Welcome to the homepage for GECON 200, Introductory Macroeconomics. Below you will find links to all class lectures, as well as some relevant videos and information I’ve created or pulled together from the Internet. If you have anything you think would be worth adding, please let me know.

Note on textbook: To the 4th edition textbook users, Chapter 5 on Health Care has been added in the 4th edition. After chapter 4, you should subtract ONE for each chapter to make it line up with the third edition. Thus, chapter 6 in the 4th edition is chapter 5 in the 3rd edition. I will refer to the third edition chapters in class, so please make this adjustment.

Syllabus (Honors Link or HL for short)

• Paper Grading (Honors Only)
• Blog Grading

MyEconLab (MEL)

• How to Sign Up for MyEconLab
• FAQ: Top Student Errors Using MyEconLab
• Cookies Problem, Pop-up Blockers Problem
• Support for MyEconLab

Lectures

Lecture 1 Powerpoint (HL): Intro, Cost-Benefit Analysis, Unintended Consequences, and Math Review (Chapter 1, Levitt, and Frank readings)

• Levitt and Dubner’s Unintended Consequences (HL).
• Frank-Economic Naturalist (HL).

Lecture 2 Powerpoint (HL): Comparative Advantage, Trade, and the Market System (includes Planet Money audio file on “Why Economists Hate Presents”) (Chapter 2 and Planet Money on “Why Economists Hate Gifts”)

• Link for podcast at the end of the lecture, Planet Money’s “Making Christmas More Joyful, And More Efficient“
• Planet Money’s “Why Economists Hate Presents” discusses gift giving and how trade can create value out of nothing. Many economists-including myself-think that presents are not necessarily all bad. We will discuss why in class.
• Freakonomics podcast on gift giving. Levitt gives a not so dour look at gift-giving.
• Planet Money’s “Cappuccino Reconsidered” discusses trade and the market economy at around the 6:00 mark. Tim Harford makes the point that economists have failed to understand the role of complexity in the market economy.

Lecture 3 Powerpoint (HL): Firms, the Stock Market, Corporate Governance, the Federal Reserve, and Money (Chapter 5 & 13.1-13.4)

• This American Life on entrepreneurs, from Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard to Apple’s Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.
• Bernanke New York Times article (HL).
• New Yorker “Anatomy of a Meltdown” (HL).
• Present Value Worksheet: Microsoft Excel.
• Present Value Worksheet: Google Doc, “Save As” an Excel file to work with it.
• Dow Jones Industrial Average Components.
• Problems with using the Dow Jones Industrial Average by Planet Money
• Behavior in money and investing by APM Marketplace Money
• ShowMe: Multiple Deposit Creation.
• ShowMe: Capital Constrained Banking.
• Educreations: Bond Pricing and Returns.

Lecture 4 Powerpoint (HL): Supply and Demand, and Public Goods (Chapter 3 & Hubbard & O’Brien Public Goods Handout (HL))

• Planet Money on what types of goods the government should or might be more efficient at providing.

Lecture 5 Powerpoint (HL): Economic Efficiency, Government, and Taxation (Chapter 4)

• Income tax rates by group.
• Marginal tax rates and income inequality.
• Payroll taxes are very real.
• Death and taxes poster.
• Donald Duck says you should pay your taxes! Taxes pay for guns and tanks to defeat the Nazis.
• Medicaid and Medicare “Dual Eligibles” study.
• Hubbard Chapter 5 from Micro Book (HL).
• Tax Rate Worksheet: Google Doc form, “Save As” an Excel file to work with it.
• EduCreations: Using Tax Tables. Also a discussion of deductions.

Lecture 6 Powerpoint (HL): International Trade and Multinational Corporations (Chapter 6)

• Solar Power Trade War.

Lecture 7 Powerpoint (HL): GDP, Budget Deficits, the Debt, and Labor Markets (Chapter 7, 15.1, & 15.6)

• Ezra Klein discusses how hidden spending occurs through the tax code.
• Planet Money’s “How much debt is too much debt?“
• PBS Frontline’s “Ten Trillion and Counting“.
• Educreations: Real GDP, Nominal GDP, and Inflation (CPI).
• Google Docs: Real GDP, Nominal GDP, and Inflation (CPI). (Login to Google to “Save a copy” or Download to Excel)

Lecture 8 Powerpoint (HL): Unemployment and Inflation (Chapter 8)

• Code.org on the lack of coders in the U.S. (1min, 5min, 9min)
• APM’s Marketplace story on how small businesses try to create jobs.
• ShowMe: Using unemployment and inflation equations.
• EduCreation: Inflation indexing.

Lecture 9 Powerpoint (HL): Economic Growth, the Financial System, and Business Cycles (Chapter 9)

• NBER BCDC Panel sees rising risk of recession. Some insight as to who calls the beginning and end to recessions.
• Inequality, savings, and expenditures. Keeping up with the Joneses. A blog, so consider the source.
• When will China surpass America in _______?

Lecture 10 Powerpoint (HL): Long-Run Economic Growth (Chapter 10)

• PBS Frontline “College Inc.” which discusses the move towards private education, and the implications that our deteriorating education system have on our ability to grow.
• ShowMe: Production Functions

Lecture 11 Powerpoint (HL): Aggregate Expenditure and Output in the Short Run (Chapter 11)

• EduCreations: AE Model
• ShowMe: AE Model
• Keynesian Cross Diagram from the Wolfram Demonstrations Project by Fiona Maclachlan
• Google Docs: AE Model. (Login to Google to “Save a copy” or Download to Excel)

Lecture 12 Powerpoint (HL): Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply (Chapter 12)

• Educreations: Dynamic AD-AS Model (This is incorporating lessons from Chapters 14 and 15)

Lecture 13 Powerpoint (HL): Quantity Theory, Monetary Policy, and the Phillips Curve (Chapter 13.5, 14, and 15)

• NPR’s On Point: Ben Bernanke and Today’s Economy. What can the Fed do? Guests include Ken Rogoff.
• NPR’s On Point: Larry Summers discussing the debt ceiling and market volatility. Larry Summers is former Clinton Treasury Secretary and former director of President Obama’s National Economic Council. 7:00 mark discusses Summers’ opinion on how future generations (your generation) may be being cheated.
• NPR’s Fresh Air: Neil Irwin on “The Alchemists” and Central Banking
• Stiglitz Reading from Freefall

Lecture 14 Powerpoint: Fiscal Policy (Chapter 15 Remainder)

Course Calendar

Embedded Links
Previous Recessions with Audio and Graphics by the New York Times

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The 2008 Meltdown described by PBS Frontline. If you didn’t pay attention back in 2008, you should take the time to watch this movie.
PBS “Inside the Meltdown”

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Watch this video if you want to have a better understanding of the securitization process. The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.   

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Creative destruction on display in a Hyundai Sonata Hybrid commercial (2011 Super Bowl-Anachronistic City). Schumpeter might have enjoyed this commercial.

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