This is Module 3 of the Money and Banking course.
Readings
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Self-Directed Learning
The readings above hopefully have given you a basic introduction to the economy and its important role in all forms of business. To continue your own learning about the economy, search the internet for articles, other resources, and examples related to the economy. See what you can learn from what others are saying about how economic performance is measured and how the economy is performing.
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Discussion of Module Topic
Write down your thoughts and experiences while you’re learning. Here are some prompts to get you started for writing about the module topic:
- Define and explain the concept of “the economy”
- How is the economy measured and analyzed?
- Provide links to any useful and relevant resources you can find on the internet.
- What is the business cycle and where are we in it?
- What is a recession and how is it defined?
- What is the “unemployment rate,” how is it measured, and what are the recent numbers?
- What is the “jobs report” and what were the recent numbers?
- What is Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and how is it measured?
- What is the difference between real and nominal GDP?
- What is an “economic calendar”? Provide some links and examples of economic data releases.
- Why is economic inequality an important issue?
- What is the role of the government in managing the economy? Is it too little or too much?
- What is “Keynesian economics”? (and possibly contrast to Hayek and Austrian economics)
- What is the outlook for the US economy in 2022?
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Discussion of Module Exercises
For this module, the discussion of the module exercises should include writing about your experience of practicing with analyzing the economy. As you’re working on the module exercises below, here are some prompts to get you started for writing about it:
- What are some sources for economic data?
- Can you find any numbers or data that quantify recent trends in the economy?
- How can an economic calendar be used to look for the most recent data on the economy?
- How can FRED be used to download historical data on the economy?
- How can you use Excel to work with this data?
- What basic statistics can you use to analyze the data?
- How do the statistics help you summarize the data?
- What charts can you create to visualize the data?
- Which types of charts seem to be most useful for visualizing your data?
- How can statistics and charts be used to help us analyze the economy?
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Module Exercises
For these exercises, we will be working together in Excel using Microsoft Teams. The goal is to start working with some data on the economy and then to use that data to calculate statistics and create data visualizations.
Each student can contribute in different ways to the shared Excel files on the M3 Teams channel. Not every student needs to contribute data. However, every student should be attempting to calculate some statistics and create some form of visualization. This can be done using data that other students have contributed! The main goal is to use statistics and data visualization to analyze economic data.
A. Try to find some data about the economy. This could be data on GDP, job creation, unemployment, retail sales, consumer confidence, etc. It could be the most recent numbers (e.g., unemployment is currently…) or the historical data (e.g., unemployment has been falling since…) There are a range of different data sources related to the economy. You could use an economic calendar or a data warehouse like FRED. The goal is to start analyzing economic data to support our discussions during this module. You can add a data worksheet to “Excel Exercises” or create a new Excel workbook. Make sure to document your data in a ReadMe and tell other students about it in Posts.
B. Work with some raw data in a different worksheet. You can copy some raw data (yours or someone else’s) into another worksheet and try to organize the data in a more useful way. You could sort the data on a different field or filter the data to show fewer observations. You could also hide columns if you like. Practice using a calculation to construct a new field (variable) based on the raw data (e.g. a ratio or sum of two fields). Make sure to document your new worksheet in a ReadMe and tell other students about it in Posts.
C. Use Posts or Notes in Teams to share about interesting current numbers related to the economy. Using an economic calendar, it can be interesting to talk about recent economic numbers.
D. Using data from A or B, calculate some basic statistics referenced in Module 2. Feel free to explore other statistics as well. Share what you find in Posts. For instance, you could think about how statistics provide context for current economic numbers, such as “Unemployment is below the average since 2019…” You could also post about these statistics in Posts to help provide context for discussions about the current economic outlook.
E. Using data from A or B, generate one or more charts for visualization of the data. The chart(s) should communicate some insight about the data. You could post a screenshot of your chart in Posts and say something about why you think it is interesting.