...With the recent government shutdown and the fiscal cliff debate over, many Americans are stepping back and asking “what is the current state of the economy?” Although the nation has been experiencing growth and a decrease in unemployment for the past three years, the national annual deficit of $1.1 trillion and the recent fiscal cliff debate along with the government shutdown reflect the nation’s struggle with furthering our economic growth and stability. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, GDP increased 1.1% in the first quarter of 2013 and 2.5% in the second quarter mainly due to an increase in business investments and goods exports and imports. What we can expect in the next few years is a slow and steady increase in the growth rate. However, many seem skeptical if the increase will be notable to say the least. Like GDP, unemployment has been on a steady decline for the past three years. The unemployment rate dropped from 7.8% in December 2012 to 7.3% in August 2013. This reports that there is an increase in job creations. However, what is more notable is that there is a higher increase in part-time jobs as opposed to full-time jobs, which leaves a bad taste for many because there is no certainty and sense of security. Household debt continues to decline in most categories like credit card debt. Yet consumers continue to remain cautious with a slowdown in consumer spending and spending for goods and services. If this trend continues...
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...the 7th or 8th largest economy amongst the states according to GDP. On the positive side, Ohio has maintained a lower cost of doing business than most, if not all, of its neighbors. Ohio is centrally located with many major manufacturing facilities in the United States. Secondly, the state of Ohio has the lowest tax rate on new capital investment in the Midwest and the third lowest in the U.S. for most of the last decade. Negatively speaking, the heavy reliance on manufacturing related employment is not going to be good, long-term. There will continue to be limited gains in service jobs due to slow population growth. Combine that with the elevated level of out migration and Ohio is going to be dealing with a smaller population percentage. The outlook for Ohio is mild at best. Total employment is expected to increase 9.3 percent over the 3-5 years, resulting in over 489,000 jobs. Personal income should also see an uptick of around 3.5 percent for the next year. As far as employment goes, the number of jobs will continue to be a problem, especially amongst neighboring states. Total employment is still 2 percent below the prerecession peak. It is also very important to look at home price growth as well. It has slowed down of recent, and growth over the next year is only expected to be between 2-3%. Ohio’s recovery has accelerated over the past few quarters, but it still trails the Midwest and nationwide averages. I would think it wise to choose another state over Ohio if you were...
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...Current Economic State Paper Jackson Kimberly FP/120 February 26, 2013 Kmiec Stephen Current Economic State Paper Introduction: This current economic state paper will explain if the current economy is expanding or contracting and reasons for that. It will also discuss the current prime rate, current interest rates on credit cards, current unemployment rate, and the current Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The economic factors that had led to a fairly good third quarter were only temporary and there was proof that the economy was slowing down in the last months of 2012 due to the skepticism over the impending fiscal cliff. Also, Hurricane Sandy that hit in late October 2012 was to have somewhat of a negative impact on the economy. There were clues that the economy may have actually slightly contracted instead of expanding. “The United States economy reversed course in the final quarter of 2012 and contracted at a 0.1% rate and was the worst performance since the financial crisis in 2009.” (Mataconis, 2013) . Even with the overall contraction, the economy is not on the brink of a recession or an extended slump. Companies are still spending. The economy we have been living in since 2009 is going to be the new normal. The prime rate is the underlying index for most credit cards, home equity loans and lines of credit, auto loans, and personal loans. The current prime rate is 3.25%, federal discount rate is 0.75%, fed funds rate is 0.25%, and the 11th District cost of funds...
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...Current economic state Santiago Avila, Jr. FP/120 December 14, 2012 Raouf Benhadj, MSc., MBA, PMP Current economic state Knowing the state of the economy is beneficial to people in general. People tend to make financial decisions based on current rates and financial income. By knowing the current market and the state of the economy, the public will be better prepared and be informed before making important financial decisions, like buying a house. The current economy is contracting instead of expanding. While, there was an expansion from -2.6% in 2009 to 2.8% in 2010, the economy shows a contraction from 2.8% in 2010 to 1.7% in 2011 as shown below in figure 1. Staying aware of a contracting and expanding economy can be beneficial because it will help in making decisions on whether or not it is a good time to spend money that was saved for luxuries instead of saving the money for future necessities. Country | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | United States | 4.1 | 5 | 0.3 | 2.45 | 3.1 | 4.4 | 3.2 | 3.2 | 2 | 1.1 | -2.6 | 2.8 | 1.7 | Figure 1 Another important information to know in determining the current state of the economy is the WSJ Prime Rate. As of December 12, 2012 the WSJ Prime Rate is 3.25% as shown below in figure 2. This rate is used to determine current interest rates on loans and credit cards. The lower the WSJ Prime Rate the better the odds are of receiving a better interest rate. ...
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... Economic Critique Describing the current state of U.S. economics, we will discuss several factors to include unemployment, future expectations, consumer income, and interest rates. We will identify the existing effect of the economic factors on aggregate demand and supply. In addition, we will identify current recommended fiscal policies by government leadership. With this information, we will then evaluate the effectiveness of the current fiscal policy recommendations from both the Keynesian and Classical model perspectives. To better understand what the state of the unemployment situation is in today’s current economy, it was determined that a good place to start was with the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) or the U.S. Department of Labor. The first quarter tally of 2013 is not available until February 2, 2013. Therefore, we based our calculations on the data from December 2012. According to the BLS, the definition of the unemployed is, “Persons aged 16 years and older who had no employment during the reference week, were available for work, except for temporary illness, and had made specific efforts to find employment sometime during the 4-week period ending with the referenced week. Persons waiting to be recalled to a job from which they were laid off need not have been looking for work to be classified as unemployed” (US Department of Labor, 2012). Currently there are 12.2 million unemployed persons in the United States, with little change in December. The...
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...November 3, 2014 Alexander Heil Aggregate Demand and Supply Models In order to have a strong economy, you have to have certain elements to keep the U. S. economy going. This paper will discuss four different elements that affect our U. S. economy today. Those four elements are unemployment, expectations, consumer income, and interest rates. The unemployment rate in the United States last week according to Trading Economics was 5.9, where as the highest it has ever been was 10.80, and 7.2 last year this time. (Trading Economics, 2014) Although these numbers sound good that is still a lot of people and every person out of work is hurting the economy. The longer a person is out of work the harder it is for them to find employment. “Unemployment negatively impacts the federal government’s ability to generate income and also tends to reduce economic activity.” (Hamel & Media, 2014) The higher the unemployment rate the more effect it has on aggregate demand and supply. If millions of people are out of work then they are apt to spend less money therefore there is less of a demand for the supply, which in the long run continues the ill effects on the economy. Fiscal Policies are how the government tries to make amends to the economy in times of hardship. The government can lower taxes or offer public work programs to lessen the effect on the unemployed. This also helps the economy, but the government has to take into account the effect this will have on the deficit. Another...
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...Zack Fellows Professor Gilliard English 1190 M/W 1200-155 How Patent and Copyright Laws are Contracting our Economy Patent and copyright laws have played a very intricate role in the United States economy all throughout our history. Most recently, they have played a very crucial role in protecting intellectual property, distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized under corresponding fields of law. When the United States put into agreement the North American Free Trade Agreement(NAFTA) , and opened up a lot of our trade barriers with countries all of the world, the key idea was that we were going to begin to change the face of our economy. We were going to do this by profiting off of our intellectual property and enforcing our strong patent and copyright laws around the world while slowly ridding ourselves off our manufacturing base. As the years passed, patent and copyright applications soared through the roof and it seemed as if the idea of intellectual property was working very efficiently. Innovation seemed to be coming from everywhere as there was a high motive to be able to patent or copyright your idea and make heavy profits. This innovation was a crucial part in the rapid expansion of our economy during the 1990’s, but soon this expansion came to a halt. This is heavily due to the fact of the enormous number of patents and copyrights that are being issued: over 240,000 in 2010, which in turn is hindering people’s innovation...
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...more than 15 trillion it is clearly the United States economy is one of the largest in the world. A person must have lived in a cave underground for the past several years not to know that the current state of the nation’s economy is in desperate need of improvement. There are different schools of thought about how the economy arrived at its current state. Conversely, there are different schools of thought on how to restore the economy. There are some who would advocate that going back to the same economic policies that created the currents conditions of the economy. Their philosophy is that if we stay the current course the economy would somehow miraculously recover itself over a period of an unknown amount of time. These same individuals believe that people are better off left to fend for themselves in this economy. On the other hand there are others that believe government intervention is the key to a faster economic recovery. In the following paragraph of this paper team C will discuss the current state of the United States economic recovery from the prospective of Unemployment, Consumer income, Interest rates, and Expectations respectively. This information will be summarized and recommendations made to the president regarding government spending and taxes based on the aforementioned economic factors. Aggregate supply and demand looks at the economy as a whole. Aggregate demand is the sum of all demand in an economy and can be calculated by adding the spending...
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...States’s current account deficit is a result of United States expenditure exceeding income. With an increasing government budget deficit, an increasing trade deficit, in addition to little national saving, the United States is dependent on large inflows of money from other countries. In other words, by running a current account deficit, the United States need to run a surplus on the financial and capital account in order for their balance of payments to balance out. This current capital inflow is allowing the United States to invest more than they save, and consume more than they produce, yet, this deficit makes the United States a debtor nation. Economist argue that there are some concerns associated with having a current account deficit and being a debtor nation. As of now, foreign investors have big confidence in the U.S. economy, as the U.S. dollar is seen...
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...affect the health of the United States economy, and there is a set of tools used by the Federal Reserve to control the effects of these factors along with current and future money supplies. This paper will review the influence of the Federal Reserve's economic tools on the United States' economy. One of these tools, the discount rate, is regulated by the Federal Reserve and can alter interest rates for lenders and borrowers. Monetary policy is a process to regulate the economy and money supply within the United States and adjusts to the state of the economy. Different economic times call for a change in policy and with this the money supply will follow suit. The discount rate, set by the Federal Reserve, is the interest rate for banks that borrow money from the Federal Reserve. This rate is usually set higher than the federal funds rate to discourage banks from borrowing directly from the Federal Reserve, unless all other options have been exhausted (Colander, pp. 348-349, 2010). Banks have the option to borrow from other banks and here is where the federal funds rate would come into play. The state of the economy guides the Federal Reserve in adjusting the discount rate, and this rate is an excellent tool to manage the money supply. If the economy is slow, a lower discount rate can jump start spending throughout the United States. One the other hand, rapid growth can cause alarm and lead to inflation. So raising the discount rate will slow the economy to avoid this. A good thing...
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...at more than 15 trillion it is clearly the United States economy is one of the largest in the world. A person must have lived in a cave underground for the past several years not to know that the current state of the nation’s economy is in desperate need of improvement. There are different schools of thought about how the economy arrived at its current state. Conversely, there are different schools of thought on how to restore the economy. There are some who would advocate that going back to the same economic policies that created the currents conditions of the economy. Their philosophy is that if we stay the current course the economy would somehow miraculously recover itself over a period of an unknown amount of time. These same individuals believe that people are better off left to fend for themselves in this economy. On the other hand there are others that believe government intervention is the key to a faster economic recovery. In the following paragraph of this paper team C will discuss the current state of the United States economic recovery from the prospective of Unemployment, Consumer income, Interest rates, and Expectations respectively. This information will be summarized and recommendations made to the president regarding government spending and taxes based on the aforementioned economic factors. Aggregate supply and demand looks at the economy as a whole. Aggregate demand is the sum of all demand in an economy and can be calculated by adding the spending on consumer...
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...Running head: THE ECONOMY AND THE FEDERAL RESERVE The Economy and the Federal Reserve Montsenia Taylor Abstract Knowing the purpose of the creation of the Federal Reserve Bank, and its role in monetary policy will aid in understanding why government feels it necessary to have a decision in economic growth of our economy. Different indicators provide the government with short and long term forecasts of where the economy is heading in growth at present and in the near future. Analyzing previous history can provide a map that allows for adjustments that may be needed for future growth of the economy and strength in the dollar. The Economy and the Federal Reserve Many Americans may think that The Federal Reserve Bank is just another bank, trying to persuade Americans to open up checking account by offering free checking. The Federal Reserve Bank is not open to the public for individual deposits; it’s the bank for banks. The Federal Reserve Bank is the bank of the United States. It is run by a Board of Governors that over see and influence interest rates through a monetary policy. In this paper the author will introduce the readers to the current Board of Governors, and provide a job description of their duties. By understanding the Board of Governors job duties will show how they are directly related to the economies past and current condition. Through the monetary policy the Board of Governors aim to steer the economy in a direction towards growth, but sometimes...
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...The United States is enjoying an economic boom that is fueling the growth of its trade deficit. At current exchange rates, the strength of the U.S. economy, combined with slow growth in demand in many other parts of the world, will lead to further widening of the U.S. trade deficit. How long can the trade deficit continue on that trajectory without disrupting the U.S. economy or the world economy? Absent structural reforms in the United States and abroad, a large devaluation of the dollar, or significant changes in the business cycle, both the trade and the current account deficits will continue to widen until they become unsustainable, perhaps two or three years out. Changing the trajectory will be difficult. The U.S. trade deficit is now so large that even if world economic growth were to pick up and boost U.S. exports, U.S. imports would have to slow dramatically for the gap to narrow. To shrink the trade deficit significantly, say, over a two-year period, exports would have to grow twice as fast as they did in the 1990s, when growth averaged 7.5 percent a year, and the growth rate of imports would have to be halved, from 11 percent to 51/2 percent a year. Moreover, following twenty years as a net recipient of capital inflows, the United States will soon be confronted with much larger service payments. At some point, either the United States' negative net international investment position and the associated servicing costs will become too great a burden on the U.S. economy...
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...Performance of the Indian Economy By: AKANKSHA SHUKLA FT163009 GOVIND NARAYAN DUBEY FT163025 KIRUTHIKA S FT163043 NUPUR BHARARA FT163063 SANJAY NARANJI THANKI FT163082 TEJAS PRAMOD MADAN FT163098 SHABARISH NAMA RADHAKONAIAH FT164080 VARUN M FT164096 As per the recent report by the World Bank, India is all set to be the world’s fastest growing economy by 2015 ahead of China. India’s GDP is forecasted to be 7.5% through 2015 and is forecasted to be 8% in FY16. This improvement can be attributed to the new government’s strong reforms RBI’s inflation focus and falling global commodity prices. GDP : 65445.9 billion Rate of growth (GDP) FY15 | 7.4% | Status of Employment | 29650 billion | India Industrial Production | 4.1% | Agricultural Sector | 18% of GDP ; 4152.28 Billion INR | Services Sector | 65% of GDP | Investment and Consumption expenditure | | Current account Deficit | 0.2% of GDP ; 1.3 billion USD | Fiscal Deficit | 3.9% of GDP ; 1.27 lakh crore INR | Interest Rate | 7.25 % | Net Exports | 22146.75 Million USD | Foreign Exchange Reserve | 355460 Billion USD | Credit Off Take | 10.19% ; Rs 65,24,257 crore | Rate of Growth of States Gross State Domestic Product at current prices State Gross Domestic product at Current Prices It can be seen that Maharashtra contributes the highest among the 33 Indian states and union territories.. The Top 5 States share about 44% of India’s total economy. Eight states of North East India share...
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...2013 Economic Critique The current state of the economy is in question by the United States population. Unemployment, expectations, consumer income, and interest rate are the topics important to consumers and businesses. Understanding each area will allow to understand the state of the economy today. Unemployment Unemployment is part of the economy that the United States government has been working on getting lowered. Within a one month period there has been little change. “The unemployment rate in the United States decreased to 7.2% in September 2013 from 7.3% in August 2013” (Trading Economics, 2013). The change of the long-term unemployed individuals had very little change at 4.1 million, accounting for 36.9% of the unemployed. The effect of the long-term unemployment creates a hardship and increased the risk of suicide and potentially shortened life expectancy. The government can assist with unemployment through policies they have in place. Some of the policies that can be implemented are educational advice, schooling and training facilities to prepare for new jobs, provide information on available jobs, incentives and regulations, tax incentives, and aid or grants to overcome specific obstacles. “While direct government intervention is inefficient in reducing unemployment, the government can remove other policies that make it harder for people to find work” (Boundless, 2013). Expectations The current economy for the United States of America had high expectations...
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