Economics Homework Help

Purpose: Sharing of ideas on different aspects of the US economy before we explore and connect the elements of macroeconomic analysis. How will your newly minted knowledge of economics change your perception of the most important elements of our economy? Will it change your view, adjust your understanding, or reinforce your original ideas?

Directions: Economies as complex. A nation’s economy is more than statistics and graphs because it encompasses the economic, political, social, environmental, and well-being aspects of the nation’s citizens. We need all aspects of economic growth to ensure we are using our resources efficiently. Evaluate a decision that impacted the US economy by using one or more of the eight guideposts to economic thinking. For example, compare the marginal benefit versus the marginal cost of the decision or explain how economizing behavior influenced an action, or how the decision illustrated the fallacy of composition.

1.What decision are you going to analyze?

Find a news article about any aspect of the US economy that interests you. The article can discuss a decision or policy that was made by the president, Congress, Senate or Federal Reserve. It can be a policy that is in practice or one that is being proposed by Democrats or Republicans or both. Include URL, Title and author

2. Identify the Guidepost and state your position – pro or con?

Read the eight guideposts to economic thinking in the CH 1 PPT and in the e-text chapter 1 section 1.2. State the decision or proposal made: give TWO specific reasons that you either agree or disagree with the decision in the article using one or two of the eight guideposts.
D. In your post, use five economic terms from Chapters 1 and/or 2(bold font) and one quote from your article that supports your point of view

Cross Post: This is your comment on what your classmates wrote and is the discussion part of the assignment.

Agree or disagree (cross post) with two of your classmates ideas – add one new fact or point that expands their point of view or supports your point of view. Include a URL to the article you used for the fact you added.

Here is an example:

Use this as a template as well: Decision with the article URL, Guidepost, Viewpoint, and Explanation

1. Decision and URL: Trump administration proposes the removal of climate change impact from new Federal infrastructure projects. (NYT Trump Rule Would Exclude Climate Change in Infrastructure Planning. 1/3/2020) (Links to an external site.)

2. TWO Guideposts :Guidepost: #1 Decisions are made at the margin, #2 The use of scarce resources is costly, so decision-makers must make trade-offs

3. Evaluation: My Viewpoint: Poor Decision. Marginal Costs > Marginal Benefits, Resource Cost is too high

Extra Cost:

reducing regulation that would result in “discharging waste, cutting trees and increasing air pollution…cumulative damages like greenhouse gas emissions and rising sea levels also excluded”(NYT 1/2/20) Pollution is an example of a negative externality that impacts populations who are not part of the production process

Extra Benefit:

Increase the speed and efficiency of projects by reducing “significant uncertainty and delays that can increase costs, derail important projects, and threaten jobs for American workers and labor union members.” (NYT 1/3/2020)

4. Explanation:

Resource scarcity, the core of economic analysis, economic actors make decisions using marginal analysis. While there are many facets of environmental degradation, I focused on water scarcity, given that an opportunity cost of the relaxed regulation is the discharge of waste into US streams, rivers, and oceans. This is also an example of the Tragedy of Commons as it destroys clean water which is already a scarce resource

This website (Links to an external site.) clearly illustrates my point by providing positive economic thoughts on the problem While the current law was in force, over 53 million Americans experienced absolute water scarcity, 29 million suffering water scarcity, and close to 30 million experiencing water stress. (Scroll down to the map, click on the US to verify my statistics, and check some other nations while you are there!)

The extra costs of increasing water stress for 24% of the US population in 2019 outweigh financial benefits for firms to increase the speed of project completion with lower costs. Productive efficiency, in this application, will not benefit the overall economy. If profit and loss is the issue, there will be more significant expenses to fix the damage done by relaxed regulations, then by being mindful of the environmental impact in the first place.