Final Project

During this semester we have discussed the ongoing debate in economics and in society about whether the economy is a self-regulating system that is best left alone, or if we need centralized control and management to make things work well. Now it is your turn to jump into that debate. Create a slideshow presentation that argues both sides of one of the following topics:

1. The U.S. economy would be stronger if the Federal Reserve Bank had never been created.

2. No lessons have been learned from the Great Recession.

3. Gross National Happiness would be a better way to measure how the U.S. economy is performing than Gross Domestic Product. (See this article for background https://ophi.org.uk/policy/national-policy/gross-national-happiness-index/ (Links to an external site.))

Within your slides you need to include at least two macroeconomic concepts covered in class or in the text. For example, but not limited to: absolute & comparative advantage related to trade, movements/shifts in supply or demand, different approaches to measuring GDP, productivity, convergence, growth or monetary public policy, the multiplier effect, marginal propensity to consume, fractional reserve system.

You also need to include two examples of an artists work (e.g. song lyrics, poem, book excerpt) to illustrate your arguments. They can be two separate artists.

Note: You will not be penalized for having more than six slides if you need extra to make your argument.

Example:
Say you choose to write on 2. No lessons have been learned from the Great Recession.

Slide 1: Introduce your topic.

Slide 2: Argue in favor of this statement. You will use a macroeconomic concept to illustrate why the statement is true, e.g. when people hear that banks are in danger of failing, a ‘run on the bank’ will occur because people will want to get their own money out and will ignore the fact that if they all left their money in the bank it would be potentially much better for everyone. The fractional reserve system operates in such a way that banks are unable to pay back everyone who has money deposited at the same time because they have loaned most of it out.

Slide 3: Illustrate your point through referencing an artists work.

Slide 4: As for slide 2, but argue against the statement.

Slide 5: As for slide 3.

Slide 6: Conclusion – state which side is more likely to be valid and why.

Since these are presentation slides, you will be making brief statements in your arguments. Make sure your statements are clear and to the point, so there is no doubt of what you mean to say. Again, don’t limit yourself to six slides unnecessarily. If you need a couple more, use them.