Taken from NYS ECONOMICS CURRICULUM:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5046837/Virtual%20Enterprise/Economics/NYS%20Economics%20Curriculum.pdf
NATIONAL VOLUNTARY STANDARDS FOR TEACHING ECONOMICS
1.) Productive resources are limited. Therefore, people can not have all the goods and services they want; as a result, they must choose some things and give up others.
2.) Effective decision making requires comparing the additional costs of alternatives with the additional benefits. Most choices involve doing a little more or a little less of something: few choices are “all or nothing” decisions.
3.) Different methods can be used to allocate goods and services. People acting individually or collectively through government, must choose which methods to use to allocate different kinds of goods and services.
4.) People respond predictably to positive and negative incentives.
5.) Voluntary exchange occurs only when all participating parties expect to gain. This is true for trade among individuals or organizations within a nation, and usually among individuals or organizations in different nations.
6.) When individuals, regions, and nations specialize in what they can produce at the lowest cost and then trade with others, both production and consumption increase.
7.) Markets exist when buyers and sellers interact. This interaction determines market prices and thereby allocates scarce goods and services.
8.) Prices send signals and provide incentives to buyers and sellers. When supply or demand changes, market prices adjust, affecting incentives.
9.) Competition among sellers lowers costs and prices, and encourages producers to produce more of what consumers are willing and able to buy. Competition among buyers increases prices and allocates goods and services to those people who are willing and able to pay the most for them.
10.) Institutions evolve in market economies to help individuals and groups accomplish their goals. Banks, labor unions, corporations, legal systems, and not-for-profit organizations are examples of important institutions. A different kind of institution, clearly defined and enforced property rights, is essential to a market economy.
11.) Money makes it easier to trade, borrow, save, invest, and compare the value of goods and services.
12.) Interest rates, adjusted for inflation, rise and fall to balance the amount saved with the amount borrowed, which affects the allocation of scarce resources between present and future uses.
13.) Income for most people is determined by the market value of the productive resources they sell. What workers earn depends, primarily, on the market value of what they produce and how productive they are.
14.) Entrepreneurs are people who take the risks of organizing productive resources to make goods and services. Profit is an important incentive that leads entrepreneurs to accept the risks of business failure.
15.) Investment in factories, machinery, new technology, and in the health, education, and training of people can raise future standards of living.
16.) There is an economic role for government in a market economy whenever the benefits of a government policy outweigh its costs. Governments often provide for national defense, address environmental concerns, define and protect property rights, and attempt to make markets more competitive. Most government policies also redistribute income.
17.) Costs of government policies sometimes exceed benefits. This may occur because of incentives facing voters, government officials, and government employees, because of actions by special interest groups that can impose costs on the general public, or because social goals other than economic efficiency are being pursued.
18.) A nation’s overall levels of income, employment, and prices are determined by the interaction of
spending and production decisions made by all households, firms, government agencies, and others in the economy.
19.) Unemployment imposes costs on individuals and nations. Unexpected inflation imposes costs on many people and benefits some others because it arbitrarily redistributes purchasing power. Inflation can reduce the rate of growth of national living standards because individuals and organizations use resources to protect themselves against the uncertainty of future prices.
20.) Federal government budgetary policy and the Federal Reserve System’s monetary policy influence the overall levels of employment, output, and prices.
JUMP$TART COALITION PERSONAL FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT GUIDELINES
Income
Students will be able to:
A. Analyze how personal choices, education/training, technology, and other factors affect future
income.
B. Identify sources of income, including entrepreneurial activity.
C. Explain how tax policies, personal taxes, and transfer payments affect disposable income.
Money Management
Students will be able to:
A. Identify the opportunity cost of a financial decision as applied to income, spending, and saving.
B. Establish and evaluate short- and long-term financial goals and plans regarding income, spending, and saving.
C. Develop, analyze, and revise a budget.
D. Explain relationships among taxes, income, spending, and financial investment.
E. Develop a risk-management plan that includes life, automobile, property, health, and incomeprotection/disability insurance.
F. Explain personal financial responsibility.
G. Perform basic financial operations, such as using checking and savings accounts.
Spending and Credit
Students will be able to:
A. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of spending now and spending later.
B. Evaluate the benefits and costs of using different transaction instruments, such as cash, checking accounts, debit cards, credit cards, money orders, electronic fund transfers, and other financial services.
C. Explain how the price of credit is affected by the risk level of the borrower.
D. Explain how payment performance determines credit history and why credit records are maintained and accessed.
E. Describe the rights and responsibilities of buyers, sellers, and creditors under various consumer protection laws.
F. Use cost-benefit analysis to choose among spending alternatives, such as housing, transportation, and consumer durables.
G. Identify and analyze pros and cons of alternative actions to deal with credit over-extension or other financial difficulties.
Saving and Investing
Students will be able to:
A. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of saving now and saving later.
B. Explain the importance of short- and long-term saving and financial investment strategies.
C. Identify and evaluate the risk, return, and liquidity of various saving and investment decisions.
D. Explain how taxes, government policy/regulation, and inflation impact saving and investment
decisions.
ECONOMICS, THE ENTERPRISE SYSTEM, AND FINANCE
I. Living in a Global Economy
A. Economics and finance in our lives
1. People have personal financial goals
2. National economic goals impact on
individuals
B. Individuals have multiple roles in the global
economy: consumer, saver, investor, producer,
earner, borrower, lender, taxpayer, and
recipient of government services
C. The conflict between unlimited wants but
limited resources forces both individuals and
societies to make economic decisions
1. What to produce?
2. How to produce?
3. Who will receive what is produced?
D. Productive resources help determine our
wealth and our nation’s wealth
1. Land
2. Labor
3. Capital
4. Management
Key terms and concepts:
scarcity, trade-offs, choices, opportunity costs,
limited resources, unlimited wants, growth,
stability, economic fairness, productivity,
consumption
II. The United States Economic System
A. Characteristics, pillars, and goals of the United
States economy (a mixed capitalist economy)—
profit motive, private property, competition,
price system
1. Circular flow of the economy
2. Price system (i.e., all factors that work
together to determine price) and the theory
of supply and demand
3. Competition in a market economy
B. Challenges for the United States and other
market-based systems
1. Unemployment
2. Income and wealth gaps
3. Other challenges: environmental pollution,
economic instability, and discrimination
Key terms and concepts:
capitalism, property rights, consumer
sovereignty, producers’ sovereignty,
incentives, factors of production,
invisible hand, elasticity, productivity
III. The Enterprise System and the United States
Economy
A. Features of the enterprise system
1. Freedom of enterprise
2. Private property
3. Profit motive
4. Consumer sovereignty
5. Competition
6. Rule of law
7. Antitrust legislation
8. Investment through research, innovation,
and technology
B. Types of business organizations
1. Sole proprietorship
2. Partnership
3. Corporation (profit and not-for-profit)
4. Franchises
5. Influences of cartels, monopolies,
oligopolies
C. Role of the entrepreneur
1. Examples of entrepreneurs today
2. Impact of entrepreneurs on the economy
3. Impact of entrepreneurs on community
development
D. Starting and operating a business
1. Recognizing opportunities
2. Setting goals
3. Developing a business plan
4. Product development, purchasing and
inventory management, record keeping,
and distribution
5. Production and delivery of goods and
services
6. Marketing
7. Financing
8. Assessing progress
E. The interactions between large and small
businesses
1. Antitrust cases
2. Implications for consumers
3. Implications for business
F. Effects of globalization on business
1. Multinational corporations
2. Small businesses and their connections to
world trade
G. Moral, ethical, and legal issues
1. Business ethics
2. Regulations for doing business
3. “Corporate citizenship”
Key terms and concepts:
capital, investment, absolute advantage,
incentives, cost, markets, risk,
cash flow, antitrust, profits,
licenses
IV. Labor and Business in the United States
A. Roles and responsibilities of workers
1. Evolving roles of workers in business (e.g.,
providing input to management, working
in teams)
2. Matching worker qualifications and skills
with business needs
B. Composition of the workforce
1. Changing roles of women, teenagers, the
elderly, and minorities
2. Population and demographic trends
3. Experience, location, and skill needs
4. Affirmative action issues
5. Changing skill mix and skill requirements
6. Costs and benefits of hiring immigrants
C. Compensation and rewards
1. Factors leading to job satisfaction versus
factors resulting in dissatisfaction
2. Salary versus wages versus ownership
3. Fringe benefits
4. Employer-of-choice issues (e.g., benefits,
working conditions, incentives, flex time,
corporate values)
D. Labor-management relations
1. History of labor-management relations
2. Labor unions and their changing roles over
time; collective bargaining
3. Labor laws
4. Programs promoting improved
labor-management relations
5. Unemployment issues, including structural
unemployment
6. International labor issues—child labor,
worker exploitation, and sweatshops
7. Open borders, migrant workers, and competition
from new immigrants
Key terms and concepts:
labor markets, full employment, comparable
worth, productivity
V. Money, Finance, and Personal Finance
A. Money
1. Definition of money
2. Characteristics and functions of money
3. Money and the future: a cashless society?
B. Introduction to finance and personal finance
1. Definition of finance
2. Personal financial goals and strategies
3. The role of finance in business and
government
C. Instruments, institutions, financial markets,
and investors
1. Instruments
a. Equity (stocks)
b. Debt (public and private)
2. Markets
a. Roles markets play in directing funds
from savers to investors
b. Effects markets have on individuals and
the economy
c. Types of markets: equity, debt, stock,
bond, and commodity (e.g., New York
Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, bond,
commodities, currencies)
d. Effects of current events on domestic
and global markets
e. Risk
3. Banks: their role in the financial system and
importance to consumers
a. Kinds of banks and other deposittaking
institutions; savings accounts,
checking accounts, and loans
1) Commercial and savings—serving
consumers and businesses; issues
related to minorities and minorityowned
businesses
2) Investment banks—raising capital
b. Banks and businesses
c. Banks and the consumer
d. Banks as financial intermediaries
4. Insurance
a. Purpose of insurance
b. Kinds of insurance
c. Shopping for insurance
5. Regulating the financial services industry
a. Securities and Exchange Commission
b Federal Reserve
c. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
d. State Banking and Insurance
Commissions
e. F.D.I.C.
D. Interest and the cost of money
1. Interest rates—the cost of the temporary
use of somebody else’s money
2. Measuring interest rates—APRs
3. Short- and long-term rates—the “yield
curve”
4. Effects of raising and lowering rates
5. Compounding and the rule of 72
6. Interest rate spread
E. Credit
1. Forms of credit (loans, credit cards,
commercial paper, Treasury notes, bills and
bonds)
2. Benefits and costs of credit
3. Credit and the consumer—personal credit
reports and ratings, abuses of credit, abuses
of creditors (e.g., predatory lending)
4. Short-term versus long-term credit
5. Problems with credit and unsecured credit
F. Managing your money
1. Strategies to achieve long-term goals
2. Budgeting
3. Personal savings and investing
a. Personal considerations (e.g., risk
tolerance, values, age, family situation)
b. Return on investment
c. Managing risk through diversification
d. Liquidity
4. Influence of advertising
5. Tax sheltering
G. Careers in financial services industry
Key terms and concepts:
managing risk, hedging, thrifts, prime rate,
net asset value
VI. Making Fiscal and Monetary Policy
A. Macroeconomics and challenges facing
policy makers
1. The business cycle: causes and effects of
fluctuations in the business cycle
2. Unemployment
a. Causes: structural, seasonal, and cyclical
unemployment
b. Effects of unemployment
3. Inflation
a. Causes
b. Effects on economy, financial system,
and specific economic groups
c. Measuring inflation (CPI)
d. Combating inflation
B. Economic growth
1. Determinants of growth
2. Measures of growth (GDP)
3. Limits of growth (the speed limits of
growth)
4. Effects of globalization on the United States
GDP
5. Importance of productivity and the role of
technology
6. Factors that explain why some countries
grow faster than others
C. Fiscal policy
1. The role of the President and Congress
2. Setting spending priorities (e.g., national
defense, social services, rebuilding the
nation’s infrastructure, and education)
3. The federal budget process
4. Tax policy
a. Purposes of taxes: to generate revenue
and/or manage the economy and
promote social goals
b. Tax fairness: progressive, regressive, and
proportional
c. Kinds of taxes: federal, state, local,
including the real property tax
5. Understanding the income tax
6. Understanding the social security tax
7. Understanding the real property tax
a. Government services provided
b. Taxing jurisdictions
c. Tax levy, tax rate, and tax bills (e.g.,
school, city, county, town)
d. Assessments: collection of data and
computation
e. Taxpayer challenges
D. Monetary policy and the Federal Reserve
1. Definition of monetary policy
2. Goals of monetary policy
3. Conditions leading to the creation of the
Federal Reserve
4. Federal Reserve’s structure, functions, and
goals (maintaining price stability and sustainable
growth)
5. The role of the Fed in making and
implementing monetary policy
6. Effects of changing interest rates
7. Fighting inflation and recession
Key terms and concepts:
Non-accelerating inflation rate of
unemployment (NAIRU), Phillips Curve,
easy money, tight money, federal funds rate
VII. Impact of Globalization on the Economies of
Other Nations
A. Definition of globalization
1. Historical development of the global
economy
2. The impacts of trade flows, capital movements,
direct foreign investment, tourism,
and foreign trade
3. Positive and negative effects of
globalization on developing and
industrialized nations
B. Trade—effects of globalization on the
enterprise system
1. Why do nations trade?
2. Importance of trade
3. Measuring trade
4. Trade policy issues
5. Global (WTO) and regional trading blocs
(EMU, NAFTA, ASEAN, and MERCOSURCommon
Market of the South)
C. Foreign exchange
1. What are exchange rates?
2. Reasons for exchange rate fluctuations
3. Effects of exchange rate fluctuations
D. Foreign investment
1. Portfolio capital flows
2. Direct foreign investment
E. Global economic and financial issues and
crises
1. Debt of developing nations
2. Environmental issues and concerns
3. Global financial crises (e.g., Asia 1997,
Russia 1998)
4. Economic implications of national and
international crises (e.g., World Trade
Center, 2001)
Key terms and concepts:
economic development, strong dollar versus
weak dollar, comparative advantage, G7
nations
