Federal Reserve

     There are only 12 Federal Reserve Banks in the country. One is located very near, in Chicago. My
friends and I decided to go and check it out. We went to the museum in the reserve. The
first thing that caught my eye was the game to see if the money was real or not. One of
the money on display had a completely different color. It was difficult to tell whether or
not it was real or not. At first I got a lot wrong but then I started to get the hang of it. They had a poster there to detect if money real of not. Since replicating it used to be easy, they made it a little harder to recognize now. The portrait was enlarged making easy to see, but there was also little detail added so that it was harder to replicate. If you haven't noticed on a dollar bill or any other bill there is a blank spot off to the side this is where they have a watermark. A watermark can be created by
varying the paper density in small areas during the paper making process. This is done so
that when they hold the bill up to the light you can see the face from both sides of the bill.
They have also started a security thread. A security threat is a polymer thread indicating
that the notes denomination is embedded vertically on the paper in different locations.
Money also has a fine line breeding patterns to find mines a really hard replicate because
they are small and they are in various colors in specific places. Another feature of money
is micro-printing. Micro-printing appears in a different location in each denomination
because micro printed words are so small they are even harder to reproduce. To the
naked eye the micro printing may seem like thin lines but in reality when you use a low
power of magnifier you can make out words. Another features the color-shifting ink,
personally I thought this was the coolest feature. This color-shifting Ink made the green
numbers in the lower right corner on the front of the bill to appear black when they are
viewed the different angle there is no color shifting Ink in the five dollar bill. After reading
this and learning the differences, I replayed the game and was able to get most of them
just by looking at them. Some had a distinct color differences.
     Another thing that was interesting was the money timeline. On this board there was a time
line with pictures of the different types of money the U.S. Has used since 1690. In 1690
there were Colonial Notes. The Massachusetts Bay colony should the first paper money
to cover the cost of military expeditions soon dear the other 13 original colonies started
using paper notes. In 1764 they start using the British Ban. In 1785 the Congress adopted
the dollar as the official money unit of the United States of America. The first general
circulation the paper money by the US government began with greenbacks in 1861. In
1905 the US started printing currency with a gold tinted background and a red seal and
serial-number. The motel in God we trust started being printed on all the currencies in
1955 by law. By 1990 they have developed the security threat in the microphone thing so
that it would be harder to replicate the money. In 1996 there is a currency redesign the
first significant design change in 67 years. The US redesigned its currency to incorporate
a series of new counterfeit to obstacles. New designs will be undertaken every 7 to 10
years to stay ahead of counterfeits. Into thousand three the US government started to
use subtle background colors beginning with the $20 note. The different colors and
different bills help consumers to differentiate between denominations. They continue to
do this with the other bills.
     This experience was definitely a good one. I learned a lot about different currencies. We
got to take pictures with the million dollars, which in my opinion was really interesting.

I side with....

    Social security needs to expand to cover the costs of the quickly aging population. Bernie sanders wants to end elderly poverty rate by removing or raising the cap placed on the taxable income that goes back into social security. Social security keeps millions senior citizens out of poverty. Before social security was around, about of the senior citizen population were in poverty. With social security, fewer than 10% of all senior citizens live in poverty. This huge difference is all made by what some of us rely on.  Bernie refutes Republican views, which claim that social security “is going broke.”

   Bernie has introduced his plan in order to raise the cap on taxable income so that the upper class ($250,000 a year) will pay the amount towards social security as middle and lower class earnings. He also did not agree with the idea to raise the social security age. This would mean that the elderly would have to wait longer in order to receive their social security. Lifting the cap will allow social security payments to rise about $65 a month. “The social security expansion act will ultimately expand retirement benefits for the retirement program and would only impact the top 1.5% of wage owners.” Many people work hard their lives. At this point in a senior citizens life, they do not need to invest anymore, their job is essentially over. The elderly would be using their extra money for something of their interest, which is something difficult to achieve.

    I agree with Bernie. Lifting the cap would allow the government to invest more money in social security which would ultimately increase the “life expectancy” of social security. The increase in spending of the money from the elderly would also stimulate our economy and increase our GDP causing an increase in aggregate demand as shown in the graph. 

Cap and Trade

There is so much pollution in today's' society. Every where you look there is some sort of pollution whether it be from the cars or your snow blower. Cap and trade is a tool to protecting the environment by controlling amounts of emissions into the environment. A carbon tax is taxing the people for the right to pollute. Many people will not stop driving their car in order to stop polluting. The people would be willing to pay more if it meant that they can still use their car.In "Carbon Tax V cap-and-trade: which is better?" it states that cap and trade sets a maximum level of pollution and distributes emission permits among the firms that produce the emission. This is showing how cap and trade works. A cap and trade takes more control than in a tax. This is because the government has a set amount of supply that the firm can use. This limits them and makes them rethink how conserve the emission. In addition to this, the article "We Need a Well-Designed Cap-and-Trade program to fight global warming" states that a Cap and trade is not enough alone. The government must do more to bring down the carbon emissions. There should be "Parallel Policies." This means that the government should also provide a full range of clean technology. If the government sets a cap on the supply, the consumers are going to find other ways to fill in those needs. In order to let that happen, there needs to be a wide range of technologies. This is why a cap-and-trade is more beneficial to have a higher motivation in finding alternatives. In a Carbon tax, the article "Carbon Tax V cap-and-trade: which is better?" states that it gives an incentive to reduce pollution.  I believe that this would not work to bring the over all carbon emission down. This is because although the taxes would be raised, people would still find it in their budget to pay more in order to keep their goods and services. People cherish the cars they drive and would do anything to drive them. Along with this the government would have to find the exact level of taxing. So putting a tax on the carbon emission is not the most effective way of reducing the emission. This would not solve the problem to reduce the amounts of emission into the environment. 

In the picture is shows the curve for Taxing and for a cap and trade. The cap and trade has the supply curve going straight up and down. This is the limit to the carbon emissions. This stimulates research and innovation to find alternatives to bring the emission rate down.

Gas

Everyone hates that time of the week. When the car runs out of gas and need to go fill up more. Everyone dreads the prices of the gas because no one every knows what its going to be. The New York times article Gas, Still Not as Cheap as It Used to Be demonstrates how supply and demand controls how much you but gas. Supply is how much of a product there is and demand is how much the consumers want the product. For example, if a determinant for supply, like technology and resources, increase then the easier it is to get oil. This causes a decrease in the price of oil. Another example is that if there is an oil spill, then there is limited supply and the prices go up. This allows the seller to increase the prices to as much the consumers would buy.

Economics in our Everyday Lives

Do you ever have to weigh your options and have to pick between two things? Well that is opportunity cost. Opportunity cost is what you give up in order to get what you want. Soccer Fest is a soccer tournament that happens every year the weekend before labor day weekend. It takes place over the course of three days in three different locations. Over three hundred teams from Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin take part in this event. They need many workers to keep everything working smoothly for example, field marshals and referees. I worked all weekend as a referee in the cold and rain. I had the option of staying home in the warmth and relaxing with my family and friends but instead I chose to work in the cold and rain and give up my time to make a good amount of money. Another example would be this weekend at September Fest. Instead of having fun with my friends at September Fest, I chose to stay home to study for math test that I need to get above an 80% in order to stay in that class. You may not know it, but subconsciously we use opportunity cost all the time.