HGov: Sick Around America – Day 2

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FRONTLINE travels the country examining the nation’s broken health care system and explores the need for a fundamental overhaul. Veteran FRONTLINE producer Jon Palfreman dissects the private insurance system, a system that not only fails to cover 46 million Americans but also leaves millions more underinsured and at risk of bankruptcy.

Chapter 3: More Pitfalls 
Unlike many large employers’ coverage, consumer-bought plans can be inadequate, unaffordable. Even worse, a policy suddenly can be rescinded.

Chapter 4: How to Get a Fairer System
How to Get a Fairer System? A start: Require everyone buy health insurance. But given the patchwork of private/public plans, some people completely fall through the cracks.

Chapter 5: Change is Coming
The insurance  industry is talking change, Massachusetts’ new program offers lessons, and Obama seeks universal coverage with reduced medical costs.

Econ: Banana Market – Day 2

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Learning Target: Explain how consumer demand and market price directly impact one another.

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The class will conduct rounds 4 & 5. In these rounds, government will implement price controls on the banana market. Students will continue playing their roles of buyers and sellers in a banana market. A sale is made when one buyer and one seller agree on a price with which they are both satisfied and are within the limits of the government’s price control. Sales must be in whole-dollar increments. After a sale is made, the students will record the price under “Actual Sale Price” on their score sheet. They will report the sale price to the Price Recorder and exchange their Buy or Sell Card for another card of the same type.

HGov: Sick Around America – Day 1

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More than 2.5 million Americans lost their jobs last year, and along with their livelihood, their health insurance. As the economy continues to spiral, the new administration promises to deliver comprehensive health care reform. Sick Around America lays bare the flaws in our system and examines the critical choices Americans face in changing a system that all sides agree needs a fundamental overhaul.

Chapter 1: We Were Incredibly Lucky Mark Murray’s family medical crisis was fully covered by the health plan provided by employer Microsoft. Millions of others aren’t so fortunate.

 

Chapter 2: Stories of a Broken System Medical bills bankrupt some. Others lose health coverage just when they need it most. And some people must seek jobs just for the health benefits.

Econ: Banana Market – Day 1

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Learning Target: Explain how consumer demand and market price directly impact one another.

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Students will be playing the role of buyers and sellers in a banana market. Buyers and sellers will meet in the marketplace to buy and sell bananas. A sale is made when one buyer and one seller agree on a price with which they are both satisfied. Sales must be in whole-dollar increments. After a sale is made, the students will record the price under “Actual Sale Price” on their score sheet. They will report the sale price to the Price Recorder and exchange their Buy or Sell Card for another card of the same type.

After each round of buying and selling, students will return their Buy or Sell card to the teacher. Do not record any sales that were not reported to the teacher and the Price Recorder. Students will calculate their gains or losses for each sale and for the round on their score sheet. If they did not buy or sell during the round, record 0 as their total for the round. Review the price tally sheet and the distribution of prices for the round. Students should then plan their strategies for the next round.

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This website is intended to keep you informed about the various activities that are held in our Economics/Personal Finance and Government classrooms. Use this website to provide you with another tool to access assignments, handouts and worksheets, video lessons, view projects and due dates, and dates for tests and quizzes. We will introduce and examine various personal finance, economic, and government theories and concepts presented in class to expand our knowledge. In case of an absence from class, use this website to check on your assignments and what you should be working on before our next class.

Econ: Supply Demand and Equilibrium Review

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Learning Target: Explain how supply and demand represent economic activity.

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Review: Together supply and demand explain how prices are determined and how markets function. The price at which the quantity demanded equals the quantity supplied is the equilibrium price.

A market moves to a new equilibrium when there is a shift in either supply (STORES) or demand (TOESIS) which changes the equilibrium price and quantity.
Demand increases = price increases and quantity increases
Demand decreases = price decreases and quantity decreases
Supply increases = price decreases and quantity increases
Supply decreases = price increases and quantity decreases

Price floors and ceilings and how they affect the supply and demand graphs. Price floors and price ceilings are price controls, examples of government intervention in the free market which changes the market equilibrium. They each have reasons for using them, but there are large efficiency losses with both of them.

HGov: Executive Bureaucracy Review

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The responsibilities of the modern presidency far exceed any president’s personal capacities. To meet their obligations, presidents have surrounded themselves with large staffs of advisers, policy experts, and managers. These staff members enable the president to extend control over the executive branch while at the same time providing the information necessary for policymaking.

The bureaucracy is an inevitable consequence of complexity and scale. Modern government could not function without a large bureaucracy. Through authority, specialization, and rules, the bureaucracy provides a means of managing thousands of tasks and employees.

Bureaucrats naturally take an “agency point of view,” seeking to promote their agency’s programs and power. They do this through their expert knowledge, support from clientele groups, and backing by Congress or the president.

Although agencies are subject to oversight by the president, Congress, and the judiciary, bureaucrats exercise considerable power in their own right.

HGov: Fed and Monetary Policy

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The Fed has a number of monetary tools available to change the money supply and interest rates to affect real output, employment, and price levels.

Open market operations are the most frequently used tool of monetary policy because of their flexibility and immediate effects. Open market operations are the Fed’s purchases and sales of government bonds with member banks and the public. When the Fed buys bonds from a bank, it creates reserves in the bank’s deposit with the Fed, which the bank can then lend to customers. When the Fed buys bonds from the public, it puts a check in the hand of the consumer, who can deposit the funds in his bank. The two transactions are slightly different in effect, because the bank can loan the full excess reserves resulting from its sale of bonds to the Fed, but the bank must keep the required reserves from the customer’s deposit, leading to a smaller increase in the money supply. In either case, the Fed increases the money supply when it buys bonds, and it reduces the money supply when it sells bonds.

The reserve requirement is the most powerful tool of monetary policy, so it is only rarely used. A change in the percentage of deposits the banks must hold in reserve directly impacts the bank’s ability to increase loans and, therefore, the money multiplier. If the Fed increases the reserve requirement, banks cannot loan as much and the money supply falls. A reduction in the reserve requirement increases the potential growth of the money supply.

A third important tool of monetary policy is the discount rate, which is the interest rate the Fed charges member banks for loans. A reduction in the discount rate encourages banks to borrow from the Fed and, in turn, increase loans to their customers. As a result, the money supply increases. An increase in the discount rate discourages banks from borrowing from the Fed, reducing loans and the money supply.

Econ: Graphing Changes in Equilibrium

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Learning Target: Describe the factors that cause supply and demand to shift.

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A market moves to a new equilibrium when there is a shift in either supply (STORES) or demand (TOESIS) which changes the equilibrium price and quantity.
Demand increases = price increases and quantity increases
Demand decreases = price decreases and quantity decreases
Supply increases = price decreases and quantity increases
Supply decreases = price increases and quantity decreases

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Homework:
Quizizz Changes in Equilibrium

HGov: Functions of the Fed

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The Federal Reserve is the central bank of the United States and has three primary functions: financial services, supervision and regulation, and monetary policy.

The Federal Reserve Banks provide financial services to banks, credit unions, and savings and loans, much like those banks provide for their customers. These services include distributing and receiving cash and coin, collecting checks, and electronically transferring funds.

It’s up to the Fed to make sure there is enough money in circulation. Reserve Bank offices maintain cash and coin processing operations to accept deposits and distribute cash and coin to financial institutions. When cash and coin are deposited with the Reserve Banks, notes that are suspected of being counterfeit are separated from the rest and forwarded to the Secret Service. Notes that are too worn for recirculation are destroyed using a shredding machine. Each of the twelve Federal Reserve Banks is authorized by the Federal Reserve Act to issue currency. The notes are designed and printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing of the Department of the Treasury and are delivered to the Reserve Banks for circulation.

Federal Reserve Banks provide two types of electronic payment services; the automated clearinghouse service and wire transfers. The Automated Clearinghouse (ACH) is an electronic payment network through which banks send each other electronic credit and debit transfers. The Fedwire funds transfer system is a large-dollar electronic payment system owned and operated by the Federal Reserve Banks that transfers funds between financial institutions. Participants typically transfer large dollar, time-critical payments, to repay large loans or to settle real estate transactions. The majority of Fedwire transactions are initiated on-line and all transactions are completed in seconds. The Federal Reserve System operates a nationwide check clearing system that processes checks, drafts and similar items. When a bank receives deposits of checks drawn on other banks, it sends the checks for collection to a Federal Reserve Bank. For checks collected through the Federal Reserve Banks, the accounts of the collecting institutions are credited for the value of the checks deposited for collection and the accounts of the paying banks are debited for the value of checks presented for payment. Most checks are collected and settled within one business day.

Additionally, the Federal Reserve acts as a fiscal agent or bank to the federal government by providing financial services to the United States Department of Treasury and by selling and redeeming government securities such as Savings Bonds and Treasury bills. One of the core responsibilities of the Federal Reserve Banks is to serve as fiscal agent and depository for the United States government. In this role, the Reserve Banks act as the federal government’s bank and perform several services for the Treasury. These services include: maintaining accounts for U.S. Treasury, processing government checks, postal money orders and U.S. savings bonds, and collecting federal tax deposits.

The Federal Reserve System supervises and regulates a wide range of financial institutions and activities. The Federal Reserve works in conjunction with other federal and state authorities to ensure that financial institutions safely manage their operations and provide fair and equitable services to consumers. Bank examiners also gather information on trends in the financial industry, which helps the Federal Reserve System meet its other responsibilities, including determining monetary policy. Two major focuses of banking supervision and regulation are the safety and soundness of financial institutions and compliance with consumer protection laws. To measure the safety and soundness of a bank, an examiner performs an on-site examination review of the bank’s performance based on its management and financial condition, and its compliance with regulations. If consumers have a complaint about a financial institution they can contact the Federal Reserve. Together with the twelve Federal Reserve Banks, the Board of Governors can answer questions about banking practices and investigate complaints about specific banks under the Fed’s supervisory jurisdiction.

Monetary policy refers to what the Federal Reserve, the nation’s central bank, does to influence the amount of money and credit in the U.S. economy. The goals of monetary policy are to promote maximum employment, stable prices and moderate long-term interest rates.