The media claim that the economy is entering a phase of growth and prosperity. They point to lower unemployment rates and increased productivity. Their analysis is false, though. The number of people filing for bankruptcy has increased every month for the last six months and bankruptcy lawyers report that they are busier than they have been in years.

Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

A. Unemployment rates are not useful indicators of growth and prosperity.

B. Economic growth cannot be measured in terms of productivity.

C. Legislation has not been recently passed to make legal bankruptcy easier to obtain.

D. There has not been an increase in the number of bankruptcy lawyers.

E. The media often misrepresent the current state of economic affairs.
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SAID BUSINESS SCHOOL, OXFORD - MBA CLASS OF 2008

Hi mun23,

Premises: Media claims economy is entering a phase of growth and prosperity --> lower unemployment rates and increased productivity

Conclusion: The analysis that economy is entering a phase of growth and prosperity is false.

Reason given for conclusion: High bankruptcy rates

This is again a cause and effect reasoning similar to the question in the post below.

Cause: High number of bankruptcies
Effect: Economy is not growing

surveys-consistently-show-that-the-best-selling-ice-cream-148675.html#p1191167

As the reason for the conclusion is the higher number of bankruptcies, the answer choice which does not provide information on bankruptcies is likely to be incorrect

(A)Unemployment rates are not useful indicators of growth and prosperity.

Even if unemployment rates are not useful indicators of growth and prosperity, there could be other indicators and this may make the claim by the media true. i.e. this choice is not the one that "must be true" for the conclusion to be true.

(B)Economic growth cannot be measured in terms of productivity.

Again this choice does not have to be true for the media's claim to be false. Productivity is just an indicator, the economy may not be growing or may be growing as there could be other indicators for economic growth. Moreover, (B) also does not mention anything about bankruptcies

(C)Legislation has not been recently passed to make legal bankruptcy easier to obtain.

This is the assumption that we have to make for our conclusion to be true. If bankruptcies are being filed because of a recent change in legislation then the reason to believe that the claim by the media is false becomes irrelevant. So, (C) has to be true for the conclusion to be true which states that the claim of media is false. Note that this choice is making the questionable claim by the author regarding bankruptcies a legitimate one. This is an excellent example of a choice which eliminates an alternative explanation of the evidence.

(D)There has not been an increase in the number of bankruptcy lawyers.

Even if there is an increase in the number of lawyers, this choice does not give us any information about the bankruptcies which the stimulus relates to the falsification of media's claims.

(E)The media often misrepresent the current state of economic affairs.

If media often misrepresent the current state of economic affairs then our conclusion "could be" true, but not necessarily. The correct assumption choice will make the conclusion unequivocally true.

Hope this helps,

Vercules
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Seems like the central argument here is about the current state of the economy. Even if D were assumed, it wouldn`t have much bearing.

(C) makes an assumption within scope: if bankruptcy were easier to obtain, people would be defaulting left and right from overspending, running up CCs, etc, because the changes in the law would make it easier to do so. Basically, complicated bankruptcy filings=less bankruptcies=stable economy. This seems to strengthen the author`s claim.

1:44

Picking C.
Was a really tough one for me.

I would go for E seems the bost plausible
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OA is C

OE:
The conclusion of the argument is that the media are wrong in saying that the economy is entering a phase of growth and prosperity. The basis for that claim is that the number of people filing for bankruptcy has increased every month for the last six months and that bankruptcy lawyers are busier than they have been in years. In order for this argument to be valid, however, the author has to assume that the increase in the number of bankruptcies is a result of the state of the economy and not the result of something unrelated.

(A) This does not have to be true for the claim that the media are wrong about the economy to hold. It is possible that unemployment rates are useful indicators of growth and prosperity and that media is still wrong about the economy (i.e. if there are other indicators that show problems in other areas).

(B) This does not have to be true for the claim that the media are wrong about the economy to hold. It is possible that productivity is a good measure of economic growth and that media is still wrong about the economy (i.e. if there are other indicators that show problems in other areas).

(C) CORRECT. This has to be true for the claim that the media are wrong about the economy to hold. If legislation has recently been passed that makes it easier to obtain bankruptcy, this would explain away the counterevidence to the media's argument. The increased number of bankruptcies could have been the result of the easier process rather than of a poor economy.

(D) This does not have to be true for the claim that the media are wrong about the economy to hold. An increase in the number of bankruptcy lawyers would not explain the increase in the number of bankruptcy filings.

(E) This does not have to be true for the claim that the media are wrong about the economy to hold. Even if the media did not often misrepresent the current state of economic affairs, the argument that the media are wrong might still hold.

The correct answer is C.
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SAID BUSINESS SCHOOL, OXFORD - MBA CLASS OF 2008

C it is...this eliminates another reason for the increase in work of bankruptcy lawyers.

Serve me a slice of C.

If it's easier to be bankrupt, no wonder lawyers are busier.

If not, the arugment falls apart.

C - states the situations are same compared to earlier days. best choice.

OA please.