Course Overview

Explore the complex relationships that keep worldwide economies going—or not.

Macroeconomics affects daily life through issues like taxes, inflation, and GDP. This course will take you beyond just hearing economic terms to understanding their interconnections and how they shape the economic environment. In 24 engaging lectures, Dr. Akila Weerapana covers everything from the origins of economic growth to the challenges posed by current global crises, using easy-to-understand illustrations and real-world applications.

Video Lectures

1. Viewing the World through a New Lens
   • Duration: 31 min
   • Differences between microeconomics and macroeconomics and their implications for prosperity.

• GDP: The Economy in a Single Number?
  • Duration: 33 min
  • The significance and limitations of GDP as an economic measure.

• Prices: How to Quantify the Dangers of Inflation
  • Duration: 29 min
  • Understanding inflation and its measurement through the Consumer Price Index.

• Unemployment: Who Wants to Work?
  • Duration: 29 min
  • The implications of the unemployment rate and its measurement.

• How Is Money Created—and Why?
  • Duration: 30 min
  • The role of the Federal Reserve in managing the money supply.

• Is There Such a Thing as Too Much Money?
  • Duration: 31 min
  • The relationship between money supply and inflation.

• Two Interest Rates to Rule Them All?
  • Duration: 28 min
  • Understanding key interest rates and their impact on the economy.

• Why Economic Growth Is So Powerful—and Hard
  • Duration: 32 min
  • The importance of per-capita growth and the challenges in achieving it.

9. Technology: The Engine of Sustained Growth
   • Duration: 31 min
   • Investigating the role of technology in economic growth.

• What Are Fundamental Barriers to Growth?
  • Duration: 33 min
  • Factors that can hinder economic growth in various countries.

• How Recessions Occur and Why They Matter
  • Duration: 33 min
  • Analyzing the causes of recessions and policy responses.

• An Intuitive Model of Economic Recessions
  • Duration: 32 min
  • Understanding the Aggregate Demand/Inflation Adjustment model.

13. Lessons from Past Recessions
    • Duration: 34 min
    • Evaluating the impact of policy responses to historical recessions.

• What Is Good Monetary or Fiscal Policy?
  • Duration: 31 min
  • Exploring principles of sound economic policies.

15. Extraordinary Actions by Central Banks
    • Duration: 30 min
    • The challenges of operating at the zero lower bound for interest rates.

• How Much Debt Is Too Much for a Country?
  • Duration: 30 min
  • The implications of government debt for economic stability.

• How Exchange Rates Move the Global Economy
  • Duration: 32 min
  • Determinants of exchange rates and their global impact.

18. Why Countries Try to Control Exchange Rates
    • Duration: 31 min
    • The motivations behind currency control and its potential effects.

19. The Euro: Many Nations under One Currency?
    • Duration: 33 min
    • The complexities of a common currency in the Eurozone.

• International Trade and Finance Must Balance
  • Duration: 34 min
  • Understanding Current Account deficits and their implications.

• How Stocks and the Economy Shape Each Other
  • Duration: 31 min
  • The interrelationship between financial markets and macroeconomic health.

• Labor Market Policies for the Long Term
  • Duration: 32 min
  • Exploring the natural rate of unemployment and its significance.

• Rising Inequality Is a Threat to All of Us
  • Duration: 30 min
  • Investigating income inequality and its impact on society.

24. Three Macroeconomic Challenges of Our Time
    • Duration: 34 min
    • Analyzing pressing issues like economic growth, migration, and climate change.