This course is about macroeconomics- the study of economic performance, money, inflation, government policies, business cycles and economic growth. Why are some countries so poor while other economies keep growing? What causes the economy to fluctuate (business cycle)? Can government use any policies to prevent the recession? What causes inflation or deflation? These are only some important macroeconomic issues that we will cover in this course. Hopefully, after this course, you will be able to give answers to these questions. We will also discuss some policy implications in this course.
In the first semester, I will introduce the variable/data used to measure economic performance and then will focus on developing the macroeconomic model to explain the phenomenon we observe. A modest objective is for students to be able to read and comprehend daily economic reports in the news. With the final objective of understanding what brought about this event, the nature of the problem, how it will develop and what it is leading to.