Keynesian or Classicalist?

Though the classical view is theoretically better, I find myself siding with the Keynesian perspective. The classical view focuses on making the economy better in the long run, however, this requires a long wait in which the economy is not good. This causes a great deal of hardship for people. However, the Keynesian point of view focuses on immediate effects, so when the economy is in a recession, people can depend on the government to make a policy change to immediately make a difference. 

Veterans Day

I believe that staying in school to celebrate Veteran's Day is a better idea than having the day off to celebrate. This is because when we are in school, we have more activities to commemorate the event. At home, most people are likely to forget why we even get the day off, and do not give the veterans the honor that they deserve. However, by having students attend school on this day, they become more aware of the day and it's purpose, and will honor it. Talking about the day in school will also encourage students who were not previously aware of it to go home and also celebrate it with their families.

The Bitcoin

When the question, "Are bitcoins the currency of the future?" was asked, I was a little confused. What are these bitcoins? What's wrong with dollars bills? Bitcoins are basically a computerized form of currency. However, at the moment, the seem inconvient and pointless, because people are using the current form of currency much more frequently than bitcoins. They also seem to be unsafe at the time, because they are all computerized, and so a computer crash could cause many issues in the economy. For the time being, as well as the next several years, i believe that bitcoins will not be the currency commonly used. However, in the far future, with Improvents in technology and changes with how people shop, they may be more commonly used.

Is Economics a Science?

According to Raj Chettym in his article "Yes, Economics is a Science," discusses how several people believe that economics should not be considered a science, considering that people have conflicting opinions as to how things work. All sciences contain arguments of how certain things function at some point, and this is what helps each of these sciences grow. 

According to Merriam-Webster.com, the definition of science is, "knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through the scientific method and concerned with the physical world and its phenomena."

I agree with the author of this article, because according to this dictionary definition, economics is a science. A social science. It involves the knowledge of the "operation of general laws" of the world. Economics studies the workings of the economy and how certain events effect things such as the Gross Domestic Product, Aggregate Demand, and Supply. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/21/opinion/yes-economics-is-a-science.html?src=xps&_r=3&

The iPhone 6 and the GDP

I recently read an interesting article on the effect of the new iPhone 6 on the United States' Gross Domenstic Product (GDP). We learned in Macro class that one of the things that factors into the calculation of the GDP is consumption. You would think that the release of the new iPhone, what with all of the people buying it, and wanting to buy it, that the overall expenditure would be greatly increased. However, this is actually not the case. 

According to Paul Dales, an economist at Capital Economics, "...those who purchase iPhones tend to forgo the purchase of other items — either by postponing spending in advance or by cutting back afterwards. In other words, the release of a new iPhone model appears to have some effect on the timing of consumption, but not on the overall level."

This is surprising to me, because I had not realized that people would cut back on spending, so even though there is a great new product that people are spending a lot of money on, it is hardly effecting the GDP.

Read the article here: http://www.cnbc.com/id/102053376

:)

The United States' Distribution of Income

http://prospect.org/article/top-10-percent-white-families-own-almost-everything

Here is an interesting article I found that talks about how the personal distribution of income. The personal distribution of income shows how the entire nation's income is divided amongst individual households. This article reveals a very shocking truth: 10% of the nation's households own over 75% of the nation's wealth, while the bottom 50% owns only 1.1%!

The Resource Economy & It's Backwardness

This week, we learned about the resource market! Now normally, we think that households buy goods and businesses sell goods. But in the product market, the households sell and the businesses buy. An example of this would be my dad going to work. He is selling his resource, which is his labor, and the company he works for is buying his labor. This is a part of the cicular flow of the market economy.