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OFFICE: Pinnacle Campus, Rm.1029

Phone: 223-8135

E-mail: jason@austincc.edu

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The purpose of this course is to familiarize the student with the generally accepted principles of macroeconomics. Macroeconomics is concerned with such things as, economic growth, unemployment, inflation, and the business cycle. Though ultimately based on the actions of individual households and business firms (microeconomics), macroeconomics deals with aggregates--i.e., consumers as a whole, producers as a whole, exporters and importers as a whole, fiscal policy --the effects of government spending and taxation, and the monetary policy of the central bank.

The course is subdivided into several major areas as follows: (1) microeconomic foundation; (2) national income accounting; (3) growth; (4) inflation; (5) unemployment; (6) money and banking; (7) international trade and the exchange rate; (8) the business cycle; (9) national income determination with the effects of fiscal and monetary policy included; (10) an explanation of our current situation.

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Course Description, Rationale, and Common Course Objectives/Student Outcomes 

as established by the economics department:

1.  Course Description- Principles of Macroeconomics deals with consumers as a whole, producers as a whole, the effects of government spending and taxation policies and the effects of the monetary policy carried out by the Federal Reserve Bank. Macroeconomics is concerned with unemployment, inflation, and the business cycle.

2.  Course Rationale- This course is meant to give students insight into the dynamics of our national economy. The knowledge gained in the course will make students better informed citizens and allow them to follow the debates over national economic policy reported in the news media. This course is also a foundation course that will prepare students to be successful in upper division finance, marketing, business administration, economics, government, and social work courses.

3.  Common Course Objectives/Student Outcomes.

Students who complete this course will be able to understand:

• the meaning of unemployment and inflation data and how that data is collected and computed;
• the meaning and components of the National Income Accounts, especially GDP;
• the meaning of the business cycle and its phases;
• and to manipulate the basic Aggregate Supply, Aggregate Demand model of the macro economy;
• how fiscal policy operates, its tools, and its advantages and drawbacks;
• how a fractional reserve banking system works;
• how monetary policy operates, its tools, and its advantages and drawbacks.

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Required:

1.

A. Macroeconomics, Edition 7, by Roger A. Arnold (South-Western College Publishing, 2005) B. On-line study guide with dynamic and interactive graphs, a graph making tool, lecture videos, and quizzes of the material covered in the textbook is available at the textbook's web site http://arnoldxtra.swlearning.com/. See below for instructions on how to access this site.

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All of your textbooks should have a thin cardboard page right behind the front cover that gives the registration information for "Xrta!". At the bottom of this page is a tear out card with a serial number on it. Follow the instructions on this card to enter the Arnold Xtra! site.

See below for the homework assignments that will be available on Blackboard from Arnold's Xtra!

Learning objectives for each chapter you will study are listed at the beginning of each chapter in the textbook; a more extensive list can be found in the Study Guide. Read them carefully before you read the chapter. They are there to help you read the chapter. They are there to help you focus your mind on the important concepts and theories discussed in the chapter. The exams will test your knowledge of and ability to apply these learning objectives. Knowing this will help you efficiently allocate your mental energies.

The web site for Arnold's textbook, http://arnoldxtra.swlearning.com/, contains a link to "Mastering the Learning Objectives" for each chapter that you might want to use.

But most importantly, the essay questions that will compose part of the exams will function as broad learning objectives and will be handed out well in advance of the exams. These questions can be found by clicking here.

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Regular attendance is expected. Frequent exposure to an instructor's explanations is an important factor in a student's ability to master the material covered. Although I will not penalize students for missing class (they are hurting themselves by cutting), I will reward students who attend frequently by awarding them extra credit points. These extra credit points will equal around 5% of the course grade. See the section on Extra Credit Points below.

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Blackboard:

Blackboard is an on-line classroom management tool. It includes a grade book, a discussion board, ways to communicate between students and between students and professor, and a testing facility.

Instructions on how to log into this course's Blackboard site can be found at http://itdl.austincc.edu/blackboard/stlogin.htm.

Please change your password while you are logged on for the first time. To change your password, click the "User Tools" button. When that page opens up, click on the line that says "Personal Information."  When that page opens up, click on the line that says "Change Password." The rest should be self-explanatory.

It is important to change your password so that you can be secure in the knowledge that no one besides your instructors can see your grade information. And even then, each instructor will only be able to see the grades in the course that they are teaching.

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There will be four midterm objective/multiple choice exams, two essay exams, and a comprehensive final exam administered to students during the semester. 

The four midterm objective/multiple-choice exams will consist of 25 questions. These exams will be administered on-line through the course's Blackboard site.  You can take them at home if you like. These exams will be timed; you will have 40 minutes to complete them. The multiple choice questions on these exams will be directly correlated to 12 to 15 of the  essay questions/learning objectives handed out in class and available on the Internet.

Each of the objective exams will be worth 100 points. Students must take them by the deadlines set in the "Tentative Lecturing Schedule." Students may request to take a re-test on these exams, but these re-tests must be completed within a week after the initial deadline for the exam being re-tested.

The lowest grade of these four exams will be dropped when a student's final grade is calculated.

The two essay exams will be based on the essay questions/learning objectives that will be handed out well before the exams; these questions are available on the Internet from the very beginning of the semester. There will be anywhere from 20 to 30 questions on these handouts. On examination day I will randomly select 4 questions from the handout, and these questions will constitute the essay part of the exam. The essay exams will be administered in class.

For the essay part of the exam, students will be allowed to use two sheets (8.5 X 11) of paper with handwritten notes on both sides. These notes must be turned in with the exam.

A Blue Book must be used for the essay part of the exam.  If there is enough room in the Blue Book, it may be used for both midterm exams.  If you have never used a Blue Book, please see the professor before you buy one.

Each essay exam will be worth 100 points.

The final exam will consist of 50 objective questions and will contain no essay questions. The final exam will be administered in class.  Students will be able to use the four sheets of notes they prepared for the two midterm essay exams on the final exam. The final exam will be comprehensive.

Each objective/multiple-choice midterm exam will be worth 100 points -- 300 points total after the lowest objective/multiple-choice midterm exam grade is dropped.

Each essay exam will be worth 100 points each--200 points total.

The final exam will also be worth 400 points.

Altogether exams will be worth 900 points or 90% of your semester grade.

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Homework assignments in this course will be drawn from the textbook's online web site.

On Arnold's Xtra! web site, you will find a link entitled "Quiz Your Knowledge." You can take this quiz on Arnold's web site, and you will receive feedback on well you have done on it. However, this grade will not show up in your gradebook page in Blackboard.

The homework/quiz that will count toward your grade will be found on Blackboard under "Assignments." This homework will exactly duplicate the questions from "Quiz Your Knowledge," so you should do very well on it. The only way you should miss very many questions on these homework assignments is if you do not take them. There will deadlines for taking them after which it will be absolutely impossible to take them.

You will be awarded 0.5 points for each question you answer correctly. This part of the course will be worth 100 points, or 10% of the course grade, so you will need to answer 200 multiple choice/true-false questions correctly to earn these points. Fortunately there will be many more than 200 questions available to answer during the semester. Every questions in excess of 200 that you answer correctly will be counted as extra credit points.

The deadlines for taking these on-line quizzes will be the deadlines for the two mid-term exams.  For example, if we cover the first seven chapters for the first mid-term, then the quizzes over those chapters will be due by midnight of the day preceding the first mid-term.

Additional Extra Credit Homework will be made available extemporaneously as the instructor see fit. These assignments might be drawn from the problem sets at the end of the chapters in the Arnold textbook, or they might be composed by the instructor himself.

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There are 1000 points available all together. The four objective/multiple-choice midterm exams will be worth a total of  300 points after eliminating the lowest grade.  The essay exams be worth 200 points total. The final exam will also also be worth 400 points. The homework assignments will  be worth a total of 100 points.

Final letter grades will be distributed according to the following scale:

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Incompletes are discouraged. They will be given only when extraordinary events intervene so as to make completion of the course impossible. If you want an incomplete, these events must be documented. To receive an incomplete the student must have completed the first two exams with a C or better. The student must also come by my office to fill out an incomplete form. If the form is not filled out, an incomplete grade will not be given.

Incompletes will not be given to students who are behind schedule when the semester nears its end. Nor will incompletes be given to students who need just a few more points to make the next higher letter grade. Plenty of opportunity exists during the semester to accomplish your goals.

If you find yourself way behind or many points short toward the end of the semester you may withdraw without a grade penalty up to four weeks before the end of the semester. Please read the following note about withdrawals.

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WITHDRAWALS

Students are responsible for withdrawing themselves from this course if that is what their personal situation requires. This means that if you have taken no tests or only a few of the tests and the semester ends without you having withdrawn yourself, then you will receive an F in the course. The instructor makes no promise either implicit or explicit to withdraw students from the course. However, the instructor does reserve the right to withdraw students if the instructor believes the situation warrants such action. For example, if a student misses more than seven classes, the instructor can unilaterally initiate a student withdrawal.

The last day to withdraw from this course without penalty is Monday, November 28..

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Points in addition to the maximum points possible from exams and homework assignments are available through good attendance. Each student will start with 50 extra credit points for attendance. Each absence will reduce these extra credit points by a number of points as shown in the table below:

absence	0	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th
points deducted for absence	0	2	3	5	8	13	21	34	55	89	144	233	377
total extra credit points remaining	50	48	45	40	32	19	-2	-36	-91	-180	-324	-557	-934

As you can see, if you miss more than five classes, your bonus points will go into the negative and will be subtracted from the points you have earned from exams and homework.

If you do more than the required homework assignments as explained in section under "Homework," then you will also earn extra credit points. 

Additional extra credit points will be available on the essay exams. A fifth, optional question will be drawn at the beginning of the essay exam. That question will be worth 20 extra credit points.

Finally, additional extra credit homework beyond that available on Blackboard may be made available extemporaneously as the instructor see fit. These assignments might be drawn from the problem sets at the end of the chapters in the Arnold textbook, or they might be composed by the instructor himself.

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Scholastic dishonesty: Acts prohibited by the college for which discipline may be administered include scholastic dishonesty, including but not limited to cheating on an exam or quiz, plagiarizing, and unauthorized collaboration with another in preparing outside work. Academic work submitted by students shall be the result of their thought, research or self-expression. Academic work is defined as, but not limited to tests, quizzes, whether taken electronically or on paper; projects, either individual or group; classroom presentations, and homework.

Students with disabilities: Each ACC campus offers support services for students with documented physical or psychological disabilities. Students with disabilities must request reasonable accommodations through the Office for Students with Disabilities on the campus where they expect to take the majority of their classes. Students are encouraged to do this three weeks before the start of the semester. 

Academic Freedom: Each student is strongly encouraged to participate in class discussions. In any classroom situation that includes discussion and critical thinking, particularly about economic and political ideas, there are bound to be many differing viewpoints. Students may not only disagree with each other at times, but the students and instructor may also find that they have opposing views on sensitive and volatile topics. It is my hope that these differences will enhance class discussion and create an atmosphere where students and instructor alike will be encouraged to think and learn. Therefore, be assured that your grades will not be adversely affected by any beliefs or ideas expressed in class or in assignments. Rather, we will all respect the views of others when expressed in classroom discussions.