The world price of copper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The world price of copper - Essay Example In fact, the trade of copper began prior to the Bronze Age when Cyprus began to receive copper objects from Egypt for cuneiforms purposes. In Ancient Greece, copper has been used for architectural work and currency development while the demand for better material due to technical developments and emergence of stamping press have raised the need for copper during Industrial Revolution. Indeed, the rise of copper usage is seen dramatically as Bronze Age entered because copper has been used for several purposes. From Industrial Revolution up to the Contemporary Era, the figure below showed the worldwide changes in the prices of copper from year 2004 to 2011. From a price of $2,424 in January 2004, the price of became high amounting to $8,046 in May 2008. However, price rates fell rapidly to $3,072 in December 2008 and somewhere in 2010. With these data, one might ask â€Å"What drives the changes in the world price of copper? What are the reasons for the increase in world price of copp er? What are the reasons that made the price of copper low?† To answer the questions above, let us examine factors that may affect the price of a product – a perfect example of which would be the law of demand and supply. This could be illustrated in the table below: To guide you in understanding the figure, the horizontal line (Q) in the left figure refers to the number of quantity being demanded while the vertical line refers to the price of the product. In this paper, let us use copper to refer to the product; whereas on the right figure, it represents the relationship between quantity and price using arrows. According to Mankiw (2012), the law of demand states that as the price of the good falls, the quantity demanded rises; whereas, the law of supply states that as the price of the good rises, the quantity also supplied rises (p. 85). These relationships with price explain why the demand curve slopes downward and the supply curve slopes upward. In addition, the arr ow representation of the law of demand is seen on the right figure above. Let us apply the law of demand and supply to the worldwide changes in the prices of copper from year 2004 to 2011 (refer to the figures below). From year January 2004 to May 2008 (period of worldwide increase in copper), assumptions derived from the law of demand and supply will lead to hypotheses that the quantity of copper being demanded must have decreased or the quantity of copper being supplied must have increased for its worldwide price to escalate. Meanwhile, the reverse phenomenon in which the quantity of copper being demanded must have increased or the quantity of copper being supplied must have decreased since December 2008 for its worldwide price to de-escalate. To prove our hypotheses, let us take a closer look at the copper market. As stated earlier, copper has been of major importance to the metal industry and its prices are largely determined by the interaction of demand and supply. Thus, it is essential to allocate resources equally to attain state of equilibrium or balance. In the year 2003 to 2008, the need for copper increased dramatically as China, India, and other Asian countries accumulated supplies for structural reasons (Lipsey and Chrystal, 2007, p. 151). After 2008, world market price of copper began to collapse

Discipline Profile of the Field of Accounting Research Paper

Discipline Profile of the Field of Accounting - Research Paper Example To determine how financially healthy a business is, the accounting statements prepared are based on accounting laws which are standardized to allow for fair comparison and the contrast between competing businesses (Rosacker et al, 2009). The language of accounting consists of symbols of currency, graphs, charts, reports and tables which express the business ideas of a company. This is because the accounting language is a clarification of a definite purpose. As such, it is imperative to logically hold that the major accounting purpose emanates from a definition, which is just like any other language which seeks to explain the meaning of term or concept. The genre of the language used can be classified as Metalanguage. Metalanguage is the language which uses symbols to explain or examine language. Such language is prevalent in accounting as the use of unique words such as ‘net income’ ‘equity’, ‘liabilities’, assets’, balance sheet’, ‘financial reports’ among others, creates a meaning which is only specific to business persons and the accounting field. In Meta language used in accounting, less importance is given to explanation or definitions (Pasternak, 2011). Extensive Business Reporting Language (XBRL) is a recent Meta language which has been introduced in the field of accounting. The new language seeks to improve the field of accounting by developing a customizable and standardized digital demonstration of accounting aspects such as data extracts, business reports, tax returns and financial statements. This language is an integral part of the accounting profession as it is being integrated into the accounting curriculum. Furthermore, businesses are required to submit their financial information in the form to XBRL to different authorities such as government regulators or the SEC (Cohen et al, 2005). The major method of communication among accountants is the memos and the emails. Memorandums are used to communicate internally with accountants, departments or clients.