Topics/Date Change

There are two changes to the schedule that will take place:

1. On October 11th, we will discuss Friedman's Flatteners #8, #9, and #10. This rounds out the discussion of the Flatteners and makes it easier to study them. Exam number two will focus on all ten Flatteners rather than having some spread over multiple exams.
2. We will not have class on October 27th. This is the date when the three Flatteners above were to have been discussed, and is also the date of the CBFA conference.

Comparing Countries

The following is a list of selected countries with Real GDP Per Capita for 1999. I have also included - in parentheses () - the literacy rate for each of the countries:

United States - $31,872 (99%)
Japan - $24,898 (99%)
Germany - $23,742 (99%)
Mexico - $8,297 (91%)
Brazil - $7,037 (85%)
China - $3,617 (83%)
India - $2,248 (56%)
Pakistan - $1,834 (45%)
Bangladesh - $1,483 (41%)

There is not an absolute relationship between literacy and per capita GDP (Nigeria, for example, has 63% literacy but GDP is beneath that of Bangladesh), but it is definitely one factor to consider.

Useful Web Sites

Following is a list of web sites that may be useful in finding stats for the two reaction/research papers:

Department of Commerce (http://www.commerce.gov)
Bureau of Labor Statistics (http://www.bls.gov)
Congressional Budget Office (http://www.cbo.gov)
Federal Reserve Board (http://www.federalreserve.gov)

The top two are good starting places while the other two offer more specific information that may not be as helpful for the first paper.

Ten Propositions

The slides on the ten propositions that most economists agree on can be found at http://facultyweb.anderson.edu/~eadulaney/TenPropositions.ppt.

Practice Test One

The practice test (slides) used in class today can be found at http://facultyweb.anderson.edu/~eadulaney/2010Practice1.ppt. They should provide a good reference for the exam on Friday.

Information about Exam One

The exam is now written. It consists of 34 questions. 31 of the questions are multiple-choice and worth 4 points each. Three of the questions are short answer/fill in the blank and worth 10 points each. This totals to 154 points allowing you to miss one of the multiple-choice questions and still get a perfect score of 150.