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What is Economics?
Why Should I Care? Environmental destruction, global warming, poverty, and the state of democracy are all phenomena which are linked to what we produce, how we produce, and where we produce. Those are pretty important issues, but economics also affects myriad...
Monopoly and Imperfect Competition
Why Should I Care? Markets are not always perfect, and consumers sometimes pay too much for what they get. Producers will always try to “Cherry Pick” the best prices from consumers’ demand schedule. This Lecture Has 3 Parts Monopoly Oligopoly Monopolist...
Inflation
Why Should I Care? Everyone cares about prices. When things are cheap, we are richer. And when things are expensive, we are poorer. Enough said? This Lecture Has 4 Parts Why Inflation? Types of Inflation Winners and Losers of Inflation Consumer Price I...
Money
Why Should I Care? The amount of money in circulation is a really important issue in economics. It's going to affect your ability to get a loan to buy a house, or a car, and the price of everything else on the market. This Lecture Has 7 Parts Definition a...
Labour Markets
Why Should I Care? The level of employment determines how wealthy most people are. Not having a job often means hardship and poverty. If too many people don’t work, this affects the whole economy. This Lecture Has 4 Parts The Labour Force Unemployment T...
The Circular Flow of Money
Why Should I Care? What you do affects other people. The money you spend on clothes, music, and food, is reused in the economy and becomes income for other people. This cycle is important to understand as it emphasizes both the power and the fragility of the ...
Market Disruption
Why Should I Care? Markets are supposed to be stable and self-regulating. But social and natural events can disrupt markets and wreak havoc on regular peoples’ lives. Predicting how markets will react to outside factors can make you rich, or at least avoid be...
Self-Regulating Markets
Why Should I Care? Economists believe that free market prices are very rich and subtle information signals, which enable markets to make better decisions than the government or an expert committee could. That feedback allows markets to self-regulate, which is...
Supply
Why Should I Care? Producers come to the market with a completely different mindset than do buyers. Producers want more money for fewer products. How can they agree with buyers, who want more products for less money? Understanding the supply-side of the story...
Demand
Why Should I Care? There seem to be rules that govern markets. For example, no one can sell more stuff, than what people are willing to buy. At least not in a free market. This idea of demand – how much people are willing to buy – is at the heart of economics...
Important Economic Terms
Why Should I Care? We must agree on basic definitions before we start arguing about how to run the show. In this module we will discuss the terms that most economists use and agree on. This Lecture Has 4 Parts Products Suppliers Flows and Stocks Resour...
Elasticity
Why Should I Care? The way markets work depends on how people react to changes. If people keep buying a product, even if the price increases, then market prices might not come back down as quickly. And consumers might get mad because they might feel trapped o...
Marshall's Supply and Demand
Why Should I Care? How can you make predictions about the future? Markets are subject to complex environments, with a multiplicity of actors, and even more shocks coming in from all sorts of random directions. There is a way to sort through the chaos. This L...
The Basics of Markets and Transactions
Why Should I Care? Many economists believe the “free market” knows best. This opinion has great influence over the laws of the land, and the level of government intervention in everyday life. But what are markets exactly, and are they “free”? This Lecture Ha...
Systems Analysis
Why Should I Care Studying scarcity, choices and trade-offs is important. However, the fact that we are over-producing green house gases is telling that we aren't focusing enough on the economic system, and the secondary productions that cause negative outcom...
The Three Most Cited Economists
Why Should I Care? These guys are dead. But their ideas are still relevant to this day. What they wrote about economics is at the heart of our most controversial issues and debates. Free trade, recession, poverty… These three thinkers will help give you a be...
The Costs of Production
Why Should I Care? Compare clean water and diamonds, which is more expensive? Which is more important? Understanding the meaning of value, and how prices are set, may unlock the often-frustrating mysteries of market prices. This Lecture Has 5 Parts Accoun...
The Problem of Scarcity
Why Should I Care? Everyone might want or need a private jet. And God knows our needs and wants are unlimited, in both quantity and diversity of goods. Unfortunately, we can’t produce all these things because resources are limited. This is the problem that ke...
Positive and Normative Principles
Why Should I Care? Many of the arguments presented by economists are based on models and a formal pattern of logic. These arguments are quite convincing and they actually affect your daily life, because they affect the labour market, tax levels, and price inf...
Gross Domestic Product
Why Should I Care? People need to know how big our economy is, and whether or not it is growing. If the economy is too small or growing too slowly, we may be in big trouble. This can affect the levels of employment and prosperity, but also the political stabi...