Sunday, February 8, 2015

Inflation - rise in the general level of prices 

Measuring Inflation:
Inflation rate - measures the percentage increase in the price level over time  (offers key indicator of economies health)
a)       Deflation - A decline in the general price level
b)       Disinflation - It occurs when the inflation rate itself declines  

Consumer price index - measures inflation by tracking the yearly price of a fixed basket of consumer goods and services ; indicates changes in the price level and cost of living  

Solving inflation Problems 
A)    finding inflation rate by using market basket data 
(Current year market basket value - base year market basket value / base year market basket value ) x 100  
B)    Finding inflation rate using Price indexes 
(Current year price index - base year price index / base year  price index )x 100 

Estimating inflation using the rule of 70 - used to calculate the 
number of years it will take for the price level to double at any given rate of inflation 

Years needed to double inflation = 70/ annual inflation rate  

Determining real wages = nominal wages / price level ) ×100  

Finding real interest rates = nominal interest rate - inflation premium  

Standard for inflation:

Real interest rates - Cost of borrowing or lending money that is adjusted for expected inflation (expressed as a percentage)

Nominal interest rate - Unadjusted cost of borrowing or lending money  

Causes of inflation:

Demand pull inflation - caused by excess of demand over output that pulls prices upwards 

Cost pushed inflation - Caused by a rise in per unit production cost due to increasing resource cost 

Effects of inflation: Anticipated  vs. Unanticipated  

Inflation Helps: Borrowers because debt will be repaid with cheaper dollars than those that were loaned out; Fixed Contract 

Inflation Hurts: Fixed income; Savers; Lenders / creditors  

3 comments:

  1. Your notes are very thorough but I would recommend that you use some sort of outline to keep your notes more organized so that they are easier to read. Also, I noticed that you forgot to include how in anticipated inflation wages may be adjusted to accommodate for the increase in prices.

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  2. I like the way you organized your notes but I think that you should explain at least a little bit about anticipated and unanticipated inflation. You could mention that anticipated is normally talked about in the news prior to it happening, while unanticipated just happens suddenly which affects more people. You could also state that the ones hurt and helped are by unanticipated inflation not anticipated inflation.

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  3. your notes are easy to follow and have all the key points needed. although for future reference i would say you should do better to separate each grouping of notes so that readers in a rush can more effectively skim thru

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