Ian+B



Back when the stimulus and subsequent increased deficit spending was a big present deal, most people that I talked to, even those who supported Obama, weren't exactly blown away with excitement and anticipation.The common belief was that all this hubbub about Stimuluses and bailouts equated to the Fed throwing a bunch of money at any large business that wasn't responsible or intelligent enough to survive on its own in hopes that something would work. As things usually are of course, things were much deeper than that, albeit in a way that i didn't realize at the time. While a lot of speculation was clearly off (inflation was believed by some to increase exponentially) interest rates were a point of real concern, as interest rates were at recent-peak levels, something that created a huge abundance of possible debt opportunities but ultimately discouraged the already-wary public from taking more loans. One of the goals of the stimulus package was to lower interest rates and level out loaners and debtors hopefully closer to equilibrium. While it likely went too far, interest rates are certainly lower, and perhaps the package wasn't the wasteful failure many of Obama's opponents believed (or hoped) it would be. Well, interest rates are low because of the massive expansionary monetary policy that the Fed has in place. Yet, it hasn't seemed to push the accelerator down on the economy. The result of the cartoon above is still yet to be determined. 10/10

[] OH NOOOO! Some truly horrible and totally forseeable externalities like gas prices and inflation and some vaguely surprising ones like the Eurozone fallout have dropped 2000 euros off the average englanders disposable income! This reported decrease could also lead to a decrease in spending as a safety measure, thus fussing up the aggregate consumption function. Whatever shall we do? Smart government expansionary fiscal policy could provide the answer: Tax decreases and governments aren't going to help problems like Eurozone falters and problems with oil-rich foreign countries, but they could at least fill in some gaps. Yes, good point. There are many unforeseen issues that could simply sink FP tools when applied. That's why FP folks get paid the big bucks. 10/10

More and More! []

Hmm, supadupa intense inflation AND unemployment? This can only mean one thing: the Phillip's curve is moving outward at a rapid pace, a sure sign of some bad GDP action. In many ways providing more money and state control to fix the problem is a very Kensian thing to do, but I wish they had more of an idea on how to bring the Phillip's curve in as both those problems are nigh-impossible to fix equally without doing so. Still,let's hope it works, if only for old Badal's sake. 9/10 True. It's a hard problem to fix. Any ideas?

[] It's pretty amazing that fear and caution over Eurozone extends this far. I guess Brazil is attempting to loosen up its market economy to protect it from Europe's problems. The decrease on interest rates will do a lot more than just encourage investment and aid trade, however. Decreasing the nominal interest rate, and subsequently the real interest rate would do just as this article says: increase the inflation rate. This is a risky plot if the forecasts are precise, as real wages and incomes might not match up, and disinflation would be tricky to pull off after such a spooky increase in inflation. We'll just have to see. 8/10 Ok, yes, but can you focus in on applying what we've been discussing in class. Does this really make sense to you? We haven't talked about interest rates yet.

[] There has been some talk as of late of taxing things that are sold on the internet (downloaded music, orders, games) as it would be a profitable way for the government to collect money and would decrease the often-unfair advantage online dealers have over phyical retailers. While some states require consumers to pay sales tax regardless, the lack of consistent demand has in part increased the demand for online shopping methods and left many brick and mortar stores in the cold. an excise tax would aim to change that. If it was placed on online retailers prices would raise, and we can only hope demand for click-and-charge shopping is elastic enough that the equilibrium price would shift accordingly. If it was placed on consumers, demand would most likely go down, hopefully encouraging consumers to shop in town instead of just hurting shopping altogether. We'll have to see what happens if those taxes occur. Good point! This is a huge issue for brick and mortar retailers. But could we track who gets the sales tax? Is it the town where the consumer is or the seller? 10/10 -SW

Gonna fix this in a bit. i was still pretty lost at that point: Haha ok. I originally thought you had to have something on the wikispace to save, but I'll do something about hip-hop if you want. I'm going to analyze the absolute and comparative advantages of the two most important diss tracks from the very infamous jay-z vs. nas feud.

Jay-z song Takeover, which doesn't explicitly diss nas until the third verse: []

Nas' response Ether, which rattles off homophobic and angry insults at Jay-z for the entire track []

Both these tracks were important and influential songs during the early 2000s, with the word ether entering the hip hop lingo as a synonym for dominating one's enemies. While there was much dispute over which track was better, both the songs and their fallout can be analyzed in many ways, such as economically. Jay-z's half of the equation probably deserves the absolute advantage due to the song and album's increased success. Nas' response however is the clear winner for comparative advantage. Nas' career was at an all-time low right before this feud, and nas' ability to make great diss tracks vs. great party songs or well-recieved albums made the opportunity cost of making another song other than this incredibly high. Jay-z's career is more consistent, but ultimately the diss track exchange played a more helpful role in Nas' career. Who's the real winner of this beef then? Ian, you have the concept of OC correct here. But I don't think your examples of CA are correct. It would be difficult to develop that with two songs. Tighten up for more points. 6/10