Macro project 1. U.S. economic growth—What are the latest rates? Go to the Burea

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Macro project

1. U.S. economic growth—What are the latest rates?

Go to the Bureau of Economic Analysis Web site, www.bea.gov. Click on "Interactive Data Tables," then "National Income and Product Accounts," and then "Frequently Requested NIPA Tables" to get to Table 1.1.1. What are the quarterly growth rates (annualized) for the U.S. economy for the last six quarters? Is the average of those rates above or below the long-run U.S. annual growth rate of 3.5 percent? Expand the range of years, if necessary, to find the last time real GDP declined in two or more successive quarters. What were those quarters?

2. What is the current U.S. unemployment rate?

Visit the Bureau of Labor Statistics Web Site, www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.toc.htm, and select "Employment Situation Summary." What month (and year) is summarized? What was the unemployment rate for that month? How does that rate compare with the rate in the previous month? What were the unemployment rates for adult men, adult women, teenagers, blacks, Hispanics, and whites? How did these rates compare with those a month earlier?

3. What is the current U.S. inflation rate?

Visit the Bureau of Labor Statistics Web Site, www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.toc.htm, and select "Consumer Price Index Summary." What month (and year) is summarized? What was the CPI-U for the month? What was the rate of inflation (change in the CPI-U) for the month? How does that rate of inflation compare with the rate for the previous month? Which two categories of goods or services had the greatest price increases for the month? Which two had the lowest price increases (or greatest price decreases) for the month?

4. Nominal GDP and real GDP—Both up?

Visit the Bureau of Economic Analysis Web site, www.bea.gov, and access the BEA interactively by selecting "National Accounts" and then "National Income and Product Account Tables." Select "Frequently Requested NIPA Tables," and use Tables 1.1.5 and 1.1.6 to identify the GDP (nominal GDP) and real GDP for the past four quarters. Why was nominal GDP greater than real GDP in each of those quarters? What were the percentage changes in nominal GDP and real GDP for the most recent quarter? What accounts for the difference?

5. Do all poor countries grow fast?

The CIA World Factbook is published annually and contains economic, political, and social data for nearly every country in the world. To pull up rankings of each country on each data item, go to https://www.cia.gov/, select Library, Publications, The World Fact Book, and Guide to Country Comparisons. Scroll down to the Economy section and click on "GDP-real growth rate." Write down the growth rates of the countries with the five highest real GDP growth rates and the five lowest real GDP growth rates. Go back to the Economy section and click on "GDP-per capita." (Per capita is Latin for per person.) Look up GDP per person for each of the countries whose growth rates you have just written down. Can we say that all poor countries grow fast? Should we assume that countries with lower levels of GDP per person will automatically be able to catch up with living standards in rich countries?

6. Is real GDP per person a sufficient measure of well-being?

Economists tend to focus on real GDP per person as their primary way of comparing living standards among countries. But they are also aware that real GDP per person does not capture many factors that affect the quality of life. Go to the CIA World Factbook's rank-order page at go to https://www.cia.gov/, select Library, Publications, The World Fact Book, and Guide to Country Comparisons. Scroll down to the People section. Click on "Infant mortality rate." Write down the rank and the infant mortality rate for the following four countries: the United States, France, Mexico, and China. Go back to the People section and click on "Life expectancy at birth-total." For each of the four countries, write down its rank and life expectancy at birth. Now compare the data you just wrote down for infant mortality and life expectancy at birth with the GDP per person data shown in Global Perspective 21.1 on page 437 in your textbook. Does the country with the highest GDP per person have the lowest infant mortality or the highest life expectancy? Can poorer countries do well on these alternative measures of well-being? Could people be misled about differences in living standards if they only compared different countries' levels of GDP per person?

Explanation / Answer

ANS 1=FIND BELOW THE GDP GROWTH RATES FOR LAST 6 QUARTERS=

Q3 2017=3%

Q2 2017=3.1%

Q1 2017=1.2%

Q4 2016=1.8%

Q3 2016=2.8%

Q2 2016=2.2%

AVERAGE=2.35%.This is below the long-run annual growth rate of 3.5 %.

Observing the above data we find that growth rate fell from 2.8% in Q3 2016 to 1.8% in Q4 2016 and further to 1.2% in Q1 2017.

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