Assignment: An Economic Essay

It will consist of an essay question I have listed below along with some suggestions about how you might approach writing it. It is a lengthy essay so you might want to get started soon.

Essay question: What is the current economic situation in the U.S.? If you were Trump's economic adviser, what would you recommend to him to improve our economy?

Hint: Start by evaluating our current economic situation in terms of:

GDP
Inflation
Employment
Growth/productivity
Deficit/National Debt
Discuss the causes of each of these problems.

Then propose solutions.

I would start with a basic outline before I started writing.

1. Introduction to essay (overview of everything you're going to cover; if you're unclear, contact me)

2. Current economic situation

-GDP (first define GDP then go over what's been happening; what is the main problem?)
-Inflation (again, define inflation and then go over what's happening; what is the main problem; continue this format for the next 3 items)
-employment
-growth/productivity
-deficit/national debt

3. Solutions to the problems you describe above

-GDP (tax cut or increase, growth in G (where?), etc)
-Inflation
-employment
-growth/productivity
deficit/national debt

4. Summary

Each of the topics above should be a paragraph in length, making the essay around 12 paragraphs.

More requirment:

I wanted to follow up on the essay portion of your final exam. What I'm looking for is your ability to start putting together the various concepts and tools we have covered in macroeconomics in order to:

1. Provide an assessment of the current state of the U.S. economy.

Here I want you to analyze what's going on in terms of the key economic indicators (GDP, inflation, productivity, unemployment, deficit, trade, etc.) PLEASE don't just copy some section out of a text or recent article or you will be severely penalized. I want your interpretation of these things, in your own words. There are tons of analyses out that you can use. Make sure you note any source you use. Here's a good one that I just read from the NY Times: U.S. Unemployment at 16-Year Low, but Economy's Weak Spots Remain By PATRICIA COHEN.

The key to answering this section is to organize your essay with an outline and then just flesh it out. For example, you will be expected to comment on the GDP; here's a sample of how you might organize that answer:

a. Definition of GDP, explaining the different components
b. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the measurement?
c. What has been going on with GDP lately?
d. How have the individual sectors been performing?
e. What are the different reasons for the current GDP growth? Which one do you believe? Why?

2. Give some policy prescriptions to the president for how to improve the economy. The key here is to start by explaining to the president your economic viewpoint, i.e., do you believe that the nation's economic problems can be solved by relying on the market, the government, or some combination of the two. It is critical that you explain this to the president. To help, I have attached some of the PowerPoint slides that I used a lecture in a face-to-face class a couple of weeks ago. I didn't have time to record sound to it, so if it's confusing in parts send me an email.

The lecture starts out by reviewing expansionary and contractionary fiscal and monetary policy tools. These are the options that the government has to deal with the 4 different economic situations which are identified in the slides. It also points out the advantages and disadvantages of each strategy when used to deal with the different economic situations.

Then the lecture goes into the basic Republican and Democratic strategies. (BTW don't assume that because Trump is a Republican you need to advocate a conservative approach; there are plenty of Democrats advisers trying to get his ear!) This is the key part of the lecture that you need to address in your essay. Are you proposing an expansionary or contractionary policy and why?

Again, any whiff of copying from a text or an online source without attribution will be severely penalized. I want your thoughts.