The Politics of Boom essays

The Politics of Boom essays The Economist published an article on September 30, 2000 entitled The Politics of Boom. This article brings up several issues that we have discussed in Economics 103 this semester. The article discusses the presidential election and both candidates positions on some of the major issues dealing with the economy. Mainly, the article centers around the federal budget This years presidential election is being fought against the backdrop of an unprecedented economic boom. One component of this statement is the unemployment rate at about 4%, which is close to historic lows. In class, we learned that the different types of unemployment are frictional (when people quit work to seek more attractive employment), structural (resulting from technology or geography), and cyclical (associated with the downturn and recession phases of the business cycle). Also there are underemployed workers who are working at jobs that do not utilize their productive talents or experience, and discouraged workers who have given up looking for work after facing many rejections. The labor force is used in determining the unemployment rate. Those not included in the labor force are students, retirees, stay at-home parents, people under sixteen years old and people who are institutionalized. To find the unemployment rate you take the number of workers (labor force) and subtract discouraged workers. Then you divide the rest of the unemployed by that number. The natural rate of unemployment (NAIRU- non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment) is the rate that is consistent with the rate of inflation. Also a part of the quotation in paragraph two, is that inflation is still tame, though it is inching upward. Inflation is defined as an increase in the price level. Problems with inflation are distributional effects, transfer payments ...