Assignment:
1. To continue our discussion from last week (Chapter 2 is in both Week 1 and Week 2), we were just getting to discuss government intervention (as it was stated - a "mixed-market system") in a free market - this is a polarizing issue. Just how much is the government protecting the consumers vs. actually hurting consumers when the government gets involved? For example, the Department of Justice blocked AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile, because it said the consumers would be hurt.
What do you think - be specific using economic justification, not just your opinion (which you are entitled to but will not earn a 'substantive post')
Also, we started a discussion on health insurance, and there were a few strong opinions about this issue. However, I want to emphasize the there is a difference between your opinion and properly formulating an economic response to this (or any) issue. When discussing economic concepts in this class, please save any political rhetoric for your Political Science/Law course - this is an economic class and we are focused on the responses that we can appropriately define, model, and solve utilizing the economic concepts from class. Please be respectful of others and when disagreeing (or agreeing), please be sure that your response is grounded in economic concepts/theories.
1. This video was very interesting to learn how the European banking system is run and conjoined with 11 countries and the parameters that must be met by each country to participate in the ECB system/network. Just like our Federal Reserve the key with monitoring spending is to keep the economy stable to prevent recession as well as inflation. The U.S. dollar in 1998 was at a higher rate than the Euro. According to an article that i read about U.S. currency today, the dollar has weakened against Yen and Euro as of yesterday (Aug.9,2016) by -.055% DXY which is down 0.2%. The article says that it is advised for the Federal Reserve to increase its interest rate this year to strengthen the value of the dollar by increasing the return on dollar-denominated investments (Adinolfi, Reklaitis, and Kachi, 2016). What this all means is that the U. S. dollar and other currencies can vary depending on interest rates, economic spending and employment, just small shifts can lead to cause for concern.
Reference:
Adinolfi, J., Reklaitis, V., Kachi, H. (2016). Dollar weakens against yen, euro as productivity falls for 3rd month. Retrieved from www.marketwatch.com on August 10, 2016.
1. In watching this video I was very surprised to learn two things- first that the Federal Reserve is a private company and two that in the U.S. we are very cash dependent, despite the use or availability of credit cards. I always assumed that the Federal Reserve was operated and run by the government and not just supervised. I am happy to know that the supervision allows U. S. money to remain of high value around the world, essentially getting more use of our money in foreign countries. Cash flow in the U.S. is very high with one out of every ten dollars being spent as cash. I know that when we here in Michigan had that big black out several years back in 2003 affecting MI and other states, as well as Canada, it was an eye opener to many who live here how dependent we are on our debit and credit cards. I know I always carry very little cash and never have any in my home. Now I hear of so many people having cash stored in safes in there homes and they prefer to pay with cash more and more. I know that during this black out I had barely $50 on me and my pay check was in the bank totaling more than $900 as well as my other money, but the banking systems were down and we could not use the ATM. I was very thankful that we were traveling in the next two days and we would be out of state so that I would have the use of my money. The entire event was an eye opener. I had to wait until out of town to withdraw any funding. Knowing that we as U.S. citizens are using more cash now lets me see that we are helping to keep the economy flowing.
Holguin, J. (2003). Biggest blackout in U.S. history. Retrieved from www.cbs.news.com