If the Federal Reserve wants to reduce inflation from 4 percent to 3 percent permanently, how can that goal be achieved, and what impact will that have on employment in the short run and the long run? Support your answer with a graph of the Phillips
curve in the short run and the long run.
If the Fed wants to reduce inflation, it must implement a contractionary monetary policy and make it credible. The reduction in the growth rate of the money supply will increase interest rates, reduce aggregate demand, and reduce real GDP and employment in the short run. In terms of the short-run Phillips curve, the economy will move from a point like A (high inflation and low unemployment) to a point like B (lower inflation and higher unemployment). Once firms and workers believe the Fed will continue to follow a contractionary monetary policy, they will begin to reduce their inflation expectations, and the short-run Phillips curve will shift downward. Equilibrium in the economy will be restored at the natural rate of unemployment but at a lower rate of inflation (move from point B on the short-run Phillips curve to point C on the long-run Phillips curve).
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The term contagion refers to
A) a government's complete control over it's banking system. B) a drop in interest rates across industrialized countries. C) the vulnerability of healthy economies to crises generated by events elsewhere. D) a directed attack on one market by a foreign market. E) a side effect of international trade.
That most used cars are sold by intermediaries (i.e., used car dealers) provides evidence that these intermediaries
A) have been afforded special government treatment, since used car dealers do not provide information that is valued by consumers of used cars. B) are able to prevent potential competitors from free-riding off the information that they provide. C) have failed to solve adverse selection problems in this market because "lemons" continue to be traded. D) have solved the moral hazard problem by providing valuable information to their customers.