Financial+Collapse

=Learning About The Financial Collapse, 2008 - The Present=

"The fact that economics remains a social science - one that should help us understand and predict people's behavior - is sometimes lost among the equations and calculations" (Schug and Wood, p. 1)
==="The basic principle...is that rational people seek to get the most utility that they can out of their money. For consumers, this would indicate the need to plan for expenses through budgeting, shop around for the best prices, invest wisely, save for emergencies, and plan for retirement, among other things" (Gutter and Garrison, p. 128)===

http://www.econedlink.org/ (including the lesson "Should LeBron James Mow His Own Lawn?")
 * __Some general places:__**

The PBS series: "The Ascent of Money"

The PBS series //Frontline// episode "Inside the Meltdown"

A list of sites for thematic teaching on "Money in America"

Who Are the 99%? Ways to Teach About Occupy Wall Street
 * __From the New York Times:__**

MSNBC has several good, short online videos, particularly one on [|What Brought The U.S. Economy To The Brink.] You can also see and play other good video clips on the same page.
 * __From Teacher Larry Farlazzo:__**

The New York Times has a series of interactive features on [|The Debt Trap]. On the lower right of the screen you’ll see “Series Index.” When you click on that, links to all the different parts of the series show-up.

The N.Y. Times also has a nice infographic called [|A Year of Heavy Losses] that shows that magnitude of money lost by lenders, though it doesn’t explain why.

In addition, the same paper has an online timeline called [|How A Market Crisis Unfolded.]

Time Magazine has a good article entitled [|How Financial Madness Overtook Wall Street.] Again, it’s not accessible to ELL’s, but it does have good background information for teachers preparing lessons.

> This lesson provides an overview of the similarities and differences between the Panic of 1907 and the financial crisis that began in 2007. Students will assess the financial systems, economic events, and government responses in both periods. They will organize their analysis through a compare-and-contrast organizer. Students will read a summary of events surrounding the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and resolve a mystery surrounding their impact on the nation's financial system. The students will participate in an oral reading illustrating the abandonment of traditional lending policies in the expansion of credit to 21st century borrowers. > The students examine information and data about six recessions in the United States. In small groups, they use the information to make short presentations about the recessions, highlighting data on economic performance during the time periods, and then they present this information to the class. The students discuss similarities and differences between the various events and guess which years they correspond to. > This lesson addresses the psychology surrounding speculative manias, often referred to as bubbles. The class will be introduced to some of the theories behind bubbles and apply those concepts to the recent housing bubble. Students will then be introduced to five bubble events in world history: Tulipmania, the South Sea Bubble, the Roaring Twenties Stock Bubble, Japan's Bubble Economy, and the Dot-com Bubble. Students will participate in an activity to analyze the features of the five bubbles to find similarities. Each bubble era will be assigned a number (1-5) and each student a corresponding number (1-5). The like-numbered students will meet and analyze the basic issues. Then new groups will be formed. The students will acquire information about their bubble from one of the essays in the lesson package and arrange the similarities of these events. > In this lesson, students play the role of economic advisors to the U.S. president. They learn about Japan's "Lost Decade," and then they compare economic data and policies to analyze the potential future of the U.S. economy. > Actions are taken by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the Fed) to create a stable macroeconomy. Part 1 of the lesson places the student in the role of an economic analyst diagnosing the economy by viewing 2007-2009 data regarding the Consumer Price Index (CPI), unemployment, and real GDP growth. Students are likely to conclude from their analysis that monetary policy tools were needed to correct for the crisis. In Part 2 of the lesson, students will be introduced to tools historically available to the Fed as well as to new tools created by the Fed. Student teams will serve as members of the Board of Governors and make monetary policy decisions by choosing from among traditional and new tools. Students will evaluate the action by the Fed to pay interest on required and excess reserves held by banks and observe and analyze the effects of the monetary expansion on the Fed's balance sheet. For advanced students, three extension opportunities with supporting materials are provided. > Students begin by examining data on the rise and fall of home prices and use supply and demand to analyze potential causes of the price changes. Then students learn about changes in the mortgage industry and identify the incentive effects of these changes. Students take part in a demonstration of the effects of securitization on investing in the housing market. Finally students calculate the costs and benefits of engaging in leveraging. > Students work in small groups to make flash cards to display terms commonly used in modern financial markets. Each group of students begins by learning one group of terms. The students pass their flash cards from group to group until everyone has had an opportunity to study all of the terms. The students then play an Instruments and Institutions of Modern Financial Markets quiz bowl game. Finally, students proceed to comprehend these terms in the context of mock newspaper articles. Knowing these terms can help students understand reports about modern financial markets as well as news stories explaining the causes of financial crises.
 * __From the Council for Economic Education__**
 * **Lesson 1 - A Comparison of the Panic of 1907 to the Crisis That Began in 2007**
 * **Lesson 2 - How Economic Performance From 2007-2009 Compares to Other Periods in U.S. History**
 * **Lesson 3 - Manias, Bubbles, and Panics in World History**
 * **Lesson 4 - The Japan Comparison**
 * **Lesson 5 - Monetary Policy in the Recent Financial Crisis**
 * **Lesson 6 - The Role of Housing in the Financial Crisis of 2007-2009**
 * **Lesson 7 - The Instruments and Institutions of Modern Financial Markets**