Solman Video Titles and Description for McConnell and Brue 16 th edition

Macroeconomics

CHAPTER 1

The Nature and Method of Economics

The Butcher, the Baker, the Candlestick Maker (6:45)

Two key assumptions of economics: people act in their own self-interest
to maximize what they get, and they do so rationally.
Rational Is as Rational Does (7:54)
How often are we really rational maximizers? There are two sides of the
story, with economists taking both sides.
Stanley Brue, Pacific Lutheran University
Nancy Folbre, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Robert Frank, Cornell University
A Thousand Words (7:18)
How graphs can turn data into useful pictures worth a thousand words or
more.

CHAPTER 2 The Economizing Problem

Capitalism vs. Socialism: The Cuban Quandary (10:01)
Once a symbol of the Cold War between the US and the USSR, Cuba is
now struggling with free-market capitalism, and the tensions it creates with
government-controlled socialism. Can these rival economic systems
coexist? In the same country?
Antonio Morales-Pita, DePaul University
Opportunity Lost (9:05)
The Nature and Importance of Opportunity Cost
The cost of a product or service is not only what you paid for it in money,
but what it cost you in other resources your time, energy and so on
that you could have put to use another way. When you use your resources
in one way, you give up the opportunity to use them in another.
Considering the value of what you give up can help you make more
rational economic decisions.
Mary Stevenson, University of Massachusetts, Boston
Robert Solow, Nobel Laureate, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology
Paul Samuelson, Nobel Laureate, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology

On the Possibilities Frontier, Part One (7:47)

The Production Possibilities Curve, Scarcity, and Increasing Opportunity
Costs
The production possibilities curve or frontier illustrates the idea of
scarcity (you cant have it all, so you have to make tradeoffs) and the idea
of increasing opportunity coststhe more you want of one thing, the more
youll have to give up of other things. The reason is that you use your
cheapest resources before any others.
Cecilia Conrad, Pomona College
James Clark, Wichita State University
On the Possibilities Frontier, Part Two (4:09)
The Production Possibilities Curve, the Efficient Use of Resources, and
Growth
The production possibilities curve or frontier also illustrates two other
ideas: (1) an economy is always trying to produce ON the curve, instead
of inside it, because that means its using its resources the best way it
can, and (2) economic growth means pushing the curve OUTWARD, and
that push is the goal of all economies: to get bigger and richer.

CHAPTER 3 Individual Markets: Demand and Supply

Onward and Upward (5:05)
How the supply curve goes up as unit costs rise because suppliers use
their cheapest resources first.
Get Down (4:46)
How and why the DEmand curve DEscends.
Robert Solow, Nobel Laureate, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology
Meeting in the Middle (8:31)
How supply and demand interact to drive the market to equilibrium.
Robert Solow, Nobel Laureate, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology
Changes (10:05)
How changes in supply and demand shift the supply and demand curves:
MoRe to the Right; Less to the Left.
Michael Salemi, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The Deadweight Loss of Christmas (4:11)

Put the blame on Santa for market inefficiency during the gift-giving
season, since whenever the giver pays more than the givee would have, it
send a signal above the equilibrium price that shrinks economic surplus
and creates a deadweight loss. But this sort of inefficiency may
actually be quite beneficial.
Nancy Folbre, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

CHAPTER 4 The Market System

Specialization: Special is As Special Does (7:53)
Human Specialization, also known as the division of labor, increases
productivity as workers divide their labor into specialized tasks. In
geographic specialization, each place specializes in what it does better.
This is a key way that a free-market system creates wealth.
Kathryn Nantz, Fairfield University
Daniel Hamermesh, University of Texas, Austin
Michael Salemi, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Robert Gwynne, University of Birmingham, England
Private Property (and Pilgrims, Too) (9:39)
Property Rights, an Essential Part of the Market System
Why the Pilgrims and their investors abandoned collective action in favor
of private property rights 400 years ago. As the Pilgrims learned the hard
way, when their very survival was at stake, private property and private
enterprise increase productivity and provide incentives for investment and
development.

Chapter 6 The United States in the Global Economy

The Trials and Triumphs of Trade (14:08)
Why economists tend to love free trade and workers so often dont
although trade produces more total wealth, it also produces losers, who
understandably try to resist it.
Robert Gordon, Northwestern University

CHAPTER 8 Introduction to Economic Growth and

Instability

More for Less (7:14)

The concept of productivity getting more output per hour of work and
how its the key to economic growth.
Robert Gordon, Northwestern University
Robert Solow, Nobel Laureate, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology
Michael Boskin, Stanford University
The Roller Coaster Ride (11:03)
How any business and the economy as a whole goes through cycles
of boom and bust.
John Sterman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Steering the Course (8:32)
How the Federal Reserve Bank navigates between the two great dangers
of the macro economy: inflation and recession.
Franco Modigliani, Nobel Laureate, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology
Robert Solow, Nobel Laureate, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology
The Dark Side of Productivity (10:15)
As we showed in an earlier video, increased productivity creates more of
the things we want, faster, cheaper, and more efficiently. But it isn't the key
to progress and a better life for everyone. Not at all.
Robert Freeman, Harvard University
Robert Gordon, Northwestern University
Paul Romer, Stanford University

CHAPTER 12 Fiscal Policy

Macroeconomics: Fiscal Policy (9:27)
Created to rescue the market system from the Great Depression,
macroeconomics promotes the use of two key government tools:
monetary policy and fiscal policy. In this video, well see how and why
government spending (fiscal policy) can be used to jump start the
economy.
Scott Simkins, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State
University
Robert J. Gordon, Northwestern University

CHAPTER 13 Money and Banking

Steering the Course (repeated) (8:32)

Chapter 15 Monetary Policy

Macroeconomics: Monetary Policy (13:07)

An introduction to the Federal Reserve Bank and monetary policy
why and how its pursued.
Andrew Brimmer

CHAPTER 18 Deficits, Surpluses, and the Public Debt

From Deficit to Debt (9:45)
The deficit is what we overspend in a year and have to borrow, while the
debt is the accumulated amount of money we owe, from the founding of
our country to today. About 9% of the federal budget now goes to pay
interest on that debt, leaving less for everything else. Are we mortgaging
your future?
Robert Reischauer, President, The Urban Institute
Glenn Hubbard, Columbia University

Chapter 37 International Trade

The Triumphs and Trials of Trade (14:08) (repeated)
Better Must Come: The IMF rescues Jamaica (10:16)
We begin with a Jamaican rap star blasting the International Monetary
Fund and the World Bank. We end with those organizations explaining
themselves. In between, a field trip to an island nation to see economic
development in action.
Kenneth Rogoff, Harvard University
Michael Witter, University of the West Indies

Chapter 39W The Economics of Developing Countries

Better Must Come: The IMF rescues Jamaica (10:16) (repeated)