Assignment:
1. What is a mixed economy?
2. Who are Karl Marx, Adam Smith, and John Maynard Keynes? What were their contributions to economics?
3. What are the characteristics of Primitive Communalism, the Slave economy, Feudalism, Socialism, and Capitalism?
4. What does scarcity imply about tradeoffs? What is the opportunity cost of a choice?
5. Define GDP. What does GDP includ of includ Explain the difference between nominal and real GDP, explain the concept of a base year, and identify intermediate and final goods. Why is GDP not a measure of well-being? Why is GDP difficult to measure across different countries?
6. Explain the concept of the labor market. How is Unemployment measured (by whom?) and defined. What is missing from this measure and why might it underestimate unemployment? Define the concepts of underemployed and discouraged workers. What is the current unemployment rate. What is full-employment? Define and provide an example of frictional, structural, and cyclical unemployment.
7. What is purchasing power and how does inflation effect it? What is the money wage, nominal wage and the real wage? How is inflation measured? By which organization? What are the three myths of inflation? How can inflation hurt those on fixed incomes? Who are the most likely to be hurt (minimum wage workers; why?)? What is a COLA? How can inflation harm lenders? What must be done to mitigate this? Explain the Fisher equation. How does inflation harm capital owners? Why is this not an economic problem? What are capital gains?
8. What is the difference between stabilization policy and economic growth policy? What are the important ways to promote economic growth?