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Chapter 1 HMWK

  1. What in this chapter made you think about an economic concept differently than your previous beliefs?  
  2. What new questions do you have now about the US economy based on this chapter?
  3. If you already took Macroeconomics, what is your strongest memory from the material you covered in that class? 


    4. As a child, I remember my dad advising me numerous times that "something is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay" whenever I was getting ready to set up a lemonade stand or garage sale. That idea was echoed in more depth as this chapter addressed how people make decisions while facing trade-offs and how people interact in markets. While not necessarily new to me, the idea of opportunity costs caught my attention. Each action taken means the possibility of some other action was given up. It resonates in every area of life including deciding where to shop, how close to live to work, how you date, etc. 

    I was glad to see that the chapter mentioned inflation and the government's role in printing currency. I would really like to look more deeply into the way the Federal Reserve is set up, and the fractional fiat system we live with. It seems unfair that the thoughtful 'savers' of society would suffer the most during times of inflation. When inflation plays out, we first notice that our currency doesn't go as far...however, everyone has put in hours of their life that they'll never get back when they first earned those dollars...so it seems that the end result is devaluation of our time as well. Because the value of the dollar fluctuates, it seems that it could be better to purchase certain goods rather than have a nicely padded bank account.

    As this is my first economics class, I'm sure many other questions will come up and I'm interested in the way incentives are developed by policymakers as well as the unintended consequences that result.

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