MACRO NOTES 9/11

macro- big view
micro- decisions of individuals-not only single person

3 main aspects of macro-
-economic growth
-long/short term
-unemployment
-unemployment during great recession- over 25%
-in europe, many countries- ~10% (double US rate)
-unemployment not 100% a bad thing, but still pretty shitty
-in Japan, when unemployment rose, people started killing themselves en masse
-unemployment up, bad social stresses go up
-inflation
-US inflation rates pretty decent- ~2%/year
-1970s- Ford talked about inflation as 'public enemy #1'- it was ~10%
-by worldwide standards, 10% is really really low (in some cases- preWWII germany, argentina, russia c.1990)
-zimbabwe world champion of inflation!!! they're #1!!
Paul Krugman- Economics professor at Princeton, writes for NY Times
-believes that even though aggregate SOLs are going up, the increases in GDP, etc, the major benefits are going to a very small portion of the economy (rich people)


GDP- basically a measure of a country's economic output
definition- Market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period of time
USA GDP 2004- lots of trillions
GDP ONLY includes final goods, not intermediate goods