Current economics

This course is a part of Finance and capital markets, a 10-course Topic series from Khan Academy.

Discussions of current events and how they relate to economic topics.

This course contains 5 segments:

Unemployment

Unemployment is a key metric for judging the health of an economy (and even political stability). This tutorial is a primer on what it is and how it's measured (which you might find surprising).

Housing price conundrum

Back before the 2008 credit crisis, Sal was perplexed by why housing prices were going up so fast and theorized that it was a bubble forming (he was right). These pre-2008 videos are fun from a historical point-of-view since they were made before all the poo poo hit the fan.

Credit crisis

This tutorial talks about how the housing-bubble-induced credit crisis unfolded with a focus on the derivative securities that helped pump the bubble.

Paulson bailout

In the fall of 2008, it became clear that a cascade of bank failures was happening because of shoddy loans and exotic securities (both which fueled a now popping housing bubble). In an attempt to avoid a depression, the Treasury Secretary (Hank Paulson) wanted to pour \$1 Trillion into the same banks that had created the mess. This tutorial walks us through the beginnings of the mess and possible solutions. Historical note: it was created as the crisis was unfolding.

European Union

Depending on your point of view, the European Union could be viewed as bringing peace and prosperity to a continent that has historically seen the worst conflicts in human history or an unrealistic attempt to more closely align very different countries and people. This topic has videos that address some of the core issues facing the European Union.