Teaching Economics -- a little help from my friends
August 1st 2010 14:07
The political stability of the United States and the relative safety and efficiency of our financial markets have encouraged China and others to invest in America by acquiring Treasury and other U.S. securities. However, threats to financial stability or the continuation of massive budget deficits that suggest the U.S. government is pursuing policies that could bring inflation and economic instability sometime in the future could shake the confidence of international investors, leading them to invest elsewhere. Among the many effects of such a shift reducing the supply of funds in the United States would be significant increases in interest rates.
Thus, failure to bring down the deficit significantly as the economy recovers from the recession could pose real dangers for the U.S. economy. The Skyrocketing Federal Budget Deficit, published and distributed by Junior Achievement
Back in the 1950s, New York City school children were taught to crawl under their desks. This was just in case anybody dropped an atomic bomb in the middle of Central Park. Probably the practice caused some kids to have nightmares, and may explain some of the anti-war fervor of the 1960s and 1970s. Now, students are being taught to fear budget deficits courtesy of pamphlets supplied by Junior Achievement. According to the magazine Dollars & Sense, funding for the JA economics education programs comes from corporations including UPS, ExxonMobil, Goldman Sachs, and New York Life Insurance and Kraft Foods. These corporations have their employees come to the classroom to teach the lessons.
While budget deficits can be a serious economic problem, understanding the cause of the deficit is as important as knowing the size. For the moment, inflation may be less of a risk than deflation, and the greatest risk may be the sort of economic stagnation that gripped Japan in the 1990s. Taking a loan to finance an education is vastly different from putting a vacation on a credit card. Junior Achievement doesn’t want to make the discussion too complicated.
The Foundation for Teaching Economics, which provides free training sessions for teachers, lists among its 2009 donors in the $25,000 and up section, the Citigroup Foundation and the Goldman Sachs Foundation. With this kind of backing, the FTE should be sympathetic to government intervention. It’s not.
Another source of resources for teachers is the Liberty Fund, which provides educational material including a large collection of books. A search of their catalog for “Keynes” turned up only one text, and that was “Contra Keynes and Cambridge” by Friedrich Hayek. On casual inspection, it seems as if all of Professor Hayek’s works are included in the catalog. Professor Hayek was the winner of the Nobel Prize in 1974, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1991. He was extremely influential – but his positions were very strongly biased against government spending. Hayek was a contemporary of Keynes, and fair balance would include at least some of Lord Keynes’ writings. The Liberty Fund doesn’t think Keynes deserves inclusion.
The National Council on Economic Education isn’t half bad. They offer teacher education, both as CDs and an on-line version, and their lesson plans are geared to state standards. The worst that can be said of them is that they’re too optimistic. The on-line stock market game is sponsored by the Security Industries Association, and there’s no mention of the fact that you can lose your shirt at this game. In our educational system, the same topics are covered at each level, but with increasing degrees of complexity. Since most students don’t learn economics after high school, it might be helpful to offer. NCEE offers classroom simulations that are heavily weighted in favor of free market solutions over government intervention. These lessons have to be approved by their corporate sponsors, and the people who write the checks aren’t into subtlety.
Thus, failure to bring down the deficit significantly as the economy recovers from the recession could pose real dangers for the U.S. economy. The Skyrocketing Federal Budget Deficit, published and distributed by Junior Achievement
Back in the 1950s, New York City school children were taught to crawl under their desks. This was just in case anybody dropped an atomic bomb in the middle of Central Park. Probably the practice caused some kids to have nightmares, and may explain some of the anti-war fervor of the 1960s and 1970s. Now, students are being taught to fear budget deficits courtesy of pamphlets supplied by Junior Achievement. According to the magazine Dollars & Sense, funding for the JA economics education programs comes from corporations including UPS, ExxonMobil, Goldman Sachs, and New York Life Insurance and Kraft Foods. These corporations have their employees come to the classroom to teach the lessons.
While budget deficits can be a serious economic problem, understanding the cause of the deficit is as important as knowing the size. For the moment, inflation may be less of a risk than deflation, and the greatest risk may be the sort of economic stagnation that gripped Japan in the 1990s. Taking a loan to finance an education is vastly different from putting a vacation on a credit card. Junior Achievement doesn’t want to make the discussion too complicated.
The Foundation for Teaching Economics, which provides free training sessions for teachers, lists among its 2009 donors in the $25,000 and up section, the Citigroup Foundation and the Goldman Sachs Foundation. With this kind of backing, the FTE should be sympathetic to government intervention. It’s not.
Another source of resources for teachers is the Liberty Fund, which provides educational material including a large collection of books. A search of their catalog for “Keynes” turned up only one text, and that was “Contra Keynes and Cambridge” by Friedrich Hayek. On casual inspection, it seems as if all of Professor Hayek’s works are included in the catalog. Professor Hayek was the winner of the Nobel Prize in 1974, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1991. He was extremely influential – but his positions were very strongly biased against government spending. Hayek was a contemporary of Keynes, and fair balance would include at least some of Lord Keynes’ writings. The Liberty Fund doesn’t think Keynes deserves inclusion.
The National Council on Economic Education isn’t half bad. They offer teacher education, both as CDs and an on-line version, and their lesson plans are geared to state standards. The worst that can be said of them is that they’re too optimistic. The on-line stock market game is sponsored by the Security Industries Association, and there’s no mention of the fact that you can lose your shirt at this game. In our educational system, the same topics are covered at each level, but with increasing degrees of complexity. Since most students don’t learn economics after high school, it might be helpful to offer. NCEE offers classroom simulations that are heavily weighted in favor of free market solutions over government intervention. These lessons have to be approved by their corporate sponsors, and the people who write the checks aren’t into subtlety.
| 155 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
