Week 3 – Economic Wellbeing – Lecture Slides

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This week we defined “Economics,” “an economy,” and “Capitalism.”

We introduced the concept of “surplus” and discussed different ways to attain it.

At the end, I highlighted how Slavery and Imperialism contributed to the ability of the U.S. and Western European colonial powers to accumulate surplus — ultimately observed as an increase in GDP.

Week 2 – Question Building

What should New York City do to recover economically from COVID-19?

In class we started building some questions to help us break down this big question.

here are a few notes from the conversation we had in class on Thursday, September 3rd.

And here is the article that started our discussion:

Gonzalez, Angi. (2020). “Economic Impact of Coronoavirus Still Looms in NYC.” Spectrum News NY1. 31 July. https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/coronavirus/2020/07/31/economic-impact-of-coronavirus-still-looms-in-nyc

Read: Macroeconomics: Module 16 at Lumen Learning

Strengthening and Weakening Currency

Just one section. Try the questions in the “try it” boxes to test your understanding. If you want some help working through examples, I suggest watching the embedded videos in the reading. The guy in the videos is really good at explaining (even if he talks a little fast). We’re going to go through the examples in the “Effects of a Weaker Dollar” blue box in class on Tuesday so you don’t need to do those on your own.

Read: Macroeconomics: Module 15 at Lumen Learning

Why It Matters: Globalization and International Trade

Introduction to Comparative Advantage

Absolute and Comparative Advantage

You can start at the first section (Why It Matters) and click “next” to get all three (short) sections. The third and final section “Absolute and Comparative Advantage” has a video embedded. You can choose whether you would like to read that section or watch the video instead.

Read: Marginal Propensity to Consume – Investopedia

Chappelow,Jim. 2020. “Marginal Propensity to Consume (MPC)” Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/marginalpropensitytoconsume.asp

There is a video embedded in this link. You can either read the article or watch the video. You do not need to do both (but, of course, may do so if you wish).