EXCEL AND POWERPOINT RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT : DATA ANALYSIS PLEASE REFER TO PROMPT

Government Government Statistics  Sources  Debt Clock  FED Money Supply  CBO  OMB  Treasury Government Statistics Government Research Issues  Budget Deficit  Off -budget items can create discrepancies (USPS and GSEs)  National Debt  May not be analogous to household debt since fiscal policy necessitates spending inverse to the business cycle.  Some debt is intra -governmental (SSA & FED)  Raw value may be less important than percentage of GDP. Government Statistics Government Research Issues  Tax Burden  Progressive vs. Regressive with income (sales vs. income tax)  Payroll tax is split between employer/employee but the employer may pass burden onto employee in the form of a lower wage.  Excise taxes are imposed on businesses but they may be able to pass onto consumers in the form of higher prices.  Some groups are better able and more incentivized to avoid (or evade) taxes. Government Statistics Government Research Issues  Measuring Money  Money Supply: M1 & M2 categories.  Monetary Policy  By 1990s the FED stopped targeting the money supply.  Monetary expansion shows up in FED balance sheet.  Inflation Measurements: CPI  BLS creates a “Market Basket” to compute CPI monthly.  Annualized CPI?  CPI -U vs. CPI -W  May fail to account for:  Qualitative changes in products.  Substitution toward cheaper but similar products.  Cost of owning a home (post 1983 use rental value ) Government Statistics Government Research Issues  Military Expenditures  Overstated since it includes “nation building” expenditures.  Understated as some “defense” expenditures are excluded .  Economics of War  Direct costs understate true economic costs.  Assessing true cost -benefit of war requires counter -factual computations that are highly unreliable.  Wartime deaths estimates have a broad continuum.  Welfare Expenditures  Budget includes in -kind benefits such as health care, overstating actual money received by recipients.  Defining “welfare” is debatable:  Means tested transfer payments or benefits to all citizens?