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Franklin High School > Departments and Faculty > Business/Computer Technology > Mr. Bushnell's Classes

Economics

Welcome

Economics
Course #593
Instructional Management Plan

Teacher: Mr. Bushnell
To contact teacher:
508-528-5600 Ext. 3151
Email: bushnellr@franklin.k12.ma.us

STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES:
1. Students are to report to class on time.
2. Students are expected to report with books and notebooks.
3. Students will complete homework on time.
4. Students will show respect to the teacher and other students.
5. Students will contribute in a positive way to class activities.
6. Students are responsible to make up any work that is missed due to absence or other reasons.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
1. Students are required to read the textbook: Economics Today and Tomorrow.
2. Students are required to complete all class and homework assignments
3. Students will complete several projects and make presentations using available technology.

GRADING AND MARKING POLICY
1. Quizzes will be given after each chapter is completed, and represent 40% of the grade.
2. Tests will be given as each Unit is completed, and represent 40% of the grade.
3. Class and homework assignments will account for 20% of the grade.
4. Student participation is an important component of the class. Student participation is measured using the following:
a. On time to class
b. Bringing books and workbooks to class
c. Cooperation with teacher and other students.
d. Willingness to join discussion

MISREPRESENTATION OF ACADEMIC WORK
1. See the academic honesty policy posted in each room.

LATE WORK POLICY
1. It is the responsibility of the student to pass in all assignments on time.
2. Class assignments or homework missed due to absence for any reason are due one day after the student has returned to class. No credit will be given for work not completed.
3. Missed quizzes or tests must be made up within one week after a student returns from an absence. No credit will be given for missed quizzes or tests.
4. No exceptions to (2) and (3) above will be made without the permission of the teacher, and those will be made only in extreme cases.



Text: Economics Today and Tomorrow
Glencoe McGraw-Hill,
Author: Roger LeRoy Miller, Ph. D.

Course Objectives:

Unit I.
1. Define economics and outline the basic principles of economic systems.
2. Compare the ways traditional, command, market, and mixed economics answer the basic economic questions.
3. Characterize the American free enterprise system.

Unit II.
1. Evaluate the individual role of the consumer.
2. Analyze buying decisions.
3. Learn the value of saving and investing money.

Unit III.
1. Explain the laws of supply and demand as they apply to voluntary markets.
2. Characterize the types of business organizations.
3. Discuss how competition and monopolies affect prices.

Unit IV.
1. Specify sources and types of financing and methods of production available to companies.
2. Explain basic marketing principles and distribution of goods and services.
3. Describe the makeup of the American labor force, the labor movement, and collective bargaining procedures.

Unit V.
1. Explain how to measure economic performance.
2. Discuss the Federal Reserve System and United States monetary policy.
3. List methods used to fight unemployment and inflation.

Unit VI.
1. Explain imports and exports.
2. Describe how other nations’ economies are becoming more like the American economy
3. Describe economic growth in developing nations.
4. Explain the trend toward a global economy.
5. Discuss the impact of computer technology on the company.


Course Outline:

Section 1. What is Economics?
1. How do wants and needs differ?
2. Why does scarcity face all people at all times?
3. What are the four factors of production?
4. How are trade-offs and opportunity costs related?
5. How cab society’s trade-offs be shown on a production possibilities curve?
6. How do economists use models to study the real world?
7. Why are there different schools of economic thought?

Section II. Economic Systems and the American Economy
1. What three questions must all economic systems answer?
2. What are the major types of economic systems and their differences?
3. What is the role if government in our free enterprise economy?
4. How do freedom of enterprise and freedom of choice apply to the American economy?
5. What roles do private property, the profit incentive, and competition play in the American economy?
6. What are the major goals of a market economy?
7. How can people balance economic rights with economic responsibilities?

Section III. Your Role as a Consumer
1. What is the difference between disposable and discretionary income?
2. What three considerations should govern your decision making as a consumer?
3.What trade-offs occur when you are gathering information?
4. What forms of advertising exist?
5. How can you learn to practice comparison shopping?
6. What are your rights as a consumer?
7. What private and federal help can you receive as a consumer?
8. What are your responsibilities as a consumer?

Section IV. Going into Debt
1. What are the advantages of repaying installment debt over a long period?
2. Why do people go into debt?
3. What factors should you consider when deciding whether or not to use credit?
4. What are six types of financial institution?
5. What three kinds of charge accounts are available from stores?
6. How are credit cards used?
7. How do finance charge and an annual percentage rate differ?
8. What four factors determine a person’s credit rating?
9. What are your responsibilities as a borrower?
10. How has the Equal Credit Opportunity Act affected consumer credit?
11. Why might a person declare personal bankruptcy?

Section V. Buying the Necessities
1. What are the advantages of comparison food shopping?
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of shopping at club warehouse stores?
3.What three factors determine clothing value?
4. When should you take advantage of clothing sales?
5. What three rules should determine how much you spend for a house?
6. What are the rights and responsibilities of renters?
7. What are the trade-offs when buying a vehicle?
8. What costs are involved in operating a vehicle?

Section VI. Why Saving and Investing
1. When should you save?
2. How do passbook, statement, and money market accounts differ?
3. What are the advantages of time deposits?
4. How do stocks and bonds differ?
5.What investment funds are available in stock and bond markets?
6. What kinds of retirement investments are available?
7. How much should you save and invest?

Section VII. Demand and Supply
1. How does the principle of voluntary exchange operate in a market economy?
2. What does the law of demand state?
3. How do the real income effect, the substitution effect, and diminishing marginal utility relate to the law of demand?
4. What does a demand curve show?
5. What are the determinants of demand?
6. How does the elasticity of demand affect the price of a given product?
7. What is the law of supply?
8. How does the incentive of greater profits affect quantity supplied?
9. What do a supply schedule and supply curve show?
10.What are the four determinants of supply?
11.How is the equilibrium price determined?
12.How do shifts in equilibrium price occur?
13.How do shortages and surpluses affect price?
14.How do price ceilings and price floors restrict the free exchange of prices?

Section VIII. Business Organizations
1. What things must be done before starting a business?
2. What four elements are involved in every business?
3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of a sole proprietorship?
4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of a partnership?
5. What are the advantages and disadvantages of corporations?
6. How are corporations typically structured?
7. What types of businesses are involved in franchises?

Section IX. Competition and Monopolies
1. What are the five conditions of perfect competition?
2. Why is agriculture often considered an example of perfect competition?
3. How does perfect competition benefit society?
4. What are four characteristics of a pure monopoly?
5. What characterizes and oligopoly?
6. What are five characteristics of monopolistic competition?
7. What is the difference between interlocking directorates and mergers?
8. What is the purpose of federal regulatory agencies?
9. How has some regulation hurt consumers?

Section X. Microeconomics: American Business in Action
1. How does a business decide whether to expand or not?
2. Why are people willing to finance business investment?
3. How does competition for financing determine how resources are allocated in a market economy?
4.What are three general kinds of debt financing?
5. What four factors should companies consider in choosing the right financing?
6. What are the four major steps in production operations?
7. How has technology changed production methods since the early 1800’s?

Section XI. Marketing and Distribution
1. How has the role of marketing changed in the United States?
2. What elements make up market research?
3. What is the importance of product identification?
4. Which market strategies depend on price?
5. How does a firm decide where to sell its products?
6. What are four types of promotion that a firm may use?
7. What is the difference between wholesale and retail distribution?
8. What are two new types of distribution channel?

Section XII. The American Labor Force
1. How are workers categorized according to skill level and training?
2. How do skill, type of job, and location affect supply and demand in the labor market?
3. What obstacles did labor unions face when they began to organize in the 1800s?
4. How do closed shops, union shops, and agency shops differ?
5. What are the major issues over which union contracts are negotiated?
6. What workers’ actions and management responses may accompany a strike?
7. How has collective bargaining in the United States changed in recent years?

Section XIII. Measuring the Economy’s Performance
1. What four categories of economic activity are used to measure GDP?
2. How do the three measurements of income—national, personal, and disposable—differ?
3. What is the relationship between the purchasing power of money and the rate of inflation?
4. How do the consumer price index and the producer price index differ n what they measure?
5. Why is there an inverse relationship between aggregate quantity demanded and the price level?
6. What causes the aggregate supply curve to slope upward?
7. How do you use aggregate demand and supply analysis to determine the equilibrium price level?
8. What are the phases of a typical business cycle?
9. What have been the three most severe downturns in the United States economy since the 1920s?
10. What are some of the potential causes of business fluctuations?
11. What are the three broad categories of economic indicators?

Section XIV. Money and Banking
1. What are the three functions of money?
2. What are the six major characteristics of money?
3. What are some of the most important events in the history of American banking?
4. What are six services provided by banks and savings institutions?
5. How has electronic banking changed banking services?
6. What is the difference between money and near moneys?
7. What does the M2 definition of money include?

Section XV. The Federal Reserve System and Monetary Policy
1. How is the Federal Reserve System in the United States organized?
2. What are the functions of the Fed?
3. What are the differences between loose money and tight money policies?
4. What is the purpose of fractional reserve banking?
5. How does the money supply expand?
6. How can the Fed use reserve requirements to alter the money supply?
7. How does the discount rate affect the money supply?
8. How does the Fed use open-market operations?
9. What are some of the difficulties of carrying out monetary policy?

Section XVI. Government Spends, Collects, and Owes
1. What are two measurements of government growth?
2. What do some economists believe caused the growth of government?
3. What are public goods?
4. Through what two general categories does government redistribute income?
5. What are some criticisms of government involvement in the economy?
6. What are the steps in the federal budget-making process?
7. What are the five largest federal expenditures?
8. What are the five largest state and local government expenditures?
9. How does deficit spending increase the national debt?
10.What are the two principles of taxation?
11.What effect do the three forms of taxation have on taxpayers?

Section XVII. Stabilizing the National Economy
1. What are two problems the government faces in measuring unemployment?
2. What are the four kinds of unemployment?
3. How does demand-pull inflation differ from cost-push inflation?
4. How does income flow between businesses and consumers?
5. How can the federal government use fiscal policy to combat unemployment?
6. What do monetarists think the government and the Fed should do to stabilize the economy?
7. Why do monetarists criticize fiscal policy?

Section XVIII. Trading with other Nations
1. What are the benefits of international trade?
2. What is the difference between absolute advantage and comparative advantage?
3. Why do nations need a system of currency exchange rates?
4. How do the forces of supply and demand determine flexible exchange rates?
5. How do exchange rates affect the balance of trade?
6. How can a nation restrict imports?
7. What are three arguments for and against free trade?
8. What are some current international and regional trade agreements?

Section XIX. Converging Economic Systems
1. What are three characteristics of pure market capitalism?
2. What are the key characteristics of pure socialism?
3. How did socialism develop?
4. What are the benefits of capitalism?
5. How did the Chinese economic system develop following World War II?
6. What have been two major problems in China’s attempt to move to capitalism?
7. How has Russia changed since privatization?
8. How has the Swedish economy been changing?
9. What changes have recently occurred in Latin American economies?

Section XX. Economic Growth in Developing Nations
1. About how many nations in the world are considered developed?
2. What are five economic characteristics of developing nations?
3. Why have poorly defined property rights been a problem in developing countries?
4. Where do developing countries obtain outside sources of financing for economic development?
5. What agencies channel aid from major industrial nations to developing nations?
6. Why do nations give foreign aid?
7. What are the main obstacles to economic growth in developing nations?
8. Why did Indonesia fail to sustain rapid economic growth?
9. What are four problems of rapid industrialization in developing countries?
10. In addition to poverty, what factors influence economic development?
11. What is the relationship between the increased flow of information and international economic cooperation?

Section XXI. The Global Economy
1. How has improved telecommunications affected global integration?
2. What kinds of financial investments are traded in global markets?
3. What concerns to some people have about direct foreign investment?
4. Why do some people argue in favor of more direct foreign investment?
5. About how many multinationals exist in the world today?
6. What is a cross-border investment?
7. What are the advantages of corporate alliances?
8. How have recent patterns of immigration to the United States increased the need for tolerance?

Section XXII. Cybernomics
1. How is the Internet affecting the way companies do business?
2. Why are marketers collecting information about your purchases?
3. How does e-commerce benefit the consumer?
4. What changes caused the new environment called the Information Age?
5. How does the knowledge economy differ from the industrial economy?
6. How does innovation affect economic growth?
7. Why is some trading on the Internet considered risky?
8. How is intellectual property being stolen?
9. What is being done to protect consumers’ privacy?

10881  
Updated: Jan 13, 2006  



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