Web Activity 1

How bad was the Great Depression in the United States ? Check how long it lasted at www.nber.org/cycles.html. Find out how much real GDP and business investment fell at http://www.bea.gov/ and chart the unemployment rate for the period at www.bls.gov.

Web Activity 2

At the U.S. Congressional Budget Office, http://www.cbo.gov, find Current Economic Projections. Look at the projections for the next 3 years' change in real output and the price level. How do they expect these statistics to change from the current level? Draw AD and AS curves to show what this office predicts will happen to the U.S. economy.

Web Activity 3

What happened to consumer confidence in the economy between 1980 and 2004? Log on http://www.electionstudies.org/nesguide/toptable/tab4e_1.htm to see how many people think the economy got better during that time period. How does this help explain the economic downturn in the early 1990's? What happened to consumer confidence from 1992-1998? Does this correspond to an expansion in the U.S. economy that you found at http://nber.org/? What happened to consumer confidence in 2002?