AP Macroeconomics
Below you will find C-SPAN Classroom resources relating to the sections and units listed above and found in the AP Macroeconomics Concept Outline. Click on each title to expand the section and view the featured resources.
Unit 1: Basic Economic Concepts
MOD-1: The production possibilities curve (PPC) model is used to demonstrate the full employment level of output and to illustrate changes in full employment.
1.1 Scarcity
1.2 Opportunity Cost and the Production Possibilities Curve (PPC)
Bell Ringer: What is Economics? (2:15)
Bell Ringer: Why is Economics Important to Learn? (1:57)
Bell Ringer: Macroeconomics vs. Microeconomics (3:18)
Bell Ringer: Trade-Offs and Cost-Benefit Analysis (2:39)
Lesson Plan: Real World Applications of the Production Possibilities Curve (4 Clips)
MKT-1: Production and consumption increase by engaging in trade.
1.3 Comparative Advantage and Gains from Trade
Bell Ringer: Comparative Advantage and Trade (5:06)
Bell Ringer: David Ricardo and Comparative Advantage (1:56)
MKT-2: In a competitive market, demand for and supply of a good or service determine the equilibrium price.
1.4 Demand
1.5 Supply
1.6 Market Equilibrium, Disequilibrium, and Changes in Equilibrium
Bell Ringer: Principles of Market Capitalism (5:16)
Bell Ringer: Adam Smith and the Wealth of Nations (2:28)
Bell Ringer: Adam Smith's America: Part I (3 Clips)
Bell Ringer: Adam Smith’s America: Part II (4 Clips)
Bell Ringer: Prices in a Free Market Economy (2:33)
Bell Ringer: The Impact of Supply and Demand on Prices (2:14)
Bell Ringer: Government Influence on Supply (0:52)
Clip: The Russia-Ukraine Conflict and the Global Food Supply (7:48)
Unit 2: Economic Indicators and the Business Cycle
MEA-1: An economy’s performance can be measured by different indicators such as gross domestic product (GDP), the inflation rate, and the unemployment rate.
2.1 The Circular Flow Model and GDP
2.2 Limitations of GDP
2.3 Unemployment
2.4 Price Indices and Inflation
2.5 Costs of Inflation
2.6 Real v. Nominal GDP
Bell Ringer: What does Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Measure? (4:42)
Bell Ringer: The Manufacturing Industry and Types of Goods (1:56)
Lesson: Is GDP an Accurate Measure of our Country's Economic Health? (3 Clips)
Bell Ringer: What the Unemployment Rate Does (and Doesn’t) Tell Us (2:49)
Bell Ringer: Calculating Unemployment And Job Numbers (1:33)
Bell Ringer: Technology and Structural Unemployment (5:40)
Bell Ringer: Impact of Technology on Labor Markets (3 Clips)
Lesson: Consumer Price Index and Inflation (1:40)
Bell Ringer: Consumer Price Index, Inflation and the Standard of Living (6:09)
Bell Ringer: Factors That Impact U.S. Food Prices (4:48)
MEA-2: The economy fluctuates between periods of expansion and contraction in the short run, but economic growth can occur in the long run.
2.7 Business Cycles
Bell Ringer: The Importance of Comparing Business Cycles (3:50)
Clip: U.S. Economy and Recession Concerns (5:58)
Clip: Remarks on the March 2022 Jobs Report (4:30)
Unit 3: National Income and Price Determination
MOD-2: Economists use the aggregate demand–aggregate supply model to represent the relationship between the price level and aggregate output in an economy and to illustrate how output, employment, and the price level respond to macroeconomic shocks.
3.1 Aggregate Demand (AD)
3.2 Multipliers
3.3 Short-Run Aggregate Supply (SRAS)
3.4 Long-Run Aggregate Supply (LRAS)
3.5 Equilibrium in the Aggregate Demand-Aggregate Supply (AD-AS) Model
3.6 Changes in the AD-AS Model in the Short Run
3.7 Long-Run Self-Adjustment
Bell Ringer: Financial Crises and American Capitalism (3:26)
Bell Ringer: Aggregate Demand and Unemployment (1:12)
Bell Ringer: Keynesian Economics and Aggregate Demand (4:30)
Bell Ringer: Keynes and the Role of Government in the Economy (3 Clips)
Bell Ringer: Fight of the Century Keynes and Hayek Background and Contemporary Application (5 Clips)
Lesson: The Great Depression (1:19)
On This Day: 2008 Financial Crisis (9 Clips)
Bell Ringer: The Causes of the 2008 Financial Crisis (4:06)
Bell Ringer: Sticky Wages and Short-Run Aggregate Supply (4:28)
POL-1: Fiscal and monetary policy have short-run effects on macroeconomic outcomes.
3.8 Fiscal Policy
3.9 Automatic Stabilizers
Clip: The Federal Budget Process (4:05)
Bell Ringer: Office of Management and Budget and the Budget Process (3:53)
Bell Ringer: The 1974 Budget Act and Modern Budget Process (2:33)
Bell Ringer: Role of the Congressional Budget Office (1:21)
Bell Ringer: Omnibus Bill (3 Clips)
Bell Ringer: Budget Reconciliation and When It Can Be Used (1:34)
Bell Ringer: The Federal Budget and Difference Between an Increase, Freeze and Cut (2:59)
Bell Ringer: Federal Payroll Taxes (1:38)
Bell Ringer: Impact of Tax Policy on the Economy (3 Clips)
Bell Ringer: How the Federal Government Spends Your Taxes (2:51)
Bell Ringer: Mandatory and Discretionary Spending (2:16)
Lesson: How Are Your Tax Dollars Being Spent on Federal Social Programs? (11 Clips)
Bell Ringer: What are Entitlements? (1:07)
Lesson: The History of Federal Entitlement Programs in the U.S. (7 Clips)
Lesson: 2017 Tax Reform and Jobs Act (11 Clips)
Unit 4: Financial Sector
MEA-3: Money makes it possible to compare the value of goods and services, and interest rates provide a measure of the price of money that is borrowed or saved.
4.1 Financial Assets
4.2 Nominal v. Real Interest Rates
4.3 Definition, Measurement, and Functions of Money
Bell Ringer: The Role of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) (1:47)
Bell Ringer: The Origins of Money (2:49)
Bell Ringer: The Panic of 1837 and President Van Buren (2:53)
Bell Ringer: The Economics of the Panic of 1837 (4:40)
Bell Ringer: The Panic of 1893 (3:27)
Bell Ringer: No Inflation or Moderate Inflation? (10:32)
POL-2: The banking system plays an important role in the expansion of the money supply.
4.4 Banking and the Expansion of the Money Supply
Bell Ringer: Fractional Reserve Banking and Financial Bubbles (3:35)
Bell Ringer: Financial Industry Reform and Regulation (5:22)
MKT-3: In the money market, demand for and supply of money determine the equilibrium nominal interest rate and influence the value of other financial assets.
4.5 The Money Market
POL-1: Fiscal and monetary policy have short-run effects on macroeconomic outcomes.
4.6 Monetary Policy
Bell Ringer: The Value of Currency (4:06)
Bell Ringer: Role the Federal Reserve (1:33)
Bell Ringer: Monetary Policy (3:58)
*NEW* Bell Ringer: The Federal Reserve and Monetary Policy (3 Clips)
*NEW* Bell Ringer: Interest Rates and the Federal Reserve (3 Clips)
Clip: The Federal Reserve Interest Rate Cut and Consumers (4:36)
Lesson: Goals and Tools of the Federal Reserve (2 Clips)
Bell Ringer: The Purpose of Central Banks and the Federal Reserve (2:05)
Bell Ringer: Friedman on Monetary Policy and Positive Economics (6:42)
Bell Ringer: Evolving Tools of the Federal Reserve (3:49)
Bell Ringer: How Quantitative Easing is Used by the Federal Reserve (2:02)
Bell Ringer: The Federal Reserve, Monetary Policy, and Recessions (3:44)
Clip: Highest Interest Rate Increase Since 1994 (2:04)
Bell Ringer: Federal Reserve Policies and Consumers (4:56)
Bell Ringer: The Panic of 1873 (3:16)
Clip: President Trump and the Federal Reserve (3:32)
MKT-4: The interaction of borrowers, who demand loanable funds, and savers, who supply loanable funds, determines the equilibrium real interest rate.
4.7 The Loanable Funds Market
Bell Ringer: The Market for Loanable Funds (3:26)
Bell Ringer: National Debt and Loanable Funds (3:54)
*NEW* Bell Ringer: Debt Financing and Crowding Out (2:08)
Unit 5: Long-Run Consequences of Stabilization Policies
POL-1: Fiscal and monetary policy have short-run effects on macroeconomic outcomes.
5.1 Fiscal and Monetary Policy Actions in the Short Run
Bell Ringer: What are recessions and how can governments respond? (3:10)
Bell Ringer: Monetary Policy, Fiscal Policy, and the Global Economy (8:42)
Bell Ringer: Fight of the Century: Keynes and Hayek Theories Explored (1:48)
*NEW* Bell Ringer: Biden’s Economic Agenda (4 Clips)
MOD-3: The Phillips curve model is used to represent the relationship between inflation and unemployment and to illustrate how macroeconomic shocks affect inflation and unemployment.
5.2 The Phillips Curve
Bell Ringer: Fight of the Century: Keynes and Hayek Theories Explored (1:48)
*NEW* Bell Ringer: The Phillips Curve Today (5:29)
POL-3: There are long-run implications of monetary and fiscal policy.
5.3 Money Growth and Inflation
5.4 Government Deficits and the National Debt
5.5 Crowding Out
Bell Ringer: Federal Reserve and the Money Supply (4:47)
Bell Ringer: The 1970s and 1980s Oil Market (6:59)
Bell Ringer: The Greenspan Era (3:10)
Bell Ringer: The Difference between the Deficit and the Debt (1:55)
Clip: The Politics of Reducing the Federal Debt (3:27)
Bell Ringer: What Contributes to Budget Deficits? (2:47)
Clip: The Politics of Reducing the Federal Debt (3:21)
Clip: What is a Partial Government Shutdown? (4:47)
Clip: The Federal Deficit and Economic Outlook (4:21)
MEA-2: The economy fluctuates between periods of expansion and contraction in the short run, but economic growth can occur in the long run. MOD-1: The production possibilities curve (PPC) model is used to demonstrate the full employment level of output and to illustrate changes in full employment.
5.6 Economic Growth
Bell Ringer: Falling American Economic Growth Rates (7:12)
Bell Ringer: Technology and Energy Resources (4:30)
POL-4: Authorities and organizations institute policies that affect economic growth.
5.7 Public Policy and Economic Growth
Bell Ringer: Human Capital and Investment in Career and Technical Education (2:06)
Bell Ringer: Government Policy and Economic Growth (5:18)
Unit 6: Open Economy–International Trade and Finance
MEA-4: Foreign trade accounting measures the flow of goods, services, and financial capital between countries.
6.1 Balance of Payment Accounts
Bell Ringer: Globalization as an Economic Tug of War (3 Clips)
Lesson: Trade Policy: Tariffs and Free Trade (9 Clips)
Lesson: The History of Tariffs in the United States (8 Clips)
Bell Ringer: The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act and the Great Depression (2:06)
Bell Ringer: What are Tariffs and How do They Work (3:06)
Clip: An Explanation of the Proposed United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (3:35)
Lesson: Replacing NAFTA: The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) (8 Clips)
Bell Ringer: Trade Deficits and Economic Performance (2:16)
Clip: Who Owns Federal Debt? (1:38)
Bell Ringer: The Role of the Export-Import Bank (2:00)
Bell Ringer: Current Account Imbalances (7:02)
MKT-5: The interaction of buyers and sellers exchanging the currency of one country for the currency of another determines the equilibrium exchange rate in a flexible exchange market and influences the flow of goods, services, and financial capital between countries.
6.2 Exchange Rates
6.3 The Foreign Exchange Market
6.4 Effect of Changes in Policies and Economic Conditions on the Foreign Exchange Market
6.5 Changes in the Foreign Exchange Market and Net Exports
6.6 Real Interest Rates and International Capital Flows
Bell Ringer: Exchange Rate Imbalances (3:38)
Bell Ringer: Exchange Rates (3:35)
Bell Ringer: Foreign Exchange Markets (3:27)
AP Macroeconomics Key Vocabulary Terms
Bell Ringers and other resources highlighting examples of the key terms listed below:
Practice Macroeconomics FRQs
*NEW* Practice Macroeconomics FRQ: Short Response (Loanable Funds, Crowding Out, Economic Growth) (3 Clips)
*NEW* Practice Macroeconomics FRQ: Long Response (Aggregate Supply, Aggregate Demand, and Monetary Policy) (3 Clips)
*NEW* Practice Macroeconomics FRQ: Long Response (Unemployment, Phillips Curve, Fiscal Policy) (3 Clips)