This discussion is designed to see if you can apply economics to real life situations.Please use your own personal experiences to answer the following discussion questions. If you do not have personal experiences, you can share examples of your family and/ or friends. This will show that you are able to make connections between what you learn in this class and what you encounter in the real world.

Now it is time to reflect on what you've learned in Module 03 and apply them in your daily lives.

Your participation in this Discussion demonstrates the following learning objectives:

• Describe a business cycle and the classification of labor market in the United States.
• Discuss how does the business cycle, inflation, and labor market affect your daily lives.

What to do:

After reading the Business Cycles, Unemployment, and Inflation chapter, share with us what will happen to the U.S. economy if the current trend of inflation continues.

For your reference, here are short audios from Marketplace and NPR about inflation in the United States.

For detailed reference, here is a New York Times article about soft landing in the United States economy.

Please use specific examples in your discussion post, such as inflation and unemployment which you or your family and friends encountered this year, to answer the following questions:

1. In your opinion, where are we in the current business cycle? (i.e., What phase of the business cycle is the United States currently in?) Please use the name of phases from your textbook. Why do you think so? Explain your answer in terms of economics.
2. Economically speaking, how does the inflation impact you, your family, and/or friends? Please provide specific examples from your own experiences.
3. Do you think there is a soft landing in the U. S. economy this year? Explain your answer in terms of economics and provide specific examples to support your answers.

Discussion Directions:

Your original post must be no less than 100 words and your replies must be no less than 40 words.* For full points, your original posts and replies to your peers should be insightful and add value to the discussion.

*Note: Questions from the discussion assignment cannot be counted as part of the 100 words. Students' names and greetings cannot be counted as part of the 40 words in your reply and the 100 words in your discussion post.

All discussions and replies must be written in complete sentences. If the post/reply consists only the word yes or no without any complete sentences, the yes and no posts/replies are NOT counted as posts/replies; and no points will be awarded for yes and no posts/replies.

https://www.marketplace.org/2024/03/12/apparel-prices-havent-budged-in-past-year/

https://www.npr.org/2023/12/16/1219574403/economy-inflation-prices-wages-disinflation-deflation-interest-rates

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/14/business/economy/jerome-powell-soft-landing.html