It will consist of an essay
question I have listed below along with some suggestions about how you might
approach writing it. It is a lengthy essay so you might want to get started
soon.
Essay question: What is the
current economic situation in the U.S.? If you were Trump’s economic adviser,
what would you recommend to him to improve our economy?
Hint: Start by evaluating our
current economic situation in terms of:
GDP
Inflation
Employment
Growth/productivity
Deficit/National Debt
Discuss the causes of each of
these problems.
Then propose solutions.
I would start with a basic
outline before I started writing.
1, Introduction to essay
(overview of everything you’re going to cover; if you’re unclear, contact me)
2. Current economic situation
-GDP (first define GDP then go
over what’s been happening; what is the main problem?)
-Inflation (again, define
inflation and then go over what’s happening; what is the main problem; continue
this format for the next 3 items)
-employment
-growth/productivity
-deficit/national debt
3. Solutions to the problems you
describe above
-GDP (tax cut or increase, growth
in G (where?), etc)
-Inflation
-employment
-growth/productivity
deficit/national debt
4. Summary
Each of the topics above should
be a paragraph in length, making the essay around 12 paragraphs.
More requirment:
I wanted to follow up on the
essay portion of your final exam. What I’m looking for is your ability to start
putting together the various concepts and tools we have covered in
macroeconomics in order to:
1. Provide an assessment of the
current state of the U.S. economy.
Here I want you to analyze what’s
going on in terms of the key economic indicators (GDP, inflation, productivity,
unemployment, deficit, trade, etc.) PLEASE don’t just copy some section out of
a text or recent article or you will be severely penalized. I want your
interpretation of these things, in your own words. There are tons of analyses
out that you can use. Make sure you note any source you use. Here’s a good one
that I just read from the NY Times:https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/02/business/economy/jobs-report.html?_r=1.
The key to answering this section
is to organize your essay with an outline and then just flesh it out. For
example, you will be expected to comment on the GDP; here’s a sample of how you
might organize that answer:
a. Definition of GDP, explaining
the different components
b. What are the strengths and
weaknesses of the measurement?
c. What has been going on with
GDP lately?
d. How have the individual
sectors been performing?
e. What are the different reasons
for the current GDP growth? Which one do you believe? Why?
2. Give some policy prescriptions
to the president for how to improve the economy. The key here is to start by
explaining to the president your economic viewpoint, i.e., do you believe that
the nation’s economic problems can be solved by relying on the market, the
government, or some combination of the two. It is critical that you explain
this to the president. To help, I have attached some of the PowerPoint slides
that I used a lecture in a face-to-face class a couple of weeks ago. I didn’t
have time to record sound to it, so if it’s confusing in parts send me an
email.
The lecture starts out by
reviewing expansionary and contractionary fiscal and monetary policy tools.
These are the options that the government has to deal with the 4 different
economic situations which are identified in the slides. It also points out the
advantages and disadvantages of each strategy when used to deal with the
different economic situations.
Then the lecture goes into the
basic Republican and Democratic strategies. (BTW don’t assume that because
Trump is a Republican you need to advocate a conservative approach; there are
plenty of Democrats advisers trying to get his ear!) This is the key part of
the lecture that you need to address in your essay. Are you proposing an
expansionary or contractionary policy and why?
Again, any whiff of copying from
a text or an online source without attribution will be severely penalized. I
want your thoughts.
