Course Description

Booms and Busts

In this course:

1. Learn basic macroeconomic concepts like economic growth, inflation, and monetary and fiscal policy.

2. Learn the causes and consequences of business cycles.

You don’t have to be an economist to notice that our economy experiences some pretty big swings. We hear in the news all the time about how stock markets are up or down, and a slew of commentators try to pinpoint the precise causes. At family gatherings, you may hear somebody blame their inability to get a job or their struggling business on ‘the economy’.


If you’re unsatisfied with this abstract language, this course is for you. We’ll start from scratch and see how an economy works in its fundamentals, like production; consumption; saving; interest and more, and we’ll make the causes of economic growth, economic decline and business cycles more clear. You’ll learn that when we save and invest resources for production, our economy can grow. When we use monetary policy that makes it look like we are saving, things go awry.

FEE Courses

Course curriculum

  • 1

    Overview

    • Course Overview

    • Micro and Macro

    • What are Business Cycles?

  • 2

    Lesson One: Production

    • Introduction

    • Watch Video

    • The Problem of Production

    • Read Article

    • Comparative Advantages

    • Read Article

    • Other Views

    • Match the terms!

    • Lesson Recap

    • Extra Resources

  • 3

    Lesson Two: Money

    • Introduction

    • Watch Video

    • Two Kinds of Banking Systems

    • Watch Video

    • Inflation and Deflation

    • Watch Video

    • Other Views

    • Match the terms!

    • Lesson Recap

  • 4

    Lesson Three: Saving and Interest

    • Introduction

    • Read Article

    • Interest Rates and Time Preference

    • Watch Video

    • Real Saving vs. Fake Saving

    • Watch Video

    • Other Views

    • Lesson Quiz

    • Lesson Recap

  • 5

    Lesson Four: Booms and Busts

    • Introduction

    • Austrian Business Cycle Theory

    • Watch Video

    • The Great Boom and Bust

    • Watch Video

    • Other Views

    • Lesson Quiz

    • Lesson Recap

  • 6

    Lesson Five: Employment and Government Spending

    • Introduction

    • Does Government Spending Boost the Economy?

    • Read Article

    • ​Creating Value, Not Just Work

    • Watch Video

    • Government Spending and Government Debt

    • Watch Video

    • Lesson Quiz

    • Lesson Recap

  • 7

    Conclusion

    • Course Summary