Your niece just started her college career with a major in economics. She is curious as to the i

 Your niece just started her college career with a major in economics. She is curious as to the interrelationship between the success of an economy and the financial markets, concepts, and financial institutions. Accordingly, she has developed a list of questions addressing these issues and has asked that you explain the ideas.

• What are the financial markets and what purposes do they serve?
• What are financial intermediaries? How do these intermediaries function in the economy?
• What is a federal government budget deficit? What is the national debt? How does a budget deficit affect the economy?

She is also curious about the time value of money concepts. Specifically, she has the following questions about these concepts:

• Why are consumers considered to be risk averse? What methods could be used to deal with risk?
• It has been said that a dollar received today is worth more than a dollar received tomorrow. What does this mean and what is the significance to the economy?
• What is the difference between the present value of a future sum of money and the future value of a present sum of money? What is the significance of these concepts to economics?
• If you deposited $1,000 in an account paying 6% interest compounded annually, how long would it take to double?

Deliverables:

• Prepare a 5-6 page Microsoft Word document that addresses the above-noted concerns and meets APA standards.
• Include a summary section in your report that contains 5-7 bullet points identifying your major findings or conclusions of your paper. 
• Submit the summary section as your initial post in the Discussion Area by the due date assigned. Include the full report as an attachment to your posting.
• Continue your discussions until the end of the week by commenting on at least two other submissions by your peers, identifying the strengths and weaknesses of each post.
• All submissions must be original and all resources must be properly acknowledged.