Journal entry questions are related to the application of the key concepts you learn to the real-world economic issues. The questions contain key economic principles and ideas related to the Macroeconomics topics you are learning. Please feel free to express your perspectives and state how the economic principles and ideas affect your economic decision making process. You should note that there is a limit to the number of words for the Journal entry. You can only enter the maximum 400 words.
Journal
- The interest rate affects the investment patterns in the economy. A friend of yours suggests a get-rich-quick scheme: Borrow from the nation with the lower nominal interest rate, invest in the nation with the higher nominal interest rate, and profit from the interest-rate differential. Do you see any potential problems with this idea? Explain. What are the cons of the strategy?
- Consumer spending during holiday seasons affects the aggregate demand (AD) in the economy. AD drastically declines during serious recessions. In 1939, with the U.S. economy not yet fully recovered from the Great Depression, President Roosevelt proclaimed that Thanksgiving would fall a week earlier than usual so that the shopping period before Christmas would be longer. Explain what President Roosevelt might have been trying to achieve, using the model of aggregate demand and aggregate supply. Was the policy effective to increase AD?