Microeconomics looks at an individual consumer, worker, household, firm, market, or industry, presuming always that the rest of the economy is too large to be materially affected by whatever is at issue for the moment. Macroeconomics is different. Macroeconomics looks at the economy as a whole, at aggregates:
- the aggregate price level and thus economic calculation derangement via inflation or deflation,
- aggregate shortfalls below and the attainment of normal or desired levels of employment and capacity utilization,
- the overall distribution of income and wealth,
- the aggregate levels and rates of growth of economic productivity, and
- major changes in the structure of the economy—the kinds of jobs people do, the organizations that they do them in, and the types of technologies that they use.
Early twentieth-century economist John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) was at the heart of the creation and definition of macroeconomics. As background for this course, read one piece by John Maynard Keynes (Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren http://tinyurl.com/y9k4othx) about economic growth—the third, fourth, and fifth of the five items above, and read one piece about John Maynard Keynes (Robert Skidelsky's Keynes: A Very Short Introduction http://amzn.to/2FGtsoE), which is principally about business cycles—the first two of the five items above.
Then write a 400-word to 600-word review of these two pieces, giving your reaction to them. You might set out what you see as the main points of the two pieces, and then either disagree or agree with one or more of them. But if you disagree, explain why. And if you agree, expand on your common agreement—draw additional conclusions from it. Or you could write a different kind of review: the aim is not so much to fit a template as to convince us that you have thought about and engaged with the arguments and positions of Keynes (and Skidelsky), and thus for you to perform an intellectual warmup exercise for the course as a whole.
If you think you need a boost to get started, you might consult my reading notes on Skidelsky on Keynes—but do note that agreeing with what I say there is not a path to a good grade on this assignment! Rather the opposite...
First Assignments Powerpoint: https://www.icloud.com/keynote/0ihD5LNauPK00qVEiHD7BrRzQ
- This File: http://delong.typepad.com/teaching_economics/review-assignment-keynes-a-very-short-introduction.html
- Edit This File: http://www.typepad.com/site/blogs/6a00e551f08003883401b8d2c935d5970c/page/6a00e551f08003883401b7c9459d3f970b/edit
- Teaching Economics: http://delong.typepad.com/teaching_economics/contents.html