UMGC ECON201 Week 5 Business Plans Part 2

Format of the Project:

The Data Exercise must be posted to the LEO Student Assignments as a Attachments are limited to a maximum two files in doc, docx., xls. xlsx., or rtf. formats. OTHER FORMATS ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE, will not be reviewed or graded.

Please note that hand-written and scanned works, pdf. files, jpg. files, as well as files posted in google drive, will not be accepted or graded.

Please note that starting from the Fall 2020 semester the UMGC moved to the 7th Edition of the APA Style. The links to the 7th Edition of the APA Style methodology are posted in Content – Course Resources – Writing Resources.

No more than 20% of the text of the project should be made up of quotes.

Please note that Use of the 7th Edition APA Citation Methodology is required for all parts of the assignment

Written projects must be:

1.            typed, double-spaced, in 12-point Times New Roman or Arial font, with margins no wider than one inch

2.            have footnotes or endnotes, with correct citations

3.            have a bibliography of sources used

4.            include, for each entry, the author, title, city and state of publisher, publisher’s name, year, and page numbers

5.            prepared using word processing software (Microsoft Word preferred), in a manner similar to the preparation of a written assignment for classroom submission

DATA EXERCISE #2

Consists of three parts

Part 2: The Inflation Rate (weight 30% of the assignment grade)

Complete the following exercise:

Visit the Bureau of Labor Statistics Web Site,

www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.toc.htm(http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.toc.htm). You will be using “Consumer Price Index Summary” and the “Table 1 Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U): U. S. city average, by expenditure category “.

Please note that using the data from previously published releases and summaries will produce grade zero for this part of the project.

Write a report (1 – 2 pages double spaced) in your own wordsto answer the questions:

1.            What month (and year) is summarized? What was the levelof the CPIU for that month? (See Table 1 “Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers”). What does this number represent?

2.            What was the rate of inflation (percentage change in the CPIU) for the last available month? How does that rate of inflation compare with the rate in the previous month?

3.            What was the rate of inflation (percentage change in the CPIU) for the last 12 months for “all items”?

4.            Which two categories of goods or services had the greatest price increase for the last 12 months?Which two categories of goods or services had the lowest price increase for the last 12 months?

5.            Which two categories of goods or services had the largest price decrease for the last 12 months?

6.            Who loses from inflation?

7.            Who benefits from inflation?

8.            Please analyze and discuss the significance of the data that you received for this Data Exercise. Reflect on what you have learned from this exercise.