"Economics is the study of how human beings coordinate their wants and desires, given the decision-making mechanisms, social customs, and political realities of the society" (Colander 2007, p. 4). This special area of study deals with three key coordination problems any economy must solve: what to produce, how to produce it, and for whom to produce it (Colander, 2004, p. 5). Specifically, macroeconomics is a branch of economics that deals with the performance, structure, and behavior of a national economy as a whole (Wikipedia Website, 2007, Macroeconomics section).
Economics is widely accepted as a unique area of study. It examines the concepts of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Real GDP, unemployment rate, inflation, and interest rate. This area of study gives further consideration to other concepts, like a circular flow diagram that illustrates the interaction of households, government, and business. In this analysis, I will describe how current economic conditions are effecting your organization or one which you are familiar. I will also identify the most important economic indicator affecting your organization and explain why.
Gross domestic product (GDP) is one of the ways of measuring the size of an economy (Wikipedia Website, 2007, Gross Domestic Product section). "The GDP of a country is defined as the total market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period of time (usually a calendar year)." Real Gross Domestic Product (real GDP) is the market value of final goods and services produced in an economy, stated in the prices of a given year (Colander, 2004, Glossary section).
When the U.S. economy is slowing down or is in a recession, the unemployment rate will go up (Colander, 2004 ...