Week 2 · Readings & resources

Week 2 — Readings & Resources

Introduction to Business Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 2 (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer — pick what helps, skip the rest.

How to use this page

This page has 10 items (4 readings and 6 videos). Allow 57–66 minutes for everything. Each group links back to the matching chapter section and class-session segment, so use the full menu when you want more, or take the quick path below.

Every video here has captions: turn them on with the CC button in the player. The chapter covers the same ideas in text.

Pick-one quick path (18–22 min total)

① How a price settles, and what moves it

Chapter 2, Section “Read the schedule: where buyers and sellers meet” · Session 1, Segment 2, “Reading the strawberry schedule” · Remember: the price tends to settle where the amount buyers want matches the amount sellers offer.

The Science of Supply and Demand — Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis — a regional Federal Reserve bank's plain-language essay on how supply and demand set a price and how outside events shift them; as you read each example, ask whether it moved the buyers' side, the sellers' side, or both. (reading, 8–12 min)
Supply and Demand: Crash Course Economics #4 — CrashCourse — a fast, lively episode on why buyers want less at higher prices, why sellers offer more, and where the two meet; pause at each shift and say which column of the strawberry schedule it would change. (video, 10 min) (captions: creator)
Equilibrium - Economic Lowdown — Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis — a short review of supply and demand that builds to the price with no shortage or surplus; bring one example of a shortage you have seen to the Week-2 module overview. (video, 5 min) (captions: creator)
Demand - Economic Lowdown — Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis — a clear walk through how a price change moves buyers along the same schedule while a change in market conditions shifts the whole schedule; match it to the festival in the chapter. (video, 7 min) (captions: creator)

② How many rivals a business faces

Chapter 2, Section “Place the business: four market structures” · Session 2, Segment 5, “The four market structures” · Remember: count the sellers, compare the products, and check how easily a new seller can enter.

What Are the FOUR Market Structures in Economics? — Think Econ — a quick tour of perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly with everyday examples; stop at the four structures, because next week's five forces take up how rivals shape a business plan. (video, 7 min) (captions: creator)
Monopolization Defined — Federal Trade Commission — the federal competition agency's short page on when a single firm's conduct becomes illegal monopolization under the Sherman Act; notice that winning customers with a better product is not the problem. Read it as general education, not legal advice. (reading, 3–5 min)

③ Who decides, and who steers the economy

Chapter 2, Section “Name the economy's health signs and who steers” · Session 2, Segment 6, “Health signs and policy” · Remember: Congress and the President set fiscal policy, and the Federal Reserve runs monetary policy.

Economic Systems and Macroeconomics: Crash Course Economics #3 — CrashCourse — an episode that compares market and planned economies, lands on the mixed economies most countries run, and then turns to the whole economy; listen for the reasons each side gives. (video, 10 min) (captions: creator)
Gross Domestic Product — U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis — the federal agency that measures GDP explains what the number counts and why its change is watched as a sign of the economy's health; read for the idea, not the latest figures. (reading, 4–6 min)
Fed FAQ: Monetary policy and Fiscal policy? — Federal Reserve — a one-minute answer from the central bank itself on how monetary policy differs from fiscal policy and who runs each. (video, 1 min) (captions: creator)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

What economic goals does the Federal Reserve seek to achieve through its monetary policy? — Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System — the central bank's own short explanation of the two goals Congress assigned it, maximum employment and stable prices; how the Federal Reserve pursues them comes later in the course. (reading, 2–3 min)

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell your instructor and use the reference above in the meantime.

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