Summer 2008 Schedule
ECON 2210-904 Principles of Economics I
Summer Session I and II
Internet Course.
ECON 2210-051 Principles of Economics I
Summer Session II.
MTWRF, 9:40am-11:10am, Lamb Hall 343
Fall 2008 Schedule
ECON 2210-088 Principles of Economics I
TR 3:45pm-5:05pm, Wilson Hall 322
ECON 2210-904 Principles of Economics I
Internet Course.
Fall Students: Use the links below for (1) the course information sheet. (2) The registration instructions for MyEconLab in CourseCompass will be available in July. Be sure to register for the proper course! And note – Section 905 (internet class) will use the Third edition of the textbook – Section 088 (regular class) will use the new Fourth edition of the textbook..
JULY 3 FYI: June U.S. Labor Market Situation
On July 3, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the monthly
report on labor market conditions in the
The report is in HTML format which is inconvenient to use, so click on the "PDF version" to see the actual published form of the report. The February report is 28 pages long.
The "A" tables are based upon the Current Population Survey
(CPS) which is sometimes called the "Household Survey". During the
second week of each month the BLS conducts a survey of 50,000 households in the
Go to "Table A-1. Employment status of the civilian population by sex and age" on page "10 of 29". Note the column headings. The first three columns contain the actual data, while the last six columns contain seasonally adjusted data. With the actual data ("unadjusted") the comparisons must be made on a year-to-year basis. The adjusted data can be compared on a month-to-month basis.
Now look at the row headings. The "Civilian labor force" is the "Employed" and "Unemployed" figures added together. The "Unemployment rate" -- the number everybody looks at -- is "Unemployed" divided by the "Civilian labor force". This general format is used in the "A" tables for different groups. For example, go down to Table A-2 and Table A-3 and find the unemployment rates for White, Black, Asian, and Hispanic groups. In Table A-4, find the unemployment rates for high school graduates and college graduates.
The "B" tables are based on the "Establishment Survey"
which includes most business and government establishments in the
Go to "Table B-1. Employees on nonfarm payrolls by industry sector" on page "20 of 29". Note the column headings. The first four columns contain the actual data, while the last seven columns contain seasonally adjusted data. With the actual data ("unadjusted") the comparisons must be made on a year-to-year basis. The adjusted data can be compared on a month-to-month basis.
Now look at the row headings. The first row is "Total nonfarm" which shows the total employment in all the establishments covered by the report. Compare this figure with the "Employed" number in Table A-1. The CPS based figure is larger than the establishment figure! Why? The CPS figure includes workers in agriculture and the self employed, while the establishment figure excludes these groups.
Look down Table B-1 at all the industry groupings. These groupings are based on the new North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) which our government adopted as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). At the top of Table B-1 you will find "Goods-producing" which includes natural resources, construction, and manufacturing. About half-way down the table you will find "Service providing" which includes wholesale trade, retail trade, transportation, utilities, information, finance, professional services, education & health services, leisure services, other services, and government. The word "services" is used several times in this list. In the first application it refers to all employment that does not produce goods, and includes about 70% of all jobs. In the second application it refers to specific categories. When someone is talking about jobs in "services" you need to find out which term they are referring to.
Finally, browse through the report to see all of the tables that are included. Be sure to look at the news release at the beginning of the report -- this will be the information used by the media.
June 26 FYI: Final NIPA Estimates for 2008 First Quarter
On June 26, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), part of the Department of Commerce, released the third or “final” set of NIPA estimates for the first quarter. Go to the main page of the BEA at http://www.bea.gov/.
On the BEA page, click "Gross Domestic Product", then on the next page click news release "Gross Domestic Product”. This is the most recent monthly release of NIPA data, and it is in HTML format which makes it very hard to follow, so click on "PDF format" on the right side to see the actual printed release.
Go to page "6 of 16" and look at Table 1. This shows the annualized percent changes in real GDP since 2005 on both an annual and quarterly basis. Table 2 on page “7 of 16” shows the sources of real growth. Note the decline in investment in certain quarters.
Table 3 on page “8 of 16” shows GDP and its components in nominal and real terms. The nominal values are called “billions of current dollars” and the real values are called “billions of chained 2000 dollars”. The percent changes in Table 1 are based on the real NIPA figures from Table 3.
Next, go to Table 6 on page “10 of 16” -- the chain price indexes used in the NIPA. Note that the year 2000 is used as the base year (the index will equal 100.000). These price index values are the ratio of the nominal NIPA and the real NIPA values in Table 3.
Next, go back to page “9 of 16” and look at Table 4 – the rate of price
inflation in GDP and its components. These price changes are based on the chain
price index values in Table 6. The overall inflation rate for GDP decreased
from 3.2 percent in 2006 to 2.7 percent in 2007. This inflation rate covers all
of the final goods and services produced in the
To get an idea of the full size of the NIPA tables, you need to go to the August 2007 issue of the SCB. Return to the BEA main page. And click on the Survey of Current Business on the left. On the SCB page, click on “Search by Date” and select August 2007. The Table of Contents page will come on screen. Each article and set of tables is available in PDF format.
The second article is “Annual Revision of the NIPA”. The article is 24 pages long and shows the size of the NIPA revisions. You may find it interesting.
The third article is “National Income and Product Account Tables”. This is the annual NIPA report and it has 166 pages of tables in very fine print! Use “Overview” to get an overview of the complete accounts. Then go to “Summary Tables” for the summary accounts for 2006. Match these figures with the Tables 5.1 and 5.2 and Figure 5.2 in our textbook. Browse through the other tables in the report.
The fourth SCB article is “GDP and Other Major NIPA Series, 1929-2006”. This is 25 pages of historical tables going back to 1929. Let us take a look at the beginning of the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Go to Table 1 on page “1 of 25”. GDP in nominal terms declined from $103.6 billion in 1929 to $56.4 billion in 1933. Over this four year period (the Hoover Administration), the level of nominal output declined 46 percent. But what about real GDP? Go to Table 2A on page “6 of 25” and see that real GDP (measured in “chained 2000 dollars”) was $865.2 billion in 1929 and $635.5 billion in 1933. The real decline was 27 percent. So a large part of the decline in nominal GDP was due to falling prices.
Useful Information Links
Publications of the Central Intelligence Agency
The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is usually considered to be a spy
agency. However, most of their work has
nothing to do with the “cloak and dagger” world. Instead, they collect, analyze, and publish
all types of information about various nations.
One of their most useful publications is “The World Factbook”
which contains a wide range of current information on every nation in the
world. http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html/
Publications of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank
For decades, the St. Louis FRB has been noted for its special emphasis on economic and business research and its outreach efforts in making this information available through free publications, and now through an extensive internet site. There are two publications from the Saint Louis Federal Reserve Bank that are very useful for economic analysis.
(1) National Economic Trends. This publication focuses on the “real” side of the economy. The URL is http://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/net/. You have two choices. You can go to the latest published issue, or to the current updated version of the issue. Select the updated version. The publication will load in the Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format.
The first page is always a brief article. The third page is an overview of business and economic conditions. Look at the types of indicators that are considered important enough to be put on this page.
(2) Monetary Trends. This publication focuses on the “money” side of the economy. Go to http://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/mt/. You have two choices. You can go to the latest published issue, or to the current updated version of the issue. Select the updated version. The publication will load in the Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format.
The first page is always a brief article. The third page is an overview of the financial system. Look at the indicators that are considered important enough to be put on this page.
Other publications are available on line as well. While you are here, take a look around these two very popular publications, and the Saint Louis FRB website.