US Economy Expansion Essays - National Accounts, Consumer Behaviour

US Economy Expansion The million (or should we say 'billion' now) dollar question is whether or not the United States' economy will stay in it's record 107 month expansion (according to the index of leading indicators) or come out of the boom and take a downturn into a recession. Nobody, including the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan has a crystal ball to provide insight as to what will happen if interest rates are raised, lowered, or left alone. However, Economists have developed a set of indicators to aid in predicting when a recession is about to occur and when the economy is in one. Indicators should not be mistaken for predictors. They are simply forecasting tools, and like any forecast can be misleading. The index of leading indicators that is reported in the popular press shows our economy is still in an expansion. For the purposes of our evaluation of the economy, we chose the Principle Economic Indicators tracked by the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the U.S. Census Bureau under the Economics and Statistics Administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce. There are thirteen Principle Economic Indicators, and they fall into five major categories: National Output and Income; Orders, Sectoral Production, and Inventories; Consumer Spending; Housing and Construction; and Foreign Trade. National Output and Income The first of the five major categories directly relates to measuring the growth of the U.S. economy. National Output and Income consists of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Personal Income, and Corporate Profits measurements. GDP is the primary measurement of growth and measures the total amount of goods and services produced by governments, businesses, people, and property located within the United States. Both real (adjusted for inflation) and nominal (current value in dollars) data is collected for computing the GDP. The base year for the real data is 1997. The GDP is normally reported as an annualized quarter-to-quarter change. The reason this measurement is vital to tracking the growth of the U.S. economy is self-explanatory. When the economy is growing, both total income and total output are increasing. Furthermore, a steady increase in the GDP is healthy for the economy. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. economic output has grown at an annual rate of 2.5 to 3.5 percent since 1890. The preliminary estimate of GDP in the fourth quarter of 1999 rose at a 6.9 percent annual rate, which is the strongest gain since a similar increase in mid-1996. This is an increase from the initial estimate of 5.8 percent and is consistent with the expectations of analysts. It is also a reflection of the widespread upward increases among the major spending components, including consumer spending, goods exported, and state and local government spending. In the third quarter of 1999, GDP rose 5.7% as a result of increases in Personal Consumption Expenditures, nonresidential fixed investment, and exports. Personal Income is a measurement of total pretax income earned by individuals, non-profit organizations, and private trust funds. It is expressed at an annual rate also. The more Personal Income increases the greater the potential for the American people to spend and save money, which directly influences the growth of the U.S. economy. Personal Income rose .7 percent in January, following an increase of .3 percent in December. The average monthly increases in 1999 were .5 percent. Some extenuating factors affected income in recent months, including cost of living increases in federal transfer payments, a federal pay raise, and agricultural subsidy payments in January. Real disposable income, income after taxes and adjusted for price changes, increased by .7 percent. There was no change in December. The individual personal saving rate rose from 1 percent in December, which was its low, to 1.4 percent in January. Savings rates generally go down in the months October through May due to Holiday spending (includes "paying off" credit cards). There are two methods in which Corporate Profits are reported by the government. "Tax-based" profits are derived from corporate tax returns, and "adjusted" profits reflect earnings from current production. Just as increases in Personal Income are vital to the growth of the U.S economy, increases in Corporate Profits are just as important on an even larger scale. The greater the profits, the more potential for growth. This in turn has a direct effect on employment rates, spending, etc. Profits reported from current production increased $3.7 billion in the third quarter of 1999. This is a dramatic improvement from a decrease of $6.5 billion in the second quarter. Profits would have been about $10 billion more than they were in the third quarter

Nothing Exists Beyond Existence Itself essays

Nothing Exists Beyond Existence Itself essays Existentialism gets its name from an insistence that human life is understandable only in terms of an individual persons existence, his or her particular experience of life (Bigelow 1). Portions of Fyodor Dostoyevskys Crime and Punishment and Albert Camuss The Stranger signify segments of existential beliefs. Dostoevskys subtle approach towards existential philosophies and Camuss more forthright attitude, while very different in most respects, share a few likenesses as well. There exists a theme of intense alienation in Crime and Punishment that remains constant throughout the novel. The alienation begins when Raskolnikov separates himself from society because he sees his views and ideals as far superior to the rest of societys. He separates himself emotionally from his family and, despite how much his mother loves him, only uses them for their money. Raskolnikov further alienates himself and falls into a somewhat delirious paranoia after committing the murder of Alyona and her sister. The reader sees Raskolnikov as an outsider through the very end of the novel Even while he finds himself imprisoned in Siberia, a place set aside specifically for the outsiders of this world, a terrible impossible gulf [lies] between him and all the rest [of the prisoners]. They [seem] to be a different species, and he [looks] at them and they at him with distrust and hostility (Dostoevsky 516). In Six Steps of Existentialism, Gordon Bigelow names alienation and estrange ment as one of the six doctrines of Existentialism, therefore existentialism becomes, in a certain respect, a main idea of Crime and Punishment. The existential world that Raskolnikov falls into by the end of the novel scares him; mere existence [has] always been too small for him; he [has] always wanted something bigger (Dostoevsky 515). The number one step of existentialism, as outlin...

Understanding the Biochemistry of BSE Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Understanding the Biochemistry of BSE - Essay Example Amino acids involved include Alanine, Valine and Leucine (Branden & Tooze, 1999). Hydrogen Bonds: Hydrogen bonds are formed when a hydrogen is shared by two partially charged atoms of an amino acid side chain. An example is interaction between the Aspartate and Serine; Oxygen in Asp carries a partial negative charge and Hydrogen in Serine carries a partial positive charge. The two interact forming a hydrogen bond (Branden & Tooze, 1999). Ionic Bonds: Ionic bonds are formed among polar side chains of amino acids. Opposite (Negative and Positive) charges interact to form an ionic bond. An example is interaction between positively charged Arginine and negatively charged Glutamate to form an ionic bond (Branden & Tooze, 1999). Chaperone proteins bind to newly synthesized protein and ensure that the newly synthesized protein is properly folded into its anticipated structure. In Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, the prion PrPSc (Prion protein Scrapie Associated) acts as the chaperone for normal cellular protein PrPC (MeganSimmer, 2006). As a chaperone, PrPSc binds to newly synthesized cellular protein PrPC and induces folding. The ÃŽ ±-helical PrPC is misfolded into an abnormal ÃŽ ²-pleated sheet conformation PrPSc. This new conformation is lethal and the known cause of neurodegenerative Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy or Mad Cow Disease (Hargrove, 2010). Compared to other chaperones, PrPSc induces conformational changes that yields a protein with a structure identical to itself. The resultant protein is disease causing in nature. Other chaperones, example Hsp60 and Hsp70 give off functional proteins of independent secondary and tertiary structure after proper folding (Branden & Tooze, 1999) (Hargrove, 2010). Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy or Mad cow disease is caused by misfolding of normal cellular prion PrPC. This misfold is induced by the disease causing prion PrPSc. Prions (abbreviation for ‘Proteinaceous