Introduction; Economic Systems and Institutions

What is economics? * The macro-micro distinction * Common fallacies in economics (fallacy of composition, post-hoc fallacy, assuming your conclusion) * Capital and capitalism * Government as an economic institution

Review of Microeconomics

Free markets and competition * Supply & demand * Shifts of a curve vs. movements along a curve * Market equilibrium

National Income Accounting; GDP and Business Cycles

Definition of GDP * Components of GDP * The income & expenditure approaches to totaling up GDP * What gets counted in GDP and what doesn't * Expansions, booms, contractions, & recessions * Business cycles * Depreciation * NDP * National income * Disposable income

Unemployment and Inflation

Types of unemployment * The labor force * The labor force participation rate and the unemployment rate * Discouraged- worker effect * Price indexes * Inflation = an increase in the price level * Real vs. nominal * The Phillips Curve tradeoff between inflation and unemployment * The NAIRU * Stagflation

Money and Banking

Money vs. income, GDP * Definition and functions of money * The money supply (M1, M2) * Commodity and fiat monies * Bank balance sheets * Excess reserves * Multiple deposit creation * The money multiplier * The Federal Reserve System

The Money Market and Monetary Policy

The money market * The equilibrium interest rate * The Fed's three policy tools * How monetary policy works * Expansionary vs. contractionary monetary policies * The federal funds rate * The discount rate

Aggregate Demand, Equilibrium Output, and the Multiplier

Consumption and saving * Consumption functions * The MPC * Autonomous spending * Planned vs. total investment * Disequilibrium * The multiplier effect * The spending, tax, and balanced-budget multipliers * Finding equilibrium GDP

Fiscal Policy

Expansionary vs. contractionary fiscal policies * Real-world multipliers * The national debt * Deficit = an increase in debt * Cyclical and structural deficits * Economic implications of deficits and debt * Automatic stabilizers

The Aggregate Supply/Aggregate Demand (AS/AD) Model; Supply-Side Economics

The AD curve * The AS curve * Using the AS/AD model to predict changes in P and Y * Stagflation * Potential GDP and the NAIRU * Capacity GDP * Supply-side economics * The Laffer curve

International Trade and Finance

Comparative advantage and gains from trade * Exports and imports * Trade balance, deficit, surplus * Exchange rates * The trade feedback effect * The balance of payments