ECON 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Monetarism, Business Cycle, Aggregate Supply

14 views2 pages

viridianwildebeest744

3 May 2020

School

Department

Course

Professor

For unlimited access to Class Notes, a Class+ subscription is required.

Document Summary

In a recession, government should step in and boost demand (fiscal policies) Not that we don"t have the inputs to create what we want, but rather we don"t want to use those inputs. Economy should have kept expanding instead of going into recession, but we go into recession because we don"t use inputs efficiently. Believed that monetary policy is a way to improve economy, but friedman said that monetary policy is the reason why problems/ instability occur in the economy. Boom happens because of bad monetary policy/ investment too much, recession is not a problem but rather is the effect of bad monetary policy, growth should not be so steep. Classical (production is determined by inputs, money is flexible) His policy about money is like adam smith. Low interest rates (lots of money in the economy, related to hayek) there will be lots of investment - method to boost economy.

Related Questions

1. Why Niall Ferguson thought that the expansionary fiscal policy (or government deficit) could produce crowding-out effect? You can explain by using the IS-LM model or you can use the logic of loanable funds theory

Answer: Ferguson believes that an increase in the government deficit could produce a crowding-out-effect. First, I will touch base on fiscal policy. Well, what is it? Basically, it adjusts the nationâs spending amount which increases the economyâs deficit to close a recessionary gap, which therefore increases the the demand for loans, meaning people want to borrow money. An increase in demand for loans leads to an increase in interest rates. Higher interest rates lead to a decrease in investment and interest-sensitive consumer spending, so both C and I decrease. Thatâs what the crowding-out-effect is, the decrease in investment due to higher interest rates.

>in Deficit = >in Demand for Loans = >in interest rates =

The government speeds up the economy by deficit spending, they crowd out consumers and investors with high interest rates. So what this means is that the government is attempting to help the economy but it is actually hurting the economy. The reason why I think Ferguson believes this is because of what he says in his debate at the New York Review of Books, that âyou canât be both a monetarist and a Keynesian simultaneouslyâat least I canât see how you can, because if the aim of the monetarist policy is to keep interest rates down, to keep liquidity high, the effect of the Keynesian policy must be to drive interest rates up.â He continues on in the interview to say that the Fed has minted out a fresh $1.75 billion in bonds and that no one is going to buy them. Driving up bonds will increase interest rates which increases mortgage rates which is why he basically doesnât agree with the Keynesian theory.

2. Why Paul Krugman thinks that Niall Ferguson was wrong and thought that government deficit could not produce a crowding-out effect? In other words, please explain Krugman's Liquidity trap .

Answer: To start I think Krugman believes that the Fiscal policy is effective. It is effective when the Liquidity-Money (LM) curve is horizontal. It creates the crowding in effect. The supply of money is constant so it creates money demanded to be interest inelastic, meaning it doesnât change. So if the government wishes to stimulate the economy, it leaves interest rates at a constant rate, and an increase in investment and saving, therefore helping the economy close the gap on a recession. There is an indifference between money and bonds so this makes fiscal policy effective. So then we get into a monetary expansion, meaning we have an increase in the money supply. Well with the liquidity trap, we get the case that the investment-savings (IS) curve is horizontal. So when the government increases the money supply, investment responds to rapidly changing interest rates, which would decrease the money demanded, making monetary policy effective. But the liquidity trap becomes apparent because interest rates cannot fall below zero percent. This is when monetary policy would become ineffective because interest rates arenât declining meaning investment wouldnât continue. Krugman in his blog basically argues this. He states âMost spectacularly, IS-LM turns out to be very useful for thinking about extreme conditions like the present, in which private demand has fallen so far that the economy remains depressed even at a zero interest rate.â He sums up his argument for the liquidity trap and explains his logic behind the investment-savings, liquidity-money curve, and that is why he disagrees with Ferguson.

3. In the discussion, other discussants such as George Soros and Robin Wells pointed out some interesting issues. Please provide at least one thing that you agree and one thing that you disagree. Discuss in details why you think so.

Answer: One thing I found interesting was George Soroâs point in the debate in the New York review of books. He states âThe other feature is that the financial system collapsed of its own weight. That contradicted the prevailing view about financial markets, namely that they tend toward equilibrium, and that equilibrium is disturbed by extraneous forces, outside shocks. Those disturbances were supposed to occur in a random fashion. Markets were seen basically as self-correcting. That paradigm has proven to be false. So we are dealing not only with the collapse of a financial system, but also with the collapse of a worldview.â He continues to mention how Obama has 2 problems he has to face and how people who are viewing this crisis the same as the previous financial crisis, are making a huge mistake. To explain he states this: âBut when you have a collapse of credit thereâs only one source of credit that is still credible, and thatâs the state: the Federal Reserve and the Treasury. Then you have actually to inject a lot more leverage and money into the economy; you have to print money as fast as you can, expand the balance sheet of the Federal Reserve, increase the national debt. And that is, in fact, what has been done, which is the right thing to do. But then once this policy is successful, you have to rein in the money supply as fast as you can.â I think Soro is agreeing with Krugman and the monetary policy of pumping money into the economy. It will raise the money supply which eventually is left for us to capitalize on supply and let our GDP. Now I find this interesting because he is also agreeing with Krugmanâs IS-LM model, and later on, we come to find out that even Ferguson had come to an agreement with Krugmanâs points, with the exception being that the United States was a powerhouse, and therefore the European Union would eventually see its downfall.

Please make comments to the answer of discussion I provided above(at least 300 words total). And you can start with "I agree with you on some points... But I disagree with you on some points".

1. The primary tool used by supply-side economists to eliminate macroeconomic problems is

A. the discount rate.

B. corporate tax rates.

C. government spending.

D. open market operations.

E. the reserve requirement.

2. When the Federal Reserve System buys government securities on the open market,

A. the money supply will decrease.

B. excess reserves at commercial banks will decrease.

C. excess reserves at commercial banks will increase.

D. interest rates will increase

3. One of the advantages of automatic stabilizers over discretionary fiscal policy is that automatic stabilizers

A. has a greater multiplier effect than discretionary policy.

B. is not subject to the time lag problems of discretionary policy.

C. does not produce a deficit during recessions as a discretionary policy does.

D. makes the actual budget a better reflection of the condition of the economy than the full-employment budget.

4. "I have promised to do everything in my power to reduce the federal deficit. That means reducing federal expenditures and, if necessary, increasing taxes. Under present conditions of full employment and steady prices, we can afford to bear the burden of this debt (i.e., pay off the debt) now instead of passing it on to our children and grandchildren."

If the policies of the Senator quoted above were adopted, what effects would be expected while these policies were being implemented?

A. higher inflation

B. increases imports

C. higher rates of economic growth

D. increased unemployment and idle capacity

5. An inflationary gap can be reduced or completely closed by

A. decreasing taxes while leaving government spending on goods and services unchanged.

B. decreasing government spending on goods and services while leaving taxes unchanged.

C. increasing government spending on goods and services while leaving taxes unchanged.

D. increasing both government spending on goods and services and taxes by the same amount.

6. Compared to fiscal policy, an advantage of monetary policy is its

A. greater flexibility.

B. highly selective impact on segments of the economy.

C. ability to eliminate cost-push inflation.

D. need for approval by Congress.

E. need for approval by the President.

7. An increase in government spending on goods and services which causes a budget deficit to exist

A. is always inflationary.

B. is more inflationary than equal increases in private spending.

C. is usually not inflationary when the economy is operating at its full-employment level of output.

D. will not necessarily cause serious inflation as long as there are unemployed resources in the economy.

8. Some analysts believe the tax cuts enacted during the President H.W. Bush administration represented a supply-side economic policy rather than a Keynesian fiscal policy because

A. the tax cuts were accompanied by decreases in interest rates.

B. the tax cuts were accompanied by increases in government spending.

C. the tax cuts were primarily aimed at upper-income groups and businesses.

D. the tax cuts were primarily aimed at middle income and lower-income groups.

9. When the federal government is stabilizing the economy by increasing taxes, monetary authorities should

A. take actions to decrease interest rates.

B. increase the supply of money.

C. buy government securities in the open market.

D. follow an expansionary money policy.

E. follow a contractionary money policy.

10. Suppose a commercial bank has demand deposits (checking accounts) of $400,000, actual reserves of $170,000, and a reserve requirement of 20%. This single commercial bank can lend a maximum of ______ and the banking system can increase loans by a maximum of ______

A. $90,000 and $450,000.
B. $90,000 and $360,000.
C. $90,000 and $170,000.
D. $170,000 and $450,000.

E. both can lend an unlimited amount.

11. Which of the following would most likely result if the federal government increased its spending without changing tax revenues during a period of full employment?

A. inflation

B. a recession

C. lower interest rates

D. a larger net exports deficit

12. Fiscal policy that emphasizes cutting taxes as a means of improving incentives to work, and invest would be characterized in aggregate demand - aggregate supply framework primarily a shift

A. left in the aggregate demand curve.

B. left in the aggregate supply curve.

C. right in the aggregate supply curve.

D. no shift in either the aggregate demand curve or the aggregate supply curve.

13. Which of the following will result in the greatest increase in aggregate expenditures/demand?

A. A $100 decrease in personal income taxes

B. A $100 increase in personal income taxes

C. A $100 increase in government expenditures

D. A $100 increase in government expenditures which is accompanied by a $100 increase in personal income taxes

E. Both A and C will have the same effect on aggregate expenditures

14. You are given the following information about aggregate demand for an economy: (1)consumption = $600 billion; (2) investment = $50 billion; (3) government purchases = $100 billion; and (4) net export = $20 billion. If the full-employment level of GDP for this economy is $720 billion, then what combination of actions would be most consistent to achieve full employment and stable prices?

A. an increase in government spending and taxes

B. decrease government spending and taxes

C. decrease government spending and increase taxes

D. increase government spending and decrease taxes

15. Advocates of fiscal policy agree that discretionary fiscal policy will stabilize the business cycle most when the federal government

A. continuously incurs budget deficits.

B. continuously runs budget surpluses.

C. balances its budget every year.

D. incurs budget deficits during recessions and budget surpluses during demand-pull inflations.

E. incurs budget surpluses during recessions and budget deficits during demand-pull inflations.

16. Discretionary fiscal policy that increases the government budget deficit has the same effect on equilibrium as

A. an increase in personal saving.

B. an increase in business investment.

C. a decrease in government spending.

D. a decrease in personal consumption expenditures

pearseal757

Please help wtih these economics questions. I'll give the best answer to the person who justifies their answer.. or someone who does well in economics and knows the subject area well.

Which of the following statements is not true about Say's Law?

A. People produce more goods than they want for their own use only if they seek to trade them for other goods.

B. Markets would be regularly hit by severe shortages and surpluses.

C. Desired expenditures will equal actual expenditures.

D. Surpluses will be eliminated by falling prices and shortages will be eliminated by increasing prices.

Which of the following is not an assumption of the classical model?

A. Buyers and sellers react to changes in relative prices.

B. Households want to maximize economic well being.

C. Wages and prices will move freely in the upward direction but not the downward direction.

D. No single buyer or seller of a commodity can affect its price.

Money illusion is

A. when people think they are better off when their income increases even though prices have increased by the same amount.

B. when people are motivated by self-interest.

C. could not exist if the economy did not have competitive markets.

D. a basic condition that all classical economists assume people have.

Saving is not a problem in the classical model because

A. interest rates were flexible and savings were channeled into investment.

B. savers and investors were the same people.

C. the classical economists assumed that saving was beneficial to people for retirement.

D. saving would be spent by consumers eventually.

Which of the following statements is true?

A. There is an inverse relationship between investment and the interest rate.

B. There is no relationship between investment and the interest rate.

C. There is a direct relationship between investment and the interest rate.

D. Investment is always less than savings.

In the classical model, high unemployment due to either a demand or a supply shock

A. will return to its normal level quickly as wages adjust.

B. will persist if due to a supply shock but not if due to a demand shock.

C. can persist for an indefinite period of time.

D. never exists because unemployment can never deviate from its normal level.

The classical model makes little distinction between the long-run and short-run because

A. the model has not been fully developed yet.

B. prices adjust so fast that the economy is quickly moving towards the long-run.

C. the classical economists knew that we are always operating in the short run.

D. current changes influence the long run, so it is not possible to plan for the future.

In the classical model

A. the level of real GDP per year does not depend on the level of aggregate demand.

B. the level of GDP is demand determined.

C. the level of GDP determines prices independent of demand.

D. changes in aggregate supply affect the price level, not real GDP.

Which of the following is a true statement?

A. Classical economists believed output adjusted more than prices when aggregate demand fell while Keynes believed prices adjusted more than output.

B. Classical economists believed price adjusted more than output when aggregate demand fell while Keynes believed output adjusted more than prices.

C. A decrease in aggregate demand has no short-run effects according to the classical economists, but had significant effects according to Keynes.

D. A decrease in aggregate demand was not possible according to the classical economists, but was possible according to Keynes.

Which of the following is not a reason why GDP can be expanded beyond a level consistent with its long-run growth path in modern Keynesian analysis?

A. Prices and wages are flexible allowing for needed adjustments.

B. In the short-run existing workers can work more hours.

C. The existing capital stock can be used more intensively.

D. Higher prices induce firms to hire more workers.

A recessionary gap can be caused by

A. a decrease in aggregate supply holding aggregate demand constant.

B. an increase in aggregate demand holding aggregate supply constant.

C. an increase in the long run aggregate supply curve holding the aggregate demand constant.

D. a decrease in both aggregate demand and aggregate supply.

lemonpug153

ECON 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Monetarism, Business Cycle, Aggregate Supply

Document Summary

Get access

Related Documents

ECON 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Dynamic Inconsistency, Dual Mandate, Procyclical And Countercyclical

ECON 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Representative Agent, Aggregate Demand, Monetarism

ECON 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Consumption Smoothing, Size Function, Money Supply

Related Questions