Modern Economic Issues

by Robert M. Whaples

Modern Economics Issues Taught By: Professor Robert Whaples Wake Forest University
6 Audio - Cassettes

The Goals of this course is to examine some of the most important issues facing economic policymakers in the United States. To understand the forces underlying theese economic dilemmas and use straightforward economic analysis along with empiracal and historical evidence to consider policy options that may help to solve them.

Genres: Economics, Nonfiction, Finance, Audiobook

Audio Cassette

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Elwin Kline · Rating 5 out of 5]

"It was amazing!" - 5 out of 5 star rating.

This was really a shocker for me. I was totally expecting mediocre, dry, passive type material with little value... I was so, so wrong.

The author did a truly amazing job in both content and spoken performance. Even his opener on scarcity was delivered so well, kills it with a wonderful deep dive on productivity, and then he just continues his win streak with inflation, and so more much more.

Key Highlights:

- Scarcity
- Productivity
- Inflation
- Unemployment
- International Trade
- Saving vs Investing
- Taxes
- Social Security
- Pollution
- Global Warming
- Minimum Wage
- Married vs Single
- Unions
- Education system (both pre-12 and higher learning)
- Walmart
- Greed, Fraud, and Mismanagement of Corporations
- "Keeping up with the Jones's"
- Mail System
- Organ Donation
- Sporting Industry
- Terrorism
- Foreign Aid
- Disease
- Urban Sprawl
- Auto Industry
- Gambling
- The "Penny Debate"

I honestly took about three (3) pages worth of notes listening to this. It was that good.

This is absolutely one of the best Great Courses I've listened to in a while. 100% was not expecting this from an "economics" course.

Highly recommend.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty good course to listen to in 2022, despite its publication in 2008 (and hence, making no reference to the financial crisis or any changes that resulted from it).

I thought discussions on opportunity cost with respect to women's wages and the resulting impact on birth rates was quite interesting; I hadn't considered the line of thinking previously but it makes a lot of sense. The economist's way of thinking will be a key takeaway from the course - a lot of people don't think about the time value of money, opportunity costs etc. when making decisions.

I think this course deserves an update. It was a solid course, just getting dated now.

[Wade Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspiring - 3/10
Educational - 9/10
Entertaining - 5/10

[Feng Ouyang · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a Great Courses lecture series. Course information is available here: https://www.thegreatcourses.com/cours...
The course uses economic principles and knowledge to analyze current social policy issues. The thirty-six lectures cover a broad range of topics from Government fiscal, monetary, and trading policies to social issues such as inequality, union, and minimum wages. The lectures also talk about lighter issues, including baseball stadiums, gambling, and overeating.
Despite a slight conservative leaning, the course provides a balanced narrative on the topics discussed. Discussions are based on economic reasoning, statistics and studies, and survey results among economists. These three approaches effectively handle the covered topics, most of which are controversial and without clear conclusions. The third component, the survey, is a weaker form of evidence; consensus does not equal truth. However, for many of the discussed topics, the surveys are valuable because the deduction and data do not really provide anything better.
The balanced presentation of multiple arguments is the most attractive feature of the lectures. The reader can benefit from the differing and often contradicting views not only to gain a more complete picture but also to enjoy the intellectual exercise. On the other hand, such a discussion style has a weakness: usually, the lectures do not end with a clear conclusion. In many cases, the lectures do not feel like having an ending at all.
The lectures are not detailed enough to facilitate in-depth discussions of the complex social and policy topics. It seems that the most important message to the readers is that there are always two opposing views, both supported by data and reasoning. And economics evidence is often different from political rhetoric and popular passions. If we are committed to reason and logic while engaging in political discourses, we must learn some economics and pay attention to what economists say.

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting series of lectures, but fairly dated.

The first ⅓ to half of the lectures were just a stonking good econ course. The latter portion of the book was hit or miss, with some lectures focused on more dated topics.

The lectures were recorded right before the Great Recessions, so there was a lot he missed, not through any fault of his, but just as an artifact of the times. He focuses an entire lecture on Walmart and the economics of monopoly, but that is obviously fairly dated. The lecture on Enron and corporate greed also was dated.

Still, overall a good series of lectures.

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 4 out of 5]

These lectures were published 15 years ago, but the topics are all still relevant today. Whaples walks the listener through the basics of national economics before branching off to discuss a large number of the economic issues of the day. Things like minimum wage, climate change, gambling, professional sports, energy, inflation, inequality, unemployment, international trade, social security, health care, unions, terrorism, and even the postal service. It’s an excellent way to introduce yourself to the many of the major economic issues in the news.

[Strong Extraordinary Dreams · Rating 3 out of 5]

The good:
- a once over of a range of economic and semi-economic areas supplies lots and lots of insight and new ideas.
- this is the shared language, the bedrock, the simplistic understandings that get thrown about by half drunk ranters, such as the mass media.

The bad:
- This is economics from the dark ages, 2007: Before behavioural economics, before an acceptance of dishonesty within business.
- It is covered in cobwebs, dried out from old age, cracked, dried and covered in dust.

[Yatir Linden · Rating 4 out of 5]

This course is a gold mine of knowledge and covers a wide array of topics. Though most of the lectures don't address advance listeners, it does give a nice overview on a range of issues, which some of them are relevant only to the US.

[David Pulliam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somewhat dated because of what has been happening in the Trump administration so I think some of the issues are starting to shift in a fundamental way. (We'll see if this is true in three years). Overall though still releveant in 2025.

[stefanddddddd · Rating 4 out of 5]

good overview of a large number of every-day topics from an economist's perspective

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first foray into The Great Courses, and I will be back for more. Although I was familiar with much of the material, it was a great review. The new material and perspective were great.

Consists of 36 lectures on varying topics facing Americans ranging from Social Security to baseball to overeating.

Whaples amazed me with his unbiased approach, sticking to facts, and polling many other economists. He explained both sides of political issues fairly.

"One of the inescapable economic trade-offs is between economic efficiency
and equality. If we want more equality, we will probably have to give up
some output."

Whaples is a great lecturer; very dynamic and engaging.

I loved his positive spin on everything:

"The most important lesson about the contemporary American economy is that Americans have collectively built an incredible economic growth machine, which has delivered Americans approximately the highest level of productivity and income per person in the world."

I loved his lecture on marriage and how much it helps society and individuals. He cites so many statistics on the benefits of families and how the decline of the family is really affecting society negatively.

What get me the most worked up are the issues where economists have reached a consensus and have solid, sound data, but public policy goes the opposite way. Some examples of this include the minimum wage, free trade, unions, gambling, the penny, human organ donation and sales, Wal-Mart, national debt and subsidies.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

a lecture series from the brilliant "teaching company". this one deals with modern economic issues, hence the title, and provides rationale/explanation for things like taxes, health care, and helping poor countries. the lecture delivery is not dry, but the dvd version of the course could have used more oomph (i hesitate to say "graphs" - sounds worse). many courses were 30 minutes of obvious - like the reason why social security was invented and how wal-mart makes a lot of money. and sure, a lot was outdated ("america is doing great!" say all economists, circa 2007 and 1/2) and an update is overdue, but worth a listen in the meantime if practical applications of economic theory interests you.

[Sam Motes · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent review of economic issues today but hard to get past the datedness of this being a lecture from 2007 on economics on the brink of the fall. The lecturer talks about how rock solid the economy was felt to be and heralded 10 years of solid growth ahead as seen by a survey of top Economists. Proof that how much 20/20 hindsight is bunk.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good summary of complex economic issues. It is recent enough that the rapid changes in global economics don't make it obsolete. Some conclusions, however, fail to take into account current issues, such as resource depletion.

[Matthew Mechtly · Rating 4 out of 5]

While much of the examples used are dated (this was written about 13 years ago), this is likely the single best lecture from the Great Courses I've listened to.