The course is divided into two parts, each motivated by one of our two questions.
A Word to the Wise
Measuring the Macroeconomy
Gross Domestic Product • The Production Approach • The Income Approach • The Expenditure Approach • GDP per Capita • Human Development Index • Inflation • Real vs. Nominal • Consumer Price Index • Core CPI • Producer Price Index • GDP Deflator • Problems with CPI • Growth Rates
Beg, Barter, or Steal
A Brief History of the Economy
The Economic Problem • What, How, and For Whom? • Traditional Economies • The Neolithic Revolution • Command Economies • Ancient Mesopotamia • Ancient Egypt • Market Economies • Ancient Rome • Feudalism • The Malthusian Trap • The Black Death
Or Better Yet, Trade!
The Logic of Comparative Advantage
The Production Possibilities Frontier • Absolute Advantage • Comparative Advantage • Gains from Trade • Tariffs • Quotas • Mercantilism
The Invisible Hand
Adam Smith's Big Idea
Free Markets • Property Rights • The Profit Motive • Competition • Supply • Demand • Market Equilibrium • Efficiency • The Price System
The Wealth of Nations
International Trade
The Circular Flow • The Balance of Payments • Exchange Rates • Purchasing Power Parity • The Case for Free Trade • The Case for Protectionism
The Age of Innovation
The Industrial Revolution
Why was the Industrial Revolution British? • Marx and Capitalism • Exploitation, Colonialism, and Slavery • The Protestant Work Ethic • The Scientific Revolution • The Virtuous Cycle • Creative Destruction • The Bourgeois Revaluation
Under New Management
The Second Industrial Revolution
The Visible Hand • Multi-Unit Enterprises • Line-and-Staff Management • Labor Markets • Wages • Marginal Product of Labor • Labor Productivity • Labor Force • Unemployment • Frictional, Structural, and Cyclical Unemployment • Unions • Monopoly • Antitrust
Learning to Grow
The Solow Model
Capital & Labor • Diminishing Marginal Returns • Human Capital • Ideas & Technology • Savings & Investment • Depreciation • The Steady State • Patents, Prizes, and Subsidies
The Great Divergence
Why isn't the Whole World Developed?
Poverty • Proximate Causes of Prosperity • Fundamental Causes of Prosperity • Geography • Guns, Germs, and Steel • Malaria • Culture • Institutions • North & South Korea • Growth Miracles • Land Reform • Export Discipline • Financial Policy
In the Dust of this Planet
The Economic Future of Our World
Power of Growth • Existential Threats • The Fermi Paradox • The Great Filter • Labor-Leisure Trade-off • Secular Stagnation • Star Trek • Artificial General Intelligence • Universal Basic Income • Brain Emulations • The Age of Em
A Boom in Busts
A History of Recession
Money • Medium of Exchange • Unit of Account • Store of Value • Fiat Money • Commodity Money • The Gold Standard • Banks • The Market for Loanable Funds • Interest Rates • Financial Bubbles • Tulip Mania • The South Sea Bubble • The Business Cycle • Recessions • The Long Depression • The Panic of 1907
A Permanently High Plateau
The Federal Reserve System
The Federal Reserve • The FOMC • Reserve Requirements • Lender of Last Resort • Open Market Operations • Federal Funds • The Classical School • Say's Law of Markets • Self-Correcting Markets • Quantity Theory of Money
Fear Itself
The Great Depression
The Great Crash • Bank Failures • Reconstruction Finance Corporation • The New Deal • The Banking Act • Glass-Steagall • Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation • Works Progress Administration • Social Security • The Double Dip • A Global Depression • German Hyperinflation
Animal Spirits
The General Theory of John Maynard Keynes
John Maynard Keynes • Problems with the Classical School • The Circular Flow • Liquidity Leaks • The Paradox of Thrift • Sticky Prices & Wages • Idle Resources • Expenditure Multiplier • Countercyclical Fiscal Policy
In the Long Run We're All Dead
The Neoclassical Synthesis
Aggregate Demand • Aggregate Supply • Long Run vs. Short Run • Macroeconomic Equilibrium • The Phillips Curve • The Natural Rate of Unemployment
A Monetary Phenomenon
The Power of Expectations
The Money Supply • M1 • M2 • A Monetary History of the United States • The Money Illusion • The Monetarist School • Liquidity Preferences • K-Percent Rule • Expectations-Augmented Phillips Curve • Adaptive Expectations • Rational Expectations • Permanent Income Hypothesis • The Lucas Critique • Policy-Ineffectiveness Proposition
Freshwater vs. Saltwater
New Classical | New Keynesian
Efficient Market Hypothesis • Labor Productivity • Technological Shocks • Real Business Cycle Theory • Supply-Side Economics • Laffer Curve • Price Stickiness • Menu Costs • Shoe Leather Costs • Implicit and Explicit Contracts • The Taylor Rule • The Great Moderation
Too Big to Fail
The Great Recession
Mortgages • Mortgage-Backed Securities • Collateralized Debt Obligations • Risk Pooling • Correlated Risk • Credit Default Swaps • Shadow Banking • TARP • American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
The Hangover Theory
Hayek vs. Keynes
The Skyscraper Index • Malinvestment • Austrian Business Cycle Theory • Hayekian Triangles • Debt-Deflation • Financial Instability Hypothesis • Hedge Borrowers • Speculative Borrows • Ponzi Borrowers • The Moss-Bartlet Synthesis
Totally Under Control
Macroeconomics Pre- and Post-Pandemic
Ample-Reserves • Interest on Reserve Balances • Repurchasing Agreements • Market Monetarism • Nominal GDP Targeting • The Covid-19 Pandemic • Budget Deficits • Treasury Securities • National Debt • Modern Monetary Theory
A1. I Am Once Again Asking For Your Support
Capitalism vs. Socialism
A2. Further Reading