Problem 1

In 1970, Mr. Smith bought a house for $20,000 in cash. The average inflation rate between 1970 and 2010 is nearly 4% annually, while the average bond rate of return is nearly 5%. The house value follows the real estate appreciation in the same neighborhood as follows:

Year Appreciation 1980 25%
1990 20%
2000 15%

2010 10%

a) Determine the expected minimum sale price (A$) of the house in 2010

b) Determine the expected minimum real value (R$) of the house in 2010 based on

1970 dollar real value

c) Determine the expected actual value (A$) of the purchase price in 2010 if Mr. Smith

invested in bonds

d) Determine the expected real value (R$) of the purchase price in 2010 based on

1970 dollar real value if Mr. Smith invested in bonds

e) Determine the real interest rate for the bond investment

f) Was buying the house a good choice for Mr. Smith rather than investing in bonds?

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Samantha BalandoLv7

28 Sep 2019

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Short Answer/ProblemsâAnswer all numbered questions @ 10 points each. Provide your answers in the space provided or the back of the page. Make sure to scan all work pages. Any quantitative questions require showing your work for full credit. Round all $ problems to the nearest cent. All other calculations must be to at least the fifth decimal place. 1. Answer BOTH parts a & b below. a) Explain the impacts of low level unanticipated inflation for a country like the United States. b) In the United States, our confidence in our fiat money is derived from (3 things) 2. Given the following 4 scenarios: â¢ The contract interest rate was 6.5% and the expected inflation rate was 2.5%. â¢ The contract interest rate was 12% and the expected inflation rate was 10%. â¢ The contract interest rate was 7.5% and the expected inflation rate was 4%. â¢ The contract interest rate was 4% and the expected inflation rate was 1%. a) Indicate which scenario would have been best for the lender and explain why it is best for the lender. b) With an ex post actual inflation rate of 2.25%, indicate which scenario would have been best for society and explain why it is best for society of the four options. 3. Define, compare, and contrast two of the following sets of terms as they. a. organized exchange markets vs. OTC (over the counter) markets b. fiat money vs. representative full-bodied money c. adverse selection vs. moral hazard 4. Indicate what would happen to both M1 and M2 (increase, decrease, no change) due to each of the following events. Consider each lettered event to be independent of the others. a) you write a check for cash at the casino b) an individual redeems a personal CD and deposits the funds into a savings deposit account c) U.S. commercial banks use some of their excess reserves to purchase $250 billion worth of U.S. Treasury securities from the Federal Reserve. d) as the economy improves, banks ease their credit standards and approve a higher percentage of loan applications. e) you spend $4,000 in U.S. currency while on your spring break trip to Acapulco (if you spent less than that you could not have had much fun) Part III: Longer ProblemsâAnswer all numbered questions @ 15 points each. Provide your answers in the space provided or the back of the page. Make sure to scan all work pages. Any quantitative questions require showing your work for full credit. Round all $ problems to the nearest cent. All other calculations must be to at least the fifth decimal place. 5. The following is a historical list of median home prices in two states. Year State 1 ($) State 2 ($) GDP deflator (2009 base year) 1950 9,564 5,396 14.09 1960 15,100 9,800 17.56 1970 23,100 13,000 23.18 1980 84,500 43,900 46.05 1990 195,500 50,800 67.62 2000 211,500 74,400 82.59 2017 (estimate) 400,000 201,991 113.61 a. Convert each price into current year dollars. b. Determine how much a person would have had to pay in 1950 (for both states) to equal the 2017 real home value. c. For both states, determine the percentage increase in home values from 1950-2017 (one calculation for each). 6. Using the following information for a U.S. state: Nominal GDP Real GDP Population Year (millions) (millions 2009 $âs) 1,151,119 1,421,713 32,987,911 1998 1,879,520 1,975,457 36,020,878 2006 2,350,807 2,143,167 38,792,459 2014 a. What is the average annual growth rate for this state during the time periods listed? (Note: time periods of interest are 1998-2006 & 2006-2014) b. What is the average annual inflation rate for this state during the time periods listed? c. To what extent are living standards likely changing in this economy? Explain and support your claim using evidence from the above table. d. For 1 bonus point, indicate the U.S. state associated

Please read the passage and answer the questions below.

During the first half of the 2000s, the Japanese yen was relatively weak against the U.S. dollar. This was a boon for Japanâs export-led economy. On January 1, 2008, it took 122 yen to buy one U.S. dollar. For the next four years, the yen strengthened relentlessly against the dollar, hitting a record high of Â¥75.31 to the dollar on October 31, 2011. The reasons for the rise of the yen were complex and had little to do with the strength of the Japanese economy because there has been very little of that in evidence. The weakness of the yen during the early to mid-2000s was due to the so-called carry trade. This financial strategy involved borrowing in Japanese yen, where interest rates were close to zero, and investing the loans in higher-yielding assets, typically U.S. Treasury bills, which carried interest rates 3 to 4 percentage points greater. Investors made profits from the interest rate differential. At its peak, financial institutions had more than a trillion dollars invested in the carry trade. Because the strategy involved selling borrowed yen to purchase dollar-denominated assets, it drove the value of the yen lower. The interest rate differential existed because the Japanese economy was weak, prices were falling, and the Bank of Japan had been lowering interest rates in an attempt to boost growth and get Japan out of a dangerous deflationary cycle. When the global financial crisis hit in 2008 and 2009, the Federal Reserve in the United States responded by injecting liquidity into battered financial markets, effectively lowering U.S. interest rates on U.S. Treasury bonds. As these fell, the interest rate differential between Japanese and U.S. assets narrowed sharply, and the carry trade became unprofitable. Financial institutions unwound their positions, selling dollar-denominated assets, and buying yen to pay back their original loans. The increased demand drove up the value of the yen. For Japanese exporters, the 40 percent increase in the value of the yen against the dollar (and the euro) between early 2008 and 2012 was a painful experience. A strong yen hurts the price competitiveness of Japanese exports and reduces the value of profits earned overseas when translated back into yen. Take Toyota as an example: In February 2012, the company stated that its profit for the year ending March 31, 2012, would be about Â¥200 billion, 51 percent lower than in the prior year. Toyota makes nearly half of the cars it sells globally at its Japanese plants, so it has been particularly hard hit by a rise in the value of the yen. In late 2012, things started to change when the pro-business Liberal Democratic Party won national elections and Shinzo Abe was appointed prime minister. Abe had campaigned on a platform that included taking actions to weaken the value of the yen to help Japanâs exporters. Even before the election, Japanâs central bank had accelerated purchases of government securities, thereby expanding the money supply, and had agreed to a higher inflation target. Under Abeâs leadership, this policy had explicit government support. One consequence of the policy was to reduce the value of the yen against other currencies. Indeed, between October 2012 and December 2013, the yen lost more than 25 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar. The yen was trading at Â¥104 to the U.S. dollar in late December 2013. While this helped Japanâs exporters, the policy was criticized by other major industrial nations as a unilateral action that came dangerously close to precipitating a currency war.

1. Who in Japan benefits from the devaluation of the yen? Who does this hurt in Japan?

2. What does this case teach you about the way foreign exchange markets work?