Economic Fundamentals
The macro context every household inhabits.
Every household lives inside a macroeconomy it did not design. This course teaches you to read the macro dashboard — the eight numbers that describe an economy — and to recognize where you are in the business cycle before the newspapers do.
You will finish by writing the terminal work of the Program: The State of the Household, a written report placing your own household inside the current cycle and defensible in oral panel.
- 01
Define GDP, inflation, unemployment, and the interest-rate curve.
- 02
Read a Federal Reserve statement.
- 03
Recognize the business cycle in real time.
- — Courses 101–109 of Financial Foundations.
2 weeks · ~6 hours plus the Capstone.
- IModule · ~2 hours.
The macro dashboard
The eight numbers that describe an economy.
GDP, inflation, unemployment, and the yield curve are the four numbers a literate household should be able to state and interpret. This module builds the dashboard.
What You Will Be Able To Do- — State the current values of the eight macro variables that matter.
- — Interpret a yield curve without cliché.
- — Distinguish CPI from PCE and know which the Fed watches.
Why hereThe dashboard is a habit. The habit is more valuable than any single forecast.
- IIModule · ~1.5 hours.
The business cycle
Expansion, peak, contraction, trough.
Expansions and contractions have signatures. Recognizing them in real time is a working skill; forecasting them precisely is not.
What You Will Be Able To Do- — Identify the four phases of the cycle from data.
- — Distinguish leading from lagging indicators.
- — State your household's exposure to the current phase.
Why hereHousehold decisions — hiring, borrowing, spending — improve when you know roughly where you are in the cycle.
- IIIModule · ~2.5 hours plus the Capstone.
The central bank
The one institution that shapes the cycle.
The Fed is the one institution that most consistently shapes the environment your household operates in. Reading its statements is a literacy skill.
What You Will Be Able To Do- — State the dual mandate and its inherent tension.
- — Read an FOMC statement and mark what changed.
- — Complete The State of the Household capstone and defend it orally.
Why hereThe Program's terminal work asks you to place your household inside the current macro cycle. This module gives you the tools.
Macro literacy is not about forecasting. It is about not being surprised by the ordinary rhythms of the system you live in.