Week 8 · Readings & resources

Week 8 — Readings & Resources

Principles of Macroeconomics Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 8 (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 86–100 minutes for everything. Each group points back to the matching chapter section and review segment, so use the full menu when you want more practice before the midterm, 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 (20–22 min total)

① Can I still run the numbers? The first-half calculations

Chapter 8, Section “Measure prices and jobs: a level versus a rate” · Session 1, Segment 1, “The first-half calculations” · Remember: each topic asks for one calculation, and every rate divides by the right starting number.

MACROeconomics 15 Minute Review — Jacob Clifford — a fast tour of the whole principles course in one sitting, from scarcity and GDP through aggregate demand and supply and fiscal policy. Stop here before money and banking; next week takes that up. (video, 15 min) (captions: automatic)
Macroeconomics Key Equations — Jacob Clifford — a short run-through of the formulas a macro exam leans on, including GDP by spending, the GDP deflator, the unemployment rate, and the spending multiplier; skip the money formulas for now. (video, 5 min) (captions: automatic)
Macroeconomics Unit 2 COMPLETE Summary - Economic Indicators — ReviewEcon — a longer review of the measurement weeks: the circular flow, GDP, unemployment, the CPI, the GDP deflator, and the business cycle, with practice-style questions along the way. (video, 16 min) (captions: automatic)
Consumer Price Index Frequently Asked Questions — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — the statistics agency's own answers about the CPI; read the answer headed How do I read or interpret an index, which shows why a percent change, not a change in index points, is the inflation rate. (reading, 2–4 min)

② Which curve moved? AD–AS and fiscal policy

Chapter 8, Section “Shift the AD–AS model and size the gap” · Session 1, Segment 2, “The AD–AS habit and the fiscal tools” · Remember: name the curve, name the direction, then read the new price level and real output.

Macroeconomics Unit 3 COMPLETE Summary - National Income and Price Level — ReviewEcon — a review of aggregate demand, short-run and long-run aggregate supply, gaps, the spending and tax multipliers, and fiscal policy, drawn and shifted step by step. Use it to check your curve habit while working through the Week-8 module overview. (video, 15 min) (captions: automatic)

③ Per year, or as of? Flows and stocks

Chapter 8, Section “Sort flows from stocks: the habit for the second half” · Session 2, Segment 3, “Flows and stocks” · Remember: a flow is an amount per period, a stock is an amount at a moment, and flows change stocks.

Stocks and Flows Explained in One Minute: Definition/Meaning, Examples and Comparison — One Minute Economics — a quick definition of the two kinds of numbers with everyday examples, the fastest way into this week's one new idea. (video, 2 min) (captions: automatic)
Government Debt vs. Deficits Explained: Stocks and Flows in Economics — Econbusters — a whiteboard talk for first-year economics students on why the government's deficit is a flow and its debt a stock: a deficit is the shortfall when tax revenue falls below spending in a year, the Treasury borrows to cover it, and that borrowing adds to the debt, the way water running into a bathtub adds to what is already there. Watch it for the idea, and skip its dated dollar figures and its tour of who holds the debt. (video, 8 min) (captions: automatic)
Deficits, Debt, and the Economy: An Introduction — Congressional Research Service — a plain report for lawmakers on how a deficit, measured over a fiscal year, adds to the debt, measured at a point in time; read the opening summary and the short background sections that define a deficit and the debt, and skip the rest. Its dollar figures date from when it was written, so read it for the ideas, not the numbers. This builds on Week 7's work with the deficit and the debt. (reading, 10–15 min)
Investment in Fixed Assets — U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis — the national accountants' short page on how a year's investment adds new buildings, machines, and software to the stock of fixed assets an economy owns, while wear and tear subtracts from it. (reading, 3–5 min)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

Government Debt and Deficits — Concise Encyclopedia of Economics, Econlib — an encyclopedia entry; read the opening part that defines the debt as a stock and the deficit as the change in it each period, and treat the later debate as optional. (reading, 10–15 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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