GDP - measuring national income

Introduction to economics
This very short tutorial gives us the big picture of what economics is all about and, in particular, compares macroeconomics (where you are now) to microeconomics.

GDP and the circular flow of income and expenditures
Economics can some times get confusing because one person's expenditure is another person's income which can then be used for expenditure and on and on and on. Seems very circular. It is. This tutorial helps us grapple with this and introduces us to the primary tool economists use to measure a nations productivity/income/expenditure--GDP (gross domestic product).

Components of GDP
You already understand the circular nature of the economy and how GDP is defined from the last tutorial. Now let's think about how economists define the composition of GDP. In particular, we'll focus on consumption (C), investment (I), government spending (G) and net exports.

Real and nominal GDP
The value of a currency is constantly changing (usually going down in terms of what you can buy). Given this, how can we compare GDP measured in dollars in one year to another year? This tutorial answers that question by introducing you to real GDP and GDP deflators.

Inflation - measuring the cost of living

Measuring cost of living -- inflation and the consumer price index
We might generally sense that our cost of living is going up (inflation), but how can we measure it? This tutorial shows how it is done in the United States with the consumer price index (CPI).

Real and nominal return
We think we're getting a certain return on our investments, but can we put it in terms of real purchasing power since the value of money is constantly changing? The answer is yes and this tutorial shows you how.

Deflation
Prices don't always go up. Sometimes they go down (we call this deflation). This tutorial explains how this happens.

Inflationary and deflationary scenarios
This tutorial walks through various scenarios of moderate and extreme price changes. Very good way to understand how activity in the economy may impact price (and vice versa).

The Phillips Curve - Inflation and unemployment
Economists have notices a correlation between unemployment and correlation (you may wan to guess what type of correlation). On some level, this tutorial is common sense, but it will give you fancy labels for this relation so that you can sound fancy at fancy parties.

Aggregate demand and aggregate supply

Aggregate demand and aggregate supply
This tutorial looks at supply and demand in aggregate-from the perspective of the entire economy (not just the market for one good or service). Instead of thinking of quantity of one good, we think of total output (GDP). Very useful model for thinking through macroeconomic events.

Historical circumstances explained by AD/AS
In the last tutorial, we claimed that the aggregate demand and aggregate supply model (AD-AS) would be useful for analyzing macroeconomic events. Well, in this tutorial, we'll do exactly that.

The business cycle
Economies never have a long steady march upwards. They constantly oscillate between growth and recession. This tutorial gives a little intuition for why that is.

Monetary and fiscal policy
Governments (and pseudo government entities like central banks) have two tools at their disposal to try to impact the business cycle --monetary and fiscal policy. This will help you understand what they are.

Keynesian thinking
Whether you love him or hate him (or just consider him a friend that you respect but disagree with every-now-and-then), Keynes has helped define how many modern governments think about their economies. This tutorial explains how his thinking was a fundamental departure from classical economics.

The monetary system

Fractional reserve banking
Most modern economies use a counter-intuitive model of banking called "fractional reserve banking." It is counter-intuitive (and some people would say wrong) because it allows banks to lend out money that it tells depositors is available at any time and essentially involves private banks in money creation. It also creates the possibility of mass instability through bank runs that tend to be mitigated through government regulation and insurance (some would say government subsidy of banks). This tutorial explains how fractional reserve lending works and outlines the good and bad. It also talks about the alternative of full reserve banking.

Money supply
This short tutorial explains how we measure how much "money" there is out there. As we'll see, this isn't as straightforward as counting dollars in people's pockets, especially because there are multiple type of money.

Fractional reserve accounting
If you already know a bit of what fractional reserve banking involves, this tutorial will take you deeper by looking at the actual accounting of central banks and banks.

Interest as the price of money
Summary

Income and expenditure - Keynesian cross and IS-LM model

Marginal propensity to consume (MPC)
If you earn a $1, you might spend some fraction of it. This can then be income for someone else. This can keep going. In this tutorial, we'll explore how the incremental spend per incremental earnings (marginal propensity to consume) and the multiplier effect based on it can drive economic activity.

Consumption function
We are steadily building up the tools to understand the Keynesian Cross and the IS-LM model. In this tutorial, we begin to model consumption as a linear function of disposable income. Seems reasonable to me.

Keynesian Cross
We now build on our consumption function models and start to explore ideas of planned expenditures as a function of output. When plotted with the actual output line, we get our Keynesian Cross which helps us think about whether the economy is operating at its potential.

IS-LM Model
In this tutorial, we begin thinking about the impact of real interest rates on planned investment and output. We then use this to help us plot the IS curve. We then think about how, assuming a fixed money supply, as there is more economic activity, people are willing to pay more for money (helps us plot the LM curve). Finally, we use the IS-LM model to think about how fiscal policy can impact both GDP and real interest rates. You should watch the Keynesian Cross tutorial before this one.

Foreign exchange and trade

Balance of payments- current account and capital account
In this tutorial we will see how trade and assets (including money) changing hands are fundamentally intertwined. Not only that, but we will see how this can be accounted for through the capital account (assets changing hands) and current account (trade).

Currency reserves
This tutorial delves into how and why countries (usually their central banks) would want to keep other countries' currency in reserve. It then goes into why this sometime leaves the reserve-holding country open to a speculative attack (this is seriously high drama).