Overview
Using a survey of consumer confidence to help forecast demand
In this assignment, you are to (1) discuss the prospects for aggregate demand in the United States (the reference countries) and also a special country that has been assigned uniquely to you (Canada). By "prospects for aggregate demand" I mean looking ahead, in real time, a half-year or so (i.e., through the remainder of 2023 and into the first several months of 2025).
You are to use the index of consumer confidence of Ipsos and at least one other measure of the economy available monthly, for example, the unemployment rate.
(Monthly data are important for this study because of the rapid pace of economic developments during the past several years.)
I want you to do two additional things:
(2) Comment on the extent to which your countries (both your reference country and your special country) suffered from the Financial Crisis of 2008 and, if they did suffer, comment on their subsequent recovery; and,
(3) Comment on the extents to which your countries have suffered and are continuing to suffer from the COVID-19 pandemic; and, any recovery or prospects they have for to recover from the economic impact of the pandemic.