Can teachers promote true economic understanding among students by adding a dose of psychology? Fans of behavioral economics, with its unique blend of psychology and economics, think so. Blending a bit of behavioral economics into social studies lessons provides answers to the ever-present questions that permeate every classroom,"What does…

The cryptocurrency Bitcoin has been prominently featured in the news recently. Its ascension in value has been nothing short of extraordinary. This article briefly explains what Bitcoin is and how it works. The more challenging question is what Bitcoin--this cryptographic breakthrough--really is: currency, like the U.S. dollar, an asset, more like…

The Federal Reserve System is the central bank of the United States. The system includes 12 Federal Reserve Banks (and their associated branches) located throughout the country, with oversight by the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C. The diverse structure is designed to ensure that the interests of Main Street are represented along with those…

Professor Bryant Simon is the author of "Everything But the Coffee: Learning About America From Starbucks" (University of California Press, 2009). He presented his key findings to the class and summarizes them here. Studying Starbucks reveals essential truths about what its customers, who represented a large cross-section of the American…

One of the great challenges social studies teachers face is promoting economic and consumer literacy among their students. Fostering such literacy helps students to think critically and independently about their own roles as consumers as well as about the claims and promises the corporate world makes through mass advertising and the branding of…

Students with an understanding of economics are better equipped to comprehend the forces that influence people's standard of living and overall financial well-being. Broad-based economic literacy supports an environment where students can participate in America's democracy as well-informed and responsible citizens, whose collective actions may…

In the fall of 2008, the Federal Reserve Banks of Atlanta and St. Louis began a systematic evaluation of their economic and personal finance educational outreach programs. Both banks were interested in developing tools to assess the success of their existing economic and financial education programs. However, before any assessment could begin, a…

Many textbooks define economics as the social science that studies how people make choices when faced with scarcity; or how a society decides what to produce, how to produce, and for whom to produce. Regardless of the definition, students' economic understanding is fundamental to their financial well-being and their ability to build successful…

This article presents an interview with Edward Biester, an attorney and a member of the ABA Section of Antitrust Law, who recently led the Section's initiative to develop a curriculum for high school students. In this interview, Biester discusses the history of American antitrust laws, looks at some of the contemporary issues, and highlights the…

The author's students regularly ask him, "Why can't the government just print more money?" Typically they are seeking a simple solution to a complex problem like the national debt, or they just want the government to make people all rich the easy way, by handing them wads of cash. His best answer used to be, "They just can't," but the…