Monday, January 11, 2010

AP Economics: 12 January 2010

Prayer (alphabetical):

Current Events:

Independent financial advisor Joe Krier of Krier Wealth Management talks about economic and financial landscape impact on the American people...what's changing, what's staying the same, and what the pundits are predicting for the year ahead in this WJXT Channel 4 interview broadcast on January 7, 2010.


We will pick up where we left off: Ch. 16, PowerPoint presentation and Handout Ch. 16 question.

Chapter 16

Measuring Inflation and Unemployment

Chapter Overview

In this chapter students will learn how to define and measure both inflation and unemployment. Some cautions about evaluating the statistics are also presented, in particular the issue of discouraged workers.

Chapter Outline

The Historical Record, p. 437

2009 vs 1887: A Grim Look at History of Unemployment, 5:24


The Household Survey, p. 440

Defining and Measuring Unemployment, p. 440

Employed

Unemployed

Labor Force

Problems with Unemployment Statistics

Underemployment and Discouraged Workers

Checkpoint: Unemployment

Unemployment and the Economy

Types of Unemployment

Frictional Unemployment, p. 443

Structural Unemployment, p. 443

Cyclical Unemployment, p. 443

Summary of all: Types of Unemployment, 4:19


Defining Full Employment

The Natural Rate of Unemployment

NAIRU or Natural Rate of Unemployment, 2:58 (Micro video but applies to Macro as well).


History of the Natural Rate of Unemployment (a Micro video but it relates to Macro issues as well), 1:21


Checkpoint: Unemployment and the Economy

Job Gains and Losses: Establishment (or Payroll) Survey versus Household
Survey

Ideas for Classroom Discussion:
■ Illustrate the changing purchasing power of a dollar by using the CPI calculator
on the Web site of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis at http://www.
minneapolisfed.org/research/data/us/calc/.
The site enables you to enter an amount of money in a particular year and see
what it would be worth in another time period. You may want to prepare for this
by having students gather “data” in the form of prices their parents or grandparents remember; the “when I was a youngster I could go to the movies for 5 cents!” data. See what that would be worth today.
■ Illustrate hyperinflation. Screen the PBS video “Commanding Heights” or look
at the page on the PBS Web site at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/
shared/minitext/ess_germanhyperinflation.html.

Particular points of interest: there was a 1,000-billion German mark note in circulation and few people bothered to take the change when they spent it! Also note the mention of people buying real assets—including pianos—because of the
depreciating value of the currency.

Chapter Checkpoints

Inflation
Question: If you lived in a country where you saw the signs of a government beginning to spend excessively relative to its tax base and was funding this immense spending by printing new money, what would you do to protect yourself and your monetary assets?

The point is to check that students can: point out the link between hyperinflation
and excessive money creation.

Unemployment
Question: Does it seem reasonable to require that to be counted as unemployed, a
person must be actively seeking work? Why not simply count those who do not
have a job but indicate they would like to work?

The point is to check that students can: understand statistics are based on assumptions and methodologies. Also, this question serves to reinforce the definition of unemployment as currently used.

Unemployment and the Economy

Question: After the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union split into several countries, the defense industry in the United States underwent a serious decline as part of the “peace dividend.” Many high-skilled engineers and other workers became unemployed as the industry retrenched. For many, their skills were so specialized that they were unable to find new jobs at their old salaries. Were these people frictionally, structurally, or cyclically unemployed? What policies might the government implement to reduce the impact of this type of unemployment?

The point is to check that students can: apply the definitions of the different types of unemployment to this specific scenario.

Extended Examples in the Chapter
Job Gains and Losses: Establishment (or Payroll) Survey versus Household
Survey

The term “jobless recovery” came into common use around 2004, and referred to
continuing job loss even after the economy moved from a recession into a recovery
(you’d expect job gains in such circumstances). There is a measurement problem in
assessing this situation. The Labor Department tries to assess the labor market by
surveying businesses (the demand for labor, in theory) and by surveying households
(the supply of labor). In recent years the two measures have not been tracking in
the same way. It is suggested that the Establishment Survey overstates job loss, particularly since people who lose a job but start their own businesses may not be
counted. However, self-employment may be a low-paying alternative to a person’s
previous occupation, leading some to suggest that the Household Survey overstates
how well the economy is doing.

The sources cited for this section are “Two Measures of Employment: How
Different Are They?” by Tao Wu (Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Economic
Letter, August 27, 2004) and Edmund L. Andrews, “Two Tales of American Jobs”
(The New York Times, February 22, 2004, page BU-6). The first source is available
on the Web at http://www.frbsf.org/publications/economics/letter/2004/el2004-23.html.

Examples Used in the End-of-Chapter Questions

Question 10 references how the Bureau of Labor Statistics measures unemployment.
For more detail, see the Web site at http://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm.

For Further Analysis

Calculating a Very Simple Inflation Measure

This example (in the student handout at the end of this chapter) can be used as a
small group exercise or as an individual exercise. It is designed to complement the text’s material on how to measure inflation by giving students a hands-on opportunity to see how an index is constructed. This exercise uses no weighting but it can easily be expanded to allow you to explore the meaning of a weighted average. By asking students to research prices of goods they will also get a feel for the data collection performed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Web-Based Exercise

This example below requires students to find current data on the inflation rate and the unemployment rate. You may wish to combine this exercise with a current
events article to add more of a research and analytical component. Points for possible discussion to extend the material in the text would include: different measures of the CPI (for urban consumers, etc.); seasonal adjustment; core inflation measures; state and regional unemployment numbers. You may also wish to discuss whether the two measures move together or inversely to each other.

How Is the Economy Doing?

Two of the most important measures of how well the economy is doing are the inflation rate and the unemployment rate. Go to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Web site at http://www.bls.gov/bls/whatsnew.htm to answer the following:

1) What is the current inflation rate? Put it in the context of previous period’s
data.

2) What is the current unemployment rate? Compare that to the last period’s
data.

Answer: Student responses will vary depending on when this assignment is
given.
1) As of the middle of June 2007, the Consumer Price Index showed an
increase of 0.6% in May, which made it 2.7% higher than it was in May
2006. For data see the Web site at http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.
toc.htm.

2) As of the middle of June 2007 the unemployment rate was 4.5%,
unchanged since May. For data see the Web site at http://www.bls.gov/
news.release/laus.toc.htm.

Tips

Current events are often the best way to motivate students with regard to the material in this chapter. Consider reading an article about current inflation and/or unemployment (even take a short “quiz” on it) and then repeat the activity
after covering the course material. Students may enjoy feeling that they can read
a business story and understand the statistics being discussed.

Handout 16.1

Calculating a Very Simple Inflation Measure


Resources

Dr. Marc Faber on CNBC on 30 December 2009, 10:38.


The American Revolution and Hyperinflation by a young American, 6:17.


Project for AP Economics 2009 (the class or school that made this video is not identified; I do not know where it is from):

Lyrics:

The productivity, is the GDP
Take the sum up of the C I G
There's no X in a closed economy
Open it up and free trade is what you'll see
The CPI is your price index
Shows you what you pay for a bottle of windex
Compared to the price level of last year
We should keep it at 100, now y'hear?

**Macroeconomics, study as a whole,
The wealth of a nation, or so I'm told
A one letter change and we're looking at a firm
But macro's what we're here for, sit back and learn.

A phillips curve, shows you the tradeoffs
'tween inflation/unemployment, yeah those layoffs.
Take the two rates, do not perplex,
The sum is known as the misery index
Did you know that money has speed?
Actually, it's called, velocity
P Q over M, that's what V
is equal to in, this economy

**

Something that's important yeah to me
is known to you as the MPC
It is the Marginal Propensity
to consume and shop and spend money
If aggregate demand, and aggregate supply
shift to the right, then GDP's up high
Don't know bout chu, but more output is fly
That's the way it is so don't ask me why

**

Say's law says supply creates demand
It's something that you should probably understand
Gave classical theory the the upper hand
'Til Keynes came along, what a man
Short run was the game of his theory
Didn't think that the world's economy
Functioned at its full capacity
Pessimistic Negativity?

Break it down...

Inflation the nation
cuz theres a justification
Of its short term relation
Between unemployment otherwise
Oh, dont get a bruther-wise
When rational expectation-wise
The sacrifice ratio-nality
Due to contractionary policy
Is smaller than expected in the theory
Of rational expectation, oh
Just ask my man Volcker,
Who went up to that suckah
Stagflation and smackd hah [her],
Like Alan Greenspan,
Who went up to tha man,
Inflation, and he demanded
Some respect, or lest
He get charged of vehicular manslaughter
Of inflations mother and daughter.
To OPEC he said, who's your father, boy?


Email HW to gmsmith@shanahan.org.

1. ■ Illustrate the changing purchasing power of a dollar by using the CPI calculator on the Web site of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis at http://www.minneapolisfed.org/research/data/us/calc/.

The calculator is located at:
http://www.minneapolisfed.org/community_education/teacher/calc/

It only goes up to 2009.

The site enables you to enter an amount of money in a particular year and see
what it would be worth in another time period. You should gather “data” in the form of prices their parents or grandparents remember; the “when I was a youngster I could go to the movies for 5 cents!” data. See what that would be worth today.

I provided an example: way back when, a family of four could eat for $4.95 . . .

2. Consider the page on the PBS Web site and read: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitext/ess_germanhyperinflation.html.

Particular points of interest: there was a 1,000-billion German mark note in circulation and few people bothered to take the change when they spent it! Also note the mention of people buying real assets—including pianos—because of the
depreciating value of the currency.

3. Read and compare the sources: “Two Measures of Employment: How
Different Are They?” by Tao Wu (Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Economic
Letter, August 27, 2004) and Edmund L. Andrews, “Two Tales of American Jobs”
(The New York Times, February 22, 2004, page BU-6). The first source is available
on the Web at http://www.frbsf.org/publications/economics/letter/2004/el2004-23.html.

To consider how the Bureau of Labor Statistics measures unemployment, and more detail, see the Web site at http://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm.

Based on your reading, and summarize the textbook as well, what are the varying ways in which unemployment is understood?

4. How Is the Economy Doing?

Two of the most important measures of how well the economy is doing are the inflation rate and the unemployment rate. Go to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Web site at http://www.bls.gov/bls/whatsnew.htm to answer the following:

1) What is the current inflation rate? Put it in the context of previous period’s
data.

2) What is the current unemployment rate? Compare that to the last period’s
data.

5. Be sure to continue reviewing Ch. 15 for the multiple choice Test; Ch. 16 Quizzes will follow. The Test and Ch. 16 Quizzes will be announced soon.