Download Economics Unpacking

Economics Unpacking----------draft 6/28/07
Economics 1a- Microeconomics
Need to know:
 Terms: personal economic choice, potential costs and benefits, market/
capitalism/ free enterprise, scarcity, production, distribution, consumerism,
competition, efficiency, personal taxes, monopolies, deregulation, supply /
demand, opportunity costs,
 How competition impact the economy: benefits and shortcomings
 Supply / demand graphs
 Analyze efficacy in an industry, look at strategies for improvement
 Can capitalism improve standard of living? How?
 Government policies include contracts, environmental controls, tax policies,
Measure:
 Create and analyze supply / demand chart
 Explain opportunity costs – advantages/consequences
 Industrialism’s impact on personal choices, business choices
 Guns and butter
 Understand thinking behind breaking up monopolies: Standard oil, Delmarva
Electric
Economic 2a - Macroeconomics
Needs to know:
 Terms: business cycle, inflation, unemployment policy, fiscal policy, monetary
policy, Great Depression, change reaction of policies, interdependency of
economics, standard of living, GDP
 Causes of unemployment, inflation,
 Impact of Federal Reserve, Government securities
Measurement:

Using Great Depression as backdrop, use macroeconomic concept to explain it.
Economics 3a – Economic System
Needs to know:
 Terms: economic systems, capitalism/market/free enterprise, communism/
command, traditional economy, mixed economies, barters, developing countries,
country’s economic goal
 Common goals of all economies: efficiency, equity, freedom, growth, security,
and stability.
 Identify challenges of countries transitioning from one economy to another
 Understand government’s goal is to promote business; communism gov’t role is
tightly controlled production to ensure economic equality / distribution.
 Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nation
Measure:
 Predict what would happen if “Island A” changed from Communism to
Capitalism
Economics 4a- International Trade
Need to know:
 Terms: resource distribution, political stability, flow of investment, tariffs,
standard of living, specialization, import/ export – deficit/ supply
 Why do countries specialize in certain items?
 Specialization vs. diversity of goods

Effects of trade imbalances
 Analyze how political instability can effect our economy
Measure:
 Analyze the U.S’s trade deficit’s effect on overall economy.
 Analyze how promoting economic competition and free trade can improve health
care and standard of living.
