Where should students go to get accurate information about the stimulus money? Should we trust recovery.gov? Are there non-partisan sites? What economic concepts are really easy to teach from this crisis?
Peggy Pelt responds:
NewsHour Extra
is a good site for the highlights of the program and the proposed schedule of
action.
I would suggest using the crisis to teach:
1) Business cycle stages
2) Importance of
consumer spending and, therefore, consumer confidence
3) Multiplier effect
David Tucker responds:
Economic concepts I would teach from this are budget
deficits, national debt, the roles of the Federal Reserve and Treasury, and
fractional reserve banking.
Sites that I would use to keep recovery.gov honest would be
the Economist. While the Economist is a free-market supporting publication, it
is rather non-partisan. Brookings Institution, while center-left, would serve
as a nice partner site to use. They often have nice video clips you could use
as a nice warm-up activity in an advanced economics class.
Brucse Damasio responds:
I would look into websites such as the following for lessons
and current thinking on the economy: www.economicshelp.org, www.ncee.net and www.ncee.org. These would give you access to
lessons, ideas and thinking on the economy from a variety of points of view. I
would suggest looking into magazines and newspapers from a variety of sites for
some broad perspectives on the news as it occurs. I would caution using only
one site or source and use this as a time to reinforce research as a wide
ranging net for gathering data and information.
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