Thursday, March 27, 2014

Unit 4

3/6 Uses of Money 

  •  Medium of Exchange- using money to barter or trade
  • Unit of account- what gives money its economic worth
  •  Store of value- dollar does not fluctuate, meaning its value never changes
-Types of Money
  • Representative money- paper money that is backed by a tangible product (a certificate)
  • Commodity money- gold and silver coins; gets its value from the material from which it is made
  •  Fiat money- it is money because the government says so








-Characteristics of Money
  •  Durability- coins last a long time; paper money lasts not as long, but still a long time
  •  Portability- you can carry it anywhere on you
  •  Divisibility- can be broken down into smaller units
  •  Uniformity- all money is pretty much identical
  •  Scarcity
  •  Acceptability- accepted everywhere in the country
-M1 Money
  •  Consists of currency in circulation (paper money and coins)
  •  Travelers checks
  •  Called checkable deposits (checking accounts, demand deposits)
  •  accounts for 75% of all money used
-M2 Money
  •  Savings accounts
  •  Money market accounts- earning interest on checking accounts
  • Accounts held by banks outside of the US
  •  Accounts for 25% of all money used
  •  Consists of M1 money
-Difference between M1 and M2 money
  • - M1 is more liquid (available for immediate use)
  • M2 is not as available for immediate use from savings accounts
-How banks and thrifts make money
  •  When you deposit money into the bank, the bank uses your money to give out loans to make themselves money
  •  Assets = Liabilities + Net worth
    • Assets are what you earn
    • Liabilities are what you owe
  • Our money is backed by faith
  •  Reserve ratio = Commercial bank's required reserves / commercial bank's checkable deposits
  •  Banks create money by lending out excess reserves and destroy it by loan repayment
  •  Purchasing bonds from the public also creates money


3/17 Monetary Policy

- Influencing the economy throughout changes in reserves, which influences the money supply, and available credit

-4 Options of Monetary Policy
1. Reserve requirement- % that is set by the Federal Reserve Bank (Fed) of the minimum reserves that a commercial bank must keep
2. Discount Rate- the rate of interest that the Fed charges for overnight loans to banks
3. Federal fund rate- the rate that FDIC members (commercial banks) charge each other for loans
  • commercial banks can either borrow from each other or from the Fed
  • they choose whichever has the lower interest rate
  • if the reserve requirement, the discount rate, and the federal fund rate decrease, it is expansionary monetary policy
  • if the reserve requirement, the discount rate, and the federal fund rate decrease, it is expansionary monetary policy
4. OMO (Open Market Operations)
  • either buy or sell securities (bonds)
  • only done by the FED
  • if the Fed buys bonds, money supply expands
  • if the Fed sells bonds, money supply contracts
- The prime rate- the interest rate that banks charge their most credit worthy borrowers
  • good creditors get better rates
  • bad creditors get worse rates
Equations
- For a single commercial bank
  • The amount of money a single bank can create (loan out)
    • AR - RR = ER
- For the entire banking system
  •  How much money an entire banking system can create
    • system new money = deposit multiplier (1/RR) x initial ER
  • Total change in the money supply
    • system new money + initial deposit
Recession (Expansionary/Easy money)
  • Open Market Operation: Buy bonds
  • Discount Rate: Goes down
  • Federal fund rate: Goes down
  • Required reserve ratio: Goes down
Inflation (Contracting/tight money)
  • Open market operation: sell bonds
  • Discount rate: Goes up
  • Federal fund rate: Goes up
  • Required reserve ratio: Goes up        



Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Unit 3

2/19 Aggregate Demand

- Aggregate demand (AD) -shows the amount of real GDP that the private, public & foreign sector collectively desire to purchase at each possible price level -the relationship between the price level & the level of real GDP is inverse 

Three reasons AD is downward sloping: 
1. Real-balance effect     
  • high price-level: households & firms can't afford to purchase as much output    
  •  low price-level: households & firms can afford to purchase more output 

2. Interest-rate effect    
  •  higher price-level increases the interest rate (discourages investment)    
  •  lower price-level decreases the interest rate (encourages investment) 

3. Foreign purchases effect    
  •  a higher price level increases the demand for relatively cheaper imports    
  •  a lower price level increases the foreign demand for relatively cheaper us exports 
Government Regulation
-Government regulation creates a cost of compliance = SRAS shifts left
-Government deregulation reduces compliance costs = SRAS shifts right

  • The equilibrium of AD and AS determines current output (Real GDP) and price level (PL)
  • Full employment equilibrium exists where AD intersects SRAR and LRAS (long run aggregate supply) at the same point
  • Recessionary gap exists when equilibrium occurs below full employment output
  • Inflationary gap exists when equilibrium occurs beyond full employment output
  • LRAS represents full employment output

Shifts in Aggregate Demand (AD) 
-there are two parts to a shift in AD:     
1. change in consumption, investment, government purchases & net exports    
 2. a multiplier effect that produces a greater change then the original change in 4 components -increases in AD = AD → -decreases in AD = AD ← Determinants of AD: 1. Consumption:     Consumer Wealth:         
  • more wealth: more spending  (AD shifts →)         
  • less wealth: less spending (AD shifts ←)     
-Consumer Expectations:      
  •    positive expectations: more spending  (AD shifts →)        
  •  negative expectations: less spending (AD shifts ←)    
 -Household Indebtedness:         
  • less debt: more spending (AD shifts →)         
  • more debt: less spending (AD shifts ←)     
-Taxes:         
  • less taxes: more spending (AD shifts →)         
  • more taxes: less spending (AD shifts ←)
 2. Gross Private Domestic Investment:     
-Real Interest Rate:         
  • lower real interest rate: more investment (AD shifts →)         
  • higher real interest rate: less investment (AD shifts ←)  
-  Expected Returns:        
  •  higher expected returns: more investment (AD shifts →)         
  • lower expected returns: less investment (AD shifts ←)               
  •  Expected returns are influenced by: expectations of future propensity, technology, dgree of excess capability, business tax
- Government Spending:
  • more government spending (AD shifts →)
  • less government spending (AD shifts ←)    
-Net exports
Net exports are sensitive to 
-Exchange Rates(international value of money)
  • strong money : more import, few export (AD shifts →)
  • weak money : fewer imports, more exports(AD shifts ←) 
-Relative Income 
  • Strong foreign economies : (AD shifts →)
  • Weak foreign economies: (AD shifts ←) 







2/24 Consumption

-Disposable Income : income after taxes or net income
DI = gross income- taxes
1. Consume(Spend money on goods/ services)
2. Save(Not save money on goods/services)

-Consumption
1. Household Spending
2. The ability to consume is constrained by
  • amount of disposable income
  • propensity to save
3. Do households consume if DI=0?
  • autonomous consumption
  • dissavings
-Savings
1. Household not spending 
2. Ability to save is constrained by
  • amount of disposable income
  • propensity to consume
3. Do households save if DI = 0?
*NO
-APS= S/DI = %DI

-Average propensity to consume/save 
  • APC+APS=1
  • 1-APC=APS
  • 1-APS=APC
  • APC>1= Not saving
  • -APS = Not saving
-Marginal Propensity to consume
  • Change in consumption/change in disposable income
  • % of every extra dollar earned that is spent
-Marginal propensity to save
  • Change in savings/ change in disposable income
  • % of every extra dollar earned that is saved
Formulas
  • MPC+MPS = 1
  • 1-MPC= MPS
  • 1-MPS=MPC

-Determinants of C/S
  • wealth
  • expectation
  • taxes
  • household debt
-The spending multiplier effect: an initial change in spending causes a large change in aggregate spending or demand.

*multiplier = change in AD/ change in spending
*multiplier = change in AD/change in expenditure

-Calculating the spending multiplier
  • MPS/MPC
  • 1/1-MPC
  • 1/MPS
Multipliers are positive when there is an increase in spending and negative when there's decrease.
-Calculating the tax multiplier
  • When the government taxes, multiplier work in reverse
  • Because money is leaving circular flow
  • always negative
  • -MPC/1-MPC
  • -MPC/MPS


If there is a tax cut, then multiplier is positive because there is more money in the circular flow.


2/24 Investment

-Investment is money spent on expenditures on:
  • new parts (factories)
  • capital equipment (machinery)
  • technology (hardware and software)
  • new homes
  • inventories (goods sold by producers)
Expected rate of Returns
-How does business make investment decisions?
  • cost/benefit analysis
-How does business determine the benefits?
  • expected rate of return
-How does business determine the cost?
  • interest costs
-How does business determine the amount of investment they undertake?
  • compare expected rate of return to interest cost
  • if expected rate of return is greater than the interest cost, then invest
  • if expected rate of return is less than the interest cost, then don't invest
Real (r%) v. Nominal(i%0
-What's the difference?
  • nominal is the observable rate of interest
  • real subtracts out inflation and is only known ex post facto
-How do you compute real?
  • real = nominal - inflation
-Real interest rate determines the cost of an investment decision
Investment Curve ID
-What is the shape?
  • downward sloping
-Why?
  • when interest rates are higher, fewer investments are profitable
  • when interest rates are lower, more investments are profitable
-Shifts in ID
  • cost of production
  • business taxes
  • technological change 
  • stock of capital
  • expectations

2/27 Fiscal Policy


-Fiscal Policy- changes in the expenditure or tax revenues of the federal government-2 tools of fiscal policy:
  • taxes- government can increase or decrease taxes
  • spending-  government can increase or decrease spending
*when one increases, the other decreases-Fiscal policy is enacted to promote our nation's economic goals which are:
  • full employment
  • price stability
  • economic growth
Deficits, Surpluses, and Debts-Balanced Budget
  • revenues = expenditures
-Budget Deficit
  • revenues < expenditures
-Budget Surplus
  • revenues > expenditures
-Government debt = sum of all deficits - sum of all expenditures-Government must borrow money when it runs a budget deficit
  • government borrows from:
  • individuals (through taxes)
  • corporations (through taxes)
  • financial institutions
  • foreign entities/foreign governments
Discretionary Fiscal Policy-Discretionary FP (government takes action)- increase or decrease in taxes or government spending-Consists of:
  • expansionary fiscal policy (think deficit)
  • designed to increase AD
  • strategy for increasing GDP, combating recession, and reducing unemployment
  • recession is countered with expansionary FP
  • increase in government spending
  • decrease taxes
  • if PL increased, this means expansionary FP creates some inflation
  • contractionary fiscal policy (think surplus)
  • inflation is countered with contractionary policy
  • decrease in government spending
  • increase taxes
  • unemployment rate increased, this means it is contractionary
Non-Discretionary Fiscal Policy-Non-Discretionary FP (government takes no action)
  • automatic FP
  • unemployment compensation
  • social security
-Automatic or Built-in stabilizer- anything that increases its budget surplus during inflation without requiring action from policy makers
  • example: transferred payments, social security, unemployment compensation

Tax Systems
-Progressive tax rate:average tax rate rises with GDP
- Proportional tax rate: remains constant as GDP changes
- Regressive tax system : Average tax rates fall with GDP