Purpose of Assignment 

This assignment addresses how both monetary and fiscal policies have been used during the so-called Great Recession, which began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, to the present to moderate the business cycle. 

Assignment Steps 

Resources: Tutorial help on Excel® and Word functions can be found on the Microsoft® Office website. There are also additional tutorials via the web offering support for Office products. 

Create a minimum 10-slide PowerPoint® presentation, including detailed speaker notes or voiceover, in which you analyze your choice of one the following markets or industries:

• The housing market
• Financial markets
• Commodity and stock markets
• An industry of your choice,      such as the automobile industry, the airline industry, retail trade, or      any other major industry that suffered heavy losses during the Great      Recession 

Your analysis will extend from the beginning of the Great Recession, which was December 2007, to the present and should include the following:

• An Excel® workbook      with the following datasets:

  One dataset related to the       U.S. housing industry such as housing starts, the FHFA housing price       index, or another dataset of your choice related to the housing market.
  One dataset related to       personal or household income or to personal or household saving.
  One dataset related to the       labor market such as the unemployment rate, initial claims for       unemployment insurance, or another dataset of your choice related to the       U.S. labor force.
  One dataset related to       production and business activity within the market or industry you choose       to analyze.

• Find your datasets by using      different internet data sources, including, but not limited to, the      Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis’s FRED site, U.S. Dept. of Commerce’s      Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), U.S. Dept. of Labor’s Bureau of Labor      Statistics, U.S. Census Bureau, and The Organization for Economic      Co-operation and Development (OECD).  Using data results analyze the      economic and sociological forces that drove the market equilibrium to      unsustainable heights, commonly referred to as “bubbles,” and      the shocks that brought the markets back down.
• Discuss specific changes in      supply and demand within the markets and/or industries you chose to      analyze.
• Examine prior government      policies and legislation that might have exacerbated the impact of the      shocks. Also, discuss government actions/regulations that might be      undertaken, and/or have been undertaken, to moderate the effects of      extreme economic fluctuations.
• Evaluate the actions of the      federal government (fiscal policy) and the Federal Reserve (monetary      policy) to restore the economy and foster economic growth. Base your      evaluation on information available at Internet sources such as, but not      limited to, the Fed’s The Economy Crisis and Response website      as well as other appropriate sources found on the Internet and in the      University Library. Be sure you address the effectiveness of those      counter-cyclical policies. 

Cite a minimum of three peer-reviewed sources and economic data not including the course text. Submit the data results in a separate Microsoft® Excel® file.