The objective of this report is to familiarize students with contemporary, real life issues and events in economics as related to the subject matter covered in this course. This project requires students to understand and apply leading, lagging, and/or coincident economic indicators, to identify and describe the overall state of a subject economy within the U.S. Economy. Basically, using current and relevant economic indicators and course concepts to describe economic conditions in a region of the United States. It should be clear to the reader your description and estimate of the US economy and at what phase of the business cycle the U.S economy currently appears to be in. Think of the "mother of all cycles". Here is a suggested outline: Section I - Description of Memphis Tennessee (Shelby County) Economy - i) What is the general condition of Memphis, Tennessee (Shelby County economy: contracting (recession), or expansion, peak or trough. ii) Interest rates and other market benchmarks such as DOW, S&P 500, NASDAQ. ( important to apply) key commodities such as gold and oil (go to markets.wsj.com or bloomberg.com for latest data) iii) Employment, Inflation, CPI, leading, lagging, and coincident economic indicators. iv) Other ( e.g. impact of political issues, world events, and or other factors that a "policy maker or concerned citizen would want to know", that will, or is affecting the economy (exogenous). v) Apply course content such as Income or Expenditures Approach to measuring GDP, fiscal policy, monetary policy, and international trade, and any models or theories you may find are helpful. vi) Describe conditions such as employment markets using applications such as welfare economics to make in Memphis, Tennessee (Shelby County) your points, apply critical thinking in the realm of normative economics.