This video provides a basic overview of unemployment and how it is measured. It also provides an understanding of the FOMC's role in promoting maximum employment and price stability.
The fourth episode of Feducation dissects an FOMC (Federal Open Market Commission) statement, assessing the changing communication strategy for transparency and clarity and demonstrating an activity that can be used in the classroom.
How are the money supply and inflation related? And what does the Federal Reserve have to do with this relationship? Episode 1 of the Feducation video series reviews the functions of money, features an interactive auction that demonstrates the relationship between the money supply and inflation, then utilizes a simple equation to show how changes in the money supply affect the economy. The video also describes how the Fed uses monetary policy to achieve its dual mandate of maximum employment and price stability.
Rent-to-own and "buy here, pay here" make it easy to get what you want. But what are the real costs that you will pay for this convenience compared with what you’d pay using more-traditional financing, such as loans or credit cards? This video weighs the benefits and costs of your options.
Have you accepted a new job recently? Are you aware of the paperwork you need to complete when you start a new job? Watch this brief video to learn about the I-9 form; an important document required to prove you have the legal right to work in the United States.
Watch this short video to get your bearings in a seemingly endless sea of financial-aid options. Grants, scholarships, loans—you name it—we cover it in this informative clip.
Stocks and bonds offer potential gains for investors, but they can also help fuel the economy. The October 2016 issue of Page One Economics: Focus on Finance explains how stocks and bonds can help companies grow, entrepreneurs start businesses, and governments fund public projects.
“Recession” is one of the scariest words in economics. The loss of jobs and income can have lasting impacts on people’s lives. How does the economy get back on track when it’s off course? In this episode of The Economic Lowdown podcast series, you’ll learn about how the government uses fiscal policy to influence the economy.
Inflation, unemployment, recession, economic growth—these economic concepts affect people in very real ways. In two thought-provoking, interactive lessons, this course teaches students about fiscal policy, the avenue by which Congress and the president attempt to influence the economy. Graphs compliments of FRED.
Episode 4 of the Continuing Feducation Video Series offers five tips for protecting your online and financial security
Watch this video from our Personal Finance 101 Conversations series to examine the costs and benefits of various post-secondary education options including community colleges, technical colleges and universities, and more recently, for-profit colleges.
This lesson requires two class periods. In the first class period, students are asked to think of a way to decide who gets 100 pennies and how many each person gets. They learn about the concept of allocation and about different resource allocation methods. They evaluate the different methods using a graphic organizer. Next they listen to different scenarios and try to determine which allocation method was used. Then, after listening to the story Four Feet, Two Sandals about two girls who face some resource allocation issues, they identify the methods used in the story. In the second class period, the students are placed into groups to act out skits illustrating a resource allocation method that their classmates then try to guess. Finally, they read a news article about a resource and write letters to a city council outlining the ways the city could allocate the resource.
Students work with data that represent the ages of 24 people to learn the difference between categorizing data in fractile intervals and equal intervals. Students discuss dividing bonus points among class members to understand what per capita means. Then students look at per capita personal income by state using the GeoFRED mapping tool. They compare per capita personal income displayed with data in equal intervals and with data in fractile intervals.
Students learn that money is a medium of exchange that facilitates economic activity. Next, students learn the relationship between the money supply and inflation by participating in an inflation auction using gold and silver notes to better understand the historic debate of the Free Silver Movement. Students then read William Jennings Bryan's "Cross of Gold" speech to relate the historical context. The students use historical data to calculate income, fixed expenses, and variable expenses of a farmer to further understand the historical argument presented by the Free Silver Movement. Finally, students analyze two political cartoons against the Free Silver Movement. This lesson includes primary source documents obtained from FRASER¨.
Prepaid cards were invented to solve a problem: replacing coin usage in pay telephones. Since then, prepaid cards have evolved into a huge competitive market for general-purpose reloadable (GPR) prepaid cards. Read more about GPR prepaid cards in the May 2015 inaugural edition of Page One Economics Focus on Finance.
Money has taken many forms through the ages: shells, wheels, beads and even cows. All forms, though, have always had three things in common. Find out what in this eight-minute podcast. You will also learn how commodity money differs from representative money and how both differ from today's fiat money.
How is the total value of all the goods and services produced in a country's economy measured? Gross domestic product (GDP) is one common and fairly comprehensive measure. The May 2013 issue explains GDP components and how GDP is calculated. It also describes what GDP does—and does not—measure.
GDP and Pizza: Economics for Life is designed to help students in civics, economics and other social studies classes grasp challenging economic content – and to explain why these topics are important for citizens to understand.
Get Into Stocks is the third video in the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis series, No-Frills Money Skills. Through the story of a local ice-cream cart owner trying to expand her business, students learn about the process by which companies become publicly owned and traded by issuing stock. Students learn key terms, such as capital gains and dividends, and discover how the prices of stocks are affected by how successful a company is in its respective industry.
You may be doing all you can to prepare for the price of education after high school, but if your savings, grants, and scholarships aren’t quite enough, do not overlook student loans as a means to gaining the education you need to make the big bucks.