Cenral Tendency In The News
Essay by Arletha • June 10, 2011 • 572 Words (3 Pages) • 2,071 Views
Activity 3: Central Tendency in the News
Arletha Skinner, PSY3011
NorthCentral University
Activity 3: Central Tendency in the News
As the Great Recession jeopardized several finanical institutions or caused their outright collapse, as in the case of Lehman Brothers, the federal government stepped in to assist economy. They did this by firing the A.I.G CEO, handing out bialouts to some automobile companies acquiring banking institutions.The article by Craig Torres "A Critique Fed Unemployment Forecast Fails to Bring Stimulus" concerns the federal government's measures to improve the economy and how others view these steps. In this essay, Iwill discuss Torres's Washington Post article and review its purpose, the data it contains, the measures of central tendency including examples, and whether the statistics are biased or present the entire story.
The type of data being examined is interval and ratio, measuring the order of numbers, as seen in the ratings of central bankers from 2.5% to 2.8% (Torres, 2010, p. 1). In another example, the article explains that the Standard and Poor's 500 Index dipped 0.1% to 1,095.17 after falling to 0.7% (p. 1).
The measures of central tendency statistics in the article involve the growth of the economy over the next two years, and the Fed's forecast predictions regarding the unemployment rate in the same period. The measurements used to describe the central tendency of the Fed's predictions of the unemployment rate in 2011 and 2012, as well as the economy's growth, are determined by percentages and ratios (Sprinthall, 2007). These illustrate that the unemployemnt rate should definitely increase, although people may not be able to return to work immediately (p. 2). For example, the article states that "[t]he unemployment rate was generally expected to remain noticeably noticeably above its long-run sustainable level for several years, and participants expressed concern about the extended duration of unemployment spells for a large number of workers" (Torres, 2010, p. 2). Torres also discusses how policy makers will review how the economy will grow from 3.5% to 4.5%
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