Week 15 HW

We talked about the national debt and how our taxes are distributed through proportional taxes (constant percent), progressive tax (larger percent as income increases) and regressive tax (larger percent as income decreases). Then, we looked into how GDP, CPI and Unemployment affect the economy (recession if not meeting GDP or Unemployment goals, inflation if not meeting CPI goals, stable economy if meeting those goals, or stagflation if there is a recession and inflation). We fix a recession through the expansionary fiscal policy (increase spending, decrease taxes) or through the easy money monetary policy (lower interest rate, lower RRR [taxes on banks], and the fed buys back all the CMOS or bonds lent out). We fix inflation through the contractionary fiscal policy (lower spending, increase taxes), or through the tight money monetary policy (higher interest rate, higher RRR, and Fed sells CMOS to banks, which ties up their money). We fix stagflation through either the tight money monetary policy AND expansionary fiscal policy, or through the easy money monetary policy AND contractionary fiscal policy.

The hardest part is remembering which policy goes with what problem.

1) I actually prefer this over the daily worksheet. If only math homework could be that simple...
2) I really enjoyed the class, more so than almost any other class I've taken (except creative writing. They're on about the same level). I really remembered the examples we did in class like the Reeses Peanut Butter Cups (which showed the marginal cost) or the wine selling, so if there was any way to incorporate more things like that of those, that would be awesome. :3