3.50 a pound to $7.50 a pound. Restaurants are jacking up their prices or taking
shrimp off the menu.
Source: News reports, June 2010.
ANALYSIS: When factor costs or availability worsen, the supply curve shifts to the left. Such leftward supplycurve
shifts push prices up the market demand curve.
Photos and Cartoons. The text presentation is also enlivened with occasional photos and
cartoons that reflect basic concepts. The photos on page 36 are much more vivid testimony
to the extremes of inequality than the data in Figure 2.3 (p. 39). Every photo and cartoon is
annotated and referenced in the body of the text. These visual features are an integral part
of the presentation, not diversions.
Analysis: An abundance of capital equipment and advanced technology make American farmers and workers far more productive than workers in
poor nations.