Federal Reserveinstein
The Fed is legally required to promote maximum employment and this type of price level.
What are stable prices (low inflation)?
The total dollar value of all flying broomsticks and pumpkin potions newly produced inside a country's physical borders in a single year.
GDP
The monthly index published by the BLS that tracks the cost of a fixed market basket of cauldron ingredients purchased by urban trick-or-treaters.
CPI
Decisions made by the Witch Council (Congress and the President) regarding taxation and spending levels.
What is Fiscal Policy?
Superstition holds that if a creature of this specific color crosses your path on a dark night, it brings bad luck.
black cat
When the Fed wants to stimulate a sluggish economy, does it make interest rates go UP or DOWN?
DOWN
In the ghastly GDP spending formula (C + I + G + NX), the letter "C" represents what
consumer spending
Wholesale prices received by domestic potion manufacturers before items reach retail store shelves are tracked by this index.
PPI
The massive spending hole dug when the Haunted Treasury spends more gold than it collects in taxes over a single year.
What is a Deficit?
In the 1988 classic movie, repeating this bio-exorcist ghost's name three times summons him from the afterlife.
beetlejuice
When the Fed buys loans from commercial banks, does cash available for loans INCREASE or DECREASE?
INcrease
A flying broomstick manufactured by a U.S. firm in a Transylvanian castle is included in Gross National Income (GNI), but excluded from U.S. GDP for this geographic reason.
because it was produced outside U.S. physical borders?
When consumer confidence plummets because monsters fear job cuts, portfolio managers shield their wealth by rotating into these safe stock categories like grocery stores and electric utilities.
Defensive stocks
When Uncle Sam's skeleton borrows heavily by issuing new bonds to fund a deficit, market interest rates move in this direction.
What is UP (or higher)?
Before pumpkins became popular in North America, Irish immigrants carved the original Jack-o'-lanterns out of this purple root vegetable.
Turnips
The percentage amount of cash banks are legally forced to keep in their vaults that cannot be loaned out.
reserve requirements
A horrifying economic spell defined as rising zombie unemployment and declining aggregate national output lasting for more than two consecutive quarters.
What is a Recession?
Spooky government bonds (TIPS) automatically increase in value as this price-rising monster surges, protecting an investor's capital.
inflation
The baseline price of money paid on short-term U.S. Treasury bills with zero risk or inflation.
What is the Real Risk-Free Rate
The British author who was only 18 years old when she wrote the famous 1818 gothic horror novel Frankenstein.
Mary Shelley
The policy stance used by the Fed when it pulls money out of the economy to cool down inflation.
What is Contractionary Monetary Policy?
This scary economic rollercoast has expansion period, recession periods, peaks, and troughs
business cycles
Central bankers fear falling prices (deflation) because monster wages are sticky downward, causing reduced corporate revenues to lead to this terrifying market result.
What are widespread job cuts / high unemployment?
The extra interest fee charged on a loan given to a reckless werewolf based on his bad credit score and likelihood of flaking on repayment.
What is the Default Risk Premium?
The 1962 novelty hit song by Bobby "Boris" Pickett that shot to #1 on the Billboard charts right before Halloween.
Monster mash