ECON BC 1001

Introduction to Macroeconomics - Spring 2005

Prof. Mark Skousen

The big issues facing the nation today are largely economic: tax simplification, Social Security privatization, medical savings accounts, tort reform, school vouchers, living wages, the cost of the war on terrorism, etc. This is an applied course in macroeconomics: We introduce you to the classical and modern theories of economics and apply them to a host of hotly debated topics: the boom-bust economy, deficit spending and inflation, globalization and trade, the power of the Fed and other central banks, taxes and big government, economic growth and inequality of wealth, and the environment. Understanding the economic way of thinking is essential in today’s world, beneficial to anyone interested in public policy, business, political science, history, sociology, and engineering.

This course is based on Professor Skousen’s 30 years’ experience as an applied economist in business, finance, government and academia. See his websites, www.markskousen.com and www.mskousen.com.

Textbooks (available from Labyrinth Books): N. Gregory Mankiw, Principles of Macroeconomics, 3 rd ed. (Thomson Southwestern, 2004), and Mark Skousen, Economic Logic (Capital Press, 2000)

This course will be interactive, with classroom discussions, breakout sessions, and extra credit activities. Be prepared to get involved.

Outline

The first section deals with the fundamentals of economic thinking, essential in both microeconomics and macroeconomics.

1. Thinking like an economist: the fundamentals of economic behavior

2. Production, trade, and consumption

3. Profit and loss: the market forces of supply and demand

Then we turn to macroeconomics:

4. Measuring wealth, income and the standard of living

5. Production and economic growth

6. Saving, investment and the financial markets

7. Unemployment, inequality and the business cycle

8. Monetary Economics: Money, Inflation and the Banking System

9. Macroeconomic theory: Classical (Adam Smith), Keynesian (John Maynard Keynes), and radical (Karl Marx).

10. Fiscal policy, the welfare state, and the role of government

11. Government revenues, tax policy, and the national debt

12. Government regulations and controls of the economy

13. Foreign trade and protectionism

14. Environmental economics

15. The economics of the business cycle

16. Employment and unemployment

17. Central planning and socialism: What’s left?

18. Deregulation, denationalization, and privatization

Grading:

20% attendance, participation, and quizzes
20% paper (up to 10 pages double spaced)
30% midterm
40% final