Reflection

A. What I learned in this class that will be most applicable to my understanding of the world is all the economic viewpoints. These economic viewpoints will be useful because it means I get a better perspective and can look at economics from a German view point. This view point will help me to understand the world in ways like dissecting transportation in geographical ways and understanding that different places in the world make different decisions based on different values to their society. 

B. I am interested in learning more about transportation in differing countries. I really want to know what effects transportation and why Europe is able to be so different in transportation than the United States.  I also would like to learn more about international trade. What are the exact economic factors that affect trade and how do countries try to get the best out of their trade deals? 

C. I would advise the next year students to work ahead of time. To try and start projects, papers and blog posts early. Also take notes on the reading so that you can have precise examples from the reading to add to the next class’s discussion. Also make sure to have a basic understanding of economics and if not talk to any economics professor about economics to get different explanations that might make more sense to you.  

Speculation and expectations for the future

1. In this article it is easy to see that Germany is not untouched by what is happening in Europe. Many companies and people are feeling very pessimistic about the future of German exports. German banks still believe that there will be a turnaround for exports and one in eight expect exports to fall. Also German economic growth has been greatly reduced. It has only grown 0.1 percent from January to March. 

2. This topic really relates to GDP. In particular in pertains to the GDP formula we covered in class. Because of the decrease in exports our formula ( C+I+G+Net Exports) will show that GDP will decrease. Also because of the decrease in optimism for exports the consumption will also go down. This leads to Germany's GDP falling, which is not good at all for Germany's economy. 

3. It will be very hard to fix this situation. The best way would be to find a way to increase optimism in exports. If companies have more faith in their exports then the economies GDP will not fall as much or any because consumption will not go down but instead will probably rise. Another solution would be to break away from the European Union. Nine out of the seventeen countries in the Union are in a recession and holding Germany's economy down. This solution would have terrible consequences for the other countries.