Blog Assignment Number 2

The Gini Coefficient.

1) The Gini Coefficient is used to measure income distribution within a country. As such, it is useful to International Economists, Activists, Politicians, and world travelers alike. To economists, it represents a measure of how concentrated a country's wealth really is. To activists, it can reveal the abject injustice in some economic systems, to politicians, it offers clues into wear the power in a supposed democracy really is (concentrated within a ruling aristocracy who own most of the country or spread out over a powerful middle class), and to world travelers, it can dictate how safe it is to venture far from wealthy tourist areas.

2) Since the Gini Coefficient is simply a ratio of the Lorenz, it is easy for anyone with a fairly basic knowledge of calculus to calculate. However, many organizations keep records of the Gini coefficients of various countries. The most notable of these organizations(that are therefore highest up the Google queue) are the World Bank and the CIA World Factbook.

3) While the Gini Coefficient can be used to describe the ratio of distributions of just about anything in just about any population, it is most often used to calculate the equality of wealth distribution. As such, I've included the Gini Coefficients of several countries. A number of 0 would represent total equality (everyone citizen possesses same wealth) and a number of 100 would represent total inequality (one citizen possesses the entire country's wealth).

Argentina 46

Botswana 63

Canada 32

China 42

France 33

Germany 27

India 37

Japan 38

Mexico 48

Tunisia 40

Sweden 23

U.S.A. 45

As you can see, income distribution can very widely from country to country. Sweden for instance, has relatively high equality while Botswana has extremely high inequality. It is worth noting that this is only a measure of distribution of wealth. Though United States has roughly the same amount of inequality as Tunisia, the living situations in the two countries are extremely different. While there is a large gap between the wealthy and the poor in both countries, the measures of wealth are relative. Many people in the United States earn a disproportionally low living for this country can still afford basic cable; the same cannot be said for the lower classes in Tunisia. Because of this, people must be careful in making assumptions about standards of living from this data.

Source:

The CIA World Factbook

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2172.html

Blog Post 2

CONSUMER CONFIDENCE
1. Who do you believe would be interested in this statistic?
a. Everyone needs to be interested in this statistic. Whatever the consumers expect from the market and are willing to put into it at any given time is something that affects the entire market. Producers are interested in how much they can expect to make, suppliers are interested in when to increase or decrease production, and stockholders are interested in when a stock is about to rise or decline. Personal consumption accounts for 2/3 of our total GDP, so the confidence of the consumers has an enormous impact on the economy
2. How is this statistic collected? (Who? How frequently?)
a. The Washington Post-ABC News Consumer Comfort Index is a rolling average based on telephone interviews with 1,000 randomly selected adults. It covers the previous four-week period. Interviewees are asked about the state of the nation’s economy, the state of their personal finances, and whether they are buying things at the current time.
b. The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index: This survey is based on a representative sample of 5,000 U.S. households. Interviewees are asked about their short-term outlook, their current financial conditions, and their perceptions of the job market.
c. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index: At least 500 telephone interviews are conducted each month in the United States. Interviewees are asked 50 core questions such as how they felt financially six months ago, how they feel about their current conditions, and what they expect six months in the future.
3. Include the most recent number for the statistic and enough information to put it into context.
a. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment improved to 74.5 at the end of December 2010, its best level in six months. This number was up from 71.6 in November and 67.7 in October. While it may have benefited from holiday sales, overall consumers were expecting favorable news for the upcoming year. While their views on their financial situations remained negative, job gains are on the horizon and the economy can expect an increase in consumer spending as a result of an increased consumer confidence index.
4. References/Links
a. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-16/consumer-confidence-declines-more-than-forecast-to-66-5-in-michigan-index.html
b. http://wallstcheatsheet.com/breaking-news/economy/your-cheat-sheet-to-consumer-confidence.html

Blog Assignment 2

US Productivity

1.) There are several different people and groups who would be interested in US Productivity in the business and economic world. For one, the government would take a look at how productive domestic businesses have been. People and workers within those businesses would also be interested in those statistics. Other businesses around the world would also be interested to see how they match up with some of the leading American businesses.

2.) US Productivity is normally collected by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. Depending on what the specific stat is and how US productivity is measured, it can be calculated on a monthly basis, but s normally calculated on an annual basis.

3.) In regards to the import and export prices, imports went up 1.1% in December and 4.8% in 2010. Export prices went up 0.7% in December and 6.5% in 2010.

Source: http://www.bls.gov/

Auto Sales

1. Auto sales are widely used and researched statistics. Those interested in these statistics include citizens buying or selling cars, car companies, governments, car dealerships, current and potential investors, statistical firms and ratings groups.

2. In the US, domestic automakers report sales monthly. The figures are reported to the US Department of Commerce where they are seasonally adjusted and then reported to the public within the first few days of the next month.

3. December proved to be a successful end to the year for most automakers as sales increased by 11%. Toyota was the only company to report a decline (6%) and Hyundai-Kia sales were up 37%. GM, Ford and Chrysler all posted gains of 7.5%, 3.5%, and 16%, respectively.

http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/daily-news/110105-December-2010-Auto-Sales-Show-11-Gain/

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/autosales.asp

Blog #2

Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)

1. International companies or anyone trading internationally would be interested in this because it determines how much a given good is worth in two different countries, with the exchange rate included.

2. These statistics are collected by Organization of Economics Cooperation and Development (OECD) among other groups each year. For example, the magazine The Economist comes out with a "Hamburger Index" each year comparing the price of a McDonald's hamburger around the world. These statistics aren't always the most accurate because consumers across different countries prefer different goods and services, which make it hard to collect data. Exchange rates between countries are used to measure if some goods are overvalued or undervalued in the countries.

3. We can use PPP to determine the location to buy a particular good. For instance, one USD is currently worth 1.3 EUR, meaning that if a good cost $100 in the United States, that same good should cost $130 USD in Europe because of the exchange rate. If the good cost only $110 in Europe, then customers in the United States will want to buy that good from Europe because it is cheaper in Europe relatively to the price in the U.S. With more U.S. customers selling USD and buying EUR, the EUR will start to appreciate against the USD, causing the cost of the good in Europe to eventually be relatively the same price as the good in the U.S. The exchange rate plays a key role in PPP and it's constantly changing.

http://fx.sauder.ubc.ca/PPP.html

-Andrew Manor

Blog #2

The Herfindahl Index (HHI) is a measure of the size of firms in relation to their industry. It also indicates the amount of competition between the firms inside their industry.

The index ranges from 0 to 10,000. The lower the rating, the more highly competitive firms are in the market and vice-versa, therefore a score of 10,000 would indicate a monopoly. (bizterms) An industry with a score over 2,000 is considered to have very low competition with very few firms controlling most of the market share, while one below 1,000 is considered to be highly competitive with many small firms.

1. This statistic would be useful for new firms or firms looking to enter a new market because it would give them an accurate measure of the competition in the market. It would also be useful for firms looking to view the level of competition of the industry they are in. (Chin, Andrew)

2. This statistic is collected by adding the squares of the market shares of the top 50 firms in an industry (or all of the firms if there are less than 50) and the result will be a number from 0 to 10,000 as stated before.

3. The HHI for the breakfast cereal manufacturing is 2,521.3, meaning very few firms control most of the market share. (US Economic Census)

References

- Bizterms.net. Retrieved 1/11/11 http://www.bizterms.net/term/Herfindahl-index.html

- Chin, Andrew. UNC School of Law. Revised December 2010. Retrieved 1/11/11 http://www.unclaw.com/chin/teaching/antitrust/herfindahl.htm

- US Economic Census Bureau. Concentration ratios for 2002. Manufacturing. Subject series. US Department of Commerce. Economics and Statistics Administration. Economic Census 2002. Retrieved 1/12/11. http://www.census.gov/prod/ec02/ec0231sr1.pdf

Blog Assignment #2: Total Business Inventories

1) I believe that anyone who is looking to invest in any company would be interested in this statistic because represents how much inventory is being purchased by businesses. Also, political figures and economists may be interested in this statistic because it is an indicator of how businesses are performing and how the economy is doing.

2) This statistic is collected monthly, but is usually 6-8 weeks behind. So the recent number actually represents the total business inventories of 6 weeks ago. The statistic is collected by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

3) The current number for this statistic is just above 14,000,000,000,000. This number is up from 13,000,000,000,000 in early 2010 but down from almost 16,000,000,000,000 in 2008.

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?s[1][id]=BUSINV

Assignment #2 Consumer Confidence

1. Manufacturers, investors, and banks would be interested in this statistic because it measures the consumer's thoughts regarding job availability and income.

2. The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Survey is conducted once a month based on 5,000 households.

3. The current consumer confidence level is at 52.5, dropping two points from November to one of the lowest in 43 years.

MSNBC. "How does consumer confidence get calculated?" 28 October 2008. 12 January 2011.

Econoday. "Consumer confidence" December 2010. 12 January 2011.

Blog Assignment #2 - National Debt

1. I'm sure that every adult in the US that is capable of voting would be interested in this statistic because it is something that affects all US citizens and many others around the world. Those involved with making government spending decisions would probably be particularly concerned with this statistic because they are the individuals who directly affect it. Also, those who buy and sell U.S. Treasury bonds, bills, and notes would have a particular interest in this statistic.
2. The U.S. Treasury is responsible for collecting and reporting this statistic continuously because it fluctuates both positively and negatively throughout any given day. The national debt is simply the sum of any outstanding obligations of the government at any given time and is thus fairly simple to calculate given the information that the U.S. Treasury has access to. There are many national debt clocks scattered throughout the country and some that appear online that continuously report the status of the national debt in several forms including per capita debt. The Office of Management and Budget in the White House is responsible for submitting budget proposals to congress and making budget projections for the future.
3. The current national debt is over $14 trillion ($14, 030, 789, 856, 634) now according to the U.S. Treasury. This is significantly higher than ever before in the past and has many citizens and government officials concerned. Over the past five years the debt has increased almost $5 trillion dollars but this statistic must be put into context with the business cycle. As the US is still in a recession government spending has dramatically increased over the past few years and is still increasing today. This is a logical attempt of our government to offset the drop in GDP caused by the recession and to stimulate the economy. The main reason for our inflated national debt is irresponsible fiscal policy during times of economic growth (i.e. Bush tax cuts earlier this decade). Although the debt appears to be getting out of hand, we must understand that this is due to our government currently making fairly strong fiscal decisions and that once out of this recession the debt will be dealt with with greater enthusiasm.

References:
U.S. National Debt Clock: Real Time
http://www.usdebtclock.org/

Knoller, Mark. "National Debt Tops $14 trillion". CBS News: Politics.

Office of Management and Budget. www.whitehouse.gov.

Blog Assignment #2

Case Shiller Index

1. Homeowners, stock brokers, investors, real estate agents and agencies, and politicians would be interested in this statistic.

2. The financial services company Standard and Poor's collect this statistic by evaluating real estate prices across the United States. They report pricing indices monthly (with a 2 month lag).

3. Composite 10 July 2010: 162.23

Composite 10 August 2010: 162.01

Composite 10 September 2010: 161.03

Composite 10 October 2010: 159.03

The Case Shiller index shows dropping real estate value over the past few months for the Composite 10 (10 major metropolitan statistic areas).

Source: http://www.standardandpoors.com/indices/sp-case-shiller-home-price-indices/en/us/?indexId=spusa-cashpidff--p-us----

Blog Assignment #2

PADD Gasoline Prices

1.) There are many people and organizations that would be interested in this statistic. However, consumers who drive cars would be the most interested in the changes in gasoline prices, as they have to purchase gas in order to drive their vehicles.
2.) According to this websites, the U.S. Energy Information Association collects these prices and statistics on a weekly basis.
3.) The average U.S. gas prices is $3.089 per gallon. This prices has risen $0.019 from last week, and $0.338. Gas prices have been rising slowly over the past year. As a related statistic, diesel prices have risen $0.002 per gallon from last week (currently $3.333) and $0.454 from last year.

source:

U.S. Energy Information Association. EIA, - 2011. Web. 10 Jan. 2011. .

New Home Sales

1) I believe that anyone who was interested in buying a new home would be very interested in this statistic. This would help their decision whether or not they should invest in a new house at this time.

2) These statistics are estimated from sample surveys. They are taken once a month. They are collected by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

3) Sales of new single-family houses in November 2010 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 290,000. This is 5.5 above the revised October rate of 275,000, but is 21.2 percent below the November 2009 estimate of 368,000. This means that it may not be the best time to be buying a new house.

www.census.gov/const/newressales.pdf

Blog Assignment #2

Industrial Production Index- The Federal Reserve's monthly index of industrial production and the related capacity indexes and capacity utilization rates cover manufacturing, mining, and electric and gas utilities(Fedralreserve.gov)

1. Companies that are in the manufacturing, mining, electric, and gas industries. Economists, Policy-makers, and investors. Being a large sector of the economy, the production of these industries is likely to affect the market.

2. The Industrial Production Index (IPI) is collected by the Federal Reserve Board and is released monthly. On a monthly basis, the individual indexes of industrial production are constructed from two main types of source data: (1) output measured in physical units and (2) data on inputs to the production process, from which output is inferred(federalreserve.gov) In addition to being counted monthly, every year the IPI and Capacity Utilization is revised in order to make it as up to date as possible.

3. The IPI number for November 2010 is 93.9, this number measures the amount of output compared to a base of 100 for a specific year(2007). For example, October 2010 IPI was 93.5, so from October to November IPI increased by .4%, industrial production increased by this much.

http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/G17/Current/default.htm

http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/G17/About.htm

http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/G17/Revisions/Current/default_rev.htm

Blog Assignment #2 Labor Productivity

1. I think anyone who studies the economy business owners, or anyone involved with international trade would find labor productivity important to be an important statistic collected. Labor productivity is a measure of market efficiency which shows how much input it takes to create an output. An increase in productivity means that it takes less input to create the same output.

2. The Bureau of Labor Statistics collects the labor productivity statistic every quarter by comparing the amount of goods and services produced with the inputs used for production.

3. The Third Quarter 2010 Percent Change in Productivity from Q2 to Q3.

Nonfarm Business 2.3

Business 2.5

Manufacturing 0.6

Durable Manufacturing -0.5

Nondurable Manufacturing 3.2


Bureau of Labor Statistics. "Productivity and Costs, Third Quarter 2010, Revised." Last modified December 1, 2010. http://www.bls.gov/news.release/prod2.nr0.htm

Blog #2

Homeowner Vacancy Rate- The percentage relationship between the number of vacant units for sale and the total homeowner inventory.

1. Realtors, the government, landlords, and people who are buying/selling their home would all be interested in this statistic.

2. The HOVR is calculated by dividing the number of vacant units for sale only by the sum of the owner-occupied units and the number of vacant units that are for sale only.

Every year this data is collected by the U.S. Census Bureau and compiled into a report. Every quarter throughout the year data about HOVR is released in an end of quarter press release.

3. This is the graph of homeownership for the second quarter of 2010, and it is being compared to the second quarter of the pervious year.

On the Graph below (which I know is pretty hard to see =/ sorry) The dotted line represents the United States average HOVR over the years, and the other colored solid lines are where particular states have been at based on the U.S. average.

Sources:

1. United States Census http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/hvs/hvs.html

2. The Federal Reserve Band of Minneapolis http://www.minneapolisfed.org/publications_papers/pub_display.cfm?id=2269

Blog Assignment #2

Annual U.S. Motor Vehicle Production

1. I think that mostly the automakers are interested in this statistic because they have to know how big the demand will be in the next year/quarter/month. But also suppliers might be interested as well as the government, because it has to care for a well equipped infrastructure (highways, parking spots, intelligent traffic systems).

2. OICA, the “International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers” publishes that statistic every year. But probably there are several other statistics about monthly production and different other variations. I assume that the number are the added numbers of all the vehicle assembly plants within the U.S. .

3. Due to the freshly started year 2011 the numbers for 2010 are not published yet. That is why I only can write down the number for 2009: in 2009 there were 5,708,852 vehicles produced in the US. But, what I do can say is that the estimate number for 2010 is about 7,800,000 vehicles, that is an increase of 36,6 % and therefore pretty considerable. You also can figure out with these datas that the U.S. in 2009 has been the third biggest vehicle producer throughout the world. First one is China with 13,790,994 vehicles, followed by Japan with 7,934,516 vehicles.

International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, 2009 production statistics, 2009, http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2010/12/car-production-2010-u-s-a-beats-china-in-percentages/

Unemployment Rate

1. This statistic is important for anyone researching the current state of the economy, and for people looking for employment. Politicians, students and employers also have a vested interest in the unemployment rate.

2. The unemployment rate is gathered by the Bureau of Labor Statistics each month by phone interview.

3. The unemployment rate for the entire country is currently 9.4%, this is .2% lower than the previous month and the lowest in figure in 2010. Michigan's unemployment rate is currently 12.4%. However, this statistic has steadily decreased throughout 2010.

Sources:

Bureau of Labor Statistics

http://www.bls.gov/cps/

http://www.investinganswers.com/term/unemployment-rate-809

Blog Assignment #2

1. Economists, Lawmakers, and investors are just some of the people who would care about the Gross Domestic Product of a country.

2. The GDP is measured by the Bureau of Economic Analysis which is controlled by the United States Department of Congress and is measured quarterly in the United States.

3. The latest GDP for the United States is $14.7 trillion (USD). This is the highest recorded GDP in the world. Although the combined European Union has an overall GDP of $16.1 trillion (USD). The 2rd highest is China with a GDP of $5.7 trillion (USD). The United States GDP has increase by about $500 billion dollars over last year.

http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2010/01/weodata/weorept.aspx?sy=2007&ey=2010&scsm=1&ssd=1&sort=country&ds=.&br=1&c=111&s=NGDPD%2CNGDPDPC%2CPPPGDP%2CPPPPC%2CLP&grp=0&a=&pr.x=40&pr.y=10

http://www.bea.gov/national/index.htm#gdp

Blog Assignment #2

1. Many people would be interested in this statistic. Some people who would be most interested would be politicians, the government, economists, citizens, and companies.
2. This statistic is collected by the US Census Bureau. Every Month.
3. In October, the nations international trade deficit in goods and services decreased from $44.6 billion in September to $38.7 billion. A trade deficit means that a country is importing more goods and services than they are exporting. This decrease in deficit is a good sign, considering in June the deficit increased by 18.8% to $49.9 billion.

Sources:
The Trade Deficit Nightmare. August 14,2010. http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-trade-deficit-nightmare

U.S. International Trade Data. December 10,2010. http://www.census.gov/indicator/www/ustrade.html

The Trade Deficit and Exchange Rates. http://economics.about.com/cs/analysis/a/trade_deficit.htm

Blog Assignment #2: Assigned Statistic

Statistic: Motor vehicle fatalities

Source : Monk, John. "2010 Traffic Deaths Lowest in Decades." The State: South Carolina (2011). Web. .

1. Citizens of South Carolina would be interested in these statistics, and possibly comparing these stats to other states.
2. These "unofficial" stats are collected by the South Carolina Department of Public Safety Office of Highway Safety, collected every year.
3. In 2010, the total state traffic fatalities came to about 770, which is a 14% drop in fatalities in motor vehicle crashes from the year before. "...the third year of decreases", stated S.C. Department of Public Safety director Mark Keel. Also connecting with the drop in fatalities, a survey was taken in 2006, resulting that 72% of people buckled up. The same survey taken again in 2010, 85% of people reported buckling up.

Blog assignment #2

1. Many people would be interested in inflation expectation such as consumers, financial forecasters, the government, banks and firms in the marketplace.

2. There are two main ways to calculate inflation expectation. One way is to look at Inflation-indexed government bonds, you take the TIPS yield- the Treasury yield and it gives you the expected inflation rate. Another way is to survey people on what they expect inflation to be.

3.

Graph from http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/MICH

Data summarized from http://baselinescenario.com/2009/04/08/inflation-expectations-for-beginners/

Blog assignment #2

US Waterborne Freight

1) Anyone who ships cargo would be interested in this statistic. This could include not only people who ship cargo by water, but people who ship cargo by air or land, because they may be interested in changing their method of shipment. Government officials who are in charge of regulating waterborne freight or ensuring border security would also be interested in this statistic. Also, workers in any type of shipping industry, or those hoping for employment in a shipping industry, would be interested in US waterborne freight statistics.

2) This information is collected by the Army Corp of Engineers Navigation Data Center. Data on “waterborne commerce” appears to have been collected every five years starting in 1960 and then every year starting in 1990, but ending in 2008.

3) The most recent statistic for “US Waterborne Freight” in general (rather than for internal US waterways only) is from 2008, when the total amount of US Waterborne Freight was 2,469.8 million short tons. This level of freight is over double the amount in 1960 (1099.9 million short tons). Since 1960 there has been a general trend of a continuing increase in freight amount. This trend, however, is not steady (it does not make a perfectly increasing line), with increases or decreases of up to 200 million short tons from year to year.

Data summarized by the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) Bureau of Transportation Statistics, under Publications > National Transportation Statistics: http://www.bts.gov/publications/national_transportation_statistics/html/table_01_50.html

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics webpage linked to US Army Corp of Engineers Navigation Data Center where the data was originally published: http://www.ndc.iwr.usace.army.mil/wcsc/wcsc.htm

Blog #2

Capacity Utilization

1. At the macroeconomic level, many areas of government would probably be interested in this statistic because it gives an idea of how much capacity is currently available to produce goods versus how much is actually being used. At the microeconomic level, firms may be interested in comparing their capacity utilization to the rest of the industry.
2. This statistic is collected and published by the Federal Reserve Board on a monthly basis.
3. Capacity Utilization for the United States in 2009 was 71.1%. The average from 1972 to 2009 is 80.6%. Since 1972, capacity utilization hasn't gone much higher than 85% , and the low was 68.2% in 2008.

http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/G17/Current/default.htm

Blog assignment #2

U.S Construction Spending
http://www.census.gov/const/C30/totsa.pdf
1.Individuals that would be interested in this statistic could be construction companies, the US itself so that they can have an idea of how much they are spending on construction, construction workers because they will be able to get an idea of the number of job opportunities, businesses that are budgeting to establish new buildings.
2.The statistic of the US construction spending was collected by the U.S Census Bureau in November 2010. This information is collected every ten years.
3. The total US contruction for Nov. 2010 was $810,225 while $806,686 in Oct. 2010
The percent change from Nov. 2010 to Oct. 2010 was 0.4; from Nov. 2010 to Nov. 2009 was -0.6. Although their is an increase on the spending that the US is spending on construction overall in the past couple of months, the percent from Nov. 2009 to Nov. 2010 is negative which means that in the past year the US has decrease its spending on construction.

Blog Assignment #2

1. This information could be important to a variety of people. The most obvious would be people who work within the Federal Reserve, those within the Treasury and also policy makers as they make choices on the economy. As well, it might be helpful for companies to know how much money the American public has to spend on there goods and services.

2. Information on the M1 money supply is both collected weekly and monthly by the Federal Reserve. The money supply is also forecasted by different financial firms and agencies who are interested in the potential gains and losses.

3. In the final week of December, the M1 money supply was reported to have a weekly average of 1859.7 billion dollars (seasonally adjusted). This encompasses all currency outside of the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Treasury, and other depository institutions. As well, it includes any non-bank issued traveler’s checks, demand deposits, and other checkable deposits. This is a high point for the year, although not the peak. The money supply has been steadily increasing since the beginning of 2009 when it began at 1583.5 billion dollars.

Statistics and information from:

http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h6/current/

http://www.forecasts.org/m1.htm

Blog #2

1. Many people would be interested in the US poverty rate, including business owners and politicians, to name a few.

2. The US poverty rate is reported by the US Census Bureau. They take information from these major household surveys and programs: Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) to the Current Population Survey (CPS), American Community Survey (ACS), Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), Census 2000 long form, and the Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE) program. The US poverty rate is calculated annually.

3. In 2009, the official US poverty rate was 14.3%. This is 1.1% increase from 2008 (13.2%).

http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/index.html

Blog Assignment 2

1. CPI represents the spending patterns for almost all consumers and workers in our population. The ‘urban consumer’ group alone, accounts for 87 percent of the total U.S. population. It is based on the expenditures of almost all residents of urban or metropolitan areas. In publishing the CPI, we have a more accurate measurement of inflation/deflation. This represents the current buying power of the US dollar in terms of international trade. This number affects any consumer or producer in our market, as we function as a society in a global scale. Changing inflation, which is really what the CPI is a measure of—affects all of us. Therefore we all should be interested in this statistic, if we have any interest the functionality of our own money.

2. This statistic is collected by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This organization provides monthly data on the changes in price for consumers to purchase goods and services. At the national level, the CPI is released on a continuous monthly basis. While this varies to some degree for some cities, a new CPI is generally available everywhere within a 2 month period.

The CPI represents all of the goods and services purchased for consumption by the general population. By consistently evaluating the price levels of numerous pre-priced items in our society, one can better recognize any changes if ever they should occur.

3. The national CPI as of November 2010 was 218.803. Since the year of 2000, this value has gone up about 5 points every year in its yearly-average. However, this index peaked in 2007 during the financial crisis, where it went up 10 points all the way to an index of 219. It has since fluctuated, but seems to be close to this point yet again.

The CPI stands as one of the most important indices when it comes to measuring notions of ‘price’ in our economy. 

References:

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/consumerpriceindex.asp

ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/cpi/cpiai.txt

Blog #2

Statistics found at http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/p60-235.pdf

1. I think many people would be interested in this information: Politicians, hospitals, community health clinics, and insurance companies to name a few.
2. The data was collected by the US govt using the current population survey (CPS). The data collected asks questions related to the previous year's coverage. The survey takes place between February to April as part of an income survey. The data reflects annual data collection from 1987.
3. The most recent numbers are from 2007, and show a decrease in the percentage of uninsured Americans from the previous year: 15.8(2006) to 15.3 (2007). It also shows the reported number of uninsured Americans to be decreasing over the same time period: 47M(2006) to 45.7M(2007). In a related stat, the survey showed that the number of people with health insurance actually increased from 2006 to 2007, and the number of people insured privately fell over the same time period.

Blog Assignment #2

Producer Price Index (PPI) program measures the average change over time in the selling prices received by domestic producers for their output. The prices included in the PPI are from the first commercial transaction for many products and some services.

The primary use of the PPI is to deflate revenue streams to get the real picture of output

1. Domestic manufacturers, foreign manufacturers, investors, politician.

2. The data is collected monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in a systematic sampling way. The sample includes producers in manufacturing, mining and services industries. Respondent participation has been conducted on a voluntary basis.

3. There are three important PPI classification system structures, which are industry, commodity and stage of processing. The PPI for finished goods (a selected commodity grouping by stage of processing) for November 2010 is 181.9 (unadjusted).
The unadjusted October 2010 index is 181.2, the percentage increase is 0.386%. The adjusted percentage increase from October 2010 is 0.8%.
The unadjusted July 2010 index is 179.5, the percentage increase is 1.337%.
The unadjusted percentage increase from November 2009 to November 2010 is 3.5%.

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ppi.t02.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Producer_Price_Index

Wendy Tam

Assignment #2

Housing Starts Statistics
http://www.census.gov/const/www/newresconstindex.html

1. Housing starts are seen as a broad economic indicator, and almost anyone would be interested in the statistics. More housing starts show strength in the economy, and vice versa. Some groups who are directly affected by housing starts include: construction workers, stock traders in the home-building sector, and financial institutions that grant loans for these projects. Additionally, local economies benefit from housing starts as workers and homeowners will spend money during the project.
2. Statistics are collected jointly by the US Census Bureau and the US Dept of Housing and Urban Development. Results are estimated from sample surveys and are published monthly.
3. Housing starts are measured units of "new privately-owned housing units authorized in permit-issuing places." The most recent statistics are from November 2010: 530,000 new units. This is down 4% (+/- 2.9%) from October 2010, and down 14.7% (+/- 1.7%) from November 2009.