What is the State of the Economy and How does One Tell?
Required Readings:
- Waymaker Module 4: Macroeconomic Measures of Performance
- The Wall Street Journal
Additional Readings:
- Economic Indicators: Why Do They Matter?, The Conference Board
- Tim Harford, “Don’t Blame Statisticians for Counting the Wages of Sin,” The Financial Times, May 30, 2014.
- James Surowiecki, “A Billion Prices Now,” The New Yorker, May 30, 2011
- Census Bureau: Economic Indicators
- Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, “Time Well Spent: The Declining Real Cost of Living in America,” 1997 Annual Report
- Roy Webb, “The National Income and Product Accounts”, in Annual Editions: Macroeconomics 90/91.
- What’s A Dollar Worth? (Look in the right sidebar, near the top)
LEARNING OBJECTIVES FOR TOPIC 6:
- You should be able to explain the following concepts in your own words and understand how each concept is measured:
- Gross Domestic Product
- Price index
- Inflation
- Unemployment rate
- Misery Index
- You should be able to explain the difference between a real and a nominal variable in your own words, and understand when each is appropriate to use.
- You should be able to give a reasoned judgment about the state of the economy.