GM+likely+to+retake+No.1-+Damian

=**GM likely to retake No. 1 sales spot from Toyota** = ==GM likely to retake title of top automaker due to strong sales and Toyota's quake troubles == []

 Tom Krisher and Sharon Silke Carty, AP Auto Writers, On Friday April 22, 2011, 6:23 pm EDT    **Explanation:** General Motors is almost certain to claim the title of world's biggest automaker this year, retaking the top spot from Toyota, which has been hurt by production problems since the Japanese earthquake and still can't escape the shadow of major safety recalls. General Motors, plagued by bankruptcy only a few years ago, is definitely steadily climbing uphill. However, General Motors claiming top spot is not entirely because smart company strategies. A  series of big recalls has ballooned to 14 million vehicles worldwide and damaged Toyota's reputation for reliability. That has spurred loyal buyers to look at other brands. In addition, a March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan curbed Toyota's car production. On Friday, Toyota Motor Corp. said its factories worldwide won't return to full production until November or December. That means buyers across the globe may not be able to get the models they want. Already the crisis has cost the company production of 260,000 vehicles.

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**Vocabulary:** **Economic growth:** An increase in an economy's real level of output over time (Quantitive**)** ======

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 **Production Possibility Curve:** Used by economists to show the concepts of scarcity, choice and opportunity cost, among other things; Shows the maximum combinations of goods and services that can be produced by an economy in a given time period, if all the resources in the economy are being used fully and efficiently and the state of technology is fixed. ======

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**Potential Output:** the highest level of real gross domestic product output that can be sustained over the long term ======

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**Quantity:** the total amount of goods or services  ======

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<span style="color: #808080; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.22em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">**Factors of production:** There are 4 resource that allow an economy to produce its output, including land, labour, capital and management. ======

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<span style="color: #808080; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.22em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">** **Gross National Product (GNP)** is the market value of all products and services produced in one year by labor and property supplied by the residents of a country. ** ======

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<span style="color: #808080; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.22em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> **Revenue:** the <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 15px;">income a company receives from its normal business activities, usually from the sale of goods and services to customer. ======

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<span style="color: #808080; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.22em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding: 0px;"> **Debt**:<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;">The amount that is owed, as a result of previous borrowing. ======

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<span style="color: #808080; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.22em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding: 0px;">**<span style="color: #000000; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;">Graphs: (Hand drawn) ** ======

I believe that General Motors will claim the top spot as the biggest automakers in 2011 as long as they do not make any major mistakes. However, I believe that it is because the recent natural disasters and the nuclear incident which hurt Toyota immensely that allowed General Motors to take top spot. The disasters will no doubt affect Toyota's factors of production, forcing Toyota to either produce less quantity of cars or increase the price of cars. This will minimize Toyota's potential output. The horrible thing is that by using huge sums of money to fix the company, the GNP will show that the country is actually having economic growth. This is because this economic indicator rely only on monetary transactions and therefore anything involving a trade of money will be "good" for the economy. I personally believe that this method is very inaccurate and an unreliable method of recording economic growth. Despite the fact that General Motors claimed the top spot because of a competitors downfall, do not forget that General Motors was a company that filed for bankruptcy and received large sums of money that kick-started the company only a few years ago. Luckily, the company has survived and is now happily paying debt as they inch their way closer to the top spot. <span style="color: #808080; display: block; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.22em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="color: #808080; display: block; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.22em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="color: #808080; display: block; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.22em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="color: #808080; display: block; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.22em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="color: #808080; display: block; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.22em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding: 0px;">
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: normal;">Evaluation: **