Posted: April 17th, 2015

Comparing government balance deficitssurpluses as a percentage of GDP in the U.S., Japan, Germany, and Greece

Instructions:
The objective of this activity is to give students an opportunity to do independent research aimed at searching, locating, and presenting real world macroeconomic data in class with a comment on their significance.

Summary of the work done (200-300 words plus their final charts in word format).

First, you should give the definitions of surplus, deficit and what is the difference between debt and deficit. Then, please, try to explain briefly, what is happening in each graphs for each country. (In the great recession, unemployment was high, wages was stagnated, governments revenue decreases and government expenditure goes up, because spending on (for example on unemployment benefits)). In addition, that is why the line goes down, in recession. Try to explain why some countries recovered so quickly, while others take longer. That is the kind of what I am expecting. The whole paper is more of what could be the reason for the decline (deficit) in each country it has not to be perfectly right.