Post 16: Business Cycle Visual

Post 15: Top 3 leading/coincident/lagging indicators

Leading indicators: - Economic indicator that changes before the overall economy has changed.

1. Average weekly hours, manufacturing
2. Average weekly initial claims for unemployment insurance
3. Manufacturers’ new orders, consumer goods, and material

Coincident indicators: - Economic indicator that varies directly with the overall economy during the change.

1. Gross Domestic Product
2. Manufacturing and trade sales
3. Personal Income

Lagging indicators: - Economic indicator that changes after the overall economy has changed.

1. The value of outstanding commercial and industrial loans
2. The change in the Consumer Price Index for services from the previous month
3. The change in labor cost per unit of labor output

I believe that these are the top incators in the US economy because each of these greatly help to predict the future of the business cycle.

 I think that the best indicator is GDP and Average weekly initial claims for unemployment insurance because both of these help explain the economy at any given time. These two indicators will both show the total amount of product being produced in the US and show the unemployment rate which will be a good predictor for the business cycle.

Post 14: Reaction to business cycle videos

Although the first two videos were "silly," they were very educational as well. The "My Humps" video was both the msot educational and the msot entertaining. It contained a lot of the terms that I have or will learn. The "Business cycle rap" was silly but not as educational and the Qwiki video was educational but not silly. Therefore, the "My Humps" video was the most educational and fun to watch.

Post 13: 10 things I learned from the practice Quizzes

1. Although GNP is more accurate, most countries use GDP.
2. Government transfer payments aren't included in government spending.
3. The underground economy isn't included in GDP because the underground economy is either illegal activities or unreported legal activities.
4. Anything that does not deal with money (barter transactions, housework, or self-repairs) are considered non market activities.
5. The business cycle is the changes in the market economy and it includes 6 different phases.
6. War is considered an external factor that may change the business cycle.
7. Indicators predict the future of the business cycle whether they be lagging or coincident indicators.
8. The amount of capital stock to worker is called  the capital-to-labor ratio.
9.  A country's standard of living decreases without long term economic growth.
10. Economists usually measure growth per capita.

Post 12: To the Editor

To whom it may concern,

Although GDP is a roughly estimated amount of "Gross domestic product" it is a faulty indicator because it fails to include many products. Because GNP measures the output generated by a country's enterprises both in the US and outside it's boarders, it may be a better predictor since GDP only measures the total output produced within the US borders even if it's produced by the US's own firms or not. The only reason why the US uses the GDP as it's main estimator is because most other countries have already adopted the GDP estimator to predict their national product.  Because GNP calculates the total income of the country (GNP = GDP + NR (Net income from assets abroad (Net Income Receipts), it creates a more accurate representation of the nation's yearly economy which can be easily studies and analyzed to create trends and predictions.

~JustinG

Post 11: 4x4

Step 1: Calculate Consumption expenditures
Step 2: Calculate Government purchases
Step 3: Determine Gross private domestic investments
Step 4:  Calculate Net exports
Step 5: Put it all together

GDP = consumption + gross investment + government spending + (exports − imports)

GDP = C + I + G + (X-M).

Rules:
-Final Output - Only value the final goods or services when calculating GDP
-Current year - Does not include used cars or secondhand clothing
-Output produced within a national border - Does not include products made outside the US

Post 10

Macroeconomics will be about the economy in broad terms. For example, the study of economics relating to the U.S. governemnt as a whole would be considered U.S. macroeconomics. Macroeconomics is really fascinating because of the variety of things to analyze. Economists constantly predict the economic future and reading about the future is always interesting. I hope to learn some of the parts of macroeconomics, how economists can predict the economic future, and to determine how easy it is to understand different parts of economics.