Article Review #8

The article essentially discusses how the global economy is reaching a recession, as we leave the Golden Age of economy, and relates it to the prisoner's dilemma discussed it class beforehand. The article was decently straightforward and used common enough language to portray his point. He didn't bash on anyone, and didn't get overly creative in his, um, viewpoints on people, and really looked all the perspectives. He discusses the decreasing US, and other countries', decreasing export volumes, and brought in a lot of stats to show his point. It was an overall enjoyable article. He explains how the U.S. is already in a recession, as well as the rest of the global trade countries. Because of the open trade, when one country's economy suffers, the whole world feels that impact.  Some countries are now playing the Competition Game, when the Coordination Game would be much more beneficial for all the players. The author was kind enough to show a visual with how leaders would think they were helping themselves, but instead just decreasing the "size of the pie" for everyone, when they defect rather than cooperate. 

Article Review #7

Moving past Stockman's creative language and strong opinions, the article concerns the economy and how negative interest rates would only worsen the situation. This time he blames Janet Yellen and her belief in Keynesian economy tactics; from my understanding, he also thinks the Fed keeps intervening when riding out the tough times might just be as effect. He makes a point to say that they think its their responsibility to fix each bump that arrives, which isn't the case, and that they are only falsifying and inflating the economy. While Stockman may be correct, his deliver is all wrong; each time he calls someone stupid or blatantly points fingers or even just writes a condescending comment, I lose motivation to keep reading. Although I can see how the article relates to the chapter we read on the Federal Reserve Bank and how they manage to manipulate the currency and interest rates, but how that doesn't mean they have control over all the aspects, especially how people respond to the different factors. He even spoke about the indication of new jobs was false, since they were just a "rebirth" of old jobs. 

Ch. 29

Chapter 29 is about the monetary system and how it works. The chapter really focuses on the Federal Reserve and how it pumps money into currency but can also retract it. It also discusses the purposes and forms of money. Overall, the chapter was pretty easy to understand, but some of the ideas are pretty novel, and I think going more in depth with them in class will clear up any questions. The chapter defines money, assets that people regularly use to buy good and services, and explains its three functions: medium of exchange, unit of account, and a store of value. The distinction between commodity (intrinsic value) and fiat (no intrinsic value) money makes sense, especially given the examples, and the various forms money takes, like currency and bank deposits. The purpose of the Federal Reserve, being the central bank of the United States, wasnt too difficult to grasp, but the T-accounts were a bit confusing because we had never discussed them. The more we work with them, the more I'll understand them, I think. I do understand how banks make money, and how the Fed controls the circulation of money. 

Article Review #7

This article focuses on unemployment in the U.S. This article directly correlates with the chapter we read, about unemployment. The article itself was pretty simple to read and understand, and got straight to the point. The author pointed out how the unemployment rate doesn't look so bad because it doesn't account for those who left the labor force, as the participation rate has been steadily declining; the reported unemployment rate, 5.5%, really should be 11.4% if it accounted for discouraged workers. Moreover, the author does an excellent job of showing the larger impacts by showing what the percentages represent in actual values, rather than just showing the rates, which doesn't show the number of people actually impacted. The connections between the chapter and this article were striking as Furchtgott-Roth mentioned the decrease in male labor force participation, and various impacts that may be taking place. She mentions minimum wage, government programs, and such as playing a part in encouraging people to stay at home. I really think learning about the chapter and really becoming familiar with the topic helped make this article such an easy read. The article itself was already short and very straightforward, but knowing the terminology and how all these aspects affected each other really let me actually read into her point.

Ch. 28

Chapter 28 is about unemployment. It is a pretty easy chapter to understand, and overall makes sense. It describes what unemployment is, who experiences it, how it is calculated, and what causes it. Unemployment is measured by the people who are not employed but are available for work, or looking for work. Employed people include part-time and full-time workers, and those on temporary leave, such as those on vacation or illness or bad weather. The unemployment rate is calculated by the amount of people unemployed divided by the people in the labor force. The labor force is measured by those employed and unemployed; the labor force participation ratio is calculated by the labor force divided the adult population (starting from the age of 16). The unemployment rate is not perfect, as the line between those who are still looking for work and those who leave the labor force can often blur, and discouraged workers may be available for work but stop looking because of lack of luck in finding one. Teenagers, or unskilled workers, experience the most unemployment. Unemployment is caused by various factors, such as changes in the labor demand due to falling and rising industries and markets, time spent in job search, and minimum wage and unions. When certain industries or companies fall, those working in it are left unemployed and must then look for a different job, so the unemployment rate rises during that time. Those currently looking for a job are in a job search, hoping to find a job that suits their needs and skills. Those receiving unemployment insurance can take more liberty in finding a job more suited for them because they receive weekly checks representative of 50% of their previous income up until about 26 weeks, as long as they prove they are looking for a job. Minimum wage and unions can cause a surplus of workers with a raise of wages, which leaves more people unemployed. 

Ch 27

Chapter 27 is about the basics in finance. It covers insurance, present value, risk aversion, and stocks. The chapter isn't difficult to understand and relies on a lot of common sense knowledge, but the math and understanding behind it might take a bit more time. Overall, the chapter discusses present and future value for money and how to calculate it [X/1+r)^N], how those who are risk aversion would look at the risk rather the reward, how insurance works and lowers the cost people have to pay in case of an accident, but also can make people more reckless. And how one should not put all their eggs in one basis but should diversify in stocks. 

A big point Mankiw makes is that time and risk work closely together. In the value of time, it profits one to measure how much a certain amount on money questions now versus ten years from now to see whether one benefits from accepting the money now of ten years from now, including the interest rate. If the value ten years from now is less the value of the money today, it would benefit the person to take the money now. If vise versa, the person should take the money ten years from now. 

Utility is a person's subjective measure of well-being or satisfaction, so every level of wealth has a certain amount of utility, and as the wealth growths, the marginal utility decreases. This is used to measure the risk aversion may experience in different situations. Insurance plays on this to give people a safety net. 

Article Review #6

I would like to start off by saying I don't enjoy Stockman's articles. Whether he's on the right path or is only speaking the truth, I can't say, but his delivery shows it all off. He comes off very pretentious and judgmental and throws around elaborate vocabulary to increase his ethos, which only makes me want to stop reading. That being said, David Stockman's article focuses on how the BSL is over estimating the jobs in December when they adjust the GDP for seasonal jobs. In between all of Stockman's sass and attitude, he explains how the economy is actually in shambles and jobs have been going down, contrary to what is being shown in the number. He addresses how not every December produces the same numbers which is valid, and then goes on to show the graphs to prove it. This relates to what we're leaving because we learned how GPD is often adjusted for seasonal fares, such as extra buying during the holidays. 

Ch 26

This chapter focused on saving, investment, and the financial system. Overall, it wasn't too difficult of a chapter, and Mankiw does a pretty good job about explaining everything in scenarios that make sense and we can connect do. It does introduce a lot of new vocabulary words, which can make understand the chapter a bit more difficult, especially when they contradict what the word means casually. The chapter discusses bonds, stocks, and how the borrowing and lending business works and how it created an interest rate relevant to the needs and risks in the market. The U.S. financial system is made up of different financial institutions which act to direct the resources of household that want to save some of their income into the household and firms that want to borrow. National saving must equal investment, because one person's saving is another person's investment. The interest rate is determined by the supply and demand for loan able funds. 

Ch 24

Chapter 24 wasn’t too hard to understand, but it did introduce new concept and discusses economic well-being more in depth. The chapter was about measuring the cost of living, and focused on consumer price index. Consumer price index is a measure of the overall cost of the goods and services bought by a typical consumer. You measure it by dividing the price of basket of goods and services in current year by the price of basket in base year multiplied by 100, and get the changes in the cost of living. Calculating the CPI also helps in finding the inflation rate: subtracting the CPI in year 1 from the CPI in year 2, and dividing by the CPI in year 1 and multiplying by 100. Measuring the cost of living can be difficult because the CPI ignores the possibility of consumer substitution and does not reflect the increase in the value of the dollar that arises from the introduction of new goods. The chapter goes on to compare the CPI to the GDP deflator; the first difference is that the GDP deflator reflects the prices of all goods and services produced domestically, and the consumer price index reflects the prices of all goods and services bought by consumers. The chapter also introduced inflation and how one figures out the actual value of dollars, in comparison between years and interest rates. Inflation can also cause the government to index wages and such. 

Ch 23