Macroeconomic theory essay.
Evaluate the theoretical argument that price and wage flexibility allow an economy to correct a negative demand shock. Provide evidence from Japan in the 1990s to illustrate your answer and consider briefly what policy lessons may follow for dealing with the impact of the current world financial crisis.
In the year 2007-2008, the global economy has been suffering deeply from the impact of the major financial crisis. This event is considered the worst of its kind in decades, since the great depression. The cure for this crisis has been the topic of much debate; many economists suggest that the idea of price and wage flexibility can return the economy back to full employment as it could have done for Japan
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This makes up a liquidity shortage in the money market so that at this point, any use of expansionary monetary policy is inefficient in this situation. If money supply is to be increased, people would hold more and more money as precautionary or further investment, making the economy fall deeper into the liquidity trap; on the other hand, this could even result in a monetary deflation. After a long trapped period, Japan’s economy showed its first sight of recovery in 2003 with higher output growth and rising employment, wage as well as investment.
Policy lessons
“What kept Japan down were repeated macroeconomic policy mistakes” (The New York times, 2008). In fact, the Japanese government’s action was not effective regarding the situation of their economy. The use of monetary policy did not only worsen the effect of the liquidity trap but also create a deflationary pressure. On the other hand, their slow cuts in Bank of Japan nominal interest rate and deflation lead to nominal and real interest rate of different levels. Even nominal interest rate at zero, real interest rate has been positive. Fiscal policy was inadequate to increase demand and output but led to deficits and accumulating government debt.
‘Could we but suddenly double the productive powers of the country, we should double the supply of commodities in every market; but we should, by the same stroke, double the purchasing power. Everybody would bring a double
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In the United States, we encounter quite a bit of obstacles that we can’t seem to get rid of completely. We as a nation deal with inflation, unemployment, stagflation, recessions, depressions, and so much more. Reading these three articles opened my eyes to the world of economics, and even made me question the society we live in. I’ve learned that sometimes questions can’t be answered, and I learned that once we solve one issue, there is always another issue on its way. These articles made me analyze, and think about the future of economics, and what I can do to try and help the economy. These authors of these three articles make it very clear that there are issues in the United States, and they do an amazing job
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First being a balanced budget, followed by suspension of new loans from the Reconstruction Finance Bank (this source of supply of money was identified as the root cause of inflation), and lastly, reducing as well as completely eliminating subsidies. The above-mentioned policies were identified to aid in accelerating the Japanese economy. Dodge’s policies caused problems along the way in its implementation but it created a path for recovery without the help of America. The Japanese were encouraged to economize and accumulate capital through such a policy.
Truth can be many things, both good and bad, but it can be harmful from trying to be helpful. Truth can be hidden to make others feel better, or not told at all so they are not burdened with it. In both “The Censors” by Luisa Valenzuela and “A Visit to Grandmother” by William Melvin Kelley, love is shown by hidden truth to protect their loved ones. In “The Censors,” Juan ventures to a censorship office to censor a letter to the woman he loves and is trying to protect, but is executed in the end.
Stacy Schiff is a remarkable writer and a historian. She has a Pulitzer Prize to prove it, and she is also a guest writer for the New York Times and various newspapers. Her latest work is Cleopatra: A Life. Schiff tells how Cleopatra was a very remarkable woman. Even after Octavian, Cleopatra was known as the wicked women in the world.
Our economy is a machine that is ran by humans. A machine can only be as good as the person who makes it. This makes our economy susceptible to human error. A couple years ago the United States faced one of the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression, which was the Great Recession. The Great Recession was a severe economic downturn that occurred in 2008 following the burst of the housing market. The government tried passing bills to see if anything would help it from becoming another Great Depression. Trying to aid the government was the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve went through a couple strategies in order to help the economy recover. The Federal Reserve provided three major strategies to start moving the economy in a better direction. The first strategy was primarily focused on the central bank’s role of the lender of last resort. The second strategy was meant to provide provision of liquidity directly to borrowers and investors in key credit markets. The last strategy was for the Federal Reserve to expand its open market operations to support the credit markets still working, as well as trying to push long term interest rates down. Since time has passed on since the Great Recession it has been a long road. In this essay we will take a time to reflect on these strategies to see how they helped.
Japan’s unemployment rate of about 4% opposed to the U.S. unemployment rate of close to 10%. Even the financial debt to GDP ration is an advantage, and debt in the private sector has not increased unlike the U.S. and European countries, (Time, 2009). In addition, since Japan is a huge exporter and with the U.S. demand going downward, the international balances and growth declined especially as the dollar value dropped and the yen surged. •
The onset of Super Endaka in 1995 summed up to an already existing situation of global recession (1991), with price pressures, posted production and sales declines. Moreover, trade barriers in Europe prevented Japan's firms to expand and compensate for the US losses, where the price effects of yen appreciation were most severe. This time, the challenge posed by the new exchange rate shift was even harder than the first one.
In order to prevent the current crisis from deepening, immediate actions are required from the major industrial countries and from the international community. There is evidence that the world economy is experiencing a major slowdown, which may deepen if inadequately managed. For example, Japan is in its worst recession since the war, much of East and South-East Asia is in depression, Russia is experiencing a major downturn, growth has stalled in Latin America, and the prices of primary commodities and a number of manufactures are falling in international markets. Authorities in the industrial countries must nonetheless continue to be alert. Several downside risks still remain, and current policies may prove insufficient to prevent the world economy from slipping into recession. Expansionary fiscal policies may be required in other industrial economies, in addition to Japan. It is also crucial that the rules of an open international trading system should operate smoothly, allowing the economies that face adjustment to reduce their deficits or generate trade surpluses with the more vigorous industrial economies.
Japan ranks as the third largest economy in the world as of 2010. The GDP at current prices in US dollars in Japan was reported at 5068.06 billion in 2009, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Japan’s resurgence after World War II has however reached an inflection point in yearly 1989 after the burst of Japan’s asset price and real estate bubbles. As can be seen from the graph below, Japan’s GDP has hovered around the same level through more than 20 years of economic stagnation. The GDP’s slow growth has been exacerbated by the world financial crisis of 2008. A major landmark of Japan’s stagnation has been the BOJ’s fight against deflation.
The deregulation of financial markets catalysed by Globalisation worldwide has impacted on the amount of trade within the Japanese economy beneficially allowing easier access to foreign currencies, facilitating a higher flow of goods between nation, by relaxing laws that severely prevented foreign buying of currency, and floating the yen. These drivers have helped boost Japan's trade and recovery from its recession. Technology has allowed finances to be traded and communication to be near to instantaneous. This has increased dramatically the amount of FDI into Japan largely thanks to the numerous strategies the Japanese government has taken to promote economic growth and hence development. Finance and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) have increased as a direct result of globalisation doubling from $63 billion in 2001 to $144 billion in
In September 2008, thousands of financial sectors all over the world went bankrupt like dominoes after the failure of Lehman Brothers Bank, which is also known as the Financial Crisis of 2008, caused the severe recession of the economies around the world. In order to help the country out of crisis, the central banks in different countries had to take measures to stimulate the growth of economy. The goal of this essay is to introduce the measures that Bank of England have taken in 2008 of financial crisis and will discuss the macroeconomics consequences and effects. Three measures taken by Bank of England will be presented in first section and how macroeconomics outcomes influenced by policies and objectives will be discussed in the second section.
| Advocates of active monetary and fiscal policy view the economy as inherently unstable and believe that policy can manage aggregate demand, and thereby, production and employment, to offset the inherent instability. When aggregate demand is inadequate to ensure full employment, policymakers should boost government spending, cut taxes, and expand money supply. However, when aggregate demand is excessive, risking higher inflation, policymakers should cut government spending, raise taxes, and reduce the money supply. Such policy actions put
In this way, the Fed manages price inflation in the economy. So bonds affect the U.S. economy by determining interest rates. This affects the amount of liquidity. This determines how easy or difficult it is to buy things on credit, take out loans for cars, houses or education, and expand businesses. In other words, bonds affect everything in the economy. Treasury bonds impact the economy by providing extra spending money for the government and consumers. This is because Treasury bonds are essentially a loan to the government that is usually purchased by domestic consumers. However, for a variety of reasons, foreign governments have been purchasing a larger percentage of Treasury bonds, in effect providing the U.S. government with a loan. This allows the government to spend more, which stimulates the economy. Treasury bonds also help the consumer. When there is a great demand for bonds, it lowers the interest rate.