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Tracking America's Economy seeks to help students and general readers interpret current trends in the major macroeconomic statistical indicators of the US economy. The book contains descriptions of the statistics, how they are derived, and patterns since the end of World War II.

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• Tables and Figures
• Preface
• 1 Attributes of Economic Indicators
• Business Cycles:
• Determining Business Cycle Phases
• Delays in Designating Cyclical Turning Points
• Business Cycles and Economic Growth
• Changing Characteristics of Business Cycles Since the Nineteenth Century
• Seasonality:
• Extraordinary Events
• Index Numbers
• Data Accuracy:
• Revisions; Sampling Reliability
• Calculating and Presenting Growth Rates:
• Annualized and Annual Movements
• Long-term Growth Rates
• Charting Data Graphically
• Price-Adjusted Dollars
• The Underground Economy
• Distinctions Among "Goods," "Services," and "Structures"
• The Production of Economic Statistics
• Data Integrity:
• Executive Branch
• Credibility of Economic Data and Economic-Related Data Questioned
• Congressional Budget Office
• Review Questions
• Notes
• 2 Framework for Macroeconomic Analysis and Policies
• Analytic System:
• Okun's Law and the NAIRU
• Unemployment vs. Inflation: Phillips Curve
• Fiscal, Monetary, and Incomes Policies:
• Fiscal Policy
• Monetary Policy
• Interaction of Fiscal Policy and Monetary Policy
• Humphrey-Hawkins Act Unemployment and Inflation Goals
• Incomes Policies
• Review Questions:
• Extra Credit
• Notes
• 3 Economic Growth
• GDP Methodology:
• Meaning of Production
• Real GDP and Price Change
• Government Budgets
• selected Technical Topics
• Evaluation of Reliability
• Net Exports
• Valuation Adjustments for Inventories and Depreciation
• Analysis of Trends:
• Trends Before and After World War II
• Overall Cyclical Movements
• Alternative GDP Measures of Economic Growth
• Supply Perspective of Economic Growth
• Manufacturing and Economic Growth
• Assessment of Economic Growth in the First Decade of the 21st Century:
• Collapse of the Telecommunications Companies
• Nature of the 2001 Recession
• Need for American-Made New and Existing Products
• Federal Reserve Policies Preceding the 2001 Recession
• Terrorist Attacks, Iraq War, and SARS
• Supply Perspective of Economic Growth
• Federal, State, and Local Finances
• An Action Plan:
• Reclaiming American Manufacturing
• U.S. Support of International Labor Standards
• Federal Grants-in-Aid to State and Local Governments
• Limit Federal Deficits
• Review Questions:
• Extra Credit
• Notes
• 4 Household Income, Saving and Expenditures
• Methodology:
• Personal Income
• Household Purchasing Power
• Alternative Personal Saving Measures
• Financing Personal Outlays
• Nonmarket Imputations in Consumer Expenditures
• Analysis of Trends:
• Shifts in Importance of Consumer Expenditure Components
• Volatility of Consumer Durable Goods Spending
• Personal Income
• Personal Saving
• Wealth Effect
• Tax Rebate of 2001
• Consumer Credit and Debt Consumer Optimism and Pessimism Opinion Surveys
• Review Questions:
• Extra Credit
• Notes
• 5 Business Profits, Nonresidential Investment, and Housing GDP, Nonresidential Investment, and Business Profits:
• Role of Profits
• GDP and Profits versus Nonresidential Investment
• Capacity Utilization and Nonresidential Investment
• Orders for Nondefense Capital Equipment
• The Age of Structures and Equipment
• Reclaiming American Manufacturing
• Housing:
• Cyclical Behavior of Residential Investment
• Secondary Spending Impact of Home Purchases
• New Housing Demand
• Review Questions:
• Extra Credit
• Notes
• 6 Government
• Budget Aggregates and Components:
• Government Expenditures
• Government Receipts
• Budget Surpluses and Deficits
• Government Debt
• Expenditure Components
• Receipts Components
• Prospects for Government Surplus/Deficit Position in the Mid-2000s:
• Federal Government
• Problem of Non-Payment of Federal Income Taxes
• State and Local Governments
• Fiscal Policy Initiatives to Stimulate Economic Growth
• Taxes and Work Effort
• Review Questions:
• Extra Credit
• Notes
• 7 The United States in the World Economy
• International Transactions Methodology:
• Goods and Services
• Investment Income
• Demand for Exports and Imports
• Value of the U.S. Dollar:
• Purchasing Power Parity
• Actual Value of the Dollar Measures
• Globalization of Production:
• Domestic Content
• Goods, Services, and Income Balances:
• Ownership-Based Foreign Trade Data
• Investment Position of the United States
• Sustainability of Deficits and Debtor Status in the Balance of Payments:
• A Definition of Sustainability
• Factors Affecting Sustainability
• Review Questions:
• Extra Credit
• Notes
• 8 Employment, Worker Income, and Employer Costs
• Employment:
• Methodology of the Two Employment Surveys
• Establishment Survey
• Household Survey
• Overall Comparison of the Two Surveys
• Analysis of Employment Trends:
• Monthly Volatility
• Jobless Recoveries of 1991-92 and 2002-03
• Labor Force Participation Rate and the Employment/Population Ratio
• Worker Income:
• Union and Nonunion Workers
• Employer Costs
• Review Questions:
• Extra Credit
• Notes
• 9 Unemployment
• Unemployment Data
• Methodology of Measuring Unemployment:
• Determination of Unemployment
• Sampling Error
• Alternative Measures of Labor Underutilization
• Analysis of Trends:
• Demographic Changes Affecting the Labor Force and Unemployment
• Long-term Population and Labor Force Movements
• Effect of Changing Demographics on the UR
• Matching the Unemployed with Job Openings
• Impact of Cyclical Movements on the Labor Force and Unemployment
• Unemployment Goals
• Unemployment Insurance:
• UI Data on Unemployment
• Effect of UI in Moderating Recessions
• Review Questions:
• Extra Credit
• Notes
• 10 Productivity
• Methodology of Measuring Productivity:
• Labor-Hour Productivity: Business Sector
• Multifactor Productivity: Business Sector
• Note on the Accuracy of Productivity Statistics
• Analysis of Trends:
• Long-Term Movements
• Returns to Scale
• The Productivity Rebound
• Cyclical Movements
• Effect on Productivity of Private Industry Spending to Combat Terrorism
• Productivity and Price Change
• Review Questions:
• Extra Credit
• Notes
• 11 Inflation and Deflation
• Definitions:
• Price and Wage Expectations
• Differences Between Goods and Services Attributes of the CPI
• Development of a Cost-of-Living Index
• CPI Methodology:
• Structure of the CPI
• General Attributes of the CPI
• Development of a Cost-of-Living Index
• Analysis of Trends:
• Relative Movements of the C-CPI-U and the CPI-U
• Core Price Change
• Commodities versus Services
• Domestic Price Change and Imports
• Concern About Deflation: Common Stock and Housing Asset Prices and the CPI
• Deflation and the Economy
• Inflation and Capacity Utilization:
• Capacity Utilization Methodology
• Trends in the Capacity Utilization and Inflation Relationship
• Review Questions:
• Extra Credit
• Notes
• 12 Finance
• Implementing Monetary Policies:
• Passive Role of the Money Supply
• Interest Rates:
• Intuitive Theoretical Relationships
• Real Interest Rates and Economic Growth
• Relationship of the Federal Budget and Federal Debt Positions to Interest Rates
• Inflation and Interest Rates
• Short-Term Interest Rate and Economic Growth
• Yield Curves
• The Stock Market:
• Stock Market Trends
• Implications of the 2000-02 Stock Market Decline
• Relationship of the Stock Market to the Economy
• Appendix: Federal Reserve Organization and Independence
• Review Questions:
• Extra Credit
• Notes
• 13 Leading Indicator System
• Overview
• The Process of Cyclical Change:
• Duration of Cyclical Expansions and Recessions
• Endogenous Nature of the Indicator System
• External Shocks
• Imbalances
• The Primary Role of Profits:
• Rationale for the Components of the Three Composite Indexes
• Limitation for Forecasting:
• Improving the Real-Time Data
• Calculation of the Composite Indexes:
• Inversion of Unemployment Indicators
• Assessments of the Leading Indicator System:
• Cyclical Movements
• Coincident/Lagging Ratio
• False Signals Probability of Future Recessions: Experimental Indexes
• Review Questions:
• Extra Credit
• Notes
• 14 Noneconomic Intangibles
• Review Question
• References
• Index

Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Every day, government and private sources make a bewildering array of data available on GNP, industrial production, capacity utilization, money supply, productivity, and CPI. Most people do not understand what these indicators signify nor how they relate to each other, and textbooks usually deal with these concepts only in passing. Frumkin explains in lay language the main characteristics of the indicators and their uses. His book is jargon-free and serves as a good introduction to a complex subject. Recommended for academic and public libraries. M. Balachandran, Univ. of Illinois Lib., Urbana-Champaign (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

This third edition (1st ed., CH, Jun'90), much revised in substance and organization, is perhaps unique in providing a panoply of facts and figures that bear on US economic growth, business cycle fluctuations, incomes, and productivity. A veteran of the US Department of Commerce dealing with the major public and private economic movements that affect overall economic performance, Frumkin provides a pragmatic approach to the understanding of economic indicators that are essential to the economic analyst and forecaster. Major macroeconomic indicators are discussed in terms of origins, concepts, and applicability. There are few comparable books written for economists in this area that explain and elucidate in such a comprehensible fashion economic constructs such as core inflation, the gross domestic product, the Phillips curve, etc., constructs frequently noted in the media. This is a work that economic forecasters will find of considerable value, as will marginal users of macroeconomic data. Upper-division undergraduate through professional collections. H. I. Liebling; Lafayette College