Tuesday & Thursday, 24 May

This week the class is engaged in review for the final exam. The final exam is on Tuesday, May 31st.

On Tuesday students were given the following study guide and asked to bring possible questions related to the given topics to class on Thursday.

Final Test Study Questions                                               ____________________________

Economics 2016 (Zartler)                                                  Test: Tuesday, May 31^st

Micro Economics: Supply; Demand; Price / Cost

The components of this system include:

Markets; Consumers; Producers; Law of Demand; Law of Supply; Price Equilibrium; Production Possibilities Frontier; capital investments production costs; opportunity costs; shifts in demand; shifts in supply; fixed costs; variable costs; wants; needs; marginal costs; compliments; substitutes; Economies of Scale; Law of Diminishing Returns.

What factors influence the price of goods (and services)?

What factors influence the supply of goods?

How do demand, supply, and cost interrelate? What happens to the other two when each of these rise and fall?

What factors influence manufacturing of products? How do these factors affect price and how are they affected by price of goods?

Macro Economics: Supply; Demand; Money; Wages; Inflation; Taxes

The components of the system we studied include:
Gross Domestic Product (GDP); Wages; Jobs; Money Supply; Inflation; the Federal Reserve; Taxes. Beneficial and harmful reinforcing cycles. Supply of jobs; supply of labor; demand for labor;

What factors influence sustained growth? What can cause an economy to decline? How can economic growth be sustained? What can cause an economic "bubble"?

How do wages affect GDP? How does GDP affect wages? How do wages interact with inflation? How does inflation contribute to and detract from GDP?

Who should pay how much in taxes for what? What is the role of political philosophy in tax policy?

Personal Financial Choices

The components of the system we studied include:
Budgets; loans; investments; leveraged investments; credit; credit scores; banking; ledgers; compounding interest; mortgages; stocks; mutual funds; treasury bonds.

What factors ought one to consider when setting a personal budget and spending decisions?

What factors ought one to consider when making decisions about banking?

What is a “credit score,” how is it important; what steps should one take with credit to provide for the best possible outcome?

What are the advantages and pitfalls of credit? How does buying a home work? What is the most commonly recommended long-term investment and why? What is considered the safest long-term investment?

Monday, 16 May: Personal Finance Week

This week class focuses on personal finance. We will explore the topics of:
Managing money; banking; credit and debit cards (and pre-paid cards); credit scores; and identity theft. We will revisit financial values as a topic as our values may influence the financial choices we make.

Friday the 20th or Tuesday the 24 of May there will be a brief unit test that will be corrected in class.

Class begins with two free writes from the following prompts:

Describe a life you'd like to be living in ten years. Be specific about the details of free time, work, activities that make you happy.












What is value? What do you value? What is worth more to you, happiness or money? What is worth more to you, time or money? How do you balance the tension between wanting time and wanting money?

2 Euros is about $2.27; Would you buy this t-shirt?

The test on Monday, 23 May will cover the topics of:

The costs and advantages of banks and credit unions
The costs, benefits, and risks of credit cards
The costs, benefits, and risks of debit cards
The costs, benefits, and risks of pre-paid cards
Protecting your identify
Balancing a ledger
Creating and managing a budget

The outline for the unit is as follows:
Personal Finance Unit

CONCEPTS

Budgeting

            Predictable

            Unpredictable

            Predictably Unpredictable

            Foreseeable

Banking

Credit

Saving

Investing

Insurance

SKILLS

Budgeting

Reconciling

Graphing and analyzing compounding interest and growth

Calculating Return on Investment (ROI)

VOCABULARY

Bank Accounts:

Budget

  

Cash flow

Balance

Available Balance

Debit Cards

Credit

Credit Line

Insurance

Thursday, 12 May

First the class took a test on Macroeconomics.

Next the class began a personal finance unit.

The class listened to a podcast available here. This podcast provided information about banking options. Students listened for key facts using a graphic organizer provided by Mr. Zartler.

Tuesday, 10 May

Macro Economics Test is NEXT class; Thursday, 12 May.

The ONLY day to make up for missing the test will be Tutorial, Wednesday 18 May. Do not miss the test, even for saving babies, falling from the mouth of dragons burning down the city.


Key to demonstrating your understanding of this unit will include understanding how various elements of the national economy interact.

What factors influence sustained growth? How can economic growth be sustained? What can cause an economic "bubble"? What can cause an economy to decline?

The components of the system we studied include:
Wages; Jobs; Inflation and Money Supply; Taxes. We discussed the role of the Federal Reserve and used the measure of GDP. We discussed beneficial and harmful reinforcing cycles. We discussed the role of supply and demand in Macro Economics.

During class today we will review the conflicting opinion pieces on taxation. We will focus on the questions: Who should pay? How much? We discussed equity and equality.

We will also discuss the following graph:

Monday, 1 May

Class began by reviewing and discussing how events such as the "Realestate Bubble" of 2008 create their own momentum. The event that triggered the recent Great Recession was compared to the Stock Market bubble of 1929 and the Great Depression.

The class was given a short lecture and introduction to the Oregon Vote by Mail ballot.

The class analyzed pro and con arguments in for a proposed tax on gasoline in Portland.

Chart depicting Economic Growth to use with Tax Arguments.

Students were given the following list of dates for class:

May 6th: Quiz on Macro Economics
May 10: Macro Economics Test Prep
May 12: Test on Macro unit
May 16-20: Personal Finance issues
May 24/26: Prep for Final Exam
May 31: Economics Final

Thursday, April 27th

Classes continued discussing and being lectured on the relationships between the value of money, jobs, wages, increasing and decreasing GDP, and inflation.

The class learned about inflationary spirals. Periods, 3 and 4 learned about the Housing Bubble (period 2 will learn about it next class).

The class discussed at length how the Federal Reserves target of 2% inflation is aimed at steady economic growth. The class discussed the belief that wages should increase at a rate slightly higher than inflation to also stimulate growth of GDP.

Tuesday, 26 April

Class will continue to explore the connections between employment, wages, and corporate profits.

Students were advised that part of this units summative assessment will include an essay, or other analytical, open ended work.

Class began with reading this analysis from the NYTimes.com
Job Growth Was Fantastic Last Month. So Why Aren’t Wages Rising More?

Then the class looked at The Class of 2016 The labor market is still far from ideal for young graduates published by the Economic Policy Institute (a not for profit Think Tank supported by labor unions and others).

Next, the class moved on to consider Nominal Wage Tracker: Slow wage growth is a key sign of how far the U. S. economy remains from a full recovery

Students should bring their text books to class for the next two weeks.