Lightbulb Conspiracy

The Lightbulb Conspiracy documentary that we watch this week was mainly about how the Lightbulb companies used to create Lightbulbs that lasted 1000 hours, but throughout the years these companies developed something called planned obsolesence. This tecnique was used by the Lightbulb companies many years ago and now days is being used by nos of the companies around the world. It also showed an example of a Lightbulb that was in a fire station that had lasted 100 years. 

    Photo credit: WWW.therferralauthority.com

The Four Horsemen

Today I will talk about a short documentary watched in my social studies class called The Four Horsemen. This documentary mainly talks about how the United States is cataloged as an empire and how this empire will fall as time passes. It takes as title The Four Horsemen because it describes the four things found in an empire that are: War, Conquest, Famine, and Death. The documentary also criticizes and questions the system that we have created in the way that it shows and explains the huge division between the rich and the poor. To complement the title, the documentary expresses the idea that the American empire will fall and gives some reason to support this idea. Some of the reasons that will make the US empire fall according to the documentary are: The luxury, the spending in the military, the years of decay, and lastly, as I just said, the really huge gap or division between the rich and the poor which forms a visible economic inequality.

An interesting quote I heard in the documentary was: "To understand something is to be liberated from it." Seeing how the things are in the US and how this would affects us terrifies me. The United States now-days is like a world power, they have military, relationships and the US interests. Many of the things we have or the clothe we buy comes from the US, so it would impact our lives way more than we imagine. Food companies and clothe companies that were created in the US and that have been globalizing, will in some way decrease but not fall because of their expansion throughout the world. We have to accept the reality that without the US, many of the world´s countries would be left without an important ally like in the case of Colombia and other countries.

Photo credit: www.documentarystream.com

How the Fractional Reserve Banking System works

The Fractional Reserve Banking System is mainly known as the system were banks lend more money than they really have. According to the movie, this system is the one in charged of creating money by charging the people with interest in the loans they gave. Banks get the 10% of the money invested in it and they really have small quantities in it, so that is why all the people cannot take all their out of the bank at the same time; if they do it, it will created the famous bank runs of the 1930´s. Some of the advantages of the Fractional Reserve System are is that it allows banks to generate income on the funds deposited. Every time your bank borrows from you to make a loan to another bank customer, it gets to charge interest on the loan, pocketing the interest.

Although this Reserve Banking System has improved, it still has some disadvantages for the people. One disadvantage is that it puts banks in an awkward position when it comes to liquidity. "While banks aren't required to retain their deposits on hand, they have to be able to redeem deposits upon request." 





















Photo Credit: http://www.worldsocialism.org/


Citations: 

McMahon, Mary, and Bronwyn Harris. WiseGeek. Conjecture, 26 Feb. 2014. Web. 05 Apr. 2014. <http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-fractional-reserve-banking.htm>.

"Education Resources." Classroom Economist: Fractional Reserve Banking. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Apr. 2014. <http://www.frbatlanta.org/edresources/classroomeconomist/11fr_banking_transcript.cfm>.

Colombia´s Monetary System

The Colombian financial system is a key pillar of economic activity that analyzes important resources to the different sectors within it. According to the official web page of the Banco de la República "Este régimen utilitario se caracteriza básicamente por el hecho de que los bienes producidos no son consumidos por sus propios productores, son intercambiados en el mercado mediante convenciones reguladoras que constituyen un sistema monetario." This means that the system is the one in charged of controlling the money of the country. 

Monetary policy in Colombia is governed by an inflation targeting scheme whose purpose is to maintain a low and stable rate of inflation, and achieve output growth. The Banco de la Republica is not part of the branches of government (Executive, Legislative, Judicial) of the control bodies or control or the electoral power, but it is an entity of the State. 

Photo credit: http://www.casasriegner.com/


Citations:

"Banco De La República (Banco Central De Colombia)." Banco De La República (Banco Central De Colombia). N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Apr. 2014. <http://www.banrep.gov.co/>.

"Economía Y Empresas. El Blog Salmón." ¿Cómo Funciona El Sistema Monetario?N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Apr. 2014. <http://www.elblogsalmon.com/conceptos-de-economia/como-funciona-el-sistema-monetario>.