Friday, January 21, 2011

Post 25: Where is America on the Gini Index?

After finding out that America is placed at number 40 on the Gini Index, it's very shocking. Americans believe that our country is perfect and should not be that high. Especially when comparing us to nations in Europe that we like to believe we are equal to, why is it that they are so low on the Gini Index but we are so high? America seriously needs to get our act together in order to improve this economic downer.

Post 24: Future Unemployed Heather Shinn

Fresh out of college the new herd manager for a large Minnesota dairy farm was just laid off and is currently structurally unemployed. The farm owners decided their was not enough money in the dairy industry anymore and opted to sell the farm eliminating a job for Heather. During the summer show season Heather traveled to various fairs fitting the cattle. Now, in mid-December, she is seasonally unemployed because their are no shows in the winter. A few months later, Select Sires offers her a job as an AI technician. This job requires traveling to many farms and working long hours of the day. After a couple months as an AI tech, Heather left her jobs in search of a better one, making her frictionally unemployed. Finally, Heather found her ideal job as the heifer specialist Arethusa Farms in Connecticut. Arethusa is one of the best and most known dairy farms in the country. Unfortunately, after just three years as an employee of Arethusa, they let go of some of their workers due to the economy and Heather loses her job to a more experienced Arethusa alumni. Heather is now cyclically unemployed.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Post 18: Twitter Man

The three websites I would most like to use on the mid term are...

1) http://www.shmoop.com/economics/ because it does not focus on one topic but covers almost everything we learned throughout the class. Not only does it hit many key aspects we talked about but it does it in an organized manner.

2) http://www.amosweb.com/cgi-bin/awb_nav.pl?s=gls because it has a quick search. That makes it easier to find vocabulary with we learned a lot of throughout the class.

3) http://www.nytimes.com/library/financial/glossary/bfglosa.htm
Again this is a very organized study tool. I like how everything is in alphabetical order because it's extremely easy to follow.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Post 12: GDP

To Whom It May Concern (GDP),
Does GDP take into consideration the effort we put into it, such as volunteer work? NO! GDP does not take into consideration the black market or any unregistered money. We do not get paid to do volunteer work, we do it because it makes us and other people happy. I believe that GDP is a false indicator and suggest you use a different measurement such as GNP or GPI.

Sincerely,
Heather

Post 23: Wanted Poster


I couldn't figure out how else to upload this so I had to use the print screen button and get the entire page, sorry!

Post 22: 15 Facts Learned from Quizzes

Quiz One:
1. Anyone who is not classified as either unemployed or employed is not in the labor force.
2. When 95% of of the labor force is employed it's known as full employment.
3. Unemployed workers have jobs beneath their skill level.
4. Di scourged workers want to find jobs but have stopped looking.
5. Unemployment rate is the most closely watched and highly publicized labor force statistic.

Quiz Two:
1. Higher interest rates lead to less consumer spending.
2. A price index is used to measure the price level.
3. The price index is also used to calculate the inflation rate.
4. A supply shock in an event that increases the cost of production for all or many firms.
5. Hyperinflation is the worst form of inflation.

Quiz Three:
1. The poverty threshold is the lowest income level that a family needs to maintain a basic standard of living.
2. The poverty rate is the percentage of individuals or families living in poverty.
3. Rapid changes in technology have led to a drop in demand for lower-skilled workers.
4. Raising minimum wage is just one suggesting for improving income equality.
5. The income gap between the richest and poorest Americans was wider in the 1990's than any time since World War II.

Post 21: Vocabulary

Page 235 Q1 Vocab:
1. National Income Accounting: tracking process providing information about a nation's economic activities
2. Gross Domestic Product: total dollar value of all final goods and services produced within a country during one calender year
3. Output-Expenditure Model: C + I + G + (X-M) = GDP
4. Personal Consumption Expenditure: consumer purchases
5. Gross Investment: total value of all capital goods produced in a given nation during one year as well as changes in the dollar value of business inventories
6. Nominal GDP: GDP expressed in the current prices of the period being measured
7. Real GDP: GDP adjusted for price changes
8: Price Index: set of statistics that allows economists to compare prices over time
9. Underground Economy: illegal activities and unreported legal activities
10. Gross National Product: NIPA used to measure U.S. economy by the Commerce Department until 1991

Page 240 Q1 Vocab:
1. Business Cycle:fluctuations in a markets system's economic activity
2. Expansion: period of economic growth
3. Peak:high point at which the economy is at it's strongest and most prosperous
4. Contraction:recession
5. Recession:decline in the real GDP for two or more consecutive quarter (six months of more)
6. Depression: prolonged and severe recessions
7. Trough:final stage of the business cycle, occurs when demand, production, and employment reach their lowest levels
8. Leading Indicators:anticipate the direction in which the economy is headed
9. Coincident Indicators:changes as the economy moves from one phase of the business cycle to another and tell the economists that an upturn or downturn in the economy has arrived
10. Lagging Indicators: change months after an upturn or downturn in the economy

Page 246 Q1 Vocab:
1. Real GDP per Capita: increase in the real dollar value of all final goods and services that are produced per person for a specific period of time
2. Labor Productivity: measure of how much each worker produces in a given period of time
3. Productivity Growth:increase in the output of each worker per hour of work
4. Capital-to-Labor Ratio:amount of capital stock available per worker
5. Capital Deepening: increase in the amount of capital goods available per worker