Assignment 2: The Multiplier Effect

1. Go to “FRB: Press Release—FOMC statement—December 16, 2009.”
2.  You should now find a press release from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, dated December 16, 2009, which discusses the decisions of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) for that date.

This release also states that the Federal Reserve is in the process of purchasing $1.25 trillion of agency mortgage backed securities and about $175 billion of agency debt. Additionally, the release states that the FOMC has decided to gradually reduce “the pace” of such Fed purchases. Discuss why you believe that the FOMC has made such a decision, and explain the consequences of such a decision on the economy.

In your answer, discuss the Federal Reserve’s use of open market operations to influence the money supply and the respective consequences of such actions. Include a discussion of the money multiplier effect in your response. Justify your conclusions and provide appropriate examples.

Using Microsoft Word, submit your responses in the form of a short paper (1 ½ 2 pages).

By  October2, 2014, submit your responses to the M4: Assignment 2 Dropbox.

## Send to the Discussion Forum five topics you think would make valid studies for a sociologist and tell why you think a sociologist would be interested in them. ## 

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We talked about common sense and the need for sociological research in, but I want us to discuss it a little further. Quite often we have heard or have said, ?Why, that?s just common sense.? Common sense has helped a lot of us through various situations in our lives, but it really can?t be relied on as a source of knowledge because it?s quite limited (How much common sense does one have?) and what we feel is ?correct? often is not. What may seem ?right? for you or is considered as common sense to you may not be for me. 

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## Send to the Discussion Forum five things you think are common sense concepts, e.g., common sense tells us it?s foolish to cross the street when the light is green. ## 

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When sociologists do research, they work from a model which has eight Basic Steps. First they choose a topic that generally will have the following criteria for doing the study. 

Curiosity: Why do certain behaviors lead to certain outcomes? Why is it that two children raised by the same methods (it doesn?t matter if they are from upper or lower income families) turn out differently? One reaches their potential, the other doesn?t. 

Interest: A particularly interesting topic surfaces and sparks interest in the researcher. 

Funding: Often, grants from Federal, state, and local governments become available to study certain topics, e.g., what has made society so conducive to the formation of gangs? 

Social Issues: Social issues of global to local significance attract sociologists? attention. Things like drug cultures, unemployment, gangs, urban blight, etc. 

Second, once the problem is identified, it must be defined. Then they will ask, ?What do we want to learn and why?? 

Third, they will take a look at any existing data or literature that is 
available. What have previous studies (if any) shown? What methods of study were used? When and where was the data collected? (Time, year, etc.) 

Fourth, they will develop a hypothesis. What are the expected relationships between all of the variables according to what our theory predicts? Are they congruent or are there differences. If so why? (The hypothesis needs 
to have operational definitives, i.e. If this happens, a particular event, emotion, etc. then we can expect this result by this time.) It is very important that precise ways are used in measuring hypotheses. 

Fifth, the choice of a research method is critical. Some methods will not work as well or at all when you are collecting data. Surveys, questionnaires, etc., all have to be specifically written and administered to obtain ?scientific? results. The way questions are asked can ?skew? the data. You cannot ?load? the dice. 

Sixth, validity and reliability are two issues of utmost importance when collecting data. You must have a method that will produce the results it was designed for (Validity) and the results are consistent throughout the sample (Reliability). 

Seventh is analyzing the data. Several methods can be used singly or in combination with other methods to analyze the data. Testing for correlations, doing statistical analysis, analyzing content, etc., are all used. The advent of the computer has helped to compress the amount of time it takes to get the results. Often predictions can be made quite accurately with data as soon as it starts coming in, for example, election results. 

Eighth is the sharing of results, e.g., presentations at seminars and conferences. Articles published in journals and scientific magazines and lectures in university classes are all ways of getting results to the public and others interested. Other sociologists may want to duplicate a specific study (called Replication) and compare the results to see if they continue to be reliable. 

Your consulting firm has been hired to develop a program that meets the following requirements.

Your program must provide a menu to the user. This menu should list five different products of your choice. Once the user selects one product, they should specify which state they are located. The state choices should include CT, VT, WI, CA and WA. State taxes vary for each state (7.5%, 7.8%, 6.8%, 7.2% and 6.4%, respectively). The user should then specify the desired number of cases (assume there are 12 items per case). The appropriate state tax should be added to the total cost of the product (Item quantity multiplied by unit price). Next, using the Math class random method, generate 20 numbers ranging between 1 100. Ensure there are no duplicates.

Display the following to the user.

• Name of the product selected
• Number of cases
• Number of items
• Subtotal (units * price per unit)
• State tax (with the percentage and state abbreviation in parentheses),
• Total cost (subtotal plus state tax)
• The table of random numbers displayed in a table of five numbers per row

Requirements:

You need to use at least one repetition statement, one selection statement, Scanner class, at least one array and the random method in this code. For generating random numbers you should use the random () static method of class Math. It returns a double so you will need to cast it as an integer. For example,

number = (int) ( range * Math.random () ) + 1;

THIS assignment  MUST  include your Java program with commented Java source code files.

MUST BE ORIGINAL AND NON PLAGARIZED,

Jordan

   In this video Daniel Pink talks about the results of years of scientific research on the topic of motivation in the workplace.  He highlights the importance of autonomy, mastery and monetary incentives as key elements in terms of motivating employees.  He points out the obvious that an employee must be paid accordingly and if they feel they are underpaid then they will not be motivated in the first place.  However, what I found particularly interesting is the mastery element.  Pink says that scientific research has shown that employees that feel progress in their job are significantly more motivated then those that do not feel progress is being made by their labor.  I relate to this extremely well.  Unfortunately in my current unit with the Army there has been absolutely no progress in the almost 2 years that I have been there.  In fact, my job as a satellite communications operator has transformed into a janitor/maintenance person.  I have become increasingly frustrated with my daily tasks and lack of progression.  Thankfully, my time in the military comes to an end in 3 weeks and I blame the lack of progression for my strong desire to move on from the military.  I think Daniel Pink’s assessments and studies on what truly motivates employees is accurate and would be a beneficial 8 minute video to show all managers.

Joana

Daniel Pink’s theory is that autonomy, mastery and purpose are the factors that motive people.  While tangible rewards and money are good motivators, the effectiveness of these tactics diminish over time.   Even more than money, people need to feel as if they have control and a sense of accomplishment. 

I frequently see examples of this at work.  We have employees that support different contracts.  On one we have help desk employees that have almost every aspect of their job spelled out down to the amount of time they can keep a customer on the phone.  Then we have engineers and developers that have complete control over how their job is performed.  I find that we have the most performance problems with the help desk employees, while our engineers are more productive because they have a personal stake in the work that they do. 

In most cases, employees want a positive outcome for whatever they are tasked with, but there is a certain amount of pride involved when someone achieves success on their own accord.  Even if the project fails, they are able to learn from the experience and will be better prepared for future challenges.

5 2

Marcus 09/18:

Jim Collins would argue that you have to find and employ self motivated people and that trying to motivate people is a waste of time:

Employing self motivated people is ideal in a business. However, even if people are self motivated normally, if there are not necessary conditions established in a work place, those self motivated people could get loose motivation. According to the article of “How Self Motivated Are You?”, “Self motivation doesn’t come naturally to everyone and even those who are highly self motivated need some extra help now and then.” Intrinsic motivation is necessary for a long term and complex tasks. According to Daniel Pink (What Really Motivates workers, 2010), people need to feel that the work is interesting and they should be able to progress in their work. They should be able work around their flexible schedule and they should feel that they do very important tasks that transcend them and the importance of work is larger than them. I think that the employer should provide necessary environment to keep people motivated. Self motivation for personal things might not be enough for a business that they don’t own. For example, I consider myself self motivated. I can be motivated for certain things. However, when it comes to working for others, in order to keep me motivated, I should have the three factors of intrinsic motivation which are autonomy, mastery and purpose. Similarly, I believe that no matter how self motivated a person is, the employer should motivated the employees by providing the three ingredients of intrinsic motivation which are autonomy, mastery and purpose. 

Michael  Thomas

 I believe that you can motivate people. That being said I do believe that following Jim Collins strategy would be a good move. By hiring employees that are self motivated you save time and resources. Instead of having managers that need to be constantly pestering employees or keeping a constant eye on them a manager can put themselves to better use. A company can also save money. A proven motivating option is monetary reward or giving a cash bonus for production. If a company’s employees are self motivated there is no need for these cash bonuses, which would allow the company to put this money to better use.

Where Jim Collins is wrong is that motivating people is a waste of time. There are plenty of people out there that lack motivation. Sometimes some of the brightest people in the world lack motivation because they are unchallenged. If one of these people came in for an interview for Jim Collins company and he let them walk away to another company that could come back to haunt him. If a manager can realize what they need for motivation who knows where the ceiling is for that person.

All in all both sides have a good argument. However, if I were the manager I would take chances on people I think would be very successful with some motivation. Self motivation is not a trait everyone possesses so chances need to be taken on some people.