Week 2 — Readings & Resources

Course: Principles of Macroeconomics (ECON 2) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Ashford
Focus: Measuring Output: Gross Domestic Product · Objective 2

Everything below is a link to a free external resource — nothing is embedded, copied, or downloaded. Links were verified live at build time; if one ever rots, the per-term update re-checks them. (Canvas: a Page of links + ExternalUrl module items.)

📖 Read (≈25 min)

1. OpenStax, Principles of Macroeconomics 3e — Ch. 6, "Introduction to the Macroeconomic Perspective" (6.1 Measuring the Size of the Economy: GDP · 6.2 Adjusting Nominal Values to Real Values)
   🔗 https://openstax.org/books/principles-macroeconomics-3e/pages/6-introduction-to-the-macroeconomic-perspective
   The GDP definition, the expenditure approach C + I + G + NX, and how to strip inflation out of a nominal number — the chapter this whole week is built on.

2. Khan Academy — Measuring the size of the economy: GDP (Macroeconomics course hub)
   🔗 https://www.khanacademy.org/economics-finance-domain/macroeconomics/macro-basic-economics-concepts
   A second walkthrough of GDP and what counts vs. what doesn't, at your own pace.

▶️ Watch (≈10 min)

3. CrashCourse Economics #5 — "Macroeconomics." (Adriene Hill & Jacob Clifford)
   🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8uTB5XorBw
   GDP as the headline measure of economic health, and a fast tour of its expenditure components — a good companion to today's lecture.

🛠️ Tools & data for this week

4. Desmos Graphing Calculator — handy for organizing your GDP-components table or the two-good deflator arithmetic in the Workshop.
   🔗 https://www.desmos.com/calculator
   Free, no account needed.

5. Gross Domestic Product — U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)
   🔗 https://www.bea.gov/data/gdp/gross-domestic-product
   The official U.S. GDP release page — this is where the real GDP figure you hear on the news actually comes from. We use engineered numbers in class so you can see every step; this is the real thing.

Why these earn the click: OpenStax's Ch. 6 sections are the direct spine of the expenditure approach and the real-vs-nominal distinction; Khan Academy gives a second explanation at your own pace; CrashCourse covers the same ground in voice and motion; Desmos helps organize your Workshop arithmetic; the BEA page shows you where official GDP numbers come from.