...political issues in both America and Japan wasn't as easy as it sounds. Not for me, anyway. I was told to try to pick topics that I know something about, and that led me to the first political issue that both countries face: unemployment. The United States' unemployment rate is, as you probably know, pretty high. In February of 2010, just one month ago, America's unemployment rate was 9.70 percent (TradingEconomics). That's just shy of it's ten-percent unemployment rate a month prior. I was included in that unemployed ten-percent. Having worked for Sprint for a year and a half, my whole branch was outsourced and laid off last June. Getting a new job was nearly impossible, and I found myself surviving on the unemployment benefits provided to me by our government. Before I knew it those benefits ran out, conveniently around Christmas time. And even though I was given a ten week extension thanks to President Obama, I realized that I couldn't live off of those benefits forever. By definition, unemployment is “the percentage or number of people who are involuntarily unemployed” (Dictionary.com). Every major country has it's own unemployment rate, some larger than others. Japan is no different. The unemployment rate in Japan has almost always been less than the unemployment rate in the United States. In January of 2010, the unemployment rate in Japan was 4.90 percent (TradingEconomics), a little under half of America's unemployment rate that month. Both the United States and Japan...
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...The Current Macroeconomic Situation in the United States Name: Institution: Abstract The policy makers in every economy play an imperative role in regulating the macroeconomic activities with the intention of maintaining the economic stability. In essence, economic stability is vital for improving the social welfare of citizens, as well as the economic growth. The current United States economic outlook is not good. The average American is not doing well though there has been an improvement in market performance. The 2009 financial crisis continues to affect the United States economy. High unemployment level is the major economic issues that the country is still experiencing. The unemployment rate is still high although there has been a small improvement in job creation. As a result of unemployment, the consumer confidence as well as business sentiment continues suffering. At present, inflation is not a critical threat to the United States. The Gross Domestic Product is flat. In fact, the growth of real GDP has been excessively slow. The monetary and fiscal policies can help the policy makers in solving the present unemployment problem facing the country. In particular, the policymakers ought to consider implementing both expansionary monetary and fiscal policies since the current level of unemployment is essentially cyclical. With regards to the expansionary fiscal policy, the policy makers should implement it through taxation...
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...the economy of both respective countries, United States and South Korea. The board was appreciative of the last presentation being performed and requires additional information to achieve the decision required for the success of the facility. This information required by the organization contains facts concerning the gross domestic product (GDP), unemployment, interest rates, and inflation for both countries. They desire the information to be current within six months, so the organization can make the best decision possible for AutoEdge (CTU, 2014). Utilizing the economic factors of an organization will present the future for the organization and assist with the processes required to make the business a success. A Macroeconomics Outlook for AutoEdge Within the process of business in our current society, there are many issues one must face, especially when participating in global business expansion practices. In the case of AutoEdge, there have been issues affecting the progress and growth of the organization because of international business issues in the selected country, South Korea. As mentioned previously concerning different factors one must consider in global business activities, the major factor to contemplate and analyze is the economic factor of global country in comparison with your residing country. This involves several indicators to be compared which are the gross domestic product, unemployment, interest rates, and inflation of both...
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...Introduction Unemployment is defined as a situation where an individual of working age is not able to get a job but would like to be in full time employment. Unemployment statistics measure the situation and the level of joblessness within an economy. The unemployment rate is the key measure, which is the number of unemployed workers divided by the total individuals in the labor force. There are five types of unemployment which are Frictional Unemployment, Structural Unemployment, Cyclical Unemployment, Technological Unemployment and Seasonal Unemployment. Frictional unemployment is when an individual moving from one job to another; the unemployment temporarily experienced when looking for one’s new job. A structural unemployment is caused by the location of the job, the individual’s skill or the geographical reason. While a cyclical unemployment is caused by a business cycle recession, when there is lack of aggregate demand for labor. The replacement of workers to machineries or advanced technologies is called technological unemployment. Last but not least, the seasonal unemployment occurs when a particular job is not in demand at certain seasons. Unemployment is a crucial issue for every country in the world, especially those developing countries with a remarkable population. High unemployment rate indicates that labor resources are not being used efficiently. Fortunately, the unemployment rate in Malaysia (3.2%) is not as high as in United State, which is 6.7%...
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...AGGREGATE DEMAND SUPPLY MODELS: ECONOMIC CRITIQUE Although unemployment rates have improved in the last three years, the unemployment rates are slowly beginning to rise again. Millions of Americans are still out of work. Acquisitions, company closings, and massive layoffs, among other factors, are contributors to the ongoing issue. Employers in 20 states, which are almost half of the United States, have cut jobs. The unemployment rate increased in 18 states, decreased in 17 states, and did not change in 15 states (Newsmax Media Inc, 2013). Most Americans expect the government to solve economic issues. Unemployment, expectations, consumer income, and interest rates have an existing effect of the economic factors on aggregate demand and supply. When unemployment rates are high, households have less money to spend. If there is less money in a household, people will need to budget and focus on the necessities. Consumer income affects the economy because it reduces the amount of money spent in other areas, such as entertainment, sports, and dining. The less money people have, the less demand there is. Unemployment reduces the supply demand and labor demands. Companies downsize and lay off employees to save money that reduces the excess of supplies. Unfortunately, this reduces jobs and causes the economy to fall. To shift the decline in the economy, there needs to be a demand to make supplies and products. Interest rates, taxes, inflation, and regulating the cost of money are...
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...Final 8-2-11 Paul D Burns Western Governors University Unemployment is a Serious Social Issue Unemployment is the condition and extent of individuals out of work within an economy, measured by the “official” unemployment rate (U-5). This measure is the number of unemployed workers divided by the total civilian labor force. As of June the “official” unemployment rate stands at 9.2%. What is rarely reported, and even more ominous, is the underemployment rate. This rate includes two groups that are not considered in the official unemployment rate: discouraged and part-time workers (U.S. Congress, 1986, p. 12). As of June 2011 the U-6 rate stands at 16.2%. There is evidence that underemployment is pervasive in the United States. Some types can be measured more easily than others but it is apparent that many Americans are underemployed (Meyer, 1985, p.20) and because that figure is rarely ever spoken about, the costs, hardships and extent of unemployment are not fully reported or understood (U.S. Congress, 1986, p. 12). Recent studies suggest that unemployment has become a serious social issue in the United States due to the under-reported unemployment rate, the increase in financial hardship to American families, and the policies of government. Body When we do not include individuals who are discouraged, or those working part-time in the “official” unemployment rate, we are underreporting the true extent of unemployment, and creating various socioeconomic problems. Exactly what...
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...Poverty and Crime CJA/344 October 29, 2015 Chris Manning Poverty and Crime Poverty refers to scarcity or state of lack money or lack possessions of a certain amount. Poverty may be either absolute or relative depending on magnitude and severity. In the case of absolute poverty, one cannot meet basic needs like shelter and food. The poverty results from broad issues such as inequality, unemployment and high population density (Raphael, & Tolman, R.1997). Crime, refers to act that is harmful to individual and community or state at large by the individual. Crime exists almost everywhere in the United States, in both rural and urban areas. For this topic, the research proved that poverty indicates a high likelihood of crime activities. Other factors such as unemployment, high population density and low-income family background play an important role in the increasing crime in our society today (Raphael, & Tolman, 1997). In the United States, poverty is a big issue amid areas that have high poverty levels. Factors that determine the poverty levels such minority population, high population density and unemployment increase the case of crime in the areas (Drake, & Pandey, 1996). The crime can be explained using some theories such high stress among the poor, which increase the likelihood of committing robbery, rape among other violent acts. The inferior education acquired by poor youth reduces chances of getting a good job, role model and increasing the possibility of spending...
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...There are three major economic problems in our economy. They consist of economic growth, unemployment rates, and inflation. In the midst of this project, I will touch on all three of these major concepts. First let me start off with economic growth. The definition of economic growth is an increase in the amount of goods and services produced per head of the population over a period of time. So in reality this means “an increase in capital stocks, event is in technology, and improvement in the quality and level of literacy Are considered to be the principal cause of economic growth.” (1) Economic growth can be measured in two ways, by an increase in real GDP over appeared of time and an increase in real GDP per capita over sometime period. According to my macroeconomics book, the real GDP for the United States in 2011 was around $15,052.4 billion and $15,470.0 billion in 2012, which means economic growth rate for 2007, was 2.8%. Usually growth rates are positive, but they don’t always have to be, for example in 2009 the US growth rate was a -2.4%, which means a decrease in the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) during any given year. Let’s talk about modern economic growth, modern economic growth is defined as “sustaining an ongoing increases in living standards that can cause dramatic increases...
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...of goods and services in a specific country or region. The United States of America is known across the entire world as having the largest economy. The economy in the United States today is now where near what it was many years ago. The current economic situation has the country trying to regain its high economic status. The United States economy is really not good in its current state, but somewhat better than it was five years ago. Many people are not aware of the problem that we have in this country. I think that the biggest question in this country in reference to the economy is how we got to this place, with this economy. There is so much blame and finger pointing as to how the United States economy ended up this way. My opinion is that part of the problem in this country is that we depend on other countries to produce things for us that we could or should produce ourselves. The United States economy has changed and somewhat stayed the same as compared to five years ago. Points in this paper that will be discussed will be exports, imports, interest rates, inflation and unemployment. Exports are defined as goods or services produced in the United States and sold in another country. (O'sullivan) Imports are goods and services produced in a foreign country and purchased by residents of the home country. (O'sullivan) The United States is the world’s largest importer. The main import of the United States is crude oil and the problem with oil prices has been the...
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...Chamberlain College of Nursing The United States Current State of Macroeconomics Prof. H. Morales Content Introduction................................................................. Page 1 Unemployment and GDP .............................................. page 1 Monetary and Fiscal Policies......................................... Page 2 Conclusion .................................................................. page 2 References.................................................................... Page 3 The United States Current State of Macroeconomics Introduction According the text book economics is the branch of knowledge concerning with the production, consumption, and transfer of wealth. There are two types of economics Macroeconomics and Microeconomics. This essay will attempt to explore the different type of or is the branch of economics which focused its studies’ in “large” portion of economics system. It basically deals with the overall performance, behavior, structure, and the essential decisions made by the whole economy. In reality the relationship between micro and macro economy the relationship is intertwine, they are interdependent, but still have different strategies. The overall performance are based on, pinpointing issues such as inflation, interest rates, unemployment as a whole, national productivity, GDP growth, and recession. In the United States (U.S) for the household past few years unemployment rate. According to the U.S. Bureau...
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...liberals in the United States usually propose to administration actions or cooperation with the private areas and sectors to make it easier for jobs to create. These arguments involves using clean energy in the investments, training programs for the employees, assisting and providing loans for the educational part to improve its ability of providing new employments with educational background, spending more on the infrastructure constructions, rewarding and compensating the employees. Liberal back in history were always on the labour unions side and they supported the protectionist trade laws. Liberals does not care a lot about the budget deflect and loans, they also have a good tolerance with the changing in the currency, and this is to make a better competition between traders since the devaluation of the currency makes the exports comparatively cheaper. During the slackness period the liberals suggested solutions for the unemployment problem using Keynesian economics, which brought the idea of forcing the government to spend when the private sector cannot or not able to support adequate levels of economic expansion. Conservatism and its position On the other hand, conservatism which is a political and social philosophy that simply believes that there is something in life worth redeeming and they also think that the role if governments should be to provide the citizens the freedom they need to achieve their own goals. Conservatives in the United States believe in and...
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...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 unemployment rate is holding steady...
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...and Natural Real GDP (a) Unemployment: Actual and Natural (b) Real GDP and the Three Macro Concepts 4. Macroeconomics in the Short Run and Long Run (a) The Short Run: Business Cycles (b) Business Cycle Concepts (c) The Long Run: Economic Growth 5. Case Study: A Century of Business Cycles (a) Real GDP (b) Unemployment 6. Macroeconomics at the Extremes (a) Unemployment in the Great Depression, 1929–40 (b) The German Hyperinflation of 1922–23 (c) Fast and Slow Growth in Asia 7. Taming Business Cycles: Stabilization Policy (a) The Role of Stabilization Policy 8. The “Internationalization” of Macroeconomics IP* Box: How Does U.S. Economic Performance Rank? ( Chapter Overview Chapter 1 begins by introducing a set of three central macroeconomic concepts, called the “Big Three Concepts of Macroeconomics. They are the unemployment rate, the inflation rate, and productivity growth. Introducing the field of macroeconomics to students in this way has an important advantage. It facilitates the early introduction and definition of basic macroeconomic terminology, which gives students a chance to get used to thinking of macroeconomic issues in terms of these concepts. A brief section describes the differences between macroeconomics and microeconomics and discusses the role of theory. The purpose of theory is to simplify complex economic relationships so that one can perform meaningful analysis of economic issues. Theories need not model accurately...
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...State and regional unemployment rates had a modest change in August. 26 states documented an unemployment rate boost, 12 states and the District of Columbia posted an unemployment rate decline, and 12 states had no change. Forty two states and the District of Columbia registered unemployment rate decreases from a year earlier, seven states experienced increases, and one state had no change. The national jobless rate edged down to 8.1% from July and was one percentage point lower than in August 2011 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2012). In August, 54 metropolitan areas reported jobless rates of at least 10.0 percent, down from 99 areas a year earlier, while 123 areas stated rates fewer than seven percent, an increase from seventy three areas in August of last year. Yuma, Arizona, and El Centro, California, documented the highest unemployment rates in August 2012, with almost 30% each. Bismarck, North Dakota, recorded the lowermost unemployment rate, 2.6%. A total of 214 areas documented August unemployment rates below the United States total of 8.2%, 150 areas reported rates beyond it, and eight areas had rates equal to that of the nation (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2012). As of August, Florida’s unemployment rate was 8.8%. In the current economy, many Americans are concerned that a rebound is still many years away. The hope and expectation appears to be that a new Presidential administration will help turn the tide on the depressed economy. However, expectations do not...
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...How tax strategies impact on the Social Economic Problem? We are going to highlight some social issues and whether the tax strategy is effective in dealing with the issues. The issues discussed include the issue of urbanisation on vacant land, child poverty, inflation and unemployment. Issue 1: Tax Penalty: Eliminate Land Speculation and Vacant Land to avoid Poverty The urbanisation level of 56.25% in South Africa has recorded the world highest level in 2001. The “Apartheid City was a political economy of space which was based on two policies, i.e. racially-based spatial planning and development for some at the expense of others”. Cities were purposely designed to push poor black citizens to the margins of the city. Thus, the black population were materially distanced from advantages normally associated with city life”. With the abolition of Apartheid in 1994, the new government made a commitment to redress these imbalances and inequality and to create cities that are more equal, inclusionary, productive and sustainable. Although 1.6 million houses have been provided since 1994, they have tended to enforce traditional apartheid planning where the poor are still located on the periphery, far removed from employment and economic opportunities. This has resulted in increased urban sprawl and de-densification. Furthermore, the subsidy on public transport was more than double that spent on housing subsidy but the house prices has increased by an average of 20% per year. Land...
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