Senator G and his Opposition on the Sanctions

Last Thursday, in a dark alleyway, Senator G was seen sneaking into a meeting for the Communist group, R.E.D. An hour and a half later, when he walked out, he was shocked to be confronted with questions from local newspapers. When asked why he was meeting there, he avoided the question and walked away.
Senator G is widely-known for his strong disagreement of the sanctions on Russia. He believes they will not affect Russia in any way and will only hurt the United States.
After this questionable event, many wonder his true reasons behind opposing the sanctions on Russia. Is he a supporter of Communism? Is he supporting Russia and their attacks on Ukraine? These questions are traveling around looking for answers. Answers which he has not given.
With Russia moving in on Ukraine, the United States searches for a way to help without risking the lives of their own or of the innocent Ukrainians. The sanctions are trade embargoes and plan to hurt the Russian economy in hopes they'll back out, out of necessity. A partial embargo has already been set and negative effects can be seen in Russia's stock market.
With these positive points for the sanctions, people are really starting to wonder why Senator G would be so opposed to them.

Field Trip

Yesterday, my economics class took a trip downtown to the Chicago Board of Trade and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. I would recommend this trip to anyone interested in economics as a lot of interesting information was shared. At the Board of Trade we were able to see traders on the floor making deals and using hand signals. It was really entertaining and the tour guide taught us a lot about how everything works. At the bank, we were fortunate enough to learn about Bitcoin and saw some cool money displays at the museum section of the bank. Overall, a lot was learned about trading and money, and my knowledge of economics was enhanced.

Expansionary AND Contractionary Policy

I've always been a believer in the cliché saying, "you learn something new everyday", and monetary policies are one of those new things. I always knew of the expansionary policies, and trying to get more money into the economy, and that's probably because I've only been capable of understanding economics during a recession. Recently, in my economics class, I was introduced to the contractionary policy. I never really understood why the government would want to slow growth of the economy, but now I know there is such thing as too much growth too quickly. This is where the contractionary policy comes into play; it reduces inflation, stabilizing prices.

Opportunity Cost: Still Around!

This past weekend was Thanksgiving weekend, one of which is full of opportunity costs. Black Friday is a huge example. An opportunity cost is a given up benefit from a passed alternative. So, on Black Friday, people across America had to decide whether to leave the comfort of their own homes and take away time from their family to try and score some deals at some stores or not. Many found the deals more appealing since they'd need to buy the items anyways, and they'd be saving a lot of money, but their opportunity cost for this experience would be lost time with family and friends during a holiday weekend. What did you choose?

Obamacare, More Like ObamaDoesn'tCare

During the past few days in Economics class, I and one other student researched why Obamacare should be repealed, and boy did we find many reasons. When the bill was introduced, it said it would lower the prices of health care and medical services, but that promise seems to be broken. It turns out that giving everyone, actually forcing everyone to buy healthcare will increase costs as more people now need to be covered. Businesses are also hurting. The rapidly changing policies are confusing and distracting, and smaller business simply cannot afford all of the requirements. Besides the fact that the bill doesn't seem to work, it is plainly unconstitutional. We're supposed to be free here in America, and being forced to buy health care, something people might not want to pay for, is stripping us of our rights. Obamacare is an expensive law that should be repealed.

Would You Rather...

On last night's homework, a "would you rather" question was brought up. It asked, to meet current spending, would you rather cut Medicare and Social Security benefits or raise taxes? I was really stumped at first, because neither option would provide more or less benefits than the other, and that's when I decided on my answer: neither! That may not technically be an option, but it wouldn't be fair to choose either of those. Instead, the government should stop wasting so much money, and maybe cut some of the useless programs they spend so much on. I feel that option should be taken into consideration first before any hardworking citizen gets punished for the government's decisions.

Fair Taxation

Today in class, we took a poll of which type of taxation was more fair: proportional or progressive. I was really confused with the results, though, as many students chose the progressive tax. In an environment where we are taught "hard work pays off" it really took me back when the majority chose the method that taxes those who earn more a larger amount. In my opinion, a proportional tax is the most fair, as everyone is treated equally. Having those who earn higher incomes (key word "earn") get charged more isn't right. Those people, who work extremely hard and provide most for the economy, should not be punished. This is America, a place where people are supposed to have economic freedom, and the progressive tax takes away that freedom.