1. What Does Government Do?
One of the most important questions posed in Chapter 9 is What does government do? Go to the federal governments Web portal, FirstGov, at http://www.firstgov.gov/ and click on the A-Z Agency Index.

Pick an agency you are familiar with. Go to that agencys website.

1. What is their mission statement?
   
   
2. Find their annual budget.
   
   
3. What are some of the important activities that agency is involved in?
   
   
4. How does that agency affect your life?
   
   

Now, pick an agency you are not familiar with. Go to that agencys website and answer the same questions as before.


2. The Circular Flow Model
One of the important concepts introduced in Chapter 9 is the circular flow model. Notice, in the model, households interact with businesses with government in the middle! We saw in the Chapter 7 Internet exercise, the Federal Trade Commission is the major government agency overseeing and regulating markets in the United States. Go to the FTCs home page, http://www.ftc.gov. What are the current hot topics? Click on any two of the topics and summarize what the government is doing and why.