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Newsletter
What’s in Your Market Basket? Why Your Inflation Rate Might Differ from the Average
Does it feel like your dollars go as far as they used to? If not, how does that mesh when reports say inflation rates are lower than average? The October issue of Page One Economics explains the disconnect between what you might experience as a consumer and what the data show.
Journal Article
Making Technical Adjustments: The Difference Between “Conducting” and “Implementing” Monetary Policy
Technical adjustments to the Fed’s administered rates help to implement existing monetary policy in changing market conditions.
Newsletter
Is College Still Worth the High Price? Weighing Costs and Benefits of Investing in Human Capital
Students have several options for life after high school. While college has been a popular choice, college enrollment for recent high school graduates has dropped, and some people are challenging the notion that college is the best route for the majority of students. This article examines whether college is still a good investment.
How the St. Louis Fed Helps Educators in the Classroom
Several educators from around the Eighth District share how the St. Louis Fed's economic education materials have enhanced lessons and benefited students.
Newsletter
Would increasing the minimum wage reduce poverty?
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office tackles that question in a new report and highlights the trade-off presented by increasing the minimum wage. This issue of the newsletter explains the debate and discusses whether other approaches may be more effective in helping alleviate poverty.
Working Paper
Let's Close the Gap: Revising Teaching Materials to Reflect How the Federal Reserve Implements Monetary Policy
The topic of the Federal Reserve’s (the Fed’s) implementation of monetary policy has a significant presence in economics textbooks as well as standards and guidelines for economics instruction. This presence likely reflects the fact that it is the implementation framework that helps ensure that the Fed’s desired level of its policy interest rate is transmitted to financial markets, which helps it steer the economy toward the Congressional dual mandate of maximum employment and price stability. Over the past decade or so, the Fed has purposefully shifted the way it implements monetary ...
Economics and Personal Finance Courses: Complements Not Substitutes
Personal finance mandates can edge econ out of the classroom, but both contribute in important ways to students' education, our economic education experts say.
Newsletter
Does International Trade Create Winners and Losers?
Is trade good for Americans? People seem largely divided on the issue. A 2017 poll found that only 52 percent of Americans feel that trade agreements between the United States and other countries are good for the United States. However, unlike the general population, economists are overwhelmingly supportive of trade. A 2014 poll found that 93 percent of economists agree that past major trade deals have benefited most Americans. Given the consensus among economists, why is international trade, and the free-trade agreements that make it possible, so controversial?
Newsletter
Would a Gold Standard Brighten Economic Outcomes?
Historically, money was made of either valuable commodities such as gold or silver coins or pieces of paper (bills) representing these commodities. The United States severed its last official monetary link to gold in 1971. The January 2015 Page One Economics Newsletter describes some of the advantages and disadvantages of the gold standard.
Newsletter
Falling Oil Prices Create Winners and Losers
Oil prices affect the U.S. economy in many ways. For example, fluctuations in the price of oil can influence inflation, unemployment, and disposable income. Some local economies with close ties to the oil industry, however, are affected even more directly in both positive and negative ways. This essay covers one recent example of the local impact of oil prices.