Making sense of the economic numbers

This too shall pass.

All of us are inundated with a deluge of economic numbers, particularly as it relates to unemployment and GDP.  Too often, it seems like bad news.

However, if you are like me, most of the time, a context seems to be lacking. How bad is it? Not so bad? Hard to say.

Recently I made a presentation to Slugs & Steins, a Silicon Valley chapter of the UC Santa Cruz Alumni Association. I studied all of these economic numbers for the U.S., California, and the Bay Area and put them in a context to offer a balanced perspective—for now and for the future.

Here is the first 10-minute segment of the presentation where I focus on the current economic state of affairs. I invite you to take a look it and let me know what you think.

Note that since this presentation an additional 3 million new unemployment claims have been filed pushing the eight-week total to more than 36 million.

If you’re interested in seeing the entire 90-minute talk, please visit the UC Santa Cruz Arts & Lectures.

— PK Agarwal
Dean, UCSC Silicon Valley Extension