Fed Offers Financial Education
If the Mises Site is not enough, there is now another source on the web for economic education (this via Jeff Scott):
- FINANCIAL EDUCATION FOR TEENS
The Federal Reserve and USA Today launched a new online project intended to teach middle school and high school students about economics and personal finances by constructing the front page of a USA Today-style newspaper called Fed Today. Over four weeks, students must consult the Federal Reserve's recently redesigned Education Web Site for information needed to complete all the front page's elements. The project helps teachers meet national and state academic content standards for high school economics and personal finance courses. Visit the project. Learn about the ABA Education Foundation's Get Smart About Credit Day, Oct. 20.
Comments (14)
Oh the joy! Here we learn that "Keynes' arguments proved the modern rationale for the use of government spending and taxing to stabilize the economy. Government would spend and decrease taxes when private spending was insufficient and threatened a recession; it would reduce spending and increase taxes when private spending was too great and threatened inflation. His analytic framework, focusing on the factors that determine total spending, remains the core of modern macroeconomic analysis."
Then we can take a quiz: " John Maynard Keyne's believed that __________ intervention was sometimes necessary to stabilize the economy."
Hmmmm, thinking....
Published: July 30, 2005 12:32 PM
Hahaha.
Published: July 30, 2005 12:34 PM
But of course this would only be funny if it weren't so pathetic, the American people being so economically illiterate that no amount of government "education" could possibly make them more so. And only the government could find it necessary to try.
Published: July 30, 2005 1:07 PM
It is bad enough that students are required to learn the mainstream fallacies in college, now the "education" can commence in earnest in middle school and high school.
Perhaps what is most pathetic, or reprehensible depending on the motives you attribute to the educational establishment and economic mainstream, is their lack of understanding of correct economics.
Published: July 30, 2005 6:56 PM
What great timing! My oldest son begins middle school in September. He'll be able to start right away with this Fed study plan.
Seriously, if he develops any reasnonable interest in economics, he'll be reading the Mises Institute's new edition of Rothbard's "What Has Government Done to Our Money", although I can imagine the reaction of his public school social science teachers when he reiterates Rothbard's arguments. Next, he could study the importance in early U.S. history of the principle of state nullification of federal law.
Published: July 30, 2005 7:14 PM
It's about time they started to teach people about what they do. But before they try to teach high school students, I suggest they teach their own Fed Governors Roger Fergusson ( and former Fed Governor, now CEA chairman Ben Bernanke) and William Poole the economists who make the Fed's economic models. They all seem to be unaware of the fact that the Fed controls interest rates.
Published: July 30, 2005 7:36 PM
This useless web site is for no reason other than the Fed wants to sell itself to younger folks who might otherwise believe that they are hosing up the economy and stealing money from the citizens of this country.
The young folks here without the help of the Fed might get the ideal that their policies and those of the government like Social Security might be doing this nation GREAT harm.
Do not worry, this web site will have no impact on anybody. The youth of today are not on government web sites but are more often playing outlawed video games.
Published: July 30, 2005 8:26 PM
Although I also believe that young students won’t be effected by the non sense on this site, because they are occupying themselves with other activities(illegal videogames as mentioned above), thank god. I do find it another pathetic attempt by government to spread fallacious theories. It’s just so typical that when you click on “Great economists and their times� you don’t find one austrian, then when you click on “schools of economic thought� you would come to the conclusion that there never was an Austrian school of economics. The site does give a correct definition of the influence of Keynes in three short sentences:
“His ideas on the causes of unemployment revolutionalized macroeconomic theory and profoundly altered government's involvement in the economy.�, true indeed.
If the FED really wanted to educate, the site would be a whole lot emptier with only one or two links on it, one to the Mises Institute and one to “What has government done to our money�, but I don’t see that happening in a million years.
Published: July 31, 2005 2:50 PM
"And remember kids, war is good for our country!" ;)
Published: August 1, 2005 3:53 AM
This is nothing more that an attempt to brainwash teenagers on the economic fallacies of JM Keynes. Go into any high school and drugs are often easily available to willing buyers. Neighbourhood druglords have, intheir role as the teacher outside the classroom, probably done far more to educate teenagers about entrepreneurship, sound business principles and sound economics than any classroom teacher in the state-run could ever have hoped to achieve.
Harry
Published: August 1, 2005 9:52 AM
Hey I am one of the youth of america today. I am a economics student at a state school in South Dakota (SDSU). I just wanted let you know that every economics student that i am friends with, and even some friends that arent econ students, think that the mainstream Keynesian stuff they teach is garbage. When i want the truth i come here and im not the only one. Libertarian and Austrian ideals and beliefs are not lost on the youth of America and i believe they will only become more popular because many youth are really getting angry with the government and its interventionist poicies. We are the ones fighting the war and paying Soc Sec and won't even see anyting for it.
Published: August 1, 2005 10:04 AM
"What is really needed is a tax that imposes no marginal cost on production, that people can't privately evade, that is proportional to the benefits one gets from government, that is easy to comply with and administer, and that rewards production."
This is a great quote.
Published: August 1, 2005 11:08 AM
Oops, this is the great quote
"Neighbourhood druglords have, intheir role as the teacher outside the classroom, probably done far more to educate teenagers about entrepreneurship, sound business principles and sound economics than any classroom teacher in the state-run could ever have hoped to achieve."
Published: August 1, 2005 11:09 AM
It sounds like another academic exercise offering the same old crap to the very limited number of intellectuals interested in Financial Theory and how to balance a checkbook. Take your pick, John Maynard Keynes, Lester Thurow or William Bernstein; have a nice intellectual discussion in your very small corner.
If you want to make a change, you have to reach the people that count with a message they will respond to and act on. For the past 5 years real financial people have been teaching middle school students (a group that know enough math and has a wide enough world view to be interested, but not so old that they have already formed their attitudes) a program the students want to hear. It is called “So who wants to be a Millionaire?�, an obvious spin off TV shows. Because they watch TV! And we tell them how to become Millionaires, because they want to be rich. And at the core, most of what we do is to focus on the development of attitudes. Self Efficacy, Personal Responsibility, Deferred Gratification. It is likely that we can agree that these are attitudes are critical to the creation and preservation of personal wealth. So you have your meetings and established protocols for footnotes. Don’t forget that there is also an opportunity to make change in the world. see www.KidsFutureUSA.org
Published: September 21, 2005 1:14 PM