Everyone loves to learn about money! There are many interesting questions and issues. What backs our money supply? What role is played by gold? Are credit cards considered money? Should we get rid of the penny?
Does anyone have any interesting money trivia to share?
Has anyone heard of the Glass-Steagall Act, which was passed in 1933 and then repealed in 1999? Here is a very interesting article about a proposal to bring this legislation back http://truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/elizabeth-warren-champions-bill-to-restore-glass-steagall-act-and-rein-in-wall-street.
What do you think about the recent financial crisis and subsequent recession? Who do you blame for the housing bubble and the mess that followed? These are very interesting real-world issues, but the discussion does tend to become a bit controversial!
The picture at the beginning of the chapter is a little out of date--it shows our former Federal Reserve chair, Ben Bernanke. Who is the current chair of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors?
Next week you will be working on a presentation involving a lot of the information about the Federal Reserve and monetary policy. You might want to take a look to see the specific issues to be covered so you will take note of them when you encounter them in this week's reading.
Is monetary policy something that you hear or read a lot about in the news? In this class, you will probably learn a lot of new information and technical details, but it helps if you have some familiarity already with this important topic!
The definition of unemployed says that the person is willing and able to work and is actively seeking work. Discouraged workers do not meet the definition, so they are not counted as unemployed. However, the BLS does track the number of discouraged workers and reports this information on the website so we can have an idea of when the issue is most significant. Remember, all the unemployment data comes from surveying people, so the statistics reflect what people say. If someone says no, I'm not actively seeking work, then it wouldn't make sense to include them with others who are actively seeking work, would it?