The goal this article is to describe the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, compare the situation in the United States (U.S.) to that of similar countries, and analyze the actions taken by the U.S. government. The authors chose to compare the U.S. to Canada, the United Kingdom, and Germany as these countries are similar to the U.S. in their…

Modern people work in massive factories or offices for remotely managed corporations and need protection in their capacity as employees. Instead of locally made or distributed products, they buy mass market goods manufactured hundreds or thousands of miles away and need protection in their capacity as consumers. And as industrial production…

While both the 1918 influenza (aka Spanish flu) and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemics were devastating, the 1918 influenza pandemic was considered worse. Its origins are still debated, but it was first identified in the United States at Fort Riley, an Army base in Kansas. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an estimated…

Civic skills need to be practiced to keep the democracy strong, and civic training materials should be exciting and linked to real-world activities. Today, teaching government and social studies can be, must be, about students' real lives. A unit of study on "Tracking Congress" would offer an opportunity to connect civics and government…

The Federal Reserve (the Fed) is the central bank of the United States. It has a congressional mandate to promote maximum sustainable employment and price stability. In normal times, the Fed seeks to achieve this mandate by setting the position or "stance" of monetary policy, primarily by managing the level of short-term interest rates.…

The social studies curriculum travels through time and space and is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. To an outsider, the social studies curriculum is a single line on a program of studies, 45 minutes of a student's school day. Those on the inside, however, know that the field covers history, geography, civics, economics, and much…

The Federal Reserve System (the Fed) is one of the most important financial institutions in the world. As the central bank of the United States, it influences the domestic money supply, credit, and interest rates with the goal of achieving stable prices and full employment for the world's largest economy. It provides a variety of services to…

On Saturday, January 3, 1863, Assistant Secretary of State Frederick W. Seward sent a letter to John D. Defrees, superintendent of Public Printing, asking that 500 copies of a "circular and proclamation" be printed. The letter also gave specific instructions as to what type of paper was to be used, the layout, and when the department wanted the…

There are many approaches that schools could take to prepare and encourage young people to vote. These approaches may be less dramatic than linking registration to graduation, but they are more comprehensive and likely even more effective in the long term. In this article, the author encourages educators, particularly the social studies community,…

One can't have a meaningful discussion about the 2011-2012 U.S. Supreme Court term without mentioning the historic health care challenge. However, even without that headliner, the term was jam-packed with interesting twists and turns. In addition to health care, the Court confronted a number of hot-button issues, including: immigration, the rights…

Many social scientists have recently commented on the high levels of income inequality in the United States. Indeed, the last time income inequality was as great as it is today was 1928, the year before the stock market crash ushered in the Great Depression. In this article, the authors offer a historical look at income inequality and taxation in…

On the morning of December 7, 1941, Japanese bombers staged a surprise attack on U.S. military forces at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Sixty years after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States was attacked again. On the morning of September 11, 2001, four commercial airplanes hijacked by 19 terrorists killed nearly 3,000 people when they crashed…

The Keys to the White House is a historically-based system for predicting the result of the popular vote in American presidential elections. The Keys system tracks the big picture of how well the party holding the White House has governed and does not shift with events of the campaign. This model gives specificity to the idea that it is…

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…