Swamped with your writing assignments? Take the weight off your shoulder!
Submit your assignment instructions
Instructions:
Students — The discussion boards to which you will contribute will be found on this page. Please scroll down to view it. Click the “Post Subject” link for the discussion board to add a posting.
Please make sure you have read, thoroughly understand, and follow the instructions for the Discussion Boards.
The purpose of the Discussion Boards is for students to be actively involved in raising the overall level of economic understanding and, in the process, to be contributing to everyone’s success (including their own) in the class.
Each of the two Discussion Boards will relate to an economic problem or area of discussion from the topics of the corresponding Learning Units.
Your participation in each of the discussion boards will be graded based upon your response to each of the original postings as well as replies to other participants’ postings. A quality response is one that relates a concept in the lesson to “real life events” (current events, historical events, your personal experience, etc.) or relates a concept in the present lessons being studied to a concept in previous lessons. A quality response is one that is well thought-out in relation to the question and contributes in a legitimate way to the level of economic understanding in the class.
When replying to other students’ postings, avoid simple replies like “I agree…” or simply “yes or no”, without explaining your reasoning. Tell why you hold a certain opinion or why you agree or disagree with the points in the posting. Try to make your dialogue easy to follow. If you are replying to a comment, include the comment to clarify your point. If you are asked a question, please respond. Be sensitive and respectful and always appropriate with your comments.
There is no specific length required for your postings, but please keep in mind that each discussion board is worth 105 points, so I will be looking for well-thought-out responses, responses to all parts of the posted topics, a correct understanding and interpretation of the material covered in this class, and thoughtful replies to other students’ postings.
Topic
For fiscal year 2021, the U.S. federal deficit was approximately $2.8 trillion, nearly TRIPLE the deficit of 2019, and the national debt grew to over $29 trillion. A majority of the increases in both figures were a result of the economic disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the responding legislation that was enacted. (You can find real-time numbers for the deficit, debt, and much more at www.usdebtclock.org.)
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects federal deficits as a percentage of GDP to increase through 2030. Currently, the federal debt held by the public is around 98% of GDP, with the CBO projecting that to rise to 108% by 2031, which would be a record high.
• What is the difference between the federal deficit and the national debt? How is the federal deficit related to the national debt?
• What are the economic consequences of a rising federal deficit and national debt?
• Should we be concerned about the sizes (and projected increases) of the deficit and debt? Why or why not?
• Who exactly do we owe this money to (be specific!), and does this make a difference in terms of our level of concern?
• What can the government do to reduce the deficit numbers? Be specific, explaining how the numbers would be reduced, and if the government actually should use these methods of deficit reduction.
