Course Information

An understanding of the economy and the ability to cope with the economic environment is critical to today’s business performance, which is a major concern for managers and investors. This course addresses macro-economic factors that may affect a business’s performance. Macro-economic factors include business cycles, interest rates, economic policy, inflation, unemployment, housing starts, money supply, and foreign exchange rates. For example, how the Fed’s monetary policy affects corporate earnings is stressed. A variety of economic statistics and indicators are also explained in depth.

• Identify economic trends and indicators.
• Recognize sources of economic data/variables to be analyzed.
• Distinguish between the private and public sector of the economy.
• Recognize elements of economic systems.
• Identify the goals of economic policies.
• Recognize the relationship between economic decisions and marginal measures.
• Identify different economic concepts and decisions.
• Identify economic issues of unemployment and inflation.
• Recognize the factors of unemployment and the business cycle.
• Recognize key elements in the money supply.
• Identify different measures of GDP.
• Recognize equilibrium outputs and income and natural interest rates.
• Identify the components of investment.
• Recognize and calculate the marginal propensity to save.
• Recognize the elements of fiscal policy and the components of aggregate demand.
• Recognize the primary function of money and the role of financial institutions.
• Identify the role of interest rates and the money supply.
• Recognize the relationship between investment and interest rates.
• Recognize the value of the Phillips curve and its application to monetary policy for price stability and employment.
• Identify the cause of stagflation and some potential solutions.
• Recognize some key attributes of international trade and the foreign exchange market.
• Calculate exchange rates.
• Recognize monetarism theory and Keynesian economics.