Chapter 15 Reflection

     There will always be at least some unemployment for several reasons such as different industries fluctuate through the different seasons and may have to lay off a few employees in a certain season. Another is that some people don't want to work especially if they are receiving something like welfare that gives them a small income and they don't have to work.

      Public policies can affect the amount of unemployment in both good and bad ways. A good way would be the government creating a program that helps people to find the jobs they want to be in and better trains them for the job. On the other hand they can affect unemployment for the worse such as if the government raises the minimum wage too much which causes companies to lay off less skilled workers to try and keep the best of their workforce with the higher wages.
     Unions can affect unemployment as well by raising the wages of worker above the equilibrium point. This causes the demand for quality labor to decrease and therefore results in higher unemployment when they were trying to help all in the union.

Chapter 14 Reflection

      One trade-off that I have had between risk and return is with gambling at central city. The higher the potential winnings the higher amount of money you risk to win. This often makes me stay to lower cost games where I have less risks of loosing money however the return is not as good as the higher risk games.

     The present value of a dollar is more valuable than its future value can be shown with the example of buying a new car. If you buy a new car the minute you drive it off the dealership lot the price of the car decreases. As well as you put miles on the vehicle and have it for a few years the value will continue to decline as newer and better versions continue to come out that people want more.

Chapter 13 Reflection

     Private savings impacts investment with people putting money into their savings accounts the bank is able to lend out more money for other people invest in a new business or things they need. So the banks need to have money from others savings accounts to be able to lend money to people that will pay the money back plus some interest. It is important for people to save money in an economy because their saved money helps to keep the economy healthy. Without people saving money the economy could begin to dwindle and this could lead to a depression.

     Public policies like tax policies affect saving rates in either good or bad ways which will either encourage people to save or discourage them from saving. An example of a tax policy that will encourage saving is a policy that encourages economic growth that raises revenue without hurting those who are putting their money into savings. A example of a tax policy that discourages savings is such as having to pay double taxes on certain savings accounts such as IRA's. Government budget deficits affect interest rates because when the government spends more money than they make from taxes the country continues to pile up debt. As the debt continues to climb so do the interest rates to provide a better return since the risk continues to climb.

Chapter 12 Reflection

     Human productivity is affected by many different things that include labor and capital as inputs. Whereas the output is usually measured in the revenues as well as other GDP components such as the amount of inventory a business has present.
     Public policy affects the availability of resources that people need to be productive by changing factors in a community. These include the public policy affecting access to food, housing, health care and education which help everyone to be more productive in any of their  daily routines.
     If the government lowers the tax rates it will encourage people to save more money and spend less. This will boost savings accounts at banks which then allows them to loan that money out to people wanting to make investments this shows how public policy can promote productivity growth over the long term as the economy grows.

Chapter 11 Reflection

     A single person cannot change the rate of inflation with what they purchase because with using the CPI it is looking at how much goods are changing in price and what the majority of people are buying. So if only a few people are changing what they are purchasing for a better alternative the CPI will most likely not change because a majority of the people are still purchasing the original. As well over time the CPI continues to get more and more out of date and therefore is overstating the rate of inflation.
     Yes the improvement in goods causes more distortion in the CPI as you look at how much cars have improved from the 1980's to today you can see how many more options are available in comparison. In turn a car in the 1980's was much cheaper than a car today but when you look at all of the features that come with a new car and how much they cost it makes the price between the two not look quite as bad.

Chapter 10 Reflection

     Intermediate goods are goods that are sold to be used to make a final good such as cotton an intermediate good which can be made into clothes which would be a final good. We care about this because you need intermediate goods to make most all final goods and the prices of the intermediate goods help to determine what the price of the final good will be.

     GDP is not a good measure of well-being because it only measures the sum of all the final goods produced in a country but only those that are on the market. It also does not show what the effects of a growing population are causing. As well GDP does not look at the effect to the environment with more pollution which can lead to worse living conditions and shorter life expectancies. 

Chapter 7 Reflection

     Efficiency from the eyes of an economist is getting the most out of a resource that is possible and on the other hand if their are gains that are not made from a resource it would be seen as inefficient. Producer and consumer surpluses are important for market equilibrium because if a producer values their goods to be worth more than the current market value they will not sell their product as well if a consumer values a product at less than the producers are selling the good for they will not buy the product once you determine these values you can find the zero point or the equilibrium of the market. I don't believe that market efficiency should always be a goal of policy setters because you will end up with too many of one product that you are not able to sell because it is valued too high by the producer or on the other hand you will end up with not enough of another product because the value is set too low and you will never be able to reach a market equilibrium and therefore you will not be efficient in the eyes of an economist.