Assignment:
Current Economic Events: Read and think about current economic events in periodicals such as the Economist, Oregonian and Wall Street Journal.
Describe a current event connected to the course material for the week (content topics can be found listed at the beginning and in the summary at the end of each textbook chapter) from a recent periodical.
Include a direct quote from the textbook and describe the connection to this week's course content, and the in-text citation (Author, page #). Include the textbook page reference.
Include the Article Citation (Author, Date, Title, Publisher, Location/web address) and the textbook content page reference.
Example:
In the Oregonian today, Tuesday September 27, 2011, the Los Angeles Times reported that "new home sales are stuck in a rut."(p.C1) A supply of six months is considered a healthy housing market, but the current supply is reported to be just over six months and two weeks. The median price also fell nearly nine percent in August. (Oregonian, p.C1)
Economics is "the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services." (Krugman and Wells, p.2) Home sales are an indicator of economic activity.
Citation: The Los Angeles Times. (2011, September 27). New home sales seem stuck in a rut. Oregonian, p. C1.
Milton Friedman identified inflation as a phenomenon of monetary systems. This week we'll look at the underlying reasons for inflation and the Economic Crisis. We'll examine the underlying causes of very high inflation, suffered by Zimbabwe, and differentiate it from the causes of more moderate inflation. We'll also learn why disinflation, a reduction in the inflation rate, is often very painful and difficult. We'll discuss the special problems associated with a falling price level, or deflation. Next, we'll examine the nature and causes of banking crises and financial panics. We'll begin by examining what makes banking vulnerable to a crisis and how this can mutate into a full- blown financial panic. We'll review the history of banking crises, exploring why they are so destructive to the economy. Finally, we'll examine how governments have tried to limit the risks of financial crises.