Assignments must be completed individually. For each assignment, collect a news article, dated May 1 of this year at the earliest.

Assignment Questions

Background

Provide relevant background information and data necessary to understand the context of the policy mentioned in the article. Cite any additional reference used and provide credits for any graph, picture or data borrowed from another source.

Policy

What policy is the article about? What makes it a fiscal policy?

According to the article, what purpose is the policy intended to achieve?

 Analysis

Who stands to gain and who stands to lose from the policy? Why?

What unintended consequences may result from this policy, if any? (Does the policy encourage some people to behave in a way that could create other issues or inefficiencies down the road?)

Discussion

Does the policy follow a more Keynesian, Monetarist or Austrian approach? Why?

What other policy could have been followed instead to achieve the purpose mentioned in 2b? Explain. (Note that not doing anything can sometimes also be a policy.)