Microeconomics Current Event Study

Attached is a document explaining the details of this assignment.  Please let me know if you have any questions. All of your help is very much appreciated.

Current Event Study Assignment

You will participate in a current event study. Each year we instructors are asked by the administration to add a new feature to our classes. This year I have decided to add an economic current event study. The reason for this is so you will learn how to read economic reports in your newspaper, or in any business magazine or the Wall Street Journal. But more important is so you will learn how to derive your very own opinions.

Most of the executives that are the highest paid executives in the country read either the Wall Street Journal or receive several Business or Economic Journals. That is why whenever you interview for a business you will see all sorts of trade magazines at the front of their offices. It is to give you an image that you are interviewing with one of the top businesses in the country. Plus the firm can see if you are up on current events or not.

For your own benefit, we feel that you need to be able to take any economic article you see in any paper (economic only) and add your thoughts both for and against to the ideas using economic theories that you have presented from our class. Then offer your very own opinion at the end. I want you all to have your very own opinions at the end of our class.

We are going to ask you in each discussion to find your very own economic article and discuss using your knowledge of economics what you have learned from the article. Add any economic theories you might know of into your discussion to receive your points. This is important stuff because you will be graded on the one you will present on the mid term and another one for the final. Even for the mid term and final I would like you to find an economic article for each and I will give you points as to how well you go through the following processes. It will be worth points on both of these tests so do it the right the first time.

Here is how I want you to answer your current event problem. You will go to your newspaper and pull out any economic current event problem. The one that I was looking at has to do with Unemployment. Choose whatever problem you want to but go through the same processes that I have followed below.

i.e. Economics Article — format to follow is below:

Democrats Blast Overtime Rules: Regulations would hurt working families, they say.

Washington. Democrats and Union leaders are lambasting President Bush for a proposal they say would cost at least 8 million workers their overtime pay after the House backed his drive to overhaul decade old rules determining who qualifies for the extra money.

Republicans voted 213 – 210 on Thursday in an effort to derail the proposed regulations to impose changes in overtime rules as early as next year.

I want you to analyze 4 parts to your current event study.
First
what issue is being discussed.
Second
, who it will hurt,
third
, who it is going to help and
fourth
, why is your opinion is best.

1) Issue ~ How are we going to solve our unemployment problem.

2) Who is this legislation going to hurt? According to the Democrats and Union leaders who are taking offense it is going to hurt working families because many of them on average receive an additional $5 to 10 thousand in over time compensation which is added to an average of $20 to 30 thousand a year. According to the Democrats this could seriously reduce the incomes of working families and make it harder on them to support their families.

3) Who is this legislation going to help? The reason the Republicans are trying to undermine overtime is because while some lose others win. If companies no longer offer over time pay that means they will have to hire more workers. With a lot of unemployed people (up to a little over 9 million over 2003), it will cause firms to hire additional workers above their present work force to get any extra work done and therefore reduce some of the present unemployment. Republicans assume that this legislation could end up creating another 2 to 3 million more jobs over the next 3 years. This would also cause companies to hire more minorities i.e. Latinos and Blacks and women workers to pick up the slack in such a difficult and uncertain job market.

4) This is what I believe should be done. (Next I would like you to add any of your own comments as to what group you favor and why.) There is no wrong and right with your opinion as long as it is well founded. I will be looking more for your reasoning in 1) and 2) than your opinion in 3) than what you say in 4) However, I do believe that every student who comes out of our class should have his or her very own opinion and not mine. That is why we are promoting our current event analysis so you will learn how to examine a current event and find what is it affecting and who it is hurting or helping so you can learn how to read articles and come up with your very own opinions and not accept the opinions of others. Finding your own opinion is an important life skill