Adam Smith: The Highland Economist

Adam Smith was born on June 16, 1723, and so on that day one of the world's most important economists and philosophers was born. Adam Smith a Scottish philosopher from Glasgow is most well known for being the founder of modern day free trade and capitalism.

He studied at the University of Glasgow and and Oxford University. His greatest work is probably his book Wealth of Nations. In the Wealth of Nations he states that while the economy may seem chaoticc it is actually guided by an "invisible hand". Smith was a firm believer that the best thing for an economy was for an individual to pursue self interests. Also Smith laid down the foundation for the theory of opportunity cost by stating,"the real price of everything... is the toil and trouble of acquiring it."

His belief in the free market and that businesses should govern the economy not governmental institutions still rings true today. Many nations use a free market, but in most cases it is not a true free market, but they take the best ideas from Smith and apply them to the economy.

The main thing to take away from Smith's theories is that the best way for the economy to surivive is for private businesses to pursue their best interests. He believes that this benefits both the buyer and the sellers.

Adam Smith died on July 17, 1790 but his legacy still lives on and his economic theories are still used today.

Two Terrific Teams in Toronto?

Recently there has been a lot of talk of expansion in the National Hockey League. Many pitches have been brought forward for new teams in the NHL. Most of these pitches involve relocating teams from the United States and relocating them in the Great White North. Jim Balsillie the CEO of Research in Motion has tried three times to relocate teams to Canada. His first attempt was to buy and move the Pittsburgh Penguins, that failed. his next attempt was to buy the Nashville Predators and move them to Hamilton, that also failed. His third attempt was to buy the Phoenix Coyotes and eventually move them possibly back to Winnipeg, he once again had no success.

Despite all this there is talk that it is possible in the future another NHL team could move into the Toronto area. There has been some recent discussion on bringing another NHL team to the Toronto Area, specifically Mississauga or Vaughan. As everyone knows Toronto already has a fantastic NHL team, the Toronto Maple Leafs. A new NHL team in the area is a direct competitor in their market. Fans will be split to cheer for the new team or the clearly superior Toronto Maple Leafs. It is most likely that the Toronto Maple Leafs organization will try everything in their power in order to prevent another team to be in the area. Toronto already has direct competition with the nearby teams of the Ottawa Senators and the Buffalo Sabres. The one thing that would be good to come out of a new NHL team in the Toronto area, would be that Toronto might lower their ticket price in order to compete. Finally I could afford to go the the games! Blogging doesn't pay as much as I thought.

Unemployment Decreasing in Ontario: WOOO HOOO!!!!

In recent months Ontario's unemployment rate had decreased. In the past five months the province of Ontario has added many jobs including over 25000 in the month of May alone. This is a great sign as it shows the recovery of the economy is finally starting to happen. New jobs are being created and things are starting to back to the way they were before the economic recession.

The majority of the jobs created were in the labour sector. Economic analysts have said that the growth in labour sector has exceeded everyone's expectations. Other areas showing increase in employment are: warehousing, health care and social assistance, public administration and agriculture.

Demographically, the increase in employment is largely in part of people over the age of 55 getting back into work. Many men and women over the age of 55 are now showing a large increase in employment with men over 55 with a 5% increase and women over 55 with a 3.1% increase.

Unfortunately many areas are still suffering from unemployment. The sectors showing losses in employment are: information, culture and recreation, accommodation, food services, and natural resources. Economists are saying that unemployment will continue to fall but will probably not fall beyond pre-recession levels.

Music Games Can't Meet Demand: Christmas Ruined

The video game market has been recently very popular. It seems like everyone is buying video games these days. Long gone are the days of Pac-Man and Galaga, now the most popular video games are the music games. These games involve hitting a series of notes that appear on the screen, using your plastic instrument peripheral. You can play along to all of your favourite classic rock bands like "Poison" and "Fleetwood Mac".

The two biggest names in the music gaming business are Harmonix's "Rock Band" and Activision's "Guitar Hero" franchise. Both of these franchises are immensly popular, have been in the forefront of the musical video game genre. When these franchises debuted in the fall of 2007, the reaction in the public was that of pure pandemonium. Parents were frantically trying to buy these games for their children in time for Christmas.

Unfortunately neither Harmonix or Activision were able to keep up with the incredible demand for their products. Activision's CEO Robert Kotick was quoted as saying, "there's a probability that this holiday we won't be able to supply all the deman for every platform". This came just after Harmonix announced they also would probably not be able to supply the demand for all the platforms.

Theses two games were being released on muiltple gaming platforms including, the Playstation 3, the Xbox 360,and the Nintendo Wii. The game will probably not be able to match the demand on the Nintendo Wii platform. This is because the Nintendo Wii uses special musical peripherals that are unique only to the Nintendo Wii. Also the Nintendo Wii is in more households than any other of the main gaming platforms.