The assignment should be presented as a Journal opinion article and Essay - 1

The assignment should be presented as a Journal opinion article and address an economic issue of current interest to Wall Street - Essay Example A recent report showed that around 155,000 jobs were added in December in order to handle the unemployment situation in U.S economy. However, the rate of unemployment remains unchanged and stood at 7.8%. Faster job creation is required that is around 300,000 or more in order to bring the rate of unemployment at desired level. Policy makers are enjoying sweet repose as annual inflation stays at satisfactory level. Over the past 12 months, only an increase of 1.8% has been seen in consumer prices. When it comes to Household Debt, it has been observed that credit card debt has declined to 16.5% and consumers remain cautious. It will enable Americans to spend a little, as economy gets better. Despite of it, certain types of debt are still rising such as student loans. Fresh graduates are not being able to find well-paying jobs. Prices of Homes continues to move up as market condition of real estate improves. As unemployment goes down, there is more chance of further improvement. As far a s Gas Prices are concerned, although they fell last year, they have again started to back up. Gas prices rely on cost of oil, which has increased to double after the recession has ended. As economic conditions get better, there would be an upsurge in demand of oil, which will ultimately increase the prices of gas. For Equity Markets, the combination of low inflation and slow growth is usually good for stocks. Forecasters seek adequate gains from blue chip companies. Certainly, it will lead investors to continue to invest in stocks. Critical Analysis In this article, the author has mentioned the impact of post-recession economic conditions on American families. Several areas have been highlighted in order to provide brief insight of how this area affects American families. In this article the author states that the economic condition in United States has been improving for the past 3 years yet, it does not stand at the point where it should be. I believe that this point is not valid because the economy of United States experienced worst recession in 2008. Usually after recession, the economy gets stabilize but in this case, it was referred to as Double-Dip Recession. It means that after the initial recession, there was very slowly recovery, which was followed by another recession. Analysts predicted that there is threat of United States getting bankrupt. If it happens then it will drown many another economies with itself. Therefore, after all such chaos, even if the economy is heading towards improvement then it must not be criticized. Despite of discussing all the integral components of an economy, the author showed least linkage of these factors with American families and their influence on them. Brief information was given on the concluding note that outlook is encouraging for people having stable housing, good credit and secure jobs. The author concluded that recovery will be weakening and there will be less help for those who are underemployed or unemploye d. It would not do well to them who have lost their homes. At the end, the author transits to building more ambitious budget reforms. Without such reforms, there is a threat that current slow growth will become entrenched in the form of economic stagnation. Thus, by the analysis of this article it can be concluded that as mentioned by the economic indicators, the economic cond