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.
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 )
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?
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