Economic Practices

This course helps students understand prices, buying, selling, and the like:

• Why do prices rise or fall?
• How do people decide at what prices they will buy and at which they will refuse?
• What makes people trade their hard work for soft, shiny metals, or little green papers, or changes to a number in a bank computer?

We will examine economic thinking patterns guiding individual choices, small groups exchanging in businesses, and millions strong macroeconomic interactions. Later on, we will study complex happenings such as socialism and inflation, ideas often mentioned but seldom understood.

Weekly homework will range from open book quizzes, to concept examples/illustrations, and participation in class discussion. Major grades will be assessed in 3 essays. The weekly homework load will comprise approximately 2 hours, including essay writing spread out over multiple weeks.

Major course texts will include the following topics:

Economics in One Lesson-Hazlitt:

1.    economic thinking skills
2.    student chosen inquiries in contemporary topics

Lessons for the Young Economist -Murphy:

1.    economic ideas compared to other disciplines
2.    how money emerges in economic systems
3.    private property as a foundational institution
4.    division of labor
5.    entrepreneurship and competition
6.    income, saving, and investment
7.    understanding graphs of macroeconomic supply and demand
8.    interest, credit, and debt
9.    the stock market
10. socialism: theoretical and historical critique
11. government interventions: price controls, taxes, tariffs, inflation,
12. business crash cycles

Many states require only 1 semester of Economics and 1 semester of U.S. Government for high school. U.S. Government (Foundations or Contemporary Issues) pairs well with this class for a full year of Economics and Government.