Week 10

No article summary due this week.  Enjoy!

Week 9

http://www.google.com/finance might be a good place to go for news about the economy.  Please focus on items that have to do with the whole economy (not just one product) and on items that seem substantial (not cute or weird human interest stories).  You should focus on news stories that have something to do with the fluctuations in the economy.  So search for news about

• average workweek of production workers in manufacturing
• average initial weekly claims for unemployment insurance
• new orders for consumer goods and materials
• new orders for nondefense capital goods
• index of supplier deliveries
• new building permits issued
• index of stock prices
• money supply, adjusted for inflation
• difference between the interest rates on 10-year Treasury Notes and 3-month Treasury bills
• index of consumer expectations
• nonfarm payroll employment,
• the unemployment rate
• real compensation per hour of manufacturing employees

Week 8

http://www.google.com/finance might be a good place to go for news about the economy.  Please focus on items that have to do with the whole economy (not just one product) and on items that seem substantial (not cute or weird human interest stories).

Week 7

On this, the seventh week of the class, please focus on articles related to the exchange rate -- the value of a currency (e.g., the US dollar) compared to any other currency (e.g., the Euro, or the British Pound, or the Japanese Yen).

Also note that the second paper for this class is due on October 11.  All the rules from the previous paper apply.  In this case, focus your paper again on the unemployment rate OR on the labor force participation rate.  Go, for example, to http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/categories/10 or to http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.toc.htm.  Explore the data like we did in class (look at the unemployment rates for the young or for the old, or the participation rates for men or women, the duration of unemployment for different kinds of people, etc.).  Find something interesting, and -- doing a little research -- explain a pattern or a discrepancy.

Guidelines

• The paper is supposed to be 1 page long. Only 1 page. If you write more than one page (double spaced, 11-point Times New Roman, 1-inch margins), I won't read it.  Put the graphs at the end of the paper (they don't count towards the 1-page limit).  Make sure to put in lots of graphs: these are the "quantitative evidence" you need to make your argument convincing.
• Writing concisely is surprisingly hard to do. What I recommend is that you first write 2 pages, and then wait 24 hours. Then delete the excess material. Then rewrite to make it look good. Then delete. Repeat until you get to the hard core of your argument.
• Try to write this paper several days in advance of the deadline. Finish it, and let it rest for 24 hours. Then look at it again. You might find a thing here or there that you want to improve, data that you feel you need to add, or an argument that you think you can tighten up. This exercise is likely raise your grade by a whole letter at least. (Turning your paper in more than 24 hours ahead of the deadline gives you a 10% bonus.)
• This is a paper, not a text message. Bad grammar, bad spelling, and bad style are disrespectful of the teacher and indicate that you have a very low opinion of yourself. Give yourself enough respect to present your ideas decently. If I catch more than 3 obvious grammar, spelling, or style mistakes, I will return the paper to you ungraded. If you don't know whether your paper is OK, get a friend who writes well to proofread it. (Did you know that Microsoft Word can check your spelling, your grammar, and even a little bit of your style?)