Economics Scavenger Hunt

Economics Scavenger Hunt

A. Gross Domestic Product (GDP)


  • Find the GDP for the United States currently. (Hint: Here is a great site: http://www.bea.gov/ )This should the yearly GDP for 2011 as well as current estimates for the quarter.
  • Find past information to diagnose what the trend is for the GDP from the past. How would you describe the current trend of the US GDP?
  • Check out NationMaster at http://www.nationmaster.com/cat/eco-economy to find GDP figures for other countries. How would you describe the GDP of the United States compared to other places?

B. Inflation

  • Using http://www.bls.gov/, find the current measure of inflation in the U.S. as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
  • What impact does this have on businesses in the U.S.?
  • If you spent $100 in 2018 on school supplies, what would the equivalent have been in 1984 if adjusted for inflation? (Hint: Click HERE. )
  • Using a general search engine, find the inflation rate of another country,the state of New Hampshire, or a local area.

C. Productivity & Employment

  • Using the Bureau of Labor Statistics from the last section, find a measure of the productivity rates in the United States.
  • Using the same site, find the level of unemployment for both the United States and New Hampshire.

D. Fiscal Policy

  • What is the current amount projected to be spent by the U.S. in 2012?
  • Is there a shortage or surplus projected for 2011?
  • What is the current federal debt? Search for the U.S. National Debt Clock for an interesting response. You can also type in http://brillig.com/debt_clock )
  • Find the same type of information for the state of Wisconsin. (Hint: http://sunshinereview.org/index.php/State_budget_issues,_2009-2010 )

E. Monetary Policy


  • Go to the Fed site Fed101 at http://www.federalreserveeducation.org/fed101/policy/ . This site describes how the Federal Reserve System operates and has an extensive section on economic indicators. List one thing that you learned that you didn’t know.
  • Using information from the Federal Reserve Board at http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/, find the current measure of M2. (Hint: Look for Money stock measures) This is a measure of how much money is in our U.S. economy.
  • Follow the previous link for Federal Reserve, find the current interest rate. (This is under Interest rates and federal funds rate. You can also check the prime loan rate. )
  • Using the Federal Reserve site or a news search tool like Google, find the projected rate of increase or decrease for interest rates for the U.S.

F. General


  • In general, how would you describe the current economy of the United States?
  • The USA Today maintains a website that reviews our economy and profiles some economic indicators at http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/economic-outlook.htm?loc=interstitialskip. Pick two indicators and describe how they affect the economy and what the projection is for the U.S.
  • Using http://money.cnn.com/news/economy/index.html or another news source, find one event that is impacting the U.S. or local economy. Explain what the event is and how it will affect the economy.
  • Using news reports and the information you have found, what is the projection for our economy