MODULE 6
Our understanding of how economic policy works will allow us to more effectively envision and advocate for policies that support our social and labor movements.
In this module, we learn about economic policy, and specifically how and why governments try to manage economic activity. We discuss how government spending and the Federal Reserve influence prices, employment, and social policies through historical case studies and analysis of our current-day context.
Learning Objectives:
- Articulate our conceptions of an economy
- Understand the source of “value” in the economy
- Explain the three “C’s” of exchange, or ways our economies can be organized
- Understand how profits are created by the exploitation of workers
- Analyze how care work and housework show up in our economy
Materials
Slide Deck Preview
Facilitator Guide Preview
VIDEO LESSONS:
Takeaways
- Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the most common measure of how the economy is doing, but it ignores unpaid care work and reinforces a limited view of the economy.
- The macroeconomic circuit shows us that one person’s spending is another person’s income.
- Leakages like taxes, savings and imports, slow down the macroeconomic circuit, while injections like public spending, investment and exports speed it up.
- Fiscal policy refers to Congressional decisions on taxes and spending. Higher deficits are expansionary, while lower deficits (or surpluses) are contractionary..
- Monetary policy refers to the way the Federal Reserve influences the money supply through interest rates. Lower interest rates are expansionary, while higher interest rates are contractionary.
- Proponents of Functional finance argue that governments should use fiscal, monetary and other macroeconomic policies to achieve and maintain full employment, while advocates of sound finance think governments should instead prioritize low inflation.
- There are three ways to finance government spending on progressive programs: 1) cutting wasterful spending, especially on the military 2) raising taxes the rich, and 3) “monetizing” fiscal deficits or simply “printing the money.”
Readings
Social Reproduction
Is work the only work we do? The work we perform for our bosses is […]
Surplus Value: Absolute and Relative
Where do profits come from? Conventional economists say profit is the reward for risk-taking or […]
Communal, Command, Commodity
Now, how do we determine how economies are organized and how we distribute goods and […]
What is Economy?
We all know it is very important, but often feel intimidated by the technical terms […]
Use-Value vs. Exchange Value
So how do we decide what to produce/distribute/consume? In other words, what makes something valuable? […]
Videos
Social Reproduction
Is work the only work we do? The work we perform for our bosses is […]
Surplus Value: Absolute and Relative
Where do profits come from? Conventional economists say profit is the reward for risk-taking or […]
Communal, Command, Commodity
Now, how do we determine how economies are organized and how we distribute goods and […]
What is Economy?
We all know it is very important, but often feel intimidated by the technical terms […]
Use-Value vs. Exchange Value
So how do we decide what to produce/distribute/consume? In other words, what makes something valuable? […]
