Week 3 — Readings & Resources

Your primary reading is Chapter 3 (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 73–84 minutes for everything. Each group points 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 (18–20 min total)

• Inflation - Economic Lowdown — Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
• How is Inflation Measured? — Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland
• Unemployment- Macro Topic 2.3 — Jacob Clifford

① What goes in the basket, and how it becomes one number

Chapter 3, Section “Define the CPI: one basket, priced twice” · Session 1, Segment 1, “The fixed basket” · Remember: the basket stays fixed, so only price changes can move its total cost.

• What's in Your Market Basket? Why Your Inflation Rate Might Differ from the Average — Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis — a plain-language essay on what the CPI's basket holds and why your own basket, and so your own inflation rate, may not match the average; compare it with the chapter's three-item campus basket. Use it while working through the Week-3 module overview. (reading, 8–10 min)
• CPI Practice AP Macroeconomics — Jacob Clifford — a worked practice set that prices a basket in two years, builds the index, and turns it into an inflation rate; pause before each step and try it first. (video, 8 min) (captions: automatic)

② A level is not a rate

Chapter 3, Section “Turn a level into a rate: the inflation rate” · Session 1, Segment 3, “From a level to a rate” · Remember: divide the change in the index by the starting level before you call it an inflation rate.

• Inflation - Economic Lowdown — Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis — a short explainer on what inflation is and how a price index tracks it; listen for the difference between prices being high and prices rising. (video, 5 min) (captions: creator)
• How is Inflation Measured? — Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland — a step-by-step account of how agencies choose a basket, collect prices, build an index, and compute a rate from it; read the steps and the list of price measures, and skip the later parts on other models. This builds on Week 2's work with the GDP deflator, which appears in its list of measures. (reading, 7–9 min)
• Inflation and Bubbles and Tulips: Crash Course Economics #7 — CrashCourse — a fast-moving episode on what inflation is, how it is measured with a basket of goods, and why it matters to savers and wage earners; watch the first half for this week's ideas. (video, 10 min) (captions: creator)

③ Who counts as unemployed?

Chapter 3, Section “Count the labor market: three rates from three counts” · Session 2, Segment 5, “Counting the labor market” · Remember: the unemployment rate divides by the labor force, and the participation rate divides by all adults.

• How the Government Measures Unemployment — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — the survey agency's own explanation of who counts as employed, unemployed, and outside the labor force, including discouraged workers; read the opening questions and answers and skim the rest. (reading, 10–15 min)
• The Fed Explained: Labor force and unemployment — Atlanta Fed — a short explainer on how the labor force is defined and how the unemployment rate is built from it; check each definition against the chapter's. (video, 4 min) (captions: creator)

④ Why are people out of work?

Chapter 3, Section “Sort the jobless: three types of unemployment” · Session 2, Segment 7, “Three types of unemployment” · Remember: the cause of a job loss, not its length, decides whether it is frictional, structural, or cyclical.

• Unemployment- Macro Topic 2.3 — Jacob Clifford — a quick walk through the unemployment rate, who is left out of it, and the types of unemployment; sort each example it gives before the video names the type. (video, 6 min) (captions: automatic)
• Unemployment - Economic Lowdown — Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis — an explainer on how unemployment is measured and on its types; listen for one example of each type and say why it fits. (video, 7 min) (captions: creator)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

• Consumer Price Index: Concepts — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — the agency's handbook page on what the CPI measures, which items and households it covers, and how its base period works; read the opening and the part on index values, and skip the detailed scope notes. (reading, 8–10 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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