Week 7 — Readings & Resources

Course: Principles of Macroeconomics (ECON 2) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Ashford
Focus: Fiscal Policy — Spending, Taxes, the Multiplier & the Deficit vs. the Debt · Objective 6

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📖 Read (≈25 min)

1. OpenStax, Principles of Macroeconomics 3e — Ch. 17, "Government Budgets and Fiscal Policy."
   🔗 https://openstax.org/books/principles-macroeconomics-3e/pages/17-introduction-to-government-budgets-and-fiscal-policy
   Government spending, taxation, deficits & debt, the spending multiplier, and automatic stabilizers — this week's entire arc, in the book's own chapter.

2. Marginal Revolution University — "Introduction to Fiscal Policy."
   🔗 https://mru.org/courses/principles-economics-macroeconomics/intro-fiscal-policy
   A complementary "best case / limits / dangers / crowding out" framing of fiscal policy — a fast, evenhanded companion to today's lecture.

▶️ Watch (≈16 min)

3. CrashCourse Economics #8 — "Fiscal Policy and Stimulus." (Adriene Hill & Jacob Clifford)
   🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otmgFQHbaDo
   How governments use taxes and spending, the multiplier effect, and expansionary vs. contractionary policy — in voice and motion.

4. CrashCourse Economics #9 — "Deficits & Debts." (Adriene Hill & Jacob Clifford)
   🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sUCSGVYzI0
   What a deficit and the national debt actually are, and how they accumulate — the companion piece to today's deficit-vs.-debt distinction.

🛠️ Tools & Data for this week (links only)

5. FRED — Federal Debt: Total Public Debt (GFDEBTN).
   🔗 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GFDEBTN
   The real, official quarterly series behind this week's "stock" idea — the actual accumulated total public debt, updated every quarter.

6. Congressional Budget Office — Budget.
   🔗 https://www.cbo.gov/topics/budget
   The official U.S. federal budget and deficit-projections hub — where the real-world numbers behind "deficit" and "budget" actually come from.

Why these earn the click: OpenStax Ch. 17 is the spine of today's multiplier/stabilizers/deficit-debt material, and MRU adds the evenhanded "best case vs. limits" framing that sets up this week's debate; the two CrashCourse videos give the multiplier and the deficit/debt story in voice and motion; FRED and the CBO ground "deficit" and "debt" in the real, live U.S. numbers behind this week's engineered Meadowland example.