The Group of 20 industrial nations have a meeting April 2 to come up with a global strategy for the economic crisis. Usually, only the members of the G7 (Finance ministers from: the United States, Canada, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, and Britain.) or G8 nations (heads of state from the G7, plus Russia) are called upon to attend to global economic concerns. In other words, in the past, only a small number of the largest, most powerful, and wealthiest nations of the West have been directly included. Recently, however, the guest list has comprised of 12 more nations, bringing the total to 20.

Extending the guest list: In addition to Russia, Canada, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Britain, and the U.S., the G20 is composed of: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, and a representative from the European Union. Since the founding of the G20 in 1999, the meetings have been annual events at pre-determined sites with agendas decided far in advance.

Every nation in the world, including the G20, who represent almost 90% of the world’s GDP, is suffering from the current economic crisis. The global economy has great benefits, but when it falters, the costs can also be great. What can be done?

Part A
1.Write the vocabulary (below or page 2 in PDF) terms on the board before the class arrives.

2. Count the students off by 8’s and have them get into their groups (G8’s).

3. Tell the students that a conference of nations is going to develop strategies to deal with the current economic crisis.

4. Pass out “Student Handout #2: G8 Think Sheet and Part A Questions” (pages 9-10 in PDF)

5. Tell the students that they may work together in their groups to answer the questions on their “G8 Think Sheets.”

6. Go around the room to keep students focused on their task and to check their progress. When they’ve gone about as far as they can go on their own, stop them and go to the board.

7.Work through the 15 terms and help students to compose definitions to those that they think they know. It’s unlikely that any one group will know them all; thus, they should see the advantage of a group larger than their “G8.” Be sure to underscore this with the students. They may not know some terms at all. Leave them blank for now. That’s okay. You can assign those as homework or define them for the students later.

8. Finish going through the questions on “Part A Questions” of Student Handout #2 (p.10). Answers are provided on “Teacher Answers (Student Handout #2): Answers to Part A Questions” (p.11)

9. Ask students to complete the vocabulary sheet for homework.

Part B
1. Distribute the “Student Handout #3: What’s Up Doc?” (p.12-13 of PDF). Distribute “Student Handout #4: Your Country Is…” (p.14) as well. (NOTE: these numbers are from November 2008, before the most drastic downturn. For up-to-date numbers, look at the Economist web site)

2.The students should still be in their original groups, but you should now assign the name of one of the following countries to each group: The United States, United Kingdom, Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Sweden, and Japan. Have the students fill in their name, the name of “their country,” and the names of the members in their group.

3. Using the information in “Student Handout #3: What’s Up Doc?” (p.12-13) and the attached data, the students should answer the questions on “Student Handout #4: Your Country Is…” (p.14). This should take about 10 minutes.

4. As the students finish answering the questions about “their country,” assign a number to them from 1 to 8 so that they can report their findings to the rest of the class.

5.Ask the students to choose a member from “their country” to report their findings.

6. As students listen to the reports they should take notes and be permitted to ask questions of the presenter and/or the members of the presenter’s “country.”

7. Be sure that students attend to the last question about “conclusions” and take some time to discuss these in your debrief of the lesson.

Assign students the task of finding out what 300 items are used in constructing America’s CPI. Then ask them to choose 30 of those items that can be found in a local grocery store and find the price for each. Next, they should go home and ask their parents what they paid for those same items 10-20 years ago. (Getting grandparents involved will be an interesting additional comparison).

Ask students to interview any adult who is currently employed (outside of educators).

Two main questions should be asked in the interview: Have changes in the economy created changes for you in the workplace? Are you concerned about layoffs at your job? (Why or why not?)

Ask Paul Solman a question relevant to this most recent assignment and report back on the answer.

Student performance on the activities in this lesson should be assessed on the following criteria: appropriate completion, cooperation in the group, leadership, and constructive participation.

Students can write an essay on how the financial crisis is affecting them on a personal, community or state level. Send completed essays to extra@newshour.org

Key Vocabulary

• Economic Summit

• G7 Countries

• G8 Countries

• G20 Countries

• Economic indicators

• Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

• Unemployment

• Consumer Price Index (CPI)

• Output

• Industrial Production

• Consumer Prices

• Unemployment Rate

• World Bank

• International Monetary Fund (IMF)

• Financial Stability Forum (FSF)