1. How is the unemployment rate officially calculated? See https://openstax.org/books/principles-macroeconomics-2e/pages/8-1-how-economists-define-and-compute-unemployment-rate( Making sure to provide numbers, describe what has happened to the unemployment rate in the last 10 years. See this graph of the unemployment rate: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UNRATE(Links to an external site.) How does the unemployment rate in recent months compare with the unemployment compare with unemployment during the 2007-2009 recession (see the gray-shaded time period)?

2. Labor underutilization can be measured in different ways. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf(Links to an external site.) Go to Table A-15 (near the bottom of the report) and find the U-3 measure of labor underutilization. Then, find the U-6 measure. How big is the difference between U-6 and U-3? What is included in U-6 that is not included in U-3?

3. Watch this eight-minute video on inflation: https://www.wsj.com/video/what-the-inflation-of-the-1970s-can-teach-us-today/760A9529-5532-4103-9B70-75C942F5F297.html?mod=hp_lead_pos7(Links to an external site.)

Discuss the experience with inflation in the 1970s. What happened to inflation during that time? How does it compare with the inflation of the 1960s and the period after the 1970s? What is stagflation? What did the Federal Reserve do about inflation during Paul Volcker's chairmanship? What was the impact on the economy? How does the recent experience with inflation compare with the 1970s? Should the same thing be done now? Explain.