.Have macroeconomic recessions in the United States since World War II been caused
primarily by changes in [pick one] i) monetary policies, ii) taxes, iii) government spending, or iv)
desires to consume, save, or invest?
2.Pick any two countries of the world whose economies have grown at significantly different
rates during the last half of the 20th century. Then discuss what seem to be the principal causes
of this difference in growth performance.
3.How has the natural rate of unemployment changed in the United States during the last five
decades, and what changes in the economy can you identify that may have caused these
changes?
4.When aggregate unemployment rises and falls during the business cycle, what groups within
the labor force gain and lose the most and the least in terms of their own specific
unemployment? Are there any parts of the labor force that seem to be at all insulated from the
ups and downs of the national labor market?
5.Which seems to be more important for explaining [pick one: investment, savings, velocity of
money], the real interest rate or the nominal interest rate?
6.How, if at all, is the direction of a country’s balance of trade — surplus or deficit — related to
whether it is prosperous or poor? That is, looking either across countries or in a single country
over time, do situations of trade surplus tend to correspond to high employment and
prosperity, to low employment and poverty, or are they unrelated?