Every story must be unique (no repeats).  Once you have selected the story, read or listen to it, and select the best quote that summarizes the argument that is being presented.  Then write a one paragraph summary of that article and how it corresponds to economic growth and/or national wealth, this week's theme.

Lastly, you must respond to one other story by another student.  You may follow-up on their perspectives or you may challenge their thinking.  As always, be diplomatic in your discourse.  If someone does respond to your prompt, it is your obligation to then respond to that person's comments on your piece.   

"Trump in September called for a “national goal” of 4 percent economic growth while also saying his plans would create an average of 3.5 percent expansion over 10 years. His Treasury secretary nominee, Steven Mnuchin, told lawmakers Thursday in his confirmation hearing that “we should be able to get to” a sustained rate of 3 percent to 4 percent growth."

President Trump is aiming for a 4% growth for the economy, as he desires to add 25 million jobs and renegotiate trade deals to achieve the aforementioned goals in the quote. Many economists consider this proposal and goal to be a major stretch, as the record number of jobs added in a 10 year span was 24.4 million.

"Moore says that unless the economy returns to 3% or 4% growth, "there's just now way we're going to get enough revenue growth, even if we cut spending to the bone, to balance [the U.S. ] budget."

That's because there are two sources of growth — workforce population and productivity, he explained" (Michelle Fox 2017).

Trump claims that he can achieve 3.5% economic growth but former Labor Secretary Robert Reich says he is not able to. He explains that this cannot be achieved because there is no boom in productivity meaning there is low to no growth in the GDP. In this article, economic growth is defined as growth in gross domestic product. Unlike our definition, this article's definition does not include population growth rate meaning that their economic growth does not factor in how fast a population is growing and they only focus on GDP growth not per capita GDP growth. So when we look at his claims, they are a little more attainable than when we use our traditional economic growth definition. Larry Kudlow, a CNBC contributor then argues against Reich saying that Trump's tax cuts with actually increase productivity which is essential to GDP growth and thus, economic growth. Reich then comes back to argue that corporations are already making so much money that a tax break will not have any effect on their productivity. Overall, this article directly deals with this week's topic of economic growth because the author of this article goes on to directly look at Trump's claims on economic growth and goes on to analyze the legitimacy of his claims by using their equation for economic growth.

It has been projected that India is going to be the third-largest GDP growth engine in the world by 2030. The first factor that is powering India’s economic growth is the shift toward urbanization. It has been seen that once states and cities grow around 35 percent, productivity benefits occur. More populated cities and larger urban centers are becoming more interactive with the rest of the world and markets due to the higher GDP per capita. This is allowing citizens of India to have better consumer opportunities such as better healthcare and education. Government control and technology are also major influences for economic growth. 

"Between 2006 and 2014, GDP growth averaged 4.3%, driven by high oil prices and substantial external financing. This stimulus enabled increased social spending and important investments, especially in the energy and transportation sectors, as well as in education. According to official country information, poverty declined from 37.6% to 22.5% during that period. The Gini Index decreased from 0.54 to 0.47, given that growth benefitted the poorest population more than other segments."

The article was written in 2016 by the World Bank on Ecuador. This article talks about recent changes in Ecuador that have helped their economy but have also hurt it. As seen above in just eight years between the tine span of 2006 to 2014 the poverty decline a staggering 15.1% and the GDP growth was averaged at 4.3%. However, recent disasters have struck when they decreased their oil prices which increased poverty. Also there was an earthquake that struck that costed 3 percentage points of GDP. In order to fix these problems Ecuador on March 15, 2016, the World Bank Group Executive Board approved the Country Engagement Note (CEN) for Ecuador. With this partnership the World Bank has created three projects to help support Ecuador and there have been positive results. The roads have improved, irrigation systems have been rehabilitated, and income has increased for certain workers. This article corresponds to economic growth and national wealth because it is looking at a country that is making projects and is trying to better its economy and the well being of their citizens.

As a result of declining oil prices, Saudi Arabia's economy, which is heavily reliant on oil, has begun to steadily reduce expansion. Although the oil sector of the economy exemplified growth of 5.1%, all other sectors appeared to have decreased by .7%. Additionally, the non-oil private sector grew by a minuscule .2% and the government sector actually shrunk by 2.6%. In recent years, economic growth forecasts have been noted to be inaccurate. For example, in the fourth quarter of 2015 it was predicted that Saudi's economy would see a growth rate of 3.6%, but in reality, that growth amounted to half of the estimate, resulting in a growth rate of 1.8%. Currently there is an emphasis on expanding the non-oil sector in order to compensate with poor oil growth. Another option for the government of Saudi Arabia to attempt to stimulate growth is to increase spending, since the central bank holds about $537 billion in net foreign assets.

The prospect of turning that potential into profits has lured a parade of foreign executives to India: the CEOs of Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30), Google (GOOGL, Tech30) and Apple (AAPL, Tech30) have all visited the country in the past year."

India's economy is currently among the fastest growing in recent years. Its smart and youthful population makes it a country on the rise, with a very bright future. Their GDP growth rate is currently around 7% annually , as compared to the United States which is around 2% annually. There are many factors that contribute to India's fast growing economy. This includes the many companies that choose to produce overseas in India, due to the lower labor costs. The country's young and bright population is leading major companies to expand to India and begin producing goods there and open international headquarters to thrive in their growing economy. India's economic growth is showing little signs of slowing down, and is expected to keep its fast pace growth in the future, with much of the credit due to the middle classes willingness to spend, and their youthful and bright population.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahsu/2016/07/13/chinas-stock-market-crash-one-year-later/2/#4e7c23935ca8
"Investors, particularly foreign investors, are nonplussed about China’s stock market troubles and have been loath to invest in Chinese equities. Further dampening market sentiment is the fact that the economy is facing mounting challenges to reform, due to high levels of corporate debt and lower levels of growth, in addition to the political challenge posed by vested interests."


This article sheds light on the improvements of the Chinese stock market crash (2015-2016) one year after. This article is an example of how the loanable funds market makes up the foundation of the economy. Since the country has a lot of debt, outside investors do not feel comfortable loaning the country money to help it get back on its feet. A year after the crash, the country was able to increase the growth of their economy, however since they are no longer a trustworthy system to invest money into, it is difficult for that growth to continue. This shows how human nature and incentives are the backbone to the economic system. Since the foreign investors no longer feel confident that they will be repaid there is not as much of a money flow into the country. This article is an example of how economic growth is tied with the loanable funds market as well as the credibility of borrowers in the market.

This article talks about how Netanyahu savagely cut the Israeli budget in an attempt to salvage the nation after an economic crisis in 2002. The minimum income allowance was cut by 25% (and is still 22% below its 2002 level). Unemployment benefits were lowered by 50% (and today are still 24% below its 2002 level). Child allowances were halved and continued to drop, and are today 29% below the 2002 level. Fifteen years later, there have been some unintended consequences to Netanyahu’s extreme actions. Because the budget is so trimmed, the education in Israel is falling behind. As the quotes demonstrates, the education Israeli students are given is not up to par whatsoever. With less educated workers entering the workforce, the economy will not be able to grow as effectively

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“If officials at the Fed and in the Trump administration try to run the economy a little hot — to keep pursuing faster growth even as the economy gets close to or above potential G.D.P. — it would be a chance to do the reverse, to create a virtuous cycle. Trying it carries risks of its own — of inflation, and perhaps new financial bubbles. The alternative is to take the low-growth world we’ve been living in as an immutable fact of life, and get used to it.”

 This article discusses how here has been slow growth recently in the past decade, but there is still room for the U.S. to grow due to “slack”. It begins with introducing how the economy is on track to meet the “potential GDP” of 4%, which President Trump has said he hopes to reach. The big question that was discussed was if there is enough room for the economy to grow or if the U.S. has reached its maximum output. The article explains types of slack in the economy: factory operation rate of only 75.5% of its potential, how about 15% of office space was vacant during late 2016, and that due to the recession many workers gave up on finding a job and were/are not in the labor force anymore. 

 Then, the article transitions to how the government is able to change this trend and help the country hit its maximum growth. It explains how by not quickly raising interest rates, growth will continue since there will be more demand in the loanable funds market. Although, if the U.S. is close to full capacity, it says that either the Fed will raise interest rates to slow growth or inflation will increase, which can negatively affect the economy. There isn’t a specific solution given, but the Trump Administration could likely try to grow the economy faster to reach the maximum GDP and get out of this slow growth cycle. Overall, the article demonstrates the importance of the loanable funds market and how it can be used by the government (interest rate, controlling inflation) to either slowly or quickly grow the economy based on the amount of room that it can grow.

In the article, Leslie Shaffer examines the Bank of Japan's decision to raise its economic forecast. The previous prediction for economic growth was 1.3%, however, it was updated to 1.5% for the fiscal year 2017. The prediction for 2018 was raised as well. Japan's manufacturing and export appear to be making a promising recovery compared to what they've been in the past and right now Japan currently has the world's 3rd largest economy based on nominal GDP, so it will be interesting to see if they can keep up with the rapid growth of both the US and Chinese economies. After reading the article, I believe this is unlikely considering Japan lacks the raw materials and space that the Chinese and Americans have. In addition, inflation is showing indications of rising, which would drastically affect the economic forecast.

"Large-scale destruction amid the protraction of the current civil war will continue to damage the Syrian economy over the coming decade," the BMI Research team argued in a recent report.”

In addition to being a humanitarian nightmare, the ongoing Syrian conflict has wreaked havoc the country’s economy. The damage that has been done to human capital and infrastructure could diminish the future economic growth going forward. Even if the conflict ends within the next couple of years the Syrian economy could be experiencing the negative affects that it will leave behind. 

According to the article, the Syrian economy is expected to contract by 3.9% annually from 2016 and 2019. This will drag the economy to its early 1990s size, diminishing all past progress and growth. 

Since 2011, each component of Syria’s GDP have plummeted including two of their most prominent aspects, manufacturing and agriculture. According to Business Insider, all of Syrian’s exported goods have lost 80% of their real value from 2010 to 2015.

International sanctions also played a major role in the deterioration of the Syrian economy creating the country’s commercial imbalance with the drop in exports, especially in oil. Oil is one of Syria's most prominent contributors to their GDP, but the overall exportation and output have dropped significantly in recent years. The oil output decreased from 431,000 to 280,000 barrels as a result of the economic sanctions imposed on the Syrian government. 

It is projected that the Syrian economy will not return to any type of growth pattern until 2020. Syria will become increasingly reliant on external assistance, amid the depletion of their resources. 

The UK economy has not been impacted as much as many had predicted. While some economic measures have decreased, others have increased. For instance, as of December, the Major Purchase Index was five points higher than the year before, although the consumer confidence index was still lower than in the previous year. The pound fell dramatically after the Brexit vote in June but has recently been recovering; these fluctuations have hurt the nation in some ways (e.g. has increased import costs for manufactures) but have helped in others (e.g. the tourism industry has benefited). Other numbers, such as the unemployment rate, have changed since the Brexit vote, but Brexit has not yet been isolated as the cause.