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Read this article on the U.S. debt. Select one of the other articles from the website, read it and post a 50-75 word summary of the key points. You may not copy anyone else's article, there are plenty of them on the website.
Sunday, November 26, 2017
Will the National Debt ever be paid off?
Read this article on the U.S. debt. Select one of the other articles from the website, read it and post a 50-75 word summary of the key points. You may not copy anyone else's article, there are plenty of them on the website.
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135 comments:
Michael Chan
4th period
When Does a Country Have Too Much Debt?
In the article “When Does a Country Have Too Much Debt?” it explains how leaders, and economists use a ratio to gauge a country’s ability to pay off debt. The economist uses something called a tipping point which shows debt-to-GDP ratio and how it will affect the economic growth. When a country’s debt-to-GDP ratio rises it often signals that there will be a recession. To calculate Debt-to-GDP ratio you use Treasury notes and Public debt. When people look at debt you must look at total debt and not just debt owed to the public because federal debt is eventually owed to the public.
In the "Current US Federal Budget Deficit" article, the 4 reasons for the huge deficit are the increased military spending (War on Drugs), increased mandatory spending, the addition of the $787 billion economic stimulus package, and reduced federal revenue and taxes. The government likes to overspend to stimulate the economy which creates more jobs. The only time when the deficit should be a concern is when the debt-to-GDP ratio is close to/over 100%.
-Anne Dang, 4th period
In the article “who owns the national debt”, the author, Kimberly Amadeo, emphasizes that the there is a misconception about how the national debt in the U.S has increased such as money being owed to other countries like China. The biggest debt is created by social security and all of the retirement and pension funds. The government also owes themselves money due to the ownership of of Treasurys which causes them to transfer their excess cash to the general fund, where it is spent.
Jestin Raju
4th period
Alan John/5th Period
Article: "What is the Public Debt?"
The public debt is defined as how much a country owes to lenders outside of the country itself. The term "public debt" is synonymous with sovereign debt. The definition of public debt can vary from country to country. Public debt is good in the short run when countries need extra funds to invest in their economic growth. An exceedingly large public debt can lead to a hike in interest rates.
What is the Laffer Curve? Explanation"
The Laffer curve is a theory that states lowering tax rates boost economic growth. It basically says that if the tax rate was 100% no one would work, and more people would work the lower the tax rate, so it'd good to find an appropriate balance. The problem was that Laffer lacked numbers and was not very specific at all. Also, tax cuts during a recession would not stimulate growth but actually hurt the economy, because many people depend on social programs during a recession.
Kyle Okeke period 2
U.S. Debt Default Causes and Consequences
There are two ways that the debt could default. The first is if congress decided not to raise the debt ceiling and the second is if the U.S. decided to no longer pay interest on treasury bills, notes, and bonds. If either one happened, there would be consequences in the domestic economy as well as globally. The cost of doing business would raise dramatically. To avoid default, the U.S. should prevent budget deficits.
Natalie Romero 2nd
Jordan Jacobson
Period 2
National Debt by Year Compared to GDP and Major Events
The current national debt is over 20 trillion dollars. There are many reasons why the debt is so high like the Debt Crisis in 2011, the fiscal cliff crisis in 2012 and the government shutdown in 2013, all these contributed to the high debt we have. Although the one major event that has resulted in such a high debt is because of the terrorist attacks on 9/11. Since then, the debt has quadrupled in 16 years where it took almost double the time to quadruple it before 2001. Lots of things have played into our extremely high debt, but the 9/11 attacks really sped up the process of accumulating debt.
Housna Kadrie
Period 2
“The US debt crisis , summary, timeline, and solutions”
The United States national debt exceeds 20$ trillion in 2017. The democrats blamed the debt crisis in the United States on Presidents Bush’s tax cuts and the 2008 financial crisis. They claimed that both of those reasons lowered tax revenues. Rather, Republicans wanted to further cut tax rates for businesses. The problem is that the argueing caused both sides to loose focus.
Kyuri Baag
4th period
Article: "The U.S. Debt and How It Got So Big"
The current U.S. debt is over $20.1 trillion, and the Treasury owes most of this money to Social Security and other trust funds. The growing debt-to-GDP ratio indicates that the country will likely have problems repaying the loans. The significant causes of the growing national debt are accumulation of federal budget deficients, presidents borrowing from the Social Security Trust Fund, and foreign countries burying Treasurys to keep their currencies low compared to the dollar. With low interest rates and higher debt ceilings, the growing debt is beneficial from deficit spending short term. However, in the long term, consequences will lead to slower economy and curtailed benefits for retirees younger than 70 rather than raised taxes.
In the article “U.S debt ceiling: current status and looming crisis. In the US, the Congress sets a limit to present the federal government from exceeding the debt limit. To do this, the Treasury Department stops issuing bills and bonds after the debt ceiling is reached. The problem Is that Congress must all agree to decide on a national budget by December 8. In addition, social security benefits or federal employee salaries are affected. Relying on government revenue is usually not enough to decrease the debt. Because Health care and social security are extremely expensive, it’s difficult to create a budget plan that will please the public.
Jenina Bianty
Period 5th
Ambareen Virani
Period 4
Sovereign Debt: Definition, Importance, and Rankings
Sovereign Debt is defined by how much the government owes. The debt is handled through bonds, loans, businesses, or other countries. It is measured differently dependent on who is measuring it; but the U.S. separates public and intergovernmental debt. The debt starts to have negative impacts when creditors start to think they will not get paid back. With this public mindset, the government has to raise interest rates; in turn, risking their ability to return the money.
Kriti Bansal
Period 5
Article: "What Is Sequestration? Causes and Impact"
Sequestration means something that is locked away for safe keeping. Congress couldn't agree on the best way to lower the deficit, so they decided to use the sequester. However,the sequester cut spending by 10% from 2013 to 2021 and so it wasn't a success. The sequester works by cutting $109.6 billion from each fiscal year's budget and then cuts an equal amount from both Mandatory and Discretionary programs. Secondly, sequestration sets caps on spending. In the short term sequestration slows economic growth but not significantly.
Cassie De Leon
4th period
Article: "How is the Fed Monetizing Debt?"
The Federal Reserve is able to monetize the U.S. debt by purchasing Treasurys and allows the Federal Reserve to not have to print money, as it is able to issue credit to Federal Reserve member banks. This is an open market operation that can raise and lower interest rates. It is able to turn the U.S. debt into money by taking away these Treasurys and making the bonds more valuable.
"Three Ways to Measure the Dollar's Value"
The three ways to measure the dollar's value is exchange rates, Treasury notes, and foreign exchange reserve, but the most common is exchange rates. These rates change everyday because they are traded on the foreign exchange market. The Treasury Department sells notes at a fixed face value and interest rate and investors can buy these at or below face value and resell them on the secondary market. Finally, as America buys good from other countries, these countries increase their amount of the dollar they have in their reserve which then keeps their currency value lower. When the value of the dollar strengthens, it makes U.S. goods less competitive because of their increase in cost, which slows economic growth.
Julianna Hastreiter
Period 5
Josie Henry
4th period
Article: "U.S. Debt to China: How Much Does It Own?"
This article states that U.S. debt to China is $1.2 trillion. This is 30% of the debt held by foreign countries. China wants the yuan currency to rise so it can be the global currency, therefore, they have reduced their holdings in U.S. debt. China's debt in the U.S. is because Chinese exports are cheaper than U.S. products. If China calls for its debt immediately, the international market would collapse. China's low-cost competitive strategy worked, with the economy growing at 7 percent and China becoming the largest economy in the world.
Article: "Austerity Measures: Definition, Examples, Do They Work"
The article discusses the definition of austerity, which are reductions in government spending, increases in tax revenues, or both. These oftentimes harsh steps are taken to lower deficits and avoid a debt crisis. In addition, countries use austerity to avoid sovereign debt, so the country will not default on its debt. However, research indicates that austerity worsens debt because it slows economic growth which can cause a debt crisis and should only be used during expansion.
Jun Hin Loi
Period 4
Article: "National Debt Under Obama"
This article discusses how the Obama administration increased the U.S. national debt from three different circumstances. First, the debt added under President Obama since he took office was $9 trillion. Then, the author looks at Obama's budget deficit which was roughly $6.576 trillion. Finally, the article discussed how Obama's policies increased the debt, which was only about $983 billion.
Rendon Reinarz
Period 5
Erin Randle
Period 5
Article: “What is an Economic Boom with Examples.”
In the article it first explains to us what an economic boom is. An economic boom is a gain or peak in the business cycle, it’s a growth period for short. GDP, productivity, and income is what is growing through these booms. A cycle usually ends when GDP turns negative. Then the article later informs us on three significant economic booms. The first one is the roaring twenties, post World War II, the 1950s, and the 1990s.
Michelle Phan
5th Period
Article: Deficit Spending: Causes, Why It's Out of Control
The president and congress purposely create deficit spending because it is part of the expansionary fiscal policy, as government spending drives economic growth. Many politicians use deficit spending, simply because it allows them a better chance of getting re-elected. Because deficit spending is used so often, instead of just using it to boost an economy out of a recession, because of this, the US debt just continually grows. However, reducing deficit spending is extremely hard to d, because it usually just leads to conflict within Congress, getting nothing done.
Alvin Yolanda Ewaldo
Period 1
Article: "Simpson-Bowles Plan: Summary, History, Would It Work"
This article discusses the Simpson-Bowles Plan, which is a plan that could fix the US national debt in a series of six steps. The first step is to cap the overall government spending at 21% of GDP in which the government would decrease their discretionary spending and adjust inflation. The second step is to reduce mandatory spending by reducing federal retirement benefits, farm subsidies, school loans, the state abandoned mine fund, and etc. the third step is to reduce the federal health care spending by reforming Medicare payments to physicians who're more focused on quality over quantity and reduce Medicare fraud. The fourth step is to make social security sustainable. The fifth step is to eliminate a trillion dollars in tax loopholes, thus incresing gov't revenue to 21% of GDP while lowering tax rates. The last step varies the reform processes. This plan should ideally guarantee an lower deficit and debt, which will prevent a downfall in the US economy
The Article "Boom and Bust Cycle: Causes and History" is a generalization of the expansionary period of the business cycle. Particularly, the article refers to when the economy grows at a faster rate than it can sustain (booms) and then eventually fails, leading to an economic downturn (bust). In the United States, 'busts' are usually short live and of minimal effect. In the context of the main article, the government should work very hard to prevent booms in order to work toward balancing the federal budget and improving the national debt.
Matthew Whaley
Period 4
Article: US Debt by President: By Dollar and Percent
In this article, Kimberley Amadeo discusses how to calculate the contribution of each president to the national debt of the United States, particularly from the sum of his budget deficits of the presidents during their terms and comparing it to the national debt. Additionally, Amadeo also reveals that President Barack Obama increased the debt the most dollar-wise, whereas President Franklin D. Roosevelt increased the debt the most percentage-wise. Obama added almost $8 trillion from the end of Bush's term, while FDR increased the debt by over 1000% after Hoover's term. As a result, it is shown that the national debt can only increase as more presidents become elected.
Elwin Mathew
Period 1
Shane Samuel
1st Period
“How Is the Fed Monetizing the U.S. Debt?”
-Why the Nation's Central Bank Is Making the Government Debt Worse
A nation monetizes its debt when it converts debt to credit or cash. They use the central bank to free up the capital and puts it in a circulation. The Federal Reserve monetizes the U.S. debt when it buys U.S. Treasury bills, bonds and notes. When the Federal Reserve purchases these Treasury’s, it doesn't have to print money to do so. It issues credit to the Federal Reserve member banks that hold the Treasury. It then puts the Treasury on its own balance sheet. It does this through an office at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Everyone treats the credit just like money, even though the Fed doesn't print cold hard cash, this process is called open market operation. The Fed's primary purpose throughout QE was to keep the fed funds rate low. Banks base all short-term interest rates on the fed funds rate. A low prime rate helps companies expand and create jobs. Low mortgage rates help people afford more expensive homes. The Fed wanted QE to revive the housing market. Low interest rates also reduce returns on bonds. That turns investors toward stocks and other higher-yielding investments. For all these reasons, low interest rates help boost economic growth.
Janice Wilson - Per.5
What Is the Fiscal Cliff: Explanation and Causes
This article describes fiscal cliff, which is a combination of four tax increases and two spending cuts. A failure of fiscal policy caused the fiscal cliff. It would have suddenly increased taxes and decreased spending at one time and taxes would have gone up $2,000 to $3,000 per household on average. This was caused by the President and a Democrat-controlled Senate disagreeing with the Republican-controlled House on the best ways to reduce the deficit and debt. However, a conclusion was not reached and the economy failed, the irony being that this was all self imposed.
Tanmay Shah
2nd Period
Article: Top 5 U.S. Economic Trends
This article points out that the five major trends ongoing in the United States are Baby Boomers Aren't Retiring, America Is Declining in Global Economic Power, Interest Rates Are Rising, Financial Markets Control Prices, and The Economy Is in the Expansion Phase of the Business Cycle. These factors coincide with one another and contribute to the idea that the American economy is expanding but its status as the global power is uncertain because of other national economies that are progressing at a faster rate. The expansionary curve in the business cycle implies the thought that restrictions will be set by the government through fiscal policies which may increase interest rates. These future possibilities concerns the American people. The concerns take root from the 2008 Great Recession. As a result, baby boomer generation workers are reluctant, almost uncertain, to retire. One of the main reasons is because of the idea that due to the massive national debt foreign countries will take over American economy. Such an outcome is very unlikely because the American economy is very massive for a foreign nation to control without direct intervention, but foreign traders are affecting prices. keeping the effects of supply and demand aside, foreign tenders are, in fact, affecting US economy by controlling the prices of commodities and goods such as gasoline.
Crystal Obaretin, 1st Period
Recession vs Depression: How to Tell the Difference
A recession is widespread economic decline that last for at least six months. A depression is a more severe decline that lasts for several years. A depression is an extended recession that has years, not quarters, of economic contraction.Unemployment reaches 25 percent, housing prices plummet 30 percent, and prices fall 10 percent. The Great Recession of 2008 was the worst recession since the Depression.
Article: "What Is GDP? Definition of Gross Domestic Product"
This article gives an overview on what GDP is. GDP-Gross Domestic Product is the total value of everything produces by all the people and companies within the country and is the best way to measure a country’s economy. To calculate a country GDP, add: personal consumption expenditures, business investments government spending, and (exports – imports). Two different types of GDP are: Nominal and Real GDP. Nominal GDP is the raw measurement that includes increases in price. Real GDP accounts for the effects of inflation while calculating GDP and is lower than nominal GDP. Growth rate tells you exactly how fast a country’s economy is growing and GDP per Capita reveals the country’s standard of living. GDP is something that affects personal finance, investments, and job growth.
Ashel Jaimon
Period 4
Camille Trusclair 1st period
Could the Great Depression Happen Again?
The modern-day Great Depression could drastically change everyone's everyday lives. When our economy is going through a recession, such as the Great Depression, the output and the unemployment rate are indirectly related to each other. The economic output would plummet 25% while unemployment would increase to 25%, leaving three out four people without jobs. Many people think there is another Great Depression due to the scare in the drop of the Dow as well as the anxiety the 2008 recession gave off.
"What Is the Value of the Dollar Today?" 'Why the Dollar Is Worth So Much Less Than It Used To Be'
In the article, the value of the dollar has dropped dramatically in that in 1915, $4.26 was could buy you the same amount of food and clothes $100 can buy you today. Events such as World War I and World War II caused hyperinflation to occur, cutting the dollar's value in halve. These declining values means that imports from other countries other than China and Japan cost more. For China and Japan, it would be the opposite because they buy Dollars to keep its value up so their exports can be cheaper.
Matthew Yee Period 1
Anna Mayzenberg
5th Period
Article: "Market Economy: Characteristics, Examples, Pros, Cons"
A market economy is based on the workings of supply and demand. It must have freedom of choice, competition, and limited government, amongst other things. It must run with little interference from the government and competition and self-interest to keep S&D relatively equal. This is an efficient way to run the economy, bringing quality products, but it gives no reward for caring for those who are vulnerable or at a disadvantage, leaving them to suffer.
Article: "The U.S. Dept and How it Got so Big"
This article takes about how the U.S got into such large of a dept. The article says that the current U.S. debt is more than 20.1 trillion dollars. Two-thirds of the debt is currently being held by the public and the other third is intragovernmental dept. There are many reasons why the debt is so high for example the debt is an accumulation of Federal budget deficits, every president borrows from the social security trust fund, the Federal government benefits from low interest rates and Congress raises the debt ceiling.
Abin Manuel
5th Period
Article: Debt Crisis Causes and Curses
There are three types of household debt. The first one is home mortgages, including both first and secondary mortgages, and home equity lines of credit. The second one is credit card debt also called revolving credit. The last one is auto, furniture, and student loans, also known as non-revolving credit.
Raina Abraham
5th period
Jamie Chaffer
1st Period
Article: "6 Real Steps to Fix the Debt"
This article looks at and goes in depth about the six steps that make up the Simpson-Bowles Plan. Regarding whether this plan would work, multiple positive factors stick out that many other plans or policies do not obtain. For example, it protects the most vulnerable being the poor and elderly. They are the ones that would most likely spend most of the income they receive and it emphasizes automatic benefit increases for the unemployed.
Pamela Gheriafi
Period 4
In the article "U.S. Deficit by Year: Compared to GDP, Increase in Debt and Events", deficit in America has now hit a record of 1.4 trillion in 2009. The deficit in 1945 was only $45 billion, and it was 45 percent of total economic output as the country prepared for World War II. The 2009 deficit was only 9.8 percent of GDP. The article presents a table where deficit is compared to the increase in debt with GDP and national events since 1929.
Article: "What is Banking: How does it work?"
This article gives an overview on what banking is and how it works. Banking is an industry that handles cash, credit, and other financial transactions. Banks are a safe place to deposit excess cash. They are only required to keep 10 percent, and they lend the other 90 percent out. In the United States, banking wouldn't be able to supply financial liquidity without the Federal Reserve.
Jibin Philip
2nd Period
Article " Social Security Trust Fund: History, Solvency, How to Fix It"
Social Security is America's retirement funds. The money supplied to the people who need it comes from workers (85%), Interest on excess funds held by the treasury (11%), and beneficiaries (3%). Presidents borrow from Social Security, paying for other government programs. Social Security was created in 1935 by Franklin D. Roosevelt. Demographic changes have put the large amount of baby boomers onto the program, requiring heftier payments.
Jeff Kue
2nd
Naomi Samuel
Period 5
Stagflation and its Causes
In the article, stagflation is defined as a stagnant growth in the economy which results from high unemployment and high inflation. Stagnation occurs when the government attempts to extend money supply at the same time as trying to constrain it. Policies could also slow growth and it can occur in times when expansionary periods conflict with contractionary periods. It became prevalent in the 1970's when OPEC cut its oil exports to the US which caused prices of gas to rise.
Jeremiah John
Period 2
Article: What Is an Oligarchy? Pros, Cons, Examples
According to the article, an oligarchy is an organization controlled by just a few businesses or individuals. The iron law of oligarchy is that all organizations will eventually become an oligarchy. A pro that comes with having an oligarchy is that as a member of one, you do not have to worry about issues that concern society as a whole which allows one to carry on with every day activities. A con is that oligarchies create an income inequality which can effect the economy immensely. According to the article, in the 2016 election Trump won the election and began filling his cabinet with elites which sort of made the impression of the US being an Oligarchy.
Aolin Yang
Period 5
Article: "How Does China Influence the U.S. Dollar?"
China keeps its currency value pegged to the U.S. Dollar, so the exchange rate is always around 1 USD = ~6.88 yuan. By stocking money made from exports to the U.S. into foreign exchange reserves, the Chinese government lowers the Yuan value. The Chinese government uses its dollars to purchase U.S. Treasuries. In 2015, the PBOC based the Yuan's value on a reference rate in order for it to be driven more by market forces. Overall, China increases the value of the u.S. dollar due to its slowing economic growth and credibility problems. For example, a stock market crash in China made people more willing to invest in the U.S.
Period 5
Mixed Economy: Definition, Pros, Cons, Examples
A mixed economy is a system that carries characteristics of command, market, and traditional economies. It is able to hold most of the advantages of these three economies while suffering little from the disadvantages. A mixed economy distributes goods to where they are needed and grants the most efficient people with the highest profit. The United States has a mixed market economy.
Kevin Sani
Period 1
Article: Sovereign Debt
This article talk about sovereign debt. Sovereign debt is how much a country owes. Sovereign means like the utimate or the biggest or greatest. Sovereign debt shows how the government spends more that it receives in revenue over a period of time. I don't believe the debt will be payed off. Since the government keeps thinking just to pass on thedebt to the next generation and they keep doing that and making it that the debt never decrease but actully increasing it instead. Even though most of its debt belong to its own people to.
Tejiri Okukpe
Period 1
Article:"Japan's Economy: Abenomics, Recession and Impact on U.S. Economy"
This article mostly talks about the impact affect Japan’s economy has on the United States’ economy. It also touches on some information about Japan’s recession and abenomics. Japan’s standard of living is higher than China or South Korea, but lower than the United States or the European Union. Abenomics is a term for Japan’s Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, who constructed the Bank of Japan to start expansive monetary policies. The article also explains the seven characteristics of Japan’s economy. The tsunami and earthquake that Japan faced also disrupted their economy, making them encounter a recession. Lastly, the article explains that if Japan decides to lower the value of their currency, yen, it will boost the United States’ interest rates.
Article: U.S. Deficit by President
to calculate a president’s deficits, you can add up the deficits for each office year or look at each president’s budgets and add the deficits for those budgets. the second method is better because a president does not control his first year’s deficit. Factors that influence the deficit are the president’s lack of control over the mandatory budget, spending , inheritance of policies, catastrophic events, and adding of deficit and debt. Obama had the largest deficit.
Elaine Thong
2nd period
Harshada Kulkarni
Period # 1
Article:"The Difference Between the Deficit and the Debt"
The article talks about the deficit and debt and the effect they have on each other. A budget deficit is when spending is greater than the revenue received for that year. The national debt is the accumulation of each year's deficit. To cover the deficit, the Treasury sells bonds to raise money. This is known as the public debt, since these bonds are sold to the public.That is how the deficit affects the debt. The debt affect the deficit in three ways. First, the debt gives a better indication of the true deficit each year. Second, the interest on the debt is added to the deficit each year. Third, the debt decreases tax revenue in the long run. That further increases the deficit. This would provide less stimulation, and could further slow the economy.
Roshan Mathew
Period 1
Article:"How Interest on the National Debt Affects You"
The interest on the national debt is how much the federal government has pay on the debt each year. Currently, the interest on debt is 266 billion dollars. The interest on the debt is calculated by multiplying the value of outstanding bills, notes, and bonds with their interest rates. When there is not much demand in the economy the government has to pay a higher interest rates. A country reaches a tipping point when the debt-to-GDP ratio approaches or exceeds 70 percent which is a big problem for people. However, there are 5 ways to reduce the interest on debt:lower interest rates, increase tax revenues,cut spending,focus on activities that create the most jobs and maximize economic growth, and increase taxes.
Priya Thomas
Period 2
Article:"Government Shutdown: Explained with Examples"
A government shutdown is when non-essential discretionary federal programs close. This happens when congress fails to appropriate funds and the executive branch carries this out. During a shutdown institutions such as Commerce, except National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as well as the FDA another major institutions get shut down.
As the shutdown continues, agencies use up any excess or saved funds, and more services start to close and if it extends for more than 2 weeks it will affect economic growth. Overall, shutdowns can cause severe economic downturns if they are left unattended.
Swati Kundra
29 November 2017
1st period
Black Thursday 1929: What Happened and What Caused It
The Great Depression was kicked off by the worst stock market crash in US history. This day occurred on October 24 1929, and is more commonly known as Black Thursday. The crash occurred because investing in the stock market became a sort of pass time. Investors kept feeding money into the system, then suddenly there was a panic. This panic caused majority of investors to pull lumps of money out of the market, causing the crash just two days after.
Zoheb Khawaja 5th period
Article: Command Economy: Characteristics, Pros, Cons, and Examples:
This article explains that a command economy is where a central government makes all economic decisions. The article also talks about the characteristics of command economies that include the government creating a central economic plan and, allocates all resources according to the central plan, owns monopoly businesses, and it creates laws, regulations, and directives to enforce the central plan. That the central plan sets the priorities for the production of all goods and services.
Kevine Jaimon 5th Period
Article: Current U.S. Federal Budget Deficit
This article is about the U.S. economy's current deficit and how budget deficits are impacting the economy. To begin with, the U.S. federal budget deficit for fiscal year 2018 is $440 billion. A budget deficit, in moderation, increases economic growth by putting money in the pockets of businesses and families. Moreover, the reasons behind the budget deficit we are facing today are the 2008 financial crisis, the attacks on 9/11, and the increase of mandatory spending.
Raoof Ali Period 5
Article: How Do Hedge Funds Affect the U.S. Economy?
This article is about how hedge funds affect the U.S economy. First, their use of leverage enables them to have more securities than if they were just buying long. Second , they use computer trading programs that spotlight any trend. Third, hedge funds depend on short-term funding through money market instruments. Lastly, hedge funds are still largely unregulated, so technically no one know what they are invested in.
Article: Causes of inflations: 2 Real Reasons for Rising Prices
There are two main causes of inflation. They are demand-pull, which includes over-expansion of the money supply, and cost-push. Demand-pull inflation is the most common. It's when demand for a good or service increases so much that it outstrips supply. Marketing and new technology create demand-pull inflation. Over-expansion of the money supply can also create demand-pull inflation.The second cause is cost-push inflation. It only occurs when there is a supply shortage combined with enough demand to allow the producer to raise prices. When a country lowers its currency's exchange rates that creates cost-push inflation in imports.
Epstein Jacob
Period 4
Article: U.S. Debt to China: How Much Does It Own?
In the article it discusses how China owns a third of the united states debt, approximately $1.2 trillion out of the $3.05 trillion that the U.S owes. The article goes on to explain how china hopes to one day make their for of currency, the yuan, the global currency replacing the U.S. dollar. In the meantime China keeps their currency below the U.S's for the benefits of cheaper imports and more. At the rate that it is at it is unlikely for the U.S. to ever repay China their owed money.
Adrian R-Martinez
Period 2
Article: I.O.U.S.A Movie Summary, Review and Background Information
This 2007 documentary warns the American people about the U.S. debt. The movie explains how the debt will lower our standard of living and eventually affect future generations. It also emphasizes how the debt was created by four types of deficits: leadership, savings, trade, and budget. In all, it concludes how interest payments on debt, Reaganomics and supply-side economics, and government spending all led to the staggering amount of U.S. debt.
Alexis Chan
5th Period
Article: "Debt-to-GDP Ratio: How to Calculate and Use It"
The debt-to-GDP looks at a country's sovereign debt and compares it to its total economic output for the year, which is measured by the gross domestic product. A study by the World Bank found that if the debt-to-GDP ratio goes above 77% for an extended time period, economic growth will slow. The ratio allows investors in government bonds to compare debt between countries. If the ratio for a country increases, it is a sign of a recession. Investor's faith in a government is based on the yield on its debt. When there are low yields, the country's debt is in high demand, which is the state the U.S. is in right now.
Ashish Singh
Period 1
Article: "Four Real World Ways to Create More Jobs"
The goal of all job creation strategies is to stimulate healthy economic growth. To do this, the government must create solutions to unemployment when the economy retracts into recession. On the other hand, the government will not need to do anything when economic growth is healthy. The four ways to create more jobs is to reduce interest rates, spend on public works, spend on unemployment benefits, and cut payroll taxes.
Kevin Yu
2nd Period
Article: "George H.W. Bush honored for courage with 1990 tax hikes"
By going against his promise to keep taxes unchanged, President George H. W. Bush put his re-election prospects in jeopardy. However, in doing so, he cut $500 billion from the government’s budget deficit. This example of bravery, which was awarded John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, indicates that politicians may disregard their approval rates and make the economically sound decisions that will indeed lead to the national debt being paid off.
Ronald Hood
2nd Period
Shiv Patel
Period 2
Article: "U.S. Deficit by President"
A popular misconception to answering the question of which president ran the largest budget deficits is that people believe they can just add up the deficits of each year the president was in office. However, the president does not control the first year's deficit, as the previous president's federal budget is in effect for most of the year. Therefore, the best way to calculate the deficit is to look at each president's budget and add the deficits for those budgets. The five factors that influence the debt besides the president are the mandatory budget, Congress, previous policies, catastrophic events, and the fact that each year's deficit adds to the debt. The president with the largest deficit was President Obama with $6.69 trillion; however this can be attributed to the Great Recession as well as high mandatory spending.
Article: "Three Methods of Measuring the Dollar's Value "
The U.S. dollar value is measured in 3 ways including exchange rates, treasury notes, and foreign exchange services. However, the most common method is through exchange rates. The dollar exchange rates compares its value to the currencies of other countries. The most popular exchange rate measurement is the U.S Dollar Index. The rates are constantly changing because currencies are traded on the foreign exchange market. Most countries that allow forex trading have a flexible exchange rate. The value of the dollar affects the economy in many ways. When the value rises, it makes american goods more expensive and less competitive than foreign goods. Also, this decreases exports, leading to slower economic growth. A slower economic growth results in lower oil prices, and more.
Tom Joseph
4th Period
Rayomand Hormuzdi
Period:1st
12/2/2017
Article: "U.S. Inflation Rate by Year: 1929 - 2018"
This article is about informing you to the basic definition of inflation, the rate if inflation per year from 1929 through 2018 and thoroughly explains each and every detail of the changes within each phase of the business cycle. In general the article tells the reader that the U.S. inflation rate by year is the percent change in prices from one year to the next, all the data on inflation over the years of 1929 threw 2018 and then goes over expansions, contractions and peaks and troughs which all have to do with the business cycle which therefore leads to inflation. Lastly, the conclusion that the the main control over inflation is determined by the monetary policy enacted by the Federal Reserve.
Article: "End the Fed or Audit it?"
During around 2013, Senator Rand Paul introduced an "Audit the Fed" bill, under the firm belief that that the Federal Reserve’s unchecked printing powers only causes recessions and increase income inequality. The act's power makes it so that it allows the additional audits of any future emergency loans the Fed might make, resulting in others arguing that by doing so makes it become something that isn't independent enough as well as an intrusion into its autonomy.
Sena Pecen P.5
ARTICLE: What Is a Sovereign Debt Crisis? With Examples
The article discusses what a "sovereign debt crisis" is, of which it defines as a country being unable to pay its bills. The article describes the process of this crisis. The first part of the crisis is when country's can't get low interest rates from their lenders. As examples, the article gives the U.S. and Greece, two countries that are different because the U.S. has a much more stable economy.
Lauren Chamberlin
period 5
Article: U.S. Debt Ceiling- Current Status and Looming Crisis
The article begins by detailing what our current debt is and what a "debt ceiling" is, which is the limit that Congress puts on the federal government to carry for debt at a given time. The article detailed how the debt ceiling was raised by Trump and Congress till the date of December 8, 2017, so Congress must create a new debt limit and new budget before this date. Previously the debt ceiling actions has been suspended multiple times throughout 2017, and this means that the Treasury has been raiding the federal pension funds to stay afloat without issuing new debt. All in all, the article warns that this trend is detrimental, and many people in Congress and government are advocating for the debt to be cut sometime before this system crashes.
Shweta Mathews
Period : 4
Article : “Inflation and Deflation: Definition, Causes, Effects”
The article begins by definition inflation and deflation and later proceeds to explain how recognize the signs of both. It introduces the five types of inflation: hyperinflation, asset inflation, creeping inflation, walking inflation and galloping inflation. After explaining the definition and effects of each type, it goes to talk about the effects of deflation. After providing some examples so that the reader has a better understanding of these terms realistically, the article then talks about the causes of inflation and deflation. It also specifically explains to the readers that deflation is much worse than inflation as interest rates can only be lowered to zero. It ends by explaining different measures on how to protect yourself from inflation and deflation, such as buying Series I Bonds provided by the US Treasury and by examining the Consumer Price Index regularly.
Dominic Kochen 1st
Article: George H.W. Bush honored for courage with 1990 tax hikes
This article highlights President Bush's push to increase taxes in 1990 in order to reduce the rising crisis of national debt in the United States. Although this tax hike was highly criticized by many and cost Bush his reelection in 1992, he has been since praised for taking initiative against the debt crisis. He has been honored for his courage on the matter.
Sanyoni Desai
5th period
Article: National Debt Under Obama
Obama may have added anywhere from 983 billion dollars to 9 trillion to the national debt. The inconsistency is because there are 3 ways to look at the debt added by a president. The first, and most common, method is to subtract the debt level when he took office from the debt level when he left. The second, and more accurate, method is to add together his projected budget deficits. The third method is the most complicated. It’s to add only the deficits created by the president's specific initiatives. Using method 1 when Obama was sworn in, the debt was about $10 trillion. On January 20, 2017, when he left, it was about $19 trillion. That's why most people say Obama added $9 trillion to the debt, more than any other president. Using method 2 President Obama increased the debt by $6.576 trillion. With method 3 Obama's debt contribution was only $983 billion between 2009 and 2017.
Article "Budget Deficit: How It Affects the Economy"
A budget deficit is when spending exceeds income. The United States finances its deficit with Treasury bills, notes and bonds.For most of U.S. history, the deficit remained below 3 percent of GDP. Each year the deficit adds to a country's sovereign debt. As the debt grows, increases in deficit occur in two ways. The first way is that the interest on the debt must be paid each year and the second way higher debt levels can make it more difficult for the government to raise funds. This becomes a cycle as countries go deeper into debt to repay their debt.
Jyotis Joy
Period 5
Article: "What is the National Debt?"
For the most part, it will be nearly impossible to lower the national debt. This is because the only way to lower it is by lowering spending and/or increasing taxes. Both cause contractions in the economy so economic growth slows, and politicians will not do it because by doing it, it is a sure fire way to not be re-elected. It is difficult to imagine but the national debt divided by the US population is about $60,000 per man, woman, and child.But, the per capita income is only $28,757.The national debt is more than everything the US produces in a year.
Robert Slaybaugh
4th Period
Article:"Capital Goods: Examples, Effect on Economy"
Capital goods drive the United State's economic success. The reason for this is the fact that the United States is a major technological innovator. By producing capital goods, or durable goods, the United States is a leader in economic growth. Inventions like the airplane and the assembly line created well-paying manufacturing jobs and gave America a comparative advantage.
Jessica Merhav
2nd Period
Waseem Khalil P4
Article: "Real GDP Per Capita: How to Calculate, Data Since 1946"
Real GDP per capita is the amount of GDP divided by the amount of people. While it has been continuously increasing in America, so has inflation. However, national debt is also increasing. Severely. We need to reduce the debt before the debt goes boom boom and explodes. It's like a balloon that you keep filling and eventually it will pop. And when it pops, it brings massive devastation. So we need to decrease it. We will have to slow down economic growth in order to reduce the debt, which will likely affect our GDP per capita.
Radhika Daru
period 5
"Traditional Economy: Characteristics, Pros, Cons and Examples"
This article clearly defines a traditional economy as one primarily dictated by long-held beliefs and customs of a group. These economies, which are most prevalent in association with emerging economies in developing nations, exist largely amongst nomadic hunter-gatherer societies. These groups, which center around family or tribe, tend to use forms of barter instead of money when trade is necessary, and produce little surplus from their pursuit of resources.
Sahil Shah
Period 2
Article: Debt Crisis Causes and Cures
National debt is not as easy to solve as household or business debt. With household debt, people can cut expenses or take out loans. With businesses they can declare bankruptcy to give them relief from creditors. However, for countries there is no place that they can declare bankruptcy and if they cut expenses then the G in CIGXN for GDP decreases which hurts a countries income. This is counterproductive.
Lauryn Weller
Period 4
Article: "5 Ways To Reduce Interest On Debt"
National debt is how much the federal government must pay on public debt each year and the current interest on debt is $266 million dollars. The main most painless and beneficial way to reduce the interest on debt is to lower interest rates. However, that will not happen as long as the economy improves. Another way would be to increase tax revenues, which will lower the deficit and add less to the debt. Although this solution is slow it works with a fast growing economy. This interest on debt affects our nation by immediately reducing the money available for other spending programs.
FY 2009 U.S. Federal Budget and Spending
The year 2009 budget most closely describes the Federal Governments revenue and spending October 1, 2008. through September 30th. The Bush administration whom was in office at the time submitted the numbers of spending to congress in February of 2008, which was the time it was die for arrival. However it has been said it was dead upon arrival. This is because is twas the first budget to propose spending over the amount of 3 million- this budget underfunded the war on terror and revenue projections did not acknowledge the possibility of recession.
Taryn Gheen Pd. 5
Article:Deficit spending is out of control: Heres why.
This article opens up my giving the definition of deficit spending which is when purchases exceed income and usually refers to governments. It also explains that when government spending exceeds government revenue it creates a budget deficit. The article also explains expansionary and contractionary fiscal policy and how each one impacts the economy in different ways. The article explains that many people blame deficit spending on entitlements like social security and medicare which make up $2 trillion of the deficit. War and recession also creates the deficit. The article concludes by saying that deficit spending should only be used to boost the economy out of a recession and not be used when it is healthy.
Period-1
Debt financing
Period 4
Bb
In the article “Debt Financing I’ve understood that you can borrow money from the government and it occurs in two types short term and long term in short term the debt is required to be paid in less than a year but in long term it deals with equipment and etc and is required to be paid in more than s year this gives the owner s free hand although it has disadvantages like if you cannot pay the wages they can seize your car and other assets but the advantage over weights it because the government has no say in your business.
Nathanael Tan
Period 1
Article: Federal Budget Process
The Federal Budget process is how U.S. Congress controls federal spending. It was created by the 1974 Budget Control Act. A standing budget committee in both the House and Senate helps to create an appropriate budget tailored for both sides of Congress, and the Congressional Budget Office serves as a non-partisan review for the budget. If the Federal Budget Process is impeded, a government shutdown does result.
Article: "Why Is Inflation Good? 2 Reasons with Examples"
Inflation can actually be beneficial for people when it is mild. When prices are expected to rise, people buy more, increasing demand and therefore boosting the economy. Inflation is also beneficial since it removes the risk of deflation. If prices fall, people will wait to buy products to see if prices will fall even more, therefore decreasing demand. This can lead to higher unemployment rates and wage deflation. The Fed purposely aims for an inflation rate of 2% for these reasons.
Erik Shoga
Period 2
US Debt and How it affects the Economy
By: Kimberly Amadeo
Amadeo gives 5 main reasons as to why America is in so much Debt. Each new program and tax cuts add to the debt, every president “borrows” from the Social Security trust fund, other countries currencies are relatively low compared to the american dollar, the federal government benefits from low interest rates, and Congress always increases the limit on debt. The long term effects of debt on the economy include the value of the dollar decreasing, decrease in retirement benefits, and the debt-to-GDP ratio increases.
Sarah Sultan 4th period
Kedar Pandya
Period 2
Article: 3 ways to measure the dollar's value.
https://www.thebalance.com/value-of-us-dollar-3306268
The value of the U.S. dollar is measured in three ways: exchange rates, Treasury notes and foreign exchange reserves. Exchange rates compare the dollar to other forms of currency around the world. Changes in foreign currency values affect the dollar as a benchmark of measurement. Treasury notes are a separate money market in which notes are sold at a common price from the government and traded on a secondary market. Treasury notes serve as securities for the value of the dollar at that time. Foriegn exchange reserves serve as holdings by other countries to insure their own money markets. Reserves lower the value of the dollar because it increases Quantity Demanded of the dollar.
Article- What Was Obama's Stimulus Package?
This article refers to the stimulus package idea that Obama created which eventually ended the Great Recession of 2007.With this stimulus package idea, the American Recovery and Reinvestment idea was established in 2009. This act created many jobs by saving money for federal contracts, grants and loans. The act worked by constantly allocating money each fiscal year to progressively raise the overall national debt from 190 billion dollars. Sadly, the plan did not achieve its goal of reducing unemployment below 9% or adding to the debt.
- Rithvik Bommareddy, 4th Period
Current U.S. Federal Budget Deficit
Th National Debt is $20 trillion dollars and increasing since September 8, 2017.
Reasons for the large deficit include:
-Expansionary Fiscal Policy cut taxes and extended unemployment benefits by funding public works projects which created more jobs. Needed to push the economy out of recession, the $787 billion economic stimulus package added to the 2009 deficit.
-As a result of the September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, military spending was increased. Military spending was doubled due to the War on Terror, rising from $437.4 billion in 2003 to a peak of $855.1 billion in 2011.
-Mandatory spending for social security and Medicare programs consume most of the revenue each year. It's exceed $2 trillion a year since 2011.
Denise Doyle
Period 5
Simpson-Bowles Plan: Summary, History, Would It Work
Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction plan is a 2010 bi-partisan report on the best way to fix the US National Debt.The steps they recommend are to cap overall government spending at 21 percent of GDP, reduce mandatory spending, reduce federal healthcare spending, make Social Security sustainable, Eliminate $1.1 trillion in tax loopholes, thus increasing government revenue to 21 percent of GDP while lowering tax rates, and various process reforms.
Sarika Vura
1st Period
Article : "Capitalism: Characteristics, Pros, Cons and Examples."
The article summarizes the characteristic of capitalism and its advantages and disadvantages compared to other economies. The major characteristics of capitalism are:
- Private entities control the factors of production. This gives them incentives to maximize profits.
- Capitalism requires a market economy, the market sets the prices according to supply and demand.
- The government's role in a capitalist economy is to maintain a level playing field.
The intrinsic reward for innovation and companies incentives to maintain efficiency in production are ht main advantages of market economy whereas the major disadvantage is the lack of attention to the welfare of the general society, especially those who lack competitive skills.
Rakesh Johny
Period 1
"What Is Core Inflation? Importance, How It's Calculated"
Core inflation is the price change of goods and services minus food and energy. Food and energy prices change so often that they cause inaccurate readings of inflation. This is because food and energy is so important to the Americans that they will purchase these goods despite changes in prices. Core inflation is important because the Fed changes interests rates based on it. When core inflation is above 2%, the Fed considers raising interest rates. The core inflation rate is measured by both the core Consumer Price Index and the core Personal Consumption Expenditures price index.
Amber Montemayor
2nd period
Aylin Sanchez
2nd Period
“Debt-to-GDP Ratio: How to Calculate and Use It”
In the article “Debt-to-GDP Ratio: How to Calculate and Use it” it tells you on how it compares a country’s sovereign debt to its total economic output for the year. The ratio allows investors, leaders, and economists to gauge a country’s ability to pay off its debt. The debt-to-GDP allows investors in hover bonds to compare debt levels between countries. To figure out the debt-to-GDP ratio, you’ve got to know two things: the country’s debt level and the country’s economic output.
Sang Kirsten Ebueng
Period 2
Article: When Will The U.S. Dollar Collapse?
In order for a dollar collapse to occur 2 things must be in place before hand. First, there must be an underlying weakness. Second, there must be a viable currency for everybody to buy. Because the U.S. was taken off the gold standard in 1973 by former president Nixon, the value of the dollar is dependent on its use as the worlds reserve currency. What could possibly trigger the collapse of the dollar is a huge economic event that destroys global confidence in the dollar. The collapse of the dollar would cause investors around the world to rush to other currencies such as the euro, of even resort to assets like gold.
Article: What Is the Public Debt?
In the article it explains what public, or sovereign, debt is and the effects it can have on the citizens of a nation. It goes over the current problems in the U.S. with public debt, and what is causing public debt to grow for america. It goes more in to detail of how it is an unavoidable and sometimes useful form of debt that is not something to be considered as concerning unless it exceeds certain parameters, and grows out of control.
Mitchell Arwine, period 4
Article: "Comparative Advantage" by Kimberly Amadeo
In this article, Kimberly Amadeo defines comparative advantage as when a country produces a good or service for a lower opportunity cost than other countries. For example, oil-producing nations have a comparative advantage in chemicals. That's because the oil provides a cheap source of material for the chemicals compared to countries without it. America’s comparative advantage is our diverse population which provides a large test market for new products.
Joel Thomas, 1st period
Luke Matthews - Period 2
A Great Depression today would cause pandemonium and heavily effect everyone’s lives. Many people think that there is a huge depression in our future due to predictions in the business cycle and the 2008 recession. When our economy is going through a recession, the output and the unemployment rate are indirectly related to each other. The economic output would plummet 25% while unemployment would increase to 25%, leaving millions of people without jobs.
How Much Do We Really Know About Vladimir Putin?
This articles talks about changes that occurred in Russia after Vladimir Putin coming in power and facts about himself.
Former president, Obama, sanctioned Russia after the accusation of cyber attacking Hillary Clinton's campaign and laundering money to Trump officials. Putin strikes Syria, but as U.S found out that they were nowhere near ISIS. Putin also invades Ukraine's port of Crimea in 2014. The articles also talks heavily on the economic downturns that Russia experienced once Putin came in power, like stopping foreign investments. Putin has some secret powers like companies such as Rosneft, which he sold it off to private foreign investors in 2006. one thing that was a gain was his pipeline policies, Russia became the leading oil producer. Putin voted against the United State's missile crisis on Syria. There were also some early life discussions about Putin, he became a martial arts expert at a young age. He earned a law degree at Leningrad State University, and joined the KGB encouraging a spy agency. in 1999 he was appointed prime minister and being re-elected twice.
Meryem Pecen
period 5
article- U.S. Deficit by President
Do you know which president had the terms including the largest budget deficits? There are five factors that influence the deficit which determine the outcome and grant someone the title of having the highest deficits. The president leading with the highest is President Barack Obama with about 6.7 trillion dollars. Following Obama, it is President George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, and President George H.W. Bush.
Article: "Discretionary Fiscal Policy" by Kimberly Amadeo
Discretionary fiscal policy is a change in government spending or taxes. Discretionary fiscal policy uses two tools: the budget process and the tax code. The first tool is the discretionary portion of the U.S. budget. Congress determines this type of spending with appropriations bills each year. The second tool is the tax code. It includes taxes on workers' incomes, corporate profits, imports and other excise fees. Discretionary fiscal policy should work as a counterweight to the business cycle.
Aleena Mathew, 1st period
PCE Inflation: How It's Calculated, Why the Fed Prefers It
The article first defines PCE inflation as personal consumption expenditures. The article then talks about how PCE gives an accurate image of real inflation by removing all volatility. The article then says how to calculate PCE, It uses the same data that creates the quarterly gross domestic product report. But this report measures production, and the PCE price index measures consumer purchases. The difference between PCE and CPI is that PCE index uses data from the GDP report and businesses while the CPI is taken from household surveys made by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The feds use this method of calculating inflation because of how fast prices fluctuate.
Kale Wicks
Period 4
"Central Banks' Function and Role"
In the article the function and powers of the central bank is explained. It explains that the central banks' goal is to control liquidity through three ways: setting reserve requirements, using open market operations, and setting targets on interest rates. Lowering rates stimulates growth in order to prevent or shorten recession. However they can't stimulate the economy too much or else it can cause inflation, which they want to avoid at all cost.
Elizabeth Stech
Period 4
"How the Fed Rate Hike Affects You"
In this article, Kimberly Amadeo provides the reader with five steps to protect him/her from rising interest rates. The first step that she says to do is to pay off all outstanding credit card debt. The second step she says to do is to feel better about saving. The third step she says to do is to not procrastinate on buying any new appliances, furniture, or cars. The fourth and fifth steps she says to do is to talk to your financial adviser about reducing the amount of bond funds you have and pay close attention to the announcements of the Federal Open Market Committee.
Period 2
"Cost of Living: Define, Calculate, Compare, Rank," written by Kimberly Amadeo
Since prices differ in most areas, social firms calculate cost of living by totaling the yearly costs of goods that a consumer would buy. Around 100,000 goods and services in the USA are used to come up with the CPI, and there exist calculators that can calculate cost of living nationally and internationally. For those with benefits, COLA (Cost of Living Adjustment) is a government adjustment that makes sure benefits stay current with inflation. The cost of living increase is when the CPI increases (inflation).
Jackson Stanley | Period 4
Article: "Trump's Plan to Reduce the National Debt" by Kimberly Amadeo
The article introduces (as likely many others do) with the current U.S. Debt of $19.5 trillion as of September 19th, 2017, and that his plan is to grow the American economy and reduce federal spending. Through tax cuts and annual growth, which at 4%, the article deems unhealthy, along with Trump's businessman mindset of making deals if the economy crashes, Trump feels he can lessen the waste in federal spending that Obama and Bush overlooked.
What is a currency war?
A currency war is defined as when a nations central bank employs expansionary monetary policy with the hopes of lowering the value of its money.The lower the currency values, the easier it is to export more, because the items of one country seems relatively low in comparison to another. The united states allows the dollar to devalue, using expansionary and monetary policy. Federal deficit spending then in turn increases the debt. That pushes the price of the dollar downward, which makes it a less attractive unit of payment to other countries. For example, the Japanese have been developing a relatively safe currency, much different from the dollar, and left the dollar because it was unstable.
Marcus Ellis Period 1
Bryce Del'Homme Period 5
United Kingdom Economy: Components, Type, Impact on US
The United Kingdom's economy has a health $41,200 GDP per capita which is healthy, but its standard of living is lower than that of the US due to the US having a $56,300 GDP per capita. Its GDP growth was on the low end of the 2% tp 3% spectrum at only 2.2%. Due to it having its own currency, the sterling or pound, it was able to effectively recover from the 2008 recession much faster than the EU was and was one of the deciding factors of 'Brexit'. The UK used to be the largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasury bills, bonds, and notes. China replaced it in 2007. The UK's holdings have fallen from $640 billion then to $207 billion as of December 2015. That's even less than Ireland, which holds $257.9 billion.
Article- Who owns the U.S nation debt?
This article is mainly about how there are two main categories that manages the US debt and that is the U.S treasury which controls the intragovernmental holdings and it totals about 5.6 trillion ( 30 %) of US debt. The reason they are so much in debt is because the social security system is the one who takes more revenue from taxes than needed causing the government being in debt with them selves. But they are not the only ones, others include the federal reserve, mutual funds, banks, insurance companies and they are the one mainly to blame for our trillions and trillions of dollars in debt.
In the article "U.S. Debt by Year Since 1929" it showed that the US Debt increased at about 1000 times now than it was in 1929. In 1929 US Debt was at 17 billion dollars, now it is well over 19 million dollars. The increase in debt was mainly due to military spending and government spending in order to keep the economy at its higher points. Inflation doesn't help with this scenario because with inflation that money with only multiply at a percentage value. Its main key points were showings that government tend to spend more money after threats such as that tragedy of 9/11. That's when Presidents spend up to a billion dollars if not more during threatening times also like the Great Recession.
Jonathan Ngo
Period 2
Ali Noorani
1st Period
In the article, The U.S Debt and How it Got so Big, it gives many reasons as to why the U.S.'s debt is as big as it is. One of the reasons is because the federal budget has been accumulating over the years and thus causing the debt to rise. A second reason is that most if not all presidents borrow from the social security trust fund. And the third reason is that countries like Japan and China continue to buy treasuries to keep the value of their currency low.
Wesley Cherry
Period 4
Article: Current U.S. Federal Government Tax Revenue
The Federal Government's Total Tax Revenue ammounts to about 3.7 trillion dollars for fiscal year 2018. Its sources are sales tax, corporate taxes the federal reserves net income and estate taxes. Taxing corporations will not help individuals because corporations pass on their tax burden to consumers by raising prices or decreasing wages. The government income only accounts for 89% of the goverments spending because deficit spending boosts the economy to growth during a recession
Emily Tran
Period 2
Article: Korean War Facts, Costs, and Timeline
The Korean War lasted from June 25, 1950 to July 27, 1953. The war between North and South Korea cost $30 billion, or rather, $276 billion in today's dollars. The war caused death tolls of up to 36,000 American soldiers and injured 100,000. The North and South Koreans faced death tolls of up to 620,000 soldiers and also, 1.6 million civilians. In 1945, after WWII ended, the winners decided to divide up Korea, ending its rule from Japan ever since 1910. The Soviet Union claimed North Korea, turning it communist, and the United States took South Korea, basing its economy on capitalism now. This division started the Korean War. On June 1950, North Korean and Chinese troops invaded South Korea, with Soviet military equipment aiding them. President Truman decided to fight back by using nuclear bombs against the north, but it still seemed by August that the North would win. The UN fought back bravely and took over North Korea, ready to end them all for once, but they reattached, with fresh aid from China. The US heavily bombed North Korea, and in the end, the war was ceased as their threats to continue bombing were ceased by North Korea's agreement to stop fighting. The war lifted the economy out of recession caused by WWII, but even today threats of nuclear attacks are still present between our two countries ever since the Korean War.
“The US Debt Crisis: Timelines, Summary, and Solutions”
The US debt is currently larger than it has ever been in United States History. Whole Democrats believe that Keynesian Evonomics will hinder its growth, Republicans argue that Supply-sided economics will do the trick. However, due to their focus on the national debt, and lack there of on furthering economic expansion, the debt has only accumulated to an even more massive amount. In 2011, large governmental spending cuts were made to lessen the debt, yet circumstances only worsened and the faith of individual businesses and consumers was shot. Many believe that in order to help stabilize this debt and reduce the deficit is to make spending cuts and raise taxes, not making any changes for at least a year in order for the economy to mold to the new plan. But even if the economy only worsens, there is little chance the US government will go bankrupt. US treasury bonds are too valuable to the rest of the world, and eventually the economy resiliency of the United States will bring them out of the trenches.
Ayana Mathew
4th period
The article talks about three ways to pay off the national debt. One way to pay off the national debt is by cutting off spending. Another way is to raise taxes. Taxes slow down growth however it is an incentive for business. The third way is to make economic growth faster. to make economic growth faster, we need to decrease it by debt to GDP ratio.The article also states that it might be difficult for the US to pay off the debt as it is increasing every year.
"What Is the Fiscal Cliff: Explanation and Causes"
This article explains and talks about fiscal cliff, which is a combination of four tax increases and two spending cuts. The fiscal cliff was caused becuase a fail in fiscal policy. At one time, taxes would have gone up to about $3,000 per household on average, which was caused by the President and a Democrat-controlled Senate disagreeing with the Republican-controlled House for the best ways to help pay off the deficit and debt. The econmoy failed so there was not a complete conclusion.
Steve Raju 5th period
Article- "The biggest political scandal of our time is the national debt"
The US's biggest scandal is our ~$20 trillion debt. But this is overlooked by many Americans, who see other more well known scandals as more threatening and important than our outrageous debt. If we paid back the federal debt today, every man, woman, and child would owe the federal government about over $63,000. But since not everyone pays taxes, the amount the taxpayers would actually have to pay would be much higher than $63,000. 45% of Americans don't pay taxes, and in many states, welfare pays more than minimum wage, a factor that pushes people from taking jobs and become participants of the welfare program. More debt means fewer jobs, less economic progress, and lower salaries. This stifled growth is especially hard on young people who are struggling to make ends meet as it already is. We need to take care of our debt before it comes to ruin us in the end.
Raamiz Ejaz 4th Period
Alan Cummins
4th Period
"What Is Inflation? How It's Measured and Managed"
Inflation is the gradual rising of prices over time. Inflation will cause the value of the dollar to fall. The Bureau of Labor Statistics measures inflation using the Consumer Price Index. Central banks, such as the Federal Reserve, use monetary policy to oppose inflation and deflation. The Federal Reserve aims to keep the inflation from year to year at around 2 percent.
Article: Debt Snowball vs. Debt Stacking
The article explores what debt stacking and debt snowballing are, and which method is better. Debt stacking is making minimum payments on all loans and then using all extra money to pay off the debt with the highest interest rate. Debt snowballing, however, is using all extra money to pay off the debt with the lowest balance first, regardless of rate. While debt snowballing gives immediate satisfaction because you pay off the debts faster individually, debt stacking will save a person more in the long run.
Bryan Ta
4th Period
Jerry George
2nd Period
Article: Where the worlds richest countries invest.
The article starts off talking about the sovereign wealth fund which is an investment pool of foreign currency reserves owned by a government. the largest investment pools are owned by the countries that have a trade surplus. Oil exporting countries and China are included in this list, as these countries take foreign currencies, primarily the US dollar for the exported goods. A central bank holds funds to manage the value of its currency, to stimulate the economy, or prevent inflation. A sovereign wealth fund just wants to earn a high return. Countries that export lots of goods also collect large holdings of foreign currency that needs to be invested. The best example of this is China, which has five wealth funds.
Jubin Joseph
Period 5
Article- What Is an Adjustable Rate Mortgage?
This article covers the concept of adjustable rate mortgage. An adjustable rate mortgage is a loan that bases its interest rate on an index. The article later goes on to express the pros and cons of these mortgages. The advantage of adjustable rate mortgages is that the rate is lower than for fixed rate mortgages. The big disadvantage is that your monthly payment can skyrocket if interest rates rise.
Natalie Dye, 5th period
Article: "Why you can't fix government debt crises the same way you fix yours"
The article explains the complexity of fixing a debt crisis of a government because of the many components in government that regular people do not have to deal with. There is no court that the government can go to to get fair adjudication, is not secured by collateral, and cannot print currency to pay off their debt. Therefore, it is very hard for a country to get out of debt once they have already dug the hole for themselves.
Article: “Personal Consumption Expenditures”
The Article “Will the U.S. Debt Ever Be Paid Off?” stated that the nation's debt will probably never be paid off. This is contributed to that Congress has a lot to lose by cutting spending. If they cut Social Security or Medicare benefits, they will lose their next election. Not only that, the debt is so large that people don't know where to start to fix it. Lastly, the article “Personal Consumption Expenditures” talks of how American households spend $11.6 trillion annually on items and sixty-five percent of that went toward services. This is closely related to our national debt and how the government is growing its debt through these services.
Cameron Walker
Period 4
Stephen Kelly
Period 4
Venezuela's Economy
Why Venezuela May Default?
Venezuela has ran into the promblem of hyper inflation in there country due to their over reliance on oil.veneuzula produces 8%of us oil and gas the 7th largest oil reserve in the world. Back when oil prices where high, the government was able to raise the minimum wage and invest in many public projects and make more money for the supply. But when oil prices fell, the price of the bolivar fell and because of oil being priced in US dollars and not in Bolivars, companies are forecex to pay employees high wages and sell there oil low. This has also left a shortage of nessecitis in the country
Alwyn Joseph
5th Period
"Debt crisis causes and cures"
The key point of the article is how cutting costs will help in paying off our debt. It begins by speaking about home, revolving, and non revolving debt, and how they are a large portion of our debt. Next the article goes on to talk about the debt known as business debt, where companies cant pay off its bonds, and causes the company to typically go in a downward spiral from that point. Finally, the article gives the causes of sovereign debt, where a country cant pay the interest of its debt. These debts typically occur in times of recession and war.
Isabel Zhou
Period 5
Article: "What Is the Minimum Wage? Purpose, Pros, Cons, History"
The article explores what minimum wage is. The minimum wage is the lowest legal wage in which companies can pay workers. In the U.S., the current national minimum wage is $7.25. Even though the cost of living in the U.S. is higher, the U.S. minimum wage is lower than most other countries around the world. The purpose of minimum wage laws is to stop employers from exploiting desperate workers. This policy ensures that these workers have enough income to provide food, clothing, and shelter for themselves.
Charli Escobedo
Period 5
Article: Liquidity- Definition, Ratios, and How its Managed
Debt in a country is very hard to recover from due to non stop spending. For spending and investments, liquidity is money that available for those aspects. Liquidity contains treasury bills, cash, bonds, and etc. Liquidity also has different branches such as glut, trap, and market ratio. When interest rates are high the liquidity is low. When there are a lot of assets the liquidity is high.
Yash Parmar
5th
Who suffers if the US defaults on debt
We will suffer the most. The American working middle class. We will loose a bulk of our income on taxes. Also in the global market, our value will decrease. Along with this, people dependent on social security, Medicare and other government programs will be slashed. Most likely defense will also will cut.
The Surprising Truth About the U.S Debt by Kimberly Amadeo
This article goes into detail about the U.S debt. It discusses the specific numbers and the current amount of debt the U.S is currently in. Then the article talks about what the debt actually is and explains the crisis at hand. The article explains that the crisis is about the different politcal parties fighting about how to deal with the debt, which is causing all of the issues. It discusses how certain people blame it on the Bush tax cuts, and how others blame it on other factors. It also talks about how cutting taxes increased demand which leads to the economy fixing itself, which is also known as keynsian economic theory.
Kenneth Easo
4th Period
Matthew Reyes
Period 1
Article: "What Is an Economic Depression?"
An economic depression is a drastic downturn that lasts several years. The U.S. economy has only experienced one economic depression, the Great Depression of 1929 which lasted ten years. It's unlikely for an economic depression to occur again because of many laws and government agencies in place, the central banks around the world being aware of the importance of expansive monetary policy, and the Fed adopting a policy of regarding the inflation rate.
Sainath Krishnamurthy
4th Period
U.S Debt Crisis: Summary, Timeline and Solutions
Democrats and Republicans in Congress have created a recurring debt crisis by fighting over ways to curb the debt. Democrats blamed the Bush tax cuts and the 2008 financial crisis, both of which lowered tax revenues. They advocated increased stimulus spending or consumer tax cuts. The resultant boost in demand would spur the economy out of recession and increase GDP and tax revenues. In other words, the United States would do as it did after World War II. It would grow its way out of the debt crisis. This strategy is called the Keynesian economic theory. Republicans advocated further tax cuts for businesses. They would invest the cuts in expanding their companies and subsequently create new jobs.That theory is called Supply-side Economics.
Article : "Central Banks' Function and Role"
In, "Central Banks", the role that the central bank plays in the world and what it's powers are, are both explained. It says that the goal of it is to control the ease of gaining money. This happens in three different ways: setting reserve requirements, using open market operations, and setting targets on interest rates. To stimulate growth in the economy to shorten recession, lowering rates does the trick. They can't stimulate psst the economy to much or else a recession happens and the back system becomes chaotic.
Danni Herself
PERIOD 1
The article "How to pick good mutual funds" goes over exactly that: how to pick good mutual funds. The article goes over both bull markets and bear markets, as well as information about Mutual funds vs. stocks. It tells you to diversify your investments, understand the business cycle and when to put your money where in the cycle, and to be aware of mutual fund fees. It goes over main things to focus on when investing, as well as offers a little bit of advice that could be useful while investing. "Past performance is no guarantee for future success."
Sophie Wedgeworth
Period 5
"National Debt Under Obama"
In the article "National Debt Under Obama," it explains that ,instead of decreasing the national debt, he added approximatley 983 billion to 9 trillion dollars. Economists came this conclusion by using three methods. The first, debt added since Obama took office, this highlighted that the most money added to the debt happened in his first two terms. The second, Obama's budget defict, showed that the addition to the debt was not entirley his doing. Lastly, How Obamas policies increased the debt, which stated it is unwise to blame Obama from what he cannot control.
Article: "Open Market Operations"
The definition of open market operations is when the Federal Reserve buys or sells securities from its member banks. The fed uses it to change the amount of money its member banks can lend. Banks would lend out as much as possible to increase their profits. All banks are required to keep some money in their reserve for the next day's transaction, which is known as required reserve.
Daniel Martin
5th Period
Danni Hertel
Period 1
What Is the Laffer Curve?
The bottom of the curve and zero taxes mean no government income, which subsequently means no government in general. To boost the government revenue, taxes should be increased. Tax cuts stimulating on the economy depends on the type of tax system in place, how fast the economy is growing, how high taxes are already, tax loopholes, the ease of entry into non-taxable, underground activities, and the economy's productivity level.
"U.S. Debt by President: By Dollar and Percent"
Comparing the debt level from when the president enters isn’t an accurate way to measure how much a president contributed to the national debt. First because the first year of his fiscal policy is set by the last president. One way to measure it is to sum up their budget deficits, as each year considers budgeted spending. Obama added the most dollar wise to the debt: he added $7.917 trillion compared to Bush who added $5.849 trillion.
Aileen Ramirez 1st Period
Simpson-Bowles Plan
Basically, the plan was introduced in 2010 and had the potential to solve the US national debt and yet was ignored and denied. It had the possibility to drop the national debt by 3.8 trillion by 2020. The plan was sectioned into six steps: the government could not spend more than 21 percent of GDP, lessen required spending, decrease federal healthcare spending, make social security constant, get rid of 1.1 trillion due to tax loopholes, and through process reforms. Unfortunately, the plan was never accepted and put to the test.
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