Ashley Stephens
April 8, 2015
Macroeconomics
Term Paper
Using Emotions to Help Explain the Economy
When examining the economy, many economists assume that economic contributors make their decisions as unemotional rational beings. John Maynard Keynes, one of the most influential economists of the 20th century, was one of the driving forces in a revolution of economic thinking. In his 1936 book, Keynes coined the term “animal spirits” to describe the instincts and emotions that influence and guide human behavior which have a direct impact on the economy. Following the financial crisis of 2007-2008, economists and authors George Akerlof and Robert Shiller published the book, Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why it
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Additionally, people desire fairness, which can cause them to make decisions that are not always in their best economic interests. Many people would choose to be unemployed than work for wages that they view as unfair. Thirdly, corruption and bad faith can contribute to a recession. There are incentives to profit from enthusiastic people who are too trusting when the economy is doing well, which causes the positive developments of the booming economy to slow and even stop. The next element the authors discuss is money illusion, or the cognitive failure to account for inflation or deflation in prices or wages. Workers for example will refuse a pay cut, or even to ask for a raise in times of recession. They don’t want to take more from their firm during challenging times, but they also don’t want to make less money. Finally, the authors outline the importance of stories in determining behavior. For example, the story that house prices will always rise caused many people to invest in housing, which contributed to financial crisis.
The second part of Animal Spirits uses the five animal spirits to explain eight different questions about economics. First, they claim that economies fall into recessions/depressions because people get overly confident and make rash decision, which encourages corruption until people become panicked and their confidence disappears
The largest cause of unemployment can be attributed to recession. The term recession refers to the backward movement of the economy for a long period. People spend only when they have to. (Nagle 2009). With people spending less there would be less money in circulation therefore, enterprises would suffer financially and people would suffer too. This is so because recession reduces the fiscal bases of enterprises, forcing these enterprises to reduce their workforce through layoffs. These enterprises lay off their workers in order to cut the costs they incur in terms of wage and salary payments.
In the United States, we encounter quite a bit of obstacles that we can’t seem to get rid of completely. We as a nation deal with inflation, unemployment, stagflation, recessions, depressions, and so much more. Reading these three articles opened my eyes to the world of economics, and even made me question the society we live in. I’ve learned that sometimes questions can’t be answered, and I learned that once we solve one issue, there is always another issue on its way. These articles made me analyze, and think about the future of economics, and what I can do to try and help the economy. These authors of these three articles make it very clear that there are issues in the United States, and they do an amazing job
A nation’s economy plays a vital role in how a nation operates. The United States economy faces a large variety of problems in this paper; we will focus on 4 major economic problems, unemployment, inequality, federal debt, and the financial/credit market. All four issues are interconnected in some way with deep social and economic implications. These issues were emphasized during the Great Recession that hit the U.S. economy in 2007.In the following paper, we will look at each of the four topics individually as well as look at how each plays a significant role in one another’s overall impact on the U.S. economy as well as individuals in the United States. The United States plays a crucial role in the world economy, meaning that every issue and difficulty faced the United States economy has implications far outside the U.S., understanding how these issues relate to one another sheds insight into just how connected every area of the economy actually is.
2008 Economics Noble Prize winner and Princeton University professor, Paul Krugman, translates the roots of modern and prior financial crisis economics. In his book, The Return of Depression Economics and The Crisis of 2008, Krugman first educates the reader of historical and foreign financial crises which allows for a deeper understanding of the modern financial system. The context provided from the historical analysis proves to be a crucial prospective in such a way that the rest of Krugman’s narrative about modern finance continually relates back to the historical analysis. From there, Krugman analyzes and updates his prior studies done on the Asian financial crisis. He then applies his knowledge from historical events to the modern day financial struggles and argues his opinion about how and why our financial world operates the way it does. Krugman explains his perspective that the world believed that depression economics was no longer a problem, however the Asian crisis, Japan 's liquidity trap and the Latin American crisis having acted as warning signals to modern market struggles. Thus he says that this subject needs further examination and more resources should be poured into it. For Krugman, Depression Economics is still a relevant problem and should be further studied.
In recent years, the economy in the United States has been in what most would see as a recession. American people differ in the way they react to a recession. Some, such as Michael Moore, feel it becomes a downward spiral as big business and it’s stockholders gain more money and power, and it’s workers gain less money and stability.
Human behavior is sensitive to and strongly influenced by its environment. When the economy starts recession, manufactures would shrink the volume of production, investor will invest less and people will spend less money on new products, and as the result, which would causes the economy become worse. And on the other hand, good economy leads people to buy more.
Today the United States Americans more than ever; there is a constant fear of an awaiting recession due to the economy. The recession in the later 2000’s has been known as the greatest economic decline since the Great Depression. The United States of America, the banks and businesses are not able to succeed and are failing due to the market. Many people across America cannot afford their homes or bills due to the unemployment rate that seems to keep increasing. Many people blame this on the higher oil or gas prices, and the wars that the United States acts on. The recession has overall declined our economic activity in business profits, employment, and investment. This is all due to our falling market, and the rise of prices that so many Americans cannot afford.
In this report, the Great Recession and the current economic down turn in the United States will be discussed. This report will cover the definition of both a recession and depression, and how these two differ from one another. The report will then detail two significant factors that were involved in the formation of the Great Recession. Finally, the report will discuss the differences and similarities between the Great Recession and other recessions that have taken place in recent U.S. history.
In the midst of the current economic downturn, dubbed the “Great Recession”, it is natural to look for one, singular entity or person to blame. Managers of large banks, professional investors and federal regulators have all been named as potential creators of the recession, with varying degrees of guilt. No matter who is to blame, the fallout from the mistakes that were made that led to the current crisis is clear. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the current unemployment rate is 9.7%, with 9.3 million Americans out of work (Bureau of Labor Statistics). Compared to a normal economic rate of two or three percent, it is clear that the decisions of one group of people have had a profound affect on the lives of millions of
An economic recession occurs when the economy is suffering, and unemployment is on a rise. A drop in the stock market and a decrease in the housing market will also affect the economy due to a recession. Higher interest rates affect the economy constrain liquidly or the cash available to invest in stocks and businesses. Inflation alludes to the rise in prices of goods and services which also puts a strain on the economy further adding to a recession. Businesses were lost and consumer spending dwindled the only category that remained safe was healthcare. The economic meaning of a recession is a decline in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) consisting of two consecutive quarters on a decline. If the economy is bad consumers are less likely to spend money on goods and service. The effects of a declining economy forced the government to create monetary
Americans are revolting in the primaries by either voting for Trump or supporting Sanders because they don’t believe the American economy is fine. Unemployment is at an eight-year low but labor force participation is down. There has been six years of uninterrupted growth but at a pace that won’t close the economy’s output gap until 2026. Wage growth is getting higher but not by much. Statistics like these explain why the 2007 – 2009 recession is still present in the electoral scene.
The social perceptions surrounding the recession are strong influences on every individual’s personal economic decision making. Taking into consideration other influences such as the media, possible psychological errors, and personal self awareness and control it is easy to see how the current mood is fairly
Since the beginning of time people have been affected by their income and ability to accumulate wealth. People live their lives spending or saving money based on their own expectations of what the economy might do. For hundreds of years we have studied how the economic decisions of individuals and governments affect the welfare of society as a whole. John Maynard Keynes introduced a new economic theory that emphasized deficit spending to help struggling economies recover. Keynesian economics revolutionized the traditional thinking in the science of economics. His ideas and theories were deemed radical for his time but were later enacted by some of the largest governments in the world including the United States during the Great Depression. President Franklin Roosevelt enacted the New Deal in an attempt to stimulate the economy through government spending. In this paper I will be giving background to the history economics, the Great Depression, the New Deal, the development of Keynesian Economics. This paper will focus on analyzing the following question: In an attempt to address high unemployment and economic contraction, was Roosevelt’s The New Deal efficacious in stimulating the economy and ending the Great Depression?
A recession is full-proof sign of declined activity within the economic environment. Many economists generally define the attributes of a recession are two consecutive quarters with declining GDP. Many factors contribute to an economy's fall into a recession, but the major cause argued is inflation. As individuals or even businesses try to cut costs and spending this causes GDP to decline, unemployment rate can rise due to less spending which can be one of the combined factors when an economy falls into a recession. Inflation is the general rise in prices of goods and services over a period of time. Inflation can happen for reasons such as higher energy and production costs and that includes governmental debt.
Recession cycles are thought to be a normal part of living in a world of inexact balances between supply and demand. What turns a usually mild and short recession or "ordinary" business cycle into an actual depression is a subject of debate and concern. Scholars have not agreed on the exact causes and their relative importance. The search for causes is closely connected to the question of how to avoid a future depression, and so the political and policy viewpoints of scholars are mixed into the analysis of historic events eight decades ago. The even larger question is whether it was largely a failure on the part of free markets or largely a failure on the part of government efforts to regulate interest rates, curtail widespread bank failures, and control the money supply. Those who believe in a large role for the state in the economy believe it was mostly a failure of the free markets and those who believe in free markets believe it was mostly a failure of government that compounded the problem.