Author Archives: Zack Meyer

Due to the travel restrictions, lockdowns, and shelter in places around the world, there has been a freeze in trade around the world. In the United States, about 80 percent west coast ports have reported that they have significantly lower inventories due to the actions caused by the coronavirus. Now this may not seem like a shock, however, it does mean that a large sector of the world economy is slowing down, which is trade. Now the trade of goods will recover with time, which is expected. When there is no risk of virus transmission, trade will be able to Continue reading The Future Impacts of Coronavirus on Global Trade (Part 1)→

The two of ways to combat the impact of the coronavirus are government spending and rate cuts from the FED. Government spending injects money into the circular flow to help give it a jump, while rate cuts attempt to increase investment spending, which in turn, helps the circular flow. When it comes to the present situation with the coronavirus, rate cuts by the FED will be less useful when compared to government spending, and we can see this through the response to both in the stock market. When the FED initially cut rates, stocks continued to drop by a large Continue reading How Should the Economy Combat Coronavirus? (Part 2)→

During the time that the coronavirus has been in the United States, the stock market has been in constant flux. Thousand point drops multiple days in a row, followed by a huge jump back up from the Dow. After looking at all of these jumps, I would like to take a second to explain why the FED rate cut has had little impact on combatting the coronavirus, and why stocks jumped up due to news on a government stimulus package. Both of these are going to involve an explanation of some macroeconomic ideas, which I will start with. The macroeconomy Continue reading How Should the Economy Combat Coronavirus? (Part 1)→

This is part two of what UPS professors and students thought were “the most useful ideas in economics.” These next two responses were not popular answers given, however, I think that they are interesting, and may help explain more about economics in the world setting. A more interesting response I received from a student who took law and economics was the idea of transactions costs. A transaction cost is any cost incurred when participating in a market. It is all the costs incurred when you buy or do something. An example from law and econ is legal fees, but a Continue reading What is the Most Useful Idea in Economics? (Part 2)→

Recently I listened to a podcast called Planet Money, where they interviewed different economists. They asked them a simple yet important question: “What’s the most useful idea in economics?” They received a bunch of different answers and provided practical examples of how those concepts relate to everyday life. Economics is interesting because of the fact that economics explain how society operates and the way people behave and interact in a market setting. This podcast and question shines light on how economic ideas are used when we all make decisions in our everyday lives. That is the beauty of this discipline Continue reading What is the Most Useful Idea in Economics? (Part 1)→