Week 15 — Readings & Resources

Course: Principles of Macroeconomics (ECON 2) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Ashford
Focus: Macroeconomic Schools & Policy Debates · Objectives 1, 5–8 (synthesis)

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📖 Read (≈30 min)

1. IMF Finance & Development, "Back to Basics" — "What Is Keynesian Economics?"
   🔗 https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/basics/4_keynes.htm
   An evenhanded explainer of the Keynesian tradition — aggregate demand, countercyclical fiscal policy, the multiplier — with historical context. Read this alongside #2 below; the two are a matched pair.

2. IMF Finance & Development, "Back to Basics" — "Monetarism: Money Is Where It's At."
   🔗 https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/basics/16_monetarism.htm
   The companion piece: the monetarist school (associated with Milton Friedman) and its debate with Keynesianism, explained fairly on both sides.

3. OpenStax, Principles of Macroeconomics 3e — Ch. 12, "Introduction to the Keynesian Perspective," and Ch. 13, "Introduction to the Neoclassical Perspective."
   🔗 https://openstax.org/books/principles-macroeconomics-3e/pages/12-introduction-to-the-keynesian-perspective
   OpenStax's own side-by-side framing of the two traditions — Keynesian short-run emphasis and neoclassical long-run emphasis. Ch. 13 is linked directly from this chapter.

▶️ Watch (≈10 min)

4. CrashCourse Economics #14 — "Economic Schools of Thought."
   🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZvjh1dxz08
   A fast, friendly survey of Keynesian economics plus other traditions (monetarist, Chicago-school, Austrian) — good scaffolding for today's policy-debate discussion.

🛠️ Tools for this week (links only)

• A calculator or spreadsheet — you'll compute the Meadowland debt-to-GDP and deficit-to-GDP ratios in the Workshop; no special tool required this week (no Desmos graph — this week is qualitative/arithmetic synthesis).

Why these earn the click: the two IMF "Back to Basics" pieces are purpose-built as a matched, evenhanded pair — read together, they ARE this week's core debate; the OpenStax chapters are the textbook's own side-by-side framing of the same two traditions; CrashCourse gives a fast, accessible overview that widens the lens beyond just the two headline schools.