(All Steps) Visit the U.S. government’s Economic Statistics Briefing Room website and observe the kinds of information which is available: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/indicators/
Question: Visit the U.S. government’s Economic Statistics Briefing Room website and observe the kinds of information which is available:
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/indicators/
There are nine types of information about the U.S. economy reported on this Whitehouse site: (1) Employment; (2) Income; (3) International; (4) Money; (5) Output; (6) Prices; (7) Production; (8) Transportation; and (9) Social Statistics. Note that there are data plus graphics available from this site. You may click on the graphics to see them, and these can be downloaded and put into your papers.
The interest rate data, provided by the U.S. Federal Reserve System, can also be accessed from this Whitehouse site through the Money link, but you will be sent to the Federal Reserve site for this data. Go to the Historical Data in the Fed site.
These figures are updated as new information becomes available about the U.S. economy. Notice that some of the numbers are updated monthly, some quarterly, and some only annually. Some figures are stated as rates of change, others as percentage ratios, and others as actual numbers. Also, some of the monthly and quarterly numbers are expanded to an annual rate, and some are stated as seasonally adjusted. We will discuss the meaning of this in class.
Assignment: Find and report the most recent numbers for the following statistics. Use the table below to report your findings.
Economic trends are often measured using percentage changes from one period to another. The formula for calculating a percentage change is:
((new value - old value) / old value) * 100
Warning: The parentheses indicate the order of operations and are important.
For example, the real GDP was $9.191 trillion in 2000 and $9.215 trillion in 2001. So the percentage change in real GDP from 2000 to 2001 was:
((9.215 - 9.191) / 9.191) * 100 = 0.26% a weak but positive growth rate.
|
Macroeconomic
Statistic |
Previous Value of Statistic
Use percentage change, if available (specify date) |
Most Recent Statistic or Percentage Change
(specify date) |
| Real Gross Domestic Product- GDP (quarterly, seas. adjusted annual rate) | ||
| Unemployment Rate (seas. adj., monthly) | ||
| Inflation Rate, Consumer Price Index-Urban (monthly, seas. adjusted) | ||
| Bank Prime Interest Rate (%, monthly) | ||
| Federal Funds Rate (%, monthly) | ||
| Real Disposable Personal Income (seas. adjust., monthly) | ||
| Real Median Household Income ($, annual) | ||
| Real Personal Consumption Expenditures (seas. adjust., monthly) | ||
| Personal Saving Rate, (percent of income) | ||
| Industrial Production (mo. % change) | ||
| Producer Price Index, finished goods (seas. adjust., monthly) | ||
| Manufacturer’s Shipments, Inventories, Orders (monthly % change) | ||
| Corporate Profits (seas. adjust., quarterly rate) | ||
| Real Nonresidential Fixed Investment (seas. adjust. annual rate) | ||
| New Housing Starts (seas. adjust. annual rate) | ||
| Productivity: Output per Hour (quarterly, at annual rate) | ||
| Trade Deficit: U.S. International Trade in Goods, Services (monthly, $ value) | ||
| Oil Prices, West Texas Crude, daily price per barrel | ||
| Poverty Rate, percent of population in poverty, annual |
Write a brief summary of what these statistics in the table indicate
about the health of the U.S. economy.
Deliverable: Word Document 
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