Chapter 32 Blog Post

Chapter 32 begins to trace back on the topics that we have covered in the past. You can tell that the book is now finally coming to an end because the book is now summarizing an cross interpreting topics we have already covered. For example the chapter 26's loan-able markets concept and chapter 31's export and imports. This being the case, I felt as though I could easily get this chapter since this was a stuff we have already talked about it to an extent.

I think that the only thing that made this chapter a little more difficult than the rest of the chapters was the implementation of the supply and the demand curve. This is the much more different than the supply curve shown in the previous chapter so this completely messed me up. After trying so hard to grasp the curves and the logic behind them, I feel that this is contradicting them and this ultimately will mess me up during the ap free response testing.

Chapter 30 Blog Spot

This chapter touches on the topic of inflation. This is pretty appropriate in my opinion because we've just talked about the distribution of money and how the supply can increase or decreased based on different events. Given previous history classes I already associated excess money distribution with rising money levels and ultimately inflation. In this chapter however we learned about inflation in a different matter. The quantity theory of money finally made the idea that more money leads to inflation a real things (or at least a valid thought).

Despite understanding this chapter pretty well, the end kind of tripped me up ( which I suppose is pretty common at this point). I don't quite understand the point of classical dichotomy and why it is so important. I understand what it is, but not so much why it exists. Other than that I do understand monetary neutrality and actually find the idea of velocity of money quite interesting. I would have never guessed that there was an ounce of physics ideology in economics. Regardless it did help understand the concept a little more, as I do better on a more mathematically heavy topic. It also quite interesting that we try to figure out how quickly money will travel through the economy.

Finally I don't quite understand the idea of increasing revenue through inflation tax. Since the price level is increasing wouldn't the money really just be the same unless the government were able to immediately decrease the price level after collecting the tax?

Chapter 29 Blog Spot

This chapter begins to discuss the true definition of money and its actual importance in the financial system today. This chapter explains that money is essentially what helps us efficiently exchange items of variable values. Opposed to just assuming what's of equal trade value for everything, it is stated that money helps establish a measurement so that everyone is getting a fair trade. It also talks about how rare it is for two specific traders to want what the other has to offer. To avoid searching for items that hold equal importance, it's best that currency exists. This was a pretty simple concept, because this is stuff that I have witnessed. Despite not having though of it to this extent, I think that this only helped my understanding of the purpose of money.

The second part of the chapter talks about money's cycle through institutions such as banks and Federal Reserve Banks. I found this to be interesting as, I never quite realized that banks relied on another "intermediary" when providing money. I found all of that dandy, however struggled to understand the money multiplier and fractional reserve banking stuff. Hopefully that is explained in great detail in class, so that I will be solid for the next test.

Chapter 28 Blog Post

This chapter covers the topic of unemployed. Despite the common knowledge that there is a work force and people can choose to be in or out of it, not many people know what necessarily constitutes being in or out of the work force. This chapter uncovers all of the truths behind unemployment and the many different factors that are taken into consideration to qualify for unemployment aid (money from the government). From tis we also discussed the many different ways that people try to cheat the system such as faking attempt to get a real job, or getting paid under the table. This brings up many debatable topics but for the purposes of keeping the chapter concise they keep the controversy to a minimum.

I think that this chapter was not very difficult to understand. This is something that many of us in the class are familiar with, (the concept, to the situation). I think that the reading was pretty straight forward, however I know that this, much like all of Econ, will be hard to comprehend on a test. I hope to finally be able to go in during my free periods (3rd and 4th) to receive assistance so that my grade doesn't drop soon in the second semester.