According to Prof. Don Boudreaux of George Mason University, free trade is nothing more than a system of trade that treats foreign goods and services no differently than domestic goods and services. In this video, Professor Boudreaux defines free trade and protectionism and provides real world examples of free trade.

This subject examines interactions across the Eurasian continent between Russians, Chinese, Mongolian nomads, and Turkic oasis dwellers during the last millennium and a half. As empires rose and fell, religions, trade, and war flowed back and forth continuously across this vast space. Today, the fall of the Soviet Union and China’s reforms have opened up new opportunities for cultural interaction.

This collection uses primary sources to explore the steam engine and transportation in the nineteenth century. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.

To understand why people trade, suppose you were limited to consuming only items you could find within walking distance of your house. Or, perhaps even worse, only items you could produce yourself. For most of us, this restriction would severely diminish the variety of goods and services we enjoy on a daily basis. Therefore, the simplest answer to the question is that people (or entire countries) trade because they will enjoy a wider variety of goods.

This lesson will have students analyze connections among historical events and developments in the contemporary global issue of trade, specifically, trade between the United States and China.   Students will answer the compelling question; Do tariffs improve the lives of workers in a country and in an industry?Students will research the history of trade, specifically, the silk road.  How did this trade route affect the lives of ordinary people? How does the relationship over time between the United States and China affect trade? Students will create a similar learning experience building a lesson that connects the historical events and developments to a contemporary issue around globalization. Copy of the Lesson in a Google Doc.  Licensed with a Creative Commons Attribution License. 

The world is becoming more and more interconnected. Globalization changes how people consume, work and live almost everywhere on the world. Today, many economic, political, cultural or ecological relationships are not explainable from a national perspective. At the same time, a controversial debate about the consequences of globalization has begun. But what are the main causes for globalization? In what areas it is most prominent? And who are the winners and looser of globalization?

This subject examines the paradoxes of contemporary globalization. Through lectures, discussions and student presentations, we will study the cultural, linguistic, social and political impact of globalization across broad international borders.
We will pay attention to the subtle interplay of history, geography, language and cultural norms that gave rise to specific ways of life. The materials for the course include fiction, nonfiction, audio pieces, maps and visual materials.

GDP is a useful measure of the health of the economy, and it’s among the most important and widely reported economic data. However, the current “textbook treatment” of how international trade is measured as part of GDP can lead people to misunderstand the role trade plays in the economy. The September 2018 issue of Page One Economics intends to correct misconceptions and provide clear instruction on how imports affect GDP.

In this lesson, students listen to a story about a little girl who wants to make an apple pie. When she finds the market closed, she travels around the world gathering natural resources to make the pie. Students will follow along with the story by connecting each natural resource to its country of origin and pointing out those places on a globe or world map. They will also identify the capital goods used to transform the natural resources into ingredients by examining the pictures from the book. Students will take part in two rounds of a trading activity, collecting the ingredients required for vanilla ice cream to go along with the apple pie. They will learn about trade and how middlemen, such as grocery stores, help make trade easier.

Income inequality in America is a serious issue. People are worried about a widening gap between the rich and the poor in the United States. But is the global story the same? In this video, Professor Tyler Cowen of George Mason University explains how globalization is affecting income inequality worldwide.

This course is designed to extend the student's knowledge of the basic microeconomic principles that will provide the foundation for their future work in economics and give them insight into how economic models can help us think about important real world phenomena. Topics include supply and demand interaction, utility maximization, profit maximization, elasticity, perfect competition, monopoly power, imperfect competition, and game theory. Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to: Explain the standard theory in microeconomics at an intermediate level; Explain and use the basic tools of microeconomic theory, and apply them to help address problems in public policy; Analyze the role of markets in allocating scarce resources; Explain both competitive markets, for which basic models of supply and demand are most appropriate, and markets in which agents act strategically, for which game theory is the more appropriate tool; Synthesize the impact of government intervention in the market; Develop quantitative skills in doing economic cost and consumer analysis using calculus; Compare and contrast arguments concerning business and politics, and make good conjectures regarding the possible solutions; Analyze the economic behavior of individuals and firms, and explore how they respond to changes in the opportunities and constraints that they face and how they interact in markets; Apply basic tools that are used in many fields of economics, including household economics, labor economics, production theory, international economics, natural resource economics, public finance, and capital markets. (Economics 201)

International finance covers some of the most complex but also important topics in economics. How are exchange rates determined? When if ever are ongoing trade deficits harmful? Are fixed or floating exchange rates better? What are the roots of the euro crisis and what resolution can we expect? Does China manipulate its exchange rate and if so how does that matter? We cover all of these topics and more, with an eye toward what a person really might want to know. There is no use of mathematics in this course beyond the very basic.

As Adam Smith said, everyone lives by exchanging. They exchange—buy and sell—to make themselves better off. Does the same principle apply to international trade? Do nations benefit from importing and exporting? The November 2016 issue of Page One Economics explains the basics of international trade and its importance to the economy.

Data source updated on quarterly basis to assess Australia's national balance of good and services, credits, and debits.

This introductory survey course is intended to develop an understanding of key issues and dilemmas of planning in non-Western countries. The issues covered by the course include state intervention, governance, law and institutions in development, privatization, participatory planning, decentralization, poverty, urban-rural linkages, corruption and civil service reform, trade and outsourcing and labor standards, post-conflict development and the role of aid in development.

Strong is usually preferred over "weak." But for the value of a country's currency, it's not that simple. "Strong" isn't always better, and "weak" isn't always worse. Learn more about foreign exchange rates in the March 2015 newsletter—"Is a Strong Dollar Better than a Weak Dollar?"

Marbling paper is a form of art that produces "monotypes"--every piece is unique because of the process! It also has a long history as a form of art and decoration. This resource includes a video tutorial detailing how to marble paper yourself. Use it to support Maryland Visual Arts Standards for Grades 6-8 or Maryland Social Studies Frameworks for Grade 7. For Visual Arts Standard 1, indicator I:6-8:1, have students first research the history of sumi, ebru, or monotyping, then plan a marbled work to reflect the same motivations as historic artists using one of those forms. For example, sumi may reflect concerns about the future since some historians believe it was related to ink divination, so a student could marble over a calendar that is relevant to them, a sketch of a future event, a saying about the future, or even try to marble a pattern like a calendar page. For Grade 7, Content Topic "Geographic Characteristics" have students map different appearances of paper marbling mentioned in the video along with their date and express whether they think the spread can be attributed to a single discovery that traveled, multiple discoveries that spread, or multiple independent discoveries. Students could even marble over these maps. If you evaluate or use this resource, please respond to this short (4 question) survey here bit.ly/3dfwEK8

They say that "money makes the world go round." Just imagine a world without money as our method of payment for everyday transactions. Without money, we would all need to barter for necessary goods and services. For example, suppose an accountant needs to have her car fixed. Under a barter system, she would have to find someone who needed some tax advice in exchange for car repairs. The search to find a barter partner is time consuming and wasteful. Money solves this problem and many others. Read more about the three main functions of money and the damaging effects of too much inflation on these functions in the March 2013 issue.

Learning module on NAFTA, its effects and future possibilities for North American integration.

Since the mid-l970s, economic reforms have transformed China from one of the most egalitarian societies into one of the most unequal in the world. Wide disparities currently exist between the income levels of a relatively few rich and middle-class Chinese and their fellow citizens who number in the hundreds of millions. This "wealth gap" is particularly acute when one compares the incomes of urban and rural residents, between Chinese living in the interior of the country and those living in the rapidly developing cities on China's eastern coast.The causes of the growing income gap include previous governmental policies that favored city dwellers over farmers, the uneven regional patterns of foreign investment, and the massive outflow of displaced farmers to China's already overcrowded cities in pursuit of manufacturing jobs.Recently, the Chinese government, in recognition of the potential for social instability, and in the face of growing unrest amongst China's poor, has made the elimination of economic and social inequalities a top priority. Plans are in motion to build a more "harmonious society" through the delivery of improved educational and health services to those who appear to have been left behind in China's rush to modernize its economy.This lesson, using clips from the WIDE ANGLE film "To Have and Have Not" (2002), can be used after a lesson on the Communist Revolution and Mao's rule. A basic knowledge of China's geography, of the tenets of Chinese Communism, and of Mao's efforts to redirect the course of China's future by means of the Cultural Revolution, is required for the successful completion of the lesson.