Course Outline

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Unit 1 – Pre-Modern Economics


Mini-Unit 1 – Pre-Modern Economics
• Brief history of the progression from barter, to grain (and beer, lol) currency, to minted coins, to printed
money/credit/bills of exchange
• Feudal system (with focus on the restriction of liberty, limited social mobility, and the problems of
identity based on birth and/or immutable characteristics)
• Mercantilism & tariffs with a focus on fixed-wealth theory and the issues with tariffs & heavy taxation
• Craft guilds & the concept of command economies (return to with the socialist states) with a focus on
their creative and productive limitations
Mini-Unit 2 – Early-Modern Economics
• Enlightenment ideas of natural rights with a focus on private property, social mobility, & economic
liberty
• Development & advantages of stable financial institutions, joint stock, and corporations
• Protoindustrialization with a focus on privatization


Unit 2 – Modern Economic Theory (17th

-19th centuries, with contemporary references)

Mini-Unit 3 – Modern Economic Theory
• Adam Smith’s theory & its fundamentals (market pricing, supply & demand, competition, Invisible hand,
etc.)
• Impact of private property protections, state-enforced patents, entrepreneurship, and profit on
innovation, production, and economic growth
• A look at the fundamentals of Smith’s theory: scarcity, marginal utility, graphing, laws of supply &
demand, surplus/shortage/equilibrium, opportunity cost, etc.)
Mini-Units 4 & 5 – Microeconomics Principles and Practices
• A deeper look at the fundamentals of Smith’s theory: scarcity, marginal utility, quantity supplied &
demanded, changes in demand & supply, opportunity cost, etc.)
• Impact on behavior: monetary & non-monetary incentives, substitutes, income effect, etc.
• Fundamentals & benefits of free trade, factories & mechanization, and absolute/comparative advantage


Unit 3 – Critics of Capitalism & Economic Reforms (19th century – 1970s)


Note: I use this section to show students there were legitimate issues, and to show them how the theoretical
alternatives went awry when applied across different cultures, states, & time
Mini-Unit 6 – 19th

-Century Critics & Alternatives

• Legitimate issues: conditions & repression of working-class (example: Pullman Strike & Homestead Steel
Massacre) monopolies, crony capitalism, downcycles, etc. (Panic of 1873)
• Illegitimate solutions: Marxism and its disastrous application (USSR & China as examples)


Mini-Unit 7 – 20th

-Century Downcycles and Keynesian Interventionism

• The Federal Reserve, Progressive anti-trust legislation, credit, overproduction, speculation in the stock
market, and the Great Depression with a focus on data, unemployment, and graphing supply/demand to
illustrate
• Fundamentals of Keynesian Theory, the labor movement, return of domestic protectionism/tariffs, &
welfare state with a focus on their marginal benefits (if any) and negative impact
Mini-Unit 8 – Keynesian Practices, Mid-Century Fiscal Policy, and Stagflation
• Keynesian theories in practice, the expanded welfare state, price controls and minimum wage in the
West with a focus on nominal and real data
• The crisis of stagflation and including its causes, impact, and theoretical remedies; pros and cons of
expanded social, environmental, and military spending, and new employment waves


Unit 4 – The Chicago School of Economic Theory & Contemporary Economics


Mini-Unit 9 – Chicago School Monetarism, Supply-Side Economics, and The Federal Reserve System
• The Chicago school with a focus monetary policy and long-term/short-term interest rates
• 1980s renewed free market policies, de-regulation, & contemporary free trade movements/agreements
• The historical and contemporary functions and roles of the Federal Reserve System
Mini-Unit 10 – Globalization & The Contemporary Economy
• Contemporary economy: impact of technology, globalization, foreign exchange rates, outsourcing,
knowledge economy, decline of brick & mortar
• Focus on the MASSIVE decline in mortality rates and poverty in the 21st century due primarily to market
economies & globalization and the upward trend of rich countries naturally restoring the environment
once wealthy enough
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