IA (Eco) HL Economics Macroeconomics Commentary

[sil_9]

Is this article good? Also can anyone provide any suggestions of what I could talk about?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/15/business/fed-chooses-jobs-over-fighting-inflation.html?_r=0

[dniviE]

No, this article is not good nor appropriate for a Macroeconomics Commentary. When I take a look at the article I start to wonder if you have even read the article. It is way too long: 1000 words when it should be something like 200-300 words, it is way too opinionated, includes economic analysis (what you are supposed to do), doesn't cover any current news event (if it does it is very briefly) and it covers too many sections of the syllabus (inflation, unemployment, monetary policy) at once. Also you should be looking carefully at what the newspaper is listing the article as. For example this one, if you see in the upper right at the top of the article (above the headline) you can see that this is a "NEWS ANALYSIS"-article from the NYTimes. This indeed has analysis, which you'll not be needing for your commentary. Try avoiding opinion columns, news analysis, economic analysis and editorials. Instead steer for the articles that you see are purely giving you information on policy x changing or unemployment rate in country x increasing/decreasing/stable.

The articles that are ideal for Macroeconomics are those short articles that tell of a change in for example unemployment in recent times and gives some reasons for the change in unemployment. Alternatively you could be writing on inflation, but it is harder to find articles on that. Unemployment is imo the easiest to find articles on as there is always something in the media about the unemployment rate being such and such or going up or down or vertically to the right (which would be bogus because it is not possible!).

Recommended search phrases for unemployment: unemployment rate, unemployment -----> this right here will give you a ****load of articles so from here on you can just choose as you like.

When you have found your article you should identify what type of unemployment it is and outline why, how and what the effects of it are. For example for seasonal unemployment people are being unemployed because the season changes. Let's say it is September and that a lot of tourist guides are unemployed. That is due to the tourist season being over and therefore they do not have a job anymore. Effects of it would be that the unemployment rate of the country would rise and make the situation worse, or even worse because of the current situation. Also don't forget the diagram - it is crucial!

When doing your commentary take a look at these two guides for the body of your commentary and the evaluation of your commentary

tl;dr

your article is not good; find a new one

keywords for macroeconomics: consumer confidence, interest rate changes, aggregate demand, unemployment, inflation