Guidelines to answering these questions:
Students usually want to know what the appropriate number of words for TDA postings is. To maximize readership, shorter focused posts and responses are much preferred over long involved ones. Since we want to focus on applying the Economic terms and concepts in each of our posts, we should try to zero in on one term or concept per post and provide examples from our own experiences or selected information for a credible source. 

However, short 1 sentence posts are not useful either. A good technique is to always provide an example of your own from your work or home life.

** Always use, at least, 1 Economic term from the text, weekly key terms, Lecture or Live Lecture in each post to earn higher quality points.

Opinions supported by data from reliable sources are welcome.

Please remember that only 20% of your post can be copied from a source, even when correctly cited. Be sure to ALWAYS provide, at least, the URL for your source. This means copy and pasted posts from a source need be accompanied by 80% of your own words and you must have citations. If you aren’t using the Economic terms in your posts, you are losing points.
Questions to be answered:

1. People behave in ways that maximize their satisfaction or their benefits and minimize their dissatisfaction or their costs. Let’s see how these concepts apply to us as individuals at work or at home. Do you want to cook at home or eat out? Don’t forget to relate ‘CELL’ to your

cooking example. See how ‘CELL’ (See the Lecture) and ‘Opportunity Cost’ apply to your dining choices. All countries, even rich countries, face

the issue of scarcity at some point and very often we read or hear that scarcity is the central fact of economics. What does scarcity mean? What

are some choices that the United States has made recently in times of scarcity, and what are the opportunity costs? Based on your research what

is the difference between the marginal rate of transformation and the slope of the production possibility curve? Explain your view

2. A market economy relies upon the self-interested behavior of people trading goods and services in markets in order to determine what to

produce, how to produce, and how to distribute these products. Economic models focus on the selfish side of human behavior as the best way to

bring about an efficient use of resources. What is efficient may not, however, seem "fair." We live in a mixed economy. Is the U.S.

economy a Mixed Economy? Let’s look at the following scenario: In a socialist command economy is it accurate to say that the government is likely

to use resources inefficiently because planners are unable to gather and process all the information they require? Explain your view. If you look

at the law of Demand and based on your research and readings why do the prices and the quantity demanded move in the opposite direction? Explain

your view.

3. Using the TCO 2, analyze the demand and supply for the housing, gasoline, and other products. Can you describe the Demand and Supply factors?

HINT: ‘T-I-P-E-N’ and ‘P-R-E-S-T’. Describe how ‘T-I-P-E-N’ and ‘P-R-E-S-T’ change the housing? Suppose that due to a severe drought the demand

of rice increases drastically. Based on your research what will happen to the equilibrium price? What will happen to the equilibrium quantity?

Explain your view. As you know to make a new tablet you need various components (such as Li-ion Polymer batteries, touch screens etc.) and

recently you realize that the price of the components that go into a tablet have dropped significantly. Based on your research is it accurate to

say that the supply curve for tablets shifts to the right? Explain your view.

4. In the economic recession rising prices of all products from milk to eggs to health insurance premiums are financially hurting the families.

Thinking of a product that you recently purchased if the prices of that product continue to increases, how would this affects the quantity of the

good that you consume? As you know companies advertise their products through various platforms to try to attract and win new consumers. They

always try to differentiate their products with the competition by running unique advertising campaign. Based on your research does a successful

advertising campaign tend to make price elasticity of demand lower or higher? Explain your view. As we continue our review of this week concept

of price elasticity, suppose that you have a perfectly price-elastic demand, based on your readings will you say it is consistent with a

horizontal demand curve? Explain your view.

5. This week we examine the things businesses need to know about business costs and profit maximizing or, in a worse case, loss minimizing. In

the process, we create a supply curve. Why are the Average Cost Curves U-shaped? Building on this week topics and based on your research is it

accurate to say that the short-run average total cost (ATC) curve of a firm will tend to be U-shaped because at low levels of output, AFC will be

high, while at high levels of output, MC will be high as the result of diminishing returns. Explain your view. Let?s turn our attention to

another aspect to factor in around shutting down or staying open. Do you agree with the following statement? The average variable costs rise is

due to the following economic concept: diminishing returns, economies of scale, and diseconomies of scale. Explain your view with an example for

each scenario.

6. There are four types of market structures: Monopoly, monopolistic competition, pure competition, ol-i-gop-o-ly–Give examples of these things

and how do they impact markets, firms and you, as a consumer and/or as a business person? Looking at one in particular – oligopoly and based on

your research what are the barriers to entry into an oligopolistic industry? Explain your view and give an example of such scenario. As you can

imagine there is minimum competition if not at all with the cable companies in some areas of the country. If we turn our attention to another

industry the pharmaceutical industry, do the major pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. have pricing power? Explain why and/or why not?

7. Go to the Bureau of Economic Analysis website, www.bea.gov, and access the BEA interactively by selecting "National Accounts" and

then "National Income and Product Account Tables." Select "Frequently Requested NIPA Tables," and find Table 1.1.1 on GDP

(link: https://www.bea.gov/iTable/iTable.cfm?ReqID=9&step=1#reqid=9&step=3&isuri=1&903=1). Examine the trend over the past few

years. What trends interest you? Looking further on those concepts, is it accurate to state that you can find the GDP either by adding up total

expenditures on U.S. production or by adding the incomes received by U.S. citizens? Explain your thoughts. As you know government Purchases (G)

is a component of GDP, but not all government purchases get added to GDP. Which components are included and which are left out of GDP

calculations? Explain why?

8. In this second thread we will tackle a very interesting and current subject: Inflation and Unemployment. Go to the Bureau of Labor Statistics

website, www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.toc.htm, and click on "Employment Situation Summary" to get the most up-to-date summary of

unemployment in the U.S. or the "Employment Situation Summary Table A. Household data, seasonally adjusted." What interests or

surprises you about the summary table? Based on your research and readings is it accurate to say that when unemployment is below the natural

rate, there are pressure on wages and risk of rising prices due to a very unusually tight labor market? Explain your view. By definition

structural unemployment is not the lack of demand by the change in demand patterns or an advance in technology. If you are structurally

unemployed, do you expect that your job will come back? Explain your thoughts.

9. This week in our first discussion thread we examine the concept of aggregate demand and aggregate supply. Go to the BEA website www.bea.gov.

Select National Tab, go to the Interactive Data Tables. Select National Income and Product Accounts. From Table 1.1.6 and 1.1.7 examine all four

components of GDP (C, I, G, and Xn). Which of these four components of AD declined the most during the 2007 and 2009 recession? Building on some

this week concepts and based on your research do you think that an increase in government’s spending (G) can boost the Aggregate Demand (AD) in

the recession? Explain. Let?s look at the following scenario: suppose that you have an adverse supply shock, for example a large increase in oil

prices, what are some of the consequences on the aggregate supply curve? Explain your view.

10. In this second discussion thread we are going to look at the fiscal policy concept. Give an example of an event or incident that has taken

place in the U.S. economy which has a major economic impact–be specific, e.g., rise or fall in oil prices due to OPEC policies, consumer

optimism or pessimism about an expected economic expansion or downturn, increase in government spending on healthcare, tightening of the legal

and institutional environment, and so forth. What effect would this event have on AD or AS, other things being constant? Let’s look at the

following: a discretionary fiscal policy implemented by the government works by shifting the short-run aggregate supply curve. Do you agree with

that statement? Explain why or why not? If you look at the President Kennedy tax cut plan of 1964 do you agree that the plan was the driver of an

increased in investment, consumption, and employment? Explain your view.

11. In this first discussion thread we will tackle the most recent financial crisis and examine some of the causes and consequences on the

economy. For starter, what factors let to the mortgage default crisis?
We have heard a lot of theories for the recession and one of them is the housing market bust. One of the reasons presented that caused this

housing bust was the subprime loans made to individual that could not afford it in the first place. Having said that based on your research how

did the subprime mortgage crisis hurt the credit market? Explain your view. Check out this interesting website:

https://graphicsweb.wsj.com/documents/Failed-US-Banks.html. As you know banks have been "going under" in the last few years at a faster

rate than before due to the financial crisis. I am sure that in each one of the states you can easily found few banks that are no longer in

existence. Based on your research what is the cost to the FDIC of these failures? Explain your view.

12. In this second discussion thread we are going to look at the role of the FED. Explain what the Federal Reserve (Fed) is all about? Based on

your research what measures were taken by the Federal Reserve to counteract the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008? Explain your view thoroughly.

As you know one of the roles of the federal reserve is maintain price stability and keeping the economy moving at a certain pace. Based on your

research what are the consequences of an economy going to fast or going to slow? Explain your thoughts for each scenario.