Consumer Confidence Survey
As you recently learned, the four components of GDP, or four sectors of the economy are:
Consumption
Investment
Government
Net Exports
Throughout this chapter, you learned how significant Consumption (consumerism) is in our economy. In fact, it drives about 70% of our economy! Since Consumption is such an important piece of our economy, many economic indicators are utilized to measure this sector. One such measure is the Consumer Confidence Survey. It is a survey given to consumers to measure how confident they are about the economy because higher confidence generally translates into future increased spending and lower confidence generally translates into future decreased spending.
Take a look at the current Consumer Confidence Data. (Links to an external site.) As you can see, the most recent survey numbers are usually released the last Tuesday of the month.
What do the most recent numbers tell you?
Were you surprised by anything?
Do you expect the numbers will increase or decrease before the next release?
GDP
The Bureau of Economic Analysis is the agency that tracks GDP. Please look at its most recent report (Links to an external site.) (again released the last week of each month). Take a look at the first few paragraphs of the report to identify which sector(s) of the economy experienced growth.
Was the growth in Consumption spending, Investment spending, Government spending or Net Exports?
Was the growth percentage about what you expected, or did you expect it to be higher or lower?
In addition to reflecting on the above questions, please share your thoughts regarding the following prompts.
What do you think is the most significant factor or factors that have contributed to the United States being one of the richest countries in the world in terms of GDP?
Over time, do you think the United States will be able to maintain its economic position? Why or why not?
If you think the United States will be able to maintain its economic position, what types and/or fields of new innovations do you think will create the next wave of productivity growth?
https://www.conference-board.org/data/consumerconfidence.cfm
https://www.bea.gov/data/gdp/gross-domestic-product
