Week 7 · Readings & resources

Week 7 — Readings & Resources

Principles of Macroeconomics Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 7 (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 80–97 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 practice, 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 (20–24 min total)

① How far does one dollar of spending go?

Chapter 7, Section “Use the spending multiplier to size the change in output” · Session 1, Segment 4, “The spending multiplier” · Remember: each round of spending is someone's income, and the rounds add up to the multiplier 1 divided by 1 minus the MPC.

Fiscal Policy and Stimulus: Crash Course Economics #8 — CrashCourse — a quick, joke-filled tour of expansionary and contractionary fiscal policy and why a government might spend more or tax less in a slump; watch for the two directions and say which way aggregate demand shifts each time. This builds on Week 5's work with shifting the aggregate demand curve. (video, 12 min) (captions: creator)
The Multiplier Effect- Macro Topic 3.2 — Jacob Clifford — a fast whiteboard lesson on how one round of spending becomes the next round's income, and how the MPC sets the size of the multiplier; the video divides 1 by the saved share, which is the same as this course's 1 minus the MPC. (video, 6 min) (captions: automatic)
What is the size of the fiscal multiplier? — Economics Observatory — a plain-language question-and-answer piece on why real-world multipliers are smaller and less certain than the simple formula, and why estimates differ between slumps and booms; read the first two sections and notice that the size is a live research question, not one settled number. (reading, 8–12 min)

② Tax cut or new spending? And the cushions that need no vote

Chapter 7, Section “Compare a tax cut with a spending increase” · Session 2, Segment 5, “A tax cut versus a spending increase” · Remember: households save part of a tax cut before they spend it, so a tax cut does a little less per dollar than new spending.

Fiscal Policy and the Tax Multiplier Practice (2 of 2)- Macro Topic 3.8 — Jacob Clifford — a short practice problem that runs a tax change through the tax multiplier and compares it with a spending change; pause before each answer and work it with the chapter's rule first. (video, 3 min) (captions: automatic)
Macro 3.8 & 3.9 Fiscal Policy and Automatic Stabilizers — ReviewEcon — a review of both fiscal directions, the tax and spending multipliers, and the taxes and transfers that move with the economy on their own; watch the automatic-stabilizer part and name one stabilizer you have seen at work. Use it while completing the Week-7 module overview. (video, 10 min) (captions: automatic)

③ The faucet and the water level: deficit versus debt

Chapter 7, Section “Separate the deficit from the debt: a flow versus a stock” · Session 2, Segment 7, “The deficit and the debt” · Remember: a deficit is one year's shortfall, a flow, and the debt is the running total still owed, a stock.

Deficits & Debts: Crash Course Economics #9 — CrashCourse — a lively explainer that keeps the yearly deficit apart from the accumulated debt and walks through why governments borrow; watch for the moment the two words are separated and match it to the bathtub picture. (video, 8 min) (captions: creator)
National Deficit — U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data — the Treasury's own plain-language page on what a deficit is, what causes deficits and surpluses, and how a deficit differs from the debt; read the opening, the causes, and the section on the difference, and skip the year-by-year charts if you are short on time. (reading, 8–12 min)
Understanding the National Debt — U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data — the Treasury's companion page on the national debt as the total of past borrowing; read the opening and the section that explains how the debt grows, and treat any dollar figure on the page as a live number that changes over time. (reading, 10–15 min)

④ Act now or wait? Crowding out and lags

Chapter 7, Section “Weigh the case for and against fiscal stimulus” · Session 2, Segment 8, “The case for and against fiscal action” · Remember: both sides share the arithmetic and differ on how large crowding out and lags are and on how to weigh jobs now against debt later.

Macro: Unit 3.5 -- Problems with Fiscal Policy — You Will Love Economics — a classroom-style walk through the case for caution, from the time it takes to recognize a slump and pass a bill to crowding out of private investment; as you watch, sort each point into a positive claim or a value judgment, and set it beside the case for action in the chapter. (video, 9 min) (captions: automatic)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

Fiscal Policy (topic guide) — Econlib — a topic guide on government spending and taxes; read the introduction and the definitions-and-basics entries, and skip the history, advanced resources, and podcast links. Its selections lean toward one school of thought, so read them beside the chapter's two cases. (reading, 6–10 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.

Provenance: Built with The Course Maker · samples.thecoursemaker.com