Project 3
Nicolas Blanton
Mat Wenzel
ENC 2135-15
15 April 2018
Project 3: 1-minute Pitch
The BEA analyzes the U.S. economy and releases monthly reports. These reports are made for quarterly sections, revised three times for every quarter. Arguably the most important statistic that the BEA measures and reports is GDP or Gross Domestic Product. GDP is the sum of all final goods and services produced in a certain time period. In the fourth quarter of 2017 real GDP rose by 2.9%. This is the third and final report on this quarter. This is higher than the second report, of the same quarter, which was 2.5%. However, this is lower than the third quarter estimate, which was 3.2%. This suggests a slower rate of growth. All of this basically means that the economy is growing steady. We are growing slower than we were but not by very much. The general trend is to hover around 3% so nothing seems out of the ordinary.
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Nicolas Blanton
Mat Wenzel
ENC 2135-15
20 April 2018
Project 3: Genre #1 BEA Blog Post
The BEA analyzes the U.S. economy and releases monthly reports. These reports are made for quarterly sections, revised three times for every quarter. Arguably the most important statistic that the BEA measures and reports is GDP or Gross Domestic Product. GDP is the sum of all final goods and services produced in a certain time period. In the fourth quarter of 2017 real GDP rose by 2.9%. This is the third and final report on this quarter. This is higher than the second report, of the same quarter, which was 2.5%. However, this is lower than the third quarter estimate, which was 3.2%. This suggests a slower rate of growth. All of this basically means that the economy is growing steady. We are growing slower than we were but not by very much. The general trend is to hover around 3% so nothing seems out of the ordinary.
So, why is GDP important? GDP is a general concept and is used in a general way. The GDP growth rate can give explicit signals to banking institutions about the expansionary or contractionary behaviors of the economy. Banking institutions include individual commercial banks, credit unions, and depositories; all overseen by the Federal Reserve Bank. These institutions can use this information to implement counter-cyclical monetary policy. Basically this involves expanding and restricting the money supply. GDP per capita can also provide a fairly safe assumption about living standards within a particular country or region.
Counter-cyclical monetary policy is used to balance the economy. We do not want the economy to grow too slow or possibly go into recession. Also, we do not want the economy to grow too fast, believe it or not. The natural expansions and contractions of the economy are called business cycles and these cycles can get out of control if not tended to effectively. This is where the term "counter-cyclical" is derived from. To make a long story short, if the economy is booming beyond the recommended 3% mark then restrictive monetary policy, policy that shrinks the supply of money, will be implemented. This will stunt the growth and bring it back down to normal levels. If the economy is lagging behind the 3% mark then expansionary monetary policy, policy that increases the supply of money, will be implemented. This provides a necessary boost to keep the economy on track.
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Project 3: Genre #2 Podcast
Still had some technical issues. Just click on the doc, enable editing, and then double click the annotation. Sorry for confusion.
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Project 3: Genre #3 Flyer
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