The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Affordable Care Act (ACA) or “Obamacare,” is a revolutionary regulation aimed to change the landscape of American healthcare system.

The two major changes under ACA include expanding the number of subsidies available to people with lower income, and also providing insurance to people regardless of their pre-existing conditions. The Obama government wishes to enroll more people into the healthcare system through the establishment of ACA, and thus cover the deficit the government has been spending on healthcare industry. However, is it really going to work? Probably not.

If we take a closer look at how ACA works, we will be able to see the problem. The fundamental principal of Affordable Care Act is to use the money from young and healthy people to pay for the bill of unhealthy or elder people who have higher medical costs. Hence, the health insurance company should enroll younger demographics to balance the risk pool. According to a research conducted by California Association of Health Plans, people in their 20s will experience an increase in premiums by 33% under Affordable Care Act, whereas elder people will see an decrease in their cost of premiums. Now, here comes the question, will young and healthy people who only spend a small amount of money every year on visiting hospitals or doctors be willing to pay more for health insurance? Moreover, will they be able to pay that amount of money since they just start to live on their own? I guess most young people will find that hard.

In fact, although the health plan premiums for young people grow by over 30%, the benefits under ACA also increase by 42%, which means the health company is able to provide members with better services and networks. However, it seems that young people don’t care much about the benefits. According to a survey conducted by USC Annenberg students, the issue that concerns young people the most is the cost of health insurance. They use the word “expansive” frequently to describe the healthcare system. And most people admit that it’s the high cost of insurance that prevent them from enrolling in it.

Some people may argue that there are subsidies available for young people with limited income. Yes, there are. But the truth is, for those who earn a little more than the poverty line, it’s hard for them to choose whether to earn more with no subsidy or to earn less with a small amount of subsidy. More importantly, for those healthy people who usually don’t have health problem, they would rather end up with paying penalties instead of purchasing health insurance, which is far more expansive than the penalty.

All in all, the Affordable Care Act alone couldn’t make the healthcare system operate better. If the government tries to enroll more young people, they should definitely invest more on educating younger demographics the importance of purchasing health insurance. As long as people feel the necessity of doing so, they will be willing to purchase the health insurance initiatively.

On Sep 21^st, 2014, Joon Young, a member from the K-pop boy band, ZE:A, tweeted that his entertainment company had been squeezing cash out of the team without giving team members a fair salary. He then posted his paycheck on Twitter, which showed that his monthly income was only $300.

Since the year 2012 when Psy’s “Gangnam Style” went viral on YouTube, K-pop has experienced a huge increase in its market share all over the world. However, behind the glamorousness of the K-pop industry, K-pop stars are actually experiencing unfair treatment and limited freedom.

The key players in the industry, big entertainment companies in Korea, take full control over the business from casting to production, and from marketing to distribution. They casted and trained talents, and when the artists finally get debuted, they will be forced to sign a long-term contract with the company. Some of the contract even last for 17 years, which is impossible to imagine here in America.

The contract is extremely harsh to artists and beneficial to the company. Artists have to work 7 days a week with only one-week holiday at the end of the year. Three former members from TVXQ complained that they could only sleep 3 hours a day and were not allowed start their own business unless getting permission from the company. Moreover, although TVXQ brought millions of dollars to the company each year, the members only received 1% of what they’ve earned. As a result of that, the three members ended up filing a lawsuit against the company and formed another band themselves.

This lawsuit, which lasted for 4 years, aroused widely concern over the so-called “slave contract” inside the industry. In 2010, the Fair Trade Commission in Korea finally realized the seriousness of the problem, and asked SM Entertainment, the entertainment company of TVXQ, to revise its unfair contract with the artists. SM Entertainment did that, and held a press conference to address people’s concern. Now, everyone seemed relieved, however, this was not the end of the story.

On May 15th, 2014, Kris, a member from the boy band EXO, filed another lawsuit against his entertainment company, and claimed that the intense working condition caused him adverse health problems. Five month later, another member from EXO, Luhan, followed Kris and asked to end the contract with the company. Several days later, Jessica, a member from one of the most well-known K-pop girl band, Girl’s Generation, claimed through weibo platform that she was kicked out of the team because the company didn’t allow her to start her own fashion business.

All of what happened above remind us that the “slave contract” is still there, and it not only hurt the interest of the artists, but also hurt the feeling of K-pop fans all over the world. In fact, this kind of situation is hard to be changed in a short period of time. As the K-pop industry growing bigger and bigger, the competition among entertainment companies and K-pop artists will only be more, not less. This made people worry if the growing speed of the industry surpasses the capacity it can actually handle, which made the industry vulnerable in its expanding process. However, there were also people arguing that this process is what every industry would experience during its expansion. No matter what the answer is, one thing is for sure: if the K-pop industry didn’t make any changes in the way they manage their artists, it will absolutely affect the future development of the industry.

Have you ever heard of “Double 11?” Double 11, which is on November 11^th, is well recognized as Bachelor’s Day in China. However, during the past few years, it was given a new definition of shopping carnival by Alibaba Group, the company that recently went public with the largest IPO in history.

In 2009, Alibaba’s B2C website, Tmall, started to offer flash sale and huge discounts on its various products. Although at first, Alibaba was just trying to take advantage of Bachelor’s Day to generate hype over its event, it soon became a national celebration for online shopping websites. Now, e-commerce giants in China like Jindong and Amazon also joined Double 11. So did some brick-and-mortar retailers in China.

This year, Alibaba Group announced that it would implement the strategy of “Buying anything from anywhere” by providing huge discounts on certificated foreign products and offering free shipping service to overseas customers. Alibaba’s unprecedented movement on the global market shows its determination to become an international e-commerce company. In addition, it’s also a great opportunity for Alibaba to showcase its potential to the shareholders after its going public in New York.

Double 11 is the most important profit-generating moment for Tmall. Last year, Tmall created a one-day sales record of $ 5.7 billion on Double 11. You can hardly imagine how passionate people are towards Double 11. Usually, they add their favorites in shopping cart in advance, then when the time comes, all they need is to hit the purchase button and pay for it. Since hot items always run out so fast, some people even stay up until 00:00 a.m. in the morning in order to get the products they want. Moreover, retailers and logistic companies are also under high pressure of cooperating with Tmall to address customer service issues and the shipping of the goods.

This year, Tmall’s goal for the transaction value on Double 11 is expected to reach $8.16 billion. There are mainly two ways for Tmall to achieve the expectation. First, Tmall has been making efforts to attract international brands to open online stores under its website. Brands like Prada, Burberry, Estee Lauder, Costco and even Tesla opened flagship stores in Tmall, and are also going to join the celebration of Double 11 by providing cheaper price and faster logistics. For example, Costco will offer 50% discount for selected products on November 11^th, 2014.

Secondly, CaiNiao, the logistic company owned by Alibaba, is expanding its business to the global market by cooperating with local postal service in over 200 countries, including America, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, France, Italy and Germany. By doing so, Tmall will be able to send goods to customers all over the world for free, which will absolutely attract more foreign buyers and overseas Chinese customers.

Now, although there is still two weeks before Double 11, Tmall and retailers, logistic companies have already begun preparing for the biggest promotion. If Tmall could hit the sales expectation again this year, the globalization of Alibaba will definitely be much more easier. After all, those shareholders in New York are always alert of signals like this.

During the early 2000s recession, the chairman of the board of Estée Lauder, Leonard Lauder, was surprised to notice that the sales of lipsticks under its several brands increased rapidly compared with other cosmetic products produced by the corporation. Considering the financial difficulties people encountered at that time, Lauder believed that small items like lipsticks could serve as substitutes for luxury goods that people could no longer afford. This phenomenon was then named the “Lipstick Index,” and economists began to consider it a new economic indicator.

However, in the most recent recession, lipstick sales seemed to contradict the golden rule of the “Lipstick Index.” According to the report released by market research firm Mintel, lipstick purchases continued to fall since the year 2007. People started to doubt whether the “Lipstick Index” was valid. Was the increase in sales in early 2000s a coincidence? The answer is “No.”

In fact, one of the most famous cosmetic groups, L’Oréal,  saw its sales grow 5.3 percent in 2008, the heart of the most recent recession. This number indicates that beauty market was still active during the economic downturn. What’s interesting is that, as the sales of lipsticks underwent a certain decline, sales of nail decoration goodies like nail polish are up 65% since the first half of 2008, according to market research firm NPD Group. The unpredictable shift had to do with the glut of lipsticks on women’s dressers and their increasing demand for nail beauty. As a result, the “Nail Polish Index” has now become a new indicator of the economy.

How do products like lipsticks and nail polish measure the economy? There are several rationales behind it. First, when people could no longer afford things they used to consume, they simply turned to inferior goods. For example, it might be hard for them to consume big-ticket items like houses, jewelry or autos, but as for inexpensive goods like lipsticks, they could absolutely afford it and enjoy the fun of shopping. After all, even lipsticks of top brands are under $40 nowadays. Second, according to a research conducted by the Texas Christian University, women are more likely to buy beauty products during recessions. This is because women feel more secure with makeup and nicer clothes while their bank account balances are under pressure. They try to compensate themselves with small and affordable indulgence, like lipsticks, perfumes, nail polish and others.

Since the emerging of these unusual indicators, more and more categories were defined as the indicator of future economy. The info graphic showed below lists some weird ways of gauging the economy, including sales of cheap spirits, underwear sales and lower hemlines. Although they are not as authentic as widely recognized indicators like GDP or unemployment rate, they actually provide us with a different view of the economy.