Go to http://www.bloomberg.com/markets/economic-calendar and click on any date in the past few weeks. Choose an event (not already chosen for discussion) during that time for which a report with numbers is available. Compare the prior, consensus, and actual results for your chosen event and comment on the accuracy of the consensus forecast. Summarize the highlights of the report. To supplement your summary, click on Event Definition for the event and comment on "why investors care" about it. Further into the class discussion share views on the relative importance of the reports for business decisions.
Using the Discuss tool, post a brief summary of your views on the importance of the event for business decisions.
Review the March/April 2016 article in Foreign Affairs by Lawrence Summers entitled "The Age of Secular Stagnation: What It Is and What Can
We Do About It?" (a link to the article was provided in the Discussion Guide).
Post any questions you have to the Discuss tool about the argument that insufficiency of aggregate demand is the cause of slow economic growth in advanced economies and/or your comments on the merits of the argument.